Julia O’Conner is the kind of person everyone knows, everyone likes, and everyone will remember. She lives in a rich neighborhood on the street, Bowling Green, Kentucky, where her mom and her have lived for Julia’s whole life of 17 years. Julia’s school has a total of 2,600 kids at Hacron High School. She is the captain of the cheerleading squad. Her team always won every state competition for the past three years she’s been captain. She doesn’t have a boyfriend because she believes she is too good for anyone.
On Tuesday morning, she talks to her best friend Gi-Gi before first hour.

“There’s only twelve more days of school left and then we’ll be seniors,” she says excitedly.

“I know! We only have one more year. It’s going to kick butt,” Gi-Gi says.

They stand facing their open locker, giggling and yelling with excitement. They rip down all the pictures in their locker and throw it away in the nearest grey garbage can. Gi-Gi gets stolen away from her boyfriend and kisses her all the way to her next class.

“Oh, that’s okay I’ll walk myself to class,” Julia laughs.

“Sorry girl,” as her boyfriend keeps kissing her, “I’ll talk to you after school.”

Julia shuts her locker door as Brandon is standing right behind it.

Julia gasps, “Jordan, that’s not even funny,” hitting his arm with her pile of books she has in her hands.

“Haha, sorry, I didn’t try too I just thought it might be funny,” Jordan says.

“It was funny,” she giggles and walks to English class with Jordan.

Mr. Klingel sits on the front of his desk with his tan pants and button up blue shirt, “pick a special little partner to help you make Iodine, pick your partner wisely you will be graded,” Mr. Klingel states. The students start moving around like mad rats being chased by exterminators. As the kids settle at their lab stations they begin to work as little conversations surround the room.

“Is Riley dating Kenzie?” a voice from across the room says.

“Yea, started dating yesterday, how’d you here?” Riley asks from the other side of the room. Every conversation is heard and through the cocktail effect of listening to one specific thing and being able to block out every other conversation.

“Facebook, duh?” Frankie says. The class starts laughing and they all become wrapped up with the gossip that goes around on facebook, with the “did you hear” conversations as their busy hands with mixing chemicals together to create the solution. Mr. Klingel leaves the room for a few minutes like he usually does, leaving us with chemicals students never have even heard of.

“I have to go get something, I’d rather come back with the class still alive, but I’d rather have everyone stop with the chitchat!” he announces as he leaves.

“Party time,” Simon screams as Mr. Klingel walks out the door.

“You do that Simon,” Mr. Klingel says as he closes the door. Everyone starts to get caught up in their own conversation as Julia works hard at her lab station with her partner Tim. Tim is really smart and Julia tries to do everything she can to help him out.

“So, are you ready to get out of here?” Tim says quietly. Julia’s mind goes blank, Tim never talks and when he does it’s to tell Julia to do something or ask for a bottle of a chemical.

“Yea,” she pauses, “Yes I am. Aren’t you?”

“Of course, I’m just ready to go off to college next year, I picked the easiest classes this year, which was the stupidest idea seeing as how I was so bored,” he laughs.

“Haha, I can see that, you’re really smart, where are you going to school?”

“I’ll be going to Madison, can’t wait, too bad you have one year left to go, hey?” he asks.

“Yea, but next year will fly by,” she says. Julia and Tim stare each other which most people find awkward, suddenly, Tim spills carbon dioxide on the table, they both shriek as Mr. Klingel walks in. Mr. Klingel runs over to their lab station and slips onto his back. Everyone runs over to him and Tim helps him up.

“I leave for five minutes.”

“I’m, I’m sorry,” Tim stutters.

“No biggie, let’s get this cleaned up.”

After school Tim decides to finish his conversation with Julia on a walk to her house. They laugh the whole way, something that they never had done before, they never really even talked before. Julia gets to the door when Tim leans down to kiss her.

“I’ve been wanting to do this ever since we were partners in chemistry class,” he whispers. He holds the back of her head and kisses her lightly. Slowly turning around he leaves her on the front porch with a smile on her face going from ear to ear. She waits for him to walk around the corner when she then runs inside.

“Mom! Mom! Mom! You’ll never guess what happened, you’ll never,,,” Julia sees her parents sitting at the kitchen table with stern looks across their faces. Julia’s smile becomes a straight face in a second. Her dad points to the chair across the table from him. She sits and waits till someone says something, thinking she’ll be yelled at for kissing a boy that her parents had never even heard of.

“Mom, I can explain,” she says after a minute of silence passes, seeming like forever.

“What are you talking about?” Julia’s mom asks with the look of confusion lays across her face.

