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Chapter one:
Lou stepped out from the bus and stopped a while to watch the whole picture from a distance. Sweetwater High, the place where she was going to spend her days the next two years of her life. The school itself was a two-story building with white facing bricks and what looked like a giant meringue as a roof. It also had both a left and a right wing and in front of the buildings there was a wide lawn divided by a gravel walk and closest to Lou a parking lot, which she was to cross to reach the school. All over the lawn were clicks of people, all of them seeming to belong to a certain group. To the right there were a huge group of boys and girls in varsity jackets, blue and green. The letters spelled 'Lion Claws' on the back. Lou assumed the boys were football players and the girls cheerleaders. A loud motor sound interrupted her thoughts and she turned her head to see where it came from. Through the right entrance of the parking lot there came a pearl band of motorcycles Lou counted to nine. They passed by her and gathered in the far left corner of the lot and they all had light suede jackets and on the back was a printed feather and the text 'Indians'. Pretty suiting cause the leading guy looked Indian. Beside the Lion Claws and the Indians there was one more outstanding group. It was an exclusive group of girls, probably the prettiest and most popular ones the school could present. They had light blue satin jackets with royal blue letters spelling Princesses and there was even a golden crown printed over the 'I' if you happened to look close. *Oh, please, save me!* Lou muttered to herself. They sure had a lot of different groups in this school or maybe there were like this in every school, except the groups in other schools didn't have club-jackets. Except the three she noticed especially, Lou saw several more, but these three seemed to be the leading. She interrupted her survey and approached the building. ~*~*~*~ The headmasters office was easy to find, but the secretary told Lou the headmaster himself was busy, so if Lou could just wait a minute. It didn't even take a minute before the door opened and a boy stepped out of the office. He was blonde, smiling and full of mischief: "Hey, you the new girl?" "Well, I am a new girl, but I don't know if I'm the one you want." Lou answered wondering what group of people this boy belonged to. He didn't have a 'club jacket' and he was dressed in simple, faded blue jeans, blue T-shirt and sneakers. His hair was straight and touched his shoulders and the eyes were blue and curious. He watched her from head to toe and then smiled. "You'll do." When Lou didn't know if she should be confused or embarrassed he continued: "See, there is only one new girl this year. I'm William F. Cody, or Billy if you like." "Hello Billy, I'm Louise McCloud, but everybody just call me Lou." "Nice to meet you, Lou." They were suddenly interrupted by a voice from the office: "Quit flirting, Cody, and send in the girl!" "Sure Sam. See you around, Lou." With that Cody left and Lou stepped into the office of the headmaster Sam Cain. Lou didn't know what she had expected, but Sam Cain was surely not it. He was considerably younger than she had thought and he seemed tougher than the usual school employee, kids in this school probably behaved themselves to avoid being sent in to the headmaster. "Louise McCloud, welcome to Sweetwater High, please have a seat." Mr. Cain started and Lou obeyed instantly. "Quite a record you have, young lady. Principal Hayworth at Wine River Academy sent me a report. Let's see...broken windows: 6, broken lockers: 4, burning trash cans: 7, fights: numerous, students sent to school nurse: several." At every number he read, he looked up at Lou, who felt smaller and smaller in her chair. She felt powerless against her unfair school record. Sure, she fought a lot, but it was an act, and since she was a great actor, nobody saw through it...and hell, she was good at it. *I wonder what he had said about the number that isn't in that file. Drug dealers sent to prison: 11...* Mr. Cain didn't seem to notice her go deep down in her own thoughts; he just continued to talk about the report. Lou snapped back to the present just in time to see him put on a big smile. "But of course we hope you are willing to change your habits, you know, new school, new beginning. The cheerleading squad has tryouts this week; maybe you can use your energy go cheer for the school. My secretary, Miss Wilson, will give you your schedule and locker combinations. You're dismissed." Before he had time to say anything more, Lou was out of the office and stopped at the secretary's desk only long enough to get the necessary things. She found her locker in the east wing, to her relief among students in ordinary clothes. ~*~*~*~ When she put her things in the locker, she saw a familiar figure out of the corner of her eye. She turned around to wave and say hello to Billy, but stopped with her hand in the air when she saw he was talking to a girl and not any girl, but the most beautiful one Lou had ever seen. The girl was quite tall and slender and moved with grace. Her hair was raven black and straight all the way down to the waist of her blue cheerleader skirt. Her eyes were dark, probably brown, and a little almond shaped, just enough to give her a slightly oriental look and of course the light, golden-brown tan didn't make it worse. "Linn Cross, the queen of Sweetwater High." A bantering voice told Lou and she looked to her left and noticed a girl she hadn't seen standing there. "Hi, I'm Josephine, you are the new girl, right?" The girl smiled. She was small, blond and pretty, but without any mystery surrounding her. "Hi, I'm Louise and yes, I'm new. What did you mean with 'queen of Sweetwater High'?" "Exactly that. She and her friends, they rule the school. Nobody goes against them, not even the teachers." "Are they dangerous?" "Nah, not really, not if you don't cross them..." "How come Billy knows her?!" "Billy? Oh, you mean Cody. He was on the football team last year, but being a restless soul, he quit and this year he's the head of the theatre group." The bell interrupted them and Josephine was kind enough to show Lou to her classroom and promise to meet her at the cafeteria for lunch. ~*~*~*~ ...to be continued...if anyone wants to read more...
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