Audrey's Snow

I woke up groaning. It was way to early. I clicked on the alarm on my phone so it would turn off and dragged myself out of bed. When I got to the bathroom, Harley was already showered and was in there brushing his teeth. He laughed when he saw me.

"Someone looks like they slept on the wrong side of the bed." He smiled again and I glared.

"How are you this cheerful when you got what? Three hours of sleep?" He spit in the sink and turned to face me.

"I didn't sleep. Of course later it will hit me, but at least I would have made it to school. I'm honestly surprised you didn't sleep in." I grabbed my hairbrush and ran it through my hair. I quickly braided it while I talked.

"You are never going to learn anything if you sleep through school." He smirked at me.

"You will never learn if you get expelled, and here you are getting an education." My eyes got wide. I didn't know Joleen told him about what drove my mom to send me here. He laughed.

"You obviously didn't know I knew." He pulled his shirt over his head and It took me a couple seconds of staring at his muscles to answer.

"Uh yeah, I got expelled." He smirked.

"My eyes are up here." I felt my cheeks grow warm as I turned back to the mirror. I quickly brushed my teeth. "What did you do?" I finished brushing my teeth and answered him.

"I beat a girl up. She got suspended because I started it, even though it wasn't her first fight. I got expelled because I have been in boxing my entire life even though it was my first fight." I pushed him over a bit so I could splash water on my face. Honestly, I'm surprised this sharing a bathroom thing is working so far.

"You box?" I smiled. Boxing is the one sport I know, and I'm good at it. Although my mom did ruin it for me when she tried to scout me to some girls boxing league in Europe. I didn't want to be even farther from her.

"Uh yeah, my grandpa taught me before he passed." I lied. I picked up boxing from a guy named Bee. Bee wasn't the best kid, and he would get into fights a lot. Most of the time it was because he owed someone money. He had a gambling problem. I paid off half of Bee's debt and he taught me how to box. I lied to my mom about where I was taking lessons, told her I took them at this super upscale place partly because half of Bee's boxing debt was way more than anyone could or should spend on boxing lessons and because she wouldn't want me hanging out with Bee. He was found dead a few years ago. He overdosed.

"That's cool." He slipped a clean shirt on and walked into his room. I stripped off my clothing and walked into my room to pick out an outfit. It was supposed to be really hot today, but I had to wear a long sleeved shirt because I didn't wan't Joleen to see my bite. I chose a white long sleeved shirt that had skulls around the collar and a pair of black denim shorts. I slipped on a pair of black studded flats and grabbed my bad.

Harley was walking down the stairs right as I left my room. I hurried to catch up with him. Surprisingly, Kevin wasn't sitting at the table with his coffee like I expected him to be. Although it is only my third day, second morning here. I shouldn't expect anything.

I grabbed a banana and hurried after Harley to the truck when I noticed another familiar car outside waiting for me. I smiled. Harry thought to pick me up? How sweet. Harley looked quite upset though.

"Did you ask him to come and pick you up?" He was mad. He was always mad though.

"I said 'I'll see you tomorrow'". Normally, I wouldn't tell him. He was just being nosy. But since the snake bite debacle he had been acting sort of civilized towards me.

"Are you going to go with him?" He asked. I nodded.

"It would be rude if I didn't. Plus he has AC and its hot out." He smirked. He knew exactly why I was wearing a long sleeved shirt.

"Whatever, have fun." I rolled my eyes and hurried to Harry's car. When I climbed in I felt the burst of AC and smiled.

"I almost forgot how nice AC is." He smiled at me. His dimples were showing.

"Yeah, my house is one of the only houses that has it. Schools going to suck." I nodded in agreement. Most of the drive was him humming along to the radio. He smiled at me and before I could stop myself I was talking.

"Were just friends right?" I blurted. I squeezed my eyes closed. I am such an idiot. Thankfully, he laughed.

"Yes, were just friends. And don't be embarrassed about Joleen. My mom was trying to talk me into driving her to your house to talk to Joleen because I told her I wasn't sure of your number when Joleen called." I felt my cheeks turn red. "Its a small town thing." I nodded.

