Hey! This is LilMissCandy – formerly known as "Gasher" – with my new story, "The Life of a Rich Girl". This story is not an on-going series like my other story. It follows the story of two girl's lives before they get recruited. Other CHERUB characters and scenes with the setting on campus will take place near the end of the story. I've tried to double the size of my chapters for this story, but unfortunately it will probably take a while for me to get out more because of schoolwork and such. I've been writing this for some time, but I'm sorry I haven't been able to post it sooner.

Sorry about the random errors… I usually only find time to write more late at night. :L

Hope you like it (:

Please R & R.

My name is Leah Aimee Stone. If you're just starting to read this, here is everything about me: I'm 11 years old and I'm super short, my hair is dark brown and my eyes are a deep shade of green. I live in a four story house in the town of Rockhampton, Central Queensland, with five bathrooms, ten bedrooms and servants who wear spotless white uniforms. My Father – or rather, my foster father Maurice – works as a Lawyer, but my foster Mother died from Pneumonia like… ages ago, before I even came here. Because Father is always away in some place or other, I have the nasty Miss Gardenia, the housekeeper, here to take care of me. When Father is home, she acts all nice and everything, but when he is away she's the most evil woman you could ever meet. My identical twin sister, Anna-Beth, is somewhere out there. I want to find her and tell her everything that's wrong. She could put it right. Apparently, we got taken to the same care home after our parents were gone, but somehow we got separated. I've been to about seven different foster homes. None of them can stand me, though I'm rather quiet. I'm just too stubborn I guess, and I hate it when people ask me to do stuff. I don't have any siblings at the moment. The last one left about two months ago but he was an annoying little scab anyway. I don't think I can live on much longer without my sister. There's hardly anybody nice in the world of foster families. The only nice person I see every day is the cleaning girl, Claire. I miss my sister more than anything in the world. I often wonder what she's doing, and whether she even remembers me. If I don't find her soon, life won't be worth living.

'Leah!'

Leah shoved the diary under her duvet just as the angry housekeeper stormed through the open doorway.

'How many times have I told you to clean your room?' She was yelling and her voice was echoing around the room because Leah's bed was a good ten metres away from the door.

Leah scowled, 'You told me like, three times?'

'There is no excuse for this behaviour! Mr Stone won't put up with it and neither will I!' There was some truth in this, as he was also very strict, but he also showed love to her – something in which Miss Gardenia lacked completely.

'Yes miss, sorry miss.' Leah muttered. She was tired of the housekeeper's outbursts but didn't fancy the consequences of arguing. Miss Gardenia left the room in a huff, and Leah settled back down on her bed.

She reached down under her bed and pulled out a snickers bar from her secret stash of food she'd smuggled up from the kitchen. Out the window, a beautiful tree was in bloom. The flowers that had fallen were scattered on the windowsill and the fresh scent of morning air had filled the room. The door opened and Claire appeared holding a pile of pressed clothes. She placed them neatly on a table.

'Not a good day for school, Leah?'

'I hate my school! Nobody ever learns anything there, including manners and the ability to be nice to people.'

Claire smiled. 'You'll make friends soon, I'm sure.'

'You don't understand!' Leah groaned. 'There's nobody in that stupid place worth making friends with, and even if there was, I wouldn't be able to. The mean kids would put a stop to it at once.'

The cleaner sighed. 'Good luck.' She gave Leah a hug before shuffling out in her white canvas slip-on shoes.

Leah put on her ever-present scowl. Today was definitely not a good day for school, just as Claire had said. The sun was actually shining! The weather was perfect! Even though she would have much rather gone on a picnic with her imagination, wagging school wasn't an option. Well, it was if you thought getting suspended wasn't a bad thing. Leah secretly didn't care, but she knew Maurice would so she reluctantly got dressed and stuffed her diary, iPod, mobile phone and schoolbooks into her black carry-bag.

Downstairs, the tired-looking cook had prepared her breakfast. I didn't look like he was having a very good day. The hash-browns, bacon and eggs had bits of charcoal on them and there was no tomato sauce. Leah didn't blame him. Having a boss like Miss Gardenia was probably a good deal worse than she could ever imagine. She stuffed them down and ran out the door as if the house was about to explode.

