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I was deprived of sleep, just like the night before at Dion's apartment. My restless mind wouldn't let me stop thinking. I was too busy wondering about Dakota and worrying about his whereabouts. All of my calls continued to stay unanswered to and eventually started to go straight to voicemail. If his plan was to piss me off, then it was working very efficiently.

I woke up at five am, and not willingly either. Track practice was the last place I wanted to go to this early in the morning, but I had made a commitment. Coach Walker was extremely persistent and so was my dad after he found out about my place on the team. He'd gone as far as clear his schedule for my first track meet so he could be there for me.

I packed my bag with some clothes to change into after practice and a water bottle. Walking back to my long mirror, I pulled my hair into a high ponytail. I checked my phone one last time before I headed for the door, closing it behind me. I was getting used to the lack of activity on my phone.

Putting on my backpack, I went quietly down the stairs. Everyone else was still sleeping besides my father. He woke up around five am every morning, got himself coffee, and watched the morning news on the lowest volume possible. He liked this time of day to concentrate on the cases he was currently working on.

"Bye, Dad. I'm going to practice." I said over my shoulder and went up to the door.

"Hold on." He sat down his mug and the folder he had in his hands. "I'll drive you to school."

I waved him off. "No, you don't have to. I can bike it there."

"Don't be silly. I'll drive you." He insisted and flipped off the TV. "I was going to head toward the office in fifteen minutes anyway. It's in the same portion of town."

I didn't protest any longer. Riding my bike all the way to school wasn't the most desirable thing to do in these short shorts. I was quite grateful that he offered.

"Do you want to grab something to eat before we go? Since I'm driving you, you have a little more time."

"I'll be fine."

He looked at me with a side-way expression, but left it at that. I hadn't eaten my dinner last night and I hadn't gone out of my room for the most part besides for brief bathroom breaks. It was hard to eat when my thoughts were somewhere else.

I would've liked it to be a silent drive to school, but my father found it a great time to talk about college and how my application process was going. I told him that I had started about six applications and only sent two of my out-of-state applications.

"What do you plan on studying?" He questioned.

"I listed myself as undecided."

"Well, do you at least know what topics you might want to study."

I stared out the window. This wasn't what I wanted to talk about. All his life, he knew what he wanted to do and what he was meant to accomplish in life. I wasn't entirely sure what I wanted to eat for lunch tomorrow, how was I supposed to choose a subject--at the age of seventeen--that would lead to my future career? I had no direction in life. Right now, this wasn't the kind of big decision making I wanted polluting my life.

Even though these things were set in my mind, this wouldn't be a good enough answer for my father. Simply so he could get off my back about it, I said: "I was thinking about a minor in Anthropology and a major in Psychology."

He was impressed by my response, smiling and nodding his head. "That's good. Have you thought of any Ivy Leagues?"

"They'd laugh at my application if I sent one in." I snorted. "Just because you went to an Ivy League for your Masters doesn't mean I want to go to some Ivy League. I'm very content with going to a private college or a state college."

The car pulled into the school parking lot. I was glad we'd already arrived to my destination. Any more of this conversation, Dad would've tried to convince me to apply to Dartmouth or something. We both knew that was an unlikely thing to happen. With my family's track record, I was more likely to get into San Quentin than Dartmouth.

I went for the door handle, but Dad's voice stopped me. Particularly what he said.

"I called Pierson's house on Saturday night. He said you weren't over at his house, working on the project. He also said that you had left hours ago. I don't need to ask who you could've been with. I'm sure I can guess." He turned down the volume of his jazz radio station and cleared his throat. "Do you want to know why I'm so disappointed in you?"

Great. He's already on the 'I'm disappointed' part of his speech. I'm doomed, my thoughts groaned.

"Dad, I can explain-"

"You don't need to. I understand. You want to be with him. He wants to be with you. I was once a teenager; I know how it works. I also know how easy it is for people to get pressured into doing things they don't want to do. You can be with Dakota, but I'd rather if you didn't sneak off to his home. Are you at least being safe?"

"Ohmigod, Dad stop." I cringed. "I think your years too late to give me the safe sex talk."

"I don't suspect that you're already active after...after what happened in Maine," he finished with a grim expression. He shook his head, clearly stopping a train of thoughts in his head. "I want you to invite Dakota over for Thanksgiving dinner."

"What?"

Had I heard him right? Was I making this all up? There was no way my father, Jonah Ellington, had said those exact words.

"I would prefer if you were open with your relations with that boy than sneaking off with him to God knows where. If he matters to you, then I want to meet him properly. He can bring his brother if he wants."

Dad wanted to keep a closer eye on Dakota. That was what he meant and we both knew it with the stern way he said it. I couldn't just dismiss this offer though. It was too good to be true...or a total nightmare waiting to happen. "I'll ask if he's planning anything for Thanksgiving. I'm sure he'll be free."

. . .

