Chapter 2

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By the time 4th period gym rolls around, I'm the talk of the school. Apparently calling out Matt has caught the attention of many of my new peers, and I hate it. I thought I'd be able to blend in and keep a low profile at this new school, guess not. As me and Amanda walk into the gym, Kyle's face immediately lights up.

"Damn shorty, I haven't seen anyone get this school so riled up since freshman year when Cassidy got pregnant with Mr. Wright's baby and decided to tell him and the entire school at prom!!" I roll my eyes as Julia smacks the back of his head and gives him a dirty look.

"I for one am proud of you, cuz. No one ever stands up to Matt but it's about time people put him in his place!" Everyone nods along with her but I have a feeling that none of them will be dumb enough to pick a fight with Matt anytime soon. Nope, I am the only idiot that would do that... on the first day of school.

Gym and lunch go by pretty quickly. I learned that the food here is terrible, unlike the food back at Friends academy and I decide to start packing lunch starting tomorrow. By 6th period AP US History, it seems all the excitement I created has died down. I sit in the third row, second desk in, and Tyler sits to my left. He's telling me about his dog when suddenly he stops talking and stares at something behind me. Before I have a chance to ask him what's wrong I hear the voice I was hoping to never hear again.

"So we meet again Barbie, miss me?" Matt asks with a wink sliding into the seat to my right.

"Sorry this is AP US History, I think you might be lost." I shoot back before turning back to Tyler.

"Nope definitely not lost. Got here just in time to get the best seat too." I don't have to turn around to know Matt has a stupid smirk on his face. I am about to ask Tyler to switch with me when the teacher walks in and tells us all to settle down.

The teacher hands out the syllabus for the year and begins going over how the class will run. Matt slowly begins inching his seat closer and closer to me. I try to ignore him, but the closer he gets, the louder the voice in my head screams to run. Just as his desk is about to touch mine the teacher finally notices his antics and speaks up. "Mr. Dean, can I help you with something?"

"Nope," he says, popping the 'P' and colliding his desk with mine.

"Perfect, then you wouldn't mind putting your desk back and stop interrupting my class on the first day. If you want to get a 5 on this AP exam like you did for World History you better pay attention Mr. Dean." Matt being smart must not be common knowledge because everyone else seems as surprised as I am that Matt got a 5 on the AP exam.

"My aunt is a teacher here so I know that Matt is really smart but I am like the only one in the entire school that knows. Well I guess knew because everyone knows now," Tyler whispers to me while the rest of the classroom begins to whisper.

Matt realizing his secret smartness is out, slams his desk back into its original spot, grabs his bag, and storms out, slamming the classroom door so hard the clock falls off the wall. Our teacher Mrs. Johnson sighs and walks over to the phone. "Talk quietly amongst yourselves for a moment, I need to step into the hall and make a call."

As soon as she's in the hall everyone in the room rips out their phone probably to text all their friends about what just happened. I pull my phone out too and text Sasha that I miss her and that public school is becoming more and more like Mean Girls.

Tyler taps me on the shoulder softly while sliding me his phone. "We have a group chat, give me your number and I'll add you to it. I meant to tell Julia to do it during lunch but I forgot, so I'll just do it now." I nod and type my number into his phone before handing it back.

"So is he always like that?" I ask Tyler once he is done adding me to the group chat.

"Pretty much, I found out from my aunt that he's really smart, like top 10 of our class, and he already has really good colleges looking at him for some sport; but he gets into fights a lot so no school will send him an official offer. He's a liability according to her." I nod and wonder why someone who is smart and athletic would risk their future over stupid high school shit. I would kill to have colleges sending me offers at the start of my junior year, instead I am prepping for the SAT.

Mrs. Johnson finally comes back and we continue class all the way till the bell. As I say bye to Tyler and head to my next class, I notice Matt never came back. He's probably sitting in the principal's office if I had to guess where he was.

I walk into AP Art History and sit down next to a girl who is reading Looking for Alaska by John Green. It is one of my favorite books and I am about to ask her if this is her first time reading the book when Kyle walks in and grabs my chair pulling it away from my desk. "Sydney! Don't sit up front, sit by me!"

"Fine Kyle, I will sit by you; but can I grab my stuff?" I ask, laughing and shaking my head. Kyle reminds me a lot of my friend Jeremy from home. Jeremy was our group jokester and always had these wild ideas. One night, we all slept over at the White House because Sasha's family was away and he came up with the brilliant plan to sneak out. As you can imagine, it didn't go too well. We made it out the door before anyone really said anything, but when they noticed Jeremy panicked and screamed at us to spread out because in his words, "They can't catch us all!" Except they could and they very much did. We were on the Secret Service's shit list for a while after that stunt. Shockingly enough, grown adults do not like chasing 14 year old kids around the North Lawn at 2am.

