Hailey's POV:

A new beginning is what we all need sometimes. A fresh start, hoping to erase all the bad memories trapped in the back of our minds, followed by an abominable past.

"Don't leave me!" I scream as tears rush down my cheeks.

But he just gives me one last glance before turning away and leaving. Leaving me alone...with no one to hold.

I guess that's what everyone is going to do...leave me.

……

I awake from my slumber and make my way towards my white-tiled bathroom. I take a quick, warm 10-minute shower, removing the layer of sweat covering my body, and then put on a simple outfit that consists of blue high-waisted jeans, a maroon spaghetti strap crop top, and white converses.

Today is my first day at Greenwood High. My parents had me transfer there, saying that I needed a fresh new start and to leave the past behind.

I didn't mind the change, since I never really had friends at my previous school.

I am not a sociable person, but I am not socially awkward either. I usually spend my time in my room when I am not at school.

I take one last glance at myself in the mirror, and apply lip gloss as my make-up. Satisfied with my look, I head downstairs and start making breakfast. I make enough pancakes for my parents, who are still asleep, and I decide on eating my favorite cereal: Cheerios.

After breakfast, I take my car keys and bag and leave the house. I unlock my Mercedes Benz and pull out of the driveway, listening to random music.

I arrive at school and park my car in the school’s parking lot. I step out of the car and make my way towards the unfamiliar building—Greenwood High.

I plan to go about unnoticed and not draw much attention to myself, as I hate attention. Just going to put up the whole 'good girl' act as I always do, although I hate it.

Goal for the year: try to stay good, unnoticed, and get out of this place.

I go through the doors and am met with the hallway, where people are either gossiping, making out, or talking. I walk towards the administration office in order to get my timetable. The lady working there gives me everything I need, and shows me the directions to my first class, math. I walk towards my locker, put in everything I need, and take out everything that I don't need.

After, walking to my class, I enter the class and make my way to the back, right-corner seat next to the window. The class began to fill up with students, and soon there were only two seats left.

The teacher, Mr. Thompson, comes in and makes the class settle down. "Morning everyone," he begins. "Today we will be discussing the work on page 68 in your textbooks. So read through everything first, and we'll discuss in a few minutes."

I begin to page through my book before the door swings open, revealing two guys who look like they come from male model magazines. They both have the bad boy look: leather jackets and plain white shirts that seem to outline every detail of their torso.

"Sorry we started before you arrived, Mr. Wilder and Mr. Anderson," Mr. Thompson says sarcastically.

"Apology accepted Mr. T," says a brunette-haired guy with brown eyes.

Mr. Thompson ignores their rude remarks and continues looking at his laptop as the two guys make their way towards the seats. Every pair of eyes follows them; the girls make flirtatious facial impressions, trying to receive their attention. One guy stayed serious and the other one was simply winking at the girls, making them swoon.

Seconds later, I realize that someone is staring at me, and I look up to see a gorgeous-looking guy whose eyes are brown with a tint of green.

"Would you get out of my seat?" He demands.

"I don't see your name written on it," I say.

"Well it's mine and your butt is in it," he points out.

"Exactly. I am already sitting in it, so you might as well take that open seat," I point to the seat in front of me, "and leave me alone," I give a fake lipped smile.

By now all heads are turned to us, listening to our suddenly interesting conversation or ‘argument.’

"Tristan, just sit down in the open seat," Mr. T says to the irritating guy in front of me. "It won't kill you."

Tristan glares at me, and sits in front of me. Gee, somebody is grumpy.

The period ends and I quickly go to Mr. Thompson’s desk.

"Sir, may I please get notes on the work you've already done before?" I ask him as he looks up to face me.

"Oh, yes. You must be Hailey Matthews, the new student," he says and I nod. "Please ask one of the students; but I'm sure you won't have trouble since you were the top student at your school," he says. "Peyton, come here for a sec," he calls over to a girl. She has blonde hair and green eyes. She's very beautiful and has the perfect figure.

"Sir?" She asks.

"This is Hailey, please show her around and help her get the work we've done so far," he says.

"Okay, I will," she says. "Come on, what's your next class?" She asks me.

"English," I respond.

"Great, we're in the same class then. Follow me." She says chirpily.

I follow Peyton to the English class and take our seats in the middle of the class.

The lesson went in a blur. Our English teacher, Mrs. Hamilton, talked about a play that our school will be holding. It's a musical based on Romeo and Juliet, but they are going to call it 'R & J Revolution,' and there will be auditions held at the end of the week for whoever wants to participate. Peyton and I sat throughout the entire lesson talking and getting to know each other.

Third period went in a blink of an eye, and now, it is lunch.

"So, my friends are a bit crazy, but fun! I believe you'll like them," Peyton says excitedly as we make our way to the lunch table filled with people, who have already started calling her name.

"Hey guys! This is Hailey," she introduces me to her friends. "She's new, so she'll be joining us from now on," she grins.

"I don't mind. She's hot!" A guy with dirty blond hair says.

