Lost But Found - Chapter 5

Riley- I can't give away plot details, but you won't be disappointed :) thanks for commenting.

Abc123- thanks girl and/or boy! your comment brightened my day :)

Meagan T- thanks for your support!! i really appreciate it! :)

Kurterina- thanks love! I am soo grateful for people like you who comment on all the chapters. i wouldn't be writing if it wasn't for all of y'all. :)

Tnblossoms- I'm really sorry, but i already have the chapters written up to seven and if i change it, it may throw the story off. but the next chapter i write (number 8) will be all from Noah's point of view. thanks for your comment though, and be looking for chapter 8!!!
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Five

The first day of school is freaky to everyone, right? I mean I don't know anyone but Noah. I don't even know where Noah fits in with this crowd. He is picking me up today and taking me since I don't have a car. I am definitely not going to be seen in my Mom's car on the first day of sophomore year.
"Hey." Noah smiled at me.

"Hi. So tell me again, which teachers are the best?" I climbed into the car with orange and aqua blue layered tanks, kaki short shorts and brown oval-shaped earrings. I may have moved from San Diego, but I didn't loose my style.
"Mrs. Reynolds, the English II teacher, Mrs. Ellis, the Calculus teacher, and most of the time your home room teacher, and French II teacher, Mr. Pierce is nice. But he can be rude and arrogant at times."
"Okay and refresh my memory on people." I said. We were almost at the 'school.' It was a big school, building size, but not in students.
"Stay away from Josh. He will flirt with you until you hyperventilate." He looked at me up and down. I told him that we should probably just stay friends. He smiled. "Stay away from Malory. She is the bratty, stuck up cheerleader."
I pulled back in mock shock. "Hey now, I'm a cheerleader, and I'm not bratty or stuck up!"
He smiled and rolled his eyes. "Sorry." He said sarcastically. "Anyway, are you going to try out for varsity?" He asked skeptically.

"Um, yes. Noah you watched me tumble. You don't think I'll make it?"
I had taken him outside on flat, grass and shown him a round-off, back handspring, tuck, layout. I was a gymnast when I was younger, so I knew the basics. I was on the varsity squad back in San Diego. Everyone said I was the best tumbler on the squad, but I was just the one with the most tumbling skills, because of gymnastics. I have won three individual competitions. An individual competition is a routine done by one person, and they compete against other 'individuals'. They are really fun, but you have to learn the dance your whole team is performing, plus the one you are performing. Sometimes, you can get mixed up with the eight counts, but it is still super fun.
"Of course, silly. Those flips you showed me were beast." He smiled at me. He was the best guy friend I had ever had. I do mean ever had.

"Thanks. Did I tell you I signed up for theater as my fifth period class?"
"Nope, but that's really great. I didn't know you liked acting."
"That's because I don't. I just signed up because it was either that or rock climbing. We both know how skilled I am at that." A few days ago, we were out by the lake, and he wanted to climb up into a tree, and I got like two feet up and fell back down on him.
He laughed as we were getting out of the car and walking towards the side entrance which was closer to our home rooms than the main entrance was.

"I guess I'll see you in sixth period. Good luck with French II." He smirked.
I gave him a mock frown and turned towards my home room. "See ya." I walked straight through the door only to end up face to face with a wall of muscle. I stepped back and looked up. The guy I was staring at was so hot. He had blonde hair and a flawless face. He was wearing a Guy Harvey t-shirt and khaki cargo pants. Mr. Mysterious stuck his hand towards my stomach with confidence.
"Zach Welch." I took it but I really needed to go to Mr. Pierce's desk.
"What's that?" I asked trying to be semi-flirty.
"My name. If I see you again, what can I call you?" Zach answered with a smile.
"I guess it's your choice but most people call me Laney."
"So I'll call you tiger." He said.

