My Heart: Joshayley: Chapter 5
Each house they passed made Hayley more comfortable sitting beside Josh at the front of the car. Everyone asked her who she was, and she even created new friends during the car ride.
HAYLEY'S POV:
Stay steady, Hayley.
I was shaking. When Jaelyn, Madison and Alexa (all coming out of the same house...er, are these three sisters or something?!) stepped into the car, I rolled my eyes quickly, and stared out the window. They didn't glare or look at me, but started talking to Josh flirtatiously. I never came up in the conversation. They took up the back seat, and apparently another car was tailing us in the back. It was, obviously, other classmates. I hoped they wouldn't look at me like others in the school did.
We had breakfast at a diner someone from the backseat recommended us to go to. It was pretty crowded in there, but the welcoming smell of hot pancakes would bring anyone in. There was about 10 of us, and after a 20 minute wait for tables to get ready, we finally took our seats. I'm guessing other customers thought we were some rambunctious teenagers (everyone was giving us strange looks), and that the diner lady would probably feel over-worked after serving us, but hey, I couldn't blame them. We probably did look like rambunctious teens, but, as I observed, these teenagers really weren't. The people at the table (except Jaelyn, Madison and Alexa) tried to start a conversation with me by asking questions.
I didn't think they'd be the least bit interested, especially since I've already been at the school for over a week, but the talking made me feel comfortable to be here. Of course the three mean looking girls didn't make me feel comfortable at all, but as long as they were three chairs away from me, that was fine. Breakfast was soon finished.
This outing was far from over, though. It was just noon when they finished breakfast. Once everyone was out the door of that diner, Jaelyn spoke.
"There's a carnival down in Nashville today. We could all take a drive and hang out there. I hear they have the best carnival food around, even though it's a pretty...ehem, guilty pleasure for most of us," she eyed her friends, and they smiled back, unsure if that comment was good or bad. I was unsure if that comment was even supposed to be funny or what. "So who's up for it?"
"It's still way too early for a bonfire anyways," Josh said, and I immediately figured that he was planning a bonfire, "Why don't we go?"
Everyone else seemed to agree. Josh smiled at me, and we all walked towards the cars again, taking a brief road trip to Nashville. Franklin was not far from Nashville at all, but we did get caught up in traffic. I'm guessing lots of people loved this fair. The entire time in traffic was spent listening to rock music or talking about who did what back at school. More people asked me about my life, and I couldn't over-expose my entire personal life, so I stuck with the basics: how it was before I moved, how my friends were, and stuff that wasn't too revealing.
Jaelyn asked me more questions that made me a bit nervous to answer. I knew she was trying to squeeze information out of me, maybe to pass around the school, but I wouldn't let her whore me around like that. So I answered the easiest way possible, trying to make it short and simple enough to be counted for as an "answer". Once we actually got to Nashville, I already caught sight of a large ferris wheel spinning around, it's neon lights blinking. "Oh my God, I am so stoked!" Jaelyn declared aloud. I was pretty stoked myself. This place looked fun.
I caught sight of a kid's coaster, a fast, spinning ride, and a carousel. Kids screamed all around me, restless. I could hear shouting and laughter, and this gave me that feeling you get once entering a carnival. "We totally have to get inside the haunted house here. It's like a mystery house, but it's pretty scary," some brunette girl said. She and some other guys walked another direction, probably off to the "haunted house". "Want to ride ferris wheel?" Josh suggested. I would go on any ride with this guy, so of course I nodded and gave him an eager smile. "Sure." I agreed. We walked off, and it didn't take me too long to notice it was only me and him right then and there.
We stood in line for a while. Josh looked at me. I was silent, and getting uncomfortable of how silent I was. God, this nervousness had to just get out. When would I be loud, crazy Hayley again? Or was Josh just making me incredibly self-conscious and shy? I really did like him, could that be the reason?
Once we got on, I exhaled sharply, loudly. "I need to talk." I said sarcastically. "I've been so quiet I'm scaring myself."
Josh laughed. "Right. You kind of worried me too. I thought you were having a problem or something," he told me. We sat on opposite sides of the blue colored seat.
These ferris wheel carts didn't have a rooftop, so the wind wildly blew my hair in all directions. "So how do you like school so far?" Josh asked casually.
"Er..." I paused, making an unsure face. I couldn't completely rant about the displeasure this school brought me, but it wasn't all that bad, wasn't it? "I don't know. Everyone seems pretty nice so far...except..." I didn't continue, but he knew exactly who I was talking about.
"Jaelyn and her friends?" he asked worriedly.
I only nodded, blushing. I felt my face heat up. "I know. They invited themselves here. Jaelyn and I..." he paused. "You guys... what?" I prompted. "I used to actually go out with her," he said quickly. He stayed quiet after that statement. I had to speak up, before this ride was over. "Josh, it's nothing to be ashamed of. You saw something in her, and then you..broke up. You did break up, right?"
