Jess Daniels stared at the wall as her head pounded, reminding her wild night the previous evening. Her chocolate brown hair was plastered to the left side of her face, mascara running down her cheeks. Lord knows what happened but she didn't have a clue. All she knew was that she was in her best friend Erin's bed, still in her outfit from last night. A noise came from the foot of the bed and Jess slowly turned to see who it was. She was relieved to see Erin, with a mug of coffee in hand. Jess pulled herself up and grabbed the mug gratefully. Erin sat at the foot of the bed and gave her the most stern, disapproving look as Jess pulled out a still half full flask from her bag.

"Don't look at me like that Erin; you of all people should know me by now."

"Would you like me to tell you how you go her 'cause I don't think you really comprehend it Jess…"

Jess ran her hand through her matted hair and nodded, yawning. Erin adjusted herself and spoke.

"First of all, you know that I love you to death, you're one of my best friends. But your choices lately have been less than desirable. Honestly, I get a phone call from you at 3am this morning, complaining you had lost your keys to your apartment. I know that we don't live too far from each other in this lovely city of Boston, but know that I appreciate my sleep. This is going to be one of the last times I do this for you, it's getting old."

Jess let her eyes stray to the window and then back at Erin. Her eyes watered as Erin opened her arms to give Jess a hug.

"It's still hurts Erin, my whole young life, it just sucks."

"I know," Erin cooed, rubbing her back in small circles. "As much as I'd like you to stay, I think you need to head back home, your dad called, and he wants you home."

Jess sighed and stood up, taking a moment to balance herself. She walked to the bathroom and cleaned up her face. After finishing up, she hugged Erin and headed over to the Green Line, waiting for it to take her home; whether she wanted to or not.

x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x

She came to her apartment door, dreading to open the door into bedlam. Usually it was very loud; her little brothers running around, food always being cooked, parents raising their voices to calm down the children. But this morning there was none of that. She found the hide-a-key and entered, making sure to be quiet, and have her entrance be unannounced as possible. Not two seconds later, her youngest brother with sleepy eyes and his blanket looked at her and smiled, "Hi Jess."

Jess heard footsteps coming from her parent's room, and she quickly tried to avert them, but to no avail, she only made it to the living room. Her father and step-mother came in quietly, with empty large bags in hand.

"I suppose I'm in trouble right?"

"Oh more than in trouble young lady," her father said, raising his voice only slightly, "Your step-mother and I have decided that you need a break from this, clearly that city life has taken a toll on you and we're done with your antics."

Her step-mother stepped closer and sat on the couch next to her, and grabbed her hand. She took a moment, then spoke, "your father and I have decided that you are going to go live with Aunt Lori for this school year, you're leaving tomorrow…"

Jess took merely two seconds to figure it out, shooting out of her chair and dropping her purse.

"Aunt Lori, are you kidding?! You're sending me to Texas!? It's my junior year!!! Come on Dad, Dillon, Really?!!?"

Her parents were firm and handed her the duffle bag and suitcase and she stomped to her room. She sulked on her bed, until she realized that there was no changing this. Whether she was fond of the idea or not, Jess Daniel was going to Dillon, Texas.

x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x

Jess sat in the passenger seat of her aunt's van, with the windows down and a large black lab in her lap, drooling over her arm. She smirked slightly and giggled.

"Oh my god," her aunt Lori exclaimed, " is that a smile and laughter I hear, good lord, hell is freezin' over."

Jess nodded, " I figured I should get use to the idea for being here, but let's just wait for school to start, THEN I'll get back to you on how much I like it here…" The truck pulled into town and Jess rested her head and peered into Dillon as it went by. Her aunt gave her the scoop.

"Well over there we have the Alamo Freeze, good food. Applebee's is always a favorite… OH! And there is where you'll be going to school, Dillon High School, home of the Panthers…"

Jess groaned, " Oh no, I'm in one of those football towns aren't I?"

Lori laughed, " If you aren't at the games on Friday nights, there is something wrong with you child…"

They finally turned into her neighborhood, passing a couple blue signs with yellow numbers, and Jess laughed, " Well if that isn't an ego trip, I don't know what is…" They pulled into their small driveway and hoped out of the blue truck. Grabbing her stuff they made it into the house, aunt Lori leading Jess to the spare room she had that would be hers for the year. She began to unpack and made the room more like hers.

Apparently she got so into it that she had been her room for a couple hours, so there was a knock on the door. Her aunt Lori entered, bringing a glass of lemonade, letting her know it was time for dinner. Jess nodded, " I'll be out in a minute." She stood in front of her mirror and adjusted herself. She fluffed her chocolate brown hair, fixed her make up 'round her brown eyes, adjusted her button up plaid blue shirt and jean shorts and made it to the dining room.

As she was just about to sit down, her Aunt Lori yelped, opening the oven and fanned at what was going to be some sort of lasagna. Jess put her hand over her mouth and giggled.

" aunt Lori, how on earth can you burn lasagna?" she exclaimed through laughs.

" I have no idea!" her aunt laughed back. They sat down and recovered from their fits of laughter.

"Well, seeing as that I wasn't going grocery shopping until Wednesday, you mind if I call in an order to the Alamo Freeze and you go pick it up? You need to get use to the place anyways," aunt Lori spoke with a smile.

"Well, if you want me to, then sure…", as she got up from the couch and grabbed the keys to the truck, grabbing some cash and heading out.

x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x

As Jess pulled into the Alamo Freeze, her stomach sunk. High school students, everywhere, and she was going to have to go to school with them. Oh lordy, she breathed, getting out of the car and strutting into the restaurant. She went to the counter and was greeted by a smooth talkin' guy. It grew slightly quieter.

" Well hey there baby, what can the Smash do for you?"

Jess leaned on the counter, revealing some cleavage " Well, you could do me a favor and grab me my order of two burgers, and we'll call it a day."

Smash grinned his huge smile and left the counter and grabbed her order. Jess stood back up and smoothed her shirt, taking a peak around her and who were her future and soon to be fellow classmates, nothing too exciting. Smash made it back with her order and rang it up. Jess quietly thanked him and turned around, strutting slightly all the way back to the car. She grabbed her flask and took a swig, letting her hair bounce every which way.

Unbeknownst to her, there were a couple pair of blue & gold eyes watching as she left.

x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x

Hope you liked it, let me know what you think, I don't want to bore you guys to death! Reptilia by The Strokes gave me inspiration to write this. So review please!