-Jaime-

Chapter 1

I was never the performing type. You know, as in performing arts. Like acting, singing, dancing, instrument playing, sports doing etc. Therefore, it was a wonder I was on a plane flying across the country to Los Angeles, California about to attend Greenwood Academy for the Performing Arts, also known as GAPA, on full scholarship. Full scholarship not only meant that I was a straight A student in the past and must stay a straight A student while attending, but that I also had a scholarship for my major. Now, a major in GAPA is not like a college major. It is the performing art that you supposedly excel in. For example, my major is singing. Don't ask how that became my major or how on earth I got a scholarship for it because frankly I don't know. It must be a miracle from up above. I mean, I always knew that I had an excellent voice. Everyone who heard me sing said so. I was the only one in my small hometown of Roosevelt, New Jersey that was able to reach all the really high notes and also the really low ones. The few people who heard me sing said I should try out for America Idol when I turned 16. The reason I said few people was because I was very shy. So shy, that I was embarrassed to sing in the shower. And that was when I was alone. How did anybody expect me to sing in public? I certainly didn't. That was probably the reason it never occurred to me that I would earn a scholarship because of my voice.

Well, the funny thing was that I didn't even want to go to GAPA, let alone apply or audition for it. I didn't even want to be famous and this school had agents and talent scouts come from all over America to find their next big star. The audition was my best friend Rachel Smith's doing. She wanted to audition for this school since she found out about it two years ago and now was her chance. She didn't want to attend Roosevelt High, the local high school. She wanted to make it big and felt her only chance to be a star was to audition for this school. And of course she wanted me to audition with her.

"So can you come?" asked Rachel with an anxious look on her face.

"Come where?" I asked. I wasn't really paying attention to what Rachel was asking me. I was too busy worrying about the math test I was going to take next period. Math was my weakest subject.

"To the audition," Rachel said, still wearing that anxious look.

Oh, the audition. Rachel bugged me about that thing all week. I asked my mom if I can go with Rachel on an audition to this really great school called Greenwood Academy for the Performing Arts. The second I said the words "performing arts" my mom gave me a strange look. I guess she knew as well as I did how "talented" I was. Meaning, I had raw talent but was too shy to show it off. However, she didn't question me and I didn't bother to explain. All she said was that I was allowed to go and hoped I had a great time at the audition.

"Rachel, I really don't think Hollyw-"

"Jaime! Please? For me? I know you are shy and all, but I really want you to come. Besides, you are really talented and it's about time you got your big break." Rachel had her big blue eyes wide open and her mouth in a pout. It was her puppy dog face. How can I say no to that face?

"Ugh. Fine. I'll come. My mom already said I can go. But let's just get one thing straight. I am not shy," I said stubbornly.

"Thank you so much Jaime! You won't regret this," she said with a huge smile plastered on her face.

"Sure I won't," I said sarcastically, "My best friend will just be shipped off to Hollywood while I'm forced to attend Roosevelt High by myself for our sophomore year."

Rachel just laughed, rolled her eyes, and smiled at me. I knew what she thought. She was thought that I'd be just as excited as she was by tomorrow. I doubted that would happen. I also decided that I hated that puppy dog face for making me act like a pushover once again. Why was I cursed with the pushover chromosome from my mom, while my brother, Brian, got her beautiful baby blues?

"We will be landing in 10 minutes," said the pilot through the P.A. System, interrupting my thoughts of back home. "Thank you for flying American Airlines, and please gather all your belongings together. We will not be responsible for any misplaced items, no matter how valuable they are."

As I shifted in my seat to gather my belongings I saw my student guidebook peaking out of my carry on. Oh great. I totally forgot to read this on the flight to California. To come to GAPA as the clueless new girl was just what I needed. I hardly even knew the dress code. I mean come on, they have a different dress code for weekdays and weekends, what school does that? I guess boarding schools do. But I couldn't really judge because I never went to a boarding school before. I just hoped I'd remember to read the section on the dress code in the taxi on the way to the school. That way people wouldn't know that I was clueless from the way I dressed.

