Just to let you guys know I might end up changing some things in this story because I'm kind of confused on it myself. I just know I won't post the last chapter until I get it all figured out.

Mackenzie had been at Cameron High School for four months now and since then she had been getting use to small town life. It wasn't really exciting like New York City, but there were things to do at times. Her drama class was the only thing keeping her going. The school had put on a play and she had tried out and got the lead female role. She and Lisa were best friends and the preps were still getting on her nerves. One day in her drama class Mrs. Banks had an assignment for them.

"Alright class, settle down. Settle down. Now I have an assignment for everyone and I will be picking the partnerships." The entire class groaned in protest because they knew that they would get paired up with someone they didn't like. "Alright the first pairing is Jeff Hardy and Mackenzie Hernandez."

The entire class gasped in shock and Mackenzie stared at Jeff. He smiled at her and she glared at him. Mrs. Banks named off the other pairings and then she told them about the assignment. They all had to find a play that had a man and a woman as the leads and take a scene with them both and do it to the best of their ability. She then told them to all get with his or her partner and for the entirety of the assignment they would have to sit with his or her partner. Mackenzie couldn't get anymore upset than she was. Mrs. Banks told everyone to get up and she sat them all in different rows of the auditorium so no one would get distracted. Jeff and Mackenzie sat next to each other and they looked at each other.

"I guess this is going to be fun," he said.

"Oh shut up."

"Look I didn't want to get paired up with you," he said.

"Well neither did I. Oh just forget it."

The rest of the class sat and did nothing for the rest of the period because they were all paired up with people they didn't want to be with. When the bell rang, Mackenzie got up but before she could leave with the rest of the class, Jeff stopped her.

"Why don't you come over to my house today after school?"

"Whatever."

Mackenzie walked off and Stacy, Stephanie, and Torrie walked up to him.

"What did you say to her," Stephanie asked.

"I told her to come over to my house."

"Yeah right. Matt would kill you. He hates Mackenzie. You do remember what she did to Amy last month," Torrie said.

"Yeah."

"Well he's not gonna let her in the house."

"Well he doesn't own the house and he didn't buy it."

"You know what," Stacy said.

"What," he asked.

"I think you like Mackenzie. No one except her group of friends would stick up for her."

"And if Dawn finds out she won't be very happy now will she," Stephanie said.

"I do not like her. I'm just trying to get this assignment done. And if it means acting civilized to her I'll do it."

He got up and they walked to the cafeteria for lunch. Mackenzie had already got her lunch and was sitting at her table with all of her friends. Lisa had told the rest of them what had happened and they were all shocked.

"So who you'd get paired up with, Lisa," Bubba asked.

"Would you believe it, Torrie Wilson?"

"Eww. At least it's not a long assignment," Nidia said.

"Yeah."

Meanwhile at the other table, everyone else was finding out who Jeff got paired up with. When Amy and Matt heard, they were not happy.

"Can't you tell the teacher to switch," Amy asked.

"A lot of people asked and she said no."

"My God."

"Oh Matt I invited her to the house so we could work on it."

"WHAT? SHE IS NOT COMING IN OUR HOUSE," Matt yelled.

"Dude, it's not even that serious. Besides we'll be in the basement. Besides it's not your house. It's dad's house," Jeff said.

"Whatever man, but if she comes up to Amy I'm telling you it's gonna be over."

"Well she's not. She doesn't even care about Amy or us for that matter."

"Well if she didn't care for Amy why did she dump a bunch of trash on her?"

"Hell if I know. Well at least Amy knows not to get on her bad side."

"Man shut the hell up. What is wrong with you?"
"I'm tired of hearing everyone complain about one girl. If you guys didn't care about her you wouldn't talk about her. Leave her alone."

"Man something is seriously wrong with your mind today," Matt said.

"Whatever."

Jeff got up and left the table and Dawn followed him as he did.

"Jeff, come on you don't have to invite the girl to your house. It's also called the library."

"Dawn I'm really not in the mood for your sarcastic remarks."

"I'm not being sarcastic. I'm telling the truth. And besides I thought we were going to spend some time together."

