It was a week into the last term of the Millerstone High School year and it was a bright morning. Students of all shapes and sizes flooded the front yard and the hallways talking and laughing with their friends, talking on their phones, taking selfies and being hit on, with the majority of them making their way to class.

Making her way to her class also was Esmée Johnson; a seventeen year old girl with long black big and curly hair, brown skin and a smile to knock anyone off their feet. She was the cheer leading captain and the most popular girl in school and always had people waving at her, smiling at her and saying hi.

Walking on, in a cute yellow dress with a denim jacket over, she reached her locker and got it open to grab some text books. Someone else greeted her and as she looked back to respond she saw a boy standing by his locker on the other side and her mouth immediately went agape, what was she looking at?

She finished grabbing her text books and after putting them in her bag and shutting her locker, Esmée walked up to him. He was dressed in buggy jeans, a studded leather coat and had a chain dangling from his belt. His name was James.

"Oh-my-gosh," Esmée said to him and the moment he turned and looked at her she gave out a sweet gasp; caught completely off guard by his face that looked like it belonged on the cover of a teen heart throb magazine.

"I'm sorry?" James said; his English accent smooth like melted butter.

"Oh wow," she said to herself instantly taken by it but quickly came to. "You . . . Wearing . . . What are you wearing?"

"Um." He looked down and gave an obvious look. "Clothes."

"No, I’m wearing clothes, you’re wearing . . ." She looked him up and down. "Gosh, what are you wearing? You look like a 70’s English punk rock band threw up on you."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"Seeing that it’s not the 70’s and you’re not in a punk band then no."

"How’d you know I’m not in a punk band?" James asked and she gave him a look. "O.k. fine I'm not."

"Could’ve fooled me still, goodness are you asking to be bullied? The way you present yourself on the first day of school determines how the rest of the school is going to treat you, with this look, sorry to say but it’s not going to be good. Seriously you left your house dressed like this?"

"It is not that bad."

"I’m the one looking at it, yes it is, it’s horrible, you’re going to spend your whole time here either being stashed into a locker or being thrown a dumpster if any of the jocks lay their eyes on you looking like this, gosh you’re such a mess come with me," Esmée said and grabbed his hand, and closing his locker door with her bag, she then led him down the hallway to janitor's closet. She pulled him in and closed the door behind them; and after putting both their bags on the floor, she got into fixing him up.

"O.k. we are losing this," she said and removed his leather jacket.

"I thought leather jackets were cool?"

"They are cool, but only if they can be pulled off."

"Am I not pulling this one off?" James asked.

"Absolutely not; I don't think anyone can ever pull this off, this is easily the ugliest jacket I have ever seen in my entire life."

"Hey come on, my mother bought me this jacket."

"Your mother should be thrown in jail," she said and James laughed. She then dropped the jacket to the floor and carried on. "We are definitely losing this. A chain really?"

"It gives my outfit edge."

"No it doesn't, it makes you look like an escaped convict. Take it off right now."

"But it's part of the belt," he said.

"Then take the belt off. Now. Take it off right now."

"Alright," he said chuckling and took it off. "There."

"Thank you and now we’re going to go ahead and pull these up, no one wears jeans this low anymore. May I?"

"Carry on." Esmée pulled his jeans up as he just stood there looking at her with a faint smile on his face, already so taken by her. Out of nowhere . . . "Oh my gosh," she said as she pulled away from him with a finger under her nose.

"What?"

"What is that?"

"What is what?" James asked smiling.

"That scent."

"Is it too strong?" he asked smelling himself a bit.

"Too strong? How about bad?"

"No."

"YES," Esmée passionately said and they laughed. "It's smells that like a deer rubbed its balls all over you." They laughed on.

"Have you ever smelled what someone smells like when a deer rubs its balls all over them?"

"No but this smells close enough," she said and they went on laughing. "It's really musky."

"Yes good musky."

"No." They laughed on. She then dug into her bag and pulled out an fancy bottle of perfume and sprayed a little on him. She leaned in and smelled him, sprayed a little more, smelled him again and sprayed some more. "Mm better."

"I don't smell like a deer's balls anymore?"

"You still do but it's deer's balls dipped in lavender, which is far much better."

"Aces," James said and they chuckled as she put her perfume back into her back

"Right, and now the hair."

"What's wrong with my hair?"

"Are you kidding me? You look like Christian Bale in American Psycho," Esmée said.

"Yeah so, he was very good looking in that."

"Yeah, you know what else he also was . . . A serial killer."

"You're telling me I look like a serial killer?"

"No, I'm telling you your look it's a little too clean and high maintenance for high school; you look like you should be on a movie set, walking down a runway or . . . Killing people."

"Uh so I do look like a serial killer, very nice," James said and she laughed.

"But not for long." Esmée pulled a comb out of her bag and gave his hair a cool style that brought out his cuteness even more. "Done."

"Is it good?"

"It's . . ." Esmée fell into the ocean that was in his blue eyes and got so pulled in she began to drown in them, making her feel a way she had never felt before. "It's good."

"Cool."

"Yeah." She came back down to earth. "Alright, you're ready to go," she said and reached down to grab her bag and wore it, as he did the same too.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome," she said and opened the door. "All the best out there."

