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Chapter 1 - The New Kid
"Oh, hun, you'll do fine," Liz Harrington told her son as Principal Matsui showed them around East High.
"I've looked over your transcripts and I must say you should fit in quite nicely," Mr. Matsui told the boy. He had longish brown hair with blond streaks and tan Californian skin. But his best feature was his eyes, a beautiful green color – too bad they weren't natural, but no one had to know that. He hated his normal eyes, bright blue that made him stand out in a crowd.
"Mom, I don't feel too good," he said, not wanting to meet new people. He had a bunch of friends in California...and Arizona before that...and Colorado before Arizona. His mother never seemed to keep in one state for too long and his father's dream was to live in every state at least once.
"Oh, for heavens sake, just go in and meet some new friends." The bell rang and Liz pushed her son towards the stairs. "I know you hate moving sweets, but this is a nice city. Now go."
He rolled his eyes and looked at his schedule. Ms. Darbus – homeroom. How was he supposed to figure out where that was, the principal hadn't given him a map!
"Hi," said a sweet sounding voice. He turned to see a girl with blond hair and a flirtatious smile. "Are you new?"
"Yeah," he said nervously.
"What homeroom?"
"Darbus, I think."
The girl smiled. "That's mine, follow me!" She giggled slightly before bouncing toward a door at the end of the hall. She was wearing a pink skirt with matching top and lots of make-up. He didn't think she looked bad, she was actually kind of cute.
She walked though a door so he followed. There was already kids in their seats and a larger lady sitting at the front.
"Looks like the mountain lion's got some prey," yelled an African American boy in the second row with an afro.
"Oh, shut it Chad," the girl snapped before turning to the large lady. "Ms. Darbus, this is a new student I found in the hallway."
"Well," Ms. Darbus said looking at the boy. He handed her the papers. "Class I'd like you to meet Christopher Harrington. Now, you can sit in the seat in front of Chad, and boys," she directed to Chad and two other boys, "behave."
"Yes Ms. Darbus," the three said in unison.
"Hey," Chad said to the new kid. He seemed really tense and scared for some reason. "Where you from?"
"California," he answered quickly.
"Nice," Chad said. "Anyway, these are my friends, Jason and Zeke." He pointed to the other two boys Ms. Darbus had told to behave. "Do you go by a nick name or something?"
"Topher," he said, but his eyes weren't on Chad. They were on a girl in the back of the room next to Jason reading a book. She had wavy black hair and he couldn't keep his eyes off her.
"Topher," Chad said. "Hello? You in there?"
"Huh," he said looking around.
"Whatever dude," Chad said shaking his head. "Me and the guys are going to get ice cream after school if you want to come."
Topher nodded and kept his eyes on the girl. There was something about her, something familiar, but he had never met a girl who liked to read so much that she'd read in homeroom unless she had to. She lowered the book right as the bell rang and she rushed out of the room to her next class. Topher stood and watched her as he walked out, unaware that he was being watched carefully by a blond in a pink hat and matching clothes.
Ryan's eyes squinted across the room, he too was feeling a familiar vibe, but his was too the new kid. Topher, he was sure he'd never met someone with that name before, but he looked familiar and his voice sounded familiar. He stood and walked to his next class which he noticed Topher was in. He sat next to the new kid and started a conversation.
"So, Topher is it? Where you from?"
"California, but I'm originally from Alabama. I've lived in half the states."
"That's cool," Ryan said. "I noticed you were quite taken with Gabriella."
Topher's cheeks flushed and he turned away. "Is she your girlfriend or something? I was just curious-"
But he was cut off by Ryan laughing. "My girlfriend? No way! Gabriella and I are just friends. She doesn't date though..."
"Why not?"
"Her boyfriend disappeared about a year ago. No one's seen or heard from him since. And she hasn't had a boyfriend since him."
"Oh," Topher said getting kind of nervous around this kid. "What's your name?"
"Ryan, Ryan Evans."
"Uh huh," he said looking to the front of the room. "When is this teacher going to start teaching," he thought aloud.
"Soon," Ryan said. Topher blushed again. "He's not really the most speediest teacher in the world. What with Troy..."
Topher really didn't like this Ryan kid. He was scaring him. "So what do you do for fun," Ryan asked.
"Uh..."
"Oh come on, I like drama. Chad, Zeke and Jason love basketball."
"I hate basketball," Topher said.
"Baseball?"
"I don't do sports. I'm more of a...writer."
"Do you not like attention?" Topher shook his head agreeing with Ryan's statement. Mr. Bolton walked in and started teaching the class, but Ryan didn't pay attention. He looked at Topher.
There was something about him that made Ryan look twice. He looked like a prep with his button down shirt, but if you just looked at his face he resembled a skater with his long hair. The boy was obviously shy, but a few days with Chad would cure that. But what got him was that he hated basketball, in a school where basketball was life.
There was something fishy about Topher Harrington and Ryan was going to get to the bottom of it.
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