"This is real, and you've been right here all along..."

"Charlene!"

Two pairs of arms swept Charlene up as she approached the Berkshire Academy campus. She laughed and wiggled out of the grip of her—new—best friends, Madison Wilcox and Taylor Emberson.

"Nice to see you too," she said in lieu of a greeting.

"You look great," Taylor said, looking Charlene up and down.

"Thanks, so do you," Charlene trilled, feeling ridiculously like she was in High School Musical. Well, at least until....

"Charlie?"

The trio whipped around to see none other than Lola Cashel and Summer McLorn. Charlene's heart leapt into her throat as Lola waved and hurried over, Summer in toe.

"We thought you were coming later," Lola cried as she held out her arms for a hug. She received stares from Madison and Taylor instead.

"Um, do we know you?" Madison asked, her tone a cross between concerned and downright obnoxious. Lola glanced at Charlene but, upon seeing that she clearly wasn't going to answer, said softly, "Charlie's best friend?"

"Best friend?" Taylor cracked up. "Yeah, sure. Go back and play with your little dolls, or something. We have business to do with Charlene."

"But—"

Taylor locked arms with Charlene and quickly pulled her away. Charlene flashed an apologetic look over her shoulder but followed Taylor nonetheless, and Madison was soon scurrying after them as well. This is real, Charlene thought to herself over and over as she trailed after Taylor, fighting to stay focused and not turn around, run over to her former friends, and go and apologize.

"What was that?" Madison asked, laughing slightly as she caught up to the two girls and linked arms with Charlene on the other side.

"Yeah, who were those two?" Taylor asked, turning to face Charlene.

Charlene's palms started to sweat. This was it, the moment she'd been dreading.

"Um, girls from my old school," Charlene muttered.

"But why'd that girl claim to be your best friend?" Taylor pressed. Charlene just shrugged.

"We were classmates," she replied in lieu of an explanation. Taylor and Madison laughed lightly again, though Charlene noticed a little bit of hesitation in Madison's laugh. Why was that, exactly? She had no time to wonder.

"Shall we head to homeroom?" Maddison asked, tugging the two other girls forward.

"Let's," Charlene agreed, pulling Taylor along with her other arm.

"Can we come to your house after school today?" Madison asked as they headed towards the school building.

"Oh...um...." Charlene bit her lip and her gaze shifted towards her shiny black dress shoes. They were beautiful shoes, new, shiny...she didn't deserve...no, Charlene told herself. Don't think like that. "Well...I...my mom's friends are going to be over," she fibbed, cringing to herself as she spoke. What sort of a lie was that?

"Aw, that's too bad." Madison gave a thin smile that didn't quite stretch all the way across her face. "Your house is the perfect meeting spot, after all."

"It is?" Charlene asked, somewhat confused. Her house wasn't really all that impressive—it was relatively small, and the furnishing was old. It had some good spots, of course, but she doubted it even looked like a proper house next to Madison and Taylor's. Actually, now that she thought about it, Charlene hadn't yet been to Madison or Taylor's houses—she'd only seen photos of them. She didn't know much about the two girls's families, either, but then again, they didn't know much about hers. Well...about her real one, anyways...never mind that. Charlene snapped back into the conversation as Taylor spoke up.

"It really is, Charlene," she told the girl. "But if your house is crowded today, that's fine. We can go to Madison's."

Madison started, then regained her composure. Her eyebrows knit as she glanced over to Taylor and asked, "Why mine?"

"Because we can't go to Charlene's house," Taylor said with a laugh.

"Oh, well...my family is having a little of a fight this week," Madison replied, though she still looked a little confused. "Why don't we just go to the library or something?"

Taylor and Madison looked over at Charlene for confirmation. Charlene bit her lip. If there was a library, no doubt Lola would be all over it. But still...it was better than....

"Sure," Charlene agreed, pasting a smile onto her face. "I'd love to explore it, anyways."

"Great, then that's all settled. Hope we don't run into your little friends there."

Taylor and Madison looked at each other and laughed. After a second's hesitation, Charlene joined in, but her laughter was forced and fake.

"So..." Taylor looked around, then lowered her voice. "Do you want to skip second period?"
"Skip?" Charlene turned to Taylor, hoping that she didn't mean what Charlene thought she meant. "You don't mean to say—"

"I have Gym second period, let's do it," Madison broke in, tossing a bunch of hair over her left shoulder, then nodding vigorously. "Won't lose any points for that."

Charlene was completely lost. Were these the same two girls who were known by the whole school for their amazing grades?

"Charlene? How 'bout you?" Taylor broke into Charlene's thoughts.

"Wha-I-oh, uh, sure, I guess," Charlene sputtered out.

"Great. See you then. Madison, let's get to our meeting before we get another detention for being late."

The two girls snickered as they hurried off, leaving a bewildered Charlene standing on the grass alone, still wondering what she'd just agreed to.