Dedicated to @PunkiePie for the awesome comment on the last chapter! Thanks! 

WHAT HAPPENED ON WEDNESDAY MORNING had come as a shock not only to my friends, but to myself. Just as I had been getting ready to leave home and head to school, Zayn had also been doing the same thing. As I stepped outside, so had he and we had greeted each other a good morning before we began walking together towards Tong High.

As we walked side by side, I couldn't help but remember the night we had walked home together after Kate's party, chatting about the McFadgen murder and how my mother had invited him along for dinner on Saturday. My mother had asked me to do a quick, last minute shop on Friday to make sure she had everything she needed to prepare a 'respectable' meal for Zayn and ourselves.

I still couldn't believe that she had invited him over in the first place, as she never done such things - at least not so suddenly like she had. I had even explained to her a few times that Zayn hardly ate anything, remembering him being rather picky at the party when it came down to food. My mother hadn't even listened to me as I rambled on and on, trying to get her to change her mind about inviting him over in the first place. She was taking none of it.

For hours on end she had been listing all the sorts of food that she was willing to prepare for my new friend. From meats such as beef to lamb to chicken she had listed, eventually choosing the chicken as I told her it was Zayn's favourite food. That was what he had said at the party, anyway. She was happy to make a home made chicken curry for him, if she knew it would please him. Sometimes, my mother was a little too friendly.

Zayn and I walked in silence through the school gates, smiling at each other now and again as we headed into the large building.

"History, yeah?" Zayn asked as we made our way through the student filled halls and up the school's main staircase to the top floor where the History classroom was.

"Yeah. With the delightfully boring Miss Burns." I said and Zayn chuckled, his eyes lowering to the ground as we walked up to the classroom doors.

"She sure is boring." Zayn said with a lazy grin as we walked into the room and to our seats at the back.

I pondered the empty seat next to me, wondering where Kate was at that precise moment. She was usually on time to school, very much like myself, but after her recent behaviour, I highly doubted she would ever be in on time again.

"You OK?" Zayn asked as he opened his bag and pulled out everything he needed for the lesson. I copied his actions - extracting my History folder and pencil case from within my bag before I turned and looked him in the eye.

"Yeah, just thinking." I answered. In truth, I was worrying. Still worrying. Kate was continuing to act weird, and I had given up trying to talk to her. The day before, in Biology as we took the test, I had asked her if she was OK and I had been completely blanked.

"Do you mind if I ask what about?" Zayn asked, an eyebrow raised and his dark eyes locked on me intently as he waited for an answer.

"Kate." I said and Zayn nodded before he sat back in his seat, his eyes slowly travelling over to the door. I followed his gaze to watch as Hayley and Steve walked into the classroom, closely followed by Kate who was once again, wearing a short, tight skirt on her bottom half.

I lowered my eyes when she looked over at me, pretending to be busy sharpening a pencil as she continued to follow Hayley and Steve over to the other side of the room. I frowned, wondering why she was walking over there when she sat at the back of the room with Zayn and I. Once she had sat down beside Hayley, I let the subject go, not bothering to take the situation any further. If she wanted to sit with them, then she had every right to. It was up to her, after all.

"Doesn't Kate sit beside you?" Zayn asked me and I nodded as I watched Steve lean forward to ask Kate something. All three of them burst into laughter and every head in the room turned to look at them.

"Yeah, she does." I answered. Zayn was about to speak again, but before he could say anything, Miss Burns walked into the classroom ad shut the door behind her. She looked around at the class, her eyes looking back and forth between Kate and myself. She raised an eyebrow.

"Kate?" she said, grabbing my friend's attention. "Don't you sit at the back of the class with Laura and Zayn?" Miss Burns finished.

Kate's eyes glanced over at me and she narrowed them slightly before she looked innocently back up at the teacher.

"I can see the board better over here. I didn't want to put a strain on my eyes from back there." Kate said and Miss Burns looked over at me in suspicion. Clearly she knew something was going on between the two of us. Maybe she had seen Kate sitting with other people at lunch time the day before?

"Fair enough." Miss Burns said before she turned to face the board and began the lesson. As time dragged on, I naturally became more tired. Not meaning to sound like a snobby, smart person, but I already knew everything that Miss Burns was going over - we had gone over it the previous year as well. I dropped my pencil on my paper and let out a sigh.

