CHAPTER 1- YOUR NEW "BUDDY"

A/N: I RAGED ALL LAST NIGHT. WHAT WAS THAT EPISODE. SO MANY THINGS WRONG. FOR STARTERS THERE WAS HARDLY ANY CHALEK. BUT REALLY I WANTED TO HIT BRIAN AND YELL AT CHLOE THAT SHE'S DUMB AND ALEK IS BEING SILLY AND ALSO BRIAN IS REALLY DUMB.

On a more happy note, I've had this little plot bunny jumping on me whenever I try to sleep, so I figured I'd try it out. Please forgive any typing errors, as this entire thing was written on my phone... and at 3 AM haha. Read and review please! love you all =)

Beep. Beep! BEEP! BEE- CRASH!

"Shit!"

Chloe King shot up in bed. She regarded her broken alarm clock with a frown, then gingerly slid out of bed. She gathered all the little pieces of her poor clock and set them on her dresser, making a mental note to get another one later that night.

She threw open her curtains, expecting warm sunshine. Unfortunately, she was greeted only by a grey-blue sky and a few straggling stars that fought to compete against the slowly rising sun. Chloe sighed. Right. It was five-thirty AM, on the first day of school. Her summer was over, and freshman year was starting. Chloe King was officially a high schooler. It was time to get ready.

A full hour and a half later, Chloe bounded down the stairs. She wore white shorts and a navy flutter-sleeve blouse that had white stitching around the neck and sleeves, paired with gold gladiator sandals and a long strand of thin pearls knotted around her neck. Gold hearts dangled from her ears, and she toyed with her thin gold charm bracelet as she slid past her living room and into the kitchen.

"Hi, Mom!" Chloe said brightly, bouncing over to her seat at the table.

Chloe's mom, Meredith King, smiled at her daughter. "Hey," she replied. "I made eggs!" she added proudly, gesturing at the plate in front of Chloe.

Chloe raised an eyebrow. "And bad-news bacon," she said slowly. "On the first day of school? Really mom?"

Meredith nodded and smoothed her daughter's hair. "Oh, but note that it's only two pieces of bad-news bacon!"

Suspiciously, Chloe picked up a single piece of bacon and crunched into it. She regarded her mom wearily as she chewed, waiting.

"You got picked to be a guide for a new student," Meredith blurted.

"What? But Mom!" Chloe blurted. She paused, collecting herself. "How can I be expected to guide someone around a school I've never been to myself? Shouldn't they ask like, upperclassmen?"

Meredith shrugged. "You can figure out the school together, I suppose?"

Chloe sighed, pushing her eggs around her plate with her fork. They were still liquid in the middle. Yuck. "Didn't announcements for this go out like, three weeks ago?"

Meredith shyly pulled a big envelope out of her bag. "Ah, two weeks ago, actually," she said apologetically. "I forgot to show you."

Chloe grimaced and accepted the envelope, opening it and pulling out a small stack of papers. The paper was thick, white, and heavy. Her high school's crest sparkled in gold ink at the top. She scanned a quick summary of her new "buddy", as the school called it. Chloe wished she had more time to memorize the information, but she barely had time to glance at it. She picked up her juice, deciding to read as she ate.

"Shoot," she said, frowning as a drop of orange juice spilled from the edge of the glass. A few more drops landed on her papers, and she cursed as she used her napkin to dab at them.

A car horn honked outside, and Chloe yelped. She crunched down the rest of her bacon, took a big gulp of her orange juice, and ran out the door, folder still in hand.

"Bye, Mom!" Chloe called, then slammed the door shut.

Amy smiled up at her friend from the front passenger seat. "Hey, Chlo. Get in. We're already a little late, thanks to Paul here..."

Both girls glanced at Paul, who sat in the back, sheepishly running a hand over his super-gel-smothered hair. "Hey, a guy's gotta be ready! High school, man." Paul exhaled sharply. "We're high school kids now!" He gave both girls a wide, excited smile before he ran his hand over his hair again.

Chloe laughed and shook her head, smiling at Paul's enthusiasm as she slid in to the car, taking the seat next to him. Amy turned around, regarding Chloe's outfit with a smile.

"You look cute," Amy said brightly. She twisted her silver bracelet, which was the same as Chloe's gold one, around her wrist as she smiled at her best friend. "No sweats. Does this mean you're finally going to boy-hunt with me?" She clasped her hands, her heavily mascaraed eyes looking hopeful and excited.

Chloe laughed and shook her head, gathering her curls into a ponytail and securing them with a plain black elastic. "No," she said. Amy's face fell. "Just trying to look like a better wingwoman," she teased, smoothing out her cotton blouse and smiling at Amy.

