"You're like fresh meat." Shane whispered as we made our way down the halls of the main school building with my backpack and my new school books stacked in my arms.

"Shut up." I groaned, making her laugh. She strode along in pants with a white shirt and black tie with the uniform blazer. There was a mix of students in pants and skirts. My Papi had only gotten me skirts and must not have known about the other options. The tie was optional and I had skipped it so that I didn't feel like I was being choked. I had worn a necklace because I felt like my neck looked bare without it, but the thick shiny silver chain around my neck seemed to gather attention like some damn gang symbol. I had my schedule in one hand and found my locker beside Melissa's and above Shane's, I was able to unlock it on the first try and I dumped my books into the red metal locker before opening my small black backpack and looking through my empty notebooks to decide what I'd need.

"What do you have first?" Shane asked urgently as I switched out my notebooks and took only one along with the book for my first class.

"Calculus." I grumbled.

"Ugh, I'm in Chemistry first. I guess we're in different classes." Shane sighed.

"It's fine. I'll see ya later." I chirped, before slamming my locker and starting off towards the stairs.

"See ya. Good luck." Shane said before slipping away with her mostly empty bag on one shoulder and her Chemistry book clutched in her hand.

*

I stepped into the first classroom with a glance at the blackboard to see that it said 'Geometry, Mrs. Harrison' and then I turned to the large desks that were set up in the room. A few girls were all gathered around one desk and I realized the chairs were like regular desk chairs. It was far different than the small plastic desks with attached chairs that I was used to.

"Hey, new girl, come sit here!" one of the other girls called, pointing to the desk beside her with ulterior motives behind her white-toothed smile.

"Kate." I told her, looking her over to see it was the 'Queen Bee' herself, Victoria. She shook my hand with a smirk.

"I'm Victoria." She announced, gathering the attention of most of the other girls in the room. Three girls were leaning over the desk behind Victoria as if hanging on her every move. Like any private school girls, we seemed to measure each other up. She wore an innocuous smile, but her caramel-colored eyes were deep in thought. I had my poker face on as I took out my notebook and my textbook. "So, I heard you're from Miami, is that true?" Victoria asked, making me turn my hazel eyes back to her.

"Yes, where are you from, Victoria?" I asked, sounding like I didn't care, because I didn't really care... I meant to sound neutral, but I could tell my tone pissed her off from the slight change in her expression and the raised eyebrows from her three followers.

"I'm from New York City." She told me in a silky voice, before the teacher walked in and the students all rolled their chairs back to their desks, filling the room with the sound of wheels on the wood floor. Victoria flipped her shiny wavy brown hair and faced the front as she pulled down her tight tailored blazer and I turned my gaze to the middle-aged blond woman who stood in formal wear at the front of the classroom with eyes like a hawk.

"Katya Chernoff?" she called, with her pointed glasses perched on her nose as she looked down at a list for attendance.

"Kate." I corrected, already feeling tired of my alias, having to correct the pronunciation every two minutes if I didn't have them call me by the nickname.

"What was that?" Mrs. Harrison asked sounding offended.

"I prefer to be called Kate, Ma'am." I said sharply, where I laid back in my chair at the wide wooden desk. She looked at me with some kind of horrified confusion.

"Okay, noted." She said eventually.

The room had filled quickly and I saw Izzy had skittered in at the last minute to say 'here' after her name was called.

I could tell from the straight postures and focused expressions that the class was full of 'keaners' as they'd be called at my old school. Though I got okay grades, I hated math. I was more of a reader and writer than a numbers person. I took notes and wasn't completely lost, but I knew I would struggle if the class moved any quicker.

"You look worried, Kate." Victoria commented as I closed my notebook and packed my bag.

"Do I?" I challenged, with a skeptical look.

"Yeah, I guess you're not a straight-A student, huh?" Victoria said with a knowing smile.

"Are you offering to tutor me?" I asked, with a sneaky smile. I could tell I surprised her, even though she tried to hide it.

"I can tutor you!" Izzy said, coming up to me like she was going to pick me up and drag me away from Victoria.

