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"New Year, New Slate, New Hair, New You," Will murmured to himself like a mantra as he fixed his new hair in his bathroom mirror.

The day after he'd gone at his hair with the pair of scissors, Will decided to go to the hairdresser's. Starting his last year of high school looking like a mess was probably not a good idea. Will had sat down in the chair, reluctant to take off the beanie that was hiding the complete train wreck underneath. Sure, most of the weight had been lifted off his shoulders but that offered little consolation to what he'd done to his hair.

There were two things he'd learnt he should never do, never get carried away doing anything and never cut anyone's hair. Ever.

After the hairdresser had finally gotten the beanie off his head, she had gasped in shock before breaking out into giggles. "Cut your hair in the dark, did you?" she'd asked through her laughter, causing Will to blush bright red in embarrassment. She began cutting away, actually knowing what she was doing, as Will sat looking around him through the reflection of the mirror. As he looked in the reflection, something caught his eye.

On the wall behind him, covered in hair ads showing different styles and colours, one in particular stood out. One with a model with dark red hair. But it wasn't just the hair that got Will's attention. Underneath the model's head was the caption, in bold white block letters, "NEW SLATE." It was like a "sign from the universe", meant just for Will, and he couldn't just ignore it. Will stopped the hairdresser, asking her to do one more thing for him. Two hours later and Will was returning home, his hair no longer a train wreck, but rather perfectly styled and all dyed a deep, rich red.

After getting home, Will had decided to finally turn his life back around, to try and turn over a new leaf, start the school year with a new slate and not be the pathetic mess he'd been two days earlier. Well, the last four months, to be honest. He'd come up with that mantra, "New Year, New Slate, New Hair, New You," to get him through, to remind himself to push on forward.

Now it was the first day of school, an hour or so before class started. Will was growling at an errant piece of hair that wouldn't co-operate when his phone began to ring out. Will huffed in annoyance, leaving the piece sticking out as he went to his bedroom to answer his phone.

"Hey Liv," Will said as he answered it, walking to the mirror in his room to continue fixing his hair.

"How'd you know it was me?" Will's best friend, Olivia Monaghan, replied as she waited for her nail polish to dry. Liv was a bit loopy and out-there, but her and Will always had heaps of fun together.

"Lucky guess?" Will responded, smiling proudly after getting the piece of hair to finally co-operate.

"You gave me another personalised ringtone again, didn't you?" Liv asked, glaring at him, even though she knew he couldn't see her. "What is it this time?" she questioned after Will begrudgingly admitted the truth.

"Crazy by Gnarls Barkley," Will responded, holding the phone between his ear and shoulder as he tried to put on the long grey socks of his school uniform.

"Dude, seriously? I'm not that crazy!" Liv yelled through the phone, causing Will to wince at the pain it caused his eardrums. "Sorry, that was a little loud," Liv apologised, much quieter this time, before repeating, "I'm not that crazy."

"Yes, you are. Remember the time you nicked your neighbour's garden gnome and mailed her photoshopped photos of the gnome in other countries?" Will replied as he tied up the laces of his black school shoes. The gnome, which Liv had named Bongo, was safely returned to Mrs. Pieters a year after going missing.

"Mrs Pieters said she quite enjoyed the adventures Bongo had, thank you very much!" Liv exclaimed, before sighing dramatically. "Yeah, I'm crazy." Will rolled his eyes, stuffing all his new school supplies into his school bag.

"You don't say," Will replied sarcastically. This was a conversation they had frequently and always ended the same way. He was about to say more but was cut off by a honking from out front. "Hey Liv, Cash is here so I gotta go. I'll see you at school," he quickly told her, picking up his school bag as he raced down the hallway.

"Huh, look at that timing, Emmie just pulled up. I'll see you in a few," Liv replied, hanging up as Will closed the front door behind himself. Will ran down his driveway to Cash's car waiting on the curb, which hadn't stopped honking since it arrived.

"You can stop now, I'm here," Will shouted over the horn as he jumped in. Cash rolled her eyes but took her hand off the horn and started the car anyways, making their way towards school.

Cash Wisniewski was the loud, fun, life of the party who was also the temperamental, emotional bomb you didn't want to be on the wrong end of. Cash was short for Kasia, mainly because she hated the way people would mess up saying Kasia, and she was also one of Will's best friends - Will had long decided that "best friend" was a tier rather than one person.

"So, what've you been up to?" Cash asked giving Will a quick glance through her sunglasses as she turned on the car.

"Cash, we saw each other like 4 days ago, nothing much happens in 4 days," Will replied as she drove down the street.

"Well, that's obviously not true," Cash retorted as the car stopped at the traffic lights. "Last time I saw you, your hair was normal and now you look like a matchstick," she added, quickly ruffling his hair. Will glared at her but she only rolled her eyes, returning her focus back to the road. "Why'd you change your hair?" she asked as the traffic light turned green.

"I don't know, felt like a change," Will answered, fixing his hair in the sun visor. "And will I be expecting more redhead jokes?"

