Noah

I bumped into Mandy at the club. She had her brown hair tied in a ponytail, which ended in newly dyed pink ends, and her piercings were all gone, except for the small silver stud on her nose. She was wearing a baby blue leotard under black shorts and an open black hoodie. A matching blue bag was slung over her shoulder and her feet were adorned by white sneakers. Next to her was a tall brown haired guy, his green eyes locked on Amanda.

"Sorry," I muttered under my breath. I really was not in the mood to socialize, since Zoey's last visit to the doctor had gotten me down. She needed to be in the hospital for a week or so, they wanted to have her there to give her some medicine and stuff.

"It's okay," Mandy replied.

"I'm Sam," the guy next to her said and stretched his hand towards me.

"Noah," I shook it with my own.

"Anyways," Amanda said, "I better get going to practice, do whatever you like, I don't know." She turned to Sam before walking over to the gymnastics gym. Guess she didn't really care about this friend of hers.

"And I better go practice basketball," I stated and turned around towards the court.

"Mind if I tag along?" Sam asked, "I don't have anything better to do anyway."

"Sure," I shrugged. We walked in silence towards the basketball court, which was empty as usual. "You do know how to play, right?"

"Yeah," he replied as I grabbed an orange ball from the rack after unlocking it. I tossed it to him and then grabbed another one for myself. I started bouncing the ball around on the wooden floor as I left my backpack on the floor. Sam followed me with his own ball.

"So, where do you know Amanda from?" he asked as I threw the ball into the hoop.

"School," I replied, "You're from California, right?"

"Yeah."

"Cool," I stated before pointing out, "She sometimes talks about her old friends, but she never mentioned you before."

"I doubt she would," Sam said as he threw the ball into the hoop, "I'm kind of her ex." I stopped in my tracks before bouncing the ball again. This was the guy the rumors were about, the rumors that made Amanda look like a control freak.

"Oh."

"Yeah," he said, "Things didn't end well between us." I sighed, not really wanting to hear what happened between them. If I was going to be told about it, better be Amanda the one who told me.

"That kind of explains why she sometimes is untrusting with guys," I replied bouncing the ball around the wooden floor as I walked around the court, Sam following me.

"I came here to try and fix things between us," he explained, "But I came too late, she already has a boyfriend."

"Yeah," I said, "Jack."

"That's him." I remembered the bored look Mandy had in her face when I had bumped into her, pure anger and hate hidden well behind that look.

"So," Sam stated as he threw his ball into the hoop, "Do you know him? I mean, do you know Jack?"

"Yeah, why?" I stopped bouncing and looked at the brown haired guy in front of me. He looked back at me with his green eyes on my blue ones.

"Maybe you'd like to warn him about Amanda," he said then, "She is not what she seems." What the fuck was he talking about?

"What do you mean?" I asked. He stopped bouncing the ball.

"Amanda's cool and everything, but that's just a facadę." He paused. "You might already know what I'm talking about, only if you are close enough to her." I did know what he was talking about.

"Maybe," I stated without taking my eyes off him.

"I'm gonna take that as a yes," he said, "She will not appreciate me telling you this, since she already practically hates me, but whatever." He paused. "Back in California, she did some things that, you know, weren't really okay to do."

"There's been a few rumors about her, but I really don't see Amanda doing any of those things," I informed him, "Maybe they are just that, just rumors." Sam looked at me doubtfully.

"Believe whatever you want," he said, "But I'm warning you, Amanda is not what she looks like."

Suddenly, as an uncomfortable silence fell between us, the doors to the court slammed open and in came Amanda. Her brows were furrowed as she stepped furiously over to us, her hoodie zipped closed and the hood over her ponytail.

"I'm leaving," she announced and looked at Sam, "And I don't care if you are coming with me or if you are not." She turned back around, sighed angrily and walked back out. Sam looked at me as I did the same. He shrugged and followed Mandy out of the basketball court after throwing me the spare ball. The door closed with a loud slam, leaving me to wonder what the heck had just happened.

*          &          *

"Why were you so mad at the club on Sunday?" I asked Amanda as I caught up to her as she made her way towards the school's exit.

"Nothing," she simply replied.

"Come on, just tell me already," I insisted.

