I woke up twice that night, both times with nightmares. So, when the alarm went off, I wasn’t happy. At least I got to sleep in an extra half hour since I showered last night. I got out of bed slowly, my back stiff. I rubbed my eyes; I felt like I hadn’t slept at all. I got up and headed to the bathroom. Surprisingly, Tara wasn’t in it this morning. I opened the medicine cabinet and found a small bottle of Ibuprofen. I took two, and then quickly washed my face. After brushing my teeth, I took the bottle with me. By the way my back felt, I was going to need it.

Now more awake, I dressed the way I felt today; dark boot-cut jeans, an olive long sleeve, thin sweater with a black cami on underneath. The neckline on the sweater was low enough that the cami kept the girls covered. I brushed my hair, leaving it down and only pulling the front back into a small clip at the back of my head. I did my usual sunscreen and makeup. Then I grabbed my jacket and made sure I had my wallet, cell phone, and keys before heading downstairs. Thankfully, I found a metal travel mug. I turned the coffee maker on and made my lunch.

My cell phone vibrated in my bra. I pulled it out to find a text from Miles.

Miles: Picking up coffee today, what would you like?

I texted back, smiling; it looks like Tara was wrong about them. My mood lifted from dour to just tired.

Alexis: Mocha with two espresso shots, please.

I had stronger coffee coming. That alone, got me out the door. That and the coffee in my hand. By the time I reached the school, I had already downed half of my coffee. I finished it before I even reached my locker. I turned the corner and there they were, all five of them, waiting for me. Ethan in all black again, Asher looking classic in another button-down shirt and wool coat, Zeke wearing his black clothes, wallet chain and his motorcycle jacket, Isaac in his blue hoodie, gray jeans, and white shirt. I spotted Miles. Sweet, wonderful Miles in a grey hoodie and a t-shirt with a chemical compound written across his chest, and who also had my coffee in his hand. I made a beeline for him.

“Morning,” he greeted me cheerfully, handing over my coffee. I took it and hugged him tight. His body became rigid, his hand hovering over my back uncertainly.

“You are my hero for the day.” My voice was muffled; my face was in his grey hoodie on his shoulder. He smelled like wintergreen.

“Um, no problem...?” Miles' voice trailed off.

I felt him looking to the guys for help. I smiled, gave him one last squeeze, then stepped back.

“Hell, if coffee is all it takes for a hug, I call tomorrow,” Isaac said, raising his hand. A few of them chuckled at Isaac. I ignored it and went to open my locker. With how my back felt today, I wasn’t going to be lugging all my books around all day.

“You okay, Red? You look as bad as Zeke did yesterday,” Isaac said.

I waved his concern away, still not awake as I put my bag on the ground and pulled out my Chemistry book.

“I’m fine, just had nightmares all night,” I said absently before I took another deep drink of coffee and put the book in the locker. I was debating my World Civ book when Asher spoke up.

“Jessica’s on the warpath today,” he warned, stepping up to the other side of my locker. I ignored it and put my World Civ book in the locker, too. That should make my bag light enough for me today. I also put the empty travel mug in for good measure.

“What is she bitching about?” I asked as I closed the locker, turned and realized they all looked serious.

“Jessica’s the most popular girl in school for some reason,” Isaac explained. Asher nodded and met my eyes.

“She believes some bullshit story Jason came up with about you hitting on him.” Asher continued, holding my gaze, “I explained to her what really happened, but brain power was never my sister’s strong suit.” He scratched his jaw as he continued. “She can destroy your reputation here before you even have one.”

I snorted.

“I don’t really give a shit what people think about me,” I told him bluntly, I really was too tired for drama this morning. I took a drink of coffee before gesturing around the circle. “Does my reputation really matter to you guys?”

They all shook their heads; the twins were smiling. Zeke did his almost smile thing.

“We thought you might,” Miles chimed in. “She might make it harder for you to get along with girls.”

I sighed trying to find a way to explain how I felt about this.

“If the girls here are so spineless that they can’t think for themselves, I don’t want them as friends,” I told them bluntly. I gestured at them again. “Besides, I’ve got you guys. I’m good.” All the guys smiled; Zeke smirked.

