Status: I'll update pretty fast...if you want?
You Don't Have to Be Alone
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Thirteen
(Parker's POV)
I rolled over on top of a familiar, warm body. Smirking, I wrapped my arms around him. I gave a small shudder of happiness as Ainsley ran his hands through my hair. "Good morning," I whispered, licking his lips still not opening my eyes.
"You are NOT going to work this morning," I ordered.
Ainsley's answer confused me. "I know."
"You didn't get fired, did you?" I asked him, finally opening my eyes. The room we were in was unfamiliar.
Ainsley was staring up at me like he was expecting me to catch on. It all came back to me. "Oh yeah," I sighed, remembering yesterday. "That was a good day." I sat up, so I was straddling him. "About that alone time…Can it start now?" I murmured. I nipped his ear, making Ainsley smirk excitedly.
I pecked him on the lips before bolting for the door. I was tackled and we landed on the soft carpet.
"Tease," Ainsley said, sadly.
I laughed and kissed him again. "That's why you love me."
I pushed Ainsley off me and went to get some clothes. I slipped off my jeans and started to search for something to wear.
"Now do a spin."
"What?" I asked, turning to see him. He was looking at my boxers, intently. "Ugh, look at me face you jerk!" I squeaked.
He looked up at me, but I could still see the slight smirk. He pranced over to me, enveloping me in a hug. "I'm sorry . I'll be nice."
I smiled and hugged him back.
As he pulled away, he licked me on the cheek. "Eww!" I squealed, half shifting so I could thwack him with a powerful wing.
He giggled, ducked, and wrapped his tail around my leg.
"I've got to get dressed," I told him with a small smile. I turned away to my suitcase, pulling out my clothes which included my oversized sweater that Ainsley was currently glaring at.
"That's sweater's my enemy," he told me.
"What?"
"You're so cute and anything that takes away from my almost naked Parker time, I don't like," he said, changing his own clothes, still eyeing the sweater distastefully.
"As much as you may want to see me naked, I really doubt anyone else does, so you're going to have to suffer. You and me are going to get breakfast," I informed Ainsley.
He didn't complain, obviously. "FOOD!!!" he squealed. He started to run down the hall, but skidded to a stop making me almost run into him. "If I can get five people to sign a paper that says they want to see you naked, will you walk around shirtless for a day?"
I laughed and blushed at the same time. "Please don't do that," I whined. "That would be so embarrassing."
Ainsley put on a thoughtful expression. "Hmm? You're still not persuading me not to. The idea of you shirtless and blushing sounds good to me." I swatted at him, but he ducked and ran down the stairs.
I giggled and ran after him. "I'm going to catch you this time!" I called, thudding down the stairs. We both knew how likely that was. The day I catch Ainsley is the day I get my own flying, pet pig. I raced down the last of the stairs through the small living room at the bottom, and into the hall.
Shannon, Drew, and Jamie (Who for some reason were in the hall?) all skittered over to me. "Breakfast!?" They reminded me of the little mine birds in Finding Nemo.
"I'm not feeding you," I squeaked, nervously edging away.
"Yes you are," Shannon ordered.
I shook my head stubbornly.
Shannon nodded, just as determined. We just stood there staring until Ainsley (The evil boyfriend who loves sneaking up on me and making me squeal like a girl.) pounced on me, breaking my concentration.
"Not fair," I yelled, although my voice was muffled by Ainsley's weight.
"Is so."
"Is not!"
"Is so!"
"Is NOT!"
"Is SO!"
"NOT!"
"SO!"
"NOT-"
CRASH!!!!! We all looked nervously down at Ashton's room to see that Ashton's door had brutally beaten his unsuspecting wall. Ashton himself was standing in the door, in his boxers and still groggy from sleep. He looked pissed. "What the FUCK do you think you're doing? Shut the FUCK up!" Ashton screamed, making everyone except Ainsley flinch.
"Sorry," Shannon, Avery, and Jamie chorused.
Ainsley made a shushing motion at them and glared at Ashton. "I'm sorry we haven't memorized your PMSing schedule! We'll try to fix that," Ainsley yelled back.
Ashton, who'd been heading back to his room, froze. "What did you say?"
That sounded extremely threatening, so I tried to pull Ainsley to the door. The only problem is I'm like nine inches shorter and fifty pounds lighter, so it's kind of hard to push him.
"I said-"
Ashton threw his shoe at Ainsley, making it bounce off his face. "Dick face!" Ainsley screeched, hurling the shoe back, hitting Ashton in the ass. Before I knew it, they were chasing each other around the room trying to kill each other. I got between the two separating them pretty easy. Ainsley stopped as soon as I touched him. I knew he didn't want to accidently trample me. Ashton lunged a few more times before giving up. "Stop it," I whispered.
I turned to Ashton. "Do you want to come to breakfast with us?" Ashton looked at me in disgust. I knew he was going to say no…that is, until his stomach growled.
I giggled.
"I'll be back in a minute." Ainsley made a mad dash for the door. I dived and tackled his around the knees. We both toppled to the ground, making yet another loud thud. Blaze walked out of his room, fully clothed.
Shannon tensed, but otherwise ignored him and continued his conversation with Drew. Blaze looked around the room without interest. "If any of you make noise before ten again, I will kill you," he said, unemotionally.
Crowe came out of his room, not having bothered to brush his hair and barely bothering to put pants on. "Are you two coming for breakfast too?" I asked, but this was mainly directed at Blaze since I doubted Shannon would be able to eat with Blaze around. Blaze and Crowe nodded, as Ashton stalked back in. Shannon walked over to Blaze, nervously. Blaze shot him a look that would have sent me running. Shannon flinched, but didn't go away. That's a lesson in perseverance, children. Yeah, I pack little life lessons into my life. He skipped next to Blaze the entire way to the cafeteria. Blaze looked like he was considering self harm.
