Josh Nickles woke up at 6:30 am to the sound of his alarm clock buzzing in his ear. He reached out his hand and hit the little button on top to turn off the alarm. Josh lied there for a minute before sitting up and getting out of bed. He headed down the stairs and into the kitchen to get some breakfast. He sat down with a bowl of cereal and milk and started to eat. When he had finished he put his bowl in the sink and went back upstairs to take a shower. Josh walked into his bedroom in a bathrobe and toweled hair to find Drake Parker, his stepbrother, sitting on the couch and watching TV in his pajamas.

"What are you doing?" asked Josh closing the door behind him.

"Watching TV." Said Drake.

"Shouldn't you be getting ready for school?" he said opening his closet and taking out a long-sleeved blue shirt.

"We still have half and hour." Drake said not taking his eyes off of the television screen.

"So? That's not forever you know." Said Josh putting on his shirt and pants.

"Shh! I'm trying to watch television!" he said. Josh sighed and went downstairs.

Josh opened his locker and put his books in it as Drake came around the corner and stopped in front of him.

"So, what's going on?" asked Drake.

"Nothing." Said Josh, "you?"

"Same."

"Did you ever get…?"

"Excuse me, but do you know where locker 303 is?" said a voice behind him. Josh turned around to see a girl with brown hair that was in a messy knot at the back of her head with two chopsticks sticking out of it. She was wearing a t-shirt with a tan corduroy jacket over it and jeans with rips and what looked like paint stains on them. Her necklace was made out of bottle caps and had a pencil tucked behind her ear and big silver hoop earrings. The girl was also carrying a dark green book bag that was bulging with books, CDs, pads of paper, and other miscellaneous items.

"Um, I think it's this that way." Jestured Josh, "here I'll show you." He walked away with the girl behind him and Drake starring at her as he led her down the hall "are you new here?"

"Yeah, I just moved here from Louisiana." She said.

"Oh, but isn't that where…?"

"My house was trashed in the hurricane. We didn't really have a choice." The two stopped in front of a locker at the end of the hall.

"Oh, sorry." He said quietly.

"Why are you sorry? It wasn't anybody's fault, it was just an act of nature." The girl turned the lock that was attached to the locker and opened it. It was completely empty and quite dusty.

"So, what's your name? I don't think you told me." Said Josh as she took out package of wipes out of her bag and started to wipe all the dust away.

"Natalie."

"Josh." They shook hands and Natalie continued to clean her locker, "well, I guess I'll see you later."

"I guess so!" Josh walked back to where Drake had been standing. He was still standing there looking at Natalie still cleaning the inside of her locker with his mouth hanging open.

"Are you ok?"

"Ok? Did you not just see that girl?" asked Drake finally tearing his eyes away from Natalie.

"Um, I just showed her her locker, I think I saw her." said Josh. Drake didn't say anything else until the bell rang. They both walked to their class. Drake and Josh sat down at their desks and took out their books. Outside the classroom Natalie walked past the doorway several times before actually knocking on the open door.

"Excuse me, I'm looking for classroom number 26?" she asked the teacher.

"Well, you found it!" said Ms. Tyler, "Take a seat miss…?"

"Sage!" she said, "Natalie Sage." Ms. Tyler and Natalie shook hands smiling kindly.

"Oh, of coarse! How could I forget?" Ms. Tyler exclaimed after moving back to her desk and looking over her papers, "You must be the exchange student from Louisiana!"

"Yes ma'am!"

"Well, you can sit in front of mister Parker." Said Ms. Tyler gesturing to a desk right in front of the boy she had seen Josh talking to. Natalie nodded a thank you to Ms. Tyler and sat down at her desk. She turned around in her seat to see a boy with dark brown hair styled into a bowl haircut and his mouth hanging open.

"Hi. I'm Natalie!" she held out her hand for him to shake it. Drake didn't move. Josh, who was sitting next to him, punched him in the arm. Drake shook himself and shook Natalie's hand slowly.

"Drake." He said not letting go of her hand.

"Nice to meet you?" she said trying to pull her hand away, but he was still holding on to it tightly, "Um, you can let go now."

"It's ok." He said. Josh punched him in the arm again and Drake let go. Natalie turned back around and started taking out her books.

It was lunch and everyone was in the cafeteria. Drake was sitting at a table surrounded by girls and Josh was sitting alone at a table in the corner. Natalie stepped out of the lunch line carrying a tray with mashed potatoes, corn, and a slice of pizza. She looked over at the table with Drake and all of the girls wearing pink and crowding around him. Natalie rolled her eyes and walked over to where Josh was sitting.

"Is this seat taken?" she said. Josh shook his head surprisingly. Natalie sat down across from him and put her book bag down next to her.

"Don't you want to sit down with Drake and the 'drake is perfect' club?" he said taking a gloomy sip of milk.

"No, I'd rather sit here. Is that ok?" she said smiling.

"Well, sure! I just would have thought…"

"Popular guys don't really do it for me." said Natalie taking a scoop of corn.

"Oh." said Josh turning red. They sat there for a moment or two before saying anything further.

"Do you want something to drink?" asked Josh noticing she didn't have anything to drink on her tray.

"It's ok. I'm lactose-intolerant. I brought my own water bottle anyway." She took out a blue transparent water bottle that was ¾ of the way full.

Josh opened their bedroom door with Drake behind him.

"Oh…my…god!" said Drake slamming the door behind him.

"What?" said Josh dropping his backpack on his bed.

"Did you see her?"

"See who?"

"That new girl!"

"Of course I saw her!"

"Well then you noticed that she is hot!" said Drake practically shouting the last word.

"She's pretty good-looking. Why?" said Josh trying not to admit that he completely agreed with him.

"Why? I'll tell you why! Because I'm Drake and that means I have to go out with her!" said Drake.

"What if she doesn't want to go out with you?"

"Don't worry about…wait!"

"What?"

"You want to go out with her, don't you?"

"What?" he said again, the back of his neck getting slightly hotter, "I do not want to go out with a girl I mat less than twelve hours ago!" but he knew he was lying.

"Fine, but you can't date her before I do!" said Drake jamming a finger at his chest.

"No problem." Said Josh getting up and went downstairs. Josh opened the refrigerator and taking out a water bottle. He had actually wanted to ask her out, but he knew she wouldn't say yes. She had told him that she didn't really like popular guys. Did that rule Drake out?