chapter 1
Things I hate most in life:
Girls with bitchy attitudes who think that somehow they are queens of the worldDog poopEgg saladRaisin cookiesMoving.
That's right, moving is right up there with dog poop and egg salad, that just goes to show how much I hate it. So if I sound a bit bitter about moving half way across the country just know that's why. Especially after all this fuss what with the accident, now of all times I'm moving in with my recently released from psychiatric care aunt? Oh, I forgot to introduce myself, I'm Lani, I am currently sitting in the backseat of my parents car as they drive me to the new school, Sweet Amoris high (auntie went missing again so they had to drive me). Without as much as a good bye they leave me on the front steps! I can already tell this is going to be a weird year
Oh. My. God. What. The. Heck. Just when I was starting to get a good feeling about this school the possibly most embarrassing thing in the world happens. So I was just walking up the steps when this kid comes barging out. We slam into each other and both fall down. If that's not bad enough, i. am. On. Top. Of. Him. This is my 'holy crapola' moment. But wait! There's more! So as I'm lying on top of him, my brain freaks, millions of little Lanis running around screaming their mini heads off in my brain. There is only one thought that registers, oh my god he is so hot. Second thought, he is so hot and… I am sitting on him. Bam! I am off him in a second, red face and all.
"s-s-sorry," I say my blonde bangs hiding my face, unfortunately they're not long enough to hide my red cheeks. He stands up, blushing too. No wonder, I think, I mean come on a girl he's never seen before just straddled him! What the heck is wrong with me? I always manage to screw something up.
"No, it was my fault sorry." He said running a hand through his blonde hair, I have a sudden urge to reach out and touch him, no! Bad brain! Very bad brain! But I do it anyway, with my fingers on his chest we both have an awkward moment of silence before I think of an explanation,
"Um… are you sure you're okay?" I ask, brilliant explanation Lani, he probably doesn't think you're a creeper at all. Not.
"Yeah, I'm good." He gives me a smile to reassure me and I smile back. I step backwards, incredible moment of stupidity, stairs. Oh crap. My mouth opens to scream but I don't even get there, the boy swoops in and his arms scoop me up.
"th-thanks," I smile/blush oh my god no wonder everyone at my old school thought I was stupid.
"You certainly have a tendency for falling down," he said with a slight smile, the bell rang and he released me (much to my disappointment) and began to move towards the class rooms.
"Wait a sec!" I call out; he turns around, "what's your name?"
"Nathaniel." He says, and he's gone. Wow. I think I might like this school after all.
Chapter 2
"Young lady! Young lady! You there!" a flustered woman with white hair in a neat bun ran after me.
"Uh yes ma'am?" I say, broken out of my reverie, it may have had something to do with the name Nathaniel, maybe.
"I am the principle of Sweet Amoris, I would like to welcome you miss…?"
"Lani" I answer, "Lani Candi."
"Ah yes!" she clips, "Lanine Candi! Here you are,"
"I really prefer to be called Lani-"
"Doesn't matter!" she says, unnaturally cheerful, "you must go and see the student body president as your paperwork has been misfiled."
"wait I-"
"go! I said go! Now!"
"okay okay!" I trudged off wondering what kind of skinny nerd was the student body president. As I entered the office a guys voice called
"just a second!" why are the lights off? I wondered,
"hello? I'm looking for the student body president!" I say,
"over here!" I follow the voice and find myself in a small closet office, there is my old pal(and source of daydreams) Nathaniel!
"um, hi," I stutter, god his hair, oh god I want to touch his hair. What is wrong with me?
"hello again," he said, oh god, half smile I am ready to keel over and die.
"um the principal said that my papers were um misplaced." Good job, I cheer, a whole sentence!
"well lets see," he turned and shuffles his papers. "oh good, only your student ID and $25." Well that would be digging into my savings but whatever.
