I dream that I'm swimming in a pool filled with cherry kool-aid. When I catch my reflection in a mirror, my hair is red.

It takes everything in me to get out of bed in the morning, which is odd because I'm totally a morning person. I'm still exhausted and the feeling of dread that came when I first saw Ethan hasn't left me yet. Hopefully he'll have the sense to leave me alone today but I doubt it.

I take a long shower and wear a pair of blue denim shorts and a black tank top. Even though the summer vacation is over, it's still pretty warm outside and three temperature isn't looking to drop any time soon either so I might as well make the most of it. I finish the look by braiding my hair and putting on my black converses. I put some concealer and eyeliner on and get a breakfast bar, eating it before I leave for school.

It's just past seven thirty when I leave my house. Ethan's car is still parked in his dad's driveway so I try to discreetly leave just in case he's looking out of the window or something. A little part of me wishes he was out just so he could offer me a ride again: I'm not really feeling a twenty minute walk but at least I won't have him to annoy me.

I start listening to music on my iPod, taking my sweet time and basking in the early morning light. Though it's still quite early, it's still a lot later than it normally is when I leave so everything seems weird. Despite this, it doesn't take long for me to get lost in myself and my thoughts.

So it's a huge surprise for me when someone taps me on my shoulder in the middle of this creepy brush area. I literally jump five feet in the air and fall on my butt in a bush.

Feeling more than a little shaken, I look up and lo and behold, Ethan is standing above me looking horrified. He steps toward me, stretching his hand out for me to take but I push it away and stand up by myself, feeling stressed.

"You scared the life outta me, Ethan!"

"Yeah, I'm sorry - I called your name but-"

"Why are you even here?"

He looks completely lost. "I'm walking to school..."

My eyes narrow and I dust off my earphones. "You have a car, why are you walking?"

If I'm not mistaken, his cheeks go slightly pink. "Well, I went over to your house to offer you a ride but then your mom told me you'd already left so I decided to walk with you,"

That seems like a bullshit excuse but I don't call him out on it. Instead I roll my eyes and put my earphones on, making sure my music is on. My heart's beating a notch too fast and I feel my cheeks getting hotter because I'm so flustered. I can't imagine how red they are now.

"I really got you though, didn't I?" Ethan says. He smiles at me and once again, I roll my eyes.

"You did."

He chuckles. "It was kinda funny, you jumped really -" he catches sight of my face. "Oh come on 'Leese, you gotta admit it was sorta funny."

"It wasn't."

"Was."

"Wasn't."

"It was." he sings.

I decide it's time to stop giving him the satisfaction of pissing me off and turn my music up.

"Katy Perry? Nice."

"I'm not listening to Katy Perry." I lie and mentally tell myself to delete every Katy Perry song I have.

"You can't fool me, my girlfriend plays Teenage Dream all the time. It was her shit,"

"You had a girlfriend?"

"I have a girlfriend. I hope, anyway. Why do you care?"

"Stop talking to me."

"Aww 'Leese-"

"Stop calling me that."

"Does it bother you?"

I take my earphone out and face him, stopping on the pavement. Ethan stops in front of me, smirking. So much for not giving him the satisfaction of knowing he pisses me off.

"Yeah, Ethan, it does. So stop it."

He grins. "You never said please."

I groan and keep walking away from him but he catches up effortlessly. He even has the audacity to speed ahead of me a few times and stops to wait for me to catch up. My short legs are getting real tired of him.

This way it doesn't take us a long time to get to school. I first consider going to the library but realise that Ethan will follow me and probably cause a scene because that's what he always does. So instead I find a nice big and leafy palm tree and sit in its shade. He stands above me while I pretend he doesn't exist and get my book out of my bag.

"What'cha reading?" He asks and sits next to me.

"A book." I say curtly and shuffle away from him.

"Which one?" He leans closer to see the pages and I catch a whiff of his deodorant. Or aftershave. Whichever it is, it smells like lemons.

"It's just a book, alright?!" I snap. He puts his hands up in defence.

