Chapter 2

I fell asleep peacefully in bed after crying from what had happened earlier between Nick and I. I heard the door to my bedroom creek open softly and noticed Vic coming into my room. She still thought that I was sleeping so she snuck over to my bed and bundled up with me wrapping an arm around me and giving me a kiss on the head before falling asleep herself.

I woke up early the next morning and could smell bacon, eggs, and pancakes. I got up out of bed and jumped in the shower. I changed my clothes to some soft furry boots, a pair of my favorite shorts, and a black tank top that cut off on the sides revealing the sides of my stomach and part of my black sports bra. I left my hair in the towel and made my way downstairs to the kitchen where I found Vic cooking breakfast. “Good morning little sis. I hope you don’t mind but I made you some breakfast and invited some friends of mine.” That’s when I turned around to see some kids I have never seen before in the living room playing poker on the floor and goofing around pushing each other and laughing when someone dropped a card or more.

“Hey Victoria, your sister is really pretty. Hi, my name is Olivia but you can call
my Olive or Olly if you want.” a girl with long black hairand nose, lip, and tongue piercings waved at me with a friendly smile. She was wearing black lipstick and dark eye makeup with a black tank top that revealed a belly piercing and she was wearing black boots and some plaid shorts. There were about four other girls with her that were dressed somewhat like her just with less piercings, some with tattoos, and some not as goth looking type girls. There were maybe three guys out of the whole group but they all looked kind of different from the others. One of them looked like one of those instantly popular type of people, one of them was wearing prescription glasses with a sweater vest and had a bowtie with his hair slicked back nicely, the last one seemed like the shy silent type who was wearing a thick wool sweater and some sweatpants with some black nike shoes and his hair was long and in dreads.

“Hey everyone.” I waved at each of them smiling. I took the towel off of my head and went back to my room to grab a brush and run it through my hair and then straightening my hair. It was still really early so I did not have to go to school for another hour or so. I stayed in my room without breakfast, I lost my appetite when I soon remembered dad coming home and seeing Vic here at the house with her friends. He will be so happy to see her but then as soon as she leaves he’ll be comparing me to her and yelling at me for changing my look. I changed my furry slipper boots into some black laced biker boots and grabbed my motorcycle helmet and backpack so that I could just leave for school early and maybe stop off to get a coffee or maybe a diet coke.

I made my way to starbucks and ordered a bagel with a pumpkin spice cappuccino, the bagel was a peace offering for Dylon. I was hoping that once I gave this to him he’ll make everyone forget all about the video. But when I got to school I parked my bike and noticed that everyone already forgot about the video and was now checking out my new look. I did my best to ignore it but as soon as I actually got into the school it seemed like everyone cleared a pathway for me to get to my locker. First I found Dylon and gave him his bagel. “Hey Dylon, this is a peace offering. I was kind of hoping that you wouldn’t mind me asking you to take that video down.” I gave him a sweet and sincere smile when I noticed that all he was doing was checking me out. I snapped my fingers in front of his face. “Hello Dylon, did you hear a single word I said?” he looked at his friends around him before answering. “All I heard was something about you being a peace offering.” he smiled and placed his hand on my waist pulling me closer towards him and forcing me to put my hands on his chest to keep myself from falling.

I pushed him away from me before slapping him across the face, flipping my hair, and walking confidently away. I went to my locker with my cappuccino in my hand as I put my books into my locker. All of a sudden my locker slammed shut and I
was pushed up against the lockers with the high school’s biggest drama queen and queen bee, Bianca Hazel, standing right in front of me. “Listen, I don’t know who you think you are or why all of a sudden you think that you can waltz up in here like you own my school with a new look and expect everyone to just love you so much. But if you think you’re getting away with this than you can guess again, Alexa.” she spat in my face. I smiled before taking a sip of my cappuccino and looking at the cup weird. “Hey Bianca, I have a question. Do you think that my drink tastes weird?” Then I poured it all over her before walking away with a big smile plastered on my face and people surrounding us and taking a video of her yelling nasty comments at me and screaming for someone to help her dry off.

I then noticed the tears in her eyes before smiling and replying. “That’s a taste of your own medicine, B. I hope you don’t mind but you got something a little everywhere. Have fun with that.” I then turned around and walked through the crowd of people not caring about the comments that she yelled after that. I went to my first class and noticed that our regular teacher was gone and for some reason our substitute was really cute. How could our principal hire someone this good looking as our teacher and expect us to focus in class. I saw him glancing my way a few times, I had my feet kicked up on the desk and I was leaning back in my chair with Freddy sitting in the chair next to me still shocked that I got a new makeover. I noticed Nick across the room with his lab partner glancing over at me and our hotty substitute teacher. He has short blond hair with blue eyes and he has a barely noticeable stubble of hair circling his lips and he had strong chiseled features and raging biceps that looked as if at any moment they were gonna burst out of his shirt. “Excuse me, Mr. Davis what happened to Mrs. Hendrideson?” A girl from across the room asked. I looked at Mr. Davis and noticed him looking at me with a smile and googoo eyes. “Well uh she went into labor so I will be your substitute until she decides to come back from maternity leave.” He looked around at the class before looking back at me. I noticed a bunch of other girls staring at him like they were in love.

