ARIANA

"Good afternoon class!" A middle aged man said in a loud voice that bounced off the walls. He was in a black track suit that seemed a size smaller than it should have been.

"Good afternoon coach Clapp!" Some students said replying to him.

I was standing next to Jennifer and Annabeth in our 6th period class, that is until they left me alone to stand on a number.

I awkwardly stood off the side, clutching my schedule in my hand and my backpack in the other.

I waited patiently as the coach read through his roster, marking absent students.

"Jennifer Daniels!"

"Here."

I tuned out the names for a minute when I felt something crawl up my spine. Not in a bad way though.

I shivered in my spot feeling weird again.

"Alexander Lockwood."

"Here." A deep voice stated in a low and husky voice. I followed the voice to a rather big guy. He was tall and wide as well. I frowned because a little part of me thought it was...someone else.

The coach said his name again, looking up from his paper this time.

"Alexander Lockwood!"

A hand raised up from behind the big guy.

"I said, here."

His voice was louder, clearer and sounded way more hotter.

I leaned a little to the left, to try to get an eye on this dude who was hiding but almost tripped. I straightened myself, slapping my face mentally.

It's just a boy!

After calling Annabeth's name which was Annabeth Williams, the coach was done with roll call and I walked up to him, feeling the whole classes eyes on me. I looked back at them hoping to find that guy I saw earlier.

I passed the big guy and sucked in a breath when I noticed a pair of dark blue eyes glaring at me.

I looked away in confusion and kept walking.

A part of me jumped up and yelled, "It's him!" And the other part slapped that part, and scolded it for being such a girl.

"Um, coach Clapp, I'm a new student." I said in a not so confident voice. I showed the coach my schedule and he took it, writing my name down.

I felt the familiar sensation of someone staring at me and looked back again only to have Alexander look away.

Alexander. What a hot-ass name.

I rolled my eyes at myself.  "Okay, you can sit this one out for today seeing as you didn't bring a uniform, but starting tomorrow if you don't have one I will give you a write-up."

"Yes sir." I replied, taking my schedule from him. I sat on the bleachers and watched as the students played a game of basketball. Okay, I watched one student.

But he watched me too! I would avert my eyes though, everytime I saw his head turn towards me. Every time he looked at me I could feel the glare in his eyes and it was pissing me off. Here I am, drooling over this guy and he's glaring at me like I killed his dog.

Then the most terrible thing happened. My mother walked in with a speaker. My eyes popped out of my head. No! Not here! Not now!

I groaned loudly when the coach blew his whistle and everyone leaned against the wall. I buried myself into my chair, covering my face with my backpack.

"Ariana Peterson! Get down here!" I jumped when the coach called me. Suddenly every pair of eyes were on me including my moms. I groaned again and turned bright red.

My mom looked at me with such a bright smile that even Alex, who stood a few feet away from me, had a confused look on his face. He looked between my mother and me probably trying to understand why she was looking at me like that.

"Hello class! My name is Helen Peterson and I am your new vice principal! Yay!" She clapped her hands together and basically jumped up and down. I looked down harder at the ground, hopefully my mother wouldn't mention me. "Today, I prepared a sort of "presentation" about myself, so if everyone would pay close attention." She cleared her throat as she turned on her speaker which was a stereo.

I backed away slowly as she did her rap and her "gangsta" moves. I was almost to the door when she was done and half the class whistled and laughed.

Alex, whose eyes were on me, laughed until an evil look crossed his eyes.

"Say, aren't you Ariana's mom?" He asked in his deep voice, stroking his non-exist beard.

Asshole.

Everyone looked at me again. My hand was on the door, frozen.

"Why yes she is!" My mother's heels clicked on the gym floor as she made her way towards me. She put her arms around me and practically dragged me back.

Coach Clapp was looking at my mother with a weird grin on his face that frankly pissed me off. He was stroking the wedding ring on his left finger while he stared at my mom!

I glared at him. When he finally noticed me looking, he cleared his throat, strengthened up and wiped away imaginary dust from his shirt.

Yeah you better look away. I narrowed my eyes at him one more time before giving my attention back to my mom.

"Go on Ariana! Introduce yourself!" She nudged me and I nudged her back. "I'm okay."

She nudged me a little harder. "Ariana." She said through clenched teeth.

I was about to jab my elbow into my mother's arm when I realized I would be jabbing an elbow at my mother's arm and mentally slapped myself.

I sighed. "Hi, mynameisarianapetersonandijustmovedherewithmymom." I drawled out in a quick breath.

I noticed Alex looking at me with amusement which soon turned into a glaring contest between me and him.

