Jack POV
"Have you seen the new kid? Soooo hot!" my so-so friend Lizzi gushed.
"Um…no I have not," I said. Lizzi has a bit of a one-track-mind when it comes to boys, while I don't care.
"Seriously, J, I think he was looking at you in first hour!" she said.
Lizzi refused to call me by my name. She thought it was weird and hated that I called myself Jack, instead of something girlier.
"Oh, was he the new kid in our first hour?" I asked, just realizing what she said.
"Yeah, the brown haired kid? His name's Jeremy and he's new to town. And single!"
I couldn't help but wonder how much stalking it took her to get all that information.
"And he's coming over here!" she squealed before fixing her hair using the mirror in my locker and slamming it shut. I growled, aggravated, because I still needed to get stuff out of it.
"Hey Jeremy!" she called. I turned away from their completely predictable flirting session to open my locker.
Jeremy came over, albeit a bit warily, and said, "Uh, hey…" he trailed off.
"Lizzi," she said. "And this is Jackie."
"Jack," I corrected her absently as her not-so-subtle nudge to my arm made me miss the third number in my combination. "Goddammit," I whispered.
"So Jeremy, where are you from?" Lizzi asked.
"Virginia," he replied. "Small town named Mystic Falls."
"Really?" I asked as my interest peaked. "I used to live there."
"Huh," Jeremy muttered. "Interesting. Pretty weird place."
"Mystic," I agreed sarcastically.
He looked at me as if I was missing some private joke.
"Hey, Jeremy," Lizzi said. "We should hang out! Right, I mean, we have so much in common. We can both tolerate…Jack here." I frowned at her, which she didn't see. I made an obscure sign language gesture which she pretended not to see.
"Well, I would hang out, but…I kind of want to get to know Jack," Jeremy said. "Maybe, uh…me and you could hang out after school today?" he asked, almost shyly.
"Well…" I trailed off glancing at the best friend I have. She looked pissed. "I'm kind of hanging with my other friend tonight…"
"Yeah, creepy Kol," Lizzi said. "She has this boyfriend, Kol, who's like, way too old for her."
"He's only twenty, and I'm seventeen, so it doesn't matter," I said defensively.
"Whatever."
I thought about it for a minute. Not Kol, who's one of the only people who understands me, but Jeremy. I thought about leaving him alone with Lizzi and the thought made me shudder. "Why don't you come with us? We'll be playing baseball out behind the school at three. You should come. He'd like to meet you."
Lizzi looked at me, absolutely stunned. But hey, you do what you have to.
"Cool. I'd like to," Jeremy said. "Hey, since you're being so nice to me, maybe you'll be more nice and show me around?" he asked.
"Yeah, I'd like to. Follow me!" I said like an idiot.
He followed me as we headed to our third hour, which we found out we had together. Mrs. Roy introduced our new student, and then we sat in our seats. Our teacher sat him right next to me so I could get him caught up on work.
"You don't have the best work ethic," I pointed out to him as we left the classroom. He had spent all the hour complaining about how he didn't know this or that.
"No, I always just slacked off, did drugs, etc. That's probably why they sent me to live with some family friends." He cut off then as if he'd said too much. I decided not to ask him about it. He'd tell me when he wanted.
"Oh, cool. Well, let's go get lunch now," I said lamely to get the subject off him. Just for a second, I could have sworn his face was incredibly relieved.
We sat down at the lunch table by Lizzi, but we sat at the other end. I was waiting for Lizzi to come over, give me dagger-glares, which are her specialty, and start flirting with Jeremy again, but she never did. Instead, she stayed where she was, flirting with another guy, Lucas. Lucas came to school like, two days ago and had already made "friends" with Lizzi.
"God, she is such a slut," I whispered, and Jeremy laughed, obviously hearing me.
"Move, bitch," a nasty voice said. We looked over to the door to the lunchroom to find a blond cheerleader, as noted by her uniform that she never took off, headed toward us.
"And speaking of sluts," I said to Jeremy. "That's Natalia Rayne. Head cheerleader, big ego, and the nastiest girl in school. Actually, she and I used to be, like, best friends. But she used to be different," I added in a rush. "In middle school, she was so nice and the least expecting person to become head slutleader you could ever imagine. But we came back from summer break and went into ninth grade, and she totally changed. She tried out for the cheerleading squad, something we promised ourselves we would never do. She wore way too much makeup and skimpy clothes. And she actually expected me to still be her friend. So I told her off, I said, 'Uh, no. you've changed. You're not my friend Natalia anymore, you're someone different.' And I walked away and never spoke to her again. Big mistake. She's made it her goal to make my life hell. Yeah, I'm the one who needs their life made hell. Maybe it'd be a wake up call for her," I mused.
"Or maybe it'd just make her even more pissed at you for ditching me," Natalia's sneering voice said behind me. "Who's this? New meat?" she asked, gesturing to Jeremy.
"No, this is Jeremy. He's new. And he's not to be messed with, especially by you, so get your slutty ass out of here before I make you."
"What are you going to do about it?" Natalia asked.
"Oh, sweetheart, that's funny. You think I'd tell you what I was going to do. Ruin the element of surprise, I think not." Natalia actually took a step back. She knew how aggressive I could be.
"Sweetheart, you're the funny one. You actually think you have a chance with this moron," Natalia said in order to compensate for being scared of me.
I rolled my eyes. Maybe that would have hurt if I liked Jeremy, but he was only a friend who I liked hanging out with. He was funny and smart, not that he showed it. Maybe if Natalia thought a little, she could see I didn't like him. She did know me once, after all.