Chapter 1: Devin

"Hey guys there are some people moving in next door" I said as I looked out of my bedroom window to the house that was next door. Shane ran in as fast as he could and flipped his brown hair out of his face.

"Is their any cute girls?" He asked me. Shane was the middle child at 18 and my older brother, he was pretty tall with brown shoulder length hair he had a black lip ring and he would always wore band t-shirts and skinny jeans he had a serious attitude problem towards adults mostly with police and teachers. He had chocolate brown eyes but he refused to believe that he did. He always told people that his eyes were hazel because he wanted to be unique. He loved being weird and loved to make people laugh.

"I don't know, I don't even think they have any kids, they look pretty young-" I started but was soon cut off by Shane. I was the youngest at 16 I had brown curly hair, but I liked to change it up a bit and use Shane's straighter. My life was music I wanted to be a musician, I was in choir I had a couple parts in the latest Broadway shows and I loved to play the guitar.

"There is! She looks about your age, Devin." Shane nudged me.

"Ha, Ha not funny" I smiled awkwardly.

"So what's going on guys?" Joel my older brother said as he walked in with his guitar. Joel was the oldest he was 19, he had black spiked hair. He was wearing a red beanie, black t-shirt, leather jacket and black jeans. He played so many instruments that he could probably walk on his fingers. He played guitar, drums, bass, piano, trumpet, trombone, tuba, saxophone, ukulele and a lot more. He was going to Julliard on full scholarship and he was also a straight A student.

"Someone just moved in next door, and it looks like there is some new eye candy for Devin." Shane explained.

"Very nice, he's got to make a move" Joel said to him. I rolled my eyes.

"Boys, stop spying on the new neighbors and come down and eat dinner" My Mom Julia Aarons yelled up to her sons. Then she had two seconds to move out of the way before a parade of boys came running down the stairs. We all sat down at the table with our dad as our mom served her delicious food that she usually made for us.

"So boys, how was school today hope you didn't get into any trouble" Mr. Aarons asked as he looked at his youngest son Caden. Caden was the trouble maker of the family. He was 11 and he had short curly brown hair and blue eyes. He was always blowing up cherry bombs in the school. So every week Mr. Aarons had to go down and talk to the principal about paying for the damage.

"I didn't do anything" Caden said. Mr. Aarons gave him a look. "Okay fine maybe I put a cherry bomb in the toilet in the boys bathroom and the bathroom is red now but its ok, I'm only suspended for a little while."

"How long is it this time Caden?" Mr. Aarons asked. Joseph Aarons was the father of us boys. He was a choir director at Julliard and the assistant principal of the college. He was 40 now he had black graying hair and soft blue eyes and it looked as if he hadn't shaved in a couple days. He also had a terrible temper.

"Only For a few weeks" Caden said.

"Weeks?" Mrs. Aarons asked. "Caden, why would you do such an awful thing?" Julia was the wife of Joseph and the mother to all of us (obviously). She was mostly a stay at home mom but some weeks she would volunteer at Animal Shelter. She was very kind and gentle. Her used to be long brown curly hair was now short and had a bit of grey hair. But nothing a few bottles of dye couldn't fix.

"Let the boy go, that cherry bomb ruled!" Uncle Quinn said to his brother. Quinn was Joseph's brother, he could never find a job and would always mooch off them and his parents. He also always encouraged bad behavior. He taught Caden how to make cherry bombs with few supplies and always was asking Joel if he wanted to go the strip club and pick up some "Hotties". Joel usually rolled his eyes and knew that Quinn was either drunk or high out of his mind.

"Okay, I'm going upstairs because I'm full" I said as I ran upstairs. I didn't want to be in the middle of the war between my dad and uncle. Last time they got into a fight Uncle Quinn put my dad in the hospital with a broken hand and I few broken ribs.

"Me Too" Joel and Shane said at the same time and followed me up the stairs. We all headed into the piano room to hang out, to get away from out horrible family.

"I wish Quinn would move out, he is freaking annoying" Joel said to his brothers.

"I disagree," Shane replied.

"Of course you do, don't you always" I stated.

"No, Mr. Tude I don't"

"Whatever"

"Okay well anyway, do you guys want to get to work on the new song?" Joel asked and we all nodded. Joel sat at the piano and started to play a little something.

"That's fine but, it doesn't sound exactly right, maybe you should change the key. Like to an E instead." I piped in. Kevin played the same song in E minor.

"No, E major." Shane told him. Kevin played it in E major.

"Sounds good, great start, lets get to bed." Joel said as he headed to his room. I stood there with Joel; I wasn't ready for bed just yet. I picked up my guitar and played chord after chord to see what went good with the song. I was much easier to write a song on the piano. So I put the guitar down and headed to bed.