Things aren't going well right now. I've lived in Rockhampton for over a year, but I can never make any friends. I am known as the class loner, so I tend to focus more on my classes rather than making friends. Okay, so that makes me sound like a nerd, but what else can you do when your class has you passed off as a complete moron? The only real friend I've ever had was this guy called Jared. He was my best friend from my school back in Brisbane, before we moved up here. He was one of my four friends at the school, but at the same time he was my one and only friend. He was definitely the connection between me and the other kids in the group. I suppose I had other friends, too, but I didn't hang with them at all. Then, all of a sudden, his parents and brother were killed in a helicopter crash, and that was it. He was shipped off to some care home on the other side of town and I never saw him again. I didn't even get to say goodbye. I think I miss him almost as much as I miss my sister.

Leah looked up. The bus was coming. It was eight o'clock, and school had just started. She knew she would be in for a scolding, but it didn't hit her as something that would matter. A couple of kids were on the bus from the last stop and were chatting away at the back. As soon as they saw her, they stopped and stared, giving her weird looks as if she smelt bad.

Leah ignored them. She knew she would never be the slightest bit popular, but she knew she wasn't ugly or stupid. She had the kind of self-confidence that a lot of the kids in her grade lacked a lot. It just seemed to be their bet that a girl could be the most unpopular for the entire school year. She sat down at the front and plugged her iPod in her ears. She put on her music and tried to ignore them.

The bus stopped after ten minutes and everyone got off. Leah sighed and rose from her seat. The school looked like hell on earth from here. The playground was a mass of screaming and shouting seven-year-olds in their PE class.

Leah ignored the looks she got from her classmates when she entered the classroom, and sat at an empty desk at the back. The teacher gave her a look, but said nothing and continued marking the roll of attendance. As she was finishing, a boy appeared at the door. He was almost as short as Leah and looked as if he came from the third grade rather than the sixth. His chocolate brown hair looked static as it shaped his face and he had a long side-fringe which made the eyes hard to see. The teacher looked up.

'Have you come with a message?'

The boy frowned and shook his head. Leah saw his face fully and realised he looked sort of familiar. She just didn't know how. 'No, I'm in the sixth grade. I'm new.' He spoke with an English accent, like her.

'Oh yes…' The teacher turned to the class. 'This is Liam Mills. He's just moved here from London, and he'll be joining our class.'

The kids stared over, some smiling, some scowling. The scowling ones hated when new kids came because it meant that the teacher was always expecting them to behave well, and was continually comparing their behaviour. The smiling ones obviously wanted to welcome him and make friends.

Leah was busy debating which group she was in. It was nice to have a new kid in your class so that you could show off the school to them – not that the school had anything nice about it. On the other hand, she didn't particularly like being continually compared to new students and new kids had an annoying way of being completely unpredictable. She decided on the second option.

Unfortunately, the only spare desk was the one next to her. The new boy dumped his books on the desk and sat down. By this time, the whole class was talking, so Leah sighed and turned to the boy.

'Hi. I'm Leah.'

'Liam. You're English?' He smiled. She realised he was from London and smiled.

'Yeah. My old foster family was English, so that's how I speak, I guess. You're English too.' she trailed off. She had suddenly realised why he seemed familiar. This boy reminded her so much of Jared, minus the accent, of course. It was a pretty big trip down memory lane and Leah felt a sudden lump in her throat.

'I only got here last week, but it's pretty cool, being in a new country and stuff.'

Leah nodded and turned back to the front. This boy seemed nice, but he would almost definitely stop talking to her when he realised her social status.

Miss Marse rapped on her desk with a ruler. 'Quiet! Now!'

There's a new boy at school today. His name's Liam and he's sitting right next to me. It feels good to have someone to talk to. The teacher, Miss Marse, is yelling at us. She's really angry because none of us has done our homework, apart from the nerds. I've recently decided to abandon the nerds' group and stop doing homework. After all, there's not really any harm in cramming at the last minute and the tests are always really easy. I've got much better things to do.

