Time After Time

Chapter 1

Lexi

Lexi Lightfoot stretched her arms above her head, not ready to get up and start the day. First day of junior year? Blah, she wished summer wasn't over. Dragging herself out of bed, she hops into the shower and begins going through her morning routine. Checking herself in the mirror, before heading out the door, she smiles at her reflection in satisfaction. I look perfect, if I do say so myself, she thinks to herself, taking in her dark brown hair, large ice blue eyes, shapely nose and sun kissed skin. The summer in Hawaii did wonders for her tan. The back to school outfit is just right, casual but put together. Swirling the blue sundress around her thighs, Lexi wiggles her freshly painted, pink tipped toes. Pursing her lips into a pout, she leans over to apply fresh lipgloss. Turning and bounding down the stairs, she cuts over to the kitchen and grabs a yogurt from the fridge. Her little sister, Elizabeth, better known as Lizzie, who is in 8th grade this year and a royal pain in the butt, is sitting at the kitchen island, inhaling a bowl of cereal. Lexi smiles at her, opening her yogurt. As she eats it, their mom comes in.
"Good Morning Lexi, you excited for the first day of school?" She asks, while digging in the fridge for her coffee creamer.
"Sure, Mom, totally." Lexi rolls her eyes for effect.
She smiles indulgently "It will be fun, you'll see. Are you heading over to pick up Emma before school?"
She nods, her mouth full of yogurt. Swallowing it down, Lexi heads over to the sink. Holding her hair back with one hand, she turns the water on from the other and drink straight from it. Rising up, she blots her mouth.
Her Mom looks exasperated " We own glasses you know."
She smiles at her and hop over to quickly kiss her cheek. Grabbing the keys off the counter, yelling over her shoulder " See you later, love you!"
As she walks out the door to the car, a chill runs over her . Looking around confused, Lexi tries to figure out the source of it. It is August, for crying out loud. Not seeing anything, she shrugs it off and climbs in, heading over to pick up Emma .

Arriving at Emma's house, she is already on the porch waiting for me. She waves, bouncing up and down. As she starts towards the car, Lexi takes in Emma's black jumper and strappy sandals. Her blond curls blow around her tiny heart shaped face as she hogs to the car.
"Lexi!" She squeals as she climbs in the passenger seat " I missed you this summer! How was Hawaii?? Did you have so much fun? Tell me all about it!"
" I will, if you will slow down and let me get a word in." She teases her. Emma is like one of those super bouncy balls you get out of the vending machine, all over the place.
Her green eyes wide, she forces her self to sit still, miming zipping her lips. This causes Lexi to laugh at her theatrics.
" I missed you too of course, and Hawaii was amazing. I didn't want to leave. Mom took us surfing, and we climbed a waterfall. It to mention laying on the beautiful beaches!"
She pretends to pout " I'm so jealous! All I did was hang out with around here, but at least I had Cass to keep me company."
" I can't wait to see Cass, I have missed her too." Lexi replies.
Emma nods " She is going to meet us at the front of the school this morning."
After a few more minutes they pull up at school. Lexi feels a combination of comfort and dread at the familiarity of the large sign that reads Everwood High School, Home of the Eagles. As they get out and head towards the doors, Cassandra, or Cass, walks up and joins them. All three exchange a brief hug, and Cass links her arms through theirs and they continue walking in silence. Cass doesn't talk much, but when she does, it is usually important. Emma and Lexi hold out their hands, waiting for schedules, knowing by now that Cass picked up ours at the same time she got hers. She always takes care of us. She smiles and hands them over. We study them, groaning that we only have one class all together, English. Emma and Cass have history together, Emma and herself have biology, and it looks like she and Cass at least have study hall period together also.

