Chapter Four

I poured more milk into my cereal as I tried to think of a way out of going to school. Missy had dropped me back home earlier than we had planned the night before, since she thought the reason I was acting weird was due to some sort of misplaced loyalty to the Pretties causing me to feel as if I had betrayed them by hanging out with her. She didn’t know the half of it.

Which was the one good thing about it all, the fact that she seemed unaware of the blackmail happening, but at the same time how could I be positive she didn’t know? Sure we’d done projects together before but she had never invited me to sit at her table at lunch before, much less party with her or spend the night. But then again, it had been AJ who had invited me to the party and Missy had just agreed to it.

I should’ve asked her why she’d agreed to it the night before, but I had still been shell shocked over the whole thing, and then add in the fact that AJ had held my hand as he escorted us to the car the fact that I had been able to function, especially with Kaia looking like she wanted to rip my ovaries out and feed them to me, was a miracle in itself.

“Mommy! Judi’s wasting the mi-ilk!” I was snapped out of my thoughts by my sister’s yell and became aware of the fact that I was still pouring milk into my overflowing bowl. I stopped myself quickly then gave my sister a look as I reached for paper towels to clean it up.

“You could’ve just told me to stop pouring you know,” I informed her as I tried to keep it from getting on my clothes if it hadn’t already. She shrugged then shoveled some of her cereal into her mouth, making a point to chew it up without swallowing before giving me an open-mouthed grin.

“You’re so gross.” She just giggled before closing her mouth and swallowing. I carefully brought the bowl to my lips to drain some of the excess milk as I thought back on the night before.

Missy had filled me in with as much detail as she could about what I had done after I had bitten AJ’s lip, which wasn’t much. I had asked her to go home but when she had finished saying her byes, she found me surrounded by a bunch of strangers drinking what she assumed was a rum and coke and having myself a grand old time so she’d left me to it since AJ had promised to look out for me.

“Judi, Lisa said her mom said that if you frown a lot you’ll get wrinkles and you’ll be ugly. Pretty girls don’t frown, they sigh to show they’re unhappy.” I started to frown but sighed instead causing Emily to smile at me. I made a mental note to figure out away to nip Emily’s friendship with Lisa and her know it all mother in the bud.

“Lisa’s mom must frown a lot then huh?” Childish, but it dealt with my annoyance on a level a six year old would understand.

“Judith!” My mom came in just in time to catch the last part of our conversation. I smiled guiltily but didn’t apologize. Lisa and her mom were annoying when I was in the mood to here their opinions, right now I could barely deal with my own thoughts.

“Hurry up and finish your cereal, Tiffany will be here any minute. Quickly, does this shirt make me look unnaturally pale?” I stood up from my seat and tried to finish my cereal quickly, walking over to the sink as I took in my mom’s emerald green cap sleeved shirt that made her green eyes pop, her skin look rosy and her strawberry blonde hair look amazing.

“You’re white, you were born pale.” I stuck my tongue out at her to show I was joking then let out a yell as she smacked me on the butt with a dish towel.

“I’ll take that to mean I’m passable.”

“You look great, the epitome of a sexy secretary, I’ll have to tell dad to keep an eye on your boss and a pistol in his pocket,” I said as I waggled my eyebrows suggestively. She flushed and swatted at me again but I moved out of the way grinning. Considering the fact that my father was her boss I didn’t see the harm in making fun of her, and the fact that she was 41 with two kids but still blushed when I teased her amused me greatly.

“You know, most teenagers are disgusted at the thought of their parents having,” she paused, and turned her head to look over at Emily who had tried to imitate my drinking from the bowl and had managed it with minimal spilling. “S-E-X.”

I made a face. “Yes well, I don’t think about it, I just make comments and you automatically assume I’m talking about s-e-x, which shows where your mind is, tsk tsk mother, tsk tsk.” The grin I gave her slipped as I caught sight of the kitchen clock, it was past eight and still no sign of Tiffany, if she didn’t arrive in five minutes I would have to take the bus, but it wasn’t like Tiffany to not call if she was going to be late or couldn’t come for me.

“Is everything alright?”

I nodded, smiling wide enough for my dimples to show before dropping my bowl into the sink. She looked skeptical but was distracted when my dad came down the stairs and made a show of giving her a wet kiss to the amusement, and disgust, of my sister and I.

