Chapter 1:
"Dad, please? It's my favorite sweatshirt." I asked from the backseat, begging him to turn around and go back to camp.
"We can get you one next year." He said, looking back at me in the mirror.
"They won't be the same, though." I gave him my best puppy dog eyes.
"Oh, all right." I knew it would work; he made a U-turn and headed back to camp. We didn't make it very far before my dad slammed on the brakes but it was too late. He hit a deer head on and the car flipped. The front window broke and it fell in a shower of glass. I threw my arms in front of my face, hoping to stop the flying pieces of glass from hitting me in the face. I could just make out my sister next to me, and I could faintly see the she had a gash across her forehead with blood going down her face. We were sitting upside down and I had my hands on the top of the car. I noticed that my parents were sitting in an odd angle in the front seat, and I knew right away that the ending result wasn't going to turn out the way I wanted it. I reached over and shook their shoulders, trying to get them to move, but they didn't. I felt for a pulse and I came up with nothing.
I got my seatbelt undone and tried to push open the door. I finally managed to get it open and crawled out. I got my little sister out of the car and held her in my arms. I felt for a pulse and I got one. I saw a car coming from the other direction and waved my hand in the air, trying to get them to stop. The car pulled over and someone got out of their car and ran over. I swayed back and forth, feeling really dizzy. My hand hurt like it was broken and I had a cut on my arm with blood running down my arm. The person came up to me and was saying things but I couldn't make out the words. I got out a couple words though.
"Are you okay?" I shook my head and put my sister down, feeling my arms starting to become weaker and weaker. I stood up and the ground started to spin all around me. I stumbled forward a couple of steps and the person in front of my caught me as my legs gave out from under me. The last thing I saw was a flash of blue and red and heard a siren in the distance before I was welcomed into a world of complete darkness.
I came awake with a start, feeling my heart racing in my chest, and sweat pouring down my face. I rolled over in my bed and stared at the red neon numbers that read 6:45 on my radio clock. I sat up in bed and ran my hands down my face, wiping the sweat off my forehead. I haven't had that dream for a couple of months now, and the accident happened over a year ago. I guess when you feel guilty about something, it just keeps coming back to nip you in the butt. I hoped that the dreams wouldn't have come back; it's just a reminder of the horrible day that happened.
When I woke up in the hospital I was surrounded with the scent of medicine and a loud beeping noise coming from the monitor I was hooked up to next to my bed. The doctors came and tried to explain to me everything that happened, but once I heard the part about my parents not coming out alive, I tuned everything out around me and hid in my own little mind. I felt my heart shatter into a million pieces, and I don't know if it will ever be repaired. I shouldn't have told my dad to go back and get my sweatshirt. He would still be here if I wasn't such a spoiled brat. I was relieved when I heard about my sister, Riley, made it through the accident with me and was recovering in the room next to me.
I can still faintly hear the sound of the deer crashing into our car, the crunching sound metal as the car hit the pavement, the screams that came from my sister next to me, the flashing of blue and red lights coming from all around me. I remember the sound of my sister's painful screams and the sound of sobbing as she heard about my parent's death, and there was nothing that I could do to get that sound out of my head; a silent reminder of what I have done.
I got out of my bed and slowly made my bed before going to my closet to find something to wear for school. I decided to wear a green blouse over a black cami, matched with a pair of dark skinny jeans. I quickly did my hair and slid on a pair of sandals. I walked across the hall to Riley's room with my book bag and phone in hand. She was sitting on her bed, tying the laces on a pair of tennis shoes. She had on a pair of jeans with a black sweatshirt on. Her iPod was sitting on the bed next to her with the headphones wrapped around it. Ever since the accident she doesn't dress up for school, she doesn't see the point in doing it. Every morning my mom would come into our rooms in the morning and made sure that we looked nice for school before letting us leave. I guess doing it for so many years, it starts to become a habit. But Riley didn't want to dress up, she said it only made her remind her of mom. But me on the other hand, it's a completely different story. I always think that if I dress up like I normally do, that it will make my mom proud. I guess my sister and I are two completely different people. While I have long auburn hair, she has long blonde hair, I am 5"6 and she is 5"3, I like to play music and read books, and she wants to sit in her room talking on her phone for hours on end, I like to get good grades in my classes, and she doesn't care what she gets, she's fourteen and I'm seventeen. Ever since the accident happened last year, we have grown apart. I'm always thinking that I'm the reason for her keeping her distance from me, that I'm the reason that my younger sister doesn't have a mother or father anymore.
