"What happened to your hair?"

Zane looked up from his physics textbook to see his mother standing in the doorway. "I just needed a trim." He brushed his hand over the back of his head. "Do you think it's too short?"

"No..." Mrs. Gibson looked lost for words. "It's just different."

"The style is different here," Zane explained lamely.

"Sure. Of course." With his mother still looking weirdly torn about his new haircut, Zane struggled to explain. Luckily, Owen barged in.

"Zane, there's hair all in the sink! Did you shave your legs for the first time since winter?"

A laugh escaped from Mrs. Gibson before she covered her mouth. "You should really clean up after yourself," she said to Zane, and left.

Owen entered Zane's room and flopped on the bed. "Seriously, what did you do to your head?"

Zane looked at his little brother with a new realization. "You were right about my hair."

"Huh?"

"Yeah! You were right about my hair! This girl... well, anyway, I need your advice. On a few things."

Owen stared at him. "What? Are you kidding? Seriously, are you joking around?"

"Clearly, you know something I don't. So I need your help."

"Dude, I don't know anything!"

"Just tell me what you think of my new haircut."

Owen squinted his eyes and studied Zane for several long moments. "I don't know, maybe you should have actually gone to a hair salon? It looks like you had a mental breakdown."

"Fantastic," Zane muttered, dropping his head into his hands and rubbing his eyes.

"Like you had a mental breakdown, were tossed into an asylum, and then managed to escape."

"I get the picture." Zane moaned. "What can I do?"

"I don't know, maybe I could try to even out the back?"

It was a situation neither Zane nor his brother had ever imagined they would be in. Zane with a towel draped over his shoulders and Owen standing over him with a pair of scissors.

"You can never tell anyone about this," Owen warned, thrusting the blades in Zane's face.

"I won't, I swear."

"Cuz I'm actually fitting in here, a little bit. I'm not just Zane Gibson's little brother here."

"Okay, okay. Please, just help me."

"Fine."

Half an hour later Zane examined his new look in the mirror. "I guess I do look less like a crazy person."

"And more like a douchebag," Owen said proudly.

"Wait, isn't that a bad thing?" Zane whipped his head back and forth. "Do I really look like a douchebag?"

"It's a bad thing but a good thing," Owen explained. "You want to fit in here, right? This haircut will help you fit in."

"So you're saying everyone in Palos Verdes has a douchey haircut?"

"Damn straight. This place is full of hipsters. And wanna-be actors, but since your One Direction haircut didn't work out, I figure this chick must be more into douchebags, I mean hipsters."

"Um, thanks, then."

Zane rubbed his head and looked down at his brother. "So, what group exactly are you fitting into?"

"I'm starting my own group. Hipsters love that."

***

The next day, Zane looked for Harmony everywhere in the halls. All he found was Wilson.

"Yo, man, I barely recognized you with the new 'do! Hey, nice messenger bag."

"Thanks," Zane said, still scanning the hallway.

"Looking for someone?" Wilson said loudly.

Zane jumped a little then hissed at him, "Dude, keep it on the down-low. Sheesh."

"Sor-ree," Wilson said. "I never went to Wingman College."

Zane tried to ignore his one and only friend, who had chosen to wear a backwards hat. A backwards hat. This could not be happening. It was like every fashion faux-pas he'd even learned was a rule here.

In a low voice, Wilson asked, "You're looking for Harmony, aren't you."

"What if I am?"

"You're not gonna find her. You need to pay more attention, my friend. I told you Harmony's bad news."

"What does that mean?"

"According to Anna Murray, who heard from Allen Richardson, who is friends with Iris Wong's brother who hangs out with Harmony all the time, Harmony got busted for drugs at some club last night."

"What? No way." Zane finally peeled his eyes away from the doorway of homeroom. "Who goes to a club on a weeknight? After the first day of school?"

"It wouldn't seem so weird if you knew anything about Harmony Gutierrez."

"I just don't believe it."

"Fine, don't believe me." Wilson shrugged, then immediately forgot about it. "Hey! Ross! Over here!" Wilson waved to the kid striding into the homeroom. He, too, wore a baseball cap backwards.

I must be in some kind of alternate dimension, Zane thought.

"Get a life, Will," the boy named Ross said without looking in their direction. He slid into a desk near two girls with dark tans and long hair extensions.

"Ross, my man, you need to meet the newest addition to our great football team," Wilson called.

"I've already met you, nerd," Ross said, still not looking in Wilson's direction.

"Ha ha ha, very funny!" Wilson said. "Of course, I wasn't talking about myself, but about Zane here. He'll be at practice this afternoon."

Ross finally turned around and gave Zane a once-over. "You Zane?"

"Nice to meet you," Zane said.

