Chapter One
It was the day of the Prom Safety assembly when Claribel Allen met Watts Kemmer for the first time. She had been sitting in Pine Falls High's auditorium, in its cushy blue seats, brushing off Drake Dennen's nudges during the speech. A man was talking about how he had crashed his car, while drunk, and ended up with brain damage. Claribel, a tall, blonde girl of eighteen, was clearly moved, while Drake, her stocky brown-haired companion, seemed to be more interested in the fact that he was getting out of second period.
"It's very lonely out there to be different," the man on the stage said, "I haven't been on a date since my accident."
"You should ask him out," Drake whispered to Claribel. Claribel shrugged him off, giving him a warning glare. On the other side of Claribel (who was usually called Claire by everyone other than her parents), was Jeanne Bardot, a short, black-haired girl who was spending the time brushing her hair and watching the assembly out of the corner of her eye.
"He has a point," Jeanne whispered back, "He's kind of cute."
"And thirty-seven!" Claire hissed back, "Be quiet!"
The man on stage continued to talk about the effect that his drunk-driving accident had had on him physically, mentally, and emotionally.
"This is terribly depressing," Jeanne intoned, scratching her ear with a Q-tip.
"There's a video," said the man on stage.
"We don't have time for a video," said Mrs. Dibernardo, the principal, replied.
"YES WE DO!" Drake screamed, "WE DO HAVE TIME FOR THE VIDEO!"
"No, we don't," the principal replied. Everyone, with the exception of Claire and a few others, booed loudly.
"We want to get out of third period!" Drake announced loudly enough so Claire and Jeanne heard him but not loudly enough to be heard by anyone in a position of authority. But before Drake could protest even louder, the students had already been dismissed to the next block.
"Good thing we only have twenty minutes 'til lunch," Jeanne said, "'Cause I am STARVING."
"Me too," Claire agreed. They continued to walk a few minutes in silence before Jeanne mimed hitting herself in the forehead.
"Oh! And I almost forgot," she exclaimed, "Remind me at lunch when we have everyone together. I have news. Big, big, big news."
"I can't wait!" said Claire. She walked back to class, eagerly looking at her watch and wondering what kind of news Jeanne could possibly have. Jeanne was rather different than Claire – she was incredibly interested in appearances and popularity. She had picture-perfect looks and worked hard to achieve them, and if she were to end up in some kind of damaging accident – like, Claire thought, the man at the assembly – she could have never lived with herself. Things like that were important to Jeanne.
Not, Claire reminded herself, that Jeanne was snotty or rude – just very…outside-oriented was the right word perhaps.
When the bell rang, she quickly shoved her books in her locker and ran down to the cafeteria. When she arrived at the table, Rick Miguez was engrossed in a story about his weird, delinquent older brother Mike.
"He let two kids have sex on my bed!" Rick was telling the riveted crowd.
"Ew!" Jeanne exclaimed, sticking up her hands, "You were EIGHT."
"Yeah, well," he replied with a laugh, "Then I stole a hundred and twenty bucks from him. And now that's what I charge for people to have sex on my bed." Everyone laughed.
"Ah, Claire joins us!" Jeanne announced, "Everyone, everyone, everyone. I have news."
"Do tell," said Lynn de la Cour.
"Okay. You guys – you know the boxer, Watts Kemmer?"
"No," admitted Lynn.
"Not exactly," put Menlie Parker. "Menlie", interestingly enough, was short for Mendel. She had a twin brother named Gregor.
Jeanne looked frustrated.
"Okay, maybe I need to do some memory re-registering or whatever they call it. TALL, about six foot three. Black – like HOT, chocolately black, like you just wanna LICK him…"
"I'm listening," Drake put in.
"I believe he's straight," Jeanne commented before continuing, "BIG, BIG abs. Perfect. Sexy. Fine, fine, fine."
"Your point?" asked Menlie.
"He's moved to Cherry Hill."
"WHAT!" exclaimed Menlie and Lynn in unison. Jeanne smirked.
"Not only that, he has moved ON MY STREET! And I'm going to take you all to meet him after school today!"