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The first day of high school arrived with Zack Greenburg and his friends, Spencer Sharpe and Cameron Dunleavy arriving in their usual attire, but being one year older than they were in their previous school year.

Zack met his friends at the lockers seeing as the school was just newly renovated.

“Hey, guys,” he said in a semi-bored, excited tone.

He noticed Spencer and Cam giving him distracted hello’s realizing they were looking at something.

His eyes drifted to the direction they were staring which led to a group of people standing around a bulletin board obscuring anyone whom wasn’t close enough to read it from view.

“What’s going on over there?” he asked.

“Don’t know. Rumor has it that there’s going to be major changes this year,” Spence answered glancing at Zack before grabbing his books for class.

He checked his watch before speaking again.

“We’ve got ten minutes ‘til class starts with Ms. Arlington. What should we do before then?” he asked.

“Hang out I guess,” Cam answered quickly grabbing his books as Zack quickly followed suit.

“So, um have you guys heard from Gwen this summer?” he asked once they were away from the crowd.

“No, why would we hear from Gwen?” Zack answered before he could stop himself.

He knew Cam always had a crush on their friend, Gwen Killerby, but the thought of her not keeping in contact with any of them did shock him.

“Wasn’t she supposed to be going to France this summer?” Spencer asked once they reached a room that had plants in it, yet windows so they could see on-lookers or passer-byes.

The memory came back to Zack as though it were yesterday.

It was the end of the year when all of the students at Horace-Hyde White had to be evaluated and told whether or not they were promoted to the next grade level. All three boys had been evaluated and told they were to move on to high school and decided to meet up with Gwen outside.

Once meeting her, they ate lunch together as they began talking about what each of them was to do that summer.

“I’m going to be doing more studies and expanding my knowledge of the Zack Files, of course,” Spencer answered with a smile.

“How are you going to do that?” Zack asked with a brow raised while Cam laughed.

“It’s called getting a job. Besides, I’m sure it won’t be hard to find one,” he said glaring at Cam.

“Well, while you’re working, I’ll be hitting up the beach a lot!” Cam said with a bright smile.

“Oh really? That’s great, Cam.. considering you are as pale as a ghost. I’m sure all of the girls will be very interested in seeing you at the beach,” she said in a semi-jokingly manner.

“Psh. I’m not that pale,” he defended shoving a bite of his sandwich into his mouth.

Gwen shook her head as her eyes landed on Zack.

“What about you, Zack?” she asked.

“Probably the same thing. I was thinking of spending the summer with my mom on the weekends while hanging out with Sarah most of the time,” he answered nonchalantly.

“Well, I’ll be going to Paris for the summer,” Gwen answered with a warm smile as though she were in a daze.

Cam coughed on his drink as Spencer pat him on the back.

“That’s great, Gwen! You’ve always wanted to go there,” Cam said masking his sadness.

She soon went into detail about the matter before Zack tuned her out entirely.

“Yeah, but isn’t it strange that she hasn’t contacted any of us during the summer? And we haven’t seen her yet. What’s her deal?” he asked staring at the other two.

“Beats me. That is one woman I’ll never understand,” Spence said just as the school bell rung.

“Will all students, please report to the auditorium. All students, please report to the auditorium.” Mr. Monk’s voice rung through the loudspeakers.

A sigh escaped the boys before they walked instead to the auditorium.

…
The auditorium was packed with all of the boys whom attended Horace-Hyde White now it’s walls accepting Junior to High school students. The trio sat in the Freshman section which was on the far left side of the room just below the other upperclassmen.

It had been ages since the boys had been in this part of the school, but it was rare for anyone to hold meetings such as these in the place.

Mr. Monk walked onto the stage in his usual attire with a sheet of paper in his hand. The room erupted in chatter once he reached the podium, but even where the rest of the staff sat, the area was still obscured from the boys’ vision.

“Settle down, now, boys. Let’s get this over with,” he said in a kind tone.

“Of course, all of you know I am Headmaster Monk and I would like to welcome you all here to Horace-Hyde White. As you all know, or at least most of you know from reading the bulletin that was posted on the board this morning, there are indeed going to be a few changes made to Horace-Hyde White.”

“This had better be good,” Cam said pulling out his phone to text some random girl.

“First and foremost before anyone asks, the uniforms will stay the same so, no the dress code won’t change,” Headmaster Monk began before going down a list of things about the staff, classes, school rules and such, but the last thing was what caught everyone’s attention the most.

“Lastly, unfortunately, we must say farewell yet congratulate a former student. Gwendolyn Killerby withdrew her stay at Horace-Hyde and has decided to take her studies in France, but we do have a student whom will be taking her place,” he said as the room erupted in chatter.

Cam stared open-mouthed towards the crowd as Spencer stared wide-eyed as did Zack. Gwen was gone? Who was going to take her place then?

Just as the thought crossed the trio’s minds, Mr. Monk regained order and silence filled the room once more.

“Please make a nice, warm welcome to Samantha Calloway,” he said with a smile clapping his hands as the room soon filled with clapping yet most of the students didn’t know why they were clapping.

A girl around 14 or 15 walked onto the stage in her uniform exactly like Gwen’s, but her tan skin and dark brown, neck-length hair shined pretty in the bright light the stage shone onto her. Her dark brown, big eyes squinted from the light as a small, shy smile covered her lips. She was no Gwen, that was for sure, but she was very far from ugly, too. She had to be around 5'2'' at the most, but there was something about her that caught the interest of the trio that none of them could explain.

“Um, hi!” she said quickly into the microphone before the room erupted in “hello’s” from almost every guy in the room.

She smiled before stepping out of the spotlight and instead next to the headmaster and in the darkness.

“Well, I’m sure you’ll all treat Ms. Calloway with the respect and ways you treated Gwen. Have a great year, everyone!” he finished before barking orders as to whom should leave first and everything.

“Well, that was weird,” Spence said trying to recover from the news.

“Yeah, it was,” Zack agreed while Cam remained silent, but had didn’t speak as his mouth was closed for the first time in ages.

“I wonder what grade she’s in. Maybe she’ll be a Grade 8,” Spence guessed.

“Or maybe she’ll be stuck-up and get special treatment so that she’s taught alone or something,” Cam finally said in an annoyed tone.

“What’s your deal? Samantha hasn’t done anything to any of us so why are you saying that about her?” Zack asked in the same tone.

“How do we know how this Samantha is? And Calloways? They’re just some extremely rich family whom has everything handed to them like the Mantuelfel’s,” Cam retorted.

Spencer stared open-mouthed as silence fell over the three while his eyes landed on the person behind Cam.

“Thanks for saying that, Dunleavy. Now I know why Gwen called you a jerk,” Samantha said before walking to class without a backwards glance.

“Nice going, Cam,” Spence said sarcastically walking past Cam.

“Yeah, real nice,” Zack said in agreement following in Spence and Samantha’s footsteps.

Cam scratched his head angrily before following suit.