“Where is it!!? I’m gonna miss my goddamn right because I can’t find it!” I grumbled to my self, picking through piles of clothing littering my bedroom floor. “Stupid fucking…there it is!!” I grabbed the sock off my desk, deciding against making myself try to figure out how it got there. I hopped out of my room, pulling it on. I could hear honking outside. “Goddamnit!”

“Come on, Lace! It’s not only you who is going to be late but me as well!” Eric, one of my best friends, said. I live with him and his parents. I flipped him off before sliding my feet into my shoes and grabbing my backpack. Both of us left the house and raced across the yard to the car that was parked in the driveway. The door just had to be on the opposite side of the house from the driveway and lord knows Eric and I aren’t smart enough to go through the garage door. He has one huge lawn.

“Hey you two.” I slid into the middle seat in the back of the car so now I’m between Eric and my other best friend, Megan.

“Hey Mags.” I said, doing up my seat belt. I looked at the people in the front seat. “Hi Kris and Will.”

“Hi Lacey.” Kris, Megan’s older sister, said, turning around. “You guys are damn lucky that your house and the school are on the way to our school.”

“Well, to be fair luv…” Will said, glancing at Kris as he drove away from the house. “All three places, your house included, are out of the way for me. It would probably be easier for me to just go straight on to school.”

“Shut up.” Kris said. I rolled my eyes. I’ve known Megan, Kris and Will for only about a year now. I moved to town, with Eric and his family, last year during tenth grade and became friends with Megan within the first week. I met her sister and the boyfriend the following week and since then Eric and I have been getting rides to school. Behind his back, I called Will whipped by the sisters because he does just about anything for them, he and Kris are pretty in love. They go to the local college and also work at the club downtown with a few more of their friends as far as I know.

“So, thanks to a few inside sources, guess who broke up over the weekend.” Megan said.

“I’m guessing either Natalie and Collin or Deanna and Ben.” Eric said. The first couple were the command duo in, what we liked to call, the ‘popular mean’ crowd. It’s just a group of people that everyone knows but are a bunch of assholes and bitches. Me and my friends are what we call the ‘popular nice’ crowd. Everyone knows us and we’re pretty friendly to most people. Deanna is a girl on the verge of joining the popular mean crew and Ben is the guy who showed up at the beginning of the year and became her boyfriend. I don’t know too much about him but I know that she is definitely qualified to be part of that crowd.

“Sadly NatCol are in it for the long run.” Megan said. I smirked because I came up with the nickname. Natalie and Collin are practically the Hollywood couple of our school. I don’t know if they were more like TomKat or Brangelina but I did the classic Hollywood name blend on them.

“So that means the other two broke up and Miss Deanna is now an official ‘pop mean queen’.” I said.

“Yep.” Megan said.

“God you guys are confusing.” Kris said.

“Yay, we still confuse the adults.” I said, clapping my hands.

“I’m only twenty.” Kris said. The three of us in the back seat laughed.

Once at school we found Jordan, Mike and Karla, the other three people in our group. Mike and Megan are dating and so are Jordan and Eric. Mike and Eric are the only guys in the group. Jordan’s very outspoken…sometimes I can’t understand why Eric likes her so much but they make a pretty cute couple at times.

“Hey guys.” Mike said. Megan hugged and kissed him. Jordan did the same to Eric.

“Ah the joys of being the only single ones in the group.” Karla said.

“Well at least we’re together in it.” I said, laughing.

“True…but I think we need boyfriends.” Karla said. I nodded in agreement. Despite what the majority of the school’s population may believe, I’m not a slut. I’m not a virgin either. I think I fit comfortably in between. Most of the rumours about me are actually very, very wrong. But those will be revealed later.

I threw my backpack onto the table and spun slightly before dropping into my chair. Next to me sat Ben, relatively new. He moved during the summer and has been going to the school since the start of the year. I guess it’s been about two months now because it’s the end of October. He’s not exactly the hottest guy in school but I guess if you took away the glasses, did something with his hair, and got him into cooler clothes then he would probably be OK looking. He looked as if someone had killed his puppy at the moment. I guess it was him and Deanna who had broken up.

“Alright class, today is a rather important day.” The teacher announced as she came into the room, pushing a pretty big cart that had boxes on top and under as well. I raised an eyebrow, wondering what was in the boxes.

Pretty dumb thing to wonder. This is home ec class. But I’m seriously hoping it’s not what I think it is. I have been wrong before.

“Lacey Carmichael and Ben Jameson…why don’t you two work together.” The teacher said, putting a doll in a car seat in front of us. “Congratulations, it’s a boy.”

“Oh joy.” I said.

“Look on the bright side…it can’t pee on you.” The teacher said. I rolled my eyes. “This assignment is you’re summative. If you don’t take good care of your baby, don’t expect to pass.” Stupid evil teacher. I like her most of the time but not now.

The doll made a cooing noise and I eyed it warily. This was going to be a long, possibly painful project.