Chapter 2

Presents, Food, and Old Friends

"What was up with you running away from us earlier?" Trevor asked as he rudely came into my room. Blushing and turning away when he noticed that I was changing.

"You could have knocked. This is my room you know?" I snapped back, having had quite enough of my brothers for one day.

He paused for a moment, noticing the tone in my voice he was careful on how he picked his next words." What did we do wrong?" he asked. I pretended that I didn't hear him as I slipped a sleep shirt on over my Nightmare Before Christmas pajama pants.

"Please tell me, so I can fix it," he said almost pouting.

"WHY DO YOU BOTH HAVE TO LEAVE ME! Don't you get it? If you both leave I will be left all alone, and probably end up with another person like Sam. You do remember Sam don't you? The one that use to hit us," I said with the most dangerous look in my eyes, all my tears being gone from earlier.

Trevor looked taken aback, like all of this was news to him. That him leaving meant I would be all alone. "That could happen, but you need to grow up alone, without taking care of Michael and me. What makes you think that this family won't be your last one? That you could live the next few years with a mother and father," Trevor said stepping closer to me. "How about this sanorrio; what if getting rid of me and Michael gives them more reason to keep you?"

"Hey you really think I am going to leave you alone without knowing that there will be someone else there to torture you every waking moment?" Say Michael as her pulls him self up to the room. "Wow, You got the good room," He states under his breath.

Michael always knew how to make her laugh, and today's drama didn't change that.

"Plus we have a surprise for you," Michael said as he pulled some thing from behind his back. "We know you hate anyone recognizing your birthday, but we had to get you something. So open it up." He said as he tossed it to me.

"Well it is obviously nothing breakable'" I said my spirits lifting as I poked fun at my brother.

As I pulled the wrapping paper off of the small box I started wondering wildly how the got the money to get me a present. "It's a jewelry box?" I said. Almost scared to see what was inside. When I lifted the velvet top I saw something that made me want to laugh and cry at the same time. It was a Love True Waits ring (ok for those of you that don't know what this is, it is a ring or charm that makes a promise to God and your parents (in this case her brothers) that you will wait till marriage to have sex)

"Thank you guys so much!" I said as I gave them both a huge hug, slipping the ring on my finger.

"It's your birthday, you needed something. And I know something we all need and that is sleep," said Trevor, always the big brother. "Happy Birthday, and don't worry it will all work out." He said as he left the room.

"Go to sleep squirt, you need some growth sleep," Michael winked as he walked from the room closing the door behind him.

Next Morning

I had woken up early, earlier than anyone else. So I decided to cook. I thought what the hell, it's not like it is going to lose me brownie points with the family. It didn't take me to long to find the stuff I needed to make chocolate and blueberry pancakes, my specialty.

After about thirty minuets the aroma started to spread, and it sounded like a stamped for up stairs. Surprisingly the first one down the stairs was Mrs. Camden. "I. Love. You. I haven't woken up to the smell of food since I was a kid and my mom was the one cooking," she said as she smelled the air. "You must have been up at 3 AM this morning to be this far at this time!"

"Ya, she's our early riser," said Michael as he came down the stairs in his boxers and Pink Floyd T-shirt. Ruthie came down the stairs, and ran back up blushing.

"Michael go put some clothes on you already scared away Ruthie," I said, knowing that Michael never had good comebacks this early in the morning. He also knows that and glared at me but went to change none-the-less.

As I started serving up the pancakes I was glade that I had made enough for 20 people, it seemed like there were people coming out the walls, and all the guys seemed to have appetites like my brothers.

"Ahh! Taylor I see you are trying to bribe them with food," Trevor said as he came from the living room. "And it is pancakes, she must really like you. The last people she made this for made it a habit of letting her get up first so she could make it for them."

After everyone was finished I started to clean up, but Mrs. Camden stopped me. "Don't worry about it, I need something to do while I'm hear all day, we cleaned everything for you and no one has had time to mess it up yet'" she said smiling. "Just go get ready and I will get Simon to take you and Michael and Trevor to school with him."

"Thanks," I said as I ran up the stairs to get some clothes on. I wanted to make a statement, show every one how different I am, and I had the perfect outfit for doing just that. I grabbed my Glass Intrepid shirt and my black and white striped tie and skirt, with a pair of black dickies pants and my black Emerica shoes.(Glass Intrepid is a local band in Houston Texas, and Emarica shoes are for skateboarding; yes I skateboard, just not very well.) Adding the last touch I grabbed my guitar pick charm bracelet, and spike black necklace.

Running down the stairs my strait brown and blood red hair flying up behind me.(If this isn't how you thought of her I'm sorry, but it is what she is going to be like in this story) I ran smack into some one that I didn't get to meet last night.

"Oh, hey you must be Taylor, the girl that is living with the Camden's. I'm Peter, Ruthie's friend," He said as he helped me up from the stairs. But before I could answer him back I heard a voice calling up the other stairs saying that anyone getting a ride needed to hurry, and Peter ran up the stairs.

"Why is it that it is imposable to have a full conversation with people in this house?" I asked myself as I walked through the living room into the kitchen.

30 minuets later

It was just what I expected, tall brick building with the words Glen Oak High School mounted at the top. Just another school, another group to hate me.

