Chapter 1

Bo Dennis found her self walking alone down the school's crowded corridors. It was the first day of school, but Bo had long since felt the flutter of butterflies in the pit of her stomach for such an occasion.

She was nervous for the future, but school? School she could handle. She and her friends ruled these halls as royalty, and she already knew that she was a shoe in for prom queen this year.

She had managed to effortlessly climb the ladder of the social food chain, and had clinched the spot as top dog when she had dated the captain of the hockey team in her freshman year. Snagging a senior was no simple task, but guys and girls had always come easy for Bo.

"Hey Bobalicious! What's the haps?" A small raven-haired girl in bright red plaid pants, high heel army boots, and tight mesh sweater approached the taller, sultry brunette clad in a white tank top under a black leather jacket paired with black jeans and thigh high black boots.

"Not much Kenz. I'd ask how your summer was but since you spent most of it with me, I already know." The taller brunette sighed.

"Ut-oh, I know that tone. It means my girl isn't gettin' any. Are you and the D-Man on again or off again this week?" The girl asked with a knowing smirk placing a comforting arm around her best friend's shoulder.

"Ugh, off again, he's way too intense and brooding!" Bo shrugged her shoulders forward, messed up her hair and pouted. "Hey guys I'm Dyson, I think I'm so cool because I don't know how to loosen up, chicks dig me though because of it. I think that I'm like Edward Cullen, Stefan Salvatore, and Batman all rolled into one."

Kenzi starred at her best friend, a look of shock on her face before the corners of her mouth twitched up into a huge grin and she pounced on the brunette giggling with utter delight.

"Dude! You so nailed him! … Literally! Ha!" The girl burst into another fit of laughter. "You could totes play him in a movie!"

The brunette rolled her eyes.

"Thanks Kenz, I'll be sure to remember you in my Oscars acceptance speech."

Kenzi grinned and playfully slapped the taller girl on the bottom.

"That's all I ask!" She started to calm down but then her eyes bugged and she began to dance around, if the brunette didn't know her so well she would have asked the smaller girl if she needed to pee. "Oh! Ooouu! I almost forgot! Big senior year kick off party at Tam Tam and D-Man's house Friday, you're coming right? Find some hot new thing to dangle in front of that brooding bitch? Orrrr, will you two be back together by then?" She clapped her hands excitedly.

"I will for sure go. But this is the end of Dyson and I. He's such an immature asshole, I want someone I can have fun with, but is maybe a little more grown up. This is our senior year and I want to make the most of it! Maybe find a few someone's to have some fun with." Bo bit her bottom lip and tilted her head slightly to the side checking out the two blonde cheerleaders that had just passed by them stopping a few feet away to rummage through their lockers.

Kenzi looked into her friend's vacant eyes, and then followed her stare.

"Ohh, I gotcha' Bo Bo." The girl winked. "I'll see you at lunch, I gotta get to class." And with that the smaller girl skipped off. The brunette shook her head. She loved her best friend and all of her ridiculous antics. She continued herself down the hall, turning left into an open classroom filled with students shouting and catching up after the all too short summer.

Lauren Lewis sat bent over a microscope in her Advanced Biology class. She was taking almost all magnet classes this year, as she had been for the past two years. She actually could have graduated early, she had more than enough credits, but her father had insisted that she live a normal teenage life.

Lauren's mother had passed away suddenly when she was a little girl; it was an event that she did not actually have any clear details on. Whenever she or her older brother Jack had attempted to breach the subject with their father he would quickly change the subject.

Lauren pulled her face away from the microscope and readjusted her thick black plastic framed glasses on her face, turning back to her notes she scribbled furiously, barley acknowledging the bell that sounded signaling the end of class.

As all of the students rushed out of the class room Lauren took her time gathering her notebooks and pens. The teacher smiled warmly at her and approached her with a single sheet of white paper.

"I know you're already ahead of the rest of the class Lauren, I thought I'd give you an advanced syllabus, that way you can continue to move forward and not get bored.

The thin, somewhat lanky blonde smiled gleefully up at her favorite teacher.

"Thank you so much Mrs. Beasley, I really appreciate it!" The blonde beamed.

The taller, slightly heavyset blonde woman smiled back at the girl in front of her.

"You got it, let me know if there's anything else you need."

Lauren thanked her teacher and headed out into the bustling school hall. She was in a hurry now to get to her locker and wasn't paying close attention to where she was walking, as she had her head buried in a medical textbook.

Before she knew what was happening she had collided into a taller rock hard body, and was on the ground. As she looked around her pushing her glasses back up her nose as they had been jostled in the fall. She saw that she was sitting on the ground across from a somewhat familiar muscular boy with curly, sandy blonde hair. The boy was smiling at her and holding a lacrosse stick in his right hand, a ball hanging in the tight laced net.

"Nerd alert! Watch where you're going." A raspy female voice sounded above her.

Lauren looked up to find her self staring into the ice blue eyes threatening eyes of a well-known popular blonde.

"Sorry about that." Lauren mumbled as she quickly gathered her things that were scattered across the corridor.

