"So I have to warn you about my family before we get there." Drew said, his eyes never leaving the road in front of us.

"Okay." I said slowly, stretching the word out. How bad could his family possibly be?

Drew ran a hand through his hair before saying "Picture a snobby rich couple, that's my parents. They're very proud of their jobs and where they live. So make sure to compliment the house and ask what they do for a living. They'll like that."

Oh boy, I could already tell this wasn't going to be fun.

"Why do I have to do that? It doesn't matter if they like me, we're not dating or anything so I don't have any reason to impress them." I countered. Why should I try hard to impress people that I'd never see again after Christmas?

"Valid point, but it would be a lot easier on the both of us if they liked you. They give me a hard time for doing music instead of becoming a doctor or lawyer, I need to prove to them that I can be successful in music. Maybe if they like you, someone who's also doing music, they'll be easier on me about it." He explained.

What parents wouldn't be proud of someone as talented as Drew? He was amazing at guitar and attending one of the best schools for music in the country.

"Okay, I'll try." I agreed. He'd been nice enough to drive me home for break, the least I could do in return was impress the pants off his family.

"Thank you." He muttered,taking his eyes off the road for a second to look at me so I knew he really meant it.

"So how much longer?" I asked, changing the subject, we were probably pretty close, we'd been driving for about four hours and were now in a nice neighbourhood as opposed to the highway.

"We're here." He answered, turning the steering wheel so the car pulled into the driveway of a big beautiful house.

As Drew parked and turned off his car, I looked up at the intimidating structure in front of me. It was a huge grey house, modern yet elegant, with beautiful white windows and a white door to match. No funky colours anywhere in sight. Even in the driveway, all three vehicles were black or white.

The only colour around was Drew's bright red car.

The passenger side door opening brought me out of my thoughts. Somehow Drew managed to get out of the car and grab both of our stuff without me noticing.

"We have to go in at some point." He told me, nodding his head in the direction of the house.

I was so not ready for this.

Without a word I got out of the car and tugged at my army green winter jacket. I'd had it for three years now, and it was starting to look pretty worn out. Hopefully Drew's parents don't notice.

We walked up the stairs in silence and stood at the front door for a moment.

Drew raised his hand to ring the doorbell, but hesitated for a second. Did he regret bringing me already?

Finally, a moment he pressed the button and a cute tune played throughout the house. No standard ding dong for these people.

After a second of waiting a man in maybe his mid thirties answered the door.

"Hello Rufus." Drew greeted him with a large smile on his face.

"Mr. Bates." The man greeted him back, then turned to me and added "Miss." With a warm smile on his face.

Who was this guy?

"Rufus, this is Cora, she's a friend from school. And for the last time, call me Drew! I feel old when you call me Mr." Drew said, then to me added "And Cora, this is Rufus, our butler."

I choked on my spit. A butler? People still had those?

When Drew saw the shocked expression on my face he chuckled, "Like I said, snobby rich people." He really wasn't joking about his parents when he said all that stuff on the way here.

"I'll take your stuff and put it upstairs." Rufus said when he saw that the conversation between Drew and I was over, then took the bags and disappeared into the huge house.

"I can take your coat." Drew offered, taking off his own as he spoke.

I nodded and quickly took mine off and handed it to him.

I briefly wondered if his parents realized we were here, but did I really want them to?

I looked down at my outfit, a baby pink knitted jumper, black leggings, and all white converse. Apart from the shoes I looked pretty "fancy". Sure I wasn't in a dress or something, but I thought I looked presentable. Hopefully this was good enough for the Bates family.

I even straightened my hair this morning so I looked more put together. I didn't have anything against my wavy hair but it got a little frizzy and messy when I didn't style it.

"Trevor, I think they're here." A woman's voice called out from somewhere in the house.

"Here we go." Drew said under his breath, then ran a hand through his hair, which I realized was probably a nervous gesture of his.

A few seconds later two middle aged people were walking up to us and I took a moment to look them over.

The man, which I assume was Drew's dad, was dressed in a pair of black dress pants and a white button up dress shirt. He had the same clear blue eyes as Drew, and his hair was styled in a quiff just like his son's.

The only thing that was different from Drew was his skin colour, he was pale while Drew was tanned. But taking a took at Drew's mom, I saw where he got his colour from. She was a beautiful, tanned goddess.

Her silky black hair was styled in lose curls that fell slightly past her shoulders, and her brown eyes glistened under the chandelier in the foyer. She had the body of a model, which was showcased in an expensive looking, tight black dress. And to add to that, she wore an extravagant diamond necklace and a few silver bracelets. She looked like something out of a movie.

