Chapter 1

I tiptoed quietly down the stairs, trying my hardest not to tumble down to my death. My heart was racing and my hands shaking as they tightly held a black sharpie. As I approached the second to last step, my stomach dropped to the floor. I had just stepped on the squeaky step, the super loud step that sounded like I had stepped on a dying cat. I craned my neck up to the top of the stairs, there was no one, but I couldn't be too sure. I hopped off the step and placed my hand on the doorknob, turned it and-

"Louise!"

I jumped and yelled at the top of my lungs. "Shit!"

"Language, young lady," Mom nagged from the top of the stairs. "What are you doing? You haven't had breakfast, I made Mammy's special pancakes."

The specialty was lack of flavor, which I had to drown in gallons of maple syrup and whipped cream. I didn't say that to Mom, well not after Dad paid Gene and I to keep our mouths shut. "Mom! I need to go, just give mine to Gene."

"He already left, said he had to meet a few friends."

Damn, he left before I did, the sneaky bastard. Well I guess there's no point in leaving so early now.

"Come on upstairs and eat something, I don't want you to look too skinny, people will think I can't afford to feed ya anymore."

I hurried up the stairs almost tripping on my old shoe laces. I called these old Chucks my lucky sneakers, mainly because they were easy to run in and I had made many quick getaways in them.

In the kitchen there was already a short stack of pancakes for me and a glass of milk. I grabbed the bottle of syrup and put a gross amount on the plate. Mom sat next to me not eating or anything, just sitting. She had been super clingy to Gene and I after Tina left to college two years ago, even though she came back home every so often since she was only in New York. Gene had his hopes set on Berklee College of Music. Ever since he found out that Berklee only has 27% acceptance rate he got his act together and so far has a perfect GPA. Yet that doesn't mean he doesn't still run with me.

"Lin!" I heard Dad calling from his room. "Lin!"

"What, Bob?!" Mom called back.

"Have you seen my white shirts? I can't find any of them."

Mom looked at me and smiled. "Louise is wearing one!"

"Louise!" Dad's voice was getting close until he was also in the kitchen. "Louise, why are you wearing my shirt, it doesn't even fit?" He was still in his pajamas.

Yeah the shirt was much too big and I had to tie the sucker on one side, but hey, it did the job. "Marker wars."

"What?" He asked.

"Marker wars." Silence. "Dad you can't tell me you've never heard of marker wars." Silence again. "Ugh! You guys are so old. Gene and I organized the first annual Huxley High marker wars, and today's the day. Everyone wears white shirts and carries markers with them, if someone stains your shirt you're out, last one standing wins five hundred bucks."

"Where did you get five hundred dollars from?" Dad asked.

"There's a hundred kids in the game, we each had to pay a five dollar entry fee, winner takes all."

"Wouldn't that be frowned upon in school?" As Dad questioned me the landline started ringing and Mom went over to pick it up.

"Dad, dad, dad, it's not frowned upon if they don't find out."

Mom came back to the table and handed Dad the phone. "Bobby, it's Mr. Frond."

"I didn't do anything!" I yelled out before Dad could take the phone. "Seriously, I haven't done anything, why is Mr. Frond calling our house?"

Dad took the phone and started talking to Mr. Frond. I thought I had seen the end of him back at Wagstaff, but he was offered a job as dean at Huxley, and transferred over three years ago. Needless to say, he was always on my case. He might have been calling about marker wars if one of the players turned out to be a narc, but Gene and I made sure to run careful background checks on everyone.

"You're welcome...Yes...I'll send Louise into your office for the information...Yes, Goodbye."

"WHAT?!" I screamed. My own dad gave me away. "No way, there is no way you gave me up!I didn't do anything!"

Dad put the phone back. "I know Louise, it's not about you."

"It's not?"

"What is it Bobby?" Mom was concerned now.

He sat down next to us. "Calm down everyone, it's fine. Mr. Frond wants us to take in an exchange student."

"An exchange student! Oh how fun, where's he from? France? England? Oooo Mexico? He can teach us to make little taquitos."

Oh boy.

"No Lin, he's not foreign, he's from California apparently," Dad replied.

Great, California boy, probably another stupid stoner kid. At least he'd be out of the way.

"California, so glamorous," Mom made a point by elongating her words.

"I don't think so Lin, apparently this kid is being send to Huxley because of some behavioral problems or something. Frond said something about him being some rich kid, I think his parents are sending him out here to get a taste of the real world."

I chuckled. "Ha! There's sending us some rich kid to get a load of the poor American family, typical rich people bull."

"Louise, let your father speak," mom barked at me.

"He's going to finish his senior year at Huxley and they want him to stay with a family. Mr. Frond thought we would be a good place for him to stay since he knows us well, and he thinks it would be a nice little thing or Gene to put on his college application."

Typical Frond trying to make this seem like it would benefit us, please, I know he just couldn't find anyone else to take the kid in. He probably tried Jimmy Pesto first since Ollie and Andy were sophomore class presidents. Having the kid here wouldn't be so bad I guess, he was Gene's age so he wouldn't be another annoying sophomore. Plus he was rich, and it was always easy to make a quick buck from a rich kid. Sure, I could live with this.

