Mel & Brent couldn't believe it. They were trapped.

"OK, something seriously freaky is going on here," Brent said, his voice quivering, his eyes searching.

"Exactly what I was thinking," Mel answered, beging to walk around the room. He was searching for a clock to keep time by, but couldn't find one. He asked the question that was haunting them both, "Why did they trap us in here? Do they have something to hide?"

"I can't think what," Brent replied. "I always thought that our school was an honest and open one, but these certainly doesn't help that hypothesis."

Brent walked towards the computer panel on the wall to see if he could activate the computer. He pushed a couple of buttons, and the big screen at the front of the room lit up.

"Good job," Mel praised, sitting down in one of the chairs of the long table.

"Thanks," Brent was known throughout Midway Prep as a computer graphics genius. He worked hard at it.

Brent sat down next to Mel, and the two looked intently at the screen. Suddenly, a large head appeared on the screen. The head was white, the eyes were covered by dark sunglasses, and the face had a long, brown moustache.

"Welcome, G1," the head said. Mel & Brent were confused. They didn't have the slightest clue who G1 was.

"G1, I have assigned you a task, one that I expect you to do immediately. G1, I want you to pay a visit to Midway Academy."

Brent gasped. Mel looked hard at Brent. "What?"

"You don't know?" Brent asked unbelievingly. "Oh, that's right. You're new. Midway Academy is our chief rival. At all sports and academic events, the battle is always on between our two schools. Why would he send someone over to them?"

The two boys turned back to the screen. "G1, I want you to make sure that Midway Academy doesn't make it to the upcoming Diamond Banquet. We can't have them coming there and spoiling things," the head said firmly. "You make sure that they don't arrive...AT ALL COSTS!"

Mel & Brent looked at each other with frightened looks in their eyes.

"What is going on here?!" a girl's voice boomed from behind Jake & Trace.

Jake spun around. His jaw dropped and his eyes went wide. "Kim! Kim, baby!" Jake shouted, hugging his girlfriend.

Kim hugged Jake quickly then pushed him away. "What was going on here? What were you two fighting about?"

"Nothing, Kim," Trace said, hugging Kim. Jake eyes looked daggers into Trace's back.

"Oh, really? Well then why did I heard all of this shouting and yelling while I was coming up? I don't want you two fighting. This time of the year is much too festive to be spoiled with ludicrous fights like the two of you have."

"Of course, Kim," Jake replied, holding Kim's hand. "How did band camp go?"

"Hard, as usual, but fun," Kim answered. "I met a lot of new friends as well as checked up on old ones. I may be going to state competition, Jake! Isn't that great?"

"Um...yeah," Jake said weakly. In all truthfulness, he didn't think it was great. First of all, he didn't like Kim to be away for so long. He missed her, and he didn't want to miss her. Second of all, he had a secret dislike of Kim's musical talent. It was making her soar professionally, while he was stuck in Midway with nothing to do. He didn't want her to get ahead of him.

"I'm going to go check up on Eve and the girls. I'll see you soon," Kim said, floating over to the girls' section.

Jake looked sweetly after her, then turned hard and cold back to Trace. "Look, Trace," he snarled. "You keep your filthy hands off of my girl."

"Man, shut up," Trace said, walking over towards Kim and the girls. Jake followed him in a rage.

Jessica brushed her shoulder-length velvet-brown hair out of her eyes nervously. It was her first day at cheerleader camp. She walked slowly to the bleachers where the rest of the cheerleaders were snickering.

"Well, well," Carrie, one of the cheerleaders, said smugly. "If it isn't little Miss Jessica coming to try and hang in the major leagues."

"Wh-what are you talking about, Carrie?" Jessica stammered.

"Come on, Jessica. Do you actually think that you can become one of us? If you do, you're more ignorant than I thought."

Jessica forgot her nervousness in an instant. "You can just shut up about that, Carrie. I will be ten times the cheerleader you are or ever will be. You sit up there on your high horse and think that you're better than everybody, but you don't realize that just about everybody else has something that you don't have: talent."

"And you do?" Melanie, a Hispanic cheerleader, said. "Come on, Jessica. The only reason you were picked is because people felt sorry for you. I would to."

"I don't need pity from one of the sorriest people on earth."

"And it's not as if you can do the moves. I saw you and tryouts. You couldn't cheer if your life depended on it," Carrie taunted.

"I could!"

"And you have no rhythmn. Beats just pass you by without you even knowing it," Chantal, an African-American cheerleader, laughed.

"And you do, Chantal? You might as well have ten feet, the way that you move. You all can sit up there and tease me all you want, but I know that I've got more qualities to be a cheerleader than any of you have. So just shut up!" Jessica shouted at them before stalking away.

Carrie, Melanie, and Chantal looked after Jessica with smirks on their face. "We'll see about that, Jessica," Carrie said.

