MacBook Air doesn't give me an option to remove apps.

I have a new MacBook Air that I'm in the process of setting up for use and there's some preinstalled apps that I want to remove (garage band, stocks, etc.) and when I try to remove them, I don't get the x on the wiggly icons (not even for apps I've downloaded) in the launchpad. I've tried to remove them through finder as well and no luck. I'm pretty technically inclined but this has me stumped. No apps are running and need to be force closed either. I'm at a loss. Please HELP! Thank you.