Authors Note: Hello everyone, I'd just like to take the time to thank the THREE lovely people who took the time to reviewed the last chapter: Elenie, Russetstorm, and Charlotte1993 :) Thank you so much for the wonderful comments and I hope you will continue reading. Maybe this time we can shoot for FIVE to TEN comments? Because I know there are plenty of people reading the story! ;) Anyways, without further delay, here is Chapter Two! Also, In the last chapter I noticed some of the words somehow got stuck together without spaces, I don't know exactly what happened there but hopefully it was a fluke and won't accure in this chapter. If it does, please let me know and I will do something to fix that :)


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Chapter Two: Bittersweet Life by My Favorite Highway

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Chapter Two – Bittersweet Life

Amber POV

"So then he was all totally like 'I don't like you anymore, I like Nichole a lot more than you because she puts ou—'"

I covered my ears before hearing the rest of the pretty blonde's sentence. I want to slam my head down against the table in a repetitive pattern as a result of serious frustration as I listened to the girl drone on and on. All she was ever talking about these days was gossip, gossip, gossip. And it was mostly gossip about things I really didn't want to know.

'AH! Gaaah!' I thought angrily. I sat and tried to re-center my concentration, 'Wow, even my own thoughts aren't even making sense right now. Show's you how frustrated I am.'

I was currently sitting next to two of the most annoying people ever to walk the face of the earth. One of them was Carly Frayys, who was absolutely gorgeous. She had shoulder length platinum blonde hair and pretty hazel eyes and the type of body any girl would kill for and made the boys go crazy. Carly was extremely popular, the schools biggest gossip and caption of the cheerleading squad—although that was something I could care less about. The second girl was Carly's best friend, Audrey Mills. Audrey had long black curly hair and big blue eyes. She was pretty but know where near as pretty as Carly.

Carly and I were friends, but we weren't exactly close for the obvious reason that she bugged the crap out of me with her endless gossip. If she would tone down the drama-rama I could actually have a lot of fun hanging out with her. She also wasn't your typical blonde cheerleader. She was actually pretty smart and usually was nice. Although she defiantly had her bitch-moments, but then again, who doesn't?

I was not friends with Audrey at all though. We had been best friends at one point when we were in elementary school but after a while we grew apart when we entered Highschool and now we barely speak to each other. Truthfully she has turned into a bitch since she joined the cheerleading squad and frankly I'm only being civil to her for Carly's sake.

I was sitting with them in my third period class, which happened to be Study Hall. I was trying to come up with ways to kill our teacher, Mr. Grays, for sitting me next to these two insane people. Sure, I was friends with Carly but I really did not care to hear about how Kevin Emerson, Carly's on and off again boyfriend had cheated on her—for about the millionth time—with the school whore, Nichole Thames. I had no idea why Carly kept crawling right back to Kevin. He had hurt her so many times and despite how annoying she could be sometimes, she still didn't deserve it. It was obvious that he was just going to keep cheating on her again and again but she just didn't get it. I rolled my eyes and was brought out of my thoughts by Carly's voice yelling at me.

"—Amber, were you even listening to me at all?" she asked in an annoyed tone.

"Oh of course I was! How could I not be listening? I mean this is freakin' huge! Kevin cheated on you with Nichole. That so totally sucks." I said, the whole time my voice dripping with sarcasm that neither Carly, nor Audrey seemed to notice it.

"I know!" Carly cried with a small pout.

'Obviously she can't tell sarcasm from the truth.' I thought while resisting the urge to roll my eyes.

"So did you hear about Emma Adams and Brendan Wright having—" Audrey started but thankfully was cut off by the bell, signally the end of class. I was pretty much one hundred percent sure I did not want to hear the rest of that sentence. Everyone at SHS knew that Emma and Brendan were very—adventurous with their 'extra circular activities,' if you know what I mean.

I rushed out of the classroom as quick as I could before Audrey or Carly could get in a word otherwise. As I got to the cafeteria I saw Shay and Roxie waiting for me at the cafeteria doors just like they always did. I met up with them and then together we walked to the lunch line as I tried to calm myself. Minutes later I found myself surrounded by my other friends Ethan Abbott, Lola Reese, Xander Snipes and of course none other than Bentley Rivera.

I tugged slightly on the ends of my hair while muttering a string of profanities under my breath before finally saying, "Stupid studyhall. Stupid Mr. Grays. Stupid, stupid, stupid gossip freaks trying to obliterate my brain." I mumbled.

"Did you sit by Carly and Audrey again?" Ethan asked while laughing vaguely.

"I had to." I replied, pouting slightly. "Mr. Gray decided that he would make assigned seats today and now I have to sit with the two of them for the rest of the freakin' year!" I wailed. "I swear if I have to hear one more time about how Kevin cheated on Carly with Nichole I would shoot someone in the foot!"

"Why would you shoot someone in the foot, Amber? What damage would that do?" Xander asked.

