It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be when school started. Luckily Nick was in my homeroom and 1st block. But the rest I had to figure out myself. It wasn’t hard though. It was fairly easy to get around. But still at the end of the day I was tired. I was drained from all the day’s events.

When I got ‘home,’ I went straight upstairs. I threw my bag on the floor and sat on my twin bed sighing. I closed my eyes lying back on the soft comforter. I don’t know how long I was there but a soft knock on the door startled me. I looked up to see who it was. It was Mom.

“You did your homework?” She came to sit at the edge of the bed.

“No.” I groaned.

“Honey you need to do it then come eat dinner. We’ve been calling you down.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t hear you.”

“It’s ok. Well you get to that homework then come down for dinner.”

“Ok.” I said sitting up as she walked out of the room.

I got straight to my homework. I had Math and Social Studies homework but the rest of my classes didn’t give me homework. Once I was done I went down to eat my dinner. I had mashed potatoes, corn, steak and water. When I finished I went to the living room to say goodnight to everybody. The only person who wasn’t on the couch in front of the TV was Nick. I was told he was in his room.

Luckily for me (not) he was next door to my room. I had to pass his to get to mine. I went up and knocked on his door loudly to make sure he could hear me over his rock music that was blaring through the door. He opened the door with an impatient “Yes?” Then seeing it was me said “Oh! Sorry I thought you were my mom here to tell me to cut it down.”

“It’s ok. I came to say goodnight.”

“Oh ok. I guess I will have to cut it down so you can sleep.”

“Thanks.” I leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. “Goodnight.” I slipped to my room while he was still shocked. I smiled to myself as I got dressed for bed. I stayed up a little while pondering what I had done.





The next day I went to school more confident about everything. Well that was of course the day a girl comes up to me and tries to start something. Of course on the second day of school right?!

“What are you doing with my boyfriend?”

“Who are you talking about?”

“Nick! God you’re so clueless!”

“I’m sorry but I live in his house.” I tried to get away.

“Well stay away from him you little tramp,” she said letting me go. I went down the hallway trying to look like she hadn’t gotten to me.

When I got to 1st block everybody was staring at me. Nick came to the desk next to me. “Why is everybody staring at you?” he whispered.

I turned to him. “Because your girlfriend threatened me this morning!” I stared at him hard.

“Seriously?! I keep telling her we are not dating!” He muttered to himself staring straight ahead. Then the math teacher came in and I had to face the front. When class ended Nick got his stuff together slowly.

I walked to the front of the classroom. I looked at his distracted look wondering what he was thinking. When he walked to the front of the room I put my hand on his shoulder. “You ok?”

He smiled at me though it didn’t reach his eyes. “Yea, I’m fine.”

I looked at him hard for a second then decided to let it go.

“Okay. As long as you say so.”

The rest of the day I busied myself with class. When lunch came around I went to the library to do my homework since I had so much of it.

“I told you to stay away from him!”

I looked up startled. “What?”

“You didn’t stop talking to my boyfriend! Now you’re going to get it!” she glared at me.

“Darlene leave her alone.” Nick said setting his stuff down at my table. I hadn’t even realized he had come up.

“Why? You’re mine.” She turned and looked at him.

He met her steely gaze. “How many times do I have to tell you? It’s over. We are not together anymore.” He glared at her.

She turned and stomped out of the library. I stared after her wondering if she was going to turn around and come back.

“Just ignore her.” I turned to Nick. I stared at him. He looked like nothing was wrong or had happened. Then after a few I turned back to my work. We worked in silence for a while. All you could hear was pencils and papers turning. Then I couldn’t take it any longer.

“So are you dating her?”

“Who?”

“Darlene.”

“No. We were dating then I broke up with her. Ever since then she has been stuck on me. Whoever I hang out with or show interest in she goes after. I have no idea why.”

“So basically she’s an ex who’s stuck on you and won’t let go?”

“Yes.”

“Lovely.” I said and went back to my work.

“Why she thinks we are still dating is beyond me. I don’t know what goes on in a girl’s mind. Sometimes I don’t even know what’s going on in a guy’s mind.”

“I guess she thinks we are together because I ride to school with you and we live in the same house.”