I gave him a questioning expression. "Why?"
"Cause your tank tops remind me of a tiger. Especially the orange one."
I laughed, "Okay, so maybe I'll see you around?" I smiled up, way up at him. He has got to be like six-foot something. I'm five foot seven, but I'm done growing.
"Hopefully." He smiled and moved so I could get passed him. He walked out the door, so obviously, this wasn't his home room.
I was temporarily sad, then continued to walk farther into the classroom. I went up to Mr. Pierce's desk, and told him that the office told me that this was my home room. He stared at me and nodded. Noah was right. He was young. He looked about thirty something.
"You can sit anywhere. Do what you want until the first period bell rings. Then go to wherever your first class is. Do you have a schedule?" I nodded and he continued. "So you have a school map or do you know where everything is?"

"No, the office didn't give me one or show me anything."
He clicked a button on his computer monitor and a few seconds later got up and walked to the other side of the classroom. He asked for my schedule and grabbed a highlighter and wrote a few things on whatever he had just printed out. He gave me my schedule back and handed me a school map. The classrooms were big squares and in seven of them, there were numbers. They were numbering my classes. He walked back towards his desk and handed me a key, a lock, and a number.

"Your locker is on this hall." He pointed to a hallway on the map that had my first, fourth, and seventh period classrooms on it.
"Good luck, and I hope enjoy being here." And with that he turned back to his computer which I noted was the local sports television website. I guess he was helpful, but he was also kind of rude.

I drug through my first four periods and lunch. I hardly had any homework. All I had to do was write a paper for English. I was mostly excited about theater. I saw some posters up on the walls around the school about the play 'Sleeping Beauty'. Today, instead of having actual class, we were having tryouts. Even if you weren't in theater class, you could still tryout. I looked really fun. I guess I would tryout, because I really don't have anything to do because my piano is not here yet.

I walked into the auditorium at the front of the building. It had burgundy seats and carpet down the aisles. Under the seats, there was red and white tile. The stage was wood floor. I walked down the middle aisle and sat in the fourth row back. I didn't want to sit in the front and seem really snobby like I was going to own the show, but I didn't want to sit in the very back, because then the teacher might think I'm shy and won't pick me for a good part. I was the fourth one there. A girl walked up to me. She had dark hair and olive skin. She was wearing a peach blouse and a denim skirt. She was really pretty.

"Hi, I'm Anna." She stuck out her hand. What is it with people and shaking hands when you meet in this town? In San Diego, when you met someone, a girl would nod her head slightly, and smile shyly. In this town, the person introducing their self to you stuck their hand towards your belly button and excepted you to stick your hand out, touch their, share germs and move both your hands up and down.

"Laney. Nice to meet you. Would you like to sit with me?" I was hoping she would sit down next to me, but she just stood there instead. She just ignored the offer.
"So I heard you were trying out for varsity cheer?" You could tell she was trying to pull off a nice way of telling me I wasn't going to make it.
"Um, yeah. I'm pretty sure. Aren't they this afternoon?" I asked like I didn't know.
"Yeah. They're at three thirty. How many back handsprings can you do?" She looked kind of, I don't know, worried.
"Well, I could do as many as you wanted me to do. But if you're trying to ask, what am I going to do for tryouts, then that's different." I said sharply. This girl was not rubbing off particularly well on me.

She laughed. "Well, yes. That is what I'm trying to ask." She sounded nice that time, so I should at least answer her nicely.
"A round off, handspring, tuck, layout. Possibly a full, but I'm still iffy about throwing it on the floor." I was hoping that sounded nice. This girl wasn't very pleasant.
She sat down next to me. "I'm sorry if I sounded ruff before, or mean, or even snobby. I had to figure out if you were good enough first. You passed the test. By the way, you'll make it." She smiled at me.

"Um, wow. Do you do that to everyone?" I asked. Maybe Anna wasn't as bad as she seemed.
She laughed. "Yeah, we are actually doing most people a favor. See, you have to be great to be on the squad. We only have one high school in Downstream, so we go out-of-town to every game. We don't like to see people get crushed in the tryout process because they aren't good enough for our coach. So we try to scare people who we know won't make it, so they don't tryout and get their feelings hurt. But you passed the test. So I'll tell the others. But if one of them tries to put you through that again, just tell them the same thing you told me."
I laughed. "Okay, will do. I guess you are on the team then?"

