Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters besides my oc's Anastasia and Jerry's sisters. Also, I forgot to mention last chapter Belle is Kim's baby sister mentioned in Wax on, Wax off.
Now onto the story
Media Center
Monday, September 17th 2012
"The most important thing in a presidential candidate is trustworthiness and I promise to you all that you that I will try my best to live up to your expectations and earn your trust." Milton recited quietly to himself
He sat there for a few seconds trying to decide if he liked what she just said or if it sounded terrible and needed to be revised. This week was election week and to kick it off tomorrow was the day they introduced the candidates to give the students a feeling of what they stood for. During the weekend he spent his free time making posters and working on his speech with Julie and Eddie after the football tryouts that took place Friday. The Scottish teen believed that the the tryout went well, he kicked a fifty meter field goal which shocked Coach Marmur as well as pretty much all the other boys trying out for the JV team. He'll admit he felt smug at the boys shocked faces and proved to them that he was more than his nerd label. Also if he did make it on the football team then it helped him gain him more diverse followers, jocks as well as the brianiacs.
"Hey my future prez." Julie greeted him before she hugged him from behind then kissed him on the cheek
That was another thing he noticed that changed about his girlfriend, she become more affectionate with him and handsy now. Before the two were both content with an occasional peck on the lips and a hug or cuddle but now she wants to do more than a few pecks. She practically jumped him Saturday in his bedroom after Eddie left his house when they finished with campaign stuff. She was aggressive and demanding, crawling into his lap and kissing with such fierceness that saying taking him by surprise would be an understatement.
Milton knows that every other teenage boy would be more than turned on at the idea of his girlfriend jumping him but he just felt uncomfortable. He just got used to kissing over the summer which was still something that was weird for him to do and now that she wanted to go deeper than a peck sent him nearly into a panic. So, he gently pushed her away and was able to convince her to just watch a movie downstairs in the living room with his eight-year old sister Daphne in near proximity.
"You are aware that I haven't won and we're still just campaigning, right?" Milton asked his girlfriend as she sat down in the seat next to him at the table
Today she was wearing a hip hugging black leather skirt to compliment a red loose fit flowy sleeveless chiffon top and topped it off with black flats. Her glasses were still nowhere to be found and her face was done up in makeup, there was barely a trace of his old Julie who would scoff at the idea of makeup or wearing skirts that was above the knee, a few inches or not.
"Yet, you're not president yet it's only a matter of time before you'll be elected." She declared with confidence, Milton noticed a few guys nearby checking her out
"I hope so Grace and Kim have popularity on their side while all I have is some of the brainiacs."
Julie hummed in thought, "Well I'm sure joining the football team can help with that, do you know if you made it yet?"
"No Coach Marmur said that he'll have the list posted by Wednesday the latest and I checked the notice board on my way to the library and didn't see anything. What about you with the cheerleading team, have you seen anything?"
The girl in question shook her head,
"Sadly no but Ember said that she'll have the list posted by the end of the school day so it will only be a matter of time before I see the good news." She said with an unconcerned shrug of her shoulders
"Tryouts went that good huh?" Milton asked while he started putting away his notebook and pencils, preparing to leave for first period in a few minutes
"Yes, if I do say myself Ember didn't seem to hate my audition so soon it will be me, Erica, and Cathy are all on the team together. Too bad Stacey didn't want to join since she'd rather be on the dance team which is really betraying since that team is our enemy but it makes her happy so whatever." Julie rambled
The dance team and the cheer team were in a constant battle with one another to be the top sport of the social ladder. While cheerleading has always been the stereotypical popular sport girls join to become popular, over the past few years dance was slowly making its way higher up the ladder until it was finally neck and neck with cheer. The same thing was happening with football and lacrosse, Julie made sure to keep him up to date on all the drama of high school politics during their dates and phone calls. It was still very unnerving hearing this new Julie talk like one of the girls she used to make fun of. Worrying about being part of the cheerleading team and sucking up to Ember Chung, he was worried that the girl he fell in love with was completely gone.
