Hey everyone! So I got some reviews and I'm gonna do shout-outs first!
SkinnyJeansNLattes: Thanks for the first review! I was really happy when I saw people were actually reading my story. I will keep writing. I will keep shining. And as long as people like my stories, I will keep trying! Hopefully you stay in love with this! Thanks again.
StoryandSongwriter101:Thanks for the review first off. And I wish I could update more than once a week also, but I have lots of homework because I'm taking higher classes and I like my chapters to be longer. Plus, I rewrite and review and edit my stories before I post them. But I will definitely try! Maybe every few weeks I'll through in a bonus chapter just for you. They might even contain a few surprises ;) Look out!
Sandra (Guest): Thanks for reading! And I'm making lots more chapters XD
Emma111:Right off the bat, I love how simple your penname is. Just saying. But thanks and here's your update Emma!
01:THANKS FOR THE REVIEW! I DIDN'T KNOW MY STORY WAS THAT GOOD XD! But if you liked that, then wait until we get into the actual story. That chapter (and this one) are intros into the characters and the story, but next chapter things start. Promise it'll get even better! So keep reading and reviewing! Thanks again.
And I also got a lot of story followers! Like ten I think... Thanks you guys!
1) Playing in the Sun
2) TheLightBeforeWeLand (btw love the penname)
3) Shinny Star
4) gracep111
5) I am addicted to FanFiction (I want your penname)
6) StoryandSongwriter101
7) SakuraSpark
8) Austinmoonr5
9) LittleLily99
10) R5AAFan
11) Kitkatsmeow
12) xRosslingtonxraurax
13) AllAboutThis
And dem favorites :3
1) Playing in the Sun
2) Shinny Star
3) StoryandSongwriter101
4) xRosslintonxraurax
And I probably won't do the favorites and follows every time, but this was the first chapter, so yeah.
Okay. You guys met Ally. Now it's time to meet Austin! This chapter isn't as long, but I feel like it packs a lot, so I hope it's okay :)
Follow, Favorite, and Review! Got any questions for me? Review them or PM me! I'll answer all of them!
This chapter is dedicated to StoryandSongwriter101 because she Followed, Favorited, and Reviewed my first chapter. Thanks :3 and enjoy!
Love Ya'll!
Austin's POV
"Hey Dez. Did we have English homework?" I ask. Dez looks up from his tablet and shrugs.
"How would I know? We aren't taking the same English class."
"You sit next to me Dez," I sigh. "We took a partner quiz yesterday. You were my partner."
"Oh yea! I remember now." He looks back at his tablet and I roll my eyes.
"So did we have English homework?" I repeat.
"What?" Dez asks, looking back at me.
"Never mind Dez."
"'Kay buddy! Well, I gotta go. I have English in a few minutes," He chirps.
"I know," I groan. "I'm in your class."
"Really?"
"Yes Dez."
"Cool! See ya there!" He sing-songs before running down the hallway, tablet in hand. I sigh and close my locker next to me.
"Hey Austin." I hear behind me. I swing my backpack over my shoulder and turn around.
"Oh. Hey Katie. What's up?" I ask. She smiles and pushes her hair behind her ear.
"I was just wondering, since you know, we have History together and I noticed that you've been single for a while and..." I roll my eyes and start to ignore her, knowing this will go on for a while. As she continues to talk, I nonchalantly look around the hallway.
Marino High isn't anything special. Just over a thousand kids, trying to make it though just enough to have a future. There are a group of soccer players to the left, hanging around some of the girl's swim team members, a few art kids lying in the hallway and listening to music, and random kids here and there. I watch Cassidy pass by and walk up to a pair of girls at the far end of the hallway. They're hugging and smiling. I bet they're having more fun than I am.
"But since my volleyball team doesn't have a game tonight and like I said, I have little homework and you seem to be in the classes with the awesome teachers that rarely give homework and the football team doesn't have practice today because it's a Friday, I was wondering if maybe you wanted to see a movie? Or we could grab a burger? Or play mini-golf? Or just hang at my place and talk? Or-"
"Katie," I interrupt. She smiles and takes a small step towards me. "Sorry, but I actually have a lot of homework and my family's going out of town this weekend for my cousin's sweet sixteen."
"Oh that's okay. How about we go on Monday, or because the football team has practice we could go Tuesday, but I might have volleyball, so Wednesday. Wait, there's football practice then to, which also rules out Thursday, and Friday is the big game against the Crocodiles and next weekend I have a volleyball tournament in Tampa."
"Katie."
"Yeah?"
