Are we the gay club ?

Maybe Paris wasn’t so bad after all, she basically had everything she wanted, apart from a girlfriend but oh well, those rich girls she went to school with wouldn’t be caught dead with their tongues down another girl’s throat, so that was it. Whatever, she had everything else, popularity, parents with a loving perfect marriage and good income, a protective big brother, and an annoying little sister. A truly perfect life. And yet she never really appreciated that, taking everything for granted and living like her stupid sixteen years old self owned the world.

And now she’s a freshly seventeen-year-old French girl, stuck in California because her stupid American father listened to his stupid brother and decided that his family needed to discover his country and spend time there. And that was a dream come true, at first, when she was still in her bedroom in Paris, imagining how cool it was going to be and how many friends she’d make, how people would be impressed with her being bilingual. And more than anything, she thought about how she’d finally find a girl not scared to sneak up being closed doors to make out, or even have secret rendezvous, hidden from the rest of the world. Now that was how she envisioned her school year.

However, as she learned when she was twelve and the girl she liked made it official with a random boy she never spoke to ; things don’t always go your way. So instead of her showing up first day of school in all her pretty glory, dolled up in the famous American fashion and taking over Los Angeles’s high school, she came two weeks after school started, tired and jet lagged. And yes, she was still dolled up and pretty, but that wasn’t the start she wanted. Not the start she needed.

She was annoying, as her brother said, too focused on how pretty her book cover looked -her mother was proud of that one- and again, annoying. That was true and she knew it, but she loved being that way and never actually acted up on the popular act she had going on, she loved the attention, she loved being loved, but not if that meant someone else had to suffer and eat the ground for it. She’d never bullied anyone -she didn’t expect any praise for it- or never judged anyone that didn’t want to be like her. And she made sure to not end up siding up with the bullies either.

To be fair she was mostly alone, in some weird way, popular and pretty, but alone, nonetheless. People knew her to a certain point, knew what she wanted them to know, but no one really knew her. And by that she doesn’t mean that they don’t know about her oh so dark and twisted past, or about her fake perfect family or whatever, no, nothing like that. People just didn’t know where her heart goes to. Boobs. Well not literally but the thought is there. And she does love boobs, too. Now that was something she needed to hide to everyone, back in Paris at least -and not in America, or that’s what she thought. Too bad.- And to her family too. Well maybe not her father, as she thought America was that free-to-be-whatever-you-want country and her father was born and raised there, so he had to be open minded, right ? But then the man would tell her mom, and then the scary part would come.

Her mom was actually very nice and open, to some extent, talking to her was easy for the most part and she did truly and deeply love her children. But still, she was one of those rich blond girls from the rich and religious people in Paris, who had thousands of prejudices and didn’t really like going out of their comfort zone. And so, telling her very religious and strictly raised mother that she loves girls would probably end her poor mom’s world. And her own life as well. She couldn’t have that.

Her brother? She had no idea how he’d react. With him it would either be rejection and him shoving her out of his life, or he’d just go with a “ok, me too?” and never speak of it again. She honestly thought that the second one fitted him the most, but she also loved him too much to risk losing that trusting relationship she had with him.

Lola, her six-year-old sister would probably not get it or care.

So, she was basically alone in this, since she grew up in a wealthy family in the center of Paris and went to a catholic school in that same town with other strict raised rich kids. Who the hell could she have told, if anyone was like her there, they hid as well as she did. And she had no real friends she could trust with this, so, again, alone.

Now, as said before, her father had decided to move their family to Los Angeles after asking for a mutation, following his brother’s subtle pleas to come back to America. And no one had went against it, her mother sulked a bit, yes, but some recomforting words from her husband were enough to make her change her mind -Alice had no idea what promises her father made, but it worked, she was more excited than him to move in the end- and her brother was a bit reluctant at the idea of letting his childhood friends go, but went with it after getting promised that their high school would be public and he’d be done with all the catholic shit. The last part he only told to Alice, of course, and she couldn’t agree more.

But the thing was, it was all decided too fast, and so by the time papers, inscriptions to schools and all the other stuffs like getting a house were done and they could go with no worries, it was two weeks after school had started. Which annoyed June, really. And only her apparently, her brother shoving her off his bed with just a “whatever, who cares” once she sat down next to him to complain. Her mom had told her that she was too whiny for her own good, but her father at least had had the decency to send an apologetic smile her way before she could even form a word.

The house was pretty big, she knew her father had money and she knew that America’s stuffs as a whole were a lot bigger than in France or any European country, but she didn’t expect it to be this big, although her father had told her that living in Paris was expensive -which probably explained the difference in sizes-. Her room was twice the size of her old one and despite the jet lag and the tiredness she felt, she couldn’t wait to make it her own cocoon, already picturing how she’d rearrange everything once she’d have some sleep, how she’d decorate the white and blue stripped walls, where her big mirror , that her mom promised her, and her vinyl collection would go. She loved it really. Until her mom joined her with some awesome news.

“Hey dear, I called your school, you and your brother are starting tomorrow since we arrived in the middle of the week. I thought you’d have to wait until Monday but apparently there is no problem with tomorrow.”