"Great but um are you still joining the debate and newspaper team?" The boy tried for a casual tone and Julie just rolled her eyes indulgently
"What? Just because I gave myself a makeover you think I did a complete 360 personality wise?" She challenged him and the boy could only blush awkwardly
Even if he wanted to lie he was terrible at it and his face would show that what he tried to come up with would be complete bull,
"Maybe." He admitted earning a laugh from her before she reached over to cover his hands with hers
"Look I promise to you that I'm not a complete different Julie than before, I just had a little revising that's all. I'm still me okay?" She promised him, brown eyes locked on brown eyes
Milton felt relief wash over him at her declaration, hearing her deny his worries made him feel more content that the girl he loved was still there. Underneath her fashionable clothes and heavy makeup was still the girl who blackmailed Frank to take the blame of the two of them accidently blowing up her uncle Ty's kitchen.
"Okay sorry for doubting you." The Scottish teen apologized, looking down at his notebook in shame only Julie let go of one of his hands in order to grab his chin and guide it back to look at her
"It's fine I get it, and for the record sweetie I'm joining both still." Julie informed and Milton smiled softly back at her. The old Julie was still in there and that was all that mattered to him, he just hopes he can learn to love the new parts of her.
1st period Algebra
"Now for our last announcement as we all know this week is election week and time to elect our new freshmen student body officers. Our presidential candidates are: Kim Crawford, Grace Overland and Milton Krupnick. Good luck to all the candidates and tune in tomorrow as I interview them. Go killer whales!" Desiree Steele finished off the morning announcements, flashing her smile before the video cut off
"Man, what I would do to makeout with her." Randy sighed from where he sat near Jerry as they watched the announcements
"Right she is so hot." Jerry agreed in a dazed voice
He thought about how soft her caramel skin looked, a decent sized chest and those long toned legs. Not to mention the fact that since she was an older more mature girl she has experience in the relationship department. She probably knew all the different ways to please a guy.
"Okay now that the announcements are over I have four review equations on the board so do them while I do attendance and look over these papers." His teacher advised them before she sat down in her seat behind her desk
"Milton that name sounds familiar isn't he your nerd friend?" Randy asked him, thankfully bringing him out of his thoughts before they get too dirty and he had something unfortunate pop up.
"Oh yeah, yeah he's the one who dresses up in those ridiculous costumes every year for his LARP season."
"Oh yeah that loser, that's pretty brave of him to run for prez considering he's going against two of the hottest girls in ninth grade." Randy sneered cruelly causing Jerry to frown at the description of the boy
"Hey watch it, he might be a loser but he' one of my best friends." Jerry warned him in an uncharacteristically serious tone
Randy put his hands up in surrender,
"Alright, alright I got it sorry." His shaggy haired friend apologized , Jerry eyed him for a few seconds before deciding that it was enough and looked at the white board deciding he should probably get started on them
"But c'mon bro you know I'm right who's going to choose him over those two hotties. I can't even choose between them, I dream of making out with both of them."
"I really don't need to know about your dreams, especially when one of them is one of my best friends" The Columbian opened his notebook then grabbed his pencil to write down the equations
Oh, which I am still jealous about." Randy commented
"And she has a thing for Jack." The other boy finished like he hasn't been interrupted
"It seems like almost every single girl has a thing for him." Randy grumbled, he reluctantly opened his notebook and grabbed a pencil out of his backpack to get started on the equations
"Yeah tell me about it, that's the Jack effect." Not to degrade the fact that Jack is like a brother to him but it was true. Almost all the girls Jerry liked, always liked Jack and not him which included Heather up until the point where Jack puked on her shoes.
"Hey speaking of hot girls, Layla Corazon the hot captain of the dance team. Is she single?"
Jerry shrugged, squinting at the equations in confusion, "Dude I don't know but probably, I an't see any guy that's willing to risk his life asking her out. They'll probably pee their pants."
Randy snickered, "So, how's it like on the team?"
Jerry brightened like a kid on Christmas at the question, "Honestly it's amazing, besides having to see Smooth almost everyday."
"Why do you hate him again?" Randy tried balancing a pencil on his nose, working the equations long forgotten
"He tricked me into showing him my special move then stole it and passed it off as his own."
"Ah, right. Total dick move."
