teeth ↣ joshler ✓

3. Mask

Josh sighed as their mom pulled into the parent drop off lane at the high school.

"I'm a senior in high school and I still don't have my own car," he mumbled. "This is so embarrassing."

"It's also the first day of school so that's even worse," Jordan added.

"Shush you two," their mom waved them off. "Don't put negativity in your head or you'll have a bad year."

"I miss my friends," Jordan sighed.

Josh turned around and saw that Jordan genuinely looked nervous but sad. His heart softened. "Hey it'll be alright, Jor. You'll make new friends. Plus I bet there are lots of cute girls here," he joked.

Jordan cracked a smile. "I bet there are lots of cute guys too."

Josh let out a small laugh. "Thanks," he opened the door and Jordan did the same. "Bye, Mom. We'll see you after school."

"Bye guys," she smiled. "Please try to have a good day. I promise it can't be as bad as you think it'll be."

Josh just gave her a smile in return and the two shut their doors. They began walking towards the entrance to the school. "You got your schedule?" Josh asked.

Jordan nodded. "Yeah. On my phone."

"Good. I'll text you a place to meet me at lunch if you can't find anyone to sit with."

"Gotc—"

"Josh!"

Jordan was cut off by a familiar voice. They turned around and Josh saw Jenna walking towards him with a big smile on her face. She was wearing a maroon and white cheer uniform. "Hey," he smiled.

Josh saw Jordan checking her out and he smiled as well. "Hey," he smirked.

Jenna glanced over at him and stuck her hand out. "You must be Jordan. You and Josh look a lot alike."

"I must be. Can I call you beautiful?"

Jenna giggled. "You can call me Jenna and stop flirting with upperclassmen."

Jordan clicked his tongue and let out a sigh of defeat. "Worth a try."

Josh laughed. "Is it so hard for you to just find a girl you actually like and settle on her?"

Jordan gave him a look. "I like all girls."

Jenna stifled another giggle before turning to Josh. "What's your schedule?"

Josh unlocked his phone and went to his camera roll, finding the schedule he took a screenshot of and showing it to her. She scanned over it for a moment before grinning. "Hey! We have gym together! My friend Tyler's in the class with us. You also have math with him. I'll make sure he's nice to you," she teased.

Josh smiled. "Thanks."

"Of course," she replied. "I know how it feels to be... different... and being the new kid is pretty different. Hartgate's a great town though you'll love it here."

"Great town my ass."

Josh turned at the sound of a new voice. A boy with brown hair walked up next to Jenna with a bored look on his face. Jenna smacked his arm lightly. "Stop it," she scolded.

"I'm just telling the truth."

Jenna rolled her eyes before gesturing to Josh and his brother. "This is Josh," she pointed. "And this is Jordan, his little brother. They're the ones I was telling you about."

"You talked about me?" Josh asked. He voice didn't hold any offense of disgust. It was more honor. He didn't think he was interesting enough to be talked about.

"Yeah!" Her smile returned. "You seem really cool and I was telling Tyler I wanted to be your friend. Oh, this is Tyler by the way."

"Hi," Josh smiled towards his direction.

Tyler just nodded back in his direction, tightening his grip on his backpack with a clenched jaw. He looked down. "I'm going to class," he mumbled before walking off.

Jenna sighed and looked at the two Dun brother apologetically. "I'm sorry. He's not normally like this. Well, he kinda is. But he's not..." she paused, looking for the right words. "He's a nice person when you get to know him. He just puts a mask on."

Josh glanced over to see that instead of going to class, Tyler stopped and was having a conversation with a guy a little bit taller than him. He was laughing and had a wide smile on his face.

Josh scoffed. "Sure..."

Jenna looked over at where Josh was looking and frowned. "He's just... struggling with a lot. It may take awhile for him to warm up to you but I bet he will."

Josh shook his head, a small chuckle leaving his lips. "I'm not gonna force him to like me. Not many people do."

Jenna cocked her head to the side with a sad look on her face. "What? Why not?"

Jordan snorted. "He's annoying."

Josh looked at him. "Do you hear yourself?" He looked back at Jenna. "My dad works in consulting for big companies so we move a lot. He works in Denver now and my parents wanted to live in a smaller city so that's why we picked here. The longest place we stayed was Columbus and that's where we moved from. We were there four years. It's just kinda hard to make friends when you don't know how long they'll be there for you."

Jenna gave him a sad smile. "As cranky as Tyler is... he's my best friend. And I have a feeling he'll be my best friend forever," she looked at Tyler solemnly before giving her attention back to Josh. "I've lived here my whole life. I couldn't imagine moving all the time. That's so rough. I'm sorry."

Josh shrugged. "I'm used to it."

Jenna turned to Jordan. "What about you?"

Jordan shrugged as well. "I always find a way to make friends. I just act like all the other obnoxious kids in my grade. I'm pretty sure I have some attention disorder too but that's besides the fact," he laughed. "But I don't know. I just act hella annoying and other annoying boys end up wanting to do annoying shit with me."

Josh laughed. "Yeah that pretty much sums it up."

Jenna smiled at them. She held her wrist up and checked the time on her Apple watch. "Well we have twenty minutes before we have to be in homeroom. Do you want a small tour of the school?"

Josh smiled as well. "Sure. We'd like that."