Chapter One: New Beginnings
|{Xander Bailey}|
Like most stories that turn out this way, it all begins with a Monday.
A Monday in which Xander didn't feel like getting out of bed, let alone go to school. And this being his first day of said school didn't help his distress any.
I mean, what 18year old wanted to be pulled out of his school to go finish his senior year at some random place where he didn't know anyone? Simply because they decided his dad was the best coach to help the football team win state championship.
He personally would've preferred to graduate at his school back home if anyone had asked him, but no one did. So here he was, grumbling as his older sister savagely splashed water on his face.
"Go awayyyy." Xander whined.
"No can do sir. Mom said not to come out until you're up, showered and ready for school." Lola informed him, taking a sit on a chair near his reading table, and grabbing his pack of chips.
"I'm not a chiilllllddd!"
"Not if you keep sounding like that." His sister retorted, grinning at him.
Xander screamed into his pillow.
"Come on it's going to be fun. Xavien already left with dad an hour ago, so I'm driving you. Who wouldn't want their cool big sister taking them to school on their first day huh? You hear that? I'm cool!" She grinned wider, sticking a bunch of chips into her mouth.
"Lucky me." Xan mumbled dryly, then got up. He already knew he wasn't going to win this battle, so why drag it out?
Xander was close with his family.
His dad had met and married his mom while she was still pregnant with Lola, and had adopted her afterwards. Not even a year later he and his brother came along, making them one big happy family...ish.
Anyway, he was close to his family and he loved them dearly, but they were also extremely overbearing and liked to treat him like he was going to break. That part blows...astronomically.
Xander never thought he'd ever say this, but he sort of wished he was in the position that his brother was right now. Unlike he and Lola who had just got here the previous day, Xander's brother had moved ahead of them, along with their dad months ago. At least his brother was well acquainted with the school by now. Lucky bastard!
Twenty minutes later, He was showered and dressed up, with his camera hanging on his neck. You never saw Xander without his camera, that was his best friend and companion. Like he'd always say, a camera would reveal to you what real sight tends to miss.
He was the yearbook guy back at his school, and he sure hoped the one here would be kind enough to let him help out. For whatever reason he really wanted to do that, it was part of his bucket list.
"Good morning sweetie, how are you feeling today?" His mom asked from where she stood by the kitchen counter, making breakfast.
"I'm okay mom. I feel good."
"That's the spirit!" She exclaimed, then slid a plate in front of him. "Eat up, you don't want to be late for your first day. I put some money in your backpack and Lola is dropping you off, but I'd pick you up after school okay?"
"Why can't i just drive though? I'm 18, it's a little embarrassing to be getting picked up by my mother, isn't it?"
The sharply dressed brunette woman smiled and ruffled her son's hair, then said, "You know why. Besides, a little embarrassment never killed anyone." As if that answered his question in any way.
"Have a great day sweetie, love you!" She called over her shoulder as she hurried upstairs to get ready for work.
"Love you too." Xander mumbled.
He waited until his mom was out of sight and tossed the food into the trash, then went in the refrigerator in search of real food. Eating 'healthy' made him want to shoot himself in the balls every time. But of course there was nothing appetizing in there, his mom had thrown everything out.
"Heads up!" Lola yelled behind him, and without thinking twice he held his hands up and caught what she threw at him. A candy bar. "You know I always got your back."
He smiled for the first time that morning, returning to his calm, positive, and cheerful personality. Xan was only a grumpus in the morning, the rest of the time he was effortlessly charming.
——
As far as first days went, this one wasn't so bad. Xander found everything he needed to find easily, thanks to his one man welcome committee. He honestly didn't know what to make of Timmy. At first glance the boy seemed very much emo and quiet, but the moment Xander said one word to him a different human altogether emerged within the tiny body, and Timmy hadn't shut up ever since.
The boy talked too fast and with a lot of hand gestures, Xan could barely keep up.
"You're new and shiny so the attention is going to be on you for a while. But it could go one of two ways you know. Either you're loved and fawned over, or you're hated and torn to shreds by the starving wolves, or the animalistic popular evil spawns of satan." Timmy yapped on as they walked over to a free table in the cafeteria and sat down.
