A/N: I posted this story on FictionPress and there's around twenty chapters on there right now. I apologize for not posting it here until now. :) This story needs major editing, I realize that, and some of the parts make me want to launch myself into the wall for such bad writing, but please tolerate it until I do THE BIG EDIT, as I refer it to, when I change a lot of the story. :) Enjoy!

© 2013 Carolina Martinez (Carolina Martinez is my penname and the owner of this penname, myself, reserve the rights to this story). Except as provided by the Copyright Act 2/25/2013. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the author.

Chapter 1- Cup, Bowl, or Bucket?

 “Cup, bowl, or bucket?”

 “Cup...” I muttered, rolling over in my sleep.

 Suddenly, I felt something ice cold being dumped onto my back. My eyes flew open.

 “Dad!” I screamed. “I thought you were going to get me cup of water, not dump a cup of water- ice cold, I may add -on me!”

 Dad chuckled. “Should’ve gotten up at those words. Who brings someone water in a bucket, anyway?”

 “You-you- get out!” I screeched.

 Dad sauntered out, laughing. Victor appeared at the doorway.

 “Don’t count on him to not do it tomorrow. Be on red alert, Tori,” Victor deadpanned, nodding at me seriously.

 I nodded back, noticing him being soaked. He was dripping water onto my floor.

 “You chose bucket, didn’t you?” I asked tentatively.

 “Don’t remind me,” he grunted. “I gotta go take a shower, thanks to Dad.” He walked away.

 I sighed, and rolled over again, only to be reminded that my back was soaked thanks to my father. I got up. No sense in giving myself back-ache and a cold.

 “High school. Such a great start,” I grumbled. “Alyssa and Ivy better not have forgotten me.”

 Quickly getting dressed, I grabbed some granola bars on the way out.

 “Young lady! Where’s your breakfast?” Dad boomed, appearing in the doorway.

 I waved my granola bars at him.

 “That’s not proper breakfast! Sit down and eat cereal!”

 “I’ll get something in Starbucks, Dad. Relax.”

 “I am not an American dad! We are half Chinese and I expect you to not treat me like dads in those stories you read!”

 “HaoDe, haoDe,” I muttered in Chinese. HaoDe meant ‘Fine’ or ‘Okay’ in Chinese.

 “KuaiDianZou! Bie be chidao!” KuaiDianZou was ‘Go quickly’ or ‘Leave now’ and BieChiDao was ‘Don’t be late’. The ‘be’ in the middle was a result of living in New York—we spoke a confusing mix of Chinese and English.

 “That’s bad grammar, BaBa,” I muttered again.

 “Hmph! Just go!”

 I hurried out the door before Victor could insist on taking me to West Fields High and embarrass me. Don’t get me wrong, he was a junior and had a pretty good reputation, but if a guy got near me-near being within a ten meter radius- he would reprimand them and send them scurrying off. Even if the guy was a senior.

 Yes. My brother is that scary.

 I kissed the glass door of Starbucks. It was a safe haven to me. I ignored the weird looks from a few middle-aged couples.

 “Dude. That’s gross. Stop making out with the glass.”

 That voice was familiar. Very familiar. I stopped with my PDA and turned around. “Al!” I screamed. Alyssa Falcon was one of my best friends. Her pale blonde hair with blue streaks tickled my nose as we hugged each other and jumped up and down, screaming phrases along the lines of ‘High school!’ and ‘Freshmen!’.

 Ivy’s electric blue eyes were sparkling with amusement. “I don’t think that glass door is nearly as hot as Isaac,” she remarked. Then, realizing what she had said, she covered her mouth in horror. “Sorry! I forgot! Sorry! I’m really sorry!”

 “It’s fine, Iz. Don’t worry about it.” I hugged her gently. “I missed you,” I murmured into her hair. Ivy nodded.

 “Me too.”

 “All right guys! I need a chicken pie! Now!” Alyssa clapped her hands together, and grabbed both of us, pulling us vehemently into the Starbucks shop.

 We ordered. Mocha for me, my usual, Alyssa’s usual Venti Frappucino-seriously, how was this girl so skinny?-, and Ivy’s usual order of just a mushroom and cheese pie. She was allergic to coffee. Which was ridiculous.

 As we sat down to eat, I checked my watch. “Thirty minutes till school starts.”

 “But my watch says seven fifty!” Alyssa showed me hers.

 “I changed yours. That way you won’t be late.”

 “Oh!” Alyssa laughed. “That’s why my mom was so surprised when I showed up.”

 “She must have been. Imagine, Alyssa Falcon, awake at six fifteen? Who would’ve guessed?” Ivy teased. She laughed.

 Alyssa put a hand on her chest dramatically in mock hurt. “Oh, your sharp words wound me!” she cried.

 “Like hell they do,” Ivy muttered.

 I frowned. Ivy never mutters. She never mutters unless she’s really unhappy about something. “Ivy...”

 “Hmm?”

 “Why were you muttering?”

 Ivy sighed. “My parents... they’re divorcing.” Alyssa gaped at her—only I knew that her parents were divorcing as well, though Alyssa was managing it pretty well.

 “What? Fiona and Rick? How?”

 “Some bills.”

 “Oh... Come on, Iz, hug it out!” Ivy stared at me incredulously. I exchanged a look with Alyssa, and we hugged her simultaneously. Ivy’s eyes widened before hugging us back. Ivy was never a hugger.

 After finishing our makeshift breakfast, we set off to school. The street we were walking on was beautiful—flowers littered the sides of the sidewalk, and the pavement was clean and clear of garbage.

 I’ve always known West Fields. I practically breathe West Fields—I went to West Fields Elementary, West Fields Middle, and finally, now, West Fields High. I’ve always seen the building, but hadn’t been able to enter. It was a grey building, but there was a comforting feel to it, like home.

 This was the first time we were staying in a boarding school. West Fields Elementary and Middle wasn’t a boarding school, but West Fields High was. Dad’s nonchalant attitude about it was because he was assured that I would visit him in the weekends and occasionally the weekdays, and call my family everyday.

 I stepped inside, along with my friends. A cold blast of air conditioning hit my face as I continued to walk in. It looked like a hotel lobby, since there was a marble counter, with long aisles at the end of the narrow room to lead to elevators to go up to classrooms.

 The secretary looked up with a bored expression on her face. I didn’t blame her; intercepting students the whole morning must not appeal to her.

 “Victoria Smith,” I reported. She nodded, and searched her computer for my files. She printed a file out, and gave it to me, gesturing to go to the left aisle, as the right one was for Juniors and Seniors.

 I could hear Alyssa saying, ‘Alyssa Falcon’ and Ivy announced her name too as I walked down the hallway. The hallway led to a small waiting room, with plush couches at the back of the room while waiting for the elevator. I pushed the button, checked my schedule-sixth floor it is, then-and sat down with a sigh on the couches.

 “Get off the couch. I don’t need your loser-airness stinking them.”

 I looked up. A girl with piercing grey eyes and blindingly shiny golden hair stared down at me.

 “I was here first,” I replied softly.

 “Oh? Well, I don’t care. Get off. I want to sit.”

 “Go to the second one, then.”

 “Psh. As if. I would never sit on that one. Nina Levesque does not,” she waved her head and snapped her fingers, doing that thing that girls did to prove a point. “...take seconds.”

 “Too bad, Nina.”

 “Ugh! You’re unbelievable!”

 “Is it that hard to believe that I don’t want to give up my seat to some whiny girl who doesn’t even have a good reason to make me?”

 “Well, I’m popular. I’ll make your life a living hell.”

 “Making my life a living hell because I don’t want to stand up and give you the couch while you can clearly sit down on the other one does not give your intelligence brownie points,” I deadpanned, shifting my gaze to the elevator doors.

 “And who’s this?” I heard Alyssa’s ‘serious’ voice float to us.

 Nina scoffed. “You don’t know my name?”

 “Considering you’re new, I’m not surprised we don’t know your name.” Ivy’s soft voice stated.

 “Well, it’s Nina Levesque and I’m going to make sure you losers know that.”

 Ding!

 I see the point in saved by the bell now, though I’m sure it’s not the same as most people think.

 We entered the elevator, Nina insisting on going first. She huffed indignantly when she realized that we had the same homeroom.

 We entered the room. The room stayed the same it was before Nina entered; a few bored glances here and there. Suddenly, the room fell to a silence when I entered.

 Whispers began to resound through the room. I could catch a few phrases—‘popular’, ‘pretty’, ‘such bright hair’, ‘rare eye color’, ‘who’s that blonde?’

 I ignored them and sat down on a three-seat-table with Alyssa and Ivy. Nina looked around, before deciding with a huff to sit down on a table, alone. I wondered where her friends were.

 I caught the eye of a blonde boy. His eyes were stormy grey, and he was sitting at the next table over. His hair was curly—really curly.

 “You new?” he asked.

 “No, I came from Middle. You?”

 “Yeah, but I’m surprised I didn’t notice a pretty girl like you.”

 I had to give myself credit for not blushing, and he seemed to be surprised too. “Where’d you get the pick-up lines?”

 “Ha... no girl I met has ever said that to me.”

 “I’m not any girl. I’m Victoria Smith, but you can call me Tori.”

 “James, but you can call me Jake. In fact, if you call me James I’ll have to kill you because I hate that name.”

 “Why? I like the name James.”

 “It just sounds so weird...” At my bemused look, he reluctantly added, “...to me.”

 I shrugged. “Preferences.”

 “Erm?”

 “Never mind.”

 We sat in awkward silence. Bad sign, I thought. Awkward silences are bad. Comfortable silences are good.

 Jake grinned. “You know who’s our homeroom teacher?”

 I checked my schedule. “Eh... Ms. Lavina.”

 “I heard she’s a hot one.”

 I blanched. “That’s gross.”

 “Oh?”

 “I think you’ve been reading way too many of those romance novels where the teacher hooks up with the student.”

 “How would you know what they are unless you’ve been reading them?”

 “I see you’re a witty one, then. Avoiding my question, eh? But anyways, I am a girl, so I have an excuse to read them. I hate stereotypes, but it is true that we read sappy romance novels.”

 “You have nothing to say about that to me, then,” he stated smugly.

 “Ah, but you’re a guy. And you just admitted to me that you did read it.”

 Jake slapped his hand on his leg. “Damn! You’re good. I’ve never had a girl beat me in a verbal spat before.”

 “Glad to be your first.” I realized that I had set myself up for an opening of many, many verbal traps, and Jake realized that too.

 “Do you want to be my other first, too?” He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

 “Oh, ew! No way!”

 “Are you sure?” he asked, wiggling his eyebrows even more suggestively.

 “Excuse me, I think you’re eyebrows are trying to escape. You sure they’re not caterpillars?”

 Jake laughed then. The laugh was a full-on, head-thrown-back, causing-everyone-to-stare-at-them laugh. I slapped him on the shoulder.

 “I think you need to get medications for that enormous guffaw.”

 “Sounds don’t have sizes, Tori. Thought you knew that!”

 “Ah, so you’re cute and smart. That’s rare.” I then realized again that I’d called him cute.

 “So you think I’m cute? Well, I’m going to hold that over your head until you go insane.”

 “Who knows if you’re going to still be here when I do? I could’ve hired an assassin to kill you.”

 Jake scoffed in mock hurt. “You think that I can’t escape an assassin?”

 “Hence the word hired, James. He has to be professio-” I stopped because Jake was staring at me with a malicious glint in his eye.

 “Oh. Did I call you James? I meant Jake.”

 “You are so going to get one for this, Smith.”

 “You too, Miller, for those lewd comments.”

 “How did you know my last name?”

 “I’m psychic,” I did a Jazz hand.

 “Come on, tell me.”

 “Fine! I had a friend, her name is Vicky, and she had a huge crush on you.”

 “So you knew who I was the whole time?”

 “No, just figured it out, because her descriptions of you were kind of hard to pin on you.”

 “What were they?”

 “Well, they included ‘Tousled, heart-warming golden locks’ and ‘Stormy grey eyes with such secrets that could melt a woman’s heart or make you want to know those secrets so bad’.”

 “She sounds nice.”

 “Ha. She is, but there is no way I’m going to hook her up with you, womanizer.”

 Ms. Lavina chose to walk into the room then. She glanced around. “All right, listen up!” She was wearing a short pencil skirt and a dress shirt. Her bouncy brown curls rested on her shoulders. “I want no funny business in the class, and that includes no sex on the tables even if I’m gone!”

 The class burst into laughter at that.

 “Quiet down! Now!” Her sharp voice caused us to do just that.

 “Everyone is expected to do what I expect you to do, just like that!” she snapped her fingers for emphasis.

 Everyone couldn’t help but nod.

 “Good! So most of you have either Chinese class or Chemistry. Listen carefully.” She began to rattle off a list of names. I caught ‘Nina Levesque’ in the Chinese class and ‘Victoria Smith’ in Chinese. Alyssa and Ivy were in Chemistry.

 Dang it.

 Soon, the bell rang and we charged out of the room. Everyone began to head off to Chinese or Chemistry, when I found myself being pulled into a closet.

 Nina’s bouncy blonde curls were staring me in the face.

 “Stay away from Jake,” she said in a low, threatening voice.

 “Erm... that’ll be easier once you back the hell away from me.”

 “Stay away from him!” Nina did as I asked, though.

 “I’m sorry, I would’ve stayed away, but I didn’t see the sign saying ‘Property of Nina Levesque’!”

 “You know full well what I meant. He was my boyfriend in middle school.”

 “I noticed the ‘was’ in that sentence...” I grinned, my voice in sing-song mode.

 “That’s not the point! He’ll want me back. He still loves me.”

 “Be careful, little Ni, love is a strong word.”

 “Don’t call me that!” she shrieked. “I’m warning you, stay away from him.”

 “I’m not sure what you can do about it if I don’t. I’m pretty sure I was deemed ‘Popular’ from the second I walked into Ms. Lavina’s classroom.

 “Who cares? I’m going to be more popular.”

 “You don’t know that. Now get away from me, I need to get to class.” I shoved her away, and stalked out of the closet.

 “I’ll get revenge for that, I swear!” Nina shouted.

 Although I didn’t show it, I was scared. Scared of what she could do.

2: Chapter 2 - The Dorm of Doom

Chapter 2- The Dorm of Doom
 

 “Why?” I wailed. Nina shot me a look. I ignored her, and indignantly threw my suitcase to the foot of my bed. “Why? Why did we have to have the same dorm?”

 Alyssa laughed. She laughed. She laughed.

 “Why are you laughing?” I whined.

 Alyssa cocked an eyebrow. “I thought maybe we should exchange roles for once.”

 That was true, but still...

 I was roommates with Nina Levesque!

 And Alyssa, of course, but still...

 Nina Levesque!

 My life was truly over.

 Lowering my head, I began to unpack. There was a dresser next to my bed, and I stuffed all the clothes in. I put the dresses and jackets in a small closet next to the dresser. I had already put all my different clothes in different zipper bag, and inside the zipper bags there were more zipper bags containing different types of the clothes.

 I was a neat freak, in case you didn’t know.

 Alyssa was doing the same, except she was just tossing in the clothes, not bothering to fold them. Nina was sitting there, applying a new layer of lip gloss. I snorted at her, and she noticed.

 “I have servants to do that for me, Smith. Is your family too poor to afford it?” she asked snidely, snapping her mirror shut.

 I scoffed. “Please. My family is rich enough to afford several hundred servants and still have a good life. I’m just not extremely lazy.” I paused. “Oh! Maybe you’re too stupid to do it.”

 Nina raised an eyebrow. “Who’s too stupid to unpack a suitcase?”

 “Exactly!”

 Nina gritted her teeth, and I could practically see the steam blowing out of her ears. Alyssa glanced between us cautiously, and slammed her dresser’s drawers shut.

 Nina’s head snapped towards the dresser. I laughed. She snapped her head towards me. I laughed again.

 Nina stood up, and stalked over to the dorm’s door. She slammed it open, and stood there for a few minutes while I placed three pictures on the nightstand. One was of my dad and I, one was of Victor and I, and one was of Alyssa, Ivy, and I.

 Alyssa hopped onto my bed. “Let’s read all the rules.”

 I glanced at Alyssa skeptically. “Who are you and what have you done with my best friend?”

 “Oh, shut up. It’s for you. I just thought I should do it because otherwise you would tell me it everyday.”

 I laughed and opened the school pamphlet.

 One of the rules was that on the first day of every term, we would have the day off to get settled and such.

 “Woohoo!” Alyssa shouted when she got to that part.

 The paper was grabbed out of our hands by Nina. “Shut up,” she snarled. “The servants are here. Be quiet. Don’t embarrass me.”

 My mouth dropped open. “Excuse me? You think we’ll embarrass you? You’re the one who’ll probably start dabbing on lip gloss and only talk about boys even if we were meeting the president!”

 Nina gave a sound of annoyance, and stood in front of us, blocking half of Alyssa and I from view.

 My mouth dropped open again when five servants came in, each rolling their own luggage cart in. And each luggage cart was stacked with about six suitcases. Full size.

 Nina smirked when she saw my expression. “Another luxury you would never be able to afford.”

 I snorted. “I already told you. I am able to do that. I just have enough brains to do it by myself.”

 “I have so got brains!” Nina protested.

 “Quoting Dorothy Gale won’t help your case, Ms. Levesque,” I quipped, and went back to reading.

 When the servants were still unpacking while Nina sat on her bed, phone in hand, and we had finished reading the rules, I exploded.

 “Nina Levesque! You do not need this many clothes to go to school! It’s called washing clothes! Laundry! And those are never going to fit into your closet!” I yelled.

 Nina gave me a look. “You-”

 A servant cut Nina off. “She’s right, Miss Levesque. The clothes are a bit hard to fit in.”

 Nina shot him a very withering glare. “I didn’t ask for your opinion, did it?” she snapped.

 The servant practically wilted.

 Alyssa grabbed my hand. “Tori. Let’s go to the freshmen lounge.”

 I glared at Nina one last time, and marched out of the door, Alyssa trailing behind me.

 Each year had their own lounge, and they were always better than the younger years’ lounges. So the sophomores’ lounge was bigger and better than the freshmens’, the juniors’ even better, and the seniors were rumoured to have a swimming pool there. However, the seniors’ mouths were practically zipped shut about that.

 When we arrived, my mouth dropped open. I could hear Alyssa’s do the same.

 The place had several huge transparent fridges, containing different types of drinks and beverages. Fortunately, no alcohol. There were several rows of counters holding American, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, French (yes, there were snails), Italian, German, Spanish, Indian, Mexican, Greek, and Belgian food.

 Don’t ask me how I knew what Belgian food was.

 There was also several types of yogurt, cereal, milk, and ice-cream. Not to mention salads and steak.

 “Yum!” Alyssa exclaimed.

 “There’s more...” I drawled, as I slowly walked in. I turned the corner around the wall that separated food from other.

 My eyes widened. They must be the size of apples now.

 There were different sections—big tables to eat in, for groups, smaller groups of chairs and tables, all plush and professional. A few meters away from that part, there was a soon-to-become-very-coveted spot that contained several recliners, massage chairs, and beach chairs. Well, they were beach chairs with ultra-soft-looking cushions and padding.

 I hesitantly poked at a recliner. My finger sunk into the material.

 “Wow,” I breathed. Alyssa jumped on me suddenly, causing me to scream and dump myself onto the recliner. The noise was unperceivable, since the other freshmen who thought of the same thing were making a general ruckus everywhere.

 I settled down on a recliner, looking around. There was also a library, and I could faintly make out a section labeled, ‘DVDs and CDs’.

 This place was rich.

 Alyssa plopped herself down on a recliner next to mine. “This is awesome. I’m going to use all my free time here.”

 I shook my head at her. “You’ll need that to do homework and extracurriculars. I’m only coming when all my work’s done. There’s a music room around here; I’m going to play piano and the guitar there. You can come with me if you want.”

 Alyssa snorted. “I see the roles are reversed once again.”

 “They always were like this. I just... temporarily hid them underneath layers of hatred for that... that thing.”

 “You mean Nina?”

 “Yeah.”

 “She’s awful.”

 “I know!”

 My vision was suddenly taken up by a white cashmere sweater and a red mini-skirt.

 Speak of the devil, and she shall appear.

 I sighed, and lifted my vision until Nina’s face appeared. “What do you want?”

 “Get off.”

 I buried my head in my hands. “Oh my god... You are an idiot! There’s chairs! Extra, soft plush chairs right there! Just pick one, and sit down!”

 Nina snorted. “I do not take seconds.”

 “Yeah, you made that clear,” I muttered under my breath. Speaking louder, I said, “You don’t even know if this is a second chair or a first chair.”

 Nina raised her eyebrows. “Get off.”

 Okay. I was going to go to the music room anyway, but since she was here, I couldn’t. It isn’t stupid. It’s a matter of pride, baby!

 “Alyssa. Hold my seat,” I ordered. Alyssa put her hand on the seat, and Nina watched disdainfully as I walked to the music room. I grabbed a portable keyboard, and carried it back to the seating section of the lounge. Nina was still there.

 Man. She was stubborn. Even more stubborn than me.

 Sitting down, I began to play. Nina snorted every few seconds.

 Alyssa produced a book from her enormous purse, and began to read. From my peripheral vision, I noticed that it was Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters, not some pink, horrifying magazine.

 Bravo for Alyssa!

 Nina hmphed.

 Boo for Nina!

 My goodness, this was boring. And it’s definitely boring if I use ‘my goodness’ in a sentence.

 I stopped playing abruptly, causing Nina’s eyes to snap downwards to my keyboard. She lifted her nose into the air, all the while keeping her eyes cast downwards onto my keyboard; probably some hopeless attempt to look condescending and superior.

 I lifted an eyebrow, and raised my head so we were eye-to-eye. “What are you still doing here?”

 “Waiting for you to stand up and go! Duh!”

 Oh, my, what a stroke of brilliance, right there.

 I opened my mouth, but no words came out to summarize just how stupid Nina was being.

 “You are revolting,” I settled for. Nina gritted her teeth, and then, rigidly, began to take steps towards the nearest massage chair. She robotically settled herself there, and turned on the massage chair.

 I gave a little snort of a laugh, and then stood up and headed for the food. Alyssa followed me. Nina gave a half-cry of indignation, and I could hear the forceful rustling of paper.

 Maybe she’s writing down lyrics to a hurtful song about her being mistreated.

 I grabbed a slice of pizza and began to eat. Alyssa followed my actions.

 What was she, my shadow?

 “Where’s Ivy?” I asked.

 “I don’t know. Probably still settling in.”

 I turned towards a source of noise near the chocolate fountain.

 “Or not,” I said mysteriously. Alyssa, curious, turned around too.

 The first thing I had noticed was that those girls ate a lot. A lot. It’s disgusting! Jocks, of course. Beefy huge men, of course. But preppy, lightweight, and cheery high school girls? Never. I mean, I ate and ate and ate, but they ate and ate and ate and ate.

 I have finally found a use in my life for using that line from To Fight or Fall on FictionPress.

 The second thing I noticed was that Ivy Elizabeth Dellows was in the midst of the hungry teenage girls.

 That was the first thing Alyssa noticed.

 “Why is Ivy there?” Alyssa whispered.

 I shrugged.

 “Let’s go get her,” Alyssa suggested.

 Actually, it wasn’t a suggestion. Alyssa had already marched over to Ivy and grabbed her by the elbow by the time my poor, overused neurons had sent the message to my brain: Stop Alyssa from killing everything in sight.

 I watched helplessly as Alyssa dragged a protesting Ivy to me.

 Ladies and gentlemen, the special Alyssa Inquisition begins like this!

 “Ivy...” Step One: Circle prey dangerously and proclaim prey’s name lowly, as predator is known to do when angry.

 “Why were you over there instead of finding us?” Step Two: Query prey slowly until prey cracks.

 “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize that I had to hang around you two for forever.” Step Three: If prey does not crack like an egg being thrown onto asphalt, keep on questioning, defending self and accomplices, and arguing. Sensible arguments.

 “You don’t have to, but since we were best friends since we were born, I think we should hang out together instead of leaving us.” Step Four: If prey still does not incline to predator’s will, call for backup.

 “Victoria!” Alyssa shrieked, loud enough for the whole lounge to become dead silent.

 Step Five: Stop talking like an assassin and come to senses.

 My mouth slowly creaked open, and a dry, ‘Uh...’ came out. Alyssa shook her head and the noise erupted again from the lounge.

 

I threw my blanket over me, emitting a sigh. Alyssa, already asleep, didn’t notice. Nina did, though.

 “Shut up and let me sleep,” she growled.

 “You think I’m trying to stop you from sleeping?”

 My question was met with silence.

 Ha. Take that, Levesque.

 West Fields at night wasn’t a very pleasant place for me. The crickets were, whaddya call it, cricketing? That annoying sound that goes chirp-chirp-chirp in the nighttime and you want to scratch your hair out furiously because the incessant chirping of noise.

 When I start talking like that, it means I’m extremely bored.

 I grabbed my phone from the nightstand, causing a loud clank to ring around the room. Alyssa shot up from her sleep (her bed was in front of mine) and shouted, “Who’s there?”, all the while holding a karate move.

 Alyssa had been trained in the art of karate since the age of five.

 Hah! She cannot beat my awesome karate skills!

 “Go to sleep, Al,” I muttered.

 Alyssa’s head whipped around to look at me-how did I feel it? I felt it from the gust of wind from the force of it!-. “Sometimes you can be really annoying.”

 “Look who’s talking, Hutcherson.” Alyssa had had an unhealthy obsession Josh Hutcherson when the Hunger Games movie came out. It ended after a month, though, thankfully.

 Alyssa made a sound of indignation and fell back onto her bed. “Goodnight, V.”

 “Goodnight, A.”

 Nina laughed. “I see the villain of Pretty Little Liars has been revealed.”

 “Shut up, Levesque.”

 “Gladly, Smith.”

 And I fell asleep like that.

 

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beeeeeeeeeeeeep...

 Ah, blissful silence.

 Class. School. West Fields.

 Levesque.

 I bolted upright.

 “Shut up your annoying alarm, Tori,” Alyssa muttered.

 I checked the time. Five minutes before registration.

 “Wake up, you biscuit!” I shrieked. “Five minutes until registration!”

 “So?” Alyssa mumbled, sitting up and rubbing her eyes. “Registration isn’t important.”

 “It is freaking important on the first day! Get up!”

 I ran over to her bed and hoisted her up. Then I ran into the bathroom and viciously began to comb my hair while planning out what to do.

 Change into clothes. Eat breakfast at Dining Hall—only time to eat a few grapes. Can eat a little crackers during break. Brush teeth during break. School stuff’s already ready; prepared it yesterday.

 As I frantically threw on my clothes, I noticed Alyssa still sleeping. When I finished putting on my clothes, I threw on a pair of brown heels-which I can walk in perfectly, unlike most heroines in stories- and let my red hair cascade down my shirt.

 I ran over to Alyssa, rubbing my heels on the ground to wake her up. The sound annoyed her a lot, so she would wake up.

 I grabbed Alyssa by the arm and literally dragged her out of her bed. Alyssa cried out in anger, and tried to slap me.

 “Get up! Unless you want your teachers to hate you for an eternity, get up, brush your hair, and change into proper clothes! Two minutes to registration now!” I yelled, and by the end of my yellings I had already gone out and shut the doors. I could hear some rustling.

 Somehow that girl manages to show up gorgeous and not at all ruffled even if she was up two minutes before class.

 I entered the classroom thirty seconds before registration started. Too close. Too close for my comfort.

 Twenty seconds later, Alyssa came in, wearing a black jacket and bright yellow dress. She came and sat down next to me, smirking.

 “You never told me you had that dress!” I whispered.

 “Because I knew you would want it!” she whispered back.

 “You thought right,” I replied. We shared a look, and then looked back up to the whiteboard.

 

As I walked through the halls, I couldn’t help but notice the looks I was getting. A few people whispered, ‘Home-wrecker!’ to me, or ‘Heartbreaker!’ and I had no idea what they were talking about.

 Finally, I reached the Dining Hall to eat lunch. People turned away as I walked by, which created quite a comical effect I was in no mood to see.

 I reached the table where Alyssa and Ivy were sitting, and sat down there, wincing at the clank that resounded through the hall when I set down my tray. With that clank!, people started talking.

 “What... is going on?” I asked, through my gritted teeth.

 Alyssa leaned forward. “You won’t like this.”

 “But you have to know,” Ivy continued.

 “There’s a rumor...”

 “That in middle school...”

 “You broke a guy’s heart...”

 “Who broke up with his girlfriend...”

 “To ask you out...”

 “And the person who spread the rumor...”

 “Is none other than Ms. Levesque herself.” Alyssa finished.

 “What?” I shrieked.

3: Chapter 3 - Misunderstandings, Shiny Blonde Hair, and Parties

Chapter 3- Misunderstandings, Shiny Blonde Hair, and Parties 

 It was free period. I was sitting on the grass, reading a book.

 And I was hating every second of it.

 Why?, you might ask. Why? Why? Because every single person excluding Ivy were giving me nasty looks.

 And I didn’t even have Alyssa to comfort me. No offense to Ivy, but she wasn’t that good at comforting and now certainly wasn’t such a time she started improving.

 “Victoria?”

 My head snapped to look at... Oh. Well, wonders of wonders, miracles of miracles, idiosyncrasies of idiosyncrasies, James, aka. Jake, Miller was talking to me!

 “What?” I snapped. “Are you here to reprimand me on my ‘home-wrecking ways’?”

 Jake shifted. “I actually have to reprimand you about something else.”

 I set my book down. “Fine.” Gesturing for Ivy to guard my book, I stood up. Ivy shot me an anxious look, and I sent a telepathic message of It’s fine. to her.

 He led me around the school. As he slowly relaxed, I noticed that we were walking towards my dorm. The white door seemed looming now; maybe Nina was waiting behind it, ready to pounce on me... which was impossible since I saw her on the lawn a few minutes ago.

 He opened the door. I scowled, because Alyssa had forgotten to lock it, entered, shouldering the door open when Jake didn’t make any motion to hold it open for me.

 He went straight over to my nightstand, and picked up the photo of Victor and I. “Why were you flirting with me when you have a boyfriend?”

 Wow, he certainly didn’t beat around the bush. Maybe-

 Wait.

 He thought Victor and I were a couple.

 Well, after all, we didn’t look like family; different hair color and all.

 But that’s no excuse for his stupidity!

 “How did you see that picture?” I asked, a grin stretching in my face.

 “Nina showed me.” His face was hard, but I could tell from his eyes that he didn’t expect me to start smiling.

 I burst out laughing.

 I laughed for two minutes straight, and eventually I ended up on the floor.

 I take the phrase ‘rolling on the floor laughing’ to a whole new level, don’t I? After all, I’ve done it dozens of times before in my life.

 “Why... are you laughing?” Jake’s voice was cold, but I could hear an edge of curious in it.

 “He... is not my boyfriend,” I gasped between peals of laughter. Finally, it stopped and I lay still on the floor.

 “If he isn’t your boyfriend, why is he hugging you from behind?”

 “Jake.” I stood up. “Except for boyfriends and dads, what other males express affection to females?”

 “Friends?”

 “Yes, and?” I made a motion with my hands for him to continue.

 “Cousins.”

 “You’re missing an obvious one here.”

 “What is it?” Jake’s voice was impatient.

 “Brothers.” I drawled, walking slowly over to the picture in Jake’s hand, and plucked them from his. “Victor here, is my brother.”

 “He’s Victor Smith? He’s really famous around campus for his football skills.”

 “Yes, the classic jock. He’s my brother.”

 “I...”

 “You what?” I taunted, smiling.

 Jake stormed out of the dorm. I could see his red cheeks.

 I snorted, disgusted at the thought of Victor and I as a couple. Incest. Repulsing.

 And yet so believable, apparently, from that picture.

 A name floated into my brain, suddenly.

 Nina freaking Levesque.

 I need to go kill her. Now.

 Actually, somewhere public will be good. Maybe at the cafeteria, then.

 

The... whispers... were getting extremely, extremely annoying.

 Very irritating, in fact.

 Bah. Perfect Victoria Smith. I’ll shoot them all.

 Grinning to myself at the thought of it, I shifted myself back to reality. Ivy and Alyssa were in some deep discussion about shoes-fascinating, I know! ...That was sarcasm.- and I felt annoyance rising in me yet again when the whispers bobbed into my line of thoughts yet again.

 Nina’s blonde hair was shining a few meters away, and she was sitting with her best friend Courtney and a few other to-be-cheerleader airheads. I stood up, and felt the air grow with animosity when the cafeteria fell silent. Walking rigidly, I reached Nina’s table after a few moments of unbearable silence.

 “What the hell is wrong with you?” I yelled, slamming my hands down on her table. Nina jumped, and turned around swiftly.

 “What?” she smiled innocently, when she saw me.

 I took a deep breath. “Spreading rumors about me? Just because you’re jealous that I was popular? I never thought you were that petty, even though you were extremely stupid! You are insufferable and frivolous and even more petty than I thought! You know full well that the rumor isn’t true since I don’t freaking recall any event similar to that!”

 A few seconds of silence.

 Nina laughed.

 She laughed.

 She laughed.

 Her entire posse stood up with their trays and left the table, ignoring me.

 Ooh, those biscuits.

 In fact, I’m going to pull out the swearing big guns.

 Those motherheckers! Ugh! Unbelievable.

 I stiffened, and walked back rigidly in silence to my table. The cafeteria was silent too, watching me.

 Such vultures. Hunting for any scrap information that might put a stain on my pristine reputation.

 Well, not so pristine now.

 I wouldn’t be surprised if Nina had put them all on cue; imagine it.

 “All right, people. When she, aka Victoria Smith, stands up to confront me, which she probably will, go silent. Not a squeak out of you. When she walks back, silence. Then start talking about whatever you losers talk about when she sits down. And if she does anything embarrassing like spill milk on herself or if someone dumps their tray of food on her, laugh really hard. Do your best to unnerve her.” Pause. “All right. Assembly done.”

 The very thought of it was ridiculous.

 And probably insane.

 Alyssa and Ivy were watching me, worried.

 I felt my eye twitch.

 Alyssa burst out laughing, and Ivy snorted.

 Gah! Stop laughing! I yelled mentally, trusting that Alyssa and Ivy would get it from best-friend-telepathic-connections.

 Your-your eye twitched! Alyssa replied mentally.

 You looked so ridiculous, Ivy commented.

 Oh my god! Even telepathically they were so annoying.

 Or maybe I was just making it up since Alyssa was still laughing and Ivy was attacking her lunch.

 I shrugged, and began to devour my own-grey- food.

 

“Nina?” My voice sounded so loud in the night. I shifted over in my bed, trying to see Nina.

 “What?” she snapped. Crabby as ever.

 “It’s on.”

 

It’s funny how social hierarchy worked. One second you could be popular as ever, and the next you could be everyone’s sworn enemy because of a measly rumor.

 A measly, powerful rumor, that is.

 I held my head high and walked through the corridors, ignoring people’s stares. It’s just a rumor! Why are they being so... so insufferable?

 Suddenly, a clamor from the front of the hall pulled me out of my thoughts. Apparently, it was the same for the others and we all looked forward, trying to get a glimpse at the commotion.

 A blonde girl was holding a stack of papers and everyone was trying to grab one. She was shouting something. Frankly, the scene looked like a bunch of flamingoes trying to get some food. Plus, some guy was wearing a pink shirt, and a girl was wearing a skin-tight pink leotard (I have no explanation for that), which added to the effect.

 Ha, I was a writer and didn’t know it.

 “Hey! Hey! It’s invitation only, and all the invitations have different people’s names on them! Not yours! So you won’t friggin’ be able to get in!” she yelled, trying to avoid their hands.

 Seeing that she needed help, I strode forward and stopped when I was by her side. Everyone immediately pulled back, glowering at me, and the girl grinned with relief.

 “Thanks.”

 “You’re welcome,” I replied, glancing at the stack of papers. They were the creamy white type, the ones hotels use. We started walking.

 “I’m Kimberly,” she said, smiling. “I would shake your hand, but...” she shrugged helplessly.

 I laughed. “No worries. I’m Victori-”

 “I know,” she said. She gave me an easy smile, surprisingly.

 I raised my eyebrows. “Aren’t you worried you’ll get shunned since you’re with me?”

 Kimberly snorted. “Nah. I don’t care. I have my real friends with me. And besides, I firmly believe that the rumor is false and made up by some jealous girl.”

 I pressed my lips into a thin line, trying not to laugh. “Actually, you got it spot on. She was jealous that I was showing signs of being popular, so...” I shrugged.

 Kimberly laughed. “Well, huh.” She held up the invitation she was holding in her other hand.

 “Well, well, well. Look what we have here,” Kimberly said in a deep voice. I giggled, and peered at the envelope.

 In dark, bold letters, it said, ‘Victoria Smith’. Kimberly handed me the envelope, watching for my reaction.

 Which was: What the fork!

 I ripped open the envelope viciously. Inside, clearly marked, was Jake’s name, his address, and the time and date of the party.

 “Huh, that’s weird,” I remarked. “I didn’t think Jake would invite me to the party.”

 Kimberly grinned. “Maybe this is Fate calling!”

 I sighed. “Fate it is, then.”

 As Kimberly walked away, she yelled, “Dress nicely for Fate!”

 I snorted.

 

My ears hurt. A lot. And I can still hear screams resounding in my ears.

 No, no one invaded our school and shot everyone down. But, to me, what was happening was almost as bad as that.

 Guess why?

 Ivy and Alyssa got an invitation to Jake’s party too.

 That resulted in tons of screaming and discussions of what to wear.

 Currently, my two best friends were sitting on my bed and comparing shoes. Again. As they had been doing for the past few hours, while I sat here and read a book. Unfortunately, their babbling still reached my ears and I failed to read more than a page at a time.

 Think I’m being too harsh in describing their actions?

 No. I am not.

 I put down my book gingerly, and stood up. I have got to go get them something to wear... anything to stop that babbling. Anything.

 

“I’m so nervous, An,” I whined into the phone. Nina shot me a look. She then resumed checking her nails and her dress for the party.

 Anthony laughed. “You’re Victoria Smith! Why are you nervous?”

 I made a sound of annoyance. “I told you, this annoying girl spread a rumor about me and now everyone detests me.”

 “I haven’t known you for nine years to know that no one can hate you.” See? Anthony was so much better than Alyssa at comforting.

 “Psh. You’re wrong. Said annoying girl does.”

 Nina shot me another look, knowing that the ‘annoying girl’ was her.

 “She’s just jealous!”

 “She isn’t!” I said with a laugh. “She’s the stereotype popular girl...”

 Nina growled. I ignored her.

 “Yeah, but... ugh! You’re so hard to comfort!” Anthony exclaimed.

 “Shut up, An.”

 “I told you not to call me that, Tori! An sounds like the girl name Anne! Call me Tony, like everyone else does!”

 I pouted, even though I knew he couldn’t see me. “I told you, I don’t like the name Tony, so I refuse to call you that.”

 “An sounds bad.”

 “So does Tony.”

 Anthony hmphed, much to my dismay.

 “Just accept it...”

 “Gah! Fine! Call me An!”

 I smiled. “Thank you.”

 “Your deceiving tricks are horrifying.”

 “Hardly. They’re useful.”

 Anthony exhaled. “Fine...” I heard some shuffling. “God, I really miss you.”

 “I miss you too, of course, but you just had to move to California.”

 “I told you, my dad had to, because of his stupid work.”

 “I know, right! It’s too bad a lot of people don’t remember you.”

 “Well, I did leave six years ago.”

 The door slammed open. Ivy and Alyssa bounded in, yelling, “It’s time to go!”

 “What’s that?” Anthony asked.

 “Ivy and Alyssa.”

 I could practically feel him smiling.

 “I gotta go, sorry, An!” I heard him try to get in a ‘bye’ before I hung up.

 Sighing, I swung my feet off my bed. “Time to go to the party?”

 Nina sneered. “I can’t believe you losers were invited.”

“Shut up, Levesque.” I turned back to Ivy and Alyssa. “Let’s go.”

 And that, we set off.

 Fate, here I come.

4: Chapter 4 - Maybe, Maybe Not

Chapter 4- Maybe, Maybe Not

 

 “Stop... smoothing down your dress,” Alyssa ground out from her clenched teeth.

 Hmph. Hypocrite. She was clenching her dress tightly—her knuckles were white because of it.

 Still, I stopped immediately, blushing. “Sorry, I’m just nervous,” I whispered back.

 Ivy, on my left side, snorted, and began to check her fingernails. I never understood why people did that—why was it so interesting anyway?

 We were standing in line for Jake’s party, and had currently been waiting for about twenty minutes. Inside the house, there were tons of people inside and I could hear the music from outside.

 “What is there to be nervous for?” Alyssa asked, shooting me a look.

 “Well, everyone hates me now and’ll probably drive me out.”

 Alyssa sighed. “I didn’t think I’d have to do this, but...” She pulled out some hair from her bag.

 I eyed it, and then realized it was a wig. A blonde wig. The ends were curly, and the color was a little light.

 “...What?” My voice came out higher than usual.

 “This way, no one will recognize you. My sister taught me how to put on a wig without a band.” She gathered my hair in a bun and then stuffed the wig on. Contrary to popular belief, it actually wasn’t scratchy and uncomfortable. I fingered the silky strands of hair, raising my eyebrows.

 “You look cute,” Ivy remarked.

 I gave a half-laugh. So this is what it felt like to be blonde.

 We continued to talk as the other people showed their invites and gave them to the guards.

 Yes, there were guards. Jake was as rich as Nina and I, as were most people in West Fields, which led to many of them to be extremely snotty. Hint, hint: Nina Levesque!

 “Invite?” the guard’s gruff voice floated its way to my ears.

 Alyssa poked me when I didn’t react.

 “Oh!” I said, pulling the card out of my purse.

 The guard took a look at it, nodded, and then let me in.

 Thank god, there were no cliche red cups. People were dancing, or rather, grinding, and some were making out on the couches, and a small percent of couples were talking.

 Guys were giving me sly looks, and girls were greeting me. God, people at West Fields were so superficial. Just because I’m pretty doesn’t mean I’m nice!

 ...I am nice, of course. Just not to certain people.

 “This wig works miracles!” I whispered to Alyssa when a guy whistled as I walked by.

 “I know, right?” Alyssa whispered back. Ivy shot us both looks.

 “So what are you guys doing this Saturday? How about a girl’s night out?” I asked, settling down in a spot near the couches.

 “Sorry, I can’t. My family’s having this stupid gathering,” Ivy replied. “It’s probably going to be full of screaming and violence—most of them don’t know about,” she composed herself. “Mom and dad’s split. They’ll be furious when they hear they haven’t been told for a few days.”

 I nodded sympathetically. “I know. Family does that sometimes.”

 Ivy and Alyssa’s face scrunched up suddenly. I frowned at them, bemused, and then noticed the air behind me moving. I turned around, and saw a guy thrusting his pelvic area at my behind and raising his cup, generally looking drunk.

 This place is so weird.

 “Can you not do that, please?” I asked. The guy nodded, and looked away. Good.

 “Aww, that’s too bad,” Alyssa remarked, continuing our conversation. “I just bought lots of caramel ice cream.”

 I snorted. “No one likes caram-” I cut myself off when I realized the guy was doing it again.

 Sighing, I turned around again. “I said, can you not do that?” I yelled.

 The guy nodded again, slurred some apology, and stepped away from me.

 I grimaced at my friends. “As I was saying, no one likes caramel. Gah. It’s too sweet.”

 Alyssa laughed. “Nothing’s too sweet, my dear.”

 “Caramel is, Alyss-” Well, what do you know? The guy was going at it again. Was he so drunk he can’t refrain from pretending to hump a girl he doesn’t know, especially when said girl had asked him to stop two times?

 I sighed, and in two sharp motions, brought my right elbow to his stomach and nose hard without turning around. The guy grunted in pain, and I heard a little thump as he hit the floor.

 Cheers.

 Ivy stared at me in shock. “How did you do that?”

 I glanced knowingly at Alyssa. “Karate,” we both answered. And the two continued talking.

 Go on, keep talking. I’m not here, of course.

 I heard a little rustling as the guy got up. “Witch,” he said, practically biting the word.

 Of course, he didn’t really say witch, he said the word that rhymes with it.

 “With pleasure,” I spat back. “Try not to annoy me again or you’ll get something much worse than this.” I repeated the motion.

 The guy narrowed his eyes at me, and turned away to talk to a blonde girl who had been vying for his attention the past few minutes.

 I rolled my eyes, and turned back to Ivy and Alyssa.

 “That is so cliched her name might as well be Alexis Texas,” Ivy was saying.

 “No!” Alyssa protested. “So what if her parents are divorced? A lot of people’s parents are divorced.”

 “But if it’s in a story then it’s cliched.”

 Alyssa sighed. “Why is it, then?”

 “Because then it presents the perfect opportunity for the girls to go to Paris or something! It opens a whole new plot!”

 “Exactly! That’s why I want to write out the mother!”

 “Which makes it cliched because I, a reader, thought it was cliched!”

 “You have a writer as one of your best friends! Of course you would be familiar with cliches!”

 I watched the exchange with amusement, noting to myself to give them my opinion on it when the party was over, and maybe ask Anthony for his.

 As I took a sip of punch (hopefully not spiked with alcohol) from my cup which some random guy had handed to me, I suddenly spotted Jake in the corner of the room, talking to some redhead. I recognized her- she was very annoying, and airheaded. Her name was Zoey. Jake was glancing around the room, and I recognized that the look was of annoyance. Jake held up a hand, and left her side.

 As his gaze swung around the room, it landed on me and we held gazes for a few seconds. Jake’s eyes widened, and mouthed, Victoria?

 Crap.

 I whirled around swiftly. Alyssa and Ivy cocked their eyebrows- scary... twins!-. I widened my eyes and using vigorous facial expressions (wiggling eyebrows and cheeks) to signal to them.

 “What?” Alyssa hissed.

 I rolled my eyes, and jerked my head backwards in Jake’s direction.

 “Ow!” Someone yelled behind me. I whirled around, and voila. Jake was standing behind me.

 God, how did he move that fast?

 “Victoria!” he announced.

 I slapped my hand onto his mouth. “Shh!” I whispered.

 “Mmm hmm hmm!” was Jake’s response.

 I sighed and retracted my hand. “Do not,” I stage whispered. “announce that I’m... you know!”
 Jake frowned, and after a while, he let it go. “Hey, come with me, can you?”

 I raised my eyebrows and then dropped them, and smiled tightly at Alyssa and Ivy. “Sure.”

 I followed Jake, and finally, we trailed into an empty room.

 A bedroom. I see.

 Jake whirled around, causing me to stop suddenly.

 Bastard. I nearly toppled over.

 “What?” I barked.

 Jake rubbed the back of his neck.

 “I’m getting bored!” I yelled.

 Great, now I was acting like Sam Puckett from iCarly. Because this guy irritates me that much.

 Jake muttered something that sounded, ‘To hell with it.’ He sunk down on one knee, and began to fish around in his pocket.

 My mind went blank.

 He produced a ring, and opened it. Inside was...

 A gummy bear.

 A frickin’ gummy bear.

 A candy.

 A-

 Oh, you get the point.

 I curled my lips inwards. “A gummy bear, huh?”

 “Will you be my girlfriend, Victoria?”

 Ignored my question, hey? Clever, huh?

 Wait. Did he just ask me to be his-

 My mouth dropped open. Literally. And it stayed open, until Jake snorted.

 “Will you close your mouth?”

 I snapped it close, wincing when it created a sharp popping sound.

 “Will you be my girlfriend?” he repeated.

 “I... we only knew each other for two days!”

 “Which is why I want to get to know you better,” he quipped.

 Great.

 I took a deep breath, and then tilted my head, not really knowing why I was doing this because I wasn’t thinking anyway while doing that.

 I inhaled again, and made up my mind.

 “Yes.”

 Jake yelled in triumph, and jumped up and kissed me. On the mouth.

 Ahhhhhhhhh!

 I tensed, becoming stiff as cardboard. Jake, sensing this, reared back, his hands still on my arms.

 “Too far?” he asked.

 I nodded. “Too far.”

 Jake grinned. “Few weeks. Few weeks.” He resumed his grinning. “I’ll see you around!”

 “Yeah, sure.”

 When Jake left the room, I screamed happily.

 “Yaghhhhhh!” was the gist of it.

 And then I caught a glint of light from my right. The other door.

 The side door.

 And, the hair was blonde.

 Aka Nina Levesque’s hair.

 I whirled around, and stalked to the door, ready to kill, even though my heart was pounding and I was hoping that if it really was Nina there-it would be just like her to do something like that, wouldn’t it?-, she wouldn’t be ready to kill me because I said yes to Jake’s proposition.

 Ew. Proposition.

 I poked my head inside, hoping fervently someone wouldn’t slam the door and murder me.

 Instead of Nina, I found a wide-eyed blonde girl. I recognized her as Nicki van Gosen, a nice girl from Germany.

 “Did you see everything?” I asked.

 She nodded.

 “Why are you here, anyway?”

 Nicki stayed silent for a few moments before answering. “I followed you two in because, well, Jake’s known to, er, bed girls by force. I was going to intervene if he tried to do anything.”

