Believe in Us (Jett #2) (9 page)

On Friday, I head over to Keanna’s house so that we can go pick up our schedules at the high school. I’m so not ready for summer to be over, but I’m glad my girl will be going to school with me. Becca lets me in the back door and tells me Keanna’s in her room.

I tap on the door and enter, finding her sitting at her vanity applying eye makeup.

“Hey you shouldn’t make yourself look so beautiful,” I say, walking up behind her. I slide my arms around her shoulders and lean down, kissing her neck. “All the other guys will try to steal you away.”

She snorts at my idea and continues making herself all fancy.

“Scoff all you want,” I say, sitting on her bed and leaning back on my elbows. “You’re too hot for your own good. I’ll be fighting guys nonstop, keeping them away.” I sigh heavily and shake my head like it’s a task I’m not looking forward to. This wins me a grin from her in the mirror.

She turns around and stands up, gesturing to her clothes. “How do I look?”

I take in her skinny jeans and a white shirt with the Eiffel tower printed on the front. “You’d look a lot better if those clothes were on the floor,” I say, giving her a nod. She rolls her eyes. “The correct answer is that I look like a high school senior.”

“That too,” I say. “But I liked my answer better.”

She walks toward me slowly, knowing that it’s driving me crazy. I lift a hand and motion for her to come here. She crawls onto the bed, positioning herself on top of me as I lay back. Her knees are on either side of my hips but she holds herself up with her arms, keeping her body entirely too far away.

I slide my hands down her ass and lift her until her lips can touch mine and then she finally sinks down into my kiss, pressing her body against me. I tangle one hand in her hair and keep the other one on her butt, getting the best of both worlds while we make out.

“Mmm,” she murmurs against my lips. “As much as I love this, we have somewhere to be.”

I sigh and run my teeth along her bottom lip. “Fine, we can go. But you’re mine when we get back here.”

She wiggles her eyebrows. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

*

I’m definitely not used to being the passenger when Keanna and I go places, but she’s so excited about her new car that she wants to drive, so I’m happy to let her. We always hold hands when I drive, but I don’t want to distract her since she’s still a new driver, so I keep my hands to myself. She’s a good driver, though. I get the feeling she’d be good at anything she tried.

Keanna follows my directions as I give her the secret back roads to get to the high school. When we arrive, there’s already tons of cars in the parking lot and we’re immediately thrown into the fray of bored high school students not quite ready to get back to school.

Keanna grabs my hand and shoves her car key in her front pocket. “I’m scared,” she whispers.

“I got you,” I say, bumping into her as we walk toward the front of the school. “I’m your rock, remember?”

She smiles up at me but it doesn’t reach her eyes. “My stomach hurts. I don’t want to do this.”

“You’ll be okay. No one will even notice you.” I lean over and kiss her forehead.

A few guys call my name and we wave at each other but I don’t say anything so they won’t come over and chat. Having a girlfriend is making me unsocial in the best way possible.

“So this is Lawson High School,” I say, casting out my arm in a grand gesture. “Home of the hornets.”

I curl my lip. “They just voted to change our mascot to the hornets a couple years ago and it’s really stupid, I know. Like, pretty much any animal can defeat a stupid insect.”

Keanna giggles and leans into my arm. I pull open the door for us and we enter into the main lobby, a green tiled floor with tan walls and the school’s brand new concrete hornet statue as the centerpiece.

Teachers mull around and welcome everyone and students filter here and there. Mostly we have to line up at these tables in alphabetical order to get our schedules. Park is far away from Adams. I look down at Keanna. “This is where I leave you,” I say, making this over exaggerated frown. “Shall we meet up on the other side?”

She nods. “Godspeed.”

We go our separate ways and I stand in line behind some freshman girls who are sneaking not-so-subtle looks at me. I’ve seen that look before; it comes with the territory when you’re a famous guy’s son.

“Are you Jett Adams?” one of them asks.

