Jessica Garrett stepped lightly out of her family's Mercedes and stared at the large mansion in front of her. Her heart felt heavy.

"Doesn't this look great, sweetie?" Jessica's mom, Deborah, exclaimed. She put her arm around Jessica, who rolled her eyes.

"Not really," she said, shrugging Deborah's arm off. "I like our house back home in New Jersey."

"Oh, Jess. Of course it doesn't seem like home yet," Deborah said. "But it will soon, I promise. Westchester is going to be a great adventure for us! I'm sure you'll make plenty of friends."

"It's not like I didn't have friends back home," Jess said sarcastically. She picked up her purple polka-dot suitcase and rolled it up the walk to the front door. "This will never be home," she muttered once Deborah was out of sight. "Never."

"Jess, come down here please! Dinner's ready!" Deborah called 2 hours later. Jessica was lying on her bed, the only object in her large, oval shaped room. She had out her Mac-book and was trying to IM her best friend from back home in New Jersey.

KATIEBUG: Jess, I'm sure Westchester will b great

JESSYG: true that, Katie but it'll never b home

KATIEBUG: jessy, just chilax, k?

JESSYG: whatevs

KATIEBUG: so…

JESSYG: my moms calling me 4 dinner

KATIEBUG: whats a cookin?

JESSYG: McDonalds

KATIEBUG: :-P

JESSYG: tell me bout it. C U Soon!

KATIEBUG: copy that

JESSYG: hasta la vista

Jess logged off and put her Mac-book under her bed. Snatching up her slippers, she walked out the door and down the marble floored hallways towards the kitchen.

"What's for dinner?" she asked as she sat down on a black stool. She already knew, though, eyeing the McDonalds take out boxes sitting on the counter.

"Chicken Wings and hamburgers," sighed Deborah. "Until your father agrees to hire a chef."

"Speaking of my father, where is he?" Jessica asked, staring at the two empty stools next to her. She hadn't talked to him in a while. He was always too busy working.

"He's upstairs, working." Deborah said, sighing at her own words. She, too, had been at a loss of time with her own husband. Jessica suddenly felt bad for her mother. She grabbed a burger from one of the take-out boxes.

"As always," she agreed. She un-wrapped her burger and took a big bite. "And what happened to dieting?"

"We'll start dieting when we have a chef to cook healthy meals and money to pay for them," Deborah said, grabbing a box of Chicken Wings. "Dieting is so expensive these days." This worried Jess. She put down her burger. She knew her family had money. After all, they had upgraded from a cozy shack to a mansion, hadn't they? She just didn't want to believe they were having 'money hardships', as her mother called them.

"Yes, of course we all know that's going to happen," Jess smirked. "Every time our family tries to diet, we always end up going back to fast food and junk like that."

Deborah didn't smile. She sighed heavily, and left the table. Jess instantly regretted her words and threw out her hamburger. "I'm going to go upstairs now," she said lightly. There was no reply. Jess ignored her mother's coldness and ran back to her room.

She turned her computer back on and logged on. None of her friends were online. So she closed her computer, pulled out her iPod and jammed the earphones into her ears. She turned on her favorite song and lay down on her bed, listening to the music, and slowly drifted off to sleep…

* * *

"MOTHER!" screamed Massie Block, sitting upright in her bed. "How could you do this to me? I've already been through this before with Claire!"

"Yes, and look what happened? You guys are good friends now!" Massie's mother, Kendra, said. "I'm sure you and Jessica will be great friends also."

"Mother, it took forever for Claire and I to become friends. You never know!" Massie exclaimed.

"Massie, that was all up to you. Claire just needed a friend. And besides, Jessica is our neighbor, and you need to be friendly towards her. You know how everything goes, sweetie." Kendra smiled sweetly, which made Massie want to gag.

"UGHH!" Massie screamed. She chucked a pillow at her closet door. "This so isn't happening!"

"Yes, it is, Mass. Now you get your outfit ready and you come downstairs. Immediately," Kendra ordered.

"Yes ma'am," Massie retorted. Kendra sighed and left the room, her floor length skirt swishing behind her. "Yes, of course I'll be nice to my new stupid neighbor."

When Massie saw Jessica, however, her world flopped. Instead of an overall wearing, Keds bearing loser like Claire was at first, Massie's jaw dropped at the blond haired, blue eyed beauty wearing a jean mini skirt, pink tank top and golden flats.

"Maybe I was wrong about her," Massie said, re-thinking her decision to kick this Jessica girl out faster than last season's knee highs. Jessica approached the car nervously, not exactly sure of what to do. Massie opened the door and slid over one seat, making room.

"Hey, I'm Massie Block. I live in that house down the street, you know, the really big one?" Massie smiled innocently and Jessica climbed into the car and sat down.

