Pretty Big Deal

The soles of Audrey's blue flats clicked against the newly paved driveway of Briarwood Day Academy, and the potent smell of a freshly manured lawn clung to her nose like a cashmere sweater. As she walked away from her mother's silver Mercedes, she swiftly pulled on the cuffs of her mini black Echo shorts, smoothed her white, low cut top with the black bow print, and flattened the bangs of her multi-shade, elbow length pink hair. Audrey reminded herself to drag her flats across the cement so she wouldn't slip on the school floor.

Today was the day Audrey had been anticipating about for most of her summer vacation. She smiled to herself, thinking about all the privileges that come with being a Sophomore. For one, every 10th grader is granted access to all the hallways, not just the few that are restricted for freshman only. Moving up a grade also meant that Audrey is now officially potential dating material for seniors.

Especially seniors like Brendon Urie and Ryan Ross. Not only were they complete hotties, they had their own garage band, which is a total turn on for Audrey and clique.

Audrey fished around in her blue double handled hobo bag and pulled out her pink sidekick, wanting to find out where Jac, her best friend since forever was.

AUDREY: ? R U?
JAC: @ THE FRONT OF THE SCHOOL. U?
AUDREY: ALMOST THERE. C YA.

She tossed her phone back in her bad and adjusted the straps to lay comfortably on her shoulder.

“Ehmagod, Jac!” Audrey shrieked, running up to the doors of the massive Briarwood building.

“Audrey!” Jac yelled, jumping up and down. Her long bleached hair bounced when she did, but never did it fall out of place.

Jac was a small girl like Audrey, and her brown roots made her brown eyes stand out more than someone else's would. If it wasn't for her small mouth and skinny nose, Jac would definitely be prettier, and more popular, than Audrey. Even she agreed with that.

Almost.

“Audrey,” she said again, reaching for her friend's arm, “ Have you seen Alaina yet?”

Alaina was Audrey number one competitor when it came to BDA. In other words, if Audrey wasn't at this school already fulfilling her job as most popular, Alaina would be. She was her first runner up.

“Um, no?” Audrey said, making it sound like more of a question than an answer.

“Well good, because she's over there flirting with Brendon.” Jac pointed over to the picnic tables that lined one side of the building. Brendon was sitting on the actual table, and Alaina was sitting on the bench, an arm laying across his lap while they laughed over some lame joke of hers that probably wasn't even funny.

Audrey's smile faded. She considered starting a nasty rumor that Alaina slept around with some of the boys on the football team, but instead, straightened her posture and looked Jac right in the eyes.

"Does she seriously think he's into her?" she asked, "I mean, she's not even that pretty. He probably feels sorry for her."

"You're right," Jac agreed, hanging onto every word that spilled from Audrey's peach tinted lips.

Sometimes her attentiveness to Audrey made her want to slap the dollar fifty blush right off her cheeks, and on the other hand, she loved the attention that came with it.

"O-M-G! There's Hannabeth. Her outfit is amazing!" Jac waved frantically to their friend who was walking up the paved path to the front of BDA.

Hannabeth hadn't changed at all over the summer Audrey decided as she gave her friend a quick once-over. She wore a green Forever 21 t-shirt under a short pink pinstriped blazer. Her naturally pale legs looked even lighter against the white floral skirt and turquoise wedges. But her purple-grey eyes made Hannabeth stand out more than most girls at the school.

"Ehmagod, Audrey! Jac!" Hannabeth ran as fast as she could to greet them, almost tackling them to the ground with the force of her hug.

"I've missed you guys!"

"We've missed you too, H.B." Audrey spoke for the both of them.