The Trouble With Three

A/N: Just warning you, because there are at least three principal characters in this story, the POVs change frequently. Enjoy!

Chapter 1 – Carly’s Back in Town

Kevin Maguire wasn’t sure why his thoughts drifted toward Carly Brooks at that very moment. His mind tended to wander during exams. It was okay. Kevin always managed decent grades in school; he was the type of guy who got far by doing as little as possible.

Kevin hadn’t seen Carly since the middle of sixth grade. Along with their friend, Aaron Holt, the three had been quite a bizarre trio of kids. Kevin was the slick, outgoing one of the group. Aaron was the shy, introspective one. And Carly…well, she was Carly.

The very first day Kevin had met Carly was the first day of second grade. Carly was the newly arrived student all the way from sunny California. Kevin’s first impression of the new girl was that she was kind of weird. Whenever the class used to have recess, Carly always insisted on playing football with the boys. During animal week, Carly willingly petted all the reptiles that were brought into Mrs.
Haver’s second-grade class; she even allowed the herpetologist to rest the snake atop her shoulders.

Carly also had the most interesting laugh that Kevin had ever heard. It wasn’t very ladylike, but it was a joy to hear nevertheless because Carly’s laughter was the laughter of a person who truly enjoyed life.

And that was Kevin’s greatest memory of Carly – her lust for life.

As children, Carly had been the driving force behind all of the trio’s greatest adventures. She had been the first one to initiate the games that they would play. Once she suggested an idea, Kevin often took over; he was the natural born leader of the group.

Carly had also been the one who had kept the group together. Kevin had never really fought with Carly, but he had had a few arguments with Aaron over the years. Carly would make them apologize, and the trio would be reunited time and time again. Once she left, the group had lost its designated peacemaker. Now, in their senior year of high school, Kevin no longer communicated with Aaron.

Kevin’s eyes drifted to the digital clock on the wall of the classroom. He still had thirty-eight minutes to bullshit his way through this essay. He groaned inwardly. How could anyone be expected to comment on The Sun Also Rises first thing in the morning? As seconds continued to pass by, Kevin continued to allow his mind to drift toward thoughts of Carly. He wondered what she was up to, or even, where she was. She hadn’t called or written to him since the end of eighth grade. Maybe she had moved again, who knew?

Kevin looked at the clock again. Thirty-seven minutes. Shit. He hoped something good happened today.

****

Aaron took copious notes on Dr. Kaplan’s AP chemistry lecture. Aaron was in his zone, and whenever that happened, very few people had a chance at disrupting him.

Aaron was the studious sort by nature. His father was one of the nation’s leading scholars on the Civil War before he had passed away a few months shy of Aaron’s eighth birthday. Aaron’s mother taught mathematics at a high school one town over.

His upbringing should have by all rights been boring as hell, but his parents had hidden hobbies. Aaron’s father played with a jazz band on the weekends and ultimately encouraged his son to play, as well. Aaron was now well versed on the guitar, piano, and drums. His mother also coached girl’s swimming at the high school where she worked. She had made Aaron an accomplished swimmer at a young age, as well.

Aaron didn’t really know what it meant not to be busy. He had found something to do at every given moment of his life. When he was younger, “busy” hadn’t been a bad thing; “busy” had often been equivalent to having fun. But with each passing year, the burden of succeeding in every aspect of his life was beginning to weigh on Aaron’s shoulder. Suddenly, youthful indiscretions meant jack-shit. It was do or die, and sometimes, Aaron missed the carefree ways of his youth.

Like when he had been best friends with Kevin Maguire and Carly Brooks. Aaron didn’t have any siblings, so Kevin and Carly practically doubled as his surrogates. While Kevin and Carly often cooked up ways to cause trouble and wreak havoc on the unsuspecting world, Aaron was often calculating how he could manage to get everyone out of trouble before it even became a problem.

Even though he and Kevin were part of different worlds now, he still somewhat missed the guy. Aaron definitely missed Carly. When they had been in the third grade, Kevin had kissed Carly as a joke. Aaron had gotten jealous and fought with Kevin for an entirely different reason. It was ironic. Even though Carly was the reason that Kevin and Aaron had argued so much as kids, she was usually the one who had convinced them to be friends again.

