Chapter One: Senior Year

Stephanie Valentine hops into the passenger seat of Brooke Dawson's car in the morning.

"Hey," she says as she buckles her seatbelt.

"Good morning," Brooke replies.

"How was your night?"

"Okay," she answers. "Yours?"

"Normal. You ready?" Brooke asks as she grabs the steering wheel.

"Yeah. Let's go," she replies and Brooke turns on the ignition and slowly backs out of the driveway.

Brooke is Stephanie's best friend. They've been best friends since freshman year. Brooke drives her to school and back almost every day. They're seniors now and they're still best friends.

"I know we just started senior year like two weeks ago but I can't wait for this year to be over. It has been boring so far," Brooke says giving Stephanie a quick glance.

"Me too," Stephanie agrees.

The ride to school goes silent for a while before Brooke decides to break it.

"Did you hear about the party?" She asks.

"What party?" Stephanie asks with confusion written all over her face.

"The one Jason's throwing over the weekend. On Friday night," she explains.

"Didn't hear about it. Don't care about it," Stephanie replies nonchalantly.

"You know," Brooke sighs. "It wouldn't hurt to have fun."

Stephanie rolls her eyes knowing where this conversation is heading.

"I have fun, B. But not that type. I don't do parties," She tells Brooke.

"Fun? You call reading fun?"

"Yeah. I watch TV too," she replies.

It takes all in Brooke not to face-palm herself or even better, hit her head against the steering wheel.

"You know, I do parties and it doesn't extract anything from me. It's your last year in high school, Steph. Giddy up. Enjoy it as best as you can," Brooke gives one of her speeches.

"Don't you sometimes feel like you're missing out?" Brooke speaks again.

Stephanie's lips form a thin line as she thinks about Brooke's question.

Sometimes, she does wonder what she's missing and she knows it's a lot of high school experience but really doesn't care.

She stares out the window as they enter the parking lot.

This isn't the first time such a conversation is happening. Brooke gives her a special motivational talk once in a while. Telling her to let loose and live high school to the fullest.

Whatever that means.

Stephanie really likes how she is though. Not drawing attention, getting good grades, and having a great best friend.

But Brooke doesn't seem satisfied with that. She wants her to be more social. Brooke actually has other friends but she isn't one of the popular crowd. Brooke loves parties so whenever she gets a chance to go to one, especially one that has the popular crowd, she doesn't take it for granted.

Stephanie isn't socially awkward or anything, she just likes solitude. She prefers to be alone than get in social gatherings. That's why she tries her best to be discrete and unnoticeable in school but everyone knows her in her neighborhood. She sometimes babysits. She's the PG kind of girl. She doesn't drink, doesn't smoke, and doesn't party. The last time she remembers going to a party was in middle school and it was a cousin's birthday party. She isn't shy either. She just prefers things to be the way they are.

At school, she spends time with only Brooke.

Sometimes, you'll even wonder how she ended up being best friends with Brooke because they're kinda opposites.

Stephanie and Brooke always have lunch together though. Brooke isn't exactly very close to her other friends.

Stephanie has always hated when Brooke brings up the 'living the life' topic and she still does. Her answers are always the same when Brooke persuades her to go to a party.

NO.

She knows that soon enough, Brooke would ask her to go to Jason's party and that isn't happening. Her answer would still be the same.

She unbuckles her seatbelt and is about to open the door but Brooke's voice makes her pause.

"This conversation isn't over," Brooke says sternly.

"Whatever," she groans and begins to walk towards the school's front doors.

"Wait up," Brooke yells and hurries up to catch up with her.

"You do know we have few minutes till the first period," Stephanie deadpans.

Brooke shrugs in reply.

They walk through the front doors together and down the hallway.

They both sight the most popular couple in school.

Luke and Ivy.

They both call her poison ivy though, they can't just help it 'cause of her personality.

She's the queen bee. 

A really mean bitch.

Acting all nice and sweet to Luke, the jock who is nice, sweet, brainy, and popular. But she hides her true self from him. She's a bully too.

Luke doesn't know all that because of the fake personality she puts on around him.

Luke's a good guy and doesn't deserve to be treated like this and most of all, Ivy doesn't deserve him.

The couple says something to each other before kissing -- more like Poison Ivy's shoving her tongue down his throat.

As Brooke and Stephanie walk by, Stephanie wonders - don't they know that some people find that disturbing? Like her.

She frowns as she walks past them. They reach Brooke's locker.

"See you later, B," Stephanie says as she walks away to her locker in another hallway.

"Yeah," Brooke mutters absentmindedly.

They do not have any classes together this morning. So they'll meet in the cafeteria at lunch.

Brooke gets all she needs from her locker then pushes her backpack in and shuts the locker.

She finds her way to her first class greeting some friends on the way.

She sits close to the front and places her stuff on the desk. Luke's best friend walks in and takes the empty seat beside her.

"Hi," she hears him say but doesn't respond or look in his direction.

He couldn't possibly be talking to her, right?

They've never talked before. 

He isn't one of those people she talks to. She doesn't have the nerve to.

"Hi," he says again tapping on her desk with his pencil.

She then looks at him, "Me?"

He chuckles, "Of course it's you."

"Hi," she says almost nervously.

He stretches forth his hand to her.

"I'm Cole," he says.

Brooke wants to say that she already knows but decides against it.

She takes his hand, "I'm Brooke."

"I've been seeing you around. We have chemistry class together," Cole says.

"Yeah," Brooke affirms.

"So...are you going to Jason's party on Friday?" He asks her.

"Mmm yeah. I'll come," she replies, internally screaming.

"Great. I'd love to see you there. Save a dance for me," he grins.

She manages to smile but doesn't respond. She just nods.

What do you reply when a popular and very cute guy that you kinda have a crush on asks you to save him a dance?

The bell rings and a teacher comes in. The class starts and Brooke finds it hard to concentrate. She keeps glancing at Cole, finding what happened hard to believe.

***

Stephanie heads towards her locker after leaving Brooke. She gets her stuff and makes her way to her first class focusing on the floor and making sure not to bump into anyone.

She enters and takes a seat close to the back. That she sits at the back doesn't mean she doesn't concentrate. It's just one of the things she prefers that way.

Girlish giggles are heard as Ivy and Aspen walk into the class. They both sit at the front after making their previous occupants vacant the seats.

So far so good, Stephanie has avoided Ivy like a plague and she intends to keep it that way.

The one and only Christopher Hayes walks into the class with his good looks and air of confidence - or is it pride? - around him. He doesn't give the queen bee any form of attention. It's like he's oblivious to her existence.

Christopher Hayes is the school's number one playboy. A friend of Jason's, the party thrower (if that's a word). 

First-class PLAYER.

And man whore.

The guy almost every fucking girl in school wants not caring about his player ways.

No girl can deny that he's hot.

Whether she wants him or not.

Thankfully, Stephanie is one of the few girls that doesn't want Chris. In fact, she wants nothing to do with him. She ducks her head as he passes her to take a seat behind her. As per usual.

Christopher sits with this bored look on his face. His eyes rest on Stephanie from behind.

Who is she? He wonders as he stares at her jet-black hair.

He doesn't know her.

Never known her.

Never noticed her.

He wonders if she got transferred to this class or something.

He hasn't even seen what her face looks like but he knows she's certainly not his type.

Unknown to him, they started as freshmen together and they've been sharing a few classes since then.