“See? This is why we kept you. You think like a guy,” Ethan declared, wrapping his arm around my back jarring me. I winced as he hit a particularly nasty bruise on my back--my hands actually shook from the pain. I just smiled back at him, hoping no one had noticed.

The bell rang, and the group split up. I couldn’t move yet, I had to give my back a minute. I was looking at the ground focusing on breathing when a pair of motorcycle boots came into view. I bit the bullet and looked up. Zeke’s eyes ran over my face, accessing.

“You okay?” he asked. His eyes bore into mine demanding an answer. I put on my best smile.

“Peachy.” I lied.

He looked at the lockers over my head.

“The twins are affectionate with everyone,” he began, tilting his head down, meeting my eyes. “If you don’t want them touching you, you just need to speak up.” My eyes widened, was he serious?

“I have never had a problem speaking up in my life,” I told him honestly. “You should have seen some of the notes from teachers in grades school. ‘Motormouth’ was mentioned, often.”

The corner of his mouth twitched. “Just checking.” He ran his eyes over me again before taking off down the hall.

Zeke had noticed the wince. Damn, he was observant. I needed to be more careful around him, and right now, I was too tired to figure out how. God, it was too early for drama.

I was on my way to Algebra 2, and my mind was finally awake, though my body was still tired. I was going to make it through the day and take a nap this afternoon. Hell, maybe I could bribe one of the guys to do my homework.

I had put Asher’s warning out of my mind and was simply walking down the hall when a shout rang out. Then another.

“Hey, new girl!”

That had to be me. I turned to find a tall girl with the same blonde hair as Asher striding toward me with fire in her eyes. I sighed, reminded myself about my temper, and waited. People backed up creating a ring around us. Jessica was pretty but had on too much bubblegum-pink lip gloss. She was wearing a white crop top even though it was cold this morning. Her big, gold hoop earrings shined at me. She stopped within a few feet of me, towering over me. Two of her friends were standing on either side of her. Oooh. A show of force. I barely managed to keep my face straight.

“Yes?” I asked, keeping it polite. Her eyes flared at me.

“Keep your hands off my boyfriend, bitch,” she spat. I really wasn’t in the mood to deal with this.

“Your boyfriend put his hands on me, and I made him stop.” I shrugged, feeling my hair slide down my shoulder. “Tell your boyfriend to keep his hands to himself, and we won’t have a problem,” I added, again, my voice reasonable.

Jessica took a step forward, and I swear, she did a head bob.

“Jason told me what happened. How you came up to him, flirting and touching him.” She ran her eyes over me then back to my face. “Acting like a slut.” This was Asher’s sister, so I tried again to make her understand.

“Asher was there, ask him what happened,” I said, but she was coming at me hard. Yelling, getting in my face. Yeah, I wasn't going to back down and crawl away. And to be honest, it seemed like that was what she expected. I was very aware of the surrounding crowd; I even saw a few cell phones out filming. Great.

“He’s lying to cover for you,” she snarled.

Alright, I had enough. I opened my arms to her, palms up.

“Then what the hell do you want?” I asked, more of my anger slipping through the more I spoke. “Asher told you what happened, I told you what happened. You don’t believe it.” I shook my head not caring that I was almost shouting now. She needed to learn that she wasn’t scaring me, and I had to make her realize it. “What are you hoping to do, coming at me like this? What? Do you want a fight? Fine.”

I put my bag down and pulled off my jacket, which I dropped onto my book bag. I stepped closer to her, waiting. Jessica’s eyes grew wide; had no one done this before? Had no one ever just pushed back? Then she looked pissed as she stepped back away from me.

“I’m going to make your life here hell,” she snarled. My face went blank, my eyes became dead.

“You don’t know a damn thing about me, Jessica.” My voice was flat and honest as I kept eye contact with her. I pushed it; I had to make her understand something very simple. “You don’t intimidate me, and you sure as hell don’t scare me.” Her eyes flashed at me, I continued. “So, knock yourself out. It’s not going to make a bit of difference to me.”

