Chapter 5

Why was buying groceries so hard? Cole had no idea what to get; there were simply too many fucking things in the store. He knew he needed sugar, coffee… And?

After a brief few moments of standing on a place, his brain started functioning again as he grabbed different types of food and placed them into the cart. Eggs, bacon, toast, butter, cheese, bread, milk, cereal… No beer.

His father had come home drunk again last night, puked all over the trailer, and then passed out. Cole cleaned all of it up, opened all the windows, and tried to get the smell out. He had done it all pretty fast, and he knew that now, a day later, his clothes didn’t smell gross anymore. But it was still in his nose, and he was desperately worried he was indeed smelling like vomit.

It was the last week of August now, 27th to be exact, and school was starting tomorrow. He would’ve never admitted to anybody else, but he was actually quite excited. Not because it was his junior year or because he was going to study again, but because of a certain blonde girl he hadn’t seen ever since the bookstore a week ago.

Her brothers, mostly Nate, hung out with him and Mason all the time, even Amelia had once joined, but Steph never came. He wondered why but understood that she probably wasn’t the kind of person who wanted to be friends with her brother’s friends. He guessed it was fine, right? After all, he was a nobody, and why would have the pretty girl even given him a second thought. Besides, she was rich. His outfits only showed how bad his economical situation was. The girl had won a MacBook from a fucking YouTube challenge.

He hated rich snobby people. He wanted to hate her but instead hated himself for thinking about her all the time. He. Didn’t. Even. Know her.

#

The next morning was a hard one for Steph. She needed to get up and ready for school. Having already showered last night, she pushed the alarm ten minutes forward and allowed herself to keep sleeping for a while longer. After twenty minutes, with a groan too loud for her ears, she finally stood up. When her feet made contact with the cold floor, she gasped quietly and hurried to her bathroom.

After brushing her teeth, applying foam to her face, and washing it off again later, she wondered how to dress like for her first day at a new school. Her eyes automatically fell on the comfy white sweater she loved so much. It was cold enough outside to wear it, and after pulling it on her light blue bra, she grabbed some light jean overalls from her closet. After pulling on some sneakers and throwing her hair into one of her perfect ponytails, she packed a few notebooks, a pen, and a book just in case she was bored and needed to read something.

Downstairs, most of her brothers were eating already with her mom. Cory was somewhere upstairs, helping the two younger ones get ready. It was all so unusual for Steph. They had so much space now, but even then it was weird to have everybody down for breakfast at the same time. Back in New York, all the schools started at different times. In Bluewere though, all of them went to school for 8:15, but the finishing time varied.

“Morning,” she said tiredly and got back the same kind of mumbles, except her mother’s who was wide awake for some reason. “Mom, you okay? Why are you so energetic?” Steph asked when she dropped her bag and sat down behind the table, grabbing the package of Fruity Pebbles.

“I’m just happy that the summer vacation is finally over and I can get rid of you now,” she joked.

The kids all laughed while eating. “That’s a nice thing to be happy about,” Nate said.

“Morning kids,” Cory said when coming downstairs with Hugo, Jimmy running there just after them.

“Morning, dad,” most of them said tiredly, Steph sighing to herself at the same time.

“Dad, can we take the car?” Charles asked, hoping they could use the smaller family car. None of the high school kids wanted to be dropped off by their dad on the first day.

“Yeah, okay. Just be careful.”

#

Steph felt eyes on her when they walked towards the entrance. It was a small town, people knew they were new, and most of them already knew they had a YouTube channel because people around the town were talking about it.

She kept close to her brothers when they entered the school and saw Mason and some beautiful rich girl she didn’t know waiting for them. “Hey guys,” the redhead said with a smile.

“Hey Mase,” the boys said while Steph just gave a small wave and an awkward smile.

“Amelia Morales,” the raven-haired girl smile immediately, putting her hand forward.

The blonde smiled a little and shook it. “Steph.”

“I know,” she said. Steph chuckled awkwardly and looked at Nate for a little help to get out of the situation.

“Any of you have calculus?” Nate asked.

“Yeah, both of us,” Mason said, taking Amelia’s hand back into his. “Steph, what about you?”

“Uhh, I’ve got English Literature.”

“You’re bad in math?” Amelia asked.

“Yeah…”

“Cole’s in that class,” Mason told her. “It’s the second floor, down the hall on your left.”

“Thanks,” Steph smiled a bit and turned to look at Nate, biting her lip at the same time.

“You’ll be fine, I’ll see you in trigonometry.”

“Trigonometry,” she mumbled to herself with a sigh as she turned to look for the stairs.

“There,” the other girl giggled, pointing to her left.

Steph gave her a thankful smile. “Thanks.” And left to that direction, upstairs. When she was on the second floor, she walked to her left and while remembering herself of the class number (218), stopped in front of the right class. She stood there for a few moments, worrying about walking inside until someone blew her a cat whistle and winked when walking past her. She frowned to herself in disgust and just stepped into the classroom, holding her breath.

“Ms. Smith?” the teacher asked behind his table, inviting her closer.

“Hi,” Steph said quietly, making the young man chuckle.