I noticed Zayn glance at me out of the corner of my eye and I bit my lip.

"Alright?" he asked and I nodded once again before I picked up the pencil and started to scribble at the top of my page. My random black dot eventually became a flower and I started to shade it in and smudge the lead to add effect and make it as real as I could. After a few more minutes of Miss Burns' lecture on the Home Front, I had transformed my cartoon sketch into a realistic looking daisy.

"And I want a double sided page on the Home Front for next week." Miss Burns explained and the whole class erupted in annoyed moans. The History teacher was always giving out long homework excises to her classes, but I had managed to keep up with them thankfully. I had never handed my homework in a day late before.

"Why'd Kate move seat?" Zayn asked me and I looked up at him from my paper.

I shrugged. "She couldn't see well from back here."

"You really believe that? I think that she's just being mean to you." Zayn said, his eyes darting over to where Kate sat looking at her nails. I let out a sigh of defeat. Kate never really cared about her nails or make-up or anything of the sort.

"It's up to her. Maybe she'd rather get on their good side than their bad?" I said, speaking Zayn's words from the day before. He smirked after I had finished speaking and he gave me a sharp nod before he looked over his shoulder at the clock behind us.

"We've got ten minutes left." he announced and I nodded to show I had heard. I picked up my pencil once again and began to draw again, scribbling a thick black line onto my paper. I was about to turn it into a cross but I stopped when Zayn leaned over and pulled the paper towards himself. I watched as he started to draw around my mess, creating two wings from the centre of the line. A butterfly. He coloured the wings in black and added antenna before he smiled up at me.

"You're so good at drawing." I commented and his grin became larger. He placed his pencil down on the paper and placed his hand over the drawing before he bit his lip. I watched intently as he lifted his hand away and placed it in his lap.

I stared wide-eyed at where the drawing was. It was still on the paper, but directly on top of the sketch was a real butterfly, slowly beating it's wings.

"How do you do it?" I whispered as I looked up into his eyes. He had a smug grin plastered over his mouth and he covered the butterfly with his hand, hiding it from my view.

"Some things are meant to be kept secret." he whispered back before he removed his hand. All that was there, was the drawing, the real butterfly was gone. I looked over at the palm of his hand but it was empty - there was nothing there.

"Yeah, some things are." I agreed with a nod and Zayn chuckled at me before he looked back towards the blackboard. Miss Burns was currently writing down the due date for the homework and the rest of the class were writing it down in their jotters.

"How did you do in the Biology test?" Zayn asked me. The test had been yesterday afternoon, after Marielle and I had finished revising. It had turned out that May knew a lot more than she had previously thought, making her less worried about failing. We had finished revising just as the bell had rang and we both walked into the classroom feeling more confident after a long time for revision.

"I think it was pretty easy, actually." I said and Zayn smirked.

"That's because you're smart." he said as he started to scribble on the corner of his jotter. I watched as he quickly and easily drew a little cartoon character with his pencil.

I scoffed. "I'm really not. I just pay attention and take it in easily. I have a good memory, that's all," I said and Zayn chuckled before he looked up at me.

"I think you've got brains," Zayn said as he continued to doodle on his page. I gave him a little shrug, not knowing what to say as an answer. Thankfully before either of us could speak again, the bell rang and the class started packing away. Miss Burns opened the door for the class to leave, her eyes still switching from myself over to Kate now and again. She definitely knew there was something going on.

I didn't bother waiting for Zayn - I rushed out of the classroom and fled down the stairs before anyone could call on me. As I made my way to the bottom of the staircase, I looked away when I saw Kate walking the same way as me. I hurried down the staircase towards the girls changing rooms.

As soon as I had shut the door behind myself and sat down on the bench, I quickly stripped off my trousers and replaced them with my baggy track suit bottoms. Not long after I had entered, Marielle and Sophie walked through the door, smiles on their faces.

"Hey Laurz." Sophie said as she waved happily at me. I gave her a small smile as I tugged my shirt up, off over my head.

"Nice bra." Marielle said. I immediately crossed my arms over my chest as I tried to hide my multi coloured bra while Sophie and May laughed at me.

"Oh, shut up. You have a Sponge Bob one." I said and Marielle rolled her eyes.

"I find it worrying that you know the contents of May's lingerie drawer." Sophie said and I chuckled. She must have magically forgotten the many sleepovers we had had over the years. Being stereotypical girls, we had naturally fell into conversation about boys, school and clothes, bras and underwear being mentioned on more than one occasion.

