This story takes place two months after the epilogue in TBBATTB in September of 2014 mainly because of Ivan and Natasha's wedding and because Lucas and Joey are one year younger than Samuel Cahill but anyway...

Chapter Two: "Victorious."

"SO HOW DO I look?" I asked Wesley, making a slow turn so he could clearly see me.

He leaned back in his chair, wearing jeans and a red t-shirt. To be honest, I did not miss the whole idea of finding new clothing to wear everyday and one little mishap of wearing the same shirt or pants for another day or in a week would make people talk about you.

Now I've got new school, new rules with uniform. The plaid black and red skirt went to my knees and I didn't bother wearing the leggings because from my window, you could see the heat waves. The shirt was okay with a navy blue collar and the crest saying Hamilton Academy of the Arts on it with masks to represent drama and an easel to represent art behind it.

"Looking good," Wesley he said and that put a smile on my face before he kept on talking. "But pull the skirt up a little, let the boys have little less of an imagination."

I laughed mockingly before it turned into a scowl, pulling my skirt even further down. "Stop bullshitting, you pervert."

I packed my dance clothes in my bag as the screen on Wesley's side of technology moved, indicating that he was moving his phone around. When I was all set with my Jansport backpack on my back and my dance bag in my hands, I turned back to Wesley. "Ready?"

"Ready. This is stupid. I wish you had an iPhone, I would be able to FaceTime you."

"There's this thing called calling or texting Wes, you can still use that part of technology."

"But it's not the same. We got to connect on the level of face to face. That's what technology does for us."

"No, technology helps computers and robots turn against the humans and annihilate everyone."

"You've been watching too many sci-fi films."

"Sydney, are you ready? You're going to be late if we don't get a move on!" My mom yelled and I'm pretty sure our neighbors could hear her through the thin walls.

"I'm coming." I yelled back. I turned my attention back to Wesley who was possibly walking down the street with his fast unlimited internet on his nice phone. "I have to go Wes."

There was a pout on his face and he sighed heavily. "Good luck today. You'll need it."

"Thanks, same to you."

He gave me one last smile before the screen went dark. I shut off my laptop and went into the living room. "Ready."

"Was that Wesley?" My mom asked as we started going to the elevator.

"Yeah." I said, pressing the down button, shaking my arms.

"Nervous?"

I stopped shaking my arms and settled down. "Yeah you could say that. It's a new start and everything's going to change. Of course I'm nervous."

I let out the last words in frustration just as the elevator doors opened. We didn't say anything in the elevator with two other people inside. But once we got to the underground parking lot, I speed walked in front of her towards the car.

When we both got in with me in the passenger seat, she started driving out. It wasn't until she was out onto the street that she started talking. "Sydney, I know how hard this move was for you."

"It was," I admitted, leaning my head back and playing with a piece of thread at the bottom of my skirt. "I had to leave my friends, my dance studio, school, Wesley, I had to leave Toronto..."

I had to leave my dad. But it was the right choice. He made his mistakes as he called them, it was his fault.

My mom sighed heavily. "Things change Sydney."

I leaned my head against the window. "I know mom, I know."

"Do you want me to pick you up straight from school?"

"Mom, I already told you I'm going to the introduction into the dance program."

I looked over at my mom and I could see that she didn't like the idea of me taking the bus in a different town. Hell, she got worried whenever I took the bus to school back home.

She finally sighed. "Fine, you got bus tickets?"

I nodded. "Yeah and I also need them for work mom. Remember my job that I now have?"

"I keep forgetting. With you going off to college in a year and-"

"Julliard mom, we've been planning for me to go to Julliard since I was five."

She patted my knee. "And with your dancing, you'll get in for sure."

"Good. Thanks to the internet, I know the way to get to and from school and to and from work. It's not hard."

"That's not the problem Sydney. It's you being-"

"Safe I know." She's said this a thousand times through my seventeen years of living. I get it. The world is not a safe place but keeping me away from life itself is getting in my way. I was sick of it. The only way I used to go places besides of school was if she dragged me along or if I had a dance competition away from home. Besides then dance and school, I'm usually cooped up inside my house watching TV.

She must have sensed my frustration because I was making it rather obvious. "Just text me after school okay?"

"Okay." She stopped the car and I looked outside the window to the castle known as Hamilton Academy of the Arts. The school was huge, much bigger than my old one meaning that I was definitely going to get lost. Teenagers were littered everywhere, greeting old friends and chatting like bees. They all looked so excited and I refused to feed off their vibe.