"Hey Ri, are you ready to go? Its 7:20 and I want to get a good parking space, and I also want to talk to Emma and Jaclyn a little bit before class starts."
She shrugs and grabs her bag from off the floor. She gives me a small smile, but it disappears as she walks past me to the hallway. I follow her down the stairs to the kitchen to see the Aunt Rachel was cooking something on the stove. She smiles to us over her shoulder when she hears us come down the stairs, and turns back to whatever she was making on the stove. I walked up behind her and saw that she was making scrambled eggs. I wrinkled my nose and grabbed a cereal bar from the cupboard. I heard the front door close, and I looked in the living room to see Riley walking past the front window.
"Can you watch out for her? I'm starting to get worried and I'm afraid that if she keeps this up, that I will have to take her to see a therapist." I heard Aunt Rachel said behind me, and I turned to see her looking where Riley just walked off to.
"I promise. I just can't help feel like this is my fault somehow." I mumbled the last part so she would hear and grabbed my bag from the floor. "I've got cheer practice after this, so I'll text you when I'm on my way home. Don't wait up for me." I walked outside and I dug my keys out of my purse to lock the door behind me. Riley was sitting in the passenger seat of my car, her headphones already in her ears blasting music. I sighed and drove us to school.
I drove to the middle school first, dropping Riley off before heading to the high school. She didn't say anything to me when she got out, just slammed the door and walked over to her group of friends. When I pulled into the high school parking lot, it was already 7:30 and I only had ten minutes to find Emma and Jaclyn before school starts. I wanted to talk to them about Riley. I was really starting to worry about her and she was acting weird. But I guess I'm the one to blame since I'm the one who had dad turn around to get a stupid sweatshirt.
Emma and Jaclyn were standing in front of my locker when I showed up, and they stopped their conversation once they saw me walking up and hurried over to greet me.
"OMG guess what?" Emma squealed and hooked her arm through my left arm and Jaclyn did the same to my other one.
"Um let me think. You got a boyfriend? You cut your hair?" I gasped and looked over at her. "You got your belly button pierced?"
"What? No to all three. You know my parents would kill me if I got my belly button pierced."
She rolled her eyes and continued to pull us towards our homeroom. "I heard that were supposed to get a new student, and he's going to be in our homeroom." She squealed again and the people around us gave her weird looks. "He's supposed to be, like, really cute."
"Where did you hear this from?" I asked Emma and Jaclyn instead answered.
"Well since I help out in the office every morning, I was the one to give him his schedule and I got a glimpse at what homeroom he was in." She said.
"Um I need more detail here? You're leaving us out to dry in the wind." I told her, put my hands on my hips and I felt my eyebrow raise.
"Oh, he's an exchange student from London."
"Oh that means he speaks French." I told her, wiggling my fingers at her.
"Okay, anyways. I was sitting behind the desk, writing down what Mrs. Hunters told me she needed help with. Of course I'm only like half awake at the time, so I don't even here the office door open. I guess he was standing there for a few minutes because out of nowhere I see a hand swinging in front of my face like this," she reenacted what he did to us and Emma slapped her hand away. "I look up and I'm think at the time, oh my god he's so f***ing cute."
I was getting tired of this stretched out story and I quickly covered her mouth with my hand before she could continue. "Okay, Casanova, you need to speed this story up before you, like, talk me to death." Emma nodded her head next to me, and I slowly took my hand away from her mouth.
