DISCLAIMER: No, my dears, the newsies in this story don't belong to me unfortunately. I mean, c'mon now, I'd be doing better things with them if they did. *snickers* Anywho, Nicollet belongs to me if you really care that much. So here's my disclaimer, please don't sue me. Taco Bell and Chik-fil- a are not mine either, and neither is Wendy's. Quite frankly, none of the food chains mentioned in this story belong to me. Enjoy the show.

A.N.: Thank You Thank You Thank You Thank You Thank You for all the Reviews! Keep them rolling in please!

*Confessions*

Mush watched Nicollet as the girl gazed at her locker mirror's reflection and applied gloss to her lips. She wore her dark hair loose, making her look younger than the sixteen years she was for her freckles stood out more for some reason and her brown eyes seemed to glow with a youthful fervor. As she adjusted her bangs in a precise manner over her left eyebrow, she noticed the boy then and smiled. "Mush, what's up?"

"Nothing much," he said, walking up to her and sighing when he rested his back against the lockers. There was only an eight minute passing time between classes so he would have to be quick with his words. "Nikki, there's this girl in my class that I like. She sits a few seats away from me; she's really cute and so every time I get the chance to talk to her, my mind just shuts down and stops working. I really like her though..." Embarrassed by having openly admitted his feelings, he looked away. "I was wondering if you could maybe talk to her and tell her for me?"

Nicollet smiled at his coyness. The day Mush actually spoke to a girl for himself would be a miraculous one. "Sure, what do you want me to tell her?"

But the boy wasn't listening. His eyes widened with both panic and excitement and he swiftly spun around so that he was facing his friend. "There she is, there she is!"

"There's twenty different girls walking down the hallway! Which one?" She looked past him and waited for a description.

"She's wearing a black shirt and jeans," he said, lowering his voice, trying to remain as casual as possible and doing a horrible job at it.

"The blonde one?"

Mush threw her a confused look and then glanced back to see why it was so hard to detect the girl he had just seen moments before. He immediately regretted it. "Oh god, I just made eye contact with her!"

"You're such a dork!" Nicollet laughed despite Mush's glares at her; it was honestly too funny to see a guy her age freak out so much about the girl he wanted to date. Being acquainted with Spot for so long had her thinking that guys wore ice cold demeanors and never expressed their emotions to anyone, not even each other! Yet here was Mush disproving that false claim as he begged her with his eyes to not make him look like a fool.

"She's wearing a ponytail, the one walking next to the girl in the yellow shirt..."

"Oh, her?" She nodded her approval; the girl was Natasha Halls. She had been in one of Nicollet's classes last year and proved to have a genuine sweet personality. "Heya Natasha," she called out with a wave. "My friend Marcio here wants a date with you."

Natasha glanced at Mush as she passed by and blushed at the compliment, especially when the girls around her erupted into giggles and started cooing. When they were well out of earshot, Mush gave Nicollet an incredulous look. "Are you insane?! I can't believe you just did that! I was kinda thinking you'd talk to her in private or something or hand her a note, but yelling it across the hallway?! God, I so wanna kill you right now!"

"No you don't. Ya know you love me." She laughed as he went on in disbelief. He was complaining now, but she knew that as soon as he went home, he'd be daydreaming over Natasha's expression, anxiously waiting to be embarrassed all over again. "Walk me to Spanish?" He agreed and they started off down the halls in silence, Nicollet going over a list of vocabulary words she needed to memorize by the time she entered her classroom and Mush lost in a daze of love.

"Yo Aaron," a husky voice said from behind. "Check out who it is. Ol' Nickels and Marky-Mark. Aint you two s'pose to be in class by now? Ya aint skippin', are ya?"

"Nah," another replied. "Them two goody-goodies aint the skippin' types. You should know Marcio's practically a mama's boy."

Nicollet looked back and wasn't surprised to see Bennie Smith and Aaron Ortiz sauntering towards her and Mush with devilish grins on their faces and the want to wreak havoc present in their eyes. She hated them more than she could ever measure. They were creeps, potential high school dropouts who did nothing more than wander around campus and smoke in the bathrooms or set off stink bombs in the cafeteria. They had violated every rule in the code of conduct at least once and had even served a short term at juvenile detention over the summer.

Spot had gotten into a fight with them twice before, for whereas their reputations were badass ones that sought trouble from afar, his was a temperamental one that exploded whenever inflamed. Back in freshman year, he nearly beat Bennie to a bloody pulp upon learning that the jerk had spread rumors about Nicollet and him sleeping together. Both boys were suspended, but it didn't matter to Spot. He felt as if his vengeance had been completed and the consequences weren't an issue. The second incident was between him and Aaron, the latter infuriated when he discovered his girlfriend had dumped him for Spot. Another brawl broke out that day after school, leading to Spot's second suspension-though he served it with pride, like a true victor.

