Chapter 3: Friends? Friends.

Jackson's POV

Monday

I was thinking of skipping class today but then I remembered that the new student was coming today and I volunteered to show her around. She's going to need a friend and feel welcomed to her new life in a new place. After what Sean told me last week, for some reason I have this urge to get the old version of his little sister back. If that were Jaden, I'd do everything I can to get him back, even if it's just a small piece of him.

Bringing my focus back to math class, there are only a few minutes left until class ends and I have to head straight to my next class, general biology, on the other side of the building.

"Please do the questionnaires in chapters 15 to 18. It'll be due on Wednesday and we will have a small quiz that day." The whole class groans at the mention of the quiz.

"It's to see who did the homework and studied. I want to make sure you all understand what you're learning. I can tell if you copied from someone and if you studied what I assign. So pl-" The school bell interrupts the teacher and all the students are already rushing out the door to get to their next class. I walk out through the back door of the room and make my way to my next class.

I get to my locker and put away my books and get the ones I need for GenBio. After locking my locker, I get a text from my mom telling me that the new student is in the office. Before I had the chance to text mom back, Mrs. Roger's caller ID pops up.

I answer the call. "Hey, Mrs. Rogers. I'm on my way right now. Mom texted me just now." She says ok and that Raven is waiting in the lobby right next to the door and all I had to do was just knock. I hang up and stuff my phone in my pocket.

Making my way to the office, the whole time I'm telling myself to not mention anything about what her brother or what he had told me last week. I don't want to make a bad impression on Raven, especially on her first day here...and to make her hate me for the rest of her life. I make it to the door of the office, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, I knock on the door a few times.

"Come in." I hear a muffled response before opening the door.

I look down to my left and I'm taken back at the girl sitting next to the entrance. She's...beautiful. Her chocolate brown eyes are capturing. Beautiful long lashes that shape her almond eyes. I think chocolates are my favorite flavor now. I scan her face, looking at her cute button nose, her pink pouty lips, and beautiful long wavy dark brown hair is in a messy ponytail – the lights in the room making her hair look like she has a deep dark shade of red. I'm stuck on looking at her face, I remember the task at hand and immediately force myself to snap out of the trance to speak.

"You must be Raven McClain?" I ask.

Looks like she was also checking me out due to the flushed cheeks she had before looking down. I smile at the fact she was checking me out but quickly shut that down. Raven looks up at me and the eye contact we hold is kind of...how do you say this. Like when you look at someone and you just know that it's..."your person"? I have no idea how to explain it – this is confusing for me – this type of feeling...emotion... is new.

"Yes, I am. And you must be Mr. Sinclair?" her voice takes me back to the present time, now it's me who needs to cover up my embarrassment from staring.

I clear my throat before talking, "Jackson Sinclair" I smirk down at her short height. Cute. Raven steps back a little – a bit uncomfortable- I wipe the smirk off my face. "I'll be showing you around campus for the day, so you know where everything is." I turn around and walk out the door.

I hear Raven jog behind me, but I keep walking. "Can you slow down a bit?" she says with a bit of irritation in her voice. I hear her whisper to herself about her legs not being long enough and calling me a giant. I snort at the nickname she gives me but walks slower so she can keep up.

"What class do you gave right now?" I speak up when we reach her locker.

I lean against the locker next to hers and I take her class schedule when she hands it to me. Looking through it, I notice we have all our classes together. I hand her back her form and tell her that we're classmates and from now on to follow me. I get off the locker and watch her open her locker and stuff all the books she doesn't need.

"Let's go...?" I ask when she shuts her locker. I look down at her – wanting to ask about why she moved but I decide against it.

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We reach our GenBio class and I walk in with Raven right behind me. Mr. Langford stops his lesson and I go to take my seat in the back next to my best friend Atlas. Mr. Langford has Raven introduce herself in front of the class. She seems a little nervous about it but it's short and simple. Mr. Langford tells Raven to take a seat, she scans the room real quick and her brown eyes land on me...or I thought it did. There's an empty seat right in front of me. She goes to take her seat and the teacher continues the lecture.