“You guys need to cut the chatting and start hauling ass…phalt, I said asphalt, don’t give me that look,” he said correcting himself quickly following the swat my mother gave him. “We all have places to go and how would it look if the boss and his secretary arrived at work at the same time?”

I smiled even though my stomach had tied itself in knots over Tiffany’s absence. “That they were having a torrid love affair, it would be scandalous.”

“You know, this secretary boss thing is going to get old real quick,” my mom said even as my father nodded solemnly leading her to give an exasperated sigh as we both ignored her.

“Extremely scandalous. I take it you need a ride to school? Or is that worthless boy coming for you?”

“I need a ride, and Daddy, Trey and I broke up over three months ago and he’s not worthless.”

He snorted but had more sense then to argue with me over our views, he finished his coffee, dropped a kiss on Emily’s head, kissed my mom, again, then grabbed my school bag off the floor.

“You’re sure your okay?” my mom asked as I went to wipe up the bit of milk Emily had spilt before helping her tie her shoes. I nodded.

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”

“I don’t know, maybe the same reason Tiffany is a no show? Did something happen yesterday?”

I shook my head a bit too quickly, before saying a quick good bye and heading for the car. As my father pulled up I offered up a quick plea to whoever was listening that AJ wouldn’t make good on the promise he’d made before handing me over to Missy of talking to me today, and that Tiffany leaving me high and dry was just a coincidence and not an example of how the rest of my school term was going to be, because I really couldn’t deal with being snubbed at the moment.

I waved bye to my dad as he pulled back into busy traffic and hitched my bag higher up onto my shoulder, I had managed to arrive fifteen minutes before the warning bell thanks to my father’s inability to understand the concept of making full stops at stop signs and not hiccup pauses.

Walking slowly with my gaze focused on my feet I headed inside, pausing as I reached the threshold of the building and remembering the trek I would have to take to get to my locker. I hated walking through the halls by myself, even though I knew I was being ridiculous every time it happened I felt as if everyone was staring at me, judging me, mocking me.

Taking a deep breath I started for my locker, my head bowed and the hood of my sweater pulled up until I remembered where it was, south wing right by AJ’s hall and I really didn’t want to see him at all today. Stopping I spun around blushing furiously as people made rude comments about my walking ability, even as I rushed past them. Deciding the library was the best place to be until the warning bell I kept my head down as I walked quickly through the masses and up the stairs to the library.

I spent the minutes until the bell, underneath the round tables, waiting until the last person had left before climbing out from underneath my faux shelter. Grabbing my bag I headed into the hall and then waited for the rush of people to dwindle down to just a few before racing for my locker, if I moved fast enough I would be able to get everything into my locker and still make it to class with a few minutes to spare before the anthem came on.

Of course, I didn’t take into account the fact that AJ didn’t appear to be ruled by the same urge to be punctual as I was, which I really should’ve foreseen.

“You know, you’re usually here twenty minutes before the bell rings.”

“Well, I was late, excuse me,” I mumbled trying to get to my locker which he was currently leaning against. He didn’t move.

“Really?”

“Yes, really.”

“So you weren’t trying to avoid me?”

I didn’t answer just look pointedly at my locker. He stayed there for a moment and I wondered why I didn’t just go straight to TAP class when he finally moved aside.

“You’ll have to talk to me at some point.” I didn’t respond, just opened my locker and shoved my stuff in quickly before heading off towards my TAP. He followed.

“Don’t you have to get to class?”

“I already checked in with Mr. H, he knows I’m here.” I scowled but didn’t say anything. I knew there was a reason I couldn’t stand him aside from the fact that he was a math teacher.

“You’re not going to say anything to me?” AJ asked as he made a point to sit beside me.

“You made me late.”

“You have a sub, she doesn’t care.”

“Yeah, well I do.” I turned back to the front and tried to pay attention the announcements, they did actually have days where something said was relevant to me. However, AJ decided he wanted to whisper sweet nothings in my ear. Or I’m sure that’s how it appeared to my eavesdropping classmates.

“You know, if I didn’t know better I would think you were trying to back out of our deal,” he whispered one of his hands coming up to stroke the back of my neck. I hunched my shoulders up in a vain attempt to either stop him or at least stop the prickling that traveled down my spine from his movements.

I shook my head but didn’t say anything and he sighed. “Can you try not to act as if I’m abusing you?”

