Chapter One

“Annie! Annie!” I screamed “Let’s go where gonna be late for school”

“Coming, Coming!” She screamed, in that shrill voice of hers. I mean, I love my sister and all but I hate when she uses that tone with me. Ugh. Talk about annoying.

“Annabelle Marie Marks if you don’t come down here right now I –" She descended down the stair in her Annie fashion.

“Ugh you sound like just dad when you say my name like that. God it’s annoying” She said

“Whatever. Let’s go, because as always, were gonna be late”

“ No way is my sister going out that door with me looking like that” she said, looking at me with the look that scared the crap out of me cause that look said ‘I have an idea’ and, to be honest, her ideas weren’t always the brightest or greatest of ideas.

“What? I like what I am wearing” In truth I don’t really like what I was wearing- which was simply jeans, black heels, and an Aeropostale t-shirt; my signature look for the summer -but I have to make the most of it. Right?

“Of course you do” she said, with a tone that was smothered in sarcasm. But I just ignored my half crazed sister. “Now come on and let me get you cleaned up. God your look use to be so cute. What the hell happened?” she asked. I ignored the question

“You are not dressing me up. Again”

“Yes I am. Now stop being a baby and let me do my sisterly duty. Please”

I sighed “Unless you can put some cloths on me in…” I looked at my phone “5 minutes I don’t think so”

“I think I can make that happen” she murmured

“Of course you can” I muttered under my breath to low for her to hear.

We walk up the stairs and there, at the end of the hall to the left, was my room. You could clearly tell which was my room considering it said Katherine, in lavender, across the top of the door. My sister’s room was directly in front of mine, and it read, nice and pink, Annabelle. And of course our younger brothers’ room was next to mine – but thank god there is a gap in between his room and mine because his music gets so loud I can’t even sleep – and it read, in sky blue over the top, William.

I opened the door to my room and inside it looked the same as it had for 17 years except when I was a baby I had a crib in the space were my bed is now. But this is how my room has been, starting on the right side, with one of my bedside tables that has my nerdy glasses there (but I usually wear my contacts), and my bed which is lavender – the color of everything in my room – with black lace trim around the comforter, the bed skirt, and the pillowcases edges, the other bedside table which holds a lamp – also lavender, of course – and a desk against the other side of the wall which holds a computer and books all over it – on the top, on the floor, around the sides, everywhere – and there’s a window, on that same wall where the desk is, which look out to the neighbors house next door, then directly in front of my bed is another window which looks out to the front yard, across from the window is a full length mirror in lavender, next to the mirror is the door to the walk-in closet and next to that door is the door to the bathroom which is exactly where we were heading.

She told me to stay in the bathroom and to not move from there. Which is exactly what I did. I sat in the bathroom waiting. She came back from her room, I presume, with her make-up bag and some clothes and shoes (Since we are twin sisters we are alike in almost every way. This includes being the same size in clothes and shoes). She dressed me up in 2 minutes, did my hair in 1 minute, and did my make-up in another minute. We were walking out the door when she starts talking.

“Oh no you don’t. She exclaimed, “If you think you are walking out that door without looking at yourself in the mirror you are soooo wrong. Come on”

Annie practically hauled me to the mirror just to look at myself. Well that was Annabelle for you. When I got to the mirror I of course had to look at myself but I really looked at myself this time. To tell you the truth I really loved what I was seeing in my reflection.

I looked… I looked… I looked Hot. Me and my sister are identical in almost every way possible, both have the same pale blond hair – except she likes her hair curly with no bangs while I prefer the more straight blond hair with the front bangs look – same height, same skin color (a nice cream-y beige.), same size in shoes and clothes. The only thing that’s different about us is that I have emerald green eyes and she has sapphire colored blue eyes and that we have different size bras. She had a decent B cup while I came out like my mom having a large C cup.

She put me in a off the shoulder lime green shirt which said CHEER! on the front of it with a hot pink tank top under and skinny jeans with lime green pumps – cause we have them in every color possible – with knee high hot pink socks. I love the shirt which is a total surprise cause I usually never wear anything this flashy but I love it because it’s totally not… me – Annie’s sense of fashion is more bright and flamboyant while mine is more sexy but sweet, as people have pointed out in the past. The pumps are so high that instead of my short 5’6 I look like a 5’9 which I love because me and my sister are the shortest ones in the family and we also, kind of, get tired of it. Then she got in the mirror next to me and my self-esteem dropped 10 notches.

We are identical twins, yes, but Annabelle and I couldn’t be more different. She’s always been hot pink and lime green and I have always been lavender and black. She’s carefree, fun, and wild, but is quiet and nice most of the time. She doesn’t have a mean bone in her body – I mean seriously, Annie is never mean to anyone. She loves every one of her family members especially me (so she says) and her friends. Always has a happy spirit and aura around her. I can tell. While I am responsible, and careful, but never quite always loud in comparison to Annie – the only times you see me acting out of the norm is when I go with Annie to parties and get majorly drunk.

But something everyone that knows me will tell you – except Annie of course who thinks I am super nice and caring and sweet –is that I can be the biggest, coldest, hardest bitch you’ll ever meet. I have the worst temper when you get on my bad side. I am usually on good behavior with my friends and family, but then there’s always that one person that presses my buttons at the wrong times – which a lot of people tend to do – and all hell breaks loose. This only happens when I am in a foul mood which, thankfully, didn’t happen a lot over the summer. But other than my bitchiness and the temper I have sometimes, I just stay in my house listening to music – which can get very loud – or reading books until we get invited to the crazy party’s people throw. One of the only things, personality wise, that we have in common is our love for fashion – which I abandon a lot over the summer choosing to wear shorts or jeans with heels and a t-shirt since I only went out of the house when necessary or when going to party’s at peoples house’s, where everyone was either in a t-shirt and shorts or in a pair of jeans – never anything dressy during the summer. But I am going to be going to school now so I need to show off my fashion sense, I thought, and what a great way to start the first day, with this fabulous outfit Annie got me.

Annabelle was wearing the same exact thing I was except the puffy off the shoulder shirt was deep purple and the tank top was lavender the knee high socks were lavender too and the pumps were also a real deep purple. The pumps were the same as mine just in a different color so they also made her look as tall as me.

“So what do you think? Do u like it or loovee it.” Annabelle said emphasizing the love part

“I really love it Belle” I only called her Belle when I was with her alone and we were having a special moment.

“Yeah! I knew you would” she exclaimed

“Ok well since I already saw myself in the mirror can we go now cause we are seriously gonna be late” I said

“Fine. I guess I don’t want to be late either”

“Ok then let’s go”

We ran downstairs and turned left into the kitchen to get our lunches from Aunt Maggie. She really isn’t our aunt she is like our cleaning/cooking lady. She has been with us for more than 12 years. But we all love her so much. She is like a part of the family to us.

“Good Morning Aunt Maggie” I said, jumping on the island that’s in the middle of the kitchen while grabbing an apple that was next to me in a bowl and taking a bite from it. Annie saw what I did and copied me by jumping up on the island next to me and grabbing the other apple in the bowl and also taking a bite from hers.

“Children, children how many times have I told you not to jump on the island. Counters are for food not for sitting.” She said, with the softest of British accents. Since she lived most of her life in England and only moved over to America over 15 years ago, she still has somewhat of an accent but now it’s so faint you can barely tell.

I jumped off the island and Annie followed suit. Aunt Maggie looked me over when I was on the floor and I guess she could already tell that I had let Annie give me one of her special make over’s (Annie did this a lot over the summer when she got bored or when she noticed my lack in style – which, like I said, happened a lot during the summer - so Aunt Maggie got kind of use to seeing me dressed like this and knew when not to ask question about it.) went into the refrigerator to get our lunches for school.

“Ok. So here are your lunches for school, darlings. You know how I feel about you children eating those atrocious lunches at that school of yours.”

“Yes we know how you feel about all of us eating those lunches Aunt Maggie.” I said, took a bite of my apple again and looked around for some familiar faces that obviously weren’t there. “Um… were are Willy and dad?” I asked

She started chopping something on the cutting board when she finally answered me. “Well your father had to go to leave early this morning for a business trip. He told me to tell you guys that he’ll be back by Tuesday of next week. And William left to school with some friends of his. You know Jake and the others he hangs out with” She finished chopping whatever it was that she was chopping and moved onto the stove to turn it on and start sautéing what she had chopped.

“Why is he leaving for such a long stretch of time? And where is he going?” I asked. He had a very complex job and he traveled a lot, but he had never left for an entire week – 3 days, tops.

“Well he said that the reason he is leaving for so long is because he is has to leave here twice in the next 2 weeks and he doesn’t want to do that so he put the two trips together. Oh and he’s going to Arizona and Las Vegas, love.”