I look over at Raven and see that her writing is being written on the whiteboard. I know I should be paying attention in class but I can't help but want to try and talk to her. I look to my left and see Atlas with his head down. Asleep, of course. Atlas has never had a problem with his grades which is a mystery because he never pays attention in class. Getting bored of just listening to the GenBio lecture, I decided to start poking Raven. The first 3 pokes, nothing. I continue to poke her for a few minutes until she turns around, clearly annoyed.

"WHAT?" she whisper-yells at me. I don't say anything for a few minutes because I didn't think she would do anything. Raven rolls her eyes at me and gives me a "well?" look.

"Nothing...I was just bored." Raven turns back around to pay attention to Mr. Langford and I do the same.

The bell rang, signaling the end of the period, and the students started packing up their things, heading to their next class. Atlas woke up from the noise and bolted out of class. Dumbass is probably going to go skip the rest of the day and go home to sleep or go visit this girl he's been seeing this month. New girl every other month. I wish he'd stop fooling around.

Raven gets up once everyone has left, takes out her class schedule from the small pocket of her backpack, and starts looking through it. I get up and stand behind her. I bend over a little trying to get a closer look at it. I'm a breath away from her neck and her scent is distracting, in a good way. She smells like roses and mint. I move back a little and bring my focus back on the schedule to see that we have a free class period before class ends, we use that time to finish up some assignments. Raven turns around a bit shocked at our closeness.

I keep my focus on her class schedule and try not to turn my head to look at her. I know that if I do, our faces would be inches away from each other. From my peripheral vision, I could see the little freckled moles near her nose and a few under her eyes. She has a black thick line that outlines her chocolate brown eyes. Her pink pouty lips have a faint minty smell, I'm guessing that's from that blue ball thing she puts on her lips. Finally snapping out of it, I tell her that the class is only a 2-minute walk from here and we don't have to rush. I get my things and walk out through the back door. I don't even notice Raven walking next to me because all I can think of was how close our faces were.

Jackson Sinclair, SNAP OUT OF IT! What kind of behavior is this?!

We make it to the English room and take a seat at the back. We sit there in silence on our phones until the bell rings and the other seniors start filling up the class. After they took their seat, everyone was just in their world. Either talking to each other, doing assignments or homework from other classes, some fooling around, girls gossiping about whatever girls talk about lately. Bored out of my mind, I look back down at my phone and go through my Instagram feed. Letting out a small sigh, I look over to Raven. She's on her phone texting, someone.

Should I take a picture? Like a candid? Would she notice? No, I don't want her to think I'm that creep in high school who takes pictures of people. Her side profile is beautiful. Ok, Raven in general is beautiful. She can make heads turn and not even realize it. There are other pretty girls in Redwood High, but it's not the same as Raven's natural beauty. Earlier when our faces were close, the only "makeup" she had on was that blue ball thing she kept putting on her lips. I'm guessing it was chapstick … lip balm? Whatever.

What the heck...I sound so cheezie right now. Truth be told, boys will take any chance they get to check out the features of any woman. I'm not going to lie, I do feel some sort of attraction to Raven. She gives off this aura that draws people towards her. Doesn't matter how long you try to ignore it, you'll get pulled in. I should ask for her number after class, it's for...friend purposes. So that she can have someone give her a tour around Redwood Hills and at least have one friend here. That just sounds like some stupid excuse that every teenage boy makes to hang out with a girl they're interested in.

25 minutes in, our senior advisor, Mrs. Ann walks in, The whole class greets her and goes back to what they were doing. For some reason, she reminds me of Anna Camp – that actress from True Blood – but with grey eyes instead of brown. Her kids go to the same elementary school Jaden goes to.

Mrs. Ann claps her hands to get everyone's attention, "Ok seniors, we have a new student with us here today. As you may all know, this is Ms. McClain's first day here in Redwood High. I expect you all to be welcoming and friendly towards her. Also, her brother, Sir McClain, has donated money to our future senior trip as thanks to the school for accepting Raven to attend our school. Make sure to thank them. Ok Raven, please come forward and give us a brief introduction about yourself. Oh, and please call me Mrs. Ann" she ends her welcoming speech with a smile.

