My Brother's Friends

Chapter 2

When I woke up my eyes were practically swollen shut, it was obvious that I had been crying. I jumped in the shower and scrubbed myself until every inch of me looked like the shell of a cooked lobster. My pale skin seemed to be affected by anything, just carrying a heavy box left marks on my skin. I didn't bother with looking like I was trying to impress anyone. I let my black hair dry naturally I pulled on some makeup to hide my crying eyes. As far as clothes went I pulled on a white t-shirt and some black ripped jeans and called it a day.

New Yorkers weren't ones for many colors, although I did notice that most of the population of Californians seemed fond of pastels, I wasn't sure I'd be seen wearing baby blues and pinks any time soon.

As I walked downstairs I saw that Liam had left my class schedule on the kitchen counter like he said he would. I wasn't sure if he'd left for class already but I assumed he had. The house was quiet and still really messy, hopefully, someone was coming to clean this up because I wasn't in the mood to clean anything, I still had a mountain of boxes to unpack. As I walked out of the house I started typing the school into my phone's GPS when I ran into a wall. I stumbled back a few steps and looked up. There I came face to face with a very attractive guy, his hair was black and his eyes brown

"s**t are you okay?"

"I'm fine, what are you doing at my house?"

"I thought only Liam and the guys lived here."

"I'm Liam sister, who are you?" I raised an eyebrow, he was tall but he didn't seem old enough to be Liam's friend.

"I'm Blake, I live right across the street."

"Why are you here then?"

"The mailman dropped left some of your mail at my place again." He handed me a stack of magazines and envelopes, obviously, this was a very bad mailman.

"Thanks." I grabbed them from him and stepped back inside quickly to leave everything. "I gotta go." I walked around him towards my car.

"Are you starting at Mckinley Valley High today?"

"Wouldn't you like to know," I muttered heading to my Range Rover.

I left Blake standing on my driveway and pulled out of my driveway wanting to get to this new school as soon as possible. I found the Mckinley Valley High School pretty easily, for one it was a huge set of buildings all made of what seemed like glass. The school had a very high-tech look to it which was very impressive. I was expecting a school that would look like a church, not an Apple headquarters.

I pulled into my assigned parking slot which came with my class schedule, this was a little over the top. I sat in my car and chanted to myself.

'You can do it' over and over. I wasn't used to being the "new girl" I had been with my same set of friends since middle school. I'd never struggled to make friends, I'd had the same group of friends my entire life. Now all of the sudden I had to start over.

I exited my car and I quickly wished I wore some less bumb looking clothes. All the girls here were dressed from head to toe in some famous designer. I watched in disgust as most of them wore nothing but a bikini top under a cropped top. By the time I was inside the building I had already been assigned my role as the outcast by the mob of blonde bimbos standing outside. Maybe tomorrow I'd be wearing something baby blue.

I longed to go back to bed, I was awful tired and in dire need of coffee. I knew the odds of my brother letting me skip school for a Starbucks break were slim to none.

With my class schedule in hand, I began my treacherous march to find my classes. The school map made absolutely no sense and the students here were of little to no help. By the time I found my first class it was a little past the time the bell rang. I found a seat and sunk into it trying to go unnoticed.

The teacher was behind her desk and completely unresponsive to us, she was texting. I wondered if everyone was used to dealing with unprofessional teachers. I would never understand why my parents had donated such large quantities of money to a school that did not deserve it. The outside might deserve respect but the inside sure did lack it.

"Jessica Banks?"

"Present," I said

"I wasn't aware you'd be starting school so soon." She looked surprised.

"Well, what else would be expected of me." I shot back.

"I'm for your loss."

Here it goes, ten minutes into class and my dirty laundry is going to get aired out. I wondered if it was too late to back out, maybe I could be homeschooled, those kids always turned out better.

I smiled at her. "Thanks."

I wasn't going to be the girl that made the teacher cry, I would put on the same fake smile I gave everyone else, I didn't need this crap I had enough on my plate.

For today's lesson we watched a movie, it was so stupid I wanted to laugh. Once that terrible class was over I sauntered out with my head held high and my defenses up. I had taken too many blows lately and I needed a shell to protect me for these next few months. Graduation was close, I just needed to make it there and I could move back to New York.

I sent a quick text to Liam letting him know I'd found the school and everything was fine, he needed a break from all the stress and worry he had been going through these past couple of days. My parents passing would be the hardest for him. Liam was now responsible for a multi-billion dollar company that my parents had built. Although the company was split evenly between us, Liam had to watch over the entire company.

When I reached the right age I would be able to help him carry on this load that he was currently stuck with, but until then I was left to simply try and pass my last year of high school

Liam replied with a simple smiley face that warmed my heart completely. I heard the bell ring and realized it was time for yet another tortuous hour at the hands of some shitty teacher.

"Class this is our new student Jessica Banks." The teacher said holding her hands out like she was showing off an award-winning dog.

The teacher smiled at me. "Jessica, would you like to say something?"

"You don't have to call me Jessica, Jess is fine."

The teacher sat me down next to a boy that seemed oddly familiar, oh he was the guy from this morning, what was his name again?

"Hey Jess." he said with a smirk.

"Hey..."

"Blake."

I smiled politely, no need to be rude. "Nice to see you again, Blake."

Blake was handsome I could tell he was trouble, from the looks these girls were giving me I could tell that Blake was their eye candy, and they didn't want to share.

That was fine by me, I had no plans to stay in California. Soon I would be headed right back to New York, I wasn't really interested in doing anything to make my stay here more, enjoyable. Unlike my last class this teacher actually had an interest in teaching us, therefore I found myself trying to keep up taking notes about everything that came out of her mouth when class ended everyone scattered in different directions, it was time for lunch.

Lunchtime as the new girl was a nightmare, I felt like a cut of meat being sold. Everyone was looking at me to asses my next move, but I just stood looking around for somewhere to claim a spot. I felt a hand on my arm, it was a girl that had been in my first class this morning, I hadn't caught her name but at that moment she was mother Teresa.

"Come sit with us, I'm Fay by the way." She smiled kindly and I was so thankful. She guided me to a table full of different personalities, jocks, cheerleaders, the artsy students, a little of everything.

"Yes, please sit down." the jock said eagerly.

"So you're the new girl." the cheerleader asked.

I nodded. "My names Jess Banks." I smiled at them. Maybe I could be really good friends with them.

They introduced themselves to me. The jocks name is Carter, cheerleader Valerie, and the studious gamer's name is Ash then there was Jackie and Drake who were normal and didn't do much but try and survive.

I liked tables with variety because you rarely got bored. I talked to them openly and appreciated that none of them asked me about my parents. I was halfway through my pizza when a tray got sat down next to mine. I looked up into big brown eyes, Blake.

"I see you're stalking me."

I laughed. "I came here with the intentions of meeting new people."

"You just so happened to stumble upon mine?"

"I can leave."

"I'm just teasing you. I like you being part of our clique." Blake said laughing.

"Your clique huh?" I laughed, of all the tables.

"Don't worry, I don't mind sharing." He raised a brow. Oh, this guy was going to be trouble.