I held Ainsley's hand as we walked through the halls. There were tons of teenagers here! "This place has always doubled as a school for the full shape-shifters. With the growing problems from the-" *another extremely foul word describing anyone who is not a full shape-shifter was used* "- we are forced to hide her like hunted animals," Crowe snarled.
He winked at a boy with snake bites and I could have sworn Ashton turned a little green. At any rate, he reached back, tugging Crowe up to walk with him and put his hand in the back of his jeans pocket. I noticed I was getting some jealous looks. You can't have MY boyfriend! I thought, sliding my hand around Ainsley's waist and into his pocket. Ainsley gave me a surprised look and wrapped an arm around my waist. The jealous looks intensified. Yeah. That's right. He's all mine!
Ainsley looked down at me, curiously. "Why are you cuddling with me?"
I smirked and leaned in secretively. "They all want you. You're mine!" I said with a smirk.
Ainsley snorted and looked around. "They want YOU, sweetie. They're staring at YOU and they're jealous of ME." Ainsley sounded really proud of himself. "I'm lucky I picked you up when I did," Ainsley said, proudly.
We finally completed the impossibly long trek to the dining room. I'm never walking that far to get food again…I'll just make Ainsley get food for me. I just grabbed a banana because I'm not really hungry in the morning.
Everyone else grabbed enough food for three weeks and we followed Ashton and Crowe to an occupied table. Ashton shoved some big guy out of his chair and sat down. The chairless guy flew onto the ground and started to cuss Ashton out. Ashton took one look at him and I watched the guys face turn white. It looked like he was about to pass out.
"Oh, I'm s-s-so s-s-s-sorry," the guy whispered. I felt a little sorry for him. Sure, Ashton was scary, but he wasn't THAT bad. Ashton stood up slowly from his chair and the guy and his friends scooted off.
Crowe laughed. "Well that was fun."
Ashton smirked and nodded. I cocked my head to the side and looked curiously at Ainsley. He just shrugged, but and motioned towards the table. I perched uneasily on the edge of my seat, very aware that everyone was staring at us, enviously and lustfully. I guess Ashton and his friends were popular here. They should be, since they live here. I slowly started to eat my banana and watch everyone else choke down their food.
"Chew. Swallow," I told Shannon, eyeing his quickly disappearing mountain of food.
"Why would I want to do something stupid like that? I'm hungry," Shannon said through a mouthful of food.
I rolled my eyes and looked around. "When does school start?" I asked.
"Aww. Are you excited about your first day of school," Crowe mocked me in an extremely annoying baby voice.
"Yes! So excited! I even got a new Carebear lunchbox," I squealed back, sarcastically.
Drew choked on his food and started laughing at me.
Crowe glared at me and I kind of regretted saying anything. Ashton smirked at my expression. "Nobody answered me," I commented about ten minutes later.
"Tomorrow," Ainsley said.
"Ugh," Shannon and I groaned in unison.
"Why do you care? It's not like you have to do anything," Blaze asked. It was the first thing he'd said all day.
"If we want to pass, we do," Drew argued. Blaze snorted and rolled his eyes. I guess passing is stupid?
Jamie took over the conversation. "We all (He pointed to himself, Ashton, Crowe, and Blaze) got sent here our freshman year. We got up to senior year and just stayed there." Shannon turned several shade paler.
"How old are you REALLy?" he asked, with wide eyes.
You could just see Jamie cussing himself out. "Seventeen?" Jamie guessed.
"Bzz. Try again," Drew said.
"292," Jamie sighed. "But, I stopped aging when I was 17."
Drew laughed, like he didn't believe him. A couple of seconds later his eyes got really wide as he processed that.
I looked at Ainsley with a raised eyebrow. "You better not be like four hundred, or something because you really should have said something earlier." Ainsley snickered.
"Nope. Really am sixteen."
"Good." I looked around at everyone else, expectantly.
Drew said, "Sixteen."
Crowe said, "627 and physically seventeen."
Ashton said, "630 and physically eighteen."
Blaze said, "725 and physically nineteen,"; causing Shannon to make a funny noise and say, "Fifteen…and fifteen?" I laughed at Shannon's shocked expression.
Suddenly, some strange lady came up to me with an envelope in her hands. "You have a letter," she said and walked away.
I took one look at the letter and said, "What the HELL is wrong with Kelsey!?"
Ainsley started laughing.
"Who?" Shannon looked at me, curiously. "My friend. She's a psycho." I opened the envelope only to be proved how true this statement was. It said:
Dear Parker,
Hello, I am Kelsey the sea princess of every imaginable universe and some unimaginable ones. Since you are so cool that you've kept reading this, I am going to bestow upon you my nickname: Kels. My mom is a dolphin who has eleven children, including me. My seven sisters are sea-turkeys and my three brothers are angelfish with a side of toucan. All together, we live in the magical land of Atlantis, although I take frequent joy rides to Utopia. Do you want to know about my day? Of course you do. Well, it all started when I woke up…
I woke up, got dressed, walked downstairs, and saw Kasey and Val making out like every morning. I slapped them both and we went to school. On the way to school with my two best friends since you and Ainsley left, Kasey and Val, my fellow sea royalty ran into three creatures I never want to see again. The whore: Ariel, the flounder: Flounder, and the scary little crab who's name I always forget…Oh yeah. It's Sebastian. They came up to us and proceeded to start shit. As always. So Kasey bitch-slapped Flounder, Val drop-kicked the crab, and I punched out that bikini top wearing hoe. We finished our walk to school and went to classes. Blah blah blah. We had a lovely lunch of grilled ferret tails. Much healthier than the fried kind. See, the way to get them is to go to the pet store, tell all the people around the ferret cage your pet yorkie (It helps to have a yorkie with you when you say that.) has a contagious disease, and when all the people run away, scare the ferrets and their tails will fall off. Don't worry though. It doesn't hurt them and their tails will quickly grow back. After lunch, we had more gag-me classes until this legalized torture ended. I had to go home alone because Kasey and Val went to Val's house. Kandace and Kourtney were home! Yay! Mom used her echolocation-whatever to tell Kandace to make dinner, but Kandace OBVIOUSLY misunderstood and made ME make dinner. Evil sea-turkey sisters!