"Soooooo Juls told me you and her are super close," Kyle says as I sit down next to him.

"Definitely we tell each other literally everything. I would say we are like twins but her demon brothers have ruined that word for me." Kyle laughs but I can see that something I said caught his attention.

"Oh so like you would know if she was like talking to a guy or something, right?" The usual cocky attitude I've seen from Kyle is suddenly replaced with a more shy one.

I take a second to think before I answer. Lately, Julia has been doing a lot more listening to me than talking about her life; I know she feels weird complaining about such minimal things considering the events of this summer. But there is always time to talk about boys, I know she had a fling with a guy who just left for college but she said she'd be happy if he never came back. "She's not talking to anyone that she's mentioned to me, butttt if you want I could ask her and report back to you."

"I mean, I don't really care, I was just kinda curious, you know nothing serious, just wanted to know just because." Kyle is stuttering a little and rubbing the back of his neck, the entire time not once looking up from his desk.

"Ok well if she says anything I will update you." I make a mental note to ask her on the drive home about Kyle. I have only known him for about 2 hours but from what I've seen they would be cute together. She even shared a part of her cookie with him at lunch and she doesn't share cookies with anyone.

"Thanks. You lived in D.C. before this, right? What was that like, was your dad a politician or something?" I hesitate for a second, do I want people here to know about my life in D.C.? I decide that I will tell only certain things and begin to tell him about my old school. I talk about my friends, especially Sasha, but I am extra careful not to mention who her parents are. I tell him how teachers had to sign nondisclosure agreements all the time saying they wouldn't talk to the press about any of the students. I tell him stories about us going to parties and drinking with the Secret Service watching us. I almost slip up and mention Aaron but I quickly catch myself. The last thing I want to get into right now is Aaron.

We continue to talk the rest of class, after a quick introduction from the teacher. I learn a lot about Kyle in a short period of time. His mom is a nurse. His dad is a butcher. He is the youngest of 5. His oldest brother plays professional baseball and is on the Mets. The more he tells me about himself the more I think he would be perfect for my cousin. He came off pretty cocky and annoying at first but he is actually extremely sweet and caring. We finally end our exchange of stories as we walk in AP Lit and join the rest of the group. Julia looks relieved to see us and no longer be left alone with the love birds.

"Finally! If I was alone with these two too much longer I would have clawed my eyes out." I laugh and sit down behind Julia letting Kyle take the open seat next to her.

"Hello class, I know the first day can be exciting but boring, so I want to start by discussing some good books! Did anyone read a good book they would like to tell the class about?" Before I can even process the question Julias hand has shot up.

"Don't talk about After, Julia!" I mumble and kick her chair. Kyle, Tyler, and Amanda also tell her to put her hand down and stop, but it's too late.

"Perfect! Please introduce yourself and tell us about the book you read." All knowing what's to come the rest of us sink into our seats and prepare for the rant.

Julia is nearly bouncing out of her seat by the time she starts speaking. "I'm Julia and the book I read was After by Anna Todd. It's about this college freshmen, Tessa, that falls for the older british bad boy, Hardin, but oof big plot twist! There are also a few other books in the series and if you think the first book is wild, well honey, strap in! Hardin will make you love him, but also make you want to set a house on fire!" I roll my eyes at my cousin's subtle spoiler from the series. I see a girl across the room smirk and know she also caught it.

The rest of the class continues with all of us introducing ourselves and talking about a book. I end up talking about Looking for Alaska during my turn, inspired by the girl from earlier. When class is finally finished, we all make our way to the last class of the day. I am not quite sure what to expect in Home Economics but everyone says it's actually kind of a fun class with a lot of group work.

We walk in and the teacher tells us that we will sit two to a station and that pairs are written out on the board. I turned to look at the board and my heart immediately stopped. Next to my name is the name Matthew.

"Maybe it's a different Matt," Amanda says, slightly nudging me.

"Yeah Sydney, don't stress, he is far from the only Matt we go to school with," Tyler chimes in, but of course he is happy he got paired with Amanda.

"Definitely, I mean what are the odds?" Julia adds in as she walks to her station with Kyle who just so happens to be her partner. I try to relax, they're all right, what are the chances?

The bell rings to signal the start of class and my partner is still not present. I know the Matt I am thinking of is in school today, so it must be another Matt who isn't in today. Just as I relax the classroom door swings open.

"Sorry I am late, teach," Matt says as he struts in like he owns the place. Before I can stop myself, I am slamming my head into the table, much harder than I intended. My life is an actual joke! Why god!? Is it because of that time I told my parents I was at the library but really I was sleeping with Scott Murphy!? I thought you already punished me for that when you killed my fish! 

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