chapter 1: monday mornings bring new surprises

sunlight streamed through the window and lit up the blue painted room . light fell revealing a closet, bureau and different assortments of posters lined on the wall as well as pictures in different sizes and shapes.A blue and black backpack was laying in the corner as well as one pair of a sneaker who's other pair's location was unseen and probably unknownto its owner. An old looking flowered notebook lay on a night stand next to the lower part of a bunkbed . On the top lay a sleeping figuire with curly black hair. the figuire stirred as the sunlight hit her face.

the door opened as a tall girl in a bathrobe walked into the room and over to the bed.

"Jayn its ..."

" i know ,it's six o'clock and i have to get up for school"

Jayn sat up yawned and spoke before her sister could finish her sentence. then she climbed down the ladder of her bunkbed .

she walked over to her closet opened it and grabbed a towel from the shelf before heading to the bathroom that adjoined her room. after showering she slipped on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt before heading downstairs. Her sisters were sitting at the table eating. Laney was eating a bagel and Stacey was eating honey bunches of oats . Jayn walked over to the fridge and pulled out a bag of bread ,chesse,turkey, lettuce,tomatoes and ranch dressing. she set it all on the counter and assembled it into her faveorite sandwhich Turkey a la formage(turkey and cheese). she had gotten the recipe from her mother who would make it for her on the weekends .

After eating my sandwhich i went upstairs ,brushed my teeth and grabbed my backpack after slipping on one shoe and searching for the other found under my bed . i grabbed my keys from the key rack and and said bye to my sisters . i walked to my blue Pt cruiser that was sitting in the driveway,which i had gotten for my 16th birthday from my dad . I got in and popped in my faveorite Cd, dashboardconfessional, in the stereo and pressed number 3 "as lovers go". i drove for two blocks then turned right . i drove straight then parked infront of a green house. i pulled out my cell phone and dialed a number.

ring

ring

" hello"

" it's jayn you ready "

" yeah i'll be right out"

every morning i give my best friend Samara a ride to school since she only lives two streets over .we got in the car and i drove towards the school.

" Did you do the bio homework?"

i asked Samara, since we have most of the same academic class and same homeroom.

" no , but i'm gonna do it in Hughes, did you do it " she replied

"kind of ,i started it but then i got tired , so i'm gonna finish it in hughes too"

i drove for about ten minutes and we arrived at the school i parked and we walked toward the entrance.

what can i say about my school good o'l Jake Parker school of creative and performing arts. It's an interesting school theres some good teachers and theres some bad ones but its a great art school . I take dance, music and martial arts .

I'm also in a writer/songwriters class ,no other school in the area offers all of those electives which is why i chose to go there instead of Jackson park, the highschool my sister stacey is a senior at .

We walked to homeroom and sat down. i sit in the second row and over one is where Samara sits ,our friend Lilly Morris sits behind Samara and another friend Laela Foreman sits in the next row across from lilly . My crush and one of the cutest guy in school( in my opinion) Jason knight sits infront of me and unfortunatly Lyla sanchez ,my worst enemy, sits across from him and behind her sits Al Hughes the homeroom teachers son who is also Jason's best friend.

is my faveorite teacher hes funny and cool but also a good teacher he's not only a homeroom teacher but a history teacher too and believe it or not he makes learning fun.

" ok class theres three questions on the board i want you to answer while i take roll and then its free study hall for the rest of the period "

after the bell rings he always has us answer the questions hes written on the board sometimes the questions are educational other times there about current events in the news and how we feel or just random questions . sometimes i don't feel like answering the questions but the good thing is he dosn't make us share our answers but he does collect the answers at the end of the week which gives us time to answer unanswered questions from the previous day/days.

i started working on a biology worksheet that was assignedon friday and i started getting these weird vibes i started to look around and Samara noticed the expression on my face and she mouthed Ept which is what i call my power and i nodded . i looked around and my gaze settled on the door just as got up to talk to a counsler that had appeared in the door way but it wasn't her i sensed no it was something else, something distant yet familliar .

i watched as they talked for awhile then the counsler stepped back and a boy stepped from behind her . before i saw his face i immediatly knew who it was.

there he was my childhood friend and the boy who gave me my first kiss , back in my life.

we were practically raised together our mothers were best friends and so were we . i remember when he moved away it was afew months after my mom died . we had this spot in my backyard where we would sit and talk sometimes and on the day he left there we were sitting on a low branchof one of the tree's in my back yardjust sitting there in silence . i didn't want to say goodbye and i could tell he didn't either so we said nothing,at least for a few minutes , he spoke first.