He chuckled. "Yes."
"Well okay then," I continued, "Just let it go and move on. There's always another day to look forward to." We went on with the casual conversation, sharing the ocassional joke now and then. The ride then slowed. I hadn't noticed how quickly time passed when I was with Josh. One by one, we all got out. We walked side by side. He looked at a ring-toss game. He stared at it, actually. "What?" I asked him, noticing. "You want to play?" He smiled at my suggestion.
"It's just...I'm really good at it," he admitted, smiling then.
I returned his smile. "Then come on! Let's go."
We rushed towards it like little kids, and before I knew it we were tossing them at the empty, glass soda bottles. Over a span of time, we actually managed to throw in 10 rings that made it, out of the bucket of 25, onto the soda bottles. Pretty suckish, but as I observed, nobody really even made it in, so 10 out of 25 was pretty good. I won a large, purple teddy bear. Well, technically Josh won it (he tossed most of the rings on there), but he handed it to me. That was enough to make my day.
The entire group of friends had headed over to a bumper car station later on in the day, after lunch was eaten. Fear struck me as we stood in line for that game--I wasn't that great a driver. It would have been embarrassing to get stuck in a corner and sulk in silence as everyone laughed--I could picture it now. I sighed, pulling myself out of the fantasy, knowing too well I wasn't going to end up like that.
Hopefully.
I turned to Josh, standing behind me. "Would you mind if I sat with you in your bumper car?"
He smiled, a smile that silenced my nerves, and nodded simply to my request.
Josh was a very skilled driver. Jaelyn had done a good job bumping her car into ours every single second, however, and a sick enjoyment on her face showed how much she liked it. It was quite annoying, my body shuddering with each impact. Thank God the bumper cars had soft bumpers around them or I would have been seriously injured by the end of that ride.
We drove up a pretty steep hill during the late afternoon, when the day was slowly ending, but Josh said he did this before, and based on his driving skills, I believed him. He drove up the trail so flawlessly, and if I had to drive up something like this, I would probably need a bag to breathe through. I wasn't that great a driver. I don't even know how I managed to pass at my driver's test, but I roam around with a license I don't really need. Just as we reached the top, both cars stopped and ahead of us was a grassy hilltop, only a few trees around us, but all you could really see was the green grass. It seemed like someplace perfect for a picnic. All this was so new to me. I never had gone up hills like this, (well, camp could be an exception) and I never had actually hung out on top of a hill with a bunch of people. Any normal person would probably go down to Nashville and shop, not make a tedious trip up here. This was also my first time being at a bonfire.
The people unloaded firewood, snacks and large blankets. I walked towards the back of the van, where there were tons of things left to hold. Josh handed me two blankets, and all ten of us walked towards the middle of the field, the breeze blowing all of our hairs in random directions, people tugging on their jackets and warming themselves. Once all the blankets were laid out, five people lit up the firewood and the bonfire was created. It was pretty spectacular up close, and so comfortably warm. The smell of burnt wood wasn't too bad, and some of the kids had burgers and hot dogs. A boy named Luke sat on one side, and Josh sat on the other side of me. "So how's your time at school so far?" Luke asked me randomly as he warmed himself by outstretching his hands toward the fire.
"Alright. I guess." I replied. "Why?"
"No reason." he looked away, seeming nervous. I tried to calm him down. "You seem pretty...reluctant to talk to me. Or...is something wrong," I paused and tried to think of something clever, "do I stink or something?"
Wow. NOT very clever.
"No! You don't," he replied quickly, "You seem cool, but intimidating. It's like the only one you want to talk to is Josh."
Once he heard his name, Josh briefly looked at us, but didn't say anything and looked away. I looked back at Luke. "Yeah...sorry if I seem that way. It's just really new here at this school. Kind of freaky how people are, too. Well...most people. Seriously, come on, you guys are in this huge rich kid school and I'm just ordinary. You guys probably have parties like this all the time, and I'm just not used to it."
Luke laughed.
"What?" I asked.
I think he took it as a joke or something. "It's nothing. Everyone thinks that about us when they come here, but we are pretty normal. Except for the really stuck up ones..." he glanced toward the trio of whores across us, all sitting pretty on the grass.
I laughed. "Oh God." I let out.
"Don't worry though, Hayley," he replied, "I'm normal. And so is a third of the population in the school. Okay...maybe less than that. But you'll find some decent friends here. Promise," he raised his left hand as if stating an oath to me.
I smiled. "Thanks."
Hope you ENJOYED this chapter!
This was pretty long, hopefully you guys read it all. Remember to leave your comments on the YouTube video or on my YouTube channel. I'd love to hear your thoughts. What would be more awesome is if you send the series to your friends and introduced them to it, because I'd love to have as many readers check this out as possible. Thanks so much!
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