Whoo! First I update Touch The Flame, I post two versions of a one-shot, I update DLS-S Cruise, and then I post a new story! I'm doing great here! Also, I probably shouldn't be posting a new story, when I already have two multi-chapter stories up, but this one's been begging to be posted for days.
Disclaimer: The people who own Big Time Rush are filthy rich. I am not filthy rich. Therefore, I do not own Big Time Rush.
Okay, so, you guys probably don't care how this idea came about in the first place, and you definitely don't need to know. But, I'm gonna tell you anyway, because of the long process it's gone through. Bonus points for actually reading this ;) The original concept for this began back in December, when I realized that people tend to support either sports, or something artsy, like a play. I originally thought it'd be a dance vs. hockey story, but it morphed pretty quickly into an acting vs. hockey story. I tried writing a Jatie story just like that, but I got blocked right away. Eventually, I realized that I needed to switch the artsy-thing out for ice skating. Ice skating verses hockey? Perfect! I tried writing that story with Jatieluv (the other half of JatieFantasy) who was nice enough to humor my obsession with this particular concept (thank you for that!). But I still couldn't get the idea out of my head. Everything finally fell into place when I woke up one morning and BOOM! The idea began to form. Within about ten minutes, I had pretty much the entire plot and the story figured out in my head.
Just to clear some things up: James has a younger brother in this, and his name is Shane. I know, I know, using Shane as James' brother is not original in the least. But James needed a brother, and somehow, Shane's name just fit him perfectly. Also, Katie is Kendall's twin sister, because I needed her to be in the same grade as them. Plus, they're all still in high school, so they're younger than what I usually write them. Another thing: I know practically nothing about hockey or ice skating. I'm trying to learn more about it, but if you know anything about hockey or ice skating, and I've made any mistakes, I'm really sorry, and please bear with me, and maybe point out the mistakes? That way I can learn from them :)
So, once again, special thanks to Jatieluv for letting me figure out what I needed to with this story, and for reading the first chapter :)
Sorry for the extra long A/N that's probably twice as long as the chapter...
Enjoy the chapter!
Chapter One: Fresh Start, New Enemies
James's POV
A fresh start.
That's what my mom told my younger brother and me when she announced that we were moving from Shakopee, Minnesota, to La Castillo, a small town south of Los Angeles. However, she conveniently forgot to mention how difficult and awkward fresh starts are. If she had, Shane and I might have fought harder against the move than we initially did.
Maybe. That wasn't something I really wanted to think about too hard, to be completely truthful. Mom had her reasons for moving us westward, to her hometown. Those reasons included Shane, a secret he had been keeping for close to two years, and, well, me.
What can I say? People at our old school were all assholes. I wasn't sorry to be out.
On the other hand, that didn't mean that I wanted to be in a brand new school, in a town I had only visited a few times in my entire life, and never for more than a week, and not since I was 12.
La Castillo High School had been in session for a month. It was the first week of October now, and by this time, everyone would have found their cliques, their groups, their little social circles. And where did that leave Shane and me? On the outskirts, on the outside looking in.
Not a prospect I was particularly looking forward to.
Beside me, Shane shifted uncomfortably, hands stuffed in his jeans pocket. I could tell he was both bored, and anxious. Ever since the shit hit the fan at our old school, he hadn't felt completely safe anywhere, not even in our own home. Granted, it was a new house, in a completely style than our old one, in a completely different neighborhood, in a completely different area, and we were still getting used to it. But still. He was scared in his own bedroom. My fifteen year old brother had taken to crawling into bed with me, because of the damage that had been done.
I clenched my jaw, just thinking about it, vowing to myself for the twenty billionth time that the bastards who had done this to him would pay for what they did. Preferably in blood.
I'm not a violent person by nature, outside of the hockey rink. But no one messes with my brother, and no one traumatizes him beyond belief.
So yeah, I was a little pissed off by the situation. But we were dealing with it as best as we could. And in my opinion, Shane was doing pretty damn good. He could have just locked himself in his bedroom and never come out, but yet, here he was, standing next to me in the school's office, waiting for our class schedules to be printed up.
Shane shifted again, and I glanced at him. He gave me a small smile. "It's too bad I'm a year younger than you, otherwise we could have been in some of the same classes."
