♣ lakeland highschool

[▐ MONARCHY ♥]

WELCOME to lakeland highschool. this highschool is located in walled lake, michigan - where the weather is never the same. so be prepared to the temperatures. one hour it's below zero, the next it hypes up into the fifties. Let's just say, the wardrobe for these students are huge - no matter their income rate. The school year just started a few months ago, and now they're in the beginning of November - and guess what, temperatures are no different. Only two days ago it was in the seventies, yesterday it was twenty-two degrees. the freshmans are fresh out of middle school, still getting used to their schedules - ever though its term two now, some have adjusted well enough. on the surface of this high school you see normal students, but if you look closer - and turn a right, left, then another right, left, walk up a hill hallway and then another left - the last door to the left; it's the official band room ! these students here don't just play music, they live it.

tagged for • angel
literacy • any ^^

[&&ANGEL]

”Do you have everything, Ne?” Annabelle turned her head giving a swift nod to her mom who eagerly drove her to school every day. Lakeland High… Not a high school Anna had prepared for. She had just flew in from California a few months ago and she tried her best to fit in with the many Michigan students who had been around this area for nearly all of their life. She however, had moved from the little islands of the Philippines to California and now Michigan? It was hard enough to cope with just finishing middle school and now Anna had being brought against her will to come and attend this new High School with new kids, new bullies, new preppies and new populars. All the things she would have to prepare herself for once again.

El Toro High- that had been the high school of her choice. It was a beautiful school filled with familiar faces and enough new ones to pull out a new leaf and impress them all with her faithful friends behind her. However, Annabelle left them all. With sincere goodbyes, she left on the plane- mom, dad, sister and all. She even had to leave her two beloved birds with careful owners because taking them upon the flight to Michigan was way to expensive for she and her family- which had been currently effected by the terrible economy. That was one reason they had left California to buy a cheaper house. The economy hurt her family hard and so they had no choice but to move. This devastated Anna but she had to accept it.

As the car gradually slowed, they neared the school entrance. Anna’s eyes wavered slightly as she watched the students flurry around into the school building to either get to class or talk a bit with their friends- friends that Annabelle definitely lacked even after the first trimester. True, it is finally the second trimester after much of Anna’s hoping, however, she was still quite a stranger to the school. She was nothing but a shadow that happened to be there- something that is meant to be ignored. Yet, Anna didn’t want to be nothing. She wanted to be known as she had been when she was still in California- that artist that everyone talked about; the strong-headed Asian girl who played the trumpet and refused to cuss at all; the girl who scolded everyone for profanity and blasphemy. Yep, that was her. And to her closer friends she was the girl who’s feeling’s were easily hurt; the one who was shy when confronting the new and the older; the girl who stood up for herself when she felt strong enough to do so. However, upon the outside, she looked like any other Filipino: black hair, tan skin, black eyes to match as well. Adding to that, she was a bit on the chubby side, yet her clothing covered that. Her hair fell down to about two inches below her shoulders and were cut into a layer look. Anna wore no make-up at all and she looked pretty darn ok without it. Her face was proportioned according to her dad: big nose, medium-sized, cat-like eyes and large batty eye-lashes. This was accompanied by her glasses of which she was required to have since 4th grade. Indeed. That was her alright. Annabelle Calford.

Anna took a deep breath then opened the care door, slowly stepping out, and eyes searching the area as she usually did. Her backpack was pulled over her shoulder while a shady dark gray, trumpet case was held firmly in her right hand. Indeed nearly her whole life was in that case- well most of her life. She loved music, band and her trumpet. Practicing the brass instrument nearly took up her whole day- aside from homework and such. Anna was pretty good at playing her trumpet. She knew all her scales, she knew how to tongue 8th notes and more and she was pretty good at improvising and site reading. She had been playing ever since 4th grade when she had first seen the example trumpet player and there she decided she would commit to that shiny golden-colored instrument.

The day was quickly over as Annabelle rushed back and forth from class to class; bumping into people she didn’t know and talking to others who she had just aquatinted herself with- as usual and now it was time for band class. Uhh… I guess I gotta go to the field today. The whole class had been informed earlier that the concert band would meet again in the band room. Her eyes quickly settled along the line of people in the warm enclosed two-floored space, instruments of various sizes in their hands. Anna quickly rushed over, letting her backpack falling next to the pile of backpacks from the other students and quickly pulling out her own trumpet. She was third chair- a place she didn’t want to be for she was surrounded by guys, thus, she was the only trumpet girl in concert band. She wanted no more but to be first trumpet so she could prove that she was more than just a pretty face to all these guys, yet being new, it was hard to get along with all of them- although most of them just wanted to flirt.

