{Bella's POV}

Usually on Saturdays I peacefully wake up to the beautiful California sunshine cascading through my window around 9:30 in the morning. This Saturday however, I was woken up by my idiot brother jumping up and down on my bed screaming "ITS CHRISTMAS ITS CHRISTMAS!"

I rolled over to face him, "You realize its August, right?"

He hopped down from my bed, picked up my smooth black acoustic guitar and started strumming, "You realize I don't care right?"

I hurled a pillow at his face, "I have a roommate, you can't just start playing guitar while she's sleeping.

"Oh please," he scoffed, "I could plug this into your amp and play on full blast and she still wouldn't move."

He did have a point there. I then threw my covers off and dragged my butt out of the comfort of my bed all for a 20 year old man child.

"What are you even doing here? Don't you have work or friends you could hang out with?"

"Yes but oh gee sis, hanging out with any of them wouldn't hold a candle to spending my day with you."

"Damn right," I laughed as I threw my outfit for the day on my bed.

Just then a thought dawned on me. At Vail Oak Academy we have specific weekends where the campus is open for family and friends to visit and Michael was always sure to come on those weekends, but this wasn't one of them.

I walked over to him and grabbed the neck of my guitar knowing that'd be the only way to get his attention, "How the hell are you even here?"

A sly smile popped onto his face, "You see it's a funny story actually," he set my guitar down and got all serious looking like he was about to tell some adventurous tale, "So there I was, just a lonely bum, hanging upside down off the edge of my bed with no plans of what to do with my life. Until, I spotted something shiny in the monstrosity that is the pile of crap under my bed. So I leaped off my bed and began to dig for this gem. After what seemed like years I had mustered up enough strength to reach it. Guess what it was Bella, just guess."

"Uh I don't know maybe your dignity that you lost years ago?"

"Pft you wish," he reached in his pocket and pulled out his old school ID from when he went here, "I found this little sucker, and apparently I still look 18 because all I had to do to get on campus was wear it around my neck and walk through the main entrance. The security guards didn't even glance twice at me," at this point he had a smile as wide as Texas.

"Dude, you're such an idiot that you're kind of a genius," I said while laughing my butt off.

"Mmmmmmmm," Nicole was finally waking up.

"IT'S ALIVE! Master come quickly!" Michael shouted.

"Would you mind shutting up ninja turtle head?"

"Your come backs aren't very good in the morning."

She pouted like a five year old, "Its early okay?!"

"Well we're going to go have a nice day outside so get up."

She reluctantly complied, "K, just give me like 5 minutes."

30 minutes later we were on our way out the door, but that was my fault not Nicole's. I'm pretty much known for taking forever to get ready.

One kind of annoying thing about Vail Oak is that we're only allowed to go off campus if we have a job or it's one of those special weekends where people can visit. Thankfully though, they make up for it with all the stuff we have on campus. There's about 5 fast food places and 2 fancier restaurants, a mini golf course, a small movie theater that plays old classics during the week and newer movies on the weekends, several different beach themed hang out areas, and Michael's personal favorite an old style arcade. So of course that's where we headed.

I actually loved it in there as well, with all of the new technology nowadays most people don't appreciate having a place like this to hang out at anymore. I love the authentic rustic feel to it. Honestly, I have a feeling they haven't changed this place since the school first opened because it looked like it came straight out of the 80's in my opinion.

When you first walk in the light aroma of quarters and pocket candy greets your nostrils followed by the surround sound effect of familiar video game noises. The thin carpet was a deep maroon color and was always covered in lint, different assortments of candy wrappers, and if you were lucky a stray quarter someone dropped. The walls were made of thin panels of plywood and were covered in vintage geeky posters. The best part though, obviously, was all the original arcade games like PacMan, Space Invaders, Donkey Kong, and Centipede.

"I'll be right back, I'm gonna go get some quarters," Michael interrupted my thoughts.

I coughed, "And like 20 packs of candy," even if he wouldn't admit it, Michael had a serious sweets problem.

"You should go get that cough checked out by someone who actually cares," he lamely fired back. I rolled my eyes, he was such a dweeb, but he's my dweeb.

Out of the corner of my eye I spotted a certain nerdy saxophonist at the PacMan machine. He looked so comfortable, like he fit perfectly here. His cute face, lengthy body, rectangular glasses; the more I thought about it the more I realized that he could be the poster child for geeky yet attractive musicians. I had a mental debate on whether or not I should go say hi. I glanced over at the snack bar realizing Michael wasn't going to be done anytime soon so I motioned for Nicole to follow me over to the PacMan game.

