Apparently stepping out of my comfort zone meant being turned into a walking extra for every teen movie on Netflix.

My usually nappy brown ringlets had been detangled and straightened in record time-a half hour. With that, came an alarming amount of foundation and eyeshadow that left me wanting to peel my skin off. Finally, was Ally's definition of fashion-a tight red blouse that stood out against my fair skin and revealed a perfect cleavage I hadn't known existed until Aliyah squeezed me into a push up bra. Even the jeans I wore were extremely tight and left me trying to unbutton them every five seconds to try and get a full breath out.

All this had been done at six in the morning and I hadn't even had the chance to do anything more than shower, and even that couldn't have prepared me for the hell she had just dragged me through. Unfortunately I didn't get much time to express my dismay, which I'm sure she masterfully planned, and we were headed out to her Corvette by seven sharp. Every time I tried to rest my head against the window, she'd scold me and act as if I were sacrificing her dog, Lola, to the Gods.

"You'll smear the makeup." she'd gasp. "I spent way too long on that for you to mess it up before everyone got to see my masterpiece."

I had mocked her but kept my head straight and eyes trained ahead, powering through my sleep deprivation. Between my father's late night Poker game and the nervousness of this morning, I hadn't been able to get more than a couple hours of tossing and turning in. Ally had showed up bright eyed and bushy tailed at five forty five and acted as if it were the middle of the day rather than just after sunrise. Ushering her in before my father could be stirred awake, she had immediately broken out her giant makeup carry on and got to work. She'd done a good job, too, because I hardly recognized myself when I looked in the mirror.

"Okay, remember you promised all day. If you don't want to continue this after today, that's fine. But do not take off the makeup until after the last bell."

I saluted her with two fingers. "Yes, Ma'am. I am true to my word. Let's just get this over with."

She bounced excitedly in her seat before running a hand through her blonde mane and stepping out of the car. She was wearing heels, of course, the one thing I'd been able to talk her out of forcing me to put on. We both knew nothing but disaster could come from my discoordination and stilettos. Squeezing my eyes shut, I climbed out of the car to join her, trying to fix the false eyelash that was making my left  eye  twitch. Seeing my struggle, she reached out and in one quick movement fixed it back in place.

"This is going to be so amazing!" she exclaimed, green eyes glistening.

I forced a smile for her sake. "Yeah, so great."

This was quite possibly going to be the worst day of my life.

**

Just when I thought my day couldn't getting any more horrifying, we had our schedules and classes thrusted into our hands-and I didn't share even one with my best friend. The last three years we'd always had an elective class at the very least to catch up sometime during the day. She had tried to be optimistic about it, promising we'd see each other at lunch, but I could see she was a little disappointed too. Though she wore her façade so perfectly next to nobody could see through it, every so often she'd let it drop and show little fragments of the struggling thirteen year old girl with an eating disorder and divorced parents. I'd been the only one to stick around during the entire year and a half, countless therapy sessions, even her disappearing every summer. It had been for that reason that she'd refused to drop me, to avoid me at school even when her cheer friends prompted her too.

"I'm going to die." I grumbled, dropping my lunch tray at the end of her table at lunch. Since the second we'd stepped through the doors this morning, every pair of eyes had stuck to me like I had the biggest bruise on my face. I was most definitely the lead in the newest teen movie-and my peers were playing their part perfectly.

"Stop being dramatic." Aliyah set her phone face down in front of her, blue acrylics dancing across the gray tabletop. "You look gorgeous. People are just staring because they think you're new, Sky. You know how this town is."

I did know how this small town was. When my mother passed it was all that had been talked about for close to two years. We'd gotten a couple new Sophomores at the beginning of last year and they had become the talk of the two high schools in this town, every boy want to try and challenge one another to get the girls. Sadly, I also knew she was right. I'd always kept myself hidden under giant sweat shirts and baggy clothes-no matter the season-and hoped it'd keep attention off me. It did, for the most part, though being best friends with the most popular girl in school, I'd gotten my fair share of insults over the years.

Which sucked for them because their words were child's play compared to my father's.

"She's right!" it was one of her mousy cheer friends, a pretty brunette with giant blue eyes. "Everyone has been talking about you all day. I heard Oliver Davis talking to Jace Rios on my way passed the gym after second period."

I feigned enthusiasm. "Oh My God, Oliver Davis was talking about me?"

I made sure to bat my eyelashes for effect. Aliyah shot me a dark look and her friend rolled her eyes.

I had to admit, as much as I didn't care about either boy, it was a bit shocking my name had fallen from either of their mouths. Even odder was the fact they were associating with one another.

Oliver was Swim Team captain-aka, the Men's Health model with his incredible chiseled six pack dripping with water, perfect jaw line, and piercing gray eyes that had most girls falling at his feet. But Jace? Jace was in a league of his own, our schools residential loner if you must. Quiet, mysterious, with a rotating closet of black v necks and leather jackets. He was as handsome as Oliver, but the front he put up was a little off putting to most people, so they admired from afar.

"You haven't had a boyfriend since second grade, Sky." Aliyah pointed out after a few minutes of silence. "You should stop being so sarcastic and actually take advantage of the fact that the two hottest guys in school are taking interest in you."

I stabbed a spoon into my chocolate pudding and raised an eyebrow. "I don't see anything wrong with not dating the meatheads in this hell hole. College is the time for testing waters."

