p a j a m a s & d a i s i e s

C H A P T E R – O N E

oo1. i'm so not an idiot!

“Renae! Wake up!” Ryan Lybolt yelled into my ear. Now, I’m not particularly fond of my brother’s best friend yelling at me to wake up on a Saturday morning during summer vacation. That wasn’t the way I liked to be woken up. Give me a gentle shake, or play a good song on my stereo and I might get up. But no… He had to yell at me. So I did the only thing that I found to solve the problem.

I kicked him right in the thigh.

When I heard a shout come from his mouth I rolled over onto my stomach and pulled my covers over my head. Serves him right for waking me up. After a while, I heard an impatient sigh and then there was suddenly someone sitting on my back. Someone who definitely weighed more that I did.

“Dang it! Ryan, get the heck off me!” I yelled, though my voice was muffled by the bed sheets. I could hear him laughing at me as I struggled to push him off of me. It didn’t work too well, though, considering he weighed so much more than me. Eventually I gave up and said, “Jeez, have you gained weight, you fatty?”

“It’s all muscle, darling, all muscle,” he answered my question with a laugh, patting my head with his hand.

“No… I think it’s the weight of your freaking fat noggin. Really, it’s a wonder you’re so darn stupid with a cranium of that size.” So, his head wasn’t really fat. And Ryan was pretty smart. But we always picked on each other like that. It was a habit. And habits are really hard to break.

“Been paying attention in science, I see,” he said in response and yanked the covers off of my head so that I could see part of my room out of the corner of my eyes as well as Ryan’s grinning face. I could see that no light was coming through the window and that gave me some kind of clue that it was very early in the morning.

Ryan’s dark brown hair was getting too long. He needed a haircut. And he needed to shave. His eyes, though, those were perfect. They were a dark brown color. Simply brown. No crazy colors mixed in at all. Now, his body? Wowzerz! He was really athletic, so he was always in shape. Nice abdominal muscles. And arm muscles. His voice broke me from my staring.

“Wow… Your hair doesn’t look so good. Like a tornado attacked it or something,” Ryan informed me with a stupid grin on his face.

I blinked, looking up at him. “Ryan, get off me,” I said with as calm a voice as possible.

“I’ll get up once you promise to get out of bed. Ben wants to set up the church this morning and then we have to go down to the field,” he said.

“Ugh,” was the only noise I could make. “What time is it?” I asked after a moment.

“Four,” Ryan answered with a smile.

“Why so early?” I groaned, trying to roll him off of my back.

Because you’re helping us set up the church and we don’t want to bring you back here. Besides, you know we like your entertainment while we practice,” he said ruffling my hair. As if it wasn’t already messed up.

I let out a groan and buried my face into my pillow. Ryan let out a loud laugh and I attempted to kick him which was a bit difficult since he was still on top of me.

“Do you promise to get up?” he asked, leaning over the edge of my bed, looking at something underneath it.

“Yeah, yeah. I promise,” I said. Of course, I had my fingers crossed. ‘I promise’ doesn’t count when you have your fingers crossed.

So when I felt Ryan’s weight shift and he was finally off of me, I stayed in bed. But he didn’t seem to have noticed since something on my laptop’s screen seemed to have caught his eye.

Ryan walked over to my desk, sitting in the chair. Taking a hold of the mouse, he started clicking on random boxes the were spaced around the screen. “What are you doing?” I asked.

“Looks like Max and Rochelle have been trying to get a hold of you all night,” he said as he scrolled through one of the open instant messenger windows.

I already knew that, though, since I heard the constant beeping all night telling me I had a new message. It was annoying and a beep would start every few minutes, causing me to get less sleep than usual.

“Holy hell, Rochelle seems to know everything, doesn’t she,” he said and I did a funny nod thing. She knew everything in the gossip world, is what he meant. Hand her a textbook and the girl’s mind goes bonkers.

“Well she’s trying to tell you about a million things that happened at some party last night. Figures she would be there. She’s gotta be in everyone’s business,” he said, finishing his thought with some muttering. I saw Ryan sit down at the desk and start clicking around some more.

I sat up in bed and looked at Ryan for a moment. “Hey, don’t go through my messages.”

