New Girl in Town Pt. 01

"Ooo, AP English huh," Staci says then indicating towards the schedule, "May I?"

"Uh, sure," Jessica answers handing over her schedule but not letting it out of her sight. It'd be her luck to lose her schedule on the first day.

Staci looks over the classes. "Wow, Jessica, it looks you're an overachiever."

"I guess it runs in my family. My mom's a doctor, my dad's an architect, and my little sister will probably be an astronaut." She answers.

"They must be proud of you. I don't think I've ever seen anyone with some many AP classes before."

"Well maybe a couple others, right Patrick?" Ray Halston, starting tight end, asks as he stops and joins in the conversation.

Patrick only grumbles as Ray smiles at Staci.

"Guess you won't be in any classes with her now huh Patrick? Nerd classes aren't for you." Jamie snickers. Patrick spins and gives him an angry look that shuts him up.

"Sorry about that. He doesn't have much in the way of manners."

"It's okay, I should get to class." Jessica says taking her schedule back.

"I may not have AP classes but I know where Ms. Simpson's classroom is. Let me walk you." Patrick suggests.

"I think I can find it on my own."

"It's the least I can do. Make up for Jamie's big mouth."

"Hey," Jamie protests but it's too late. Patrick already has put his arm around Jessica's shoulder and is steering her away.

"Guess that ruins his plan to get into her pants huh?" Ray chuckles.

"Are you kidding Ray? According to you there was no way he was going to fuck Jennifer and the whole school knows how that turned out. My boy can't lose." Jamie argues.

"We'll see," Ray says.

"How will his plan not work," Staci asks Ray.

"With all those AP classes she's in, it sounds like she'll be too smart to fall his usual line of bull," Ray points out and Staci gives him a dirty look.

"It's not all bull." Staci argues.

"Yeah, it is Stace but you'd know that more than most I guess which kind of sucks," Ray responds then gives her a smile. "Hope I see you at lunch."

"Jackass," Jamie mutters as he walks off.

"I wonder why he said that," Staci wonders aloud.

"Obviously he's jealous of Patrick." Jamie answers but that wasn't what she was wondering about but she knows how and where she can get her answer.

****

Patrick lays on his best moves as he walks Jessica through the hallway until they reach Ms. Simpson's room but leaves frustrated when he doesn't seem to make any headway.

"Thanks for the walk," She tosses over her shoulder then walks into the classroom and towards the teachers desk.

She starts to introduce herself but someone is already at the desk. It's the boy from yesterday, the one that Patrick called Shadow standing there chatting with the teacher. She overhears her asking him if he plans to come out for Drama Club again this year.

"Are you really that hard up for a sound guy Ms. Simpson?" she hears him ask.

"Well Michael did graduate last year, so yes," Ms. Simpson answers with a smile, "but I also happen to think you can snag a few starring roles this year."

"Are we doing Phantom of the Opera or wait, let me guess, The Elephant Man," the boy asks sarcastically when Ms. Simpson notices Jessica when she giggles at the question.

"Yes, can I help you?" Ms. Simpson asks going back into teacher mode.

"Hi... sorry to interrupt but this... is this AP English?" Jessica asks.

"You found us. You must be Ms. Golden," Ms. Simpson says with a smile. "I'm Ms. Simpson and welcome to AP English."

"Thank you ma'am, it's nice to be here."

"Well we'll do our best to keep it that way for you." Ms. Simpson says then turns to me. "Jake, if you would please show Jessica to a seat so we can get started."

"Yes ma'am," I answer walking the aisle towards my seat. I gesture towards the back of the room. "There are a couple of seats towards the back free."

"Um, shouldn't you be getting to your own class?" Jessica asks looking up at the clock realizing the bell is about to ring.

"This is my class." I state.

"Oh, so where do you sit?" She asks reassessing her "dumb jock" opinion of him.

"That would be this one here," He nods towards his desk.

"Cool if I sit here?" She asks indicating the seat next to mine, which was free.

"Sure," I tell her.

"I'm Jessica by the way," she states.

"Jake," I answer giving her a smile.

"From yesterday, I remember," She answers sharing her own smile.

"Ah yeah, I'm sorry about that."

She starts to ask him what he thinks he should be sorry for but the tardy bell sounds before she can.

Ms. Simpson stands and smiles at the class. "Okay class, I see a lot of faces I recognize, some I wish I could forget... Mr. Gibson."

