I looked out the window at my new house.

Average.

The word that basically described my life. It was all that anyone could describe me. Just that average kid, Josh Parker ... ha, who am I even kidding? No one ever talks about me, but if they did, only one word would come out of their mouth; average.

I mean, yeah, I had decent grades. I played on the football team, and I had a "poster perfect" family but everything was average. Nothing crazy or surprising ever happened in my life. Seriously, like the biggest surprise that I can think of was when we found out that my dad's job got moved to Lakewood, this average suburbia that was slightly bigger than my hometown of Jameson.

And that just happened a month ago.

It was after we went swimming at my grandparents house, since it was a like 90 degrees out. They lived by the lake and had a boat, so of course, our family took advantage of that during the summer months.

But, back to what I was saying.

We just got done swimming, and we're having our normal summer dinner of burgers on the grill. My dad, Jim ( see... how basic and average, right?) was antsy the whole time during the meal and out of nowhere he spit out that his job got re-positioned, which was him telling us we were moving too.

It was kind of a shock since he worked as an accountant (boring, I know).  He even has that accountant look to him; short, grayish brown hair, thin and ugly glasses , and he always wore a sweater vest. 

Now I'm just off topic.

Anyways, I looked over at my mom who looked quite upset. Why? Well, my mom became president of the PTO, or the stupid club for parents to participate in their child's life at school by being nosy and asking the teachers for the latest gossip around the school. Okay, it's more like the Parents and Teachers Organization... it's something for the parents to run events at the school with teachers and all that crap. So, I saw my mom at school like everyday. It was annoying as heck. But to her, it was like her life. She loved it ( for god knows what reasons ), but she loved it so much she volunteered to be the president. Obviously she was upset to leave her "important" position behind.

My brother, Ben, looked like he couldn't give a crap since he was already going to start his third year in college, so it didn't really affect him much. On the other hand, our sister, Sarah, who was just going to start 7th grade, looked absolutely horrified. She'd have to start middle school with complete strangers ... rough.

No one had it as rough as me. I would have to start my junior year ( yep, third year of high school) at a completely new school ... I wanted to punch something. I had friends and a life, ya know?!

Yeah, nothing spectacular, but at least it was okay. I'd also have to get used to a new football coach and team which made me the most upset. I practically grew up with my teammates. We all played in flag football since kindergarten, so getting used to working with a completely new team seemed lousy.

After we all exchanged glances and muttered vulgar words about how horrible this was going to be (wait... that was just me), we decided to pack up our stuff at my grandparents early to get started on packing for our new house.

My dad apparently already bought a new house there (for a great deal too according to him), and after packing for a couple weeks, with the moving trucks and our cars full of our stuff, we headed to the new house.

And here I am. Looking at this new and average house and ready to start another boring and average life, at a new (and most likely) boring school.

"Josh! Get your ass out of the car and help!" I was startled at the low and annoying voice and shook my head. I looked over my shoulder towards the trunk to see my brother grabbing a box out. He gave me a glare that could send anyone running, but I was used to his jackass behavior.

"Alright geez ...I'm coming," I muttered as I hopped out of the car and walked towards the trunk. I grabbed a box that had the words kitchen supplies scribbled with black sharpie at the top.

"Really? That's all you're grabbing? You could take at least two more boxes with you." My brother grabbed another box and placed it on top of the one I had. I was strong, yeah, but like I wasn't that strong.

My arms shook at the heavy weight. What the hell was in that second box? I questioned to myself.

"Ben, what the hell... this is too much," I yelled at him as I walked into the front door, following him into the kitchen. The kitchen was a decent size with an island in the middle. It was definitely nicer than ours before.

"Josh I don't give a crap if it's too heavy for your weak ass... I just want to get this unloading done so I can take another nap." Ben set his boxes down, wiping the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand before heading back out to the car, but not before he could shove my shoulder, causing me to drop the box. I looked at the top of the box to make sure it wasn't glass.

Thankfully, it was only my mom's shoes ... yep, her forty pairs of literally the same looking shoes.

Women.

After about three more hours of unloading and unpacking, I finally headed up to my new room. I laid down on the bed and took out my phone to text my friend, Kenny.

Me: Hey Ken, just got done unpacking...really don't want to go to this football meeting 2nite Esp w/o u. This sucks ass.

Kenny: hey dude ,  yeah this year is gonna suck balls w/o u.

Me: yeah

Kenny: well I'll leave ya to it. Bye bro

Me: see ya

I googled Lakewood high school hoping to get a better feel for the school and football team. I start practice tomorrow with the guys and in a week we start school. Since I'm joining so last minute, I probably won't get much playing time this year which isn't that big of a deal to me. It's not like I'm outstanding or anything.

Later on at my meeting with the coach, we establish that I'm a back up cornerback, so I'd be on defensive covering the receivers. This was usually a position I played anyways since I'm a taller and somewhat muscular guy ( I'm like 6'1 ), but I'm not big enough to start or let alone play most of the game. If we were winning by a lot or losing by a lot, then coach would put me in. I didn't care, as long as I was part of the team.

After the short meeting with the coach, I headed home and went directly to sleep.

********************************************

The next morning I got up around 8 to get ready for practice at 9. Apparently in the summer we workout for like three hours, then we have our actual practice for another two after we have lunch, of course. One of the captains moms makes us all lunch or something.

As I got dressed in my usual sport shorts and cut off t shirt, an average Nike one that had their famous logo on it, I headed down the stairs to grab my protein shake and a water bottle.

My mom and Sarah were busy making cookies, and it smelled so good.

"Honey, do you need Ben to drive you to practice for today?" My mom looked up from her bowl at me. She really was pretty, I mean for being old. Like,  I don't know why she married my dad. She could've ended up with someone who was at least good looking, but I guess one thing my old man had going for him was his charming personality and humor. I like to think I acquired both, but we all know that's a stretch from the truth.

