A/N: Mmm. Don't you like the technical sequel smell? Enjoy.

I rolled my eyes as my brother read the wedding invitation out loud. Danielle Roethlis was really getting married in the summer, in a month. She was about to finish her sophomore year at UCLA. Tyler went to school with her there. He'd always gone to the same school as her. He'd always had the hots for her. I'd heard him tell his friends about her all the time.

"You wanna go, Candy?" Tyler asked me. He'd come home on a Thursday, mostly to give the invitation to our mom.

"No," I scoffed. "She hates me and I don't see my name on the invite anyways."

"She does not hate you Candice," my mother said, plucking the card out of my brother's hands. "And you're going, whether you want to or not. You can even take a date."

"She does so hate me," I nearly yelled, scaring my eight-year-old brother. "She's threatened to beat the crap out of me on more than one occasion, Mom. I honestly don't think being in a weeding dress would stop her."

"Don't worry, Tristain wouldn't let her really hurt you," Tyler told me. He scowled at the name he said which made me grin. "Just take a date for yourself and you'll get over the fact that you think Danielle is a whore. I need to be going. I'm Ash's ride back to school, but he needed to give invitations out to his parents and brother."

"She's inviting her ex-husband?" I asked.

My mom gave me one look that told me to get out before she made me. I rolled my eyes but left the room anyways. I left through the back screen door, letting it slam behind me. My youngest brother, who was two, started crying at the loud noise.

I was the only girl in the family. I had two older brothers, Tyler and Chad. Chad didn't go to college because we didn't have the money. However, he did start his own construction business, and it's going well. He's two years older than Tyler, who is three years older than me. I also had two younger brothers, Jason and Michael. Jason was eight years younger than me and Michael was two. My parents were separated in between me and Jason, but got back together and popped out two more.

I was walking through the back alley when I heard a loud yell from the backyard to my right. It was down two houses from our own. A minute later, the back gate opened and closed, making the chain-link fence shake violently. I raised my eyebrows as Thomas St. James glared at me.

"What the fuck do you want, Candice?" he snapped.

"I'm just walking," I shrugged.

"Doesn't you mean you can stop and stare, bitch," he ground out.

"Someone needs a hug," I said with a nod. He continued to glare at me.

Over the past four years he had been in high school, he had gotten spider bites, gauges in his ears, and grown his black hair out. He usually wore a baseball hat perched on his head to match his shirt. It was ironic because in middle school, he had been the wannabe pretty boy.

"Why are you walking in the alley, anyways?" he asked.

"My mother is pissed off because I don't want to go to stupid Danielle's wedding and she's making me go anyways," I shrugged.

"Danielle is getting married? I bet Tyler is heartbroken."

"Yeah, pretty much," I sighed. "What are you doing walking in the alley?"

"My father is pissed off because I don't feel like eating dinner with them as a pretend happy family," he shrugged. I smiled as we began walking.

"Why is it that every family in this neighborhood is so fucked up?" I asked him. He shrugged. "Are you excited to graduate next week?"

"I guess so," he shrugged again. "It's not like I've got much after this. I got accepted at UCLA, same as everyone else. I don't know if the scholarships I've gotten will even cover the costs, though."

"So go and get loans."

He stared at me.

I stared back.

"Why are we talking?" he asked suddenly. "I hate you."

"You hate everyone," I told him, unaffected by his words. My indifference seemed to annoy him.

We reached the end of the alley and a girl shouted his name. We both looked to see his most recent ex that was still hooked on him.

"You're my girlfriend," he whispered urgently under his breath. The barely dressed blonde made her way to where we were standing.

"Thomas," she said happily throwing her arms around him. He looked at me for help. I let out a small growl, mostly at him, but the girl took it towards herself. She pulled herself away from him. "I'm so sorry, Cassie."

"Candy," Thomas and I corrected at the same time.

"Uh huh," she said, turning to Thomas. "So what are you doing tonight?"

"Me," I answered before he could. They both looked at me. "You said we were hanging out tonight."

"And we will," he said with a wink. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. He turned to the girl. "I'll see you later, Mary."

"Marcy," she corrected, suddenly annoyed. Thomas put his arm around my waist and led me away from her. He hand slid down to grab my ass and I let out a low growl. He laughed and slid his hand into my back pocket.

"She's not here anymore, you can stop touching me," I told him.

"You act like I want you," he scoffed. "But she's still watching. She'll stand there and watch, wondering if I really did forget her name or if I said it wrong on purpose because I want to make her jealous."

"And which was it?"

"Both," he shrugged. We turned a corner and after five steps, he removed himself from touching my body.

We walked silently and aimlessly. Neither of us talked and I shoved my hands into the back pockets of my short shorts. I noticed Thomas look at me when I did this. I noticed his eyes rake up and down my body. I was wearing my shortest shorts and a blue tank top under a black one. I had on black Chucks to match.

"Candice, why haven't you had a boyfriend?" he asked, kicking a rock.

"Why haven't you?" I countered. He raised a black eyebrow at my smirk. I rolled my eyes. "Boys are jerks and most of them are cheaters. Either that, or they're like you with a different girlfriend every week."

"Every two weeks," he corrected, truly offended.

"Whatever," I said, waving my hand. "That's not any better. Guys like you – almost all guys in general – just want to get into girls' pants. I don't even want to guess how many girls you've screwed."