I raised my eyebrow at him, "It's an expression, Xander—get with the program already." I sighed, sarcasm practically dripping from my words.

"Yeah Xander, get with the program!" Bentley countered in a high-pitched mocking voice.

Xander and Ethan were all trying to suppress their laughter while Lola, Shay and Roxie all looked at me with understanding etched onto their faces and nodding their heads in agreement while completely ignoring Xander and Bentley's theatrics. Unfortunately for them, the girls knew all too well how I felt, the boys were extremely lucky that they never had to sit through endless gossiping torture.

"I know exactly what you mean Amber," Roxie said, "Earlier today I had to listen to Audrey give me all the details about how Emma and Brendan had—" she started but I quickly put my hand over her mouth and her next words became muffled by my hand.

"Do not finish that sentence; I'm pretty sure nobody wants to hear it." I told her with a grimace as I took my hand away from her mouth.

"Thank god." Xander said with a slight grin.

"Audrey and Carly were going to tell me the full story, probably with juicy details but the bell cut them off before they got even a sentence into it." I explained.

Everyone sniggered and giggled about what I had said but we all agreed that nobody wanted to really know what happened between Emma and Brendon. And it wasn't as if they were bad people either, it's just that we usually didn't like digging into peoples personal lives. Emma and Brendon didn't mind, they were used to people gossiping about them by now. But, my friends and I weren't too big on gossip, thank god.

"So are we sitting at the usual table?" Lola asked us, taking the conversation into a different direction.

Bentley nodded, "I guess we are." He said.

Ethan, Xander, Roxie, Shay and I all nodded in agreement.

"Yeah we are. Avery, Gabrielle, Nick and Cody are all waiting for us at the table already since they went through the other lunch line." Xander told us.

Lunch was the one time that the 'Super Six' split up to go off and hang out with our own friends. Brie, Matt and Olivia usually sat together by themselves, because they didn't get along with the other Juniors and Seniors while Roxie, Shay and I had plenty of friends within the Sophomore class. Avery Jennings, Gabrielle Singer, Nick Brumes and Cody Lufkin were friends of mine that we always sat with at lunch besides Bentley, Ethan, Lola and Xander. I wasn't extremely close to these guys but I sat with them none the less.

We chatted for a while, mostly about random things while we waited to go through the lunch line. After we got our food we started towards out regular table. As soon as Gabrielle saw us she looked up with a grin. She started waving us over madly and I couldn't help but laugh at her antics, Gabrielle was very—eccentric, I guess you can say—at times.

"Hey guys!" she called happily as we all sat down in our usual spots.

"Hi Gabrielle." I said as there was a round of "Hello's", "How was class" and "How are you doing's".

"So what are you guys all doing this weekend?" Gabrielle asked while taking a sip of her soda.

"Well, we're—and by we're I mean Amber, Roxie and myself—are going with Brie, Matt and Olivia on our annual camping trip since this weekend is the start of Fall Break." Shay explained, picking at her sandwich.

"Oh that was this weekend?" Bentley asked as he looked a little disappointed.

"Uhmm, yeah why?" I asked as I took a bite out of the apple on my tray.

"Well we were going to party at Nick's house over the long weekend—you know since his house is the biggest. We were thinking about maybe having a party or something for you and Bentley since your birthdays are this weekend. We were thinking about maybe inviting a lot of the kids from school but if you guys are going to be gone then just forget about it." Gabrielle said, staring down sadly at her tray.

"Well, maybe we can next weekend." Roxie suggested.

"But your guy's birthdays are this weekend." Lola sulked.

"We're sorry guys but we can't just cancel now." Shay pointed out.

Roxie nodded, "Exactly, we always go camping on Fall Break. We have had this planned out for months."

Avery spoke for the first time since we sat down, "Well since you guys are busy, we will just have the party next weekend." She said.

Gabrielle frowned, "But I wanted a party this weekend…" she pouted.

Ethan laughed, "Gabrielle, I'm pretty sure you can wait a week to throw a party."

"Besides," Cody threw in, "This will give you more time to plan the party out."

"Fine!" Gabrielle gave in with a loud sigh.

"Cool. So next weekend—party at Nick's!" Xander announced excitedly.

"Don't I have any say in this?" Nick teased as he elbowed Xander in the arm.

"You know that you're having a party whether you like it or not. The girls have their way of roping you in to thing that you usually don't want to do but yet end up doing anyways." Xander retorted.

I had to laugh at that. "He's got you there Nick." I said.

He pouted slightly, "Yeah, yeah, yeah." He said.

"It's all in the pout!" Gabrielle laughed loudly.

I laughed again, agreeing with her and took another bite of my sandwich while Nick mock-sulked and the others started planning out the party for next weekend. I saw Bentley frown at me out of the corner of my eye but when I turned to ask what was wrong, he looked away from me quickly and started to talk to Xander. I turned my attention back to my lunch as the guilt started to seep in. I knew exactly what had upset Bentley. My only question was: why?