Raven's body looks tense as she gets up from her seat. She makes her way to the front and introduces herself.

"Hi everyone, as you all know, my name is Raven McClain. I moved here with my brother, Sean, he's the one that Mrs. Ann told you about. Uhm...thank you for having me." She gives us a small smile and makes her way back to her seat.

"So, Raven,"

Oh shit, here we go.

"What's the real reason why you transferred here?" Of course, Victoria's ugly ass would ask that question. You see, the thing with Victoria is, she wants to be in everyone's business. Even if it has nothing to do with her. Secretly, no one likes her and you can understand why.

Raven turns to look at Victoria and tells her that it's due to personal reasons that she doesn't feel like sharing. Victoria rolls her eyes while Raven walks back to her seat.

I look at Victoria, but she's already looking at me with mischief clear in her eyes, "What do you think Sin? Why do you think she moved?"

I hate when people I haven't permitted to, call me "Sin". I'm very picky about who gets to call me that. To Victoria and the rest of the school, it's Sinclair. Not Sin, not Jackson. Sinclair. I don't show that it bothered me but what comes out of my mouth wasn't what I expected. Annoyed on the inside, I look straight into Raven's eyes, right then and there, I immediately regret opening my mouth.

"Raven's parents killed themselves by driving off a bridge. Probably got tired of taking care of her, they thought they should just give that job to her brother."

FUCK!

FUCKING SHIT!

WHY THE FUCK DID I SAY THAT!

Something breaks inside Raven and the side that Sean told me about...I see it. Fuck...I fucked up so bad. Sean's going to kill me. My parents are going to hang me. Still looking at Raven, I see her beautiful brown eyes become a dull brown color and she snaps. I didn't have enough time to react. Everything was going so fast. The classroom was full of screams and some idiot started chanting, "Fight. Fight. Fight." Not cool, whoever you are.

Raven's fist smashes my nose, then my right eye – that's going to leave a nasty bruise – then my mouth. I tasted blood in my mouth and felt some come out of my nose. Right now I was trying to get Raven off of me, but it was like she couldn't hear me. Her fist kept raining down on me, I had to bring up my arms to protect my face. Why didn't I just do that earlier?? For a dude who is 6'0, this is embarrassing. A girl not even half my size is beating me up. I didn't even know this was possible.

Mrs. Ann finally made it through the crowd and was able to get Raven off me. I held my nose to stop the bleeding. My lip was busted and it freaking hurt. This girl knows how to throw a punch. Raven finally got a hold of herself and was breathing heavily in Mrs. Ann's hold. Her eyes were wild with anger and pain, fists were covered in my blood, and her ponytail had come undone from me and Mrs. Ann trying to get a grip on her. I would take a moment to admire how she looks even more beautiful with her hair down, but I was still on the floor shocked at what had just happened and it's not the right time given the situation.

"ENOUGH!" Mrs. Ann yelled loud that the whole class went silent and all you could hear was everyone's breathing. "SINCLAIR. MCCLAIN. DETENTION NOW!"

Raven shook Mrs. Ann off of her, grabbed her stuff, and left the class slamming the door behind her. I look at Mrs. Ann and she shakes her head in disappointment. I quickly get up, grab all my things, and rush out the door. I run after Raven, seeing as she's going the wrong way. I call her name to get her attention, but she keeps walking.

"Detention is this way, Raven," I tell her once I stop trying to catch up to her. We just stand there for a minute, but it felt like hours. She doesn't say anything to me and I wish she would. Silently begging her to say something to me. Raven turns around but doesn't look at me.

Fuck. Jackson Sinclair, you are one stupid fuck up!

I start walking towards the connected classroom of the indoor gym and Raven follows right behind me. I look back at Raven, she's on autopilot. This is what Sean meant when he said that it was like a switch inside her, right? All I want to do is tell her how sorry I am, but I know she won't believe anything I say right now.

