Hey guys. Well, this is just an idea I’ve had in my head lately… decided to get it down. Hopefully you like this chapter and review it and all :D. Enjoy.

Chapter One

I gulped, staring up at the tall grey walls of the building in front of me that was my new school, Woodland High. Tall trees lined the path leading from the large parking lot I stood in to the entrance of the huge school, swaying in the slight Californian breeze.

“OK Alina, you can do this,” I muttered to myself, adjusting the textbooks I held in my arms into a more comfortable position.

I took a step forward toward the school, only to find my feet glued to the spot as my eyes flicked from the school to the hundreds of students milling around on the large front lawn. Being a very shy person, the sight of so many people made my head spin.

How was I supposed to walk through that crowd without being stepped on, knocking into someone or just generally being noticed?

“Oh, God, I can’t do this,” I whispered frantically, stumbling back a few steps.

“Hey, watch it!” yelled an annoyed voice as I slammed backwards into something solid.

Looking up, I found myself staring into two angry brown eyes. Muttering apologies, I hurried away from the brown-eyed girl and lost myself in a crowd of students walking toward the school.

I tried to find my way out of the crowd without bumping into anyone, but this was a bit difficult seeing as though I was completely surrounded and was now being jostled up the front path of the school. I finally stumbled out of the crowd and found myself face to face with a very tall guy.

Swallowing hard, I lowered my gaze, allowing my long brown hair to hide my face as I always did when I was either embarrassed or just too shy to make eye contact. I turned away from the guy and slowly looked up, finding myself two feet from the front steps of the school.

“Get outta my way!” someone called from behind me.

Yelping in surprise, I leapt sideways, my textbooks spilling onto the ground as a guy on a scooter whizzed past. I stooped and gathered my books back in my arms, my cheeks burning with embarrassment as a few people around me laughed at my predicament.

Yeah, that’s right, don’t even bother helping me, I thought. I’m just a new girl who has no idea where I’m supposed to go from here.

I straightened once I had managed to gather all my books and, hugging them to my chest, I hurried up the front steps of the school, realizing I would be safer in there than outside where hundreds of people were running around.

Once inside the cool halls of the school, I relaxed a bit, easing the tension in my shoulders. The corridors weren’t as crowded as the front lawn, as there was still twenty minutes until Form class – oh, I mean, homeroom.

Moving from Australia to America was certainly going to take a lot of getting used to.

Frowning, I walked over to a nearby notice board, searching for a map. I had to get to the Principal’s office before homeroom started. Chewing my bottom lip, I tried to make sense of the map.

Five minutes after staring at the ridiculously confusing map, I heard male voices approaching from down the hall. Keeping my hazel eyes fixed on the notice board, I silently wished with all my might that they would just keep walking.

“Hey, Kyle, do you know when the soccer tryouts are on?” one guy called out from behind me.

“How should I know, Troy? I play basketball… you know, a real sport,” another guy – who I assumed with Kyle – replied playfully.

There was a thumping sound and a cry of pain from Kyle.

“The tryout times should be on the notice board,” another guy said.

I froze. That would mean they’d be heading over here. Damn it.

I heard footsteps as the three guys made their way over to the notice board where I was standing. I tried to shuffle to the side without making eye contact, giving them a clear view of the papers tacked up on the board.

“There it is. Tryouts for the juniors are on at… three thirty. Sweet. Are you staying for them?” Troy asked.

“I dunno, maybe,” the third speaker replied.

“Well, let’s go outside. I spotted some hot new exchange students that might need some directing,” Kyle said.

“You guys go ahead. I’ll catch up.”

“OK. Catch ya later, Zac.”

“Yeah, see you.”

I kept on studying the map of the school as Kyle and Troy’s footsteps retreated out the school’s front doors. I was aware of the third speaker, Zac, still standing behind me.

“You new here?”

I gave a huge start of surprise as I realised he was talking to me and slowly turned around to find myself looking straight up at a grinning guy. I felt my breath catch in my throat as I took in his appearance.

His brown hair lay tousled and swept across his face just above his sparkling, forget-me-not blue eyes. His tanned face was friendly and lit up by the most amazing smile ever.

Suddenly, I became all too aware that I had been staring at the guy for a full minute or so. Blushing furiously, I averted my chocolate brown eyes away from him and stared down at my old and worn black Converse. Remembering his question, I gave a small nod.

The guy laughed, the sound sending shivers down the back of my neck and causing me to blush even harder, if that was possible.

“I could tell. No one who’s been here for longer than a week looks at the school’s maps. They’re way too confusing.” He paused for a moment, obviously waiting for me to say something. When I didn’t he continued, “So, where you headed?”

