If it was a normal high school in a quiet small town in the middle of any upper class area, the arrival of three new students would have been some big news. But in a large high school of over a thousand students, in the middle of a crime ridden and economically depressed city, the arrival was far from buzz-worthy. Even the school's central gossip queen, Brittany Miller, couldn't care less and hadn't even heard of the arrival until third period. But the non-stop chatter and constant note-passing from her had taken a back seat to her new interest—herself.

Her friends had noticed with some exasperation that she seemed to be spending a lot of time powdering her nose in her compact, or at least that was what it looked like to them. Rather, she was lost in thought about an event that had taken place not more than a week ago. This one instance had her considering her mental wellbeing quite furiously and each missing article in the newspapers or lack of story on the evening news just seemed to cement the idea into her head that she was simply going crazy.

"Brittany," Eleanor whispered to her, tapping her eldest sister on the shoulder. "Brittany," Eleanor hissed again, tapping a little harder. With quick movements, Brittany snapped her compact shut, sat up straighter, wide blue eyes looking forward at the white board. Once realizing she wasn't in trouble by the teacher, she slumped her shoulders forward a bit and turned to glare at her youngest little sister who was sitting behind her.

"What?" Brittany hissed back at her.

"Have you figured out what to do yet?" Eleanor continued in the same hushed whisper, glancing at the teacher nervously.

"About what?"

Eleanor blinked a moment, taken aback. It wasn't the first time that Brittany snapped at her, but she was surprised that her eldest had forgotten the problem so quickly. Eleanor knew that Brittany had been acting a little strangely since she had gotten home from her secret-then-but-not-so-secret-now date last weekend, but she didn't think that Brittany would forget something so important.

After a few more moments of silence and a quick angel act for the teacher, who turned to face his classroom of disinterested students, Brittany turned around and hissed a reply. "I'm working on it! We still have plenty of time."

Eleanor rolled her eyes and placed them on the clock on the wall. Fifteen more minutes until the end of third period and the start of fourth. She sighed and looked at the high, auburn pony tail that Brittany liked to wear. Her pink designer top almost hide the fading bruise on Brittany's back, but not quite. Shaking her head slowly, Eleanor knew that the bruise was the reason that they were in their particular trouble now.

It didn't hurt anymore and Brittany had to keep reminding herself that it was still there. But it was plenty of evidence for Ms. Miller, the girl's adoptive parent, to know that Brittany had broken the rules and ended up in a dangerous situation. Well, that bruise and the fact that Brittany was escorted home by the cops. What started as simple teenage rebellion and a quick date with one of the hottest guys in school turned into a near rape and a strange truth that only Brittany knew and kept doubting herself about.

Darren Watkins had asked Brittany out on a date. Disregarding the old rule that all three girls had to go out together and only during the day, Brittany had snuck out of the house. The date went well and was much more innocent than what anyone in the school had begun to gossip about on Monday, thanks to Darren. On her way home, however, Brittany was jumped by a gang of drop-outs. Of course, being Brittany Miller, she fought back, but one girl is no match for five guys. Just when she felt that all hope was lost, things became…interesting.

A hit to the head and the trauma of the situation was enough for anyone to start to imagine things in a better light. Perhaps it was her imagination. Perhaps she was just weak, and couldn't stand to bare the truth that she had lost something she would never have again. Or perhaps, just perhaps, it really happened. A guy in a full face black motorcycle helmet had jumped into the fray, kicked the living crap out of the gang, helped her to the nearest store, and then left without saying a word.

Or perhaps she was just crazy.

Once again, Brittany stared blankly into her compact mirror that had somehow came back into her hand. There was no way some random guy was going around, saving women in their time of need. And it seemed as if no one else knew about it or even heard about anything like it since there were no other signs of this wackos existence. She thought to what her other sister, Jeanette, would say about strange situations. Brittany furrowed her eyebrows as she tried to remember. It was something like the simplest answer is usually the right one. 'Well,' she thought, 'what is more likely? Being…raped…or being saved by a masked man?' Brittany sighed.

The bell went off and all the students began to scurry out of the classroom as quickly as they could. Brittany caught on and began to put her pink pen and compact away into her purse, gathered her notebook into her arm and stood up. She glanced to see Eleanor staring at her. "What?" Brittany snapped.

Eleanor shrugged and the two left the classroom to head to their lockers. Once books were exchanged and doors were shut, Eleanor reached out and stopped Brittany from walking away. "I don't see you for the rest of the day. Seriously, what's the plan?"

Brittany rolled her eyes. "We fly," she muttered sarcastically, directing her eyes down the hall and away from her sister.

"Brittany," Eleanor persisted.

With a haughty sigh in frustration, Brittany flipped her pony tail back over her shoulder, shrugged and looked directly into Eleanor's eyes. "What do you think? Jeanette is sick and can't come to school. So she obviously won't be going to the dance. We can't go unless Jeanette comes with us, and Ms. Miller has been more Nazi about the rules than ever before. So I don't know, okay!?"

Eleanor looked like she was about to reply when she was interrupted. "Brittany!" a voice cried. Both girls looked to find a petite, popular blonde running down the hall, dodging students and ignoring the shouts from teachers. "Oh my God, Britt, you've gotta see them!" She cried out as she got closer.

"See who?" Brittany spoke nonchalantly, pulling out a nail file.

