Jack POV

"Hey Jeremy," I said when I saw him walking past me on the way to fifth hour. Lizzi was standing next to me fuming, but she's not the best friend ever so it's just fun making her mad.

"Hey Jack," he replied. He glanced at Lizzi but didn't look her way again until she said, "Oh my God, so have you thought about whether you're coming to hang out with me after school?"

I swear this chick is deaf.

"No, I said I was hanging with Jack and Kol…" he trailed off. "But…I can't. I got paired with Natalia for an economics project and we have to work on it after school. I really would love to blow it off, but I can't. I need to do better in school than I was doing before I came here."

"True," I said, knowing full well from earlier that he most definitely needed to smarten up.

"So you're not mad or anything?"

"No, but if you get a chance, you can come by the baseball diamonds after school."

"Okay, I'll try," he replied.

Fifth and sixth hour were boring, and then it was time to go home, or in my case, head out back. I met with Kol and Rebekah out back. Rebekah was Kol's sister and for some reason was only sometimes around. Sometimes she just left for the other side of the country, or that's how Kol described it. But today she was dressed in jeans and a dirty t-shirt, signifying she was ready to play baseball. So was Kol. Me, I always wear either t-shirts or all black to school anyway, so it didn't matter.

"Okay, well, we don't really have a lot of people to play with," Kol said. "It's just the three of us, so we'll just take turns hitting and pitching."

"Cool," I said. I grabbed my lucky pink bat. My dad had gotten me a pink bat when I started showing an interest in baseball, and I had immediately put it aside in the closet until somehow, all our other bats had been broken. I got out the pink bat and I had barely missed. Now, some may be cynical about lucky bats, but hey, I believe in good luck charms.

"Alright, Jack, you bat first," Rebekah said sarcastically. I threw the bat at her lightly, and she caught it in one hand.

"Happy?" I asked, grabbing my lucky pink mitt (same story there).

"Very much. Even more so if my brother would—"

"That's enough, Rebekah," Kol said. Whenever I asked Kol about anything Rebekah said, because she always seemed to drop not-so-subtle hints about something or other, he told me it was family stuff and I shouldn't get involved. Boy, did I know enough about family stuff.

Kol threw the ball, and Rebekah missed. And it was times like these I wished we had a catcher, but we hit more often than missed, and didn't see the need. She threw it back. I couldn't help but notice, as I always do, the amount of power they put into this game. They threw the ball hard, and hit far. I couldn't hit nearly as far, but Kol assured me they had been playing this game since they were little, and that it took practice. It was weird, though, that they'd been playing this game forever, because they were British, and baseball was first and foremost the AMERICAN pastime.

Rebekah hit the next ball Kol threw, and I backed up in the outfield to catch it, but I missed my about two inches. I swore quietly, and I saw Kol smiling at me. He always seemed to hear me no matter how quiet I swore. Rebekah was smiling too, laughing even. Damn you Twilight vamps with your superior hearing. I had teased Kol and Rebekah once of being vampires, and they just laughed and said, "Does it look like we sparkle in the sun?" Well, they got me there.

I threw the ball back to Kol, who called back, "Rotate!" and threw back to me. We continued playing for about an hour before we were all tired.

"Hey, Rebekah, how old are you?" I asked her. She couldn't have been more than 18.

"Eighteen," she said, confirming my suspicion.

"Why aren't you in school?" I asked.

"Why go to public school?" she countered. "My whole family was home-schooled."

"Oh."

"Why does it matter?"

"It doesn't, I was just wondering."

"Well," she said, standing up, "I need to get home anyway. Mum and Dad will be looking for me."

Kol and I nodded and she took off running. How she could run the whole 3 miles to her house was beyond me. Kol had the keys to their car, so I knew she wasn't driving. Besides, Kol always drove me home.

"So what was that whole school thing about?" Kol asked after a minute.

"I don't know." I lied down on the grass. "Just a question."

"I know you better than that," he argued. "What's wrong?"

"I just, you know, thought it would be nice to have a friend in school. A real one, not just someone who flakes on you and gets bitchy if you even talk to the new kid."

"Someone making you sad? Do I have to beat her up?" Kol asked.

"Not yet," I said. "And I think if she gives me any trouble, I can take her on myself. She's kind of a wimp."

Kol smiled at me. He was sitting so he was over me as I lied down, and the sun was in my eyes, so I couldn't see him very well. He paused for a long time before leaning down and kissing me.

This was the first time he ever let his feelings for me show. I didn't know how he felt about me, but I knew he was pretty awesome. And cute. And had a cool British accent. I kissed him back until someone running by interrupted us with the whole, "Hey, you kids can't make out here!" routine.

Kol pulled back and rolled his eyes. I rolled my eyes right back. Then I said, "I should probably be getting home."

Kol helped me up and held my hand all the way to his car. He could be very sweet when he wanted to be.