Our group won our debate, and group three won theirs against Jordan's group. I had faith in our group, of course, and I was confident in my writing skills. Plus, everybody knew that you had to believe in what you fought for, and clearly group one didn't.

"Wonderful job, class. Go ahead and pack up, the bell is going to ring soon."

I scrambled around, gathering my items. So far, traveling between classes was the worst part of school for me. It was so loud, crowded, and colorful. I hated it. Therefore, I wanted to avoid it as much as I could during my time at Pensacola High School.

Nathan appeared beside me. "Almost ready?"

"Yes," I huffed, swinging my bag over my shoulders.

"So, do you like science classes?" he asked.

I shrugged. "Not particularly. My mother wasn't the best science teacher, because the only sciences she paid attention to had to do with eye structure."

"Makes sense," Nathan said. "What's your favorite subject, then?"

"Definitely art, but I liked this class enough."

"Cool. I heard the art program here is pretty good, although I don't take it myself."

The bell finally rang, and Nathan and I took off. Apparently the science classes weren't very far from the language ones, because it didn't take as long as I had anticipated.

"...and we're here!" Nathan announced. He strutted purposefully to the back of the room, and motioned for me to take a spot beside him.

I smiled gratefully, seating myself on his right. I grabbed a pencil from my bag and took a swig from my water bottle. Then I scanned the class, searching for familiar faces. Turns out that Britney Sanders, the bubbly blonde, was in the class with us as well.

I gave her a small wave and smiled. Once she caught sight of me, she whirled through the crowd and sat directly in front of me. She threw her stuff on the floor and spun to face me.

"Hey, Veronica! I never got to finish what I was saying earlier, did I?"

I shook my head. "No, but I'm curious. What's up?"

"Sorry for butting in, but I'm guessing you don't have many friends here yet, right?"

"That'd be correct," I said, smiling a little sheepishly.

"So, do you want to sit with my friends and I? You seem to be friendly enough with most of them," she pointed out.

That was true. Not only was I friends with her, but also with Nathan - who was tactfully listening in on our conversation - and Trevor seemed nice as well.

"Why not? Better than sitting alone, I suppose," I teased.

"Yay!" Britney giggled happily. "You're really funny, Veronica. People will be swarming you soon enough, I bet."

"Maybe. Who knows?"

"Me!"

"She's probably right," Nathan mentioned. "You're pretty cool."

I felt my cheeks getting warm. "Thanks."

"Besides, if they don't come because of your personality, they'll come for your eyes. You must know how much drama they'll create." Nathan rolled his eyes, before clearing his throat. "Oh. Em. Gee! You know that new girl? Yeah, the one with a disease! She's, like, totally my BFF!" he squealed.

I laughed. "I certainly hope not. That sounds torturous."

"Oh, just you wait," Britney said ominously.

"Yeah, Roni. Just you wait," a male voice, drawled, intruding our conversation.

I turned to face the person emanating the voice, and recognized him immediately. Dark hair, dark eyes, and towering over me at what had to be over six feet tall, Hayden Davis stood before me.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "What's with the nickname, Hayden?"

He shrugged, sliding into the final seat in the last row, on my right. "Veronica is quite the mouthful sometimes."

I rolled my eyes and smiled, before facing forward again. There I found an extremely wide eyed Britney.

"How do you know him?" she hissed at me.

"He helped me find the office this morning," I explained.

The overdramatic girl let her jaw drop. She was just about to start talking again when the teacher looked up from her cluttered desk.

"Settle down, everyone! Britney, turn around. I'm starting class."

Britney quickly faced forward. The teacher began an insanely boring introduction of everything we'd be learning, and suddenly I was dreading the class. I hadn't realized how much we would be relying on color.

The class finally wrapped up after what felt like hours, but was actually only one. I gathered my belongings and was just about to stand when I felt a warm hand grasp my own. I glanced to the right and saw Hayden smiling at my hand in his grasp.

"What?" I asked self consciously.

"You didn't wash it off."

