Avery.
As disappointed I was to not be able to hear our mom's usual "make smart decisions" on our first day, I was glad to know that it meant she will be home early enough for dinner tonight. Since mom was a surgeon, earlier the morning meant earlier the night. It wasn't often that she would be home early enough for dinner, so at least I have that to look forward to.
"Ready?" Landon walked down the stairs, shuffling through his backpack looking for something.
"Ready!" Matty, our 8 year-old brother, shouted with a mouth full of fruit loops. The boy was such a morning person that I sometimes wished I had. Mornings are extra difficult for me, especially when the weather is chilly like today.
Landon always drove us to school, dropping Matty off first so we had to leave half an hour earlier.
"Matty, there's an extra juice box and fruit snacks in your lunch box. But don't eat them before lunch or you'll regret it again okay?"
Since I didn't have any biological sibling and wasn't close to any of my cousins, Landon and Matty were everything to me. Especially this mischievous little boy who could make me laugh no matter what mood I were in. Those brown locks and freckles comforted me more than he could ever understand.
"Thanks, Ave! I'm so glad mom isn't home so that you could pack my lunch" He gave me the biggest smile, missing tooth and all, as he got out of the car and waved one last time before we drove away, "I'll see you after school!"
King High School, my dreaded nightmare, was only ten minutes away. I wish I were exaggerating when I said I was terrified of this moment, the moment we walk in for the first time and students stared as if I were new species that scientists just dug up from Egypt. That's the thing about high school, the new kids were the most interesting experiment to probe and see what kind of people and where on the food pyramid they were going to be. It's the most exciting thing about the boring average days in those halls.
"Hi! I'm Kassidy! Head of the welcoming committee created 3 minutes ago, just for you." Oh no, incoming. The blonde with big boobs, model legs and high heels stopped is in our tracks. "I don't know where you came from but wherever it is, just lost it's biggest treasure."
I had completely zoned out everything Landon had been saying for the past 15 minutes since we got to the parking lot. All I could hear are my nerves shooting through my heads. And this blonde wasn't making it any easier with her trying to hit on Landon, as usual.
And as usual, he pulled me and strutted away, completely ignoring the baffled blonde with those cute heels and nice legs stranded. I would tell you what her face looked like if I saw it, but that would require making eye contact and that was not in my could-do list yet until Dr. Amary hopefully fixes me up. It was just not something I could do with strangers without asking for a side order of an anxiety attack and a lot of hyperventilating. But that didn't sound like a pretty thing to do for a first impression.
"Some things never change huh" I mocked him as we enter the high front doors of King High, for our senior year that Landon promised to be great. And standing there, all I wished for was a peaceful & calm one.
"Her boobs were way too big. I couldn't focus on anything else. And she talked too much." He shrugged before putting his arm around my shoulders and walked in, easing my anxiety as he always did.
"You're okay, Ave" He whispered in my ear as we walked through the sea of lockers and students whose eyes are dead set on us. I could tell by the way their shoes are turned toward us. And I was glad that I was terrified of eye contact or else I would be meeting a lot of eyes right now. It was also obvious by the way Landon tightened his grip on my arm. "Don't worry, I got you."
"I know," I sighed, wishing the journey to our locker would come to an end the next second. But no, and to make matters worse, Landon's locker was not anywhere near mine. But I decided to suck it up and make baby step toward my goal of becoming more independent and I told him I could walk to mine on my own and I will meet him later.
At least my locker was next to a tall set of windows that had a beautiful view of the forest behind our school, as well as the impressively large football field that clearly showed how much the school cared about the sport. Well, Landon was going to be happy.
In matter of seconds, what happened was definitely not my definition of a peaceful & incident-less first day as my face decided to make contact with a soft brick wall. And before I could even have time to process what happened, the raspy voice to whom the soft brick wall chest belonged to, growled "move."
And that was it, the end. I shuttered as his shoulder collided with mine as he walked past me, but more like pushed past me. Whoever that was, clearly did not have breakfast as breakfast is fuel for your heart and mind. That's what mom said whenever one of us would skip breakfast.