"And I find it worrying that you haven't got a recording contract yet." I said and Sophie sent me a grin. It was true - all of us knew Sophie had a love for music and performing, so why on earth she was still a senior in boring old Tong High was a mystery to me.

"She will one day, you watch." Marielle said and we all laughed as the changing room filled up with all of the other girls in our class, Kate included. I was a little hurt that she went and sat over in the in the other corner of the room, as far from us as she could and I just rolled my eyes as I pulled a plain white T-shirt over my head. As I tied my laces on my old Nike trainers, I was nudged in the side by Sophie who wore a serious expression upon her face.

"Kate still not talking to you?" she asked in a hushed whisper and I shook my head sadly.

"Jeez. She needs to wake up." Marielle said as she tied her hair up in a pony tail. Without another glance at Kate, I left the changing room, closely followed by Soph and Marielle. As we entered the gym hall, I noticed all of the boys were already changed - just like they were every lesson. For some reason the boys were always quicker at changing than the girls. Maybe it was because they didn't spend a lot of time checking their hair and make-up before the left the changing rooms?

I jumped when I heard a voice quietly whisper in my ear. "Want to be my partner?"

I spun around to face Zayn who was standing right behind me in a pair of shorts and a tight white T-shirt. Through the thin material I could see more outlines of tattoos on his chest and collarbones. I looked into his eyes and gave him a small nod. Kate wasn't an option, Marielle and Sophie always paired up and most of the other people in my class were strangers to me. I doubted any of them knew my second name.

"Today class, it's tennis again only this time we're playing full games. The nets are set out and the equipment you need is over by the door." Mr Anderson announced before we all gathered everything we needed. I pointed to the end court where Sophie and Marielle were standing, saving a space for us and Zayn and I jogged over to the empty space.

"Do you want to serve?" I asked Zayn, holding the ball out towards him. He shook his head and ducked under the net to the other side of the room, bending his legs and bouncing on his toes, readying himself for my shot. I smiled and shook my head before I threw the ball up and hit it over the net.

Five minutes later and Zayn and I were still playing a full rally, not one of us missing the ball as it came flying towards us. Marielle and Sophie had given up and were speaking through the net about Kate. I could hear their conversation quite clearly and found out she was paired up with Gavin Donald, a friend of Nathan's. There was no surprise that she had paired up with another popular person.

With all of my negative thinking towards Kate at the moment, it seemed like I was almost giving up on my friend. I wasn't though. How could I? She had been there for me through the years, always a shoulder to cry on. I was just giving her some space like my friends had suggested. That was what she needed at the moment - some time to cool down from whatever was going on in her head.

"Get him, Laura!" I heard Marielle shout from beside me and I laughed.

"Go, Zayn!" Sophie shouted and I rolled my eyes. Clearly, a supportive friend.

Just as I sent the ball whizzing over the net towards the left side of the court, a smile grew on my face as I realised that Zayn would never reach it in time before it was called out. I was surprised when Zayn quickly jumped to the side and hit the ball back at me, sending it over head to the other end of the room. My eyes widened at the force he had used to send the fuzzy, green ball flying through the air so fast and so hard. I thought he was going to miss it.

"And that's a score to me." I heard Zayn say and I gave him a small smile as I went to collect the ball.

After two more games, I could tell Zayn was going to be the winner. He hit each shot perfectly, sending the ball over my tiny frame each time. I had no chance of winning against him - his height was a clear advantage as well as his speed. He was so fast at moving to hit the ball back.

"Good job, Malik!" Mr Anderson called as Zayn played an over head shot, making the ball fly over my head once again and hit the back wall of the gym. Zayn nodded in reply to the teacher before he smiled at me and walked over to the net between us. I copied his actions and met him half way in the room. I was panting with the effort to keep up with his professional shots while he was just chuckling at me quietly as if he done it every day.

"You're cheating somehow." I managed to gasp between breaths.

Zayn chuckled. "How can I be cheating? Can't you just accept the fact that I'm better than you?"

"You're quite up yourself, you know that, Malik?" I said and he raised an eyebrow at me before he looked over at Marielle and Sophie who were watching intently. As soon as his eyes landed on them, they looked away and started chatting once again.