"Okay, sorry. He told me that he was the new exchange student, and he needed his schedule. Just because I wanted to, I slowly went to find his schedule. I mean man, when you see him, he's going to make you mouths hang open. Okay I'm done now." We stood there for a few minutes before I heard the five minute warning bell ring.
"Ah, you just had to add too much details didn't you. Now you just made me really excited." I snorted and pulled the two into the classroom by their arms. Emma and I usually sat in the back of the room, but when we walked in I noticed a crowd of people gathered around the desk we usually sit at. Most of them were girls, while the guys were sitting at their desk and talking about the big game coming up the Friday.
"I guess the new guy is a little popular today." Emma stated and I nodded, not wanting to say anything in case I squealed with excitement from actually getting a new, hot student.
"You. Guys. Are. So. Lucky!" Jaclyn said, emphasizing each word; each word getting louder than the first one. "Okay, you can all go jump off of a bridge or something, cause' I hate you guys now. I never get the cute guys in my class."
"I'm sorry," Emma said, giving her a pouty face but it soon turned into a wide smile. "I can send you a picture of him so you can have it as your screen saver. Mr. Stanton isn't going to notice anyway, besides he's to clueless to know that people text in class. I think he needs some new glasses for Christmas." Jaclyn jumped onto my desk and propped her feet on top of Emma's desk, then she quickly pulled out her phone. She always had it on here every hour of everyday.
"Are we forgiven now?" I asked Jaclyn, resting my face in my hands and gave her my best puppy-eyes look.
She stared at me for a second before she sighed and caved in. "Okay I forgive you. I still hate you, but I forgive you."
"You think we should go save him from the drama queens?" I asked after a few minutes of watching the group get bigger and bigger.
"I suppose, but I think it's funny watching every girl throw themselves at him."
"I got to agree, but we're nice people." Jaclyn said. We looked at each other and burst out laughing.
"Haha, you crack me up." I playfully shoved Jaclyn away from me. "Come on, we better hurry before one of the girls get into a fight over him."
"But that's the best part! Hair pulling, and clawing at each other with their nails is always fun to watch. Can we watch it for a few more minutes please?" Emma whined and I rolled my eyes.
"But if we don't break up the group, how are we supposed to get a look at the French guy?" She rubbed her chin for a second before pointing a finger at me.
"You've got a point there. I wonder where you're getting your smarts from? Maybe it's from me."
"Ha! Yeah right! You can barely work the toaster." I stated and she gave me her death glare.
"Not true! I actually made toast for the family this morning." She threw back and I shook my head.
"Did your brother have to show you how to push the little thing down." She was silent for a second before turning to look at the group.
"Maybe." She crossed her arms over her chest and pouted. I knew it made her mad that she wasn't very smart. I gave her a side hug and I turned to look at the clock. We had five minutes before class started, and I knew the new kid should get a little more comfortable before the bell rang. I walked up the group and pushed my way through.
"Okay people. Give the guy his space or else I'm not afraid to write the most embarrassing thing that you did all over your cars with permanent marker." The group quickly scattered and I smiled at how well they knew I would actually do what I said. I turned to look at the guy, and I noticed that he was frowning, pinching the bridge of his nose. His shoulders were tense, and I knew that if he didn't calm down, it wasn't going to be a good day for him. "Hey, I'm sorry for them doing that to you."
He looked up at me with a surprised look on his face, not noticing that I was still standing there. "Are they always like that with a new student?" He asked, and he had a small accent.
"Yeah. I know how it feels to be stressed out; I was a new student like you a couple of years ago. But I didn't move from a different country like you. If you ever need help finding something, you can alway ask my friends and I." I told him and pointed towards Emma and Jaclyn.
"Thanks. I guess we have something in common then." He smiled sweetly and stuck his hand out. "I'm Trent Underwood."
"Jailyn Masters." I smiled and shook his hand. I looked over my shoulder and waved to Emma and Jaclyn to come over. They walked over, slowly, but they still came over.
"So you're the guy that's everyone has been talking about." Emma started off with, with a smirk on her face. I smacked her arm and glared at her. "What, I'm just saying."
