Chapter 1

Darcy

I remember when my life was normal. Before I met him, the man who changed my life in every way possible, I was a normal teenage girl with normal…er…mostly normal friends. Up until I met himI was a regular student at Fisher High School in Encinitas, California.

My name is Darcy Mulaney. I fell in love with a Greek god.

It all started on the first day of my sophomore year. I was standing outside the main entrance of the school on September 3rd at 7:00 am. A warm breeze caressed my bare shoulders and rustled my long, flowing shirt. I tapped my foot impatiently then checked my phone. 7:06. Elyon and Leo were late. Well, Elyon was late, I figured Leo was already here and walking at snail pace. Elyon just wasn't good with time.

Elyon Brown is my best friend. I met her during freshman year, we immediately connected. We have everything in common. We're the same height and weight, and share likes, dislikes, and some of the same traits. We even look alike, black hair, green eyes, etc. Our birthdays are two days apart. Of the two of us I am more responsible. She can get so hyper it's scary.

Leo Williams is another one of my really good friends. We met when I was in seventh grade and he was in eighth, making him a junior while I was a sophomore. He's tall and lanky. Elyon and I harass him endlessly about being such an awkward person. He has longish brown hair and hazel eyes. He was tall I comparison to us, standing at 5'11 and easily towering over our 5'3.

I pulled out my iPod. Lithium by Nirvana came on.

"DARCY!" something shrieked. I turned, my curly hair bouncing, and saw Elyon flying at me. She attempted to hug me but I pushed her away roughly like I always did. I don't like being touched.

"Jeez, someone's grumpy. You haven't seen your best friend for forever and you push her away?" Elyon complained in her overly dramatic way as I removed my headphones.

"Elyon," I said slowly as if talking to a small child. "We went shopping four days ago."

"Shut up!" she scowled playfully. "There's Leo!"

I followed her gaze and sure enough Leo Williams was slowly making his way towards us. My heart rate spiked. I had a huge crush on him in seventh and eighth grade. Over the summer between middle school and high school I had forced myself to get over him. We had started to grow apart and I hadn't thought I was going to be seeing much of him. Then during ninth grade he started popping up everywhere. A day didn't go by that I didn't see him. We grew close again and I became confused about my feelings for him. I got excited whenever I saw him but wasn't sure I liked him.

Finally he shuffled over to us.

"Hey" he said in his usual monotone.

"HI!" Elyon squeaked. Unlike me, he didn't resist her bear hug; he just stood there while she hugged him.

"Hi" I said.

Elyon released him finally.

"Can you do me a favor?" Leo asked me.

"Um, sure?"

"Can you get this thing off my backpack, it's digging into my back!" he jerked his thumb behind him. I made him turn around and found the purple lock I had left on his bag over the summer.

"I can try…I'm not sure I still remember the combination…" I admitted.

It took several tries but I got it off. Then Elyon grabbed it out of my hand and locked it to Leo's pants.

"Why?" he asked miserably.

"Now your pants won't fall down!" she giggled.

"That is actually not that helpful" Leo stated sarcastically.

"Hey! Sarcasm is my thing!" I chided him.

Elyon put an arm around each of us. It didn't work very well since I was her height and Leo was almost a foot taller than us. I resisted the urge to push her off of me.

"Let's go!" she declared and dragged us into the school.

"Darcy! OMG hi!"

I internally groaned. Jess McNally and Clara DeLuca were scurrying over to me.

Once upon a time I had considered them my best friends. Then we started high school and I realized that they weren't even good friends. Clara was always judgmental but she became worse. She said nasty things about friends of mine and judged me for everything I did. She became self-centered and arrogant. Jess often abandoned me in my times of need and undermined everything I said to my friends. Neither of them shared secrets with their "best friend" but still expected me to spill my guts to them. When I did, they couldn't keep anything a secret.

"We haven't seen you since the beginning of the summer! How are you?" Jess carried on.

That's because you abandoned me when you got a "boyfriend" for two days you bitch.

"I'm good" I said simply.

Clara flipped her long blonde hair over her shoulder.