"Hey Jasper!"

He jerked his head up from the game, "Oh hey Bella, what brings you to the arcade?"

"My love for stuff from the 80s, and my dweeb of a brother who snuck on campus with his old ID card from 2 years ago."

He threw his head back and laughed, "Seriously? That's awesome."

I chuckled, "Yeah, he's defiantly a special one..."

Just then I was violently nudged in the rib cage by Nicole who obviously doesn't know her own strength. I shot a "what" look at her but noticed her gaze wasn't even on me. She was looking straight ahead with a mesmerized smile. I focused my eyes to look past Jasper to find the beyond good looking boy that caught her eye. He seemed to be about 6ft tall, had dirty blonde hair with that "I just got out of bed but still look nice" ruffle to it, bright blue eyes, semi-tan skin, and a cute little nose. He had on a grey U2 shirt, baby blue knee length jean shorts, and classic Converse. You would think he looked like the typical surfer dude but there was something different about him. I wondered if Jasper knew him and decided that it didn't hurt to ask.

"Uh Jasper, who's that blondie over there?"

He looked back over his shoulder, "That's Josh, he just transferred here last week but his first official day is Monday. He's actually joining my section."

My jaw dropped, "He's in marching band with us?"

"That's what I said isn't it?"

I jerked Nicole forward, "Jasper this is Nicole, Nicole this is Jasper," they both smiled awkwardly, "Make friends, I'll be right back."

I realize leaving my best friend behind with some guy she's never met before is a bit rude, but I couldn't help myself. Even with my previous experiences with guys, that all ended horribly on my part, everything inside of me wanted to talk to this Josh guy. I'm not interested in a boyfriend right now, but having a super-hot best friend would be pretty cool. I slowly strolled over letting him finish his game, as soon as he did, I approached.

"Hey there," I smiled sweetly, "I'm Bella, Jasper over there told me you're new here. What's your name?"

He stuck out his hand, "I'm Josh, it's nice to meet you Bella."

"Right back at ya. I love your shirt! U2 is one of my top 5 favorite bands."

"Really? I don't find many people our age who even know who U2 is."

"How could you not know who a legendary band with 22 Grammy wins is?!"

"My thought exactly!"

He just kept becoming even more amazing with every word. Thank God I haven't done something stupid yet.

"So, what brings you to Vail Oak?" I asked continuing the conversation.

"Well I actually lived on the beach and was homeschooled with my 4 brothers by our mom my whole life. I'm the youngest and the last child left in high school so my mom said I could experience going to a real school my last 2 years. Although, I feel like she just kind of got sick of seeing her kids all the time."

We both started laughing and I tried to be cool and lean on the arcade game but ended up completely missing and falling on my butt. Should've seen that one coming.

"Oh my gosh are you okay?" he bent down to help me up.

I grabbed his hand, "Yeah I'm fine," next thing I know I'm on my feet and our eyes are locked together. I realized his eyes were way prettier than the average blue, they had depth to them. First around the rim was a swirl of light green that bleed into the rest of the soft, almost see through, sky blue iris.

"You have really cool eyes," I blurted out like an idiot.

Thankfully he smiled, "Thanks so do you."

Feeling the blush forming on my cheeks I blurted out my thanks.

"Sooo um, since I'm new would you mind showing me around some time?"

My heart skipped a beat, was this actually happening, "Yeah of course. You free tomorrow?"

"Well considering that I don't have any friends yet I should be."

"We could be friends if that's cool with you," I shyly offered.

"How could I say no?"

We both chuckled, "Awesome. Okay so meet me here tomorrow at 12:30 and we can grab lunch before I show you all around our beautiful campus. Feel free to ask any questions you need answered."

"I'm sold! See you then Bella."

"Bye!" my smile was probably scary it was so huge but I didn't care.

When I walked back to Nicole, Jasper was replaced by Michael who was, to no surprise, holding a huge bag of candy.

"Awe, did my wittle sister get a date after she ate it?"

"As a matter of a fact she did, well kind of," I just absolutely couldn't wait until tomorrow. ________________________
Hey Loves! Hopefully you all are still interested in our little story here. Thank you so much for over 300 reads! Feel free to vote and comment, it always brightens my day honestly. Until next update (which should be sooner)! -Lex xx