Starting Over Anderson || ✔

Two: Car and Bike

The Baxters are the equivalent of a perfect family.

They welcome me into their home with so much warmth that I'm starting to doubt my luck. Mr and Mrs Baxter (though they insist I call them by their first names - Therese and George) are happily married for more than thirty years and - according to Erin and Isaac - are still getting it on pretty frequently, if you get my drift. I have yet to meet the eldest of the Baxter children, though Erin had reassured me, more than a few hundred times, that I'd get to meet Chad during the weekends. Chad always comes home for the weekend.

I also quickly become acquainted with Erin and Isaac's friends - Embry, who is captain of the football team (Isaac is the all-star quarterback); Jake and Josh, who are identical twins playing defense; Katherina, who is the lead in the school's annual Christmas production; Emily, who is Embry's cousin twice removed and is captain of the tennis club; Harry, a member of the student council; and lastly Giselle, who is an incredible artist and the quietest one in the group. As you can see, Erin and Isaac's circle of friends are somewhat popular at school (Erin is a lead dancer herself), which makes me popular by acquaintance. Not a very good thing in my opinion, though it definitely have its perks. And then there is the fact that I am somehow friends with Melody, which makes the student body even more fond of me, not that I'm bragging.

On my third day in Islewick, I come across Giselle crying in the restroom during my free period. I look for Erin immediately, since I have her schedule memorized like the back of my hand (don't even ask, it's Erin's idea). Eventually, we find out from Giselle that this girl called Marisse has been bullying her on and off for quite some time now, especially taken a liking to dumping Giselle's fantastic artwork into the toilet bowl and flushing it in. Erin keeps Giselle company for the rest of the period as I seek out Melody, pulling her out from English Lit.

"Ah, Marisse. I know her."

"What more do you know about her?" I prompt. Melody glances at her watch, a little bugged that she is skipping an important class. "Please, it's urgent."

Melody sighs. "It's not much. Her last name is Andrews. She's part of the crowd that you don't want to mix with. You know, druggies, smokers, kleptomaniacs and all that." She narrows her eyes suspiciously while I keep my expression neutral, not giving away anything.

"She's a bully?"

"Yeah, she picks on freshmans and sophomores. Demands their lunch money and stuff like that to buy more weed, or so I've heard."

I frown. "And no one ever stands up to her?"

"Her victims are much too afraid, and we seniors, well, we don't want to go starting a fight with her kind." Her kind. Like they're freaks of nature. I don't like the way Melody calls them, even though I'm not much of a fan of Marisse Andrews and her friends.

I start to turn away from Melody and thank her for her information. She stops me from leaving.

"What are you going to do?"

"What I should've done back in Jacksonville." The smirk on my lips is hostile. Not towards the girl standing in front of me. It's for Marisse Andrews. "I'm standing up for those who can't stand up for themselves."

If there's anything I've learned from the Hood, it's that.

Marisse Andrews owns three different cars - a pink Porsche 911, a blue mustang and a silver mini cooper, all sat obediently in her garage, just asking to be stolen. My hands itch at the idea of actually driving a Porsche. It's on my bucket list. I decide it's the one that I will be working on.

Hijacking the car is the easy bit. It's the part where you have to drive all the way from the rich part of town to the Baxter's residence that is more of a challenge. Anybody could see the car in their rear view mirror and recognize it as the Andrews's. I mean, it's not like there are a lot of people out there with a pink Porsche at their disposal.