Amy nodded. "Good, because I totally want a boyfriend this year," she said firmly, sitting back in her seat with a small smirk. "High school boys are so much more mature. I'm totally only dating older guys."

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that," Amy's dad chided with a laugh, speeding up just a little.

We all laughed. Amy stuck her tongue out at her dad. A few moments of silence passed, interrupted occasionally by Amy's squeals about a song on the radio or a cute boy walking outside the car.

"Ooh, that one's nice!" Amy gasped, tapping her window. Paul rolled his eyes, seemingly regretting agreeing to carpool with two girls, even if they were his best friends. "Chlo, look. He's totally gorgeous."

Chloe glanced up obligingly, noting the boy that Amy was talking about. Tall, blonde, brown eyes. About the same age, or maybe a little older than them. He walked with his head down, completely ignoring the brunette girl next to him who was watching him like she thought he might bolt.

Chloe rolled her eyes. "Amy, he's a total poser," she said.

Amy gasped as though personally offended. "And how do you know that? You just glanced at him! We haven't even talked to him yet!"

Chloe grimaced at the word "yet", but ignored it. She sighed, playing with one of the tiny white buttons that went down the front of her blouse. "Simple, Amy. You can't be blonde and really sulk that much. Particularly not on a warm day in the city. Peppy blondes are a stereotype for a reason."

Amy giggled but pouted for the next minute. Chloe used the moment of silence to read the letter about her new "buddy". It was a guy, although she'd spilled juice on his name and couldn't read that part. But he was 15, a freshman like her, and would supposedly be identified by a name tag. Chloe dug around in the envelope and pulled out her own name tag, reading it with a grimace.

Hi, I'm Chloe King!

Your New Buddy

Oh, geez. It was embarrassing to say the least. She stuck it regretfully to her leg, just below the hem of her shorts, knowing that she didn't want to get glue on her new outfit. Then she stuffed the papers back in the envelope, still frowning at the cheesy name tag.

She went to put her letter in her bag, then gasped. "Oh! I almost forgot!" Chloe tugged her backpack onto her lap and dug a plastic baggie full of brightly colored Sharpies out of the front pouch. "Here, sign my bag! I got it in white so I can have all of our new friends sign it. I figured my two best friends should sign it first, though."

Amy turned around and squealed her approval. "Gimme gimme!" she cried, reaching out for the bag. "I know what I wanna draw!"

Amy set to work, a happy smile on her face. When she was finally done, she handed it to Paul. As he sketched, Chloe looked out the window. Her thoughts drifted back to the blonde boy and his brunette friend. Who were they? They had both looked to be around Chloe's age, or maybe a little older. And poser or not, Chloe had to admit that Amy was right- the blonde boy had been cute. Really cute.

"Aaand we're here!" Amy's dad announced. He quickly hugged Amy. "Have a good first day, Ames. You'll kill 'em!" Then he turned around, smiling at Paul and Chloe. Paul grinned and said goodbye as he handed Chloe's backpack back to her. "Bye, kiddos. I know you'll be good. Keep an eye on Amy, won't you?" he joked.

"Yes, sir!" Chloe joked back, smiling as she absently stuffed her letter in her backpack and then sliding out of the car. "Thanks for the ride!" she added, then closed the door.

"351... 352...353! Middle locker, yes!" Chloe cried, reaching for the door of her new locker with a smile. Immediately after opening it, she inspected the inside. It was darker, dustier, and smaller than teen rom-coms had led her to believe a high school locker would be, but whatever. It was hers. She immediately set to work taping up a bright blue piece of paper (cut last weekend to fit perfectly inside the door; Amy had made one in hot pink) and then placing a magnetic mirror in the middle. Using pretty magnets, Chloe put up pictures around the mirror. Her favorite was a strip of pictures from a carnival photo booth- she and Amy wore identical goofy smiles, and Paul stood in between them, wearing giant sunglasses and sticking out his tongue. Matching blue metal shelves went inside her locker, which was immediately filled with textbooks and notebooks. She took a step back and smiled at her work, then removed a single black Expo marker from her backpack and wrote "Happy First Day Of School!" across the top of her mirror. Perfect.

As she zipped up her bag, she admired the bright, multiple-colored star that Amy had drawn around the words "A&C, BEST FRIENDS FOREVER!" on the front pocket. Paul had sketched some cheesy superhero across the top of her bag, complete with a supersized smile and a dramatic cape. Even as she smiled down at her bag, Chloe couldn't help but worry that high school would be the same as middle school, and no more signatures would be added to her bag. It would be the just three of them, just as it always had been. There would be no invites to parties, no silly antics at school events, no fun. The very idea of spending another year in obscurity made her feel panicky- there was nothing wrong with Amy and Paul, of course, but sometimes she wanted to do something stupid. And unfortunately, all three of them were too well-behaved to let the others do anything truly stupid. She gripped her locker door, staring at her own panicked eyes in the tiny mirror.