“I guess it would be easy excess to you right?” I looked up to see him smiling.

“Um…ok?” I was blushing and studying his face.

“Would you be willing to date me?” He said leaning over the table.

“I probably would.” I said blushing still.

“Well then now you’re my girlfriend.”

“What?!” I stared at him.

“Yep you’re my girlfriend. So be prepared.” He gathered his stuff and left before I could do anything about it.

The rest of the school day was a blur. I don’t remember much of it. Then when I got home I got a big shock.

“The court date is set! I’m divorcing your dad!” my mom said jumping up and down.

“Whoa! What?!”

“Your dad and I are divorcing.”

“Um…great?” I said still shocked over the news.

“We have to celebrate! Go out and have fun!”

I heard her down the hall talking to Carrie. I went to my room and dropped my bag on the floor. Then I went to my ‘boyfriends’ room. The door opened right after I knocked. “Well, well. Look who we have here.” He said smiling.

“Oh shut up and let me in.” I said but couldn’t help smiling too.

“Yes ma’am!” he said opening the door. His room was almost the same layout as mine. Bed in the corner, desk near the door only thing that was different was that there was a bookshelf unlike in my room. There were lots of posters too. They had cars, video games, and girls.

“So what brings you to my room?” he said sitting in his desk chair.

“I have to go and celebrate my mom divorcing my step-dad.” I said staring out the window.

“Oh.” He stared at me for a while. I guess he was watching my reaction to it all. I sighed and plopped down on the bed.

“I guess I never thought this would happen.”

“You probably didn’t. How long has he been your dad?”

“Since I can remember.”

“Hmmm.” Just then a knock came from the door. My mom cracked it open enough to stick her head in. She glanced between us smiling, then with her pointer finger motioned for me to come with her.

“Bye.” I said walking out of the room with a sigh. I thought I heard him chuckle as we left.

Turns out mom had a new dress for me. It goes to my knees and is white. It is sleeveless and has a deep neckline. It bugs me half to death because it’s so low. I felt like I was going to fall out of it when I bent down.

That night while we were out mom’s phone went off constantly. She would look at it let her finger hover over the answer key then press ignore. After a while Carrie took her phone and cut it off. Then when she did that we had more fun. It was great.

The next few days were busy with school and getting ready for the court date. When the date came up mom was all nerves. We got up at seven and got our clothes out. We did moms hair up first making sure it looked good. It was curled and put up in a pony tail with bangs framing her face. My hair was straightened and half of it put up. Moms dress was blue and went down to her knees. The sleeves went to her elbows. My outfit was a pair of black slacks, yellow flats and a yellow low cut shirt with a black tank top underneath.

When we got to the courtroom mom’s lawyer was there ready to go. I didn’t see dad. I sat with mom and her lawyer, Mrs. Boron. They automatically started talking tactics of what they were going to do in the courtroom.

Just then my dad walked in with his lawyer. He spotted us and turned to his lawyer whispering in his ear. The lawyer had a buzz cut and was a little taller than dad. Dad looked like he was tired and his face had a sad look to it. His curly hair hadn’t been cut for a while because it had a kind of wild look. He had a five o’clock shadow and dark circles under his eyes.

They called us to the courtroom. It was small and I felt a little claustrophobic. I sat in the first row on the left where mom was sitting. Dad walked past and tried to smile at me and it looked forced. He went and sat next to his attorney. After about a minute of tension the judge walked in. We stood up and sat down at the time we were supposed to.

We might have been in there no more than an hour. All we got done was the child’s custody which of course went to my mom and that they need to figure out what’s going to whomever. Then next court date wasn’t exactly set in stone. When we left my dad tried to talk to mom but she wouldn’t let him.

When we got home I went straight up to my room. The office door across from my room was cracked and I could hear Carrie on the phone talking to what I guessed was a client. I didn’t stay to eavesdrop on her. I went in my room to change into sweatpants and an old T-shirt. Once I came out Carrie was coming out of her office. She looked up from some papers in her hand and saw me.

“Oh! Hey. I didn’t know y’all were back.”

“Yea about ten minutes ago.”

“Ah. So how did it go?”

