The final bell rang. Geoff and Noah walked out of their psychology class, which had been substituted by Mr. McLean.

"Thanks again for the homework, dude," Geoff said with a wide grin as he passed Noah a twenty.

Noah examined it and after deciding it was valid – he'd been doing this ever since Geoff's Patented Counterfeit Scam – put it in his pocket. "As long as the price is right, who cares about their morals?"

"That's the spirit!" Geoff exclaimed, excitedly patting Noah on the back.

As the party boy walked away, Noah rubbed the spot where he'd been hit. "Ow…"

Noah walked to his locker and while he was opening it his neighbor, Harold Kinnely, walked up. "Gosh, Noah, I hope you're still not giving that idiot your homework," Harold commented. "Stand up for yourself, man!"

"Oh, Harold, sweet, smelly, naïve Harold," Noah replied with a sigh. "I'm smart. I'm poor. Geoff is dumb. Geoff has money. Can you put all of the pieces together?"

"I'd never be caught dead giving some popular guy my homework," Harold said. "I'd rather be poor and see them fail then be rich and see them succeed. Wouldn't you?"

"Sometimes you actually make sense, Harold," Noah answered. "But doing nice things to Geoff also provides the illusion that I have friends. And that's an illusion I intend to cling to."

"You probably have more friends than you think," Harold replied. "Now if you'll excuse me, there's a voluptuous sugar mama just waiting for me."

That left Noah alone with his thoughts and some money. "Morals and loneliness, money and fake friends… I choose the money!" he exclaimed to no one in particular.

"Crazyass students," a grumpy Mr. McLean commented as he walked past.

Lindsay Norton was still in her trigonometry classroom. "Um, Ms. Bling Bling," she started.

"It's Blaineley, for the millionth time!" Ms. Blaineley O'Halloran answered with a stomp of her foot.

"Oh, sure! Blanilla!"

Blaineley face-palmed. "Sure, whatever. Now Lindsay, there's no easy way to say this… you're failing my class."

Lindsay looked crestfallen. "Oh, no! I thought I did so good on that test thingy though!"

"Lindsay… you got a zero…"

"But," Lindsay interjected, pointing to the paper on the teacher's desk, "I drew a smiley face! That's how you know I did wellcellently."

Blaineley stared blankly at the dim-witted student. "Lindsay, Lindsay, Lindsay. Please leave my office before I bang my head against the chalkboard out of sheer frustration."

"Okay! Bye, Ms. Barnlie!"

As Lindsay left the room, closing the door behind her, Blaineley shrieked, "It's Blaineley!"

Geoff sauntered up to Bridgette's locker. "Hey, Bridgey-Boo!" Geoff said, moving in for a kiss.

"Not so fast, party boy," Bridgette replied, pushing his head away. "We need to talk."

Amidst the crowd of students going to their locker and going home, Geoff shrugged. This wasn't the first time the two 'needed to talk'. "Sure, Bridge. What's up?"

"I heard that you brought drinks to Lindsay's party?" When Geoff whistled and meekly turned away, Bridgette shoved his shoulder. "Geoff! You promised me. How could you?"

"It wasn't a big deal, Bridge," Geoff replied, shrugging it off. "The stuff wasn't even that strong. I promise! It was nothing like Katie's party at all."

Bridgette shuddered at the memory. "She still refuses to acknowledge that we date. You know that?"

Geoff put his arm around her shoulders. "Trust me, Bridgette. I know how to take care of myself now, especially after the, um… incident."

"Yeah, sure," Bridgette muttered. Geoff grinned and playfully pecked her on the lips.

"Trust me! So you wanna go over to Chef's? Grab some grub?"

"Sorry, Geoff, but I've already got plans to go over to Izzy's," Bridgette replied. "In fact, I've got to go meet her now." When Geoff put on a pouty face, she laughed. "Geoff! Not today. Maybe later this week, okay?"

"Fine, sure," Geoff replied. "See you later."

The couple kissed and Bridgette walked away to go meet up with Izzy. Unbeknownst to the couple, someone had been watching them with a devious gleam in their eyes. "I so need to get my hands on that," Dakota muttered to herself evilly.

Zoey, not watching where she was going as she responded to several texts, accidentally walked in to someone, and their books scattered all over the floor. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! I'll help you pick them up, if that's okay…"

As she bent over, she looked at who she'd bumped into and saw Trent. "Oh… hey, Trent," she said, a blush forming on her cheeks.

Trent chuckled. "Oh, um… hey, Zoey."

After Zoey helped him pick up his books, the two stood awkwardly. At the same time, they both said, "Hey, I think we need to talk."

"You first," Trent gestured.

Zoey shook her head. "No, I insist! You first."

"I don't want to impose. If you've got something to say…"

"Ladies first!" Zoey pointed out. "Oh… wait… no, that's not what I meant!"

Trent laughed. "Fine. I'll go first."

Then, someone walked up to the two. "Hey, guys!"

Trent and Zoey turned to see Mike Grant giving them a chip-toothed smile. "What's up?" he asked perkily.

"Um, I was just leaving," Trent replied enigmatically.

As he hurried off, Zoey called out, "Trent, wait!" But he didn't turn back, apparently not hearing her over the din of the hallway.

"What's his deal?" Mike asked, concerned.

Zoey turned to him. "Mike…"

Cody and Scott walked in to Chef's together; Tyler was supposed to join them but he was trying out for… virtually everything. "You know there's no chance he's making any team at all," Scott pointed out.

