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Chapter One : He's Bush and I'm Like His Mini Afghanistan

Monday morning when my dad drops me off at school I pull on the hood of my jacket. It belongs to the days of Fatty Tessie hence is so baggy that it almost swallows me. The mission is to be as invisible to the human eye as possible and what better way to do that than wear something which 'the new me' wouldn't be caught dead with?

My father eyes me curiously as I tip-toe towards the building. I can always explain it to him later that I'm trying to save my life. When he finally drives away I rush, still on my tip-toes imitating a bad spy thriller and merge into the crowd of ALHS, so far so good.

The plan is to quickly grab my books from my locker, which might be the only way someone might identify me today. I plan on sitting way at the back today and ask the teachers to mark my attendance at the end of the lesson. Thankfully due to the fact that I am such a nerd my teachers wouldn't mind doing that for me especially if I mentioned that I was in mortal danger.

Now you might say that I'm overreacting and that I don't even know if Cole is going to be in school today. However I have know that boy long enough to be aware of his twisted schemes. He will attack when I lower my defenses and that my friends will not be happening.

"Tessa,"

Oh no my cover's been blown! I squeeze my eyes shut and start walking towards homeroom which happenes to be in the direction opposite of whoever it was that's calling me.

"Tessa wait!"

I keep walking glancing left and right, hoping that Cole wouldn't jump out of some random corner will water balloons in his hands. That devious baboon...he's got minions now does he?

I try to hurry as much as I can but I'm not fast enough. A hand clasps down on my shoulder and I open my mouth to scream but I then my eye falls on the beaded bracelet on the wrist of the person holding on to me and I sigh in relief. That purple bracelet has beads with pink lettering on them spelling 'M-E-G-A-N' and belong to my friend Megan. I know for certain that she does not mean me physical harm well at least not intentionally.

"Why-" she pauses to take a deep breath "Are you..." deep breath again, "Running so fast?" She's panting like she's just run a marathon instead of chasing me down a school corridor but in her defense she's a bigger nerd then me and exercise is a foreign concept to her. However she is a nerd with an obsession for gossip so she must know exactly why I'm running.

"Let's get to class I'll explain." I say grabbing her arm and pulling her along before she attracts too much attention.

"Ooo I smell gossip." She rubs her hands together manically and her green eyes shimmer in delight. Meet Megan Sharp one of my best friends post Nicole. We bonded over our mutual hatred of Chemistry and late hours at the library. She's an honours student destined for Princeton ( a college she loves beyond the point of normalcy by the way) and in her spare time she loves nothing more than knowing everything about everyone even though that knowledge might not be credible. She's pretty( if you ignore her eccentricity) with her deep red hair and flawless complexion. She looks like a porcelain doll and I envy her ability to be petite and delicate while I am anything but.

We enter the classroom and as per usual Miss Sanchez is fast asleep in her chair while paper planes are whizzing by her head. The two of us spot our other best friend Bethany aka Beth sitting by the window and scribbling furiously over her notebook and head over to her direction.

"Hey Beth!' I wince at the shrill tone of Megan's voice but you just cannot tone this girl down this is her usual way of greeting people-destroying their eardrums.

Beth does not look up and I realize that she's in her zone, her 'I'm writing a song come near me and I'll kill you' zone so I pry Megan away from her and we both silently take our seats.

Beth Romano is my other best friend post Nicole. She transferred to our school during sophomore year so she hasn't witnessed Fatty Tessie but what she has witnessed is Nicole's constant torment of me. She doesn't do well with bullies and that is an understatement. If I had a penny for each time I had to stop her from punching Nicole in the face I'd be able to buy the new iPhone. She's got that tough girl appearance going on with her fishnet tights and band t-shirts along with her trademark leather jacket. She told me that she'd dyed her mahogany hair black and liked the whole 'panda eye' look.

To others she might come across a little scary but she's one hell of a friend.

"So will you tell me why you were running away from me like you've just killed someone and why you're dressed like...that?" She turns her nose up at my appearance and I try to not be offended. I dressed like this for the better part of my life and nobody ever had a problem with it then.

"You don't know?"

Apparently this is the worst thing to say to someone who feeds off of gossip.

A crazed look comes over her face as her eyes become frantic, "What? What don't I know?"

"Cole Stone's coming back." I gulp and the shock that comes across her face lasts for only ten seconds as pity replaces it. She places her hand over mine and solemnly says, "I'm sorry."

Even Megan knows that I'm counting my last days.

 "I don't get what the big deal is? Why is this Cole person so scary?" Beth asks as she takes a bite out of her cheese burger. Her face scrunches up in disgust as she spits it all out, two years in this place and she's not realized how bad the food is. We're sitting in the further most corner of the cafeteria and surprisingly I've made it to lunch alive.

Megan cuts me off before I even open my mouth, "Cole is Tessa's stalker." She says with ease.

Beth's eyes bulge out before I correct Megan, "He's not my stalker he's just someone specifically designed to torture me." I say in an eerily calm manner.

"It cant be that bad," Beth shrugs and digs around her bag until she pulls out a half eaten pack of chips.

"Oh it is if you think Nicole is bad wait till you meet Cole."

Once again Megan has taken to speaking for me, hello it's my bully we're discussing here!

"She's right notice the rhyming names!" I exclaim and both of them look at me like I'm from planet Cuckoo.

