Disclaimer: I don't own Detroit Rock City, just Sherrie and my other OCs.

The title was taken from a Kiss song of the same name.

Warning: more strong language, sexual suggestiveness and mention of drug use

Chapter 2

Hotter Than Hell

Three Years ago, summer, 1975

"Why would you want to be Paul Stanley's groupie? Gene Simmons is way cooler!" Lex argued as he and Sherrie sat at a local hamburger joint. The restaurant was a short walk from Lex's house. It was their favorite place to go after class, a place that even the guys didn't know about. As usual, they shared a plate of French fries between them, smothered in ketchup.

"I don't want to be his groupie Lex..." She started before she was rudely interrupted,

"Then what-"

"I want to marry him of course!" Lex tried not to choke on his food as he started laughing uncontrollably. "Don't laugh asshole, I mean it!" She retorted angrily, shoving his chocolate shake into his face in a half-hearted way to keep him from choking. "If I'm his wife, he won't be able to sleep around with any of those whores and he'll be all mine." She reasoned. Lex shook his head, Sherrie was delusional if she thought a rockstar would give up sleeping with groupies because of a few wedding vows, but he felt he should let her have her dream, she did seem rather proud that she'd thought of it after all... Her sapphire eyes were staring back intensely at him beneath her over-processed black bangs,

"I swear, if you tell anyone-and I mean anyone-especially that motherfucker, Hawk, I'll punch you in the balls so hard your children's children will feel it!" She punctuated the threat by banging her fist against the table.

"Okay, okay," He held up his hands in mock fear, "I promise I'll never tell anyone. Cross my heart and hope to die! Are we good?" He asked as he drew an x over his heart. She smiled, knowing she would never do anything to intentionally hurt him.

"Yeah, we're good."

Back to September, 1978

Lex wondered if it really was Sherrie they were talking about, but judging from what Hawk and Trip had said, there was no way. Sherrie hated stellas just as much as the rest of them and she would never in a million years dress like one of them. And the girl they mentioned was a blonde. It was true that Sherrie was a natural blonde, but she never liked the way she was perceived. It was one of the reasons why she always dyed it black, to avoid being called dumb or worse, angelic and innocent. "Rockstars are not supposed to be angelic and innocent looking!" She had once argued. Sherrie, like the rest of them, had dreams about being a rock n' roll star, not to mention being the world's greatest guitarist. If Lex recalled, Sherrie would practice on her electric guitar until her hands cramped and her fingers bled. Her hands were always covered in bandages when she was first learning to play and he could imagine that those same hands were now spotted with calluses. Sherrie's determination to become something better than the small town girl with the big dreams was astonishing, but now he guessed she no longer had to worry about that. The school bell rang, interrupting his thoughts and signaling that it was time to go to class.

"Oh? Is it that time already?" Hawk said nonchalantly, stretching as he did so. Lex rolled his eyes, it was obvious that his friend was only too eager to get to class. His friend seemed more confident with the ladies after his supposed tryst with the milf, Amanda Finch. Lex was certain that Hawk had made the story up, he couldn't believe that an attractive, older woman would look twice at someone like him. Hell, the girls at their own school didn't even spare him a passing glance! Hawk was the eldest in their group and the self-appointed leader. He wore a worn out green army jacket that looked almost like a trench coat on his small frame. He also smoked like a train which Lex had once deducted was possibly why he was shorter than all of them. But what Hawk lacked in height he made up for in personality. "See ya at lunch muchachos!" Hawk said as he patted Lex on the back. Lex watched Trip and Hawk practically skip to class before turning around and following Jam to their homeroom.

Sherrie felt awkward sitting in the center of a bunch of kids she knew from middle school. None of them had recognized her or even attempted to say hello or throw mean comments at her. The nerd on her right looked at her timidly behind an American History textbook and she could hear the girls gossiping quietly about the family she came from. She snickered when she heard something about her dating John Travolta. Ha! Never in a million years stellas! She looked up when two familiar faces strolled through the door, thinking for sure that they'd recognize her. She was confused when Hawk only winked at her and Trip looked at her like she was the biggest bag of weed he'd ever seen.

Class passed by at a slower pace than usual. Hawk sat beside Trip in the back of the room, trying to devise a way to get the hottie in the tight blue jeans to notice him. He'd first tried throwing wads of paper at her head, which worked the first time he'd tried it. She'd turned around in her seat and looked straight at him without missing a beat as if she knew it could only be him who'd thrown it. She'd returned his gesture with a glare that was unnervingly familiar before turning around to face the board again. He continued to throw wads of paper at her, but the next few times she just ignored him. He blew his bangs out of his eyes as he started to become frustrated. He was all out of paper and it wasn't like he'd brought any writing utensils to the first day of school, as if he'd bring them anyway...Their teacher was finished explaining the syllabus when he pulled out a projector and started up an educational film about world politics. Trip leaned over to whisper to him just then,

"Hey Hawk, why didn't we just ditch this class in the first place?" He asked. Hawk turned to look at his friend,

"Whaddaya mean? I thought you had this big revelation in Detroit and were planning on doing better in school?" Trip shrugged, he had seemingly reconsidered his decision.

