"Hey Erica!" I screamed into the dark, empty hallway of her apartment.

"Over here, Cosette!" She called back to me from her bedroom. I walked over and poked my head in.

"Hey Eri-Erica?"

"Oh, hey, Cosette! Like the room?" My best friend asked as if absolutely nothing was wrong. A bit happily, too, might I add!

"It's so...um..let me think, PINK! Why?" I was truly appalled at the state of her room. Erica hates pink. She hates any shade of pink! I mean, She said she was changing her apartment a bit...but pink?

"It's 'summery', like?" Erica stepped out from her closet wearing khaki's and a preppy light blue top. I didn't even know she owned a pair of khaki's!

"Do you like it?" I replied.

"Nope, but Gary does. He likes 'feminine' girls. Besides, it's only one of the rooms. You step through my closet, and there's the bathroom; light blue with black bunnies." She announced proudly.

"Bunnies?" This was just too much. I took a seat on Erica's bed, only to hear the 'pillow' beneath me squeak, which, by the way, practically scared me to death.

Which, then, also made me jump ten-feet in the air when I what it was.

"Pink flower pillows? That's it! You are totally losing it! Come with me!" I exclaimed once I finally caught my breath. I walked over to Erica, and started to drag her out of her room.

"Cosette! Lemmego!" Erica cried, as she bumped into her doorway. "LEMMEGO!"

Just then the doorbell rang, and we heard the door open and close. "Hey Erica!" Called a deep voice from the front room.

"Oh no," I muttered, and I let go of Erica. She, then, smoothed down her all-too-perfect auburn hair, and her extremely preppy clothes. "This is going to be interesting." I muttered under my breath as I followed Erica out to the living room.

And what I saw didn't surprise me in the least. 'Gary' had the 'college prep' look all the way down from the freshly pressed polo shirt, to the recently polished black loafers.

Erica smiled brightly and ran up to him to give him a hug, which to me looked like she was trying to choke her boyfriend...(not a bad idea actually...)

Once Erica broke away, and let Gary breathe again, (LOL), she introduced me.

"Gary, I'd like you to meet my best friend, Cosette Murphy. Cosette, this is Gary Vinehale."

I stuck out my hand, Gary took it, then shook mine. Boy, that must've looked awkward. Me in my Hot Topic cargo jeans, ragged black Converses, (God I love them!) and my skull hoodie...not to mention the red and black underlayer of my blonde hair.

Yeah, me shaking hands with Prep-Master...UGH!

I could tell by the look on his face that he didn't appreciate my new nose piercing. (It's just a black stud, what's wrong with that?).

Anyways, as we gripped hands and shook, I saw Erica give off one of the brightest smiles ever. *Do it for her. Do it for her.* My mind chanted

I then took a step back and grabbed my bag. "Well, Erica, I think I'll leave you two alone...I'll see you tomorrow at school!"

"Oh, but Cosette, I thought we were gonna hang out?" She put on one of her sad puppy dog faces.

Yeah, well that was before 'Prince Charming' showed up! I thought.

"Well...actually, I just remembered I have a book report I need to finish!" I stuttered as I opened the door.

"But, Cosette, school hasn't even-"

"Sorry, gotta go!"I yelled and slammed the door shut, As I walked outside towards downtown D.C., I shuddered. Everything seems to be going crazy all of a sudden.

My best friendhas gone 'preppy-girly-ish' all for the 'college-prep-guy'. Weird , and not to mention nauseating!

Oh yeah, tommorow's the start of my senior year of highschool. Sad, 'cause that means I'll soon have to leave the good 'ol days of catching Principal Theissen's hair on fire. (Actually it's a tupee`, but he claims it's real...gross!).

For awhile I just wandered along the mall, (me: If you don't know what the mall is, it's the long, huge, grassy green field between the Capital Building, and the Lincoln Memorial.)

I later found myself in fornt of an outdoor Ice-Cream place. Isn't it interesting how whenever you're boredm you fin yourself eating? Funny ol' world in'it?

Anyways, I was busy contemplating bewteen a Strawberry Cheesecake Sundae, or one of those Mint Chocolate Chip ones, when I heard police sirens start to go off in the distance. And that is, believe it or not, a rare thing to hear in D.C.!

