Her conversations with Max and Sophie kept Kay's mind busy for the reminder of the day which was a blessing and a curse at the same time. She still wondered what it had all been about, but she was also glad that she'd skipped worrying about going back to school.

Joey and Kelly showed up in the evening, drove Kay home, and Kelly even stayed overnight to help her with her homework for the following day. Swamped as she was by projects, Kay only started to feel a bit of anxiety before bed, but that was quickly silenced when she fell asleep like a log. All that training left her body exhausted and her mind followed suit.

Unfortunately, the next morning, she found herself trembling in front of the mirror. It was a Thursday, and Thursdays meant Kelly had different classes in the morning, so she was alone until lunch.

"You can do it. Kyle's right. It's just people talking," she said to herself. God, why wasn't he in any of her classes?

"You ready, Kay?" Kelly called from outside the bathroom door.

Kay raised her chin, steeled her gaze and looked at herself one more time in the mirror before nodding. "Yes, let's do this."

She and Kelly hurried down the stairs, their books in their backpacks and arms. Kay's mother stepped out of the kitchen, seeming slightly worried.

"Have a good day at school, honey." She gave Kay a tight hug then caught a lock of hair between her fingers. She hadn't been crazy about Kay's new look, but didn't make any negative comment about it either. "Don't let high school gossip affect you or Donnie. You both know you're good kids with nothing to be ashamed off."

Kay pulled back, a bitter taste in her mouth. Donnie. Why did she have to bring up Donnie? Turn him into a victim. She wished she could lash out at the unfairness of it all, but after what happened with William, Kay didn't have the heart to upset her mother.

"Thanks, Mom," she said, and hurried out the door before she said anything else.

"I'm so sorry for you, with your parents being this way," Kelly mumbled, shutting the door behind them. "But she's right about one thing. Ignore the idiots at school."

"I'll do my best," Kay mumbled. She knew the theory, she knew how it worked. But facing reality was a lot harder.

She raised her eyes from the pavement and towards the driveway, and almost dropped her books. Joey's Camaro and Kyle's Ducati were parked in front of her house and the two were grinning at them.

"Ah, the cavalry is here," Kelly said satisfied, hurrying to greet them.

Kay threw a worried glance over her shoulder, hoping her mom wasn't watching them and rushed to Kyle.

"I'm only here for moral support," he said, taking her books and shoving them in the backseat of Joey's car. "I know you hate the bike so you can ride with them."

"I don't hate the bike. I love the bike and I want to ride with you." She said the words before she could chicken out. Riding on the motorcycle might keep her thoughts focused on staying alive rather than school.

Kyle raised an eyebrow. "You didn't seem too excited last time."

"I also was with Donnie and thought you were an ex-con asshole last time."

He grinned mischievously and her stomach fluttered. The more she saw of his wild side, the more she liked it. When he took out the spare helmet and handed it to her, she was half tempted to ask if he had a gun in there.

"See you at school," Joey called as he and Kelly got in the car.

Kay swung her leg over the bike and settled behind Kyle. It felt more comfortable than last time. Probably because she was no longer stiff and had absolutely no problem wrapping her arms tightly around him.

"Want me to go slow?" he asked over his shoulder.

"I want you to ride like I'm not here. And step on it before my mom sees and I get grounded again."

Kyle nodded, kicked the bike to life and zoomed away. Kay shut her eyes, but only for a few seconds. He was going fast, much faster than when he'd brought her home last time, but she didn't feel unsafe. Because she knew and trusted him. For a moment, she even considered taking her helmet off to feel the wind on her face. She'd probably freeze. Or fall off and die.

In what felt like no time at all, Kyle slowed down and pulled into the school parking lot. While they were removing their safety equipment, Joey pulled up next to them. Kelly hopped out of the car and handed Kay her backpack, while Joey piled her books in Kyle's arms.

"How was it?" Kelly asked, her face shining with excitement.

"Amazing. I'm not sure why I hated it last time," Kay answered as the four of them headed for the entrance.

And despite the dread and the certainty that school would be awful, Kay was happy. She could do this. She had friends, people who really cared about her and who would be there for her. Who cared that everyone whispered as they passed? She felt like a rock star with her new haircut and highlights, walking with Kelly while Kyle and Joey flanked them, Joey's arm around Kelly's shoulders.