"You better believe it," she replied, laughing a little. "This is my revenge. Remember when I started going blonde?" she asked, pulling on her bleached blonde braid for emphasis.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. The blonde jokes, I get it," Will responded, rolling his eyes. "They were pretty funny though! What was that really good one that even you laughed at?" he thought aloud, trying to remember. "Oh my god, yeah, I remember now! Why was the blonde confused after having twins?" he asked with a big smile on his face as he tried not to laugh.

"Because she couldn't figure out who the other mother was," Cash finished begrudgingly. Will began to crack up as Cash rolled her eyes, a little smile playing on her lips. "Whatever, Ronald."

"Great, so now it starts."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

They finally pulled up into the school car park 15 minutes later, radio blasting the new Ke$ha album they'd been obsessed with all summer as they ate the McMuffins they'd quickly picked up on the way.

"So what's been up with you then?" Will asked through a mouthful of McMuffin.

"Dude, gross!" Cash exclaimed, leaning away from him. Will just rolled his eyes, taking another bite. "Yeah, I gotta tell you something," she said, almost sadly, as the back door opened quickly. Will and Cash jumped up in their seats in shock before quickly turning around to see who was getting in the car. "Oh my god, Kimi, don't do that!" Cash yelled, hand clutched to her chest as she began to breathe again.

"Sorry," Kimi, another one of Will's best friends, apologised as she closed the car door behind her.

Kimi was another member of their little group, whose name was moreso a nickname which came after a very embarrassing encounter they had with her mother. As Mrs. Chow put it, our little Kimi loved (read: obsessed with) Kimi from Rugrats when she was young, probably a symptom of not having many other characters to identify with. For four years, every time she was allowed to dress up for something, the Kimi costume always came out. And since best friends can be the cruelest people you know, the nickname stuck.

"Nice hair, Will, makes you look like a matchstick," Kimi commented, breaking a piece off the hash brown in Cash's hand.

"I said the same thing!" Cash exclaimed and the two girls gave each other a high five.

"You were gonna say something," Will reminded Cash after finishing his breakfast.

"Oh, uh, yeah," Cash responded nervously, fiddling with the hash brown. "Aaron sorta broke up with me on Saturday..." she muttered quietly.

"Oh no! What happened? Are you okay?" Will asked, placing a comforting hand on Cash's arm.

Cash took in a deep breath before explaining what had happened. He'd broken up with her with no actual reason, no explanation. "I wasn't even expecting it. I should have seen it coming, y'know, since he was so distant. But I just completely blew it off. I thought I was just being paranoid but he changed and I didn't realise what that was leading to. I'm just angry that he didn't give any reason..." she finished, wiping her falling tears from her cheeks. She breathed deeply again and cleared her throat. "I, err, don't wanna talk about it anymore but thanks for listening guys, it was really nice to get it out," she said, wiping her face with the napkins from the take-away bag. Will and Kimi nodded, both giving her a quick awkward hug in the limited space of the car.

"Don't beat yourself up over it Cash, yeah? He's the dick that gave no reason for breaking up with you. He's the one who lost something amazing, not you, OK?" Kimi said with a sympathetic smile.

She gave them a small smile, tearing up a little again. "Alright, any other news?" she asked once she'd calmed down more.

"Uhh, yeah, actually," Kimi said, putting on her 'I have such great gossip' face.

She was a big gossip and had this weird ability to find out information on everyone and anyone. Will and his friends sometimes joked that she was part of a High School Asian Mafia.

"Apparently, there's a new guy here. And the word is that he's smoking hot," she continued, a big smile on her face.

"We haven't even gotten into the school yet, how did you even find out about this?" Will asked, confused as always by how she found out about this stuff.

"I have my ways," Kimi responded cryptically, giving them a wink. "Anyways, from what I've heard, he's an absolute babe. 'Sex on legs,' I heard someone say. Where did that term come from, 'sex on legs'? Like, it's really weird when you thi-" Kimi started.

"Rambling, Kimi," Will interrupted.

"Right," she said, glaring at him a little. "But yeah, he's super-hot. Apparently he looks li-" she began until stopping, eyes opened a little wider.

"What is it, Kimi?" Cash asked, confused by Kimi's sudden pause.

"That's, umm, him there, actually," Kimi answered, pointing out the front windshield.

All their attention turned to the guy on the path in front of the car, looking absentmindedly at his surroundings. He was a tall guy with short blonde hair and really nice blue eyes. He was lean with a little bit of muscle seen though his shirt and he seemed to be a little shy, but that's expected for a new student.

Will half expected something totally cliché to happen, like, "It was love at first sight," or "When our eyes met, I just knew I was meant to be with him." But no. None of that happened. So, after a quick glance over to check him out, Will was a gay teenage boy after all, he paid the new kid no more attention, and turned back to his friends, only to see them gawking at him like he was the hottest guy to ever walk to planet.

Oh brother...

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