"Good morning, sis." Carson Powers said, slurping on coffee while reading the paper in nothing but his boxers. He greeted his sister like this most mornings, particularly because he knew how much it annoyed her that he was so chipper at such an early hour.
"Not good morning." Peyton replied, while grabbing her brother's coffee and sipping it. She rolled her eyes at her brother and scuffled to get a bowl of cereal. "Don't you ever wear shirts?"
"What's a shirt?" Carson asked sarcastically as his sister sat down in front of him, wearing her glasses. "Miss, can you tell me where I can find the Harry Potter books. I'm not quite up to date on the dewey decimal system."
At this, Peyton let out an obviously fake laugh. "You are just a big ball of laughs today, eh?"
"You bet, sugar pie." Carson winked and ran a hand through his auburn hair. One could almost assume that the siblings were twins, if not for the fact that Carson was a male and Peyton a female. They had the same color hair and wore the same looks, and besides the gender… they only other difference was the eye color, they both had green eyes. Carson's were just deeper green.
"Oh, have fun last night? I heard you come in around five a.m. You are aware that it's a Tuesday?" Carson said, laying his newspaper down on the table and staring at his sister as though he was their stern father.
"I could have sworn you weren't my father…" Peyton said sarcastically while eating her cereal.
"You are just lucky we have an oblivious father, and a mother who… is the way our mother is." Carson said, and ended with a cough as he'd realized he'd said something that Peyton wasn't comfortable.
"Your sensitivity amazes me." Peyton said, rolling her eyes and dumping her empty bowl into the sink. "Can you give me a ride to school?"
"Jesus," Carson moaned, "You'd think that if you had your licence, and your own damn car that you would drive yourself to school."
"Please?" Peyton begged, and threw on her best sympathetic look.
"Whatever," Carson said, realizing that this was his chance to ask Peyton about John. Carson was still unaware as to who this 'John' was, and kept wondering why Amy would agree to go out with him if she already had a boyfriend.
Twenty minutes later, Carson and Peyton were sitting in Carson's flashy black SUV outside Grant High. He hadn't gotten a chance to ask her about John yet, because Peyton had been going on about Blake's, their sister, return from Paris. The two sisters hadn't always gotten along and Peyton was stressing about how they were going to deal with each other once Blake had returned.
"Pey," Carson interrupted his sister.
"Huh?" Peyton said, snapping out of a nervous rant.
"Tell me about John…" Carson said, bracing himself.
"Amy's John?" Peyton asked with a confused look. And when her brother nodded, she proceeded to say: "He is the sweetest. He is really cute and smart for his age. You'd love him, Car."
Carson felt his stomach drop. He really liked Amy. He thought she was really cute, and that she was really smart for her age. How could she agree to go out with him, when she had a guy on the side? And how could his sister be so… so… nonchalant about this whole thing.
"I should go though," Peyton said, stepping out of the car after pecking her brother on the cheek and thanking him for the ride to school. She waved to him as he left, though he hardly gave her a second look, and instead drove away with a look of sadness and confusion on his fave.
While Carson hadn't given his sister a second look, Peyton hadn't given her brother's abnormal behaviour a second thought as her long legs carried her onto school property. There, she ran into Jack Pappas, who grabbed her arm as she walked by.
"Hey," Peyton said, smiling politely at him.
"Hey, what's up?" Jack said, releasing her arm and smiling down at her, his insides going to mush.
"Uh," Peyton started, a little annoyed that he had stopped her for just chitchat. "Nothing much, just going to class…"
"Nice," Jack nodded awkwardly, unable to come up with something to say next. "Is that that why you never let me give you a ride home?"
"Huh?" Peyton asked confused.
"That guy that just dropped you off," Jack said, frowning a bit.
"Oh! Yeah, pretty much." Peyton said, and then: "But, I'm going to go! I have to ask my English teacher about something. See you."
And with that she stalked off towards the inside of the school, leaving Jack staring longingly after her with a pout on his face. Suddenly, he felt someone grasp his arm and looked down at his girlfriend, Madison.
"Good morning!" Madison said, kissing Jack on the cheek.
"Yeah." Jack said lazily.
"What were you and that Peyton girl talking about?" Madison asked, she sounded curious, but obviously had girlfriend motives for being curious.
"Her boyfriend," Jack stated.