Xan smiled at how fast the boy spoke, it was very dramatic but funny at the same time.
He did appreciate his forced new friend's concern, but he wished the boy knew that he didn't give a fuck about the status quo.
"You're going to want to stay far away from those three, they're the worst." Timmy discreetly pointed at some girls.
"Got it." Xan muttered.
Just then loud cheers followed a group of jocks as they made their way into the area.
"And there they go."
Xan's gaze followed Timmy's gesture. "There who goes?"
"Over there is the evil captain of the football team, the one in the black denim jacket. That other one on his right is..."
Xander tuned the rambling boy out when his gaze settled on the male walking slowly behind the rest of the team with headphones on. He could've sworn everything slowed down at that moment, at least in his mind it did.
"Who's that?" Xander asked.
"Ah Jahsae. He, my friend is what we call the 'star boy' of Middle Creek high."
Xander looked at Timmy confused.
"Jah as he's popular known, is the most popular kid at school. His father is one of the biggest rappers in the world, and his mother was a hotshot lawyer turned legendary supermodel. Every boy wants to be him and every girl wants to fuck him. But he tends to keep to himself most of the time...when he's not hanging out with his team that is. He's also co captain by the way. Anyway, no one really knows what Jah's deal is. He's mr mysterious if you will."
"Hm." Xander huffed, then tore his attention away from the boy with headphones on. But not before Jah looked back and met his gaze with a blank expression.
"Who?" He asked Timmy.
"Who what?"
"Who's his father?"
"Oh. Jax."
Xander looked at him confusedly, was that supposed to mean something to him? "Never heard of him."
"WHAT!?" Timmy exclaimed, then lowered his voice when he got some weird looks. "What do you mean 'never heard of him'? Don't you listen to hip hop music?"
"No, not really." Xan responded, making Timmy's eyes widen even more.
"What do you listen to then?"
"A little bit of country and some rock music."
Timmy's jaw dropped. "What?! Aren't you half black? Isn't that like a heinous crime amongst your peeps?" he paused and thought about it for a second. "Wait, is that half, or like 25%? It's confusing. Your mom is white and your dad is half black right?"
Xander just stared at the boy in front of him, unsure of how to respond. Because, who the fuck says 'peeps'? first of all.
"Oh my God, was that offensive? I'm sorry if it was, I didn't mean it like that." Timmy panicked, making Xan chuckle a little bit.
"How do you even know any of that?" Xan asked.
"I saw your mom when she visited the coach yesterday, that's your dad right?"
"Yeah. And I'm black."
Timmy nodded and resumed bombarding Xan with redundant information for the next thirty minutes or thereabout.
All of a sudden Timmy shrieked and began to panic hysterically when the captain of the football team started walking towards them. "Omg he's coming over here and he's going to beat our asses. He must've noticed I was talking about him earlier omg, he is pure evil and he's going to destroy me and you like it's nothing. Sorry I made you a pariah on your first day." Timmy babbled while Xander just stared at the poor boy with an amused smile on his face.
Timmy shrieked loudly and covered his face when the jock finally got to their table. "Please not on the face, pleaseeee, I worked so hard on this face. I'm sorry!" He begged.
The jock merely shot him an annoyed glance before turning to Xander. "You ready to go? Mom is tied up at work and can't pick you up." Xander's brother asked him.
Xan nodded and stood up, said his goodbyes to his new friend who's mouth was gaped in bewilderment, before leaving with Xavien. He vaguely heard Timmy mutter 'who tf are you?' or something like that, but he paid the boy no mind.
In the car Xander had his headphones on and relaxed in his seat when his brother suddenly pulled the thing off. "What?" Xan questioned.
"I've been talking to you." Xavien complained."
"Sorry. What were you saying?"
"I asked how your first day went?"
"Oh it went okay."
Xavien shot him a doubtful once over. "You sure? You're not..."
"Don't start too, I'm okay. I'm feeling okay."
"Okay." X responded, and focused back on the road.
Xan put his headphones back on and laid back down on his lowered seat. His final thought before he let the music take over was... I might like it here after all.
