She'll Never Be My Mom || (n.j.)

Chapter 8

"Have a great day at school. Sam will be home, hopefully, when you get home." Dad kisses my head as I slip my backpack over my shoulders.

"Thanks Dad, love you." I hug him tight and Ms. K honks the horn of the big school bus. I quickly jog out to the bus that's waiting at the end of the driveway, out of breath when I get to the door.

"Mornin sweetie." Ms. K smiles sweetly and I smile back, taking my seat. I sit against the window and immediately shove my headphones into my ears. Ah my trusty headphones, they haven't failed me yet. I put on some Jonas Brothers music, listening closely to the lyrics. I cannot believe Dad, Uncle Joe, and Uncle Kevin were all in a band together. I've gotta admit, they were not that shabby of singers. I bob my head to the beat of Year 3000. Once the bus stops in front of my middle school, a kid comes up to me as we were all filing off of the bus.

"Hey, why don't you join your mom? It'd be better that way." He elbows me, causing my phone to fall onto the ground, hard. My blood starts to boil and I really want to shoot something back at him, but that's not how my father raised me. I huffed out loudly and bent over to grab my phone off the concrete. When I flip it over, I give a sigh of relief, seeing that there isn't a scratch on it. I just put my headphones back in and walk into the brick building, ignoring everyone.

By the time lunch rolled around, I had gotten picked on by the same kid from this morning continuously. This time, he was with his friends and so they just egged him on or even joined in. One of the kids of the group was actually nice to me, in a silent way. He hadn't said anything, but I could see he at least wanted to help me. Through a couple of my classes, I had learned that his name was Jackson and he was pretty cool. Not much of a talker, but I liked that about him. Ally wasn't here today, so I had to fend for myself. I sat at our usual table by the doors, my headphones in and my volume turned up high. About 10 minutes in, I was startled by someone sitting by me at the vacant table. I pulled out my left earbud and looked to the kid's face. It was Jackson.

"Hey." He said coolly.

"Uh...hi."

"You lonely? You seem like it." Jackson points out.

"Eh, kinda. Ally isn't here today, which is unusual."

"Well, I can sit by you if you'd like." He offers. I feel my cheeks start to get hot and I realize that I'm blushing. Dang it. I mean, he isn't all that bad looking. His chestnut brown hair is fluffed perfectly, his blue eyes like ice, and his smile is honestly breath taking.

"Um-uh- you don't have to do that."

"Um-uh- I want to." He mocks me, then gets up from the table and goes to grab his tray from the crowded table that he was sitting at before. He sits next to me, pulling his phone out from his bag. We get evil glares from his friends, most of them directed to me.

"Your friends are pretty nice." I sarcastically mutter, drenching my French fries in ketchup.

"Hey, I'm sorry about that. I really did want to help, but I'm super shy. I was even surprised with myself when I came and approached you. I feel real bad about your mom." He runs his hand through his perfect hair and sighs.

"Yeah. I get picked on all the time for it, but never told anyone. Except for Ally. But I don't expect you to feel bad for me or anything."

"It's okay. Yeah, my older brother died in a football accident about two years ago. Got tackled hard enough to give him a concussion. But that concussion eventually turned to brain damage, which eventually got him sick and killed him. It was hard on all of us." I had no idea. Of course, I've never really talked to this kid before.

"I am so sorry." An apologetic smile appears on my lips and I just gaze into his eyes.

"I'm getting through it. But we've all gotta move on sometime." Jackson takes a drink of his lemonade, then I get up to dump my tray. He follows behind and starts more positive conversation.

"So, you wanna maybe like be friends?"

"Sounds great. I could use at least one more of those." I joke, nudging his arm. When we get back to the table, Jackson pulls out his phone and shows me his number.

"Here. If you're not weird about giving me your number." His cheeks turn a light shade of pink and I find myself slightly giggling.

"Oh. Yeah I'll give you my number so we can talk and stuff. You know, outside of school." My face lights up.

~
"Ahh." I happily sigh, leaning against the door when I get home. I slide onto the floor and Aunt Sam just looks at me like I'm crazy.

"Is it a guy?" She raises an eyebrow and puts her hands on her hips. I happily nod and feel puppy love. It's a great feeling, to be quite honest.

"If your Dad found out. Phew, he'd go nuts."

"Yeah." That's all I say before going up to my bedroom and texting Jackson right away.

Brook- hey ;)
Jackson- hey there
Brook- what's up?
Jackson- just thinking of you.....
Brook- *gasp*
Jackson- what?
Brook- sameeee
Jackson- lol, you're cute
Brook- you are too....

The rest of the night, I'm love struck. Almost. Aunt Sam just kept giving me looks and laughing at me all night.

"You look just like your mother." Aunt Sam says to me as we're watching a movie. Well, more like she was watching it. I was texting Jackson like crazy.

"Yeah, Dad says that all time." I reply, not looking up from the screen.

"You kids and your phones."