“Tell me again why we’re going to this party,” Alexandria Baldwin (Alex for short) asked Payton Price as they approached the house containing the party.

“We’re going because Blake invited us and he’s our good friend,” Payton explained.

“He is?” Alex raised her eyebrows.

“Well, not exactly, but it would be sad if he didn’t have any girls there, so we’re going just in case no one else shows up. And besides, he has a blue 1998 convertible Mustang that we want to ride around in,” she told Alex jokingly, as they reached the door of Blake’s house.

“Oh yeah,” Alex smiled and rang the doorbell. A few seconds later, the door was answered by a smiling Blake.

“Hey, the party is in the garage,” he directed them. “Thanks for coming.”

They walked through the house and were surprised when they opened the door to the garage and saw the strobe lights, glowing things, and about 40 people dancing and having fun.

“Party!” Alex shouted and threw her hands into the air, preparing to run down into the mob.

“Wait, before you go,” Blake grabbed Alex and turned her around along with Payton, “I have these two new friends. They just moved here and I want you to introduce yourselves. I met them the other day when my mom dragged me to their garage sale. They’re step-brothers that are about a year apart. Their names are Josh and Derek. You two are always so good with new people, so would you help me out?”

“Sure,” Payton smiled. She knew that getting to meet new people was usually fun, besides, the guys could be cute. Blake pulled them down into the garage and led them across the throbbing group of teenagers to an abandoned corner where a guy was standing, observing the party.

“Hey, Derek. Where’d Josh get to?” Blake smiled.

“Eh, he’s moshing or something with that Jason dude over there,” Derek said watching as the two guys ran into each other repeatedly.

“Well, this is Payton and Alex; they’re two of the nicest girls I know,” he put his arms around each of them. They smiled sweetly. “Mind you, I said nice--not innocent. I figured you could get to know them. They basically know everyone at our school and everyone knows them, so they could get you a few hook-ups, if ya know what I mean.”

Suddenly, Josh bumped Payton from behind and she lost her balance and fell on top of Derek, sending them both sprawling to the cold floor. Josh then tripped backwards on top of them, grabbed for the air, missed and grabbed Alex’s arm, which was attached to Blake and pulled them both down on top of Derek, Payton, and himself. Everyone, at first, is stunned, and Josh is unsure of their reaction, but suddenly Payton and Derek look at each other and begin to laugh. The laughter becomes contagious spreads to the others as they gradually roll off of each other. They begin to pull themselves to their feet, one by one. When everyone is up and dusted off, Josh looks at them and laughs again.

“I like a real good introduction to new people. That way they won’t forget me,” he smiled. “I’m Josh.”

“I’m Alex and this is Payton,” she quickly approached him putting out a hand for him to shake.

“You know, I’ve always wondered why you would only use one hand when you’ve got two,” Josh put out his arms for a hug. Alex just shrugged and put her arms around him.

“Ha, I’ve only been here half an hour and already I’ve hugged the prettiest girl in the room,” he laughed before running back over to Jason to partake in the moshing again. Alex could only smile at that, she thought Josh was pretty cute.

Meanwhile, Derek and Payton began talking. They realized they had a lot in common.

“So, what do you like to do for fun?” Derek asked Payton, slightly attracted to her.

“Well, I love to play soccer...” Payton couldn’t even finish her sentences.

“I LOVE SOCCER!!” Derek yelled and hugged her.

“Really? That is so cool. I’ve been playing since I was four.” Payton added.

“Wow, I’ve been playing since I was seven. Only two of my teams have been champions though.”

“Cool.” Payton nodded her head. “Oh, and I like to play some board games like chess, checkers, and Sorry. And I love to hang out with my friends, especially Alex. She and I have known each other since she moved here when she was three and a half.” Payton finished.

“Sounds like me, except for the Alex stuff. Alex would be replaced by Josh. Josh has been my step-brother since I was five and a half. It was sad when my parents broke up, but then he married Kerri, and my dad is so happy now.” Derek smiled. Then someone fell between them. Alex got up and dusted off her butt.

“Sorry guys, didn’t mean to interrupt conversation.” She smiled, and ran back over to where Jason and Josh were still moshing. Payton couldn’t hold in the laughter, Alex had always been wild. Her motto was, I was born wild, I was raised wild, I....AM......WILD! Then she would go into the chorus of “Born To Be Wild.”

“Alex is so wild,” Payton pointed out to Derek, “just don’t ask her what her motto is, you will get a full song explanation.”

“Song?”
,br> “Yeah, Born To Be Wild. She is such a psycho.” Payton laughed again. Derek liked her laugh and, during the conversation, discovered ways to make her laugh.

The party lasted ‘til about 12:30, Payton and Alex’s curfew.