"Yeah we know your just saying, but one of these days I'm going to buy duct tape and put it over your mouth. Then we will see how much your just saying." Jaclyn said and I snorted.
"Emma? Duct taped? Yeah right, I remember last time we did that and we ended up with..." Emma slapped her hand over my mouth, so the next words I was going to say were muffled into her hand.
"Trent over here doesn't need to hear about that story." I looked over at Trent, and he had a small smile on his face, amusement dancing in his eyes. I smiled sheepishly and gave a small wave.
"Oops sorry, I'll shut up now." I made a little zipper across my lips, and threw the imaginary key over my shoulder.
"Smart choice." She replied. I heard the warning bell go off, telling us that we had two more minutes before class started.
"Introductions are needed!" I sang after I noticed that they haven't officially met yet. I threw my arms around Emma and Jaclyn's shoulders and put the biggest smile that I could muster on my face. "Trent I would like you to meet Emma and Jaclyn. Emma and Jaclyn, meet Trent." They smiled and shook his hand, but they just went back to whatever they were talking about a minute ago.
"Oh by the way Jen, you really need to work on your singing skills." Emma stated, and jumped back when I tried to slap her arm.
"First of all, I have a wonderful singing voice. Second of all, you're just jealous that you're not like me." She snorted and shook her head, laughing under her breath.
"I'm glad I'm not like you, or else I wouldn't have my sparkling personality."
"Yeah, that I wouldn't miss at all." I mumbled and rolled my eyes. I turned to look at Trent, and I noticed that he was watching me. "Can I see your schedule?"
"Sure." He turned and grabbed a piece of paper out of his bag and handed it to me. I looked it over and noticed that we had every class together.
"We have math and science together." Emma said, looking over my shoulder.
"We have world history and math." Jaclyn said, looking over my other shoulder. They stood like that for a few second, breathing down my neck, until I noticed that Jaclyn had one more minute to get to class.
"You better get going before class starts." Jaclyn cursed under her breath, and hurried out if the room. I turned back to Trent, and I noticed that I didn't answer him. "We have every class. I guess you're going to be stuck with me." I teased and made my way to my seat.
"You are one lucky chick." Emma whispered in my ear before sitting down in the seat next to me.
...
Class ended like it always did, students pushing and shoving each other out the door while trying to take to their friends at the same time. I sighed and shook my head before following Emma towards the door. I felt someone tap me on my shoulder and I turned around, and saw Trent standing behind me with a sheepish smile on his face.
"Hi Trent, is something wrong?" I tilted my head to the side, and bite my lip in a nervous gesture.
"Um I was wondering if you could show me to Mss. Stanton's room, because you know, we share the same class." I laughed and he gave me a weird look as if saying, 'why are you laughing at me?'
"I'm not laughing at you Trent, and you don't need to explain. I can show you, it's really no problem." He sighed and smiled.
"So Trent, where are you from?" Emma asked once we got into the hallways.
"I'm actually from London, England. I moved here because I wanted to learn more about American culture." He said with a smile and glanced over at me. "But let me tell you, your way of hanging out is a lot more different then how it is back home."
"Who are you staying with while you're here?" I asked him, stopping us in front of my locker. Emma came and leaned against it, very engrossed in the new information. He rubbed his chin as if he was in deep thought.
"I actually stay with the couple who helps out with the student exchange program. They actually live right across the street from the school."
I cringed at the thought of having to live that close. "That's gotta suck. I don't know what I would do if I had to live that close."
"Um duh, it's called getting extra sleep. I hate how I have to get up so early so I can get here on time." Emma complained and I rolled my eyes.
"I've offered plenty of times to give you a ride. But no you have to walk your way here, because you say you need the fresh air to wake you up, and that you need the excise. Just so you know, you really don't need the exercise. You look like a stick, just saying." Emma stuck her tongue out at me and opened my locker for me, always being the loving best friend.
"Yes because if I wasn't awake, I could never keep you and Jaclyn on your toes with my wonderful smart comments. And as for the exercise.
"You do know that I actually wouldn't miss that some days." I said truthfully and she stuck her youngest out at me.
