Chapter 1

Marius's father had given him a car for the summer. It was just an old, blue convertible from the 80's, but it was still a car that he hadn't earned himself. His best friend, Enjolras, constantly made fun of him for the random gift of the convertible. In his older friend's eyes, Marius was spoiled. However, Enjolras didn't object to riding with his friend in the classic convertible on the first day of school.

Richard Enjolras (who went strictly by his last name, Marius never knew why) was from a wealthy family himself, but took it to himself to earn everything he needed. Marius sometimes couldn't stand how perfect Enjolras presented himself; captain of their school's lacrosse team, starter on the football team, a straight A student and regular volunteer at the Alfred Town Food Pantry and their town's Congregational church.

"Hey, Enjolras," Marius greeted, watching his best friend sit down in the passenger seat. Enjolras grinned back, his messy blonde hair nearly covering his eyes.

"Junior year is the worst year," he taunted Marius, who tried to shrug it off. He knew it was true, it was the year where grades and SAT scores came into play. He needed to be as perfect as Enjolras, a senior who could sleep easily with his early acceptance into Princeton.

The two boys kept a simple conversation going, talking about the new school year and the teachers they had. As it turned out, Marius was in the same history and math class as Enjolras, they were his two best subjects.

"See, and you think I'm so smart, you're in a senior history and math class!" Enjolras exclaimed, nudging Marius. He shyed away from his friend's compliment.

"I think Eponine's in our history class and she's a junior, too," ,Marius protested. Eponine, though terrible at math and science, was always in the best classes for history.

The boys had been best friends since they were little, as they had grown up in the same neighborhood, but Enjolras quickly befriended Eponine Thenardier when she became a close friend of Marius in the fifth grade.

In fact, that was the exact person Marius was meaning to pick up on their first day of school, too. It was a long drive to where Eponine lived, she was the polar opposite of Marius and Enjolras family-wise. She lived in the poorest area of the fairly large town of Alfred, New Hampshire, with the parents who were definitely the worst in town.

The Thenardier household was a small one, with a roof that was falling apart and and a beaten down porch. A girl, about sixteen, sat on the steps of the porch. Usually, when Marius picked up Eponine during their sophomore year she would be sitting with her little brother, Gavroche. However, her brother had graduated to the sixth grade and the middle school bus came earlier than the elementary school one. She looked lonely and out of place without him.

"Hi, guys," she said, jumping into the back seat of the convertible without hesitation. Eponine was pretty, but messy. Her clothes weren't very nice, she didn't wear any makeup and her long, brown hair was never styled nicely. However, she was good-looking in her own way.

"I have both of your parents this year," Enjolras informed her, faking a shudder at the thought of her dreadful parents, who were also dreadful teachers. Mr. and Mrs. Thenardier made enough money as teachers at Mackintosh High School to support Eponine and her brother, but spent their earnings mostly on parties and alcohol. They rarely paid attention to their two children and were usually cruel instead.

They talked a bit more, while Marius brought them to Mackintosh High School, a building that suddenly burst with life after being so quiet all summer. A few people greeted the three of them, while they watched all the upperclassmen excitedly chat with friends they haven't seen for months and freshmen stumble nervously in large groups, looking for their new classes.

"Senior class meeting is in the gym," Enjolras muttered, while reading the large board propped in front of the school doors. "See you guys later."

Marius and Eponine waked through the halls as quickly as they could, trying to dodge the equally fast moving people as skillfully as he could. However, Marius still managed to fall straight into a girl. Eponine tried to resist the urge to roll her eyes and laugh. The girl was much smaller than him, and she fell against the hallway floor. Marius panicked to himself and hurriedly helped the girl up.

She was small, but definitely was around their age. Eponine had to admit, she was really pretty with nice clothes and long, blonde hair neatly styled back.

"Uhm, I, uh. I didn't see you there," Marius managed to stutter out, slightly blushing. "I'm sorry."

Eponine didn't think much of her friend's shyness. He had always been shy around girls, besides her. However, as she looked at the girl (equally as red) her heart began to pound with jealously, and then just sadness. Why didn't Marius ever feel the same way she did?

"It's alright," she said shyly, letting him help her up. Marius, with a surge of confidence, spoke again.

"My name is Marius Pontmercy," he told her, rolling his eyes at his own stupidity. Why did he say his full name? It was so French... she probably wouldn't like it. She giggled a little bit, nervously putting a strand of hair behind her ear.

"And mine's Cosette," she introduced. Cosette realized how closely they stood after he had helped her up, and quickly stepped back a bit.

"Are you new here?" Marius asked, trying to keep a conversation with this girl. The answer was an obvious yes, he would have seen her before.

"Very new, we just came here a couple of weeks ago."

"Do you know where to go?" he asked politely, momentarily forgetting Eponine was with him in the first place.

"Well..." she began, trying not to bother him, "Uh, no. I actually am completely lost. Someone told me I was suppose go to the library?"

"Oh, the library! Yeah, the library. That's where our class meeting is. You must be a junior, then. Every first day of school all of the different grades meet before classes start," Marius said, "I can take you."

"You would? Thank you so much," she said honestly. Cosette smiled greatfully, and followed him down the hall.

Eponine followed them closely behind, waiting for when her best friend would remember that she existed. Marius looked back at her, and his eyes widened with a look of extreme guilt of forgetting about her.

"Cosette, this is my best friend, Eponine. Eponine, Cosette," Marius introduced, and Eponine finally got the chance to look at the girl closer.

"Nice to meet you," Cosette said kindly. Eponine smiled back as best she could.

She really was pretty, and it was no surprise why Marius had suddenly acquired such a crush. Cosette was well-put together and although she was definitely new to town, there was also something about her that was familiar, too. No matter how nice she was, though, Eponine still couldn't bring herself to like Cosette.

In fact, she wanted to cry as she followed the two towards the library. Marius and Eponine had been best friends since fifth grade, so she had harboured a secret crush on him since fifth grade. It was a well-kept secret. No one had any idea, not even Enjolras. She didn't really have any female friends to confide in and her mother was definitely out of the question. No one had a clue how much she liked him. Even Eponine didn't like to admit it to herself, but yes, it was true. She undeniably had a crush on Marius Pontmercy.

Marius was a casual dater, he had taken some girl named Meg Giry to homecoming their Sophmore year. However, Eponine went with Harry Courfeyrac, their mutual friend, and never thought anything of it. In fact, Marius went on a few more dates with Meg, but it never worked out much. Eponine herself never had a boyfriend, because no one could ever measure up to her feelings for Marius.

She sat at one of the many library tables set up that day with Marius and Cosette, along with some other junior friends in the packed room. Eponine listened to the class advisor talk a bit about the school year to come, but just barely. All she could focus on Marius, and that wasn't like her at all.

Of course, she liked Marius, but it never consumed her thoughts like most girls. Now it was all she could think about. Why did he like that girl, that Cosette, who simply fell out of nowhere?

Cosette... Cosette... Cosette. The cute, little name repeated itself over and over in her head.

As the day went on, Eponine gradually began to forget about Marius and Cosette. She didn't have any classes with her and whenever she had a class with Marius, they simply talked about anything besides his new crush. However, he did seem different since that morning. His head was off in the clouds, as if only a part of him was on earth, talking to Eponine.

Although, by the end of the day, Marius was more than happy to give Cosette a ride home. While he remembered that Enjolras needed a way home, too, Eponine was left to walk home by herself, torturing herself with thoughts of Marius and Cosette.

After a fairly long walk home from school and about twenty minutes of homework, Eponine finally remembered why Cosette was such a familiar face.

And that just made everything ten times worse.