So, that was my day. I want to know about yours, so you better write back. I miss you lots and lots. So do Kasey and Val even though they're too lazy to write to you.
Love,
Kelsey Larsen
P.S. And I'm talking a long letter, not a short one, you lazy ass!
"Wow.I just wasted five minutes of my life," I said.
"Did Kels write another story about Kasey the Tree Frog?" Ainsley asked, laughing. He was probably thinking about how we had to write creative stories last fall and Kelsey wrote everyone of them about "Kasey the Tree Frog", just to embarrass Kasey. We haven't been able to get her to stop writing like that since.
Shannon and Jamie both burst into fits of laughter, too. "What!?" Shannon choked out.
"Kels has an overactive imagination, so she writes stories." I handed him the letter. "Some parts are true. I'll write the true parts. I rewrote Kelsey's letter until it was what really happened. It said:
Dear Parker,
I woke up and went to school with Kasey and Val, who were making out the whole time. On the way, we ran into Craig and two of his goons, whose names I can never remember. We beat the shit out of them and continued our way to school. Classes were boring, but lunch was surprisingly good. It was hard to get, though, and I had to knock all of the freshmen out of the way to get it. I had to go home alone because Kasey and Val went to Val's house. Kourtney and Kandace were back from college and made me make them dinner. It was unpleasant. If you don't write back, I will kill and eat you. Just so you know.
From,
Kelsey
"Sounds like a strange person," Drew observed, after reading both letters.
Shannon nodded and focused his attention on Blaze. I guess he'd forgiven him for last night. "I'm going to go climb a tree," Shannon said.
Blaze made a 'run along' motion. "Want to come with me?"
Blaze gave him a 'I would rather get a root canal' look.
"Come on," Ainsley said.
"Shannon will probably fall out of a tree."
Shannon flicked him.
Blaze agreed anyway and we all went to the front of the school where Shannon, Drew, Jamie, Ainsley and I climbed a tree. Well, more like Shannon, Ainsley, and I climbed a tree. Drew just climbed a tree to get away from Jamie, but that failed because he didn't consider the fact that Jamie could just climb up after him.
Ashton and Crowe started laughing at the funny sound Drew was making as he backed farther and farther down a branch until it snapped and Jamie caught him. Then, Jamie started trying to convince Drew that he would only put him back on the branch if he kissed him. Drew complained, threatened, and begged before giving in. The kiss was a little too heated and longer than necessary. Drew seemed to realize what was going on and broke the kiss, almost falling out of Jamie's grasp. "Now let me up," he pleaded.
"One more kiss? You know you liked it," Jamie said with a smirk.
Drew glared and blushed at the same time, which looked funny instead of scary like he intended. "I give up," Drew said.
Jamie smiled widely in triumph.
"Just drop me."
Jamie made a surprised sound and almost complied.
Drew squeaked and held on tighter. "I wasn't serious! Don't drop me!" Jamie pulled him up and into his lap. Drew kind of struggled, but stopped when he remembered how high he was. "Aww! Do you not like heights anymore?"
Drew shrugged, looking down.
"I'm sorry," he said and nipped Drew's ear.
Drew squirmed, awkwardly. I'm sure they continued their conversation, but I couldn't hear it anymore because I was too high.
Ainsley was right behind me. "Sweetie, don't fall," Ainsley called, nervously. "I have wings. It would be really retarded if I fell!" I called back. "I'm more worried about you. Do jaguars climb trees?" I asked. I finally got to the top of the tree. From here you could see the coast on one side and the mountains on the other. There were tall evergreen trees like the one we were in. There was snow in the mountains; that's how cold I it was! I shivered and felt a tail wrap around me.
I looked over at Ainsley, who was in his jaguar form. Ainsley curled up around me. Smiling, I stoked his soft fur and he purred at me. We sat peacefully, holding onto each other.
That is, until a rock whizzed past my head. I looked down to see Ashton holding another missile. Remind me to make Ashton try out for a pro baseball team. He seriously threw the ball like four hundred feet! Well, it's much better than my pathetic 100 feet, that I had to throw at school. In case you hadn't guessed, I fail at sports. I flew down with Ainsley hopping down the branches close behind me.
I snickered as I watched Shannon fall out of a tree. From the expression of Blaze's face, this wasn't the first time Shannon had fallen out of a tree. Shannon didn't seem to mind that much, despite the massive bruises on both of his elbows and his cheek.
Ainsley pounced off the lowest branch and landed lightly on Ashton. Ashton 'oofed' collapsed under Ainsley's weight. Ainsley picked himself up, transformed, and said, "You know, it's not very nice to throw rocks at people. Someone could have been hurt."
Crowe smirked a little and lifted Ashton up by the hood of his jacket. Drew was sitting on the grass, two feet from Jamie. Jamie seemed pretty pleased with himself, but Drew kept sending him nervous looks.
