The bell rings, dismissing us from our last class. God am I happy school is over, I'm ready to go. Then again, I'm not ready to be bombarded with the million questions I know Rachel will have. I grab my notebook off the desk and head out of the classroom. I walk up the stairs to my locker.

"So, what are your plans today?" James asks me.

"Well, I'm meeting Jessica later."

"Jessica, for what?" he asks with an eyebrow raised.

"Ms. Moore put us together for our senior project."

"Oh." Is all he says; he looks like he disapproves, but he doesn't say anything more to me.

"Who are you going out with?" I ask him, thinking back to the conversation he was having with Violet in English.

"Logan!" he says with eagerness in his voice.

"So, is this getting serious?"

"I don't know, but I want it to go somewhere today if you know what that means," he says seductively.

"I know what you mean." I smile and close my locker. "Well, I have to go. Good Luck tonight."

"See you tomorrow." He says as he walks away.

I go down the stairs and head to the front doors; I walk outside and down the steps, heading towards my car. Soon as I get in, my phone rings. I take out my pocket to see who it is. It's my mom.

"Hello. "

"Hey, baby."

"Are you okay? Are you in California?" I ask anxiously.

"My plane just landed. I'm waiting for a cab," she tells me.

"Oh. How does it look down there?" I've seen California pictures, but I've never been; from the pictures I've seen, it looks beautiful, good weather, sunny skies, beaches.

"It is beautiful, Nothing like Crossland. For the summer, we'll have to take a girls trip here," she suggests.

I don't know if I'll be here, I'll probably never have a chance to see it. "Have you talked to dad?" I ask her to change the subject.

"No." her tone changes; it sounds lower and shaky.

"Oh, well, how long do you think you'll be gone?"

"I don't know, maybe two to three weeks,"

"That's a long time."

"I know, baby, but... the trial." She says. I know it's more than that.

"Mh."

"Ah, I see a cab; I'll try to call you later tonight. You're on your way to your appointment, right?" she asks.

"Yeah, I'm leaving school now."

"Okay, sweetie, well, I'll talk to you later.

"I love you," I tell her.

"I love you too."

I remove the phone from my ear and hang up. I turn my car on and pull off out of the parking lot.

...

"So, how was school?" Rachel asks me.

"Uhhh."

"Remember you can't use the word good." she points across the room at the chart on the wall. It's a paper with a line through it. On one side, there is a list of words we can't use in the office to describe our day or feelings. The other side has a list of words we can use instead.

"It was superior," I say in a high voice, mocking her chart.

She narrows her eyes at me. "How was it... superior?" she mimics my tone.

"I don't know." I lean back in my seat. "It's school. Nothing happened." I shrug my shoulders. Something did happen, but she doesn't need to know about that.

"Did you see Ashely?"

"Yeah, she didn't say anything, though."

"Okay, did you see Ryder?" she asks.

"I did; he didn't say anything either." I lie.

"So, your day was perfect?"

I need to give her something so she will never stop fishing for information. "Well, everything was perfect except for this morning."

"What happened this morning?" She takes the bait.

"Well, my dad bought me a car; I took it to school. When I pulled into the lot and got out, everyone was staring at me. And this boy made this remark."

"What did he say?" she asks, interested.

"Something about my car being big enough to have sex in."

She starts writing on her paper. "And how did that comment make you feel?"

I lick my lips. "Nothing," I say honestly. I heard what Matt said, and if I'm honest with myself, I didn't feel any way about it.

"Nothing?" she repeats.

"Nothing," I say in an assuring way, assuring her that that's what I meant to say.

"Hm." she starts writing in her notebook again. "Have you heard from Caleb?"

Hesitantly, I say. "Yeah."

Her eyes go wide. "Really? Well, what did he say? Why didn't he ever call you?"

"Uhh, miscommunication," I say without going into detail on how Ryder was the cause of this miscommunication.

"See, you did all that worrying!"

I jokingly roll my eyes.

...

"Hey, sorry I'm late," I say to Jessica as I slide into the booth. Rachel went a little over time. We talked about Caleb for the rest of the session. I told her everything, except for the whole fingering in the car thing. Mostly we just talked about how I felt about him.

"It's okay," she says softly. She has her hoodie pulled over her head, and she is jingling the silver bracelets on her arm.

"So, do you have any idea as to what we are going to do for this project?" I ask her.

"Not a clue," she says.

I let out a small laugh. "I guess this isn't going to be as easy as Miss Moore thought."

"Right!"

"How about we look up some stuff?"

"Alright."

We both pull out our phone and start looking. After about thirty minutes, I spot something that seems simple and easy. "Okay, how about we volunteer at a shelter and document working with the animals."

"Ummm. That sounds sweet, really. The only thing is I'm allergic to dogs," she says. "And anything with fur," she adds.

"Oh." I sigh. "Well, that's okay." I continue scrolling on my phone. "I'm sure there's something here." The dinner bells jingle. I don't look to see who it is, but by the way, Jessica's face has changed; I have a pretty good guest. She quickly looks away from the door and down; she starts to fidget with the silver bracelets on her wrist. "Are you okay?" I ask her.