Aaron hadn’t spoken with Carly since she had called him toward the end of the eighth grade. The last that he had heard of her, Carly had been living in California with her father after his company transferred him back to where she had lived before moving to Davenport, Connecticut. As far as Aaron knew, Carly had probably moved several more times after that.

As Dr. Kaplan continued droning on about enthalpy and heat constants, Aaron continued to write rigorous notes. He still had thirty-seven minutes of being in the “chemistry zone” before his attention had to be diverted to AP US Government.

****

This was the first time Carly had entered Davenport’s local high school. She had only attended the elementary school, so this was completely new territory for her. However, a familiar ambience still surrounded her.

As she made her way toward her third-hour consumer education class – her first-ever class in this new school – her thoughts drifted toward Kevin and Aaron. She wondered if both of them still went to this high school. She hadn’t spoken to them since just before the beginning of high school.

She wondered if Kevin was still a total troublemaker and if Aaron was still a sweetheart. The two were as different as night and day, and Carly thought how bizarre their trio must have been.

Most importantly, she wondered if Kevin and Aaron were still friends. Carly remembered how those two had fought often as children. Kevin was usually the pissed-off, angry one, while Aaron transferred his anger to freeze-outs and other methods of passive-aggression. However stupid their fights were, Carly recalled always reuniting them through her clever devices. As Carly thought more and more about it, she realized that without her around, one of Kevin and Aaron’s fights probably erupted into something huge. It was very possible that the pair of them were no longer friends.

That dampened her mood. Sure, she hadn’t seen those guys in almost six years, but she still loved them. Even if she hadn’t been able to contact them for three of those years, Carly found herself thinking about both of them all the time. Kevin and Aaron had represented all the good things Carly had felt in her youth – things that no longer truly applied to her as a seventeen-year-old woman. The memories of her friendship to Kevin and Aaron provided Carly with a glimmer of happiness as she felt the burden of moving on with her life.

As Carly ascended the main staircase toward her consumer education classroom, she took a deep breath inward. She hadn’t moved since that time in the middle of sixth grade. A new school. New classmates. The entire experience still terrified her. Oh well…as nervous as she was, Carly had never backed down from a challenge. She wasn’t going to start now. She took another deep breath – for good measure – and slowly twisted the handle of the classroom door.

****

The entire class turned toward the source of the noise that interrupted Mr. Lawson’s boring consumer ed lecture. Kevin was the last to turn, but he was glad he did. The foxy girl who stood in the doorway of the classroom must’ve been new. She had that deer-in-the-headlights look that new students generally exhibited when coming to a new school.

She was fairly tall – about 5’8” – and skinny. She had a feminine figure, complete with a nice set of breasts and a good ass – very important to Kevin. Her long, blonde hair cascaded into waves around her face. Her eyes were striking as well. Kevin couldn’t really tell the color from where he sat, but they sparkled all the same.

Mr. Lawson finally realized that something more interesting was going on in his class, so he turned toward the source of all the commotion. He regarded the new girl with a look of confusion before walking over to her.

Lawson and the new girl whispered to each other. He eventually nodded in understanding and gestured for her to take a seat. Kevin saw her scan the classroom for a good seat. When her eyes finally met his, her eyebrows furrowed. She seemed to be in deep concentration. What is she thinking? Kevin thought to himself. Her head slowly cocked to one side as she continued to scrutinize Kevin. Kevin hoped he didn’t have anything on his face. He didn’t want to make a bad first impression on this beautiful girl.

Before he knew it, she was moving toward the opposite side of the classroom. Kevin suppressed the disappointment that he felt. For now, he could only admire the pretty new girl from afar.

****

Carly had to force her heart from beating so quickly. She had been looking into the eyes of Kevin Maguire. She hadn’t seen him for almost six years, but oh Lord, he was still cute as ever.

Both Kevin and Aaron had been good-looking all their lives, but Kevin had always been the obnoxiously handsome one of the two. As kids, his light blonde hair had given him a highly misleading angelic glow. But once you looked into his money-green eyes, the inherent mischief that resided within him became fairly obvious.

Now as a seventeen-year-old, Kevin had grown into a very tall, very built young man. Carly guessed that he was a little over 6’. She didn’t know how much he weighed, except that he looked very muscular. His large, tan biceps stuck out of a navy blue Michigan t-shirt with particular menace. He was wearing baggy jeans and expensive-looking sneakers on his feet.