Mush looked worried but followed Nicollet's lead by simply ignoring the boys and continuing to walk.

"Hey, don't turn your backs on us! What are ya, deaf? Turn around!"

Nicollet regarded them with feigned apology. "Oh I'm sorry! Were you two saying something?!"

"Yea, we..."

"Oh that's right," she snapped. "I wasn't listening to your ugly faces!" They could only stand there shocked by the words, not sure how to come up with an argument. It was usually Merryll who protected the girl; they never knew she was capable of defending herself.

"Is there a problem here?" a new voice asked. It was Jack and seeing how he was a great deal taller than them, Aaron and Bennie backed off. "I didn't think so. I mean, you two wouldn't intentionally be tryin' to make my friends' lives miserable, would ya?"

Nicollet grinned. "It's okay, Jack. They can't help being jackasses. It's in their nature." The pair of bullies glared at her but retreated down an empty hall nonetheless in defeat. "Well, that was interesting, huh?"

"Yup." And as soon as Jack started forward for class, the tardy bell rang. "I don't think I'll ever be on time for Calculus," he sighed, bidding them farewell and jogging away to at least not be drastically late.

* * * * *

The cafeteria couldn't have been any more packed with hungry teenagers that afternoon. Snitch and Blink were thankful beyond words that their crew had decided earlier this year to eat lunch outside at one of the countless black steel picnic tables throughout the campus. With slices of pizza in one hand and bottles of Mountain Dew or Coke in the other, the two friends located their table and took a seat before the benches-which only held three youths each-were taken. Spot was already sitting across from them with a redhead named Kelly on his lap, Specs beside them reading "A Tale of Two Cities".

Blink turned his slice of pizza around and bit down on its soft crust, a habit of his to do things backwards. He remembered when Pizza Hut promoted eating the crust first, but it seemed as if all the hype had been lost over the following years. He took a sip from his Mountain Dew and nudged Snitch. "Here comes trouble," he said under his breath. Nicollet was approaching the table in high spirits, a deck of cards in her hands ready to be dealt for their daily games of poker. "How much ya wanna bet she's going to be a little hell raiser today?"

Snitch rolled his eyes. "She's a hell raiser everyday, Blink." They shared a short laugh and then watched curiously as the girl drew closer. She stopped short all of a sudden, her smile dropping when she saw Spot and his current play toy, a giggling airhead whom she did not know but whom she immediately disliked. She stuffed the playing cards back into her messenger bag and crossed her arms to continue her walk up to Spot.

"Oh hey, Nikki," Spot said, not in any way ashamed for he felt he had no reason to be. Of all people, his best friend should know that he was a flirt. Why was she making such a big deal now?

"Hey," she mumbled back.

"This is Kelly; she's going to be eating lunch with us today. I was just telling her about you, and how ya gave us all nicknames, except for Jack and yourself. She says she wants a nickname too. Can ya think of one?"

Nicollet could think of a number of names, none of which she thought Spot or the girl would like to hear. Instead she spoke directly to Kelly. "Only the people in our lil' group here get to have nicknames. Sorry."

Kelly pouted. "Aww, can't I be in the group? Please? I promise ya'll would love me. I get along with everyone and I could even back cookies whenever ya hold the meetings and all."

"Of course you can join," Spot said after he planted a kiss on her cheek. She pinched his cheeks in adoration and giggled about how cute he was.

"No, you can't," Nicollet said in a sterner voice. What was Spot thinking? They had settled on the fact that eight was enough company months ago! The honor of being inducted into their cliché now was strictly reserved for only those who had wild enough personality, something special. But Kelly? She was a typical clueless broad! "I decide who joins and who doesn't and you're definitely NOT joining."

Blink and Snitch watched on with the utmost interest, even Specs had put down his book for a minute to see about the problem. Spot gave her a cool look, though she knew a storm was building up within him. "You're not always going to be the one to choose who gets to join, Nikki."

"Then we'll vote on it," she nearly yelled back.

Spot gently scooted Kelly onto the bench beside him and then stood to his feet. "Who the hell d'ya think you are?!" He pushed her back a foot so that the argument was solely between them.

"I hate it when you bring one of your girls to our table! It's OUR table!" She had to crane her neck to stare him right in the eyes and was aware that she might've not looked as intimidating as she had intended. "Why d'ya do that? It's so annoying! You always bring these girls who act all ditsy around you just to get your attention. I'm sure the others don't like it either!"

"Cut the bullshit, Nikki." He let a mischievous smirk break onto his face. "Did ya wanna sit on my lap today? Is that what it is?"