I took another bite of my apple. “Oh ok. I guess I’ll see Willy after school then.” I looked at my phone again. “Oh my gosh Annie were gonna be late. Its 7:21 and we have to be in school by 7:30. Let’s go” I grabbed my purse/book bag, (I don’t really have a lot of books to put in a book bag because it is the first day of senior year so I just brought a big purse) Annie grabbed her bag, threw the apple core in the trash, – Annie did the same – gave Aunt Maggie her kiss on the cheek, got my favorite cardigan ( My favorite because I saw it in the mall and feel in love with it because its covers me up, its black, and majorly cute because it’s the modern ones with the long sleeves and the front that’s longer than the back.) and Annie’s, and ran out the door with her right behind me.

I looked up at the sky when I got outside and started smiling. It was one of those unusually sunny days here in Seattle, Washington. This, of course, made my day because when you live in a place were 9 out of the 12 months is covered in rain, you tend to encourage any form light that will enhance my already nice cream-y color. Huh, I thought, looks like I won’t need my sweater after all.

When I walked down the porch steps and saw my baby I had to stop a second to admire it. I don’t mean an actual baby. I mean my car. It’s a Volvo XC60. Dad gave it to all three of us as a late graduation present (late because we got it in the middle of the summer) for us to use for any emergencies. Like, let’s say, picking up Annie drunk from those wild parties she ends up going to. But now it’s mostly going to be for driving us all to and from school.

The car is for all of us but I, really, am the only one who drives it. Mostly because William at the present moment doesn’t have his license to drive by himself. Annie, on the other hand, does but she claims she is terrified of being behind the wheel and will never drive again only because the first time she went out driving by herself she almost ran over a duck that was on the street and almost got in an accident. She can be such a baby sometimes but whatever excuse lets me keep this car forever then I am all for it.

I hoped into the driver’s seat, started the car, and put it in drive. About a mile out into the road, I noticed immediately that something was wrong. Not with the car, thank heavens for that, but with Annabelle. Annie just didn’t seem like her normal talk-about-anything-and-everything self much once she had gotten in the car which is strange cause she talks more in the car so I won’t put on the radio (she had the radio on the day of the almost accident and she thinks it’s a distraction to anyone who has it on while driving.) and now she was just staring out the window with a blank expression on her face.

So I turned on the radio to see if I can get a reaction from her. Nothing.

I sighed and turned it off; I didn’t have quite a tolerance for it either, and turned to her as best I could without taking my eyes off the road.

“Is everything alright Annabelle?” I whispered. I only ever called her Annabelle when it was something serious or if I wanted her attention. In this case it was both. It worked and she eventually turned.

“Yes everything is fine Katherine. Don’t worry about it.” She answered.

Uh-oh.You know something awful has happened when your normally perky sister who has a pet name for just about everyone and everything calls you by your full name. Ugh I hated when she did that.

“Well a girl kinda gets worried when her always happy ‘sis, well, just isn’t so happy all of a sudden. Is something wrong Annie?”

“Well, like I said before, don’t worry about anything. Nothing is wrong ok. I just have nothing to talk about” She stopped looking at me and turned from me to look straight ahead with the same blank expression on her face.

I scuffed and I saw the glare she gave me from the corner of my eye “You always have something to say. Since when do you have nothing to say” I turned my face to look at her quickly then I turned my attention back to the road. She was still glaring at me so I took that as a sigh to continue speaking since she obviously wasn’t going to forgive me yet. “And since when are you so hostile to me, your sister, your best friend. Come on Annie talk to me about something. Please Belle.” I tried the pet name I only used to see if it would soften her up.

It worked. She stopped glaring and her expression softened. She stopped looking ahead and looked at me instead.

“Look Katie I’m not being hostile I just have a lot on my mind…and I just don’t feel like talking” Annie whispered to me. Yeah because that answer just isn’t begging for more details.

But I’m not going to ask for details because if she wants to keep something to herself, I’m not going to be a snoop and bombard her with questions of mine. Yeah we’re twins and all but we do have things we keep from each other and things we share. And if she wants to keep something to herself now then so be it.

So instead of the questioning I just put on a neutral expression and said “oh ok” and let it go.

We got to school 4 minutes before the bell rang for first hour and I found a nice parking space all the way to the left of the school but close to the front which was okay with me.

This part of town is a little nicer than others (so I’ve noticed) so it’s normal to see a BMW or a Porsche in the school parking lot. Or in my case a shiny new Volvo.

I hopped out of the car and looked up at my school. The school is, in fact, very tall – 3 floors – and very wide –the school is so big it looks like there are 2 building instead of a building – and started toward the office with Annie to get our schedule, when she stiffens at my side.

“What’s wrong Annie?” I asked while I asked her I was scanning the school and found the answer to my question but she answered anyway.

“It’s Erik over there” she pointed at the front of the school towards the right side of the building. “Oh my god and look who’s over there making out with him. It’s Roxanna Welter. I never liked that girl”

Erik is Annie’s ex. They went out for like 6 months and then he broke up with her for no reason. He claims it was because Annie was too good for him and he didn’t deserve her. He was right. He didn’t deserve her. I always thought she could do better but I never hated him until he broke her heart. We both knew the real reason he broke up with Annie. It was, in fact, the girl he was making out with publicly; Roxanna Welter. Annie and Erik were fine as a couple – Annie the head cheerleader, of course, and Erik a lineman for the football team – but when Roxanna made it to the cheerleading team last year, when they had try outs, she totally wanted him for herself. 2 weeks after she made it to the cheerleading team he was braking up with Annie for Roxanne. Ugh what a douche that guy is.

“Just ignore them. Walk by them, if you have to, with your head held high. It shouldn’t matter to you anymore. That was last year’s news.”

“Your right it doesn’t matter to me anymore and it was last year’s new. I am over it already. Let’s go get our schedules from the office because if we don’t get there soon well be late for our first hour.”

“Look who doesn’t want to be late now” I said

She rolled her eyes “Whatever. Let’s go.”

We walked passed them together and when we were already in the building I turned to look at Annie. She had her held high and her shoulder back with a smile on her face but it didn’t reach her eyes. I could tell that seeing them there making out had affected her more than she lead on.

“Are you alright?” I asked quietly

“Yep. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Oh I don’t know maybe because you just saw your ex and some skank sucking each other’s lips off” I answered

She stopped in the middle of the hall and pulled me to the side and whispered “Look Katherine there isn’t a problem here. I’m fine ok it didn’t affect me as much as I thought it would. I am over him ok.” She looked me in the eye while she said these words and her expression never wavered so I knew she was saying the truth. It is so easy to tell when Annie is lying because she never looks me in the eye when she is lying and if she does look me in the eye she’ll start to laugh (one thing we have in common: it’s easy to tell when I am lying too because I do the same things.). So I know she means what she’s saying here.

“Ok then I believe you.” I looked at my watch 7:28 “Let’s go” I started pulling her through the halls. We reached the Main Office got our schedules from Mrs. Delucus and ran through the halls again to get to our first hour (which me and Annie have together) which happens to be English. It’s not that I love English, because I don’t, it’s just that I understand English because I am always reading so I end up being really good at that class. Annie, on the other hand, hated English – I always had to tutor her because if not she would fail – so when she saw where we were headed she groaned.

“I hate this class” she complained

“Annie how can you say that? You haven’t even been in there yet.”

“I haven’t but English is English whether it’s in junior year or senior year. It’s all the same to me, Katie. I still hate it”

At that moment we stopped walking because we were already in front of the door to the class. I turned to Annabelle.

“Behave” I hissed

She complied

We walked into the room and I was relieved to see there were still seats empty and the kids were still whispering to each other. That’s a good sigh. Means were not as late as we thought.

We took to available seats towards the back and waited for class to start.

While I waited I decided to look at my schedule. Annabelle did the same – she is technically older than me by, like, 3 minutes but she usually followed my footsteps mostly because I am a better influence – and I saw my schedule almost matched Annie.

It only almost matched because we had everything together except fourth hour and sixth hour – here, in this school, instead of calling it fourth period we called it fourth hour or sixth hour; I think it weird but whatever floats there boat I’m fine with .

The class passed by quickly so we were off to second hour. French. It wasn’t my first choice but it was Annabelle’s because she said ‘If we don’t get a lot of classes together at least you could hope we have those two together and because this way we can totally like learn French and go on that backpacking-across-Europe trip we have been dying to go to. And this way it will be like an end of high school trip’.

In truth I hadn’t been dying to go; she had, ever since freshman year but we just couldn’t do it then so she thinks now we can just learn French for one year and be good enough to talk to the people over there so we can go. Now she has gone crazy because first of all it is really hard to be an expert in French in one year and second I don’t even want to go backpacking across Europe, or take the French class. But she had said that if we toke French together she would let me pick the other elective. I choose piano because I really wanted to play when I was little but never asked for lessons so I thought why not now and also cause Annie doesn’t really like that class very much and I thought that just might be a little bonus for me.