"Hands off! She's mine," another guy with jet-black hair says to the dirty-blond haired guy.

"Sorry, but none of you own me, as far as I know," I say to them.

That gets a couple of snickers from the others.

"Sorry about these two. They are idiots. My name is Cathy," a girl with blonde hair and blue eyes says. She has light make-up on, but even under the make-up, you can see that she's pretty.

"And I'm Kaitlyn," another girl greets me. She has black, pin straight hair and brown eyes. She is also beautiful and wears no make-up.

"Nice to meet you," I give a genuine smile.

"I'm Luke and this is—" the guy with the black hair gets cut off by the guy with the dirty-blonde hair, "— Nathan, but call me Nate," he grins.

I sit down in between Peyton, who is on my right, and Nate, who is on my left.

"So Hailey, how is Greenwood High so far?" Kaitlyn asks.

"So far so good," I reply with a smile.

"May I ask a question?" Cathy asks me.

"Yeah," I say.

"Why is Tristan staring at you—especially with those eyes?" She asks, clearly surprised.

"I don't know," I shrugged. "Maybe because I refused to get out his seat."

"You were in his seat?" Cathy gasps, as the others stare at me with wide eyes, except Peyton, who was in the class when it happened.

"Yeah, is there a problem?" I look at them with confusion.

"Yes! No one ever takes his seat! Everybody knows that," Kaitlyn says in a duh tone.

I shrugged, "I don't care. He found me in it already, so I had the right to sit in it." I didn't care about what anyone had to say. No one can tell me what to do.

"I like her," Cathy says.

"I think we all do," Luke says, winking at me.

Hailey's POV:

"Any friends yet?" my mom asks as we eat breakfast. She is a beautiful woman in her early 40s. She has dark brown hair and a model body with curves in all the right places. I see why my dad married her, apart from her awesome personality.

"Yep. She's coming over to pick me up," I nod.

"Okay. Glad you're already fitting in," she says happily. "Any...guy yet?" She asks with hope.

"Mom," I whine. "Do you always have to go there? You know I don't want to date," I say, annoyed.

"I know, I know. I just had to know. Do you blame me for desperately wanting my daughter to have a boyfriend so that I can finally give her relationship advice," she asks.

I give her a 'seriously?' look.

I hear Peyton's car outside, and I immediately kiss my mom goodbye before she says something ridiculous again, making my way to the door. I go out towards Peyton's car and I throw myself on the leather passenger seat.

"Nice house," those are her first words as she starts driving. My house is big, almost mansion big, but I don't like bragging about it.

"Thanks," I say. "So how are you?" She asks.

"Good."

"Just good?" She raises her eyebrow.

"Yeah. What else did you expect me to say?" I ask perplexed.

"How many friends have you had in your life?" She questions.

"Four?" I raise my eyebrow.

"Guys or girls?"

"Guys."

"I see," she nods as if she discovered something new. "Well say hello to your first female friend, and now new best friend!" She exclaims.

"Okay," I laugh. "Hi new best friend."

She grins. "So now that we're best friends, don't mind me asking but... What are you wearing?" She asks, giving me that ‘I can't believe you’ look.

"Clothes," I say.

"Yeah right," she huffs. "That shirt doesn't deserve to be called clothing." I am wearing a Manchester shirt with black jeans and my white converse.

"Hey!" I hit her playfully. "I love my shirt. My brother gave it to me," I pout.

"I can see that," she laughs and I join her. Who knew having a friend would be this fun.

"We're here," she says as she parks her car in the school's parking lot.

We enter the school and immediately make our way to our lockers. Surprisingly, her locker was two lockers away from mine.

"So Hailey, there's a party this weekend and I was hoping you'd come," she says.

"I think I'll pass. I am not a party person," I say.

"Oh come on, it'll be fun," she whines.

"Well I'd rather be home and study," I say, clearly not interested in the party.

"Studying really? Why do you have to be so serious? Have some fun," she starts to shake her body weirdly. Truth is I have other things to do than study. For instance, street fighting and read books. I know fighting is not expected, but I had to know it in order to survive and until this day, I still do it.

I laugh at her attempt to persuade me, but I kindly turn it down. "Peyton, thanks for the offer, but I'm not used to this school yet, and I think getting used to it first is the best."

"Fine. But promise me that next time you'll come," she asks.

"I'll think about it," I shrug.

"You better," she points her index finger at me.

I laugh and say, "Fine."

"Good. Now get to class. I'll see you at lunch," she walks away as I nod.

I make my way to my first class, math and I take my seat and plug in my earphones, waiting for the teacher to come in. A few minutes later, I hear someone clear their throat as I look up to them.

"You're in my seat... again," he says quietly, controlling his anger.

With no urge to quarrel, I roll my eyes and get up to sit where he sat yesterday. This guy is starting to piss me off.

I make my way to the cafeteria where Peyton and I said we'd meet. As I walk, I suddenly bump into someone, but instantly recognize him.