"Thanks. Hey I’m James by the way," he said and she just smiled at him.

"O.k." She walked out and James grabbed his jacket and belt off the floor and quickly walked out into the hallway to watch her go. She looked back and smiled at him and James was officially swept off his feet; her smile lighting him up inside like the rising sun.

"Wow," he said to himself and smiled, he had never seen anyone more beautiful in his whole life. The bell then rang and the students went into their classes.

Hours later the bell rang again and it was break time. The cafeteria was flooded with students sitting by the tables eating and talking; with others standing in line waiting to get their food. James walked in with his new friends Alex and Cline; Alex of medium height with short curly hair and Cline slightly taller and with a blonde messy do.

"And here it is, the place where the most vital socializing takes place, I know they say you can sit anywhere but that is not true, where you sit and who you sit with matters very much, you’re with us so you my friend are just fine," Alex said.

"Wicked," James said and they walked further in to join the line and get their food; with James's eyes wandering as though looking for someone, the beautiful girl who had taken his breath away. He was hoping to see her but she wasn't there. They reached the front of the line and got their food and then went to sit down at Alex's and Cline's usual table to eat, with James continuing to look around. "So I’m guessing that’s the popular table," he then said looking at the table that sat right in the middle of the cafeteria, with rich looking students dressed in designer clothes, both male and female, seated at it.

"Yeah well that may be the popular table but this is the fun table."

"Yeah, you’re much better off being here than over there with their perfect looks, their stupid perfect jokes and their pretty much perfect everything," Cline said and gave out a longing sigh with his eyes reaching out. He had always dreamed of being one of the popular kids but it never happened. "Yeah definitely better off with us."

"Focus."

"I'm good."

"Besides, their group is super hard to get into anyway," Alex said.

"That's right, for you to become one of them you either have to be really rich, belong to a high ranking social club."

"Like cheer leading or football."

"Thank you, or be really good looking."

"I'm good looking," James said.

"Bro you are gorgeous but do you belong to a high ranking social club?" Alex asked.

"No," Cline answered.

"And are you really rich?"

"I do alright," James answered and Cline shook his head.

"Not good enough. You have to be all of the above."

"But you just said either."

"I know, it makes it easier for us simpletons to relate to them if they are just one of those things but they're not, they are all of those things and it is very, very . . . Depressing," Alex said and a moment of silence swept as he got lost in his thoughts. He too had the same dream of being popular but like Cline it never happened. "Anyway that's that, you have to possess all those qualities or you're not going to make the cut."

"Right," James said.

"Wait, are you actually considering joining the populars?" Alex asked.

"Me popular? No, I don't think so," James answered chuckling.

"Were you popular back in London?" Cline asked.

"Yeah and are now trying to find a new more meaningful approach of going through your last school term other than being shallow, self-centered and vain?" Alex asked.

"They can't all be like that," James said.

"They're not, a good number of them are actually pretty decent human beings we just love to talk trash about them because it makes us feel better about ourselves."

"Wow o.k. well no I was not popular back in London, I was just a boy scaling on by."

"Awesome, that's what we do," Cline said.

"Right, we've been scaling on by since junior high and we couldn't be happier."

"Yeah so what if they're super good looking, drive expensive cars and wear nice clothes and just bask in the adoration of us simpletons," he said and zoned out looking at them talking and laughing with each other as James and Alex just sat there looking at him. "That's not everything," he then said coming to.

"Focus."

"I'm good."

"Right, so zero worries, you and us are going to get along just fine," Alex said.

"Aces," James said and Alex raised his drink into the air. Cline too.

"Welcome to the squad James."

"Thanks lads," James said raising his drink and they gently hit them together and drank from them. They then started eating and looking at the cafeteria door, suddenly his heart skipped a beat. It was Esmée and she was standing with a tall, well built and good looking boy. They were talking and bursting into a laugh, Esmée beamed her smile and like a huge bright star in his sky it lit him up.

"Huh there she is," he smilingly said to himself and got entranced watching her; how she spoke, how she blinked and how she ran her fingers through her hair, everything was like poetry. They then separated; he walked in and she walked off down the hallway. "Whoa, whoa, whoa no," he then said standing up and Alex and Cline turned to him wondering.

"What?" Alex asked.

"It's the pie isn't it? Too salty right?" Cline said.

"No the pie is fine, it's uh excuse me I’m getting a call," James said and ran for the door.

"O.k.," Alex said and he and Cline went on eating as he ran into the hallway and looked down the side she walked off in but didn't see her. He then ran down the very direction hoping to catch her but he didn't. Esmée was gone.

Minutes later the bell rang and it was back to class. In James's class it was science period and their teacher Mr. Norton, a nerdy man with a small build, was in the front teaching.

"And that is how magnetism works," Mr. Norton said. "Alright questions?" he then asked and they all shook their heads. "Alright then, there's an exercise on the next page let's get to it."

They turned the pages of their text books and began to do the exercise as Mr. Norton sat down by his desk. Just then, glancing at the class door, James gasped, standing in the hallway was Esmée and her friend; looking at something in a book and chuckling.