"Yeah, I've heard," Jessica replied. "I'm Jessica Garrett. I just moved here from New Jersey." She fixed her skirt and fiddled with the amethyst ring on her finger.

"Wow, that's a ways away," Massie sympathized,

Alicia, Kristen, and Dylan all fussed over the new girl.

"Hey Jessica, I'm Alicia Rivera. I love that jewelry!"

"Hey, Jessica! My name is Dylan. I love your outfit!"

"Hi Jessica, I'm Kristen. OMG I heart your shoes!"

Jessica wasn't sure of what to do with all of the attention. She smiled, agreed, and nodded along with everything the girls said. Massie felt like a superstar, introducing this new famous girl to the rest of her clique. But she couldn't help feeling a bit jealous of this new girl. After all, all the attention was supposed to be focused on her.

"So, Jessica, where'd you move from?" Kristen asked curiously. She had to lean forward in her spot in the back seat. Jessica turned her head and faced Kristen.

"New Jersey," Jessica said. "We lived in a small village near the ocean."

"Wow, that's cool," Alicia cut in before Kristen could answer. "I've always wanted to be able to tan by the sea. Plus, I heard there are tons of hot Spanish guys that go to ocean beaches."

"Well, not really," Jessica smiled. She didn't want to admit that she wasn't really into guys. She was too busy surfing to notice any 'hot Spanish guys'. When she saw Alicia's disappointed face, she made up for her last comment. "There aren't any Spanish guys that I saw, but there were tons of hot surfer guys!"

All four girls exchanged excited glances. "Send me to New Jersey!" Alicia said, causing everyone to laugh.

"I heart that," Kristen said. "And I absolutely ah-dore surfing. It just looks so cool!"

"Way to spazz, Kris," Massie laughed. Kristen blushed. Massie spied the school coming up on their left. "Oh, Jess. That's our school, OCD, right there. You're going to love it!"

"I think it might be hard to love a school called OCD," Jessica said, gazing at the large brick building. All the girls laughed. Jessica blushed. "That wasn't supposed to be funny," she said. All the girls immediately stopped laughing. Dylan coughed.

"No, Jess. It's a weird name. I know," Alicia said, giggling a little to herself.

"It stands for Octavian Country Day school," Dylan added. Jessica smiled, and knocked her forehead with her palm. The girls laughed, and so did Jess. It was easy to be herself with these girls.

"But seriously, Jess. You're going to love it. Trust me," Massie stated, as if she knew exactly how much Jessica would love it. Jessica smiled and nodded her head. She tried her best to convince herself that Massie was right. After all, she liked Westchester alright so far.

* * *

OCD was the biggest, most confusing school Jess had ever been to. But it was nice to have Massie by her side every minute, telling her where all the classrooms where and how to "get lost" to avoid the worst classes.

"So next on my schedule is yoga meditation," Jess said, looking at her schedule.

"Oh, that's over there in that room," Massie said, pointing down the hall towards a room with glass walls. "That's a good class," Massie said. "No need to ditch there. Oh, and the teacher always lets you have your cell phone out, so the girls and I always text during that class." Jessica had a feeling that Massie, Kristen, Alicia and Dylan were very, very close. She wondered if she'd ever be that close with them.

"Oh," Jess said. She actually had no plan of ditching classes or texting during class, but if cell phones were aloud then great, but Jess and her friends never used to text very much. Only if they really had to, which was a very rare occasion.

"Oh, you know what?" Massie said, suddenly stopping in her tracks. She turned to face Jessica, who had stopped also. "I don't have your cell number!" She dug out her phone and handed it to Jessica. Jess pulled out her own phone and handed it to Massie. She added herself to Massie's contacts, and Massie did the same.

"There," Massie sighed. "Now I'll give your number to the girls and give you theirs so we can all text each other!" Massie said excitedly. Then she lead Jess to the yoga/meditation classroom and waved goodbye. She was going to art class with Dylan.

***

"So how was your first yoga class?" Massie asked as she met up with Jess after class.

"It was wonderful," Jess said sarcastically.

"Hey Mass!" a blond girl said as she eagerly bounced up. "What's up? I haven't seen you at all today! I had a doctor's appointment, so I couldn't get a ride."

"Hey Claire," Massie smiled. "It's fine, we had your spot filled." Claire's eyes opened wide. Massie had replaced her? That couldn't be possible. So soon? "Have you met Jessica?" Massie asked, gesturing toward a blonde haired blue eyed beauty Claire had never seen before. Claire looked at Jessica and shook her head as a wave of confusion spread over her face. "Jessica, meet Claire," Massie said, loving the attention Jessica was giving her. "Claire, this is Jessica. She's new here, and a neighbor!"