I forced my shoulders down with an effort then leapt up as the bell rang almost smacking a girl in the face with my binder. I apologized quickly even though I wanted to point out that if she’d been minding her own business her head wouldn’t have been in the danger zone. I didn’t bother to look behind me to see if he’d followed me but before I was able to get to the front of the room, AJ grabbed my wrist and even after trying a discreet little tug it became apparent that he wasn’t going to let me go.

“We’re blocking the door,” I informed him, looking pointedly at my hand and then into his eyes. I dropped my gaze to his cheek first, unable to keep up the staring contest. He smirked, before raising my wrist up and pressing a quick kiss to the inside of my wrist in front of everyone. The majority of the room had left but there was still enough people left that I knew this little scene would spread through out the upper grades by lunch time.

“See you at lunch, Juels.” He held onto my wrist a second longer then necessary before sliding past me and out the door while I stood there like an idiot for an extra moment. I came to my senses when someone brushed past me as well although they paused to give me a look before going on their way. I followed suit quickly ducking my head down and headed to my first period class, today was going to be a long day.

I was panting as I dipped into the first available girls bathroom, pulling the ‘out of order’ sign I had made during math I taped it quickly to the farthest stall door and went in, making sure to close the lid before sitting down, pulling my feet up so I could cross my legs. It was lunch time and I had spent the first three periods of the day doing my best to ignore the eyes drilling into me and dodging busy bodies who wanted to know if it was true AJ and I were ‘talking’ talking.

Tiffany hadn’t spoken a word to me during English although I don’t know if that was because Missy had decided we would finish up what we hadn’t completed of our assignment during the lesson. Bridget had been nowhere to be seen and I didn’t have any classes with Chloe or Julianne in the morning. Tiffany was also in my math class but I might as well have been absent for all the attention she gave me, which was quite a feat considering she sat beside me.

I had settled my backpack on the hook attached to the door and opened it to pull out my lunch, I usually bought a lunch but this time I had decided it would be smart if I didn’t go anywhere near the cafeteria.

Setting my food in my lap I went through a familiar routine that I had perfected in grade nine. Whenever Bridget got upset she wouldn’t speak to me and sitting in the caf by myself was horrible and eating in the library was even worse since they would make a point to enter at some point and show how much fun they were having without me. As such the bathroom became my refuge, disgusting but I always used hand sanitizer before I touched my food and I never put down my food, just my drink and that stayed wedged firmly between my legs. And for the record I didn’t eat in the bathroom every time the Pretties were mad at me, in the summer I would eat under the bleachers.

I started to eat the sandwich my mother had packed wishing I’d thought ahead enough to bring a book with me the way I used to while ignoring the sad fact that I had a routine for when I ate in the school bathrooms. I’d finished my sandwich and was moving onto the cupcakes when a bunch of people entered the washroom. I ignored them, I mean it was a bathroom, it was to be expected people would be stopping by to do their business.

Amidst much talking and laughing I finished up my lunch, wondering why the girls were still there when AJ’s name was brought up, except they called him by his full name and the way the rolled it off of their tongues I assumed it was one of the few native Spanish speaking girls that went to our school.

“Yeah, what is going on with him? His name has been in everyone’s mouth today.”

“You haven’t heard? He has a girl now, he was talking to some chick on the down low for a while now, apparently it came out at the party this weekend and then he was kissing her and whispering in her ear through out homeroom. Kaia is out for blood along with Angel,” someone else replied as they did who knows what. I inhaled sharply.

“Angelica likes Alejandro?”

“Mmhmm, she was going to make a move on him at the party but the Panthers were blocking her like crazy, she thought it was because Kaia wanted to get on that first but turns out he wasn’t checking for either of them, and get this, his girl? She’s a Prettie.” There was a general uproar over that and self preservation and a healthy does of common sense was all that kept me from going out there and correcting them on my status as a Prettie.

“Lies!”

“Honestly, you know the little quiet one, the black girl with the hair down her back? Mel, you know her, she was dating that cutie Trey for a little while but they broke up because she’s too uppity.”

“Psh, all the Pretties are uppity bitches, I mean they’re cool when they’re separated but together they need to get beat down, still don’t know why Missy hasn’t dealt with them yet. And he’s dating her? She’s not that pretty though, Angel and Kaia are cuter by far.” There was no response and for a moment I thought they had left, which may have been a good thing since I didn’t think I wanted them to break down my lack of appeal but then someone new spoke up.

