CHAPTER ONE
Jake Brown sat down at a hard concrete table out on the lawn of South Larronsville High School, his heavy coat wrapped snugly around him. His algebra book rested on the cold surface in front of him; the harsh freezing September winds blowing the pages back and forth, but he could care less. He shivered violently in his coat and adjusted his black-rimmed glasses, the lenses dark due to the transition lenses.
Joey Brown strutted up to the table, his windbreaker flapping in the wind. He was carrying a bag from McDonalds, full of piping hot cheeseburgers, fries, and apple pies. Joey carried two large cups of sodas on a tray in his other hand. He set them down and gave a curious look in the direction of his younger cousin, who was still shivering from the cold.
"You can stop acting now, Jake," he said. "Nobody's out here watching you."
"I'm…not…acting."
"Then what's going on with you? You're not getting sick on me, are you?"
Jake shook his head. Joey shrugged and dug out a cheeseburger, handing it to his cousin. Jake took it with only a shiver. The wind picked up, and Jake's dark brown hair blew wildly with the gust. He shivered and felt a sneeze coming on.
"AH…AH…AH…CHOOO!!" he screeched, sneezing so loud it made his throat hurt.
"Bless you," Joey said, unwrapping his cheeseburger.
"Thanks."
The two ate in silence, neither one of them wanting to say anything to the other. A door slammed in the distance, causing the cousins to turn and look in that direction. Jake saw a beautiful blonde teenage girl walking towards them and recognized her immediately.
"Hey, it's Angela. Man, I haven't seen her in forever," Jake said.
Joey groaned. "Oh, great. It's her."
"Geez, man. We haven't seen her in three months!"
"Yeah, and I don't wanna see her, either. I'm still not gonna forgive her for what she did to me last semester."
"Save it for later. Here she comes."
Angela Newton strode up to them, her light jacket bundled up to her torso. She stood next to Joey and looked at him while he ignored her. She cleared her throat. Jake waved at her, but she didn't take notice of him. She finally took a seat next to him and grinned goofily at her.
"Hey, Joey. What are ya doing?" she asked.
"Trying to ignore you so that you go away," he replied.
She sighed. "Listen, Joey. I'm really sorry about what happened last year. I keep trying to tell you, he came onto me."
"That's not what Travis said," Jake muttered.
Angela looked at him, taking notice of him for the first time. She shot him a disgusted look. "Excuse me. Who are you?"
"I'm Jake, Joey's cousin.," he said, extending his hand out.
She stared at him blankly. The smile on Jake's face dropped. "Come on, you've got to remember me. We had, like, four classes together last year."
She turned to Joey. "Who's the dweeb?" she asked.
"He just introduced himself to you!" he exclaimed.
She shrugged, as if to say "Whatever." " So, Joey, let's go inside and grab something to eat."
"Can't you see that I'm already eating?"
"What, that junk? Come on, my mom's bringing me something from China King. I know how much you like their moo shoo."
He shook his head. "No thanks. After what you did to me, I don't want anything to do with you. Not now, not ever."
"But-"
"No."
"But I-"
He jerked his finger towards the school. On the verge of crying, Angela got up and ran towards the building. Jake snickered as he watched this. "Good job, dude. She totally deserved that," he said sarcastically. He shot a glare at his cousin. "That was uncalled for, man."
"Whatever, bro." Joey glanced at his watch. "Let's go, we're gonna be late."
They walked towards the field house at a brisk pace. The weather began to warm up as the sun peeked out from behind the clouds. Jake unzipped his coat and began to walk faster.
"Man, I can't believe she has the gall to come up to me and start talking to me like we were still dating or something," Joey muttered.
"She still the same as you remember her?"
"Worse. She seems even more clingy than last year."
"Yeah."
"Do you know why I had to change my phone number three times in two months?"
Jake shook his head.
"She kept calling me, and calling me, and calling me. I don't know how she managed to get those new numbers."
Jake shrugged. "But you have to admit that she's gotten hotter since last year."
Joey shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know."
Jake stopped and stared at his cousin. "You're kidding me. She's a total babe compared to last year."
Joey stared right back at his cousin. "Excuse me? You've got to be joking."
"What?"
"For a minute there, I thought that you actually liked Angela."
Jake scoffed, his face turning bright red. "No way. Me? Like Angela?" He looked away from his cousin.
Joey laughed. "Whoa, like, no freaking way! You do like her!"