Besides Smooth, being on the dance team was everything he thought it'll be and more. The captain, was Layla Corazon and she ran the team with an iron fist. She was a no nonsense captain that enforced that everyone be at top shape and try their hardest. Almost everyone was scared of her, Jerry included, but he still though she was hot. Their advisor, was Quinton, a light skinned black dude that was pretty chill. From what Jerry understood his job was to be an overseer and take care of the boring things for the team like uniforms, raise money, set up performances, etc. He's not at practice all the time but the few times he is there he usually just sits and chills, only chimes in to fix a dancer that messes up or is doing a move wrong. Smooth seemed to be Layla's right hand man even though they aren't co-captains. He corrects dancers and leads the warm up excercises from time to time as well as come up with some of the choreography. He also likes to critique every little thing Jerry does under the pretense of 'correcting him'. Jerry knows that bullshit and it's just him wanting to mess with him.
Jerry doesn't understand why Smooth is mad at him, he was the one that stole Jerry's move. So what that Smooth made an embarrassment of himself trying to one up Jerry, that was all on him. Not to mention that was two years ago, he needs to let it go but it seems like he won't. The Columbian tries his best not to let Smooth get to him because he really wants to stay on the team. Layla could sense the tension between the two of them and told them to keep their problems out of the team because she didn't like the 'testosterone battle' between them. Besides his issues with Smooth, everyone on the team are amazing dancers that makes Jerry needs to up his game to keep up with them. He sometimes practiced with his sister, Paula but she wasn't as good as a dancer as him so that made it challenging. He got so desperate that he asked Valentina and he can't stand her most of the time. She was so uppity, acting as if she's better than him and preferred being boring and study.
Layla wasted no time getting straight into practice even with competition season not starting yet. Right now her main focus is getting ready for their performance for the Fall Festival. Then on top of that was half time for the football team, and pep rallies and Jerry never ached so much from conditioning. Well that wasn't true. the time Jack roundhouse kicked him in the stomach hurt badly.
"Congrats bro, man I wish I can dance so I can be in a room full of girls." Randy leaned in to tell him in a quieter voice so he wouldn't draw attention
Jerry frowned on contemplation, he honestly didn't think about it that way, the fact that there would be more girls than boys on the team. All he truly thought was that he knew Smooth would be on the team as well as his friend Benny who was dating Ember Chung, a member of the Elite.
"Yeah that's cool and all but I really just wanted to be in it to dance." The boy answered honestly
Randy snickered, "Sure of course man." He said with a wink
"I'm being serious." Jerry insisted
"Of course you are." Randy replied back with a wink
"I am and stop winking."
"Hey do you guys mind shutting up? Some of us are trying to do the work on the board." A feminine voice with a clear foreign accent snapped at them
Both boys turned around at swallowed their tongues at her appearance. She has light olive tanned skin, shoulder length brunette hair with light waves, brown almond shaped eyes, a pink cupid bow mouth and sharp cheekbones. To put it bluntly she was hot smokin' hot and he was dumbfounded. A quick glance at Randy showed that he also thought the same thing of the girl.
"We are both so sorry about us being loud." Randy found his voice before Jerry and apologized quickly
"Yeah he's is right, we were being stupid and not thinking about the people around us. I'm sorry."
The girl just rolled her eyes at their blubbering,
"Clearly."
"I'm Jerry by the way and this is Randy."
"And you are?" His shaggy haired friend prompted
"Trying to focus on my work so why don't you two boys turn around and do the same, yeah?"
"Bossy, I like it." His friend continued, fully recovered from the shock and started his usual flirting
The girl just rolled her eyes then looked down at her paper, fully shutting them out altogether. Randy and Jerry got the message and turned back around in their seat, reeling from what just happened. That girl he just talked to was insanely hot and it was the first time since his breakup with Heather that he actually wanted to get to know her. Only he also knew that from what he just saw from Randy that he was also interested in her as well which could be an issue if they both wanted to sought her out. Unbeknownst to Jerry, Heather, who was sitting across the room from him watched the whole scene that just played out. She couldn't hear what was said but she saw the look on her ex-boyfriend's face and could tell that he was taken by the girl. He was giving the mystery girl the same look that he used to give her and that made her stomach churn. She knew she had no right to feel that way since she was the one to call it off but she still had unresolved feeling for him. They three- month relationship was amazing despite the difficult ending and she was happy before the clinginess. She wasn't ready to see him move on, especially since she herself hasn't done it either. The girl tore her gaze away from the Columbian wondering once again if she made the right choice breaking up with him.
