Living With Mr. Popular

Chapter 1

"You're the one that I want, you are the one I want Oo,Oo,Oo!" James and I yell at the top of our lungs along to the radio. We both crack up as he pulls up to the usual parking spot right infant of the red double doors leading into the hell hole that calls itself Colby High.

"Have fun Clarie!" James cheers sarcastically and I can't help but chuckle. "Thanks Jai." I mumble before he plants a kiss on my temple. James and I had always been close ever since we were put into foster care together twelve years ago. We've been through a lot of different families and homes and he was the only thing that stayed the same throughout it all.

As usual, we part our ways almost immediately. This is one of the reasons why I hate school. We never see each other except for the two classes we habe together and on the rare occasion when he isn't in detention during lunch. But I guess thats just me clinging on to the hint of normalcy in my life.

Luckily for me, my first class of the day is gym which I not only share with James, but also my best friend Kaley. The bell rings signalling the start of classes but in my case, the start of the ten minutes we have to change. As usual, the changing room is full of girls singing obnoxiously loud and having fun which is rare in this place. I immediately spot Kaley on the other side of the room and plop my stuff next to hers.

"Finally. What took you so long?" Haley questions the second I reach her. I chuckle as I start to et changed

"Car karaoke of course." I reply and she giggles slightly. After I finish changing, I pull my waves brown hair into a ponytail and wait for Kaley to do the same. The moment I step foot into the gym, I am engulfed by two muscular arms.

"Claaaarie" James sing-songs as he hoists me off the ground as if I weigh nothing. I yelp as my feet loose contact with the floor.

"James Levi Anderson, put me down right now." I command trying to be stern but he just passes me on into the arms of his friend who just so happens to be my crush. That little bastard. My cheeks immediately flame up and I'm left speechless.

"Well hello there." Alec chuckles. His piercing blue eyes stare into my own as he smiles, exposing his pearly white teeth. To say the least, he was gorgeous. He carefully places me back onto the ground just as our teacher blows the whistle for us to gather in the center. I whisper some profanities to James while punching his arm.

My eyes quickly find Alec and I zone out admiring his angelic body. Im stripped out of my trance by Mr. Bailey blowing the whistle again and telling us to form teams. I, thankfully, end up on James' team who was obviously in the same team as Alec. Still being confused as to what the heck we were doing, I was more that startled when I see a dodgeball heading straight towards my face but am even more surprised when Alec catches it just before it hits my face.

"Don't worry, I got your back." He winks before pelting the ball back to the other side of the court. I catch a glimpse of James smirking at me and wiggles his eyebrows when I turned towards him.

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When the day finally ends, I waste no time at all to sprint to James' car, just to be met by James already waiting for me.

"Hello my lovely sister." He greets before the car roars to life. I instinctively turn on the radio, full volume of course, and James and I immediately start jamming out.

As we pull into our driveway, a frown settles on both our faces. Not that we're not grateful for what we have, because we really are, but its not exactly the easiest thing living with foster parents who already have four kids who's ages range from 3 to 27, because its not a secret that biological children will always be favoured. But James and I are used to it which is another reason why I'm grateful to have him in my life.

When things get too much, he's always here for me and I'm always here for him. He's a completely different person at home when theres only us together than when he's in school. In school, he's a complete douche if I do say so myself. 

After about an hour of me trying to study, James creeps into my room and plops onto my bed. I spin around in my office chair to see him slumped over  with his head in his hands. I immediately jump off my chair and next to him on my bed.

"Jai? What's going on?" I ask, putting my arm around his back. He falls onto me and I gently cradle him in my arms.

"They wanna get rid of us." He cries into my arms. My heart sinks from the news and I hold his now fragile figure in my arms. Getting ditched was nothing new to us, but is the first time we have been in one place for more than 2 years and after that amount of time, you do end up getting attached.

"Remember the time when we wanted to move out of the Jenken's so bad that we changed his sleeping pills for oestrogen pills?"James asks before we both burst into a fit of laughter.

"Or when we hid our leftovers underneath the chair cushions for a month." I add and we fall into more fits of laughter. By now we are both lying on our backs on my bed, think of our rebellious ten year old selves.

"Gosh I can't wait till we're 18." He sighs, slinging his arm around me. I look at my phone for the time and my heart begins racing when I see it. 6:30. Our foster parents should be home by now. 

"You ready for this?" I ask holding his hand.

"Will we ever be?" He chuckles dryly.

"Don't think so." I reply exactly as dry. We spend the next few minutes cuddling and bracing ourselves for the bombshell about to be dropped.

"Clarissa? James? Can we talk to you?" The dreaded question rings through my ears.

"Lets get this over with." He mumbles, wiping off his sweaty hands on his jeans before holding it out for me to hold.

Lets get this over with.