Well, it's been a long while. I really hit a wall there, but I'm hoping that I'm finally getting out of the stump I've been in. Fair warning, the updates for this book may be slow. I can't seem to concentrate very well with it, but I'm also working on some other projects. So maybe keep a look out for those.

To those who have been waiting for an update... here goes nothing. Thank you for being awesome, dedicated readers. 

--VIVKELLER23

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After the incident with Alice earlier in the week, Collins more or less fell back into the background. There weren't any more evil messages left on her locker, and her clothes were left alone for P.E.

Part of the reason folks were so quick to pretend to forget about her probably had something to do with the shift between her and Vance. One day he was helping her and promising to prove her innocence, and the next it was as if she didn't exist. As far as anyone could tell, Vance and Alice were the hottest couple in Sailor's Port.

Collins was back to being the odd one out.

She sighed as she made her way to the school cafeteria. The crowd still made every effort to part for her, probably afraid that whatever had caused Simon to leave town and Regina to fall into that canal would pass onto them. Whatever the reasons for it, Collins was able to make it to the front of the lunch line to get her bean and cheese burrito.

Collins decided to treat herself to a cherry slushee for lunch as well. If for nothing else, at least she could celebrate getting back to some aspect of normal life in Sailor's Port.

That was how she ended up sitting at the very back of the cafeteria, near the trash cans where she could be sure no one would go out of their way to humiliate her. The cafeteria started filling in quickly after she took her seat. She watched as she sipped from the red straw, noting which students rushed to the lunch lines, and which were happy to just sit back as if food wasn't the most important thing in their life.

It wasn't much of a surprise that most of the ones who sat back to relax were also known athletes in top shape. She found that weird though. Collins knew for a fact that if she'd been fit enough to run a full fledged race, she'd be the first one at lunch every time.

As the cafeteria filled with the conversations of students happy to be done with half of the school day, Collins scanned the room until she found him. He sat at the table nearest the front of the lunch room, close enough to the lunch line if he had a mind to cut people off.

She took her time watching him, making note of his dark shirt and gray jeans before her eyes landed on the orange painted nails resting on his thigh. Instantly her stomach flipped. But she really wasn't surprised.

It had been the same thing back then. Old habits died hard.

Alice Bone sat plastered to Vance's side. She smiled at him like he was the only guy in the room which was probably a hard thing for her to pull off. Before she'd made her moves on Vance, she'd been known for chasing whoever she wanted, whether they were spoken for or not.

And, yes, she was aware that the blame for cheating went to both parties, she just couldn't accept that a female could willingly approach another girl's boyfriend without feeling guilty.

It was like breaching a code of sisterhood.

The thought had Collins choking on the bite of burrito in her mouth. Thank God, she'd at least been spared the painful ordeal of being related to Alice.

She sighed and tried to focus on eating her meal before she lost anymore of her appetite. It wasn't that hard. Food kept her alive when just about everything else in life served to annoy her.

"Would you look at that?" an unpleasant male voice boomed from somewhere behind her.

Equally obnoxious laughter followed the exclamation as Collins felt herself tense. Trey Woods had been Regina's on-again, off-again boyfriend for the past ten months. It seemed that since he'd been allowed into the Brock's prestigious circle, he'd learned that one of his duties was to make Collins' life miserable.

"Hey, Estrada."

She closed her eyes and breathed through her nose. They were children in typical jock bodies. If she ignored them, they'd go away...

Trey chuckled. "Ah, man, looks like she's having trouble hearing us."

Collins felt more than saw the quick way all attention in the room shifted to the back of the cafeteria where she sat. Conversations had ceased the instant Trey opened his worthless mouth. She wanted to throw up.

"What do you say, guys?" he asked. "What should we do to make sure she doesn't have something serious?"

She sighed. "Maybe walk away before I completely lose my appetite?" she suggested.

"Ah," Trey drawled. "She's not deaf, after all."

"Nope." Collins smiled and pushed her plate back on the table. She slapped the palms of her hand down flat on the cool surface and got to her feet. "I just really prefer not to waste precious time listening to stupid people," she replied as she spun to face the smirking buffoon.

The smirk slipped off his face the moment his slow brain processed the insult she'd given. "You're just a sorry bit-"

"Trey!" She heard Vance Brock's warning in the name as he effectively cut off his sister's old flame. The pulsing vein she saw just beneath Trey's right eye proved he'd heard the command as well. "Just drop it, man."

He scoffed. "One Brock runs away from her, while the other tries everything she can to ignore her. Now one Brock washes up dead, and the other stands up for her?" Trey tapped one finger on his chin, his black eyes gleaming. "What is it about you, Collins, that screws with people's heads?"

She didn't like the way he seemed to be studying her, making her feel like a bug under a microscope. Instead of giving him an answer, she spun around to collect her food.

But it appeared that no answer at all was more than Trey could handle. "You must be very good, Estrada."

It could have been a perfectly innocent response. Anyone else might have heard it and taken it in stride. Perhaps even accepted it as a compliment of sorts. But Collins wasn't anyone else. She was the girl everyone pushed around and ridiculed. The girl they couldn't understand so they set out to break her apart just to see if they could then put her back together as they liked.

To her, the words were as clear as day.

She heard Vance somewhere in the distance make a plea of her name, but he had no right to ask anything from her after the way he'd been content with ignoring her.

Collins grabbed her half empty slushee, popped the lid off, and tossed the drink onto Trey's dark, laughing face.

She heard the shocked whispers follow her as she made her way into the school halls. Once outside, she headed towards her locker with every intention of leaving for the day. But she should have guessed that wasn't going to be possible after what she'd pulled today.

