Chapter One (Part Two): Cooper

Adam was a tall boy, but not incredibly so. He had dark brown hair and eyes that matched. However, by far his most prominent feature was his nose, which was large and it was instantly the first thing you noticed about him, although for some reason it actually kind of worked on him. Adam and I had been friends last year, good friends. I had started to have really like him and develop more-than-friends feelings for him. But, we came from two different worlds and it just wasn’t meant to be, which really should have been completely obvious. He is a partier and I am the well known good girl. There was just no way that I could spend five minutes paired with Adam, much less five months.
Mr. Reese dismissed everyone from the gym except us “winners”. He had us follow him to a small conference room connected to the front office. We all took our seats and he began to go over all of the details of the iWon trip.
“First of all,” he began, “now that you students have been selected to partake in the trip there are certain guide lines that must be followed.”
He went on to explain how there will be no partying, no drinking, no smoking and all of that kind of stuff. But then he answered a question in had asked myself: why us?
“You’re probably wondering why the six of you have been selected. Well, you also may have noticed that the six of you aren’t what would be considered good friends, even as we sit here now, you aren’t talking to each other or sharing how you feel about being selected to partake in something like this. You could say that all of you come from different worlds, different ends of the social latter. That is the reason why you were chosen. Myself and the producers of iWon picked all of you because we felt that you all represented a different part of the social aspect of this school and the purpose of this trip is to see how you can get along with people who you assume are so different from you.”
“And we have to do this?” Chloe asked.
“Yes, see we have already worked everything out. Your parents know what’s going on and they have already given their approval.” Mr. Reese answered.
“How Did you decide that we were the people from different worlds or whatever to do this?” Kendall questioned.”
“We did a little digging, kind of like a mini background check and decided who would be the best from there.”
I stayed silent as Mr. Reese continued to answer my class mates questions. I was still numb from shock and although I had some many questions I wasn’t able to say anything. I did try to take in all the information I could from the questions the others asked. I gathered that we would still be doing our classes while on the trip and have individual courses. A laptop would also be supplied for each of us because the classes would be taken online. And the challenges we would be doing would push us out of our comfort zone and have to do with us really getting to know the others students participating. After the day was over I was ready to go home and reflect on everything that had happened. Once I was home my mom looked at me expectantly because of course she already knew the “good news”.
“It’ll be a good experience for you and look really good on college applications.” My mother told me.
My mom is short, like me, but very slender and pretty. She also had a great personality, she is very funny and witty and wonderful to talk to. Right now I did not feel like talking, I just stayed in my bed and reflected on the days events. While laying in my bed I realized that who had been chosen in fact had made perfect sense. Chloe is very popular. She is skinny, pretty, and blond. A deadly combination in girl world. She was the type of person who lots of girls said they hated but really they were just sort of jealous of her. Ashlee is a farm girl and definitely the opposite of Chloe. Ashlee wasn’t popular and honestly she just kept to herself a lot so she didn’t have many friends at all. She is short and skinny, she also had shoulder length brownish, mousey hair, that tended to look greasy. And I, as I mentioned, am a non-partier, good girl, but I was still pretty involved in the school. I was part of drama club and football cheerleading captain, I also was in track and field. They guys were even more extreme when it came to their differences. Paul is really quiet and to be honest I really don’t know that much about him. He is really into cars and it was rumored that he was really smart. The way he looked hadn’t changed at all sense elementary school. He still had the tall almost awkward frame. He had dark, near black, hair and dark brown eyes. Kendall is all sports all the time he was a star football player and also a key member of the basketball team. All the makings of the perfect Blair-Taylor guy. He was also a well known player, he had a rumored new women weekly meaning that he had pretty much breezed his way through the willing girls at our school so he typically stuck with girls from other schools. And then, of course, there was Adam. Adam, the redneck partier who had a way to make people feel really special when he talked to you or like a complete moron, depending on his mood. With this group of teens together for five months, who knows what would happen. It was going to be interesting that’s for sure.

Chapter One (Part One): Cooper

My name is Cooper. Natalie Cooper actually, but most call me Cooper, and I like it that way. My senior year has just begun and I have a feeling that this will be the year that makes high school for me. I’m ready to get back into the good ol’ swing of things, here in my tiny small town high school. My school, home of the overly loved Blair-Taylor Wildcats, we have the rednecks that live, eat, and breath (and unfortunately smell of) the farm. We have the jocks that have sports so crowded into their excuses of brains that there is no room for anything else. Let’s not forget the partiers, which pretty much includes everyone, minus a small group of nonparties, that small group happens to include myself. I opened the doors that lead into the main area of the school, with the lunch room (known as the commons) to the right and the doors leading to the gym on the left. I walked the hallway to unload my bag and then headed back for the gym for the beginning of the year assembly. The gym was newly floored so it still smelled new, but the stench of sweat and new school equipment was already beginning to overpower the new smell. I took my seat next to my best friend, Abby. Abby is a mega basketball star and fellow non partier. She is a very pretty girl with long light brown/blond hair, crystal-like blue eyes, and the perfect sports figure body. While I, on the other hand, was short (peaking at about five foot), with the weird in between length dark brown hair, and a bit fuller filled figure. Basically, I no where near compared to the lovely thing that was Abby sitting next to me. Our principle, the short, stocky, and prematurely balding, Mr. Reese took the floor and gave us the same speech he does every year. This time I could of delivered the same speech in my sleep. I took the opportunity to look around and see who had gotten more attractive over the summer. Rather suddenly, however, something that Mr. Reese said jolted my attention: the iWon trip. I had heard rumors of course, but I never thought they were real. When you live in a small town like I do, for as long as I have it obvious to see that rumors are everywhere and you learn to just ignore them. Mr. Reese spoke to us as though he thought we were kindergarteners, dazed and confused in a building, in his I have the ultimate authority, husky voice.
“As many of you may have heard”, Mr. Reese began, “the iWon trip has come to Blair-Taylor. Siz students have been selected from the senior class to participate. The details have been worked out so that six selected students will be participating. If I call your name please join me down on the floor. Paul Johnson, Ashlee Lewis, Kendall Peterson, Chloe Rick, Adam Callaway, and Natalie Cooper.”
Shock was the only emotion I could register as I could feel my face glowing red from embarrassment. All I could think was “No, no, no!! He did not just call my name. This is my senior year. My year.”
I got up off my seat slowly, still wanting Mr. Reese to say that he had been kidding and to take my seat. Eventually the six of us, all with mixed looks of shock, excitement, and maybe even fear on our smooth teenage faces, came to stand next to Mr. Reese as he continued.
“Congratulations! You are the lucky winners of the iWon trip. After homecoming you all will leave on a five month adventure around the US. You’ve been split into pairs of two, and these will be the teams that you will be in for the tasks and challenges that will occur along the way. Chloe you are with Paul, Ashlee you’re paired with Kendall, and Natalie you’re with Adam.
My heart dropped. Of all the other people in the world, why Adam Callaway. I was sadly mistaken, this was not my year.