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Monday hit us like a tidal wave, unexpected and certainly unwanted. The school was buzzing like crazy, chatting about what happened at the Smell and how Hunter hadn't arrived to school today. Hunter was in Pierson's care. I'd gone to visit him on Sunday with Beth, seeing if he was okay. He would be fine, but the guy Pierson had gotten to take care of Hunter said it would be best if he stayed in for Monday just to be safe. It was peculiar that Maven didn't care to visit his brother at all.

Evelyn was gullible enough to believe the lie Pierson fed to Maven about Hunter staying over at his place for a while for a sports related thing. Carmen and I both cooperated the lie. It was simple, really.

My father had given me a strange look, but he didn't speak against the lies Maven had told them. I tried to keep my mouth shut when they asked for my side of the story. I stuck to the false story Pierson had conjured up, not veering toward the truth. It was the first, and last, time I would ever cooperate anything with Carmen and Maven. I lied enough already, I didn't need to add this to my longwinded laundry list of lies.

I'd gotten my class schedule changed this morning. I had to tell the counselor about the repeat of two classes he'd given me and the Spanish 2 he'd put me in. I'd already finished that class back in Maine, so they advanced me to Spanish 3 instead. Which, thankfully, meant I didn't have any classes with Xander.

It was weird in a way, but I was looking forward to my P.E. class. In Maine, I used to be on the Cross Country team before...well, before everything happened. I used to enjoy the feeling of running, slamming my feet against the pavement, racing against students, and reaching that finish line before anyone else.

When Coach Walker told us we'd be running around the track for most of class, I was the only student that was quite happy about it. By the time I finished my required amount of laps, Coach Walker caught up with me at the water fountain.

"Ellington." He huffed, coming to a stop behind me.

"Yes, sir?" I asked, rising from my bent position in front of the water fountain.

"Do you know how fast you were going?" He didn't stop to get my answer. Instead, he showed me the timer in his hands. "That's incredible."

I pouted. "I've slowed down."

He gave me a funny look. "Are you kidding me? You're faster than most of my track team. Have you ever thought about joining the Crescent High track team?"

"No." I wiped the water from my chin. "And I don't think I necessarily want to."

It had been three years since I was on the Cross Country team back in Maine. There was almost this sacred thing about running to me that I couldn't just do for anyone. Nowadays I ran when I felt like pushing my thoughts away, only focusing on the blood pumping threw my veins and the oxygen going into my body. Nothing else mattered in that moment. I only ran for myself...and I also ran away from problems.

Coach Walker narrowed his thick brows at me. "Well, before you make up your mind, at least consider it for a bit. Sleep on it."

...

Beth and Xander met me at my locker before lunch. Xander was grinning at me like he was hiding a secret that I'd want to know. Beth hadn't talked much in our class together, keeping to herself and holding her head low inside her books.

"What is it?" I blurted to Xander.

"Oh, nothing." His lips curled even more. "It's just that I can't help, but think how cute of a couple you and Pierson would make." The way he said it, I knew he was only saying it to piss off Beth. And like a charm, it worked.

Beth's eyes nearly fell out of its sockets. She slugged a punch into his arm. He winced in response, holding on to the spot where she'd hit him. "Why do you have to bring Pierson up?"

"What?" He yelped. "I'm sure the whole school already knows their little date in the diner."

"It wasn't a date," Beth and I said at once.

"No one is talking about that." Beth supplied. "It couldn't be a date. We were there with them."

"Yeah. At a different table, Beth." He rolled his eyes. "I told you, you should've made your move the other night."

"It doesn't matter if I did or didn't make a move. She doesn't even like Pierson." Beth froze, then turned to me. "You don't like him like that, right?"

I giggled, resting a hand on her shoulder. "I don't like him like that. I can assure you of that."

Frankly, I didn't know how I felt about Pierson. He was pretty funny and easygoing, which were both things I needed in my life. But I knew I didn't need a boyfriend right at this moment. It would only complicate things. My senior year would be a lot better if I didn't get into the complex nature of holding down a boy. There were lots of other things I needed to worry about, and none of those things involved me dating Pierson. The only one I caught myself drooling over didn't care if I dropped dead or not.

It wasn't like I'd thought of dating that ass-hat Dakota Ridgewood. And it wasn't like Dakota would date me either. He'd rather break his two arms before he'd sit next to me. I wonder what other extreme lengths he'd go to just to emphasis how much he despised my family.

Beth smiled for the first time today. "Good. That's good news that you don't have feelings for him in that sort of way."

"I bet the rest of the student body would think otherwise." He gestured to the bustling hallway of students. Right when he did that, the crowd of teens parted as Pierson, Doug, and a guy I'd seen at the Smell came our way. "Ooh, lookie here. It's the man of the hour."

"Beth!" Doug shouted, rushing right up to her, smiling more than ever. Man, he liked her a lot more than she realized. "Good morning. How are you? You look nice today."

"Thanks, Doug. I'm fine," she said while looking at Pierson, wide-eyed and dopey. "Hello, Pierson."

"Oh, uh, hi." Pierson nodded in her direction, then faced me, finally flashing a genuine smile. "Silvia. You're just the person I was looking for."

Oh, Gosh, things look like they're about to get messy. I was partly living for the drama, and dreading it at the same time, knowing damn well that it would most likely blow back in my face.

"Well I'm not that hard to find." I shut my locker. "What did you want to talk about?"