The feeling disappeared the moment Cecily Howard stopped before them, her plastic friends behind her. Her appearance caused most people to slow down and linger to see the show.

"What do you know? He lives," she said bitterly. "Honestly, Kyle, I thought you were dead. Why else wouldn't you answer me for five whole days?"

"Huh. Funny. I didn't think you were dead when you decided to go into radio silence for over two weeks," Kyle answered with a shrug.

Cecily walked to him and Kay fought the impulse to cower back. Cecily put her arms around Kyle's neck in what was meant as a show of affection to everyone watching, but Kay saw the tension in her knuckles and jaw, even if she pretended to smile. She also noticed the tension in Kyle's shoulders which was even more threatening than anything Cecily could pull.

"You and me, talk, now," she hissed through her fake smile. She grabbed Kyle's hand and pulled him away.

Kay grabbed her books out of his arms before he took them along for the ride. The movement attracted Cecily's attention. Kay could see the look in her eyes changing as she did the math. She'd never thought chocolate eyes could ever be so icy.

"You're dead," Cecily mouthed at her behind Kyle's back.

Kay took half a step back, but caught herself. Cecily was just a bully and she was way past the point she let people step all over her. So she did what any responsible teenage girl would do. She flipped her off, just as Cecily was turning to face the front again. But from the subtle widening of her eyes, Kay knew she saw it. Good.

Cecily pretended nothing had happened and dragged Kyle away at a brisk pace. Silence filled the corridor as the queen bee made her exit, stilettos clicking on the tiles.

"Come on," Kelly whispered, dragging Kay away, Joey following. "I can't believe you flipped Cecily the bird," she squeaked the moment they reached an empty hallway, tears of laughter streaming down her face.

"Serves her right for thinking she can bully me," Kay mumbled.

"You should've slapped that fake smile off her face," Joey said bitterly and Kay stared at him. She'd had no idea that Joey didn't like Cecily.

"I don't know what Kyle did to you, but I like Kay. She's awesome." Kelly kissed her cheek. "See you at lunch." And she and Joey left for their classes, leaving Kay alone to face the wolves.

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"Look who came back."

"I heard she spent the last week in the hospital, that's how badly her boyfriend beat her."

"He beat her for cheating."

"No way, I heard she didn't put out."

"How can anyone let their relationship get that bad?"

"Wasn't she going out with that clown who did all those dumb stunts?"

"I heard she's a junkie."

"No, he's the junkie!"

"Did you hear that she flipped Cecily Howard off?"

"I heard she slapped her."

"Who is she?"

Whispers followed Kay everywhere she went and even if at first she held her head high and pretended she couldn't hear, as the day wore on, it felt like the weight of every word was settling on her shoulders.

By lunch, she couldn't take it anymore. She'd considered telling everyone to screw off, but that would surely make her the target of even more gossip. It was one thing for the student body to make whispered suppositions about her, a totally worse thing for them to outright hate her.

Kelly whispering at her to just ignore them didn't help either. She knew that, but it didn't make it easier. Hearing people dissecting her relationship and her personality was exhausting, so by her last class, she couldn't get out of there fast enough. Her only silver lining was a text she'd received from Kyle: Meet me at my locker after class.

He didn't say why, but it surely had to do with her training, and she couldn't wait to get back to that. He hadn't sent her anything else, not even to ask how she was, but she wasn't complaining. Cecily was surely furious, so he had to be careful.

"It's all going to die down over the weekend, you'll see," Kelly said confidently, taking out her English books and putting them on her desk.

"I hope so, because I'm not sure how much more of this I can take," Kay mumbled.

"Hi there!" The seat next to Kay was occupied by the girl with the superhero poster who Cecily had bullied. "Name's Erin." She reached out her hand and shook Kay's.

"Kay," she mumbled. "And this is my friend, Kelly."

"I know who you are," Erin said, nodding to Kelly. "You're Joey Wilkes' girlfriend. Lucky gal! I've been throwing myself at him for months and he didn't bite."

Kelly immediately stiffened and gave Erin the stink eye, but the girl didn't seem to care. She brushed her brown locks out of her eyes, and continued, "I hear you punched Cecily in the face. I hope it wasn't on my behalf."

"I didn't punch anyone in the face," Kay said between her teeth, whishing the class would start already.

