~Pete's POV~
My phone suddenly lit up my dark bedroom.
From Anna:
Why did you let go?
I felt my face get red, I didnt know why though. Maybe her parents had been tough on her, and she just wanted a long hug. It couldn't have been because she likes me. No, that wouldn't be realistic. How could someone so perfect, like someone so... Well, not.
To Anna:
I wish I didn't ;(
I hit send, and waited for a reply. I put in my headphones and turned on some Metallica. After I listened to my favorite album, I checked our conversation. It hadn't been delivered, so shed probably fallen asleep. I closed my eyes, and drifted off.
-----ONE WEEK TIME LAPSE-----
(Still Pete's POV)
Tomorrow was the first day of 10th grade. We had gotten our schedules a few days ago, and Anna and I had a lot of classes together. I had some with Patrick, but not as much as last year. Frank and Gerard had almost the same exact schedule, which mostly matched mine. What made me mad was that Andy and Joe had absoluetly no classes with me. Well at least they were together. I smiled, thinking of all the fun we had this week.
On monday we all went bowling. On tuesday we went out for pizza (my personal fave) On wednesday just hung out at Anna's house. On thursday, Julia, Patrick, Joe, Andy, Gerard, Frank, Mikey, and Ray went to the beach. Anna and I couldn't go, because, as our parents agreed, that would be "pushing it." They were only letting us do stuff locally because it was the last week of summer. Our parents acted as though they had been friends for awhile, even though it was only a couple weeks. But I guess you could say the same about Anna and I. This was a pretty awesome summer. Too bad school started tomorrow. I tried to shut my eyes to sleep and forget about the stressful day ahead of me, but I failed. I knew this was gonna be a long night of listening to music and being a nervous wreck.
~Anna's POV~
It was the night before school started, and I was one thought closer to having a major panic attack. I was worried about the classes with hardly anybody I knew in them, like Math and Social Studies. I started shaking, like I often did when I was alone having a panic attack. Stop. I told myself. It just got worse. I suddenly remembered Elyse and Karen and the girls who had laughed and pointed at me. I felt nauseous. I put the blanket over my head, staining it with tears. I put my headphones in, and tried to forget about real life for awhile. Well, I was in for a rough night.
I'm not sure the time I fell asleep, but when I did it felt like four seconds had gone by before my alarm clock suddenly rang loudly. I groaned, but then say straight up. It was 5:30, two hours before I had to be in school. I was close enough to walk, so I allowed myself 20 minutes for getting there. I had already picked out my outfit the night before- light wash skinny jeans with a plain black top, and converse. I was going to straighten my hair and do my usual makeup routine (which took about 2 minutes.) I finished getting ready by 6:30 because I had taken my time, and jammed out a little. I ate some Cheerios and then went back upstairs to brush my teeth. Becca was wearing black skinny jeans and a white Blink tee. But she looked 1 million times better than I did. I sighed. Once I was completely done I grabbed my back pack, and Becca met me in the kitchen with hers.
"You girls look amazing!" My dad said to us.
"Thanks." Becca muttered, glancing at the clock.
"Thank you!" I smiled at him.
"Let's go! We're gonna be late." Becca said, pushing past me. I rolled my eyes and hugged my parents.
"Good luck! Make some friends." My mom said.
"No promises." I muttered running out the door after Becca. We walked the 3 blocks in absolute silence. When we got there the scene was chaotic. High schoolers swarmed, some in groups, others alone. And everyone looked completely different. I saw Vic hanging around a bunch of other kids, most wearing black.
"My people!" Becca shouted holding her arms up. She walked away without saying goodbye. Well, thanks. It was just me now. Julia had told me to meet her by the flagpole, so I walked over. So far only Joe and Andy were there, and they didn't see me coming I assumed because Andy was touching Joe's nose. Joe laughed, and looked at him in the same way Julia looked at Patrick. Then Joe awkwardly saw me and looked really embarrassed.
