chapter o1.
Opening the door of her dorm room, the first thing Allie-Rose Singer saw was a black-haired girl, with tanned skin, straddling a boy and kissing the life out of him. She first stopped, her manicured hand still tightly wound around the doorknob and then her gut instinct told her she should probably shut the door and come back later.
The raven-haired girl turned though, faster than Allie-Rose could bolt it and the girl gave Allie-Rose a tantalizing smile, her ethereal beauty making Allie-Rose question why she was even alive.
"Oh!" The girl got up, ignoring the protests of the boy on the bed, who simply grumbled and grabbed his phone from the nightstand, "You must be my new roommate," she grinned, her black hair falling all around her and tumbling down her sharp collarbones where a Tom Binns necklace was sparkling over the girl's casual Calypso Barth tee and her white short-shorts. She had dark brown eyes, ones that you could find on just about anyone, but lined with thick, black eyelashes and with an understanding softness, even her eyes were prettier than Allie-Rose, wonderful. "I'm Alicia Rivera," she cooed, holding out a hand covered in diamond-studded Cartier bangles.
It took Allie-Rose a second to process that the girl was Australian, or British, or whatever. It only made Allie-Rose feel even more lame in comparison. Her self-esteem of being at a new school had plummeted to an all time low. It was like being a contestant of Biggest Loser and standing beside Miranda Kerr - utterly embarrassing.
"I'm Allie-Rose Singer," Allie said, holding her hand out. Alicia grabbed it and shook it firmly. She didn't seem even slightly self-conscious that Allie-Rose had walked in on her getting ready to undress with a strange boy who was just lying in boredom on one of the two queen-sized beds. "Uh, hi."
Alicia continued to smile warmly at Allie-Rose and then plopped down on a plush beanbag that was on her side of the extremely spacious dorm-room. Allie presumed that the unbelievably pricey tuition did in fact go somewhere. There were two large beds, two big oak vanities and two mirrored closets and a door to a private bathroom that was currently oozing the smell of coconut shampoo.
Luckily enough, Allie's things had been brought in the day before, her luggage had been shipped to the school and one of the staff members had brought it up before her arrival, it had seemed however,that she wouldn't be getting a say in which side was hers or what the room turned out like, Alicia had already made herself at home.
"Allie-Rose," most of the time it would have irritated Allie that someone had to say her entire name but when Alicia said it, it sounded kind of poetic, "this is Cameron Fisher," the boy in question looked up at his name being said and gave Allie a half grin. His hair was kind of shaggy and fell into his eyes, it was jet black and made even Alicia's hair look brown in comparison. The interesting part were his eyes, which only in the light could you see were two completely different colors - one blue, one green - it was kind of freaky and ultimately attractive.
"Call me Cam," he drawled.
Allie smiled back awkwardly and then unzipped her Kate Spade luggage, scooping out the contents and dropping them on her bed, trying and failing at looking as nonchalant as Alicia Rivera who at this point was still staring at Allie's back.
"Well then," Cam muttered, getting up and buttoning his shirt. "I'd best be going and allow you two ladies to get to know each other...perhaps pillow fights in your underwear, dumping wine on each other, the works." His voice was kind of deep and hollow, and wasn't too loud either, but it was the kind of voice that made you want to listen.
"Shut up, Cam!" Alicia threw an embroidered A pillow at the door just as it clicked shut.
"Your boyfriend is quite the charmer," Allie-Rose said, holding up a DKNY sweater and debating whether or not to change into it.
"Boyfriend?" Alicia cackled - fantastic, even her laugh was sexy - "please, he's not my boyfriend...ooh, cute sweater!" Alicia got up and made her way to Allie, her skinny and yet curvy body pressing against Allie's bed. "Mind if I borrow?"
"Sure," Allie-Rose shrugged and threw the sweater at Alicia who it seemed was doused in the intoxicating scent of Angel. For some reason, Allie-Rose felt like she'd seen Alicia somewhere, maybe she'd modeled for Vogue or Elle, in fact Allie wouldn't be the least bit surprised if Alicia had.
"I think this is going to be the beginning of a beautiful friendship Ms. Singer. Let's toast to it." Alicia got up and tiptoed to her mini fridge, pulling out a bottle of wine and a bottle of Scotch, "which will it be?"