The next day my alarm went off and I got up and put on my Rolling Stones Tee, my black skinny jeans and my lucky green converse. I tousled his wet hair and comb threw it. I ran downstairs where my dad and Caden were eating dinner and having "A Talk" about his behavior and Uncle Quinn was trying to balance a spoon on his nose. "Devin do you want some waffles honey?" my mom asked him from the kitchen.

"No thanks mom, ill eat at school. I'm going to miss the bus" I replied. "Come on SHANE!" I yelled.

"Dude, I'm coming" Shane yelled back as he ran down the stairs and followed me out the door "You know it does take time to look as great as I do" Shane said to Devin as they walked to the bus stop. Shane was wearing a black tank top and a tan leather jacket with black skinny jeans and red vans.

"So how much money have you got for your new car yet?" I asked Shane trying to spark conversation.

"None, I suck at saving money" Shane replied as he pulled out two dollars for coffee.

"Just stop spending it" I said as I snatched the money from his hands. Shane gave me a look and I gave him back the money.

"Maybe it's because of Ashley, she is not easily impressed. I Guess I spend all my money on her." Shane told him. I shrugged in agreement; Ashley was rich, beautiful and blonde. She defiantly had everything she ever wanted, what could Shane get her that she didn't already have? Possibly a wedding ring but that was so far out of the question I didn't think to bring it up.

We got on the bus and sat in our normal back of the bus seats. After we got on the girl from next door got on, she had brown almost black curly hair, bright green eyes and she was wearing a Blue Band Tee, grey skinny jeans and black boots. I just kept staring at her until we all got to school. She was beautiful. Did she have a boyfriend I thought in silence. Most likely not since she just moved here. So she was single. Should I ask her out all these options went threw my mind? Then we got to school and we all got off. I went to locker 508 which was mine put in backpack and grabbed my books and started walking down the hall to my first class. Our school was the same and still just as boring. Before I came here, I didn't know this was a school; from the freeway it looked like a prison. But then again, it was.

"Hey Devin," Clarisse Johnson said to me. She was the most "popular" girl in the 10th grade; Head of the cheerleading squad, best singer in choir and she "dated" the most popular boy in the 10th grade which happened to be me, not be conceded or anything but according to the popularity list I was. She had Blonde hair usually in little ringlets or in a pony tail, blue eyes. She was wearing a white mini-skirt, a hot pink tank-top, high-heeled shoes and diamond earrings. "So how was your spring break, Devin?" She asked as she flipped her hair.

"It was good; Joel, Shane and I started a new song." I replied. "We are going to perform it for the talent show"

"Oh, that's cool. I went to Los Angeles, it was like amazing. I mean I went to like three concerts in a row and then I got to like hang out with Rihanna, It was like so cool!" She told me. She kept going on and on about how she hung out with Rihanna and how she saw Chris Brown beat the crap out of her.

"Oh Yeah I bet that was a lot of fun, uh I got to go to class," I said as I jetted to class. Clarisse stood there for a second and then went to her bright pink locker, to get her pink school supplies.

As soon as I walked in the door the tardy bell rang. "Ah, Mr. Aarons late again I see one more tardy and you get a detention" Ms. Ashby said. I groaned and walked to my seat where the new girl was sitting right next to me. "Okay class, open your books to page ninety and Danny read the first paragraph"

"Hey Devin" Syriah said to me. I smiled at her.

"Hey" I replied.

"So, what did you do for spring break?" Syriah asked. She was smiling. I knew that she liked me. Some chick in the 9th grade told me like a year ago. She was very pretty, she had blood red hair and she was this kind of Goth-posh style. Which was cool, she also had her best friend Jazz, who was always with her.

"Hey Syriah, want to hang after school today" Jazz said to her as she turned around. I noticed the new girl again.

"Hi I'm Devin, you must be new here?" I said to the new girl as I shook her hand.

"Hi, I'm Sydney; you must be the guy who was staring at my family from your bedroom window?" She joked and my face turned red and hot.

"Yeah sorry about that" I replied.

"It's cool, it was kind of entertaining to watch and listen to you and your brothers" She giggled."Uh, I think we should get back to work" She said as she looked behind me.

"I do too" Ms. Ashby said from right behind me. I almost jumped out my chair. After the class was finished I followed Sydney to her locker.

"So is it just you and your mom that moved in?" I asked.

"Yeah and my Dad, we are a small family" She replied. "You must have a big family right?"

"Well, there's me, Joel, Shane, Caden, my mom, my dad and my Uncle. So yeah I guess a big family." I said.

"Wow that's a lot of people, must be crazy?"

"Yeah, you can say that again. My brother Caden always is getting in trouble. My mom is a good cook. My dad always get mad at Caden and me, Shane and Joel are a band." I explained.