“Hey uh, Mr. Davis can I go get a drink?” I asked as I chew my gum. “What’s your name?” he asked raising his eyebrow as he made his way to the clipboard on Mrs. Hendrideson’s desk. I got up and walked over to him standing behind the desk. I put my arm on his shoulder and looked at the list with a pen in my hand. I put a check by my name as I set the pen down and winked at him before grabbing my leather jacket putting it on. I kissed two of my fingers before placing them on Mr. Davis’ cheek and walking out of the classroom. I didn’t actually want to get a drink, I went outside and had a cigarette that I stole from my dad’s room late last night. I was a straight A student with no violations because not one of the teachers really pay attention to what usually happen out in the hallways or on school grounds. I lit the cigarette as I walked to my motorcycle and started it up, I drove off to the nearest gas station where I could pick up something small to eat and buy some more cigarettes.

I was there hanging around for about two hours. While I was there I noticed a teacher on lunch break. He noticed me walking around the gas station and made his way over to where I was. This guy was way too young in my opinion to be a high school teacher, plus he was way too good looking. “Hello Ms. Rodrigo, I thought you would be in school at this time of day.” He began to walk with me around the building. “Nah, I don’t have time for school that much. Why should I care about it anyway, I’m passing all of my classes with a 4.0 average and none of the teacher’s pay attention to what happens on school grounds unless you’re not a student at the school or teacher.” I asked him a few questions and he asked me a few in return. I found out that he was a new graduate from Stevens-Point University, my dream college, and that he is twenty two years old. He asked me what college I’m planning to attend and how old I am. We circled the building until we got to the very back where no one could see us. He pressed my back up against the building and began to run his hands on my hips while kissing me.

He lifted me up easily and began to kiss my neck. “Um, Mr. Davis I don’t think that we should do this.” he put me down before kissing me one more time and fixing his hair and clothes. I fixed mine as well and lit a cigarette. “Outside of school it’s Daniel.” I raised my eyebrows. “Ok Daniel, well I better get going. I have track practice tonight and then I have work too.” He nodded his head before walking the opposite direction to his car and I walked to my motorcycle. I drove off to my house where I found Victoria and her friends still in there goofing around. “Hey guys.” I waved at all of them and Victoria gave me a weird look. “Aren’t you supposed to be at school, Alex?” I shook my head. “We all just got out early, something about a rodent infestation in the Science lab.” I went to my room with no more questions asked. I turned my radio up all the way, took my shirt off so that I was just in my sports bra and shorts, and I began to workout.

I planned on keeping my body in this good of condition. I heard something against my door to the balcony. I turned the music down and made my way to the balcony and peeking out of the curtain to see Nick standing there smiling. I quickly ran to put my shirt on and then I ran outside onto the balcony. “Hey what are you doing here?” I asked as I stood nearby him staring out into my back yard. I began to climb down and waltzed my way over to our inground pool, I took my socks and shoes off and stuck my feet into the cold water. Nick came to the pool and stuck his feet in too. We both sat there in silence with our feet in the water. Then he took his shirt off and jumped into the water splashing me on his way in. He rose from the water waving his hair around to remove it from in front of his face. I quickly ran inside the house and grabbed a black and white two piece swimsuit from my room then I ran back down and jumped into the pool with him. I dove deeper into the water not caring about anything else. I loved being in the water and being able to swim with no other cares in the world. I felt a strong pair of hands wrap around my waist and spun me around in the water. Before I knew it Nick’s lips were pressed up against mine as we both stayed under water. I
pulled back and swam directly to the top and rubbed my eyes and I tried to get some of the water out of my hair. Nick quickly swam to the top and came after me. I climbed out of the pool and yelled for Vic to bring some towels outside.

Nick grabbed my arm and pulled me back towards him. “Alexa, I thought that-” “No Nick I'm so sorry for this but I think that you should leave.” “But Alex-” “Please just go Nick.” I pulled myself away from him and Vic came outside with some towels for us. I quickly dried off and wrapped the towel around my body before going back into the house and changing back into my other clothes and laying my swimsuit outside on the balcony. I locked the balcony doors shut and closed the curtain. I put my earbuds in my ears and laid down on my bed listening and plugging my ears from the outside world. I went to my desk and started working on homework and my science project presentation.

I finished at midnight and as I went downstairs to get a glass of water Olivia was sitting down on the couch watching tv while everyone else was passed out on the floor with sleeping bags and pillows. She had a bucket of popcorn in her hand. I made my way through the living room to the couch and sat down with her. “Watch a watching?” I grabbed a few pieces of popcorn and popped them one by one in my mouth. “It's a horror movie about a girl ending up in this virtual reality world and has to find her way out before the mysterious dark figure that brought her there finds her and kills her. But she ends up finding true love through her journey but she gets a warning letter that reads YOU CAN'T TRUST ANYONE EVEN THOSE WHO ARE CLOSEST TO YOU! And she begins to ask herself if she can trust her true love anymore.” She took another piece of popcorn in her mouth as I began watching too. “Sounds good.”

By the end of the movie Olive was passed out and I was happy as ever to have watched that movie, it was amazing. I'm guessing that Olive fell asleep when the girl walked in on her true love in a dark mysterious mask while he was carving someone's corps’ out.
The movie was amazing and it was now my favorite horror movie of all time.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and checked the time, realizing that it was past midnight I covered Olive up with a blanket and went off to bed. I woke up the next morning happy as ever, I took a shower and got dressed heading straight off to school.