“Why? Do you, Max, and Rochelle talk about how all three of you want to do multiple inappropriate things to me?” And this was coming from a Christian boy who went to church every Sunday. Praise the Lord!

I scrunched my nose up. “Nah, that’s only Rochelle. She’s in love with you,” I said. “You know, Max and I have this theory that you’ll never get married. Instead, you’ll date all these chicks and end up being kidnapped by some cat lady who thought you were hitting on her in the grocery store.”

Ryan, of course, ignored me. Though, I could see a small grin forming on his face. Whether from the comment about Rochelle or the kidnapping cat lady, I wasn’t sure.

“I bet the cat lady’s gonna be Rochelle,” I mumbled, sitting up slightly.

“Oh looky here! Max supposedly has something really important to tell you and she doesn’t want anyone else to tell you first.” He looked at me again, as if asking for permission to keep reading, and I arched an eyebrow for him to continue, “Max says that Monica was flirting with Chris quite a bit at that party last night. Apparently, they were together the whole night…”

He looked up from the computer, and then removed himself from my chair as I stood up on my bed. Ryan knew how I got about stuff that had to do with me. And my boyfriend with another girl was something I didn’t like to joke about. As he left my room, I attempted to step off of my bed, but my feet ended up tangled in bed sheets and I just did a face plant into the carpeted floor.

“I’m okay!” I shouted when a strange silence fell in Ben’s room and then I quickly picked myself up off the floor. Sliding into my desk chair, I started clicking random messenger windows until I found the one Ryan had been talking about.

Sure enough, Ryan had quoted almost directly what Max had sent to me. Rochelle seemed to have heard the news too, since she had sent me a ton of messages as well and so did a few other people. My fingers were soon flying over the keyboard as I tried to reach Rochelle and Max. No luck. Of course. They had spent all night trying to wake me up, and when I finally was awake, they were asleep.

Apparently, though, he didn’t do anything with her. Just talked and stuff while she got her flirt on. Still, that was just super duper. What a wonderful way to start my day! Well, I might as well fill you in on my relationship with Chris.

Chris Bryant and I have been together for almost two years, ever since he asked me to Homecoming. He was really nice back in freshman year and I had really liked him. You can say that our relationship has been stretched to near breaking points. We were going to be back in school that fall as juniors, while Ben and Ryan were going to be seniors. Chris, would be on the Varsity soccer team with Ben and Ryan, too. Which made the entire situation worse, because I would have to see him that morning. I wasn’t sure if I was up to it. Sure he didn’t exactly cheat on me, but the fact that he didn’t push Monica away made me sort of mad.

Every summer Ben and Ryan meet with the team at least once a week to practice. And I usually went along to see Chris. Well, that morning would be one morning I wouldn’t want to see him and I was going to be forced to see him.

I am so not a jealous girlfriend, though… Okay, so I am. But I have reason to be, right? I don’t like it when other people try to butt their way in between Chris and I. It bothers me, but I can’t do anything about it, huh?

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. Maybe he wouldn’t show up to practice today. Maybe his beyond OCD mother would make him clean their entire house. And he has a big house so that could take forever. But what could I do about Monica when school started?

Monica… I couldn’t believe one of my friends would ever dream of making my boyfriend try to cheat on me. Thank the Lord we weren’t very close! I knew it wasn’t that big of a deal, so instead of thinking of some way to get revenge, like Rochelle would be doing, I thought about what I should have for breakfast.

I took another deep breath and closed the many windows open on my laptop. When I closed my laptop I could hear my brother’s door open and he came walking into my room.

“Hey, Renae? Do you mind getting dressed? We need to set up the church soon,” Ben said to me. He only called me by my full name at times like this. When we were going to be late and he was trying not to yell at me. But really, what kind of brother would want to yell at his sweet innocent little sister?

“Yeah, okay. Give me a minute,” I replied and then shoved him back out my door and into the hallway.

Apparently, breakfast was not on the menu today because just five minutes later I was squeezed in between Ben and Ryan in the cab of my brother’s white pick-up truck.

In my pajamas.

