Beep Beep Beep. "Good Morning New Yorkers! It's 7:05 and time to get up! The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, the streets are clogged with traffic and it's…" My hand slammed down on the snooze button to stop Joe Joe in the morning's supposedly funny morning commentary from going any further. But low and behold, seconds later I hear, "You better get up or I'm getting mom!"

"Thanks Jason. And then when all your friends are making fun of you for having your mother call you her 'cuddle-kins' and that you love it and…"

"You wouldn't?" he broke in.

"Watch me."

"MOMMY!"

"I DIDN'T DO IT MOM!" I screamed down the stairs after my 7-year-old brother. That morning duel between Jason and me is a regular occurrence in my house, every morning promptly at 7:06 just after I get up. Every day I have a new blackmail for him but ever since I've been gone, I've lost a lot of information. As I groggily stepped up to the mirror, my horrid face stared back at me. I always had to use make-up to make me look a little pretty but it seemed to be getting better. "Oh Shit!" I thought to myself, "Keep a positive attitude." I repeated the Kungar anthem in my head, but it didn't seem to work. "Remember," I thought about what my counselor Stacie said, "long curly black hair, grey eyes, and pale skin is the prettiest thing in the world to a lot of people." I seemed so plain and boring to myself, but I had to keep a positive attitude so I wouldn't slip back into depression and be sent back to Kungar.

I tried on my pretty blue skirt and light green halter because they matched my favorite earrings and they also had a purse and shoes to match. "Perfect ensemble for my first day back," I said to myself as I walked out the door, down the stoop, and headed to Rittenhouer High School. Good old orange and blue.

"Veronica Rose Halensburg is that you?" a familiar voice screamed behind me. I turned around only to see one of my best friends ever, David Jonathan Weniviet. Without saying a word, I ran up and gave him the biggest hug of my life. David, or DJ, knows everything about me and vise versa. We've literally known each other since we were in diapers, and live right next door to each other. Unfortunately, he's really hott. He has dark brown, almost black, hair that curls ever so slightly but enough to give him little wispys when he wears a hat and the most gorgeous green eyes I have ever seen. They are like a lime and dark green mix with specks of blue. And don't even get me started on his body, but I will say two words: six pack.

"Oh my god! DJ! How the hell are you?"

"Great," he gave me a serious look, "and how are you?"

"Best of my life" I smiled at him.

"Good. So how was that Kun-King place you were at? If it's okay that I ask."

"Kungar, DJ, Kungar, and it was helpful."

"That's good" he smiled.

"And to stop you before you ask yes I did miss you."

"Lots?"

"Yes, tons and tons."

"But tons isn't lots, you lied to me. How dare you!"

We both laughed as we rounded the corner to school. It was weirder than I thought, very diverse. It seemed to me that if was split perfectly down the middle, half the school welcomed me back and were really nice and the other half still thought I was insane and/or scary. So what if I ran out into the hallway, cut myself, and almost bled to death on the floor. I was depressed I couldn't really help it and plus I'm better now right, I got help.

"First hour, Spanish. Second hour, Acting 4. Third hour, Shakespeare. Forth hour, Lunch. Fifth hour, American Government 2. Sixth hour, Study Hall. Seventh Hour, Pre-Calc. Wow is it just me or are my classes harder than last year. I though senior year was going to be the easiest year," I said as I reviewed my schedule for the new year.

"It's just you sweetheart senior year rocks," a voice said in my ear.

"ANTHONY ERIC CHEZ" I screamed as I turned around. "What the fuck did you do to yourself?"

"You like?"

"Yes, he died his tips green and let it get shaggy isn't it hot?" my friend Ashley's voice came from behind DJ making him jump. Anthony jumped too as I ran past him to say hi to her. Anthony was one of the funniest guys I had ever met. Talented too, he and DJ and Annie are my favorite guitar players ever. Annie's real name is Frank but when he was little, back when he went to private all boy's school they performed Annie Get Your Gun, and Frank was Annie. We decided never to let him live it down, thus his name, Annie. Ashley and Anthony had been dating since basically the day they met. One of those movie romances that you never think would happen in real life, but it did and the proof was standing right in front of me, kissing.

"Hello!" I said as calmly as possible, "there are people here."

"Oh it's just you," Jake's voice came though my friends from the other side of the hall. Jake was my ex-boyfriend. After one look I forgot why I ever went out with him. Yes, he was the perfect guy to date; quarterback, tall, dark, handsome, popular, rich, but it wasn't enough to overcome his beaming personality. I mean that with the most sarcasm possible. Even through his sleek blond hair and beautiful brown eyes, the bitchy ass hole in him just shone. How no one else saw is a mystery to me.

"Ya, it's me," I sneered at him. "Got a problem?"

"Nope, glad to see that the one girl I put in the mental home is better now. Jeez I didn't know you were so attached, I would have been nicer," he ended with a fake sincerity.

"You weren't her problem, ass. So, be a dear and go be full of yourself somewhere else."

"DJ!" I said.

"What? He's been being all fake about this ever since-" he cut himself off, "since, well, you left."

I smiled and said as we walked away from the group towards first hour, "You mean you finally believe me about him?"

"Ya, sorry I didn't catch on sooner, but it's just not you to get – get all upset like that over a guy, especially him."

"Thanks." He smiled at me in a very DJ way. But not his normal 'you're my best friend' way but in.

I couldn't believe it. David Jonathan Weniviet had smiled at me like he smiled at the girls he liked. I couldn't mistake it. He was my best friend. I had known him so long. I knew everything about him. But me? Well, I thought to myself, he might just be super excited to see me home nothing more. Right?

It was forth hour before anything remotely interesting happened. I was walking out of the cafeteria when it happened. Alyssa Stratfeard, Jake's most resent girlfriend's voice came screaming down the hall, "I HAVE SO! WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU KNOW?"

"Honey, stop screaming people can hear you," Jake's voice came back as I stopped about ten lockers from where the doomed couple stood.

"WELL THEN!" she said as she started briskly down the hall, bleach blonde hair following her perfectly tan tiny body. Then it happened, just as she had passed me, Alyssa Steatfeard, the most popular girl in school, 'nothing-can-go-wrong-in-my-perfect-life Alyssa' had a problem, almost as or just as bad as mine had.