Tricks to Sticks

part one

"Just remember to call," her mother said.

"Yeah, and if anything happens, just remember that Logan and Kaya are both here," her dad reassured.

"Got it," Taylor said glumly.

"Bye, I love you," her mom bid goodbye as she kissed the fourteen-year-old's forehead.

"Love you," her father hugged her as he said.

"Love you guys too," Taylor said.

"Okay, bye," her dad said as the two adults opened the car doors and drove off.

That left Taylor Jones, the third - and youngest - Jones child, standing in front of the Eden Hall gates. She'd previously gotten out of the Jones' family car along with her older twin siblings, Kaya and Logan, but they'd already left to go to the orientation along with their preppy friends.

"Here we go," Taylor mumbled to herself as she walked through the gates.

When she opened the doors leading to the auditorium, she did it at a bare minimum to avoid attention. She froze as she saw how many people actually attended Eden Hall. Her eyes first landed on Logan along with the Varsity Hockey team, teasing a group of five who were sitting in front of them. she rolled her eyes at him, 'Typical Logan' she thought.

Her eyes then wandered off to the other side of the room to her Kaya and her friends, it looked as though they were eyeing the lacrosse team. She smiled, she might not like the eldest of the twins, but she sure as hell did like the younger one.

She then reminded herself that she should probably try to find a seat before the orientation actually started. As she looked around she saw a few available seats to the left of her, where a girl sat, seemingly playing with her bracelet.

'Alright Taylor, there's only one way to make friends, and that is to go for it,' she reminded herself, as she slowly approached the girl and the free seats.

"Oh, hey." the girl said, she had beautiful hazel eyes, along with curly caramel-brown - almost red - hair.

"Uh, hey," Taylor said, 'She's outgoing', she thought, "Is someone sitting here?" she asked and pointed to the seat.

"Nope, I take it you're a freshman as well," she presumed.

"What gave it away," Taylor chuckled sarcastically, causing the girl to laugh.

"Camilla. Camilla Baker," the girl introduced as she stuck her hand out for Taylor to shake.

"Taylor Jones," she shook Camilla's hand as she sat down.

"Nice to meet you, Taylor," Camilla greeted.

"Yeah, you too," Taylor replied with a smile on her face. If it's this easy to make friends, then she'd love it at Eden Hall, "So, what has brought you to this, prestige school?" Taylor asked jokingly.

"Art," she said simply, "You?"

"There are a few other factors, but most figure skating," Taylor replied nodding, with a fake smile on her face. The sport bored the girl. Sure, the thrills of triple axels were great, but she wanted more than just thoughtful and classical music.

"You look like you don't like it," Camilla stated simply, causing Taylor to look at the girl wide-eyed, "Don't look at me like that, I can smell a lie from miles away," Camilla explained, "Even if the liar is good."

"Right," Taylor said, looking back onto the stage as a man started talking into the microphone, which Taylor figured was Dean Buckley.

"God, this is boring." Camilla yawned.

At some point in the speech, Buckley had lost Taylor to her thoughts, and it wasn't until the curtain on the stage started to rip. Gasps were heard, as a boy with a helmet appeared from under the curtain, who was soon followed by the rest of the troublemakers.

"Hi. We're the Ducks." the first boy said, as laughter roared through the auditorium. Even Taylor and Camilla let out a chuckle. This was just their humor.

Although it wasn't the first time Taylor had heard about the Ducks; her brother Logan - who was a big fan at the time - had convinced their parents to go watch the finale of the Junior Goodwill Games, in June of that year. To say that Logan now hated the Ducks, was an understatement. If anything;

he despised them.

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Once the orientation had finished - with a minor, yet hilarious interruption - the two girls, presumably friends, making sure they were some of the last to leave. They didn't want to get caught in all of the squealing and yelling - which would most likely continue after the speech - coming from the upperclassmen.

"So, are you staying here?" Camilla asked as they left the auditorium.

"Yep, are you?" Taylor replied.

"No, I live in the Plymouth area, so it isn't too far. Which now leads me to ask- where are you from?" Camilla asked.

"Moab, Utah," Taylor replied fondly.

"Oh, I love Utah. Never heard of Moab though?" Camilla said, practically asking Taylor to deepen her response.

"It's in like the bottom right corner of Utah," Taylor explained.

"Oh. Yeah, okay. I've only visited my grandparents in Logan." Camilla nodded.

"Oh, my brother was named after that county," Taylor added absentmindedly.

"Oh, so you're Kaya Jones' sister?" Camilla asked calmly.

'Here we go again.' Taylor thought. every time she let something like that slip, her new ' friends' would just start asking her about her older siblings, though she was happy Camilla didn't start completely fangirling over her brother, "Yup," Taylor replied.

Camilla notices her new friend's sudden change in mood and decided to change the topic before her newfound friend would already start hating her, "Anyway, what's your room number?" she asked.

Taylor slightly excited that Camilla had noticed her sudden mood swing, replied, "Uh, 103." as she looked at her orientation sheet.

"All right, let's go check it out," Camilla said as she grabbed a map of the school from her back pocket, and swiftly started walking left.

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When they finally reached the girl's dormitory building, they followed the signs saying '79-115', leading them up to two flights of stairs. They then walked down a long long hallway, before stopping.

"This is it," Taylor said with a sigh, she took out her key, unlocked the door, and turned the doorknob.

When she opened the door the room was empty, except for some cardboard boxes that were still on the floor waiting for their owners to unpack them.

"I guess your roomie isn't here yet," Camilla sighed, "Which, if you think about it is nice, 'cause that means you get to choose which side you want."

"All right, let's see which boxes belong to who,' Taylor said as she looked at the side of the boxes, looking for some sort of scribbled name, "Taylor Jones... Taylor Jones..." she announced as she read the name on four of the boxes, "and, oh, Julie Gaffney."

"Isn't she one of those Ducks?" Camilla asked as she started placing the four boxes addressed to Taylor, on the tween bed on the left side of the small dorm.

"Yeah," Taylor said as she started putting Julie's three boxes on the bed to the right, "Logan convinced mom and dad to take us to the Junior Goodwill Games back in June, to watch them play Iceland in the finale."

"Obsessive much?" Camilla joked, making Taylor chuckle as her and Camilla unpacked her stuff.

If everyone were this nice, then Taylor's stay at Eden Hall wouldn't be as bad as she'd suspected.