Claire walked into her first period American History class and was immediately tackled and knocked to the ground.

She heard squeals of, “IT’S CLAIRE!!!” before she saw her four best friends.

Jenna, Aria, Megan and Stephenie all climbed to their feet and grinned down at her.

“A little help would be nice,” she told them, returning the grin.

A male hand shot out and Claire grasped it and was hauled back to her feet.

“Well Claire, I must say, you look fantastically gorgeous today.”

“Thank you Sam, but I’m afraid it still isn’t going to happen,” Claire told her classmate.

Sam had been crushin’ on her since their first day at Tate’s Creek as freshmen.

“Can’t blame a guy for trying, even if it never works.”

“No Sam, you can’t. Did you have a good summer?”

“You know it Clairebear.” Everyone called Claire ‘Clairebear’.

Before Claire could answer Sam, she was sitting in a desk chair and her friends were claiming her attention.

“Where’d you go this summer?”

“Why do you look so fantastic?”

“How come you have a gorgeous tan?”

“Why didn’t you tell us you were leaving?”

Claire took a deep breath and answered, “I was travelling with my brother. I always, well not ALWAYS, look fantastic. I was in the sun a lot. Outdoor venus are good for something. And I don’t know. Brian didn’t specifically prohibit me from telling anyone, I just didn’t tell anyone.’

All of her friends knew what her brother did for a living but Jenna’s eyes lit up when Claire mentioned Brian. She’d had the biggest crush on Brian ever since Claire’s seventh birthday party when he’d kissed her on the cheek.

“YOU WENT ON TOUR WITH THE BACKSTREET BOYS?!?!?!” they shouted as their teacher, Mr. Edwards walked in.

“Well, it’s nice to see that the Gorgeous Girls are finally back together, but we need to start class now.”

Claire didn’t like Mr. Edwards very much. He was kinda creepy. Plus, he looked at her and her friends (most girls in general really) rather oddly. Claire didn’t like it.

Mr. Edwards walked to his desk and said, “I’m sure you were all fascinated by Claire’s summer but it’s time for American History.”

He began talking and as he did, he walked around the room. Claire noticed how uncomfortable all the girls in class, Aria in particular, looked as he passed them.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“I love having my mother work in the office,” Stephenie said.

Steph’s mom did work in the school office. And every year she managed to have Claire, Aria, Steph, Megan and Jenna in the same classes. Having them all together was actually safer for the students and teachers because if they were in different classes, they tended to get a bit crazy.

“Is it just me or did Edwards get uber creepy over the summer?” Claire asked.

The girls were sitting at their usual lunch table, discussing their summers and morning classes.

“He’s definitely gotten creepier,’ Megan said. “I don’t like him.”

“So,” Aria said. “Tell us more about touring this summer.”

Claire smiled, this was an easy subject. “What do you want to know?”

“Did you have fun? What was your favorite stop? Least favorite stop? Did you kiss any of them? Did you do more than kiss? Who did you kiss? Did you perform with them> did you shop in good places? Where are they now?”

Claire took another deep breath and answered her friends as rapidly as they had fired questions at her. “Yes I had fun. My favorite stop was,” she blushed. “Well technically it wasn’t a stop but it was on the way to California. Oakland was my least favorite stop. I did kiss on of them and yes, we did more than kiss. Of course I shopped in good places and they are in Europe getting ready to start the European leg of the tour.”

“Who did you do more than kiss with? Tell us woman!” Megan demanded.

Claire blushed. No one, not even Brian’s girlfriend Samantha whom Claire was pretty close to knew she had slept with Aj.

“Aj,” she answered quietly.

The girls whistled. “You lucky bitch. He’s gorgeous.”

“I know,” she said. “He also happens to be my boyfriend.”

There was more squealing than there had been in the classroom that morning. Heads in the cafeteria were starting to turn to them. They weren’t known as the loudest girls in school for nothing.

“Hush, I’d rather not have the entire school find out I’m no longer a virgin just yet.”

They instantly shut up. “Tell us more!”

“Well,” Claire began. “I talked Brian and Kevin into letting me finish the ride to California on Aj and Howie’s bus. Last minute Nick asked Howie to come to his bus and play video games and Howie went. AJ and I had the bus to ourselves for the night. It was…”

She didn’t finish the thought, there really wasn’t a way to describe it.

