Manhattan

| Chapter One | Torn tights

Becca Stonewall woke up that morning differently than she had in two and a half months: at 6:00am.

Alas, summer was over and right now, as of September first, it was time for her to return to the private, preppy, school known as Blackthorne Academy.

The one perk of getting up at the ungodly hour was finally seeing her three best friends after a whole summer away from them. Two of them, Morgan and Miranda, were mostly in the friend group to make Becca look good. They were beautiful and fun to hang out with, but they weren't necessarily the most reliable or trustworthy people on the planet.

The other friend, Kelsey, was Becca's best friend ever. They had known each other literally since before birth- their parents met in one of those yoga slash parenting classes. (Because of this, their birthdays were conveniently close, and they always had a joint party that people talked about for months after it ended.)

Kelsey even knew when Becca first had a crush on Chris Crawford, back in first grade. (Although that didn't mean much anymore now that Chris and Becca were dating, and have been since ten years ago, now that they are seniors.)

Morgan and Miranda had been away on a cruise to Mexio almost all summer, and Kelsey was going through all of Europe. This was pretty much the first summer that Kelsey and Becca hadn't spent at least a few weeks at their house in the hamptons, on the same street as Morgan, Miranda, Chris, and his hot best friends: Thomas, Drew, and Drake.

So, obviously, Becca was excited to see her best friends again and continue with their usual traditions: getting food from Pinky's on 17th street and eating it on the steps in front of the school while watching the hot guys at Briarwood Academy, the preppy all-boys school across from Blackthorne.

On top of that, she got to kiss her boyfriend for the first time all summer, now that he was finally back from skiing in Aspen, and that was reason enough to climb away from her 10,000 thread count blankets, fling off her silk sleeping mask, and walk across her soft white carpet to the spanish-tiled bathroom.

After a hot shower, blowdry, perfume spritz, and lotion appliqué, Becca walked to her enormous closet and put on her uniform, which had to be her favorite thing about Blackthorne.

The uniform had main key clothing items, but each girl could change it up and dress as they chose.

First, there was the white short sleeved blouse that could be accessorized with neckties, coats, shep shirts and cardigans.

Then, there was the short burgundy, white, and black plaid skirt that each girl wore ridiculously high, and dressed it up with tights of color.

Each girl had her own "trademark" article. For example, the over-the-top preps always wore various styled sperries, Moran and Miranda wore matching headbands, some girls wore matching neckties to show who was in their group, and Becca always wore colorful tights and gorgeous shoes.

So, she pulled on the blouse, the skirt, cherry red tights, adorable suede brown booties with a small heel, and made her way to the bathroom, where she did her makeup almost expertly and reapplied her perfume.

Glancing down at her black Rolex, Becca gasped and realized that she was ten minutes late.

"Olga, tell the driver to get the car ready!" She shouted, sprinting down the stairs and into the foyer, her long blonde hair flying behind her in a blur of golden highlights.

By the time Becca got to Pinky's she wasn't hungry and was practically bursting with excitement, so she just ordered a chamomile tea to go and ran over to their usual seat, the booth for three across from three chairs. It was perfect because each girl had a chair for her purse, and if Chris and his friends came, then they could sit, too.