Chapter Two: The Suprise

I pull over at Sandy's house, kill the ignition, open my car door and lock it behind me. I walk up to the house and knock on the heavy wooden door. While I'm waiting at the front porch I take a good look around. "This place still looks the same," I think as I'm admire the place I've spent so much time of my childhood.Suddenly the door swings open and I see Philip standing in the frame.

''Hey Philip, good morning," I say as I hug him with a big smile on my face.

''Good morning dear.'' He gestures me to come inside.

''I hope I came at a right time?'' I awkwardly ask as I step past Philip, into the house.

''Yeah, perfect timing. You're just in time for breakfast. Now C'mon, she's in the kitchen.'' He waves as we walk further into the house, towards the kitchen. I notice their house still looks as magnificent as the last time I was here, before we left for Florida. Philip is a brain surgeon so they are freaking loaded.

I come to a halt when I hear a familiar voice, a very familiar voice, the voice of my best friend, Sandy! I see her sitting in the kitchen. She's sitting with her long legs crossed over each other and her perfectly straight back is facing me. She's wearing blue denim shorts with a white shirt and a cropped denim jacket. Her hair is pulled up in a half pony-tail.

''Mom why did you make me my pancakes with whipped cream. You know I only like them with maple syrup...'' Sandy says, arguing with her mother.

I like mine with whipped cream though...

''Because they're not for you, they're for me dummy!'' I yell from behind her, startling the shit out of her. She jumps up and drops the fork she was holding. She tries to regain herself but I can see she is totally flabbergasted. I even see the shine of a couple of tears trying to leave her eyes. She attacks me with a really big, strangling hug. I return the gesture as I wrap my arms tightly around her.

''Oh My God! Bunny, when... how!?'' She gasps. I can understand her confusion. She must have so many questions to ask.

''You're the same as your mother. Cassandra, give the poor girl some space to breathe, ''Philip says, always saving me from his lady's hugs.

''Yeah, right, sorry Bunny, ''Sandy stumbles as she releases me. ''But wait, you two are not even looking the slightest bit surprised...?'' She says to her parents with furrowed eyebrows.

''Actually, your parents already visited me last night. And to answer your first question, we came back yesterday morning. Dad got the opportunity to be transferred back to Oregon so obviously we couldn't say no to that. I told your parents not to tell anything because I wanted to surprise you. '' I say to Sandy in the hope she understands.

''Seriously Bunny, it's the best surprise I've ever had. I'm just so happy that you are back,'' she grins as she gives me another, less lethal hug.

''And to the two of you, it's not fair okay...? You could've given me some kind of hint,'' she says to her parents.

''No honey, our hands were tied,'' Marissa replies.

''And if we had done that we wouldn't have witnessed this heart-warming reunion of yours,'' Philip adds. Which was the actual reason I wanted to surprise her. I wanted the most sincere moment.

''Okay, okay, enough. My pancakes are getting cold,'' I intervene as I take place at the table and start eating.

''Sandy honey, will you please start eating yours too? I don't want us to be late for school,'' I ask her in my most innocent and dainty voice.

''Yeah, yeah...Wait what! You're coming with me? I mean coming with me to my school?'' Sandy screams.

''Yes Sherlock, that's what I meant,'' I reply wittily.

''Okay, enough. Both of you.'' Marissa sets two plates of pancakes, both with maple syrup, on the table and gestures Philp and Sandy to start eating.

''Bunny, eat faster. I don't want to be late for school because of you,'' Sandy teasingly whispered.

''Sandy first of all will you just quit calling me Bunny? Second, I'm not some monster food devourer like you,'' I whisper back.

''Hey, it's our thing! And I'm only going to quit calling you Bunny if you quit calling me Sandy,'' she childishly responds.

''Well that is just unfair! Sandy is actually short for Cassandra while Bunny is not short for Arielle. And Sandy suits you...right, Philip?'' I look at him with my puppy-dog eyes.

