Hello all! So I've posted this chapter before but I thought I would revise and continue it. I really really would love a certain amount of reviews before I post the next chapter. Let me know if there are any specific perks scene you would like me to add. Enjoy!

The Perks of being a Wasabi Warrior

Dear Friend,

Tomorrow I start my first day of high school. Ever. Now I know what you're thinking, 'Jackson you're 17 years old'! But Mom thought it was best for me to home school so I wouldn't have any problems. Things have actually gotten a lot better. When it's start I'm able to turn it off and rest peacefully. Something I haven't been able to do in a long time. My brother and sister are the only ones I have talked to this summer, and I honestly wouldn't mind keeping it that way for as long as possible. But my parents are determined that I will make some friends. I'll never make a friend like Michael….Besides, who needs friends when I've got you! I like the new home, it's bigger and mom and dad say we need more room. I don't see why since Matty is in college… well you may be wondering why I'm writing to you. I know I haven't talked to you since Aunt Helen died, but right now I'm just trying to make the best of things, so here's my plan. On the first day of school (tomorrow) I'm going to picture what it will be like on my last day of senior year. Which is 181 days from now… but those days will be worth is soon enough. I've heard high school is rough but maybe it's not as bad as middle school.

Love always,

Jackson Brewer

The morning bell to Seaford High school rang for the first time this year. Students were running around trying to figure out their schedules or searching for old friends. But Jackson Brewer was just trying to make it through the day.

Dear Friend,

My main goal for the day was to make at least one friend… didn't go so well in my first class…

"Alright students please take your seats." Mr. Smith said

Mr. Smith is my first teacher of the day. He is a tall man with dark curly hair. He looked nice enough, but my sister Juliette told me never judge a teacher by his outward appearance, judge him by his teaching.

"So who took a look at your summer reading list?" Mr. Smith asked.

The class was silent

"Alright well let us refresh our brains with a little book from your freshman year, To Kill A Mockingbird."

It's not like I didn't read the list. I read every book on it in two weeks! but since the girl sitting beside me had already called me a faggot for an unknown reason I decided it was best to keep quiet. This friend thing is going great so far…

"So who was the great writer to publish the very first paperback copy of this vigorous novel?" Mr. Smith asked beginning to walk around the classroom.

Silence.

"He was British…" Mr. Smith continued. "He also invented the Serial. In fact at the end of the 3rd chapter of his first novel, he had a man hanging from a cliff by his fingernails. Hence the term 'cliff-hanger'."

"Shakespeare?" a girl asked.

"Good guess but Shakespeare didn't write novels… Anyone else?"

Mr. Smith slowly walked up and down the rows of desks, stopping to see the answer written on Jackson's paper.

"Charles Dickens!" Mr. Smith said aloud to the class.

A response of moans and groans and 'I knew that' came from the Senior AP English class.

I was thankful that Mr. Smith didn't make me say the answer aloud. No one seemed to notice how he saw what I wrote on my paper, then again no one notices me at all.

The bell rung and students dashed out of the classroom like the school was on fire. Jackson slowly collected his things and placed them neatly in his book bag.

"Why didn't you answer?" Mr. Smith asked while he cleaned the chalkboard, never turning to face Jackson.

It took a minute for Jackson to think of a sufficient answer.

"I just don't like speaking in front of crowds' sir" Jackson said in a quiet voice.

"You're Juliette's twin aren't you?" He asked.

"Yes sir I am." Jackson replied, trying to slowly move towards the door.

"She talks a lot about you. All good things by the way" Mr. Smith said.

"Thank you sir." was all Jackson replied as he stared at the floor.

"She tells me you want to be a writer." with that Jackson's head snapped up immediately.

"Maybe I can lend you some books from my collection and you can tell me what you think of them." Mr. Smith continued.

"Yes sir that would be great." Jackson replied with a smile.

So maybe Mr. Smith would be one of those great teachers Juliette told me about…

The next class I had was shop, I wasn't looking forward to this class because the only thing I was creative in was my writing. But the class clown was already pulling his opening year prank by drawing a mustache similar to Mr. Jenkins, our shop teacher, onto his face, and doing his best impression of the grouchy old man

"Alright ladies!" The jokester began, "today you better build me the perfect Eifel tower model or I will fail you all ya hear?!"

What the poor kid didn't know is that Mr. Jenkins was behind him the entire time. Of course he got a scolding, and I kind of felt bad for him. He wasn't trying to purposefully make fun of Mr. Jenkins, he was just trying to ease the tension of the first day of high school.

