My name's Jill Valentine; I'm a sophomore at the wonderful school that is Raccoon City High School, can you detect my sarcasm? R.C.H. is the same as any other high school with its cliques. I'd like to say I don't fit into any. If I honestly had to say what I was in, I think I'd be a nerd. I get good grades and some of my friends are more on the nerd side but I don't really hang out with anyone so I can't really be placed in a category, but I get good grades. Well not good grades, great grades! I'm in the top percentile of all of Raccoon City, maybe even Colorado. Anyway, it's the first day of my sophomore year... Another year of torture. I'm in my favorite pale blue sweatshirt, with a pair of dark blue skinny jeans and a white v-neck t-shirt underneath. I enter the front door, unzipping my sweatshirt to reveal more of my cleavage. Not even in an attempt to be slutty, just because I feel comfortable with myself. I'm not looking for attention from other people.
"Jill," a girl calls. I turn around immediately, guess I got some attention.
I recognized the voice and yell the girl's name in return, "Rebecca!" as the smaller girl stood in front of me.
"Jill, it's good to see you," she hugs me. I returned the hug.
"Yeah. You too. How was your summer," I ask cheerfully.
"Great, I was able to intern at Raccoon Hospital! It was amazing," she bounces a little, "How about you?"
What did I do this summer? Nothing really... Damn I'm boring.
"Nothing really, just kind of stayed at home," I explain.
Rebecca laughs, "Any new relationships?"
I had dated a guy for most of July, but he was an idiot and tried to go a bit farther in the relationship than I was comfortable with so I left him, asshole.
"Nope," I say awkwardly.
"You get your schedule," Rebecca asks yet another question, she was always full of them and could get on people's nerves.
"No, not yet. I have to go to my homeroom," I sigh, "I gotta' go to my locker first."
Rebecca smiled, "Well I'll see you later Jill. I have to get to my homeroom too!"
She runs off and I walk my way to last year's locker. Number 0131, I pull out my lock just as I'm about to turn the corner and notice a man leaning against it.
"Excuse me," I poke his shoulder and he turns around. Chris Redfield in his red leather jacket with a logo I can only make out 'Made in Heaven.' He looks down at me and smiles,
"Hey! Never thought you'd be talkin' to me."
"You're on my locker," I say annoyed. Two of his friends turn to me.
"Oh, sorry Princess. Looks like we're locker neighbors," he smiled again.
"Great," I say sarcastically. He laughs and their group starts to walk away,
"See you around Valentine!" When his back's towards me I flip him off. I was afraid what he'd do if he'd caught me. Chris was... different. While he was captain of the football team, he wasn't necessarily a jock. He seemed to like his teammates, but he seemed to hang out with the burnouts. Their group consisted of Chris, Richard Aliken, and Forest Speyer. The thing about Chris is that he's extremely smart, almost as smart as me, yet he hangs around those losers. A young man stood next to me as I placed my new supplies into the clear locker.
"Can I help you," I ask. The words sound more rude than I wanted them to.
"Yeah, you're above my locker," the boy says.
"Oh, sorry," I close and lock my locker. The boy's wearing a light green sweatshirt, one I'd seen in the store before, and a green scarf hung loosely around his neck. The scarf had small black checkered pattern on it, I liked it.
"You new here," I ask.
"Could you tell," the boy laughs, "actually moved here about a week ago from New York."
"What grade are you in," I ask. He hesitates before answering, as if he had to think about it, "Tenth."
"Me too, what homeroom," I ask. "Mr. Vladimir's," the boy asked as if he thought I knew, which I did because he's my homeroom teacher as well.
"Me too," I reply, "What's your name?"
"Piers... Piers Nivans," he tells me extending his hand.
"Jill Valentine," I say as I shake his hand. He giggles and I obviously want to know what's so funny.
"Sorry," he apologised, "That just sounds like a stripper name."