She pursed her lips before storming off, her heels clicking down the hallway. The crowd parted for her in stunned silence.

When she was gone, I turned, bent over, picked up my jacket and book bag. The circle was starting to break up since there wasn’t going to be a show. It was quick and bloodless, the way I preferred it. I just hoped Jessica got the message; if you come at me, I won't back down.

I straightened up and sighed. Zeke was leaning against the wall with Asher standing next to him. Both were watching me. It was awkward walking up to them- after all, I did just tell Asher’s sister to pretty much fuck off. Though Asher had the biggest smile I’d ever seen.

“That was beautiful,” Asher told me happily. “I’ve wanted to see Jessica taken down a peg for a long time.”

“Happy to help.” Surprised, I didn’t know what else to say.

“I’ve got ten on it being on Youtube before the end of the day,” Zeke said, an actual grin spreading across his face.

“I’m not stupid enough to take that bet,” Asher said.

I shook my head; I didn't know what to think about that. I looked up at Asher.

“Do you think that will be the end of it?”

Asher tilted his head, thinking. “I don’t think she’ll come at you directly like that again.” He was smiling again. “No one’s ever stood up to her before. But we probably haven’t heard the end of this.”

“Oh well, let her knock herself out,” I said as the late bell rang overhead. “See you guys at lunch.” I waved to them before heading off to class.

I figured that the rest of the day would go back to normal. However, halfway through Algebra people were showing phones to each other and sending looks my way. Damn, Zeke had been right. It hadn’t even been an hour, and it looked like the video had gone viral through the school. I ignored it the best I could; it wasn’t easy.

The quiet girl with brown hair that sat to my right leaned over.

“Did you really stand up to Jessica?” She whispered.

I looked up from my book at her. Her brown hair was straight to her shoulders. She had a sweet face that was clear of makeup. Her fingers were twisting in her lap like she was anxious about something.

“I just made a couple things clear to her, that’s all,” I whispered back, keeping my voice friendly. She smiled and it changed her face completely. She was pretty, but you wouldn’t know it since she kept hiding in her hair.

“Wish I could have done that when she came at me,” she mumbled, picking up her pen.

Jessica went after this girl too? It got me curious.

“She goes after girls like that a lot?”

She nodded, sucking on her lower lip. “All the time,” she said quietly.

I huffed at that; Jessica wasn’t a pissed off girlfriend, she was a drama queen.

“She even goes after some of the boys sometimes.”

That really caught my attention. I abandoned my class work and focused on her.

“Goes after them how? Yelling, screaming?”

The girl nodded her eyes unfocused for a couple seconds.

“That and she’ll slap them. Once, I saw her slap her brother across the face during lunch.”

I’m pretty sure my eyebrows disappeared into my hairline. I reassessed. Jessica wasn’t a drama queen; she was a fucking bully who used drama as an excuse. Then why didn’t she hit the other girls? I knew the answer before I finished asking myself the question. Because they could hit her back. That fucking bitch. My temper surged. She hit guys because they couldn’t hit her back without getting in deep shit.

I looked over at the girl next to me and smiled. I held out my hand to her.

“I’m Alexis.”

The girl's eyes lit up as she shook my hand. “I’m Laura.”

Her hand shook a little in mine. She seemed very nervous, even timid. Jessica going after her was ridiculous. I tore a piece of paper off the corner of my page. I wrote my number down and handed it to her.

“If she comes after you again call me, and I’ll take care of it.” I didn’t even have to think about it. It was clear to me this girl was too shy and timid to stand up for herself. “Or you know, if you’re bored or something.” Laura's face lit up; when she smiled, she was even prettier.

“Okay.”

Soon algebra was over, I said goodbye to Laura and headed toward Chemistry. That’s when it hit me. Did I just make another friend? I was going over the conversation in my head as I moved through the halls. I decided that I had. I was smiling as I walked into class.

The boys had already beaten me to the table. They were leaning forward, looking at Isaac’s cell phone. My smile disappeared. As I stepped up to the counter, I heard my own voice coming from the phone.

“I see you’ve heard,” I announced, mildly annoyed. Isaac was beaming, Ethan laughing. Miles was his usual quiet self.

