Of All

Good Ol’ Health

I throw my trash away and look around to see Ben and he seems to be held up by Sophie.. He looks my way then tells her something as if he’s trying to leave and she looks at me with a death glare.. She turns back to him continuing their conversation.. Yikes. What am I getting myself into? I think to myself.. I decide I’m not being apart of that mess. They can do whatever they please.. I’m brand new here I don’t want to be already known as a side piece or trapped in a love triangle. I start to walk up to them to let them know I’m heading to class but before I can say anything I hear someone say my name. I turn my head and see Matty walking in with a few friends from the entrance outside. He waved to me and I smiled. My heart fluttered. I have a serious crush. Ugh and I’m jealous since they must have eaten out there too. I turn back to talk with these boneheads first.

“Hey guys I just wanted to let y’all know I’m heading back to class. It was great to meet you Sophie! Ben I’ll be seeing you in class buddy!” I say happily as I see Matty almost near us and before either of them can say anything Matty says. “Hey beautiful want to walk with me and these losers back to your class?” I look at him then look at Sophie and Ben. Their reactions were hilarious.. I wanted to laugh so bad! Sophie’s eyes open wide and her mouth to the floor.. Ben looked annoyed beyond belief as if someone took the last cookie out of the cookie jar.. “Actually id love to and those are a couple of attractive losers you got there.” I say with a wink making his friends laugh. “Aye I like her man. I’m Jaden Peters and that’s Marco Demaris. Will you marry me?” Jaden says reaching for my hand and Matty elbows him. Jaden has grayish eyes and curly dark short hair with brown skin and Marco seems to be a little shorter than the other too but still plenty taller than me. He has dark hair that has flair, light brown eyes and fair skin. They are both so handsome. This place really does have attractive people like what the he.ll is in their town water?! “Well I am the cuter one so..” I hear Matty say pulling me out of my thoughts sending me a wink. “That you are.” I blurt out not realizing and I can feel myself starting to blush. He smiles at me. “So.. Shall we go?” I say and he nods. We walk away chatting and I look back to see Ben still staring at us. From what I can assume he looked pissed.

MATTHEW’S POV

Jaden, Marco and I walk in from chilling outside for lunch when I see her beautiful face. Looks like she’s talking to a few people. Good for her making friends. I can’t help but feel like I want to be in her presence all the time. She’s just so different from anyone here. So laid back and reserved. That’s rare these days.. I tell the guys I want them to meet my new friend. I say her name and she looks at us and I give her a wave which she smiles at me in return before looking back to her friends. “Damn bro she’s hot.” Jaden says punching my arm. I give him a look and we both start laughing. “Oh yes.. She definitely looks like a virgin too.” Marco opens his big mouth and now I stop dead in my tracks.. “You’ll stay away from her you man wh.ore. She’s mine.” I looking at him and he laughs. “You just met the girl this morning and she’s got that effect on you already? Damn your losing your touch bro.” He winks at me. I roll my eyes and I laugh at him as we walk over to her. She agrees to come with me and these losers so I keep her close to my side. “So Aspen is it?” Marco says to her and I give him a warning look. He winks at me. “Oh sorry I haven’t even introduced myself.” She laughs. “I’m Aspen Gray. My family and I just moved here. My twin brother Asher is trying out for football later you guys might meet him too.” She says proudly like she’s her families biggest supporter. She’s my dream girl. “Only if he’s as cool as you.” Jaden says winking at her. She laughs agreeing that he is. Total mistake introducing them to her. Bros for life my a.ss. I glare at them both. They call me a party pooper and walk in front of us while Aspen laughs. “So where you heading back to?” I say to her making small talk and she looks up at me with those beautiful eyes. “I have Health and then P.E for my last block. What about you?” She says as we are approaching the stairs to go our separate ways. “No way.. I have P.E last block too. I forgot they usually pair Freshman with Sophomore’s and Juniors with Seniors for gym. There’s too many of us to have an individual grade per gym class.” I tell her and she smiles looking at me. “Great I’ll see you then. I was nervous about it but now I’m not.” I smile at her and she heads up the stairs. I continue to walk down the hall and the guys are waiting for me. “How’d it go Prince Charming?” Jaden wiggles his eyebrows at me and we all laugh. “Shut up man. We all got P.E together so that’ll be the best part to end my day.” I cheesy smile at them and we go back into class.

ASPEN’S POV

I head up the stairs and to my class. I see Kimi and the other girls standing by the lockers probably waiting to go to their classes. “Aspen! Where’d you go girl? I thought you were with Benny but he’s already back in class.” Kimi says as I get closer to her. “She was with Matty Parker.” Sophie said and I can just hear the jealousy in her voice.. “How do you know him?! He is so hot. I melt anytime he smiles.. He’s my next-door neighbor!” Kimi says again. The other girls stand there waiting to hear what I’m going to say. “I met him this morning on our bus. Danny and him sat next to Ash and I. They are both good guys.” I say and all of them nod smiling. “They are such good guys. Erica may have ruined Matty but Danny still has dating potential. He is so hot too. He’s glowed up so much since we were little.” Violet says.

