"Good morning Mrs. Hodgekins!" Jesse said as he waltzed into his first period history class fifteen minutes early. She looked up from her incredibly massive history textbook in surprise.
"Well hello there, you're quite the chipper one this morning and earlier than expected, I'm impressed. Any particular reason for this unusual euphoria?" she questioned. Jesse smirked.
"I don't know maybe…" he said wide eyed. She looked at him from underneath her wire rimmed glasses.
"Well whatever it is I hope you were equally zealous about doing the homework last night." Jesse looked her skeptically.
"Yea…sure…the homework…" he replied while openly indicating that he hadn't even written down the homework much less done it. Just before the thought of handing out numerous demerits to Jesse crossed Mrs. Hodgekin's mind another student walked into the room. Jesse looked up at the stranger who for some reason seemed vaguely familiar. He had shaggy chestnut brown hair and blue eyes and a certain swagger to his walk. Jess could have sworn that he had seen this person before but couldn't seem to match face to name.
"Mr. Pacy if I'm not mistaken you were supposed to be here 10 minutes ago. Your habitual lateness is going to land you in detention." The professor remarked.
"Yea, yea but I actually have an excuse this time; you see my car broke down on the way here and…" Jesse stood up and interrupted him.
" Tyler?!" he exclaimed. The boy turned around and looked at Jesse. After brief moment of confusion a smile spread across Tyler's face. The two hugged each other.
"Jess how have you been man!? It's good to see you bro! When you left Miami I thought you were gone for good! How are you? What are you doing here?!" Jesse stuck his hands in his pockets and leaned back against his desk.
"I've been good! How have you been bro? I haven't talked to you in nearly 6 months! When I left home I didn't think I'd be seeing anyone from Miami again either but I ran into Cassie over the summer and now you, this is crazy! I'm here because my parents got back together and the family wanted to move to New York. Tanner and Cali are in college together now and yea its pretty insane man. How'd you get stuck here?" he inquired.
"Hah you know my mom, she thought my weekends were out of control so she sent me up north to live with my Dad and he shoved me in this place. Bunch of stiffs if you ask me but hey we can show these losers how to have a little fun right?" he said while playfully punching Jesse in the shoulder. Jess looked away from him.
"Look Ty I'm not really about that whole party scene anymore. I…I just…after what happened…I can't…plus I have a girlfriend now and my family doesn't really trust me anymore so I've got a lot to earn back you know?" Tyler looked at him disbelievingly.
"Are you serious?" he asked. Jesse nodded.
"Yea man…I'm attached and sober now. Pretty intense huh?" he said grinning. Tyler laughed.
"Well if my best friend since third grade is really giving up the party life…I guess I should too… bros of a feather…" He said as he pounded Jesse's fist.
"Stick together." Jess replied. The two boys walked to back of the class to continue their conversation just as the first period bell rung. The rest of the fifteen person class filed in and Mrs. Hodgekins began her lesson. Jesse and Tyler passed notes to one another via anyone who was unlucky enough to sit in between them. Jesse opened the first crumpled piece of paper Tyler had thrown at him and struggled to read his friend's horrendous handwriting.
"So who's this girlfriend of yours? Is she hott enough for me to steal from you?" Jesse flipped Tyler the bird across the room in response. Tyler eventually got Jesse's reply via three people.
"Her name's Jen you douche and we've been together for nearly 2 months now. Hands off asshole, I'm serious." Tyler smirked at Jesse's still obnoxious attitude.
The two had known each other for most of their lives. Back in Miami they would spend weekend after weekend going out to parties and picking up girls to hook up with and dump within twenty four hours of meeting them. He was surprised at the somewhat serious tone in Jesse's voice when he spoke about his new found girlfriend. The idea that he had actually managed to involve himself in a real relationship was uncharacteristic of the girl crazy friend he had known for nearly 13 years. He tore of another piece of paper from his notebook and scribbled down another message quickly enough so that Mrs. Hodgekins didn't catch him in the act. As soon as she passed his desk he gave the note to an irritating blonde girl sitting in between him and Jesse.
"Hey could you give this to that guy over there." He whispered. She flipped her hair and took the note in her hand.
"It depends, what's his name?" she said while chewing her gum loudly. Tyler rolled his eyes.
"Who Jesse? Why do you care? Just give it to him." He insisted. The girl smirked and before handing the note to Jesse, erased what Tyler had said, and wrote a quick "We'll talk later. Call me." and her phone number its place. She then turned and winked at Jesse to get his attention. He glared at her.
"Do you want something?" he asked rudely. She was surprised by the edge in his voice.
"Um…yea here your friend wanted you to have this …" she lied. Jesse stared her down.
"Okay cool that's none of your business, so can you hand it over I don't have all day." he grumbled then reached over and snatched the note from her. Feeling hurt and surprised by Jesse's impoliteness the girl sat back in her seat and didn't bother to come in between Jesse and Tyler for the rest of the period. Jesse reached down into his pocked and pulled out his cell phone. He quickly entered Tyler's number into his contact list then gave him a thumbs up from across the room. Tyler looked at him confused but disregarded Jesse's randomness and went back to taking notes.
At the end of the period Jesse and Tyler made plans to hang out after school.
"Do you want to head over to Starbucks with Jen later? I'm sure she'll be happy to meet you." Jesse said. Tyler nodded.
"Yea sounds great man! I didn't know she went here…I tried asking you about it earlier in class but you just gave me a thumbs up so I wasn't sure of what that was supposed to mean." Jesse looked at him confused.
"What? You never asked me that…you just gave me your cell number and told me to call you so I figured you wanted to talk about it later." Tyler raised his eyebrows.
"Uh…no…I think that annoying chick messed with the note I sent you cuz that's not my cell number dude. I think she was trying to hit on you." He said laughing. Jesse looked at Tyler in disbelief then whipped out his cell phone and looked up the number to delete it. Tyler stopped him.
"Wait I have a better idea…" he said mischievously.
Jesse and Tyler were infamous at their former school for pranks and now that they were back together, Rockwell Academy was in for the worst. The two boys snuck into the faculty photocopying room and grabbed a piece of paper. Tyler took a black sharpie and wrote the girls phone number and under it
"Looking for a one night stand? Call Me!" then shoved it into the photocopier and made enough copies for the entire school.
Jesse couldn't stop himself from laughing. Tyler grinned and handed Jesse half of the stack of papers.
"Do you have a free block next?" Jesse nodded and picked up a box of thumbtacks.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" he said beaming. "Let's do it as soon as class starts that way no one will be around to see us make magic happen." Tyler replied. Jesse shook his head and laughed.
"It's good to have you back man." he said as they slapped hands.
"Couldn't have said it better myself." Tyler replied as they both walked out and began posting fliers on every inch of free wall space in the nearly empty hallway.