"Sure." Ally agreed. "But you won't be able to test waters if you don't get practice in beforehand. You'll be hiding behind your textbooks and romance novels, waiting for your imaginary Knight to come in and sweep you off your feet."

Okay, ouch.

"What she means," her friend shot Aliyah a glare. "is that sure, the guys at this school are a bunch of idiots with egos so big they can barely fit through the door, but maybe you should try and use that to your advantage."

Aliyah grinned. "Sapphire is so right, Sky. You should totally do that."

"What I think I should totally do is go wash my—"

"Hey, Al."

My words fell dry in my mouth hearing the voice behind me. If I could face palm myself without looking like a complete loon, I would have. To make things worse, Oliver decided to plant himself down right next to me opposed from my best friend and Sapphire opposite of me.

God help me.

"Hey, Oli." Sapphire greeted with a laugh that lacked any emotion. "I'm here too."

Poor thing. I knew what it was like to be in the shadow of Aliyah.

"Al, why didn't you ever introduce me to your beautiful friend?"

Aliyah leaned across the table and took my hand in hers with a grin. "Oh, you know, she doesn't date guys in high school. Thinks your all immature."

Oh God, did she just say that?

"Oh yeah?" Oliver somehow managed to spin her words around and take it as a compliment. "I'll have you know I am not immature."

Bracing myself, I finally turned my head a fraction and nearly laughed in his face. He was wearing a tight black shirt that read BROMIE, a garden gnome perched on top of the bold white words with its small arms crossed over its chest and a hat askew on its head. It was quite possibly the dumbest shirt I'd ever seen and only proved my point. Unfortunately, my teenage girl eyes drifted up from the shirt and lingered on his wet hair for a second too long, which brought amusement to his  beautiful eyes.

"Your shirt says otherwise." Sapphire answered for me, clearly still irritated for his ignorance of her presence. "Totally immature."

Oliver's smile wavered momentarily as he lifted his head and looked toward her on the other side of the table. She shrank into herself a little, nudging Aliyah so she'd spark up conversation. My heart clenched a little for her and luckily brought me back to reality. "She's right. You don't get to say your mature wearing a shirt like that, my friend."

Clearly amused by the insult, he smirked. "How about you tell me how immature I am at my back-to-school party tonight?"

Who the hell throws a party on a Monday night?

"Yeah, I'm good." I started to turn back to my food, but he caught my arm and nearly caught a punch to the face. I jerked away, the sudden movement harmless to most, but had my heart racing in seconds. "Sorry, I just. . . please don't touch me."

Aliyah eyed me strangely, and to keep her and Sapphire from questioning further, I turned back to Oliver. "Sure, yeah, we'll be there."

"Really?" Ally and Oliver said in unison, my best friend's voice raising an octave. She was definitely shocked.

"Yes, really." I blinked a few times, hoping that my mini-freak out would soon be forgotten by the trio surrounding me. "Now, if possible, I'd like to finish this pudding cup before the next bell."

*

Aliyah texted me through the next three periods and I could feel her excitement through the phone. It made the very faintest of a smile touch at my lips. She really was happy about all of this, I hadn't seen her this excited since before her parents divorce. If not for myself, I'd keep doing this for a few weeks just to please her and make her happy.

"I'm so sorry!" I didn't even have a chance to glance up from my phone before running into a hard shoulder on my way out of the school. I'd been so busy trying to text Aliyah back that I hadn't even bothered to take in my surroundings. It was so unlike me that I felt my cheeks flush completely. My phone dropped from my hands, but a warm, calloused hand caught my forearm before I could join it on the concrete. My eyes widened and flickered up at the touch, a little relieved to find it wasn't Oliver, but somehow a whole new fear awakening when I met bottomless brown eyes I'd never been this close to get a good look at.

"Be careful." Jace's voice was quiet,  the slightest of an accent laced through it. "Oh, hey, you're the new girl, right?"

I blinked, feeling my eye doing that stupid twitchy thing again because of the eyelash. Unlike my joking tone with Oliver, I couldn't find my own voice. Maybe it was because my brother Simon was so very much like Oliver and his arrogant self I'd felt more at ease. Or maybe it was because I was so exhausted from an entire day of pretending that being around one of the few people in this school who were themselves made me feel like a complete idiot.

"Not new." I finally managed to whisper. "I've gone to school with you since sixth grade."

The smallest of a smile appeared as he reached a tan hand to his jaw, rubbing at imaginary stubble. "Nah, I don't think so. I would have remembered someone as beautiful as you in my classes."

"We had Mr. Harper in seventh grade science. You threw a dissected frog at one of the girls for calling me a name." I could feel myself starting to relax at the memory. "You said your mom raised you to stand up for girls regardless of who they are when I thanked you later that day."

Realization dawned on his face, drawing his thick, dark brows in. "No way that was you. The girl with the mess of tangles and braces? Damn."

"Yep. That was yours truly." I gestured toward myself. "I better get going though, Jace. Sorry for running into you. Maybe if I didn't have these monstrosities on my face I'd be able to see better."

The joke did its job and a full smile shot across his full lips. "Yeah, you definitely look like you're struggling with them."

I laughed quietly and started toward the parking lot for Aliyah's car, but Mateo called out behind me. "What's your name, hermosa?"

I threw a look over my shoulder at that. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

Without another word, I tore the damn eyelash from my eye before it could spasm again and mourned the real lashes that had come off with it before slipping into my best friend's Corvette.