I was walking in the hall when I turned a corner and ran into Nick. I dropped my books and everything in my hand except for my motorcycle helmet. I bent down to pick my stuff up and he knelt down to help. He handed the books to me and our hands brushed against each others. I looked at our hands and looked up at his gorgeous ocean blue eyes. He was staring right back at me but before he could say anything I took the book and stood up walking off to my next class. I quickly sat in my seat and kicked my feet up onto the table not trying to show any sadness in my eyes. I sealed my emotions like this all the time but for some reason it was suddenly harder to do so.

“Ms. Rodrigo, it is nice to see you in class today.” I crossed my arms not really caring about Mr. Davis’ comment. “Yeah well I had no choice. It was either this or listen to my dad coming home to find my sister back from college and hear him bowing at her feet asking her about all the fun she’s had while I become the waitress for the two of them and her friends.” I mocked back in a sassy tone. “Alright well, why don’t you be the first one to present your science project today? Come on up, Alexa.” I swung my feet around the table bringing them to the ground as I grabbed my poster and made my way to the front of the classroom. I grabbed a pair of goggles and a lab coat as I brought tubes of chemicals to the front of the class. I slid a pair of gloves over my hands and began presenting my project once I clipped the last magnet to the board to keep my poster up.


Daniel’s POV

I watched her as she slid her perfect, fragile hands into the gloves that I left on my desk for the students to use. I grabbed my scoring sheet and pretended to write things down, reviewing her score. I circled the highest scores for all of the check mark boxes as I watched her present. I zoned out from what she was saying, I stared back in forth from her eyes to her soft lips. I imagined in my head her waking up in my bed in the morning, but I was no longer there. She would stand up and make her way into the kitchen to see a huge breakfast prepared for her. I would kiss her and hold her in my arms, she reminded me so much of my ex girlfriend before she died. She was in a car accident a year ago two weeks after I proposed to her. It was the middle of the night and she was driving home from a party where she had gotten extremely drunk. I offered to drive her home that night because I was still sober after the party but she refused to get in the car so then she ran off and I couldn’t find her. The next thing I knew I was driving around town to see a car wreck, I ran to one of the cars to find her sitting in the driver’s seat with gashes in her head and the side of her head bleeding. Glass was stuck in her arms and some in her stomach. Blood was dripping out of her mouth and out of her nose. There were two other people in the car with her, the police searched the car and found some drugs and a gun not well hidden in the car.

She was so beautiful, she was that kind of girl that didn’t care about what others thought of her, she was confident in everything she did, she had a sweet and shy smile with eyes that sparkled no matter if it was light or dark outside. She had black hair like Alexa’s and they both were so beautiful. After Lizzie's death I couldn’t concentrate on anything else, I loved her more than anything in the world and now she is was gone.

Alexa reminded me so much of her, with her smile and the sparkle in her eyes and her gorgeous black hair. If I could just get her all to myself I wouldn’t need anything else in the entire world besides her love and compassion, to know that I could wake up every morning holding her in my arms. And that I could kiss her head and she would blink awake with a huge smile on her face and kiss me back. This girl was going to be the life and death of me, I knew it.


Alexa’s POV

I finished my presentation and grabbed all of my equipment putting it back where I found it as the rest of the class applauded and the next presenter made his way to the front of the class. I went to take my seat but Mr. Davis stopped me. “I’d like to talk to you about your presentation after class.” I nodded my head and kept walking to my seat. I didn’t pay any attention to the rest of presentation I just doodled inside of my notebook.
After class everyone else left the room and I stood at the Mr. Davis’ desk waiting for what he had to say. “You wanted to talk to me after class, Mr. Davis?” he looked up at me with a raised eyebrow. “Well, Alexa I believe that your presentation seemed too easy for you to do in my class. So I would like you to do a project that you don’t get to choose on what you’re doing. I want you to make a solar powered motor that will work using this tube. You have to find what the substance is by doing various experiments and you have to have a video of you completing the project so that I can make sure you didn’t get all of the information off of the internet.” he handed me the bottle of the clear liquified substance, and I walked out of the classroom with it still in my hand. This project seemed too easy for me, I do stuff like this all the time when I have free time or when I am just really bored. I was just in the doorway when he stopped me again. “Oh and Alexa, you have to have this done by next week. You are going to come in before school starts and present it to me.” I nodded my head before walking to my locker to get books for my next class and favorite class out of all of them, art. I made my way to my locker and switched all my books out for my sketchbook and my pencil bag.

I walked to art with Freddy and told everything that has happened since I got my new look. “Wait so the hotty new science teacher likes you, Nick kissed you, and your sister came home. You should be happy about all of this. Not to mention the fact that you stood up to Bianca, our school’s queen bee not to mention the girl that has bullied you around since our freshman year. Alexa, I am so proud of you.” he put an arm over my shoulder to pull me in for a hug. “Yeah but who knows, the Nick thing might completely explode in my face, Bianca could try to get revenge, and our teacher could be some creepy pervert that secretly does this to all of his girl students.”

We got to the class and sat down in the back of the room. “Well, what if none of that happens and the rest of the year goes great for you?” I scoffed as I turned my head to look at the board. “Yeah right, my sister is still going back in a month, and plus since when doesn’t Bianca try to get revenge on someone for something they did?”
He shrugged his shoulders and began drawings sketches. The two of us were extremely artsy and creative. I smiled while I was drawing. I drew a skull with flowers all around it, I drew lilly’s and a few dandelions, I drew the skull on fire and turned it into our art teacher. She called it beautiful and said that she was putting in this years art show. I don’t really understand why but she always puts everything I make in the art show and then she recommends me to enter talent shows. I thanked her and she then said that she was giving it an A.

