Wynter's POV
Finally, after like three million pictures later, we are off to school. We all piled into Brighton's big car that we called Clifford because it's a big red SUV. I'm not sure why we call it that because it's actually really stupid, but someone said it one day and it stuck. I don't know why it stuck, but it did. Brighton obviously drove, with AJ in the front seat, Jenkins and I in the middle, and Storm and Lyric in the back. Morning drives to school are pretty chaotic, especially when we decide to stop for coffee or breakfast.
"See we still have twenty minutes until school starts. We still have time to stop for coffee!" Lyric cheered.
"Thank god, maybe Miss preppy pants will quiet the hell down if we get her some espresso." I joked. Lyric gasped in the back seat.
"You are so harsh." Lyric joked back at me.
"Did it sting you? Need some ice?"
"That joke was so far beyond lame." AJ chimed in from the front seat.
"Shut it, bitch." I shot at AJ.
"Woah Woah Woah!" AJ put his arms up all dramatically.
"Oh please." I rolled my eyes and pulled out my phone. I had about like a million texts from the "girls only" group chat. Lyric and I have made friends with some girls outside of our little squad. Sometimes the boys get annoying as hell and it's nice to have some girlfriends. I glazed over the texts and it was nothing but our friend Tatum hoping that Jenkins will finally notice her.
"Wynter? Hello?" Jenkins snapped his fingers in my face and I slapped them away.
"What?" I asked annoyed.
"Who are you talking to?" He questioned me.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize this was an interrogation."
"I just wanted to know, you haven't said anything in like 20 minutes." I knew what that prick was doing. He wanted intel on Tatum. It's honestly quite annoying that they wouldn't just get together already. I don't have the energy for the back and forth BS.
"Look, I know you want Tatum to suck your dick, but trying to get me to help is not gonna happen." I flipped my hair at him.
"Wynter, be nice!" Lyric ordered.
"No." I shooed her away and I heard her sigh from the back seat. I looked down at my phone to see a text from Lyric.
Jenkins has a thing for Tatum, help the poor boy out. She texted me. I audibly groaned as loud as I could at her message.
So what, she could do a lot better. I sent back. She really could, Jenkins is really dumb and Tatum is actually pretty smart. Plus Jenkins has average looks and Tatum is hot as hell. No offense to Jenkins or anything.
They would be cute, stop it! I put down my phone as AJ and Brighton started arguing about something in the front seat.
"I'm just saying, the drama club needs extra funding from the boosters in order to pull off the number of shows we are doing this year. Be More Chill requires you to have a really cool set! Same with Newsies!" AJ complained.
"I already talked to the booster about this, if we give you the extra funds for your sets, then we have to cut a part of the athletic fund," Brighton explained.
"Woah dude, we were promised new uniforms this year." Storm chimed in from the back.
"Don't worry Storm, those shouldn't be getting cut," Brighton assured.
"Nice, I ain't mad then." Storm said.
"Are we at Starbucks yet?" Lyric interrupted.
"Way to completely derail the conversation." AJ scolded.
"Sorry, I'm starting to get dizzy." Lyric whined. She pathetically held her hair as she started to move her head in a circle.
"You'll be okay." Storm said while hugging Lyric. Lyric has this like a huge thing for Storm. It's a shock they haven't dated because they flirt all the time. Sometimes I think it's because Storm is gay, but I wouldn't know. He does get really touchy-feely with AJ sometimes so maybe that's a sign. Honestly, I don't really care, just as long as none of these idiots like Brighton. I heard Brighton murmur something to AJ in the front seat, but I couldn't make out what he said. He then rubbed AJ's shoulder. I know they are just friends, but something about that made me want to deck AJ in the face.
"Okay, we are here! What does everyone want?" Brighton asked as he pulled into the Starbucks drive-thru.
"I want hot chocolate," AJ ordered.
"Chamomile tea with nothing in it." Lyric said.
"Iced coffee with two sugars and cream." Storm said.
"A cold-pressed juice for me," Jenkins said.
"I'll take a dark roast," I said. Brighton ordered all of our drinks and we were on our way. Finally.
