THREE

Jerry sat at the table in the school's cafeteria during lunch with his best friends, Ashley and the twins.

In class, he'd been forced to sit next to Hilary. They'd arrived late to class because of Ashley's silly nagging, and the only empty seat in the classroom just had to be the one next to Hilary.

Hilary was the school's biggest snob, or at least that's what they called her.

Jerry thought of her as a pompous arrogant egoist. She was so full of herself and never approved of anyone getting ahead of her in anything. And to deteriorate the whole situation, his mom was friends with her mom.

Bummer.

It happened two years ago when he was crowned homecoming king and Hilary was crowned homecoming queen.

Ever since then, everyone practically believed they were an item.

Although Hilary had this huge ridiculous crush on him, but his friends knew better than to believe that the feeling was mutual.

He disliked Hilary.

Not everyone knew that but then his friends did.

Even though she was practically the prettiest girl in school, he'd rather go out with a pig than go out with Hilary.

An overstatement, yes, but in a case where Hilary was involved, it was definitely necessary.

Hilary had asked him out a dozen of times and he'd politely turned her down.

Normally, the guy asks the girl out and not the other way around. But things worked differently in Hilary's head. She was way too forward for his liking. Sometimes he wished he could act like Tristian and tell her to buzz off and quit bugging him. But he wasn't Tristian. He couldn't bring himself to hurt a girl, even if that girl happened to be Hilary. Either ways, he was a nice guy, or at least that's what everyone said.

He sighed and focused on his friends as they talked about yet another clubbing tonight.

"I won't be joining you guys today," he announced, refusing to look any of them in the face. After a moment of awkward silence and it felt like they weren't going to respond, he looked up at them.

Tristian was just about to take a bite from his cheese burger. He paused half way and stared at Jerry, his mouth hung open.

Sebastian's brows furrowed together, his face a picture of both worry and confusion.

And Ashley-well Ashley just gave him the exact look he'd been expecting from her. Her face was a mixture of mild irritation and anger.

"Well, that's a bummer," Tristian stated, finally taking a bite from his burger.

"Sorry guys," Jerry told them, trying all he could in his power to avoid Ashley's furious lingering gaze. "I think it's best I stay home tonight. I wouldn't want my mom to discover that I'm always sneaking out at night. Lately she's been looking and sounding rather ill, and I don't want her to get upset or worried because of me. It's not good for her."

He quickly caught a glimpse at Ashley's expression as her face softened, displaying sympathy and concern.

"Oh sweety, is she alright?" Ashley asked as she took his hand in hers.

Jerry gave her a slight smile. He'd always loved Ashley's sense of understanding-it overwhelmed him. "I don't know. She looks pretty worn out and ill. It was extremely obvious just this morning," he replied.

If his mom was indeed ill, then it was a smart choice to play nice and obedient son. Not that he wasn't obedient, but sometimes he had to do the cool stuffs with his friends and that sometimes meant he had to break some rules. Typical teen boy lifestyle.

There was this one time when he was younger and he'd been a terrible swimmer-infact, who was he kidding, he'd been no swimmer at all. The class bully at his old school was really pissed at him for a reason he still couldn't quite recall, and this dude thought the best way to solve the whole issue was by shoving Jerry into the swimming pool to meet his maker.

Complete psychopathic way of dealing with the situation.

Long story short, an older kid, who'd happened to be around quickly dived in and rescued Jerry before he drowned. When the school called his mom, she was devastated and almost broke down with the thought of her son dying. It actually cost her her health. His mom was really fragile when it comes to the emotions. Any negative thing could easily put her in a bad situation.

Jerry resolved to lay low for a while to keep things safe. His mom was definitely not in the right mood to get worried about him or anybody else.

***

After school, the one person Jerry had been avoiding since the beginning of the term suddenly became unavoidable.

Shit!

He spotted Hilary walking towards him with a radiant smile on her face. He thought of pretending as though he hadn't noticed her; but it was already too late --- their eyes already met.

Double shit!

As she approached him, she grinned widely and her very emerald eyes sparkled in delight.

He narrowed his eyes and decided to return her smile with a frown.

"Hello handsome," she said, still keeping that ridiculous smile intact.

Before he could reply or say anything, she wrapped her arms around his waist and gave him a tight hug. He was completely caught off guard. Her silver blond hair smelled like bubble gum mixed with cotton candy as the breeze blew it across his face.

A weird smell for anyone's hair.

But what could he say or do? With Hilary everything was weird.

He held the urge to sneeze in disgust as he also tried to make her release him from the uncomfortable hug.

"Hilary-" He began in a low weak voice, pretending to be unable to breathe normally. "Hilary, please let go."

With Hilary, you had to make sure your acting skills were close to perfect, because she was an actress, he had to give her that one.

She released him and he gave a sigh of relief in an exaggerated fashion. When he looked at her, the smile had slipped from her face.

Good.

"What's the matter with you?" She asked with a scowl on her face.

"What d'you mean?" He asked, trying to look as confused as he sounded. This particular part of the day wasn't literally worth time wasting.

"Don't play dumb with me, you've been avoiding me haven't you?"

