All I've Got

August 11th, 2006

Mountain Pointe High School
East Hallway
3:47 pm

Kennedy Brock let out a yawn as he relaxed against the locker on a Friday afternoon, waiting for John and Halvo to get out of detention, so they could finally go home.

Truthfully he hadn't been that bothered when they'd bitched to him and the rest of the boys about having Friday afternoon detention.

He didn't mind staying back, it was kind of nice to enjoy the stillness and peacefulness which didn't usually occur in these halls.

The three of them were seniors at Mountain Pointe High School, and it seemed as though the future was flying towards them like a freight train.

People expected them to have the rest of their lives figured out, and it just wasn't realistic. No eighteen year old had a plan for the rest of their life.

The stillness of the halls was disrupted abruptly by the sound of shoes slapping against the linoleum floors.

The person in question had yet to notice him, their focus solely on the binder that was clutched between their hands.

Kennedy recognized the small girl from his English class but couldn't place her.

He cleared this throat softly and the girl looked up, startled by the sudden sound, her binder crashing to the ground in shock and causing an embarrassed flush to take over her features.

The girl crouched down to gather the notes, hiding behind her curtain of long hair in her mortification.

She froze when she noticed a pair of tattered black converse come into her line of vision. He crouched down in front of her and passed her the papers before holding his hand out as he stood up.

Accepting the offer, her cheeks were still flushed as she shuffled her notes back inside her binder hurriedly. Retracting her small hand from his grip, she clutched the binder to her chest and offered him a small smile in thanks.

"What's your name?" he asked her curiously, tilting his head to the side as he waited for her answer.

There was something about this girl that intrigued him, he had an inexplicable desire to know who she was.

"Brinley," she told him softly, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear gently.

She hadn't been surprised that he didn't know who she was, Brinley tended to blend in somewhat and was often more than happy to stay in the background while her more outgoing best friends took the spotlight.

"I'm Kennedy" he introduced himself in a way that he hoped was charming and confident, instead of creepy and leering.

Kennedy had never had much trouble with girls, he was generally pretty confident and possessed a certain amount of swagger that made conversing with girls fairly easy for him.

There was just something about this girl that made him feel a little bit out of his element, like he couldn't rely on his old fallbacks.

"I know who you are," Brinley said with a flash of a smile as she adjusted the strap of her backpack on her shoulder, "We've been in the same English class since freshman year."

It was odd to her that he was still continuing this conversation. She could logically put down him helping her as him being a decent human being.

But right now he was going out of his way to continue the conversation and she couldn't be more confused by it.

"Oh yeah! You're in my lit class, right? You sit near the back with Lexi," He grinned slightly, causing her stomach to do a little swoop at the boyish charm of it.

"Yeah, Lexi is-" she began to speak but was cut off by the classroom door opening, a small group of kids streaming out as detention was released for the day.

John and Halvo emerging alongside a dark-haired girl, who was seemingly very invested in an argument with John.

"How can you discriminate between Jack's Mannequin and Something Corporate?! They're the same person, O'Callaghan!" The girl complained loudly, earning a snort of laughter from the girl in front of Kennedy.

"Oh come on, Lex!" John fired back at her, though there was a flicker of playfulness in his gaze, "They're completely different sounds! It's like comparing The Runaway's and The Blackhearts!"

Alexis Choi let out a frustrated sound that was somewhere between a scream and a groan as the trio reached Kennedy and Adelaide, sighing in relief as she wrapped her best friend in a grateful hug.

"Brinny, thank god you're here! At least there's someone around here with good taste," she exclaimed with a pointed look in John's direction, narrowing her dark eyes at him.

Brinley rolled her eyes at Lexi, adjusting her grip on her books to pat her friend's shoulder before stepping back.

"Well, maybe if you stopped trying to flirt with him in Algebra, then you wouldn't have this problem" she teased with a grin, the curve of her lips widening as she watched as both Lexi and John glared at her in offense.

Deciding to ignore the girls and their insane theories, John instead turned to greet Kennedy, "So Kenny, been chatting up all the pretty girls to entertain yourself, have you?" he smirked at his best friend, enjoying the slight darkening of his cheeks.

"Nah, I'll leave the horrible flirting to you and Lexi," he smirked in response to his best mate, watching the flinch that struck John's features and let him know that he'd hit that nail right on the head.

"We need to hit it though, we're already twenty minutes late to practice and Garrett's losing his shit" he grinned, knowing how pissed the younger man would be when they eventually made it to band practice.

"Let's hit it then," John agreed before turning to face the girls again, his mouth dropping in shock when he realized that they were halfway down the hall already.

"Yo, Grace! Don't forget about tonight!" he shouted down the hall to her, smirking as she flipped him off over her shoulder.

→ → → →

August 11th, 2006

Alexis Choi's Bedroom - 5:29 pm

Brinley let out a loud sigh as she collapsed back onto Lexi's bed, her hand's coming up to cover her face as she kicked off her shoes.

"Oh my god, I'm such an idiot" she groaned loudly.

Lexi let out a laugh as she flopped down in her desk chair, tossing a pillow at Brinley playfully.