"Sorry!" He says, not sounding sorry at all.

I can tell my eye muscles are going to get strong this year, what with all this eye rolling I'm doing. Ethan keeps silent and I almost get lost in my book. When the main character is about to get a makeover, he taps me gently on the shoulder.

"What do you want, Ethan?"

"Is it good?" He asks. I stare at him blankly until he gestures at the book. "It doesn't look half bad."

"It's corny."

"Oh yeah? Huh." He licks his lips but doesn't say anything else. His silence bothers me because I know he's more annoying than this. He proved that this morning.

Ethan catches me staring at him but just smiles and looks off into the distance. I keep looking and he glances back like he didn't realise.

"What?" He asks.

"You are so annoying."

"What?"

My phone rings so I decide to shift my focus over to that. Ella's calling so I figure she's just gotten to school or something. "What's up?"

"Hey, where are you? Josh and I just got here." She says but she sounds off, like she wants to cry.

"Oh, we're by the science block, under this huge palm tree," I explain. Ethan's eyebrows raise and I'm too curious to ignore him. "What?"

"Nothing,"

I turn away from him and fold my arms. He picks up my book and starts flicking through the pages, feigning interest. From the corner of my eye, I watch, almost forgetting that Ella is on the phone until she and Josh start arguing again.

"Alisa, I'll see you in a moment." She snaps and hangs up. I sigh loudly.

"So..." Ethan starts. Because I don't know what he's talking about, I don't answer him.

Ella and Josh come around soon enough. They're still arguing with each other and it looks intense.

"You never listen to me!" Josh is saying. "I tell you literally all my problems and all you care about is the new kid and if he and your weird blonde friend are -"

"Not to interrupt but the weird blonde friend is right here and she can hear you," I raise my hand, signalling them to stop before I hear something that makes me sick. Josh rolls his eyes.

"Alisa isn't weird, Josh. Hey guys," Ella says. She sighs and sits next to me. "Joshy, let's stop for today, I want you to meet Ethan,"

"We already know each other," Ethan stands up and he and Josh high five. "You cool, dude?"

Josh purses his lips. "You know what, nah, I'm not. Ella, I need to speak to you privately."

She pinches the bridge of her nose. "I think it can wait,"

"Actually it can't." He folds his arms as Ethan sits next to me again. In turn, she stands up and goes off with him.

"Josh is..." Ethan starts.

"A jerk?" I finish.

"I was gonna say very muscular but you know him better than I do,"

"Wish I didn't,"

"Remember how we all used to play together when we were kids?" He asks. "We had so much fun,"

"Who is we?" I say, irritated. All I remember is the both of them chasing me around the playground and throwing worms at me. Surely he hasn't gotten retrograde amnesia?

Nevertheless, Ethan nudges me. "Come on! Remember that time after school we all hung out with... Daniel, right? And you showed us your diary?"

"I didn't show you my diary! You stole it from me and revealed my crush on David right in front of him. He still teases me about it to this day!" I throw my hands in the air.

He smiles at me but it seems weak. Fed up, I look to where Ella and Josh are talking, surprised to see that he is now joined by Jessica. It's even more surprising when he kisses her right in front of Ella and the two of them walk away, hand in hand.

"Holy cannoli," I whisper and pick up my bag. Ethan follows suit and hands me my book.

"Something tells me that they aren't in a three person relationship..." he jokes as I hurry to where Ella stands mortified.

I ignore him and approach her still unmoving body, reaching out to touch her shoulder. Ella whirls around and traps me in a tight hug then begins sobbing into my shoulder.

"He - he dumped me!" She cries. I pat her back aware of people watching us and try

"Come on, let's go to the bathroom," I say quietly. Ethan seems alarmed. "I'm gonna help her out," I tell him shortly.

He runs a hand through his hair. "I'll be right here,"

I nod and hurry her into the school, ignoring the stares we're getting from everyone. She keeps crying until we reach the bathroom and I continue comforting her until she stops.

"Now, what did he say?" I ask calmly and pat her face dry with some paper towels.

