Chapter One: Courtney

Rule number one: On the first day of 12th grade, don't fall asleep during any of your classes. Not only do you get a first class ticket to detention, but you give a first bad impression of yourself. I'm not joking I had three teachers glaring at me after my daily naps. Then the bell rang ending history, I woke up with a yellow slip in front of me.

"People on their first day of school act like total angels. I think that's a little stupid, I act like I normally would," I say to my two new friends Jessie, the girl with brown wavy hair, and Lily, the science geek.

"Well you're different Courtney. Thank god you didn't start hanging out with the school's very own Gossip Girls!" Jessie explains.

"Yeah, well I hate the sight of those girls."

"Speaking of them," Lily looks over my shoulder. I look over to see over-dressed girls with the overdone make- up and hair. All three of them wore matching pink what they call 'outfits'.

Their leader, little Miss Perfect walks up to our table. From the corner of my eyes I can see all the cute guys sitting down and drooling over her. How in the world is Summer Hayes cute? Mix a donkey with a dog and add some pink glitter and ta-da you have a duplicate of Summer Hayes!

"Well, well, hello Courtney Dylan. I see you decided to choose to hang- out with the losers, you would do much better with us." She looked me up and down, trying to act cool. Duh! I know exactly why. Time to have some fun! I smile at her.

"The losers…,"I repeat putting on my thinking face.

"Oh! No, I wasn't going to hang-out with you guys!" I gave her another of my dazzling smile. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see that the guys were trying hard not to laugh. Summer also saw, her face turned red.

"You just made an enemy and a big mistake!" she growled her ice blue eyes looking straight at me. "Even if we are blond chicks we gave you, a red head, a chance and you blew it! Plus, your eyes are freaky green." At this point the whole cafeteria was watching me and the blowing up volcano.

I decided to play smooth; I crossed my arms over my chest and looked at her, annoyed. "I somehow don't find your comments on me offensive."

There was nothing left for her to say, so she just turned and stomped out the green double doors. I picked up my drink and sipped it like nothing happened.

I sat down to see two very amazed looking girls staring at me. "What?" I asked.

"You just…she…walked out..," Jessie tried her hardest to make herself talk, while I tried my hardest to make sense of her talk.

"You really did that!" Lily said finding her voice.

"It's called self-defense. I am not scared of anyone," and with that we all sat quietly, eating. I was finishing my burger and was moving on to my yummy chocolate ice cream when someone tapped my back. I turned to face one of those cute guys who were staring at Summer a while ago. He had beautiful hazel eyes and brown hair.

"Hey, I'm Max, getting to the point, can I have your ice cream?"

That's when I noticed the other guys laughing. So they also wanted to play with me? I'll play along. I put on my cutest fake smile.

"Of course, why would I say no? I mean, ice cream has way too many carbs for me," I have so many reasons I could say no: starting with it is my ice cream!

He looked me in the eyes and started leaning in. Like I said I would play along I also started leaning in. When our lips were centimeters apart I dumped my breathtaking chocolate ice cream on his head.

Max looked stunned as well as funny. He was about to walk away when I stopped him.

"Wait! You forgot something!" I plucked the cherry out of Lily's ice cream and placed it on top of the mountain of ice cream on his head. With one hand I twisted his shirt and pulled him so close I could smell his minty breath.

"How stupid do you think I am? You messed with the wrong girl!" I didn't wait for him to say something, I just pushed him back to his little group.

He turned back to me. "I don't think we are going to be friends," he said.

"No not even close" I say, softly.

I walked to my table picked up my tray and began to leave.

"Sorry for taking your cherry." I apologized to Lily.

"It was worth it! You just made a fool out of a popular guy in school!"

"You have guts girl." Jessie added.

I put my tray on the counter and followed them to the North wing of the school. It was huge. Lots of red lockers lined against the walls.

"Sorry Courtney but we have Math right now," Jessie said. I waved bye to the girls as they walked out. Time to look for my own locker! 122…123…124 there it is 125. I tried opening my locker for no reason. I had nothing to put in it right now. As I was closing the locker someone tapped my back again!

"Look, if you're here for more ice cream then…," I started to say, turning around, then stopped. Oops my mistake, I was face to face a different guy from the group. He had sea blue eyes and black layered hair. Half of his bangs covered his right eye. I leaned against my locker.

"Hi?" I questioned.

"Hey, I am Jake Valdez."Jake said.

"Do you need something?" I asked

He gave me what he thought was a million dollar smile.

"No, your locker is next to mine, and I just wanting to give you a Welcome to Mariette De Laurenze private school," he said.

I gave a fake smile. Boys! "Thank you," I said.

"So what do you have next?" He asks me, as we walked down to stairs. I took the crumbled paper out of my pocket. I looked it over.

"I have Art." I said

He frowned. "Oh, I don't"

I decided to be nice to him.

"You can hang with me after school," I suggested hoping he would say no. He stopped and scratched the back of his head.

"Well you wouldn't like me much if I told you I have detention from the history teacher."

I just laughed. He looked at me, confused.

"I just remembered I also have detention with that zombie!" I nodded my head slowly, looking happy.

"I like you," I concluded. He smiled and I waved to him before stepping in class.

OOO

I was sitting next to Jake in detention. The history teacher was going on about how bad we students are.

All I heard was blah! Blah! Blah! Apparently he wanted an essay on a fairytale. It was due tomorrow and we could work with a partner. Jake slipped a note my way. I opened it and it said:

Want to be my partner?

I nodded at him. The bell rang dismissing us from detention. I still thought our assignment was weird. In class we were talking about war and stuff while he gives the detention kids to write essays on princesses who fell asleep, ate an apple or had long hair. Weird.

I discovered I was sharing a room with Jake, Summer and Max. When Jake and I came to a stop at the same white door, we opened it and found Max and Summer cuddled together doing homework, I think.

OOO

At around 8 o'clock in the morning, someone poured water on my face. I woke up and sat in my bed looking around. I saw Jake holding a glass in his hand, grinning.

"Rise and shine sleeping beauty!"

I rolled my eyes taking the glass from his hand. "I prefer the alarm clocks that have the buzzer go off," I said.

Max and Summer were fixing their bed. Then, Max turned the stereo up high. Like I mean really high! Any second someone would come in and scold us. I got off my bed and started to move my hands and feet to the catchy hip hop beat. I loved dancing. Soon enough my body was swaying to the music. It didn't belong to me anymore. I did a finale with both hands high in the air, along with a bow.

That is when I noticed the others staring at me. Well Summer tried her hardest not to stare. Max opened his mouth.

"You're really good" he complimented. Jake nodded in agreement. I went from pink to red.

"Thanks, it's just something my parents taught me, before they died." I felt tears come down. I tried my best to hold them back.

Max came up to me and gave an unexpected hug. I looked over at Jake who lowered his gaze when our eyes met. I felt awkward. Finally Max let go.

"I'm sorry," he said. That's when Summer got impatient. "Why don't you go have your emotional breakdown somewhere else? We're all getting late honey! Is that what you will do when you get older, go dance at a club and get money?" she asked. She went on. "Come on Max," She took his hand and they both left, the door slamming shut behind them.

For a couple of seconds it was all quiet. Then, we both burst out laughing.

"Courtney you're red!" Jake noticed.

"I am not!" I defended.

"You have dimples! Don't do that!"

"Do what?"

"That face you make with one of your eyebrows up, like you're offended," he said, as we made our way to the cafeteria for breakfast.