"Maybe another time, okay?" She smiles again and nods her head, shaking lose the hair she previously tucked behind her ear. She reaches up to fix it and I nod.
"Okay," She mumbles. I turn to head to English and Cassidy bumps into my arm.
"Who was that, huh?" She teases. "She gonna be your date to homecoming?" I laugh and shake my head.
"No. Katie's cool and all, but I don't think I'm going to homecoming," I explain. Cassidy stops and pulls me back.
"What? You have to go."
"I don't know. Homecoming is just, like, a giant grind fest," I chuckle. Cassidy starts laughing and shoves me slightly. I see her turn to face behind us quickly and wink. I furrow my eyebrows and watch her. "What?"
She turns to face me again and smiles. "Nothing. But come on, it's homecoming. That one night a year you get to ask that special someone to dance." She steps a little closer to me. "Then you laugh and smile and bring her home. You try to sneak a kiss on her front porch before her dad comes out. And then you can't stop thinking about her all weekend."
"You think about this too much," I tease. I bump my shoulder on hers. "If I wanted to go to a dance, I'd go to prom."
"But prom isn't for months," She whines. I smirk and look down at her.
"Exactly."
"So Kira," I start. "If you had to eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?" She taps her chin thinking and smiles at me.
"Definitely strawberries."
"Really?"
"Hands-down."
We were currently sitting in my living room, having a lazy Sunday. Me on the couch, sprawled out, staring at the ceiling, Kira on the chair, sitting sideways and swinging her feet, Dez in the desk chair from the next room, backwards with his legs around the back of it, tucked underneath as he spins around aimlessly, and Jamie was sitting on the back of the couch, her feet on my stomach.
"Strawberries are gross," Jamie speaks up.
"Nuh uh!" Kira screams, sitting straight up in the chair so her knees are against her chest and crossing her arms above them. "They are the single best thing the world has ever made!"
"Pancakes," I hum to myself. Jamie looks down at me and smirks.
"Seriously Kira, they aren't that great," Jamie argues.
"I like ham," Dez whispers from the corner on his chair. We all quirk an eyebrow at him, but ignore it as it is his usual behavior.
"If strawberries didn't exist, I would cry and jump off a bridge," Kira says, returning to the original topic.
"Technically, if they didn't exist, you couldn't miss them or get upset about not having them because you wouldn't even know what was missing. It would be like if jibbers were a vegetable. It isn't, so none of us know what they are. Therefore, we can't miss them," I explain.
"I wonder what a jibber would be," Jamie ponders. I laugh and push her leg. She smiles at me and shakes her head.
"I don't know, but I'm not crying about them or jumping off a bridge due to lack of their existence," I state pointedly to Kira. She shrugs and leans back again.
"Strawberries are still the best."
"I think mine would be whipped cream," Jamie answers.
"No one asked you."
"Shut up Kira," She teases.
"You know," I begin. "If we put our three together, we could make one hell of a breakfast," I mumble. Jamie's eyes widen and her mouth opens slightly.
"I want that. Like, now," She says.
"Wanna go to Melody?" I suggest. We all nod and get up to grab our shoes and coats. Dez spins a few more times before getting up and stumbling to my car.
"Being dizzy is weird."
After a short five minute drive to the mall, we all walked to Melody Diner and ordered pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream. Except Dez. He got a pot pie. Mindy brought him three. He only ordered one.
We all ate and laughed and may or may not have started a whipped cream war. Small details. When we finished, we decided to just walk around the mall.
"I haven't walked around here in a while actually," Kira speaks up.
"I always come for Melody and then go home," Jamie agrees.
"Really?" I ask. "This is one of my favorite places. I'm here, like, all the time."
"Me too!" Dez smiles.
"I know. You come with me," I laugh. He shrugs and runs off to the pet store. "I guess we'll all meet up later."
"Wanna go dress shopping for homecoming?" Jamie asks Kira. She nods and they walk off in the other direction. I shove my hands in my pockets and walk toward Sonic Boom.
"Homecoming isn't for two weeks. Why is everyone so excited?" I ask under my breath.
"Because it's a giant school event and all the dresses came in this week. Next week all the good ones are gone," Someone answers. I look up and notice that I'm already in Sonic Boom, the only music store within fifteen miles of Miami. Sitting on the counter is the girl from the locker on Friday. There's a magazine in one hand and a lollipop in the other. She smiles when I look at her and closes her magazine.
"What?" I manage to mutter.
"You asked why everyone was so excited. I answered."
"Oh. Uh, sorry about that. I tend to talk to myself."
She smiles and hops off the counter. I watch as she puts the magazine away on the bench and throws away the stick to her lollipop.
