HELLOOOOO!!!!! Did you guys miss me? lol this is a test run, testing to see how it will go. It's pretty long, but i think it's good. Review and tell me what you think!!! Review and I'll post [hopefully!!} *fingers crossed!* E N J O Y ! AND IF YOU REVIEW, I'LL GIVE YOU A FREE COOKIE FOR 3.99 =] [and yes, im bribing, lolz!]

~ashalayy aka freddi d y'all =]

CHAPTER 1- One of THOSE Days…

When I woke in the morning, I knew there was something different about the day. I could feel it screaming in the back of my mind; but because that feeling told me I had to get out of bed, I promptly ignored it and went back into sleep.

When I woke up again, I had the same feeling. This time, I glanced at the clock that was on the draw next to my bed and saw that is was 7:18. Hmm… I smiled as I went back to sleep thinking, If this was a school day, I would've been awake and on the bus… After laughing at the thought of that in my mind (I really don't get how someone does it, but I did just that) something in my mind clicked.

It was the first day of my senior year. And I was going to be late.

I quickly got out of bed. Most people, unless they had to wear a uniform, have their first-day-of-school outfit all prepared two weeks before school starts. I, on the other hand, really don't care what I wear as long as it's clean. But this year, I wanted to be a little different. So instead of my jeans and large hoodie, I wore a white mini-skirt and a tight blue tank and a black short sleeved hoodie that fit me just right.

That was my first mistake.

My parents went out last night so they had massive hangovers. When I went to go see if one of them would drop me off too school since I missed the bus and had no car, they both responded with, "Sorry honey. I'm too wasted. Ask if you can get a ride." So then I had to run back to my room and none of my friends would answer their cells. So sadly, I was left with asking my cousin Juan to give me a lift. He said he would come as fast as he could—which apparently was twenty minutes later. And it only takes about seven minutes to drive from his place to mine.

As I was in the middle of eating my breakfast—burnt toast, mango juice, and some strawberries—I heard the horn of Juan's Escalade honk. I put my phone down and threw my remaining breakfast away, got my things, and rushed like the devil was on my heel.

That was my second mistake.

"Sheesh, what took you so long? I have a life too, you know; and I was in the middle of entertaining a special friend," he wiggled his eyebrows, "if you get my drift." I hopped in the car, and buckled my seatbelt, ready to tune out his sex life.

"And good morning to you too," I said dryly. "Also, who has sex this early in the morning?" I glanced at him, and saw him grinning from ear to ear.

"Well, my little virgin, there will be a time in your life when you find a person who you will enjoy in your bed. And the bond between you two will be so strong, that night and day are merged together and you will keep going till your bodies are limp." I nearly gagged at the mental image that popped in my mind of him and his current hoe.

We got to my school in less time than it would take a normal safe driver to get there. I was honestly surprised his erratic driving hadn't killed anyone yet. When I looked over at him he merely replied, "I got skills, man." Smiling, I took my things and quickly said thanks and hurried into the school.

As I got inside, I remembered that I had a doctor's appointment. Frantically digging into my bag, I was trying to search for my phone. I could actually see in my mind me leaving it on the counter. I swore silently while praying that I really didn't forget it. So since my head was down, trying to look for my phone, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going.

That was my third mistake.

Looking for your phone while practically running to class so you don't get late is a very bad idea. "Why?" you may ask. Well, the answer is very simple—you'll knock into someone since you aren't paying attention to where you are going, which was exactly what happened to me.

"OW!!" I knocked my head into someone, or something, bounced off and landed on the floor. My head was throbbing, and for a moment I thought I had a concussion, or even worse—was paralyzed. My body wouldn't move, even when I willed it to move. Finally I was able to move my head to my aching head (which was starting to get a bump) and moment later I could open my eyes.

As I was lying on the ground, I happened to notice that a) the hall was empty minus four—including me—people, b) only I, being the graceful klutz I am, would be able to knock into the "king" and his "aristocratic peers" (if you could call them that), and c) I was the only person who was lying on his/her back like a semi-dead bug. Feeling a bit disoriented, I lay as I was on the ground. It was only after a few moments that I realized that they were looking at the ground in my direction but not at me, that I realized I looked as if I was resting from doing sit-ups, so my underwear (which, sadly, happened to be a thong) was in clear view for them to see.

I quickly stood up and pulled down my short skirt, but they were still staring at where I was laying moments before. I braced myself as I looked back and I nearly gasped and died of embarrassment. To my horror, there was a small pool of blood where I was previously laying down. I even looked at the back of my white skirt, and saw that it was red too.

When I looked to the "royal" people that "honored me with their regal and magnificent presence" (I really hope you caught the sarcasm), they stared right at me. The girl Natasha, who was the "queen" and was also currently screwing both the king and his best bud, pulled something out of her bag; she quickly handed it to Ross, the "king," so I didn't see what it was. I knew I was in trouble when they all smiled their mega-watt smiles simultaneously.