The blonde bounced once, her long hair swaying with her movements and she glanced up at the ceiling with a large grin on her face. "The new guys, duh! One is totally fine with a capital 'F'."

"Well, excuse me and my excitement, but I think I'll pass," Eleanor muttered to herself. Brittany glared at Eleanor for her rude behavior and reminded herself to talk with Eleanor about her attitude towards most of the male students. She was never going to get a date that way, no matter how good she was at sports.

"More for us, then," the blonde muttered back. "Look, I just had class with them and they are coming this way!" she spewed out, turning her eyes back the way she had come from and indicating with her head.

Brittany followed the direction with her eyes, as well as Eleanor, who was now showing her curiosity. Coming up the hallway, walking around the other students, and obviously into their own conversation with each other, were the three new students. One was shorter than the other two with blond hair in a cute, boyish hairstyle wearing a green tee-shirt, faded blue jeans, and blue sneakers. The tallest of the three had dark brown, shaggy hair, glasses, a blue hoodie, dark blue jeans, and red sneakers. The third of the group was the one that definitely caught Brittany's attention and who she automatically knew was the one labeled as 'fine'. He had light brown hair gelled up into spikes, a white tee-shirt with a red button-up over it, acid wash jeans and green sneakers. He had a mischievous smile on his face as he walked in the center of the other two.

"Alvin, Simon, and Theodore. They're in my third period with me and they're brothers—triplets. Just like you and your sisters!"

Brittany was still watching the three as they came nearer to her. Mr. Fine was taking brief moments to wink or smile a very charming smile at passing girls while Mr. Glasses obviously rolled his eyes and Mr. Shorty simply tried to keep up on their conversation, but seemed like he was either going to throw a fit at Mr. Fine or just give up at any moment.

"So," Eleanor breathed out quietly. She looked at the popular blonde and leaned in to speak since the boys were getting closer. "Which one is which?"

The blonde turned towards Eleanor and smirked. "Wouldn't you like to know," she sneered, still not over Eleanor's earlier behavior.

"Tell us, Madison." Brittany shook her head to get herself back into her own attitude. There was no way she would have admitted to wanting to watch Mr. Fine all day, let alone that she felt an instant attraction. The boys passed by them, Glasses almost stumbling a little as Fine leaned over to give Brittany a wink and smile before continuing on.

"The tall nerd is Simon. Believe me, the guy just screams nerd when he opens his mouth. Luckily he didn't do it too often. The shortest one is Theodore. Totally cute and very friendly. I think he's friends with just about everyone he's met so far. The other one," Madison paused to look Brittany in the eye, "is Alvin. Flirted with me the entire period."

Brittany straightened up and stared blankly at her friend. It was just like the little blonde to boast about something like that. She had yet to learn to be subtle in her flirting and not to try and one-up Brittany Miller when it came to boys. Not only was Brittany the most known gossip queen in the entire school, knowing every little piece of dirt to know, she was also the one who got the guy. That is, if she wanted him.

"Maddy, I'm worried that you'll get into trouble like you always do with guys like that. Doesn't look that special to me. Looks like trouble instead." Brittany continued to file her nails, muttering to herself to show how uncaring about the boys she could be.

"Who looks like trouble?"

Brittany, Eleanor, and Madison quickly turned to see a tall girl with glasses, chocolate brown hair pulled into a very messy bun, baggy purple sweater and blue skirt standing behind them. She looked miserable with puffy eyes, red nose, and flushed face. The girl was very sick and probably should have stayed home. "Jeanette!?" Brittany and Eleanor exclaimed. Jeanette nodded, pulling out a tissue and blowing her nose a little. Madison sneered and mumbled a goodbye before running off.

The girls stared after Madison before making their own way to their next classes or, for Jeanette, her first. "What are you doing here? You're sick!" Eleanor exclaimed.

"I know," Jeanette gave a weak smile and spoke in a small but very congested voice. "But an absence from school today means I can't go to the dance tonight." She blew her nose again and looked at her sisters in turn. "I know you girls want to go."

"Oh, Jeanette!" Brittany smiled, giving her little sister a quick hug before pulling away to see who out of the school saw her show her nerdy sister some affection. "You are the best."

Jeanette was about to say something else when Eleanor put her arm out to stop her sisters. There, ahead of them at a hallway intersection, were the boys. Jeanette looked to her sisters in confusion as the other two simply looked intensely.

The boys were talking hurriedly with each other before waving goodbyes. It looked like Alvin was heading towards the gym, Theodore to the science wing, and Simon was coming back down the hallway towards the girls with quick steps. Jeanette watched the new boy come towards her and her sisters, suddenly not hearing any of the noise in the hall but very aware of her increasing heartbeat, nervous flutter in her stomach, and very light breathing. She kept her watery green eyes on him as he passed. And, what surprised her the most, was that his eyes seemed to connect with hers for a few seconds, enough for him to have to look over his shoulder at her.

"Who was that?" Jeanette muttered after losing sight of him, getting her heartbeat under control and becoming aware that her sisters were trying to get her attention.

"One of the new boys," Eleanor smiled at her.

"He has very pretty eyes," Jeanette mumbled.

"And they say that he," Brittany said pointing in the direction that Simon went, "is a nerd. C'mon, we're going to be late."

Eleanor began to follow Brittany until she had to split off towards her own classroom, while Jeanette slowly made her way, still looking back. She couldn't believe she had become that interested in a boy that quickly. When the late bell rang, Jeanette gasped and began to run to her class.