Disclaimer: Almost forgot this! I don't own them, the TV does [grin]
Summer doesn't last forever—even in Playa Linda. It is the first day of school.
As Bradin strolls into Playa Linda High, skateboard in hand, he can't help but notice all the expensive cars parked in the parking lot. One of the convertibles reminds him of Sarah's car, except that it can't be, because she had gotten sent off to boarding school after the Mexico escapade. The rest of the summer had been comparatively uneventful.
In the absence of Sarah, Bradin managed to meet a couple of other kids from around the area—though none of them were anything more than acquaintances.
Much to his disappointment, he also didn't see Lea around since the morning at the café, according to Callie, she had gone on a last vacation with her family before school starts.
He silently watches the students milling about the sunny campus. The place looks like a scene from a movie made for teenagers starring pop stars and heart throbs.
Bradin makes his way towards a row of metal lockers to look for his own.
He doesn't really have anything to put in it, seeing as how it was the first day of school and they don't have any books yet. But Bradin feels awkward just standing there, and there is still 15 minutes until first period—even being from Kansas, he knows that being the first kid in the classroom makes you anything other than cool.
He turns his locker combination as slowly as possible as he scans his surroundings again. The walls are covered with colorful posters ranging from Chess club meeting notices to football tryouts posters.
Football. He used to play sports at his old school, and in his head he contemplates joining the team here, Jay had warned him that surfing will dull out once winter rolls around.
As Bradin stuffs his bagged lunch into his locker, he notices that the hallway had erupted into an excited buzz. He takes a step back from his locker to find out what was going on.
A tall, lean but defined figure saunters towards his direction from the opposite end of the hallway. Bradin focuses his eyes, and recognizes the form—it was J.B., the guy he met with Lea at the café before.
J.B. gives guys high-fives as he ambles down the hallway, varsity jacket hanging over one arm, groupies in wake. It didn't take Bradin long to figure out that J.B. was the big man on campus.
Sure enough, Lea is at his side, looking very sweet in a denim skirt, mint- colored off-shoulder top and sneakers. She looks slightly more tanned than when Bradin last saw her, and her bronzed skin seems to glow in the artificially lighted hallway. Behind them trails a group of averagely good looking students, and altogether they look very much the proverbial popular kids.
Lea arrives at school with J.B. half excited but half dreading class. Don't get her wrong, she likes school, after all, she is smart.
But organized education seems like such a waste of time to her, she really could care less about molecules and the easterly winds when there are volumes of classic literature waiting to be read.
Lea heads towards her locker, saying hello to a couple friends on the way. When she arrives at the metal tower, she opens the locker without bothering with the combination.
"How'd you do that?" An vaguely familiar voice descends towards her from nearby.
Lea pulls her head out of her locker and looks around.
Bradin shuts his own locker door, revealing himself to Lea.
"Hey, Bradin!" Lea greets him with a classic smile. "We get assigned the same lockers every year... so," she pulls her locker door back to expose to Bradin the inside of the lock, which was jammed with hardened gum, "I jammed mine to stay unlocked. I never keep anything other than books in there anyway and if anyone wants to steal my calculus book, they're welcomed to it—gives me an excuse not to do homework."
Bradin gives her a look of feigned reproach, "Aren't you just the juvenile delinquent."
"I know, I know, it's really pathetic. I'm ashamed at my own elementary level of vandalism." Lea rolls her eyes in self-disgust.
"So is the entrance performance an everyday thing?" Bradin kids lightly.
Lea gives him a puzzled look as she sips from her coffee tumbler.
"You and your boyfriend taking the red carpet walk?" Bradin knows that Lea couldn't be so modest that she didn't know that she and J.B. are at the apex of this little high school hierarchy.
"Boyfriend?" Lea's bewildered expression is most convincing.
A moment of silence passes by, then Lea burst out into laughter, "Oh my god, J.B.? No no no no! Ugh, NO!"
And now it's Bradin's turn to be confused.
When Lea finally calms down, she is teary-eyed from laughing so hard. "J.B.," she pauses again to stifle a giggle, "J.B. is my brother!" Then her face takes on a slightly disturbed look at the thought of dating her own brother.
"Wha—?"
"That J.B. right?" Lea gently turns Bradin around to point at the boy who is standing a slight distance away from them, still surrounded by a horde of groupies. Bradin felt a slight tingle down his spine at her soft touch, and he could smell the apple scent of her shampoo.