I squint my eyes in his direction like a 'really' but then can't help but laugh because he had a point.
"Come on," I smile at Piers, "I'll take you to homeroom." I walk with him in silence through the empty hall. We must've been late.
"So how was living in New York?" I've always wanted to live there, Raccoon City was SO boring. Nothing ever happens here.
"It was okay. Way too crowded, and full of rules," he looks away from me. I smile at him, I can tell I'm going to like this kid.
"So you're some kind of rebel, huh," I ask. He lets out a small laugh before we reach the classroom. We both enter the room with smiles on our faces.
"Please sit down class," a blonde woman stood in front of the class. All the other students took their seats, Piers taking the seat next to me.
"Mr. Vladimir had an incident and had to leave the country, so he won't be here for the year. My name is Fiona Belli. I'll be your advisor until his return," she smiled at us. That's right, homeroom was called Advisory... I was stuck in this class for four years with the same students and teacher, at least three since Mr. Vladimir had left.
"This is my first year teaching," the blonde woman says, "I'll be your english teacher for those of you in British Literature." She continued introducing herself but I zoned out, she seemed nice enough I didn't need her whole life story. The bell rang and I was ready to go until I looked at my schedule, Trigonometry. I said I was smart, advanced math and all.
"What class do you have," I was greeted by Piers waiting at the door.
"Trig you," I ask.
"Same, lead the way," he moved out of my way. I walked to the classroom, noticing several people enter the room, including the one and only Chris Redfield. I take a seat in the middle of the room, next to Rebecca who was also in advanced placement. Piers sat on the otherside of me and I noticed Chris sitting in the back of the room. I turned away from him, looking at the front of the class when I hear the chair behind me squeak. I turn around to Chris' face.
"What the hell are you doing," I ask him.
"Hey Valentine," he says with a goofy smile, "Locker neighbors and math buddies." I roll my eyes so he would notice. After turning back around I look over to Piers.
"Piers'! Let me see your schedule," I call. He passes me the sheet of paper and I compare it with my own. This can't be possible, we have all the same classes every day, I was surprised but not really disappointed. Chris then rests his head on my shoulder, I loudly sigh and raise my shoulder to get him off. He sits back in his seat, spreading his legs and I look to the teacher who just entered the room. She was an asian woman maybe in her late twenties, early thirties? She smiles to the class,
"My name is Rebecca Chang."
Her long black hair reaching her mid-back, a small beauty mark under her left eye. She spoke to the class about the year, more shit I didn't care to listen to. I felt my ponytail moving and turn around to face Chris.
"Um! Can you stop," I yelled, not loud enough that anyone other than Piers and Rebecca could hear.
"What's wrong Valentine," he asked. Whenever he called me that I would at first think that he meant a valentine like Valentine's Day and then I'd realize it was my last name. Then I just felt stupid for thinking it.
"Stop touching me," I say annoyed. He raises an eyebrow and shrugs. Then I feel it again. I turned my whole body around,
"STOP!" He smiles.
"I'm going to kick you in the balls if you do that again," I yell. Piers laughs and I roll my eyes yet again. I look in front of Rebecca at a light skinned sophomore that was also in our class, Sheva Alomar. I see her head resting on her hand, as she slides closer to the edge of her seat I whisper her name to hopefully wake her up, but she winds up falling out of her seat. She woke up on impact. I couldn't help but giggle with the rest of the class. She gets up completely bewildered. The teacher gives her a certain glare that lets us all know she won't tolerate any goofing off.
"I don't know how I fell," Sheva lies and I can't help but laugh.
"Ms. Valentine! Why is that so funny," the teacher singles me out while pretty much the whole room was laughing with me.
"Sorry," I let out a small laugh. Sheva smiles back at me, mouthing that it's okay. I sat through the rest of class, Chris stopped bugging me thankfully. I think it's because he fell asleep, I wasn't going to look back to check. The bell rings and he's first to get up and out of the room. Piers and I get up almost in unison.