"Coach Walker told me -- "

"Let me guess. He called you over to talk to me about joining the track team, right?" I interrupted. "I already told him. I don't really want to join. From the way he talked about the team, it sounds like they suck."

Pierson laughed. "They do suck. They need all the help they can get. That's why I think you should join."

Doug rolled his eyes. "Don't lie to her, you only want to join because the soccer team practices on the field the track loops around." Doug leaned forward. "He just wants to watch you stretch."

I saw a deep frown form on Beth's face.

Pierson slapped Doug's neck. "Shut up. That's not true. And how many times do I have to tell you? It's football. Not soccer."

"If you don't recall, you're in America. Which means I'll call it soccer like the rest of America does." Doug puffed.

"And I'll call it what the rest of the world calls it. Football," Pierson scoffed.

"I thought it was fútbol?" their friend asked, using a Spanish accent on the final word.

Pierson slapped the back of his head. "That's the same thing, idiot. Just in a different language. If say basketball in German, does that mean it's no longer basketball? Exactly." He finished, not letting him reply.

They both bickered back in forth for the next couple of minutes until Beth cut in and asked. "Is that all you guys have to say? Or is there something else?"

"Oh, yeah," Doug chimed. "I was going to ask you, Beth. Are you doing anything after school tomorrow? They're having SOCCER try-outs and I wanted you to be there to witness me kick Pierson's ass on the field."

Pierson leaned himself into the lockers and grabbed my hand. "Silvia, are you doing anything after school? I want you to be there to witness ME kick Doug's ass while playing FOOTBALL."

Once again, a frown found itself on Beth's face. Each time, the frown wasn't toward Pierson, it was toward me. Like I was the one in the wrong here.

We quickly decided we'd all meet up to watch the guys play soccer out on the field. Pierson and Doug invited us to sit with them at their table for lunch, which grabbed Xander's attention immediately. Pierson and Doug were part of the "in crowd." This was one small step for mankind and one giant leap toward popularity for Xander.

Beth got a hold of my wrist and slowed down her pace. The guys walked ahead of us and we ended up near the back of the group while walking toward the cafeteria.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Pierson never goes to the cafeteria."

"What are you trying to say? He just invited us to the cafeteria."

"He never goes to the cafeteria. Like never. Why would he offer to go there with us?" she questioned. "He usually goes to the weight room with the other guys to workout, or into the gym to play basketball, or even out on the field to eat his lunch. He hates the cafeteria."

I arched an eyebrow. "And you know this...how?"

She sighed. "He's been my crush since freshman year. It's kind of mandatory to know the route of your crush."

"Sounds more like stalking him, but okay." I joked, but she didn't laugh like I thought she would. "Look, maybe he just wants to hang out with us."

"Or hang out with you." She emphasized the end of her statement a little too much.

Her eyes racked over my attire, and I knew exactly what she was thinking. She thought 'what did he see in her?' I could see it all over her face as she stared at me in curiosity. It was a look I knew a little too well.

"I already told you Beth. I'm not into him. You don't need to worry. I bet he feels the same about me; he hardly knows me anyway. We met only a few days ago."

"I know, I know." She grumbled and dropped her hold on my wrist. "I guess my emotions got the best of me. I'm sorry if I seem possessive about him."

"It's no big deal." I shrugged. "Believe me when I say this though, he's not into me."

"What guy would be into you?" a voice chirped. I glanced over to see who it was and found it to be Carmen, sitting at the table Pierson and the others were at. "Is he someone in a straitjacket by any chance?"

"Oh I'm sorry?" I said. "Was I supposed to be offended? Because the only thing that's succeeding to offend me is your face."

"Oooh. You want some Aloe Vera for that burn?" Pierson instigated.

Oh, God he's embarrassing.

Carmen disregarded what he said. Instead, she turned at me. "Take that back. Take that back or I'm going to make you regret it."

I snickered. "Oh. I'm so scared."

"I think it's time you leave, Carmen." Beth cut in again. "You are no longer wanted on the island."

Carmen looked around the table for support, but only found people laughing in her face. Collecting her belongings, she raised from her seat and left the table in one big rush, huffing and sighing the entire way. A few girls followed after her. I guess they were her little entourage of speechless drones.

I spotted out Faye and Maven at the end of the table, talking softly to each other, muting out the rest of the table and only focusing on each other.

I nudged Beth after we sat down. "Why didn't Maven stand up for Carmen? You know, with his brother dating her, I'd imagine he'd throw in his two cents."

She scoffed. "Maven and Hunter don't really get along."

"They don't?" This was news to me. Then again, I never recalled them ever being best buds at home. "What happened to them? They're twins."

"That doesn't mean they need to get along." She said. "I'm not sure what's the story behind those two are, but they came to Crescent Heights fine, but ended up hating each other. They're pretty cool around each other now, but man--if you'd seen them before." She huffed. "They were at each other's throats, constantly fighting in and out of school and causing so much trouble."

I looked back over at Maven with his girlfriend and thought about what I'd just learned. I remembered the way Hunter had said Maven was 'just being Maven' after he cursed at me when we first met. Something told me it had to be something big to rip two brothers apart like that.

______

Please vote and comment.

. . . . . .

Song: Trouble Cage the Elephant [song above]

Lyrics:

❝Got so much to lose.

Got so much to prove.

God don't let me lose my mind.

Trouble on my left,

Trouble on my right,

I've been facing trouble almost all my life.

My sweet love won't you pull me through.❞

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A/N: What do you think will happen next?

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