The Sidelines Just Got Complicated

Authors Note: Hey guys! Long time no see, right? But as I said I would, I have the first chapter out in January! ...I think that's like the first dead-line I've ever kept, lol. Anyway the name, which I hope you guys like, is a combination of the suggestions I got from 'Harlie Davidson' and 'WordWarrior192'. Thanks guys! Also this starts out a little slow, but that's because this was a good breaking point for the chapter. I was going to combind it with the second chapter, but it was getting waaay to long. So without further ado, here's the first chapter of 'The Sidelines Just Got Complicated'!

Noah's P.O.V.

When I was a child my parents used to read me love stories, well, actually, they used to read my older twin sisters love stories, but since the air vent in my room was connected to my sisters' room I ended up listening to them every night too, but that is beside the point.

Every night I heard stories about love; Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Cinderella, you name it I've heard it. The thing I've realized now that I'm older is that those stories are all one big crock of shit, not that I thought they were all true when I was five, but I could at least try to parallel them to real life then.

Now as I'm sitting here on a bus I can honestly tell you that love stories offer no parallel to the real world. As a child when I heard these stories I thought they meant that as a boy I was expected to go out of my way to sweep some girl off her feet and fight any obstacle to make her happy; even then it sounded like too much work, but now I see that I was wrong.

First off, now that I'm older I realize that girls have brains and working legs and therefore should be able to function without my help. Seriously, why do I need to open the car door for a girl? Is her arm broken? Or wait, maybe girls do some big secret thing in the time men waste walking around to their side of the car? Who knows. All I'm saying is that is you want equal rights then you can work for them. If you want me to open the car door for you, fine. I'll do it right after you get in the kitchen and make me a sandwich. Oh, is that sexist? Well I think me being expected to wait on a girl hand-in-foot is sexist.

Second, I've realized that it's not as easy to find someone as it is appears to be in fairytales. I mean, in stories all you had to do was be the prince and you got the girl. In the real world we aren't all princes and princesses matched up at birth with our soul mates. There is no promise of; if you save this girl from her problems she'll love you. In today's day and age you can do everything for a girl and more often than not she'll just stick you in the friend zone.

Now for the third and final reason that fairytales are lies, or at least the last reason I'm mentioning, and the one that fits me best. Sometimes you don't fall for the person you're supposed to. You see fairytales set you up to think you'll find somebody and it'll be perfect and you'll be together forever. Fairytales don't prepare you for when you decide to say 'screw the princess, I want the stable boy.'

I mean think about it, what would have happened in the Little Mermaid if Prince Eric had told Ariel that after thinking about it, he realized he was actually in love with his first mate? Do you know? Because I don't. They probably would've dethroned him or something, but that's just a guess. The point is that you'll never read a fairytale about that. You know why? Because it's not supposed to be an issue. It's not supposed to happen. Boys aren't supposed to fall in love with other boys.

So why did I?

It's the question I have been asking myself since I told Cody how I felt a mere two hours ago. It seems stupid that I didn't really worry about it until I actually confessed my feelings, but what can I say? Things really come into perspective when you realize the guy you love might not love you back.

I mean, what if I'm making a bad decision here? Being with a guy isn't exactly what I do in my spare time. I've dated plenty of girls in my life, and to be honest it's been pretty easy sailing. Is it as easy with a guy? I wouldn't know; the fairytales didn't prepare me for this.

Of course to be fair it doesn't seem like they've prepared anyone for anything, or at least not on the loser bus. Eva and Zeke spent the first hour of the bus ride bickering back and forth and it was only by the grace of Chef's terrible driving that Zeke's head hit the bus window causing him to pass out.

Then there's Tyler and Katie, and Sadie by extinction, who are acting as though their partners have died. It's like they don't realize that they'll be seeing each other within a few weeks. People need to get a clue.

As you've probably gathered this bus ride has been hell, and I haven't even taken the liberty to explain how annoying Courtney has been yet. Most of the people on this bus are unbearable, and it has given me way too much time to think. Sometimes I hate my life.

"Hey Noah, how much longer do you think we'll be stuck on this bus?" The human she-dozwer asks me in an irritated voice.

"How should I know? I don't even know where we're going." I mean honestly why even ask?

Eva rolls her eyes. "Look, my ipod just went dead and I'm not above hitting you."

"Too bad I'm not afraid of you." I say rolling my eyes back at her.

"If I had your face I wouldn't be either; you can only make improvements." Eva snaps. For her it's actually a pretty decent insult.

"Flattery will get you everywhere." I say sarcastically.

Eva is quiet for awhile and I almost think she's given up talking to me, but then she starts talking again.

"Why are you never scared?" Eva asks.

"Of you?" I ask.

"Of anyone. I've seen you stand up to Duncan before you became… Whatever it is that you two are. You just don't back down." Eva clarifies for me.

"I've realized that most people who threaten you won't actually do anything, and even if they really will, I'd rather go down with my dignity intact. And as for people like you who are punch happy, you just need somebody to lay down the law." I say smugly.

Eva laughs. "And you think you can 'lay down the law'?"

"You haven't hit me yet." I say putting my arms behind my head and lying against the seat.

Eva leans farther over the back of my seat. "But you sure were afraid I would a couple of weeks ago." Eva points out. I'm pretty sure she thinks the mix-up between Zeke and I was funny.

"That was different. Love makes people crazy. If you had actually liked me then my reasoning skills would have been useless."

Eva half snorts at me. "If only you could fight half as well as you bullshit."

