THE HOTNESS (chapter one: Darcy Equals Hot)

CHAPTER ONE

DARCY EQUALS HOT

    It was a perfect September Day when two new juniors; Darcy and Ryan, graced the halls of Sunrise High School for the first time.

    They were tall, tanned and handsome but the slightly taller one, Darcy Donovan, had coal black hair, eyes the color of deepest ocean and the gait of a movie star down on his luck.

     I have to admit, even though he was a (much) older man and he was seriously cute, that Darcy had a cold and distant air about him. He made all the freshman girls part their newly formed cliques and gossip as he walked by. I looked a little extra long after he turned away and his friend smiled at me. But Darcy only gave a slight smile to his friend because he was used to “younger girls” crushing on him. He said that disdainfully too, as if I were barely a teen and certainly lacked “common sense.”

    From that moment on, I thought Darcy acted like a tool as he checked his Twitter while the rest of the freshman girls (and a few boys) stared. Not me. I’d moved on already. I was busy writing the first lines of my most excellent teen novel on my iPhone.

    This is how our school works.

    The main clique, The Princesses (of which I am the most junior member – a member by birth, I should add but please don’t think that makes me a snob), all googled him (of course). We found out he’d just parted company with his former manager, Dustin Jones. There was a picture of Dustin on the internet. He wore a bored expression above his goatee and had his arms around two very spacey looking girls.

    One gossip site noted: Born in Sydney, In his country of birth (Australia), Darcy Donovan is a reluctant superstar. Mr Darcy has acted in at least a dozen locally produced web-i-sodes of a reality TV drama called Rich Boys from Down Under… and so it went on.  

    Well, I could assure them that here at Sunrise hardly anyone knew him. He might be in the process of putting the finishing touches on his first “album” and reportedly have “no room in his life to handle any more fans” and be “so over” the music industry he was “taking a break” (even though he was barely eighteen) but he certainly didn’t seem to lack a good PR person.

     It seemed like Ryan Bingley was Darcy’s best friend. Ryan had hair that shone in the sun and a disposition to match. Ryan also had a twin sister, Mackenzie, who was Ryan’s double in looks but his opposite in temperament. 

    From the first Mackenzie wanted to be a Princess. And from the first, Mackenzie acted nice enough to be invited. Unfortunately, because I was the youngest and newest member of the group, my vote only counted once.

    It wasn’t long before Mackenzie was in with the “in” crowd, but I’m getting ahead of myself as usual…

    The most important thing to know is that around the time that Darcy arrived a new girl (and her sisters) transferred to Sunrise from the wrong side of town – and that’s putting it nicely. Paige Bennet had not a clue how to be fashionable on that first day. Since she was a junior it was hard to believe she was that clueless. I’m here stating it, for the record and I’m nothing if not honest. The new girl had an older sister, Shiloh (a senior), who was quiet and pretty and a middle sister (Senta) who was dull and younger sisters (Sia and Rebel) who were, let’s just say, party girls.

    I’ll tell you about the Bennet sisters, though, once I’ve introduced the Bingley twins. Here’s what I quickly learned about Mackenzie Bingley.

     Mackenzie was a professional queen bee and she immediately wanted to rule the Princesses and take over from the most senior princess, Melody Mitford. Melody’s Dad was being transferred to London, England so she wouldn’t have long to wait. Mackenzie had been a queen bee at all her previous schools (The Sydney School for Rich Princesses and The Los Angeles High School For Young Ladies, were just two of the previous high schools she’d been expelled from).

     What Mackenzie lacked in academic skills, she made up for in attitude. She ruled her friends with fear. Her pattern was the same wherever she went: infiltrate the main social groups, make herself indispensable to them, divide, and conquer. It always worked. I state for the record, Mackenzie was pretty but she was all surface.

     Inside, there was something lacking in a place even she couldn’t locate.

     You might wonder how I know everything. 
     Well, I have a long history with Sunrise, since even before I was born. My family  have always lived here. My older sister was Mouche Mackintosh. I’m not sure if some of my memories of her are just from photographs or what people have told me (she was more than ten years my senior), but I feel her presence here sometimes, even though she’s been gone a long time. My sister also went to this school and was a founding member of The Princesses. The Princesses (me, Honey and Veronica are the only freshman members) always know who is who and what is what. I have to say, although I have a passion for dance, fashion and theater (just like my sister) I’m definitely the most intellectual in my trinity of close friends. Honey is the most popular and Veronica is the most studious.

    So, I felt like I’d be letting the side down if I was immune to the charms of the hottest guy in school but it was obvious, from the first time I saw them together (yelling at each other, of course) that Darcy Donovan and Paige Bennet (though everyone called her ‘the girl from the wrong side of the tracks’) were going to become an unexpectedly ‘it’ couple.

    At least, that’s the way it was supposed to be in my imaginary teen Austen world.  I was reading Pride and Prejudice (I’d consider myself an advanced reader for my age) on my e-reader. I was literally up to ten percent when a real story began to unfold around me, creating more than one serious diversion between me and my intellectual property...