Life is hard at school. All the teachers have serious anger management issues. In the first fifteen minutes of every lesson, all the teacher is doing is telling kids off. I wish I could just jump into a hole and block out everything around me. It's just all too much.

The bell finally rang for class and Leah began packing up her books to go out. Liam looked like he was going to ask her something, but he said nothing and wandered outside. He'd probably already got the picture that she was the world-class freak of the school. Leah followed him out and saw that some other girls had already started talking to him. Millicent, in particular. She was the sort of girl who specialised in chatting all the boys up.

'So, Liam. Which school did you come from?' she asked.

Liam raised an eyebrow. 'A school in London.'

'Oh! You're from London? Do you like Australia, then?'

'Sure. I guess.' Liam replied, giving her a look as if to say: is it that hard to tell where I come from?

'That's cool. You can come and meet the others if you want. I'll show you around.' She had this weird girly look on her face and Liam had the sort of look on his face that said he would have much preferred to jump out of an aeroplane. Leah rolled her eyes and walked off, but it was pretty funny seeing Millicent fail to lure Liam in. Great, he wasn't the sort of guy who responded to stuff like that. As she rounded the corner, she was sure he started to follow her, which was kind of freaky and certain suicide for him. Nobody was allowed to talk to her – the group of intimidating rugby boys and their near-anorexic girlfriends kept a close eye on anyone who went near her. She rounded another corner and sprinted across the playground, settling down on a small park bench behind a tree in the far corner – her favourite spot.

'Did you drop this?'

Leah jumped. Liam was there and he was holding her diary. 'Oh, yeah, thanks.'

'No friends here?'

'None at all.' Leah looked around and saw that a big group of her class were coming towards them. It didn't look good – this was going to get way out of hand if she didn't do something right now. 'Liam…you should-'

'What you hanging around Stones for, squirt? You should know better.' The biggest looking kid named Austin stepped out. The rest all crowded around, blocking their escape.

Liam narrowed his eyes. 'I was giving her something she dropped, and I was being nice, unlike you. Do you have a problem with that?'

'Well, actually, we do. And quit the fake accent. It makes you sound like you came out of a hole.' Liam looked offended and was about to sprout a comeback, but another kid was already stepping out and giving Leah a death stare. 'Do you even want to talk to him? He pointed a fat finger at Liam and gave her a look as if to say don't you dare side with him.

Leah felt intimidated and longed to grab the finger and bend it back until the bone snapped. This was what she hated most – someone threatening her every time she tried to make friends. She wouldn't come out well if she said yes. This guy could snap her like a twig. She put on a forced scowl. 'No.'

'Well, squirt. Why should you have anything to do with her? She doesn't even like you!' The speaking kid grabbed Liam by the arm and pulled him away. 'Don't hang with her. She has issues. We're the good guys here.'

Leah sighed and started eating as the group walked away. She looked up just as they disappeared around the corner. Liam was looking at her – it was the most hurt look she had ever seen on a guy's face.

My Mum once told me that the worst thing you could ever do to someone was to hurt their feelings, when they totally didn't deserve it. I guess she's right, as always. I hate my life. I want to move to a new place, get another chance. Wipe the slate clean of everything I've ever done to offend people. I don't know why I was so mean to him, but I guess it's because I'm a wimp and chose the easy way out of a fight. He actually seemed nice, but now I've definitely ruined any chance of making friends with him. I know I have to say I'm sorry, but how on earth am I supposed to do that? I hurt a guy's feelings on his first day of school – In a new country. Wow, he must have a pretty full-on idea of what Australian kids are like now, all thanks to me. Maybe I could slip a note into his desk and explain – that might work, but then he would think I was a coward for not saying it to his face. If you don't own up straight to things when you're young then you end up like this as an adult. This is why Miss Gardenia is such a coward, and probably the fact that she is still a 'miss' when she's over fifty. It must come from her parents – they came to our house once for tea and they were an exact replica of their daughter. I'll have to say it to his face; there is no way that I can be cowardly. And I'll have to do it in class, I suppose. This may be a little difficult, though, since there are all these other kids around us that could eavesdrop.

