Chapter 2

Welcome to California

"ALY! Wake up! School!" her mom yelled up the stairs. She sprung out of bed and got ready. She brushed and straightened her long blonde hair, put in black hoop earrings, put on light blue flared jeans, black converse, and a red tank top. She ran down stairs and hopped in her mom's car and rode to school. She walked with her mom into the office and got registered. "Have a great first day honey!" Ms. Dalton gave her a kiss on the forehead and left.

She found her assigned locker and put her shelf in, some magnets, and a Karina poster. 'I can't love myself a little?' she thought to herself. To make it a little less vain, she put up one of Hannah too. "Hey, are you new here?" she heard a voice behind her. She turned around to see a boy with shaggy brown hair, brown eyes, and not the tallest in the world... "Oh, yeah! I'm Aly." She smiled putting some stuff in her locker.

"I'm Jackson Stewart. I'm an eleventh grader." He smiled and shook Aly's hand.

"Oh, I'm Alyssa Dalton, and I'm a lowly freshman." She smiled.

"Really? You look like you could be in 10th. Would you like me to show you to your first class?" he asked.

"That'd be great! I have Mr. Mango in 209 for English."

"Really? So does my sister Miley! You should meet her. I'm sure she'll help you."

Jackson took her arm in his and walked her to her class.

"Here it is! Well, have a good first day, I'll see you at lunch?" he asked.

"Uh, yeah! Thanks a lot!" she smiled and went into the class.

She saw an empty seat behind a blonde girl.

"Is that seat taken?"

"Uh, no. Go ahead." The girl replied looking knee deep in some skateboard magazine.

Alyssa sat down and got out some paper and a Karina pen. Aly laughed to herself about all the Karina stuff she had.

"Hey, is that a Karina pen?" a girl behind her tapped her shoulder.

"Oh, yeah. Do you like Karina?" Aly asked.

"I love Karina! Did you see her in concert with Hannah Montana?" the girl asked.

Well, I didn't go... But I saw it Haha Aly thought to herself. "Yeah! It was really cool."

"Oh! Sorry, I feel so stupid. I'm Miley Stewart and in front of you is Lily Truscott."

"I'm Aly Dalton, I just moved here from Colorado." She smiled. "Oh, Miley! You're Jackson's sister!"

"Yeah, how do you know Jackson?"

"My locker's next to his, and he walked me here."

"Oh! Well, that was surprisingly nice of him."

"I wonder why?" Lilly laughed. Miley laughed too.

"All right class, take out your books and turn to page 35 and Lilly, start reading. Miley you can pick up on pa- Wait, who are you?" Mr. Mango pointed at Aly.

"I'm Alyssa Dalton and I just moved here from Colorado."

"Oh, well, we're reading Romeo & Juliet, I've got an extra copy you can use for today. I expect you to have a copy by tomorrow!" he started to walk to my desk.

"Oh, I have a copy." This made him smile.

"Really, well. In that case, welcome to California!"

Fifth period rolled around and Alyssa walked out of the lunch line with her tray and spotted Jackson walking over to her. "Hey pretty lady. Looks like you survived so far." Jackson smiled. "Oh, yeah." Aly said. Jackson sat at a table and motioned for her to join. Another guy sat down across the table. "Hey Jackson, man Ms. Kunkle is so-" he stopped when he saw Aly. "Jackson, who's your friend?"

"Cooper this is Aly, Aly this is Cooper." He said.

"Nife do meeh yoo." He said taking a bite of a burger.

"Nife do meeh yoo too?" Aly laughed making fun of him.

Miley came up behind Aly and said, "Hey, don't sit with these losers, come sit with us!"

"Uh, I guess so. Is that okay with you?" Aly asked Jackson. "Yeah, I'll see you around I guess then." He looked a little disappointed, but smiled. "Thanks for everything." She said and followed Miley and Lilly to a table across the courtyard.

"So, how are you liking it here?" Lilly asked. "It's cool, the people are pretty friendly." Aly said. Just then Oliver walked up and sat down next to Lilly. "Oliver, did you really need to get 4 sodas?" Lilly asked him. "Of course I did, Jackson challenged me to a belch off!" he said. "Miley. Tell mom over there to leave me alone!" Oliver whined. "Lilly, Oliver eat and be quiet."

"Oh! I almost forgot, Oliver this is Aly, Aly this is Oliver." Miley introduced them.

"Nice to meet you. Where are you from?" he asked. "Colorado."

"Oh! Well, welcome to California."