Chapter One

Follow The Grey Brick Road

Sloane glanced out the car window. Her eyes shifted around the scenery, and after a few minutes of searching, they rested on the tall white building that would be the main office of her new home. Her stomach churned, uneasy with the sight. Harper, her twin, rested a hand on Sloane's slight shoulder.

"Sloane, think about it. It's a new beginning. We're not the girls who's parents died. We're just Harper and Sloane McKenna." she tried to comfort her nervous sister.

"Maybe I don't want to be just Sloane McKenna. There was nothing wrong with New York." Sloane didn't like change. Well, she used to. It was until her mother had decided that she'd try a different route back home from the mall. That change caused a fatal car accident that landed Sloane in the hospital, and her mother in the morgue. And after her dad changed his mind and went to the store across the street from the park to get ice cream and was shot in a drive by, she really didn't like change.

"Yes there was. People felt sorry for us. At least here we can come in and be who ever we want to be." Harper was an extremely positive person. She didn't really understand why Sloane hated switching from their sheltered life on the Upper East Side to their new life at MA. Harper squealed as their car pulled up to an iron-wrought gate, with a guard.

"Name please." The guard asked in a sexy Brittish accent. Harper swooned. She loved Brittish accents.

"Harper and Sloane McKenna. We're students here." Harper said confidently. She was a people person. Sloane on the other hand, averted her gaze from the guard. Harper sighed as the guard opened up the gate, and their black car glided through the entrance. She felt her phone's vibration through the pocket of her L.A.M.B. jeans. She took a quick peek at the screen, not wanting to miss a sight of the campus around her.

JENNY: HEY MCKENNA! HOWS MA?

Harper giggled. She and Jenny met at summer camp before Jenny entered the ninth grade. They both thought that they were both going to stay at Constance Billard for high school, but then Jenny told Harper that she was switching to Waverly after some 'incidents' at Constance. And when Harper's grandparents told her that she was going to boarding school for high school, there was slight hope that maybe, just maybe, she and Jenny would reunite at Waverly. But apparently no such luck. Harper and Sloane were going to be sent to McKenna Academy, not only was it one of Waverly's rival schools, but it was also the school that their grandfather had founded.

HARPER: JUST GOT THROUGH THE GATE. SO WISH I WAS AT WAVERLY WITH YOU.

JENNY: SAME. OH WELL. TELL SLOANE I SAY HI.

Harper closed her phone, and passed Jenny's message on to Sloane. Soon enough, the car drove into the circular drive way that was the entrance of the main office. the car parked, and the twins emerged. Sloane nervously fidgeted with the hem on her baby blue empire waist top. The spacious room was filled, and nobody was staring at them. Yet. But as soon as word got around that the McKenna twins had arrived, they all would be staring. A gust of wind hit her back. And suddenly, everyone was staring. Sloane took a look behind her. Thank God! she thought. They were all staring at someone else. That someone else was really short, almost as short as Jenny. She had the wild mess of curls, and for a second, Harper thought it was Jenny. But one look at the eyes and she knew it wasn't her friend. This girl had piercing green eyes, where as Jenny had chocolate brown.

"Hey Fawn, how was your summer?" a perky red head rushed up to the girl.

"It was fine. I was supposed to go to Spain with my mom, but she shipped me off to the Bahamas with my dad. UGH!" The girl no doubt had a Bahamas tan.

"Woah is me, I had to go to the Bahamas!" Harper leaned in to Sloane and mumbled in a hushed tone. Sloane giggled, the first sound of happiness she had emited since she heard that she was going to MA. The twins walked over to the front desk. The lady sitting at the computer had frown lines, and a few grey hairs sprouting out of her head.

"May I help you?" she asked, her eyes still locked on whatever was on the screen.

"I'm Harper McKenna, and this is my sister Sloane. We'd like to know where our room is." Harper said, a smile plastered on her face.

"Harper, you're in room 202, and Sloane, you're in 214." She then looked through a file cabinet and pulled out two folders. Harper peeked inside the folder. Inside was a campus map, her key to her room, her class schedule, and two coupons to the campus' coffee shop. Sloan's was the same. She grimaced. She had assumed that she and Sloane would be rooming together. That was the one condition her grandparents had given into.

"Excuse me, but we were told that we were going to be roommates." Harper fumbled.

"Nope, you're grandfather sent a message with your applications specifically stating that you were to room seperately." the receptionist clicked something on the computer.

