First day of my senior year and I have to go through it without Mandy; this should be fun, not. I mean really whose family decides to just up and move at the end of summer; not just like move a few towns or states away either, no they had to move half way across the world to Europe. To be fair her parents did say that it was going to happen at the beginning of summer but I thought, we thought, that maybe they would just some how change their minds and not go; apparently that didn’t happen.

          I parked my car and made my way up to the one story brick building that I liked to call hell, really is there any other word that you can use to describe high school? Torture chamber, jail cell a nightmare, I guess those would suffice too. It’s not like I was a geek or got bullied or anything but I wasn’t the most popular girl in school either. I was just me, I kept to myself and out of other peoples business; that’s the way I liked it, just me and Mandy, but now, it’s just me.

          Mandy was my best friend since kindergarten, sure we talked to a lot of other people but did I really consider them friends, no; those people didn’t really know anything about me, nobody did, except Mandy. She was always there for everything; my first kiss, my first break up, hell she was even there when I got my first period. I guess with it being my senior year I had basically experienced all my ‘firsts’ already so she really wouldn’t be missing out on much, right? It still would be a lot better if she was here with me; would it be weird if I just made up an imaginary Mandy in my mind, someone to help me get through the days?

Yes Haley that would be crazy; imaginary Mandy would make you insane. Imaginary Mandy equals padded room, just remember that.

          I sighed and pulled my long blonde hair over my shoulder as I made my way to the table in the courtyard that Mandy and I sat at every day while we waited for the bell to ring so that we could go into the school. I couldn’t help but glance over at the empty seat next to me as I sat down; Mandy should be sitting in that seat, maybe imaginary Mandy could sit there today.

No Haley, no, no, no! Imaginary Mandy, padded cell, imaginary Mandy, padded cell; if I kept telling myself that it would have to sink in at some point, right?

          I moved my gaze to look over the kids that I had spent basically my entire life with; it was so cliché that they all stayed in their own little groups year after year. Mandy and I didn’t have a group, we didn’t want nor need a group; we were who we were and we weren’t going to change for anyone just so that we could ‘fit in’ better. It’s not like we were loners or anything, we talked to almost everyone, we just didn’t see a reason to sanction ourselves off to one specific group of people.

          A high pitched giggle caught my attention and turning my head towards the sound there was a group of cheerleaders hanging off a group of jocks. It was disgusting to watch really, like one big fuck fest; I know that sounds mean but to be frank it was the truth, I’m pretty sure that they all have had sex with each other at least a few times. I get that you share things with your friends like chips, cake, every once and a while bacon if you really, really like them; there just some things that you shouldn’t share like popsicles, ice cream cones, and women.

          The whole group made me sick for other reasons than the fact that they probably shared every STD known to man with each other; their attitudes are what really irked me. The way that they thought that they were better than everyone else, like they should be placed on some throne and praised by all the other high school students; other than the fact that they were hot and good at what they do, they didn’t really have much else going for them. I don’t consider myself the smartest person in the world by far, but I way outrank most of them in the common sense category; sometimes I swear it was like talking with eight year olds when you were around them, if the conversation wasn’t completely about them then you should just assume that you would walk away from it losing at least a few brain cells.

          Don’t get me wrong their not all that stupid and sluty, there were a select few who were still decent people; unfortunately for those select few it just meant that you weren’t really as good at what you do as the rest. There were the cheerleaders that didn’t have the ‘right’ look, or just couldn’t seem to get all the moves down; they were the girls that made the squad and were put in the back of the formation to make the other ones look even better. The nicer jocks were the ones that had the seemingly unimportant positions on the football team, when in reality if you knew anything about football without those guys there wouldn’t even be a game. That’s just the way it was in high school; if you weren’t a head cheerleader, quarterback, receiver, or one of their right hands then you basically failed to exist on the social radar.

          I found myself almost feeling sick to my stomach watching the blatant make-out sessions taking place right in front of the school and moved my attention to the next group of teenagers, the geeks. I don’t know if I really loved the geeks or hated them, its possible it was one of those weird love-hate relationships; they were usually fairly nice people, but at times they could make you feel dumber than a box of rocks. I would usually limit any conversation with them to something about food or sports, anything that they really didn’t seem that interested in; the second that you would move to a subject that could in any way, shape or form be linked back to scientific theories or formulas you would find yourself staring at them like a deaf kid who wasn’t understanding a word that came out of their mouths.

          My brain had trouble grasping the concept of biology sometimes, lets not even get started on physics; it was making my head hurt even thinking about, so moving on. My eyes scanned over the math team, another subject that makes me want to throw up; moving on there was the chest club in their cute little checkered vests, more jocks, more cheerleaders, hot guy in a leather jacket leaning against a pole, stoners, more geeks.

Whoa wait a minute, put on the breaks, throw it in reverse; hot guy in a leather jacket leaning against a pole, now that’s a new one.

          I let my eyes travel up the new site in front of me; starting at his black and white DC shoes, moving up to his dark designer looking jeans. Next my eyes settled on his light blue shirt hanging under his black jacket, surely they were coving up what I could only imagine to be rock solid chiseled abs; then there was the light stubble growing on his chiseled jaw, his perfectly set lips that pulled up into an earth shattering grin, his ungodly like straight nose. I kept going to find the strangest grey colored eyes, almost translucent like diamonds staring back at me just slightly covered by a few strands of shaggy brown hair; he had that hair that looked like he woke up ran his hands through it and walked out the door, yet at the same time it looked so fucking hot that it made you want to drool.