“I honestly couldn’t tell you. You would have to ask mom. I don’t know how this stuff works.”

“Well I guess I will ask your mom.” She started walking down the hall towards her room. Hers was the last door on the right. I turned to walk downstairs and almost ran smack dab into Nick.

“Hey.” I said looking up at him. He was in a blue shirt, jeans and tennis shoes.

“Hey.” He looked down at me.

I tried to get around him but he caught me around the waist. I looked down at his bare arm. He started pulling me towards his room. It was messy and needed to be cleaned badly. Clothes were all over the bed and floor, CD's cover his stereo and bookshelf and his PC could barely be seen under the papers on his desk. He sat me on his bed after he cleaned a spot for me with a sweep of his arm.

“Now tell me what happened.”

“What are you talking about?”

“What happened in court today?”

“Oh. Well mom got custody of me and they need to settle who’s getting what of everything. That’s really all that happened today.”

He sighed a sigh of relief. “Well that’s good.”

“Ok?” I said then got up and went downstairs to get food.

The next morning I woke up to the sound of someone banging on my door. I looked over at my clock.

“Crap! It’s 11 a.m.!” I got up and swung my door open to come face to face with mom. “Yes?”

“What are you doing still in bed? We have work to do today.” She came in my room and sat on my bed.

I looked at her then went to my dresser and dug for a pair of shorts and a shirt. “I didn’t mean to sleep in. I must have forgot to set my alarm.” I found a pair of blue jean shorts and a purple shirt that said ‘I’m single. So what?’

Mom looked at the clothing then sighed and went to my walk in closet. “That won’t do.” She dug through my closet until she found what she wanted to find, then held it up for me to see. “We are celebrating so you will wear something better.”

A few hours later we were walking around the mall and I regretted wearing what my mom gave me. The dark purple dress was fingertip length but it felt too short. It was low cut and I had worn a black tank under it. I had black heels on and to top it off mom had pulled my hair up into a bun since it went down to the middle of my back laying flat and covered the low cut backside.

We went to a teen/parent club. It was embarrassing to see my mom dancing considering she couldn’t dance. I looked around for an escape and found the doorway to a teen only section. I grabbed Nick’s arm and began walking that way.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” Nick yelled over the music to me.

“GETTING TO THE TEEN ONLY SECTION!!” I yelled behind my shoulder.

Once we were in the teen only section I felt instantly better. I walked over to our ‘bar’ and looked at the menu. Nick came and sat quietly beside me. It was a nice bar with stools waist high. The bar was chest high and highly polished so you could see your face reflecting at you from the wood. The bartender came up and waited quietly for my order.

“I would like a coke and some fries please.” I looked up at him. He looked good with beach blonde hair and forest green eyes. He was built too like he did weights everyday. I stared at him as he walked away.

“Hello?” Nick waved his hand in front of my face.

“Hmmmm?” I asked dreamily.

“You aren’t dating him. You’re dating me.” Nick poked my side.

I snapped out of it. “Oh! Sorry.” I said embarrassed.

He chuckled. “I guess I can expect that from a girl who hasn’t been in California long.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I said getting all defensive.

Nick looked at me. “It means you come from somewhere else and don’t know that almost every guy is going to look like that. Some are going to want to take advantage of you. But you won’t know it until it’s too late.”

“Are you going to take advantage of me?”

“No. I didn’t ask you out for that reason.”

“Then why did you? We barely know each other.”

Just then the bartender came back and set my coke and fries down in front of me. I smiled and took a sip of my coke.

“Have you looked at yourself?” Nick turned toward me. “I mean really looked at yourself?”

“I don’t understand what you’re saying. I’m not pretty at all.”

“You are pretty. Beautiful in fact and yet you don’t even look and see it. That’s why girls pick on you. They are jealous of you because of how beautiful you are.”

I blushed. “So you’re telling me that you’re dating me because of my looks?”

“No. I also want to get to know you. You’re hard to read.”

“I highly doubt that. I have always been easy to read.” I munched on a fry.

“I don’t think so. Who told you you’re easy to read?”

“My mom says she can always see my emotions on my face.”

“That’s not true at all.” He stole a fry from my plate.