I realized my phone was not in my hands when I was about to text Landon. And behold, there it was, on the ground with the screen completely cracked. Not only did he hurt my arm, but he also stepped on my phone. Thank god Landon weren't here or it would have caused a ruckus as he would demand the jerk with the cashmere sweater inside a leather jacket to apologize to me. I let out a big sigh and picked up my now-cracked phone, but felt relieved to see it still worked.
The first half of the day was thankfully peaceful as no other incident happened. Lunch was always going to be nerve wrecking for me, so I went to the library with my packed lunch and told Landon to go sit with his new friends. He weren't too worried since I always did the same thing back at East High, too.
As I started working on my homework, a pair of combat boots started approaching my table and I silently prayed that they would not end up here. But, no. My peace was disrupted as long curly brown hair sat down across from me and excitement beamed from her voice.
"Hi! I'm Nicole! But everyone calls me Nick. Well, actually, no one calls me that but maybe you can! You're new right? Can we be friends?" how could someone talk for so long without stopping for a breath?
"I... um..."
"It's totally fine, we can chill in silence and minimal talking. I'm sorry if I'm overwhelming, I get that a lot. But I had to befriend you, we have like 3 classes together." Oh. She was in my classes. Of course I wouldn't know.
Come on, Avery. Remember the goals. Making friends. More independent. Memorable senior year.
"I... I'm... I'm Avery." I mustered all the courage I had and slowly peeked at her. Nicole was a gorgeous brunette with freckles that reminded me of Matty. She seemed so kind, and friendly. No one ever approached me back at East High before because I was Landon's sister. But here, people didn't know yet. "Nice to meet you, Nick."
"Oh my god!" She beamed again. "You are my favorite already. My other two friends are coming soon since this is our usual table for lunch!"
Oh, no. Two more?! I thought about my maximum capacity for being a decent social being today and two more would mean over capacity. Oh god.
"Oh... I'm so sorry. I didn't know this table was taken..." That's why she sat down here, god now I felt bad. "I can leave if-"
"No silly! Stay. I know they wanted to meet you two, we're in your classes. We can all be friends!" Oh god, oh god. Friends. Avery, come on. Friends.
I smiled at her and took another peek at the girl sitting in front me. She was eating her grapes and reading a book I couldn't recognize, something about the soul and mind and the universe. I could tell she was an interesting one.
"What happened to your phone?" She asked as she picked up my cracked phone. I nearly had forgotten about the incident this morning until now.
"Some guy in a leather jacket bumped into me and then stepped on my phone." I sighed. "Pleasant guy."
"Leather jacket? Did he wear a sweater underneath it?" She asked suspiciously. How did she even know?
"That's the one... how did you-"
"That, my sweet girl, is no one other than Jace. Jace Vanderbilt, the untouchable god sitting on the throne we can never reach. Not to praise him like all the other girls here do, but to slap him for being a douche." Well, Nicole clearly didn't like him either. Very strong opinions there.
"The untouchable? Douche? I mean, he wasn't that bad... just very... um, rude?" I wasn't a fan of badmouthing others, especially people I didn't know. And the only word I've ever exchanged with the guy was "move". So, I didn't think it was an appropriate thing to call him a douche. Yet.
"Honey, he is the ultimate god of King High School. Every girl worships him and every guy wants to be him. Everyone here knows Jace, and everyone who has heard of King has heard of Jace." She picked up another grape and popped it in her mouth. I realized I was looking at Nicole, for longer than I expected. And I wasn't uncomfortable anymore. "Let me tell you, steer clear of that dickwad. He's nothing but bad news. Him and his friends run the school and basically this entire town. But no one has ever seen any side of Jace except for the dickwad side."
"A.... dickwad....?" Nicole laughed at my shocked expression and waved her hand at me.
"You're an innocent one aren't you? You said the D word as if it has never escaped from your lips before." She wasn't wrong.... I've never once said or even heard of that word in my 17 years of existence. My cheeks blushed, which sent Nicole straight into hysteria. Until two guys approached her from behind and she stopped for a second before going back to laughing at my expression.
