Gaijin No More

Cody's POV

On Tuesday morning my alarm clock woke me up in time and I quickly got dressed in pair of dark blue jeans, a band t-shirt and a baby blue hoodie. I liked all shades of blue but baby blue was my ultimate favorite. I grabbed my faded messenger bag and skipped downstairs to get something to eat. My dad had already left for work and he had left a note for me, telling me to go to a grocery store after school. Apparently we were out of milk and cat food.

I live alone with my dad and our cat April. My mom left us when I was eight years old, but I can't say that I miss her. She never really was there for me and her departure wasn´t such a surprise. My dad never remarried after my mom.

Since it has been only me and my dad living in here, we´ve gotten pretty close. I can talk to him about anything and he´s always supporting me, whatever I do. Sometimes he feels more like my big brother than a father.

April rubbed her side against my calf as I poured cereal into a bowl. I had found April from the streets when she was just a little kitty and it had been impossible for me to just leave her. So I had brought her home. My dad had accepted her as a part of our small family, but he made me promise not to bring every single homeless animal back home. And I wasn't planning to. April just had stolen my heart the second I laid my eyes on her.

I ate quickly and petted April before leaving the house. The bus stop was right behind the corner, so I didn´t bother to walk fast. Good Charlotte blared through my headphones as I quietly hummed with the tune. It was almost annoyingly beautiful day, sun was shining and all. I pulled my hood over my head to cover my face from the sun. I wasn't very fond to the idea of getting tanned.

There were a bunch of other students at the bus stop when I arrived. I kept my eyes on my shoes and absent-mindedly played with my lip ring. It was something I did when I was deep in thought. (And frankly, I was almost all the time thinking deeply about something.)

I was startled shitless when someone grabbed my shoulder from behind. Quickly I whipped around, almost hitting my forehead against someone's lean chest.

Slowly I shifted my eyes upwards and if I had been a comic character, my jaw would´ve dropped down on the ground. The guy standing in front of me was Aiden Miller, one of the most popular guys in whole school. He flashed me a gentle smile which made his deep brown eyes sparkle. What the hell did he want from me? Wait, he must have mistaken me for someone else. Yep, that must be the case.

“Hey, do you happen to know what time it is?” he asked, removing his hand from my shoulder. I was taken aback since I had been one hundred percent sure that he had mistaken. I quickly glanced my watch, trying to ignore the eyes that were now staring at us intently. After all, it´s not every day when you see to most popular guy having a chat with the most ignored boy from school.

“8:42,” came my quiet answer and Aiden smiled to me again.

“Okay. Thanks,” he said and walked away from me. I didn't realize I was staring at him before he reached his group of friends and glanced back at me. He smiled again and waved at me. My face flushed and I quickly looked to the ground. I tented to blush and get nervous when someone I didn't know well talked to me. It wasn't my fault I wasn't used to socializing with people in real life. Okay, that made me sound like a complete computer geek, but whatever. Luckily the bus arrived a few minutes later, filling my mind with more important thoughts than that Miller guy.

Aiden's POV

That green eyed boy at the bus stop had been running through my mind whole day. I had seen him at the school before and sometimes I got the urge to go and talk to him. But I never did, not before today. Why? I dunno, I guess I was just lazy. And I really hadn´t had a suitable opportunity to talk to him. I mean, how weird it would be if I just walked up to him and started talking about something completely random? The guy would run away faster than a cheetah.

But still, for some reason he fascinated me. But hell, I didn't even know his name! All I knew was that he didn't seem to have any friends and he didn't talk to people, other than teachers. Oh, and he always had his camera with him. I guess he liked photographing.

The bell rang suddenly, signaling that the lessons had ended. I quickly grabbed my stuff and put them into my bag, heading out to find my friends. It was lunch time and our gang always hung out at one of the picnic tables outside.

Our gang was rather big. It consisted of six guys (including me) and four girls. We all were quite popular in our school and many students looked up to us. I´m not saying it to sound cocky or something. It´s just a fact.

