Part 2

2

I wake up in a panic because I'm up late and I still need to shower and if I miss the bus I'll have to run to school and it's winter so I'll freeze, and be late. So I spring out of bed, grab a hoodie and my favorite pair of ripped jeans and run to the bathroom for a shower. Instead of my normal, 15 minute shower I'm out in a matter of 5 minutes and running to do the next task, packing a lunch. The bus will be here in 3 minutes.

Of course there is no food in the house. My mom is already gone for work and my sister is waiting for the bus outside. I wonder briefly why nobody woke me up. Maybe my mom thought I was skipping on purpose. I'm never up late like this.

I make myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and grab an apple. I'm on my way out the door as the bus pulls away.

"Damn!" I stomp my foot on the ground, taking a second to get my cool before footing it to school. I'm looking at the snow dusted ground with my hand on my forehead, making sure I have my things for the day. But all I can think is, what a freaking great way to start my day. It's just gonna be the second terrible day in a row. I sigh, looking up and seeing a red car in front of my driveway.

"HEY!" A voice calls from the open passenger window of the car. When I focus on it, I realize it's Arden. "do you need a ride to school!?" he shouts.

"oh my goodness. You're a life saver," I breathe as I  scurry toward his car. This is the second time he's showed up out of nowhere to help me.

"hey," he says as I lower myself into his car. "How are you. Running late?" he teases me a little bit before pulling away from my driveway.

"I slept in late," I sigh, "you are such a life saver. You know?" I laugh a little bit after saying that. "thank you," I smile over at him. "again. "

"it's no problem," he takes his eyes off the road to reply to me. "no need to thank me," he laughs. I smile at him again.

We pull into the school parking lot with plenty of time. "so," I say to him as we climb out of his car, "is this your first day? Cause I haven't seen you around. In fact, I never even noticed you moving in." I say, confused now. You would think that I'd notice his family moving in at least.

"yes, it's my first day," he laughs nervously. "you might have to help me out."

"no problem," I say, "I owe you."

"and about me moving here," he starts, his voice obviously hesitant. The bell rings and cuts him off. He sighs in relief, "I'll tell you later sometime." we both hurry into the school and I head straight to my locker.

"hey," Arden asks quickly, trying to get my attention. "where are the 600 lockers?"

I smile at him. He's on my block of lockers. "this way," I say, leading the way. We wasted too much time talking so now we need to hurry if we want to make it to home room on time.

Arden stops at his locker, which is only 4 lockers down from mine. I open mine with ease and smile to myself as I watch him struggle with his. I'm surprised nobody is jumping on the opportunity to help him out. He's really cute. Then again, they wouldn't want to be late and probably haven't noticed him yet.

"what do you have first period?" I ask him, looking over the door of my locker to do so.

"military history with... Conner," he says.

"great. Me too," I say, grabbing my books and waiting for him. He gets a notebook and a pen and follows me to the room. A few other students straggle in with us and Mr. Conner greets us as we take our seats.
There's an empty desk by mine and Arden sits there.

Mr. Conner comes over and looks at Arden. "You must be Arden," he says, his deep voice audible to the whole room.

"yes sir," Arden says politely. Mr. Conner is surprised by the accent, which I'm actually kind of used to now. A lot of girls in the room turn and stare at him in awe. Here it comes, I think. He'll turn into every other new guy who ever comes here. He's cool, and then the boy crazy girls get to him and he either becomes a player, or a geek who is shunned from any popular crowd. Unlike the boys who have been here their whole lives, new boys are a novelty. I can't stand it and I try to stay out of it as much as I can.

Mr. Conner grabs Arden a text book and the syllabus he gave out to everyone at the beginning of the year. "here you go," he says, letting the book fall heavily to the desk Arden is sitting at. Arden flinches when it hits and Mr. Conner can hardly contain his laughter.

The class is long and boring and it's basically a review of what we went over on Friday last week. I spend most of the time doodling while other students are furiously scribbling down notes that they didn't get when they should have or missed while they were out.  I glance over at Arden and absentmindedly wonder what his handwriting looks like before Mr. Conner calls on me.

"Andie," he says. "what is the area in between trenches called?"

I hesitate a moment before answering, surprised that he called on me. "No man's land, sir," I say. He's a little bit upset that I knew the answer since he caught me off guard, but I never let him get to me. He's been trying to get me all year and it's a personal goal of mine to never be stumped by him. Stupid games like these are how I stay the A+ student I am. Otherwise this school would be too boring for me and I wouldn't bother to get work done.

After class Arden catches up with me in the hall. "what's your schedule?" he asks, holding his out in front of me.

"hmm," I groan trying to think of my schedule. "we have military history, study hall, trig, lunch, and phys. Ed together."'I groan inwardly when I see the phys. Ed class.  I am so clumsy at gym and I embarrass myself all the time. "so, see you third period," I say as i walk toward the art room and he walks down the English hall.