"I think that Chris guy likes you," Piers smiles at me as I pack my books. Rebecca joins in,
"He's so weird. His whole group is."
"Rebecca do you have Global next," I ask her to see if we have the same schedule.
"No sorry," she frowns and leaves just like that. Kind of abrupt but whatever.
"Come on Piers, let's head to class," I tell him and we begin our trek to class which was on the other side of the building.
We passed by the boys bathroom and Chris walks out almost on cue. I sigh as he puts his arm around me.
"Hey Valentine," he says like a stereotypical movie bad boy. I elbow him in the stomach and continue on my way with Piers. He came running back to us,
"Valentine I was talking to you."
I picked up the pace and Piers followed suit. Chris stayed at his pace, I guess giving up.
"Why don't you like him," Piers asked.
"He's fucking annoying. Don't get me wrong, he's hot as fuck. With his strong jaw line and super fucking huge muscular body," I begin to ramble.
"Seems like you gave this some thought," Piers smiles at me. I roll my eyes,
"Last year sure. I had a huge crush on him and stupid Jessica Sherawat told him. Fucking hated her for it, but she moved. Not until she embarrassed me in front of the entire sophomore and freshman class though." Piers raised an eyebrow and smiled stupidly.
"What," I ask frustrated.
"You should go for it," he says with the same stupid grin on his face. I shake my head and ignore him as we reach the second class of the day.
Faster than I thought it would, lunchtime came. I walk into the cafeteria with Piers, who already became my best friend in a matter of four periods. We had a lot in common, and he was a cool city kid. I get on the lunch line and get my share of the mystery meat labeled, 'Meatloaf.' Piers and I take a seat at an empty table. Rebecca took a seat across from me, soon enough Sheva Alomar sat next to her. After some mindless chatter, I get up from my seat, something puzzling me.
"I'll be right back," I put my hand on Piers' shoulder and use him to support myself as I stand up. I walk through the double doors to the courtyard and I see 'them' across the way, Chris' and his groupies. I casually walk up to them and Chris greets me with a smile,
"Well if it isn't Ms. Rude Valentine. What are you doing here?"
I roll my eyes, not even intentionally.
"I wanted to sit with you guys," I half smile with a sarcastic tone. Forest laughs, "You? With us? Why? Don't you want to hang out with your loser friends?" Chris is staring at me and I'm kind of annoyed, I don't even know why,
"Well... maybe I'll try something different!"
Richard and Forest laugh, I notice Chris is now looking at my chest, so I zip up my sweatshirt. Chris then looks away, I guess embarrassed that I caught him.
"We're too 'bad' for you anyway," Forest smiles.
"I can be bad," I say. I realized that made me sound extremely uncool. Forest laughs again,
"Why don't you kick over that garbage can?"
"Why," I ask. It sounded like the stupidest idea ever.
"Cause you'll be cool," Forest says.
"Whatever," I leave the group and walk back inside.
I notice a senior at our table, why the hell was he there? I walk up to my group and look back to see Chris and his friends had followed me in. As I get closer I notice the senior's messing with Rebecca.
"Hey Becky," I hear him say as I get closer, "Why don't you and me leave these losers and head to the bathroom." He smiles and makes a humping motion.
"Ugh! Go away," she spat. He walks over and grabs her hand.
"Let go," she squirms trying to get out of the hold.
"Leave her alone," I say defensively. He laughs before saying,
"What are you going to do about it bitch?"
"Bitch," I ask with a slight nod before sending my foot colliding with his shin. He grabs it quickly and then looks back at me, raising his fist.
"You little bitch. I'm going to kill you," he threatens and I send my foot into his chest. He stumbles back and the whole cafeteria seems to surround us, including Chris and his friends. I'm feeling all confident when he sends his fist colliding with my nose. It's bleeding slightly, but I get back up and wipe the blood away quickly. He wasn't going to get away with that. I quickly dodge another punch and headbutt him. The guidance councilor, Mr. Tomas quickly ran up and broke us up.
