Beaumont Academy

Chapter 1: Go at it Alone

        "Seriously David?" I asked my stepdad as I got out of the car.

"Yes, seriously. This school's campus is huge and I don't want you getting lost," he said, reaching over the passenger seat to try and hand me a "complementary new student" school map.

"Any high school that needs a campus map is far too big in my opinion," I argued while staring down my new school. "Besides, I don't want to draw attention to myself by carrying around that big old map; it's bad enough that I'm already the new kid around here."

"There will be other kids starting here too," he said as he waves the map at me.

"Yeah, other kids that are freshmen."

"There are also kids in the other grades starting their first day here. Trust me, you're not the only sophomore starting up here."

"I'm not buying it," I added as I slammed the door shut, nearly missing his hand with the door as he persistently extended the map towards me.

David put down the passenger side window. "Look Maddy, I'm sorry but I don't have time to show you around; I have a meeting that starts in less than ten minutes. If you'd like I can come into your class after my meeting's over and introduce you to everyone in front of the class—"

"No, no," I said snatching the map out of his hand through the window. "That won't be necessary. The last thing I need is people picking on me as the teacher's pet because I'm related to James Beaumont's son."

"Well then," said David, clearly satisfied that I had agreed to take the map. "Just be happy I'm dropping you off, and not walking in with you."

"Gee, thanks," I said with a fake smile, "what would I do with out you."

"Watch it," he said, pointing a finger at me.

Please, as if he were my father.

I sarcastically put my hands up in mock surrender. "Okay, okay, yeesh." I looked down at the map. "Which way does this map even—" I started, but I looked up when I heard David's car drive away, most likely looking to go find parking. "Go?" I watched David drive away. "Thanks for the help, David," I mumbled as I slung my backpack over my shoulder.

"Guess I'm on my own, again," I said, turning the map this way and that as I walked towards the entrance, trying to figure out which way it went as quickly as possible before I looked like even more of a loser. "And as usual ..." I stopped walking to stare at the stupid piece of paper, "I have no idea what I'm doing. Maybe I should just wing it," I said to myself, looking up at the school's large banner that said, "Welcome Students."

"Wing it?" said a voice from behind me. I immediately turned around to see a boy. A cute boy. The most gorgeous boy I'd seen in a while, actually. Between his spiked, dark hair and his muscular body, it was clear that he took care of himself. I liked that.

"Uh, yeah, wing it," I said to him after the heaven-like hallelujah music stopped playing in my head from the sight of his beauty. I immediately did my best to hide the map behind my back, releasing a smile on my face. "You know, that's more my style. I tend to just 'go with the flow' with whatever I do."

"Huh," the mysterious boy said, sounding impressed with my style. "I guess that's one way to figure out your way around here."

"Yep," I said, doing my best to crumple the map up as quietly as possible behind my back. "It's a much easier, less stressful way to go about life," I said as cool as a cucumber, trying to look as calm, cool, and collected as I sounded.

The boy walked up to me and gently grabbed a hold of my wrists, and started bringing them out from behind my back. His hands were so warm—it was as if my heart was melting in the process. I immediately dropped the now crumpled-up paper ball that was in my hands to the ground to keep him from seeing.