Hardwicke, Hardwicke high school

September 1, 2004

Ronnie won the race, I was not impressed when Sam began celebrating and telling me that the both of us were going to date our crushes. "I don't know what you're so happy about Sam! I'm not asking Terrin out!" We had been walking back from the race track for a while now, the reality of what Sam wanted was finally starting to sink in and he was becoming more annoying by the minute.

"Oh come on Rose! You know you want to, besides! It'll make me happier to see you with a boyfriend." If Sam continued to talk about my possibility of dating Terrin I was really going to throw a fit at him and tell him to shut it. I was so tempted to push him out onto the road and into the path or oncoming traffic. Sometimes I wondered how I had come to be friends with someone as stupid as Samuel, if only he knew what I felt I doubt he'd be pushing me to ask Terrin out...he would likely not be speaking to me at all.

"Listen Sam, just because you want a girlfriend so bad does not mean I want a boyfriend! So, just quit it!" I stormed off towards school, this was not how I imagined my morning going. If only Sam could understand that I wasn't interested in being popular or dating Terrin Dawkins then life for me would be so much sweeter and quieter too.

"What crawled up your butt and died? You've been in a bad mood for ages, since I began volunteering at the shelter. Seriously Rose, what's bothering you?" Sighing, I slowed down my pace so that Sam could catch up. The anger and frustration was gone in a single breath and I was left feeling tired, more tired than I often was at ten in the evening.

"It's just you. You and all your talk about Beth and Terrin, Sam I'm happy being single. I don't want to be popular, I don't want to date. I just want to get through high school in one piece and come out the other end sane and happy. So for my sanity will you please just forget about me dating Terrin, I haven't had a crush on him for ages I've had..." I cut myself off suddenly and stalked off towards school, thankful that Sam didn't start yelling after me again.

Good lord, did I almost tell him? I know I had denied the fact to my mom, but I had been thinking long and hard about what she had said on the phone the other night and had come to the conclusion that she was right. My mom was one hundred percent right, maybe it was a mother's instinct or a woman's instinct but I had a full blown, raging crush on my best friend and he didn't even know it.

I doubt Sam would even have cared, he was that caught up in dating Beth that he rarely ever noticed what he was wearing. 

Take today for example, he had socks on that were completely different colors, I'm sure one sock belonged to his younger sister because it was pink and had little white flowers on it. His t-shirt was inside out and had more wrinkles than his grandmother but he was likely in too much of a rush to get to school and see Beth.

"Hey Rose! Come sit with me at lunch okay?" That was strange, Beth never really invited me to sit with her at lunch and I was fine with that. This invitation couldn't come at a worse time as I was sure Sam would push me to take up the offer, I only offered Beth a smile before going to my home room.

Sitting in my usual seat in class I couldn't help but stew in my thoughts, Sam came walking in and sat in a seat that was not his usual. Often he sat right next to me in home room but this morning he had decided on another seat which was confusing and a little hurtful, even if he hadn't meant to hurt me. 

"Morning Sam, your t-shirt is inside out." Our home room teacher greeted Sam, he gave a sidelong look towards me. I knew that if I were standing in front of him that he'd be glaring at me but it wasn't my fault I had gotten side tracked by the argument this morning, if he hadn't pestered me so much I was sure I would have pointed out the fact that he had mismatched socks on and his t-shirt was inside out.

I watched as he got up from his seat and went to change, he met a guy at the door on his way out but shouldered straight past him. 

The new guy, that was right. I forgot all about him, Mrs. Delford had mentioned something about a new student the other day. This being high school, rumors hard begun to circulate almost as soon as his name had been uttered, he was an army brat, had been kicked out of three high schools, had piercings and tattoo's and was someone to stay well clear of.

Though if someone had told me those facts about the guy standing at the door I wouldn't have believed any of it in a million years. The rumors in this case I think were just that, tales that the high school rumor mill had churned out in the hopes that they were right in some of the facts. But they were completely off and I kind of felt sorry for the guy, his reputation was as clean as mine most likely. Then again, the clean dressed, combed hair could be a cover for his first day at school.

"Alain, come in and take a seat. I'll be your homeroom teacher, Mrs. Delford." Silently I hoped he wouldn't sit beside me, it was always awkward around new students and I was never good around new people. I mean, I could talk to them easily but there was always this awkwardness that couldn't be shook.

As it turned out the new guy sat right next to me, in the seat that Sam usually occupied in the mornings. Now I was kicking myself at having argued with him earlier, why couldn't I just bite my tongue and brush everything he had been saying under a metaphorical rug?

"Hey, I'm Alain." So he wasn't the shy type? That was fine, I offered a smile and shook his offered hand.