Shannon was busy playing in the tree again.
"If that moron stays here alone, he'll fall out of the tree and kill himself," Crowe observed.
"Well, I’m not getting him," Ashton said, watching Shannon jump even higher; way too high to hear us.
There were cries of "Not it!" all around.
Blaze was watching us, condescendingly. Without a word, he pulled himself up the tree, expertly. He bounded up the branches and quickly got up to where Shannon was. Shannon saw him right as Blaze grabbed for him. He hopped higher and smirked down at Blaze.
Using speed I didn't think was possible, Blaze jumped up and tackled Shannon, nearly knocking both of them out of the tree. Blaze held Shannon's arms behind his back and dragged him down.
"Bastard," Shannon snapped, but I could see the happy twinkle in his eyes.
"Idiot," Blaze replied. I wasn't sure, but I could almost see a same happy look in Blaze's eyes.
Shannon opened his mouth to reply when Jamie shot him a threatening look. I almost laughed. It was obvious that even though Ashton was the leader, I should be just as scared of Blaze. Well, not scared because no matter how dangerous they clearly were and how nervous they made everyone else, it didn't seem like they would hurt me. That's probably just because Ainsley would kill them if they even tried.
We all walked back inside, laughing as Jamie made yet another try to get Drew. Jamie chased Drew up the stairs and down the halls, both of them crashing into people, until Drew tried to beat Jamie with his book. We caught up to them, only to see Jamie clutching his stomach, either from pain or laughter I couldn't tell. Drew was holding his book in a batter's stance. "That's cheating!" Jamie gasped, in between fits of giggles.
Drew blushed when he saw us and lowered the book.
Crowe, Ashton, and Blaze immediately went to the kitchen, while Shannon, Jamie, and Ainsley decided to play video games.
Me, being the not procrastinating person I am, decided to get my schedule, so I couldn't have to get it in the morning. Drew decided to come with me. The walk down the halls was awkward. "So…You're gay," he finally said.
What a stupid question. "Nope," I said, just to throw him off.
It worked. "Um, what?" Drew asked, dumbfounded.
I sighed at Drew's ignorance. You know what they way, ignorance is bliss. I had to ruin that though.
"I was joking," I explained.
"Oh." he blushed and looked away.
I felt a little bad for overreacting and smiled at him. "You like Jamie," I stated. If I was expecting this to break the tension, I failed , miserably.
Drew shot me a death glare. "No, I don't. I'm not gay," he snarled.
I almost smirked, but restrained myself just in time. Still in denial. I could understand what he was going through, like probably the rest of us did. Except Jamie apparently. "You could be bi?"
Drew made a rude sound, so I changed the subject. "Are you parents here? Or did they send you alone?" I asked, curiously.
"My parents sent me here on my own. They were considering several establishments, but when they found out how…open to people like…people like you…" Awkward moment. Drew shifted his feet, trying to decide whether or not to finish his sentence. I decided not to press the issue and stood waiting for the elevator. "…Well, they couldn't have that. My parents hinted I should go here because apparently I don't act like their son should. When the hint it means go on your own or we'll make you and you won’t like it, so my "choice" was obvious. I didn't want to play football, or chase after girls. They said it was just a precaution and they didn't think I was…I guess it backfired I'd never even considered I might be until I got here." He said the last part like he was talking to himself, so I pretended not to hear.
The elevator door opened and we stepped in. Drew pressed the lobby button. "You don't have to be embarrassed. It's not like anyone is going to care. Except maybe the older ones, but I haven't seen any of them," I said.
"I know that, but what about the people not here? What about my parents? Obviously, I shouldn't be taking advice from you because when you told your parents they sent you here."
I smiled, softly. "I didn't get sent here. Ainsley's parents sent him, so I followed. And you parents already sent you so why not just do what you want?"
Drew looked shocked. Then he started beating his head against the wall. "Stupid. Stupid. Stupid," he cursed. "Why didn't I think of that?"
"So you're going to stop beating the shit out Jamie whenever he comes near you?"
Drew chuckled, but didn't answer because we'd gotten to the office window.
"Yes?" snapped the same lady who'd given me Kelsey's letter earlier. I was starting to figure out that she was an unpleasant woman.
"We need our schedules," Drew said.
"All new students have to go to the cafeteria first day to figure out where they will be placed. For OBVIOUS reasons, not all of our sixteen year old students need to be in tenth grade," the lady said. Well, EXCUSE me for not knowing this.
"Oh. Okay then," Drew said and walked off.
I trotted after him. "You going to talk to Jamie? Are you? ARE YOU!?" I asked. Yeah, I was getting some weird looks from the people here, but I didn't care right now.
Drew blushed bright red and tried to hide behind his hair. I giggled and skipped along next to him the entire way to our dorm, not even getting mad when Drew tried to close me out of the elevator.
Ainsley and Jamie were hard at work trying to blow each other up, or whatever the hell they were doing. I plopped into Ainsley's lap. Jamie was cussing Ainsley out for beating him yet again.
"No fair! Let's play again. I'll kick your ass this time!" Ainsley smirked and agreed, cockily. I decided to help Jamie a bit. I buried my head in his shoulder and started sucking on his neck.
Ainsley groaned, softly. I continued to kiss his neck, quickly finding his soft spot. Ainsley forgot all about the game and pulled me on top of him, biting and licking at my lips. I happily opened my mouth and Ainsley started exploring my mouth.
Distantly, I heard, "Thanks Parker. I won, so you can get off of Ainsley now." I rolled off of Ainsley with a grin as Ainsley shot me a glare.
I leaned in close and whispered, "We can finish this later," Ainsley sighed, but I could see he was satisfied.