When we reach the detention room, Raven goes inside without even paying attention to me. I let out a heavy sigh and enter the room.

"Hey Coach," I say with a lopsided smile. He looks up at me in shock, it's the face. Thankfully, he doesn't say anything.

"Did Mrs. Ann tell you?" He just nods and goes back to his phone.

I turn to see Raven sitting next to the window. I slowly make my way to sit in the seat right next to her and take a seat.

"Now breathe, little bird" I hear her whisper to herself. I look at her for a while, her beautiful long hair out of a ponytail, reaching down to her lower back. I want to touch and run my fingers through her hair, but isn't the time that right now. I don't want her to punch me again.

Raven finally senses my presence and her whole body is on alert like it's a defense mechanism. This was not how I wanted today to go. I was supposed to make her feel welcomed and at least a little happy about moving to Redwood Hills. I made a promise to Sean and now everything's all messed up. I hate myself right now.

"Raven..." I say quietly, trying to get her attention, but she doesn't bother to turn around.

"Raven..." still nothing, I let out a heavy sigh and apologize. "Look I'm sorry for what I said earlier. I have no idea why I said what I said but if I could take it back I would."

Please turn around Raven....please. If I have to beg, I will.

Raven finally turns around to look at my but her face shows no emotion and her eyes...hid her emotions. Sean's going to kill me and to be honest, I'd let him. I messed up. Big time.

"Thanks" is all Raven says and turns back to look out the window. UGH FUCK! JACKSON! I have a huge urge to punch myself in the face. Add another "piece of work" to "Raven's masterpiece".

"Raven, please." I'm going to keep bothering her until she talks to me and forgives me for my idiocy. I will not stop until she does, "I'm so-"

"How'd you know?" Is it just me or did it get cold all of a sudden?

"What?" confused about what she meant.

Raven turned around to look at me and the moment I looked into her eyes, I saw a broken piece of herself, only to be hidden in a matter of seconds.

"How did you know they got into a car accident?" her voice breaks a little.

Defeated, I knew I had to tell her about my interaction with her brother last week. I look down at the floor and let out a defeated sigh before looking back at her.

"Last week, when your brother came here to transfer your information to this school, Mrs. Rogers introduced me to him. I had just finished basketball practice that day. We talked for a bit and he told me. He told me that one of the reasons why you guys moved to Redwood Hills was because you both wanted a new life. And that your parents had died in a car accident."

I stop for a second, hoping to get a reply out of her, nothing. So I continue. "Your brother told me they drove off a bridge on their way home due to the heavy rain that night. He asked me to be your friend when you arrive. I'm sorry for what I said, Raven." We're silent for a few minutes and the silence is killing me. I stare into Raven's eyes, her guard still up.

"Next time you bring up my parents like that, make sure you have insurance for plastic surgery." Please forgive me, Raven...please.

"And I forgive you. But this will be the last." I can finally breathe. I give her my biggest smile and promise that I will NEVER bring up her parents again.

"Friends?" I take my hand out so we can shake on the promise. Please don't leave me hanging. God, it felt like forever until she took my hand. It felt...right. Even if it was just a simple handshake. Holding her small hand in mine, it felt...good.

"Friends" she gives me a small smile before taking her hand back. Starting to miss her hand in mine, I dismiss the feeling. I wonder if she felt it too...even just a little.

"Let's start over. I'll start." smiling at Raven, I nod in agreement.

"Hi, I'm Raven McClain. It's nice to officially meet you Mr. Sinclair." she gives me a toothy grin and takes her hand out for me to shake. I take her hand in mine and shake it.

"Nice to meet you, Raven. Mr. Sinclair is my old man." I laugh remembering what she called me when we met in the office.

"I'm Jackson Sinclair. Call me Sin for short."

Raven goes back to looking out the window, but I don't miss the full-on smile she has on her face. Feeling good about how things turned out, I know my parents are going to beat my ass for what happened earlier. I'll think about the consequences later, I'm in a good mood because Raven doesn't hate me.

That's all that matters at the moment.