I felt like scum just looking at the two of them.

"Andrew, it's good to have you home." The woman spoke once they reached us.

I looked at Drew to see his reaction to his full name and saw his jaw clenched tightly.

"Aren't you going to introduce us to your friend." His dad added when no one said anything.

"Mom, dad, this is Cora. She's a friend from school. And Cora, this is my parents Cecelia and Trevor." Drew said, his voice monotone.

"Hello Mr. and Mrs. Bates. Thanks for having me, your home is stunning." I said, making sure I complimented their house just like Drew said I should.

Now that I'd seen these people, I wanted to impress them more than ever. They were like the popular crowd in school that you really wanted to be a part of.

"Nice to meet you Cora, we're happy to have you." Cecelia responded, giving me a smile that I saw right through. She was looking me over, trying to find any flaw she could, any reason to hold against Drew.

"Dinner will be in a couple hours, so why don't you show your friend around Andrew?" Trevor suggested, but didn't wait for an answer before he began to walk away, Cecelia following close behind.

During this greeting Drew's parents never even hugged him, or expressed in any way that they had missed him.

"The house is huge, how about I just show you to your room and then we can go to the game room." Drew suggested once his parents were out of sight.

I just nodded in reply and followed as he led me upstairs.

We silently made our way through the house and I could tell Drew was uncomfortable. His fists were tightly clenched except for when he would run a hand through his hair, and his eyes were dull, lacking the light they usually had. He must've really hated it here.

"This is your room." Drew said in a tight voice as he opened the door to the guest bedroom.

"Thanks." I muttered as I gave the room a quick once over and tried to burn the location into my brain so I didn't get lost looking for it later.

Drew gave me a moment to inspect the room before he began walking again, probably towards the game room.

I quickly followed behind and moments later we were stood in front of another door. Without a word he opened it to reveal a wonderful room.

There was a pool table, huge T.V, couch, board games, PS4 , wii, and Xbox One. There was everything you would expect in a game room and more.

"Well don't just stand there, come on in." Drew said when I didn't follow him into the room.

"What do you wanna do?" I asked as I walked through the door, still gazing at all the fun things to do in here.

"We could watch T.V, something easy since we just had a long car ride." He suggested, flopping down onto the comfy looking couch.

"Sure." I agreed, taking a seat beside him. The couch was even comfier than it looked.

For a moment we silently scrolled through some popular channels, hoping to find something that caught our eyes.

"There's nothing on, why is there never anything good playing on Sunday?" Drew complained once we were done looking through all the best channels.

I forgot what day of the week it was, but now that I knew I was excited.

"It's Sunday, which means football, can we look to see if the Raiders are playing? Please?" I begged, giving Drew my best puppy dog eyes.

He rolled his eyes at my childish attempt at getting my way but flipped through all the football games to see if my favourite team was playing.

"Stop!" I yelled excitedly when I saw the all too familiar silver and black jerseys of the Las Vegas Raiders.

Drew chuckled at my enthusiasm and got comfy in his spot while I scooted to the edge of the couch so I could get an even better look at the giant T.V.

The Raiders were down six points with five minutes left to go in the game, and their opponents were punting them the ball.

They were in great position to win, all they needed to do was score a touchdown and get the extra point and then they'd be up by one.

"C'mon Carr, throw the ball like you mean it!" I cheered as the quarterback yelled hut.

"No!" I exclaimed when the receiver didn't catch the pass.

As I watched the raiders slowly march down the field I felt a pair of eyes on me.

I turned my head and saw Drew just looking at me, the ghost of a smile on his lips. I didn't think he even noticed me looking back at him.

"Why are you looking at me?" I asked bluntly.

He blinked a couple times as if I had brought him out of his thoughts and then rolled his eyes and replied "Don't flatter yourself sweetheart, I was staring off into space and that just happened to be in your general direction."

"Whatever." I huffed, and then turned my attention back to the game.

It was fourth down, the Raiders were five yards away from the end zone and there was fifteen seconds left on the clock. They needed to score on this play or they'd lose the game.

I leaned forward as the quarterback took the snap and got into position to throw.

He quickly tossed the ball into the end zone towards one of their best receivers just as the clock hit zero.

"Touchdown!" I cheered as the player caught the pass.

I jumped up and spun in a circle, laughing happily as my team won the game.

