My phone alarm buzzed annoyingly as I hit the snooze for a third time.

"Josh! You're gonna be late if you keep hitting snooze!" my mom yelled up the stairs. I just wanted to sleep for five more minutes, but I know if I wouldn't get up after she yelled, let's just say, it wouldn't be pretty.

"Ugh fine! I'm getting up!" I yelled back while hoisting myself out of my comfortable bed. I walked over to the bathroom and brushed my teeth. As I did so, I looked at my reflection in the mirror. My brown hair looked slightly messy due to me just getting out of bed, and my brown eyes looked more dull than usual. Yeah, I'm not bad looking which is surprising since my dad is sorta ugly. Sorry dad.

Thankfully, I got my mom's looks, and my dad's built. My brother, on the other hand, was more of the "looker" of the family with his lighter brown hair and greenish blue eyes while my poor sister was ... eh okay.

I know I'm an asshole for pretty much saying my sister is ugly, but she isn't that cute. She's ... average. With her straight, light brown hair and dark brown eyes, she wasn't really anything spectacular.

Anywho... after I had flexed my arm muscles, checking myself out...What? Guys check themselves out. I mean we like to see how beefy we are and what not.

Once I commenced my mini session of uplifting myself that I am a sexy beast, I got dressed in some casual clothing and walked down the stairs.

I walked in the kitchen and grabbed some colorful-looking cereal, like Fruity Pebbles, and milk. While pouring my milk in my cereal , I noticed Sarah quickly writing something down in a pink and sparkly notebook.

"Already have homework?"  I said to her, and she quickly shut her notebook before I could take a peek at her writing.

"No! I just-uh-needed to write something down," she quickly replied. I grabbed her notebook out of her hands and looked at it. It was her diary. Since when did she keep one? "Josh!!! Give it back!!!"

I held the diary above her head as she swung her hands at it, failing miserably. I laughed as I raised it higher, watching her struggle to grab it was hilarious.

"Joshua Allen Parker!! Give it back to her right now!" Crap. I gave my mom, who was standing right in front of us with her hands on her hips, a sheepish look and gave the notebook back to Sarah. She stuck her tongue out at me while clutching her diary. I rolled my eyes at the very childish move and brought my, now empty, bowl to the sink.

Once I finished rinsing my dishes, I grabbed my backpack from my room and began walking out the door before my mom stopped me with her arms crossed in front of her chest giving me the "where do you think you're going" look.

"Josh, don't forget Sarah. You're taking her to school." I groaned as I waited for Sarah to skip down the stairs with her backpack and lunch bag. She wore a pink plaid shirt that was more of a dress with black leggings underneath. Her light brown hair was pushed back with a headband. She gave me a dirty look before walking out towards the car.

Twelve year olds are the biggest drama queens, I swear.

I groaned again as I walked towards the drivers side and hopped in. Right as I put on my seatbelt and turned the car on, my sister turned the radio up and began singing along to Katy Perry's new song ... something about being chained to a rhythm ? I don't know but it made me feel girly, and I hated it.

"Geez, Sarah can you turn that down?" I yelled over the music. She had it almost on full blast, and everyone who was outside looked at us weird since the bass in the car was pretty loud.

Thankfully, my brother's car, now my car, was a small black Chevy traverse from 2009 so it wasn't like girly or nothing. It was an average looking car for an average guy like me. So, having people stare didn't bother me too much.

"I love this song though!! We're almost to my school anyways!" she screamed back with a pouty face and continued singing along to the annoying voice. I rolled my eyes and just let it finish playing. Unlike our older brother, I'm not a complete jerk.

Once I rolled up to the middle school, I noticed how nervous Sarah looked. I felt bad for the kid.

"Hey, you'll have a good time. Don't worry. If any kid is mean, just let me know, and I'll beat them up for you," I said to her reassuringly, and winked.

She rolled her eyes in the most dramatic way possible and smiled awkwardly at me. "Thanks Josh. See ya later!" She got out of the car and waved. Hopefully she'd make some friends. I know how much middle school sucked, so if she were to have any problems I'd help her out. Even though she can be annoying as heck, she's still my kid sister that I do love.

