Matthew Cresent had always been a small boy. He had messy dark brown hair, boring blue eyes covered by thin-framed glasses, and was fairly short for his age group, whatever it was at the time. He wasn't extremely bright and while he could always manage to be an average player during gym, sports were deffidently not his specialty. He had but one friend, Sophia Dane, and yet he seemed to take her for granted at times.

He wanted so much more. He wanted to part of the 'In crowd'. He wanted to laugh with the jocks. He wanted to date the cheerleaders. He wanted everyone in school to know his name. He never told any of this to Sophia though, that was the one secret he'd always kept from her.

Sophia was Matt's bestfriend. With 'spiral-curly', auburn hair, grey-blue eyes, and a still developing body, she wasn't exactly the most popular girl at school. She certainly had more friends than Matt, for she was Matt's one and only bestfriend, but Matt was special to her. She had known him since they were in pre-school and they had grown up together; as a matter of fact, they even applied to a lot of the same colleges so that they could be together after highschool.

Sophia had been in love with Matt since the eighth grade.

It was the summer at the end of 11th grade when Matt had told Sophia that his parents were sending him away for the summer.

"To where?" She had questioned.

"Soccer camp." He muttered solemnly. Out of all the sports, soccer was his worst.

"Bu-but you HATE soccer!" Sophia stated in disbelief. Matt shrugged.

"I..I know, but my parents already took care of everything. I leave tomorrow."

"What am I supposed to do this summer without you?" He smiled slightly as his bestfriend and took her in all at once; she looked like she was already missing him.

"You'll find something to keep yourself entertained with, I'm sure."

"...I'm gonna miss you Matt." She looked down sorrowfully only to be pulled into a hug moments later.

"I'm gonna miss you too, Soph."

He left the very next morning and for the next few weeks Sophia was so disgustingly bored and she couldn't figure what to do with herself.

"Sophia?" Sophia looked up to see her older step-sister staring down at her. No, her step-sister was not one of the evil ones from the stories; she was actually one of the nicest and most popular people one could ever meet.

"Hey Hilary." Sophia muttered from her spot on the couch in front of the TV. Hilary plopped down next to her, her blonde hair boucing infront of her brown eyes. Hilary was going to be a was a year older then Sophia and one of the most popular people at Millsbury High. Although Hilary was always trying to get Sophia to sit with her and stuff, Sophia thought that Matt wouldn't want to sit with the more popular people, so for his sake she never sat with Hilary. Hilary however was going to be a freshman at Washington State so Sophia would have to fend for herself the coming year.

"Hun, I know you miss Matt and all but you can't sit around and wait for the end of the summer!"

"Then what am I supposed to do." She thought a moment.

"Well...I'm going to the beach for the summer; I got a job teaching people how to surf..." Sophia's ears perked up at the word of 'beach'.

"Can I come?!" Sophia laughed.

"We have to ask dad and Sarah." Sarah was Sophia's mom and Hilary's dad's name was Kevin. They'd been married for about 7 years now but Hilary continues to call Sophia's mom by her first name and Sophia calls Hilary's dad by his first name. It was nothing personal it was just what they preferred to call them.

Two days later, Sophia and Hilary both went off for the beach as they waved goodbye to their teary-eyed parents. It's just for the summer. Sophia thought with a roll of her eyes.

As the weeks went by, Sophia was constantly checking her e-mail, phone, and mailbox for any news from Matt. He had promised to keep in contact with her but after the first month, it became apparant that he wasn't thinking about Sophia at all.

Sophia wanted to cry but instead she focused all her negative energy into something productive. She ran every morning and developed a nice tan when she went went down to help her sister teach others how to surf. Her dark, dark auburn hair turned a bit redder and her body developed at a surprising rate; she was a beautiful girl by the end of the summer. She stayed in great shape and did an unbelivable amount of studying just to keep her mind off of Matt.

And it worked.

Yet, she knew she could no longer escape him and she no longer wanted to for it was the first day of school for her. Hilary and her had arrived a day late so instead of starting senior year one a Thursday, Sophia was starting on a Friday - the second day.

In a jean skirt that showed off her nicely tanned & toned lags and a green American Eagle shirt, Sophia took a deep breath before stepping into the busy school. It was only the second day and kids were already copying their friends homework.

Sophia waved to a few of her friends that she passed but she kept her eyes glued for one person in particular - Matt. She hadn't had any contact with him all summer and although it had been killing her, she had a feeling that a simple hug would make up for it.

It's a shame she didn't see him at all. As the first bell rang, Sophia sighed and slowly made her way towards her homeroom.

She rolled her eyes at the classroom: the teacher was sitting at her desk, smacking her gum and reading the latest issue of Flawless Magazine; the guys were checking out the girls butts and the girls were giggling and gossiping as they pretended that they didn't notice the boys were staring as they flaunted.

The only thing different was that there was a new guy in class. He had dark, smooth brown hair that fell into his bright, blue eyes. He seemed fairly familiar but as he laughed and joked with the jocks she knew that she didn't know him; she didn't know anyone that popular unless they used to hang with her sister.

The final bell rang and the teacher silenced everyone before taking roll. Sophia totally spaced out as the teachers attempted to pronounce names only to be rudely correct.

"Lillian Smith?"