 How brave.

 I raised an eyebrow. “You’re saying he rapes girls?”

 Nicki nodded slowly.

 “And how would you know that?”

 “It happened to me before.”

 “Why didn’t you call the police or anything, if he does do that?”

 “I... I don’t know. I didn’t want to ruin his reputation.”

 “Which further proves that he doesn’t do that.”

 Nicki sighed. “Hey, look, just listen. I’m trying to help you here.” She paused. “Jake... he, well, likes to ask two girls to be his girlfriend. And usually the two girls he picks are enemies.” When I stayed silent, she continued. “And I’ll bet my house that he’ll pick Nina and you.”

 “And how will I not know that he’s cheating on me? We’ll get suspicious, won’t we?”

 “Well, he never kisses the girl if the other girl can see them. He also tells the girls that he’s just friends with the girls, which, of course, is a total lie.”

 Suddenly, I realized something. “But you went to different schools! How would you know if you went to different schools?” Haha, see? The truth prevails and-

 “He only likes to do it to girls from different schools so his reputation won’t be ruined.”

 The truth was being squashed and chained to a bar.

 “Oh god,” I muttered. “Seriously?” I shook my head. “I’m sorry, Nicki, but I really don’t believe you. There’s no way Jake can be like that.”

 Nicki shrugged. “You’ll see in a few months.”

 I gritted my teeth. “Maybe. Maybe not.”

 And with that, I stalked out of the room, Nicki’s warning still resounding in my head.

 

“Aghhhhhh!” Alyssa screamed.

 “Eep!” Ivy squealed. “I can’t believe he asked you to be his girlfriend!”

 “I know, right?” I yelled. “I can’t believe it!”

 Alyssa squealed again. “This is incredible!”

 It sure was, and I wasn’t about to let Nicki van Gosen ruin it.

5: Chapter 5 - Innocent Until Proven Cheaty

Chapter 5- Innocent Until Proven Cheaty

 

 Months passed. I became more popular as more and more people spotted me with Jake, aka. the Golden Boy. Life couldn’t be better—and Nina didn’t bother me anymore except for an occasional smirk.

 Nicki’s warning was still frequently popping into my brain. What if it was true? What if Jake really was cheating on me? What if that’s why Nina wasn’t being as nasty to me and I could never see Nina when we kissed in public?

 “Hey, hey. Definition of mitochondria?” Alyssa snapped her fingers in front of my face.

 I jolted out of my thoughts. “Huh? Oh. An organelle found in large numbers in most cells, in which the biochemical processes of respiration and energy production occur.”

 Alyssa clapped. “Word for word.”

 I sighed, and shrugged. “That’s me.”

 “Come on, Victoria, you don’t have to remember it word for word.”

 I narrowed my eyes at her. “I must! It’s Finals.”

 Alyssa rolled her eyes. “Chill out, Tori. There are two finals.”

 My mouth dropped open. “So? Both are important!”

 Alyssa ran her hands through her hair. “You are so uptight!”

 “Just because I actually want to graduate from freshman year doesn’t mean I’m uptight!”

 Alyssa raised her eyebrow. “I want to too.”

 “Your careless attitude annoys me.”

 Alyssa raised her arms and smiled. “You know you love me.”

 I snorted and jumped off my chair, tumbling onto my bed. “Give me my textbook!”

 “No! You’ve exercised your brain too much.”

 I began to kick in the air, and exhaled. “No! I need to study!”

 “I can hear the glee in your voice that you can’t study!”

 I rolled my eyes and kicked in her direction. “God, you’re annoying.”

 Alyssa hurled a plastic spoon at me in reply.

 

“Parentheses a plus b parentheses parentheses a plus b parentheses, equals to a squared, plus two a b, plus b squared. Got all that?”

 Grunts and unenthusiastic ‘Yeah’s filled the room in reply.

 Mr. Sanchez groaned. “Come on, people! This is simple stuff! When I was in primary school I learned this and memorized it!”

 Then why are you teaching it in high school?

My pencil flew across the paper, trying to get the whole equation down in my notebook.

 “Ms. Falcon!” Mr. Sanchez barked. Alyssa’s head snapped up, nearly hitting me in the chin.

 “Yes?”

 Mr. Sanchez rolled his eyes. “Look at your notes.”

 She did. “What about it?”

 “Look at Ms. Smith’s notes.”

 She glanced at mine. “What about them?”

 Mr. Sanchez sighed. “Finals are coming up, Ms. Falcon! You must start reviewing and preparing for them!”

 “Yes, Mr. Sanchez,” she chanted.

 Mr. Sanchez sighed again and gave up, turning back to the board.

 Alyssa had that effect on teachers.

 I could practically feel Ivy laughing from over the room.

 The Finals were having a major effect on me. I had been darting around the school, looking creepily like a squirrel, and carrying huge textbooks around, revising whenever I could in hopes I would pass the tests.

 Even though I knew I would most likely pass because of all the crazy studying I was doing.

 Alyssa, however, had been carelessly flinging her notes around and occasionally using them as tissues when she needed them. Usually, after my daily reprimanding, she would study a little, recite some paragraph to me, and then lose interest because she had the attention span of a goldfish. Once, when I told her to study, she had yelled, “I’ll study willingly when hell freezes over seven times and pigs join the the birds in the sky!”

 Ivy, on the other hand, was studying like a normal person. She took notes, not word for word, but with the general definition, and studied a few hours after all classes ended.

 In general, life was good. I got a boyfriend, Alyssa was happily single, Ivy had a date with some guy on campus, and Nina was no longer bothering me.

 Victor was doing good too—I heard he started dating Nicki. Or maybe it was Zoey. But his grades were up-quite unusual for a jock- and he was happy. So were Dad and Mom, though Mom would occasionally moan into the phone that she missed us and regretted sending us to boarding school.

 Jake was quite sweet, and we had already gone on several dates—thank god, no classic movie and dinner. He always sent me several gifts, leaving them in my locker or on my desk. And, contrary to the common stereotype, he had never pressured me physically.

 That sounded so old-fashioned.

 But what worried me with Jake was that he sometimes would check the time while we were on a date, and bolt out, yelling some excuse for leaving early to me. That was the classic cheating boyfriend sign, as Alyssa kept telling me, but I always refused to admit that he was most likely cheating on me.

 “Victoria Smith!” Mr. Sanchez hissed.

 I focused on the room, snapping out of my thoughts. Alyssa stifled a laugh, and I heard the signature Ivy snort from over the room.

 Watch it, Ivy, or you’re going to turn into a pig with all that snorting.

 “Yes?” I asked, hoping that Mr. Sanchez wouldn’t have noticed me dozing off.

 Fat chance.

 “What is the answer for question four?”

 I looked down on my notebook. Crap. I hadn’t written that down.

 “According to my calculations...” My mouth was dry. “...the problem doesn’t exist.” I finished lamely.

 Mr. Sanchez looked like he was choosing between laughing or yelling at me when the bell rang.

 When, oh when, did my life turn into one gigantic cliche? Oh, whyyyyyy?

 I flashed a smile at Mr. Sanchez, and he frowned at me while I grabbed my folders and scurried out of the room, Alyssa behind me.

 “That was close,” she remarked.

 “You think?” I snapped. Alyssa frowned at me.

 Oh, my, I’m on the receiving end of a lot of frowns today, aren’t I?

 “Sorry, I’m just anxious because while I was dozing off, I did some thinking and yeah... I think Jake is probably cheating on me.”

 Alyssa opened her mouth with a smile, probably to tell me, ‘I told you so’-another cliche, damn!- but I cut her off, holding up a finger.

 “Or maybe he was genuine when he said that his uncle’s fish died and it was tragic.”

 I heard a snort behind me.

 Ivy.

 She made her way to between Alyssa and I, smirking. “Are you seriously that stupid? There’s no way Jake would’ve abandoned you if he was that gentlemanly as you say for a fish! I can’t believe you believed him!”

 Offended, I groaned. “Come on! He said that the fish meant a lot to his uncle!”

 “And did you seriously think Jake gave an arse that his uncle’s FISH died?”

 “Yes.”

 Ivy sighed in exasperation, and Alyssa gave a laugh.

 “I gotta go to... Physics. I hate Physics,” Ivy checked her...wrist.

 “You don’t even have a watch,” I stated.

 “I know!” she snapped.

 I laughed silently as she fished through the crowd to Mr. Rafer’s class.

 

I screamed.

 Alyssa bolted up from her sleep in her bed.

 “What? Ninja monkeys? Get ‘em, kill ‘em, dieee...” Alyssa waved her arms around before she noticed there weren’t any ninja monkeys in the room.

 I was practically hyperventilating. “Alyssa!”

 “What?” she snapped. “You woke me up. There’s no excuse for that!”

 “I forgot my textbook back at the East Wing!”

 Alyssa made a sound that sounded between a scoff, groan, and cry. “I don’t care!”

 “I’ve got to go get it!”

 Alyssa rolled over. “That’s stupid. That’s extremely stupid. It’s five in the morning.”

 “I’ve got to go get it! Wait for me.”

 In fact, I was so panicked, I didn’t even notice that Nina wasn’t in the room.

 

I stumbled into the hallway, rubbing my eyes. Sleep deprivation was getting to me.

 Of course, no one was in the hallway. I saw Mr. Rafer on the way, though, but when I told him I forgot my textbook, he had grinned and said something about motivation and dedication, and patted me on the back.

 I wonder what he was doing in that hallway...

 Ew. No. Don’t even go there.

 Continuing to walk down the hallway, I trailed my fingers over the wall, smiling. I would be spending four years here.

 Suddenly, my ears picked up some moaning and shuffling near me. Huh. That’s weird. As I moved closer, I began to think of what could happen. Maybe Jake was making out with some girl at this ungodly hour!

 Please let the Fates defeat the awe-inspiring power of cliche. Please let the Fates defy the awe-inspiring power of cliche. Please let the-

...Oh, the ever awesome cliche prevails.

 Nina and Jake were gluing their faces together using spit.

 I cleared my throat, and put my hands on my hips. Jake turned around, and so did Nina.

 It was quite funny, actually, how Jake’s eyes widened to the size of the universe and his mouth began to move a million miles a minute. I thought only girls could do that.

 “Victoria! I’m sorry, I can explain!”

 There goes cliche again. The ‘I can explain!’ line.

 “Pretty sure there’s nothing to explain, James,” I sneered. “You were cheating on me.”

 “Wait! What? Cheating on her?” Nina stepped forward. “You mean, you were cheating on me with her?”

 “How did you not notice? We were walking around and kissing for the past few months.” I crossed my arms, and stared at Nina. Her eyes were watering.

 “I... I must’ve never came across your path when you did it. I thought you guys were just friends.” We both turned to Jake.

 “You were only kissing me in public when Nina wasn’t there, weren’t you?” I demanded.

 Jake swallowed.

 “You were lying to me all this time you said Victoria was just a friend!” Nina shrieked. You could just hear the fury in her voice.

 Jake swallowed again.

 I bit my lip, and then strode forward. I slapped Jake.

 It was a good, hard slap. Very firm. It made his head snap around, and I could see a red handprint on his cheek.

 “Thank you, Nina.” I said, turning to her. “If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have found out that Jake was cheating on me.”

 Nina sighed, and then nodded. “Same.” She held up a finger. “But this doesn’t make us friends.”

 “I wouldn’t think so.”

 I walked out of the room.

 What happened finally hit me. Jake had cheated on me. With Nina Levesque, nonetheless. A tear slipped out. And another. And another.

 Soon I was full-blown crying, and sobs were being wrenched out of my chest every few seconds. I hiccuped.

 Gah. I hate hiccups.

 I began to sprint back to my room, ignoring Jake yelling apologies. Tears were blurring my vision, but I ignored them.

 And then I remembered something very, very important.

 Oh, god. Please. Why are you doing this to me?

 ...I didn’t take my textbook.

 Furiously hiccuping, I started to walk back, hoping to slink away in the shadows so an arguing Nina and Jake wouldn’t notice me. Thankfully, they didn’t, much to my delight, and I got my textbook safely.

 Maybe the world wasn’t being so hard on me anymore.

 I finally reached my dorm, and with a sigh of relief, I pushed the door open.

 Alyssa bolted up when she saw me. “What happened? Forgetting your textbook can’t make you cry that much, right?”

 “Jake... is cheating on me,” I croaked out.

 Alyssa’s eyes widened. “Oh, no.”

 “Oh, yes,” The tears began to lessen as anger took over. “Oh, yes, he did! He was chewing on Nina’s face when I noticed them! Thank god I forgot my textbook, otherwise the relationship would’ve kept going and I would’ve been deceived, for, I don’t know, how long? That guy’s a total jerk! I hate him! How could he have done that?” I ranted, practically foaming at the mouth. “Thanks to him, the whole school is probably going to get some twisted version, and that added to my homewrecker stunt, then they’ll probably have no qualms about dropkicking my oesophagus into my spine!

 “I can’t believe he tricked me for so long into thinking he was sweet and faithful! I can’t believe he managed to keep it up for months. And I cannot believe that my first serious relationship turned out like this! You know what? I want to kill that guy who said that loving and then losing was always better than not loving. In fact, I want to stab him to death because... he was wrong,” I choked at that, and the floodgates opened again. “It just hurts in my heart, you know?”

 Alyssa patted my head, and hugged me. “Hey, you know what? Tomorrow we can go use a butter sock to beat the crap out of him!”

 I lifted my head in confusion. “The butter sock from iCarly?”

 “Yeah.”

 “You’re crazy.”

 “You’ve always known that, my dear.”

 I laughed. “Hey, you know, you can say ‘I told you so’ now.”

 Alyssa hesitated. “I told you so.”

 My mouth dropped open. “Alyssa! You’re supposed to comfort me, not say I told you so!”

 “You gave me permission!”

 I stepped away from her, half-laughing and half-crying. “I just... let’s go to sleep.”

 I rolled into my bed, and turned off the lights. Alyssa did the same.

 You know what? Turns out I hadn’t run out of tears yet.

6: Chapter 6 - Hanging Onto Hope

A/N: God, this chapter sucks so much and is so cliche and faux-dramatic at the end. I'm sorry. But I can't think properly 'cause I'm sick.

Chapter 6- Hanging Onto Hope

 

 Ding!

 Holy f-monkeys, who is at the house this early?

 I peeled one eye open, and glanced at the clock.

 Eleven am.

 What. The. F.

 Why didn’t Victor and Dad wake me up?

 Oh, yeah. Monthly father-son-fishing-trip.

 I let out a strangled cough, when all of yesterday came flooding back to me. Stupid Jake.

 I coughed again.

 I need cough syrup.

 I slowly swung my legs off my bed and onto the cold, unforgiving floor. My legs were sore—probably because of the immediate running back home when I woke up thing I did. It was raining when I ran home. That explained the coughing.

 This was a great start to Saturday.

 The doorbell rang again.

 Who-frickin’-ever is at the door can wait. I need to comb my hair... it looks like a rat’s nest.

 Slowly, I cleaned myself up and swallowed some cough syrup.

 Suddenly, I spotted a picture of Jake and I, laughing, on my nightstand. I remembered that day—we were on a picnic. I must’ve not noticed it when I got home. Bye bye, picture. I picked it up and threw it in the trash, grinning to myself when it made a loud clang.

 As I walked down the stairs, I picked up all the pictures and notes and gifts from Jake.

 The fireplace was burning. Good.

 Feeling sadistic, I tossed the pictures in the fireplace, watching the flames lick them up.

 I’m letting go of Jake, moving on. Finally.

 And then I noticed the door again.

 Sighing, I swung open the door.

 Jake.

 Godammit.

 Wordlessly, I turned around and went to get my cough syrup. Muttering to myself and reading out the instructions, I returned to the door.

 “What are you doing?” Jake asked. I could hear impatience creeping into his voice.

 I’m surprised he didn’t put a hand on his hip.

 “Checking the cough syrup instructions to make sure I didn’t overdose and hallucinate.”

 Jake sighed to himself. “Why would you be hallucinating?”

 I put the bottle of cough syrup down on the counter near the door. “Because you would never give a damn about me, or at least not enough to come to my house for whatever reason.”

 Jake bit his lip. “Look, I’m here to apologize and explain.”

 I snorted. “Yeah, right. Did you forget a sock here or something?”

 “When have I taken off clothes when I was at your place?”

 Oh, ew. Now the thought of us... revolted me.

 “When we were studying and walking through the rain... you took off your socks because they were wet.”

 “Oh.”

 I was surprised I remembered it at all.

 “Will you just let me in?” he asked.

 I rolled my eyes. “Fine.” Jake trodded in, not bothering to take off his shoes as he plopped down on my couch.

 Pig.

 I settled myself on the heart shaped seat after closing the door. “So. Begin.”

 Jake sat up straighter. “I... Since I began to become interested in girls, I had... Well, you know Isaac Walter, right? I heard you two had been best friends.”

 I felt my hands curl into fists at the mention of him. “What about him?”

 Jake, seeing my discomfort, laughed. “You hate him now, don’t you?”

 “Why would you care?”

 “Because I dated you to annoy him.”

 Jerk. Jerk jerk jerk jerk jerk jerk jerk jerk jerk jerk jer-

 “Isaac had always disliked me, even though we went to different schools. We met at a game of dodgeball with the guys in his group, and you were there. You were sitting on the fountain, watching them. I’m surprised you didn’t recognize me when you saw me again on the first day.”

 I remembered now. I had been extremely bored, and was eating a sandwich, and had only came because Isaac had dragged me there, stating that ‘I’ll be so, so bored if you don’t come! All the guys do is just throw balls.’ I replied that dodgeball works like that, but he only snorted and kept on dragging me along.

 “...And so when I heard on the first day that you two had become sort of enemies now, I didn’t think I should date you anymore, but you proved yourself to be fun and, well, funny. And then I noticed that whenever you and I walked past him together, he would look angry.”

 I rolled my eyes. “You’re making this up. Isaac doesn’t like me; he wouldn’t care.”

 “Oh, but he will.”

 He sounded so ridiculously villain-y that I had to laugh.

 “If you and I get back together, then-”

 Oh, he did not just do that.

 I stood up abruptly. “Are you crazy? I only invest in relationships when I like the guy I’m with. And liking them requires them to be at least halfway decent to me.” I paused. “This, lest you missed the point, would not include you. You cheated on me, Jake. I don’t think I can ever forget that.”

 I grabbed his arm, and began to push him towards the door, caught in a fit of anger. “Get out, get out, get out. Don’t ever talk to me again, or I’ll tell Alyssa to bring her butter sock to school so I can use it on you.” And with that, I pushed him through the open door, closed it, and locked it in one swift movement.

 Jake’s muffled voice came through the door. “The butter sock from iCarly?”

 I kicked the door in reply.

 

“Attention, everyone!” Nina yelled.

 Alyssa, Ivy and I turned to her, and so did everyone else in the hallway, which was about a quarter of the freshmen.

 “You know the rumor about Victoria?” A few pairs of eyes turned to me, glaring, and people began to mutter. I snorted at it, the insults having long lost their effect on me.

 “Well, it’s not true,” Nina proclaimed.

 I raised my eyebrows at it. Was she finally apologizing? Maybe it was because I had helped with her and Jake’s breakup.

 More muttering erupted over the hallway, and some people began to take out their phones. Some people sent me apologetic looks.

 I didn’t care, actually. If they wanted to treat me like a criminal just because of a rumor, and did a three sixty when the rumor proved to be untrue, then so be it.

 “And I apologize about it.” Nina swallowed, seeming uncomfortable about being decent to me. I smiled at her. “So spread the word that Victoria Smith is not a homewrecker, and I encourage you all to become friends with her. Okay, everybody. Bye bye.”

 She began talking to Courtney, ignoring everyone else. Getting the message, everyone began to talk amongst themselves. A few people came up to me and apologized.

 “See? I knew it wasn’t true,” a familiar voice remarked.

 I turned around. Kimberly!

 “Hi!” I chirped.

 She grinned. “Well, now that everyone knows the rumor wasn’t true, you can go laugh in their faces.”

 I smirked. “Well, that won’t happen. I don’t really care about them anymore. Just my true friends.” I put my arms around Ivy and Alyssa. “This is Ivy, and this is Alyssa. Alyssa, Ivy, that’s Kimberly.”

 “But everyone calls me Kim,” she supplied.

 And the greetings began.

 

The dress was icy blue; just like how I felt inside. Cold and unemotional.

 “It’s cute,” Alyssa remarked.

 “Thanks,” I replied, keeping my eyes on the mirror. “Do you think I should go?”

 Ivy sighed with exasperation. “Isaac isn’t your life, Tori! Just because he hasn’t asked you yet doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go.”

 I sighed, and collapsed onto my bed. “But he promised he would take me to the two thousand thirteen Winter Dance.”

 “Which you’ve told us more than a hundred times,” Alyssa said dryly.

 Ivy shot Alyssa a look that said, ‘I thought you were the comforting one.’ “Look, you’re going with us, okay?”

 I raised my head with surprise. “I thought you were going with that guy you had a date with on campus, Ivy.”

 “You don’t know?” Ivy frowned. “He proved himself to be a major idiot.”

 “And Alyssa is-”

 “Happily single,” Alyssa and Ivy chorused.

 I smiled, pulling myself together. “Yeah, if you keep on being ‘happily single’, you’re never going to find a boyfriend.”

 Alyssa waved her arm, but I thought I saw a flash of annoyance pass through her eyes.

 I dropped the thought immediately—Alyssa would tell me if she didn’t like anything I said.

 I smiled. “Now who wants to go to a Winter Dance?”

 

Ew. The punch was disgusting. Who made it, anyway? I wonder if the janitor had dumped all the garbage he found in the punch but grinded it to dust first so it didn’t show in the liquid.

 Ugh. Curse my brain for thinking up such a disgusting thing.

 ...And making the scenario stick in my brain.

 I swallowed another gulp, just to make myself look like I wasn’t totally bored and dateless.

 Yes, I was vain about this stuff.

 I finally put the tasteless yet disgusting punch down on the counter, and picked up a cheese stick and began to eat it.

 “That’s what I like about you.”

 I whirled around, elbowing the offender as I turned around to make sure it wasn’t some serial killer.

 Add paranoid to the list of ‘Victoria’s flaws’.

 It (he) was Isaac Walter.

 “Isaac,” I said flatly, picking up my glass of punch and took a sip, forgetting how awful it tastes.

 Isaac recovered from the pain I caused him by elbowing him in the stomach, and looked down at me.

 God, guys were such egotistical creatures. And their height makes it even worse.

 “Victoria,” Isaac returned, grinning at me. Dimples were showing on his cheeks.

 Egotistical. Irritating. Disloyal. Not at all cute because of his dimples.

 “What did you like about me?” I asked.

 Isaac cocked an eyebrow. “Ever so arrogant, Vick?”

 “Vick is my brother. People call me Tori, or Victoria. Never Vick.” I paused. “Just another thing you missed because you stopped talking to me.”

 Isaac avoided my gaze, and I could see his cheeks turning red. “Well... Anyway, I like that you don’t nibble daintily on a little cheese stick like you’re afraid if you take bigger bites you’re gonna turn into a rhinoceros.”

 I sighed. “You really shouldn’t listen to those stereotypes—girls eat too. A lot.” I shuddered, remembering the first day when those girls were eating so much in the lounge.

 Isaac shrugged. “You know me; stereotypes are my favorite.”

 I raised an eyebrow. “Is there a stereotype for a best friend leaving the other?”

 Isaac shot me a glare. “You don’t need to mention that every few sentences.”

 “Well, you don’t seem to remember it, so I thought I should. For the both of us.” I shifted my weight onto my left leg. “Why’re you talking to me, anyway? Thought you were done with that.”

 “Well, I thought, well, since I’m single, would you like to dance?”

 I raised my eyebrows, and decided to make a rash decision for once. “Sure.”

 Why, oh why, did I accept? Where are my brain cells? We slowly walked into the dancing crowd, and began to dance.

 Thankfully, I wasn’t too bad at dancing and neither was Isaac, so we didn’t make a fool of ourselves. But since we weren’t that good, no one did anything dramatic like giving us a few meters of space so that there would be a huge circle around us.

 Suddenly, I caught someone’s gaze. They were grey.

 Jake.

 He winked at me.

 I shook my head at him, annoyed.

 Isaac, he mouthed at me.

 Shut up, I mouthed back.

 He turned away and continued talking to a girl.

 Looking around the room, I saw Nina. She was wearing her cheerleader uniform.

 She is so conceited. So what if cheerleaders were popular? She shouldn’t flaunt it every chance she got, anyway. Maybe she thought she was Madonna.

 Who cares if you got into the squad, anyway?

 Apparently, everyone, since the girls were flocking to her and the guys were greeting her.

 Bunch of...

 Payphone by Maroon 5 ended abruptly, and everyone looked at the DJ. He grinned, and did some professional-looking adjusting of volumes, and played a new song.

 A slow song.

 Isaac raised his eyebrows at me. I curled my lips inward, and nodded.

 Well, what’s a girl got to do when her ex-best friend who abandoned her because she had a crush on him and then decided to talk her again asked you to dance?

 The dancing was a little awkward, since you could feel the tension emanating from us and every time we caught each other’s eyes, we would quickly look away.

 As I turned back around to look at Isaac, he caught my eye and we held each other’s gazes for a few seconds.

 God, this was awkward.

 And then I realized he was leaning in.

 Oh crap, he’s going to kiss me.

 I stood there, frozen, when someone shouted from across the room, “Isaac!”

 It was a familiar voice.

 A girl’s voice. Isaac leaned away from me instantly, and looked in the direction of where the voice had come from.

 His face immediately contorted into a stricken expression. And a terrified one.

 What was wrong with him?

 I turned to look as well.

 A girl with bouncy blonde hair was making her way through the crowd. And the girl happened to be Kimberly.

 I glanced back at Isaac, puzzled. It was his turn to be frozen, now, and he was rooted to his spot on the ground. Neither of us said anything as Kimberly pushed through the mass of people.

 When she finally reached us, I thought I saw Isaac twitch.

 “Isaac, darling, I’ve been looking for you everywhere.” Kimberly smiled at me. “I had no idea you were going to the dance!”

 I laughed. “Well, you know me, I never miss a good one!” Kimberly nodded and turned back to Isaac.

 And kissed him, full on the mouth. Isaac was stiff as a cardboard the whole time, and Kimberly frowned when she pulled away.

 “Something wrong, darling?” she asked.

 Isaac opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out.

 I lifted an eyebrow at him. “Single, huh?”

 “Wha-” Kimberly began, but I continued to talk, and began to stalk in a circle around Isaac.

 In case you didn’t know, I had a flair for the dramatics.

 “So, Kimberly seems to be your girlfriend. Unless she’s a rabid girl who’s in love with you and can’t keep herself away from you.” I paused. “And since I know Kimberly, I can honestly say that I don’t think she would ever act like that. So that concludes that she’s your girlfriend, and yet you said you were single and nearly kissed me a few seconds ago.”

 Isaac spluttered for a few seconds before regaining his breath, and remained silent.

 Kimberly looked back at me, and then Isaac. “What?” she managed to gasp.

 “Kim...”

 Kimberly turned to Isaac, and slapped him. “You lying bastard,” she ground out through her teeth.

 Isaac’s jaw dropped. “You believe that whore?”

 Kimberly slapped him again. “Don’t you ever dare say that again about Victoria. She is a friend of mine, and I know her well enough to know that she would never lie like that. But you would, of course. I should’ve noticed. All the late nights and sudden leaves.”

 “How come I never heard of this relationship?” I asked, interrupting her speech.

 “We were keeping it secret,” she replied, keeping her eyes on Isaac. “I was going to surprise him by telling everyone today at the dance.”

 Isaac furrowed his eyebrows, and opened his mouth to talk.

 I grabbed onto Kimberly’s arm. “Never talk to her again,” I spit out viciously.

 Isaac took a step back immediately.

 And with that, we left the dance, with people staring at us and Alyssa and Ivy watching. They knew me well enough to leave me alone.

 Especially when my heart is broken.

7: Chapter 7 - Woops, There Goes My World

Chapter 7- Woops, There Goes My World

 

 I swung open my locker, wincing when the sharp metal bit into my skin. Stupid lockers and their stupid ways of locking it. I had to pull this individual bit of metal excessively to open it, and I hadn’t come up with a way to open it without causing my fingers to turn red because of all the clawing at the metal.

 Isaac had called me a whore.

 I didn’t care at the time, but now it sunk in and it was still there, floating at the edge of my brain.

 I told myself over and over that of course I wasn’t a whore; I hadn’t gone out on a date with anyone since Jake.

 But then why had Isaac called me that? He was never the type of person to call other people meaningless things, especially if they were false. Unless, of course, it’s calling someone his ‘friend’.

 No. Bad tears. Tears must go away. Heart must stop getting involved, too. Can you hear me, heart? You’re only for pumping blood and staying alive. That’s it. No beating when you’re not supposed to.

 Getting fed up with my locker- and perhaps something else, too-, I banged on it, hard, causing some people to glance at me, and the metal bounced back.The piece of metal had bounced back a lot, and now I could open it.

 Grinning like a Cheshire cat, I yanked the door open and glanced inside in search of my folder. Aha.

 I picked it out, still grinning, when a piece of paper slid out of my locker. Frowning, I bent to pick it up, and turned it over.

 Dear Victoria,

 You are all I ever wanted and all I ever will need. Keep smiling the beautiful way you do.

 Love,

 Your secret admirer.

 Ew. Cheesy.

 A secret admirer note, huh? So that was how Jake wanted to play it.

 Off to Music for me. Alyssa and Ivy were in that class, so I could show the- blegh- note to them.

 Slowly, I reread the note over and over again. Love? Beautiful smile? All he ever wanted? And needed?

 I didn’t believe it. Who would…?

 Ow!

 A few snickers were sent my way when I bumped, hard, into the classroom door. My nose instantly began to throb, and I grimaced when the pain increased even more when I poked the bride of my nose.

 Sighing, I pushed the door open and entered the classroom. Alyssa and Ivy instantly saw me, and gestured to the open seat besides them.

 I didn’t need to be told twice. Making my way over to them, I threw my bag onto the desk beside Alyssa. “Today sucks,” I announced.

 Alyssa snorted. “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

 “Double negative,” Ivy muttered.

 I paused in my actions, staring at Ivy. I frowned. “What’s wrong?”

 Ivy sighed, and buried her face in her hands. Her voice came out muffled when she replied, “Parents.”

 Alyssa gave a sound of pity, causing Ivy to shoot a glare in Alyssa’s direction, and enveloped Ivy in her arms. I smiled at the scene of the two best friends, and sat down in my seat.

 When Ivy and Alyssa stopped hugging, I cleared my throat. The two glanced at me.

 “I need to tell you guys something.”

 The two’s eyes beckoned me to continue.

 “I…” I whipped out the pieces of paper that had appeared in my locker. Ivy and Alyssa instantly followed to movement, and stared the notes. “...have found these secret admirer notes in my locker.”

 Alyssa instantly went ‘Pfft’, and leaned back in her chair. “I’m surprised you haven’t gotten before, being popular and all.”

 Ivy remained silent.

 I rolled my eyes at Alyssa, and then sobered. “Jake is doing this, I’m sure. He’s trying to get me all happy so that he can laugh at me when he reveals that he’s the one who’s giving the notes.”

 Ivy gave me one of those, ‘Are you serious?’ looks. “I don’t think it’s Jake, but maybe it’s just from some creep who loves you way too much.”

 I frowned at her and Alyssa; Alyssa had given me the same reaction. “But… why would anyone ‘love me way too much’?”

 “You have a way too low opinion of yourself, Tori,” Alyssa punched me in the arm.

 “Do not!” I protested, my voice turning defensive. “I’m simply being realistic.”

 

Great. I’m lost.

 The hallways looked familiar to me, but perhaps that was because all the hallways are the same in West Fields, except for the little numbers on top of the doors which distinguish all the classrooms from each other.

 Aha! B403! There you go.

 I pushed open the door and entered, grinning, thinking about the serenity the library offered.

 Instead, I was met with dancing girls in ballet stretching and doing walkovers and handsprings and splits.

 This was not B403.

 Before I could hightail out of the room, someone chirped next to my ear, “Hey Tori! What’re you doing here?”

 I whirled around. Kimberly. A wave of relief washed over me. “Kimberly! What are you doing here?”

 She grinned. “Haven’t I told you before? I do…” She gestured to her shoes and outfit. “Gymnastics.”

 I thought back to our first conversation; she had. She said something about her friends from doing gymnastics.

 “Oh.” Was all that I could muster up. How could I have never noticed before that there was this room in the school? I must’ve thought the D was B in D403.

 “Do you want to try?” Kimberly chirped.

 That girl chirps too much.

 “Ah, no, no!” Kimberly didn’t listen, and began to pull me towards the changing rooms. “Kim!”

 She simply grinned, grabbed an outfit, chirped, “Is this your size?”, and pushed me into the changing room.

 I stared at the outfit in my hand, wondering whether I should try it.

 “You changing?” Kimberly’s voice came through the curtains.

 There was silence for a moment before I answered. “Yeah.”

 Sighing in defeat, I stripped and then began to put on the clothes.

 In a minute, I was out in a leotard and grimacing. None of the girls were paying attention to us.

 “Can you do the splits?” Kimberly asked, settling herself down on an empty mattress and starting to stretch.

 Hesitantly, I nodded. Doing karate had given me flexibility.

 Kimberly clapped in joy. “Good! Show me!”

 With reluctance, I slid down into the position, and Kimberly clapped. “I haven’t seen many people who haven’t done gymnastics before do the splits.”

 “Er…” I looked up at Kimberly. “I’ve done karate.”

 Kimberly grinned again. “Karate! Nice!”

 Her cheerful attitude was beginning to wear me down.

 “Why so gloomy?” she asked.

 “I… don’t know. I’ve been getting these secret admirer notes and I think Jake’s trying to psych me out.”

 Kimberly plopped herself down next to me. “That’s so romantic! I’m sure Jake isn’t doing it. He can’t ruin it for you.”

 I stopped doing the splits and lay down, pursing my lips. “I’m not sure that he can’t. He’s done so many other things to me.”

 “I know he’s broken your heart, Tori, but do you seriously think that he’s still giving you this much thought? That he’s still pining over you?”

 I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. It made sense, too. I was never a conceited person, so why did I think that Jake was doing it?

 I stood up abruptly. “I have to go.”

 Kimberly frowned at me. “You can’t skip class.”

 I rolled my eyes. “It’s last period, and free period. The teachers don’t care or know what I’m doing, so I can go.”

 Kimberly shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

 And with that, I left the room, forgetting to even change out of the leotard.

 

Narrowing my eyes, I trudged down Hazelnut Street, where Alyssa lived. Her house was huge, like mine, and was pure white on the outside and a pale blue on the inside. Almost there. Her house was unreasonably far from school— maybe that’s why she was so thin, because of all the exercise she had to go through by walking to school.

 I spotted an alley I hadn’t noticed before. It looked like a shortcut.

 Grinning, I began to saunter through the alley.

 Suddenly, something grabbed me. I let out a shriek; or would have, if the something hadn’t stuck a napkin onto my mouth.

 Come on, Victoria! Whip your karate skills out and kick this guy’s butt!

 I lashed out with my legs, and voila! I had kicked him in the balls, and he jerked but, to his credit, he didn’t fall to the floor in pain.

 “Naughty little girl,”  he whispered next to my ear. I suppose he was trying to sound husky, but he only sounded like a thirteen year old boy going through puberty trying to make his voice deeper.

 Oh god. He was going to…

 Rape me.

 Terror began to cloud my mind, and I started to struggle even more. “Mmm hmm hhmm!”

 I kicked his balls again, and, finally, he let go of me, and staggered backwards. “Bastard!” I yelled. “Help!”

 That’s what I get for going home early. No one was on Hazelnut Street, since most of the people living there were students and all the students were at school.

 There was a gleam in his eyes— an angry gleam. He swore under his breath, and began to advance towards me once again.

 “Let go of me, you bastard!” I screamed.

 “Not a chance,” he whispered.

 Ew.

 I punched him in the stomach, and began to run as fast as I could away from the alley.

 ...Oh yeah, alley, that is so cliched.

 And then I cursed myself for thinking about how cliched the situation was when it was a dire situation as well.

 Suddenly, I was pushed to the ground, and I could feel his body on mine as I crashed to the hard ground. It really, really hurt, and my right arm was pinned under my stomach. My lips were scratched against the cement, and I used my left arm to try and punch him, although I knew it was useless.

 “You’re not going anywhere, darlin’,” he drawled. At all costs, I kept my eyes off the ground, so that I wouldn’t be blinded. Instead of responding and wasting my breath, I kept on struggling, though I suppose I wasted my energy instead of breath.

 Suddenly, I felt the weight being lifted off me. Instantly, I shot to my feet and whirled around.

 Jake was pummeling the guy who attacked me on the ground.

 My eyes widened in shock. The guy who attacked me wasn’t ugly, actually. He had hazel eyes and light brown hair. He was muscular too—probably why he managed to keep ahold of me.

 “Jake!” I  yelled. “I think he’s had enough.”

 Jake paused, and took a deep breath, without glancing at me in the slightest bit. “I don’t think he has.”

 I rolled my eyes, the shock of nearly being raped hadn’t caught up with me yet. “Look, Jake, you can let him go now. I’ll kick him into the round myself.”

 Jake raised his eyebrows at me. “Oh? A little girl like you can beat him up?”

 I narrowed my eyes at him. Little girl, eh? “Move.” I pushed Jake off the guy, and planted my foot onto his back and began to dig him into the ground. The guy protested, but I shoved him even further down into the ground.

 And then I remembered that Alyssa was expecting me, since I had texted to tell her; she had left school even before free period.

 “Bye bye, Jake. You take care of him.” The guy protested at that. “I’m going to go to Alyssa’s, and I hope we don’t speak again. Bye bye.”

 Jake frowned at me, presumably because of the ‘I hope we don’t speak again’, but nodded.

 I let my foot off of the guy, but he didn’t stand up immediately, much to my surprise, and lay there like a dead possum. Jake put his foot on the guy’s back, and with that, I turned around and walked out of the alley.

 

“He what? You what? HE FREAKING WHAT? WHAT? WHAT?” Alyssa yelled.

 The amount of ‘What’s in her shouts had confused me.

 Alyssa grabbed onto my shoulders, and began to shake me vigorously. “He tried to rape you! Call the damn police! Victoriaaaaa Smiiiith!”

 “Stop speaking in italics,” I muttered dully.

 Alyssa seemed extremely frustrated by the lack of response from me. Actually no, she didn’t seem so. She was so. “Answer me! Victoria Catherine Smith you must answer me this instant you must call the police! Answer me!”

 I shook my head. “I won’t call the police. The guy had his lesson, and Jake pummeled his precious face into the ground.”

 “So? He’ll probably forget about it and start raping girls!”

 “The guy’s probably in high school, Alyssa. I doubt he’ll start again.”

 “No, no, no! Call the police!”

 “I won’t, Alyssa, okay? Just accept that.”

 Alyssa sighed, and bit her lip. “Fine. Fine.” she paused. “Ben & Jerry’s? You’ve been through a traumatic night.”

 I smiled gratefully. Alyssa had always been a good friend. “Sure. And perhaps reruns of Mean Girls?”

 “Definitely.”

A/N: Okay, because I'm anticipating some confusion coming my way...

Victoria's lack of freaking out with the near-rape thingy was because she's just that kind of person, and she was so shocked that she basically ignored it. And she didn't think the note was real because she truly didn't believe that anyone would send her a note.

8: Chapter 8 - Clueless

A/N: Sorry it's kinda short, and there's not much humor in here... maybe because I'm reading Pride and Prejudice.

Chapter 8- Clueless

 

 I slapped Alyssa’s arm. “God, you shouldn’t make all those perverted jokes.”

 Alyssa shrugged. “We’re in high school, it’s what we do.”

 “Not me.”

 “‘Cause you suck!” she proclaimed.

 I frowned at her. “Was that meant to be a sick joke?”

 Alyssa giggled. “Only if you want it to be.”

 I instantly made a face. “Bleurgh. No.”

 She twirled around dramatically, laughing. “You have a sick mind, you see, if you even occurred to you that it might be a sick joke.”

 I snorted at that.

 “Okay, and here we go. We are entering the dreaded school hallways-”

 “What is wrong with you?”

 I whirled around.

 Ivy.

 “How, could it not have occurred to you to tell me that you were-” she lowered her voice “-assaulted?”

 “Who told you that?” Alyssa’s voice was sharp.

 “I happen to have reliable sources. I’m not useless, you know?”

 “It’s not our fault that you decided to distance yourself! Getting snobby, are you? Because you’re in high school now?” I retorted.

 “What are you talking about?”

 “First day. You were with that group of preppy girls.”

 “Are you saying that I’m one of those preppy girls now? That I’m not your friend anymore? Is that what you mean?”

 My mouth dropped open. “Ivy, you’re overreacting.”

 “Oh, am I?” with that question hanging in the air, she stalked away.

 Alyssa slowly, with each step deliberate, walked over to me and snapped my mouth shut, causing me to bite my tongue in the process.

 My poor tongue.

 It didn’t matter to me that much, though, since I think I had just lost my lifetime best friend.

 

“I still don’t get why you wanted to come into school on a weekend,” Alyssa grumbled, taking out her textbook.

 “Well, Midterms are next week, so I think I have reason to.” Sigh. “I regret it now, though. It would’ve delayed Ivy blowing up.”

 Alyssa rolled her eyes. “She’ll come round. She always does.”

 I put a hand on Alyssa’s wrist, feeling the cool mahogany of my dorm’s desk underneath my palm. “I don’t she will, this time. She was clearly at her limit, and if she can’t see past a little mistake of forgetting to tell her… then I don’t think she’ll be able to see past us being in the same dorm and all.”

 “The school put in the same dorm, not us. Besides, we shouldn’t have forgotten to tell her, since she’s supposedly our bestie and all that.”

 I frowned. “Do you think we’ve been leaving her out?”

 Alyssa snorted. “As per usual, Saint Victoria. No, we haven’t. She’s been ditching us for those girls at school.”

 The girls who ate and ate and ate and ate.

 Right.

 “Alyssa, I think we should go apolo-” Widening my eyes, I noticed the textbook in Alyssa’s hand. She was studying.

 Willingly.

 I shot up and went to the window, ignoring Alyssa’s clamoring of ‘What? What happened?’

 Glancing out, I didn’t see any pigs airborne, or any signs of hell freezing over. Seven times.

 “What on Earth are you doing, Victoria?” Alyssa’s voice was ringing into my head.

 “Has hell froze over?” I asked. “Did the pigs sprout wings and start flying?”

 Alyssa was giving me one of her weird looks. “As… far as I know… no.”

 “Then…” I marched over to her textbook. “Why are you studying? Without me reprimanding you first?”

 Alyssa relaxed immediately. “Ah. Ha. I just thought I should catch up a little, since my parents say I have to get an A on at least one subject.”

 I slammed my hands down on the table and stared Alyssa in the eye. “When have you ever done your parent’s bidding? You’re Alyssa the Wild One!” I saw Alyssa wince at that quite stupid nickname, but I ignored it. “You are the party animal! You don’t give a crap about what others think, including your parents, and you don’t follow anyone’s orders!” I paused. “Except for mine, of course, but that’s different.”

 Alyssa stood up as well. Not in a mad way, more of a ‘I need to take a walk’ way. “I don’t know why! I’m feeling particularly nice today.”

 Oh, no. The world is ending. The skies are falling apart. Porcupines will be following pigs to the sky. The fish will be out of the ocean soon. Alyssa’s finally cracked.

 “Come on, Falcon. You gotta get some fresh air. You know, you belong to the sky. Hence the last name.”

 Alyssa fought against my pushing the whole way, but I somehow managed to get her out to the school’s garden, using the back door, which our dorm was conveniently next to.

 “You’re schizophrenic! Crazy! Mad! What’s wrong with you, Tori? Ivy getting to you? Hellooo? Stop pushing me!”

 Once we were finally out of the building, Alyssa whirled around and put her hands on my shoulders. “Victoria. Are you cracking under all the stress?”

 “No!” I cried, marching out into the garden. “I am not! You are!”

 “I am so not cracking! I can’t believe you are so… so disbelieving that I might want to study that you’re thinking something’s gone wrong with me.”

 “Something has gone wrong! Ivy’s gone wrong. She’s-”

 “What’s gone wrong?”

 That was not Alyssa’s voice. Alyssa was staring at someone behind me. I turned around slowly.

 Oh.

 My.

 God.

 Sammy.

 “Samantha freaking Walker! What the frick are you doing here?” I exclaimed, rushing towards her.

 Samantha engulfed me in a hug, laughing. “I’m back! I’m finally back!”

 Like Anthony, Samantha had been one of my best friends. And like Anthony, Samantha had moved away about five years after we met. I used to have five best friends back then: Isaac, Anthony, Samantha, Ivy, and Alyssa. It was a miracle that the group hadn’t disbanded because of cooties.

 But we ended up separating anyway.

 “How did you not tell me? Why are you back? Oh my god! This is huge! I bet everyone still remembers you!” I shrieked, excitement overcoming me.

 It was true. Everyone probably still remembered her. She was a fiery spirit, defying everyone and being rebellious. She was the only one that could compare to Alyssa, and sometimes people even thought she was more independent that Alyssa. I always though that maybe, just maybe, that Alyssa was jealous of her.

 Samantha shrugged, looking sheepish. “I didn’t tell you because I got a bit caught up in the moving.”

 I let out a peal of laughter, slapping her arm. “A bit caught up? You must’ve been really caught up if you forgot to tell me!”

 Samantha let out a laugh too, probably relieved that I had forgiven her. “By the way, I moved back because my dad’s boss moved him back to New York. For good.”

 I shrieked again. “You mean that you’re moving back here permanently? My god, Sammy, this is awesome! Frickin’ awesome! I can’t believe it! We have so much to catch up about!”

 Sammy only smiled.

 “Hey, you are going to West Fields High, right?”

 She nodded.

 I let out a shriek again. “We have so much to talk about!”

 And just like that, we talked the whole day, painted our nails, and watched The Parent Trap, How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days, and Snow White and the Huntsman.

 I met Samantha when we started first grade. She was the weird new girl with the weird red hair and everyone wanted to see what she like, how messy her handwriting was, how good was she at dodgeball and sports.

 The gang and I (a nickname everyone gave us, since we- we being Isaac, Alyssa, Ivy, Anthony, and I- were always together) stood up for Samantha when the mean guys of our class were bullying her. We invited her to eat with us, she agreed, and the rest is history.

 Sammy’s fiery personality had gotten her into trouble a lot in school, and the teachers were probably glad to see her go. When she left, I was the one most impacted, since Isaac was indifferent towards Sammy, Anthony liked her but wouldn’t really care if she left, Ivy liked her but not as much as I did, and Alyssa didn’t like her for obvious reasons.

 Sometimes Sammy and I would go ride our bikes in the middle of the night (dangerous, I know) when we weren’t happy, and we would race along the streets, feeling the wind in our face and our hair flowing backwards into the air. It felt good to let loose like that, and I never told anyone about these excursions, not even Alyssa and Ivy. I always told myself it was because Sammy and I had that little secret and it would be disrespectful to tell, but I knew it was because I didn’t want to risk that Alyssa and Ivy might ruin it if they come along. There was a certain magic to cycling through the streets, ignoring the strange looks from pedestrians, and feeling myself go faster and faster through the night air.

 So when Sammy left, I still went on those trips, but it wasn’t the same, and I felt strangely lonely whenever I did.

 Eventually, Victor found me sneaking out (because boys are absurdly fond of midnight snacks). He said that he wouldn’t tell if I let him come, and I did. We ended up having fun, and started going together. But Victor never replaced Sammy.

 And when Anthony left, I was devastated. Two best friends gone, just like that. Isaac was as upset, of course, because Anthony was his BFFFF, even though he wouldn’t admit it.

 Then, Isaac and I went our separate ways. When I think of that, I always told myself that I took the high road and he would be rotting in hell while I looked down from heaven when we died, but I knew that it wasn’t true.

 Three best friends gone.

 And now, probably Ivy too. But deep down, way deep down, I probably knew it was coming. Ivy was always the lesser of the group, especially when all five of us were here, and I guess the resentment had been building up inside of her until it exploded.

 Four gone.

 I felt guilty for not telling her about the assault, but she had to understand that I was nearly raped. Still…

 Okay. Victoria. You will not delve deeper into the depressing thoughts. Tonight is about Sammy, and Sammy only because she came back!

 I could feel myself starting to float into happy land again. And I gladly let myself float there, because it was definitely better than thinking about my ‘dark, dark past.’

 It wasn’t until we went to sleep (Mom and Dad had agreed to let Sammy stay over and her parents were ecstatic that she was reconnecting with her old friends) that I remembered.

 Alyssa wasn’t with us.

9: Chapter 9 - I Am Going To Kill You

A/N: The Alyssa POV thing is a one-time thing, and I just realized it's kind of amateurish. I might delete that part, though. And the last part gets really angsty and kind of awkward, so... you were warned.