I was sitting in my last period class, Biology, practically bouncing up and down in my seat from anticipation. I wanted to get home as soon as possible so we could get going on our trip. We had already decided to take Matt's hunter green SUV since he was the only one with a car big enough to fit all of us plus all our supplies.

I was tapping my Biology lab desk absentmindedly while staring at the clock, begging it to move faster. I vaguely noticed that Bentley was turned to the side in his seat beside me and was looking at me with a very amused expression. At the beginning of the year Bentley and I had decided to be lab partners since we didn't really have any of our other friends in the class. So we shared a two person lab desk at the right-back of the classroom.

Bentley smirked slightly at me. I tore my gaze away from the clock and looked into his beautiful eyes. They held extreme amusement and mischief.

"Excited to be getting out of school?" he asked with a smirk.

I glared slightly but nodded my head none the less, "Of course I am. We have been waiting for this trip for months!" I explained and flashed him a warm smile.

I thought I saw a flash of hurt flash through his eyes but it was gone as soon as it appeared. After a moment of just staring at me his eyes turned mocking, "I never would have pegged you for the camping type." He told me.

I snorted slightly, "Hasn't anyone ever told you not to judge a book by its cover?" I asked.

"Well yeah." He replied.

"You're doing it right now, I have been camping many, many times." I informed him.

Bentley laughed at my answer, "So are you excited about your birthday on Monday?" he asked me.

I shrugged, I never really liked to make a big deal about my birthday—although my friends always thought otherwise, "Not really," I said. "I mean it's just my birthday. Basically I'll just be turning a year older."

"But Amber, this is your sweet sixteen," Bentley pointed out. "Aren't girls supposed to make a big deal out of that?" he asked.

I laughed, "I don't know, but then again—I am not your average girl so I wouldn't know. You should know this by now Bentley. You've only been practically attached to my hip for the fast four years. I'm rather hurt that you don't see my individuality right now. You better not be implying I'm just like Carly or Audrey!" I said in mock horror while putting my hand daintily over my mouth to hide my 'shock'.

"I would never do such a thing," he chuckled in response.

I knew he was about to reply with more to say on the topic when the bell rang, making me forget anything he was able to say. I jumped out of my seat, "Bye Bentley! Have a good birthday tomorrow!" I called before rushing out of the classroom with him staring after me, frowning slightly.

If I was being honest with my self, I felt more than your average amount of guilt that I was missing my best friend/crush's birthday but there wasn't exactly anything I could do about it. Like Roxie and Shay had pointed out at lunch, we had had this trip planned out for months. There was no way my friends would let me cancel now. Not only would they be very angry with me, they would probably never forgive me for skipping out on them.

I quickly grabbed my things from my locker, trying to rid myself from the shame and dashed quickly to the parking lot and climbed into my usual spot in the passenger's seat of Brie's car. I was the first one outside but not long after I saw Brie and Olivia walking towards me with an enthusiastic, bouncing Roxie trailing behind.

"Hurry up slow pokes!" I yelled to them from my seat in the car.

"Geez! Chill Amber, I know that you are excited but—" Brie started but was cut off by a very excited Matt who literally tore out of the school building and was running towards me and the car. I watched in amusement as he jumped in the air, did a little leprechaun kick like on the Starbursts commercial and punched his fist in the air. Seeing in doing it sent me into a serious round of giggles.

"Whoop, whoop! Oh yeah! Let's get this show on the road already, my lovely ladies!" he yelled loudly in anticipation as he jumped into the backseat of Brie's Saab. Roxie wasn't very far behind him.

Brie just shook her head at us and laughed before I saw Shay walking out of the school as well with a large grin on her face. Before long we were standing by the Saab and Lexus with Matt, Roxie, Brie and I in our seats and Olivia and Shay leaning against Olivia's car next to us.

"So what's the plan?" Olivia asked, standing up on her tip toes and leaning over the top of the Lexus to get a better view of us.

"Well Matty is going to drive the SUV…" I started, I saw Matt pout slightly at my choice of nickname but he said nothing of it.

"I still have to go home and get the rest of my stuff together." Shay said quickly, a sheepish smile on her features.

"Me too." Brie replied.

"Okay well how about I just come and pick you all up in about an hour, sound good?" Matt proposed.

We all nodded our heads 'yes' to the idea.

"Okay cool. See ya soon." Olivia said before climbing into her Lexus and she and Shay pulling out of the parking lot.

"Alright let's get going because the sooner we leave this hell hole that is called school. The sooner that we leave here, the sooner we can leave to go to the camping spot!" Roxie cheered enthusiastically.

Matt, Brie and I burst into laughter at Roxie's fervor and then Brie spun away from the parking lot with an evil smile on her face.


Well, now that we are two chapters of the way in, what do you think of the characters? Amber? Bentley? Roxie? Matt? I hope that you will continue to read, give great feedback and even spread the word of the story, if you will. Now that you're done reading, all you have to do is REVIEW :) Gracias Muchos.