I glanced up into his eyes before quickly averting my gaze, realizing that he was still watching me. “Uh… Mr. Wright’s office,” I said in a small voice, referring to the principal of Woodland High.

I noticed his eyebrows contract slightly and hoped I hadn’t made a fool out of myself somehow.

“That accent… Are you Australian?” he asked suddenly.

“Yeah,” I said quickly, relieved that I hadn’t said something stupid.

He grinned. “I’m Zac.”

I nodded in acknowledgement but something held me back from telling him my own name.

“OK, choosing to stay mysterious, I can deal with that,” Zac said after a few moments of silence, his grin widening. “Well, it’s nice to meet you, Mystery Girl. Do you want me to take you to the Principal’s office?”

I smiled shyly at him and nodded. “Thanks,” I said.

“No problem.” Zac gestured for me to follow him as he headed up the hallway, talking about completely random topics.

I listened to him speak, occasionally sneaking a glance up at him but looking away quickly, not wanting to be caught staring.

“It’s Sarah, isn’t it?” Zac suddenly said.

“Pardon?” I said, confused.

“No, no. That can’t be it… too common.” He lapsed into silence, his brow furrowed with thought. “Uhh, Rebecca? No… Rachel? Hmm… Coco?”

It took me a moment to realise that Zac was trying to guess my name. Without thinking, I burst out into laughter. If he guessed my name, I’d give him one hundred dollars on the spot. After all, I doubt he’d come across many Alina’s in his life.

Zac grinned down at me. “Well, at least I got you to laugh. But I’m guessing by your reaction that Coco isn’t your name?”

Trying to contain my amusement, I shook my head, still smiling.

“Hmm… Joanna then? No? Kelly? Stephanie? Adrienne? Dana? Brenda?”

He led me down three hallways, continuing to suggest names, each of them stranger than the last, before stopping in front of a door labeled Administration.

“Well, here we are,” Zac said, turning to me. “You’ll be alright from here, won’t you?”

I nodded, smiling up at him. “Thanks for showing me. If you hadn’t, I’d probably still be trying to decipher that map back there.”

Zac looked taken aback for a moment before he laughed and said, “You know, that’s probably the most I’ve heard you say so far.”

I smiled and glanced away shyly.

“Well, we’ll just have to work on that, won’t we?” Zac grinned. “I’ll see you around Mystery Girl.”

He raised a hand in farewell and made to walk off. I watched him head off down the hallway, chewing my bottom lip and thinking.

Finally, I called out after him, “Alina! My name’s Alina!”

Zac turned around at the end of the corridor, grinning back at me. “Nice to meet you Alina!” he called. “And just so you know, I was just about to guess that name!”

I grinned as he waved once more before disappearing around a corner. Turning to the Administration door, I opened it slowly and found myself in a waiting room. A blonde woman sitting behind a desk raised her eyes to look at me questioningly.

“Uh… I’m Alina Robinson, I’m here to see Mr. Wri–”

“Take a seat,” the woman overrode my small voice, gesturing to one of the comfy-looking armchairs that lined the opposite wall. She returned her eyes to the computer screen in front of her.

Taken aback by the woman’s rudeness, I walked over to one of the chairs and sat down, waiting patiently.

About five minutes later, a grumpy looking girl emerged from the door to my right followed by a man that looked around his mid-forties. I raised my eyebrows slightly at the sight of the girl, who was very different than what I was used to.

Her choppy black hair was pushed up at the back and a long fringe swept across her forehead, covering half of her right eye, which was rimmed with thick black eyeliner. She had a lip piercing and was wearing black skinny jeans, a Nirvana band T-shirt and black Converse.

“I’m only doing this for your own good,” the man – who I took to be the principal, Mr. Wright – said sternly, pushing his round spectacles up his nose.

The girl rolled her green eyes and rounded on him. “That’s bullshit! You can’t expect me to spend five afternoons in detention just because I punched that stupid whore! She deserved it anyway!”

“Gabriella, calm down,” Mr. Wright said in a somewhat hopeful voice.

“I will not calm down! The bitch provoked me! Everyone saw it!” Gabriella exclaimed. “And don’t call me Gabriella! It’s Eve.”

“Everyone also saw you punch Stacy Witcomes and because of that, you need to be punished,” Mr. Wright said, ignoring ‘Eve’s’ last sentence. He lowered his voice somewhat and added, “How do you think it would look if I just let you go, Gabby?”

Eve’s eyes narrowed. “Right, sorry Dad. I forgot that you were all about appearances.” With that, she whirled around and stormed out of the office, slamming the door shut behind her.

