Chapter One

-Faith-

"God! You're still sleeping?! Get up, you idiot! It's 8 already!"

Yeah, I know what you're thinking. Nice alarm clock, huh? Unfortunately, as I cracked one eye open, the first thing I saw was a very, very angry best friend, who looked scarier than usual with a murderous glint in her eyes.

The second thing I saw was my actual alarm clock, the one I'd gotten only four days ago, smashed into pieces at the other side of the room.

"Did I break that?" I asked, my voice barely audible and still croaky.

Nikki's eyes narrowed. "No, some thief who broke in last night deciced it would be funny to throw your alarm across the room, and..."

"Really?" I interrupted her confused, still half in the land of sleep.

"God! Would you get up already?! For the second time, school starts in twenty minutes and we're supposed to be in the car right now!"

"Sorry," I mumbled and snuggled deeper into my pillow, ignoring the fact that we'd be late at school again, because of me... again.

"This is the last time I'm giving you a ride," Nikki snapped, before shoving me roughly out of my cosy, heavenly bed.

Thump.

Half an hour later she pushed me into her car and drove off with a speed that the police would definitely not appreciate – nor the cat that had to perform an awardwinning stunt to avoid her weels of death.

"We're late anyway," I complained. "Why couldn't you just let me sleep five minutes longer?"

Nikki rolled her eyes and threw a brush at me. "Comb your hair."

I pouted. "It's still wet! You didn't even let me dry it."

She didn't respond to that. "Would it kill you to be ready on time? I'm getting sick of detention every single day!"

"It's not like I do it on purpose," I protested. And I didn't. The universe just worked against me... I wasn't meant to be somewhere on time. Either this happened, or I had a last minute hair disaster, or... well, you get the point.

"Why won't you just ask your mother to wake you up? Doesn't she always leave for her job at 7.15? Which is, if I'm not mistaken, five minutes after you should get up!"

I smiled sheepishly. "She does wake me up... I just fall asleep again ten seconds later."

"You're impossible."

"I'll buy you ice cream to make up for it," I offered.

She rolled her eyes again, but I could see the smile twitching at her mouth corners. Besides, I knew she didn't really hate detention. There were always lots of troublemakers there who gladly flirted with her instead of doing, God forbid, a thing like homework. And while she was busy giggling and flipping her hair, I slept. Did I mention I'm an extremely lazy person?

Nikki slammed on the brakes and I gasped when my seatbelt almost split my stomach in two.

Okay. That hurt. A lot.

Ignoring my pain, she applied some last minute lipgloss and ran a hand through her as always perfectly styled hair. "I have English now. See you at lunch?"

"Like every other day in this hellhole," I answered before we got out of the car and headed into opposite directions, her heels clicking. A guy whistled at her and I smiled, knowing that this was the moment where she'd start walking seductively.

She may seem as if she's your typical blonde, dumb, shallow cheerleader. Actually, that's her reputation around here, but she's so much more. People are just too blind or don't care enough to see it. Afterall, none of the guys she dumped in the past three years – which are a lot - have ever fought for her. Although I do recall one of them crying when she dumped him right in the middle of the cafetaria. Even I'll admit that was pretty harsh... but it was kind of funny, too.

That's the cruel side of me.

She once sought revenge for me when my first boyfriend dumped me for the school's most popular girl – Samantha Summers. She arrived at my house with lots of greasy food, cheesy movies and the number of the local pizza delivery.

Yup, she called Angelo's, faked a manly voice, and ordered seventeen Margherita's on Tom's name.

Needless to say, his parents were not pleased, where as I on the other hand, am very fond of that memory.

And that's only one of the smalles reasons why Nikki is, and will always be, my best female friend in the entire world. Who is my best male friend then, may you ask? That would be Lucas Boyd. He wasn't very happy with Tom either at the time... Beat him up and gave me a picture of the black eyed monster. I think I still have that one lying around somewhere.

I came to a halt at the History class and slumped my shoulders. History sucks. It's been over and done with, and I, for one, live in the future. Plus, Mrs. October hates me. (Not that there are a lot of teachers who don't.)

I plastered a fake smile on my face and walked inside the classroom, opening my mouth to offer a polite apology as to why I was late.

"Save it, Ms. Montgomery. Take a seat and be quiet."