Thus, she quickly joined them, smiling as she spotted a few of her friends: Megan- a flute player, Jamie- another flute player and Kimmy- a saxophone. Those were the three closest friends she had at this school, though they seldom talking unless Anna or any of them came near enough for a conversation to start. But they were her friends- or as she considered them. They all knew her skills and supported her all the way just like her friends in California, however, they rarely cheered her on or wished her good luck- a trait that her CA friends had that these Michigan friends did not. Yet, she ignored it, quickly taking her place in the shuffling group and waiting for commands, trumpet in hand.

~~~~~~

Jace gave a flashing smile as he passed a group of junior girls. Yet as usual, they ignored him. Ahh, they’ll come around eventually… With these nonchalant thoughts the young man strode forward through school, head high and proud. As cocky as he looked, today was actually his first day. Jace had just arrived from California and visiting his aunts and uncles off in the distant state, but now he was coming back to Michigan and he wasn’t all too happy. It was now cold. Very cold… It was colder than he had gotten used to at California where the low temperatures never came near 40 degrees and the heat raised over 100. He shook his head and pushed back his light blonde hair, giving the light brown roots a slight shuffle. Jace had been thinking about dying his hair completely brown for he knew his hair would turn brown eventually, yet he decided to let nature do it’s work and he was quite happy with his medium –cut hair that fell a bit over his ears yet didn’t curve around his cheeks. Just as he liked it. And just how the gals like it too… He raised an eyebrow toward another group of girls- freshman girls. They, compared to the juniors, smiled back at him, waving in delight. Ahh… that’s what I like to see.

His own day passed slowly. Jace had nearly slept through history, snored through English and yawned all through math. However, he was quite eager for his band class of which was meeting upon the field. He shuddered knowing it was quite cold today and there had to be some apperant reason that they were out in the cold to give out their cozy room to someone else. Jace took a deep breath then sped into a sprint as he struggled to reach the field before the bell rang. This, he had accomplished by only a split second. Pulling out his large saxophone, he began wetting a small reed. His eyes however were off toward the flutes. Yet as the others began to practice, he averted his gaze- awaiting the final signal from the teacher to begin their song.

Ooc.// Don’t you love it how Annabelle’s part of the post is way larger than Jace’s?? xP

[▐ MONARCHY ♥]

It was cold, simple as that. Freezing cold. The girl pranced around in circles, her best friend Kelsy staring at her like she was a complete idiot. The girl – Cassey – was in fact not an idiot, but very down to earth and quiet most of the time. She was dressed in dark blue jeans, with brown boots over them at the bottom. Her top could not be seen though, because of her bulky, light brown coat. It was rimmed with fur on the cuffs and hood, and inside was faux rabbit fur – it was warm to say the least, but the girl was still cold. Even with her hood up and dark brown gloves on her hands, she was still jumping up and down, freezing her nonexistent tail off. The brunette was a freshman, as was her friend Kelsy. It was sad, if you knew about it. Kelsy was a month younger than Cassey, yet Kels was in eighth grade still – and only came out here this early to laugh at her friend while they waited together for the bus. Before Cassey could yell at the black-haired girl to stop laughing and go away, the yellow bus came around the corner, so Kelsy scampered back to her house, which was rudely placed right next to the bus stop. The girl blinked her dark, liquid – green eyes and quickly grabbed her blue and brown plaid backpack, running as fast as she could onto the bus. Sitting in the front seat, she prepared for another day at her beloved high school.

The day passed quickly, besides being early for nearly every class except computers – for some odd reason she could never get there on time, it was like it was jinxed or something. After fourth hour she scampered to her locker, then the science class, her ultimate favorite. They were still learning about things they had last year, and the year before that, and the year before that ; any teachers ever heard of variety? Anyways, the class passed quickly – seeing as through most of it she spoke to the three populars she sat next to. Jenna Conners, Mike Shea, and Hailey Williams. They were all usually total brats, but for some reason they always calmed down around the brunette, and talked to her like she was their equal – even though she definitely wasn’t. She lived alone with her mom, her too-many cats and her greyhound setter mix dog. After class was over she hugged them goodbye, waved and then quickly ran to her locker. Most students went home after fifth hour, because something happened to their sixth period, but not for Cassey. Her band teacher, Mr. Greene, was always on time and expected them to be. Just another class to be early for.

