Other than a few more minor incidents, the rest of their Home Economics class passed by peacefully, and fourth period went smoothly with absolutely no drama.

Lunchtime was the real drama kick off time though.

Once again, Erica found herself sat amongst the girls - minus Gina, who had been following and annoying Carl since their little...or rather heated dispute. Yet her mind was not where she was physically. Instead, her mind was back in the Home Economics classroom, going over the conversation she'd had with Ryder.

A lot of interesting things were said during that time.

She had seen a glimmer of a side of him that she hadn't before. A side that showed genuine care, and wasn't always using riddles and questions to avoid saying what was on his mind. He had spoken a lot about his home life - a rather sad and traumatic time, from what he had said, and for the first time since she had been there, she was actually able to relate to him. To begin to understand the inner workings of his mind.

As she sat, not listening to the girls' chatter, she gazed out of the window. Her eyes narrowed as she grew confused. Stood outside, only just visible as he was stood behind one of the big pillars that created a little shelter over the walk way, was Dawson.

He had been absent from classes all day and earlier at break time she had seen nothing of him. But that wasn't what really irked her. Instead it was the way that he was looking. Despite the hundreds of students in the cafeteria, his eyes were dead set on her.

She looked away to regain her nerves and then looked back over to that particular area. This time she really got a shock...

Ryder was now stood face to face with Dawson. It looked like some kind of confrontation was being made.

This was it. She thought to herself and stood up from the lunch table. This was her chance to finally get some answers.

Once again, the girls started calling her name sounding completely outraged by her leaving the table. But she just ignored them and kept walking. Through the door and straight up to the two boys who were clearly not getting along.

Neither of them were expecting her to approach them because as soon as she did, their conversation died in the middle of Ryder's sentence.

"Can I help you?" Dawson asked.

Rather rude, but most likely only down to whatever was going on between the two of them right now. Even still, that was no way to talk to her.

"That's no way to talk to a lady." Ryder disciplined.

"Haha that's rich coming from you." Dawson laughed off.

Ryder then proceeded to step closer up into Dawson's face, breaking any personal boundaries he had. With a sigh, Erica made a fake cough.

"Excuse me! Still here..." She waited a second for the two to both stop challenging each other and turn to face her before continuing, "Yeah. That's what I thought. Now does one of you wanna tell me what the hell is going on here?" She asked, folding her arms across her chest to show them how serious she was.

The two boys, who were worlds apart, looked from her to each other then back again. Neither one of them wanted to take on the conversation that would happen if she found out the truth.

"Erica, you should go back to your friends." Ryder advised her.

"No Ryder. I will not go back to my friends. Both of you have been keeping something from me and clearly there are two sides to every story....so who wants to tell me their side first?" She snapped..

Instantly, she regretted her decision to confront them. The way she had come across when she had spoken just now disgusted her. It wasn't like they were obligated to tell her...really it didn't even have anything to do with her.

She had snapped because she hated the way they spoke in mystery sentences.

"Sorry. Whatever it is, is none of my business. I should probably just go." She said sheepishly.

With that being said, she turned to walk back inside to her friends but was quickly stopped by a hand on her shoulder. Turning around, she saw that it was Ryder who had chosen to stop her from walking away.

"It's okay, you have every right to ask after the way we - especially I, have spoken to you." He told her.

"You're both just confusing me." She sighed.

"Right, I know that. But we can explain. Not here and not now though, it's too risky." Ryder informed her.

"Are you crazy? You want to tell her all those lies that you believe!" Dawson interjected, absolutely outraged.

"No! I want to tell her the truth because I owe it to her. Hate to break it to you, but so do you." Ryder corrected the seemingly innocent blonde.

"I don't owe her anything, and Erica, you shouldn't believe a word he says...he's a liar!" Dawson protested.

"Look, if you want the truth. Meet me tonight at the beach. Seven pm." Ryder instructed her.

"Yeah and if you want the real truth and not a pack of lies, meet me and Bobby's Burger Bar at seven pm." Dawson told her.

"That's a very reluctant maybe to both of you." She said, undecided on what to do.

Before either of them could try and convince her on why she should meet them instead of the other one, she turned and headed back inside to her friends. This decision was going to take a lot of thinking it through. Both sides of the story she was curious about, but the side she was most curious about was the truthful one.

Unfortunately there was no way to tell exactly who the liar was, nor who was telling the truth. The only sources she had to go on were the words that came out of both Dawson's and Ryder's mouths and she wasn't too sure that either of those were reliable.

Sitting down back at the girls' table, she noticed Gen glaring at her the exact second that she returned.

"What's with you?" She asked, uncomfortable with the eyes on her.

"You went and talked to Ryder freaking Griffin and that weird kid Dawson Faye! Do you have a death wish?" The brunette half freaked out.

"Ssshhh!" Erica hushed, a little too loudly.

"What the heck are you thinking girl?" Gen asked in a rather loud whisper.

"I'm thinking that I'm about to pull your ears off if you don't quiet down." She snapped.

She watched in amusement as the girls eyes widened in surprise at the statement. Gen then shuffled in her seat and leaned in closer to say what she was going to say.

"Sorry. It's just...well, surely you've heard the stories." Gen brought up.

That statement got Erica's full attention, but she did not want to have that conversation in a room with over a hundred students. It was then that she came up with the perfect idea.

"Excuse me, gotta go to the little girls room. Gen, you're coming with..." She announced quickly and grabbed the girl by her sleeve and pulled her along to the bathrooms.

Hurrying inside, she forced her friend into an empty cubicle and locked the door behind them.

"Easy there, what are you doing?" Gen squealed, surprised by the random act.

"Back in the cafeteria you said something about stories...now squeal." Erica demanded.

With a sigh, Genevive gave into her friend and searched her mind for the perfect way to explain it to her without dragging on and on.

Little did they know though, that they were not alone. In a cubicle that was one door away from them, one of the meanest popular girls were hanging around, eavesdropping on different conversations, just waiting for the perfect juicy gossip that would be fit to start a rumour.

"I'm waiting." Erica reminded Gen.

"Alright, alright. I'll tell you, but promise me that you're not gonna say anything." Gen requested.

"Okay, I won't." She stated.

"No seriously, promise because I don't want anyone knowing that I squealed." Gen insisted.

"I promise." She confirmed, "Now will you please tell me the damn story?" She added, growing impatient.

"Fine! People say that Ryder got jealous after Monica broke up with him and started dating Dawson, so to get revenge he murdered her and then pinned it on Dawson." Genevive confessed.

Erica's eyes went wide with shock. She had no idea whether what she was just told was the truth, but with the way Ryder had been speaking and trying to turn her against Dawson, it could very well make sense.

It seemed well and truly impossible. She had hopes today of getting some answers, and yet the ones that she had gotten only led her to more confusion.

Someone was lying to her, but she couldn't tell who exactly. There was only one thing left to do...

Go and see one of the boys in their set location at seven.

But which one, she did not know yet.