Nick got to the next class pretty early because he was let out early from his other class. He had met Cody in his last class; Cody was a screw off and the class clown, and super loud and outgoing, nothing like Nick. But he was smart too; he didn't make fart jokes, but was able to respond to what the teacher would say with a witty response. Cody was tall, taller than Nick, something like 5'10", and brown hair with streaks and dull gray-blue eyes.
Nick sat in the back again at the beginning of the row and Cody sat to the right of him. They'd said hey and talked for a bit before class started and then Cody jumped right into it. Getting the class relaxed with his jokes, the teacher actually seemed to enjoy it. They had an in-class assignment to do random computer tasks and Cody and Nick talked more then. Nick told him about how he enjoyed music and Cody seemed to enjoy reading or video games.
"Are you new here?" Cody asked.
"Yeah, is it that obvious?" Nick said.
"No, I just wanted to make sure."
"What?" Nick said curiously.
"Well, I used to be 'popular" Cody said with a negative tone, "But I got sick of the drama with those kids so I kind of just stopped hanging out with them, so I'm just starting off fresh."
"That's cool." Nick said.
It was silent for the rest of the class as they finished the in-class assignment.
As they left class Cody suggested they eat lunch together and Nick said sure. Nick hardly knew this kid but was glad that he was making more than one friend today.
Miley walked to her next class following the map. I must look so dumb with this map. Then Miley heard her Pappy's words again. "It'll be scary being a freshman, I haven't been a freshman in a while, but one thing I regretted was letting people get to me. The ones who didn't matter hit me the hardest, because I gave them that power. Don't give them the power." Miley smiled and decided she wouldn't let some upperclassman make her feel stupid for having a map. In all fairness the school was really confusing, she had a right to use a map.
She got to the class and saw Nick sitting in the back again. The tables were the same from their English class just in lines and connected. She sat next to Nick and smiled.
"You don't know how many other people wanted this seat, I had to fight them off." Nick said in a very serious tone.
Miley didn't realize he wasn't serious. "Seriously, who?"
Nick just stared at her and laughed. "I was kidding."
Miley chuckled, "Oh, right, well, so was I." She said, and then laughing more, he laughed along with her. "So, meet anyone else in your other class."
"Yeah, this Cody kid, we're gonna go out to lunch."
Miley's smile dropped, "Cool."
Nick saw that she had been hoping he'd eat lunch with her. "But I'm sure you could come with. I mean, I don't think he'd have a problem. He's kind of new too."
Miley smiled, "Thanks. What do you mean kind of new?"
"It's complicated," Nick said, quickly changing the subject, he wanted to keep talking about her, "What about you? Did you meet anyone else?"
Miley looked down at her fingernails, which she was picking. "Uh," the teacher, Mr. Martin, cut off Miley before she could give him an answer.
"Sorry everyone, but there is a seating chart, just found it so you'll all have to move around again."
Miley and Nick gathered their things and found their seats, it was alphabetical by last name. They were still sitting near each other, but instead of next to her, Nick was behind Miley, who was now in the front row.
Mr. Martin talked for a little about the grading and other class business. "Now, we do about five projects through out the year so I'm just gonna have you guys get in groups now so I know who's with who. And don't think that these are permanent. I'll change them were I see fit."
Before Miley got a chance to turn around and ask Nick the girl next to her asked, "You wanna be my partner?"
Miley didn't have to think and just blurted out, "Yeah." Miley wanted to turn around and say sorry, but she saw that the guy next to Nick had become his partner.
"I'm Emily." The girl said, she had long, dirty blonde hair, with bright blue eyes and a sweet smile.
"I'm Miley." Miley said smiling at her.
"Cool name. Are you new here?" Miley chuckled as she heard Nick laugh too at the question.
"Uh, yeah." Miley said as she began picking at her fingernail polish again.
"Cool. I've lived here my whole life so I'll be like your guide." Emily said.
"You're my second offer." Miley said.
"Really? You must be popular. Most people in L.A. aren't that nice, especially rich, L.A. brats."
"So far I haven't met those kids yet, just you, and two guys, and they're all nice." Miley didn't know this, but Nick smiled when he heard this. "But one of them isn't from around here, so I guess he doesn't count." She said, smiling.
"That's cool, but where are you from?" Emily asked.
"Tennessee." Miley answered.
"Awesome, you're a long way from home."
"Yeah, it kind of sucks still." Miley sighed.
Mr. Martin began talking again, not really about anything, just an overview of the class and then said that the kids were free to pack up. One kid tried to leave but Mr. Martin said the class still had three minutes.
"You wanna get lunch?" Emily asked Miley.
Miley looked back at Nick, "I was actually gonna get lunch with Nick and his friend."
Nick cut in, "But I'm sure you could come too." Miley smiled at him.