At seven-thirty, Miss Gardenia called Leah down for tea. Tonight it was mashed potatoes with Lamb shanks and peas. It would have looked appetising but the cook had added some kind of vitamins to the meat and you could see the bits of crushed up pills floating in the gravy. Leah groaned but ate it anyway, and washed it down with lemon cordial and ice. When she'd finished, she went back up to her room.

Claire had pressed her pyjamas and they lay waiting on her bed. She quickly changed into them and turned on her computer.

It didn't look like much had changed on MySpace. The popular kids still posted malicious remarks about incidents at school and all the unpopular kids tried to win popularity by commenting. Suddenly, a message popped up from her cousin Emily in Scotland. Leah smiled. She hadn't talked to her in ages.

Emmibear: Howz it going?

Leah: Okay.New kid at school.

Emmibear: Kewl. What's the name?

Leah: Liam.He's nice… I think I blew any chances of making friends though.

Emmibear: How come?

Leah: Totallysided against him when he said we were friends to some other kid.

Emmibear: What if he was crushing on you? You'd have broken his heart!

Leah: I know. Just like what mum said, but he was NOT crushing on me!

Emmibear: How do you know he wasn't?

Leah: Don't want to talk about it. I'm bored. Anything to do in Glasgow?

Emmibear: Probably as much as there is to do in Rockhampton.

Leah smiled and typed back. She felt relaxed for the first time in days.

Leah: Yeah, sounds fun. I can't help feeling sad, though. He's so like Jared.

Emily started to type, and then stopped. There was a long pause and it looked like she had disconnected, but then she started up again. Leah sighed with relief.

Emmibear: Really! How?

Leah: His personality. He came into class for the first time this-morning, sits down next to me and straight away he's making a joke about something, and he's known me for thirty seconds.

Emmibear: Well… what a shame you scared him away.

Leah: I know.

Emmibear: Dammit! Mom's calling me. Talk later!

Emily signed off and Leah scowled as she closed down the conversation window. Emily was one of the only friendly people in her life. Too bad she lived on the other side of the world.

It was 7am, Friday morning, when Leah's alarm clock went off for school. She reached her hand out, trying to get into range of the snooze sensor, but Miss Gardenia was in before she could get her hand back under the pillow.

'Get up now, young lady! You shan't be late for school this-morning.' She pulled back the duvet cover and sheet in one. 'It's a wonder you can even open your eyes! You were up so late on that computer of yours.'

Leah wanted to say that she hadn't even opened her eyes yet, but she had to get up anyway because by now the breeze was coming through the open window and raising goose bumps on her bare legs.

She pulled on black skinny jeans, a faded top and leather jacket. Before heading off downstairs, she slipped on black socks and converse and tried to take a long time putting on her eyeliner and mascara as to annoy the housekeeper even more. Makeup wasn't allowed at school, but all the girls wore it anyway. Miss Gardenia was such a stickler for the rules.

Leah wandered at a snail's pace down the stairs, still half asleep. The cook seemed to be having a better morning than usual and had prepared fried eggs and bacon on toast. Leah ate slowly, not bothering to hurry. School started at 8:00, which was in forty-five minutes. She would have more than enough time to get there.

Nothing much has changed at school. The leader of the big group, Austin, who Liam and I encountered yesterday, is still my public enemy number one. The kids still show no respect for the teachers, and vice versa. So, school is still my worst nightmare. I don't think I'm looking forward to apologising to Liam. If the other kids notice me then I'll get squished like a bug, and there's no way he's gonna defend me after what I've done. I've just got to hope for the best.

Leah strolled into class. The bell had just rung and a sudden stream of kids were coming in, looking tired and wishing that school started later. She went straight to her desk. Liam was already there.

She looked at him in the eye as she got close. 'I'm sorry.'

'It's cool,'

'No, really. I'm sorry.' Leah sighed and sat down.

Liam raised an eyebrow. 'You made a show of me, didn't you? Don't you trust me to stand by you?'