Anyway, when I got outside, Cecilia and Lauren were already at our usual table, chatting about Katie´s new hair color. All of the girls from our group were a part of the cheer leading squad.

“Hey,” I said and sat down next to Cecilia and soon Brady and Todd joined us.

“What's up guys?” Todd asked cheerfully and gave Lauren a wet kiss on the cheek. Lauren gave Todd a disgusted look before wiping her cheek. Todd was the clown of our group, always cracking jokes and messing with people. He was quite tall and skinny, with reddish hair, freckles and he always wore a grin on his face. Brady on the other hand was a bit chubby and he had a sandy blond hair.

Soon the rest of our group arrived, meaning Daniel, his girlfriend Sheila, Katie, Matthias and Fred. Daniel and me high fived and I scooted over to make some room to them to sit down.

“So what´s new?” Brady asked and took a bite of his sandwich. The girls started gossiping about who was dating whom and the latest fashion magazine. I think I'll never understand girls. How can they talk so much about something so small as someone's new boyfriend?

“I got A- from math test!” Fred stated proudly, grinning widely at us. He was the smart one of us. Not in a geeky way, he just was very intelligent. Although you couldn't tell it from his appearance. He had really short dark brown hair, it almost looked black and his eyes were even darker. He looked quite menacing if you didn´t know him personally.

“Cool! Now you can help me with my math homework!” Todd exclaimed and threw his arm around Fred. Todd didn't have any talent in math. He was more interested in pulling pranks and partying, which was something we all liked to do. I can't remember when was the last time I didn't go to a some kind of a party during weekend. Hey, what can I do? I'm a party-animal.

I got distracted when my eyes caught a sight of a familiar baby blue hoodie. I turned my head to get a better look and indeed it was the green eyed cutie I had been thinking of. I followed him with my eyes as he made his way towards the school doors. He looked pretty happy and he was grinning widely. Hmm, I wonder why.

“Oi Aiden? Are you listening?” Dan's voice snapped me out of my thoughts and I turned back to look at him. Daniel was the unofficial leader of our gang. He was tall and muscular and a bit vain. He had shiny brown hair and gray eyes and if I had to describe him with one word, it would have been macho. Me and him were nothing alike, except for the fact that we both loved to play tennis. We often had matches against each other.

“Hm? What were you saying?” I asked and smiled apologetically. Dan sighed and smirked.

“What were you looking at Aiden? Saw something, or rather, someone interesting?” this caught the attention of my other friends as they stopped talking and focused their attention to me and Dan.

“No, I was just wondering who that one guy was,” I answered nonchalantly, looking back at the guy with the blue hoodie. Damn, I really needed to find out his name. It was getting troublesome to call him “that guy” all the time.

“Who? Where?” Todd asked and spun around to look at the direction I was looking at.

“The one with baby blue hoodie and camera,” I explained and now all the others were looking too.

“Oh him? I dunno. He's in my science class but he never talks. Not like it would really matter, he looks like a loser anyway.” I frowned at Dan's words. What right did he have to call Mr. Cutie a loser? Quite a harsh thing to say when you didn't even know the guy.

“His name is Cody Adams, he's a sophomore, lives alone with his dad, loves photographing.” Came Matthias' voice and we all turned to look at him, our eyes wide.
Matthias was pretty weird guy. He rarely talked anything, but when he did, it was always something deep. He was like a philosopher and it was sometimes pretty frightening. And if you ever wanted to know something about, well, anything Matthias would most likely have an answer.

“How in hell do you know all that?” Katie squeaked and we all nodded in agreement. Matthias squirmed under our eyes, not liking when all of us stared at him.

“What? I just do, okay? Am I the only one around here who observes their surroundings?” he defended himself.

“Yeah, but how did you find out he lives alone with his dad?” Lauren asked, Matthias just shrugged. I searched for Cody with my eyes but to my disappointment he had disappeared.

Cody Adams... I couldn't help but let a small smile grace my lips. It seemed like I was one step closer to my final goal. Which was to get to know more about this... intriguing boy.