Later that day, Ricky Underwood strode through the halls looking for his girlfriend. His beautiful girlfriend, his lovely girlfriend. The girlfriend that leaves in the middle of the night without leaving a note, or calling, or waking him up. Usually, Ricky would have stopped seeing a girl for this. But, usually, Ricky didn't have a girlfriend… especially not one like Peyton. He'd texted her all morning without response and was beginning to get worried.
"Ricky," nodded a familiar face.
"Ben," Ricky groaned, but decided to stop and talk.
"So, you've heard that Adrian and I are together?" Ben asked with a sly look on his face.
"Good for you two, now the baby will come into a semi-stable environment." Ricky nodded, clearly not really bothered by the fact that his best friend and former girlfriend were together or with the conversation about it.
"Ben, have you seen Peyton around?" Ricky asked, changing the topic of conversation.
"No, I have-" Ben started but was cut off by an approaching Adrian.
"Don't you know it's inappropriate to go after a girl with a boyfriend?" Adrian smiled, taking hold of Ben's hand.
"If you mean Peyton, I don't really think so. Seeing as I'm her boyfriend." Ricky stated, annoyed.
Adrian was a little taken aback at what Ricky had just said, but decided to burst his bubble. "So, you dropped her off in a black S.U.V this morning? 'Cause she told Jack that her boyfriend was the one who had dropped her off." Adrian smirked, loving the look of despair that washed over Ricky's face.
"You are lying." Ricky said becoming angry.
"Actually, she isn't." Ben said, "The whole school is talking about it."
"Why would the whole school be talking about it?" Rick asked, enraged.
"What else would we talk about?" Adrian said, still smirking. Ricky ignored her comment and left them standing in the hallway staring at each other. It seemed as though their plan might be working.
When school ended and Peyton was done collecting her belongings from her locker she walked down the halls searching for Ricky, who she hadn't seen all day. She was beginning to worry about him being angry over her leaving his apartment earlier that morning. After ten minutes of searching the school for Ricky, Peyton gave up and exited the building. On the way out she reached into her bag, grabbed her cell phone and dialled Carson's number.
After a few rings, he answered. "What?"
"Can you please pick me up?" Peyton asked, slightly annoyed that he had not already assumed that she might need a ride.
"Give me a half an hour." Carson groaned, Peyton could hear the familiar noises of the Pizza King in the background and understood that her brother was working.
"Sure," Peyton sighed and hung up the phone.
"I can't believe you." Ricky said.
Peyton twirled around to see Ricky behind her, his own car in the near distance. Peyton gulped. He was mad.
"I'm sorry; I should have left a note. Or woken you up. But, you looked so peaceful." Peyton smiled, Ricky almost fell into her lovely trap, but then he recalled that she was cheating on him.
"You know that's not what I'm talking about." Ricky said, feeling very depressed.
"What?" Peyton said, frowning in confusion. "Actually, I don't."
"The fact that you have a boyfriend." Ricky said, raising his voice slightly. "And now I look like an idiot."
"Uh, yeah. I do have a boyfriend." Peyton said, crossing her arms in frustration. "It's you."
"Obviously it's not. Because you've been telling people that your boyfriend is the one who drops you off in damned black SUV every day." Ricky yelled.
"You think… you think that the person dropping me off every day is my boyfriend?" Peyton stifled a giggle.
"What is so funny?"
"You," Peyton smiled, taking a couple of steps closer to Ricky and smiling deeply at him. "You're cute when you are jealous."
"That's hilarious." Ricky said sarcastically, and began to walk away when Peyton grabbed his arm.
"Ricky!" Peyton yelled, and when he stopped she put her hand on his shoulder and said: "The guy that's been dropping me off… he isn't my boyfriend."
"Then who is he?" Ricky asked, more confused than ever.
"My brother, you big dope." Peyton smiled. "Why would you believe other people? Why not just ask me?"
"Are you serious?" Ricky asked, letting out a sigh of relief. And when Peyton nodded and began to open her mouth to speak, she was cut off by Ricky attacking her with kisses. He had been so afraid of losing her, he had almost shed tears in front of her. Ricky and Peyton stood in the school parking lot interlocked in a passionate kiss for quite some time.
Happiest ending in a few chapters, eh? No worries, drama is coming! I'm just splitting one large chapter up... probably into three. The next chapter might possibly be out later tonight. Let me know what you think of this exceptionally normal chapter! Thanks for reading and please review!