“Hey!” I swatted his arm.

He chuckled.

“Not cool man. I want to eat these.”

“Then eat them.” He stole another fry.

I shook my head and ate a fry.

“Oh! I love this song!” Nick yelled.

I listened for a minute. It was some funky techno music.

“I don’t know it!” I yelled at him.

“So? Come dance with me!” Nick pulled me to the dance floor.

“I don’t know how to dance!”

“Just let loose! Who cares how bad you dance!”

I let loose and started to dance. I should have been ashamed of how I was dancing but I didn’t care. By the time we got off the floor I was sweating. I checked my phone. “OH CRAP!” I yelled.

“What?!” Nick yelled.

“It’s 12 o’clock!”

I walked with Nick to the teen and parent dance floor to find my mom and Carrie on the bar drunk. Cody was looking worried. We walked over.

“Oh thank goodness I found you two!” He sounded relieved. “Are you ready to go?” He asked.

Nick and I looked at each other. “Yes.” We said in unison.

“Ok. Help me get them to the car.” Cody picked up Carrie and Nick and I got my mom. Once we got to the car we sat them in the back seat of the minivan. Of course it was a Toyota like all of their cars. But each was a different color. Nicks car was a silver Toyota Prius, Carrie’s was a blue Toyota Corolla and Cody’s was a gray Toyota Tundra. They had the minivan for family trips. It was white.

Once we got to the house we picked the two up out of the car and carried them inside to their beds. Once we had them tucked in Cody said goodnight to us and went to bed himself. Nick and I stood in the hall silent.

“Well I guess I should go to bed too.” I said yawning.

“Can I talk to you first?” Nick inclined his head towards his room.

“Sure.” I said and followed him to his room. It was still messy as ever. I sat on the bed. “You wanted to speak about?”

He sat in his desks chair. “I wanted to ask you if you would like to play truth with me over the next few days until we run out of questions.”

I stared at him for a second longer than I needed to with my mouth hanging open. I shut it. “Sure.”

“Good.” He smiled. “I guess I will see you tomorrow. We are lucky it’s a Saturday.”

“Yea we are.” I got up. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.” He said to me as I walked out of the room.

Once I got to my room I took my bedclothes and took a shower. I went and lay in bed after brushing my teeth. I sat there and thought about the questions I would ask tomorrow. I only thought of two before I fell asleep.

The next morning I woke up kind of drowsy and my alarm clock beeping in my ear. I looked over with watery eyes. It was only eight in the morning! On a Saturday! Then a knock sounded at the door. “Yes?!” I yelled.

Nick popped his head in “You’re not up? I thought we were going to spend the day playing truth.”

I sat up quickly. “Oh crap I forgot about that sorry.” I threw the covers back. “Give me at least fifteen minutes to get ready and get down stairs please.” I started to close the door on him.

“Sure.” He said as the door clicked shut. I stared at the white wood for a moment. Then I scrambled to my closet door and opened it. What would I wear? I didn’t want to be overly dressed or underly dressed. I couldn’t choose! I began getting mad at myself that I couldn’t choose. I went through my shirts and found a pair of old washed out blue jeans and a black tank with a pair of black and white sneakers. I had a hair bow on my wrist just in case I got him to go for a morning run with me.

When I got downstairs a few minutes later I found Nick in a pair of blues jeans, running shoes and a brown shirt. I went to the covered and got a glass out. I poured water into it and drank it down in a gulp. “Thirsty?” Nick asked me from across the island where he had moved too.

“Yea. I’m kind of nervous actually.” I admitted my face burning red.

“Well it will be fine. I won’t do anything your not comfortable with. Ok?” He looked me straight in the eye as he said this.

“Ok. That makes me feel a little better.”

“I thought it would. Ready to go walking now?” He inclined his head towards the glass doors to the patio out back. Beyond that I could see families playing together in the sand and adults and teenager’s alike running with their dogs.

“Sure.” I shrugged my shoulders.

As we walked we chatted. Truth was fun I realized. I got to know so much about him. His favorite color was brown and mine was blue. He loved dogs and so did I. He wanted two kids and I wanted at least one. We walked about five minutes and then a girl in a skimpy bikini walked up to us or more like Nick. “Nick!” She squealed as she wrapped him in a tight hug. “I haven’t seen you in a while!”

