Jake's at his locker, finding books for his next class when David walks up and stands beside him. "Hey, dude."
"Hey. What's up?"
"Nothing much, just the same boring life of a senior nerd."
Jake snickers and looks over at David with a confused look. "Senior nerd?"
"Yeah, I'm a senior in high school and I'm a nerd. I figure it works pretty well...and it's catchy."
"You're not a nerd, David. You're just...smart."
"Easy for you to say, you're practically the football captain and you're dating freakin Scarlett Westerly!"
Jake smirks and looks over at him as he grabs a book out of his locker and shuts it. "I'm not dating her....yet."
David rolls his eyes. "Whatever." He looks past Jake, seeing someone then looks back at Jake. "Speaking of which..."
Scarlett walks up to them with a smile and links her arms with Jake's before kissing him on the cheek. "Hey."
Jake turns to her with a big smile. "Hey."
She looks over at David with a smile but it slowly fades when she realizes she can't remember his name. "Hey..."
"David." He fills in the blank with a bummed smile.
Scarlett nods with a smile. "Right."
David looks at Jake and mumbles. "Told ya." He focuses his attention back on Scarlett and speaks loud enough for both of them to hear. "I'll see you guys later."
"See ya." Jake lifts his hand and waves slightly.
"Bye, David. " Scarlett says with a polite smile before turning back to Jake as he takes both of her hands in his.
"I missed you."
"I just saw you yesterday, silly."
"Yeah, I know but we didn't really get to talk." Jake says with a sweet smile.
"Well...maybe we should plan out a time to talk somewhere...outside of school." She says, dropping very unsubtle hints.
Jake smirks and fills in the blanks. "You mean like a date?"
Scarlett shrugs and smirks at him.
"Scarlett Marie Westerly, will you please do me the honor of going on a date with me this weekend?"
She smiles big before answering with a sing a higher voice than normal. "I thought you'd never ask! I'd love to!"
Jake smiles and puts his arms around her shoulder to walk down the hall.
~~~
Chelsea's talking to Nicole in the hall when she giggles and points to a girl over in the corner with one of her friends. "See those two over there? Total lesbo's."
Nicole chuckles and looks back at Chelsea. "Seriously?"
Chelsea nods and shuts her locker. "Cross my heart."
Nicole pulls out her phone with a smirk. "This is totally going on the grape vine."
Chelsea snickers and looks behind Nicole, seeing Taylor walking up to them with heavy and tired looking eyes. "Tay, you look terrible."
Taylor snicker sadly and opens her locker. "Yeah, I've been getting that a lot lately."
Nicole looks down at Taylor's baggy, long sleeved shirt and long pants with disapproval. "What's with the fashion statement, Tay?"
Chelsea snickers and looks her over. "Yeah, are you going for the Grungy Ginger look?" She motions to a kid with baggy pants and shirt with orange, curly hair.
Taylor's tone becomes angry and she looks over at Chelsea and Nicole with a loud sigh. "Just shut up!"
Chelsea's eyes widen and she holds up her hands in defense. "Whoa, someone woke up on the wrong side of the cage today."
Taylor slams her locker shut and walks in the opposite direction of Nicole and Chelsea.
Nicole turns to Chelsea. "What's up with her?"
Chelsea shrugs with disinterest. "Who cares? It's probably just another one of her monthly bitch days."
"Come on." Chelsea laughs before looping her arm with Nicole's and walking down the hall.
~~~
Joe steps through the entrance of the school and smirks as everyone turns to look at him, including his best friend Dani who follows her glance with an eyeroll as he struts towards her. She smiles and looks him over from head to toe, unable to deny his hot new sense of style. She can feel her stomach rising in her throat as her cheeks turn a deep shade of red. She silently cursed herself for being so obvious.
Scarlett notices Dani's reaction from the sidelines and suddenly feels a wave of sympathy for her.
Joe struts up to Dani and slowly takes off his glasses, letting them hang from his shirt. He smiles and leans against a locker.
Dani chuckles and closes her locker before turning to look at him.
"Am I awesome or am I awesome?"
Dani rolls her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Don't go getting a big head." She looks at his sun glasses questioningly.
