Chapter One – High School Never Ends

"Sawyer, would you please hurry up, we are going to be late for school, again!" Lydia Scott sat on the bottom step in her best friend's house waiting for her to finish getting dressed. She loved Sawyer like a sister, but got tired of being late for school every day.

"Okay, I'm ready. You know you really should get your own car, then you can be as early as you want." Sawyer told her friend.

"Yes, but I've already mastered the art of bumming rides off of everyone else. You look cute by the way." Sawyer was wearing a green tank top, a cutoff denim skirt and white runners, with her long hair tied back in a neat pony tail.

"Thanks, you're not so bad yourself." Lydia observed her outfit, she had on a purple shirt, with skinny jeans and grey sneakers. Her hair, which she could never tame, was flowing down past her shoulders. The girls climbed into Sawyers Ford Focus, and quickly headed off to school.

"Boys! Your breakfast is ready." Brooke Davis stood at her kitchen counter as she placed two plates of bacon and eggs side by side, then poured two glasses of orange juice. Her twin boys quickly descended the stairs and sat respectively in front of their food.

"This is great mom." Jude told her as he put several pieces of bacon into his mouth.

"Thanks son. Do you boys have a game tonight?"

"Nah, just a practice afterschool." Davis informed her. "The season doesn't start until next week."

"First games against Oak Wood, are you and dad going to be there?" Jude asked his mom.

"Of course, we wouldn't miss it for the world."

"Speaking of dad, where is he?" Jude asked as Brooke took their plates and set them in the sink.

"He's in a meeting right now. They want him to produce some new Tim Burton movie, well at least I think it was a Tim Burton movie. Anyways, shouldn't you boys be getting to school?"

The boys smiled, "I suppose" said Davis. "I'm driving today." He said as he snatched the keys off the counter and ran out the door. Jude grabbed his own backpack and quickly followed after him.

Jenny Jagielski sat on her front porch waiting for her boyfriend of six months to pick her up. She closed her eyes and let the sun shine brightly on her face. She had on a high waist skirt and a tank top, with her shoulder length blond hair down and straight. She smiled as she listened to her father strumming on his guitar from inside the house. Just then she saw the silver Ford Escape pull into her drive way. She tapped on the front window, to get her dads attention. When he looked up she quickly waved goodbye. Jenny skipped down her front walk and hopped into the passenger seat. "Hey beautiful." Johnny said as he leaned over and gave her a quick kiss.

"Good morning handsome."

"How was your night?"

"Pretty boring, spent most of the night making flyers for cheer tryouts later this week." Jenny said as she pulled out a stack of papers from her backpack and showed Johnny.

"Those are really good babe, but how many more cheerleaders do you need?"

"At least two, Becky and Jules quit because they didn't want to work with Casey. She can be a piece of work sometimes."

"Then why not just kick her off the team, I mean you are the captain, right?"

"Believe me, I've thought about it, but if we want to win the classic we need her, and besides, she my friend." Jenny said with a shrug.

"Whatever you say babe, I just can't wait to see you jump around in your little uniform." He said smirking.

"God Johnny," Jenny laughed and smacked him lightly on the arm "you are such a boy."

Alex McFadden stepped off the bus and into the sun not paying attention to anything around him. Alex was planning the practice schedule for the basketball team and was lost in his thoughts. After being a water boy last year, he was excited to finally be the team manager, he loved basketball but inherited his parents planning and organization skills. Alex had his head down reading some papers when he walked into something hard, he dropped and all his papers and looked up. He was met with fire red hair and big blue eyes. "Watch where you're going, freak." Casey Hawk, arguably the most beautiful girl in school, and the meanest.

"Sorry," was all Alex could mutter as he bent down to pick up his papers. She laughed at him loudly as her and her friends sauntered away.

"Do you have track afterschool?" Lydia asked Sawyer as the pulled into the school parking lot.

"Nope, only Tuesdays and Thursdays this year. What about you, do you have to volunteer tonight?"

"We don't really have hours at the shelter, you just kind of show up when you have time."

"So do you have time tonight?" Lydia wasn't listening to Sawyer anymore, because at that moment she saw the green Jeep Wrangler park just a few spaces down from them. The twin boys stepped out of the car and made their way inside the school through the gym doors. "Hello! Earth to Lydia."

"What?"

"I asked if you were volunteering tonight. What were you staring at?" Sawyer followed Lydia's former gaze, but was met with only the gym doors.

"Nothing, I just spaced out for a minute. Yeah, I'm going tonight, Jude said he would drive me after basketball practice since Davis has to go to Johnny Evans's to work on some project." Sawyers eyes lit up at the mention of Johnny Evans.

"Lucky Davis." Sawyer said as the girls made their way to their lockers.

"Okay Sawyer, ew. You know he has been dating Jenny for like ever."

"I know, but that doesn't mean I can't dream, okay." The girls laughed.

"You're hopeless."

"Ah, lunch, my favourite class of the day." Davis piled his trey high with food and took a seat next to Sawyer and Lydia at their lunch table. "And how are my two favourite girls today?" He asked as he took a large bite of his sloppy Joe.