"Rose." Was all I said, I dropped his hand quickly before turning my attention back towards Mrs. Delford. She seemed to offer a smile that dripped with approval, it made me cringe and ignore Alain for the rest of the class.

Sam came back into class quietly, I ignored him too.

When the bell rang I was one of the first people out of the room, I heard Mrs. Delford call Sam back and smiled. One of the few tasks I disliked, other than listening to Sam waffle on about how pretty and perfect Beth was, was actually showing students around the school on their first day. Some people loved it, Sam was one of them but I hated it...absolutely. 

Later that afternoon Sam caught up with me as I walked home, we hadn't spoken since the morning and I had kept my distance from Sam during the day. Which was fine as he seemed to have found a new friend in Alain, I just hoped I didn't have to hang out with him too while Sam hung out with me.

"Alain is so cool, his dad is in the army or something and he's been all over the world. He was showing me a few pictures, can you imagine going to Tahiti or Spain? I can't." It seemed that in the blink of an eye our argument was forgotten, as long as Sam didn't mention Terrin and I dating ever again I'd not get angry at him.

But, Alain took his attention completely as we walked home.

"So Beth tried to show Alain around the school but he turned her down, I don't know why but she wasn't all that happy about it. Maybe it was because I had already shown him around or whatever but yeah. He's a pretty cool guy, I hope you don't mind but I invited him to sit with us at lunch and all that. We've got a lot of the same classes as him too so I figured it'd be cool if we were all friends or something." Sam really was stupid, he was convincing me of that each week. Couldn't he see that Beth was interesting in Alain? As the new guy in school I think most girls were interested in him, I was to some degree but I wasn't going to throw myself at him.

"Sure Sam, that's fine. I don't mind," at the mention of lunch I completely forgot that Beth had invited me to her table and smacked a hand against my forehead.

"What?" Sam asked curiously as he paused in the middle of a story from today.

"Beth invited me to sit with her at lunch today and I completely forgot. I'll have to see what she wanted tomorrow. What? Don't look so shocked Sam, she probably would have invited you too if you were standing there." Sam didn't say anything, just nodded as he walked me up to my front door. 

Just as the thought of my parents coming home went through my mind their car pulled into the driveway and I smiled, glad that they were finally home and I could finally unload all the drama that I was currently experiencing.

"I'll see you tomorrow Rose, Alain lives just around the corner so I said we'd walk by his house in the morning if that's fine with you?" I nodded, my attention was totally not on Sam but he waved before walking off. He greeted both my parents, who in turn said their hello's to him.

When he was across the street I ran to my mom and threw my arms around her neck, hugging her tightly and glad to feel just as tight a hug returned.

"Heya love, did you have a good time? I think that is one of the few business trips I'll be going on this year, right hon?" My mom pulled away from me and asked my dad that question, my dad nodded but I wondered what they weren't saying. Did things go bad? Was mom sick? Did Fraser decide to be a little brat on the trip?

"It was okay, I really need to talk to you though mom...it can wait until the weekend, do you think we can have a girls day out or something?" My mom was always there for me, no matter how busy her life was she always willingly dropped things to help Fraser or I out and this time was no different. She frowned, squeezed my arm gently and nodded as she pulled me in for another hug.

"Would this happen to be the problem we were speaking of the other day? Sure thing honey, you just say when and we'll do, okay? Come on, I want to put my feet up. You can tell your father and I all about your days at school and what we've missed." By now I had deciphered my moms hidden code, she didn't want me to tell my father all about Sam and Beth, I would save that for our girls day out but just the basics of how school was...if I'd been given any detentions and stuff like that.

"Sure mom, hi dad! Did you have a good trip, here I'll take your bags in." It was always something I did when my parents got home, they were tired and had traveled far. The least I could do was take two bags inside for them as they took a casual stroll inside, admiring their rose garden.

"It was a great trip, I got you something but you're not allowed it till your birthday." Oh, that was right. My birthday was in a few days and I had completely forgotten! There was no way I was having a party, maybe just cake with my family would be a good idea and that would be it. Entertaining my peers just didn't seem all that exciting, especially with Sam's attention fixed on Beth and mine on him. Someone was bound to notice and things would go from bad to worse.

"Thank you dad! I can't wait to see what it is." We all headed inside, I had homework to do and my parents had to unpack everything.

But while studying my mind couldn't help but wander back to Sam, Beth and now Alain. What was Beth trying to do and was she just playing with Samuel?

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I really am unhappy with this chapter for some reason, I feel like it's completely different to all the other 'teen' chapters that I've written. If you have an opinion please leave me a comment, I'm curious to know if you think this chapter is out of character or not!

Thank you for reading!