"Could you check again?" Harper pleaded. One way or another, she would be sharing a room with her sister.

"I could check a hundred times, and it would still be the same. Now move along so that the other students can sign in." Harper huffed, moved out of the line, or rather, was pushed out of the line by the other students.

"Sorry, Sloane. I tried." Harper said. It wasn't her who didn't want to room with someone else. It was Sloane. For the past three years, Sloane had some trust issues, and with that, she lost all the friends she had before, and didn't make any new ones. The only friend she had was Harper.

"Whatever, I'm going to go find my room." Sloane walked out of the building, and towards Hilton Hall, where her dorm was located. Now that she was on her own, Sloane was suspicious of everyone. She made sure she was extra careful not to bump into anyone, and stared at the map in her hands. Even though she was following the directions, she got lost. She rounded the same building twice, and walked past the same pond three times. Sloane spotted an empty bench under neath a large maple tree, and decided that she'd take another look at the map.

"Freshman?" someone called. Sloane looked up at the boy who was towering above her. Her voice instantly dried up.

"Y-Yeah. I keep getting lost." She said, despite her nerves.

"It's expected. I got lost my first day too. The campus is huge." He took a seat beside her and took a look at the map.

"So, what's your name?" He asked. Sloane pretended that she didn't hear him as a group of very loud girls walked past, laughing hysterically at their friend who spilt water on her pants. At least, Sloane assumed it was water.

"Okay, I'll make you a deal. I'll walk you to your dorm, and you tell me your name. Cool?" He pleaded with his eyes.

"Okay." Sloane smiled.

"Sloane!?" Harper called. She saw her twin walk out the door, but after that, she had no idea where she went. She tried her cell, but she got voice mail. Finally, she gave up, and decided to look for Hilton Hall. The campus was really big, and the map was really confusing. She decided to ignore the map, and just ask for directions.

"Excuse me, can you tell me where Hilton Hall is?" Harper asked a girl who looked like she was in grade twelve.

"Yeah, it's straight ahead. Just follow the grey brick road." She pointed in the direction, and then she walked off towards her friends. She checked the map. According to the map, Hilton Hall was to the East, not North. As friendly as the girl had seemed, she had been played. Harper followed the map, and eventually found her dorm. Her room was on the second floor, as was most of the ninth graders. She placed her key in the lock, and the door swung open with such force that it slammed against the wall behind it.

"Careful. We don't need the dorm advisor in here again." Her roommate chided from her Mac laptop. "She already came in her and gave me the third degree for banging the wall. Apparently there's a way to open that thing without causing damage."

"Oh, haha." Harper laughed nervously. "I'm Harper."

"Dakota." Dakota turned off her laptop, got up, and smoothed out her Eli Manning jersey. Her sandy brown hair was pulled into a loose pony tail, wisps of hair framing her face. She looked fabulously sloppy. She obviously didn't care that more than tree quarters of the girls on campus dressed like they were in a Vogue magazine. She had a pair of black skinny jeans tucked into chestnut Uggs, not caring that Uggs were 2003. "I know this is the good bed, so I'm willing to move my stuff if you want it." The bed was the good bed, since it was right under the window, while the other was tucked into the back corner.

"No, it's fine." Harper went over to the pile of her luggage and pulled it over to the bed.

"So did you hear that the McKenna twins are coming this year? I heard that they're really spoiled and that they had a wall demolished so that they would have one huge room. I can hardly believe that, since these rooms are already massive," Harper was kind of hurt of the rumors. But she was right about the rooms being big. They were about the size of a suite in a fancy hotel, and certainly big enough for two people.

"Oh, trust me, those rumors are not true. They actually have to room with two different people." Harper avoided Dakota's gaze. She began unpacking her bags, and pulled out a picture of her and Sloane. Dakota saw the picture.

"You have a twin? That's so cool. I'm pretty much in the loop here, and I heard that there was only one set of twins here this year." Dakota was totally oblivious. And then it registered. "Oh my god! You're the McKenna twins! This is so cool! I can't wait to tell everyone that the rumors aren't true!" Dakota squealed. Harper looked at Dakota nervously. Was she only going to be nice to her so that she could say she was friends with a McKenna twin?

(A/N) so please comment and review:) tell me if you have any ideas. I promise more It Girl references will be on the way, I just need to get the girls settled in, and then there will be more:)