The brunette opened her locker after three tries. 28 – 40 – 30. This already freaked her out, because every time she couldn’t open it her heart skipped a beat or two – afraid of being late. She shoved her science binder and text book in there and then kicked her locker closed, running past two of her best friends Kristina and Rachel, to the band room. When she entered it, stunned. The concert band was taking it over, making her squirm. Sixth hour was hers, hers. Wind band, flute, first chair. Not a single wind bander, prancing over to one of the lower band peoples, who was actually a junior, she chirped. ”Hey, concert person – where’s wind band?” Outside. Outside! How was she supposed to play outside? She groaned flipping her hair back, and trudged to the lockers.

She walked by the alto sax section, and heard laughing. Her green eyes shot up, glaring at one boy in particular. Jacob Holt. He was an idiot, freshman, alto saxophone player. They were friends, but still – he was an idiot. Then the bell rang. She jumped forward, throwing her locker door open and grabbing her flute. She set it up, and threw her case in Jake’s locker, a thing she always did – then scampered out the band’s back doors onto the field.

Cold hit her immediately. She was wearing a thing sweat jacket, a dark navy blue, underneath it another incredibly thing light grey old navy shirt, with the words ‘ Old Navy, 2008 ‘ plastered on it in bright orange letters. She was officially cold. Cassandra ran forward, toward the middle of the people. Maybe she could get warm being in between everybody. It wasn’t working, she tried playing a concert b flat scale. Her flute wasn’t working, peachy. She tried to zip up her jacket, that wasn’t working. So now she was cold, her instrument refused to work, and oh, did I mention she was cold?

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Jake sighed, class was going by extremely fast. He didn’t pay much attention to anything, so of course it went by fast. He couldn’t even remember being at the bus stop earlier in the day! It was sad really, but the boy had the attention span of a peanut and the memory of a goldfish. The little nutty fish he was, a perfect name for him – too bad nobody has thought of it yet. Anyways, he went through personal conditioning, his math class, his science, then his social studies, and hallelujah – lunch! After lunch was band, yippee. He walked into the class, his saxophone already set up by his fellow friends. He was third chair, with Kimmy – another freshman, second, and a senior as the first. He sat down next to Kimberly, smiling. ”Afternoon KimKim!” She didn’t ignore him, but rather smiled and turned back to her other friends. He shrugged, and sat down, beginning to connect the sax strap – until Jason tapped him on the shoulder.

’Hey, go say hi to the new girl!’ he said. New girl? There was a new girl? Wait, attention adverted – Austen just walked in. He smiled, and laughed as she realized she was outside today, getting a glare from the bombshell brunette.Then Jason caught his attention again. You know, the new girl from California! New girl? Wasn’t she like, here at the beginning of the new year. Whatever, he didn’t need to talk to her. ’Come on Jakey, or are you afraid she’ll ignore you?’ That was a challenge, yes it was. He stood up, smirking. ”I’m not afraid, and I’ll get her to talk to me,” he said, before glancing at the clock. Ten minutes before class, perfect. Mr. Rosenace was never on time, he was the one who was the concert band director. Pulling on his jacket slightly, he walked across the room to the trumpet section. Third chair, only girl. He leaned on her stand – which was pretty strong, seeing as it could hold the air brained Jacob. ”Hi, I’m Jake – you're Belle right?” he asked, remembering Kimmy ranting about some new girl earlier in the year.

[&&ANGEL]

At the very moment, Mr. Greene strode to the grassy area, another student came bounding forth. Late… Tsk, tsk. Jace suddenly broke out laughing- something he had intended to leave to himself yet the sudden misfortune just brought him to tears, of joy of course. Yet, realizing what he had just done, he pulled his hand over his mouth- to late! His small chuckle immediately turned into a roaring chorus of laughter and glee from the rest of the class. Fortunately, the teacher had apparently gone back to the classroom being the forgetful person he was.