“You’re talking about Judith right? She’s alright, I was her partner in gym last year, she just seemed shy to me. And I swore she was terrified of AJ and his people though.” I tried to remember who had been my partner in gym last year but it had been first term and aside from the rock climbing segment I didn’t recall all that much.

“She should be, I don’t know if the Panthers are backing Kaia on this but everyone knew that he was off limits since she wanted him, and the fact that she’s a Prettie is going to make it that much worse, only competition she was looking at was Angelica because that bitch doesn’t back down. And Angelica swore he was her man already since they fooled around over the summer and she knew he wouldn’t date Kaia so the fact that some random took him from her? It won’t be pretty. I feel bad for her actually,” someone said their voices getting a bit fainter though I don’t know if that was just because they had gotten quieter or because they were leaving.

I wanted them to finish their conversation because if I was going to be on the bad side of people other than my friends I needed to know how bad it would be.

“Mel, your liner is perfect let’s go, I want to spend the rest of my lunch doing something worthwhile alright? And you, don’t lie, you know you’re going to be right there beside us when she’s getting her ass whooped.” There were snickers after that comment and then nothing as they left.

Thanks to a quick glance at my watch I realised I still had fifteen minutes before the warning bell rang but my feet were falling asleep and you can only read the crude writing n bathroom walls for so long before you got bored again and started musing about what you happened to overhear in there, and I really didn’t want to think any harder about the fact that Kaia, who didn’t like me, apparently had the hots for AJ.

And then there was the Angel girl. There was only one Angelica at our school who went by the tooth-achingly sweet nick name Angel and if it was her I was screwed.

4’9 and pretty Angelica was about as nice as any girl who knows that people think she’s too precious and has parents who’ll buy her anything and everything. Yeah, that nice. Well, to be fair she’d never been mean to me personally, but there was an incident a few years back between her and Chloe over a boy. Sides were taken, lines were drawn and I sincerely believe if she thought I had known about her crush on AJ she would try to destroy my reputation, ironic considering the only reason I was even in this position was to protect it.

I was on the move, slipping out of the bathroom easily and heading for the library, while I thought these things over then tried to force them to the back of mind. If my friends had been looking for me they would’ve given up after the first ten minutes of lunch, fifteen at most and I don’t think Angel or Kaia had ever stepped foot in the library outside of when the teacher forced them too.

So I figured I would be safe for the time being, which goes to show how wrong I can be. I hadn’t even made it past the librarian’s desk when someone grabbed my wrist and pulled me to a stop.

“Where the hell have you been?! I’ve been looking for you all lunch!”

“Bridget? I thought you were sick?” I didn’t even bother trying to get her to let go of my wrist because that would just piss her off and she didn’t look that happy to begin with.

“You would like that wouldn’t you,” she barked keeping a tight grip on me as she pulled me to one of the stacks.

“Not really, you’re kinda whiney when you’re sick.”

“Don’t be cute, what the hell is going on?”

I decided to play dumb and shrugged.

“Fine, let me break it down to you. Why is Julianne saying she caught you fuc--”

“Hey! if Julianne said that she was lying, I didn’t do that and you know I don’t like it when you speak to me like that,” I snapped back this time yanking my arm away from her, she knew I didn’t like it when she was crude. She glowered at me.

“Fine, let me rephrase it, Julianne said she caught you in highly suspicious circumstances with a certain green eyed Hispanic boy, and to make matters worse apparently you’d been giving him the goodies on a regular basis since he was talking as if you two were a couple. Want to explain to me what that’s about?”

I glared right back even though I could feel my stomach tying itself into knots. Not only had Julianne told her she’d apparently added her own interpretation to it. My mind went blank and I focused on the least important aspect of her statement.

“Which Hispanic boy?”

“There are all of what? Twenty Hispanic people in this school? The majority of them are females, then about six of them are younger than us leaving what three males in our group? Now how many of them have green eyes? You tell me which one.” She punched me hard on the arm after that little spiel, bringing to mind the way she used to show she was upset when we were much younger. I took a step back just in case.

I opened my mouth to point out that just because someone didn’t look Hispanic didn’t mean they weren’t Hispanic but shut it quickly since she wasn’t in the mood to get side tracked over nationalities.

“What’s the question?”

“The question is why the hell are you messing around with someone who’s only using you to get at us! Why didn’t you tell me about him earlier?! All that crap you spewed about him creeping you out and yet you were whoring around with him on the regular? Does Trey know?”

