After leaving Lorelei to meet her fate in detention, the group of three rounded the corner to sit in the lounge. Gordie was already there, with his binder open in front of him. He rested his chin on the palm of his propped up arm, looking down with blatant boredom. Vern Tessio was with him. Gordie was there because he always drove Chris home, and Vern planned on catching a ride home with Teddy. Like Lorelei, Chris and Teddy were both in detention.

"Gordie, hey," Anya called to him, but didn't go over to where he was seated. She knew that he didn't like Reese or Brooke so she didn't want to cause them to have to converse or anything. "Where's Chris?"

He looked up at her, looked at the Aarons siblings, then back to Anya and smiled only at her. "Detention."

Abandoning Brooke without any real mean intent, Anya and Reese left to sit by themselves at one of the far tables in the lounge. Even though Brooke usually preferred to be alone, she raised her chin, righted her posture and sat next to Gordie at his table.

Gordie glanced at her. But that was all she got from him.

"What are you doing?" she asked, gesturing to his binder.

"Homework."

"On the first day?"

"Yep."

She couldn't help but feel slightly annoyed. Most people assumed it was easy for her to talk to guys, but it wasn't. And being rejected by the guy that she had liked since she was in the fifth grade wasn't an ego booster. "What's it in?"

"English." He finally looked at her while he explained, "Mrs. Pedensky wants us to write a two page composition telling her about ourselves."

"What do you have so far?" she asked curiously.

The patiently tired look he had been giving her moments before turned into impatient contempt. She noticed he sort of moved his arm to cover his paper. "Nothing. Look, Tommy's sitting over there. I heard last year he had a crush on you."

Tommy Edwards was the captain of the football team and practically every girl in Castle Rock loved him. Gordie was hinting at her to leave him alone and go sit with Tommy.

Rolling her eyes, not sarcastically but to show she wasn't hurt, Brooke muttered, "Hope you had a good summer, Gordie." Then she picked up her bag and left the lounge.

"Hey Teddy," Chris said when Teddy plopped down at his table. He hadn't talked to Teddy since grade eleven's year-end dance. "Detention on the first day, huh?"

"Better believe it," Teddy laughed. "Got caught smoking."

Chris looked at Teddy in surprise as Lorelei Lane took a seat next to him like the two of them were old friends. She slumped forward, resting her chin on her arms. "I got caught smoking too even though I don't smoke."

Teddy smirked at Chris. "She just sucks."

Nodding but not understanding, Chris offered, "I accidentally kicked Reese Aarons in the balls."

Lorelei practically threw her head back in laughter.

Her not exactly attractive cackle made Chris laugh. He didn't know Lorelei very well; he just knew that she was Anya's best friend. Anya was friendly and well liked by everyone but didn't exactly fall into the popular crowd, while Lorelei was comically aloof and very much an original. They were complete opposites but had been best friends forever. Still, Lorelei was just the sidekick; shadowed by Anya's glow.

"Are we talking back there?" Mr. Matthews, the supervisor, called. "Do you three want another day?"

They all shook their heads. Chris suddenly noticed that the three of them were the only occupants in the room besides Mr. Matthews. Most people didn't acquire detentions on their first day back to school.

Mr. Matthews went back to his western book. Lorelei muttered with a grin, "Jackass."

"Pardon me?" he demanded crossly.

"DONKEY," she corrected herself.

Hoping no one would see her sitting against her locker alone, Brooke pulled a paperback out of her knapsack and turned to the page she had left off on.

"Hi Brooke," Cassie Grey said, stopping on her way by. "How was your summer?"

Smirking politely, Brooke made a so-so gesture with her hand. "What about yours?"

"I worked at the library."

"Oh, that sucks."

"Actually," Cassie said, adjusting her hands to get a better grip on the huge stack of papers she was carrying. "I like books."

"So do I, but I wouldn't want to be in a library all summer."

A smile crossed Cassie's clever face. "Maybe that's why we've never been friends," she laughed.

Covering how distantly insulted she felt with a laugh, she shrugged and agreed, "Yeah, maybe. What are you doing with those papers? All those advanced courses you're taking give out that much homework?"

"Student council," Cassie said, as if that explained everything. "I'm helping Mr. Grodin with transcripts and crap like that."

"Maybe that's why you've never had a boyfriend," Brooke said, getting back at her for her earlier comment, but Cassie's hurt was plain on her face.

That was the difference between Cassie and Brooke. Where one lacked in an area, the other prospered. They were in constant unspoken competition with each other. Cassie had tons of friends, like Anya and Lorelei, but had never had a boyfriend in all her seventeen years. Whereas Brooke, who could and did have most of the guys she wanted, could count the amount of friends she'd had in her life on one hand.

"I've never had a boyfriend," Cassie said indignantly after watching Vern walk by, "Because I don't believe in love. It's as simple as that."

Brooke raised an eyebrow, and then also looked at Vern. "Bullshit."

"This is making me crazy," Lorelei whispered.

"Shh," Mr. Matthews said.

"I'm going crazy," Lorelei whispered.

"Shh," Mr. Matthews said.

"I just went crazy," Lorelei whispered.

"Shh," Mr. Matthews said.

"AUGH," she cried, burying her head in her arms.

Chris and Teddy exchanged amused looks. They could tell why everyone thought of Lorelei as a sister. She was cute but not in a hot way.

"It's three-thirty," Mr. Matthews announced. "You can leave. I hope I won't be seeing any of you again, but I'm sure I will. Have a nice day."

"Asshole," Lorelei muttered.

"Pardon me?" he demanded.

"ORIFICE," she corrected herself.

"I accomplished things," Gordie said cheerfully as he walked by Chris' side across the school parking lot.

"That's nice, Gordie," Chris laughed.

"I finished that retarded English assignment--"

"Damn," Chris muttered, trying to think of when he'd have time to do that himself tonight. "Wait a minute. How did you manage to fill two entire pages up about yourself? You're incredibly boring."

"Oh, I'm not boring to myself," he laughed. "Anyway. But then I think I might have offended Brooke Aarons."

Chris shook his head as he pulled his keys out of his pocket. "I don't see what you got against Brooke."

Gordie shot him a look.

"Okay, I mean, I know the history of why you don't like her," he said quickly. "But she never did anything wrong."

"I know she didn't," Gordie admitted. "It's just that family. Is it really bad that I hate them, Chris?" he asked, turning Chris to face him.

"I don't know, man…I just know that she's been trying to know you for the past six years but you keep pushing her away because of what happened all those years ago."

"Look, little children, should I hit them?" Reese asked on the drive home from school. The car accelerated. "Five points each. Ten points for the fat one."

Anya giggled, letting her hand surf through the wind. "You're an awful person, Reese."

"Yes, yes I am," he agreed, meeting her eye and laughing. "And you shut up back there," he snapped as Lorelei began to make gagging noises.

Rolling her eyes, Lorelei looked over at the regal looking girl sitting next to her in the backseat of Reese's battered car. "So, Brooke. How was your day?"

Brooke slowly turned her head to look at Lorelei. She had been rehashing the unsuccessful Gordie encounter in her mind. "It blew."

"Oh." She frowned. "But other than that?"

Sighing, Brooke just shrugged and leaned her head against the window. "Would you stop hitting all the flipping BUMPS?" she yelled up at Reese.

So Reese hit a garbage can instead.