AN: So I am super sorry I haven't updated in…a while. But I've been busy (vacationing), but I will be continuing this story (yay!) so be sure to come back, read, and review!

Also I have changed some of the character intros in the first preview chapter because the story has become more focused on Massie and it would just be too confusing to mix up all the different storielines about the other characters. Hope you guys like the change. And I edited the end of chapter 5 too to make things less confusing. Hope yall like the changes.

6

Monday

"Hey, did you guys hear?" Alicia hopped into the glossy hummer limo while brushing her wind blown hair out of her face.

"What?" Dylan leaned in. Alicia and Dylan were the gossip freaks of the group, always first to receive and spread the juicy news.

"Derrick and January hooked up yesterday," The Hispanic beauty smiled proudly to have known before Dylan—the two were always competing for gossip points.

"What!" Dylan exclaimed, tucking at her kimono sleeves. "Source?"

"Jessie got it straight from January," She grinned proudly.

Massie sat in her seat, awestruck and ears burning. Did the bastard really actually play her? And more importantly: how dare he?

"Wow," Claire breathed to herself. "Two girls in two days? Wonder who he's going after today."

"Oh, that reminds me," Dylan lifted a finger, "Who was the first girl, we never figured it out."

"Yea," Alicia joined in. "Man, I feel bad for her; first victim."

Massie could feel the cold sweat beading on her neck, "Who cares," she interrupted. "He's already starting a list, doesn't really matter to keep track. In the end it's just going to pile up Cam Fisher style."

Except for Claire who muttered a quiet defense for Cam, the other girls both nodded obediently, taking Massie's words as law, like always.

Massie let out a relieved breath, good thing they were making out on the couch where no one was paying any attention. Nothing exciting ever happened there—with one exception, of course.

As the limo pulled up to the front of the school, each girl stepped out of the car and established formation in the regular triangular pattern—Massie in the front as always.

They strutted across the brick road leading to the front building but the movement felt a little more awkward than usual because Kristen wasn't available to fill in the empty spot next to Claire.

"Woah, going official already?"

Massie quickly halted her steps when she heard Cam's obnoxious voice. She turned around to see a cluster of boys under the tall apple tree that never actually produced apples. They were all facing the opposite direction, hollering over some sort of excitement.

Massie leashed the others toward the soccer boys and stepped next to Cam. "What's going on?"

But there wasn't a need for words. Massie turned to the same direction as everyone else and her jaws dropped immediately. She was first filled with disbelief, but that was quickly washed clean by anger. Plain, vengeful anger.

"What the hell." She mouthed to herself as the girls gathered behind her. Fawning. Loudly.

"Oh my gosh," Dylan breathed over Massie's shoulder. "He's actually serious?"

"Guess we judged a little too early," Claire admitted, fiddling with a strand of her light blond hair.

"She's so lucky!" Alicia admired.

"You could have that with me babe," Kemp Hurley leaned in close and grinned suggestively.

Alicia pushed him away, uninterested, and returned to staring at Derrick and January.

They were across the field, standing smack in the middle of the courtyard—where Massie and her friends usually hung out before school started.

The two faced each other, standing barely a hand-distance away. Derrick seemed to be whispering something to her that made her laugh—a little too exaggeratedly.

"This is so disgusting." Massie glowered quietly.

"Awww," Cam rubbed up against her, batting his eyelashes mockingly, "but they're soooo cute together." He mimicked in a high-pitched voice.

Massie aimed her deadliest glare at him; one that could even shut Cam Fisher up.

"What's wrong?" Cam asked, almost sounding concerned. "I haven't seen that look since ninth grade…" His voice trailed off, not wanting to bring up that night.

"Whatever," Massie hissed as she stormed away.

"Hey Masseee."

Massie slammed her locker close to find Derrick of all people leaning against the neighboring locker.

"Guess we're locker mates."

"Oh joy," Massie breathed sarcastically as she gathered her things. She didn't really care much for school so all she carried was a pad of paper (for doodling) and a subject textbook—everything else was left for her to borrow from others.

"What?" Derrick leaned in a little closer, "Don't want to be my locker mate? So you probably won't want to be my classmate either."

She blinked, "what do you want?"

"Principal assigned you as my guide." He smirked.

"No she didn't," Massie stated as she strode across the crowded halls.

"Yes, actually," He followed after her, "she did. Something about lack of attendance last year and a need to connect with the student body outside of your close knit group of friends?"

"What the hell?" Massie exclaimed, "Is she creeping the students?"

"Well it's a pretty small school," Derrick injected, "so, I guess you can say she…watches you."

"Wow, that makes me feel so much safer and not violated at all."

Derrick chuckled and Massie blushed.

"Um, so show me your schedule?" She wasn't sure what she was supposed to do but she could try and act the part. People—usually more similar to Kristen—were picked for this lame show-new-students-around-the-school thing, but she never really cared for it.

He handed over a limp piece of paper.

Massie scanned over the list and announced, "so we have history first period together and photography sixth." As she looked over the paper again she noticed a glossy stain in the shape of a perfect pair of lips.

