Another on time update... yay for me :D Urgh... I keep reading through these chapters that I've written and I'm REALLY not happy with some of them. I must've been in a bad mood when I was writing them, aha. But still... hopefully this turned out better than the last!

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"Vote for me!" Alyssa called, as she strutted into homeroom, a basket of freshly baked (by Luigi this time) cupcakes on her arm. She thrust one on the desk of the nearest person, before throwing a couple in the direction of two jocks at the back of the class.

"And a cupcake for you," she said, as she walked past Mr Hammond’s desk and dropped one on his pile of paperwork, winking discreetly as she did so.

"Thanks," he grinned back, picking up the cake and inspecting it. "Nice job, by the way."

"I know, right? Luigi’s a pro at this kind of thing," she said, before turning around to face the rest of her peers inside the classroom. "And I forgot to tell you guys, but guess what? Mr Hammond’s on my campaign, so make sure you all vote for me!"

There was a buzz of excited chatter as many of the girls sprung to life, stealing glances at their teacher. Alyssa smiled inwardly. The idea of getting him on their campaign team? Pure genius. Now she’d won the votes of practically all the girls in the school. And once she won over the boys – which, she thought to herself, would be easy – Courtney wouldn’t stand a chance.

"You’ve roped Mr Hammond into your pathetic little team?" came a voice from the door. Courtney was standing there, a look of disgust upon her face, but jealousy was evident in her voice.

"Yeah, actually," said Alyssa, turning around to face her opponent and placing her hands on her hips, smirking. "Aw, jealous you didn’t think of that first?"

Courtney scoffed, shooting a smug look at Carter, who had appeared at her side. "Right. Maybe we don’t need the help of a teacher, because our campaign’s going so well already."

Alyssa rolled her eyes. "Yeah. Right. That sounds likely."

"Bring it, bitch," said Courtney, stepping forwards until her face was only inches away from Alyssa’s. "You may be confident, but when it comes to the election, you’re going to be crying on the floor."

Alyssa smirked. "I highly doubt that. Who’s going to vote for you? Anyone?" She looked around the classroom, waiting for a response. Everyone was silent, their eyes transfixed on the two of them.

Suddenly, one of the jocks from the back row cheered and waved his hand in the air, winking at Courtney. She smiled smugly. "There you go, then."

"Wow, one vote?" Alyssa said, unable to mask the smugness in her expression and voice. "That’s really going to win the election, isn’t it?"

Courtney narrowed her eyes, glaring at Alyssa with a look that could kill. "You think you’re so big and clever, don’t you? You think that everyone loves you, but you know what? No one does. Everyone hates you. You hear that? They all know you’re just some slut."

"Coming from someone who stole my boyfriend!" Alyssa retorted, launching herself at Courtney and shoving her backwards with all her force. Anger boiled inside her. How dare Courtney? How dare she insult her like that? Especially after all she had caused.

"Whoa, whoa... girls, break it up!" Mr Hammond was now standing between them, his hands held up to separate the two girls.

Alyssa stayed silent, breathing heavily through anger, watching as Courtney steadied herself again.

"Now you both just need to calm down..." Mr Hammond said, turning his head as he looked at both of them. "This is a friendly election, okay? You’ve both got as much chance as each other."

"Yeah right. You’re going down, bitch."

"Bring it!" Courtney shouted back fiercely, shooting a challenging look at Alyssa.

"No, no, no!" Mr Hammond said, pushing them both back from each other. "We are not bringing anything. You girls need to stop this right now. Let’s just have a nice friendly election, and may the best girl win. Okay?"

"Okay," Alyssa agreed, with a sneering smile. "I think we all know who that’s going to be."

***

"Vote for me!" Alyssa called cheerily, thrusting numerous cupcakes at unsuspecting passing freshmen, who looked incredibly intimidated and slightly scared. "You don’t want that skank Courtney as your president, do you?"

"Vote for Alyssa," Aiden said, slightly less enthusiastically as he linked arms with his girlfriend. To tell the truth, he’d kind of lost interest in the whole election. It had been going on for days now, and the constant scheming and plotting against Courtney was losing its attraction. Alyssa had become completely overtaken by the whole thing – she talked of nothing else but how she was going to bring down her former friend, and Aiden was getting tired of it.

Suddenly, Alyssa stopped in her tracks, taking Aiden by surprise. "What’s up, babe?" he said, glancing at her.

"Oh no she didn’t," Alyssa was muttering, a look of fury beginning to overtake her face as she stared in the direction of the wall.

Aiden frowned, and then glanced in the direction of Alyssa’s irritated gaze. And then he saw it – the reason for her sudden mood change. Sure enough, the walls were still covered in endless posters bearing Alyssa’s beaming face, but on each and every one, there was evidence of graffiti.

On some, Alyssa’s face had been completely scribbled over in black permanent marker, and in others a beard and moustache had been drawn over her flawless face. And there was no lack of posters that had had words scrawled over, words to the effect of skank and slut.

"That’s low," Aiden said quietly, as he inspected a neon pink poster that now read Don’t vote Alyssa – slut.

"Is she fucking kidding me?" Alyssa said, her voice raised. There was almost a hint of laughter in her voice. "She’s really done this?"

"Don’t worry, babe, we’ll get her back," Aiden said, slipping his arm around Alyssa’s shoulder protectively. It stayed there for no longer than two seconds before she shrugged it off.

"Really? I’m so scared," came a voice behind them, followed by laughter.

"Courtney, are you really this immature?" Alyssa said, spinning round to face her. "You really think this is going to help you win the election? Just ‘cause you can draw on a couple of posters?"