Smacking himself mentally, Jace looked back to Cassandra as if he could make up for his sudden outburst. However, he found an opportunity in hand. She of all people shook and shivered from the cold like the rest of the students who had unfortunately brought out their thinner jacket. Adding to that, the freezing temperature had fooled with her instrument along with most of the other hand held, metal instruments. This would include the trumpets; the flutes, the trombones, the tubas and his very own saxophone that refused to even play out the simple B flat concert scale. Yet, Jace was warm with his three layers of jacket along with a long sleeve shirt and his signature white under shirt. His favorite black, thin coat went over his body as his first layer then his much thicker faux deer-skin jacket and last his warm Eskimo-looking caribou jacket- faux fox fur of course. This, he considered he could give up to the prominent flute player- who was pretty hot in his books.

Thus, Jace stood up from where he sat, letting the saxophone down from the black neck strap around his neck, to rest upon the side of his chair. He took a deep breath, combing his hair back with his fingers before striding forward in that usual cool-boy fashion. Yet as he got near, his chest-out, belly-in posture had evaporated to be replaced by a more silly hand-along-the-back-of- neck kind of look. His eyes planted firmly upon her shuddering form. ”Er, You look pretty hot- I mean, you look like you’re freezing your butt off. You can er… use my jacket if you want. I got three on right now.” He gave a stuttering chuckle as he unzipped his jacket and handed it to her as an offering- mentally slapping himself for his mistake. That cool-boy look had now completely disappeared- not something you would expect from a guy like him, however it was possible. Jace could just imagine his cousin, Annabelle smacking his shoulder for being such a perv and being so stupid to say that- something she often did and now more than ever since they went to the same school, she was able to get her message across that he was taking staring at girl way too far. However, Jace would always shrug it off, giving her that smug little grin and easily pushing her away playfully.

------

Anna took another deep breath, her fingers standing ready, hovering over the milky white tops of her trumpet keys. Her left hand held up the trumpet strongly up to her lips, the mouth piece finally warm enough from much breathing on so a cold shock wouldn’t hit her before playing. This room was definitely very cozy yet it didn’t warm up instruments all too well. For nearly the first few minutes of the class Annabelle had to rub the colder areas of her brass trumpet like the valves, the tubes and her mouth piece- of which her skin would be touching as she played. Adding to that she had to adjust to that familiar sharp twist in her note’s sound from the cold temperature of today. Yet, she was content after that first few struggling moments and had gone to playing naturally as she did.

Quick and swift, her fingers danced upon the keys, making a slight popping sound that only Anna could hear as the keys popped up once again. A loud vibrant sound echoed forth from the wide bell that served as an escape route for the beautiful music this instrument produced. Thus, she quickly flashed through her scales one by one, starting from B flat of course- the easiest and the first scale she had ever learned to play on her trumpet. Belle was pretty good and if it weren’t for the new additions to the trumpet section she would have been second chair and playing first trumpet pieces on those that required only two of the most experienced and expert players. But she was experienced and she knew it. Annabelle had been taking private lessons ever since the 6th grade as well as school band which gave her double the experience and practice. However, she was still placed at third chair- of which she grumbled about but dealt with, with her own conscience.

However, little did she know it, a saxophone player came padding up to her, nearly catching her by surprise as he leaned over her music upon her stand. Anna raised an eyebrow, looking up at his face, finding it ok looking and familiar. Jake… She knew only his name from Kimmy who often mentioned him as well as the fact that he had stated his name right then and there. Annabelle hadn’t expected it. No at all. Rarely did anyone talk to her that she hadn’t had the courage to talk to first; being the new kid, she was literally invisible to all who hadn’t discovered her skills yet.

Nevertheless, Jake was actually talking to her and Annabelle had little time to think before her answer. ”Uhh, yeah. Annabelle Calford, actually.” She corrected him- a familiar habit of hers. ”er…” Suddenly realizing her nerdy impulse she shook her head and let her trumpet down to rest along her lap. ”I’ve heard about you before. From Kimmy.” She looked back at her friend who gave a simple shrug of her shoulders, signaling that she had definitely been eavesdropping. Dang, Kimmy. She narrowed her eyes, sticking out her tongue, adding a gentle giggle to boot before pulling her attention back on the saxophone player waiting for whatever he had come over here for.

[▐ MONARCHY ♥]

Cassey sighed; she hadn’t expected people to be laughing at her. Sure, she wasn’t the most popular, but she just had to be popular enough for people to notice she came late to practice, just brilliant it was. She stepped from foot to foot, shifting her weight nearly constantly. It was cold, definitely cold, and she hadn’t gotten any warmer. In fact, she probably had gotten colder no matter how much she moved around. Why couldn’t it just suddenly warm up and be hot again? Every time you’re prepared for the cold weather, it winds up being overly hot, and when you’re prepared for warm weather, it ends up being below freezing. But that was just how Austen’s luck rolled.