"Well yeah, tomorrow! It's not like we get a grade for the first day of school, they don't even give out homework man!" Hawk frowned at Trip and turned his attention back to the new girl who hadn't looked back at him once since he'd thrown that first wad of paper.

Sherrie was relieved when class was over, she could have sworn Hawk was staring holes through the back of her head. And she had no intention to stay behind after class and talk with him either, even if he had recognized her, which it was obvious now that he hadn't. She despised Hawk. He was a lecherous pervert and an arrogant asshole. And on top of that, he used to tease the hell out of her until she exploded in anger. Which was something that she had tried with all of her might not to do when he was throwing wads of paper at her head. Even after all this time the bastard hadn't changed! And Trip, as usual, was his partner in crime stealing syllabus pages from a group of geeks and building paper airplanes to throw at her! Sherrie had put up with Hawk because he was Lex's friend but Trip was an entirely different story. In elementary school, Trip had been their bully. He had matured faster than the other kids and had towered over her, Lex and Jam. It wasn't until Hawk came to their school and broke Trip's nose for trying to steal his lunch money that Trip joined their circle of friends. Sherrie supposed it had something to do with male dominance and Trip's tendency to submit to anyone stronger than him. Trip had immediately become Hawk's subordinate after that and did anything the boy asked. She knew that Trip held an immense amount of respect for Hawk, but she could never understand why. She stopped off at her locker to put her books away when the 'get to class' bell rang. She looked up at the clock, confused. It read 10:40, she had five minutes to get to class. "Shit." She cursed, slamming the lock against her locker door in frustration. Pissed that she had to carry her books to class, she ran up the double staircase to her next class, biology.

Hawk sat alone at one of the lab tables, an outcast as usual. The girls in his class avoided him like he had leprosy or something. Like Trip said, nothing ever happened on the first day of class, so why had he bothered coming? He kept asking himself that question when the dreamy girl from his homeroom burst through the door and supplied him with his answer. Sweat gleamed off of her porcelain skin as she gasped for breath. The biology teacher, Mr. Tuttle, who was well known for being a stickler for rules, looked over his spectacles at her in disapproval as he was rudely interrupted.

"Sorry I'm late." She apologized nervously.

"Ah, you must be..." He looked down the list of names, "Miss Winters." He raised his brows as he recognized the prestigious name, deciding to let her off easy, "Since it's the first day of school I'll let you off with a warning, now please find a place to sit." She looked around the room, seemingly disheartened when she realized all the tables were full, the girls in the room looked sorry for her as her eyes settled on the last lab table. Hawk looked back at her with a huge grin plastered on his face, his arms folded behind his head as he rested his feet on the table in front of him. Suddenly, his luck was turning around. She looked at him like someone had just sentenced her to death in the electric chair and heavily plopped down on the stool next to him. Hawk had taken the outside seat, leaving her trapped between him and the wall, she mentally cringed at the thought of the bastard boxing her in. Mr. Tuttle scolded Hawk for having his feet on the work table before going back to the syllabus. That was when Hawk turned to her with what he hoped was a charming smile.

"What's up sweet cheeks?" He crooned. It took everything she had not to retch at the thought of him trying to hit on her. She decided to ignore him instead of encouraging him further which unfortunately made Hawk all the more determined. The scent of cigarettes and marijuana emanated off of him and she inhaled deeply, God she had missed that smell...it reminded her of home and of mom. Smoking wasn't allowed in debutante school and her grandmother had made her give it up as soon as she moved in, 'A lady shouldn't stink like tobacco!' she had said. If she were honest with herself, she was actually happy to be rid of the habit, she could breathe a lot easier, food tasted better and quitting had improved the health of her hair and nails. The fact that the nostalgic smell was coming from Hawk made her think that maybe she had missed him too, despite the fact that his very being annoyed her to no end. He was better than the braggy, affluent friends she had made in Massachusetts, that's for sure...