"Well it's not my fault Mrs. Banks made an assignment that required a partner."

"Jeff, can't you just skip one day to be with me?"

"Dawn, I have to get this assignment done."

"Why?"

"Well I just realized that this assignment will bring my grade up and my dad's been on me for awhile about it anyway. Besides as soon as school gets out we'll have all the time in the world to spend with each other. Thanks to your parents."

"Yeah, I know. Okay I guess I'll just spend the day with Trish. She did say she wanted to go to the mall this week. We need some new outfits for the parties coming up and especially for the one your brother's planning."

"Yeah cool I can't wait to see the outfit you get," Jeff said with a smile.

"Okay. Bye, bye."

She walked away from him and back into the cafeteria. Jeff walked down the hall and while he was, he and Mackenzie ran into each other, literally. She was running down the hall and didn't even notice him. When they fell down, they both grunted and Mackenzie held her head as she realized what had happened. Jeff helped her up and she looked at him.

"Watch where you're going next time," she said as she walked past him.

"Hey, I was looking. It was you that was running down the hall like a madwoman."

"Whatever."

She walked down the hall and he stared at her. She could be so annoying sometimes, but in her own way. He walked to the bathroom and then came back to the cafeteria five minutes later.

Later that day when school got out, everyone was hanging out in the lobby, not wanting to go anywhere. Mackenzie and the rest of her group were sitting on the floor doing homework, talking or drawing. While they were sitting, Matt and his group walked over and started laughing at them.

"Are you guys that pathetic that you have to sit on the floor after school," Matt said.

Mackenzie looked up at him and continued to draw in her sketchbook. Matt and his friends started laughing and Mackenzie rolled her eyes.

"Look they can't even retaliate," Dawn said.

"They can't think of anything to say that's why," Trish said.

"They think they're too cool for us," Stacy said.

"Why would we want to hang out with a bunch of sluts who have everything hanging out to get everyone's attention when we can get attention through other things besides showing our boobs," Mackenzie said. Lisa looked at Mackenzie and the entire group started laughing hysterically. Stacy, Dawn, and Trish stared at them in shock. "Nothing to say? I guess what I said was true. And I'm shocked to see that you're friends aren't backing you up."

"You better watch your back, Mackenzie."

"Or what?"

"Or…Or…"

Dave got up and looked at all three of them.

"See Stacy you forget. This group has three boys against your two. And we have more for backup. So if your guys wanted to fight our guys we'd still win regardless. Because unlike you guys, we actually have friends. We keep promises, we do things for each other and what we say to each other is the god honest truth."

"Come on guys. We've spent too much time here," Matt said.

Everyone left and Mackenzie stared at them. Jeff, who was walking with them, turned around and walked back to Mackenzie.

"Do you still want to come over," he asked.

"Who cares?"

"Well I'll stay if you want me too."

"Nope. That's okay. I know where you live," she said, not looking at him.

"Okay."

"Hey Jeff, are you coming," Matt yelled.

"Yeah!"

He left and Mackenzie noticed that everyone was looking at her.

"What?"

"Oh my God," Nidia said.

"What?"

"If I'm not mistaken and I'm usually not, I think Jeff Hardy likes you."

"Eww that's gross. Don't say things like that."

"I'm serious. Look no prep is gonna ask a non-prep to his house to work on an assignment unless he or she likes the other. And not a lot of preps like non-preps because this school is whacked out like that."

"Whatever Nidia. I'm just going over to his house to get the assignment done and get on with my life."

"Okay."

"We should be heading on out. We've spent enough time here," Lisa said as she got up.

Everyone got up and walked outside and everyone squeezed into Lisa's car. She dropped everyone off and the last house she went to was Jeff's. Mackenzie got out and looked at Lisa.

"Hey, just remember if he does anything I've got your back," Dave said.

"Thanks."

"No problem."

Lisa drove off and Mackenzie took a big breath and walked up to the door. She rang the doorbell and Jeff answered it. He told her to come in and they walked downstairs to the basement. Mackenzie looked around and noticed that all the things that were in the basement did not reflect Jeff at all.

