Suzy Diego: A young girl with a heavy load of secrets that are unknown to everyone except for her family. Two years younger than both

Thomas and Eduardo, but in the same grade as them. Always likes to cause mischief and tends to lose her temper quite easily. Does not like to

be made fun of or she delivers you a gesture of just how much she doesn't like the humiliation. Secretly has a crush on Eduardo, and has known

him since they were both in diapers. She tends to not tell anyone that Nick mistreats her when they are alone on thier way to places after she

beats him in things.

Eduardo De La Cruz: Has known Suzy ever since they were both young. He can be very arrogant but always seems to be put in his place by

Suzy with a look or action alone. He secretly loves her but can't admit it to her because of her strict rule, 'No boys until I'm stable on my own two

feet'. Even so, he was raised by an ex-marine as a father and by his mother who passed away when he was only thirteen. He is very competitve

and someday hopes to be a great psychologist. Along with that he also hopes that someday he can grow up to be Suzy's husband as well and

have as many kids as possible to make up for the brothers and sisters his mother could never have had.

Thomas Livestrong: Constantly teased for his last name but always guarded by Suzy. Sees her as a younger sister with a lot of heart. An only

child, also a neighbor of Suzy and Eduardo. Greatly enjoys telling Suzy stories about his dreams and allowing her to interpret them. Dreams of

one day being able to become the boss and to finally have control over others instead of being controlled. When Suzy is in great distress he is

the first to jump to her assistance and make sure that no one at all messes with her while she is weak. Has great connections with people around

their community but suffers from asthma which limits just how much he can do at one time. Is very easily prone to attacks in which on a fewa

occasions have led to seizures in him in which Suzy is the only one that can keep him both safe and help him come out of it.

Nick Peters: One of Suzy's friends but also competition in almost everything from running to math. Is very fond of Suzy as the sister that he

never had. Tends to experiment a lot with things. Has no plans for the future and tends to be agressive toward Suzy when no one is around

after she beats him in anything. Also holds the same job as a peer advocate with her and Eduardo. Has had drug problems in the past and

drinking problems too but at the age of eighteen he doesn't believe that he should get help when he occasionally falls back in the same

problems.

This story is about a girl named Suzy with her friends in high school before the story A Living Nightmare in which their adulthood is further is

explained. This was written just to clear some things up so that the other story makes more sense about why my characters are the way they are.

If you haven't read my other story, than good. Don't. Read this first and tell me what you think about the secretive girl with hr friends as they

embark on a trip through growing up to discover themselves and what they really mean to each other.

"Hurry up Thomas! If we're late to class I swear that I'm going to tickle you so hard that you'll have an accident!" Suzy yelled as she ran as quickly as possible while dragging her friend Thomas from behind her. She was clean and showed no sign of exhaustion, yet Thomas was breathing heavily and sweating as if he had just run the triatholon. Suzy manuvered them around people without once crashing or stumbling. Her wild, curly, Auburn, waist length, hair flowed behind her in a ponytail like a brush poised to draw in the sky. Her tanned skin shone with the heat; the shine being the only proof that she was even trying a little bit to run faster. Her long nails gave her a dangerous look as she brought it close to her face as if ready to tear away at her very own skin. She liked them long and always painted them red to emphasize the fear she instilled in people's hearts from her look alone. She was softly curved and had long legs, her only other claim to fame being her ability to run as swiftly and gracefully as a doe. She had big enough breasts to fill a B yet she was rather filled out nicely so that she looked natural unlike the other girls at her school that looked like they might fall to their faces at any minute from the weight of the sheer weight and size of their breast compared to their small stature. She wore no make up and her almost black eyes held a light to them as if they could read into your very soul. She had full lips that shone red naturally. She wore only low rise jeans and a nice tight shirt with the words, 'Boys are like sparklers. They only last so long.' The only form of any jewelry that she were was a silver bracelet that was tight to her wrist but was held in place with a cloth underneath to prevent it from touching her skin; also she wore simple hoop earings that could be pulled off as wedding bands.

Thomas was her equal in height when he stood at a staggering five foot eleven inches. Their frineds were already six feet and had the honor of twon extra inches above them. Though he was older than Suzy he lacked true muscle and was just tall and lean. He had okay tanned skin, but it made him look like he had been very dark a long time ago but now spent very little time out in the sun. He had jet black hair that was buzzed cut. He had pretty small ears that were close to his head as if his family had been developed to be fighters with admirable attack qualities. He had long legs but his asthma kept him from being able to use them to their ultimate advantage. He wore loose black jeans with a pentagram on the back pockets which he had ironed on after Suzy had given it to him on his birthday. He wore a tight shirt to show off his lean stomach and the shirt read, 'Stop Talking. I'm Trying to Ignore You.' Suzy always laughed when she saw that shirt considering that she had given it to him on Valentine's Day for laughs. He wore his sports watch and his wolfhead necklace that he had bought on impulse while at a store called Vampire's R Us while at the mall with Suzy and Eduardo during the summer.

