1.
Elena had faced numerous nail-biting nervous situations. Reciting a poem in front of her class, talking to her first crush, meeting a new teacher for home-schooling her for a year after her mother's death, going back to actual school in high school, asking out school's junior lacrosse team captain, convincing her dad and aunt to let her come to America for her last school year, and the list could go on and on.
But, standing clueless on an airport terminal in a foreign country, and continent, was a new.
"EL!" Her head snapped to the direction where her name was called (read: shouted). There stood a girl of her age, waving at her. A huge smile lit up on her face after seeing her friend.
She pushed down her headphones to her neck and dragged her suitcase to her friend. "Julia-!" Before she could speak any further, she was tackled into a bone crushing hug by the said girl.
"Oh my gosh! I missed you so much!" The brunette squealed, and Elena laughed in response.
"Jules, I want to squeal back too, but you're crushing my frail bones."
"Oh." Julia moved back with a sheepish smile. "Sorry, but I'm so excited to see you." She said, barely able to control her excitement.
"Me too! I'm even more thrilled to live with you!" The duo started squealing together, attracting everyone's attention.
"Okay, we need to calm down." Elena nodded at Julia, both taking a deep breath. Chatting animatedly, they reached the parking lot.
"I'm so hyped. Wait, you're not studying in an all-girls school, right?" Elena grabbed her friend who was going on about some flirt.
"No babe, why would you think a fun-loving girl like me would go to snob school?" She put her hand in her hips to emphasise her point.
"My lovely Julia Fernandez, please forgive me for questioning the fun loving you."
"It's alright peasant, I forgive you." Both girls burst out in laughter, and started loading up Elena's luggage.
"But seriously, I'm fed up of the stupid princess school that Anna put me in." Elena sighed, leaning back into the passenger seat to get comfortable.
"That woman has your Dad wrapped around her little finger. I'm surprised that you could convince him to let you come here from Germany." Julia pointed.
Elena took out her phone and connected it to the car's speaker. "It's my charm. I hope Seattle's worth the move in." She said, scrolling through her playlist. "Ooh, 5SOS?"
"Damn yes." Good Girls started blasting through the speakers. "And, just so you know you are gonna have the time of your life here." Julia winked at her, and started singing along.
She said to me
Forget what you thought
'Cause good girls are bad girls that haven't been caught
So just turn around and forget what you thought
'Cause good girls are bad girls that haven't been caught
The car stopped near a modest looking two-storeyed house. Elena took a deep breath after stepping out. She looked around and smiled. Weirdly enough she already felt at home in this city.
"Come on, Riley's waiting for us inside."
Elena looked confusedly at Julia, "Who is Riley?"
"Oh she's Raul's girlfriend's elder sis. She lives here with her boyfriend."
"But Raul's in Spain… with his girlfriend…"
Julia rolled her eyes and put her hand on Elena's shoulder, "But that doesn't mean her sister can't be here. Since my parents moved back to Spain, I had to find a place." She shrugged at the German who was still processing everything.
"But when we were discussing this with my father, you said you were living with your grandparents in your parents' house."
Julia sighed, "I would've told you this personally before, but we all know how Anna is. She must've tapped your phone or put spy cams in your room. I couldn't take that risk. She's freak."
"She couldn't do all that… Unless she has connections in MI6."
"Which she doesn't." Julia laughed. "C'mon."
"Is Riley and her boyfriend trustworthy though?" Elena had every right to be cautious, especially after what happened with her mother, she couldn't trust everyone and anyone. Born in a rich household had taught her one thing, you never get rid of deceivers.
"Elena, my parents have met Riley and Troy. If my parents can trust their daughter with them, you know they're good peeps." Julia was correct. Her parents were really strict and protective over her. "Let's go."
Julia grabbed her wrist, took her suitcase in another hand, and started dragging them towards the door.
Elena blinked out of thoughts as she reached inside the house. The entrance hallway was filled with photos. It ended into the living room which was filled with homey colours and modern furniture. From where she was standing, Elena could see the staircase and a utility closet beside it. On her left was the open kitchen. When looked up, one could see a bridge made from one side of the first floor to another.
