Chapter One

Weddings; the epitome of romance and the cure for unhappiness-everyone had to feel at least a bit emotional and happy at them, yet as Autumn Waters watched her mother slip a ring onto her new stepfather’s finger, she frowned.

“You may kiss the bride.”

Autumn tried not to grimace as the couple exchanged saliva, and focused her attention on the guests. Only a few of them were people she actually knew while the others were friends, family, colleagues or employees of Steve Longman; not to mention several reporters.

Being the daughter of a movie mogul meant that Autumn would have to get used to being in the news. Her stepfather was an Oscar-winning director who was known for his unpredictable taste in women, whether it was a young, beautiful actress, twenty years junior to his 50 years, or a middle-aged, pretty woman who owned a bakery in Manhattan. This time, it was the latter, and Autumn hoped desperately that Steve wouldn’t cheat on and divorce her mother like he had done in the past.

It seemed different though, with Steve and her mother. Her mother was a no nonsense, sensible woman who took no crap from anyone. She knew what she was getting into when she married Steve, yet she didn’t hesitate to marry him. Autumn hoped that her mother would “fix” Steve and vice-versa, (not to say her mother needed fixing).

As long as they made each other happy, Autumn didn’t care what happened to her, even if it meant having to move out of the country.

Looking up at the grand, imposing building in front of her, Autumn felt a deep sense of dread in her heart. She sneaked a glance at the road behind her, to see that her stepfather and her mother had already left.

Harlington Academy, Connecticut, was an elite boarding school. Only the richest went there and scholarships were hardly ever given out. Autumn knew that she should have been feeling lucky that she had been accepted there as her mother had mentioned far too many times, but instead she felt nervous and angry.

Truth be told, Autumn did not want to have to spend the rest of her high school career with a bunch of posh snobs who only cared about themselves. She wanted to go back to New York, where she could bum cigarettes behind the school building with her friends and paint her heart out at a secluded room in her mother’s bakery.

“Hey, you need some help?”

Autumn turned around to see a boy around her age, pushing a big airport trolley which had several bags on it. “Uh…it’s fine thanks…I was just about to go in.”

The boy pushed the door open for her and Autumn entered the spacious foyer of the school where numerous students were mingling. She rolled her eyes as she noticed that most of them were wearing outrageously priced designer outfits and were dragging along Gucci or Christian Dior holdalls.

“So, are you new here?”

Autumn, snapping out of her thoughts of distaste for rich people, looked at the boy. He was tall with a lean body and a friendly face. “Yeah…”

“Taylor,” he introduced, extending his hand.

She shook it. “Autumn Waters Longman.”

“Hey! You’re Steve Longman’s daughter, aren’t you?”

Autumn winced. “Step-daughter.”

Taylor raised his eyebrows at the tone of her voice. “Not happy with the marriage?”

Autumn shook her head. “I’m happy for my mom-he makes her happy-but I don’t get why they couldn’t have sent me to normal, public school in Connecticut.” She gestured to the expensively-clad teenagers around her. “Why here?”

Taylor smiled. “Aww, we’re not that bad.”

“Yeah, I guess I’m just jumping to conclusions, huh?” she replied, smiling weakly.

But as Autumn soon found out she was wrong, because…

“Taylor, honey!” squealed a leggy brunette, walking as fast as she could in her impossibly high heels, to the boy. “How was your summer?”

“It was good,” answered Taylor, “Australia was great for surfing.”

The brunette turned to Autumn. “Who’s your friend?” There was something in her tone that Autumn didn’t like-maybe the exaggerated sweetness or the undertone of jealousy.

“Victoria, Autumn; Autumn, Victoria.”

“Hi,” greeted Autumn, trying to put on a brave smile although she was feeling slightly intimidated by the gorgeous Victoria.

Victoria’s aquamarine eyes narrowed as she gave Autumn a once-over. Autumn was wearing knee-length shorts and a slogan-ed t-shirt which she had thought would be okay to wear on her first day, but looking at Victoria (who was wearing a flowery, strappy mini-dress), she felt significantly underdressed.

Victoria’s eyes lingered on Autumn’s red converses and her mouth curled up in evident distaste before she said, “Where are you from?”

“Huh?”

“Where are you from?” repeated Victoria. “I mean, you’re definitely not from around here…”

“New York,” answered Autumn. “My mom remarried to Steve Longman so I had to come here.”

