Not long after the two boys left her company, she slumped down in her seat in English and was immediately sandwiched by two other boys. If only the boys crowding her were cute and had any actual interest in her, then maybe she would like school more.
"Howdy," Nick Briggs half-grinned at her through a bite of his McDonald's burger.
"You're not sitting together?" Her eyebrows shot up. Usually, when they pushed their tables up together, Nick was sitting at the middle desk, but today they both sat on either side of her.
"He's being a little bitch," Ethan Roberts glared at him.
"I paid good money for this burger, I'm not going to waste it on you," He turned to Stella, "He's trying to steal my food,"
"God forbid," She shook her head.
"Did you do the homework?" Ethan asked, running a hand through his blond hair. Good hair was wasted on boys like Ethan who woke up, ran a hand through their hair and called it a day. Meanwhile, Stella spent ages (and a pretty good chunk of money) perfecting her hair because god liked Ethan more.
"We had homework?" Stella groaned, sinking into her chair.
"Wanna copy?" He grinned, brown eyes laughing at her and her predictability.
"No," She shook her head at the same time as Nick said a muffled "Yes," fries sticking out of his mouth.
"You know what I want," Ethan shrugged.
"I have $2.25 in my bank account, E-Bee, have pity,"
Stella was in the middle of scribbling out the answers on the homework sheet, but she paused to make a mental note of the nickname and try and hide her smirk.
Ethan didn't miss it. "Bro, I tried to talk him out of it. There's not a lot of nicknames for Ethan,"
"I call him E.J," Stella shrugged, talking to Nick, "Jacob is his middle name,"
"She had to google search that idea," He rolled his eyes.
"Hey girl, you said it yourself. Not a lot of nicknames for Ethan,"
Ethan and Nick were cobbers she had met in middle school. In grade 8, Leo had randomly started ignoring her, and they had taken his side during the worst of their fights. She was glad they had, Leo didn't make friends easily, and she didn't want to take from him the friends he did have.
Once their feud had become less intense, she got back to hanging out with them, but never with her brother. Ethan was a Cobalt and Nick was a Maroon, and they all really hit it off, so she was glad she didn't lose them as well as Leo. Ethan was also on the soccer team with her, ever since they had planned to try out together in middle school.
"Here bro, that's how much I love you," Nick said, shaking his head as he passed 5 fries over to his friend in return for the homework.
Ethan dove after Nick and practically tackled him to the ground, arguing that he was worth more than 5 fries, but Stella ignored them as she worked. One more detention for missed homework and a letter would be going home to her parents, she couldn't afford that.
"I hear spirit week has begun," Stella's mother was an uptight, pointy-faced woman who had undeniably gorgeous hair.
The Blackwood twins inwardly groaned. Their parents were the poshy Facebook moms of Westal Beach. AKA they were obsessed with everything about the school. And they got a special kick out of spirit week.
Not in a supportive-glitter-poster-sign way but in a you're-representing-the-family-don't-fail way. Westal High was a prestigious private school, you could go so far as to say one of the most prestigious schools in Australia.
As it should be because it was shit expensive, and they called each other by their last names like British school boys. The teachers even called them Mr. and Miss, for god's sake.
"How's the team going?" Their father asked, making a point of looking specifically at Leo.
Stella bit back a comment. Despite being the captain of the team, they always looked to Leo for news about their games. They didn't like to acknowledge that she was in the team, her mother said it was making her too muscly for modelling — a passion her mother was more passionate about than her.
"Pretty good, we haven't done tryouts yet," Leo cast a glance toward her, but she ignored him.
Her father didn't look at her as he spoke. "Well, the captain needs to get that in order right away." And then, under his breath, "Should've known better than to elect a female captain,"
Stella abruptly pushed away from the table. "Thank you for dinner," Then she left the room before she could see the approving looks from her mother on the little amount of food she ate.
She would stuff her face with a pizza later anyway.
Slamming the door shut, she made for her bike. She was saving up for a car and was so close to her goal, and then she could leave whenever — even in winter. Stella sent off a quick text to Alice and took off in the direction of the diner for food.
In no time they found each other and after having bought some dinner, they were walking the streets and window shopping the boutiques. They lived relatively close by and were always hanging out after dinner.
"So now, I'm like, hosting the surf," Stella said between mouthfuls of pizza.
She loved Abigail, but she and Alice were much closer. She had a light no-feelings-no-home-life-talk relationship with Abigail, and it's good to have some of those but she did enjoy her and Alice's deep bond.
"That sounds fun," Alice nodded, taking a bite of the ice cream cone she had picked up at the diner.
"What about you? How are you doing? How's," She smirked, "Isaac?"
"He hasn't snapped back in 3 days," Alice purposefully avoided her friend's gaze, shrugging off the waves of pity coming from her on the failed talking stage.
"What do you think you'd name your kid if you have one?" Stella asked. Alice was an older sister and absolutely loved her siblings, she couldn't wait to have kids. Stella loved her perception of what kind of mother she was gonna be because she didn't really have any other good mother role model to go off of.
Alice immediately lit up, "Charlotte, probably, for a girl. Xavier for a boy,"
"What if you have to compromise with your husband for a name?" Stella said spookily.
"Yeah, right." Alice snorted, "I'm gonna do what my mom did. She made a deal with my dad that he could give me his last name if she could pick my first name,"
"I like that, although I'd probably want my kids' last name not to be Blackwood either way. Gotta annoy my parents and stop the bloodline," She shrugged like 'a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do' and took a huge bite of pizza.
"You could change your last name now, you know,"
"Yeah," Stella said hesitantly, "But, I already don't talk to my brother and then without my last name connecting me to them, it's like, I dunno. We stop being siblings who don't talk, and we become... strangers,"
"I can get that," Alice nodded, licking her ice cream, "Apparently the teachers call Aster by his first name. He's considering changing his last name,"
"Oh, is he?" Stella said, attempting to pass off as unbothered.
"You want me to talk him out of it?" Alice glanced over at Stella. Alice sat beside Aster in history class because she took the prerequisite course over the summer and got boosted up to the 12th-grade class.
"No... that's... No, that's okay. Let him do what he wants,"
Alice deadpanned at her and flicked her strawberry ice cream at her face. Stella gasped, flabbergasted, and began chasing her friend down the streets, laughing despite herself.
YOU ARE READING
SUMMER STARS
Teen FictionStella Blackwood always believed her family would be as unbreakable as the stars they were named after. Growing up with her brothers, she was certain they would always stay close, but by her junior year of high school, Stella realized how wrong she...
