"Is this really necessary?" Logan asks, slowing down, even though we're going to be late to class if he doesn't speed up.

I kick his sides, "yes!"

"Ow! Okay!" He goes a bit faster and I can see our classroom window. "So, my punishment for spying on the girls' lounge is to give you piggyback rides? Really?"

I scoff, "no, your punishment for that was thinking we killed someone and getting caught by the Dean."

"So why am I doing this?" He asks, loudly.

"To make up to me that you sold me out! Also if you're going to spy on someone, I'm your friend, I should know." He rolls his eyes and I flick his head.

"Ow!" He emphasises, and puts me down. He even opens the door for me.

"Thanks," I say, and I enter our media class.

We take our seats and wait for the teacher to arrive, and I notice that the 101 girls are running late. They've been struggling with being on time a lot lately, and I worry that Bender will be mad if they're late again. They run in at the last possible minute, throwing themselves into their seats so they look like they haven't just arrived.

"Good morning," Zoey says, and I laugh, glad they've made it.

"You're late," Logan tells them, and I push him round in his chair, which he's sitting on backwards.

"No, they're not," I say.

"We were here, like, ten minutes ago. Right, Dana?" Zoey asks.

The brunette waves her hand, "yeah, ten minutes ago."

"See, they're not late." Logan pushes my chair around, rolling his eyes.

It doesn't matter anyway, as Mr Bender arrives with Chase and Michael behind him. "Morning, class. Sorry I'm late." The boys sneak into their seats why he sets up.

"Our fault," Chase says, clumsily winking at Zoey. I realise they must've stalled Bender for the girls, and I grin at him.

"Okay, class, now, we all know that the most important goal in media is what?"

Zoey answers, "to communicate a message."

"That's right," he tells her. "So how is it that companies make sure that people know about their products?"

"They advertise," I answer, hand in the air.

"Advertising! Today, in order to learn about advertising, we are going to have a very special guest speaker. And judging by that sound, I think he's here!" We all turn to watch the door as the sound of an engine gets closer. A man rides in on a purple scooter, and stops at the front of the class. "Students, I want you to meet my very best friend from college, Mr Jake Savage," Bender introduces as the man gets up and removes his helmet.

"Who wants this bike?" He asks, and we raise our hands. "Well, tough turtles, it's mine." We put our hands down again. "But, you can win one of these if you want to. All you gotta do is ask me how." Some of us raise our hands, and the man picks Chase, "you, the kid with the bushy hair."

Chase glances at Michael, who is smirking, "uh, how?"

"Son, you don't ask how until you know what!" Jake says. "Dude, do you know what this is?"

"Some sort of scooter?" He guesses.

"Eh! Wrong!"

Chase grimaces, "sorry."

"This, my adolescent friends, is the Jet X!" He honks the horn and we jump backwards. "I honk for emphasis."

"I go deaf," I mumble, "for emphasis."

"So, what's a Jet X?" Zoey asks.

"I'm glad you asked that, little blonde girl! The Jet X is the absolute latest technological advancement in two-wheeled vehicular technology. It's fast, it's tough, it's smooth, and above all, it's cool." He points to Michael, "you, the kid with the hippie shirt. You want a Jet X?"

"Uh, yeah!" Michael says, happily.

"Too bad, they're not available in stores till next year." People laugh.

"How do we win one?" I ask, referring back to his earlier statement.

"I happen to be the president of Qualitech Industries," he explains.

"Qualitech?" Michael asks.

"Yeah, we make stuff. Scooters, shampoos, various cheeses. Mostly scooters. Anyway, there are three things that you need to sell and awesome product like the Jet X. First, you gotta have great hair," he says, and I touch my ponytail subconsciously. "I got that. Next, you need to have a great product, I got that too," he says, touching the Jet X and pretending it's sizzling. "Now who can tell me what else you need to sell the Jet X?"

"A TV commercial?" Zoey suggests.

"Yes!" He points at her, jumping with excitement. "And I want you people, this class, to make that TV commercial." We all get excited and begin whispering to each other.

"I'll be so good at this," Logan whispers in my ear, and I know that he must be right, since his dad basically does this for a living.

"But don't they have companies that, like, do that?" Zoey asks him, confused.

"Yes, and they're all idiots," Jake says, as if this is obvious. "Because they think they understand people your age, but they don't. Do you know who does get people your age?"

Nicole smiles, "people our age?"

"Bingo, little girl! I'd ask you to dance but I don't know how."

Logan asks, "wait, so it this gonna be like a class project?"

"That's right. You guys are gonna split into groups of three, and one group of four," Bender explains. "Each group will have their own digital video camera and a supply of Jet X scooters in various colors."

We all celebrate slightly, because this is a really cool project. "Okay," Jake says. "You've all got one week to shoot a TV commercial that shows teenagers why the Jet X is the ultimate scooter on this planet," he gets back on the Jet X. "And then, I'm gonna pick the best commercial, and I'm gonna run it on TV 100 times." We all hey excited again. "Oh, and one more thing," he says, and then points at me. "How? Each kid in the winning group will receive their very own Jet X for free."

"Woah," I say, and I'm nervous about starting, not wanting to miss out on the Jet X.

"Just not this one, cause like I said, this one's mine. Savage out."

He leaves like he came, and we're all put into groups. Because of the number of students in the class, I end up with Zoey, Nicole and Dana, in a group of four, while everyone else is divided into groups of three. We meet up as our group, discussing our plans, over lunch.

"Okay, we have got to win a Jet X," Zoey says.

