The feeling of being stared at was the first thing I noticed when I woke up on the first day of school. I cracked open one eye and saw my yellow Labrador, Tonto, staring at me, his head resting on the side of the bed. I groaned and rolled over carefully, assessing the twinges in my back and deciding that they were bearable.

            As I started to roll out of bed, there was a knock on my door and then my uncle opened it and poked his head in. Tonto bounded over to him, his whole body wriggling. My uncle chuckled and scratched his head. “Hailey, have you seen my cell phone?”

            “Not since last night. Did you lose it again?”

            His brow furrowed. “No, I just… temporarily misplaced it.”

            I grinned at him. “You would temporarily misplace your head if it wasn’t attached.”

            He mock scowled at me. “That’s enough sass out of you young lady.”

            I rolled my eyes. “Did you try calling your cell off of the landline?”

            His eyes lit up. “Hey, that might work! Thanks Hales.” He disappeared from my sight and I laughed as I got out of bed. I didn’t bother telling him that since the house was so big he may not be able to hear it. 

            I made my way to my bathroom, Tonto following along behind me. I turned the shower on hot and let the spray soothe my aches and pains. When I was finished, Tonto was waiting for me with a towel in his mouth. I took it from him and dried myself off, then got dressed and dried my black hair, before leaving the room. My room was on the main level, so that on really bad days I didn’t have to climb any stairs. I made my way to the kitchen and joined my uncle at the table. The housekeeper, Grace, bustled over and put a heaping plate of food in front of me.

            “You don’t expect me to eat all of that, do you?” I asked incredulously.

            “You’re too thin, Hailey. You need to put some meat on your bones. Eat what you can.”

            I shrugged and dug in. I loved Grace’s cooking, so I was able to actually make a fairly large dent in the food. When I couldn’t eat anymore, I pushed my plate back with a groan. “If you keep feeding me like this, Grace, I’ll be fat in no time.”

            She chuckled as she gathered up the plate. “Go on now, you’ll be late to school.”

            I turned to my uncle. “Liam, are you driving me?” He never let me call him uncle, saying that it made him feel old. Since he was only eight years older than me, and only two years older then my brother, I could understand it.

            He focused his gaze on me. “Hmm? Oh, no, you can take one of the cars.”

            My eyebrows shot up. “Really?”

            “Yeah, take whatever one you want, except the Viper, because that’s mine.”

            I tapped my fingers on the table as I debated. “I think I’ll just take the Camaro, if that’s okay?”

            He waved his hand. “Sure, whatever you want. Try not to get any speeding tickets on the way to school.”

            I smiled as I stood up from the table. “No promises,” I said. I went to the cabinet that held Tonto’s treats and grabbed the box. Reaching in for one, my fingers brushed against something cold and hard. “What the?” I muttered as I pulled the foreign object out. I raised an eyebrow as I looked at it, then turned to my uncle. “Hey Liam?”

            “Yeah?”

            I tossed the object across the table at him. He looked up, startled at first and then he gave me a sheepish look. I raised an eyebrow at him. “No wonder Tonto is getting fat. You’ve been sneaking treats to him.”

            “I can’t help it! He gives me the cute puppy dog look and then I’m a goner!” he whined as he picked up his cell phone off the table.

            I rolled my eyes and put the box away after giving my dog a treat. “Wuss,” I called over my shoulder as I left the kitchen. Tonto was still following me, so I turned to him when I got to the front door. “I don’t need you today, buddy. You get to stay with Grace and beg table scraps from her all day.” I scratched the top of his head. “I’ll see you after school.”

            When I pulled up into the school parking lot, I got some curious looks, but not too many. I figured it was because the car I was driving wasn’t the only fancy one. Obviously a lot of the students here had rich parents.

            I found an empty spot and pulled into it. I grabbed my bag from the seat beside me and exited the car, making sure to lock the doors. I felt more eyes on me now as I made my way to the doors. I kept my head down, avoiding eye contact as I went inside and found my way to the office. I got my schedule from the office, as well as a school map. I stepped back into the hall and studied both documents, trying to figure out where I was supposed to go.

            The warning bell rang and I jumped a little at the sound. “Crap, I don’t know where the hell I’m supposed to go,” I muttered under my breath.

            “You lost?” a voice said from behind me.

