Like Chocolate Stars and the Sun

“Dinners ready Francesca!”

I rolled my eyes and shut my Maths book mid question; it wasn't like I understood what I was doing to begin with. I hadn't really been paying much attention to what I had been writing down; I had been paying a lot more attention to how to get through half an hour without biting Stacey's head off in front of my parents. Brandon wouldn't be too surprised; he knew how much I hated her, though I could tell he still wouldn't be too pleased with me.

“Coming Mum!” I yelled down the stairs as I climbed off my bed. I took my time making my way down the stairs and into the dining room.

“You took your time.” Brandon teased as I sat down at the table. I glared at him before picking up my fork and moving the pasta round on my plate. Stacey happened to be sat opposite me at the table; she smiled a very obvious fake smile at me and turned to talk to my brother.

I frowned and looked down at my plate. This wasn’t going to be much fun for me.

“Thank you for inviting me to dinner Mrs Miller.” Stacey beamed in a totally fake, sickly sweet way that made me want to throw something at her. My mother smiled back at her; obviously she had fallen for the ‘I’m so innocent and polite’ routine that Stacey liked to act out.

“Oh any time Stacey.” My mother replied. “And I have told you before, call me Jane. Mrs Miller makes me sound so old!”

Stacey smiled and popped a piece of pasta into her mouth. The room fell into silence for about thirty seconds before my mother decided it was too quiet and tried to make conversation.

“So Stacey, have you lived in California your whole life?” My mother smiled and took a sip of her red wine.

Stacey replied with a nod before speaking. “Yes, I am so glad my parents liked it so much better here then Arizona. How are you adjusting to everything?”

“Better then I expected.” My mother replied. “This is possibly the best move that we ever made.”

Ok, I couldn’t help but scoff at that. The best move we had ever made? Hardly. There must be something in the water over here that made me act completely out of character, because ever since I had arrived, I had really not acted like anyway I would have back home. Well, back in England.

“Something wrong Francesca?” My mother asked me with one eyebrow raised. I shook my head and quietly continued eating my pasta, not making anymore noise for the rest of dinner.

Once dinner was finished and the dishes were all washed, dried and stacked in the cupboards of the kitchen, I ran upstairs to grab my iPod and then headed out into my back garden. Just as I was about to put my headphones into my ears a familiar brown head of hair popped up behind the fence.

“Francesca!” Jesse called out. “I know you’re there.”

I rolled my eyes as I turned my iPod off. “Are you stalking me or something?” I asked him and pushed myself off the ground so I could walk over to the fence.

“Nope, I was just cleaning the pool and I heard someone come outside.” Jesse grinned and held up a large net so I could see it over the fence. I shook my head and smiled at him, it was so typical that he would conveniently show up. “So what are you doing outside?” He asked, his brown eyes questioning.

“What? I have to have an excuse to hang out in my own back garden now?” I asked with a grin and a raised eyebrow. Jesse looked like he was trying to figure out if I was being sarcastic or not, so I put him out of his misery. “I’m avoiding a certain someone.” I explained pulled a face that read ‘do I really need to say any more?’

“You can’t avoid her forever you know.” Jesse sighed; “We do go to the same school, and she is clearly friends with Brandon now so...” he trailed off and ran his hand though his hair.

“I can try.” I mumbled and folded my arms across my chest. “Look, I’m not exactly going to jump at the opportunity to spend time with her am I? We have never seen eye to eye, and I have only been here just over a month.”

“You wouldn’t think you had only been here a month, what with the amount of crap that’s been going on.” Jesse laughed. I bit my lip and nodded, because it was true. Since I had moved here I had ended up in a few more sticky situations then one person should have to encounter in such a short space of time.

“Everything seems to have gone horribly wrong since I arrived here,” I mumbled and sighed. “As if moving here wasn’t bad enough to begin with.”

“Wow. Do you really hate it here that much?” Jesse asked, his voice was almost venomous. I glanced up into his sapphire eyes and my eyebrows creased, I was worried about the tone of his voice. Had I said something that had upset him?

“Jesse, I never said that.” I shook my head slowly while still staring into his eyes, trying to decipher the reason behind his sudden mood swing. Jesse looked away from my gaze and stared down at the floor. “What’s the matter?” I asked quietly and was tempted to reach over the fence so I could grab hold of his face and make him look at me.

“Everything has gone horribly wrong?” Jesse repeated my words, but changed them to make them sound like a question. “Jeez.” He breathed and continued to look away from me. I groaned in frustration and fought back the urge to slap him.

