A girl with short hair and a paper coffee cup in her hand stood in my way as I headed to my locker on Monday morning. She was standing in front of her friend, right in the middle of the hallway, and with the look of things, they weren't going to move anytime soon.

I'd already made up my mind to go around them and risk getting accidentally shoved by the loud, playful guys next to them when I caught some words from their conversation. Thankfully, I hadn't gotten to them yet.

It was crazy how I heard them despite the noise.

". . . cops are here," the girl with the coffee said. "I heard it has to do with the investigation. Apparently, they found some leads or something."

Her friend snorted, eyes straying to the boys behind her friend. "This is getting crazier and crazier. I'm surprised they haven't shut the school down."

At that point, I'd walked past them, and even though I tried hard to listen to what they were saying, their voices floated away and joined the others. I walked as fast as I could, still a little weak from yesterday's events, but determined not to let that stop me.

As much as I tried ignoring the fact that Piper and Dion's murders happened, I knew things were very real. Ridgerock would never let me pretend everything was fine.

I saw the edge of a folded piece of paper sticking out of my locker when I got to it, and, curious, I pulled the paper out, not even giving myself the chance to guess what was written on it. It could've been a murder note, or one aimed at scaring me, but at the moment, my brain wasn't functioning like it was supposed to.

The handwriting was unfamiliar, but when I saw the signature at the bottom of the note, I was filled with surprise.

Sorry about the other day. I wanted to get you chocolate but wasn't sure you'd like it. Sorry once again - J

J. Jamie.

Instinctually, I looked around for him, but he was nowhere in sight. I didn't know why, but the note made me smile, easing the stiff muscles of my face and lifting a burden from my chest.

I stood there in front of my closed locker, reading Jamie's words over and over, and had barely recovered from the pleasure when I felt a presence behind me.

That smell was too familiar.

"When I'm trying to find you, you seem to disappear."

I quickly spun around, my heart leaping out of my chest, long enough for me to feel breathless, but not long enough to make me drop dead.

Axel's smile was wide and contagious and, needless to say, beautiful. I stared at him in shock for a while because one, after Saturday, I couldn't help but feel weird, and two, he was in school, which he was supposed to be suspended from.

"What?" he finally asked, pushing disobedient strands of hair away from his face. "Is this how surprised you are to see me?"

Yes, I thought, this is how surprised I am to see you.

The way he was acting was shocking. I was expecting a level of awkwardness from him the next time we'd see each other after Saturday, but here he was, acting like I didn't tell him Kairi's biggest secret.

"I don't deal too well with surprises," I told him, forcing up a smile and balling up the note in my hand.

"Yeah, I see that." His smile fell a little as he took a small step closer to me, and, subconsciously, I took an unnecessarily large step back.

My back hit my locker with a small doof just before Axel placed a hand above my head. Self conscious, I looked around, and just as I thought, our little show hadn't gone unnoticed.

I could imagine the shock—Axel Denvers, ex-captain of the Cougars, who was suspended after a plastic bottle of steroids was found in his sports locker, was now back in school, displaying affection to the sister of his former what? Fling?

I tilted my head up so I could meet his eyes, wondering why he was suddenly in my personal space, but a movement on my left caught my eye, and I turned to it. Regret burned its way up my throat immediately.

West was watching this, too. And while I would've ignored him and instead figured out a way to get Axel to step away from me, I couldn't ignore him. Because almost immediately our eyes locked, he looked away, resigned, then headed down the hallway. It was that kind of resigned look a tired mother of a teenage son would give after finding alcohol bottles in her kid's room too many times. What I didn't understand, though, was why his resignation hurt me.

"How are you feeling?" Axel asked me, drawing my attention back to him. His proximity to me made his voice sound deeper and more intimate, but I hated it.

I didn't know what he was trying to prove with this, but I knew I hated it.

My lips moved several times before words could come out of my mouth. "F—fine. I'm fine."

His eyes filled with strange concern. "I wanted to call yesterday, but I thought you'd want space."

I would've been happy to hear that if he'd told me before Saturday, but now it just made me feel odd. "It's the thought that counts. Thanks. I'm fine, really."

"Well then, I can share the news." He gave me a breathtaking smile, and I don't know if it was just me, but his head seemed to move closer to mine.

