A Teen's World by Joanna Johnson (knowledgeable books to read TXT) 📕

Life at McMillan High was pretty fun. There are the jocks, who are somewhat brainless but very good at sports and the cheerleaders, or the popular girls (as the rest of McMillan claimed them to be), who are also somewhat brainless (with the exception of a few semi-smart souls) but good at cheering on our school at sporting events and exposing their butts at regular intervals. Then there are the emo kids who never speak to anyone (me and my friends are exceptions) who doesn’t drown their eyes in eye shadow or eyeliner, and then there’s me and my friends, who speak to literally everyone at McMillan High, from the jocks straight down to the emos.

My friends and I are what you’d call “the everyone” clique. My brother, Tyler, is a junior and a brainless jock, if I may say so myself, and my sister, Isabella, who is also a junior, is a cheerleader and somewhat ditzy as well. I always consider myself lucky to have been the only child in my family born with an actual brain. My group of friends consist of Matthew, my best friend, seeing that I knew him since elementary school, Isabelle, my good friend who is obsessed with Jason Statham and is one of the nicest persons you’ll ever meet. Her niceness is contagious, believe me. Then there is Liam, Sarah and Jaden, who are also my very good friends and who constantly argue about movies and music like an old threesome married couple.

And for those wondering, I’m Jaime and this is all about a Teen’s World.

Chapter One

“Always remember, just being ‘you’ beats everything else.”-Mom

I’m five feet four inches with green eyes, auburn hair and a dimpled smile. Some might consider me beautiful but I just think I look okay. I mean, I thank God for all these lovely physical features he has blessed me with, especially my neat little butt and my nice shape, but I don’t think I’m anyone to go crazy over, and my best friend agrees with me.

I met Matthew back in elementary school when I had just moved to Corkville (I cried when I first heard I was moving to a town called “Corkville”) and had been on my first day into McMillan Elementary. My mom and I had just stepped into the school hallway with little kids running and screaming all around us when I slipped and fell face first on the floor and scattered all my cute little books that were in my hands. All the kids had started laughing at me and I began to cry, when out of the sea of giggling faces came a dark-haired, blue-eyed boy with a head a little too big for his body. He grabbed all my books for me while my mom helped me up off the sticky floor. When I had managed to finally compose myself, Matthew handed my books back to me and gave me a little smile and from then on, I had found the Hutch to my Starsky.

We (being Matt and I) met Isabelle, Sarah, Liam and Jaden on the second day of middle school and from then, we had been good friends ever since. We went through everything together, and I mean everything, from bullying to periods to high school hazing to break-ups and make-ups. Looking at it now, I truly appreciate my friends and every moment I spend with them and I couldn’t wait for Spring break to be over with so I could see them again.

My family and I had gone to the Bahamas for Spring Break and though the island was beautiful, the natives were smoking hot and the food was to die for, I missed my friends, my lovely bedroom (recently painted the colour of the ocean) and most of all, I missed my laptop, my phone and my cute little puppy Ralph who was probably being overstuffed with food by Grandma Addie. She had the tendency to take TLC way too seriously sometimes and at the ripe age of eighteen, I did not need my grandma to be playing with my cheeks and branding my forehead with red lipstick in public.

We would leave the Bahamas tomorrow so that we had the weekend to unpack and to prepare for school Monday morning. As I sat watching the sunset, I thought about what my friends would be up to now and how abuzz school would be on Monday.

We finally pulled into our driveway five o’ clock Friday afternoon. I was so glad to finally be back home that I ran up to the house, opened the door with the spare key under the mat and raced upstairs to my room. I had just booted up my laptop when my brother appeared in my doorway, “Hey, you can’t just leave your suitcase downstairs you know,” he said as I continued to pay no attention to his existence.

“I placed it in the middle of the road in case you wanted to know,” he said again as he walked off.

“You didn’t, you brat!” I screamed.

“Go look for yourself then,” he shouted back.

I scrambled off my bed and over to my window which overlooked the street and sure enough, there was my suitcase, in all its red and white glory, sitting in the middle of the road.

“Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad!” I screamed again.

My dad, who had a very short temper when it came on to laziness, came huffing at my door way. “What is it Jaime?”

“Your son placed my suitcase in the middle of the road!” I said in a high-pitched squeal I only used when I was trying to restrain my anger.

“Calm down Jaime. I’ll go get it for you okay?” My dad said in his stern voice he only used on his students at Yale University.

“Aw, would you? Thanks Dad,” I smiled as I felt my temper recede as quickly as it came. Dad getting my suitcase meant that it wouldn’t only be brought into the house but into my very room, all the way up the fifteen flights of stairs.

“You’re welcomed but remember; he’s your brother too.”

“Unfortunately,” I grumbled under my breath as I plopped back down onto my bed and turned my phone on. I had over twenty voicemails and five text messages. I smiled with glee as I logged onto my facebook account to check what was going on in my social universe.