“One, I have not and never will ‘whore’ around with him or anyone else for that matter, yes we’ve been seeing each other for a while,” I choked after forcing that out but she seemed to take that as a sign that I felt ashamed of myself. “Two, I don’t care if Trey knows since I started talking to AJ after we had broken up, and three I don’t know why you guys are acting like I’m a huge whore when I know when all of you lost your virginities and to who and whether the guys had girls or not so stop acting so virtuous. AJ isn’t a Panther so I don’t what the problem is.”

I purposely ignored addressing her comment about him using me to get back at her since I had no idea as to why he was doing this though it was as likely a reason as any.

“You’re so naïve! I can’t deal with your ignorance right now, but you best believe you’re going to find him and tell him that you want to end this ‘relationship’ and here’s to hoping you’re telling me the truth and didn’t do anything stupid with him and he won’t have anything on you.” She grabbed my arm and tried to pull me forward but I resisted, panicking. Because even though I hadn’t done anything stupid with him he would say otherwise.

“No!”

“What do you mean no?” She had shrieked that last part and I heard the quiet murmur of people working in groups die down and I knew without looking back that there would be people trying to see what was happening.

“I’m sure there’s a dictionary somewhere, look it up.” AJ said coming from behind me. I didn’t turn around when I saw him either and wondered, no hoped, that considering how fast my heart was pounding I would get dizzy and pass out and not have to deal with any of this. Sadly, I was apparently made of sterner stuff. “Missed you at lunch, Juels,” he added as he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me solidly against his chest. Bridget’s eyes narrowed even further if it was possible and she took us in, fuming.

For my part I tried to sidle out of his hold, or at least make a little space between our bodies but he wasn’t having it.

“I’m trying to have a private conversation with my best friend, so why don’t you leave?” She managed to force out from between clenched teeth, AJ just pulled me closer.

“You were yelling, it couldn’t have been that private,” he said easily as if he didn’t know what he was saying would piss her off.

“AJ, can you go? She’s just upset that I didn’t tell her about us,” I said turning my head to look at him, he gazed down at me the picture of ease, except for the fact that I felt as if he could see into my soul and know just how uncomfortable I was around him.

“Guess you were right about your friends being judgmental and close minded.”

I glared at him as he once again put words in my mouth.

“That’s not what I said.”

“It’s not? Well that’s the impression I got for your reasoning to keep this quiet.” He smiled at me, his whole face getting warmer and I resisted the urge I had to head butt him and bruise his pretty face, he was putting it all on me and that was not cool. I turned back to Bridget to tell her he was spewing nonsense but she cut me off before I could get a word out.

“Fine, Judith, I’ll talk to you after school.” She smiled prettily and it was all I could do not to sign that I was sorry to her and explain the situation, not that it mattered, she had never bothered to learn sign language and even if she had I doubt she would have believed me.

“Sorry, she can’t, we have plans.” Part of me was petrified as he dug the hole deeper but another part of me found the warm presence at my back calming, it made me feel safe, but that was probably because if she did attack me I’m sure he’d be able to restrain her with little to no difficulty.

Bridget looked at me for confirmation and after a small hesitation that led to AJ giving me a quick squeeze around the middle and I nodded quickly. She scowled.

“Fine. She’s eating lunch with us tomorrow.” She didn’t wait for any response from us, instead she stormed away looking suitably riled up. I tried to pull away from AJ but he had a tight grip on me.

“You know, I don’t chase girls, but since we’ve come to our agreement it seems all I’ve been doing is chasing you.”

“And here I thought it was called stalking,” I snapped bitterly, pausing as I realised what I had just said and who I just said it too.

“Just say the word and the deal is over Judith, it’s up to you.”

“As if I have a choice, I don’t go along with your little charade you’ll ruin me, if I do go along my friends will hate me, I don’t have a choice,” I said, suitably irritated.

“Of course you have a choice, why do you want friends who’ll judge you over something this inconsequential?” He asked, sounding as if he was actually curious, I frowned.

“Um, have you heard the rumours about yourself? They’re not judging me, they’re worried that I’ve lost my mind. You’re dangerous and apparently, you’re lusted after by some major bitches, if anything happens to me because of you…” I trailed off as my mind pointed out that if anything happened to me he was most likely the main person to do it.

“If anything happens to you because of me what?” He still had a hold on me and I could feel his warm breath brush across my neck and cheek as he spoke, his voice low and surprisingly soothing. I refused to let him lull me into a false sense of security.

