The sound of my alarm clock was unnerving at 6:00 in the morning. I sat up abruptly, forgetting where I was at first. All it took was the unusually small room to make me remember. Oooh yes. School. I got up and dressed quickly, trying to make the day go by faster.

I was immediately glad I set my alarm really early, because I took forever trying to figure out what makeup I was going to wear. After a while I'd settled on light yellow eye shadow (to match my shirt) with black eyeliner, and a good coat of mascara.

I stepped back from the full-size mirror to make sure I got it all right.

I was kind of on the short side, okay, a lot on the short side. I was a junior in high school and I was only five foot one. On the plus side though, I had always been skinny. My hair was naturally jet black and perfectly straight just past my shoulders. I was wearing a yellow "To Write Love On Her Arms" tee, black and grey plaid skinny jeans and white double stack Creepers. My eyes had always been a strange colour. Grey. I like it, but my mom didn't. She said it was too unnatural. My sister, of course, had loved the colour though. My mother and sister also said I was breathtakingly beautiful, but I always ignored that, because I didn't want people saying that. I don't want to care about physical appearances. Alex had said so too, but just because she was close enough of a friend to not feel lesbian saying it.

I checked the clock. 7:00. Dang. School started at 7:20.

I pulled out the suitcase with all my school stuff in it, and threw it all in the backpack. I would organize it later... Maybe.

Three quick raps sounded on my door. "Haylie! Are you ready?" It was Alex.

"Yeah, just a second!" After putting my iPod and cell phone in my pockets, I slung my backpack over my arm and walked out of them room, trying to face the day with as much confidence as I could muster.

"Wow, you're actually ready on time!" She appraised when I closed the door behind me. Her black hair had an airy quality to it as it reached to her shoulder blades. She'd probably straightened it. Her shirt was pitch black, and she was wearing black short shorts and a dark gray belt. She striking green eyes were lined all the way around with black eyeliner. On her feet were black hightop converse, and, even wearing the flattest shoes in the world, she was over 3 inches taller than me.

I turned to face her. "Yeah, you're one to talk!" I mocked.

"I guess." She wouldn't admit to being wrong if her life depended on it, and this time she was very wrong. Miss procrastinator probably hadn't been to school on time once in her life.

We started our five minute walk to the school, focused on the sky. It was really cloudy, and looked like it was going to rain. I hoped it would end up being a thunder storm.

When we walked into our first class, we were greeted by 28 curious eyes, though there were 30 people in the class. I sighed internally. I thought by junior year we'd be done with this kind of stuff...

There were only 2 seats open, one in the very front, and one in very back. Better safe than sorry.

"I get the back seat." I whispered to Alex.

"Okay..." She answered absentmindedly. That surprised me, she used to always sit as far from the teachers as possible. I looked to see what had made her agree. Of course, it was a guy right next to the front open seat. Typical.

I rolled my eyes. As I set my stuff down at my seat in the back, I prayed to be treated like I'd been going here for years, but, I guess the teacher had other ideas.

"Okay, Haylie and... Alexandria, I believe. Please come up here so I may sign your schedules.

Alex had been flirting with the guy, and didn't notice at first that the teacher had called us up. I thumped her head as I walked by, and muttered, "Whore." She childishly stuck her tongue out at me and grabbed her schedule.

After I walked past her though, someone stuck their foot out in front of me, and I didn't realize this until it was too late. The room had been almost silent, so the only sound was the thud of my body smacking against the linoleum and the huff of air as it was forced out of my lungs. The entire class was laughing hysterically.

I wasn't embarrassed, no damage to my pride, or anything. These kind of things happen to everyone, but I didn't understand why it was so funny to everyone, until I looked up.

The teacher was right in front of me. I'd landed right at his feet, and he was MAD. His face was slowly turning into an odd shade of red, and his expression was livid. I scrambled to my feet, and looked at him apologetically. Some first impression.

He just put his hand out and Alex and I put our schedules in his hand, for me, regretfully. He silently signed the papers and handed them back, glaring at me. I ducked my head and watched my step cautiously as I made my way back to my desk in the back.

The teacher started his lecture, introducing himself as Mr. Larner, and I tried as well as I could to make it look like I was paying good attention. It was really hard to do when the movement of people turning around and snickering kept distracting me.

The girl on my left turned toward me, and I expected her to snicker like everyone else in this goddamm class, but instead she played friendly.

"Hey, you okay?" She whispered.

"Yeah I'm fine, thanks."

"Good! I'm Rachel, by the way."

"I'm Haylie, you probably know that though."

"If you two girls are done gossiping back there, I'd like to continue the lesson." The teacher broke threw our apparently obvious conversing.

We both apologized, and I looked back at my desk, but Rachel pulled out a notebook, and started scribbling something down. While she was doing that, I saw the boy on my right glance at me. Rachel must've noticed too, because she scrubbed out whatever she had written and wrote something else.

The piece of paper slid on my desk, and, even though she was sitting right next to me, she had folded it into one of those star shapes. I always had problems trying to open these... Once I figured out its complex form, I tried to make out the creased letters. Eventually I was able to make the messy lines and scribbles form words.

Gerard is staring at you!

Oh boy...

Is that the boy sitting next to me?

Yes!

Uh, he just glanced!

Oh c'mon! It still has to mean something!

I've only been in class for half an hour! It can't mean crap.

Can too. Isn't he hawt?

Sorry Rachel, but I really don't care.

WHAT? Just look at him!

Why are we passing notes about boys anyway?

Because! Just look.

Why?

I think he likes you!

Oh sure. Any guy who is that easy isn't worth the effort.

You can hope!

I'm more of a person who hopes for things worth hoping for.

...Huh?

Oh forget it.

C'mon, would it really hurt that much to look?

No, but I'm content with not really stressing about it.

...Are you lesbian?

What? No. Just because I don't care if the guy sitting next to me is hot doesn't mean I'm a lesbian. I'm just not looking for the drama right now.

Eh, that's boring.

I didn't reply after that, the class was getting packed up, and I didn't want to talk about boys anymore. I neve cared about them as much as most girls do. Of course if a guy asked me out, I'd consider it, depending on who it was. I just wasn't going to go out of my way in a desperate search of a boyfriend.

I could tell already, Rachel meant trouble... I still should try to be nice. If she was popular, she would start a rumor spree, and those are never fun, for the one rumored about anyway.

The bell rang then, and I tried to escape from Rachel without being mean about it, but she followed me over to where Alex was.

I had to guess I would be seeing a lot of her today...