Matthew was finally back from spending spring break with his grandparents and cousins down in Florida and from the pictures and statuses he posted, it was obvious he had a grand time with his family. Isabelle and Sarah had spent spring break at Sarah’s family’s summer house near a lake in the hills of Corkville with a few of their other friends, Liam stayed home all spring break(typical Liam behaviour) and Jaden went to a movie convention(obviously to boost his already exploding movie knowledge and start fresh war with Sara and Liam.). As I finished uploading all the photos I had taken in Bahamas and updated my status, my phone rang.

“Hello?” I answered, not even bothering to glance at the caller I.D.

“Hello my granddaughter, how are you?” Grandma Addie’s singsong voice sweetly chimed.

“Grandma! I’m fine. How are you? Is Ralph okay?” I asked worriedly. Grandma was very enthusiastic about animals; she even once had a goldfish that ran away because of all the enthusiasm.

I could hear the smile in her voice. “He’s perfect my dear. He is driving your grandpa nuts however. How soon can you get him?”

I smiled as an image of grandpa swearing at Ralph as he chewed on his favourite slippers, popped into my mind. “I’ll get him Monday after school. Tell Grandpa I said hi.”

“Okay, I will. See you soon,” she said and then hung up.

I updated my twitter status to, ”Home, finally. ” and shut my laptop down.

I then went to my phone to check all my voicemails and my text messages.

Two were from Matt and the rest were from my other friends from our group.

Displaying 1/5

From: Matt

Received 3/19

08:13 pm

Dude, I miss you. Too bad you couldn’t carry your phone with you. Florida’s great. 

_____________

Displaying 2/5

From: Isabelle

Received 3/21

03:21 am

Jaime hun, we miss you! This is from me and Sar. <3

Hope ur having tons of fun and getting numbers for us ;)

XoXo

______________

Displaying 3/5

From: Matt

Received 3/25

05:21 pm

Just watched that Twilight crap you keep talking about. Ugh. I just wasted 2 hours of my life. :p

_________________

Displaying 4/5

From: Liam

Received 3/29

07:17 pm

Just saw ur ex. Idk what u ever saw in him, honestly. He looks like a washed up crab. Come home soon, miss you. <3

_______________

Displaying 5/5

From: Jaden

Received 3/30

11:00 am

Ur coming home tomorrow! Righteous dude! Convention went great btw. 

P.S.- I hope you got me a nice hula bob doll. :p

_________________

My friends truly were something else. I laughed as I deleted the messages from my inbox and checked my voicemail. Most of my voicemails were about meetings I had at school, one was from my grandma asking if Ralph was diabetic(I should remember to talk to her about that) and the rest were my other friends from McMillan just checking up on me. I put my phone to charge and as I showered and changed into my pyjamas, my dad finally came upstairs with my suitcase.

“What do you have in this thing?” he asked on a strained noted as he dropped my case on my bedroom floor.

“Dad! Careful, glass on the inside,” I said.

“Yeah, you’re welcome Jaime,” he said sarcastically.

I hugged him and kissed his cheek. “You’re the best dad ever.”

“I know,” he said as he left the room.

I smiled as I turned out my bedroom light and hopped into my bed. I had a whole weekend filled with washing, house chores and homework to get through before I got to see any of my friends.

Chapter Two

“Crushes turn people into blubbering idiots.”-Sarah

Monday morning was finally here. As I parked my Honda civic in the school’s parking lot, I saw Sarah getting out of her blue minivan. I never understood why she chose to get a minivan instead of a simple car but as she always explains to us and people when they ask, “One of us in the group has to have a car that can hold all of us at one time.”

I quickly grabbed my book bag and my other shoulder bag which contained souvenirs and other gifts, and hurried over to her. “Hey Sarah,” I said as I fell in step beside her.

“Ohmigod! Jaime!” She squealed as she hugged me fiercely.

“Suffocating...me,” I said as I saw my life flash before my eyes.

“Oh, sorry,” she apologised as she realised her hold on me.

“It’s good. At least I know you’re happy to see me,” I joked.

“Haha, very funny. Soooo, how was it?” She asked as she quickened her pace to our homeroom. The gods were in our favours when we entered our senior year because every member of our group had the same homeroom.

“It was fantastic. Absolutely, positively amazing,” I said as my eyes glazed over.

“Alright, snap out of it!” Sarah laughed as she pushed the door open to our homeroom.

“Ms. Bahamas is back!” shouted Matthew from his desk. We were always fifteen minutes early to class on Mondays so that we always had time to catch up on each other’s weekends(if we didn’t spend them together), and the latest on the relationship scene.

“Yes, yes, I have arrived and I come bearing gifts,” I said as I sat on top of my desk.

“Oh lala,” Isabelle chimed in.

I handed Isabelle a nice beaded necklace I had bought for her at the craft market, I bought a nice black cardigan for Liam at the store in the hotel and Jaden got his hula bob doll (which he graciously thanked me for). It was hard to choose for Sarah because she was very picky but I