I blushed. "Well, of course not. You were the first person to help me, I'm not going to forget you. I was planning on keeping in touch."

"Sounds good." Hayden stood up, finally releasing his hold on my hand. "See you later."

Once again, he rushed off almost as if he was never there in the first place.

"Next up is study hall," Nathan commented. "Ready?"

During my strange encounter with the mysterious boy, Nathan had been sitting quietly, waiting patiently. I wasn't entirely sure if he'd been paying attention, but my guess was that he was.

"Yeah," I breathed. "Let's go."

Nathan and I braved the crowd once again. I had began to suspect that he had an easier time navigating the halls because of his social status, which was pretty stupid if you asked me.

Since study hall is typically a period to catch up on work, and it was the first day if school, the teacher let us fool around as long as we were safe. I decided to read my book instead of getting into any trouble, but Nathan wasn't having it. He kept pestering me, trying to get my attention off of my book. Sadly, it was working.

"Yes?" I groaned.

"Come over with us!" Nathan said. "We're having a blast."

I glanced at the group he was talking about. They seemed to be talking about something fascinating, to them at least.

"Yeah? What are they talking about?"

"Fun stuff, I promise. Please, I promise you'll have fun," he pleaded redundantly.

I sighed, sliding a bookmark between the pages of my novel and placing the book in my bag. I got up, finally persuaded.

We made our way to the group, which included Garrett London, Reece Pearle, and three other kids. All of the seniors had study hall fourth period, but there were two different classes that it was held in. I figured Jordan, Britney, Trevor, and Hayden were in the other room.

"Guys, this is Veronica," Nathan introduced. "Veronica, that's Garrett, Reece, Jen, Caleb, and Nick."

I nodded. "Hey, guys. Nice to meet you."

There was a chorus of different greetings, before they returned to their conversation. I sank into my thoughts, thinking about what made these kids popular.

The first thought that came to my mind was looks. Clearly, Nathan was handsome with his blonde hair, blue eyes, and tan skin. He had a surfer vibe to him. Reece was very beautiful, almost sexy. She had long, curled, reddish-brown hair and shimmering brown eyes, but she accentuated her plain features with makeup, adding to her attractiveness. Garrett was also pretty cute, with messy dark hair and mischievous brown eyes, and a cute little button nose. The other three were not ugly what so ever, but not necessarily attractive, making me think they were classed more as followers not leaders.

Another possibility was wealth. I didn't know any of their home life styles, but based off of their clothes they definitely weren't poor. Expensive jewelry adorned both Reece's and Jen's necks. Every one of them had fancy shoes, either designer boots or name brand sneakers.

Thinking about those two aspects of what made people stereotypically popular, I wondered if Britney and Hayden were right about me most likely becoming one of them. I personally didn't think I was very pretty, but I had been told constantly by family members and strangers alike. My family also wasn't poor. Not only did my parents have high end jobs, but we also got paid for countless interviews and studies by curious scientists.

"Hey, Roni," Nathan said, interrupting my thoughts.

I blinked hard and looked at him. "Sorry, what?"

"What were you thinking about?"

I lightly blushed. "Nothing important," I replied quickly.

He smirked. "Yeah? What is it, if you don't mind sharing?"

The rest of the group was still entranced in whatever had them fascinated, so I sighed and admitted, "I was thinking about all the factors that made someone popular. It's pretty silly, don't you think?"

Nathan furrowed his eyebrows, and I worried for a moment that I had offended him.

"You think that we're popular?" he finally spit out, perplexed.

I scoffed. "Clearly. The other students literally parted in the hallway on the way here for you."

"Really? I guess I never noticed. Or maybe I just thought they were being nice. You're right, though, I have no idea what makes people put certain others on a pedestal. It's odd."

I nodded. "I used to think it was only in books, but...." 

I trailed off and gestured at the group, making Nathan chuckle.

"Yeah, I guess it's pretty real." He looked at the analog clock above the door. "Five minutes until lunch. You're sitting with us, right?"

I shrugged. "I guess. Who's 'us'?"