She then began to fumble with her flute. It was colder then she was, turning the tips of her fingers numb. The keys wouldn’t move well, and she could see a hint of frost around the metal that splits the air. Today was just gonna be so much fun, wasn’t it. After a moment of staring at her flute, she looked up; staring at the people there. She could always look for the other flutes, but there was only two others and both were frolicking in the trumpet section, where their boyfriends were. Cass rolled her eyes before continuing to look forward. Her eyes rested on a boy in the saxophone section. He had been the one laughing at her, at least first. Her stare rested on him, gazing at him until of course he looked at her. She was always caught off guard when somebody’s eyes locked on her, so natural she blushed and looked away, fumbling with her flute again.

She heard footsteps nearing her, crunching across the frozen-tipped ground. She breathed out, calming down. Why did people always had to come talk to her, why couldn’t they just leave her alone? That’s what she liked most, not talking to people and staying quiet. Cassandra looked up, her liquid green eyes locking onto the person walking over to her. It was that boy again. Him again? She stayed calm, smiling as he came up. From far away he had looked like a cool guy, like most of the populars she was forced to talk to daily, but as he walked closer he must have lost his composure because he suddenly looked embarrassed and uncomfortable. Once he began to speak, she giggled as he fumbled over his words. Her hand flew to her face, muffling her laugh as to not make him more embarrassed. He kept tripping over his words, but it wasn’t so bad really. You look pretty hot’

[/color] He slipped, making her laugh more, a soft blush coming to her face once again.

He handed her the coat, and she took it from his grasp, not surprised by its weight. Her own coat weight a lot, and she could barely hold it in her hands. ”Thanks,” she said, still smiling. She slipped it on over her light grey coat, blinking her eyes at how big it was. Jace was taller than her, and of course it was going to be larger! Men’s coats always were, but again, she was used to it – her own coat being two sizes too big. Warmth spread over her body, letting her relax only slightly. Once she got the coat on her eyes looked back up to Jace and she began to twist and turn her flute behind her back, a habit she had begun when she first saw color guard twirling the batons. "Uh, I'm really sorry, but you seem to remember who I am, but I can't really remember who you are. You used to go to my middle school, right?"

& & & & & & & & & &

Jake's striking blue eyes looked at her. Under his dark brown hair his eyes really stood out, one of his best features in his mind and everyone else's. He watched as she thought or a moment, she stared at him for a bit, while he waited. Jacob didn't have much patience at all, and had a very small attention span. So right now her silence was starting to get on his nerves, but then she finally spoke. What did she just say? Did she just correct him? 'Annabelle Calford, actually' She did! She corrected him. "Oh, well sorry then. Your friends over there told me that your name was Belle," he said, cooly pushing off the name mix up.

He then realized that she had mentioned that she knew him, well at least knew who he was. This made him smile. Of course even newer students knew who he was. There was definite groups of populars, and Jake happened to be in one of them where he knew who everyone was, and everyone - in almost every grade - knew who he was. He liked it this way, except for certain times. Such as when someone would randomly walk up to him and try to start a conversation, or when he was trying to ask a girl out and they would blow him off because of his somewhat bad reputation.

"Oh yes, Kimberly. She is a loud mouth isn't she? Well, who doesn't love KimKim though," he said, talking to both Annabelle and himself. "So, would you prefer me to call you Annabelle, or would you have a nickname? Like Anna, or Bella or something like that?" he asked. Jacob, not only with a short attention span he could not always remember overly long names, especially those of a newer student. How was he honestly supposed to remember Annabelle? It was such a long name. [/blockquote]

[&&ANGEL]

By the light blush of her cheeks Jace smiled in triumph. Jace scores again! he gave a fluttering laugh as he rubbed the back of his neck once again. Maybe his little mess-up wasn’t so bad anyways. It was an easy was to give her a compliment and hey- he hadn’t received a slap yet. This was all going pretty well after all. He gave a wide grin and nodded to her thanks. ”No problem.” His antics had worked. Cassey was warm, he got to talk to her- something he wouldn’t have done alone and so smoothly- and he gained a bit of her self-respect. A surprising outcome for a guy like Jace. However, he gave a slightly frown seeing that Cassandra couldn’t recall his simple name. True, they hadn’t really talked too much in the past but he had been in a few of her classes in middle school. He knew many of her companions and almost everyone mentioned her from time to time, including his buds who waited around the saxophone section, eyes wide and bodies squirming like eager little girls. However, she should have known his name by now.