"This is so exciting, he can take Tina's old room," Mom was all sorts of hyper now. For her this must have felt like having a foster kid that went to juvie; she thought she could change the kid. I knew that probably wouldn't be the case, he would probably be just another snobby sheltered rich kid, and he would go back home at the end of the year exactly the same. There was no point in getting our hopes up over it. "What's his name Bobby? When will he come live with us?"

"He'll be coming in a few days, and that's why Louise has to go to Frond's office to get his file and paperwork," he said.

I guess I could go, it would mean I would be safe from the war for a minute while inside his office. "Fine, I'll go."

The halls were quiet at Huxley when I walked in, awfully quiet. Class hadn't started yet, but there were a hundred participants in the war, and everyone else was placing their bets on their favorites. So far the people to beat were Gene and I, and I was not about to lose to the sad middle child of the Belcher family.

Since i didn't see anyone in the halls after scanning it a few times, I knew I was being set up, Gene must have had some sort of alliance. Frond's office was only a few doors down, and if I made it in there that was my safe haven. I readied myself, trying to push all my energy to my legs. I decided to wear black leggings today, the ultimate pants for maximum comfort and agility. I started my sprint, as I ran farther down the hall, I could hear people coming out of the lockers, yelling my name. I didn't dare look back, I instead kept my eyes set on Frond's office. When I approached the door I opened it as fast as I could and shut it with all the force I had left.

My heart was racing, that should excuse me from gym class for the rest of the year. Frond was sitting in his chair, knitting what looked like a hat. He looked up at me and smiled that weird Frond smile. "Louise, so happy you could come in today."

"Did I really have choice?" I sassed back.

"Well no, but I'm happy you could be here." He walked over to filling cabinet next to him and pulled out manilla envelopes. I took a seat in front of his desk to catch my breath, and took one of the chocolates in a mason jar he kept for his students. "I'm so happy your family could do this for Brendan, he could really use the support."

Brendan, if that wasn't a rich white kid name, I don't know what is. He probably wears pastel polos and boat shoes to the grocery store, if he'd ever gone to one. "Of course, Mr. Frond."

"Since the school year has already started, hopefully you can help him make a few friends." He found the file and came back to his desk and sat down. "He's really a great kid. I think you'll be fond of him."

Please, I was barely fond of my own family. Frond handed me the envelope and gestured me to open it. I was expecting him to want me to hand it straight to Dad, but no, he let me open it and see for myself. He's was probably super excited to have this kid at our school. I opened it and looked at the first page in the small stack.

My eyes widened, My guts dropped to my knees and I was sure that if I wasn't sitting down I would have toppled over. How did this happen? How could any of this happen? I wanted to die, throw up, then die. But I also wanted to jumped, wanted to run all the way to New York and find Tina and scream, scream until my lungs burst. But I was in Mr. Frond's office, and for all he knew, I had no feelings.

I stood outside his office, still. I still held the page in my hands, reading it over and over looking to see if I'd missed something, if maybe I had read something wrong. This couldn't be happening, not to me. But it was right, no matter how hard I tried reading it, it was the same words and the same picture. I felt the felt tip of markers on my shoulders. Andy and Ollie marked my left side, Gene and his girls got my right. That didn't matter now.

"You are out Louise!" Gene shouted as the others cheered with him. I said nothing. They noticed right away. "What's wrong? Why aren't you attacking?"

"I need to go." I walked off holding the envelope and it's contents with me. I knew that if I ditched Algebra again I would get a truancy, so I went to class, but my mind wasn't there. My mind was still hung up on the words I had the misfortune of reading.

At the top of the page in bold letters it read:

Name: Brenden B. Spencer.

The name meant nothing, but the picture did. The picture was a fancy headshot of a boy I knew far too well. He wore a navy blazer in the picture and white shirt underneath, I wanted to throw up. His blue eyes looked like they were following me, asking me to jump in those crystal pools. I slapped my own face in the middle of math. His blond hair swooped to one side like an ocean wave that I wished I could drown in. I pulled my pink bunny ears over my eyes and groaned. "Make it stop!"

"Louise Belcher!" Mrs. Bennett called. "Keep it down or you can march straight to the main office."

I didn't take the ears off my eyes, I couldn't look at him, not again. His beautiful picture only brought memories of a dark time.

I felt a body lean toward me, no one sat near me in the back, so I pulled the ears up and checked to see who it was. It was none other than Millie, the most obnoxious girl in the entire school. You would think she would be over trying to be friends with me, but still tried and tried. She was the junior varsity cheer captain, which meant she had plenty of girls willing to be her friend, but she always came back to me.

"What's that Louise?" She asked, already taking the papers from my desk.

I snached them back. "Nothing, Millie, leave me alone."

"Who's this boy? He's so cute."

Cute?! Cute? If that wasn't the biggest understatement of the century. "Cute? He's the human equivalent of a Greek God, you idiot!"

Millie eyed the paper again. "Wait, isn't he-"

"Yes." He is.

"Why do you keep his picture with you?"

I didn't answer her. I was done talking to her. I was done with the day in my mind. In my rage taking the paper back, I had managed to wrinkle his picture, I straightened it on my desk. He was still amazing, and stupid. I laughed a little. I never knew his real name was Brendan. I had come to know him only as a dream boy incapable of crossing paths with me again. Yet here he was, the one and only Boo Boo, or the stupid kid that forced me to feel. Tina was never going to believe this.