She looks back up. "Ye--Yeah, I'm f--fine." She stutters. "I'll be right back." She quickly slides out of the booth and goes to the back of the dinner to the bathroom.

I turn my head to see who came in. Ashely, along with Ryder and their friends, some of the cheerleaders are with them too. Ashely's eyes meet mine; she walks away from everyone and down the dinner towards me. Now I want to run into the bathroom, but I won't. I won't give her that satisfaction. What the hell does she even want?

Ryder POV

What the fuck is she doing? I watch as Ashely walks to the back of the dinner towards Jayda. I should follow behind her, but I won't. Ashely brings out the worst in me. To prove that I'm just like her, I'll say something rude to Jayda, which will further make Jayda think less of me more than she already does.

Plus, if it even seems like I'm being nice to her, Ashely will make her life even worse than it already is. I can't go back there. Even though I desperately want to know why Jayda is here with Jessica. I slide into the booth. Zach, Matt, and Monica sit across from me.

"What do you think she's saying to her?" Monica asks us.

"I really don't give a shit," Matt says.

"Really?" Monica narrows her eyes at him and tilts her head to the side.

"Really." He repeats.

"I find that hard to believe. You're fucking obsessed with her." Zach laughs.

Matt reaches over Monica and smacks Zach in the back of his head. "Being obsessed with someone and wanting to fuck them is two different things."

"So, you admit you want to hook up with her?" Zach asks slyly.

"Of course," Matt responds.

I bawl my fist tightly under the table. I don't like it when they talk about her like that. It's irritating as shit. He could talk about having sex with any girl, and I wouldn't give a shit. But he isn't talking about some other girl; he is talking about Jayda.

And him talking about her like that makes me really want to punch him in his fucking face. If I did, I would give him another black eye, in contrast to the one that he already has. The one I know his shit of a father gave to him last night.

"Why would you want to hook up with her? Out of all people." Monica says disgustedly. She's one to talk. She doesn't look shit like Jayda, Monica's a one, and Jayda isn't even in the same numeral bracket as her.

The real question is, why would anyone want to fuck her? I mean, she has been passed around to everyone, the whole football team almost. I've even been with her, once though, in the tenth grade, before I was with Ashely.

"Her ass, definitely because of her ass," Matt replies. They start to laugh.

"Could you shut the fuck up?" I blurt out sternly. Everyone looks at me, wide-eyed. They looked shocked and confused. Ashely is walking back towards us; she slides into the booth, close to me. My whole body hardens. I move over a little more towards the wall putting distance between her and me.

"So?" Monica presses her for answers.

"So what?" Ashely says.

"What happened?" Monica asks, stating what she clearly wants to know.

"Nothing. I just told her that all is forgiven about the fight." She says.

Everyone starts to laugh. They're laughing because we all know that's not true. Though Ashely has not stated what she plans to do, we know she plans on doing something.

Ashely is a lot of things, but she isn't forgiving; she isn't the perfect blonde cheerleader she portrays. They may not know, but I know the real Ashely Forbes.

When you have sex with someone, you connect with them in many ways, it's weird as fuck, but it's true. I know the real Ashely is crazy. She's dark; she will do anything to anyone that gets in her way.

I guess that's why in a way, we work because she's just like me.

...

Jayda POV

"Jessica?" I call her name as I open the bathroom door. She is leaning over the sink, sniffling. I walk over to her. "Oh, my God! Are you okay?" I ask urgently.

She lifts her head and pushes her brown curls out of her face. "I'm fine," she says, lying.

"Do you want to go? We can go if you want." I know how it feels to be intimidated by Ashely. Ashely's presence, along with Ryder and Matt, their presence makes you sick, physically sick.

It's crazy, I know, but it's true. When you've been a victim of the shit they do to you, it's never the same. Every time they come around, you get all sweaty, and your stomach drops; their presence just makes you want to curl up and disappear.

"Yeah," she says softly.

I walk over to the paper towel dispenser; she can't go out there with wet eyes; they will know she was crying. They can't know; they'll tear her apart. I always made sure that I always cried in private, never in front of them. Well, I did cry in front of Ryder, but that's different. I grab the paper towel and walk back over to her. She takes it out of my hand. "Did you drive?"

"No, but it's okay. I can wal-"

"No, no, no," I say fast. "It's okay; I can drive you home."

"No, it's fine, really, you don't have to."

"I want to," I say in an assuring way. She smiles, letting me know that she'll allow me to drive her home. She turns back to the mirror, wipes her eyes, and then throws the paper towel in the trash can.

I open the door, and we both exit the bathroom. We stop at our table and grab our stuff. As we walk to the front door, I feel all eyes on us.

(So guys I will only be doing 3 updates a week now, on the weekends, so I have a question, would you guys like to receive the updates Friday, Saturday and Sunday, or do you want all three on Friday?)