Cody laughed. "Maybe not. But at least he tries!"

"Whatever," Scott replied. His attention was suddenly caught by a bodacious figure at the counter. "Later, Cody. Scott's on the prowl."

"Hey!" Cody exclaimed. "You can't just ditch me!"

"There's always room here," came a sarcastic voice, and Cody turned to see Noah sitting alone in a booth with books casually strewn across the table.

Clearing room for the nerd, Noah offered him a seat. "I promise I won't ditch you for a hot girl. Even if I could."

"You're funny, Noah," Cody said with a laugh. "That only leaves the option of a hot girl coming over here to us!"

Lindsay took this moment to come waddling over excitedly. "Ohmygosh! I totes need your help!"

Noah and Cody met eyes and Noah shrugged. "What can I do for you, honey?" he asked the blonde.

Chef wiped down another glass as two boys walked in to the candy bar. Taking seats at the counter, Chef asked them, "What'll you be having?"

"A tall delicious glass of victory!" Tyler exclaimed, throwing his fists into the air.

"Um, I'll have a small glass of repulsive defeat," DJ replied dejectedly.

"What's got you two maggots all in conflicting stages of emotion?" Chef asked inquisitively.

"The basketball team!" Tyler exclaimed. "I finally made something!"

Chef looked at DJ. "And I take it you didn't?"

"No," DJ replied dejectedly.

As Tyler reached into his wallet, Chef shook his head. "It's on the house this time, jumpsuit. As your you," he added, pointing at DJ, "come with me."

DJ shrugged and followed Chef into a storage closet. Chef clicked on the lights and DJ saw the shelves crammed with trophies. "Whoa…" he muttered.

"Maggot," Chef began, "You want to be on this basketball team, correct?"

"More than anything, sir," DJ replied earnestly.

"Well, prepare to learn from the best."

"You want me to… tutor you?" Noah asked, incredulous.

Lindsay batted her eyes. "Oh, pretty, pretty please, Cody!"

Cody giggled. "Um, I'm Cody…"

"No, silly! You're Noah!" Lindsay chuckled.

"I'm Noah," Noah pointed out.

"Paul?"

"Lindsay!" both boys called out.

"Yes?" she asked sweetly.

Noah made a gesture for Cody to leave. "Dude, you promised!" Cody whined.

"We all make promises," Noah replied wittily, and a grumbling Cody got up to go look for Scott. "Now, Lindsay, why exactly would it be in my interest to tutor you?"

Lindsay scratched her chin. "Um… I'll pay you five dollars an hour?"

"Wow, I'll be rich in no time!" Noah replied sarcastically.

Lindsay smiled. "Exactly! And I'll also invite you to my next party."

Perfect opportunity to continue this charade of having friends, Noah thought to himself. "Fine, I'm in. We'll start in a few days."

"Yay! Thanks so much Cody!"

"It's Noah…"

"Paul?"

Geoff had just been loafing around the school by himself, not wanting to go home yet. Finally he went to his locker; the hallway was deserted.

"Hey there, sweetie," came a voice. Geoff nearly fell on the floor having noticed no one in the hallway.

A figure stepped into view and walked towards him. "Um… hi there," Geoff replied, packing his bag.

"My name's Dakota," Dakota introduced.

"Geoff," Geoff replied. "Hey, I haven't seen you around here before. You new or something?"

"Yes, I am, actually," Dakota replied innocently. "Just moved, in fact."

Geoff smiled. "Well, here's my number. Call me sometime and I'll show you around."

"I'd like that." Dakota smiled. Is it really this easy to steal someone's boyfriend? She thought to herself.

Izzy and Bridgette were loafing around in Izzy's room. Having finished their homework, they were making small talk when Izzy peered out into the hallway. Seeing no sign of her parents, she reached into her closet and pulled out a bottle. "Want some?" she said excitedly, offering some of the alcohol to Bridgette.

Bridgette shook her head. "No, I'm good, Izzy. And what are you even doing with drinks in your house anyways? What if your parents catch you!"

"Pfft, as if," the wild girl replied as she poured herself a shot glass. Downing it in a single gulp, she added, "They're totally oblivious. Unless it's right under their nose, they'll never find out."

"I still think it's a bad idea for you to be getting drunk at home," Bridgette pointed out. "It seems like you're overdoing it a bit."

"Junior year is tough," Izzy playfully whined. "I just like to wind down a bit. Would you rather I get drunk on the streets with strange boys? Because I promised myself that it was only as a last resort."

Bridgette laughed. "Well, I guess. But still! Pace yourself, Izzy. Don't waste your money, and life, away on drinks, okay?"

"Whateverrrr!" Izzy looked to her watch and noticed the time. "Wow, it's getting late. Want my dad to drive you home?"

"Sure, I'll be down in a second," Bridgette replied. "I need to get my things together."

As Izzy bounced downstairs to get her dad ready, Bridgette sighed. "This is for your own good, Izzy…" she took the bottle out from the closet and laid it on Izzy's bed for anyone to see. "I hope you won't be mad…"

And with that she went downstairs after her friend.

I like the cast that I'm focusing on so far. But don't worry - other characters will be introduced. I've got story plans for both Gwen and Justin specifically. But for the main part, I'll keep the core cast as the ones already introduced.

Bridgette's actions are going to have serious repercussions in the chapters to come, and Dakota's already put her plan to steal Geoff into play. Noah's attempting to fit in but at the same time is conflicted by Harold's words. In the end, will he choose pretend popular friends or the real deal?