I grabbed Drew's hands and pulled him up from the couch so he could celebrate with me too, a fantastic win like that couldn't just be celebrated by me.

I continued to jump and dance as Drew just stood there and watched me, and I was too preoccupied with my celebration that I didn't notice him take out his phone and start filming me.

It wasn't until a couple minutes later when I got dizzy and stopped celebrating, that I noticed the back camera of his phone facing me as Drew held it up in my direction.

"Hey!" I exclaimed, raising my hand to block the camera from seeing me.

"Alright, alright, I'll stop." Drew laughed, putting his phone into his pocket a moment later.

"Was my celebration so embarrassing that you had to film it?" I questioned as I flopped back down on the couch.

"It was adorable." Drew told me, sitting down beside me.

My eyes widened in shock. Did he just call something I did adorable?

"Dinner is ready." A voice said, interrupting Drew as he opened his mouth to say something.

Our heads snapped in the direction of the person and Rufus was standing by the door, giving us a knowing smile.

"Thanks Rufus, we'll be right down." Drew told him, and we both got up and headed for the door.

I quietly followed down the stairs behind Rufus and Drew, suddenly nervous about this meal. Was it going to be awkward? Actually, why was I even questioning that? Of course it was going to be awkward! I just hope they don't ask me too many questions.

When we entered the dining room I noticed two new people, along with Drew's parents.

The man looked to be in his mid twenties, and the woman who I assumed was his girlfriend or wife by how he had his arm around her waist, looked around the same age.

The man was the spitting image of Drew, so I guessed they were brothers.

"Hey baby brother." The man called to Drew, confirming my theory of who he was.

They did one of those quick man hugs, and then Drew went on to greet the woman.

Once Drew was back beside me he introduced me to the new people.

"Cora, this is my brother Adam and his wife Bethany."

I smiled at them and we exchanged polite 'hellos'.

"Let's sit down to eat before the food gets cold." Cecelia interrupted when Adam opened his mouth to speak.

Everyone silently sat down, I ended up beside Drew, with Cecelia perpendicular to me at the head of the table while Trevor sat at the other end, and Adam and Bethany day across from Drew and I.

Rufus and another person who learnt was the cook, set up all the food on the table as we sat and waited, making me feel extremely bad just watching them work without helping.

I hopped I never turned into the type of person that had cooks and maids and butlers.

Once everything was out we all passed along the dishes after spooning various foods onto our plates, and when we were done it was quiet.

I looked around to make sure they didn't say grace or something before eating, and saw Drew put a spoon of potatoes into his mouth.

I slowly ate, not really hungry since I was so nervous about being here. I really wanted Drew's parents to like me. I needed to show those stuck up rich people that even an average girl like me could be respectable.

"So Cora, I know you met Andrew at school, what are you there for?" Trevor spoke up, breaking the tense silence.

I quickly swallowed my mouthful of food and replied, "I'm there for art and piano."

Most people would have been impressed when they heard that, but Trevor just looked impassive and Cecelia looked disappointed.

"What are your plans for after high school? Not anything in music like Drew I hope." Cecelia said, her voice sickly sweet in contrast to her words.

"I actually have a spot at Juilliard waiting for me once I've graduated." I told her, a proud smile on my face.

I felt Drew's questioning eyes burning two holes into my head. No one, including him, knew that I was already accepted into Juilliard.

"Maybe if Andrew was going to a distinguished school like that we'd be happier about him doing music. My father did music and I grew up poor because of it, I don't want the same fate for Andrew's children." Cecelia informed me, making a disgusted face at the idea of anyone in her family being poor.

"Granddad was an amazing musician, he didn't care if he was famous or rich, he just wanted to play music." Drew defended, and as I looked over at him I saw fire and sadness in his eyes. He must've been close with his grandfather.

"He died a poor and unsuccessful man." Cecelia spat under her breath. I didn't think I was supposed to hear that, and her words made me lose all respect for her.

"So Cora, what did you say your last name was again?" Trevor asked, successfully changing the subject.

I never told them my last name.

Despite the weird question, I answered politely "My last name is Steele."

Trevor's eyes widened and I heard Cecelia splutter into her wine glass.

"Hey, why aren't you with your parents for Christmas?" Adam spoke up when he saw his parents strange behaviour.

"They actually died a while ago, so I don't really have anywhere I need to be." I answered, awkwardly scratching the back of my neck. I hated bringing up the fact that my parents died, people always started acting all weird around me once they knew.

I saw Trevor and Cecelia exchange a weird look, and after that everyone was quiet for the rest of the meal.