Grant is 14 when he meets Raina Valentine

His first few days of high school were rough. Even with the help of Bobbi and Lance, he still manageg to get lost on the way to his world history class. Instead he walked into the French 2 class and comes face to face with a class full of sophomores. The teacher, Ms. Martinelli turned from where she was writing on the board and gave him a questioning look,

"You lost honey?" Grant gripped his side bag tighter and gave a slight nod.

"I'm looking for World History with Mr. Rogers." Ms Martinelli sighed and turned to face her class. Her gaze flicked over the faces of her students and she zeroed in on her target.

"Ms. Valentine!" A girl with dark, curly hair, and a dark complexion perked up, "Would you please escort this young man down the hall to Mr. Rogers room?"

"Sure thing Ms. M!" The girl hopped out of the chair and walked towards the door. She gave Grant a smile and walked out to the hall. Grant gave Ms. Martinelli a grateful glace and rushed to catch up with the girl. She had stopped a few doors down and was leaning against the wall. When Grant finally caught up she extended her hand,

"I'm Raina. And you are?" Grant shook her hand,

"Grant Ward." Recognition flashed in her eyes, but she didn't comment on the name. Instead she started walking again, this time at a slower pace. Grant couldn't help but study Raina out of the corner of his eye as they. She was stunning. Her face glowed, and her brown eyes sparkled, her curls bounced as she walked, and her lip gloss reflected the lights in the hall. Grant was mesmerized.

He was so wrapped up in studying the girl, he almost didn't notice that they had stopped outside a classroom. Grant was disappointed that they hadn't had longer to walk. Raina looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to enter the room. Suddenly nervous, he cleared his throat,

"Thanks. I guess, I'll see you around?"

"Sure! If you need help finding any of your other classes, you can come find me. In the meantime, you should get going. Mr. Rogers is really strict about attendance. Good luck!" She flashed another smile and turned back towards her class. Grant stared at her as she disappeared down the hall. Finally he snapped back to attention and walked into class.

This time he was met with the stares of 30 freshman, each poised at attention, eager to learn, or impress. Grant couldn't really tell. All he could really tell was the built, blonde teacher standing in the front of the class was glaring at him.

"You're late."

"Sorry. I got lost."

"What's your name?"

"Grant Ward." The class was filled with whispers. Grant didn't care, it was the usual reaction when people realized who he was. Mr. Rogers straightened a bit and hardened his gaze.

"Well Mr. Ward, lets hope this is the first and only time you've caused a disruption in my class. I would hate to call down your father for a conference, after all he is a very busy man."

"It wont happen again." Grant confirmed.

"Good. Now take a seat and pull out a text book. We were just about to start." He gestured to a seat near the back and returned to writing on the board. Grant slunk to the back of the class and pulled out his textbook.

It wasn't long before Mr. Rogers launched into a lecture on the impact of the american's entering the world war. Grant found his mind wandering. All he could think of was the girl with the curls with the lovely name.

When Grant returned home that day he rushed out to the back yard. Skye had started her first day of 7th grade, and her first day of middle school without him. He wanted to know how she had managed. He also couldn't wait to tell Skye about his first day of high school.

She was waiting on her side of the gate, just as they had discussed. Grant quickly opened the gate and Skye pushed through. Her cheeks bright pink and her hands clenched into fists. She was clearly angry about something.

"I hate 7th grade!" She pushed past him and headed into the house. Grant quickly shut the gate and followed after the girl. She threw open the door and marched herself over to the fridge. She threw it open and grabbed one of the juice pouches the Wards bought especially for her. Grant followed her and made sure to close everything she opened.

Skye sat at the table and gave a huge huff before she took a big gulp from her juice pouch. Grant grabbed a glass of water for himself and sat next to her.

"What happened?"

"Liam happened!" The boy was only a year older than Skye but had been it twice as many homes as she had. After Skye had been fostered for 6 months, a personal record, she had returned back to the orphanage to find that Liam had grown 6 inches and had developed his own gang of younger boys from the home. Skye was convinced Liam had a vendetta against her after she unknowingly told the nuns that he was skipping school to go down to the park and skate. Grant thought it had something to do with the fact she continuously got picked to foster over him. With Grant at school, Liam wouldn't dare touch Skye, but now with Grant in high school, he was afraid of what exactly Liam would do.

"What did he do?" Skye gave another grunt of anger and slammed her pouch down on the table,

"Somehow he managed to forge a letter from the nuns telling all my teacher's that calling me Skye instead of Mary would be bad for my 'proper professional development.' And he got all his friends to follow me around calling me Poots. The whole day! Everyone was calling me Poots! It was horrible!" Grant could feel his own anger rising in his chest.

"You should talk to the nuns! Or one of the guidance counselors! They'll be able to do something." Skye's expression turned sour,

"They wouldn't believe me. Even if i thought it would work, it would be their word against mine. I'm just going to have to suck it up. It's only one year. I can deal with one year." The anger had dissipated and was replaced by determination. Grant reached out for her hand and drew comforting circles on the back with his thumb.

After a particularly long stay at a home when she was 10, Skye had cried for hours, and Grant had done that same action. To his surprise, it had calmed her down significantly. Now, whenever Skye was worked up, he would draw those circles on her hands. The tension in her shoulders dissipated and she closed her eyes. She took a deep breath and shifted closer to Grant.

"How was your day?" she asked quietly, eyes still closed, "First day of high school. Must have been a new adventure." Grant thought about his wonderful first day, and meeting Raina Valentine. He opened his mouth to speak, but something stopped him. It didn't feel right to gush to Skye about his barely-even-there crush on the girl he met for a minute. Instead he said,

"It was good. I got lost on the way to class, but it worked out in the end. But overall, it wasn't bad." Skye hummed in contentment,

"That sounds great. I'm glad you had a great first day." Skye slowly opened her eyes and looked over at the clock. She groaned and buried her head in her arms. "I have to start my math homework." She turned her head so that she could see Grant through her hair, "Who the heck gives homework the first day of school?" Grant chuckled,

"It get's way worse. Believe me." Skye gave another groan.

As they walked back to the gate, Grant assured Skye that she could deal with Liam,

"But you should still talk to someone about him." Skye pursed her lips and scrunched her nose in annoyance,

"Whatever. Liam I can handle. Math homework, not so much. " Regardless she gave him a hug and thanked him for his concern, before disappearing through the gate. With the telltale creak of the door, he turned back inside and set to work on his math.

Hey guys, its another short chapter, but now that I have access to wifi, i should be able to update more frequently. For anybody that watches the Fosters, you may recognize the name Liam for the asshole foster brother, so that's where I get my inspiration from. The next chapter will be less conversation, more story telling.

As always, I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Please let me know if there are any mistakes so I may correct them.

Please rate and review and LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK

-Alex