Shit, did I just say he was staring back at me?

          Forcing my eyes away from his hair and back to his face, sure enough he was looking right at me. My face flushed as I quickly turned to look at imaginary Mandy; I could just imagine the smug look she would have on her face right now. That guy just caught me checking him out, I had never been caught checking anyone out before; damn it Mandy, first day you’re gone and you already missed a ‘first’ for me. Well I guess this would explain the grin that he had plastered across his face; god how could I be so distracted that I didn’t even notice him looking at me.

          I ran my hand through my hair a few times trying to calm my nerves and get my face to turn back to its original color; if I sat here staring at imaginary Mandy any longer people might think that I really have gone crazy. The ringing of the bell above the door had never sounded as good to me as it did at that moment; I swung my backpack over my shoulder and got up to go inside, taking a quick glance in the direction of the pole I was glad to see that the guy was now surrounded by other students and blocked from my view.

          I made my way down the all too familiar hallways avoiding eye contact with the sure sign newbie’s; that was one thing I made sure to stay away from on the first few days of school, the newbie’s. You could spot them from a mile away with their ‘I’m so lost’ looks, the way that they held their arms tightly across their chests like the school was about to suck the life right out of them; really I couldn’t blame them, it wasn’t far from the truth of what was about to happen. There were just rules you had to follow with newbie’s and they were, 1) never make eye contact for more than a few seconds, 2) never, ever, smile at them and 3) keep walking; I know that they were just looking for someone to help, to guide them through the halls and help them find their classes, but it sure the hell wasn’t going to be me. It seemed like the first person they would talk to was the person that they would be stuck to like a leach for the rest of the year; like I said earlier its not that I didn’t like people but I was more comfortable just being by myself, or with Mandy, but seeing as she’s not here with me, myself it is.

          Looking down at my schedule I found my way to my assigned locker and spun the dial to enter the code; opening it up it was the same as always with two shelves and a hook on each side to hang your bag or jacket. I opened my book bag and arranged my pens and pencils on the bottom in my normal OCD manner, making sure they were all perfectly straight and the labels facing up. Next I moved onto the shelf placing my notepads, folders and binders in; first arranged by size, then by color. Last but not least I pulled out a few pictures of Mandy and I and arranged them in a perfect line on the door with a few magnets before rolling up my bag and shoving it on the top shelf; I was about to close my locker when the last voice I wanted to hear came from behind me; his hot breath cascading across my neck.

“Hey babe.” He said placing a hand on the locker next to mine; I slammed the locker door shut and turned around to face him.

“I’m not your babe, don’t call me that.” I said trying to move around him; his other hand moved to my locker effectively trapping me between his arms.

“Oh come on babe, don’t be like that.” He offered me one of his award winning smiles, that same smile that a few months ago would have had me falling into his arms.

“Look Nick its over between us, I thought I made that clear last month.” I tried to duck under his arm but he grabbed me by my waist holding me in place; if I didn’t think that the universe was out to get me before this moment I was definitely sure of it now.

“Look it was one mistake, can’t we just move on from that?” He asked inching closer to me.

“You sleeping with someone else when you were supposed to be with me is not something that I can just move on from. Now get the fuck out of my way.” I said trying to push him away, but with the way he had me basically pinned against the locker it was virtually impossible.

“Babe that was…” He didn’t get to finish his sentence when someone shoulder checked him from behind on their way by; as much as I liked the idea of him getting hammered with a shoulder all it did was push him closer to me and that was the last thing that I wanted.

“What the fuck, watch where you’re…” Nicks words stopped when he took in the figure that bumped him; his anger seemed to fade almost immediately and he straightened himself out before speaking again.

“Oh, uh, sorry Colt, I didn’t, uh, know that was you.” Nick said basically tripping on his words.

          Needless to say I was still trapped between his arms and the lockers; I glanced over to see who bumped him and it just so happened to be none other than the guy that caught me checking him out earlier. Oh well this is just great, there goes my plan of avoiding him I thought as I watched him spin the knob of the locker right next to mine. He just nodded at Nick before looking over at me; his lips turned up in a grin as he went back to entering in his combination.

“Anyways babe, where were we?” Nick asked his full attention back on me; I forced my eyes away from the god one locker down and back to the face of my ex-boyfriend.

“We were at the part where I tell you to fuck off and never speak to me again. What part of were over and leave me the fuck alone do you not understand? If it would make it easier for you I will buy you a dictionary, tag the pages and highlight the words for you.” I growled before pushing him back as far as I could and ducked under his arm; I walked as fast as my feet would carry me to my first class and took a seat in the back of the room.

          Do you see what I have to deal with when you’re not around, I asked imaginary Mandy in my head; screw it, high school alone was enough to drive me insane I might as well have an imaginary friend to go along with it. My first two classes and lunch went by without a hitch, I even somehow managed to avoid the hot guy I now knew as Colt at my locker between classes; walking into third period science I thought my day was finally taking a turn for the better.