The New Kid: a Noah Beck Fanfiction *completed*

5

For some reason, they took this as their cue to let him know.
"I play baseball," Griffin said.
Bryce was next. "I play soccer and wrestle."
"I'm a cheerleader, gymnast, and I play softball," Addison detailed.
"Basketball, baseball, and football here," Blake muttered as he took a bite of his burrito.
"Just football. It's my favorite," Jaden said, wrapping an arm around Mads.
"Just track since we don't have a girls' hockey team," Dixie said, not hiding how bitter she was about that fact.
"Hockey," Josh said, standing up and leaving the table.
"Volleyball and student council president," Amelie said, handing Blake a napkin.
Nessa shrugged. "I guess show choir counts."
"I'm a gymnast," Avani informed him.
"I play football with Blake and Jaden," Quinton said.
Cynthia was lost on her phone, so Mads answered for both of them. "Cynthia and I are both on the dance team."
Anthony shrugged. "I don't like to stick with any one thing."

Noah looked at me. "That was a lot of information, and honestly, it kind of made my head hurt."
The table erupted in laughter. We hadn't had someone new join the group in months, so no one had gotten all of that information at once.
"Hey, do you want to do something crazy?" I whispered to Noah.
He shrugged. "Why not?"
"I don't want to go to class for the rest of the day. Wanna skip with me?"
Noah laughed until he realized that I was serious. "Oh, you're for real. I mean, you know what? Let's do it."
I nudged Griffin. "Do you and Dixie want to skip the rest of the day with Noah and me?"
Griffin looked at me. "It's the second day."
"So? It's our senior year. We'll never get the chance to skip the second day together ever again." I don't know if it was my pouty face or the fact that I tugged at his heartstrings by indirectly mentioning that he was leaving for Indiana State next fall, but he reluctantly agreed. When he asked Dixie, she didn't hesitate.
"Absolutely! I was worried that I was going to have to wait until next semester for someone to even suggest it."

When the bell rang, we headed to our lockers. They were all close to one another, so it didn't take long for us to all meet back at my locker. I threw Griffin the keys. "You take the car with Dixie, and I'll ride with Noah. Where do you guys want to go?"
"Mom and Dad went on that business trip this morning, so we could just go back to the house," Griffin suggested.
We all nodded in agreement and headed out to the parking lot quickly so that we wouldn't get caught.

"What made you want to skip?" Noah asked, turning the key in the ignition.
I shrugged. "I like school, don't get me wrong, but I'm bored already. I wish there was some variety."
"Variety? You crack me up," Noah said, turning onto my street.
"Noah, before we get there, can we talk about something?"
A look of panic crossed Noah's face before he answered. "Sure, what's up?"
"I've been doing a lot of thinking trying to figure out who the pretty girl that you were talking about last night, but I cannot figure it for the life of me. Will you just tell me who it is?"
Noah relaxed, chuckling softly. "Griffin said that you wouldn't get the hint."
"I genuinely don't understand," I responded, slightly frustrated that he was talking about me with my brother.

By now, we were in my driveway, and Griffin and Dixie stood outside of the car, waiting for us to get out. Without another word on the matter, Noah got out of the car.
"Listen, someone better explain what's going on to me, or I'm gonna lose it," I said, unlocking the front door.
Dixie was confused. "We're skipping class. It was literally your idea."
"Not that," I laughed. "These two talked about something, and neither one of them will spell it out for me."
"Oh, is it the thing that you told me about yesterday, Griffin?" Dixie inquired.
"Are you serious? Everyone knows but me?" I protested.

Griffin and Noah shared a look as they sat down on the couch. "You'll figure it out, sis," Griffin said, turning on the television.
"Will I? Don't you think that I should've figured it out already? I've been thinking about it for almost twenty-four hours, and I still haven't figured it out."
Dixie sat next to Griffin, practically in his lap. "It's right in front of you. You'll get it eventually."

There was a comfortable silence as Griffin scrolled through Netflix. I was the first to break it. "It's been ten minutes. Are you gonna choose anything?"
"If you're that impatient, why don't you choose something, Grace?" he suggested throwing the remote to me.
I shrugged, picking it up and scrolling through. After an unsuccessful few minutes, I threw the remote back at Griffin. "What happened to Netflix? There used to be so much good stuff to watch on here."
"You know what? I'm making cookies," Dixie said, standing up and heading to the kitchen. I followed her, hoping to get more information.

"Alright, spill."
"What are you talking about?" she asked, reaching in the cabinets for ingredients.
I sighed. "What are Noah and Griffin talking about?"
Dixie shrugged. "I swore that I wouldn't tell you. It's right in front of your face, though, so you'll figure it out soon enough."
"Why can't you just tell me?" I whined. "If I haven't figured it out by now, I'm obviously too dumb to figure it out."
"Hey, don't say that. You're not dumb. You're just overthinking it."

I sat in silence as I watched Dixie mix the ingredients. She made cookies almost every time that she came over, which unfortunately for us, wasn't often now that Dixie's parents liked Griffin.
"What kind are you making today?" I asked.
"I don't know yet. What do you think I should mix in? Chocolate chips or M&M's?"
"Ooh, M&M's," I replied, walking over to where she was standing. "Are you ready to tell me yet?"
"Go ask the boys again," she replied absentmindedly as she stirred the dough.