"anything else?" I ask,
"just some paperwork but I can find that. Its nice to see a student so dedicated." He smiles at me and I feel myself blush. This could be an interesting year
Chapter 3
So I'm walking to the dollar store (discount! Thank god.) with Ken my best friend (emphasis on friend, nothing more, thank god.) and my other best friend Mia Chen. See Mia has a thing for bad boys and well, Castiel (in my opinion the school idiot). How do I explain Castiel? Well, he is rude, obnoxious, and his idea of a good time is setting fire to trash cans. Mia says he's handsome, mind spoken, and sensitive. Just like a big cuddly grisly bear with rabies. Kens issue is that he is head over heels in love with me. Now don't get me wrong, I am pretty great ;) but ken is…. Well he's ken! He's sweetly nerdy, with big glasses, braces and crumbling cookies. He also is picked on, like his underwear strung up on the flagpole, by three girls with designer hand bags. Seriously ken, so im his defender and friend. I always try to hook him up with girls so im no longer his source of obsession. Third grade was his worst year, he had a shrine of me, can you say creepy? But he's still my bud, after all we all have a little ken in all of us (the sweet part, not the creepy part). But today he wasn't speaking to me, he had apparently seen Nathaniel and I fall over and was freaking out. He kept sniffling and it was really making me feel bad.
"look Ken for the last time I just fell because he ran into me!" he looked up at me, his glasses all fogged up from crying. "oh for lords sake!" I hugged him and he exploded,
"w-wah!" he was wailing really loudly, did I mention he's about a foot shorter than me? And im normal sized!
"Ken stop crying. Now." Mia said, "c'mon man, you're like fourteen stop it. Its embarrassing." He shut up immediately.
"thanks," I say, I turn around and slam into someone,
"woah!" we both exclaim and grab the others arms, "sorry," I say then look up to see Nathaniel, Ken sees him too and bursts into tears.
"We keep running into each other," he says with a smile, "um… is he okay?"
"He's fine!" calls Mia, "go back to talking!" honestly sometimes my friends are a little too obvious.
"So what are you doing here?"
"I'm just picking up my ID,"
"Oh good idea," he says, "They have them for half price today." I'm only able to say something like 'um… yeah…'.
"Well c'mon I forgot something anyway," he grabs my hand and pulls me along. Ken is still in hysterics so Mia makes him wait outside the Dollar Tree.
I sit on the stool and smile; Nathaniel stands next to the photographers.
"Miss?" the man says, "can you move that hair that's in the way?"
"I'll get it," Nathaniel steps forward, I can't breathe; he leans in close and brushes the strand away. I manage to regain the smile just as the flash goes off, but I look rather dreamy in the picture. I stand up and that's when I notice Kens face smushed against the glass, he looks upset. Once we get out of the store, Nathaniel apparently didn't forget anything, kind of bizarre, Mia told us that she'd walk ken home. Nathaniel offered to walk me home, and of course I accepted, I'm not that dense. I managed to contain myself until I got upstairs; I promptly dialed Mia's number and had a screaming match with her.
"OH MY GOD!"
"I KNOW!"
"HE WALKED ME HOME!"
"I KNOW!"
"OH MY GOD!"
"OH MY GOD!" then we just screamed into the phone for a bit until my psychotic aunt came running in dressed in her fairy costume (she was released to early from her mental home) with a watering can yelling, "WHERE'S THE FIRE? WHERE'S THE FIRE?!"
chapter 4
The next day sucked except for one thing. Ken left. Military academy, does his parents even know what they do to sweet little kids like him in there? A teddy bear, that's all I have left of him now. Right before he left he gave it to me. I barely even got to say good bye to him! The day before he had gotten his lunch money stolen by that bratty girl, and Nathaniel's sister, Amber. He had apparently told his dad, a military general, who thought that it was pathetic that his son was being pushed around by a girl with a poodle named mr. floofypants. So Ken is gone and Amber is all in my face.
"So little Ken is gone? Pity right girls, now what will we do for lunch money?" they all laughed, really like witches in a way, I could just picture her with a big old wart on her nose.
"You know Amber," I begin coolly, "that bag is so last season,"
"What?" she colored, "no its not! Are they?" I reached into my locker and brought out a teen vogue. I went to the In/Out page. In the out section in a big picture was Amber's bag.
"y-you photo shopped that obviously!" she said, bright red and shaking,
"fine then, ask your little trolls over there," the two other girls stopped whispering abruptly and lunged for their bags, pulling out their issues too. They stared at the page then at Amber, their little mouths slowly opening in an O.