"What the hell is going on here," the man stuck his arms out to hold us apart.
"She just started attacking me," the senior lies.
"That's a fucking lie," Chris yells.
"Watch yourself Mr. Redfield," Mr. Tomas yelled.
"He was attacking me," Rebecca said, "She was defending me." I smiled at Rebecca mouthing a thank you.
"I don't care what happened, both of you detention," the teacher made his decision.
"That's bullshit," Chris walked up from out of the crowd.
"You can join them Mr. Redfield."
"Fine," Chris yells. The group breaks up and I hear the senior say, "Fucking bitch." I walk up to him and headbutt him once more, I already had detention what could they possibly do about it. Piers and I then leave the cafeteria.
I walked through the empty halls, hearing someone run towards me. I turn around fearing it was the senior back for more but it turned out to be Chris, and instead of my initial thought of walking away, I stayed.
"Thanks for the support," I smile at him.
"No problem, I saw it all go down. Couldn't let you take all the blame," he smiled back. I felt more blood coming from my nose. I wipe it off, trying to look like a badass, because honestly I felt like one.
"That was fucking awesome though," he stared at me amazed, "Where did you even learn that shit?" I look down, rubbing the back of my head.
"My dad... He taught me when I was little," I shrug. The bell echoed through the halls, "I gotta get to class."
He smiles back at me, "You can have lunch with us any time Valentine," as he walks the opposite way down the hall. I smile to myself, no matter how much I say I hate Chris... There's still a part of me that likes him and I think Piers just saw it judging by his toothy smile.
Piers and I had British Lit next. The same class taught by our advisor.
"That was fucking crazy," Piers says from behind me as Ms. Belli is explaining the course. I guess it was a matter of time before I got his opinion on the whole thing.
"It was nothing," I smiled slightly.
"Nothing? You didn't see him after we left, he looked fucking scared. I don't think he'll be going after Rebecca ever again," Piers looked so impressed at my actions.
"Like I said. It was nothing," I brush it off.
"What are you doing after school," he asked.
"Are you trying to ask me out," I ask semi laughing semi disgusted because we'd just met.
"No," he exclaimed, "I just don't know the way home and wanted to hang out!"
"It's okay," I laugh, "Sorry. It was just the way you asked."
"Oh," he smiles back.
"But sorry, I have detention remember," I remind him.
"Right," he sighs and we put our attention back on Ms. Belli.
The day ended rather quickly. I pull out my iphone and call my dad.
"Jill? You out of school already," he asked.
"Yeah Dad, but I have detention."
He sighs through the receiver and then asks, "What happened?"
"I'll tell you when I get home, I have to go," I hang up and make my way to Mr. Tomas' classroom. His classroom was huge, with maybe fifty seats and that's where we'd be for detention. Detention that consisted of only three people: the senior, Chris and myself. It's funny, I don't even know the kid's name. I take a seat, Chris coming in soon after and taking the seat behind me.
"Don't you dare touch my hair," I tell him before he sits down. He laughs and we're immediately scolded by Mr. Tomas. I had math homework, first day and already I had homework. Great! I pull out my math textbook and notebook.
"Ms. Valentine? What are you doing," the teacher asks.
"Homework," I say.
"This is detention. You're suppose to sit quietly and think about what you're here for," he explained as if I was a fucking toddler.
"That's bullshit! I'm in school, why can't I do work?"
"Watch your language Jill," Mr. Tomas points threateningly at me. I'm already pissed off. I roll my eyes and place my text book back in my bag. I look back at Chris who's on his smartphone. Sitting behind me let him hide it.
"What the hell," I asked as if he'd betrayed me.
"What," he asked annoyed. I sighed and put my head down on the desk. After a few minutes I hear Mr. Tomas' voice again.
"Ms. Valentine, no sleeping!"