"So, what brings you to sonic boom?" She opens her arms and gestures to the store. I shrug.
"Nothing really. I was just with some friends and they went homecoming shopping and stuff," I explain. She nods along and walks behind the counter. "You work here?" I ask her.
"Yeah. My dad owns the place. But I get what you mean about homecoming. Never really saw the appeal to it." A smile breaks out on my face and I lean on the counter, facing her.
"Finally someone that gets it!" We laugh and the door opens. She glances over my shoulder and smiles. I turn to see her friend from the locker on Friday walking through the door.
"Trish!" She screams. She runs up to the shorter girl and wraps her in a hug. "You're actually on time!"
The girl, Trish I guess, laughs and hugs back. "I wasn't going to be late on my first day. I have a bet to win."
I turn completely and lean back against the counter. "You work here too?" Trish pulls away and looks up at me.
"Uh. Yeah. Who are you?" She asks cautiously. I chuckle.
"I'm Austin. I'm here pretty often. I'm sure you'll see me again."
"Sorry Austin. I'd love to stay and chat, but I have to show Trish the ropes," She explains. I nod and start walking toward the door.
"See ya around..." I trail off.
"Ally," She smiles.
"Ally. See ya around Ally."
Mondays are the worst. Especially when you missed half of Friday because your mom 'accidentally' scheduled your dentist's appointment during school hours. I missed math, history, gym, and music. To say I was having a bad day, was the understatement of all understatements.
"Austin, I swear you missed nothing. I'm in your math and history classes. We had no homework and went over no new material. Just review for the tests this week. I don't have gym with you, but it's gym. How much could you miss? And well, what do you even do in music?" Kira asked. I shrugged.
"I don't know. My schedule was messed up, so I had to get it changed and I just now switched into this class. It's two weeks in and I don't even know what we're doing yet!" I complain. My hand runs through my hair as I let out a sigh.
"It'll be fine. I'm sure you'll know someone that'll help you catch up."
"I hope so. But for now, I have to go to Sociology. Studying people is so gross." Kira laughs and turns to walk down the hallway. At least lunch is after this.
"Today in class you will pick partner for your new beginning of the year project!" Mr. Thompson enthusiastically waved his arms around at his desk. "I'll be handing out the papers now. When you get your paper you may pick your partner." He started walking down the first row of desks, placing a sheet on each one. "For the first half of your project, you and your partner will make a video about your life at Marino high as juniors. It should include your memories of the year so far: who your friends were, who your enemies were, and any major events that happened, and so on." He started walking back up the second row where I was sitting. I took a paper and he continued talking. "You will include your hopes and dreams for your senior year. But, the only catch is, they have to be hopes and dreams that you and your partner share. So if only one of you want to, say, go to prom, then you can't include it in the video. To go along with the video, each of you will create a checklist. These will be completely separate. The list will be typed, colored, and laminated. It will be a list of everything you want to do senior year. I know some of you won't even use it when senior year comes around because I won't be your teacher and I won't be able to make you, but you will still make it for this class now. The project is not due until the day before finals, so you all have four weeks." He started down the third row and I turned to Dez who was sitting directly behind me.
"Partners?" I ask. He nods his head while reading the rubric.
"Yeah. Come to my house after school today."
"Cool. But I have practice, so five?"
"Yeah. That works. My mom will be out for dinner with work though."
"Fine by me." I turn back around and start reading over the rubric myself.
"Now." I looked up and Mr. Thompson was leaning on his desk. "For the second half of the project. In two weeks, the first half of your project will be due. That is the regular partner video. But when you finish that, I will pick another pair of partners to match with you. That group will watch each other's video and split into two new partnerships. With your new partner, you will learn about what they want for their senior year and how they spent their junior year. You each will make separate videos about what that person taught you and how they effected your choices for senior year. Then, you will type up a new checklist and I will grade you on the amount of change it made from the first one."
"Are we presenting the videos to the class?" Someone asked from behind me.
"No. The only people to watch the first video will be me and the partners I pair you with. The only people that will see your second video will be your new partner and me. So, any other questions?"
I looked around the room and saw that girl Trish with her hand raised. Mr. Thompson pointed to her.
"Are you picking our original partners?"
"No. I just pick the group match up. You pick your original partners. With that said, go find your partners now."
I turned back to face Dez as I shoved the rubric in my folder.
"Who do you think we'll get as our group?" I ask, starting a conversation.
"I don't know." He looks around the room. "I hope it's either Trent and Matt or Dallas and his new girlfriend."
I turn to see Dallas with his girlfriend on his lap and they start making out. Don't get me wrong, Dallas is a great linebacker, but watching him play tonsil tennis isn't exactly enjoyable.
