Oooh, another update, (a non edited one).

That's two in one week, I'm on a roll.

Anyway, this is kinda short but I wanted to update before I went away.

I'm going camping for a week and there's no wifi.

Noooooooo, not the wifi!

~*~*~*~*~

"Why are you so quiet today?" Tara asked me from across the table.

"I'm just tired," I replied, resting my chin on my right hand. It's true, I was tired. It was a Wednesday and we were sitting at our normal table in the cafeteria, all six of us. We had become one big group instead of two, which was great because now I wasn't a loner in any of my classes.

"Why are you so tired? Tara probed.

That my friend is a very good question.

I glared at Ryan across the table. It was weird that he wasn't sitting next to me because I'd gotten used to that. He was keeping his distance from me on purpose.

"I told Ryan how much I hated screamo music. Big, big mistake."

The day before I had told Ryan that screamo should be banned because it sounded like someone pulling a cats tail.

So what does he do, I hear you ask? I'll tell what he does. He starts playing loud screamo music at two in the morning. That's not even the worst part. The worst part is when he keeps playing the same song over and over, and doesn't stop until six in the morning.

That's why he was sitting on the opposite side of the table to me. So I couldn't attack him.

"And what's your opinion of screamo now?" Kyle asked.

"You know when you buy something and you can't figure out if you like it or not, then you put it in your house and the more you look at it, the more it grows on you?"

I received several nods from around the table.

"Well the way I feel about screamo is the exact opposite of that. The more I listen to it, the more I hate it."

Tara snorted ungracefully. "You do have a way with words."

"Thanks."

I continued to pick at my salad. I don't like salad, especially when the lettuce is all soggy and the tomato seeds fall out of the tomatoes. Then you get this slimy, seedy stuff everywhere. It makes everything taste like tomato.

The conversations continued around me, but I didn't feel like talking. In fact, if I was allowed to I would've just slept on the cafeteria floor. Disgusting I know, but sleeping is sleeping, I'll take what I can get.

I realised at that point that my lips were really dry, and I had no lip balm. Why the hell didn't I have lip balm? I don't know, it's despicable really. Any girl- no any person who doesn't carry lip balm on them at all times should be ashamed of themselves. I am ashamed of myself.

Apparently I couldn't live without my lip balm, so I had to go to my locker to get some.

"I'll be right back."

I plodded out if the cafeteria and turned left. Luckily for me, my locker wasn't too far from the cafeteria. It was pretty convenient actually.

As I shuffled towards my locker I could see a figure in the distance. As I got closer I realised who it was.

"Alex?"

I completely forgot about that guy.

Shit I'm a bad person.

"Hey." He stopped in front of me, awkwardly waving.

"Where have you been? I haven't seen you in forever."

"Oh, um....i've just been uh....around. Yeah I've been around."

Around? He's been around? That's the stupidest coverup I've ever heard.

His mannerisms were really weird too. One of his eyes kept twitching, he kept looking around like he stole something, he was jittery. Something just seemed off about him, almost like he was nervous to even have a conversation with me.

Maybe I should take it as a compliment...?

"Oh..okay, well join us for lunch one day, yeah?"

He nodded, stumbling over his own feet as he walked past. Definitely something strange going on with him.

I shook my head, walking over to my locker. I spun the dial on the lock, waiting for it to click open.

"Hey sunshine?"

I spun around to find Ryan standing behind me.

I placed a hand on my heart. "You scared me."

He grinned sheepishly. "Sorry."

"It's fine," I sighed, pulling open my locker. I froze at what I saw.

"Are you still mad at me sunshine? I am sorry for playing that shit last night. It was a real dick move and-"

"Sunshine?"

He waved a hand in front of my face, which snapped me out of my state of shock.

"Huh?" I blinked.

"Are you still mad?"

I shook my head no.

"Look," I said, picking up the worn book in both hands.

"Your sketchbook?"

"Yeah," I said flipping through the pages which seemed to be intact. "But how did it get here?" I asked in amazement.

"It teleported?"

I glared and he raised his hands in surrender. "Sorry, sorry, I was kidding."

I rolled my eyes, continuing to flip through the pages. I frowned as I noticed that a single page had been torn from the spine of the book. It was the very back page, and I couldn't for the life of me remember what I had sketched there.

"Weird." I commented.

"What?"

"It's weird that they had this for two weeks and only took one page, then put it my locker. Just seems fishy to me."

He shrugged. "Maybe they realised what assholes they were being."

"Yeah, but why keep the page if they realised they were being assholes? And now someone knows my locker combination."

"We can switch locks if it makes you feel better."

I smiled. "Thanks."

He smirked, sending me a wink as he headed to his own locker. "It's my pleasure sunshine."

"It's my pleasure," I mocked maturely in a deep voice.

~*~*~*~

You know that moment when you're in class and you really really have to pee? Like if you don't pee your bladder will self detonate?

Yeah, well than was me in last period history. It didn't help that it was raining either. Of course Mother Nature had to have her say. Attention whore.

