Alayna's Arrival: Nathan's Point of View

The day started out as normal.

The windows shook with the force of the screams and the insults that followed.

I grabbed a few breakfast bars from the kitchen and made my way as quickly as I could out of there. Refusing an offer to have somebody drive me to school, I climbed into my BMW and began chewing on my breakfast. The gates to the Cambourne driveway opened automatically as I distantly tried to recall when I had last eaten breakfast in the house. Even when my parents weren't home and the house was silent, I had never found the use of sitting by myself at a long table laden down with food when I could be out and about in the streets, looking for the next hot girl that would walk past my car and give me a coy smile.

The streets in my suburb were too wide. I had always hated the tall, imposing houses and the neatly mowed lawns that had surrounded me ever since birth. The only thing about money and power that I appreciated was the number of girls that were attracted to me and the sleek cars that filled the Cambourne garage. I had vowed that when I turned 18, I was going to get the hell out of those fake suburbs and move to somewhere a little more comfortable.

My phone started ringing and I grabbed it, checking the caller ID. Making a face, I quickly changed it to speaker phone and said, "Yo, Hayd."

"Nathan," the voice on the other end said with a slight groan. "What's up, man?"

"Aren't I meant to be asking you that?" I asked, making a quick left turn. "Seems like you have a hangover."

"Yea. Thanks for taking me to that bar when you knew I had an assignment due. I really appreciate it."

"No problem. Hey, do you know where Luke is? I tried calling him but when he answered he just said something like he was in the middle of arguing with his mum over something and he couldn't talk right now."

There was a gurgling sound on the other end. Stopping at a red light, I glanced with a frown at my phone. "Hayden? You dying or something?"

There was a long pause before Hayden replied, "Sorry about that. My mum shoved mouthwash into my mouth. Nope, haven't bothered calling Luke. Maybe you should try... Shit! Mum, stop trying to shovel food into my mouth!" Hayden's next words seemed like he was trying to speak over a gag. "I'll see you at school, Nat. Are you trying to kill me, you-" The connection ended and I shook my head, pressing down on the accelerator a moment later when I noticed the lights had turned green.

I parked in my own reserved space in the school parking lot and hopped out of my car. One spectacle drew my attention and I blinked to make sure I wasn't seeing things. Luke Ashford was getting out of his car with a girl. I blinked again to ensure the girl was still there and then I traced the outline of the girl's body, watching her light brown hair sway slightly as she bent to pick up her bag from the passenger seat. Nice legs. Grinning to myself and wondering how Sophia would take it if she found out Luke had taken another girl to school, I made my way over to the school's front gates where we usually met.

Before Luke had reached where I was waiting for him, Sophia ran towards him, flinging her arms around his neck. Luke gave her his usual morning greeting and I watched with amusement as a look off disgust crossed the brown haired girl's face. There was certainly something familiar about that girl but I couldn't remember how I knew her.

I decided to make my appearance, strangely eager to meet the new girl. Appearing on Luke's other side, I said brightly, "Hey, Luke. Who was the girl who got out of the car with you? Usually you send them back home before you go to school."

Luke smirked, radiating off his usual charm. "Come on, man. I would never go out with a girl like that, how could you ever think that?" He glanced over at the girl, who glared back at him. I watched the girl curiously as Luke beckoned for her to join us. I pretended to peer closely at her and pulled back in faked shock. "That's her?"

My words seemed to spur the girl on, and instead of walking away like she would have done, she stalked towards us. Once she reached the crowd of people that had converged around us, she snapped, "Yes, that's me. Who did you expect me to be? Another one of Luke's sluts?" The crowd gasped and I hid my grin.

Luke lazily waved toward her and said, "Nathan, this is my sister, Alayna."

"Your sister?" No wonder that face was so familiar. I hadn't seen her in years and I realised how much she had grown. With shock, I realised my chest was feeling extra light and I was feeling extremely happy. Carefully covering my surprise, I put on a mask of indifference in which I had perfected over the years. "She's not very good-looking, is she?"

That look she gave me was full of disgust. "Thanks. Maybe you should check twice in the mirror before you decide about your looks."

I puffed with pride, easily slipping into my arrogant character. "Don't worry, baby," I smirked, watching her annoyed reaction to the endearment. "I've already checked the mirror more than ten times this morning and I'm positive of where I stand."

"Are you one of those vain guys who want a video of them everywhere they go so they know what they look like every second?" The last time she had visited, which had been three years ago, she had never been this snappy. Or so good-looking.

"Hey, maybe if you get into bed with me, I'll stop being so vain. You never know, you might change me a little. Oh, you don't like a bed?" I was liking this too much. Luke was giving me a reproachful look but didn't move to interrupt our argument. "A couch then? Or we could use the floor. My bedroom has a really nice carpet that's great to roll in."