"Oh, we'll be seeing a lot of each other, then," Claire said, smiling at Jessica. She tried to be nice, but her jealousy began to bubble over. Here was this new girl, and she was Massie's new bff. When Claire was new, Massie had been a total jerk to her. "I have to go," she said suddenly, knowing her anger would get the better of her if she stayed. "English class, you know," she said, faking a smile. Jessica nodded, and waved goodbye. Claire was already speeding off; she didn't want to spend another minute with this Jessica person. She had already had enough. Maybe more than enough.

"See you around, Claire," Jess called after her. Claire wanted to gag. This girl was sweet, sure, but Claire's jealousy always found her in a terrible spot, and she didn't want to push herself over the edge by hanging around her. Or even listening to her. She wanted her out. Out, out, up and out.

Massie and Jess had the same History class. Massie led her there and then introduced her to the teacher, Mrs. Reed. Jessica said "hi" and then walked to her own seat, across the aisle from a cute red head named Jane. Massie sucked up to the teacher for a few minutes before taking a seat on the other side of the classroom.

Jessica day dreamed through most of the lesson, until she heard a loud buzzing. She looked around the classroom. Everyone was staring directly at her. But why? She knew she had put her cell on vibrate. But, it wouldn't hurt to see for sure. So she reached into her bag and dug around for her cell. She dug through her books, pencils, pens, and folders. When she finally pulled it out, she realized it was her phone buzzing. The small screen in front read "New Txt From Massie". Jess flipped up the top and the buzzing stopped. She quickly shut it and was about to put it back in her bag but Mrs. Reed was faster. She snatched up the phone, and giving Jess a quick death stare she swished up the aisle and dropped the phone on her desk. It landed with a thunk. Jessica winced.

"Jessi-CA!" wailed Massie from across the room. Everybody laughed, but Jessica's face burned with embarassment. She took one look at Massie's blazing stare and wanted to sink into the floor, or just disappear. Either would do, as long as she didn't have to face her angry teacher or blazing classmates.

Mrs. Reed continued her lesson, but all the way through kept throwing glares at Jessica, who practically melted each time. By the time class was over, Jessica's cheeks were beet red and chili pepper hot.

"Class dismissed," called Mrs. Reed, who was sitting at her desk. Everyone leaped out of their chairs, especially Massie who bounded from her chair and skipped right out of the classroom, except for Jess. "Jessica Garrett," boomed Mrs. Reed. "Could you come here for a minute?" Jessica slowly nodded and slunk to the teacher's desk, hanging her head in shame.

"What is the meaning of this?" Mrs. Reed asked, holding up Jessica's glittery phone. The "New Txt From Massie" was still blinking on the small screen.

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Reed. I really am. I thought I had turned it off," Jess stated quickly. "I didn't mean to. it will never happen again!" she sadly continued her tale of sorrow as all her embarassment poured out. Soon she felt tears sting her eyes. "I really really am sorry."

She knew she had hit a soft spot with Mrs. Reed. Mrs. Reed grabbed a tissue and started dabbing at her eyes. "You know, Jessica, school policy is that if I see a phone in class, I have to give it to the principal, who will deal with you." Jessica's eyes widened and she wiped a tear from her cheek. "But seeing as you are new to school and you didn't know, I'll let it slide this time." Jess felt a wave of relief wash over her. She was calm.

"Mrs. Reed, do you have a daughter?" Jess asked, deciding to go with flattery.

Mrs. Reed smiled sweetly, but Jess found a glint of sorrow in her brown eyes. "No, honey. Why do you ask?"

"Oh, well, you're just so good with girls, I just figured you'd be a great mother," Jess said sweetly.

"Here, I'll write you a note for your next class, explaining that you were here," Mrs. Reed said, pulling out a small red note card. She scrawled in perfectly neat handwriting for a few seconds before handing the note to Jess.

"Thank you so much," Jess said, taking the note in her hands. She took a peek at her schedule. "Umm...do you think you could tell me where the science room is?" she asked. Mrs. Reed nodded.

"Out my door, down the hall, turn the corner, and it will be the first classroom on your left."

"Thanks."

"No problem. Have a good day, Jessica." Mrs. Reed said. Jessica thankd her and then headed out the door, on her way to science class. She hoped her science class would go better than history did.

***

At lunch period, Jessica didn't know where to sit. She scanned the cafeteria crowd, and immediatly decided what cliques were which. She found a bunch of nerdy looking girls who she assumed were the geeks. And then the wanna be's, who dressed like supermodels but didn't have the bodies or the beauty to get away with it. And then she found the loners; five girls sitting alone and eating disgusting foods and shoving it down their throats like it was their last meal.

"Jess! Over here!" someone called. Jess turned, and recognized Alicia calling her. Alicia was sitting with Massie, Dylan, Kristen and Claire at the table in the middle of the cafeteria. As Jessica started toward the table, she noticed Claire make an ugly face and then get up and leave. Nobody noticed except for Jess. She felt an un-welcome wave of nausea. She wondered if all new students felt like that on their first day.