Victoria’s smile became even wider. “So you’re the Longman girl.” She turned to Taylor. “Who knew you would have such great taste in friends?” Then, focusing her attention back to Autumn she added, “I’ll take you to the Office.”

Autumn hesitated-she wasn’t sure if she wanted to befriend the rich girl in front of her but then reminding herself that having one friend was better than having none, she let Victoria lead the way.

As they walked Victoria told Autumn about the school. “We live in dorms-I’m guessing you know that already. If you’re a freshman or sophomore, there are twenty-four girls or boys to a dorm, but if you’re a junior or senior, there are eighteen girls or boys to a dorm. We live in big houses around campus-there are ten of them altogether. Each house has two dorm advisors-one for each floor. I’m in Oakwood House.”

Victoria continued to talk about the school; she was talking so fast that Autumn was barely getting a chance to take everything in. By the time Victoria was finished, Autumn’s head was spinning with the information.

They reached the office where Autumn was told to wait in the conveniently named waiting room, while Victoria kept her company.

Finally, Autumn’s name was called and she entered the Principal’s plush, expensive study. He spoke to her about the school, how he wished she would have a great experience, about her classes-most AP, of course. Autumn did want to well in life. He cautioned her about truancy-she had skipped school a few times in her old school, and the Principal was hoping-no ordering, that she never did it again. Then, finally, he handed her all the necessary items she needed to survive-her room key, a map of the school, her schedule, her locker information, and she left his office, relieved.

As Autumn was edging out of the office, she felt a strong force against her and fell onto the floor. Picking up the things the Principal had given her, she heard a masculine chuckle.

“Clumsy little girl, aren’t we?”

Autumn looked up to see who she had bumped into and almost gasped. The boy was impeccably handsome-Grecian features, messy chestnut hair and grey-blue eyes. Regaining her composure she snapped, “Well if it wasn’t for your big, fat body, I wouldn’t be down here in the first place.”

Of course he was anything but fat-lean, really.

He laughed again. It was an infuriating laugh, thought Autumn, then he leant out a hand to her. She used it to pull herself up. Then he stared at her for a few moments, making Autumn uncomfortable, and said, “And you’re weak. Comes with the problem of being a girl.”

“Problem?!” exclaimed Autumn. “Why is being a girl a problem?”

“Oh it’s no problem for me,” said the boy, baring his perfect teeth at her, “In fact I rather enjoy girls.” He looked her up and down and Autumn fought the urge to kick him in the nuts.

She told herself to ignore him and brushed past him when his hand shot out and grabbed her arm.

“What?” demanded Autumn.

The boy raised his eyebrows. “Nothing, nothing, calm down.”

“I would be calm if you let go of my arm.”

“Oh no, that isn’t possible. I rather like holding it.”

“Let go.”

“No.”

“Let go.”

“No.”

“Jesus Christ, just flippin’ let go of my arm!”

“Temper, temper,” chided the boy. “You won’t get anywhere in life feeling angry all the time.”

“And you won’t get anywhere in life if you don’t give me my arm back! Autumn snapped back.

The boy released her arm and it fell limply to Autumn’s side.

“Thank you,” she said curtly and rushed past him until she felt herself hit another body. Why did she keep falling down today?, she asked herself.

It was Victoria and she had a fake-worried expression on her face. “Autumn! I was wondering why you were taking so long!”

“Because of this idiot,” said Autumn, pointing to Carter.

Victoria gaped and Carter put a hand to his heart saying, “Oh, you wound me, fair maiden.”

“Piss off,” said Autumn.

“Autumn! You can’t talk to Carter Bailey like that!” exclaimed Victoria.

“Why not?”

“His dad is Lewis Bailey!”

Autumn froze. “Lewis Bailey?” she repeated and Victoria nodded. Shit! Autumn couldn’t believe she had just insulted the son of the future-President of the United States of America; the son of nearly the most powerful man in the world. Oh my god, what if he exiled her family from America? And they were forced to live in poverty in…someplace? All because she had insulted his son! Autumn would never be able to forgive herself.

“Poor girl,” said Carter, “she’s in shock.”

Autumn snapped out of it and stared at him. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t know…”

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” said Carter. “It was rather refreshing, really, someone talking to me like I’m not the amazing, gorgeous person that I am.”

Autumn couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow. “Egotistical, much?” she said then clapped a hand over her mouth, realising she had insulted him yet again. “Sorry!”

Carter looked amused and neared her, putting an arm around her waist. Into her ear he whispered, “I can think of some ways you can repay me…” His hand travelled up her side until it reached an area which Autumn definitely wasn’t comfortable with him touching. Instinctively, she kneed him.