Looking at Emma, Lexi laughs " Don't worry, I'm sure you will have a cute guy in at least one class to distract you."
Emma looks back at her, grinning " How did you know that is what I was thinking?"
She shrugs " I don't know, same as I usually do." Emma and Cass both nod. It is true, it isn't like Lexi thinks she is psychic or anything. She doesn't hear anyone's thoughts, she is just really perceptive and usually gets a feeling or idea of the moods of people she is close to. We continue into the school, splitting off to go our different first periods. "See you both next period for English!" Emma waves as she bounces off.
Cass just smiles and heads the opposite direction.
Returning Emma's wave and with a smile for Cass, Lexi head towards her first class of the day, Physics. Walking into the class room, seeing an open seat near the back of the room. Heading toward it, smiling and greeting people as she passes. Having just settled in, she looks up to see an unfamiliar face walking into the room. He is beautiful, his hair a sort of bronzed brown color, with aristocratic facial features. His eyes, almost the same bronze brown color as his hair scan the room, looking for an empty seat, flicker over to hers and stay for just a second. She sits up straighter and smiles. His gaze continues to the empty seat one row up and over my own. He doesn't return the smile, and walks to the seat he spotted. There are murmurs from the other students, asking thing like "Who is he?", and "Do you see how nice he is dressed?". The last part is true, while his clothes are in style, they have the look of being expensive.
Lexi feels a little sting at how he ignored her smile. She is not used to rejection in any form. Everyone love me and wants to be around me, well almost everyone, she correct myself. Shooting at look over to where Jade is sitting, she feel a pang of sadness, followed quickly by a flash of annoyance. Jade used to be the fourth part of what is now Cass, Emma and her trio. In the last year or so, something happened and Jade changed. She became different, angry and doesn't want anything to do with us any longer. Her green eyes meet mine, and she tosses her hair back with a sneer. Rolling her eyes, she turns around to face the front of the class. Lexi gets the feeling that jealousy has a lot to do with her change towards us, but she also senses something deeper going on, something she can't quite pick up on. Ignoring Jade, she tries to focus now that class is starting, but her gaze keeps traveling to the new guy.
Why is he so fascinating? Could it have to do with the way he completely ignored me? Probably, she admits to herself . Just then, the bell rings signaling the end of class. She head out to my next class, following behind the mystery guy until he turns the opposite direction. Waiting for her, up ahead are Cass and Emma.
Lexi approaches them and in a low voice asks
"Did you two see the new guy?"
Cass nods, her eyes wide. For her, this indicates she is impressed.
Emma bounces on her heels " The one that was walking in front of you? He is hot!"
Lexi laughs quietly at Emma. " Yes, he is. Cass, I want you to try to find out more about him, okay?"
Cass nods again, looking thoughtful.
If anyone can find out about him, Cass can. We head into English together. After English, she doesn't see either one of them or the new guy until lunch. As Lexi join the girls at the lunch table and begins laying out her salad She brought from home, Cass leans over.
"I found out the new guy's name is Erik Banwell. He is from somewhere overseas or something like that. The address he listed for his home address is the old Spencer estate." Her eyebrows draw together, confused.
Lexi looks at Cass, surprised, that's the longest speech she has heard from her in awhile. She understands the confusion Cass is showing, no one has lived at the Spencer estate for as long as anyone can remember.
" I knew you could find out about him!" Emma interjects.
Nodding in agreement Lexi asks her " How did you find that out?"
Cass shrugs "I looked in his file, I'm the office assistant third period."
Lexi nods again in approval. Now she know his name and where he lives. That's something at least.
Emma asks " What are you going to do with this information, Lexi?"
Tapping her chin thoughtfully, she muses " I am not certain yet. But I will think of something."
Emma and Cass exchange a smile. We finish lunch and Cass and Lexi head to study hall.

Lexi waves at Emma, telling her she will see her next period in Bio. As we walk into study hall, she sees Erik sitting at a table by himself. Making a quick decision, she gestures for Cass to follow and they start to head that way. Before they get halfway there, Jade slides in to the seat next to him, darting a spiteful look our way. Cass grabs her arm and they sit down two tables over. Lexi is fuming, but trying not to show it. Jade is such a bitch.
She whispers to Cass " I don't know why she hates us."
Cass shrugs and simply says " Jealousy."
Nodding in agreement, she forces herself to not look their direction, even though she can hear Jade's piercing giggle every so often. We sit in silence, working on the homework we have already gotten so far. Don't these teachers know it is only the first day? When the bell rings, we head our separate ways, agreeing to meet at practice after school. The next two period pass by and finally Lexi heads to Bio. Emma is waiting for her there, she has saved a seat next to her. She slides in, telling her about Jade in study hall.
Emma is appropriately offended, saying "She is just spiteful, trying to get under your skin. I don't know what happened to her, we used to all be such good friends."
Lexi agrees, it seems forever ago, but Jade and her used to be the closest out of the four of us. Even though she infuriates me now, I miss the friendship we shared, Lexi thinks, remembering. She snaps herself out of her thoughts as class begins. She is not particularly good at Biology, so she needs to actually pay attention. Lexi listen attentively as the teacher, Mrs. Cross starts in on her lesson. Eventually the final bell rings, and Emma and her head over to the field for cheer practice. Cass meets them there, and they start stretching. They purposely ignore Jade, who is partnered up with another cheerleader she has befriended name Ashley.
When everyone is finished stretching, our captain, a senior named Savannah, claps her hands and we begin running through the routines. By the time practice ends, we are all a hot, sweaty mess. Lexi is exhausted, but Emma and Cass want to go grab something to eat. She bows out, leaving Emma to ride with Cass, while she heads home to shower.