Lunch had started by the time Matt made his way to the cafeteria with Ashley and Mickie. They got their food and looked around for a place to sit.
"Hey guys, let's head outside. It's such a nice day and I need a break from being crowded up indoors," Ashley said.
Matt and Mickie followed Ashley outside and they were able to find a table that was near a big tree. Once they had all sat down, Ashley took out her phone and decided to text the others to let them know they were outside. After she finished that, she and Mickie decided to talk to Matt for a bit.
"So Matt, how have you been liking our school?" Mickie asked.
"It's pretty good here. Next to you two, I've made two other friends today," Matt said.
"That's good. It must've been nerve-wracking as hell to have to move to a new place and start at a new school. Especially after classes have already started," Mickie said.
"Haha. Well, honestly, I wasn't really all that nervous. Neither was my little sister, I just had to worry about my younger brother," Matt said.
"You have younger siblings? That's so cute. What are their names?" Ashley asked.
"My brother's name is Jeff and my sister's name is Alexis, but we like to call her Alex. You both'll actually get the chance to meet the two of them. Their students out here at the school with us," Matt said.
"Really? That's seriously the most adorable thing ever," Ashley said.
"Well, thank you for saying that, Ash. They'll probably be trying to find me, so hopefully, I'll be able to introduce you both to them," Matt said.
"Sounds like it'll be really awesome to meet them. I can't wait for them to come meet up with us," Mickie said excitedly.
"Thanks a lot for helping me out with our poster, Alex. I was afraid I was gonna have to turn in some half-assed attempt at a project," AJ said.
"No problem. It's the least I could do to help. Especially since you were, like, the only person that would talk to me during the whole class," Alex said.
"I can't see why anyone wasn't talking to you. I mean, you're seriously one of the coolest people here. Next to my BFF Kaitlyn, you're one of the only other people I can actually geek out with and it won't be awkward," AJ said.
"Haha. Well, my geekiness is actually influenced by my brothers and our friends back in North Carolina. They would always watch stuff like Pokemon and Transformers and they'd always read Batman and other kinds of comic books, so they decided to let me into their geeky little bubble. And now I'm at the point where the minute I see anything that has either Doctor Who or Batman or Watchmen or anything along those lines, I start to spaz and my rabid geek side comes out," Alex said, smiling.
"And that, my new friend, is what makes you a really awesome person," AJ said, linking arms with Alex.
"I do my best without even trying. I guess it's all natural," Alex said, as she and AJ shared a laugh.
"Are you all sure that your friends will like me? It seems like everybody's been going out of their way to avoid the new kid today," Jeff said as he made his way to sit where his friends were leading him.
"Absolutely. I mean, you're already such an awesome guy, so I'm nothing but positive that they'll like you," Amy said.
"Just like when you were 'nothing but positive' that we'd like those brownies you so kindly made for us that made us sick," Candice said jokingly.
"Hey! For the record, I had no clue that I used too much baking powder and I had no idea I accidentally knocked over some dish soap into the batter. I made it up to you guys with the ice cream, didn't I?" Amy said.
"Yeah, after you practically forced us to sit down and eat it. Which, btdubs, was way better than the brownies," Cody said.
"Well, thank you Cody. Maybe next time I decide to make sweets, I'll just bring them to school for you so that you can share them with your brother," Amy said.
"That won't be very nice, Amy," Melina said, pouting.
"Haha. Don't worry. I'll make sure to share with you all," Amy said laughing.
Jeff laughed along with his friends and thought about getting the opportunity to meet more new people. He was still hoping that somehow Matt or Alex would find him so that he could let them know about his encounter with the two spirits from his gym class. So he was a bit surprised to see Matt already sitting with two other girls. Walking ahead of the others in his group, he headed towards Matt.
"Hey Matt. Since when did you become such a lady's man?" Jeff asked jokingly.
"Shut it Skittles. These are just two friends that are in my English class. Mickie, Ashley, this is my charming baby brother Jeff. Jeff, these two kind ladies are Mickie and Ashley," Matt said.
"Nice to meet you both," Jeff said.
"NIce to meet you too Jeff. And I can see that you already made friends with some of the other crazies in our group," Ashley said as Amy and the others walked over.
"Really Ash? You've got some nerve calling us crazy when sometimes you have your own moments of craziness," Amy said.
"Yeah, like when you were bouncing off walls just because you saw a kitten in the halls one day," Melina said.