"Don't be silly. Victoria has already offered." I said, holding my hand out to stop Izzy from blocking my view of Victoria. I took out my metallic gold phone and opened a new contact.

"Wow, that's like the nicest phone I've ever seen." Izzy commented as I handed it to Victoria.

"Same one as me..." Victoria said with an impressed look at her followers who nodded in approval. Victoria typed her contact information in and handed me my phone back with a smile.

"I'll text you." I told her, as I slipped my phone into my blazer and Izzy followed me out of the room.

"Hang on, what's your next class?" Victoria asked, slipping her arm through mine and taking my elbow. We were the same height and had similar body shapes. Her group followed me like they were magnets to us and Izzy was on my other side with a look that said she wasn't happy about my decision to 'befriend' the 'Queen'.

"Literature?" I answered with a glance at my schedule that I clutched between the cover and first page of my planner. I read the room number quickly before closing it.

"Good, me too." Victoria smiled as our heels clicked among the crowd.

"I'll see you later, Kate." Izzy mumbled as she faded off to the side.

*

Victoria had relinquished my arm when we strode into the classroom and both stopped dead in our tracks at the sight of the teacher. Neither of us could contain our smirks as we looked at each other with identical looks of delighted surprise. Mr. Montgomery was definitely not an actual teacher. I noticed the tattoos on his knuckles right away and the darkness in his hazel eyes was similar to mine. While his designer suit didn't hide his ridiculously hot physique, I guessed it hid more tattoos including whatever gang or mob he was a member of. He was young and though dark facial hair shaded his chiseled jaw, the dark hair on his head was thick and in a very European style with the sides and back shaved and the top left long and unruly.

He smiled a half smile when he made eye contact with me and I found myself walking right up to him while Victoria had gone to take a seat with her followers.

"I'm Katya Chernoff. I'm a new student." I said seductively with my hand held out. He was tall and intimidating, just my type. I wondered if he was there to protect Amelia or if he was there for me. He shook my hand with the perfect amount of pressure.

"Hello, Katya." He said, pronouncing my name like he knew Russian. "I'm Mr. Montgomery. I'm actually new as well. I assume you weren't given your assigned readings in time to complete them." He had a voice like black velvet and I found myself looking at his lips.

"That's correct." I answered, meeting his eyes.

"I can give you a two-week extension. Have you started any of the books that were assigned for the summer?" He asked.

"Yes, I've finished two out of three. I'm still reading Of Mice and Men." I told him, trying not to look completely weak in the knees under his sexy gaze.

"Good. You should be fine, then." He said in a quiet voice with his dark eyebrow arched.

"Thank you, Mr. Montgomery." I knew I pronounced his name in a funny way that gave away the fact that I knew it wasn't his name because there were secrets in his eyes as I stepped away from him to go take a seat. The classroom was so silent, I thought my ears were broken until Mr. Sexy started class.

I clearly wasn't the only one in the classroom that could barely function in his presence. Whenever he asked a question, the one answering it was blushing while she tried to spit out the answer. Victoria seemed like one of the few that was able to speak semi-clearly when she answered a question or two and she had a cocky half smile when she did. He decided not to give us the quiz he had planned, probably because of me, and he decided to let us start working on a paper he was assigning, but I decided to take a few minutes to finish Of Mice and Men. I had to take my stupid glasses out which I had gotten recently because I was starting to be a little far-sighted and the print in my book was small. I put my wireless ear buds in my ears and had my ipod on while I tried to block out the other students who were socializing instead of actually starting their papers.

I was lounging back in my seat, focused on the book when Victoria tapped me.

"What?" I asked, taking my earbud out, when I realized she had asked me something.

"Your glasses are super sexy." She laughed.

"No, I look ridiculous." I insisted, sincerely feeling more like a clown than a sexy librarian.

"Are you doing your paper on Of Mice and Men?" she asked. "Do you want to work together?"

"You're only asking me that because I look like a nerd in my glasses." I argued, giving her a knowing look.

"No," she laughed, making me think I was right. "No, I just think we should work together."

"Sure, whatever." I said, totally lying, while I put my earbud back in and focused on my book.

