The Squad Effect

Chapter 1 | The Worst Neighbors

Cameron Dallas

September 1st, the first day back at school after a well-deserved summer vacation. Last year was a hard one for us, but now I'm back at Hillsdale High School and feeling better than ever. Last year, being freshman year, my best friend and I spent almost all of our free time trying to find a clique to be a part of, so we would be able to fit into the high school dynamic. This was especially important to us because here at Hillsdale, cliques are everything. If you didn't have a group of friends to call your own, you were less than a nobody. It had gotten to the point of being ridiculous how many cliques rejected us. We joined clubs, study groups and even signed up to volunteer for events but nothing worked. We were treated as outcasts. Just as we were beginning to lose hope and accept our fate as solitary untouchables, we saw one last sign up sheet, this time, for the junior football team. The team consisted of mostly freshman and by the first practice, my best friend, Taylor Caniff, and I knew we had found our clique.

That series of events brought us to the place we are now. The top of the food chain, at least in the perspective of those in the junior grades, was where we sat now and although I was at school, I had never felt more at home.

Taylor and I walked down the hallway of the first floor in the Sophomore dormitories, searching for our new shared dorm room. After less than forty-five seconds we come up on room 106, the room we had been assigned to. Taylor took out his shiny new key and placed it in the lock slowly, trying to drum up the suspense. At last he swung the door open. The sophomore dorm was so much nicer than the freshman rooms.

We walked through the main room which doubled as a living room and kitchen, and decided to give ourselves the grand tour. We traveled to the bathroom next which was a decent size and had all the standard plumbing that a bathroom was supposed to have. Finally, we moved to our bedroom which had two queen sized beds, which was a significant upgrade from the twin beds in the freshman rooms.

Hillsdale is a sort of university prep school, so we live on campus like college students, but are still taught the same lessons as any regular high school student, except the lessons are usually held in the style of lectures.

My attention was brought to our suitcases that were on the ground next to our respective beds. So much unpacking to do, so little time. Unpacking was definitely the last thing that I wanted to do at the moment, so instead I took a step back into the living room and smiled at the new room that belonged to us for the next nine whole months. After doing a sufficient amount of ogling, I got a running start from the living room and jumped into the bed that had my suitcases and boxes next to it.

I stretched out liberally as Taylor walked over to lie in the bed beside me. He cuddled up next to me which caused me to chuckle.

"This will be one hell of a year." I mumbled, smiling widely to myself. Suddenly, the momentary silence is broken by the loud sound of something falling.

"f**k!" Someone from next door screams in pain.

"Looks like our next-door neighbor is here." I say while rolling my eyes, "Hopefully they aren't some clumsy bastards that are always dropping stuff and causing a ruckus like that," I added as we both got out of bed. When we opened the front door, we could immediately see into the room directly across the hallway. It had to have been them that dropped something.

"s**t! This is what f*****g happens when the pretentious pricks that run this place pick and choose who gets their stuff delivered to their rooms and who doesn't!" An angry voice came from the back of dorm 105. I decided that it was a good time to interrupt.

"Hello? We heard something fall and we came to check if everyone was alright." I called into the room after walking up to their open door and knocking on the door frame, Taylor by my side.

"We're fine. Thanks so much for coming to- oh. It's you." Some kid with pale, freckled skin, overly gelled brown hair and bright blue eyes scowls at me once he sees my face.

"Do I know you?" I asked the guy as politely as I could.

"No, Cameron, you don't, and I wish you still didn't." He replied harshly, causing me to involuntarily take a step back.

"Someone seems a little irritable. How is it that you know me, and I have no clue who you are?"

"You're Cameron Dallas. You're known as the guy who runs the pack of neanderthals known as the football team. I am Nash Grier and I'm known for preferring that the jocks leave me alone." He said, his voice filled with disgust, while looking between Taylor and I.

"Who's at the door, Nash?" Another boy who was tall with dark hair walked into the view of the doorway. He looked at us and dropped the vase he was holding with an audible gasp. The vase shattered at his feet, yet he never looked away from the both of us.

"God dammit Shawn!" Nash muttered to the boy, who I'm assuming goes by the name of Shawn. He looked down at the shards of glass angrily.

"Would you like our help cleaning that up or..." Taylor trailed off politely. Maybe he was trying to get into the good graces of our next-door neighbors but, something told me, whether it was Nash's attitude or the fact that he seemed to be getting more irritated as the minutes went on, that a good relationship wasn't in the forecast for today.

"No, it's fine, Taylor. I've got it!" Shawn says from inside the room while beginning to pick up the shards of black stained glass from the floor.

"As you can see I have many things to do, so I'd just love it if you jockstraps got lost." Nash said in a mockingly sweet tone before slamming the door in our faces.

"Someone's not a happy camper." I joke as we walked back to our room across the hall, attempting to push the negative situation from our minds. I took a quick glance around the room as we walked back inside. "We have to go furniture shopping on the weekend, babe." I said, surveying the dingy furniture that was all the same shade of faded ash brown.