''Ehh...yeah,'' he stumbles.

''Look, your father agrees with me. So now you'll have to find another name,'' I quickly say, hoping this will make her stop calling me Bunny. I know it's our thing, calling me Bunny. But it's just such a childish name. When we were children I could never say her name correctly so she told me to call her Cassie. But everyone already called her Cassie and I wanted to be special.So I started calling her Sandy and only I, yes only me, gets to call her by that name.

But of course she wanted to be special as well so she started calling me Bunny. Now the story behind Bunny is actually really cute. When Sandy was a little girl her grandma gifted her a fluffy teddy bear who she had named Bunny. It was really close to her heart, her best friend. She had so many treasurable memories with her grandma that were attached to that teddy bear. But one day Sandy and her family went for a picnic and she lost Bunny. She was devastated, it was her very best friend after all.

When we met we could already feel we were going to be very special to each other and that our friendship was going to last forever. So she named me after her very first best friend, Bunny.

''I have a solution,'' Sandy yells, ''what if I only call you Bunny when we are alone or with our families? And all other times I will just call you Arielle. Does that sound okay to you?'' she asks.

''Umh...yeah okay, cool'' I reply, ''Now let's get going cause we're going to be late''

''Yeah, bye mom and dad,'' Sandy says as she hugs her parents. ''I just have to go get my bag from upstairs.''

I also hug both of them and wish them a nice day. Sandy comes back into the room with her bag and we walk to the front door together.

''Don't get in trouble girls! And don't forget to enjoy yourself!'' Philip yells from the kitchen.

As we walk through the garage I admire the cars. When I said these people are freaking loaded I wasn't kidding. Around me are a flashing yellow Lamborghini, a dark-blue Mercedes, a terrain style Jeep, a dazzling red Ferrari, a fancy black limousine and two state of the art mountain bikes.

''Nice cars," I say casually

''Yeah, dad sure loves to collect them. Too bad I don't have my driving licence...'' Sandy sighs.

''Hey, don't worry, we are going to work on that,'' I assure her.

''Thanks, but I'm afraid I'm hopeless with cars,'' she replies depressed.

''We'll see,'' I say.

When we reach our high school I pull up in the parking lot. We get our bags, swing them over our shoulders and start walking towards the campus.

'Warriors High' is one of the best schools in Oregon. It's a huge school and they offer their students a great deal of opportunities in various fields like sports, dance, arts and singing.

''Let's get going, we have to pick up our schedule from the office, and there's probably going to be a massive queue,'' Sandy says as she links her arm with my own and starts to walk a little faster. As we pass more and more people, I get the feeling everyone is staring at me.

''Sandy, do I have anything on my face or something?'' I ask her, halting her and forcing her to look at my face.

''Uhm, no,'' She replies after taking a good look at me.

''Then why is everyone staring at me like I have two horns on my head?'' I ask her, getting slightly annoyed because I don't know what's going on and I don't like it.

Sandy looks at our surroundings, ''Uh-uh... I can see that,'' she gives me a once-over, "But honestly I can't blame them,''

''What do you mean?'' I nervously asks as I'm starting to think there's something wrong with me.

''Geez, don't play dumb okay. Look at you! You look like a freaking super model. And you are new so of course they are looking, they are trying to find out who the hot new chick is,'' she explains, making wild hand gestures.

''Okay... You do realize I look like shit right now, right? I didn't even had time to put on any make-up this morning,'' I argue, glaring at every person that is looking at us.

''Yeah, right, like you actually need any make-up Arielle. Now let's go,'' she replies annoyed as she drags me to the office.

I'm not denying that I don't look hot, I know I do. I have nice long black hair, big chocolate brown eyes and I have curves in all the right places, not trying to sound cocky or anything. Ohw, and I've got a model height of five-feet-nine so I got that going for me as well. Not that it matters though because everyone is beautiful in their own way.