"Yeah, I can't say my mom has ever tried calling one of my friends parents to talk about me." I said. He smiled. I felt like I could trust him. "My dad left when before I was born, and my mom wants a career more than a daughter. That's why I am staying with the Michaels." I felt my face turning even more red. That's the first time I had admitted that out loud since I had gotten here. "Sorry" I apologized. I am such an idiot. I knew he was wondering though.

"You didn't have to tell me that, but I'm glad you did. I'll always be here to listen. I can't say I know what its like to be the new kid, but in the books I have read it really sucks." I laughed, he really knew how to get rid of tension.

"I feel like I can trust you." I admitted. "I mean, Harley was being a lot nicer to me today. Partially because of my accident I suppose." Shit, I wasn't supposed to mention it to anyone. Everyone knows everything around here.

"Accident?" He asked curious.

"You can't tell anybody, not even your parents. If it gets back to Joleen both me and Harley are dead." I rolled up my sleeve and he saw my snake bite. Concern washed over his face.

"Are you okay? You need to tell Joleen, you should have it looked at." I laughed. It was nice to have someone concerned about me.

"I'm fine. After avoiding telling Harley for a couple hours I finally told him. He brought me to the hospital. Turns out copperhead bites are rarely fatal, but do make you feel really shitty." I was smiling. He looked relieved. "Now no telling anybody." He put his hand over his heart.

"Your secret is safe with me." We pulled into the parking lot and still had 10 minutes to get to class. "Are you going to sit with me at lunch again today?" He was smiling. I nodded. We parted ways and I started walking to my class. My first hour was European History. Great way to start your day, especially when you are tired.

I woke up when the bell rang. Shit. I fell asleep during class? I never fall asleep during class. Second and third hour went the same way. Fourth hour was lunch. I splashed some water on my face and started walking to the lunchroom. Harry was waiting for me by the lunchroom doors smiling. When I walked up he took my books from my hands.

"Are you okay? You don't look so hot." I smiled at Harry but he was right, I didn't feel so hot.

"Yeah, I just got very little sleep. Plus its hard to find a comfortable position to sleep on an itchy bite." He poked me in the side and walked me over to a table of his friends. I didn't remember their names but yesterday I was so nervous I don't think I would have remembered if I tried to. One of the guys looked up.

"Hey Audrey!" He was happy. I smiled.

"Hey you.'' It was obvious I didn't remember his name.

"Its Zach." He took a bite of what looked like a grilled cheese, but I wasn't sure.

"Sorry, I'm really bad at remembering things." I smiled. The guy who was sitting next to Zach smiled at me. "I'm Justin!" The boy sitting across from him waved, mouth full of food.

"That's Kris and I'm Tony." I smiled at Tony and sat next to him. Harry sat across from me. They immediately dove into a conversation about the high school football team. I listened and I knew what they were talking about. I wasn't the biggest fan of football, but having a mom drill sports into you since you were born didn't help. She would read her college textbooks to me at bed time when I was a baby.

"You look bored Audrey." I looked over at Zach and smiled.

"I wasn't at any of the games, I just got her a couple days ago so I can't comment on whether I thought Mikey deserved to get kicked off the field." I smiled. What I said was true.

"Well do you like football?" Kris said. I shrugged.

"I know enough about the sport I guess. When it comes to sports though I like to watch more of boxing or wrestling." I looked down. It is kind of embarrassing being a 5'3, tiny girl and loving violence.

"That is so cool. I wish we had boxing out here. Did you have boxing in Hollywood?" Justin asked. I smiled. "That's a dumb question, I take it back. There is everything in Hollywood." I laughed.

"You would be surprised how hard it is to find a boxing gym in Hollywood. Its almost all dance classes, theaters, and tourist attractions. You have to go to towns outside Hollywood for more practical things." I laughed. They all looked at me smiling. What?

"Boxing gym as in you box?" Harry said smiling.

"I used to. There isn't a boxing gym anywhere around here." I frowned.