Jace shrugged his shoulders lightly. ”Yeah. I’m Jace Berlton. I was in a few of your middle school classes, but yeah… you know. I don’t really ‘answer’ the teacher’s questions in class.” Jace chuckled lightly, his cheeks turning a bright shade of pink. He wasn’t all too into math, literature and all that; he didn’t have great grades either. He however, was a musician. He loved the saxophone like many who stood around him right now. He had caught this music bug from Annabelle who had picked out his saxophone with him when they were still young and to this day he still held the saxophone that Anna personally pointed out, proud and high. Thus, he had loved music since then and ever now and then when he got to visit Annabelle these days, they would spend all their time looking for jazzy duets between trumpet and saxophone.

But this was rare. Ever since Jace had moved to Michigan, away from Annabelle who still lived in t he Philippines, Jace was able to visit her and stay for long amounts of time, but then school got in the way and Annabelle had moved to California. There, they were separate: Anna at the schools in Cali while Jace stayed in Michigan. But then, Annabelle moved to his area and you would think they would be visiting more than ever, but no. Belle was much busier- especially now that they were in high school. She had to deal with friends, homework, relationships, jobs, parents and more. All this he had to deal with in turn but at a lesser weight for Anna was new and friends, relationships and jobs were hard to find when you moved to a new state. Thus, he rarely saw her and he was lucky enough to see him at school. Yet still, she made a big impression in his life seeing that he was her only older sibling that was about her age.

-----

Annabelle scolded herself once again as she found a strong pang in his voice within his apology. Why in the world do I have to do that? She hated that trait within her: such a perfectionist and such a freak. It was one of those things that just happen like when Anna is playing a scale. If she messed up, she would always stop and say: ”Whoops, uhh wait.” And then she would fix it, even if her teacher told her to just play through it no matter what. An impulse as her mother had often said; a habit as well. ”No. No. Its ok..” She muttered, looking up at him with apologetic, glittering dark brown eyes.

”You can just call me Belle or anything really…” Anna replied, smiling warmly as if it could make up for her rude first impression. Only her closest friends called her Belle- which was not many. Some who knew her and just wanted to shorten her name called her Anna while others like teachers called her Annabelle or by her last name Calford. She hadn’t really achieved a nick name yet other than that span of name. In California she had been called: Bella, Bea, Beya, Annie, Anne, Annellie and many more that have just come out when her friends played around. Not surprisingly, she had begun to miss her nicknames and tried her best to resurrect Belle- a favorite of hers out of the many.

Then he mentioned Kimmy. Anna nodded in agreement, laughing at his statement. She had only known Kimmy for a few months yet she was the first one to properly welcome her to the school and the first one who became her friend. Yeah. Everyone loved Kimberly for sure. However, she wasn’t all too peachy keen with the teachers. More than once had Kimmy gotten Belle in trouble and she hated her for doing so. It was terribly embarrassing when she would exclaim her name out loud and the teacher would send both of them to the principle- not something that would kick-start her good-reputation in school and in Michigan. Yet, Kimmy was still pretty cool. She was nice and friendly in all ways possible. Adding to that, she was a fun person to be around. As Jake had said: ”Who doesn’t love Kimmy?” But there was a down side to this little ball of sunshine. Gossip.

”Heh. Well, Kimmy told me to watch out. She said you were kind of an idiot.” Suddenly realizing what she had said, Anna covered her mouth, eyes widening. ”I mean…” She bit her lip, casting a glance at her friend who had seemed to loose interest in eavesdropping onto their conversation. Belle hadn’t meant to say it. It kind of slipped out in all of her amusement. Something that often happened as well. But now, she couldn’t cover it up. Not at all. It slipped out and there was nothing to do. Her eyes traveled back up at Jake hoping Kimmy wouldn’t be all too mad.