"Oh come on, Brin, it can't have been that bad. What's the big deal anyway?" she asked as she grinned over at her friend.

Brinley pushed herself up on her elbows, raising her eyebrows incredulously at her friend and wondering whether Lexi really even knew her at all.

"Oh no, I just tripped over air, dropped all of my books on the floor and then proceeded to trip through the conversation like a seventh-grader."

"He was still talking to you, wasn't he?" Lexi asked honestly as she flicked through a copy of Teen Vogue that was sitting on her desk, "Besides, I've heard he's a phenomenal fuck," she smirked to herself, not needing to look up to see the flush across Brinley's face.

"Alexis Juanita Choi!" the embarrassed shriek came a few seconds later, just as the pillow was hurled back towards her, clocking her in the side of the head.

"Oh come on, Brinley! You know you were thinking it too!" she continued, placing the magazine down to look at her friend.

"I've seen the way you look at him every time we have lunch with him and the boys, you have a thing for him, don't you?" she smirked, crossing her arms over her chest and raising her eyebrows expectantly at her best friend

"Even if I were to, hypothetically, admit to finding him attractive and being interested in him, it wouldn't matter, Lex," she said pointedly as she stared at her best friend unflinchingly.

"And why's that?" Lexi asked her as she straightened up in her chair, tilting her head to the side as she waits for her best friend's answer.

Brinley was a very pretty girl, in Lexi's opinion. With her fit figure with decent curves and ashy blonde hair that hung in waves around her shoulders, often obscuring a pair of hazel eyes that could pierce a man's soul.

She was quick-witted and kind and loyal, but most people didn't get to see that. Most people just glanced over her.

Lexi didn't want that for her best friend though. It was their last year of high school and they'd most likely be going to colleges very far away from each other.

The very least that Lexi could do was try and make sure it was the most fun senior year that anyone had ever had.

"Because I'm not his type," Brinley responds as she pushes herself up into a sitting position, crossing her legs underneath her body, "The last girl he dated was Gaby Hawkins and I cannot compete with girls like that."

Lexi felt her mouth turn down in a small frown as she looked at her friend, Brin could be so hard on herself and she really didn't need to be.

She could do more than compete with Gaby, and Lexi could make it happen.

She'd be damned if a girl like that was going to fuck with her bestie's confidence and sense of self-worth.

"I have the best idea!" She exclaimed excitedly as an idea popped into her head, jumping up from her seat and dragging Brinley with her, moving towards her closet.

"John invited us to a party tonight, and we're going! Come on, we haven't gone to one in ages!" she exclaimed excitedly as she disappears into the depths of the wardrobe.

"Lex, I don't have anything to wear!" Brinley complained as she leaned against the wall beside Lexi's closet, knowing the excuse was weak and that her best friend would have about a million arguments to counter with.

She had very little chance of getting out of this now and both she and Lexi knew it.

"Try again, babes! That excuse was garbage and I know you can do better!" Lexi's voice trilled from inside of the closet, likely trying to find the shortest skirt possible to squeeze Brinley into.

She just wanted her best friend to be happy. And to get her laid. The girl stressed more than was healthy for any seventeen-year-old and she needed to let loose.

It was really Lexi's duty as a best friend to make sure that this party happened now.

"There's probably going to be a thousand and one hot girls there," Brinley fought back, a frown forming on her face at the thought, "Why the hell would he want to talk to me when they're all there?"

She really had been enjoying her conversation with Kennedy earlier and would like to be able to have another one with him, but she was very much opposed to getting her hopes up with a boy who was reasonably popular.

She'd been burned by a boy like that before.

"Trust me, babes," Lexi said as she popped back out of the wardrobe, a sneaky grin stretched over her lips, "Once he sees you in the outfit I have picked out, those other girls won't be a problem."

Brinley glanced at the outfit in her best friend's hands, which was more two scraps of fabric than anything else, giving Lexi a skeptical look as she tried to imagine herself in it.

"When have I ever steered you wrong before?" Lexi asks innocently, though the sneaky grin on her face really did make Brinley a little concerned.

"You don't think that outfit might be a bit much?" Brinley asks as she accepts it from Lexi's hands, the action making the other girl grin victoriously.

"If by a bit much, you mean that you're gonna look completely banging in that outfit and Kenny's eyes are gonna fall out of his skull, then yes, yes I do."

Lexi's tone really left no room for argument or even discussion, but there was something else happening for Brinley.

The idea of wearing this outfit to a party, something which was so completely and totally different from anything that she had ever worn anywhere ever before in her life, it appealed to her.

She wanted to wear it and be able to stack up against all the girls like Gaby Hawkins who usually ignored her or looked down on her for the way she dressed and acted.

She could do this just as well as they did, she'd just need a little bit of liquid courage to get there.

"Let's do this," Brinley says with a small and nervous grin towards her best friend, stumbling backward when Lexi throws herself into Brinley's arms in excitement, sending both of them tumbling to the floor.

Tonight was either going to be incredible or it was going to be a disaster, but wasn't that the point of being young and alive?