The other one adjusts her bra in this way that can’t possibly be on accident. Is that supposed to turn me on? Because it doesn’t work.

“Yeah,” I say, glancing to the right, hoping to see Keanna. Unfortunately, the tables for B-0 last names are so busy that I can’t find her in the crowd.

“We’re freshman,” the same girl says. She flips her black hair over her shoulder and peers up at me. “I’m Ava. And this is Abbi.” She gestures to her friend, a blonde with bright blue eyes and too much perfume. “We love motocross.”

“Cool,” I say.

“Maybe you could show us around school this year,” Ava says, twirling hair around her fingers. “We don’t really know how to get anywhere.”

“Sure,” I say, trying not to smirk. “My girlfriend just moved here so I can show all three of ya’ll around.”

Her smile falters. “Okay cool.”

Something tells me she probably won’t be taking me up on that offer. Ha. This must be another sign of falling in love. I no longer care at all when girls try to flirt with me. I used to eat that shit up even if I didn’t like the girl who was doing the flirting. It was just fun to flirt. Now I’m bouncing on the balls of my feet, waiting to get back to my girl.

Keanna and I meet up a few minutes later and I pull her into the entrance of the library, so we can get out of the crowd of students. “Okay, show me what you got,” I say, holding out my schedule. We compare them and find that we both have biology with Mrs. Smith together last period, along with the same lunch.

“This is embarrassing,” she says, dropping her head. “I’m a senior taking junior level science classes. UGH.”

“So what? It’s not your fault your credits didn’t transfer.”

“It is my fault I never passed the stupid class. But we moved so much last year it was hard to stay focused on my class work. I did quite a few homework assignments while sitting in the car while Dawn went on a date.”

I put my hand on her shoulder. “It’s no big deal. Plus, now we have class together.”

“Hi Jett!” We both look over to see some girl waving excitedly at me. I lift my eyebrows and nod toward her.

“Adoring fan?” Keanna asks sarcastically.

I shrug. “I have no idea who that is. Come on, let’s go find all of our classes.”

After a few minutes, I’ve already had a handful of girls say hello to me in the hallways. It’s embarrassing to say the least, but I act like I’m unaffected. I even go out of my way to say hi to all the guys I know, just so Keanna doesn’t notice a pattern of only girls talking to me.

We go through both of our schedules and pretend walking to each of our classes so Keanna knows her way around the school.

“And this is where we’ll meet after fourth period,” I say, stopping at the staircase on the south side of the building. “And then we can walk to lunch together.”

I take both of her hands in mine and kiss her quickly on the bottom stair.

She gazes up at me and the look in her eyes is adoring and beautiful and makes my chest ache with how much I love her. But I can’t tell her that here, in a school. That would be too lame.

“Ready to go?” I ask, giving her another quick kiss. Only the kiss turns into something more passionate, and we both can’t pull away for a second.

Someone clears their throat and we look up. Jasmine Garcia stands with her hands on her hips, watching us for God knows how long. My stomach twists into knots. Jasmine and I sort of dated at the beginning of last year and it did not end well.

“You should run away while you can,” she tells Keanna. Then she narrows her gaze on me. “This guy is bad news.”

“Come on,” I say, taking Keanna’s hand and rushing out of there. I heave a sigh and ignore everyone else as we walk back through the school and out into the parking lot.

This is going to be a long year.

It’s the first day of school. No big deal, right? This is my twelfth year after all, and I’ve done this way more than a dozen times. After a few years of awkward puberty, junior high wasn’t too horribly bad. I got free lunches in the school programs for poor kids and I finally learned how to stop caring about people and their judgmental looks. In fact, I was pretty good at it back in Arizona.

So why am I freaking out now?

I guess because I know this will be my final public school. I am finally living in a place where I know I’ll stay all year and graduate in the spring with a group of people who have had nine months to get to know me. These are Jett’s friends, and the kids of my new parent’s friends. I want them to like me. I can’t just duck into the shadows, keep to myself and hope nobody notices me this year.

