Once she was out of the room Garrett grabbed my arm to keep me from walking away. "Hey, I am so sorry about her." He said sheepishly. "Don't listen to her."

I shrugged my shoulders. "It's not a big deal." I replied then rushed out of the room. Honestly it doesn't bother me. I knew meaner girls back home. I was not ever the subject of their ridicule before, but regardless I knew it could be much worse. As I left the math building and headed for the English one a girl with black hair and striking green eyes stopped me. "Hey, you're Cadence James right?" She asked politely.

I chewed on my lip as she walked step for step with me. "Just Cade is fine." I told her.

"I'm Brittany." She smiled twirling a piece of her silky hair around her finger. "I just wanted to introduce myself. I know being the new girl can suck. I was new freshman year. It's super tough in places like this where these kids have been in classes together since they were in diapers."

I nodded my head in agreement with her. "Yeah, I have picked up on that." I said. "Not too welcoming to fresh meat."

"I assume that means you met Carrianne?" She said with an eye roll.

"Natasha, actually."

"Same person different body." She joked. "Those two think they are the hottest thing on the planet." I could hear in her voice that she must have had some run-ins with them as well. I stopped outside of my class and turned to face her while she continued to talk. "Well I will let you get to class, I just wanted you to know you can feel free to sit with me and my friends at lunch. I remember that being the hardest part of my first day."

"That's sweet but I was just going to go pick something up for lunch." I explained.

Brittany made a face and a tissss sound. "We aren't allowed to leave campus for lunch." She said in a hushed voice.

"Are you kidding?" I prayed she was.

"No, it is school policy."

I sighed for the billionth time today. "Guess I will see you at lunch then." I said then went into my class.

What kind of school forces you to eat what they provide? My old school I could order in or go pick up whatever I wanted. This place just keeps getting worse and worse.

English and science class passed without too much of an issue. I still had the annoying people staring at me everywhere I went, but I'm sure they will get over my newness soon.

In my last class before lunch I met a guy named Lucas who was pretty cool. He saw me sketching and he pulled out his own sketch pad and showed me some of his stuff. He was definitely way better than I was, but he pretended to think mine was great too. When the bell rang for us to go to lunch he directed me to the cafeteria. "I told some Brittany girl that I would sit with her." I told him on the way there.

"Brittany Dukes or Barnes?" He asked.

"I don't know." I said. "We didn't trade life stories or anything."

"Black hair or blonde?"

"Black."

He smiled widely as he opened the door for me. "That's my girlfriend." He beamed. "Of course she would seek you out to make you feel welcomed." He was obviously head over heels for her.

"She's a keeper, that one." I joked scanning the tiny space for her. The size of this lunchroom is truly laughable. How do schools this small seriously exist still? There is probably only about ten round tables in here. Spotting her wasn't hard. She was sitting with a small group of other guys and girls at the second table from the door.

When she saw us she hopped up from her seat and came over to wrap her arms around Lucas. "I see you two have met." She beamed. "I'm so glad."

I went through the line deciding to just get a fruit bowl and eat something bigger when I got home, then went to join the others at the table.

My butt had hardly hit the seat when they started firing questions at me.

"What happened with you and Natasha Bekham?" A petite, pretty blonde asked.

"I heard you two got in a fight." A nerdier looking guy added.

"I heard she called you out in front of class for hitting on Garrett McDuffie!" Another girl chimed in. "Is that true?"

"Guys." Lucas and Brittany said in unison. "Give her like two seconds to breath first." Brittany finished.

I took a big swig of my diet coke then answered. "I don't know what her problem is with me." I said honestly. "We didn't get into a fight, she just called me a dumb name at the end of class. It wasn't that big of a deal." I shrugged. "Oh and I wasn't hitting on Garrett. We were just talking."

"Garrett McDuffie spoke to you?" The little blonde girl gasped.

"Um, yeah." I said uncomfortably.

"Sorry." She said. "It's just Garrett doesn't really talk to anyone other than Carrianne and sometimes the guys on the team."

"He only talks to us if it is during a game or practice." A guy in a letterman's jacket added between bites of his pizza.

"Why not?" I asked confused. Garrett seemed friendly to me.

"Nobody knows." Brittany said. "He's very sweet whenever he does talk to people, he just doesn't have any friends other than Carrianne and Natasha, and I am pretty sure he actually hates both of them."

"That's weird." I said.

"His whole story is weird." The jock guy said with his mouth full. "He moved here a few years ago with his family and they are like stupidly rich. Their house is literally a freaking mansion. He lives with his big brother and sister-in-law. Their parents died somehow before they moved here but no one knows how since they don't ever talk to people. Carrianne's family is the same way, except slightly less rich. She lives with her older sister and brother-in-law too. She moved here a month after Garrett's family and they have been dating since. But like Britt said, I really think he hates her. He doesn't ever seem happy."

"That's super weird." I repeated again. I hadn't gotten any weird vibes from him before. I looked around the room for him but I didn't see him. "I haven't met this Carrianne girl yet." I commented.

"Oh, you'll know when you do." The blonde girl said sarcastically. "She isn't here today though."

"Gotcha." I muttered noticing how everyone still seemed to be staring at me. "I wish everyone here would get over me being the new girl and quit staring." I said annoyed.

Jock guy looked around the room too. "They aren't staring because you're new, they are staring because you're hot." He laughed.

I laughed back. "Whatever dude."

"I bet that is why Natasha doesn't like you." Brittany told me. "Any girl who is prettier than her she instantly can't stand."

"Well I wish she'd got over herself." I rolled my eyes.

The rest of the day was uneventful. I didn't see Natasha or Garrett around again. As I walked home I couldn't get over what they had said about him. He came off as really kind and cool, not like a loner or closed off person at all. What they said about his and Carrianne's families was strange too. From what everyone else has said I do not look forward to meeting that girl, she sounds awful. If she is best friends with Natasha though, she'd have to be.

I got home and found some solace in the fact that my mom and dad were both out. I fixed myself a couple of sandwiches and took them up to my room to eat and do my homework. It didn't take me long to do. My school back home was actually a little ahead of this one so I have already covered most of this material.

Once I was through I plugged my phone into the home speaker and blasted some Artic Monkeys and let it clear my head. I danced around my room for a minute until I remembered how my window is easy to see into. I grabbed a sheet and took it over to the window to hang it up but the movement in the neighbor's window caught my eye before I could do it. Garrett was standing in the girl next door's window facing away from me and the girl was standing in front of him. They were talking and it seemed to be a heated conversation but then it turned to just be heated when he grabbed her face and started kissing her and they moved out of my view.

I felt like a creep for spying, but what was worse was that now I know that the dreaded Carrianne was my next door neighbor.