Mr. Wright slumped back against the wall, rubbing his forehead tiredly. His eyes found me and I quickly lowered my gaze, hoping that he didn’t think I had been eavesdropping, even though it would have probably been extremely difficult not to hear unless I stuck my fingers in my ears and hummed loudly.

“You must be…” Mr. Wright faltered for a moment and I knew he was going to mispronounce my name, “Ah-lie-nay?”

I suppressed the urge to snort with laughter. That was by far the worst pronunciation attempt I’ve ever heard.

“Actually it’s A-lee-nah,” I corrected, giving him a small smile.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, Alina,” Mr. Wright said, this time pronouncing it correctly. “Please, come through to my office…”

I stood and followed the principal into his office, seating myself in one of the extremely uncomfortable straight-backed chairs that sat in front of his desk. Taking a seat behind the desk, Mr. Wright turned to face me with a tired smile.

“I’m sorry you had to witness that out there,” he said quietly. “It’s just my daughter, Gabriella… she’s a bit of a troublemaker.”

I nodded slowly, unsure of what to say.

With a quiet sigh, Mr. Wright shuffled around in a few drawers before withdrawing a small file.

“So, Alina, I understand that you moved here from Australia?” Mr. Wright said, his tone changing from tired to business-like in a manner of seconds as he flicked open the file in front of him.

“Yes, sir,” I nodded.

Mr. Wright surveyed the papers in front of him for a few moments before looking up at me again with a smile. “Well, it looks like you have a very good educational record, Alina. You signed up for most of the advanced subjects we offer at this school, correct?”

I nodded once more.

“Well done,” Mr. Wright said, his smile widening. “It’s not often that our school gains a student like you. Hopefully you’ll be able to steer some of our less… driven students in the right direction, yes?”

I stared at him for a few moments. What was that supposed to mean? Did he seriously expect me to walk up to my more rebellious peers and suggest that they do their homework instead of smoking, drinking and partying? He’d obviously gotten the wrong girl for the job.

Seeming to notice my slightly horrified expression, Mr. Wright chuckled reassuringly. “Nothing to worry about, of course. I just meant that if you continued to excel in your studies like you clearly did back in Australia, your attitude might rub off on the other students.” He smiled. “Although, the study program is looking for tutors…”

I simply kept on staring at him. As if a shy girl like me could actually try and teach someone.

“Well, maybe not then… but if you ever do change your mind, just see Miss. Green of the English department. She’ll point you in the right direction.” Mr. Wright smiled at me before continuing, “So, on with the show, I suppose! Here’s your timetable and an extremely confusing map of our school. I must remember to update it…”

I took the two sheets of paper Mr. Wright held out and glanced down at my timetable. English, Math, French, Sport, Chemistry…

Wait, what? Since when did I sign up for sport, the one subject I hated?

“Is there something wrong?” Mr. Wright asked.

I looked up at him, frowning. “I’m sorry sir, but I don’t remember signing up for sport.”

Mr. Wright chuckled. “It appears that your mother had something to do with that.”

Oh, of course. Mum was always trying to involve me in either extra curricular activities or sporting events… anything that could make me ‘socialize’ more. What was wrong with her? If I couldn’t find anyone to talk to back in Australia, what made her think that I’d find anyone in America? Well, anyone beside Zac, I suppose…

I frowned to myself at that thought.

“Well, if that’s all the problems you can think of, Alina, I might just have to get going. I have a meeting in fifteen minutes and you have homeroom in ten.”

I looked up to see Mr. Wright grinning at me. Nodding, I picked up my textbooks and stood up.

“Oh, your locker is down the junior hallway, not too far from here. It should be easy enough to find on your map,” Mr. Wright added as I made my way towards the door.

“Thank you,” I said politely, nodding my head and exiting the office.

I avoided the impatient secretary’s eye as I walked out of the administration office. I stood out in the corridor beyond, staring down at my map in confusion. If I just went right… my locker should be in the hallway on my second left… or was that the third left?

Sighing in frustration, I looked up from the map and began to walk down the hallway to my right. I headed off to my second left and gazed around, trying to locate my locker number.

“Aha!” I said in a voice no more than a whisper as I saw my locker.

Hurrying over to it, I entered my combination and swung the door open. I was immediately overwhelmed with the smell of old socks. Obviously, whoever had previously owned this locker was some sort of jock because pictures of a football team lined the locker.

Sighing and trying not to inhale the smell again, I quickly dumped my unneeded textbooks into the locker and stuffed the ones I did need for the first four periods into my bag.

