I Swear to God This Is Paradise

First Day

Zee’s POV:

I looked myself up and down in the mirror as I studied my outfit. I was wearing a black sweater, gray sweatpants, and black moccasins. My curly hair reached a little pass my butt, my glasses sat on my, and I wiped the drool off my cheek. ‘Alright first day of senior year, let’s do this.’ I thought to myself as I walked down the stairs. Some kids ran past me and up the stairs. Oh I forgot to mention I live with 16 other people in beautiful San Diego, CA. The people who adopted us and my three best friends and my niece, let’s talk about them.

First there’s Megan: blonde hair with blue tips, flawless skin, tall, skinny, and she’s from Las Vegas. Next there’s Deborah or Debbie: black long hair, tall, skinny, tanned skin, and she’s from Alaska. Then there’s Lindsey: black hair, tall skinny, pale skin, smart, and she’s from Louisiana. Lastly there’s my niece Leilah (we were adopted together): caramel skin, curly hair, too hyper, and she was born in Las Vegas. Me well I’m from somewhere, my ‘parents’ tell me I’m from Europe, but I don’t believe it. They don’t have my birth certificate so I wouldn’t know. Walking downstairs I heard the chaos in the kitchen, looking the kitchen table was a mess of food, paper, and even hair? This house gets gross sometimes with all the children; in total I have 10 siblings excluding my friends and Leilah. I took my spot at the table and started eating what was left on my plate-this house is full of thieves I swear.

“Zee you’re awake. Don’t you think you should dress in something else it’s hot.” My ‘mom’ said.

“No, I’ll be fine I promise.” I said nodding.

“Okay dear, you know to call us when you have a problem.”

“Yup I know.”

“Come on Zee we don’t want to be late for school.” Megan said pulling me from the table.
She dragged me from the house and behind her and my friends.

“Why are we in a rush?”

“Don’t want to be late.” She said.

“You hate school though, you said it’s a waste of time.”

“But it’s our senior year Zee! Don’t you understand?”

“Am I missing something?” I asked Lindsey and Deborah.

“She heard we’re getting some new kids today, they’re supposed to be super-hot and covered in tattoos.” Lindsey said.

“But I’m super-hot and covered in tattoos.” I pouted.

“You will always be my super-hot turtle, but these are boys Zee! Boys!”

“She’s already planning her wedding I bet.” Deborah laughed.
I rolled my eyes and we continued walking to school.

Tony’s POV:

“All I’m saying is if we see a hot girl I call dibs.” Mike said as we walked out the office.

“You can’t call dibs, if you talk to her first then she’s yours.” Vic said.

“No he can call dibs.” Jaime said.

“No he can’t Jaime.”

“Yes he can short stuff.”

“At least I’m not a spiky haired freak.”

“Guys, guys let’s stop before you don’t talk to each other for a month.” I said butting in.

Vic and Jaime huffed at each other as Mike laughed at both of them. We were starting our first day of senior year here at Clairemont High School, we were here before but things happened and we had to leave. Anyway we’re back for our last year so yeah. Let me introduce myself I guess. I’m Tony Perry, I play guitar and I love Star Wars. I have three best friends Jaime Preciado who plays bass and has weird hair, Mike Fuentes he plays drums and his a total pot head, and his older brother Vic who plays guitar too and has the curliest hair I’ve ever seen on a dude. We walked through the school as other students started flooding in. Some stopped to stare at our tattoos to see if they were there, I wish they wouldn’t stare I’m starting to feel self-conscience.

“Not even Turtle!” I heard someone yell.

My head snapped up as I heard my nickname being called. I looked at three girls laughing at the shortest one in their group with curly who I’m guessing is ‘Turtle’. I keep staring at her as she and her friends got closer to us, I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. She laughed with her friends and wasn’t paying attention so she was coming right towards me.

“Zee watch out.” One of her friends warned her.
It was too late she bumped into my chest and almost fell to the floor.

Megan’s POV:

It almost happened so fast, I was making fun of Turtle (Zee) and then she bumps into the random dude (whose super cute) and almost falls to floor. Now my mouth is hanging wide open because he caught her and is now hugging my best friend to his chest. I look between the girls and the guys; Zee opens her eyes and stares at the stranger. Someone coughs and snaps them out of their trance.

“Turtle.” One guy says.

“What?” both of them answer.

“My bad I was talking to Tony.”
They laughed a little and Tony let her out of his hug.

“Well this is awkward.” I said. “I’m Megan.”

“I’m Vic.” He smiled. (Oh sweet mother of Jesus this boy is cute.) “This is Jaime, Mike, and you know that’s Tony.”

“These are my friends Deborah, Lindsey, and Zee. We sometimes call her Turtle, but everyone else calls her Skywalker.”

“You like Star Wars?” Tony asked Zee.

“Are you kidding? That’s my favorite movie!” Zee answered.

“Well I know who’s rocking the bed soon.” I heard Lindsey say.

I started laughing and everyone just stared, “Lindsey made a funny.”

“What’d she say?” the spiky haired kid Jaime asked.

“I’d rather not say it out loud.” Lindsey said.

“Come on tell me.” He whined.

Lindsey shook her head and smiled. They might be rocking the bed soon too. Deborah was quiet and had her head down, the tall guy named Mike was staring her down, okay someone else might be rocking the bed.

“So you guys new here?” I asked Vic.

“Yeah we’ve lived in San Diego our whole lives, but something came up after freshmen year and we had to leave.” He answered.

“Yeah Vic should be in college, but since we couldn’t be in school he’s repeating this year.” Mike said.

“Oh a college boy nice.” ‘Fuck yes!’

“What about you guys?” Vic asked.

“We haven’t lived here our whole lives, we moved her our freshmen year.” Deborah spoke up.

“Where are you from?” Mike asked.

“Well I’m from Alaska, Megan’s from Vegas, Lindsey from Louisiana, and Zee’s from Italy although she doesn’t believe it.”

“Wow and you all moved here at the same time?” Jaime asked.

“Well actually we’re all adopted.” I answered.

Lindsey elbowed me in the side, it’s not like people weren’t going to find out anyway. I rubbed my side and pouted my lip. “That hurt you butt.”

“Well maybe you should keep your mouth shut.” She said.

“They were going to find out anyway.” I rolled my eyes.

“Guys come on don’t fight before you stop talking for a month.” Zee said.

“That’s funny that’s the same thing Tony told us earlier.” Mike chuckled.

“What’d you say?” Deborah asked.

“Yeah Mike tell them.” Vic egged him on.

“We were talking about-“

“Mike was talking about how he was going to call dibs on the first hot girl he saw and Vic said he wasn't allowed to do that and I said he could and then we got in a fight.” Jaime interrupted.

I nodded my head slowly not sure what to say.

“Well come on Turtle we have stuff to do.” I said grabbing Zee’s wrist.

“Yeah…I’ll talk to you later Tony, I-uh guess.” Zee said.

“Uh yeah later.” Tony smiled.

I dragged Zee away and down the other hallway. The rocking of the bed was coming soon.