---

Tonight had been the talk of the town for almost a month now. It had most certainly been the subject of every student of Goldcrest Academy's conversations for the past week - for the girls, it primarily consisted of what they would wear and how they would introduce themselves; and for the guys, it was what they would be drinking and whether their pen pal would be hot or not. It was finally here. The party. Just the thought of it sent butterflies fluttering in Summer's stomach - so much so that she could barely breathe every time she thought about it. She didn't show it, though, of course. Instead, she sat in front of the mirror in her room, pouting as she applied her fifth layer of lipgloss in the past hour, rambling on about whatever came to her mind that was not the party to her best friend, Alice, who was lying down on the bed behind her.

Summer suspected that Alice could tell how nervous she was - it would be obvious to anyone that properly knew her, although that was very few - and she was grateful for the brunette not pointing it out. In fact, something that she had grown used to over time was Alice's quietness whenever she was deep in thought. Where Summer tended to blurt out whatever crude thought came to her mind, Alice stayed silent and withdrawn. Summer recalled a time that she would take offence at these quiet moments of her friend's, but now she was more than grateful for them. Alice was one of the only people Summer felt secure around, quietness and all.

Just because she had grown used to it, however, didn't mean that Summer was willing to settle with talking to herself. Spinning round in her seat to face Alice, she raised a brow.


From the view of anyone watching from the outside, it was hard to see how these girls - both so different in so many ways - could stand each other, never mind be as close as sisters. Nobody from the school they attended could quite figure out why Summer - the untouchable princess of Goldcrest Academy that everyone practically worshipped - put up with the smart mouth and uncaring attitude of Alice Cameron. Truth be told, their friendship ran a lot deeper beneath the surface than most would assume.

There had been many times that Alice had stayed with an inconsolable Summer as she loathed herself yet again for letting some other guy mess her about, or spent hours crying over the mother she would never have. Similarly, Summer had not left Alice's side when her first real boyfriend had left her without so much of a word of farewell, and had remained a steadfast companion for all the times that Alice became ill with the stress of having to look after her younger brother while her parents worked to pay for her scholarship funds.

Summer saw parts of Alice that no one else had - the cool, carefree girl that was really crumbling on the inside - and Alice knew the side of Summer that no one would believe existed - the queen bee that was really just a self-loathing, insecure girl. They were a team, and anything they did together, they did right.

Hence the reason why, many try-on's and arguments later, both Alice and Summer stood in front of the mirror in Summer's walk-in wardrobe, scrutinising their reflections in a way that only girls could do. Summer wore the outfit she had planned weeks ago for this particular night, while Alice wore the outfit Summer had also planned for her weeks in advance.



Summer watched as Alice played with the hem of her skirt for a second, clearly lost in her own thoughts once again. Summer had grown used to choosing and buying outfits for her friend - she knew that Alice wasn't nearly as well-off as she was, so had always insisted on being the sole benefactor of Alice's wardrobe. If anyone that wasn't Alice asked, however, she would deny it. There was no point in making people think she'd gone soft.

---

---

---

Alice Cameron was yet to have liked any one of her best friend's boyfriends. This one was perhaps the worst. She couldn't help but secretly seethe at the expensive car that pulled into Summer's driveway and at the horn that was honked repeatedly, she couldn't help the rolling of her eyes at the squeal Summer gave when she ran into her boyfriend's arms in the middle of the driveway, and she certainly couldn't help the eyebrow she raised at the words Nathaniel King said next as he looked at his girlfriend up and down:


Before Summer could muster a reply, Alice made sure to elbow in between them as she got into the car, making sure her voice remained as poisonous as possible.


Nathaniel King was, quite possibly, the biggest ass Alice had met in her life. And of course Summer had chosen him to be her man of the season. His perfectly-gelled blonde hair, sparkling green eyes and clothes that were quite clearly a size too small for him had every girl in a 10-mile radius fawning over him. Which was exactly why, Alice suspected, Summer had chosen him. Most of the boys Summer got with had a lot to do with how she looked to everyone else, which was enough to exasperate Alice every time a new one came around the corner. What annoyed her even more, however, was the ridiculous act Summer put on whenever she was around one of said boys. Something which she was dong now in the car as they made their way to the party with Nathaniel.

Alice tried not to listen as Summer simpered and giggled and twirled her hair at everything that Nate said. Truth be told, she knew for a fact that Summer was probably smarter than Alice herself, but she would never let people see it. It was something that Alice had given up trying to stop her best friend from doing a long time ago. It was better, she had learned, to disapprove from a distance and be there to pick up the pieces when it ended. And this one, she suspected, would be ending quite soon.

She could tell by the way that Nate brushed Summer off when they got out of the car outside the house in which the party was being held as she attempted to hook his arm. She could also tell by the way that the asshole's eyes lingered on every single passing girl as they made their way up the driveway. This only infuriated her more, so, instead, she diverted her attention to the house they were now entering.

The planning of the party had all gone rather smoothly - when the idea came about that they would meet their pen pals, some guy offered up his summer house in the connecting town for a party. Of course, there had been many people against the idea at first; it was primarily the richest students, the ones with the biggest problems with the 'city kids', that were the ones who piped up. There had been decades of rivalry between them, and a few letters and a party was meant to fix that? Sounded unlikely. At least, that's what Summer had claimed when she spoke about it with others in school. In reality, though, Alice had caught her friend gazing absent-mindedly at one of her letters more than once.

The thing that made most people, uneasy, however, was the fact that no one knew who they had been talking to. They had been forbidden from telling their pen pals their names by the teachers, in a bid to 'prevent former prejudices getting in the way of a possible friendship'. Everyone knew, though, that it was really just to prevent the gang members of the city making possible targets of the students of Goldcrest.

So everyone was going into this party having no idea about who they were going to find and, quite honestly, it terrified both Alice and Summer beyond words. They said nothing, knowing exactly how the other felt, as they entered the already-bustling house with the music drumming in time with their hearts, and their eyes scanning the crowd for the strangers they knew.