Prologue

Ten-year-old Hilary Tatibana sat at her desk in the back of the classroom, waiting for class to start and staring at the ceiling. A sad sigh escaped her lips. She had been at Weston Preparatory School for a whole week and she hadn't made a single friend. No one would speak to her unless they absolutely had to or they were teasing her because she had oddly colored eyes and large lips.

But it really wasn't her fault that she looked that way. She couldn't help it that her eyes were the color of rubies; it wasn't like she asked for them to be that way. And she certainly hadn't asked for large lips.

The kids even teased her because she was extremely skinny and hadn't even started wearing a training bra…it wasn't like she could help that either.

Of course, when she complained about these things to her mother, the older woman simply said "Don't worry, Hilary, dear. Just give it time. They'll come around sooner or later and see what a wonderful person you are."

The ten-year-old brunette frowned. That was easy for her mother to say. Her mother was extremely tall and curvaceous and beautiful and blonde with blue eyes and normal sized lips, just like Hilary's six older sisters.

She placed her elbow on her desk and her chin in the palm of her hand and another melancholy sigh passed through her lips. It really wasn't fair that all of her sisters were extremely popular already when they had just arrived at the school too. Her three older brothers were extremely popular too.

Why did she have to be the odd Tatibana out? Why did she have to be the only one who wasn't popular? Why did she have to be the only daughter who looked like her father? Why did her father have to get sick and die and then her mother move them all the way to Japan, taking her away from a place where she had friends and people who liked her?

It just wasn't fair!

The pout that had begun to form on her face disappeared almost immediately when she noticed Natasha and Waverly, two of the most popular girls in the fifth grade, staring back at her and giggling.

She shot each of the girls a nasty look and lifted her nose into the air.

She didn't see why everyone like them. Sure they were both pretty, Natasha with her brown eyes and gorgeous red hair and Waverly with her black locks and sea green eyes, but they were both horribly mean and spiteful girls, and Waverly was nothing more than Natasha's lapdog. They were probably the reason that no one would talk to her. After all, everyone always did what they said.

"Did you see the way she just looked at us?" she heard Natasha whisper angrily.

"Yeah," Waverly agreed.

"Who does that red-eyed freak think she is?"

Hilary opened her mouth to inform the two girls that her eyes weren't red, they were ruby but the bell chose that moment to ring and the teacher walked in smiling kindly.

"Good morning class!" she said.

The students stood and faced her. "Good morning, Mrs. Willis!"

Mrs. Willis nodded approvingly at the class. "You may be seated," she waited for everyone to sit down before turning towards the board. She picked up a marker and began to write an equation. "Today we will be starting with long division. We'll start with an easy one first," she turned towards the class and asked, "Can anyone solve this equation: three hundred divided by two?"

Hilary knew the answer, but didn't raise her hand. She didn't want to be classified as a nerdy, red-eyed, big-lipped freak. However, when the teacher called on her-Out of the eighteen children in the class she just had to choose me!-she couldn't do anything but answer the question correctly. She didn't want to be viewed as a stupid, big-lipped, red-eyed freak.

"150," she answered softly, but still loud enough for the teacher to hear her at the front of the room.

"Very good, Ms. Tatibana. Can you come down here and show us how you got that answer?"

Hilary sighed and reluctantly lifted herself from her chair and headed towards the front of the classroom as if she were walking to her death. Even though she was looking at the floor, she could feel the eyes of her classmates on her and hear their snickers as she trudged towards the front of the room.

Just as she reached the door and was about to turn towards her teacher, it swung open and slapped her in the face, flinging her onto the floor.

The class erupted into a fit of laughter as the teacher rushed to her side and a boy with navy blue hair and brown eyes stepped into the classroom, gasping.

The new boy stared down at Hilary apologetically and helped her up. He scratched the back of his head and grinned sheepishly at her. "Oops. Sorry. Guess I should have been more careful."

Hilary simply blushed. This boy was so cute. "It's…it's okay."

He was the first person at the school who actually said something to her that wasn't an insult…well, the first student anyway. Teachers weren't allowed to say anything mean.

He blinked at her in surprise. "Are you sure? Because it looks kind of like your-" he was cut off when the teacher pushed him aside.

When Mrs. Willis reached them she inspected Hilary to make sure she was alright before turning on the new arrival. "Tyson Granger! First you miss a week of school without having anyone send the school a note stating why, then you come to my class ten minutes late and attack my newest student. Look at her, her forehead is bleeding. What do you have to say for yourself?"