Chapter 9- I Am Going To Kill You

 

Alyssa’s POV

 

 “Slushis!” Victoria yelled the second we stepped out of the school. I sent her an amused glance, while Sammy merely remained impassive.

 “I’m so thirsty,” she moaned. “All this drama is getting to me.”

 “And drama makes you thirsty?” I asked.

 Sammy shot me a glare. “All the drama you’ve been through must make you tired. Come on, let’s go to Slonson’s.”

 Oh. So Victoria already told her everything that happened.

 Trying to squash the budding jealousy in my chest, I smiled at Sammy. Sammy smiled sweetly back.

 Victoria readily agreed about Slonson’s, and we set off.

 After about five minutes of silent walking (not so silent for me, since I was listening to music), we reached the slushi shop. Slonson’s made excellent slushis, no matter how annoying the bright green, ‘Welcome to Slonson’s!” on top of the store was.

 As we entered the store, a little ding! sounded. The guy at the counter shouted, ‘Welcome to Slonson’s!’ a bit too loud for my taste.

 “Strawberry splat, please. Large,” I ordered. The guy- who looked like he was in his early twenties and was an extreme geek- grinned brightly at me.

 I winced.

 “A grape slushi, please. Make it a small.” I heard Sammy whisper to Victoria, ‘I’m on a diet.’

 Please. The girl didn’t need a diet. She was like Bella Thorne.

 “And a blueberry blitz for her-” Sammy began, but I interrupted her.

 “She means blackberry bonanza, sorry! Large!” I yelled, stepping in front of Sammy. Just for the satisfaction of it. “Put it under the name Smith.”

 The guy nodded, and went back to making the drinks.

 “What’s wrong with you?” Sammy hissed, pushing me away from her. “Blueberry blitz is Victoria’s favorite.”

 “Not anymore,” I retorted. “She became allergic to them after you left.”

 There. Sammy was speechless. I smirked at her, and then brushed past Sammy to reach Victoria.

 She high fived me. “Yay! You remember my favorite!”

 “Who wouldn’t remember their best friend’s favorite?” I replied, grinning.

 In my mind, I added, Sammy.

 We sat down at one of the green booths. I could practically see steam sprouting out of Sammy’s ears, but Victoria probably didn’t notice.

 How could she be so cheerful all the time? Her bright, sunny personality attracted way too many people’s attention, and when it attracted Jake’s, I was nervous, because… well, Jake didn’t seem like a good guy. The Alyssa Intuitive told me that.

 My mind drifted to my new story, titled Believe. What should Ceeley do? I planned for Jamie to abandon her, but I haven’t thought out her reaction. Should it be one of Victoria’s reactions, where she doesn’t ask or question anything, and goes to check something? Like today, when I was studying?

 Oh yeah, what was with that, anyway? Victoria was showing signs of schizophrenia, and I was worried for her. I think it’s because of all the drama she’s going through.

 Man, I hate Jake.

 And why did Sammy come back? It was obvious that her father’s job permitted them to move back, but… why this school? West Fields wasn’t even the best school in the area. Victoria chose this school because she wanted some normalcy, instead of snobby people in a snobby school.

 Ha, there were still snobby people here. Nina Levesque was one.

 Still, this was a good school. Good enough that rich families (Like Nina Levesque and mine) went here, but not good enough that it would be realistic to choose this one if you had better choices. Sammy’s family certainly was rich enough to go to the top schools.

 Well, Alyssa’s Intuitive told me that Sammy wanted to take back Victoria as her best friend, and that she wouldn’t stop at anything to do it. Except killing me, of course. But I shook the feeling off. Sammy and I were best friends, even though we weren’t that good of friends as Victoria and Sammy were.

 ...At least Sammy didn’t mark Victoria as her territory by peeing on her… Ew...

 My thoughts were interrupted when Victoria chirped, “I’m gonna go wait for our orders! I’m feeling hyper! Can’t stay here, sitting.”

 Sammy and I said our ‘see you later’s, and Victoria bounced off to the counter.

 After a few moments of silence, I attempted a conversation. “So, how was-”

 “Oh, shut up,” Sammy said.

 Ex-excuse me?

 “Excuse me?” I snapped.

 “I said, shut up.” Sammy sent a bored glanced my way. “I’m not interested in talking to you.”

 “What? Sa-sammy! We’re best friends!”

 Sammy rolled her eyes. “We are not best friends. You’re best friends with Tori, and I’m here to take her back.”

 I sat there, spluttering, until Victoria came back with the orders. “Oooone strawberry splat for Alyssa, oooone grape slushi for Sammy, and ooooone blackberry bonzana for me!”

 She set them down. I took mine, mechanically, and began to take sips. Sammy slurped up a huge amount with her straw.

 I want to strangle her.

 Strangle.

 A kick to the temple would do, actually. Something like that would make the brain flop around in the head, until the person drops unconscious, and I would be able to strangle her.

 Actually, maybe crushing her windpipe would do the trick. It’s quite effective, and that would make her sit in agony for a few seconds before she dies.

 Oh, god.

 Only Sammy can make me so angry that I start envisioning the person’s death.

 I slapped myself on the temple, as if I could slap the thoughts out by doing that. Victoria let out a laugh at that, while Sammy just sent me a peculiar look.

 Be thankful, biscuit. I’m trying to stop imagining your death by my hands here. Be thankful.

 Suddenly, the idea of revenge struck me.

 Perfect.

 I leaned forward, still sucking on my slushi. “So, Tori, what’re you doing for the weekend?”

 I knew Victoria would do pretty much all I wanted because she was still nervous about her forgetting about me when Sammy showed up. I had walked away, annoyed, but I knew that Victoria needed time to bond with Sammy, especially since Sammy had been gone for years.

 “Nothing much, actually. You can come to my house.”

 Cha ching.

 “And Sammy can come, too!”

 Let’s un-cha-ching that.

 “Great!” I said, putting on a fake smile. Victoria smiled, too, and then turned to talk to Sammy.

 O God, look down on me and kill Sammy. For me, please. She’s evil. You know it too. She is. Kill her, please.

 Amen.

 

Victoria’s POV

 

“I gotta go,” Alyssa announced, slinging on her bag.

 “Aww,” I pouted. “We’ve only been here for thirty minutes!”

 “Riding class,” she replied, smiling.

 I forced the corners of my mouth down, so that I would look like retarded, sad clown.

 Although clowns are rarely sad, are they…

 Once Alyssa was out the door, Sammy tapped me on the shoulder.

 “Yes?” I asked, turning my attention away from my phone.

 “This is important,” she whispered, leaning in closer. “I need to tell you something about Alyssa.”

 “What about her?” I asked, worried.

 Sammy looked around, worried that someone might hear us, and then whispered, “She’s doing drugs.”

 I leaned away instantly, my mouth open and my eyes wide. “No way!”

 Sammy nodded, looking guilty. “I found out when I saw her taking it during a break, in the bathroom. When I went out of the cafeteria, I saw her holding something suspicious, so I followed her to the bathroom and spied on her. She did take drugs.”

 “Oh my god,” I said, slouching in my seat, wilting. “Alyssa…”

 “I think you should tell her parents. Get help soon.”

 I nodded. “Yeah. I need to do that. Poor Alyssa… I wonder who roped her into doing drugs…”

 Sammy shrugged. “But you should go tell her parents now. I think Alyssa started taking them because of her parents’ divorce.”

 “That’s possible.”

 “Alyssa’s at her riding lesson. She won’t be at the house. Let’s go.”

 Hazelnut Street wasn’t so far from Slonson’s. It was about a ten minute walk.

 The whole walk was so awkward.

 How could Alyssa have been taking drugs? She is a party animal, yes, but not to the degree of taking drugs, of course. And I can’t believe I didn’t find out! She was my best friend, for heaven’s sake, and Sammy was the one who found out. Sammy seemed genuinely concerned for Alyssa.

 Alyssa should be glad she has someone who cares so much about her.

Finally, we reached the house. I bounced up onto the porch, and rang the doorbell. Even outside, I could hear Michelle and David arguing.

 Poor Alyssa.

 I rang the doorbell again, and then rapped on the door three times sharply. The arguing ceased, and the couple then came to answer the door.

 “Yes? Victoria?” Michelle snapped, impatient.

 “I need to tell you something. It’s about Alyssa.”

 Michelle and David’s faces instantly cleared of anger. I could see that they loved their daughter a lot—putting aside their arguments for her must be hard.

 “Come, come in. You must be…” Michelle squinted at Sammy, before memory hit her and she jerked back. “Samantha.”

 “Call me Sammy,” Sammy replied, smiling, and held out her hand.

 Even though Sammy was practically the epitome of ‘friendly’, Michelle merely stared at the hand until Sammy let it drop. Alyssa had probably not posed Sammy as a good person in her house…

 “So, what is it about Alyssa?” David asked.

 “Alyssa… she’s doing drugs.”

 Michelle and David gasped, leaning back. “Impossible!” Michelle cried, some of her Italian accent leaking back. She only did that when she was agitated.

 “Sammy, tell her the story, please.”

 Michelle and David listened attentively as Sammy repeated the story. When she reached the end, Michelle placed a hand on her heart.

 “Oh, my dear Alyssa… why?”

 “This is our fault…” David mumbled. “We were so caught up in the divorce.”

 Michelle stiffened when David mentioned the divorce, but quickly regained her composure. Well, as much as she could when she was just told her daughter was doing drugs.

 “I cannot believe this!” she cried. “Alyssa is such a good child, why would she take… drugs?” Michelle said ‘drugs’ about the same way I would say, ‘Justin Bieber.’ (A/N: No offense to Justin Bieber fans! It’s just Victoria’s opinion!)

 “I’m sorry…” I muttered.

 Michelle swung her gaze to me. “No, no, no. I am glad you told me. We can send her help quickly!”

 “Rehab?” David asked. “It’ll ruin her reputation.”

 “Is her reputation anything compared to her health? Her life? Her life would be ruined if we do not send her to rehab!”

 “Yeah, but…” David sighed. “Let’s call Gester Center.”

 “Yes, we must. Alyssa will be back from her riding lesson soon. Ten minutes.”

 

Ten minutes later…

 I watched the people from Gester Center warily. They were here to restrain Alyssa in case she did anything drastic. They were stationed around the door, ready to intercept Alyssa when she came back.

 It was all unreal. Alyssa would be gone for at least a month… But she seemed so coherent today! There was no sign of her being high!

 The door swung open.

 The people from Gester Center immediately went behind Alyssa, and grabbed her arms, twisting it behind her.

 “Wha-” she cried, and then her yell was cut off when she saw Sammy, her parents, and I sitting on the couch.

 “You- you witch, Sammy! What did you do?” Alyssa thrashed violently, causing a few people to lose their grip, but they quickly restrained her again. “Victoria! Help!”

 “That’s what I’m doing, Alyssa. I’m… getting you help.”

 “Help for what?”

 “I know you’re doing drugs, Allie.”

 Alyssa stopped thrashing immediately. “What?” she screamed. “You! Samantha Walker! What the hell is wrong with you? You told them I do drugs? What’s wrong with you? I DON’T DO DRUGS!”

 “I’m sorry, Allie. You’re in denial. But you have to go to Gester Center-”

 “Gester Center? Are you serious? How could you? YOU DON’T TRUST ME ENOUGH TO THINK THAT I DON’T DRUGS?” Alyssa was in full hysterics by now. My heart was clenching to see her like this.

 But Alyssa needs help, Tori, a little voice reminded me. You have to make sure she gets it.

 But was this the right way? another voice retorted. Look at her. She’s hurt and betrayed. You should’ve talked to her. Calmed her down and made her accept she was taking drugs.

 Either way, she was getting help.

 “What’s happening?” someone burst into the room.

 Alastrina.

 Alastrina was Alyssa’s twin sister. She was even more of a party animal than Alyssa, and if anyone was doing drugs, it would’ve been Alastrina, not Alyssa.

 “Let her go! Victoria! Sammy? When did you come back? What- What is going on?” Alastrina shrieked.

 David stood up and went to his daughter’s side. He began whispering to her, but halfway through Alastrina broke free of his grip and ran to Alyssa’s side.

 Or, rather, tried to. The people from Gester Center restrained her in a similar fashion to how they were holding Alyssa back.

 “Let her go! Alyssa isn’t doing drugs! I know it! I know it! Victoria! Sammy! Anyone? You know that she isn’t doing drugs! I know it! I know it!”

 “Alastrina…”

 “Don’t you dare, Victoria! How could you? I thought you were her best friend! How could you believe that Alyssa was doing drugs? And Sammy! Samantha Walker, you absolute dog! You’re rotten! You’re letting your jealousy getting the best of you and you’re ruining someone’s life for it!”

 “Alastrina! Calm down!” Michelle barked.

 Tears were running down Alastrina’s cheeks. “No, I will not calm down! ALYSSA ISN’T DOING DRU-”

 Someone stabbed a needle into Alastrina’s arm. She stood there, stunned, and then fainted.

 Tears were gathering in my eyes too. Alyssa had been standing there in silence during the whole Alastrina ordeal, but now…

 All hell broke loose.

 Alyssa was using her karate skills to try and get away, she was shrieking incoherent words, and I was up and trying to calm her down.

 Alyssa nearly bit me.

 Sammy was sitting there on the couch, impassive.

 Michelle and David were standing up, too, yelling at Alyssa. They didn’t seem upset that Alastrina was on the floor, unconscious. I rushed over to Alastrina, and pulled her to the hallway. It was the best I could do.

 The living room was silent when I returned.

 Alyssa was unconscious.

 “Well,” Michelle said tightly. “She can go now.”

 They carried her out. Sammy grabbed onto my arm.

 “Stay,” she said. I nodded numbly and sat down on the couch. Michelle and David followed them out.

 “I need to tell you something.” Sammy said.

 “Again?” I practically sighed the word. Alyssa was still worrying me.

 “Yes. Well, it’s important. Pay attention.”

 My curiosity was back. “What?” I asked, staring at her.

 Sammy took a deep breath, and sighed. “Alyssa isn’t actually doing drugs.”

 My jaw tightened. “Why… did you… tell me that SHE WAS?” the last part came out as a scream.

 “Because… it was the only way we could be best friends.” she smiled at me.

 “You… you…” Only one way to deal with this.

 I drew my fist back, and punched her in the jaw.

 Sammy stumbled back. “Victoria!”

 “Is it so hard to believe that I don’t want Alyssa in rehab? Especially if she doesn’t NEED TO BE? NOW SHE’LL BE SUFFERING ONE MONTH WITH PSYCHOS IN GESTER CENTER AND IT’S ALL YOUR FAULT!” I screamed.

 She stood up, a vicious glint in her eyes. “It’s not all my fault,” she ground out, still holding her jaw in pain. “You believed me.”

 “Because I trust you! You abused that trust! Why do you hate Alyssa, huh? She’s been nothing but nice to you! What’s wrong with you? I hate you! I hate you, I hate you!”

 “You don’t hate me. You’re my best friend.”

 Oh, hell no.

 I lunged at Sammy, letting out an extremely accurate Xena war cry. “You witch!”

 Sammy let out a cry of surprise, and crashed to the floor when I hit her.

 The door opened and Michelle and David came in.

 By that time, I had Sammy in an extremely painful headlock.

 “Oh, my. Did something go wrong?” Michelle asked.

 “You could say so,” I spit out.

 

Alastrina was heading towards me. Good.

 Anger bubbled up in my chest again when I remembered Sammy. I would’ve preferred to put her in the hospital, but I don’t think ‘Nearly killed classmate’ would’ve looked good on my report.

 “I’m sorry you had to dye streaks of hair blue,” was the first thing I said to her when she was within earshot.

 She shrugged. “It’s okay, I was planning to dye part of it green. Blue isn’t much of a difference.”

 “Are you ready to masquerade as Alyssa? Remember the plan?”

 She nodded. “Stick to you at all times, and never look lost or anything Alyssa wouldn’t do. Oh, and make sure Sammy keeps her mouth shut.”

 “She’s better, or I’m really going to put her in the hospital this time.”

 “I’ll help,” Alastrina added. She really did care about Alyssa, then, even though the two bickered a lot.

 When Michelle and David returned, I told them what happened. Michelle fainted.

 No, seriously, she fainted. David barely caught her, and when Michelle woke up (a few minutes later) she was going to come and slap me, but I somehow managed to get the story out before she incapacitated me.

 She slapped Samantha instead.

 So now, Alastrina is going to pretend to be Alyssa (and Alastrina’s school life will be disregarded; Alastrina cared about Alyssa enough to do that) until she returned, since Alyssa will undoubtedly prove herself to be not taking drugs. The bottom line at Gester Center was that any patient, no matter under what circumstances entered, would have to be there for at least a month. If the person proves to not be addicted anymore (or from the start), the person would be free to go home.

 “Are you ready to exact revenge on Sammy?” Alastrina asked.

 “Hmm? Why? A headlock is painful enough.”

 “No. Not. She put my twin sister in Gester Center.” Alastrina paused. “I won’t ever forget that.”

 “Yeah, but…”

 “But what?”

 “I don’t feel that it’s right, taking her down like that.”

 Alastrina snorted. “I’m going to anyway, even if you’re not in.”

 I sighed. “Fine.”

 “You know, Victoria?”

 “Hmm?”

 “I wasn’t named Alastrina the Avenger for nothing.”
A/N: A reviewer told me how it was so weird Victoria just went 'Oh, Alyssa's doing drugs, let's go tell her parents, dee da doo da dai'. I realized that, and so I'm going to change it in the BIG EDIT, aka. AN EXCUSE TO DELAY EDITING (*COUGHWORKCOUGH*)

10: Chapter 10 - The Universe Is Laughing At Me

Chapter 10- The Universe Is Laughing At Me

 

 I groaned.

 “Girl, what are you doing at school?”

 “Shut up, Ala- Alyssa,” I moaned.

 “No, seriously. You look like merde.”

 “Calling me poop in French won’t heeeeelp.”

 Students were milling around in the hallway, much too loudly for my taste. Some gave me weird looks when they had to scoot around me and my dragging feet, some gave me pitiful looks that practically said, ‘I know how you feel. I feel sorry for you.’ and some people merely timidly, and politely scooted around me.

 I groaned again. “I hate History.” Unfortunately, History was my next lesson. And there was a test in that lesson.

 “Come on, you’re gonna ace that test!”

 Her chirpy voice was just too much…

 I punched her in the gut.

 Well, tried to. Alastrina managed to block my punch- since the lack of energy in me made it quite feeble- and threw my hand back at me.

 I shot her a glare, which must have looked quite retarded since one of my eyes was drooping shut and one was trying to glare.

 Cheers. The universe seems to like making me squirm. I bet the big man up there is laughing at me right now.

 “Oh my god! Victoria! What happened to you? You look awful!”

 I opened the other eye. Kimberly.

 “Hey,” I said weakly.

 “Come on, to the nurse it is. If you care enough about that stupid test, you’re crazy. ...Actually, I already know you’re crazy. Come on, let’s go to Nurse Millicent.”

 “Barbara Millicent Roberts?” I whispered.

 Kimberly looked to Alastrina in confusion.

 “It’s Barbie’s full name,” she explained.

 Kimberly frowned. “Something’s wrong with you, too.”

 Alastrina frowned. The two would make a great pair. “How?”

 Ew, no, I’m not suggesting they have lesbian tendencies. Wait, no, I don’t have anything against lesbian-cy…?

 Oh, dear, my brain cells are probably lost somewhere in the mush of sickness. In fact, I can imagine those evil little germs making their way into my brain, and then jumping on one of my brain cells and snapping its neck. One by one, they’re going down…

 I need help.

 “Take me to the nurse,” I slurred. Kimberly redirected her attention to me, and gasped, as if she couldn’t believe she forgot me there. “Oh, sorry, Tori! I’ll take you there right now.”

 As we trudged along, I felt worse and worse.

 Oh, hey, there would be a good place to vomit.

 Wait, no, that place is better. People are skirting around it because…

 Oh, right. Because someone’s already taken that spot and puked.

 Come on! I saw it first!

 Although I have no way of knowing…

 Hey, if I faint, that would be a good place. I would fall against the door and be supported.

 No wait, that’s silly. I’ll slide down to the floor, but not before giving myself a concussion after bonking my head on the cold, hard piece of wood.

 “To the nurse!” Kimberly announced suddenly, opening the door.

 Bright lights. Bad. My eyes hurt.

 “Oh, my! Dear! Are you alright?” Nurse Millicent cried.

 Duh. No. Stupid woman.

 Don’t be mean!

 “Quick, quick. I’ll get you some water. Go lie down on the bed.”

 I was too tired to notice that someone was already on the bed.

 “Kimberly dear, you can go now, before you catch the stomach flu. Oh yes, wait, who is the pretty girl?”

 Hmph. You can’t butter me up, dear.

 “Victoria Smith,” Kimberly readily answered, and I heard the sound of a door closing.

 “Ooh, yes, there are certainly a lot of Smiths in the school.”

 Damn. Having the most common last name in America is a pain in the butt.

 I can just imagine Nurse Millicent looking up from her glasses, trying to find Victoria Smith in the long list of names, because she isn’t aware of that Ctrl + F would let you find it instantly.

 Wait, Nurse Millicent doesn’t wear glasses.

 “Okay, dears, I’ll be getting some water for you. Wait here.”

 As if we could go anywhere else.

 Wait… dearzz?

 As in plural?

 “You’re not looking too good.”

 Ba-da boom, and we have a winner for Stating the Obvious!

 I turned over in the bed.

 Jake.

 I screamed, and fell out of the bed. Jake shrieked too- sounded suspiciously like a girl’s scream- and sat up, and then groaned and fell back, possibly because of the migraine he will possess now.

 “What’s wrong?” Jake asked.

 I peered at him. Of course he knows what’s wro-

 Oh.

 He isn’t Jake. But looked a lot like him.

 Well, howdy-doo, stupidity.

 “Sorry,” I said meekly. “I thought you were someone else.” I couldn’t see his reaction, though.

 And then the pounding headache returned.

 Slowly, I crawled into the bed, which was- thankfully- queen-sized. “So, what’s your name?” I asked.

 “Jason.” Even has similar names.

 “I’m Victoria,” I replied.

 “I know. Uh, uh, I mean, uh, well… I’m aware of how stalkerish that sounds…”

 I could feel the heat on his face.

 Haha. Sucker.

 I laughed. “It’s okay.”

 I was feeling better already. Cheers to Jason!

 Nurse Millicent strode in. “How are you feeling?”

 “Better,” I called.

 Jason simply grunted.

 “Good dears, I hope you can take care of yourselves. I need to go file some student’s paperwork; apparently she broke her leg, poor thing.” Nurse Millicent hobbled out as quick as she had come in.

 I sighed, the cheerfulness going out of me instantly. “My life sucks,” I groaned.

 “What’s wrong?” Cheers to Jason. He actually sounds concerned.

 “Well, my old best friend, Sammy, who had left New York years ago and just returned convinced me that Alyssa was taking drugs and I told her parents, who shipped her off the Gester Center. A girl named Nina Levesque still hates me and I’m sure she’s plotting against me to push me down to the bottom of the social ladder. And my ex, Jake, is making me feel bad every other day by sending me this stupid love notes.” I paused. “Shouldn’t have told you that.”

 “Wait…” Jason drawled. “Sammy, as in the new girl? She was your best friend?”

 I turned to look at him. “Did you come from Middle or are you new?”

 “I’m new.”

 “That’s why you don’t know. Around here, everyone knows Sammy.” I stopped. “You won’t tell anyone, will you?”

 “Of course not!” he cried, as if even the suggestion of him doing it was ridiculous. “Hey, Victoria.”

 “Yeah?”

 “When you face all these problems… just solve them one by one. Talk to Nina, ignore Jake or make up with him-” I snorted in disgust at that. “-and the only thing you can do about Alyssa is wait. Then make up with her when she comes back.”

 Interesting. The boy has brain cells.

 “Interesting,” I mused, repeating my thoughts, and swung my legs out of the bed and stood up.

 “What are you doing?” Jason cried with distress.

 Interesting. Way too much emotion for someone he just met.

 “Just testing it out. I think I can stand now.” I replied.

 Jason scoffed. “No one heals that fast so quickly.” he swung his legs out of the bed and walked towards me, where I was sitting on the nurse’s chair.

 “I do,” I replied defiantly.

 Jason laughed. “I don’t think-” he lurched forward.

 The next few seconds was in slow motion. Jason’s body heaved, his mouth opened, his hand tried to cover his mouth but failed miserably, and puke sprayed out of his mouth and landed on my bare legs, which was barely covered with a skirt.

 A second of appalled silence.

 “There’s vomit on my legs!” I wailed shrilly.

 “OH MY GOHHHHHD!” that was Jason, who was yelling away in horror and disgust instead of doing anything useful.

 “OH MY GOHHHHHHHHD! GET IF OFF! AGGH! GROEEEESS!” that was me, screaming away instead of doing anything… useful.

 Oh, poor Lily from Pitch Perfect. Now I know how she feels when she was thrown into the puddle of puke.

 Jason, his brain kicking into gear, grabbed a bunch of paper and began to mopping up the vomit. I did the parts near my… nether regions myself, and I was kind of clean of vomit by the end.

 And then I vomited. All over his shoes.

 The universe is laughing at me.

 

Peals of laughter were wracking Alastrina’s body, causing people to stare at us. I turned bright red, and slapped her arm.

 “Shut up,” I hissed.

 Alastrina merely shook her head, still guffawing. Finally, she stopped and wiped the tears away from her eyes. “He vomited on you?”

 I wrinkled my nose at the memory. “Don’t remind me.”

 “At least you vomited on him back.”

 “I do not want to vomit. I do not want to vomit at anytime, even if someone vomited on me.”

 Alastrina stared at me for a moment, before bursting into laughter again.

 “It’s not funny!” I wailed. “It was gross!” I repeated, lowering my dynamics so that if Jason was around, he wouldn’t hear me and be offended.

 Alastrina shook her head, still laughing. “It is funny,” she gasped.

 “I am going to kill you.”

 “Good luck. I took karate lessons with Alyssa.”

 I lunged at her, knocking my food over the table as I sailed over the desk. Alastrina screamed, and fell to the floor.

 ...I wish. My fantasies were really becoming disturbing.

 Eugh, no, you sick-minded people. You know what I meant.

 I continued to eat my spaghetti, sending glares to Alastrina every once in a while when snorts would erupt from her every once in a while because she was still thinking about…

 The Vom-Incident.

 At least my sicknesses had gone away… Nurse Millicent had said that I had practically vomited out all the germs.

 Is that possible?

 God, I shouldn’t have poured my heart out to Jason. What if he does turn out to be one of those vultures? Then he’ll tell everyone and Alyssa’s secret will be out and everyone will laugh at her when she comes back.

 I was so wrapped in my own thoughts that I jumped when I heard the bell, and spilled spaghetti onto my jeans, which I had put on after the Vom-Incident..

 Damn you, universe.

 

“So, we can lure her here, and then do this, and then make her go there. See? It’s all very simple.”

 “Uh? Uh huh.” I looked up. “Wait, whaaa?” We were sitting in my dorm, hunched over the table, and I wanted to sleep. It was nearly ten o’clock at night, and the teachers were going to come over soon to tell everyone to go to sleep.

 Alastrina sighed in exasperation, and punched me in the shoulder. “Pay attention la! God, if you want to exact your revenge on Sammy then you have to contribute to the ideas!”

 “But yous are so complicated!” I moaned. “Why can’t we just go with ignoring here? Then everyone will hate her because they’re afraid I’ll hate them and Sammy will have no social life!”

 Alastrina shook her head. “Nothing is as simple as that, mah darling. You have to do this complicated plan to embarrass her, like they do in the movies.”

 I gave her one of my ‘Uh, are you stupid?’ looks. “You serious? In the movies, it’s so unrealistic. I mean, look at Geek Charming. They have a special place where they eat? Come on, even I have to fight for my seat in the cafeteria sometimes.”

 “Darlin’, don’t be naive. They part for you like the Red Sea.”

 “Hun, they don’t. They scoot around me because I might vomit on them at any moment.”

 “But you’re not sick all the time, and they still ‘scoot around you!’”

 “Alastrina…”

 “Victoria…”

 “Fine. They do ‘part like the Red Sea’ for me. But I still vote for just being nasty to Sammy. The school will catch on soon and voila! Problem solved.”

 Alastrina huffed. “That’s too easy. I want revenge. Sammy sent my twin sister to Gester Center! I can’t forget that!”

 “Neither can I, Alastrina.” I looked around. “Come on, go take a walk in the garden. It’s getting late, and you won’t have time to do it later. Nina’ll come back soon, and you have to go back and play a prank on Courtney like Alyssa always does.”

 Alastrina sighed. “Courtney must be getting sick of all those pranks.”

 “And Alyssa’s sick of her antagonizing her and I.”

 Alastrina stood up, gathering all the papers she used together. “Hey, are you okay? Can  you handle all this drama?”

 “I don’t know, but I don’t think so. Thing are just… happening. It’s all so unrealistic.” I paused, and grinned. “Like the movies.”

 Alastrina sent me a grim smile. “Like the movies.”

 Yeah. Things were just… happening. With no transition.

 I walked over to my bed with a heavy heart. Tomorrow was a new day, and I was dreading it. But I should be cheering up—Ivy’s acting all weird every time I see her around, and she’s going to act fast.

 What was that thing Mom said all the time? That silly little rhyme about the rabbit and the turtle’s race?

 Oh, right.

 Slowly and steady wins the race,

 Fast and erratic loses you face.

 Sighing, and with that quite stupid couplet ringing in my head, I fell asleep, shivering slightly from the cold of the air conditioner.

 I didn’t even notice when Nina put my blanket over me.

 

New Year’s came and passed. Christmas had gone by too, and I realized a few days ago that the day I was nearly raped was Christmas day, but my family wasn’t able to celebrate since Dad was in Turkey, doing something about business. I didn’t resent that, though, because I knew that my dad was making us a living, but I wasn’t happy about it either.

 When New Year’s had come, I had been contemplating whether or not to send a card or something more original, like a snow globe, when Alastrina had snorted and said, ‘Your name is Smith. You don’t have to be original.’ I had smacked her on the arm and asked her if killing her was original enough. And then triumphantly remarked, ‘You ripped that off from Gossip Girl! Ha!’

 Alastrina still wasn’t replacing Alyssa, though. With each passing day, I missed her more and more, and I comforted myself with the thought that she’ll be back in a few days.

 Alastrina had eventually relented and let me go on with the ‘Ignore Sammy and everybody hates her’ plan. Now, everyone did hate Sammy, because I did, and added fuel to the fire by taking her sarcastic comments (which they used to think was funny) and taking it as offensive.

 Ivy was slowly fading into the background, too. Everyone was starting to ignore her, although not abuse her, and her glares were lessening, thankfully. She seemed to be moving on. I couldn’t believe it—my best friend since years ago, just gone, and just like that. It felt unreal, as if it was just my imagination and Ivy had just gone on a long trip to Barbados and we were still best friends. Surprisingly, no tears were lost over her, even though the incident really was devastating to both Alyssa and I.

 Jake looked like he was moving on, too. He stopped grinning at me in the hallways, poking me when we passed each other sometimes, and stopped harassing me whenever we ended up next to each other.

 Isaac was still sending me sharp looks whenever we passed each other, but the spirit of revenge was slowly going out of him. I didn’t like seeing someone I used to love so much slowly wilt, but I knew he would get past the Kimberly thing and man up. I hoped.

 Everyone seemed to be moving on, lately. Nina wasn’t being so nasty to me anymore, and occasionally stopped commenting snidely on my locker decorations (pictures of Alyssa and I, my family, etc. For some reason, she picks on them whenever she passed me with my locker open; ‘Alyssa looks ugly in that picture’.). I was probably the only one that relived the scenes of drama every night.

 So, I half-hoped half-dreaded, it seemed that my dose of drama this year was over. Someone else was taking it, and I heard rumors of homosexuals and breakups circulating around the school every other day.

 I was still the ‘It’ girl, though, and Nina was still resentful over that. She was plenty popular as well, but she seemed to want more.

 But I had to let go, of course. The drama was over, and I had to accept that.

 I just... still wanted the attention and excitement. Frankly, life was becoming boring without it.

 

I was going through my daily moping in bed at night when it hit me.

 I bolted out of bed, startling Nina, and leaped over to Alastrina’s bed. I grabbed her wrist, and dragged her out of her bed, efficiently waking her up. To her credit, though, she instantly took in that it was I who was dragging her and didn’t scream, just tried to get up and run herself.

 When I got out of the dorm, I stopped and waited for Alastrina to compose herself. When she got up and didn’t say anything- and instead glared at me- I opened my mouth to talk.

 “I’m becoming an MG!” I cried.

 Alastrina wilted, and slid down to the ground with her back on the wall. “No, you’re not. Is this what you violently woke me up for?”

 “I am becoming an MG! I can’t! I won’t! I don’t want to!”

 “Becoming a Mean Girl isn’t that bad, Tori. Just look at Nina.”

 “Just look at Nina? She is exactly what I don’t want to be. Exactly why I don’t want to be an MG!”

 “If you’re talking about stop hating Sammy, I will pummel your face into the ground. I will never stop being mean to her.”

 “But I don’t want to be an MG! You’re fine with it; I permit you to still be mean to her. I mean, even I haven’t stopped hating her, not even for a second, but… you get what I mean. I want to stop.”

 “Fine. You can. You can stop. But I won’t.”

 Alastrina stalked back into the dorm.

 I sighed, running my hands through my hair. I didn’t want to go into the dorm yet, and I couldn’t walk around in the school since I risked staff catching me, so… I’ll go take a walk in the garden.

 Escaping through the back door (which, a month ago, I walked through with Alyssa), I went into the garden. The roses were smelling particularly nice today, and I wasn’t at all creeped out by the shadows I made.

 Fine, yes, I was. But I knew I was the only one here, and it felt peaceful and undisturbed.

 “Tori?”

 Well, scratch that. I’m not alone.

 Alyssa was here with me. I wonder why she isn’t at home, though...

 I grinned, and lunged at her. “Alyssa!”

 Alyssa shrieked, and fell down onto the soft grass below her. “Victoria! Get off me!”

 Suddenly, I remembered what I did to her, and how hurt she was when she saw Sammy and I sitting on her couch, together.

 I scrambled off Alyssa immediately. “Sorry,” I mumbled.

 “It’s okay,” she muttered.

 This was awkward. Two best friends… acting like this?

 “Alyssa… I’m sorry.”

 She looked up, staring straight at me. “Hey. I understand. Samantha’s very manipulative.”

 “Really? You forgive me? Are you sure?”

 “I haven’t forgiven you yet, but… I’m close to it. I don’t think I could hate you forever.”

 I smiled. Despite the cold weather, I was becoming warmer inside.

 That was so cheesy.

 And then Alyssa punched me in the jaw.

A/N: Just in case you were wondering, yes, I did make up the little rabbit/turtle rhyme. I don't know what was wrong with my brain at the time. And I'm hoping to reach 75,000 words with this story! :D I'm editing all the stories so that the chapter titles will be centered at the start of the story and all author notes have 'A/N' before it.

11: Chapter 11- Here's To Everything

A/N: I'm adding songs to each chapter :)

Chapter 11- Here’s To Everything

Disclaimer: I don't own Forever & Always by Taylor Swift.

 It rains in your bedroom, when everything is wrong

 It rains when you’re here and rains when you’re gone

 ‘Cause I was here when you said

 Forever and always

 -Forever & Always by Taylor Swift

 

 I staggered back. My brain was probably swinging around in my skull like it was on a rollercoaster.

 Alyssa looked down at her fist, her mouth open. Right, because your fist will tell you exactly why you hit me.

 “I suppose I deserved that,” I gasped, still clutching my jaw.

 Alyssa looked guilty. “I… suppose you did.”

 I snorted. “Here I am, in pain, and you tell me I deserved it. You’re terrible at comforting.”

 “Girl, please. We always knew it was Ivy who was horrible at comforting.”

 We fell into silence after that, gazing into nowhere, probably thinking about something deep and having some realization about life.

 Actually, no, only I would do that. Alyssa would never do something as cuckoo as that.

 I could hear Alyssa draw in a deep breath. “How is Ivy, by the way?”

 I shrugged. “Same as always.”

 No, not the same as always. She isn’t hanging out with us, and quite frankly, I didn’t miss her as much as I was supposed to, but I still did and everything was so awful without you and…

 “Tori, are you okay? You look teary.”

 I rushed towards Alyssa, tears starting to stream down my face. “No, nothing’s been alright! I’ve missed you so much, and Ivy’s missing and Nina and Jake and everyone is moving on! Heck, even the bastard Isaac is moving on and I feel like I’m desperate for attention because I’m not letting go yet! I’m still hoping that someone will come up and… I don’t know! I just… life isn’t good at all! And I miss… Victor! I bloody miss Victor!”

 “Victor? Your brother? You see him everyday.”

 Oh, so that’s all she had to say from my breakdown. Alyssa was hugging me, though, and patting my book comfortingly.

 “Yeah, but… I want to poke him!”

 Alyssa’s voice was unsure. “...Poke him?”

 “Yes! Like I did when we were young and the only thing you could catch from boys was cooties!” I wailed.

 Alyssa hugged me harder. “Aw, Victoria. It’s okay, it’s okay.”

 My shoulder were shaking, and I’m sure we looked like crazy people, with me standing there in the middle of the garden in my pajamas and Alyssa patting my back.

 “It’s not!” I wailed.

 “Hello?”

 That was not Alyssa. In fact, that sounded like Mr. Fern, who was one of the strictest teachers around. We couldn’t let him catch us out here.

 I ducked down, bringing Alyssa with me. She let out a faint squeal of surprise, but quickly smothered it when she realized that Mr. Fern was out there.

 The footsteps were nearing us, and sounded dangerously close. We were on one side of a bush, feeling the branches push into our skin, when Mr. Fern rounded the corner and we were in plain view.

 Of course, Alyssa reacted with lightning speed and dove into one of the holes in the bushes, pulling me in with her. Mr. Fern didn’t seem to have seen anything, since he trotted away and went on inspecting the garden.

 The hole in the bushes wasn’t exactly the most comfortable place on Earth, and I could feel a few spiky thorns pushing into my cheeks. Alyssa punched me in the gut, suddenly.

 That’s going to leave a bruise.

 “What?” I hissed.

 “This is fun,” she whispered, grinning. “Just like the old times.”

 “This is the old times, Allie. We’re still the same.”

 We exchanged sly looks. Alyssa grinned. “I guess we are.”

 “By the way, how can you find this fun? We’re hiding in the dark, hoping that we won’t get expelled for being here. And we’re in a hole!”

 Alyssa snorted. “Come on, we’ve been through worse.”

 “Oh?”

 “...Fine, we haven’t. But still, it’s an adventure.”

 “And adventure I hope the principal won’t hear about.”

 “Just relax, and enjoy the ride.”

 I snorted.

 

 “Alla! Your… er, sis is here! Come on out!” I yelled, slamming the door open. Nina looked up wearily, and when she saw it was me, she closed her eyes again, muttering to herself. Alastrina looked up, bleary-eyed, and when she processed what I said, her eyes snapped open and she lept out of bed.

 “Go to sleep,” Nina moaned.

 “Not a chance,” Alastrina snapped back, and raced with me back to the garden.

 “Alastrina!”

 “Alyssa!”

 I watched as the twin sisters hugged. I could see Alastrina’s eyes wetting, even though she was blinking rapidly to try to hide it. Alyssa was squeezing Alastrina hard, and I could tell that Alastrina was trying not to wince.

 Wooh, that’s gonna leave a bruise.

 When the two pulled back, Alastrina sighed. “I guess I’m leaving, huh?”

 Alyssa nodded sadly. “Thanks for… well, everything.”

 Alastrina smiled tightly. “What’s a sister to do?”

 Alyssa smirked, but said nothing. When the two exchanged one last look, Alastrina waved goodbye.

 “Bye, Alla. I’ll see you soon!” I called. She looked back, smirked, and waved goodbye.

 “I’ll see you when you come over again!” she shouted back. “Alyssa and I are gonna catch up in the house, if you were wondering when!”

 I nodded to myself, despite knowing that Alastrina wouldn’t see me.

 Alyssa and I were left alone.

 I broke the silence first, saying, “So that’s it, huh?”

 “I don’t think so. We still have Jake, Nina, and Ivy to deal with. Oh, right, and Sammy. I’m going to kill her.”

 “I would let you, but since you’ll be put into jail, I won’t let you.”

 Alyssa glanced at me, and cracked her knuckles. “You haven’t changed, huh?”

 I shrugged. “What can I say? It’s only been a month.”

 Alyssa smiled grimly. “A long one. You know, I met this guy in Gester Center, and he is absolute bonkers! He was saying something about having the urge to wrap his hands around someone’s throat and it’s cuh-reepy! I wan-”

 I grinned to myself. Looks like Alyssa was well and truly back.

 

“Have you heard?” Alyssa gushed. I stopped poking my lunch and turned to her. “There’s a new girl coming! I wonder if she’s nice or not. Maybe she’ll take over your spot as the queen of this school,” Alyssa joked.

 “She isn’t,” I grumbled. “But anyway, when’s the new girl coming? And how did you know? You’ve only got back to school today.” I whispered the last part, so that Kimberly, who was sitting at our table, couldn’t hear.

 Alyssa grinned. “I have my sources.”

 “Well, I’m going to welcome to girl when she comes. Just so she feels welcomed, you know?”

 “That’s really nice of you,” Kimberly supplied, smiling.

 I grinned. “Least I could do. No one welcomed me when I went to China.”

 “You went to China?” Kimberly gasped. “Really? When?”

 I shrugged. “Few years ago. That’s where I learned Chinese. I’m half-Chinese, half-American.”

 Kimberly sighed contently. “Was it an exotic place where you could eat Chinese food all day? Palm trees, cool shades, beautiful structures?”

 I snorted. “I wish. It was a dirty, loud, and, well, loud place with tons of smoking. You must’ve gotten the ‘palm trees, cool shades’ thing from pictures or something.”

 Kimberly pouted in disappointment. “Aww.”

 I grinned. “There are still pandas, though.” Kimberly smiled weakly at that, and continued to drink her chocolate milk.

 “Attention, everyone.” A voice said suddenly. Everyone turned to look at the front of the freshmen cafeteria (the different years’ cafeterias were separated to avoid incidents of the freshmen being bullied by the seniors).

 Ivy was on the stage at the front of the cafeteria, having shooed off the Glee Club of our school. Quite a daring move.

 My eyes widened. Ivy, who hated speaking in front of large groups of people, was standing here, addressing the whole freshman year!

 She cleared her throat, and more people looked at her. I stared at her in shock, and so did Alyssa, whose spaghetti was frozen halfway to her mouth.

 Kimberly glanced between us and her, half-amused that we were acting like this and half-apprehensive of what Ivy was going to say, since, judging from our reactions, this probably wasn’t going to be good.

 Once Ivy was satisfied that everyone was looking at her, she began. “I bet that everyone in this cafeteria knows who Alyssa Falcon is.” Eager nods around the cafeteria.

 I leaned in, interested. And terrified. But Ivy couldn’t be planning anything horrible, right? Maybe just something like the fact that Alyssa hated pink? That would send preppy girls after her for a while, but not for too long.

 “Well, she hasn’t really been in the school for the past month. Instead-”

 “Young lady! Get down there! The stage is for teachers and bands only, not for children with random announcements! You must clear it with the office before you can speak there! Get down!” Ms. Lavina shouted.

 Whoa. Ivy was going to get in a lot of trouble. I watched as Ms. Lavina whispered furiously to her, before Ivy’s face turned red, and began to walk out of the cafeteria, with Ms. Lavina following her.

 “How did she find out?” I hissed to Alyssa. Kimberly was too entranced by Ivy and Ms. Lavina leaving to hear us.

 Alyssa shrugged casually, but I could see the alarm in her eyes. “Maybe she overheard her or something.”

 I gritted my teeth. “I can’t believe it! We used to be best friends! She… does she not…”

 Alyssa’s lips thinned. “Drop it, won’t you? I’m sick of her already.”

 Surprised by her sharp words, I went back to my lunch. I yawned, suddenly. “Haven’t gotten enough sleep last night, what with having to nurse my bruise from your punch,” I grumbled.

 Alyssa sent a sharp look my way. “Will you drop that too? I punched you because you believed Sammy over me on such a big subject, okay? Get over it.”

 I frowned. “Are you PMSing or something?”

 Pre-Menstrual Syndrome. Present-Menstrual Syndrome. Post-Menstrual Syndrome.

 Made sense to me.

 Alyssa sighed. “Just go do your whatever. And buy me some oreos while you’re at it.”

 Suddenly, her bossy attitude annoyed me instead of amused me. I hmphed, and stood up, after hearing someone say, ‘The new girl’s here! I saw her car! It was a Porsche.”

 I snorted, thinkin to myself that ‘her car’ was probably her dad’s. She couldn’t drive before she was sixteen; and she surely wasn’t sixteen. I’m sure that she’s not, since if she’s new and coming this late into the school term, she would have to be my age.

 Ha, Victoria’s logic beats ‘em all.

 As I walked out of the corridor, I caught the eye of a girl without a school bag.

 Cha ching. There’s the new girl. In this school, everyone’s learned to always bring your bag around with you, otherwise someone will prank you and steal some stuff and then dump the excess in your locker a few weeks later.

 I stealthily followed the girl, feeling like a ninja. This was fun. I turned the corner, and at the last second caught the girl going into the bathroom.

 Okay… this was going to be awkward, but whatever. I walked silently into the bathroom. The girl was dabbing on some lipstick in front of the huge mirror.

 No one was in the red stalls. One door was closed, but that happened a lot when people forgot to open the door so that people would know that it was available.

 The girl looked remarkably like Selena Gomez. She had a round face, and long, straight dark hair framed her face. She was shorter than me, but not that short, and had a shapely build. Ooh, lots of guys were going to be going after her.

 “Hey!” I piped suddenly, starting the girl. Her lipstick went in a startling red line over her chin. The girl cried out in anger and shock, and turned to me.

 “Look what you did!” she exclaimed, shaking the lipstick at me.

 My arrogant side took over, and I cocked an eyebrow. “What I did? Perhaps if you had a higher tolerance of shock, then you wouldn’t have made that warrior stripe over there.”

 The girl exhaled sharply, her eyes wide. “Why don’t you just…”

 I shook my head, realizing that I had let my annoyance get the best of me. “Hey, I think we got off to the wrong start. I’m Victoria.” I offered my hand to her.

 She looked at it for a moment. “I’m Selena. Selena Keith,” she replied, but didn’t shake my hand.

 I let the hand drop. “So, I just want to welcome you to West Fields-”

 She turned to the mirror, speaking at the same time. “Oh, are you the student council president or something? You know, the nerds? I can’t imagine why you would want to welcome me or something.”

 I raised my eyebrows. “First of all, student council people aren’t nerds. They’re just smarter than people like you. Second, no, I’m not the student council president ‘or something’. I’m just here to welcome you.”

 Selena scoffed, and dabbed on some lipstick. “God, you’re annoying. Why don’t you just go away? I don’t need you to welcome me. Who do you think you are, anyway? The ‘It’ girl or something? Because, well, you don’t look like the it girl or something. You should, like, straighten your hair. It looks like a rat’s nest.” Another dab of lipstick.

 Oh, she did not.

 Oh, yes she did.

 My hand flew to my hair instinctively. I would’ve cried out, ‘No, it doesn’t!’ but, remembering that saying that would be a showcase of poor debating skills, I retorted, “Well, at least my lips don’t look like squashed tomatoes. Loosen up on the lipstick, will you?”

 Selena dropped the lipstick instantly in shock. I reached out and caught it.

 “Hey, give it back!” she cried.

 I grinned. “If I didn’t catch it, it would’ve went poof into the sink, wouldn’t it?”

 Selena scoffed, but it wasn’t exactly a scoff, more like a ‘Hhhuh!’ of indignation. “I never needed you to welcome me! God, you’re so annoying. Your hair’s a mess, your clothes are last season, and your face looks like a blind person used purple mascara on you and then dumped dry ice onto it or something! Get over yourself, like, right now! ‘Cause, you know, you’re totally unattractive.”

 Interesting. She’s overreacting.

 “Well, since ‘you don’t need me to welcome you’, which, by the way, is ridiculous, because I never said you needed me to welcome  you, I’ll leave. Oh, and you might want to-” I paused, thinking better of advising her to keep her bag around with her. Payback! Mwahaha. “Never mind. Have a good day!”

 I began to stalk out of the bathroom, but then tripped. Over thin air.

 You know that moment when you’ve just delivered a sharp, scathing remark and then spin around gracefully to leave? That glorious feeling of satisfaction, and then, your feet get caught together in a tangle and you fall to the floor, right in front of the person you’ve insulted.

 That was my moment. My hands shot out to protect me, and I managed to prevent any injuries other than some skin being ripped on my hands. With a huff, I stood up. Selena gave a little, haughty laugh, but I ignored her and marched out of the bathroom.

 Oh, god, that was so humiliating. I took long, purposeful strides to the cafeteria, and then entered, grateful that no one paid attention.

