Hope

Chapter 1

"Morning Pawpaw," I greet, walking into the kitchen.

I live with my grandparents. My parents died in a plane crash when I was seven years old. I was never told the full story, no one likes to talk about it, including me.

"Good morning, Jessica," My grandpa, Pawpaw, says.

I smile, grabbing a pancake from the plate in the center of the dining table.

"Jessica, why don't you come and sit down with us while you eat? We never get to see you these days," My grandma, Mimsy, jokes.

I laugh, grabbing a plate from the black cabinet, and sitting down at the table. I grab some more pancakes and the syrup.

"No butter?"

"Butter doesn't have to go on everything PawPaw," I chuckle.

He rolls his eyes playfully at my remark. I look at my phone. I have about twenty minutes to get to school before the bell to go to our lockers goes off.

"I gotta get going," I say, standing up, giving them both a kiss on their foreheads.

I clean up my breakfast, not wanting to give them any more work than what they have to do already. The beautiful blue California sky calls my name as I walk out of my front door. Some people would die to see this kind of sky every morning, I'll never get tired of the gorgeous blue. I grab my penny board from the garage. I left my backpack at school yesterday. I didn't have any homework for once.

"Hey, Jess." Conner, my best friend, says.

I ride with him to school every morning. I've developed a little crush on him throughout the years of knowing him. I don't want him to know that though, at least not anytime soon.

"Hey, CJ."

I call him CJ because his middle name's Justin. He smiles as we arrive at Springton High School.

"So, are you trying out for any sports this year?" I ask.

"Yeah, basketball," He says, nodding his head.

I turn to look at him. "Basketball? You don't look like the basketball type of guy."

"Well, we're Sophomores, Jess. I wanna try something new."

"Alright, I guess I could try basketball too. Maybe volleyball." I say.

He nods his head.

"Yeah, I could see you knocking someone out with a good spike to the face," He jokes, laughing.

I laugh, shoving him slightly on the shoulder.

"Hey! I'm not that good at my balance, you know," He says.

I roll my eyes while smiling.

"Oh, please. You're one of the best skaters that I know. You have great balance."

It's true. He can even beat me in a game of penny board tricks. He laughs as we ride through the courtyard, getting stares from some people. We walk to our lockers, putting our penny boards in them, and we grab our stuff.

"So, locker neighbor, wanna go to class yet?" I joke.

Conner always takes forever at his locker. Stuffing things into his backpack, then remembering that we can't bring our backpacks to class, stuffing everything back into his locker, then finally deciding on just taking a pencil. I laugh, watching him do his locker routine.

"Shut up," He says, grabbing a pencil.

We both laugh, walking to class together.

"Hey, Jessica." A boy says, walking past us, winking at me. I realize that that boy is Austin Beckham, the most popular guy in school. I wouldn't consider him popular, or anyone, really. He's just a stuck up snob that thinks that he knows everything. He's probably loaded with money. My mom always told me to never judge a book by its cover. But, what if the book tells you to judge it by its cover?

I roll my eyes, coming back to reality.

"Hello, Miss Bruming," Mrs. Becker greets.

"Hi, Mrs. Becker. How's Banjo?" I ask.

"He's doing better. Thank you for asking," She says.

I smile, nodding my head. Banjo's Mrs. Becker's dog. He's a Scottish Terrier. I call him The Monopoly Dog though. He had a heart attack last year. I love animals, I felt sorry for her when I found out. I couldn't imagine going through that kind of pain of having to watch your pet recover from a life-threatening event.

"Okay class, we have a new student. Please introduce yourself," Mrs. Becker says, bringing me back out of my thoughts.

A girl with blonde hair stands up. She slowly walks to the front of the room.

"Hi. I'm Skylar," She says.

She looks at Mrs. Becker, wanting to go back to her seat. Mrs. Becker nods, motioning her to sit back down. Once she sits down, we start the lesson. I crumble up a piece of paper that I was drawing on. I throw it across two seats to the right of me. Once I see that it hits Conner, I turn back around in my seat, trying to look as bored as ever. From the corner of my eye, I see him looking around for who threw it. I giggle quietly. The bell rings forty minutes later. I gather my things. I rush out to catch up with Skylar.

"Skylar! Wait up!" I shout down the hallway.

She turns around at the sound of her name.

"Hey," I say once I've caught up with her.

"Hi," She says with a smile.

"So, where'd you move from?" I ask.

"Florida," She answers.

"I love Florida, I went there once for a summer vacation. I loved it."

She smiles.

"So do I," She says.

"Why'd you move here?" I ask once we get to our lockers.

She got the empty locker on the other side of me.

"Mom got a new job," She sighs.

"Oh," I say.

"What's your mom's job?" She asks.

I stiffen. Here we go.

"Um. My mom died in a plane crash when I was seven."

Her eyes widen.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to-" She starts.

"It's alright. It wasn't your fault," I say, cutting her off.

I smile.

"What's your next class?" I ask.

She shows me her schedule. I look at it, noticing that we have most of the same classes together, including the next class.

"Okay, follow me. I'll show you around as we walk to our classes. I don't have your last two classes with you though. But, Conner does. He can show you around then." I say.

"Who's Conner?" She asks.

"Oh, he's my best friend."

"Jess!"

I turn around and there's Conner running towards me at top speed. My eyes widen.

"CJ! Slow down!" I shout over the noise in the hallway from everyone talking.

He comes to a stop right in front of me.

"I couldn't find you. Where were y-" He says, breathing heavily.

"Oh. Hey Skylar." He says.

She waves, smiling.

"I was here with Skylar." I say, laughing.

"I can see that. We need to get to class. The bell's gonna ring soon." He says.

We walk to our next class, pointing out some things to Skylar along the way.