"y-you! You pathetic, little, ugly, argh!" Amber lunges, I duck,
"Girl fight!" Castiel magically appears,
"Oh shut up you!" I tell him, Amber immediately stops and smoothes over her hair. She holds up her arm slightly in an automatic reaction pose so the world can admire her accessories.
"Last year," I cough; the glorious smile (more like a constipated rat's grin in my opinion) is gone in a second. Her hand goes back and before I can react, another closes on top of it.
"Amber, stop it." Nathaniel says, he whispers something sternly to her, she huffs and walks away out the door, moments later I hear her car door slam and tires screech.
"You okay?" asks Nathaniel, he has an arm on my shoulder and our faces are a breath apart.
"Yeah, um, I'm fine," we're leaning in closer without meaning to; his gold eyes are drawing me in, why was I so mad a minute ago? Just as we're about to kiss,
"get a room," says Castiel, crap, I forgot he was there. Nathaniel's golden eyes draw away, and we both turn bright red. Castiel is really pissed for some reason, he shoves Nathaniel out of the way, and Nathaniel smashes his shoulder against the locker.
"Hey!" I protest but he's gone. Nathaniel is wincing,
"You need an ice pack," I decide and pull him to his feet, "c'mon."
The nurse wasn't there so I just found the freezer and scooped some ice into a plastic bag. Nathaniel looked like he really was in pain so I told him to take off his shirt (strictly medical reasons) and grimaced when I saw the bruises.
"How did he give you all those with one shove?" Nathaniel goes red, grabs his shirt and begins to storm out when his foot tangles in an IV rope, which had formed a loop around our feet, bringing me down too.
"Oomph!" we land in a heap,
"Hello?" a girl with a long braid opens the door to find Nathaniel (shirtless) and me on the floor. "Oh! Sorry, um… I'll just go now! I didn't mean to interrupt anything!"
"No wait!" we both yell, but the door closes. My heart is pounding out of my chest, after a moment of awkward silence, Nathaniel props his elbow next to my head,
"Lani? Can I ask you a question?" that's more than a little bizarre in this position,
"Sure?" I ask, it comes out more like a question itself. He leans closer until his mouth is right next to my ear,
"Why is you heart beating so fast?" my face is bright red, but his is a calm that makes me go redder.
"Um, um, uh, I, uh, well I um," yes that is what I said, but can you blame me? There was a hot, shirtless boy with his face right next to me, lying on top of me for god's sake! My life is so amazingly screwed up!
"I mean," I cleared my throat, "I think that we should focus on getting untangled." I kind of wanted to kick myself for ruining the moment, but my legs were tangled with Nathaniel's.
We eventually got untangled and immediately sprang as far apart as possible. I quickly speed walked out of the nurses office. Nathaniel took a bit longer, but worst of all I was quickly ambushed by Mia!
"A little birdie told me a funny rumor about you and a certain student body president in the nurse's office!" I flushed,
"Nothing happened!"
"right, let's see the evidence, one, you two on the ground, on top of each other, two he was shirtless, and there is now another rumor going around that you were too!"
"What?" I screech, this is bad this is very bad!
"I think I should give ken a call and tell him you're cheating on him!"
"Okay, A we aren't together, and B don't you dare because he probably has enough on his plate!"
That shuts her up, but all I can think of is Nathaniel's scent, heavy and deep and distinctly male. That night I can't sleep, all I feel is the way his body pressed against mine, and his deep eyes staring into my light green ones.
Chapter 5
Almost a month has passed but still no word from ken. On the other hand, my interactions with Nathaniel have become more frequent. So that's a plus, but no Nathaniel today. Today I have to go see Castiel for his stupid band rehearsal. It was such a stupid bet, I really can't play the electric guitar that well. But he insisted and he was such a pig headed little- but I'm getting ahead of myself, it all started yesterday when I was just talking to Iris (the girl with the braid, she's actually really nice!) in the courtyard and I overheard Castiel talking on the phone.
"Skull Heart is the best band ever!"
"No way," I said walking up, he glared at me and hung up,
"What do you mean no way?" he said,
"Skull Heart sucks."