There was no way I was getting dressed when it was so early in the morning! Especially when I could go to sleep when I got home later. So I was wearing my pajama shorts and a sweatshirt as well as my running shoes. I simply put my hair up with a messy ponytail and brushed my teeth before we left. Very simple and quick; that was my style.

We were on our way to the church to set up for service that night and the next morning. Every Saturday night, Ben and Ryan as well as a few other guys from the church were part of a band called…well, they don’t actually have a name. So we kind of just introduce them as… you guessed it, The Band. They never played on Sunday mornings, though, because all the old people of the church hated ‘that loud annoying music kids listen to these days.’ So they stuck to playing for the youth group on Saturday nights.

I was their technical person. I helped the band set up the microphones and amplifiers on the stage and then I set up and ran the slides for the words and the sound system with the turning knobs and sliding thingy mabobs. I’m pretty sure they’re surprised I know how to actually work the darn thing…

Anyway, every Saturday we have to set up because our church is currently being remodeled and we have to use a high school gym temporarily. And then we take everything down after church on Sundays. It is tiring and I get frustrated with the guys because they can’t do anything, leaving me to do everything. Except lift stuff. My scrawny arms can’t do anything so I yell at them to get all the heavy stuff for me. I’m so genius, I know!

The ride to the church was somewhat quiet with only the hum of the engine keeping the three of us company in the early morning. Too bad there weren’t any coffee shops open nearby because I could have desperately used a coffee by then. And some chocolate. Or a Monster energy drink. Something to wake me up because I was totally dozing off in between the boys, my head leaning towards one or the other until they poked me to wake up.

After about a ten minute drive, Ben pulled into the parking lot of the high school and we all climbed out of the pick-up. While Ben and Ryan unloaded the sound system and a few amps from the bed of the truck, I leaned against the side of the truck and closed my eyes.

If it was at all possible to sleep while standing, I would have done it right then and there, but as I started sliding down to the ground to possibly get a little more sleep, Ryan was poking me in the arm.

“What?” I asked him with a slight whine in my voice.

“You can’t fall asleep out here,” he said, lifting me up by my arm. “Go get the microphone case. Ben’s taking the sound system inside and the rest of the amplifiers are in the church truck,” he told me. I looked down to see him picking up an amplifier and I nodded, though I barely comprehended what he told me.

I went around to the bed of the truck and quickly pulled a small case out and stifled a yawn as I shut the tailgate. I could feel another yawn creeping up and I covered my mouth with my free hand as I walked towards the gymnasium/place where we were going to have church.

As soon as I walked into the large gym, I could see that a table had already been set up for me and Ben and Ryan were busy working on the stage. I quickly made my way over to the table and set the microphone case down on it before opening it and checking to make sure we had all the wires and microphones.

I let Ben and Ryan set up on stage while I plugged all the cords they brought me into the sound system. It was way too quiet in the large gym so I dug around in a backpack Ben had brought in before finally finding an iPod. I quickly hooked it up to the sound system, turned it on, and let music fill the gymnasium. Sitting slumped over the table, I turned knobs whenever the guys needed me to, and pressed buttons when I knew to. My eyes slowly kept closing, and anyone could guess that I was asleep.

A few minutes later I felt myself being shaken awake by Ben who had wheeled the carts of metal chairs out from underneath the stage. He just gave me this look that said, ‘If you don’t help, I’ll kick your ass.’ With a light sigh I stood up and helped them set up rows of the metal chairs that were used for the members of the church.

After about an hour and a half of working, we were done with plugging in cords and setting up chairs. I would bring my laptop that evening which had all the songs that they would be playing and notes on the sermon our youth group leader would be preaching.

“Come on, Ren,” Ben was saying to me. “Get up. Ryan and I have to be at the field in twenty minutes.” I realized that I had fallen asleep again along a few chairs that were pushed close together. And those chairs were very uncomfortable. I had no idea how I managed to sleep on them.

“All right, all right. I’m coming,” I said with a large yawn as I followed them out to the truck, feet dragging.