He moved his hands towards me, and said, "Need a tampon?" Sure enough, when I looked down, there was a tampon lying in his hands. They all busted up so hard that I thought, and hoped, they were going to die of laughter.

I felt my face get very hot, which caused them to laugh even harder. Remain calm. Keep your cool. And DON'T do anything stupid. I was so close to walking away to the nurse, being totally calm, until he got some more tampons from Natasha and told me, "Here's some more, but I don't think that is nearly enough."

Jay, his…what would you call him? A duke? Prince? Lord? I don't know. Well, Jay said something, but I barely heard it since my fury was focused on Ross. Fuck keeping calm, I thought. I struck out my arm, and happiness filled me when my fist came in contact with his face. I was awarded even more satisfaction when I saw him on the ground, blood spilling from his nose. And just because I really couldn't help myself, I dropped one of the tampons he handed me and sneered, "Need a tampon?" in the same mocking/sweet tone he used on me. I gave him a smug smile and walked past him.

That was my fourth mistake.

"You bitch," he muttered. I turned around and ducked just as his fist was coming towards me. I hopped back up; nearly falling, I leaned onto the lockers for support. He swung again, with more force this time, and I bounced away just before his fist hit me. It slammed hard into the lockers and I cracked up because he was cussing and cradling his damaged hand. He looked over at me, repeatedly trying to punch me, but always missing the target because, as a dancer, I was able to gracefully move my body before Jay hit it.

And yet, if you're so graceful, how did you manage to bump into him? I shook my head; Jay took that moment when I was unguarded at struck hard at my face. My head turned at the impact and it hurt and I could taste blood!! I whipped my head forward and struck out to punch him; he did the same too. The next part happened like it was in slow motion: I ducked, dodging his punch, so my fist hit his stomach hard and he fell back.

I realized something was wrong when Jay and Natasha both said "Oh, shit." I forgot that they were there since I was only focused on Ross.

By this time, Ross had already gotten up. That's when I noticed that there was someone lying on the floor, exactly where he was. "Fuck," I swore silently.

"That is correct, Miss Sanders," a voice said. I turned around and there he was, in his bald-headed, pot-bellied glory: my principal, Dr. Arnold. Although, I doubt he is actually a doctor, since that man is not all that smart, and doesn't understand teenagers, or any human for that fact, at all. "Perhaps you would like to entertain me of this wonderful anecdote. In my office. All of you!" With some strength that I didn't even know I had, I resisted to roll my eyes. So after helping Mr. Timmons on his feet, the six of us took a stroll down the hallway to The Office.

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Jay and Natasha got reprimanded first since they weren't active participants—it was pretty obvious since they were looking "perfect." They only got in trouble since they didn't notify someone of authority, and also, they were supposed to be in class. All they got was detention, which really isn't that bad. When they got out, Jay gave Ross a lazy smile, and Natasha winked at him. When they looked over at me, I glared at them; they walked away without another word.

"I'll tell you guys when to come in. Dr. Arnold is making a few calls." The young secretary smiled at us, but I suspected that it was directed mainly towards Ross, who grinned back, which caused her to giggle, and made me feel like hurling. I sat on my hands, grateful that Dr. Arnold let me go to the nurse who had tampons and extra clothes.

"You wouldn't believe how many times this happens; so don't worry, you're not the only one." She gave me a warm smile, and I was thankful we didn't have some crazy nurse who would've told me to deal with it and get out.

When my hands started go get numb, I wiggled them around, flexing and compressing them. I looked everywhere except to my right, where he sat, on the other side of the door. I fished through my bag and was happy when I found my iPod. At least something is going right. Three songs later, we were called into The Office. If this was some TV show, I swear there could be a close up and dramatic music when someone said The Office.

We sat down and the first thing that crossed my mind was that I was only a few mere inches away. I subtly tried to be as far away as I could without actually being off the chair when I noticed that Arnold was looking right at me.

"Yes?" I asked.

"Remove you're ear buds. I said, 'Do you have to pee?' You're squirming so much—go now because I really don't want any pee on my chair. Or blood." Oh, God. Even my own freaking principal knows that "the bitch is back" as some people say. From the corner of my eye, I saw that he (I refuse to mention his name) was about two seconds away from dropping on the floor and laughing like there was no tomorrow.

"No, I do not. I'm just trying to bee as far away as I can while still being in this seat." Oh, God, did I really just say that?

He sighed and pinched the bridge of his large nose, and slightly bruised thanks to him and I. For a second, I wondered why he chose this occupation. He sighed again and looked at us for a long time, in which a very awkward silence fell heavily upon us. Finally, right when I was about to do the whole "how's the weather?" thing, he said, "Why?"