Jake's face got even redder, this time out of frustration. "So? What's that matter to you?"
Joey shrugged. "Nothing. It's just totally amusing. I don't think that you have a chance with her."
"What makes you say that?"
"Hades has a better chance of freezing over than you managing to get a date with Angela Newton."
"Oh, yeah? Give me until Halloween to get a date with her."
Joey stood firm, his arms crossed in front of his chest. "Is that a challenge?"
"Oh, yeah."
"What's the wager?"
Jake thought it over. "If I win, you have to do my chores for one month."
"But what if I win?"
"If you win, then I have to do your homework for a whole six weeks." He stuck out his hand. "Deal?"
Joey shook his cousin's hand. "Deal." He looked towards the field house. "Wanna race?"
"Let's."
"On the count of three. One… Two… THREE!"
They took off, their legs like lightning as they ran down the grassy lawn. Joey grabbed the lead, with Jake five feet behind him. The sound of their backpacks banging against their backs echoed across the school grounds, but no one heard a thing except the two cousins.
Joey glanced over his shoulder back at his cousin. Jake poured on all of his speed and caught up to his older cousin. They were neck and neck now, and Joey started running faster, widening the gap between them again. Frustrated, Jake squeezed his eyes shut and focused all of his energy into his legs. He opened his eyes to find that he was only centimeters behind Joey. Panicking, Joey ran even faster, his eyes still on his younger cousin.
He was too focused on his cousin, because he crashed head first into the brick wall of the field house. He fell onto the ground opened his eyes to only see stars. He heard laughing in the distance, but he couldn't register it. He lied down on the ground for a few more minutes. The laughter became more distant, the noise becoming smaller and smaller until there was barely anything left to be heard.
After a few more minutes, he began to stand. The stars had disappeared, but now there was nothing but intense pain attacking his head. He leaned against the wall for a few minutes, then puked against the gray bricks. He felt Jake's hands rubbing him on his back until he felt better.
"You okay?" Jake asked.
Joey nodded. "I'll be fine."
Jake laughed and led his cousin inside the field house. They dressed out and headed out to the soccer field as other kids began streaming into the field house. They waited patiently, stretching their muscles, when Jake spotted a large figure jogging towards them at a slow pace.
"Hey, isn't that Chase Foster?" he asked.
Joey cringed when he heard the name, but didn't let Jake see it. "Yeah. What's your point?"
Jake squinted through his tinted lenses. "He doesn't look so good."
Joey looked at Chase, who was hunching over. "You're right. Should we go see if he's okay?"
They jogged over to where Chase was hunched over and stood in front of him. "Are you okay, man?" Jake asked.
Chase held up a hand. "I'll…be…fine…" he gasped. Then he retched all over the ground, blood spurting out of his mouth with the vomit.
The Brown cousins grimaced and took a few steps back. Jake noticed the blood first. "Joey, go get some help. NOW!"
Joey nodded and ran off. His legs flew as he ran across the school parking lot. He slid as he crashed into the school's main building, slipping on the wet floor. He went straight to the main office and crashed through the door, skidding to a stop at the front desk.
"Get the ambulance on the phone!" he exclaimed.
"Now, just hold on young man. What's-"
"Chase Foster is puking out blood nearby the soccer field! Get the paramedics over here on the double!"
Before the secretary could say anything else, Joey ran off and headed straight towards the soccer field.
The halls were jam packed with students of South Larronsville High School. Lauren Foster pushed and weaved her way through the thick crowds towards her English class, the last period of the day. She managed to get through the door seconds before the bell rang. She made her way towards her desk, which was next to her boyfriend, Brandan Thomas.
"Hey," she said in her flirting voice.
He ignored her.
She slapped his arm. "Hey!" she repeated.
He looked up at her. "What?"
"Why are you ignoring me like that?"
He shook his head, pointing at the book in front of her. "I was just reading this book my dad gave me," he said, closing the thick paperback. "It's something about cars. Not very interesting."
Lauren sighed and shrugged her shoulders. "Well, at least it's a book." She looked at the book. "Why is your dad making you read a book like that anyway?"
Brandan sighed. "Well, I wasn't gonna tell you this until later, but… My parents are getting a divorce."
She stared at him in surprise. "What? Why? Your parents are great together!"
"Well, my mom caught my dad cheating on her with one of his old girlfriends from his high school days. She kicked him out of the house."
