"Anything interesting happen at school today?" my mom asked me and Zoey as we finally got home from our long first day of school.

"Eh," we answered at the same time as we jogged up the stairs. I sighed once my head hit my pillow.

"Long day?" Zoey asked.

"As any," I replied with another sigh as I added a pillow over my stomach.

"So I saw Micah today..." Zoey sighed. I looked at her.

"Zoey, you better not—"

"I didn't," she assured. I didn't want her to be back with him. "You know that guy that was talking to me after the bell rang?"

"Yeah..." I answered. The staring guy.

"He asked me if I was okay," she informed.

"That was nice of him," I said, suspiciously.

"Yeah. He noticed that I was upset since I had to endure another period with Micah..." she added. I nodded, understandingly. I didn't trust Stare-guy though. I didn't want any guy to be with my sister after Micah supposedly "loved" her and then cheated on her. Zoey got up from my bed and announced that she had homework so she left to her room.

***

As soon as Jasmine and I were in view of The Group (my new name of the four boys that sparked everyone's interest) which consisted of Jerk-face, Stare-guy, Nice-one, and 'their friend,' I left her, mid-sentence, and marched over to them.

"Hey, Alicia—" the Nice-one tried to greet me before I snapped to Stare-guy.

"Don't talk to my sister," I threatened, a finger pointed at him. He stared down at me with his chocolate brown eyes. Other colors swirled around his iris though. Like yesterday, I couldn't identify them.

"Jealous?" another voice teased. I turned on my heels and now pointed to Jerk-face.

"And you!" I shouted. "Stop messing with my best friend."

"Oh that hottie that always sits by you?" he asked, flipping his hair out of his eyes to reveal dark blue eyes. Goddammit, even they're beautiful...

"As I said before, my best friend," I repeated, gritting my teeth. He smirked.

"Why should I stop?" he tested.

"Because she's my best friend and I don't want you messing with her," I answered as anger flashed into my eyes. It's like his smirk enlarged at my anger...

And yet suddenly, his hands flew to my waist and he pinned me lightly against the wall.

"Why? Do you want me to mess with you instead?" he whispered as his lemony mint breath hit my face.

"Hey—" the Nice-one started to say.

"I wanna hear her answer," Jerk-face snapped at him as his gaze still locked to me. "So..."

"So...get off of me," I said as I tried to pry his hands off of me. He tightened his grip and pushed me more into the wall.

"Excuse me?" he asked, close to my face as if he'd never received rejection before.

"Oh, you're excused, now get the hell away from me," I said with a smile as I reminded his line from yesterday.

"Well I outta—"

"Let her go," a quiet yet stern voice said. Jerk-face turned to Stare-guy as his grip started to loosen. He stared hard as their eyes were locked and then Jerk-face released me and then pushed me away slightly. He nudged his other friend and they walked away. Pissed off, I left in the opposite direction to reunite with Jasmine.

"Wait," a voice called. A felt a hand on my forearm, but I jerked out of the hold and turned to face Stare-guy and Nice-one.

"Don't worry about him," Nice-one said just like he had yesterday in first period.

"Whatever," I responded as I looked in his light brown eyes. The two tolerable boys looked at each other and then looked back to me. I rolled my eyes and turned to walk away.

"Hey," a medium voice called to me. I turned around, again. The voice belonged to Stare-guy. I crossed my arms and sighed in irritation as I looked past him. His presence alone made me nervous. "I didn't mean any harm when I talked to your sister. I just made sure she was okay."

"And why should you give a damn if she's okay or not? You don't even know her," I asked, grilling him as I finally looked towards the direction of his face. He muttered something under his breath and then the bell rang. My eyes narrowed at him as he brushed past me to go to first period, where we'd meet up at in a few minutes. I watched them walk off and pass Jasmine at the corner. Nice-one and Jasmine glances lingered on each other before Stare-guy nudged him and they walked through the halls.

"What was that about?" Jasmine asked immediately when they disappeared down the hall.

"Absolutely nothing," I lied. I gritted my teeth and then walked to first period.

Not only was I steamed from that little scene, but I felt as though all four boys from The Group were staring at me throughout the whole day, but when I looked to see, none of them looked as they did their work or talked to each other.

***

I talked to Zoey and Jasmine as we all walked to our lunch table in a conversation. But when I looked over to see our usual table, madness surged through me.