"Is this your room," she asked.

"You could say that. It's like my own sanctuary."

"Well it sure doesn't reflect who you are."

"What do you mean?"

"You're a prep and there are rock posters and other things that don't say 'prep'."

"Well I like to try different things. Matt doesn't know about this and I think he would kill me if he did."

"Why is that?"

"He brought me up to be a prep."

"But you don't want to be a prep do you?"

"Not really, but I've always wanted to fit in with him and that's the only way."

"Man Jeff you're acting funny with that."

"Let's just do the assignment. I picked Romeo and Juliet. Is that okay with you," he asked.

"I love Romeo and Juliet."

"So do I. It's the only play I'll actually read just to read," he said with a smile.

They sat on the bed and picked a scene and rehearsed the scene over and over again. For some reason they couldn't get it down and kept laughing through it hysterically.

"Maybe we should take a break," Mackenzie said.

"Sounds like a plan."

They fell back on his bed and looked up at the ceiling. Jeff got up and walked over to a corner of the basement and came back with an acoustic guitar.

"Hey I didn't know you played guitar. Are you good," Mackenzie asked.

"Yeah. I've been playing since I was like thirteen. I haven't played in a while though, so I might be a little rusty."

"No problem. I can re-teach you if you like. I play acoustic, electric, bass and I play keyboard and piano."

"You must have some rich parents."

"Well I do but I taught myself. We had all those instruments around and I just picked them up."

"Cool. Here play something."

"Okay."

She took the guitar and started to play and sing the song. Jeff joined her and when they finished they looked at each other. They leaned in and kissed and then they heard the door open.

"Hey Jeff!"

"What?"

"The group and I want to get some ice cream. Come on."

"Alright."

Mackenzie got up and they both walked upstairs and Matt looked at her and she stared back. The entire group was there and they all stared at Mackenzie.

"What the hell is she doing here," Dawn asked as Jeff came up the stairs.

"We were doing an assignment."

"Yeah you better had," Dawn said as she looked Mackenzie.

"Dawn shut up. I don't care about Jeff or any of you at all."

Mackenzie walked out of the house and walked down the street. When she got to her house, she took her key out and unlocked the door and walked in. Her mom was there and she looked at Mackenzie when she came in.

"Where were you? I called the house and no one answered. I was worried sick about you."

"Oh whatever mom. I was at someone's house doing an assignment."

"Well I called all of your friends and they said you weren't there. Where were you?"

"Well if you called my friends then they should've told you where I was. They knew. I was at Jeff Hardy's house."

"You where?"

"Yes, doing an assignment. God it's not that serious."

She walked up to her room and slammed the door. She threw her backpack on the bed and turned her computer on and logged on to the Internet. She chatted with her friends and got off two hours later and started to draw in her sketchbook. Her mom called her for dinner and she went and ate and then went back upstairs and talked to Lisa and watched TV. They both got off the phone around 9:30 and Mackenzie went to sleep.

During the next month, Mackenzie always went to Jeff's house to work on the assignment and they got to know each other better. Mackenzie was shocked to see that they got along so well and had a lot of the same interests. They both loved to write poetry and draw fantasy type animals.

"So what do you wanna be when you graduate from school," Mackenzie asked.

"I don't know. What about you?"

"I wanna be a famous poet and be in a band. Whichever comes first."

"Well you could be both. Being a poet could make the band pretty famous. Reading some of your poems made me think they could be songs. Just add another verse and a chorus and you've got it."

"Oh thanks Jeff. I don't think I wanna put all of my personal laundry out like that."

"Hey look at some bands nowadays."

"Ha, ha."

"I'm serious."

She playfully hit him on the shoulder and he kissed her passionately. Someone knocked on the basement door and they stopped.

"Dawn's on the phone, Jeff," Matt yelled.

"I got it." He picked up the phone and heard Dawn's voice. "Hey Dawn."

"Where are you?"

"What are you talking about?"

"You were supposed to meet me at the mall and I've been sitting here for an hour."