“You idiot! I didn’t mean it like that!” I cried out and threw my hand up in the air to emphasize my point. “I meant as soon as something good has happened to me here, something bad has happened followed immediately after.”

Jesse let himself look over at me again and I let out a frustrated sigh. “And by “As if moving here wasn’t bad enough already.” what exactly did you mean?” He asked. From the sudden change of tone in his usually calm voice he sounded just as annoyed as I had been when he was avoiding looking at me.

“What I meant was it was hell getting used to everything over here, never mind all of the shit people have been saying about me recently and having certain people somewhat ruining things that happened to be going right.” I let out another frustrated sigh and bit my lip. “What did you think I meant Jesse?”

“Well, I thought it sounded like you hated it here...” He trailed off. I sighed and again resisted the urge to slap him across the face; maybe it would have knocked some sense into him.

“You are really stupid sometimes,” I shook my head at him, “I don’t hate it here, but it hasn’t exactly been the smoothest of moves.” I shrugged and looked down at my hands for a moment before looking back up at my neighbor and smiling.

“You really shouldn’t jump to conclusions you know.”

Jesse smiled and shrugged. “Will you forgive me if I promise to never do it again?” He asked with a grin.

I pretended to consider it for a few moments. “I suppose so.”

We stood, avoiding looking at each other, for a few minutes. I couldn’t decide if it was lack of things to say or just pure embarrassment.

"Guess who's got your birthday present." Jesse proudly announced a few minutes later. I rolled my eyes and shook my head at him.

"Let me guess," I replied, "You by any chance?"

Jesse grinned proudly and nodded. "Yeah, and your gonna love it!"

"Jesse its not my birthday for another week." I pointed out. "And you didn't have to buy me anything. I'm not a huge fan of making loads off fuss about my birthday." I lied. I loved making fuss about my birthday, and people making a fuss about me. But right now, I really didn't really feel like anyone doing that.

"Hello, you are turning sixteen!" Jesse pointed out. "You can learn to drive! This is a milestone Francesca!"

I must admit I had forgotten about that little bonus.

"There isn't much point, because there is no way that my dad is going to let me drive his car, let alone buy me one of my own!" I laughed. And there was the little fact that at times I couldn't even walk in a straight line, let alone control a car.

"That's how my dad reacted, at first. But look at me now," Jesse pointed to himself. "I am officially a car owner."

"And it has taken you what? A year to get a car of your own?" I just shrugged and looked down at my battered shoes, while making a mental note to get some more pumps next time I went shopping. "I am really not that bothered about learning to drive straight away."

"Well then!" Jesse laughed. Jesse's father popped his head out of the window and called over to him, telling him that his dinner was ready. Jesse glanced over at his father, smiled, and then turned back to me. "I guess you can go listen to your iPod now, without anyone disturbing you." He grinned evilly. Something about his grin made me think he would be back.

I was right. Half an hour later he was back. This time instead of standing at our own sides of the fence separating our garden, Jesse invited himself over the fence and came to sit where I had been sat earlier before. I had one iPod earphone in my ear and Jesse had the other in his ear. He was scrolling through my track list when I randomly announced “You know what, I haven't been to the beach yet.”

Jesse looked away from my iPod and over at me. “Seriously?” He asked. I nodded and tapped my fingers against the ground to the beat of the song that was blasting into my left ear.

“Yeah. I'm surprised. I love the beach.” I laughed and glanced over at Jesse. “Take me sometime? Clearly no one else has even thought about it.” Jesse smiled at me, but he had that look on his face that people have when they are planning something.

“Oh, yeah sure.” Jesse laughed. “You know, if you learnt to drive you could go by yourself.” I rolled my eyes at my friend and shook my head.

“Nah, I would rather just get a free ride off somebody.” I grinned.

“And I'm that somebody?” He asked, though I could tell he wasn't looking for a real answer. I just simply nodded. Now it was Jesse's turn to roll his eyes. Jesse grinned over at me. “Friday then? After school?”

“You do know Friday is my birthday, don't you?” I asked, because I was slightly confused at why that had been the first day he suggested.

“That is the plan.” Jesse nodded and winked at me. Obviously he was planning something that involved the beach. Great ...

“I am slightly worried now you know.” I informed Jesse as I reached over to grab my iPod from his hands so I could pick a song to listen to.

“You shouldn't be, not really.” Jesse laughed. “It just so happens that your little announcement gave me an idea that would tie in nicely with your birthday present.”

“But that means I have to wait another four days to go to the beach!” I whined, because I knew it would annoy him. Jesse reached over to rest his hand on my shoulder. “You've waited a while, you can survive a little longer.” He smiled at me and patted my shoulder.