I smiled back. "You could always skip a grade," I joked.
"Or you could just get yourself held back," he cracked back.
"Ehhhh…"
"Hotter girls in the eleventh grade?"
I grinned. "That's what I hear."
"Have fun."
"Always."
He laughed, just as the secretary handed us our schedules.
I looked down the list. "What time's your lunch and study hall periods?"
"Lunch is fifth period. Study hall's second period, though."
"We have the same lunch period, but study hall's sixth period for me."
The secretary looked at us. "You have study hall with your grade, unless there's a reason why you can't make it. We have some figure skaters in this school who use their study halls to practice."
"They leave campus?" I asked in surprise. At my old school, that would never have been tolerated.
She shook her head. "They rent out one of the rinks for practice. They practice here after school too, since the local ice rink is under construction."
"How long has that been going on?" I asked her.
"Oh, for the last three years or so."
"That's quite a while for construction on an ice rink," I commented lightly.
"The town keeps changing their minds. Some of the people want it just torn down completely, since the high school has two ice rinks, and the competitive skaters can just rent one of them for a few hours. But other people want the ice rink to be rebuilt."
"There should be a local ice rink," I stated blandly. "It's just common sense. If there's competitive ice skaters, then they should practice at that rink. Ice skating isn't a high school sport."
There was a loud snort from behind me, and I turned to find a blonde girl, wearing a striped pink button up blouse and a gray pleated skirt.
I eyed her. "Something you want to say?"
"Nothing at all," she replied coolly. She walked over to the secretary, and passed her a clipboard. "This is the student council's opinions on whether or not the cafeteria should serve yogurt or not."
"You guys are voting over yogurt?" I asked, completely stunned. Since when was yogurt an important topic?
"Yes," the girl said crisply, as she smoothed any non-existent winkles out of her blouse. "Some of us need a lighter option for lunch. We have figure skating practice after."
Oops…So she was one of the figure skaters in this school. She probably thought I had insulted her rights as a figure skater going to high school. My bad.
"I wasn't trying to insult you," I told her, trying to repair any damage I might have done. "I was just saying…Ice skating isn't typically a high school sport."
"We rent out the rink. We have just as much reason to practice here as the hockey heads do."
Shane and I looked at each other, our jaws clenching as one. We had played hockey at our old school, and it was extremely irritating to have someone call us hockey heads.
A small smirk circled the girl's lips. "Ah. You two are hockey players, aren't you?"
"At our old school we were," Shane told her.
"Well, you're in luck. Two of the hockey heads have just been kicked off the team. If you hurry, you might be able to join the puck-faces."
Okay, I was so done trying to get along with this girl.
"Just go back to picking out shiny leotards," I snapped at her.
She sniffed, and then stalked out of the office, nose held high.
"Congratulations," came another voice from behind me. "You just made enemies with the student body president, who also happens to be one of the most popular girls in school."
Whoops.
"She's lovely," I said sarcastically, turning to face the guy who had come up behind me. He was shorter than me by about five inches, and was wiry, with short, spiky dark hair, brown eyes.
He gave me a crooked smile, half amused, half wary. "If you think she's bad, you should meet her friends."
"Aw, man, do I have to?" I mock-whined, and he laughed.
"Not if you're lucky. But you'll probably run into them at some point."
"How many figure skaters are in this school?" I asked him.
"Six. Four girls, two guys."
"Ah. Cool."
"Yeah. I'm Logan Mitchell," he added. "Your guide. You must be…James and Shane Diamond?"
We both nodded.
"Nice to meet you," he said, suddenly all business. He glanced at the watch that hung off his wrist. "Well, come on. I need to show you two to your lockers, and then direct you to your homerooms. You have your locker combinations and your schedules?"
Shane and I both nodded again. We had had our locker numbers and combos e-mailed to us the afternoon before, and the numbers were now stored in our phones.
"Good. Let's go." He bustled out of the office with a curt nod to the secretary.
Shane and I exchanged slightly apprehensive looks, and followed Logan out. I couldn't help but thing sarcastically to myself that this Logan Mitchell guy must be the center of attention at parties. I smiled a little at the thought of him with a lampshade on his head.
