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Chapter One

Who Is That?

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Noah

"Noah, pick one already. We've been here all day." My best friend Luke impatiently looked at me, waiting for me to pick a cereal. We were currently in a grocery store getting a bunch of snacks.

"Relax, will you," I rolled my eyes as I continued to skim through the shelves to find a cereal. I was feeling picky today.

"I'm going to go find chips since you won't hurry up." Luke slapped my back - hard - before he grinned and walked off. I rolled my eyes.

"I saw that!" He called out being halfway down the aisle.

"No you didn't!" I mimicked him, shouting back to him. I laughed and shook my head before focusing on the cereal again.

Finally, I decided on Cinnamon Toast Crunch. I grabbed the box and turned to go find Luke.

"Woah," I mumbled, stumbling slightly after I walked right into someone. "I'm sorry." I quickly stated as I bent down to pick up the two boxes of cereal that had fallen.

I stood up and held out the cereal the other person dropped when I locked eyes with the most mesmerizing hazel eyes. They were a greyish green with light brown around the pupil. Her skin was quite pale and hair was brown and wavy as if she just came from the beach. She was kind of really... attractive.

She wore a white t-shirt with a black hoodie that was unzipped on top of it, her hood was on her head, putting shadows around her face a bit, along with black jeans and black vans.

She grabbed her box of cereal, "Watch where you're going, hotshot."

"Hotshot?" I questioned, an eyebrow raised as she had already started walking away from me.

She turned and looked at me again, "Yeah."

"Why?"

She gave me a hard stare, not holding an expression except for a straight face. "Because you're starring at me with your twinkling eyes as if that's going to make me drop to my knees for you."

My eyes slightly widened at her response because it was very unexpected. I chuckled, "You're not too peachy, are you?"

"Actually I'm quite fine." She smiled a tight lipped smile that was anything but genuine. "No thanks to you, though."

I laughed once again causing her to narrow her eyes at me. "What's funny?"

I shook my head as I grinned at her, "You don't seem quite fine. You seem quite mad, actually."

She looked at me with that hard and cold look that hadn't left for even a moment. She looked drained out and exhausted like she hadn't slept in a while but somehow still looked beautiful. "It wouldn't be any of your concern anyway."

"Why not?" I questioned, raising my eyebrow in an almost challenging manner. I leaned against the shelves in the grocery store, holding my cereal box to my chest as I crossed my arms over my chest.

She licked her lips as she analyzed my face, "Why not?" She repeated, "why would it be your concern if I was mad like you say? I don't know you, nor would I want to get to know you. If you don't know someone, it's hard for them to be important and if they aren't important you can't be concerned because they are irrelevant to you."

A grin grew on my lips even more as I watched her in pure amusement. She was something else, alright. "Maybe it's just basic humanity that gets one concerned about another's well being."

"In that case, no thank you."

"No thank you?" I now looked at her in confusion.

"No thank you," she said slower and firmly. "My well being and I do not need your concern."

Before I had a chance to say anything else, she had already spun on her heel and walked away.

"Who was that?" Lucas asked as he came up behind me and watched the girl walk away.

I kept my eyes on her until I could no longer see her. "Just... a girl."

Luke looked at me, narrowed his eyes and then smirked, "Homeboy got a crush?" He punched my shoulder.

I looked at him in disbelief, "Shut the fuck up, Luke. I don't even know her name."

"Oh Romeo, Romeo, where art thou Romeo." Luke exclaimed loudly and dramatically as I started to walk about from him. "Wait up!" He yelled behind me which caused me to shake my head and laugh as I continue walking away from my idiotic best friend.

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"Did you bring the textbook back?" I asked Luke as I rummaged through my backpack at my locked and couldn't find my physics textbook.

"Uh..."

"Luke." I turned and gave him a cold look.

"I'm sorry!" He put his hands up in defence. "I may have lost it."

"The school is going to make me pay for it, you know." I muttered in frustration as I zipped up my backpack and swung it around onto my shoulders.

"Your family is loaded and your parents won't care." Luke retorted, trying to make it easier for himself. "And you can just steal another one from the classroom and nobody will notice."

"I had notes written in that one, jackass." I punched his shoulder causing him to punch me back.

"Will you guys stop it?" Jade, a friend of ours pushed the two of us away from each other which got Luke to snicker since he got the last punch. "You guys act like little bratty children."

"You love us, Jada, darling." Luke smiled cheekily as he swung an arm around Jade who pushed him off because she hated when he called her Jada.

Our friend group consisted of me, Luke, Jade, Leo, Charlie, Kai, and Joy.

