ACT ONE, CHAPTER TWO
Princess Bubblegum

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

     "HOW WAS YOUR FIRST DAY?" Andi's grandmother asked once the teenager walked through the door.

     "Just like anyone else who has ever been the new student. Everyone was looking at me like I was some sort of exotic animal that they've never seen in their entire lives," Andi sighed as she went into the kitchen and saw her grandmother stirring the contents in the pot on the hot stovetop.

     "It's only the first day. By tomorrow, they'll get used to you and you'll get used to them," her grandmother said as she covered the pot.

     "I sure hope so," Andi said as she made her way up the stairs and dropped her bag in the corner of her bedroom.

     She kicked her shoes off and took out her scrunchie, letting her long hair fall into place as she crawled onto her bed. The homework could wait while Andi let everything from the earlier hours of the day melt into nothing. The awkwardness would wear off soon so she was no longer worried about that. Things were going to get easier so she had nothing to stress about.

     Andi remembered her friend from Atlanta and pulled her phone out of the pocket of her jeans. She scrolled through her small list of contacts until she found the person she was looking for and tapped on the number. She held the phone to her ear as she waited for somebody to pick up and put an end to the ringing. Once the ringing stopped, all Andi got was her friend's voicemail. As soon as she heard the beep she recorded her message.

     "Hey, Loretta, it's Andi. I just wanted to call and see how everything is over there. Call me back or send me a text so we can talk," she said and sent the message before hanging up.

     She left her phone sitting on the nightstand while she stood up and grabbed her bag. If she didn't finish her homework now, her grandmother would be on her back about it all night. She glanced at her phone to see if Loretta answered but so far there was nothing and it stayed like that, even when Andi had finished her homework. Was she busy? Maybe she got her number changed and just forgot to let Andi know about it.

     While her grandmother was cooking downstairs, Andi stayed up in her room trying to keep herself occupied. Since she hadn't visited her grandmother in Beacon Hills since she was eight years old, nothing about her room changed. The small clothes that used to hang in her closet were now replaced with all the clothes she packed and brought with her. She only grew a few inches in those few years so she was still able to fit in her bed. Maybe she could do something to make her room feel less childish and she already knew where to start.

     She got up and pulled out a box from the closet and opened the lid. All the toys she used to play with were still inside and that was the first thing she wanted to take out of her room if she was going to be living there. She picked up the box and carried it downstairs. She opened the door to the basement and turned the light on so she could see where she was going as she descended down the stairs. She put the box on a shelf and as she stepped away, she noticed an old leather bound book with a thick spine. She picked it up and blew the dust off the cover so she could see what was on it. The cover had very detailed designs along the corners and edges and there was a green gemstone right in the middle. When she opened it, the pages were yellow but the ink was still heavily contrasted against the paper. The words were written in a language that she didn't understand but she felt like she saw this exact same book somewhere else in her lifetime and she couldn't put her finger on it.

     She put the book back on the shelf and back back up the stairs. She turned off the lights before closing the door to the basement and went upstairs to her room and continued to go through her stuff. As soon as she finished cleaning out the old stuff she was no longer interested in, she climbed onto the bed and picked up the phone from the nightstand. She saw a notification that said Loretta has posted a new photo on Facebook. Out of curiosity, she tapped on the little tab and it took her straight to Loretta's profile. Andi's stomach felt heavy when she saw that it was a photo of Loretta smiling with Yvette Montgomery, the girl who Andi spent most of her time trying to avoid in school.

     Yvette was a fair skinned girl with long legs and a very attractive figure. Andi had to admit that she was gorgeous but her horrible attitude overshadowed her physical features. The ginger haired beauty always has a nasty comment and a rude name to hurl Andi's way but she always had Loretta there to laugh it off with her. It looked like the two girls were at some sort of party and Andi got tired of looking at the photo. When she looked at Loretta's photo albums, all the posts that were taken with the both of them before Andi left the city were gone. It was like they were never friends and all traces of Andi were gone. She sighed in defeat as she put her phone down and sat against the headboard.

     It seemed that Loretta was happy that Andi was gone and she seemed to enjoy hanging out with Yvette more than she ever enjoyed hanging out with Andi. All the sleepovers and everything else they did together in their spare time suddenly felt like a lie. All those years of friendship felt like it was all orchestrated to make her feel like an idiot when she would realize that Loretta was never her friend, just like everybody else. To even think that she could've been different from everybody else was foolish of her and she wished that she had realized it sooner.

