Author's note: Sorry some of the latest chapters are so short. And the lack of updates! I am going to try to spend some more time on each chapter now.

Chapter 9-Hannah

"Want to play doubles?" Adrienne suggested. "Maybe we could come up with a tournament or something."

Karen nodded. We crossed to the other side of the net, as Adrienne and Mel got ready to face off against us in a fierce game of…..badminton. Yes, you read right.

I concentrated. When a birdie came towards me, I did my best. I made sure I wasn't in Karen's way, and I let her get a few on my side, too.

At the end of a game, Adrienne and Mel came towards us. "Where did your friend go?" Mel asked.

"Oh, Nancy," Karen said with a flick of her hand. "She's been really weird lately."

"Ever since she met that kid….." I added, searching my brain for a name.

Mel supplied, "His name's Jack Rodowsky. I know him because he's on the football team with Adi's bro."

"He's basically the only freshman," Adrienne said. "He's actually pretty good. To make the team, I mean."

"I'm confused," Mel said. "Is he going out with, ummmm…Nancy? Are they just good friends, know each other from somewhere, or what?"

"I have no idea how she'd know him," Karen told us. "I don't even know if they're an item….she never talks to us anymore."

I frowned. "It's not like I have a problem with her making new friends, look at you guys, but she's not really supposed to ignore her other friends, either."

"Look, there they are---"

"Ladies!" I didn't get a chance to sneak a look at Nancy and Jack, since Mr. Keating was right over us. "Save the chatting for lunch, and get into a game!"

"Okay, Mr. Keating," we murmured in unison. We backed up to play, but all turned to look. Nancy and Jack were on the bleachers, just talking. Nancy was grinning, not like herself at all. The Jack kid was a redhead! Karen found that particularly hilarious.

Mr. Keating didn't even notice them as he walked by. That made me just the littlest bit mad. He was a tough grader, so if he caught you not participating, each warning was down part of a letter grade, so if he caught you not participating each warning was down part of a letter grade, so if you had a B, so you got a B minus for the day.

We caught up with her in the locker room. "Hey, Nanc!" Karen said casually. "What's going on?"

"Not much," Nancy said.

"What've you been up to?"

"Just homework," she turned the corner and went in the bathroom. What were we supposed to talk about? What did we have in common still? I felt a slight aching pain in my chest. For a second I thought of the Three Musketeers pact hanging in my room.

The next day in Algebra 2 we needed to work on the assigned class work with partners. There was one extra twist: she chose the partners.

I waited, and my name was finally called. "Hannah and Shea," Ms. Dorazio called out. Who was that? I stood up and looked around, and I saw a redheaded boy motioning for me to come over and sit with him, as he had an empty desk next to him. Shea…? Did I know him from somewhere else?

"Okay, first problem…" I began, and stopped when I noticed him. Shea was slouching back in his chair, with nothing on his desk. "Hey, um, why don't you get your book out?" I asked nervously. He was a junior, I was a freshman. I knew not to push it.

"Nah," he shrugged, tipping back even farther. Ms. Dorazio was on her way over, I could sense, but I didn't let on.

"Hey, let's just get this over with, okay?"

"Shea Rodowsky! Get to work, or you're getting a 0 on that already horrific grade on your last quiz!"

Ooh, threatening. I turned around to see what he would do next.

"Excuse me? I don't think that was something to mention in public," Shea raised his eyebrow at her. My jaw dropped. I'd never seen anyone act like that in front of a teacher. Welcome to high school, I told myself.

"Are you free today?" Ms. Dorazio asked relatively calmly. "Because you have a detention, one of the days this week after school."

Shea looked very bored. "Well, not today. My brother Jack has football basically every day after school, and I have to wait for him and drive him home. Is Friday good?" He was speaking as if they were talking about a time to meet at a movie theater or something.

"Yes, sure," she sighed. He must have been hopeless. You could tell she had fought a battle with Shea and lost.

"All right…number one," I tried again. We had to read aloud the word problems first, to try to understand them better. "Do you want me to read it?"

"I can't read it," Shea mumbled. "I mean, you can read it." Shea Rodowsky. Rodowsky! Jack Rodowsky. Ohhhhh. I knew I recognized him. He looked almost exactly like Jack!

"Okay…" and I read it. "Um…Shea?"

"What?" He looked confused, and I didn't blame him. He didn't even know who I was.

I hesitated, wondering exactly how stupid this would sound. "Is your brother…uh…going out with anyone right now?"

Shea laughed harshly. "You want to ask him out, kid? I don't think you have a chance, he's so hooked on that loser girl with the freckles."

"No, no, I didn't mean that!" I defended myself, very sorry that I brought it up. "But that…loser girl…" I gulped, "…is he going out with her? Or are they just friends?"

"Ummmm…yeah. They go out like every night, the way freshmen do, thinking they're so cool cuz they made it to high school. Don't even try Jack, kid, he's so into and close to that girl. Just a warning."

Ms. Dorazio walked by then and I didn't have enough time to pretend we were working. "Hannah Papadakis…? I'm surprised at you. I would think that you would be close to halfway done by now. You two, get to work. I'm very serious here. It could affect your participation grade severely."

My head automatically dove into my book. I began working on the problems overtime, and Shea stopped me. "So are you going to read, or what, freshman?"

I tried to help him. He refused to read any of the problems, but he would try them out. He was okay, just needed a little bit of help and guidance, from a freshman. Very weird.

So this was important to my math grade, huh? Math was important, to get into a college. What was more important, keeping good grades or friends? Nancy had always been a great friend to me; I had no doubt over that. Nancy might be getting in a little over her head, some trouble, and needed me to help her. If she wanted to get help. I didn't know how she felt about this, not even if she was my friend anymore.

Another thing I had no doubt about was that I was very mixed up inside.