 One scan around the cafeteria told me that Alyssa and Kimberly weren’t here. Goddamit! Feeling annoyed and furious, I whirled around and stalked out of the cafeteria once again.

 Alyssa and Kimberly were so going to get it.

 Halfway through my silent rant, I saw a flash of brown hair. It looked like Ivy’s hair, and the clothes the girl was wearing… definitely Ivy.

 I began to jog, trying to catch up, cursing myself for wearing high-heeled boots. When I finally caught up, I saw Ivy talking to some random girl with red hair.

 Oh, wait, no, that was Zoey.

 Too embarrassed to confront her and risk looking desperate, I walked away, eager to escape to the library for the remainder of lunch.

 

“Tomatoes, you say?”

 I nodded. Alyssa began to laugh, ignoring my protests that it wasn’t funny. Alastrina and Alyssa were so alike.

 Alyssa collapsed onto my bed, sighing. I did the same, avoiding looking at the lights of my dorm so that little christmas bulbs wouldn’t be in my sight for minutes.

 “Just ignore her, Tori. I doubt she’s going to do anything more than spit at you in the hallways. And I don’t think she’ll even dare to do that,” Alyssa advised, patting my head. Actually, she tried to, but instead got my nose.

 I frowned. “But… she’s so pretty!” I burst out.

 Alyssa rolled her eyes. “People in West Fields aren’t as vain as you think them to be, Tori.”

 Oh, yes they were. I remembered the party, when I had to stick on a blonde wig.

 “No, they aren’t.”

 Oh, dammit, I must’ve said it out loud.

 “Yes, you did.”

 Must’ve said that out loud too.

 When Alyssa didn’t say anything, I grinned. At least I didn’t say that out loud.

 “But you said that out loud.”

 “Oh, bollocks!” I cried. “Something’s wrong with me!”

 Alyssa patted my head, and this time, she didn’t miss the hair. “It’s the stress, my dear. You’re finally cracking.”

 I stuck my tongue out at her. “Shut up.”

 

It might seem very vain, but I was becoming concerned with the amount of people saying, ‘Hi’ to me in the hallway.

 Total amount: 0.

 Usually I would be peppered with greetings, but now…

 Except for the small amount of people in the hallways, all talking amongst themselves, everyone was gathered in a crowd somewhere at the front, in front of the entrance to the boys’ toilet, which must’ve been quite awkward for the guys trying to relieve themselves.

 I pushed my way through the crowd, trying to catch a glimpse of who was standing in the middle, giggling and greeting everyone.

 When I caught a whisper of the conversation, I stopped dead.

 “Hi, I’m Selena! Selena Keith!”

 Selena turned to look at me.

 When she caught sight of me, she smirked.

 Selena freaking Keith.

12: Chapter 12 - Blair Waldorf Has Nothing On Her

Chapter 12- Blair Waldorf Has Nothing On Her

Disclaimer: I do not own Rock N Roll by Avril Lavigne.

I don’t care about the makeup

I like it better with my jeans all ripped up

Don’t know how to keep my mouth shut

You say, ‘so what?’

-Rock N Roll by Avril Lavigne

 I woke up with a weird feeling. I certainly wasn’t happy, but I wasn’t sad either.

 It was Valentine’s Day.

 I lay in bed, breathing slowly. From Alyssa and Nina’s breathing, I could tell they were still asleep. I checked the time with the digital clock on my bedside table.

 Five am.

 Holy crap! I never wake up this early. No wonder Alyssa and Nina weren’t up yet.

 After about twenty minutes of lying in bed, I decided that since I couldn’t fall asleep, I would get up. I sat up slowly, feeling the ache in my back as I did so.

 Hehe, I didn’t remember anything about not being allowed to get up early in the school rules. Just something about going to sleep early. Guess they weren’t that concerned about us getting up early.

 I changed into a sports gear, feeling like going out for a run. I grabbed my phone, tied up my hair, and set out.

 As I walked through the hallway, I bobbed my head to the beat of ‘Sk8er Boi’ by Avril Lavigne.

 I met the skater boy

 I said ‘See ya later, boy

 I’ll be backstage after the show

 I’ll be at the studio

 Singing the song we wrote about a girl you used to know

   The song had me remembering to go to my locker and check for secret admirer notes. I had been getting them continuously, every day, each as cheesy as the rest. I still thought it was Jake’s, but I hadn’t had a chance to confront him about it.

 Oh, what am I talking about? I’m too embarrassed to confront Jake about it. Just in case he laughs in my face and then tells all his friends.

 I opened my locker with surprising ease, and there it was. A little slip of paper. I picked it up, and read it, half dreading the words.

 Dear Victoria,

 When you walk in the room, it lights up. I can feel it. :) I know all these notes are really cheesy, but it really is how I feel about you. Please don’t take these as fake.

 Love,

 Your secret admirer

 That was the first time that he (I really hope it’s a he) had mentioned it being cheesy instead of just praising me. I smiled to myself, but then realized what I was doing. I crumpled the paper up in my hands, and then tossed it into the trashcan.

 Shaking my head, I stood up (unfortunately, my locker was underneath. I had to kneel to get anything—it was so aggravating. You would think West Fields would be able to put the locker higher, what with all the money it was sucking out of my family. I was lucky, though, that no one used the locker above mine. That reminds me; I have to asks Alyssa is she wants to move her locker to the one above mine.) and closed my locker with a kick. Leaning down again, I locked it and walked down the corridor.

 Just as I had walked for five seconds, the song ended, and just as it switched to ‘The Boys’ by Girls’ Generation, english version, Selena came around the corner, and sneered at me.

 “Early riser?” Even though her words were friendly, I could practically feel the malice dripping from  her words.

 Dammit, now I have a vision of her words in midair, dripping with green paint.

 I ignored her, and continued to outside of the school, to the garden. Next to it was a huge running track, that I used sometimes for running. No one was here, usually, as the majority preferred to use nice, air-conditioned gyms.

 I rolled my eyes as I thought about it. Even though it would be torture sometimes, running through the heat, which appeared rarely in the winter, I knew it was better for running than the gym.

 Today, though, I saw a guy running at the track.

 Jake.

 I was about to turn back and scrap the running thing, when Jake turned around and called, ‘Victoria!’ rather breathlessly because he was out of breath.

 I stopped, and sneered at him. Jake looked taken aback at my maliciousness, which was surprising. He should-

 Wait. I started to walk towards him, and saw that his eyes were emerald green, not grey.

 Well, again, howdy-doo, stupidity. Both times I’ve thought that, I was in the presence of Jason.

 “Hey!” I called back. Jason smiled at me, before continuing to run.

 I stared at him, noting the muscles rippling underneath the skin. He was quite tan, which was weird, since I thought he was pale the first time I met him. Must’ve been the lighting.

 And then I noticed I was gawking at him like a fish, and shook my head, starting to run. ‘Lucky Strike’ by Maroon 5 was playing on my song: about a minute into it. As I began to run, I felt a burst of energy because of the music.

 I noticed someone panting beside me. Glancing to my left, I saw Jason. He was sweating like crazy and taking deep breaths, probably trying to not make unattractive noises that made him resemble a dog.

 He was quite unsuccessful, unfortunately. I smiled at him briefly, just to be nice, and Jason shot me a huge grin back.

 Whoa. White teeth alert. It nearly blinded me. I sped up, and noticed that Jason sped up too, to catch up.

 I slowed down, and so did he.

 What was he, my shadow? I felt a surge of annoyance, but smothered it, not wanting to seem nasty to Jason. Especially a dorky guy like him.

 Hmm, yeah, I considered Jason as dorky. Wonder why.

 He didn’t even wear glasses.

 After running nine and a half laps, I began to sprint, which I always did at the last half of the lap. Jason gave a sound of surprise, and sped after me.

 What… the…?

 I slowed down at the end, and stopped after a few seconds of jogging. Jason did the same, and crouched over, putting his hands on his knees to relieve the pressure on his lower back. I resisted the urge to do it too, thinking of Coach Lysterman in West Fields Middle, shouting, ‘Come on, Smith! Walk it off! Don’t be weak!’ and then jogging off to correct some poor girl’s posture.

 “So, what brings you here?” Jason asked, still out of breath.

 I paused, before answering with a slight ‘Duh’ tone in my voice. “Running.”

 “This is the first time I’ve seen you here.”

 “What, you get up everyday at this ungodly hour to run?” I snapped, then winced at my sharp tone. Jason had flinched, too. Huh, he was so affected by me. “Sorry, it’s just that… you remind me of someone I know.”

 “Jake Miller, right?”

 I looked at him in astonishment. “You know him?”

 Jason laughed dryly. “Everyone knows him. And about him and your breakup.”

 “And Nina’s,” I added flatly. Jason nodded, and then straightened up.

 “I’d better get going,” he said, and checked his watch. “It’s six o’clock, by the way. Two more hours.”

 I nodded, saying my thanks, before leaving, shaking my head to myself.

 

In my opinion, student assemblies were stupid.

 As we trudged to the auditorium, I glanced at Alyssa’s face. Judging from her expression, she agreed.

 In student assemblies, random people can go up at announce things. And the teachers won’t be there, since they’ve already fulfilled their duties of announcing all their stuff. The student assemblies are usually dominated by the student council, but sometimes, someone would go up to say something. Usually, the person who goes up would be reporting gossip. Or sometimes, a tearful ex-girlfriend begging for her boyfriend’s forgiveness.

 I mean, seriously, we’re fourteen (most of us, at least. My friends are all fifteen, and so is Nina, interestingly); girls should be enjoying being single. My parents think we’re not capable of love. Neither does my brother, even though, well, he’s only two years older than me.

 Alyssa poked me.

 I jerked sideways, startled, crashing into the girl next to me. The girl cried out.

 “Watch where you’re going, whore!” she exclaimed.

 Selena.

 “It’s not my fault ni touzhong jiaoqing!” I replied, shifting into Chinese, which I did a lot when I was annoyed. Alyssa gave me a confused look.

 I whispered, “Literally translated, it means ‘It’s not my fault your head is heavy and your feet are light’ but it really means that it’s not my fault that she doesn’t have steady balance.” I paused. “Something like that.”

 Selena hadn’t said anything in return, but she was glaring at me.

 “You freak,” she spat.

 Well, woops, she was going to say something.

 “How am I a freak?” I snapped.

 Oh, holy auditorium, please ensure that I reach you in less than two minutes. Otherwise a cat fight will break out and I’ll be forced to use my karate skills on the unfortunate girl and she will die and I’ll be sent to jail.

 Selena cocked an eyebrow. “Isn’t it obvious? Freaky purple eyes, freaky red hair-” she paused. “-freaky combination, too. Anyway, freaky language-”

 “Millions of people in China would beg to differ,” I said curtly.

 Selena snorted. “This isn’t China. It’s New York.”

 “Well, at least I don’t speak Dorkish.”

 I mentally slapped myself. Twice. That must’ve been the most lame comeback of the century.

 Selena seemed to realize this as well, and simply smirked before turning away to talk to her friends.

 Her friends. She had friends.

 Ugh.

 I shook my head, and looked back at Alyssa. She was staring at me with a bemused expression.

 “Dorkish?” she asked skeptically.

 I sent her a look. “Don’t say a word about it.”

 Alyssa looked in front of her, curled her lips in, and nodded. Then burst into laughter.

 “Hey!”

 Alyssa pointed at me, and through her laughter, I heard her gasp, ‘You never said I couldn’t laugh about it.’

 Ooh, she’s found a loophole as always.

 Dammit.

 Yes, Alyssa’s my best friend, but sometimes, I seriously want to kick her in the face. Wait, no, let me rephrase that: I want to kick her in the face every other hour.

 I glanced at Alyssa, feeling partially guilty for thinking that and partially giddy. I’ve kicked people in the face before, of course (karate classes; there was this guy who seriously irritated me and knew it, so I kicked him in the face. I was praised for my karate skills, but they still weren’t very happy that I had broken a boy’s nose.), but Alyssa was my best friend.

 Hmm, what was the guy’s name again? Something that started with I.

 Isaac?

 No.

 Ian?

 Close, but not quite it.

 Insofihai?

 No, that’s not even a name.

 Isaac?

 Yes.

 Wait, what?

 I frowned, thinking. Yes, Isaac was the name of the boy. But was it Isaac Walter?

 And then it hit me. Isaac. Yes, Isaac Walter was the one I had kicked in the face. We had become friends later on, although I don’t remember how.

 The corners of my mouth turned down, and my eyelids dropped a little to make it look like I was mad. I had long ago realized that if you opened your eyes a little wider, raised your eyebrows just a bit, and looked at the world like it was the best thing you could be doing right now, it won’t matter if you’re not smiling. You’ll look like you’re happy.

 If you do the opposite, of course, you look angry.

 I grit my teeth and then loosened it. Mom told me it was good for anger.

 At least I had inflicted some pain before we became friends.

 Oomph!

 The girl in front of me- Nicki! Surprise, surprise!- turned to glare at me when I bumped into her.

 “Watch where you’re going, nuthead,” she spat.

 Not exactly the best insult of the century, Nicki.

 Too shocked to voice my thoughts and insult her back, I watched as she turned back to look at the door of the auditorium. It was going to open soon, I guess.

 Alyssa and I exchanged looks. What happened to the sweet Nicki van Gosen I saw a few months ago? Was it possible that she could change so much? And even if she had, she wouldn’t have said something that malicious. People feared me; they knew I could make their lives a living hell if I wanted to.

 But they don’t fear me anymore, apparently. Alyssa nudged me as the doors opened, and students piled into the auditorium. Alyssa and I went to our usual seats, which, thankfully, no one had taken yet. Ivy didn’t sit next to us, which seemed to surprise Alyssa, but I was used to it. Kimberly took a seat instead, and smiled at me. I returned it weakly. Kimberly’s friends, Hatha and Madeline, sat down next to her.

 I turned my attention back to the stage. Next to the stage was the entrance to the auditorium. The girls were already done coming in, and the guys were next.

 Yes, for some insane reason, the school separated the genders to go into the auditorium. It was ridiculous.

 I saw Jake in the midst of people coming in. Or was it Jason?

 When he looked up and winked at me, I rolled my eyes. It was Jake, of course. Jason was too… dorky to do that. And too shy.

 “Jake’s staring at you!” Alyssa elbowed me in the stomach. I shrieked, and elbowed her back.

 “I don’t care!” I yelped.

 My cheeks turned red when I realized that everyone was staring at us.

 When people began to turn away, I hissed, “I don’t care! Jake and I? We’re done!”

 “Well, someone’s PMSing,” Alyssa remarked dryly.

 I glared at her. “You…” Here we go. The ‘I want to kick you in the face’ moment.

 When I turned back to face the front, I risked a glance at the other side of the auditorium, where Jake was sitting- no, perching- on one of the soft, blue seats.

 Okay, so I want to kick Alyssa in the face and I want to strangle Jake frequently.

 Should I be calling the mental ward?

 The microphone screeched, sending a wiry sound through the room. People cringed and covered their ears, while Alyssa and I just remained motionless. I don’t mind the sound—it’s not that bad.

 Mr. Wynn, the principal, stepped forward so that he could speak into the microphone. He cleared his throat, and more students turned to look at him.

 “Okay. So, welcome to the weekly Wednesday assembly. We have this assembly every week at the middle of the week to have announcement just in case people have forgotten, and give out awards sometimes,” he said.

 That was weird. The reason we have these assemblies were explained during the first week of school. I glanced at Alyssa, and she shrugged.

 Mr. Wynn smiled, and held up a little bronze certificate. “I am pleased to announce that we have a new student at school: Selena Keith!”

 Oh, god.

 That’s why.

 The girl stepped onto the stage, smiling. Everyone was cheering like there was no tomorrow, which was annoying. And hurt my ears.

 Selena took the certificate, shook hands with the principal, and cleared her throat. Mr. Wynn had already stepped away from the microphone, so Selena could make a speech.

 Ridiculous. Do transfer students get this all the time? Last time a transfer student came to West Fields- Molly Benson, a girl with brown, frizzy hair (kind of like Mia’s in the Princess Diaries movie) and pink, small glasses- the principal just welcomed her in an assembly and then she practically disappeared from any publicity. I do remember that her family was really rich, though.

 When the cheering and clapping stopped, Selena began to make a speech. “Teachers, would you mind stepping out of the auditorium? I want to talk to my fellow students privately.”

 That was a very risky move. I was sure Mr. Wynn would snort and say, ‘Not a chance.’

 And then he smiled graciously, like how my mother told me to when I was hosting a party (all those dreaded birthday parties when Mom outdid herself), and said, ‘Of course. All staff out!’

 My mouth dropped open in shock.

 Mr. Wynn! My inner self whined. You’re leaving us with-with Selena Keith, of all people? Why?

 Selena’s smile turned into a smirk. “Hello, everyone,” she said, when all the teachers had gone out. “I’m sure most of you have met me.” Vigorous nods around the room. “Including Miss Victoria Smith over there.”

 Shi...talking mushrooms.

 All eyes turned to me, including Alyssa’s. I swallowed.

 “Well, she must seem nice and sweet, right?”

 Hesitant nods.

 Well! Thanks, West Fields! I am flattered with the amount of faith in me!

 “Well, unfortunately, she isn’t. She’s actually a conniving bi-”

 She was interrupted with a collection of gasps around the room. It wasn’t because of what Selena thought of me and her choice of wording to express it- tsk, tsk-, but more because the huge screen lighting up behind her. It was one of those big boards that projectors, well, projected things onto.

 Right now, it was projecting a picture of Selena and I arguing in the bathroom.

 On the screen, I was walking into the bathroom. I noted with interest that I was wearing red jeans, a white t-shirt, a brown hat, and high heels, yet Selena failed to notice me until I chirped, ‘Hey!’

 I remember! I grinned when I remembered the red stripe.

 Selena was staring at the board in horror, and the microphone dropped from her hand. No one bothered to glance at the fallen object for more than a second before looking back at the board.

 Alyssa was next to me, still watching. When she saw me looking, she grinned and then pointed at the board. She didn’t looked surprised at all, interestingly.

 I shrugged, but grinned too, which Alyssa knew meant, ‘I know, right?’

 Kimberly wasn’t next to me. She had probably gone to the bathroom; too bad, she’s going to miss a good show.

 “Look what you did!’ Selena yelped, and stuffed the lipstick in my face.

 I raised an eyebrow.

 As I watched, I didn’t insult her.

 Oh. The person who made the video must’ve edited it so that it made Selena seem like… the bad guy. And me the victim.

 That is genius.

 However, Selena probably didn’t think so. She grabbed the microphone off the ground, and yelled, “That’s not what happened!”

 Everyone merely laughed.

 Selena breathed out sharply. “Why don’t you just…”

 I shook my head, and held out my hand. “Hey, I think we got off to the wrong start. I’m Victoria.”

 Selena merely stared at it in distaste before saying curtly, “I’m Selena. Selena Keith.”

 Well, that didn’t need any tampering with to make Selena seem like the villain.

 Selena grit her teeth, and clenched and unclenched her hands. She looked like a villain, like those in cartoons whose plans had gone wrong.

 Haha. Sucker.

 I let my hand drop. “So, I just want to welcome you to West Fields-”

 Selena turned to the mirror rudely. “Oh, are you the student council president or something? You know, the nerds? I can’t imagine why you would want to welcome me or something.”

 I raised my eyebrows. “First of all, student council people aren’t nerds. They’re just smarter. Second, no, I’m not the student council president ‘or something’. I’m just here to welcome you.”

 Across the room, I saw the people in the student council smile at me and give me a thumbs up.

 I noticed that the person who made it had cut off the ‘than people like you’ after ‘They’re just smarter’, to make me seem more nice.

 Selena scoffed, and began to apply more lipstick. “God, you’re annoying. Why don’t you just go away? I don’t need you to welcome me. Who do you think you are, anyway? The ‘It’ girl or something? Because, well, you don’t look like the it girl or something. You should, like, straighten your hair. It looks like a rat’s nest.”

 Some people had cried, “She is the It girl!” I found myself grinning. Alyssa was grinning as well.

 My hand flew to my hair, but I said nothing except, “Well, loosen up on the lipstick, will you?”

 The person had cut off the insult yet again. It was great editing- you couldn’t tell that I had said something in between.

 Selena was gripping the microphone so hard I could see her knuckles whitening.

 Selena dropped the lipstick. I caught it, and smiled at her.

 “Give it back!” she cried.

 When I did, she let out an… exhale of indignation.

 Whoa, that makes me seem all nice and caring; catching her lipstick, smiling while Selena yelled at me.

 “I never needed you to welcome me! God, you’re so annoying. Your hair’s a mess, your clothes are last season, and your face looks like a blind person used purple mascara on you and then dumped dry ice onto it or something! Get over yourself, like, right now! ‘Cause, you know, you’re totally unattractive.”

 I merely stared at her.

 I grinned, thanking myself for being nicer than her. Otherwise, the situation would’ve been hopeless.

 “Well, since you don’t need me to welcome you, I’ll leave. Have a good day!” I walked out.

 The video ended before anyone saw me falling over. And the video made me seem like the best person ever compared to Selena.

 I grinned again. Alyssa just kept on grinning.

 The looks of surprise had slowly turned into looks of disgust at Selena’s behavior, and now half of the gazes of the student body turned to me, and half to Selena.

 Selena just dropped her microphone again, and clenched her fists.

 I smiled, making it not reach my eyes so that I seemed like I was sympathetic to Selena but also reminding them that I was not the bad one here. Everyone then looked at Selena.

 “You will pay, Victoria Smith!” she screamed, so loud I could hear her from the stage without the microphone. She threw the microphone at the ground and stormed out of the room.

 Kimberly sat down next to me, suddenly.

 “Where were you?” I asked.

 She grinned. “Oh, nothing. Just saving you from social disaster.”

 “What?” My mouth dropped open.

 She did the Jazz Hands. “I have a hidden talent—technology!”

 “Wait, you mean you made the video? How’d you get the footage?” My mouth was still open.

 She grinned. “Alyssa and I went to record you two, just in case she turned out like this.”

 “But how did you know that she would try to make an announcement about me?”

 Alyssa cut in. “We didn’t. But we knew she would try something like this; she’s practically a mini Nina. With black hair. Yeah, an Asian Nina.”

 I snorted. “You guys. Are awesome.”

 Kimberly said sweetly, “Thanks,” while Alyssa laughed and remarked, “We know.”

 “Hey, where’s Hatha and… who? Oh yeah, Madeline. Where are they?” I asked, noticing the empty spaces.

 Kimberly shrugged. “They’re probably with Stephanie and Kathy.”

 Even though I should’ve been worried that Kimberly’s friends ditched her, I was too happy to notice my conscience screaming at me.

 Selena’s going down.

 A perfect thing to happen on Valentine’s Day.

 

Seems like not only that was going to happen on Valentine’s Day, I thought, when I saw someone leaning against my locker.

 Jake?

 I walked a bit closer, tensing.

 No, his eyes were green. Jason.

 “Hey, Jason,” I said. “Not to be rude, but you’re in front of my locker and I need to get something. Would you mind moving?”

 Jason gulped. “Uh, yeah, sure.” He shifted a bit to the left, so that I had space to get my Science folder. As I leaned down, Jason started to talk.

 “Hey, er, Victoria, I need to tell you something.”

 I pulled my science folder out, and looked up. “Yeah?” Stupid hair was getting in my vision.

 Jason froze, and I could see the color rush to his cheeks.

 “Yeah?” I asked again, standing up.

 Jason cleared his throat.

 Man, this guy was going to have a tough time performing when we had to do those class performances during the Talent Shows.

 “Well, I, uh… I mean, well, you’re cute, and sweet, and nicer than most girls are to me. So, well, to put it simply, I like you.” He blushed again, but didn’t look away from me.

 I just stared at him, stunned.

 But that would explain why he was so nervous around me. Stuttering, gulping, the whole shebang.

 Is it possible for a guy to have a crush?

 Seeing that I wasn’t going to talk any time soon, he continued, and his words came out rushed. “And I, was, well, wondering whether you wanted to be my-”

 “Girlfriend?” I finished for him.

 Jason looked at me for a few seconds, before nodding slowly.

 “I…” my tongue felt thick and heavy. “I mean, you’re a nice guy, and I like you too, but as a friend. Honestly, I never considered you romantically… especially not after Jake.”

 Jason nodded. “I look like him, don’t I?”

 I nodded as well.

 Jason sighed. “Oh.”

 I shook my head, not wanting to upset him. “Hey, it doesn’t matter that much to me. Here,” I offered my hand. “I’m Victoria Smith.”

 He smiled, and shook my hand. “I’m Jason Payne. And no, I’m not related to Liam Payne whatsoever.”

 I laughed. “Good. I mean, I like their music, but not them, you know.”

 Jason offered me a smile as well. “Yeah. Well, we’re friends, right?”

 I had to think for a moment before I answered. “No.”

 Jason seemed startled. “No?”

 I smiled. “No, we’re a couple.”

 Jason didn’t have the same reaction as Jake when I said yes. He just smiled, but I could see that he was happy. His eyes showed it.

 As he put an arm around me and began to escort me to Science class, I couldn’t help but wonder why I said yes.

 And if the relationship would work out.

13: Chapter 13 - WHAT Did You Just Say To Me?

A/N: I've decided to post this a day early, because, uh... it's a week late.

A reviewer pointed out that Victoria's Chinese AND has red hair... which is really weird... well, the answer that I made up is that her mom's not Chinese and has some red hair genes in her that awakened in Victoria... kind of like the werewolf gene. JK. :P But her mom has red hair, so...

Chapter 13- WHAT Did You Just Say To Me?

Disclaimer: I do not own Just Give Me a Reason by P!nk, and I think Nate Reuss... I'm not sure how that featuring thingy works.

Just give me a reason, just a little bit’s enough

Just a second, we’re not broken just bent

And we can learn to love again

It’s in the stars, it’s been written in the scars on our hearts

We’re not broken just bent

And we can learn to love again

-Just Give Me a Reason by P!nk ft. Nate Reuss

 “Eh. Ma. Gawd.”

 What the f…? Who says ‘Ehmagawd’ instead of ‘Oh my god’? That just sounded like it came from The Clique.

 Kimberly stared at me with wide eyes, her mouth in an ‘O’. “Eh. Ma. Gawd.”

 Alyssa just stared.

 “You guys are being creepy,” I muttered.

 “Eh. Ma. Gawd.”

 “Stop it!”

 Kimberly kept on staring at me. “I can’t believe it it!”

 What? No ‘Eh ma gawds’ anymore?

 “Me. Neither,” Alyssa added.

 Jesus, the two were eyeballing me like I was an ostrich on display in Ikea! A real ostrich!

 Kimberly giggled, and collapsed onto my bed, sighing giddily. “That’s so cute! He asked you out! So ro-man-tic!” she squealed.

 Kimberly grabbed the nearest pillow (a heart shaped pink one from my bed that Mom had sent to me a few days ago—when I saw it, I was speechless) and clutched it to her chest, squeezing it so tight I was afraid it was going to burst, while squealing. Her squealing was so high-pitched. “Sooooo cuh-yute!”

 I wonder if the dogs heard that one.

 Alyssa finally decided to join in. “That’s sweet… but are you sure you want to be a couple with him?”

 I had to think about that one. “Not really, but he’s nice and I don’t want to disappoint him.” Alyssa opened her mouth, but before she could reprimand me about ‘the importance of my happiness’, and my traits of ‘St. Victoria’ taking over my common sense, I beat her to it. “I do like Jason, though, and I think that I can work it out. I’ll learn to love again. Or, at least, him.”

 Alyssa snorted. “What, you were scarred from Jake’s luuuuuv?”

 I rolled my eyes, but before I could reply, Kimberly interrupted. “Guys, you’re, like, totally ruining the romantic mood. Jason likes Victoria, Victoria likes Jason, boom! Love, marriage, sex, babies!”

 She did not just say that.

 Alyssa burst out laughing, while I just stared at Kimberly in shock and horror.

 Eventually, I regained my voice and repeated, “Sex? Babies?”

 Kimberly grinned and nodded. “And I’ll babysit them for you!”

 Oh, sweet, sweet Kimberly. Sometimes I just want to strangle her.

 “Kimberly…” I groaned. “I just had a talk with my parents about how I need to restrain from having sex in the heat of the moment! Now...ugh! You’re bringing it up again!” I groaned again. “I need to hurl.”

 “Well, don’t puke on me, then,” Alyssa said in a wry voice. “Go get a bucket.”

 I shot her a look, but she knew I wasn’t really angry. With a huff, I heaved myself off the bed and went to the bathroom, and, leaning over the toilet, made exaggerated retching sounds. Alyssa gave a little airy laugh, informing me that she knew I was faking, but Kimberly shot up.

 “Is she really puking?” she asked, worry tracing her tone.

 Alyssa snorted. “Not likely.”

 I retched louder, taunting them, but then I had retched a little too much and ended up really gagging, but nothing came out of my mouth except for… spit.

 I rubbed my watery eyes. “You guys just made me really gag!” I announced, deciding to brush my hair since I was in the bathroom anyway. It was getting a bit messy from lying on the bed and turning my head.

 “Not my fault you’re a drama queen!” Alyssa shouted back, while Kimberly stayed silent. I looked out, and saw Kimberly laughing, but silently so that I could only tell she was laughing from the shaking of her shoulders.

 I shook my head and said loudly, “Oh, no. My friends don’t care about my well-being! Oh! The shame, the shame!” With one last fake sob, I opened the door and grinned at my friends. “I’ll be going now.”

 “To lover boy?” Alyssa teased, pointing at me.

 “Nope!” I grinned. “To class!”

 Alyssa checked the time, bemused, and swore. “I gotta go! Math’s on the tenth floor!”

 Kimberly laughed. “I have free period. Go off, my crickets, to learn and absorb the wonderful knowledge of the universe.”

 Alyssa flipped Kimberly off, albeit playfully, and ran off, in hopes that Mr. Hartford wouldn’t give her detention.

 I just grinned.

 I had changed the clock. Class wasn’t until ten minutes.

 Whistling cheerfully, I headed to my locker. Still had time before Science started.

 

As I stood up from my locker, I spied Selena heading towards me. Her hair was puffy, her face was red, and her hair was a little wet from sweat.

 Oh, ew.

 She must’ve been all over the school looking for me.

 “You!” she yelled. People around the corridor immediately began to watch the drama unfold.

 As I said before, vultures.

 I adjusted my bag. “Salut, Selena,” I said in French. “Ca va?”

 “What?” she snapped. “Stop talking in gibberish.”

 “It’s French, not gibberish.” My voice was detached and cold. I sounded bored.

 Selena huffed. “God, you’re so stuck up! No one cares that you can speak French! I can speak Chinese!”

 “So can I, mademoiselle.”

 Selena gritted her teeth. “Ugh! You’re so annoying! Are you being annoying on purpose or something? You really need to adjust your attitu-”

 I looked at my watch, and yawned. “Oh, well, look at the time. I must be getting to class. Toodles!” I turned around and waved goodbye at her. People around the corridor snickered at Selena, and as I glanced back, smirking, I saw her turn a dark shade of red before stomping off.

 Victory.

 My status as ‘Queen Bee’ had been re-established. People were smiling, saying ‘hi’ to me. I was glad.

 As I passed a janitor’s closet on the way to Science, it grabbed me.

 Actually, no, a pair of hands grabbed me. Male hands, to be precise.

 Jason’s hands.

 With a squeal, I tumbled into the closet, my folders still securely in my arm, though, since I trained myself to have extreme self-control.

 “What the hell?” I spluttered, turning to Jason.

 Without warning, he pulled me closer to him and pressed his lips to mine. I tensed immediately, but relaxes and leaned into the kiss as I reminded myself that this was Jason.

 When we broke apart, I grinned. “Miss me?”

 Jason ran his fingers through my hair. Thank god I had brushed it earlier, otherwise it would’ve been very awkward, with him trying to untangle his hands from the knots in my hair. Just imagine that. “Very.”

 I leaned closer, and our foreheads touched. Jason kissed me again, and I smiled. But when he didn’t move away a few seconds later, I tensed and began to push him away from me.

 Jason frowned. “What’s wrong?”

 “I have to get to class.” I didn’t know what was wrong with me; just that I found it annoying he was so intimate and that I was uncomfortably with it.

 I turned to step out of the janitor’s closet (cliche, Jason. Cliche.), but Jason grabbed my wrist and pulled me back to face him.

 “Tell me what’s wrong.”

 I rolled my eyes. “Nothing’s wrong.”

 “If you don’t trust me, it’s okay-”

 “Who says I didn’t trust you?” I snapped. Five minutes until class started, and I preferred to be there at most two minutes until it started.

 Jason scoffed. “It’s obvious. You tense up whenever I come near you. Is this because I look like Jake or something? I’m not like him! You should know that-”

 “It’s not about Jake!” I yelled. “Its over between him and I! Why can’t you stop bringing him up?”

 “I can’t stop bringing him up because the fact that him and you were a couple is obviously bothering you-”

 “Oh, and you taught yourself to read body language?”

 “Victoria! My point is that you don’t trust me-”

 “How do you know that?” I shouted.

 For the first time, he raised his voice. “Victoria Catherine Smith! You…”

 Stalker.

 “...need to learn to stop making your life revolve around Jake’s-” Jason stopped abruptly when he saw the look in my eyes. “Victoria, I didn’t mean it…” his sentence trailed off.

 I could feel my jaw hardening, my nostrils flaring (only a little—my dignity is still intact), and my eyes darkening. “My life doesn’t revolve around Jake’s,” I said, quietly and softly. My anger was taking over now, and I could almost see red.

 “I don’t see why you should think that. I have not spoken to Jake in months, and the fact that you have similar features to Jake does not ensure that my judgment towards you differs. Your personality is what matters to me, however, I don’t think you seem to understand that.” For some reason, I become very… poetic when I get angry, which confuses a lot of people.

 “Victoria…” Jason’s eyes were pleading. I ignored the girl in me that hurt for and pitied the desperate boy in front of me.

 “Vick, please…”

 I stiffened. “Vick is my brother’s name.”

 “You have a brother?” he asked.

 Surprise, surprise. The stalker doesn’t know the male I am closest to. Except for Anthony and my dad.

 When I said nothing, he quickly deduced that yes, I did.

 Jason leaned in, and laughed quietly. “I guess we have a lot to learn about each other. I have a sister named Adriane.”

 “Strange name,” I commented softly, but I could feel the tension sliding away.

 Jason cracked a grin. “I know. She hates it.”

 I smiled, and let out a tiny laugh, one that barely deserved to be called one, but it was a laugh nevertheless and Jason knew that he was forgiven.

 I leaned against the wall, and sighed. In a dry voice, I remarked, “Well. We just survived our first fight.”

 Jason smiled. “Yeah.”

 I checked my watch, and, to my credit, didn’t start screaming. “I’m ten minutes late for class.”

 Jason’s eyes widened. “Holy crap, we gotta go!”

 I smiled. “I can pull a few strings. Get my dad to donate another couple hundred thousand.”

 Jason shook his head. “That’s too much to ask.”

 “Well, then, you can get in trouble.” I grinned. “I’m going to go get a late slip from the office.” Before I stepped out of the janitor’s closet, I called back, “Oh, and crap isn’t holy.”

 I could hear Jason laugh through the doors.

 

TWO MONTHS LATER

 Alyssa held up two dresses. One was mint green and strapless, one was electric blue and one-shoulder.

 I rolled my eyes. “I didn’t know you cared that much about outfits.”

 The corners of Alyssa’s mouth turned down. “Ugh, Tori. Just answer the question already!”

 I grinned again, and leaned back onto my bed. We were at my house, getting ready for a party a girl named Kelsey was throwing; Kelsey was taking advantage of the fact that her parents were leaving for the weekend. “Why are you worrying? Want to impress a certain someone?”

 Alyssa’s face turned red, and she stamped her foot. “I told you before, I’m happily single. Now shut up and answer the question.”

 “Allie, I can’t answer the question if I shut up.”

 Alyssa’s eye twitched, before she stuck her tongue out at me. “Grammar Nazi.”

 I snorted. “You’re the only Grammar Nazi here. You write novels.”

 Alyssa scoffed. “You’re one as well and you know it.” she paused. “Just help me pick!”

 I looked at the two again, before deciding. “Blue.”

 Alyssa looked at the one doubtfully, before shrugging to herself and began to change.

 “Oh, ew, Al. At least let me get out before you start stripping.”

 Alyssa shrugged again. “We’re best friends. Tis what we do.”

 “Ew.”

 Alyssa laughed, and adjusted her dress a bit before she decided to stop fussing with it. “Get up, Tori. You’re gonna ruin your dress.”

 “Please. This outfit is indestructible.”

 Purple, with spaghetti straps. I’ve had it for years.

 Alyssa huffed. “We’d better get going. This Easter party should be good.”

 I smiled. “I just hope it’s not all rainbows and sunshine!” I made circles with my hands at ‘rainbows’ and ‘sunshine.’ Alyssa rolled her eyes, but smiled as well.

 I sighed, and sat up. “Let’s go. Don’t want to deprive Kelsey of our glorious presence.”

 I marched out of the door, and yelled, “Dad! We’re going to the party!”

 Dad looked up from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. “No alcohol. And be back by midnight.”

 I pouted, and leaned over the railing on the second floor. Dad stared up at me from his leather couch, unconvinced.

 “Baba, at least let me stay a few more hours than that.”

 Dad rolled his eyes. “Unless you want to wake up to another bucket of water, then I advise you not to come home later than twelve.”

 I narrowed my eyes at him. “What about Victor?”

 Victor grinned smugly up at me from his computer. “Two am.”

 “Not fair!” I yelled, and grabbed Alyssa, who had crept up next to me while I was talking to Dad and my idiot brother.

 “Let’s go,” I huffed. She made a face at me.

 

“Wow,” I breathed. “Kelsey outdid herself.”

 Alyssa nodded in agreement.

 The house was completely dark. No lights were on. You could still hear the booming music, though. ‘It’s Time’ by Imagine Dragons was playing. I bobbed to the beat as we walked towards the entrance. Kimberly was at her gymnastics club, which was why she had to miss the party. She had moaned about it for nearly twenty minutes before her mother had dragged her away from the phone.

 Wow, the modern times were changing. We should at least be a few years older before…

 Is that someone vomiting on the front lawn?

 Yes, it is.

 Deciding not to humiliate the guy further, I didn’t tell Alyssa (who would undoubtedly go to him and laugh in his face; insensitive little girl) and instead pulled her along into the house.

 Someone shone a flashlight in my face. I blinked, startled by the light, before it blinked off and the person turned the beam onto Alyssa’s face.

 Kelsey, the one who did it, was grinning such a wide smile I wondered if her face would split. “Hey, Tori! Alyssa!”

 I smiled slowly at her. “Hey, Kelsey. How’s it going?”

 She turned the flashlight off. “It’s great! Why don’t you two get out of the doorway? Come on in! Get some juice! Crackers! Cheese!”

 “Uh, sure.” Kelsey’s enthusiasm was annoying me, but catching me off guard as well.

 I herded Alyssa in, hoping she wouldn’t try to punch the lights out of Kelsey for installing colorful Christmas bulbs into our vision.

 “Hey, Alyssa baby!” someone yelled. I burst into laughter, and I knew that Alyssa had made a face. Jokingly, I pushed her towards the voice. Alyssa stumbled, and fell into the guy’s arms with a shriek.

 I cackled, and ran away. I heard Alyssa yelling over the music. I cackled evilly again, and pushed through the crowd to try and get some quiet.

 When I got off the dance floor, everything seemed to become quieter. I smiled to myself.

 Suddenly, I felt someone beside me. I turned to look, and out of the dark, I could make out a pair of bright green eyes.

 Hey, it’s Jason.

 “Hey!” I chirped. “I didn’t know you came to parties like this, Jace.”

 I caught a little surprise in Jason’s eyes. He grunted in return.

 “Hey, do you want to go upstairs?” I asked. “It’s getting hard to breathe.”

 And yes, that was true. I wasn’t trying to, er, do it with him. I just wanted to get out of the mass of bodies that was most of West Fields High’s freshmen population.

 Jason’s eyes bobbed up and down, which meant he was nodding.

 I went into a narrow hallway, the only hallway in the room. A wall separated the hallway from the living and dining room, so the noise was somewhat muted. I pushed the door at the end of the hallway open, and saw stairs. We went up the stairs, Jason behind me, although something was off with his steps. He was taking heavy ones, instead of Jason’s usual light ones. Maybe he just had a little bit too much to drink.

 After the stairs, another hallway was there. It was shorter than the one downstairs, presumably because the house didn’t need more than five bedrooms.

 After a few rounds of unfortunate going into… occupied bedrooms, we found one that was empty. The lights were off, of course.

 “Wow, it’s hot in here,” I commented, taking off my sweater. Underneath it was a cardigan; cold April days were still in order.

 An ‘mmm hmm’ was all I managed to elicit from Jason.

 “Are you okay?” I asked, shrugging the sweater’s sleeves off. “You don’t sound good.”

 There was a little silence, before Jason said, “Nothing. Just a cold.”

 His voice sounded too high, and a little nasal. I laughed. “You came to a party with a cold? Not like you.” I began to take off my cardigan.

 “I wasn’t aware,” he snapped. “I come to parties all the time.” I heard a thud. He probably just fell onto the bed.

 That didn’t sound right. Jason wouldn’t snap at me like that.

 “Hey, back off, alr-” my retort was cut off by the door opening. Slammed open, actually. The lights flipped on.

 The only thing I could register was the big, looming, ‘???’.

 Jason was at the doorway.

 Jason was on the bed.

 Or, maybe not.

 I slowly turned around, and there he was, Isaac Walter. Shirtless, no less.

 And I was in the middle of taking off my cardigan.

 Which made it look like I was undressing and getting ready for… er, intercourse.

 “Jason…” I said in a low voice. “I can explain.” I was about the whip out the cliche lines of ‘This isn’t what it looks like’ and ‘I didn’t know’, when Jason opened his mouth.

 “I. Trusted. You.” His voice was calm, but I could hear the anger brewing underneath the facade. “Victoria. How could you?”

 “I didn’t!” I exclaimed. Isaac was lying on the bed, looking all innocent. But stricken at the same time. “This bastard here was misleading me the whole time! I could only see his stupid green eyes in the dark and you two’s eyes are the same color and I didn’t realize, okay? So l-”

 Jason held up a hand, and it stopped me from talking better than any verbal explosion would have. “Victoria.”

 I stared at him, defiant.

 Isaac sat up, a cocky grin on his face. A very different approach from the innocent one. “Well, I certainly didn’t mislead Victoria. She came all by herself and she even took my shirt off-”

 I wanted to scream at him to shut up, but before I could, Jason marched over and punched Isaac in the jaw.

 Isaac’s body went slack, and he passed out.

 “Jason-”

 “Don’t.” The word had slipped out through his teeth. He was really, really angry.

 Well, there goes a cliche line again. The power of cliche really seems to hate me.

 Jason stormed out of the room.

 I dropped onto my knees. It felt like my legs couldn’t support me anymore.

 Jason.

 Isaac.

 Me.

 My eyes closed. Tears were gathering, but I refused to let them slip out.

 I crawled slowly to the door, and shut it gently. I didn’t want anyone to see me vulnerable.

 A tear fell out. And so did another. It wasn’t long before I was full-blown crying, and wiping snot from my face. I let my whole body fall onto the floor, but kept my crying silent.

 It had happened again. Jake had broken my heart. Jason had broken my heart. I knew it would happen. The two looked the same, names started with the same letter, and Jason had even begun to act like him once we opened up to each other.

 Well, the part of me that was incapable of emotion was talking again. I’ll have to throw away lots of stuff. Waste of trees and metal, that is. Or maybe I can just take out the picture frames, you know. Don’t have to throw the whole thing away, unless I think it’s somehow ‘tainted’ by the memory of Jason or something-

 Shut up! another part of me wailed.

 Well, someone’s a little touchy.

 Oh, I knew someday that boys would drive me crazy. This much drama and it’s only the first year. I still have a couple more months to go, though. Until the school year ends.

 When the crying stopped and the snot was wiped, I looked at Isaac.

 Anger was replacing sadness really quickly. I clenched my hands into fists, and I could only see red. Like those heroines in movies at the climax of the movie when they’re in a struggle and they remember everything the villain has done to them and they find some power in them to rise up and start punching the living daylights out of the antagonist-

 I’ve watched too many movies. But, I’ve watched enough to know how to treat a guy like Isaac.

 Slap him as much as you can.

 I dragged Isaac off the bed, and up against the wall. Isaac woke up in the middle, and when he found us in that position, he grinned. “I never knew you were into the kinky stuff.”

 I placed my elbow onto his throat, and then a foot on his. Then pressed harder. The only words that escaped me were, “You absolute bastard.”

 Isaac was turning red from the lack air. I pressed harder, the anger getting to me. He started to claw for air.

 I knew I should stop. I couldn’t.

 Suddenly, a girl burst into the room. Her dark curly ringlets were falling around her face. “Hey! Is this room-”

 She stopped when she saw me choking Isaac.

 I released him with a huff. “It’s vacant,” I spat, before stomping out of the room.

 It was hard pushing through the masses of people, but they eventually began to clear away when they saw the mood I was in.

 I started storming even faster when I saw Alyssa was nowhere to be found.

 

I kicked the door open with a scream of pure rage. Dad bolted up from his chair, alarmed. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

 “Isaac!” I shrieked. “Isaac Walter! I’m going to kill him AND I’M NOT EVEN KIDDING!” I started screaming at the top of my lungs.

 “What happened? Do I need to beat him up?” A smile was pulling at his lips.

 That infuriated me even more. “Now’s not the time for damn humor!”

 “Humor is not damned!” he shouted back, grinning, and sat down.

 And Alyssa says I have a cool dad.

 Ivy thought so as well.

 At the thought of her, I felt more anger gathering in me. I began to run up the stairs.

 Sammy.

 Ivy.

 Anthony. Stupid moving away.

 Jake.

 Selena.

 Isaac.

 I let out a shriek again, and changed into my sweats. I then charged downstairs and into the basement.

 Ah, my beloved punching bag was there.

 Without bothering to put on gloves and feeling remarkably like Regina George, I started to punch it, and even threw in a kick for good measure.

 Punch punch, punch punch, punch punch.

 I was starting to sweat, but I kept going.

 Stupid Jake.

 Stupid Selena.

 Stupid Sammy.

 Stupid Ivy.

 Stupid Anthony.

 Stupid Alyssa.

 Stupid Isaac.

 Stupid Jason.

 I gave one last punch. It wasn’t enough.

 I began to yell, “Hiya!” every time I punched. Soon, there were a lot of ‘Hiya!’s echoing around the basement.

 I did a roundhouse kick, and punched again.

 I hate them.

 The door slammed open suddenly.

 “What the hell is wrong with you?” Victor yelled.

 I ignored him and kept punching.

 Victor charged up to me and yanked me around so that I would face him. I stood silently, watching him.

 “What?” I spat.

 Victor huffed. “Dad just called me and told me to come home early. He said you were going crazy. What is wrong with you? What did the poor punching bag ever do to you?”

 “Nothing!” I yelled. “Just stupid Isaac, stupid Jason, stupid-” with every ‘stupid’, I had begun to punch the bag.

 Victor stopped my fist. He was only strong enough because he did karate as well.

 “I had to come home early, thanks to you, so I’d like to get a damn answer. Did your makeup counter chip off or did you lose your favorite dress or something-”

 “Shut up!” I shrieked, finally. “Okay? Jason dumped me! Isaac set me up! He made it look like we were bloody having sex and Jason walked in! Not everything revolves around you! And just because I’m a girl doesn’t mean that all I care about is clothes and makeup, you pig! Sexist pig!”

 Victor looked a little startled at my choice of wording. “Er… Does that mean I have someone to beat up?”

 “No thanks, Vick,” I spat. “I’ll do it myself.”

 Vick shrugged, and headed out the door.

 A few minutes later, I felt the energy go out of me. The adrenaline was gone. I sat down, and put my head in my hands. This time, I kept the tears from falling, and was glad I did. I had some ass to kick tomorrow.

 But first, I’ll let myself relax, no matter that it contradicted what I had did before. I trudged to the kitchen, where Victor and Dad watched me with worry, but said nothing. I took out ice cream, and then headed up to my room. The awkward silence was choking me.

 I switched on the TV and flopped onto my bed.

 “Okay, Victoria,” I said aloud to myself. “From now on to the end of the year, Ben and Jerry are the only men in your life now.”

 And so I spent half of the night trying not to let my tears drip into the ice cream bowl and watching The Notebook and Love Actually.

A/N: Because of some weird glitch in my brain, I had Victoria break up with her boyfriend a chapter after they got together... I'll change that in THE BIG EDIT and I'm sorry about the clicheness. :D

14: Chapter 14 - You've Got To Be Kidding Me

Chapter 14- You’ve Got to Be Kidding Me

Disclaimer: I don't own The One That Got Away by Katy Perry.

In another life

I would make you stay

So I won’t have to say you were

The one that got away

-The One That Got Away by Katy Perry

 

 “Er… you’ve got to be kidding me.”

