I could still remember the day I got the phone call like it was yesterday. I was sat in this very parking lot in my mom's car, waiting to collect Brooks from school and take him home.

My mother's phone vibrated in the cup holder, an unknown number flashing across the screen. She answered it without hesitation, turning on her most polite voice.

"Hello? Yes this is she. Oh Amelie! How are you?"

I'd stared blankly out the window at the rain pouring onto Beaufort high school, uninterested in whoever my mom was speaking to.

"Oh my goodness! This is fantastic news, Amelie, I'll let her know right away. She's going to be ecstatic-- yes send through the details right away." My mother grinned, placing a hand over her heart as she turned to look at me. "No worries. Thank you so much. Alright, bye." She hung up the phone, biting her lip and bouncing up and down in her seat as if she could barely contain herself.

"What was that about?" I asked suspiciously, narrowing my eyes at her.

My mother had been known to get excited about a candy bar, so it wasn't unusual for her to be acting like a little kid over nothing.

"Honey, you got the part." She breathed, her grin so wide I thought it would swallow up her whole face. I sat, confused, but she continued. "The part of Veronica Hart on Scandalous! You got it, babe!"

My jaw dropped open as I stared at my mom. I got the part?!

"They want to do one more screen test," she continued, still clutching the phone with her hot-pink painted fingernails, "for the male lead they're considering. But the part's as good as yours."

I stared at a rain droplet on the window, unable to believe what I was hearing. Veronica Hart had been my first audition ever under my brand new talent agency. At just thirteen, I'd never ever been on camera or really had any experience acting other than in school plays. But I loved it more than anything, and I wanted to make it my career. I just couldn't believe that they actually wanted me.

I was still sat in a state of shock when my mother informed me that I was required on set for fittings and rehearsals in one week.

I only had one week to prepare for my life changing forever.

"Hello? Sav, you alive?" Mia called, snapping me back into the present.

I shook myself out of my daze and glanced around. How long had I been sitting in the parking lot for? When I turned to see Brooks, Dallas and Mia all staring at me peculiarly, I got my answer.

Too long, apparently.

With a sigh I hooked my bag over my arm and followed Mia and the boys towards the school.

With it's tall grey archway and double glass doors, it was just as depressing as I'd remembered it. Suddenly, I felt like a clumsy little Freshman again. 

"Did you get your schedule?" Mia asked, and I pulled out my phone so I could see the photo I had taken of my class timetable.

"Yeah, I have," I ran my finger down the screen, searching for the right spot, "AP Calculus with Kent."

Mia's eyes widened. "You're taking AP Calc? Why?" She stared at me as if I were an alien under a microscope.

I smiled and offered her a shrug. "Schooling on set was pretty intense and my tutor was amazing, so I got good at math really quickly."

"Can you give me your tutor's number? I suck at math." Mia grumbled.

"I've told you multiple times that I'll help you study." Brooks chimed in, causing Mia to roll her eyes.

"We tried that once already Brooks, remember? You ended up flipping a table, if I do recall."

I bit back a laugh and when I glanced at Brooks, his own eyes were sparkling with amusement.

"Anyway, you need me to take you to first period?" Mia asked and brushed away a strand of blonde hair that had fallen over her face.

I opened my mouth to accept her offer, but another voice cut in before I could. "I have the same class, I'll take her." Brooks informed us both, nodding towards the hallway where kids were starting to clear out.

Mia nodded and waved goodbye to us, dragging Dallas in the opposite direction with her.

Brooks and I walked side by side towards our first class, and I could feel his discomfort as he slung his hands inside his pockets.

"Does being around me really make you that uncomfortable?" I questioned boldly as I took in his demeanour. "We're not strangers, you know."

Brooks looked at me from the corner of his eye and swallowed loudly. "No it's not that." He murmured. "It's just... everyone's watching us."

I glanced around. He was right, the majority of the student body were staring at us, murmuring things to their friends quietly. It was funny how accustomed I'd grown to peoples' whispers. At the beginning, when Scandalous had first aired, the insane attention I'd received from absolute strangers terrified me. The kids who looked up to me, the men and teenaged boys who came onto me incessantly, the gossip websites that wanted every detail of my life- it was crazy for a then-fourteen year old. In time though, I learnt how to handle it. I stopped reading the gossip pages, stopped looking at the comments on my social media posts, only entertained people who treated me with respect.

Brooks, however, hadn't experienced what I had. The staring, the whispering, the side-glances... I wasn't surprised that it had gotten to him already.

I smiled gently and gave him a small shrug. "You don't have to walk with me, Brooks. I get that I'm not exactly your favorite person and all of this," I gestured to a girl flat out ogling us, "is weird. It's weird for me too."

Brooks held my gaze for a moment, the muscle in his jaw popping as he crossed his arms and scrutinised me with those perfect brown eyes.

"It's fine. " Brooks decided after a moment of deliberation, and warmth spread throughout my chest.

Before I could prolong the conversation, he entered a classroom on our left.

I followed closely behind and took the seat next to him, unable to stop my eyes from habitually raking over the class members. The redheaded girl on Brooks' other side sneered at me, and I responded with a smile.

Let's get this stupid day over with.