Chapter 1

I'm driving my brand new Porsche into the parking lot and look for the nearest parking space near the school. My mom bought me this car for my 17th birthday, which was a month ago on July 22nd. She earns good money for her job as a social worker. My dad died by a car accident when I was 8 and my mom hasn't dated anyone since. She loved him so much that I don't she'll be able to find someone else.

Thoughts are running in my head, I can't even think straight. I'm nervous to be in Lamia Academy High School after what happened last year; I'm surprised that I wasn't permanently suspended for what I did. The whole school knows and I don't think anyone forgot over the summer, which makes the situation even worse.

As I'm thinking about the previous school year, I pull into my usual parking space, the closest one to the front doors. I turn off the engine, I sit and wait for it to be 7:45, so I could walk into school the last minute and still be on time to class, it doesn't start until 7:50. After all, I don't want to make a bad impression on the first day of school, and for the school to hate me even more.

There's a hard knock on my driver's side window, it makes me jump. But as I look over to see who it is, I breathe a sigh of relief and roll down my window; it's my best friend, Rachel Lawson. "Why the hell do you need to hit my window so hard, are you trying to break it," I say with a smile on my face. I'm so glad to see her, I haven't seen her since the middle of summer.

"Yeah, Lauren, because I want to be a bitch and break your window," Rachel says sarcastically with a grin on her face. The sun is shining on her, making her red hair shine and the red more noticeable, I'm jealous of how beautiful she is. She has the most unique colored eyes I've ever seen and she has the look and figure of a super model. How can my plain brown hair and eyes compete with that? We wear the same size clothes but she is so much more beautiful than I could ever be. "Are you coming out or what? We're going to be late for school you know"

I slump down into the car seat, "No, I wish I could just stay in here forever and not go to school at all."

"Oh, come on, Lauren, you can't still be upset about what happened last year, I'm sure everyone has forgotten about it by now."

"Rachel, an ambulance had to come to school for the first time ever in school history. Or did you forget about that part?"

"Well, it's a new school year and it's our junior year, you have to make the best out of the situation. Just leave the past behind where it belongs and make a new reputation, a good one. I know you can do this," Rachel says this so confidently that I'm starting to believe that I could. I grab my backpack and purse, open my car door, and get out of the car. Rachel and I start walking towards the main doors, "See? This is just the first step. Come on, you'll be with me so it will all be fine."

I take a deep breath and open the doors to the school. Rachel holds my hand for some reassurance and I'm glad she does because it gives me a boost of confidence and makes me feel that I can really do this.

Rachel and I walk to the hallway towards our lockers, luckily, the school assigned our lockers right next to each other and we have almost all the same classes except 1st block, I have Calculus and she has Biology II. I'm thankful that I won't be alone for the whole day, just in Calculus I will be. I'm sure I can survive the hour of class. I mean, it's not bad, it could be worse.

Once we get to our lockers, we start to unload our notebooks and folders from our backpacks into the lockers. I take a look around the hallway to see if anyone is staring and to see how many people decided to show up on the first day of school. Usually, people ditch the first day of school, which would have been better for me. But, as I'm looking in the hallway, I see that it is completely crowded. Just my luck, at least I don't see anyone staring, yet.

I finished getting ready for class faster, but, Rachel is still unpacking her stuff into her locker, curse her for being so slow. I feel like I need to get out of here now but I can't there's no turning back now. I'm impatiently waiting for her to finish up, tapping my foot in a rhythmic pattern. As I'm waiting, my other friends that I haven't talked to ever since the beginning of summer, come up to Rachel and I.

There's Michelle Peterson standing on the right side of me. She has these breathtaking crystal blue eyes and bleach blonde hair. She used to be my best friend in middle school, until I met Rachel. Michelle has never liked Rachel and that's why we stopped being friends all together, until freshmen year of high school. She's changed since middle school, now she's what I'd call prep.

Standing on Michelle's left side is Rebecca Parker; she is fairly new to Lamia. She moved here sophomore year. Rebecca was so lost back then, she was so shy and hardly had friends, but, now, she might be the most popular girl in school she looks just like Michelle except that she has hazel eyes and is extremely taller.

Right behind Rebecca is one of my awkward friends, Sophia Patterson. Sophia and I go all the way back to elementary school, we stopped being close around middle school. When I had my first boyfriend, a week later after we started dating, I found out that Sophia was the person he was cheating with. I've gotten over it but Sophia still feels guilty about it. She stands out from Rebecca and Michelle, she has chocolate brown eyes and underneath her red hair, she has it dyed purple which is starting to fade away.

"What classes do you have this semester Lauren?" Michelle asks me, not even looking towards Rachel.

"I have Calculus, American Government, Journalism, Lunch, Yearbook, and then English 11. What about you?"

Michelle has a sad look on her face, "Aww, I was hoping we would have more classes together, I only have Calculus with you. We need to catch up with each other," I was about to respond back but she interrupted me, "I know what we should do! You, Rebecca, Sophia, and I should have a sleep over this weekend. What do you say?"

I hesitated before answering. "Sorry, I can't I'm going to sleepover Rachel's house this weekend but what about next weekend?"

"Go ahead Lauren, I won't mind, we can just do something next weekend. I don't have a problem with it," Rachel says this with a hint of sadness in her voice; she knows that I have missed them lately.

"Are you sure Rachel? I mean, that would be rude of me to just cancel on you like that. We have been planning this weekend for awhile."

"It's fine, I need to do some chores this weekend anyway." I knew that she really didn't, she only said it to be nice.

"Okay, thanks," I say with a smile on my face. Rachel is so selfless, she always puts others before herself, it's one of the many reasons to why I love her.

Rebecca smiles, "Yay! We are going to have so much fun!" Right when she says this, the warning bell rings throughout the halls; signaling that class is about to start, "We've got to go, don't want to be late to class! Text us Lauren!" With that said, they walked away together to their classes.

"I'm sorry to say, but, they seem like typical dumb preppy blondes. Except that Sophia girl, she hardly ever talks when you're around, she seems like she would be an okay person though," Rachel says as we're on our way to Calculus. Luckily, her Biology II class is right next to my Calculus class, so, she can walk me there every day.

"They seem like it when you first meet them, but, once you get to know them better, they aren't so bad," I say. I feel bad that I haven't talked to them for so long after everything we have been through together, hopefully, this weekend can partly make up for lost times.

We stop in front of my Calculus class. "Maybe, but, that Michelle girl seems like she doesn't like me very much. She kept giving me glares when you guys were talking." Rachel doesn't know that Michelle and I were best friends before we even met, and she doesn't know that Michelle despises she doesn't really need to know; it isn't that important.

"Maybe she's just having a bad day? But, the bells about to ring, do you want me to text you during class?" Here in Lamia Academy, they don't really enforce the no cell phone policy, so, if you get caught with a cell phone in class, they don't take it away, they just tell you to put away.

"Of course," Rachel says. She hugs me and tells me good luck, I may just need it. I watch Rachel walk away and go into her classroom. Once she walked in her classroom, the bell rings and that helps motivate me to walk into my Calculus class with Mr. Jefferson.