"Well, me, Reece, Garrett, Trevor, Britney, Jen, Nick, and Caleb."

"You aren't friends with Hayden?" I asked. "Sorry, that was intrusive. Never mind."

Nathan laughed, waving his hand dismissively. "No worries. But yeah, I wouldn't call us best friends. We just don't hang out that much, but it goes both ways. He isn't necessarily the easiest to approach."

"So, if we carry on with my theory of stereotypes in real life, he's the bad boy?"

He laughed. "You could put it that way." Nathan paused. "What would I be? Or anyone you've met so far, really?"

"Well, you're kind of the golden boy. Do you play sports?"

He nodded.

"Yeah, you're definitely that good kid with good grades that gets loads of scholarships but doesn't use half of them. And Reece over there is like the empress of this school. People fall at her feet, I bet."

That made Nathan laugh. "I'll be sure to share that with her. It'll make her day."

I smiled. "Garrett and Trevor are the prankers, always causing mischief but getting away with it. Britney is the girl that's been trying to be 'cool' her whole life, and is still working hard to be known. Jordan's kind of a nerd, but not a stuck up nerd that shares their thoughts on everything. That's more like me, to be honest."

He chuckled. "Those are pretty accurate, but I don't think that you're stuck up. You just know your stuff."

"Thanks."

The bell rang, and everybody scrambled to get out of class and get to lunch first. Nathan's group wasn't in such a hurry, and I wondered if it was because they had a secured lunch spot, like the cool kids always seemed to have in my books.

I mentally scolded myself. I needed to stop comparing real life to fiction novels. Sure, it was a good way to relate things at first, but after a while it was just judgmental.

"Come on, Roni," Nathan said.

"Coming," I replied.

The five of them formed a pack as they made their way to the cafeteria, presumably. I wormed my way in the center, behind Nathan and Reece, and beside Jen, a petite girl with red hair, green eyes, and freckles.

"So, you have a mutation, right?" she asked.

Her question was fine, but I didn't really like her tone. "Uh, yeah. That's correct."

"That's weird."

I shrugged. "I guess so."

We arrived at the cafeteria, which wasn't much of a cafeteria at all. There was a small enclosure surrounding the kitchen, where you could pick up a school meal. Besides that, all of the tables were located outside.

"That's...odd," I mentioned.

Nathan chuckled. "I suppose. Come on, they're serving Italian subs today."

I scampered behind him to the line, where he showed me how to order my food. After I got my Italian - complete with ham, cheese, pickles, green peppers, and tomatoes - we sat down at a circular table with ten seats, barely enough for all of us.

It felt weird to refer to the popular group as 'us'. I shook the feeling away and scooted my chair closer to the table. I was on Nathan's left. On his right was Reece, beside her was Jen, then Nick, then Caleb, then Travis, then Garrett, and finally Britney on my left. The one leftover seat was between Jen and Nick.

As I dug into my sandwich, I took in my surroundings. There seemed to be an even spread of seniors and juniors in this lunch. There was around twenty of the circular tables, and a few smaller tables that had four chairs at each. I saw Jordan sitting at one of those small tables with two other people that I didn't know. I noticed Hayden sitting at another of those tables with two guys and a girl.

Just as I was about to transfer my gaze, Hayden looked up and caught my eye. He smirked at me, before mentioning something to his friends and standing up. When I realized he was coming toward me, my eyes widened.

Hayden stood behind me. He bent down and whispered to Britney, "Move."

She immediately followed his request and brought her tray with her to sit beside Jen and Nick. Hayden happily took her seat.

"Why did you do that?" I asked.

"I wanted to sit beside you. Is that a crime?"

I shook my head. "No, but you didn't have to be so rude about it."

Hayden threw his head back with laughter. "Oh, sweetheart, that's how I roll."

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So, what did you think? This is the last chapter that I've prewritten, so feel free to leave requests of what you would like to see/have me change. That also means I have to stop procrastinating this story...lol

If you enjoyed, please leave a vote and feel free to leave recommendations for how this story should progress. Thanks for reading!