Ch. 1

         Spencer walked down the hall nervously, biting down on her bottom lip. There she was, no more 10 feet away now. Her friends crowded around her locker, laughing. Spencer could see her thousand watt smile from here, coupled with the typical air of cockiness that radiated from her. Ashley Davies. Ashley looked up and her eyes met Spencer’s. Spencer felt her heart stop as Ashley’s eyes bore straight into hers for briefly. She was so mesmerized that she ran straight into one of Ashley’s friends. Her books and notes all spilled out of her hands and hit the floor. “Watch where you’re going!” the girl sneered.  “Sorry.” Spencer mumbled, turning reed. She noticed how one of her notebooks had flown open right to the page where she had written something about Ashley. Ashley’s name popped up in bold letters. If she didn’t close it fast enough, there was no way Ashley and her friends couldn’t notice. Spencer reached for her notebook, but a shining ivory colored Jordan sneaker nearly stepped on her hand, holding the notebook open right on the page with Ashley’s name. “What’s this?” the girl taunted. She snatched it away from Spencer in a flash. Her eyes narrowed and canned over the page. Spencer felt all the blood drain from her face. There was no way Ashley wasn’t going to know now! She scrambled up to her feet and collected all her books and notes up. “Look Ashley. This little sophomore has a crush on you. What is this, a poem?” the lackey jeered. Spencer saw Ashley’s eyes flicker from her over to the notebook.  The rest of the girls crowded in to see. Ashley looked back at Spencer questioningly, raising an eyebrow as if to ask her if she had really written this. Spencer turned on her heel and ran off before the inevitable laughter that was to result from this started. She felt hot tears start to leak out the corners of her eyes as she fled from that throng of hostile juniors.

             Ashley stared after Spencer as she ran away without a word. “Dude! Look at this shit she wrote! She must really have a crush on you!” Madison taunted, elbowing her. Everyone started howling in laughter. All except for Ashley, who took the notebook away from Madison and tucked it into her locker, shutting it before she could protest. “What’d you do that for?” she asked. “I’m going to give her back her notebook.” Ashley replied. “Why would you want to give that freak her notebook back?” Christina asked. “She’s a sophomore and she’s lame as hell!” “That doesn’t mean she shouldn’t have this returned to her.” “Do you like her or something? Why are you suddenly nice to a freak?” Alyssa asked. “No, I don’t like her. But it’s a little cruel to lord this over her and show it to the entire school. I’m giving her notebook back to her when I see her, period.” Ashley said firmly, leaving no room for any objections.