This year needs to count. I need to be somebody.

I choose a pair of black skinny jeans and a purple flowy sleeveless shirt that has some sparkle designs around the collar. I wear my silver flats and use Becca’s curling iron on my hair. I’m going for classy with a little bit of casual, hence the jeans.

Jett thinks I’m over thinking it. “You should be more like me,” he says, grinning from the doorway. He bites from an apple and swallows it before talking again. “I just throw on shorts or jeans and a T-shirt and I’m out the door. Sometimes I don’t even brush my hair. It’s high school.”

I sigh and dab some powder on my face. “You’re a guy so you can get away with that. I saw the way the girls were dressed when we picked up our schedules. It was like they were going to eat at The Lantern or something.”  I make a gagging face and turn back to the mirror. Finally satisfied with my
look as good as possible without looking like I’m trying
look, I get up and grab my backpack.

It’s brand new and filled with a binder, paper, pens and pencils and highlighters—even note cards and white out. Becca wanted me to have anything I might need so she’d bought all of this crap for me. As I heft the heavy backpack onto my shoulders, I remember my first day of kindergarten when Dawn dropped me off with Mrs. Sparks and when the teacher asked where my supplies were, Dawn said, “You mean the school doesn’t provide them?”

For the rest of my elementary life I lived off of free supplies from teachers and borrowing glue sticks and markers from the bins in classrooms. As bad as it sounds, I kind of wish my biological mother had abandoned me a long time ago.

Having new school supplies as a seventeen-year-old doesn’t mean nearly as much as it would have when I was five.

Nervous energy threatens to suffocate me when we leave my room. Every foot closer to the back door is one foot closer to starting school. Park is already at the Track, but Becca gives me a hug and sends us on our way as if this isn’t something to be worried about.

“Do you want to drive?” Jett asks when we step outside. The early morning air is humid and warm and it doesn’t help the anxiety in my stomach.

“Can you drive?” I ask, peering up at him. “I think I’m too scared to remember which pedal is the gas and brake.”

Jett’s dark hair falls in his eyes and he sweeps it back with his hand. “You don’t need to be scared, babe. This will be a fun day. Teachers don’t even pass out real work on the first day.”

Right, because school work is what scares me.
Not
.

We get to school early enough to have time to eat breakfast, which Jett swears is pretty good at the school. The main food serving part of the cafeteria is shut down, the metal gates pulled down to keep everyone out. But there’s a kiosk to the side of the cafeteria just when you walk in. A sign above it calls it “the café” and a little old woman sells donuts, muffins, parfaits, and Pop tarts. Another woman next to her mans a coffee and hot chocolate cart. I keep my gaze on Jett and let everyone else fade into the background. I do notice a few stares or curious glances as people walk by, but I tell myself it’s just innocent curiosity about a new girl. Surely not
everyone
is staring at me, right?

Jett gets three glazed donuts and I get a blueberry muffin and an orange juice.

“So I usually sit over here,” Jett says, leading me across the cafeteria, which is filled with the normal long lines of tables. We stop at the back wall which has a bar that stretches from one end of the room to the other. Attached barstools mark each place to sit and the view is kind of cool because it looks out a long window, giving a view of the parking lot outside.

“Is this the cool people bar?” I say, giving Jett a playful smile while we take a seat in the middle of the long seating area.

“It is now,” he says, tearing out a huge bite of his first donut.

I peel off the wax paper wrapper from my muffin. “Do you get breakfast every day?”

“Yup,” he says with a nod. “I’m not really a fan of eating first thing in the morning. So by the time I get to school, I’ve had more time to get hungry.”

I smile. “I learn something new about you every day.”

He leans over and grins back. I want to kiss off the tiny crystals of sugar on his lips.

