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𝐃𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇
𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐃𝐄𝐕𝐈𝐋
𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐎𝐍𝐄
𝐈. 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧.
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𝐀 𝐋𝐎𝐔𝐃 𝐁𝐀𝐍𝐆 𝐎𝐍 the door woke a hungover Noelle Call. The girl let out a groan as she rolled over, her hair falling into her face as she did so. "What?" She sighed as she opened her eyes just barely.

The door creaking open made her sit up and glare at whoever was waking her up at the likely ungodly hour. Nathan Call poked his head in with a teasing grin on his face. "You awake?" He wiggled his eyebrows as he slipped into her room.

Noelle let out a groan as she buried herself underneath her covers, not wanting to move. "Go away."

"Nope!" Nathan grinned, his perkiness was seriously starting to hurt her. He shook a small bottle of pills, making her poke her head out. "Since I only heard you coming back in three hours ago, I figured you'd be hurting." He tossed her the Advil, the bottle hitting her in the head causing her to let out a groan. "Sorry 'bout that. But I'd take your sunglasses with you to school, you don't wanna be hungover on your first day."

Noelle sat up and looked at him with wide eyes. "School?" She asked, everything from the night before starting to hit her like a freight train.

Nathan gave her a slow nod, "Yeah, why else would I wake you up?"

Noelle looked to her clock on her nightstand, seeing how she only had thirty minutes until school started. "Shit." She cursed as she tripped over her comforter, the blanket tangling around her feet. Nathan let out a laugh as he moved to help her up, but was stopped by Noelle's hand. "I got it." She glared as she pushed herself up.

Nathan nodded as he made his way over to the door to leave. "Fine, good luck today. Oh! Dad made breakfast, so have fun with that."

Noelle's face upturned as she went to her closet. "Got it!" Nathan nodded as he went to walk down the hallway. "Oh, Nathan!"

"Yes?" He drawled out as he stuck his head in the room.

She gave him a small sheepish smile as she nodded over to the Advil on her dresser. "Thank you for, you know."

Nathan grinned at her as he nodded. "Anytime, little sis. Anytime." The two shared a smile before Nathan shut the door, letting her get dressed in private.

♥･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆♥

"𝐃𝐀𝐃, 𝐈 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐘 𝐍𝐄𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐎 𝐆𝐎." Noelle begged as she gave her dad a look. He insisted on driving her to school, even though she was able to walk perfectly fine, but he objected in his "lawyer" voice; so she had no choice in accepting.

Noah Call shook his head as one of the bells from the school rang loudly. "No, Noelle. I need you to listen to me-"

"Dad! It's my first day! I really don't wanna be late. Can't it wait till to tonight?" She begged again.

"No, I'm not gonna be home tonight, you know that." Ah, right. His monthly visit to New York.

"Okay so it can wait until next week, I love you!" She shouted as she was finally able to open her door and head up the front steps of the school. She let out a sigh as she pulled her sunglasses down fully over her eyes, covering the red lines that seeped through them. Once she made it to her class, she was relieved to find out that it hadn't started yet. But she was not relieved to know that she had first period English with all of her former friends. She breathed through her nose as she ignored all of their clearly visible looks as she went to sit all the way in the back of the room, right next to the second door.

Aria and Emily watched as Noelle sat in the back. Aria's eyes widened in shock. Noelle looked completely different than she did a year ago. Her once beautiful super long, curly hair was now cut short and completely straight. She had a small nose piercing that glimmered, and her style was so much more laid back than Aria was used to. "Was that Noelle?"

Emily nodded, her heart hurting as she looked at her former best friend. "Yeah, it was."

"When did that happen?"

Emily shrugged, it seems like so long a go when it was only eleven months ago. "About a month after you left. She doesn't talk to anyone here."

Aria looked even more surprised than before. "Not even Cassidy?"

Emily gave her a sad look. "Aria, Cassidy moved away six months ago."

"What? Why?" Surprise was written all over the Montgomery girl's face as she processed the news she was given.

Emily shrugged, "No one knows, she was here one day, and not the next."

The last bell sounded, making their gossip end as the new teacher walked into the room. He quickly got to writing his name on the board. "Mr. Fitz" was written as Noelle rolled her eyes. It sounded like a very pretentious white name. "Holy crap." The teacher swore, shock written on his face.

Noelle watched as he looked straight at Aria Montgomery, his gaze never moving. Everyone turned to look at the two of them, confusion on their faces as they glanced between the two. Noelle watched her former friend, she knew Aria so well it was as if nothing had changed. Aria knew their teacher, and she was curious to know how. Aria's cell phone went off making everyone turn back to their teacher. "Sorry." She apologized.

Mr. Fitz quickly got back to his lesson as he tried not to stare at the girl. "Uh, I'm Mr. Fitz. Your new English teacher."

♥･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆♥

𝐁𝐘 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 𝐍𝐎𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐄 got home, she was exhausted and only wanted sleep, but was stopped by her mother. "Noelle? Is that you sweetie?"

Noelle slipped off her shoes at the archway before going into the kitchen where her mother was cooking. "Hey mom."

Naomi looked over her shoulder to smile at her youngest child. "How was your day sweetie?"

Noelle ignored the question as she picked up a fake apple her mother purposely put on the island for decorative purposes. "What're you doing home this early? I thought you'd be at the office until later tonight?"

Naomi continued to mix whatever she was making and didn't look back at her daughter. "Well, since your brother is going to New York with your father and I for the week, I thought I'd come home and make you food for the week so that way you don't need to order in."

Noelle looked up at her mom in shock. "Wait? All three of you are going?"

"I'm sorry, honey. I know we should've told you sooner, we've just been so busy lately." Naomi apologized, but it wasn't enough. It never was.

"So I'm just supposed to be here, by myself while my entire family is in another state?" Noelle was livid and hurt.

Naomi turned off the stove before turning to her daughter, "I'm really sorry, Ellie. I know you wanted to go, but with school starting up again, we didn't want you to miss any of it."

"That's bullshit!" She yelled, her anger finally exploding, she couldn't hold it in.

Naomi stood up, anger on her face. "Language young lady!"

"Why? It's not a bad word, it's just a word you don't like."

Naomi shook her head as she stood face to face to Noelle. The mother towering over her daughter. "You're grounded, give me your phone." Instead of fighting, Noelle just slapped her phone into her mother's palm and went upstairs.

Noelle let out a loud scream into her pillow as she flopped onto her bed, the old mattress creaking as she did so. A ding on her open laptop brought her out of her anger as she got up to look at it. She frowned when she saw her notifications, the only one that stood out was an email from an unknown address. Noelle would swear that her heart stopped as she read the email. She instantly reached over for the hidden bottle of Jack Daniels hidden in her desk.

"Poor little Noelle? Can't even keep her anger in check. You might want to rethink that. ~ A"

"What the fuck?" Noelle cursed as she looked around her room, chills running all over her body. "Ali?"