Renegades

Chapter One

Song: Into the Jungle by X Ambassadors

It all started the day I began attending Franklin High.

My mom, half-sister, stepdad and I had uprooted from Missouri to Illinois. It wasn't like there was anything really tying us down to Missouri anyway; we had moved there a couple of years before and hadn't tried to make friends. The only place I had ever really loved was my hometown of Manhattan, Kansas, and everything I had loved there was gone now anyway.

My stepdad, Rick, was a computer programmer and had just gotten a job offer in Chicago, so we packed up our stuff and were gone in two days.

It was the morning after we'd arrived at our new house, and I was home alone. I was unpacking the few boxes I'd brought with me when I saw that the trashcan was already full. Knowing that Rick would have a full on hissy fit if it was full when he got home, I tied the top of the trash bag and carried it outside.

The thing about our neighborhood was that it was extremely fascinating, even at ungodly times of the morning. Several different languages mingled in the air, and family units varied in size from young couples to brood of seven children. Mindlessly eavesdropping on a conversation between a couple of Colombian women, I didn't see the guy walk up to me, until I turned my head, and boom, there he was, standing to my left as I leaned against the closed garbage bin.

"Hey. You just moved in, right?" he asked.

I nodded cautiously, looking over his tall, athletic, African American build and short dark hair.

"Are you going to Franklin High School?"

Again I nodded, curious now to his purpose of talking to me.

"How exactly were you planning on getting there?"

"I'm going to take the bus. What's this about?"

"Well, the bus is going to leave the nearest stop in..." he glanced at his watch, "four minutes, and it takes about three minutes to run there, so I suggest you go now."

"Oh, shit," I cussed, running back into my house. I quickly grabbed my school bag from where I stashed it behind the front door and locked the house, hurrying to where mystery dude was still standing. "Could you show me where the bus stop is? I-"

"No worries," he said calmly. "Let's go." He jogged down the block and I followed him. We got to the bus stop at the same time the bus did, and I sat next to him, as it was one of the few empty ones. After a moment of slightly awkward silence, mystery dude stuck out his hand. "I'm Ben," he stated, still cool as a cucumber.

"Aria," I returned, shaking his hand. He had a nice, strong grip. My dad always said that was how to judge a man's character, through his handshake.

Ben then proceeded to turn away from me and stare out the window at the passing cityscape. He was obviously a man of few words. It was a nice change for me. Now, with most people, I would have taken advantage of his obvious independence and waltzed right off that bus without thinking of or talking to Ben voluntarily ever again. That was the kind of person I normally was.

But Ben actually seemed like a decent sort of guy, so I decided there was only one decent thing to do. I turned to him and simply said, "Thank you."

He looked at me and seemed genuinely surprised that someone would talk to him, the first emotion I had seen on his stoic face. "What for?"

"For telling me to get going and showing me where the bus stop is. Most people would have just laughed watching me miss the bus."