Chapter 1

It started when we (Nina and I) were down by the shore of Lake Northbound. (For those of you who don’t know, Nina and I attend Northbound Academy for Exceptional Girls. It’s a boarding school for girls. We’re tenth graders.) We were lying on a blanket, the sun warming us with its rays and the water silent save the occasional fish jumping out.

            We were napping, which didn’t happen often. I knew something was wrong when I was awakened by yells. I looked up and saw Lily Walker running towards me and my best friend. “Nina Scott! Katelyn Windsor!” Lily was the highest ranking tenth grader, and that confirmed my suspicions that something was wrong.

            I shook Nina, but she didn’t wake up. So I grabbed one of the buckets we had brought down with us. I filled it with water, and splashed her. She woke up soaking wet, but didn’t have time to be angry. Lily had already reached us, but wasn’t out of breath after running a mile. She was the best runner in our grade. We stood up and looked examined her face. It was a look of terror, intrigue, excitement and wonder.

“Lily?” we chorused.

“They’re here!” Lily trilled, her voice wavering.

I’m sure we would have dropped anything we held, except we weren’t holding anything. I folded up the blanket, and Nina grabbed the buckets. Us three ran back to the school, our ribboned hair fluttering in our faces.

“I thought they weren’t arriving for another month?!” I yelled to Lily as we channeled our fore-mothers and ran so fast that it felt like we were blurring.

“They surprised some eighth-grade sisters who were changing after A&D!” she shouted back as she ran off-trail. We followed her, knowing it was a shortcut. A&D was what we called Attack and Defense, our exercise class.

You could hear the shock in Nina’s voice as she yelled, “What are we supposed to do?!”

“Give them a tour.” Lily said as we stopped at the Grand Doors, the entrance to Northbound. We confidently walked up the steps and through the open doors. We were stopped when we heard a voice say, “Hey Kate.”

            I was nervous, but slowly turned around. I plastered on my best fake smile, and wished I would have had time to change into the red strapless that I bought for the occasion. I saw a gorgeous boy with blond hair and the softest blue eyes. I didn’t know him, but I knew how he knew me. I was, sadly, one of the most famous tenth-graders at Northbound.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“Riley Patterson,” he said cheerfully, as he walked through the doors to the Great Hall. It was almost time.

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            Nina and I arrived at our room, and hurried inside. I was glad that Jasmyna ‘Myna’ Spencer, our other friend and roommate, was such a good listener. She had already found out about the boys by some undisclosed means. I desperately needed her help. I slipped into my red strapless gown, and then headed into the bathroom. Myna helped me with the makeup, and curled my hair. I looked in the mirror and saw a girl who was getting ready for prom, not Kate Windsor getting ready to meet her worst nightmare.

            When we were ready, we were really ready! Myna’s bronze hair and crisp green eyes were complimented by her choice of a silk sky-blue dress, and Nina’s gorgeous blond hair and brown eyes were played up by her pale pink gown. Next to them, I felt ugly. My hair was a deep black and my eyes were an intense gray. I felt so plain.

            In our beautiful high-heels, we descended the staircase as gracefully as we could and walked into the Great Hall. We sat at the already-populated tenth grade table, which was really many long tables put together. The headmistress, Lady Ilene S’vitchatlo Dakrus-Dikniine, welcomed everyone back to school and then she sat down.

            We were three of the four dressed-up students in the Great Hall. Everyone looked at us strangely but we just sat gracefully, waiting for them to come in. The creak of the Great Doors could be heard over the din of dinner chatter. Everyone went silent, and turned to look at the magnificence that had graced our school with its presence.

            There are about five hundred girls at our school. And now at least four hundred boys had just secured our hearts. I’m sure they wouldn’t be released anytime soon, because the boys wouldn’t be leaving anytime soon. Everyone had known the boys from Southbound were coming, but they had arrived sooner than expected. Now everyone knew why we were dressed up. I saw Riley. He winked at me and gave me a mischievous smile, then returned to talking to a brown-haired boy who I only noticed later had murky blue eyes.