"Uh, sure. I can always walk too... we live close to the school anyways." I really didn't want my prick of a brother to drive me there. I mean he's only here for a week before school starts, and then I get his car. Heh heh heh.

"Well, okay... you're brother is in one of his moods today anyway." She gave me a wink as if knowing I didn't want to go with him. "Have fun! Make some friends !"

I rolled my eyes and headed out. The walk there only took fifteen minutes at most. Thankfully, I had my headphones, so I listened to some music, preferably Guns n Roses. 

Once I got to the weight room, I noticed that it was all the football guys, with the occasional volleyball players who probably only came to check out us guys.

I walked to the coach, Coach Manz, who was talking to a taller and lankier kid, probably our quarterback.

"Ah Josh! I was just talking about you to Charlie here." He gave the kid, or Charlie, a pat on the shoulder. "Charlie this is Josh, Josh this is Charlie, one of our team captains and our quarterback. He's a junior too."

I reached out and shook Charlie's hand. Although he was taller, he had some muscle on him, and he wasn't a bad looking guy either with his blonde hair and blue eyes.

"Hey," he said with a lopsided grin. "Wanna meet the rest of the juniors on the team?"

I nodded. I think I could be friends with him, I thought to myself.

We walked over to a group of guys, all we're looking at this one blonde girl, who was doing squats over in the other corner of the weight room.

"Damn... like seriously look at her ass." One of the guys said. He was a big dude, like he made me look like a shrimp , and I'm not small. His light brown hair was cut short, and he had freckles on his cheeks and nose. He wasn't the best looking compared to the guys around him.

"Guys, hey ...eyes over here. We got a new teammate, his name's Josh. He's a junior, too." Charlie interrupted them while patting my shoulder. "Josh, this is Skylar, Cameron, Jordan and Ryan." He pointed to each of them as he said their names. They each gave a slight wave.

I nodded my head. "Hey." They all said hey back and continued to look at the blonde girl, now doing some weird ab workout which involved her lifting her legs up and down as she laid on her mat.

"Dude, she's so hot... I'd hit that." One of the guys, Cameron, said. Cameron had a darker complexion , with short, dark brown hair and dark eyes, like they looked black. He easily looked like he was that one guy from One Direction who left so there was only four instead of five. I think his name is Zayn?

Anyways, the big guy, Jordan, nodded in agreement with Cameron.

"She's kind of a bitch though," the blonde haired guy, or Skylar said. He took a dumbbell and began doing curls slowly. He looked like he could be one of those prissy model boys for like that weird clothing brand that always had half naked guys by the entrance... Hollister, right?

After judging Skylar's form when doing curls ( which by the way wasn't correct as he over extended his arms when he would place it away from his upper arm), I looked over at the last guy who had pitch black hair. Ryan. He looked like he did drugs or something because his eyes were bloodshot red, and his face appeared slightly hollow. He also had these badass tattoos on his arms and shoulders. He didn't look like a football player, to be honest. He just looked like a typical school druggy who happened to be buff.

"Whatever. I'm done with bitches." Ryan said  as he took a swig from his water bottle, aggressively. His muscles tensed up with anger, and I just looked away back at the blonde girl, who was now doing push-ups. It was so hard to watch because her arms were bent awkwardly, and she seemed to struggle when pushing her body back up. Either she was struggling or trying to find a way to make a push-up look sexier. It wasn't working, if that was her case.

"Aw yeah... I heard about you and Zoey. Sorry man..." Cameron slapped his arm in a bro way. You know what I mean by bro way right? Like it was a friendly slap that didn't hurt, and usually guys do it to one another ... okay, now I'm just getting carried away.

"Didn't you like cheat on her or something?" Charlie gave him a glare; obviously, he didn't like Ryan. I sensed the tension between them as they stared each other down.

"I didn't cheat on her! I mean I was drunk and the girl flung herself on me and Zoey happened to see it! No big deal, but she still went apeshit on me," Ryan yelled at him. His pale grey eyes glowing with anger. I just kinda sat at one of the machines and began doing shoulder presses. I just listened to the whole conversation, only contributing if someone asked me a question. Which didn't happen as the guys began to fully engross themselves within their workouts.

I usually avoid confrontation, and this was definitely something I usually avoided.

*****

The rest of practice went well, and I asked Charlie for a ride home since he lived near me.

As we hopped in the car I asked, "So, like I'm guessing you're not a fan of Ryan?"

He laughed as he drove out of the parking lot. "Eh, he's okay... he's an asshole, but he's a good football player so like I can't hate him or anything. He's our best receiver. But, I just feel bad for his ex, Zoey. He really hurt her, and he keeps blowing it off like it was nothing." Charlie let out a sigh and continued. " Zoey's a nice girl. She deserves so much better than him to be honest."

I got the feeling that he liked this Zoey. "Oh you like this uh Zoey?" I gave him a smirk. He looked at me and began laughing hysterically.

"Oh shit! No no no ... Zoey's my cousin!" He continued laughing and shaking his head at me while he kept his eyes on the road. Like dude, how was I supposed to know, I just freaking moved here. "Sorry about that... it's just that was funny. But, in all seriousness, I just think she deserves a decent guy. He was always such an ass to her." I nodded.

Ryan seemed like an ass, and if this Zoey girl was at least somewhat decent, she didn't deserve that.

We didn't talk for the rest of the way, which it was only for a couple minutes as it didn't take too long to drive.

"Thanks ! I'll see you tomorrow," I said as I got out.

"Yeah, see ya tomorrow!" Charlie replied and drove off.

The rest of the week at practice was a breeze, and I started to become good friends with them all besides Ryan and Cameron.