"I have a gym in my basement with a couple different weight punching bags and a speed bag if you want to come and show off." I knew exactly where this conversation was going now.

"You all want to watch me hit stuff don't you?" They all smiled. I rolled my eyes. "When?" They were all smiling even wider.

"Tonight?" Harry said. I shrugged.

"Sure, I just have to call Joleen and let her know. Can I use your phone when we get to your house?" He nodded. The bell rang signaling lunch was over and I grabbed my bag off the ground.

"I'll meet you out front." He smiled and ruffled my hair which was now in a loose frizzy braid. I stood for a minute and started walking when a girl stepped in my walking path. She was looking directly at me so I stopped.

"You need to leave Harry alone, or I'll fuck you up." Her voice was high pitched. I looked at what she was wearing. She was wearing a pair of black spandex shorts with an extremely low cut tank top. Granted it was about 100 degrees out, but something tells me that she would wear that when it is 40 degrees and raining out.

"You need to leave me alone, or I'll fuck you up." I mocked her, making my voice purposefully high pitched. I felt and arm link with mine and looked up to see Kris smiling a dorky smile at me. He nodded at the girl in front of me.

"Janice." He looked back at me and motioned for me to walk forward. "My lady." I laughed and walked forward with Kris. Kris was dorky, but in a good way. He had short blonde hair and piercing blue eyes. His teeth were pretty crooked, but he had braces. His smile was contagious. He was wearing a camo tee shirt and a pair of dirty blue jeans over his cowboy boots.

I heard Janice behind me. "Wow, she was so afraid of me she took a huge leap down on the hotness scale." I frowned. I noticed that Kris's smile disappeared to. It was obvious he had heard. Before I could stop myself I turned around and walked back up to her.

"Janice? Hi. By the way, if Harry and you are so close that you have a right to be threatening other girls because you are insecure, why has he never mentioned you? oh, and Kris? Huge step up on the hotness scale. You should see him in bed." I acted like I was lost in thought and then smiled walking back to Kris who was smiling ear to ear again. I knew that would come back to bite me in the ass but for the moment, Kris was happy and that made me happy.

Biology flew by super quick. Before I knew it the end of the day bell had rung. On my way out of the school I felt someone grab my wrist. I automatically knew who it was, it was the only person that ever grabbed my wrist instead of calling my name. I turned around to see an angry Harley. I sweat to god this kid is always angry no matter what.

"Is it true?" I looked at him confused. What the hell was he talking about? He obviously say my confusion. "Did you have sex with Kris Flank in the health room?" I couldn't help it, I burst out laughing. He looked so upset.

"No, some girl Janice upset him so I said that he was good in bed and she should be jealous. I don't know where all the other stuff came from." He looked a bit relieved, but still upset.

"That's how you get a reputation. Once you get a reputation in a small town it sticks. I suggest you stop talking about sex and start carrying a bible around." I was about to walk away when I stopped him.

"Since were on the topic of bibles, do you know how I should bring up not going to church to Joleen?" He smirked.

"What? Is Christianity too mainstream for you?" He was seriously mocking religion. This kid is so cocky.

"Never mind. Maybe I just wont get out of bed." I mumbled. "Oh by the way, can you tell Joleen that I'm going over to Harrys? He has boxing equipment and I am super excited." He looked annoyed.

"And you think Harry doesn't have feelings for you?" I smiled.

"He doesn't, I asked him this morning. Made quite the fool out of myself doing it too." I smiled and he finally stopped frowning and let out a little chuckle.

"Wish I could have been there. I'll let her know, but you should still call. Tonight we were planning on ordering take out, If you want some be home by six. Otherwise figure something out. I'll see you later." He stuck his hands in his pockets. I stopped him again.

"What is it this time? Want a goodbye kiss?" He was being sarcastic but he obviously didn't like the fact that I was holding him up.

"Can you take my bag? Its heavy and I don't need it." He looked like he was thinking about it. "Seriously? Like its a big fucking inconvenience for you to take my bag home?" He smirked. He leaned over to me and whispered.