"Are we going to start this up again this year Ms. S?" I call back. "I promise that I have no idea how that camel happened to show up at your house last year. I don't know where to find a camel in this town. Now a llama on the other hand... I can get you a llama no problem."

"Save your llama for your cold nights at home Mr. Gibson." She jokes back getting several Ooo's from the class.

"I need to be excused to go see the nurse for that burn Ms. Simpson. I think it's a third degree one." I answer.

"I've told you that "Fire Hot" but you continue to ignore my outstanding advice," Ms. Simpson states then smiles warmly. "For those that don't know, I am kidding with Mr. Gibson but if he tries telling you that he's my favorite student, he's lying."

"That's true but there is a worst teacher of the year award. I'm not lying about that."

Jessica giggles then looks worriedly towards the teacher but Ms. Simpson is wearing a wide grin. "Mr. Gibson and I go way back and we're just kidding around a little to get rid of some first day jitters some of you may have. We work hard here but we do have fun so be patient and be prepared. Now I'll hand out some books and we'll be ready to work."

As the class bell rings Jessica grabs her book bag and hurries to catch Jake before he disappears into the crowded hallway.

"Um, Jake can you wait up?" She calls out as she exits the door. I stop so quickly that she nearly collides with me.

"Sure," I state. "Need something?"

"I'm having trouble finding my way around this place. Can you show me where I can find... uh," She asks trying to hold her purse and book bag all the while failing. I reach over and snag her book bag before it topples onto the floor. "Thanks."

"Not a problem," I tell her while she retrieves her class schedule. "Where do you have to be next?"

"Um... Trigonometry with..."

"Mr. Creepster," I state then start walking while still carrying her bag.

"It says Hester but how'd you know," Jessica tells him falling in step beside him.

"Trig is only taught by Creepster and you'll see why we call him that, unfortunately. Just... just try and sit towards the back of the room." I inform her.

"Uh, okay," She answers confused. "I can take my bag back if you want to just tell me which way I'm going."

"I'm in Geometry, again, its right next door so we're headed the same way. So what do you think of Carter so far?"

Before Jessica can answer someone calls out Jake's name.

Approaching them is a tall and muscular African American boy.

"You feeling all right today T," I ask as we slap hands.

"I'm good man, even better now, looking at this beautiful lady here with you." Antoine flirts with Jessica.

"T, this is Jessica, Jessica this is Antoine or "T" if he's hit you so hard that you forget what day it was," I introduce them.

"Nice to meet you Antoine," Jessica says.

"The pleasure is mine pretty girl," he flirts. "Don't believe Jake here, he never forgot what day it was when I hit him."

"He's right, it wasn't the day I forgot," I confess. "I thought he knocked me back to my freshman year."

"That sounds more like one of my hits." Antoine laughs.

"I'll keep you in mind if I need you to have him forget something then Antoine." Jessica jokes.

He laughs. "You're quick Jessica, I like that. Where has he been hiding you?"

"I haven't been hiding anyone T, Jessica's new here." I inform him.

"Well welcome to Carter," Antoine says falling into step with us. "How are you liking it so far?"

"It's been okay so far. I miss my friends back home mostly."

"Uh huh, and where's home?" I ask.

"Charlotte." She answers as they walk along.

"Big city to this place? Ouch," Antoine says.

"It's going to take some getting used to but it's for the best." She answers.

"Is that your mom or dad's line?" I ask.

She laughs. "Lately, both of them but as much as I hate it, it's only for a year."

"Well Jake and I will try to make it a little more tolerable for you. You just let me know if you need to me erase this guys memory for you." Antoine tells her then stops. "This is me, catch you guys later."

"Later T," I say.

"Bye Antoine, it was nice meeting you." Jessica says.

"Nice meeting you too," he calls back.

"He seems nice." Jessica states as we continue on.

"Yeah Antoine's a good guy. He'll probably knock me out at practice this week, but he's a good guy." I joke as we reach Mr. Hester's classroom. Instead of handing her the bag at the door though, I walk into the room and spot Shelly who smiles. "You too huh?" I ask.

"He's not that bad." Shelly states with a laugh.

"That's not what I've heard. Free seat?" I ask.

"Right here," Shelly tells me pointing to the seat beside her, which Jessica sits in as I put down her bag. "Hi Jessica," Shelly says smiling at me.

"Shelly right," Jessica asks hoping she's right.

"You got it."

"Um... Mr... Mr. Gibson, you are not in this class." Mr. Hester states. Jessica looks at the short, balding man with his greasy comb over and insect like glasses. Creepster looks like an apt nickname.