"What news?"

He lowered his head so his lips were positioned right next to my ear, and my stomach rumbled in response. He was way too close now, and the bad thing was that I couldn't find it in me to push him away. All I could think about was if this was how Kairi felt the night they almost had sex, minus the uneasiness.

"I'm back on the team," Axel whispered in my ear, causing little happy tingles to run down my back and confuse me even further. I was sure I didn't want this, so why was a part of me enjoying it? "You're the first person to know apart from my parents and Coach."

With him standing so close to me and saying words directly into my ear, it took me a while to actually process what he'd just told me.

And when I did, I blurted, "What?!"

I didn't sound as pleased as he probably wanted me to be, and he studied my expression with a slightly suspicious look in his eyes, urging me to feign good surprise.

"They let you back on?"

"Yeah. They made me swear off the pills and promise to get tested every week. The school apparently can't afford to lose one of its best players."

This was crazy. "But why? I mean, what made them change their minds?"

Axel gave me a lazy shrug, finally stepping away from me and giving me more space to breathe. "My parents were working on getting my suspension lifted, and they got talking with Coach Travis. They reached an agreement, ran it by the administration, and here I am, the exiled Cougar."

"Wow," I forced myself to say, because, really, wow. All my hard work just, poof, evaporated. Just like that.

When I published that blog post about him, I'd felt bad, wishing I could undo the harm, letting guilt feast on my insides. But now that things were beginning to look up, I strangely wasn't happy. Even though I wanted to be.

"I'm so happy for you," I lied with a soft voice, looking away momentarily.

We stood there in silence for a few seconds, my mind racing, his eyes running over my face. Then, out of the blue, he asked, "Does Kairi know what's happening?"

I didn't know I dreaded that question as much as I did until an unforgiving cold gripped me right there. I tried not to act nervous or stutter, but there was only so much I could do at the moment.

"I don't think so," I finally said, praying he didn't hear how breathless I sounded.

"You should tell her," he suggested. "It's her blog and she deserves to know what's going on with it. Maybe her computer was hacked or something."

"Y—yeah, I thought about that, too. But Kairi has a lot on her mind at the moment and I don't want to bother her with that." He was about saying something, so I added quickly, "I'll tell her, though—when I find time alone with her."

I could hear my heart pounding, and the fluorescent lighting in the hallway suddenly started to hurt my eyes.

Axel nodded. "Cool," he mumbled, then in a louder voice, "I should get going. Got a bunch of people to catch up with before class."

"Okay. I'll . . . see you around."

"Sure."

I watched him walk away, unable to stop wondering what it was he wanted to say, and why I stopped him.

Mrs. Perkins was saying something about our final grades during first period, but most of what she said went unheard by me, because I was busy trying to get West's attention. I stared at the back of his head for so long, I was surprised my eyes hadn't burned holes through it.

Usually, he would meet my eyes several times before class was over, but today, his eyes were focused ahead, and every few minutes, he'd write something in the notebook in front of him. It killed me to know that he was back to ignoring me, and it hurt because this time I knew why he was ignoring me.

The intercom crackled to life, interrupting my English teacher, who ran a dark hand over her face in frustration, and West looked up.

"Attention, students," our principal's frail voice sounded through the speakers, and the class went dead silent. "I apologize for the interruption, but an urgent issue has come up, and it needs to be addressed. So all students should move to the auditorium immediately. I repeat, all students please move to the auditorium."

Students got out of their seats quite loudly, and Mrs. Perkins resigned to her desk, looking unhappy. She seemed so into her job, it was almost unbelievable. I had one eye on West as I packed my books, and I saw him quickly put his things in his backpack.

Strands of curly hair had fallen over one of his dark eyes, drawing me back to yesterday and that moment of attraction in my room. I tried hard not to think about it after I'd retired for the night, but every time I closed my eyes, he was the only person I could see. It was crazy.

And now he was refusing to even look at me.

When he walked out of the classroom after slinging one strap of his backpack over his shoulder, I rushed to put the rest of my things together, then followed him. My sneakers squeaked against the linoleum floor as I hurried to catch up with him, and my hair bounced up and down in response. Students weren't quiet, sharing their theories about why an emergency assembly was called, and as they took their time migrating, I squeezed between bodies, desperate to talk to West.