"Can I help you?"I turned around to see the person talking to me. It was a kid with a cool looking mohawk.

"Oh, no thanks, I guess I'm not really all that hungary anymore!"

So, I turned and left the Ice Cream Shoppe, to see where the sound of the sirens were coming from, only to see the cars rush past the road right in front of me, chasing an old white car. I just shrugged my shoulders, but just let it pass. I mean, this is just D.C. right? It's not like anything ever important happens here!

Eventually, I just decided to walk home. I was about halfway down my street when I heard an all-too-familiar horn.

"Hey, Cosette! Hop in!" Erica called from her 1969 black Camaro. I soon found myself walking over and getting into the passenger seat.

"Ya know," I started, "I was perfectly fine, enjoying myself, yeah, just me for once, alone with the birds, clouds, beautiful flowers..."

"And the poisonous Carbon Monoxide gas. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we get it." Erica cut in sarcastically as she started heading back over towards her apartment.

I rolled my eyes and watched as the city passed from out the window, almost recognizing a car outside her apartment building that looked just like the one the police were chasing. I didn't mention it though. Instead, I decided to talk. "Sorry for ruinning and running out like that this morning..."I sighed. "Gary just, well..."

"He made you feel like you had to be entirely crisp, clean, and proper all the time, when all the while he gets to judge you on every single thing you ever think, say, or do?" Erica suggested. Wide-eyed, and shocked, I nodded back. "Yeah? Me too!" She chuckled to herslef. "That's why we broke up!"

"You broke up!?! I'm soo sorry!" I tried my best to look sorry for her, I really did, but quite frankly, I didn't give a damn. Actually, I find myself feeling much happier this way!

Erica then gave me a really skeptical look, but she let it pass, and continued driving.

We soon pulled up to our intended destination, and Erica let me back into her apartment. I couldn't help shuddering when I stepped inside.

"Please tell me you're not keeping all this?" I asked, afraid to sit down or touch anything in case it would poison me with "flower-power" diasease...Lord Save Me!

"Are you kidding? Hell no!" Erica practically yelled. "I can't believe I did it all for some stupid guy in the first place!"

*I can!*My mind screamed. Whenever Erica goes out with a guy, she tries her hardest to impress him. For example: College Prep Boy and Ms. Flower Power! I laughed to myself as Erica pulled out a black garbage bag and started throwing various 'contaminated' items into it.

"Hey Cosette?"She asked while discarding one of those hideous pink flower pillows. "Remember the Madden twins? Benji and Joel?"

"You mean the ones who moved to Naptown, who made my life a living hell?" I answered while digging through her CD's. I found an old Metallica CD, and put it in.

"Ah...finally some sign of sanity!" Sihed Erica. "Well, anyways, I found out that they're coming back to Waldorf this year!"

"Fuck no!" I moaned. "Who'd you hear that from?" Suddenly, the wall from the apartment next to Erica's shook....

"Fuck you Benji!I said 'Put the Bed by that wall!' Not on my fuckin' foot!" I heard some guy blow his head off in the other apartment.

I then turned to look at Erica, only to see her put on a sheepish grin. "Actually..." She started, "They're here..."

I groaned and sunk down agaisnt the magenta wall. Suddenly images of my Elementary school life came flashing before my eyes.

"This is so gonna suck!" I moaned. "Remember when I first moved here from Greenwich and Benji tried, and successfully cut off the middle chunk of my hair?" I questioned, feeling the back of my head as a reassurance that I still had my hair now.

"Yeah," Laughed Erica. "It was hilarious!"

"Whatever. But what about when they snuck in your house at your 11th birthday sleepover and put honey and toothpaste and other crap all over us?" I glared at her as she continued to howl in laughter.

I followed her towards the front room. "They were just being boys! Besides, it's not everyday a 3rd grader gets to try and shave the haird of an English girl! Benji was just showing his loyalty, and had to take that chance! Your hair did eventually grow back, you know!"Erica commented, and I winced at the thought, even though she giggled. I threw a pillow at her, but missed, and hit the front door of her apartment.

As if by magic, the doorbell rang at the exact moment the pillow hit it. Erica was still guffawing as she opened the door, but suddenly...she froze.