"But your parents looked like they love each other."
He threw up his hands. "Listen, I don't wanna talk about it right now."
She nodded. "I get it."
She looked down the rows of desks in front of her at the chalkboard. It was blank, with smears off excess chalk. Her eyesight wandered towards the teacher's desk near the chalkboard and noticed that Mr. Jackson, the English I teacher, wasn't sitting there as he usually was.
"Hey, where's the teach?" she asked Brandan.
He shrugged. "Like I'm supposed to know?"
She looked at him, then turned her attention to the front of the classroom again. A second later, a tall blonde woman walked into the classroom, her long, flowing dress swaying in the breeze. Someone wolf-whistled as she walked past them.
"Whoa," Brandan breathed out.
Lauren rolled her eyes and slapped her boyfriend on the arm. He flinched as she hit her. "Hey!" he yelped. "What's wrong with you?"
"Don't go all googly-eyed just because some blondie walks in here and struts her stuff!" Lauren scolded.
"What? It was a compliment!"
Lauren rolled her eyes and sighed. Someone else walked into the classroom and handed the blonde substitute teacher a slip of paper. She looked around. "Which one of you is Lauren Foster?" she asked.
Unsure of what to do, Lauren cautiously raised her hand. The substitute saw her. "They want to see you in the front office, Lauren."
Lauren exchanged confused glances with her boyfriend and walked down the stairs towards the door. She slowly trudged her way to the front office, wondering what she did wrong. She reached the office and walked into the room, dropping herself onto the bench near the front desk. She waited patiently for whoever had called her down there.
Mrs. Jenkins, the school's vice-principal, walked out of her office and made her way over to Lauren. "Hello, Lauren," she said. She sighed. "Follow me, please."
She led Lauren to her office and closed the doors behind her. She motioned for Lauren to sit down and dropped down into her own leather chair behind her desk. She waited for a few minutes before speaking.
"Lauren, there's something that I have to tell you," she began. "It's about Chase."
Lauren moved to the edge of her seat. "What about Chase?'
"I'm afraid that he had to be taken to the hospital. One of the students from the soccer team found him and saw him puking up blood."
Shocked, Lauren's hand moved to her mouth. It took her a few moments before she found her voice. "Is…he gonna be okay?" she asked.
"I don't know."
Lauren stood and made her way to the door. Mrs. Jenkins stood up so fast that her chair slammed into the wall. "Where are you going, young lady?"
"I'm going to the hospital. My brother needs me!"
"No! You need to head straight back to class!"
"If I need to go back to class, then why did you tell me about my brother?"
"I thought that it was the right thing to do in a situation like this. Now go back to class."
Glaring at the vice-principal, Lauren stormed out of the room and out of the office, ignoring the secretary at the front desk. She looked out the doors at the front of the school, and a scheme popped into her head. Sneaking over to the bench outside the front office, she took her pair of rollerblades and snapped them on. She skated out of the school and headed towards the hospital, grabbing onto the backs of trucks and cars to get her there quicker.
Jake stared down the field at the players, watching the soccer ball move back and forth across the fifty yard line. Joey stood off on the sidelines, watching impatiently. Lewis Gonzalez, the soccer captain, kept the opposing team's offense at bay, stealing the ball away from the forwards. The ball didn't get any farther than the thirty-five yard line on either side.
Lewis pointed at Joey and Travis Gonzalez, who was also standing on the sidelines. "Brown! Gonzalez! Get out here and play forwards. Trenton, Coffey, off the field!" he shouted.
Excited, Joey ran out onto the field and slapped David Coffey's hand as he passed by. He scowled at Travis as he faced him across the fifty yard line. Confused, Travis just stared back at him.
"Go!" Lewis yelled.
Joey launched himself forward and stole the ball away from his own teammates, charging down the field and dodging the opponents. He moved quick as lightning, dribbling the soccer ball with him. Travis tried countless times to stop him and steal the ball away from him, but when Joey caught sight of him, he threw out his arms to hit him.
One arm connected with Travis's face, sending him sprawling onto the ground. Everyone stopped, but Joey kept on going and shot the ball towards the goal. The ball sailed past the goalkeeper and bounced into the net. Joey jumped around excitedly and turned to look at his teammates. They all stood around Travis, who was clutching his face and screaming in pain.
"Geez, man, what was that for?" Lewis asked.
"All I did was tap him!" Joey argued.