"At least I'm not a bad loser." he said with a lop sided grin. I opened my mouth to retaliate but before I could speak, he was jogging backwards to his side of the net. I shook my head at him as he continued to watch , amused at my feeble attempts to try and beat him.

At the end of the lesson, I had managed to win two games out of six, but I was positive Zayn was letting me win those two just to be kind. I rolled my eyes as he raised his hand in the air and announced himself as the winner.

I shook my head as I turned and walked away, Marielle and Sophie laughing at my fail as I did. I dropped my racket by the door before I left and jogged into the changing room.

"Ha!" Sophie laughed as she closed the door behind herself. "Zayn beat your ass."

"Well, he's taller than me. He'll be able to hit shots that I can't," I answered as I untied my laces and pulled my trousers off of my legs.

"Oh, what an excuse." Marielle said as she crossed her arms over her chest and tapped her foot while she stared down at me, a smug smile on her lips.

"It's not an excuse!" I answered, my voice raised slightly. "It's a fact."

"A fact, my arse." Sophie said as she started to get changed.

Just then, the changing room door opened and the rest of the girls walked in, including Kate. She looked slightly frustrated as she walked into the room, running a hand through her blond hair. Naturally, I wanted to ask her what was wrong, but I knew that all I would receive was a snappy reply. I let out a sigh and let my gaze travel down to my Nike foot wear.

Marielle must have seen me look away because when I felt her rest a hand on my shoulder, I knew it was in comfort. She knew I was close with Kate. She knew we were best friends and that we were inseparable.

"Hey, Kate?" she called suddenly and my head snapped up as Marielle removed her hand. Kate's head snapped up at where Marielle, Soph and I were sitting, getting dressed and her eyes narrowed slightly as she looked at me. I wanted to look away but I had to show her I wasn't interested in her little hissy fits.

"What?" she snapped back but Marielle's face remained impassive as she watched Kate through narrowed eyes.

"What's going on?" May asked as she took a seat down beside me.

"What do you mean?" Kate asked, confusion written all over her face. The strange thing was, she genuinely looked confused. I swear for a moment, I saw a flicker of sadness in her eyes as she looked over at me and back over at Marielle.

"You're acting funny." Sophie interrupted before Marielle could say anything else. Kate tilted her head to the side, the sad look in her eyes vanished as quick as it had appeared.

"Just leave me alone, all of you." she said as she started to change, her gaze dropping to the ground as she pulled her shoes off of her feet.

"You can tell us anything, Kate." I said suddenly and her head snapped up again and she let out an agitated sigh as she looked at me.

"Why would I tell you anything?" she snapped.

"You've been telling me things for years, Kate!" I said back in frustration and she just rolled her eyes before she packed her P.E. kit into her bag and made her way towards the door, stopping to say one last thing before she disappeared.

"You all need to back off and leave me the hell alone." she said and then she was gone. By the time she had left, the whole room had gone silent and confused stares were being passed around the room. I quickly rammed my P.E. kit into my bag and slid my shoes onto my feet before I stood up and followed Kate to where she had vanished. I threw the door open and marched out into the corridor, but I immediately stopped as I watched the scene in front of me.

"I don't care!" Kate hissed at Zayn as they stood face to face on the stair case, their eyes narrowed at each other. I was about to ask what was going on but before I could utter a word, Kate spun on her heel and headed up, out of the P.E. department. Zayn looked around at me and gave me a small smile.

"What was that all about?" I asked as I tucked my hair behind my ear. I saw Zayn smirk at my action before he looked up at where Kate had been only moments before.

"I was trying to sort out whatever it is that's going on between you two." Zayn said as he scratched the back of his head. "Clearly I failed."

"Really? Thank you, Zayn but I don't need you to fight my battles for me. It's between Kate and I. If she wants to act all childish, let her." I said and Zayn nodded in reply.

"I was only trying to help." Zayn said with a small shrug.

"Thank you." I answered. I let out a sigh as I looked back at the changing room door. I was willing to bet anything that Sophie and Marielle were standing with their ears pressed up against the wood in hope of hearing something interesting going on between Kate and I. Clearing my throat, I turned to face Zayn once again, a smile on my face.

"I still think you cheated."

Zayn smirked. "Bad loser."

"Cheater." I argued.

"Loser."

"Cheater."

"Loser."

"Whatever." I sighed as we made our way out of the P.E. department in time for the bell that ended second period.