There were posters put up everywhere. The girl's bathroom door. The walls in the hallway and the ones in the classroom. Smaller posters on the classroom board right at the side. Posters with freaky, snowy dreamland snowflakes everywhere. All that girly stuff girls dream of.

It was all about the darn Winter Bash and of course, the Ice Queen; Wendy.

(10th of November 2011; Thursday)

Classes didn't even seem to be a thing anymore. Teachers were too busy organizing the student body into groups for the preparation of the annual dance 'The Winter Bash' that was due next week. The hallways were filled with girls talking about their plans and dresses. The guys were trying to muster up the courage to speak to the girl that they planned to ask for a date.

By the way things were going, it seemed like the teachers were a lot more excited about this than the girls in my batch and that just said something. It was the time of the year where the students were too distracted with catching each other's attention to pay any to what the teachers were doing and what our teachers were trying to do, is flirt with each other, it was an endless flirtatious cycle really.

My teacher put me in charge of something called 'The Streamer Hunt', which was literally what she had called it. My job was to get the money for decorations that were collected from all of us for this particular event and go hunting for silver streamers. Mrs. Bond emphasized on the fact that I shouldn't get back by tomorrow without those streamers.

I wasn't the type of person to take these things seriously, or even go to them. But I had a feeling David would go and so would Wendy with her group of minions.

I hadn't realized this before, but Wendy always managed to control me. I thought that I was the one feared and that no one could have control over someone like me because there couldn't be anything that a person could hold against me and neither did Wendy.

But Wendy had a way of coaxing you into doing things you didn't want to, I was desperate for her attention. I thought that she could make me feel loved by the student body, just the way everyone seemed to love her. She was always sweet and nice to everyone, but she had her way with words and when she wanted to, she'd carve that knife right into you and even if she would have done it in front of the student body everyone would still admire her and look up to her the same way I have admired and looked up to her until I got to know her.

Wendy took me under her wing; she assured me that remaining friends with David was social suicide. She made me feel loved; at least that's what I thought. She built me to be like them, she told me to remain like I was back then would get me nowhere, that I needed to watch what I eat. I believed her and I trusted her, I told her about my mother and about my parents. She knew every little detail about me.

She made me dye my hair after she saw a picture of my mother stashed away in one of my bookcases and told me that it was sad my father had to look at me every day and be reminded of someone that ruined everything. That day I cut that picture into pieces and threw it out my window. I went through every album I had and all the pictures that gave the illusion that my mother was somewhat a decent person and got rid of them all.

I was so stupid.

Wendy wasn't the one to blame here, it was me. It was always me. I let her do this. I thought she was fixing something that was broken and instead of listening to my dad I managed to shut him out too. But she wasn't fixing the broken, she was breaking the healing.

I knew that she didn't like me, at first she might have considered me one of her little minions but she realized too soon that I wasn't controlled as easily as Gwen and Mia. Because she didn't turn me into her minion, she managed to turn me into her. And because I was her equal, she feared me.

It was now that all the puzzle pieces fit. I always wondered how she could keep someone so close to her when she didn't like them. It was easier for her to keep in her group than let go of me, in fear that I was her equal and she's turned me into a person that was exactly like her. I could as easily destroy her as she did me.

There was only one difference between Wendy and I, and that was that I valued friendship and I was willing to fix things and not destroy them.

I was pushed out of my trance when Phil placed his hand on my shoulder; I looked up at him and smiled. "Hello."

"Hey there, beautiful." He grinned, his perfect teeth gracing me with their presence.

I blushed and turned away. I had only one thing to do today and it was finding David and speaking with him and of course, the darn silver streamers.

Phil's hand left my shoulder as he was called by Mrs. Bond (who was in charge of decorating if you haven't figured that one out yet) to move something around. In my point of view, Mrs. Bond just used him so she could check him out, which was disgusting because she was married but that was none of my business either so I didn't pay a mind. I couldn't blame her. I cannot believe I just thought that.  I decided to leave the basement and head over to the ground floor so I could make it to the cafeteria and time and grab some fries.

Before I could step out of the basement, a hand grabs my arm and pulls me back in, by the nails that were now clawing into my skin I could tell who that was; Wendy.

Speak of the devil and he shall appear or in this case, has reincarnated himself into Wendy eighteen years ago and is for some reason haunting me down.

"Where do you think you're going?" her smile was malicious, it was almost scary. Almost.

"To the cafeteria and last time I checked, you weren't the boss of me, so get your darn hand off of me." I gave her a smile that equaled hers, trying not to turn it into a smirk. To anyone who would look at us now would think that we were just having a friendly conversation, Wendy was just that good at making people believe something that wasn't true. I would know.

"Alaska, darling," her smile grew and her freakishly gray eyes piercing right through me like they always have, "don't for a second think you're off the hook with David. Things just don't work like that."

I pull my arm back and step away from her, my smile dropping. "I know you, Wendy. If you wanted to do something, you would have done it by now. You just wanted something to hold against me, you always have and now you have it. You always wanted to control me, but you can't do that. I'm not scared of you."

"You might just be wrong about that, Al. You might be very wrong. We'll see about that."

I walked away. I refused to believe that she could actually make things any worse. She was just trying to scare me and I wasn't going to let that work out for her.