But each of them shared something that we all had in common. We were students of the arts.

I gripped onto my backpack with nerves, gulping loudly. My head turned back to my mom and I looked at her with pleading eyes. "Mom..."

She rolled her eyes. "Sydney you will be fine. Go."

I pushed up some confidence and opened the passenger door. Once I had got out, the nerves kicked in again but I couldn't do anything as my mom waved and drove away off to her new job.

I exhaled before turning back around to look up at the huge school. "Here goes nothing."

Then I walked inside the big doors.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I shoved my dance bag in my locker once the bell had rung and rushed off the classroom I had found when I had entered the school. The office secretary was nice enough to give me my schedule and my locker stuff.

I knew I was going to be late, so I rushed right over in these really ugly black shoes. Not to mention that the shoes were really uncomfortable. I headed towards the class, through throngs of students. There was a guy, doing random back handsprings as he went along and I got to notice how well his form was as he continued until he sprang up and away from my vision.

I looked at the side as I speed walked, a couple of older students were painting vertical lines along a pure white wall. I couldn't help but notice how every single wall was spectacular, filled with color, design, posters, people performing it was astonishing.

The school itself was astonishing and suddenly I felt a wreck of nerves within me. What if I shouldn't be here? Was I really that talented to get into this school? Possibly not, I could tell everyone here radiated something special about them. From the way they walked and talked animatedly, heading to class.

For the first time since I was three and had entered baby ballet dance, I felt insecure about my abilities.

I gripped onto my backpack as I entered classroom 121A thankful that it was on the first floor of this four story building. I noticed how everyone was able to talk to themselves easily as if they already knew each other. Of course they did, they all probably attended the school every year and didn't get used to seeing new students.

Why did I think that? Because as soon as I entered the classroom, all eyes were on me. It made me stop and feel intimidated. I, Sydney Acosta, felt intimidated by all the pairs of eyes on me especially the teacher. The really attractive teacher.

Now, the teacher...was young, very young. I don't know maybe in his mid to late twenties but I couldn't exactly pinpoint it by the dark scruff on his face. His hair was jet black and wavy around his ears looking kind of like Aladdin. His skin had a nice tan to it but I knew he was something of Asian, possibly south Asian descent. And even though I shouldn't be thinking about it, he was hot, definitely hot.

His hazel eyes observed me as I stood by the threshold with a timid smile on his face. I broke gaze with him to look at the rest of the class, they were already in their seats and I noticed how all the girls were fully focused on the teacher, not that I could blame them.

The teacher walked over to me and stuck his hand out in a greeting. I could see the swirling of tattoos that were peaking out of his sleeve. "Hello, I'm Mr. Stiles. Do you happen to be a new student to my Grade 12 University English class?"

I nodded slowly. "Yeah..." Wouldn't all the students here be new to him?

He seemed to notice my confusion because he laughed under his breath. "We don't usually get new students here at HAA besides the ninth graders and I knew every student in the previous class because I was there grade 11 teacher last year."

"Oh." I said. I'm pretty sure that even if he was a grade 11 teacher last year, he probably wouldn't know the entire grade 11 class but okay.

"You can take a seat next to Mary Anne over there." He pointed towards a girl that raised her hand to show me who she was. As I walked towards the desk attached to hers, I felt all eyes on me and my fingers tugged at a loose thread in my shirt to get away from the attention.

I sat down next to her, placing my binder on the desk. I could hear the crackle of the PA system go through the school before a voice spoke through it, insisting that everyone should stand for the national anthem. I stood along with the class, my eyes darting around the artistic room where swirls of purple traced around the room. I focused on the pattern while some group with amazing voices and harmonization sang Oh Canada.

Once that ended and everyone sat down, the girl Mary Anne stuck out a hand towards me. "Hey I'm Mary Anne but you can call me Mary if you want to."

I slightly smiled at her, shaking her hand. She was of Asian Descent too, possibly Filipino from my view but I wasn't one to judge and assume. We were possibly the same height, seeing how tall she was and her black straight hair went to her mid back. "I'm Sydney. Sydney Acosta."

"We haven't had a new student since tenth grade."

"Really? How?"