The periods I don't share with Arden, I'm thinking about him. I scold myself multiple times and try to force myself to focus on my work. I just can't, there's something bothering me about him.

The periods we do have together he sits by me and I help him to the class. I feel bad for him trying to find the others because he gets swarmed by girls who want to "help." He accepts their help but seems to ignore their attempts at flirting with him. All of this is stuff I watch happen from my locker.

Finally lunch rolls around and Arden comes to sit at my table, where I introduce him to my best friends Sam, and Hunter and Aaron and Kayla.

Sam is with Hunter and Aaron is kind of with Kayla (its just not official) so I'm the only single person at the table normally. But then I think about it. I'm assuming Arden is single when he might not be. Besides, it doesn't matter because we are just friends. I'm not interested, I tell myself. Even if I was, he wouldn't be. I've never had a boyfriend because boys always look right over me. And it's not what my dad would have wanted..

I eat at  my peanut butter and jelly sandwich, not finding it very appetizing and quitting halfway.
The conversation is all about yesterday at the mall and how thats where Arden and I met and how scary it was. Then it turns to Arden and where he's from in England and stuff. Its interesting to find out about him, but he avoids the subject of family every time it comes up.

Lunch ends and Arden is walking with me to the locker rooms and I ask him, "would you mind giving me a ride home?"

"I thought that was the plan," he laughs, putting his arm around my shoulders in a friendly way.  I get butterflies in my stomach and my face gets hot. Arden chuckles in my ear.

"just making sure," I smile up at him. He laughs at me and gives my shoulder a squeeze before I step away into the girls' locker room.

"so. Andie and the new guy," one girl comments. "Is he nice? He's been spending all his time with you. I haven't even gotten a chance to say hello," she says in a sweet innocent voice. Not trying to explain it nicely, she's the slut of the school. If anyone doesn't deserve good looks its her. But she has them, and she manages to use them to get whatever guys she wants.

I ignore her and walk by, trying to channel my thoughts so that I'm not being bitter. I change clothes quickly and leave the locker room before they can say anything else.

Arden is waiting for me in the gym and his face lights up when I walk in. "Hey," he smiles.

"Hi," I say, biting my lip a little bit. "are you good at sports?" I wonder out loud.

"I'm okay," he says. I can tell he's being humble and he's probably boss at everything athletic. "and you?" he asks, raising one eyebrow slightly.

I blush and sigh, "I'm awful." We laugh and our conversation is cut short by the blow of Mr. Young's whistle.

We're playing hockey in class today. Hockey is my favorite sport, and it's probably what I'm best at in gym but that doesn't guarantee I won't do something ridiculous and embarrassing.

The class goes smoothly except for one incident where Arden, who plays for the other team and has never played hockey before--except field hockey-- is running after the hockey ball and runs right into my side, knocking me flat on my back. I should be used to it by now but it hurts like Hell and I feel like crying. Of course Arden feels terrible and helps me up, asking if I'm alright or not.  I nod my head, swallowing the pain and continuing to play even though I have the option to sit out the rest of class. He keeps apologizing even though I emphasize the fact that it isn't a big deal and I'm fine.

On my way out of the locker room, Arden catches me again. "I'm really sorry about knocking you over," he smiles.

"it's totally fine," I say. "It's ok."

"if you say so," he says, "that looked extremely painful."

I fake a smile because it does hurt but I repeat myself, "It's alright Arden," I laugh quietly.

After school, Arden waits for me in his car, which he parked in the student parking lot. The car is nice and warm when I climb in. "how long did I keep you waiting?" I feel bad, he could have been home already.
"only about 5 minutes. I had to get out of there before those girls..." he trails off at the end of his sentence, shuddering and I laugh at him, knowing exactly what he means.

"they'll get over you in about a week when you're no longer a novelty," I joke, although it's true. If he doesn't succumb to their charm, they'll most likely give up after a week or two.

Arden gets a worried look on his face. "you won't, will you?"

"No!" I exclaim. "you're a friend. They just want to get in your pants." We laugh and then he puts the car in drive. Unfortunately, my being late to the car made it impossible for us to beat the buses so we have to wait in the long line of cars in order to get out.

"wait," I say as we're pulling out. Arden looks at me, a little worried expression on his face. "You are from England right?" He nods. "isn't it weird driving on this side of the car, and road then?"

"I've actually been in the states for a few months to get used to it," he smiles. "I didn't really drive when I was still in England."

"oh," I say. "So, why are you in the states?" I ask, "is it permanent?"

"I'll explain why when we get home, if you'll let me come over," he says. "But yes, it's very permanent. I like it here too."

