Sicily Carmichael, together with her two best friends Bailey Hahn and Vanessa Prescott, entered the Pacific Vista mall as they removed their newly-bought Prada sunglasses the moment they stepped onto the marble flooring of the shopping area.

“So where to first?” Bailey asked the head cheerleader of Suncoast Valley High.

Sicily looked at her friend before she shrugged her shoulders ignorantly at the blonde. She wanted to shop, that was a given, but she didn’t know where to start. She had just bought some new clothes a few days ago and had spent the whole day going to all the shops in the exact same mall. It was all just going to be the same things, but she remembered seeing on some style magazine this dress which she liked from Zara. She curved her lips up into a small smirk before she tossed her medium brown hair away from her face. Zara it was.

Sicily looked at the shop mannequins that posed unmoving for her. Some were dressed poorly with dull colors such as grey or black while others wore bright pieces in orange, purple and yellow. She immediately liked the one which wore a halter top mini dress in purple. She touched the cloth – silk, and then looked at the price tag. It cost a hundred dollars.

“Not so bad,” she said to herself as she touched the hem of the dress with the tips of her fingers.

“It’s pretty,” Nessa said complimenting her friend. “And wearable for the New Year’s party Zane always hosts every year.”

Zane Lowe was Sicily’s best guy friend and both have known each other and have been close since kindergarten. They became a little bit more than friends though about three years ago when they first entered High School and broke up a few months later since they came to an agreement that best friends will be all they will ever be, nothing more, nothing less. Along with the title ‘best friend’, Zane was also known as Sicily’s protector. Being the captain of their school’s basketball team, no one dared to stand up to him, and this benefited the head cheerleader the most. Well, one guy was ever-willing to start a fight with Zane, and he was Lucas Mercer. Lucas, Luke, or ‘ass’, which Sicily preferred the most, was a different story.

“Maybe I should,” Sicily said with a twinkle in her eyes to both her friends. “This will show Mallory how to dress up properly.”

“Is she even going?” Bailey asked, tying her blonde hair into a messy ponytail. “Eww.”

“You guys know Zane,” Sicily replied with a mischievous smirk. “He’ll do anything for a great party even if he has to invite Lucas’ ex and my archenemy as well.”

Mallory Jacobs was the head cheerleader of Marina del Ray High, and that school was Suncoast’s rival High School. Marina High and Suncoast High were considered the top two schools in the state and two of the best ones in the country. The students who studied there excelled both in the academic and athletic aspects of their lives. Sicily, Bailey, Vanessa, Zane, Lucas and Mallory were the crème of the crop, the best of two schools.

“Lucas and Mallory are broken up already?” Vanessa asked, looking truly oblivious to the newest gossip. “Since when?”

“Since Lucas walked in on Bryce eating the hell out of Mallory, duh,” Bailey answered in a matter-of-factly tone.

“It’s good to know our boy’s growing up.”

Bryce Carlen was part of Sicily’s inner group. He attended Suncoast and was the point guard of the school’s basketball team. He was also Zane’s best friend, and together, they, sometimes even including the girls in their naughty escapades, always got into trouble and detention of course. Bryce Carlen was his school’s most renowned player and had his special ways with the ladies. Even though Zane was much hotter than him by a light-year, though Bryce was also extremely attractive, Bryce scored more girls since he made it his point to while Zane didn’t bother with it, and so, his newest conquest was no one other than Mallory, who was the most beautiful in Marina. Sicily had to give her rival that.

“So are you getting the dress?” Vanessa asked, looking slightly impatient with the wait.

Vanessa knew Sicily was the richest among the three of them and could actually buy the whole store if she wanted to, but she was actually wasting her time thinking on whether to get the dress or not. No, she thought wrong. They had wasted their time gossiping on Lucas and Mallory, their rivals, the ones who thought they were better than the rest. Ever since Vanessa arrived from New York, which was during her sophomore year, Lucas and Mallory had already hated Sicily and vice versa. She tried asking other people what happened among the three and combining everything she found out, all she had was, Mallory and Sicily used to be the best of friends, but that was until they entered seventh grade when Mallory backstabbed Sicily. She didn’t know how Lucas fit in the story.

“Yeah, I am,” Sicily said, disrupting Vanessa’s thoughts.

Not needing an answer to that, Sicily turned her heel, her back facing her friends, as she headed over to the cashier to pay for the dress. She got out her Gucci wallet and removed a hundred and ten dollars from it before she handed the money over to the salesperson whom she smiled at. Running in their heels due to the fact that the Victoria’s Secret shop was a mere eight feet away from them, Sicily, Bailey and Vanessa left the store when Sicily unconsciously knocked someone over.