The bell rang, signaling an end to free time and told them to get their butts to class.

“You WILL give us more details later,” Aria said as they headed off to gym.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“Can I come over?” Aria asked.

“Of course. My parents are working so we’ll be alone. You should stay for dinner.”

“I will Claire, but first, I really need to talk. I’ll be there in ten okay?”

“Sure,” Claire was nervous. Something was really wrong with Aria.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“WHAT?!” Claire yelled. “HE WHAT?!”

“he told me to see him after school was out. I told him I had practice so he said to meet him after that. I went to the meeting because I thought I was in trouble,” Aria was balling. “Well, I WAS in trouble just not the kind I thought I was. He made me have sex with him. I told him no and he didn’t listen. And now I think I’m pregnant. I don’t know what to do.”

Claire hugged her friend and her mind went to work. There had to be something they could do.

“You know,” she said. “Principal Robbinsen lives  next door. We need to speak to him.”

“But what if he doesn’t believe me? What if I get in trouble?”

“Aria, honey, you won’t be getting in trouble. Edwards will. I know for a fact that Robbinsen has gotten complaints about him before.”

Aria shook her head. “I’ll go,” she said. “But I’m not telling him I think I’m pregnant.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Claire led the way next door and knocked. Aria was still crying and Claire was close to it herself.

“Claire?” the principal asked, opening her door.

“Ma’am, I know you don’t like when students drop by unexpectedly but I figured you wouldn’t mind in this case because it involves a teacher at school.”

“A teacher? Miss Mayne are you okay?”

Aria, who was now sobbing loudly, shook her head.

“Come in, come in. Miss Littrell, I believe you will have to tell me what’s going on. I gather it involves Miss Mayne and she seems unable to talk at the moment.”

They sat down in the principal’s living room and Aria attached herself to Claire who hugged her back.

Claire watched Principal Robbinsen’s face as she recounted Aria’s story to her. It was very troubled.

Principal Robbinsen spoke to Aria, “Miss Mayne, we must call the police. Do you think you can talk to them? It’s very important that you do. Do you wish for your parents to be called?”

“Yes. Please call them. I will be able to speak to the police.”

Claire heard a change in Aria’s voice. She knew her friend would do what was necessary to get Mr. Edwards in trouble for what he’d done to her. And who knew, he may have done it to other girls who were just too afraid to come forward.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Hey hon,

I know I said I’d write before this but it’s been crazy lately. One of our teachers at school now resides I a prison cell. I call him Mr. Creepy Teacher Man. He was just odd and made all the girls in his classes, all the girls he came in contact with actually, extremely uncomfortable. He did something he shouldn’t have to one of his students who happens to be a friend of mine. I think my brother had him as a teacher when he was here. You should ask him. But anyhoo, how’s the tour going? Tell everyone I say hello and sing a song for me. I’d love to write more, but I’ve got a ton of homework to catch up because of what recently happened. So good luck with the rest of the tour.

Love ya, Claire.

Claire read the letter over and packaged it. Her mom was going to drop it off on her way to Aunt Ann’s. Claire, as she had just written, was staying home to catch up on the zillion homework assignments she’d put off during the recent trial. It was going to take her forever.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“CLAIRE!!!”

Claire turned away from her  open locker and saw Aria was running to her. Aria had been seeing a therapist and was making a good recovery.

“Yes?” she asked, smiling. Aria was obviously happy about something.

“GUESS WHAT!” Aria screamed inches from Claire’s face.

“Um. Those flying pigs finally descended from Mt. Olympus and turned your backyard into a zoo full of other worldly creatures?”

“No. But that would be so COOL!”

“Tell me then.”

“I’m not pregnant,” she whispered in Claire’s ear.

“That’s awesome.”

The friends squealed. “We must celebrate,” Aria said.

“Of course. It’s time for our slumber party. We’ll turn it into a celebration.” The friends always had a back-to-school slumber party the end of the first month of school but it had been pushed back this year for obvious reasons.

“Awesome. It must be something fun.”

“Of course. We always do fun stuff. Well, except for that one time in seventh grade.”

They giggled and blushed. “Oh yeah. That was definitely NOT fun.”

Jenna, Megan and Steph joined them and the five girls linked arms and skipped of down the hall singing, “We’re off to see the wizard…”