The hot sun beat down on our van as we drove on the highway going from Missouri to Illinois. I still don't want to go! Why won't anybody actually listen to me? Was I ever consulted about this? No. We, my mom, sister Ella and I, were on our way to our new house in Chicago suburbs. Apparently mom, Dr. Valencia Martinez, will be able to have a better job here. Better than the one in St. Louis where I was leaving all my friends, sports and basically life. You catch my drift? I. Don't. Want. To. Go.
"How much longer?" I asked staring out at the grass dying alongside the highway.
"Only another hour or so Max," mom replied. "Hopefully less since there doesn't seem to be too much traffic." Well obviously there's no traffic since no other idiot decides to move their kids to a new house exactly 1 day before school started. I mean what mom wants to ruin their kids life? Okay, maybe I'm being a little harsh. I mean besides this whole move thing, she was the best mom in the world.
I just sighed and stared out the window some more. To make matters worse, apparently there is no decent radio station in the middle of effing nowhere.
"Max. Please don't start again. We both know why you can't stay with your father and Ari. It'll be too much trouble, and he really has to focus on his work right now," mom replied patiently. The "we've been over this before, let it go now" look. You know the one.
"I know but still, I just miss all my friends and just my life back in St. Louis," I replied.
"Yeah, and I'm sorry about this sweetie. But your father and I have looked into this, and this is the best option for you and Ella. The highschool is supposed to be great here, I'm excited for both of you to start school and meet new friends."
"Yeah. C'mon Max, this will give you a good chance to make some new friends and forget about Dylan at least," Ella said from the seat beside me. She had been quiet up until now in this conversation.
"Yeah, well I am glad to be away from Dylan. But I just hope there are some decent kids in this place. Guys and girls. And not just for dating reasons either," I said with a smile at the end. Dylan was my ex-boyfriend from St. Louis. I caught him cheating on me with Nicole, a slutty girl that I went to school with before. I dumped him then and there, but I was still glad to be away from him, especially since he kept trying to get me back.
"I'm sure there will be some kids in this school Max. There are like 4,000 kids in the highschool, it's huge!" Ella started with a laugh. "Besides, I guarantee you'll meet all the guys. You're gorgeous!"
I shrugged pushing my brown hair, with a few natural blond streaks in it, over my shoulder so it was out of my face. I really don't think I'm all that pretty really. I don't what Ella sees in me. She on the other hand is gorgeous in my opinion. I absolutely loved her big, soft, brown eyes, and I'm anything but a beauty or fashion expert. "Honestly Ella, you're the pretty one. You're eyes are gorgeous," I told her.
She blushed slightly, "No, like I'm not kidding Max. I've always envied how you look. You have this natural ability to look gorgeous whether you're wearing sweats and t-shirt or on the rare occasion you might wear a dress. You've got great hair, skin, and a great body too."
"Thanks Ells, I still think you are gorgeous though." I noticed mom smile in the rearview mirror back at us. We never got along this good. I guess we were both just a little nervous about this year.
"You are both beautiful girls, and any man out there is lucky to have you," mom said
with a smile looking back at us. "Oh, and before I forget, you're father is coming up in a few weeks with Ari to come visit and make sure everything has worked out."
Jeb, our father is a high-tech-sciency type. He works in a laboratory with some other fancy scientist men and he makes lots of money. The thing is, because he works so much, he is super busy, and can't handle taking care of all of us kids. Because mom's moving because of her job, we had to come with her.
You're probably wondering too about Ari. He's actually my cousin, not my brother. My dad's sister's son. Because my aunt, Ari's mom, recently passed away due to cancer, and his dad is off in the military, my dad offered to adopt him. So he lives with us now, and is basically part of the family. The reason he's staying with Jeb is because a.) he's not close to my mom at all, and b.) Jeb has time to take care of him, and watch him. So basically my mom, Ella and I are gonna live together, and Jeb and Ari are gonna live together.
"Okay," mom began as we pulled into the driveway of the new house, "I set up both your rooms when your father and I came out here last week. You guys can check out your rooms and then look around the rest of the house. Almost everything should be in all the rooms already, thanks to your father. I'll order a pizza, and have it delivered later once we get settled in. I hope you like how I've done everything, if not we can put it as you like it."
"I'm sure they're perfect mom. Thanks so much for doing that," Ella said, unbuckling her seatbelt.