"Good catholic girls don't use to F-word." I glared at him. "Fine, as long as I get to use your laptop for a bit when you get home. I know you won't just give me the password." I sighed.

"Fine, now I have to go meet Harry." I gave him my bag and hurried to where I said I would meet him. He was standing with Tony, Justin, Zach, and Kris.

"Took you long enough. Southern gentlemen don't like your city slicker idea of fashionably late." Harry said. I laughed.

"Harry, you are not considered a southern gentleman until I get roses and a romantic day with my new best friend." I smiled. I felt myself smiling a lot today, when I wasn't asleep anyways.

"So how was the sex with Kris? Awful right? You were imagining me when you finished right?" I looked over at Zach, he was wiggling his eyebrows at me. Kris was just smiling, braces and all.

"It was mind blowing. and if you looked a bit less like you and a bit more like Zac Efron, then I was definitely picturing you." They all laughed and went to their cars. I was walking with Harry when Tony came up to me.

"Wanna ride with me today? Were all going to the same place anyways." I looked at Harry and he shrugged. I smiled.

"Sure." I walked away with Tony towards his pickup. It was gorgeous, It looked like it had been just driven off the lot. "Jesus Christ, people think I'm spoiled but look at this sexy thing." He was smiling.

"It was my dad's 'I'm sorry I'm going to work in Tokyo for a month when I promised to be here' gift." I nodded.

"I know exactly what you mean, only my gift has to fit inside a couple suitcases for the next time we move. My mom actually just gave me a credit card and told me to go nuts." I hope I wasn't being too nosy. "What does your dad do?" Tony smiled. It was fake though.

"He is an international aid worker. Its basically like mission trips. What does your dad do?" I froze. For whatever reason I didn't want him knowing that my dad was a loser who left me.

"My dad is a pilot for the military." I felt the lie leaving my lips. Too late to go back now. "My mom is a talent scout. She usually just scouts athletes though. That's how I know everything about sports." He smiled.

"So you get it? I mean, at least I have my mom here. Even though I skype my dad almost every night I still miss him." I nodded as if I understood.

"Yeah, Me and my mom talk on the phone almost every day. If shes on a plane or at her hotel sometimes we will skype." I lied again. We pulled up to a large brick house. It was beautiful. "Wow, he lives here?" I asked. Tony nodded.

"I live two houses down, and Kris lives next to me. Justin lives 2 blocks behind us and Zach lives on a farm kind of near where you live." I smile. Good to know I'm not the only outsider. We walked up to Harrys house. Harry was typing in the garage code when it opened. It reminded me of the suburbs. It was a lot better than a farm, let me tell you.

Inside his garage their were stairs that went down into a beautiful home gym. It was huge and had everything, if not more that a gym would have. I walked over to where the punching bags were. They were nice bags, and they were barely used. What a shame.

"Do you have tape and gloves?" I asked Harry. He went over to the TV stand and inside a drawer was everything I needed. I wrapped black athletic tape around my wrists and pulled on a pair of 12 ounce training gloves. Harry walked behind one of the bags and held it.

"I see them do this in the movies, do you want me to hold it?" I laughed and nodded. I noticed Justin was punching a bag. He wasn't trained. He didn't even have tape on his hands and the bag was barely moving when he punched it.

I put all my weight into my first punch and poor Harry wasn't expecting it. He was watching Justin and he completely fell backwards. He fell on his butt and everyone started laughing. I reached down and helped him up. He grabbed my bad arm and I instantly winced. He noticed and got up the rest of the way himself.

"Sorry." He said. His face was red and the guys were still laughing. I knew what he was really apologizing for . I tried stretching out my arm but it didn't work to well. I kept punching and I felt completely in my element. Some people don't get the beauty of repeatedly punching a bag that doesn't move, and you will never understand until you take up boxing.

They were all sitting on the floor playing poker as I stayed punching a speed bag. My arms were starting to get sore. It was time to call it quits. I slumped down onto the floor next to them and they all looked at me as if they forgot I was there.

"Finally done?" Kris asked. I laughed.

"I've only been working out for like 20 minutes." He smiled.

