Tough Choices

Chapter 1

Willow's POV:
I wake up to the sound of my alarm clock going off. I roll over to turn it off before getting up and walking to my closet. I grab a pair of skinny jeans and a blue t-shirt to put on. It never takes me long to get dressed so I'm ready in less than ten minutes. As I'm leaving my room I toss my bag over my shoulder. Like usual, my brother comes running past me and I follow him down stairs. "No running in the house." My mom says stopping him in the living room. "Good morning Willow." "Morning mom." I say walking past her to go into the kitchen. "Hi dad." "Hey." He says before taking a sip of his coffee. Nathan is already seated at the table eating so I grab a plate and place a pancake on it. I cover it with syrup and strawberries before taking a bite. My dad always cooks breakfast and usually my mom makes us lunch, if she doesn't forget. If she does she gives us money to buy lunch at school. Dinner is always different. Sometimes we eat out, sometimes we eat at home, it all depends. When I'm halfway done with my pancake my mom kisses my dad goodbye before he goes off to work. "Too bad you won't ever find love like that." Nathan says to me. "Too bad you're too ugly for any girls to notice you." "I'll have you know all the girls in my grade love me." "If that's true, why don't you have a girlfriend?" "That's enough." My mom says. "Head to school before you're late." She says handing us our lunch. I stand up and set my plate in the sink before walking out the door. Lily is waiting for me so I watch as Nathan runs off with some of his friends. "What did he do this time?" She asks as we start walking. "Nothing, just his usual rude comments." "I'm glad I don't have a brother." "Lily, you do have a brother. His name is Blake. Remember?" "Yes, but he's only eight. I meant an older brother around my age." "I hope you didn't forget about your little sister Allison." "How could I? She's the most annoying seven year old I know." "Well would you rather have one annoying sister or three like James?" "I'll just stick with the one." James has three little sisters. Samantha who's ten, Ashley who's nine, and Jessica who's five. They bother him a lot so whenever he gets a chance to get away from them he does. "Do you ever wonder who he would go out with?" "No, and you only wonder that because you like him." "Yes, but he's my best friend. Plus I don't even know if he likes me." "I guess there's only one way to figure out." "How?" "James!" I scream once his house comes into view. "You wouldn't dare!" "Oh yes I would." I say before running towards his house. "Willow!" Lily says running after me. "James!!" "What?" He says coming out his house. "Nothing. I just wanted to let you know we were here." I hear Lily sigh from behind me. "Well whatever happened to knocking on the door or ringing the doorbell?" He says jumping on his skateboard. "I just thought I'd try something new." "Willow" Lily whispers to me. "You scared the crap out of me!" "You know I would never do that but you have to tell him." "I know.....but not today." "Fine." "Hey James! Wait up!" She yells as he starts to get ahead of us. We follow him inside the school just as the first bell rings.
As each class goes by I find my mind drifting farther and farther away. I don't even realize the lunch bell has rung until Lily comes over and taps me on my shoulder. "Are you coming to lunch or what?" "Yeah." I say gathering my books. "You really need to take care of your daydreaming problem." She says walking towards the door. "I'm sorry. I can't help that I get bored!" "Do you ever actually pay attention?" "At the beginning of the day I do but by the end I'm tired and lazy." "Well I think all you need now is some food." She says grabbing my hand and dragging me to the cafeteria.
"Watch out," Lily says stopping mid step. "The queen of the castle is walking this way." I turn around to see Hannah and her posse walking to their usual area. "I don't understand what people see in her." I say as we continue walking. "Umm....Willow have you been living under a rock? She has long luscious blonde hair, gleaming blue eyes-" "Why does that matter? There's plenty of girls here with blonde hair and blue eyes." "And she's popular which basically makes her a complete boy magnet." "But it still doesn't make sense!" I say as we sit down at a table with James. "What doesn't make sense?" He asks. "Why you have to be popular in order to get a boyfriend." "You don't have to be popular in order to get a boyfriend!" Lily says pushing me a little. "That's basically what you just told me!" "Calm down!" James says. "Who are we talking about?" "Hannah." We both say at the same time. "Oh...her." He says looking over at her. "The most beautiful-" "Hello! Earth to James!" Lily says snapping her fingers in front of his face. "Sorry......" "I just don't get it." I say after taking a sip of my water. "Why does everything have to revolve around being popular?" "It wouldn't be high school if it didn't." James says. "It's just how it works." "Well I think it's stupid." "Let's talk about something that isn't stupid like shopping." Lily says. I sigh before taking a bite of my sandwich. James and I both know that once Lily starts talking about shopping she won't stop.
After about fifteen minutes of a conversation about nothing, nothing and more nothing we make our way back to the hallway. Unfortunately none of us have any of the same classes after lunch so we all go in different directions. But before I go to class I stop by my locker to pick up my other books. As I'm throwing them into my bag I notice a boy a couple lockers down struggling to open his. I lock mine back before walking over to help him. "Having some trouble?" I ask when I'm standing right beside him. "Kind of." He says looking up at me with his light brown eyes. "Here, let me try." I say reaching for the slip of paper in his hand. 8-15-12. I turn the dial a couple times and it pops open. "Thanks." He says placing a few books inside. "You're welcome." I say as I start to walk away. "Hey wait!" He says slamming the locker door before catching up with me. "My name's Jason." "Willow." I say shaking his hand. "Well Willow if this isn't too much of a problem I could use your help finding Mr.Harris' class." He says running his hand through his dark hair. "You can just follow me." I say feeling myself blush. "That's my next class." He follows me all the way down the hall before saying "Thanks." "No problem." I say before walking to my seat. "Everyone take out your textbooks and....." That's all I hear Mr.Harris say before my mind is somewhere other than where it's supposed to be.
As I'm waiting outside for Lily and James, I meet up with Jason again. "Hey!" I say making him turn around. "Hey, Willow right?" He says coming over to me. "Yeah." "Thanks for all your help today Willow." "Anytime. I was-" "There you are Willow." Lily says walking over to me. "Where's James?" I ask. "He left his stupid skateboard in math class so he had to go back and get it. Who's this?" "Lily this is Jason." "Hi." She says shaking his hand. "You know he's pretty cute." She whispers to me. "Shut up." "James." She says as he makes his way over to where we are. "It's about time you got out here." "Jason this is James. He never goes anywhere without his skateboard." I say. "That's not true." James says placing it on the ground. "Really?" "Ok. Maybe it is but how else would I get around?" "How about walking like normal people?" "That's no fun." He says taking off away from the school. "And there he goes." Lily says before taking off after him. "Do you want to walk with us?" I ask Jason. "Sure." "But there's one thing you have to remember." "What?" "You have to keep up with James." "Fine. Race you." He says running ahead of me. "Hey!" I say running after him. "No fair!"
By the time we reach James' house we're all laughing and trying to catch our breath. "I'll see you guys later." He says going up to his front door. "Bye." I say as we continue walking. "So Jason do you have any brothers or sisters?" Lily asks. "Nope. It's just me, my mom, and my dad." "You're so lucky. I have an annoying little sister and a snot nose little brat of a brother." "I don't think I'm so lucky." "Why?" "When I was little I used to wish I had a little brother or sister to play with." "But you're an only child, you must get whatever you want." "You could say that but you'd be lieing to yourself." "Really?" "My parents don't spoil me just because I'm their only child. I mean I'm pretty sure they used to when I was younger but not anymore. If I want something I have to have a really good reason why I need it or I earn money to get it myself." "Well you're so cute that I'm surprised anyone wouldn't give you what you wanted." He laughs. "Don't pay attention to anything she says." I say. "Go home Lily." I say pushing her in the direction of her house. "What? I was just being honest." "Well do you want me to be honest to James about how you really feel about him?" "You know what, I'll go inside now." She says running up the steps.
Jason and I continue walking until we finally make it to my house. "So I'll see you tomorrow?" I say slowly walking towards the front door. "I'll see you tomorrow." He says giving me a small smile before walking on to his house.

