althea - josh kiszka

chapter 1

As Althea drove through the unfamiliar streets of Frankenmuth, she made a mental note to do some online shopping after school. February in Michigan was-for lack of a better word-cold as balls, and she was sorely unprepared. But alas, she'd managed to pull together a first day outfit that would suffice. This included white straight leg jeans, black ankle boot docs, a large dark turquoise knit sweater, and a light brown beanie.

She tapped the steering wheel to the beat of "Beautiful Blue", which was flowing through every inch of her old Ford Bronco. For such a small town, the traffic was pretty backed up. Althea nervously eyed her car's clock, watching the minutes pass by. Maybe her dad's suggestion to drive to the high school the day before in order to get an idea of how long the ride would take wasn't so bad. Running late certainly wasn't doing anything to help the first day jitters. Althea wasn't a shy person, per say, but she did tend to get anxious from time to time, and a new school with entirely new people definitely brought out her anxious side.

Finally arriving at the school, she took a few deep breaths as she pulled into the student parking lot. She quickly grabbed her bag and opened the car door before taking off towards the main entrance. As she ran up the concrete steps of Frankenmuth High, she heard the bell ring. Shit. Althea frantically made her way down the main hallway and tracked down her desired classroom after receiving directions from another late student. She stepped into her first class of the day: art. She'd already filled the majority of her graduation requirements and wasn't especially looking to go above and beyond in terms of extra classes, so she ended up selecting a few random easy A classes.

The class was loud and distracted, far too busy talking to each other to notice her presence. The teacher was a tall woman with long hair who, if Althea had indeed made it it to the right class, was named Ms. Harrison. The woman walked over to her with a smile. "You must be Althea." 

"Yeah, that's me," Althea started, letting out a breathy laugh. "I'm really sorry that I'm late, the traffic was worse than I expected and-"

"Don't worry about it," she said, waving her hand to signal that it was no big deal. "I give the students five minutes at the beginning of class to let their energy out anyway, so you haven't missed anything. We'll start soon though, you'll be sitting over there."

Althea's eyes followed Ms. Harrison's pointed finger to the back of the class. There was a two person desk with an empty chair beside a boy who looked to be preoccupied by a few other students around him. His wavy hair was just below his collarbone, framing his face effortlessly. He was grinning at his friend next to him who appeared to be in the middle of telling a hilarious story. He was turned away from her and didn't notice her approaching the desk until she dropped her bag on the side opposite him. Pulled out of his conversation by his new tablemate, he turned towards Althea.

"You're new, right?" He asked.

"Yeah, I am. How'd you know?"

"I mean...there are like 500 kids in our entire school, so it's pretty obvious," he laughed.

"Makes sense," Althea said, matching his laughter. "I'm Althea."

"Let me guess, your parents are big Grateful Dead fans?" Needless to say, this was a response Althea had grown all too familiar with. 

"Yeah, my dad is. What can I say, I was born with a good taste in music." She said, flipping her hair sarcastically.

"I can't argue with that," he laughed breathily, "and I'm Jake."

The rest of class went by pretty quickly. They'd been working on a project over the past few weeks, so Jake helped Althea catch up on the work she'd missed while they seamlessly engaged in conversation.

"Wait, he makes guitars?"

"Yeah, it's kind of been his side thing his whole life but now he actually gets to do it full time," Althea explained.

"So I'm assuming he plays?"

Althea nodded.

"And...do you play?"

"Of course, I've practically played my entire life."

"Your entire life, huh?" Jake said, smirking and holding his chin in thought. Althea eyed him suspiciously, wondering what he was thinking.

"So, you know how I mentioned my band? Greta Van Fleet?"

She nodded.

"Well, we've been looking for another guitar player to join the band. A rhythm guitarist. Would you want to come over and jam with the band and just see if you'd be interested?" Jake grinned at her with eyes full of hope. Althea squinted her eyes, considering it. Jake, who was essentially a stranger, could be a murderer for all she knew. He looked at her with hopeful eyes that were uncannily reminiscent of a puppy. What'd I tell you? He's hard to say no to.

"Yeah, alright."

"Fuuuck yeah. My brother tried to tell me that I wouldn't find anyone," Jake smirked, "Can't wait to see his face."

Althea rolled her eyes and laughed. Just then, the bell rang and everyone hurriedly stuffed their belongings into their bags.

"Hey, you should come meet the guys at break. Unless you've got plans, I mean." Jake asked while trying to zip his backpack in record time.

"I've gone to this school for roughly," she looked up to the clock at the front of the room, "an hour and 28 minutes. I think it's safe to say my plans are pretty free, so lead the way." She said, signaling for Jake to walk ahead of her.

As the duo approached a nearly empty stairway, three figures came into frame. The tallest one had long, fluffy black hair. The boy next to him was an inch or two shorter and had long, tan limbs that seemed to flail around his body as he doubled over with laughter, sending his wavy chestnut brown hair flying in all directions. They were looking at another boy who had his back turned to Jake and Althea. The laughing one finally stood up straight, clearing his voice before saying, "So, let me get this straight. You wrote an entire essay about the duality of Jim Morrison when the prompt was to explain why-"

"Why organisms with calcium carbonate shells are threatened by the decreasing pH levels of seawater, yes Samuel. Now stop laughing at my pain," the boy said, now turning towards the rest of the group. He had curly brown hair and was shorter than the other two. His face had a striking resemblance to Jake's,  it was obvious that he was the twin Jake had told her about. 

"Oh shit, was that the test you needed to pass to get a C in the class?" Jake asked.

"Indeed it was," his twin sighed, finally looking towards the newest addition to the group. His eyes lingered on Althea's for a moment as a small smile spread across his lips, two dimples gracing his face. Suddenly, Jake realized he still hadn't introduced Althea to the guys. "Gentlemen, this is Althea," he said, gesturing towards her with his arms as if she were about to break into a performance. "She's coming over today to practice with us," Jake smiled proudly.

"Oh, you finally found someone to fill the position you've been obsessing over?" Sam laughed.

The tallest one smiled at her. "Nice to meet you, Althea. My name's Danny."

"Sam," the next one said, "cool rings."

"I'm Josh. I've gotta say, I'm surprised Jakey managed to actually find someone," he grinned.

"Don't call me that, loser," Jake grumbled as he aggressively ruffled Josh's hair. Josh's eyebrows furrowed as he bitch slapped his twin.

"Oh boy," Sam said as he took a seat on one of the steps. "They've been in an oddly..aggressive phase with each other recently. Jake tried to hit Josh over the head with a literal amp yesterday."

"Sam! You can't tell her that. You're gonna scare her away before she even joins the band," Danny laughed. Althea joined the two boys on the staircase as the twins attempted to...wrestle?

"Don't worry about scaring me off, I have an older brother," Althea laughed. Danny got up to intervene in the fight, pushing them part by their shoulders. "C'mon you two, let's show Althea around."

~~~