"Hey- hi-" He started.
"Hey guys!" I acted like I hadn't seen anything.
"Hi.. Is Pete here yet?" Andy asked.
I suddenly feel two hands on my shoulders. I jump and turn around. And hes standing there, looking cute as always.
"Hi there." I say.
"Hey kid." He says.
Joe and Andy grin at each other. Julia and a younger looking boy walk up.
"Hey friends. Anna, this is my brother Chris." Julia says, introducing him to me.
"Hey!" I smile at him.
"Hi." He says in a small voice. He's obviously nervous.
"Will you be okay if I stay here with them? You can find your friends, right?" Julia asks him. Chris looks around, spotting a girl with bright blue hair. As if on cue, the girl turns around grinning at him. She's gorgeous.
"Yeah I think I'll be fine." He says with a sly smile, walking towards the girl. Julia has a concerned and protective look in her eyes, but Patrick arrives and it goes away, replaced by happiness. It's amazing how much one person can instantly change someone's mood. Joe had Andy, Patrick had Julia, I had Pete except it wasn't really a technical relationship, and Gerard had Frank. Speaking of them-
"HEY YOU GUYS!" Gerard screamed from about 30 yards away, tripping over a helpless kid who dropped his books. Frank closely followed him, stopping for a second to help the kid pick them up. Mikey followed behind, calmly walking with Ray and another girl. Once they had all arrived, Mikey introduced the girl as Lacy and she was his girlfriend.
"Hi Lacy!" I said smiling.
"Hey!" She said back. Everyone joked around for a couple minutes until the bell rang. My heart sped up. Pete came back to walk with me to class, since we had homeroom together. I looked jealously at Mikey holding Lacy's hand. Why couldn't that be Pete and I?
"This way." Pete said, leading me down the hallway. We came to a room with the door open. It was halfway filled with kids, and there wasn't a teacher inside. We walked in.
"Where do ya wanna sit?" Pete asked me.
"How about here?" I pointed to two sits near the front. He looked at me, laughing.
"What!" I say defensively.
"Are you one of those good kids who likes to sit in the front?" He asked me smiling.
Yes.
"No." I lied.
"Cool, then lets sit here." He pointed to seats in the back.
"Uhm how about the middle?" I asked.
"Sounds good." He compromised. We took two seats next to each other, his being right by the window. A younger man, wearing a grey suit rushed in. He picked up an expo marker and wrote his name on the board.
MR. GREEN
By now, the rest of the class had wondered in. I was horrified to see Elyse with another girl I didn't recognize. She had medium length carmel hair, and brown eyes. She was pretty tall. She snickered at a girl with glasses who was sitting by herself. I rolled my eyes and looked around, every face unfamiliar. A boy with bright blue eyes and brown hair was laughing with another guy, who looked like trouble to me. A quiet boy who had a Blink-182 shirt on was sitting in the far back.
"Okay, everyone take your seats for roll call!" Mr. Green said, taking out a clip board. I took observations when people said here as he called the names...
"Elyse Adams." The mean girl from before.
"Alex Baker." The kid with the Blink shirt.
"May Cooper." A girl I hadn't noticed.
"Cameron Dallas." One of the jocks from what I could tell.
"Anna DeLonge." I called here like everybody else.
"Nash Grier." A jock, possibly a jerk too.
"Logan Hunter." A boy I hadn't noticed.
"Courtney Moore." The girl with Elyse. Probably trouble as well.
"Desiree James." The girl with glasses that Courtney had snickered at.
"Noah Ross." A boy who was sitting with the Blink shirt kid.
"Scott Walker." Another boy I hadn't noticed before.
"Pete Wentz." Well, Pete.