As we get to the office we are relieved that the queue is actually not that long. We pick up my locker key and check out our schedules. I'm glad to see that that Sandy and I have most of our classes together, school is just a thousand times better that way. We walk through the crowded hallways. Students are already on their way to their classes, there are groups just hanging and chatting, there are people making out... well more like eating each other's faces. Gross! Suddenly everyone stops talking and it is so silent that I swear you could hear a pin dropping. Everyone's heads snap to the entrance. I suspect it is going to be one of those cliché movie moment entrances of the school's 'Queen B' or captain 'hottie' of the football team. When I turn my head towards the entrance I see three boys entering. Theyall have those cool-guy neutral looks on their faces, like they just don't care. Some students are looking at them with respect, some look unimpressed, but most of the students are shaking with fear, like they've seen a freaking ghost! What the hell is going on?! I look at Sandy, who is looking at the front guy, and nudge in their direction.

''What...?'' She stumbles, looking distracted. I raise my eyebrows and look around the hallway.

''Ohw, them, well they are kind of, you know, the popular, loaded, bad ass guys of the school. There are rumours that they're members of some super dangerous gang called 'The Daggers' '' she explains.

''The one in all-black with the black hair and the perfect brown eyes is Carter Baskins. The Goldie-locks next to him with the green eyes, hand tattoos is Travis von Zonneveld. He is a total bad boy,'' she adds with a smirk. Travis is wearing skinny ripped jeans and a red t-shirt, he looks good.

''And then there's Eric, Eric Richardson. His dad is one of the richest people in the country''

Eric looks amazing. He's the text-book definition of hot as hell and cute as a button. I'm sure he can get any girl he wants, looking like that. His clothes, a white t-shirt, black jeans with black sneakers and a black bomber jacket, accentuate his perfect muscular physique. He has the most beautiful deep-sea-blue eyes. But there is something dark about him.

He's looking at his surroundings unimpressed, like this is a totally normal reaction to his appearance. And then his eyes land on me, and for a second I feel like a victim under his hard stare. Just a second though, cause his eyes shoot away and he strolls further down the hallway.

The bell rings indicating that the first period is about to start. Everyone cuts their stares from the boys and starts running towards their classes. I can see the three of them disappear too. I follow Sandy to our first class, it's AP Calculus. As we enter the classroom we take place at two desks in the middle of the room. Sandy's actually a B+ student but she has no intention to use this class. She's just taking it to get enough points. Her real interest is singing, and I'm sure she's going to make her career out of it. She has the most amazing voice I've ever heard and her family supports her one hundred percent.

As for me, I do intend to use this class. And I love to study. There are some subjects that are my favourite, like: 'English, Chemistry and Maths' Yes, I'm a nerd. I was thinking that in university I want to master in either Business Communication or Chemistry. But I'm not sure yet.

Shortly after we've sat down a man walks into the classroom. It's a guy in his early forties who I assume must be our teacher. He places his briefcase on the desk and turns into our direction.

''That's Mr. Jones. I believe he's kind of a cool guy. I've never actually had him for anything but most students say that he is a real lecturer and doesn't burden his students with a lot of homework,'' Sandy whispers to me while she grabs her pencil case, a notebook and a calculator out of her back.

''Seems fine to me,'' I whisper back as I do the same.

''Welcome back Warrior High students. For the ones that don't know me I'm Mr. Jones and I will be teaching AP Calculus to you this year. I assume you are all excited for your last year-'' he gets interrupted with a few groans and yes sirs'' so I was thinking let's make this year extra special.'' This got everyone's attention.

''I thought that for this year's Autumn-Fest we could hold a quiz competition with only math related questions. The people who end in the top five will form a team and shall represent our school in the interschool Math Olympiad.'' Other than the first row everyone moans and groans at the idea of being in a maths competition.

''So anyone who is interested can meet me today after last period, here in this classroom, and sign up. I expect all of you.'' He finishes his announcement, walks up to the board and starts his lesson.