Take a Sad Song and Make It Better

Jade's POV

The next day when my alarm clock went off, I was completely ready for it and almost eager for the sound to pierce through the silence in my room. I had never been one for silence, nor one for school, so the latter scared me a bit as to why I was so eager to attend this day. The only conclusion I could muster up in my scarcely used brain was that I was actually making friends that were good for me instead of the ones I had back in Essex, New Jersey. Sure, when I first started hanging out with them, things were good, to say the least, but they were never really there for me. It was strictly fun and games with them, never emotional and clingy, which at the time I liked, but now that I think back to it, I probably would have been able to handle tragedy better with a little emotional background.

As I pulled on my gray v-neck t-shirt, skinny jeans, and red converse my mind flashed a scenario in my mind. Of course, this stay in Lutherville was not permanent. As soon as Bailey was recovered from the incident back home we would be out of here, which I was hoping she would be able to do quickly. Not that I didn't like this place, it seemed like a friendly little town, I just knew that creating such big ties with the people here would be harder to cut when the time came to run back to Essex.

Trying to distance myself from the negative when my mood was such a positive vibe, I grabbed my back pack from the corner of my bed post and jogged down the stairs, only to be greeted by Bailey sitting at a stool at the kitchen counter, nibbling on a bagel; no Aunt Clara in sight.

“She had to go to work early.” Bailey responded, handing me the other half of her bagel. Twin telepathy was cool sometimes, except for those choice moments when it was slightly creepy. This was not one of those moments because 1) I had been genuinely interested in where our temporary guardian was and 2) I no longer needed to make a quick breakfast for myself, Bailey had me covered.

“So, are we walking to school again?” I sighed, biting into the bagel and looking over at Bailey as she scanned over what I assumed to be homework from a class yesterday. She shook her head and closed the notebook, stuffing it into her bag and standing up from the stool, myself following her actions.

“Melanie called a few minutes ago. Her brother agreed to drive us to school today so we wouldn't have to walk.” I nodded and followed her to the door, just as a car horn sounded from outside. “That must be them.” We walked down the driveway, watching as the brunette in the passenger seat frantically waved to my sister and myself, the dark silhouette of a man next to her shaking his head in what must be the utter most embarrassment.

“Hey guys!” Melanie called as we opened the car door, sliding into the back seat, muttering greetings back to her. “This is my brother, James.” From all we could see, the boy, her brother I had assumed so much, had dark brown hair and muscular looking arms that held onto the steering wheel. “James, these are my friends, Jade and Bailey.” As he turned around, I'm sure Bailey could hear my jaw drop. He had the most gorgeous eyes, a certain mix of hazel with blue and green tints, his hair perfectly disheveled atop his head, with small gauges and a lip ring. I had never been one for lip rings or gauges for that matter but, damn, did they look good on him.

“Hey. Nice to meet you.” All I could do was nod. I swear, I had never imagined Melanie to have such an attractive brother. “But I must say, I don't go by James,” In turn, he scowled at his younger sister, her childish response being to stick her tongue out at him, “I go by Matt.” He smiled back at us once more before turning back around in his seat and starting up the car. God, could I be more embarrassed? I mentally slapped myself in the head and was quiet for the rest of the drive.

==========

Walking to French class once again, I spotted Rian sitting in his seat, but his attention directed to someone in the seat in front of him, who I could not see at the moment. I could only assume it was his friend who had been skipping the day before due to lack of excitement in this class. As I walked further into the room, Rian's head turned slightly, his gaze catching mine, and a large smile filled his face.

“Hey Jade.” He raised his hand and waved, and with my vision now cleared due to the muscular jock who had finally moved out of my path, I could now see the boy that had once been occupying Rian's attention. As the boy looked at me once, his face broke out in a happy grin, his arm waving frantically above his head as his brown and bleach streaked hair flew in every which direction. I immediately recognized him as the boy from the lunch table yesterday. Smiling, I joined Rian in the empty seat next to him.