Amazing. Just amazing.

That’s how she ended up, with horrible eye bags that she had a hard time hiding, in front of Los Angeles’s high school with her brother, who sighed with relief upon seeing that everyone seemed actually pretty cool, some students gathered on the parking lot -her brother was going to pass his driving license but her mom absolutely refused that she get hers, because she’s a baby, whatever-, others there and there. And it ruined Alice’s mood even more; she was tired, jet lagged, two weeks late, and now she could see that, of course, friend groups were already formed. Amazing.

Sighing too and getting a reassuring pat from her brother on her cute short brown curls, she followed him into the main building, going to the reception desk to listen to the woman telling them what they had to do and other annoying stuffs.

Once the shitty stuffs and papers were done, and they’d gotten their books and plannings, she sent them away, giving them their classes and roughly explaining to them where they had to go before waving them off.

“Well, good luck I guess”

Her brother sighed as he went the other way at some corridor, earning a few interested looks because of his use of French. She just nodded and went her own way, searching the doors for the number 190.

Once she finally got in front of it, she sighted heavily, forcing a small smile and putting on a non-tired expression, she failed a big entry on the first day, so might as well make it up for it now. She entered slowly, only to find that the class was mostly empty apart for some kids. Great. She sighed again, not sure if she was happy that the students weren’t the “let’s be in class at least ten minutes early to please the teachers” type. Still, a big fail again. Whatever.

She made her way to the teacher’s desk, who hadn’t even realized a student entered her class, and locked eyes with a pretty boy sitting with a ginger girl in cheer outfit and another dude, laughing at something in his jersey. He gave her a small smile and raised an eyebrow before going back to his conversation, his blond curls falling back in front of his eyes. She heard him stifle a laugh before she too brought her attention back to what she was doing.

Stopping in front of the fluffy haired blond teacher, with pretty blue eyes and red glasses, she smiled before introducing herself, explaining how she was new and answered some polite question Mrs Perse asked her, she seemed pretty young for a teacher, sure, but at least she was pretty to look at and seemed really interested in her students. Alice was surprised when she told her that she had the choice to either introduce herself to the whole class or sit somewhere and have the teacher briefly tell the class she was there -some other professor had apparently told the class they’d have a new French student soon enough-Alice chose the second option, deciding that she’d make a good impression on the class when she’d be more relaxed and less tired, more presentable. She answered a few more questions about the preparation she made before coming to this school, and how she’d catch up with the country’s program, then she gave her a sheet of paper with all the stuffs she’d missed, explaining how she did her class. Once she was done, there was still some time before the class started.

Not too far in the back, and not in the front, that’s where she sat, close to the wall. She threw her bag on the table and took her blue jean jacket off, letting her pretty green and blue stripped top show. She loved that top.

She was doing basically nothing, just going through the books the lady gave her a bit sooner, when the ginger girl from before sat down in front of her, her own bag still with the other two boys. She shot her a smile, letting her elbows fall on Alice’s desk.

“ So, you’re the new French girl, huh ?”

“Yeah, Alice, I got there yesterday.”

“Well, pleased to meet you, I’m Jennie, but you can call me Jay. Your English is actually pretty damn good, I didn’t expect that.”

Ah there it is.

“Pleased too, Jay.” She got a smile in return. “My dad’s born here, so I learned both languages growing up.”

“That’s cool”

They kept talking a bit, Alice taking in the girl’s cute freckles, her cute little nose and her green full of make-up eyes, matching her own. Her pretty ginger hair were tied up in an insanely high ponytail and her cute bangs stopped right under her eyebrows. Even her pierced ears were pretty. Jennie returned to her place after telling her to wait for her at the end of the class so they could go to the next one together.

More people came in and the teacher announced the start of the class about five minutes after the supposed starting time had passed. Some students had greeted her upon entering the classroom, and the others shot her a nice smile when the teacher made her brief introduction. No one side eyed her, and she took it as a victory, smiling at the random boy who sat next to her, giving her a shy one in response. She glanced over at Jennie and the two other boys, blond curls and her were basically glued to each other, the other pretending to follow the class but obviously bored.

The teacher was nice enough to ask her here and there if she was okay, if maybe she needed her to slow down or anything, and she thanked her with a sweet smile each time, always answering that she was good. She really was, if her and her brother had been accepted in this school and didn’t go to one with a special French course it was because their English skills were perfect. They just needed to learn some expressions from here and it’d be perfect, their French accent was basically non-existent, thanks to their father who had insisted on them taking supplementary english lessons as well as imposing an english only time on the weekends.

About twenty minutes in she had looked at the clock above the chalk board, letting out a little sigh upon seeing how slow time was going. She was tired, and the lesson was boring, she’d seen it last year already, so she had some advance that just made it annoying. She fought some yawns back, giving her teary eyes, and did her best not to fall asleep.