I closed my mouth again, offended. She didn't even give me a chance to be original.

I scowled and walked to my usual seat in the back of the room, falling down ungracefully. I grabbed my notebook and started taking notes – or atleast started pretending to.

"So, what's your reason this time?"

I looked to my left, right into the eyes of my previously mentioned best friend Lucas. Also known as my next door neighbor, one of the hottest guys in school, and the proud owner of an equally hot twin brother, Logan.

Why doesn't Lucas give me a ride then, if he's my neighbor?

Well... I may have once thrown my alarm clock at him, in an attempt to block two irritating noises out. Broke his nose. I'm still convinced I did him a favor – now people can keep him and Logan apart by the difference in their noses. Lucas' is crooked slightly to the left. Ever since then he refuses to give me a ride – and he and Logan share a car, thus eliminating the second one of the four Boyd brothers.

Unfortunately, the sweetest Boyd who adores me and would most definitely give me a ride if he could, is also the one who's still nine years too young to drive. The oldest Boyd can drive and has his own car, but the mutual feeling of disgust we share to one another prevents him from offering (even if he did, I'd never accept). And ever since I crashed my third car in one year and a half my dear mother forbids me from driving. Insert Nikki and her death machine.

"Faith?"

Right. Lucas. Question.

"Reason?" I whispered quizzically.

He gave me a half smile. "Like how yesterday you were late because of your shoes... Nikki told me you couldn't find them and that you refused to leave without matching shoes."

I 'hmpfd' offended. "That only happened once! And I couldn't wear a brown skirt with black shoes. That's just wrong!"

Did I sound shallow? Me?

"Ms. Montgomery!"

Shit. The wrong came out way too loud. Heh heh. My thoughts rime. Out, loud. God, I should really learn how to focus.

"You are without a doubt the most...," she started her rant.

I cringed and sent Luke a death glare as he softly chuckled, once again escaping the wrath of our teacher. Those damn puppy eyes. He never got into any kind of shit, but always enjoyed it immensely when I did. After a long rant about my 'disrespectful behavior' the bitch that unfortunately was my teacher too sent me to the office.

"I hate you," I whispered at him as I slung my backpack over my shoulder, but he pretended to be absorbed in his notes and didn't even look up when I left. Typical.

Not that I really cared about being sent to the office. Honestly, chatting with our old, friendly principal was a whole of a lot nicer than hearing that old bat of a teacher go on and on about Romans and their bad hygiene... So what if I got detention? I was there every day anyway. Ha.

I slumped down into the waiting seat when I saw the light next to my favorite principal's door flicker red. Someone was already inside and I yawned and made myself comfortable, deciding to catch up on my lost sleep as long as I was here. For the umpteenth time I said to myself I'd go to bed before 2 or 3 AM in the future.

I might be lazy, but that doesn't mean I'm not little miss insomniac from time to time.

I closed my eyes and ignored the approaching footsteps. Probably some lost freshman.

"What the fuck are you doing here?"

Or not.

Jared Boyd – yes, the oldest Boyd brother who I despise with a passion – looked down on me with the usual expression of loathing in his icy blue eyes.

I involuntarily shivered under his ice cold stare. Not for the first time I asked myself how he could be so different from the rest of his brothers – both on the inside as on the outside.

"None of your business. You?"

"I asked first."

I rolled my eyes. "How mature. If you must know, your dear brother distracted me and I said some things a bit too loud, thus resulting in me being sent here."

Jared raised an eyebrow. "Which one?"

"Which what?"

"Which brother?"

"Lucas?" I frowned. What did it matter?

"Of course," he snarled. He ran a hand through his messy dirty blonde hair and I narrowed my eyes, annoyed at his tone.

Not that I was ever not annoyed with him in the neighborhood.

"And what did you do then?" I asked.

He rolled his eyes up at the ceiling, as if it was the most dumb question ever asked, and not the question he'd asked me only ten seconds ago. After five seconds – but who's counting? – of uncomfortable silence he decided to answer. Finally, might I add.

"I made Christy cry."

"Christy Anderson? Your girlfriend?" Or better said, flavour of the week.