“Heard, seen, and watched about a dozen times,” Isaac answered joyfully. “That was the best thing I’ve seen in years.”

“You did handle her rather brilliantly,” Miles said.

I sat on my stool and dropped my bag. Then curiosity had me asking.

“What do you mean?”

Miles adjusted his glasses before answering. “Jessica relies on fear to get what she wants. You telling her she doesn’t scare you took away any power she felt she had.”

I thought about it for a minute. Was he right? Is that what happened? Looking back at the whole scene with that in mind, I realized he was right.

“That wasn’t my plan,” I explained. “I was just telling her the truth.”

A smile made its way across his face, turning his cute face handsome. His emerald eyes sparkling. He really should smile more.

“And that’s why it was epic.”

I shook my head not knowing what to say as Isaac started playing the video again.

“Oh, this is my favorite part.” Isaac said gleefully.

The teacher clapped his hands, getting everyone’s attention, and then class started. Miles ended up taking Ethan and Isaac's cell phones so they would stop watching the video.

After class, Miles handed them back, making them promise not to use them in class. Both boys grumbled an agreement.

We were talking about Ethan's band practice that night when we reached the courtyard in front of the cafeteria. It was jam-packed with other students.

“What the hell?” Ethan asked, looking at the crowd.

“Is our table even open?” Isaac asked, shading his eyes. He pointed. “Yep, there’s Zeke and Asher. They’ve managed to hold the table.”

It wasn’t hard to see Zeke and Asher; they towered over everyone else in the courtyard. We headed into the crowd. We eventually ended up going single file; Isaac in front, me in the middle, and Ethan taking up the back. It took a while, but we finally arrived at the table. Zeke and Asher moved their bags so everyone could sit down. I shared a bench with Miles, Zeke was on the bench to my left. Asher shared across from me with Ethan while Isaac had his own bench.

“What’s with the crush?” I asked, pulling my lunch from my bag.

“That’s your fault,” Asher said, getting his own lunch out. “After you told off Jessica this morning, everyone’s here hoping to see more.”

I rolled my eyes and opened my lunch bag. “That’s not going to happen.”

“We know that, but they don’t.” Isaac said before biting into his sandwich.

We did our best to ignore the crush around us. But every once in a while, someone would try to pass someone else, and one of us would get bumped. I was in the middle of telling them about meeting Laura when someone knocked into Asher again, making him spill water down his shirt. I was fed up.

“Let’s go eat somewhere else, guys. This is ridiculous,” I said.

Everyone agreed and gathered their stuff.

Asher stood up straight and looked over the crowd. He pointed in a direction.

“That’s the fastest way out,” he announced. We all started moving, again single file. Somehow, the crowd had gotten worse. I reached out and grabbed a handful of Ethan’s jacket, trying not to lose them. Ethan reached back, took my hand, his rings biting into my fingers as he kept pulling me through the crowd. When we finally got free, he let go.

“Next time, we need to put her in the middle,” he said to the guys. “We almost lost her in the crowd.”

Everyone looked at me.

“It’s not my fault I’m short,” I told them simply, stepping further away from the crush.

“At least you’ve got the cute thing workin’ for ya,” Isaac said.

“Damn right I do,” I said, my head held high.

The guys were laughing as we started walking down the hall.

“Where are we going?” Ethan asked as he pulled his sandwich from his bag and started eating it.

“How about the library?” Miles suggested.

“We can just walk and eat?” Asher offered.

“Who wants to walk and eat?” Ethan asked.

Four of us raised our hands.

“Majority rules, we walk,” Ethan declared.

I pulled out my water bottle and took a drink.

“So, how did this voting thing start?” I asked, looking down the line as we walked shoulder to shoulder down the mostly empty hallway.

“I think when we were eight,” Isaac answered. “We all kept wanting to do different stuff, and we’d get into fights over It.”

“When we broke a vase at Asher’s, his mom made voting a rule for us.” Zeke shrugged. “We’ve been doing it ever since.”

“Aw, I need to see kid photos of you guys. I bet you all were adorable,” I said, unable to help smiling at them.