“Nice party Blake, but we gotta hit the road, its about time for us to leave.” Payton pulled a slightly drunk Alex by the arm, over to Blake. “Oh, and just to let you know, some people got ahold of some wine coolers from the fridge over there....you might wanna check it out.” Payton informed Blake, pointing to the fridge that was being opened and closed so someone could see the light go on and off.

“SHIT! Thanks...” Blake ran off to tend to the others.

“BYE JOSH! BYE JASON! BYE LENNY!” Alex yelled as Payton pulled her away.

Luckily Alex only had three, but she had a low alcohol tolerance level, obviously, and she was a bit on the tipsy side. Everything was funny to her.

“Alex, are you high?”

“No, I don’t do that stuff, you know.......but it sure is fun to drink.” She burst into giggles as Payton tsked her.

“You don’t need to drink Alex, it’s bad for you.”

“Maybe, but it sure is fun, plus.....Josh did it......” She resorted back to giggling. Payton lead her home and prayed her mom would just think she was hyper. They got to Alex’s house and no one was home. Apparently her mom had gone out with some guy. Alex’s parents weren’t divorced, its just Alex’s dad, Taylor, died when she was still a fetus. It was a car crash that her mother and some of her friends were involved, but they all died, all except Alex’s mom. Her mom hated the anniversary of that day, but she visited each of their graves every year. Its very sad, but Alex was now use to it. That’s why Alex’s mom named her Alexandria Taylor, in memory of the father she never met.

When they arrived at school, Payton, Derek, Josh and Alex all made a trip to the office. Josh and Derek had been instructed to go there first day, so Alex and Payton showed them where it was. When they came out, Payton and Alex were surrounded by this group of people that were all chatting away with them.

“Excuse me, I have to get through, MOVE IT!” Josh yelled, pushing through.

“Wow, Josh penetrated the circle.” Alex laughed and noticed Derek was connected to the back of Josh.

“GET OFF ME MAN....I’m not like that. I don’t believe in incest and I’m not gay!” Josh yelled. Derek immediately jumped away, coincidentally bumping into Payton. The crowd around gawked as the two new boys talked to the two most popular girls in school. They couldn’t believe how easily these boys just came right in, when they all had to go through steps to reach their popularity. Now, here were to average boys, one who looked as if he could be at the bottom of the social chain, just going right in and being popular. They didn’t think that was very fair. But, Payton and Alex liked them, so of course, they would too. They crowd began to ask Payton and Alex who their new friends were. They just announced it to the crowd. Then, the bell to go to first period rang. Payton grabbed Derek and drug him through the crowd to get to first period. Alex took Josh’s hand, pulled him through the crowd and walked him to his first period. She knew her class was on the other side of the school, but she didn’t care if she was late, she’d just say she had car trouble.

“So, you have World Geography first...and with Mr. David too! Get lots of extra credit, if you have over a 100 average in his class at the end of the six weeks, the extra carries over to the next six weeks, its really awesome!” Alex informed him.

“Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind.” Josh smiled and opened the door to the classroom. Alex smiled, sighed and walked away.

Payton lead Derek up to the Geometry class they shared that day. Every seat around her was filled, so she politely asked one of her friends to move back.

“Why do I have to move?” Christy asked.

“Well, Derek is new here, and I don’t want him to sit all alone back there in the back. This way, we can all talk and he’ll be included,” Payton rationalized.

“But that was my seat from the first of the year!” she complained.

“Christy, please? I’ll let you copy my warm-up today if you will,” Payton pleaded quietly.

“I wouldn’t be able to see it; I’d be behind you,” she said cockily.

“Okay, then I’ll just say,” Payton crouched down and got into Christy’s face, talking in hushed tones, “I’m sure we wouldn’t want a certain something leaked out about you and Kevin...”

“Bitch.”

“I may be a bitch but you’re gonna move,” Payton sneered. She had always wanted to get into Christy’s face. They had never been the best of friends, and Payton was pretty sure that Christy used her for a way to be more popular. To Payton’s amusement, Christy slowly got up and moved, allowing Derek to take her seat.

Derek leaned over and whispered to Payton, “You didn’t have to go to so much trouble; I could have sat back there.”

“It wasn’t trouble. I’ve been wanting to threaten her for a while. Actually, it was more of a guilty pleasure to say something like that to her,” Payton admitted willingly.

“Well, then, thank you for using me as a pawn to fulfill your pleasures,” Derek said, then raised his eyebrows and smiled.

“You’re sick!” Payton gasped, understanding his true meaning. She turned in her chair and shook her head as Derek leaned back and laughed heartily.

The class was as boring as usual, filled with theorems and postulates and more confusing things meant to kill Payton--or so she thought. Derek, of course, was able to go through every problem without trouble, seeing exactly how it was done. Halfway through the homework of that day, Payton collapsed on her desk in frustration.

“I hate Geometry...I don’t know why I took Pre-AP, but I hate it. I suck,” Payton hissed at herself. She threw her pen down in disgust and ran a hand through her hair.