What? The rhyming names thing totally matters.

"Is he hot?" Beth asks smirking and I feel like I've been backstabbed. Why does it matter if he's hot? He's a monster!

"Honey that boy puts Michelangelo's David to shame!" sighs Megan

I hit her arm and she pouts, "It's true though that guy is hot."

If only she were wrong.

The last period arrives without me running into either of the twin horrors i.e Nicole or Cole but that is only because Nicole's been practicing all day with her dance team for a big competition at the end of the week. The perks of being on the only teams that brings any sort of silverware to ALHS is that the members get to skip classes with official consent.

The last class is unfortunately PE and while I am comfortable with my body, the Fatty Tessie inside of me still struggles to put on gym shorts and a cap sleeved top whilst  parading in front of judgemental teenage boys as they enjoy girls bouncing around while being attacked by basketballs.

But I still had to do it because it's high school and PE is yet another torture you have to endure.

So it's safe to suppose that Cole is not in school today and seeing as how I hadn't seen Nicole I realize that I'm having a pretty good day.

Until...

"Hey Tessie." I grit my teeth and plaster fake smile on my face turning on my heels in the locker room and coming face to face with the she-devil herself.

"Nicole." I say acknowledging her presence.

She stands there in her purple and yellow dance outift which consits of skimpy slitted skirt and an even skimpier vest top. Her dark hair is pulled into a high pony tail.and her skin is as usual the perfect caramel colour and her outfit accentuates the hazel in her eyes. My ex-best friend is a stunner and she knows it. Her Latin heritage makes her stick out amidst the pale skinned fair haired majority.

How she manages to look so good despite spending the day in a sweaty gym baffles me.

"I see you still aren't doing the hip exercises I told you about."

Right mock me and my supposed huge butt.

"They don't seem to have worked on you so I decided it would be a waste of my time."

She sneers and closes the distance between us until a few inches of space separate us, obviously it was a move to intimidate me and it has surely worked.

"What did you say?"

"Uh-uh nothing I said nothing." I stutter like my pathetic self almost cowering in fear of her.

"That's what I thought. Now move out of my way before I crush you like the pesky insect you are." She growls and literally shoves me out of her way.

After she leaves I find myself standing on the same spot for about ten minutes struggling to stop myself from hyperventilating. I am not good with confrontations and God knows what propelled me to talk back to Queen Bitch. I do some of the breathing exercises I've seen on TV which prove to be pretty pointless. Still in shock mode I walk to my locker which is where I stash my clothes and phone after a prank pulled by Nicole and her gang of Satan worshippers. Let's just say it's no fun walking around school with only a thong hiding your private parts.

After I secure my belongings I make my way back to the gym only to be interrupted for the third time that day. This time however my heart reacts in the totally opposite way of how it had reacted to seeing Nicole.

My heart flutters, it flutters!

"There you are Tessa I've been looking for you all day." Jay comes into view wearing his gym clothes and I lean back against my locker to stop myself from fainting at the sight of his smile.

"You have?" I sighed dreamily as he nears me then mentally slap myself for sounding so silly. "You have?" I repeat with a deeper voice yet I sound like my dad when he choked on a bone last week.

"Yeah I have. I've been meaning to talk to you since yesterday actually."

I slip into La La land as he's obviously saying something important. I let my eyes rake over his body, his face his perfect blonde  hair...

"Tessa?" He waves a hand in front of my face making me crash land into reality.

"Wh-what?"

"I wanted to know if you were okay."

"I'm fine," I reply knowing that a full blown smile's on my face this very second.

Jay's so cute caring about me asking if I'm okay, talking to me even though his girlfriend is vehemently against it.

"Really?" He seems surprised. I wonder why?

"Yeah totally. I was a little feverish on Sunday but nothing some good old chicken soup cant help." I say like the idiot I am.

"No-I wasn't-." He looks so cute when he's confused!

"What?"

"Look Tessa you know that Cole's coming back right?"

Yes I do since I stalked you for hours on Saturday night.

"What? No I did not know that!" I exclaim hoping that my non-existent acting skills come into play.

He seems suspicious but doesn't say anything about it.

"Oh well now you know. I just wanted to see if you're okay since your relationship with Cole..."

"It's not a relationship Jay it's tyranny he's Bush and I'm like his mini Afghanistan."

He laughs and the cute little dimples appear on his cheeks making me melt.

"I forgot how funny you were." His blue eyes shine as he grins at me, oh boy.

"Look if he gives you any trouble you come to me okay?" He says seriously after a while and I nod.

"You'll protect me?" I sound sappy to my own ears but to hell with it.

Jay scratches the back of his neck and mutters yes as I resist the urge to kiss the life out of him.

"Thank you Jay it means a lot to me." There is a faint tinge of pink on his cheeks and it stays there when we walk into the gym together. Thank fully Nicole isn't there and for that hour I pretend that Jay is mine and that everything is perfect.

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So glad that you guys like this story!! :D Amazed by the response so I posted this since it was already written. Thank you guys!

Also there was no Cole in this but everyone knows that the intro to a story is a little slow but I promise he's making an entry pretty soon! Be excited y'all J

Now please leave loads of comments/votes if you're reading this story. Feedback is the only thing which motivates me to write more so yeah get on that! 

P.S The cast list is up let me know if you guys  agree with it or not :)