The ten-year-old bluenette pouted. "I had the flu. I have a note in my book bag from my mother to prove it. And it's not my fault that Grandpa didn't wake me up this morning. I wasn't even going to come to school until Dean Mathis called complaining about how I missed a whole week of school and how that could mess with my education, or something. Besides, I already said that I was sorry and she said it was okay," he turned his imploring brown eyes onto Hilary. "Didn't you?"

The brunette nodded meekly. "It really is okay, Mrs. Willis. I'm fine."

The teacher sighed. "In any case, Hilary, you're going to have to go to the nurse to get that checked out," she turned to Tyson and frowned. "Give me that note from you mother and then escort Ms. Tatibana to the nurse's office."

"Okay," he mumbled as he ruffled though his backpack for a few moments before producing a crumpled piece of paper and handing it to the teacher. "There you go." He then promptly dropped his bag on the floor and dragged Hilary out of the room by her hand, causing the girl to turn at least ten different shades of red. The only boy who had ever held her hand besides her father and brothers was Petey Peterson, and that had only been because they were playing Red Rover at recess.

As they walked down the hallway, Tyson slowed their pace, but didn't release her hand, much to Hilary's delight.

"So," Tyson began after a few moments of silence. "You're new here."

She nodded. "Yeah. My brothers, sisters, and I started coming here last week."

He nodded. "How come no one seems to like you if you've already been here a whole week?"

She blinked at him in surprise. "How do you know no one likes me? You were only in the classroom for maybe two minutes."

"Yeah, but everyone laughed when I accidentally hit you with the door," he answered before he repeated his previous question. "So, how come no one likes you?"

She shrugged. "They think my eyes are weird and that my lips are too big," she said shyly; choosing to leave out the part about them teasing her because she wasn't even wearing a training bra.

Tyson released her hand, much to Hilary's disappointment, and moved in front of her to stop her from walking. She looked up at him in confusion as he looked down at her in a studious way, a look that for some reason she felt didn't appear very often, even though it did make him look rather cute.

He reached out and used his sleeve to wipe the blood of her cut from her face, starting at the tip of her nose and running up to the middle of her forehead, where the cut was.

She blinked in surprise. "T-Thanks," she stuttered as she felt her heart rate increase.

He simply nodded and grabbed her hand, resuming their trek towards the nurse's office. "They're right you know," he said suddenly.

She looked at him in confusion. "What?"

"You do have really big lips and your eyes are a strange color. I've never seen red eyes before."

She felt her heart plummet to her stomach along with the elation that she had been feeling. So he was going to pick on her too…

"They're ruby," she murmured sulkily as she tried to snatch her hand away from his, he only clasped on tighter. "Let go," she said angrily.

He ignored her. "I like your eyes though," he continued as if she hadn't spoken and wasn't struggling with him. "I think they're pretty cool."

Hilary stopped trying to pull away from him and felt her elation returning. "Really?"

Once again he continued as if Hilary hadn't even spoken. "They're really cool," he repeated, as if to himself. "And you lips are really big, but according to my older brother Hiro—he's sixteen and knows everything—says that girls with big lips when they're younger are really good kissers when they get older so it's good for them to have big lips. So, you'll probably be a really good kisser considering how big yours are."

She wasn't sure if that last part was an insult or a compliment, but she smiled brightly anyway. Tyson Granger, this really cute boy, said that he thought her eyes were cool and that she would probably be a good kisser someday.

Did that mean he wanted to kiss her? Her face reddened at the thought and she shook her head. There was no way that he wanted to kiss her. After all, they had only just met. They didn't even know anything about each other. They weren't even friends.

Hilary's mind continued its train of thought before she was brought to an abrupt halt by Tyson. She looked up at him in confusion as he released her hand. She missed the warmth and odd sense of security it provided her immediately.

"This is the nurse's office," he said. "Just knock on the door and tell Nurse Hollis what happened. I have to go back to class. Okay?"

She nodded slowly. "Okay. Thank you for showing me how to get here."

He nodded and turned away before looking over his shoulder. "Hey, Hil?"

Hilary blinked in surprise. Nobody ever called her 'Hil', but, oddly enough, she couldn't bring herself to correct him. "Yes?"

"Do you want to eat lunch with me and my friends today since you don't have anyone else to eat with?"

She blinked in surprise for a few moments before smiling brightly. "Sure."

He nodded. "Okay. See you later."

"Okay."

When Hilary got home that afternoon, she rushed straight to her room and rummaged around in some of her unpacked boxes until she found the diary that Amelia, her very best friend, had gotten her as a going away present. She opened it and wrote on the first page:

1 February

Dear Diary,

Today I fell in love.