"Totally," Nicole agrees, "can you imagine how fun it would be to have those things on campus?"

"You'd never be late again," I chirp, and then correct myself when they look at me funny, "we'd never be late again!"

"So, what's our commercial gonna be?" Dana asks.

"Okay, I've been thinking. What we could-" Zoey is cut off as Michael and Chase sit at our table.

"Hi, what's up?" When we don't talk, Chase tells us, "go ahead, keep on talking."

"Ha ha, nice try guys," Zoey says.

"But you're our enemy now," I tell them. I steal an apple from Michael, "see?" He sulks as I take a bite, and I grin.

"We don't reveal our secrets to the competition," Nicole says. The boys seem shocked by this, as if friendship is somehow more important than a Jet X.

"So who's your guys' third partner?" Zoey asks them.

"That'd be Logan," Chase answers, but both boys seem unenthusiastic.

"Aren't you glad he's on your team?" I ask.

"Logan?" Nicole asks, shocked they picked him and even more shocked at what I said.

"Why do you wanna work with him? Why would they?" Zoey asks.

"I mean it gives them the advantage," I reason, while the boys just play it off.

"Cause, you know he's our roommate and-"

"Hey, hey, guys," Logan says, coming up behind them and shutting Chase up.

"Hi, Logan," I say, cheerfully.

"Hey, Harp, girls," he narrows his eyes at them. "We don't talk to the enemy," he tells the other boys.

"Oh, please, this is just a friendly competition," Zoey says.

"Yeah, it's just a commercial!" Nicole tells him.

I stare at him incredulously, "you just spoke to me!"

"Hey, all I know is, I want that Jet X. And you don't count as the enemy," he scoffs. "We are gonna win." He's holding each boy by their shoulders, and both are uncomfortable.

Chase cringes and whispers to Michael, "he's touching our shoulders."

"I feel you," the other boy responds, grumpy.

"Don't worry," Zoey tells Logan, "I'll let you borrow my Jet X after our commercial wins."

"And I'm always happy to give you a ride," I say, as his face goes red, embarrassed.

"Or I'll give you a ride on my Jet X," he insists, "maybe I'll take you up to the lake and we can make out a little." He looks suggestively at Zoey.

"You know, I would, but it's so hard for a girl to kiss a guy while she's vomiting." We laugh.

"It's true," Chase says, and we all stop laughing. "It happened to me.

"Well," I say, to break the tension. "I retract my offer," I tell him, "that comment gets you banned."

We leave the boys to work on our commercial, the girls' lounge being the obvious place to go. We sit around with notebooks and begin planning the details for our shoot.

"Okay, Joe, I feel that the clothes for our commercial should be really cool, like funky," Zoey explains.

"I'm down with funky," Nicole says.

"Yeah," I agree.

"Okay, so I sketched out a few possible outfit combinations," she tells us, turning to some drawings. "See?"

"Cool," Dana says, while we leaf through the designs she passed to us. "But, how do we buy these clothes?"

"How do we buy these boobs?" Nicole asks. I look at the drawing and realise that Zoey was certainly generous with our proportions.

"Yeah, I went a little overboard on those."

"You don't say," I laugh.

I go to buy some clothes like the ones Zoey has suggested, while the other girls go to scout out some locations for us to film. The girls text me when I'm at the checkout, letting me know that Logan is using a bunch of expensive equipment that his dad donated. His dad, who is a movie producer. I text back 'I told you he was an advantage', and head back to school.

I meet the girls in the media classroom, where we plan to ask about the fairness of Logan having the equipment to use, when we can barely afford the clothes to wear. I'm the only one even buying new stuff, and that's because I couldn't resist when I saw the sketch.

"His father lent him a whole truck full of equipment?" Mr Bender asks.

"And a crew," Dana tells him.

"And a camera that's bigger than my head!" Zoey adds.

"How can our commercial win if we have to compete with that?" Nicole asks him.

"It's not fair! All we get is feee juice," Dana moans.

"Juice?" Bender asks.

"We're getting juice?" I ask, excited.

"It's excellent juice," Nicole says, proudly. "My favourite's the kiwi pineapple."

"Ooh, is there mango?" I ask. "I love mango!"

"Will you forget about the juice?" Zoey asks us.

"But I just learned about it," I whine.

"What are you gonna do about Logan?" She asks Bender.

"Girls," he says, standing up, "when you're making a TV commercial, or a movie, or whatever, it's not just about how fancy your equipment is, or how much money you spend. The only thing that matters is your creativity and your content."

"That's true," I say.

"I guess," Nicole says, softly.

"Yeah, at the end of the day, I guess it's all about what you put on the screen," Zoey reasons.

"Exactly!"

"Hey, Mr Bender," Logan says, entering the room. "I just wanted you to meet a good friend of my dad's." A man walks into the room and I frown when I realise what Logan is doing, and when Bender gets excited.

"Jeff Garrett?" He asks. "You're Jeff Garret!"

"Nice to see ya!" Jeff says, and I frown more.

"Hey, wow," Bender says, while we watch on from the background. I'm mad, Zoey seems shy, Dana is stunned and Nicole is clearly feeling very mixed about it. "I've seen all your movies!"

"Thanks a lot."

"Yeah, cool. Yeah."

Logan intercepts to show off, "Jeff's gonna star in my TV commercial. Cause, you know, at the end of the day, it's all about what you put on the screen." I glare at him, he clearly hasn't learned his lesson about spying, or it's second cousin: eavesdropping. "Right, girls?"

We all slump, fearing that we have no chance at winning, not against Logan.