Great, Allie-Rose thought, her new roommate was a slutty alcoholic.
"This seat taken?" Massie Block stopped tapping her OPI coated nails against her table at Venti!, the new hit school cafe. The voice was all too familiar and Massie just rolled her eyes.
"Fine, but this better be good, Hamilton." Skye Hamilton smiled menacingly at Massie to which Massie rolled her amber eyes. Skye's blonde hair was up in a twisted, smooth, chignon bun with a plaid headband encrusted with Swarowski crystals. Her long legs were exposed with a tight, navy blue pencil skirt and a white halter neck, silk, shirt gave her chest and shoulders more than enough breathing room. Slut.
"Well, you know how much I love the Hamptons, don't you?" Massie sipped her skinny latte, bored already. She let her eyes swoop the crowd, looking for someone far more interesting to speak with. On most occasions she'd tell Skye off, but for some reason Skye seemed too smug for Massie to not listen. She thought of all the people she'd rather be talking to, top on the list was her delicious boyfriend of a year and a half, Danny Robbins, who was staring at Yale in the matter of a week. Massie smiled to herself and then turned to Skye, raising a perfectly plucked brow.
"I don't actually know that and I couldn't care less, but please get to the fucking point," pushing aside her razor cut bangs, that gave just the flirty touch that Massie was going for, she pursed her glossed lips in hopes that Skye Hamilton would hurry the fuck up so that Massie could finally go back to her dorm room and attend her scheduled date with September's issue of Vogue, preparing for hers, Kristen's and Alicia's back-to-school sleepover.
"Hm, always in a hurry," Skye's eyes twinkled and she spun the back of her Samsung Galaxy on the clean tabletop, around and around and around. "Anyway," the momentary thought of spilling her drink on Skye occurred to Massie, but she brushed it aside, taking to check her Michael Kors rose-gold watch instead, "I was there this summer, as you know, with my family...including my step-brother, and I just so happened to catch some very interesting things...how long have you and Danny been dating again?"
Massie's stomach dropped, she looked back to Skye, and stared into those heartless, light blue eyes that had more than often reminded Massie of the Tiffany&Co. boxes. Then again, Tiffany boxes made Massie happy with the prospect of finding something new and shiny, whereas Skye was dangling Massie's life right in front of her very eyes, and nothing about this was happy.
"Wh-what?" Massie asked, raising her wrist to bring the welcoming scent of Chanel No. 5 to her ski-slope nose. For all Massie knew Skye was playing one of her little games, and in fact knew nothing at all.
"I have pictures," Skye said, a monstrous look flashing through her eyes, "would you like to see?" Without any hesitation, Skye opened up her pictures folder and scrolled through the albums until she reached one titled 'Oops!' and giggling to herself for a moment, she opened it with a click and showed Massie exactly what she feared. "Junior year is going to be great, isn't it Mass?"
Massie nodded numbly, whoever said the Devil wears prada was wrong, the Devil wore Lacoste and the Devil was sitting right across from Massie with a look of complete bliss on her face.
Skye Hamilton was the Devil's incarnate, and here Massie Block thought she was the bitch.
If someone were to ask Kemp Hurley what he thought of perfection, he'd point a finger at Claire Lyons, then again no one really ever asked such a stupid question.
Leaned up against a tree, with her blonde hair blowing in the hot Connecticut wind and her eyes trained to a notepad while her long limbs were stretched around her, she looked absolutely celestial.
"-did you hear a thing I just said?" Kristen Gregory asked. Kemp shook his head and then looked at Kristen who was juggling four AP textbooks in one arm as she felt around her skirt for her phone. Kemp had to admit, that Kristen was quite a match for Claire. With short wispy, butter-blonde hair, pouty pink lips, pale skin that turned red at nearly any dirty comment, and legs that ran for miles, she was quite the catch. That and her gray-blue eyes always had a look of set concentration. But Kemp wasn't interested.
"No," he responded honestly, grabbing two books from Kristen, she muttered a thankful response and ducked her head to search her bag. "You know what, why don't you go back to your dorm and I'll go look in the library for your phone?"
Kristen's eyes widened and she raised her eyebrows, "you, doing a good deed? What drug are you on this time, Hurley?" Kemp smiled at Kristen and shrugged, rolling her eyes she walked away from him, "alright, thanks, I owe you one, and that doesn't mean hooking up in the janitor's closet by the way." He waited a good two minutes until she was out of sight (she had a nice ass, what was he supposed to do?), before jogging over to Claire Lyons.