'They would have killed us. We're the shortest kids in the class by miles, and there were eleven massive guys sizing up to us. There's no way in hell we could have come out better.'

Liam shrugged. 'Getting killed together is what "bonds" you.' He grinned and pulled some air quotes as he said it. 'Well, that's what the counsellor person said.'

'You saw the counsellor?'

'Yeah.' Liam smirked, scratching his head. 'Mum thought it would be good because I'm starting school in a new country, but it was mostly just random crap you'd expect for a kid with issues.'

Leah smiled. 'Yeah, okay. I should probably start learning judo or something.'

He laughed. 'Don't think you'll need to, but mum signed me up for karate classes as soon as we got here. You could come along too, if you want, but you can't start til' they get room in the beginners – maybe a month?'

'Okay.' Leah laughed too, mostly out of relief. Finally, there was someone who wanted to make friends with her. She wasn't a loner any longer.

Liam reminds me so much of Jared. They have the same personality, everything. I feel crazy talking to him. I don't think I'll ever regret apologising, even if Austin tries to kill me for it.

The French lesson is the most tiresome of all lessons, partly because I don't learn anything. I'm already fluent in French. While all the other kids struggle to remember what some of the easiest phrases are, I'm just sitting there trying not to fall asleep.

Did I mention that I hate school? I know that I'm privileged and all that, and that I should remember that a lot of kids can't go to school, but every night we get so much homework I feel like I'm sitting in an after school lesson and there's not many choices when it comes to friends.

Miss Marse dismissed the kids at 10:30am for their morning break. Leah heaved a sigh of relief as the school bell rang and sleepily piled up her books and wandered out the door.

The playground was, as always, a mass of psycho, screaming kids. Leah sat with Liam in her usual spot, hoping they weren't going to get trouble today. Unfortunately, the group rounded the corner just as she thought of this. Today they were in leather jackets and some wore bandannas which gave them a kiddie bad-ass look about them.

'You still hanging around her?' Austin sounded especially pissed off, but there was a teasing air to his tone. 'You suit each other, though. Both midgets.'

'I'll hang with her for as long as I like, because she's worth a million of you. You'll stay away if you know what's good for you.'

'Oooh, are you threatening us? Wow, I'm just so scared.' The group sniggered as the sarcastic remark was made.

Liam rolled his eyes. 'I wasn't threatening you. I was just asking you to leave us alone. Don't you have better things to do?'

'Not when it comes to you.' As if to emphasise this he pulled an object from his pocket and pegged it at Leah. She yelped as it hit her in the eye, before covering her face with her diary as she went into a spasm of pain.

Liam looked horrified. 'What the hell was that for?'

'She's a little streak of piss.' Austin shrugged. 'She should learn.'

'Just because she's short? What did she ever do to you?' Liam was facing them off now, and looked quite intimidating, despite his height.

'She's done a lot of things, especially before she came to this hole.' Austin shoved Liam away. 'A lot of things that would make you want to puke if you knew.'

'Just piss off to hell! You haven't even had a freaking conversation with her! How would you have any idea what she's like?' He shoved Austin away, making him overbalance and crash into the dirt. He was surprisingly strong despite his size and Austin looked rather intimidated. Leah looked up slightly and remembered what he had said about doing karate. Now that she looked, she saw that he looked really strong, and he had definite muscle where Austin had flab. Maybe she shouldn't have worried, after all.

By this time, half the playground had gathered around the two boys who were yelling at each other. A teacher pushed through and pulled Austin away. Trust the teacher to resolve the fight.

As the crowd turned away, Liam turned back to Leah. 'Let's see.'

Leah pulled the diary away from her face as he knelt down in front of her and pulled a tissue from his pocket. There was a long, thin streak of blood running down the side of her face, but she wasn't crying. The pain was mostly gone, and now she was angry.

Liam put his hands on her shoulders and shook her to get her back to her senses. 'Are you okay?' He stood her up and pulled her into a hug.

'I'm fine. Thanks.' Leah sighed, but she clearly had tears in her eyes.