AJ's POV
Brighton put Clifford in park and everyone piled out. Thank god we made it on time this year so I have time to look at the audition sign-ups. Now that we are seniors, we get to park in the senior parking lot. Our school was big enough to have a parking garage and the teachers park in the bottom lot, seniors in the middle lot, and juniors and the sophomores that are lucky enough to drive, have to park in the top lot. The top lot sucks, especially when it's hot and the cars get all warm and sticky. It's not cute at all. Luckily today is pretty cool and it's nice outside for an August day. Our school is indoor anyway so it doesn't matter. Angelwood Institute was its name and it was pretty upscale for a public school. The school was the biggest in our area, with around 5000 students and over 300 faculty members. It was also a rather beautiful campus, resembling almost a college campus being how ridiculously large and expansive it is. Tall buildings with several floors and classrooms inside decked out in a classic modern look. It straight up looked as if it came straight out of one of those superhero movies Brighton makes me watch. As one of the top schools in the country, we all have a huge advantage going to Angelwood. College scouts love coming to nearly everything we do. While it's great that they come, it puts us under a lot of pressure to do well. It was crazy when scouts from Julliard, Carnegie Mellon, and UCLA came to watch our production of Peter Pan. I was just playing one of the twins and I nearly threw up before my first entrance. I wasn't even the one being watched. This year I have to get the best roles possible to impress college scouts. As we approached the tall buildings of Angelwood, Lyric turned around and stopped all of us.
"Okay ladies, we are one of the most popular friend groups in school. So I think to assert our dominance, we should walk in as a collective unit." Lyric insisted.
"Isn't that what we are already doing?" Wynter questioned.
"Are we really one of the most popular friend groups in school?" Brighton wondered.
"Umm, duh! Captain of the football team, senior class president, queen of the science nerds..." Wynter gasped.
"Watch it." She warned.
"Sorry. Top art kid, whatever Jenkins' does, and me, head cheerleader." Lyric continued to rant about god knows what and I decided to daze off. I decided to stare at Storm because why wouldn't you want to stare at him. He's so handsome and yeah I know I keep going on and on about him. I can't help it. I've had a crush on him for years and the more he doesn't want me, the more I want him. Well, I don't know if he necessarily doesn't like me, but he probably doesn't. If he did, that would literally be so amazing-
"AJ?" I was cut off from my thoughts when Brighton nudged me.
"What?" I glared at him, annoyed he cut me off from thought, but then I realized that I was probably staring at Storm. He was just trying to save me from any possible embarrassment. It happens a lot more than I want to admit. "Oh, thanks."
"So, are we ready? Or what?" Lyric asked trying to motivate us to do whatever weird crap she wanted to do.
"Sure, I'm down." Storm agreed.
"I'll do it too." I also agreed. If Storm was down for it, I felt like I had to also be down for it. Right? That's how you get a man, right?
"Fine." Wynter dramatically groaned. "I hope you know that you're the worst."
"Love you too." They linked arms and walked towards the school. Their relationship always confused me. They were like sisters, polar opposites, but worked great together. It was like yin and yang, plus and minus, or whatever. "Let's go!" Lyric cheered as we all made the walk into the school. As we entered through the doors, Lyric made sure to dramatically flip her hair and wave at someone in the hall. It was completely over the top and I was honestly kinda here for it. I don't know, Lyric loves to be the center of attention, so this is honestly not that strange.
"Girl, you aren't in a reality show. Chill." Wynter urged.
"I know, but let me live my moment!" Lyric exclaimed. Not gonna lie though, people were looking at us as we walked in as a group. Not like you see in the movies, but for whatever reason, people were watching us strut down the hallways like it was a runway. It was kinda cool to be seen as popular, even though Brighton, Storm, and Lyric were the popular ones. The rest of us are just popular through association.
"Hi Lyric! Hello, others." We all stopped in our tracks, I wasn't really paying attention so I kinda ran into Storm.
"Woah, little dude." Storm said as he helped me balance myself.
"Thank you." I barely made out due to my embarrassment.
"Wow, you're such a little clutz aren't you AJ." I finally realized who it was. Jenny Nyguen. She constantly battles for the top spot of the most popular girl with Lyric. Jenny's parents are both big-time doctors, making Jenny one of the richest kids at Angelwood. She runs the school's gossip blog, which to this day I'm not sure why it's allowed to be up. I think it's because she goes under an anonymous username, but everyone knows it's her. I don't care either way because the only times I get featured are when I do well in a musical or our group gets involved in something.
"Shut up Jenny." Wynter defended. Wynter and I also have an interesting complex, she insults me a lot, but she always defends me when someone tries to mess with me. She's like an older sister, even though we are the same age. Jenny and Wynter never liked each other because they were constantly battling each other for the number 2 spot in academics. They both know they could never beat out Brighton, but they could beat everyone else out for number 2.
"Whatever Wynter, I just wanted to ask Lyric about cheerleading this year." Jenny inquired. She was holding a clipboard, probably to write down notes for whenever some new drama went down.