"See ya later!" I smiled and drove off towards the high school. Her school was on the way to mine which worked out well.

Once I parked, I began walking into the school until someone called my name.

"Hey Josh!" I looked over to see Charlie walking towards me, wearing a green shirt that had the words "Beast Mode" on it. He also had some sick Nikes on.

"Hey Charlie!" I gave him a slight smile as he caught up to me. He shook his head, and I noticed he didn't have a backpack with him. "Where's your backpack?"

He laughed at me as if I said the world's funniest joke. Seriously, I'm not that funny. "It's the first day, we don't do shit. Why would I need my backpack?"

I rolled my eyes. Whatever.

"Oh, true," is all I responded as we headed towards the junior hall. I saw Skylar and Cameron near the end , and we decided to walk over by them.

"Sup?!" Cameron said as we approached them. He actually dressed up in a nice top and khakis. Lame, but whatever.

I nodded at Cameron. He was okay to be around whenever Ryan wasn't by him.

"You ready for your first day here at Lakewood?" Skylar asked me. He wore some lighter jeans and a white top with a light flannel... if I didn't know this guy was straight I'd assume he was gay.

I noticed some girls walk by and they basically looked like they just saw Justin Bieber since they gawked at him. He looked over at them and winked, sticking out his chest. I rolled my eyes at the player move.

"Uh yeah, I guess," I replied. I really wasn't up for a full on conversation as it was still around seven in the morning, and I really don't like mornings.

"Cool, well I'm gonna head over to my first hour. I have Mrs. Toddish for English, and I'm not looking forward to it." Skylar let out a groan and began walking towards the classroom, of course within a few seconds two girls were at his hip as he proceeded further down the hall.

Such a player.

"I'll catch you guys later, I should head to class too," I said to Cameron and Charlie. They both nodded, and I walked over to my first hour, AP Psychology with Mr. Evans. As I walked in I noticed a line of students, Mr. Evans was assigning desks alphabetically.

"Your name, son," Mr. Evans spoke to me. He was a short , chubby guy. He wore a tighter blue polo with the words, Lakewood Giants, written on the pocket. The shirt looked like it would tear any second if he'd bend in anyway.

"Josh Parker." I scanned the room, swiftly. Everyone was staring at me, knowing I was the new kid.

He took his clipboard, dragging his finger until he found my name. "Ah, there you are... you'll sit on the second to the end there in the fourth row next to Zoey Puchetti," he said huskily. Dang this guy needs to cut back on the carbs or something. He sounded like he had some bread stuffed in his mouth.

I shrugged and walked over to the empty desk next to the black haired girl. She smiled at me. I noticed she had these really pretty hazel eyes that sparkled with the light hitting on them.

Sparkled ? Really Josh?

"Hi! I'm Zoey! Nice to meet you," she spoke with enthusiasm and stuck her hand out. I shook the dainty hand and smiled. She was pretty cute and definitely different.

"I'm Josh, nice to meet you." Her smile grew, and she leaned over towards me.

"I heard you're friends with my cousin, Charlie. He told me you were nice," she spoke quietly, almost as though she didn't want the others in the class to hear, yet the enthusiasm still not leaving her tone. I nodded at her comment. I couldn't get over her hair, even though it was shorter than what most girls had, it looked so good on her. It framed her sharp features nicely. Her outfit seemed to go well with her hair as well. She wore black jeans and a dark blue top which was more of a crop top ( surprisingly, none of the teachers told her to change yet), and some black combat boots. She looked pretty and badass... I kinda like it.

"Yeah, Charlie is a great guy. We're on the football team together," I replied back to her. She placed her chin on the palms of her hands and kept smiling at me. She batted her long eyelashes at me, causing me to rub my neck awkwardly.

"Yeah." She then looked over to the door, and I noticed her smile was replaced with a frown. Her whole perky attitude diminished as Ryan, her ex, stepped through the door.