"No. Not Dallas. Let's hope for Trent and Matt," I reply. Dez nods and looks back at me disgustedly. He must've seen Dallas, too.
"Yeah. I agree." I slid my folder into my backpack and zip it up, noticing that this class had only twenty seconds left.
"So how's football season going?" Dez asks, cleaning up his stuff.
"Our first game is this Friday. Then we have one Tuesday and then the homecoming game. I think the team looks in shape, but we never know until the first game," I explain.
"Well then we need a whole bunch of support for this game."
"How are you going to do that?" I question.
"Spirit," He smiles. I arch an eyebrow at him and his shoulders drop slightly. "And T-shirts. Lots of T-shirts."
"T-shirts?"
"Yeah. We can order a bunch and then sell them at school of Friday for everyone to show up and wear them. Everyone will want to come."
"Dez. I don't know how you do it, but you always have the greatest ideas."
"T-shirts," He repeats.
"Yeah. I heard you."
"T-shirts."
"Dez. I get it."
"T-shirts." The bell rings over head.
"I heard you the first three times!" I yell as we get up.
"T-shirts."
"Ugh!"
"Everybody in!" Coach yelled from the sidelines. We all jogged over, leaving our small exercises behind. "We have our first game on Friday, correct?" He screams.
"Correct!" We all chant in unison.
"So I want 110% out there. Got it?" He asks.
"Got it Coach!" We chant again.
"Now go hit the showers! You smell like pigs!" He smiles and we all laugh, hitting each other on the backs and taking our helmets off. I slid my mouthpiece out and jog up to Trent and Dallas.
"Hey guys," I start. "So I have a proposition."
"What is it?" Trent asks.
"T-shirts."
"What?" Dallas spits.
"We make T-shirts and sell them at school Friday before the game. So we have more support as we play and we might actually win."
"Why do we need support dude?" Trent points out.
"Because we're playing the Crocodiles and we haven't beaten them in fifteen years," I counter. Dallas shrugs and looks at Trent for an answer.
"Okay. Okay. When we doing this?" He caves. I pump my fist.
"Dez's place. Seven o'clock. Don't be late and bring anyone willing to help." We get to the locker room and disperse to shower and change.
"Dez! Austin's here!"
"One sec, Mom!" He calls. I smile at Mrs. Wade and slip my shoes off by the door.
"Sorry," I apologize. "I'm here a little early because we finished practice before we thought we would."
"How you guys doing this year?" She asks. I hold my hand up and tilt it back and forth to say 'so-so' and she nods. "You'll get there. I can feel it this year. You guys are going to do great."
"Thanks Mrs. Wade. I hope so."
Dez comes pounding down the stairs and comes up to stand by his mom. He must be at least six inches taller than her, but they look almost the same otherwise. Pale skin, red hair, freckles, skinny frame, it's all the same. They could be twins. Well, opposite gender twins, and one aged faster than the other, but you get what I mean.
"I don't know why you didn't do football this year," His mom pouts. "You had so much fun last year." I bite my cheeks to stop from laughing as Dez's face flushes.
He was actually on the math team last year, but convinced his dad that he joined football. And when his mom found out, there was no going back. He ended up having to join as the towel boy and lie saying he was always just on the bench as 'back-up', but she always believed him, so I guess it worked.
"Too much homework," He shrugged off rather quickly. I smirked at him and his mom checked her watch.
"Well I better be going. Be good you two. The T-shirt thing is okay as long as there aren't too many people here. No more than ten or twelve. And I want everyone out before ten-thirty. Except Austin. You're welcome to sleep over if you'd like. And please actually do your homework. You can't afford to fall behind. Either of you." We both smiled and nodded.
"We promise," We muttered in unison. Mrs. Wade laughed and left for her work dinner.
"Okay. So you want to actually start the project or just work on everything else so we have time for the T-shirts?" I ask Dez. We start walking up to his room and I pull out my phone to see if Trent or Dallas texted me. "Dez? Project or homework?"
"T-shirts," He whispers. I groan and throw my head back.
"We are not starting this again!"
Messages - - - - Dallas
I hope it's okay if I brought a few
friends? Be there in five.
How many is a few?
Just a few ;)
"Okay Dez. Well Dallas is almost here and he has help, but I don't know who or how many."
"As long as it's not clowns."
"What?"
"It can't be clowns. You know how many of those suckers can fit in a car?"
"They aren't clowns Dez."
"Good."
"Although, you might be," I laugh.
"That's. Not. Funny. Austin."
