A Teen's World - Joanna Johnson (most life changing books txt) 📗

finally found a nice pair of grey skinny jeans, that she had always wanted, with Barbados stitched into the waist of the jeans. Matt, on the other hand, I had no problem buying a souvenir for. I handed him a glass snow globe with a map of Bahamas inside with coconut trees on either side of the map.

“This is neat,” he said in awe as he surveyed his gift.

“The best friends always get the best ones,” Liam snorted.

“No, that’s not true. I love you all equally,” I replied haughtily with a smile.

“We know,” Sarah and Jaden said together.

“So guys, tell about your spring break,” I said as I placed my now empty shoulder bag into my book bag.

They all began talking animatedly at once and as I sat there catching snippets of conversations, Mr. Martin, our homeroom teacher entered the class. The rest of the students came filing in after him and we said our greetings to each other and settled down.

“As you all know,” Mr. Martin began in his morning voice, which usually sounded as if he was still asleep. “Prom is in the next three weeks. Persons who would like to be a part of the prom committee, please sign the sheet I have posted on the door before you leave.”

After he finished with the other announcements, he marked his register and we all filed out to head to our next class. My next class was English and I had this class with Sarah and Isabelle.

“See you guys later,” I called after Liam, Jaden and Matt who were already engrossed in talking about sports. I shook my head as Sarah, Isabelle and I made our way to our English class.

We took our usual seats in the class and waited for Ms. Hepburn, who was always late, to arrive.

“So, how was spring break for you guys?” I asked as I pulled out my English book.

“It was good-lame,” Sarah replied.

“Good-lame?” I asked, confused.

“Good ‘cuz we got to go to the summer house but bad, because the plumbing started acting up so we had to come back a week early,” she said a bit grumpily.

“Oh, sorry to hear that. So what did you guys do in town then?” I questioned.

“I hung out mostly with the emo kids. Isabelle ditched me for most of the week doing stuff she won’t tell me about,” Sarah said sourly as she looked accusingly at Isabelle. Isabelle flushed bright red as she lowered her head and stared at her feet.

“I told you, I had stuff to do,” she said in a small voice.

I raised my eyebrows at Isabelle. This wasn’t like her to brush any of us off for ‘stuff’ that she wouldn’t even tell us about.

“What stuff?” I asked.

“Stuff here and there, for my parents and... stuff,” she replied as she began biting her nails. Something she did when she was nervous.

“Nails Izzy and what kinda stuff?” I pressed.

“Just stuff okay? Can we leave it alone please?” she said, a little more irritated than I liked.

“See what I mean?” Sarah mouthed. Something was definitely up with Isabelle.

As I was about to ask Isabelle if she wanted to talk to us about anything, Ms. Hepburn entered the class.

“Hello students, sorry I’m late,” she said on a huff.

“It’s okay Ms. Hepburn,” the class murmured in unison. We had gotten used to her lateness by the end of our first semester.

“Well, we have a new student here with us,” she said cheerfully.

Hushed whispers began as people craned their necks to see if they could get a look at the new kid who was standing outside the door to the class.

“Where is he?” Sarah piped up.

I looked at her in shock and amazement.

“What? I’m assuming it is a guy,” she said, justifying her very forward statement. Isabelle laughed and shook her head.

“Well she is right, which is creepy, it is a young man. His name is Micah Eli,” she said as she gestured for him to enter the class.

As he pushed the door open and stepped into the class, my mouth fell to the floor. Literally.

He was absolutely gorgeous. He had dark hair that fell in curls at the nape of his neck and the most beautiful gray eyes I have seen since Ian Somerhalder. He was about 6’3 easily and he was wearing black boots with black jeans, which fit him perrrfectly, if I might say so myself, a plaid shirt with sleeves that he rolled up just below his elbow and a black vest. He looked like a model straight out of GQ and I was impressed.

“Hi, I’m Micah,” he said hesitantly. I guess all the drooling girls were beginning to scare him a little.

“Hi,” Jessie said with a big goofy smile on her face. Jessie was president of the welcoming committee and at the moment, she didn’t look very welcoming. She looked a little more star struck than necessary.

“Hey,” he said with a smile and down to the floor my mouth fell again. He had dimples! In case you didn’t know, that was very attractive to me and practically every other girl on this planet!

Ms. Hepburn cleared her throat a little too hardly and choked. We were all pulled out of our daydreams with Micah when she started coughing loudly and her face turned beet red.

“Are you okay?” Micah asked alarmed.

“I’ll be fine,” she heaved, “in a minute. Just go find” she heaved again, “a seat somewhere.”

He looked a little uncertain but moved off to find a seat. Now, the only empty seat in the class, praise be to the heavens, was in front of sweet old me.

“Is this seat taken?” he asked as he looked down at me.

“I, no, I don’t think so... I mean, I don’t know if anyone was there before and left to go to the bathroom or something... I, um... I’m sure they wouldn’t mind though, you being new and all,” I laughed nervously as my face flushed.

“Just sit,” Isabelle said with a smile.