Like any teenaged boy, Hawk immediately noticed that the girl's peasant blouse was a little too tight for school protocol, revealing just a hint of cleavage and he couldn't help but stare at her fine pair of perky c-cup tits. He unconsciously licked his lips at the thought of getting his hands on the soft, heavenly cushions. Sherrie caught him staring out of the corner of her eye and clenched her hands into fists. 'Yeah, the thought about missing him, scratch that, I'd rather be back in Massachusetts having Chet fawn all over me than have Hawk stare at me so fucking openly!' If they weren't in the middle of class she'd smash his face in. Hawk then noticed the small silver cross around her neck and smirked, 'Perfect.' He thought, clearing his throat as he prepared to deploy one of the many pickup lines he had up his sleeve, he obviously didn't notice the tightening of her jaw. He turned to face her fully,

"Are you religious? Because you're the answer to all my prayers." Sherrie rolled her eyes before turning to him with a deadpanned look on her face, the idiot was illiterate when it came to body language,

"Look, I have no intention whatsoever of dating you so you might as well give up before you embarrass yourself...or get your ass kicked." She whispered before turning around and facing the teacher once more who was still droning on boringly about the consequences of chewing gum in his class. Hawk laughed, damn she was feisty! Just his type! Finally he was getting somewhere,

"Damn baby, how'd you know I like it rough?" He replied, draping an arm over the back of her chair. She was getting pissed now,

"Listen dickhead, If you took your head out of your ass maybe you'd realize that I'm not into you, now take your goddamned hand off of my shoulder before I break your fucking fingers!" She spouted angrily, getting right up in his face. All the expletives came pouring out of her after being suppressed for so long, the heat of the anger flowing through her blood felt strangely good, almost orgasmic. Hawk wasn't moved by her threats in the least and simply leaned in and pulled her roughly into a kiss that she neither wanted nor could refuse while his arms held her tightly to him.

"Stop that immediately!" Their biology teacher shouted. The other students were looking at them with shocked looks on their faces. The few cheerleaders in class watched intently for details to provide to the rest of the squad later. Sherrie took this chance to push Hawk as far away from her as possible, making sure to smack him across the face as she did. Hawk seemed unperturbed by the slap and simply smirked at her as if to say, 'You know you liked it.' Sherrie wiped her mouth in disgust at the taste of tobacco and the fact that she had just lost her first kiss to someone that she had once declared her undying hatred for. Their teacher was none too pleased and his face was so red it seemed like he might spontaneously combust,

"I've never heard such language spoken in this classroom! Nor such a public display of affection! Miss Winters, you have broken three rules. I let you off easy before because I knew you came from a well-to-do family, but I cannot excuse such crudeness in a place of learning!" Hawk started snickering, "What are you laughing at Mr. Clark?" Hawk froze at the use of his last name, "You are just as responsible and just as deserving of a detention!" Their biology teacher pulled out two slips of paper with their names on it and handed it to them. Sherrie snatched hers from him, astonished,

"This is so unfair! He's the one who started it!" She shouted in outrage. Damn that Hawk! She was already in trouble because of him and it wasn't even eleven o' clock yet!

"And I'm finishing it Miss Winters! Now get out of my classroom this instant!" Their irate, middle-aged science teacher pointed towards the door and Sherrie reluctantly grabbed her stuff and headed out the door with Hawk in tow, too angry to even acknowledge his presence.

—-

So his pickup line hadn't gone as planned, but now the girl was stuck with him in detention, how lucky for him! As far as he was concerned, he still had a chance. The girl hadn't looked at him or said a word to him since they'd left the classroom and in all honesty he had felt a little bad for getting her in trouble. He wiped the strawberry lipgloss off his face, remembering the look she had given him when he'd let go of her. Her face had flushed a bright red and she'd looked at him as if he'd stolen something valuable that she could never get back. But surely he was mistaken, that couldn't have been her first kiss? A gorgeous girl like her, she probably had to wear a chastity belt and beat men off with a stick. He shook his head, maybe he had imagined it.

Dammit, this was not how she wanted to start off her first day here! Her Grandmom would be so upset to know she had gotten a detention and Sherrie knew the elderly woman would blame the school's delinquency and say that she was better off in Massachusetts. Not that that was entirely untrue...she thought as she glared back at the delinquent who was responsible for this mess. He didn't notice her glare as he ripped through basketball flyers and football banners, skipping through the halls as if he were glad for the excuse to get out of class. He met her eyes before puckering his lips in a mockery of their previous kiss, causing her to turn her eyes forward in indignation. She made sure to walk ahead of him until they reached their destination, an almost empty classroom except for the familiar face in the very back. Hawk walked in and noticed Trip was already there, sitting in the back of the room. His lanky friend gave him a double thumbs up when he noticed the new girl was with him. It really didn't surprise her to see Trip in detention as she suspected it was a common occurrence. The overweight, middle-aged woman in charge of detention took the slip from her before inquiring,

"Hmm, a newcomer huh?" She then noticed who was standing behind her, "Ah, Mr. Clark, I didn't expect to see you so late in the morning, I expected you earlier." Hawk balked at the use of his real name, "It's Hawk." He said before leaning down and folding his arms on the desk, "And may I say Mrs. Newberry you are looking beautiful today." He said, hoping his charm would get him out of detention earlier. She looked at him with a bored expression on her face, she had obviously heard it all before and she snubbed him before turning back to Sherrie,

"You look like a nice girl, I'm sorry you had to get caught up with this riffraff."

