Chapter 1

Topaz grew up in a small town. She had brown hair and eyes. She wore glasses. She went to school "fulls of jerks" as she described it. The only reason she said this was because she was bullied. Her father died when she was young. She never really knew him. And her mom was re-marrying. This all happened when she was 13. Without knowing her depression, she gained weight. She became a little chubby. But she was never seriously overweight. People judged her for everything she did. Eating an apple. Reading. Everyone except her best friend. Ruby was always there to help her. At times, Topaz would go home and think about how worthless she felt. She sometimes thought of not living. But Ruby was always there. She continued to get bullied through her high school life. She was always shy around the opposite sex. She learned from there that you should never judge a book by it's cover. It's the story that matters.

She couldn't take all the bullying anymore. She told her mom that she wanted to change schools, but her mom wouldn't hear of it. Her mom said that she was almost finishing school and it wasn't wise to do so.

So Topaz took a walk that night. Just to clear her head.

'I need to get out of here. Not just because of the bullying but I'm getting sick and tired of the same old routine, same old house. Same old everything...' Topaz thought.

That's when she saw it. A flyer. Auditions. Held by a guy named Gustavo Rocque. She knew him. He's been songwriter/manager/producer for a lot of bands. Boy Blast, Attic Boys, well alot. He's currently working on band right now, but Topaz couldn't remember their name.

She tore off the flyer from the tree that it was stuck to. She read it.

"Auditions will be held in the Felda Auditorium August 5th 3pm for a chance to show your talent and get to work with the one and only Gustavo Rocque."

August 5th was tomorrow. Topaz dashed back home and started looking for a perfect song to sing.

The boys were a few feet away from the front door of the Palm Woods ready to greet anyone who came in.

"Ok boys! The Newbees are going to arrive ANY minute!" Kendall said.

"Explain again why me and James are even here?" Logan asked.

"Because best friends stick together!" Kendall replied.

"Well I wouldn't ask you and Carlos to come if me and James played hockey in the lobby and had to greet all the Newbees as our punishments." Logan said.

"Ok we get the point! Kendall and I shouldn't have played hockey in the lobby!" Carlos said. "Let's just wait for them to arrive."

The front doors opened and like animals, the Newbees barged in and left the boys flat on their backs.

"That hurt." James said as they all stood up.

"We'll start in here and we'll go to the pool." Kendall said dusting off some dirt on his shirt.

Topaz and Ruby were in the crowd and finally made it through.

"Oh Jeez...That was rough. They are mad!" Ruby said pulling a red streak from her hair away from her face. Topaz loved that streak.

Topaz walked up to the counter. "Hi, I'm Topaz and I'm supposed to move in here with my friend Ruby, I called yesterday." She told the man behind the counter. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Ruby head toward the elevator and waited for her with their luggage.

She looked at the man's name tag. "Mr. Bitters."

He took out two keys and handed them over. "There you go. 2N. If you need me, don't. I'll be in my office eating popcorn and watching soap opera's. Have a Palm Woods day." he said and quickly left.

"Whatever." Topaz muttered. She adjusted her bag on her shoulder. She turned around and bumped into someone. She looked and saw a blonde tall boy wearing a beanie.

"Sorry," She muttered and quickly headed for the elevator.

The blonde looked at her curiously as the elevator door shut.

Ruby and Topaz reached 2N. Ruby opened the door, it was just a normal apartment, with a long blue sofa, a nice kitchen and 2 doors on the right hand side which probably led to the bedrooms.

Topaz opened one of the doors. She saw a queen sized bed and a lamp next to her bed. There was a bathroom. She set her stuff down. And she began unpacking.

Topaz soon finished unpacking and pretty soon filled her room with color, her wardrobe was full, she had some pictures of her and her mom up. She had a picture of her dad in a frame next to the lamp on a table. She longed to hold him one more time. He had died in a car crash when she was 4. Not a day goes by she wished she could hug him and tell him how much she loved him.

She stood up and walked out to the kitchen. She saw Ruby sitting and reading a magazine on the long blue sofa.

"Hey Rubes." Topaz said as she sat down next to her.

"Hey To. Started unpacking yet?" Ruby asked.

"I finished." Topaz answered. Ruby put her magazine next to her.

"So we're finally here huh?" She turned towards Topaz. "Your dream is finally coming true."

"Yeah it is isn't it?" Topaz said. She smiled a little. "Tell you what. I'm going down to explore the pool. And have a bit of reading before I have to start for work. You'll be fine here?"

"Yeah of course. See you." Ruby said.

Topaz went to her room and grabbed her book. She went back out and took the elevator down. She walked towards the pool. There were a lot of people there. She managed to find a pool chair. She sat down and looked around. She saw the blonde guy and a guy wearing a helmet talking to another guy. She hoped he wouldn't see her if she had her face buried in her book.

She started reading and after 15 minutes a guy with brown hair came in front of her. Her eyes darted up.

"Hi!" The guy said.

It only took a second to realize she was going to embarrass herself if she didn't go now. She closed her book and ran away quickly. She ran towards the elevator. She realized what she'd done. She couldn't believe herself. She knew she was self-conscious. She knew she was shy around boys. But she never imagined herself running away from a boy. Now she was in big trouble.

James stood there where the brown haired girl was sitting then ran away when he said "Hi". He wondered what happened. Did his hair look messy? Did she think that he was ugly? He took out his mirror. He looked fine. What happened?

Logan came to him. "Hey man, we're done for the day." He noticed James was looking at the pool chair. "What's wrong?"

"I told a girl, 'Hi' and she ran away. Is something wrong with me?" James said.

"Nothing's wrong with you. Maybe she's shy." Logan said.

"Yeah maybe you're right..." James said, not totally convinced.

"let's just go back to our apartment." Logan said. He pushed James towards the elevator. But James kept his eyes on the pool chair.

That night, James couldn't stop thinking about that girl. He felt like he scared her in some way. Well, It'll have to wait til tomorrow. He fell asleep right after it.