     There was no one else for her to reach out to in this new environment and she was going to have to navigate on her own from now on. From this point forward, the only person Andi could depend on to get her through this time in her life was herself.

━━━━

     First is the worst, second is the best. Andi went into the garage and grabbed the bike that her father left behind from their last visit. It was still in perfect condition and good to ride so her grandmother decided to let her use it to get to school and back. Andi took the blue helmet off the shelf and put the bike lock in her bag. She made sure she had everything before taking the bike out of the garage and making sure the helmet was secure. Once she was on the bike, she started heading down the street and down the same route her grandmother told her about when going to school. At least this way, it was just her and her thoughts while making sure that she didn't let herself get hit by a car in ongoing traffic.

     Despite her recent discovery about her ex-friend and what she had been up to since Andi's departure, she was still able to just go to sleep after dinner but it didn't go without tossing and turning for an hour at the least. She spent that hour wondering how long Loretta had gotten tired of her and how she didn't realize it before. Yvette did tell Andi once that Loretta would soon grow tired of being nothing but the blonde simply refused to believe it, although she couldn't help but feel that there was some truth to the ginger's words. She did notice a decline in the time they spent together, especially when Andi told her that her parents were sending her to California to live with her grandmother in the small town of Beacon Hills. That should've sent a warning signal in her head but she ignored it and that was how she got where she currently was.

     Once she got to the school, she locked her bike to the bike rack and took her helmet off as she went inside. She headed straight for her locker where she hung the helmet on the hook and made sure she had what she needed for her first class.

     "Nice hair, Princess Bubblegum. Couldn't decide on one colour?" a high pitched feminine voice said with a giggle.

     Andi turned around and saw a pale skinned brunette with green eyes. "Nice freckles. How long did it take you to draw those onto your face?" she asked with a fake smile as she slammed her locker shut and started heading to class.

     So much for a better day. She thought to herself as she noticed everyone in the hallway standing still and staring at something. She looked where everyone else was looking and she saw Allison standing at the entrance with a strawberry blonde girl standing next to her. Allison looked calm while the girl next to her looked anxious and that was when Andi realized that everyone was looking at her. She had no idea what was going on but she kept walking anyway. She didn't see the strawberry blonde at all the day before but then again, she never noticed Allison right in front of her face.

     With the attention being drawn to the strawberry blonde girl, Andi didn't feel so much like a fish out of water as she walked through the crowded hallways. Even in class, the students were whispering about the girl of the hour rather than giving Andi weird glances, although she was curious about why everybody was looking at her in the way they were.

     At lunch, Andi saw Allison sitting with the strawberry blonde while she sat by herself again. It was funny how she was eager to sit with her before but now that her friend was back, Andi was alone again. The blonde scrolled through her Facebook account while sipping her soda through a straw. She didn't pack much to eat but she didn't mind. Since there weren't many interesting things going on, she put her phone down and leaned back into her seat.

     Her mind went back to the heavy book she found in her grandmother's basement with the bright green gemstone in the middle of the cover. The words were in a foreign language she had never seen before and she wondered why her grandmother had it. She would have to ask her about it after school but since it was down there for so long collecting dust, she was sure she would've forgotten about it a long time ago. She thought about going back to the basement to get it once she got home but what would be the point? She didn't know what it was about or what language it was in so she figured it would be better to just leave it where it was. It was probably left in the basement for a reason.

     As she was at her locker getting her stuff for her next class, she noticed a tall boy a few feet away from her. His dirty blonde curls fell in front of his face and he was wearing a black sweater and a pair of dark jeans. Just as he turned his head toward her direction, she quickly looked away and closed her locker. She could feel her stomach drop and she hoped that he didn't catch her staring at him ten feet away. She adjusted her bag and walked in the opposite direction away from the tall blonde boy.

     As she was leaving, the boy was looking at the different colours of her hair which was pulled back into a messy ponytail. She didn't know that he could feel her looking at him a few minutes ago and he could sense the heat rising in her lightly tanned skin when she looked away as soon as he looked at her. Even when she disappeared around the corner, she wasn't entirely gone from his mind.