"This is exactly what I meant when I said that your way of talking is different from my mine back home." Trent said and I almost forgot that he was even standing there.
"Oh I'm sure that your way of talking to your friend is the same way we do, but just a little more... guyish." Emma said with her hands on her hips, looking every bit as the drama queen.
"Well yes, I guess you could say that some of our ways are similar to the way it is here." Trent said, saying it like he hasn't not told someone. We continued to walk to our class in silence, until Emma had to get to her class before she was late.
"So why did you pick to move to this wonderful place in Montana?" I asked him once we were sitting in our desks in the back of the room.
"It just seemed more like a place I would want to go, and I also learned that Montana had a lot of large forests here. I love taking walks in the woods; being able to see different animals and different plants." He explained, never taking his eyes away from me.
"You seem like one of those people who likes to study that." I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned back in my chair, until it was on two legs.
"Study what?"
"Study about plants and animals." He shrugged.
"I guess. My dad was always into that stuff, so I guess I just started to doing it with him. " he started laughing and I felt my eyebrows raise. "Sorry, I just remember this one time where i went with my dad out into the woods. Well my dad heard something off the path and he wanted to go check it out, so he told me to stay where I was and to not wonder off. Well me being eight, I wanted to go explore. When my dad didn't show up for a few minutes, I went in to look for him. I got lost of course, I didn't really know that part of the woods very well, and I ended up getting myself scared. I called for him, each time getting louder. What I didn't realize was that the whole time I was calling for him, he was walking behind me quietly because he thought it was funny. But then I got in trouble because I didn't listen to him. Ever since that dad, I've made sure that I'm always prepared for anything at any time." He was full out laughing now, and a few of the guys gave him weird looks while the girls giggled.
"Oh I've got one. When I was five, and when my grandparents were still alive, my grandma was standing in the bathroom cleaning something. I didn't know what it was at the time, but once I did, I stayed away from my grandma for hours. I was curious on what my grandma was doing in the bathroom since she would never tell me. Well I knocked on the bathroom door and pushed it open. My grandma looked over at me and smile and I let out the loudest scream that I could muster up and ran. My grandma was cleaning her dentures, and when she smiled at me, she had no teeth. What little kid at the age of five wouldn't get scared at seeing that? My parents wouldn't let that go for the next few months. Ugh, I honestly think that I was officially scared for life." I cringed and shook my head. Trent let out a bark of laughter, which in the end made me laugh at how it sounded.
The warning bell sounded and I quickly got the supplies that I needed out then turned back to finish talking to Trent. "So what sports did you play back in London?"
"I used to play football, as in the American football. I was the quarterback, and was pretty good too."
"Why don't you try out for our team? Tryout are over but I think coach will consider letting you in the team. It's not like you lived here when school started." I leaned on my desk with my head in my hands.
"I thought about it, but I didn't want to go through all the trouble. Coach probably already has a pretty set team." He explained and I nodded my head, understanding what he was talking about. "What about you? Don't you play any sports?"
"Um I am on the track team, but that doesn't start until the spring. I'm also part of the cheerleading squad." He smiled and nodded his head.
"Sounds interesting, but I'm pretty sure that I can't do a cartwheel." I snorted and looked away from him.
"Oh come on, it's the easiest thing that me do." I turned back to look at him, and gave him a small smile. "Don't tell me the big football player can't do a flip without getting scared."
He rolled his eyes and gave me a knowing look. "Oh I'm not scared, I've just failed every time that my sister dared me to. Apparently I am not balanced enough."
I scrunched my nose and shook my head. "Oh yeah, that could definitely be a problem. And what about this sister of yours? What is she like?"
He opened his mouth to answer but the bell rang before he could. "I'll tell you later." He mouthed as the teacher walked into the room.
Okay I have no idea if this chapter is better than how i had first written it(If you read the original story you would understand). if you have any ideas on how i can make my stories better, and make people want to read them please leave me a review. i would greatly appreciate it.
~Whispers in a Thundercloud~