D’andre approaches and drops down into the seat next to Jett. “Oh no. Look at these two knockouts—already starting drama up in here.”

“Who, us?” I ask. I feel all of the blood drain from my face. Here we go. My nightmare senior year is starting.

D’andre smiles and waves his hand like it’s no big deal. “I’m just messing with you. I heard a few girls asking who the new girl was.”

I lift an eyebrow. “That’s not exactly the whole story,” I say, desperate to know more. “Who was talking about me?”

Carefully, I glance behind us, expecting to see a sea of eyes staring at me, but everyone seems to be minding their own business.

“I’m just playing, Keanna.” D’andre sips from his hot chocolate and I’m worried that he’s
not
playing with me. But I shut up about it. No sense in begging him to tell me something he clearly doesn’t want to.

Breakfast is over before we know it and Jett walks me to first period. I have math, which is probably a good thing to have first thing in the morning since your brain is more alert, but I am so not in the mood right now. It’s remedial math, after all. Plus, it means I have to leave Jett and I won’t see him again for four more hours.

Jett lingers at the doorway of room 204, his hands holding mine and his eyes gazing into mine while the whole world goes on around us.

“I’m way more scared than I thought I would be,” I admit. My shoulders fall. “I don’t know why. This is so stupid. I’ve been to a million schools before so this shouldn’t be a big deal.”

“I wish I could kiss you,” Jett says, squeezing my hands. “But there’s too many teachers around here and I’d get my ass handed to me.” His gaze softens as he peers down at me. “We can’t have the principal calling my parents on day one. They’d be so pissed they’d probably ground me from seeing you.”

My eyes widen. “If you get grounded from seeing me then
I’m
grounding you as well.”

“I’ll be good,” he says, winking. “See you at lunch?”

I nod and let go of his hands. I wish I could lean in and get a good inhale of his cologne, but he’s right—there’s too many teachers everywhere.

As I walk into first period, it ends up being okay. No one looks at me or says anything and when Mr. Ellis begins his class, he doesn’t even bother asking if there’s any new students this year. I’m able to blend in just like I’d hoped.

Everything is going perfectly. Until the bell rings.

“Hey wait up,” a girl says behind me. I keep walking, assuming she’s not talking to me, but then she grabs my arm. “Hey,” she says, giving me the fakest of all fake smiles. Seriously. She should win an award for this one. There’s even a dimple in her left cheek and a twinkle in her eye.

“I’m Aubrey.”

She’s a little shorter than I am and she has light brown hair cut in a sharp bob, and she wears black framed glasses.

“Keanna,” I say.

We step into the hallway with the crowds of other students. I try to remember which way to second period but Aubrey won’t stop staring at me so I get all tripped up and have to reach for my schedule in my back pocket.

“You’re dating Jett Adams, right?”

“Ah, there it is.”

Shit, did I say that out loud?

Aubrey blinks. “Excuse me?”

It’s funny how quickly I can revert back to my old self. The Keanna who didn’t give a shit about anyone and who definitely didn’t let fake ass bitches like this push her around.

“You heard me,” I say. One glance at my schedule tells me I need to find room 450. “If you’re going to introduce yourself to be nice, that’s great, but I don’t need another wannabe motocross groupie trying to complain about me dating the man of their dreams.”

Her eyes bug and it feels pretty damn good to put her in her place. “That’s not what I was going to say,” she blurts out.

“Yeah? Because you sure seemed like I hit the nail on the head.” I smile. “Nice to meet you.”

“I was actually going to warn you,” Aubrey says, scurrying on her tiny legs to keep up with me. “You’re dating a total player, Keanna.” She gives me this look of satisfaction like she’s been dying to tell me this since the first bell rang. “He’s going to break your heart, you know.”

Her prissy, know-it-all attitude makes me want to punch her in the face. She
cannot
know that what she’s saying is pulling at my very own fears of dating Jett. I channel the old Keanna and say, “Not if I break his first.”