My Hope (Complete)

Chapter 4

Hope

I am ready for school before my Mom even checks to see if I'm awake. I actually put a little effort into getting ready this morning. A little mascara and lip gloss. I even smoothed out all the curls in my hair so they were shiny and bouncy. When I appear in the kitchen, Mom eyes me with a big smile on her face. "Are you trying to impress a certain set of twins this morning?" "No Mom, I did this for me. I just wanted to look nice." I explain. "Okay, sure, you keep telling yourself that sweetie." Then she gives me a wink and a pat on my cheek. If she only knew this was for my teacher. 

The twins are standing outside the school when we pull up. "Which is which?" Mom asks. "I honestly don't know yet. I can tell when they talk to me. Zade is more animated and louder, but Zander is calmer and quieter." "Which do you like more?" She asks as she finds a parking space. "Mom, I like them both, as friends. I don't prefer one over the other. They both seem like genuinely nice guys." I tell her honestly. "Well, you don't have to choose right away. Take your time." I roll my eyes at her and get out of the car. She blows me a kiss and drives off as the boys approach me. Thank goodness, I wouldn't want her to say anything crazy to them. They both have the same big smile spread across their faces. How do you tell them apart I wonder?

Zade immediately starts talking and I know its him. "You should come by the house after school. You can meet my Mom. She's super nice." He says quickly. "Um, I don't know." I stutter out. "He didn't mean it like that Hope, he just thought since you are new, you would want something to do and to meet new people. He wasn't setting up a "meet the parents" situation." He said with a laugh. I let out a relieved breath. "Oh, that's nice, maybe tomorrow. I will have to let my parents know in advance. They are kind of protective."  "Yeah, sure, of course. That'll be great." Zade tells me. They look at each other for a moment and then back to me. "We'll let Mom know, and maybe you can have dinner with us." He suggests. "That sounds good."

Today starts off just like yesterday. Except it's the twins dropping me at my first class. Once I sit down, I hear some girls in the back whispering. "She thinks she's special because she's new. In a week, they won't give her the time of day. She's just a shiny new toy." How can I hear people whispering in the back? And a new toy? I'm no toy! But I'm too embarrassed to turn around and say anything. I am positive they are talking about me. I'm just going to ignore it. Wink guy sits down and gives me another wink. Oh goodness! I just want this class to be over so I can go to English and see Mr. Kingston. My mind starts wandering to thoughts of him again. Keep it together Hope, I scold myself.

Finally, its time for English and I am practically racing in the direction of his class. The twins catch up to me. "Woah, slow down. You in a hurry for something?" Zade asks jokingly. "Oh no. I just didn't want to be late." "Sure, of course." He says and looks at Zander. I push him a little, and he doesn't budge. The guys let out a big laugh. "Okay, come on, we will make sure you aren't late to Mr. Kingston's class." Zander promises. Do they know? How could they? Am I that obvious? Maybe all the girls behave this way. Honestly, I didn't even notice anyone else in the room yesterday, I was so focused on him. This is insane.

I walk into the room ahead of the boys. I already smell his cologne. He's writing on the board. As soon as I enter, her turns to me with a big smile. "Good morning Hope. How was your first day? I assume the boys showed you to your classes?"  I was dumbstruck for a second as I looked him in the eyes. He's got me mesmerized again. I snap out of it realizing he asked me a question.   "Yes, it was a great day, thank you. And they took good care of me. I mean, they showed me around and everything. Ate lunch together, all that." I couldn't stop blabbering. He chuckled. "Great, I'm glad. They are good guys. You can trust them." He told me the last part with a serious tone. It felt like there was a deeper meaning to his words. Does he want me to trust them for some reason? We continued our intense staring contest. Then other students entered the room and he immediately turned and went back to writing on the board.