Chapter Twelve: Firsts

Taylor's POV:

My first day of school could've been better, it could've been worse. My teachers made a big deal about the fact that I had recently moved to Cameron from San Antonio. Thankfully, my transcripts and everything were under my mom's name, so nobody knew that I was Jeff Hardy's daughter. At least they didn't know yet. I didn't think it would last more than a few days. By lunch time I was tired of having to explain what it was like to move from big San Antonio to tiny Cameron and was grateful for the reprieve. I went to the cafeteria, and like I promised Amy, I got a yogurt and water before I left.

"I heard her mother is dead and she was hospitalized for a while after she died. That's why she's starting so school so late," I overheard some girl saying on my way out of the cafeteria.

"Just what Cameron needs. Some psychotic reject from the big city," her friend said back to her.

I tried to ignore the talking on my way out. Once I was out of the cafeteria, I went to Mrs. Castille's office. Her door was open and I knocked on the frame.

"Taylor, come in," she said, smiling at me.

I entered the office and closed the door behind me.

"What can I do for you?" she asked.

"I was just wondering. At my old school we were allowed to hang out outside on the campus during lunch and free periods. Can we do that here?"

"You can do that during lunch. You don't really get free periods here," she said looking at me. "How are you adjusting?"

"It's school. I'll be fine."

"I don't just mean to the school. I mean to the town, to your family."

"I'll be okay. I'm getting used to it. It's just different. It's easier with Amy here and Jeff being honest even if it's hard for him."

"If you need to talk, I'm here for you."

"Thanks, but I'm okay."

I walked out of the office and went outside into the sunshine. Finding a tree to hide under, I sat down putting on my iPod, I put on the music I found on iTunes that Jeff had put out wanting to hear what his music was like. Honestly, I tried to eat the yogurt, but I couldn't. I drank the bottle of water, but between all the kids at the school giving me weird looks and spreading stories about why I wound up in their little town and the fact that it was just hard for me to eat in public, I couldn't do it. A few minutes before my trigonometry class was supposed to start, I threw the yogurt out, feeling guilty that I didn't keep up my end of the deal with Amy. Before going into the building, I texted Matt and asked him to meet me at my locker when they picked me up and gave him the number. I had a lot of homework already and I couldn't carry all the textbooks I was getting on my own yet.

Going back into the building, I was putting the iPod away when I bumped into someone and nearly fell over. The person grabbed my arm to steady me. I looked up and saw somebody wearing a lettermen's jacket and cursed in my head. The last thing I needed was to get on the wrong side of either the jocks or the cheerleaders.

"Sorry," I said, politely pulling away from him. "I should've been looking where I was going."

"No, I'm fine," he said to me. "You're the new girl right?"

I groaned inwardly. Here we go again.

"Yep. That's me. New Girl," I said sarcastically with my Texas drawl.

"My name is Collin. What's your name?" he asked me laughing at my sarcasm.

"Taylor. Taylor Adams."

"I heard you're here in Cameron because you lost your Mama. I'm sorry to hear that," Collin said.

I didn't say anything. I just pulled out my class schedule, trying to figure out where my trig class was to get away from him.

"What's your next class?" he asked.

"Trig with Ms. Travis."

"Come on, I'll show you where the class is. I'm in her class. Aren't you a little young to be in her class?"

"I skipped a year."

"So you're a junior like I am?"

"Yeah. I was in advanced classes back in Texas, so they skipped me a year when I made my class schedule."

"That's cool. Obviously, you won't need any help here."

No, I thought to myself as we walked, I just need to find a way to make people stay away from me.

"Nope. I'm good so far. Just a lot of work to catch up on since I've been out of school for a while."

At that moment, a blonde in came up to us throwing herself all over Collin.

"You must be the new girl! I'm Addison and if you need anything to help you adjust to Union Pines, I'd be happy to help you out," she said to me giving me a conniving look.

"Hi Addison. I'm Taylor," I said, placing her voice as one of the girls talking about me in the cafeteria. "But I'm good. The only thing I need to do is get to my classes."

She snatched my class schedule out of my hands, looking it over.

"You're in all honors classes for juniors. Aren't you a sophomore? And why don't you have a gym class?" Addison asked being nosey.

"I'm a junior, actually," I said snatching my schedule back glaring at her. "And I'm not in a gym class because I've been a competitive gymnast for years. They're giving me experience credit for that."

"That's not right! I'm an athlete!" she complained.

I bit my tongue, not wanting to insult one of the cheerleaders on my first day at a new school. Addison quickly composed herself.

"So, gymnastics? Will you be trying out for cheerleading?"

I had to choke back a laugh.

"No. Actually, I'm gonna focus on school and getting to know my dad right now. No more gymnastics for now, no cheerleading. Sorry," I said, giving her an insincere apology.

"Who is your father, anyway?" Addison asked.