“Hey Ri. Who's your friend?” Rian smiled and turned to the skunk haired boy, who had ceased to waving his arms but had 'calmed' himself enough to smile excitedly back at me.

“I'm Jack Bassam Barakat.” I quirked an eyebrow as his hand shot out at me in the classic 'hand-shake' forum, but took it nonetheless.

“Jade Elizabeth Bates.” Jack dropped my hand and tilted his head to the side, his eyebrows gathering together in confusion.

“Do you have a sister?” I nodded. Now it was my turn to look confused.

“Twin sister.” His eyebrows shot up and his eyes widened. “Do you...know her?” He tapped his chin in mock thought, looking towards the ceiling.

“I think so. Is her name Bailey?” I nodded, trying to hold back a laugh at this boy. He was like a class clown. No way would my sister ever communicate with this boy. There were too many opposites from herself that she wouldn't enjoy. “Then yeah, I know her. She's in my art class.”

“...You take art?” Jack didn't come off as a guy that would willingly take an art class. It seemed like he would be more into getting into trouble due to how Rian described him as 'ditching the class due to lack of excitement'.

“Unfortunately. I was too lazy in picking electives and got put into that one.” Jack sighed, turning his attention back to me rather than the red head in the back of the class he had been surveying for most of our small conversation/greeting. “So, where you from, Blondie? And why are you blond and Bailey's not? And where do you live now?” I looked over at Rian, an eyebrow raised as if to say 'Is he always like this?'. Rian simply placed his head in his hands and shook his shaggy hair which I took as a reply meaning 'Don't ask. I've already got a major headache forming because of his hyper active antics.' I then turned back to Jack, a goofy grin plastered on his face.

“I'm from Essex, New Jersey. Bailey and I are fraternal twins so we look different. She takes after my dad while I inherited more of mom's genes. And I live on 167 Belmont Avenue.” Jack smiled and turned to Rian, who had looked up from his hands to stare at me.

“You live next to the Flyziks?” Rian inquired, pushing his shaggy brown hair form his eyes. I nodded slowly, looking between the two boys with a questioning look on my face.

“Yeah,” I drew out the word, still looking between the two boys as they exchanged glances, “Is that a problem?” Jack quickly shook his head, his smile broadening.
“No. We're good friends with Matt-”

“-and Melanie.” Rian added, smiling over at me as well. “He's just excited because now he knows how to stalk you and your sister.” Jack excitedly nodded his head as Rian placed his head in his hands again. Poor kid, he obviously didn't know that I could be the same way. I'll spare him for a while.

“So Jay. Can I call you Jay?” Jack asked, trying to put on his best business-like voice.

“Most people do.” I nodded my head, urging him to continue where he was going.

“What brings you to Loserville, Maryland?” My eyes widened slightly and I quickly swallowed the lump forming in my throat. No, my brain screamed, Don't. Too soon. Thankfully I didn't have time to think of a plausible excuse as to why I would not (more like could not) answer his question because the bell had rung, the teacher soon entering after, and class began.

==========

“I'll see you after school. Matt's giving us a ride home so just meet me and Mel in the front, okay?” I nodded quickly, quietly urging Bailey to leave me alone so I could skip math class without her knowing. I had decided that there was no use going to a class right now where they were pretty much reviewing something I had learned back in Essex three weeks previous. Bailey quickly wrapped me in a hug before running off to her own class, intermingling with the rest of the Dulaney High students.

As soon as she was out of eyesight, I quietly sneaked into a crowd of students walking towards their classes. When the bell rang, I rushed into a bathroom, so as to hide myself from any teachers inspecting the hallways after bells had rung. It was their guilty pleasure to find students trying to skip classes.

After a few minutes, I quietly crept out of the bathroom and down the hall, my goal to hide out in the field for the rest of school. It had seemed the most logical place to hide and the most peaceful.

But it seemed like I wasn't the only one intent on skipping last period. As I continued down the hall, my body became rigid as I felt what seemed like a pair of eyes watching me. I silently wished that those two eyes didn't belong to a teacher, but upon hearing the familiar squeak of tennis shoes, I began picking up my pace as to get away from what ever student was seemingly following me. Just as much as I had quickened my step, so did they, which began an almost race to the door to the outside world.