"But you did flip her off."

Kay hesitated, but she didn't see the point in lying. Cecily knew it. "Yes, I did."

"Wicked." Erin laughed just as their teacher made a plea for attention.

"Alright, class. We're going to continue analyzing Hugo's work. I hope you've all read the first chapters of Les Miserables by now."

Kay opened her book and disappeared behind it, but that wouldn't put Erin off.

"So, why'd you flip Cecily off?"

"Because she's annoying and a bully. Now can we please focus on the class?" Kay hissed.

"I'll give you that, the queen's a nightmare. But people are whispering it's about the king."

Kay raised an eyebrow and her attention involuntarily focused on Erin. She could guess who the king was, but referring to Kyle that way was really weird. He'd probably laugh his head off if anyone called him that to his face.

"Well, it's not about the king."

It totally was about the king. But only because Cecily couldn't understand the concept of friendship between a guy and a girl. Could she understand the concept? Of course you can, stop being an idiot. Kyle was just a very good friend.

"Really? Because I remember he left with you after your boyfriend punched you in the face. What was that about anyway?" Erin asked with indecent enthusiasm.

The simple off hand comment sent a shockwave through Kay's body. Darkness engulfed her. Cold and sharp, it stabbed at her heart as the image of Donnie's enraged face swam before her eyes.

No, no, no. She'd moved past that, left it behind. She was stronger than this. Stronger than... And yet, his bloodshot eyes were all she could see. At least until they melted with his sober expression and she couldn't tell which Donnie hit her.

"Kay, you alright?" Kelly whispered. "You're trembling."

She wanted to answer, but her jaw was locked and there was a continuous ringing sound filling her ears. She could see it again, Donnie's fist right before it collided with her face, Kyle wrestling him to the ground. As much as she tried to stop them, the images wouldn't go away. She shut her eyes and rubbed them, trying to shake it off.

"Kay?"

She couldn't do it. She felt physically sick.

Kay jumped to her feet. "I'm sorry, I'm not feeling well, may I be excused?"

The teacher stared at her, surprised. She'd obviously interrupted him in midsentence, but he seemed to know who she was and what the issue might be because he nodded and pointed towards the door.

Ignoring everyone and everything, Kay gathered her books and rushed out. She strode to the end of the corridor, then dropped to the floor and, taking deep breaths, let the tears flow down her cheeks.

Why was it so hard to forget it, to get over it? It was in the past, never going to happen again. She clenched her fists. She'd make sure it never happened again. That no one would lay hands on her again unless they wanted a quick trip to the emergency room. And for that, she needed more training.

She still had a half an hour before meeting Kyle, but she'd rather wait by his locker than roam the hallways randomly and risk getting into trouble. So she set off, dropped her books in her own locker, then stopped in front of Kyle's. If she was lucky, she'd have twenty whole minutes of peace and quiet.

"Hey, Kathy with a K."

Of course, she wasn't lucky. Kay turned to face Sonia and Dustin who were strolling towards her, holding hands. Great, more happy couples.

"Hi," she said, trying not to sound like a total brat.

"Waiting for Kyle?" Sonia asked, blowing her bangs out of her eyes. They were a stormy shade of grey.

Kay nodded, wondering how come Dustin almost never spoke. He just trailed like a puppy behind his girlfriend. Who just happen to grin in a weirdly predatory way.

"He's in the art department. You can go over and talk to him. More private than the hallway," Sonia said matter-of-factly.

"Thank you," Kay said awkwardly. She had a point about it being more private, but why was Kyle in the art department? "Um, what's he doing there?"

"Lugging stuff," Sonia answered and Dustin chuckled behind her.

"Stuff's right," he mumbled.

"Alright, thanks."

Kay turned around and headed for the art room, wondering why she found Sonia so intimidating and Dustin so weird. They seemed to be talking in a language only they could fully understand and laugh at everyone who didn't catch their little in jokes. It was probably that.

Kay pushed the door to the art department, and froze in the threshold. The door lead backstage to the storage room used for props and other materials, so it made sense for Kyle to be hauling things around. Except he wasn't. He wasn't alone either.

He and Cecily sat on chairs facing each other, only they'd bridged the gap between them and were kissing. Something inside Kay seemed to break. She'd avoided this for so long, but now here it was, indubitable proof that Kyle belonged to Cecily.