I'm not keeping check on who Jared is dating, seriously, I have better things to do. But it is kind of hard not to notice when he's constantly mauling them in the hallway, or pushing them into janitor closets. I bet Jared even has more experience than, let's say, Mick Carter or Chad Michael Murray. And we all know those two are manwhores extraordinaire.

"The one and only," he answered. I sensed a bored edge on his voice now, like he didn't even care what he'd done to her.

Ha. Who was I kidding? Of course he didn't care. Afterall, she was only his girlfriend. Insert eyeroll.

"Let me guess," I said, and felt the familiar wave of disgust flood through me. "You cheated on her with some other blonde bimbo – probably her best friend – and broke poor Christy's heart. Am I right?"

His eyes became even colder, and my smirk weakly slid off my face. "No?"

"I don't cheat. Ever. I ended it and she blew up her Chemistry project. No big deal."

"You broke up with her during class?"

"No, are you serious? Why else would I be here?"

That impossible little sarcastic... Wait, why was I even surprised? I could see him stroking Christy's hair while she was mixing higly explosive fluids, before he told her with one arrogant sneer that "baby, we're over".

"And I who thought you'd reached the limit of cruelty when you ditched Lori Sanders for her best friend's mother." Still not kidding.

He smirked arrogantly, but before he could say something (offending, without a doubt) a freshman sped out off the office and slammed straight into him. Uh-oh.

Run, kid, run.

The boy turned around and looked up at a Jared. "Sorry," he mumbled.

Not good.

"Watch where you're going, will ya?" he snapped. "Your family too poor to buy you some fucking glasses or what?"

I sighed exasperatedly and interrupted him before he could scare the kid any further. "God, Jared, it was an accident. Leave him alone."

And there was the ice cold stare on me again. Jeez.

The boy took advantage of Jared's temporarily distraction and dissapeared in a corridor.

"Next, please?"

I shot Jared an icy glare to match his own and quickly slid into the office with a sarcastic wave.

Bastard.

I slid into my usual chair at the lunch table and immediately turned my most angelic look on Lucas.

He raised an amused eyebrow at me. "Forgot your lunch money?"

"Well... no... okay yeah, but I had to hurry," I sputtered. "Or else I would've been late."

"You were late."

"Which is so not the point in this whole conversation."

He opened his mouth, closed it again and then looked down at his burger with a longing look on his face.

"I'll let you keep half of it?" I offered. I felt generous today.

He muttered something under his breath and shoved me his plate. I happily started digging in as Nikki floaded towards our table and sat down gracefully next to Lucas, who immediately choked on his soda.

Did I mention he has the biggest crush on her ever since sophomore year?

"Hi guys," she said breezily and took a bite off her salad. "Did you hear about the explosion during first period?"

I snorted. "You mean Christy blowing up her project?"

"So that's the boom I heard," Lucas said and chuckled. "Typical for a dumb blonde."

Nikki slapped his arm. "Hey! She has brown hair... she just dyed it blonde."

"My, aren't you well informed." Lucas stole her soda and gulped down about half it. "She's blonde in her head, though."

"You do realise you're a blondie yourself?" I asked and he shrugged. "Well...," I continued. "I do happen to know the reason for her little meltdown."

Nikki's eyes lit up. She was always eager to gossip. "Do tell."

"I'm surprised you didn't hear it by now," I said and glanced at Lucas. "Afterall, your brother isn't exactly the most subtle person, breaking up with her during class."

"No way!" Nikki gasped.

Lucas remained silent, but his brow furrowed. He never did get along with his older brother and I knew he didn't agree with all the stuff Jared pulled. Not to mention he caused a lot of trouble in the Boyd household. The guy may appear perfect on the outside, but as Lucas' often came to me to complain about him, I knew more about him than most people did.

I felt sorry for his mother. She was a sweet woman, but she sunk in and out of depressions. Some of them would last months before they passed and I could imagine having a husband and a son who fought all the time didn't help overcoming them.

"Faith? You still there?" Nikki waved a hand in front of my face.

I blinked and focused again. "I guess she was overdue." I shrugged. "He's been with her for what, then days now? Most of them barely last a week."

"So well informed?" Nikki said teasingly.