"You're so full of yourself!" She shoved him away and stormed off to eat her packed lunch elsewhere.

* * * * *

Mrs. Meahl always gave the students of her sixth class twenty minutes of free time at the end of her lectures since it was the last period of the day and she knew the youths were always anxious for the dismissal bell to ring. Nicollet was fortunate enough to share this class, Biology, with Jack, Race, and Spot. The four would always pull their chairs up to a round table to either talk, help each other finish up the class work, or play a few games of cards. However, the quartet was incomplete today since Spot was more concerned with letting three girls play with his hair, leaving Jack and Race to comfort a very agitated Nicollet.

"Why doesn't he just play with his own hair," she complained as she stared one of the girls down. "They treat him like he's a gift to mankind." She shuffled her hand of cards over and over again.

Race shrugged. "If ya hate it so much, why don't you just walk over there, tell them all off, and then drag Spot to a corner where you can make out with him?"

She looked at him, disgusted. "What the hell!? What makes ya think I wanna make out with him?!" She smacked him upside the head. "I was just saying, it annoys me that he spends so much time with them. Jeez, remind me never to complain in front of you again!" She continued shuffling the cards, the glare never leaving her eyes. "I'm not jealous."

"Uh-huh, sure," Jack dared say.

"Now it's you too, Jack? Where do you guys get off saying I'm jealous? A girl can't be mad that one of her best guy friends is abandoning her for a bunch of sluts?" The word was probably a bit too scathing, but she could care less. It probably held true for the most of them.

Race snatched the cards from her and slammed them on the table to receive her full attention. "We're not saying you like him...well, at least that aint what Jack was implying. But it's possible for best friends to get jealous, it don't mean you're in love with him or anything."

She thought about that. Maybe she was jealous. She would never admit it to them, but she could take a step by acknowledging it to herself. "As long as you don't think I like him, 'cause I don't. For crying out loud, it's friggin Merryll we're talking about! The same kid who stuck gum into my hair in seventh grade!" She let them laugh at the recollection of that event. Spot use to tease her so bad she would pitch a tantrum and wrestle him in the sandbox of the neighborhood playground on certain occasions. When he had squished pink bubblegum onto her scalp one day after school, she fought with him until they were both breathless and weak in the arms. She had needed to get a haircut afterwards; her mother wasn't too pleased.

"Well that same kid who put gum in ya hair," Race whispered to her, "is making his way over here."

She froze for half a second but looked up just in time to see Spot coming to them, his hair a ruffled mess but the smile on his face an obvious sign of his content. Nicollet grabbed her deck of cards and divided them into three piles, each of which she placed before herself, Race, and Jack. "If you wanna play poker, you're too late. We already started a game."

Spot arched an eyebrow. "Oh, is that why ya each have eighteen cards?"

"Uhm..." she mentally reprimanded herself for the mistake. She had meant to say they were playing BS. "Ugh, you're such a smartass, ya know that?"

"Thanks, sweetheart." For lack of any empty chairs, he kneeled at the table, resting his elbows on its wood surface. "Heya, Jacky-boy. Guess who just asked me to Junior prom. Amanda. I didn't want to say yes before checking with you 'cause I know you were involved with her last year."

Jack nodded. "Amanda Riley? Yea, I broke it off with her 'cause she needed too much attention, ya know, making out in the halls and frenching her in class; all that lovey dovey crap. You'd actually be good for her, Conlon. Hell, if it was up to you, she'd be screwing ya on top of a table during lunch!"

Nicollet rolled her eyes as the boys laughed. She was use to their vulgarity by now, had even grown accustomed to it. They'd even gotten her to the point where she could be perverted if she wanted; she usually chose not to be though.

"So, it's all good with you then?"

"Of course," Jack said. "Me and her are just friends now anyways."

Spot smirked. "Great, lemme go tell her she can start shopping for a dress that'll be easy for me to take off." He rose to his feet but Nicollet leaned forward and yanked him back.

"You said you'd go to prom with me," she said. "Remember, we all said we'd go together?"

"Nikki, that was in August, before we knew we'd have dates. And besides, didn't you say something the other day about how much you hated school dances? I'm not going to drag you over there if you're going to be moping the whole time. And I'm not the only guy you can go with. Jack aint got no date, far as I know, and I doubt Mush does."

"You're such a bastard." He thanked her and then walked off to tell Amanda he'd go with her to Prom. She threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tight, arousing admiration but also jealousy throughout the class.

Nicollet only stared at them. "I hate him so much!"

Race tried to keep from snickering but when he caught Jack's look, the two shared a knowing look. The girl either was insanely jealous of Amanda stealing Spot's friendship from her, or had it bad for her long time best friend.

* * * * *

Review if you want more.