Hi, sorry about the wait. I'm trying to stay on the honor roll, but two of my teachers seem determined to keep me off. Well, this was ready last night. I could have written more on Tuesday, but I was watching my HSM DVD! Yeah me! And I got a cool little yearbook thing too, for anyone who doesn't know Troy Bolton was voted "Hottest Guy" and Chad Danforth "Most School Spirit." I would have posted this chapter last night but I was watching "Miracle Run" since Zac Efron is in it and afterward my mom told me to do some Spanish.

So, enough of that!

Chapter 7

"Math Team will meet in the cafeteria today at 2:30. Cross Country will have their meeting in the library tomorrow at 3:00. Boys interested in trying out for junior varsity basketball, meet Coach Freeman in in gym today at 2:20. Have a great afternoon."

Calum bit his bottom lip as he listened to the afternoon announcements. The kids still hadn't warmed up to him, but Cam was becoming increasingly popular. It was as if Calum had been the guy they all hated and rivaled and Cam was the new kid with no past at all. Calum didn't get it. So Cam hung around with Troy, was that what was making him popular? But, Calum was Mack's boyfriend...he just didn't get the way kids' minds worked.

He stood up and walked to his locker, placing his books in it before heading to the gym. He didn't want to go because he was afraid of the kids reactions. He also didn't want to get cut because he was Calum Boucher instead of Calum (insert last name here).

"Hey Calum!"

He grimaced but recovered quickly. "Hey Adam, Teagan."

The two walked over and Calum turned around. "Let's get out of here," Adam said.

"I can't...I have to make up some homework."

The two other boys shared a look and laughed. "What," Calum asked.

"You, make up homework. You never have late homework."

"Well, there's a first time for everything," Calum said, turning around and walking quickly away from the two boys.

"Homework," Teagan said. "There's no way."

"Let's follow him," Adam said.

"Right behind you."

The two ran in the direction Calum had taken off to, but were finding it difficult to navigate through the students. They looked over the heads of a few kids and saw a blue shirt head down a hall. "There he is," Adam yelled and they ran down the hall toward the kid.

Calum walked from behind a wall and blew out the breath he had taken. He was very happy that blue was a popular color for a shirt. He stuck his hands in his pockets and headed for the gym.

"Hey!"

Calum stopped walking and put a smile on his face. "Hey Mack."

"Where are you going?"

"Umm...actually, I'm finding Adam and Teagan."

"Need help?"

"No, I think I just saw them."

"All right, call me later?"

"Of course," he said before kissing her cheek and running toward the gym. He walked into the locker room and quickly changed. He looked at the group of kids that were trying out for the team when he walked into the gym. The kids didn't look mean, they looked like normal kids. He noticed that he was the only freshman and bit his lip nervously.

"There's my star!" Calum turned to see Coach Freeman walking over from the bleachers. Calum's eyes widened a bit when he noticed that Mr. Freeman was talking to Coach Bolton. "Calum, this is Coach Bolton, he's the varsity coach. He always comes to our try outs to see what he'll have to choose from next year."

"Hello Calum, you're lab report ready for tomorrow."

"Yeah, just need to print it out."

"You know each other," Coach Freeman asked.

"Oh yeah, I know Calum. Good student and a good player."

"Really," Coach Freeman asked to himself. "Calum, see how the guys are at one end of the court? I want you to go on the other side and first do ten foul shots."

Calum walked over to the basketballs and picked on up before walking to the foul line. He took a deep breath, dribbled two times and shot the ball: a swish.

"Huh," Coach Freeman said approvingly. "You've seen this kid play?"

"He's good, Dean."

"I know, just look at his form. I haven't seen anyone with form like that since Troy walked into this gym four years ago." Calum stopped shooting, and Coach Freeman had tallied one miss. "Do a couple lay-ups, a couple three pointers and then do two fouls shots. Calum did as he was told and hit all his lay ups, three pointers and both foul shots.

"Dribble around the gym," Jack called for Mr. Freeman, who was just staring at the boy. "Told you he was good," Jack said, clapping the man on the ground.

Freeman looked at the others who seemed to have just started a game of pig. "How many kids do you have to pick," Jack asked.

"Four, plus Calum."

hsmhsmhsmhsmhsm

"Hey Troy," Mack said walking by him.

"Oh, Mack. Tell Mom not to wait for me, for dinner."

"Why?"

"I'm practicing with Gabriella, musical stuff."

She smiled. "When are the try outs?"

"Two weeks, so we're practicing."

"Cool, I'll tell Mom."

"Nice."

Troy jogged over to Gabriella and Mack started walking. She picked up a stick and started to drag it across the fences she passed. "Hey Mack!"

Mack turned to see a girl that she didn't really know. "Sorry," she said. "I don't think I know your name."

"I didn't expect you to. I'm Alyx."

"Hi," Mack said, not really knowing what the girl wanted.

"I was just wondering...why are you going out with Calum Boucher?"

"What kind of question is that?"