"Because here at the Academy, they focus on the best of the best. I mean people move across the world just to send their children to learn here and improve their dream profession with all opportunities that come by. For freshman kids, it's easier to get in but as you reach a higher grade especially grade twelve, it gets really hard to enter into the school. Therefore, you're probably really amazing at whatever arts you're into."

She said all that in one breath. I could tell she liked focusing on a person as she talked to them, having a good attention span. She looked as if she would be a good public speaker too. Then she blinked before the smile returned to her face. "Wow I'm stupid. I forgot to ask what kind of art are you?"

"Um, I'm a dancer. You?"

"Theatric arts meaning that when I'm older I'm planning on doing plays, not the whole acting in front of a camera thing. That's completely different program."

"Really? How many are there?" I was starting to like her. She really loved to explain things what from I could gather.

"Usually one of my other friends who is like an encyclopedia could tell you everything you need to know but I'll just say it. In the drama arts of the school, there are-"

Someone cleared their throat gaining our attention. "Excuse me ladies but do you want to hear the outline for the semester?"

"Yes Mr. Stiles." We both said in unison.

He nodded and proceeded to talk about the outline in that voice of his when Mary Anne nudged gently me with her elbow, tilting her head at our teacher. "You think he's hot don't you?"

I avoided her gaze, trying to focus on what he was saying. "No...what the heck? W-Why would I?"

She put a hand over her mouth to cover her laughter before whispering next to me. "Don't worry I don't blame you. It's not just the face, it's his hair."

A smile crept on my face. "And what if he was bald?"

"Then he's lucky he has the face." I slapped a hand over my mouth to stop laughing loudly with her. "I'm joking."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I didn't have Mary Anne in my next class. It was pretty boring, meaning that I spent half the time doodling in my notebook but whatever. Lunch time was possibly when I got to see how half the school interacted.

There's this one show that used to be on Nickelodeon? It had Ariana Grande?

Victorious.

Now I feel as if that show came over to this town and copied everything, from the graffiti walls, to these small steps of stairs with a tiny platform that led to two other sets of stairs where people did back flips and tricks off them. The fact that my locker was right beside that and a guy who was jamming out on his trumpet was either frightening or cool.

If a random guy came up to me and had his hand stuck under a puppet I was possibly going to scream.

My locker was a color of blue at the bottom then mixed with a green that grew lighter towards the top. Everyone's set of lockers in the hallway looked like this.

It was frightening because I didn't think I could be in these standards of expressing yourself enough or being out there. I didn't think I shined that much in the momentum.

At all.

The fact that the trumpet guy had a keyboard player right beside him, playing in sync of musicality made my nerves spike higher. Was I really going to fit in here?

The second I had closed my locker and tried to reach down and grab my back-pack from the ground, an arm pulled me away. "W-"

"Dance." The boy smiled. I recognized him as the boy who had done back handsprings this morning told me. His eyes were a deep set of brown, his skin was tanned and his features showed Spanish descent. He shook his scraggly long brown hair and repeated what he had said to me.

"Uh..."

He tilted his head at me, most of his hair falling with him. "You're not a dancer?"

"No-I am but-"

"Then dance." He urged, pushing me towards the center of people who had gathered around us. He came with me and I could her a trumpet blow a clear high E as he placed a hand on my waist and our other hands were held together at a distance away from us. I noticed the music change to the cha cha and I was happy I could keep up as I put my other hand on his shoulder.

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8

"You really know your stuff." The boy with scraggly hair said as he spun me.

"Why else would I be here?"

"You're coming to our introduction today?"

I nodded, observing how the trumpet and keyboard were gone and some tango music filled the hallway. Everyone in the hallway was dancing too, some were dancing professionally with their partner while others were laughing like crazy at the mistakes they were making.

The boy professionally moves his hips to the beat, before twirling me three times, making me laugh quietly. I go back into his grip and his grinning. "That's it baby, go with the flow."

I couldn't help but laugh. "Don't call me that." His laid back nature reminded me of nature and the uneasiness I had about this school started fading away.

"He calls everyone that." I hear a voice say.

I stop dancing and look over at Mary Anne who is smiling widely at the sight in front of her. The boy lets go of me and kisses her on the cheek, hugging her from behind. "Hey baby." He said playfully.

She rolled her eyes. "Sydney this is Eduardo, Eduardo, Sydney."

"Sydney is a pretty good dancer." Eduardo grinned.

Mary Anne smiled even wider and grabbed my hand, letting go of his grip. "Come on, let's eat something."