"If you ever pull anything like that again you'll go straight to the principal's office got it missy?" Mr. Jenkins yelled

"My name is not Missy." The kid replied smoothly. "Either you call me Jerry, or you call me nothing"

"Alright Nothing take your seat." Mr. Jenkins replied. You could tell by the smirk on his face that he felt very accomplished for thinking up such a smart reply.

The whole class roared in laughter as Jerry sat down with his new nickname, Nothing.

"Please turn to page 10 in your textbooks." Mr. Jenkins began, "Nothing, why don't you read first."

"Okay!" Jerry replied with a bright smile. "Chapter One." he began, "Surviving your factious shop teacher who needs to put kids down to feel big.Oh wow this is a really good chapter we should read on." Jerry said.

So shop wasn't that bad. The boy named Jerry seemed really nice. Lunch was my next period and I was hoping there was someone to sit with. I thought maybe I could sit with Juliette.

"Sorry, Cheerleaders only" she said carrying her lunch tray to her basket of caked up friends.

When my sister said no, I thought, maybe my old friend Susan would want to have lunch with me… In Middle school Susan was very fun to be around but, now she doesn't like to say hi to me anymore… And then there's Graham Morton. Before my older brother went to play football for Penn State He and Graham played together so I thought maybe he'd say hi to me…But Graham's a football player, and I'm me so who am I kidding.

Walking down the hallway of Seaford high, Jackson was finally relieved that the day was over. He held his book in his hand only to find it ripped away by another senior, Frank.

"What's up Brewer" Frank said ripping the cover of the book in half before dropping it on the ground.

Jackson bent down to salvage the pieces of his torn book. He wandered how anyone was able to put up with four years of this.

So that's how I survived my first day of high school...only 179 to go. Just so I say it to someone, high school is even worse than middle school. If my parents ask me what happened today, then I probably won't tell them. Because I don't want them to worry that I might get bad again… If my Aunt Helen were still here I could talk to her. I know she would understand how I'm both happy and sad at the same time and I'm still trying to figure out how that could be.

Love always,

Jackson

2 weeks later

Tonight was the first football game of the season. Jackson had heard legends of these games and an old kicker called 'the foot' who quit after his first varsity game freshman year. Apparently 'the foot' is a current senior, Jackson figures he must have had a good reason for quitting. The team hasn't been the same since, even when his brother, Matty, was the star quarterback.

Jackson walked up the steps to the bleachers with his nacho's in one hand and his coke in the other, and sat down as close to the front as possible. Out of all the cheers in the crowd, one caught his attention.

"LET'S GO WHALES! WHOOOOOO!"

Jerry.

Jackson looked up to see Jerry Martinez, the guy from his shop class, yelling at the top of his lungs.

"ALRIGHT COME ON OFFENSE!" Jerry screamed,

"Hey Nothing." Said two girls walking past him.

"Aw you can suck it virginity hoes. Suck. It!" He yelled back.

This was a chance.

Jackson fought with himself for over a minute on whether to go sit closer to Jerry or stay where he was, when he finally got up and slowly walked up the stairs to sit near jerry. Only having the stairs separating their two bleacher seats.

"H-hey Jerry." Jackson stuttered.

"Hey, you're in my shop class! How's your clock coming?" Jerry asked.

"My dad's building it for me." Jackson replied kind of ashamed at what he just had to admit.

"Mine looks like a boat." Jerry said laughing at himself.

There was a slight awkward silence. Jackson didn't know what to say, he hadn't had any friends since Michael.

"Hey you want to sit over here?" Jerry asked.

"Oh! Yeah I'll sit!" Jackson said a little too excitedly.

Jerry scooted over so Jackson could sit beside him. Jackson was glad that he was starting to make a new friend.

"Thanks for not calling me Nothing by the way." Jerry said gratefully, "It's an endless nightmare, and these assholes they actually think they're being original."

Jackson knew what it was like to be bullied. He had gotten bullied a lot in 6th grade, that's when Michael stood up for him and how they became best friends. He even knew what it was like to get bullied now, as a senior in high school. For the past couple of weeks Jackson had been shoved into multiple lockers, his head dumped into toilets, all his homework ripped up, and was still sitting alone in the corner of the cafeteria. It made Middle school seem like a playground.

"So uh, do you like football?" Jackson said trying to make conversation.

"Love it!" Jerry responded enthusiastically.

"Well maybe you know my brother then-"Jackson said before being cut off.

"Hey Kim!" Jerry said looking in the direction of the stairs.