 I looked up dully from my locker. My eyes were still sore from crying, so I turned my head instead of looking up with only my eyes.

 Alyssa was staring down at me, a dumbfounded expression on her face.

 “What?” I asked, deeming her not important enough and going back to rifling through my files.

 Alyssa snapped her fingers around my shoulder and wrenched me to my left. I yelped in indignation, but no one was there to witness my annoyance. I narrowed my eyes at Alyssa.

 “Let me get my stuff in peace.”

 Alyssa rolled her eyes. “Victoria, you’re not ‘in peace’ yourself.”

 “Don’t patronize me. And don’t say ‘in peace’ in that funny tone.”

 Alyssa pursed her lips, and lowered herself to my level. “Victoria. Look at yourself.”

 “I can’t,” I replied. “No one can see themselves without a mirror.”

 “Uggh!”

 I rolled my eyes, and tried to go back to taking my folders out before Alyssa interrupted me again.

 She was grabbing my sweater. “This thing is grey.”

 I shrugged. I chose it because it fit my mood. “So?”

 She was looking at me like I was crazy. “Uh… you never wear grey clothes.”

 I smiled sarcastically, and gave her a venomous look. “I am now.”

 Alyssa slapped me on the back. Before I could recover, she whipped out her water bottle, opened it, and poured its contents all over me.

 The water was icy cold. Reminded me of the first day of school.

 As I spluttered for air, I could hear Alyssa’s sharp voice cutting through my disbelief. “Come on, Tori. I know you’re stronger than this. Jason’s just… a guy. You’ll move on.” She clapped twice. “So haul your skinny ass off the ground and move faster. Oh, and I have news for you.”

 When the water had stopped dripping on to me, I yelled, “What on Earth was that for?”

 Alyssa rolled her eyes. Again. “I’m sure you know what. I don’t particularly enjoy watching my best friend slouch around school like she needs a guy to complete myself.”

 “Agh!” I shrieked. “My books are all wet-”

 “No, they’re not. You use goddamn plastic folders! Aggh! Stand up and get something real to wear!” Alyssa dragged me upwards, and I ended up dropping my books on the floor.

 “Alyssa Falcon, something is wrong with you today!” I yelled. I was already exhausted from the meager four hours of sleep I got last night, and now this?

 She didn’t reply, and instead silently picked up my books and handed them to me. I numbly received them, and let Alyssa push me to the girls bathroom.

 She began to dig something out of her bag. It was a t-shirt.

 “Um… that’s not really better than my sweater, Allie.”

 Alyssa sighed, and looked at me. “Just shut up.”

 I complied.

 “Take off your sweater.”

 My eyes shot to hers. “What? No way!”

 “Dude, I’m your best friend. Just take it off. You have a shirt underneath it, right?”

 I didn’t reply, but I could feel my cheeks reddening.

 “Oh my god, you are hopeless. Sweaters… gah, I have nothing to say. Come on, still, take it off. Then put the shirt around you.”

 “What?”

 “Don’t you read this stuff in magazines? There’s a way to turn a big shirt into a lovely dress for girls. Now take off your sweater.”

 When I didn’t do anything, she stamped her foot.

 “I’m your best friend, for heaven’s sake! You’re gonna be late for class, which means you’re gonna fail, which means you die! So take off the sweater!”

 I stifled a laugh at her choice of wording, but I did. Alyssa handed me the shirt.

 “Okay, put it around you. Button it up to your chest. Wrap the sleeves around you. Is it tight enough? Okay, good, I don’t want it slipping off in the middle of class. Okay, now make a bow with the sleeves under your chest… good! There you go!”

 I turned around to face the mirror. It really did work. The dress was a casual button up shirt, with red and blue checkers. I jumped up and down, and the dress stayed on.

 “Thanks,” I said. Alyssa grinned, and began to shove me out the door.

 “Go to class, make sure no one gropes you or the dress falls off-” I made a face at that. “-and be happy! Good!”

 I rolled my eyes, but Alyssa still managed to cheer me up once again.

 Before I remembered I had Isaac and Jason in the next class with me.

 Making a face, I groaned, but still managed to make myself go to History.

 Jason and I were sitting next to each other.

 As I put my things down stiffly, I thought to myself, This is going to be awkward.

 

“Uggggh,” I groaned to myself, as I walked out of the classroom. Things were especially awkward, and when Mrs. Kersin told everyone to ‘discuss the issue of the French Revolution with the person next to you.’

 The person behind me (Veronica, I remembered) gave me a strange look. I glared at her, and set the volume of eye glare the highest I could.

 Veronica scurried away.

 I snorted triumphantly to myself. I hadn’t lost my touch yet.

 As I continued to walk away to Chemistry, I heard a shrill voice call out, “Victoria! Wait!”

 I turned around, and there she was, Kimberly.

 “K-”

 “I found out that-” she lowered her voice to a hushed tone “-Selena had told Jason to go upstairs when she saw that you thought Isaac was Jason. She told him that you were waiting for him.”

 I stood there in shock.

 Selena?

 After all these freaking months?

 “Are you sure?” I asked.

 Kimberly nodded fervently. “She told me herself. She doesn’t know we’re friends, so she trusts me.”

 “Hasn’t she seen us in the halls?”

 Kimberly shook her head. “I’m pretty sure she hasn’t. She wouldn’t tell me to try to rile you up; after all, who wants to be publicly humiliated by you?”

 “How do you know I’ll be going to humiliate her?”

 “Because you always do. I know you.”

 I smiled, but I knew anger was evident in my eyes. “Good, ‘cause I’m going to kick her ass right now.”

 “I knew it.”

 

 “Selena Keith, you whore,” I growled, stalking towards her. Selena had the nerve to look arrogant as I approached her. “You absolute-” I paused, not wanting to swear. “I don’t know if something’s wired wrong with your brain, but you’re not the most popular girl in school. Get the hell over it. I don’t care if you feel indignant or something, you need to realize that I actually have a life and I don’t need a crazy woman coming after me!”

 Selena slammed her locker shut. “Ugh, just get out of my face already.”

 “I’m not in your face. But,” I held up a finger. “I am going to punch your face in.”

 Selena recoiled in anticipation of the punch, but instead I kicked her in the shin and pressed her up against the lockers with my right arm. She gasped for air, while everyone else stared.

 “This girl,” I announced. “Is the cause of Jason and I’s breakup. Because she was too selfish and had an uncommonly insatiable thirst for vengeance, she decided to set it up so that it would look like I was cheating on Jason. Feel free to cast her at the bottom of the social ladder.”

 With one last shove at her throat, I let go, and Selena clutched at her windpipe, relieved that the air was back.

 I should have felt victorious. People were swarming to Selena to demand why she had done what she did, she was trying not to act guilty and generally failing to do so. But I couldn’t help but notice one person standing by, giving me a scathing, disbelieving look.

 Jason.

 

“Victoria Smith,” a monotone called out. Everyone looked up from their silent work when the voice blasting from the speakers called out my name. “Victoria Smith, please report to the main office to see the principal.”

 A rush of whispers began (which the teacher had to shout above to quiet down), and I caught a few words, mainly about, ‘She attacked Selena today, bet she’s gonna pay’ and ‘Oh, no, what could she have done?’.

 I ignored all of that, except for Selena’s sneer, to which I shot a glare at. Full level. Selena recoiled, as she had this morning.

 I stood up, and stalked out of the room, satisfied with the clinking of my heels to remind everyone of my presence, although I don’t suppose anyone needed it.

 The walk to Mr. Wynn’s office was painful and long. My Spanish classroom was in the Languages wing, furthest away from the administration building (which contained the dorms and offices), although I guess the Mathematics wing, at the most right (and Languages was at the most left) was at an equal distance to the administration office as the Languages one was.

 I wondered what I had to go to the office for. It surely wasn’t for leaving early that day a few months ago… in fact, I shouldn’t even be thinking about it right now. It probably wasn’t for not showing up to detention (I forgot to do my homework, but my dad already emailed the school to explain both incidents); that was ages ago.

 Only possible thing… me ‘attacking’ Selena.

 Oh, crap.

 When I reached the office, my heart was already pounding with nervousness and anticipation. I opened the door, and the secretary looked up.

 “Victoria Smith?” she said in her monotone voice.

 I nodded.

 “Please head down the left hall and turn left at the fifth door. You will see cubicles for staff; please turn right and do not disturb them. Once you reach that end of the room, near the bulletin boards you will see a door that is labeled ‘Principal’s Office.’ Please enter.”

 I nodded, and, too nervous to note that she had not given her dismissal, headed down the left hall, the one I had walked in so many times to enter the school.

 Fifth door, go in…

 Whoa. Lots of teachers. Ignore the glances, turn right- oh, I see, the secretary had forgotten to mention the whole thing was in section and I had to turn right at the first break in sections- and keep on walking. keep on walking.

 I saw the bulletin boards, and next to it…

 ‘Principal’s Office.’

 Phew.

 I knocked on the door twice, softly. The door swung open immediately, and I was greeted with Mr. Wynn’s smiling face.

 “Hello, Victoria. Come in, come in, take a seat.”

 His office was neat and tidy, the main colors being black and white. He had two computers- probably just two screens and one computer; I saw it before when I went to visit my mom’s office- and a mouse and keyboard. A coffee cup. A pencil holder. A few documents. A little plant. Shades.

 His office wasn’t terribly big, but there was enough space for a printer and another chair. I sat down in the one opposite his.

 “So, I bet you’re wondering why you’re here,” he began, taking a seat. I nodded hesitantly, wishing I had taken my stuff with me.

 “Well, it’s not much, really. Just that we’ve noticed you looked awfully depressed today, but I see you’ve changed. And you look happier. So… may I ask why you looked that upset this morning?”

 The stone in my heart dropped, and my stomach fluttered with relief. Thank god.

 “Uh… you know that we ninth graders, uh, date now, right?”

 Mr. Wynn nodded, although the atmosphered suddenly turned awkward.

 “Well, I just broke up with my boyfriend, and I having a hard time getting through the breakup, so…” my voice had begun to diminish, until it sounded like a mosquito’s at the end.

 Mr. Wynn suddenly looked uncomfortable. “I see. I take it the relationship wasn’t abusive or, um, inappropriate?”

 Oh, snap. Gross.

 “No, sir, not at all. The opposite, in fact. He was great to me.”

 Mr. Wynn nodded slowly. “All right, you can go now. Don’t bother going back to class; it’s almost finished. You can collect your belongings if you want, though.”

 I nodded, and stood up.

 That awkward moment when you don’t know whether to say ‘Bye’ or ‘Good day.’

 I decided to say, “Good day, sir.” to which he nodded.

 I let out a huge sigh of relief as the door closed behind me. A few teachers looked my way, and Ms. Lavina winked.

 I smiled back at her, and stepped out of the teachers’ working space. The secretary looked up as I walked by.

 “No trouble, I presume?”

 I smiled, suddenly in a good mood. “No, none at all.”

 “Glad to hear that.” She seemed happier, although she still spoke in a monotone.

 I smiled again, and nodded. “Good day, Ms…” I quickly checked her nameplate, and didn’t take too much time, so that she wouldn’t know I forgot. “...Hanna.”

 She smiled, showing her teeth. “Good day, Ms. Smith.”

 I smiled again, and walked out of the building, feeling the cold and bright but refreshing air of April fill my lungs.

 Jason was going to be won back by me. I was sure of it.

 And I was going to kill Selena.

 I smiled again. April filled me with hope, didn’t it? Even though it was the end of April. Four more days until May.

 But still. I had a whole new day ahead of me.

 

“Singing Radiohead at the top of our lungs

With the boombox blaring as we’re falling in love

Got a bottle of whatever but it’s getting us drunk

Singing here’s to never growing up

 

Call up all our f-”

 

I stopped singing abruptly when I saw someone I recognized. Someone who had changed, but still had the same features even many years later.

 Someone who was missing from New York currently, but apparently was back. Someone who made my life turn even more cliche.

 Anthony Sawyer.

 He was to the left of the street I was walking on. I whirled around to get a good look.

 Yeah… it was him.

 I felt dizzy. I had to be dreaming. There was no way that all of my old friends would have moved back to New York.

 Glancing left and right, I crossed the street.  Anthony was a few meters in front of me now.

 I began to sprint towards him, but stopped when I was only a few steps away. I passed him, heard a sharp intake of breath, but ignored it and turned around.

 It was him!

 Letting out an excited shriek, I launched myself on top of him. Anthony fell down, of course, with an ‘oomph’.

 “Anthony!” I yelled, sitting up so that I was sitting on the pavement instead of on Anthony. He didn’t need that much pain yet.

 He stared at me for a moment, before he grumbled, “You’ve gotten fat.”

 My mouth dropped open. “Come on! I haven’t seen you in what, nine years?”

 He sat up as well. “Six, actually.”

 “Exactly! Oh my god, I can’t believe you’re back! Are you going to West Fields? Why didn’t you tell me? You have to tell me everything! I have so much to tell you too! Alyssa will be so happy!”

 He put a hand to his head. “Tori. Please. Calm down.”

 “Come on, An! You’re being so annoying! At least tell me what school you’re going to! It’s not East Fields, is it? If it is, you’re going to beat us in football and that will suck ‘cause I really want us to w-”

 “Yes, I am going to West Fields.” It was just like Anthony to be so calm while I was freaking out. It had been six whole years since I last saw him face to face!

 “Yay!” I stood up, ignoring strange looks from other people, and pulled him up as well. “How was California? How could you not tell me you were moving?”

 “California was fine. Lonely,” he replied, still rubbing his forehead. “Do you want to come to my house? We bought a new one at Hazelnut Street.”

 I grabbed his arm and began to cross the road. “That’s where Alyssa lives now! I can’t believe it! This is so awesome!”

 Anthony smiled wryly. “That’s why you know exactly where you’re going, huh?”

 “Yeah! She moved a few years after you left. Oh yeah, you still haven’t answered my question.”

 “Uh… well, our electronic stuff were all packed away ‘cause we were moving, so yeah… I forgot.”

 “Damn you!” I yelled, but it was in a playful tone. “But I can’t believe you’re back!”

 As we began to walk down Hazelnut Street, I smiled. “Wait a second, I’m gonna go get Alyssa. Wait… uh, behind the house. Go go!”

 A refreshing change from his nonchalant mood, Anthony grinned deviously and sprinted off into the shadows. We were always partners in crime.

 I tried Alyssa’s house doors, but it was locked. I made a face and knocked. After a few seconds, I could hear heavy steps that belonged to either Alyssa or Alastrina.

 The door opened, and Alastrina was there.

 “Hey!” she piped.

 “Hey, Alla.”

 Alastrina grinned and transferred her weight onto her right leg. “How’d you know it was me?”

 I rolled my eyes. “‘Cause I know you and Alyssa so well.”

 Alastrina made a ‘not bad’ face. “Good enough. Come on in.”

 “I’m actually here to get Alyssa out, so…”

 Alastrina smirked. “Say no more.” She loped off to go find Alyssa.

 A few seconds later, Alyssa appeared at the doorway. “What on Earth do you want?”

 I grinned, and grabbed her by the shoulders. “I have a surprise for you, dearie.”

 Alyssa followed me out the door, although she looked like she was afraid I was going to lead her to an axe murderer’s place.

 When we got to the house Anthony was hiding behind, I parked her in front of it. Then, I went into the shadows and pushed Anthony out.

 “Ta-da!”

 Alyssa gaped at him for a few seconds, before whispering, “Anthony?”

 He lifted his arms. “In the flesh.”

 Alyssa strode over to him, and…

 Slapped him.

 I blinked, not sure this was happening. Alyssa continued to slap him, muttering, “Huh… feels real…”

 Anthony finally jumped away from her, clutching his face. “Alyssa!”

All in one second, Alyssa grinned, ran towards Anthony, and wrapped her arms around him. “I missed you, Anthony!”

 I smiled at the happy scene. I had missed him as well; everyone had.

 I was just glad he was back.

 

I poked Anthony’s cheek. He recoiled, and glared at me. “Tori, I thought I told you not to touch it. It’s bad enough already without an ice bag, thanks to Alyssa over here.” He poked Alyssa in the stomach.

 “Hey!” Alyssa protested, leaping away. “I already told you sorry!”

 Antony grumbled something that sounded like, “You still slapped me.”

 I laughed. “Come on, let’s all get to Bernado’s in peace.”

 Anthony shot me a look. “That’s what I was trying to do before you poked me.”

 I rolled my eyes. “You’re paying, by the way.”

 “What? No!”

 “Yeah, you are. You just moved here, you have to pay.”

 “That restaurant is super expensive! I am not paying!”

 “Come on, the gentleman always pays. See, we’re almost here. Now-”

 I stopped dead. Alyssa and Anthony gave me concerned looks.

 “Tori? What’s wrong?”

 “Look around you,” I whispered.

 Anthony relayed the message to Alyssa, and the two scanned their surroundings.

 Ivy and Sammy were behind us, and they had stopped because we had. They stared at us, primarily Anthony.

 “Anthony?” Ivy whispered. Sammy gaped at him.

 Isaac was walking down an alley to the right of us. When he saw the little crowd, he looked harder, and he began to stare at Anthony.

 I was recovering from my shock and annoyance. “Well, looks like the whole gang’s here,” I remarked dryly.

 This was just unrealistic. Cliche. Impossible.

 Isaac ignored my comment. “Anthony? Is that you?”

 Anthony nodded. I watched as the two walked towards each other, and did those man-hugs guys do.

 “How are you, my man?” he asked, grinning.

 “Good, great. Different. It’s so great to see you.”

 Isaac smirked. “Been a long time. You still hanging out with Vick over there?”

 I rolled my eyes and huffed. He was calling me Vick on purpose.

 Anthony nodded. “It’s Tori, not Vick.” He frowned. “You know that. Why’d you-”

 I grabbed Anthony’s arm after covering the distance between us and began to march off. “Because he’s a cruel and self-righteous bastard, that’s why,” I shouted over my shoulder. Isaac merely smirked, while Ivy and Sammy silently watched the ordeal.

 “What?” Anthony spluttered as we entered the restaurant. “You and Isaac aren’t friends anymore?”

 “I told you, didn’t I? It was ages ago.”

 “But I thought you two made up.”

 I frowned. “But we didn’t.”

 Anthony gave me a doubtful look, and was about to say something when a waitress hurried over.

 “Sorry to keep you waiting, sir. How many?” She only just then noticed Alyssa and I. She gave us a nasty look. I gave her a nasty look back.

 “Three,” Anthony answered, completely oblivious to the waitress and I’s exchange.

 “Alright, would this table be alright?” She led us to a booth near the back of the restaurant.

 “It’ll be fine, thank you.”

 I sat down on the left booth, and Alyssa sat down next to me and she hurried away.

 “Well.” That was to break the awkward silence, but it seemed that it made it even more awkward. “So, why’d you move back?”

 Alyssa leaned forward as well.

 Anthony shrugged. “Dad’s work. He got promoted but had to move here to take it.”

 I grinned. “You happy now?”

 He shrugged again. “I’m happy I’m back in New York, but I still had to leave my other friends.”

 Alyssa spoke up finally. “You still planning to be friends with Isaac?”

 “Why not? And speaking of that, why-”

 The annoying waitress hurried back. She seemed to hurry everywhere.

 “Hi again, I’ll be your server today.” She waved and smiled. “I’m Olivia. Here are your menus.”

 She looked like an Olivia—grey eyes and blonde, wispy hair.

 I smiled at her, and used to my eyes to give her permission to leave.

 But woops, she wasn’t looking at me. Her attention was totally concentrated on Anthony.

 I exchanged a glance of annoyance with Alyssa, trying to hide my embarrassment. Honestly, I wasn’t used to being ignored.

 “You can go now…” Anthony said slowly. He looked confused that the waitress hadn’t left yet.

 Reluctantly, Olivia nodded and walked away.

 Anthony turned back to us. “Back to Isaac. Why’re you so pissed at him?”

 I felt my face go blank. “Because he abandoned me when he found out I liked him.”

 Anthony’s face went blank as well. “You… like him?”

 I felt disgust rise up in me. “God, no, not anymore. But anyway, at the two thousand thirteen dance, he asked me to dance and told me he was single. Well, he nearly cheated on my good friend with me, and so Kim and him broke up. Then, he broke up Jason and I with-” I gritted my teeth, trying to stop myself from screaming. “-Selena’s help.”

 Anthony seemed perplexed. “Kim? Jason? Selena?”

 I smiled. “I forget you don’t know so m-”

 “Are you ready to order?” Olivia popped out of nowhere, her chirpy voice slicing through our conversation.

 Alyssa stifled a laugh.

 “Sorry, give us a sec,” I half-snarled half-said, and flipped open the menu. Spaghetti bolognese was the first thing, so I picked it. Olivia nodded and wrote it down on the menu, then looked expectantly at Alyssa.

 “Same,” she said, before going back to her fingernails. Half of them were chipped, thanks to her practicing karate everyday. Purple didn’t suit her, anyways.

 Olivia eagerly turned to Anthony, her pen poised above the pad.

 “Um… same.”

 Olivia raised her eyebrows, but wrote down the order. “Three spaghetti bolognese. Anything to drink?”

 “Coke,” Anthony announced.

 “Iced lemon tea, please,” I said. I wanted to yawn. I could tell Anthony was itching to ask about the trio I had named.

 Alyssa didn’t answer, so I elbowed her. She looked up in surprise. “Oh? Uh, water.”

 Olivia bounced away.

 We instantly turned back to each other.

 “Okay, Kimberly is a good friend of mine. She does gymnastics. Jason is… well, my ex.” I swallowed. “And Selena is a new girl, she’s a biscuit.”

 “...Biscuit?”

 “I don’t swear.”

 Anthony nodded slowly.

 Alyssa cute in, suddenly. “She didn’t tell you about Jake yet.”

 I groaned, and banged my head on the table. “No, no, no…”

 Anthony looked alarmed when I looked back up. “Er… who’s this Jake person?”

 “Apparently, she’s really heartbroken from it, but-”

 “Just tell him, will you?” I snapped.

 Alyssa looked disheartened at the interruption, but she continued talking. “Okay, so they met on the first day of school. Later, he asked her to be his girlfriend.”

 I watched Anthony to gauge his reaction. He just stared at Alyssa.

 “But three months later, he was caught by Victoria cheating on her!”

 Anthony looked really, really mad.

 “Alyssa…” I groaned. “My life isn’t a TV show!”

 She shrugged. “Just filling Anthony in.”

 “And… who was he cheating on Victoria with?” Anthony’s voice was tight.

 “Well, you see, she’s called Nina. She and Victoria were enemies starting from school beginning, but now they don’t hate each other… as much. Because, you see, Jake was cheating on both of them with each other. Wasn’t her fault.”

 Anthony nodded, but he still looked angry.

 Overprotective much?

 It was a bit weird that Alyssa was just saying it so bluntly, but she continued. “Ivy and Sammy… well, Ivy decided to randomly abandon us, and Sammy wanted to become Victoria’s new bestie!, so she decided to tell my parents-” Alyssa’s voice was turning tight “-that I was doing drugs, and I got sent to Gester Center. Then she told Victoria in hopes Victoria would become her best friend, which was stupid, and Victoria told my parents, so I could come home after a month. Alastrina had to fill in for me at my school so I wouldn’t be embarrassed.”

 Anthony leaned back against the booth, and exhaled. “Well. Seems I missed a lot of drama.”

 Alyssa nodded. “You did.”

 “Mostly caused by me! Please stop discussing my life like it’s a piece of-”

 The two completely ignored me.

 Anthony stood up. “I need to go the bathroom.”

 Alyssa nodded again. “Me too.”

 As the two left, I started laughing. Maybe Anthony was replacing me in the ‘No going to the bathroom alone, girls’ rule. That would be hilarious.

 To my disappointment, Anthony entered the boys’ bathroom.

 I was staring into space, with my head propped up on my elbows, when Jason appeared by my side.

 I jumped, startled, and kneed the table accidentally.

 “Wow, you’re jumpy,” he remarked, as he sat down next to me.

 I gave him a look. “What’re you doing here?”

 Jason suddenly looked uncomfortable. “In the restaurant or in the booth?”

 “...Within ten yards of me.”

 Jason pursed his lips. “Well… I wanted to ask you who the guy was.”

 Uh… is he jealous?

 I had the urge to laugh. Or maybe cry. Or maybe both.

 “Anthony, you mean?”

 “Yeah.”

 “What, are you jealous?”

 “No!” Huh, I swear, Jason nearly ducked his head in embarrassment. I could still see his cheeks turning pink (unlike me, he hasn’t tanned to the point you couldn’t see a blush anymore).

 “Then why’re you here? You’re not even talking to me anymore! You’re not returning calls, not letting me explain, and you expect me to instantly tell you whatever you want? You’ve got to be kidding me! Something has to be wrong with you!” I stood up and began to walk past Jason, all my cheerfulness gone. He tried to catch my wrist, but I dodged and continued out, ignoring his yelling my name.

 He was not acting like himself today.

 I continued to storm away, and groaned to myself mentally when I saw Ivy and Sammy outside on a park bench (uggh, did they not realize that, uh, it’s cold?). I kept stomping, though, but had only gone through the alley (really quickly, as I was afraid the same thing would happen as what happened last time. What if Jason saved me this time?) when a strong hand caught my wrist.

 Not Jason’s. This one had more muscle.

 I whirled around, prepared to kick and scream if I had to, but it turned out there was no need for that. It was Anthony.

 “Hey…” I smiled sheepishly. “Sorry about leaving early, I-”

 I was cut off when I felt the pressure of Anthony’s mouth on mine.

 Uh…

 Before I could react (and preferably scream in horror and shock), he was wrenched off me, and I stared at Anthony and Jason. Jason was punching the lights out of Anthony.

 Perhaps now was not the time to check both them out, but I still did. Jason was more lean and wiry than Anthony. Anthony was more buff, and he was taller than Jason. But Jason sure could pack a punch.

 “Jason! What the hell?” I yelled, and put myself in between the two, effectively stopping the fight.

 Jason’s eyes looked weird, and he was breathing heavily. Too heavily to be normal, if he only punched someone. Like he was… jealous?

 I felt fury rising in me again. Who did he think he was, prancing in and out of my life when he felt like it? One of my best friends kissing me was my problem, not his!

 “My god!” I exclaimed. “Stay out of my life, okay? This is my life! You’ve evidently decided to exit from it, so stay out!”

 Jason looked sorry, but his fists remained clenched.

 I pulled Anthony up, the spurt of adrenaline helping me pull him up. Anthony groaned.

 “That’s going to leave a bruise,” I muttered to myself.

 “You think?” he snapped, although I knew the anger wasn’t directed at me. Anthony turned to Jason.

 “Keep away from her. You’ve hurt her enough already.” Even though he wasn’t talking to me, the venom in his voice was enough to make me flinch.

 I was shocked when I realized that he wasn’t playing the part of the overprotective brother. He was acting as the jealous, overprotective boyfriend.

 Jason didn’t say anything, so Anthony grabbed my hand and began to walk away.

 I ignored that, though. Anthony’s ‘love for me’ seemed to have dissipated into thin air.

 Well, it seemed like drama was gleefully hopping into my life again after it had reluctantly trodded out. I couldn’t believe I actually wanted it back—I’ve just gotten a taste of it again and I already found it tiring.

 When we reached my house after a seemingly hour-long awkward walk, Anthony let go of my hand. I glanced at him, but some emotion in his eyes made me keep looking. It was regret.

 “You okay?” I asked softly.

 He laughed softly to himself. “It’s just like you to still care after I practically jumped you.”

 “You’re still my best friend.”

 He smiled. “I’m still sorry about the… fornication, though.”

 Even though I struggled not to burst out laughing at his choice of wording, I shrugged. “It’s okay. No one can resist me.”

 We both started laughing, the tension releasing its pressure on me.

 “I’ll see you tomorrow, alright? You are going to school tomorrow, right?”

 Anthony nodded.

 “I’ll see you then, then.” I laughed again. “See you.”

 He mock saluted me as I picked the key from the doorway arch and entered.

 Well. Today certainly was eventful, I thought to myself as I took in my living room.

 I shook my head. No need to be sentimental. “Victor! I have something to tell you!”

 I began to descend the stairs.

 I was looking forward to tomorrow.

15: Chapter 15 - Prince Charming

A/N: Meh, the chapter gets really cheesy at the end...

Chapter 15- Prince Charming

Disclaimer: I don't own Baby I by Ariana Grande. Or Royals by Lorde. Or With Ur Love by Cher Lloyd. Gah, Alyssa's singing a lot of songs this chapter. Or Story of My Life by One Direction.

Baby, I got love for thee, so deep inside of me

I don’t know where to start

I love you more than anything

But the words can’t even touch what’s in my heart

-Baby I by Ariana Grande

 

 “We’re driving Cadillacs in our dreams! Let me be your ru-u-u-uler! You can call me Queen Beeeee! And baby, I’ll rule! I’ll rule! I’ll rule! I’ll rule! Let me live that fantasy!”

 I loved Alyssa, honestly, but her singing made me want to scream and headbutt a tree. She doesn’t usually sing this loudly and happily, but it seemed recently she became more cheerful in general.

 “Da da da da dum dum, duh dum dum, da da da da dum dum, duh dum, dum! Baby, you the best ‘cause you work me out! I keep buildin’ walls up but you tear ‘em down! I’m flyin’, I don’t wanna li-i-ike it, but you know I like it, but you know I like, it, like it! Always think I was bulletproof-”

 “What do you like? Masturbation?” Nina shouted. A few seconds ago, her head had been buried under her pillow. It was quite rude, especially since I thought we had established a friendly status, but I guess not. Today was one of the rare times since a few months ago that we were in our dorm at the same time, and it was not turning out well.

 Alyssa stopped singing abruptly. “Excuse me, bee-otch?”

 “Stop sing like that! You sound like a… a dying goose being strangles with pliers!”

 “Bee-otch!”

 “You’re a bee-crotch!” Nina snapped, before stuffing her head under the pillow again.

 I burst out laughing. This was too hilarious not to.

 Alyssa pouted. “You like my singing, don’t you? Tori?”

 “Alyssa, dear, I like your happiness. Your singing is… interesting, but I don’t… like it.”

 Alyssa made a face. “Traitor!”

 “You shame the female species with a voice like that!” Nina yelled, her voice muffled from being under the pillow.

 “I know I don’t exactly have Ariel the Little Mermaid’s voice, but that doesn’t mean you can be rude!” Alyssa snapped.

 Just then, someone walked by, singing ‘Story of My Life’ by One Direction rather loudly. And nicely. She had a nice voice.

 Nina poked her head out from under the pillow. “See? That is proper singing.”

 Alyssa let out a scream of frustration, before starting to yell out the lyrics to ‘What the Hell’ by Avril Lavigne. The lyrics made her shouting seem even louder.

 “No!” Nina wailed mockingly.

 The door opened, suddenly, and Kimberly bounced in, followed by Courtney.

 “‘Ello, everyone! I have good news!” she shouted. “A new couple was made! Lovebirds! Woo!” She was ignored by us.

 Nina groaned at the sight of her, but brightened up when she saw Courtney.

 “Hey, bring me some pills.”

 Courtney sniggered. “I always knew you were going to crack.”

 “You’re my bestie. Don’t mock me.”

 Alyssa snorted. “Pretty hard not to.”

 “Courtney! Get her!”

 Courtney rolled her eyes. “Alyssa, right? I don’t believe we’ve met before.”

 Alyssa shook her hand. “Weird. We’ve known each other for around seven months, right?”

 She nodded. “Since school starts.”

 “Lovebirds!” Kimberly shrieked, when she finally noticed no one was listening. “Anthony and Nina!”

 My attention snapped to her. “What?” I spat. Nina simply groaned.

 She grinned, happy that someone was paying attention. “Anthony and Nina have become a couple! Didn’t you hear?” She sighed in happiness, twirling around. “Oh, the love. It warms the heart. They might become married, have children. Oh, the possibilities!”

 I felt nauseous. Nina let out a cackle from under the pillow.

 “Believe it!” she… cackled.

 “No…” I moaned, and began to head out the door. “This can’t be happening.”

 Even Kimberly’s lovesick and romantic attitude couldn’t convince me to be happy. Anthony and Nina did not… impossible. Nina would murder Anthony with her personality.

 Since it was a Saturday and I decided to stay in school, much to my mother’s disappointment (and Nina’s), I could find Anthony. He was in school as well, getting adjusted to the surroundings.

 I stormed into the cafeteria, and screamed, “Where the hell is Anthony?”

 The entire cafeteria fell silent, before I, realizing what I did, turned bright red. As I turned to leave, I heard a few mutters about ‘jealousy’ and ‘Nina’ and ‘new couple’.

 Ah, crap, now they’re going to think I’m jealous.

 As I shook my head and lowered my eyes to the ground in annoyance and embarrassment, I bumped into someone.

 Anthony.

 “You!” I snapped. Anthony seemed bewildered, and that was the only reason I managed to push him into the bench near the grassy grounds outside the cafeteria (the cafeteria was located a few meters to the right of the Seniors and Juniors hall, so it was on the first floor).

 “What’s wrong with you?” he asked.

 “What’s wrong with you? How on Earth are you… Nina Levesque’s boyfriend?” I spat. You could hear the rage in my voice.

 He blinked. “That’s what this is about?”

 “Damn right it is!”

 He laughed-laughed- and leaned back so that one arm was slung across the back of the bench and relaxed. “She’s nice, she’s hot.” He paused. “What else is girlfriend quality?”

 “She…” I had to catch my breath to avoid screaming. “She is a freaking b-”

 “Now, now, no need for language. She’s not as bad you made her seem during those phone calls.” Anthony looked smug.

 Smug.

 “Agh!” I started to pace around the bench. “She is! She’s tried to ruin my life not only once! I expect you to-”

 “You expect me to? My god, you’re turning into an overcontrolling freak! Tori, my life is my business, like what you said to Jason!”

 I felt a pang at Jason’s name. That was a low blow.

 Anthony continued, not noticing. “I chose to date Nina, and I ‘expect you to’-” he made bunny ears with his finger to ridicule what I said “-respect that! Okay?”

 I narrowed my eyes. “No, not okay! If she’s your girlfriend, then I will be driven mad and-”

 “Tori, will you just shut up about it already? Nina’s not that bad, just give her a chance!”

 “I gave her a chance, I gave her a stupid chance when I said ‘hi’ on the first day of school.” I swallowed, as if I could gulp down the agitation in my body. “Then she proved to me how stupid she was.”

 Anthony scoffed, half in exasperation and half in annoyance. “Then she changed! She certainly isn’t the ditzy, stupid blonde you described her as, and I’m glad I see that now! You really don’t leave any competition, do you?”

 Anthony turned to walk away, but of course, being me, I wouldn’t let it rest. “What do you mean, competition?”

 “I mean that you’re jealous and you don’t want anyone else to take your place!” he called back.

 What…

 I clenched my fists. “Screw you!” I yelled after him. His shoulders began to shake with laughter.

 My shoulders began to sag, though, with the knowledge that he had won weighing onto me. It was not only that I had lost, though. Anthony was one of my best friends and I didn’t want to lose him over something as petty as Nina.

 I rushed into the building, ignoring Ms. Hanna’s concerned look. I took the elevator to the top floor, where it was empty. No one came here unless they had a class here, which was good for me.

 I collapsed onto a nearby bench. Something strange was building up in me, something that shouldn’t be here.

 A sob.

 I let it out, and continued to sob. I didn’t know why I was sobbing. Certainly not because I was jealous, as Anthony had suggested. Maybe because I felt like I had lost another best friend after only having him back for a few days.

 

I woke with a start to footsteps.

 I stood up instantly. Teachers, most likely. I had fallen asleep, and I bet I looked like a mess because of it. “Shy-et,” I swore under my breath.

 Before I could make my grand escape, the person turned the corner of the stairs and caught sight of me.

 He was Jason.

 I collapsed onto the bench, hoping that he would pass me by. He should.

 He didn’t though, and instead sat down on the other side of the bench.

 In my defeated state, I nearly forgot about Jason’s… incident yesterday. All I remembered was his look of hate before he stormed out of Kelsey’s room.

 Clenching and unclenching my jaw, I stood up. I was going to give him some more space. He surely didn’t want me there.

 But before I could go down the stairs, Jason called out.

 “Victoria.”

 That alone, was enough to stop me.

 I turned around. “Jason.”

 “C’mere,” he mumbled. He was finally back to himself.

 I trudged over to Jason’s side, willing myself not to look too eager. As I walked, he patted the space next to me. I sat down carefully.

 “Hey, you okay?” he asked.

 And just like that, it was like a dam broke, the floodgates opened, and the tears came. My face crumpled, my eyes filled with tears, and I began to sob.

 I heard Jason swear under his breath, and he wrapped his arms around me, and pulled me into his arms.

 “I didn’t mean to…”

 I shook my head in the midst of all the tears, and managed to choke out, “No, it’s not your fault.”

 Jason was silent for a moment, before he asked tentatively, “Whose, then?”

 I shook my head again, hoping that even though tears certainly were dripping onto his t-shirt, my snot wasn’t.

 Though that probably wasn’t possible.

 “Come on, Vick-Tori-a,” he finished lamely.

 I had to stifle a laugh, even though I was supposed to be laughing. That was certainly a creative use of my nicknames.

 I sank further into his chest, even though the position was quite uncomfortable. “No one,” I mumbled.

 Jason snorted. “If he was no one, you wouldn’t be crying.”

 “How’d you know it was a him?” I muttered through my hair. My voice sounded hoarse.

 I felt his shoulders move as he shrugged. “I guessed.”

 My crying had- sort of- ended, but his reply made me want to start crying all over again. “What, are you think I’m a girl whose entire life depends on guys?” My voice cracked as I said it, and I hated myself for it.

 Jason must’ve shook his head vigorously, because I could feel it in his stomach and chest. “No, of course not.” He gently hauled- hmm, I didn’t think it was possible to haul gently- me to a sitting position. “You’re one of the most strong and independent girl I know. You certainly don’t need a guy to complete you. But, you also have the right to break down occasionally, you know. You don’t have to be perfect.

 “But I think you’re close to it. You’re sweet yet fierce, strong but not completely shutting people out, considerate but also keeping in mind that some people need some pushing to do something. You’re the best girl I’ve ever met, aside from my sister and my mom. That guy isn’t worth your tears, okay?”

 I half-laughed half-cried. “You just gave me a total girl pep talk, except for the sort of romantic part. A little different wording and that would’ve been what Alyssa could’ve given me, except she might just tell me to suck it up.”

 Jason’s face turned red, but he still firmly repeated, “That guy is not worth your tears.”

 I laughed without emotion, and shook my head again. “Oh, but he is,” I replied, sounding for all the world like a villain.

 Jason frowned. “Who is it?”

 Oh, well. Might as well give him up. “Anthony.”

 Jason shot to his feet. “Anthony? He- he- what did he do?” he demanded, sitting back down and grabbing my shoulders.

 “He hooked up with Nina,” I sighed, falling back onto the bench’s back.

 Jason relaxed immediately, although I could still see a crease in his brows. “Why are you so worried, then?” He fell silent for a moment, before ‘You’re not jealous, are you?’ shot out of his mouth.

 I laughed, and sniffed. “God, no. He’s my best friend—to even insinuate such a thing is gross.” I laughed again. “No, I’m mad because she’s the bane of my existence. Excluding Jake and Alyssa. And Sammy. And Isaac.”

 Jason looked bemused.

 “Yes, ignore my list of enemies. But yeah, I’m mad because of that.”

 Jason sighed and sat down. “Tori, you can’t… I don’t like Anthony, honestly, but you can’t deny him from becoming a couple with Nina. If the two like each other, then it’s inevitable that-”

 “How can I just sit by here while my best friend hooks up with someone completely wrong for him?” I snapped, the previous anger replacing the false sense of serenity I had secured. “Nina’s going to crush him like a gnat!”

 Jason opened his mouth to say something, but I cut him off. “Nina is like… like a monkey! Anthony is like a banana and she’s going to eat him up and he’ll be dead inside of her!”

 Uh… in retrospect, that perhaps was not the most eloquent, nor best metaphor that I had come up with, but since my mind decided to blurt it out, I guess there’s no going back.

 Jason looked like he was trying to decide between laughing and checking if I had a fever. “Tori, Anthony can-”

 “No! He can’t! He just can’t!” I yelled, before falling onto Jason again, and started sobbing. Again.

 My tear ducts were feeling particularly enthusiastic today, weren’t they?

 Jason patted my back soothingly. “Hey, it’s okay. You’ve got me.”

 I looked up, before sitting up completely. “Are you sure about that? I don’t even know why you didn’t stop me from leaving! I was trying to leave to give you space. You had been ignoring me for the past few days and I didn’t think you’d-”

 Jason stopped me quickly by putting a finger to my lips. “You do have me.”

 I sniffed. “You’re taking me back?”

 He nodded, smiling faintly.

 I felt a slow smile spread across my lips. “For real?”

 “For real,” he confirmed.

16: Chapter 16 - A Wink Was All He Needed

Chapter 16- A Wink Was All He Needed

Disclaimer: I don't own Wide Awake by Katy Perry.

Falling from cloud nine

Crashing from the height

I’m letting go tonight

Yeah, I’m falling cloud nine

-Wide Awake by Katy Perry

 

 She gave him a flirty smile and a ridiculously over exaggerated wink as she passed.

 Erm…

 I glanced at Jason beside me. His cheeks were red.

 Damn Selena! Doesn’t that biscuit ever give up? Can’t she just accept that he’s my boyfriend?

 “Don’t mind her,” I said quickly to Jason. He turned to me suddenly, as if he just remembered I was there. “She’s just being annoying.”

 “Annoying?” he repeated. “She’s just being nice.”

 “Nice?” I stared at Jason. When he didn’t respond, I scoffed. “That girl is incapable of being nice. Forget it.”

 He scoffed too. “She certainly is being nicer than you right now.”

 I could feel my eyes widening. He has got to be kidding me. “Jason! You’re not seriously considering… dating Selena, are you?” My voice broke in the middle of the sentence. “Because if you do, I swear, I will never forgive you.”

 Jason’s eyes widened as well. “Victoria! I will never go with Selena. Never.” He encompassed me in his arms. “You never have to worry about that.”

 I smiled sadly into his shoulder. “Really?”

 He nodded, his chin poking into my spine. “Really.”

 

“I’m going with Selena.”

 Crap.

 “What?” I shrieked, and stopped dead in the middle of the street. Jason was walking me back home, and we were on Bait Road, a few blocks away from Half Mist Road, where I lived.

 Jason flushed, and stammered out, “Um… I… I’m…”

 “Are you planning to finish that sentence anytime?” I spat. I knew it was rude, but I couldn’t help it.

 He stopped.

 I sighed, and slapped my hands to my forehead. “Are you serious?”

 Jason remained silent.

 “My god! You can’t be serious! We just got back together! I don’t know… what on Earth… Jason!” I grabbed his shoulders and shook him. “You can’t!”

 Jason pulled away, a look of disgust marring his features. “You know, I used to think you were nice. I thought you would take this maturely. You have to get that not everything will go your way in life, and you need to accept-”

 “I damn well accept it! Of course not everything goes my way in life, you bastard! My life was nearly ruined by Jake and Nina! Selena tried to-”

 “She tried to what? She tried to be more popular than you? Popularity isn’t everything, Tori! If you don’t get everything together, you’re going to be nothing when you get out of high school-”

 Slap.

 “I do have everything together, Jason,” I said coldly. “I can at least get into Ivy League if they only consider my grades. I’d say that’s enough.”

 Jason didn’t try to stop me as I stormed away from Bait Road.

 

I bit my pen. I didn’t try to break it or anything, I just bit it like some people do. I didn’t usually do this, though. It was weird that I was starting to.

 “Répétez! Ouvre ton cahier!” Mrs. Bataille shouted, raising her arms. I mumbled the words in response, while most of the class’s enthusiastic yells back overpowered my weak mutter.

 I knew this already, though, since I could speak French, but because French was much less spoken than English (interestingly, they offered Chinese teaching…) in New York, West Fields didn’t have a course for advanced French. I should have chosen Spanish, Italian, or even German, of course, but for some reason, I didn’t. I really should have chosen Spanish as my main language—Alyssa was in it. She could speak Italian, since her mother was Italian.

 It was strange, living in a world where most people spoke English while I could speak three. Alyssa often called me ‘The Foreign Exchange Student’ as a joke because of it.

 “Victoria!” Mrs. Bataille called. She pronounced my name ‘Veec-toh-reea’, with the French ‘r’, so it was a little hard to realize she was calling my name. But still, she was a good teacher and managed to hold the whole class’s attention every single time she taught better than any other teacher I had met before. “I know this is easy, because you can speak French, but I would prefer for you to concentrate. I don’t mind if you don’t want to learn—it is your choice, after all. But, I would also like for you to answer my questions when I ask.”

 “Oh, je suis désolé, Madame Bataille.”

 “Pas de problème, mademoiselle. Just answer question nombre quatre,” she replied, speaking in a mix of French and English so the other students could understand.

 “Uh… vrai.” The question was a true or false. Very easy.

 This class made me want to claw my eyeballs out. Just for something to do.

 “Correct!” Mrs. Bataille announced. “Check your answer, please, everyone!”

 Ugggggh.

 Selena shot me a hateful glare. I stared back at her, bewildered. Didn’t she already get Jason?

 She brought her pen down in two, hard strokes in her notebook.

 Ah, she got the question wrong.

 Right, like it’s my fault that her peanut brain couldn’t keep in some information.

 I turned back to the teacher, rolling my eyes. Selena could be so ridiculous. Then, I remembered Jason and my good mood diminished.

 Glaring at my notebook with renewed ferocity, I continued to mark my homework.

 Four minutes later, the bell rang.

 Thank god!

 I sighed with relief, and began to pack my stuff, ignoring Mrs. Bataille’s annoyed look.

 “You may pack,” she announced, as if she was trying to preserve some of her dignity of being a teacher.

 I shook my head. I was just being mean because I was annoyed.

 Once I finished stuffing everything neatly into my bag, I half-hopped half-skipped out of the classroom, yelling, “Au revoir!” to Mrs. Bataille.

 It was lunchtime now. I spotted Alyssa sitting with Kimberly and Hatha at one of the tables. I bought a salad and tomato soup (gotta watch the weight… I had eaten way too much chocolate when Jason broke up with me) and sat down next to Alyssa, swinging my bag under the table. “Hey.”

 Alyssa glanced at me, smiled, and went back to inhaling her chicken. I really hoped she didn’t poke her tonsils out with the fork.

 “Hi!” Kimberly chirped, and Hatha half-heartedly mumbled a greeting. She looked really tired and upset.

 I frowned. “You okay, Hatha?”

 She looked up and smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “Victor broke up with me.”

 “Victor? Victor Smith?”

 She nodded.

 “My brother?”

 She nodded again, and a tired look flashed through her eyes, as if she was tired of people asking if the person who broke up with her was Victoria Smith’s brother.

 My face morphed into one of pity, though I knew she probably wouldn’t appreciate it. “I’m so sorry… I had no idea.” As soon I said it, I knew I had made a mistake. Hatha was the type to be comforted by more of a ‘He’s a jerk’ type, and since I was Victor’s sister, I couldn’t very well say that.

  A look of hatred came over Hatha’s face. “Yeah, you had no idea. Because you were too wrapped up in your little world of Jason and Selena, weren’t you?” I opened my mouth to reply, but she just shook her head. “See? They’re already over you.” Hatha pointed in the direction of the canteen bar. I followed her gaze, and saw Selena and Jason kissing.

 My jaw tightened, and I spat out, “Get out of my sight or I’ll make your life hell.”

 “Victoria!” Kimberly’s cry had no impact on me. “Don’t be-”

 Hatha laughed. “You’ve already forgotten about Victor now, haven’t you?”

 I realized she was right, and I did not like that. “So? I have more demanding issues at hand.”

 “Like the fact that your ex-boyfriend moved on?” Hatha giggled, though it sounded warped. “I’m not surprised that he did. After all, who wants to be hung up on a whore like you?”

 My jaw dropped open. “What did you say?”

 “I said, who-”

 “Shut up, all of you!” Alyssa shrieked. The cafeteria fell silent, and even the lunch ladies stared at her.

 I peered at her as well.

 “God, this sickens me.” She stood up abruptly, and abruptly. Kimberly shot me a disgusted look, and left. So did Hatha, who whispered, “Not so mighty now, huh? All it takes is a simple sentence that’ll make you blow up.”

 I watched in disbelief as they all left.

 Selena smirked at me. Jason watched in sympathy. Jake bit back a laugh. Isaac rolled his eyes, and I swore I saw him mutter, ‘Drama queen as always.’

 Nina scanned the crowd, and yelled, “Well? Go back to eating. It’s not like you haven’t seen anything like this before.”

 I sent a grateful look to her, but she only shrugged. Unfortunately, it was Tuesday, so I couldn’t just storm back and drop school. I would have a lot to do when I got home.

 

“Victor!” I shouted, slamming the door open. Dad wasn’t home, and neither was Mom. That was good, because they would probably ship me off to Gester Center if they heard my yell. It was full of fury that would’ve alarmed a grizzly bear.

