Believe in Us (Jett #2)

by Amy Sparling

  I hold up my paper and grin. “I passed.”

  “That’s my girl,” she says, squeezing me in a hug. I get my paper license and they tell me the real on will come in the mail in a few days.

  Out in the parking lot, Becca holds up the keys. “You want to do the honors?”

  “Yep!” I say, taking the keys and sliding into the driver’s seat. “Let met text Jett and tell him I passed real quick.”

  “Good idea,” she says. She checks her own phone while I send a quick text to Jett.

  “Okay, so should I take the highway back home or go to the left?” I ask. I don’t really know my way around this area very well yet.

  Becca frowns, looking at her phone. “You know what? I don’t want to go home yet.”

  She squints as she looks around the parking lot and across the road where a shopping mall and a few fast food places wait. “Let’s get lunch.”

  I try not to text Jett too much while Becca and I are eating toasted sub sandwiches at a nearby restaurant. It’s definitely rude to be on my phone so I keep it to a minimal. Becca however, can’t stop texting Park. I’m not sure what they’re talking about and it would feel rude to ask, so I just eat quietly.

  Becca frowns down at her phone screen when the waitress takes our empty plates away. “I don’t feel like going home yet,” she says. Her lips slide to the side of her mouth as she thinks. “There’s a shoe store just up the road. “Want to go look for new school shoes?”

  I agree because admitting that I only want to go home and cuddle with my boyfriend would be lame. Becca and I try on a million shoes and although I assure her that my favorite Chuck Taylors and a pair of sandals are all I need for school, she buys me three pairs anyway. I get a pair of running shoes for gym, some black ballet flats, and a silver pair of flats that are similar but covered in glitter. They make my feet feel like a mermaid.

  Finally, Becca decides that we’ve done enough shopping and can go home. There’s only four days until school starts and I plan on spending every single second of them snuggled up with Jett, watching TV. Now that summer is pretty much over, they don’t need us to work at The Track since there’s no more kids taking lessons during the day.

  I’m elated as I grip Becca’s steering wheel and drive us home. I am going to cuddle with Jett so hard. I don’t even care how much of a dork that makes me. I need him and I hate being away from him.

  We near our house and something dark purple and shiny catches my eye. “What the . . .” I manage to say before stopping the car at the end of the driveway. Parked facing the road, is a brand new dark purple Ford Mustang. There’s a bright red bow on the hood. My jaw hits the floor and I look over at Becca.

  “Surprise!” she says, throwing up her hands.

  “That’s . . .” I say, unable to find words. “That’s a car.”

  “For you!” She beams. “That’s why I had to stall so long. It took Park longer than he thought to get it home.”

  “This can’t be real,” I say. My vision blurs and everything seems to move in slow motion. “You can’t get me a car.”

  “We can and we did,” Becca says, grinning from ear to ear. “Come on, let’s go look at it.”

  I pull up a little further into the driveway and then turn off Becca’s car, nearly forgetting how to put it in park. My legs are jelly as I climb out and walk toward the brand new and totally gorgeous car. I don’t think I could close my gaping mouth if my life depended on it right now.

  Park walks outside, grinning. “I heard someone passed their test,” he says.

  I manage to nod and then he hugs me and then Becca hugs me and I still can’t close my freaking mouth. “Guys . . .” I say with a heavy sigh. “You can’t do this. I don’t deserve a new car!”

  They both laugh. Park holds out brand new car key for me. “Yes you do. You’re our kid now, and our kid drives in style.”

  My new parents seem genuinely thrilled to watch me sit in my new car and take in all of its fancy features. It has black leather seats and a DVD player in the dash. I’ve never been in something so nice in my life and now it’s mine. Mine. I’m having a really hard time understanding that concept right now.

  I call Jett and he rushes over and slides into the passenger seat. “Sweet ride,” he says, nodding in approval as he slides a hand across the dash.

  “Can you believe this?” I ask, my voice coming out slightly louder than a whisper. I’m still afraid if I open my eyes too wide everything might vanish, and I’ll be back in a crappy motel room with Dawn.