"My summer was great!" she said even though no one asked. "My family and I went to Cape Cod! The east coast is so great!" I think she forgets that I was born in Boston. I moved to California when I was eight. She likes to think she's the first one to do anything cool.

"I ran into Mike at the mall! It was soooooo awkward!" Jess whined.

They went out for two days months ago and they didn't even talk to or see each other during those days. He did invite her to go to the mall with him and his best friend. The next day he broke up with her for one of his ex-girlfriends. She always went on and on about how awkward it was to see him and talk to him. She was pathetic, she just wanted attention. They're both drama queens.

"That's just too bad" I said with my trade mark sarcasm. She didn't seem to notice.

"Well I…" Oh Clara, she always had to one up everyone else. I tuned her out. She rambled on for another ten minutes about her summer in Cape Cod.

I spotted Leo as he walked towards homeroom. He was with our friend Ian Michaels. Ian was in my grade. We were pretty close during freshman year. I was about to start walking over to them but I decided to throw one last comment into the conversation, just to annoy Clara.

"I made out with a guy in a hotel elevator last month." I said, "Oh there's Leo! Got to go, bye!" I booked it out of there. It wasn't true of course. I met Conrad at a hotel and we often rode the elevator together for fun but we never made out. Well, he made out with the elevator jokingly, but that's it.

I looked back over my shoulder. Jess and Clara stood there dumbfounded, mouths hanging open.

"LEO! IAN!" I yelled as I ran over.

"Hello again!" I greeted Leo. "Hi Ian!"

"Um hi?" Leo asked.

"Hey" Ian nodded.

"Clara and Jess started talking to me and I just escaped." I explained.

"Sounds fun? I don't know them." Ian asked.

"Clara DeLuca and Jess McNally?" I nodded.

"Oh, I hate Jess McNally" he stated.

"Yeah she's a bitch. Why do you hate her?" I asked.

"I don't know, she seems really snobby and mean." He shrugged. It was a fair assumption. She often had a snobby looking expression but it was kind of just the way her face was.

"Ready to go to homeroom?" Leo asked, offering me his arm jokingly.

"Let's go!" Our homerooms were next door to each other. As we passed the main office the principal, Mr. Mendoza, walked out.

"Oh hello Miss Mulaney, Mr. Michaels, Mr. Williams." He said politely, "Mr. Williams, would you mind stepping into my office for a minute?"

"Um, ok?" I unhooked myself from Leo and he followed Principal Mendoza in.

"Well, no point waiting for him. It could be a while before they finish." Ian pointed out.

"I guess." I shrugged.

He held his arm out and I took it. Together we skipped down the hall laughing.

Ian and I parted ways and I walked into homeroom. I'd had the same teacher last year, Mr. Tuccio. He was pretty cool. He had a nose ring and wore Toms shoes all the time. When we did the pledge instead of saying "…with liberty and justice for all" he would say "…with liberty and justice FOREVER!" He made a lot of funny jokes and wasn't afraid to harass his students. Leo and Elyon had him last year and he would let me write notes on the board for them.

I sat down in my old seat. My seat was next to my friend Lilly. On the other side of her on the corner was Annika. In the row in front of ours were Jim and Shawn. We all greeted each other.

The announcements came on with the usual first day of school crap.

"And homeroom teachers make sure your students have proper attire…" The vice principal's voice announced.

"So basically I'm supposed to make sure none of you are raging whores!" Tuccio shouted over the loudspeaker. We all laughed.

Everyone chatted about their summers. Suddenly Leo walked into the room with a guy I'd never seen before.

The mystery guy was taller than Leo. He had blonde hair that reached a little past his ears. He had ear buds in. He wore a light blue polo shirt and tan shorts. His muscular build was easy to see and I thought I saw the hint of a six pack through his tight shirt.

I waved at Leo but he didn't see me. He talked to Tuccio and gestured towards the new guy.

Leo turned to leave but before he could Mr. Tuccio drew Leo's attention to me.

Finally, he turned around and saw me. He laughed and waved back. The new guy saw me too. His eyes widened as they met mine. They were a mesmerizing sky blue.