I wrinkled my nose in disgust. "Can't help it that he keeps swapping saliva in front of me. I'll never forget that one time when I had to get a broom in the janitor's closet and he and Mickey were partially undressed with hands roaming all over..." I trailed off and shuddered. "I'm counting the days 'til he ditches his flavour of the week, ten days, whatever... Then he'll need a day to find his next victim, which gives me 24 hours without disturbing images. I have to protect my virgin eyes!"

Lucas and Nikki snorted at the same time. "Like you're a virgin."

I glared at them.

They just stared back.

I really hate it when they do everything in unison.

"I only did it once," I gritted through my teeth. "And it's not like I remember it, so let's pretend it didn't happen, okay?"

Yeah, my first sexual experience? Not that great.

Thankfully, they took the hint and Nikki changed the subject.

"Jared's hot," she said. "I might do him now he's single again."

Not that subject again!

"W-what?" Lucas sputtered and immediately pushed his soda aside. "My brother?"

"The heartless cheater?" I continued and swallowed the piece of burger I'd almost spat out.

"My brother?"

"The manwhore?"

"My brother?"

"The bane of my existence?"

Nikki nodded calmly and dabbed her mouth with a piece of paper. "Okay, first of all, what's wrong with dating your brother? And secondly, so what if he's a manwhore? I'm not exactly known for serious relationships either. We'd just be... mutually using eachother. What's wrong with that?"

Was she seriously asking what the hell was wrong with that? Didn't we just point that out?

She tilted her head thoughtfully. "Besides, if the rumor mill is correct, he's amazing in bed. I could use something to make up for the traumatic experience I had with Jeremy."

Oh God. Best friend and lifelong enemy. Sex? So wrong!

Kitty and Marissa sat down next to us, as always inseparable and completely oblivious to the stunned expressions both me and Lucas wore. They're shallow, bitchy and the cheerleaders who suck up the most to Nikki and always follow her around. I can't stand them.

"What are you guys talking about?" Kitty asked before taking a large bite off her apple.

I made a face. Kitty's eating habits were disgusting. She should really learn to keep her mouth closed while stuffing her face.

"I'm thinking about going after Jared Boyd," Nikki explained, seemingly unaffected by the glares I was shooting her.

"W-what?" They yelled, equally stunned.

"See? That's what we thought too!" Lucas said, happy with the support.

Kitty shook her head wildly. "You can't date him! I already paid Shannon twenty bucks to back off! I want him first!"

"You did what?" Marissa turned to Kitty. "I thought you said I could have him after Christy?!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

There's something seriously wrong with this world.

I grabbed my books and escaped. I would go to my locker, get my Math assignment and do my homework for once. Anything was better than listening to those lunatics. I suspected a lobotomy to be the case of their brainless existence.

As I walked into the hallway I groaned.

Jared was in a heated embrace with Shannon Myers, the girl who Kitty had payed twenty bucks to stay away from him. Clearly, Shannon hadn't kept her part of the deal.

The worst part? They were right in front of my locker.

Shannon's hands started unzipping his pants and my eyes widened. This is a public hallway for Christ's sake!

I whirled around on my heels and headed back to the cafetaria. If anything, I looked forward to telling those without any sanity that Jared had already found his next prey. Not to mention how relieved Lucas would be.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully. I got yelled at for not doing my homework – I told them my pen broke down, but somehow that didn't less their anger – and slept in detention.

Nikki drove me home recklessly and once again I thanked God for letting me survive. I didn't pay attention to the police cars. This was a wealthy neighborhood – police patrolled here all the time to keep an eye on the so-called suspicous people.

I went inside, threw my backpack aside and went into the kitchen, something I did everyday to grab a snack and to complain to my Mom about the hell they called high school.

Only this day was different.

This time, she sat at the counter, with her cell phone clutched in her hand, all color drained from her face.

I rushed towards her. "Mom, what's wrong?"

She took a shaky breath and I saw the tear traces on her cheeks.

"Mom? C'mon, tell me!"

She averted her eyes. "Faith – Mrs. Boyd tried to kill herself again."

Silence.

"She, um – " Pause. "Succeeded this time."

So here it is... My first FictionPress story. Tell me what you think! I know it's probably not that great.. it's the result of insomnia and a random idea. Not to mention all the grammar mistakes; English isn't my first language and I know World Lingo isn't the best way to translate sometimes, lol. So anyway, if I decide to continue this story, I'll be looking for a beta reader !

Valerie.