Waking up with Heather's stupid pedicured feet in my face wasn't exactly how I envisioned my morning starting. I practically gagged. Pushing them out o my face resulted in her flying to the floor with a thud and a string of curse words to flood out of her mouth aimed at me. She glared up at me, but I simply placed my finger to my lips. I wasn't sure what the time was and Mum still could be home. I doubt she would be, since she usually started work pretty early, but I didn't really feel like being yelled at by Heather first thing in the morning anyway.

"Do you want any breakfast?" I yawned, helping her back up.

"You got any bud?"She asked hopefully, making me bark a laugh.

"For breakfast? It doesn't count as one of your five a day, you know? Anyway, my dealer left for Uni; he studies horticulture."

"At least he found his passion. Toast, please."

"Right. You know where the bathroom is and if you're going to steal one of my shirts, take an old one for gods sake." I instructed, slipping out of my room and hopping down the cold, wooden stairs.

We had spent yesterday evening just chatting and playing video games. She had calmed me down and told me to just try and move past it for now because it was probably one of our idiot friends playing a prank. What kind of stalker leaves a hand written note at the scene of the crime? We had a plan to ask everyone at lunch today.

It didn't stop me from feeling gloomy today. Thanks to Heather's tossing and turning, I went without sleep pretty much all of last night. I'd been in and out fo sleep for the last hour, but Heather's foot being directly in my face was the last straw. I had spent most of last night staring at the paint flakes on my ceiling once again, thinking about anything and everything.

As much as Heather tried to convince me otherwise, at the back of my mind I knew it wasn't a practical joke. Whenever I touched that note, it sent weird chills through me. At first, I thought it was fear, but after hours of holding it and reading it over and over I had scratched that emotion out. I didn't feel scared that I had received the note and I wasn't even scared of who had left it.

Obviously, I should be scared to death of this note, but it felt so genuine. Personal? Sincere? I don't know. All I do know is that it wasn't malicious or joking, as Heather believed it was. Maybe I was reading far too deeply into a simple post it note because of sleep deprivation, or maybe I was right. Dragging myself out of those thoughts, I whipped out my phone, texting Heather to let her know that Mum wasn't home and that she could come downstairs whenever she was finished with getting ready.

I popped some bread into the toaster and poured myself a bowl of cereal. I flicked the plastic kettle on and plopped two tea bags in mugs, waiting for it to boil. The house had a lot of windows, but I didn't feel like I was being watched anymore. They had kept to their promise and left me alone, thankfully.

By the time Heather descended the stairs with wet hair, I had already finished my cereal and cup of tea. She took forever to get ready. I gave her the toast and her tea, heading upstairs for my turn to get ready. I skipped the shower, too worn out for one, and simply sprayed on some deodorant instead. I pulled on a clean shirt and picked up my jacket from the floor.

Remembering to grab my school bag, I jogged back downstairs. Heather obviously didn't have any of her school stuff, but she usually just told our form tutor that she had home problems and they would all let her off unpunished. They were used to it by now, since she had arguments with her mum a lot.

"Ready to get going?" I asked, shrugging on my jacket.

"Didn't you wear those jeans yesterday?" She wrinkled her nose, joining my side.

"Didn't you wear that entire outfit, minus the shirt, yesterday?" I wrinkled my nose back, poking her side teasingly.

"Shut it." She grinned, following me out of the house, "Besides, I carry clean underwear in my bag at all times."

I stifled a laugh at that and we held hands, walking down the street towards school. It wasn't a long walk; nothing in this town is far apart due to how small it is, but it took a while to get there with how slowly Heather walks. She was rambling to me, but I wasn't really listening; it was something about her skater boyfriend. I still didn't even know his name. She'd told me, but I'm bad with names and had forgotten.

We decided to walk along the tree line today for the sake of Heather's feet, which made her sigh in relief that the walk in her heels was made shorter. Taking the long way would make us late, despite us having a free period first thing due to having to loop back on ourselves the long way round. The tree line path was really pretty; the trees created a sort of canopy of green above us and when the sun began to peak through in patches it created spots of golden yellow that rained down from above.

"I heard rumours that there's a whole estate out in the woods, fenced off or something." Heather mused, letting her hand brush against the leaves of some bushes.

"Can you even own the woods? I thought it belonged to the National Trust." I furrowed my eyebrows, trying to see into the dense forest.

"Money can buy anything these days." Heather shrugged, "Girl in my English class said that her boyfriend's sister stumbled across it while jogging. It had security cameras and everything."

"Dodgy."

We left the tree line path, crossing the road and walking through the school gates. Class had started a while ago for the younger years, but we had a free so we made our way to the common room. We walked in together and heard a round of wolf whistles come from the corner sofas.

I flipped them off with the hand that wasn't holding Heather's and made my way to my locker, taking out my homework and textbooks, before joining them. Our friendship group was a bit dysfunctional, but we were all united by a love of fun.

"Who's got the homework answers, then?" I asked the group, being met with a bunch of surprised faces, "Out of all of us, not one of us did the homework? You're joking."

"We had homework?" The twins said in unison, making me roll my eyes.

"You two do questions 1-5. I'll do 5-10 and Fred, you do 10-12." I instructed, dividing up the work.