"Oh yeah?" he said, he backed me up against the wall, it was uncomfortable but I kept staring at him. He leaned in and smirked a bit "then, what's your idea of a good band?"
"Green Day. ACDC. Anything but Skull Heart." I think I surprised him a bit,
"Oh, so a little priss like you knows something about rock?" he said, raised eyebrows,
"Yeah, why do you think I play the electric guitar?"
"Alright then," he grabbed my chin, and was uncomfortably close, "tomorrow then, come to my house." Nathaniel came out into the courtyard and took in the situation, from Castiel backing me up against a wall and him forcing my chin up to my annoyed and angry looks.
"Hey! Leave her alone Castiel!" Castiel briefly looked up and then released me.
So now you're all caught up, so as I'm coming up the driveway I hear 'Smoke on the Water' by Deep Purple all the way up.
"You're finally here, what took you so long?" for one second Castiel looks happy but then he quickly turns around.
"Where's the 'band'?" I ask looking around at the garage that's set up with drums, a microphone and a piano.
"Not here, this is a private practice. Good, you brought your guitar, you can use my amp." As I was setting up a guy with silver hair and Victorian clothes materialized behind me.
"Um… hi?" I say, standing up,
"Ah," he says in a rather dreamy voice, "you must be Castiel's friend. He has talked nonstop about you."
"Shut up Lysander! Why are you here?" Castiel comes up looking really mad,
"Now that is no way to greet a friend, it is an honor to meet you Lani." He says pointedly ignoring Castiel, and bending over to kiss my hand. Castiel swats him away, he roughly shoves the guitar into my hands,
"Play something."
"What should I play?"
"anything." The only thing I could think of was 'Sweet Child'O Mine' by Guns'n'Roses. So I played that, the guitar took over and I couldn't think of anything else. When I was done, they just stared at me; I even managed to wipe the smug look off castiel's face!
"Well," I said smiling, "what do you think?" Lysander slowly stood up, and strode over to me,
"I think," he said, then paused, "I think I want you in the band." He swiftly leaned forward and kissed my forehead. I stood there stunned, Castiel yelled a string of swear words and leapt to his feet. He then raced after Lysander but he was already gone.
"It didn't mean anything." I didn't know why I was reassuring Castiel because it wasn't any of his business.
"I know," he said still breathing heavily, "after all, who would like you?" he smirked but looked troubled, I began to walk away in a huff but then I quickly turned around and said,
"Actually, you know what? I think that Lysander is pretty cute." Castiel's face went bright red, and with a satisfied smirk, I walked away.
Chapter 6
There are only three days before midterms and I'm freaking out, just a bit. Everyone else has study buddies, so I've been hung out to dry. Iris and Mia paired up, so have all the other girls like Peggy and violet. So I'm all alone. Other than Castiel, and well, how do I put this kindly? I would die before i paired up with Castiel. So today I have begged, literally begged Nathaniel to study with me, we have to go to his house because I really don't want him to see my crazy aunt running around in her fairy costume! He got really mad about it for some reason and stormed off! When I finally found him, he was sitting with his back against the wall by the gym.
"Hey, sorry about that, if it means that much to you then we'll go to my house. But seriously, you'll regret it, usually seeing my aunt even once is too much for people."
"It's not that Lani; you remember those bruises on my back?" How could I forget? "Well," he gulped, "sorry I don't tell many people, actually I've never told anyone except my mom and she doesn't care,"
"You don't have to tell me anything if you don't want to," but my mind was saying, 'tell me tell me tell me!'. Maybe he read my thoughts because he continued.
"My dad has anger issues, and sometimes he comes home really drunk and gets mad and he beats me."
"Oh…" there's nothing you can say after that, nothing at all. I didn't know what I was thinking it might have been before but it all makes sense. He is looking so ashamed like he just told me he beat his kids. I lean forward,
"Is it okay that I told you?"
"Of course!" why wouldn't it be okay?
"So now you see why I can't have people over, he would freak out."
"Yeah," I say quietly, we sit in silence for a while. He suddenly takes my hand, it's a small gesture but I smile,
: so is there anything you want me to bring as a snack?" he asks, his smile returning,
"I don't know what do you want?"