I quickly picked up my backpack from the ground as she dragged me towards hallways, momentarily saying hi to some people. We found our way to the busy, noisy and colorful cafeteria as Eduardo started walking away from us. Once we get our food she pulled me out the room and I'm confused. "Um...we're not eating in there?"

She scoffed. "The real entertainment is outside in the quad, come on."

We walked even more, through a hallway filled with windows, past more art hallways before stepping past doors that led us outside. "Whoa."

Teenagers sat at tables outside on the pavement, some we're playing music on a the grass or pavement and there was stairs that led to a large platform where other students ate and played music too. People we're dancing and others we're laughing. It was pretty cool.

I was led to a table under the platform at the top. It had shade and hid us from the sun. Eduardo was already there, snorting at something a boy was saying. There were three girls and one other boy besides Eduardo and the girls were all busy doing something. Mary Anne took a seat and gestured for me to sit beside her. I carefully did and everyone's eyes turned towards me.

"Guys this is Sydney. Sydney this is Zen, Sarah, Octavia and Kim."

Zen, the only other guy was definitely interesting. He was really pale, so pale that I could see the blue veins on his arm from a distance but that didn't stop him from smiling at me with his straight white teeth. He was lean and sinewy and the hair on his head was styled.

If Wesley was here I can almost hear him telling me he has a fuckboy haircut but I pushed that aside, hiding a smile.

Sarah sat beside him. She looked to be half Spanish, half something else that I couldn't identify. She had black hair that was in a side French braid and brown eyes were under her black rimmed glasses. She gave me a small smile then continued drawing whatever she was drawing in her little notebook.

Octavia was dark skinned. Her hair was in black extension braids and she was painting her nails a weird but exotic design. She was arguing with Kim who had wavy dirty blonde hair that reached to the nape of her neck and was put back with a bright blue headband. As she twisted her head to face Octavia, I could see a small tattoo on the back of her neck. It looked like Mickey mouse...

"I'm not accepting it." Octavia rolled her eyes before smiling and waving at me.

"But come on," Kim argued. "This would be great for your career."

Zen snorted. "What career?"

Octavia smacked him upside the head and he grimaced, rubbing the spot. "What's going on?" Mary Anne asked.

Sarah didn't look up from her drawing as she answered. "Octavia got a job offer for a movie in LA again but doesn't want to accept it. Now Kim is trying to convince her though I'm pretty sure it won't work."

"But it pays really well Octavia." Kim insisted.

"I don't care if it pays what Bill Gates earns every year. I am not doing a movie with Jack Matias."

My eyes widened. "Jack Matias, the famous Youtuber?"

Octavia scoffed, picking at the fries on her plate. "He's a jackass who has no talent. I'm guessing you know him?"

I shook my head. "I'm not really into the whole watching Youtube in my spare time but I have friends that are totally in love with the guy."

"Take it from a girl that was at a point in love with him, he's not that great as he seems."

Mary Anne leaned close to me. "Bad break up between the two of them."

"You dated him?" I blurted out.

Octavia nodded, smiling at my enthusiasm. It's not my fault, I never knew anyone who was in a relationship with a famous guy. "Yeah, a year until he decided to get his hands on little Ms. Bitch around here."

I was confused. Who? "Ah speak of the devil." Eduardo stated, looking behind him.

We all turned our heads to face what he was looking at. A girl walked through the doors that led to the outside. She wasn't tall, maybe 5'4 but she was really pretty. Her hair was kind of like mine, just less nappy and thinner almost like she blow dried it to make it straight. She seemed to be mixed, her skin the color of...bronze. The thing that really shined in her, rather than her skin color was her eyes. They were green and looked as if they were staring into everyone's soul with the proud look on her face.

"Damn." I heard Zen mumble. "Ow.!"

I turned just in time to see Octavia hit him again in the back of his head and I hid a smile. "It's not my fault she's hot. I mean I have eyes, I can see. She's third rate fire."

"Huh?"

"You see Zenny over here has a scale of 'hotness'," Kim informed me. "It's actually really stupid."

Zen reached over and ruffled Kim's slightly wavy short hair. "Don't worry Kimmy, you're beyond the scale of hotness."

Even though he meant it as a joke, it was pretty obvious it affected Kim very much seeing as how her cheeks flamed a dark red once he looked away. Zen kept his eyes trained on the girl as she walked past our table. Her eyes gleamed over Octavia's who was glowering at her but she didn't say a word as she climbed the stairs to the upper platform a smirk plastered on her face. Once she was away from our sight, Octavia rolled her eyes. "I hate her."