"Dude, you completely mauled him!" said Josh Wood, a short junior.
"If he can't handle it, then he should get off the field!"
Lewis helped his brother up and off the field, glaring at Joey as he left. "Coffey, Smiley, get in there!" he demanded.
"Wuss," muttered Joey, jogging back towards the middle of the field.
Lewis blew the whistle, signaling for the scrimmage to continue. Jake got ready to save the ball as Coffey shot past the defensive line and headed straight to him. Smiley sped up and slid towards the ball, getting it away from Coffey before he could shoot. The ball sailed over the goal posts.
Jake groaned. "I'll go get it!" he shouted, jogging around the goal box to the ditch where the ball bounced towards.
He slipped between the bars and slid down the side of the ditch. The ball made a small splash as it hit the water at the bottom. He picked it up and threw it high over the fence and onto the field. He climbed up the side of the ditch and crawled through the bars, noticing that the scrimmage was still paused. He grabbed the ball and punted it straight to the middle of the field.
"GO!" Lewis shouted.
The mini-game resumed, and Joey took possession of the ball before anyone else could get to it. He passed it to Smiley, who feigned past the opponents and passed it back to Joey as he jumped high into the air and karate kicked the soccer ball into the goal.
"Off-sides!" shouted Nick Oliver, the junior goalkeeper.
Nobody paid any attention to him. Joey fell face-first into the grass field and slid a few yards. He lifted his head up, his face covered with mud and grass. Some of the players chuckled.
The sound of a whistle cut across their laughter. Everyone turned to see Assistant Coach Pete King on the sidelines. "Brown! Get over here!" he barked.
Jake began jogging towards the coach. Coach King held up his hand. "Not you, Brown. Your cousin here."
Confused, Jake jogged back to his goal box. Joey struggled to get up, grabbing his ribs and moaning in pain and agony. He rose to his feet and trudged over to the assistant coach, clutching his side the whole time.
"You wanted to see me, Coach?" he asked.
"Go to the trainer."
"Excuse me?"
"You got yourself hurt. You should go to the trainer so that she can have it looked at."
Joey nodded and walked off. Coach King waved at Lewis, who signaled for the scrimmage to continue, subbing in Josh Wood for Joey. The scrimmage resumed, being scoreless for the rest of the period. It was slow and boring on both ends of the field.
Lauren never returned to class as Brandan expected. He toyed with his pen and stared out the window next to him. His notebook sat in front of him, its blank pages taunting him. He sighed and glanced at the book on top of his backpack. It stared back at him, the car on the cover eyeing him with its headlights. He shuddered. Creepy, he thought.
"Excuse me," said a melodic voice, the sound chiming towards Brandan's ears. He turned to see Miss Chambers, the substitute teacher, looking at him. "Aren't you supposed to be working on the assignment that Mr. Jackson left for you?"
"Oh, sorry. I'll get to it right now," he said.
She smiled at him and moved on. Brandan let out a sigh of relief and tried to slow his racing heart. His eyes darted from his blank notebook to Miss Chambers, and felt his face grow hot when she smiled at him again. Get to work, she mouthed.
He refocused his attention to his blank notebook and just started staring at it. He tapped his ballpoint pen against his chin, trying desperately to think of something to write down. He glanced up at the clock and breathed a sigh of relief. Only ten minutes until school let out for the day. He could fake it for that long, couldn't he?
He stared blankly into space until the bell rang. He moved as fast as he could in the big crowd rushing towards the front door, hoping not to be the last one through it. He didn't think that he could last another few minutes near Miss Chambers. Just remember, you have a girlfriend. You have Lauren, who is a lot hotter than that substitute, he told himself silently.
He weaved through the crowds of teenagers and shoved out the front doors. He began jogging at a fast pace towards his bus and climbed up the short stairs. He made his way towards the back of the bus and dropped down into his seat. He pulled out his mp3 and began to listen to the music programmed into it. He closed his eyes and slowly began rocking to the beat.
He looked up when someone dropped down into the seat next to him. Jerry Toledo sat there, gasping for breath as the bus began to chug alive.
Brandan pulled out one of his ear buds. "Yo, Toledo, what's up? You look like you just ran a marathon, dude."
Jerry laughed weakly. "I feel like I did, too. Didn't think that I'd make it here in time."
"What are you talking about? We have the same class, and I made it here with plenty of time."
"Yeah, well, you weren't asked to stay behind for a few minutes by Miss Chambers."
