Chapter One

The three of them walked down the hallway, pushing the innocent out of the way. Three of our schools most popular, I hated the popular with all of my heart. Ever since the first day of freshman year they were out to get us. You know the three girls that sit by themselves, make up stupid rules, and gossip? Well if you know then you know what I'm talking about. I called these girls the clones. There were a lot of preppy girls but the clones were the worst. They were stuck up and I absolutely couldn't stand them. Even though I couldn't stand them, they are still a part of my story. The story of my life. My life as Ian.

We were on our way to lunch. We had "C" lunch, also known as the crappy lunch because we were last and all of the decent food was gone. I walked down the hallway. I bumped into the clones just to be spiteful. "Excuse you!" I heard one of them say. I really didn't care. Right now I was in one of those stages where I didn't care what anyone thought of me. I was pretty much known as the emo kid, and that didn't phase me. I turned the corner and headed for the main stairway. I saw Doris and her friends up ahead. It made me wonder why I ever went out with her. Markeya was walking up behind me I slowed down so I could talk to her. I always teased Markeya about Lawrence Paul, he liked Markeya, even she knew it but she wouldn't give him a chance. We walked down the hallway talking about him. In a way, I felt bad for Lawrence Paul. Every one was always mean to him, but at the same time he lies a lot.

We reached the stairs and had to pause for the crowd. People pushed and shoved to try to make their way down and also up. It seemed like an eternity for me to actually reach the bottom. When I did I wasn't with Markeya anymore. You could never keep track of your friends on the stairs. I made a left into another hallway to get to the cafeteria, I could smell the food now. I guessed it was chicken because every day no matter what there was chicken in some form. It made my friends laugh how I could always guess what lunch was. I reached the cafeteria fighting my way in. I looked over at my table but no one was there. Every day I was always the first. Well except for Aaron, but he was in line by the time I got there. We sat all the way in the back near the doors. It was the second semester so we didn't feel like eating out side in the cold. The back was close enough though. I sat down in the seat next to Aaron's bag. I wouldn't be there long, I would end up sitting on my bag. Libby and I "shared" a seat. What she called sharing a seat meant giving me little room. It was so uncomfortable that I rather sit on my over stuffed bag. I was taller than Libby but sitting on my bag made me look shorter.

I sat there looking lonely, until finally I saw Beverly coming. I had somewhat of a thing for Beverly but I don't really think she knows. I think I will keep it at that for now. She threw her bag down on the floor next to her. She was wearing her basketball jersey, and I instantly remembered about her basketball game. I had to make up an excuse for not going tonight. She sat down at the table in the seat directly across from me. "Hey Hey Hey.." she said sarcastically." What's up?" I asked back. "I don't feel like going to basketball practice." She moaned. "Well then don't go." I suggested. "I have to…Ugh.." she continued. I turned around to see Aaron. He was moving his bag off of his seat to sit down. "Hey Aaron!" Beverly greeted. "Hey." He waved back. Matt, Libby, and Carla were walking up to the table. "Up!" Libby yelled sarcastically. I chuckled and shifted onto my bag. I saw Taylor and her two friends walking over to the table with their lunch trays. I was right again, it was chicken tenders.

I didn't know the names of the other two girls because they truly never said much. "Hi guys" I said smiling. They just gave a little wave back. "Ian can we go up now?" Beverly asked me. I turned around to realize that the line had gotten short fast. "All right." I replied. Matt, Beverly, Aaron, and I would wait for the line to get short and then we would go up. I hated waiting. We walked across the room past all of the tables of the people we liked and didn't like. As we walked past Ciara's table she glared. I didn't know what her problem was. Her boy friend had it out to get me, and apparently she was in love with him according to Facebook. WE entered the room with all of the food, I walked over to the drinks tray. Matt and I grabbed an orange juice. Aaron and Beverly grabbed apple juice and walked over to get the main course. I wasn't in the mood for chicken so I walked over to the Hot Pockets.

I plopped the food on the tray and walked over to punch in my lunch number. After I did that, I walked through the center of the cafeteria to our table. I tried not to make eye contact with people because I found that as you walk down the isle everyone stares back at you. It was kind of creepy in a way. I walked past my old table from the previous semester. The dorky table. I hated the people that sat there now. You see I had to sit with the dorks because all of my good friends just got this lunch. They all used to be in "A" lunch. They were lucky. I got back to my table before the others, go figure I walked the fastest. I sat back down on my bag as Libby giggled. "You're not eating Libbs?" I asked her. "I'm not hungry." She replied. "Soot yourself." I said back. I turned around to see where the others were. They were approaching the table from the condiments bar. "Wow, you got here fast!" Beverly said picking up a chicken tender. "Not really." I answered.