French went by kind of fast and then it was time for math class. This year it was Calculus which I thought was better than last year – we had Trigonometry – until I walked in the room. The teacher, Mr. Collins, was so lame because instead of talking about what the class was going to be about this year he decided to just skip all that stuff and start class by writing problems on the board and asking who knew the answer. Of course nobody did so he started calling kids out and asking for the answer. He called on me once and I didn’t have the right answer and I thought I was going to crap my pants because of the look he gave me when I said the wrong answer.

But eventually that class passed by too and I said goodbye to Annie and we split of in different directions.

I was walking towards my fourth when I realized something.

This was a class I hated every year I got it and this year I wasn’t going to have Annabelle with me.

Gym. Ugh I hated that class.

Okay that is somewhat of a lie because I don’t hate the whole class. I don’t hate to do warm ups – sit ups, scouts’, pushups, ect – or track when we have to do it (though I sometimes I get a little sweaty). I just hated the sports the coach, Coach Duke, made us do. Basket, volleyball, tennis. Ugh. I hated it all.

But Annie had always been good at the athletic stuff so she had always been there for me, ever since the 8th grade when I developed the need to be helped, to block the pass or to not let myself be hit by rackets or catch me when I fell. Now she wasn’t here to do any of that.

I realized that when I had found this out that I had stopped walking so I started walking again.

I didn’t just hate sports for no reason. I wasn’t that unjust. I hated sports because I was severely uncoordinated for it. I hated how people reacted to my clumsiness whenever we played anything in gym. I hated, now more than ever, that my sister wasn’t by my side to walk with me through these gym doors that were right in front of me.

I took a deep breath and went inside to take a look at what was going to be my personal hell on earth this year.

My heels hit the hard wood floors with a loud clack and everyone in their seats, on the bleachers turned to look. Even the teacher.

That’s when I realized that the little epiphany I had had in the hall hadn’t been so little if I had been late to gym. It hadn’t and I was.

Fortunately the coach, Coach Duke, was the same the one from past years so he knew my coordination problems when it came to sports.

He turned to me and said “Nice of you to join us, Miss Marks”

“Hi Coach Duke,”

“Why don’t you take seat?” he asked

I nodded and look out at the bleachers to find an empty seat. I decided to sit all the way at the top of the bleachers next to a girl that was obviously new because she looked like nothing I had seen before.

She had pale blonde shoulder-length hair that was covered in curls. She had her head down so I couldn’t see her face but I could tell that her hair was so curly that it would have covered her face even if she would have had her head up.

When I took the seat next to her I could see what she was wearing. It was very ordinary but from the way she was seated – almost curling into herself – I could tell it was all her. She had on a white long sleeved button down shirt that was tucked in to a pair of old blue jeans she had on with a pair of blue Converse.

Since she looked the way she looked and was new here I could guess that a lot of people had not talked to her today. That’s rude, I though, even if she’s shy – which I can obviously tell she is – people should make the effort to talk to her.

I made the effort.

“Hi” She looked up (I finally saw her face. Just like I guessed, her hair was almost completely covering her face but you could still see how pretty she was. She had black rimmed glasses – sort of like the ones I have at home except my have little diamonds in the corners – but it couldn’t cover the unusual color of her eyes. It looked like violet colored eyes with a hint of blue around the edges. She obviously didn’t wear make-up but had very clear creamy-colored skin, like me and Annie. It made her look very pretty overall) but said nothing. I took that as my queue to continued talking. “I’m Katherine and you are…” I prompted

“I’m Sapphire.” She sighed and I was abruptly confused.

Why would she sigh? Did she not want to talk to me? Did she hate having to be here at this school? Did she not want to even try to make new friends? Did she want to make friends with anyone but me?

I guess she saw something in my face because she continued speaking as if she knew that the sigh had offended me.

“I didn’t mean to sigh it’s just my name is so…” She paused as if to think of a good way to express her thoughts on her name. She got frustrated “Well to make this simple I don’t like my name.”

“Oh” It was a stupid answer. I knew that but it was the only thing I could think of. “Well I don’t know why you don’t like it. It very pretty and unique and I know why it was given to you.”

“Unique” She scuffed and then realized something. “What do you mean you know why my parents gave me this name?” She asked

“Well your eyes there like violet with some blue around the edges. It looks like a sapphire so I can see why they named you that”

“Oh. I guess I never thought of it that way. Thanks. Oh and you can call me Sapphi, if you wish” She looked over at me again with those violet eyes of hers “Oh and your name isn’t half bad either. It has a nice ring to it. Katherine” she smiled

I knew she was trying to be nice but it still made me feel better. No one ever compliments my name. It is just so 1800s because it is from the 1800s. But I can’t blame my mom for choosing this name because it’s better than Alicabella. That’s what she was going to name me right before some friend of hers suggested Katherine. I will be eternally grateful to that friend of hers.

My mother had an obsession (Or so I heard from Aunt Maggie. Mom never told me any of this.) with long names. Aunt Maggie said it was because her mother gave her a short name – Ann – and she loved her name but wished it weren’t as short as it was. So she decided to give her kids long names. When she found out she was having twin girls she was ecstatic. She knew that her first daughter was going to be named Annabelle because she loved her name for her daughter but wanted it extended. Then she said her second daughter would either be named Alice or Isabella. She liked them both so she decided to put them together and see what she got. She came up with Alicabella and she liked it but still didn’t love. So when her friend gave her the name Katherine she fell in love with it and named me that.

This class passed fairly quickly also – though I did not appreciate when Coach Duke said we would be starting Basketball tomorrow – and when the bell rang and I saw Sapphi putting her thing into her bag, I thought I would do something nice for her.

“Hey, um, Sapphi” I said using her nickname. She turned from her packing and looked over at me. “Do you wanna sit with me and my sister and her friends at lunch today? I mean I know you probably have other friends and maybe you don’t want to sit with us but I mean my sister isn’t really that bad and you get use to her friends after a while” I smiled

She smiled back “I don’t have any friends here so I would love to, Katherine”

“You can call me Kat, if you’d like”

She nodded and I smiled, happy that I had actually made a new friend.

Chapter Two

We got up and started walking towards the cafeteria, which is a long way from the gym.

“So you have a sister?” Sapphie asked

“Yes. A twin sister in fact” She turned on me and had a shocked expression all over her face.

“You mean like she looks like you and all that?” She asked

I nodded

“And she has the same hair color as you and your height and your same eye color, too?” she asked again, now with an even more shocked expression on her face.

I nodded again but corrected her “Well we don’t have the some eye color” I stopped in the middle of the hallway to show her my eyes. She stopped when I stopped and looked at my eye that I pointed at with my index finger. “See I have green eyes but my sister has blue eyes and were not like those stupid twins you see on TV who wear the same shoes and cloths and stuff. We have super different personalities but you’ll notice it more once you hang out with us” We had started walking again but I saw from my periphery that she smiled at this and I smiled to at knowing that I had found a new friend.

“And her friends…” she prompted

“Well I guess there my friends too since I always hang out with my sister and she hangs out with them most of the time but I really only ever talk to them at lunch and there really not half bad once you get to know them.” I said

They really weren’t that bad. I mean Lisa has her problems and so does Heidi but since they are like inseparable – like twins except they look nothing alike – they usually have the same problems. They liked Annie more than me since they met her first and got to know her better then they got to know me but they talk to me too. The only one that I really think likes me is Netti. It’s short for Netticia but its Spanish and long so we just call her Netti. She is technically ‘new’ to the ‘group’ but I like her the best – more like I can tolerate her problems more than I can the problems that Lisa and Heidi have. That’s for Annie to deal with – so I talk to her a lot more.

We were walking into the cafeteria at that point and I saw Sapphi walking toward the lunch line. She looked back when she noticed I wasn’t beside her.

“You aren’t getting lunch?” She asked looking somewhat confused

I pulled out my lunch from my bag as evidence and pulled it up to her face “Naw, I don’t eat cafeteria food. But u can go ahead and get your lunch and meet me at the table near the windows all the way to the back. Okay?”

She nodded and walked towards the lunch line while I started towards the table near the windows all the way at the back.

Since Annie was the head cheerleader she was suppose to sit with the other cheerleaders at their table but she claims she doesn’t like to sit with the stupid and snotty and would much rather sit with me and, had said to the whole table when they hadn’t allowed me to sit with them cause at the time I wasn’t a cheerleader, that whoever wanted to sit with her could get up and leave with me and her. Only Lisa and Heidi went after her because they were on the team but didn’t like the stupid and snotty, either. Netti became friend with them shortly after my sister moved tables’ sophomore year and we have been sitting there ever since.

I joined the squad last year when they held auditions because my sister had encouraged me and had said it would be fun and I had thought of it as some joke. Well do to my excellent flexibility skills I got from gymnastics, the only other sport, besides cheerleading, – but I don’t really count that as much of a sport – that didn’t make me fall flat on my face, I got in the quad. As soon as I heard the news I was going to quit but then I started doing some of the routines and I didn’t, immediately, fall on my face so I decided to stay on the squad and do it as more of a challenge, a quest of sorts. After a while of doing it I learned it was kind of fun and not as superficial as everyone thinks. Even after I joined the squad Annie, Lisa, Heidi, and Netti did not go back to the table and I wouldn’t have gone over there even if they had left.

