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

especially if it had anything to do with Isabella or Tyler. He chewed up Tyler’s Lacrosse gloves and did a load on Isabella’s brand new sneakers (I took a picture of that one and her face when she saw it). My dad was a little more tolerant. That was probably because he had not experienced the full wrath of my Maltese. My mom, on the other hand, promised that the next time he peed on the kitchen floor; he would be banished to his kennel outside for the rest of his dog life.

On the last day in April, before I left for school, I had decided to leave Ralph outside to prevent him having to spend cold winter nights in his kennel. He loved the fresh air and the sun was good for him anyway. I set a bowl of fresh water and food in the backyard for him before I hopped into my car and drove off for school. I reached into the school just as the bell rang and as I rushed into the school building, I bumped into Matt.

“Hey Jaime. How’s Ralph doing this fine morning?” he asked as we rushed to class before Mr. Martin got there.

“He’s fine actually. He was given a time-out last night and from then, a halo has literally appeared over his head,” I chuckled.

“A smart dog,” he smirked as he held the door open for me.

As was the usual for the past few weeks, I entered the class, said good morning to Liam, Sarah, Jaden and Isabelle and took my seat beside Micah, my official crush.

Isabelle was still acting weird and whenever she was around the whole group, she would shy away. We (Sarah and I), made it our duty to try and find out what was up with Isabelle, but every time we brought up that spring break ‘stuff’, she blushed and changed the subject. Jaden would always just look at her and shake his head as if he knew something we didn’t, which was even more puzzling.

As Micah walked me to my car that afternoon, he asked a question that seemed to be on his mind for ages.

“Why do you guys keep asking Isabelle about ‘stuff’? I mean, what does that even mean?”

I laughed at the confused expression on his face.

“She’s been acting weird ever since she came back from spring break. While I was in Bahamas, she ditched Sarah for some ‘stuff’ that she won’t tell us about and keeps avoiding,” I said as if it was simple.

“Oh, okay. Well maybe she isn’t ready to talk about it or ‘stuff’ or whatever it is,” he said as he tucked a stray strand of my hair behind my ear.

“Yeah, maybe. I guess we should lay off,” I said with a sigh.

“You guys should,” he said simply.

“Thanks for that,” I told him as I opened my car door.

“Anything for my fair lady,” he said with a bow.

I laughed as I got into my car.

He waited until I pulled out of the lot before he left in his pickup.

 

Friday had finally arrived and we couldn’t be happier. I had a pep in my step as I entered homeroom and the entire class was buzzing with energy we somehow could only find on Fridays. As I took my seat beside Micah, I noticed Matthew had taken a seat to the far left corner (a place he only sat at when something was bothering him). I decided I would ask him about it in our free period, which was right after lunch. As the day progressed, I realised I hadn’t gotten any homework in any of my morning classes which only left two classes left for the day for me to maybe receive homework in. I prayed I didn’t get any. I wanted our group to hit Korner Kafe on Saturday night.

Korner Kafe has been our hangout spot ever since middle school. We even had chairs with our initials carved into them for being such regular and paying customers.

At lunch, Sarah had invited Michael, an emo kid, over to our table for lunch. We didn’t mind that fact because we figured she had a crush on him since before spring break and it seemed they were now finally ready to make it official rather than sit and stare at each other, which frankly, was beginning to annoy me. We had our usual conversations; me, Micah and Liam discussing Twilight and Harry Potter, Sarah and Michael talking so low, you would swear they worked for the CIA, and Isabelle talking animatedly to Jaden about something she saw on the internet last night. We were all so engrossed in our conversations that we barely noticed that Matt was missing. Matt and I were the only two who had free sessions on Friday and as Micah cleared the table and headed for class, I noticed Matt was never at the lunch table.

“Anyone seen Matt?” I asked.

“Nope, haven’t seen him since lunch began. He’s been acting strange lately,” Jaden said as he twitched his nose.

“Really?” I asked incredulously. I didn’t notice him acting weird.

“Yeah, really,” Sarah chimed in, “You would notice if you weren’t so busy mooning over Micah.”

“I am not mooning,” I said embarrassed.

“Convince yourself,” Michael said in his serious emo tone. We all turned and looked at him. He just shrugged and walked off to class.

“Seriously, talk to him,” Isabelle said as she emptied her tray and left. The rest of the group followed suit.

I immediately grabbed my phone from my bag and texted Matt.

Displaying 1/10

To: Matt

Sent 4/6

1:01 pm

Matt, where are u?

___________________________

My phone buzzed five minutes later.

Displaying 1/1

From: Matt

Sent 4/6

1:06 pm

Library.

______________________________

Now, not saying my best friend was dumb or anything but Matt never used the library. He steered clear of that door like it contained the ten plagues. I picked up my bag, emptied my tray and headed to library to my now weird acting best friend. I found him sitting alone in the library with a book in front of him. I plopped down in the chair across from him and raised my eyebrows.

“What?” he asked.

“That’s an actual book... with words,” I said shocked.

“I’m not dumb you know Jaime,” he said agitated.