Everything about Kevin was darker than the last time Carly had seen him. His face was darker, but not as dark as some of the male faces Carly recalled seeing in sunny Callie. Kevin’s light blonde hair had practically morphed into a light brown color. He was still a definite blonde though.

But it was also Kevin’s aura that seemed to have darkened. The intensity with which he regarded Carly confused her. Carly didn’t recognize it at all. He didn’t look like a guy who wanted to skip stones with her at the pond or catch fireflies in her backyard. Right now, Kevin Maguire looked like he wanted her.

Despite the connection she felt to him though…Carly felt the oddest sensation that Kevin didn’t recognize her. Why would he? she thought to herself. They hadn’t seen each other in six years, and she certainly looked different that when she had been eleven years old.

There was no way that Carly was going to sit near Kevin – not with the way he was looking at her. She quickly made her way over to the opposite side of the classroom from where Kevin sat. She casually set her things on the desk before opening a notebook and growing as bored with the lecture by Mr. Lawson as her new classmates were.

****

Carly scanned the lunchroom quickly for a spot to sit. This was the worst experience of attending a new school…the dreaded cafeteria situation. Where would she sit? As much as Carly wanted to believe she was self-sufficient, the truth was that she didn’t want to be stuck sitting at the wrong table.

She was still in the process of looking when a subtle movement caught her eye. Carly looked in the direction of the movement and found a girl beckoning her. Carly pointed to herself and the girl nodded.
Carly awkwardly strolled toward the girl, who was seated with a few others. The girl immediately moved over to make room for Carly.

“Thanks,” Carly said, taking a seat.

“No problem,” the girl answered. “Being the new kid is tough.”

Carly nodded in agreement.

“I’m Eden,” the girl answered.

“Carly.”

Eden smiled and introduced Carly to the other people at the table. Carly inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. Eden and her friends seemed normal enough. As Eden’s friends turned back to each other to continue their various conversations, Eden turned back to Carly.

“Is Carly short for Carlene or something?” Eden asked, taking a sip from her water bottle.

“Oh, God no,” Carly answered immediately, causing Eden to almost spit out her water.

Once Eden had gotten her swallowing back under control, she continued to ask Carly questions.

“Where are you from?”

“I moved from Palos Hills, California,” Carly answered.

“You look like you’re from California,” Eden commented.

Carly’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “How?”

“You’re gorgeous,” Eden answered.

Carly blushed again. “Am not.”

“Are you kidding?” Eden asked in disbelief. “Every guy in this cafeteria is staring at you.”

Carly stole a look over her shoulder. Okay, so a lot of guys were staring at her, but that was probably just because she was the new kid. Not everyone was looking at her though; Eden was only exaggerating.

****

Aaron couldn’t believe his eyes. There was no way. He was just seeing who he wanted to see, right? But the longer he stared at her, there was no mistake. Carly Brooks was back in Davenport.

“Dude…what are you staring at?”

Aaron momentarily snapped out of his daze. “N-nothing, man.”
Aaron’s friend, Jeff, looked skeptical but didn’t pursue his line of questioning. Jeff was about the only guy in the cafeteria not looking at Carly, and that was probably only because he back was turned to her. The idiot probably hadn’t even noticed her entrance.

But Aaron had definitely noticed. God, was she gorgeous. Six years had definitely transformed the skinny tomboy who always came home with smudges on her face and sticky, blonde hair that stuck up everywhere. Right now, Aaron was staring at a tall, blonde woman with a feminine figure.

But those eyes were the same. Despite the distance that separated the two, Aaron still noticed the sparkling violet eyes of hers. If it weren’t for that, he probably wouldn’t have recognized her right away. He watched her make new friends from two tables away at the table of Eden Halliwell and her friends.

Aaron didn’t have a problem with Eden, but he wished that Carly were sitting next to him at that moment. He missed her. He wanted to hear what she had been up to since they had started high school. He wanted to reminisce and reacquaint himself with this beautiful creature.

Of course the most logical thing to do would be to walk on over there and reintroduce himself to her, but Aaron was shy. He didn’t have the balls to do that. He didn’t know exactly what he would say to Carly either. How do you talk to someone all of a sudden after six years of separation?

Aaron’s appetite was leaving him. He continued to stare at Carly the entire lunch period and hoped that maybe…he’d see her again before the day was over.

****

A/N: Reviews are very much appreciated!