Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
"Brandon! If you don't quit tapping your foot I am going to commit homicide." I said in a harsh whisper to my younger brother.
I was already annoyed with him enough. It was his fault we were here. It was his fault that I was sitting in the hallway of a new school on the first day instead of picking up my friends at my old school for our first day of not being underclassmen. Instead, here I was in Beacon Hills. My brother, Brandon the brat, begged my dad to move here. His dream is to become the best lacrosse player in the state of California and the convincing argument of "if I want to be the best I have to play with the best," is what landed a for sale sign in our front yard just two months prior to this.
"Sorry, Shea. I'm just anxious. These guys have been working with each other all Summer and I'm coming in first day! And not to mention I'm a freshman!"
I hated this. I had a soft spot for my brother even though I blame him for being here. It was hard to be mad at him though. Playing mom all the time really gave me a high tolerance for things that make me angry with him. My mom left us when he was three and I was four. For the past 12 years it's just been my dad, Brandon, and I. I'm not bitter, though. She sends a card every birthday and Christmas. She's not totally a dead beat. She does send my dad child support monthly. She just had both of us really young. Couldn't handle the pressure of having two kids and being married. Told my dad she "still had things to do before she settled down." You think she could have figured that out before she popped the both of us out? Guess not.
But, being that my dad is a male and my brother doesn't have much else going for him except for lacrosse, here I am.
"Brandon and Shea Taylor?" A voice asked emerging from the office doors.
My brother and I stood immediately to shake the man's hand.
"It seems that you two are not our only new students here today. We are waiting on one more transfer student and she is in your first class Miss Taylor. If you don't mind I will escort your brother to his first class and escort you once Miss Argent joins us."
"Thank you, sir." I replied. I looked at my brother as he walked in the opposite direction. He gave one last look behind his shoulder and I threw him a thumbs up and a smile. He smiled hesitantly at me and turned away, rounding the corner and disappearing into the halls of the school.
I took a seat back on the bench and waited. I heard someone around the corner whispering.
"Mom, three calls on the first day is kind of over doing it. Look, I'm at the office and I have to get my schedule. Yes, I have everything," she said rummaging through her bag and taking a seat next to me." Except a pen… Please tell me I didn't forget a pen." She searched harder before speaking into the phone one last time. "Look, mom I have to go now. I'll talk to you after school. Bye."
She snapped her phone shut and threw it into her bag before tossing a small smile my way.
"You must be the other new student." I said sticking out my hand. "It's my first day here too. I'm Shea."
She took my hand before speaking, "Allison Argent. Glad I don't have to do this on my own."
"Hey, we even have our first class together. How much luckier can we get?" I smiled at her. She smiled back at me.
The principal came back and escorted both Allison and I to our first class: Sophomore English.
"Class, can I have your attention? We have two new students joining us today. This is Allison Argent and Shea Taylor." He said pointing to the both of us. "Please help me in welcoming them to Beacon Hills."
Allison went first taking the seat behind a boy wearing a brown sweatshirt and a mop of black hair on top of his head. I took the seat next to her and got out my notebook. Although, I realized it would be a fairly boring day because we were starting Kafka's The Metamorphosis, and I've already read it… twice.
English passed quickly. However, Allison seemed to enjoy herself. She smiled the whole class period after Mop Top gave her a pen to borrow. Allison and I had two other classes together. We agreed to eat lunch together on that first day so we wouldn't be alone. However, Allison seemed to have no trouble at making friends and we ended up eating with a group of lacrosse players and some girl named Lydia. I didn't say much during lunch. Just kept to myself. However, after lunch I finally got to have some real fun. My next two classes were music classes. The first being choir and the second was accompanying the band on the piano. If there was one thing in this world that kept me alive, it was music.
After my music classes came my last class of the day: Biology. How fitting that I should have the class I absolutely hate directly after the classes that I absolutely love.
Luckily, I had this class with Allison. However, not so luckily, we had this class with Lydia. Lydia dragged Allison into the seat next to her and she mouthed an apology as I took the seat behind her.
Mr. Harris seemed like bundle full of joy and I say that with as heavy sarcasm as possible. However, he did seem pretty keen on picking on Mop Top and his friend so I think it was safe to say I would be able to slip under his radar.
Biology passed by the slowest of them all.
Allison found me right after the bell rang and we walked out together.
"So, Lydia invited me to go watch the lacrosse tryouts. I was wondering if you wanted to come with me? We didn't really get to han gout at lunch like I wanted to."
