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Luke rolled his eyes as he watched his mother check through his bags. "How about this, next time I have drugs on me, I'll just tell you. Will that make your life easier?" He watched her look up with a cold, deadly glare before continuing her 'routine check'.

This isn't what she wanted to do, Luke knew this was not what she wanted to do. She wanted to sit back on their couch and look through wedding magazines even though she got married over twenty years ago.

She didn't want Luke to get expelled from West Hills, but private schools apparently have a true zero tolerance. Luke always thought zero tolerance was fairly loose at a school where his parents gladly paid forty thousand a year for ten years.

Luke was wrong.

His mother handed back his bag. "Your lunch is in there, you have all your textbooks. Please try, Lucas."

Sometimes, Luke wished he was the one to overdose instead.

Michael sat in his car, his head resting on the steering wheel. He was beyond exhausted and was not ready to go back to school. His winter break was filled with sleep, sleep, and then some more sleep.

Mike swore he was in bed before midnight. But, a Tumblr notification popped up, and suddenly it was four in the morning.

His mother tapped on his window, causing him to jerk in surprise and hit the horn. They both jumped away, their hearts beating.

The sixteen-year-old rolled down his window, looking up at this tired mother. "Yeah?"

"Are you actually going to leave or just sit in our driveway for ten more minutes?" Michael gave her a smile, batting his dark eyelashes as best as he could. "Do I have a choice?"

"No," she sternly said, "Go on. I'll see you at the shop after school."

He rolled up his window once more, giving her a pouty face. Being an only child, sometimes those things worked. Sometimes, he could give his two parents a fake tear rolling down his face, and he'd be home for a week.

Either way, Mike blew her a kiss from the bottom of the driveway before pulling onto the main street.

Luke slammed his mother's car door. He hated driving with her. It seemed as if everything he does bothers her.

He tossed her the keys as they switched spots. "It was a pot hole, Mom."

"I told you ever single day to miss it!" She yelled as she got into the drivers seat.

Luke looked up at the public school building in front of him, it was big. There were more kids hanging out on the courtyard than in his entire private school. "Whatever, Mom." He started to walk away, holding on to the strap of his leather bound satchel tightly in his hands.

There was every type of kid in this school. Every race, every gender, every hair color, every style, every group. He bit the side of his lip and cracked his ten fingers. He ran a hand through his hair as he opened the glass door.

Michael rushed in as the final bell rang. He slid into his first period French class almost out of breath.

He slid his backpack under his chair and pulled out the dirty red binder he's been using for far too many years. He opened up, doing the warm up assignments written neatly in a language he failed at.

It's been three years, and his French skills still aren't very strong. He can order a pizza in French, though.

Luke walked in, a confused daze surrounding him. He opened the door to room 209, an elder teacher turned her head, pausing her speech to the class.

"Oui?" She spoke in a thick French accent.

"Oh, this isn't the right class."

School got out fifteen minutes past three o'clock. Luke sat against the brick ledge, his feet dangling over until they scraped across the snow. He pulled his jacket closer to his chest, trying to stay warm in the cold months.

Luke couldn't wait until he got his license. It was such a nuisance to depend on his self-indulgent mother to take him, or remember him.

To / Mom

ok i am walking home thx for the thoughts. maybe i'll ask the old man in a creepy van next to me for a ride.

He jumped off, headed for the long walk home.

Michael leant against the counter of the pizza parlor, scrolling through his phone. Business was slow, business was always slow. He took the green hat off of his head, fixing the deep blonde fringe covering his eyes.

"Phone. Off. Now," his father's voice said from the back.

"You can't even see me!" He yelled. He closed his phone, shoving it in the back pocket of his skinny jeans. "You suck."

"I also sign your paycheck."

The bell rang, signaling human life form. Mike looked up, a lost boy entering. Their eyes met and Mike gave him a smile. "Welcome to Teresa's Pizzeria, can I get you something?"

He only made it across the street from school before he began to suffer hypothermia. Well, not literally, but in his mind. In Luke's mind, he was fighting through a blizzard. In reality, there was no precipitation.
Luke stood in the doorway, his eyes wide. The tension was awkward, only him and another boy staring at each other from twenty feet away.

He rubbed his feet on the door mats before stepping forward. "Um, yeah." He ordered a simple slice, hoping it felt like normality. Nothing today has been normal, nothing at all. Not the classes nor the people. Everything was a haze, an awful haze called public school.

Mike gave him his best smile before turning around. His voice became loud, "Dad! Make pizza!"

Luke laughed, quickly covering it up with the cuff of his sweater.

An older man appeared, his blonde hair balding from the top of his head. "What did I say about yelling?" He hit Michael on the back of the head before making a U-turn around to the ovens.

Mike rolled his eyes and turned back to their only customer at the moment. "You can go sit, I'll bring it out." He turned his back before Luke could respond, leaving the counter unattended as he took a seat where no one could see him.

Luke sat down, checking his phone as he pretended he had friends. He'd like to believe he did, that's for sure. There was a time in his life where he was the it boy, but it all drifted away.

He took off his scarf, then jacket, then beanie. It was warming up quickly, and Luke quite liked that. He liked the toasty feeling filling his system.

Michael brought him his slice a few minutes later. "Sorry that took forever. Dad decided to teach me a lesson on cheese pizza."

Luke laughed again, grabbing the warm food in his clammy hands.

"You look familiar." Mike squinted his eyes, as if that'd make it any easier. He tapped along the barely visible stubble around his chin. "Do you go to school with me?"

"I—I don't know. Today was my first day—."

"You do!" Michael interrupted. He slid into the wooden booth across from Luke, his elbows on the table and a dumbfounded smile upon his lips. "You walked into my French class this morning not realizing it was French class!"

Luke nodded in embarrassment. "Yeah, that's me." He folded the pizza over like a taco, taking a bite of the greasy meal. He tried not to cause a commotion when his taste buds caught on fire with the glorious taste. It was nothing like his mother made, it was so much better.

"Amazing," Mike tsked. "How'd you like it? Awful, right?"

Luke was surprised at the conversation the other boy begged to grip onto. Most Midwesterners didn't want to have any conversation at all. "It was different."

"Where'd you come from?"

"West Hills," he responded.

Michael whistled. "Damn. That's a good school. Why'd you switch?"

Luke wiped over his lips with the napkin. He swallowed the bite in his mouth. "I wanted a change," he half-lied. Luke did want a change, but it was a forced change.

"Don't we all?" Michael looked over at Luke, scanning over him. He didn't really look like a prestigious asshole, but something about him still screamed prestigious asshole. Maybe it was a typical don't-judge-a-book-by-its-cover type of situation. Or, maybe Michael didn't give him enough to shine. "I'm Michael, by the way."

Luke nodded in his direction, his hands filled with pizza. "Luke."

(a/n) so hi! welcome to sophie book #10! woo! this first chapter is pretty much an extended blur introducing you to your new two best friends for the next 39 chapters. 

have fun xo