Mr. Young pokes his head out the class room letting us ladies know the bell is about to go off so we need to make our way to our classes now. Kimi and I say bye to the girls and walk in. “Alright class. Hope you had a good lunch. Now let’s begin our lesson. Normally I would have this be an end of the year project but I figured since we have so much to cover this year it doesn’t matter when we do it. I have everyone’s partner for this assignment on the board in the back of the class. This project will go on for half of this semester. There is four quarters in one semester so this will be two quarters and half of your grade for the school year. The reason why we do this is to help guide you into adulthood but also for the skills you will obtain just as people having to work together. You may not see it like that now but you will. I must warn you it will not be easy and you’ll be spending a lot of time with your partner.” He finished saying as he walks over to his extra room. Having a few guys in the class to help him out with a few totes. They come back and he takes the lids off them and we all see baby dolls.. Oh no I’m thinking to myself.. I thought we use flour these days not the battery talking dolls.. Oddly I’m starting to miss Montana.. “Can I have the fellas stand up and go check the back board for their partners name then go sit at their table and ladies come up and grab a baby. We need to make sure they all have batteries so flip them over and turn the doll on before going back to your seat.” The guys go to the board and some start hooting.. I’m assuming getting someone they wanted for this project. They all start walking back to the tables. Kimi and I grab babies and head back to the tables as I see Ben approach us. “Looks like you’ve got stuck with me for this project Aspen.” He says look at me smiling. Kimi and I share a look to each other before she looks up at another guy walking over to our table. “Oh hey Aj. Coming to tell me we are partners?” She says to him with a smile. “Yeah how’d you figure?” He lightly chuckled. “Hey I’m Aaron Wright but everyone calls me Aj” He says with a smile. “Nice to meet you Aj, I’m Aspen Gray.” I introduce myself back. “Asher’s twin? He is in my English class and told some of us his twin is Aspen.” He says and I smile. “Yeah he likes to get the word out. He can be a little overprotective.” I say. “Yeah I got that vibe from him but who wouldn’t be if their sister looked like you.” He says casually and we both start laughing. Kimi and Ben join for a few minutes until Mr.Young announces to us. “Alright so now that you’ve all found your partners. Go to a table and start discussing the basics. I will be passing out a worksheet for every pair so sign both of your names on it. The worksheet will consist of asking where your child was born, who will be raising it, the name you both agree for the baby and figure out who is bringing it home first.” He says and starts handing out the papers. I look at Ben who is looking confused. “Is everything okay?” I asked him and he looks my way. “Yeah not gonna lie there is so much information and I don’t want to bring you down when we fail..” He said looking down. I put my hand over my mouth and lightly laugh. “Well glad you think it’s funny.. I’m actually trying to be serious here.” He says running his hand through his hair. “I-I’m sorry.” I apologize to him. Ben’s still looking down so I touch his arm to get his attention. He looks at my hand on his arm then my face. “I’m not laughing at you for being worried I’m laughing because that isn’t going to happen. You and I got this. We can’t back out or we will fail. So why not put our all in it? Like the teacher said.. It won’t be easy but at least neither of us will be alone in it. Your an athlete Ben so when the other team is kicking your a.ss do you give up easily?” I ask him seriously. “No can’t give up out on the field.. I like how you said that. Thanks. I am feeling more confident on it. Let’s kick it’s a.ss.” He says laughing and I laugh too. We get our paper and start filing it out. “Alright first question is the birth place.. Do you wanna put Woodland Falls?” He asks me and I nod while writing Woodland Falls, SC on the line. “Okay second question is who are the parents.. Well that’d be us duh.” I say writing our names on the paper and Ben just smiles. Maybe I’m out of my shell a bit too much. He’s a great guy. I’m just not ready for a relationship I mean it’s still the first day.. This will be the longest year of my life. I just know it. “Third question is what we want to name it and the gender.. Can it be a boy please I will let you name him.” Ben says to me and I laugh nodding. “I was going to ask for it to be a boy too and let’s name him Hunter.” I say smiling at our compromises. “That’s a beefy name. I will be proud to carry little Hunter around. Hunter James.. Maybe I will use that in the far future.” He smiles and then laughs tapping the dolls belly. I smile again trying to be serious and not laugh at every thing he does. He’s funny and all but I don’t want to send him the wrong message. “Okay last thing on here says to create a schedule for your baby after passing in the form.” I say.