I returned to my seat and I opened up my laptop and began writing:

As Claire sat in the darkness crying for help she could still hear her parents arguing in the house. She cried harder when she overheard her mother screaming for help and glass shattering. She felt useless, her dad locked every door so that he could keep anyone that was outside from entering in on their fight. She got up and ran around the house trying to find a open window or some kind of way into the house. She finally found her parents bedroom window unlocked and as she climbed through it she heard her mom’s footsteps running up the stairs. She hid around the corner of the wall so that her dad couldn’t see her. He was faced the other way running after his wife. Claire picked up a vase silently off of the table next to her. Her dad pinned her mom up against the wall and began shouting at her and slapping her across the face. Claire silently walked behind her dad and broke the vase over his head making him fall on the floor, he was now unconscious and the girl grabbed her mom’s hand and ran down the stairs and out of the house with her.

I was interrupted from writing when our principal came into the room and was now standing over me. “Ms. Rodrigo will you please come with me to my office?” I nodded my head and closed my laptop picking it up with my other things and followed him to his office. He shut the door behind us and sat in his chair. I sat in the chair that was just across the desk. “Alexa, we have heard that your teachers love you and are their favorite student. They have all come to me with positive things to say about you, and I hear that you would like to get into Stevens-Point University. With all of these positive reviews of you I am proud to say that I will be your recommender to the school and you are getting a free scholarship. You have a tour of the school next week Friday at four-thirty pm, the transportation to get you there will be already payed for. Congratulations, you have made this school and everyone in it extremely proud. Oh but before you go we also got three other letters for you from Yale, Harvard, and Madison University with scholarships. We would also recommend these schools if you would like.” I slowly reached my hand out for the letters and grabbed them before he dismissed me back to class and I walked to class stunned. Yale, Harvard, Madison, and Steven-Point University all want me to attend their school? Now was the hardest decision of all, which one to choose. I always had my heart set on Stevens-Point University but I couldn’t just pass up an opportunity like this to go to three of the most prestigious colleges in the country.

I made it back to class and my teacher was there smiling at me, I guess she was one of the teachers that had positive things to say about me to our principal. I smiled back and walked to my seat silently. Freddy turned to me with a confused look on his face. “What did he want to talk to you about?” I turned to him and held out the letters. “I got a scholarship to Yale, Harvard, Madison, and Stevens-Point University.” he quickly took the letters out of my hand and looked at them with a huge grin spreading across his face. He dropped the letters on the table and shot up out of his seat and began to dance and cheer. Everyone’s eyes in the classroom was one us. I sunk into my seat trying to hide my face. “Hey everybody, Alexa got four scholarships. She is the first person ever from this school to get a scholarship from Yale, Harvard, Stevens-Point, and Madison University. In fact she is the first of anyone at this school to get a scholarship to Yale or Harvard. And don’t forget about her halloween party that she is throwing next week.” Everyone erupted in cheers, I giggled as Freddy made a complete fool of himself by dancing around the classroom, he made his way to Mrs. Donovan's desk and got her up dancing too. He made his way over to his small stereo that he brings to class every day and began playing some music which got everyone up dancing. For the rest of class we were all just dancing and talking to each other as we worked. We were all having a good time until the bell rang loudly, everyone was sad to leave from all of this fun but they knew that we had more classes to go to.

I went to my locker smiling and laughing at some jokes that Freddy made about Bianca and Dylon. I noticed Nick standing by my locker when we got there. I walked confidently to my locker and faced him. “I would like to be able to open my locker, and I can't exactly do that with you leaning against it.” He moved out of the way as Freddy stepped in front of it and did what he usually does. He elbowed the locker really hard and then quickly slid to the side just before it swung open. I turned to my locker and tossed my books inside and closed it. Nick was still trying to talk to me as Freddy and I walked to gym class but I kept my back turned facing Nick with my arms crossed. We made it to the stairs and we walked down them to the gym. Freddy and I went to the locker room to get dressed. Some of the other guys didn't feel comfortable changing with Freddy in there so they had him change in here now. I changed into my black shorts and a shirt with our school colors, blue and black, Freddy and I went into the gym and walked outside the gym doors to start on our laps. We both began at a steady pace but on our last lap we both sprinted and went back into the gym to wait for their gym teacher. “Alright class, today we will be playing a nice friendly game of dodgeball.” everyone cheered except for Freddy. “But coach everyone knows who is going to win, it’s going to be Alexa like it always is. She is going to do a bunch of gymnastics moves to dodge the balls or she will just catch it and then throw it at someone else and easily get them out. She wins every single time.” “Fine then how about we play team dodgeball?” now everyone was cheering, except for me because it didn’t really matter for me as long as Dylon and Bianca were on the opposite team as me so that I could nail them in the face with a ball. Honestly, I can’t believe that I liked Dylon since the third grade just to find out that he is a total pig and a huge jerk.

We got put in our teams and I was on a team with Freddy and Nick, I looked at the other team and sure enough Dylon and Bianca were over there flirting in the corner. I got down in position to run straight ahead to get to a dodgeball. Our gym teacher blew the whistle and I was off hitting people left to right. I noticed that Bianca and Dylon were still in the corner but they were both staring at me and talking, and even worse laughing. I quickly tied my hair up and while I was doing it someone threw a dodgeball at me and I did a backflip while still tying my hair up. I picked up a ball and threw it towards Bianca and it bounced off her stomach hitting Dylon in the leg. They both glared at me and made their way over to the bench. Now I could tell that they were really mad because they both were yelling at everyone else on the other team to get me out.