"How can I not? Look around, I'm the talk of the school."
"Yeah, cause no one recognizes you. They probably think you're another new kid or something."
He smirks and looks around at everyone, winking at a couple of freshman girls in the corner who immediately blush and begin giggling.
Dani shakes her head in bewilderment. "Okay, you are taking this way too far."
Joe smiles back at her with a slight eye roll. "Oh, come on. I'm just having a little fun."
"Fine. Just don't go changing your label on me, Adam."
He smiles down at Dani sweetly. "Never." He puts his arm around her shoulder before walking with her down the hall.
Nick's standing by his locker when Joe walks by with his new look. He gives Joe a disgusted look and turns back to Cody with a smirk. "What a douche. What did he do...raid Fonzie's closet?" He chuckles along with Cody before slamming his locker closed and walking off down the hall.
Joe stops outside of his first class and sees Taylor sitting in the front row on the far corner. He immediately steps back, away from the door and turns to look at Dani.
Dani smirks and crosses her arms before shaking her head. "No, no way. There's no way you're chickening out after all the hard work we put into your new...style." She gently pushes him to the door. "Go on, now's your chance."
"Well...maybe...tomorrow could be my chance...or you know...never."
"There's no time like the present."
Joe shows a frightened and worried demeanor and shakes his head.
Emily walks up to the class door and shows a flirtatious smile when she sees Joe standing beside the door. Then her face suddenly turns to shock when she recognizes the face. "Joe? Joe Adam? Is that you?"
Joe nods with a small smile at one of his classmates as she looks him up and down.
"Wow, I didn't even recognize you."
He smiles at her, feeling the sudden urge to reach up and pop his collar but luckily he resists.
"Well, I love the new look. It's very...biker hotty." She smirks and tilts her head to the side.
"Thanks."
Emily nods and walks into the classroom.
Joe turns back to Dani with a big smile and even bigger boost to his ego.
Dani shakes her head with a small smirk. "Let me guess...confidence level just jumped about ten points?"
He nods with a smile. "Oh yeeeaah."
"Go get em, Tiger."
Joe swiftly turns around and struts into the classroom.
Dani laughs softly and stands by the door with a small smile, watching him strut over to Taylor. Her smile soon fades as he smiles at Taylor and takes his seat behind her. She sighs and slowly walks to her class, not caring to watch the whole scene play out in front of her.
Taylor's writing in her notebook, completely oblivious of Joe's entrance. He leans forward in his seat, moving towards Taylor with a smile. "Hi."
She glances back quickly with barely a smile.
His confidence suddenly drops as he tries to think of something else to say. "So...are you dreading this class today as much as I am?"
She turns around in agitation and speaks with a quick and somewhat rude tone. "I'm sorry, are you new or something?"
Taken back by Taylor's snappy attitude, he sits back in his seat. "It's me...Joe...Joe Adam."
It takes her a minute to finally put the name with the face. "Joe? Sorry, I didn't even recognize you. You changed your..."
"-everything." He says abruptly, completing her sentence for her.
She shows a small smile. "Yeah, I guess so."
Joe leans forward once again with concern. "Are you okay? You seemed a little...agitated."
Taylor runs a hand through her hair and gives Joe an apologetic look. "Yeah...sorry about that. I've just been having a rough...year."
Joe nods in understanding. "Been there." He smiles and looks at her intently. "And you know...I'm here...if you ever want to talk."
Surprised by Joe's offer, she smiles and nods appreciatively. "Thanks, Joe."
He continues smiling at Taylor as she turns around and continues doodling in her notebook.
Joe looks over Taylor's shoulder at her notebook and sees a bunch of scribbles with lyrics from Pink's song Fucking Perfect. He smiles and sits back in his desk.
~~~
Mia's standing in the hallway, looking through some papers when she sees Logan across the hall walking up to his locker. She smiles and lowers the papers in her hand as he grabs a few books out of his locker and shuts his locker. He turns around and catches a glimpse of Mia, quickly lowering his head before walking in the opposite direction.
She watches in confusion as he walks off down the hall before sighing sadly and walking in the opposite direction.