"Are you serious?" Alayna turned on her brother to the enjoyment of the crowd. "Are you forming a cult or something where only the stupid, vain, selfish, self-centered idiots survive?"

"It's a good offer." Luke was taking this opportunity to stop us arguing- or to stop me from making any more offers. I realised with a silent sigh that after three years of not seeing each other, I had made a bad impression on her. Luke pulled Sophia towards him and said, "Have you met Sophia yet? Sophia's my girlfriend. Sophia, this is Alayna."

I winced inwardly, expecting Alayna to wilt as Sophia gave her usual patronising welcome, but Alayna simply looked at her as if the other girl had something wrong with her head. Luke drew Sophia away from his sister and started walking towards the school buildings, followed by the rest of the crowd. I knew that Luke didn't expect Alayna to follow him. After all, they hated each other for no apparent reason. I also knew that a part of Luke wanted Alayna to follow because as much as Luke acted like Alayna was nothing to him, he still considered her his little sister. Glancing back, I saw Alayna walking in the other direction towards the office and I couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed.

Darren and Hayden popped over my shoulder, looking from me to Alayna, who was quickly walking away. "Dude, why are you staring after a girl?" Hayden asked, watching as Alayna walked into the office.

"Don't you remember her?" I asked, even though I had had no idea who she was when I had first seen her. "She's Alayna."

"Rings a distant bell," Hayden said slowly. "I sort of remember Luke mentioning her. Why are you staring after one of Luke's leftovers?"

Darren hit Hayden on the head. "She's Luke's sister, moron. We haven't seen her in... I don't remember how long."

"Three years," I said immediately. I paused and added, "And two months, two weeks..."

Both of my friends started to laugh and I realised what I had said. Shoving Hayden aside, I turned and headed towards where Luke was waiting impatiently for us to join him.

XXX

I remember the last time Alayna had come to visit with her dad. I had been at Hawaii when she had visited the time before that, so I hadn't seen her for an extremely long time. It was shocking how cold she had been to Luke and how Luke had returned the same cold feeling to her. She obviously had started a new life in wherever she was living in Sydney, so she didn't even attempt to make herself at home in White River. Alayna made no effort to acquaint herself with Luke's friends, even though we visited Luke practically every day of those holidays. It was strange, I was surrounded by girls but Alayna was a curiosity to me that I wanted to find out more about. Now that she was back in town, I wasn't sure what I was feeling anymore. It had been a long time but I still had a lingering curiosity in me that wanted to know Alayna more.

It was the subject of my thoughts that pulled me out of my reflecting. It was obvious she was lost. Her worried face said it all. She frowned when she saw the four of us filling the hallway with our legs and she snapped to Luke, "What are you doing here for?"

Luke answered truthfully, "What does it look like? We're ditching class, of course."

Alayna looked rather uncomfortable, but was still eyeing Luke suspiciously. After trying to accuse Luke of taking drugs, then saying that she would tell on him to their mum, and then finally refusing to admit she was lost, she tried to walk away. Part of my mind shouted for me to stop her and my arm moved on its own accord. In that moment, I grabbed onto her very warm wrist. Blinking, surprised about what had just happened, I quickly said, "Come on, honey. Don't go."

She looked shocked at the hand on her wrist and I felt rather annoyed that she seemed to be trying to withdraw herself from my touch. "Let go, now."

Breaking contact, I gave her a cool gaze and asked, "What class do you have now?"

She mumbled that she had English with Mr Cummins and Luke started smiling to himself. "We'll tell you where the class is if you tell Cummins something. Tell him I couldn't come to class today because I had some business to attend to behind the old staff room."

Hayden and I choked and started chuckling at his subtle reference while Darren just shook his head in reproval. Alayna seemed to have an idea of what he was saying since she snarled, "Go tell him yourself," and walked away from us.

We lapsed back into silence with the disappearance of Alayna but I started to grow restless. I listened for another few minutes to the Backstreet Boys but soon grew tired of their repetitive love songs and turned my iPod off. I shoved it into my bag and stood up, startling Hayden who was sitting beside me.

"Where are you going?" Luke asked with a frown.

"Class. You're welcome to join me." I rummaged through my pockets before I found the late pass that I needed. Maybe with Luke's sister here, things at school would liven up a little. At least, for me.


Author's Note: I know, i know, this chapter isn't as exciting as people would think and it's not very interesting either, since you already know the whole story after this. Still, it was fun writing this, and thanks everybody for sticking around, especially those who started it from when it first came out. Big thanks for the reviews and the reads :) It's offically THE END!!!