It was 8:00 am on a Tuesday morning and Courtney was walking through the back gate of her school. School started at 8:30 am but Courtney was there early today, she had always said she'd be there earlier if the teachers needed her help with something. And today they did, so there she was walking up to her principal's office door from the outside. She raised her hand and knocked on the door, awaiting for him to open the door. He opened the door and immediately smiled warmly at her.

"Courtney, Good morning! You're a absolute lifesaver, come in"

Courtney smiled as she walked into her principal's office.

"Good morning Mr McLean," She replied, she didn't mind helping out at all.

"Thank you so much for coming in this morning, you'll obviously be getting extra credit" Mr McLean walked over to his computer and marked Courtney as present.

"I'm just happy I can be of help"

"We've only got half an hour until school starts so we better get going,"

Mr McLean walked over to the door that led into the school hallway, Courtney followed him out the door and into the school hallway. Courtney followed him through the hallway and towards the cafeteria, she was told that she had to help out with someone in the detention group today. She knew who it would be, and no she wasn't happy with it. But it's giving her extra credit, so it makes it worth it.

They wander down the hall and they come to the cafeteria entrance. Just as she suspected, there he was. Duncan.

The same Duncan that was in her friend group, the same Duncan she despised even though they were meant to be friends. He always broke the rules and it infuriated Courtney so much, and he had just crossed the line.

They walked into the cafeteria, Mr McLean and Courtney looked up at Duncan on a ladder scrubbing the graffiti off the wall. Looking just as miserable as ever

"Duncan, your help has arrived"

Courtney stayed silent, he was going to get an earful. Duncan glanced down at the pair standing there looking up at him

"Hey princess" He said looking at Courtney, she stayed silent. If she had said anything it wouldn't have been anything good.

"I need to go and help the other teachers sort things out, but Courtney I just need you to help Duncan scrub some of the paint off the wall. With prom coming up this cafeteria needs to be clean."

Courtney nodded, still not being able to say anything. Mr McLean gave a quick thanks and walked off to find the other teachers.

"I'm going to assume you did that?" Courtney asked, annoyed as she put her bag down on a nearby chair and walked up to the ladder Duncan was standing on.

"Of course, who else would it be? But.. I got caught so now I have to scrub it all off.."

Duncan turned round to look at Courtney as he said that and she was standing there arms crossed with an annoyed look on her face.

"What?"

"What do you mean what?! Prom is in what, two weeks? You can't do things like this!"

Courtney was so angry at Duncan that she could have pushed him off that ladder, but she didn't much to her dismay.

"Well I don't particularly care about prom" Is that all he had to say? 'I don't particularly care about prom' pathetic excuse, Courtney thought to herself.

"Well I care! And so does most of the school! We don't have enough money to do it as it is and you've just gone ahead and taken more out of our budget! You're so selfish sometimes you know that?"

Duncan saw how mad Courtney was at the situation and actually felt bad, he didn't know why he felt bad because he genuinely doesn't care for the prom. But seeing Courtney so infuriated and upset about him taking away some of the budget got to him for some reason, he didn't know why because Courtney had always been that 'Perfect' girl who had straight A's, perfect attendance,she was the cheer team captain and she always looked perfect. At this point Duncan has gotten side tracked looking at Courtney's 'perfect' appearance and had been staring at her without even noticing. He quickly realised and snapped out of it. He then turned away from her and started scrubbing the wall harder than before. Courtney scoffed at him, grabbed a damp brush and climbed up the ladder that was next to his, she started scrubbing at the wall and she was slowly making progress.

"Sorry.." Duncan muttered under his breath.

"What?" Courtney turned round to him in surprise, had he just apologised to her? She thought her ears were deceiving her.

"You heard me, I'm not repeating it"

"Did you just apologise to me?"

Courtney was in shock that he would actually apologise, he has never apologised for doing anything bad like this. Not even to Mr McLean! So why would he apologise to her? He doesn't even like her, he thinks she's some stuck up princess who has to be perfect all the time. He only annoyed her for fun, that's what she thought anyway..

Duncan just shrugged at her question and Carried on scrubbing at the wall aggressively. Courtney looked over at him and smiled knowing that she had just gotten an apology out of him, the class 'bad boy', the one friend in the group who was always in trouble. Duncan turned around and saw Courtney smiling at him, seeing this he decided to ask her a question which he was almost certain she'd say no to.

"Geoffs having a party on Saturday, I'm sure he will tell you himself but.. you wanna come?"

Duncan's question caught Courtney off guard as she wasn't expecting him to ask her that.

"I don't know.. I have a lot of homework to do this weekend.." Courtney trailed off and continued scrubbing the wall. "I'll see what Geoff says about it all and I might come for a little bit, if I don't I'll no doubt get Bridgette, Gwen and Heather in my face telling me I never have fun and I need to "loosen up a little!'" Courtney rolled her eyes at the thought. Duncan laughed at Courtney's reply and smiled slightly, almost like he was happy to hear that Courtney was going to be there. He tried to convince himself he didn't like her. 'Sure she's pretty and has perfect hair, and a perfect smile and..' he thought to himself but stopped before he could think anything else.

"Maybe they're right, maybe you do need to 'loosen up' a little"

Duncan said in a teasing voice while gesturing the brush that he had been previously scrubbing the wall with at her.

"I just have a lot to do, I don't have time for parties! I have to study, I have to practice cheer, be a good class president so Noah doesn't get take it instead. And on top of all that I have a life outside of school as well"

Duncan didn't get time to say anything before the bell rang meaning it was 8:30 already, Duncan and Courtney heard people walking down the hallways rushing to find their lockers to exchange books.

"Guess we better get to class then" Duncan climbed down the ladder and put the scrubbing brush down. "Need any help getting down princess?" He always had to tease her in some way or another and when Duncan called Courtney 'princess' it managed to annoy her in ways she didn't realise it could.

"No thanks, and if you call me that one more time so help me"

"Why what are you going to do? Throw your Pom poms at me?"

Courtney climbed down the ladder and as she reached the bottom she turned round and glared at Duncan, if looks could kill Duncan would be 6ft under right now.

"I'll see you at lunch." Courtney retaliated quickly

Courtney and Duncan didn't have many classes together, they had maths and science together and that was it. But she always saw him at lunch because he's a part of the friend group she's in. Not to mention Geoff's best friend, yeah he partied probably a little too much and he and Duncan got into detention together all the time. Courtney didn't think she had ever seen the detention group without Duncan and Geoff in it. And somehow Bridgette and Duncan actually got on really well and were good friends. This always baffled Courtney as she could never figure out why or how they got along so well, Duncan was a jerk with one too many piercings, he thinks they look cool but Courtney thinks they just divert attention away from his lack of personality.

"See you then"

Duncan watched Courtney as she went and collected her bag from one of the chairs she had previously put it on, she walked out the cafeteria door and into the hallway now blending in with everyone else.