I tried every trick in the book to try and hold it. I tried crossing my legs, I tried moving to distract myself, I even tried listening to the teacher? I know, crazy right? All three turned out as ineffective as each other.

I guess it just didn't want to be held.

My hand shot up in the air. I hadn't told it to do that, I guess it was like a reflex.

My sudden movement caught the attention of Mr Garner, my history teacher.

He raised his eyebrows. "Miss Harper your enthusiasm is quite astounding. How may I help you?"

"Can I go to the bathroom?" I asked. Although I spoke very desperately, and so quickly that I sounded like I was on fast forward.

He seemed mildly amused. "I don't know, can you go to the bathroom Miss Harper?"

If my bladder wasn't about to burst I probably would've had a smart remark, but I settled on an eye roll instead.

"May I go to the bathroom?"

"You may. Just don't let frog eyes see you or he'll have my head."

A few people snickered at the mention of frog eyes. The hall monitor. The poor guy looked like a bullfrog.

"Gotcha," I chimed, as I awkwardly penguin waddled past Mr G, and into the hallway.

If frog eyes even tried to stop me he was going to have more to worry about than the bald patch the size of a tennis ball on top of his head.

Not such a good sign for a guy in his mid thirties.

As quickly as I possibly could, I made my way to the bathroom, throwing open the stall door and hastily locking it.

I'm not even going to describe the next bit because that's disgusting, but you guys know the feeling.

Anyway, I was washing my hands, thoroughly, I might add. You never know what nasties could be lurking in a school bathroom. And I hear this clicking noise. I turn off the water so I can hear it better. The closer it gets the louder it is.

Then it clicks. Haha clicks, see what I did there? Comedy genius.

It clicks in my brain that the noise must be high heels, and there are only three girls on the whole school who wear ankle breakers, so I know who is about to open the door before it even opens.

"Oh look, it's satan and her two blood hounds," I greet with a smile.

"Hazel Rose Harper," Erika smiled cruelly.

"In the flesh," I replied, then frowned. "Wait, how do you know my middle name? Are you stalking me? Do I need to get a restraining order?"

She rolled her eyes, passing her clutch to bloodhound number one so she could put her hands on her hips. "Don't be so dramatic."

I'm the one being dramatic?

"Anyways," she said, exaggeratedly chewing her gum, "I think we both know why we're here."

"Uh, I was actually just here because I needed to pee-"

"Shut up, nobody cares."

Well then.

"As I was saying, we're both here because we both want Ryan."

I snorted at her assumption.

"So what do you want in exchange for Ryan? Money? Popularity."

I started to laugh, then I realised something.

"Oh you're serious."

She sighed impatiently.

"Look, Erika," I started, "I don't want your money or popularity, Ryan and I are just friends, nothing more. But that's not important. The main reason we're even having this conversation is because you cheated on him, you betrayed him. If you hadn't done that, then you'd still be together."

"Oh you know that's not true," she said, flipping her bleached hair over her shoulder. "He's always liked you, ever since he moved here, but you're just too blind to see it. If I hadn't cheated on him, he would've broken up with me anyway, no matter the consequences."

He likes me? Uh uh, no way. And
consequences? What consequences?

"Despite what you may think, I'm not trying to sabotage your relationship with Ryan. Now can I go? I've already missed ten minutes of class." I began walking towards the door, but Erika shoved my shoulder, pushing me back.

"Don't get me wrong, this has been a great heart to heart-"

Heart to heart? I'd hate to see an argument.

"-but that's not what I came here for. I came here to warn you. If you don't back off Ryan it's going to get ugly."

"You already are," I accidentally said, receiving a death glare from all three satan spawns.

"Back off my man, bitch," she snarled, before strutting out the door with her minions following closely behind.

I sighed, face palming. "Just when she started sounding intelligent."

I didn't really take to heart any of the things Erika said. She was known for her ruthlessness, so that was pretty civil for her. I figured that her threats were empty too, I mean what was she going to do, throw a shoe at me? And I never told anyone about our bathroom encounter either. In hindsight, maybe I should've.

~*~*~*~*~

The next morning was just the same as any other; I woke up at the same time, I brushed my teeth with the same toothpaste, I picked Tara up from her house and I parked in the same spot in the parking lot.

The boys were waiting for us outside the main doors, as they'd started doing.

Ryan slung an arm over my shoulders, and I didn't shake him off because well...I didn't want to. Fair enough right?

I knew as soon as I stepped foot in the building that something was wrong, something was terribly wrong. So did Ryan because his arm tightened around me.

People were whispering, shooting distressed looks at their friends, and they were all holding poster sized sheets of paper.

I shrugged, figuring it didn't have anything to do with me. I've never been more wrong in my life. Eventually curiosity got the best of me and I snatched a sheet of paper from someone as we walked past.

I froze as I realised what was on the paper.

~*~*~*~

Dun, dun, dun,

So what's on the paper? Huh? Huh? I guess you'll just have to wait and see.

I'm so mean.

Please vote and comment, I really appreciate it.

Until next time.