" remember when i dared you to climb this tree and you did it even though you were afraid of heights"

" yeah,but i had good reason to be afraid , especially since i fell out of it due to that bet"

" then why did you climb it "

" i dunno i guess i didn't want you to think i was scared ,you know me i like to prove people wrong"

" yeah,your stubborn too"

I socked him

"hey, what was that for "

" i don't know , i guess my fist slipped"

he socked me

" hey your not supposed to hit a girl"

" my bad i guess, my ,fist slipped

i flashed an evil grin and before he knew it pushed him ,as he fell off the branch he grabbed me and i fell with him. we ended up sprawled on the ground me on top of him and we started to laugh even though our backs were killing us from the landing. and thats when he kissed me right there while i was laying on top off him he leaned forward and kissed me. i'm not sure how long it lasted but it felt like a really long time when it was probably a few seconds.

i just kinda stared at him after we ended the kiss and again neither of us said anything for a few minutes , he also spoke first again.

"Jayn?"

"yeah"

" i can't feel my legs"

" oh sorry"

i said getting off of him and helping him up.

"darren ?"

"yeah"

" i wish you didn't have to move"

" i know"

he grabbed my hand and clasped it with we stood like that not saying a word not even mentioning the kiss . we stood there till his mother called his name saying it was time for them to leave. we hugged briefly then he left.

we had promised to write and telephone as often as we could and we did frequently for the first year and a half then it was every few months then it was just birthdays and the anniversary of my mom's death then that stopped too we both had gotten older and involved in our own it wasn't surprising that i didn't know he was moving and going to the same school as me .

Mr. hughes talked to Darren and then turned to the class.

"class please welcome Darren Murphy to our homeroom ,darren would you like to take a few minutes to tell the class about yourself"

Hughes said motioning him towards the front of the class.

he walked to the front and i got a better view him , he pretty much looked the same except he was taller and his hair was shorter. i watched him as he began to speak

" well my names Darren Murphy i was born in the states and lived here till i was ten then i moved to Ontario,Canada and recently my dad's job got transfered so we're back in the states now"

" thank you Darren you can have a seat behind Jayn, Jayn please raise your hand"

when he heard the name jayn and he saw whose hand was raised i could tell from the surprised look on his face that he didn't know i went to this school.

he walked down the rows and took the seat behind me. i wanted to turn around but i didn't . i continued to work on my biology . As i filled out the worksheet i sensed that someone was looking at me i could feel his stare and sense a yearning to say something to me , i tried to ignore both of the feelings but i couldn't concentrate . I gave up on doing my biology with only two problems left and took out the book i was currently reading ,White Oleander .halfway through three pages a note was dropped on my desk.

i put my book down and opened the note,

" i see you still like to read complicated books"

it said . i turned around smiled and wrote back,

" i like to challenge myself"

then i passed the note back and picked up my book reading another three pages when the note landed back on my desk i read it smiled and then frowned at what he had written.

" why don't you come over after school we're basically settled and i'm sure my mom would love to see you "

I wrote back that i couldn't because i was busy ,but that wasn't the real reason. I couldn't see his mom it would remind me too much of my mother they were so much alike and even though they were in no way related they could be mistaken for sisters and i would be too painful to even look at her .

i was glad that the bell rang right when i placed the note on his desk . i quickly exited the room , i could sense that he didn't believe me i purposely got lost in the crowd sohe wouldn't have a chance to talk to me. unfortunatley i left Samara behind she eventually caught up with me and her being my best friend automatically knew something was up.

" whats wrong"

" the new kid , darren"

" yeah , what about him"

"hes The darren"

" your Darren "

" yeah , my darren ''

Samara knew all about Darren , she was the only one i'd told about the kiss even though , we didn't meet till i was 15.

"so ,i'm guessing you didn't know he was moving back "

she said as we stood before my locker

" no , the last time we talked was the begining of 9th , and that was almost2 1/2 years ago.

"so whats so bad about him being back"

" thats just it , i don't know i just have a feeling"

"good or bad "

"i don't i just sense a feeling""

"I'm sure its nothing"

"yeah, your probably right"

but if she was right why wasn't a reassured . i guess i could ignore the feeling chances were she was right and it would all be fine.