"College is not my thing," Nico decided, looking around at the preppy girls with bags of stuffed toys being lugged to their dorms and the guys in baggy jeans with cigarettes dangling out of their mouth. "I hate it. Let's go home."

"You can't hate something you've never tried," Reyna pointed out, flipping her long, raven hair out of her face and shifting the weight of her suitcase.

Nico glanced around again. "I've been here for a full twenty minutes and I've decided I hate it."

Immediately, Reyna dropped her suitcase to the ground, dumped her shoulder bag and stood in front of the lanky, pale Nico, stretching her arms out to clasp his shoulders. "Nico di Angelo," she said firmly. "You are a badass, sexy, intelligent eighteen year old who is more than capable of dealing with a few jerks in his freshman year of college."

Nico rolled his eyes and gave her a look of contempt. She sighed.

"Nico, we've been friends for, what? Four years?" Nico nodded. "And in all that time, have I ever once lied to you?"

"Yes," Nico answered immediately.

"Bullshit."

"You have."

"When?"

"My sixteenth birthday. You told me you got me a Chevy truck."

"Oh come on, you knew that wasn't true."

"I was very disappointed to open the box and find a 'Birthday Boy' badge and a coupon to 'Roy's Adult Toys' instead of a set of keys to my new Chevy."

"Okay, well apart from that," Reyna conceded. "When have I ever lied to you?"

"This morning," he said. "You told me I didn't have toothpaste on my shirt."

"Trying to make a point here," Reyna said, tapping her foot.

Nico wrapped his fingers around her wrists. "And I appreciate that." He moved her arms off his shoulders and down to her sides. "But I still hate college." He grabbed his bag and began to shuffle off towards the parking lot where his sadly-not-a-Chevy truck was parked.

"Oh come on, Nicky," Reyna called after him.

"Nicky, you'll regret it!"

"I'm serious. Come back Nicky!"

"Nico. Please."

He stopped. Sighed. Turned around. Walked back to face his friend. He raised his eyebrows as if to say, What?

"Nico, we survived high school together," she said, her voice quiet. "It was bearable because we were together. I don't think I can deal without you here."

"We survived high school?" Nico said, astounded. "As I recall, I survived four years of torment and angst that some ludicrous people call high school. You didn't just survive; you thrived. Reyna, you were always popular. You never got picked on or hassled. I swear, the second you walked through those doors you were the freshman Queen Bee, and it's going to be the exact same thing here. You'll get all the attention and love and admiration of every skirt chasing asshole and every tight haired bimbo and I'll get all the struggles, all the hate."

Reyna shook her head vehemently. "No, I promise it'll be different. We will both be popular. I will make sure that everyone on campus knows your name, for all the right reasons. We can change here Nico, be whoever we want. It's a fresh start."

At that moment, a tall guy in a grey sweatshirt jogged past and whistled as he glanced at Reyna up and down, resting particularly on her chest. "Hey hottie! Wanna hang with a real man? Come on, ditch the douchelord and come with me. All. Night. Long." He winked.

"Ugh, bite me, asshole," she snapped back.

"Love to," he answered, waggling his eyebrows. He pointed to his crotch, mouthed party here tonight, winked, and jogged off.

"Ew," Reyna summarised. She whipped her head back to Nico. He gave her a pointed look.

"Yeah. So different."

He started to walk away again, but this time she caught his arm. "Nicky, I don't know what you want me to say. I want it to be different for us here. I want us to be close like we used to be. High school put us in two different worlds but here? Here, the possibilities are endless!"

Nico thought about it.

What she was saying was true. In high school, though they became friends during that time, their separate friendship groups kept them from ever being seen together in public - or rather, Reyna's friendship group. Nico had always found himself alone at the lunch table with a couple of other outcasts whose names he never bothered to learn. High school was over and he could finally move on, recreate himself as whoever he wanted to be.

And at that moment what he really wanted, was to know how the other half lived. Reyna had always been at the top of the 'It' crowd, while Nico was left at the same level as kitty litter - a place to dump their shit. Now, he wanted to know what it was really like to be popular.

"Okay, I'll stay," he said. Reyna started jumping up and down and squealing but Nico held out a finger. "But, I have some conditions. Or rather, one."

"Name it!" she squealed.

Nico inhaled deeply. In, and out. "I want to be the popular one."

Reyna's eyes lit up. Now, as a general rule, Reyna wasn't the girliest of girls. But she had always loved having the attention and admiration of others, so naturally popularity was a perfect fit for her. And having her best friend be popular with her? And him actually wanting to be there? It was a dream come true!

"Oh my god, that's fantastic! We'll be so popular, we'll rule the school in a week - you and me, the best power couple San Diego State has ever seen!"

Nico gave a weak smile and shook his solitary finger. "You didn't listen, Ray Ray. I said, I want to be the popular one."

Reyna cocked her head in confusion.

"You were always the top of the heap in high school, and I was beneath the bottom," he explained. "So, in college, we're going to mix it up. This time, you will be the loser who sits alone at lunch, and I will be the one with the invites to parties and all the hot guys draping themselves on me."

Reyna gaped her mouth, as if to say unfair, which it was. But Nico wasn't about to care. She could deal with a semester of being a loser. After all, Nico had dealt with it his whole life.

"That is my one condition. Just for the year," he stated. "I will stay here with you if you can coach me into the league of the cool kids, while you remain on the outside."

Reyna pouted and argued and cried and yelled but this was one argument Nico wouldn't budge on. "You either want me here or you don't, Reyna."

Finally, she sighed. "Fine. I'll coach you to be cool. And I'll stay out of it myself. But just for the year. Happy?"

"Very." He grinned and linked his arm in hers. "I think it's going to be an excellent year, Ray Ray."