I'm not going to waste your time with a pre-story speech. To keep it sweet and simple, here's chapter 2, hope you enjoy! Big thank you to everyone who reviews/faves/alerts :)!! -- Mandy

Gwen's POV, Chapter Two

My breath caught in my throat.

Cody? Geek-boy? Oh my God! Wait—there are probably a million Cody's, let alone the one in this class. Maybe I'm just too used to nerdy wannabe Cody to know any others?

But… come to think of it, he did have the same hair color, the same bluish-green eyes…

Then, while he was talking with Mrs. Kinder, the teacher, he smiled.

…the same empty space in his teeth, which were a little whiter.

"Oh, God," I started to panic, pressing my fingers to my temples. "Oh, God, oh, God, oh, God, oh God…"

"What's up?" Missy asked with a curious tilt of her head.

"I think I know him…" I groaned.

"Are you serious!?" she squeaked happily. "How!?"

"I think he was on Total Drama Island with me…" I slammed my head down on the table, sickened by any thoughts I may have had about him being attractive. I mean, come on! It's Cody! Who in their right mind would ever like such a geek?

Although… he didn't look like much of a geek anymore… that's all I can say about that. I wondered what could've possibly happened to make him a little more… appealing… to say the least. Wait, no! Eww! Not him! Not Cody. Ever.

Missy gasped, "Oh yeah! That's right! That one kid who would always hit on you! That's awesome!"

"No, it's not," I growled. "It sucks…"

"How? Look at him, he's freaking hot!"

"He wasn't when I knew him," I told her, glancing at Cody from the corner of my eye.

"He is now! Dude, you can't tell me he's not cute,"

"I already did…" I rested my forehead on my fists held up on my propped elbows. I hissed under my breath, "Unfortunately… But honestly, he's Cody, it's gross…"

As though he'd heard, he glanced over at me. His blue eyes widened, his lips parted in disbelief. Internally I whacked myself. He recognized me…

Please don't come over… I begged in my mind. Please don't let him come over here…!

"Dude, he's coming over here!" Missy whispered excitedly in my ear.

"Wonderful…"

I kept my head in my arms, not daring to look at him. The last thing I wanted to do was make small talk with someone I hated. From my left I heard Missy hyperventilating, "H-h-hi, Cody… What's up?"

"Not much, uh… what was your name again? Sorry, I'm new."

Invisibly my eyes popped open. What happened to his voice? It's different. It's… huskier…

The blond girl put a hand on the table. Probably for balance… "The name's… um, Missy. Hehehe…"

"Sweet. Hi, Missy. You mind if I talked to the girl behind you?"

"Oh, no, not at all," she said. "Go ahead, I'll move."

I heard her step away, and he stepped forward.

"Hey there," There's that husky voice again…

Moving my head, I glanced at him from my peripheral vision. He had a small smile on his face, gentleness in his blue eyes, which I noticed were tinged green, making them more of an aqua. "Um… hi." I replied, trying—hard—to sound uninterested.

"Are you feeling okay? Why is your head down?" he asked, concern crossing his features.

"I'm okay," I told him. "Just a little tired, that's all."

"Oh," He gave me another kind smile, "My name's Cody. I get the feeling I've seen you somewhere before?"

"Um, I don't think so…"

"What's your name?"

My name's Julie, and you've never seen me in your life. "Um… Gwen."

Crap…

"Hey, I do know you!" he said exuberantly. "You and I were on Total Drama Island together!"

I was so hoping he wouldn't remember! Damn it, he's good! "Yeah," I said with a poor excuse for happiness. "I remember that…"

Cody used a finger to pull aside the wisps from his forehead. I was surprised at how that made me ogle at him. "Awesome. Who won?"

"Duncan," I answered, unintentionally raising my head so he could see my whole face. "He and Courtney are off on some romantic cruise."

"No kidding?" He scowled. "That's really weird. But hey, you know what? They look good together."

"Yeah, I think so too." Did I seriously just agree with him? What was wrong with me? God knows…

"So how have you been since the show?"

"I've been all right, I guess," I said, strumming my fingers on the tabletop. "You know, just drawing and stuff most of the time."

"Oh yeah? That's cool."

"Uh huh…" Usually a normal conversation between me and Cody wouldn't carry any farther than 'hi' without either him hitting on me and me smacking the crap out of him or any rearrangement of the two. Did I not say I didn't wanna make small talk with this kid? Something was severely wrong with him. Or was there something wrong with me? "And what have you been doing?"

"Not much," he said. "I started skateboarding, snowboarding, stuff like that; I started playing the drums, I'm kinda all over the place, so to speak."

"Interesting." I was actually astonished by how much he'd accomplished in a year's time since I'd first met him. Somehow, this second meeting wasn't creeping me out. It was like he'd become… mature… over the distance.

Mrs. Kinder walked to the front of the room with a grin, "Good morning, students. Welcome to another wonderful year at Ice Box High School! And the reason I say this is because we have a new student this year!"

I sulked in my chair. So this is how she was going to introduce me? Annunciation? Hopefully I didn't have to deal with this every class…

Cody's head turned in the teacher's direction for a split second before he pulled out the chair next to me and sat down, leaning back and folding his arms across his chest.

So that's how you're gonna play, huh? The cool-guy routine? Puh-leeze, like I've never seen THAT out of you before…

Mrs. Kinder directed a too-warm smile at me, "Everyone, meet Gwen. She'll be joining us this year!"

I looked around reluctantly. Ugh… they were all giving me that 'OMG look, it's the new kid' stare!

"Hi…" I managed to say without cussing.

On my left, Missy was absolutely beaming at Cody, who was watching the teacher doodle something on the board. Behind me, some boy was whispering to his friend, "Dude, new girl equals hot."

I saw Cody glance at him when he said this.

Next some other chick passed my table and dropped a note in front of me. I unfolded it, and it read,

"U get 2 close 2 Cody & Ill KILL u!!"

Crumpling it into a ball, I looked up to meet the icy eyes of the girl who'd written it. She was blond—not natural sweet blonde like Missy—but unnatural bleach-blond pulled back in a high ponytail, and her irises were such a light blue you almost couldn't tell where they met the whites. Her body was anorexic-looking (I'm guessing, you can never be sure), her face thin, with an ugly scowl stamped on it. She whipped her head around, flipping her frizzy ponytail in my direction, and strutted back to her table.

I sighed heavily, stuffing the note into the pocket of my miniskirt. This is going to be a loooooong day…