That pretty much baffled us since we were expecting him to yell and have his vein pop out of his head. I looked at him who looked at me, but neither of us said anything, I decided to be brave and said, "What do you mean?" Yeah, that's real bravery.

"Why do you constantly fight? Of course, none of your 'disagreements' are as bad as this one, but still. I remember when you both used to be good friends. What happened to that?" I stiffened at his words and I sensed that Ross—whoops—stiffened too. My eyes moved to the side, peeking at him, and I saw that he wasn't going to talk first. So, once again, I must save the day.

"Dr. Arnold, with all due respect, those days are over." Even though I was trying to be kind, there was no escaping the hard edge and coldness to my voice. "Whatever there was, it disappeared in the seventh grade, when Ross"—no point in I not saying his name since I already slipped—"became the arrogant asshole we all loathe and despise today."

"Well, I'm sorry for becoming hot in the seventh grade. I talked to you for a while, but you always shot me down. I was trying to be nice and polite, but apparently, that didn't appeal to you. It's not my fault that you got jealous since you weren't accepted in, like me." Ross scoffed and this time I didn't refrain from rolling my eyes.

"Oh, puh-lease." I turned and faced him, hated shining in my eyes. "I wasn't jealous. I just told you that hanging around those people was bad news. But, noooo. Since I wasn't worshipped like half the people in our school, and actually saw the "Ins" for the deceitful people they were and yet to come, my opinion didn't matter. And you were only polite, but that's when I they weren't around and no other witnesses. Friends aren't polite. Strangers and acquaintances are polite, but friends are genuine. I stopped talking to you when I accidentally saw them confronting you after one of them 'caught' you talking to me. You said that I was a stalker and you were trying to be nice by letting me go in a non-embarrassing way. Do you know how that made me feel? No, you can't blame it on me, because after a while, you started bringing them to me so they could make fun of me for no reason. One day, they came to me and laughed because I had a scar, so I was apparently 'tainted.' Really?" I exhaled deeply; glad to say that to him.

My gladness crushed when he said, "Maybe they were right. Maybe you were too stubborn, and still are, to see it, so see what everyone else sees; but they try to be kind enough to not straight out say in your face. Just like I tried to do."

I looked down, unable to look at him, unable to show him how much he had really hurt me. I decided to peek at him, and there he was: staring at me with a smug smile on that stupid face of his. My self-control left me for a moment, in which, my hand struck out. Luckily, Arnold intervened; he caught my wrist right before it was going to smack into that face. "Nikki, please."

He cleared his throat; Ross and I sat up straight and looked forward. He looked at me again, and I buried my hands in my lap so I wouldn't be tempted. "Now, I have arranged a meeting for today. So this afternoon, before you leave, you will report to my office to get the punishment. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, Dr. Arnold."

"Now head off to class before you get any later than you already are." I glanced at the clock, noticing that we only had ten minutes left of our second period class. I looked back at my principal. "Well, what are you waiting for? Go. By this rate, you'll have detention for skipping a class and being extremely late for your second, if you make it."

"You mean, you're not going to write us a slip or anything?" Ross and I exchanged looks. We had a lot of the same classes together, and most of our teachers didn't tolerate lateness and skipping classes very well.

Dr. Arnold laughed a deep laugh that pretty much rattled his entire Office. "I'm guessing that means no, correct?" I asked flatly.

"That's right," he laughed. "So get going."

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As it turned out, we both got detention—in every single class. We managed to get to our second class, but that was pretty pointless since as soon as we came in, the bell rang and everyone was leaving. I was pretty worked up about our punishment that I barely paid attention to what the teachers were saying. Normally, I would be safe since the teachers usually don't teach on the first day of school. They just hand out the syllabus, go over it in a lot of details, and then give us the rest of the period to talk. This year? They assign us work to do in class, and if we don't finish it, then we have it for homework. And then, we also had to memorize our syllabus because we were going to be quizzed on it! Who even does that? All of the teachers said they wanted to make sure that we understood everything they expected. Total BS if you ask me.

By lunch, my friends were ready to bombard me with questions about earlier this morning. They were pissed since I wouldn't give any details—but since no teacher could stop me from talking, they could fire away in asking. Except for the fact that I was so antsy, I was barely paying attention to what they were saying. However, one voice snapped me back to attention.

"Heard any details on the Big Punishment?" Ross was smiling but his green eyes were surprisingly serious. He sat down across from me, but I was so out of it, I barely thought twice about him sitting at the table.

I shook my head. "No. I can't even think about what he might plan. Any ideas?"

"No, but then I don't want to think of any. He might be right behind and we might say something that will be an inspiration to his sadistic punishments."