Shane glanced at me curiously.
"I'll tell you later," I mouthed to him, and he nodded.
"Your lockers are just a few spaces down from each other's," Logan announced, sounding bored. I was just waiting for him to yawn.
Logan led us outside, to a courtyard, lined with lockers. I had heard that a lot of schools in California had their halls and lockers outside, but I had never actually seen it. It was just surreal.
Shane found his locker quickly. Logan managed to flag down a kid in the tenth grade who was in Shane's homeroom and study hall. Logan instructed him to accompany Shane to make sure he found his way around okay. We had been given maps, but according to Logan, it could still be a little hard to navigate your way around the school if you didn't know it very well.
"If there was time, I would give him a detailed tour," Logan said to me as we watched Shane head off towards one of the buildings with the kid in his grade. "He's the shyer one, huh?"
"Just quiet," I said simply. "He had a hard time at our old school."
Logan nodded in understanding as we began moving down the outside hall, towards my locker. "I'm gonna guess that you were the popular one of the two of you?"
I frowned slightly. "Not really…What makes you say that?"
A smile tugged at one corner of his mouth. "You have that look about you. Like…you're this all-American guy, but you're not going to put up with anyone's bullshit. Plus, and I mean this in a totally platonic way, you're shockingly good looking."
"Not really," I argued.
He gave me a small smirk. "Trust me, you'll have girls lining up to talk to you. You could be a model."
"Thanks, but I think I'll stick with hockey," I quipped.
"You play hockey?"
"Yeah, at my old school."
"We just got a couple of openings on our hockey team here. You should try out. Does Shane play hockey too?"
I nodded. "He's good."
"What about you?"
I grinned. "I'm not too bad myself."
"Good. That's two hockey players, right there. We don't have the largest team, if you get my drift."
"People don't want to play hockey? How is that possible?" I cried in astonishment.
"I know. But a lot of the guys think they'll have to share the rink with the figure skaters."
"Do you ever have to?"
"On the occasion," he admitted, a little reluctantly. "If there's a problem with one of the ice rinks, or if it's already been booked for a birthday party or something."
"You guys seriously need an ice rink outside of the school."
"Tell me about it. But the figure skaters don't think so. And it's them, their friends, and family who are voting no on it."
"But it's six figure skaters…"
"Everyone knows everyone in this town. Believe me, six figure skaters can make a huge difference. And according to them, because they're in high school, and in a competitive sport, they should be allowed to practice at the high school."
"It kind of makes sense," I said slowly. "But if it's pushing the school hockey team aside…"
"It does sometimes. The problem is, like you said, we're both kind of entitled to the rinks. They're paying for it, and we're on the school hockey team. When two groups are entitled to something, then the question is: Who is entitled to it more?"
"The hockey team," I said at once.
"Ah, but we're not paying for it. The money goes to the school."
"But don't you have to pay for the uniforms and the equipment…?"
"Yeah. But not for the rink. And the ice skaters have to pay for all their stuff too."
I nodded. "That's a huge problem."
"It's really complicated," Logan agreed as we reached my locker. "Here we are."
I turned to my locker, and checked my phone for the combination. I got it open, and began to unpack my backpack, leaving only my pencil case, my phone and iPod, and my geometry textbook, notebook, calculator, and compass.
"You're in geometry?" Logan said to me, noting the textbook.
I nodded. "Yeah. You?"
"Nope, I'm in advanced calc. But my friend's in that class. He's another hockey player. He plays left wing."
"Cool," I said, smiling a little.
"Yeah. And it looks like we're in the same homeroom too. Come on, you can sit with Kendall and me."
I slung my backpack over my shoulders again, and we headed towards the designated classroom.
We reached the classroom with five minutes to spare, and Logan led me towards a tall, lean boy with dirty blonde hair and green eyes. The boy was wearing a beanie and a flannel shirt. He reminded me of a skater. I half-expected to see a skateboard sticking out from his backpack.
"Hey, Kendall," Logan greeted him. "This is James. He's new."
I gave him a wave. "Hey."
Kendall smiled at me. "Nice to meet you."
"James is also a hockey player," Logan added.
"What position do you play?" Kendall asked as I sat down with him and Logan.
