Reaching Destiny

"Wow," Lacey whispered as she gawked out of the window at her new school campus. All of the buildings looked so big and mysterious. The place had a very Gothic architectural style to it. The campus was so massive, Lacey had trouble believing she was still in Jersey.

How'd they find this place anyway? It's in the middle of friggin nowhere. Lacey's thoughts were interrupted as Robyn abruptly stopped the car.

"You'd think after everything you would have some grace by now. Jeeze," grumbled Aiden. Robyn hit him in the stomach and Aiden let out a grunt. Robyn ignored it and turned around to look at Lacey who was thoroughly enjoying the scene.

"We're here!" she chimed.

"Sweet," Lacey nodded,"... So where exactly is here?"

Robyn got out of the driver's seat and went to open Lacey's door. She leaned on it and watched Aiden stroll into the building before answering.

"This is where you'll be living. Now, come on so you can meet the guys."

Lacey grabbed her bags and followed Robyn inside. When she was inside, she looked around to take in her surroundings and realized she was in a huge living room. Further ahead she saw a kitchen and on her right about 30 feet away was a set of stairs. She was in a house. Why in the world would she be in a house? She thought she'd be living in a dorm.

Oh well. This is better, she thought as she examined the massive place.

Apparently there was a guy laying on the couch. He had straight, dark brown hair that was about 1 1/2 inches long and moussed up. He wore a black band t-shirt that said 'Turbonegro' on it and had dark blue jeans with holes where his knees were.

"Who's this lovely creature?" he asked turning his head slightly to look at Lacey. Startled, Lacey turned to look at him. He had gorgeous green eyes. He stood up and walked toward Lacey.

"I'm Blake," he introduced himself as he looked her over more.

"This is Lacey," Robyn said as she stepped between them. "She'll be living here this year with us."

"What?!" Aiden practically yelled as he came down the stairs. "No," he simply stated.

"Why not?" Blake asked with a look of pure, obviously fake innocence.

Aiden turned to glare at Blake. He began to yell something when a voice was heard from another room.

"Hey guys, do me a favor. Uh, don't fight. I'd hate to have to go in there and break you two up while I'm cooking. You know if I don't stay in here the whole time, I'll forget about it and end up burning our house down," yelled a guy's voice from the kitchen. Robyn grabbed Lacey's hand and started dragging her toward the doorway that connected the living room and kitchen.

"Come on, you have to meet Ryan. You'll love him, I swear. He's nothing like these two fucktards," Robyn said to Lacey as she looked back towards Blake and Aiden. They both displayed fake looks of hurt as they followed the girls.

The most delicious aroma hit Lacey when she arrived at the doorway. Her eyes were closed as she inhaled the smell of what was to be her dinner. She exhaled and opened her eyes to the most peculiar thing. There was a boy sitting on the floor with his legs extended forward, back against a chair that went with the dining table, who was just staring at the oven door waiting with little patience for the lasagna to finish cooking. Robyn cleared her throat to get his attention. He looked over, startled, and noticed Lacey. He smiled widely and stood up. He walked over to her and introduced himself.

"Hi. My name is Ryan," he said shaking her hand. "Who are you?"

"I'm Lacey," she informed him with a smile. She took a small step back to look at him. He had kind, dark brown eyes. He was wearing a black beanie on his head and you could see his blonde hair poking out from under it. He wore jeans that had a chain hanging on it from a wallet and you could see his white undershirt coming out from under his dark grey t-shirt. He also wore black, cotton fingerless gloves. He grinned widely and spoke again.

"So you're Robyn's friend? I've never seen you before. Do you go here? Oh! Are you staying for dinner? Please say yes," he said with excitement as he was practically jumping up and down.

"Actually Ryan, my friend, Lacey is new here and she's gonna live with us this year," Blake explained.

"Oh, cool! Then welcome. You're going to love it here," Ryan assured Lacey. Something seemed to strike him as his eyes got a little wider and he slowly turned to Aiden. "Oh... this'll be complicated," he said under his breath.

Blake apparently heard him and corrected, "No. This is going to be good."

Lacey was about to question why it would be so bad if she stayed with them but was interrupted by a bell. Everyone looked over to the timer next to the stove and Ryan ran over to the oven to get the lasagna out. A momentary lapse in judgment caused him to attempt to pick it up with his bare hands. He lifted it slightly and then pulled his hands back while yelping in pain. He blew on his fingers and then stuck his fingertips in his mouth to cool them off. He looked back over to the stove and saw that he had flipped their dinner.

"Perfect," sighed Robyn. "Now what do we do for food?"

Ryan hung his head in embarrassment. "Sorry guys," he mumbled. He looked so cute and ashamed that Lacey couldn't help but try to comfort him in some way. Because Lacey found herself with absolutely zero skill in comforting people, she decided to change the subject. Not knowing was to say, she just settled on suggesting they order pizza.

"Sounds good to me," said Blake.

"Alright. You order it, genius," Aiden said to Ryan. With that, Aiden took the phone and tossed it at Ryan. Then he turned around and went to the living room. He plopped down on the couch and turned on the TV. Blake ran over and jumped on Aiden's legs which were taking up half the couch. Aiden kicked Blake off and then moved his legs so he could sit. The two children then fought over the remote. Robyn rolled her eyes and went into the living room also. Lacey followed, highly amused at the way the boys were acting, and left Ryan to call for pizza.

When Aiden noticed Lacey and Robyn coming to sit, he stopped fighting with Blake and went to sit on the chair separated away from the couch. He turned to lay sideways in it and layed like that with the remote, flipping through the many channels while ignoring everyone else. Blake sat in the middle of the couch and patted next to him, signaling for Lacey to sit there. Robyn shoved him over slightly and sat next to him. She made Lacey sit next to her as she grinned triumphantly at Blake. Blake looked annoyed but didn't say anything.

"Mmkay. The pizzas will be here in an hour or so," Ryan announced as he walked into the now-people-filled room. He took the remote from Aiden and sat down next to Blake at the arm of the couch.

"Hey!" said Aiden with slight frustration as he turned his head around so he could see Ryan.

Ryan looked over to Lacey, ignoring Aiden, and turned off the TV. Blake groaned and Ryan ignored that too.

"So... how about we all get acquainted," he said while throwing the remote behind him.

"We already are acquainted, dumb shit," said Aiden. "Now go get the remote."

Ryan reluctantly stood up and went behind the couch to search for the remote. He finally found it and threw it at Aiden.

"Heads up!" he called out as he realized Aiden was about to get hit in the head with it. Aiden lazily looked back at him and caught it with amazing speed just centimeters from his face.

"Nice," commented an impressed Lacey as Aiden just turned back around to turn on and watch the TV.

"Thanks," replied Aiden. Lacey was pleased when he said this because she was convinced it sounded as if he were slightly smiling.

This won't be so bad. He'll warm up to me eventually, Lacey thought to herself as Ryan sat back down in his seat.