After he had finished, he went into a lecture about rules so I kinda zoned out. I glanced at Cameron and Nash. They were flicking paper footballs at Noah's head. I guess I was right about them. I gave Pete a look that said "Can you believe those guys?" He just smiled uneasily. I wondered what was up with that. Then I realized- those were the kids he was with the first day outside the music store. But if they were so mean, then why did Pete hang around them?
~Pete's POV~
Anna gave Nash a dirty look, which made him stop tormenting Noah. I was proud of her, but then again it made me cringe. I knew Nash would question me about her later, saying something like "Whats her problem?" He wasn't the nicest person... But he was captain of the football team. Even though he wasn't any good, his dad was just the coach. I had to tolerate him or he would probably get mad and kick me off. I tried to forget about it and focus on whatever Mr. Green was going on about.
Somehow I managed to make it through the rest of the morning. When it was lunch time I sat with Patrick, Anna, Julia, Joe, Andy, Gerard, Frank, Ray, Mikey, and Lacy. I bought pizza, and say down next to Anna, devouring it.
She laughed. "Wow, you must really love pizza?"
"More than most humans." I replied.
That got a laugh from the whole table. I noticed that Anna wasn't eating anything, which worried me. I quietly asked her about it.
"I'm not hungry.." She replied.
"Really?" I asked, unconvinced.
"Y-eah.." She lied again. I raised my eyebrows, still unbelieving.
"Fine. I'm too nervous to eat." She said.
"Oh sorry I didn't know... Wait why are you nervous?" I asked, because she had gotten through the roughest part of the day.
"Because you're not in all of my afternoon classes.." She said quietly.
That made me feel good, like she needed me.
"But you'll be fine without me. And by the way, you don't look nervous at all." I said, trying to make her feel better.
"Thanks.. I get that a lot." She smiled.
Her smile was perfect. Maybe I was the one who was gonna have a hard time without her.
~Anna's POV~
I started talking to Julia.
"Why haven't you been in any of my classes?" I asked her. Patrick grinned.
"She's a huge nerd!" He said loudly. "She's in all honors classes."
"It's true." Julia answered, grinning.
That made a lot more sense. After lunch was over, I headed to the dreaded afternoon classes. But at least Frank and Gerard were in Math, and Lacy was in my Social Studies class. Gerard and Frank seemed to have identical schedules. How they had managed that was a mystery. Finally REM came, and I went back to my homeroom, eager to see Pete again. When I walked in, he was talking to Nash and Cameron. I rolled my eyes and took my seat from this morning. A different teacher was covering the class, a lady named Mrs. Hall. Pete took the seat next to me. We basically spent the whole period telling each other stupid jokes and puns, but hey that was my idea of fun.
"How did the telephone propose to his girlfriend?" I asked Pete.
"How?" He grinned.
"He have her a ring." I replied, laughing too hard.
"You are so lame." He choked, but he was laughing just as hard.
We managed to get through the rest of the day. It was a pretty boring and laid back day, because basically all the teachers did was a course overview and talked about themselves. Suddenly an announcement came on-
ATTENTION STUDENTS! THE ANNUAL BACK TO SCHOOL FORMAL WILL BE HELD THIS FRIDAY IN THE GYM. APPROPRIATE CLOTHING IS REQUIRED. WELL, CARRY ON.
I caught Pete looking at me but he just looked away. Finally the bell rang. We grabbed our bags and headed out. I was supposed to meet Becca outside, but I knew that wasnt happening. I could just walk with Pete for most of the way. I saw Julia struggling to get Chris away from the blue haired girl and stifled a laugh. I waved bye to her and Patrick, and Pete and I started walking.
"Sooo..." Pete began awkwardly.
"Yeah?" I asked.
"Would you uhm you know maybe want to go to the formal with me- I mean you don't have to and we could go as friends if you'd like" He blurted out.
"Sure." I smiled. He smiled back. Once we got to his house he asked me if I wanted him to walk with me the rest of the way home, but I said no. We hugged goodbye and I started walking again. I still got butterflies every time we touched. But we were just friends, right?