"If only you could bullshit half as well as you fight." I retort.

Eva is about to reply when Cody sits up and rubs his eyes. "What's bullshit?" He asks.

"Nothing." I say laughing lightly.

Cody looks to Eva for conformation. I don't know if I'll ever get used to their friendship.

"Nothing, Noah's just full of crap, which I'm sure you know."

Cody chuckles a little as he fully awakens. "So are we almost there?"

"We don't know where 'there' is." I say in a slightly irritated voice.

Cody rolls his eyes and leans deeper into me. I feel like people just keep rolling their eyes at me today.

"Maybe we should, like, ask Chef if we're close." Katie says from a few seats away.

"Like, that is such a good idea!"

"You liked her." Eva says mocking me. Cody snickers.

"She is less of an asshole than my other love interests." I say insulting both of them.

"Hey Chef!" Katie yells gaining our drivers attention.

"Are we there yet?" Sadie finishes.

"Oh, now don't start that crap! Does it look like we're there yet?" Chef yells.

"We wouldn't know; we don't know where we're going!" I yell for the third time today.

"Just shut up, we're almost there!" Chef yells back. "Lousy kids." I think he's as annoyed with us as we are with him.

"Good." Cody says sitting up and stretching his arms. "I'm sick of this stupid bus."

"Please, you've slept through the worst of it." I say bitterly.

"I dreamed about it. In my dream Courtney was untied." Cody says and I'm really not sure if he's kidding or not.

"I heard that!" Courtney shrieks from the backseat.

"It seems though you have awakened the beast." I whisper to Cody who has shrunken down in our seat.

"Shut up, it'll hear you." He whispers back with a smile on his face. Pretty funny joke. I snicker.

"Ugg, what happened, eh?" We here from a bus seat not far from ours. Looks like homeschool's awake. Or maybe we should start calling him homeboy instead.

"Chef's driving knocked you out!" Sadie squeals.

"Yeah, it was like, sooo scary." Katie says with her hands on her cheeks.

"And yet nobody moved to help him…" I mumbled.

"Oh." Zeke says sitting up in his seat and rubbing his head.

All of a sudden the bus slams to a stop and Tyler flies over the seats and hits the windshield. Only on this show can physics be defied every few minutes.

"We're here, now form a single file line and-" Chef is cut off by a bunch of us rushing the doors to the bus.

"STOP! STOP! GET BACK!" Chef screams at us as we push him up against the bus doors. "I said GET BACK!"

Finally we all stop and remain still in front of Chef.

"Now back up!" Chef screams. We all back up a little ways.

"Good." Chef says moving farther away from the door. "Now, this aint no Playa Des Losers, this is a modest abandoned film studio. It doesn't have your fancy HD T.V. and you won't have your own rooms-"

"Ooooo! We get the share rooms!" Katie squeals.

"That'll be so fun!" Sadie screams.

"I call Sadie!"

"I call Katie!"

"SHUT UP!" Chef screams. Katie and Sadie both shrink back at the sound of his voice. "Now, you can pair up with someone now or you can take one of the empty rooms and pair up with someone later. Either way, you better choose fast because I'm giving out keys and I'm not waiting on you losers."

Tyler is the first person in line. "I'm gonna take a single. Me and Lindsey can room together if she gets the boot."

"You can't room with a girl fool." Chef says to Tyler as though he's an idiot, which he kind of is.

"Why not?" Tyler asks.

"Cuz Chris doesn't want any pregnant teenagers." Chef answers.

"Dude, guys can't get pregnant." Tyler says smiling brightly. "Can they?" What an idiot.

"Just take the key." Chef says slamming a key into Tyler's hand and shoving him out of the bus. We hear him yell as he hits the ground.

Cody and I are next in line.

"Here you go." He says handing each of us a key. We both give him an odd look. "What? Chris doesn't care if one of you gets pregnant."

I roll my eyes. "Yeah, that's what the look was for."

"Do you guys not wanna room together?" Chef asks oddly.

"Well, we do, but-" Cody gets interrupted by Chef.

"Then take the keys and stop being pansies." Chef says shoving the keys into our hands and giving us a look that says that we need to get out of the bus before he pushes us.

"What-ever." I say rolling my eyes and walking off the bus with Cody at my heels.

Once we're off the bus Cody turns to me. "What a jerk. He could have at least asked us." He says before we go to get our luggage out from the bottom of the bus.

"Tell me about it." I agree before I grab my suitcase out from under the bus.

"So, we're room 107. Not bad." Cody says grabbing his luggage.

"Yeah, that should mean no stairs." I'm actually really happy about that.

"Can you get any lazier?" Cody asks jokingly.

"I can try." I say as we start our walk toward the building. Cody rolls his eyes as he bumps me with his shoulder and I smirk back in reply.

Cody and I walk into the building in relative silence, each taking our time to look around and examine our new place of residence.

The hallways are decorated in red and gold and it looks like a cross between the Gryffindor corridor and a bad hotel porno. I'd call it Harry Porker and The Prisoner of Asskaban.

"It looks like we might catch an STD." Cody says as though he is reading my mind.

"I was just thinking about that." I say as we continue our way down the hall. As we walk I try to ignore the peeling wallpaper and the random stains on the wall that I hope to never find out the consistency of. We finish the walk down the red carpet and finally reach room 107, which is marked with a crooked gold plaque with the room number written in black.

"Well, here goes." Cody says as he pulls out his key and unlocks the door to our new room.