"My brother, J.B. Noel. He's a senior, he plays on the basketball team. His friends are a little stereotypical, but they're nice enough."
Bradin raises one eyebrow.
"Oh please, you scarcely look the high school outcast." Lea retorts as she brushes off the silent accusation. Judging from Callie's reaction to the boy, she is sure that Bradin will have his own following by the end of the day. "I'm sure girls will be falling over themselves over you." Lea flashes Bradin a good-natured grin.
Bradin suppresses the urge to ask if Lea feels that way too. Instead he nonchalantly mentions, "So if it's not J.B., who's the lucky guy?" Bradin is leaning against his closed locker as Lea tosses random objects into hers.
"I don't know if I'd call him lucky, but in any case, he's nonexistent. I don't have a boyfriend." Lea dismisses the question.
Bradin looks at the pretty girl, truly amazed at how she is really oblivious to all the looks that guys are giving her as they passed her in the hallway. Before he can catch his own bluntness, it spills out of his mouth, "You're kidding?"
"Hardly," Lea answers with a slight huff, "probably because I don't put out." She catches herself at the beginning of a rant, "but I'm sure you don't want to hear about my strangely feminist ideals about sex and romance, plus there's only 8 minutes before first period, so I'll spare you."
Lea reaches into the back pocket of her denim skirt and pulls out a folded piece of paper to examine. She glances at Bradin and the realization that it is his first day in this zoo suddenly materializes, "Hey, do you know how to get to your class?" She asks kindly.
Bradin looks at his own schedule, "Uh... Economics?'
"Andersen?"
Bradin nods in accordance
"Me too!"
"It must be my lucky day." Bradin smiles dryly.
"Actually, it's not. Andersen's the oldest, most boring, and ultimately loveless teacher in this school. I was hoping not to get him." Lea wrinkles her nose as she slams close her locker and leads the way towards their classroom.
As the day went by, it turns out that they also had third period biology together. Lea was right about Bradin attracting attention himself, and they didn't get to talk much at lunch, to Bradin's dismay. There are lots of good looking girls at his new school, and he can't say that he doesn't like their attention, but after seeing Lea first thing in the morning, everyone else paled in comparison.
It was also tiresome how he got the new kid treatment, even though he had anticipated it. He couldn't help but think about how Lea would just talk to him, while everyone else seemed to be fishing for answers, to see if he's the right type they want to include in their group.
Before he knew it, Bradin was crossing the quad towards his last class when he noticed Lea heading in the opposite direction towards the parking lot.
"Dipping into juvenile delinquency?" He smirks as they brush pass each other.
Lea looks up at him and blinks innocently, "Whatever do you mean?"
"Tell me which sixth period class is held in the parking lot, I'd like to switch into it too." Bradin replies—Lea isn't the only one who can come up with good quips.
Lea chuckles, "I have sixth period P.E.—they arrange it that way for the kids who play on sports teams so it doesn't cut into class periods when they have to leave for away games. But since all the kids get their physical activity at practice after school anyway, it's more like a free period. We usually just hang out in the parking lot." She explains as she jingles some car keys in her hand.
"So what are you, like a cheerleader?" Bradin does some quick deducing in his head—popular pretty girl, it seemed like the right formula.
Lea's eyes widens in a mix of dismay and hilarity, "No, I'm not like a cheerleader. I run cross country, at least in the fall."
A couple stray students pass by, the boys give Lea appreciative looks, one of them even whistles, and Bradin had to fight down an urge to glare.
Lea merely rolls her eyes, smiled dryly and says hello to her peers, she turns back to Bradin "They're on the basketball team with J.B., they enjoy making my life miserable."
Bradin is blown away by her naïvete, but finds it desperately attractive at the same time. "Yeah, sure."
Before the conversation goes on any further, the bell rang, "Tardy on your first day, Westerly! Be glad I'm not a hall monitor!" Lea calls over her shoulder as she strolls off towards the parking lot.
Bradin shakes his head as he quickens his pace towards his classroom. When were those football tryouts again?
a/n: Present? Past? Is my grammar so horrid that it makes my story not understandable? Bradin and football hmm. Truth is, I can't remember if he plays basketball or football, I just remember that Ava wanted to send him to some sports camp... and I remember that it wasn't soccer. But hey, he can be on both the basketball and football team.