Jerry rolled his eyes at her annoying British accent. She'd been away from England for years now and yet sometimes she made it look like it was just yesterday she left England. She did that mostly when she was around him. There was basically no point faking the accent or making it look extra obvious seeing as it didn't exactly change how he felt towards her. It wasn't as if he actually cared about the way she spoke; nothing about her really pleased or attracted him.

"I've been busy." He told her, hoping she wouldn't push on with the subject.

"I'd like you to come over for dinner at my house today."

His hope vanished and he frowned.

Damn.

The way the girl changed subjects really amazed him in an annoying sort of way. He'd be darned if he actually accepted her invitation, which of course he knew he clearly wouldn't.

"Like I said, I've been busy-"

"Please," she pleaded as she took his hand and pouted her lips.

If this was one of the tricks she played on other guys in order to get her way with something, he hated to break it to her-or did he? But he just wasn't falling for it.

"Hilary, I'll be busy," he replied, trying to sound casual as he also tried to remove his hand from hers, but she kept a firm grip on it. "I've got a lot of things going on at home. I need to take care of them."

When she finally let go of his hand, he took a hasty step back. He just couldn't wait to take a quick exit from her presence. Apparently, he wasn't comfortable being anywhere around her.

"I'm sorry," he told her, trying to avoid her watery eyes. He knew she was probably faking it to gain some sympathy from him. Now that was the acting he knew she was fabulous at. "I have to go."

"Ok, I'll see you later," she said, gazing longingly at him as though she expected something.

"Uh-Ok," he replied and swiftly turned from her and walked away.

He knew he was being a bit too hard on her, but in a way she deserved it.

Hilary was a selfish and cynical kind of person he wasn't entirely thrilled to hang around with.

She had no desire to help people who weren't specifically up to her standard. And being the most popular girl in school merely helped to boost her arrogance.

Jerry just hoped he'll be able to avoid her as much as possible. He wasn't prepared to see much of her this term. Impossible though, because they were in the same class. But still-it wouldn't kill to wish.

He ran to meet Ashley and the twins as they waited for him to join them. He usually joined them to take the bus home, which was no fun because he wasn't a fan of the school bus, and he didn't have much of a choice. Albeit, he'd sniffed to his mom about the uncomfortable stench the bus possessed, and he'd talked to her about getting a car.

Huge request.

She always seemed to give him the same response each time he brought up the topic; "I'll think about it" and she'd never actually thought about it. He just had a feeling that Emerald needed a break from his presence in her car and he'd be more than willing to oblige.

He went into the bus to meet his friends and he tried his very possible best to avoid any body contact with the lousy and sweaty students he passed by to get to the sit next to Ashley.

***

When Jerry got home, he quickly freshened up and decided to go and have a chat with his brother, Conrad. He found him in his bedroom, helping Serena with her homework.

"Hey, you're back." Conrad looked up from the book in his hand as Jerry walked into the room. "Maybe Jerry can help you draw your house and family tree," he said to Serena who sat beside him.

She turned and looked up at Jerry longingly. "Will you, Jerry?"

"Alright. Go get your materials ready, I'll meet you in the drawing room."

Her deep blue eyes gleamed in delight as she got up. "Yippee!" She yelled in excitement and jogged out of the room.

Jerry walked over to his brother and sat down beside him on his bed. He immediately noticed the gloomy expression on Conrad's face as he fiddled with Serena's school book in his hand.

"You ok, buddy?" Jerry asked as he surveyed his brother.

"Yeah, why?" Conrad asked, his sapphire eyes gazing lazily at Jerry.

"You look depressed."

"I'm ok"

And with that, he returned his attention to the book in his hand. Jerry knew something was up. Usually his brother would have been busy with video games, but he seemed almost as worn out as his mom had been in the morning.

"How'd it go at the hospital today?" Jerry asked.

"The doctor said it's just a slight fever," Conrad replied flatly.

Jerry gave a sigh of relief, "Oh." He frowned when he noticed that Conrad didn't seem to be glad that it wasn't something worse than a fever. "So why the long face?"

"What?" Conrad asked absent mindedly.

"Oh, come on dude. With the look on your face you make it seem like you'd developed an ebola or something."

"That's an over statement."

"I guess so."

They chatted for a while before Jerry got up.

"Let's go down for lunch," he said.

"I've had lunch," Conrad replied.

"Well, you'll get another round."

"Aren't you supposed to help Serena with her work?"

"We've still got time."

"You know Serena isn't the patient type."

"Oh well, she's got no choice."

Conrad chuckled, "I suppose." He got up and left the room with Jerry.

Being two years younger than Jerry, Conrad was already his height. Few people mistook them to be twins. But they were different both in appearance and personalities.

While Conrad had golden honey brown hair , Jerry had caramel brown hair. Jerry's eyes were gray with thick, black, long lashes, Conrad's were the same deep blue like that of Serena's, with thin, black , long lashes.

Jerry was more broader in the chest and shoulders, and he supposed it was the prize for being present regularly at the gym.

Now, in terms of personalities; Jerry had a devil-may-care outlook and a flamboyant behavior in which everyone admired.

Conrad was the quiet and shy one. Most people didn't seem to notice him around and it didn't really bother him; he kept to himself. But sometimes he could possess a derring-do look if need be. There wasn't much difference between him and Sebastian. They were both introverts.