Well it sure pays off having a rich father. Who knew that you could get all of your stuff set up and ready to go before you even see the house?
As I walked up the path to our new house, I took another look at it. Man, was it big! Mom was getting some of her things out of the trunk still, and I followed as Ella opened the heavy, wooden door and stepped into the entryway. We walked around the house together, first the basement, then kitchen, dining room, family room and some other rooms. Then the best part of my whole day, the recording room! I've been singing for a while, just for fun for the most part, but it's something I've wanted to pursue. Ella's passion is for dance, so she went upstairs to start looking around upstairs, but I went into the recording room.
On the other side of a street I knew,
Stood a girl that looked like you.
I guess that's déjà vu
I thought that can't be true cause
You moved to West L.A. or New York or Santa Fe or
wherever to get away from me.
Oh but that one night,
Was more than just right,
I didn't leave you, cause it was all through
Oh, I was overwhelmed,
And frankly scared as hell,
Because I really fell for you.
Oh I swear to ya,
I'll be there for ya.
This is not a drive by-y-y-y
Just a shy-guy looking for a two-ply
Hefty bag to hold my love
When you move me,
Everything is groovy
They don't like it sue me,
Mmm the way you do me.
Oh I swear to ya,
I'll be there for ya,
This is not a drive by.
On the upside of a downwards spiral,
My love to you went viral.
And I loved you every mile you drove away.
Oh but that one night,
Was still the highlight,
I didn't leave you, cause I was all through
Oh I was overwhelmed
And frankly scared as hell.
Because I really fell for you.
Oh I swear to ya,
I'll be there for ya.
This is not a drive by-y-y-y
Just a shy-guy looking for a two-ply
Hefty bag to hold my love
When you move me,
Everything is groovy
They don't like it sue me,
Mmm the way you do me.
Oh I swear to ya,
I'll be there for ya,
This is not a drive by.
Please believe that when I leave,
There's nothing up my sleeve but love to you,
And a little time to get my head together too.
On the other side of a street I knew,
Stood a girl that looked like you,
I guess that's déjà vu
Because I thought this can't be true cause
Oh I swear to ya,
I'll be there for ya.
This is not a drive by-y-y-y
Just a shy-guy looking for a two-ply
Hefty bag to hold my love
When you move me,
Everything is groovy
They don't like it sue me,
Mmm the way you do me.
Oh I swear to ya,
I'll be there for ya,
This is not a drive by.
I smiled as I finished the last line of the song. Drive By is one of my favorite songs, I just love the tune and it's happy and makes me smile. I checked to make sure I had recorded as I walked out to go upstairs and check out the rooms. I saw mom in the kitchen as I passed.
"I did a recording of Drive By, just now in the recording room," I said grinning. She beamed.
"I knew you would love it," she said smiling. "Thank for your father, he installed it and paid for it." I nodded, making a mental note to call him later. I told her I was gonna go check out the upstairs of the house. I climbed the stairs 3 at a time, and met Ella at the top, looking ecstatic.
"Omg! Max! We each have our own bathroom, giant bedroom, huge walk-in closets, and an awesome balcony. It's so so cool!" she shrieked. My face lit up. Balcony? I've always loved just sitting on out old balcony and watching the sky and relaxing. It made me feel like I could fly, something I'd wanted to do since I was little. And now I have my own, I thought as I passed by a grinning Ella and walked down the hall towards my room.
I walked into my room which had my king-sized bent against one wall painted dark blue. Each wall was a different shade of blue, varying from dark blue, to royal blue, to a lighter vibrant teal color. I loved it. My dresser, desk and couch were all there, plus more stuff Jeb felt the need to buy for me. I had to admit, my room kicked butt, not to mention the giant TV by my bed, with the couch and two beanbags. One silver one black, my favorite color combination ever.
"You know we can get those embroidered with your name, and a friend's name. The beanbags," mom said standing in the doorway, gesturing to the beanbags I was standing over. "Whatever you want sweetie." I smiled over at her.
"Thanks mom, everything's awesome!" I told her, truly pleased with how everything had turned out.
"I ordered a pizza. 16", half cheese for me and Ella and half bacon and pepperoni for you. It should be here in 15 minutes," she called from the staircase. I smirked to myself. What other girl eats half of a pepperoni and bacon pizza by herself. Anyone you know? Didn't think so.
