At the same exact time Joey pulled into the parking-lot, Kristen had too. She was driving a very pricy jeep her mother had bought her and carted her wise cracking boyfriend Rick and his twin sister Alice along with her.

Rick and her were going steady and somehow his quirky outlook on life was just what she seemed to need moving forward in life. He knew about her trouble before and what had happened at the hospital…but the most she would leave it to was that there were some pretty messed up kids who needed help, and sad enough only a few were saved.

There were no more questions after that, and Kristen felt thankful. She was now part of their group and was enjoying life at every moment. Rick seemed to be her soul mate, and Alice the shy poor mistreated sister she never had.

Alice was helped out of the back of Kristen's jeep and held her books almost like a shield against her developing chest. Alice always seemed in the shadow of Rick and Kristen. Both had been dating for almost a year now and she never seemed so thankful in her life that she had met such a kind friend. The past few years had been tough at her house. Between mom dying and dad's drinking she had almost become the keeper of the house and felt as if her only escape were through her daydreams.

She knew she was lucky to have her brother and friends, but somehow being the mousy shy girl that she was, she loved any moment she had to day dream. Sometimes she dreamed about finally telling off her dad, other times she dreamed she was as sexy or as popular as Kristen or Debbie. Bust most of the times…they were about him.

She watched as he parked his car across the crowed lot, she smiled faintly as he stretched, shoving his keys in his back pocket and then walking away with that friend of his.

She had only met him a couple of times through Kristen, but since he seemed in his own little group with that friend of his, her crowd seemed to stay away.

She had asked Kristen about him from time to time when Rick wasn't around to cast judgment, and all Kristen could say was he went down as one of her closest friends, even if they didn't see each other as much as they did before. Alice knew all about her so call stay at Western Hills, which all the adults seemed to look down on, but she was curious about him and wanted to know as much as she could.

Kristen asked if she had any ideas going on in that head of hers, and every time Alice would blush and tell her she just wanted to know. And like every time like before Kristen would tell her as sweet as it sounded it might not be such a hot idea.

She loved Kristen like a sister but at times it seemed to her she worried a little too much about Alice's well being and didn't want her to get to close to this so called friend she cared so much about.

Rick thought he was a freak.

But she knew as much as she could about him. He lived on Marquette street, which was five blocks away from her house. He drove a Z28 and every Friday when she had American History she could see him and that friend of his ditch class and drive off in it.

He came to the diner only once in a while, last time was almost a month ago with his baseball team came in for a pizza…Debbie took their orders but Alice caught herself watching him sitting at the booths laughing along with his other friends.

Debbie said he was cute in a strange dork kind of way, but she never told anyone else about her crush.

She knew he played baseball and hockey, and was a pretty good student, they had the same English class too…that was the only time she got to see him the most.

English was only three times a week, but he sat further towards the back with that friend. It wasn't a really big class to talk in, in fact all they did was tests and worksheets, so the only chance she did have was in the morning when everyone sat down, but he was always busying taking to someone else.

She caught herself staring from time to time, always noticing he was always day dreaming, staring out the window, flicking his pen against his hand. She talked to him once while passing out papers, he smiled before taking it and said.

"Thanks…"

Then went back to talking to his friend. Alice never thought she could smile so much in her life…she never even made real eye contact with him before.

Another time when she was waiting up at the teacher's desk to talk about a quiz grade she got he happened to walk up at the exact time as she did.

He stood right beside her and eyed her paper.

"What did you get?"

Alice remembered gulping and showing him.

"78...you?"

He smiled and flashed her his paper.

"Wish I could say the same."

She gave a nervous laugh and then the bell rang before they could even share another set of words.

She was also was hanging by Shelia's locker earlier this year when to much to her surprise his locker was right beside hers. He pulled it open and got some books out, looking in a hurry as Shelia kept going on and on about the latest trig quiz when he seemed to juggle his books the wrong way and one went spinning to the floor. Almost like an reaction she kneeled down smiling as he did so too and picked it up handing it to him.

He looked at her and smiled.

"Sorry about that."

Alice tried to speak but always smiled like an idiot.

Both stood up at the same time looking at each other as he brushed his hair away from his face.

"Your Kristen's friend right?"

Alice nodded, wishing to God she could speak.

"You making it out to the game tomorrow night?"

Before she could answer, wide eyed, one of his friends came running down the hallway and slapped him on the shoulder, almost making Alice jump back.

His friend was laughing and told him some fight was going on in the parking-lot, and before anything else happened he turned and ran with his friend, leaving Alice standing there all alone.

She noticed his locker was still open, sighing she went to shut it when she noticed something.

A photograph…before she could reach in and look at it Shelia told her they were gonna be late for class.

Since then nothing.

She followed his games, and tried her best to spot him in the crowd, but somehow she knew this wasn't just a crush…the only people she day dreamed the most about were her mother, her father in a negative way, and him. That had to be special.

Just as Debbie started to squash a bug that had happened to have fallen into her breakfast bag of greasy chips, she gazed off for a moment and had a little day dream, spacing out from the loud ring of the bell for classes to start.

She saw herself standing with her friends and he happened to walk by them, books under one arm as he talked to his friend Kincaid.

He glanced at her before walking past and smiled.

"Hi Alice…"

He smiled again, she smirked back before her name rang again…but this time it didn't belong to him…it belonged to her brother who was snapping her out of whatever little dream she was having just then.