She sniffles and snatches the paper towels from me in order to blow her nose. "He told me he's tired of carrying this relationship and that I don't really care about him - but I do!"

"I know, I know baby." I hush. She hugs me again and I rub her back in an attempt to comfort her.

"He did me so wrong." She mutters and hiccups once. "I gave him my everything!"

"Everything as in everything, everything?"

"All of it, Alisa. Right before summer started,"

I let out a hiss. She lets go of me and sniffles, looking helpless. I felt terrible and wondered if I was really helping her out.

I've never had a boyfriend so I've never understood how it felt like to be dumped. Sure, I've seen how bad it is when comforting my friends but it's not the same. Janet figures nobody asks me out because "I always look busy," and wouldn't have time for a boyfriend anyway. I put it down to my braces being off putting - that was until I got them removed last year. Now I don't even have an excuse. Maybe I'm just ugly.

"I can't believe he kissed Jessica in front of me, he knows I hate her!" She tugs on the ends of her hair.

"Yeah! What was that about?"

Ella turns away from me and starts cleaning up her running mascara. "Well, he was telling me how neglected he felt and that I didn't even want him anymore – could you pass me my eyeliner? Yeah, well, she came over and asked if he was finally doing it and then - then –"

She starts crying again and I wrap an arm around her shoulder, trying my best to be comforting. A girl I recognise from one of my classes comes into the bathroom and gives me a pitying look when she realises what's going on. I send her a smile back.

After about twenty minutes or so of cheering Ella up, the bell rings. Ella cleans up her face but her eyes are still red rimmed by the time we get into homeroom. Mr Winter catches one look of her and asks her if she wants him to write an excuse slip for the nurses office.

"Is she okay?" Janet asks as I sit beside her. She's alone and eating some granola – of course.

I shake my head. "It was bad, Janet. That thing about him and Jessica must've been true because he kissed her right in front of Ella." I whisper and look around. I'm honestly kinda curious to know where Ethan is and why he isn't here bugging me or bonding with my friend.

Janet seems to notice. "He's talking to David." She points to where they're sitting talking.

"I don't care." I say nonchalantly. She grins at me.

"Sure you don't." She says.

"Oh, what's that supposed to mean?"

"Absolutely nothing, Alisa." She stuffs granola in her mouth and grins at me.

Ella ends up going home early. I call her a few times at lunch but she doesn't pick up so I leave some voicemails telling her to take care of herself. Ethan brings both Anthony and David to sit with us outside and I feel a little left out while the three of them discuss an upcoming video game named Skyrim or something. I also don't miss the fact that Anthony and Janet are flirting with each other quite a bit.

The day ends up dragging out longer than I want it to. In PE, our coach set us up with some basketballs and went to her office for the double period instead of watching us. Most of the girls sat in groups and talked while Janet and I just throw a ball around.

"Do you think Ella will be okay?" Janet asks me as she throws the ball. I catch it effortlessly and hold onto it for a bit.

"No. I don't know." I sigh and bounce the ball over to her. "She told me they had sex at the beginning of summer."

She gasps. "No!"

I shrug. "Yeah."

Janet looks down and throws the ball at me. "Remember when she started dating Josh and I told her it would end badly? This is what I meant. I never liked Josh, and at the time it seemed like she was only with him to piss Jessica off... But then she fell in love with someone who would never love her! It's such a tragic story, honestly. I couldn't believe that she thought they would be together forever." She says.

It takes me a few moments to process it and by then she's moved on and started talking about a cartoon called Adventure Time.

When Janet said all that to Ella, Ella refused to talk to her for two weeks. Janet went on with life, convinced that they were still great friends. I was stuck in the middle and sorta agreed with the fact that Josh seemed like a petty high school girl's fight club trophy. I mean, he's really not worth all of this but I can't police her feelings.

"Alisa, pass the ball!" Janet chirps. "I'm trying to burn off the five granola bars I had for lunch!" She slaps her stomach a few times like it's a drum and then giggles happily. I chuckle and throw her the ball.