I kept doing a bunch of gymnastics and I helped Freddy and Nick out to make sure that I still had someone on my team to help me. I looked at Freddy and gave him a look that was supposed to signal our special move that we made up to help us out in a game of dodgeball. He laid down on the floor and lifted his feet up in the air. I ran straight towards him and looked at Nick yelling “Stand behind Freddy.” he ran to Freddy and then I jumped onto Freddy’s feet flipping over and hitting the ball that was thrown towards us so that Nick could catch it, he did and then I chucked the last ball that I had at the last kid on the other team hitting him directly in the stomach. I landed the flip and cheered as everyone that was on my team who were also sitting on the bench jumped up in the air and ran towards where Freddy, Nick, and I were all cheering. They all lifted the three of us up in the air and carried us around the gym while the losing team did their fifty push-ups. Bianca was whining about how much it hurt her arms. And our teacher sent her straight to the principal’s office.

And usually in this class the rules were that the winning team gets to skip the next activity if they wanted to while the losing team did nothing but laps, push-ups, sit-ups, and bench pressing. I took the next activity off to watch the losing team do their workout while I was talking to Freddy. “Hey Alexa, can I talk to you in private for a minute?” Nick asked me desperately. I looked at Freddy and nodded his head, I sighed as I looked at Nick again before answering. “You literally have one minute.” Freddy smiled and quickly walked off to talk to our teacher.
“Hey I am sorry for what happened in the pool, I was lost in the moment. I saw you in the water and your hair was floating, you were smiling and I really like you, Alexa.”
I stared at him not able to say anything, I tried clearing my throat but there was a huge clump in it. I looked down at the floor. “I'm sorry, Alexa. Are we good?” I looked at him and sighed before nodding my head and smiling. He hugged me before getting up and walking away towards the weight room. I watched him walk away but Freddy slid next to me disturbing me from my daydream.

The class ended and now it was time for lunch. Freddy and I decided to take the elevator up but just before the doors closed Bianca and Dylon got in. Dylon pushed Bianca up against the wall and they began to have their own little make out session until we reached the floor we needed to get to. Freddy and I went to our normal table and oddly enough instead of sitting by the other members of the football team Nick sat with us. For lunch today it was Pizza, thank god because all week that has been what I have been craving most.

We ate and talked before finishing up the day with our last few classes. I had to give Nick a ride after practice. I dropped him off before going to my house and running straight upstairs to my room and I closed the door and listened to music as I did my homework and daily workout. I decided to spend some time in the pool today. I changed into a two piece red swimsuit and some flip flops. I grabbed a towel before walking outside and getting in the pool. No one else was home so I guessed that Vic was out somewhere. I closed my eyes and leaned my head back laying in the pool with my arms holding me by the edge of the pool.

I opened my eyes about twenty minutes later, I got out and dried off before going into the house and ordering some pizzas. I called Freddy, Nick, and Olive to see if they wanted to come over. Freddy was busy and Olive was already hanging out with Vic right now at the mall. Nick was the first one I called and he was free so he came right over. When he got there he was shirtless with a towel and he was in swim trunks. His hair was already a little wet, I didn't bother asking because I supposed it was from a shower or something.

The pizza got here not long after and we went out to the back and sat at our deck tables and ate some pizza, once we were full we sat there and talked for a while. We talked about my party coming up and how football was going for him. I told him that I was coming to their next game. After we were done talking we got in the pool and goofed around for a while. It ended up getting dark out but we were still having fun in the pool. We both swam to the edge and rested there for a while looking up at the stars. He turned to me and stared at me for a while. I turned to see him leaning in but this time I didn't mind. He looked me directly in the eyes as if he was asking for my approval to kiss me. I nodded my head lightly before leaning in slowly and bringing my hands to his shoulders he leaned in and kissed me sweetly. I could feel water dripping out of my hair and a few drops running down my face. He wrapped his hands around my hips as if pulling me closer. He brought his hand to my cheek, it sent chills through my spine.
My back was pressed up against one of the walls of the pool. His hands danced running up and down my body. The kiss ended at the sound of someone clearing their throat behind us. I turned around to see Vic standing there with her arms crossed and she was staring down at us. “Alexa you need to finish your homework.” “I finished it as soon as I got home.”

“Alex can I talk to you for a minute?” I climbed out of the pool and wrapped myself in my towel as I made my way inside the house with Vic. “I don't want you to talk to that kid anymore.” I looked outside. “What why? Nick is my friend and I like him.” “I don't care, I ran a background check on that kid and he's really bad news. I don't want you talking to him.” “Why did you run a background check on him? He is my friend and this is none of your business. He has been nothing but polite to me since we met.” That was sort of in a way a lie but she didn't have to know what happened at the barn. I turned to walk away but Vic grabbed my arm and turned me to face her again. “I like him and there is nothing you can do about that!” I shouted at her before whipping my arm out of her hand. I turned and walked back outside and sat down dipping my feet into the water and watched as Nick swam around. He swam to where I was sitting and pulled himself up to sit next to me. He grabbed the towel behind him and dried his face off still looking at me. “Are you okay? What happened?” I shook my head before taking a deep breath. “Nothing it's not important.” We sat there for a while looking at the reflections that we made in the water. I nuzzled into his bare chest and it got colder out. I dried off before running inside to change clothes. I tossed on a hoody and some shorts and I grabbed one of my dad's hoodies from his room and tossed it to Nick. We both cleaned up our empty pizza box from earlier and then we went to the couch and laid down. I laid my head on his chest with his arm around me. We watched a movie until we fell to sleep.