 Victor scrambled out of his room and leaned over the railing, after hearing my scream. “What’s wrong?”

 “What’s wrong?” I growled. I flung my bag onto one of the couches, and began to head up the wooden stairs. Victor backed away unconsciously. “What’s wrong is that Alyssa’s pissed at me, Kimberly thinks I’m a heartless female dog, and Hatha thinks I’m convinced the world revolves around me and all of you are little moons that swivel around my enormous orbit, aka ego.” I took in a huge breath.

 Victor frowned. “Hatha? Who…?” He trailed off when he saw my murderous expression appear, replacing the merely ‘furious’ one. “Sorry?” he said weakly.

 “How the hell can you not remember her?” I shrieked. “You broke up with her merely days ago, according to Hatha!”

 Victor snapped his fingers. “She’s the one with the brown hair and sharp nose, right?”

 “Yeah, the one named after a type of yoga!” I yelled back, stepping towards him. Victor leaned back. “Why didn’t you tell me? I thought you were dating Zoey.”

 “I broke up with her,” he mumbled.

 “And I had no clue about it! Because you didn’t tell me, Hatha thinks I’m so conceited I only care about myself!”

 Victor straightened up and stared me in the eye. His sudden change in attitude didn’t surprise me—he always hated it when people blamed him for what he wasn’t at fault for. But it was his fault this time, wasn’t it? “It’s not my fault that you were so caught up in everything! Maybe if you’d taken the time out of crying and eating chocolate to actually talking to me, maybe you’d find out that Zoey was cheating on me and Hatha was the one who helped me through it! But no, instead, you stayed for hours in your room moping about Jason. You know, you could consider that you might be the wrong one this time! Maybe you’re the one who didn’t notice all the signs that I was upset. Did you notice that I barely talked on the ride to school while you ranted about Selena? Did you?”

 When I remained silent, he continued. “You know what? You’re arrogant, you’re annoying, you’re condescending, you’re self-righteous. I’m ashamed that my sister turned out to be like this.”

 I whirled around, not wanting to hear it. “Go to hell!” I screamed, running for my room. “I hate you!”

 “Back at you!” He shouted back at me. I slammed the door closed, and grabbed my punching gloves. Without bothering to tie up my hair, I stormed out of my room, and faked a punch at Victor when he opened his mouth to say something. Fuming, I continued to the basement.

 Struggling not to scream, I attacked the punching bag with a passion. I imagined Jason’s face on it. Selena’s. Victor’s.

 There it was, that little dart of guilt that always danced through your heart when you envision hurting your family. Still, I don’t suppose Victor felt that way when he’d said those… things about me.

 I kicked the punching bag with renewed fury. Sweat was gathering underneath my hair. I grimaced, regretting not tying my hair, though I knew that I wouldn’t have stopped even if I knew that I would want to tie my hair later. Anger does that to you.

 Slowly, my adrenaline ran out. I felt the weariness of my body taking over. I stopped punching the bag, and sat down at the corner of the basement.

 “Done?” Victor yelled from outside the basement.

 “Screw you!” I shrieked back.

 I could hear him snort.

 His nose must be working overtime if I could hear him through the walls.

 I leaned against the wall, arching my head back. I was still breathing hard from the exercise.

 Slowly, I peeled the gloves off my hands. The cool air immediately surrounded my hands, and I flexed my fingers, wincing at the soreness.

 Jason’s face flashed through my mind. Involuntarily, my lips curled in. The disgust I felt shocked me. Didn’t I still want him back?

 As I thought about it, I realized that I didn’t. He had left me for Selena, and he was just openly kissing her in front of everyone. In front of me.

 I exhaled loudly.

 Dammit, my life’s confusing.

 

I grabbed a pen and paper from my desk. The trip from the basement to my room would’ve been awkward if Victor was still lurking around the stairs, but he was up in his room. I could hear the rock music blaring from behind the door.

 Hmm, should I have kicked his door?

 I shook my head and focused on the task ahead of me. I was going to write Jason a letter, telling him it’s completely over. He certainly deserved it.

 Dear Jason, I wrote.

 I paused. What should I write? Should I go for the diplomatic approach? Or the furious, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned approach?

 Well, I thought. I don’t want to seem like a raving lunatic woman, so I guess the diplomatic approach is better.

 Smiling grimly, I clicked the pen open again.

 I suppose you already know this, but I’ll tell you again. We are over.

 Why, you may ask. It is because you have dumped me for Selena. I still find that completely unfair and uncalled for, and the fact that you are trying to rub it in my face does not ease the anger.

 I still do not understand why you chose Selena over me. Selena is a mad woman—she has repeatedly tried to destroy my social life and set you up so you would walk in on Isaac and I. I repeat, though, that I was not getting ready to have… intercourse with him.

 So I ask you to not kiss or show great affection to her in public where I can see. It will cause me to be nauseous and I will vomit and that will not be pleasant.

 Thank you (or not),

 Victoria Smith NYC

 I folded up the letter, and tucked it into an envelope. I then stuffed it into my bag.

 Jason will be devastated when he reads this.

 I smiled. Might as well get him a dead rose as well, then put it in his locker. Just like the old times, except reversed.

 

“I don’t think-”

 Jason slammed a piece of paper on the table. “Victoria.”

 The whole cafeteria went silent. I didn’t think the old Jason would’ve been able to do it. Alyssa and Kimberly were both watching him now.

 I looked up arrogantly. “Excuse me?”

 “No, you’re not excused. Do you recognize this?” He shook the piece of paper in front of me.

 I frowned at it when I realized what it was. “Yes, it’s my letter, Jason. Really? Right now?”

 He slammed it down on the table again. “This letter is ridiculous.”

 His voice boomed around the cafeteria.

 “Look, I really don’t need you talking to me right now,” I began, but he cut me off.

 “What, are you having a deep and meaningful conversation about shoes and dresses for the next dance with your friends? Alyssa, Kimberly?”

 They both gazed at him stonily.

 “Just go away, alright?”

 Jason ignored me, and opened the letter.

 Crap.

 The whole cafeteria was watching him now.

 “Dear Jason,” Jason said, in a ridiculously high voice. Mocking me. “I suppose you already know this, but I’ll tell you again. We are over.” He read the rest of the letter out in that same mocking voice. With each sentence, my face burned even more and I suspected my face was turning into a tomato with hair.

 By the time he finished, everyone was staring at me. I felt my face burn even more. Now, hearing my own words being repeated back at me, I felt stupid. I realized how ridiculous my letter was.

 My lips curled in as I tried not to scream again. This was so humiliating that I wanted to shrink into a hole and stay there until everyone died, just like Princess Aurora did.

 Jason laughed without emotion, his shining green eyes shooting fury onto my face.

 Selena started to laugh, and so did everyone else in the cafeteria.

 My eyes began to fill with moisture, and I didn’t want to cry in front of everyone else.

 I bolted out of the cafeteria, careful not to forget my bag and ignoring the cries of Alyssa and Kimberly.

17: Chapter 17 - Supernova

Chapter 17- Supernova

Disclaimer: I don't own Ready or Not by Bridgit Mendler, Keep Holding On by Avril Lavigne/whoever made Eragon or something, and I Knew You Were Trouble by Taylor Swift.

Ready or not

Here I come

Where you at?

The night is young

In the crowd, the music's loud, but I will find you

-Ready or Not by Bridgit Mendler

 

 The cold air was refreshing. It was supposed to be warmer now that it was May, but I suppose the weather had other ideas.

 I was walking along the peaceful lake. Behind West Fields Middle, there was a forest and a lake. I go to the lake sometimes; most people don’t go there because they either can’t bother or don’t want to. I found walking along the edges of the lake relaxing and quiet, so it was perfect when my thoughts were in a chaos.

 Since Jason had read my letter aloud, most people treated me like I was stupid and incoherent. A number of friends and people friendly with me still treated me normally, but I was still humiliated by it. Every time Selena or Jason passed me, they would either smirk or sneer at me, and every time that happened, I felt horrible.

 I brushed my fingers over a pretty bush, dotted with flowers and a few berries. Green and red—polar opposites, yet perfectly suited for each other. Wish I could find someone like that for me.

 Whoa, I just had a philosophical, deep though inspired by a bush.

 I smiled to myself at the realization, and walked into the woods. Shadows trailed across the ashen-colored ground, cooling the air even more and creating a serene atmosphere. I spun around a few times as I walked, relishing the chance to be myself without people looking on.

 “Before the doors close,

 And it comes to an end,

 With you by my side,

 I’ll fight and defend,” I sang, practically skipping through the trees.

 “Keep holding on,

 ‘Cause you know we’ll make it through,

 We’ll make it through,

 Just-” I stopped abruptly when my ears picked up a quiet murmur. It shouldn’t be here—no one came here.

 I silently glided forward, and strained my ears to hear the words more clearly.

 “What are you suggesting?” The voice was familiar. It sent strange feelings of worry and apprehension through me.

 I leaned forward.

 Through the bushes, I saw emerald green eyes and blonde, curly hair. Someone almost identical stood next to him, though I could only tell by his hair. I was standing so he was facing me while the other’s back was to me.

 Oh, lookie, it’s the near twins that have pestered me over and over.

 I bit my lip. The two were really here. I closed my eyes, and opened them again. They were still here.

 I was half-relieved, half-panicked. At least I knew I wasn’t going crazy.

 “...destroy her life,” Jake was saying.

 Jason’s eyebrows creased. “Are you sure? This isn’t going to hurt her, right?”

 Jake snorted. “Of course it’s going to hurt her. That’s the point. Just not physically.”

 My heart pounding, I leaned forward. Feeling vaguely important, I strained my ears to try to hear them again.

 “Do you hear that?” Jake turned around. His grey eyes shocked me, but I regained my composure and ducked lower. He didn’t see me.

 “No, I don’t. Don’t be silly. No one ever comes here.” Jason looked around as well.

 “Well, someone might. Maybe some freak follower of Victoria’s. We can’t let her know that we want to ruin her life. They’ll find out a way to thwart us.”

 Aw, damn, they were talking about me.

 I slowly started to scooch to the right, trying to get to a tree. Suddenly, Jake took a few huge steps forward, and leaned over the bush I was behind.

 The next few moments were somehow the fastest yet slowest of my life. I leapt up, twisting at the same time so they wouldn’t see my face. I sprinted away.

 When I was out of the forest, I dived for the lake. The cold of the water was shocking, and I didn’t know what creepy crawlies could be in here, but I had to do it to avoid being caught by Jake and Jason.

 My hand flew to my head. My cap was still on, though soaked. It had hid my hair from Jake and Jason. Now I just had to hope that they didn’t recognize my back, though I doubted they did, since I had moved so fast.

 I heard Jake and Jason blunder out of the forest. I instantly curled up into a ball as tight as could, thanking whoever was up there that I was wearing dark clothes and the lake was deep enough to conceal me unless they dived into the lake themselves.

 “Where’d she go?” Jake yelled. His voice was muffled, but I could still hear him through the water.

 I was going to run out of air soon. I could feel it.

 “Who do you think it was?” Jason asked.

 I nearly let out my breath in relief. They hadn’t recognized me.

 “Dunno. She had a hat on—couldn’t tell if it was Victoria.”

 Jason frowned. My eyes were stinging—I hated opening my eyes in water. It was hard enough trying to keep underneath the water without nearly floating up to the surface, but I had to deal with my running-out supply of oxygen and keeping invisible under the water’s surface.

 Dammit, I needed air. Jason and Jake turned away to look at the forest, and I crawled out of the lake, and rolled into the bushes.

 Jake and Jason whipped around immediately.

 “What was that?” Jake demanded. I slowly inhaled, savouring the feeling my lungs had. The bushes were deep enough that they couldn’t see me, and somehow I hadn’t totaled the bushes while wiggling through. There were going to be lots of scratches on my legs and arms tomorrow, though—the twigs had ripped holes in my sweater and I was wearing shorts.

 Jason shrugged. “Rabbit, maybe? I-” he paused. Suddenly, he yelled out, loudly, “Look! In the lake!”

 “What?” Jake leaned forward.

 I looked as well, trying to see what was there.

 My hat! It was floating in the lake, and somehow Jason had spotted it among the water.

 I nearly screamed. My hair… it was caught in branches and tangled up and totally visible!

 Jake waded into the water slowly, and I could see his jaw tightening. As he walked into the water, the noises he made gave me enough cover to tug my hair away from the branches.

 When Jake walked out, he was holding my hat in his hand by two fingers. His face was twisted in disgust. “Look what I found.”

 He held up something fine and thin, something I couldn’t see. But it looked like strands of hair that the damn lake hadn’t washed away.

 “Red hair,” Jason said. He frowned. “Isn’t that Victoria’s hair color?”

 “Yes, it is, you idiot! She could be spying on us right now!”

 “The bushes! Go check!”

 I swore in my head.

 Slowly, I crawled out of the bushes, careful not to make a noise. Jason and Jake were heading towards me, but they had to get through the lake first.

 When they were around up to their waist in water, I pushed myself up and started running towards the forest. I had put my hoodie’s hood up, so they couldn’t see my hair. The damn lake water dripping from my body was slowing me down.

 But when I was running as fast as I could, not many people could catch me. I doubted that Jake and Jason, stuck in the water for long enough for me to get in the forest, could catch up to me.

 I stopped when I reached the forest. I could hear Jake and Jason shouting.

 There! There was a thick tree, with enough cracked bark and everything to climb. I ran towards it, and quickly made it to the top just as Jake and Jason burst into the forest. Biting my lip, I sat down where a few branches connected, since it looked strong enough. The leaved brushed my cheek.

 Hehe, Girl Scouts had paid off.

 “Victoria! Where are you?” Jake drawled. My eyes widened. How had they known it was me?

 I glanced around.

 I shivered. The cold air was tickling my neck, and it was not supposed to do that.

 The hood! It had fallen off while I was running!

 I nearly fell out of the tree in dismay.

 I watched them walk around, trying to find me, before they gave up and left. I watched their footsteps fade. Before they completely disappeared out of my sight, though, I grabbed a rock (that was randomly on that tree—I wonder who put it there) and threw it at them. It sailed in between their heads, not a millimeter out of place. Jake and Jason whirled around immediately, their expressions strangely funny.

 After a few seconds, they turned around and ran back to school.

 I snorted. They were cowards, no matter how they may have seemed to be on the outside.

 I leaned back against the branch, my situation finally catching up to me. Jason and Jake planned to destroy my life…

 I closed my eyes, exhaling through my nose. This was stupid and ridiculous. Jake and Jason were stupid and ridiculous.

 I realized I truly hated them. Before, I had thought I really did hate them, but now… I could feel the anger and fury in my chest. You know you hate someone when you wouldn’t mind if they died.

 Sighing, I slide out of the tree and deftly climbed down, landing softly on the ground. I was still wet, and that would be a dead giveaway.

 “Ugggh!” I yelled, waving my fists. I seriously hoped that no one was watching me right now.

 I would have to sneak into the school somehow.

 Damn, my life was starting to feel like a female James Bond movie. Not that he was running away from vindictive exes.

 Those unreasoning bastards.

 Slowly, I walked towards the school. My soggy shoes and my soggy socks were very, very uncomfortable.

 Somehow, I got there. Smiling grimly, I gazed at the side of West Fields High. In front, there was a sunny lawn and nice grass and a generally happy atmosphere, which behind the buildings, there was a shady forest and a creepy, dark lake. Very different.

 And so, there was a gate behind the buildings to keep unwanted visitors out, which I was now standing in front of. You could open the gate from the inside, which I usually did when I wanted to go out, but no one has ever interrupted me while I was taking a merry stroll and frickin’ double-locked the gate.

 I would have to climb over the damn thing and flip over the damn barbed wire and hope that there’s no damn electricity running through the damn thing.

 Dammit, I was swearing too much.

 I gritted my teeth. Jason and Jake were going to pay for this.

 I jumped onto the gate lightly. It shook a little, but didn’t cause enough rattling to alert staff to my presence. I was glad it was a Sunday—guards took a day off. Although there would be school tomorrow.

 Whatever.

 Once I reached the top of the metal of the gate, I paused.

 How shalt I vault over the hated barbed wire that was around a meter tall?

 Oh well.

 I climbed down from the gate, and stepped away from it. When I was several meters away, I started to run.

 Three, two, one…

 I leaped. As soon as I hit the gate, causing a huge rattling noise, I scrabbled upwards, going as fast as I could and gaining as much momentum as possible. My heart was pounding, adrenaline was rushing through me, this was perfect.

 Soon, I was at the top. WIthout wasting a moment, I gathered as much strength as I could in my arms, and swung my legs as hard as I could over the wire. They cleared the top of the wire by a few centimeters, and I let go with my arms. I sailed over the gate, barely brushing by the wire.

 As I fell, I only had time to think, ‘Oh, crap.’ before hitting the ground.

 Oh, crap, indeed.

 Pain shot through my body, like a flaring light, and spread until I felt like I was dying. Maybe falling over the gate wasn’t the best idea, but it was all I could come up with.

 Eventually, the pain faded. It had only been around half a minute, but it felt like hours.

 I stood up, my lips curling. I had to find Alyssa and tell her what happened—she would help me regain my sanity.

 

“Alyssa!” I wailed, slamming open the door and clinging to the doorknob like it was my lifeline.

 Alyssa’s head snapped up from her book- book?- and she looked extremely alarmed when she saw me.

 “Tori, you’re sopping wet, hair all tangled, and legs cut and bruised. Got a story?”

 I smiled without humor. “You bet.”

 Alyssa stood up, and grabbed me by the shoulders, pulling me in the room. “What on Earth happened to you?” Before letting me answer, she glanced at the bathroom. “Nina’s taking a shower so you can’t. Yet.” She sighed. “It’ll be a while before you can, so tell me what happened. And let me get you a towel.”

 Hmm, I hadn’t noticed the sounds of water when I came in.

 Once I was wrapped up in Alyssa’s fluffy, plush towel (I have got to get myself one), I told her everything, from going out for a walk to Jake and Jason finding my hat to me camping out in the tree. When I told her about throwing a rock at them, she laughed and clapped her hands, but that was the only time she showed optimism.

 The rest was taken over by fury.

 When I finished, she looked at the ground, sighing. “I can’t believe they would do that. Jake, I understand, but Jason… I thought he was a relatively sweet guy.”

 I shrugged. “I guess Jake changed him or something. Maybe Selena.”

 “Maybe you changed him.”

 I looked up, startled. Alyssa hadn’t said that.

 Nina was standing in the doorway of the bathroom, wrapped in a towel.

 “Nina, I’m sorry, but this is private. Please go away,” I said, rolling my eyes.

 “No, thank you, I’d rather stay.” She plopped herself down on her bed, across from where Alyssa and I were sitting. “I want to help.”

 I nearly scoffed, but refrained from doing so in case her ‘help’ would make a difference in the long run. “What kind of help?”

 She shrugged and adjusted her hair so it fell in waves across her back. “I just want to destroy Jake. Not sure about Jason, he seems like a bastard, but oh well, let’s kill two birds with one stone.”

 I raised an eyebrow. “I like that plan.”

 

Even with our quirky talks and interesting ideas, we didn’t come up with a plan. The only thing I got out of the talk was a beginning to accept Anthony and Nina dating. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad, after all.

 I lay in my bed quietly. The night atmosphere was calming, even though my cuts were still stinging a little from the balm and lotion Alyssa had viciously slapped on. Still, I was warm and toasty underneath my covers and the cold air wasn’t bothering me.

 ‘Cause I knew you were trouble when you walked in

 So shame on me now

 Flew me to places I’ve never been

 Till you put me down, oh

 Trouble, trouble, trouble

 I fell asleep.

 

No!

 I stared in horror as the glass broke and the shark fell out. Water was pouring everywhere, classmates were running, screaming, and I had to go. I ran, and ran, but nothing would ever escape the endless torrent of water that was icy cold and pulled my warmth away from me...

 I woke up.

 That was a really weird dream.

 I let out a little groan and rolled over. It was cold.

 Where was my blanket?

 I opened my eyes.

 In front of me was my little, portable desk.

 With my laptop on it.

 Crap!

 I scrambled out of bed, ignoring the cold that insisted on swamping my body and regretting sleeping only in my underwear. What on Earth was I thinking? Who wore bras while they slept? Plus, the blanket had been off me… That meant they had seen me in just my underwear.

 My face turned red. Those perverts.

 I focused on my laptop again. It was covered in oil, water, and stupid whipped cream. I touched the whipped cream. Still cold. Very fresh.

 Who the f…?

 I looked closer. The whipped cream looked like letters. I slowly rotated around the desk, and eventually was at just the right angle to read it.

 It said:

 -Jake and Jason

 I took a deep breath. They had demolished my laptop.

 I grabbed my camera and took a picture so I could prove it had happened. Then, I grabbed tissues and rubbed my laptop for all it was worth. When all the whipped cream and water was mopped up, I cleaned off the oil, albeit more slowly.

 When I was done, I turned on my laptop.

 The screen remained dark.

 Then, I noticed all the oil leaking into the keys, the whipped cream seeping into the bottom part where the fans and everything was.

 “Jake and Jason…” I whispered. “You’re going to pay.”

A/N: Uh. Yeah. Jake and Jason the perverts. Sorry, had to add that in. :P

18: Chapter 18 - Don't You Dare

A/N: I'm really sorry that this chapter is so short and sucky. And the end is stupid.

Chapter 18- Don’t You Dare

Disclaimer: Yes, yes, I used the new taboo, WRECKING BALL. It doesn't belong to me, it's Miley Cyrus's.

Don’t you ever say

I just walked away

I will always want you

I can’t live a lie

Running for my life

I will always want you

-Wrecking Ball by Miley Cyrus

 

 “I came in like a wrecking ball!” I yelled. “I never hit so hard in love!”

 Alyssa jerked awake, her eyes wide. “What? Wrecking ball? Who? Kill!”

 I laughed. “Time for school.”

 She checked her watch, groaning. “Woken up by Victoria’s horrible cover of Wrecking Ball…” she muttered. I grinned.

 “You look like a sheep,” she said nonchalantly, falling out of bed. Literally. She had rolled over, out from under her covers, and onto the carpet she had put near her bed. “Clothes. Now.”

 I rolled my eyes and tossed the clothes she had put on her nightstand the night before onto her. She grabbed the clothes off her and started to get dressed right in front of me.

 “Agh, dude, I know we’re best friends and we have no secrets and all that stuff, but please, cover your junk before you let me look.”

 “I never knew you had lesbian tendencies,” a snide voice said. Nina was awake.

 “Hi,” I sat flatly, turning to her. “And I am not having lesbian tendencies. Please shut up. It’ll do the world some good.”

 Her lips thinned. “Don’t need my help with Jason and Jake?”

 My spirit dropped, and I sat down on the floor, next to the newly-changed Alyssa. “You had to remind me.”

 “Yes, I had to. Now,” She stepped out of bed. “Let’s discuss.”

 I groaned, falling back onto the floor. “We need to leave in five minutes. We don’t have time to come up with a master plan for defeating the big bad J’s.”

 Awkward silence.

 “We don’t have to come up with a master plan,” Nina said finally, her eyes glinting. “Just explain what happened to your laptop.”

 Alyssa and I both looked at my laptop, me a little startled that she had noticed. Maybe she wasn’t as dumb as I thought.

 I had left my laptop there before climbing into bed. There were tons of tissues around it, and some were soaked through with water and oil. It probably stank in here, though we wouldn’t have noticed because we were breathing it all night long.

 So I told Alyssa and Nina what happened, excluding the part about me and my underwear.

 Oh, god, that’s really embarrassing, even in thought.

 When I was done talking, we had five seconds left to get to registration, which wasn’t that important but Ms. Leeves was on duty today (Ms. Lavina and Ms. Leeves had rotations for homeroom, and Ms. Lavina was on duty the first day. They switched duty every other week.) and she hated when people were late for registration. I was later on the registration list, but Alyssa’s last name started with F, which meant she would be called on soon. Nina as well, actually.

 “Come on, let’s go,” I said, standing up. The two hadn’t said anything about the incident yet, and their silence was disturbing. “Act like everything’s fine if Jason and Jake come along.”

 As we walked down the corridor, people were staring at us. Openly.

 That was probably because Nina, Alyssa, and I were walking together for more than five seconds. Victoria Smith and Nina Levesque together for more than ten seconds? Is the world ending?

 Thankfully, no one actually yelled, ‘The world’s ending!’ or looked up at the sky. That would’ve been mortifying.

 “Hey,” Nina began quietly, whispering so no one except for Alyssa and I could hear her. “I’m going to start a rumor ‘bout Jake and Jason.”

 I grinned. “That they’re what?”

 As we entered the homeroom (around ten seconds late), Nina whispered, “That they’re secret gay lovers.”

 Alyssa and I burst out laughing immediately while Nina allowed herself a few small giggles.

 Ms. Leeves shot us a menacing glare. “Ms. Levesque, Ms. Smith, and Ms. Falcon. You three are late and disrupting the class. Detention after school for the three of you.” She filled in three slips for detention and passed them to us. I had to refrain from bursting out laughing—Dad wouldn’t be mad (imagine: Detention for being ten seconds late and laughing as entering the classroom), though Mom might be a little peeved.

 We took them and sat down. I hadn’t failed to notice all the glances and stares from classmates when they thought we wouldn't notice because we were 'preoccupied by Ms. Leeves.'

 Jake and Jason were shocked as well. I swore I saw Jason’s mouth open in surprise when we walked in.

 I stifled a giggle again, earning a very ridiculous-looking glower from Ms. Leeves.

 

All day, guys skirted around Jake and Jason, some sniggered at them and some even dared to whisper, ‘Secret lovers!’ to them. Jake and Jason were both bewildered, and every time it happened, I had to stifle a snort or laugh, though I wasn’t doing a good job. They would’ve found out it was someone I knew or my doing if they weren’t so busy being surprised, enraged, or bemused by the insult.

 This was very satisfactory, even though it didn’t even come close to repaying what they did to me.

 

“Ooh! Effing monkeys!”

 What the hell?

 I peeled my eyes open. Alyssa was on the floor, slowly getting up. Nina was standing above Alyssa, her bare feet a few inches from Alyssa’s.

 “What… on… Earth?” I mumbled, slowly getting out of bed.

 Alyssa was up now, glaring at Nina.

 “What time is it?” I asked, rubbing my eyes and inwardly groaning at the cold.

 Nina smirked. “Three am. No chance they’ll be up.”

 “Who?”

 “The blonde twinnies, of course.”

 

“This is ridiculous,” I hissed at Nina. Her blonde hair was tucked away in a dark cap, so no one would spot it. But no one would, because no one in their right mind would be awake at this godawful time.

 Ooh, that rhymed.

 Stupid Nina, she’s turning me into a goddamned poet.

 Nina pursed her lips. “It’ll be worth it. Just you wait.”

 “I don’t even know what we’re doing! Why’d you drag Alyssa and I up, anyway?”

 “Shh.”

 “Fine, fine.”

 We crept forward, silent in the night. We were all in cliched dark clothes (because Nina insisted on it), and our hair were all under hats or caps (a nice, furry, warm cap, in my case), since our hair were all flaming colors. Alyssa’s blonde/blue hair would also attract attention.

 ‘The Twinnies’ lived in dorm A303. My dorm was in A206, since the floors in the administration building (with the first floor for registration and offices) were arranged in girl dorms second floor, boy dorms third floor, girl dorms fourth floor, and boy dorms fifth floor, with there being around twenty dorms on each floor. Homeroom classrooms were on the sixth floor and above until the tenth, where there were the lounges up until the uppermost level (the fourteenth), where there was the teachers’ lounge. (the freshmen and sophomore homerooms on one side with the junior and senior on the other), and the rest of the buildings (wings, you could say) were for their respective courses. Juniors and Seniors’ dorms were on an entirely separate building (two, actually—one for each gender) because they were so posh and took up so much space. There were elevators to bring you up to the different floors, but there were also stairs, the ones I hadn’t noticed while Nina was being an airhead on the first day.

 Finally, we reached A303. The door wasn’t locked.

 Those idiots.

 It was crazy that we all lived together. It was like the school knew beforehand who would be the most closely interlinked, and put us together. Hence Nina, Alyssa, and I, Ivy, Kimberly, and Courtney, and Jake, Jason, and… ooh, damn, Isaac.

 Wonder who Anthony was put with.

 We entered the room. I couldn’t help but grinning.

 Isaac snored.

 I mean, I knew this, since we were best friends for so long (those sleepovers, ugh), but it was extremely satisfying to see that he was still in possession of that undignifying habit.

 And I mean extremely satisfying.

 I swung my gaze to Jake. He was sleeping peacefully, no snoring, not wet dreams, and no sleeping in his birthday suit.

 Dammit.

 Golden Boy after all.

 Jason was sleeping in a way similar to Jake, except he was more tangled in his blankets and looked like he was choking in them. Would be nice if he was.

 “Alright, Nina. What do you want us to do?” I whispered, my eyes still on the two.

 Nina grinned. “This is the fun part.” She handed us two plastic bags, after taking out three identical ones. There was a brown, fluffy-like power inside. Nina then handed us each a pair of gloves, then snapped one on herself.

 “Itching powder,” Nina reported quietly.

 I smirked. “Not bad, Levesque.”

 We set to work. Alyssa, grinning, sprinkled a lot of it over Jason.

 “Can I put some on his crotch?” she asked.

 I had to stop myself to bursting out laughing.

 In the end, Alyssa did put some on his crotch.

 Jake had the same fortune, with Nina and I doing it. Nina sprinkled a lot on his nose, though careful to not let it go on his eyes. Didn’t want to overkill. Then, Nina had the honors of copying Alyssa. I threw some extra on Jason.

 Then, I put just a tiny bit on Isaac’s nose. Just for old time’s sake.

 We crept back to our dorms, in a good mood.

 “That was fun,” I said, once we got back to our dorms.

 We all started laughing.

 “Imagine Jake’s face when he wakes up and sees he scratched himself red,” I chortled.

 “Especially when he sees he scratched his-” Alyssa made bunny ear motions. “-‘danglies’ red!”

 Nina and I couldn’t stop laughing after that.

 Finally, we went back to our beds. As we lay there in happy silence, I whispered to myself, “Sweet, sweet revenge.”

 

Humming to myself, I poured myself a bowl of cereal and added milk to it. Might as well get some cheese too. My tray was completely healthy, until I added a small brownie and a little bowl of liquid caramel to the mix.

 “It’s a beautiful day, isn’t it?” I murmured to myself, earning a strange look from the guy next to me.

 I paid for the food, and carted my tray off to my table, where Alyssa and Kimberly were sitting.

 “Hi!” I said brightly, sitting down next to Alyssa, diagonal from Kimberly.

 When neither replied (weird of Kimberly not to chirp ‘Hi!’ back), I mock-sighed and began to eat my cereal. “It’s a good day to be happy, yes?”

 Alyssa looked up, smirked knowingly like she knew why I was so happy (of course, she did), and went back to eating her strawberries. I snatched one up and plonked it in my caramel syrup.

 “I thought you said that caramel’s too sweet!” Alyssa protested, looking indignant.

 I grinned and picked up another strawberry. “I make exceptions.”

 We all started laughing, and Kimberly took a strawberry from Alyssa too.

 Suddenly, in the midst of our laughter, a tray was plonked down next to Kimberly and Nina sat down. Courtney followed, sitting down next to Nina, though Courtney looked slightly more uncomfortable than Nina. Kimberly let out a small shriek and leaped to her right side, convinced Nina was going to slaughter her or something. I started laughing. Turns out I forgot to tell Kimberly about everything.

 “Calm yo tits to the ground,” Nina said, laughing. She picked up an apple off her surprisingly full tray and took a bite.

 Kimberly whipped her head from Nina to me. “What’s going on?”

 I leaned forward, lacing my fingers and putting my elbows on the table so it could prop my head up. “Let’s just say that there was a change in circumstances.”

 Nina, Alyssa, and I started laughing, and Courtney smiled.

 Kimberly leaned away from Nina and us.

 Suddenly, Anthony plopped down beside me. “Hello, ladies.”

 “Hi, Tony,” Nina purred, leaning forward and kissing him.

 “Uggh,” I groaned, trying not to slam my head on the table. Anthony shot me a look, but disconnected his face from Nina’s.

 Before an argument started, Jake and Jason suddenly stumbled into the cafeteria. All of us turned to look at them, as well as the whole cafeteria. I could see why.

 Their skin was red in a lot of parts, Jake was currently scratching his arm vigorously, and Jason’s nose looked like Rudolph’s.

 Very funny.

 Surprisingly, no one made a snarky comment about it. I guess Jake’s murderous look in his eyes ensured that no one laughed.

 Except for me. The sight was just too hilarious. I tried not to laugh, but, well, I did. And Nina followed. Then Alyssa, then Courtney, and eventually the whole cafeteria, except for Kimberly and Anthony, who stared at them, bewildered.

 Suddenly, I caught Jason’s gaze. One look at him, and I knew that he knew.

 

“Levesque, Alyssa. Come see this.” I waved at Alyssa and Nina over. The two walked over, curious.

 I waved the paper in the air, shaking it at them. “Look.”

 Alyssa took the paper, and her mouth dropped open. Nina peered over her shoulder to see what it was, and Nina’s reaction was similar to Alyssa’s.

 In the comfort of our dorm, no one but us would see the two words, five letters. In dark, bold letters.

 It’s on.

A/N: I TOLD YOU IT WOULD BE BAD. And sorry about the endless ramblings about dorms and administration buildings.

19: Chapter 19 - Yell and I'll Yell Back

A/N: Bad chapter. Beware.

Chapter 19- Yell and I’ll Yell Back

Disclaimer: I don't own Demons by Imagine Dragons. I LUB DIS SONG.

When you feel my heat

Look into my eyes

It’s where my demons hide

It’s where my demons hide

Don’t get too close

It’s dark inside

It’s where my demons hide

It’s where my demons hide

-Demons by Imagine Dragons

 

 “Time to get up, poppets!”

 Who the hell says that anymore?

 I rolled out of bed, groaning. Quite similar to this morning, in fact.

 Wait. This morning?

 I checked the clock. Ten fifty-three pm. Somehow my brain had registered that it was night and I was not supposed to be awake yet.

 Nina was sitting on her bed, watching me. Her hair was perfect, her clothes were perfect, even her makeup was perfect.

 What the hell? Who still has perfect makeup on at eleven o’clock at night?

 “What the hell is going on?” I moaned, raking my fingers through my frizzy hair.

 Nina shrugged. “I don’t know. That annoying girl-” she jerked her chin towards the door “-had been prancing around the halls telling us to get up. Apparently, a student assembly’s being called.”

 “By who?” I half-groaned half-yelled. “There’s going to be circles the size of Russia under my eyes if this goes on. I need sleep.” I had half a mind to crawl back into my bed, but as co-Queen Bee, I couldn’t very well miss a student assembly. The first one in the year that was held at eleven pm, too.

 Alyssa fell to the ground with a thump, suddenly. “Shut up,” she drawled, her eyes still closed.

 Man, she was weird. She somehow didn’t wake up even though that annoying girl was telling us ‘poppets’ to get up, but she heard Nina and I talking.

 “Alyssa, get up. Student assembly.” I glanced in her direction again. She was getting dressed. With her eyes still closed.

 “At midnight?” she groaned.

 I smiled. “I’m going to make sure that the person is going to get a piece of my mind.”

 Nina stood up, sighing. “You’d better.”

 

As we walked to the auditorium, Alyssa, Nina, and I talked.

 Obviously.

 “How come you’re up so early?” I shouldered Nina. She glanced back at me and smiled sweetly.

 “Oh, just some stuff.”

 “Having sex with random guy?” Alyssa said, smirking.

 Nina didn’t miss a beat, though I nearly choked on my spit. “Ha, as if. Guys here are too spindly for my taste.”

 I didn’t mention Jake.

 Finally, we reached the auditorium. No one was on the stage yet.

 We took a seat near the front. Once the whole freshman year had piled in, there was silence for a few seconds.

 Before Jake and Jason went on stage.

 I hope I wasn’t the only one who thought, Oh, crap.

 Jake was holding a microphone.

 No wonder it was them. Even with the gay rumors spreading around, they still had enough power over the student body to arrange an assembly like this. They were too feared/loved to not show up to.

 I tensed, and glanced at Nina. Her jaw was clenched and her body was rigid. Alyssa, though, was lounging in her chair, looking amused and curious to see what they would do.

 Amused.

 She did not understand how dangerous those two could be.

 Jake waved for silence, and everyone stopped talking at once. It was creepy. He held up the microphone to his lips, and looked straight at me.

 Then he looked away. Thank god.

 “I hope none of you know why you’re being called here,” he began, and seeing the confused looks on his peers, he chuckled. “Well, if you do, obviously we’ve been talking too loudly and you’ve heard all our plans.”

 Everyone except for a select few (probably me, Alyssa, Nina, Courtney, Kimberly, and maybe even Nicki van Gosen) laughed.

 “We’re sorry for calling all of you here at this hour,” Jason continued.

 Not.

 “But we have something important to establish.”

 Jake turned to me, speaking instead of Jason. “Victoria Smith is not who you think she is.”

 Oh, great. Twinnies were pulling a Selena.

 My jaw clenched as, well, only around a hundred and fifty people turned to stare at me.

 “Come on up, Victoria.”

 Nina’s hand clamped onto my wrist. “Don’t,” she said flatly. “We can leave right now. You don’t have to listen to them. This is ridiculous anyway.”

 I shook my head, my lips thinning. “I have a score to settle with them anyway.”

 Slowly, I stood up and languidly walked over to the stage. “What is it?” I asked them. “Missing me?”

 Jake laughed, though it was dry and forced. “You wish.” Jason backed away until he was slightly behind Jake, a clear sign that Jake wasn’t about to stop talking.

 I smiled innocently and cocked an eyebrow at him. “Oh, no, I don’t. Not since you cheated on two girl at the same time.”

 Jake rolled his eyes. “Look,” he turned to the crowd. “She can’t let go of anything. Anything you did wrong, she’ll remember and she’ll get revenge. Kind of like an elephant, really. But she’s not grateful for what you do for them. She just remembers what you did wrong.”

 Alyssa bolted up, her eyes furious, but Nina simply reached over and yanked Alyssa back down. I thought I saw Nina mutter, “Not now, Alyssa. This is Tori’s fight.”

 Heh, never knew I was a lip reader.

 I was too surprised to do anything. This was a low blow, even for Jake and Jason.

 “Victoria Smith is a self-centered, arrogant brat. She probably judges everyone that passes. Besides, you probably think the world revolves around you. Oh no, Jason broke up with me. Boohoohoo, I don’t notice anything but my sadness from then on,” Jake continued.

 What?

 The?

 Hell?

 I opened my mouth to retort, but someone else interrupted me.

 “He’s right!” Hatha cried.

 I whirled around, glaring at her to stop and sit down. Full force.

 She didn’t get it. “Victoria Smith didn’t even realize her brother had broken up with me, just because she was sad about what happened with her and Jason. She didn’t even know we were dating!” Hatha spoke loudly, broadcasting her voice around the room. “When I talked to her about it the other day, she had no idea it had happened because she was too wrapped up in her own little world to do it. And then, when I pointed out Jason and Selena together for her, she just completely forgot about Victor and I and got mad at me for telling her what happened to Jason.”

 I opened my mouth to shout ‘Go to hell!’ to her, but Jake interrupted me.

 “Hatha is completely right. Victoria Smith is more like Queen Bitch than Queen Bee. She likes to control everything around her, and when something doesn’t go her way… woops! Stay out her way, because she will kill you if you so much as disagree with her opinion.”

 I closed my eyes, fighting off the feeling of crying. That would not help. But the thought that the whole freshman year probably hated me now was not encouraging my cause.

 I opened my eyes. I knew what to do.

 Jake was still talking, but I ignored it as I walked over to Jason and plucked his microphone out of his hands.

 Then, I walked back to Jake’s side and began to talk, cutting off a surprised Jake. “Look, I’m not saying these allegations aren’t true. In fact, they probably are.” I sighed. “As exaggerated as they are. I am self-centered, that’s true. I’m selfish. I overreact to things a lot. I like things to go my way. I don’t like people saying I’m wrong. I’m impulsive. I’m headstrong. I’m flawed.

 “People make mistakes all the time, don’t they? You can’t deny that. I don’t want to call Hatha a liar, but I have to.” I smiled at her. “Hatha actually pointed out Jason and Selena sucking face- er, kissing, to psych me out. I admit, I got mad and totally forgot about Victor and Hatha. So yes, I am self-centered. Later that day, Victor and I got into a big fight because I thought it was his fault that Hatha got mad at me. I know I was wrong, because, well, yes, I was too wrapped up my own little world to notice what was going on with Victor. And Victor gave me a piece of his mind. So I realize how wrong I was that day.

 “I don’t like people disagreeing with me, because that’s just who I am. I’m trying to change that—I also don’t like that I’m so impulsive and selfish at times. I’d blow up at someone one day, and then I’d feel so bad because I would know that I’d hurt their feelings and crossed the line. You don’t know how badly I sometimes want to change that.

 “As for me not remembering what good people did me, I’d say that isn’t true. My best friends are an example. They’ve all supported me, kept me strong at my lowest points. I appreciate what they did for me, and it can’t be expressed in words. And for the revenge thing… well, I hope that they’re justified. After all, Jake did cheat on Nina and I at the same time. I’m sure Nina doesn’t think that’s right, and that’s why we’re exacting revenge on him. As for Hatha… I never did anything to her. She screamed at me a few days ago, but I didn’t make her a social outcast or anything. Now Jason, I admit my reaction was a little over the top. I didn’t like that he chose Selena over me, and that’s probably because Selena tried to make me a social outcast. And she almost succeeded.

 “I’m a very… headstrong person, I’d say. I don’t like people overthrowing me. I don’t like change, especially when I’ve worked hard to establish my position in the world. Selena kind of made me angry because she nearly did ‘overthrow’ me. Her very attitude pissed me off, and I guess that’s what made me so mad when Jason chose ‘irritating, ballistic’ girl over me.

 “So, my point is, that everyone has flaws. I’m sure none of you think that’s you’re perfect, except for a select few that know who you are. I have flaws too. I’m selfish, impulsive, but that’s part of who I am and it’s made me who I am today. And I’m not afraid to show my mistakes. It’s all part of me. I’m just an ordinary girl chosen by you to be popular. I’m sorry if some of you think I’m all those things that Jake said I am. I’ll leave it to you to decide if I really am.” I tossed the microphone to a speechless Jason, and he caught it. Jake and Jason were still staring at me.

 Slowly, in complete silence, I stalked over to my seat and sat down. Alyssa squeezed my hand comfortingly.

 Jake opened his mouth, but he was drowned out by a sudden torrent of cheers. “Vic-tori-a! Vick-tori-a! Vic-tori-a!”

 I smiled. “Looks like they chose me.”

 Nina and Alyssa burst out laughing. I could feel the stone in my stomach dropping, relieving me. Jake and Jason had failed.

 Jake and Jason walked off the stage, their expressions drained. As the two passed me, Jake glanced at me. His look was full of disdain and hatred.

 That did it for me. I grabbed his wrist, and yanked him around to face me.

 “What the hell is your problem?” I snarled, standing up. “You just can’t leave me alone, could you?”

 Jake shrugged. “Not after you humiliated me and insulted me.”

 I sighed. “You just don’t get it, do you? You cheated on me and you cheated on Nina. That is humiliation. You’re also hunting down allies to try and embarrass me. I don’t get it. The past is the past. I’m not trying to humiliate you, am I? I’m just retaliating to previous insults and wrongdoings. Just leave me alone.

 “And Jason… I understand what I did about Selena and you was wrong, and that letter was just plain stupid, but this is just crossing the line. I want you to leave me alone too, okay?”

 Jake just shook his head and walked away, but Jason kept on staring at me, not saying anything. When Jake noticed, he waved at Jason.

 “Hey, lover boy. Let’s go.”

 Lover boy?

 Jason went after Jake, but not after sending a look to me.

 Oh, the bastard. Trying to make me feel bad.

 Suddenly, the lights were switched off. A few people screamed.

 Teachers. They heard the cheering.

 “Everyone! Put your heads down!” I shrieked, and silence ensued as everyone put their heads down. A group of staff burst into the room shining flashlights everywhere, but they recognized no one since all their heads were down.

 “Out!” I yelled, praying that no teachers recognized my voice. All the students did, though, and obeyed, pushing into the exit opposite from the teachers’. Before the teachers could react, we were out into the corridors and heading for our dorms. By the time the teachers reached the freshmen dorms, we were all (hopefully all of us) tucked in our beds and pretending to sleep. The walls were soundproof, thankfully (it’s a rich school, after all, and the teachers value privacy), so they couldn’t hear us talking. Kind of stupid of the principal, in my opinion.

 When Nina, Alyssa, and I were all changed and in our beds, I smirked and said into the relieved silence, “Well, that was fun.”

 We all laughed, and then went to sleep.

 I slept well. I should humiliate Jake and Jason every night. It seemed to be good for my sleep.

20: Chapter 20 - Pull An Oldie Wooing Trick

A/N: Ignore the weirdness of the chapter name. :)

Chapter 20- Pull An Oldie Wooing Trick

Disclaimer: I don't own She Will Be Loved by Maroon 5. The video's really weird...

I don’t mind spending everyday

Out on your corner in the pouring rain

Look for the girl with the broken smile

Ask her if she wants to stay awhile

And she will be loved

And she will be loved

-She Will Be Loved by Maroon 5

 “Students, I’m sure most of you are aware that there was a break-in into the auditorium, where a group of students hosted their own assembly. They shall not be punished, since we West Fielders encourage students to act on their own, but if this happens again, the involved parties will all be suspended and the instigators may even be expelled. Thank you.” The TV screen turned dark, and Mr. Wynn disappeared from the screen.

 Too bad Jake and Jason weren’t expelled.

 “Too bad the twinnies won’t be getting expelled.” Nina dropped her tray down next to me and sat down.

 I shrugged, having gotten slightly more used to her sudden greetings. “Afternoon to you too.” If I had a hat, I would’ve tipped it off to her.

 She snorted. “Greetings back. Anyway, I wish that Mr. Wynn would expel the two—would do West Fields some good.”

 “Yeah, but then you two would lose your source of entertainment,” Alyssa said, popping a strawberry in her mouth.

 “As if!” Nina snorted, the same time I laughed snarkily and retorted, “As if I need them breathing down my neck every single day.”

 Alyssa just laughed.

 “What’s so funny?” Courtney appeared next to Alyssa and dropped her tray down as well. “I’m still not used to you laughing with Victoria Smith.”

 I smiled uncomfortably, the way you do when someone you don’t really know either insulted you or made a rude comment. “Still here,” I half-sang half-said, waving my hands.

 “I know,” Courtney replied.

 Nina raised an eyebrow at Courtney.

 Courtney sighed. “Sorry. It’s just that Alex’s being a pain in the ass.”

 “Alex White? Jake’s best friend?” I leaned forward. “You know him?”

 “His ex-best friend, you mean,” Courtney replied, smirking, and totally ignoring my second question. “Jake’s all hooked up on lil’ Jason now.” She leaned backwards, surprisingly at ease compared to the old slightly uncomfortable girl I had seen when Nina first sat down next to us. Maybe she was bipolar. “Alex’s isn’t at school, anyways.”

 “He isn’t?”

 “Yeah, didn’t you hear?” Alyssa frowned. “He got caught with-”

 “Some booze and got suspended for a week,” Courtney finished.

 I raised my eyebrows. “Huh, never heard.”

 “Maybe you were too caught up in the J-Squad’s business,” Nina remarked, smiling.

 A few seconds of silence passed before we all burst out laughing, causing a few other people to stare at us. I caught Ivy watching us. She looked… jealous. And Sammy wasn’t with her.

 I raised an eyebrow at Ivy.

 She huffed and turned away.

 “Now, J-Squad,” Alyssa chortled. “That’s funny.”

 

“Don’t stop believin’!” Nina and I struck a pose, after finishing with the last line of the song. We were outside the door now, and hopefully, the people inside didn’t hear us. Not that there would be anyone; we were really early. Alyssa, Courtney, and Kimberly had all gone off to the other class, where Jason was also taking a class. And Jake hadn’t gotten into an AP English class, so he wouldn’t be in any of our classes this period.

 Thank god.

 Giggling, Nina and I entered the room, and I took a seat at my normal spot, away from Nina and people I didn’t like. Which left me next to a boy named Cameron. I didn’t really mind him, though we didn’t talk much.

 Nina suddenly plopped herself down next to me. “Hola.”

 “Hey,” I replied, turning around to face her. “Why’re you sitting here?”

 “Why can’t I? It’s not like the teacher arranged the seats.”

 “Touche.” We both smirked and began to take out our own things. Nina was reading The Art of War by Sun Tzu, surprisingly.

 Again, maybe she wasn’t as dumb as I thought.

 I quickly began to read my book, thankful that it was one of the best classics.

 When the girl that usually sat on my left (which Cameron sat to my right) came in, she took one glance at Nina and picked another seat. It was quite funny how she seemed petrified of Nina.

 When Cameron came in, he seemed petrified as well, but retained his old seat next to me with a small smile directed in my direction.