"No worries." Said the boy in a smooth deep voice. He got to his feet and helped her collect a few of her things. He looked down at the textbook she had been reading before they collided he looked the book over. "Just some light reading?" He laughed.

"Yeah." Lauren replied with a small smile.

"Dyson, if you don't hurry it up I'm leaving your ass here and you can find another way to get home." The blonde girl folded her arms across her chest and began to tap her foot impatiently.

"Yeah okay." The boy called over his shoulder before turning his attention to the girl in front of him. "Here," he said handing over her book. "We're having a party at my place Friday. Kind of a hello to senior year, you should come." The boy gave Lauren a smirk, and she wasn't sure how to place the look on his face.

"Thanks, I'll think about it." Lauren responded. She had no intention of going to a popular kids party. More than likely he just wanted to have a laugh at her expense, something Lauren had become all too familiar with over the years.

The boy knit his brows together.

"You have someplace better to be?" He asked.

Lauren was surprised at his boldness.

"I may." She responded with an aloof tone causing the boy to hitch a brow up at her.

"Well, if your plans fall through, you're more than welcome." He gave her another wolfish grin before sauntering off to catch up to the blue-eyed blonde.

"Seriously, what the hell was that about?" The steely blonde asked.

The boy shrugged his shoulders.

"I dunno. I might have an idea." He responded with a girn.

"Wow! Congratulations that's a first!" The blonde smirked back at him as they headed out the front doors of the school.

Lauren stood at her locker placing a few extra books in her bag when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She spun around to face a pretty girl with blonde hair and brown eyes similar to her own. The girl was smiling at her and wearing a plain pink tee shirt and skintight jeans showing off some decent curves.

Lauren cleared her throat.

"Can I help you?" She asked. The girl smiled wider at her.

"Yeah, hey, it's my first day, well I mean technically it's everybody's first day, but it's my first day ever here, and I noticed that you were in my English class. You were taking a lot of notes, and I was just wondering if I could borrow them and maybe make a copy. My pencil broke during second period, and my pen was bleeding out on me during English." The girl sighed and continued to smile expectantly at Lauren.

"Right. Yeah, sure." Lauren replied as she began to dig around in her bag for her English notes.

"Wow, you sure got a lot of books in there." The girl laughed.

"Yeah, you know, knowledge is power." Lauren could have slapped her self, there was a new girl in school who didn't know her and didn't judge her, and here she was making a fool out of herself in front of her. Oh well, she sighed inwardly. She was cute so it was only a matter of time before she joined Tamsin's little clique.

The girl laughed.

"You mean like School House Rock? I love that shit."

Lauren had located her English notes and as she pulled them out she looked at the girl surprised. Most people didn't get her references, particularly her outdated educational related ones. She smiled back at the girl.

"There's a copier in the library if you have ten cents." Lauren said handing the girl her notes. "Or you can get them back to me tomorrow, or whenever."

The girl looked at the notes in her hand then back up to Lauren.

"You think you could show me the way to the library, I still haven't taken the grand tour, I just know how to get to my classes from today." The girl laughed. "Plus then you can get your notes back right away."

Lauren smiled back at the girl.

"I'd be glad to show you, but I really don't need them, I kind of have a photographic memory, I write everything down because writing stimulates the brain cells at the base of your brain called reticular activating system, which helps you to filter and process through information as you collect it."

The girl just grinned at Lauren and cocked an eyebrow.

"So, I have no clue what you just said, but I get the gist that you don't really need the notes." She laughed.

Lauren's cheeks burned.

"Sorry. I ramble sometimes." She apologized to the girl.

"No it's cool, I like it. I do it myself from time to time." The girl responded. She then slapped her forehead. "Geez, look at me, I'm sorry, I didn't even introduce myself." She stuck her right hand out to Lauren. "Name's Crystal."

Lauren smiled and shook the girl's hand.

"Lauren."

Bo and Kenzi were sitting across from one another in a red leather booth at the local diner. The décor was 1950's modern, with lots of bright colors, checkerboards, and chrome.

Kenzi was slurping up the last of chocolate shake.

"You know it's pretty cool that your grandpappy owns this joint, but these prices, yeesh." The girl said as she slurped up the last drop of shake staring down at a plastic menu.

"Seriously? You don't even have to pay when you come in with me, which is the only time you come in." Bo replied with a laugh.

The girl raised her hands in defense.

"I'm just saying Bo Bo."

Bo looked around the diner that was crowded with kids who had just gotten out of school.

"It's called supply and demand Kenzi, this town has what, like four restaurants? Besides, I don't see any of the other patrons complaining." She waived her had around to emphasize her point.

"Good call. You know I knew there was a reason I liked Trickster. Takes a con to know a con." She gave Bo a wink.

"It's not a con, it's called business." Bo replied.

Kenzi shrugged.

"You say tomato, I say tomato."

Bo frowned at the girl.

"I don't think that's right."

Kenzi gave her a curious look.

"Sure it is. It's pronounced tomato."

Before the girls could argue over the English language anymore, they were interrupted by a steely blonde plopping into the booth next to Kezni.

"What up bitches?"