  “Yep, I can.” Jett leans across the center console and kisses me. “I picked out the dark purple color. Hope you like it.”

  “Wait.” I eye him. “You knew about this?”

  He nods and his grin turns from sweet to conspiratorial. “Of course I knew.”

  My eyes bug. “And you kept it a secret from me?”

  “Psh, duh. I wasn’t going to ruin the surprise.”

  I press my lips together and shake my head. “I can’t believe I never suspected that you were hiding something.”

  He grabs my knee and squeezes it. “I can be sneaky when I need to.”

  I try to make a mad face but it doesn’t last very long. I’m starting to wonder if there’s a certain level of happiness one can achieve before their entire body reaches a max capacity and explodes. Of course, if that existed, it would have happened to me by now.

  “So, beautiful,” Jet says, buckling his seat belt and leaning his head back against the headrest. “Where are we going first?”

  “I don’t know,” I say, waving to our parents who are all sitting on the back porch watching while I crank the engine to life. “Let’s just drive.”

  Chapter 16

  On Friday, I head over to Keanna’s house so that we can go pick up our schedules at the high school. I’m so not ready for summer to be over, but I’m glad my girl will be going to school with me. Becca lets me in the back door and tells me Keanna’s in her room.

  I tap on the door and enter, finding her sitting at her vanity applying eye makeup.

  “Hey you shouldn’t make yourself look so beautiful,” I say, walking up behind her. I slide my arms around her shoulders and lean down, kissing her neck. “All the other guys will try to steal you away.”

  She snorts at my idea and continues making herself all fancy.

  “Scoff all you want,” I say, sitting on her bed and leaning back on my elbows. “You’re too hot for your own good. I’ll be fighting guys nonstop, keeping them away.” I sigh heavily and shake my head like it’s a task I’m not looking forward to. This wins me a grin from her in the mirror.

  She turns around and stands up, gesturing to her clothes. “How do I look?”

  I take in her skinny jeans and a white shirt with the Eiffel tower printed on the front. “You’d look a lot better if those clothes were on the floor,” I say, giving her a nod. She rolls her eyes. “The correct answer is that I look like a high school senior.”

  “That too,” I say. “But I liked my answer better.”

  She walks toward me slowly, knowing that it’s driving me crazy. I lift a hand and motion for her to come here. She crawls onto the bed, positioning herself on top of me as I lay back. Her knees are on either side of my hips but she holds herself up with her arms, keeping her body entirely too far away.

  I slide my hands down her ass and lift her until her lips can touch mine and then she finally sinks down into my kiss, pressing her body against me. I tangle one hand in her hair and keep the other one on her butt, getting the best of both worlds while we make out.

  “Mmm,” she murmurs against my lips. “As much as I love this, we have somewhere to be.”

  I sigh and run my teeth along her bottom lip. “Fine, we can go. But you’re mine when we get back here.”

  She wiggles her eyebrows. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

  *

  I’m definitely not used to being the passenger when Keanna and I go places, but she’s
so excited about her new car that she wants to drive, so I’m happy to let her. We always hold hands when I drive, but I don’t want to distract her since she’s still a new driver, so I keep my hands to myself. She’s a good driver, though. I get the feeling she’d be good at anything she tried.

  Keanna follows my directions as I give her the secret back roads to get to the high school. When we arrive, there’s already tons of cars in the parking lot and we’re immediately thrown into the fray of bored high school students not quite ready to get back to school.

  Keanna grabs my hand and shoves her car key in her front pocket. “I’m scared,” she whispers.

  “I got you,” I say, bumping into her as we walk toward the front of the school. “I’m your rock, remember?”

  She smiles up at me but it doesn’t reach her eyes. “My stomach hurts. I don’t want to do this.”

  “You’ll be okay. No one will even notice you.” I lean over and kiss her forehead.

  A few guys call my name and we wave at each other but I don’t say anything so they won’t come over and chat. Having a girlfriend is making me unsocial in the best way possible.