"You're in a band with your brothers? Are you like a cover band or something?" She asked.

"No, we write our own music, well mostly I write it but they help. We have won the talent show at the fair five years in a row"

"That's cool" She smiled. "We should get to our next class, See you later" She smiled and walked away and Clarisse came up to me.

"So I forgot to ask you how is Joel, he's isn't wearing those horrible suspenders still is he?" She asked with a disgusted look.

"Uh, suspenders are cool," I replied.

"Did I say horrible, I mean Fantabulos?" Clarisse smiled with her bleach white teeth.

"Yeah Okay, Bye" I ran to his next class, but there was no getting away from Clarisse. She was in his next class. When I got to my math class Sydney was already there. "You're in this class too?" I asked her as I sat down in my desk. She smiled and pulled out her schedule

"Yeah, if this is second period math with Mrs. Smith?" She replied as I sat next to her.

"It is, Mrs. Smith is awesome your going to love her, I hate math but she helped me a lot." I smiled. Then Clarisse came in and waved at me.

"Excuse me, this is my seat" Clarisse said to Sydney. Sydney smiled politely.

"Sure I'll move" Sydney walked to the back of the class room and sat down. Then a group of guys came in and huddled around me.

"Hey, Devin what's up man, you coming to the football game this Saturday? It's gonna be tight!" Cooper said to me as the rest of the guys where yelling and "Woo Hoo-ing".

"Yeah I'm coming but I'm not going to play" I replied and all the guys groaned.

"Dude you got to play man, the coach wants you to real bad man. We need you on the team" T- Wild said as he smiled at Clarisse who was watching and listening quietly. T-Wild got his nickname for one reason. He was Wild, really, really wild. He went to Clarisse's Super Sweet 16 and he went crazy. He flipped over the tables and pushed Kanye West off the stage during his song "Heartless". He also crashed Britney Spears's comeback party and went on stage with her and ripped out her extensions.

"No thanks guys, sorry" I said.

"Fine man, you stick with those lame-ass Broadway Shows, man" Cooper said as he sat down when the bell rang. When Mrs. Smith started to teach T-wild got onto his desk and started dancing.

"Okay, Mr. James, sit please." Mrs. Smith was very used to this. She smiled and continued to teach,

After the last bell rang I met Sydney at her locker. "So how was your first day?" I asked with a smile.

"Good it was cool, so I guess that Clarisse girl is your girlfriend?" She asked me.

"What…No way…uh No, she's my ex she just still likes me so she follows me everywhere" I replied.

"That's Stalkerish" Sydney laughed.

"Yeah kind of" I smiled at her.

"So what are you doing this weekend?" Sydney asked me.

"Nothing really" I replied waiting anxiously for what she was going to say next.

"Well maybe we could go to a movie or something" She told me.

"YES! I mean yeah sure, of course" I didn't want to sound desperate.

"Okay ill meet you at the mall at 3 on Saturday." She smiled and walked off. Shane walked up behind me.

"Hey Bro, sounds like you got a date with your eye candy." Shane stated.

"It's not a date"

"Yeah going to a movie with a pretty girl, yeah that's not a date" Shane said sarcastically. "Hey call Joel and have him pick us up. We missed the bus."

"Why don't you call him?" I asked.

"Ms. Prison Warden took it away again." Shane stated. "Mom and Dad are supposed to come get it" I laughed at Shane. I pulled out my phone to call Joel.

"Hey pick us up" I demanded.

"If you give me some money for gas, I have to get to school tomorrow you know." Joel told me.

"I got 10 bucks, how much do you have Shane?"

"20"

"That's cool, ill be there in a while." Joel hung up. My phone rang the worst ringtone ever, Barbie girl. It was Clarisse.

"Hello" I answered.

"Devin, why did you call me a stalker?" Clarisse asked me. I groaned. Things got around at this school don't they.

"You are"

"Devin of course I'm not, you're just a really great friend." Clarisse giggled.

"But I don't want to be your friend, haven't you figured that out yet?"

"Devin, deep down I know you don't feel that way. Well I'm getting my nails done. Tootles." Clarisse hung up. I groaned. Shane laughed at my misery.

"It's not funny, Clarisse is really stupid" I said as I sat on the ground. "Ever since I broke up with her, I haven't been able to get a girl since because she won't let me." Shane pulled out a phone and texted something. My phone beeped.

Shane: WTF!

"I thought you said that your teacher took your phone?" I said.

"I didn't say it didn't get it back" Shane laughed as Joel pulled up in his green station wagon. We climbed in the car. Joel held out his hand and gestured to us. We gave him our money.

"Where to Gents?" Joel asked.

"Home" We both said in unison.