"Well, my brother is trying out for the team so I guess I could show up and give some support to him." I replied hesitantly. As nice as Lydia was to Allison, I didn't exactly get the same vibe from her.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She exclaimed excitedly.
We met with Lydia at Allison's locker and headed out to the field. I sat in the bleachers and scanned the field for my brother. I couldn't find him anywhere. I swear if we moved here and he was already chickening out before tryouts I was going to strangle him. However, it wasn't long until I found him sitting on the bench next to that kid Mr. Harris kept picking on in biology. He was talking animatedly to my brother, pointing to different guys on the field. My brother had a pretty big smile on his face.
Allison was watching the field intently but her eyes only seemed to stay with one player. I think it was the same mop top that we saw in English. I watched him as he headed towards the goal.
"Who is that?" Allison asked Lydia, nodding towards Mop Top.
"Him? I'm not sure who he is. Why?" Lydia responded.
"He's in our English class." I chimed in trying to save Allison the embarrassment. I could tell that she saw something in this kid. I didn't want Lydia shooting him down right away.
The whistle blew and the first guy stepped up to take his shot. He knocked Mop Top onto his back after hitting him in the face with the ball. The whole field erupted in laughter. I had a feeling this kid would be keeping my brother company on the bench this season.
The next kid stepped up to take his shot but Mop Top snagged the ball easily. He looked at his stick like he was surprised. As a matter of fact, the whole team did.
But that wasn't the only ball he stopped. He stopped the next one, and the next one, and even the one after that.
"He seems like he's pretty good." Allison said next to me, a smile creeping onto her face.
"Yeah, very good." Lydia said with a surprised tone.
All of a sudden a fairly built guy stepped up. Lydia told me that this was Jackson Whittemore. Captain of the lacrosse team and one of the best players in the state of California. She also went onto state that her and Jackson were dating. Multiple times.
I didn't really like the look on Jackson's face as he stepped up. And neither did Allison I'm assuming since she tensed up next to me. Just ask Jackson wound up to take his shot I flinched. I knew how these things ended. I've watched enough lacrosse videos.
However, to my surprise, and everyone else's, he stopped the shot. The kid who was sitting next to my brother jumped to his feet and started screaming along with everyone else in the stands. My brother looked on in awe.
"That's my friend!" The kid exclaimed excitedly. How very entitled he seemed to me.
It was so exciting even Lydia jumped to her feet to give the kid a yell and round of applause. Apparently, this kid hadn't been heard of prior to now.
The practice ended soon after that and everyone was psyched for elimination rounds tomorrow. Especially with that Mop Top giving the performance he did today.
I met my brother out front by my dad's car. He was walking with the Mop Top and that kid who was sitting next to my brother on the bench.
"Hey Shea! Did you see the practice today? Awh man I'm so glad we moved here! I can't wait until I can be first string and move as fast as Scott did today. It's gonna be sick!" My brother was talking a million miles per hour. Hearing the excitement in his voice put a small smile on my face. As much as it sucked being the new kid I knew this would be a good move for his future.
"Well don't worry, you will be out on that field soon enough." I tried to sound as encouraging as possible without reminding him that he probably wouldn't see any playing time in the next year.
"I'm Scott." Mop Top boy stuck his hand out for me to shake. Although I guess I shouldn't call him Mop Top now that I know his name. "Scott McCall. I think we have English and Biology together."
"Yeah. I remember seeing you a few times today. I'm Shea. Nice to meet you."
I looked at his friend who was still looking at me, his mouth slightly open until Scott nudged him in the side.
"Uh-Uh St-Stiles. I'm Stiles." He stuck out his hand awkwardly fast.
"Stiles?" I said reaching out to shake it. "Is that your first name?"
"No. It's a nickname. My last name is Stilinski but no one has called me by my first name since…" He just trailed off. I didn't wanna push the matter any further so I tried to change the subject.
"So, what classes do we have together again? I know I've seen you around today." I asked.
"English, Econ, and Biology." He answered rather quickly. "I- uh- A-at least I think that's what we have." He said cooly trying to play off like he hadn't been watching me today.
"Right." I said with a chuckle. "Well, uh, it was nice meeting you two. Maybe I'll see you around. Come on, Brandon. Dad's waiting for us. See you guys later."
"See ya tomorrow, Guys!" My brother was way too excited with his goodbye.
"See ya, dude. Yo, if you ever want to shoot the ball around sometimes, let me know." Stiles called out after him.
We got into my dad's car and drove home.
I'm not exactly how sure Beacon Hills can really be, but I guess it's not off to a bad start.