"I thought we were going tomorrow?"

"No, I said today."

"Alright. I'll be there in ten minutes."

"Yeah you better."

He hung up the phone and looked at Mackenzie.

"I have to go. I was supposed to meet Dawn at the mall an hour ago."

"Sorry."
"It's okay."

They both got up and did their little act for Matt and Amy. They started yelling and cussing at each other. Mackenzie walked out of the house and slammed the door and smiled to herself as she walked to her house. Back at Jeff's house, Matt and Amy were looking at Jeff like he was crazy.

"You guys are always arguing. I don't see why Mrs. Banks put you two together," Matt said.

"Neither do I," Jeff said.

"Funny how I never hear you guys arguing when you're in the basement," Amy said.

"She acts with some sense, but for some odd reason I always do or say something stupid and she starts going off on me. We actually fought down there one time."

"Is that what I heard a week ago," Amy asked.

"Yeah."

"Dang."

"Well I have to go. I was supposed to meet Dawn at the mall an hour ago."

"Yeah she seemed pretty upset when she called and asked for you," Matt said.

"I know."
Jeff grabbed the car keys and left and Matt and Amy went back upstairs to mind their own business. At Mackenzie's house, she was just thinking about how she and Jeff were really good friends.

The next day at school, it was time for them to do their part. They were the first ones called up and before they could start, Mrs. Banks asked them some questions.

"Now tell me why you two picked this one."

"I flipped open the book and said whatever part it lands on is the one we'll do and it just happened to open to this one," Jeff said.

"Alright. Get on with it."

"Okay."

They did it and everyone was shocked to see that this was the kissing scene from Romeo and Juliet. Stacy, Torrie, and Stephanie were all shocked when they kissed because it seemed real. Everyone's jaws dropped and they were all silent when they were done. Mrs. Banks gave them an 'A' on the spot and they walked back to their seats and Lisa looked at Mackenzie and Torrie, Stacy, and Stephanie looked at Jeff.

"Please tell me that was acting," Stacy asked.

"It was. I never wanted to kiss her anyway."

"Then why didn't you pick another scene?"

"I always do what I say I'm gonna do."

"Okay whatever."

The other pairings went and no one got below a 'B'. When class got out, everyone got up and walked to the cafeteria and Mackenzie knew that she would never see Jeff again. She didn't let it bother her at all and he never crossed her mind once.

After school got out, her and her group decided to stay after school in the lobby again. Mackenzie was drawing. Lisa was lying on Dave's stomach and the others were doing his or her own thing. Matt, Jeff and the others walked past them and as they did a piece of paper fell near Mackenzie. She looked at Jeff but he didn't look at her.

As soon as they left, Mackenzie got up saying she had to go to the bathroom. She grabbed the piece of paper on the way to the bathroom and walked to it. As soon as she walked into the bathroom, she opened the paper and read it.

"We need to talk. Meet me in the library after school on Monday."

She closed it and put it in her pocket and walked back to the lobby and continued on her drawing. Two hours later they all got up and went home. It was Friday and Lisa was having a sleepover with all of them. They had dropped off all their clothes at her house. When they got to her house they all walked in and went to her kitchen. Lisa's mom had made a bunch of snacks and Lisa was glad that she was leaving that night for a business trip.

"Lisa Marie I'm leaving in an hour and I expect all of you to act with some sense while I'm gone."

"Okay mom. You act like you can't trust me or something. We're not going to do anything."

"Alright."

Her mom walked upstairs and to her bedroom and closed the door.

"Man your mom is much cooler than my mom," Mackenzie said.

"Yeah I know. Your mom is really weird."

"I know."

"It's like she doesn't want you to be here."

"Hey we're not here to talk about how fucked up Mackenzie's mom is. We're here to have some fun. Our own little party," Nidia said.

"Nidia's right," Ivory said.

"I'm always right," she said.

"Anyway."

Everyone started laughing and then they went to the TV room and Lisa turned it on and they watched movies. Eventually everyone got into his or her pajamas and then they all listened to some music. Then they watched some more movies and eventually fell asleep.