I woke up to someone stroking my arm and a kiss on the forehead. “Good morning, beautiful.” Nick said with a smile. “Morning.” he gave me a kiss before I went upstairs to change clothes for school today. He ran home and got changed, I gave him a ride on my motorcycle. Once we got there I took my helmet off and grabbed his. I messed up his helmet hair and he fixed it with a smile. He put his arm around my shoulder as we walked into the school. He walked me to my locker and then we went to class together. Today he sat by me and I convinced Freddy to sit at the table next to us. Mr. Davis walked in with a smile to his desk, he saw Nick and I sitting at the table. Nick had his arm around me kissing my cheek and my neck with a smile as he leaned over me while I was doodling in my notebook. I ran my hand through my hair with a smile and Nick laughed at my sketch. It was Mr. Davis riding a canoe with a science textbook and rose petals falling from the sky and a man in there playing the violin. The textbook was in a dress and Mr. Davis was looking at it admiringly.

I noticed Mr. Davis walking up to me and quickly shut my notebook and put my arm over it. I looked up at him when he finally made it to where I was sitting. “Hey Mr. Davis, how has your day been going so far?” I smiled jokingly at him just to annoy him. “Let me see what is in your notebook that you two find so funny. Maybe I’ll get a good laugh today.” I eyed him and then looked at Nick before sighing and opening the notebook to my drawing. He lifted up to him and looked at every detail of it. He raised his eyebrow as he turned the page to see my next drawing. “Mr. Davis I don’t think you’ll want to look at those.” I tried to reach for the notebook but he pulled it away before I could get to it. The next picture was of him getting struck by lightning to save his lovely textbook. He turned the page revealing the next picture I drew, as soon as Nick and I looked at it we both laughed because we couldn’t hold it in. “Me getting sushi on a textbook, the textbook kisses me and dies while I am there crying. Amusing picture, Ms. Rodrigo. Maybe you would like to draw more in detention after school today.” he handed the book back to me and I took it as I rolled my eyes at him and dropped the notebook on the table.

I was fine with the rest of my classes today and lunch was practically the same except for the people looking at me weird. I was heading to detention when the most popular guy in the entire school came out of a classroom with some of his friends. I walked right past him and I noticed him watching me as I walked away. They all whistled and made howling noises. “Looking nice in those shorts today.” I stopped to turn around and I flipped them off and continued walking to detention. They all oohed at me but I ignored them, I rounded the corner and knocked into someone making me drop my backpack and some things spilled out. I looked up to see who it was and it was Tanner. “Alexa hey, I haven’t seen you in a while. How have you been?” I nodded my head with a smile. “Pretty good, my dad is less hard on me and---- oh my gosh. I just realized that I totally forgot to invite you to my halloween party next week.” I bent down to pick up one of the flyers that fell out of my bag and handed it to him. He bent down to help me pick up everything that fell. He picked up an old picture and looked at it with a smile. “Is that you?” he handed it to me. “Yeah that’s my sister, me, my mom, and my dad.” “Your parents look good together.” he smiled, I nodded my head still looking at the picture. “Yeah they were good together. But um my mom died ten years ago.” I felt like I was going to cry just from talking about this. “Oh I’m sorry. Well how has it been with your dad and sister?” “My sister is in college and she’s just visiting for a month while they have off. My dad-” “I get it you don’t want to talk about it, I didn’t mean to pry into your life if that’s how you feel.” he handed me my books and we both stood up. “Don’t worry about it, it’s fine. Hey so what are you still doing here?” he pointed towards Mr. Davis’ class and I smiled. “I get it detention, me too. He gave me detention because of some drawings of how little his life was. Him kissing textbooks, him suffering the pain of getting struck by lightning to save a textbook and some other stuff.” I shrugged my shoulders. “Well I gotta go before he gives me detention tomorrow too.” I smiled and walked past Tanner. “Hey Alexa, I’ll be there.” he shouted, I turned around and knew exactly what he was talking about. He was coming to my party next week.

I smiled and walked to Mr. Davis’ class to see Nick sitting at a table with a smile on his face and he was arguing with Mr. Davis. Once he saw me he shook his head and said never mind. I went to sit by him, I opened up my notebook and started doodling more pictures of Mr. Davis. This time Nick and I did our best not to laugh. We both let out a few small quiet laughs but then I switched the page before Mr. Davis saw to a page with a drawing of a portrait Nick asked me to draw of him. I ripped the picture out of my notebook and gave it to him with a smile. He looked at it with a smile. “Thanks, this is perfect. Hold on I want to get a picture of us with this.” he pulled out his phone and took a picture of us with the portrait. “Perfect.” he looked at the picture and gave me a kiss before we were both dismissed from detention. We left and I gave him a ride home.
The next morning we both decided to take the bus because it was raining outside. I loved the rain but I didn’t want to show up at school completely drenched in rain.


