Never Say Goodbye

Hi.

My name is Jaclyn Baker. I'm a senior at Huntington High. I have a few friends, close ones. I always thought it was better to have a few very close friends that you can trust, than a ton of fake ones. So, I stuck to that motto my entire highschool career.

I have an older brother, his name's Zack. He's a year older than me, at 20 years old. But you would think we're twins. We both have black hair, his being just above the ear, and mine to my mid back and we each have green eyes. But there's a height difference, but twins don't have to be the same height now do they? He's taller by two inches. He's 5'9'' and I'm 5'7''. No big deal, but he makes one. There's also one thing you wouldn't guess, since we look so much alike. I was adopted. From Australia. Mum and dad, Zack's biological parents and my legal ones, wanted to adopt a year after they had Zack. So viola! ME! But they adopted me when I was ten, so I still have my lovely Aussie accent!

He has tons of tattoo's, I have a few: two pairs of cherries on each of my hips; a 'death bat' on my lower back; the words 'Live Like You Were Dying' on the top of my right wrist, my favorite country song by Tim McGraw; a barbed wire piercing through a heart on my left ankle; and EST.1982 on my left shoulder blade. I couldn't even begin to name all of Zack's though, I haven't paid much attention. He took me to get my first though, the song name on my wrist for my 18th birthday present.

We get along pretty well, for the most part. We're siblings, do you expect us to be perfect? I didn't think so. We do have our moments, but they never last long. We've been like best friends since the beginning. He's always been protective of me, but sometimes that can get annoying. But he's my older brother, he's awsome.

My friends basically consist of his friends and vise versa. Basically my exlusive friends are: Madeline and Brianna. They're pretty cool, we've been besties for as long as I can remember.

