Noah

I entered school to find a huge crowd gathered around a locker. As I got closer, I realized it was Amanda's locker. I speeded up my pace and made my way through the thick layer of students. They were all taking photos and laughing. In what seemed like bright pink lipstick, 'psycho girl' was written on the locker's door.

Suddenly, the crowd parted in two and Amanda appeared. She saw her locker and gasped. I noticed she had scratches on her face and her bare arms. She shouted at the crowd to go away, after a while they left, getting bored of laughing at the locker. When no one else was left but me, she frowned before grabbing a paper towel from her bag.

"I hate her," she said as she started to wipe away the lipstick, "It's all her fault."

"Who?"

"Aubrey," she replied, "She obviously did this, that's her lipstick colour."

"And do you know why she did it?" I asked.

"Um, duh. Yesterday? At the cafeteria?" She turned around and I looked at her in confusion.

"Oh, right," Amanda said, "You were absent." She turned back around and continued to clean her locker.

"She confronted me because apparently you hadn't texted her back, so she assumed I hadn't told you about her message because I liked you and was jealous of her, even though I have a boyfriend," she rolled her eyes and continued, "Then she said some pretty offensive things, and I guess I lost control." She wiped off the last part of lipstick, leaving a trace of glitter on her locker's door. "I slapped her." I choked and then coughed.

"You did what?" I asked incredulously.

"I slapped her worthless face," Mandy repeated, "And she scratched me with her fake nails. The fight ended with both of our pair of hands on each other's hair, fighting and screaming until the Principal came. I think I accidentally declared war between us." She shrugged. "It's not the first time I have to deal with a bitch like her."

"Woah, I'm absent for a day and I lose the chance of seeing you fight against Aubrey?" I said, Mandy looked at me as if she was going to kill me. I coughed and asked, "What did she say?"

"Things I won't be repeating," she said as she grabbed her backpack from the floor, "Thanks to her, I have detention for a week. She, obviously, convinced the Principal I attacked her for no reason at all and ended charge free." In conclusion, I pulled Amanda into this mess by talking to her. Great.

Amanda then looked behind me. "Oh fucking awesome. There she comes. Don't let me slap her again, I don't want suspension."

I turned around and surely Aubrey was sashaying down the hall. Heels clicking as she placed one leg in front of the other. She had on a short skirt and a blouse. I trailed my eyes higher into her face and choked back a chuckle. She had a black eye.

"Are you sure you only slapped her?" I asked Mandy.

"I may have thrown a punch or two..." She smiled, her dimples showing up for the first time in a while and I laughed.

Aubrey stopped in front of us and crossed her arms. She looked Amanda up and down with disgust.

"Noah, psycho girl," she greeted us, "What are you two laughing about?"

"Nothing," I said at the same time that Amanda replied, "You." Aubrey rolled her eyes.

"Oh no," Aubrey said looking at Amanda's locker, "Did someone write a rude name on your locker? That's terrible." Aubrey smirked.

"Whatever. Oh, by the way, I wanted to know something," Amanda stated, "What kind of sane person finds out about the life that another person had before moving to a new state? I think that's stalking, and that's kind of a symptom of a psychopath, maybe you should check the internet before accusing someone of starting a fight and being a 'psycho girl'." Aubrey scoffed.

"That's not called stalking," she said, "It's called gossiping. God, sorry, I totally forgot that you don't like that word, why was that again? Oh yeah, it ruined your life." Aubrey stepped closer to Amanda. "And if you cross me ever again, I swear to God that it will ruin your life for a second time."

And with that, she spun around and sashayed away from us. I looked at Mandy and noticed her hands were in fists and shaking, honestly, could I blame her? Obviously not.

"Hey," I touched her shoulder, "Ignore her."

"Right," Amanda said, "She deserves another slap."

"God," I stated, "I should remember myself to never, ever make you angry." She laughed and the bell rang.

"Guess I'll see you around, Brown," she said.

"Yeah."

"Cool." She ran down the hallway towards her first class as I turned around and walked into mine.

* & *

"This is your Principal speaking," the huge speaker announced, waking me up from my daydreaming in Chemistry class. "I would like to remember the hockey and football team about the exchange holiday we will be having with West Holden High School in California. Since both your coaches are on a trip with third year, I will be giving all the details, so you may come and ask me." The members of both teams cheered.

"Also," the Principal continued, "Don't forget the girls and boys coming must bring a family member with them, so remember to make them feel like home. Have a great day!"

As soon as I walked outside and into lunch break, I could hear everyone talking about the exchange that would be happening.

"Hailey!" I heard someone shout before she crashed into me. I felt Amanda puff out air and cough.

"Okay, Taylors," I smirked, "You should really stop smashing into me, I'm not a rag doll."

"Sorry, Noah," she said, "Just got really excited about the exchange, my cousins might be coming!" Before I could reply she ran off to meet Hailey and Jack by her locker. She has too much energy for one person. At lunch, when Jack finally came back to sit with us, I asked him what had happened with Mandy.

"Her cousins might be coming from California for the exchange program," he said, "She's thrilled, but apparently, their families are in a huge fight and her uncle might not let them come. She didn't tell me what the fight was about. Amanda did mention that her cousins are twins."

"Oh, cool."

"Great!" Alex said, "I might be able to get one of the twins to go on a date with me."

"Not likely," we all said at once.

"Thanks for the support, dudes," Alex replied and we all laughed. He was having serious problems in finding dates after he broke up with Kayla.

"Aren't you on the football team?" Jack asked Shane.

"Yeah," he replied, "They are coming first and we are going afterwards. They're coming on Winter break."

"And when are you going to play against them?"

"We have a few matches against each other, they are friendly, obviously, but I'm not sure when they will be held."

"By the way," Shane said and turned back to Jack, "The fight between your girlfriend and Aubrey in the cafeteria was priceless." Jack shrugged awkwardly.

"It was Aubrey's fault, we all know that," Jack replied.

"Yeah," Alex stated, "I hope the things she said are not true, because that would be super awkward between you and Amanda." Jack shrugged again.

"What did she even say?" I asked.

"Pretty bad things," Shane said, "It was sick."

"Yeah, but what kind of 'bad things'?"

"I think," Jack said, "Aubrey said how Amanda had ruined the relationship of one of her friends with her boyfriend. Oh, and how controlling she had been with her own boyfriend back in California."

"Nobody even knows where she got that information from," Shane said.

"That's just horrible."

"Yeah," Jack said, "Amanda is not controlling, or at least with me she isn't. She's not jealous of my girl-friends or whatever." I just nodded. Aubrey was totally lying. The guys told me other things that Aubrey had said about Amanda, which included: Mandy sabotaging another girl in her ex gymnastics team so she wouldn't be able to compete, bullying other students, and fighting people. Guess that's how the 'psycho girl' thing started.

Neither of those things were something I could picture Amanda doing, not after she'd cried like that on Saturday. I'm not sure what I think of that, by the way. I don't know who, but I know that someone's hurting her. She wouldn't and still won't tell me the whole story. Jack obviously doesn't know about that, but I'm sure Hailey does, after all she is her best friend. I do hope Amanda figures out what she wants to do about it and act quickly, because every time I see her, new bruises and cuts are all over her arms and face.

At least she did promise me she would tell me about it someday, and would let me do something about it. For now, I'm just sitting on the bench and waiting for a signal from her to let me play in the game only she can control: her life.