Chapter 1

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Jordyn POV

I wake up at six to get in the shower. I currently have mixed emotions. A part of me is excited for school to start, the other part of me wants to jump back in bed. I walk into the bathroom and turn the water on. While the water heats up, I go to the sink.

I stand there looking at myself. Today I'm entering my last year of high school. While standing there, I feel like I'm trying to figure out the girl looking back at me. With so much change that happened last year, school is going to be an adjustment with a lot of main people in my life being gone.

I get undressed then hop in the shower. The hot water feels amazing against my body. After a while, I convinced myself to get out. The one thing about Washington is it never gets too hot here, which means the nights and mornings are cold. Therefore, getting out of the shower sends chills down my body.

I wrap the towel around me tightly. I go back to the sink. I brush my teeth and head back to my room. I turn on my IHome while I get ready for school. I go to my closet looking to find something to wear. After about ten minutes, I found something suitable. For some reason I feel like I have a burden to "prove" something this year.

I get dressed then do my hair. I scrunch my hair before pinning some back. This is usually my go to hair style when I shower in the morning. When I finish getting ready, I go downstairs where my mom has breakfast on the table. She has never been one to make breakfast for us before school. Since Alexis left a couple of weeks ago, she's been acting clingy to me.

I sit down to eat because I know if I didn't my mom would bicker. My mom sits with me as my dad is already off to work.

"Are you going to try to make new friends this year?"

I looked up at my mom who was staring at me.

Completely thrown off by the question, I thought I would at least entertain it. "What's wrong with the friends I have?"

My mom picked up the juice offering me more, but I shook my head to decline. I keep my eyes on my mom waiting for an answer.

"I think Callie is a bad influence on you. I haven't seen you around your other friends in a while." My mom said in her monotone voice.

I never once heard my mom say a negative thing about Callie, so this is all new to me. Instead of getting into the 'whys' right now, I stated one fact.

"Callie is my best friend. Nothing will change that. I mean nothing." I then get up before I miss my ride.

My mom follows along behind me.

"You don't have to walk me to the car mom." I'm now getting aggravated.

I get to the front door and see my mom is still following me.

Great. I go out the front door. I started walking down the steps when I saw an unfamiliar vehicle in the driveway. I turn to my mom who has keys dangling in her hands.

"I thought this would be helpful."

I look at her completely shocked. My mom threw the keys at me. She then walked in the house. I follow her back in the house. I stopped her to give her a hug.

"Thank you." I tell her to show her my appreciation.

My mom and dad have always had money but been very tight with it. Hence the reason why Alexis and I had to share a car for two years. That car finally died out and they got Alexis a new one before she went to college. I had no idea they would get me one.

I go out to my vehicle where Callie is standing by. I now feel bad making her come this way, but I had no idea this was happening. We both check it out before we head towards the school where we are starting our last year of high school.

Me being who I'm, I had to find the perfect song to listen to for the first time in my car. I scroll through my iPod until I can find one. When I did, I cranked the volume up.

—And we'll never be royals (royals)
It doesn't run in our blood
That kind of luxe just ain't for us
We crave a different kind of buzz
Let me be your ruler (ruler)
You can call me Queen Bee
And baby I'll rule, I'll rule, I'll rule, I'll rule Let me live that fantasy -


I soon pulled into the parking lot, and it was already packed. There are a lot more cars than I can remember there being last year. I park a couple of rows from Callie. I get out and we meet going into the school. While walking I noticed many new students.


Callie and I get to our lockers which are in the same spot as last year. We had the choice if we wanted them to change or not. I didn't see the point of changing mine. We both took pictures together on our phones of our first day of school. We have one since we met each other so it's a tradition.

It's crazy to look back at all the pictures. We both have changed so much. It's also crazy to see the different hair styles and clothes we had. I couldn't imagine this generation of kids wearing what we had back then.

"Hey ladies." I hear a muffled voice from behind us.

I turn around and see a guy who is at least five inches taller than me. He has bleach blonde hair that is shaggy. He is looking at us with a half grin. "Would you lovely ladies like to help a new kid out?" He pulls out his schedule.

Callie jumps on the opportunity. She takes it from him and scans it.