“Hey, what the fuck?! Hold up!” I whipped around, the person following me rammed up against my body at the sudden stop, sending both of us to the ground of the high school. All I could see of him, because it was, in fact, a male, was his sandy colored hair, baggy jeans, black hoodie, and old, tattered pair of converse sneakers. When he finally lifted his head so I could see his face, my eyes narrowed in recognition of this boy. Not the good kind either.

“You.” The boy looked taken aback by my sudden tone of voice, quickly picking himself up off the ground and offering a hand to help myself up. But I didn't need his help, nor did I want it.

“What did I do? You don't even know me!” I nodded, my eyes still narrowed as I pulled myself up off the ground.

“No, I don't, and I don't want to. I know your type.” He raised an eyebrow and pushed his bangs away from his eyes.

“My type-”

“Yes, your type. The type of boy who thinks they can get any girl with their,” I moved a hand gesturing to his attire, “bad boy acts and good looks.” He smirked slightly, his eyebrow raising a little bit more on his forehead.

“You think I'm good looking?” He inquired, causing the slightest bit of heat to come to my cheeks in pure embarrassment due to the fact that I had just fueled the fire of his ego.

“Not the point.” I tried to maintain a straight face but I'm pretty sure he could look right through the growing blush on my cheeks. “The point is, I saw you looking at my chest yesterday, proving that you are too egotistical for me even to consider communicating with you.”

“But you're talking to me right now, and last time I checked, I told you to stop and you listened. That doesn't make me egotistical because you had the choice to stop, and you did, so don't go blaming me for your mistakes.” I rolled my eyes, placing my hand on my hip.

“That still doesn't explain why you were looking-”

“I like Blink-182. They're my favorite band as well as Rian and Jack's. You were wearing their t-shirt. Sorry if I offended you, but I assumed you would come to that conclusion, considering that you weren't exactly showing anything to begin with.” The boy did have a point. The t-shirt wasn't a v-neck (unlike the one I was currently sporting) and I hadn't ripped it in any way, so he wouldn't have had anything to stare at. At this realization I turned even more red with embarrassment as to assuming that he was what I had assumed him to be.

“S-sorry. I just-”He waved off my apology, a smile creeping across his lips.

“No problem. It was an honest mistake, most people make me out to be that guy just because of my attitude, but I'm really not. I don't blame you for pinning me like that.” He stuck out his hand, my own taking grasp of it. “I'm Alex, by the way. We were never officially introduced.” I smiled and dropped my hand, shoving it into the pocket of my jeans.

“I'm Jade. Maybe we can just start over?” He nodded and walked ahead, opening the door to the outside world.

“I'm assuming you were headed in this direction?” I nodded and followed him outside, the two of us walking in a semi-awkward silence towards the back of the field. After we had sat down on the grass, Alex turned back to me, pulling the hood of his sweatshirt up over his disheveled hair. “So, tell me something about yourself, Jade.” I shrugged, tugging at a few pieces of the green grass beneath me.

“I'm not that interesting of a person, Alex.” I heard him scoff from my side, making me look at him.

“Oh, come on.” He stared at me for a few more seconds before sighing. “Fine. Uh, where are you from? Originally, of course.” It seemed like this was a question I would be getting a lot. It was seemingly understandable. I was the new kid, after all.

“Essex, New Jersey.” Alex's face seemed to lighten at this.

“Really?” I nodded, watching as a smile fell upon his face. “I'm from Essex, England.” My eyebrows shot so far up my head that I swear they would have flew off my forehead, had they not been attached.

“But you don't have an accent.”

“I moved here when I was young enough to be able to get an 'American accent'.” And thus began a new friendship in my book of adventures in a new town, and another chain added to my collection, another tie to be cut in the end.

I had never realized how hard it might be to cut and run from Loserville, Maryland.