Broken Hill High (Broken Hill High 1)

Broken Hill High. The only private school in the area, so naturally, it’s filled with students whose parents practically fight for their position here. Being the only private school, it means that the board can raise the school fee’s and the parents are still going to pay it.

It’s filled with every kind of person you’d find at a regular school, only these kids come with the snobby attitude of kids who were raised with money. Just great. It means all the cheerleaders are extra bitchy and the jocks are bigger dickheads than you could possibly imagine.

Welcome to Broken Hill High.

Brooke parks her car beside Courtney’s and we grin as both she and Bec step out at the same time. “Hey,” they both smile. We meet at the front of the cars before walking up to the school together, each with a coffee in our hands. “I’m so excited,” Bec says as she pushes her auburn hair back behind her ear and makes sure it looks perfect for the first day. “We’re seniors. Top of the school.”

“I know,” Brooke laughs. “This place is ours. We’re going to dominate this school.”

I roll my eyes at their excitement as we head through the huge double doors of the school. I can’t help but glance at the groups of people around me. First, my eyes are drawn to the giggling to my right and notice the cheerleaders hovering around their queen’s locker. Though from what I can tell perfect little Miss Elle isn’t here yet, but when she is, the cheerleaders will all scream and jump up and down with excitement.

Next up, my eyes travel to the group of jocks who are making their way across to them with their letterman jackets, declaring them the biggest group of losers this school has ever seen.

Then there are the mean girls, who I stay far away from, and of course, the bad boys who tend to hover around the mean girls. Naturally, Nate is in the group of bad boys, though, I don’t expect to see any of those guys yet as they’d all be hovering around their cars, smoking or screwing until the final warning bell has rung.

The bad boy group is made up of the five worst guys in the school. Every single one of them completely swoon-worthy with an awful personality. Of course, there’s the head of the group, Nate Ryder, aka, the biggest dickhead in Broken Hill, next up, his brother, Jesse, who considers himself to be absolutely hilarious, though, I don’t quite agree. Then there’s their cousin Maxen who Brooke has a crush on, and finally there are Nate and Jesse’s best friends, Parker and Tyson. The perfect band of badasses to stay away from, not unless you want your world rocked followed by a thorough heartbreaking.

These guys are the go-to guys for a good time. You know, if you don’t own a cheerleading uniform and want to get a bit nasty between the sheets, then that group of five is the direction you’d be heading. Rumor has it that every single one of them would be a prize, but me? It’s not exactly a prize I’m interested in.

My group, we’re just the regular kids. We’re just normal. I mean, you could say we’re kind of popular. If I had to go through and make a popularity chart for the girls in the school, I’d say at the top is the cheerleaders, followed by the mean girls, and then maybe us, despite the way Nate tries to tear me down. For kids who can’t make it as a cheerleader and are terrified of the mean girls, they come to us, and naturally, we’re more than happy to lend a helping hand.

We pass by my locker first and I stop to dump all my things in it while Brooke darts across the hallway to hers. As I’m finishing up and closing my locker, two arms come down on either side of me, caging me in. “I’m sorry I was an ass the other night,” I hear murmured into my ear.

I turn around to find Josh hovering above me with his signature smirk. “You really were an ass,” I tell him.

He presses his lips down on mine and without the added push from the alcohol, I have to admit, it’s pretty good. His arms wind around me and he presses me into my locker. “Forgive me,” he says.

“I don’t know, Josh,” I say. “I heard you had a pretty exciting night.”

His eyebrows pull down and he looks at me in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

I slide my phone out of my pocket and turn the screen around to face him. He looks down at the picture of him getting his world rocked and grins. “Oh, yeah. I forgot about that,” he says. “But what did you expect? You said no and it’s not like we’re actually dating.”