Drawing out the towel inside my bag, I wiped the sweat off of my forehead. With one of my hands still in my bag, I rummaged around for my water bottle. Once I found it, I popped off the top and put the nozzle to my mouth and gulped it up. Ronnie and Heath had arrived near the end of practice and they waited on the bleachers. I walked over to them after I heard Coach Walkers farewell speech on our progress and about the track meet that was coming up.

When they sat down on the bleachers, a few people looked at Heath and Ronnie at first. I had even heard someone question why Heath was there. They recognized him as Boulder Valley student and they didn't look too happy with him there.

"Why do you have that camera around your neck?" I asked Ronnie when I got up to the bleachers. "Is that for your film class?"

After Ms. Richards quit her job last month, the arts class had turned into a film class because of the new teacher they got. Ronnie, Pierson, Dakota, and Carmen were all in that class-including Ronnie's ex, Finn. I had spotted Dakota with the same exact camera in his bedroom, but I hadn't raised any questions with him.

"Yeah, it's for film class." She groaned. "I have to choose a topic that fascinates me and film about it for three to seven minutes and then show it to the entire school. Mr. Owens somehow got permission to premier our little films in front of the school on the last day of school. Despite the fact that he would've already graded them and submitted them by that time, he still wants to torture us even more by showing our peers."

"It's okay. I'll clap for your short film even if it sucks."

She wiped away a fake tear and patted my shoulder. "You're a true friend."

"You were really good out there on the track." Heath said out of nowhere, trying to squeeze into the conversation. "I think you might break your bad streak at the next track meet. Boulder Valley's track team may finally have some actual competition for the first time in twenty years."

I shrugged. "I'm not taking any of this serious. I miss running. Win or lose, I'm glad I get to do something else with my time."

"Something else than fighting with Dakota," Ronnie added on.

"We don't really fight," I rectified. "We bicker...passionately."

"Where is he anyway?" She asked. "I figured you would've invited him to this meet up."

"It would be best if Dakota wasn't here." Heath said earnestly. "I'm not all that sure where he is though. Do you know, Silvia?"

"No, I don't know." I sighed and refrained from checking my phone. "He hasn't been replying to any of my texts or calling me back."

"He's missed all of my call, too," Heath said. I was glad to hear that this wasn't only happening to me. "I haven't heard back from him since I dropped you guys off on Saturday. Did something happen that night?"

Ronnie and I exchanged looks.

"Nothing out of the normal," I replied. "We had a bit of an argument, but it shouldn't have caused the reaction I was looking for."

"You wanted a reaction out of him? That's odd," Heath mused.

"Enough about Dakota, let's get to why we're all here." Ronnie announced. "Heath show her the print outs that you have on Pierson."

He swung around his messenger bag and retrieved the material she had mentioned. Heath handed me a packet of dialogue. It was conversations between Pierson and many other people on Facebook and through emails.

He pointed at the first sheet. "The one thing I noticed around midnight last night is that the bid Alexander had over you flopped."

"What does that mean?" I inquired.

"He'd written out a check for your spot-weird, I know. Most teenagers don't walk around with a checkbook. But what was even more strange was how he bid about three hundred dollars so he could be the one to prank you. Since the check bounced, he lost his place. Your spot was official re-opened around the beginning of September. This sparked Pierson's interest but he didn't say he wanted to bid any money."

"This is getting worse the more you tell me about it." I grumbled, pressing my water bottle to my forehead in the hopes to cool me down. "What happened after that?"

"Well, not too long after, your spot was taken once more by a girl this time."

"Wait, you didn't tell me this." Ronnie gasped. "Who was it? If it's Beth I swear I'm going to murder her before she gets the change to prank Silvia."

"Franklin said he couldn't specify which female because he didn't know himself. He said it had to be either Carmen, Faye or Beth though."

"Carmen's too broke to simply throw around three hundred dollars," Ronnie revealed. "After her dad lost his job and her mom ran off with another woman, her life's kind of been a downward spiral of misfortune events. There's no way her dad would simply loan her three hundred for some prank."

"Beth seems like a likely suspect then," Heath concluded. "She's super loaded. She hates you for being close with Pierson and she's obviously psychotic."

"Beth isn't going to do anything to me," I assured them. The talk we had on Saturday had changed the formation of this friendship. With a little more time, I was sure that I could see her as my close friend again.

"I had a feeling you'd say that." Heath shook his finger at me and brought out his laptop. "Ronnie told me that you let her in to Dion's apartment on Saturday."

I shot a dark look at her.

"I'm sorry," she shouted with her hands in the air. "I didn't know who else to call. I was worried for your life. I'm sorry for caring."

"She's not lying. I had to reassure her on the phone that Beth wouldn't kill or kidnap you. Ronnie was legit hyperventilating. I swear, she thinks she's in a Lifetime movie." Heath said, smirking at his computer screen. "After she told me about Beth being there though and how she had overheard you guys talking about being at Franklin's party, I thought I would do some snooping." He routed the screen so it was directly facing Ronnie and I. "I couldn't access the house security system in his house, but I was able to access street security footage. There were some store cameras and road cameras that faced toward his house."