"Jordyn and you have the first hour together so she can show you where to go." Callie says, giving me a little push towards him.

I give Callie a glare as she walks away. Her smile didn't go unnoticed.

"Well, I guess follow me." I told him.

"You sound so pleased." He laughs.

We start walking to Speech. I wasn't too fond of having this class the first hour, but I rather get the class over with than dread it for the rest of the day.

As we are walking, I realized I don't know this guy's name, nor does he know mine.

"I'm Jordyn."

He stops the both of us.

He looks down at me with a surprised face. "No way. You have the same name as me!"

I looked at him, not surprised. Jordyn is a common guy name with a different spelling.

We started walking again and he couldn't stop laughing. I look up at him. He stops when he notices me staring.

"My name isn't Jordan."

I rolled my eyes not thinking it was as funny as he did. "What is your name then?"

We go into the classroom as he answers. "Christian."

I take a seat in the middle of the room. I'm not surprised when he takes a seat next to me.

"Which one of these guys is your boyfriend?" He asked while looking around the room as it was getting full.

"I don't have a boyfriend." He gets an overconfident smirk when I say that.

Kyle, who is a senior, walks up to Christian. He messes with his hair.

"You look lost, California." Kyle is leaning on the desk Christian is sitting in. "Don't get your hopes up with Jordyn." He whispers towards him.

I know where this is going with that comment.

"Derek will kick your ass if you mess with her."

Maybe I don't. Did Derek seriously go around school threatening people before he left? My god I can't stand him sometimes.

"She also likes girls." Kyle says then walks away.

Well, that's what I was expecting him to say in the first place.

Christian looks over at me. "Is that true?"

I nod in no fear of being judged.

"The girl you were with this morning, is that your girlfriend?"

I had to hold back my laughter. "No. Callie is my best friend."

I can see what the next question is going to be, so I answered it before he asked.

"I was dating a girl who went here last year."

He had a cocky grin on his face again. "Was? Does that mean you aren't anymore?"

I look down at my finger where the promise ring Paige gave me the day of her graduation is sitting. I still haven't taken it off nor do I want to.

"I am still dating her. She is in college now. When I said was, I was referring to the fact she went here and now doesn't."

I saw a couple of girls eyeing Christian. He was enjoying the attention. I have a feeling he won't be tagging along with me after this or so I hoped.

When class was over, I walked out the classroom and towards my next class.

I hear footsteps come behind me quickly.

"Wait up." I hear the same voice as earlier. I look to the side and see Christian walking beside me. "Just so you know, I don't care if you are gay or bisexual. It's quite hot if you ask me."

I barely know this kid, but that didn't stop me from punching him in the stomach.

"Feisty, I like." He is already getting under my skin.

Christian puts his arm around my shoulder. I raise my eyebrow at him. That didn't make him pull his arm off me. Instead, he pulled out his schedule.

I look at it. "Not to break your heart or anything, but we don't have the same class again until the 7th hour."

He dropped his arm that was on my shoulder and flew it to his heart acting dramatic. I shook my head laughing. I placed his schedule against his chest.

"Your next class is in that room." I pointed and walked away.

Callie comes walking towards me as I'm headed down the hallway.

"You and the new kid look very flirty." Callie winks.

"His name is Christian." I told her. "For the record, he knows I'm dating Paige."



Paige POV

I have been here for two weeks now. The dorm they put the freshmen in is crazy. The rooms are tiny. To top it off, my roommate and I don't get along. She is always in the room, I mean always. I have yet to see her with anyone around campus. She doesn't try to talk to me. When I try to make conversation with her she will only stare at me and not say a word back..

Luckily for me, Alexis is down the hall. Of course, she gets a fun roommate. They are remarkably similar which is a benefit for her. Her roommate, whose name is Kylie, is incredibly attractive. She has dark hair and dark eyes. She is very down to earth and loves to party.

I have met a lot of new people here already. I'll admit, I had cold feet coming here when the time got closer, but it turned out to not be so bad. I thought leaving was going to be hard, but it has been easy. I don't know if that is a bad thing or not. The only issue is Jordyn isn't here.

We are still together. We did talk about taking a break so we both could explore the beginning of our new chapters, but we both didn't want to.

