I am so sorry I haven't updated in ages, please forgive me! I didn't like writing this one to be honest so that's also why I didn't write it sooner. Thank you so much for all the lovely reviews and the favourites and follows, you guys are wonderful Please tell me what you thought of this chapter, I wasn't sure about it much xoxo

Beep-beep! Beep-beep!

I slammed my alarm with frustration. Here comes the first day at a new school…great. I guess you could say that I really wasn't looking forward to today.

I was not a big fan of school and the whole education thing.

Waking up before 12... I mean, WHY?

I'm also not a huge fan of seeing or interacting with people I don't know or don't like.

Those were my three reasons which made me beg my parents to let me spend one more day at home. However the devil, who calls herself my mother, said, "No. You're going, you've spent most of the time at home since we've moved and that's been long enough to get settled and get used to living in the area."

Seriously? She moves me across the freaking country and she won't even give me one day to mentally prepare for hell.

Anyway, I got dressed in some casual clothes because thankfully this school didn't have a specific dress code or a uniform. That was probably the only good thing. I slipped on some dark jeans, a short sleeve green t-shirt and zipped up my gray hoodie as I made my way into the kitchen.

Luckily my parents left for work before I left for school so I didn't get criticised on my choice of clothing and avoiding the usual, "You're going to wear that?" from my mother. My dad usually didn't really care what I wore as long as I didn't dress like a hooker - which I didn't.

I threw some bread into the toaster and took a quick glance at the large clock on the wall which stated: 7:46. I had about 20 minutes before Patrick was meant to pick me up like he said he would.

I was lying on the sofa eating my bread and slowly falling back to sleep when a car honked outside and pulled me out of my dreamlike state. I switched the TV off and grabbed my keys and my back pack before throwing on my black leather jacket, opening the door and stepping out. From my door I could already see Patrick's grinning expression as I made my way towards his car.

"Hey there, stranger." He greeted me.

"Ugh, let's just get to that hell hole." I slumped in my seat, put my seatbelt on and closed my eyes leaning my head against the window.

"Someone got out of the wrong side of the bed today" His voice still happy and unaffected by my tired response."

"Someone's bed is actually by the wall so they can only get out of bed on one side"

"I think we've got time to pick up some coffee before school starts if you want." This caused me to sit up. Finally something good about this morning.

"Thank God, let's go. Please."

Fortunately the ride was short and as I was too lazy to get out of the car Patrick went into a small coffee shop and got us both a vanilla latte which would hopefully wake me up at least slightly.

As we drove into the school parking space I noticed that a lot of the cars were very stereotypically jock and cheerleader type of cars, and if they weren't these then they were very plain and grey. This caused Patrick's car to stand out which I guess wouldn't have been different with him among the other students at the school.

Patrick came with me to the office so that I could collect my schedule and as soon as I got it he helped me find my first class. We said some quick goodbyes as he wished me luck in 'entering the big world' and planned to meet in the cafeteria at lunch.

Due to mine and Patrick's little coffee stop I was the last one to get to the class even though school hadn't started yet. I walked in to see football players sitting on the desks as the cheerleaders twirled their perfect blonde locks around their fingers to attract their attention.

Luckily before anybody had the chance to try and introduce themselves or talk to me the teachers came in with a stack of papers in his hands. I didn't see why he had so many papers to grade already; it was only the first day back. Once he noticed me standing awkwardly at the door he announced, "Everyone, we have a new student joining us this year. This is-" He looked at me questioningly to finish his sentence.

"Jo. Jo Harvelle." I said quickly.

"Alright. Well this is Jo, guys. Jo, why don't you tell us a little about yourself?"

Out of all the things a teacher could ask a student to do I hated this the most. Introducing yourself to a group of people who had no care in the world to know your name at all was quite the most stupid idea. I'm not sure whether the teacher realised this or not but he must have thought everyone looked interested because they were looking in my direction. However, I knew this wasn't because they were interested in what I was saying. It was because I was new.

"Umm… My name is Joanna, Jo for short. I'm 17 and I just moved here from California with my parents." I said quickly.

"Okay, Joanna, why don't you go take a seat?" The teacher pointed to one of the seats at the back of the classroom, away from all the popular kids, which I was really grateful for because I really didn't want to sit anywhere near them and listen to them talk about all the recent trends and the football scores of their favourite teams.

Soon the teacher began going through some pointless notices of clubs and activities to join in school which were mainly sport which I was not interested in. Luckily the bell soon rang managing to cut him off and I left the class without waiting for any sort of dismiss from the teacher. That's when I realised I didn't even know his name…

My first class I didn't have with anyone I knew. However I had second and third lesson that day with Sam which was nice. We sat silently in our Religious Studies class as the old man at the front droned on about the different beliefs of religions on war. My eyes were pretty much closing the whole time. In the end, the bell for lunch rang. I left class and accidentally bumped into Charlie who was nice enough to guide me to the cafeteria where we both sat with Patrick, Sam and the rest of the crew.

Lunch went smoothly. We ate, we talked, and we laughed. I managed to get some work done so that I didn't have to do as much at home because I planned to get more sleep and maybe just watch a movie. However this was interrupted by a 6 foot tall jock in a varsity jacket.

Now, at this point I should probably say that I am generally a calm person with a quite 'I don't care' character thing going on. But that's only because I am generally indifferent to things people may say to me to try and cause some sort of distraught and drama. I don't like it when people choose to insult my friends.

"I see you've added another freak to your fag group."

Patrick went red in the face. This got me to remember the time he had told me how his ex-boyfriend's friends beat him up.

"What's it to you?" I said looking up at him. I don't think he really expected me to say anything. My eyes narrowed as I examined the muscular piece of meat that stood before me. If I had to differentiate between this guy and all the other guys on the football team, I would simply not be able to. Same attitude, same character, same stupidity. The only thing they don't have in common would probably be their hair which was all styled differently which I noticed was the case at their table.

"It's absolutely nothing to me." He sneered and crossed his arms. He just looked at our table with his judging little eyes that probably burnt into his skull when he got asked to read in class.

"Then please why don't you kindly remove your presence so that we don't have to suffer any longer?" I said. I could tell he was shocked that I had said that and since there was no one there to back him up he didn't say anything. He straightened his posture as I began to wave before turning my hand at the wrist and showing him a rude and obscene gesture.

"And this is how you make friends in high school." Mary Elizabeth clapped slowly as everyone joined into laughter. The rest of lunch was fine. After lunch I had two more lessons which went by agonisingly slowly but once school was over I rushed out of the building and found Patrick's car at the school car park. It took him some time to arrive.

"Are Sam and Charlie coming?" I asked. I wasn't sure if maybe that's what they did the year before so I just made sure.

"No, they're going to the diner to 'study'." He inserted the finger gestures as he said the word 'study' and I laughed at his assumption. I thought it was really nice that Patrick was alright with Sam and Charlie dating. I think, if it were me, I would find it quite weird at first, my best friend and step sister, but I guess it would be okay to get used to.

Patrick dropped me off home and stayed for about 30 minutes before he received a phone call from his dad who said that he wanted Patrick to come to the garage because he had something for Patrick's car. After Patrick left I changed into my pyjamas and had dinner. I was in bed before my parents got home and tried to slowly fall asleep so that the next day I wouldn't drop dead in any of my classes.

I thought about how maybe this school won't be so bad. Well, it won't be bad as long as I have these great friends around. I really wished Patrick didn't have to be reminded of what happened to him last year. I hoped that eventually it wouldn't hurt him any more to be reminded of it, of Brad. Hoped he would meet someone who can help him get over it.