Crossing Oceans

1. First Day Blues

     F I R S T  D A Y S of school were the absolute worst: every teacher at Jesper Valley High developed some fake desire for their students to befriend each other, and therefore somehow thought up of only about a hundred “get to know each other” games.

     Those tedious games were the sole reason behind why I had rushed to the back of my art class as quickly (and as quietly) as I was capable of this morning in my white flats.

     I swiftly pulled out a chair and dumped my stuff on the desk in front of me. Hurry up, Calisto. You’ve got to be ready before the teacher comes in. I plugged in my earbuds, which were always conveniently strung around my neck, and lay my head on the desk in front of me, my arms cradled securely around myself.

     I had tried my best to even out my breathing in order to complete my illusion of sleep, but my attempts were futile.

     "Miss East," Ms. Blayde announced, causing me to silently curse as I reluctantly lifted my head up to face her. I pulled my earbuds out of my ears and sent her a guilty smile, biting my lip once I noticed the eyes of most of my junior art class on me. "If you’re going to sleep in my class, please do it properly."

     Half of the class burst out laughing as Ms. Blayde, who had a small smile on her face, turned around to scratch something on the blackboard, while the other half of the class erupted into whispers. “That’s Chase East’s sister,” “Chase East has a sister?” “Isn’t that Jett’s little sister?” “Hey, that’s the girl who Colin is always around” were merely samples of what I heard.

     I let out a soft sigh, shaking my head. Hearing those words were simply routine for me. It was pretty annoying being the younger sister of three of the most popular seniors at Jesper Valley, since that’s basically all that anyone knew you for (if they even knew you at all).

     My older blond haired triplet brothers had each made a (well-deserved) name for themselves at Jesper Valley High.

     Aside from being gorgeous, Chase, the oldest of the East siblings, was JV’s golden boy: popular and friendly (and let’s not forget the fact that his long term girlfriend, Hope, was JV’s golden girl. Together, they blinded all the students at JV with their light rays of perfection). Despite always paling in comparison to him, I could never ever hate him, for there was simply no reason to. Sure, he would tease me at times (I mean, what are brothers for, right?), but he always looked after me due to my inability to look after myself.

     Jett East, the middle triplet, was an aspiring writer who had a beautiful way with words and spent most of his free time either working or volunteering (something about needing money to fund his career). And of course, like the other two East triplets, Jett East was about as gorgeous as they came. Or at least that’s what his boyfriend of five months, Jesse (I liked to refer to them as J²), had claimed.

     And last but not least, the youngest East triplet: Colin East. He was tall, and lean, and beautifully blond (the words of the majority of the JV population, not mine), but was probably my parents’ biggest worry. He was in and out of the local police station all the time (he liked to break the law when he was bored), but was able to use his humor to get out of everything, including juvie.

     And then there was me: the youngest and most insignificant East sibling. I usually wasn’t even distinguished as an East sibling, since unlike my fair-haired brothers, my hair was dyed brown (one of Colin’s pranks gone wrong) and my eyes were a hazel-green. There was also the fact that because I had grown up sheltered by my older brothers, I had never really learned how to properly speak up for myself, and therefore had a pretty much nonexistent voice at JV.