"Cool." Emily said.
The next three minutes passed by slowly, none of them really said much. Emily asked Nick a few things, but Nick would usually only respond with one word answers, if he could. Finally Mr. Martin let them leave and they all walked to the parking lot. Nick found Cody's car as Cody had described it: "The big bright blue truck with shiny rims and up way high. It's my baby." It would've been hard not to find.
They got up to the truck and saw that Cody was waiting in the driver's seat. Nick hoped in the passenger seat and Miley and Emily went in the back.
Cody turned around and before he could get anything out Emily blurted out, "Cody?!"
Cody stared at her for a while before he figured it out, "Emily! I haven't seen you since like third grade!"
They both hopped out of the truck and came around to the side Nick and Miley were on, Nick and Miley both rolled down their windows and listened to their conversation.
They hugged and began talking again. "Where have you been?" Cody asked.
"My parents decided to home school me while my brother tried to get his acting career going."
"I'm guessing it didn't really happen?" Cody said with sympathy.
"He was in a couple of things but he kind of realized he wasn't all that happy with acting, he was only like seven when he said he wanted to started acting." They both chuckled and stared at each other for a while.
"Are we gonna eat soon?" Miley asked Cody and Emily spun their heads quick and looked at Miley. "I mean, I'm just thinking so we'll get back in time."
"Yeah, we should probably leave." Nick added.
"Don't worry, I can get us anywhere in under three minutes." Cody said with a devilish smile on his face. He and Emily hoped back in the car and they headed down to the local "plaza" as it was called. It only had a grocery store, a drug store, and a bunch of fast food restaurants. It was a prime location for fast food restaurants; hungry high schoolers would be willing to make the trip for a nice juicy burger or taco.
Cody did in fact get them their in under three minutes, but he did also almost hit a squirrel, two mini vans, and scared the living daylights out of Miley. When Cody parked he turned to his guests and saw that Miley was grabbing onto the seat in front of her for dear life.
"You'll get used to it." Cody said with a chuckle.
"Boy, I'm gonna die before I get used to it!" Miley shouted and then giggled.
Nick looked back at her, "Don't worry, I'll protect you." He said with a smile, she smiled back and Nick began to blush.
"Let's eat, I'm starving!" Emily added.
All four of them headed into McDonalds and ordered; Cody got a Big Mac meal, Nick got a cheeseburger off the dollar menu, Emily got a chicken nugget meal, and Miley just got fries. They paid and sat down at a booth.
"I need to go to the bathroom." Emily said as she set down her food.
"I do too." Miley added as she set her fries down and followed behind Emily.
They went into the bathroom and Emily went in a stall and Miley just stood outside.
"Don't you have to go?" Emily asked from inside the stall.
"No, I just figured that girls usually go in groups to the bathroom, better not mess with the system."
Emily laughed and the conversation didn't start again until Emily came out.
"So, what do you think of Nick?" Emily asked.
"He's nice. I've only known him for a few hours but he's nice."
"Do you like him?" Emily said, and Miley knew it was in the sense of possible boyfriend.
"Maybe, I don't know. I've only known him for a few hours. But I suppose that's more than this other guy in my art class."
Emily looked at Miley curiously through the mirror as she fixed her hair. "This senior in art class out of no where just asked me out, and I said no just because I don't know him. But I don't know, he's cute too."
"Dang, you're just little miss popular aren't you?" Emily said. They both laughed and continued fixing their hair and make up.
Nick had quickly checked his insulin and wrote down the information he needed for his chart to keep track of his diabetes. Cody had asked but Nick just told him it was cause he had diabetes and the conversation died. Then they started talking again in-between bites.
"So, what's up with you and Emily?" Nick asked.
Cody swallowed down a big bite of his burger. "We were like best friends in elementary school and then she just left and I didn't know what happened and that's really it. She's definitely changed, but hopefully not too much. She was like my favorite person ever." Cody said, he then changed the subject, "But what about this Miley, she's cute."
"Yeah, I suppose, wait, what do you mean?" Nick asked curiously.
Cody responded with his mouth full of food, if Nick hadn't been in this same situation so many other times with Joe he would've found it rude. "Most guys I know only offer to protect girls when they think they're worth protecting."
Nick chuckled and couldn't think of an answer. Thankfully he didn't have too because Emily and Miley headed back. Miley sat next to Nick and Emily next to Cody.
Cody looked up at Nick and smiled, Nick already knew what he was thinking and Nick just shook his head.
Miley caught this and asked, "What?"
"Nothing you need to worry about." Cody said.
I hope some of ya'll are sticking with this. I promise it's going to go somewhere SOON. This is really like a novel, slow to begin but hard to stop once it starts getting there. I'm just trying to introduce everyone and get everything settled and then it'll be going places.