Lori and Jessica were standing in line at a Dream Street meet and greet in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. (The meet and greet was taking place at the Fox Run Mall). The two girls were extremely excited, even though Lori was completely scared out of her mind.

Lori was your average teenybopper, but she wasn't outgoing like most of the other Dream Street fans she saw at the meet and greet. All the other fans were ecstatic, which isn't to say that Lori wasn't. She was just shy and not very outgoing, which she hated with a passion. She just didn't have self-confidence.

And because she didn't have self-confidence she barely spoke; she only spoke, or talked, when she was asked a question, told to do something, or when somebody said something that ticked her off. She was the total opposite at home. She was loud and obnoxious, but that was only when she was in that kind of mood and, in her room.

Getting back to the meet and greet.........

Lori looked around at all the teenage girls that were there and she just rolled her eyes and thought, Ho..Ho..Ho..Ho!

Some girls were dressed trashy/sleazy (with barely any clothes on), while other girls were just dressed casually (but definitely dressing to impress) then there were your girls who were totally obsessed. They had the guys' names painted on their faces, the T-Shirts...basically everything imaginable. And all of them had smiles on their faces unlike Lori, who was extremely nervous.

"OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOOD! IT'S MAAAATT!" a girl in front of them shouted.

"Wow. You are such a genius." Lori muttered under her breath. "You know his name." Sarcastically she added, "It took me almost 4 years to figure it out but thanks to your loud mouth I know it now." She rolled her eyes for the second time that day.

"I LOVE YOU JESSE!" a girl way in the back shouted.

"TOO BAD HE DOESN'T LOVE YOU!" another girl shouted.

"SHUT THE HELL UP!" Lori shouted.

Jessica looked over at her friend in shock, but then her facial expression changed from surprised to scared. "Um...Lorr....look behind you."

"Why?" Lori asked dumbfounded. She eyed her friend.

"Because there's a girl standing there and she looks like she's about ready to beat you up." Jessica simplified.

"Yeah...OK Jess...whatever you say." Lori said dryly.

"Did you just tell me to shut up?" a girls voice asked.

Lori turned around and saw a big huge girl standing there. She tried extremely hard not to puke when she saw that the girls' fat was practically hanging out of her shirt. And I think I'm fat, she thought. Ewww! She needs to go put clothes on, she thought to herself.

"Go put some clothes on!" Lori shouted at her.

Jessica tried hard not to laugh then she looked around to see who was paying attention. Everyone was...even the guys of Dream Street. The meet and greet had stopped.

"Don't tell me what to do you slut!" the girl shouted at Lori.

"I'm not the one who has fat hanging out of my shirt you ho!" Lori shouted back at her. "NOW PLEASE DO US ALL A FAVOR AND GO FIND CLOTHES THAT ACTUALLY FIT!"

One of the girls that was near them burst out laughing and could not stop. The guys were walking over to see what was going on.

"Is there a problem here ladies?" Greg asked Lori, Jessica and the girl with her fat hanging out.

"This bitch right here is being mean to me, Greg. Kick her out." the girl clinged to his arm.

Matt was trying hard not to laugh when he saw his friend's facial expression. It was priceless.

"I'm not going to kick her out." Greg told the girl.

"Why not? She was being mean to me." the girl whined.

"What? Now you're telling on me?" Lori asked dryly.

"Like Greg's going to do anything about it." one of the girls standing next to Lori said. Her name was Sarah.

"I know..right." Jessica agreed.

"You really need to grow up and mature a little." Lori told the girl, who was STILL clinging to Greg's arm.

"And you need to lose some weight." the girl snapped.

"Have you looked in the mirror lately?" Sarah asked. She pointed to Lori and said, "She's so skinny."

"I'm not skinny." Lori told the girl.

"Yeah you're a fat bitch who can't get a boyfriend." the girl ,who was clinging to Greg's arm, said.

"How the hell am I a fat bitch?" Lori challenged her. "I'm not the one who sits on my ass and eats chips and twinkies all day." she added.