"No sir but I was doing my good deed for the day by showing a new student where her class is."

"That would be Ms... uh... Golden I presume." Mr. Hester states.

"You presume correctly sir," I answer then turn to back to Jessica. "Hope you have a nice class Jessica. I should be getting to mine; I just wanted to make sure you didn't have any trouble." Jessica watches him turn and pause for a second in a sort of staring contest with Mr. Hester before departing. She turned to Shelly. "Am I missing something?"

"Mr. Hester has been known to get a little pervy with some girls in the past. Nothing too terrible, lingering a little too long when he's looking over your shoulder, trying to look up short skirts, but enough to make some of us feel uncomfortable. Luckily he's also scared of the football team so he knows to leave you alone now too."

"Jake's done this kind of thing before I take it?" She asks.

"A few times," Shelly answers.

"Oh," Jessica says wondering why she suddenly feels less special.

"All a girl has to do is ask him to and he'll do it. My cousin's a regular white knight for some people. How'd you even know to ask him?"

"Wait, he's your cousin?" Jessica asks.

"That he is," She answers. "His mom and my mom are sisters."

"Oh wow, okay. I thought you two might be a couple or something."

"We only argue like old married people but that's the extent of it." Shelly explains. "So how'd you know to ask him to get into a stare off with Creepster?"

"I didn't know. He knew where I was supposed to be when I told him I had Trig so he just took my bag and lead me here."

Shelly's face brightens up. "Got him carrying your books and it's not even been a full day yet. You go girl."

"Oh it... it's not like that." Jessica states but she's not so sure of her own words.

****

"I'm sure the cliques are the same at your old school," Shelly says as she enters the cafeteria with Jessica. The pair had spilt up for third period but met up again in fourth period French. Shelly was more than happy to show Jessica the way to cafeteria and if she happened to get a little more info on her for Jake's sake, so be it. "Patrick and his crew hold court over on the side there. The hierarchy trickles down from there, starting with teammates and cheerleaders. They draw in the preppy boys and "Mean Girls" followed by the hangers on and wanna be's."

"Our very own modern caste system, hey, by the way," Jody says with a grin.

"Hey Jody," Jessica answers as the trio move to the line.

"You remembered," Jody smiles choosing a salad. "Color me impressed."

"It was very sweet of you to come say "hi" to me yesterday. Of course I couldn't forget your name." Jessica tells her then turns back to Shelly. "You were saying?"

"Patrick's group is mostly football players and cheerleaders but I'm sure you'd fit in if you wanted to go sit with them." Shelly tells her.

"Of course she wants to sit with us," Patrick says popping up from behind them. "Why don't you and Jody head outdoors to your little gang of misfits and let Jessica get to know some different people?" He places his hand on Jessica's shoulder and steers her towards his table.

"Um, I'll see you later I guess Shelly," Jessica asks back over her shoulder.

"Sure," Shelly answers then turns with Jody to head outside.

"Oh well, I guess she's in the power clique now." Jody says.

"Looks that way," Shelly answers with a sigh. "Let's go see if our gang has it's old spot again this year."

Jessica watches them go as she's introduced to the people at Patrick's table.

"Look's like someone's plan is working out." Staci whispers to Ray.

"Maybe," He admits. "It is just the first day though."

"It might take him a little longer but she'll just be another notch on his bedpost before the year's out but then you know all about that right Staci?" Jamie whispers to them.

Staci gasps and Ray turns a shade red. "Why don't you keep your mouth shut for a change Jamie?" Ray snaps.

Jamie just laughs as Staci excuses herself. Ray gets up and follows her out of the cafeteria.

"What's up with them?" Patrick asks pulling his attention from Jessica for a moment.

Jamie shrugs and goes back to his pizza.

****

"You really should let me do something with this mane of yours Jake." Rosanne "Roxie" Weaver states as she runs her hand through the back of my thick brown hair.

"I might let you have a crack at it Rox. My dad's giving me crap about getting it cut now that football seasons started." I tell her.

"You could show off his school pride Rox. Shave down the sides and color them blue and orange. His dad would love that." Bobby Lang says with a chuckle.

"I'm thinking more an emerald green. It'll bring out his eyes." Roxie says leaning back as Shelly and Jody approach.

"I see we got our usual spot." Shelly says as she takes a seat on the bleachers.

"You missed the pitched battle for this prime piece of real estate Shelly," Bobby tells her.