I googled the answers, filling in the useless piece of paper pretty quickly. The twins were a surprising help, but Fred was practically on the floor. Heather helped me finish despite her not even taking the subject; she was the smartest out of all of us, so it was no surprise she found it piss easy.

"Where the fuck was Fred last night?" Heather scrunched her nose, "He looks half-dead. There's no way he can go to class like that."

"No clue. We found him outside the school gates this morning trying to roll baccy. His hands were shaking too much, so we brought him to the common room." Mike frowned, looking at Fred as he slumped onto the floor.

"Excellent." I chuckled, throwing my jacket over poor Fred, "We'll just say he's with the nurse and to mark him as in."

"Where's the couple, then?" Heather asked, looking for the other two members of our group.

"Getting off in the toilets? Ever since they made them gender neutral, they've been using them to bang." I pointed out, Mike nodding.

"I thought you were busy yesterday, Heather. Were you with Cam?" Mick scowled, making me smirk.

"Plans changed. Ended up going to Cameron's." She lied through her teeth, ignoring me waggling my eyebrows at her.

"Oh we had fun, didn't we Heather?" I teased, resting my hand on her leg just to piss off Mick, "You kept me up all night long."

"Oh. That's okay. We could hang out next weekend?" Mick urged, which was coming across as a bit desperate as he completely ignored my mocking.

Mike and I pulled a face at each other, slipping away from that conversation before I ended up throwing up at Mick's desperation. I felt slightly bad for Heather; having to put up with Mick's persistent nature must suck. So, I decided to get her out of it this time.

"Heather, you said I could bum a ciggie?" I prompted her.

She didn't know whether to be grateful I was helping her out of this situation or annoyed that I was, once again, stealing her cigarettes. She decided on the former, thanking me as she followed Mike and I outside. We climbed down the fire escape at the back of the school, taking a seat on the steps where teachers couldn't see.

"Do I actually have to give you one, now?" Heather frowned, holding her carton of cigarettes defensively.

"It's the price you have to pay." I teased, taking one from her and lighting it up.

"I'm sorry about Mick." Mike exhaled smoke, gesturing to the general direction of Mick.

"That's okay." Heather giggled, making my eyebrows raise; it was rare to hear Heather giggle.

While absentmindedly scanning our surroundings, I realised a bunch of kids in classrooms were staring in our general direction. I ducked behind the railing, making sure teachers didn't see us. I know kids are bored in class, but why the hell are they all staring at us like that? Strange. Hadn't they seen somebody smoke a cigarette before?

"I'm gonna head inside, kids are staring." I murmured, leaving them to it.

"What are they saying?" Mick demanded the second I got inside, his face frantic.

"He was apologising to her for you being such a twat." I deadpanned, packing up my stuff.

"He likes her, too. He says he doesn't, but I can tell." Mick scowled, making me roll my eyes.

"Mick, chill out. You seem crazy. Asking her out all the time when she has a boyfriend? Not cool."

"Didn't you guys have a thing? What did she see in you?" He interrogated me.

"Ouch." I feigned being hurt but wasn't really bothered.

"No, I don't mean it like that. I mean what did she like about you? Humour?"

"Mick, if you like her I'm not the guy to go to." I shook my head, "I've never had a successful relationship in my life."

The bell sounded while I was still packing up my stuff. Taking a look around the common room, I realised most of the students in here were blatantly looking in my direction. I stilled, confused by this. Most people in our sixth form kept to themselves and their groups of friends. We got along, but they certainly didn't stare at others and whisper.

"Shows over." Heather clapped, snapping everyone out of it.

Everyone went back to what they were doing and a few people left for their lessons sheepishly after being caught staring. Heather came over to me, placing her hand on my wrist with a strange look on her face.

"What the hell was that?" I whispered.

"Beats me. It wasn't normal, though." Heather remarked, grabbing her own bag and taking my hand.

We left the common room and headed to our lesson. The corridor was super busy, so we had to let go of each others hands to squeeze through the secondary-aged students. Out of nowhere, the feeling that I was being watched came rushing back. I stopped dead in my tracks, spinning around to try and see who it was. Lots of people were looking at me now, but I knew it wasn't them that I was looking for. Standing on my tippy toes didn't achieve much in trying to see over the crowds of people. Heather was asking what I was doing, but I told her to be quiet a second. At the very end of the corridor, I saw a shadowy figure dart into a classroom.

"That's them." I gasped, rushing away from Heather and towards the classroom.

I was pushing my way past students as fast as possible down the narrow corridor, trying to get to the classroom. When I finally got there, I rushed inside, but it was empty. Not a soul. I could have sworn, on my life, that I saw somebody rush into this classroom.

"Cameron, there's nobody here." Heather grumbled, "You're going to make us late."

I let her drag me away, but the feeling that I was being watched didn't subside until we rounded the corner. They were definitely in there. If that corridor was empty, I would have had them. I bit my lip, wondering who the hell it was. How did they get into the school? Was it a student? A staff member?

As we walked past the bathrooms on the way to class, Oscar and Ava slipped out of them looking rather a mess; saying that they looked like they had gotten dressed in the dark was being nice about it. I noticed that Oscar's shirt was on backwards and tugged at it, sending him a knowing smirk.

"Classy." I teased him, heading to lessons.