"I just... she... ugh!" Mandy sighed in frustration as she pushed open the doors and stepped outside into the fresh air.

"What?"

"So, I arrived and everything was perfect," she started as she sat down on the small wall that surrounded the parking lot, "I was warming up, preparing myself for the class and..." She paused as I sat down next to her. "I stepped onto the Floor, I was about to perform this really difficult move called the McKarl and in came Charlotte." She said that name with so much venom in her voice that I knew instantly she hated this girl.

"Charlotte is this really irritating and annoying girl," she continued, "She commented this thing that made me really mad. I couldn't do the freaking McKarl because of what she said." She sighed. "It's really stupid telling you this, since you probably don't get it, but I just really despise her. I couldn't even continue with the class, since I was practically stopping myself from killing her right there." I smirked for no reason at all as Mandy finished her story.

"That's it?" I asked. She stared at me with her stunning white eyes as if I was stupid.

"That's it!?" she exclaimed and stood up suddenly. She started to walk around in circles as she kept on talking, "Sam is also freaking here, in Miami. And even worse, he thinks we are fine when we are not, not after what he did to me with Amelia." She paused. "You even played basketball with him. Thank you for that, by the way." This was turning into a psychology session, and I was not into it.

"You're welcome," I replied and I stood up, "Now, life problems aside please, because I don't really care." I gripped my helmet firmly and waved it in front of her face. "Need a ride? Or is someone already taking you?"

"Uh," she stopped walking around in circles to look at me, "Depends." She took out her phone, dialed a number and placed in on top of her pierced ear.

"Tyler?" she said after a few moments, "You coming? Oh, okay. Tell her I said hi. Yeah. Bye, love you." Amanda hung up and sighed. "He's with Heather." Before I could ask, she spoke again. "His girlfriend."

"What about your boyfriend?" I asked, feeling weird using that word, not really knowing which word I was referring to.

"Basketball practice."

"Right, forgot about that," I said, internally slapping myself for forgetting Jack's after-school schedule, "So you do need a ride." I shoved her my helmet and started the walk to my motorcycle.

"This is beginning to be pretty regular," she commented as she catched up to me.

"That's your fault," I replied.

"Whatever, Brown."

"I meant to ask you," I said instantly, "What happened to your cousins?"

"Winter break kind of ended, if you didn't know," Mandy said, "They already left, even if it was kind of short, I'm glad I could see them again."

"Cool." We arrived to my motorcycle, and I lifted the seat to take out my spare helmet from the small storage space it had. I put the seat in its place and shoved the helmet to Amanda, afterwards removing the helmet I had handed her a few minutes ago from her grasp.

"Thanks," she said as she slipped on the black helmet. Her white eyes disappeared from view along with her brown hair, leaving only the pink tips of it falling down her back. I shook my head and put on my own helmet.

I mounted my motorcycle, Amanda right after me. She snaked her arms around my waist as I pulled out of the parking space. As soon as we whizzed out the school's parking lot, Mandy's grip on me tightened slightly, making me smirk at her fear. Even though she denied being scared of riding a motorcycle, I knew that deep down she was really nervous every time she rode on one.

I went faster than normal on my way to her house, just to annoy her. I could feel her muscles tense against my body when I speeded through the streets, only making me enjoy it even more. When we arrived, she jumped off the motorcycle and took off her helmet as fast as she could. I slid off my own helmet and looked at her carefully.

Her brows were slightly furrowed as she stared at me as if I had stolen her phone. Her hair was shorter than before, not reaching her waist like it used to, meaning she had cut it a few inches and dyed it pink again. I never asked her why she chose pink, or why she even dyed her hair in the first place. She had a few fading scars on her face and new ones on her bare arms.

"Don't do that ever again!" she scolded me as she shook her head to straighten her hair, "I'm serious." She shoved me her helmet which I just grabbed with a smirk in my face as I put it in its place underneath the seat.

"Calm down," I said and lifted my arms up in surrender, "It's not my fault you are scared of riding a motorcycle."

"What? I'm not!" Amanda replied.

"Whatever you say, Mandy," I said as I slipped on my helmet once more, "See you tomorrow at school?"

"Duh." I pulled away from the sidewalk and made my way home.