“It has been a while.” Nick agreed hesitantly hugging her back.

“Why haven’t you been up to the woods lately?”

“Well I have been hanging around my girlfriend.” Nick stepped closer to me. That’s when she noticed me.

“Oh! I didn’t see you there!” She looked me up and down and turned to Nick. “Is this her?” She asked.

“Yes. The one and only.” He answered back honestly.

She turned back to me and grabbed a hold of my hand. “Well how nice to meet you! My name is Amber! What’s yours?”

I glanced nervously at Nick. “I’m Anna.” I said shyly.

“Are you new around here? Where do you live? What school do you go to? Do you have any friends yet?” She asked so many questions so fast my head was spinning.

“I’m new to California. I live with Nick and his parents. I go to BayPointHigh School. I haven’t really met anyone yet so I can’t say I have friends. Does that answer all your questions?” I asked her still wondering if I caught them all.

“Yes. That’s all for now.” She smiled at us then looked behind her. “Well I have to go. Bye!” She waved as she ran down to a set of girls on a couple of beach towels.

“Well that was lovely.” Nick muttered taking my hand and forcing us forward. I looked back to see all the girls staring at us with sneers on their faces.

“Oh great I’m already a target to them.” I muttered to myself.

“What?” Nick looked at me.

“Oh nothing.” I smiled up at him.

“So back to our game. It’s your turn I believe.”

I thought for a moment. “Do you read at all?”

“No not really.” He answered right away. “Do you?”

“I love reading. It’s my whole world.” I thought for another minute. “What’s your favorite fruit?”

“Apples. What are yours?” He asked me.

“Pineapple is my favorite.”

“What is your favorite sport?” I asked staring straight ahead.

“Football.” He said.

“Just like a typical man. I was asking what your favorite sport to play is.”

“Football is my favorite to watch and play.” He said looking at me.

“Oh whoops.” I said blushing and feeling dumb.

“What is yours to play and watch?”

“Well I love to play soccer but I love watching football.”

“Ah. See that right there I consider strange even though people are like that all the time.”

“How is that?”

“They play some type of sport but it’s not their favorite to watch. It seems weird to me.”

“Well for some people they like to watch different sports then what they play because they can’t play that sport or maybe they want a break from the sport they play for a little while.”

“I guess you can look at it that way.” He said with a thoughtful look on his face.

“It’s the way I see it.” I shrugged.

He stopped and pulled me into his arms. His voice got low. “I like the way you think and see it.” He leaned in closer.

“Go ahead. Be a man.” I wrapped my arms around his neck.

He kissed me then hard. I kissed back with just as much passion. When we stopped it we were reluctant. He set his forehead against mine. “You know how to make a boy breathless.” He said breathing a little harder than normal.

I smiled. “I don’t know how considering I haven’t had many boyfriends in my time.”

“Well you’re very tempting and it’s not very good for me.” He smiled at me.

“Is that true?” I grinned.

“Very true.” He pecked my lips and backed away.

“And you’re very good at teasing me.” I said.

“I know. It’s fun.”

“Only for you.”

We began our walk back home. We came across those girls again. When one of them saw us she whispered to the other girls. They stared at us again but this time they were whispering to each other. I rolled my eyes and stared straight ahead.

When we got back to the house there was a note on the fridge door. It said Went to store to buy groceries ~Mom. I took it off the door and through it away. I walked up to my room and changed clothes.

Once I got back downstairs Carrie and mom were bringing bags in the house and Nick was putting them away. I went over and helped Nick put the food away. Once this was done I told them I would cook dinner. I pulled out pork chops, macaroni and cheese and green beans.

While I cooked I thought about the days events. It was a pretty good day besides the girls on the beach. That one still bothered me. I wondered what they were talking about. Where they thinking we were not a good match for their ‘clique’? Was I the new girl they were going pick to on behind her back? Where they making plans for us to hang out? What were they talking about?

