Hollywood and Mr. Popular (the original)

Chapter 3

I take one last look around my now vacant room before slipping on Deuce's leather jacket and heading out into the moonlight. I pushed my waist length curly hair out of my face and slid on my favorite pair of ray bans. My favorite pair of distressed jean shorts showed off my legs as I applied dark red lipstick.

I smiled at my reflection. If my life had to be ruined, at least I could still look good.

"Javiéra! We're leaving!" Mom called from downstairs.

"Coming." I yelled back, doing one last glance-over before finally heading downstairs. Aunt Francis greeted me with a peck on the cheek.

"Looks like you're stuck with me, cariño." I smiled at her before climbing into the U-haul. This I could tolerate. I plugged my headphones in almost immediately. Not that I didn't want to talk to Aunt Francis, but Mom had decided to leave as soon as everything was packed, meaning it was about 1:30 in the morning. I dozed off while listening to Taylor Swift.

*****

"Where are we?" I asked, waking up finding it to be almost 10, yet we were still on the road.

"We still have about a half hour." I groaned, smacking my head against the back of the seat.

"Ughhhh yourself." Aunt Francis scolded, "if I remember correctly, this whole move is courtesy of you?" I checked my reflection in the mirror, puckering at myself upon noticing not a hair was out of place. I re-applied some lipstick mumbling a defeated 'yes' to Aunt Francis.

"I guess you can blame the whole babysitting thing on me though. Actually my idea was to get you a shock collar that didn't allow you 30 feet away from your mother, but your mom didn't agree with that." She shrugged as if it was my mom's loss while I stared horrified at her.

"Don't look at me like that." She reprimanded me. "I made sure she got you a cute one. In fact, I think both of his parents are models."

"What's he like?" I asked. Aunt Francis smirked as if she knew something I didn't, though really it was the other way around. I had no hopes of falling in love with the traitor who'd agreed to this.

"He's nice enough. Big muscular guy, really loves to surf. He's really smart too so even the great Javiéra won't be able to outsmart him." Challenge accepted.

"And just in case you were wondering, he's completely single." I raised an eyebrow at my Aunt, who raised her hand in defense.

Aunt Francis was beautiful, really young looking for her age. She was the spitting image of Dad with her brunette hair, bushy eyebrows, and thick accent.

"I really hope you like it here Javiéra, and I empathise with you, I really do. But, try and keep your cool. Your sister's gonna get back into her acting and modeling and I don't want you to ever feel like you're in the background. Always remember, I'm only one call away." I smiled genuinely.

"Thanks, Aunt Francis." She parked the car in a yard with neighbors barely two feet apart on either side. The house was nice enough on the outside. A patio with a beautiful garden out front and a huge underground swimming pool out back. A balcony hung just over the edge.

"Javiéra! Quit daydreaming and help unload the cars!" In the midst of my daydreaming, Stella had claimed the bigger room, which I didn't complain about because I liked mine as well. The walls had been painted maroon, my ex-favorite color. The room was considerably bigger than my last and, hooray,so was the closet. I rearranged my room with my flat screen TV looking down on my queen sized bed. By the time I had finished my room, the entire house was finished and it was now 3:00 pm. I flopped on my bed in exhaustion, taking in how well my blackout curtains and posters went with the wall color. My room was my own version of a fairy tale. I had a few pictures hung, mostly of Deuce and Ashley because they're the only real friends I've ever had. I scrolled through the pictures in my camera, coming to a stop on the very last one which showed Ashley holding my hand in the air like I was some kind of champion, with me smiling with wing sauce all over my face. It was adorable and I made a mental note to print it out and frame it. I sigh.