  “So this is Lawson High School,” I say, casting out my arm in a grand gesture. “Home of the hornets.”

  I curl my lip. “They just voted to change our mascot to the hornets a couple years ago and it’s really stupid, I know. Like, pretty much any animal can defeat a stupid insect.”

  Keanna giggles and leans into my arm. I pull open the door for us and we enter into the main lobby, a green tiled floor with tan walls and the school’s brand new concrete hornet statue as the centerpiece.

  Teachers mull around and welcome everyone and students filter here and there. Mostly we have to line up at these tables in alphabetical order to get our schedules. Park is far away from Adams. I look down at Keanna. “This is where I leave you,” I say, making this over exaggerated frown. “Shall we meet up on the other side?”

  She nods. “Godspeed.”

  We go our separate ways and I stand in line behind some freshman girls who are sneaking not-so-subtle looks at me. I’ve seen that look before; it comes with the territory when you’re a famous guy’s son.

  “Are you Jett Adams?” one of them asks.

  The other one adjusts her bra in this way that can’t possibly be on accident. Is that supposed to turn me on? Because it doesn’t work.

  “Yeah,” I say, glancing to the right, hoping to see Keanna. Unfortunately, the tables for B-0 last names are so busy that I can’t find her in the crowd.

  “We’re freshman,” the same girl says. She flips her black hair over her shoulder and peers up at me. “I’m Ava. And this is Abbi.” She gestures to her friend, a blonde with bright blue eyes and too much perfume. “We love motocross.”

  “Cool,” I say.

  “Maybe you could show us around school this year,” Ava says, twirling hair around her fingers. “We don’t really know how to get anywhere.”

  “Sure,” I say, trying not to smirk. “My girlfriend just moved here so I can show all three of ya’ll around.”

  Her smile falters. “Okay cool.”

  Something tells me she probably won’t be taking me up on that offer. Ha. This must be another sign of falling in love. I no longer care at all when girls try to flirt with me. I used to eat that shit up even if I didn’t like the girl who was doing the flirting. It was just fun to flirt. Now I’m bouncing on the balls of my feet, waiting to get back to my girl.

  Keanna and I meet up a few minutes later and I pull her into the entrance of the library, so we can get out of the crowd of students. “Okay, show me what you got,” I say, holding out my schedule. We compare them and find that we both have biology with Mrs. Smith together last period, along with the same lunch.

  “This is embarrassing,” she says, dropping her head. “I’m a senior taking junior level science classes. UGH.”

  “So what? It’s not your fault your credits didn’t transfer.”

  “It is my fault I never passed the stupid class. But we moved so much last year it was hard to stay focused on my class work. I did quite a few homework assignments while sitting in the car while Dawn went on a date.”

  I put my hand on her shoulder. “It’s no big deal. Plus, now we have class together.”

  “Hi Jett!” We both look over to see some girl waving excitedly at me. I lift my eyebrows and nod toward her.

  “Adoring fan?” Keanna asks sarcastically.

  I shrug. “I have no idea who that is. Come on, let’s go find all of our classes.”

  After a few minutes, I’ve already had a handful of girls say hello to me in the hallways. It’s embarrassing to say the least, but I act like I’m unaffected. I even go out of my way to say hi to all the guys I know, just so Keanna doesn’t notice a pattern of only girls talking to me.

  We go through both of our schedules and pretend walking to each of our classes so Keanna knows her way around the school.

  “And this is where we’ll meet after fourth period,” I say, stopping at the staircase on the south side of the building. “And then we can walk to lunch together.”

  I take both of her hands in mine and kiss her quickly on the bottom stair.

  She gazes up at me and the look in her eyes is adoring and beautiful and makes my chest ache with how much I love her. But I can’t tell her that here, in a school. That would be too lame.

  “Ready to go?” I ask, giving her another quick kiss. Only the kiss turns into something more passionate, and we both can’t pull away for a second.