"Yeah, me too." Sherrie said pointedly. Hawk held his hand to his chest in fake astonishment,

"Riffraff? I'm hurt!" Mrs. Newberry ignored him as she explained the rules to Sherrie,

"No talking or gum chewing, you can sit wherever except next to these two." She pointed at Trip and Hawk with her number two pencil, "Detention ends at 12:15 for lunch and after that you're expected to attend the rest of your classes for the day." Sherrie nodded before taking her seat, making it a point to sit in the center of the room, there was no way she was going to be trapped against the wall again. Hawk sat in the back with Trip whom was ecstatic.

"Hey man, so is she really a stella or what?" He asked. Hawk shrugged,

"I don't know, so far she seems pretty stella-ish to me." Hawk said, referring to the fact that she seemed to want nothing to do with him. Trip seemed rather disheartened at this statement and his face fell. In the midst of everything, Hawk had forgotten to even mention Kiss to her, he was too busy thinking with his dick. "She's kind of pissed at me for getting her in trouble so I doubt she'll even talk to me, but I'm gonna find out right now." He said as Mrs. Newberry left the room to take a bathroom break. He got up and plopped down in the desk to the left of Sherrie's. "What's up Stella?" He greeted, doing a double-take when she flinched at the nickname, he knew that most stellas didn't recognize the term and usually answered with 'my name's not Stella'. She didn't say anything, silently seething as she tapped her perfectly manicured nails against the desk. "Hey look, I'm sorry for what happened earlier, I guess I got caught up in the moment." She continued to stare down at her desk, she couldn't believe it, Hawk was actually apologizing to her? "It's just that, you're one of the hottest chicks I've ever seen." She looked up at him then, thinking for a moment that he knew who she was and that he was only playing with her,

"Really?" She asked uncertainly. He nodded his head,

"Yeah, a total fox." He winked at her and she started laughing hysterically. Hawk looked around hesitantly, "Did I say something funny?" She was gasping for air when she finally looked over at him,

"You really don't remember me, do you Hawk?" He blinked, staring back at her. At no time did he remember ever introducing himself nor telling her his name. Wait, that wasn't right, he'd said it to Mrs. Newberry but...

"Huh?" He asked with a dumbfounded expression. Remember her? He thought for sure he'd remember a girl as good looking as her, especially one that listened to Kiss. She cleared her throat, looking him straight in the face. It took him a while before he finally realized who he was looking at...and who he kissed in biology. Her face lit up with glee when a horrified expression crossed his features. "Holy shit." He said quietly, "You're Sherrie Merle aren't you?" He said wide-eyed, looking as if he wanted to hurl...or run away. She smiled sweetly back at him.

"Congratulations darling, I guess you're not a complete moron." She leaned in closer, looking as if she were going to kiss him, her eyes becoming hooded as she whispered, "And if you ever put that filthy mouth on mine again I'll send your fucking head to the moon." She sat back in her chair, "And I don't mean the one on your shoulders." Hawk knew he shouldn't be getting a hard on right now, but he couldn't help it, her threats were turning him on. The gangly girl with the whiny, high pitched voice whom he had once joked looked more like Joey Ramone than Joan Jett had suddenly become hot. "Am I being perfectly fucking clear?" She asked with a glare when he hadn't done so much as stare at her.

"Crystal fucking clear." He answered with a challenging little smirk. He decided he liked this new Sherrie and in no way was the fact that she was the obnoxious girl from his childhood going to deter him from her. He looked back at Trip who was hankering for details and obviously knew nothing of their whispered conversation. 'Wait until the guys get a load of this'. He thought.

Author's note:

Ok, so no Lex and Sherrie action this chapter, but I promise I'll get to it next time!

Also, I wanted to say a few things, I've been a little rusty and as a result hadn't written anything in a while...this is my first time writing in 6 months I think! I purchased a few books that I would highly recommend if whether you are a beginner or a seasoned writer: "outlining your novel" and "structuring your novel" both by K.M. Weiland. They have both helped me out a lot when it comes to writer's block and thinking about where I want the story to go. When I write, I usually start out with a rough outline or general idea of what direction I want the chapter to take. Then using the very rough, general guidelines, I dive right in and write a rough draft of the chapter based purely on my flow of thought. After that, I go back though and edit out unnecessary items and add more content or I sometimes scrap the idea entirely and start over! I usually try to set a goal for where I want the story to end up so that I'm not wandering aimlessly. Anyway, I just wanted to share my process with you all and I hope that it helps other aspiring writers! Thank you for reading and please leave a review and tell me what you thought!