"I’m just helping the students here at Serenity Falls realise what a slut you really are," Courtney smiled sweetly, shooting an amused look at Carter. "I’m doing them a favour really."

"Oh, that’s rich," Alyssa said, narrowing her eyes at her opponent. "Are you forgetting that you were the one who ran off with my boyfriend?"

"I didn’t steal him, babe," Courtney said, rolling her eyes. "He didn’t like you anyway. And to be honest, I don’t blame him. Who would want to date you?" She shot a look at Aiden. "Oh yeah. Sorry. People like him."

"Don’t you dare bring Aiden into this. You’re the slut, Courtney, and everyone knows it. People know me and Carter went perfectly together. And then you waltz in, practically throwing yourself at him, and stole him. It’s really a one-sided story, don’t you think?"

"Oh, Alyssa," Courtney said, chuckling to herself as if Alyssa was some small child. She tossed her sleek dark hair over her shoulder and smiled. "When are you going to learn to stop being so bitter? Jealousy isn’t a nice emotion, you know."

"Come on, guys," Alyssa said, looking behind her at Aiden and Kayla. "Let’s go. We don’t need to be around these skanks – we’ve got better things to be doing."

"See you at the election!" Courtney called cheerily as they walked off. "And then we’ll see who wins."

***

"Have you seen the posters?" Chelsie asked, nodding towards the wall behind where Olivia was standing. "Looks like Alyssa and Courtney have started the war."

"Yeah, I noticed," said Olivia, smiling slightly. "I have a feeling this one’s not going to be quiet."

"Whoever wins is practically giving themselves the title ‘Most popular girl in school’," Fred said. "No wonder they’re both so desperate for it."

"So, who are you betting on?" Chelsie enquired, looking at Olivia. "For me, it’s definitely Alyssa. She’s got way more power, and way more freebies. Plus, her Dad will kick up a massive fuss if she doesn’t. You know what he’s like with his complaints."

"I don’t know, Courtney looks pretty determined, don’t you think?" Olivia nodded at the posters, still harbouring black Sharpie marks. "Determined to bring Alyssa down, that is. I think they both stand a pretty good chance."

"If they don’t kill each other before the votes are in," joked Fred, although in the current situation, the chances of that happening were increasing by the minute.

"That’s true," Olivia laughed, turning to her locker and slotting one of her textbooks onto the metal shelf inside, before removing another one.

"Hey..." Chelsie said, tapping Olivia gently on the arm to get her attention. Her gaze was directed across the hallway, behind them, and she watched as the person made their way over to the three of them. "Looks like you’ve got a visitor."

"What?" Olivia frowned at her friend, not quite understanding what she said. A visitor? What did she mean? They were standing in the middle of the school hallway...

"Um, hey," said a voice alarmingly close behind her, as she felt a small tap on her back. She spun round quickly, and as she did so, she recognised the chocolate brown hair and sparkling green eyes immediately. The recognition made her heart skip a beat, and yet the same time she couldn’t help but feel a sinking feeling in her stomach.

"Oh, hey Ethan," she said quietly, averting her gaze to the floor. The awkwardness between them was still ever present, and it had only increased since his request to be ‘friends’. She no longer knew how to act around him. "Um, how are you?"

"Uh, Fred, do we need to...?"

"Yeah, I think we do," Fred answered quickly, as he and Chelsie sloped off, leaving Olivia alone with Ethan. This was both a blessing and a curse – she didn’t really want them listening in on their conversation, but at the same time being left on her own with him only increased the awkwardness levels even more.

"I’m fine, thanks," Ethan answered her casually. He wasn’t looking at the floor. His eyes were looking straight at her, although she refused to meet his. Because she knew that once she did, there would be no way to stop herself. There would be no one to pull her out of the dark hole that she was leaning over at the minute.

"Good..." Olivia answered vaguely, her reply almost inaudible. What was she supposed to say? She could think of a million things inside her head, but once they were outside, they would sound stupid and embarrassing. It was better just to keep quiet.

"Uh, I was wondering if you wanted to hang out some time?" Ethan asked, biting his lip. Maybe he was nervous too. "You know, as friends, like we agreed..."

"Um, I don’t know..." Olivia trailed off, before looking up for the first time. Big mistake. As her eyes locked onto his, she could almost immediately feel herself falling, getting caught up in them. And as her words processed his eyes displayed a look of disappointment – only filling her with guilt. "I guess we could."

"Great," Ethan said, smiling warmly at her. "Tonight, after school?" He looked at her questioningly and she nodded in response. Why did she have to be such a pushover? Hanging out with Ethan clearly spelt out bad idea. "Sounds good. I’ll meet you at your place around six, okay?"

"Yeah," she breathed. "Sounds good." She managed a small smile in response. After all, she told herself, what was wrong with that? Just hanging out with a friend. Nothing wrong at all.

Yeah, right.

"I’ll be looking forward to it."

"Me too," answered Olivia. He wouldn’t be able to tell she was lying, after all.

"It’ll be good for us, you know. We’re friends, so why shouldn’t we hang out?" Ethan sounded a lot cheerier than Olivia felt.

"Exactly," Olivia smiled again, this time more genuine. As long as she controlled herself, not let herself get carried away, she would be fine. They would hang out as friends... nothing more.

"Okay then." Ethan looked at her, his hand brushing against her arm awkwardly, although he was unaware of the sparks that were rushing through her body as it did so. "See you."

"Yeah. See you," Olivia breathed, turning back to her locker quickly as Ethan walked off. She couldn’t stop a blush rising to her cheeks. Why did seeing him get her so hot and bothered now? They had been fine before. She had been so relaxed around him, so at ease. And yet now, after Sammi, things could not be more different.

She had a strange sense of wondering as she thought about what would happen later that day.