The It Group

East Land Prep. 7:45 A.M.

East Land Prep.

           Monday, August 13. 7:45 A.M.

"Good morning." Kelly Rivera says, smiling at her best friend, Tyler Soto as she reaches her locker – which happens to be next to Tyler's.

Tyler brings her head out from behind the metal door and takes Kelly in. "What are you wearing?"

Opening her red locker, Kelly looks at her choice of clothing: a long light yellow skirt with a short white sleeve button-down shirt. "What?"

"It's the first day of school, Kels." Tyler says, rolling her eyes before disappearing behind her locker door. "Do you want to stay at the bottom forever? I mean, it's bad enough you still have braces."

Kelly rolls her eyes at her friend, dropping her smile as she places her grey rolling backpack inside her locker. "I gave up moving to the TOP the day I set foot in ELP."

The TOP is the popularity list created by The HotChikas and is the ruling that the students at East Land Prep and West Land Prep go by. The TOP is an acronym for the three levels of popularity at the schools. 'T' stands for The Best, 'O' for Oh Snap and 'P' for Private Celeb. Each semester, the students try to impress The HotChikas in the hopes of seeing their names on the TOP.

"Well I didn't." Tyler says, closing her locker and facing Kelly with both hands on her hips. "I wanna be TOP ten or maybe TOP five." She lets out a dreamy sigh, leaning back against her locker and staring hopeful at the red ceiling. "And if I'm really lucky, I'll become the third member of The HotChikas."

Kelly steps away from her locker, arms crossed. "Not dressed like that." Kelly shakes her head at her best friend's choice of wardrobe: a pair of denim short shorts and a red tank top covered by a denim vest. Her straight dirty blonde hair caressing her shoulders. "You should have at least worn shorts with just one short in the name not two."

"Was that supposed to be a joke?" Kelly turns towards her left and sees the rest of her friends - each dressed to impress. "And what are you wearing?"

Kelly uncrosses her arms and responds to Sandra Diaz, "Just because you guys chose to dress like you're going partying-"

"Just us?" Kelly's eyes dart towards her other friend Franchesca Peeples, who is clothed similarly to Sandra: skinny jeans with an Abercrombie and Fitch top and black leather jacket with knee-high boots. "The entire school is dressed up. You're the only exception, as always."

"You know The HotChikas judge on day one." Natasha Equil says in her thick Australian accent as she opens the locker next to Kelly's.

"Yeah, and they're only the most popular girls in school." Isabella Rochelle says in a soft Irish accent. "Eastchester's It group."

"I know who they are." Kelly says, turns her back to her friends, while taking her I.B. Physics spiral notebook out of her locker. "I've been going to school with them since kindergarten."

"Then why are you dressed like a complete failure?" Isabella asks, crossing her arms in front of her. "You should know better than that by now."

"I do." Kelly says, closing her locker with a sigh. "Which is why I don't bother anymore. Like I told Tyler, I gave up hope of joining the TOP a long time ago."

"That makes sense." Franchesca says with a nod, fixing her black Prada purse.

"Oh. My. God. Here they come." Sandra says, straightening up, looking around Isabella towards the double doors at the end of the hallway.