Luke and I had been best friends our whole lives. I grew up with the kid and he knew me better than anyone else did and ever would. He was by my side through some rough times. Luke was really loud and outgoing and some people found him quite annoying because of his constant happy and cheery manner. He was optimistic and realistic at the same time. He was friendly and got along with almost everyone. It was hard to dislike him because he honestly was like a little kid you couldn't say no to.

Jade was a sweet girl who every girl in the school would stare at because — well because she was really pretty. She was shy when you first met her but she was nice to everyone so she was very likeable and easy to get along with as well. She was really artistic and creative and had that whole "aesthetic" thing going on.

Leo was on the soccer team along with the rest of the guys in the group, including me. Leo was a loud guy who was very persuasive and outgoing. He usually always had his way and also wasn't afraid to call anyone out. He's honest and some people hated him because of it. He just wasn't afraid of anyone so he spoke whatever was on his mind. He could be cocky at times and also cracked a lot of jokes just like Luke.

Charlie is also on the soccer team. He comes from an extremely wealthy family and girls were all over him but he was the least "player-ish" out of all the guys in the group. He was lowkey and chill, never made a big scene and always kept calm in situations. He usually sorted our problems and talked sense into everyone. He was a good guy although people thought he was intimidating because of his family's wealth but once you got to know him, he was a very humble and down to earth guy.

Kai, again, also on the soccer team. Kai and Joy are dating and kind of reminded me of some teen beach movie couple. Kai was a zen guy, always smiling and happy. He was a sensitive guy who got emotional but never really showed it to anyone outside the friend group. He was kind of the baby of the group but nobody would ever admit that out loud.

Joy was your stereotypical quirky, perky girl. She was loud and... just really loud, to be honest. She always wanted people to be up and shiny and rainbows and unicorns and that bullshit. She was a sweet girl so everyone loved her but many people also found her annoying. She was into a lot of basic things but once you got to know her, she was a good friend who would always have your back.

There was also Ezra. Ezra was kind of part of the group but he was new. He transferred here a few months ago and became part of the group because he's Charlie's cousin.

"Has anyone talked to Charlie all weekend?" Leo asked as he appeared with Joy and Kai by the lockers we were standing against.

"He didn't come to school on Friday so I called and asked if he was coming to practice but he said he was busy with his dad." Luke told us. "Not sure what was up, but that was it. We didn't talk again all weekend."

"He was supposed to give me a ride to school today," I added. "He texted me last minute and said he couldn't."

"Is he even at school right now?" Kai asked and everyone shrugged.

"Where's Ezra? He may know." Jade mumbled as she glanced around.

People were scattered around the halls as classes hadn't started for the day yet.

"Maybe they're—"

"Who is that? They're right there but who's that with them?" Luke pointed down the hall where we all noticed Ezra and Charlie but there was a third person with them who none of us recognized.

"It's a girl," Leo mumbled, all of us trying to see who they were with. Charlie and Ezra were both talking to her as they walked down the hall. Half of the school was watching them and mumbling quietly, pointing at them, just as confused as we were.

"Hey guys," Charlie smiled once they got to us. "Uh, meet my sister, Tiffany."

My breath hitched in my throat as I finally got a look at the girl. She was the cereal girl, the girl from the grocery store.

She glanced up and looked at all of us as we awkwardly stood here in shock. Her eyes lingered on me for an extra second before she continued looking at the rest of the group.

"Your sister?" Jade and Luke muttered at the same time.

"Since when do you have a sister?" Leo sputtered, confusion all over his face just like the rest of us.

Ezra leaned against a locker and laughed out loud at the look of confusion and surprise on all of our faces.

So cereal, hazel-eyed girl who seemed mad at the world was Charlie's sister. The pairing seemed very off because Charlie was a laid back and easy going guy where as this girl seemed like she walked around with the weight of the world on her shoulders. She was kind of... reserved and closed off whereas Charlie was really approachable.

"Sister? Am I hearing this correctly?" Kai mumbled, his eyebrows furrowed together.

Charlie chuckled, probably expecting this exact reaction. "Twin sister, you heard me right."

"We've known you for years and we don't know you have a sister?" Jade looked at him skeptically, trying to understand what was going on because nothing made sense to any of us.

"Well," we all instantly looked at Tiffany when she spoke up. "I'm flattered to see you've been talking about me, big brother." Her voice was dry and flat, no emotion to be found. She smiled a smile that wasn't heartfelt as she patted Charlie's arm and then turned to Ezra, "Walk me to homeroom, Razzi."

We all watched Tiffany walk off down the hall with her cousin with dumbfounded looks on our faces.

"Explain." Leo said to Charlie.

Charlie laughed and shook his head as he glanced at his watch, "We'll talk at lunch, class starts soon."

Then he also left for first period class, the rest of us left standing there trying to connect the dots and comprehend the new information we just learnt.