Brandan rolled his eyes. "Oh, man, you're kidding me. She's not all that, you know."
"Hey, not everyone has a girlfriend like Lauren Foster."
"Hey, you've got Bekah, so quit your whining."
"I may have Bekah, but she is no Miss Chambers."
"Dude, what do you see in her anyway?"
"Come on, you can't be telling me that she's not a head-turner. You were staring at her, too, you know."
"No, I was not."
"Liar! You were checking her out like every other guy in that classroom."
Brandan scoffed. "I was not. Just drop it, okay?"
Jerry shrugged. "Whatever, man."
Brandan replaced his ear buds and continued to listen to his music.
Angela jogged around the arena, her pace faster than normal. She strode ahead of the others, listening to the music blaring in her ears from her iPod nano. Coach Charleston blew the whistle, the screeching pitch cutting through the loud music. Angela made her way over to the cheerleading coach and stood behind the other cheerleaders, standing on tiptoe in order to see over Karen Lincoln, the tallest girl on the freshman squad.
"Okay, girls, get ready for the pep rally on Friday. Even though those losers on the football team are gonna lose the game anyway, the school board wants us to cheer them on anyway."
"Well, don't you think that they could actually win for once?"
Everyone turned to face Angela. She cleared her throat before continuing. "I mean, this is the first game of the new season. The football team must have found some new players. Right?"
Charleston laughed. "Yeah, right. And my name's Henrietta Laverne."
"Really? I thought it was Shirley."
Everyone but the coach laughed. She shot them a glare and they stopped automatically. She faced Angela. "Whatever. If you think that they can actually win, then why don't you cheer for them at the game on Friday. Alone."
Angela's face flushed with anger and embarrassment. Coach Charleston turned away from her and barked at the other girls, "Hit the showers!"
Everyone began to leave the arena. Angela turned to leave, hoping to escape detection. No such luck.
"Newton! Stay!" barked Charleston.
Angela flinched at the booming voice. She froze where she stood. Once the rest of the cheerleaders left, Charleston moved towards her, her arms crossed over her chest.
"Newton, what is your job as a cheerleader?" the coach asked.
"To cheer on the teams of our school?" Angela guessed.
"Exactly. And also to follow the directions of the cheer coach. Guess what you weren't doing?"
Angela muttered something incoherent. "Say that again?" Charleston growled.
"Maybe you aren't worth listening to."
Charleston scowled. "One more comment like that, Newton, and I swear that you'll be off the cheer squad faster than you can spell xylophone."
"Why would you kick me off the squad? I'm much better than those airheads, and I work a lot harder, too."
"You may be a hard worker, but you're not better than the other girls on this squad. In fact, you are an extra in case one of them falls ill." She shook her head. "No matter."
"The school board probably won't allow it!"
"That's it! You're off the squad!"
"But-"
"No buts! Get your stuff and get out!"
Tears making their way to the corners of her eyes, Angela ran off, grabbing her gym bag at the door. She ran through the empty halls and busted through the back doors and began running full sprint towards her sister's car, where Cecilia Newton was waiting.
Lauren released her grip on the back of the truck and skated into the parking lot of Larronsville Main Hospital. She moved swiftly as she dodged cars and ambulances, skating towards the revolving doors of the hospital. She slid towards the elevator, making it through before they hissed shut.
She kicked off her skates and quickly changed into her sneakers before the elevator opened again. She ran through the white halls and quickly found her mother and father waiting outside a room. They stared at her, their expressions full of shock.
"Lauren Foster, what are you doing here?" asked Janet Foster.
"Why didn't you get me out of school to bring me here?" Lauren demanded.
"Don't take that tone with your mother, young lady!" barked her father, Matt Foster.
"Why not? You two should have came and gotten me when you found out!"
"You weren't supposed to find out!"
"Well, I did. What's wrong with that? I came here so that I can come find out about my brother!"
"You skipped school?!" Janet cried.
"So? My brother is in the hospital!"
Frustrated, Janet and Matt walked off. Lauren walked to the waiting room and sat down in one of the cushioned chairs. She sat there with her arms across her chest. Her parents walked into the waiting room and stood in front of her.
"We understand that you wanted to come and be here for your brother. But if you ever skip school again, you will be grounded for the next three months. Do you understand?" asked her mother.
"Yes, ma'am," Lauren answered, hiding a triumphant smile.