I took my seat next to Annie in the round table and pulled out everything from my lunch bag.

Aunt Maggie has given us the same lunch for about 6 years. A sandwich, a granny smith apple, a Pepsi, and a bag of chips.

Annie prefers to share her lunch with Lisa and Heidi so she doesn’t eat much of it. The only thing she doesn’t share is her Pepsi which she drinks all by herself

As soon as I took everything out of the bag I turned to Lisa and Heidi who were now munching on Annie’s potato chips.

“Look guys I brought someone to eat lunch with us today. She’s new to the school and I meet her in gym. She’s … different so be nice” I said while turning my head from Lisa to Heidi.

They looked confused so Netti answered “And where is this friend of yours” she said looking around the cafeteria.

I looked diagonally towards the lunch line and pointed right at Sapphi.

“She’s right over at the lunch line getting food.”

Netti looked pleased at the mention Sapphi in the lunch line.

“Oh good. Finally someone who has to eat the caf food.” Nettie said with a smile on her face and giving Lisa and Heidi the evil eye. They didn’t notice.

The cafeteria food is disgusting. But there are a few unfortunate people, like Netti, who have to eat the food. She is the only one at the table who eats the caf food. Annie and I bring bagged lunches and Lisa and Heidi don’t eat anything and then Lisa and Heidi tease her about it –which is why Netti was giving them the evil eye. So now I can see that she’s probably real happy that at least someone else has to suffer the caf food with her at this table.

“I said she was getting the caf food not that she was actually planning on eating it.” I chuckled

“Either way another tray at the table”

Sapphi arrived at the table at that moment. She put her tray on the table and took the seat next to me.

“Hi Sapphi,” I said with a smile on my face and pointed to my sister next to me “This is my sister, Annabelle. Annabelle say hi to Sapphire.”

Annabelle turned her head to look at Sapphi and put a smile on her face but I could see it was forced. I hope Sapphi didn’t think anything of her fake smile.

“Hello Sapphire my name, as you can tell is Annabelle but you can call me Annie or Anna.”

And like me she couldn’t help look into Sapphire’s eyes and notice the odd combination of violet with a hint of blue around the edges.

“Hi Anna you can call me Sapphi”

Then I turned Sapphire to look at Lisa and Heidi.

“Sapphi this is Lisa and Heidi”

“Hey” they both said at the same time.

“Hi Lisa and Heidi. It’s nice to meet you both”

They smiled

I turned to Sapphi. “If Annie and I weren’t already the twins in the group, you know the actual twins, and then Lisa and Heidi would be the theoretical twins. Theoretical only because they act the same but don’t look the same.” she snickered

Its true they look totally different. All three of them do actually. Lisa has straight, chin length blond hair with those front bangs that we both share and the same emerald green eyes. On the other had Heidi has long wavy red hair and black eyes. The black eyes matched better with her original hair color – it was black. But she said that black and black made her look to gothic and that gothic cheerleaders were out of style. Whatever. And then there’s Netti with her Spanish looks. She is half-Mexican so she has the usual brown hair and brown eyes thing. The only thing that they all have in common is there ivory-colored skin – almost translucent looking.

Then I turned her to Netti but Netti was two steps ahead of me.

“Hi my name is Netticia but its Spanish, long, and boring so you can call me Netti and, since this is a really small table and word travels, you must be Sapphire but we can all call you Sapphi. Am I right Sapphi?” she smiled at Sapphi. Netti likes to get to the point and likes to do it herself. She has lots of character.

Sapphi looked stunned. At one point, I thought she was seriously going to run for the hills.

But then she snapped out of it and answered with a simple yes and then put on the worst smile I have ever seen.

And then Lisa and Heidi, because they have the best timing ever, started babbling to me and Annie about something. I just nodded when I needed to, let Annie answer for me, and started eating my sandwich.

I was already done with the sandwich and the chips when Lisa looked over at me.

“So have you seen the new history teacher?” she asked

I took a sip of Pepsi and answered her.

“No. I don’t have history till sixth hour. Why? Is there something wrong with her?”

“He’s not a she. He’s a he and he is a freaking god, man.” Heidi answered

“She’s right. This guy is the shit. He’s extremely hot. I mean seriously, I could see his muscles flex every time he wrote on the chalk board.” Netti said, with this weird look in her eyes. If Nettie – a girl who, unlike Lisa and Heidi, doesn’t throw herself at every hot guy she meets – was cursing over a guy’s hotness and was drooling over him then he must really be extremely hot.

“That’s true. His muscles were perfect.” Lisa said

“A gods muscles.” Heidi said

They both had the same look on their faces that Netti had when she was talking about him. It’s strange because it almost looked like they were all under a weird trance-like-state just by the mention of this guy’s muscles.

I took another sip from my Pepsi “Wait, wait, wait. How do you know when there a gods muscles, Heidi?” I asked a little amused. She was just so damn stupid (another thing Lisa and Heidi share, except that Lisa is a little smarter than Heidi. But not by a lot because they both need to be tutored to pass all of their classes. Usually it’s Netti doing all the tutoring.). And I mean that in the most none offensive way possible, of course.

Heidi grabbed Annie’s apple that was on the table, took a bite and looked me in the eye with an unusual seriousness lurking in the black depths of her eyes. “You just know, Kat. You just know.” Lisa and Heidi were the only ones who called me Kat – they like to make nicknames out of nicknames. She took another bite of the apple, chewed, swallowed, and then grinned at me with full force which is just like her but now it just didn’t feel the same. There was something weird about her grin this time. But I laughed anyway because it was just so typical Heidi and Lisa to be territorial about a guy that is not and never will be theirs. It was normal behavior for Heidi and Lisa … just with a little more intensity than usual.

I looked over at Sapphi and she was having a conversation with Netti about where she was from, what her parents did, and why they all moved here.

I tuned out of it. I’ll just ask her later.

I turned back to Lisa and Heidi and they were asking Annie if she has a class with the teacher. But she wasn’t paying attention.

“Anns, look at me” Lisa waved her hand in front of Annie’s blank face that was just staring over Lisa’s head.

Annie looked down at Lisa with confusion all over her expression.

“What did you say, Liz. Sorry I wasn’t paying attention.” Annie said with apologetic eyes. But behind that I saw something behind that, in her eyes, that made it clear something was bothering her.

I was about to ask, when Lisa starts talking.

“Yeah I noticed,” she said “But what I asked was if you had Mr. Night for History?”

“Umm … yeah I had him for fourth hour.” she answered still a little out of it to be able to give Lisa her full attention.

Lisa and Heidi, simultaneously, pounced on Annie as best they could taking into consideration the distance of the table that was in front of them.

“Oh my god! Isn’t he just the most god-like thing you have ever seen in your life?” Heidi said

Annie didn’t know how to answer that. “Umm …”

“And did you see his face it was sexy shit.” Lisa said

“Umm … yeah I guess,” Annie said to Lisa and Heidi. They both tilted there head to the side and had confusion written all over their faces. That’s means: why are you not giving us details.

“Well… umm… during class he looked over at my desk a couple times.” Annie said without much enthusing.

Lisa and Heidi’s eyes almost popped out of their sockets. Even Netti, who was still talking to Sapphi, looked over at Annie to hear what she had to say.

“Oh my god! You have to give us the details!” Heidi said, super excited now that he was getting some sort of reaction about their god-like guy.

I rolled my eyes but nobody noticed.

“Wait. Are you sure he was looking at you?” Lisa asked a little suspiciously but still more than curious.

“Well when he gave us all that state test – you know the one we have to do at the beginning of every year – I would look up at him sometimes because, you know, he’s incredibly gorgeous and he would be staring at me but when I caught him he would automatically look down at his desk.” Annie said her expression turning from blank to curious. As if she were wondering why he was staring at her in the first place.

I was appalled.

I turned to Annie

“Are you serious? A test on the first day of school. Aren’t the teachers supposed to give those out two weeks after school starts?” As if my day couldn’t get any worse.

Lisa and Heidi gave me a look and sshhed me.

I decided to ignore them. I mean, after all they were all in love with a guy who they could never get. I almost felt bad for them. Almost.

They turned back to Annie. Everyone at the table was looking at Annie now – even Sapphi. But when I looked from Sapphi to Netti to Heidi and finally to Lisa, there expressions were all different. Sapphi was genuinely curious about what happened to Annie in history. On the other hand Lisa and Heidi had a profound amount of jealously deep within their eyes. It was thankfully covered by the curiosity that was on their faces. I looked at Netti and she had the same jealous edge as Lisa and Heidi though it was better hidden in the depths of her brown eyes then it was in Lisa or Heidi’s eyes. What the hell is wrong with you people? You’re never going to get him so why are you all jealous, I thought

Before Lisa or Heidi could bombard her with more questions she just didn’t want to answer Annie spoke up.