After what felt like a lifetime, I finally got to him, stopping right in front of him so my presence would be acknowledged. When he saw that it was me, a look of frustration went to settle on his face.

"Why are you ignoring me?" I folded my arms over my chest in an effort to look scary, but it didn't work.

"We don't talk here, do we?" was his quick reply.

"We don't, except in the library, but I know you're ignoring me, Westley."

West pinched the bridge of his nose. "What do you want me to do? There's nothing to talk about." He said it like he was scared to be heard by someone else.

"I know you have a lot to say—"

"I can't be seen talking to you, okay?"

His words cut through me like a knife, and my remaining words got stuck in my throat.

"You'll get me in trouble," he added, then walked past me before I could even process what was happening.

Ridgerock students moved past me like they were ocean water and I was a pair of bare feet on a beach, uncaring even though their arms hit mine or their backpacks brushed against my skin.

The auditorium was filled with murmurs, and I tried walking in a straight line as I kept an eye out for an empty seat, but it was really difficult to focus. I felt eyes on the back of my head, and I didn't feel good, walking past seats without knowing where exactly I wanted to sit.

I'd just gotten to the middle of the room when I heard someone calling me.

"Hey, Kim." When I looked around, my eyes fell on Jamie, who was sitting in the row right next to me. His smile was alluring, his face shielded by the dark gray hood over his head, and his hair spilled out from under it, settling on his forehead. I didn't think I could ever get used to the new him. "I saved you a seat." He gestured to the seat next to him with his chin, and I forced up a smile.

"How did you know I was gonna come this way?" I asked, taking the seat and leaning back.

He shrugged lazily. "I wished for the best."

The girl sitting on the other side of him looked around him, her face lighting up when she saw me. My fists tightened involuntarily and I hoped Jamie didn't notice. Dray's girlfriend ran her pretty eyes over my face, then said, "Oh, you two know each other?"

I almost threw up when the realization hit me, and Jamie turned to her. "This is Kimie." He looked back to me, his brown eyes boring into mine immediately. "And Kimie, this is my cousin, Gianni—she's from the Italian side of the family."

Gianni and I stared at each other, her with a sly smile on her pink lips, and disbelief slapped me hard across the face. This girl was Jamie's cousin. I guess it explained why he didn't say anything when she was harassing me in the hallway.

"Nice to formally meet you, Kimie," she eventually said, tilting her head a little as if seeing me from a different angle was going to change things. "How's your sister?"

I turned away when I saw Jamie's jaw clench in anger. "She's fine," I produced through gritted teeth, playing with my fingers.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone taking their seat in the row next to ours, and when I turned, I saw that it was Dray. He did a double take when he noticed me looking, and recognition filled his eyes. The thing about him was that he exerted confidence; he wasn't afraid to look me in the eye. And it sort of terrified me. Despite everything he'd done, he could still look at me like that. He knew how to get to me.

I looked towards the podium, trying to fight off the emotions running through me, and almost immediately, my text alert went off. The text was from West, who I was very sure was somewhere behind me.

You good?

Of course. I was sitting beside Jamie, whose Italian cousin maybe hated me, and Dray was watching me from the next row. Everything was peachy.

Still a little sad about earlier, I made sure I tapped on the text so it showed I'd read it, but I didn't reply, putting my phone in my backpack instead.

"You didn't reply to that," Jamie observed next to me, and I turned to him.

"Yeah." I smiled. "It's not important."

He nodded, but his eyes didn't leave my face. It made me a little uncomfortable, and Gianni was paying attention to us, so I looked away and sank lower in my seat. I wished I was the one with the hoodie right now and not Jamie.

The principal went up the podium and tapped on the mic to check if it was on, and just before she started talking, I saw Axel several seats in front of me, bent to one side as he laughed hard at something the boy beside him said, and when something important occurred to me, I wanted to become part of the chair I was sitting in.

With the way we were sitting—Jamie, Gianni, Dray, Axel, West and I—it was like a crooked plus sign, and I was the dot connecting all six of us.

While this story has already been planned out, your feedback helps in reshaping the plot, so please don't hold back on leaving me comments!

How do you guys feel about Axel? I'm getting mixed reactions. 💕