Sending the person sprawling onto the floor, she accidentally jabbed her elbow onto the person’s chest, and tossing a handful of shopping bags into the air, she unintentionally stepped on the guys Nike’s with her shoes. Her three-and-a-half inched heel probably caught the guy off guard that before he could land on his butt with his hands on the floor to protect him from a harder fall, he fell, back first, as his elbows hit the marble flooring of the mall hard. Sicily and the others around her flinched when they heard a bone crack.

“Shit,” Sicily cursed to herself when she realized what had happened.

She had broken one of the guy’s arms.

“Lucas, what the hell happened?” one of the guys who stood in front Sicily and company asked. “Are you okay?”

“The hell!” Lucas shouted. “Get away from me, Zack!”

The injured one put the palm of his hands onto the marble and pushed himself up to stand, but he ended up falling and shouting even more due to the pain. He shot a string of curses to no one in particular, but he stopped when his grey eyes landed on Sicily’s form.

“You,” he said menacingly. “My fucking arm is broken because of you, idiot!”

Instead of apologizing for her actions, Sicily decided to heat up further the argument since Lucas had practically called her an ‘idiot’ straight to her face. She wasn’t the kind of girl who was threatened by a guy’s strong build, deep voice or tall height since she was surrounded by varsity players almost every time in school and also since her best friend fit that category perfectly. She looked at Lucas apathetically before she bent down so that their eyes were equally leveled.

“One, I am not stupid,” she said with a smirk on her face. “And two, who knew a girl could break your arm?”

She touched Lucas’ arm and he grumbled when she pressed her finger onto his skin. It hurt. If Lucas were someone else, Sicily would have helped that person right away, but it was Luke Mercer, the guy Mallory betrayed her for, the guy whom she used to like when she was in Middle School. She may have been downright spoiled and acted as if the world was listening to each and her every word, but she still had a heart. The only bad thing about it was that it was very choosy, and unfortunately for Lucas, Sicily’s heart wasn’t keen on getting him helped after what he put her through and after what he said just a few minutes ago.

“Don’t you know what this means?” he said, his tone still venomous.

Sicily shook her head. Her smirk had disappeared and was now replaced with a look of thoughtfulness. It had been a long time since she last saw Lucas’ face close-up. The last was when they hung out together at their town’s park when they still studied in the same Middle School. He had the same jet-black hair although it seemed shorter now, but still, he remained as attractive as before. Sicily wasn’t going to lie. Even though she hated the guy to death, her angst towards him never affected the way she saw him physically. He was tall, probably about six-foot-four, dark, because of his tan, and handsome, with those mesmerizing sometimes-hazy grey eyes and sharp jaw line. Before she could continue taking in his features, he stopped her and continued the argument.

“Basketball season starts in a week, ditz!”

“And?” Sicily asked.

She was still bent down and was listening intently to Luke’s next word while Bailey and Vanessa were helping Zackary and Tanner, another friend of Lucas’, pick up the bags that a moment ago, had been flying in the air when Sicily had stepped on Luke’s foot.

“How can I play with a broken arm?” he said in a booming voice that slightly shocked the woman who was kneeling down in front of him.

Sicily, for a while there, seemed worried. Zane and Lucas played the same position. They were the forwards of their respective schools, the captains, the playmakers, the star players and the ones who could shoot the most. In short, they were the most important. Of course there was no ‘I’ in ‘team’, but the team needed its captain for confidence and these two guys had egos the size of Asia. After having listened to Zane rant about basketball a gazillion times, Sicily knew how Lucas was feeling, scared to lose and to get his pride wounded. But then she remembered something, and once again, her smirk was back on her face.

“You can’t,” she started.

“Like I don’t know that, Barbie,” He said, looking at the cheerleader in disgust.

“Come to think of it, Marina doesn’t have its number one player while ours has its and Zane is feeling better than ever, just to let you know,” Sicily said with a wink.

She knew she should pity Lucas for his current condition, but after calling her an idiot, a ditz and ‘Barbie’, all in the span of twenty minutes, who could remain calm with that?

“You little wrench!” he said, trying to stand up to just fail one more time.

Sicily hooked her finger under Lucas’ chin to lift it up and the first thing she thought was the touch of his skin – soft. She quickly shook her head and put the idea at the back of her head before she smiled an evil and conniving one at him.

“I’ll be watching the game,” she said before she took Lucas’ better arm and helped him stand up. “And so will you.”

With the rest of the group trailing them from behind, she took Lucas to the nearest hospital and after doing so, she called her parents to let them know what happened since they were a close friend of Lucas’ mom and dad. What came next, she never expected to happen.

Hopefully, I can write fast and still update in a week's time, but with school and all, I'm not so sure. :(( Anyway, I hope you guys will like this prologue and eventually my whole story. If you guys hate it or love it, please don't be afraid to review. They inspire me to write faster:D

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