“Umm … guys I have some bad news.” Annie said look down at the table.

“What?” Heidi asked a little confused.

“Well … Mr. Night is married.”

Chapter Three

“What!” Lisa and Heidi said at the same time. Everyone at the table had their mouth hanging open – including me.

I was the first one at the table to snap of the surprise, so I decided to speak up. “Are you sure, Annie?”

“Yeah I’m pretty sure he’s married, Kat, because when he came to my table to pick up my test he reached for it with his left hand and there was a ring on it.”

“Oh. I guess I never really noticed that he wore a wedding band.” Lisa said a little disappointed. Because really who’s going to check a guy’s left hand to see if he’s married, when they can just look at his god-like muscles.

I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes again. I tended to do that a lot when I was with Lisa and Heidi.

Heidi wanted to get the depressing conversation out of her head, so she turned to Sapphi. “So Sapphs,” Heidi said, yet again making a nickname out of a nickname, “Did you have Mr. Night for History?”

Sapphi seemed to be a little uncomfortable under the spot light.

I smiled at her.

“No I haven’t had him yet. I have him for sixth hour with Kat, actually.” She said, smiling over at me.

That’s when it happened.

I felt Annie’s low, intake of breath as she suddenly stiffened next to me, in her chair. I turned to her and saw her expression.

It was one I dreaded but new oh so well. She had her face twisted in a mix showing of confusion and fear and pain and despair. They were all the usual sighs that something bad was happening.

But then just as I was going to start to panic, I looked deeply into her eyes and saw something that made me stop, because underneath all of the confusion and fear and pain and despair there was a look of blankness. How strange, I thought, Annie never has that look on her face once she knows what happened.

We stared at each other for a good 5 seconds before I gave her one sharp nod and then turned to everyone at the table.

Of course Lisa, Heidi, and Netti were all use to the silent, twin sister exchanges Annie and I shared on a regular basis. That why I didn’t always feel obligated to excused myself when I wanted to talk to her privately. But this was a different case scenario so I kind felt the need to excuse ourselves.

“Umm … you guys, I have to go to the bathroom and Annie has to go too. We’ll be right back. It’ll only take a second.” My voice sort of crack over the last lines but I had a smile on my face which, hopefully, distracted from my voice.

Apparently it didn’t because Sapphi looked concerned.

“Are you guys alright?” she asked, worry crossing over ever one of her features.

Annie was the one who put on a smile this time – a better one than mine – and answered Sapphi’s concern.

“Yeah were fine. We just have to go freshen up.” With that she push her chair back, picked her tote bag of the floor and looked down at me.

I got up, picking my bag up of the floor too and started walking towards the bathrooms with Annie right next to me. As we were making our way through the caf I kept looking around for a familiar face.

And there, all the way across from the table we were just at, was William laughing at something one of his friends, Jason, was saying. When I got his attention he looked from Annie to me and stopped laughing. I guess he can tell when something is wrong, I thought, because something is definitely wrong. He said something to Jason, got up, and starting walking with us towards the bathrooms.

When we reached the bathrooms, I turned to Willy.

“Let me make sure nobody’s in there first.” I said

He nodded and Annie and I went inside the bathroom.

There were, indeed, 2 girls in the bathroom. One of them was facing the mirror, on the other side of the bathroom, and putting on mascara. She had her make-up bag on the table below the wall length mirror. The other girl was washing her hands and looking at herself in the smaller mirror above the sink.

So to get them out I did the only thing I could think of. I screamed.

“Senior Privilege! Get out of the bathroom. Now!” The girl washing her hands got out there so fast she was a blur. The one putting on mascara blinked, smudging it, and grabbed her make-up bag, stuck it in her book bag and left, too.

Since Annie is very popular at this school she gains a lot of power and respect, but since she is nice, sweet, Annie she doesn’t know how to use it to her advantage. So since I am Katherine, the nice but sometimes bitchy twin sister, I use the power and respect she gets because she doesn’t know how to use it. That’s why those girls ran out of there so fast. They know who we are.

When the two girls left Willy came in looking extremely tall– he’s almost six feet – and with a look in his dark blue eyes that shocked me. He almost looked the same as Annie had back at the table. Not the same pain and confusion and fear and despair as her. No never that, but there was the same blankness.

But before I could ask him anything he was in Annie’s face.

“Annabelle what is it? What did you see?” He asked her

We both knew what he was talking about. He wasn’t asking her what she was looking at; he was asking what she’s seeing in the vision.

Annie is… special. She can see when bad things are going to happen. The vision occurs a few minutes before the actual disaster. We know because we have seen it happen. More than once.

When Annabelle and I were 7 our mother died in a car crash. The night of the accident I was downstairs with Willy, who was 5 at the time, and Aunt Maggie, who had been working as our nanny, at the house for about a month. It was summer so taking care of all three of us was a full time job. Annie had been upstairs in her room – she use to be super shy when she was a little girl. Dad had been upstairs in his study. We had all been doing our thing around the house, waiting for mom to arrive.

She worked at a firm and was staying late, again. She loved her work. Don’t get me wrong, she loved us – I can remember that so clearly, how she tucked us all in at night, how she would look at Willy when he said something silly, how every smile we gave her made her smile back or sometime laugh if we were being funny, or how she would play with us in the yard sometimes if it was sunny – but there was something about her work that always brought her peace, even on the most stressful of days. She always came home tired but mostly happy and serene so she was always willing to play with us, if only for a little while, until she would start making dinner, and then we would all be together eating at the dinner table. But lately, as in the last couple of weeks, she had started staying at work later and later until she wouldn’t come home until 6 or 7 p.m. It worried all of us, but mostly dad.

That night she had stayed at the firm till 7:30, which was the latest she had ever stayed. She had called dad from the firm saying she was leaving and would be home in 20 minutes. It was exactly 7:42 when, from upstairs, I heard Annie scream.

It wasn’t a scream of terror, like the ones you get from seeing a spider or a cockroach in your room, it was a scream of pain, pure agonizing pain, like the ones you have when your being run over by a trunk, dumped in a bath of acid, and having your bones cracked and broken, all at the same time. It was so astonishing and painful to just hear it come out of her mouth that I started to cry.

As soon I heard her scream I ran up to her room. When I got there I saw her on the floor, next to her bed, with her knees to her chest, rocking back and forth. I remember the look of terror and pain on her face, but most of all I remember her calling out for my mom.

“No mommy! No mommy! You can’t do this. Why now. Why us. No mommy! Why you!” I remember that so clearly because she had stopped sobbing and had started saying “No mommy. Not you. Why us.” Dad had been next to her trying to comfort her. No such luck. She wouldn’t let him touch her and when he tried to speak to her she would shriek and start crying more forceful than before.

And then the thing that still makes me cry, now, after all these years, are the last four words she said out loud. “I love you, mommy.” Then she got up wiped the tears from her face, walked downstairs, grabbed the phone, and brought it back up to dad. He was confused. I mean, who wasn’t confused at that moment. But then we all understood what happened when dad got a call, from the phone Annie had brought upstairs, saying that his wife, Ann Rose Marks, had been in a car accident and had been hit from her left side so she had been killed instantly. There was nothing that could have been done to help her. We all mourned that night for her loss.

But what was so surprising about that night was what happened before the accident, with Annabelle.

At around 2 in the morning Annie came over to my room and said she couldn’t sleep. I told her she could sleep with me. When we were already in the bed I got the courage to ask her what had happened right before we get the call. She said that she had seen, in a vision, that mom had been in an accident, that she had been hit really hard and had been dying in the car. Then, after she explained everything to me, she asked me if I believed her. I answered her in total honesty.

“Yes, Belle, I believe you”

We told Aunt Maggie the next morning what Annie had told me and she believed her. William was too small to understand so we had decided not to tell him about it till he was a little older.

Dad didn’t believe us. Nope. He had said that was just a fear of Annie’s, that mom would never come home, but that it was nothing. And then we asked him about her grabbing the phone downstairs and knowing the police would call here, he had just said it was a coincidence she had grabbed the phone downstairs. So we decided not to tell him, as long as we had Aunt Maggie on our side he didn’t have to know.

But that wasn’t the only time when she would get her visions of bad things. It happened a lot after that.

For instance, when we were 13 and Willy was 11 he played on a soccer team. We had all been at his game that day, cheering him on, when all of a sudden Annie stiffened next to me and gives me the same expression that she had in the caf. She ran down those bleachers so fast that it was hard for me to keep up, but it was too late. Willy had already kicked the ball at a bad angle, making him twist his ankle and fall to the ground. But, thankfully, it hadn’t been anything major.