Jordyn started class today and she is going to Skype me in a couple of hours to tell me how it went. I had class all day, but it went pretty fast. The teachers here don't use up the whole time. They tell us what they think we need then send us out. It honestly feels like we are our own teacher which shows that we are clearly paying too much to come here.

I'm meeting Kylie and Alexis to eat dinner in the dining hall. Alexis had a later class, so Kylie and I walked there together.

"Are you going Greek?" Kylie asked me.

I looked at the flier she had in her hand. I used to want to be in a sorority when I was growing up, but now I don't think I want to.

"No, they have too much commitment. I don't do commitment well."

She looked slightly disappointed.

Kylie then chuckles. "That's why you are in a relationship, since you don't like to commit?"

I scanned my card to get in the dining hall and we went to a line for food.

"It's different from Jordyn." I say while grabbing what I want. She got everything she wanted, and we walked towards a table to sit down.

"For now, until you realize you're missing out on a lot by staying in a relationship."

I see Alexis's scanning in. I didn't really know how to respond back to what Kylie just said. She looked over at Alexis who is now getting food.

"You would have a better time if you lived the single freshman life." She is smiling with her sparkling eyes. I tried to look away from them, but it was hard.

"What are you two talking about?" Alexis asked while sitting down beside me. I looked at Kylie who looked down at her food smiling.

"She thinks I should break up with Jordyn and jump her bones." Kylie might not have said that, but she implied it as much.

Kylie choked on her food when I said it, but I didn't care.

Alexis looked at her questioning if that was true.

"I said she would have a better time being single. That's all." Kylie said, trying to defend herself.

"Don't mess with Jordyn and Paige." Alexis said directly to Kylie. Her voice sounded very productive. "Relax, the both of you. I was saying an opinion. You both are so uptight with being in relationships." Kylie gets up. I watched her walk out of the dining hall.

"You better not be flirting with her." Alexis threatens me.

Alexis has been on me nonstop since we got here about everything. I don't think she thinks I'm going to hurt Jordyn. I think it's her way of trying to control something since she has no control on when she can talk to Jake with him being gone.

"She's not my type. Don't get me wrong, she does have beautiful eyes. If I was flirting back with her, I wouldn't call her out and make her mad." I went back to eating wanting to forget this whole conversation.

We finished eating then headed back to the dorms. I went into Alexis's room so I could Skype Jordyn. I feel awkward doing it in my room because of my roommate constantly staring.

I get on Skype and see Jordyn isn't on yet. I decided to get on Facebook to browse a bit. After ten minutes my computer was buzzing. It was Jordyn calling me.

She was on the other side of the screen with a huge smile.

"Hey beautiful.

Jordyn smiles even bigger.

We both talked about our day. Well, I should say Jordyn was talking. I didn't mind though. I like sitting back and hearing her talk. She seems so happy.

"There is this new kid at our school. His name is Christian." She says still wearing a smile.

I didn't say anything. She talked a lot about him, which completely threw me off. It probably was easy for her to talk about him, because it sounds like he was following her around school. She acts as if she didn't mind. I make a mental note to keep an eye out for this guy.

"I'll text you. My mom wants me to come downstairs. I love you." Jordyn says.

"I love you too."

I walked to my room after we hung up. I go lay down on my bed. I'm trying to process everything Jordyn was telling me. I have never seen her so anxious to talk. She kept talking and talking. It looks like she will be fine without me there.

I don't know how seeing Jordyn in person a lot is going to be an option. There is nothing family wise left for me in that town. Jordyn's mom isn't going to let me stay there without Alexis.

All this thinking is getting my emotions worked up. It's to the point where tears have found their way out of my eyes.

I grab my phone and text Jordyn since she hasn't texted me yet.

Paige: Do you regret us not going on a break? Be honest...

Jordyn: Not at all. I'm happy and without you I wouldn't be.

Paige: By the sound of it, you really don't need me.

Jordyn: Trust me. I need you. I want you. I love you.

Paige: Ok... I love you too.

Jordyn: I'll text you tomorrow and I'll come see you this weekend. I then will show you how much I want and need you.

A smile instantly went to my face. Hopefully, this weekend will give me reassurance that will calm me down. To be honest, I thought this situation would be reversed.

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