"Wow, had your mommy kiss your schedule good luck?" Massie questioned as a hole burned in her stomach.

"No," he snatched the schedule back, "just a friend."

"A close, personal, female friend?" Massie put her cool nonchalant card in play while she smiled as if it didn't feel like she was being punched in the stomach. Repeatedly. "Unless one of your boyfriends likes pink lip gloss—which I personally have nothing against."

"Right," He looked down at the ground as they walked. Even though there was chatter all across the hall, it felt like the moment was wrapped in uncomfortable silence—which it was, for them at least.

"Look Mass," Derrick finally decided to break the awkwardness.

"Yes Derr?" Massie mocked the unwelcome nicknaming.

He blushed a little and she immediately regretted her remark. "About Sunday…"

"Mass!"

Massie turned to find Cam walking towards them at the opposite end of the corridor. She breathed a sigh of relief, having been saved from a horrid speech that would most likely cause her more embarrassment than what was already inflicted on her.

"Cam," she exclaimed out of fake excitement, then turned back toward Derrick, "um, sorry, I'll talk to you later? See you in class."

"Hey," Cam said as Massie met him halfway. "What happened to you this morning?"

When the class finally settled down, Mr. Penn got up from his teacher's desk and sauntered to the front of the room. He didn't really care for much of anything, everyone liked him because he was laid back and easygoing—which is not to be confused with being a pushover.

He let Derrick slide by without a cheesy introduction.

Derrick wondered to the back of the room where Mr. Penn had directed him to "the empty seat in the corner."

"Derrick!"

He looked up to find January giddily waving at him.

"Hey," he nodded.

"Where do you sit?" She whispered.

He pointed to the seat diagonally behind her.

She simply smiled then turned her attention back to the teacher.

Derrick sat down and threw his backpack down on the ground. He scanned the room quickly and immediately focused in on a particular brunette. She was two rows away—in the exact center of the room—looking as bored as ever while the chestnut haired boy behind her whispered something in her ear.

She seemed to laugh without smiling as she twiddled a pen around her thin fingers. What was the deal with Cam and Massie? There had to be some sort of history.

"Derrick."

He was immediately drawn back to reality when January called his name.

"Want to be partners?"

"Huh?" What had he just missed?

January giggled. She sure was cute when she did that. "For the project, want to be partners?"

"What project?"

"We're doing a series of projects on different events in US history and it's all going to pile up into a final project. This is the first one and we get to pick partners but everything else is going to be assigned." She explained patiently.

"Ohhh," He nodded, "yes, I will be your partner."

"Great," She hopped up and took the seat next to him. "So the first one is the Civil War. This should be pretty easy because we learned it in eighth grade and…"

Derrick's attention was quickly turned back toward Massie and Cam, who had decided to be partners—shocker. He was making her laugh again but this time she was actually showing amusement.

"They used to go out."

"Huh?"

"Freshman year." Derrick looked up to find January seated on his desk. "I kind of figured out you lost interest in the project when I didn't get a response."

"Oh, sorry," he punched himself for being so rude.

"It's okay," She smiled, almost sadly. "They usually get all the attention in a room anyways."

"What happened?"

"What else. He cheated." January crossed her legs seductively and Derrick felt a prick of sweat tap on his neck. "Multiple times."

He breathed in, actually feeling sorry for Massie.

"They weren't exactly official, but everyone knew Cam was Massie property and everything she owned was untouchable. But some girls thought they could have their five minutes of fame by sleeping with her guy. Massie found out, like she always does, and well…you can kind of guess what happened from there."

"Who were the girls?"

"Who knows, none of them had the guts to come out about it, no one can actually deal with Massie when she's really mad."

Derrick nodded, that explained a lot, but "How are they still friends?"

"Cam can charm." January shrugged, a few threads of shiny black hair fell off her bare shoulders. "He tried to get her back after that, and Massie finally decided to forgive him. But everyone knows she would never go through that again. Cam will always have a soft spot for her though."

Derrick watched as Cam leaned in closer to Massie and lightly pecked the bridge of her nose.

Massie immediately pushed him away, but she was laughing. Derrick could read her lips as they pronounced "what the hell!"

"Just for being cute," Cam's voice was barely audible.

Massie rolled her eyes as someone yelled across the room, "get a room you two!"

"Fuck you Kemp, I'd take your room but your blowup would probably get upset." Massie retorted.

A low rumble of "oooh"s echoed throughout the room as Kemp forcefully pushed out of his seat and lifted his fist in the air as a joking threat.

"Settle down class," Mr. Penn walked to the front of the room, sounding bored. "Get your partner's contact information if you don't already have it and we'll start chapter 7."

Sorry for the horrible ending but I sat in my chair thinking for about fifteen minutes and couldn't come up with anything. Maybe I'll edit it when something pops into my head.

Do you like it? Is that history enough? If enough of you guys want more detail or an actual flashback of some of the events during freshman year I'll probably post a chapter sometime soon (but it'll probably pop up somewhere random cause I want to continue with the story).

Please comment and review! Thanks for reading. The next chapter will be up soon (i know this for a fact because i have already written it :) )