[▐ MONARCHY ♥]

Cassey watched his face, snuggling in the coat he had given her. It was rather warm, since of course he had just been wearing it, but still, warm, warm was good. Especially since it was roughly twenty-eight degrees, and only warming up by hundredths every five minutes. Yes, it was that cold. Everything in Michigan was that cold. Watch it warm up to the seventies when she got home. Yes, she would walk into her overly warm house, and then it would warm up more and well, it would just be too warm, and then she'd be wearing a tank top and thin flannel pajamas, then, then of course it would get cold again, and she would become a human Popsicle. Yes, that would happen, and she would freeze, well, yes, just freeze. That would be what would happen, of course, and then once she got warm again, it would get overly warm again, then drop down below zero at night. Yes, she loved and hated the Michigan weather, but she lived in Michigan, no where else, and had only been out of it three times. Once in sixth grade to go to Cedar Point, again in eighth grade to Columbus and Cincinnati, Ohio - then one last time during eighth grade summer when she went to New York, New York to see a few broad way plays, and try out for one - she had gotten the part, but of course had to give it up since she had school. Stupid school, always ruined everything.

Getting back to Cassey. She smiled sheepishly at his expression. She usually remember names and faces exceptionally well, but when you didn't see someone, or hear their voice for a long while - well, your memories start to fade of course. So, she hadn't remembered Jace, so what? He just said himself that he never answered any questions in class, and she usually didn't notice the people that didn't answer anything in class, unless of course she sat next to him in class. Wait, didn't she sit next to him in Language Arts. She thought for a moment, about one of the random things that she thought about at odd times of course when people bring up old memories. Yeah! She had sat next to him, though he looked, well, a lot different since then of course. He had gotten taller, and well, just looked different.

Then it occurred to her that he didn't remember her. But wait, he had been the one to come over to her, so he should remember her name, right? Well, she'd say it anyway. "Well, you probably remember me since you came over here and everything, but I'm Cassandra Austen, or Cassey, most people call me Cass or Cassey," she said, rambling again. She did that a lot. She thought it embarrassing, but some people told her that they found it cute. How she would start talking, and then just keep talking and talking, not letting the other person talk really. She rambled, without realizing it, but she did, and she found it incredibly embarrassing. What she would do was also repeat herself, you know like how I'm writing this now! "So, uhh, d'you know why we're outside?"

& & & & & & & & & &

Poor, poor Jake. He was angered by her, correcting him still. What did she just do? Apologize. She laughed inside his head. Oh, she was so naive. To think she could correct him, then apologize and he would just forget the whole fact happened. But no, nobody ever forgot things at Lakeland, unless of course they were clueless. That was a lesson Annabelle would have to learn soon, or else her treading water, would turn to her drowning - oh, and how sad - the lifeguard was off duty for the next four years. Well, maybe he could let it slide once. It wasn't that hard to ignore somebody drowning - I mean, Jake didn't have to be the one to cause her to drown, other people could as well.

Jake blinked his eyes, what did she just say? He was an idiot. Now that was going to far. He was about to save her from drowning of course, but now? That was completely and totally out of the question now. Why would he, ever, ever, let her out of the water now? Well, let's just say that it wasn't only Belle who was drowning, but Kimberly was closely about to be sinking down as well. How could she say that? Well, he was an idiot but to tell the new girl that? It's almost as if she wanted the new girl to drown. Well, that would only happen if Kimmy had been threatened by her, but how could KimKim ever be threatened by her? Annabelle was a trumpet player, and she was a perfectionist. Kimmy was a sax player, she played excellently, and everyone loved her - she would never let a trumpet drown because she felt threatened. Well, maybe Kim actually did it by accident? Well, anyways, whatever the reason they were both not in a good area in Jake's book.

"Oh, well, I guess I sorta am," he said, not ready to lead her on to his soon becoming plan. She needed to be taught that she couldn't just say anything she wanted, and that there was a a hierarchy in this school, and that the new girl from California definitely wasn't on the list anywhere high. Jake was up there of course, along with the people who were smart enough to gravitate toward him during middle school. Then there were the semi-populars, like Austen, and the new kids - who ranked at the very bottom. Nobody knew them, and almost nobody cared. Kim was the odd one, who would randomly talk to someone because she was bored, no matter who they were - which a time or two had almost gotten her rank kicked down, which of course she would never want that. Who would willingly be at the bottom of the food chain at school? Nobody! Jacob thought she had been moire careful, but since she was now 'friends' with the new girl apparently she wasn't being as careful as he thought. 'Eh, I should talk to her about it - later of course though,' he thought, looking at Annabelle. "Well, I'm not actually that big of an idiot. Kimberly exaggerates, a lot," he said, a grin on his face. Maybe, the new girl wasn't so bad. He'd find out for himself soon enough whether she'd sink or swim.