"So, what do ya think?" asked Simon as he came up behind me with Trevor and Michael not far behind.

"It's smaller than my last school," I stated simply as I mounted the stairs. What Simon didn't know was that I had gone to school with these people before, granted it was tree year ago. Maybe Dylan and Luke will be here. They were some of the only friends I made at any school that didn't forget me once I left.

As I entered the doors there he was the finest guy I had seen in a long time. He had black shaggy hair that was half covering both of his amazing crystal blue eyes that shined as he laughed.

BOOM…I ran into something or from the sound of it someone. I closed my eyes waiting for the painful impact of the cold marble floor, but instead I felt someone grab my arms to steady me.

"Three years, and you still haven't changed, still the clumsy girl I meet years ago," said a male voice of, obviously a tall guy.

When I opened my eyes I saw someone I hadn't seen in a really long time. "Dylan!" I freaked as I jumped up and gave him a hug. "I see you finally got taller than me," I said jokingly punching his letter clad arm.(Letterman jacket)

"Who's your pretty friend Dylan?" a slightly deep voice from behind me asked. To my delight and embarrassment I saw that it was the hot guy that I had been staring at as I came in. Wait, did he just call me pretty?

"This is, Taylor, an old friend of mine, and I would watch out she has some older brothers, so I would keep it down about the pretty thing," he said jokingly. That didn't stop me for punching him again. "Hey, stop, I need this arm."

"They are not that bad it has been three years. What did you think I would let them force me to be alone forever?" I said, looking at the boy. "And what, may I ask, is your name?" I asked, having learned how to control my emotions after years of being told no one wanted me.

"I'm Zen, Zen Thomson," he said with a poor impression of James Bond, raising an eyebrow successfully making himself even hotter. "So if you are new then you need to get a schedule, and it so happens that I work in the office first period. So, my lady, may I walk you to class?"

"Umm, Dylan?" I silently begged him.

"Go. I have to go the other way, but we need to ketch up sometime," he said as he walked of around a corner leaving me alone with Zen.

Looking at his shirt, I knew just how I could start a conversation, so I started to sing softly under my breath:

"turn the radio up and we'll sing
a song to bring you back
turn the radio up and we'll sing
A SONG!

turn the radio up and we'll sing
a song to bring you back
turn the radio up and we'll sing
A SONG!"

"You like Letter Kills?" He asked, a smile spread across his face. Got him.

"Ya, have you seen them in concert? I saw them with Stutterfly a few months back," I replied. Starting to feel happy that we had a same love and that was music.

"No way! I was at that concert, but I got stuck in the back of the club cause we got there late. Where were you?" he stated excitedly.

"I was right up against the stage. Do you remember the girl that yelled 'I'm from Canada too' at the guys from Stutterfly? That was one of my best friends, Shanna," I said.

"What other bands do you like?" he asked.

"Do you have an hour? Or two?" I asked only half jokingly.

"Ha-ha…Oh here we are, we need to talk more; you seem like a really cool person. Wait, how about this? Here is my number, call me sometime," he said as he grabbed my hand and quickly jotted down numbers before kissing it, and walking away leaving me in a daze.

"Miss Guerin here is you schedule, and the list of books you will need," said that lady behind the desk with the sound of someone that was tired and pissed off. I took the two papers off the counter, said a quick thanks and headed out the door to find my first class.

Surprisingly it wasn't that hard to find my first classroom, all the halls were labeled and in order. As I walked into the class I saw Luke sitting in the back corner, his black outlined eyes boring holes through me. "Class," said the teacher. "This is Taylor Guerin; some of you may remember her from a few years back. Is there a seat left?" Scanning the desks I saw something that made me want to laugh, the only seat was next to Luke.

"The only one left is next to Queer McGee," said a blond in the front that had on a cheerleading uniform.

"Watch what you say Miss Day. Is that seat okay for you?" he turned to me and asked.

"Nope," I said with a smile as I hopped over a desk into my seat. "Do you need me to kick her ass after class?" I asked once the teacher went into a long lecture about how to find mechanical advantage. I noticed a small flicker of a smile on his face, but he quickly hid it. "Is everything okay Luke?" I whispered.

"Why are you talking to me?" he asked looking at me, and for the first time I noticed that something had changed in him. His eyes which use to hold a childlike playfulness to them were now dark and haunting.

"You are a friend of mine, so why wouldn't I?"

"That was ages ago; you don't need to worry your pretty head about that," he harshly whispered back. His words made me want to hit him, but I remembered something, something that may help.

"If you don't want to be my friend that is fine, but I just wanted to let you know; I'm still going to go beat that girl up over there for saying that, unless you tell me not to," I said trying to use a calm voice. The bell rang and I knew what I had to do. "Okay then, hope you don't hate me after this, cause I will probably be kick out of school for the week, that must be a record."

As we all filed out the door into the hallway I started making my way up to the girl when Luke grabbed my arm and pulled me into an empty room. "She was my girlfriend," he said quietly. "And when I broke up with her everyone started calling me queer McGee because no strait guy would ever brake up with her."

"There you go, now that wasn't so hard now was it?" I said "There is something else you are hiding from me isn't there." I said when I noticed that when he said it not all of his gleam came back. "You don't have to tell me right now, but I would like to think that you will trust me again. Two years of friendship have to count for something don't they?"