━━━━

     By the end of the day, Andi could say that she didn't feel like an alien from another planet when sitting in her classes with the other students. As she was leaving the school, she passed the lacrosse field and she could see all the students wearing maroon jerseys and helmets and holding lacrosse sticks as the coach yelled and blew his whistle. She learned that unlike her old school, the students at Beacon Hills High played lacrosse instead of football. She had to admit that it was interesting that they didn't play the oh so basic sport that made the guys at her old school feel like they were the king of the world. Although she was sure that even in lacrosse, there was going to be that one arrogant player who thought he was the king who stood above everybody else.

     She saw no harm in sticking around to watch the students play so she headed to the bleachers and took a seat on one of the higher benches so she could see everything. She almost laughed every time the coach hurled an insult at a player when they messed up but at the same time, she wondered why he always sounded like he was angry at somebody or something. She watched as one of the players charged and collided into the other players when he was supposed to stay on the goalie net and listened to the coach yell at him every time. But regardless, he continued to do it.

     "McCall, if you leave the goal one more time, you will be doing suicide runs until you die!" the coach yelled and Andi watched everything from her seat.

     The player who the Coach called "McCall" ran from the goalie again and collided into the other player who was running toward him as well. The both of them landed on the grass on their hands and knees and Andi watched in confusion as the two boys stared intensely at each other. She was even more confused when a police cruiser parked by the field and everybody diverted their attention to the policeman. The two boys on the field took their helmets off and Andi recognized one of them as the tall dirty blonde boy she saw a few feet away from her locker. The other boy was tanned with dark hair and a slightly crooked jaw. The boy with the blonde curls was escorted into the back of the police cruiser and Andi watched as everyone started whispering.

     The mystery boy's eyes moved around until they settled on Andi who was standing on the bleachers with confusion written all over her face. She had no idea what was going on and why he was being taken away by the police with everybody watching and coming up with theories about how he got in this position. Even when the boy was seated in the back of the cruiser and the door was shut, he could see the gears working inside her mind as she tried to make sense of everything that was happening.

     Once the cruiser left, everyone only kept talking amongst themselves before going about their business. Andi started to leave the bleachers until she heard somebody calling her name. She turned around and Allison was standing there with the strawberry blonde next to her.

     "Hey, Allison," she said out of politeness while her eyes switched between the two girls.

     "This is my friend Lydia," the brunette said and Andi smiled awkwardly at the other girl.

     The strawberry blonde's name was Lydia and she was Allison's friend. Andi wondered if Allison only sat with her at lunch because Lydia wasn't there for her to sit with.

     "I'm Andi," she said and Lydia scoffed.

     "Allison already said your name, you don't need to introduce yourself all over again," Lydia said and Andi frowned.

     "My apologies for being polite and using my manners when meeting a new person. I'll remember to be rude and act uninterested next time," Andi said as she adjusted her bag and Lydia rolled her eyes.

     "You know, no one ever stays interested in the new girl for more than one day," she said.

     "That's because everyone is looking at the girl who was running around the woods naked for three days straight," Andi said and Lydia's face became paler than it already was. "Just because I'm new here, doesn't mean I don't read the recent news stories about this town. And you are recent news."

     "Clearly, we got on the wrong foot here," Allison said, hoping to relieve some of the tension between the two blondes.

     "More like now I know exactly who to avoid from now on if I want to keep my patience and my sanity," Andi said with a sarcastic smile. "Have fun being arrogant."

     Andi left the bleachers and went to the bike rack where her bike was locked and secured. She took the lock off and put it in her bag and took out her helmet. She made sure it was secure and got on the seat and left the school. She was still annoyed with Lydia's attitude and kept a mental note to stay clear of her. Allison wasn't really a problem but she still wasn't a friend. If there was anything that Andi couldn't stand, it was a person with a horrible attitude and no shame for it. She herself tried to be nice and keep her patience but if someone pushed her, she would change her mind in the snap of a finger.

     It was only her second day and she already had problems with two other girls and she wondered how many people she was going to have issues with if she kept going at this rate. If she were to develop issues with at least two people a day, she would have problems with everybody before the end of the first semester and that was something she would rather avoid. The last thing she needed was to have issues with the entire school otherwise, it would be a replay of the events in Atlanta. In other words, if she wanted to keep herself at bay, she was going to have to build some walls.