Cecily cracked an eye open and stared straight at her. The blood froze in Kay's veins and she urged her body to step back, get out of there, go home and leave them alone. But her body wouldn't move, and Cecily closed her eyes again, as if she hadn't noticed her there.

Move, idiot! Cecily wrapped her arms tightly around Kyle's neck and moved from her chair into his lap. Get out of here, now! Kissing turned into making out as Kyle wrapped his arms around Cecily and pulled her tighter against him. Oh, she so didn't want to see this. Cecily grabbed the hem of Kyle's t-shirt and started pulling it up. And that's when Kay's paralysis finally broke and she exited the room as quickly and silently as possible.

With shaky legs, she backed into the opposite wall and stared at the offending door. She should get out of there, not sit around, her hearing strained to the max. What was she expecting to hear?

Stop being an idiot right now!

But it hurt. It didn't make sense. She'd spent days at Kyle's place, hanging out, laughing together, meeting his family, and not once had he called or even mentioned Cecily. And yet, here they were.

She'd known this. Why was it so shocking, so upsetting? Why did it feel as if she were suffocating, spiraling out of control?

No!

Kay straightened her spine and walked back to Kyle's locker, trying to block what she'd just seen from her mind. It was none of her business who Kyle did what with. And the only reason she felt sick about this was because Kyle was her friend and Cecily was a horrible person. She was just looking out for him.

He didn't owe her anything and she has no reason to feel betrayed.

Sonia and Dustin were still there, an expectant smile on Sonia's face as if she wanted to assess Kay's reaction.

"You look like you've seen a ghost," she said.

"You knew he was with Cecily," Kay snapped. The anger bubbling inside her finally found an outlet. "Why would you send me there?"

Sonia narrowed her eyes as if she didn't approve of Kay's tone, but sighed. "I hoped Cecily would start screaming her head off at you and Kyle would dump her."

The anger vanished in an instant. "You want Kyle to break up with Cecily?"

Sonia rolled her eyes. "The entire universe wants them to break up, but Kyle's not just going to dump her for no reason. He's dumb like that. You're a good reason and I like you more."

That again. Only that now it seemed a lot more possible since Donnie was out of the picture. No, what was she thinking? There was no way she was hooking up with Kyle.

"So you decided to just use me."

"That's why I like you better. You get huffy about the right stuff, not about gossip or breaking a nail. She's just not right for Kyle."

Am I right for Kyle? Ugh, no, who cared? "If she's not, then how come they're together? Maybe he knows better."

Sonia let out a humorless laugh. "They hooked up at a party. He's a guy and she's a hot bimbo, of course he doesn't know better. Though I thought he did after going out with Chloe for so long."

"Chole?" Kay asked confused.

"Yeah, Chloe Whittaker. He dated her before Cecily, but she left his ass and moved on to better things. I don't think you know her, but she was an okay girl."

Kay was shocked that she did know her. Chloe Whittaker had been a sort of friend in her sophomore year. A very smart girl, but nowhere near as beautiful as Cecily. She'd left at the end of the school year for a much better, private school somewhere in California. Kay tried to remember her ever mentioning Kyle, but Chloe wasn't one to talk about boys.

"Kyle likes you. At least as a friend," Sonia continued. "And I think we could make Cecily take a hike."

Kay shook her head rapidly. "No. If Kyle wants to break up with Cecily, good for him, but I'm not going to intentionally try to do it." Okay, that sounded like she wanted to break them up accidentally which was so not what she meant. "I mean, I don't want any part in this. It's his relationship, his decision."

"Told you she wouldn't want to do it," Dustin said with a wise shake of his head.

"Damn it," Sonia mumbled. "Why does that make me like her more?"

Kay gritted her teeth. She didn't want to like Sonia either. She'd made a plan to use her to get rid of Cecily. She was no one's puppet. But somehow, Sonia's loyalty and dedication to her friend made her endearing. God, she'd just gotten into a weird crowd.

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The chapter is pretty huge. So, what did you think about Sonia? How about Erin?

Much drama is to come in the following chapters, so stay tuned. Also, don't forget to vote, comment and force all your friends to read this brilliant story. Um, or not so brilliant, but yeah...

Also, a huge thanks to autheras for letting me borrow Chloe. If you haven't read High school hitlist, you should.