Chapter 1: "An unusual morning"

It was another day in Milwalkee, Minneapolis and Lindsey Carlile was getting out of her limo and heading for her school, when she was interrupted by a voice.

"Lindsey!!" Kate Miller, her best friend, called, running to her. Her light brown hair went in all the directions and she soon arrived to her destiny.

"I waited for you, but you didn't show up..." she commented.

"Good morning to you too." she replied, lowering her head to catch her breath. "And I was late because I fell asleep, sorry."

"If you had gone to the party last night with me, I'd understand why you fell aslee. But you stayed at home, finishing some homework."

"Lindsey, some of us actually need to try hard to pass the year, you know..:"

"Don't you have tutors? They can help you."

"Your idea of 'helping' is doing the work for you."

"Well, isn't that what 'helping' means?" Lindsey asked, like it was a totally normal thing. Kate sighed.

"There's Aaron, you should go and say 'hi'." Kare warned, seeing a boy with light brown hair and a huge smile on his face approaching them. Lindsey's face lit and she ran to the boy, kissing him.

"Good morning, Linds. Good morning, Kate." he greeted, turning to face his friend. Kate waved at him.

"Well, as much as I like to disturb couples, I should go. We'll talk later, okay?" she said, walking away. She entered the big building and headed to the third floor, for Biology.

"Good morning!" a girl with black hair and bright eyes greeted, sitting at the same desk as Kate. She smiled.

"Good morning, Hilary."

"You should've gone with us, really. Linds and I had loads of fun, looking at the boys. And, of course, that's not all we did with them..." the girl named Hilary told her, smirking.

"I was studying. And Lindsey has a boyfriend, she's not supposed to be flirting with boys at parties."

"Take it easy, nothing happened. You think too much, Kate..."

"You're the ones who don't think enough. I'm not like you, I don't live for parties."

"I really don't get you, kate. You have everything most girls here want: intelligence, good looks, popularity, and a lot of guys after you. Why can't you just enjoy it?"

"Because that's not me. I like to have my feet on the ground."

"So, at least, take care of your image. You're making us look bad..." she commented, trying to put a clip on her hair. Kate dodged her.

"In that case, tell Lindsey she doesn't need to spend more time with me." she replied, going to another desk.

"What happened?" Lindsey asked, sitting next to her. Hilary shrugged her shoulders.

"Kate's been having identity crisis again."

"Hum... I'll talk with her after class, I'm sure we can work this out."

Kate looked for a desk and she found one, with a blonde girl with brown eyes sitting there, very quiet. Kate recognized her immediately. Her name was Jackie Simmons, and she was the typical smart girl that no one thought could be popular.

"Erm... Jackie, do you mind if I sit with you?" she asked. Jackie looked away from her book and stared at her from head to toes.

"You're Kate Miller, why would you want to sit with me?" she replied, in a low voice.

"Oh, if you don't want to, I'll find another desk."

"You can sit, it's okay. But I just think it's strange that you're being nice to me."

"Am I supposed to be mean to you?"

"You never talked to me since I entered this school and I'm here for three years. Actually, I'm in the same class as you for three years. I guess you see my point..." she explained. Kate lowered her head, ashamed. She knew it was all because she was spending a lot of time with Lindsey, Hilary and the other popular girls. The truth is she never wanted for it to happen, but Lindsey became popular and Kate, as her best friend, became popular as well.

"I didn't... I'm sorry... You're absolutely right..." she mumbled, walking to another desk.

"Geez, you don't need to be like that..." Jackie replied, feeling guilty. "You can sit here, if you want to."

Kate turned around to face her and she smiled, sitting next to her. Then, a boy entered the classroom. He looked a bit lonely and went to his seat with his head lowered. He took a notepad out of his backpack and started to draw something. Kate watched him in silence, quite intrigued.

"Kevin Richards." Jackie said, noticing Kate's sudden attention on him. "He's quite the loner, nobody really likes him, because everybody thinks he only got in this school because his mom's sleeping with the principal."

"What?" Kate asked, horrified. "Even if that was true, it's still none of theit business!"

"They're just pissed, because he's treated differently than the others..."

"Well, in case nobody noticed, half the students here got in this school because of their parents and the influence they have on important people!" Kate said, but she lowered her voice when the teacher entered the room.

In the meanwhile, in the floor below, Michelle Hale quickly ran in the halls, until she got to History class, since she was late.

"Miss Hale, this it the fourth time you're late in less than two weeks." the teacher informed, as Michelle opened the door.

"Sorry, professor Reed. I fell asleep, I was finishing some homework."

"So, I assume that you did the essay about World War Two?"

Michelle slapped her forehead. How could she had forgotten?

"Professor, I..." she started.

"For your homework, you'll do that essay with twice as more words, plus the normal homework I'll tell everybody to do. Go sit." he said, coldly. Michelle sighed and sat down.

"What kind of homework were you doing to make you forget about the essay?" Brooke Miller, her friend, asked.

"I was studying for tomorrow's Calculus test."

"Hum... Well, I'm sorry to break it to you, but the test is today."

"What? Today?? But the teacher said it was tomorrow!"

"Oh, yeah. We rescheduled it on one of the days you were late. I thought you knew."

"I didn't! Now what?"

"Michelle, relax. The test is in the afternoon, I'll study with you during lunch time. Besides, you're probably the smartest girl in our class, I'm sure you'll do fine." Brooke guaranteed, smiling. Michelle nodded, not very convinced. The truth is she was two years younger than everybody else, since she skipped a couple of grades, because of her intelligence. But things were so hard now... And not only in the studies part... It seemed like nobody got along with her. Most people didn't like her, because they thought she was treated differently, others just underestimated her because of her 'sweet image'. Michelle just wanted to be accepted and have friends. She wanted to be popular and feel like she was actually part of something...

What she didn't know was that she was being watched by three boys, a few rows behinf her.

"I think she'll do." a boy named Chad Hanson said. He was just one of the most popular boys in school, and he had all the girls after him.

"Chad, she's the youngest girl here, are you really going to choose her?" one of them replied.

"Relax, Eric. If she goes to the party tonight and she drinks, I don't need to do much. She's a little girl, she mustn't have action in a while."

"And how can you be sure that she's going to the party?" Eric said, frowning.

"Simple. I'll talk with Hilary, and it's easy from there. She talks with Kate, she invites her sister, and Michelle will go for sure. Piece of cake."

"Chad, Eric's right, she's just a kid." another ne of them said.

"For your information, Tom, she's not much younger than you. And I won't do anything she doesn't want to. I mean... She'll be under the influence of alcohol, she won't even realize it."

"You can have every girl in school, why her?" the boy named Tom continued. Chad stopped looking at Michelle and stared at him. It was almost like he was evaluating him.

"Fine, I won't mess with her... For tonight." he informed, seeing relief invade Tom's body. Then, he smirked. "You're the one giving her action tonight, Tommy."

"What?" he asked, surprised.

"Oh, come on, don't play innocent with me. You haven't scored with a girl in ages. Enjoy the party! I'm just saying that people won't call you a 'bad boy' forever. If you want to be known, you need to do something big."

"Like taking advantage of a girl?"

"Stop seeing it like that, it's going to be an awesome party. And you're just giving her something she wants for a long time and that you're needing as well. You'll see, this is going to be a kickass party." he commented, still smirking. It was settled, if Tom wouldn't do it, Chad would still have more girls from him. And, if he failed the agreement, the two of them would have a lot of problems...