The sudden change in the weather caught me slightly off guard and I was glad that I was so close to the coffee shop. I jogged towards it, my hands carrying four large bags of silver streamers in amounts as Mrs. Bond has not so nicely requested and noted it down with a red pen on my hand, the ink smudged but I could still tell the numbers that were scribbled.

I quickly spotted a table at the corner and walked up to it before someone else grabbed it. Placing all the bags on the seats in front of me, I sat down and grabbed the menu that was already placed on the table before I occupied it.

Looking at the menu wasn't something that I did at all; I usually ordered a black and went with it. But I promised my father that I would try and so I did. It was a little after five in the evening and I was very hungry.

The picture of a large croissant with ham, lettuce, and tomatoes caught my attention so when the waitress approached my table I ordered exactly that in addition to a cold caramel flavored coffee. 

As soon as she left my table I noticed a familiar head full of brown mousy curls. I stood up and walked up to him, making sure to keep my eyes on the bags that were at my table.

"Hi." I managed a sheepish smile which he didn't return however he did motion for me to sit down and I obliged.

"Look, Alaska. I'm really sorry about what happened the other day at your place on your birthday. I didn't mean to be-"

"It's all good, really. I was just confused." I honestly commented, my eyes moving from my table to David's face, trying to gauge a reaction out of him.

"Me too. I was just so angry and it all came out wrong, I don't know what-" he was interrupted by a very strong, yet familiar English accent and I smiled up at Laura as soon as I saw her pull a chair out and take a seat at our know seeming to be crowded table.

"I didn't know you would be here." She exclaimed. Her smile warm and welcoming as she placed her hand over David's.

"I didn't know that either. But I do need to head out." I said as I caught the waitress pass by the table and asked her to have my order to go. "I will see you around, guys."

"Alaska, wait," she stood up from her seated position and stepped closer to me. "We were going dress shopping for you tonight, did you forget?"

"With all the work I had to do, I guess I did. The stores close at nine and I have to go home and shower, I'm definitely not going like that, do you think we could make it?" I was secretly too tired to go anywhere and was hoping she'd let it slide. I'm sure I could figure something else out for the Winter Bash.

"We would make it just on time, don't you worry. We'll only make a stop at one store, I promise. No long time dress-looking-shopping scenes like in the movies. I'll pick you up?"

"Sounds good to me."

I was too tired to look good. I sported a black pair of leggings with a pastel pink sweater that I found at the back of my closet. If it were the beginning of this school year, I'd rather die than be seen in something pink, or anything that's not black or gray. I was wearing the same pair of black converse that I have all week.

School has been slow. Whilst everyone was planning the Dance, I was busy sitting in the library and meeting teachers, trying to catch up with my school notes and solving tons of math equations that I could barely understand but hoped the extra practice would help me get a decent grade.

I felt like my hand could just fall off from all the writing that I had done. I never realized that we did so much. It was almost insane. I guess I thought that skipping school was not that big of a deal because it was what I've always been doing, not as often and not in such big chunks, but I always have and this was supposed to be the same. But it wasn't, and I've learned that.

I was motivated to graduate with a decent grade; the next couple of months are going to be hell. I've never seen a schedule so packed in seniors. I looked up the printed schedule on my wall and let out a loud sigh. This was going to be a very long couple of months and I hope they were worth it.

Being distracted by not hurting David, I realized, was not going to fix anything and it certainly wasn't going to change anything because even though he doesn't know it yet, I've already hurt him and there's nothing I can really do about it but stop being a coward which is something I've started becoming more of, rather than the other way around.

The bell rang and I quickly grabbed my wallet and squandered down the stairs, holding onto the railing. I opened the door and my smile immediately dropped. My eyes squinting up at him in confusion.

"Not happy to see me?" Phil asked, smiling up at me, his dimple showing.

"That's not it. Just confused." I told him, watching his arms fidget as he held them behind his back. "What're you doing he-"

He pulled his arms from behind, in his hand a small bouquet of blood red roses and another scratching the back of his head, his teeth pulling on the side of his lip. "I know it's a little bit late. Hell, it's very late. And you're probably already going with someone else. I wanted to ask you before I promise but I wasn't sure when was the right time with all the stuff that was going on with you and-"

I cut off his ranting session and raised a brow, a hand on my hip. "So, are you planning to ask me or are you going to stand there for the rest of the night explaining yourself for whatever reason?"

"Alaska, will you go to the dance with me?"

"I would love to." I looked at the roses that he held firmly in his hands but didn't hand to me yet.

"Oh. These are for you." I took the roses from his hand and held them closer to myself, smiling up at him awkwardly. His feet shifting weight from one to another.

I looked at the roses again. I didn't like flowers that much. "They're nice. Thank you."

His eyes were scanning my face as if he were trying to read me in a way. "You don't like them, don't you?"

"No, they're nice."

"Cool." Phil bit his lip.

"Yeah, cool."

We stood there awkwardly for what felt like five minutes and then I was pulled out of my trance by the sound of a horn, behind Phil, a grinning Laura waving in her car.

•••
and i finally updated in a week! i cant believe i actually updated so soon haha. and too apologize for being a day late because i was supposed to update yesterday this chapter is a lot longer. i hope you guys enjoy it and if you did please vote for it and leave a comment down below of what you think! thank you so much x