AN: I promised this forever so here it finally is. Victoria's age has been reduced to 35 as has Conrad's. Daniel and Charlotte do not exist.

If anything else needs clearing up then let me know (:

Enjoy!

Emily's blonde hair hung in long loose waves when she was jolted awake by her alarm clock that beautiful Monday morning. Hah. Beautiful and Mondays don't go together. The birds were singing and the sun was shining and Emily wanted it all to stop. It was the Monday when her last year of school started back and she couldn't help but think of the previous year when things were different.

Last year she didn't have to be waken up by an alarm clock, no, her father was there at 5:30 every weekday to wake his "princess". She'd always hated that name when she was younger, now she would give anything to be woken up that way instead of having to do it herself. That wasn't even the worst past. SHe'd wake every morning to find her father asleep at the kitchen table surrounded by piles of work.

It all started when he got the big promotion at Grayson Global, one of the biggest and most powerful companies in the world, he became distant and it destroyed her. They were always very close and he was the only thing keeping her together after her mom killed herself after a long struggle with mental illness.

She dyed her hair black and then decided to legally switch names with her friend Amanda- or Emily at the time- almost to get back at him, to show him how much he hurt her. Her father had been furious, as was to be expected, but not angry enough to argue with her about it for more than a week. He even refused to call her Emily for sixth months, and even when he did it just seemed to widen the distance between them.

When her eyes finally blinked open she was momentarily disoriented. It was the house. The damn house. New promotion equalled big bucks and her dad thought it would be a nice change of scenery for "Amanda". She hated the house with a passion. It was a three storey mansion just screamed "look at us! Look at how much money we have!". A plus was that it wasn't haunted with memories of her mother. In fact that was the only plus. Well that and the insanely great bathroom.

Speaking of bathrooms while her's was fantastic it also had the worst lighting in the world or she was paler than she remembered. Her new house was farther away from the beach than her old one. She studied her face closer wondering whether or not to bother with makeup, she didn't need it and no one would care. Amanda would. She was always trying to teach Emily new makeup techniques and most of the time it just left Emily feeling bad. Amanda always seemed to put more effort into the friendship than she did, it wasn't that she didn't want to but it just seemed pointless, especially since they'd never see each other again after this year was over. The only friend that would be there for her forever was Nolan.

It only took her thirty minutes to straighten her hair until semi-decentness but if she didn't leave home then she'd be late. Pulling on a white camisole, navy blue cardigan and boring jeans she dashed out the house, barely remembering to at least offer up a good bye to her father.

"Aman- Emily wait you can't forget about breakfast," her father called after.

If Emily had heard him she didn't bother to stop.

When she got to school Nolan was waiting for her outside the gates. She could have been wrong, there were a lot of blond boys at her school but only one would be daring enough to wear that shade of red pants. She tried not to burst into a grin when she saw him. Nolan was the only one that was always there for her, he even rejected an offer to skip a grade because he wanted to stay with her.

"Nolan!"

He turned towards her, his face breaking into a huge smile as she ran over to him, he was the only person she voluntarily run for, and wrapped her arms around him. He graciously returned the hug.

"Em," he said effortlessly, besides Amanda he was the only one who had easily adapted to her new name, "I haven't seen you all summer."

Emily released him when she wanted to hug him tighter, she'd missed him, a lot. Her whole summer was her and her laptop and Amanda. Amanda was always there, except when she was Jack, which wasn't a lot because he spent most days out on the ocean with this brother and father.

"How was Marco?" she asked cautiously, if the two has gotten into another fight then it was going to be a long day.

Marco had gone to middle school with them but had left shortly after, recently Nolan and Marco had started chatting online and had really hit it off, they tried long distance but it soon began tiresome so Nolan flew to Maine to spend the summer with him.

"He's great, but Ems listen to me never do long distance, it's just too painful."

"I think I can handle painful love Nolan, isn't that what I've got going on with my father?"

Nolan just sighed. He did not want to go near that conversation, especially on a Monday morning so instead he pulled a poptart out his bag and gave it to Emily who happily munched on it.

"Emily what do I always say about breakfast?"

"Its delicious?"

Nolan lightly shoved her, "Come on Ems."

"Its the most important meal of the day," Emily grumbled.

"Exactly! I can't keep stealing from my dad's stash so eat some eggs or something tomorrow please."

Emily didn't answer him, she knew there'd be a poptart in his bag tomorrow.

Emily studied her schedule carefully before sneaking a peak at Nolan's. They both had Biology, Lunch and last period English but otherwise that was it. Last year they'd had more classes together.

Amanda quickly spotted them and dragged Jack over. Nolan an Emily shared a look. They had often said that Jack and Amanda were the romantic versions of themselves.

"Heya," Amanda grinned, she always turned into such a puppy whenever she was around Emily.

Jack snatched Emily's schedule out of her hands and gazed at it quickly, " Aw, we only have lunch together, at least all four of us can catch up. I can't wait to hear about what happened in Maine."

"Wait Jack lemme see," Amanda said before stealing the schedule, " oh, you got the Ice Queen for english."

"What? Who?" Emily asked trying to get a better look.

"Mrs. Grayson," Amanda answered.

"Wait, THE Mrs. Grayson? The wife of the secretary of Grayson Global?", trying not to tighten her fists. The CEO's wife. The people responsible for creating the rift between her and her father.

