"Okay. Here we are!" Luke spoke as he drove onto the school grounds, his voice worried as he tried to add a fake excited tone in his voice. Ashton noticed and gave him a stern look, making sure their kids didn't see, before turning to watch them sit with terrified looks on their faces in the backseat of the car.

"Are you ready?"

The teenagers had heard those words at least a thousand times today, and each time they heard them they grew less ready. Also, the fact that high school kids in all ages ran back and forth in front of their car with either frowns or smiles on their faces, embracing their friends with greetings in all different way, made Peach and Leon shrink down in their seats even further.

"Please don't be worried. Everything will go just as planned. I'm sure that by the end of the day when we meet you will shower me with positive things" Ashton spoke, trying to keep the mood positive even though he could see the fear on their faces.

Peach and Leon didn't say anything as they glanced out the windows and watched a couple of big football players walk together in matching sports gear. "It's just like in the movies" Peach whispered, making Leon gulp. He had watched said movies, and in those movies small lanky freshmen got beaten down by big guys in football gear.

"No, stop it. You are acting like you're in a whole new universe. You know how school works, and it's not like in the movies. Right, babe?" Luke said, only for Ashton to nod in agreement, keeping that warm smile on his lips.

"Yes. We went through high school and, see, everything turned out fine!"

That was a lie and they both knew it. Ashton was too careless in high school, ending with him having to retake junior year and dropping a whole lot of potential college scholarships that was the only hope for his mother to send him to college.

And Luke.. Well, Luke got a girl pregnant after a prom so twisted it ended with Michael becoming prom queen and Calum nearly burning down half of the gym building.

Even though the teenagers didn't know the raw truth about their fathers' high school experiences, Peach and Leon knew they weren't as peaceful as their fathers made them out to be. Peach's lips twitched at their father's statement while Leon was worriedly furrowing his eyebrows. Both of them didn't really trust those words.

"I don't know" Leon mumbled while unbuckling his seatbelt, Peach doing the same after him.

"Come on," Luke spoke, knowing very well that if the small ones were in the car any longer he'd probably lock the doors and drive home again. 'To hell with high school!' as he used to say in his own teenage years, but that wasn't the wisest thing to say at that moment. "Let's get out of here. Do you want dad and I to help you get your schedules and everything?"

"Please no-" "-Do I look like a baby to you?" both teenagers answered at the same time, creating a bunch of incoherent words, though the two fathers catch on easily.

"Alright, we won't follow you inside. But you will be out here at 4pm and I'll pick you up to take you to the restaurant, okay?" Ashton ordered, though it sounded more like a question.

"Got it" Peach answered for both of them before grabbing the sleeve of Leon's shirt and tugged him out of the car along with her.

"Alright, have a great day! Be great!" Luke's lame encouraging word were heard before Leon closed the door. Like two little toddlers they stood side by side and waved as their fathers drove away before sighing loudly and letting their hands fall to their sides.

"Are you scared?" Peach asked her brother as she stared right ahead, watching a group of girls laugh loudly with each other. She had never had any girl friends like that. Was she supposed to get some here?

"No," Leon said while gnawing on his bottom lip until it started to become painful. "I'm terrified"

"Me too" Peach breathed out in defeat before turning to look at her brother with those clear green eyes. Leon managed a smile, and she smiled back, a whole lot more convincing than him. "Let's go get our schedules"

Leon wasn't surprised when Peach grabbed the sleeve of his shirt again, causing him to stumble after her. She had a habit of doing that, just tugging him along like if she was years older than him and he was just a baby she needed to take care of. He used to think it was quite annoying but at the same time quite reassuring to have her take the lead. But as he watched all these kids around them he slowly tugged himself out of her grip and put his hands in his pockets as he walked by her side.

It was time for him to grow up. It's high school for god's sake. 

**

Leon was ready to curse his fathers, uncles, cat, whole family, and the whole damn school, when standing in the busy halls with a simple paper in his hands. Peach did the same, and judging by the frown on her face, she had noticed the faults as well.

"I thought dad told us we'd be in the same classes?" she finally spoke up, making Leon's shoulders slump.

"He did. He said he had talked to the principal and everything"

Clearly Luke's desperate phone call months ago about having his two children sharing a schedule was not taken cared of by the principal, because as Leon compared his schedule to his sister at that moment, they only had two classes together, and one of them only occurs once a week.

