Love or War?

Chapter Two

            "Can you believe those jerks? Egging our cars, then running as if we couldn't catch them!" Lena huffed, sitting on Jacobs lap. He clearly loved this, as he rubbed his hands up and down her thighs.

            This was the kind of thing that made me unsure of where to look. I settled on my book, flipping to page 47 of Beautiful Creatures. I'd already read the book and the series a zillion times, but it was like a safety blanket, you know?

            "And what the hell was that Kate, letting Mara go?" Lena snapped, giving me a harsh look. I rolled my eyes and returned to my book.

            "She was too busy teaching Declan a lesson," Brad came to my defense and for once I was grateful. Brad had an irritating habit of hitting on me all the time, even though we all knew he wasn't a relationship kind of guy. All Brad wanted was sex, and anyone you asked could tell you that I wasn't the type of girl to do one-night-stands. I got attached too easily - hell, I even got attached to storybook characters.

            I had had boyfriends in the past, and don't get me wrong, being with someone is great, but it's hard to find Mr.Right when you aren't allowed to go out of you social circle. Think about it.

            I knew all the people in Orchestra, they all knew me, and we all got along for the most part. But come on, I've known these guys for all of high school, some of them even from elementary school. It's hard to fall for one of them when you know them so well. If I had liked them before I had probably dated them, and it hadn't worked out. They were the same guys, no one new. I was killing time until college - until I could find someone who I didn't know. Someone who understood me beyond the point of Orchestra.

            It got complicated when I thought about it too hard.

            "You sure she wasn't flirting with him? I saw them laughing." Lena had never really liked me.

            "What are you insinuating?" I snapped. Okay, so they were my friends, and according to the rules of Ritchview, it was forbidden for social groups to interact on a friendly level. Basically? You don't mix with the band kids, they don't mix with us. It's a rule.

            The point being - I had to like them. I didn't have a choice because I played the cello, and there are no cellos in Band. So, these were my friends, whether I approved or not. But they weren't the brightest bunch, even Lena - who was a full blooded Japanese, not to be racist - so sometimes using words like insinuating scared them. I was the smartest of them, grade-wise, and clearly common-sense-wise as well, but I tried not to flaunt it.

            "Leave her alone. We need to plan our next move," Jeffrey stated. He was one of those guys that I knew from elementary school, and was decidedly my best friend. Along with Jacob, when he wasn't fawning over Lena.

            Sure, there were other kids at our school, the choir kids, the drama buffs, even kids in the musical technology department, but there weren't many, and while we knew them, we were never close. Band and Orchestra was the main reason you came to Ritchview. We had the best Orchestra in the State, and the second best Band.

            Orchestra - 1 Band - 0

            That was how it always was, back and forth, shot after shot fired at the other side. I just wondered when it would really end, when we would wise up and call a truce, ending this dam feud that no one could even remember the beginning of.