 Nina suddenly giggled, earning a strange look from me. I was pretty sure that war wasn’t hilarious.

 “What’s funny?” I whispered.

 She leant over and pointed at the corner of my desk. I frowned. It was a small piece of paper that I hadn’t noticed before. Nina really was attentive.

 “I’m betting that it’s a love note from Mr. Lover Boy over there,” she said, practically choking out the words. She sounded and looked like she was about to burst out laughing.

 I frantically peeled open the paper, eager to prove Nina wrong.

 Dear Victoria,

 Everyone says you can only fall in love twice. That’s not true, because every time I see you, I fall in love all over again.

 Dammit, that was ridiculous. I knew that quote from the internet and Jake knew that I would know it. Furious, I crumpled up the paper and stood up to throw it in the trash. Nina watched me, confused.

 “What was that for?” she hissed, once I returned to my desk.

 I shook my head. “It was a love note, but just not from whatever lover boy you were talking about. It was from Jake.”

 “What?”

 “I’m sure it is. Jason used to send me secret admirer notes—Jake knows that.”

 “What, did you see his name on it anywhere?”

 “No, but I know he’s trying to annoy me. Or get my hopes up only to crush them to an itsy bitsy, insignificant scratch on the marble floor of my heart.”

 Nina made a face. “Um… what the effing f?”

 I shrugged.

 Nina scoffed. “What if it’s from a real person? You could be crushing their ‘eensy weensy marble heart’.” She made bunny fingers at ‘eensy weensy marble heart’.

 “It’s not. It has to be from Jake.”

 Nina just shook her head and went back to reading The Art of War.

 

“Tori!” Alyssa whined.

 “What?” I snapped. “Look, I don’t think the person’s for real. I think it’s Jake, okay? And what with his constant attempts to bring me down, I think that I’m not exactly crazy to think that it might be him.” I had explained to Alyssa what happened in AP English, and I was regretting it more and more by the second. Thankfully, I hadn’t needed to tell Courtney or Kimberly, because the two were off for a volleyball tournament that they had both forgotten to mention at lunch.

 Nina just sighed.

 Alyssa leaned forward over her table and clasped my hand in hers. “Look, why are you so in denial? It could be the one or something! What if you’re passing up the chance? It really could be something genuine. You have no way to know for sure. Why don’t you just let yourself open up to someone?”

 “Dude, I am not one of those girls with a tragic history that have these stone walls up and have this dream boy after her. I don’t have an emotionally scarring past, I have plenty of friends, I’m not particularly beautiful that boys that want to ‘heal me’ will come running… I’m not enclosed to anyone.” I stood up, sighing. “I need the bathroom. Tell Ms. Krenshaw.”

 Alyssa and Nina watched me leave.

 

I sighed, sliding down the bathroom stall’s door like the pathetic, pitiable little adolescent I was.

 What happened?

 The love note… it was just too overwhelming. Jason had given me similar notes, and the memory of our relationship was too hard. It seemed like our relationship had flew by, and it probably had. It was gone, soaring out of my grasp and into Selena’s clutches.

 So Jake was trying to get back at me, huh? The bastard. I gritted my teeth, and closed my eyes. Why couldn’t he let go?

 Why couldn’t I let go?

 I dragged my hands down my face, keeping my eyes closed and turning my head to the left. Hopefully, no one was in the bathroom and heard my groan.

 Funny, this was the same bathroom I had met Selena in.

 I stared aimlessly at the red wood wall in front of me. I knew I was going to skip class.

 I sighed again. This all just affected me so much… I had no idea why.

 Was Alyssa right? Had I closed myself, just because of Jake and Jason?

 I let out a small, pitiful laugh at remembering ‘the J-Squad’.

 I shuffled a little to the right, seeing how alarmingly close I was to the garbage can full of… tampons, pads, and snot.

 I thought West Fields was supposed to be this high-class school.

 But with Jake, Jason, and Selena, I guess the school board was a little cooky in the head.

 Alyssa’s sharp remark was brought to mind again. Was I the one in every school with the broken smile, the sad past, the gentle personality?

 Pfft. I had no gentle personality. I had no sad past, except for Jake and Jason, which couldn’t really be counted as a ‘sad past’. Just think of the child abuse, depression, orphans, and deaths in the world, as opposed to me slightly uptight mother and easygoing father.

 That reminded me, I had to make up with Victor.

 So many things to do…

 I had to make up with Anthony as well.

 I felt awful. Nina wasn’t that bad anyway, and I had judged her instantly and hadn’t taken the time to know her. Of course, she shouldn’t have been that hostile and downright stupid the first time we met, but maybe I could’ve dug a little deeper, tried a little harder.

 I was a failure.

 Victor, Anthony, Selena, Jake, Jason, Isaac, Ivy, Sammy… all the ruined relationships.

 My eyes started to tear up. I leaned forward and buried my head in my arms, letting my bright hair slip past my shoulders and in front of my head.

 Suddenly, someone knocked on the marble wall of the bathroom, a few meters away from me.

 Crap.

 “Victoria?” someone said softly. I recognized that voice instantly.

 “Victor?” I looked up, wiping away my tears and sniffing frantically in efforts of looking semi-normal.

 As I ripped a few pieces of toilet paper off to dry my eyes and face, Victor knocked on the door of the stall I was in.

 “Victoria, let me in.” he paused. “Please.”

 I laughed without humor. “Well, since you said please…” I decided my face was a lost cause (though I had an excellent Rudolph impersonation), and unlocked the door. As soon as the click was sounded, Victor pushed open the door and came in.

 “Tori, you okay?” he asked. Then he frowned. “You look like a raccoon.”

 I rolled my eyes, though it hurt slightly from the soreness. “That’s Vick for you.”

 Victor’s shoulders dropped, as if he was bending down from invisible weight. “Sorry about a few weeks ago.”

 We had tiptoed around each other, speaking coldly at home. It was starting to get tiresome, and even our parents were starting to notice.

 I shrugged. “It’s fine. I should be the one apologizing.”

 “I can’t argue with that-” I shot him a look “-but I should apologize as well. I called you things I never should have, and you’re not what I said that day. I was just angry, and the thing with Hatha and Zoey.”

 I crossed my arms and raised my eyebrow. “Speaking of that, who was she cheating on you with?”

 “Jake,” Victor muttered.

 My hands curled into fists, and my eyes widened. My jaw clenched.

 I was angry.

 “What the f-”

 “Tori-”

 “I’m gonna kill that bastard-”

 “Look-”

 “I don’t care if he’s in class right now-”

 “You don’t have to-”

 “I damn right have to if that bastard’s making everyone cheat on everyone-”

 “But-”

 “I don’t want you defending the idiot-”

 “Zoey-”

 “That’s right, I have to kill her as well-”

 “Let it g-”

 “How the hell can I let it-”

 “I’m in love with H-”

 “I have to kick his ass-” I stopped in my tracks, nearly out of the stall. “Wait, what? You’re in love with Hatha? Why’d you break up with her?”

 “Because I thought she was cheating on me,” Victor mumbled.

 “What? Why?”

 Victor looked up at the ceiling, and sighed, “Some staged tricks.”

 “By who?” My voice was close to screaming. It was so venomous that Victor glanced at me in alarm.

 Victor shrugged.

 “Victor Jayden Smith, I demand that you tell me who the eff decided to mess up your relationship with Hatha!” I yelled, shaking Victor.

 Victor looked scared. “I don’t know!”

 I let go of him and sighed. “God… if Selena or Ivy or Sammy or even the twinnies decide to go after you…”

 Victor laughed. He seemed generally amused. “Dude, look. I’m a junior. I can handle them.” He flexed his arm. “Look at these guns!”

 “Aw, gross, dude. I’m your sister.”

 “Look at these guns!”

 “Shut up!”

A/N: Aww, da broda and sista love warms da heart, does it not?

21: Chapter 21 - Sprained Ankle and Broken Arm... Game On

A/N: If you are still reading this and you

a) like it

b) reviewed it

c) favorited it

or

d) deal with/enjoy/like/tolerate my weird author notes like this one...

You have a cute butt. Good day.

 

Chapter 21- Sprained Ankle and Broken Arm… Game On

Disclaimer: I don't own the awesome song What the Hell by Avril Lavigne.

All my life I’ve been good, but now, whoa

I’m thinking, ‘What the hell?’

All I want is to mess around

And I don’t even care about

-What the Hell by Avril Lavigne

 

 It was raining hard. The wind was howling and the water was pounding and I wanted to go to sleep.

 But no, school just had to wake me up with the secretary’s monotone voice.

 “Attention, students. We will be holding fundraising events to raise money.”

 Well, duh! Isn’t that what fundraising means?

 “The student council will decide who will be the head for each event; there will be two—selling candy grams and a car wash. The girls will take over the candy grams, while the boys will head the car wash. The car wash is scheduled to be on June 2nd, and all boys are expected to assist. As for candy grams, stations will be set up around the high school to sell candy grams. You can send candy grams to your lover if you want.”

 I think the last part was meant to be a joke. It didn’t work.

 I moaned and rolled off my bed. “This is so stupid.”

 Alyssa rubbed her eyes and peered at me from her sitting position on the bed. Nina was still sound asleep. Alyssa’s hair looked like a typhoon had decided to take up its home in it.

 I peeled my blanket off my bed and put it around me. “Damn the school.”

 Suddenly, a knock sounded on our door. I peered upwards, and Alyssa reluctantly stood up to get the door. When she swung the door open, I literally screamed in horror.

 It was Jake and Alex.

 It seemed that Alex was back from his suspension. Plus, Jake was back in my life again. I think.

 I instantly bolted up from the floor, discarding my blankets, and stared at the two. I suddenly felt glad that I had decided to wear a ratty t-shirt and shorts to sleep instead of my underwear like the last time he had seen me in the dorm. My face burned from the memory, but I still refused to tear my gaze away from Jake’s stormy eyes.

 Man, that was poetry in motion.

 Jake’s voice interrupted my thoughts. “Hello, Nina.”

 Hello, Nina? What, I didn’t exist?

 Alyssa scoffed and walked away, back to her bed. “This better be good,” she muttered as she passed me.

 Nina rose and stepped off her bed, where she had been frozen for the past few seconds. “What the hell are you two doing here?” she demanded, her hand resting on our dorm’s door, like she was about to slam it closed. And she probably would if Jake said anything stupid.

 “I’m here to challenge you,” he replied, smirking. He leant on the doorframe, crossing his arms and practically emitting ‘Please think I have ‘swag’’.

 Even though I felt a little annoyed that he was just completely ignoring me, I watched on and didn’t cut in.

 Nina scoffed. “Challenge me about what?”

 Jake pointed up at the ceiling, raising an eyebrow. “The fundraising events.”

 “Psh. The student council chooses who heads the project, not you. Now get your ass out of my doorframe.” Nina slammed the door shut.

 “Ow! Go to hell!” Jake shouted from the other side. “My shoulder!”

 Nina laughed sweetly. “Go to hell, Jake. You and Satan’ll get along fast. After all, people with lots in common always do.”

 Nina turned around. Alyssa and I stayed silent for a few moments, before I giggled and high-fived Nina.

 “Nice on,” Alyssa sniggered. “That’ll keep him away from a while.”

 Nina shrugged. “What can I say? I naturally repel bastards.”

 “I’ll just need to keep you next to me at all times, then,” I quipped, grinning.

 

Nina shrieked in frustration. “I can’t believe it!”

 I sighed. “What is it?”

 “The school council took one look at Jake’s pretty face and appointed him as head of the car wash and me as head for candy grams! First, I don’t want to be anywhere closer to that scumbag James Miller than I have to, and second, candy grams are so stupid I don’t want to have anything to do with it!”

 I groaned. “Aw, god, Jake’s trying to get to us.”

 “You think?” she yelled. “Where is Alyssa and Courtney, anyway?”

 I shrugged. “Dunno. It’s Saturday, so she’s probably walking around campus. And I’m don’t know where Courtney would be.”

 Nina stood up suddenly, and threw her hair back over her shoulders. “I’m going to destroy Jake.”

 I stood up as well, interested. “And how do you plan to do that?”

 Nina rubbed her hands together, grinning. “You’ll see. Now come on.”

 

“Buy candy grams to send to your boyfriends and girlfriends! Boyfriends, have you ever wondered what to do to have your sweeties happy with your gifts? Well, send them a candy gram! They’ll love the sweet gesture and the niceness of it all!” Nina hollered, using her hands as a ‘bullhorn’.

 Jake shot a look at her. They were both on chairs at their booths, which were around a meter away from each other. “Guys, girls, we have a carwash on June second! Guys will be washing the cars, though girls are welcome to help.” He winked at a few girls passing him, and they giggled.

I thought only freshmen were supposed to do that… I suppose Jake’s charm reached out to all ages.

 Nina shot a furious look to Jake. Then, with a loud scraping noise, she grabbed the chair behind the booth (she was standing next to the booth) and dragged it roughly to the front. Causing a huge clank, she stepped onto the chair stonily, the anger evident in her movements. “Buy candy grams to sell to your friends and boyfriends and girlfriends!”

 “Come to the car wash on June 2nd! Sign up for car wash here!” When Jake saw that Nina's shouting was besting his, he stepped onto his chair, then onto his booth's table and renewed his shouting. Then Nina did this same.

 I groaned. “They're taking this overboard.”

 Alyssa smirked, then shrugged. “They’re both very competitive people, Tori.”

  “Well, I’m competitive and you don’t see me rushing off to compete with Jake!” I cried, stashing my hands on my hips.

  Alyssa rolled her eyes and pointed at Nina and Jake. “They’re just… having a competition.”

  “As you said before!” My voice was reaching new pitches, my god… I was sounding very whiny, even to myself.

  Alyssa just laughed.

  Then, everything happened as if in slow motion. Nina whirled around to glare at Jake, who was still shouting, and reached out to hit him or something. Jake stopped, dropped his arm-bullhorns, turned around abruptly, and lost his balance. He reached out in an effort to not fall, and Nina, being the ‘nice person she was,’ instinctively threw out her arm as well. Jake actually managed to snag her arm, and Nina went down. The two fell slowly towards the ground, and Jake somehow managed to whip around so Nina would land on top of him instead of under him and therefore minimizing the pain for her (strange of him to do).

  “Oh, no, this cannot… that bastard…” My hands were over my mouth. I rushed towards Nina and Jake.

  “Are you okay?” I knelt down next to the pair of them. They seemed to just have a cliché fall-on-top-of-each-other-stare-soulfully-into-others’-eyes-and-breathe-and-almost-kiss cliché scene, and Nina was finally coming to her senses and getting the hell off Jake. God, didn’t the stench of ‘CHEATER CHEATER CHEATER’ stink so much that she should have gotten of Jake as soon as she could, even rolled off him?

  Actually… Nina wasn’t getting up.

  “Dude, are you okay?” I asked. Grabbing Jake’s jean-clad legs and ignoring his groan of pain (good, didn’t have to touch his bare body), I pushed them aside so I could crawl to Nina. “Hey, are you…”

  “My freakin’ arm!” she hissed, clutching at it. “Jake freaking pulled it when I fell! Godammit you bastard!”

  “My friggin’ ankle feels broken! Stop complaining, you bitch!” Jake moaned again.

  My mouth dropped open. “You’re calling her a bitch? Seriously? I think her arm’s broken. Because you pulled it. Now,” I nudged the ankle he was reaching for, just for the satisfaction “Shut up.”

  “Screw you!” he snapped.

  “Shut up.”

  “Tori… stop being an idiot and call 911! How the hell did you… just call!” Nina hissed. She closed her eyes.

  Oh, shit. Stupid me.

  I tore my phone out of my pocket, feeling extremely stupid. I called 911 as fast as I could, nearly screaming in frustration when I dialed it wrong and had to do it again.

  “Uh, hello? We need an ambulance here. I don’t know how, it seems impossible, but they fell and one has a broken ankle and one has a broken arm. Uh, it’s West Fields High… you know, the prestigious and snobby rich boarding school? Please come quickly. Alright. Thanks.” It was like all the panic and fear had suddenly burst and I was suddenly talking super fast and super panicky, rather than me panicking when they actually fell.

  “Prestigious and snobby?” Jake said brusquely. “God, you’re so self-centered. We’re in pain here and you’re adding flowery descriptions to your stupid 911 call.”

  “Well, Nina’s obviously in more friggin’ pain than you are, effer,” I shot back, and crawled over to Nina.

  “Screw… Jake…” she managed.

  I smiled. “See? Everyone hates you.”

  I didn’t know why. I felt like I was going crazy.

  The ambulance arrived. The bewildered teachers finally realized what was happening, and most were concerned about two of their golden students, while some were disgruntled that their weekend had been interrupted like this.

  I nearly flipped them the bird.

  It turned out that Jake had a sprained ankle… Most of his momentum had been interrupted by him and Nina twisting. But the force he had pulled Nina with had made her arm go all weird, and when she landed, the impact made it even worse and broke her ulna.

  Now Jake… he just had a sprained ankle. And the bastard said he had a broken one. God, I hated him.

  Nina and Jake were carted off to the hospital, and the rest of the students were shushed back to their dorms.

  But.

  But.

  Yes, the dreaded b-word.

  The three-lettered one. Not the one, you know, that means female dog.

  I was chosen to head the project, since Nina would be in no condition to do so with her broken ulna. And Jake couldn’t either, since, well, they didn’t want him hobbling around the school trying to attract more customers for the carwash. Honestly, I think that the school committee’s more concerned about Jake than the future of the project. But screw them. Because guess what? Alex was chosen to head the carwash project. Now I was going head to head against Alexander White, formerly suspendee.

  He kind of scared me, to be honest.

  He didn’t have any tattoos. He wasn’t that kind of guy with black buzzed/emo hair, or with the chains/thing related to heavy metal hanging around his neck. He looked like a typical surfer dude from California (no offense to people who hate stereotypes), with his blonde, slightly spiky hair and muscular body. Most girls thought he was hot. Hell, I thought he was hot. But he scared me with his attitude (very carefree and reckless; kind of like Alyssa, but even more so) and the fact that Jake deemed him worthy to be his best friend. Which meant that Alex was most likely a douchebag who would stop at nothing to get what he wanted. So I was scared of him.

  But Alyssa seemed to have a soft spot for the guy. I didn’t get it. Maybe she was crazy.

  But yeah… Neither Alyssa nor I had a plan to try and beat the guys and give it our best shot (as cheesy as that sounded). We could just hope for the best.

  I sighed. With my lucky, that was probably not going to happen.

  I set my phone down on the table. For some reason, the doctors let Nina have her phone back and she was texting me vigorously with either rants about Jake’s stupidity or how we needed to beat Alex and Jake ‘to the ground and then smash their bloody pulp into the dirty, hot, dry, sun-blemished asphalt’.

  Those were her words, not mine.

  I hopped onto my bed. Alyssa had fallen asleep already, regardless of the light still on. Sometimes I wondered what the girl was capable of. I doubted she wouldn’t fall asleep even if we had been kidnapped and those nasty lights they had at the dentists were being shone in her face.

  I exhaled again. Alyssa’s sleeping habits were the least of my worries now—I had to figure out what to do about Alex.

  I fell asleep eventually, unsatisfied and worried.

A/N: I know this chapter's bad. 

22: Chapter 22 - Damn the Wall

A/N: This chapter is very random, very weird, just a break from the drama. It's a filler.

Chapter 22- Damn the Wall

Disclaimer: I don't own I Don't Care I Love It/I Don't Care/I Don't Care (I Love It) by Icona Pop.

I don’t care, I love it

I don’t care, I love it, I love it

I don’t care, I love it

I don’t care, I love it, I love

 

  “Idiots,” Nina grumbled good-naturedly.

  I let out a bubbly laugh as I rolled over. Alyssa was on top of me, and kicked my face.

  “Dude!” I yelled. “Just because we’re wrestling doesn’t mean you can kick me!”

  Alyssa giggled, and abruptly flipped me over. I shrieked. “All’s fair in love and war,” she replied, grinning.

  “Like this is war,” I muttered, out of breath. The wind had gotten knocked out of me when Alyssa flipped me over.

  Alyssa just shrugged and smiled cheekily.

  “Alright,” I breathed, getting up and facing Alyssa, who was grinning at me. “Rematch. But standing up.”

  Nina huffed and crossed her arms. “Why do you wrestle anyway? It’s so unladylike and… brutal!”

  I raised my eyebrow at her. “Afraid to have some fun, Nina?”

  She scoffed. “As if! I don’t want to get all sweaty and gross!”

  I grinned. “Salad eater!”

  “Brownie chomper!”

  “Stick-thin figure!”

  “Need to reconfigure!”

  “Alright, brainies,” Alyssa clapped twice, rolling her eyes. “That’s enough debating for now. Go join the debating club if you want; I’m sure Mr. Buckster would love you two’s presences.”

  Nina frowned. “Buckster? What the hell?”

  Alyssa shrugged. “That’s his name.”

  “Come on! Wrestle!” I shouted, waving my arms. “I don’t care what his name is!”

  I charged Alyssa. She saw me out of the corner of her eyes, and turned around, throwing her hands up. I laughed as my hands met hers and we went crashing. I heard Nina giggle in the midst of the fighting.

  I was about to push Alyssa into the wall, when she abruptly whirled around, still clenching my arms, and swung me into the wall.

  I expected a shock of pain and a little thud, maybe. But instead, I felt the brittle, white wall crashing and cracking and me landing sharply in a hole in the wall.

  Alyssa’s mouth was open. Nina was half-laughing, half-gasping, her hand over her mouth.

  “WTF?” I gasped. I sat up. My legs were still dangling over the thin remains of the wall, elevated a little more than my body by the wall. “If West Fields’s so posh can’t they make the walls a bit better?”

  There was a knock on the door before Alyssa or Nina could answer. I jerked my head towards the door, my eyes widening slightly, and scrambled out of the hole in the wall. As I brushed the dust off my clothes, Alyssa went over to the door, followed by Nina. I did too, and we opened the door.

  A sweet-looking girl with blonde hair and wide green eyes greeted us. “Hey, uh, we’re wondering what’s going on in here. We just heard some bangs… is everything okay?” She seemed a little intimidated at the sight of the three most popular girls in school staring back at her.

  The three of us edged closer together in unison, further blocking the hole on the left wall from view.

  “Everything’s fine, Carissa,” Nina smiled. Carissa smiled back, seemingly relieved, and bounced once on her heels.

  “Okay, glad to hear. I’ll tell Tulissa and Mooky.” She turned and walked away.

  As Alyssa shut the door, all three of us let out a sigh of relief. We looked at each other, and I laughed weakly.

  “Phew.”                                                                                                                                    

  Nina put a hand over her heart as she made her way back to the bed. “Whoo! What are we going to do?” she said, throwing a glance at the hole in the wall again.

  I sighed, sitting down on my own bed. I glanced at the area around me to check none of the white dust had gotten onto my bed. “Fix it?” When Nina and Alyssa shot me a glare that practically said, ‘Are you stupid?’ “Well, I don’t know! I can’t solve everything with a wave of my ibitty boppity wand!”

  Nina sighed, and stood up, rubbing her hands together. “Do we have tape?”

  My mouth dropped open. Before I could say anything, Alyssa did for me. “Are you crazy? Are you seriously going to try to tape it onto the wall?”

  Nina glared at Alyssa. “Do you want to just sit here and risk being suspended, or even expelled?”

  When Alyssa nor I answered, Nina sighed. “Now come help me, I don’t want to just sit around.” Seeing that we weren’t reacting, she rolled her eyes. “Come on, idiots!”

  Groaning, I got up and followed Nina to the wall. “My butt hurts.”

  “And how come it didn’t hurt when you just fell?” she snapped, giving me an unimpressed look. Before I could object or defend myself, she turned to Alyssa and practically shouted, “Come and help!”

  Alyssa moaned, “This can’t be… you can be serious. Tape and the wall?” Even with her complaining, she reluctantly got up and walked over to Nina and I, arms crossed. “You got any white, ultra-strong duct tape that can hold together walls?”

  “Stop your sarcasm and help! It was your fault that the stupid wall ended up like this, okay? I’m trying to save your butts!”

  I raised my eyebrows. “Whoa, dude, chill.”

  “I will not chill!” she yelled. “You two need to learn to be responsible and learn the consequences of your stupid actions!”

  I sighed. “Alright… let’s see what we can do.”

  Nina gingerly picked up a piece of the wall. “Let’s see…” she sighed. “Where does this fit?”

  Alyssa went to help Nina and began to examine the piece and the walls. I put my hands on my hips and surveyed the scene. The wall was empty-ish in between the two walls. The wall that was the other one separating Carissa, Mooky, and Tulissa’s dorm from ours was still up. And hopefully not about to be collapsing.

  So the school was too cheap to have good walls. But they were somehow thick enough to mask my sobbing/crying/yelling/talking/laughing/fighting over the past few months.

  Physics must hate me.

  Nina’s grunt interrupted my thinking. “This is so frustrating!” She suddenly threw the piece down. As I watched in horror, the piece hit the ground and splintered into pieces. It broke into tiny pieces. Which would take hours to tape together.

  I groaned. “Nina!”

  She groaned too.

  Alyssa groaned third.

  Nina plopped down on the floor, probably squashing a few stray pieces from the murdered part of the wall. “I’m sorry... ugh. We’re gonna get into so much trouble! My parents are gonna kill me.”

  I frowned at her. “I thought you didn’t need a perfect record… doesn’t your family have enough money to support you even if you don’t have a job?”

  Nina glared at me. “I want to make it on my own! I don’t want to have my family’s wealth and name follow me wherever I go. I need to know that I can do it myself, that I can be independent and even if I was born in a different, less rich family I would’ve been able to accomplish my dreams and be who I want to be.”

  I smiled faintly, and let that sink in for a while. Alyssa seemed shocked. “Me too, actually. I don’t want to have to be dependent on my family. I just want to prove my worth sometimes, instead of people letting me have my way just because my last name is Smith and my parents are who they are. The people at West Fields don’t exactly care about who I am and who my family is, and I’m glad that I managed to become one of the Queen Bees without my name scaring everyone into following me. And… it’s kind of nice that people like Jake or you didn’t give me the time of the day just because I’m rich. I know I haven’t really mentioned this before, but it’s sort of… well, kind of been like five percent of the continuous problems in my life.”

  Then, creepily, we both turned to Alyssa. I nearly bubbled, “Confession time, darlin’!”

  Alyssa shrugged. “You both made a nice long speech; I can’t top that. The Falcon family’s fine.”

  I could almost imagine her putting a ‘J’ after that if she had been texting me.

  “Well,” I sighed. “No way of fixing this.”

  We all glanced towards the hole. Nina nodded.

  I checked the time, nearly giving myself whiplash when I looked at the clock. It was nine fifty-nine.

  “Holy hell, it’s already ten!” I cried. “Lights out, remember?”

  Nina’s head snapped to the right. “The wall…”

  Oh god.

  I sighed. “Sacrifices must be made for the sisterhood that shall be corrupted if we are discovered by anyone besides an extremely cool teacher and expel us,” I muttered under my breath as I stood up and walked over to my drawer. I took out all my clothes and dumped them on the ground until I cleared out all my drawers. I picked out an outfit for tomorrow, and as Nina and Alyssa watched with confused gazes, I dumped it in the hole. It was definitely not enough, even with all my clothes.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Nina demanded, standing up.

  As if on cue, someone knocked on the door. “Lights out!”

  “Damn them!” I hissed. “The one day they start to do real patrols is when we knock a friggin’ hole in the wall! Just my luck!”

  “Do you seriously think we can fill that hole with clothes?” Nina asked, laughing.

  My expression sobered her immediately. “With your ginormous closet, it’ll probably be enough!” I snapped.

  “Alright, alright, fine,” Nina exhaled, and when over to open her closet. She had gotten the wardrobe while Alyssa and I had gotten dressers. I didn’t really mind, though. “But not my dresses.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Fine. I’ll do all the real sacrificing, then,” I teased. Instead of laughing like I expected her to, Nina instead gave me a look like I was being annoying.

  I sighed and shut up.

  Finally, the hole was sort of filled up. We had stacked the clothes so that there was a thin pile in front of the hole, and it turned out we didn’t need all of Nina’s clothes and none of Alyssa’s.

  “Girls, open up, please!” A few minutes had passed, with Nina, Alyssa, and I working in a frenzy. “I’ve checked all the other rooms in the hall, you’re the only one left!”

  I gasped, and leapt from my spot to the door, yanking it open. Alyssa gasped and followed me, and deftly switched off the light before I opened the door. How she managed to do it, I didn’t know.

  Ms. Prestwin was standing in the doorway. “Girls,” she said with a frown. “Was everything alright?”

  I slapped on a hasty smile and nodded quickly. “Yeah, everything’s good. Just… getting ready to sleep!” I swung my elbow from my left side to my right.

  “Alright…” Ms. Prestwin seemed suspicious. She glanced around me. Suddenly, her eyes widened and she leaned around me to get a better look. “…What’s wrong with the wall?”

  I laughed, and it sounded so fake to my own ears I wanted to wince. Let’s hope Ms. Prestwin wasn’t an expert of any type about actresses or even acting. “Er, nothing! As I said, we’re just getting ready to sleep.”

  Ms. Prestwin frowned, and tapped lightly on my right arm with the back of her hand. “Do you… mind?”

  Oh god. We were going to get caught.

  I smiled and stepped aside, my heart pounding all the while. Ms. Prestwin stepped into the room, looking around, then squinting into the direction of the clothes-wall. I switched on the light—might as well get it over with.

  Ms. Prestwin gasped. Then she walked straight up to the wall and peered closer. Then, as Nina, Alyssa, and I held our breaths, she leaned back and laughed. Ms. Prestwin started clapping, slowly.

  She turned around and flashed us a grin. “Wow, girls. I never expected any student to break down a wall, even with its brittle state. Tell me, how did you do it?”

  I smiled uneasily. “Uh… we were wrestling.”

  Ms. Prestwin lifted her head, smiled again, and raised her eyebrows. “Alright. It’s no big deal. Just get the clothes off, and I’ll get a worker to fix the wall. He’ll get it done soon with some hot mud.”

  “Hot mud?” Alyssa asked.

  Ms. Prestwin grinned again, her blonde hair practically shining. “Just a slang for some stuff. He’ll have it done by the time you girls get back from school.”

  I clapped my hand over my heart. “Oh, thank you, Ms. Prestwin. I thought we were going to get in so much trouble.”

  She just smiled again.

  We laughed. Ms. Prestwin left after another reassurance, and told us to get to sleep. As I went to sleep after changing and taking a shower, I realized how lucky I was.

  I smiled one last time.

23: Chapter 23 - Surreal, No?

A/N: This is the first chapter that I posted on SparkaTale that I hadn't finished beforehand. :D 5,000 words this time.

Chapter 23- Surreal, No?

Disclaimer: I don't own Let Her Go by Passenger.

But you only need the light when it’s burning low

Only miss the sun when it starts to snow

Only know you love her when you let her go

-Let Her Go by Passenger

 

  I had been continuously receiving notes from my secret admirer. It was, to be honest, quite creepy, as his notes were now progressing to love. He didn’t even know me. Most likely. And he said he loved me? Not likely.

  Take for example yesterday’s note. It said, in big, childish letters, ‘Only 1 thing 2 do 3 words 4 you ILOVEYOU’. It would’ve been cute and maybe sweet if it wasn’t from a strange stalker that I didn’t know.

  “Aw, so sweet.” Alyssa smiled at the note. She read it again.

  I sighed and buried my head in my hands. “How the hell is that sweet? It’s so creepy! Like, it’s practically stalking! Who the hell says ‘I love you’ when he hasn’t even met me?”

  Alyssa shrugged. “Maybe’s he’s met you. Maybe you don’t know who he is.”

  I gave her a ‘stupid’ look. “As if he’s, like, one of my best friends. That’d be stupid, really.”

  Alyssa sighed romantically, clasping her hands together and looking up at the sky. Oh my god. She’s really cracked this time. “Oh, it’d be wonderful if the best friend turns into love thing happens.” She paused. “If it was Anthony or, er… well, Tony’s your last male best friend, honestly.”

  I grunted. “Yes, because my other one betrayed me and helped Selena break me up with Jason. Bastard.”

  Alyssa sort of ignored me. “Oh, it’s be perfect. We need to find your secret admirer so he can profess his undying love to you.”

  I made a face that was probably the ugliest I’d made in my entire life. “Alyssa, are you okay? You never act like this. What I expect from you is ‘if he can kick butt and he’s cute I like him’, not ‘oh, perfect, gush gush gush cliché cliché cliché romance romance romance lovey dovey stuffy!’”

  Alyssa shot a glare at me. “Just because I have a romantic inside me doesn’t mean I’m being stupid!”

  “I’m sorry, but you’re not a romantic. You’re a girl who kicks ass and doesn’t give a shit about other’s people opinions. Those girls usually get a guy who equally kicks ass and equally doesn’t give a shit about other people’s opinions. I’m one who’s shy-” Alyssa snorted “-fine, I’m not, but I also get the sweet, cute guy who’s a romantic at heart and treats me well every day when he sees me and gains the approval of my parents.”

  Alyssa crossed her arms. “Come on, Tori. You’re not shy. Plus, let’s just focus on your secret admirer. We have to catch him.”

  “Seriously? Why?”

  “Do we even need a reason?”

  I crossed my arms and huffed, but I knew my curiosity had murdered my stubbornness.

  I was game.

 

I grumbled, tumbling out of my bed. “A chance,” I muttered. “A chance, she says. Love, she says. The one, she says. A neat, sneaky plan, she says. Wake up early and corner him, she says.” I stood up, shivering violently from the cold. I snatched my clothes off my bed and tossed them on, flinching at the cold that remained even with the layers of clothes on.

  Narrowing my eyes at Alyssa’s sleeping form, I headed towards her bed and ripped the blanket off her. “Up and sunshine!” I hissed, grinning innocently. Alyssa groaned and rolled over, squinting at me.

  “What the hell?” she moaned, sitting up. Then, she snatched at the blankets in my arms. “I’m cold!”

  Nina groaned as well, opening her right eye. “What on Earth are you two doing?”

  “Ooh!” I whirled around as Alyssa pounced on the blankest and threw them over herself, curling into a ball. “Nina! Do you want to come along with us and find out who my mysterious secret admirer is?”

  Nina rolled over, grunting. “I’m staying out of your love life this time, Tori. Sorry!”

  “See? Someone here’s sane!” I exclaimed, checking to see Alyssa’s progress of getting up. She was still bundled up in her blankets. Curled up into a ball.

  “Come on, Allie, if I have to suffer in the cold because of your stupid plan, you have to suffer along with me. Get up!” I ripped the blanket off again. Alyssa jerked in surprise, then curled up again.

  “Gah!”

  I narrowed my eyes at her. “Come on.”

  “No. I cold.”

  “So what? I cold too. You idiot. You get up. We use your plan. Up. Up!” I poked her in the sides. Alyssa grunted in annoyance and uncurled. She sent a glare at me. I grinned sweetly and dumped her blanket onto the floor. “Let’s have fun sitting in a cold classroom at five in the morning.”

  Alyssa groaned. “I have no idea why I came up with this plan.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “So you’re saying that you don’t want to find out who my secret admirer is?”

  Alyssa glared at me from under her eyelashes, and groaned. Again. “Your snarky word traps annoy me.”

  “Let’s get going, then!”

 

Next period was AP English, where I had been receiving my notes. Alyssa and I reached the classroom, which was locked.

  “Shit,” I muttered. “It’s locked.”

  Alyssa grinned. “No problem. No one breaks into a school, anyway, so the school’ll install very shitty locks.” She waved her hand. “Shitty locks that can be broken into with my glorious fingernails.”

  “Your glorious fingernails.”

  “Watch me,” Alyssa hissed, grinning. She stuck her right index finger’s fingernail into the little slot in the lock. The lock was the round kind, the ones that had a button to lock it on the inside. Alyssa twisted her hand suddenly, and the lock sprang open with a click.

  “What the hell?” I hissed. “Doesn’t that hurt?”

  Alyssa pushed the door open fully, and entered, throwing her arms wide. “We masters of lock picking have no qualms with pain!”

  “Okay, now you’re just being dramatic.”

  “We masters of locking picking have no qualms with drama!”

  “Shut up.”

 

“So,” I whispered. “Why are we out here again?”

  “We’re on the lookout!” Alyssa hissed. “This is to watch for him. When we comes, we’ll just dart into the classroom and check to see if you does put the paper on your desk.”

  “Uh.”

  “Don’t stand there looking like an envelope without an address on it!”

  “You don’t sound witty, Allie,” I began. “If you can only quote Mark Twain.”

  It would’ve been fantastic if I could’ve picked a lock or jumped from a building after saying that. The movies all have that fantastic moment.

  Alyssa rolled her eyes.

  I peeked round the corner. We were behind a few bushes in front of the school. It was freezing cold for a damn spring and summer in a few days (May) morning. Even if it was five in the morning, I expected the weather to be better.

  No one was on the lawn yet. I slowly turned to look at Alysa, glaring. “There’s still no one here. You could be wrong. What if he decides to stop, or decides to not give me one today? That could just be my luck.”

  Alyssa rolled her eyes again. “No, secret admirers are relentless until you confess your love for them as well, so-”

  “Jason was not like that, so I don’t think-”

  I was silenced by a sweaty but cold hand clapping onto my mouth. “Alyssa!” I tried to say.

  “Shut up,” she hissed. I could almost see her ear perking up. “I need to listen to something…”

  “What?” my voice, naturally, was muffled.

  “Oh, shit, shit, shit,” With each swear, Alyssa stood up and began to bustle me out of behind the bushes. “Shit, shit, shit, oh… shit.”

  I screamed. Sprays of water suddenly burst onto me. Freezing cold sprays of water.

  “Why the fuck would there be sprinklers now?” I shrieked. My eyes were squinting, my t-shirt was definitely getting wet, and I was cold.

  “I don’t fucking know!” Alyssa screamed back. Us two, we usually refrained from swearing, but now… now was the right time to.

  “Out, out, out!” I screamed again, pushing Alyssa. She agreed immediately, and we charged into the halls.

  I let out my breath once we were in and away from the sprinklers. I swear, they were aiming all their goddamn water onto our poor, defenceless bodies.

  “What the hell?” Alyssa spluttered. “The sprinklers… I did not think of that.”

  I frowned, though my teeth were still chattering. “How’d you hear them?”

  She shrugged. “I thought someone was coming or something, ‘cause I heard this whirring sound.” She looked around. “I want a towel.”

  “Of course I want a towel. You want a towel. I want a towel. Everyone in this little, round world wants a warm, fluffy, thick, towel.”

  “Um. Excuse me.”

  I whipped around, and Alyssa slowly walked up to my side.

  “Hi, Alex,” Alyssa said… almost sheepishly.

  Come on. Where was mah gurl? The one that didn’t give a damn about what other people thought? And to James William Miller’s best friend, of all people?”

  “Alex, what are you doing here?” I demanded. The sudden thought struck me that he could be my secret admirer. My mouth dropped open at the (horrible) possibility.

  “I…”

  Alyssa seemed to realize the same thing, and her expression morphed into one of anger. I was surprised at her sudden change of attitude—this was strange. The two didn’t even know each other. I had met Alex before when I was still- shudder, shudder- dating Jake, but we never really talked before and he certainly hadn’t seen me dripping wet (cleanse your minds, you dirty people who thought of that in a dirty way) and shivering at five am in the morning.

  God, that sounded so wrong.

  “Well?” Alyssa asked, her eyebrow raised.

  Alex sighed, and turned around. I hadn’t noticed that his hands were behind his back, and now I saw that he was carrying a small basket of folded papers. My heart pounded as I walked over to the basket, and picked out a small piece. It had a little candy taped to the back, and said, ‘From Mindy To Grant Happy Valentine’s Day!’.

  Candy grams.

  I wasn’t sure if I was relieved or disappointed when I realized Alex wasn’t my secret admirer (or at least he wasn’t at school this early because of me). I dropped the candy gram back into the basket. “Candy grams? Why?”

  I glanced back at Alyssa, who visibly relaxed. She looked relieved.

  Alex turned back around. “These are for the charity. You know, the one you replaced Nina for?”

  I frowned. “But dude, you’re head for the car wash. Why’d you…” My mouth dropped open. “Did you steal these?”

  “No!” Alex yelped in horror, like he was shocked that I would even think of it. I instantly felt a little bad for considering that he might. He set the basket down. “Look, I sold some extra candy grams, so you’ll win.”

  “Why?” I demanded, stashing my hands on my hips. Alyssa was silent a few feet behind me.

  Alex grinned. “That’s for me to say when to tell you.”

  “Dude-”

  “But you have to promise not to tell anyone, alright?”

  I made a face. “How about you tell me why you want us to win?”

  “Nope.”

  I sighed and shrugged. “Fine.”

  Alex grinned.

 

“Why do you think Alex ?” I whispered to Alyssa as we passed Jake in the halls. Jake was using crutches, and I won’t even deny that it felt good watching him progress slowly through the corridor. Alex wasn’t with him, and neither was Jason. Jake looked quite dejected, and didn’t even smirk at me.

  Good for him.

  Once Jake was past us, Alyssa shrugged. “Dunno.”

  She was lying. Her eyes were flashing from side to side, and her hands were twitching. My best friend was definitely not a good liar.

  Before I could call her out on it, though, she bounced away, chirping a, “I’m gonna go report to Nina! Don’t follow me!”

  I was left gaping at her leaving form.

 

I swung my bag onto the bed. “Hey, I’m going now, ‘kay?”

  Alyssa looked up. She nodded, and went back to watching Merlin.

  “Come on, dude, I’m leaving and you just watch that show that ended, like, half a year ago,” I whined, putting my hands on my hips.

  Alyssa snorted. “It’s not like you’re leaving us forever to sacrifice yourself for the love of West Fields. Go away.”

  I made a sound of dismay. “Boo you.”

  All she did in return was smile sweetly and turn back to Merlin.

  I sighed and left the room after putting on my jacket. “Buh bye, I’ll see you at around eight o’clock, ‘kay?”

  “Mmm hmm,” Alyssa replied.

  I rolled my eyes and left.

  It was exceptionally cold today. It was simply freezing. Harsh wind lashed at my body, breaking through my thin jacket and, well, freezing me. I hugged myself, my teeth almost chattering.

  And then it started raining.

  “Oh god.”

  Letting out a half-scream half-grunt of frustration, I swung my bag around to my stomach and grabbed a pack of gum out of it. I ferociously grabbed a rectangle of gum out and stuffed it in my mouth, before realizing that the wrapper was still on. I groaned. “Stupid!” Grimacing, I took the gum out. It was covered in saliva.

  So this is was I get for eating the delicious, saliva-inducing instant noodles before leaving.

  Moaning ‘Eww, eww, ewwww’ to myself, I unwrapped the gum and quickly popped the thankfully still-fresh gum into my mouth.

  West Fields wasn’t very far from my house—there were only around six blocks I needed to walk. Still, in the dripping (duh) rain and the freezing (duh) cold, it felt like thousands of miles.

  When I turned the corner and realized I still had four blocks to walk, I grunted.

  Scratch that, it’s millions of miles away.

  There were a lot of people in the streets, but they provided absolutely no warmth. Bundled up in their stupid fluffy coats that they somehow had the magical foresight to see that it would be this cold in May (I thought it only happened in damn April when it’s cold and wet. Or England. Yeah. England.). Some people had umbrellas.

  What, do they actually check the weather forecast or something?

  As I began to sprint and simultaneously annoy people by running past them, I realized that I should’ve checked the stupid weather forecast instead of just blinding heading out. Especially since my luck was so bad I would get rain and cold and probably damn snow even if it was the middle of July.

  My house was in a strange neighbourhood. Instead of being a nice, dainty little apartment, we had a big house, which usually only happened in suburban areas. But no, we had houses. So did Alyssa’s street and a few others. My parents liked big houses, so they managed to track down this part and bribe the seller of the house that we would soon live in with chocolate and money. And I’m pretty sure a hot date.

  Nevertheless, even with the strange bribes, they got this lovely house here and Alyssa’s family did as well. That was when we were young. Before I had come to New York the second time, we lived in an apartment and one clear memory in my mind from my young, innocent days (Alyssa had planted the seed of sick-mind in my head permanently when she turned twelve and got her period) was my parents complaining about how small our apartment was. That made no sense though, since we were still really rich at the time and could’ve bought a huge house any time we wanted.

  Anyway, yeah, we bought the big house and pissed off the small buyer.

  Small in both literal sense and a small bank account sense.

  When I finally reached my street, I breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank god,” I mumbled, careful not to have my gum tumble out of my mouth and splatter onto the disgusting pavement. That would be embarrassing and sickening.

  I threw open the door to our house. “I’m ho-ome!” I announced, throwing my arms wide open.

  A few seconds of silence greeted me.

  “Way to kill a perfectly dramatic entrance,” I grumbled, standing next to where we put our shoes. As I put my sneakers onto the shelves, someone came charging into the living room.

  Instinctively, without looking clearly at who it was, I swung my bag off my shoulders and smashed zero point zero three tons of computer plus books plus stationery into my ‘attackers’ face/chest.

  Victor fell backwards with a scream that he would never, ever want his rough, tough football buddies to hear.

  Victor landed with a thump on the ground.

  I stared mouth-open at him while slowly putting my bag down next to Victor’s. “Sorry,” I squeaked.

  Victor groaned and rubbed his nose. “Jesus, Tori. When I said I knew I would regret letting you take karate, I thought I would be facing stuff like you trying to kick me in the face for fun, not smashing your bag into my goddamn face.”

  “Sorry,” I squeaked again.

  He sat up. “S’okay. Well, I was going to say hi, but nothing tops having three hundred kilograms being slammed in your face, does it?”

  I laughed, letting go of my bag and straightening up. “I suppose not.”

  He grunted and stood up. “Alright, I’m gonna go lick my wounds and chat with Hatha.”

  “Hatha?”

  He looked at me. “We got back together.”

  My mouth dropped open, before I jerked forward, causing Victor to step back, and then took a step back, causing Victor look at me like I was crazy.

  “Are… you… showing me new dance moves? They’re looking kinda funky.”

  “Dude!” I slapped his shoulder. “I’m just not sure whether to be horrified or glad that you got together with Hatha. Ah-ah,” I held up a finger when Victor began to talk. “That’s because she tried to ruin my social status. But I’m happy you’re happy.”

  Victor wrinkled his nose. “Too much thinking. Don’t wanna do it. I’m gonna go do homework.”

  I gasped. “Homework before the frantic before sleep twelve o’clock homework spree? Incredible!”

  Victor rolled his eyes and trodded away, rubbing his back.

  A few minutes later, just when I was in the middle of reading a new book, Victor came charging down the stairs. “Buh bye, Tori, I got a booty call!”

  I made a face. “Dude, gross! I did not need to know that. Is it from Hatha?”

  He nodded.

  “That’s illegal, you idiot!”

  “Not if we don’t have sex!” he yelled back, his shoes successfully on now.

  “Ewwww!” I shrieked. “That’s so gross!”

  Suddenly, we fell silent as we heard the sound of keys in the door.

  Oh, shit, Victor mouthed to me.

  The door opened, and Dad stepped in. “What’s gross?” he asked innocently.

  I stayed silent.

  Victor grinned at our dad, and then took a step towards the door. “Hi Dad, I’m just gonna go on a date with Hatha.”

  Dad waved. “Go on. Get that booty she called you for.” Victor didn’t miss a beat; he grinned again and practically skipped out the door.

  “Dad!” I whined.

  He shrugged. “What? My boy’s becoming a man!”

  “Eww!” I shrieked, my gum nearly falling out of my mouth. “Ew! The males of this family have no restrictions!”

  “No we don’t!” Dad shouted back, laughing as I ran up the stairs with my book.

  “That’s nothing to be proud of, my dear father!” I yelled.

  “We muscle misters can’t help it! It’s in our blood! It’s in our testosterone!”

  “Blegh! Get your blood cleansed, then!” I closed the door, laughing.

  I was in the wrong room, godammit. Victor’s room.

  At least he didn’t have pictures of naked models just hanging there on his walls. Hopefully I won’t ever find a porn magazine in his room.

  I’m sure it’s here somewhere, though. He is a sixteen year old, horny male.

  Oh god.

  I shook my head viciously, as if that would clear out all those weird thoughts. Alyssa really did poison my mind.

  I’ll have to Victor about it later.

  I should spit out my gum now, I thought. I walked over to his trashcan, and spit.

  It fell.

  And landed on his carpet.

  “Shit!” I said, kneeling down to look at it. “Ew.”

  Pink. Had my teeth marks. Mangled. Shiny. Greasy.

  Oh, god. This is really gross.

  Making a face, I slowly reached towards the gum. I let out a little squeal when I touched it. I pulled.

  It didn’t come off.

  “Goddammit you stupid gum come off I don’t want to get into trouble with Victor off off off… you’re not off.”

  I abruptly let go of the gum. “Ew. My poor fingers.”

  Alright. Let’s do this thang.

  I stood up, and wiped my fingers on my poor sweatpants. “Let’s wash you off Victor’s carpet.”