"Hey," Claire looked up, looking like someone had just shaken her from a deep sleep and she pushed away a strand of golden hair, "how was your summer?" At this Claire grinned broadly, her pearly white teeth almost blinding.
"Great, and yours?" She asked, shutting her notepad when seeing Kemp's wandering eyes, and stood up.
"Fine, didn't see you though, so I guess that's a problem," Claire laughed, throwing her head back and then bit her lip, her body still shaking from silent mirth, her cheeks tinted with the slightest hue of pink.
"You're sweet," she muttered in her soft voice, "I'll see you soon, yeah?" She asked, pulling down her too-short pale pink dress that was fluttering in the wind, Kemp nodded woefully and watched her walk away through the grass towards Layton House where Kristen had already trekked to.
He was really starting to become pathetic.
"Nikki, if you get the smell of cigarettes on any of my limited edition Marc Jacobs clutches, I will throttle you." Carrie Randolph said. Carrie narrowed her hazel eyes at Nikki and threw her light brown hair over her shoulder, stomping her Valentino pumps over to her side of the room.
"You mean the bags you have in every, single, fucking color?" Nikki asked, her raspy voice was nearly chilling and Nikki loved the sound of it. Nikki lit up her third cigarette and watched Carrie throw open the bedroom window, shooting Nikki another glare.
"They're limited edition, Marc sent them to my mother himself," Carrie sat on the edge of her bed and unlatched her LV trunk, carefully pulling out eight bags that looked exactly the same but in different shades. Sickening really.
"Oooh," Nikki teased, "sounds expensive." Nikki walked towards Carrie and then, with a look at the horror on Carrie' face, Nikki put her cigarette out on the green version of the Limited Edition March Jacobs Clutch, "that one's cute," Nikki taunted, with a final laugh, she walked out of the room and let the door slam behind her.
Nikki loved a little thrill and she was beyond pissed that she was stuck in a double bedroom when she'd in fact had her own single bedroom for the past two years, ever since Livvy Collins got kicked out of Layton and sent to the Barnes dorms (where she belonged).
Letting her studded Steve Madden boots guide her out of Layton, Nikki walked with the poise of a princess and the stomp of a biker, her black hair up in a loose bun and a cigarette threatening to fall from her lips - unlit and ready to burn. Nikki found the pasty cigarette as a kind of metaphorical kick. Marching past horrified parents and students alike, Nikki, with her Aqua di Gio and smoke scented aura, made her way towards the Bentley boys' dorms.
Room 204 was the one she was going for and when she opened the door she was almost delighted.
"Nikki," a voice said knowingly. The back of said speaker was turned away from Nikki, hunched over a laptop, no doubt working on a school essay that was due the next day. "Need something?"
"Tell me Joshua, how the hell it's fair that I am stuck with the world's biggest prat, while everyone else has their own dorm? Hm?" She kicked off her boots and reclined on his newly made bed. It smelt faintly like mint and washed clothes. It was comforting and yet in seconds it would be inevitably covered in the scent of Nikki Dalton. "She has the exact same bag in every color of the rainbow, she's deranged! How do you reason they decided to put me with her?"
"Because you threw a party in your room last semester with students from LA that don't go here, and then had a girl's hair catch on fire, that's if I remember correctly," Josh swiveled around to face her. In his pale yellow polo and his freshly cut hair, Nikki thought that if she was a prep bitch like Massie Block, she might have had the urge to kiss him, but that was neither here nor there.
"Sounds like it was a blast," Nikki drawled, quirking a smile his way, Josh rolled his eyes and then kicked his legs up on the book stand beside him, The Other Side of Paradise, The Right Stuff and In Cold Blood toppled over and Josh didn't even flinch as they slapped against the hardwood floors. "Now, do you have any ideas on how we can have a little fun?" Nikki quirked a black eyebrow, weaving her unlit cigarette from finger to finger and back again, her kohl stained eyes watching Josh with intensity.
"I've told you a million times, Dalton, I'm not an avid supporter of...herbal meds...like you just so happen to be." Nikki cackled and rolled over on Josh's bed, her slouchy Acne sweater twisting around her body.