Matt smiled at her, trying hard not to laugh. The other guys were watching her, wondering what she would say next.

"Ladies. Ladies. Ladies. Cool it." Frankie said.

"Then tell this girl to leave my friend the hell alone." Sarah said as she linked arms with Lori.

"She's saying mean things to me and about me. I have the right to be angry." the girl said.

"And you're telling Greg that? Like he can stop me." Lori told her.

Greg looked at her and said, "I could always call Brian, Louie and Claudia over here you know and tell them that you're disrupting the peace."

Then he added, "Not that I would do that." He gave her a smile.

"You're so nice Greg." Lori giggled.

"Somebody's coming out of her shell." Jessica said in a sing-song voice.

Minutes went by and the minutes turned into an hour and by the time it was 11:30 a.m., almost all the other girls had left, except for Lori, Jessica, Sarah and the other girl who was giving Lori crap. The guys were still standing there, too.

"Are things cool between you two now?" Matt asked. He looked at both of the girls then he looked at Lori.

"I'm not going to forgive her for calling me a slut when I'm not one. I don't sleep around with a ton of different guys. I'm not that type." Lori said angrily. "And I'm not going to forgive her for calling me fat either."

"I don't blame you." Matt said.

"Do you think you can let go of me now?" Greg asked the girl. Her finger nails were practically digging into his arm because she was so upset.

The girl blushed and slowly backed away from him, but still inches away from him. "Sorry." she said in embarrassment.

"Do you two know each other?" Jesse asked.

"HELL NO!" the two girls shouted at the same time.

"I would never be friends with her." the overweight girl said. Her name was Heather. "I don't hang out with girls that are bitches."

"Then you must hate hanging around with yourself, right?" Lori asked sarcastically.

"Haha. That was good." Matt chuckled.

"I can't believe you actually find that funny Matt." Heather said sounding extremely hurt.

"He's a punk. What do you expect?" Lori joked.

"Yeah. I'm a punk." Matt laughed.

"Then how about you and Matt go hang out and make fun of other people together and leave me the hell alone?" Heather snapped.

"I don't hang out with girls that are bitches." he mocked.

Lori burst out laughing, which made her leave the store. She was too ashamed to laugh with Heather watching her and listening to her.

"Lorr! Wait up!" Jessica called to her friend who was making her way towards the Sweet F Factory, the candy store.

Lori stopped walking when she heard her name being called and turned around to see Sarah and Jessica heading right for her.

"I can't believe you said all that shit to her. It was funny as hell." Jessica said.

"Yeah it was." Sarah agreed.

"Too bad the guys probably think I'm a bitch." Lori said sadly. She frowned.

"Only one way to find out." Sarah told her.

Sarah grabbed Lori's arm and led her back towards FYE where the guys were still hanging out. Heather was gone. She was nowhere to be found. The guys, however, were talking about how Lori had acted. The only two who thought it was funny was Jesse and Matt. The other guys thought that it was pretty mean. Chris, Greg and Frankie weren't impressed at all.

"That girl had a major attitude problem." Chris was saying to his friends.

"Come on Lori. Why'd you stop?" Sarah asked when they were just 15 feet away from where the guys were.

"Sssh. Listen." Lori told her. She went back to listening to the conversation.

"She had a right to defend herself Chris." Matt told him. "I mean, how would you like it if some girl you didn't even know came up to you and accused you of being a slut and fat? You'd probably react the same way."

"OK. Maybe I wouldn't like it that much, but still..that girl should have just controlled her anger and let it go. She didn't have to stoop to that other girl's level." Chris told him.

"You guys can stop talking about her anytime now." Jesse told his friends.

"She left. We can talk about her if we want to." Chris said.

"Actually, no you can't, because she's right there. And I'm sure she's heard everything you said CHRIS." Jesse said putting emphasis on CHRIS.

"Now she'll know how it feels to have somebody talk about you right in front of your face." Chris said.

"Come on Chris. Will you just lay off? You're talking shit about her and you don't even know her." Matt said angrily.