I really don't like him.

"Uh, Ryan Overton," he said to Mr. Evans. I looked around the room and noticed that the only open seat was on the other side of me. I looked over at Zoey's face; she bit her lower lip nervously as he sat down.

Ryan looked over at us. "Hey Josh. Zoey." He gave me an expressionless look and gave Zoey a creepy smirk. Gosh, I wanted to punch this dude. During practice he always made smart-ass comments. They were never usually towards me, but it still was annoying as heck.

"Hi," was all I managed to say before he spoke again.

"How was the rest of your summer, Zoey? Did you spend it all with your shitty accusations?" He kept giving her that creepy smirk while biting the end of his pencil.

What a creep.

"Actually, I spent it with my family and friends. You know, people that would never backstab me with some random bimbo," she replied with a sneer. Damn. That was a good one. I chuckled at it since it caused him to fluster.

"What're you laughing about, huh? " Ryan asked me, his eyes blazing.

Shit.

I just kinda gave him a shrug. " I don't know, what she said was kinda funny." I knew I shouldn't of said that because then he stood up and looked down at me. His fists clenched by his sides.

Dude, chill.

"Yeah. You know what wouldn't be funny is if somehow you broke your nose and couldn't play..." He glared down at me, cracking his knuckles, and I shrugged again before giving him a sarcastic laugh.

It's not like I play much anyway.

"Go ahead. I'm only backup anyway. Plus, I wouldn't be the one kicked off the team. We kinda need ya, which is unfortunate since you're a jerk," I said back to him , crossing my arms and looking up at him with a bored face. He relaxed his fists and sat back down.

"Yeah, well... whatever." He leaned back in his chair and took out his phone. That's it? That's all he had for me?

Pathetic.

I looked over at Zoey who looked at me with wide eyes. Why did she look so shocked? Did people not stand up to this jerk?

She leaned over and whispered, " No one has ever talked back to him like that before without getting sent to the hospital." She still had this face of surprise before giving me a smile.

I whispered back to her, " Well if any guy is gonna be an asshole to someone as nice as you... they at least deserve someone to talk back to them." Her smile grew, showing her white teeth. She really was pretty.

"Well, thank you." She blushed slightly before grabbing her small notebook, scribbling down something.

The class began and Mr. Evans handed out our textbooks. For the rest of the class we just went over the syllabus.

So much fun.

After the bell rang indicating the end of class, I got up and began heading out to my second hour class, Calculus.

As I was walking towards my locker, I felt I dainty hand grasp my bicep.

"Josh." I turned around and saw Zoey with a smile on her face. She wasn't alone though. She had this short, blonde friend next to her. The girl was actually really pretty as well, but not as much as Zoey. Well, in my opinion. "I was wondering what class you have next? Margo and I were heading to Calculus right now."

I looked at the blonde girl, Margo, who had an equally bright smile on her face. She seemed nice, like extremely nice.

"Uh yeah, I have Calculus right now too. And hi Margo," I replied while shaking Margo's hand. The poor girl, I felt like I towered over her. At least Zoey was taller so she didn't have to crane her neck up so much like Margo. This girl must be only a couple inches taller than 5'0.

"Hi Josh. Zoey told me about how you talked back to Ryan. That jerk is so mean." Her smile changed to a frown as she spoke his name. She seemed so innocent...it was actually adorable.

I shrugged. "That guy is a creep. I don't talk to him much at practice because he always is so negative."

Margo nodded her head with a smile, as well as Zoey. "Well, it was still nice to see someone have the balls, besides me, to stand up to him!" Zoey exclaimed as we all walked to our class.

I smiled as we walked into the classroom; maybe school here wouldn't be so bad.

**** A/N ****

Hey everyone!

So let me know what you think by commenting and voting! I love hearing all your feedback!

Also sorry for any grammatical or spelling errors... I'm typing this all on my phone rn. But if you do see something wrong ( plot wise ) lemme know! I'll edit through as I continue writing .

Much love <3
~Madelyn Joy