Or when we were going on a private jet to Los Angeles for our sweet sixteen’s. That day Annie had gotten a ‘vision’ that the plane was having engine problem and we couldn’t go. We told Aunt Maggie and she said to call the plane so that they can double check the engine. They did and they told us we couldn’t go on the jet that day because of engine problems. It’s part of who Annabelle is. She is special. But she isn’t the only one. Willy is special, too. He can do the opposite of what Annie does. While she see’s bad things that are going to happen, he see’s the good things that are going to happen.

He got his gift when he was 11. Coincidently the same day he twisted his ankle on the soccer field. When Annie and I got to him he explained to us that he was fine and that he knew for sure because he had the same thing as Annie just backwards. He had seen a vision of him not being hurt badly. And that had only been the start of his gifts.

I am talented.

Nothing close to what Annie and Willy can do. I can control the elements. Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Spirit. Spirit is hard to control, but mostly it only lets me see auras –that’s how I know Annie has a kindred spirit. Besides Spirit the other four are easy to control but it takes a lot of concentration. My talents first started when I was 7, also, and it was at my mom’s funeral. It wasn’t at the beginning that it happened. No. I was fine in the church, – I didn’t cry, which surprised everyone, considering I was her daughter; Annie cried, Aunt Maggie cried, even dad shed a couple of tears, but me nothing – when I was giving my eulogy, even when they were lowering her tomb into her plot. But everything changed once I had to throw dirt in her tomb.

I grabbed the dirt, and threw it in, but instead of walking back to where my family was, I collapsed on the floor in front of her tomb and started to scream and cry. My nails where digging into the dirt so hard that when my dad tried to pull me off he couldn’t.

That when it happened. I felt the earth shaking, as if there were a major earthquake right under my. Felt the wind whipping my hair in all direction. Saw the candles, that were next to my mother’s picture, flicker on and off, as if there was a switch turning them on and off instead of… me.

When they were finally able to pull me from the ground everything around us stopped. The candles stopped flickering, the wind calmed down, and the earth stopped shaking. I even stopped scream and just started sobbing on daddy’s chest. It was a sad day for everyone.

That night I told Annie about what I had done at the funeral. How I had controlled the fire, the earth, and the wind. She believed me, of course, and then we told Aunt Maggie who also believed me.

Chapter Four

Annabelle looked at the ground.

“I don’t know.”

I grabbed her shoulders and turned her so she faced me.

“Belle, what is it? We need to know.” I said in my softest voice possible

She looked up. “Katie, I saw danger near you.”

I was stunned, but then she continued.

“But it’s blurry.”

“What do you mean?” I asked

“It’s hard to explain, but I know there some danger around you” she paused “Around all of us.”

“Ok so let me get this straight, there’s danger mostly around Katherine but around us too, but it’s blurry so you can’t see it specifically, am I right?” Willy asked

“Yes, I think so.” She whispered

“What do you mean think?” he took a step closer to Annie and she flinched at his proximity and at his tone – Willy and I have the same temper problems.

I hated to see her like this, all confused and scared, it makes me feel helpless. And Willy wasn’t helping matters by making her uncomfortable.

I shoved myself in between her and Willy and looked up at him. “I think you should leave her alone for a bit. She’s under a lot of stress trying to see and you’re not helping, ok”

He looked at Annabelle for a moment, then down at me.

He nodded and toke a couple of steps back.

“Annie, I need you to tell me what you are seeing right at this minute. Can you do that?” I asked

“Yes,” she smiled a weak smile.

I smiled back in encouragement.

She took in a deep breath and then closed her eyes. After a long moment, she answered still with her eyes closed.

“Well in this case since it’s somewhat blurry I can’t see pictures, just vague flashes of things like blackness then a guy with a look on his face that screams danger, but then I see the same guy smiling with a family and a – damn! It’s gone the pictures blur and all I can see is blankness.” She opened her eyes.

“Well maybe you can’t see the rest of it because it’s good not bad,” she looked confused. “You said that the guy looked evil but then, all of a sudden, had a smile on his face and was surrounded by family. That’s sounds to me like a good thing not a bad one.”

I waited...and then she got it she looked at me then we both nodded, but I was the one who spoke up.

"Willy, have you seen anything today" I asked

"Well...yeah but -"

"And you choose to tell me this now!" I shouted

"Yeah beca-"

"When you know there could be a connection!"

"Katherine, calm down. I wont tell you if you don't stop shouting" He grabbed my shoulders and shock me.

"Ok fine i'll calm down just tell me what you saw." i looked up at him

He closed his eyes just like Annie. "Well there are two people. And there's some sort of field behind them and there hugging. The guy has brown hair and is smiling down at the girl and the girl is blonde and has a red dress, but i cant see her face." He opened his eyes.

"Who are the couple?" Even though i had a pretty good idea and i wasn't liking it very much.

He looked down at the floor as he answered. "Well i have a really good feeling the guy in my vision is the same one as Annie's vision."

"And the girl?" I asked even though I already know the answer.

"Well the girl is... you, Katherine." He looked up and I freaked out

"Wait, but how do you know thats me.I mean, just because the girl is blonde doesn't mean it's me. Does it?" I'm not much into fainting but at this moment i feel like if I'm about to fall face first.

But instead of William answering me, Annie came between me and him and grabbed my shoulders.

"Well, you see, Katie when one of us have a vision it... um sort of... umm speaks to us. Not in a talking way but it sort of pin points who the person is exactly- if you can't see there face- by having a sort of 'special' aura around that person. That's how i knew mom had been the one in the accident that day even though i couldn't quiet see her face. I was accustomed to her 'special' aura so i knew right away when it was her. And i think thats what Willy was trying to say." We all flinched. We hated to talk about mom when it wasn't necessary. Even after all those years it still makes me cry.

Willy tried to change the subject- a failed attempt really. Our minds were already somewhere else.

"Um... yeah what she said." He looked so confused. It was almost funny. Almost

"Well we'd better get going otherwise the girls will start to wonder where we went..." I said but then i remembered something. "Oh and um i wanted to know if you were gonna wait for us after practice so we could give you a ride home or something." Willy's a soccer player so he has the same practice days and times as the cheerleaders but the cheerleaders all like to spend more time practicing or gossiping with friends and stuff so we usually stay 'till 6 or 7 if were all not busy, while the soccer team just stays for practice until it's over- around 5ish so Willy hates waiting for us out in the field until we all decide to leave.

"And spend and extra hour and a half at school watching a bunch of superficial cheerleaders practice. Umm no thank you. Besides Jack already said i could catch a ride with him after practice so no worries. Bye." He smirked and waved as he walked over to the door.

When he opened the door I opened my mouth.

"Hey we are not superficial cheerleaders okay."

His smirk only grew and the he said, "You just keep telling your self that big sis" Then he walked out the door without saying another word.

"Can you believe that kid. Saying those things to us. His sisters. Oh he is going to have hell-" I turned around and saw Annie with her back to me walking toward the wall mirror. She set he bag down and toke out her make up bag.

"Annie!" I screamed

"What" She was looking at me through the mirror, taking out her compact.

I just sighed and placed my bag next hers and took out my eyeliner making my green eyes pop. Well you can never look to pretty in school.

When we were done freshening up I turned to Annie.

"You know where gonna have to explain why we took so long freshening up."

"Whatever. We'll just put on dazzling smiles and fake it."

So thats exactly what we did. We walked out of the bathroom with dazzling smiles and faked it.

Because thats all we'll ever do our whole lives.

Fake it.

Chapter Five

When we sat down at our table again Lisa and Heidi were chatting to Netti about some hair products they found, while Sapphi was looking at us with a concerned expression.

"Umm are you guys okay?" she asked

"Of course we are Sapphi. We were just in the bathroom freshening up." i answered her curtly.

"Oh it's you guys took a while..." she looked down at her half eaten caf food.

"We just decided to pee and there were a lot people in the bathroom so we had to wait." I lied. God i hate lying to people and especially Sapphi who i just met. She's just so nice and sweet. But i had to do it for Annabelle and William. Sapphi could never learn our secret.

"Oh" was all she said.

I tried to stop her from talking again about the bathroom break by turning away from her and looking over at Lisa, Heidi, and Netti, Who stopped talking about hair products and started arguring about who was hotter: Taylor Lautner or Zac Effron.

"But, you see, Zac Effron has this little boyish face that is just the cutest, you know." Heidi said

"Come on have you seen Taylor Lautner's body?" Lisa said, licking her lips "That is just plain Hot Yumminess."

Come on guys stop acting like retards, okay." Netti said trying to stop the debate. She is always the one who can calm them down when there like this.

"Hey umm guy do you want to come over after practice or something?" I asked just to change the subject.

Lisa and Heidi looked over at me.

They smiled. "Sure." they said in unison, but then Lisa spoke up.

"Wait is you brother going to be there. Because if he is i am not going. Remember last time i rode with him in the back seat? That was not a very pleasant memory for me." she made a face just thinking about it.