Main Corridor
After Milton left his AP Biology class, his mind filled with the fresh information of chemical bonds and water properties he headed straight to his locker. He needed to put his books away and grab his posters to hang up. It was his lunch period and he recruited Jerry and Eddie to help him hang up his campaign posters around the halls on his school since principal Buckett gave them the thumbs up. Now was the better time than any since lunch was like a free period for him and for a bonus Kim didn't have second love which means if she also wanted to put up posters there wouldn't be much space left.
He was headed over to the library to meet up with his friends, the rolled up posters tucked underneath his left arm. With his back turned to the classroom and mind stuck on the campaign he didn't notice a lanky, dark haired Asian male jogging to catch up with him.
"Hey Milton wait up!" The mystery boy called, garnering Milton's attention enough for him to stop and turn around
He raised his eyebrows in surprise when he saw that it was Nigel walking towards him,
"Hey Nigel." The ginger-haired teen greeted him in slight confusion
Like he stated before Nigel was always nice enough to him in the classes they shared and actually acknowledged his existence which is a lot more than he can say for Arthur. Then again, that wasn't really something to be sad about because the last time they had a full conversation it was him threatening to get revenge for him them spilling the beans about his true bratty personality. That was towards the of seventh grade then he heard rumors that he was caught sneaking into the Country Club after hours with Cathy Davis. His father was furious and sent him to a behavioral program thing in Utah for the rest of seventh grade and all of eighth. He finally showed up again in the summer when Milton saw him lounging by the pool and his first instinct was to run away from him.
That wasn't one of the Scottish teens proudest moments.
Nigel flashed him a smile, "I heard you were running for ninth grade president."
"Uh yeah, yeah I am and up against two very popular ninth grade girls."
"Personally, for me I think you're a great candidate for president. Grace doesn't seem to know much about politics or will be for the people, just the popular ones. The other girl, Kimmy was it? I've seen her around school she seems nice enough but I don't know
"You do not want Kim to hear you call her that she'll get pissed like really, really pissed." Milton told him with a chuckle. The blonde hated being called that nickname and had no problems hitting people if they tried it.
"Oh yeah your friends right?"
"Yeah, or at least used to be lately it hasn't seem that way."
"Because of the whole election?" Nigel asked
"Yeah she's really competitive and gets in these moods where she only wants to succeed and doesn't care on who she has to step on in order to do it." Milton started walking again and Nigel walked with him
Nigel chuckled, "She sounds just like my cousin."
"Yeah but she's my friend and I love her like she's my sister, after the election is over things will go back to normal."
"You sure about that? I don't mean to mean to overstep but she doesn't sound like a very good friend if she doesn't care who she steps on in order to win."
"No really Kim is I swear, everybody just has their bad habits and tendancies that's all, you know? She is a great friend besides that I mean she, as well as my other friend Jack was the reason I got together with my girlfriend and helped me passed Home Ec with that awful Pedesca-" Milton rambled
"Okay, Milton I didn't mean to insult your friend forget what I said I don't know her. I'm sure she's great, really you don't need to defend her." Nigel interrupted, putting up his hands to stop him
Milton snapped his mouth shut so fast that his teeth clicked together. He didn't know why he started word vomiting and he felt his neck start to heat up. He was standing next to the library door entrance since it wasn't a long walk from his locker.
"Forget what I just said, really I shouldn't have said anything, I need to get going anyway. I'll see you later and vote for you on Friday, bye." Milton gave him a weak smile that quickly dropped when Nigel's back was turned as he walked away
He heaved a deep sigh, not expecting that his surprise conversation with Nigel will make him question Kim. He thought back to the get together at Jack's house last Friday, she didn't act any different or hostile for the most part. It wasn't until the election came up did she give passive aggressive comments and jokes with an underline note of steel. That hurt him more than he would have liked to admit because it was a stupid high school election. But that was Kim for you, it's all fun and games until she takes something too seriously then she becomes someone else entirely.
"Did my eyes deceive me or were you just talking to Nigel Vaughn?" Eddie's voice broke him from going down the rabbit hole
The Scottish teen turned his head to see Eddie with Jerry in tow walking towards him with matching shocked looked on their faces.