(Parker's POV)
I rolled over on top of a familiar, warm body. Smirking, I wrapped my arms around him. I gave a small shudder of happiness as Ainsley ran his hands through my hair. "Good morning," I whispered, licking his lips still not opening my eyes.
"You are NOT going to work this morning," I ordered.
Ainsley's answer confused me. "I know."
"You didn't get fired, did you?" I asked him, finally opening my eyes. The room we were in was unfamiliar.
Ainsley was staring up at me like he was expecting me to catch on. It all came back to me. "Oh yeah," I sighed, remembering yesterday. "That was a good day." I sat up, so I was straddling him. "About that alone time…Can it start now?" I murmured. I nipped his ear, making Ainsley smirk excitedly.
I pecked him on the lips before bolting for the door. I was tackled and we landed on the soft carpet.
"Tease," Ainsley said, sadly.
I laughed and kissed him again. "That's why you love me."
I pushed Ainsley off me and went to get some clothes. I slipped off my jeans and started to search for something to wear.
"Now do a spin."
"What?" I asked, turning to see him. He was looking at my boxers, intently. "Ugh, look at me face you jerk!" I squeaked.
He looked up at me, but I could still see the slight smirk. He pranced over to me, enveloping me in a hug. "I'm sorry . I'll be nice."
I smiled and hugged him back.
As he pulled away, he licked me on the cheek. "Eww!" I squealed, half shifting so I could thwack him with a powerful wing.
He giggled, ducked, and wrapped his tail around my leg.
"I've got to get dressed," I told him with a small smile. I turned away to my suitcase, pulling out my clothes which included my oversized sweater that Ainsley was currently glaring at.
"That's sweater's my enemy," he told me.
"What?"
"You're so cute and anything that takes away from my almost naked Parker time, I don't like," he said, changing his own clothes, still eyeing the sweater distastefully.
"As much as you may want to see me naked, I really doubt anyone else does, so you're going to have to suffer. You and me are going to get breakfast," I informed Ainsley.
He didn't complain, obviously. "FOOD!!!" he squealed. He started to run down the hall, but skidded to a stop making me almost run into him. "If I can get five people to sign a paper that says they want to see you naked, will you walk around shirtless for a day?"
I laughed and blushed at the same time. "Please don't do that," I whined. "That would be so embarrassing."
Ainsley put on a thoughtful expression. "Hmm? You're still not persuading me not to. The idea of you shirtless and blushing sounds good to me." I swatted at him, but he ducked and ran down the stairs.
I giggled and ran after him. "I'm going to catch you this time!" I called, thudding down the stairs. We both knew how likely that was. The day I catch Ainsley is the day I get my own flying, pet pig. I raced down the last of the stairs through the small living room at the bottom, and into the hall.
Shannon, Drew, and Jamie (Who for some reason were in the hall?) all skittered over to me. "Breakfast!?" They reminded me of the little mine birds in Finding Nemo.
"I'm not feeding you," I squeaked, nervously edging away.
"Yes you are," Shannon ordered.
I shook my head stubbornly.
Shannon nodded, just as determined. We just stood there staring until Ainsley (The evil boyfriend who loves sneaking up on me and making me squeal like a girl.) pounced on me, breaking my concentration.
"Not fair," I yelled, although my voice was muffled by Ainsley's weight.
"Is so."
"Is not!"
"Is so!"
"Is NOT!"
"Is SO!"
"NOT!"
"SO!"
"NOT-"
CRASH!!!!! We all looked nervously down at Ashton's room to see that Ashton's door had brutally beaten his unsuspecting wall. Ashton himself was standing in the door, in his boxers and still groggy from sleep. He looked pissed. "What the FUCK do you think you're doing? Shut the FUCK up!" Ashton screamed, making everyone except Ainsley flinch.
"Sorry," Shannon, Avery, and Jamie chorused.
Ainsley made a shushing motion at them and glared at Ashton. "I'm sorry we haven't memorized your PMSing schedule! We'll try to fix that," Ainsley yelled back.
Ashton, who'd been heading back to his room, froze. "What did you say?"
That sounded extremely threatening, so I tried to pull Ainsley to the door. The only problem is I'm like nine inches shorter and fifty pounds lighter, so it's kind of hard to push him.
"I said-"
Ashton threw his shoe at Ainsley, making it bounce off his face. "Dick face!" Ainsley screeched, hurling the shoe back, hitting Ashton in the ass. Before I knew it, they were chasing each other around the room trying to kill each other. I got between the two separating them pretty easy. Ainsley stopped as soon as I touched him. I knew he didn't want to accidently trample me. Ashton lunged a few more times before giving up. "Stop it," I whispered.
I turned to Ashton. "Do you want to come to breakfast with us?" Ashton looked at me in disgust. I knew he was going to say no…that is, until his stomach growled.
I giggled.
"I'll be back in a minute." Ainsley made a mad dash for the door. I dived and tackled his around the knees. We both toppled to the ground, making yet another loud thud. Blaze walked out of his room, fully clothed.
Shannon tensed, but otherwise ignored him and continued his conversation with Drew. Blaze looked around the room without interest. "If any of you make noise before ten again, I will kill you," he said, unemotionally.
Crowe came out of his room, not having bothered to brush his hair and barely bothering to put pants on. "Are you two coming for breakfast too?" I asked, but this was mainly directed at Blaze since I doubted Shannon would be able to eat with Blaze around. Blaze and Crowe nodded, as Ashton stalked back in. Shannon walked over to Blaze, nervously. Blaze shot him a look that would have sent me running. Shannon flinched, but didn't go away. That's a lesson in perseverance, children. Yeah, I pack little life lessons into my life. He skipped next to Blaze the entire way to the cafeteria. Blaze looked like he was considering self harm.