I laughed. That was a funny day cause my brother had to take his chemisty class pet home for the weekend. It was a snake. Not venomous, of course. But when Lisa kept talking about prom dresses - this happened towards the end of the year - Willy had gotten feed up with her and had pulled out the front of her shirt and stuck the snake in her bra. It was the funniest thing of life but of course she had gotten pissed and said she would never again get in the car when my brother was with us.

Sapphi brought me out from my thoughts by speaking up.

"Wait you have a brother?" she asked

I looked at her and smiled. "Yeah he's our younger brother. He's a sophomore." I turned back to Lisa who was expecting an answer."And no he is not going to be with us. He's going to go home with the other soccer players after practice."

Lisa and Heidi beamed."Great" they said.

"Umm not great." Netti said looking uncomfortable. "Remember you guys asked me to help you with school work starting from the first day of school. Well now I'm going to do just that. So today you guys are going home with me so we can start." she smiled when she was done.

"Crap" said Lisa

"Damn" said Heidi

I rolled my eyes

"Nice vocabulary." I muttered and i heard Sapphi laugh. I turned to her.

"How 'bout you?" I asked

"Me?"

"Yeah how about you come over to our house after practice?"

She looked so shocked. As if I had asked her to jump off a cliff with me.

"Well i don't know cause my mom is gonna come pick me up after school and..." I gave her my best puppy dog face. She rolled her eyes. "And i can give her a call after school and tell her that i got a ride home from some friends." I beamed and hugged her.

"Great."

"Wait you said practice. Do you guys play a sport or something?" she asked

"No I'm a cheerleader." I gestured to the whole table. "Where all cheerleaders."

"Your a cheerleader too?!" she shrieked. We got a few looks from the kids walking by our table.

I chuckled "Yeah I am. But don't worry practice only lasts today until 4:30. Its just to get our uniforms and to do some old routine stuff. Nothing big.

She relaxed a bit but then looked confused. "Wait don't you guys have to tryout and stuff?"

"Yeah we do but we have tryouts during summer so by the time school starts we already know who made it and can start competitions earlier in the year."

That seamed to make her go back to normal but we couldn't talk anymore because just then the bell rang and everyone was hurrying over to there fifth hour.

I pulled out my schedule from my bag.

"Who has Biology for 5th?" I asked

Netti smiled."I do."

"Me too" Sapphi said.

I beamed. "Great. Well what about you guys?" I turned to Lisa and Heidi.

They gave me a face but then Lisa answered. "We have Spanish with Ms. Alveraz."

I laughed.

That lady is a bitch and the whole school knows it.

"Well we got to get going to Biology. See you in practice. Bye."

We all said our good byes and then Me, Annie, Netti, and Sapphi made our way to Biology.

When we finally found the classroom we took our seats. This school has a 4 person lab table so we all got to sit together.

The teacher wasn't in the room so we had time to talk.

"So Sapphi what's your last period?" I asked, looking over to my right.

She took out her schedule, looked over it, and she answered me.

"Umm I have Art with Mr. Gibson."

"Well I had him late year and I hated him." Annie said

"Don't listen to Anns. She hates all the teachers. And Mr.Gibson isn't that bad, by the way."

The teacher walked in then, so we couldn't talk. Then the bell rang so he started with 'The first day of school' nonsense.

By the end of class I was all happy that the day was almost over. Two more classes.

The bell rang so we split up. Annie left with Netti to go to Gym and Sapphi and I left to History.

When we got to room 114 - History - me and Sapphi took seats in the exact center of the class. The teacher wasn't in the room yet. But on the board it clearly read Mr. Night

I realized then that i hadn't really talked to Sapphi much about herself.

"So Sapphs, why did you move hear?" I asked

She looked over at me.

"Well my dad's in the Marines so he got sent here and we all had to come, of course."

"So you move around a lot?"

She laughed. "That, my dear Kat, is the biggest understatement of life. I have lived in over 15 states, starting with Florida and hopefully gonna end here."

"Wait you wear born in Florida?" I asked taking out a notebook and a pen.

"Yeah why?"

"Well Annie and I were born in Florida too. That's so exciting and in-"

I stopped talking when I heard the door slam shut. I didn't want to look at the teacher. He had just walked in, not saying a single word, and I had immediately detected the air of authority and respect around him. And it couldn't have been Spirit because when he came in the other kids in the room shut up too. They probably felt it as well.

So instead of looking up I looked down at my notebook and started doodling in it. I could hear him walk over to his desk and then he leaned on it.

And then he spoke up.

"Hello class my name is Mr. Night and I will be your U.S History teacher for this year." Thats all it took. For him to start speaking in that low, sexy voice of his.

I looked up

Chapter Six

Chapter 3


I looked up and was shocked.

He looked gorgeous. No beautiful. No ravishing. No. He looked like a Greek God.

My heartbeat picked up its pace and my hands got sweaty around the pen I was still holding.

He was just leaning on the side of his desk, arms crossed over his chest with one leg over the other, but he looked so hot I almost couldn't stand it. He was wearing a pale blue button-down shirt with a dark blue tie, tucked into black trousers. he had black shiny shoes and a nice big watch - Rich are we? The shirt clung to his fine muscles so much i literally had to drag my eyes away. And when i did that my eyes landed on his face. I gasped. Was it possible for his face to look better than his body?

He had super pale skin - almost translucent. He had sharp and perfect bone structure everywhere. It mad him look so god damn sexy i could hardly breath. I made my eyes move around his face. He had light brown hair that was flipped to one side. And wow did it looked sexy on him, I thought. He also had the most loveliest shade of blue eyes. They were pale blue, just like his shirt, and had green around the edges. I moved my eyes away from his eyes and moved them to his lips. His lips were plump and slim, at the same time. They were perfect just like his other features. God how I would kill to have those lips pressed on mine. I bet there soft too. I would just love to have his body pressed up against mine. God i feel like doing some crazy shit to this boy, I thought.

I mentally slapped myself for thinking such vulgar thoughts. Okay so there not entirely vulgar but to me it is. I don't usually have thoughts like that. And especially not with my teacher. I mean, even though he doesn't really look older than 24 I can't think thoughts like that about my teacher! Its just-

Oh crap. He met my eyes.

I gasped. His eyes were even more beautiful when they were looking intently at mine. But they weren't soft and tender like I wanted them to be. No. They were hard and bitter. Cold. Like pale blue pieces of ice. I shuddered. Why was he looking at me like that. I don't even know him and he doesn't know me at all but he's looking at me with hatred covered features.

And then his eyes left mine and I let out a breath I didn't realize i'd been holding in. But instead of his eyes going back to the class they stayed on my face, my hair, my body. I shivered. God why does he make me feel like this. I want him so bad its embarrassing. I have to literally dig my nails into the bottom of my desk to stop myself from going over there and begging for a kiss. Just one kiss....and then maybe more...

NO!

I can't and I won't think thoughts like those. They are vulgar, gross, and so not like me. I don't beg anyone for a kiss and I especially don't for a kiss if it's from my teacher. I mean sure he can't pass for 24 but still he's my teacher for Christ's sake. I took a deep breath to try any calm myself. Okay just breath, Katherine. Just breath.

I looked at him while I was calming myself - more like trying to calm myself. Not the best idea because he was still looking at me. Look being the operative word. He was still totally checking me out. From head to toe, lingering on my boobs, which made me blush like crazy. I looked at his eyes and there was some sort of hungry gaze there... and something about it made me doubt that it had anything to do with my body.

But then as my heart started to speed up from the look in his eyes and as my palms began to sweat again I started to think. What if I could do all those things to him I want to do? And what if, in some sort of alternate world, he let me?

No! No! No!

Stop thinking things like that Katherine. He's to old for you.

I sighed. But the thing was I had never lusted over a guy this much. I mean this can't really be possible, can it? I mean I have had a boyfriend before. We had been together for little under 3 years so of course I knew what both lust and love felt like but I had never felt it to this extent. I of course am not a virgin so I know what its like to have s*x but I haven't been touched in so long - me and my ex broke up in our sophomore year and I haven't been with anyone since.

Maybe thats it..., I thought.

But somewhere in the back of my mind I knew that wasn't true.

Ignored it.

I heard a light knock on the door. Mr. Night looked over at the door and I let my nails relax from there firm hold on the bottom of my desk. I looked down at my now sweat covered pen and open sketch notebook as he walked over to the door. My breathing was coming out in pants. Our little 'encounter' - if you want to call it that - had only been mere seconds, but to me it had felt like hours.

I heard Mr. Night talking to someone. It sounded like a man. I looked up.

Ahhh. Speak of the devil and it shall appear. Let me explain. I meant my ex boyfriend, Resse Wright.

He was as gorgeous as ever in a long sleeved dark blue shirt and dark jeans. His chestnut brown hair was perfectly messed up, as usual, and his blue eyes were shining with amusement and excitement. He was always happy, that was one one the many things I like about him. He was always happy and he rarely got mad. Less than 3 years ago we had gotten together and the only thing that really changed about him was his physic - he got way buffer, but not to buff, which I loved. He was still the same old Resse - deep down - he was back in 8th grade when we met.