"I play center, and my brother plays right wing."
Logan and Kendall glanced at each other. "We have an opening for center and left defenseman. I play right wing," Logan said to me.
"Maybe I can get Shane to try for left defenseman," I said with a shrug. "He's kind of always wanted to try that position, but he was always placed as right wing."
"He can give it a try," Kendall agreed. "Who knows? He might actually be pretty good."
I nodded. "So, when's tryouts?"
"Tomorrow afternoon," he told me. "After school."
"Okay, cool. So, what happened to the two players? And can't you just bring in the players that usually sit on the bench?"
"They were caught on campus with alcohol, so they were kicked out of school. La Castillo High School has a zero tolerance policy for alcohol and illegal substances," Logan informed me.
"Ah." I nodded in understanding. "So, note to self – never smoke or do drugs or drink on campus."
Kendall grinned. "That about sums it up."
"Hey, are we allowed to bring in cough syrup?" I couldn't resist asking. "There's alcohol in that…"
"Nope. We have to suffer. It really sucks during cold and flu season, because half the school gets sick, and there's nothing we can do about it, because so many medicines have a little bit of alcohol in them."
"You're kidding me."
"I wish."
"Oh man…"
"Tell me about it. And you should see Logan during that time," Kendall added with a wide grin. "He's, like, terrified of germs or something. He's a serious hypochondriac on his best day. So he goes around, wearing one of those hospital masks, with rubber gloves. Maybe this year, he'll step it up to scrubs."
I cracked up. Somehow, I could imagine Logan wearing those very clearly.
Kendall grinned. "So, what's the rest of your schedule like?"
I gave him the basic rundown.
"Cool, we have geometry and chem. lab together. We all have lunch and study hall with you," he added.
"You'll have our other friend, Carlos, in PE and chem. too," Logan put in. "I'll text him to tell him to look for you."
"Thanks."
Wow…no one at my old school had ever been this nice to the new kid. I'm guessing it has to do with being a hockey player amongst other hockey players.
"Not a problem. You'll like him. He's really energetic and bouncy. A little scary sometimes, but in a good way."
I nodded. "Awesome. Thanks again."
"Hey, if you make it on the team, we'll be brothers of the ice," Kendall said to me with a grin. "And your brother…Where's he at?"
"Another homeroom. He's a year younger. He has lunch with us, though. His name's Shane," I added.
"Cool. Hey, I'll look for him in the halls. Being the new kid sucks," Kendall made a face. "I was the new kid three years ago, in eighth grade. I had my twin sister, but we were put in different classes, so it was still a pretty nasty experience."
I nodded in sympathy. "I bet."
The teacher, Mr. Sumner, came in and called us to order. I got to my feet, and headed up to his desk, so that he could sign the slip I had been given by the secretary. All of my teachers had to sign it today, to say that I had been added to their particular class, and then I had to turn it into the office at the end of the day.
He signed it, and then began to take attendance as I headed back to my seat. Once that was over, he turned on the TV and dimmed the lights, so that we could watch the announcements, live from the student council room. The girl who now considered me the next Big Foot was reading off the announcements. Her blonde hair fell over her shoulders perfectly, and she had a perfectly angelic smile pasted on her face.
I heard a sigh, and looked to my left, to find Logan rolling his eyes at Kendall, who was staring at the class president/queen demon with a tender, enraptured look on his face.
Logan looked over at me. "Kendall's wanted Jo Taylor since freshman year," he mumbled to me. "But because she's a figure skater, and he's a hockey player, and she's kinda stuck up, she'd never go out with him."
"That sucks," I mumbled back.
Logan nodded in agreement, as he turned back to look at the TV.
A few minutes later, the announcements ended, and we all got to our feet, slinging our bags over our shoulders.
I left the classroom with Logan and Kendall. Logan walked with us towards our classroom, and left us once we had reached the geometry classroom.
Kendall and I headed in. He nodded towards the teacher sitting at the desk. "That's Mr. Clausenheimer. He lives and breathes math."
"That's creepy," I said, gritting my teeth at the very idea.
"It is," he agreed.
I got the paper signed by Clausenheimer, and went to sit with Kendall. Another guy joined us a moment later.
Kendall introduced me to Dak Zevon, who played right defenseman.