"It seems like hours with that repetitive buzzing noise of that speed bag." I punched Kris in the arm. He threw his arms up in surrender. "After watching you do that for 20 minutes I know not to mess with you. Of course, If you keep talking to Harry Janice might mess with you." Me and him started laughing when Harry just gave us a puzzled look.

"What are you guys talking about?" He looked at me.

"Seriously? The entire school knows Kris is good in bed in an hour but nobody said anything about her threatening to" I used air quotes "Fuck me up' if I kept talking to you?" He smiled.

"Its because I'm so good looking all the ladies want me." He brushed his dark hair back and out of his face. We all laughed.

"Or its because you were dating her two weeks ago and she still have hope for your relationship." Zach said. Harry looked over at me and instantly started blushing.

"Honestly, I thought girls only did that in stories. In the cities when someone is flirting with your boyfriend, its usually all online. So then you would message them and tell them to back off and somehow it would end up on twitter or on the comments of a status for everyone to see. Here its so different!" They all looked at me like I was crazy.

"We get warnings like that in our homeroom. Like 'don't cyberbully' 'don't bring weapons to school' 'drugs are bad', that kind of stuff. I never knew anyone actually did it." I laughed.

"Well they do, all the time." I checked the time. It was 5:15. "Can one of you guys drive me home? Apparently its take out night." Harry stood up and helped me up, making sure to grab my left arm instead of my right.

"I'll take you home. Guys just" he paused "Just don't break anything." He grabbed my hand and lead me back up the stairs. "Did you like your little workout?" He was smiling. I felt the black tape that was still around my wrists.

"Yeah, honestly it was just what I needed to get my anger out. I've been feeling so stressed lately." He gave me an understanding nod. "I know what you mean. My mom is always on me about grades, and then my dad will give me the 'if you don't get good grades, you won't be able to get into a good college and you wont be able to get into medical school' speech." I felt my smile faulter a bit. I knew my mom would never give me a speech like that, because that means she would have to look at my grades, and that means she would have to care enough about me to check them.

When I got home I leaned over and gave Harry a quick hug. He was surprised but gave me a bear hug back. I smiled.

"That was a friendship hug." I pointed at him. He laughed, remembering how I embarrassed myself this morning. I stepped out of the car. The temperature had gone down a bit. It seemed like the sun was going down earlier today, thank god.

Every window in the house looked like it was propped open. I sighed and stepped through the door. Joleen was sitting on the couch fanning herself with a magazine. Her face lit up when she saw me.

"How was your date with Harry!" She was grinning. I smiled.

"It wasn't a date, I just went over there after school with him and some of his friends he introduced to me.

"That's why there is tape on your wrists, no judgment." She winked. Finally I realized what she had meant. I was horrified.

"NO, I was just boxing." I bit my lip. How embarrassing.

"I'm just teasing you Audrey. All the boys went out to a pond to go swimming. Harley said you know where it is if you want to go out there." I smiled and slipped on a pair of sneakers. I wanted to wear flip flops but I didn't want to have to battle a snake off my foot. With my luck this one would be fatal.

The four wheeler was gone as I expected so I quickly walked to the pond. In about 15 minutes I was there. Sam and Anthony were splashing each other and seeing how deep they could go before they got scared. Harley was floating around on his back. When he saw me, he smiled. It was almost weird to see him not mad at me.

"Hey city slicker, water too dirty for you?" I rolled my eyes.I would rather him think that then the embarrassing truth.

"No, I didn't pack a bikini." I lied. Anthony pointed at me.

"Liar! I went through your bag and you packed one!" I glared at him.

"Why were you going through my bags?" He started blushing and acted like he hadn't heard me. Harley walked out of the water towards me.

"Too afraid of what I'll think of you in a bikini?" He looked me up and down, making it completely obvious he was checking me out. "Because I can already tell that even under your baggy clothes that would would look fucking sexy." I pushed him away.

"Perv" Before I knew it he had scooped me up in his arms and carried me out into the water. Panic struck me. "Please please please take me back." I gripped onto him as tight as I could.

"Are you scared?" I tried lying again.

