She looked around the hall and saw how big it was. "I'm going to get lost. I know that I'm going to get lost." Gerry put his arm around her shoulder. "Don't worry Nicky. You'll hopefully have some classes with us and some other Titans, so then your chances of getting lost are pretty low." She smiled. "Yeah, but how do I know if someone in my class is a Titan?" "Make an announcement saying that you need the help from the Titans," he joked. This made Nicole smile, but not for long. She saw her brother and Veronica walking down the hall together. His arm was wrapped around her waist, and Veronica was smiling. Ray passed her, without as much as a 'hi' or 'see you soon.' "I gotta go to class," Nicole said slowly. She turned around and walked away from them.

Gerry and Julius watched as she walked away. "What's wrong with her?" Julius asked as he watched her walk away. "It's Ray." "Ray? What does she have a crush on him or something?" Gerry socked Julius on the shoulder. "No man. Ray's her older brother." Julius almost fell back. "You kidding?" "No. Her whole name is Nicole Emily Budds. She just doesn't like to say it because she knows the way that people act when they find out that her older brother is Ray. Everyone's scared of him." By the time that Gerry and Julius got to class, Julius knew all that he needed to know about Nicole.

School finished and Nicole made her way to her brothers' car. He was standing there with Veronica, smiling. "Hey sis. Ready for some fun?"

"Such as?"

"Such as cheerleading."

Nicole jumped back. I was hopping that he would forget about that, she thought to herself. "NO WAY. I'M NOT DOING CHEERLEADING." Ray frowned. "Why not?" "It's a stupid sport." That seemed to hit one of Ray's nerves. "Excuse us for a second." Roughly, he grabbed Nicole's arm and pulled her aside.

"What's wrong with you?"

"I don't want to do cheerleading. I hate cheerleading."

"Well, for your information, I don't give a damn about whether you like it or not because I went through a lot to get you into it and you're going to do it." As soon as those words flew through his mouth, Nicole felt her heart break. He doesn't care about me, she told herself. All he cares about is his stupid little dim-witted girlfriend. I hate her SO much. Ray dragged her back to his car and pushed her forward. "She'll do it." They walked to the field and went their separate ways. Once Veronica and Nicole were in the locker room, Veronica faced her.

"OK. You listen here. The only reason that I'm doing this is because Ray begged me to. You had better do everything right, or I'll tell Ray."

She turned around, grabbed a uniform and threw it at her. "Change into this." Slowly Nicole changed into her uniform and went outside to start. "OK. We have a game tomorrow so lets work really hard." Nicole just stood and watched as they started doing flips and all sorts of other gymnast things. "Stop standing there like an idiot Budds and start flipping." This is starting to become the worst school year ever.