"You have got to be shitting me," I shouted at the smirking teen that sat at my table with literally a tray-full of food.

"I just wanted you to see how it felt when someone takes something that's yours," he tormented. I guessed he was referring to the seat in class?

"Like my time?" I asked, not really caring. Zoey and Jasmine watched the argument as they just sat in their normal seats while Jerk-face's smirk continued.

"Good one," he said, narrowing his eyes. I sighed out of stress and noticed that his other three friends were at their normal table.

"Wanna hear a joke?" I asked.

"Humor me."

"Your life and this nonsense," I answered.

"Ouch," he fake expressed with a hand over his heart. I just glared at him as I still stood, with a table between me and him.

"Hey," a new voice intervened. I looked to see 'their friend' standing there. He was tall—not as tall as the others though—and had dark skin that matched his brown eyes with gray rims. "Dude. Stop messing around. We have shit to do."

"You have shit, I have shit—hell, I'm dealing with mine right now, so you can go right back over there and deal with yours," Jerk-face stated to his friend in a rude tone.

"Obviously you didn't understand when I said 'we,'" Their-friend reminded, containing his obvious annoyance towards Jerk-face. They stared intently with each other before Jerk-face stood up. He picked up his tray—that was stock-piled with every food from the lunch line—and walked off. I sighed in victory, but then felt an arm snaked around my waist.

"Don't miss me too much," he whispered as his lips tickled my ear. I steamed in anger, but not as much as I did when I felt his lips at my neck. HE KISSED MY NECK. I could tell my face was red with fury as I looked to see him leaving for good.

"What...?" Zoey and Jasmine asked.

"Nothing," I nearly screamed at them.

"You're so lucky," Jasmine whispered.

"I'm really not," I growled. What was up with these boys? I looked over my shoulder at their table and Jerk-face and Stare-guy were nearly head-to-head as they leaned over the table and fought with words. It's like they knew I was staring because after Jerk-face said something, Stare-guy continued his occupation of looking to me. I immediately turned back to Zoey and Jasmine as they ranted about my interaction with The Group—primarily Jerk-face.

***

In my only other class with all four boys and no Jasmine, I was assigned to be in a group with them. Damn English class. We had to "learn about each other" and I'm pretty sure we'd eventually have to write paper on each other. Just my luck that the teacher chose groups by the row they sat in, and the Group Boys had a never ending preference for the back row. So now we all sat, desk-to-desk, glaring at each other.

"I have a feeling this isn't going to work out," I muttered beneath my breath.

"I second that," a heard another voice say, but when I looked up to them, I couldn't identify who had replied.

"So, teenagers don't really like to talk when there's not a teacher instructing a lesson in the background," our teacher noted. "You can have a conversation through text, but not in real life, huh?"

Everyone nodded and agreed.

"Well that's about to change," teacher-man assured. "Look at the people you're grouped with. They are now your group for the semester. Any writing assignment, journal entry, or class discussion will be associated with them to review it, discuss it, and etcetera, throughout the entire year..."

GREAT. Just freaking GREAT. Now I was stuck with them all year no matter what!

"Might as well treat them as your best friends because at the end of the year, you will be turning in a documentary together," teach added. UGH. "Oh and a biography on each of you is due next week."

I stared at my desk in horror.

"What? Afraid to be partners with us?" the king of all Neanderthals asked me. I flashed my eyes up to him.

"I'm afraid of ending up in some psych-ward from being around all of you for an entire year," I retorted.

"I think you're afraid of a challenge," Jerk-face said as he scooted near me.

"Maybe I'm afraid of catching a disease from you," I dissed, although I'd never allow that to happen.

"Aw. You think about us being in bed together," he said with amazement. I glared.

"Stop it," Stare-guy ordered. Him and Jerk-face did their usual 'don't tell me what to do' glare, but Stare-guy won...again.

"I second that," I piped in. "This group is not going to work out."

"Uh," Nice-one scoffed before hitting Jerk-face and turning to him. "We only know her for two days and you make her break up with us!"

His face was so adorable as he blamed Jerk-face. It was hard to hold back a laugh. Soon enough, Nice-one got up from his seat and kneeled by my waist.

"Please, Alicia," he pleaded with his fingers laced together. "Don't leave us."

It was too much that I had to laugh. 'Their-Friend' smacked Nice-one's head and I stopped laughed.

"Hey," I addressed. "Don't hit him."