To my astonishment, every one of them blushed a bit. Oh, this was going to be fun.

“No, never, not in a million years.” Zeke denied me immediately.

I was so going to find those photos. I snickered. “Oh, I so am.”

“Anyway, what’s the plan for homework tonight?” Asher asked, changing the subject, his cheeks still pink.

“Not my place, Sylvia is still sleeping,” Zeke said. “Miles?”

“Still decorating,” Miles answered. “Asher?”

“Jessica has girls coming over,” Asher said. “Ethan?”

“Not if you actually want to get work done,” Isaac said “Lexie?”

“Tara is very aware that Asher was over there last night, so, she’ll be around,” I warned them. “If you can deal with her?”

Everyone groaned.

“There’s always the county library?” Miles offered.

“I call library,” Isaac said. Everyone agreed.

“Good, because we have a Chemistry test tomorrow, and I’ve had about a day and a half to study for it,” I complained. “Oh, and Algebra and World Civ.”

The guys winced in sympathy.

“Chemistry isn’t bad, it’s a ten-question quiz and they’re the ones from the back of the book,” Miles reassured me.

“What about English?” Asher asked looking down the line at me.

“We’re reading Romeo and Juliet,” I grumbled. “I understand it’s a masterpiece of theater and everything. But please knock me out for that class.” The guys chuckled.

“Wait a minute, I thought all girls liked those tragic love stories?” Isaac asked as we turned down another hall.

“I guess I’m weird.” I shrugged. “I prefer a good happy ending to a story, there are enough tragic ones in real life.”

“That makes sense.” Miles said.

“What’s the training schedule look like this weekend?” Zeke asked. Isaac emptied his water bottle.

“I’ve got training tonight at seven, then Sunday. If any of you are joining me…?” Isaac asked.

“I’ll take Sunday with you,” Zeke said. Isaac nodded.

“I’ll take tonight,” Ethan chimed in. “We just need to get our homework done first.”

We turned another corner and were walking by a group of girls; they were giggling and pointing at us. I ignored it. They were probably checking out the guys.

“I heard she’s already slept with half the football team,” I heard whispered from their group. “What a slut.”

I doubted anyone else heard it, so I ignored it and kept walking. It was clear Jessica was working the gossip mill. But even I thought that was fast.

However, Asher stopped and turned around. The others stopped a second later.

“What?” the others asked, confused as to why he stopped.

Asher looked at me, his eyebrow raised, asking without words if I had heard them.

“I heard,” I told him simply, then started walking again. The guys followed.

“That doesn’t bother you?” Asher asked.

“What did we miss?” Ethan asked, looking down the line at both of us.

“Those girls back there were calling her, well, names,” Asher informed them, his eyes going to Miles.

“They were saying I’m a slut.” I supplied, dropping my trash into a trash can as we walked by.

Zeke cursed under his breath.

“And that doesn’t bother you?” Asher asked, obviously finding it hard to believe.

“I know I’m not a slut, you guys know I’m not a slut.” I shrugged and tried to explain. “Those girls don’t mean anything to me, so why would I care what they think?”

“Those kinds of rumors can bring out some pervy guys,” Zeke warned.

“Then they’ll be really disappointed.” I said, chuckling, my twisted side finding the situation funny. A couple of them chuckled, too. Zeke was frowning. I rolled my eyes as the sixth-period bell rang.

“I’ll see you guys at the library; I’ll see you in seventh period, Asher,” I called over my shoulder. I heard several see you laters.

Gym was normal, except the line for the stalls were so long that I said fuck it and changed by my locker. With my hair down, no one noticed my bruises. Yay, for thick hair! I made sure to stuff some tissues into my pocket before I left the locker room foreseeing a nosebleed coming. I really needed to find a better way to art class. I met up with Asher, and I asked him.

“Is there another way to art class?”

He frowned and shook his head. “Not that I’ve found, and believe me I’ve tried,” he said.

Great. Daily torture. I sighed.

“Have you tried just telling her no?” I asked as we headed down the path.

Asher started rubbing the back of his neck. “I don’t want to be rude.