"What? Do you have a crush on that bitch or something?" Chris asked.

"If I said I did, would that piss you off?" Matt asked dryly.

"No. I'd just say the more power to ya. I mean, if you like that type of girl, that's cool." Chris replied.

"You guys can stop talking shit about her anytime now. She's really pissed off." Sarah said to the guys. She looked over at Chris and gave him a cold, icy glare then said, "And you know what Chris? Lorr just said that she thinks you're gay." She smiled and said, "Haha. Just kidding."

"That stupid bitch." Chris said sounding extremely mad.

"She's not a stupid bitch. She's just pissed off at you because you're saying shit about her when you don't even know her," Sarah said, "and you really need to watch what you say 'cuz I can promise you that she'll come back and tell you off. Don't mess with her."

"Oh my god! I'm so scared!" Chris said with a heavy sarcasm.

"Did you forget to take Midol this morning?" Sarah asked.

She reached into her purse and took out a box of midol. She handed it to him and said, "You probably need this more than I do."

And with that she walked off.

Lori walked up to her with a chocolate shake in her hand and threw it at Chris. The chocolate shake landed all over him. "Take that you fuckin' asshole!"

Jessica was behind her and Sarah turned around to see what she did. When the two girls saw that Chris was covered in chocolate from the shake Lorr had thrown at him they immediately left and tried really hard not to laugh.

"She's a mature one." Greg said sarcastically. He rolled his eyes.

"She's a stupid bitch!" Chris said angrily.

"Hey, her friend warned you..." Jesse told him.

"I can't believe you're taking that bitch's side over mine. We've known each other for a long time Jesse." Chris said even more angrily. "But you know what.....just shove it."

"Well, I don't think it's cool for you to be talking shit about some girl who you don't even know." Matt said.

Jesse nodded his head in agreement.

"And I don't think it's cool of you guys to take sides with some girl who you don't even know." Chris told them. "But whatever...I'm better off without you two as friends."

Chris walked off with steam practically coming out of his ears.

Around 11:45 a.m. Matt and Jesse were walking around the mall just talking about the events of that day when Lori accidentally bumped into them.

"Sorry." she said apologetically.

"I've seen you before." Matt told her.

"Yeah and I'm sure you two think I'm a bitch just like the other guys." Lori said.

The guys looked at one another and then looked at her. They didn't know what to say, but by the expression on their faces, she knew that they agreed with the other guys.

She walked off and said, "Stupid. Stupid. Stupid."

"Now I know why I don't talk. Whatever comes out of my mouth is wrong and mean." Lori went on to herself.

"Too bad we couldn't just start this whole day over. We've all had a pretty rough day between Chris's hair gel running out, me losing my tank top, Frankie losing his shirt, Jesse losing his toothbrush and Matt losing his 21 jersey." Greg said.

"I know what you mean, but still..she shouldn't have thrown that chocolate shake at Chris...she shouldn't have freaked out on that other girl who she barely knew..." Frankie's voice trailed off when he spotted the blonde girl (Lori) walking towards Dunkin Donuts with her head down.

He didn't know it but she was crying hysterically because of the way she acted and the fact that the guys hated her living guts. That was what she was afraid of all along and now that it actually came true; it just wasn't fair. And it killed her. Her heart was breaking more and more as time went by and the more she thought about it, she agreed with the guys. She had been a bitch.

"We shouldn't have taken it out on her." Greg said.

"Maybe she has her..never mind." Frankie said knowing that he'd probably gross his friend out.

"Period." Greg finished. He cringed at the mere thought of it.

"Lorr!" a voice shouted. It belonged to Sarah.

Lori spun around and saw Sarah heading right for her. She sat down in a chair and slumped down in the seat. She rested her arms on the table and then she folded her arms across her chest and wondered what Sarah wanted. She looked at her when Sarah sat down across from her.

"I just ran into Matt." Sarah told her.

"Congratulations." Lori said dryly.