Dak was just beginning to ask me questions about my old school, when Jo Taylor walked into the room, with a cute brunette.
"That's Camille Roberts with Jo Taylor," Kendall hissed at me. "Logan may think it's pathetic that I'm drooling over Jo, but he secretly likes Camille."
"He could do worse," Dak pointed out to Kendall. "Jo's can be kind of a snob – no offense – but Camille's pretty nice. She scares Logan, though. She's kind of aggressive toward him."
"Aggressive how?"
"Let me put it this way – Logan keeps his jeans zipper out of arms reach when he passes her in the hallway."
I busted out laughing. "And she hangs out with Jo Taylor? Oh, sorry, Kendall."
"I'm used to it," he grumbled. "I'm used to everyone hating on the love of my life."
Dak snorted. "Too bad she doesn't know she's the love of your life. Anyway, Camille's the least stuck up of the ice skaters…Well, except for one of the guys, Kyle. He's cool. But the other skaters…Well…" He looked apologetically at Kendall. "Sorry…"
"It's fine," he said brusquely. "You're right."
Dak sighed, and shook his head, just as the bell rang. Clausenheimer started class a few seconds later, and we got to work.
Geometry isn't my best subject, but in the month that I'd been taking it, I'd managed to get a C-plus, B-minus average in it. Luckily, Shakopee High School seemed to have a similar curriculum as Maple Avenue High. And no matter how creepy it was that Clausenheimer lived and breathed math, he seemed to be a better teacher than my old geometry teacher. It was a major improvement. My old geometry teacher used to tell us to read the chapter and do the problems, and then he'd fall asleep. Pretty bad when the teacher is bored with his own subject.
Once class was over, Kendall and Dak headed off in different directions than me. I followed the map to the gymnasium. I located it easily, and stepped into the boys' locker room.
I couldn't have taken more than two steps in when I was nearly run over by what seemed to be a little ball of energy.
"Hi! You're James, right? I'm Carlos! Kendall and Logan told me that you're our new friend!"
I blinked down at him. He was small, probably around 5'6, and Latino, with bright, friendly eyes, and a happy, sweet smile.
"Yeah, that's me. Kendall and Logan told me to look for you," I added, giving him a smile in return.
He led me over to the lockers. "You got your PE clothes?"
"Yep. The school sent them to me a couple of days ago."
We changed into the school designated gray shorts and dark blue t-shirt, and then headed out into the gym.
Some of the girls were already there; two brunettes were huddled in a corner, whispering.
Carlos's eyes lit up. "See those girls over there?" He nodded to them.
"Yeah."
"They're figure skaters. The taller one is Stephanie King. She's a goddess."
I fought back a snort. From what Kendall, Logan, and Dak had told me, I doubted they'd agree with this sentiment. But hey, everyone was entitled to a hopeless crush now and then, right?
The other brunette was absolutely tiny. She couldn't have been taller than 5'1, and she was absolutely skinny. A definite figure skater.
As I looked at her, she turned to look at me, and I caught sight of large brown eyes. They locked with mine, and my breath caught. She was beautiful…
"That's Katie," Carlos told me.
"She's pretty," I managed to breathe out.
"They all are."
"Yeah…"
"They won't date us, though, because we're lowly hockey players." He pouted, and kicked at some non-existent dirt. "And Katie hates hockey most of all of them. If she had her way, the hockey team wouldn't even exist, and she and the other ice skaters would just get the ice rinks all to themselves."
"They're all kind of bitches, huh?"
"Yeah. Well, towards the hockey team. They're really not that bad to other people."
"So, there's kind of war between the hockey team and the ice skaters?" I confirmed.
He nodded. "It's really stupid. I don't see why we can't all just get along. We all love being on the ice. Shouldn't that be enough?"
"You'd think so…"
"There's too many politics in it now. It got too complicated."
"It sounds like it."
The PE teacher arrived, and I hurried over to him to get the paper signed.
Fifty-five minutes later, Carlos and I were heading towards chemistry. We met up with Kendall as we reached the door.
"I really hope they'll let you work with us," Kendall said to me. "There's one other group of three, but I think Ms. Straumner might just put you with one of the girls from that group."