~~~
Dani's sitting outside the school after the last bell, swiveling the charm on her necklace back and forth and starring off into space when Scarlett sits down beside her with a smile. "Hey."
Dani drops her charm and looks over at her. "Hey."
"So, have you seen Joe?" Scarlett asks.
"Not since this morning, why?"
She shrugs with a small smile. "Just wanted to see how it went with Taylor. He was going to talk to her today...right?"
"As far as I know." Dani replies with a lack of enthusiasm.
Scarlett nods and looks straight ahead, seeing Mia across campus. "Well, I better get going." She stands up and turns around before looking down at Dani with a smile. "Let me know how it went, okay?"
Dani nods and forces a small smile while Scarlett stares back at her in sympathy before rushing off towards Mia.
Joe steps outside of the school with Taylor, turning to her with a smile. "I bet you anything, the stuff he's teaching us was current events when he was in school." He walks right past Dani without even noticing her sitting on the steps.
Taylor giggles at his joke as Dani rolls her eyes at the joke he told her less than a week ago.
"So...um, are you doing anything this weekend?" Joe asks, the nerves returning once again.
Taken off guard, she glances at the ground for a moment before looking up at him. "Actually..." She's about to say she has plans with Nick but then remembers that he bailed on her. She shakes her head. "No, no plans."
His eyes widen in surprise as his smile grows. "Great! So...would you maybe want to hang out...with me?"
Taylor shows a small smile before biting her bottom lip and looking up at him. "Do you really think that's such a good idea?"
He smiles giving her a look of seriousness. "Do you?"
Sh stands there starring at him for a minute and he moves his head a little closer. "As friends?"
She looks up at him with a smile and nods. "Yeah, okay."
"Great!" He clears his throat after realizing how overly excited he must have sounded and lowers his voice. "...great."
Taylor snickers and waves before turning and walking to the school parking lot. Joe pumps his fist in the air and does a strange dance as everyone around him snickers and shakes their heads.
Dani smirks sadly at his stupid dance moves as her face slowly drops. All this time she had been counting on Taylor to be a bitch. She had been thinking that there was no way Taylor would ever agree to go on a date with Joe and when Taylor turned him down she would be there to pick up the pieces...just like always. But she had been wrong and now she was left to watch as the guy of her dreams gets the girl of his.
Joe eventually notices everyone's strange looks and slyly puts his sun glasses on before walking away from the school.
Dani continues to stare after him as he continues walking further away from her. She lowers her head and slowly stands up, throwing her book bag over her shoulder. She begins walking and pulls her phone out to text Scarlett. "He landed the girl." She puts her phone away and continues walking down the sidewalk.
~~~
Scarlett runs up to Mia who is walking on the sidewalk on her way home. "Mia!"
Mia pulls out a headphone from her ear and turns around to face Scarlett as she puts her hands on either of Mia's shoulders, causing Mia to lose her balance and step backwards.
Mia puts her hands on Scarlett's arms to steady her with a small smile. "Whoa, whoa. What's the rush?"
"Sorry, I just have some big news and I haven't seen you like all day! Where have you been?"
"Around. Why, what's up?" Mia asks in confusion.
"Jake Cameron asked me out this weekend!!"
Her eyes widen at Scarlett's excitement and she chuckles before shaking her head. "Wait a minute...who's Jake Cameron?"
She rolls her eyes at Mia's question before the smile takes up residence on her face once again. "Hello?! New guy!? Parents work for CIA?!"
"Oh...right...dude that almost drowned last weekend at Cody's party." She snickers with a soft smile. "That's great, Scar! He seems like a really great guy, hot too."
She sighs dreamily and loops her arms with Mia's before beginning to walk with her down the sidewalk. "You have no idea. He's sweet...charming...and so unbelievably hot!" She feels her phone vibrate in her back pocket and pulls it out.
Mia chuckles and speaks to Selena while looking straight ahead. "I'm telling you, Scar, you should really teach a class on the ABC's of love. When it comes to love most people are just so..."
"...blind." She finishes Mia's sentence with sadness after reading Dani's text and lowers her phone.