Sandcastles

Chapter One

Pictured: Dylan O'Brien as Ben

Collins Creek is nothing but a gross little town in Georgia. The funny thing is that there isn't even a creek in the dumb town. It's basically named after a dried up ditch that smells prominently of dead fish and wet dirt. I know this because our new house, if you can call it new or a house, is just 300 yards away from the "creek". Even when my family and I lived by the bay in San Francisco, there was never a smell of fish or anything close to the nasty creek smell. This place sucks. That's the only way to put it. When Mom was looking at places to move since her and Dad divorced, none of us had any idea that she meant Collins Creek. And if we did, we would have put up an even bigger fight to leave than we did. Upon arrival at our new home, Mom informed my older sister and I that we would have to share a room. We all had our own rooms in San Francisco. But now, we live in a 3 bedroom house for a family of four. The whole house smells of mildew, also. So far I hate everything about Collins Creek.

But I seem to be the only one. This morning Mom woke all of us up early so we could get ready for our first day at our new school. Madeline took hours to put makeup on and Ben, my brother, spent all the time in the bathroom after that to do his hair even though he tucks it away in a beanie. So I look terrible for our first day and I feel terrible. I never had any friends at my old school because I never took any time to know anyone. The only class I ever really showed up for was my drama class. Other than that, I failed at everything. But Ben and Madeline seem stoked to start fresh at this new school.

When we pull into the parking lot, I spot all kinds of kids outside the school and hanging around each other. Madeline parks the car and Ben and I file out of the doors. I gather my bag and Madeline stops Ben and I before we start walking towards the building. I raise my eyebrows at her and Ben just crosses his arms.

"Listen, you two go play with your little sophomore friends and leave me be. We don't know each other, got it?" she says, her green eyes glaring underneath all of the eye makeup. Her eyeliner, heavy and dark, takes up almost half of her eyelid.

Ben nods his head and licks the tip of his thumb before reaching at Madeline. She backs away with a look of disgust, but Ben says that she has something on her forehead. Just like that, Ben smudges the black eyeliner across her eyelid and around her eyebrow. I stifle laughter and run off before she kills Ben or me, even though I didn't do it.

I run up the steps and into the building. Ben follows behind me, panting and out of breath. Madeline must be in her car trying to fix her smudged makeup. I grin at Ben whenever he walks beside me. That was a good one since Madeline is such a freak about looking good all the time.

I walk with Ben to the office so I can get my schedule and locker number. Without looking at my schedule, I go to my locker and punch in the combination. It swings open and I throw my stuff in. I then take a look, groaning when I see that I have geometry first. I hate school anyways, but I absolutely hate math.

"Hey," I hear the familiar voice. I close my locker and see that my brother is standing right there.

"Ben-"

"Do we have any classes together?" he blurts out. He's all shaky and nervous. I kind of feel bad. He's like me; he's never been very good at making friends. I'm probably the only one that he will try to talk to the whole school year. We're really close, but twins are always close to each other.

I don't answer him and just pull him in for a hug. He seems startled and just stands there like a rag doll. I pull away, gripping his shoulders with my hands.

"Make some friends, Benji." I say, using the nickname that we always used to call him. He scowls. He hates the name.

He frowns and pushes his glasses up on his nose. The first bell, which is just a warning bell, rings. I get my notebook and smile one last time at Ben before walking off to my geometry class. I'm one of the only people in here and sit near the back.