Chapter 2

"Maria and Amy," Stephanie shouted. "James is here."

"Be right there, Mom," Maria shouted. She took a look at herself in the full-length mirror on her closet door. She smiled. She thought she looked great for her first day as a junior in high school and in a new school. She walked over to her bed. She grabbed her cell phone and put it in her Coach Tote handbag. She then headed out of her bedroom and into the hallway.

Amy stepped out of her room and into the hallway just as her younger sister did. Amy smiled as she took a quick look at her sister. "Very cute, Ria. Very cute."

"Thanks Aims. You look great."

"Thank you," Amy said. "Let's get down-stairs."

James stood by the front door waiting for his cousins. His cell phone buzzed. He pulled his iPhone from the back pocket of his jeans. He had received a text message. It was from his girlfriend. He smiled. He quickly replied to her.

"All ready on your phone, Jimmy?!" Maria said.

James chuckled. He looked over at his cousins as they came down-stairs. "Sorry, but I have one other number one lady in my life other than you, Ria."

"Well, since I haven't met her yet, I can't tell you if I'm ready to be ousted or not."

"Same here," Amy said.

"You two will love Gail," James said. "I think you'll be besties with her, Aims."

Amy nodded her head.

"Mom, we're leaving," Maria shouted.

"Okay, I'm coming," Stephanie said. She hurried into the foyer from the living room. She went over to her daughters and nephew. She gave her daughters each a hug and a kiss. She then gave James a hug. She refused to let her nephew leave without a hug from her whether he wanted it or not.

Gail Kim sighed as she sat outside in one of the few areas with picnic tables of campus. She sat waiting for her boyfriend. James would have been at school by now, but he had to stop by his aunt and uncle's house first to pick up his cousins. She looked at the clock on her cell phone.

"Impatient this early in the morning?" Madison Rayne asked her friend.

"Sorry, Madi," Gail said. "James should be here by now."

"He'll be here."

"That I know. I just want to see him before homeroom."

Madison smiled. "Have no fear, sweets. He's on his way over now."

Gail looked around. A huge smile came on her face when she saw her boyfriend, James McMahon coming over toward her with two other girls. "Finally!" She teased, as James got closer.

"Hey, I had to pick up my cousins!" James exclaimed.

"Just teasing," Gail smiled. She gave her boyfriend a quick peck on the lips. She then looked over at Amy and Maria. "Hi I'm Gail Kim," She said.

"Hi Gail," Amy said. "I'm Amy and this is my sister, Maria."

"Hi," Maria said.

"It's so nice to meet you two in person," Gail said. "Jimmy has told me a lot of you two. I hope we'll become great friends and annoy him a lot!"

Amy and Maria laughed.

"You three could never annoy me!" James said. "I love all three of you and I'm glad I have all three of you here."

"Yes, it is going to be lots of fun!" Maria said.

"Well, let me introduce you to one of my BFFs," Gail said. She looked over at Madison. "Madi."

Madison smiled as she walked over to the small group. "Madison, these are my cousins, Amy and Maria Helmsley," James said. "Amy and Maria, this is Madison Rayne, Gail's best friend, but a friend of mine as well."

"Hi, welcome, Amy and Maria," Madison said.

"Thanks," Amy said.

The bell for class rang then.

"Oh, no," Maria said, nervously.

"What's up, Ria?" James asked.

"Now that I'm here and the bell has rung, I'm nervous. I don't want to go to homeroom by myself."

"Who is your homeroom teacher?" Madison asked.

"Um, let me look at my schedule," Maria said. She pulled her schedule out of her purse and unfolded it. She looked at the paper. "My homeroom is with Ms. Pinney."

"That's the same as me," Madison said.

"Are you a junior too?"

"Yes. Are you?"

"Yeah."

"Oh, maybe we'll be in some of the same classes," Madison said. "Come on, I'll take a look at your schedule when we get to homeroom."

"Okay," Maria said. She looked at her cousin and older sister.

"Go head, hun," Amy said. "You'll be all right."

"Oh, yes," Gail said. "Madi will be make sure you find your way around."

"All right," Maria said. "Okay, we'll see you all later then."

"See you later," Amy said.

Madison smiled. She linked arms with Maria and led her away.

Amy watched as her younger sister walked away. She too was nervous herself now. However, she knew Maria was a lot more nervous that she was. Maria was a little shy sometimes. But Amy hoped Madison would help her out.

"Come on, ladies," James said. "We don't want to be late. Nobody needs a tardy on the first day of school."

"Yeah, that's in a few weeks," Gail said.

"Whatever you two say so," Amy replied with a smile.

"Okay, where do you want to sit?" Madison asked as soon as she and Maria walked into their homeroom classroom.

"Anywhere," Maria said.

"All right, let's seat over here."

The two girls walked over to one of the empty tables and took a seat.

"Let me see your schedule," Madison said. "I want to compare."

"Yeah, sure," Maria said. She still had her schedule in her hand from earlier. She handed it over to Madison. Madison laid it down on the table in front of her. She then pulled her schedule out and too set in on the table in front of her. She then took a few moments to look both the schedules over.

"Well, it appears we have all of the same classes together," Madison said.

"Really?" Maria asked.

"Yeah," Madison replied with a smile. She handed Maria's schedule back over to her.

Maria grinned.

Homeroom was fine for both Amy and Maria. It was the same as it had been at their old school. There were morning announcements, the homeroom teacher handing out papers/forms for the beginning of the school year information for all students, and the homeroom teacher taking attendance making sure each student was where they needed to be.