"Oh no they weren't deceiving you I saw him talking to prep Nigel too." Jerry confirmed with a nod of his head
Eddie and Milton shared exasperated looks,
"What was that all about?" Eddie questioned him
"Oh it was nothing, he was just telling me that he will vote for me for president."
"Wow, you got the preps on your side?" Jerry
"Why do you insist on calling them that? And not all of them it it's just Nigel I think. I'm not sure I didn't really ask."
"Well that's what they are they're preps or as Kim calls the Swathmore rejects; rich, snobby, perfect skin, perfect teeth, wear Nordstrom, and go to expensive trips around the freaking world." Eddie rattled off
"And don't forget obnoxiously smart." Jerry added
"Oh my God did Jerry just use obnoxious in the right way?"
"I think he did."
"Everyone's a comedienne, and you wonder why we called you prep-in-training behind your back before we became friends."
"You what?"
"Oh you weren't supposed to know about that, oops."
"You guys used to call me a prep-in-training?"
"It was a while ago like back in grade school. I mean c'mon you have to admit you are basically a prep; rich parents, rich house on Crystal Rock where all the other preps live in, you're in AP classes so you're also insanely smart, you went to Scotland this summer, and is that a Calvin Klein vest you're wearing?"
The Scottish teen looked down at his vest, it was
"Maybe but it was a gift from my aunt Meredith I couldn't just refuse." Milton tried to justify yourself
"The fact that your family can afford Calvin Klein says a lot right now." Jerry commented and Eddie nodded in agreement before clapping a hand on Milton's right shoulder
"It's nothing to feel bad about Milton it's just who you are, a prep-in-training the only thing missing is the perfect outer appearance and snooty attitude." The yellow belt tried to console him
"Just don't ever get that snooty attitude or we can't be friends anymore, okay?" Jerry added
"I'll try not to." Was all the ginger haired teen could come up with, feeling ganged up on by his two friends
"Good, now that, that's over let's hang up some pictures, yo!" The Columbian exclaimed, clapping his hands together
The two guys walked past Milton to get to his open locker and grab the posters in the metal blue box,
Milton stood there silent for a moment still processing the whole prep thing before shaking his head to focus on the task at hand; hanging up posters with his two best friends.
Front of School
Jerry sat on the school steps looking at his phone, waiting for a text from his mama to confirm she was coming to pick him up. The brief thought that she should've just texted Camilla or Izzy instead to pick him up crossed his mind. His mami though declared that she wanted to be to be the one to pick him up instead of his papa to prove some point that he doesn't care about. Now with eighth period over it was finally time to go home, which honestly Jerry wasn't too happy to do. For now, he didn't want to focus on that but instead on the mystery girl in his Algebra class. Throughout all of first period he couldn't stop stealing glances at the girl who didn't pay him no mind but instead was focusing on the work. Both Randy and him kept their word and stopped talking during class in order to gawk at the girl and thinking of a way to approach her. When the class was over they both chickened out and instead just watched her walk out without saying anything. When she did pass them though she gave them a small smirk, which had to mean she was somewhat into him, or Randy, or maybe both?
Jerry made sure to look at all his other classmates in the rest of his classes to see if he maybe shared another class with the mystery girl. Luckily, he in fact did share his fourth period biology class and during role learned her name was Mika Khan. The last name sounded strangely familiar to him but he couldn't put his finger on it, he meant to ask Jack or Eddie the question but ended up forgetting it. Still not getting an answer, he huffed in annoyance then shoved his phone back in his pocket. When he finally did look out he nearly swallowed his tongue when he saw Mika sitting at one of the few benches in front of the school that was donated a while ago. The Columbian took a few deep breaths before standing up from the stairs with the intention of walking over to her.
He was stopped when a light skinned Filipino girl blocked his view of the younger girl
"Jerry Martinez."
"Layla Corazon, what a do girl? And why are we using full names?"
"We have an extra practice after school so be there at four ò clock sharp." The junior informed him
"Oh uh okay, how long though? I have karate practice." The boy asked, earning a glare from the captain
"As long as it needs until we're ready for the Fall Festival.."
