“How long are they going to drone on?” Jessie Whitman asked Leigha Deluca in an exaggerated whisper. Leigha didn’t respond to her friend, she just gave Jessie a glare before turning her attention back to the front of the auditorium and the high school principal. “Why are we sitting with these dorks?” Trenton Guerin leaned over to ask Jessie in a stage whisper. “Because we’re stupid,” Jessie returned in the same tone. “God,” she added with an eye-roll, “could any of this get any more boring? It’s not like the rules here are any different than they were at Willow Middle.” “And we should know,” Trent said with a grin at her, coupled with a wicked wink. “We both broke every single one of those.” Jessie snorted in response. “More like you did,” she told him as she poked him in the side. “I never got called in the office for breaking the rules. You’re alone in that one.” “Only reason you never got called in was because you never got caught,” Trent said as he rubbed his side. “You never get caught cause people never thing that you’d do anything wrong.” “I can’t help it that people take one look and see you for the bad-boy you really are,” Jessie said with a smirk. “But look on the bright side,” she added, “we both could be worse…we could be like them.” She motioned with her head toward Leigha and Ryan, who were sitting together paying close attention to the principal’s orientation speech. Leigha was even going so far as to taking notes in her book. Trent followed the motion and laughed loudly, gaining glares from the teachers that were watching everyone. “Look at them,” he said to her. “They’re perfect for each other. I think we might have to go to drastic measures in order to get them to lighten up and have a little fun with us.” “Will you two please shut up?” Ryan asked them, but really his twin in particular. God, he didn’t want to get in trouble his first day. “You’re going to get us all in trouble again. And, do you really want to be the one to tell Mom that we were called in the office on the first day?” Trent just shrugged carelessly and Jessie stuck her tongue out at him. “Don’t mind the two of them,” Leigha whispered to Ryan softly. “They’ll be singing a different tune later this week when they come crawling to us for notes and homework and we say no.” “Oh,” Ryan said with a grin. “You already know this game huh?” He winked at her. “We could always give them the wrong notes and answers as payback.” “That’s a good one,” Leigha said with a firm nod. “And we could also turn them in if we really wanted to be cruel.” “Now who needs to shut up?” Jessie asked with a dark scowl. “He’s pretty much done now anyway,” Ryan said with a carefree laugh that most of the Royals, junior members included, never let out in public. They all watched as the principal concluded his long-winded speech by telling them that they could talk amongst themselves until the bell rang for the next classes. As one unified group, Jessie, Leigha and Ryan all turned to Trent. “What?” Trent asked them defensively. “What?” Jessie returned in an exaggerated impersonation. “Please don’t try to tell us that you thought we were going to let this morning’s little droolfest go by without comment. Come on, you know us better than that.” “Drop it,” Trent said in warning, a blush and scowl working across his features at the same time. “Yeah,” Ryan said, “you should. Do you realize that you’ve been making cow eyes at our brother’s soulmate? He’s going to kick your ass if you keep on.” “Because he knows I’m competition,” Trent said as he puffed his chest out in importance. “More like cause you’re annoying and it’s kinda scary to watch you do it,” Leigha said dryly, shocking them all. “Good one,” Jessie said, giving her new friend a high-five. “I knew hanging out with me would have a positive influence on you.” “You can definitely tell you’ve done something to her,” Ryan said. He was looking at Leigha in a whole new light. Not many people picked on Trent, especially not people who’d only known him for a couple of days. “So how long ‘till Kyle finds out the truth about us Royals?” Ryan asked as he changed the subject. “I give it a week tops,” Jessie said with a firm nod of her head. “He lives on our street, he’s a jock with Michael, and already you can tell the elders like him. He’ll be in on it in no time.” “I give it less than that,” Trent added, relieved that the conversation had changed. “Did you see the way that he kept looking at Tess this morning. And she was returning it full force. We all know how good Tess is at keeping things from people she cares about.” “Not very good?” Leigha asked. She didn’t know Tess that well yet. The others laughed and that was answer enough for her. “I’m with Trent, but for a different reason,” she added. “Am I the only one who got the feeling that…” “He belonged there, with them, with us?” Ryan finished for her. “Nope, I got that impression too.” Jessie and Trent both nodded as well. “But that’s all up to the ‘Elders’. As junior members, we aren’t a part of the decision making process.” The bell rang, interrupting their conversation and signaling the start of the next class period. “We’d better get going. Want to walk to Bio. with me?” Ryan asked Leigha, who he knew was in the class with him. Leigha responded with a blush and nodded. They both waved goodbye to Trent and Jessie. “Where are we off to?” Trent asked Jessie as the girl slung her bag on her shoulder. Their schedules had always been the same since their teacher in elementary school had decided that Trent was somehow easier to manage when Jessie was around. “We have Government next,” Jessie told him with a grin, but her eyes were moving elsewhere in the auditorium. “But, I’ll be meeting you there. Hey Liam,” she said to Liam Brody, a freshmen who’d come up behind Trent. “You ready?” She asked him with an engaging grin Trent had never seen her use before. “See you in class Trent,” she said as she took the hand Liam offered her and began to leave the auditorium. Trent was left alone, staring after her in amazed confusion. “When the hell did boys start liking Jessie?” He asked himself as he gathered his things. “And when the hell did Jessie start like them back?” “Hell no,” he said out loud as he stopped walking in the middle of the hallway. “There’s no way in hell this was going on with his Jessie. Liam Brody wasn’t good enough for her,” he continued silently to himself as he again began to stalk toward the History Hall. “And, until someone worthy did come along, he was just going to make it his job to watch out for her and keep losers like Liam Brody away from Jessica Whitman.” TBC

Part 10