never again | calum hood

one

September came and school had finally started. Yay. Junior year is in the middle of the whole thing, it's like you're not the youngest but you're also not the oldest. You're just irrelevant. And although you're not an adult yet, they still want you to act like one. It's just annoying, I think.

Last summer, my mom and I decided to move to America because things in Australia weren't going well and neither of us could stand my dad coming to our house every time he needed money anymore. We thought about London first, but it was way too expensive, and then we remembered that Luke's family had moved to the U.S. when we were eleven, so my mom decided it was a good idea and I agreed. We bought the plane tickets and found an apartment to rent while we looked for something we could actually buy. We ended up buying a house a few blocks from my new school.

We'd been here for almost two months and it still felt like I had just gotten off the plane, I knew absolutely nobody and I'd get lost every time I had to go to the store. Portland wasn't exactly a gigantic city, but it was still pretty big, and if it wasn't for Luke's family, me and my mom would probably stay home all day long.

Today for example, Luke had to drag me out of my house to go to school. I was awake when he came into my room, but I hadn't even showered yet and he started yelling at me for getting us late. Lucas loved school. For what I'd seen so far, he was pretty popular, girls would line up to talk to him and he was friends with a lot of seniors, which apparently made him extremely proud and helped his sex appeal or something. I just wanted to finish school as soon as possible and then leave for college. I had no idea of what I wanted to do with my life, but as much as I loved my mom, I wasn't going to stay with her forever.

We made our way to our first class, Luke said hi to at least thirty people when we walked through the halls and I just followed him around like a lost puppy, he introduced me a few times but he mostly just waved at people when he passed by. We entered the room and sat in the last row of desks, the bell rang and the English teacher came in wearing a lemon green tie and a yellow shirt that didn't give him a serious appearance.

"Morning, idiots", he said and I assumed it was supposed to be funny, but no one laughed. He then started talking about the contents we'd be seeing through the year and ranted on how cool his summer had been.

A few minutes went on and the door suddenly bursted open, a girl came in, her hair all over face, she awkwardly sat down on the first empty chair she could find. Someone pocked her shoulder and she turned around moving her hair to the side with one hand.

She smiled at the girl sitting behind her, her bright blue eyes made me shiver.

"Adelaide, late on your first day", the teacher shook his head and the girl just sent him a huge grin.

Oh my God.

I picked up my backpack from the floor and put it on my desk, trying to hide behind it without seeming too weird.

Holy shit.

"You alright, mate?" Luke asked. Guess it didn't work. I nodded quickly and started doodling on my notebook to distract myself, but I knew I'd have to look at her at some point. I tapped my pencil nervously against my desk and Luke raised an eyebrow at me.

"Calum, what's going on. Are you okay?" Luke insisted.

"No, I'm not," I admitted. He looked at me in confusion. "Remember that girl from Ashton's party that I told you about?"

He shook his head. "What girl?"

"You know, the one that I slept with", I explained.

"The one you what? You lost your virginity?" He gasped laughing a little.