I walked off the plane, went to the conveyor belt, grabbed my purple luggage set, and started looking for a man holding a paper that said my name on it. My mom explained to me that this man was the driver that the school sent for me. I thought it was pretty cool that a random man was holding a paper with my name on it. It was just like in the movies when the celebrity had a random limo driver that held a piece of paper with her name on it. The only difference was that I'm not a celebrity and he's not a limo driver. At least I'm not a celebrity yet.

I spotted the man I was looking for and headed his way. I guess he saw me coming towards him because before I knew it he introduced himself and helped me with my bulky bags.

"Hello, I am Pablo and I will be driving you to Greenwood Academy for the Performing Arts. You must be Jaime Johnson."

"Uh huh," I said.

"Here, let me help you carry some luggage to the car, it looks very heavy," he continued. "Just follow me and stay close behind. I don't want to lose you in this mess."

"Okay, thanks," I said handing him my duffle.

"You're welcome," he replied and started walking towards the exit.

Once outside he stopped in front of a nice shiny black car and popped the trunk open. I was a little confused. I didn't know that the taxis where so nice on this side of the country. I guess the people of California really do live large.

"Are all taxis this…nice?" I asked hesitantly.

"Oh no," Pablo answered with a chuckle, "I work for the school's car service. We have quite a few cars that pick up students from the airport or run errands for the school. No public service taxi looks as nice as this car does. They probably look the same as the taxis back where you live."

"Oh, I guess that was a stupid question then," I said, my cheeks red from embarrassment. How could I have thought that Californian taxis were expensive shiny black Hondas?

"It wasn't a stupid question; it just showed that you hadn't read the student handbook too carefully."

My face turned red all over again. Even the driver knew that I was the clueless new girl! "Is it that obvious?" I asked.

"No, but it will be if you continue to crack comments like that. Now get in the car. The ride is a half hour long so maybe you can get some reading done."

"Okay," I said as I slid into the back seat and opened up my handbook. I turned to page 24, and started to read about the dress code. On weekdays we had to dress kind of preppy. Our shirts had to be black, white, gray, or navy. GAPA preferred turtle necks, polo's, or oxford shirts. Our bottoms had to be black, gray, or navy and could not be leggings, jeans, or shorter than half our thigh. This whole section explained why my mom wanted me to buy so much black, navy, and gray colored clothing. I just thought she thought I looked good in boring colors. On weekends we can wear whatever we wanted as long as we had sleeves, our bellies were covered, and our bottoms weren't shorter than half our thigh. Thank God for weekends because I didn't know if I could last the whole year looking like I went to a preppy funeral.

"We're here," Pablo said as we drove up the driveway that led to the school's main campus. The school grounds were huge! The driveway was a long gravel road that had nice palm trees along both sides of the road. The road led to what looked like a town square with a large stoned building in the center. That building was surrounded by smaller and blander buildings. But even the blandest building was fancier and more extraordinary than any of the buildings I have seen back home. "Are you nervous?"

"Yes, a little," I replied truthfully. "It's not every day that you are the new girl."

"I understand," Pablo said." Well, now that you're here you have to go to the main office and sign in. It's straight ahead and it'll be the third office to your left. Meanwhile I'll bring your luggage to your dorm room. "

"Thank you Pablo. Goodbye."

The main office was in the largest building called Birmingham Hall. Birmingham Hall was where all the offices were. The main office had a nice sized waiting room with had deep peach colored walls and evergreen sofas and chairs that were placed all around the perimeter of the room. A lot of people were in the waiting room so I decided to sit down and wait until somebody was ready to help me. I didn't really have anything to do except read my handbook. I didn't want people thinking I was the clueless new girl, even though I was, so I just sat quietly and observed the people around me.

There were two particular boys that caught my eye. One was around five foot eight, had wavy golden bond hair, and dazzling greenish bluish eyes. He had a nice summer tan and looked pretty laid back wearing a black tee-shirt, red basketball shorts, and Nike dunks on his feet. The other one was around five foot five, had straight brown hair that casually fell over his eyes, brown eyes, and olive toned skin. He was wearing a white tee-shirt under an opened short sleeved blue and white striped oxford shirt with jeans and flip flops on his feet. The reason why these boys caught my eye was probably a) because they were really hot and b) because they approached a lot of girls and made small talk with them. These boys must be pretty popular to know so many girls. I even started wondering if they would come over and talk to me.