Nick’s POV

I watched her stare out the window as she watched the drops of rainfall onto the window. I pulled out my phone and took a picture, I changed the filter so that it was black and white. I saved the picture and I had an idea of what I was going to do with it. I made copies of the picture when we got to school and I slid one into her locker in between classes. I used another one and made it into a smaller copy and put it into a keychain to put on my house keys. I used the portrait that she drew of me to make a locket for her and I used an extra smaller copy of her picture to put on the other side of the locket. This is how I was going to ask her out, I was going to give this to her and let her open it to see the pictures inside.


Alexa’s POV

I made my way through my classes pretty well but Mr. Davis bugged the heck out of me during science. I finally finished the school day and I gave Nick a ride home. Once I got home I decided to plan my party for next week. The party is on Sunday and right now it is Friday, I went to the store with Vic and bought chips, soda’s, some frozen pizza’s, and a lot of party decorations. I went looking for a costume, I ended up buying this really cute police officer costume that was super cute and then we bought one for Vic too since she was gonna be there. We got her a devil costume that was also super cute.

We worked on how we were gonna do our makeup and hair. I decided to tie my hair up in a high ponytail and my makeup was light, lipstick, eyeliner, foundation, mascara, and some eyeshadow. Vic kept hers all red to keep the devil look going.
We both tried our costumes on once we did our hair and makeup and then we both took a bunch of selfies together. We even had a live video on facebook to show off our costumes. Once it was posted I realized that I had Nick on facebook and he was going to see this along with Tanner. I tried my best to calm down and not to freak out.

I kept all of my makeup dark and mysterious. My costume had some skimpy shorts with the belt a fake gun, handcuffs, pepper spray that I added for safe measures, and fake taser, the shirt was a muscle shirt with the badge and a hat. Vic’s was red shorts a red strapless crop top with little devil horns and a red staff with the three horns on top. She curled her light brown hair and she curled her eyelashes. We took more pictures and sent them to the entire school to use as more of a promotion to have more buzz about my party.

I made some funny kissy faces at the camera and Vic made her own funny faces too. We posed a few more times before we sent the video out to everyone. For the rest of the day we planned a bunch of other things to get for the party. In the middle of our planning Vic and I were still in our costumes when the doorbell rang and I went to go answer it just to see Nick standing there looking at me up and down. “Um what's going on here?” He looked at Vic and back at me with a confused smile. “Vic and I were planning the party and we were taking some pictures of ourselves in the costume and we posted them. What are you doing here?”

“I came over here to ask you something.” He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a heart shaped locker. Before he was able to show it to me I heard someone calling my name standing behind Nick, we all turned to see Tanner standing there with a smile on his face. “Tanner, hey.” He jogged up to the door and stood next to Nick. “What are you doing here? I thought you had an extra hour in detention because Mr. Davis thought that you were mouthing back when you asked to sit by me but he argued with you about it.” He laughed rubbing the back of his neck. “Yeah I did but he ended up with a teacher meeting after everyone else left.” I laughed. “Um so you know how the prom is coming up in two months?” I nodded my head with a smile. “So I came here to ask you if you would like to be my date to the prom.” I smiled and I turned around to see Vic smiling too. “Yes I would love to.” I bit my lip and gave him a hug almost completely forgetting about Nick. I pulled away from the hug to look at Nick again. “So what was it that you wanted to ask me, Nick?” We all looked at him and all of a sudden he looked really mad. “Never mind, I gotta go.” He then turned around and walked off. I turned to look at a confused older sister who shrugged her shoulders and then ran off to go change clothes. “Oh do you want to come in?” I stepped to the side of the door giving Tanner room to walk in. “Sure, nice house you got.” He said looking around. He looked outside at the patio doors and noticed the pool. “Woah you have a pool?” I nodded my head. “You wanna go for a swim?” He nodded with a big smile. “I'm gonna go get changed real quick.” “Kay I'll be outside by the pool.” I ran upstairs and changed into my black two piece swimsuit, I invited Vic to come outside in the pool with us and she decided that she was just gonna sit in one of the chairs for a while to get a darker tan. We both changed and raced downstairs. I opened the patio door and ran jumping into the pool making a big splash of water. I swam to the top of the water and was smiling once I saw Tanner laughing. I swam on my back and Tanner swam after me splashing me with water making me laugh and making Vic giggle at our “horseplay” is what my dad would usually call us doing.

Vic went inside the house after a while. Tanner smiled at me before diving into the water and swam to the top arriving right in front of me. His hands grazed my hips as he stared into my eyes with a cute devilish smile crossing his face. He leaned in but just before our lips connected Vic came back outside wrapped in one of her favorite hoodie. “Alexa, dad is home and he wants to say goodbye before he leaves for his business trip.” just before she looked up from her phone Tanner quickly backed away. I climbed out of the pool and grabbed a towel that was waiting for me to use. I dried my hair and then wrapped it around my body before walking inside with Vic following close behind.

I walked into the living room to see my dad standing there with a suitcase and he looked exhausted. “Alexa, I’m so sorry baby girl. I was drunk and I had no idea that I was hurting you this much. You looked so much like your mother both you and Vic did. I promise when I get back things are going to change around here. No one will lay a hand on you without my consent, I will stop drinking all the time. I promise you that no one will ever hurt you again, including me.” I noticed tears welling up in his eyes, a tear trickled down my face and I quickly wiped it away. “It’s okay to cry, sweetheart.” he pulled me in for a hug. “No it isn’t, crying is a sign of weakness. And I should have no weaknesses now that I know that everything between us will be okay.” he tightened his hug around me with a smile and he finally let the tear trickle down his cheek. He pulled Vic in for a group hug with a smile and we stood like that for a while, holding each other not wanting to let go of our family.