The first few periods of the day were fine too. Amy and Maria both met new people. Some nice, some not. Or some people faking being nice.

However, when lunch rolled around, Amy and Maria were both happy to not only meet up with each other, but with that of James and Gail.

"Praise for lunch time," Maria said upon seeing her sister, cousin, and cousin's girlfriend.

"Rough first day?" Amy asked.

"Yes."

"Me too."

"Its only the first day, Aims and Ria," James said.

"Yeah," Gail added. "The first day at a school is usually good or bad or sometimes both. My first day here as a freshman was a little bit of both."

"Freshman year can always be those things," Madison said. "But at least it is lunch time and we all can be together for it."

"Yes, of course," Gail replied.

Amy and Maria smiled. They looked over at their cousin. James smiled back at them and gave them a thumbs up.

"All right, let's get some food and find some other people to bug, Gail," James said.

"Looking forward to it."

Amy and Maria followed James, Gail, and Madison to the cafeteria to get some lunch. The five all got in the lunch line right away to get their food.

"God damn, this stupid day," Angelina Love complained to her best friend, Velvet Sky.

"What's up?" Velvet asked.

"Mark won't talk to me at all."

"Did you tell him you were sorry and that everything was a mistake?"

"Yes, but he won't listen at all!" Angelina grunted.

"Do you want me to talk to him?"

"No, I'll get to him myself. He'll eventually talk to me."

"Hey Angie and Vel," AJ Lee said taking a seat at her friends' table.

"Hey, girl," Velvet said. "What's going on?"

"Did you hear that there are two new girls this year?"

"Oh, yeah, James McMahon's cousins, I believe they are."

"Two rich bitches probably," Angelina said.

AJ laughed. "One of them is in a few of my classes. I believe her name is Maria. Maria Helmsley."

"Yes, we have her sister, Amy in our classes. A few of the teachers wanted her to introduce herself and crap. It got annoying in our third class," Velvet said.

"Yeah, I opened my mouth about it," Angelina said. "Mrs. Carter was not happy about that at all."

AJ laughed. "Yeah, we had to hear the same with Maria. It was annoying. She looked like she was trying to be so naïve and shy. We all know girls like her aren't."

"That's for sure," Velvet said. Angelina and AJ laughed.

"Oh, there's Mark," Angelina said. "I'm going to give this another shot." Angelina got up from her seat and headed over to where two senior guys were sitting.

"Goddamn it," Mark Calaway said to his friends, Robert "Bobby Roode".

"What's up?" Bobby asked.

"Angelina is on her way over here again. Just will not take a hint."

"Did you tell her to go back to that SOB she cheated on you with?"

"Plenty!" Mark replied.

"Well, may I?" Bobby asked.

"No, don't steep to her level."

"Whatever, man."

"Hey, James and Gail are over there. Let's go their way before Angelina gets here," Mark said.

"Sure," Bobby said.

The two got up from the table and quickly headed over to where they saw their friends James McMahon and Gail Kim.

"Hey Bobby and Mark," James said as his friends approached the table. "Where have you two been?"

"Everywhere and anywhere," Mark said.

"Well join us," Gail said.

Mark and Bobby took seats at the table. Across from them sat both Amy and Maria as well as Madison.

"Hey Madison," Bobby said.

"Hi. How are you?" Madison said.

"Good and you."

"No complaints. How about you, Mark?"

"I'm avoiding Angelina like the plaque," Mark replied.

"Is she still trying to apologize for her brief fling with Davey Richards?"

"Brief, my ass."

Madison smiled. "I'll say no more."

"Well, let's talk about something else," Gail said. "Have you two met James's cousins?"

Mark and Bobby both took a look across the table at Amy and Maria. The Helmsley sisters simply smiled. Mark and Bobby returned their own smiles.

"Yes, Amy and Maria, this is Mark Calaway and Robert or Bobby Roode. Mark and Bobby, this is Amy and Maria Helmsley. They are cousins and they moved here with their parents, because my grandpa wanted some help from their dad with the family business," James said.

"Hi," Amy said.

"Hello," Maria said.

"It's nice to meet you both," Mark said.

"Yes," Bobby said. "It's nice to meet you finally. James has mentioned you a lot with us just as much as he has with Gail."

"He never mentioned how beautiful you were!"

Amy and Maria looked at each other and both blushed.

"Of course, my cousins are beautiful. My Aunt Stephanie is beautiful. Just like my Grandma," James said.

"It must have sucked having to move all the way from New York," Mark said.

"For me it did," Amy said. "It's my senior year and I had to come to a new school for it. I love you, James, but you are the only reason I was happy about moving. Well, that of your parents and our grandparents as well."

"Oh, totally," James said.

"And you're a junior, right, Maria?" Booby asked.

"Sure am. I was very excited to move here in all honesty. I disliked leaving my friends back there, but like Amy said James is a great reason to be here," Maria said.

Bobby nodded his head.

The conversation between Amy, Maria, James, Gail, Madison, Mark, and Bobby was mainly between Amy and Maria with that of Mark and Bobby. James and Gail kept exchanging smiles as their friends and his cousins had a lot fun of chitchatting. The two both noticed a little spark in Mark and Bobby's eyes of wanting to get to know Amy and Maria better. James knew when his friends were interested in certain girls. The four had only just met, but James knew what was up.