My mother jabbed me in the arm again. "What! Ow!"

She leaned in and whispered to me. "Why are you glaring at that handsome boy? Do you like him?"

I recoiled from her practically jumping 3 feet away. "What the hell! No mom! We'll discuss this later! Jesus!"

Alex's laugh reached my ears and I melted. I did, I turned into a puddle just because a guy, who hates me by the way, laughed. I'm officially a loser.

"Fine, but I want details!"

Just as I was about to respond to her, the bell rang. Half the class stayed and hovered over my mom, many of them had admiring twinkles in there eyes but the other half left.

One guy gestured to me and then my mom. "They're such losers." He said snickering.

Now, obviously I wasn't supposed to hear that but considering my awesome hearing I did. So when they came closer, I stuck out my foot and watched as the little bitch face planted onto the hardwood floor.

"Jenkins! You idiot!" The coach yelled. "Two miles for you tomorrow for being so uncoordinated."

Jenkins groaned and got up, rubbing his nose. I tried to smother my laugh when he glared at me but I failed miserably.

I looked back at the door to see Alex looking at me with a smile. Which immediately turned into a confused frown and he left.

Okay, what is up with that kid! Handsome, handsome kid...

I mimicked him and left the gym, leaving Jen, who was gushing over my mother with my other teammates.

I slapped my forehead when I heard her start to rap again.

***

"Take a left here." I explained to Jennifer. I gave her directions to my house as she dropped me off. Being the polite little idiot I am, I offered her to come inside but she declined saying she had to pick up her little sister from pre-school. I waved goodbye, regretting I let her convince me to drop me off at my house. I shouldn't get too comfortable around her.

I ran inside the house, throwing myself onto the couch thinking about the terrible day I had. Apparently, I now have two enemies and four friends when I should have zero of both!

My stomach grumbled and I marched to the kitchen, taking out stuff to make a sandwich.

Ten minutes later, my mom came through the door. I was in the middle of eating one of my five sandwiches with extra pickles.

"Hey mom you're home early." I said with my mouth stuffed with pickles. Mhmm, pickles.

"Gross!" My mom shielded her eyes when she witnessed the chewed food in my mouth.

I laughed and opened my mouth wider.

She ran out of room. I laughed harder to myself almost choking on the sandwich.

"Hey sweetie?" She called from upstairs.

"Yeah, mom?" I was drinking my water trying to open my airway.

"I know it's difficult to not make friends especially considering how nice you are but do you think it's wise you have four whole friends that could discover your secret?" She came in the kitchen again a worried look on her face.

"I know you're worried mom but I don't think they will be a threat or I will be a threat to them because they are just my school friends. I won't invite them over or anything if that's what you're a little skeptical about." I told her munching on the next sandwich trying to hide the fact that one of those friends just gave me a ride home.

When she didn't say anything I heard her crying. I abandoned my sandwich and ran to my mom hugging her.

"What's wrong? What happened?" My mother squeezed me harder and I let her.

"Nothing, it's just it's not fair what's happened to you. You deserve to be happy and make as many friends as you want and bring them over all the time! I mean, this is the age to do all of that! It's just not fair!" She cried into my shoulder.

"Mom, seriously, I'm okay. And there is a reason why I'm like this okay? Don't blame yourself for anything okay and please don't worry about me, I'm used to not having friends over." I said trying to calm her down.

"Besides, I have my best friend right here, I don't need anyone." She knew she was my best friend but I had to remind her again sometimes when she got like this. She smiled at me and stroked my hair.

"My sweet girl." She said lovingly.

I laughed. "Hey, I'm sweet when I wanna be! Now get your butt into your room and get some rest! You must be tired from all that rapping..." I added narrowing my eyes.

She looked at me with innocent eyes. "That rap was awesome okay! All my students loved it!" She said winking at me and going back upstairs.

I rolled my eyes and went back to my sandwich, still hungry. Did wolves have like five stomachs?

"Wait!" My mom exclaimed all of a sudden coming back down. "Who was that boy!"

I turned beet red. "No one mom! I actually think he's my enemy or something because the feelings I got from him were not friendly!"

"Awww!!" She gushed. "Watch, wait it out a couple of days or months and you guys won't be able to leave each other's side!"

I scoffed. "Yeah, okay mom." I scoffed again thinking it was ridiculous but some how my stupid brain put images in my head and I blushed even more.

"Mhmm, to be young and in love." My mom said as she climbed the stairs. I grabbed a couch pillow and threw it at her. She squealed and dodged it in time.

I laughed at the sound as she threw the pillow back.

Maybe being in this town will be better than I thought. Now, all I had to do was make sure my mom is happy.