what if

Chapter One

It was a Monday morning and the school hallways were as busy as usual, Debbie shoved her way past people; mainly the freshmen who were running around. She reached her locker and flung it open almost hitting the boy stood next to her with it, he slowly closed his own locker and walked away not daring to even look in her direction. Just as she was grabbing her textbooks and putting them in her bag, she heard her best friends voice behind her.

"Morning Deb," Tammy said and Debbie closed her locker and faced the other girl, she was met with a tall blonde girl standing next to Tammy. The girl's hair was short and a little messy, she was wearing a black leather jacket and her bag slung over her shoulder, her legs were long and slim and Debbie couldn't tear her eyes away from her. Just when she thought she couldn't get any hotter, she noticed a motorbike helmet in her hands. "Deb, you okay?"

"Oh uh yeah sorry just tired, who's this?" Debbie lied like she wasn't just totally checking the new girl out.

"Oh yeah sorry, Debbie this is Lou, Lou this is Debbie, she's new and we're all in the same homeroom I thought she could sit with us," Tammy said and Debbie slowly nodded her head, once the bell rang the three of them headed towards their classroom. The three of them sat on the back row next to one another.

"So what class do you have first?" Debbie asked the new girl, who glanced down at a piece of paper in her hand.

"I have English with Mrs. Jenkins," Lou said in a thick Australian accent, taking Debbie by surprise.

"Wait you're Australian?" Debbie asked, and Lou let out a low chuckle at the brunettes excitement, slowly nodding her head. As soon as the teacher walked in the class went silent, so silent that you could hear a pin drop. Before they knew it the bell rang and everyone piled out into the hallways once again. Tammy headed in the opposite direction to Debbie and Lou, the pair walked side by side trying to avoid all of the kids pushing and shoving.

"So what brings you over here?" Debbie asked the blonde on her right, she quickly glanced at the brunette before she smirked.

"English class," the blonde said with a proud smile on her face, Debbie just rolled her eyes and corrected herself.

"No, I mean what brought you to America?" She asked again and this time Lou just shrugged her shoulders and looked down at the floor.

"My dad got thrown in jail, so my mum wanted to get us away from all of that; you know the usual," Lou said in a joking manner, but Debbie didn't laugh like the taller girl expected. Instead, she turned into the classroom on their left, and like homeroom the two of them made their way to the back of the room.

"I'm sorry about your dad if it helps my dad is in jail too and my mom," Debbie said but before Lou could say any more the teacher began to speak, and of course she had to point out that Lou was the new girl and that she should introduce herself to them. The blonde hesitated before standing up from her seat and walking to the front of the classroom.

"Hi I'm Lou, I just moved here from Australia and I ride a motorbike," Lou said and made her way back to her seat next to Debbie. The brunette leaned towards her with a smirk on her face, Lou looked at her questioningly before she began to speak.

"Wow, that was super interesting I learned so much about you," Debbie said in a sarcastic tone causing Lou to smirk at the brunette.

"I thought you would have, I-"

"Deborah, Lou, I am trying to teach if you have something you would like to share with the whole class please do, if not please be quiet," Mrs. Jenkins said causing the whole class to turn and look at the pair. Lou felt her cheeks heating up a little, she looked down at the desk and traced her fingers over the carvings on it. They were mostly people's names but there were the odd little doodles. She continued to stare down at them and didn't even realise that Debbie was speaking to her.

"Lou?"

"Sorry, what?" She questioned as the brunette's voice brought her back to reality.

"We have to discuss something about Gatsby and Daisy's relationship. Lucky for me my partner is the new kid and Jenkins' is nice enough to let you settle in before she picks on you" Debbie smiled and Lou simply raised her eyebrows at the brunette. The blonde looked down at the carvings in the table once again, but this time Debbie noticed what she was looking at.

Lucky for them Debbie was right and the teacher didn't ask them to explain what they were discussing. Instead, they had to sit and listened to five other pairs describe what they thought about the characters in the book. Before the boy on the front row could finish speaking the bell rang and once again everyone was in the hallways rushing to their next class.

"What do you have now?" Debbie asked, as Lou quickly retrieved the piece of paper from her back pocket and showed the brunette what it says.

"Oh you have that class with Tammy she is probably already there, its the last room on the right," Debbie said and Lou smiled gratefully before the two went in opposite directions.

When it was lunch Debbie made her way outside and towards the bench that she and Tammy usually sit on. She was met with both Tammy and their new friend Lou sat eating their lunch in a peaceful silence. However, that peace was soon lost when the brunette sat opposite the two of them, she threw her bag to the floor and sat down in a dramatic fashion; causing Lou to raise an eyebrow at her.

"So Lou from Australia who rides a motorbike, how has your first day been so far?" Debbie teases the girl referring to their English class when the blonde had to introduce herself. The comment earned a glare from Lou as she continued to eat her sandwich. Tammy looked between the pair with a very confused look on her face and her head tilted to the right a little; like a confused puppy.

"It's not been too bad, I just can't wait to get home to my bed." The blonde said chuckling a little and Debbie nodded her head in agreement.

"Hey, Lou, Deb and I are going to hers after school for pizza and movies do you wanna join us?" Tammy asked hoping that the girl would say yes so that they had another person in their little group instead of just the two of them.

"Oh no that's okay I wouldn't want to intrude."

"You're not you should come it will be fun," Debbie said and Lou nodded her head in agreement.

"Okay I'll come," Lou said, she was the new girl and even though they had invited her she thought it was just because she was there, so Debbie agreeing with Tammy made sure that the blonde knew that they actually wanted her there.

"Good, we will meet you out front, where we met this morning, and then head over to Debbie's," Tammy said and Lou nodded her head as she grabbed her helmet from the floor and pulled it closer to her feet because some freshman nearly tripped over it.

"What kind of pizza do you like so I can make sure Danny orders it right," Debbie asked the girl, she already knew Tammy's order like the back of her hand and she's pretty sure that the pizza place knew their whole order by heart.

"I like any pizza really, I'll just have whatever you're ordering," Lou said and Debbie nodded her head and wrote something down on a scrappy piece of paper she had just pulled from her bag.

Once lunch was over they made it through their final classes and at the end of the day they met up where they agreed to. Despite having to wait a little longer for Lou because come on it's a brand new school she was going to get lost sooner or later. But once she finally arrived the three of them made their way to Debbie's house, Debbie and Tammy were in Tammy's car and Lou following the pair on her motorbike.

The whole thing felt foreign to her, back in Australia she had one friend and that was because most kids' parents didn't allow them to be friends with a criminal's daughter. But she finally feels like she belongs somewhere because she knows the two of them won't judge her. The main reason she knows that is because both of Debbie's parents are in jail.