Scoped Out

Jade Kismet

Summary: What would you do if a complete stranger knew everything about you? If he knew all about your past - everything you’ve said and thought - would you trust him with such vital information? A seventeen year old girl is thrown into a situation that, at first, feels almost too good to be true. But soon she finds herself entangled in so many conflicts, while all the while trying to figure out the most confusing thing anyone could ever have: her heart.

Chapter One

Amber felt like choking inside the high school corridors. It was almost worse after the final bell rang than it was during lunch breaks. Every five seconds someone behind her brushed against her back, pushing her forward into her locker. All she did to express her discontent at the bumped shoulders this always gave her was to curse under her breath. She blew a wisp of her dark brunette hair out from in front of her honey colored eyes impatiently, only for more to fall from behind her much pierced ear. She zipped her bag, filled with notebooks, textbooks and CDs, and flung it over her shoulder. Patches and permanent marker cover the outside of the bag, hiding its original blue color. She pushed the thin locker door shut and yelped in fright when she saw someone standing behind it.

“Holy Christ!” exclaimed the person, surprised by the sudden outburst. “Why do you keep doing that?”

Amber groaned loudly. “Quit, Kayla!” She began to walk away, towards the rear end of the hall where the doors were. Kayla came up from behind her and slipped her arm into Amber’s, leaning her head on her shoulder. Amy has dark blond hair with black streaks in it, pulled into a ponytail that bobbed with each step. She had a metallic ball necklace around her neck and three studs in each ear. “You look awfully hyper today. What are you doing?” Amber asked frustrated.

“I love you. That’s all,” said Kayla, looking up and giving the most unconvincing dark blue puppy dog eyes imaginable. The heavy eyeliner didn’t help her case.

“And I’m expected to buy this… why?” countered Amber, smirking despite her mood. Kayla was almost always at least a little energetic. She could, however, sense when she was trying to put her energy into something, especially when it looked like she was trying to get something. Based off of her past attempts, a simple conclusion came to what it was.

“What, you don’t think I love you?” Kayla exclaimed with mock hurt. “I’m insulted!” A look of knowledge from Amber threw off her drama and she frowned. “Well, I did want to ask you if you-“

“No,” Amber immediately replied.

Kayla gaped in genuine astonishment, and then narrowed her eyes. “Okay. How’d you do that?”

Amber smirked smugly again. “I’m psychic.” She reverted back to her serious tone and pushed open the doors when they reached them, leading them into a small courtyard behind the school where the buses picked up students. Amber, along with her small group of friends, was one of the few who came back here just to hang out. “Anyway, you always do this. I always agree, for some twisted reason that I’m not sure of. Then I’m always bored because you’re pretending to have fun with people you don’t know, Amy and Brad go somewhere and I do not want to be around them, and Kendal is just as bored or isn’t there. Plus I know I’ll hate it even more because it’s an invite-only party, neither of us were invited (even though we never are anyways), and it’s hosted by a star athlete. Frat boy wannabes all around!” She stopped to breathe and noticed that they were nearing a tall oak tree on the corner of the campus, far behind the gym.

“So,” said Kayla, “You’re not psychic after all. You’re pessimistic.”

“You’re just now learning this?”

Kayla jabbed Amber below the rib cage and she jumped back, concealing her laughter with a yelp. Then she leapt beside her and exclaimed next to Amber’s ear, “Just go to the party!” Amber swiped her hand and contacted with Kayla, pushing her away. She rubbed her ringing ear and Kayla blushed. “Sorry.”

Amber glared. “Why are you trying so hard? It’s not like I’m being deprived of much, right?”

This seemed to stump Kayla. She paused to think and finally shrugged. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “A change of scenery. Plus it’s the closest thing Kendal’s getting to a blood bar until she’s twenty-one.”

Before Amber could agree, something latched onto her back and she crumbled to the ground. She screamed, again, in surprise and flailed out her legs. The thing on top of her was cutting off her air. “You’re choker is poking my neck, Amy!” she cried.

“It just likes you too much,” said the girl on her back. Amy rolled off of Amber’s back, giggling. “No revenge, please,” she begged. Her sleek back hair was in her face, and when she pulled it back it revealed the almond shaped eyes and pale complexion of an Asian girl. She had on red eye shadow and had a spiked choker around her neck, along with a multitude of other necklaces.

“You know that if she wanted to, Amber could kick your butt so hard,” said a voice from above them. Amber looked up and saw Brad and Kendal. Brad, the one who spoke to Amy, had black dyed hair, spiked in places and falling over his forehead. He has a pierced eyebrow, and he had on more bracelets than his girlfriend, but not much. Kendal had light brown hair, cut just above her shoulders and curved inward, with bangs hanging diagonally over her face. She wore a black and green plaid skirt with fishnet leggings. Brad held out his hand and Amy grasped it, being pulled up next to him.

Amber rolled her eyes. “Just leave me here, then,” she said. “It’s rather comfy, I could die here easily.”

Kendal smirked and held out her hand. Amber took it and then took a lighthearted strike at Amy. “Why is everyone torturing me? I’m really not in the mood for it.”

“I guess Kay asked if you’d crash the party tomorrow night, then,” said Brad, glancing to Kayla for confirmation. She nodded, the answer being obvious. “How come? I know it’s not our scene, but we can make our own party there.”