The timetable was strange… Instead of having two classes, then a twenty-five minute lunch break, followed by another period and a longer, fifty minute lunch break with the final period afterwards, I had four shorter periods and then a forty-five minute lunch break before another four classes.

This was going to take some getting used to…

Suddenly, a shrill bell rang out through the hallways. Glancing at my watch, I took it as a five minute warning bell until I had to get to my homeroom, which I was pretty sure was only down the hallway there…

I closed my locker as students began to swarm through the corridor, obviously on their way to their homerooms. Swinging my bag over my shoulder, I joined the crowd of teenagers, walking in the direction I hoped my homeroom was in, map in hand.

Finally, I managed to find my homeroom just as the second bell rang out. I hurried into the nearly-full classroom and cast a quick look around. There wasn’t a teacher in sight and the students in the class were all sitting on desks, shouting and laughing.

Chewing my bottom lip, I made my way slowly toward the back of the classroom where a few empty seats remained. I felt the eyes of the students on me as I walked through the rows of desks and I simply lowered my head to avoid their gazes.

I lowered myself into the seat in the middle of the back row and turned to face the front, only to see that nearly everyone was staring at me. A dull flush began to creep into my cheeks and I tried not to make eye contact. Eventually everyone turned away and general conversation struck up again. I took this as my chance to have a good look at the teenagers around me.

In the front right hand corner of the class sat a few smarter-looking kids, their noses in books or their hands flying across paper as they scribbled notes. A guy in the third row had his head on the desk and his mouth was hanging open; he was obviously fast asleep. Others were simply just scattered around in their own little groups, talking and laughing.

Lowering my eyes to my timetable, I noted that I had English up first.

“Hem, hem.”

I frowned slightly. What the hell was that?

“Hem, hem”

It sounded like something dying…

“Hem, HEM!”

My head snapped up. I was looking into two angry blue eyes belonging to an equally angry-looking blonde girl. She was standing over me with her hands on her slim hips, glaring down at me with the three blondes that stood next to her.

“Er… Hi?” I said meekly, wishing the intimidating girls would recognize me as pathetic prey and go somewhere else.

The blonde’s eyes narrowed further. “You’re in my seat,” she hissed.

Suddenly, I felt the eyes of everyone in the classroom turn to look at me. I gulped.

“I, uh, well… I didn’t – sorry, I guess… I’ll just – uh…” I failed miserably to string even one measly sentence of apology together.

The girl smirked, obviously aware of how intimidated I was. She leaned over the desk I was sitting at and snarled, “That means: move.”

I quickly looked down, breaking eye contact and blushing furiously, and began to stand up.

“Hang on there, new girl. Don’t tell me you’re going to let someone like Leslie Overridge order you around. God knows she’s got a big enough ego as it is,” a sudden voice spoke out.

I raised my eyes to the classroom doorway where I recognized the girl from earlier – Eve, was her name? – standing there with her hands on her hips. Even though she had addressed me, her narrowed eyes were set straight on the blonde who had told me to move.

The blonde, who I took to be Leslie Overridge, straightened up and slowly turned to face Eve. I saw one of Leslie’s friends touch her nose gingerly and I noticed that, beneath a thick layer of foundation, a bruise was beginning to swell up. She was obviously Stacy Witcomes, the girl Eve had punched.

“Stay out of this, Eve,” Leslie snapped.

Eve started forward into the classroom. “Since when did a ditzy cheerleader like you start issuing orders?” she said, her expression calm even though her voice was slightly tight.

“Since when did a freak like you start questioning them?” Leslie retorted, earning some smirks from her friends.

Eve raised an eyebrow and opened her mouth to reply when a young woman entered the classroom behind her, apologizing loudly for being late. The woman paused on her way to the desk at the front of the room, her eyes surveying the scene in front of her.

Sighing, she placed her hands on her hips. “OK, girls, what’s going on here?” she asked wearily.

“Nothing Ms. Hall. I was just telling Leslie how nice it was to forfeit her seat to the new girl,” Eve said quickly, her eyes never leaving Leslie’s face.

Leslie glowered at her.

Ms. Hall raised her eyebrows. “New girl? What new girl?” Her eyes landed on me. “Oh, hi there! Sorry, I must have forgotten we were getting a new one today. Um, if you’d just come up the front here with me, I’ll get your name down on the roster.”

Refusing to look at either Leslie or Eve, I hurried to the front of the class where Ms. Hall wrote my name down on the attendance roster. The next time I looked up, Leslie and her friends had taken up the entire back row and Eve had taken a seat in the middle of the class.

“Well, Alina, would you like to tell the class a few words about yourself?” Ms. Hall finally said after taking my name down.