            I turned to see a boy standing there. He was tall, with light brown hair and hazel eyes. He was pretty cute, but I pushed that thought away. “Yeah, I have no clue where the hell my Biology class is.”

            “Here, let me see that,” he said, holding his hand out for my schedule. I handed it to him and he scanned it quickly. “Okay, you’re not too far from my first class. I can show you the way if you want.”

            “Really? That would be great. I really didn’t want to be wandering around the school for the next hour looking for the class.”

            He chuckled. “No problem. I’m David, by the way.”

            “Hailey,” I replied as we started walking.

            “So Hailey, this is your first day here?”

            “Gee, how’d you guess?” I asked dryly.

            He smiled down at me. “Ah, sarcasm. Such a lost art,” he replied.

            I laughed. “Okay, I guess I deserved that. But yeah, I’m new here. This school is a lot bigger then my old one.”

            “Yeah, it’s not exactly small. Well, here’s your class,” he said.

            “Thanks for showing me the way. Maybe I’ll see you around.” I turned to go into the room, but he stopped me by placing a hand on my shoulder. “What?” I asked.

            “I saw that we have math together next. Do you want me to wait for you out here and show you where to go?”

            I hesitated for a moment. He really was cute, but did I really want to make friends here? Friends meant questions and I didn’t want to have to answer them. But I smiled at him anyways. “That would be great. Thanks David.”

            He smiled and removed his hand, walking away. I went into my classroom and scanned the desks quickly. Everyone else seemed to be there already, so I made my way to the only empty seat. There weren’t any desks in the room; instead they were tables with two seats at each one. I sat in the empty seat and placed my bag on the table in front of me before glancing at the person beside me.

            He was tall; I’d guess he was taller then David, but it was hard to tell since this guy was sitting down. He had blonde hair that had a slight curl to it. I couldn’t tell what color his eyes were, because he was wearing sunglasses. That made me frown a little. We were inside, why was he wearing sunglasses?

            I shrugged it off and turned towards the front. The teacher came in just as the bell rang. He looked to be in his late twenties or early thirties, with sandy blonde hair and sparkling green eyes. “Hello class, I’m Mr. Avery. Welcome to Biology. To start off, we’re going to do a little exercise to get to know each other. Turn to the person beside you and ask the questions on the worksheet that I’ll be passing around.”

            I waited until I had the paper in front of me before turning to the guy beside me again. “I guess we should start with our names. I’m Hailey,” I said.

            The guy didn’t move, he just grunted. “Blake,” he replied.

            “Well Blake, are you going to read the paper?”

            His lips twisted into a sneer. “No.”

            I was a little startled at his abrupt reply. “Well, there’s no need to be so rude about it,” I informed him. He ignored me completely, so I just rolled my eyes and decided to listen to some music on my Ipod.

            We spent the rest of the class in silence. When the bell rang, I hurriedly started packing my bag up, stupidly forgetting about my back. I cursed as a pain shot through me. I straightened up and took a few deep breaths, until the pain receded.

            “You okay?”

            I jolted a little and turned to see Blake still sitting in his chair. “I’m fine,” I said, a little harshly.

            His eyebrows rose. “Wow, no need to be so rude,” he responded.

            I snorted. “Yeah, like you’re one to talk,” I said as I finally got all of my stuff together. I carefully placed the strap of my bag over my shoulder and left the room, not looking back as I walked away.

            David was waiting for me and he smiled when he saw me. “Ready to go to math?” he asked with fake enthusiasm.

            I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, whatever,” I replied.

            He frowned at me. “What crawled up your butt?”

            I snorted out a laugh. “I had the rudest person sitting beside me in biology,” I said as we started walking down the hall.

            “Really? Who was it?”

            “Some guy named Blake,” I told him.

            He stopped dead in his tracks. “Blake Adams?”

            I frowned up at him. “I dunno. Tall guy, blonde hair, he was wearing sunglasses, which is just weird if you ask me.”

            David looked uncomfortable. “He has a reason for wearing them,” he said quietly.

            “Really? Do tell.”

            “He’s blind.”

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So there's the first chapter. You got to meet the main characters, although Blake's part in it was fairly brief. But you get to see his surliness, which is what my goal was for this chapter. Let me know what you think. This book will deal with bullying as well as being a romance, so it'll have it's more serious parts. Which is why I put Liam in there. Comical relief :-)