To be or not to be? (Book #1)

Chapter 1

To be or not to be?

That is the question. Ashley Finn thought about the answer to this, wondering what the question really meant as she walked down the halls of her high school to her 3rd hour class. Will Alex ever notice how much I like him? I mean, it HAS been 7 years... You'd think he'd get a clue by now. Ashley shook her head to herself, getting lost in thought about Alex Jones, her crush since 4th grade. He was pretty much clueless, as any guy normally is about that sort of thing. She took her seat, wondering if those beautiful blue eyes would ever look at her the way she desired.

.~.~.

After school that day, Ashley and her best friend, Madison Ester went to the dance committee meeting for the school's junior-senior halloween dance that was being put on in a couple weeks.

"I kinda regret signing up for this..." Ashley said to Madison quietly, her eyes darting to a specific person in the room.

"Oh, ew, it's HER." Madison said with a scowl.

Across the room was Ashley's least favorite person in the world, Brianna Michaels. Her perfectly curly brown hair was tumbling down her back as she flirted with a group of guys standing near her, batting her long, dark eyelashes, hiding her striking green eyes. Ashley sighed and rolled her bright blue eyes in disgust. Whatever. She thought. At one time, Brianna and Ashley had been friends. Ashley still hadn't figured out why one day Brianna suddenly stopped talking to her and began hating her. However, it was for the best, Ashley soon figured out. She didn't want to be friends with somebody like that anyway. Throughout the meeting, all Ashley could think about was Alex... As usual. He was constantly on her mind, and she didn't really try to get him off of it. There was a lot to think about, they had been best friends since the 2nd grade - they had a lot of history. Not in a "boyfriend - girlfriend" way, but in a friendship way. Alex had been there when her parents got divorced last year. He had been there when her father got remarried 6 months later. He had always been there for her. So she wasn't about to tell herself to stop caring about him.

"So Ashley, what do you think the theme should be for this dance?" A voice asked. Ashley awoke sfrom her thoughts, looking up to see a handsome, blond haired, green eyed boy looking at her expectantly. His name was Brady Kyper, and he was helping the head of the dance comittee plan everything.

"Isn't it always just a costume party?" Ashley asked.

"Well, yes, but we want to change it up a bit this year," Brady said, half-smiling at Ashley "Does anybody have any ideas?"

Brianna raised her hand and Ashley fought the urge to groan out loud.

"I think it would be fun to have everybody be dressy instead of in costumes, and then have the decorations be more halloween themed, and scary." She said, narrowing her eyes when she said scary, as if to put more emphasis on it. As much as Ashley didn't want to admit it, Brianna had a pretty good idea.

"We could do a haunted house theme" Another girl chimed in. Others chimed in with ideas on how to decorate the school, and Ashley went back to her thoughts about Alex. I wonder if he thinks I'm pretty... I wonder if he'd ever like me, or if he just sees me as a 'sister'. He's been there for me through everything, he knows me better than anyone else... That could be a good thing, right? Ashley sighed to herself. She didn't know what was a good thing or not when it came to Alex. He confused her, which didn't happen often with the guys she encountered. She was pretty good at reading people, but when it came to Alex, she didn't stand a chance. That's another reason I love him.