Leon squirmed where he stood while watching Peach look at him with wide eyes. Ashton had assured them for two whole weeks that school was all about friends and how fun socializing was in such a big place. Leon wasn't really a fan of socializing to begin with, but Peach was all but sure her and Leon would do great together.

So when knowing they wouldn't be together more than a few hours every day during school made both of them suddenly regret making the decision that, yeah, high school would be great.

"This sucks," Peach stated the obvious, making Leon sigh and nod his head. "What am I supposed to do without you?"

"Well, you go to your Science class while I go to my English class, I guess" Leon mumbled, his tone of voice hesitant as he glanced down at his schedule.

"Okay. This will be fine. We'll do great! Won't we?"

Leon looked up to see Peach study the halls with furrowed eyebrows, fear evident in her soft features. Leon sighed once again before nodding and reached out to pull her into a hug. More to calm his own nerves than hers. Peach relaxed and hugged her brother back.

"Look! Even the fucking newbies are getting some. You better step up your game, Mitchell!"

The sudden call made the sibling pull away from their hug and glance toward the other side of the hallway, watching a bunch of rowdy seniors push one of them around while laughing. Their previous attention had been on Peach and Leon, causing the two siblings to look at each other with grimaces on their faces.

"Okay, never hug in school again." Leon said and took a big step away from Peach.

"Okay, bye" she said with a grimace on her face before they both turned around to walk opposite directions.

Leon stopped soon after to glance over the sea of students, feeling his heart clench tightly in his chest. He didn't know what he felt in words, yet his insides felt like they were going to explode. He was scared, clearly, and now he was alone.

"Okay," Leon mumbled after taking a deep breath and followed the number signs hanging over the different classrooms until he finally reached his own.

He stepped inside, feeling his heart stop as he felt several eyes on himself. The classroom was nearly full and all eyes were on him as the bell rang and the teacher closed the door right on the clock. The low heels she wore were loud in the classroom, causing all the students to fall silent.

"Welcome, students!" she spoke loudly, her voice darker due to her smoking, Leon guessed. He was still standing in the front, causing the teacher to look up at him after leaving her bag at her desk.

"Do you have anything to say to the class?" she asked, her eyebrows raised yet a small smile on her face as the rest of the class started to chuckle. Leon felt his cheeks turn red instantly as he quickly shook his head, embarrassment running through his whole body.

"Okay then, you're welcome to take a seat" the teacher spoke again, smiling at Leon as he let his gaze lock on the floor and hurried to sit down at the back of the classroom by himself. He could still feel eyes on the students on him as he stared down at his desk, and the chuckles still haunted him at the back of his mind.

"Alright! Welcome to high school, kids! Let's start off with going through the list, just to see if you all are here" the teacher spoke before starting to read names off the list, making student after student reply with a simple 'here'.

"Leon Hemmings"

The call of his name was sudden, causing Leon to part his lips to answer, though his lack of talking had made his throat clog up, making his answer to come out as barely a whisper. The pair sitting in front of him were the only one hearing him, making them turn around to look at him weirdly.

"No Leon Hemmings here?" the teacher repeated, making Leon blush once again and clear his throat.

"No, I'm here" he answered and raised his hand to wave and get her attention. "And it's Irwin" he added.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Leon Irwin"

"No, I-I mean it's Hemmings and Irwin" Leon said, feeling himself shrink in his seat as eyes were set on him. Again. The blush on his cheeks deepened, causing people to chuckle. Again.

"Alright, then," the teacher said and noted the change of his name before continuing to call out names.

"Wesley Preston" Yet again the classroom was quiet. "No Wesley? Or did I say that name wrong as well" the teacher joked before continuing through the list.

Leon wanted to leave.

"Okay, since it's your first day in high school, we're going to do something I do with all my students" she spoke as she handed out a blank striped paper. "I want you to write me a text that will follow you throughout your whole high school time. I want you to describe to me what you want to have achieved by the time you graduate. What you want to be, what you want to do, what you want to see. Anything you'd like. Write it down and hand it in before the lesson is over"

Student immediately started going to work, most of them chatting with the person next to them. Leon watched several people scribble down word after word, while he was still staring at a blank paper.

He took a deep breath and lifted his pen, letting the tip of it rest against the paper before slowly writing down the only few words he knew to write.

I want to be...

Leon stopped after that, staring at the four lonely words and sighing once again. Leon sat like that throughout the whole lesson, hearing people talk and laugh as he sat alone.

Suddenly the bell rang and Leon was still seated with those four words. The rest of his classmates handed in their papers before hurrying out the classroom leaving him alone alone.

