A very irritating bell went off, but to Marissa, Summer, and Holly, the sound of the bell was great. The three of them rushed out of class, but were stopped as they walked any further.
"May I please see the three of you?" asked Mrs. Groblint.
"Now what?" Holly irreverently said.
"Watch it, Mrs. Fischer. I'm not some part of your posse, I'm your teacher."
"Did you want something?" said an impatient Summer.
"I wanted to give you three a perspective on what this class is really like. And since you don't seem to understand how a learning atmosphere runs, I'm going to give you a taste tonight. If you open up to page three in your textbooks---"
"You're giving us homework?" Marissa interrupted.
"Page three in the textbook, questions one through ten, typed, to be handed to me tomorrow." The three of them let out a disappointed sigh, and they made their way to the door. "Oh, ladies?" she said, as the three girls turned around. "Welcome to Harbor." Holly, Marissa, and Summer all walked out into the hallway.
"This sucks. I was going to watch the Golden Girls marathon---" Summer obliviously complained.
"Summer! Who cares about Golden Girls? I am so screwed! When my dad finds out about this, I'm done."
"Don't worry, Hol. I'm sure he'll---" Marissa started.
"Coop, are you kidding? Her dad's going to freak." The two of them shot Summer a look. "Oh, I mean, yeah… good luck."
"I can't believe we have to spend the rest of the year sitting through that." Holly said.
"Yeah. I wonder what her problem is anyway." Marissa agreed. Suddenly, a second bell rang. "Oh, shoot, we have to get to our next class."
"Coop? Why are you in such a rush to get to class? We have bio," Summer said. Marissa continued to walk ahead of them down the hall, and soon Holly and Summer saw Luke approaching.
"I can think of a reason why."
"Hey guys? Where are you all coming from?" asked Luke.
"History. You?" Holly said heedlessly.
"French. Marissa, want to walk with me to Bio?" he asked her.
"Sure. Sounds great. See you guys later." Luke and Marissa walked together and started talking to each other, smiling an laughing every few seconds. Behind them, Summer and Holly continued.
"So what are you going to do about your dad?" Summer asked.
"I need to find some way to get him out of the house. But then again, judging that woman, she probably already called."
"Good point."
"Oh, that's our room. Let's go," said Holly. The two of them followed Luke and Marissa into the science room. The class quieted down and after Marissa and Luke sat down, Summer and Holly were the only ones standing.
"Excuse me, the two of you are late," the teacher said.
"Oh, yeah, my locker ladder fell down. It was a nightmare. Holly here had to help me fix it up."
"This is your first day. You don't even have any books," said the teacher, confused.
"I know. I said the same thing," said Summer, as she and Holly found two empty seats and settled in. The teacher stood there staring at Summer, confused.
Seth, now sitting in his seat quietly in his French class, was very upset. Last class, his water-polo friends had done some pretty bad things to him, and he hadn't made a single friend. As the class sat down and the noise lowered, the teacher wrote her name on the board. The noise completely died down and everyone was in their seats. Suddenly, a blonde girl eagerly raised her hand. The teacher turned around and was surprised to see her hand raised.
"Yes?" she said.
"Hi. I'm Taylor Townsend. I just wanted to say that I own this exclusive comic from France, and---" Seth immediately turned to her, shocked to see a girl who read comic books, and shocked to see anyone who read comics at all. But the girl was immediately interrupted.
"How do you say loser in French?" said a stuck up girl, a group of people laughing. Seth turned away from the girl and looked down. Clearly, he was not all the way at the bottom of the food chain, because there was someone else out there who seemed to have it worse then him. He felt badly for the girl, but then again, associating with her would only lower is spot on the food chain, which was pretty hard to do. Seth looked back at the girl, now looking at her open textbook, showing pain from what he could see.
"Hey, Taylor?" said a girl sitting next to her. Taylor immediately turned, desperate for a friend.
"Yeah?" she responded, trying to hide her happiness.
"Ignore them. They can be pretty mean sometimes. Well, all the time actually." The girl smiled at Taylor, who smiled right back. "My name's Ashley. And this," she began, pointing to the girl in front of her. "This is Madison." The girl in front of Ashley turned around and smiled at Taylor.
"Hey, Taylor."
"Hey, Ashley." Taylor had a giant smile on her face. Seth was highly disturbed by this. How could a girl be so desperate? he thought. It was pretty pathetic. I'm not like that when I'm around other people, am I? he thought.
Jimmy walked into the house with his dog, slamming the door shut. Caitlin came running down the stairs, jumping into Jimmy's arms.
"Daddy! You're home!" she exclaimed. "I missed you."
"It's been forty-five minutes, but I'll take it. What's going on?" Julie walked into the room and made her way to Jimmy. She gave him a pack on the cheek.
"Caitlin wants a new horse. Pearl is too sick."
"What a poor child." Jimmy teased.
"Hello? What don't you understand? Pearl is going to die in a matter of days!" she said with emotion.
"Well maybe it's about time," Jimmy muttered.