Jackson looked in the same direction as Jerry, and forgot how breathe. She was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. She didn't look like most high school girls, caked with makeup and dressed in tight clothes. Her dress was short, but loose and blew with the wind. Her golden blonde hair flowed down her back and her smile was mesmerizing. Something about her was so Vibrant. He couldn't name the feeling that was growing in his stomach, but he knew she was the cause of it.

"Question!" Kim began, "could the bathrooms here be more disgusting?"

"Mmm yes" Jerry replied. "They call it, the men's room!"

Kim laughed and sat down beside Jackson. He scooted over, taken aback at how bold she was. He assumed that she just didn't notice him like everyone else.

"So I finally got a hold of Eddie!" Kim said.

"Party tonight?" Jerry asked.

"He's uh, still trying to shag Donna Tobin." she said.

"Ugh he's never tossing that salad." Jerry replied.

Kim looked and saw Jackson sitting beside her. She gave him a warm smile that made the feeling in his stomach grow, which he didn't even know was possible.

"Hey Jerry?" Kim said.

"Yeah?"

"Who's this?" she said sweetly nudging Jackson's arm.

"This is…?" Jerry said just starting to realize that he never asked Jackson his name.

"Jackson…Brewer" Jackson said to Kim

"Brewer." Jerry repeated acting like he knew his name the entire time.

"No shit! You're Juliette's twin!" Jerry said

"It's nice to meet you Jackson. I'm Kim!" she said shaking Jackson hand.

"Hey you mind if we call you Jack? It's just easier to say." Jerry asked.

"Sure, that's what my brother calls me" Jack said quietly

"Oh wait isn't your brother Matthew Brewer?" Kim said

"Oh yeah Matty! He graduated last year! Major football star, got all the ladies!" Jerry said with a hint of jealousy in his voice.

"He got into Penn State didn't he?" Kim said to Jack

"Uh yeah" Jack said, not surprised at how much they knew about his older brother.

"Don't get her started on Penn state! She's been dreaming to go there since she was little it's all she talks about Penn State this Penn state that bla bla bla!-"

"I do not!" Kim said cutting Jerry off.

Their conversation was cut short by the roar of the crowd. Everyone was standing up and cheering and screaming so loudly that you couldn't even hear yourself think.

"TOUCHDOOOOWWWWNNN WHAAALLLEEESS!" the announcer screamed

The marching band started to play the Schools fight song while the teams got back in line to begin a new play.

"Kim what's the plan are we going to Grace's tonight?" Jerry said not taking his eyes off the game.

"Nope" Kim began, taking a nacho from Jacks basket. "She got caught adding new ingredients to her mom's brownie recipe." She finished while nibbling on the chip.

"Let's just go to Falafel Phil's." she said finishing off the chip.

"Alright." Jerry said. "We're going to Phil's after the game if you wanna come." He asked Jack.

Jack was shocked that he had just been invited to hang out with his newfound friends. Maybe he shouldn't call them friends yet, he wasn't sure.

At Falafel Phils

"So what do you like to do Jack?" Kim asked.

"Well… I write and I used to do karate but I stopped" Jack answered. He was hoping they wouldn't ask way, there was no way he would able to tell them…

"No way, we do karate!" Kim said excitedly.

"Yeah at the Bobby Wasabi Dojo across the courtyard!" Jerry said, pointing in the direction of the dojo.

"Oh that's cool." Jackson said.

"So what are you gonna do when you get out of this place" Kim asked sipping her coffee.

"Well, my Aunt Helen said I should be a writer but I don't know what I'd write about." Jack said.

"You can write about us!" Kim answered

"Call it slut and the dragon!" Jerry said "Make us solve crimes!"

Jack laughed at his joke. Kim and Jerry seemed really happy together.

"You guys, seem really happy together how long have you been boyfriend and girlfriend?" Jack asked saying his thoughts out loud.

Kim and Jerry looked at each other in confusion then busted out laughing. Jerry began to make kissy noises trying to kiss Kim's cheek

"He's not my boyfriend!" Kim laughed while pushing Jerry away "He's my stepbrother, my mom finally left my worthless dad and married his nice dad when we moved here."

Jack was probably happier than he should have been when he heard they weren't together. Even though they had just met, Jack knew that there weren't many girls like Kim.

Just then Kim's Phone started Buzzing. She pulled it out and looked at the screen and started screeching.

"Dude! Eddie's house is open tonight!" Kim said while hitting Jerry's arm.

"We are so there!" Jerry said "come on Jack, we're going to a little party"

So there you have it! Let me know what you think! The next chapter should be up soon!

Xoxo,

c.d.