I didn't want to answer her, but I remembered I had asked Matt to meet me inside the school that afternoon. Anyone still in the building would see him with me and the whole school would know by tomorrow. I looked Addison dead in the eye, which took me looking up.

"One of the town's more well-known residents," was all I said.

"Right," she said. "You are some loon from Texas, aren't you?"

"Addison. That's enough," Collin said, defending me.

"No, Collin. Haven't you heard what people have said about her? She's here because her Mama died, but before her Daddy brought her here to Cameron she was hospitalized. She's crazy!" Addison went off.

I walked off. I wasn't going to say anything to her. I wasn't getting into this conversation. Finding my way to trig, I made it into the class a minute before the late bell. Getting ready for the last two classes of teachers making a spectacle of me for the day, I took a deep breath and took a seat.

When the day was over, I was relieved, especially since Addison was in my last period English class. Being the new girl in school in such a small school was harder than I expected. As the door to my English class opened I noticed there was a big crowd outside my classroom. I hoped it had nothing to do with me. Then I started hearing some of the comments from outside.

"It's Matt Hardy!"

"Matt Hardy came back to Union Pines!"

He got my class schedule. Part of me was relieved to have him at my classroom to get this over with sooner, but I wasn't going into the middle of that crowd. I made my way past the crowd. People were throwing me glares.

"Taylor!" I heard Matt call to me.

I turned around. He signed a few more autographs and started making his way to me.

"Sorry, Taylor," he said catching up to me. "I didn't think about the commotion I'd cause coming in here."

"That's okay, neither did I when I asked you to meet me in here," I replied to him. "Thanks for meeting me, Matt."

"No problem. Come on, let's get your books and get you home," he said, taking my backpack.

Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Addison and Collin following us. Matt and I made it to my locker and I opened it. He started grabbing my textbooks, throwing them into a gym bag he was carrying. Addison and Collin came up to us. I glared at her, not in the mood to deal with her.

"So is Matt Hardy the well-known town resident that's your father, Taylor?" Addison asked.

"No." I said.

Matt closed and locked my locker before turning around to take in the situation. Collin extended his hand to Matt.

"Matt, my name is Collin Deveraux. I'm a huge fan of yours."

"Hi, Collin. Nice to meet you. Football team?" Matt asked.

"Football and track," Collin said.

"Nice," Matt replied.

"And I'm Addison James," Addison said.

Matt looked from Addison to me.

"Am I missing something here, Taylor?" he asked me.

"Not really. Just Addison trying to figure out my life story while she spreads rumors that I'm some Texas psychopath brought to wreak havoc in Cameron, Matt."

"Cheerleader?" he asked me.

"Yeah."

"I'm just trying to figure out about Cameron's newest resident," Addison said defensively.

"And if she wants to tell you, she will. Until she does, leave my niece alone," Matt said to Addison, giving her the only piece of the puzzle the school was getting about me for now, there was no way to keep that with him picking me up anyway.

"So, wait. Taylor, you're Jeff Hardy's daughter?" asked Collin.

I nodded at him.

"That is so awesome! Can we talk tomorrow at lunch? I'd love to know more!" he said excitedly.

I looked at Matt. I wasn't sure about letting anyone in here. He nodded encouragingly at me.

"Did you see where I was hanging out before I bumped into you earlier?"

"Yeah," Collin said.

"You can meet me there tomorrow during lunch. Alone. I'm still not sure about crowds here," I said.

"I'll see you tomorrow," Collin said.

"Can we go now?" I said looking at Matt.

"Come on, Taylor," he said as we left the building, leaving Collin and Addison arguing about me in the hallway.

Jeff's POV:

I got home around dinner time, bringing dinner home with me. I picked up pizza from the pizza place Tammy used to work at. When I got into the house, I found Amy sitting on the couch jamming with one of my guitars. She looked up when I came in, stopping.

"Hey," she said to me.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to disturb your flow," I said to her.

"This is your house, Jeff," she said, laughing.

"Where's Taylor?"

"Her room. She hasn't come out or said a word since Matt and I picked her up from school. Matt said one of the cheerleaders is starting with her already, but I think there's more. She won't even look at me."

"Can you take this?" I asked, motioning to the pizza. "I'll go see if I can get her to come down for a slice."

Amy took the pizza and went into the kitchen. I went upstairs and knocked on Taylor's door. She didn't answer.

"Taylor, it's Jeff. I'm coming in to talk," I said, opening the door and entering the room.

The lights were out. I could hear music coming from her iPod from the other side of the room. The only reason I could see her was because she was using some of my glow in the dark paints on her canvas. I carefully made my way across the room and gently touched her shoulder. She jumped. I walked back to the door and turned on the lights.

"When did you get home, Jeff?" she asked me, putting the palette on her desk and sitting down.

"A few minutes ago. I brought dinner home. Pizza. Amy's downstairs getting it ready," I said.

She looked away from me and back to her easel and canvas.

"Bad day?"