While the pork chops were cooking in the oven I set the table and started on the green beans and macaroni and cheese. After I pulled the pork chops out I mixed the macaroni and cheese. “Dinner’s ready!” I yelled as I set the food on the table. Everybody came in the room and sat at the same places as always.

“It smells good.” Carrie said. Nick and Cody were already filling their plates up. Mom just looked at the food with a sad look on her face. “Jasmine want to say grace?” Carrie asked. I was in shock. I had never heard mom’s first name before.

“Yes I would love to. Dear heavenly father thank you for this blessed day and this wonderful food my daughter cooked for us. Thank you for us to be able to have the jobs to make the money to get this wonderful food, Amen.”

I got my food and ate it in silence. Everyone was chatting around me but I was stuck in my thoughts. I had never heard my mom’s first name before and I was still in shock over that and then her face before we said grace struck me as strange. I had never seen my mom look like that before. Once I was done eating I put my dishes in the sink and went upstairs to get on my email. It has been a few days since I have checked it.

Once I was done with reading all my friends emails to me and replied back I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth. When I got done with that I opened the bathroom door and went to my bedroom. I got dressed in Mickey Mouse pajama bottoms and a black tank top. I climbed in bed and automatically fell asleep.

I woke up the next morning to the sun shinning through my window and my alarm clock going off. It took me a moment to shake off the drowsiness of sleep. I looked at the clock to see it was seven in the morning. It was Sunday and I was going to church for the first time in four years. I was nervous. I got up and went through my closet trying to find something appropriate and good looking. I found a sky blue knee length dress and matching heels. I went through my jewelry box and found teardrop earrings and a matching necklace. I took my robe and went to the bathroom to take a shower.

Once I was done I plugged the curling iron up and dried my hair. I went to my room to get dressed and go back to curl my hair. Once done I went downstairs to find Carrie and Nick ready to go to church too. I must have looked shocked because Carrie said “What? We go to church too you know.”

“No it’s not that. I just thought I was the only one going to church. Mom was going to let me borrow her car. What type church do you go to?”

“We are catholic.” Carrie said simply.

“Oh. I’m Baptist. Do you know where a Baptist church is?” I began searching the cabinets for breakfast.

“There is a contemporary one two blocks away from our church.” Carrie said.

I found Captain Crunch and poured it into a bowl then added milk as I said. “Do you know when service starts?”

“No but then name is Northside. You could see if they have a website.” I ate my cereal and thought about it.

“Yea I guess I could. I have to go upstairs then.”

Carrie set her iPhone next to me. “Use this.” She must have seen my expression because she added. “I don’t mind.”

“Ok.” I said hesitantly. I picked up the phone and slid the unlock button. I clicked Safari and put Northside into the search box. It turned out they did have a website. The service was at 10:45 in the morning. I looked at the time it was only nine. “I have time. When does your service start?” I looked up to find only Nick in the room with me.

“Ours starts at eleven.” He said eating an apple.

“Well then you can show me where it’s at.” I said getting excited.

“I guess so. You could follow us so we know you have a way home.”

“Yea. My phone only has so many minutes and I don’t like to use all of them.” I said blushing.

“It’s fine.” He put his hand on top of mine just as his mom walked back in the room. She looked at our hands and just shrugged it off like she saw this everyday.

“We have to leave.” She said picking up her phone. “Did you find out what time church started?” She asked.

“Yes. Mine is at 10:45.” I said pulling my hand away from Nick’s and picked up mom’s keys from the counter.

“Do you have a license?” Carrie asked looking at me.

“Yes.”

“Ok. So we will show you where the church is I guess.” Carrie walked out the door and Nick and I followed her.

When I got behind the wheel I felt strange. I hadn’t been behind the wheel in a month. I started the car and backed out of the driveway and gave room for Carrie to back out too. When she got out she looked back at me in her rearview mirror then began driving. I followed her until we came up to a church in a Hershey kiss looking bubble, from the side anyways.

She called my phone and said this was my church I told her thanks and we hung up. I pulled into the parking lot and I instantly felt nervous. I sat there for a moment then got out the car and followed the few people who where there. They led me to the doors we could enter in. A man smiled at me when I entered the door and handed me a pamphlet. I looked at the rows and there were already a lot of people here. I chose the back row.