"You're probably the most popular freshman in school. You could have anyone, even upper class men. You're not invisible like the rest of us."

"And not being invisible is supposed to mean what?"

"Well, my friends and I thought you'd date a guy on JV or varsity."

"To tell you something, all the guys on varsity are like my brothers and I wouldn't think of them any other way. Calum can be what ever he wants to be and I'll still like him for him." She looked the girl in the eyes. "If I can help it, this school isn't going back to it's old cliques. I mean, take my brother and Gabriella for example. If they hadn't broken out of their groups, they wouldn't be together and Troy would be with some cheerleader that he doesn't really like."

The girl just stared at her. "Old cliques?"

"Yeah, last year...it really bad, worse than most schools."

"How did they break out?"

"It's break free actually," Mack said. "Troy and Gabriella got the leads in the musical, they sang 'breaking free'."

"Wow."

"Bet you didn't know that."

"I didn't, but thanks." The girl turned around and started walking in the same direction she came. Mack turned around. She was scowling. She hated when people questioned her opinion on something. It wasn't like it was going to change. She liked Calum and wasn't going to stop until she didn't like him anymore.

She shut the front door of her house and walked into the kitchen. "Hey Mom," she said sitting at one of the chairs.

"Hello. How was school?"

"As good as school can be," Mack replied, grabbing an apple out of the bowl on the table. "Troy said not to wait up. He's going over to Gabriella's to practice for the musical auditions."

"Okay."

Mack stood up, walked up the stairs to the bathroom and shut the door. She looked into the door length mirror, but didn't see Mack. She saw Troy's sister, Coach's daughter, The Teacher's kid. But the harder she looked, she figured out why people liked her, why she was so popular. "I look exactly like Troy," she whispered.

She opened the cabinet and pulled out some of Troy's medicine. She cocked her head, it was about time for a refill and the container was almost full.

hsmhsmhsmhsmhsm

"Can I change my last name?"

"Calum," Adam sighed. "After everyone hears how good a player you are, they'll like you."

"Go back where you came from Boucher!"

"Oh really," Calum said leaning up against the wall. "He doesn't like me."

"Well he's a loser," Teagan said. "Cheer up. I bet there's a bunch of people who are just dying to meet you."

Calum slid down the wall and brought his knees to his chest. "Yeah, and I bet there's life on Mars."

"You never know," Adam said.

"Let's just face the facts. I'm an outsider."

"For something Cam did! Look at him, he's only got some friends."

"More than me."

"Calum," Teagan said. "Cam is in the same boat your in."

"Well our boat has a hole in it because it's sinking fast!"

"Calum?"

The three boys looked to the voice. It belonged to a good looking boy with dark hair. He was smiling and looked down at Calum. "Hey Nick."

"I heard you made JV! That's so cool!"

"Brilliant," Adam sneered. Teagan elbowed him, but Nick looked oblivious.

"I was talking to Jason and he said that every year the JV and Varsity always play against each other. I imagine it's going to be a battle between you and Troy."

"Maybe," Calum said.

"Oh Calum, stop being modest. Everyone knows you're going to be the next Troy!"

"Then why don't they like me?"

"Because people always afraid of whats different-"

"What are you doing calling him different," Adam exploded. "He's just as normal as everyone else!"

"That's not what I was trying to say."

"Oh shove it! You try to act like your his best friend. Just because you and Bailey are going out, doesn't mean your part of our group! We've been best buds forever and I bet you don't know anything about Calum."

"What?"

"Adam," Teagan said, grabbing the boy by the arms so he wouldn't attack Nick. "You might want to get a head start Nick."

Nick turned and walked off into the crowd of kids and Teagan threw Adam on the ground. "What's wrong with you? You nearly bit the kid's head off!"

"He's a know-it-all!"

"So?"

"Teagan, did you hear his tone?"

"I'm going for a walk guys," Calum said, leaving the two to argue. He walked to the bleachers in the gym and watched Troy play a little one on one with Cam. Jason, Zeke, Ryan and Chad were no where to be seen, but Calum hadn't seen Troy and Chad talk to each other for a while. They threw glares at each other in the halls, but other than that there was no communication between the two of them. Mack was having a really hard time with that. Troy expected her to be on his side because she was his sister, but Chad had been there for her when Troy was too involved with his own little world.

"Hey Calum."

"Hello Mikaela."

She sat down next to him and watched what was going on on the court. "What's up?"

"Oh, just another day in the life of the outcast."

"You're not an outcast. All you need is a couple good friends, and look how many you have. I may not know a lot about high school, but I do know about feelings. You probably feel like you're the only one who feels like this, but there's someone else that feels the same way, and I think he's down on that court right now."

"Cam doesn't feel like this."

"How do you know. Just because he doesn't wear his heart on his sleeve, doesn't mean he doesn't feel hurt that some people say mean things to him."

So, how did you like it? I'm sorry again about the wait. Hope you all liked this chapter. As you can tell, Adam doesn't really like Nick.

Review!