*

I was glad to get away from Victoria for third period where I had History and she had Chemistry.

"Oh, look it's the new 'Queen Bee'!" A large girl said as she stood in my way. She had bright fake red hair and acne-ridden milky white skin.

"I'm not an insect! I don't buzz." I burst out, putting my arm out to make her step aside. "I'm more of a lion." I joked, seeing Shane laugh with a couple of the others.

"Hey, Kayla, move." Shane said, making the bleach blond scowl, but she looked up to me and moved. "Sit next to me, Kate." Shane insisted. I obliged and the red-haired girl made the girl sitting in front of me move so she could take that seat and lean over my desk at me. "Amanda, don't fuck with Kate." Shane hissed, pointing a finger at her as she got up to stand by my desk.

"I'm not a lesbo like you." Amanda said with a look of disgust. Shane swallowed and sat back in her chair.

"Can I help you with something?" I asked with my voice bordering on cold as I eyed her elbow still invading my desk. I had taken out my history book and a notebook and was feeling severely claustrophobic despite the large desk size.

"I've heard you've been hanging out with Victoria. I don't think you know what you're getting in to with that bitch." She said it like she wanted to save me from social suicide or something.

"Oh yeah? What do you have on her, then?" I probed, making Amanda's eyes light up. Mr. Grenier started class before Amanda could start telling me whatever Victoria had done to wrong her and to my dismay Amanda started passing me notes. She was pretty obvious about it and Mr. Grenier caught her and I was smart enough to not take the note she had put on the corner of my desk. Instead, I put my glasses on and focused on following along with the reading. I guess I looked enough like a nerd, that Amanda got the hint not to bug me during class. My family would give me hell if I didn't get passable grades in my classes.

"Kate, those glasses..." Shane moaned with her eyebrows pulling together, as we were dismissed for lunch.

"Ugh, don't even say it. They're new and I'm still not used to wearing them." I told her as she accompanied me to the door and she couldn't help smirking. We were able to get through the crowd quicker than Amanda and I was glad to leave her in the dust.

"They're hot." Shane breathed with a slow nod. "You're going to give Victoria a run for her money. I think your sexy little glasses are going to give you an edge." She laughed.

"I don't want an edge. I sorta just want to be myself and pretend to be normal." I told her sincerely.

"You're not normal, but nobody is, especially here." Shane told me, gesturing to the crowded halls.

*

I joined Shane and her friends at a buzzing lunch table.

"You eat like Shane." Gina commented in surprise as I looked down at my meatloaf, potatoes, and baby carrots.

"The food here doesn't look very good." I answered unsurely as I poked a plastic fork into the odd block of ground 'meat'. Cho and the other Korean only had water and small salads and Jenna had joined us on the other side of the group with a large salad and a mug of tea.

"It's not as bad as it looks." Shane tried to comfort me. Gina and Margaret across from me both laughed at the look on my face.

"For a school this fancy, I'm surprised they don't pay for better food." Margaret commented.

"It's not like any of the girls here eat." Shane laughed, looking at the two Koreans.

"We don't eat breakfast or lunch, Shane. You know that." Cho told her rolling her eyes which bore artificial purple irises.

"I'm surprised you two can eat that much. You're both skinny..." the other Korean commented with an accent as she looked at me and Shane. Her contacts were an artificial blue and her naturally black hair was bleached to a pale blond and straightened pin straight.

"We have soccer practice today." Shane defended as I ventured to try the meatloaf and it wasn't as awful as it looked. I missed home already. Did Papi know I was being treated like an inmate?

"I don't think I introduced myself. I'm Jiyun. Most people call me Jiji." The Korean told me, dipping her head as she looked at me from under her large fake eyelashes that stood out from her pale blemish-less face.

"Are you both Korean?" I asked, looking back and forth between the two of them.

"Yes. Most people think we're Chinese." Cho laughed, with her bright white but crooked teeth on display. Jiji shared a laugh and then made a comment in Korean.

"They're both completely gay." Gina said with mirth while they went off in a fast Korean conversation and I just looked on in confusion.