""how about peanut butter and chocolate?"
"Sure that sounds good!" we smile at each other for a while and Nathaniel pulls me to my feet we make our way down the street to my apartment, still holding hands.
"So if X=3 what does Y equal?" Nathaniel asks me,
"I don't know," I feel like my brain has died, "can we take a cookie break and then answer the problem?"
"Sure," he readily agrees, upon arrival Nathaniel's peanut butter jar and chocolate went missing. We couldn't find them anywhere until my aunt (wearing her new forest fairy costume) brought out peanut butter and chocolate cookies, the woman may be insane but she sure knows how to cook. We return to the couch with the cookie tray and start munching on our cookies, all the while trying to remember how to do these problems. All of a sudden Nathaniel reaches over me and takes a cookie from the tray, but he leaves his arm there, around my shoulders, can you say awkward? Its definitely not helping my concentration, I bite my lip hard trying to think.
"Hey Lani?" he said, a grin edging its way onto his face, "you're really cute when you're trying to concentrate." I smile blushing really hard.
"Thanks," wow that was way forward for him. I lean into him; I figure I might as well enjoy myself since I'm probably not going to be able to answer anything now. It's so nice and peaceful….
"Lani! Help!" my aunt comes bounding in looking terrified like some great beast was chasing in, "they're after me!" Nathaniel and I immediately scoot away from each other,
"Um… auntie, who's after you?" probably the psychiatrists to bring her back to the crazy house.
"the leprechauns! I took their cookies! Beware Lani! Beware! They are everywhere! I must fly!" and she was off with a long 'weeee!'. Nathaniel and I look at each other and burst out laughing. Well my aunt certainly is special. No one can deny that
please comment on who you're fave guy is and why.
Chapter 7
I can't believe that three whole months have passed! In three days it will be winter break. I was in fact accepted into the band and play bass guitar, Lysander sings, another guy plays drums and some guy named Jade is the pianist. And despite being so distracted I passed my exams! I actually got a pretty good score too! The only bad thing is that Mia is sick and Iris is catching a ride with her big brother, so I have to walk all by myself. I'm listening to 'You Make me Feel so" by Cobra Starship and I may have been dancing a bit.
"Hey! Watch it!" the boy shouts, he has brown windblown hair, and stunning green eyes. His bad boy look usually doesn't get me but for some reason my heart stops. He looks down at me, and his eyes widen, "Lani," and he kisses me! I just stand there eyes wide, mouth in an O shape. He smiles and walks away; I'm only two blocks away from the school. I sprint.
"Iris! Iris! Iris!" I yell slamming into her,
"Whoa! Lani what's wrong?" she looks alarmed as I double over trying to catch my breath,
"Stranger…boy…ah…can't…breathe!" she began to laugh, it took me a few minutes but I eventually finished up the story,
"And then he just randomly kissed me!" I said as we rounded the corner, I froze there was the boy again, but he wasn't alone. Amber was kissing him! What is going on in this guy's head? Maybe he was like my aunt? He pulled back and wiped his mouth.
"Well that was disgusting," he said, Amber stepped back in shock,
"Who are you?" I demanded, amber turned on me,
"Poor Lani watching our kiss because you can't ever have one of your own?"
"Actually it would be the other way around Amber, there's a saying 'you can't put lipstick on a pig', maybe you've heard of it? Well there's one adapted for you, 'you can't put designer clothes on a pig." The boy smoothly cuts in, my mouth and Amber's have both dropped open at the outright rudeness. He grabbed my hand and pulled me away and out the door.
"I'm sorry," I said, "I still have no idea who you are…"
"Maybe these'll help," he pulled out a pair of giant glasses and put them on then stretched his mouth into a ridiculous grin.
"Oh, my god!" I squinted, "ken?" he smirked confidently,
"Kentin," he corrected, the leaned down, he was taller than me! And hugged me,
"It's great to see you," I said, returning his hug.
"Ahem," Nathaniel stood there staring at us coldly, "am I interrupting something?"
"Hey Nathaniel look who's back?" Nathaniel is still staring down Kentin; honestly they're worse than dogs with territory! What are they so freaked over anyway?
