Gallagher Academy

Chapter 1

"GRANT!" Zach called up the stairs. "ARE YOU AWAKE?" he called again, marching up the long, spiral staircase of Grant's luxurious beach house at 6 in the morning.

"I am now." Grant groaned to himself, burying his head deeper into the plain white pillow.

His parents had just gone to Seattle for a business trip and they weren't coming back for another month, giving Grant, Zach and Jonas just one more week of winter-break freedom before having to go back to that wretched "boarding school for the performing arts" - where their parents had forcefully sent them off to. It was either that or military school. However when you thought about it, it actually wasn't that bad. Not for them. They were always ditching classes, getting into trouble, hitting on girls and throwing parties on weeknights. In fact, Gallagher Academy was pretty amazing.

"Grant. Grant. Grant. Gra-" Zach poked Grant continuously as he lay in his bed with the covers pulled over his head.

"Whaaatt?"

"I was just wondering, is your sister hot?"

"Prudence?"

"Is that her name?" Zach asked.

"No, it's Cammie."

"Then who's... Prudence?"

"I don't know, dude it's 4 in the morning-" Grant answered, his voice muffled by the pillow.

"It's 6."

But the only response Zach got was a strange noise from Grant, so he retreated back down the long staircase and walked towards the kitchen, simply looking to make himself some fresh toast.

The thing was, Grant's sister who had up until now been going to a local high school in New York, was moving in with him to attend the Gallagher Academy for the Performing Arts, here in Roseville. And Zach, being the typical player was clearly not upset about a new female presence in the more-so boring school.

THAT AFTERNOON

"Grant?" Zach knocked on Grant's bedroom door. When he didn't get an answer he slowly pried open the door, stopping for a moment to peer through the crack. Then opening it fully, he stepped into the stuffy area cluttered with, well, everything. Clothes, books, cd's, toys ( or as grant called them - "action figures" ), bottles of hairspray, candy bar wrappings, even girls' underwear... you name it. And Grant stood in the midst of it all, rummaging through the mess with a panicked look on his face.

"What are you looking for?" Zach asked, casually leaning against the door frame, his hands resting in his pockets.

"I can't find it!"

"Find what?"

"My Black Ops disc!" Grant groaned in frustration.

"Dude. Seriously? Modern Warfare 3 is way cooler."

"What do you want anyway?" Grant asked, ignoring his friend's (very true) statement.

"I wanted to know if your sister's hot." Zach smirked.

"I don't know..."

"Come on, man."

"Okay, fine, no, my sister is not hot - are you happy now?" Grant replied hurriedly in an attempt to drop the conversation so that he could focus on finding his precious game. "Are you gonna help me out now?"

Zach sighed, but nevertheless made his way over to Grant.

Besides, Zach thought. Grant's sister would probably just end up being another one of those dumb blonde cheerleaders who wore strapless bras, added 'like' after every word and flipped their hair pretty much every second of the day for attention.

If only he knew how wrong he was.