"Ugh, are you ever not around?" I growl in annoyance.

"Well maybe if you watch where you're going, you could avoid bumping into me," he growls back.

"I could say the same to you," I retort. He is walking with his friends, who are nearly the same height as him; but he is taller and definitely the hottest.

I may not be interested in guys, but I can still have my opinions about them.

I walk around them in annoyance and make my way to the cafeteria and my eyes instantly meet with the group and I smile as they smile back.

I sit down in between Luke and Kaitlyn. Peyton is on her left, with Cathy next her and Nate on Luke's right.

"Hey New Girl!" Nate greets me.

"I swear, call me that one more time, and we'll see if you'll live to see the next 10 minutes of your life," I warn him, in a friendly way.

"Feisty, I like it," he winks and laughs, and I roll my eyes. I take out my Nutella sandwich for lunch and place it on the table. I take a bite out of the half that I cut off as Luke attempts to reach for my other half, but I quickly slap his hand, making him drop it and whine, "Ow!"

"Never mess with my Nutella," I warn. Everyone laughs at what just happened, as we continued talking about random stuff and laughed at their memories for the last years. The more time I spent with these guys, the more I knew them. Peyton has been best friends with Nate since they were five, but surprisingly, they haven't dated. I guess they don't want to ruin their relationship by making it awkward.

Luke and Nate couldn't stop arguing about who is the best at things. For example, they wanted to know who the best at flirting with girls is. Nate called a girl who was walking past. The girl came to him.

"Hey beautiful, wanna catch a movie later?" Nate flirtatiously winked at the girl.

The girl simply nodded, too shy to say anything and walks away.

"Are you seriously gonna go out with her?" I raise an eyebrow at Nate. It's not that she wasn't pretty, she was, with her black hair and her emerald-green eyes, but I doubt those are the kind of girls Nate goes for. "Nope, just trying to prove a point," he says. We all laugh at his action and now it's time for Luke's turn. He called a girl with ginger brown hair and brown eyes. She is really pretty and I bet many guys want.

"Hey girl, wanna go out tonight?" He smirked flirtatiously at her.

"Sorry, not interested," she flipped her hair and walked away.

We all start laughing, leaving an embarrassed Luke dumbfounded. "I've never been rejected before," he says in horror. "Sorry man, seems like you lost your touch," Nate pats him on the shoulder but continues to laugh as we all do.

"I guess we now all know who's the best," Nate boasts.

"You got lucky man," Luke says.

We continue to talk about other random stuff like, whose mom is the scariest.

Luke's mom actually made him do all the house chores for the whole month just for not giving her cat water.

Some mothers are too weird.

...

The bell rang, indicating the end of school. I make my way towards the school doors, as someone fiercely grabs my arms and pins me to one of the lockers. I quickly take his arm and twist it as I swap positions with him and this time I'm pinning him against the locker.

"Seriously, dude? What's your problem?" I ask him, as anger boils inside of me like a potion in a cauldron.

I have anger issues and I am very violent if you haven't noticed. Perks of knowing how to fight.

"You," he states.

"Me? You've got to be kidding me. I'm not the one who pinned a girl against a locker," I shout.

He roughly removes my hands that I used to stop him from moving, but clearly I failed. This guy's strong.

"What's your name?" He asks randomly.

"Are you seriously asking me what my name is?" I stare at him bewildered.

"Yes," he deadpans.

No manners at all.

I hold back an eye roll. "Hailey."

"Nice name." And just like that, he walks away. Disappears. Gone.

Trying to grasp what just happened, I shake the thought away and go to Peyton, who is waiting for me in the parking lot. I reach her car and open the passenger door, throwing myself in and fastening my seatbelt.

Peyton just stares at me with wide eyes. "What just happened?" She exclaims.

"Nothing," I roll my eyes, still irritated by what just happened.

"Nothing? Don't tell me nothing. It looked like you and Tristan Wilder were about to kiss," she says, raising her voice at every word.

"If by kissing you mean, pinning someone against the wall out of the ordinary just to ask for their name, then...okay," I say sarcastically.

"He what?"

"Is it wrong to ask you to start driving?" I ask shyly.

"Don't try to change the subject here Missy," she warns and I laugh.

"What's there to talk about?" I ask in amusement.

"We'll see," she narrows her as at me and I can't help but laugh.

Peyton soon dropped me home and I said bye to her as she drove off. I go to the fridge and take out a slice of chocolate cake from my dad's birthday cake which was last week and I notice the note written on a piece of paper lying on the kitchen counter.

Gone out for dinner and we'll be home late. Order pizza with the money lying here and don't wait for us.

—Dad.

Pizza? McDonald’s sounds better. I take the money and my slice of cake, and go upstairs to my room. I put on some loud music, but not too loud and start dancing to it. I dance a few ballet moves I learned from the classes I used to go to last year, but now, as you know, I do karate as self-defense, and I am luckily a black belt.

After twirling a few times, my stomach starts to growl and I decide that it's time I go buy food.

McDonald’s here I come.