"Nothing much Tam Tam. Where's D-Man?" Kenzi asked as she looked around the diner trying to locate the missing member of their party. The blonde rolled her eyes.

"At home playing video games with Hale." She scoffed.

"And I was not invited?" The smaller dark haired girl shrieked indignantly. The blonde shrugged.

"You and Bo already left, I don't think it was like a planned thing, just the same lame thing they do like everyday." She eased back into the plush leather booth slouching. "Oh you guys will never guess who Dyson literally ran into this afternoon."

Bo leaned down and took a bite of her previously untouched burger and through a half full mouth grunted, "who?"

"Nice one Miss Manners." Tamsin snarked. "Jack Lewis's nerdy little sister."

Kenzi turned her attention back to the group from her phone, where she had been pouting, and texting Hale angry messages.

"Howmygoooosshhh! Jack Lewis was soooo dreamy!" Kenzi clutched her phone to her chest.

"Which one's Jack's sister? And what ever happened to him?" Bo asked. She knew that Tamsin had had a past with Jack, and a very brief dating history.

"Lauren. Thin, blonde, glasses, awkward, hasn't been in most of our classes in years because she's like uber brilliant or something." Tamsin stated blankly before allowing her voice to fill with a little emotion. "And Jack joined the army after graduation."

"Seriously? Why didn't he go to college? Isn't their dad like a doctor or something?" Bo asked, finally able to get a clear picture of the girl Tamsin had described in her mind.

Tamsin laughed.

"Let's just say it's pretty obvious who got the brains and who got the brawn in that family."

Kenzi suddenly slammed her phone down on the table and pointed a finger at Bo.

"You, me, car, now. It's us vs. the guys!"

Bo threw her head back and groaned.

"Not another Xbox Showdown?"

Kenzi grinned at the girl in front of her.

"You know it! Don't worry I'll be able to carry your sexy little ass along with me to victory!" She practically pushed Tamsin out of the booth next to her. "Scooch Tammy, there are some zombies that need wastin'!" She paused, "and there are some video game characters that need killin' too!" She then burst out into a fit of laughter at her own joke.

Tamsin arched a brow at Bo as she stood up letting the pushy smaller girl out of the booth.

"Remind me again why I hang out with you losers?"

Bo shrugged and smiled back at the blonde.

"Because you love us." She then hopped out of the booth herself and waved to an older gentleman behind the counter at the bar top. The man gave her a grin and waved back.

Lauren was in her room flipping through a large science book when she heard a ringing sound emanating from her laptop.

A wide grin broke out from the corners of the blonde's mouth and she hopped up practically gliding over to her desk and hitting the answer button on her screen.

A videoconference popped up, and before her on the screen was a handsome young man with wavy light brown hair that curled slightly around the tops of his ears. He had deep brown eyes, a strong jaw, and a small cleft in his chin. All in all he bore a striking resemblance to the girl smiling back at him.

"Hey Sarge!" The girl grinned with excitement in her voice.

"Hey Doc." The young man responded. "How was the first day of school?" The man questioned his smile faltering a little.

"Same old same old." The girl smiled. "Although I did meet an acquaintance today."

The man raised his eyebrows.

"An acquaintance? Sounds hot." The young man teased.

"Oh please Jack." Lauren responded rolling her eyes.

"Ah ha! You see, I can see it from here! It's totally a girl isn't it?" Lauren shook her head. Even a world and a war away her brother could read her like a book. She had come out to her brother and father two years prior, and while it took her father some getting used to, it hadn't phased her brother in the least.

"It's not like that." She insisted. "She's someone who I think could turn into a friend. She's new."

Jack nodded.

"You know I've been telling you, you should look into getting one of those for years now." Jack teased.

Lauren rolled her eyes again.

"Har har, you know it doesn't come that easy to all of us o' brother of mine." Lauren chuckled.

"I told you before Lo, anybody gives you a hard time, they have to answer to me." He put on his best military tough guy act.

"Will do." Lauren giggled.

Jack grew serious again.

"I already know the answer, but is Dad around?"

Lauren's face fell. She had reminded her father that Jack was going to be conferencing them, and though he said that he would do his best to make it home early, he still hadn't shown. Lauren shook her head from side to side. She hated the slightly deflated look in her brother's eyes. Things had been hard since their mother had passed away, and their father had thrown himself into his work at the medical research lab, leaving little time for his children.

"No matter, at least I get to talk to my favorite girl." Jack gave Lauren a grin.

"You lonely out there in the desert Jacky boy?" Lauren teased. Her brother had always been something of a ladies man before he shipped off to Afghanistan.

"Only for you sis." The man teased back. He then looked around him and nodded to someone Lauren couldn't see before directing his attention back to the screen. "Listen Lo, I have to get going but I'll call you in a few weeks alright?" Lauren nodded. "Alright, you be good, and say hi to Dad for me."

"Will do." Lauren responded.

"Oh, and good luck with your acquaintance." He gave her a wink.

"Yeah yeah!" Lauren called waving at the screen.

"Love you sis." Jack said as he reached for a button off screen.

"Love you too bro." Lauren said quietly as she watched her screen turn black.