"Mila!" I heard the all-to familiar voice of my best friend call out. I tugged on the sleeves to my uniform and turned around, smiling as my friend came up to me.

"Hey," I said, when she got to my locker.

"Hi!" Alisha said, beaming at me. "Did you hear the news?" she asked me, as I put my books in my locker. She did the combination to her locker and began putting books in as well.

"No, it's the first day of school. How can there already be news?" I asked. She leaned against the side of the lockers and smiled at me.

"That's what I said! But, you know our brother school?" she asked. I nodded. "Well, apparently, the bay flooded their school and now it's going under construction. So the boys are going to come to our school until construction's finished," Alisha explained. I raised my eyebrows.

"That's...random," I said.

"I know. The classes are going to be packed," Alisha commented. "But...there'll be BOYS here!" she exclaimed giddily. I couldn't help but laugh. Alisha had been my best friend since I was 6, when she moved here to Hampton, Virgina from NYC. We were completely different people: she was out-going and bubbly and good at science. I was more reserved and quiet and good at literature.

"I wonder how they'll fit everyone," I said, closing my locker and putting my bag over my shoulder.

"I mean, it's not like we have a ton of students here, anyway. It's so dumb that we have two different schools," Alisha said, closing her locker, too. We began walking to our first class: Calculus.

"Waste of money," I said, agreeing. She glanced down at my hands, which were still clamped around the ends of my sleeves. She frowned.

"Again?" she asked, lowering her voice and furrowing her brow. I swallowed and nodded, looking down. "How bad?" she questioned.

"Not as bad as usual. It was actually one of his better days," I replied quietly. She nodded.

"You can come over after school, if you want. We're done painting the kitchen, so it's all good," she said. I smiled at her in gratitude. We took our seats, which were assigned. I sat on the other side of the room as her. We texted each other as the classroom filled up. Every time a boy walked in, Alisha would send me a text saying whether he was cute or not. I struggled to keep from smiling. I was smirking at my phone when she sent one that said, "TOTAL HOTTIE SITTING RIGHT NEXT TO YOU." I laughed and looked up to see a very attractive guy that had just taken the seat next to mine. He glanced at me and then looked to the front of the room. I blushed. I probably seemed really stupid laughing at my phone. Alisha sent another text that read: "OMG OMG OMG! Soul mate!" I bit my lip and sneaked a look at the name that was on the desk: Derek Thomas. I looked at him. He had a really nice profile. His front view wasn't too bad either. He had to be a good 5 or 6 inches taller than me. I sat up straighter to look a little taller, but didn't really get anywhere. Our teacher came in once everyone was seated. There were probably 35 students in the class when there were usually only about 18.

"Welcome back to school. I would imagine you are all thrilled to have a Calculus class the first day back from summer break," Mrs. Liam said, putting her bag down. We all chuckled politely. "Well we just have a few laundry list items to do today. We will start our first lesson next time. I'm passing around a syllabus..." she said. The rest of the class went by excruciatingly slow as we went through the too-long syllabus for the class. We were all thrilled when the bell rang.

"Oh my goodness. That guy is gorgeous," she said. "Do you have dibbs?" she added. I pushed her a little, laughing.

"His name is Derek Thomas. Go FB stalk now," I laughed.

[A/N I said in the cast that Chace Crawford is Derek. But look on the side-bar. That's actually who Derek is. I don't know what that guys name is. He's some model. But yeah. That's what Derek looks like! Much more intense than Chace! UPDATE: Thanks to dixiegirl1993, I have found out that the model's name is Kevin Zegers]

"Oh you know I will," she winked. We parted ways because I was going to Sociology and she was going to AP Biology. I was glad I was in Sociology. It was my favorite class. My phone buzzed just as I sat in my chair.

"Mr. Gorgeous is in my AP Bio class!" she texted. I smiled slightly.

"Sit next to him ;)" I replied.

"Already am! :P" she answered. We did syllabus work in Sociology, too. I yawned and stretched, glancing at the clock. 30 minutes until lunch. I drew little designs on the edges of the syllabus as our teacher Mr. Callahan spoke. The bell rang and we were all dismissed. I bought my lunch and went outside to mine and Alisha's spot.

"Hey," she said, coming up to me and sitting down.

"How was bio?" I asked. She laughed.

"That kid does NOT talk. Like, to anyone. All of the other guys in my class were like, goofing around and talking to each other. They tried to talk to him, too, but he's just so serious," she said.

"Ooo, Mr. Mysterious. Turn you on?" I asked, taking a bite of my sandwich. She rolled her eyes.

"No way. He seems more like your type," she said. I rolled my eyes at her. We stopped talking when we saw Derek walk by, one hand in his pockets, the other clutching an iPhone. Alisha raised her eyebrows. "See?" she hissed. "I asked some of the other guys about him. They said that he's shy, really smart, and studies way too much," she said.

"You already talked to the other guys?" I asked. She nodded.

"You haven't?" she asked, popping a cherry tomato in her mouth. I shook my head. "Well get on it, girl! We need dates to homecoming!" she exclaimed.

"I already told you, I'm not going," I said.

"Ugh, come ON, Mila. You haven't been to homecoming yet and it's senior year. At least go to one homecoming," she said. I shook my head.

"It's not my thing," I said.

"Well it's mine! And you've ditched me the past 3 years. You can't do that again," she said.

"I did not ditch you. It's not ditching if I told you beforehand," I argued.

"Not the point. You're going to come with me. And that's final," she said. I sighed. There was no arguing with her. I would just bail at the last moment like always. "So are you coming over after school?" she asked.

"No, I don't want to do anything to make him mad," I said.

"Mila, you really shouldn't let him do this to you. You should call child abuse," she said.

"I promised my mother that I wouldn't turn him in. I can't break my promise to her," I said.

"Your mother passed away almost a year ago. It's gotten a lot worse since then," she said. I shook my head.

"I know, but I can't. He's my father. I...I can't. I just have to deal with it for the next few months and then I'll be off to college and it won't matter anymore," I said.

"What if you end up like your mother?" Alisha asked. I felt a pang in my chest.

"Hopefully it won't get to that," I said quietly. She put a hand on my knee reassuringly. I knew she was just trying to be a good friend. And she was. She had been there for me through everything.

My father was an alcoholic business man. He worked hard during the day and then drank hard in the evening. He also had an anger problem and would abuse my mother and I. One night about a half a year ago, he had drank way too much. He beat my mother and broke 4 of her ribs and caused so much internal damage, that she bled to death. I couldn't do anything. But before she died in the hospital, she made me promise not to call the cops on him. She twistedly thought that he had some good in him. And he was my father.

After my mother's death, my father's condition kept getting worse. He would angry at the smallest things and sometimes, he didn't even need a reason to get angry. Then he would beat me or break things to get rid of his frustration. I knew he felt guilt for what he did to my mother. I knew that he had loved her and she had loved him, which was probably another reason she didn't want him to end up in jail. He was just addicted to alcohol and it was ruining his life.

"Hey," Alisha said, waving a hand in front of my eyes. I blinked. I had been staring off into the distance, lost in thought. She had a worried look on her face. I forced a smile.

"I'm fine," I said. She bit her lip, unconvinced. I was glad I had her. Alisha was the only one that was helping me get through this. She was always there for me.