"How are you doing there, Leon?" his teacher asked as she was seated by her desk that was messy due to all the papers.

"Um, I'm doing alright" he spoke and breathed out heavily before scribbling down one word more and stood up to walk over to her and handed in his paper. She took it and studied the simple sentence before glancing back up at Leon who was standing by her desk with his lip between his teeth.

"This is it?" she asked. Leon nodded, feeling self conscious. She smiled. "Alright. Thank you, Leon"

"You're welcome" Leon answered, his voice barely over a whisper, before he turned to exit the classroom.

His paper was placed on top of everyone else's, his simple sentence standing out among all the others;

I want to be me.

**

It was lunch time and Leon was sitting outside on the schoolyard along with a few juniors at a few tables away. They didn't spare him a glance though. After meeting up with Peach and having her invite him to eat lunch with her new friends that she met during her maths class, things had grown sour.

Leon had politely declined the offer, lying and saying he was going to eat with some guys he had met at his history class. She had smiled, told him she was happy he was having an equally good time as her, before running off to her new friends.

Leon knew Peach would do great alone. She was amazing at socializing, always had been and always will be. Leon had been just as her when they were younger, so it pained him that as he grew up he became more and more self conscious.

And he didn't want to rain on Peach's parade either. She was so happy and if he told her that he hated it here, she would start to worry and she wouldn't be able to enjoy it like she were. Leon just wanted her to have fun. He cared about her enough to be sensible like that.

He sighed, knowing he had to eat if he was going to get through the whole day. Standing up he shrugged on his backpack and started walking towards the school once again. He didn't get far before he heard someone call after him.

"Hey, dude!"

Turning around, Leon watched a boy jog towards him, the bright orange beanie on his head was the perfect contrast to his darker skin tone. The boy reached him, breathing hard after running those few feet, making Leon want to laugh. He didn't though. He didn't dare to.

"You forgot your phone" the boy spoke and smiled breathlessly while holding forward a brand new iPhone.

"Um," Leon started and smiled nervously before reaching down to his pocket and held up his own phone. "That's not my phone. This is my phone"

"Oh. Then I accidentally stole someone's phone," the boy started with a grimace, before shrugging and quickly placing the phone on the closest table. "Eh, accidents happen"

"You're not gonna give it back?" Leon asked carefully.

"Well, I don't know who I took it from in the first place," he answered and shrugged once again before holding out his hand, "I'm Wes, by the way"

"Oh," Leon answered, surprised with the polite act the stranger was giving him, but took Wes's hand anyway. "I'm Leon"

"You just started here? You're kind of small" Wes spoke, making Leon immediately go back to being insecure.

"Yeah, I just started today. B-But I'm only fourteen, so" Leon answered and looked down at the ground.

"Oh, you're a freshman? Me too!"

"You are?" Leon asked, his eyebrows raised as he studied Wes once again. The boy didn't look much older than fourteen, but his outgoing ways made Leon believe the boy was older than he actually was.

"Yeah!" Wes spoke and nodded excitedly, making him have to adjust the beanie on top of his head. "Though, I missed my first English class because I overslept"

"Wesley?" Leon asked, remember well how his English teacher had called that name several times. Wes grimaced and shook his head.

"Dude, never use that name. It's Wes. The only way that name is called is when my mom is really mad" he spoke and chuckled. "Hey, have you eaten yet?"

"Oh, um, no not yet"

"Do you wanna go eat? I'm kind of hungry, I didn't have time to eat breakfast this morning" Wes said and shrugged as he adjusted his backpack on his shoulders.

Leon stood still on his place and looked at Wes before feeling relief go through him. Suddenly the heavy feeling of worry and anxiousness was slowly fading as he smiled small and nodded his head. "Yeah, that'd be great"

"Awesome!" Wes answered and grinned big before surprising Leon by throwing his arm over his shoulders. "Man, if I had known it was this easy to meet friends on the first day of school I wouldn't have 'accidentally' overslept this morning"

And then when Leon entered the cafeteria with Wes talking nonstop by his side, he caught Peach's eyes and they smiled at each other. Suddenly Leon thought high school was kind of great.

•••

i've been working on creating wesley for so long and he's my favorite character ever!!! you'll love him soon enough. also, next chapter will introduce yet another new character that will be important to the story so woo.

btw i'm sorry for a slow chapter but i feel like i need to have a few chapter before letting the story really get going. but i have it all planned and this story will be and contain everything and more, like wow.

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