Katniss' POV:
As I'm walking into the living room Willow comes through the front door. "Hi Mom." She says before going upstairs. "Hey! Be ready to go when your dad gets here." I say following her. "Are we going out for dinner?" "Actually we've been invited over to one my friends house for dinner. She wants to see you and Nathan and she wants us to meet her husband." "Oh....." "Go tell your brother for me please." I say before walking into my room.
In less than ten minutes I hear Nathan screaming and running in the hallway. I come out of my room to find Willow chasing after him. I run after them just as Peeta comes through the door. "Hey! Hey!" He says grabbing Nathan. "What's going on?" "She's trying to kill me!" Nathan says pointing to Willow. "He shouldn't have been in my room!" "Why were you in her room?" I ask. "That's the same thing I want to know." Willow says. "Well we'll talk about this later. Both of you go upstairs and get ready to go." "Where are we going?" Peeta asks letting Nathan go. "Johanna called today. She just moved back here and she wants us to come over for dinner and meet her husband." I say walking upstairs. "She's married?" He says following me. "Apparently. She told me she doesn't live that far away from us." I say walking back into our room to find my shoes. "Well I can't wait to see her." "Peeta, do you think Willow and Nathan are going to be ok?" "They'll be fine. All siblings fight." "I know but they've been doing it a lot lately." "They're getting older Katniss." He says wrapping his arms around my waist. "They're going to fight but they're always going to love each other." "I know......" "Stop worrying." He says pushing my face up to meet his eyes. "I promise they'll be fine." I smile knowing he's right. He smiles back before kissing me. We hear someone from behind us clear their throat and it makes us stop. "Are we leaving now?" Willow asks heading towards the stairs. "Yes." I say following her.
"Are you sure this is the place?" Peeta asks as we pull up to a nice brick house. "Yes. This is the address Johanna gave me." "Hey look!" Nathan says as we get out the car. "Whoever lives here likes playing soccer." "Oh great." Willow says. "Another person to add to your list of annoying friends." "Willow be nice." I say as we walk towards the front door. "Johanna." I say when she opens the door. "Katniss, Peeta. Come in. These two must be Willow and Nathan." She says when we're all standing in her living room. "How old are you guys?" "I'm fifteen." Willow says. "And I'm thirteen." Nathan says. "Well if you don't know by now I'm Johanna. I have a son that's the same age as you Willow. Him and his dad are around here somewhere.....oh here they come." She says pointing over to the kitchen. Out the door comes a man I haven't seen since he was at my house a couple of years ago. "This is my husband-" "Dylan." I say finishing her sentence. "You two know each?" "Yeah ever since middle school." I say with a small laugh. "Oh well this is my son-" "Jason." Willow says finishing her sentence again. "Willow you know him?" I ask. "We just met at school today." "This is a small town." Johanna says sitting down on the couch.
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So Johanna, Dylan, and Jason.....
Song-Midnight City by M83