"He told me something about you." Sarah said. "You interested in hearing what he had to say?"

"I could care less what he said about me." Lorr said. "It's probably bad anyway."

"It's not bad." Sarah assured her. "Why do you think that?"

"Well, usually when people talk about me it's bad." Lori stated.

"Matt didn't say anything bad about you. He asked me if I could give you this." Sarah handed her a tiny piece of paper with handwriting on it.

Lori eyed it then looked at Sarah. "What is it, 50 ways on how to kill yourself?" she asked.

"It's a note from Matt. He asked me if I could give it to you." Sarah said. She shrugged and said, "I have no clue what it is."

Lori shrugged and said, "I dunno."

"Dunno what?" Sarah asked dumbfounded.

"Whether I should read it or not. It's probably a hate letter." she replied.

"It's not a hate letter. I was just saying how I wish we could all start over." Matt said walking up behind her. "If you want to that is."

Lori turned around when she heard a guy's voice and she was in complete and total shock when she saw Matt standing inches away from her.

"The guys want to start over too. We didn't exactly get off on the right foot." Matt said.

"We didn't get off on any foot." Lori corrected. "You guys just saw my bitchy side and that screwed everything up. I'm really not like that though. I'm usually sweet and everything."

Matt smiled at her and asked, "So when do we all get to see the sweet side of you?"

Lori looked at him and didn't say anything. Sarah watched Matt and then looked at Lori. They should go out. They'd be so cute together, Sarah thought to herself, I should try to hook them up.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Lori asked Matt as they made their way towards the hotel room that the guys were staying in.

"Yeah, I'm sure it's a good idea." Matt told her. He looked over at her and said, "Just relax and be yourself. Be the sweet, innocent angel we all know you can be."

"I could relax if I wasn't so uptight and nervous." she told him.

She stopped walking and turned towards him. He did the same. "Don't be nervous." he advised.

He put his hands on her shoulders and said, "Just relax Lorr. Everything will be fine," as he directed her to the the hotel room.

*NOTE: Matt had invited her to hang out with him and his friends to start all over again. Get rid of those other thoughts you might have had.*

"You are so tense." he told her. "Just loosen up."

"I would but I know your friends hate my living guts." she said.

"They can't hate you 'cuz they don't even know you." Matt said simply.

She tilted her head from side to side and she just tensed up even more. She felt so uncomfortable and she was getting even more nervous and more scared than she already was. "I am so scared."

"Don't be scared." He reached into his pocket and pulled out the hotel room key and clicked the door open, putting the key back into his pocket. He led Lori inside and found the guys playing video games.

"Look what the cat dragged in." Chris said.

Lori overheard his smart ass remark and looked over at Matt. He looked over at her and he said, to Chris, "Chris..we have a visitor."

"Yeah. I know. You dragged in a rat." Chris said.

"I can't believe I blew off Jessica for this shit." Lori said. "God I am so stupid." She rolled her eyes and left the room. I'm so glad I'm out of there, she thought.

Bored out of their minds, the guys decided to go down to the pool to unwind after their long, rough day. And of course they had no idea that they would run into Lori, Sarah and Jessica. They were totally and completely unprepared for that. The girls were unprepared for that, too.

"Oh goody. Look who it is." Sarah said when she spotted the guys. She swam over to Lori and Jessica who were just laying on their backs. "Lori...Jessica...look." She motioned towards the guys.

When Lori saw them she said, "Stupid assholes."

"Ouch." Jessica let out a tiny giggle.

"Screw 'em. Anybody wanna dive?" Lorr asked.

"I do! I do! I do!" Jessica and Sarah said together.

The three girls laughed and managed to swim over to the ladder so they could get out.

When Lori walked by Chris, she said, "Pissy Chrissy."

Chris looked at her and when he noticed that she was wearing a light blue tankini, he muttered, "Too bad she had to be so hot. If she wasn't it'd be so easy to stay mad at her."

Greg overheard him and said, "I think somebody has a crush."

"So do I." Matt agreed. "Too bad she thinks that he hates her living guts. He might actually stand a chance."

