An alarm clock sounded loudly throughout Julia's room as she stumbled out of bed. Sleep had come so easily over the summer she was not prepared to wake up at five thirty in the morning for school.

Her hand finally found the alarm button, and the loud beeping suddenly shut off with a welcoming silence. Julia almost felt herself drifting back off to sleep; almost....

"Julia!" her father's voice sounded through the door, along with a loud knock. She tried to roll over on her side, away from the doorway, but the door creaked open and Landon was at her bedside. He shook her slightly, but her urge to sleep kept her motionless. "I knew I shouldn't have let you sleep in to twelve over the summer," her father mumbled to himself.

With one more hopeless try of waking Julia, Landon made way to her bedroom curtains and drew them open. Immediately a flow of bright sunlight poured into her room and over her eyes. She moaned in agitation and buried her head in the pillow, but to no avail; the sunlight seemed to creep in somehow. "Dad!" she growled, "Why did you have to do that?!"

Landon smiled and quietly made way out of her room, not even bothering to answer. Julia eventually crawled out of bed and walked slightly unconsciously into the kitchen, opening the cupboards for some cereal. A box of Froot loops stared back at her as she reached up for it. In the next few minutes Julia was eating her cereal and slowly, very slowly coming back to life.

"Glad to see you're awake," came her father's voice, "I'm off to the hospital now. Do you need anything before I leave?" Julia stared almost lifeless back at her breakfast for a moment, thinking hard. She didn't think there was anything she needed, well, needed desperately anyway.

"Not today," she mumbled back. Landon nodded, grabbed his jacket, kissed Julia on the forehead and then left, leaving his daughter eating quietly in the kitchen. It was going to be another long year, probably her longest in her High school career. Today was the beginning of her senior year, and she was terrified to begin it. She knew by the end of this next school year she was going to be on her own. The familiarity of school was going to be gone and a whole world of opportunities was waiting for her.

Julia shuddered at the thought and slid out of her chair, making way into her room, preparing for school. By six forty-five she was ready to go, with her hair pulled back into a tight pony tail, and a bit of natural make- up painted lightly over face, she felt she was ready for a new school year. Grabbing her keys, and her purse she was out the door and in her car.

As she pushed the key into the ignition she caught glimpse of a cross dangling from the key chain. The car rumbled only for a moment but then died as she turned the car off. The Cross that was on the key chain used to belong to Jamie Sullivan, Julia's mother, and she couldn't help but take the time to admire it every so often.

Julia pulled the key from the ignition and held the cross in her hand, letting her index finger caress the medal. She never knew her mother; Jamie had died from leukemia giving birth to her. Julia sometimes caught herself blaming herself for her mother's death, seeing it was her who her mother died for. Luckily though, Landon never blamed her for a single minute, which was actually quite a miracle she had heard.

She sighed after a moment and finally let the cross slip through her fingers dropping and dangling in between the different keys hanging on her key chain and plugged her key back into the ignition, pulling out of the drive way. She was supposed to meet her friend at the nearest coffee shop before school. Luckily the shop was only five minutes away. Well, that is if she didn't hit any of the red lights on the way.

"Cassie?" Julia chimed to the sound of her friends voice answer, "Hey, are you at the shop already?" There was a pause before Cassie answered and for that Julia was grateful, she was in the middle of switching lanes and didn't feel comfortable talking at te same time.

"Yeah, where are you?"

"On my way," replied Julia, "I kind of took a bit of my time looking at my mom's cross on my key chain."

"Again?" Cassie questioned. Another pause between the phone connections was heard. Julia didn't want to answer, she never felt comfortable explaining these things to her friend, she never really understood. Unlike her, Cassie had a mom and dad and doesn't know what it's like to not have a mother figure.

"Look, I have to go, I'm burning minutes, see you when I get there!" With a sigh of relief Julia hung up her phone and dropped it in her purse. She knew her friend was probably feeling cheated out, but her mom was not a subject she wanted to talk about then.

She came to the stop light that was right across the street to the coffee shop and pushed the break of her car when the light turned red. Impatiently Julia glanced at her car clock, then ahead again, tapping her thumbs on the steering wheel. The light eventually changed, but just as Julia pushed on the gas the car gave a snort and died right there in the intersection.

"Oh, shit!" Julia breathed, turning the key in the ignition in false hope, praying desperately there wouldn't be an accident do to her broken down car. In panic she opened her car door and waved to the cars she could gather attention too and tried to signal some help. No one seemed to respond, but drove on around her.

"Hello!" she found herself screaming after the third car drove on past as if there was nothing wrong, "Hello, do you have any shred of kindness in you at all!" Her screaming was in vain and she knew it, but it felt better to get it out that way. After the fifth car and her second scream, Julia turned and kicked her car door denting it slightly. This only added onto her frustration.

"That was not the smartest idea," a male's voice came lightly toward her. Julia looked behind her and caught glimpse of a guy walking toward her car. "Need a hand?"

She sighed in pure relief and made way toward the guy, smiling for the first time that morning it seemed. "Thank you so much! I've been trying to find help for the last five minutes." The guy smiled and walked over to her car, walking toward the back placing his hands on the trunk.

"It's not a problem, but first we need to get this car out of the road." Julia slid into the driver's seat and helped steer the car as he pushed it toward the parking lot with the coffee shop. Within ten minutes the car was parked, and the guy was staring into her hood.

Julia watched in complete boredom, she could not comprehend how he could stare at the different cords or parts of the car and understand anything of it. She knew her books and bible, not car mechanics. "It seems your car overheated, and your need an oil change," the guy said after a while of staring under her hood.

With a bang he slammed her hood and wiped his hands on a towel he brought from his car smiling at her. "We never properly introduced, did we?" It wasn't a question, Julia knew that much. He was clearly making statement.

"Nope, not in the mist of all this," she replied, backing away slightly. She finally got a good look at him. He certainly resembled a popular guy and looked liked he was into the usual teen partying stuff. Julia completely pulled away then, not wanting too much to do with him, even though he was quite cute. "I'm Julia Carter," she said hurriedly putting out her hand.

"Nick Brookes," he replied taking her hand in his. "Look, do you want any help with getting a ride to, I'm guessing school, right?" Julia nervously glanced over at the coffee shop, Cassie wasn't there anymore and her school was too far to walk unless she wanted to be late.

"Yeah," she said, not sure she wanted a ride from this stranger. "Umm, would you mind giving a ride to Jefferrson High?" Nick smiled and turned from her, signaling her to follow.

"Not a problem, I go there too. Go ahead and hop in, and don't mind the stuff on the seat, just push it too the floor."

Julia nodded and pushed the things that were on the passenger seat onto the floor. Most of it was trash from what looked like it was from a fast food place, or pencils, pens, and even what looked like was one of his shirts. When she was sure there was nothing left on the seat she slid in, feeling quite awkward.

This was going to be a long drive.

A/N what do you think?? Plz review! This is my first fanfic for this movie, so plz tell me what you think... thx .