"Miss Estrada!" Flannigan hissed from the office's door.

Closer, Vance stormed from the cafeteria, his stormy eyes intent on her face. "What were you thinking, Collins?"

She blinked, and Flannigan returned to his office, content to find someone else willing to put up with her.

"That isn't the kind of behavior that's going to change what everyone already thinks about you," Vance told her, stepping directly in front of her so she had no choice but to lean her back against the lockers.

She laughed. It was the irony of it all that amused her. "Why should it matter?" Collins asked. "They loathed me before there was a logical reason to do so."

He looked at her with a frown on his face. "Collins, I'm sor-"

"Don't be. I'm just exhausted with having to shoulder the responsibility. It shouldn't be my job to change their narrow views anymore than it should be my job to prove my innocence," Collins explained. "If it's so easy to put the blame on me, why shouldn't they have to prove that their actions against me are justified?"

Vance nodded, seeming to follow the logic behind her words. "I know it's unfair, but acting out isn't going to get you anywhere."

Of course, it wouldn't. It would only serve to further ostracize her in the eyes of the entire town.

"Neither did trusting you."

Collins saw the flash of memory, the deep pain that had been buried in the months since. "Don't. Don't keep pushing me away by going back."

She shook her head. "Is it really going back, Vance? It looks to me like nothing really has changed. You're still the guy who messed with my head and made me hate that I could have been so blind to the truth."

"I'll make it up to you."

But really, being around him was the last thing she wanted now. "No." Collins shook her head at him. "I think it's best if you just leave me alone."

She heard a low whistle from further down the hall and noticed Trey had managed to wipe most of the red icy drink from his face. There was a moment of stunned silence as Collins pulled away from the lockers and pushed her way past Vance, but Trey broke it all too soon.

"Looks like Brock has a bad case of Collins."

vVv

The rest of the week went by without a hitch. Except for the occasional backstabbing glares Alice threw her way, Collins almost felt like things were back to normal. Well, as normal as they'd ever been.

Vance alternated between completely ignoring her and trying to stare a hole through the back of her head. It confused her just like everything else in recent memory did. He made it so easy to fall into the lazy tug-of-war too. One day he was being heroic and making grand promises, before he went right back to ignoring her the next day.

Sheriff Tills had made it his job to prove he no longer saw her as a suspect. If she was being perfectly honest this new, almost welcoming side of him scared her.

It felt like she was in an alternate universe.

She sighed as the sheriff did his daily checking up on Miss Susannah. It really surprised her how the two could be such an obvious couple to everyone, and still they did nothing to move their relationship forward.

Collins turned away from the two lovebirds to hose down Miss Susannah's electric blue Solara. The car looked like it had stayed parked under the large avocado tree for years thanks to the accumulated dust that covered it. Truth be told, Collins had never seen the older lady drive before.

As long as the woman paid her the twenty bucks she'd promised, Collins would leave the car looking spotless. It would be nice to have the extra cash for the town fair next week. The word around town was that the mayor had a surprise act to play on opening night and Collins really could use a distraction from reality.

Mr. Fuzz prowled across the grass lawn, much like a panther ready to strike. A look up at the tree branches explained why. A small pigeon sat up there, it's beady eyes watching the hungry cat below.

Collins swung her arm a little too hard for the hose to rinse off the soap on the car.

Mr. Fuzz made a horrible screeching sound and scrambled back up the porch steps.

"Whoops." Miss Susannah bent down to comfort the bird eating carnivore she had for a pet while Sheriff Tills hid a smile behind a fake yawn.

"Collins, dear, when you're done come on inside for some fresh cookies," the woman offered. She opened the white screen door of her house and nodded to the man beside her. "You can spare a few minutes to enjoy my baking, right, sir?"

The man straightened as if that would somehow add to his below average height. "I'd like that very much."

I bet you would, she thought as his back disappeared inside the home.

Collins shook her head and refocused her efforts on rinsing the car. Jonah wouldn't be home until dinnertime and being that her only friend had ditched her for a greater adventure, she could think of no reason at all why she couldn't enjoy some chocolate chip cookies.

She'd even be able to make sure Mr. Fuzz behaved himself.

But while she used an old towel to dry off the Solara, a sleek red convertible sped down the empty road and slammed to a halt in front of Miss Susannah's house. One look at the driver in the dark shades had her blood boiling and her fingers tightening around the hose.

Trey Woods gave her a half smile that lacked confidence as he swung out of the driver's seat. "Not bad," he murmured with a low whistle. "I'd personally prefer you in a little more water, a little less shirt."

She really hated how quickly he went from tormenting her to objectifying her. "Sorry to disappoint. But I'd really like you better with a few broken bones," Collins snapped back.

The idiot had the audacity to laugh. "You're a crazy one."

"You act like you didn't already suspect that."

"I did. It's kind of hard to miss what with the way you growl at people sometimes," Trey admitted. "But I didn't know you had it in you to stand up to Regina's stuck up brother, too."

Collins frowned at that. He almost sounded like he resented Vance when the two had been friends in the same crowd for all of high school. "Vance is your friend."

"Yeah, like Regina was your friend."

There was definitely some hard feelings there. But, right now, she couldn't work up the strength to care. "Yeah, well, if you don't get in your car and let me get back to work, you're going to find lots of water." She caught the dark look on his face before she raised the hose to his eye level. "But it won't be on me."

The scream that escaped him was so high pitched, Sheriff Tills came running out the front door with a half-eaten cookie in his hand. 

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So, who should play at the town fair?