Just as I was wondering how our conversation would go I heard someone call my name. I looked up but didn't see anyone I knew. I heard someone call my name again and this time realized it was one of the hot popular boys.

"Jaime? Jaime Johnson? Are you Jaime Johnson?" The blond boy asked a girl passing by.

"No. I'm Liz. I was in drama with you last year. Don't you remember?" the girl said with a scoff.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry Liz. Really I am."

"Sure you are," she said and then stormed off.

"Real smooth man," the boy with brown hair said with a laugh.

"Shut up. I can't remember everyone's name like you can. I hardly even knew the girl."

"Chill Eric, I was only messing with you."

"Okay, let's just find this Jaime girl already."

"Thanks dude, I owe you."

"Don't you always," said Eric, "Now which girl didn't we ask yet?"

"That one," said the brown haired boy as they headed towards me. However they didn't stop by me but by the girl with curly black hair that sat next to me.

"Hi, are you Jaime Johnson," asked Eric.

"No sorry I-

"I'm Jaime Johnson" I said cutting the girl off.

"Finally the girl shows up," Eric said under his breath. However, he said it loud enough for me to hear, so I shot him a quick glare.

"Hi, I'm Jake," said the brown haired boy.

"Uh, hi," I said."I'm Jaime, but you already knew that. So why were you looking for me?"

"Because I'm Jake."

"Okay…?"

"Jacob Gold? Your tour guide?" he said hoping I would recognize the name.

Unfortunately I didn't. "My tour guide? Why would I have a tour guide?" I asked.

"I'm guessing you didn't read the handbook," Eric said with false sweetness.

"I did read it, just not the part about the tour guide."

"But that was on the first page." he said questioningly.

"Okay so maybe all I read about was the dress code, but excuse me for not liking to read," I said a little too defensively. But come on, this was pure embarrassment. The two hottest guys were looking at me like I was an idiot!

"It's okay," said Jake," Just try reading the handbook when you have a chance. Transfer students, like you, receive a tour guide to help them get used to the school."

"Okay," I said meekly. "By the way, who's this?" I asked hinting towards Eric. I knew I sounded stupid but I didn't want to accidently say his name before we were properly introduced. I mean, he didn't know that I already knew his name and I didn't want him to think that I was eavesdropping on his conversation before because I was interested in him, even though I totally was.

"I'm Eric Lowry," he said. "Don't worry I'm not your second tour guide I was just helping Jake look for you after you ditched him by the Meet Your Tour Guide Brunch"

Wow, way to make a girl feel bad. "I didn't ditch him," I said defensively. "I didn't know there was a brunch. Jake I'm really sorry if you thought I ditched you. I would never do that"

"No problem. I knew you were new so I figured you didn't know where the brunch was and would go to the main office for directions. That's why Eric and I were here looking around for you."

"Oh, that makes sense. Well, do you want to go to the brunch now?" I asked a little too desperately.

"It's a little too late for that," he said." The brunch is already over. If you want we can go to the pizza shop on campus, my treat. That way we could get to know each other and I can explain stuff to you because from the looks of it you need a lot of explaining."

"That would be great," I said. "Eric, do you want to come?" I decided to be friendly and hoped his glare would turn into a smile.

"Not really, I'll let Jake do his work. He doesn't need my help for that and hopefully you won't be missing again," he said as he turned around and headed towards the door.

"Okay. Bye Eric," I called after him. I knew he heard me because he lifted his arm and gave a little wave not bothering to turn around.

"Did I insult him somehow?" I asked Jake after Eric was out of sight.

"No. Don't take it personally. Eric just isn't always the friendliest to outsiders. He'll come around soon," said Jake

"What do you mean outsiders? Like, people who aren't like you?"

"Something like that. You see, me and Eric are both very different even though we are best friends. I am very accepting while Eric is more closed minded and likes his friends the way they are. I think he has more against you then any other new comer because I'm your tour guide and instead of hanging out with him right now, I'm hanging with you."

"That's very mature," I said slightly annoyed. I couldn't believe that on my first day at GAPA I had an enemy. Well, kind of an enemy. I thought I might have had a chance to become popular at this new school. Back home I was known as the class brain and my only true friend was Rachel. If Eric continued to treat me like an outsider I would be doomed to the bottom of the social period. This was a disaster.

"Like I said," Jake continued, "he'll come around."