"Lilly." She corrected with a glare causing Sophia to roll her eyes. As soon as Sophia's name was spoken, she perked up and let the teacher know that she was there before tuning out again; she only perked up again when she surprisingly heard one other name.

"Matthew Cresent?" Sophia was about to answer that he wasn't in the class when another voice beat her to speaking.

"Here." Sophia looked back and was really quite surprised when she saw the same guy who was laughing with the jocks. He wasn't Matt, was he? She peered closer and she recoiled when she realized that it was Matt. A new & improved Matt that was now socially accepted. He looked straight at her and rose an eyebrow before turning away and started to talk to a guy next to him.

What's gotten into him? Sophia questioned as the bell rang; everyone stood up and walked towards there class and Sophia sighed when she realized that she probably wouldn't be able talk to him until lunch.

The day dragged on and Sophia noticed that whenever Matt passed her in the hall, he'd ignore her and continue to idily chat with whomever he was with.

Sophia was hurt.

"Ugh, can you believe him?" Sophia turned at her friends voice. Julie sighed and shook her head.

Julie Johnson had pin straight, light brown hair that contrasted perfectly with her green eyes. She was Sophia's closest friends besides Matt and they'd known each other for years. And although Sophia never really thought about it, besides her, Julie was probably the only other person that Matt had as a friend...well, before now.

"I know." Sophia said with a sigh; they were on their way to lunch. "He always sits with us at lunch though, we can ask him what's going on." Julie sent Sophia a doubtful look.

"He didn't sit with me yesterday." Sophia shrugged and assured herself that he only didn't sit with Julie because she herself wasn't there.

Sophia sat down at a table in the middle of the cafeteria right next to the table that her sister and all her friends sat at. Julie, Sophia, and Matt had sat there since the first day of highschool and Sophia was sure that that wasn't going to change now.

Oh how wrong she was.

Sophia and Julie watched in shock as Matt plainly ignored the two friends and sat down at the table with the jocks of the school; the head cheerleader, Annie Brooks, locked onto his arm.

Several people at that table looked up and smiled at Sophia they knew her through Hilary and gave a little wave. Sophia gave a little wave back and at once Julie asked her why she didn't just hang out with them. Sophia rolled her eyes and gave her the same answer she had always given.

"Jules, you don't know anything about them - trust me. My sister hung with them but hated it a lot of the time, they're so fake. The moment something goes wrong to questions your 'status' they'll turn on you; the only reason my sister stayed with them was because...well, she's gorgeous AND was captain of like, everything, so her place was basically safe. No one else's place in that group is safe, trust me on that, and I'd rather have friends I can count on. Plus, you need to realize that the only reason they 'like' me is because I'm Hilary's little sister."

"Eh, fine. You're right but Soph, I'm so hungry. Let's go off campus and grab a bite, okay?" Sophia sighed and nodded as she got up to follow Julie. However, as they passed the table that Matt was sitting at she stopped and walked over to him.

Most of the people said hey and greeted Sophia with a smile; the only ones who didn't were Annie and her bestfriend, Kendra.

Yeah, Annie held a grudge against Sophia and Hilary because Hilary beat her out at everything she did. Now that Hilary was gone however, Annie was now worried about Sophia. She was haunted with thoughts about losing anything from Prom Queen to Homecoming Queen to Class President to Sophia even though Sophia really didn't have much of an interest in any of those things.

So Sophia walked up behind Matt and waited a few seconds before one of the guys nudged him and nodded his head at her. Matt sighed and turned to her; his face blank and his eyebrow raised.

"What?" He questioned after a moments silence.

"...Can I talk to you?" Sophia asked him, fully aware that everyone at the table was watching them.

"What does it look like we're doing now?" He asked, a perfect smirk placed upon his face as the whole table snigered. Although she refused to show it, Sophia was shocked.

Since when did Matt smirk?!

"No, I mean...alone." He rolled his eyes.

"I'm fine here, thanks."

"Matt, I really don't want to have to do this here."

"Sucks." He said with a shrug and this caused Annie to laugh as she glared at Sophia.

"Fine. I'll just ask you here then, why are you sitting over here?" She asked plainly and crossed her arms and to Sophia's annoyance, Matt smirked again.

"Because my friends are sitting here." He answered nonchalantly.

"But...what about me and Julie?" He looked into her grey-blue eyes before he finally shrugged.

"What about you two?"

Silence broke out between the two as they simple stared into each other's eyes. Finally she nodded as she forced herself to hold back tears that were threatening to escape.

"So..." She cleared her throat. "So I guess that we're no longer friends, huh?" His rose as eyebrow.

Wow, a risen eyebrow and a smirk? He was looking like a real jackss.

Matt contemplated how to respond to this. He really wanted the kids at the table to like him; the second he walked into homeroom yesterday the girls and guys of whom he never spoke to before all came next to him.

He didn't want to ruin that so he gave an answer that he knew they'd approve of.

"Hun, we never truly were friends." And with that he turned back to the table to continue a conversation he was having with a guy named Jimmy.

Annie smirked in triumph at Sophia before she too turned back and jumped into a conversation with Kendra.

Sophia stood there in shock before she was finally brought back to reality and walked from the cafeteria where she found Julie waiting with a worried look.

"Soph, what happened? I mean, I look back and you're not there and then I walk back here to see you talking to Mat- oh my god, Sophia! What's wrong hun?"

And Julie led Sophia away as the tears finally freed themselves.