"Love is Like A Glass Door..."

Two weeks later

Penn's Pov

I feel absolutely crummy.

After returning back home in Bakersfield, my life resumed to the crappy quality that it's used to. Home= crap. I'm home alone virtually all of the time, ordering Chinese food when there's no leftovers and trying to ebb the loneliness away with reruns of Will and Grace and Everybody Loves Raymond.

School= major crap. At Garces Memorial High School I'm public enemy no. 1; I just didn't seem to fit in anywhere, not even with the outcasts! I always seem to linger between the boundaries of the social groups, almost fit to be in one but not quite. I'm an oddity, a combination of randomness, but whatever- like I said, I'm used to it.

At least I could deal with it with Connor. He's not an outcast, far from it. Everyone knows him, most love him, all respect him. Aside from being the suavest, coolest, and sometimes bubbliest person in the school, he's also (I admit) pretty smokin' hot. Gay or not, most girls still swooned over him. And he also had this huge rep for being spectacular in bed (insert puke here). He is honestly the only true friend that I have.

But one of the main reasons that I was feeling so dejected lately is because he isn't anywhere to be seen. Connor McPhearson has disappeared from the face of the earth. I've tried on numerous occasions to call him, but his phone is always off and I can't reach him. I tried looking for him in the twelfth grade hallway, but no one's seen him since the last day of school before fall break. He doesn't drop in at my house at random intervals like he used to. Neither will my parents drive me to his place when I have the chance to ask; I have a feeling that they're still under the impression that Connor might be a pedophile using his gayness as a cover.

The other main reason I feel so sad is that I've had the slimmest chance of talking to Nick ever since I landed. He and his brothers have been performing in concert after concert, taking Europe down in their world-wide tour. And now that I've been sucked back into reality, I've had to keep my nose above the endless swarms of homework; unbelievable amounts of Seminar World History homework that amount to nothing on my GPA; essays and class novels and also tests and quizzes every day of the school week. And there's the fact that the boys have to balance their schooling along with the band. It's all really frustrating.

Lunch. I've completely discarded the tray of food before me as I hunch over, packed between two people insignificant to me, secretly surfing the web on my Motorola slide phone. Phones are not supposed to be on and in use during school hours, otherwise they get confiscated. So I'm trying to be as discreet as possible. I scroll down the tiny page, smiling secretively as I read snippets of how Nick, Kevin, and Joe are doing on their tour.

The song, No Other Way, that will be featured on their upcoming album, has become a popular favorite of the Jonas Brothers' European fans. A wave of happiness swelled in me, my smile deepening.

Joe Jonas is finally off of the market once more! A snapshot of him and his new girlfriend, Violet Lightly, holding hands and rubbing noses, not shy in front of the camera. I was happy for him- he seemed so sullen back in Paris. But why did I feel so strange about this? Something about the two wasn't quite right...

A shadow loomed over me. Thinking it was a teacher, or the guidance councilor, I quickly drop my phone into my purse and look up.

Nikki Perez.

I packaged all of the hate and opinions of her repulsiveness in a deathly glare. She smirked, totally unaffected. She gets those looks a lot. She squeezes her tiny frame between me and the person sitting to my left; a chubby, redneck outcast. He throws her a disgruntled look and slinks off to the snack line. "What is it we have here," she asked me. I rolled my eyes and refocused my attention to my cold lunch. "Why, Penelope, are you texting?" she says it purposely loud enough for the teachers, that sat about eight feet away, to hear. None of them care. Nikki grabbed my purse, inviting herself inside its cluttered, jumbled, mess and picking out from it my phone. "The Jonas Brothers?" she wrinkled her nose, confused. Everyone knew that I hated (well, at least used to) the Jonas Brothers with a passion. One of the reasons of my infamy.

I snatched my belongings from her. "Yes, the Jonas Brothers."

"Hmm..."

"What do you want?" I asked irritably, trying to throw her attention away from the subject. "Oh," she remembered, "I was looking for Connor." I roll my eyes once more. She's one of the fan girls that were googly-eyed for my charming friend.

"He's out sick," I grunted. Sick with heartache, I added silently.

"Oh? All he needs is a dose of Nikki and he'll be back on his feet." Eww. How obscene.

I muttered something rude under my breath. "Maybe he's been hanging around you too much," she sneered, catching wind of my comment. "I wouldn't be surprised; there's a good reason everyone despises you, you ugly scrap of s**t." Over-dramatic much? Yawn. "I'm just getting sick sitting next to you." Give the girl a point for unoriginality!

"What are you doing Googling the Jonas Brothers, anyway? Has your taste in music changed for the better?" she questioned with that sneer still tinted in her tone. Ah, I had managed to piss her off, but still keep her curiosity intact.

"I'm just checking to see how they've been doing ever since we last met with them in Paris," I said smugly. Oh, come on! I had to tell that to the Jonas-worshiping freak.

"Oh, please," she said, and I realized how ridiculous what I said sounded. "Lying is low, even for you." Anyone else getting a déjà vu feeling from Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen?

"I can prove it," I said slyly. I remembered the photo Connor and I took with them, the ring, the interview I recorded when our paths first crossed, what seemed ages ago. All of the delicious evidence. The old scheming side of me, the side that Nick had extinguished somehow, resurfaced briefly.

"Whatever," she scoffed, and walked off, though I knew that I had grasped her interest.

My day just got a little bit brighter.