She smiled "Co-captain. I guess you can be forgiven for not knowing that because you're knew." I frowned and she laughed. "I'm just kidding, Laney!"
"So what part are you trying out for here?" I asked her. I didn't know about which parts were available, but I knew I wanted a major role. Preferably, Sleeping Beauty.
"Probably a fairy godmother. I don't want a major role, but I don't want to get a behind-the-stage-most-of-the-time role. Just kind of, in the middle. If you know what I mean." She turned to the middle aisle and looked up, I was staring ahead and didn't know what she was looking at. Then I heard Zach's voice.
"Hey, Laney. I didn't know you acted." He walked a few more steps and sat down on the seat next to me, the farthest to the middle aisle.
"Well, because of the brief conversation we had, I didn't know you acted either." I looked up as Mrs. Burkingham clapped her hands together.
"I guess I'll see you on the stage." He whispered and got up and walked quickly to sit with some of his guy friends.

Anna turned to me and whispered, "Oh. My. Goodness. You know Zach?"
I looked at her questionably. "Um, yeah. Why so freaked out?" I whispered quickly back as Mrs. Burkingham's stares pierced through us.
"He is like 'the guy' at school. I mean, there is Josh. He is the quarterback, but Zach, he is the pitcher on the baseball team. So hot." She whispered and we turned our attention to the front.
"So, as I was saying. Sign the sheet I'm passing around. Come up onto the stage after I call your name. My brother," she stuck her hand towards a tall man in his thirties off to the side, "will hand you a script. It will NOT be the Sleeping Beauty script. Read it with your partner. There are only two parts on every script so whoever I call first will read person 1 and whoever I call second will be person 2. Let's get this going people."

Anna and I sat through four readings with two people in each one. Anna was called up on the fifth round. She got called up with a guy named Brantley. He was kind of cute. If he stuck some gel in his hair and spiked it up a little, I bet he would be really cute. They read something from the play Wicked. Anna and Brantley actually did pretty well. When they were finished, Anna came and sat down next to me.

"How did I do?" She asked hopefully.
"You did really good, Anna." I told her quietly.
Four more rounds of readings, two whistles, and thirty minutes later, Zach and I got called up together. I was getting butterflies in my stomach as I walked up on stage. Zach smiled at me. We were both handed a script. I looked down at it. The top read Romeo and Juliet.
Awesome. The guy I kind of like and me reading the script for the best love story right after Jesus'.
I looked up as Zach was standing right in front of me smiling. He was standing in my 'personal bubble.' His eyes were a beautiful shade a blue and his hair was so gorgeous swept off to the side.
Oh my goodness. Laney stop it! You do not like him. These are not feelings of anything. These are not feelings off anything. He doesn't know about David. My word. He doesn't even know about David.

We read the script through twice. Mrs. Burkingham asked us to read it again. She said that we looked 'good' together and we had 'good' on stage chemistry. I wished she would have just said chemistry and left out the 'on stage' part. What I didn't know was that Noah had come in to watch. He sat in the back where the balcony cast a shadow. As I got off stage, I could see straight to the back, without the large spotlights glaring in my eyes and making me squint.
"Noah! How did I do?" I asked as I got my bag and walked towards him.

He flashed a quick smile. "Great. I have to go. See you in the parking lot after. . . School, yeah. Okay, um, well, bye." And with that he turned and walked out of the theater. He actually seemed...jealous. Oh well, he knows I don't like him like that.
I went through the motions in sixth and seventh period. I couldn't care less about government/politics which is my sixth period class and then anatomy which is my seventh. I would like to be a doctor, but I don't want to do all the studying.
I waked out to the parking lot where Noah had parked his car. He was waiting on me. When I got in, he didn't say anything, so I tried to strike up a conversation.
"So, when does football practice start?" I asked sounding very interested, even though I wasn't.

"Tomorrow." He said sharply.
"Oh, that's cool, I have tryouts tomorrow."
"Fun." He really didn't want to talk to me. That was about as much as he said from school to the house.
"Hey, do you want to go down to the river or something and swim?" I asked him as he drove into my driveway.
"Can't. I already made plans to go somewhere." He moved the stick shift into park.
"Oh, that's fine then. Where are you going?"
"It's not really important, Laney. See you tomorrow." I was stunned at his jealousy, or at least, that's what I thought it was. I got out of his truck and slammed the door as hard as I could.