Above: Tyler Posey as Jace Rivera. Honestly this was a no brainer for me. When I was brainstorming about Jace and what kind of character he was going to be, I instantly thought of Tyler to play Jace. He actually kind of looks like a Jace.
More character pictures coming soon! Enjoy Chapter 8!
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Lia James
"I can't believe I'm actually doing this. If my Dad or anybody knew I was doing this, he would freak out." I told Eli, who led me into the hallway after I took his offer of leaving.
"It's not like we're escaping from prison." He rolled his eyes. I heard Andrew laugh in the background and I instantly shot him a look.
"You're pathetic." He said bluntly, and my jaw dropped.
"You're a troublemaker...Andy." I instantly shot back, and he made a face of disgust.
"I know I am." He rolled his eyes. "And Andy? Are you kidding me?"
"Fo Shizzle." Eli blurted out, and I couldn't help but laugh.
"Yes. Everyone seems to call you Drew or Andrew. I need something to call you so that you'd be annoyed." I said, giving him a fake smile.
"I know something I could call you." I heard a voice behind me say. I identified it as Shelby, as she ran up to Andrew, locking her hands around his arm.
"Yeah? And what's that?" I replied sarcastically.
"I just thought it was so hilarious how in Anatomy, Mr. Gale called you Lie-a instead of Lee-a. It sounds like, Liar. Don't you think?" She spat, and I felt my body turn cold.
You were the only one who was lying. I thought, and contemplated about saying it to her face but Eli beat me.
"Can you guys stop fighting? Or at least just learn to get along for the next half hour?" He asked us, looking completely drained from our bickering.
"I don't want to be here, with them. At least with you, I can tolerate." I whispered to Eli.
"I hate to say it, Lia, but if you want to hang with me, you have to understand that Drew comes with it." He shrugged, and opened the door to what looked like the auditorium.
"Are you guys taking me here to kill me or something? Because I will stop calling everyone annoying names if that's what it takes-" I babbled.
"I say we duck tape her on the mouth to get her to shut up." I heard Andrew, sorry Andy whisper to Eli.
"I heard that, Andy-Bob." I mocked and his nostrils flared.
"You were suppose to, LeeLee." He mocked right back, and I looked at him like it didn't affect me.
"Eli, can you tell us why we're even here? I told you that I had to file my nails before I went home." Shelby complained, and everyone except Andrew rolled their eyes.
"What happened to the rest of the group?" Eli asked his best friend, who casually shoved his hands in the pockets of his jeans.
"Their getting beers from the car. And a couple joints."
Eli led us up to the stage and set up multiple chairs for everyone to sit at. They were positioned in a circle, like in a therapy group. Time had past since we left the detention room, and the other guys came back with beers and weed for everyone to smoke. I politely declined both, and I saw Andrew's eyes casually drift onto me, narrowing as I kept declining both objects.
"What's the matter, LeeLee? Afraid to get a little wasted?" I heard Andrew say to me, and I bit my top lip to stop from letting my anger get the best of me.
"No, Andy, I rather not lose ten years of my life." I replied, and heard Eli snort in the distance. Everyone was holding back their laughter.
"Listen, I'm not even sure I should be here. Actually, I think I'm just gonna leave." I got up from my chair hoping that no one would tell me to stay for longer. I was too afraid of getting caught.
"Such a goody two shoes." I heard Shelby shout my way.
"Listen, barbie doll, I slapped Andrew. I have no problem slapping you." I gave her a fake smile before running down the stairs of the stage, and exiting the auditorium.
"Wait, Lia, wait!" I heard Eli say behind me. I ignored it completely and kept walking faster.
"Eli, I'm not a part of your group. I never was and never will. Stop trying to make it seem like I am." I kept walking, completely frustrated.
"I'm not. I'm just sick and tired of all the fighting. Mason and Drew have been out for each other for years and I'm so sick of it. We all used to be such good friends."
"Why do you have to use me to get to Mason? Talk to him yourself." Was all I said before blocking out what sounded like my name being called over and over again.
***
"So, how was detention today?" Mason asked me, while I was sitting at the dining table doing my homework.