Amber tossed her backpack to the tree and crossed arm arms. She had wanted to spend Friday night alone, maybe in a corner of Andromeda, an arcade-slash-restaurant-slash-club, or a bookstore. Everyone was asking her to go, though. It was decided. “I’ll ask my mom,” she finally said, “since you’re all so vulnerable without me.”

Suddenly, a small twinge shot through her head. A ghostlike contraction or spasm feeling in the back of her head caused her to suck in breath and she clamped her eyelids shut. Those who were nearby frowned in concern. Amy held up her hand and asked, “Are you okay?”

The pain subsided abnormally fast, and it was gone as fast as it had come. She fingered her head curiously, her brow wrinkled in thought. “Yeah,” she finally breathed. “Stop throwing me down everyday, Amy. It’s beginning to affect my brain.”

Amy grinned maliciously. “The hell I’ll stop,” she said. She seemed convinced of her health.

“Make her shut up, Brad,” said Kendal, eying Amber carefully. Brad pulled Amy into a long kiss, which silenced her for the time being. “You are sure you’re not sick or anything?”

“Yeah, that’s over with,” said Amber.

After a couple of minutes of talking and fooling around, Kendal picked up her backpack and said the she had Pre-Cal homework to get done. Amber said, “I do, too. See you all later.” Her and Kendal walked toward the sidewalk and parted in separate directions. Once Amber was distant enough, she muttered, “Like I have homework.” She and Kendal were in different math classes.

It wasn’t something that she would tell them, even though they were the few friends she had. Obviously, whatever it was, it couldn’t be that bad. All that ever happened was a short yet excruciating headache. They lasted for a very short time, and she could only recollect the phantom pain felt afterwards. It wasn’t so much the pain as it was the frequency that bothered her. They’d been occurring for weeks now, varying in range from a week in between each headache to an hour. It wasn’t even any pain she’d felt before. It felt as though her brain was splitting open, but that didn’t seem right either. The sensations made her feel exposed, vulnerable. Even as she walked home through the suburbs, her pants dragging behind her shoes, she tightened the grip on her backpack. She knew it was stupid, but she couldn’t shake the feelings. Something was happening to her, and she didn’t have a clue as to what it was.

In time, Amber reached her green lawn and unlocked the door. She knocked loudly on the wall inside. “Anybody home?”

“I’m on the phone!” came the response from the second floor. Rachel, Amber’s younger sibling by three years, was already home. Her mother didn’t answer. Amber sprinted up the stairs and entered her bedroom, throwing her backpack onto the bed and watching it wall into the space on the other side. She turned her stereo on and soon Mudvayne was playing through her speakers. She opened another door and entered her private bathroom, a perk of having a real estate agent for a mother. She brushed her hair quickly, fixed her smudged eyeliner, and returned to her room, humming the song playing. She turned it up until it was just loud enough to not bother Rachel in the room three doors down and sat on her red and black bed.

She reached into the small space between her bed and the red wall to grab her backpack. When she pulled it out, she took out a composition notebook, filled nearly to capacity with words. She went to her desk and took off three other similar notebooks, two of poetry and lyrics and one of art. She laid them on her bed and stared at her life’s purpose. She hated about half of everything in each book, and had revealed even less to the outside world, but they were all she really cared about besides her music and her friends. She pulled out a collection of loose papers from class, opened the last notebook to the last few available spots, and began to include the writings and doodles she’d accumulated in school. When she finished, she turned the computer on and placed the notebooks in a small shelf on her desk.

“Rachel, Amber!” boomed a vice from below. “I’m home!”

Amber, who wasn’t allowed to have her music playing so loud, jumped to the stereo and stuck the nearby headphones in, and then opened Minesweeper and pretended to have been playing it the whole time. Just as predicted, her mother opened the door, which she could see by the “conveniently” placed mirror. She took off the headphones and turned around to face her. “Hey,” she said. “I didn’t have homework, okay?”

“Okay,” replied her mother. “Dinner, in an hour. I’m making Italian chicken, okay?”

“Okay,” said Amber, about to replace the headphones. She stopped and looked back before she closed the door. “Wait up,” she called. Her mom turned back to her. They shared the same light brown eyes, but her mother had blond hair, which had been passed to Rachel. The eyes were their only genetic resemblance. “There’s this celebration tomorrow night for the seniors at Darren’s house. Kind of a pre-prom thing. Can I go?”

“Seniors only, hmm?” she asked. “Sure, of course you can. Home by twelve, no beer, no drugs, no going home with strange guys… you know the drill.”

Amber rolled her eyes. “Couldn’t you be original for once?”

“Why, when the clichés work best?” Her mother smiled and closed the door, leaving Amber in her sweet solitude again.

Dreamily, she looked outside her window. A nearby tree had a branch that came nearly up against the window, but it was usually trimmed around summertime. It blocked half of her view, but she could see that the sun was nearing the horizon and night would be there soon. Living in Maryland meant for earlier nights, which was a small advantage to their move here when she was nine. She stopped her thoughts from continuing and looked to the computer.

Now she had to decide which bloody square to clock on.

A/N: This story is based on a quiz on Quizilla written by me as well. The website won’t be revealed for secrecy purposes and may very well be deleted soon and saved for myself for reference. Anyways, I’ve had three separate versions of the first chapter and I like this one much better. The next chapter’s story was originally going to be the first chapter until a certain point. Anyways, reviews are wanted, most definitely! Look forward to more soon.

Jade Kismet / Briana Bridger