Somehow the mysterious guy had vanished. Sara and her two best friends, Erin and Pam, searched everywhere in the school for him. They scanned the hallways between classes. They peeked their heads into classrooms before the doors could close. They glanced out the school's windows as they rummaged through their lockers for books. He wasn't even in the cafeteria for the main 12:30pm lunch period.

"Ugh, where IS he?" Erin gasped in dismay. She settled herself across the table from Sara and Pam. She twirled her fork around the lifeless spaghetti and meatballs on her plate.

Pam giggled and winked at Sara. "Think Erin is gonna make it to field hockey practice?" She flipped her red, curly hair and let out another giggle.

Erin rolled her eyes. "No. I won't make it through the day. When we get to practice, please hit me over the head with a field hockey stick to put me out of my misery, okay?"

Pam chucked a napkin at Erin's face.

"Eww, sick, Pamela! This has spaghetti sauce all over it!" Erin whined.

All three girls exploded into laughter. But their smiles were short-lived.

Trish and Ella, the school's most beautiful, most popular girls, leaned back in their chairs to glare at their table.

"Loud much?" Trish called, her jet-black bob bounced against her shoulders like a fashion doll's.

Erin shrugged, embarrassed. "As if they're the ONLY ones who get to laugh in the lunch room," she muttered bitterly.

It was sort of true. Trish and Ella were practically worshipped by the other students. They walked and talked like models who seemed to float to class rather than stomp across the floor in clunky sneakers like the rest of the students. Plus, the girls were mean. You didn't want to get on their bad side. There were rumors that Trish and Ella had had the football team beat up a kid who tried to pinch Trish.

After the kid got out of the hospital, he denied everything. He obviously did it out of fear of being beat up again.

As Sara scooped up the last of her vanilla pudding, the bell rang.

"And there it is," Erin said. She set her spoon down beside three empty containers of vanilla pudding. Even though Erin said she would try to lose weight, the school's vanilla pudding was her Achille's heel. Honestly the pudding was the only good thing at the school.

The three friends stood and after a few quick air kisses, each sailed away in opposite directions to their next class.

Sara sighed as she let herself be herded to AP Calculus by the swarm of students around her. She noticed a string at the hem of her short, yellow skirt. She tugged at it, but it only made the string longer.

Good grief, she thought with annoyance. I just bought this skirt.

The classroom was already packed as she dropped into her desk chair. She glanced at the string on her skirt again. With a quick yank, she managed to break the string off. To her horror, the skirt ripped slightly, exposing more of her thigh than was acceptable.

Oh no! Sara thought with a silent scream.

Just then, she heard the unmistakable sound of a gasp behind her.

Rats, Sara thought. Trevor Martin's seat was behind hers. He was the junior class clown. Trevor wasn't unattractive, but his obnoxious laugh and immature pranks really annoyed Sara. Unfortunately, Trevor had a major crush on her. Which of course, made her a target to his pranks on a weekly basis. Trevor was popular though. Trish and Ella invited him to all the exclusive parties . But it was only because he was related to a famous rock star and could get the popular kids backstage passes.

Sara tried to cover the tear in her skirt with her hand. She waited for Trevor to burst out laughing and point out the tear to the entire class. But as she raised her eyes to Trevor's chair, her heart plummeted to her feet.

The new guy was sitting in Trevor's seat.