I rolled my eyes.

“It’s not rude to tell her you’re not interested in doing those activities she wants you to do,” I offered. “If it was me having this problem, would you think I was being rude by just telling some guy that I didn’t want to join some club of his?” I stopped talking; it was up to him how he wanted to deal with Tara. I was just along for the ride.

We headed down the walkway, Asher looking around for Tara, and I looked around for ghost girl. That familiar chill went down my neck, only this time it was like a finger touch running down my skin. The pain hit me hard and fast, driving the air from my lungs and forcing me to stop. Ghost girl was walking down the path toward me, a strange grin on her face. My hand went to my throbbing chest. I glanced to Asher, he hadn’t noticed because he had spotted Tara.

My heart raced as he took a deep breath and started forward again. I followed.

“Please don’t leave me alone with her,” he said out of the corner of his mouth.

My head was pounding as ghost girl followed Tara.

“You got it,” I answered, hiding the pain from my voice. By the time we reached Tara, my stomach was rolling. What the fuck? Had ghost girl been feeding off someone? How did she have this much energy today?

I concentrated on breathing through the pain.

“Asher, hi!” Tara greeted cheerfully. Her eyes darted to me then back to Asher. She began pulling papers out of her binder. “I brought you copies of the plans for homecoming, I would really like your opinion-”

“Tara, I’m sorry, but I’m not going to help with any of this stuff,” Asher told her, surprising me.

I might have looked at him, but I was too busy trying to breathe around the hot burning spike that felt like it was being driven through my chest right over my heart. Ghost girl stood across from me, her memories starting to pour through my head. I saw her death in my mind, my heart grew heavy. The pressure in my face built a second before the first drip on my upper lip. Absently, I reached into my pocket and pulled out my tissues. I put them to my nose, hoping we could go soon.

“I’m just really swamped with football and work right now. Not to mention homework.” Asher was explaining to Tara when ghost girl reached out and touched my neck.

Pain tore through me like lightning, from neck to toes. I glared at her with everything I had. I mouthed no at her. She was pushed back instantly, the nerve pain easing up, allowing me to take a more normal breath again. Ghost girl was pale, her skin shining as if she was sweating. She kept backing up. She had nothing left.

I blinked hard, becoming more aware of what was going on. Tara was glaring at me before she smiled up at Asher.

“Alright, I understand. You’re too busy to help now.” Tara gave him big eyes and a small smile.

Shit, was she going to cry? Oh nope, she was pulling the girl card, looking sweet and hurt.

“Maybe you could help with Winter Formal and Prom next semester?” she asked.

Before he could answer, Asher looked over to me, his brow drew down as he frowned.

“Lexie? Is your nose bleeding again?” he asked, his voice filled with concern. My head still pounding, I nodded. He ran his eyes over me, his face worried. He reached out and took my arm.

“Come on, let’s get you cleaned up.” He gave me a small nudge to get me moving. “I’ll think about next semester, Tara,” he called over his shoulder, his gaze still on me as we passed by girl ghost.

I felt a surge of blood and cursed as I pinched my nose shut. I walked faster, trying to get away so the burning pain in my chest would stop. By the time we turned the corner, my tissues were soaked. Seeing this, Asher pulled his little pack of tissues out of his bag and handed them to me. I added some to my nose. The further away from the dead girl we got, the less my nose bled.

“Seriously Lexie, what’s with your nose?” he asked, still frowning.

I tried to figure an excuse that would explain this.

“It’s kind of a medical thing,” I hedged, checking to see if my nose had stopped bleeding. Thankfully it had.

Once in the class room, I went straight to the sink, Asher one-step behind me.

“What kind of medical thing?” he asked, grabbing a dry paper towel and handing it to me.

“It’s nothing serious. It just gives me nosebleeds and makes me sick once in a while.” Warming up to the lie I was creating, I thought this might just work. Asher frowned at me then backed off the subject as we went to our table.

During the whole hour of class, Asher thankfully seemed to forget about my nosebleed. I tried to help him with his drawing of a vase but he always ended up drawing stick men leaping to their deaths. I eventually gave up.