"OK, for the record, I can't help it if I love cats. They're so adorable, especially when they're kittens," Ashley said smiling.
"Well, whatever the reason, everyone in our group is some type of crazy. Just so you two know ahead of time so that you can try to run away now," Cody said.
"Haha. Don't worry. All of our friends back in North Carolina were kinda crazy, so we don't mind at all," Matt said.
As Matt and Jeff talked with their newly made friends, more made their way to where the others were sitting. Amy handled all of the necessary introductions, introducing the others to Matt and Jeff. They soon learned that the others were Kaitlyn, Ted, Chris, Trish, John, Randy, Daniel, Derrick, Evan, and Phil, who wanted to be called Punk.
"Well, I for one can say it's awesome to meet you guys," Matt said.
"It's awesome to meet two new people too. But the thing is, this isn't everyone. Punk, have you seen AJ and Maria around anywhere?" Daniel asked.
"I know for a fact that AJ's on her way here, but maybe she got lost somewhere or possibly stepped on. And Maria had to hang behind in Drama to talk with Mr. Sandow," Punk said.
"I wonder why. She's like his best student in that class," Trish said.
"Hey guys. Sorry I'm late, but there was a bit of a jam in the halls," AJ said breathlessly.
"AJ, girl, you look exhausted. You look like you just ran a zombie 5K with no water," Ted said.
"We had to circle around the school because there was a huge jam. But, before I get carried away, everyone, this is Alex. Alex, this is my group of friends who will have to take the time to do their own personal introductions because I am too tired," AJ said, flopping down next to Kaitlyn.
"Hi everybody. It's awesome to meet you all. Hi Matty, hi Jeffy," Alex said as she went to hug her brothers.
"So this is your younger sister Matt?" Ashley asked.
"Yeah. And I know what you're thinking. You're probably thinking that there's no way in hell she could be a teenager, but she's just the kind of person that doesn't show her aging that much," Matt said.
"What Matty said is true. I don't really show my age that well. I mean, it's actually happened a few times today that people have asked me if I was really 10," Alex said.
"Well I think I know why people ask you that," Candice said.
"Why's that, um, Candice, right?" Alex asked.
"Yeah, you're right. And the reason why is because you're so freakin' adorable. Plus, you seem like a really nice person," Candice said.
"Well, thank you Candice. Usually the only people that tell me that are my brothers and my dad, so it's cool to hear that from a new friend, especially one as nice as you," Alex said smiling.
"Aww! You are just being so freakin' cute right now, I just wanna hug you until you can barely breathe," Candice said hyperly.
"Whoa Candi! Just take a breath and calm down. You guys'll have to forgive Candice. She's got a severe weakness for cute things so that's why she seems kinda psycho when it comes to your sister," Chris said.
"We'll make sure to keep that in mind in the future. But if it makes her feel any better, it used to happen at least once a week back in North Carolina, one of our friends would get psycho whenever Lexi would do something they deemed cute," Matt said, hugging Alex.
"Yeah. Like I remember one Halloween, we had Alex dress up as a Pikachu and she got a whole mess of candy too. And this was when she was 5," Jeff said.
"Aww! That sounds even more adorable! You guys definitely have to show me pictures when you guys can," Candice said excitedly.
"Haha, we'll be sure to do so, but I kinda have to talk to Alex and Matt about something private, if you guys don't mind," Jeff said.
"Oh sure, we don't mind," Amy said.
"Thanks. We won't be gone long," Jeff said, standing and pulling Matt and Alex towards the school building with him.
Once the three were out of earshot, Amy said "OK, I don't know about you guys, but I seriously think those three are some of the coolest people here. And they've only been here for just today."
"I agree. Alex is definitely a cool girl and her brothers are pretty awesome too. Maybe we should let them be permanent parts of our circle," Ashley said.
As soon as Matt, Jeff, and Alex were in the school building, Jeff led them to an empty hallway.
"OK Jeff. What's so important that we had to get ripped away from all of our awesome new friends?" Alex asked.
"Well, there's kinda two things I gotta talk to you two about," Jeff said, staring at the ground.
"I have a feeling this is something spirit related, so lay it on us," Matt said.
"OK. Henry, Thomas, I'm with my sister. You two can come out now," Jeff shouted.
"It's about time. We were getting bored waiting for you," Henry said, as he and Thomas appeared.