"I honestly doubt it's detentions. He would have given them to us already." I looked down at the table and started drumming my fingers. "Why don't you text you're parentals, or something. Ask them what he said."

"They are too busy. Already tried." I noticed he wouldn't look at directly in the eyes, but I ignored that. "What about you?"

"Left it on my counter."

"Got detention in every class so far. Not paying attention because of the punishment."

I nodded. "Same."

We didn't say anything after that, so Parker used that moment to obnoxiously clear his throat. We both looked over at him; I felt surprised I forgot that my best friend was with me. "Earth to Nikki!" He waved a hand over my face and leaned in real close.

I lifted an eyebrow. "Yes?"

"You have got to teach me how to do that. But just to point something out: Since when have you been so chummy with Ross Wess?" I looked over at Ross and that was when the oddity of him sitting there struck the both of us.

"Uh… I should go?"

"Are you asking me or telling me," I stated. He looked at me and then his usual bravado came back.

"I'm declaring it so you don't think I was gonna be here for long. Just came to ask that, so laters." And with that being said, he walked away.

I looked over to my friends and uncertainty clouded their faces. I basically told them it was due to punishment issues. "Well good," Shauna declared, "'Cause that is some fine piece of work right there. I would be a little pissed if you had something with him, his sworn nemesis. "

"Too bad we hang out with Nikki. If that wasn't the case, you would have a shot," Darrell said. Lissa nodded while taking a bite out of her sandwich. I grinned, but tried really hard not to think of what Ross had told me before.

The rest of the day passed in a blink. Soon I found myself walking to The Office and sitting on the same chair I sat at before. Moments later, Ross arrived. Not even a second later, Dr. Arnold came in, closing the door behind him. He sat behind his desk, folded his hands, and got straight to business.

"Nikki, your parents are starting their sabbatical in three weeks, correct?" I nodded, with a feeling of dread in my stomach. "Well, there have been some plans that have been changed. You will be residing at the Wess' house." He looked at me expectantly, waiting for me to show some kind of response. I honestly couldn't—I don't even think I was breathing, "Breath, Nikki." With some effort, I finally managed to exhale. And that is when I blew up.

"Why do I have to stay at his house? I mean, what kind of punishment is that? This is cruel and unusual punishment! I don't think that the school has the authority to suggest something like that, does it? And me staying with him—what would that accomplish?! Just more issues and a lot of violence. Not peace!"

"Calm down Nikki!" Dr. Arnold sighed deeply and rubbed his hands together, then running them through his thinning hair. "It wasn't me who suggested it. In fact, both of you mothers thought up of it at the same time, so you really can't blame me for it. It's already been set in stone. They'll leave at the end of this week, maybe early next week. They suggest that you should at least go to his house a few times this week. They recommended it, not me."

"I will not do it."

"Don't do it, and you both could be facing suspension, and maybe even suing for assaulting a teacher and you're beloved principal. And also paying for damaging property." He flashed us a smile. "This will also go on your record." I gave him a questioning look; he hastily added, "The locker? Yes, that has been damaged." I looked at Ross's hand, thinking how close it had been to hitting my head. I heard the loud bang when it hit the metal. That probably would've hurt pretty badly it he had actually punched me.

"Sure, we'll do it." Now I looked at Ross, anger flashing in my eyes. I was about to say that I didn't agree, when he gave me this really weird look that told me to shut up. I grudgingly did as he "said."

"Good! So, you will have to document what happens, so say a journal entry every week? This is supposed to help you, but that means you both have to work together as a team, okay? Be kind to each other, and I will check periodically." Dr. Arnold's expression because unexpectedly harsh and menacing. "And you better do it, or else." Dr. Arnold dismissed us without another word.

When we got out, Ross was strangely calm. "This can't be that bad, so stop looking at me like that. So I'll be only a few days, maybe like a month or so, since you family can't afford a vacation that long, right? It really won't be that bad."

I stared at him before I scowled and was fighting really hard to not strike out at him. "Do you know what a sabbatical is?" He gave me blank expression which I took as a no. "A sabbatical is like a vacation that college professors get every seven years."

"Right. And can't be that long because someone needs to be able to pay the bills and such. And then when they come back, you can just convince them to let you stay home. See? Really easy, so stop making a big deal."

I ran my hands down my face. "A sabbatical is a year long. And they will be living in Idaho for the entire year!"

"Why Idaho? I mean, I get that your family is poor, but couldn't they choose any place—" he stopped in mid-sentence, eyes wide. "You said a year?" his voice went suddenly weak.

"Yes, a year, dipshit. And since you didn't give me a chance to negotiate, we are stuck doing this." I turned and walked out of the school, leaving him to think about what he had done. As I walked home, I thought about how my day went.

My first mistake was actually getting out of bed this morning.