Crystal's POV

After Physics and Literature, it was lunch time. Finally. I was starving. During Literature, I met a girl named Alice McHard.

Alice was really smart, but she skipped class sometimes. She's really nice though. When I got into the cafeteria, I pulled out my wallet and bought a fudge brownie for Flynn. I pulled out my book and a green apple and sat at an empty table. I hadn't even gotten to the second chapter before my book was pulled out of my hands.

"Hey!" I angrily looked up.

"Sorry. I've been calling you name!" Ashton looked down at me, smiling.

"Oh, hey Ashton!" He sat down next to me.

"Crystal! Thanks again for helping me!" Flynn called and stood by me.

"Of course! Here's the reward I promised." I handed him the brownie wrapped in a napkin.

He smiled and thanked me. Then Lilith, Imogen, and Alice sat down in front of us.

"Hey Crys!" Alice said.

I smiled. "Hey!"

Alice leaned forward and said, "So, I don't know if you heard, but the school is having a 'Welcome Back to School' festival/carnival thing on Friday. Apparently, literally everyone is going. Including us. Will you come? Please?" She looked at me with puppy eyes.

I looked down. "I don't know. I've never been to a festival..."

"Come on! A lot of people are gonna be there. You might make some new friends!"

"Ha! Be friends with that? Yeah, I'll pass." A mean voice sneered.

"Go away, Melissa!" Ashton growled.

Melissa stuck out her full, red lip and fake pouted. "Aw, is little Ashy jealous cause he's not popular any more?"

I frowned. "Look, I don't wanna cause any trouble, so can you please leave?"

Melissa smirked. "Well, maybe I do wanna cause trouble!"

She dumped some mashed potatoes on my hair. She grabbed my apple and threw it at me, but I dodged it. It ended up hitting a large, scary looking boy.

"Who threw that?!" He growled.

Everyone went silent. Melissa pointed a manicured nail at me. He growled again and grabbed my shirt, pulling me off the ground.

I started kicking. "Hey! Let me go!"

Just as his fist was about to connect with my face, a shout a heard.

"Put her down, Mike!" Ashton yelled.

Mike looked up. "Shut up Ashton. Stay outta this."

He pulled his arm back again. This time Lilith, Imogen, and Alice jumped into his back. He dropped me, and tried to pulled the girls off of him. I threw a bread roll at his face.

All hell broke lose.

A massive food fight started. I was pulled under a table and a body covered me.

"Ashton?!" I exclaimed.

"Sorry. I didn't want you to get hit." He rubbed the back of his neck.

"Can you at least get off of me? I can't...breathe..." I wheezed.

He quickly rolled over. "Sorry."

Someone grabbed my ankles and started pulling out from under the table. I shrieked. My sweater was covered in dirt and food.

"You did this to me! My make-up took three hours to do!" Melissa screeched.

She raised her hand to slap me, but was interrupted.

"What is going on here?!" The principal, Mr. Bottomsheep yelled.

A piece of lasagna hit him in his face. Everyone gasped and froze.

"Who started this?!" He boomed.

Everyone pointed at me and Melissa.

"She did!" Melissa said, pointing at me.

"Ms. Clearwater-"

"No, I started it!" Ashton yelled.

"No, me!" Imogen shouted.

"I started it!" Lilith called out, too.

"I did it!" Alice joined in.

"No, sir. It was actually me." I said.

He motioned me to follow him. I started walking until a voice shouted, "Wait!"

A girl with blonde hair and a flannel shirt wrapped around her waist ran up to us. "I have proof of who did this! Watch!"

She played a video on her phone of Melissa dumping her potatoes on me, throwing the Apple at Mike, and starting the food fight.

"Ms. Couchman is this true? Did you dump mashed potatoes into Ms. Clearwater's hair?"

She tried to look innocent. "No! They framed me!" But Mr. Bottomsheep didn't buy it.

"My office. Now. Everyone else... go to class." He left with an angry Melissa behind him.

"Thanks!" I told the girl.

"My pleasure! My sister is Melissa's friend and I hate both of them. It makes me happy knowing I messed up a popular's day... anyway, I'm Braelynn! Nice to meet you!" She had a mixture of green, blue, and brown eyes with flecks of yellow in them.

I smiled and shook her hand.

"Crystal."

"So, you going to Alice's party tomorrow?" She asked.

I looked at my new friends. They smiled back at me.

"Yeah... Yeah. I'll be there." I replied looking back at Braelyn.

"I'll see you there, then!" She smiled.