I finished looking around the room, and as soon as I heard the doorbell ring and the sudden aroma of pizza filling the air, coming from the below the stairs, I bolted out of my room, and leaped down the stairs 5 at a time. Pizza!
"Fang! C'mon down here for a minute please!"
I hopped off my bed and walked through the hallway and then took the stairs down 2 at a time.
"What's up, mom?" an attractive, boy with long, messy hair asked casually as he walked into the kitchen. He grabbed a chair and pulled it out from under it's normal position under the counter of the island, and sat down.
"Kaylie's coming home from college on Friday!" the woman, Fang's mom, said truly excited. Fang smiled. One of his real smiles. Finally, he thought, I can see her again, it's been so long.
"Is it just her or is she bringing her boyfriend?" Fang asked, hoping she was alone.
"Thankfully, she's leaving him at college. I prefer it that way," Fang's mom, Molly said with a smile at the end.
"Me too," the boy muttered feeling slightly relieved. He didn't care for Jake, his sister's current boyfriend. He was older than she was, and not exactly a good influence. All thoughts flew out of his head though, as the door swung open, and little Angel came trotting in.
"Hi mommy! Hi Fang!" squealed and adorable little girl with blond curls that fell down past her shoulders, and accented her bright blue eyes.
"Hey Angel, how was Gazzy's house?" Mrs. Ride, Fang and Angel's mom asked smiling.
"It was so fun! We played LEGOS and drew pictures! Gazzy is my bestest friend! He drew pictures of things blowing up! He got the idea from Iggy," the little girl said with a giggle. Fang smirked, of course Iggy would give is younger brother bombing ideas at a young age.
"Hey Ange!" Fang said smiling. She came over and gave him a huge hug. "I missed you today." She smiled and looked the ground, she obviously loved Fang a lot.
"Will you read me a story after dinner tonight? When I go to sleep?" Angel asked in her sweet little voice. It was so hard to remember she was only 8 sometimes, and going to be in second grade tomorrow.
Molly looked over lovingly at her two youngest kids, and smiled more when Matt, her husband Mr. Ride walked in.
"Okay, guys. Time to eat!" Molly announced from her spot at the stove, bringing pots and pans over to the table.
I was standing awkwardly alone outside the office doors by myself. Since Ella was a year younger than me, she was at the middle school and I was stuck at the highschool. No other students were in the school yet, so I was the only one. Mom decided that since I'm older, I should me more responsible and mature (which is so not true and she knows it) and dropped me off by myself at the highschool, and she took Ella to the middle school personally to check her in and all that.
I pushed on the glass door, and it swung open easily, and I stepped into the office, which had to women in their 40s about talking on phones and sitting behind desks, with large stacks of papers.
"Hi sweetie, I'm Maggie, the secretary here. What can I do for you?" a nice woman with blond waves, and soft brown eyes asked.
"Hi, I'm Maximum Martinez. I just moved here, and today's my first day, like everyone, but I don't have a schedule or map or know where my locker is."
"Okay dear, I'll get all that," she said as she walked cheerfully over to a set of filing cabinets and started going through the one that had a large 'M' on the front. She handed me my schedule, a map and a slip with my locker on it.
Hmmm, my schedule was:
Homeroom
Math- Frosh H
English- 9H
Music/Choral
LUNCH
Spanish 2 H
Science- Biology H
World Studies
PE/Health
Locker- 1237
Wing- S
"Thank you," I mumbled as I was reading my papers, walking out of the room.
"Anytime. Have a great year," the secretary named Maggie called after me. I studied my map as I attempted to find the south wing.
I had finally found my locker when I heard the sounds of kids walking, talking and laughing with friends on their way to their lockers, then to homeroom. I grabbed some folders, notebooks, binders, and pens and walked towards my homeroom. By the time I had figured out how to get my locker to close and find my way to homeroom, which wasn't very far, but still, everyone else was out of the halls and sitting in desks. I kept walking towards the door, but stopped short of opening it. Taking a few deep breaths, and telling myself to relax I was about to walk into the classroom, when some idiot crashed into me, making me drop my books.
I turned around, and noticed a kid scrambling to grab all his books which had fallen to the ground.
"Shit." His dark head was bent over picking up the supplies, but then he looked up. Okay, so the idiot that ran into me was hot, but still, I'm not gonna let that then proceeded to quickly gather up my books, and hand them up to me, which was really nice. "I'm so sorry, I didn't see you and can't believe I totally ran into you," he said in a voice which I found incredibly sexy.