"Daddy! Bite your tongue!" Caitlin screamed. "I want a new horse. It has to be white, and we need to get it soon."
"Caitlin, what's the rush? School is starting in two days. The last thing you need right now is a horse."
"The rush, excuse you, is that I want a horse. That should be reason enough to rush."
"Honey, money doesn't grow on trees."
"Oh, I know that, Daddy. It grows off of clients. That means that you need to get some more, and fast."
"Caitlin, sweetie, we'll buy you the horse. But the next time, don't expect us to go so easy on you," Julie said. She and Jimmy walked out of the room. Caitlin smiled.
"Oh, right. That's what you said the last time."
Sandy was sitting on his chair in front of the computer screen, reading a file regarding one of his underprivileged clients. He skimmed over the report, revealing the whole story behind his conviction. Sandy turned off the monitor and kicked his feet off of the computer desk, his chair rolling to his regular desk. He took out a picture of the same kid who just appeared on his computer screen and started writing down some quick notes. He picked up the phone and dialed ten digits.
"Hello?" said a woman.
"Hi, Mrs. Weber, this is Sandy Cohen speaking."
"Is everything going well? Please, tell me you have good news," she said desperately.
"As a matter of fact, I do."
"What is it? Do you have something, anything we can use?"
"I'm not sure, but I think we have something in his defense. I still need to work on it. Would it be okay if I stopped by your house today?" he asked her.
"Oh, Mr. Cohen, that would be great. I can't even begin to tell you what this is to me. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it."
"It was my pleasure. He's a good kid. He deserves it."
"Thank you," the woman said in great joy. Sandy let out a light smile. He could have found the key to this case. It felt so good to put together a family torn apart. Sandy hung up the phone and spun his chair to face the computer screen. He stared at the picture of the kid for a couple of seconds.
"Mr. Nichol, your daughter told us about the changes in the plans. We're not completely positive on what you're looking for us to change," said a shirtless, brawny man in a construction area. Caleb held the model home in his left hand and grabbed the plans the worker was holding into his right. He looked up at the house being built and closed his eyes in frustration .
"Well, I supposed you could simply expand the left well a couple of inches and knock down the little piece standing in its way."
"We could do that, but the piece standing there would lose out---"
"Then simply expand the room from the wall in the front," Caleb said spitefully. "What's the big deal?"
"What would we do for symmetry?" the man asked.
"Well gee, I don't know. Maybe you could try and expand the room on the other side? I don't pay you people to work like this," he said.
"Sorry, Mr. Nichol, it's just that these plans are so---"
"Simple is what they are. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a meeting to get to. I'm sorry that I wasted my time." Caleb handed the man the plans and walked to his car holding the model home. As he drove fast away from the construction area, he took out his cell phone and called Kirsten.
"Hello?" she said. "Dad?"
"Hi, Kiki. How is everything going?"
"Great. I just have to finish up a few things, and then I'll start to prepare for the meeting. Is everything okay with the model home?"
"What was I thinking when I hired these people? The questions I got from them were depressing."
"It didn't really look like they grasped onto my idea very well. Is it almost finished?"
"I think so. It's about time, at least. We've been working on this for a long time now. I want to get this out of my way already."
"Well, I just want this meeting to pass."
"Oh, for God's sake, Kirsten, we're going to do fine," he insisted.
"I hope so. We really need to get moving tomorrow. These workers are not doing us very well, and it's about time we get a start on our next project," he said.
"Which is?"
"I can show you when I get back. Meanwhile, you should get back to your work. I'll be back soon. A little earlier than expected, but what do you expect with workers like these?" Kirsten laughed.
"Okay Dad. Bye."
"Kirsten. How about that coffee?"
"Coffee would be great, thanks."
Three women sat inside a small coffee shop. The first, Taryn, had been talking to the other two for a long time now, and the other women were getting restless. Taryn looked outside the window for a moment. She saw a cute man walking alone down the street. She smiled at him and put her hands on her chest, slowly lifting her bra. The man gave her a terrified look and walked away.
"What's that, mommy?" said a young girl to her mother, now walking next to the window in which Taryn was sitting next to.
"They call them Newpsies."
"What does that mean?"
"It means trouble. Now, let's get out of her, Samantha, before they catch us." The mother and daughter quickly strolled away. Inside the coffee shop, Taryn continued to talk.
"So girls, I'm planning the black tie event for the month. Should we do Vegas Night?"
"Taryn," said the second woman, Betty. "Don't you think we should wait for Julie? She pretty much runs these kinds of things."
"She's right. Newport pretty much revolves around Julie Cooper," said the third woman, Joan.
"Well, Newport can survive without Julie Cooper. We're going to have to change things up a bit, because what Newport needs is me," said a frustrated Taryn.
"All right, then. Why don't we start planning?" said Betty.
"Great. So I was thinking we do something… Caribbean?" Taryn asked.
"Well…" Betty said.
"I know, I'm excited too. I have to go home and plan. See you two later." Taryn picked up her purse and walked out. The two women gave each other a look.
"I don't think she can do it, Betty. She's in way over her head."