"Awful. Did you know that Eli and Andrew had the same punishment as me? They're the ones who were more vicious and cruel. Plus, the were instigating."
"They have their ways, Lia. Their parents do all of their dirty work. They get away with almost everything in school." He sat down across from me, shaking his head in disagreement with what he was saying.
"So, actually I need to talk to you about something." I said hesitantly, and his eyes perked up quickly.
"What is it?" He asked.
"Well, during detention, the teacher got up and left for and unknown reason. Eli was sitting next to me and he offered for me to go with him somewhere-"
"What did you say?"
"I said sure. He seemed pretty urging when asking me and I didn't want to just have the teacher come back and I wouldn't know what to say."
"What the hell, Lia? Did my horrific speech about them not give you the signal enough? They're bad people. Bad guys. I don't want you talking with them anymore." He shouted, and I jumped at the level change in his voice.
"What else happened?" He questioned me.
"Well, he led me to the empty auditorium, and we sat in a circle. It was me, Eli, Andrew, Shelby, and 2 other guys." I explained, hoping he wouldn't ask me further.
He continued to question me. "That's it?"
"Well, no-"
"Okay, then go ahead." His eyes narrowing as I took a breath to explain more.
"His friends brought beers and weed for us. But-"
"He asked you to smoke?" He asked, confused.
"Well, yeah-"
"What did you say? Did you say no?"
"I said no, Mason. Stop interrogating me." I punched him in the shoulder, along with a dry laugh.
"I can't believe they dragged you out of detention just to get stoned. I can't believe it." He rolled his lips into his mouth.
"Don't worry about me, okay? I was fine. I said no to everything." I tried to reassure him that even though we were best friends, I didn't need someone to look after me 24/7.
"I don't want you hanging around with them anymore." He confirmed, looking me in the eyes to make sure I understood.
"Yeah. I won't. Not again." I agreed, nodding my head firmly.
After our conversation, I managed to finish all my homework. I was really reconsidering not taking 2 science classes, it was really difficult. Anatomy and Chemistry are hard to take together especially if it's one period after the other.
I was in my room, looking over my notes for my English comprehension test tomorrow, and I was nervous. I wasn't the best at comprehension, if I'm being completely honest. Especially if the article that's chosen is really hard, and has a lot of fancy words that even the smartest kid in school wouldn't understand.
I remember when I was in 5th grade, my teacher must've have noticed me struggle with understanding what I read. So, he sent me to a comprehension teacher whenever we had snack time for about 15 minutes, and we would read small books and talk about them. At first, I didn't like it because I was losing valuable snack time, but I learned to go with it. The next comprehension test that I took, I remember passing with flying colors. The best feeling in the world.
"Lia?" Lina called my name, interrupting my thought. I raise my head that was currently looking into my notes, and nodded for her to continue.
"It's the softball coach." She whispered, covering her hand over the phone. "She wants to speak with you."
"Thank you." I said calmly, before she handed it to me. Lina didn't leave, instead she decided to see what the coach had to say. I was curious myself.
"Ms. James?" He said through the phone.
"Speaking." I said, even though my insides were practically bursting with excitement.
"So, I thought about your position on the team, and I had an idea.." I rolled my lips into my mouth, to keep myself from screaming.
"What if you came by at practice on Thursday and see how the practice goes? And that will sort of serve as a tryout?" He offered, awaiting my answer.
"Yeah, yeah, sure. That sounds great."
"Okay, but I have to let you know, if you don't do good at his practice with the other players, you won't be on the team."
"Yes, I completely understand." Lina started to play with my hair, trying to get closer to the phone.
"I do hope you are practicing on your own time."
"Oh, yeah. Everyday I've been running drills."
"Okay, well, I expect to see you on Thursday." He said with a firm tone before quickly hanging up. I'd be dead meat if I didn't show up at practice after begging in his office for an hour and wasting his time.
"So?" Lina asked, excitedly.
"Their giving me a tryout. Their. Giving. Me. A. Tryout." I said still in shock.
"No way!" Lina slapped me on the shoulder.
I started to scream at the top of my lungs, before Lina lunges at me and hugs me tightly. We are jumping around in my room, just laughing and yelling. Even if me being on the team isn't final, a tryout is still a big deal.