I flare my nostrils. "What the hell can I do," I ask frustrated.
"Nothing," he says. The senior on the other side of the room laughs. I raise my fist and he backs down into his seat.
After an hour I'm let out of detention. I'd secretly done my homework while there. Aren't I such a rebel? Doing my homework! Whatever. I walked down the hall to my locker, Chris running to catch up to me.
"So, we have gym together tomorrow," he smiled at me.
"We," I asked.
"Yeah, remember last year the seniors and the freshman shared a gym class to make the freshman feel welcome and it failed terribly," he asked me.
"Yeah," I replied as I unlocked the lock.
"Well, they do it with sophomores and juniors too," he informed me.
"Great," I say sarcastically. He rolls his eyes and unlocks his locker.
"Need a ride home," he asked. I wanted to say yes, but I just couldn't.
"No, I'll walk," I smiled at him.
"You sure," he asked again.
"Fine."
So much for fighting my desires. I follow him to his car that waited in the parking lot. I had my permit, but Chris was over sixteen so he had his actual license. I got into the passenger's seat and he got in the drivers. I buckled in as he started the engine. I noticed he didn't buckle in as he looked over to me. He pulled out of the spot and drove onto the road.
"Where's your house," he asked.
"Jay and Raccoon Street," I tell him and we drive there. The ride is pretty silent, at least we weren't talking. A Three Days Grace CD was playing as he drove. I liked the band, and I guess Chris did too. He pulled into my driveway and stopped just before hitting the garage door. He's not the safest driver.
"Thanks Chris," I say as I walk away from the car.
"You're cool Valentine. I hope to see you at lunch with us again," he calls from the car window. I turn away, my cheeks heating up as I unlocked my door. I walked into the kitchen to find my mother cooking and my dad reading the paper.
"Why did you have detention," were the first words out of my dad's mouth.
"Fighting," I mumble.
"Fighting! Why," my mom asked horrified.
"Rebecca was being bullied, so stood up for her," I looked down at the floor, grabbing my arm.
"Why can't teenagers get along," my mom sighs. She's a complete ditz sometimes, but I love her with all my heart. My dad walks over to me and pats my back,
"I'm glad you stuck up for your friend."
I smile up at him as mom places a meal on the table. "Eat up!"
After eating, I decided to go in my backyard. No real reason, just felt like I had to. I noticed the trampoline that'd been sitting around for years with no real use. I decided to try it out, why not right? I climbed through the velcro part of the net and began to jump, looking over the neighbor's fence. I looked at their nice pool and then at the house. I then noticed someone looking at me from the top floor. The top floor window quickly opens and a head peeks out.
"Jill," it questioned.
"Piers? Is that you," I ask recognizing his voice.
"Yeah, you live there," he asked.
"No, I just jump on random people's fucking trampolines," I say sarcastically and stop my bouncing.
"You do the trig," Piers asks ignoring my snarky comments. He's learning how to be my friend faster than I thought.
"Yeah," I reply as I start bouncing again.
"What's the answer to 21," he asked.
"I don't fucking remember," I reply as I start trying to get as high as I can.
"Do you have to curse in every sentence," he asked. I nodded and continued bouncing, he watched for a while and I smiled at him.
"Wanna see something cool," I yell up to him. He nods and I decide to try flipping, I hadn't done a successful flip in about a year. I bounce as high as I can and then lift my feet above my head and land on my feet.
"Holy shit," I yelled. I actually did it.
"You're so cool," Piers says sarcastically. Hey, I'm the sarcastic one in this friendship! "You a gymnast or something?"
"I was actually," I say, "stopped about the time I went into freshman year."
"Piers," I hear a yell from his house, "Who are you talking to?"
He pulls down his window and I see his father walk into the room. I get off the trampoline and hide behind it before he can see me. I head inside, nothing else for me to do, I didn't want Mr. Nivans seeing me bounce on a trampoline like a five year old.