“What’s the problem?” Derek leaned over in his chair and grabbed Payton’s paper, looking over her problems.

“Everything. Every time I redo the problem, I come up with a new answer,” Payton quietly whined as to not alarm the teacher that there were people not working.

“Here’s your problem. It’s simple; you’re just forgetting to completely distribute, then you use substitution to find out the last angle,” he pointed to a place on her paper and handed it back.

“Stupid! I’m so freakin’ stupid! Why didn’t I see that? Thanks,” Payton said as she feverishly erased her mistake.

“No problem,” he smiled and went back to his work. Payton looked up at him and watched as his dark brown hair fell over his face as he concentrated on the pesky angles and wondered what it would be like to kiss him.

“Ma’am, I’m telling you that I’m new in this class--I’m not butting in. Look at my schedule,” Josh pulled out the half sheet of paper they had printed his schedule onto and handed it to Mrs. Dale, the Business Computers Information System Teacher (BCIS).

“Oh, well welcome to our class! What’s your name again? Jake? Welcome to BCIS 1, Jake. We’re all very glad your with us today. If you’ll just take a seat right over there in that empty chair I’ll be with you in just a moment until I get out of my office,” she gestured to a table filled with papers and a podium. To Josh it didn’t look like an office, but he wasn’t going to point that out after having to argue for five minutes just to stay in the class. He sat down at a computer that was diagonal from Alex, but still close enough so he could scoot over just a little to talk. He wasn’t quite sure what to do, so he sat there, watching Alex from a small distance as she typed. She seemed to be typing very fast, showing that she probably had a great deal of typing experience behind her. Josh got out a notebook and started doodling in it, bored of just sitting.

“That’s an interesting drawing, Jake, but I’d appreciate it if you never pulled it out in my class again or it is mine,” Mrs. Dale suddenly came up behind him.

“Sorry, and it’s Josh, not Jake,” he looked up at her as he slipped the drawing back into a folder.

“Okay, Jake, let’s get you logged in,” she smiled sweetly, showing her teeth. Josh thought they were probably dentures. Mrs. Dale was about in her late 40’s and treated him like he was two. He was pretty sure he wasn’t going to like this class.

“My name is Josh,” he repeated.

“What did you say your ID number was, Jake?” she questioned. Josh inwardly groaned. This was going to be a long class.

“Does she have to show you how to do everything on that freakin’ computer? I mean, I may not be the best computer whiz in the world, but I know how to point and click! We spent an entire class on copy and paste! Has it always been like this?” Josh complained as he grabbed a piece of pizza at lunch.

“Nah, we’re just now getting into the hard stuff. Last week we learned how to log in. She made us practice it about four times,” Alex began doing movements like an aerobics instructor “Log in! log out! log in! log out! Come on, move those fingers! I swear, sometimes I think she was and aerobics instructor before she became the dinosaur she is now.”

“Probably. So what does having C-lunch mean?” Josh asked as they took a seat at the nearly full table that more people were gathering around.

“Well, it means we still have to go back to class for another 30 minutes after we eat.”

“We do? Man, I’m never going to get used to these long classes. So, 4th period will be our last period of the day?” Josh asked, confused.

“Exactly. Then, tomorrow, we start with fifth period and go through to eighth period.”

“That’s weird,” Josh simply shook his head. Suddenly Payton came up to the table.

“Hey, chicka, whatcha doing here? I thought you have D-unch,” Alex hugged her friend.

“I do, I’m just running an errand for Dr. Best. I’m in chemistry,” she smiled at Alex.

“Well, I’ll see you later then,” Alex waved as Payton headed off away from the table to the office.

“How long have you and her been friends?” Josh asked curiously.

“Since we were toddlers. We hardly ever fight. Nothing in the world has ever been big enough to get between us and keep us apart. Last year, though, there was this guy--man, I thought she and I were through. He went out with me and then she started liking him, and after he broke up with me, I heard he was out with her the next day. I thought that was why he had broken up with me--just so he could hook up with Payton and I really tore into her when I found out. Then, about a week later she had everyone gang up and tell me the truth.”

“What was it?”

“The bastard had broken up with me for three girls. He had asked Payton and she had turned him down, but she had hesitated when she answered. Apparently that’s what my source heard and she didn’t hear Payton refuse him. The jerk was going out with some skater chick, one of my other so-called “friends” and someone from Allen after that. Man, I wanted to beat him up,” Alex pounded her fist. “He best recognize...”

“I’ll beat him up for you!” Josh jumped up and took a fighting stance. “Bring him on!”

“Josh, that guy’s a senior now and he would smack yo’ wimpy body half way to Cleveland before you even had a chance to find out if it was him,” she pulled him back down into his seat. “I like my friends alive, thank you very much.”

“Yeah. No one likes to have an orgy with a dead guy!”

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