Chapter
One
Darcy
Equals Hot
It was a perfect September Day when two new seniors; 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 so it was hard to believe she was that clueless. I’m here stating it,
for the record and I’m nothing if not honest. That’s another reason I trail
around after Mackenzie. I get so much information it’s important for the novel
I’m writing. The new girl had an older sister (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 that
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 theatre
(just like my sister) I’m definitely the most intellectual of 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...