I held Ainsley's hand as we walked through the halls. There were tons of teenagers here! "This place has always doubled as a school for the full shape-shifters. With the growing problems from the-" *another extremely foul word describing anyone who is not a full shape-shifter was used* "- we are forced to hide her like hunted animals," Crowe snarled.
He winked at a boy with snake bites and I could have sworn Ashton turned a little green. At any rate, he reached back, tugging Crowe up to walk with him and put his hand in the back of his jeans pocket. I noticed I was getting some jealous looks. You can't have MY boyfriend! I thought, sliding my hand around Ainsley's waist and into his pocket. Ainsley gave me a surprised look and wrapped an arm around my waist. The jealous looks intensified. Yeah. That's right. He's all mine!
Ainsley looked down at me, curiously. "Why are you cuddling with me?"
I smirked and leaned in secretively. "They all want you. You're mine!" I said with a smirk.
Ainsley snorted and looked around. "They want YOU, sweetie. They're staring at YOU and they're jealous of ME." Ainsley sounded really proud of himself. "I'm lucky I picked you up when I did," Ainsley said, proudly.
We finally completed the impossibly long trek to the dining room. I'm never walking that far to get food again…I'll just make Ainsley get food for me. I just grabbed a banana because I'm not really hungry in the morning.
Everyone else grabbed enough food for three weeks and we followed Ashton and Crowe to an occupied table. Ashton shoved some big guy out of his chair and sat down. The chairless guy flew onto the ground and started to cuss Ashton out. Ashton took one look at him and I watched the guys face turn white. It looked like he was about to pass out.
"Oh, I'm s-s-so s-s-s-sorry," the guy whispered. I felt a little sorry for him. Sure, Ashton was scary, but he wasn't THAT bad. Ashton stood up slowly from his chair and the guy and his friends scooted off.
Crowe laughed. "Well that was fun."
Ashton smirked and nodded. I cocked my head to the side and looked curiously at Ainsley. He just shrugged, but and motioned towards the table. I perched uneasily on the edge of my seat, very aware that everyone was staring at us, enviously and lustfully. I guess Ashton and his friends were popular here. They should be, since they live here. I slowly started to eat my banana and watch everyone else choke down their food.
"Chew. Swallow," I told Shannon, eyeing his quickly disappearing mountain of food.
"Why would I want to do something stupid like that? I'm hungry," Shannon said through a mouthful of food.
I rolled my eyes and looked around. "When does school start?" I asked.
"Aww. Are you excited about your first day of school," Crowe mocked me in an extremely annoying baby voice.
"Yes! So excited! I even got a new Carebear lunchbox," I squealed back, sarcastically.
Drew choked on his food and started laughing at me.
Crowe glared at me and I kind of regretted saying anything. Ashton smirked at my expression. "Nobody answered me," I commented about ten minutes later.
"Tomorrow," Ainsley said.
"Ugh," Shannon and I groaned in unison.
"Why do you care? It's not like you have to do anything," Blaze asked. It was the first thing he'd said all day.
"If we want to pass, we do," Drew argued. Blaze snorted and rolled his eyes. I guess passing is stupid?
Jamie took over the conversation. "We all (He pointed to himself, Ashton, Crowe, and Blaze) got sent here our freshman year. We got up to senior year and just stayed there." Shannon turned several shade paler.
"How old are you REALLy?" he asked, with wide eyes.
You could just see Jamie cussing himself out. "Seventeen?" Jamie guessed.
"Bzz. Try again," Drew said.
"292," Jamie sighed. "But, I stopped aging when I was 17."
Drew laughed, like he didn't believe him. A couple of seconds later his eyes got really wide as he processed that.
I looked at Ainsley with a raised eyebrow. "You better not be like four hundred, or something because you really should have said something earlier." Ainsley snickered.
"Nope. Really am sixteen."
"Good." I looked around at everyone else, expectantly.
Drew said, "Sixteen."
Crowe said, "627 and physically seventeen."
Ashton said, "630 and physically eighteen."
Blaze said, "725 and physically nineteen,"; causing Shannon to make a funny noise and say, "Fifteen…and fifteen?" I laughed at Shannon's shocked expression.
Suddenly, some strange lady came up to me with an envelope in her hands. "You have a letter," she said and walked away.
I took one look at the letter and said, "What the HELL is wrong with Kelsey!?"
Ainsley started laughing.
"Who?" Shannon looked at me, curiously. "My friend. She's a psycho." I opened the envelope only to be proved how true this statement was. It said:
Dear Parker,
Hello, I am Kelsey the sea princess of every imaginable universe and some unimaginable ones. Since you are so cool that you've kept reading this, I am going to bestow upon you my nickname: Kels. My mom is a dolphin who has eleven children, including me. My seven sisters are sea-turkeys and my three brothers are angelfish with a side of toucan. All together, we live in the magical land of Atlantis, although I take frequent joy rides to Utopia. Do you want to know about my day? Of course you do. Well, it all started when I woke up…
I woke up, got dressed, walked downstairs, and saw Kasey and Val making out like every morning. I slapped them both and we went to school. On the way to school with my two best friends since you and Ainsley left, Kasey and Val, my fellow sea royalty ran into three creatures I never want to see again. The whore: Ariel, the flounder: Flounder, and the scary little crab who's name I always forget…Oh yeah. It's Sebastian. They came up to us and proceeded to start shit. As always. So Kasey bitch-slapped Flounder, Val drop-kicked the crab, and I punched out that bikini top wearing hoe. We finished our walk to school and went to classes. Blah blah blah. We had a lovely lunch of grilled ferret tails. Much healthier than the fried kind. See, the way to get them is to go to the pet store, tell all the people around the ferret cage your pet yorkie (It helps to have a yorkie with you when you say that.) has a contagious disease, and when all the people run away, scare the ferrets and their tails will fall off. Don't worry though. It doesn't hurt them and their tails will quickly grow back. After lunch, we had more gag-me classes until this legalized torture ended. I had to go home alone because Kasey and Val went to Val's house. Kandace and Kourtney were home! Yay! Mom used her echolocation-whatever to tell Kandace to make dinner, but Kandace OBVIOUSLY misunderstood and made ME make dinner. Evil sea-turkey sisters!