"Then I shall dine among the carnage," Jody says popping open her salad.

"We'd have been here sooner but we were showing Jessica around the cafeteria until Patrick swooped in and pulled her to his table." Shelly tells them.

"Jessica," Bobby inquires. "Oh, is that the tall, hot blonde that Jake was telling us about."

"Hot huh," Shelly teases.

"Thanks for putting that out there Bobby," I sigh.

"Hey, you said it pal. So is she Shelly?" Bobby asks.

"Tall, yes," Shelly answers which causes the girls to break into laughter. After that settles down she turns to me. "You know, she's not your usual type."

"I have a type?" I ask. "I've had two girlfriends and they were pretty different."

"You've had at least three girlfriends that I'm aware of and they had similarities." Shelly argues.

"Maria doesn't count." I respond.

"Maria totally counts."

"We were a couple for less than twenty four hours before she went back to her ex. It doesn't count."

"Did you make out with her?" Bobby asks.

"Well, yeah but," I answer.

"If you used tongue, it totally counts." Roxie pipes in.

"Fine but why are we even talking about my love life?"

"Because you think Jessica is hot." Jody answers.

"Fine, I think she's hot, smart too... funny as well in fact but it doesn't really matter. Patrick staked his claim and that's the end of that."

"This could be your year, ya know. You just gotta give it a shot." Jody tells me.

"Have you been talking to my dad?" I ask her.

She shakes her head. "No, why?"

"He said much the same thing about the football team this year and I know how that's going to turn out. Much like I know how this Jessica thing will turn out."

"Things could be different this year," Bobby interjects. "I need to meet her first of course but you know what I'm saying."

"I'll introduce you Bobby," Shelly tells him. "That way you can tell doofus here to go for it."

"Like doofus will ever listen to me."

"I'm sure I've listened to you once," I joke, "There's probably still a scar from it but I did listen."

****

Ray catches up to Staci in the senior parking lot calling out to her as she reaches her car. "Stace, wait up."

"What do you want Ray?" She snaps.

"I just wanted to see if you're all right." He answers.

"Why do you care?" She asks. "Hell, why do I even care that everyone knows that I screwed Patrick? The whole school knows exactly who he's screwed sometimes before the act is even over. It's just that, I hate thinking of myself as just a notch like Jamie said."

"Jamie's a dick and anyone that sees you as that is an asshole." Ray states.

"Most of the people that do are your friends Ray." She points out.

"They aren't really anyone's friends. I know they'd stab me in the back given half the chance. I can't be friends with people that treat shit like they did to Jake as a joke."

"God, that was so awful. I know we were never really friends but I felt so bad that she did that to him. I heard she changed schools so she didn't have to face him this year." Staci states.

"Now it's about to start all over again with this poor Jessica girl." Ray says.

"I wish I could warn her but I don't want them to turn their attention to me. God, I'm so selfish."

"It's not selfish, it's self preservation. Maybe we can try and watch out for her somehow."

"Something we'd work on, together?" She asks, her lips edging up to a smile.

"I'd love that."

"I think I would too." She answers as she takes his hand and the pair walk back into the school hand in hand.

****

After lunch Jessica makes her way to Mrs. Harper's AP Biology class without any help from Patrick or crew. Patrick shrugged when she asked if he knew where it was. She deflected most of his attempts at flirting during lunch and figures that's the reason he didn't offer to escort her. Jamie just made another remark about her being a nerd causing Patrick to shush him but Jessica already wasn't liking hanging out with this group. She makes a mental note to stick with Shelly and Jody tomorrow as she makes her way down the crowded hallway. Finding the class isn't too much trouble and she quickly takes a seat beside a cute girl with long curly brown hair.

"Hi, I'm Jessica," Jessica offers as she puts down her bag.

"Hi back, I'm Lee Ann," Lee Ann Baker says giving her a smile. Just then Jessica looks up and sees Jake enter the classroom. He doesn't appear to see her and takes a seat at an unoccupied lab table near the front of the room.

"Um, how bad a person would I be if I switched seats after meeting you?" Jessica asks. Lee Ann follows her gaze and giggles.

"He's smart, cute and funny, you could a lot worse for a lab partner that's for sure Jessica." Lee Ann tells her.

"Oh it's not that, I just... it's just that I'm new here and Jake's in my English class so I kind of know him, not that I wouldn't like to get to know you... God, I must sound like a crazy person," Jessica begins but Lee Ann laughs.

"You go ahead sweetie. Jake and I already have a little history together already."