"I missed you, Hotz, you and I are going to have quite some fun this year."
Derrick Harrington wanted to save face, at least a little, but so far it wasn't going so well for him.
In fact, he was in the Rosenburg library studying for his AP Rhetoric test, that was no doubt going to be on the summer reading he hadn't done, on Move-In Day. What kind of cold-hearted bitch assigned summer homework? If he was lucky the teacher would be some sort of easygoing, hot woman that he could easily persuade with his boyish charms.
He shrugged at this thought and flipped the page in his novel, something to do with a lady who had cells stolen from her or something and he wasn't sure whether it was fiction or nonfiction or what the hell the thing was even about. Setting the orange book down, he looked around the library thoughtfully, there had to be some nerd here that could debrief him. He wasn't even able to find the damn book on SparkNotes and if the idiots who ran that website didn't even want to write about it, then the book had to suck.
Just his luck he saw a brush of chestnut tresses weave behind a bookshelf and he got up to go approach the frigid bitch herself, she always did her summer work and with any luck she would have Kristen's notes.
"Are you Derrick?" Derrick was halfway to Massie Block when he stopped and stared at a girl with freakishly light green eyes and brown hair that looked like she had cut it herself. Her hair curled around in wisps and she smelled like his mom's chamomile tea. Not to mention the fact that she was dressed in a long brown skirt with a t-shirt that was too tight to be acceptable (not that he minded) which read MAKE LOVE, NOT WAR. He was alarmed for her though, how did she go to GPA and not know who he was for certain? Maybe she was new. "Hello?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm Derrick, who's asking?" He asked, rubbing the back of his neck, a few girls at a table next to him giggled at his gesture and he grinned at them, but was quickly broken from his trance by the snapping fingers of the girl in front of him.
"Hey? Okay, thank you, I was in fact asking. Can you give these to Cam, the asshole left them in my room last semester," she held up a pair of black Polo boxers and Derrick literally stepped back when she pinched the fabric and held it up to his face.
"What the hell?! Why would I ever touch that?" He whisper-hissed. He made a dirty face and then realized the gravity of what she was implying, "wait, you and Cam?" He raised his eyebrows and messed up his already messy blonde hair. Cam really did get around - he was best friends with a whore.
The girl rolled her eyes and then grimaced, "he gets a thrill out of doing the nasty on my African sheets with the incense sticks burning." Derrick snorted, "well excuse me, I'm perfectly bangable, I'd just like to let you know." Derrick laughed, biting his lip hard to keep the laughter from getting him kicked out of the library. "You're unbelievable, whatever, can you give these back to him? My mom found them and she's kind of a bit suspicious as it, so it would be nice of you to er, return them."
"I don't know what possessed you to think I'd take those, whatever-your-name-is, but you might as well throw them in the trash, I'm sure Cameron dearest has other underwear."
"First off, the name is Layne, secondly, he told me these were his lucky pair, so I'm trying to do the right thing and give them back." At Layne's rather loud statement a few people looked up and saw her standing there, one hand on her hip and the other holding out a pair of boxers in Derrick's face. If she kept this up people would get the completely wrong idea. Derrick hooked up with girls like Alicia Rivera and Olivia Ryan, not Layne the Underwear Thief.
"That's probably just a line, now could you lower those?" Derrick pushed her hand down and finally Layne gave up, shoving the boxers in her bag and then began muttering in some foreign language that Derrick was pretty sure was Swahili. "Alright, thank you." Layne mumbled something that sounded like 'whatever' and turned to leave, "wait, have you by chance read this?" He held up his book and Layne scoffed at him.
"Obviously."
a/n: this is so pathetic, ughhh. i didn't even edit.
i know where i want to go with this story and what everyone's storylines are but i hate my writing style and i was literally stuck on how to start this for like a year. so here it is. i know i left out a lot of people and i changed some people's personalities, but i will fix all of that once i get fully moving into the plot. most of the time i wouldn't introduce a problem in the very first chapter but i didn't want to stall it so as you can see massie and skye don't get along and skye has something on massie.
i also really want to play around with all the different pairings but i do know what pairings i'm going to use for endgame, well for now at least. so please comment with any ideas you have or any pairings you'd like to see, etc.
MERRY CHRISTMAS (eve)!
ps, this is somewhat heavily based on private as well as gossip girl, don't judge me.