“Uh, thanks,” He looked at me again and smiled that amazing smile I have come to love before he sat down.

The rest of English class was spent staring a hole into his head back.

As the final bell rang for English class, I sprung out of my seat and reached the door before anyone got the chance to even touch the doorknob. Having barfed all over a simple question, I wasn’t excited about having to look at his lovely face again. I raced to my French class and as I took my seat at the back, I breathed a sigh of relief. It was short-lived however, because as I took out my French book, in stepped Micah in all his handsome glory. I groaned softly as I realised he was walking up to my desk.

“Hey,” he said as he took the seat beside me.

“Hi,” I said with a small smile.

He took his French book, brand new and quite sexy (yes, a sexy book, what?), from his backpack and placed it on his desk. “I didn’t catch your name from our English class.”

“It’s Jaime, Jaime Henry and yours is Micah,” I said. I mentally slapped myself for actually saying the last part of that statement out loud. He had announced his name to the entire class afterall.

He chuckled. “Yes it is. Nice to meet you Jaime. A beautiful name for a beautiful girl.”

“Got that from a book?” I asked.

“Nope, came up with that one all on my own,” he said, quite proudly.

“Nice and thanks. Yours is pretty ador-cute,” I replied.

“Ador-cute? ” he asked with an arched eyebrow.

I mentally slapped myself again for saying two stupid things in the space of five minutes.

“You have a handsome name Micah,” I said as my face flushed.

“Thank you Jaime,” he replied smiling.

“Ah, and nice dimples too,” I said as if I had just seen them for the first time and had not been drooling over them for the past hour.

“Thank you and so do you. Two peas in a pod.”

I laughed at his comment. “So it would seem.”

Mr. Dubois (our very French), French teacher, entered the class with his usual glow and excessive use of French words and our class began.

By the end of the day, I was exhausted but excited at the fact that Micah had decided to eat lunch with our group and was constantly catching my stare and smiling at me. We got to know each other in and between our classes and I found out a few facts about him. He was the same age as I was and fresh from Florida. We liked some of the same movies and books and our music interests were somewhat the same.

As I wished my friends farewell, noticing I couldn’t find Micah anywhere, and headed to my car, my grandma texted me, something I still have not come to grasp. Her texting, I mean.

Displaying 1/1

From: Addie (Gramps)

Received 4/2

03:15 pm

Jay sweetheart, pick up a carton of milk before u head over here. Thx!

_________________________

My grandma and grandpa were the only people allowed to call me ‘Jay’ and that was because it sounded nice when they said it. Two people who have known me my entire life.

I replied to the message and hopped into my car and headed for the deli a few blocks from my school. I parked and hurried into the deli, waving to Mr. Sanderson, the owner, and heading to the ‘Cold Drinks’ section at the back of the store. As I rounded the corner, I saw Micah at the fridge grabbing a soda pop. I snuck up behind him, stuck my purse into his back and said in a gravelly voice I had somehow perfected, “Don’t move and don’t make a sound.”

Micah dropped his soda pop immediately and put his hands up.

“Hey man, I only have five bucks but you can have it. I wasn’t that thirsty anyway,” he said quickly.

I dropped my hands and started laughing hysterically. I doubled over and started wheezing from laughing so hard. I was sure my face was red and getting redder by the second.

“That wasn’t funny,” Micah grumbled as he picked up his pop from the floor.

When I finally managed to get my laughter under control, I spoke.

“Oh, that was classic! Welcome to Corkville Eli,” I said as I grabbed a carton of milk and headed to the counter.

“Is this how you welcome everybody?” he asked as his embarrassment began to ebb.

“Pretty much, right Mr. Sanderson?” I said as I took out three bucks from my purse and paid for the milk.

“Sure is Jaime and you get them every time,” Mr. Sanderson replied.

As Micah reached into his pocket to pay for his pop, I stopped him.

“I owe you this one,” I said as I paid for his drink.

“I thought you weren’t that thirsty?” Mr. Sanderson said mischievously and we both got into another round of laughter.

“Very nice,” Micah said as he stepped out of the store.

“I’ll see you around Mr. Sanderson,” I called as I stepped out behind him.

“See you kids,” he called.

“Where you heading?” Micah asked as he walked me to my car.

“Over to my grandparents to drop off this milk and get my pup,” I said cheerfully.

“Nice. What’s his name?” He asked.

“Ralph. He’s adorable,” I said with a smile.

Micah smiled as he seemed to be trying to picture Ralph even though I hadn’t even described him. “Hope I get to meet him sometime.”

“Yeah, me too. See you tomorrow,” I said.

“Yeah, see you and Jaime?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m glad you were the first girl I met at McMillan,” he said and then he walked off.

I stood there grinning like a complete idiot as I watched him walk over to his black pickup, hop in and drive off.

I’m glad I was the first girl he met at McMillan too.



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Three

“Life can be good if you focus on the blessings.”-Dad

 

Ralph had been home for almost all of one month and he was driving my whole family crazy, with the exception of me, of course. I loved all the trouble he was causing,