CHAPTER TWO.

Jess and Randy were walking to their Spanish class when the blonde haired Lauren Weiss stopped them… or rather, stopped Randy.

"Hey, Randy." She smiled at him.

"Oh, hey, Lauren." Randy greeted, smiling at her in a friendly way, "You know Jess, right?"

Lauren evaluated Jess' scuffed Chuck Taylor's, ripped jeans, and black Aerosmith t-shirt, which was over a long-sleeved white shirt. Her cool dark eyes looked at Jess' long dark hair, which was in a ponytail, and she responded, almost a full minute later, "No. I don't think I do."

"I was positive you guys met at my birthday last year," Randy looked mystified.

"Oh-h, right, Jessica." Lauren nodded, "The girl who won the arm-wrestling competition."

Jess forced a smile, "That's me," She didn't like Lauren, she never had, and she never would. No matter how much she tried to, she just did not like her, and she did not get a good vibe from that girl.

Randy would normally pick up on one of Jess' phony smiles right away, but apparently he was being distracted by something else.

"So, what's up, Lauren?" Randy asked, focusing his gaze on the blonde.

"Oh, well, remember how we were writing that article on the ballet club together?" Lauren went back to ignoring the fact that Jess existed.

"Yeah, of course," Randy nodded.

"Well, Ms. Wiseman was talking about assignments for this week, and I was thinking maybe we could work together again."

The newspaper was one of the few things that Jess and Randy didn't participate in together, mainly because Jess had no interest whatsoever in reporting whether the pork stew that the cafeteria served was made of tofu or not.

And Jess didn't mind that Randy pursued it without her, in fact, she thought it was healthy that they had something that they did separately. She also thought he would be a great reporter, and the fact that it made him happy was definitely an upside… but then there was Lauren.

"That sounds like a great idea!" Randy nodded, "Just let me know when you want to get together."

"Oh, don't worry." Lauren squeezed his arm, "I will. See you around, Randy… bye, Jessica."

"See you, Lauren." Randy then looked at Jess, who was giving him a strange look, "What?"

"What, what?" Jess looked away from him.

"What was that look?" Randy raised his eyebrows.

"What look?" Jess looked at him innocently.

"You know, that whole thing where you answer all my questions with "what-insert-object-here", when you're trying to distract me? Yeah, it was cute at first, but after 13 years, it's getting a little bit old." Randy smiled slightly, "What's bothering you, Jessie?"

"Nothing's bothering me," Jess replied, "Seriously, Randy, I'm fine."

"My dad says that when a sort of girl person says they're fine, it means they're not." Randy informed her as they sat down in their seats in the Spanish classroom.

"Randy, your dad is, like… more of a father to me than my dad will ever be, and I adore him, but are you really going to start taking advice from him on—" Jess suddenly looked slightly annoyed, "A sort of girl person?"

Randy chuckled, "You have a point there, Jess."

"I do, do I?" Jess raised her eyebrows at him expectantly.

"Yeah," Randy nodded, "I definitely shouldn't start taking advice on girls from my dad."

Jess shook her head, sighing. Some things would never change with Randy.

After school, Jess' older brother, Nick, caught up to Jess and Randy. Nick was a good 6 feet tall at age 17, and he had the same curly dark hair that Jess had (though Jess' was always constricted by her elastic band). And just as Jess had become Randy's best friend, Nick had become Brad's.

Both Nick and Brad played on the school's soccer team, and they had practice almost every day after school, which explained why Nick was wearing his uniform.

"Hey, guys," Nick nodded at them.

"Hey, Nick," Randy and Jess said together, and Jess said, "Why aren't you at practice?"

"Well, I was on my way, but I figured I should find you guys first," Nick replied.

Randy looked at Nick, "Is something wrong, Nick?"

"Well, yeah." Nick nodded, "Brad's in the nurses office,"

"What? Why?" Jess raised her eyebrows.

"While we were on our way to practice, we walked past that half-back from the football team… Jason Morgan? Anyway, I didn't catch what he said, but Brad did, and—"

"Oh, no," Jess muttered, shaking her head.

"Brad hit him." Nick finished, looking at the younger kids.

"So, wait, if Brad hit Jason, then why is Brad in the nurses office?" Randy asked, looking confused.

"Well, Jason Morgan is a pretty big guy, and you can't really expect him to just stand by after Brad hit him," Nick explained.

"Did Jason hit him back?" Jess asked, getting impatient. Nick had always had the bad habit of making stories incredibly long-winded when it wasn't exactly necessary.

Nick nodded, looking grim, "Yeah, actually… a couple of times."

"Is he okay?" Jess asked.

"I think so," Nick nodded, "I didn't get to talk to him much before Angela rushed him off to the nurses office."

"As long as he's not dead," Randy shrugged, and was about to walk towards the door when Jess elbowed him.

"Randy."

"What? Jess, he's still breathing—"

"Randy." Jess looked at him, "He's your older brother, your only older brother, and he got beat up defending me."

"Fine, let's go check on him," Randy sighed.

"Wait a sec," Nick stopped them, "Why was Brad defending you, and what has that got to do with Jason Morgan, Jess?"

"Um, no reason." Jess said hastily, mentally cursing herself.

Being the youngest, and the only girl in her family, Nick and Jack were more than a little bit over-protective of her, and if Nick caught wind of the whole "Jason-Morgan-saying-she-had-a-nice-rack"… it was very possible that Nick would either be expelled or in prison.

"Come on, let's go check on Brad." Randy said, sensing the fact that if he didn't change the subject, Nick wouldn't be letting Jess' loose response go very easily.

"You guys go ahead, I've gotta get to practice, but I'll see you guys when I get home," Nick jogged off down the hallway, and Jess said, "Let's go,"

"Then we can go home?" Randy asked, looking at her.

"Yes, then we can go home," Jess rolled her eyes as she dragged him down the hallway.

When they walked into the nurses office, they found Brad, holding an ice pack to the side of his face.

"Brad! Are you okay?" Jess asked.

"Yeah, I'll live," Brad nodded. There was a bruise forming under his left eye, and his nose was tinged red from an apparent nosebleed that had stopped.

"Where did you hit him?" Randy asked, crossing his arms over his chest, and looking at him expectantly.

Brad cracked a grin, "Right in his stupid face."

"Awesome!" Randy grinned.

"It is most certainly not awesome!" Jill was suddenly in the nurses office, and man, did she look mad. "Bradley Michael Taylor! What did I say to you about hitting that boy?"

Brad suddenly looked nervous, "Um… not to do it?"

"But you did it anyways, of course!" Jill took a short intake of breath, "Why? Why do you boys never listen when I tell you not to do something? He hit your little brother yesterday—"

"Yeah, Mom, but he was mouthing off about Jess today," Brad said defensively.

Jill didn't quite know what to say to this. Over the last 13 years, the Taylor's and the James kids had become family. Jill thought of Jess as the daughter she'd never had, and she knew that Jason Morgan was bad news, so she couldn't really blame her oldest son for defending Jess…

"Just don't let it happen again, okay?" Jill gave him a look to let him know she meant business.

"Deal."

"Okay, come on, you three, I'll drive you home."

Sorry this one's kind of short, I promise the next one will be longer. But now you kind of have an idea about what's going on, and what might possibly happen in the future (: Thank you so much to Home Improvement Lover, and Randy Taylor for their reviews! Please read and review, and I'll try to update soon! (: