First Day Of School

Beep….Beep!

The alarm clock went off loudly and woke up Ginger Foutley for her first day of junior year at Lucky High School. She groaned loudly as she slammed her fist down on the alarm button, then she rolled back over and fell back asleep for about five minutes.

Lois walked in carrying a very cheerful and bouncy Erin. "Lets get a move on Ginge if you want a ride to school" she said leaving Ginger's bedroom door open as she left. Ginger sighed deciding that she wasn't going to get anymore sleep, Ginger got up and headed to the bathroom.

She was not looking forward to the first day of school; summer felt like it had been a blur. It went by all too quickly for her liking, plus that night with Darren at the party she had yet to tell her best friends about. Even though she was wasted out of her mind, she could remember every detail of what happened between them and it was eating her up on the inside.

Not to mention they hadn't spoken two words to each other after Ian dropped her and Dodie off at Macie's house the next day. Simone came home that afternoon and had been smothering Darren every since, she barely saw him during that final week before school started and was dreading a reunion. And Orion what would she say to him when she saw him; she had been avoiding him heavily since the party. But it seemed like he barely even noticed since he was always working. She sighed again; this definitely wasn't going to be a good day. With all these thoughts in mind she headed to take a shower.

Dodie on the other hand was looking forward to the first day of school very much. Every since Ian's party they had been texting each other non-stop, just talking like they were old friends. They barely got a chance to hang out since he was busy with football and she was busy with pep and all the changes they were making to the squad this year. She put her name in to take up the position of co-captain under Simone, she just hoped the girls would vote her in; this was definitely going to be a good year.

Darren was riding with Ian to school in Ian's jeep, they both had on their football jackets and Ian looked as if he didn't have a care in the world, Darren on the other hand was battling with himself internally, every since Simone came home there wasn't a moment where she wasn't with him in some type of way, during the morning she came over and made him breakfast. While he was at football practice she yelled new cheers loudly about him, at night she texted and called him constantly. He was getting really tired of her clinginess but he stuck with her out of guilt, truth was even though she was doing all of these things, he couldn't stop thinking about Ginger, that night was still fresh in his mind as if it had happened yesterday, He wanted her back, but he had to figure out a way to dump Simone first.

Ginger walked up the stairs of Lucky High and let out a heavy sigh.

"Ginger!" someone yelled out to her left, she turned to see who it was and was relieved to see that it was Dodie fully dressed in her pep squad outfit with a high pony tail and light pink lip gloss, her best friend looked cute and gave off an heir of confidence that she hadn't seen in the blonde before.

"Dod, hey" said Ginger smiling as Dodie came over and gave her a hug.

"Hey, I missed talking to you last night, sorry but Ian called" said Dodie smiling brightly. Ginger smiled back and was grateful toward the budding friendship between Dodie and Ian, but just like every other girl in this school she knew of his reputation and just hoped that his motives were honorable, she'd hate to see her best friend get hurt.

"No problem, I was busy anyway," said Ginger staring at the ground.

"Late night with Orion." She asked jokingly. Ginger just shook her head, she knew what her best friend was thinking about but she wouldn't bring up the Darren subject again when Ginger was ready to talk she would.

"Have you texted Macie though," asked Ginger, Mace had still been sick with strap throat.

"Yeah, she asked if we could bring her homework after school for her"

"Cool, I'll meet you after your pep practice" said Ginger, Dodie nodded and walked into the school building.

"You coming" she asked Ginger, Ginger snapped out of her daze and followed her best friend into the school building. Orion was waiting for her in front of her homeroom class.

"Guess I'll catch up with you later Ginge" said Dodie "Hey Orion" Orion nodded and smiled in return. Dodie walked into homeroom class and left Ginger and Orion in the hallway, Ginger really wished she would've stayed.

"Hey babe" he said smiling at her, "these are for you," he said handing her some red roses. "Think of them as a first day of school good luck charm"

She smiled at him and kissed him on the cheek, he was really sweet at times but now she was feeling even worse.

"I'll see you after school, we'll go to the movies" he said kissing her on the cheek.

"Wait don't you have to work?" she asked curiously.

"Nope took the evening off so I could spend it with my favorite girl" She smiled at him and kissed him on the cheek again.

"Sounds good"

"Alright I'll meet you in the front of the school at 4" he said

"Ok, see you then" Orion went down the hall and started walking to his class. Ginger walked into class and decided to worry about everything else later. She hadn't seen Darren let alone spoken to him in a week, maybe that one night was all it would be for them.

Darren was walking to homeroom class with Simone clinging to his arm; she hadn't let go of him since she saw him in the parking lot that morning. She kept telling him how much she missed him over the summer and how they should do more things together. Darren was just happy that they were in different grades as he walked her to homeroom; at least he'd get some alone time during classes to figure out a way to break things off with her. As they reached her homeroom class he smiled finally, he thought in his head.

"So I was thinking maybe you should come over after practice, we can catch up on all the time we missed this summer," she said seductively, caressing his face. Darren groaned internally. She spent every waking moment, how much catching up could they possibly do?

"Can't," he said taking her hands in his in order to get them off his face. "Ian asked me to come over and help change the oil in his car after practice" said Darren saying the first lie he could think of.

"Why can't he just take it too a shop" she asked annoyingly.

"Because he doesn't want too Simone, besides I told him I'd help since he's always giving me rides you know, plus he's my best friend ok" he said getting a little short with her.

"Ok, ok fine I just wanted us to have some alone time" she said pouting.

He sighed, " We will, soon" he said as he thought whenever he figured out how to break things off with her.

"Ok babe, see you at lunch" she said smiling as she pecked him on the cheek.

"Yeah lunch," he said smiling halfhearted. She gave him a hug before walking into class, he walked down the hall way scratching his head trying to figure out a way to talk to Ginger, she probably thought he forgot about her. He didn't, it was just that Simone was always over and she was constantly checking his phone, his email, and his facebook account. It was like he couldn't get away from her.

Carl and Hoodsey were on their way to lunch during their first day of high school. The day went pretty smooth so far, they had three classes together and Carl was even back to his old self with a lot less football talk.

"Hey Carl, you wanna come over after school and head to Louie's to see if he has those walkie-talkie's that double as lie detectors" asked Hoods

"Nah, I got my first practice of the school year today at 4, Coach says practices are only gonna get harder now because school's started"

"Oh right" said Hoodsey feeling a little down.

"But hey why don't you stick around after school, Lola said you could come sleep over if you wanted to and we can check out Louie's new website" Hoodsey smiled.

"Cool" They continued walking down the hall towards where the cafeteria was and saw some girls dressed in cheer outfits performing, they also saw a sign for tryouts. Hoodsey wanted to move as quickly as he could he hated seeing and hearing Dodie cheer since she did it basically all the time at home, but Carl stopped him just as the girls were finishing up.

"Hey Hoods, look at the girl on the left, is it just me or does she look kinda familiar," he asked. Hoodsey took a closer look and saw the girl Carl was talking about, she did look very familiar but unless you knew her you wouldn't recognize her in her pep squad uniform with her long pony tail, long legs and clear colored contacts that showed off her green eyes. A lot of the other boys that stopped to see the show were looking at Lucky High's newest edition to their squad as well.

"But it can't be that's…." Hoodsey started but Carl finished.

"Noelle" he said in awe as he watched her flip and cheer, this was a side of her he never saw and he was determined to get to know it as well as her all over again.

After their performance Dodie went into the cafeteria and found Ginger and sat down beside her, she was out of breath. Ginger pulled out her bagged lunch as Orion came and sat down across from them.

"Hey Dod, great cheering" said Orion jokingly, Dodie smiled at him and drunk from her bottled water as she caught her breath.

"Well I do my best to do my best"

"Who was that new girl that was cheering with you all I've never seen her before said Ginger, she was now in the habit of going to a few football games a year to see Dodie cheer and hear Macie play with the band. She even enjoyed watching the game, though she'd never admit it. She still didn't quite understand the sport or why anyone would want to risk being injured for life, but she had to admit that the atmosphere of the game was pretty exciting and she had school spirit, she even wrote for the newspaper now. Plus she'd be at way more games now since her brother decided that he too wanted to play the dangerous sport.

"You do know her Ginger, or better yet your brother knows her better I should say" Ginger was getting confused. "That's Noelle"

"Noelle Sussmen, my brothers elementary school girlfriend." Ginger hadn't seen her since she saved her moms wedding a year and a half ago. Rumor was her parents hit the lottery a few weeks after that and she moved to California.

"Your brother had a girlfriend" Orion asked shocked.

"Yeah, she's very talented, and the only freshman to ever make the team" said Dodie speaking highly of their newest edition.

"Wow, I didn't really take her for the pep squad type" said Ginger.

"Yeah, I guess that move really changed her," said Dodie, just as she was about to say something else Ian Richton came over to their table.

"Hey everybody" he said smiling politely. They all greeted him back and Dodie was smiling from ear to ear.

"Hey Ian" she said

"You wanna come eat lunch with me Dodie" he asked, shocking Ginger a bit. "Oh you guys don't mind if I steal her away do you, that is if you want too," he said smiling at Dodie.

Dodie was rendered speechless for a moment, so Ginger spoke up for her friend. "Sure, I'll see you later Dod"

"Yeah, later, said Dodie in a blissful daze as she grabbed her lunch and headed over to the table where the pep squad and some of the football players ate lunch at. Ian was about to walk away as well when he stopped and walked back to Ginger and Orion's table.

"Oh almost forgot, my friend told me to give you this" he said handing her a note as Orion dug into his lunch. Ginger took the note from him.

"Thanks" she said opening it.

"No problem" he said stuffing his hands in his jacket pockets smiling and walking toward his lunch table.

Ginger opened the note and read it, it said

"I can't stop thinking about you"

DP

She closed it and crumbled it as soon as she read it, a feeling of dread and guilt came over her and she tried to hide it from Orion as best as she could.

"Babe you ok," he asked as he noticed that change in her demeanor.

"Uh yeah," she said quickly looking around the café for Darren, she didn't see him though. She sighed "Hey babe um I just remember I have to go take Macie her homework after school, see she's sick so I wanted to stay and um help take care of her, is it ok if we reschedule our date" she asked quickly.

"Yeah sure babe, do what you gotta do" he said smiling at her, she smiled back this was definitely worth an emergency meeting at Macie's house.

The girls were finally at Macie's house and Ginger was pacing back and forth waiting for Dodie to come out of the bathroom. Macie was slowly getting her voice back and wondering what was wrong with Ginger.

"Ginger you're making me dizzy" Said Macie. Ginger stopped pacing and sat down on the beanbag chair in Macie's room.

"Sorry" she said quietly. Finally after what felt like an eternity to Ginger Dodie came out of the bathroom and closed the door to Macie's room, she sat on the edge of Macie's bed waiting for Ginger to start talking, she just hoped Ginger was ready to talk about what they had neglected since the summer ended. Ginger got up and started pacing again.

"This is eating me up inside and I thought that I could just forget about it, that it would go away, but it hasn't and I need to, I need to…." She said at a lost for words

"What is it Ginger, you have us worried now" said Macie sitting up in bed as best as she could. Dodie remained quiet hoping Ginger would say what was on her mind.

Ginger sighed. "I need to tell you about that night…that night with Darren"

"What?" Macie asked

"Ginger you were drunk out of your mind, you can't possibly remember everything that happened" said Dodie it was over two weeks ago now.

"No, Dodie I do remember, I remember everything"

(A/N: Yes its a cliffhanger lol, but what happened between Ginger and Darren will be posted in the next chapter. Thanks for reading and for the wonderful reviews, till next time XOXO...TLL)