I bit my lip. I hated talking in front of classes. Glancing at Ms. Hall’s beaming face, I turned to the teenagers in front of me and opened my mouth to introduce myself when I was interrupted by the classroom door flying open.

Looking over at the doorway, I felt my stomach do a flip of some sort. The hottest guy I had ever laid eyes on was standing there, a lazy grin spreading over his face as his dark eyes landed on Ms. Hall.

Shaking his dark brown hair out of his eyes, he said, “Sorry I’m late, Diane. I had some business to take care of.” He winked.

“Don’t call me Diane, Nick. You know you have to call me Ms. Hall,” Ms. Hall said, although I detected the faint blush that had crept into her cheeks when the guy had winked.

Nick’s grin only widened and he walked to the second row to the back, flopping into an empty seat.

Clearing her throat, Ms. Hall turned back to me. “Alright, Angela – I mean, Alina, sorry. Please continue…”

Well, if I thought speaking in front of a class was hard, speaking in front of a class and a super-hot guy was a lot worse.

“Uh… I – I’m Arena… I mean, Alina… Alina Robinson. I moved from A – Australia and… er…” I paused in my stuttering speech, wondering what else to say.

Even from the back of the classroom, Leslie’s voice reached my ears in a carrying whisper, “Oh my God, she’s such a little freak.”

My face felt like it was on fire and I knew I was as red as anything. Lowering my gaze to the floor, I hid my face behind my curtain of hair.

“Oh my God, you’re such a bimbo,” Eve’s voice suddenly sounded out, obviously imitating Leslie. “Is ‘freak’ the only insult you can come up with or are all the STDs you’ve gathered over the years killing off your brain cells?”

There was silence.

I looked up to see Eve glaring daggers at Leslie who looked deeply offended, her mouth hanging open in shock. My eyes unconsciously slid over to Nick, who was lounging back in his chair as though he didn’t even realise the glaring fest that was going on around him. Instead, his dark, unreadable eyes were trained directly on… me.

When he caught my eye, the corner of his mouth lifted in a smirk.

I blushed even more and looked away, my eyes flicking back to where Eve and Leslie were now yelling insults at each other, each becoming more inventive and strange as they went.

Biting my lip, I wondered why Eve wanted to go to so much trouble to stick up for me. Either she liked me or… she just liked arguing with Leslie. I think that latter would be more believable.

Finally, they each ended up getting two more insults out before Ms. Hall stopped them.

“BITCH-FACE!” Leslie screeched.

“DIP SHIT!” Eve shouted in return.

“ENOUGH!” Ms. Hall bellowed, leaping to her feet.

Leslie and Eve both turned their glares to her.

“Either you two stop this right now, or I’ll send you up to Mr. Wright’s office!” Ms. Hall snarled, her eyes flashing.

Leslie sneered at Eve and said, “I’m sure Daddy Dearest would love to get another visit from his failure of a daughter before lunch.”

Eve glowered at her and opened her mouth to yell something when the bell signaling the start of first period rang out, cutting her off.

“Out,” Ms. Hall said wearily, sitting slowly back down behind her desk. “All of you, out.”

The students all stood up and surged forward for the door. I watched Leslie strut out of the classroom with her friends following in her wake before turning to look at Eve. She was glaring at Leslie’s retreating back as she stood from her desk.

Deciding it would only be polite to thank Eve for what she did, I made my way over to her with a shy smile on my face. She regarded me silently for a moment before making her way to the door with a slight gesture for me to follow.

I hurried after her and, once out in the hallway, said in my quiet voice, “Thank you for what you did back there.”

Eve shrugged. “It was the least I could do. That bitch deserved to be taught a lesson. Too bad Ms. Hall stopped me when she did… I was about to punch her lights out.”

I glanced at her strangely. I’d never really talked to anyone as obviously violent as Eve before.

Eve, noticing my glance, simply smirked and said, “Sorry if I’m scaring you… What did you say your name was?”

“Alina.”

Eve nodded and extended a hand. “I’m Eve.”

I took the offered hand and nodded. “I know; I saw you in the office with your fa- with Mr. Wright this morning.”

Eve frowned for a moment. “That was you? Huh. Sorry you had to see that. I was just a little sick of Daddy’s ways.” She scowled in thought for a moment or too before shrugging her shoulders slightly. “So, what class have you got first?”

“English,” I said, not needing to check my timetable.

“Mr. Denning’s class?” Eve asked.

I nodded and Eve smiled.

“Looks like you’ll be stuck with me for a bit longer then,” she said.

I smiled back at her, glad to have someone I knew in my first class. Maybe today wouldn’t be so bad after all.