"Yeah. Don't hit me," Nice-one repeated. I laughed once more before I realized he had taken me in a hug around my waist, although I still sat. Confused, I hugged him back around his neck as he squeezed tighter around my waist and I felt his copious degrees of heat. Not only was he hot attractively, but also in temperature. I released my grip and so did he as he climbed back into his chair which was across from mine with desks in between. I watched as Stare-guy looked between me and Nice-one while Jerk-face scoffed.

"So we're supposed to be partners with you all year?" 'Their Friend' asked.

"You say it like it's a curse," I noted with a straight face.

"Maybe it is..." Jerk-face muttered. I flashed my eyes to him.

"Whatever. If there's going to be a problem, I'm sure the teacher will switch us," I said to them. It's not like there's a single girl stuck with four outrageously exclusive boys that the entire student body wonders about, yet the only name they seem to know is mine...

"Hello," our teacher greeted out of nowhere as silence fell across our "group." We all nonchalantly nodded towards him. "How are you all doing over here?"

"Well actually—"

"Just fine," Stare-guy answered, contradicting my thoughts.

"Well that's good," our teacher replied.

"Uhh..." I started. "What exactly is the point of this?"

Instead of giving me a blunt answer, he looked to each of the other boys and then back at me.

"Do you know each other?" he asked me.

"Well—"

"No," all the boys muttered together. Teacher glanced to them.

"Exactly my point," he said. "Maybe you'll gain something out of this experience."

He said that with a wink and then left. I rested my head on my hand and sighed.

"So..." Nice-one started. We all looked to him, all some-what ticked at each other. "So, Alicia, what's your last name?"

"You don't need to know," I responded.

"Knock, knock," a voice said at the door. I turned to see my sister walk in with a note to give to our teacher, since she was some office aide for her elective. As she left, she made her way over to my group.

"Hey," she greeted to me and then looked to the guys. "What's going on here?"

"Absolutely noth—"

"We're bonding," 'Their friend' answered with a sarcastic smile and crossed arms.

"Am I supposed to know what that means?" Zoey asked, confused.

"It means that I'm stuck with them for the entire year," I said with fake enthusiasm.

"That's the spirit, best friend," Jerk-face teased. He will never be my best friend.

"Shut up," I snapped.

"It's for our...project," Stare-guy said to Zoey.

"Oh well...you guys can come over to our house to work on this...'project'...any time you want," Zoey invited, causing my jaw to drop.

"Zoey!" I scolded. I cannot believe she just invited them to our house. UGH.

"Sure. Name a date and time," Stare-guy said, interested. I wanted to growl out loud at him.

"How about—"

"Zoey," our teacher summoned, interrupting her. Thank God. She looked over as he signaled her to walk back over to return the note from wherever.

"See you all later apparently," she said as she left. I sighed in stress.

"So...your house," Stare-guy prompted.

"Oh no, no, no," I denied. "I am not having all of you guys at my house at one time!"

"Come on—" Jerk-face started to cajole.

"Then we'll go one at a time," Stare-guy compromised. WHAT?!

"Sounds good," Jerk-face smirked.

"I still don't want you guys at my house...EVER," I informed. I don't like people to be over at my house, period. Except for Jasmine. The guys pursed their lips.

"Then we'll take you out," they shrugged and said together. I had to laugh.

"It's not really funny..." 'Their-friend' muttered. I continued to sarcastically laugh.

"Starting tomorrow, we'll each take you out one night," Stare-guy insisted.

"And you expect me to go out with four boys whose names I don't even know?" I laughed.

"Well my name is—" Nice-guy started to say.

"You'll find out everything on the individual nights you're out with us," Stare-guy told. "We each get ten questions for each other."

"Fine," I found myself to saying. Maybe I could make this "project" fun? I could be a completely different person to each guy and pretend to have multiple-personalities. They all looked to me as wheels turned in my head. "So we'll meet at the school before this little outing starts each night?"

"Why?" Nice-one asked.

"Because I don't want any of you to know where I live," I answered. Stare-guy chucked once. I looked at him and he just stared into my eyes like usual. But then I looked away to the top of my desk. Soon enough, the end bell rang.

Just as The Group had, Jasmine looked at me as if she was inquiring my devious look.

"What's up with you?" she asked as we walked through the halls to our class after grabbing stuff from our lockers.

"Nothing, nothing," I lied. "Let's just say, I'll be having an interesting next four nights..."