Carter fell away from her, clutching his, er, area. Autumn was terrified that she had kneed him and ran away with her belongings as Victoria tried to help Carter (“Oh my God! Carter! Are you okay? Do you want a kiss to make you feel better?”) and Carter swore viciously (“Fuck, fuck! That bitch! Damn her to hell! Victoria, don’t touch me!”)

“Carter, Carter, Carter, must you look so fine all the time?”

Carter, who had recovered from the knee-in-the-nuts incident, threw a pillow at his gay friend. “Shut up Dex.”

Next to him, his best friend for many years, Taylor, laughed and put on a sad face. “Aw, Dexxie, nothing to say about me?”

Dexter smiled seductively (or what Carter thought Dexter was trying to be). “Oh, honey, there’s a lot to say about you, hot stuff.”

“My ears! My ears! My virgin ears!” shrieked Lee Evans, trying to imitate a girl.

Silent Simon rolled his eyes. “Your ears are hardly virgin, Lee,” he said dryly.

Lee grinned. “Good point.”

“So I met this girl today…” started Taylor.

Lee and Dexter immediately turned to Taylor. “Was she hot?” Lee asked.

“Yeah, very, like a mermaid.”

“A mermaid! Like in the ‘Little Mermaid’!” said Dexter. “God, don’t you just love that movie? Isn’t Eric the hottest thing you’ve ever seen?”

Ignoring his friend, Lee pressed on about the mysterious girl. “What was her name?”

“Autumn Longman-Steve Longman’s stepdaughter.”

Recognition dawned; Autumn, he had heard that name before. “Does she have long hair, nice eyes?”

“A lot of girls have nice eyes, Carter,” said Taylor.

“Yeah, but, blue-like really, really blue. And new, I think.”

“That’s her, then,” said Taylor. “Autumn Longman, step-daughter of Steve Longman.”

Simon whistled. “Steve Longman? She must be pretty rich, then.”

“She didn’t seem that stuck-up, though. Pretty nice, actually,” replied Taylor.

“She’s a goddamn bitch!” said Carter fiercely. He had just been fooling around with her, joking, and then she had to go and…urgh! The pain! Did she not realise the trauma she had caused? Carter would need a lot of sex to get over it.

“I bet you acted like a dick which made her act like a bitch,” said Simon knowledgably.

Dexter gasped dramatically. “Carter? Act like a dick? Is that even possible?”

Carter scowled at him. “No it’s not; she was the one who was totally unreasonable.”

“I’m sure she was Carter, I’m sure she was,” said Lee sarcastically.

Taylor laughed. “I introduced her to Victoria who looked positively ecstatic about meeting Steve Longman’s stepdaughter.”

“Positively ecstatic? Try to use language we can actually understand once in a while.”

Taylor pretended to be offended. “Oh? Does my superior intellect aggravate you? Are you envious of my complete and utter wit? Or is your jealous act pretentious? Do you have ulterior motives? Is that why you are always using sexual innuendos?”

Lee blinked and looked at Carter for help who smirked. “He’s saying he wants you to give him a blow job.”

“Sorry dude I don’t swing that way.”

“But I do, so if the offer’s also open to me…”

“In your dreams, Dexter.”

“In my wet, wet dreams.”

Carter pretended to gag. “Anyway, yeah Victoria…she’s good in bed.”

“You would know,” said Lee enviously, “She’s always rejected me.”

“Victoria’s a money-grabber darling,” replied Dexter. “Beautiful, but a money-grabber.”

A mischievous glint appeared in Lee’s eyes. “Hey; why don’t we go and see her now.”

“Brill plan!” squealed Dexter. “We’ll even be able to take a peek at the new girl!”

“Trust me, you don’t want to,” warned Carter, frowning.

“Hey, if she’s a hot bitch, I don’t mind looking at her,” said Lee.

“Just like Victoria,” remarked Simon.

Taylor winked at Lee. “Trust me, this one’s much better.”

“Then off we shall go! Come on Cartie!”

Carter got up reluctantly following his friends out of the door, not before accidentally stepping on Dexter’s toe.

“Follow the yellow brick road, follow the yellow brick road. Follow, follow, follow, follow, follow the yellow brick road…”

“Shut up Dex.”

A/N: So it's revamped! Whoopee! I'm much happier with this version. The beginning is similar yes, but the story changes A LOT as it progresses.

Review!