"Oh you know, just trying to save the world one day at a time." Lydia said as she flipped through her English essay looking for errors.

"Okay, whatever that means. Hey, you guys should come watch our practice afterschool."

Sawyer snorted, "Yeah right, and watch the cheer Nazi suck the souls out of innocent victims. I don't think so." Lydia laughed, amused by Sawyer.

"Hey what's so funny?" Lydia looked up and saw Jude take a seat across from her. His trey, like Davis's was also full.

"Just Sawyer being her usual sadistic self." Davis informed his brother.

"I am not sadistic, just brutally honest."

"Casey really isn't that bad, you should just give her a chance."

"Okay, I am not having this conversation." Sawyer rose to her feet, and lifted her bag onto her shoulder. "Lydia, I'll call you tonight." And with that she was gone.

"Why does she hate Casey so much?" asked Jude.

"Oh come on, she is a total cheer zombie. Not to mention she thinks she's better than everyone else and will step on anyone to get what she wants."

"Then I'm guessing you don't want to cheer with her?" Lydia spun around quickly to find Jenny Jagielski standing behind her holding a stack of papers.

"Me, cheer? That's a scary thought."

"You should at least come to the try outs, they're Wednesday after school, and bring Sawyer, we could really use some athletes on the squad."

"Have you ever met Sawyer, she's not exactly the most cheery person." Davis informed her.

"I'm going to choose to ignore that." Jenny turned back to Lydia, "please just tryout, that's all I'm asking. You would really be doing me a big favour."

"I'll think about it okay?"

Jenny jumped up and clapped her hands. "Yes, we might actually have a chance at classics this year. Thanks Lydia." Lydia had never been really close friends with Jenny, they talked in some of their classes, but never hung out outside if school. Lydia didn't tend to run with the same crowd as the cheerleaders.

"Sawyer and Lydia Scott, cheerleaders, that'll be the day." Davis said.

"I don't know," said Jude "I think it would be cool."

"Really?" asked Lydia, now suddenly considering the idea.

"Yeah, I mean you'd be at all our practices and games, you would get to come with us to the tournament when you perform at the classics. It could be fun."

"I guess you're right. I don't know I'll talk to Sawyer about it tonight." Lydia gathered her books and placed them in her side bag. "So Jude, I'll meet you after your practice?"

"Yeah, sure thing."

Alex walked into his science class and took a seat next to Sawyer. He couldn't help but notice how good she looked today. "Hey Sawyer, ready to explode some chemicals today?" Sawyer gave him a strange look as he cursed himself for coming up with such a lame line.

"Sure thing Alex, hey how's the team manager position going?"

"It's good, a lot of hard work, but it means I get to be a part of the team, so I'm happy." She was smiling at him when her eyes quickly shifted to the door and an even bigger smile appeared. Johnny Evans had just walked in and taken his seat in the back row.

"God, he is so gorgeous." Sawyer said as she chewed on the cap of her pen. The first time she said this Alex's heart sank, but by now he was used to it. "Hey Johnny." She said as she gave him a small wave.

"Hi Sawyer, how's it going?"

"Good, are you going to Tom's party on Friday?"

"Most likely, Jenny will probably drag me there."

"Cool, I'll look for you." He gave her a crooked smile and walked away. Alex couldn't believe the way she acted towards him when she new perfectly well that he has a girlfriend, the whole school new, they were the golden couple.

"You know I'm going to Tom's too." Alex told her.

"I know, you're part of the team now, you'll be at all the parties."

"I still can't figure out how you find the time to volunteer and get straight A's." Lydia smiled.

"I'm just good with time management that's all."

"So, what exactly do you do at the animal shelter?" Jude asked.

"Feed the animals, clean them walk some of the dogs. Just simple stuff, anyone could do it."

"Yeah, but not everyone does, you're different Lydia Scott." Lydia smiled once again and gathered her bag from the floor. "Do you need a ride home?"

"No, it's fine, my dad's going to pick me up."

"Okay, I guess I'll see you tomorrow then."

"She wants us to what?"

"Look, I was just as against this as you are, but the more I thought about it, the more fun I realized it could be. We would even get to go to tournament because they hold the classic right before the game."

"Lydia, this is insane," Sawyer said as she paced around her room holding the phone close to her ear.

"We might not even make the team, Jenny just wants us to try out."

"Oh my god, you are actually considering this aren't you?"

"Just the try out part, and then if we do make it we can decide what to do after."

"You do realize that Casey Hawk is on the team yes? She's like Jenny's second in command, we would have to take orders from that blood sucking vampire."

"They need more athletes on the team, and you're one of the most athletic girls at school, you could help them win the classic, and you'll be a hero. Everyone will notice you, even Johnny."

"That is a dirty trick Lydia Scott, trying to use Johnny as an excuse for me to try out."

"Did it work?"

"Maybe." Sawyer and Lydia laughed.

"Okay, tryouts are Wednesday after school, I have to go, Jamie just got home and mom wants us to have a family dinner."

"Tell everyone I say hi."

"I will, bye."