"Sorry," I surrender. The doorbell rings and we stand up to go downstairs.
"How could you call me a clown?" Dez whimpers as we walk down the stairs.
"I said I was sorry. It was a joke Dez." I grab the doorknob and start to open it. "I didn't know you would take it so seriously."
"Take what so seriously?" A voice asks. I turn to the door to see Dallas with his girlfriend, that girl Trish, Cassidy, Trent, Anthony (he's on the football team, too), a girl with really short brown hair, a guy with longer black hair, a girl with long straight red hair, a guy with short brown hair and his arm around Ally.
"Okay first of all. This isn't a few. And secondly, to whoever just asked," I started.
"I did," Ally interrupted and raised her hand.
"Clowns. We were talking about clowns," I stated. She blushed and giggled and I laughed. "But seriously. There are eleven of you. Dez's mom said ten to twelve. Unless I've really messed up this whole math thing, this is thirteen."
"No, you're right," Cassidy spoke up. "But Travis was just driving most of us. He has a date tonight." The guy with longer black hair nodded and saluted me. My mouth formed an 'o' and Dez smiled.
"Then come on in everyone!" He piped up and opened his door all the way for everyone to fit through. The last two to enter were Ally and this short-haired guy and I closed the door behind them.
"So first off. Names." I clapped my hands together and stood on my toes to see everyone. "I'm assuming you all know each other, but I only know like half of you. So, I know Cassidy, Brooke, Dallas, Trent, Trish, Anthony, and Ally. And obviously Dez."
"I'm Margaret," The girl with really short brown hair spoke up. I nodded my head and looked at the girl with longer red hair.
"Sarah."
"Got it. Margaret and Sarah. Okay. And then there's..." I scanned the room and saw the guy next to Ally. "Who are you?" I asked. He looked up at me and tightened his arm around Ally's waist. She looked down uncomfortably.
"I'm Elliot."
"Of course you are. Not let's get started!"
A hour and a half later, eight-thirty in case you were confused, we were all spread out in different rooms with different tasks. Margaret, Dallas, Sarah, and Dez were on snacks and refreshments. Which pretty much meant they were making dinner for everyone, since no one thought to eat before they came. Trent, Trish, Cassidy, and Elliot were on materials, so they were currently running to the store to get plain blue T-shirts, acrylic paint, and puffy paint. Me, Brooke, Anthony, and Ally were on virtual design.
We all decided that it'd be easiest to design shirts online and then mass order them to sell at the school, but we were all really pumped to make T-shirts, so we agreed that'd we'd each make our own T-shirt to wear on Friday for advertisement and stuff.
"Well I think we should make two options. Like, a yellow shirt and a blue shirt. Since Trish texted me saying they only had six blue so they grabbed yellow anyway," Ally suggested. I scrolled across the screen and opened the tab again.
"Okay, so we make a blue one with yellow print and a yellow one with blue print."
"Well there can be black and white on each one, too."
"So what do we want them to say?" I ask.
"Well I like what we came up with earlier. Where the front says 'You're reign's about to end.' and the back says 'Cuz Marion's here to defend.' What do you think Brooke?" She turned away from my laptop and looked to Brooke, who was currently on her phone smiling and giggling, no doubt texting Dallas even though he was in the other room. "Okay, Anthony?"
"It's great. Yeah," He mumbled as he yawned. Ally turned back to me and laughed under her breath.
"They aren't going to be a huge help. So what do you think?" She asked me.
"I like it. And then on the front we can have a crown hanging of the words and on the back we can have, like, the clashing swords behind it.," I suggest.
"Yeah! I really like that. And the crown and swords can be in black and white and the words will be either blue or yellow depending on the shirt."
"Perfect," I smile. I plan it all out of the website for the blue shirt and we both pause to study it.
"There's something missing," Ally mutters.
"I know. Um, what if we put 2014 on the bottom of the back?" I ask.
"That's it! Austin you're a genius." She wraps her arms around the back of my shoulders in a quick awkward hug and e laugh as I add it in. "This is too perfect," She claims.
"Let me just copy and paste onto the yellow shirt, and... Done!" We stand back to admire the work and cheer. After placing the orders for 750 shirts we reside to the kitchen with Dez, Margaret, Dallas, and Sarah.
"We finished," Ally announces.
"Can we see?" Sarah asks. Ally and I both shake our heads and laugh.
"It's a surprise. You have to wait until Friday," Ally explains.
Dez leans over and whispers to Dallas.
"Austin and Ally are plotting against us."
Dallas nods and chuckles as he mixes something in a bowl.
"Austin and Ally. The T-shirt making Dynamic Duo."