"Plus, he wouldn't stop pacing around being worried about whether you were really being truthful about helping us pass on," Thomas said.
"Anyway, moving on, thanks for doing this for us. We're ready to be united with our friends and families again," Henry said.
"It's no problem. Now, I just need you two to stand in front of me," Alex said, which Henry and Thomas did. "Now, I need my pendulum and let me do my work."
Taking her pendulum out of her skirt pocket, Alex began to swing it around all while she said a series of words, only loud enough for her to hear. As she swung it around, the heart-shaped stone began to glow an array of different colors. Once she had finished her chant, she stopped spinning and watched as a shaft of light shone down on the two spirits. The light circled them, causing Henry and Thomas to look up smiling as they began their ascent upward. Before they were completely gone, Henry looked to Alex and said "Thank you so much for doing this for us, little one."
"No problem. Have a restful and peaceful eternity you guys!" Alex said, before the two were completely gone.
Once the spirits were gone, Matt turned to Jeff and asked "That was reason number one. What's the second reason?"
"The second reason is that I may have kinda used my ability during second period," Jeff said.
"Could that be the reason why you keep trying to hide the fact that your ankle's killing you right now?" Alex said.
"Yeah. I only did it to help a friend out. You see, Amy got hurt bad while we were playing soccer, so I decided to use my ability to help her feel better," Jeff said, staring at the ground again.
"It's OK that you decided to help, but you should learn to be a bit more careful with how you choose to use them. Now, come over here. Just be lucky that I know how to use my pendulum to heal stuff like this," Alex said, as Jeff limped over to her. Crouching down to be level with his ankle, she lifted the still glowing stone and, placing it on his ankle, said a few words and watched as the stone glowed red. Jeff hissed at first, feeling the stone heat up, but then let out a sigh of relief when he began to feel his ankle feel better. Once Alex saw the glow in the stone disappear, she lifted it from Jeff's ankle and put it back in her pocket. "Does that feel any better?"
Taking the chance to walk around to make sure he was feeling fine, he looked at Alex and said "Yeah it does. Thanks so much Lexi-chu. You really are one of the best sisters in the world."
"No problem Skittles. I'm sure if I was hurting, you'd do the same for me," Alex said.
"Now let's head back out to the others. They're probably curious about why we left," Matt said.
"That's not the only reason why you wanna head back. You wanna go talk to Amy some more," Alex said, causing Matt to blush and Jeff to laugh.
"That's not true at all Alex," Matt said.
"Yeah Matty. We can tell from the way your face is slowly turning into a tomato," Jeff said laughing.
"Let's just go back to our friends while we still have time to talk to them all," Matt said, speeding away.
Once the three made their way back to where they left their friends, they saw that another person had joined up with their friends. Upon seeing the three, Trish and Mickie waved them over to them.
"Oh you guys. You have perfect timing. We have another person we want to introduce you to. Maria, these are the three kids that just started today, Matt, Jeff, and their sister Alex. You guys, this is our friend, Maria Kanellis," Melina said.
"Hi Maria. I'm Matt," Matt said.
"Nice to meet you Maria. My name is Alex and, yes, I do look pretty young to be in high school, but I'm a freshman," Alex said, shaking Maria's hand.
Jeff was awestruck at his first glimpse of Maria. He was enamored by the fact that she was so beautiful, from the way her dyed red hair fell down her shoulders to the way she wore her outfit, which was a pink and black striped shirt, a pair of shorts, and a pair of pink Converses. He didn't know what to say, so he felt a jolt of shock when he felt Alex shaking him.
"Jeff? Are you OK? Maria's been trying to talk to you for the past few minutes now," Alex said.
"Huh? Oh yeah. Hi Maria, my name's Jeff," Jeff said.
"Nice to meet you Jeff. The same goes for your brother and sister too. You guys seem awesome already and I can't wait to get to know you all better," Maria said smiling, leaving Jeff a blushing mess.
The group talked more, while all Jeff could do was sit in wonder and sneak a few glances at Maria. He had a feeling that a relationship with her would never work, but he was at least glad to have her as a friend. It barely seemed like hours passed, so it was a surprise when the group had to split up and head to their own separate classes. As Jeff made his way to his third class of the day with Chris, Ted, Zack, Punk, and Daniel, all he could think about was Maria Kanellis and how it would feel to be with her.
I've finally gotten around to introducing Maria into the story and she's gonna play a big part in some of the later events of the story. Read and review please. =)