My stomach twisted. If he really didn't want me working with the girls…
"Would the girls happen to be figure skaters?"
He nodded. "Jo Taylor, Stephanie King, and Katie, my twin sister."
"Your twin sister is a figure skater?"
"Yeah…"
"Oh…wow…"
"Tell me about it. She hates hockey beyond anything else."
Just like Carlos had said.
"It must suck to live with her."
"I don't live with her. Our parents are divorced, and she lives with our dad on the other side of town. I live with my mom a few blocks from here."
"Gotcha."
"Yeah. Pretty bad when we don't even live together. She doesn't want anything to do with me," he said, sounding sad.
I couldn't imagine what it'd be like for Shane to hate me, and to go out of his way to avoid me, and he was just my little brother. Katie was Kendall's twin sister, and weren't twins supposed to have some sort of freaky connection? It had to be a hundred times worse for him. He sounded so hurt, and his eyes were sad.
Kendall and Carlos went up to Ms. Straumner's desk with me, and they told her they'd really like it if I was able to work with them.
She shook her head. "There's one other group of three, and I've been hoping to pair one of those girls up with someone else. I'm sorry, but he's going to need to work with her. These are really two-person labs."
"But…Ms. Straumner…" Kendall protested.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Knight, but my mind is made up. I'm very glad that you're helping Mr. Diamond get adjusted to his new classes, but as I said before, these labs are meant for two people."
"Well, that sucks," Carlos grumbled.
Ms. Straumner raised her eyebrows at him. He stared back at her unapologetically.
She turned to me. "So, Mr. Diamond, you'll be working with – ah. Miss Knight!"
Oh no…Miss Knight…That meant…
We all turned around, as Katie and Stephanie walked over to us. Up close, Katie was even smaller then I had thought she'd been, but she was even more gorgeous too.
"Yes, Ms. Straumner?" she spoke, adjusting the strap of her messenger bag.
"We have a new student." She nodded to me. "And we now have an even number of students in this class. So, I'm breaking up your group of three. You'll be working with Mr. Diamond."
Katie stared at her, unblinking, and Ms. Straumner stared back not backing down. After about twenty seconds, Katie looked away, and sighed, relenting. "Fine. Come on," she said to me, using the tone of voice I figured she reserved for people who scraped the blade on her ice skates. She led me over to an empty table, and dropped her stuff to the ground.
"Why couldn't you just work with the hockey heads?" she demanded as she began setting up.
"We asked, but Ms. Straumner said that the labs were meant for two people."
She snorted. "My brother and Carlos could use a third person. They're not exactly rocket scientists, if you get my drift."
I blinked at her, and bristled slightly. Kendall and Carlos had been nothing but nice to me, and she was going out of her way to make me feel like an outcast.
"Have you been to a doctor about getting your attitude adjusted?" I snapped angrily.
Her eyes widened, and then narrowed as she took in what I had just said.
"Did the hockey head just insult me?" Her voice rang with disbelief.
"Yeah, the hockey head did just insult you. You seriously need to learn some manners. I don't know what book you learned them from, but you seemed to have missed an important lesson or two."
I sat down at the table, and pulled out my phone to send a quick text to Shane, to see how he was doing.
Katie didn't sit down, however. She just kept standing. In her two inch heels, she barely stood an inch above me. Nevertheless, she had her arms crossed, her glare burning into the side of my head.
I texted Shane, and then looked up at her. "Can I help you with something?"
Apparently sensing that I wasn't going to apologize to her, or be terrified of her glare, she dropped into the chair next to me.
Luckily, our class activities were all reading today, so I didn't have to talk to Katie once class started. We were starting a new section, so we wouldn't have a lab until tomorrow.
Class finally ended after fifty minutes of intense tension and hatred passing back and forth between Katie and me. Longest fifty minutes ever.
The bell rang, and we both leapt to our feet, packing our bags up. She rushed out of there, grabbing Stephanie and Jo by their arms as she passed by their table. She had a furious expression on her face, and I knew I had just succeeded in making a new enemy.
Oops…
Okay...here's the part where I ask you what you guys think...Did you like it? Did you hate it? Was it okay? Was it halfway decent? Let me know, okay? The review button and I will both be very grateful :)