A song I like comes on the radio and Arden reaches to turn it up. "I love this song," I exclaim excitedly,  looming over at Arden doing  a little dance in his seat.

Im having a lot of fun dancing along and singing, "I've had the time of my life," as the Black Eyed Peas sing it. "and I've never felt this way before!"

"whoa," Arden says. "you have an amazing voice. You sound like Fergie," he laughs.

"thanks," I say, a little embarrassed and feeling awkward.  I stop singing but continue nodding my head a little bit as it changes into a rap section of the song. I feel totally comfortable since he's dancing like a weirdo too.

We both laugh when the song is over and we pull into his driveway. The snow is a little deeper and my feet get wet as we walk over the little grass patch between our houses.

I feel relieved when we walk into my house and it's clean because my mom was stressing yesterday and she cleans when she's stressed. My sister isn't home yet since she was riding the bus and we are like the last people to get off.

I offer for Arden to have a seat on the couch while I go to the kitchen to get us something to drink. "lemonade?" I ask because that seems to be the only beverage I can think of even though it's winter and you'd think something like hot chocolate would be the normal drink of choice.

"sure," he says, taking his shoes off by the door like I did and then sitting on the big couch in the living room. I bring our lemonades and sit a comfortable distance away from him.

I start thinking about the topic we came to my house to talk about and why he avoided it multiple times when other people asked at school, and again in the car. I hope it's not bad, but something tells me it's serious before he even starts talking.

After taking a couple gulps of lemonade Arden begins. "I'm in the states for a few reasons." He chuckles slowly and I can tell he is trying to lighten the mood a bit. "First of all though, my parents both died in a house fire when I was 14." it surprises me how easily he says that. There's only  a tiny bit of pain in his voice. Then again, he's had at least 3 years to deal with it. "after living with my aunt B for a while, I got into some trouble and she couldn't handle me no more. She sent me off to a special adoption program for troubled teen orphans or whatever. I couldn't stay in that place very long either, and I had a plan to run away to London to meet up with a buddy of mine. This is when I'm almost 17. but your neighbors, AKA my new parents decided to adopt me  after they saw my profile online. Apparently I'm perfect for them but I don't know why they'd want a delinquent like me. So anyways, they had some issues with papers and stuff after I got brought to the states and so I didn't get moved in until Saturday." He takes a deep breath. "I don't want everyone to know all that, and I feel like i can trust you, so... Don't tell anyone. Please?" he looks over at me, a pleading look in his eyes.

"Promise," I mumble, still thinking about his story. It seems like it'd be sort of traumatic to go through all that stuff. I mean, I haven't been through the loss of both parents and being shipped into a new country with people I don't know, but just the loss of my dad a few years ago has left such a deep, never healing wound. I don't know. Maybe it's different for everyone. But I was especially close to my dad, and it was devastating when he died.

"I like you, kiddo," he says, a new smile on his face, snapping me out of my thoughts.

I glare up at him through my long eyelashes.'"don't call me kiddo!" I say, laughing.

He ruffles up my hair with his big hand. "why not, kiddo?" he asks teasingly, his accent making me laugh. I jump on the opportunity when he stops watching to throw my hand into his hair and mess it up
.
He immediately starts rubbing his hand all over my head, really making it look bad, I'm sure. "ok! Ok!" I yell, giving up. He ruffles my hair once more and I'm forced to take it without retaliating. I grumble at him and pick my feet up onto the couch, sitting up again. Arden laughs at me and my hair before attempting to fix it, his big clumsy hands failing at it.

"you look like a hot mess," he laughs, still trying to fix it. I laugh at him and move his hands away, expertly starting to do it myself.

"Andie!" my sister yells when she walks in the door.

"hi,  Maddie," I say, getting up and heading for the kitchen.

"your hair's a mess," she points out.

"I know," I laugh. I hear Arden behind me chuckling and I feel like turning around and attacking him again.

"do you want a snack?" I ask like I do everyday. Normally, I make her a snack after school.

"no thanks," she says, "I'm not hungry. I'm gonna go work on my homework." I'm surprised by this. She always seems to be starving, and she never wants to do her homework.

"hey Andie," Arden says as I turn around.

I look at him in curiosity. He's standing in the middle of my living room. "yeah?" I ask, since he waited for me to reply, rather than just getting on with it and saying whatever he had to say.

"do you think you could help me with that military history homework?" He looks down sheepishly, obviously embarrassed that he needs help.

I nod, "oh yeah," i laugh. "Connor's system is hard to get used to."

"k," he replies, "I'll go get my stuff."

While he's outside in his car I pick up Maddie's backpack off the table so we can sit there, glad he wanted help with something I knew something about.
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I know I picked a really bad spot to stop for this part, but I felt like it was long enough and I wanted to upload another part today when I had access to the internet.. Hope you like it!!!!! Comment please!!