Jennie met her at the end of the math class, alongside the two boys that she had introduced as ; Ayden, for the pretty blond one, and Victor, for the kind of charming brown eyed one. If she had been into boys, she would have probably crushed on Victor, who she found out later was taken, so. Ayden and Jennie were together, which wasn’t too hard to guess, their hands never letting go of each other.

She spent the day with them, meeting other people along the way, the trio’s friends mostly, some girls from the cheer team and a couple of boys too. She was pretty sociable, enjoying the conversation and actively participating as well, telling stories from Paris to curious ears.

The four teens were going to their last class of the day when she saw her brother for the first time since the morning. She sent him a big smile that he returned, walking past her with two boys.

“You know him?” Asked Victor, looking back at him.

“Yep, he’s my brother, Hugo. He’s in senior year.”

“He’s kinda hot.”

Jennie looked back as well, and Alice laughed at Ayden’s face, who pretended to be hurt. Jay smiled and patted him on the back.

“Well.” Ayden looked back to take a glimpse of Hugo, who had disappeared in the crowded hallway. “Shit- I’ll admit he’s kinda hot.” “Idiot.” Laughed Jennie, swinging their intertwined hands.

“Come on, don’t be a fag.”

What the hell.

“Victor.” Ayden looked at him with some anger, which did nothing, Victor just shrugged, and Jennie just slightly kicked him, but she was still smiling.

Fuck.

Alice tried her best to smile along, kind of uncomfortable with the sudden tension. Jennie must’ve felt the same, because she cracked a joke so stupid everyone had to laugh, including some other teens passing by them.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, the tension disappeared nearly as soon as it came, and it just scared Alice, who realized that this school was better than her last one in every way but one, she’d still get shit if she decided to talk about her love for girls. Well partly at least, Ayden seemed to be on her side, or to at least have the human decency to be offended by Victor’s obvious disgust, that made her feel a bit better. Jennie was pretty neutral, it seemed, and she really hoped she was right, because as the day passed, she found herself really enjoying her company more and more ; same humor, same stupid jokes, same music taste. Alice really wanted to be her friend.

As for Ayden, she somehow ended up bonding with him a bit more than the other two, feeling comfortable around him since the incident, but still being careful with Jennie’s reactions, not wanting her to believe that she was flirting with her boy, but the girl seemed to not really care, even leaving them alone to go chat with her cheer team, Victor going to some boys with the same jersey as him. Basketball team.

“You sure you don’t want me to pay the gas with you?” Alice said as Ayden took a cigarette from his back pocket, lighting it before answering her.

“Seriously, shut up, your house is literally behind mine, you’re on my way, it doesn’t change anything for me.” He leaned back against his crappy, as he said, car and took a drag, dropping his jacket on the ground next to him.

“Okay, sure, tell me if you change your mind.”

He just rolled his eyes at that, giving her an amical smile. They were waiting for Jennie to finish her training, since Ayden dropped his girlfriend off too. Said girlfriend had offered Alice to join them on the ride home from now on, since they finished at the same hour, and she turned out to be Ayden’s new back neighbor.

Her mom didn’t waist a second to drown her with questions about her day the second she stepped a foot inside, waving at Ayden before closing the front door. And Alice found herself smiling at that, telling her all about her day while eating some cereal, her brother listening too from the couch. Her mother seemed very pleased with the news that she’d already made some, well maybe not friends yet, but friend in the making. Buddies ?

“I’m glad you two are not some socially awkward kids, it would’ve been hell for me.” Alice raised an eyebrow at that, holding her spoon up as she answered.

“There’s nothing wrong with being…Shy, though.”

“You know that’s not what I meant, it’s just less worrying for me to know that neither of you have a hard time integrating to new groups, classes or whatever.” She just shrugged, turning the page from her finance magazine. “ By the way, Hugo, I bought you some books for your driving license, they’re on your bed.”

“I don’t need books for that.”

“Yes, you do.”

Alice giggled at her brother, who made a face at her, earning a glare from their mother. She took the journal that was on the table, searching for something interesting, which she quickly found.

“Hey mom, the Drive In down the street is recruiting, for some evenings and the weekends, you okay if I try ?”

“I really don’t think you need a job, do you ?”

“Yeah, but, I mean, it could be great to, you know, meet more people, and it’ll be pocket money too.”

“Whatever, just ask your dad when he gets home.”

What she wouldn’t tell her, was that with that job, she hopped to meet some girls, and get some hidden make out sessions if possible, too.

She was sitting at her window, doing some homework while listening to Queen’s latest album, when a scream from outside irrupted, making her jerk her head toward the noise. Oh. It came from Ayden’s garden, that was only separated from hers by a big wall, making it private, but she could see everything from her room’s window. He was seated on the ground, what looked like a bottle of beer on one hand, laughing at two other boys she didn’t recognize from school, who were wrestling pretty hard -but still smiling, or it seemed like it-.

She kept watching for a bit, amused at the friendly match that was going on, until-

What the hell.

She watched Ayden’s face turn into fake disgust, before morphing into a smile, throwing a small rock at the two boys, who had started kissing.

The two boys.

Kissing.

And Ayden seemed fine with it.

Holy shit.