“Nothing, I think?” Julia says raising her eyebrow and slumping back into her chair.

“Your father and I need to talk to you,” Julia’s mom says.

“Okay, shoot.”

“We have been handed an offer we can’t put down. I’ve wanted this for a long time and you see, I think this might be the right offer, and the right time,” her dad states.

“What’s going on? Mom?” with the look of frustration on her face and the pounding of her heart inside of her chest, she scoots to the edge of her chair. “Is something wrong?”

“Your dad got a promotion, a big one, and we will have to move before your senior year,” her mom says calmly with her hands about to reach towards Julia’s.

Julia pulls her hands away, “Wait, I can still go to Hacron, right dad?”

“I’m afraid it’ll be two hours away from here, you’ll be going to a different school now,” her dad says nervously.

“I can’t, I won’t, why are you guys doing this to me?” she argues. Julia runs upstairs screaming. Her mom starts to go after her as her dad yells to sit back down and leave her alone.

“I hate my life, they want to leave by July,” Julia cries to Gi-Gi over the phone.

“What the heck, my senior years gonna suck without you here, tell your parents you can live with me.”

“Good joke, I’m gonna die in a different school than Hacron. Hell, everyone’s gonna die,” she says as she grabs on to her teddy bear on her bed.

“What happened with that senior Tyler after school today?”

“Haha, you mean Tim?”

“Yea, whatever,” Gi-Gi laughs.

“Gi-Gi, he kissed me and it was actually a good kiss. I can’t leave I finally like somebody who I think really likes me too, it was so cute he walked me home and everything, like one of those movie scenes, you know?”

“That’s so cute! You never know, it could work Madison’s only so far away from where you’re going to live, isn’t it?”

“An hour and a half,” she cries.

The next day at school she walks through the doors and ignores everyone. She doesn’t want anyone to see her cry or make the school day better and better to make moving so much harder. Everyone walks down the hall and smiles and waves while Julia just looks straight forward, walking even faster.

“Hey,” Tim says in chemistry class at the lab station.

“I’m trying to work,” Julia snaps.

“Did I do something to offend you?” Tim questions.

“No, I’m not in the mood for talking today, that shouldn’t have ever changed,” Julia says running to the bathroom. After school Tim walks up to Gi-Gi.

“What did I do, what did I say?” Tim says with smoke coming from his ears.

“What are you talking about?” Gi-Gi asks.

“Julia…” he starts to go on and Gi-Gi cuts her off.

“She’s moving.”

“She’s moving? Where?”

“A hour and a half away from Madison,” Gi-Gi said.

Tim goes home that night and types a two page paper to Julia about if they were to be dating they would be able to wrk it out. He wanted to help her out instead of her walking around the last days of school depressed and down. Tim sends the email and ten minutes later he decides to run to Julia’s house. He sees her parents in the door and walks in. Watching people move in and ut of the house with boxes and boxes of stuff. He runs upstairs and looks around for Julia. Is muddy shoes grace the carpet of the stairs and he looks into an empty room and sees no one.

“What are you doing in here?” Julia asks with a towel wrapped around her head and a robe around her body without any make-up on.

“I…I… I know you’re leaving and I don’t think it matters, I know it’s only been a day that we started talking and I might sound like the biggest creeper but I don’t care right now. I think we should at least see what happeneds and I really want to know you.”

“How did you find out I was moving?” Julia asks.

“Gi-Gi,” he says as he comes closer to her, “I want you to know that I want to be there, I want you to be able to talk to somebody about your day.”

A month later she leaves to her new school. She is the nerd, the new girl, the weirdo. She sits at home every night with nothing to do. Her new school is a lot smaller than Hacron and theirs only four hundred students in the entire place. School starts in September where she has to spend her last year of high school. Her summer she spends in Hacron at her best friends and stays weeks at a time.

After two months it’s September and she goes to school. She doesn’t talk to anyone and no one talks to her. Her first class is Law and Order.

“Can I sit by you?” Julia asks.

“Sure, pop a seat, ya new here? I’m Tammi,” she says. Julia can’t stand to sit next to the girl with big red hair and tiny glasses that hit the bottom of her nose. Julia can’t help but think she is exactly like the the nerds in school and she has no willingness to talk to the “cool kids.”

“I can’t stand this place,” Julia says talking on the phone with her boyfriend, Tim.

“I’m sorry babe, I wish I could be there with you,” he says, Julia hears the doorbell ring.

“Hold on I have to get the door, I just don’t get it, no one likes me here,” Julia says, about to pull open the door when all of a sudden the door swings open.
…to be continued