"And people call me the gay one?" Taylor asks before smacking my ass.

They call him 'the gay one' because he's openly bisexual but pretends to like girls more than guys as some sort of status symbol. Although I love Taylor, I'm not gay in any way shape or form. Many people had thought that I was gay last year and often mistook Taylor and I for a couple which might have been the reason a few of those cliques rejected us. Luckily, this year, since everyone now has clarity as to what my sexuality is, maybe I can finally find a girlfriend.

"So... that Shawn kid... he looked at me weirdly before dropping the vase." Taylor explained while flopping himself over the arm of the ugly couch.

"Maybe he experienced love at first sight." I teased.

"Nah. From what it looks like, he's a greaser. In the past the greasers and jocks haven't gotten along. He's probably just a huge s**t-disturber and had never expected to come face to face with the people he talks s**t about."

"You may have a point. If so, maybe he'll try and make your life hell this year. Oh, or maybe he had a vision like that old TV show, That's so Raven." I suggested in return which caused him to chuckle back in response.

"Well, before he does make my life a living hell, we should try and eat at least one meal in peace. I'm starved."

"There's a new year meet and greet later today in the quad. I'm sure they'll have food." I reassured him, "We could visit the other neighbors in the meantime."

"Okay, cool. Hopefully they're not as obnoxious as the two greaseballs next door." Taylor said while getting up off the couch. We re-entered the hallway and decided to start with the dorm that was right next to Nash and Shawn's. Once we were both standing in front of dorm 107 we took one last look at each other before finally knocking.

"Hey, I'm J—DUDE!" Jack Gilinsky, the junior football team's tackle, exclaimed once he had realized who was standing at the door. It had been months since we had seen the other members of the football team.

"How was your summer Jack?" I asked, hoping that he would be okay to play this season.

"Stressful. I worked all summer and didn't really get a break except for weekends. How about you?" He asked in return.

"It was awesome!" Taylor and I said in unison since we spent the summer together.

"What's new kids?" Aaron Carpenter, one of the team's guards, shows up at the door next to Jack Gilinsky. We made sure to hug him before beginning to ask all of the run-of-the-mill questions about summer.

"So, my summer was boring as hell. Internships, volunteering, and sleeping in. That's all. What about you two, anything interesting happen over the summer?" Aaron asked us in return.

"Well, after I came out to my parents at the beginning of the summer they kicked me out and I live with Cameron now." Taylor admitted while shrugging his shoulders as if it was no big deal.

"Sorry that happened man." Jack said while rubbing Taylor's shoulder, a concerned frown taking over his tan features.

"It's fine. I'm currently working on getting back on their good side. Plus, the move wasn't all bad. I genuinely enjoyed spending time with Cameron."

"I like spending time with you too, babe." I replied while clapping his shoulder respectfully.

"You two aren't... a thing, are you?" Aaron c****d an eyebrow teasingly.

"Nope, I'm still strictly into girls." I inform them.

"Yeah and I'm still strictly into people that are not my best friend." Taylor laughed.

"No judgement here, boy-o's. Do y'all have any idea where Carter's rooming?" Aaron inquired about the team's second guard, Carter Reynolds.

"Actually, I think he's right in 108." Jack cuts in while pointing to a door down the hall. The idea of being all back together begins to energize us, and one could tell by the sudden burst of energy we all had as we ran to Carter's room, yelling various things. By the time we're in front of Carter's door, it's already open and he's coming out to greet us. We hugged him, before all beginning to talk at once.

"HEY! CAN YOU TAKE YOUR PISSY p***y PARTY ELSEWHERE, SOME PEOPLE DON'T ENJOY THE SOUND OF GAYS SCREAMING!" Nash yelled from his open door down the hallway.

"f**k off, Grease!" Taylor called back to him, resulting in Nash closing his door out of frustration.

"Okay, so who are you rooming with?" Jack asked frantically. Carter led all of us back over to his dorm room and opened the door widely. We were met with a blond-haired boy who resembled Justin Bieber in his late teens. Unfortunately, he seemed like a greaser based on the perpetual frown he was sporting along with the excess of hair gel. Great.

The boy finally looked up at us, rolling his eyes once he noticed we were staring. He got up and turned to go into the bedroom, not speaking a word in the process.

"Check out that ass." Taylor whispered to the group just as the bedroom door shut.

"You guys are pigs!" The boy's voice rung out, full of hatred.

"That's Matthew Espinosa. He's a greaser which was probably the biggest disappointment of the year since he's kinda cute." Carter admitted nonchalantly.

Carter is openly gay and has been for quite some time now. I admired the way that he was comfortable in his own skin, which many of his other friends were not.

"To the Quad?" Aaron asks while turning around to face down the hallway.

"To the Quad!" We all cheered in unison. Carter closed his door before we all headed off down the hallway to the new year meet and greet.