This is just a rough draft of the first chapter of my story. I plan to rewrite it later and include more detail but for now enjoy!



“Alright class, now today I will give you some background information on the field trip to Washington this Friday. First, you must remember that you are representing our school and that you must be on your best behavior the entire time! Second, you must dress appropriately! Third, do not use any kind of vulgar language!”

“And there goes Ms. B again, I think this is the fifth time this week she’s given us this lecture and it’s only Tuesday” Jess said to her friend Rebecca. “God, I know! I think we understand the rules, but that whole ‘no cursing’ thing, isn’t really going to work out when it’s a group of 16 year olds on a big bus.” The girls smiled and listened as Ms. B went through the list of rules they would need to follow on their sophomore trip from Philadelphia to Washington D.C.
The bell for first period rang and the two girls left their homeroom, talking through ideas for what to wear to D.C. Suddenly a boy about their age ran into Jess and knocked all her books to the ground, “Hey watch where you’re going you jack***!” The boy turned around and smirked at the girls and continued to race down the hall. “How much longer till we graduate from this stupid school?” Jess said picking up her books. “To long” Rebecca replied as they walked to class.

A group of teachers were huddled in a room sending the e-mails to the hotel the students would be staying at. Two students to each room, one chaperon to every 5 rooms. Ms. B was making a call to a service to rent a large bus to take the students to Washington.
“So you would like to order two buses?” said the man on the other side of the telephone line. “Yes, will two buses hold 122 kids?” Ms. B asked. “Of course no problem, just be sure to keep an eye on those kids, we don’t want any disruption on the ride or we’ll hear it from our driver” “Yea of course, we will keep them in line,” “Yeah, good luck with that.”

The dismissal bell rang through the high school and packs of student roamed the halls on route to their lockers. Jess and Rebecca walked to the main office on the ground floor along with the rest of the sophomore class. “We had better get the same bus or I’ll cry!” Rebecca said to Jess. “I’m sure we’ll get the same bus, those things are big and the trip is to have fun and its not like none of the teachers know that we are best friends. I’m sure they plan it so you get to sit with a friend,” Jess said. “Cool,”
They waited in line until they reached the front and entered the office. The principle of the school, Mr. Canz, handed them each a ticket. “YES! We have the same bus!” “I told you!” They collected their things and exited the room when Rebecca suddenly went crashing to the floor. Jess whipped around and saw the boy who had run into her earlier that day. “Why don’t you leave us alone you jerk!” The boy moved toward her, “Hey, calm down, I didn’t trip her on purpose, it was an accident I’m sorry,” He said defensively. “Then I’m sure running into me this morning was an accident too?” Jess said crossing her arms over her chest. “Yes, I was supposed to hand in my permission slip for the trip yesterday and I forgot and if I didn’t hand it in by first period today I couldn’t go, I was in a hurry.” “Yeah sure” Rebecca stood up,” Hey Jess, chill out, I’m pretty sure he’s telling the truth,” “No, you’re one of those annoying football jocks that thinks its fun to shove people all the time, well knock it off!” “Damn, girl chill out, all I did was run into you!”
The boy started to walk away. “You backing down from a fight cause you’re a wimp or are you just afraid to hit a girl!” He turned around and gave her a questioning look. “What’s going on here?” Mr. Canz said walking out of the office. “Nothing sir,” Rebecca said nervously. “No, I’m pretty sure something is going on, were you two about to fight?” He said pointing from the boy to Jess. “No sir, they are just bickering, you know teenager stuff.” Rebecca replied. “Well why don’t you two sort out your ‘teenage stuff’ on a different bus”
“What!” Rebecca yelled. “Yes there is a small public bus that is going to the same hotel as us, why don’t you two go there instead of the nice clean one with your friends” “Come on! We weren’t even doing anything wrong!” The boy yelled at the man. “Keep up that attitude and you won’t be going at all!” Mr. Canz said pointing his finger at the boy and walking back into the office.
“Well that’s just great! Thanks a lot who ever you are!” The boy said, hitting the wall with his backpack. Rebecca frowned at Jess, “This is all your fault, you have to know when to stop talking!” Rebecca stalked away and headed toward the front door. Jess stared at the boy,” Sorry, I guess” “Yeah you should be!” He turned and walked out the front doors of the school. Jess followed him,” Wait up!”
“Why?” he said, not turning to look at her. “I just thought that since we are going to spend a whole bus ride together then I could at least know your name?” “It’s Kevin, yours?” “Jess, nice to meet you” She stuck out her hand. He ignored it and walked faster up the street. “See you tomorrow” He said and walked off around the nearest corner.


The next day Jess took her regular seat in homeroom. Rebecca sat next to her and gave her a look. “I cannot believe that you got yourself and some boy in trouble over nothing!” “Just let it go, its not like I’m not going to see you when we get to the hotel,” “Yes but it does mean that I won’t get to spend the entire ride with you, do you know how bored I’m gonna be!” “You! What about me! I don’t even know this kid, he said his name was Kevin”
“Kevin, as in Kevin Road. Really? His facebook picture makes him look a whole lot hotter then in person.”
“You’re kidding me, you’re friends with him on facebook?”
“Yeah, I have everyone in our year on it, whether I talk to them or not,”
“Freak,”
“Thanks!”


“Ok homeroom, HAPPY WEDNESDAY!” Ms. B yelled to the room, “ready for a new day!” The class groaned and slouched in their seats.

At 7th lunch period Jess looked around the large cafeteria for a glance of Kevin. At the farthest end of the room she saw him eating with the hockey team. She heard the bell for 8th period to begin and she hurried to catch up with Kevin.

“Hey!” she said. He turned and looked down at her, he was at least two heads taller then her. “Yes, and what do you want?” “Just wanted to say hi,” She said with a small grin. “Well, hi, and bye, gotta get to class, you know, to learn,” He turned on his heel and headed down the hall. Jess sighed and went on her way to her class.



The next day all sophomores had a day off from school to pack and get ready for their weeklong trip to Washington. All most every student used this extra time to sleep till noon. Jess woke at around 12:30 and grabbed a bag and started to pack. She dropped in 8 shirts and 3 pairs of sweatpants along with a jean skirt and a long strapless, baby blue dress for the formal dance they would attend at the end of the week. Throwing in a pair of silver heels to match, she zippered up the duffel bag and threw it on her bed. She headed for the hallway and went downstairs into her kitchen to join her family for lunch, and in her case breakfast.

That night she fell asleep to the bad thoughts of what would happen when her and Kevin would board the public bus the next morning