"Who else?"

"How long has she been teaching here?" Emily asked.

"Um forever ems, tall, brunette, always in dresses with an air of sophistication?"

The bell rang.

"Now that you mention it."

By the time English rolled around Emily wanted to be anywhere but at school. She and Nolan had chatted in Biology and lunch about how she shouldn't hate Mrs. Grayson just because of her husband and his work. Emily wished she wouldn't harbour these feelings for someone she'd never met but it was difficult for her not to.

When she walked out of Math Nolan was there waiting, looking as tired as she was. First days were always tiring.

"Emily, why do you look as though you're about to pass out?"

"Maybe because I went to bed at one," Emily muttered.

Nolan sighed before shaking his head, "Bad girl."

They were either early for English or half the class was missing or non-existent but the room was smaller than usual so the last option seemed more likely. Either way there were two desks in the back with their names on them and Nolan dragged Emily over to them.

When her teacher walked in Emily tried not to gasp at how stunning she was. Her father had mentioned going to her 35th birthday recently but she couldn't possibly be over than 25. A white bandage dress clung to her body so tightly that it must have been restricted in the teachers' dress code but apparently as long as you were rich, famous and ready to bring publicity to the school rules didn't matter.

Emily leaned over to Nolan and whispered, " If she's so rich then why is she teaching here?".

"Well," Nolan began, " This is one of the most prestigious schools in the world and you know how much famous people like to do anything which will make them look good, out of the goodness of their hearts of course," Nolan finished sarcastically.

"Good Afternoon students," Mrs. Grayson began before she hopped up on the desk and crossed her legs at the ankle, "all of you are here because you're the best and most serious students in this grade."

Emily tried not to snicker, while she was always at the top of her English class it wasn't because she was "serious", just naturally good.

"Something funny Miss Clarke?", the older woman asked, fixing her signature glare on Emily.

Emily raised her gaze to meet her's , there no stare off she couldn't win but under the heavy weight of her teacher's stare she quickly and meekly dropped her gaze.

"You," Mrs. Grayson said pointing at a girl in front of the teacher's desk, "what's your name?".

"Ashley. Ashley Davenport."

"Great. If you could please switch seats with Miss Clarke so we get can get back to business."

Emily got up and moved with grace until she reached her new seat. She couldn't believe this, just one little snicker and she had to moved. She flicked her gaze back up to Mrs. Grayson's and held it until she sat.

"And please see me after class Miss Clarke."

Again with the Miss Clarke stuff, did her father have a picture of of her in her office or something?

She could feel sympathetic gazes from Nolan for the remainder of the lesson. She'd pissed off the Ice Queen and she'd have to pay. Here's hoping it wasn't detention for a week.

Mrs Grayson had instructed them to read the first three chapters of the book they were about to study, which Emily took to mean just gaze at the book and flick pages now and again. She hate that damn book, almost as much as her house.

The bell finally rang signalling the freedom of her classmates. Her gaze left her book at met the eyes of her teacher. Emily saw a certain emptiness in her eyes that she hadn't expected to and it intrigued her. The older woman however averted her eyes before standing and dismissing the class until it was just Emily who remained.

A certain awkwardness settled over the room as Emily was unaware of whether to stand or to remain seated.

"Miss Clarke I trust this disturbance in my class won't happen again."

"No Mrs. Grayson. I Promise."

"Don't promise things if you don't mean them," Victoria said, her eyes glazed over as if remembering a painful memory.

Emily wasn't sure whether she was dismissed or not until Mrs Grayson pointed at the door.

"You may leave."

Emily hesitated in the doorway, unsure whether or not to offer comfort to the older woman, not she was any good at it.

Her decision was made when her teacher's ice queen demeanor fell back into place as she arched an eyebrow, asking what she was still doing here.

Nolan was waiting for her outside the gate. She quickened her pace when he caught sight of her until she was beside him.

"How was your meeting with the Ice Queen?"

"Ugh, she just wanted to make sure I would never laugh, smile or grin in her class ever again, maybe I should ask for a transfer."

"Absolutely not Ems, together forever remember? Don't leave N-Dog alone with that woman."

Emily rolled her eyes, "Okay I promise, just as long as you never call yourself N-Dog again."

"Wanna hang?"

"Nah got homework to do, this weekend for sure though."

"Defs."

It was such a lie, she didn't have any homework but there was something bothering her and it just wouldn't go away. So when she got home she pulled a bottle of water out of the fridge and went to her room.

She flopped onto her giant king size bed and booted up her laptop. She went immediately to google and let her fingers hover over the keyboard trying to decide if she really wanted to do this or not.

Victoria Grayson had 51 million results pop up.

The first link went to her facebook page which came up pretty empty, it was run by staff and just seemed to post about different charities the brunette supported but at least there were photos of her at various events.

There were so many photos of her in amazing dresses, dresses even Emily would kill to wear but there was one in particular. It was tight, tighter than the one she had worn at school and it was backless and ended just under her butt. Conrad was also in it and Victoria was kissing his cheek with the same empty look in her eye.

A hot flare of jealousy overtook Emily and shut the laptop before pushing it to the other side of the bed.

What was wrong with her? Why did she spend so much time admiring that photo? Where did the jealousy come from? She tried to shake off the weird feeling before hugging a pillow tight to her body and eventually falling asleep.

Mwah!

-Abbie