But then she tossed her hair and forced herself to smile. She took a deep breath. This year would be different, Chloe promised herself. This year would be the year she opened up, the year she let herself have fun. Glancing around to see if anyone had noticed her mini-freak out, she caught some guy checking her out. A vague alarm went off in her head, remembering him as the fakely sulky blonde that Amy had liked. Feeling a sudden rush of confidence, she raised an eyebrow at the guy and smiled before turning back to her locker. It would be okay. This year would be more than okay, actually. She was free to do whatever she wanted.

Well, except today. Today she had to go meet her new "buddy". Casting a glance at her cell phone to check the time, she realized she had to go. Her letter had told her that "buddies" were meeting at eight near the flag pole out front. So she slammed her locker shut and walked away, promising herself that she'd start doing what she wanted for once instead of what people asked her to do.

Right after she met her "buddy".

Alek Petrov walked past a girl in the hall and almost froze. Something about her caught his attention. She stood at her locker, a book balanced on her slim hip while she used one hand to pin up photos in her locker. Her eyes sparkled and her skin had a subtle glow that he would've assumed was totally natural, if not for all his female cousins, who had taught him that it was just Urban Decay pearl powder. She was effortlessly pretty, as his cousin Jasmine would have been quick to point out. She had one color of shimmery eyeshadow on, not four, and her skin looked naturally pink and pretty. Alek could smell her sweet vanilla perfume from across the hall. It was sort of intoxicating.

He gathered all of this from a single glance and was about to turn away. But right before he did, the girl glanced up and around. Her eyes fell on him, and she seemed to know he had checked her out. He blushed a little as she raised an eyebrow and tossed him a half-smile before burying herself in her locker.

Ah, great. Five minutes in and already he'd embarrassed himself. Well, whatever. She was one girl in a school of hundreds. He probably wouldn't ever see her again. Not a big deal. Alek shook his head and continued on his way, continuing his search for his locker and trying to forget the girl.

But of course, it didn't work out that way. Nope, after circling the school for a solid fifteen minutes, it turned out his locker was right across the hallway from hers. Go figure. In all honesty, though, if she hadn't caught him looking he wouldn't have minded it. She was cute, and he now had an excuse to be near her every day for the rest of the year.

But the fact was, he had been caught. And even worse, he hadn't gone up and introduced himself, or even made a joke like he normally would. No, he had blushed and looked away. What was that? Instead of being more confident like he'd sworn he would the whole plane ride to America, he had let himself slip back into his old way of being shy and quiet. He had come off as a stalker. Great. And now he would spend every day looking at the girl who he had accidentally stalked, and she would probably never look at him with anything but annoyance.

First five minutes in, and America already sucked just as bad as London had.

Chloe sat on a low brick wall, quietly waiting. A bunch of other "Guide Buddies" had already shown up, along with the overly peppy class president, who handed out maps to be given to the "New Buddies" and tried unsuccessfully to start a round of the school cheer. It was way too much pep for Chloe at eight AM on a Monday morning.

She sighed and looked at her phone again. Make that eight twenty-two AM on a Monday morning. Chloe was the only person sitting by herself now. Everyone else had already found their "buddy" and was either chatting over their copy of the map, comparing schedules, or already gone off in search of first period class rooms.

So where the heck was her "buddy"?

Alek was still leaning against his locker. He regarded his "new student" papers, frowning. The school had some sort of "Buddies" program that sounded like an extremely cheesy way to make sure he didn't break down from the pressure of high school or something. As if. Still, according to his papers, his tour guide was a girl. It was an opportunity to practice flirting, at the very least. So Alek threw his backpack over one shoulder and headed to the front of the school, where it said he was to meet his "buddy".

When Alek got outside, he had to squint in the sunlight in order to distinguish faces. There was a large group of kids who were obviously in the same new-kids program as he was, and in the center of them, a single girl sat alone. Clearly this was his guide. He took a few steps closer then froze.

Crap. Crap. Double crap. His tour guide was the girl he had accidentally stalked earlier. Of everyone in the school... The embarrassment flooded back to him and he felt his face burning. There was no way he was going to go over there and have the most awkward tour of his life, no way. So instead he bolted.

He would find his first period class on his own, thank you very much.

A/N: Well, there ya go! Chapter one of "The Way We Were". I know Alek is a little bit dramatic, but I just keep remembering how skittish boys were freshman year, and then on top of that he's new to the school... I'm editing chapter two right now and it'll be up tomorrow, I promise. Let me know what you thought! =)