I know, I know, 8th grade is way to early to start a serious relationship with someone but I was young, he was hot, and honestly I thought it wasn't gonna last. What was a girl to do?

Actually, if I remember correctly, I thought he was to much of a shy guy for me, as I was a bad girl back then and, honestly, he wasn't that hot either. Cute but not hot. It was actually really funny how we met.

The final bell had just rang signaling the end of the day. I signed, dreading going home because Anna had JV - Junior Varsity - cheerleading practice and I had to walk home, alone. It was a short walk - 10 minutes or so - but it was a walk nonetheless. I was packing my stuff slowly and when everyone else was gone I got up from my chair walking over to the door. But due to my klutziness I tripped over a desk leg. It had happened to be his desk and he had happened to be the only one, besides me, in the classroom so he had gotten up from his chair quickly and had grabbed onto my waist from behind, steadying me. I hadn't known it was him who had saved me so when I turned around and I was immensely surprised to find him there infront of me.

He smirked down at my shocked expression, still with a firm hold on my waist, and had leaned down to whisper, "Well aren't you one Klutzy Kitty." He had laughed and I had chuckled along with him. And thats how it had started.

He had walked me home that day so I didn't have to walk home alone. He had asked me out on my porch and I had excepted like the naive 13 year old I was.

But I was happy with the decision I made to go out with him - still am happy with it. He was my first everything. He had been My first real date, My first kiss, My first boyfriend, . . . My first time. I will never regretted the decision I made to lose my "V- card" to him. It had been special, because it had been with, him, the love of my life - at the time. Of course I still love him, but its not the same as it was before.

We had been the perfect couple. Everyone envied us. We would hold hands all the time and he would kiss me in the halls whenever he could. He would walk me to my classes and walk me home when Annie had cheerleading practice. Everyone was surprised when we lasted the whole summer and also lasted freshman year and the following summer.

But then everything. . . changed when we became sophomores. He never cheated on me or anything else but we started to grow distant. He got into his football thing and Annie got me into the whole cheerleading thing so we barely saw each other after school. We did see each other in school but he didn't walk me to my classes or sit with me at lunch because he had to sit with his football friends. After a couple of weeks I broached the subject to him and he said we would try harder to make it work. And, for while, we did try but it wasn't the same as it was before. I realized I didn't love him like I use to. And thats how I knew I had to break it off with him. I mean, it really killed me inside to do it and I could see in his face, when I broke it off with him, that it sort of killed him in the inside, too. It was really hard to get over him and it took me a while but I did it and now we are sort of like the best of friends.

The only thing I don't like is who he became once I broke up with him. He use to be this sweet sort of shy guy who just did the most craziest things and made me laugh constantly. I mean he still does some crazy shit and is also still very funny but besides that he changed. He became this stupid stereotypical cocky ass player who hasn't had a steady girlfriend since, well me. And it really makes me sad to see him act this way. When he first started to act that way I thought that was his way of coping with the break up. But then when the cocky player wouldn't go away I started to worry and wonder. Worry because I somehow thought it was my fault, that I had somehow created the monster that he is now. And then I wonder if the monster will ever go away. If he will, somehow, go back to being the sweet shy guy I once fell in love with....


***************************


Mr. Night and Reese talked in hushed tones for a minute before Mr. Night moved to the side and let Reese into his classroom. He walked in to the class and stood at the front, his eyes scanning over everyone. When they landed on me his lips broke out into a big smile.

"Hey Baby!" He shouted, opening his arms out wide as if I was going to run into them.

I rolled my eyes but then played along to his game. We always acted thing way, constantly flirting with each other. We would do it for fun or when became bored. We would walk down the halls, hand in hand. Sometimes I would whisper something sexy in his ear or we would make really nasty innuendoes to each other in public. It was funny to watch from a distance.

I plastered on a sexy smirk and leaned on my desk to show off my cleavage. His eyes immediately went down to my chest area.

"Hey Yourself." I said, leaning back in my chair, making my cleavage disappear. His eyes looked up at mine when I leaned back and I felt my heart ache at what I saw in them. Lust, plain and simple. It made me real sad to think, that after all this time he still had feelings for me.

He quickly walked over to the unoccupied desk to my right and sat down

I just sighed and looked over at Mr. Night. He was glaring at me and I was completely shocked. I barely knew the guy for all of 10 minutes and he's already glaring at me. I mean, has he never heard of "Don't Judge a Book by its Cover" or at least "Don't Fucking Glare at Someone you just Fucking Met!" After that thought I Immediately got angry and started glaring right back at him. Who does he think he is to just glare at a student. Especially a student who he doesn't even know the name of.

We glared at each other for a few more seconds before he broke eye contact and walked over to the front of his classroom and began to lecture about something.

I breathed in a calming breath and wield myself not to walk up to him and demand to know what his fucking problem was. I would be scared shitless while doing it, but I would do it.

I needed a distraction. I looked over a Reese and then I smirked, already knowing the perfect distraction.

I leaned in closer his ear and whispered, "Shame on you, Reese. The first day of school and your already late. You know I really don't think the skank you were just making out with in the janitorial closet would have minded if you had ditched her there to actually be early for a change." With that i blew in his ear and my smirk grew wider when he shivered in response. But then, as I pulled away from him and looked back down at my careless drawing of what I could only define as a cat with a mouse up its ass, I began to feel guilty. I mean, God why am I such a bitch. I'm practically throwing meat into a lion's cage. But instead of letting the poor lion just eat its goddamn meat, I pull the meat back out of the cage and leave the lion starving. I sigh and looked over at him again, totally frustrated for willingly degrading myself by classifying myself as some sort of meat.

And I wasn't at all surprised to see a big smirk on his face.

He leaned over in his chair and whispered, "Are you jealous, Kat?"

I put on my best mock horror expression and put my hand over my chest, trying not to laugh. "Me, Jealous? Never!" I whispered quietly back, trying not to attract attention. But that wasn't working out as well as I hoped because I heard a few snickers emanating from the student close by who could here the conversation.

Reese sat forward in his chair once again and I faintly hear him whisper, "Of course not."

I felt another pang in my chest when i saw his expression. He looked sad some what vulnerable. God I wish he could find a nice, pretty girl that made him smile and laugh so he could stop obsessing over me. I mean, I love him and everything but more brother and sister type love and not the love he's looking for from me.

I tried to distract myself from my unpleasant thoughts by doodling on my notebook again. But five minutes into my new drawing I felt a tap on my shoulder.

I turned to see Shappi looking at me curiously.

"Is he your boyfriend?" She whispered, looking at him briefly before looking back at me.

"No. He's my ex." I stated simply, shacking my head slightly.

Her eyes grew wide and her mouth made a pop sound as it opened in surprise. "He's your ex!" She practically shouted at me. Which in turn made a few of the students sitting near her and me start to snicker. That included Reese. He tried to hide it but he failed miserably.

Apparently, the students weren't the only ones who heard Sapphi. Mr. Night stopped talking immediately after Sapphi 'decided' to shout from the roof tops the news I told her.

"Is there something you would like to share with the entire class Miss..." He promted looking her right in the eye.

"Monique, Sir. and no I don't have anything to share," she blushed a little and sunk low into her seat.

Mr. Night kept his eyes on her for a second longer before they looked at the entire class again so he could continue to say whatever it was he was telling them before the interruption.

"As I was saying, you will have the entire time to do this assessment test. When your done you may come up to put it on my desk. Once you place it there you will go back to your desk and NOT talk. Understood?" He asked with a raised eye brow. The students answered with muffled 'Yes, Sirs'. Me not included which I think he seemed to notice even though I was probably one in like fifteen who didn't answer.

He gave the class a few more basic instructions before pasing the packets and the answer sheets out. He passed them out individually. One desk after another after another. Until he reached me.

He in fact did have a ring on his ring finger. A fact I was not surprised to find out. I mean, of course a hunk like him was taken. What girl wouldn't want to marry him?

The ring was unusual looking. A wedding ring for a guy was supposed to be just a plain silver or gold wedding band. His did not look like that. It was sliver but it was thicker than the normal wedding band. And all around the band was weird sort of wiggling lines that surrounded a big onyx stone in the center. I mean it doesn't look like the typical wedding band so at first glance you don;t really think its a wedding ring... but then you look at the way he has it on his ring finger and the way he shows it off so proudly even though he tries act demurely about it. He just has to be married. To a lovely girl who adores him and loves him and vice versa. At that thought I felt a pull to my stomach that reached all the way to my heart. Was I sad that he was married and not single? I mean, its not like I could date him if he were sinlge. Which he isn't. I mean i'm his student. He wouldn't want to date a highschooler. And its not like I would want to go out with him even if none of the other stuff were a barrier. Which it all is. I mean, I don't like him....

Right?

Oh god I'm screwed.

Impressum

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 02.11.2011

Alle Rechte vorbehalten