A couple came out of the kitchen, both of them covered in flour. The girl had short curly brown hair, with shining hazel eyes and a petite figure covered by naturally bronze skin. She had a camera hanging by her neck in a blue case, safe from the flour massacre.
'Explains the pictures', thought Elena.
The guy on the other hand looked lean; he was a blonde, with light coloured eyes, probably purple, and freckles dotting his pale skin. He was wearing oval spectacles. His appearance screamed 'American' at her. Not that she bEleved in stereotypes.
"Hey Julia, looks like you finally brought your friend." The girl turned to Elena, "Hi, I'm Riley. You must be Elena; Jules told us a lot about you." She chuckled at Julia, who grinned sheepishly.
The guy took off his glasses which were covering in flour too. He smiled at Elena, "I'm Troy. To assure you, we're not usually like this." He rubbed his neck in embarrassment.
Elena grinned at them. She was just happy that they weren't prim and proper at all. She was already tired of that environment back in Germany. "Nice to meet you."
"Finally!"
Elena slumped on her bed. She looked around to see the result of her hours of unpacking and arranging her stuff. Actually it didn't take her much time to unpack, as she had only one suitcase. Arranging the stuff in the room, on the other hand, took time.
"Tell me again, why did you bring so less stuff?" Julia asked her, her jade green eyes trained on her smartphone.
Elena shrugged, "I didn't bring much clothes. The bag is filled with books, my other four spectacles, really cute stuffs I had at my study table back home, and a Kindle tablet."
Julia turned to Elena with wide eyes, "You're such a nerd." She shook her head in disbElef. "We need to go shopping tomorrow." And once again her eyes turned to her phone.
Elena rolled her cerulean blue eyes and snatched her friend's phone. "What are you so engrossed in?" She looked at the screen. The Instagram chat box was open. "Who's this wolfboyivanov?"
"Tala Ivanov." Julia blew on her nails, ignoring the doubting eyes of Elena.
She started reading the chats. "He's so hitting on you," Elena opened his account and started scrolling. "He's handsome."
"Whatever, I'm not interested in him." Julia laid beside her.
Elena continued to scroll through the feed until her eyes stopped on one post. There was another guy with Tala. The guy had slate bangs, amused amethyst eyes and small smirk on his lips.
"Who's this, Jules?"
Julia looked her phone screen. "Oh, that's Kai Hiwatari. He's Tala's best friend."
"He's hot." Elena grinned at the picture.
Julia took her phone back, "And popular. Kai and Tala are the co-captains of the soccer team." She opened her camera, "Forget about them, let's click a pic. I want the world to know about my best friend."
They posed, Elena with a peace sign, Julia with a pout. "Bestie's in town. Hashtag bffs. What's you username again?"
" elena1706."
"Kai!" A redhead swiped across the room on a swivel, to the said guy on the couch.
"What, Tala?" Kai grumbled at Tala, who seemed excited for a weird reason.
"Check this out." He showed an opened Instagram post. It was the picture of Julia and Elena, which the Spaniard posted a few minutes ago.
"Who's she?" Kai's full attention was on the smiling girl with narrow blue spectacles, making her blue eyes stand out.
"That's Elena Merkel. She's Julia's best friend, and by the looks of it, a new comer in Crestview High. What do you think about her?" Tala wiggled his eyebrows, and Kai pushed his face back with his hand.
"Stop with the face." He grumbled and went back to his homework.
Tala let out a loud groan, "Oh come on! How long will it take you to get over Hilary? It's been three months."
Three months didn't sound much, unless you count the fact that Kai broke up with his ex at the end of junior year (embarrassingly on the day of junior prom) and senior year was starting next week. They both had a whole summer to move on. Hilary seemed like she did, with the school's quarterback, Tyson Granger.
Kai needed to too.
"Well, she is hot."
A/N: And they're already smitten XD
You already noticed Michael isn't in this fic. It just didn't felt right. Kai and Tala are either good as a duo or in B-Boys. But I also didn't feel like adding new characters (Troy's different).
Riley is also older, 'coz it hit me that the three girls were apparently living alone and are underage. So, as I said earlier no new characters, thus older Riley.
I'm sorry if you guys are disappointed by these massive changes, but I had to correct the mistakes my naïve, younger self made.
Stay safe and keep reading!
Rome.