“The bell’s going to ring any minute now, I have to go.”

“Oh no, you’re not getting away that easily, we need to talk about this unless you want to fumble through a fake story to your friends?”

“No matter what I say it’ll be fake won’t it?”

I felt his arms rise slightly around me and I realised he must’ve shrugged in response to my question.

“There are true lies and there are lie lies, and anyway, it won’t do for our stories not to collaborate.” I rolled my eyes at that bit of rubbish but didn’t say anything about that true lies comment, he wanted to justify his foolishness to himself that was him.

“Fine, I’ll talk to you after school.”

“And have you hide from me again? I don’t think so. I’ve finally gotten you where I want you.” His voice was surprisingly melodious and enticing, causing me to shiver since I’m sure that’s how the snake must have sounded when he tempted Eve to taste the apple.

“Well you seem to be quite brilliant at finding me at the least opportune moment, but fine, my last period is with Senora. Howard, room 313, you can meet me there and we’ll talk. Now can I go?” He didn’t say anything for a moment and I wondered if maybe it would’ve been in my best interest to have just met up with him at lunch, dealt with the staring, gawking and rude comments of his shady peers and then been on my way when he chuckled and loosened his grip on my but didn’t let me go.

“Agreed.” Now it was my turn to pause as I waited for him to let me go. I turned around to look over my shoulder, partly from irritation but mainly because there is something strangely intimate about having a whispered conversation with someone when you can’t see their face, which is quite strange since it should have the opposite effect. Then again, it probably would if I wasn’t pulled up against his wiry muscular frame. Once again to find him watching me intensely, cat eyes seeming to glow before he nodded as if he had seen something that he had liked.

“Well, now that that has been dealt with,” AJ gave me a quick kiss on the corner of my mouth that caused the hair on my arms to rise before letting me go. I spun around just in time to see him disappear from view and to see that quite a few pairs of eyes were staring at me, not even bothering to hide their curiosity.

I flushed, glad that I was too dark to turn red and then stormed out even as I wondered what kind of game AJ was playing, he was blackmailing me and although part of me knew that we would have to hug and touch and, heaven forbid, kiss at some point in time to keep up pretenses I always assumed it would be in front of a crowd, not in a semi-secluded area where no one would actually really see it. Sure the rumours would fly about us being spotted hugging in the library but there would be no proof of the kiss which made it that much more random.

As I headed for my locker I made a resolution to ask AJ why he needed me to take part in this little charade and why he seemed to want to keep it up even when there was no one from either of groups or social standings watching. And upon finding that out I would see if there was no way to get a girl who actually found him appealing to take my place.

I could do this, because if what had happened in the library was any indication if I didn’t at least attempt to find out what was going on he would take over my life, isolate my friends and when this was all over I would be friendless and I would no longer be known as the quiet nice girl who hung out with the Pretties but as who knows what.

Feeling much better now that I at least had a vague plan of action I grabbed my books, hugging them to my chest as I headed for my final class of the day pulling the door open with my head high then stopped as four pairs of eyes sent death glares my way. I’d forgotten that Chloe and Julianne were in this class, along with Kaia and Angelica.

The slight uplifted feeling I had dropped and I’m sure my shoulders slumped as I made my way over to sit with Chloe and Julianne only to take a swan dive to the floor, sending my books flying as I landed hard and in a graceless heap. The class got extremely quiet as I attempted to pick myself up.

“Guess my foot was in your way. My bad,” Angel said her face an expression of perfect innocence. I forced a pained smile onto my face ignoring Senora’s admonitions to be careful where I was going, or I assumed she was warning me since she spoke only Spanish in the class. Kaia looked smug while neither Chloe nor Julianne came to my defense.

The day from hell just got that much longer.

xXx

Hey you guys :), here's the next update. For the record there are a few parts in here that feel shifty to me but I don't know why, sort of wish I had more experiance with bitchy friends but at the same time I don't have any patience, lol, reason I dropped them all after ninth grade.

Anyhoo, hope you enjoy it, I do know where this is going, actually have everything figured out almost to the end until I get stuck trying to figure out how to fix certain things but stay true to the characters. Next chapter there will be drama, fun drama hopefully, rules layed out, descriptions of some characters and Judith will attempt to learn why this is even happening.

Remember to read and review and if you think you know why certain parts feel a bit off feel free to tell me, I find readers are better able to articulate what's off about something in a case like this.