"And why are you laughing even more than you usually do? Should we be concerned?" The brunette guy eyed Nicole before taking the seat next to her. "And you must be the new girl!"
And then his attention diverted to me, I couldn't take my eyes away. He looked so much like Nicole that I was intrigued to know their relationship. Twins, they had to be twins!
"I'm Avery, nice to meet you..." Good job, Avery. I mentually gave myself a pat on the back for how long I've lasted without breaking out in anxiety from being around strangers today. "Are you guys..."
"Oh, yeah!" He chuckled seeing me point my finger at him then at Nicole who was talking to the boy with golden hair. "Twins. Hard to miss it huh"
"You guys are so cute" I smiled at him. They reminded me of Landon and me. So close knitted and full of inside jokes.
"I'm Will, her twin. And your classmate in some classes. That over there is Daniel, our best friend." He pointed at the other boy who was looking at Nicole like she were the stars in the sky. It was obvious how he felt about her just by glancing at them two.
"And then there were four!" He finally turned to me and smiled. "I'm Daniel! Welcome to the anti lunch lunch club!" I mean, he was spot on. I hated lunch time as it is nothing a battle of the food pyramid. And to show off popularity like a show and tell in kindergarten.
"Thanks..." I smiled weakly not knowing how to react to these boys as the only ones I was used to for the past five years until now, were Landon and Matty.
"So, Avery can I call you A? Like you know in pretty little liars?" Daniel chirped away while munching on his burger but kept his eyes on me. "That could be like our thing you know."
"I don't think I've seen that show?" What in the name of heavens is pretty little liars. I made a mental note to myself to check that out after school.
"Alright, by the power vested in me, we're going to Avery's house this weekend to have a PLL marathon." Daniel shook his head in disbelief at the lame teenager who was probably the only person who hasn't seen PLL.
"Oh, um, I uh" i can't. I couldn't. I wasn't ready. Avery, stop it. Make friends remember? It's not like you have anything to do this weekend. Say yes! "Okay, um I have work 9-4 but I'm free after that." I nearly forgot about my shift at the bookstore.
"Great! Oh my god this is like a dream comes true!" Daniel shouted while the twins groaned and shook their heads at me. Did I do something wrong?
As glad as I was to make new friends, I was more glad that I made it through my first day with minor conflicts. I decided to push the thought of Jace Vanderbilt bumping into me as I changed into my work clothes and headed to the school gym for my first shift. As uncomfortable as I was wearing the red lifeguard shorts and a white short sleeve fitted shirt with the Red Cross and word 'lifeguard', I was so happy to see the blue pool.
This school really did care a whole lot about sports as the pool was just as nice as the football field. Now this was something I could appreciate.
After my shift ended, I walked to the locker room and change and meet Landon to go home. Since it was nearly 6 o'clock in the evening, I was the only one in the locker room.
Or so I thought until I heard two voices whispering at each other as I was leaving. There was a guy and a girl here, saying very dirty things that made me extremely uncomfortable. That voice.... Jace Vanderbilt. I could recognize his voice from this morning's incident.
Oh, god. They were standing near the door, how was I supposed to leave without them thinking I was eavesdropping? Oh, god. Oh god....
My phone. Was. Ringing. Landon. Oh, god.
I tried to turn it off but it was too late. I heard footsteps approaching closer and closer as I shut my eyes and prayed for myself. Oh, god.
"You again!" His voice boomed and echoed throughout the empty locker room. "What are you?!"
Whenever someone raised their voice at me, I would freeze and go into autopilot. It was the PTSD in control now. I shut my eyes, not wanting to see what was going to happen next. He was going to hurt me. I didn't have to look at him to know he was angry that I was here and probably ruined whatever he had going on. Oh, god Avery.
"Keep your mouth shut about this, new girl." With that, he left. He actually left. I was saved. I let out a huge sigh of relief and began to collect myself again from trembling, probably embarrassed myself in front of him. God, I was trying so hard to not show that I was petrified.
Whoever Jace Vanderbilt was, he was a scary guy and I did not want to be anywhere near him.