Try Me

Chapter 1

First Day of Junior Year; Thursday, August 27th

Marisa's POV:

After everything that happened at the beginning of this summer, I hope to just get through the rest of high school as unscathed as possible. I'm super lucky to have Megan, Joey, and Adam still by my side; those people who I thought were my friends were just using me and didn't like me for me. When tragedy strikes, you really find out who are your real friends, but I'll get to that later.

Its time for school, which should be interesting considering how everyone in the city of Independence thinks they know what happened to me, even though I still don't know! Anyway, I wonder what this year will bring.

I go pick up my best friend, Megan, considering she doesn't have a license and I'm her personal Uber driver hahaha.

Once she gets in the car, She asks me "Are you ready for this?"

"No, but what else am I going to do, skip school for the rest of my life? lol nope." I say.

When we get to school, we go straight to the office to talk to Mrs.L, the secretary, so we can find out if they need any help since we've been a office aids since freshmen year. She tells us that there are 2 new kids: one has the same schedule as me and the other one has the same as Megan so we get to show them around today and answer any questions they have.

I'm scrolling through Twitter when I'm suddenly I'm being elbowed in the arm by Megan who has seriously pointy elbows, like I'm not kidding, her elbows have bruised me before!

"Dude, what do you want?" I ask annoyed and in pain.

"Those have to be the new guys; I've never seen them before; look how hot they are" Megan says as she's fanning herself dramatically

James' POV

Walking in to a new school isn't the easiest thing to do especially when you move from a different country. Leaving the UK and all the memories was hard, but I think this move will be great for everyone. I'm definitely happy that I've got a twin brother to lean on. Soccer is also my saving grace, the guys on the team seem cool.

Dawson and I walk into the office to grab our schedules from a super nice lady; she directs us to two girls who look like they are waiting for us.

Mrs.L says "Dawson and James, meet your tour guides for the day, Megan and Marisa. Megan will show Dawson around, and Marisa will show James around. If you ever need anything, let me know! Have a great day!"

I lock eyes with Marisa; my heart stops for a second and my brain goes to mush. She's the most beautiful girl I've every seen, her blue eyes are kind, and pierce my soul, her brunette hair falls perfectly around her face, her smile, ugh, her smile is just perfect. I have to get to know her.

"Hi, I'm James Kingsley, how are you doing?" I smile and say.

"I'm Marisa Manero,and I'm good, thanks for asking"ugh there's that smile again
"So our schedule is:
1st- Anatomy with Mrs. K
2nd- Chem lab with Mr.W
3rd- Chemistry with Mr. W
4th- Spanish with Mrs.F
5th- Lunch
6th- Communications with Mrs.R & Mr. M
7th- Pre-Calculus with Mrs.P
8th-Study Hall
9th- AP US History with Mrs. S"

-Skip classes-

All day I try to ask Marisa questions to get to know her, but she gives the shortest answers possible, and I see people whisper and stare at her too. I wonder what all that was about. Maybe at soccer practice, one of the guys will catch me up to speed.

~Soccer practice~

In the locker room, one of the guys, Phil asks "why were you hanging with around Marisa all day?" I say "She was assigned to show me around since it was my first day; she's seems super nice" "Dude stay away from her me if you wanna have any friends in this school or be popular" I give them a perplexed look and Mark chimes in and says "she's a liar,a fake bitch and a slut." but don't explain further than that; Dawson and I share a confused look and shrug our shoulders.

I definitely don't get that vibe from her. I honestly don't care about being popular here, it didn't get anywhere at my old school so why would I want to do that again?

During practice, I can't stop thinking about what the guys said about Marisa; I can't help but want to do the opposite of what they are telling me to do, I wanna know her and they can deal with it.

Once practice is over, Dawson and I pile into his car. I ask "How was your day?" Dawson while blushing says "Honestly, it was great, Megan is pretty chill and helpful" "Dude, I can't tell if you're blushing or if your face is still red from practice!" I tell him laughing. He tells me to shut up playfully and starts that car.

I ask " Do you really think those things the guys said about Marisa are true?" He says smirking "I honestly don't know, she seemed nice this morning. Her and Megan are best friends so she can't be that bad; Why the sudden interest in her?" "No reason" I say. He says sarcastically "yeah, right, sure"

Marisa's POV

All day, James asks personal questions and I can't bring myself to answer them with all the people staring. I don't even know whether they are staring at him or me. I really hope it's him they're staring at. I mean how could you not; he's so attractive! I may be damaged, but I'm sure not blind!

After school, I drop Megan off at her house and all I wanna do it go home and binge watch Grey's Anatomy till I go on my daily run around 5pm. When I get home, no one is there; My parents own a software company and are barely home which means I do the cooking, and shopping around here; it's exhausting sometimes; 5pm rolls around fast and it's time for my run.

James' POV:

When we finally get home, I see Marisa on a run in shorts that show off her legs, and a tank top that hugs her in the best way. She's got sweat dripping down her neck that disappears into her shirt and I swear I forget how to breathe. I'm blatantly staring at her.

Now what happens next, I'm most certainly not ready for. She stops to take a break and lifts up her shirt to wipe the sweat off her brow showing me a glimpse of her toned stomach. I'm frozen in my spot until I get hit with my soccer bag courtesy of Dawson. He's just laughing and says "You've got some drool there buddy" I wipe my chin thinking he's right because honestly that's the best thing I've seen all day. Well I know what I'll be dreaming about tonight.

When I get inside, my mom's making dinner so I go help her while Dawson goes and showers. She asks "How was your first day?" "Different, but good" "Did you make any new friends?" "The soccer guys are cool" "James, I meant outside of soccer" I blush and my mom picks up on it "Oh so there is someone else, a girl maybe??" Dawson comes in right on time and says " Oh you mean Marisa" I glare at him and say "well I'm not the only one, Dawson, what about Megan?" He glares back. I say "and with that, I'm going to go shower"