"Well, if I were to really do you tonight like you told Marcy, that'd put you up pretty high on how many. Probably like fifty-something."

I felt myself want to throw up on him.

"You probably have more STDs than a hooker. You've probably gotten most of them from your hooker girlfriends like Marcy."

"Are you jealous?" he asked cockily.

"Of what, your STDs?" I countered. I knew he was biting his cheek to not respond to that. I grinned at him. "Trust me, Thomas St. James; I don't know any girls that would honestly date you for anything other than to say that they've had sex with you, as if that'd be anything hard to accomplish."

I turned right at the intersection, which led to the street my best friend lived on. I knew that Thomas was watching me go. I went up to Hennessey's door and went in without knocking. I nodded at her twin brother, Delamain, who was sitting on the couch watching a basketball game.

"Where's Henny?" I asked.

"Her room," he told me, not looking away from the screen. I heard a happy scream before Hennessy came running down the stairs on the opposite wall.

"Oh, thank God you're here, Candy," she said, never stopping her smile. "Guess what I just found out!"

"Jerry has the hots for you?" I suggested. Delamain choked on his drink. Jerry was his best friend.

"Funny, really," she rushed out, not smiling for that one fragment. He smile came back immediately after. "But seriously now. I'm cheer captain next year!"

"Yay," I said with obviously fake enthusiasm. I dropped my smile and she rolled her eyes.

"Come on Candice, don't do this to me," she said quickly. "You know that this means instant popularity for us."

"For you," I told her. I leaned against the back of the couch, right behind Delamain. "I was rejected from popularity freshman year when Sam told me to be a cheerleader. I believe the words I responded were along the lines of 'go die, bitch.' After saying that to a homecoming queen, everyone tends to hate you."

"With me on top, they wouldn't ever hate you, Candy," she sighed out.

"What do you think, Del?" I asked, turning slightly. He reached his arm around me and wrapped it around my waist.

"I think you're amazing and you don't care about what they think of you anyways," he said, not even looking at me. "And yeah, they hate you no matter what."

I smiled and looked back at Hennessy. She rolled her eyes and slapped her brother's arm before she walked away. I laughed and followed her into the kitchen.

"So I ran into Thomas St. James today," I told her, sitting on the counter.

"Like, literally?" she asked, turning to face me with wide eyes. "What happened? I want every detail."

"The guy isn't God, Henny," I laughed. "I was walking through the alley and then so was he, and we were walking together and then we saw Marcy and I had to pretend to be his new girlfriend so she'd leave him alone."

"Oh. My. God. Did he kiss you?"

"That'd be disgusting and I'd probably get mono from him that way. Apparently, he's screwed like, over fifty girls. It's disgusting."

"I think it's hot," Hennessy said.

"Only because you've wanted to do him since the beginning of time," I scoffed. "Just date the guy, live your two weeks of bliss, and get dumped like last night's trash. It's what he does and he admitted it to me earlier. He doesn't feel bad for those girls he does this to."

"They're just slutty people anyways," she told me. She went to the freezer and grabbed a fudgesicle. I shook my head no when she offered me one. "I don't want to date him for two weeks. I intend on changing him completely."

"Henny, my best friend, how many cheerleaders have you seen Thomas St. James with? There's been none. I don't see how you can change him that much to even be seen with you."

"That's where you come in, Candy," she said with a big grin.

"No," I said, walking away. "He hates me."

"He hates everyone!" Hennessy said as we walked through the living room.

"Del, do I have any chance in getting Thomas St. James to date anyone, let alone a cheerleader?" I sighed out, sitting next to him.

"I can't even imagine Thomas St. James talking to you," he said, putting his arm around my shoulder. I nodded and looked at Hennessy.

"Oh come on, Candice," Hennessy said, she pushed her way in between me and her brother. "You know how much this would mean to me. And I mean, just imagine if I was the girl to stay with Thomas St. James for more than two weeks."

"I can try, but I'm not making any promises. Look, I have to go home. My mom is probably more pissed off now than when I left. If I see Thomas, I'll try but like I said, he hates me. He told me so himself."

I left the house and made the journey towards my own. I walked past the gas station and stopped when I saw Thomas St. James talking to Tyler. They were leaning against his car. I smirked to myself and walked to my brother.

"Don't you have to go pick up Ash?" I asked, putting myself in between my brother and Thomas St. James. I knew my light brown hair hit Thomas in the face when I turned. "Or were you just lying to get away from Mom? She's probably going to be gushing over the wedding for hours."

"Could you just shut up?" Tyler said, pinching my arm. I grinned at him.

"No because you're the one who wouldn't help me get out of this stupid wedding in the first place," I told him. "Go back to school. Don't you have a final tomorrow?"

He pushed off from the car, nodded at Thomas who did the same back. Tyler got in the car and left.

"Are you stalking me, Candice?" Thomas asked before I could walk away.

"No," I laughed. "Hennessy would love me for that, though. Will you just date the girl so she will stop telling me to ask you?"

"I don't date cheerleaders," he said, distaste in his voice.

"Yeah well, consider this my warning that you will eventually ask that girl on a date. She's determined to change you for the better. I think we both know she doesn't stand a chance." I rolled my eyes.

"You're a bitch, Candice," he told me bluntly. "You need to get your ass out of this neighborhood before it catches up with you."