"Tell me I'm hearing things," Brent said. He place his head on top of his arms on the table and looked straight down at the table.

"I'm sorry, Brent, but your school looks messed up. Is it everyday that some strange man wearing dark sunglasses comes on a big screen in a secret room and announces that he'll keep a school away from something AT ALL COSTS?" Mel asked.

"Of course not!" Brent shouted, his head snapping straight up in the air. He began tapping the table with his fingers. "I don't get why this is happening."

Mel looked thoughtfully at Brent. "OK, let's put the pieces together. I find this room by chance. It's hidden off by having the door painted the exact same color as the walls, with no handle. The inside of this room is all glass, but we don't know what's on the other side. A man dressed in black comes and locks us in here. Then, after you messed with the computer panel, this giant head appears on the screen and starts talking about keeping Midway Academy away from the Diamond Banquet, whatever that is, at all costs. I think some kind of conspiracy is going on here."

"Really?" Brent said sarcastically. "I believe there's more to it than that. Something's missing. Who would want to do this?"

"Don't look at me."

"Of course I know that you don't know! I was thinking along the lines of teachers and administrators."

Mel got up and went to look through the large closet, but it was locked. He turned around and looked at Brent. "I believe that the answer to that question is in this closet. But we have to get out of here first and look for help."

Brent tried throwing chairs and other objects at the wall/door, but it wouldn't work. He knew that it wouldn't be any use to try and knock the door down because it was so thick. "I believe we're stuck, Mel," Brent said.

"For now, anyways," Mel replied.

Just then, the thick door slid back open. Mel & Brent ran towards the opening, but only succeeded in running into the black-dressed man. They were terrified.

"Eve!" Kim called to her friend. People around her shushed her becaues the speaker was still speaking.

"Kim!" Eve shouted back to Kim in a whisper. They ran and hugged. "How was camp?"

"Great, girl! But I'm glad to be home. Come on, let's sit over there so we can catch up," Kim said, leading Eve over to four courner seats.

Trace followed them into the corner. "I want to hear all about your camp, Kim."

"Yeah, me too," Jake almost growled.

Kim looked hard at Jake before turning back to Eve. "How are things going between you and Brent?"

"Pretty good," Eve said. "Brent said he went to find you, Trace. Did he ever?"

"No, I haven't seen him in a while."

A flash of worry crossed Eve's face. "He said he was going to look for you. That was over thirty minutes ago. Where could he be?"

"Maybe he had to use the restroom," Jake put in. "That may take a while, you know."

The worry left Eve's face. "Of course. He's just out using the restroom. Or maybe he ran into a friend and started talking to him. Whew! Had me worried there for a minute!"

"So when's the Miss Midway Contest going to be held?" Kim questioned.

"Tomorrow!" Eve said. "I can hardly wait!"

"It'll be great only if Amber's not picked. I'm so sick of seeing her crowned every "I don't think you should worry about that," Trace said confidently. Jake looked at Trace suspiciously.

"How do you know that?" Jake inquired.

"I just have my ways," Trace said and walked away.

"What is he up to?" Jake wondered inside his head.

Jessica was practicing some of her routines that she wanted to present to the coach.

Carrie, who had walked over to where Jessica was practicing, said, "Practicing won't do you any good, Jessica. You'll suck anyways."

Jessica stopped long enought to say to Carrie, "Is stalking me a hobby of yours? I'd greatly appreciate it if you would leave me alone." Jessica then resumed her practice.

"Oh, I'm just here to help you, Jessica," Carrie said sweetly. "I want to make sure that you don't get hurt. Cheerleading is a dangerous sport. A little person like you could seriously get hurt on this ground."

"I'm sure you'd see to that, wouldn't you, Carrie?"

"Whatever would make you think that?"

Jessica stopped again. "Oh, come on! I know you, Carrie. You'll stop at nothing to get your way. You're nothing but a spoiled rich brat who thinks that you can get everything with your money. Everybody knows that."

"If all you're going to do is sit here and barrage me with your insults, I have other things to do," Carrie walked a little distance away from Jessica's practice site before turning around.

"I wonder what would happen if Jessica did get hurt." Carrie wondered aloud softly. "I'm sure she would never set foot on this ground again."

Carrie spied a large rock on the ground. She picked the rock up and felt it all over with her fingers. She noticed what routine Jessica was doing, and knew just what to do with the rock. She quickly placed the rock on the ground just where she wanted it and then ran behind a tree.

Jessica had not seen any of this. She ran full-speed ahead and prepared to jump into a super-high flip. She didn't see the rock until the last minute, and slipped as she jumped up into the flip. Her flip was completely messed up, but worse, she spun out of control and leaded firmly on her neck. Jessica blacked-out.