Finally they reached class and went to the back toward their seats with her other two friends. She gently let go of Thomas and helped him to his seat so that he could get his breathing evened out while she gracefully made it to her seat and started to take out her things. When she saw that Thomas was too tired to move for a bit, she got his things out as well and made sure to hand his inhaler to help out in case a asthma attack was going to get to him. Obviously one had been on the way because he used the inhaler and looked over at her with a smile to thank her for her thinking.

"What kept you Suzy? I swear, I thought you were actually going to be late. Did you run into any trouble?" Eduardo asked in his deep smooth voice that made all other girls swoon but not her. She was immune after so amny years of living next to him. Also because she remembered him before he had gotten in big time shape and had gained his sexy voice. He had glasses just like her but they only made him seem more intelligent. He had a muscle shirt on with his pants with all the chains that it looked like he could whip anyone at any given moment just by swiveling quickly. Underneath he had well developed legs with muscles running through just like his arms. His face was thin and handsome, with his skin almost as tan as hers. Both had skin that was just barely tan but enough color to tell that they had Mexican roots. He had no facial hair and he had a neckalce around his neck of a heart with a the name 'Destino' in it. It was the name of his mother that he carried with him always since he did not want to get it tattoed to his skin, knowing how much his mother had disapproved of them.

"Oh you know the same thing as always. They were picking on Thomas so I came up and told them to either back off or face the face of a dictionary up close for the first time. Then the halls were crowded with the ROTC marching off to the bus for their six month boot camp thing. That's all, just the same thing as always," Eduardo laughed and Nick joined in with a wheeze of a laugh from Thomas. Suzy heard it and moved toward him to help him relax out and massaged his shoulders to help him out until his breathing was safe so he wouldn't suffocate. She went back to sit down and stared at Nick. He wore glasses as well that looked as if they were a part of him. He had short black hair and had only lean muscle all over his body. He was the whitest in the group. When he stood next to them he almost looked like an albino but his bright green eyes always lit up to make him seem as if he were glowing with some type of secret. Today he had sported a pair of denim shorts to show off his well muscled legs, and a shirt that said, 'I am no longer a menace to society,'. He had already been ready and he looked anxious for the beginning of class for the big debate that they were going to have in which both he and Suzy were captains of.

The bell rang for the start of US History to begin. This was the honprs class and they had already gone ahead by about a week so they had cleared a whole time just for these debates and today they were covering her favorite subject. . . teen abortion. She had read up very thouroughly in the subject before today and had planned to take the opposing side and Nick had agreed to take the pro considering that he knew it to be easier to defend than to shoot down the idea.

"Okay class, I can see that our captains are quite anxious to start our debate today. Isn't that true Ms. Diego? Mr. Peters, if you will please come with Ms. Diego to the front of the class to set up selected partner," their teacher was a very old woman nearing her eighties but taught for the joy she found in her job. She had survived cancer and loved it when she could get her students truly interested in politics.

"Yes m'am," both responded at the same time. The class broke out in giggles because they were the only students who addressed the teacher as if in the military and never using a teacher's name unless they were among others to determine the correct teacher. Both walked at the same pace, actually taking the same step at the same time. It was a strange thing but they were well synchronized with each other since they were constantly competing and always knew each others next step. The students mumured amongst themseves about the strange two seeing as they were both as equally smart and always got one hundred percent on their tests and everyhitng that they did. As they were five inces from the desk, they stopped and waited fro instruction.

"Suzy take right side seat and Nick the left. As soon as both of you are seated, you may decide who will go first to choose their partner for the debate. Also, please remember that since this is a two hour class, you'll only have a total time of half an hour in total for the whole subject and five minutes for discussion on each of your parts. Please now choose your partners for the debate," Nick and Suzy had discussed this beforehand about who they would choose and why. They had even had an agreement to go full at it since this was not a play debate like the ones that they had at lunch about similar subjects. Nick pointed at Eduardo for his team and Suzy pointed at Thomas for hers. Thomas looked sheepish since he never really talked. He wrote okay papers and got B's and A's with the occasional C's. It was odd that the smartest girl in class would choose the most average kid in class. Also Nick and Eduardo were almost even except that he had a few B's and tended to turn in things in sloppy condition. The students in class perked up, this was going to be an intresting event after all. The two brains at it with laggers that either could cost them the competition or help push them toward success.

"Okay, Nick you have the floor first and please make sure to clearly state what side you represent in the issue of teen pregnancies. Now make sure that both partners get an equal chance to speak and that no one partner be allowed to speak through the whole five minutes or they will be given a two minute instead and the other team will receive the other three minutes. You may begin," Nick rose up and took a deep breath; this was his opportunity to finally best Suzy at her best. Oh how sweet success would be.