9 pm on a Saturday

nExT tO hIm?!

louise's outfit ^

three years later...

"happy birthday to you!" everyone finishes off the last phrase of the birthday song to me. I blow off the candles after making a wish and everyone claps, cheering for me.

"so how does it feel like being fifteen?" Aaliyah asks me. I chuckle, shaking my head. "nothing. Just like my other birthdays. Not so special." I say truthfully.

It was true; I don't feel anything special or any kind of excitement. I guess there's nothing much to be excited about. I have no friends to celebrate with apart from Aaliyah who is my step sister. So I guess that doesn't really count.

In the past two years I spent lots of time with my foster family and just last year I was adopted by them. Shawn was very fun to sing with and Aaliyah was fun to hang out with. I guess having a new family and restarting my life isn't such a bad thing.

I mean except for one thing... Caleb. Caleb and I haven't grown closer to each other. Instead our hate for each other grows and grows every day we see each other.

"Okay, time for school." Karen says. Aaliyah and I groan and we sling over our backs over our shoulders. "can I just skip school?" I ask Karen and unsurprisingly she shakes her head no.

"bye mom! bye dad!"

Aaliyah and I say at the same time. Oh and I almost forgot to add; I call Karen and Manny mom and dad now. Over these two years I've grown so much closer to them that I unconsciously call them mom and dad to the point where it's a habit.

"bye guys, have a great day at school!" Manny says. I close the door behind me once Aaliyah and I get out the house and the cold breeze hits our exposed skin.

Today I'm wearing a green long sleeve shirt tucked into a black skirt with my black vintage boots and my hair tied up into a lazy ponytail.

The sound of a car horn honking booms through the neighbourhood and Aaliyah and I glare at where the sound was coming from. Shawn's car. "hurry up girls! I haven't got all day!" he shouts to us and we pace to the car.
Right before we got out of the house I called shotgun before Aaliyah did so I make my way to the front passenger seat.

Shawn dropped out of school just a couple of months ago to chase his dream career – being a singer. I guess I could say that his dream is just about successful. He's got a ton of followers on Vine and on youtube, posting lots and lots of covers of songs which most of them I suggested for him to sing.

"Shawn can we skip school today? It's Louise's birthday." Aaliyah asks Shawn from the backseat, leaning forward. "Aaliyah you know that I would let you but what if mom finds out?" he says reasonably. Aaliyah just sighs in response and sinks back down into her seat.

In a blink of an eye we arrive in school and Aaliyah and I are already getting out of Shawn's car. While we're already walking near school, I hear a car honk with Shawn's shout, "have a nice day in school girls! Hope you have fun, love you!" the window is rolled down fully and some people in our school turn to look at us.

How embarrassing.

Shawn does this to us every Monday just to embarrass us. Most of the time we ignore him and pretend that we don't know him like what we're doing right now but he does something more unexpectedly. He shouts out our names.

"goodbye my beloved sisters; Aaliyah and Louise! Oh and Louise, good luck with Caleb!" and with that Shawn drives away without seeing our reactions. I'm sure the whole school already knows our names because of our stupid brother who just can't keep his mouth shut.

"God he's such an embarrassment." Aaliyah mutters to me, and I couldn't agree more.

We arrive at our lockers which is conveniently next to each other and we get our stuff for our next two lessons. After I finished my little "mission", I turn around to see the oh so popular Caleb. He is leaned against his locker, talking to his many guy friends which irritatingly included Liam.

Suddenly his gaze switched to mine for a split second and then he looks back at his friends, which made my heart skip a beat. Shit, did he see me staring at him? I wasn't even staring. I was glaring. Yeah, that's what I was doing. I was glaring. I wasn't staring at all.

The school bell rings, signalling that start of first period. The hallway floods with tons and tons of students so Aaliyah and I stick to one side until everyone is gone. Then we make our way to our first period. Aaliyah had Maths while I had English.

When I arrive to English, I realise that I am late when the teacher points it out, "you're late, Ms... Mendes." Mrs Wilson hesitates for my surname, since it used to be Harson. Most students in the class stare at me for being the adopted Mendes sister.

"sorry, Ms Wilson." I say in monotone. "just sit and we can continue with our class." Mrs Wilson says. She's always been a nice teacher who never gives detentions for being late or anything else in general.

My eyes scan the room and I see that the only seats there is is the one next to gags Caleb and then another one next to gags again Smelly Nelly. I scratch my head with a finger, thinking of where to sit. Smelly Nelly or Caleb?

"Ms Mendes, are you going to sit or shall I choose a seating for you?" Mrs Wilson asks. "um... I'd rather sit in the corner." I state truthfully, gaining some chuckles from amused students.

"okay,next to Caleb."