Keep your friends close and your enemies, closer

“Ahh. Can you smell the excitement? Don’t you just love it?” I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. When I opened them again, I caught Dustin giving me a weird look.

“Ash, are you sick?” He placed his hand on my forehead.

“What?” I defended myself, slapping his hand away. “It’s the first day of school. Look around you!” I gestured towards the students that were catching up with their friends, gossiping about who-did-what-when.

It was the first day of the new school year. There was an almost-physical smoke of excitement surrounding the air. I was so excited for school, and why shouldn’t I be? Dustin and I were officially juniors now!

Dustin Coy is one of my bestest friends ever, although he is anything but. Coy, I mean. He has this friendly and outgoing personality that’s reflected on his outer looks. He’s hot. I can’t deny that. His hair is reddish-brown, almost bronze-like, with black highlights. A scene hairstyle. His eyes are spring green, the brightest shade of green I have ever seen.

“ASHLYNN CAMPBELL PEREZ!” My other best friend, Summer Wright, ran up to me and hugged me.

“Summer!” I hugged her back, and when we pull away, we started jumping up and down. “Oh my gosh! I haven’t seen you in like forever! I miss you, lady!”

“I know, right! I miss you too, Ash!”

Dustin raised his eyebrows. “What do you mean, you haven’t seen Summer in forever? We just had dinner together yesterday.”

Summer turned to the sound of Dustin’s voice and jumped at him. Literally. “Boyfriend!” She squealed, hugging him tightly.

“Hey, girl. How you doing?” He chuckled, giving her a kiss.

Then, right in front of me, they start making out!

“Ahem.” I cleared my throat.

Both of them immediately pulled away from each other. Summer started blushing like the brightest shade of red, while Dustin kept this huge grin of his pasted on his face.

Summer is the sweetest girl you will ever meet in your life. Everybody loves her. Even the cheerleaders, the most popular girls in school who usually disliked everyone not in their cliques, do. She has blonde hair that’s cut in many layers, with light brown highlights. Another scene hairstyle. Her eyes are the most intense pair of hazel eyes I have ever seen in my life.

Dustin and Summer had been going out for more than a month now. They’ve liked each other much longer than that though. So, I had tricked them into going out on a date, where I hoped they would finally admit their true feelings. And it worked! I personally thought they were the hottest couple ever.

“Come on, chéris.” I slipped my arms around both of their waists, so I would be in between them, and walked over to our first period- Homeroom. “Let’s get to class. The bell’s about to ring.”

Once we were in class, we took our seats in the second row. The seating arrangement was like this:

Dustin at the far left, Summer to his right, me to Summer’s right, empty seat to my right, and Aimee Randall at the far right.

Aimee Randall is one of the most popular girls in school, and the snobbiest. She was the only one in the whole school, possibly the whole world too, who didn’t like Summer. Because she was popular, once she decided she likes you, you have instant popularity at the tip of your fingers.

I was the only one in the history of forever (I was told) that didn’t accept her offer when she asked me to be part of her clique. Popularity never mattered to me. Besides, what benefit do I get from being popular? To be another one of Aimee’s clone? Hah. No way.

“Good morning, class.” Our teacher, Mr. Flores, greeted us when he stepped inside our classroom. A second later, the bell rang.

“Morning, Mr. Flores.” We greeted back.

“And, how were your holidays?” He asked, a smile playing on his lips. And with that five-word question, the class started blabbing about what they did during their holidays.

“Mr. Flores?” The school secretary, Ms Morgan, knocked on the classroom door. Mr. Flores waved her over and she made her way to him, with a student behind her.

He was pretty well-dressed, I guess. Black jeans, with a black hoodie that has a splatter of colors at the front. His hood was pulled over, so I couldn’t see his face.

“Who does he think he is, the Grim Reaper’s emo son?” I whispered to Summer, giggling. She giggled back but then shushed me. She wasn’t a big gossiping fan.

After Ms Morgan and Mr. Flores finished their discussion, she left the classroom. “Class.” Mr. Flores began. “This is Kent Rivera. He’s a transfer student, and I hope you will all go out of your way to make him feel welcomed here.” He motioned towards the boy next to him.

The boy pulled back his hood, and I caught my breath.