  I picked the carpet up by its corner, and dragged it to the bathroom, grimacing the whole time. I had to dodge from wall to wall to avoid being seen by Dad, who was still reading in the living room.

  Once I was in the bathroom, I glanced around. There was the sink. There was a brush.

  “Aha!” I crowed, grabbing the brush and launching the carpet into the sink. “Voila, mon solution to dees stupid gum!”

  I turned on the water, angling the carpet so that all the water would land on the gum. Grinning, I began to scrub the gum. I must have looked like a maniac.

  After a few seconds of scrubbing, I shut the tap water and checked the gum.

  It was now more spread out, having been brushed apart by the brush, and was not at all detached from Victor’s carpet.

  “Shit.”

  I let out a cry of frustration. “Damn you, gum! Can’t you just let go of your beloved carpet and resign yourself to a fate of being in our dirty trash can and then burning to death in the garbage factory?” I shook the carpet viciously, lifting it up.

  A big glob of gum-water/water-touched-gum splashed into my face.

  I stood there for a few seconds, dripping wet.

  “This…” I said slowly. “Is the second time I got soaked today.”

  It just had to be dirty water than touched my chewed, shredded gum.

  “This sucks!”

  I lifted the carpet up by the corner, using two fingers.

  It.

  Just.

  Dripped.

  I let go, and the carpet splashed innocently into the sink.

  “Dad!” I yelled, poking my head out of the bathroom. “I need your help!”

  “Get some testosterone!” Dad yelled.

  “No! Come over!”

  I heard a faint thud. Dad must have closed his book. Soon, he was outside the bathroom and peering in.

  “Holy Jesus, what is Victor’s carpet doing in there?”

  I gestured at the gum, making a face. “My mouth does not have good aim.”

  Dad rolled his eyes, and picked it up. He opened his mouth to say something, and then closed it when he saw the drip of water and the full extent of the gum.

   “It’s time to bring out the big guns, then,” Dad said. He grabbed a plastic pot-of-sorts from next to the toilet, and dumped the carpet in it. Then he began to march out of the bathroom, heading for downstairs.

  I trailed after him, frowning. “What’re you going to get?”

  “The scraper thingy!”

  “The scraper thingy…” I muttered to myself. “Sounds effective.”

  Dad came out of the kitchen before I reached there, holding up the scraper thingy triumphantly. It was a fish slice (the kitchen palette knife thing, not a slice of fish eat), basically, except there were no slots/holes and the metal was bent at where it met the handle so that the main part was lower than the handle.

  “Voila!” He brandished the… palette knife, I’ll call it. “This is the solution to your problem.”

  Dad walked over to the plastic pot, and turned the carpet over so that the gum was visible. He held the palette knife out to me. “Here.”

  I backed away. “Me? Why?”

  He raised his eyebrows. “Well, you were the one who caused this in the first place.”

  “But Dad!” I whined.

  He sighed. “Fine, you lazy girl. I’ll do it.” He dramatically turned to the carpet, and…

  Poked the gum.

  “Where’d your testosterone go?” I asked.

  “I’m evaluating the enemy, alright? Now let me concentrate.”

  I snorted.

  Dad poked at the gum again, and then hesitantly put his hand next to it to steady the carpet. He then began to scrape at the gum.

  “Go Dad!” I yelled. “Get the damn gun off!”

  “It’s not coming off!” Dad replied after a few seconds of scraping. The gum remained on the carpet, and it was probably still stuck on there only because I had spread it out using the brush.

  I groaned, falling onto my side. “Victor is going to kill me.”

  Dad made a face. “Okay, we have to do the last resort.”

  “What’s that?”

  “We’ll cut it out.”

  My mouth dropped open. “But Victor will notice!”

  “We can just fill it in or something.”

  “Why don’t we just buy another?”

  Dad sighed. “First of all, it’s imported from China, so we can’t exactly stroll over to WalMart and get another. Second, my wallet is empty because of your mother.”

  “What’d Mom do?”

  Dad made a face again. “Well, to be honest, I just bought a lot of candy.”

  “For her, I presume?”

  Dad stayed silent.

  “Seriously?”

  Silence.

  “But Dad, grown men don’t spend all their money on candy. What’d you buy? Chocolate? Frutips?”

  “Both, and some others.”

  I nodded solemnly, before standing up abruptly and hurling myself at the kitchen. Dad, confused, stood up before he realized what I was up to.

  “No!” Dad wailed. “Don’t take my chocolate!”

  I stuffed a bar in my mouth. “I’m sorry, Dad, but it calls to my female inner self.”

  “Female inner self? Did you just say that you’re a male on the outside?”

  I glared at him and stuffed another bar of chocolate into my mouth in reply.

  Dad made a face. “Put it back, and I’ll… I’ll cut off the gum and dry it. You can go and do your stuff.”

  I smiled, and put the chocolate back. “Toodles, Papa!”

  I heard Dad huff as I pranced over to the living room to watch. Dad brought a pair of huge scissors from the kitchen, and cut a hole in the carpet like you would in a paper snowflake. Then, he cut around the gum, which was surprisingly easy to do, from the looks of it. Dad held up the piece of carpet in disgust. “There.”

  I grinned. “Now go dry the carpet! I’ll kill the gum!”

  Dad nodded, grimacing. He held up the carpet. “We’re gonna eat dinner soon, with or without Victor.” His face lit up. “Wonder what he and Hatha are doing.”

  I made a face, pulling back my lips and wrinkling my nose. “Dad. Ew.”

  He shrugged.

  Dad hung up the carpet on a laundry line in a storage room, putting a plastic pot underneath it to make sure the water didn’t drip onto our floors.

  Two hours passed. I had left the school at around five, so it was around seven thirty now. I was planning to eat dinner at a quarter past eight, so I still had quite a bit of time before I had to go to meet Alyssa at McDonalds.

  Suddenly, the door opened. I shot up from my spot in the living room, putting my book down, just in case it was Victor and I had to get rid of the carpet.

  It was Mom. Her red hair was tied in a tight bun. “Hey, sweetie,” she called, putting her high-heeled shoes onto the cupboard. “How was your day?”

  “Hi, Mama, it was good,” I replied, getting up. “How come you’re late?”

  She shrugged. “Some employee problems. Being a manager is tiring.” She smiled.

  I smiled back cutely, and nodded. Mom went away, grabbing a tub of ice cream before going over to her and Dad’s room. I snorted. Ice cream addict.

  I walked over to the laundry room, and saw the carpet was dry. I grinned, taking it off the hanging line. The gaping hole, however, put a damper on my spirits.

  Suddenly, the door opened again. I peered over the railing. It was Victor.

  “Hey, ma famille!” he yelled, taking his shoes off.

  “Shit, shit, shit,” I muttered. “Shit, shit, shit, he’s back.” I took the carpet, running silently to Victor’s room. Victor was coming up the stairs, albeit very slowly. I threw it onto the floor, then spread it out, and ran back to my room. By some miracle, Victor didn’t see me. I grabbed a few stuffed animals from my room (yes, I still have stuffed animals. What can I say? They’re fluffy and cute.) and launched them onto the hole. It was covered.

  Victor came in the room. “Sis.” He frowned. “Whatcha doin’ here? I thought you weren’t coming home.”

  “I didn’t tell you? I came back to visit.”

  He laughed. “Hmm, me too.”

  I flashed a huge toothy grin. “So, yeah…”

  Victor glanced around the room, and then his gaze rested on the stuffed animals. “Uh… D’you know what these are doing here?”

  I shrugged. “I haven’t the slightest idea.”

  He snorted. “Hmm…” He picked the stuffed animals off, revealing the gaping hole.

  “What on Earth?”

  “Uh…” My mouth was dry.

  Victor glanced at me, and then back at the carpet. “Did you…”

  “It was my gum!” I declared.

  After a few seconds of silence, Victor start to laugh, and laugh hard.

  “Uh…”

  When Victor stopped laughing, finally, he looked at me.

  “You’re not mad?”

  He shook his head. “No, of course not. I’ll never forget this day.”

  I shrugged, and smirked. “Glad you’re not mad.”

  A/N: I'm sorry, I know the ending sucked."

24: Chapter 24- So Close... Yet So Far

A/N: Sorry this is so late...

Chapter 24- So Close… Yet So Far

Disclaimer: I don't own this song.

Boy walk in the spot, he's so fresh and

He got what he needs to impressin'

Just look at the way that he dressin'

Ain't no question chicks like oh

-He Said She Said by Ashley Tisdale

 

  “D’you wanna come along?” I asked, grinning and leaning down.

  Alyssa groaned, and rolled over. “I don’t wanna… Go ‘way…”

  I continued to grin. “Thought so. I’m going to dress as a nun to try and find out who putting the notes on my desk.”

  “AP English… first period again?”

  “Yep! I memorized the schedule and it turns out we have three days in which AP English if first period!”

  Alyssa moaned. “Okay, shut up and… let me… sleep.”

  “Alright, buh bye! I’ll tell you who’s my secret admirer later!”

  Alyssa merely rolled over.

 

These clothes were kinda heavy. I was wearing great big black clothes like the ones I’d seen on TV.

  Don’t ask me where I got them.

  I put my hands together, so that the sleeves were joined.

  I hurried to the front of school, standing behind the same bush Alyssa and I had hid in. It was after the sprinklers had gone off last time I was in this bush, so it was an almost guarantee I wouldn’t be soaked and cold today.

  Well, them together. I would be soaked, since I was definitely going to take a shower after I’m done with these clothes.

  Suddenly, I caught a bit of motion out of my eye. Curly blonde hair, tall, muscular frame.

  Jake.

  “Oh, shit,” I mumbled out of the corner of my mouth. I lowered my head and tried to scurry into the building.

  In truth, I was disappointed. I had been expecting Jake to be my ‘secret admirer’ to try and get to me, but a little part of me had been hoping for that magical fairy tale, one that didn’t end up like Jason. And I would get my high school sweetheart, and we would marry and have children and be the perfect, happy couple and I would have a stable job and he would have a stable job and my kids would definitely be supported enough in their lifetime.

  But it wasn’t a secret admirer.

  It was Jake.

  Well… I sighed. At least I knew it wasn’t a creepy stalker.

  “Hey!” Jake yelled.

  I stopped dead in my tracks.

  “Hey, you! What’re you doing here?”

  Rolling my eyes inwardly at what I was about to do, I turned around, my head still down. I thanked god that I had the foresight to tie up my flaming red hair.

  “Hello,” I said in an Indian accent when Jake came within earshot. “You are one of the young people, I presume?”

  “The young people? You mean in high school?”

  I nodded solemnly.

  “Then, yeah… I’m one of the young people. Now, what the hell are you doing here?”

  I held up a finger, wagging it. “Ah ah ah, young man. You should not use the word ‘hell’ in vain.”

  “Uh… Are you here to preach us?” Jake’s eyebrows furrowed.

  I struggled to squash down the hate for him.

  I threw out my arms and lifted my head, turning away so he couldn’t see my face. “Young people these days do not know God! They do not appreciate God! I am here representing God to teach young people about the love, sacrifices, and joy God brings.” I brought the hood down over my head again, and turned to him. “Will you accept?”

  “Accept what?”

  “Accept God’s invitation! If you do, you shall be happy! You shall be free! God gives you faith, and faith… gives you love.” I spread my arms out again.

  Jake rolled his eyes. “As if. You’re messing with me. Who are you?” He reached out to try to throw off my hood. Alarmed, I took a huge step back, avoiding his hand.

  “You do not respect me!” I screeched. “You do not respect God! Some people don’t have faith and have no goal, no purpose in life, nothing to believe in him. God is beautiful—it is a wondrous feeling and life and experience. Do not deny him on Earth—he will deny  you on heaven.”

  Jake snorted, and shook his head. “Fine, fine, I’ll read the Bible.”

  “God-”

  “Goodbye.”

  As Jake turned to walk away, I took a chance. “Young man? May I ask what you are doing here?”

  He shrugged. “Got detention for a stupid thing.”

  I nearly sighed with relief. “You are not here to give notes to a young, beautiful girl with red hair?”

  “Are you… are you talking about Victoria?”

  I remained silent.

  “Hmph, I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I certainly don’t give notes to her. That would be just plain creepy. Stalkerish. So shut up.”

  Wow, he was so rude.

  I snorted silently and rolled my eyes. It was all I could do to express my annoyance and irritation right now.

  Jake walked away, into the building. I sighed. With Jake in the building, I didn’t want to risk him detecting that I was Victoria or anything like that.

  Defeated again. I exhaled heavily, and walked away from the school, my head hung low, and this time not because I was afraid of Jake finding out who I was.

 

The crunch of the apple as I bit into it was satisfying. I chewed the apple vehemently, causing Alyssa, Kimberly, Nina, Courtney, Anthony, Alex, Jason, Selena, and Jake to wince, snort, roll their eyes, or flinch.

  I wanted to sit with the first five people only, of course, but Alex, Jason, Selena, and Jake had followed Anthony, who was their friend now (much to my horror and dismay) to this table and now there was this awkward silence because we hated each other.

  I took another bite of the apple. It wasn’t as loud this time, and only Jake and Selena snorted.

  “You know,” I said with my mouth full of apple. “You could just leave if you don’t like the sound of this-” I bit the apple in my mouth noisily to prove my point “-, alright?”

  Jake just smirked. Selena, though, was more touchy and considerably less suave and much less sensitive to taunts and verbal traps. She glared at me. “A lady with proper manners doesn’t do that.”

  I laughed. “As if you are in any way suitable to teach me about them.”

  Selena’s face turned red, and she turned to talk to Jason, who shot me a glare and then turned back to Selena.

  I rolled my eyes. Alyssa, Nina, Kimberly, and Courtney did the same thing, which was kind of creepy.

  I took another bite.

  This felt weird. Midway through my bite, I felt something squishy, and then the crunchy feeling resumed.

  Frowning, I chewed once, twice, and glanced at my apple.

  Worm.

  Half a worm.

  Shit.

  I screamed (unceremoniously dropping the apple onto my tray), and spat out what was in my mouth into my hands. When I see the mangled half-worm lying in the apple bits, I screamed again and threw the bits of apple off my hands. A few landed in Selena’s face, and the rest in Jake’s. But this was no time to enjoy their horror struck faces.

  I had chewed a worm.

  I screamed again, and rushed to the bathroom. As I ran out, I could feel everyone’s stares on me, but I was too panicked to really care.

  Soon, I was in the bathroom. I turned on the tap water frantically, throwing my hands under it. “Ew, ew, ew…” I muttered.

  After I declared my hands clean and free of apple/worm, I threw a wave of water into my face. As soon as I could, I spat it out, trying not to retch at the thought of the worm…

  In my mouth.

  I rinsed my mouth again.

  I leaned over the counter, my palms on the surface. I tried to steady my breathing, and stared at myself in the mirror. A normal-looking Victoria with a little soggy hair stared back at me.

  I breathed out again. “Well, that was gross.”

  I looked at the door. Thinking back on what I did in the cafeteria, I let out a half-snort half-laugh. I really wasn’t sure whether to be mortified, embarrassed, amused, or all three.

  But I did not want to go back. Even if the worm-apple had been flung into Jake and Selena’s faces, I was still the one who had chewed it up.

  And flung it into their faces.

  I had to go back there. I sighed. Here we go.

 

As soon as Nina and Alyssa saw my stormy face, they burst out laughing again. Selena was nowhere to be seen, and Jake’s skin was red from rubbing his face vehemently with the rough napkins of the cafeteria. Jason was trying to hide his grin, and Alex was shaking his blonde curls, for some reason. Anthony was examining my apple, turning it over with his fingers.

  I sat down. “What’re you doing with the apple?” I asked. It was meant to be a gentle question, but came out as a snap.

  “It’s not a worm,” Anthony replied. He sounded a little dreamy.

  I frowned. “What do you mean, it’s not a worm?”

  Alyssa let out another round of hysterical giggles again. “It’s a gummy worm, you idiot!”

  My mouth dropped open. “A gummy worm? How the hell did a gummy worm end up in an apple?”

  Nina shrugged, and then flashed a smirk at me, while Alyssa kept on laughing. Jake gave his face another rub.

  I relaxed as I realized it was a gummy worm and not a real one. As Nina and Alyssa giggled together, I played over what happened again.

  I let out a snort involuntarily.

  Then another one.

  Soon, we three were all laughing, Anthony was letting out the occasional chuckle, and Jake just sent me glares and wiped his face.

  Oh, jeez, that’s hilarious.

 

“Gucci Gucci, Louis Louis, Fendi Fendi, Prada,” I half-sang half-rapped, waving my arms.

  “Basic biatches wear that shit so we don’t even bother,” Alyssa and Nina sang back. They had to sing a little faster than the original song because they added in the ‘a’ in ‘biatch’.

  Kimberly huffed, and crossed her arms over her chest. “First of all, we do wear that ‘shit’ and don’t be so mean. And don’t swear so much.”

  I rolled my eyes. I felt a little drunk. “Boo you, party pooper.”

  We were all lounging around in my family’s limo. We usually didn’t take it, since we didn’t want to be too flashy, but with the party of four today, we wanted to indulge and used the limo.

  Our driver, Corina, snorted. “That song’s old.”

  I giggled. “It’s appropriate for our shopping trip.”

  Corina laughed. “That song will never be appropriate. Appropriate’s when you can sing it in front of your parents and your principal and not be expelled.”

  We all laughed at that.

  “True, true,” Alyssa chortled.

  The rest of the ride to the mall was like that. Kimberly rolling her eyes at our ‘swearing and being rude’, Nina, Alyssa, and I singing, and Corina putting in the occasional comment.

 

My eyes poured themselves over the pages, taking in the words and the language. Really, Alyssa should’ve been the one reading and studying the language seeing as how she was the writer, but this was a really, really good book.

  I put a foot on the stand in the shop. There wasn’t a mannequin there, so, well, it’s free space, isn’t it?

  This book was really, really good.

  After a bit of time, I heard a few voices pierce through my subconscious.

  “Where’s Tori?” Alyssa asked.

  I could practically hear Nina shrugging. “Dunno. Probably off somewhere trying on clothes.”

  “Let’s go find her, then. I need her opinion on the dress.”

  I kept on reading.

  Suddenly, someone poked me. “Huh, looks just like Tori.” Another poke. “The mannequin’s kinda soft too.”

  Nina snorted. “That’s not a mannequin, idiot! It is Tori.”

  Alyssa jumped back. “Oh! Hi Tori!”

  I snapped the book shut after memorizing the page number. “Hi.”

  “God, I thought you were a mannequin.”

  Nina snorted again.

  I struck a ridiculous pose, my left foot still on the stand. “Well, you can’t blame Alyssa. I am as attractive as a man-made, perfect mannequin.”

  Nina just snorted.

  “What? It’s true.”

 

“This so stupid la,” I grumbled, as I pulled on the tight violet dress. “West Fields has too much money to burn.”

  “No use grumbling about it,” Alyssa replied. “We have to go soon. Teachers mark the attendance, remember? They don’t exactly appreciate being late.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I don’t really care.”

  “I need that extra credit.”

  “Trust me. Everyone does.”

  After Alyssa put on her blue dress (she kind of looked like Silvermist from Tinker Bell—don’t ask me why I still remember), we left the house. Victor was going as well, but the Juniors were scheduled to go later. Because they’re the ‘more responsible’ ones.

  When I heard, I was indignant and furious. Had they seen Victor lately? Compared to me he was bloody Satan himself.

  So you could imagine why I was just a little irritated when I saw Victor lounging on the couch in his tuxedo.

  When we got to the school, I was sweating. It was so frickin’ hot today, even after four.

  It was around six, when I usually ate. Most people were there, and I spotted a few pleasant people, like Kimberly, Nina, and Courtney.

  And the less pleasant people, like Jake and Selena.

  Guess what? We were sitting together.

  “Why the hell did the school put us together?” I muttered out of the corner of my mouth. I must’ve looked and sounded quite retarded.

  Alyssa shrugged. “They didn’t. We could choose where to sit.”

  “So why the hell are Nina, Courtney, and Kim sitting with Selena, Jake, and Jason? And Alex? Why the hell is Anthony on their side of the table? What?”

  Alyssa laughed. “Jeez, calm down. Just ignore them.”

  I hmphed and sat down next to Nina. “So why are we sitting with them?”

  She rolled her eyes. “We’re the popular people, so we sit together. To keep up appearances.”

  “When did we become Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber?”

  “More like Taylor Swift and Harry Styles. You know, ‘cause they broke up.”

  I rolled my eyes. “My point is that we don’t have to keep up appearances. We’re just high school students.”

  Nina patted my head. She actually patted my head. “Dearie, it’s more than that. This is West Fields, and we rule this school.”

  “You sound like Regina George.”

  “I’m offended.”

  “Don’t be. Besides the blonde hair you have nothing in common.”

  “You’re saying I’m not bitchy, beautiful, and a playgirl? I’m even more offended!”

  “Nina, I’m not sure whether to laugh or be annoyed.”

  “Just laugh.”

  I rolled my eyes.

  Alyssa opened her mouth to say something, when a teacher I didn’t know clapped and said into the microphone in a really fake voice, “Story time! One person a table tells a story about their life to the rest of the table and if you don’t, all of you fail Health class!”

  WTF?

  Our table all looked around. I stared pointedly at Anthony—he must have some interesting story about California.

  Alyssa would probably start ranting, so no.

  Nina… dunno if she has a good story stuck in her head.

  Jake… no. Too many snide comments.

  Jason… no. Just no.

  Kimberly… boring story about charity, probably. No.

  Selena… Do I even have to justify that?

  That left me and Anthony, and possibly Nina. But Nina would probably start insulting Jake and maybe Jason subtly (or not so subtly), so that rules her out.

  I continued to start pointedly at Anthony, and he stared right back at me.

  That was when I realized that everyone else on the table was staring at me.

  Me? To tell a story?

  “No,” I said right away, crossing my arms over my chest.

  Selena was the first to make noise. She let out a huge, dramatic huff, rolled her eyes, facepalmed, the whole shebang, and had everyone on the table scowling at her performance except for Jason. “I knew it! You’re too selfish to do it.”

  “I don’t have any stories!”

  Alyssa raised her eyebrows, and scooched a little closer to me. “Oh, really?” she muttered. “Just do it.”

  I pursed my lips. “Seriously?”

  “Yeah. Just do it.” Alyssa gave me another look.

  “Fine. I’ll do it,” I proclaimed, putting my elbows on the table.

  Before I could choose a story to tell, a teacher with a clipboard came round, clicking her pen. I could feel the smugness radiating from her.

  “Well!” she said. “All the other tables don’t have a story yet. Am I to fail you too?”

  I could see she was itching to scrawl a big, fat ‘F’ next to all our names.

  “No! I have a story.” I hit myself internally.

  “Yes?” The teacher raised her eyebrows at me. “Go on.”

  “Er… there was this time my gum got stuck in my brother’s carpet.”

  The teacher lifted her head, then put it down really slowly. Like semi-nodding. “Al…right. Tell your story.” She marched away.

  I slowly turned back to our table.

  “Well?” Jake prompted.

  “Wait… You don’t really want me to tell the story, do you?”

  “Yes, we do!” The teacher was back. She grinned sadistically at me. “Unless you want to fail your Health class, of course.”

  Bitch.

  Could teachers do this?

  I scowled. “I’ll tell the story.”

  “Good girl.”

  Double bitch.

  Selena was grinning smugly at me.

  They teamed up, probably.

  I began to tell the story.

  When I finished, I expected everyone to burst out laughing. Instead, they all just stared at me.

  This was so embarrassing.

  I feigned indifference. “See? This is why I didn’t want to tell a story.”

  The teacher sighed, and wrote something down on her clipboard. “Alright, you all passed. Good story. Go back to your dinners now.”

 

The dinner passed in agony. My cheeks would’ve been flaming red if they weren’t tanned, and every now and then Selena or Jake or Jason would give me a weird look. That stupid story.

  Maybe it wasn’t ladylike to chew gum.

  That was probably it. It hadn’t been ladylike to chew gum and (attempt) to spit into the garbage can.

  That must’ve been why.

  I sighed. I was standing outside the hall of my dorm, about the turn the corner. I stopped and leaned against the wall. It had been mortifying. ‘That awkward moment’ had never been as true is it was today.

  I folded my arms and tossed my head to throw my hair to my right. I just had to ignore the embarrassment and move on.

  I turned the corner. I heard a pitter-patter of footsteps before I saw the shadow race down the hall, leaving me with nothing but confusion. “Hey!” I yelled. Whoever that was didn’t stop, and I had half a mind to go chase him down, but didn’t.

  Nearly panicking, I threw open my door, and ran into my dorm.

  There was a letter on the door.

  I ripped it open, and took in the words.

  You’re cute, even when you’re embarrassed.

  Oh my god! That must’ve been a reference to my embarrassing story debut today.

  He was there.

  I remained sat there, shocked, and that was how Alyssa and Nina found me a few minutes later.

25: Chapter 25- An Unexpected Revelation

Chapter 25- An Unexpected Revelation

Disclaimer: I do not own Stay by Rihanna ft Mikky Ekko.

Not really sure how to feel about it

Something in the way you move

Makes me feel like I can’t live without you

Yeah, it takes me all the way

-Stay by Rihanna ft. Mikky Ekko

 

  I woke up with a happy feeling, for some reason. Smiling, I stretched, letting out those retarded noises that everyone does when they stretch a lot. And act like cats.

  “I’m guessing you’re awake, then,” Nina said. Still stretching, I yawned as I looked over to her slightly dramatically. She was rubbing her eyes, and for once, wearing a non-fashionable brown baggy t-shirt and no pants. Her arm was still in a thick, white cast, with (surprisingly) no one’s signature or message. I would’ve expected someone to manage to scrawl something on as he or she lunged through the crowd of admirers trying to sign her cast.

  “Put on some clothes, please,” I replied. “At least I have my blanket on.”

  “Look, it’s almost summer. You can’t expect me to sleep with a blanket on. Or wear a goddamn nightgown to sleep. I don’t know how you do it.”

  “I’m heat resistant, baby,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Go tan yourself more. And I don’t mean spray tan by tanning.”

  Nina snorted. “I probably do more tanning than you.”

  “Our skin color’s, like, the same.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Never mind, then. Your argument is invalid.”

  “Shut up, will you?” Alyssa suddenly moaned. “I’m trying to sleep.”

  I checked my watch, and sat up. “It’s already ten.”

  “It’s a weekend!”

  “Come on, the boys’ carwash is today. Let’s go. It starts in an hour and breakfast ends in half an hour.”

  “I have yogurt here,” Alyssa replied.

  Nina spoke before I could. “Fine then. No caramel for you. I heard they’re serving it today because of the carwash.” Nina grinned.

  Alyssa bolted up. “Caramel?”

  “Yeah. And we’re not due to go to town till tomorrow, and you ate all of the caramel in storage.”

  She began to put on clothes. “Let’s go! Brush your hair and we’re off.”

  “Knew that would do the trick,” Nina said.

  Alyssa sent a glare to her, then grinned. “Yeah, it would’ve.”

 

I looked upwards, sucking on the inside of my right cheek. So there were the obvious ones, like Alex, Jake, and Jason… There was also Anthony, but since he was (surprisingly) still dating Nina, it couldn’t have been him. They were happy together, too, so he definitely wasn’t cheating on her.

  If he ended up cheating on Nina, I was going to rip out his balls and feed it to the goats.

  Ahem. The hate of cheating was from Jake and Jason.

  “Whatcha thinking about?” Kimberly asked suddenly, her voice just launching itself through my thoughts. I could almost imagine the ‘whee!’ as it went whistling through my barrier of concentration.

  …Even I didn’t know what I was talking about these days.

  In a panic, I hit the paper backwards. It flew with a pathetic little woosh into my stomach, and landed in a crumpled heap on the ground. “Sorry, I forgot you knew. You know, about my secret admirer thing.” I had told her one day, a few weeks after she came back from her volleyball tournament, and, as expected, she broke out with the romance and lovey-dovey crap immediately.

  Kimberly looked down at the paper, bewildered, then back at me. “Wow.”

  I gave a little embarrassed laugh, and picked up the paper. “Here’s the people I have so far.” I slid the paper across the table to her.

  Alyssa, who was sitting on my left, and Nina and Courtney, who were sitting opposite us, all scooched closer simultaneously. Courtney knew about it as well, even though our relationship wasn’t as close as it was to the rest of the girls on my table. Nina and I had become quite good friends over the course of the month, and I called us all a group of best friends. But Courtney and I were close enough that she knew.

  They all looked at who was at the dinner that night:

 

-Jake Miller

-Jason Payne

-Austin Fretter

-Anthony Sawyer

-Alex White

-Isaac Walter

-Nether Krucial

-Joseph Montom

-Cameron Romano

-Tyler Freeride

-Aiden Bing

 

There were more, of course, but the names had started to blur together and no one we really knew was after the name ‘Isaac Walter’.

  “So… I also made a list of who could even possibly send me a note.” I flipped the paper to the other side, and showed them an identical list to the other side, except with crosses next to the names that weren’t possible. I had crossed out Anthony’s name, Nether’s (he had a really weird name), Cameron, and…

  Yeah, just those three.

  “Real narrowed down,” Courtney drawled.

  Nina just nodded in approval that I had crossed out Anthony. Then, she frowned. “Why Cameron?”

  “He’s dating Amanda, isn’t he?”

  Nina looked away. “Oh yeah.”

  I frowned, but didn’t comment about how strange she was acting.

  Ayssa finally spoke, and pointed at Alex’s name. “You can cross that out.”

  I looked at her suspiciously. “How do you know? He could be Jake’s lackey or something.”

  “I just know, okay?” Alyssa burst out.

  I gave her a look of surprise, then looked back at the paper. “Alright…” I said slowly. I crossed out Alex.

  “And that leaves a grand total of…” Nina paused. “I would count but it’d take me all day.” She waved her arm in a cast in emphasis.

  I sighed. “I know it’s hopeless. I know it won’t help. Let’s just go to the carwash—we all got up late and it’s going to start soon.”

  We all gathered up our trays and began to the go to the carwash. It was set in the mini-pavilion next to the lawns, which was basically, erm, a carpark with tables and stuff. It made the school look more fancy, drawing attention away from the drab grey buildings that actually looked really good from the inside.

  As we drew nearer to the carpark, all of us started to grin and giggle. Like immature little girls.

  All the boys had taken off their tops.

  When we got to the edge of the carpark, Nina clapped her hands together and said gleefully, “Time for some chest-ogling.”

  I moaned, but laughed afterwards. “I guess.”

  Alyssa smiled, but it didn’t seem genuine. She touched me on the shoulder, which was the code for use, and meant that she was going to go off now.

  Alyssa walked off, and I saw her go over to…

 Jake, Alex, and Jason’s section.

  My mouth dropped open. “What’s she going over there for?”

  I realized that I was talking to no one. Kimberly had wandered off (I noticed that she was sending Isaac occasional glares), Nina and Courtney were chest-ogling, of course, and Alyssa was at the banes of my existence’s section.

  Oh well.

  I’ll ask her later.

  I sat down in a corner, near some random guys. I admit, I chose there because I didn’t know the guys washing the cars there and they were fairly attractive. A nice but rare combination. I did know Cameron Romano, and his best friend Aiden Bing, but very faintly.

  I thought someone was staring at me for a few seconds, but it turned out no one was.

  I went back to the money we had collected. The sale had ended a few days ago, and I thought I would count it today, just to rub it in their faces if I won.

  I began to count.

  As I counted, my mind wandered. I was decent at Maths—I could add up figures easily. I could think.

  All of my life, the messiness of it all came crashing down. Jason was my ex-boyfriend, we hated each other now? No? Yes? I didn’t know. It was hard to tell if I still had feelings for him. Jake was my ex-boyfriend as well, and I did hate him. He hated me. That was nice and simple, but there was the rest behind it. The hatred had sections, parts, and it covered desperation, fear, anger, regret, all those depressing feelings. He was simpler than Jason, at least. I knew I hated him. Maybe I hated Jason too, though. He did try to ruin my life.

  I hadn’t thought about Sammy and Ivy in a while. They seemed to have become best friends, which was kind of sad. Both were my ex-best friends—that must be a touchy subject for both of them. They didn’t seem to be plotting against me anymore—just a few glares now and then and a few whispers that didn’t go anywhere further than their own ears.

  Then there was Selena. Our ‘fight’ only lasted for a few weeks, but it cut deeper than Ivy and Sammy’s (forgive me for being this dramatic), what with Jason’s involvement. She actually had the potential to ‘overthrow’ me, but she had wasted her chance on something that was too big for her. She was the new girl, after all, and not everyone trusted her as much as they did me.

  Nina wasn’t as complicated. All the hate from before was just about popularity and retaliating, nothing serious like Jake and Jason. I guess that  was why it was so easy to become her friend. It happened quite quickly, actually—one week as each others’ nemesis and then best friends. Well, trying to destroy Jake’s life helped give it a little push, but it would have happened eventually anyway.

  …Or would it? If Jake was just one of our boyfriends, it would’ve pushed us further away because we would be so jealous and no actually discover Jake’s true nature. We would’ve learnt that he wasn’t the sweet, funny boy I met on the first day of school.

  So, apparently, my life is connected by the events. I guess I was happy about how it all turned out.

  Well, as soon as Nina’s arm refrains from being broken and I magically turn the amount of money we have into enough to beat the guys. My pride would be murdered if I didn’t win.

  Still, it was satisfying to see Jake hobble around on his crutches. He was sitting around, near Alex and Jason actually washing the cars. And his top was off too.

  I rolled my eyes and looked back to my money. So, so far, I had a thousand and three dollars. Each candy gram cost one dollar, and even though some people hadn’t bought any candy grams (damn them), some hopeless romantics *coughcoughKimberlycoughcough* had bought ten or something to distribute to their boyfriend/girlfriend and best friends. There were around nine hundred sixty people in the school, including the junior and senior years, so that meant that people had definitely bought more than one.

  Well.

  I gasped as I suddenly remembered Alex. He had gotten a huge amount of candy grams in that basket, and he was putting it with the rest… There had to be around a hundred in there. Did that meant we cheated?

  No, I thought. It isn’t cheating because he had helped campaign it—he got it through legit reasons. Anyone could have done it, and just because he was head of the competing project didn’t mean he couldn’t do it. It’s like if, I don’t know, Madeline got a bunch of candy grams from people and gave it to us. Yeah.

  I looked up, and laid my head back onto the carpark wall. There was a good chance we’d win, since carwashes and candy grams were completely different, and I’d heard it took around five dollars to wash a car and I didn’t see two hundred cars just wandering around here.

  Suddenly, Nina and Courtney appeared by my side. Nina looked pissed off and Courtney was giggling.

  I slowly swivelled my head around to look at them. “What’re you so mad about?”

  Nina just huffed.

  Courtney giggled again. “Well, we had gone over to Austin Fretter and his friends, and Nina kept on looking over at Jake and Alex and Jason.”

  I gave Nina a look. “Really? Your hormones are going out of control.”

  Courtney shook her head and laughed again. “The thing is… Jake has abs.”

  If I had water in my mouth, I’d have spat it all over poor Cameron, who was in front of me and facing the car he was washing. “Nina! Have some self-discipline!”

  “I was not!” she cried. “I was not chest-ogling him!”

  “Who, then?”

  “I was looking at the building!”

  “No, you weren’t!” Courtney sang. “If you weren’t, why were you staring with a dreamy look at the building?”

  Nina elbowed Courtney in the gut, hard. Courtney let out an ‘oof’, then gave Nina a smug grin. “Haha.”

  Nina shrugged. “Jason doesn’t have abs. Well, at least not as much as Jake. And Alex has abs.”

  I made a face. “Why do I need to know that?”

  “You should suffer with me.”

  I stuck out my tongue at her. “Well, as soon as Courtney’s done hopping around in pain, I’ll tell you what the total count of money was for the candy grams.”

  Courtney stopped ‘hopping around in pain’ immediately. “What is it?”

  Nina was staring at me too.

  “One thousand and three dollars!” I announced. “How’s that?”

  Courtney clapped in excitement and Nina gave a relieved smile. “That’s good,” Nina said. “We have a chance of beating them.”

  I snorted. “Stupid of them to pick a carwash.”

  “Yeah, I guess,” Nina replied, glancing at Jake again.

  Just to see if they were lying, I snuck a peak.

  And then slapped myself. “Don’t be stupid,” I said.

  Nina rolled her eyes at me. “And I have hormones.”

  I puffed up my cheeks. “Buh bye. I’ll go find Alyssa. She isn’t crazy.”

  “Good luck! She’s not with Alex anymore!” Courtney called.

  Hmph.

  After a bit of looking around, I found her with Kimberly. They were talking and giggling. Just like they were gossiping.

  “I hope,” I said loudly when I was behind them. “That you’re not giggling like little girls about abs.”

  Alyssa and Kimberly turned around, startled. Alyssa’s face turned red, and she grinned. “Nope.”

  I laughed. “If you are, then let me join in. I need some action.”

  We all burst out laughing as I climbed over them and sat down in between the pair. “This is a nice car,” I said. “Are you sure whoever washed it doesn’t mind?”

  “Please,” Kimberly replied. “We’re Miss Queen Bee’s best friends. They can’t mind.”

  I laughed, but still frowned afterwards. “Seriously, I want to make sure.”

  Alyssa waved. “Don’t worry, Anthony washed this one, and it’s his own car. We can always have Nina bribe him with sex later.”

  I slapped her on the shoulder, but still laughed. “We’re only fourteen, miss dirty-mind.”

  Kimberly just stared at us in horror. “Alyssa!”

  She shrugged. “It’s in my genes.”

  “I don’t recall your parents having a dirty mind.” I leaned forward. “More like it’s in your nature, not your genes.”

  Alyssa shrugged again. “Alastrina’s same, go ask her if you want.”

  I stuck my tongue out. “Fine then. It’s in your genes.”

  “Uh huh.”

  “Never mind… Let’s move on…” Kimberly sang.

  Before I could reply (or Alyssa, thankfully—she’d probably break out with some dirty thing that Kimberly would be horrified about), Jake sauntered over. Well, more like hobbled over arrogantly. “Well, the carwash is almost, over, ladies. And I bet we have more than you. Our profit exceeded expectations by hundreds.”

  I rolled my eyes, but I was a little worried. “This isn’t a business meeting. Speak teenager.”

  I was hoping to bait him into talking like an idiot, but he caught the trap and didn’t. “Do you want to hear the grand total, or are you willing to accept defeat without knowing the amount of shame you will receive?”

  “Alright, give me the figures.” I leaned forward.

  He leaned forward as well until his nose was only a few centimeters from mine. It felt like the parking lot had gone quiet. “Nine hundred and seventy-six.”

  I leaned back instantly, clapping and laughing. “We beat you, you smug little bastard.”

  He frowned. “What?”

  “We have a thousand and three! Beat you by, like, forty dollars.”

  Jake folded his arms. “Less than forty, but. But. What if you’re lying? I wouldn’t put it past you.”

  I laughed. “Please, even if I counted wrong I could still beat you. Come over, unless your leg can’t do it.”

  Of course, Jake’s pride would force him to follow me. That was a trap he couldn’t go around.

  Nina and Courtney were still next to the money. When Nina caught sight of me coming towards her, with Alyssa, Kimberly, and Jake following me, she fell silent, and so did Courtney. Nina mouthed, ‘Win or lose?’ to me. I gave her a thumbs up.

  She grinned and showed the loser sign to Jake with her good hand. He made a face, the kind people do when they don’t have anything better to offer as a rebuttal. Nina grinned again.

  I showed him my stack of money, neatly piled up. “Here.”

  He started to count it.

  “Oh, god, you can’t be serious. You’re going to count more than a thousand dollars?”

  Jake glared at me. “Shut up, and you made me lost count.”

  “Ooh, touchy, touchy,” Alyssa snapped back.

  Jake just continued to count, as if he couldn’t even be bothered to give my best friend a reply. I sighed.

  As he counted the money, people started to gather around us. The carwash was very, very nearly over, as it was nearly three, and I hadn’t eaten lunch and time had passed insanely quickly.

  Alex and Jason stood next to Jake, having pushed through the crowd. When Jake looked up with a dejected look, and announced, “They won.”, Alex gave a satisfied smile and then seemed to revert back to his ‘douchebag mode’ as he said, “Well. Maybe they added some of their stinkin’ fortune to it.”

  Jason just sent me an unsettled glance and then walked away with Jake. Alex looked at the five of us, and I might have been imagining it, but he sent another look to Alyssa, smiled, and then walked away.

  What was up with those two?

  I shook my head, then turned back to my friends. “Well. We won.”

  “Whoo!” Nina called. “We won! In your face!”

  Thankfully, neither our competitors or anyone else in general were there to see that.

  I smiled. “Well, goodie. I’m going to go get some stuff from my locker—I think I forgot some homework in there.”

  Alyssa nodded. “Alright.” Kimberly nodded as well, still talking to Nina and Courtney.

  I left, still smiling.

 

Cameron Romano was trying to stuff flowers into my locker.

  I stared in absolute shock at him. He was muttering under his breath, his brown hair falling across his right eye slightly. He’d managed to get the first few centimeters of the stems into my locker, and they were clean, and dry, thankfully. He was thoughtful enough to make sure that I wouldn’t have bugs and water and dirt all over my locker.

  He pursed his lips, and stared at the locker for a few seconds.

  Cameron Romano was my secret admirer?

  What?

  The?

  Hell?

  I hadn’t even considered him. We had mentioned him briefly while talking about who it could be, and Nina thought he shouldn’t have been crossed out, but he was dating Amanda.

  He was dating Amanda, so what was he doing stuffing flowers into my locker?

  And Amanda’s locker was within a ten locker radius of mine, but it was three away. And hers had ‘AMANDA’ scrawled over it.

  In big, pink letters.

  She was an artist, so she drew it one day and it currently looked fabulous and was three lockers away from the locker that Cameron was putting flowers into and I didn’t know why he was doing it maybe he and Amanda had broken up but didn’t that mean that we would’ve heard and this was all really confusing and I was too shocked to do anything…

  He saw next to me in English, I realized.

  That’s how.

  I suddenly broke down in laughter as I realized that Alyssa and I wouldn’t have gotten anything even if we hadn’t been interrupted by the sprinklers or Alex or Jake. He must just slip it on my desk before class, before anyone saw him. And he came early to class everyday too.

  Cameron’s head whipped around, and he saw me. His eyes widened to the size of saucers, his mouth dropped open, and he completely panicked. “Oh hi um Tori! I… didn’t know you would be here. Oh is this your… um locker? Oh isn’t… Sorry um… I thought that, um, maybe… Oh! This, uh…”

  When he fell silent completely, I folded my arms and smiled at him. “How were you planning to fit those in?”

  He suddenly laughed, relieved. “Oh, er, well, I didn’t really think about it…”

  “I know the feeling,” I said. I glanced at the flowers, currently hanging on my locker, half-out and half-in. “So… Did you and Amanda break up?”

  He glanced at my locker, then at his pocket, and then back at me. “Yeah, a few weeks ago.”

  “How come I didn’t hear?” I cocked my head.

  Cameron sighed and leaned against Davy’s locker, the one beside mine. “We wanted it to keep quiet—it just wasn’t working out.”

  “But you were a couple for six months.”

  “It was all pretend,” Cameron said quietly.

  I could see he didn’t want to talk about it, even though I wanted to know more, so I nodded. “Alright, then. What’s in your pocket?”

  He was taken aback. “Oh! Um.” He looked at his pocket.

  I grinned, and held out my hand. “Hand it over.”

  Cameron blushed, and he looked sheepishly as he took out a slip of folded paper and handed it to me.

  I opened it, nervous, and read the contents. A love note.

  I couldn’t stop myself from grinning, so I had to force myself to curl my lips in to not seem rude and that I was laughing at him.

  I wasn’t! Just at the whole… thing…

  “You’re my secret admirer?” I said, looking up.

  He looked away. “Yeah.”

  “Kind of a fast change of girls, huh?” I poked him on the shoulder. Cameron jumped back, and I noticed suddenly that he was taller than me.

  “Er, what?” He looked sheepish.

  “You know… Amanda… then me… when did you start with the notes?”

  Cameron scratched the back of his head. “Around a few days after Amanda and I broke up.”

  “That’s quite fast… you know, for the moping after a break up to end.”

  “It’s complicated,” he said, very lightly, like he was trying not to touch the memories.

  I understood. “Mmm hmm.” I fidgeted a little. “Did you know that Jason sent me secret admirer notes too?”

  Cameron’s eyes widened, and then he shook his head.

  “Well, he did, and that gave me a bad impression of whoever gave me ‘love notes’.” I raised my eyebrows slightly.

  Cameron looked… sad. “Oh! Um. Sorry. Should I leave? We could pretend this never happened.”

  I laughed. “No, it’s okay. You’re a nice guy, it’s just that, after Jason…”

  “I understand.”

  “No, I’m not rejecting you! I just need to think about it. I’ll tell you my answer soon, alright? Maybe in English?”

  English was in two days, which gave me plenty of time to think about it.

  Cameron nodded. Then he took the flowers out, and presented it to me with a dramatic flourish. In a thick Italian accent, he said, “To my lady.”

  I giggled, and took the flowers. I curtseyed. “Thank you, my good sir. I shall see you in two days with my final answer.”

  “See you then.” He gave me another shy smile, and then left, going down the Science corridor.”

 

I collapsed onto my bed with a sigh. “Cameron,” I muttered. “It was Cameron.”

  Him, all along. Not Jake, not Jason, Cameron.

  So it was genuine. And I doubted that Jake was paying Cameron or something to act like my secret admirer—that was too… weird, even for him.

  I was still lying on my bed when the door opened and my two best friends came bouncing in.

  “Hey!” Alyssa grinned at me. When she noticed what I looked like, her smile disappeared slowly. “What happened?”

  Nina turned around, about to go into the bathroom. “Tori?”

  I rolled over, groaning. “I found out who’s my secret admirer.”

  Alyssa leaped from her spot onto my bed, making the soft mattress bounce. “Well then, stop with the dramatics and tell me!”

  Nina sat down next to Alyssa, listening.

  “It was Cameron. Cameron Romano.”

  Before Alyssa could react, Nina burst out laughing. “I knew it!” She chirped, clapping her hands. “I knew it!”

  My mouth dropped open. I bolted up from my lying position. “What?”

  Nina giggled. “I guessed it from that English class.”

  “What?” Then it all came back to me. Her giggling and saying, ‘I’m betting that it’s a love note from Mr. Lover Boy over there.’ “Nina! You saw him put it down?”

  “He wasn’t as quick as usual that day,” she replied, still grinning.

  I slapped her on the arm. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Well, it wasn’t really more than a suspicion…”

  “Yes, it was!” I yelled. “You saw him put down the paper!”

  “Will you stop yelling at me?” she shouted back.

  “Guys-” Alyssa began.

  “How could you not tell me?”

  “Well, how was I supposed to?”

  “The normal way? Using your throat?”

  “Tori! You probably wouldn’t have believed it if I told you!”

  “Well, you could have at least tried!” I was practically screaming now. “Didn’t you see me? I was definitely not happy that ‘Jake’ was giving me notes. You could have told me it was Cameron! This isn’t Wizard of Oz and you’re not Glenda! Don’t act all innocent, you bitch!”

  “Why are you overreacting this much?” she yelled back. “You found out anyway! Calling me a bitch isn’t going to help!”

  “That was by chance! What if Cameron never built up the courage to ask me out? I would’ve never known and I would’ve thought Jake was giving me notes!”

  “Then I would’ve interfered!”

  “Why? Would you have told Cameron to never ask me out and alienate him from me? You’ve done me as much good anyway.”

  “What the hell? You think I’m plotting against you or something?”

  “Seems like it!”

  “You are blowing this out of proportion! All I did was not tell you about Cameron! You don’t have to act like a drama queen—this is only high school. I don’t know what’s gotten into you, and Cameron isn’t so without courage and all that shit that he wouldn’t ask you out. You would’ve found out eventually, and I definitely would have told you if you didn’t. Forgive me if I didn’t realize that you would want to know immediately and I didn’t realize that I couldn’t do anything you didn’t like. I know that you wanted to know, but you should have found out yourself. So you can stop acting like I committed a crime.” Nina turned on her heels and walked out, her steps hard and sure.

  As the dorm fell into silence, I looked around and realized that Alyssa wasn’t here anymore.

  I felt stupid.

  I probably shouldn’t have called Nina a bitch.

  I probably shouldn’t have been so dramatic.

  I probably shouldn’t have yelled at her.

  I probably shouldn’t have thought she was plotting against me.

  I probably should apologize.

  I felt teary.

  I collapsed onto my bed again, sighing. Again. It felt like what I did a ten minutes ago, but… different.

  I guess it was different.

  My thoughts wandered to Cameron; I didn’t want to think about Nina or Alyssa.

  I wasn’t sure why I had semi-rejected Cameron. He was perfectly good-looking, perfectly nice, perfectly gentlemanly, perfectly romantic, perfectly everything.

  Maybe I was afraid of getting hurt again.

  But it wasn’t like I was swearing off boys just because of two particular ones, was I?

  I rolled over, and buried my face in my pillow.