“Andrew put that down! Don’t you know better than to grab a spider?!”

“Mom I’ve held one before. It won’t bite me as long as I don’t upset it.”

Andrew’s mom was always overly protective of him. Not that she really loved him. She always seemed to act like she was doing what was best for him. Even though she knew half of the time it was tearing him apart.

Andrew was 18, almost 19, and just about to repeat the 11th grade. He had been held back for behavioral issues and skipping classes. He didn’t look much older than any of the other kids there, yet he didn’t doubt they would know something was different about him.

Andrew’s figure was that of most boys of his style. Tall and lanky, broad shoulders and slim waist lines. His hair was dark black and swept across his from face left to right, covering one eye. His eyes were the deepest and most inset blue, like the deep part of the ocean, yet still not entirely black. His lip was pierced with the piercing everybody that looked like him had. Snakebites, the piercing you get on both sides of your lower lip.

He was 6’4 and denied he would get any taller. He weighed in around 110 pounds and hated it. He never wanted to be a big person. Most people told him he was gorgeous, or handsome. He ignored them and kept his mind set that he wasn’t.

“I’m going to school now mom!”

“Well you don’t have to yell!”

“Yes I do, have you forgotten of your hearing tendencies?” He muttered under his breath.

Andrew slung his bag over his shoulder and headed down stairs to the door. He said good bye to Isabella, the lady beast of the house. He slammed the door behind him and headed out unwillingly into the cool air to his car.

“Hello, Black Mustang.”

The car held no response to Andrew’s greeting verbally, yet somehow seemed to greet him in a different matter by opening up warmly inside.

Andrew threw his bag into the backseat of his mustang and put the key in the ignition. He wrapped one arm around the seat and threw his head back. Making sure no one was coming from either side of the street; he started the car and backed out.

“First day of the new school,” he sighed with sarcastic optimism, “here I come.”

He drove slowly, not wanting to go to his new school. Andrew had just moved from Italy to Pennsylvania. This would be his second move. He originally was from Texas, but Isabella insisted that they move to Italy. Once she tired of that place, the first year they were there, she wanted to move here, to Pennsylvania.

Andrew pulled up front to the parking lot of his school. N.H. High School. North Huntington High School. What a name to pick for a High School in North Huntington.

With one final sigh and breath of relaxation, Andrew opened the car door and got out. He went around to the back door and pulled out his bags for school. He did not want to start school again. Especially since he had already been through this grade last year.
























Chapter 2



Andrew always hated school, even when he knew people. This only made it worse that he didn’t know anyone. It was school all the same though. Classroom here, teacher there, principal here, and the occasional person who wants to beat the living snot of you for something you apparently did wrong.

He walked down the aisle which was indicated on the layout of the school as the 11th grade hallway. Not that halls mattered since half of the time the younger grades ended up mingling with the older ones.

“Room 201…202…here it is, 203.”

203. The room Andrew was supposed to be in for his first period class. Social Studies. He sat in the room, picking just any seat he could find. He could already feel the curious eyes wandering to him. He could feel the questions forming in the kids thoughts. He felt like the outcast. No, he was the outcast.

He already hated this class. Social Studies was off the favorite class list. Wait, did he even have a favorite class list? He sat there. Quietly, observantly. His eyes flickered around the room, meeting those whose eyes couldn’t help but linger around his figure like flies lingering around garbage.

His mind was set on neutral until he saw the most amazing thing his eyes had ever set their sight on. She had long blonde hair, with brown underneath. Her eyes were a light hazel color, so light in fact they could pass for green. She was a little shorter than he was, not much but enough that you could you tell she was. Her body was perfectly formed, hour glass and curvy. Her lips were pursed and her fingers clutched tightly to her books as she sat in the seat right across from Andrew’s left side. He wanted to look away but couldn’t, like he was addicted to her beauty.

The teacher must have shown up sometime between the gorgeousness of the girl and her bright glow and Andrew’s daydreaming. She made a loud tapping noise on her desk and caught the attention of all of the students. She was no where near as pretty as the girl, what with her wrinkled up face and grey hair pulled back in a ponytail.

“Hello class,” she began with her disgusting pruned lips and coffee stained teeth, “I’m Mrs. Davidson, your English teacher as you should know by now. Now seeing as it is the first day of school and such,” she stopped to look at her students with her beady bloodshot eyes, “I would like you to find a partner and learn about them.”

Oh great. Another way to point out how he was new and how no one wanted to be his partner cause of it. She had to pick this? Of all the things she could have chosen and this was it?

As the other kids got with their old friends from last year and from who knows how long ago, Andrew just sat there, again sighing, only this time in frustration. Why must his mother torture him so?

“Hey! Are you new here?”

A voice? A voice that sounded bubbly and somewhat tired. It wasn’t a guy’s voice either. It was a voice of a girl. A soft, gentle voice, waiting for an answer.

“Yeah.”

He turned around to see the more than angelic girl sitting behind him. What would someone like that be doing talking to him? Was she new, too? No she couldn’t be, then she wouldn’t have known he was new.

“Whoa. Your voice…it’s,” she paused.

“Yeah, I know. It very uh, deep.”

“Very strong and manly is more to the point I think. Anyway, I could tell you’re new. I’ve never seen your face before. I’m Brittany Rae Marie Clark, and you are?”

“Andrew Jamie Howard. I know it’s not the most fascinating name. By the way your’s is gorgeous.”

“Thank you but I hate it. Your name isn’t so bad either. Anyway, tell me more about you Andrew.”

“Well uh, as you pointed out ever so nicely, I am new here. I just moved from Italy cause of my mother. To make it short; I’m Andrew, have a dog named Daisy; retard, a cat without a name; possessed, and a mother whom I call female parental unit number one.”

Brittany Rae Marie laughed and adjusted her books slightly.

“Ok, making it short from me to you; I’m Brittany Rae, go by Rae, go by Rae HeartThrob on myspace, adore hello kitty and am a champion guitar hero player.”

“Oh do you really think that?”

“Yes.”

“Well then I guess you haven’t ever played a master little miss.”

Rae laughed again this time looking up into the light as if though the ceiling were going to collapse and decapitate her at any moment.

The conversation grew. First Andrew would talk, then Rae. Andrew’s day grew better as the conversation grew more interesting and the longer he got to spend time with Rae.


This will certify that the above work is completely original-Allison Rodriguez