“Hey, I never said you were. I was joking,” I said quickly. Matt not laughing at my jokes = not good.

He gave a half smile in response and returned to his reading.

“Matt, what’s wrong?” I asked quietly. Careful to observe library rules so that Ms. Watson, who always seemed to have onions for lunch, didn’t have to come over and scold me, my poor nose and eyes.

“Wow, my best friend has actually noticed something is up with me,” he said sarcastically.

“Of course Matt, why wouldn’t I?” I asked.

“Because all you care and talk about is Micah and that silly puppy of yours,” he said as he closed his book and looked at me.

I placed my hand over my heart, out of pure reflex.

“Don’t bring Ralph into this,” I said heatedly.

“Shhh,” Ms. Watson said from her post near the door. I could smell the onion from where I was sitting. Ugh.

“Okay, maybe not the dog, but all you care about is ‘Micah this’ and ‘Micah that’,” He replied, waving his hand to obviously exaggerate. I couldn’t possibly talk about Micah that much... did I?

“Okay, I’m sorry if I apparently ‘moon’ over Micah, Matt. It really wasn’t my intention to make everything and everyone else in my life seem so trivial,” I said sincerely.

“Fine, I forgive you,” he said with a small smile.

I smiled back at him. “Good. And you’re my best friend; that means you talk to me about stuff when it’s bothering you.”

“Deal,” he said. I now officially had my best friend back and I had something on my to-do list:

Stop mooning over Micah.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Four

“Chocolate cures a broken heart temporarily, but true love mends a broken heart forever.”-Isabelle

 

Saturday was filled with chores and my French essay that I had to do on France. Ugh. Mr. Dubois really needs to get a hobby. As I finished the last sentence on my laptop, Isabelle popped into my room.

“Yeah?” I asked as I updated my twitter status for the fifteenth time today.

“Mom asks if you will be busy later,” she said in her meek voice that seemed to grate my nerves because she was nothing like her voice.

“Yeah, heading to Korner Kafe, why?” I asked as I shut down my laptop and looked over at her. She had her hair, which was dark brown, up in a ponytail and she had on her black shorts and dad’s varsity jacket. Taking an actual good look at her now, she actually looked...cute.

“Oh, she wanted to know if she was to put out a plate for you but I guess not,” she said as she turned around to leave.

“Hey Bella?” I said as I got up from my chair.

“Yeah?” she answered.

“You look nice today,” I said with a smile. I really meant it this time.

She smiled back at me. “Thanks sis.”

As she headed back downstairs, I headed for the shower to get ready for my date with my friends. I had just finished bathing and was looking for something to wear when my brother stopped at my door.

“Don’t you wear clothes?” He asked, disgusted.

“I have no need to when only animals are around,” I said as I looked pointedly at him.

He rolled his eyes and continued down the hallway. I smiled proudly to myself. The fact that he had not replied meant he had no comeback which meant I won the war... this time.

I finally decided on my black skinny jeans, a white spaghetti strap top and my white sweatshirt with my black and white Vans. I grabbed my car keys and rushed downstairs.

“Bye!” I shouted as I whisked through the front door and out to my car. I hadn’t even spent any time with Ralph since Wednesday but I didn’t have the time to stop in on him now. I was already fifteen minutes late. I got to KK (Korner Kafe), ten minutes later and saw my friends at their usual table. When I got closer, I noticed Sarah had brought Michael and Jaden’s girlfriend, JoAnne, had come along. The only reason you are just hearing about JoAnne is because this is the first time I or we have seen her in a month. We even sometimes forget Jaden is taken and try to hook him up with a few girls. JoAnne attends Frankfield High, which is on the other side of town. Jaden gets to see her more often than we do because she lives a few blocks away from him. We, however, only get to spend time with her like every month or so.

“JoAnne!” I squealed as I rushed over to our table.

“Hey hun!” she said as she stood up and hugged me.

I then took my seat at the table and we began talking about our week.

“So Jaime, where’s this new guy I’ve been hearing all about?” JoAnne asked.

“He couldn’t make it tonight, sorry,” I said as I blushed.

“Oh, sorry to hear that. Maybe I’ll meet him next month,” she joked.

“No, you need to come around more often,” I said sternly.

“I second that,” Jaden chimed in as he placed a kiss on her neck.

“Break it up, don’t you see her more often than we do man?” Matt asked.

“Not since recently. This is the first in a week,” Jaden said with a pout.

“Aw, poor baby,” Sarah said and we all laughed.

“So Liam, any girlfriend yet?” I asked Liam who was too interested in his pizza to be paying us any mind.

“Uhh, not yet. Still working on it,” he said in between mouthfuls.

“Okay, disgusting, with the food thing. Izzy, how about you?” I asked.

“Same as Liam I guess,” she said with a half smile.

I smiled back at her and nodded.

“So what about you Jaime?” Matt piped up.

“Really Matt? What about YOU?” I asked.

“Me, there’s this girl but she doesn’t seem interested. She seems to like another guy but hey, I’m not giving up,” he