young | book one

Elites

It was going to be a long day. Julius knew that from the moment he woke up. The sunlight streaming through his windows shone brightly on to his closed eyelids. Julius groaned and reached out a hand to press the button on his bedside table. A couple minutes later, his mother stepped into his room.

"Why did you buzz my room Julius?" She tapped her foot impatiently on his wooden floor.

"Can you shut the curtains?"

"Julius!" She exclaimed. "Get up and get ready for school right now or so help me-"

"Okay okay, damn." Julius sat up and waved his mother off. When she left his room, he stood and bent down to grab his IPhone laying underneath his bed.

New Message from Shawn: first day of school fool. Where you at?

New Message from Luke: Shawn's going to get high before class so I recommend you show up soon

Julius slumped down on to the floor of his room. He hated the first day of school. Brookville High had the ability to make him wish he had never been born. The only thing that made it bearable was his friends, the Elites. Julius attended an expensive private school where only the best and the richest of Brookville's teenagers went. Obviously, there was always a best of the best and that would be the Elites. The sons and daughters of the most high profile families in Brookville. It was an honor to be an Elite, the unsaid royals of the school.

"I knew I had to come to get you." A loud voice broke Julius out of his thoughts. "Lucky you, school doesn't start for another 30 minutes."

Julius craned his neck to see the grinning face of his best friend, Shawn Sinclair. The idiot was carrying a blunt in one hand and a lighter in the other.

"Did my mother see you?" Julius got up and walked over to his bathroom to begin getting ready for school. Shawn threw himself on the bed and stuck the blunt into his mouth.

"Nah. She was already gone by the time Cody let me in." Shawn lit the stick hanging from his lips and pressed the blue button on the wall.

"Yeah?" Cody's voice rang from the speaker.

"Cody, my fine friend, bring me some breakfast would you?" Julius shook his head as he wiped the toothpaste from his mouth and stepped back into his room.

"Fuck off Shawn." Cody grumbled.

Julius grabbed a white button up from his closet and put it on along with a grey sweater over it. He sat down on his bed in order to pull on his dark jeans and his black boots.

"Fifteen minutes left Julie." Shawn tossed his blunt into the trash and yanked his phone out of his back pocket.

New Message from Sophie: We're moving the party tonight from Cass' house to mine

Shawn quickly typed out a response, Alright babe. He turned off his phone and hopped off Julius' bed.

"Let's go Shawn," Julius threw his backpack on to his shoulders. "Only ten minutes left."

Shawn and Julius bounded down the curving staircase. "If you want a ride Cody," Shawn shouted as they stepped outside. "I'd pick up the pace."

Parked in the round driveway of the Pierce estate was a sleek, black Range Rover. Julius slipped into the passenger seat and marveled at the new car.

"New car?" Julius said as Shawn turned the expensive car on. "You just got that lambo like a month ago."

Shawn shrugged, "You win some and you win some more Jules."

The back door of the car swung open and a mop of dark hair stepped inside. "Five minutes. Let's go."

~~~~

"And then he fell, straight into the open hole at the bottom of the hill." Luke turned towards Julius and raised an eyebrow. "Believe me, I was there."

Julius spun his lock and pulled his locker door open. He was barely listening to the conversation. Shawn was always spouting a new tale of someone dying from some reckless behavior. It was hard to tell when he was lying and when he wasn't.

"While I seriously doubt that's true," Asher said. "What was a hole doing at the bottom of a hill?"

"How am I supposed to know? I'm just telling the story."

"This is why no one ever believes your stories. You can never back them up." Luke leaned back against the grey lockers.

Shawn's golden eyes rolled to the back of his skull. He flipped Luke off with a raise of his middle finger and stormed off to his second period class.

"Well now Shawn is in a great mood." Asher picked up his soccer ball and with Luke, sped off to their respective classes.

Julius shut his locker once he had his notebook in hand. His eyes wandered over the sea of teenagers bustling through the hallway. It was about 20 seconds until the warning bell rang. He was waiting for his girlfriend to show up, he hadn't seen her in first period and he knew they had every class together. Their parents had planned it that way since they had begun dating and now that they were seniors, he doubted that anything had changed. The warning bell rang throughout the school, the hallways were empty now besides Julius.

"Juls hun," A blaze of auburn hair and vibrant hazel eyes was sauntering down the hall. "I'm glad you waited for me. I'd hate to show up to class all by my lonesome."

Julius smiled at Juliet, he was constantly dazzled by the way she seemed to shine. "Where were you last period?"

Juliet intertwined her fingers with Julius' and pulled him toward their English class. "Here and there. I had a meeting with the class officers. Anyways, Sophie's party is tonight, what will you be wearing?"

~~~~

Cassandra sat in history class, zoning in and out of the lesson. God, Mr. Nort was boring as hell. He seemed to drone on and on about the simplest things. She had much better things to be doing, like checking out Asher Kincaid or planning her outfit for Sophie's party. Or maybe wondering why the girl sitting in the back was dressed in Target clothes. Another scholarship baby, she presumed, poor girl, she won't last a day.

Cassandra lifted her dark eyes to make eye contact with Shawn who was seated beside her. He motioned to Mr. Nort and smirked. She glanced at her teacher and held herself back from laughing when she saw the kick me sign tapped on his back. Shawn was incredibly immature when he wanted to be, but at least it offered all of them some much needed entertainment.

"Ok class," Mr. Norte bellowed. "Let's call it a day. I want chapter 1 sections 1-7 due by Friday, you're dismissed." He buckled up his suitcase and left the room.

Shawn snickered with Asher as they made their way out of the classroom, Cassandra could only imagine what they were planning. Soon, most of the students had filed out of the room, leaving Cassandra alone with the new girl.

"Hey." She said as she walked over to the girl stuffing her backpack with a black notebook. "I haven't seen you around before? I'm Cassandra."

The girl looked up at the tall girl standing in front of her. She was extremely intimidated by the confidence oozing from her.

"Uh hi," she cleared her throat. "I'm Jaclyn."

Cassandra smiled at her, and thought back to the conversation she had with Juliet this morning. She wondered what Juliet could possibly want with this girl.

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