  Someone clears their throat and we look up. Jasmine Garcia stands with her hands on her hips, watching us for God knows how long. My stomach twists into knots. Jasmine and I sort of dated at the beginning of last year and it did not end well.

  “You should run away while you can,” she tells Keanna. Then she narrows her gaze on me. “This guy is bad news.”

  “Come on,” I say, taking Keanna’s hand and rushing out of there. I heave a sigh and ignore everyone else as we walk back through the school and out into the parking lot.

  This is going to be a long year.

  Chapter 17

  It’s the first day of school. No big deal, right? This is my twelfth year after all, and I’ve done this way more than a dozen times. After a few years of awkward puberty, junior high wasn’t too horribly bad. I got free lunches in the school programs for poor kids and I finally learned how to stop caring about people and their judgmental looks. In fact, I was pretty good at it back in Arizona.

  So why am I freaking out now?

  I guess because I know this will be my final public school. I am finally living in a place where I know I’ll stay all year and graduate in the spring with a group of people who have had nine months to get to know me. These are Jett’s friends, and the kids of my new parent’s friends. I want them to like me. I can’t just duck into the shadows, keep to myself and hope nobody notices me this year.

  This year needs to count. I need to be somebody.

  I choose a pair of black skinny jeans and a purple flowy sleeveless shirt that has some sparkle designs around the collar. I wear my silver flats and use Becca’s curling iron on my hair. I’m going for classy with a little bit of casual, hence the jeans.

  Jett thinks I’m over thinking it. “You should be more like me,” he says, grinning from the doorway. He bites from an apple and swallows it before talking again. “I just throw on shorts or jeans and a T-shirt and I’m out the door. Sometimes I don’t even brush my hair. It’s high school.”

  I sigh and dab some powder on my face. “You’re a guy so you can get away with that. I saw the way the girls were dressed when we picked up our schedules. It was like they were going to eat at The Lantern or something.” I make a gagging face and turn back to the mirror. Finally satisfied with my look as good as possible without looking like I’m trying look, I get up and grab my backpack.

  It’s brand new and filled with a binder, paper, pens and pencils and highl
ighters—even note cards and white out. Becca wanted me to have anything I might need so she’d bought all of this crap for me. As I heft the heavy backpack onto my shoulders, I remember my first day of kindergarten when Dawn dropped me off with Mrs. Sparks and when the teacher asked where my supplies were, Dawn said, “You mean the school doesn’t provide them?”

  For the rest of my elementary life I lived off of free supplies from teachers and borrowing glue sticks and markers from the bins in classrooms. As bad as it sounds, I kind of wish my biological mother had abandoned me a long time ago.

  Having new school supplies as a seventeen-year-old doesn’t mean nearly as much as it would have when I was five.

  Nervous energy threatens to suffocate me when we leave my room. Every foot closer to the back door is one foot closer to starting school. Park is already at the Track, but Becca gives me a hug and sends us on our way as if this isn’t something to be worried about.

  “Do you want to drive?” Jett asks when we step outside. The early morning air is humid and warm and it doesn’t help the anxiety in my stomach.

  “Can you drive?” I ask, peering up at him. “I think I’m too scared to remember which pedal is the gas and brake.”

  Jett’s dark hair falls in his eyes and he sweeps it back with his hand. “You don’t need to be scared, babe. This will be a fun day. Teachers don’t even pass out real work on the first day.”

  Right, because school work is what scares me. Not.

  We get to school early enough to have time to eat breakfast, which Jett swears is pretty good at the school. The main food serving part of the cafeteria is shut down, the metal gates pulled down to keep everyone out. But there’s a kiosk to the side of the cafeteria just when you walk in. A sign above it calls it “the café” and a little old woman sells donuts, muffins, parfaits, and Pop tarts. Another woman next to her mans a coffee and hot chocolate cart. I keep my gaze on Jett and let everyone else fade into the background. I do notice a few stares or curious glances as people walk by, but I tell myself it’s just innocent curiosity about a new girl. Surely not everyone is staring at me, right?