"It's okay, really," I replied, trying to sound nice. I want to at least have a good first impression here. I bent down to get all the books that he had stacked up for me. "Thanks," I muttered as I grabbed everything.
"Maximum Martinez?" he asked confused looking at my name on all the books.
"Yes…" I said in a tone that makes most people freeze.
"Is that your name?" he asked again.
"No, I just happen to have the name of some random person I don't know written all over my stuff. Because that just makes so much sense," I said sarcastically. He rolled his eyes, wrong move. I looked at him again, kind of giving him a look down. No one rolls their eyes at me. "Yes?" I asked again impatient.
"Nothing," he muttered. "So you're new here? I haven't seen you around much." I nodded my head.
"Yeah, I came from St. Louis because my mom's job got transferred here, she's a vet. And I go by Max." He looked me over again, and then held his hand out, and I shook it.
"Well, my name's Nick, but pretty much everyone calls me Fang. I mean like even the teachers call me Fang, and my parents too," he told me. I raised my eyebrows, about to ask why he went by Fang, but I guess he could read my expression. "In 1st grade, we were allowed to dress-up in our Halloween costumes and come to school in them for fun. All the kids came as bumble-bees or Spiderman, but I came as a vampire. I had these huge fake fangs that everyone made fun of me for because they were too big for my mouth, and kept falling out. People started calling me Fang then, and it stuck." I actually laughed, and he smiled at me. Man, does that kid have a nice smile.
"Nick, what are you doing out here? And who's this? Homeroom's nearly finished, you missed announcements and attendance. We'll discuss your reason for being late later," a balding man with a red face said strictly.
"Sorry Mr. Turner, this is Max Martinez. She's new here, she moved from St. Louis," Fang told Mr. Turner smirking slightly at me. I already didn't like Mr. Turner. Something about the way he spoke and looked at me, made him look like a sexist pig. If he was a sexist pig, therefore I hated him. End of story.
He sighed grumpily and looked at me, "Good morning Max. I'm Mr. Turner, and I teach math. Welcome to our school, and you can come to us teachers if you need help finding your classes." Something about the way he said that, made him seem as though he was hoping I would never talk to him again. Great, now he's a sexist pig presumably going through middle-age crisis.
He turned to Fang, "Well Mr. Ride, since you seem to be acquainted with Ms. Martinez, why don't you escort her around today to save me the trouble of doing it myself." I rolled my eyes in disgust, I really hated this man, and his sexist attitude and monotone voice. Fang nodded at Mr. Turner as he walked inside the classroom, and the bell rang, causing students to pour out of all the classrooms, clogging the hallway.
"Well Ms. Martinez, what's your first class?" Fang asked me. He didn't seem annoyed that he had to show me around, but he wasn't exactly jumping with joy either, but smirked at the end of his sentence again.
"First I have Math, Frosh Honors, please don't tell me we have that monotoned, sexist pig as out teacher do we?" This caused Fang to give me a real smile, and he chuckled.
"Thankfully we don't, but we do have to wait for my friend Iggy who I'm sure you'll like just as much as Mr. Turner," he replied playfully. I smirked rolling your eyes.
"Well if he happens to be as sexist as Mr. Turner was, he won't be hanging out with me for long, let me tell you," I replied smiling a little at the end. Fang smirked, and rolled his eyes to. We seemed to have some set language of us smirking and rolling our eyes.
"No, he's cool," he said as a tall blond boy with pale blue eyes walked up to Fang.
"Hey man, what's up? Who's the chick?" the blond boy asked smiling as he looked at me. He had a playful tone, and sounded happy. "Hot chick," I heard him whisper under his breath to Fang, who pretended not to notice. Smart move Fang.
"Hey dude, this is Max Martinez. She's new here, moved from St. Louis, and I'm showing her around today," Fang explained.
"Max, this is my friend Iggy. The one who's in our math class. The sexist pig," he added at the end, and I smiled again. Fang was already starting to fall into the category of people I wanted to consider as friends. He was way different then my first impression of him, and I liked him so far. He was funny and relaxed.
Max was definitely an interesting person, Fang had to admit. She was funny, laid back, not to mention gorgeous, but not a total girly-girl either which he really liked. She was totally different than what he first thought when he saw her standing outside the homeroom door where he crashed into her. Oops. And now he'd been assigned to help her today, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing. She was quickly beginning to become someone he wanted to be friends with.
