“Jessica Archer?” A gawky old lady squawked from the old dark oak desk at the front of the classroom.

“Here!” Jessica whipped her head back to the circle she had with her friends. “So what happened?”

“Okay, So I was at my locker talking to Jake and all of a sudden, Janie comes out of nowhere and was all,” Jackie, one of Jess’s many best friends, started mocking the annoyingly rich red-head in their school, “‘Like, who do you think you are? Jake is dating ME.’ And it was SO funny when Jake was all, ‘Umm…Janie, last time I checked, you DUMPED me.’ You needed to see her face.” They all laughed.

“Serves her right, she treated him like trash,” Jess pushed a piece of her wavy blonde-brown hair out of green her eyes. “So, who do you think he likes now?”

“Dunno, kinda hard to tell,” Jackie said. The group of six turned their heads to look at Jake, the schools major hottie.

“He’s so hot!” Ally gushed. She had always had the hots for him. She messed with the half-wet messy black bun on the top of her head. Jess could never understand why she took a shower before she came to school. Her hair was always wet at the bus stop, and always froze. “You’re so lucky he likes you Jackie!”

“You don’t know he likes her Ally. Hey, he could like someone else.” Candace smirked at her.

“Yeah, so who do you think he likes?” Ally countered.

“Me!” Candace shut her eyes and leaned back in her chair, satisfied. Jackie stood up, fire burning in her baby blue eyes.

“He so does not!” Jackie was furious. Fifteen minutes in school and they're already fighting! Jess thought. She sighed. Though, she couldn’t help but laugh.

“Does too!” Candace shouted in her face.

“Does not!” Jackie shouted back.

“Ladies! Take your seats!” Ms. Austin got up from the oak desk and walked over to the fighting teenage girls. “You ladies are 15, don’t you think it’s a little childish to be fighting over boys?” they shook their heads. “Alright class, when the bell rings, report to first block..”

Ally wrote a note and slipped it to Jess. She unfolded it and read her friends chicken-scratch.

‘Tell them they should let JAKE decide who he likes!

-Ally’

Jess immediately turned around in her seat. “Let JAKE decide who he likes you guys.” Jake turned around when he heard his name.

“Huh? Did you call me?” he smiled. Jess melted.

“Uh, we’re talking about Jake Cinchers, not you, sorry.” She returned his smile. Jake Cinchers was the third best looking guy in the school. She looked back at her friends. Silently urging them to make up before the bell rang.

“I’m sorry, Jackie.” Candace said.

“Me too.” They smiled and hugged. Just in time. The bell rang and everyone rushed to the small door to leave the quad. They had to go to homeroom for the first day of the new semester to get schedule cards for the second semester. “Jess! Wait up!”

“What?” she asked sweetly.

“We have first block together. Where is room…” she held the card up to her nose, “13?”

“Follow me.” They started walking toward the main building. “Seriously, what would you do without me?”

“Don’t flatter yourself!” Jess turned to see Candace and Ally. “How many of you people are in my class?” she laughed.

“Umm…all six of us are. But I’m not sure about Jake, Brian, or Branden. We don’t know their schedules yet.” Ally relied. Brian was Jess’s boyfriend, Jake was Jackie’s ‘boyfriend-to-be’, as she put it, and Branden was Ally’s boyfriend.

“Aright,” Jess sighed and proceeded into their classroom.

“Welcome ladies! Please find your seats. They are in alphabetical order by first names.” A short, black haired woman pointed to the rows of desks. Brian was already seated, so was Jake. But Branden wasn’t there. Jess smiled when she noticed her desk was right next to Brian’s.

“Hey!” Jess sat down and pulled out a bundle of notes and handed them to him. He chuckled.

“What’s this?” He asked as he ran his hand through his short brown hair.

“All my notes I meant to give you last semester!” He laughed.

“I’ll read them later. ‘Kay?” she replied with a smile.