"This girl is just being a real asshole and then tried acting like a sweetheart to Matt. It's fine. Nothing new in high school."

"Matt went into the school?" I asked a little pissed that he would draw that kind of attention to her.

"I asked him to. I had a lot of homework and my textbooks were too much for me to carry so I texted him to meet me inside. I didn't think about how the other kids would react to seeing Matt Hardy in the halls."

"So they know you're part of the family now. Are you okay with that?"

"They know I'm your daughter and I knew they'd find out pretty fast so it doesn't matter."

I tried thinking what would make her so upset that she would avoid Amy all day like I had. They had been so close and she had even let her in about her problems that she wouldn't talk to me about. Then it hit me. The anorexia.

"Have you eaten today, Taylor?" I asked her gently.

She wouldn't look at me.

"Yes," she said. "Why do you ask?"

"Amy told you she was going to be honest with me. She told me that the two of you agreed that you would try to eat a little a few times a day. Did something happen?" I said, still trying to be non-judgmental, lost as to how to deal with the situation.

Taylor looked at the floor and I knew the look. She felt guilty. She broke her promise and she was avoiding Amy so she didn't have to talk to her. Like father like daughter, apparently.

"Come here," I said moving to her bed and sitting down.

She followed me over and sat next to me. I lifted her face to look into my eyes and kept her hands in mine.

"I can't say that I understand what you're dealing with here. I'm lost. But, I do know feeling guilty well. So why don't you tell me what happened?"

"Amy asked me to do one thing today, Jeff. One thing. And I couldn't do it. I broke my promise to her. How can I tell her that?"

"What did she ask you to do?"

"At breakfast she asked me to eat a yogurt for lunch at school. I got upset and even though I had the yogurt and I was going to, I threw it away."

"Today was a hard day for you. Amy told me that you had a girl starting with you. I'm sure if you told her the truth, that you were overwhelmed, and came downstairs and tried to eat something now, she wouldn't be mad at you."

"How do you know, Jeff?"

"Because Amy likes you and she wants to help you. Getting mad isn't going to help you," I said getting up and holding my hand out to her. "Come one. One slice?"

She looked at me uncertainly. Finally she took my hand and came downstairs with me. We sat down and she apologized to Amy, explaining why she avoided her. Amy accepted her apology even though she told her there was nothing to apologize for. Taylor ate a slice of pizza before asking to be excused to do her homework, which she hadn't done since she'd been painting all afternoon. I let her go with a smile.

"She's a lot like me."

"Yeah. She doesn't like to upset people. She puts a lot of pressure on herself and then it comes out with her hurting herself. Sounds familiar," Amy said.

I looked at her.

"Amy," I started.

"What was that last night, Jeff? Because I know you weren't drunk off of one beer," she asked, interrupting me. "And why did you run out of here like a bat out of hell?"

I took a deep breath. I knew I couldn't avoid this. Amy wouldn't let me and it wasn't like me to be scared of things.

"I left because I was confused and I didn't know what to say to you Amy."

"But what happened before you left? Why did you kiss me?"

"I, I think I'm…" I started, before I just blurted my feelings out. "I think I'm starting to fall for you, Amy."

"What?" she asked me in shock.

"I think I'm starting to fall for you and I wasn't expecting it. It confused me. I was embarrassed that I gave into those feelings with Taylor in my bedroom and confused when you kissed me back. I didn't know what was going on in my head and I don't know what Matt's gonna do if he finds out about this, and I needed to figure this out, so I went to clear my head, Aimes," I started explaining. "We've been friends for so long. I would never want to do anything to mess that up and I wasn't looking for something like that, but all of a sudden, the feelings were there."

Amy just looked at me. I was scared I had just destroyed a really strong relationship that had weathered even her bad break-up with Matt. Even when she wasn't talking to him, we stayed close.

"Amy. Amy, please say something to me," I pleaded with her.

"Jeff, how did this happen? We've been close forever and you've never had feelings before," she said. "Have you?"

"I don't know. I've always been very overprotective of you. You knew that."

"But I thought it was because we were friends."

"So did I… But I see your smile and it lights up the room, like anything that's gone wrong can get better. This is what I feel when I look at you. You make me feel like I'm invincible, like I can do anything."

"This is a lot to take in, Jeff."

"It is for me, too. I wasn't looking for a relationship, Amy. I swear that's not why I let Matt call you. But the longer we've been here together, the more my feelings grew without me realizing it because I've been so focused on Taylor."

"I don't want to rush into something, Jeff. I'm not looking for love."

My heart clenched at her words.

"I understand," I replied, forcing the pain down my throat. "I just appreciate everything you're doing for Taylor. I hope you don't pull away from me because I was hormonal."

"I'm not going anywhere, Hardy," she said smiling. "Go get some sleep. You need it. I'll clean up."

I nodded at her and walked away. In my room, I closed the door and crawled into my bed, trying to figure out what to do about my feelings about a girl that was nearly my sister-in-law nearly a decade before.