But then there's 'The Guys'. Zack's friends/bandmates that I've pretty much adopted as my own also. Matt, Jimmy, Johnny and Brian. Yeah, I said bandmates. They're in a band, keep it down but I think they'll make it big. Zack doesn't believe me though. Pssht, what do men know?

~~~~~~

Saturday morning eleven a.m.

"WAKE UP! WAKE UP WAKE UP!!"

"Oh my gosh you are soo annoying!"

I flipped onto my back and sat up just in time to nail Zack in the back of the head with a pillow. But with his ninja reflexes, yeah right, he tossed it back. Knocking my bedside lamp over in the process.

"ZACK!! That was a gift from Elisa when she moved to Africa!" I shouted, looking at the now tipped over elephant lamp, reaching down to fix it. "You're so dead!" I shouted and got out of bed. "RUN BAKER! RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!" I laughed as I chased my older brother down the hall.

He ran straight into the bathroom and shut the door "What? You afriad of a girl? Huh? Yeah you wuss!" I laughed, banging on the door as I passed by.

"Who says I'm afraid of you?" He asked, cracking the door open.

"Uh the fact that you locked yourself in the bathroom, dubba." I giggled and continued into the kitchen.

I could tell people were in the kitchen by the fact there was yelling coming out of it. I laughed and opened the door "Good morning." I smiled to see the guys. "Full house this early? Gosh what is this? The end of the world?" I laughed, walking over to the coffee pot, pausing breifly as Johnny ran past me in an attemp to escape Brian throwing a bagel at his head. He failed.

"And what is this? Twenty questions?" Matt laughed.

I turned around with my mug of coffee and smiled at him "Good morning to you to." I laughed as he dodged another bagel, being thrown again by Brian. "Knock it off Bri! Food fights are for school!" I laughed and sipped my hot coffee.

He brushed my statement off and continued to pelt Matt with objects. I shook my head. Boys, they never grew up did they? "So what's on the agenda today?" I asked as I cautiously took a seat at the counter island.

"Uh not much, practice and just hanging out. Maybe the beach, why?" Matt informed me as Brian calmed his bagel fits down.

I nodded, drinking coffee again "Okay, just wondering." I mumbled into my cup.

"What are you doing? Hanging with Mady and Brianna?" Zack asked, dragging Jimmy away from the coffee pot.

I shook my head "No, they're out of the country for spring break. You know, that big awsome vacation that I'm on the next two weeks?" I laughed.

"Oh yeah! Duh, totally forgot." Zack laughed "Aren't you going to hook up with Elisa though? I thought she was visiting her gramma in L.A for a weekend or something?" He asked.

"No, her gramma is going there, not the other way around... I was thinking though.. Never mind." I waved it off and concentrated on the news paper infront of me.

"What?" Zack asked.

"Well mum and dad said if I wanted to I could take a vacation to Australia for the two weeks.. you know see old friends." I said, waving my hands around "I was contemplating it."

"Woah, that's far away." Matt said.

"Well sorta. But I haven't seen anyone from Australia in forever y'know?" I asked, shrugging as I read the paper. Zack nodded.

Zack and Brian started up a conversation about guitar parts, which I tuned out thankfully because somewhere it ended in a talk about how hot or not Jennifer Aniston is. One way minds I'm telling you.

"So, you'll be around today though right? Hello?" I looked up to see Matt staring at me.

"Hmm? Sorry what?" I asked, shaking myself from my thoughts.

"You have nothing to do today right? Why don't you hang with us." He asked.

I thought about it for a second, that's really all it had to take "Sure, why not." I laughed.

He smiled "Cool, because we need a babysitter for these monkeys." He pointed to Jimmy and Johnny. I just laughed. He was right, they were like monkeys in a zoo.

"Ok." I said. "I have to go shower, and get dressed.." I trailed off, thinking of what I'd wear today, before I was toppled over onto the floor.

I looked up to see Brian smiling sheepishly. "Sorry.." He laughed, reaching out his hand. I rejected it and stood up, brushing myself off and rubbing my head where it hit the floor. I looked around at the coffee spilt all over the floor. I glared up at him and growled. "Sorry.." He mumbled again. I rolled my eyes.

"Out. Now." I commanded all of them.

They walked out of the kitchen slowly, like a prison line.

I grabbed the mop from the corner and sopped up the mess, picking up the chair also. I rung out the mop in the sink and rinsed it and cleaned the floor some more, making sure it wouldn't be sticky later. I rinsed it out one last time and replaced it in the corner, fixing the chair one last time, placing my mug in the sink and walked out.

"I'm sorry.." Brian said from a chair across the room.

I rolled my eyes at him and continued upstairs, coffee soaking through my white tank top, revealing the black sports bra I had on underneath, thankfully. I walked into my room and groaned. Another day with the guys, even though they were the best and I enjoyed their company, they could sometimes (example this morning!) get on my last nerves.

I searched my drawers for something to wear today, settling on a pair of short cut off shorts, and a green tank. I walked off to the bathroom to shower.

~~~~

After drying out my black hair, I straightened it, cliping my side bangs back with a neon pink skull bow. I put my under garments on, and my shorts and tank over those and made sure my make-up was right before leaving the bathroom. I tossed my clothes into the laudry room as I passed it, on my way to the den to see what the little devils were up to.

"Yo." Matt laughed from the couch, his hat on backwards as he watched Jimmy and Zack play Halo on the XBox. I shook my head and laughed at their childness.

"Yo homie." I said, flipping him a 'peace' sign as I sat down next to him.

"You smell good." He said, sniffing the air around me.

I laughed "It's called a shower." He looked at me with a fake hurt look on his face. "I'm sorry, want some ice for that burn?" I laughed as he pushed me away.

"ZACK! She's being mean again." Matt whined to Zack, who just ignored him. Like usual.

I looked outside and smiled as I saw a bird on the birdfeeder. I laughed as it swung back and forth but was interupted, again, by something skiming closely to my head. I looked up and saw Matt holding a pillow, glaring at Johnny.

"Dude I meant to hit Matt! Sorry!" Johnny apologised.

"You boys are getting on my nerves! Can't you just act like human people?" I asked, having one of those 'moments'. "Can't you be... normal? Not crazy?" I asked.

"Sorry, we're just hyper." Jimmy said from his spot on the floor.

"Well stop, it's annoying. I'm... I'm going to go plan my vacation." I huffed, just wanting to get away from these crazies.

"To where?" Zack asked, looking up at me.

I stopped in my tracks and thought for a minute "I dunno. But I'm leaving for break. Leaving all you goofs." I said simply and walked upstairs.