"Well, it's going great. We plan on competing at cheer nationals this year." Lyric stated.
"That's exciting, are you planning on getting second again this year?" I could see what Jenny was trying to do and I'm surprised that Lyric was going along with it.
"Listen, bitch-" Wynter started as she got up in Jenny's face. Lyric grabbed her arm and pulled her back.
"Woah, calm down." Lyric stopped her from continuing. She gracefully turned her attention away from Wynter and back onto Jenny. "Don't you have something better to do?"
"I do Lyric." She scoffed and wrote something down on her clipboard. "This year should be an interesting one." Jenny swiftly turned around and disappeared somewhere into the hallway.
"I hate her, I just wish that you would let me beat her up just once." Wynter fumed.
"That wouldn't be good for your permanent record. Just ignore her and stay on her good side. We do not need her spreading any more rumors about us this year." Lyric continued to try to get Wynter to cool down.
"Guys as much as I'd love to stay, I have a bunch of student council work to handle before first period. Catch you guys later?" Brighton remarked.
"Yeah, see you later." Lyric said.
"Bye!" I said as I went and gave him a quick hug before he left.
"I should also get to class because it's on the opposite side of the campus, I'll see you girlies at senior breakfast." Lyric blew two air kisses toward us as she left. I waved at her as she left and I noticed that Storm winked at her when she walked away. I tried to ignore it, but I was nervous that it meant something more.
"What class do you guys have first?" Jenkins asked us.
"I have AP Art right over there." I pointed over to the art room which was luckily right next to us so I didn't have to walk very far.
"I have AP Government," Wynter said.
"Oh, I have regular, old government. Walk with me?" Jenkins asked.
"Sure. See you losers later!" Wynter said as she and Jenkins walked off.
"Well, I guess it's just the two of us again." Storm pointed out.
"I guess it is. What class do you have?" I asked.
"I have Stats." He groaned. Storm was never that into academics, but he always did well to stay in sports.
"Aww, poor baby." I gave him a pat on his shoulder. He smiled at me and playfully swatted my hand away.
"Oh shut up. You're lucky that you just get to go painting for an hour."
"Jealous much," I smirked at him. He ruffled my hair.
"Oh don't flatter yourself." He softly chucked. Was this him flirting with me? We locked eyes and it felt weird. Like there was something more there, but it was hard to tell-
"Hey AJ!" I was cut off from my thoughts again for the second time in a row by a boy in our grade named Collin. His last name was Collins and I always thought that was a fun name to have. Most people bullied him for it, but it was unique. He ran the Angelwood's newspaper club and was the nicest person I've met. He was like the boy next door, sweet and honestly he was pretty cute.
"Oh hey!" I greeted him.
"Hey, Storm," Collin said while giving Storm a wave.
"Sup dude." Storm gave him a single pat on the back.
"Nothing much, but AJ! I put the ad you sent me into today's newspaper." He said proudly and he held up the phone with the school newspaper on the screen. The school newspaper, called Angel Press, usually gets posted during 1st period and the newspaper teams also read it aloud over the school's monitor. I asked Collin last minute to add something in about auditions for Be More Chill.
"Thank you so much!" I gave him a hug and he let out a small gasp as he immediately hugged me back. I always wondered if Collin had a thing for me. I'm not even sure if he's gay or not, but I always sensed it. I can't lie, I would be down to date Collin.
"You're welcome." He smiled at me and there was an awkward pause.
"Uhhh." Storm said breaking to pause.
"Oh, sorry. Ummm, I gotta go. See you around!" Collin said, giving us a quick wave and then walked off.
"Bye!" I called out after him.
"That was weird." Storm said.
"Kinda, he's sweet though."
"Yeah, whatever you say. I'll see you soon, we got English together right?"
"Yes, second period."
"Nice! See you later dude." He gave me two finger guns as he left. I waved in his direction and sighed. That was a lot. Does Collin like me? Does Storm like me? I continued to let my thoughts run wild as I walked up to the audition sign-ups. I peered over the list of people who already signed up. There was already a long list of names on the sign-ups being that a ton of kids audition for the school musicals. There were already twenty names under the Be More Chill sign-ups and a bunch under the sign up for the Shakespeare play that was going to rehearse at the same time. I glanced over the names and saw my two theatre friends Phillip and Fallon had signed up. Then I noticed it, the name that flooded bad memories into my head. Even seeing it made my skin crawl. I turned around, took a deep breath, shook off my thoughts, and walked to class.