So, that was my day. I want to know about yours, so you better write back. I miss you lots and lots. So do Kasey and Val even though they're too lazy to write to you.
Love,
Kelsey Larsen
P.S. And I'm talking a long letter, not a short one, you lazy ass!
"Wow.I just wasted five minutes of my life," I said.
"Did Kels write another story about Kasey the Tree Frog?" Ainsley asked, laughing. He was probably thinking about how we had to write creative stories last fall and Kelsey wrote everyone of them about "Kasey the Tree Frog", just to embarrass Kasey. We haven't been able to get her to stop writing like that since.
Shannon and Jamie both burst into fits of laughter, too. "What!?" Shannon choked out.
"Kels has an overactive imagination, so she writes stories." I handed him the letter. "Some parts are true. I'll write the true parts. I rewrote Kelsey's letter until it was what really happened. It said:
Dear Parker,
I woke up and went to school with Kasey and Val, who were making out the whole time. On the way, we ran into Craig and two of his goons, whose names I can never remember. We beat the shit out of them and continued our way to school. Classes were boring, but lunch was surprisingly good. It was hard to get, though, and I had to knock all of the freshmen out of the way to get it. I had to go home alone because Kasey and Val went to Val's house. Kourtney and Kandace were back from college and made me make them dinner. It was unpleasant. If you don't write back, I will kill and eat you. Just so you know.
From,
Kelsey
"Sounds like a strange person," Drew observed, after reading both letters.
Shannon nodded and focused his attention on Blaze. I guess he'd forgiven him for last night. "I'm going to go climb a tree," Shannon said.
Blaze made a 'run along' motion. "Want to come with me?"
Blaze gave him a 'I would rather get a root canal' look.
"Come on," Ainsley said.
"Shannon will probably fall out of a tree."
Shannon flicked him.
Blaze agreed anyway and we all went to the front of the school where Shannon, Drew, Jamie, Ainsley and I climbed a tree. Well, more like Shannon, Ainsley, and I climbed a tree. Drew just climbed a tree to get away from Jamie, but that failed because he didn't consider the fact that Jamie could just climb up after him.
Ashton and Crowe started laughing at the funny sound Drew was making as he backed farther and farther down a branch until it snapped and Jamie caught him. Then, Jamie started trying to convince Drew that he would only put him back on the branch if he kissed him. Drew complained, threatened, and begged before giving in. The kiss was a little too heated and longer than necessary. Drew seemed to realize what was going on and broke the kiss, almost falling out of Jamie's grasp. "Now let me up," he pleaded.
"One more kiss? You know you liked it," Jamie said with a smirk.
Drew glared and blushed at the same time, which looked funny instead of scary like he intended. "I give up," Drew said.
Jamie smiled widely in triumph.
"Just drop me."
Jamie made a surprised sound and almost complied.
Drew squeaked and held on tighter. "I wasn't serious! Don't drop me!" Jamie pulled him up and into his lap. Drew kind of struggled, but stopped when he remembered how high he was. "Aww! Do you not like heights anymore?"
Drew shrugged, looking down.
"I'm sorry," he said and nipped Drew's ear.
Drew squirmed, awkwardly. I'm sure they continued their conversation, but I couldn't hear it anymore because I was too high.
Ainsley was right behind me. "Sweetie, don't fall," Ainsley called, nervously. "I have wings. It would be really retarded if I fell!" I called back. "I'm more worried about you. Do jaguars climb trees?" I asked. I finally got to the top of the tree. From here you could see the coast on one side and the mountains on the other. There were tall evergreen trees like the one we were in. There was snow in the mountains; that's how cold I it was! I shivered and felt a tail wrap around me.
I looked over at Ainsley, who was in his jaguar form. Ainsley curled up around me. Smiling, I stoked his soft fur and he purred at me. We sat peacefully, holding onto each other.
That is, until a rock whizzed past my head. I looked down to see Ashton holding another missile. Remind me to make Ashton try out for a pro baseball team. He seriously threw the ball like four hundred feet! Well, it's much better than my pathetic 100 feet, that I had to throw at school. In case you hadn't guessed, I fail at sports. I flew down with Ainsley hopping down the branches close behind me.
I snickered as I watched Shannon fall out of a tree. From the expression of Blaze's face, this wasn't the first time Shannon had fallen out of a tree. Shannon didn't seem to mind that much, despite the massive bruises on both of his elbows and his cheek.
Ainsley pounced off the lowest branch and landed lightly on Ashton. Ashton 'oofed' collapsed under Ainsley's weight. Ainsley picked himself up, transformed, and said, "You know, it's not very nice to throw rocks at people. Someone could have been hurt."
Crowe smirked a little and lifted Ashton up by the hood of his jacket. Drew was sitting on the grass, two feet from Jamie. Jamie seemed pretty pleased with himself, but Drew kept sending him nervous looks.
Shannon was busy playing in the tree again.
"If that moron stays here alone, he'll fall out of the tree and kill himself," Crowe observed.