I was a little baffled at how he could've done this all on his own. "Isn't that illegal to access that stuff?"

"Cocaine and meth is illegal, but people still get a hold of it somehow." He retorted. "I don't have much time to be in Crescent Heights. Schools gonna start soon. Do want to ask more questions or do you want see what I found?"

"No need to get sassy," Ronnie huffed. "Play the footage you found."

He pressed play and showed us the film he had on his computer. "From the start of the party to the end of the party, I didn't see Xander's car pull up after watching the tapes for the first time. I had to rewatch it at least twice. Ronnie mentioned that Beth said she arrived with him. I couldn't spot his red Honda at all." He paused the video. "Until about ten o'clock, he finally does show." He pointed at the red vehicle in the third frame. "Look at this."

The video was kind of blurry, but Heath redefines the video and makes it even clearer. Someone else had stepped out of Xander's car other than himself.

"Dakota." I breathed. "Or at least someone who looks like him."

"Silvia." Ronnie sighed. "That's undoubtedly him. Who else dresses like that at our school?"

"I know what he's capable. He wouldn't go off and hang out with Xander. That has to be someone else." I refused to believe what Heath was trying to show me.

"Silvia, if I wasn't one hundred percent sure myself I wouldn't offer this theory to you. He's my best friend." Heath said. "But after I saw that, I knew that I had to check some other things. I found street footage of Dakota entering Pierson's house back in the end of August and the beginning of September. After what I've collected this weekend, I think there may be a chance that he could've been the bidder against you-"

"I don't want to hear it." I held my palms to my ears, blocking his words out. "That's not true. That can't be true. You said it was a girl that had bid for me."

"Franklin can't honestly know who has bid on who." Ronnie reminded me. "The only person who can actually say who's pranking who is the head leader of Segg. And that person isn't Franklin. He's nowhere near the top. He's only making blind guesses that are based on who openly hates you. Dakota isn't off the table. At the end of August, he did still seem to hate you."

"How would you know Franklin isn't near the top?"

"Because Finn is the head member of Segg and he would have access to that kind of information." Ronnie exhaled painfully slow. She didn't look at me when she said this. "The main reason why we broke up is because I found out about him being the Segg head member. I had curiously gone through his phone one night and found loads of message of operations against students. They kept calling him Maestro, which is the title you use for the head member. He conducts the pranks, says what is acceptable and what isn't. Knows who's involved and who isn't. Organizes it so nothing gets messy and keeps it under wraps. People obviously think it would be Maven or Hunter who would be the head, but that's too obvious because they're a lot more popular. Also, they're not that smart like Finn. They wouldn't know how to keep their mouths shut or how to keep everyone's identity hidden."

I couldn't believe she hadn't told me this until now. "Did you see Dakota's name?"

"This was long before Xander dropped out of the Segg with his fake check. If Dakota is a part of Segg, I would have to check Finn's planner for this week. It would be there."

My eyes brightened. "Why don't you do what they made me do with Pierson? Get with Finn and try to get information out of him. I'm not saying that Dakota is a part of Segg or not. I want to show you guys that you've got the wrong person."

Dakota couldn't be the one behind the text messages I got. There was another person, and they were using Dakota as a scapegoat. Dakota was also in those photos, why would he sabotage himself?

Ronnie shook her head. "Finn and I are different than Pierson and you. I loved him-and I still do. I can't look at him now without wanting to slap him for being behind something like that. I couldn't put on a fake face and pretend to care for him when I can't help but crumble at the thought of what he's done."

As much as I wanted to get answers, I knew I couldn't put Ronnie through that. Dion and Heath might've convinced me to get close with Pierson, but Ronnie wasn't the kind who could pretend.

"I think it's time I leave." Heath said and shut down his computer. "I don't want to over stay my visit."

When Heath was gone, I put my backpack on and waited for Ronnie at the bottom of the bleachers. Counting until my feels could subside wasn't an option at the moment. I needed to blabber about anything-anything other than what they'd told me.

"Heath doesn't have to run off like that just cause he's a Boulder Valley student." I said. "He's always so nervous when it comes to turf rules."

"He's nervous for a reason. It's been an mutual agreement to not cross town limits. At least between some of the boys in the two schools. It hasn't been until recently for guys to start break that agreement."

"Why is that?" I asked, but had to stop her response because of the ringing noise in my backpack. I fished it out and pressed talk. It wasn't a number I was familiar with. "Hello?"

"Silvia? It's Dakota."

I wasn't as happy as I thought I would be, partly because what Heath had showed me left a sour taste in my mouth. I still didn't believe it, but it didn't help Dakota and his silence. "Where have you been?"

"Looking for my phone, my laptop, and a fuck load of other things. I came home on Sunday morning to find my stuff was gone. It's not funny, Silvia. You're the only one who was in there. I had to wait till Dion came home this morning to finally use a phone. Where is my stuff?"

. . . . . . . . . . .

Song for the chapter: Somebody Else by the 1975

Lyrics: ❝And at first I thought it was a lie.❞

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