With a nod from Ross, Zane knew he was in. Finally, someone who could see that Zane was one of the popular kids.

"Come sit over here, man. This is where the cool kids are at."

Zane glanced at Wilson, then got up and moved to the desk next to Ross. Wilson moved too.

"Get lost, twerp," Ross said.

"I won't say anything. I promise." Wilson pantomimed locked his lips and throwing away the key.

Ross gave Wilson a withering look, then focused on Zane. "You're new here."

"Yeah, my family just moved here from Florida."

"Yeah, you got that new kid look all over you. No worries. You get tight with me and other guys on the team, we'll set you straight."

"Florida, huh?" The girl to the left of Ross leaned over and batted long fake eyelashes. "Like, Orlando? DisneyWorld?"

"About an hour outside of Orlando, actually," Zane said.

"That's cool. I like DisneyWorld. Hey, can I get your number?"

Wilson leaned over and whispered, "Nikki always likes adding numbers to her little black book."

"I thought you said you were going to zip it?" Ross snarled.

Zane got out his phone and exchanged numbers with Nikki. While he was a tiny bit worried about Wilson's impact on breaking into the popular crowd, he was thankful to the little dork for letting him know that Nikki was the class slut and he should stay far, far away. The girl might have spent a lot of time and money on her appearance, but she was no match for Harmony. Zane just knew that Harmony's long blonde hair was all natural. No bleach or weaves involved.

Meeting Ross led to meeting Ricky and Kyle, which led to Mason and Tristan and Hunter, and then Mike Snow and Josh and Mike Greenburg, and by the time lunch rolled around Zane was sitting at a table filled with football players, cheerleaders, and half the soccer team. Wilson managed to squeeze into a spot at the end.

"So are the chicks in Florida hot?" asked either Tyler or Dylan, Zane couldn't remember which one was which. Both had the same douchebag hair as Zane now sported.

Zane knew how to answer this question. "Not as hot at the girls here!"

Now the girls were looking at him. He flashed them his trademark smile. Two of them whispered to each other and giggled while shooting glances his way, and this time he knew they weren't mocking his hair or dorky backpack.

He would be the big man on campus once again.

***

By the end of football practice, the deal was virtually done. Coach Thompson had benched Connor Christiansen for some petty infraction, and Zane had been called into the skirmish, and it looked like Connor was now benched permanently. Zane had thrown a dead-accurate forty-yard pass to Ross, the QB. It was impressive enough to catch the Coach's eye, and perhaps someone else's.

He caught a glimpse of blonde hair on the sidelines, where the cheerleaders were practicing. There was more than one blonde cheerleader on the team and focusing on getting on the team was his top priority. After practice, however, he could really pick out what kept catching his eye: Harmony.

She was a cheerleader. Of course she was; no girl could look like that and not be a cheerleader.

Between run-throughs of their routine, Harmony would sneak under the bleachers where her group of friends was hanging out. She didn't put at much effort into the cheers as some of her teammates, who looked psychotically pumped up about touchdowns. Zane could understand Harmony's attitude. It was clear that cheerleading here wasn't a big gymnastic sport like it was in Florida. Harmony probably needed more of a challenge.

When practice ended, Zane hung back and tried to slow-walk past where Harmony stood slumped against a bleacher support, gazing off into middle distance. He found himself ruffling his own hair and glancing over at her to see if she noticed him. He was nearly at the gate when he heard her.

"Twilight," she said.

He turned.

"I thought that was you." She studied him. "Your hair is different."

"Yeah?" He turned on the trademark Zane smile.

"I said different, not better."

He didn't know what to do with her bored expression. Was she interested in him, or did she want him to leave? She didn't seem like she cared either way.

"Hey, you wanna go out sometime?" he asked.

She stared at him. He thought he saw a spark in her bright green eyes.

"Sure."

His smile grew wider. Okay, so it wasn't the enthusiastic "Yes!" he'd hoped for in the split second before he decided to bite the bullet and ask her out, but it was a positive.

"Great! Maybe I can pick you up tomorrow night and we can get some dinner?"

"There's a party tomorrow night at Levi Marsh's house." Harmony gazed at him steadily. "We could hit that up after dinner."

"Oh, okay. Cool." He bobbed his head up and down. "Yeah, you could introduce me to everyone. I still don't know many people here."

"See you later, then." Harmony turned and went under the bleachers, where Zane could see shadows standing.

He backed away. For a split second he wondered what kind of trouble Harmony was into, if anything Wilson said was true. Then he shrugged and headed to the locker room. He'd just scored a date with the hottest girl in school! Nothing was going to bring him down.

This is my first story on Wattpad, if you liked this chapter please vote and/or comment! Thank you for reading!