"Its ken," I say trying to smile, Nathaniel's glare is still on his face but there's a question in his eyes,
"Ken?" he asked, peering closely at Kentin. Kentin was still hostile towards Nathaniel,
"Yeah, got a problem with that?" he snapped, I kicked him not so subtly,
"No," said Nathaniel, he walked over next to me and took my hand rather pointedly. Kentin's eyes zeroed in on this, and actually growled. "Anyway, Lani, I was wondering if you wanted to get ice-cream?" ken looked like he was about to punch Nathaniel,
"Actually, I was going to ask her if she wanted to go clubbing tonight."
"Um… Kentin? We're in high school." He shrugged,
"Yeah, so?"
"So you have to be twenty one. We're like fifteen going on sixteen." I said, don't get me wrong, I'm not completely goody-goody but I have to draw the line at stuff like that.
"Relax," he said leaning casually against the wall, "it's a teen's club just a couple blocks away."
"Remind me how you talked me into this?" I asked Kentin, he smirked and grabbed my hand, swinging our hands between us as we walked. I tried not to be too obvious but I fell back, therefore letting go of his hand, to talk to Mia.
"You didn't take much convincing once you learned it was legal," I bit my lip thinking about Nathaniel, I had explained since it was Kentin's first night back. He had been really understanding, but I still felt bad. I had asked Mia to come with us so that it was less of a date, but she mostly gawked at Kentin. My hair fell across my white halter top, I didn't really like the idea of clubbing, and I've heard too many stories about things that went wrong and the kind of people that hang out there. But as soon as I stepped in I could see why people would go to a club, the music was loud so that it made the floor vibrate, and the lights flashed in a disorienting pattern, in short, it. Was. Awesome. There was barely any room in between the dancers, and Kentin immediately joined the crowd. Mia and I hung back, things were kind of awkward and I didn't really want to talk about Kentin kissing me, because that was just plain weird. Already a group of girls had assembled around Kentin, all of them were pretty and good dancers but he just ignored them. He walked over and pulled me onto the dance floor. 'The Other Side' was playing so loudly I thought that my eardrums would pop. We danced for a bit and honestly, I just lost myself in the music. That was until Kentin leaned forward and said,
"This is kind of like us," I looked up at him,
"What is?"
"This song," he said with a smile, I stopped dancing,
"Kentin… there is no 'us' we're just friends." The color drained from his face, and he looked really shocked and pissed at the same time. He grabbed my arms,
"What do you mean? We kissed!"
"You kissed me and caught me off guard."
"But…"
"You also kissed Amber," I pointed out, "does that mean that you're going to go out with her?"
He grabbed my arms, and swore "you know I don't like Amber, I made it pretty obvious I've liked you for a while!" someone came from behind me and shoved Kentin back,
"Hey, leave her alone." Castiel stepped out next to me, he was dressed in his typical 'I'm too cool for you fashion'. Mia immediately came over, her Castiel radar going off. Kentin on the other hand stepped back so fast he nearly fell over; he is absolutely terrified of Castiel.
"Hey Castiel," she said in a voice that was supposed to be flirty, but her voice cracked halfway through so it came off as a 'I just swallowed a live frog' (don't' ask me how I know that, it involved my mom, a frog, and a pound of rat droppings). Castiel swept past her, me in tow.
"I didn't know you wore clothes like that priss." His eyes swept over me appraisingly and I turned red and stared and the toe of my wedges.
"I should have known that would have happened," I said,
"Then why did you come?" growled Castiel, I looked up,
"I thought you liked seeing me in these clothes," I teased, trying to inject a bit of humor. When his hard gaze met mine I sighed, "To be honest I don't know why I came. Maybe I was just trying to smooth things over. There satisfied?"
"One more question," he stepped forward so that his body touched mine, I looked up at him, my breath coming quickly. "Why did you let that jerk kiss you?" I blushed,
"You heard that?"
"He was yelling, the music isn't that loud."
"I didn't let him do anything, he surprised me." The look in castiel's eyes stopped me,
"Do you wish you could take it back?" I knew what would happen if I answered yes, I knew what would happen if I answered no, I was trapped.
"yes." I then turned and disappeared into the crowd.