"Yep!" I grinned back.

~~~

After the fiasco at lunch, it was P.E. I was genuinely scared. I pulled at the hem of my loose t-shirt. After I had adjusted my baggy shorts, knee pads, and ponytail, I headed out of the locker room and into the gym.

The couch told us what we were playing and my heart started wildly beating.

Want to know what we were playing? Only the most painful -and classic- game in high school.

Dodgeball.

Yep. Dodgeball. With the red rubber balls that burns when it hits bare skin. The coach blew his whistle. I ducked and dodged as best as I could. I straightened up, but I saw a red rubber ball hurling straight towards my face.

A body moved in front of me, catching the ball.

"Watch you head, Crissie." Ashton smirked.

"Do not call me Crissie! By the way, I had it!" I growled.

He laughed. "Really? It didn't seem like it."

"I can take care of myself."

"Are you sure about that?" He caught another ball without looking. "Princess may need the Prince's help.

Over Ashton's shoulder, someone threw a ball. I moved in front of Ashton. I quickly jumped up, caught the ball, and threw it back at the thrower, getting him out.

"You're right. Princess, you do need my help." I smirked.

His smirk dropped. We continued teasing each other while dodging and throwing more balls. Soon, it was just a boy, a girl, and another girl against us two.

The boy had neat blonde hair- finally!- and bright blue eyes. He was wearing a pair of worn out converse. The girl had unnaturally curly brown hair that was dyed pink and the tips. It was tied up into a ponytail. She had blue eyes also, but it was obvious she was wearing colored contacts. And the other girl was dark skinned and tall.

"Youre going down, newbie!" The girl sneered.

She threw the ball straight at my face. Ashton jumped in front of me and took the hit.

"Man down! Man down!" Ashton dramatically said, dropping to his knees.

He fell back onto the ground. "I'm not gonna make it..."

"Come on, drama queen." I rolled my eyes and offered my hand.

He smiled and took my hand, pulling himself up. "Win this for me, tiger." He whispered in my ear.

I nodded and he walked to the bleachers and sat next to Alice, Lilith, Imogen, and Braelynn. They waved and gave me thumbs up.

The two girl scoffed and picked up two balls each. The boy picked up two balls also. Time seemed to slow down as they threw the balls at superspeed.

I moved my shoulders a bit to the left as a ball zoomed right past. I ducked as one flew above my head narrowly missing my ponytail. I caught another heading straight for my chest. I got the boy out. Just as I threw the ball at the fake blue eyed girl, the tall girl threw a ball. I rolled out the way just in time.

Luckily I had gotten the fake eyed girl as I rolled. It was just me and the last girl.

"Kick her butt, Kaia!" The girl I just got out yelled, rubbing her arm where the ball hit her.

"I will, Seraphina!" Kaia called back.

She glared at me and I her. The coach made us stay on one side of the gym to make it harder to stay in. There were only two balls left. One by Kaia's feet, and one across the half court. I took off towards the furthest ball. Kaia immediately grabbed her ball and ran towards me. She was 10 feet away from me.

Kaia threw the ball as hard as she could at my stomach. I slid on my knees, silently thanking myself for wearing knee pads, and leaned back, the ball nearly scraping my nose. I leaned back up and threw the ball at her. It hit the side of her face softly, but she still freaked out.

"You almost killed me!" She screeched.

"Please. That barely even tapped you." I got up and dusted my clothes off.

Ashton, Lilith, Imogen, and Braelynn crowded around me. Ashton wrapped an arm around my neck from behind gave me a noogie.

"Stop!" I laughed.

"Alright everyone! Time to hit the showers!" The coach yelled.

The girls filed into the locker room. I quickly made my way to a shower stall. After a minute shower, I wrapped myself in a towel and headed to my locker.

Empty.

What? How? It had my clothes in it before P.E.!

"Looking for these?" Kaia sneered, holding up my clothes.

"Give those back!" I said, reaching for them.

"Want them? Come and get them!" She ran out of the locker room.

I had no choice but to follow her. I prayed no one saw me. Sadly, luck disagreed with me. She turned a corner. I followed her, but slammed into another body.

My wet feet slipped and I fell, but strong arms caught me. I slowly opened my eyes.

It was Zack.

My face immediately felt hot and I knew I was blushing. I mean, who wouldn't? I was in the arms of a boy. In a towel.

He smirked and scanned my body, making me blush even more. "Okay, I get you trying to flirt with me, nena, but, wow, too overboard. Not that I'm complaining." He winked.

I scrambled up. "Its not my fault! Kaia stole my clothes!"

"I see. I heard you kicked her butt at dodgeball. She's just jealous." He replied.

"Yeah, and now I have no clothes." I grumbled.

"Here." He started taking off his sweatshirt.

"Whoa. Hold up. Why are you taking off your shirt?!"

"Relax. I have a shirt on underneath." He pulled the sweatshirt off and handed it to me.

"Wear this with your P.E. shorts." He said.

"Thanks." I smiled.

I quickly left and went back to the locker room. Alice rushed up to me.

"Are you crazy?! We could've let you borrow our clothes! You- is that Zack's?" She stopped and pointed to his sweatshirt.

"Yeah..."

She started squealing. "Oh, my god I totally ship it!"

I rolled my eyes and headed to my locker. Luckily, Lilith had shorts she couldn't fit anymore and they fit me. I pulled on the shorts and the sweatshirt. It was slightly big, hanging off my hips and covering my hands.

"You look so cute!" Imogen said.

"By wearing a sweatshirt? Yeah, real fabulous." I replied.

"No, because his name is on it!"

"What?!" I looked behind my shoulder and saw four letters written across my back.

Zack.

I groaned. "Ugh, can this day get any worse?"

Alice and Imogen just squealed again.

"We better get to class." I picked up my bag.

~~~

The day could actually get worse. Every time I stepped into the hallway, people would stare at my- I mean, Zack's- sweatshirt.

"Hey, Crystal. Is that Zack's sweatshirt?" Ashton said.

I sighed. "Yes. Why?"

"Um, because he's very popular and this is your first day. You already have a boyfriend?" He raised an eyebrow.

I grabbed his collar and pulled him into an empty hall. "No. Kaia stole my clothes, so I ran after her, but bumped into Zack. He let me borrow his sweatshirt. I'll return it when I go to the festival. He's bound to be there." I explained.

"He saw you? In a towel?! He is such a pervert!" Ashton growled.

"Um... Yeah. Anyway, are you going to the festival?" I shook it off.

"Yeah. Wanna go together? As friends, I mean." He asked.

"Sure! I'll meet you there. Lilith, Imogen, Braelynn and I were planning on going anyway." I replied.

"Sweet." He ran a hand through his hair.

"Cool!"

"Cool."

~~~

When the day ended, I was overwhelmed with joy. That was definitely not the best first day of school. Luckily, I had the festival to look up to.