It was a sunny spring Thursday, and the AHC campus was buzzing. Everyone was ready for school to get out, especially the graduating seniors. Finally it was eleven o'clock, time for class to get out. Nickole was staring at the clock, through her bright red hair, like she had for the last ten minutes of her Spanish III class; Sra. Ramirez had just begun to give them their homework assignment. The whole class was looking forward to the weekend. There were many great high school-level teachers at AHC. There was Sra. Ramirez the Spanish teacher, Mrs. Brown the writing teacher, Mrs. Stewart the science teacher, Mr. Holt the math teacher, and many others. When Sra. Ramirez had dismissed them, Nickole left the classroom in a rush to get to study hall. On her way she met up with one of her friends, Ann. Nickole and Ann had been friends since freshman year; they were always hanging out together at AHC. Nickole walked over to where Ann was sitting. "Hey, Ann,"

"Hey, how's it going?" Ann greeted her as she pulled back her long brown hair.

"Not bad. We had a massive grammar test in Spanish today. It had 150 questions!"

"Whoa, I'm glad I was late, but I guess I'll have to do a make-up test...arg."

"Why were you so late?"

"Well, about seven-thirty last night, I realized that I still had about 100 pages left to read before Mrs. Brown's class this morning. So I ended up pulling an all-nighter to keep from failing the test this afternoon."

"You really need to work on keeping up with your homework."

"I know, I know, but anyway...how are things with you and Don? You two are dating, right?"

"No, where did you get that from? We are just friend…best friends"

"That's not what the rumors are around campus, and don't get me wrong, I don't normally listen to those things, but this one grabbed my attention" Ann explained.

"Don't worry about it." Nickole assured her "Thanks for telling me?"

AHC, Academic Homeschooling Classes, was an association of teachers and parents working together to educate homeschooled students. At AHC you could take anything from biology to drama. The classes only met twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursday s. There were over one-hundred students on the small campus. It only had three buildings. One was divided in to three small rooms for study hall and Mrs. Brown's classroom. Another was used for many different classes including math, Spanish, and science. The last building was where Mrs. Bradley's office was and there was a large sanctuary that was used for the drama classes. Nickole and Ann headed around the corner toward the portable building in which study hall was held. They passed the old picnic table under the large pear tree where there was a group of gossiping girls. Lisa, Rebecca, and Morgan were too busy giggling over the latest "news" that they didn't notice Nickole and Ann walk by. This didn't bother Nickole one bit. Study hall was full of teens that were coming from and going to classes. The girls sat down in two of the empty seats around a large table which took up most of the tiny room. For Nickole, study hall was the best part of her day. Just as Nickole began getting out her notebook to show Ann what she had missed in Spanish class, a tall boy came in. He had light brown hair hidden underneath a baseball hat with the fire department's seal on it. His name was Eddie. Eddie walked over to them and took the seat next to Nickole.

"Hey there, Nickole," Eddie greeted her loudly. He didn't even seem to care or even notice that Ann was there. Eddie and Nickole have known each other for the last five years, and Eddie had been in love with her since. The problem was that she didn't like him. In fact she actually thought he was a little strange, but their parents were friends, so she had to be nice to him. He had practically devoted his life to trying to getting her attention, but she had always just viewed him as a friend. Today was no different.

"Hi, Eddie," Nickole replied, not looking up.

"So, what are you guys doing?"

"We're trying to get Ann caught up in Spanish. She missed class this morning."

"Oh, well I was hoping maybe you and I could do something later tonight. Maybe we could catch a movie or something; how about it?"

"Umm...I don't know Ann, Don, and I are going to hang out tonight. You could come with us if you want." Nickole suggested. Ann cleared her throat ever so softly.

"Yeah, maybe I will. What are you guys going to be doing?"

At this point Ann jumped in, "We were going to come over to my house and watch some old horror films. We've been doing it about once a month or something like that. I think Dracula is next."

"That sounds like fun." Eddie said, and he glanced down at his watch.

"Yeah, especially if you like horror flicks." Ann continued.

"Oh, man!" Nickole noticed Eddie looking at his watch. "What time is it?"

"Don't worry; it's only 11:30. We don't have class for another thirty minutes."

"Good, because we still need to get you caught up with Spanish." Nickole said relieved turning back to Ann.

They spent a few minutes reviewing the Spanish homework and going over vocabulary while Eddie sat near by watching them. A few minutes later the door opened and a dark-headed boy named Don came in and swinging his backpack off his shoulder he took the seat across from Nickole. Don and Nickole had known each other ever since they were kids, and now, in there senior year of high school, they are still great friends. Don, like Eddie, had always liked Nickole, but was always to shy to tell her. The difference was that she liked him too, and was also to shy to tell him. As Don sat down Eddie looked over at him. The look he gave Don was not exactly a friendly look. "Hey guys," he said as he looked over at Nickole.

"Hi, Don" Nickole responded with a smile.

Ann also greeted him, "What's up?" There was no response from Eddie, who now sat glaring at the table.

"So are we still on for the movie tonight? It's Dracula, right?" Don asked.

"Yep, I figured we'd head over to my place after class." Ann answered excitedly.

"And, Eddie's going to be coming over too," Nickole added. She looked over at Don whose face was blank; then he raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, I'm looking forward to it," Eddie cut in before Don could utter a response to this news.

"Uh...so, Ann, where were you this morning? I didn't see you in Spanish." Don asked, quickly changing the subject.

"I was late, really late."

"Oh," He turned to Nickole, "so, Nickole, what did you think of that unbelievable grammar test?"

"I thought it was really tough, even for Sra. Ramirez."

"I need to study for that too!" Ann muttered turning to the grammar section of her notebook.

"No time now," Don said looking his watch, "It's time for us to go to Government."

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