"Well, I’m not getting him," Ashton said, watching Shannon jump even higher; way too high to hear us.
There were cries of "Not it!" all around.
Blaze was watching us, condescendingly. Without a word, he pulled himself up the tree, expertly. He bounded up the branches and quickly got up to where Shannon was. Shannon saw him right as Blaze grabbed for him. He hopped higher and smirked down at Blaze.
Using speed I didn't think was possible, Blaze jumped up and tackled Shannon, nearly knocking both of them out of the tree. Blaze held Shannon's arms behind his back and dragged him down.
"Bastard," Shannon snapped, but I could see the happy twinkle in his eyes.
"Idiot," Blaze replied. I wasn't sure, but I could almost see a same happy look in Blaze's eyes.
Shannon opened his mouth to reply when Jamie shot him a threatening look. I almost laughed. It was obvious that even though Ashton was the leader, I should be just as scared of Blaze. Well, not scared because no matter how dangerous they clearly were and how nervous they made everyone else, it didn't seem like they would hurt me. That's probably just because Ainsley would kill them if they even tried.
We all walked back inside, laughing as Jamie made yet another try to get Drew. Jamie chased Drew up the stairs and down the halls, both of them crashing into people, until Drew tried to beat Jamie with his book. We caught up to them, only to see Jamie clutching his stomach, either from pain or laughter I couldn't tell. Drew was holding his book in a batter's stance. "That's cheating!" Jamie gasped, in between fits of giggles.
Drew blushed when he saw us and lowered the book.
Crowe, Ashton, and Blaze immediately went to the kitchen, while Shannon, Jamie, and Ainsley decided to play video games.
Me, being the not procrastinating person I am, decided to get my schedule, so I couldn't have to get it in the morning. Drew decided to come with me. The walk down the halls was awkward. "So…You're gay," he finally said.
What a stupid question. "Nope," I said, just to throw him off.
It worked. "Um, what?" Drew asked, dumbfounded.
I sighed at Drew's ignorance. You know what they way, ignorance is bliss. I had to ruin that though.
"I was joking," I explained.
"Oh." he blushed and looked away.
I felt a little bad for overreacting and smiled at him. "You like Jamie," I stated. If I was expecting this to break the tension, I failed , miserably.
Drew shot me a death glare. "No, I don't. I'm not gay," he snarled.
I almost smirked, but restrained myself just in time. Still in denial. I could understand what he was going through, like probably the rest of us did. Except Jamie apparently. "You could be bi?"
Drew made a rude sound, so I changed the subject. "Are you parents here? Or did they send you alone?" I asked, curiously.
"My parents sent me here on my own. They were considering several establishments, but when they found out how…open to people like…people like you…" Awkward moment. Drew shifted his feet, trying to decide whether or not to finish his sentence. I decided not to press the issue and stood waiting for the elevator. "…Well, they couldn't have that. My parents hinted I should go here because apparently I don't act like their son should. When the hint it means go on your own or we'll make you and you won’t like it, so my "choice" was obvious. I didn't want to play football, or chase after girls. They said it was just a precaution and they didn't think I was…I guess it backfired I'd never even considered I might be until I got here." He said the last part like he was talking to himself, so I pretended not to hear.
The elevator door opened and we stepped in. Drew pressed the lobby button. "You don't have to be embarrassed. It's not like anyone is going to care. Except maybe the older ones, but I haven't seen any of them," I said.
"I know that, but what about the people not here? What about my parents? Obviously, I shouldn't be taking advice from you because when you told your parents they sent you here."
I smiled, softly. "I didn't get sent here. Ainsley's parents sent him, so I followed. And you parents already sent you so why not just do what you want?"
Drew looked shocked. Then he started beating his head against the wall. "Stupid. Stupid. Stupid," he cursed. "Why didn't I think of that?"
"So you're going to stop beating the shit out Jamie whenever he comes near you?"
Drew chuckled, but didn't answer because we'd gotten to the office window.
"Yes?" snapped the same lady who'd given me Kelsey's letter earlier. I was starting to figure out that she was an unpleasant woman.
"We need our schedules," Drew said.
"All new students have to go to the cafeteria first day to figure out where they will be placed. For OBVIOUS reasons, not all of our sixteen year old students need to be in tenth grade," the lady said. Well, EXCUSE me for not knowing this.
"Oh. Okay then," Drew said and walked off.
I trotted after him. "You going to talk to Jamie? Are you? ARE YOU!?" I asked. Yeah, I was getting some weird looks from the people here, but I didn't care right now.
Drew blushed bright red and tried to hide behind his hair. I giggled and skipped along next to him the entire way to our dorm, not even getting mad when Drew tried to close me out of the elevator.
Ainsley and Jamie were hard at work trying to blow each other up, or whatever the hell they were doing. I plopped into Ainsley's lap. Jamie was cussing Ainsley out for beating him yet again.
"No fair! Let's play again. I'll kick your ass this time!" Ainsley smirked and agreed, cockily. I decided to help Jamie a bit. I buried my head in his shoulder and started sucking on his neck.
Ainsley groaned, softly. I continued to kiss his neck, quickly finding his soft spot. Ainsley forgot all about the game and pulled me on top of him, biting and licking at my lips. I happily opened my mouth and Ainsley started exploring my mouth.
Distantly, I heard, "Thanks Parker. I won, so you can get off of Ainsley now." I rolled off of Ainsley with a grin as Ainsley shot me a glare.
I leaned in close and whispered, "We can finish this later," Ainsley sighed, but I could see he was satisfied.
♠ ♠ ♠
Aren't you all amazed at how long my chapters used to be?