"You say that everyday-"

"Because it's true," Octavia grabbed her apple and gripped it hard. "She fucking threw herself at him and hypnotized with her apparently melodic voice. Ugh I feel like ripping out her vocal cords every time she talks."

"We know, honey, we know." Sarah patted her hand before returning to her drawing.

"She didn't even apologize that it happened."

"What happened again? Would you like to tell us Oct?" Eduardo sounded as if he had heard the story one hundred times.

"She slept with him," Octavia told me. "And I was literally next door."

"Next door?" I suddenly felt weird. I mean this was high school. It's not like every single person in an Canadian high school fully talks about sex but as I got older it was a topic that came up like once a week with my old friends.

"They used to be really good friends. Like sister tight friends," Sarah explained, still not looking up from her notebook. "Octavia over here was sleeping over her house in the guest room only to find a bare Jack and Lydia in bed the next morning."

I was guessing Lydia was the girl that just passed us because Octavia's grip on the apple was tightening and she was making apple juice within her anger. "We do not speak of the bitch's name."

Sarah rolled her eyes under her glasses but I could see the sympathetic look she was giving her friend. "Ever since then, her and you-know-who have been at hate towards each other especially when Jack tried to get Octavia back."

"Fucking asshole," Octavia muttered and I could see that the apple was now slowly becoming apple juice in the midst. "So Kim no I'm not going to do the movie."

Eduardo carefully got the apple out of Octavia's grip. "Now that that story is over, Sydney you new to town?"

I nodded and everyone's attention was now on me. "I just moved here two weeks ago so yeah I'm new."

"Where did you come from?"

"Toronto, a couple hours from here."

Sarah's eyes widened and she looked up from her notebook. "No way, I used to live there, until I moved in the eighth grade."

"Yeah then she moved to the great town of-"

"Oh my God." Kim interrupted Zen. Zen shot her an agitated looked before she continued. "I forgot to tell you guys something."

"What?" Mary Anne asked, resting her chin on her laced hands that were propped up by her elbows.

"Mr. Stiles is now head of vocal department." Kim said with a huge grin on his face.

"You get William Stiles, the sex god as your teacher every day after school, paying extra attention to you?" Mary Anne stated with her jaw dropping.

"He's your English teacher." Octavia pointed out, taking a bite out of the rice in front of her. I knew what rice she was eating; jollof rice. My opinion- best tasting rice ever.

"Yeah but he actually gets to be with her and most times gives private lessons. Your very lucky my friend."

"Um excuse me," Eduardo raised a hand looking offended. "In case you haven't noticed, your already sex god of a boyfriend gives you his undivided attention every hour of everyday. And your relationship is-I don't know-LEGAL!"

"Sorry babe."

"You better be." He huffed crossing his arms. "Now Sydney, are you familiar with what our school is divided into?"

"Not really," I shook my head. "I didn't exactly read a student handbook."

He nodded and gestured towards Sarah who seemed to have information on everything. "Sarah if you may."

She cleared her throat, still looking down at her drawing. "Hamilton Academy of the Arts is a big school as you've seen. The biggest school in town in fact. We have a major love for arts and there many arts and the categories they fall into are a lot. The main categories are, dancing, singing, instrumental, formalistic art as people may say and drama. With these five categories, the school has broken it down into more like for instance...which one are you part of?"

"Um dancing." I declared.

"Then with dancing you would be in the same category as Eduardo. Ed here is in two types of dance, break dancing and ballroom but he can also do many others. What kind of dancer are you?"

"I'm ballet and contemporary dancer but sometimes I do well in Acro."

Eduardo looked closely at me. "You look really familiar...I haven't seen you somewhere have I?"

I could feel my eyes widen a fraction but I tried hard not to be nervous. I didn't want to be treated different because of one thing. "Probably not."

Eduardo shrugged. "Oh then never mind. Just make sure that you come to the studio after school. It's introduction day then on Wednesday they're going to start picking the most outstanding dancers for the Elite team. Our tryouts are on Thursday."

"Ed's been on the Elite team since ninth grade." Mary Anne smiled proudly at her boyfriend.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah forget that. Now can we talk more about Mr. Stiles?" Kim suggested with a bright smile.

"No." Zen told her.

"But-"

"No."