He pulled away from the hug and gave the both of us a kiss on the cheek before grabbing his luggage and walking out the front door where a taxi was waiting to take him to the airport.

I watched the cab drive off and I waved at him, once they drove off far enough I turned around and walked back outside to the pool with Vic. “Hey Tanner, is it okay if I just talk to you at the party? I think right now is the best time to have with my sister.” I nudged Vic in the arm with a smile. “Yeah I’ll see you then.” he climbed out of the pool drying off and giving me a quick kiss on the cheek before leaving through the back gate. Vic and I called Olivia to come over and we watched movies for the rest of the night.

The next morning when Vic, Olive, and I woke up we rushed to the kitchen and began to make breakfast. We were singing and dancing while we did this. Vic was cooking, Olive was sweeping and washing off counters, and I was doing the dishes. I turned up the speakers all the way, I could hear nothing but the music and our singing. I looked up at the clock to check what time it was, I turned the music down quickly as I looked at the other two still singing and dancing. “HEY GUYS!” I yelled grabbing their attention. “It’s already twelve o’clock and we are still making breakfast.” they turned their attention to the clock and looked at the bacon and eggs that Vic was making. We all laughed before Vic answered. “Well, bacon and eggs aren’t just a breakfast thing anymore.” she took the pan off of the stove and carried it to the table and spooning some of the food onto all of our plates with a smile. I got done with the dishes and Olive and I joined each other at the table while Vic was still getting us all glasses of orange juice.

Nick’s POV

I looked out my window to see Vic, Alexa, and some other girl dancing and singing in their house as they cooked. I closed the blinds in my room before turning towards my stereo and turning the music up all the way. I peeked out of my blinds to see Alexa looking out the window with a smile on her face as she talked to the other two girls. She looked up at my house and I immediately closed the blinds again. She could hear my music coming from here.



Alexa’s POV

I looked out the window and up at Nick’s house where I guessed the music was coming from. When I looked up at Nick’s window I immediately noticed the blinds snap closed. I got up from the table and marched outside, I pounded on his front door until he came downstairs and opened it. Once it was fully opened I saw Nick standing there shirtless. I nearly melted into my shoes, well slippers. I was wearing a robe with slippers and my normal pajamas underneath the robe, a panda t-shirt with some light blue shorts. I looked up at Nick to see him smiling at me. “Can you turn the music down? I am trying to have a relaxing breakfast with my sister and one of her friends, but we can’t exactly do that if we can hear your music playing from down the street.” I crossed my arms to make my point of how unhappy I was. He rolled his eyes before slamming the door closed. I pounded on the door again before he finally answered it. “Excuse me but what is your problem? I just asked if you could keep the noise down and then you slam the door in my face.” he rolled his eyes again and was about to slam the door on me again but I pushed the door back and stared at him intensely. “Move out of my way.” I shook my head before he grabbed my wrist tightly and stared me angrily in the eyes. “Just leave me alone, I don’t want to see you. I don’t want to hear your voice, I don’t want you near me or my house again. Understand?” I looked at him angrily before ripping my wrist out of his grip and stomping angrily off back to my house.

Once I got in the house I went up the stairs leaving Vic and Olive looking at me confused. “Alex, aren’t you still hungry?” Vic called after me. “I lost my appetite.” I mumbled under my breath. I went upstairs before sticking my earbuds in and playing my music while I layed on my bed staring up at the ceiling. I closed my eyes and began to think about how my life has changed since that video that Dylon made. I grabbed my laptop and searched the video online, I didn’t see the video anymore but something much worse. I watched the thirty second video all about the comments that was left on the other one. I read ‘She is such a slut, now.’ ‘How can a girl that looks like that ever become pretty that fast?’ tears welled up in my eyes as I kept reading.

I began to sob closing my laptop and wrapped my arms around my legs burying my face into my knees. After a while I got up off the bed and wiped my tears away before walking with my head down to the bathroom. I went into the drawer and pulled out a razor blade, I looked at myself in the mirror as another tear trickled down my cheek. I turned the faucet to the bath on and let it run till it was filled to the top. I got in with my clothes on and lifted my shirt, I dragged the blade across my stomach letting it bleed into the water. I smiled to myself knowing that I wasn’t going to have to deal with all those rumors and the bullying. I wasn’t going to hear people saying that I was worthless and that I didn’t belong in this world, that I didn’t deserve to live. I gasped as I dug the blade deeper into my skin but this time it wasn’t on my stomach anymore it was on my wrist. The tears trickled down my cheek faster as I gasped for air and slid the blade across my wrist, stomach, and the top of my legs.

I rinsed the blade off before sliding across the side of my arm. I was sick of everyones nasty words, I was sick of everyone telling me that I was just a waste of air. But I wasn’t going to have to hear it anymore. One last time I looked at my stomach before sliding the blade extremely deep into my stomach and the blade dropped out of my hand landing somewhere in the water beneath me. Everything began to blur as I heard the door burst open and the screams of three familiar voices. I felt strong arms wrap around me lifting me out of the tub. “Hold on Alexa, I promise you’ll be okay. Just don’t close your eyes. SOMEONE CALL AN AMBULANCE, HURRY!” but before anything else happened my eyes closed and my entire world went pitch black.