"Do you date freshman by any chance? I have a friend that is interested in you. " He suggested, Randy was desperate so the nice thing to do was help him out
"Just be there Martinez you're lucky you're a somewhat more than mediocre dancer or else I would have not accepted your ass on the team." Layla dismissed him before turning on her heel and walking away
"Sassy, I like it." The Columbian called to her retreating back
One she was out of sight, he looked back over to Mika who was absorbed in her phone and walked over to her
"Hey Mika." Jerry called out
The girl looked up from her phone with amusement clear in her eyes
"So you figured out my name."
"Pretty easy when we share two classes together."
"What do you want?" The girl was straightforward, he liked that
"I wanted to apologize again for Algebra and being an ass."
Mika shot him a smirk, "Well you're lucky you and your friend are cute otherwise I wouldn't accept the apology."
Jerry froze, wondering if he heard that correctly, "You think I'm cute? I mean of course I am and of course you think that."
This conversation wasn't going to bad, this was the longest he had with a girl he was interested in, minus Heather obviously.
"That right there is adorable, you clearly don't have much experience with girls do you?" Mika set her phone down so she was staring right at him
"What?" He might've drew out the word and his voice might've gone up an octave but he wouldn't tell anyone if they asked
"Of course I have experience, tons of experience I mean I've talked to lots of girls." That wasn't technically a lie
"And how many talked back to you?" Mika shot back
"That uh-well a few."
"Let me stop you right there before you embarrass yourself further."
"That's probably a good idea." Jerry agreed with a nod, staring at the ground. He didn't like how this conversation was going he needed to think of something else to say
"So, you're new here?" That was a safe topic
"It's that obvious?"
"Well I would've totally recognized someone as cute as you if you weren't." He flirted, gaining his confidence back
Mika chuckled at him,
"Hmm, that was better than your first attempt."
"I'm also pretty sure I hit on all the girls in ninth grade already."
"Cute."
"You have a nice accent, where are you from?" He was grasping for straws at what to say, he didn't want the conversation to end
"Hakmakhistan."
"Yo, that's where Falafel Phil is from!"
Mika nodded, "Yeah he's my uncle." she disclosed with a shrug
"Wait you're related to-to him?!" That's why her last name sounded familiar
"Isn't that what I just said?" The foreign girl replied with an arched brow
"No way he's all-and you're-" The boy gestured to her appearance
There was also the fact that the man was weird and over enthusiastic who talked about the weird culture of home country and rumor has it kept a goat in his kitchen before health inspectors caught him.
"Yeah he's-how do you American's say weird."
"He makes bomb food yo, despite what Kim and Milton think. His goat Tootsie is also really cute as well." Jerry added
It was now or never Jerry, you can do this,
"So uh do you like want to maybe catch a movie this Friday? I heard they came out with a new Horse Tamer movie."
"What? Like a date?" The girl sought for clarification
"Maybe? Kinda? Would you mind if it is?"
"I don't know what a Horse Tamer movie is for one, and I already have plans this Friday."
"Oh." Try not to seem to disappointed, brush it off he told himself
"But you can come along." Wait what?
"That wouldn't be weird?"
"I'm just going to this party I heard about, that shouldn't be weird."
"A party, like a regular house party?" Jerry always wanted to go to a house party, it seemed cool but he never thought it'll be freshmen year
"No, it's in the ravines, the woods behind the school."
Jerry frowned in confusion, "We have a ravine? Huh that's swag I didn't even know about that."
Mika smiled in bemusement at him, "So? Are you going to come?"
"As your plus one? Definitely." He confirmed
Mika shot him another puzzled look, "Plus one?" She asked
"It means like as your date." Jerry told her
Mika shook her head, "I never said that, bring your friend too."
"Who? Randy?"
"If that's the name of your friend in Algebra then yeah."
Jerry worked hard to keep a frown off his face, don't show how affected you are by this he told himself
"Oh, okay sure I will." He tried to play it off like it was no big deal
"Good, well my ride's here, bye then Jerry."
"Wait, you know my name?" He called out, Mika just gave him threw same smirk from before over her shoulder
That went so much better than he thought, he had a date or hangout or whatever it's called with Mika!
"Whoo!" Jerry shouted in excitement, ignoring the dirty looks thrown by the students nearby
The only thing was she also wanted Randy there too, does that mean his friend is now his competition? Also where was his mami?