The field is this huge pasture that no one has actually used in years. And it is covered in white daisies. No one knows who scatters the seeds that grew into daisies but no one actually cares either. People only go out there for four reasons: to hang out with friends, to practice with a team, to have a party, or to have sex. The last one, of course, I had never done nor do I think I ever will do out there. Everything else was something that was almost a regular thing for me.

We pulled up to a large barbed wire fence and got out of the truck. The open spot in the fence wasn’t big enough to drive the truck through so we had to walk the rest of the way. We had no objection to that, and neither did the other people who were already there; there were multiple cars and trucks parked along the fence.

“How long is your practice going to be?” I asked.

“About two hours, I think,” said Ryan.

“I’m stuck out here with you two for two hours? Great, better call nine-one-one now since I’m bound to murder one of you by the time this thing is over.”

“Ren, you can go on a run, you know,” Ben told me.

“I hate running by myself. You know that!” I said.

“Chelsea will be there,” Ryan said suddenly. And I know I must have made a face because he started laughing and said, “Never mind, she hates running.”

“As if I didn’t know,” I mumbled. Chelsea, Ryan’s current girlfriend is all right, I guess. She isn’t like those usual girls you could find him dating. Still, she’s lazy and cares way too much about her appearance. She isn’t clingy, like his previous girlfriends, and she doesn’t talk with the word ‘like’ in between every other word she says. We get along okay. On occasion. Okay, never really. We are way too different to agree on anything.

We soon made it to a large group that had gathered. Some of the guys were sleeping on the ground, some were talking animatedly to each other, and others had their arms wrapped around their girlfriends who had gone along to watch their practice. Why they volunteered to be up that early, I had no idea.

I noticed a tall, light brown haired boy coming towards me with a smile on his face. And I smiled, meeting him halfway. Giving him a hug, he planted a kiss on my cheek.

“Reny,” he said, calling me by the oh-so-annoying nickname he gave me. At first, I hated the nickname and told him not to call me 'Reny'. But he didn't listen so I let him continue to call me that because I'm nice like that.

“And you thought we couldn’t get her out of bed,” Ryan said with a chuckle, passing us.

“Hey, she never wakes up for me,” he said in response.

“Ya gotta have the magic touch,” Ryan said, waggling his fingers. Then he tossed Ben’s keys at me, which I totally didn’t catch.

Chris looked at me, questions in his eyes as to what Ryan meant. Oh, was he getting jealous? Cause I seemed to recall him at a party, letting another girl flirt with him. I let it go, though, and said, “He didn’t touch me. Just sat on me and nearly killed him with that fat body of his.” I stuck my tongue out at Ryan. I know, totally mature.

“Oh okay,” he said, not looking so sure of himself.

My eyes narrowed. “How was the party?” I asked.

“Fine,” Chris answered with a small smile. “Wish you were there.”

“Just fine, huh?” I asked, not bothering to react to his second comment. “I heard Monica thought you were fine.”

Chris groaned, rolling his eyes. “Ren, are you serious? You’re going to believe what Rochelle tells you?” he asked me.

I didn’t look at him, but instead, fiddled with the keys in my hands. Well, she is my best friend. But he’s my boyfriend. “I guess not,” I said quietly.

“We were just talking, and Rochelle took it the wrong way,” he added, trying to make sure I believed him.

“Okay. Sorry I accused you,” I said, my lips forming a small pout. “Forgive me?”

“Duh,” he said, placing a small kiss on my smiling lips. “Practice starting. Talk to you after?”

“Duh,” I said, mimicking him. He smiled before running off to join his team.

My smile remained as I watched them mess around for a minute before actually starting their practice. I hadn’t noticed the gorgeous dirty-blonde haired girl move next to me until she spoke.

“You know you’re an idiot, right?” Chelsea asked, nodding her head in Chris’ direction.

I rolled my eyes and turned my head to look at her. “You know you’re a bitch, right?” I asked. Taking the keys Ryan had given me, I walked away from her and headed towards the truck to actually get some sleep. Chelsea and her stupid gorgeous hair calling me an idiot. Psh.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

It’s baaaaaack! How happy are you guys?? So, I made some adjustments, and changed part of the plotline. Tell me what you think. Like it, hate it? I wanna know! Thanks in advance for any reviews! And thank you to old readers who came back to read the new version!