"Yes! What if there are snakes in here!" He rolled his eyes.

"Like I would let two 7 year old boys play in here if there were." I felt his grip loosening on me so I just clung to him even tighter. "Why don't you want to go into the water? Just admit it! Its too dirty for you!" I could tell he was about to drop me so finally I said it.

"I can't swim!" I choked out. I was terrified. Swimming is not something that I was a fan of. Of course, it was one of my moms favorite sports so she pushed me to do swimming.

He started laughing. Laughing! The nerve of him. "Well, you gotta learn sometime." Before I knew it I was dropped into the water. I started flailing, memories coming back to me of my old swimming instructor. A couple seconds later, I was pulled to the surface again. The boys were all laughing now as I felt tears stinging in my eyes. I coughed up the water that I inhaled when I was dropped in. I glared at Harley who was holding me up again.

"Get me out. NOW." I yelled. He was surprised.

"Don't get your panties in a bunch, I was just playing around." I was boiling with anger. I let my tears fall, but you couldn't tell because of the water droplets all over my face. I thought back to when I was in swimming.

My mom had gotten me one of the best coaches, known for training Olympic athlete swimmers. Most started with her when they were about 13, I started with her when I was 7. I actually liked swimming then. I would do it for fun, and I could do it. Until it came to the training part. She would hold me underwater for minutes at a time. My lungs would burn. She would let me come up for one breath and then push me down again. She kept telling me this is how good swimmers become Olympians. I started dreading practice. One day, I got in the pool and I was so terrified I didn't want to move. I froze, and I sunk. Another swimmer pulled me out. After that I stopped going. I haven't swam since.

I jumped on the four wheeler, not caring that I was leaving them and sped back. When I got back, Joleen laughed. Even though she was sweet, I wasn't in the mood for her. I stomped up to my room and closed the door, stripping off my wet clothing. I turned on the shower and hopped in, letting the warm water engulf me. I scrubbed my face and my body, and washed my hair with my favorite mint shampoo. Sure mint wasn't exactly a sexy smell but whatever, I liked it.

When I got out, the mirror was so fogged up I couldn't even see my reflection. I sighed and ran a comb through my hair before walking to my room. I just wanted to sleep. I slipped on a pair of soft pajama shorts and a white tank top before climbing into bed. A couple minutes later I heard my door open.

"Audrey?" I frowned. Even though Harley couldn't see it because I was completely covered with a blanket, I was frowning. "Audrey I know you're awake. You're moving." I rolled over to face him and glared at him.

"What do you want? Want to drown me again?" I was beyond pissed.

"I wan't to apologize. I didn't realize how afraid of water you are." He awkwardly reached up and scratched the back of his neck.

"Thanks, but I don't forgive you. I told you a thousand times that you don't know me so stop assuming you know me. Finally, I even admitted I didn't give a shit about how dirty the pond was, I have swam in ponds before. I admitted that I can't swim anymore and you decided to drop me anyways. Plus this bite stung like a bitch." He came and sat down on the bed next to me.

"What do you mean you can't swim anymore?" I hesitated, but I told him the story. I told him about how every day I would beg my mom not to make me go but she said she wanted a champion daughter and made me go. I told him how every time she held me under to long I would think about seeing my life flash before my eyes, but I knew I didn't have enough of a life for it to flash before my eyes. The only reason I told him though, was so that he could get a small piece of my life, and realize how grateful I am to be here and not being almost drowned in a pool everyday.

"I'm sorry.. I didn't know.." He trailed off. I sighed.

"You didn't know because you thought you already knew me inside and out. That's why I don't forgive you. I'll forgive you when you actually get to know me. If you don't mind though, I was at the hospital pretty late last night and I'm kind of exhausted. Tell Joleen not to worry about ordering me takeout." He slid over and tucked me in like he had last night.

"Goodnight Audrey." I inhaled. Breathing in his scent. He smelt like really good cologne.

"Goodnight Harley." I heard my door click closed and closed my eyes. Somehow with a thousand and one thoughts in my mind, I managed to fall asleep.