            Myna swooned immediately over Riley’s friend, and I knew that I’d have to find out about him. I owed Myna that much, after all she’d done for me. When dinner was over, we had a dance. Well actually, everyone went to change into formal attire. Me, Nina, Myna and Lily were already dressed so we hung decorations.

            Then we fixed each others’ hair, and still had time before anyone appeared. I was starting to become better friends with Lily, and I was glad. I contemplated this as I watched Nina dance with a brown-haired boy with bright green eyes, close to the color of Myna’s eyes.

            I was glad she was enjoying herself, and mused that I was happy since my friends were. I saw Myna near Riley’s friend, and instantly wondered what she would do to make him notice her. I looked to see if anyone else I knew was dancing, so I didn’t notice when someone put their hands over my eyes.

“Guess who?” a male voice asked teasingly.

“Riley?” I replied tentatively.

He instantly pulled his hands away from my eyes, and grabbed the chair next to me. I captured his image, and wondered how he wasn’t surrounded by girls. He had looked nice before, but he was now utterly oozing hotness! I almost drooled.

            “What are you doing over here?” I asked as I quickly changed my gaze to Nina, who was getting ready to dance with another guy.

            He shrugged. “I had to escape some girls that were following me.”

I slyly looked behind him and saw a pack of girls making a beeline towards where I sat. I didn’t say anything, wondering how Riley would handle it.

            He handled it quite well, actually. The leader of the pack, when it arrived, bravely stepped up to him and said, “Hi Riley!”

            He looked up at her with those gorgeous eyes and uttered a polite “Hello,” before returning his gaze to me. I pretended not to notice, and instead pretended to be engaged in some other activity. The Pack Leader returned to her pack, giggled and returned super-quickly. She was blushing.

            “Riley! Come dance with us!” the Pack Leader chirped as she grabbed Riley’s arm and tried to pull him off of his chair.

            “No thanks.” he drawled politely, “I already promised Kate that I’d dance with her.”

            The Pack Leader pouted, and I spun my head to look at him. “No, you didn’t!” I told him, utterly confused but wishing he had. The Pack Leader smiled happily.

            Riley’s foot gently kicked my leg, not enough force behind it to bruise, but just enough that it stung. I had been attending Northbound long enough that I had no experience with boys, but I had long ago been taught that signal by Myna and Nina. It meant that I was supposed to pretend.

            “That’s right! You did!” I smiled a big grin. The Pack Leader pouted again.

“Sorry,” Riley drawled, ever the gentleman.

            The Pack Leader pouted some more, and returned to her pack.

“Finally!” Riley sighed, and he leaned on his chair. Then, with a look of remembrance, he stood up. He held his out to me and asked, “Would you care to dance?”

            I smiled and accepted his hand. “Sure!”

We walked onto the polished dance floor, and of course, the song changed to one of those embarrassing slow songs. He put his right hand on my waist and grabbed my right hand with his left hand. I nervously put my left hand on his shoulder. We started out slowly, slightly shuffling our feet. Then the beat picked up, and we were twirling and twirling and twirling.

            Later I found out that people had moved off the dance floor to watch Riley and I dance. But my attention was held by Riley, who was gazing down at me. I was snapped out of my trance by Headmistress Dakrus-Dikniine, who had stepped up to the microphone.

            “Now that you have all gotten to know each other, a little of you have gotten to know each other TOO well,” remarked the Headmistress and Connie DiCamillo blushed, “It is time to say good-night. Classes will start at 9:00 sharp. And yes, Emily Hatchett, the boys will be joining in the classes. No, Juniper Lee, you may not wear anything other than the approved school uniform.”

            Juniper Lee, a tall and popular ninth grader with long black hair (that she streaked with pink and blue and purple dye) and big hazel eyes, blushed as all the girls that knew who she was (everyone except the fifth graders) looked at her. I can only imagine what she would have asked. Juniper and Emily had raised their hands, probably to ask questions not related to the Headmistress’ answers. It’s a popular rumor that Lady Ilene is psychic.

            Students trickled out of the Hall slowly. The girls went up the Grand Staircase to our rooms and the boys went to some undisclosed location.