"Yeah I'm the 'hot chick' Max," she replied coldly looking at Iggy. This was already funny. Now if Max hit him, which he definitely would not put past her, would be highly entertaining and make his day.
"No, I just meant I think you're a highly attractive person," Iggy retorted smirking at the end. Max just rolled her eyes and turned to me.
"How do you put up with him?" she asked.
"Earplugs," he replied teasingly. Iggy playfully punched his shoulder, and Fang shoved him off smirking.
"Well," Iggy informed Max, "He has to put earplugs in because he is just naturally attracted to my voice, and without the earplugs to tune me out, he would be all over me, and that doesn't look too good for Fang here." Max cracked a smile, and Fang decided that she had classified Iggy as okay now too.
"Hello Iggy, Fang, how are you? And who is this young lady you've brought with you?" a woman with kind brown eyes asked smiling at Fang, Iggy and Max.
"According to Fang," Iggy began, "This is Max Martinez, and she's a new student in out math class." Fang and Max both looked at each other and smirked.
"Hi Max," the woman began extending out her hand, which Max took, "I'm Ms. Hughes." Max smiled in acknowledgement.
"Thanks, Fang here has been showing me around today," Max said looking over at her two new friends.
"You made a good choice Max, Fang here will look out after you, and he'll watch you. Don't worry." Max looked a little confused, but just smiled as the three of them walked into the classroom and took seats at a table near the back of the room.
Ms. Hughes walked in the classroom, closed the door and walked to the front of the room. "So today class…" she began as she started the lesson on geometrical figures. The bell rang dismissing them to second period.
"Well Miss Smartypants, where are you off to next?" Iggy asked.
"Hey," Max started jokingly, "You're in honors math too, look who's talking? And I have English 9 Honors now."
"Luckily for you, you have an excellent escort of Fang and myself. We shall deliver you to your classes thought out the day," Iggy said teasingly. I punched his shoulder softly, and Fang smirked.
We walked to English and sat down at a table in the front right corner of the room.
Throughout English Fang and I communicated by a series of expressions and by our eyes. By the end of the two periods, I discovered that Fang generally doesn't talk to other people much, but seems to talk to me a lot. He is really closed off, and doesn't talk to people about personal stuff much, and even though Iggy is his closest friend, he doesn't tell him everything. He also has a hard time showing through his true emotions.
By the time we went to music, we had all become fairly acquainted with each other as Fang and I sat together in a set of desks, because Iggy was in Industrial Arts right now.
However, just as we were about to sit down, a girl with wavy red hair, and piercing green eyes came over smiling. "Hey Fang!" she squealed in a high-pitched flirty voice. I noticed Fang rolled his eyes and look irritated, an expression I hadn't seen him do when talking to me and Iggy.
"Lissa," he said in a flat voice, looking immensely bored and irritated at the same time. Who was this girl? I mean she wasn't exactly wearing clothes that covered her whole body, aka her butt and boobs, and kept twirling her hair in her French manicured fingers.
"So Fang!" she continued enthusiastically, clearly not having noticed me yet. "Why don't you come and sit with me and Kate and Mary? There's plenty of room, and that way you don't have to sit with her," she added with negative emphasis on the word her as she glared at me.
Fang looked at her with disgust almost. "Clearly Lissa, if I wanted to sit with you, I would already be sitting there. I don't want to sit with you and Kate and Mary now. And by the way, her is Max, and she is my new friend," Fang said coldly. Lissa glared at me, and I glared back, and her gaze faltered. I have the ultimate death stare, and if looks could kill mine would set people on fire.
"Fine," Lissa muttered darkly as she stalked away.
"Max, how did you do it? You're a miracle worker," Fang said with a smirk pulling out some papers to take notes. I shrugged and took out my notes too, and continued to listen to the teacher ramble on about rhythmic patterns in different types of music. I spaced out for most of the period, except when Fang and I had those rare silent conversations with our eyes. I also noticed Lissa glaring at me because I was sitting with Fang and actually talking to him, since he liked me. It was incredibly entertaining to watch her try to catch his eye from across the room, and every time she did, he would look to me and mouth things, and I had to try so hard not too laugh.
Finally music was over, and we stopped by our lockers to grab our lunch bags, then headed off to lunch with Iggy.