“Hi,” he smirked. “You’re new here. I want you to introduce yourself to the class when the last bell rings.”

Steph held back the deep sigh she desperately wanted to exhale. “Do I have to?” she asked awkwardly. “I’m not good… socially.”

“You’re in all possible English classes as I saw. Should start practicing social skills too.”

The girl nodded once, staring into his bright blue eyes, that looked very similar to someone she had already once seen. “Okay. Can I sit down right now?” The man nodded silently as an answer, and Steph walked towards Cole who was sitting behind a table, the spot next to him still free. But, before Cole could get his hopes up, she met his eyes briefly before seating herself down in the paired table in front of his.

The boy frowned for a moment, before remembering all her brothers had said about her in the videos, talking about how her nose was in books all the time, and how she was scared to make friends or communicate. So, he did something he usually didn’t like to do; he grabbed the bag on his table and took a few steps toward hers. He sat down next to the blonde girl, her green eyes jumping up onto his.

“Can I sit here?” he asked.

She nodded with a small smile on her lips, eyes soft and genuinely happy and relieved. He wondered maybe she wasn’t the typical rich girl from a big white family after all. Maybe she didn’t have as many friends as Amelia or Ethel or any girl from his school. Or she did, just not here, and was happy somebody had talked to her.

“What are you gonna say?” he asked after taking out his notebook and a pen.

“Where?” the girl frowned, keeping her eyes on her hands as she grabbed a pencil and an eraser from her bag.

“Here. When the class starts.”

“Oh,” she sighed, lifting her eyes onto his at the same time. She gave him a small shrug. “My name?”

The boy chuckled quietly. “You are so awkward, you know that?”

“I know…” she mumbled, looking back at the table in front of him.

“Mr. Tart’s usually kind. I don’t know why he’s making you do this…”

“Tart?” Steph asked, eyes wide. “He’s?”

“Bob’s son, yeah,” Cole nodded. “He’s taught here for like seven years now. Ever since he finished his Master’s.”

Steph nodded, now understanding where she had seen his eyes before. They were exactly the same as his dad’s. “Have you taken these classes before?”

“No, this one’s a new one. I took World Literature last year.”

Steph smiled a bit. “Me too.”

“Are you good at math?” Cole asked back, a smirk on his face.

“No,” the girl chuckled sadly. “Nate took all the math and art classes possible, but I suck at drawing too, so I’m just with socials and English and languages.”

Cole smiled softly. “Me too. What’s the one math you chose?”

“Calculus.”

“Me too. Feel like we’re gonna have a lot of classes together.” He was pleasantly surprised when the pretty girl smiled warmly at that. “Don’t be scared to sit next to me. I don’t have many friends anyway.”

“Yeah, me neither…”

“You’re new,” he shrugged, feeling her eyes burning into his entire body. She had green wide ones, full of curiosity and knowledge, and he just felt like she was observing and studying him every second. It was kind of weird but strangely flattering. He didn’t want it to change.

“I never know how to talk to people,” the girl said. “I’ve never had many friends.” She chuckled to her own words a few times, turning her head away. Now she was suddenly pissed, at herself. He had no idea what was going on in that girl’s head. But he was planning on finding it out.

#

The third period was French. Cole, surprisingly, was in that class with her as well. After asking him about it, he shrugged and said that he already knew Spanish, and it was too easy for him to choose it. After only fifteen minutes into the class, she found out he was far more advanced in French than any of the others were. Especially her. She had never taken French classes before. It was going to be pretty hard for her.

“Enjoyed the class?” Cole smirked, stopping at her table on the other side of the class from his.

The girl rolled her eyes at him, making the boy snigger again. “Why are you so good at this?”

He shrugged. “I like school.”

“Really?” she asked, looking skeptical.

He nodded. “Can I see your schedule? I feel like we have the same subjects.”

The girl handed him hers and while she packed up her stuff, he frowned, comparing their sheets. “Alright. Here. Let’s go to calculus.”

Everybody was in that class. She met a new boy, Barry, who was probably the gay friend Mason had talked about on their first day in Bluewere. There were only one-person tables, but she ended up sitting in between Barry and Amelia, Mason in front of her, her brother and Cole behind her.

Math sucked as always, but when the bell rang, signaling the beginning of the break, Steph smiled to herself, packing up. Nate’s arm drooped over her shoulders, they moved with his friends down the hall, towards the cafeteria. “So, how’s the first day going?”

Steph sighed at her brother. “Okay, I guess. Cole’s been sitting with me, so I guess I’m not entirely lonely in the classes.” Her eyes were on his face when his lips formed a smirk, and she rolled her eyes at that. “I know you told him something about it.”

“I just told him to keep his eye on you. Didn’t tell him to hang our or sit next to you.”

“You’re so stupid.”

The cafeteria was packed, so once they had all gotten themselves a lunch, they moved outside, to the bleachers. Charles had joined them by that time. Steph walked in the very back of the group, frowning at the way she saw Mason handing Cole one of the sandwiches he had bought. Cole looked up at the redhead for a moment before accepting the food with a grateful little smile.

She wanted to cry, understanding what was going on in there.