Chapter 1

A group of friends must choose a side when the evil leader of their group, Mandy, pulls a vicious prank on an innocent girl over a guy.

At Clearwood High School, all of our main characters; ALI WARNER, ABBY WILCOX, BRITTNEY HOWARD, CODA WAYNE, ANTHONY BISHOP, BELLA CURTIS, GARY KEMPER, and REY MORGAN (all 17) are at an after school function. This takes place at the school swimming pool. Also attending is the rich and popular, MANDY MCGUIRE (18), who is friends with Bella and Brittney. Mandy is clearly the leader of the three.

While Mandy accepts Abby and Rey, who are beautiful but not popular, she despises Ali, who has her own beauty but not to the level of the “model, rich, and popular” look. She is not the type that popular girls like Mandy would hang out with. However, Abby and Bella are friends with Ali. She reminds them of an older version of Nancy Carter, who is Abby’s second cousin’s niece from her husband’s family. What makes this situation worse is that both Mandy and Ali like the same guy; Anthony Bishop.

Anthony is tall at six-foot-two, muscular, and has a mixture of looks of both a pretty boy and a hard-tough face. He's got the looks that any woman would want in a man. Throughout the entire day, Mandy tried to get Anthony's attention, but he showed no interest in her. Ali, on the other hand, got all of his attention. This really angered Mandy. Now, here at the pool, Mandy is wearing a sexy two piece bathing suit, while Ali is wearing a full piece bathing suit, looking more modest than the other girls. Yet Anthony appears to have eyes for her rather than Mandy.

While discussing the situation with Bella and Brittney, Bella tells Mandy that Anthony probably doesn't like her bitchy attitude and, therefore, doesn't like her. Mandy tells her that everyone loves her even if she has a bitchy attitude. She claims that is her charm. Mandy notices that Ali refuses to go into the water. As Bella walks off to go talk to Abby, Mandy coaxes Brittney into telling her the reason why Ali refuses to go into the water. Brittney tells her that Ali cannot swim and almost drowned as a child. This puts an idea in Mandy's head. She pulls her friend, Will Bailey, aside and tells him of a plan that she has.

Sometime later, Mandy gets all of the girls together; Ali, Abby, Bella, Brittney, and Rey. She tells them that she's going to play a game with them. She puts a blindfold on Will and tells them that whichever girl is touched by Will gets to throw him in the pool. The girls find this a stupid game but goes along with it anyways. With Will blindfolded, although he can really see, he slowly walks back and forth between the girls. Eventually, he stops and touches Ali, who then grabs him and goes to throw him. But in a surprising twist, Will spins her around and throws her in the pool.

Mandy and Will laugh at Ali. The others are terrified, especially Brittney, who realizes that she caused this. Anthony attempts to run over to help Ali. Will turns to two of his male friends, nodding at them. The two friends approach Anthony, preventing him from saving Ali. Ali goes down underwater. Everyone else panics. Suddenly, a mysterious person jumps into the water. Ali has plunged down to the bottom, losing consciousness. The mysterious person, a large male with muscles, dives down and grabs her. The man brings her up to the surface.

Ali is brought out of the pool by the man. He is Alex Wisher, the swimming teacher and the head coach's assistant for the football team. Wisher places Ali on the ground and performs CPR on her. Ali regains consciousness and coughs up water. Wisher asks her if she's okay. She turns to him and stares into his eyes. He's her hero...and now the object of her affection. She tells him that she's okay. Abby, Anthony, Bella, and Brittney run up to her. They check up on her and find that she is okay. Anthony notices the looks that she's giving Wisher, which makes him somewhat jealous.

Brittney apologizes to Ali, telling her that she was coaxed by Mandy to telling her about her fear of water. Ali forgives her. Brittney, with the support of Abby and Bella, denounces Mandy as a friend. Anthony tells Mandy that he has no interest in her after this. This angers Mandy. She calls them losers who she doesn't need in her life. But she finds that she's alone. Only Will shows interest in staying by her side.

Abby and Bella are giving Ali a ride home. They apologize to her for the way Mandy treats her. Ali asks them why they're friends with her. They tell her that they're not anymore. Bella tells her that she wants Ali to hang out with them tomorrow to show the rest of the school that they don't need Mandy or anyone "popular" to be cool or to belong in the "cool crowd." Ali smiles and says that she'd like that. Abby and Bella drop her off, hugging her, and telling her that they love her, which makes Ali feel better. Ali goes inside her house.