The principal walked past our table with a giant display board. "What do you think that is?" Matt asked as she walked past. "I don't know." I said curiously. The principal walked to the back doors and grabbed the microphone. "Good afternoon." she started. "Good afternoon Ms. Villa." The suck ups replied. Our table rolled our eyes. "Today we will start the annual valentine grams sale." She finishes. The room filled with chatter about "Oohs". It made me sick how many valentine grams the clones got. "Each valentine gram costs $1.00 and comes with a chocolate." She explained. Even though we were Freshman we knew about this from Middle School. It was nothing new at all. Ms. Villa began to get on my nerves with explaining how we would fill out a Valentine Gram. As she finished, our table began laughing out of control. We all knew hat no one would send us a valentine gram and didn't plan on it. The last thing she announced was that she needed volunteers to keep track of the paperwork and pass them out. I looked over at Beverly and apparently she was thinking the same thing I was, that we would sabotage the clones.

"We'll do it!" Beverly yelled standing up. "Our table volunteers!" She yelled again. Everyone snickered and pointing calling us the suck ups but only if they knew what we were planning. "What!" Aaron whispered in confusion. "OK that table back there will be in charge of the valentine grams." Ms. Villa announced. Beverly sat down and began to announce the plan. So this was it. First we would take all of the valentines sent to the clones, and change tem to our names. Next we would laugh as we handed them out to see the surprised faces of the clones. It was mean I know, but it seemed so hilarious at that moment. We didn't know how much work that came along with it. The principal walked over to the table and wrote down our names on a piece of paper. "If anyone wants to buy a valentine gram, they are being sold at this table!" Ms. Villa announced to the lunch room. Beverly and I sighed as we realized that any second now our table would be crowded with people.

The rest of our lunch went by slowly, we sold a lot of valentine grams. I was surprised by how many people were sending valentine grams to the clones. I was also surprised by how many people were sending them to themselves. I laughed as we switched the names of ourselves every time we saw the names of the felt good to be in charge of something. As I walked to Math, Ms. Villa stopped me in the hallway to thank me for volunteering. I began to feel guilty for what I was doing but I knew it would be worth it in the end. I walked up a different staircase this time in order to get to Ms. Rhoulac's room. I giggled the whole way there to myself. I know I seem like a very mean person right now but if you knew the way the way the clones treated other people you would agree with what we were doing. We had the meanest math teacher in the world. She liked me, which was a good thing, but we did way to much work. The thing I hated the most was her policy, I dismiss you, not the bell. It was frustrating. Throughout her class today I felt very happy about what we were doing. I couldn't help but think of what the clones would do when they found out. After math class I waited in front of my classroom for Beverly. She walked up to me smiling. "Lunch was so cool today." She began. "Tell me about!" I laughed.

We walked towards the back of the school. We got to the back stairs and then we saw the clones. Beverly began to laugh and I tried to hold it back but I couldn't hold it back. Everyone stared at us like we were dying. It just made me fell even better. The clones turned around and loudly said "Look at those freaks!". Everyone in the hallway laughed back. Like I said before, it didn't faze us. We left each other as soon as we got outside saying good bye. I got on my bus, 134. WE had six different bus drivers this year, which really sucked. I don't know why but every driver has quit on us. I hated the one we had now. She was always late. It really got on my nerves. I sat down next to Robyniece. Brad was sitting in front of us stinking up the bus. I waited for Kris. He always made me laugh because of the looks he gave. Robyniece always made fun of him and told him he smelled like ketchup. In Kris' mind he didn't believe it. Honestly I never thought Kris smelled like Ketchup but at the same time Robyniece is entitled to her opinion. Kris got on the bus sitting in the swat across from us.

Hey Ketchup I giggled. Hey Canadian hey laughed back. What would friends be if they didn't make fun of each other? Well at least that's the way I thought about it. To be honest I wasn't even Canadian but Kris said I looked Canadian. Kris wasn't always my friend. For example, when I first met Kris he told me to move my bag. It was the second day of school that he had said "Move Freshman!" I thought I would never get over that but I did. Now Kris and I were almost good friends. WE had a lot in common; music, drawing, and well girls. Brad sat in front of me and he stunk really bad. I didn't have much in common with him and he really got on my nerves. Brad was also a Freshman but Kris was a Sophomore and Robyniece was a Junior. We all sat in the front of the bus and had like a min bus click. I began to tell Kris my wonderful idea as he sat down. "Dude, why would you do that?" he asked. "Don't you know what they do?" I yelled. "Dude, you're messin' with people's money. If they want to send the clones a valentine let them." Kris said back to me. For once, goofy Kris actually had a point. I started to feel guilty about what we had done and began to wonder what would happen when the clones found out they had no valentines. The more I thought about it I had mixed emotions. I really didn't like the clones and thought they deserved it, but it was still wrong.

Kris bugged me the rest of the way home about going to the "Grange" with him. I didn't want to go to the grange. I much rather have Kris come to my house just to hang out. I need to think about what I would do the next day at school. Would I switch the valentines or would I keep them the same. When I got home I called Beverly. WE talked for a long time but in the end I realized that we were keeping the valentines the same. As I prepared to go to sleep, I thought about how see it would be to see the sad look on the clones faces the next day.