Becoming Cowboy

Chapter 19

   Jacob felt his fingers tremble as James pulled the truck into the local highschools parking lot. Brook sat beside him and took his hand in hers, giving him an encouraging smile. Since James was the only one of them that had a Nevada license, he was the one that drove them to school. They had picked up Brook, Lily and Daniella on the way. Mil was wedged inbetween Daneilla and Jacob.

    They all climbed out of the truck and Brook took his hand, leading him in. He pulled out his schedule and Brook took it.

"You're lockers on the west side of the school. It's ten lockers down from mine." She told him. She led him to it and opened it for. He placed his bag inside and She smiled as she looked at his schedule.

"We have the same first period. Biology." She took his hand and lead him to the Biology room. They sat down in desks next to each other and watched as others filed in through the door, giving Jacob curious glances. Brook caught a few girls eyeing him and she flashed them glares, holding onto his hand to show them that he was hers.

   The teacher was a thin tall woman with brown hair and glasses. Her name was Mrs. Wendell. As she entered the room, she set her bag down on her desk and her eyes quickly found Jacobs. She placed her hands on her hips.

"James Maxwell, I have you in fifth period. You shouldn't be here." She said. all eyes were instantly on Jacob.

"My name is Jacob Maxwell, ma'am. James is my twin brother." He said. She quickly looked down at her student list and blushed slightly.

"Oh, yes your name is here, Jacob Maxwell. I'm sorry, I didn't know James had a twin." She said.

"I didn't either until three months ago ma'am." He said. She rose her eyebrows up and bit her lip.

"Since you're a new student, Jacob, would you care to tell us a bit about your self?" She asked. He nodded a bit.

"Well, I just moved here from Miami Florida. I lived there with my dad and stepmom, until they shipped me out here for the Summer and I ended up staying." He said. Mrs. Wendell nodded and smiled.

"Thank you, Jacob. Let's just hope you're a little more decent then your brother." She mumbled the last part.

   His second period class was English. Brook showed him where the room was and he was relieved to find out Lily had the same class with him. He sat down next to her and he got the same curious stares in each class. He had fourth period, P.E. with James. The second they stepped in the same gym, everyone was staring at them. The coach went pale and mumbled something like, "Why me? Why must I suffer! There's two of them!" This only made James and Jacob smile. Everyone could tell James and Jacob apart now that James had the two scars on his face. The one on his cheek was hard to miss since it was six inches long and half an inch wide.

   After fourth period was lunch. They got a table in the middle of the lunch room and Mil came over to them. Lily, Brook and Daniella joined them also. Brook and Jacob held hands as they ate, and several girls gave Brook glares as they walked by. Mil hadn't talked at all.

"What's wrong, Mil?" James asked sitting down next to her. She glared at him.

"It doesn't help being a freashman and not knowing the school, but also having people tease me cause I got dumped by Tommy is making my life miserable." she said. She went pale as soon as the words left her lips and she looked up and Jacob, who looked at James. James seemed to have no emotion at all.

"Tommy dumped you?" His voice was dangerously low. Mil bit her lip and picked at her food, slowly nodding.

"It's not a big deal, Jay. People are just immature." She said. He glared at the table.

"Where is he?" He asked, looking around the cafeteria.

"Drop it Jay!" she growled at him.

"No! If you're getting teased, let me and Jake take care of it!" He said. Jacob did agree with his twin, they needed to look out for their little sister, but she obviously didn't want to be looked out for.

"I don't need my brothers fighting for me. I can look out for myself." She stood up and walked away. James looked at the others at the table.

"Did I handle that wrong?" He asked. Brook shook her head.

"No. She just doesn't want help. Leave her alone unless things get really out of hand. She has two older brothers who are juniors, the second you show your face, all of her friends will scatter." Brook said. James let out a sigh and they finished up their lunches in silence. Jacob and Brook had one more class together, U.S. History. And sixth period, none of his friends or James were in with him. He felt very lonely since someone he knew had been in everyone of his classes so far. He sat in the corner of the room, hoping he wouldn't draw too much attention to himself.

   A blond girl dressed entirely in pink with pick high heels and lipstick sat down next to him.

"Hi, I'm Nikki." She said. He gave her a small smile.

"Jacob." he said.

"Yeah, everyone knows. James is very popular around here, people are going to notice when he suddenly has a twin pop out of nowhere." She said giving him a flirtatious smile.

"It's not nowhere, it's Florida." He said. She rolled her eyes playfully.

"What ever." She said jokingly. "So, if you're ever lonely on a Friday night, I can always make time for you." She said giving him a wink.

"I have a girlfriend." He said. She looked slightly shocked.

"Who?" She asked slightly shrilly.

"Brook Scott." He said. He could see her fingers clentch around her pencil.

"Of coarse." She said through gritted teeth. Just then the lesson began and Nikki flashed him smiles every once in a while. He was just grateful the teacher had made a seating chart, and he was far away from Nikki. He had the feeling she and Brook had history.

***

That afternoon, they dropped the girls off home and then drove home. Mil refused to speak to James the whole time. when they pulled up to the house, she left her bag in the truck and headed straight for the barn, which Jacob acctually thought was smart seeing how Alex was sure to ask how their day went, and he'd rather spend time with Chevy right then. She was finally improving and he was able to ride her around the arena without getting bucked off. But he needed to get changed before riding her, and even also had a ton of homework, which he thought was lame seeing it was the first day of school.

When the twins stepped through the door, Alex showered them in questions about their day. James gave a breif summary before slipping away and up stairs. Alex wasn't going to let Jacob out so easily though. She asked if he made new friends, and he nodded, since he had. though he spent most of his time with the friend he already had.

"Do you think you'll do any sports?" She asked.

"I might try out for track, or cross country. I'm not sure." She smiled and nodded. She finally then let him go. He had just heard the door open and Mil walk in as he dashed up the stairs. He threw his stuff on his bed and slipped off his school shoes and into his boots, which were a lot more comfortable. He changed into his 'farm clothes' And quickly did some homework before running outside to the barn. Chevy gave him an angry neigh as he ran in.

"I'm sorry!" He replied. He felt it was a little weird he was talking to his horse, but he had seen Brook and James do it also, and he could fully understand her. She was mad he hadn't visited her that day.

"It's not my fault I had to go to school!" He said. He grabbed her halter, pulled open her stall gate and taking off her fly mask and putting on her halter. Joseph was in the small yard attached to Chevy's stall, playing with Wildfire. Jacob led her out of the stall and tied her up in the cross ties. He brushed her off, hoof picked her and saddled her up. He untied her and slipped his foot into the left stirrup and swung himself over her. He road her into the arena and rode her around, she fought him a little since she was irritated with him, but over all, he successfully road her for about an hour. He dismounted and led her out of the arena and into the barn. As he was brushing her out, he heard someone pull into the drive way. Chevy's ears twitched in irritation and Jacob felt his stomach fill with dread as three girls got out of the car and one of them was Nikki.