"I never said I wanted to go out with her." Chris told his friend.

"Good because I think I'm gonna ask her out." Matt blurted out.

"She's so mean though." Frankie said.

"No she's not. She's- She's not one who takes shit from people. She's one of those girls who stands up for herself. And I think that's awesome." Matt corrected him. "I respect her for that. She doesn't let people walk all over her."

Then the guys heard a splash, which made them all look over at the pool. Lori had just dived in and now she was getting out of the pool. Matt eyed her up and down, checking her out. The guys immediately knew that their friend and bandmate had a crush.

"She's so hott." Matt gushed. "Damn."

"Go talk to her." Jesse encouraged him.

Before Matt had a chance to respond he walked away and went over to Lori, who was now sitting on a lounge chair. He sat beside her and said, "Hi Lorr."

Lori looked up at him. "Hi Matt."

"How you doin'?" He looked her up and down. Then he looked into her eyes and saw something that he never saw before. The look in her eyes was beginning to creep him out.

"I'm doing OK." Was all she said.

"Are you doing anything later baby?" He asked, knowing that he was being a bit of a flirt.

"Baby?" She looked at him like he was insane.

"Sorry. It slipped." He said simply.

"It's OK. Umm...no, I'm not doing anything later."

"Would you wanna do somethin'?" He asked.

"Yeah, but I'm-----" Her voice trailed off.

"But you're what?" He eyed her, wondering what she was going to say.

"Nothing. I'm just having----"

He cut her off. "Dirty thoughts?"

She shied away, avoiding eye contact with him.

"Lorr, it's OK. I mean, it's only natural."

"I know. It's just----"

"You barely know me and you're telling me personal things?"

"How can you finish my sentences when we just met today?"

"'Cuz I know you."

"You don't know me."

"And why do you say that?"

"Because you don't know me."

"O....K." Then he said, "But I want to get to know you."

"Why? Your friends hate me." She looked at him. "The best thing for you to do is to just not get involved with me."

"I want to get involved with you though. I want to spend time with you and get to know you."

"Matt, come on. Just----leave me alone." She said.

"No."

"No? What do you mean no?"

"Do you want me to tell you the definition of no, Matt?"

"I know the definition of no. I just- I can't leave you alone."

"Please Matt. Just go away and leave me alone."

He asked, "Where do you want me to go?"

"I don't know and I don't care. Just leave me alone."

"Fine. I'll leave you alone Lorr, but I know you'll miss me once I'm gone. You'll be dying to have me by your side."

"Don't flatter yourself Matt."

"Don't flatter myself? Are you serious? You're lookin' at me like you love me!"

"I do love you but that's beside the point."

"Come on Lorr. Give me a chance."

"Leave me alone Matt."

Matt rolled his eyes and got up, leaving Lori to sit by herself. He looked back at her and saw that she was upset, but he turned around and kept walking. She leaned back and closed her eyes. All she could see was Matt. That immediately made her open up her eyes. She looked around and saw Matt across the pool, watching her. They made eye contact, but she looked away. He was right. She did miss him.

The next day Lori was standing outside the hotel when she heard the door open. She looked to see who it was and saw Jessica walking over to her.

"You OK Lorr?" She asked, knowing that she was upset about what happened between her and Matt the day before.

"No, I'm not." Lori admitted. I miss Matt like crazy and he's pissed off at me, she thought to herself.

"Just call Matt on his cell phone and talk to him." Jessica advised.

"I can't."

"And why can't you?"

"Because he wants nothing to do with me."

"You and I both know that that's not true."

"Well I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't want anything to do with me."

Lori looked around and watched the people walking by. Everybody seemed to be in a rush to get somewhere. Lori looked up at the beautiful blue sky and then looked at Jessica. "I just wish I would have kept my mouth shut yesterday. I wouldn't be in this position. I feel like shit because I know I was a bitch."

Jessica shook her head. "You had every right to stick up for yourself. That girl called you a slut and fat."