"Will you guys shut the fuck up?" Mason moaned loudly, slumping his body against the wall in my bedroom.
"Lia got a tryout." Lina blurted out before squealing intensely.
"No way!" He yelled. "I'm calling the guys. Don't shut the fuck up anymore." He told me, giving me a hard high-five, which ended in me wincing in pain.
Mason ran down the hall to go call his buddies before Lina and I continued to dance around my bedroom.
It's times like these I wish I had more of. Friends supporting you, celebrating by laughing and yelling, dancing to no music just cause we're so happy. I didn't have that back in Maine. I only had 2 major best friends back there and there wasn't much celebrating there.
After Lina, Mason, and I finally calmed down and stopped shouting around the house, we went outside so I could practice for a little bit. Lina sat in a lounge chair, with her cat-eye sunglasses on her face, while Mason and I were tossing a softball back and forth. I was wearing my usual Boston Red Sox hat that I could never seem to get off my head except for school. I'm forced to take it off, because they think you have a gun in there or something. I wasn't sure they're reasons behind it.
"James!" I heard a familiar voice shout. "We heard the good news."
"You did?" I grinned as the whole gang stepped into our backyard. Even Jade and Brady were there too.
"Yeah," Cole started. "Is it true you're a D cup?"
My jaw dropped as everyone except for Jade and Lina burst out laughing. Cole was practically wheezing on the ground from laughter. Ryan smacked his face to get him to stop laughing so hard.
"My insides hurt!" He whined, gripping his stomach.
"You guys are idiots." Lina got up from the chair, removing her sunglasses.
"I'm a C cup. I don't have as big of boobs as you think." I defended myself, and Cole frowned.
"Lucky for all of you, I'm Double D." Jade started, strutting out from the back of the group that was crowding the screen door of the house. "But I'm not interested."
"That's hot." Cole blurted out. Jade glares back at him, as he tried hiding behind Ryan.
"Technically we do have good news," Mason started, and everyone started walking towards us.
"You finally have a girlfriend?" Ollie insulted, and received a smack in the back of the head for multiple hands.
"What's the good news?" Jace asked, cutting Cole off before he had the chance to speak. We all know the conversation would've gone downhill.
"The coach of the softball team offered me a tryout Thursday." I hid my face in excitement.
Everyone began to clap and shout "Alright!" and "Ay!". They all swarmed me in a big hug, and I couldn't help but feel so incredibly happy for my support system.
Ever since I got here I only had Mason and Lina, because we've known each other for practically our whole lives. But soon that number grew into so many more. I was blessed to have so many people have my back.
Cole sighs. "This feels nice."
"You're a perv." Jade added.
"So glad to know everyone loves me." He retorted and Jade snarled at him.
"So, what's next for Lia's road to success?" Jace asked me after everyone was done with the group hug. Lina and Jade were sitting in the lounge chairs while the rest of the boys, excluding Mason and Jace, were resting on the grass.
"Well, if I do good, the coach is going to put me on the team. After that I have to continue to play decent so I could get a scholarship to college. It's always been my dream to play college softball."
"You'll do great." Jace smiled, and I felt a sense of warmth and comfort in the atmosphere.
Then we heard Cole scream bloody murder. All the birds stop chirping and I think the neighbors all gathered to the nearest window that overlooked our house because it sounded like Cole had been shot.
"Quit giving me wedgies!" Cole yelled, glaring at Ollie who's face was as red as a tomato. He bit his lip to stop the laughter from spilling out of his mouth.
"It's not funny guys! I get rashes whenever you do that." Cole flung his arms around in frustration.
Ollie couldn't take it anymore and started laughing hysterically. Soon enough, we all chimed in and watched Cole's expression changed from angry to slightly embarrassed from everyone laughing at him.
It was from this point forward I knew that this year was going to turn out okay.
~*~
Sorry if this chapter dragged out a little. It took me a little time to write since I couldn't think of anything to put in for the last scene. The last scene wasn't anything special, sort of a filler since I couldn't really think of anything else. Oh well, hope you enjoyed!
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Much love.
XOXO