dedicated to theegonometry because she hates my stories but reads them because i force her to. ily.

YEAR: 2016

FOR KADENCE GAARDNER, pretending that nothing ever happened is easy. Pretending in itself has always come naturally to her - from the moment she showed herself in her mother's uterus (everyone thought she was a boy initially) to sashaying down the halls of Avensgrove High as if everything were fine. Normal. No one sees the cracks rippling across her skin, nor heard the slight tremor in her voice earlier that morning - no. Everything is fine. Perfect as it should be.

It has been a year since Blaire DuMonte has died. A year and a month since they reported her missing. A year since they found her body in the bottom of Avensgrove Lake. It has been a year - and her presence is forgotten. A ghost of the past. Her face may still be on Kadence's polaroids, and on their group pictures, but she is gone. Everything is fine. Everything is good.

This is what Kadence Gaardner tells herself as she sits down, taking her spot in The Middle Table, the table that is like literally every other table except it is in the middle of the cafeteria and is apparently the only place for the high-flyers, the kings and queens of Avensgrove High. Here, everyone can see her. Here, everyone orbits around her. Here, she is vulnerable.

But she takes her seat with class and grace, or as much of it as she can manage, because she knows that everyone's eyes are on her. This is what it is like to be Kadence Gaardner. Untouchable. Shiny hair and shiny skin and shiny smiles all lying on the surface, covering what she really is - poison.

Kadence Gaardner sits on the throne of Avensgrove High, a throne made of skulls and bones and soaked in the blood of man. But she is not as untouchable as she says she is.

After all, thrones are made to be stolen, and queens are built to fall.

- - -

XIENNA ALISTER IS mad. Pissed. Furious. Fucking enraged.

Why?

Because her best friend is an idiot - a fucking idiot. Xienna warned her about the consequences of pretense, but Kade never listens - not to anyone. She watches from the back of the cafeteria as Kadence Gaardner slips into her seat with a smile fixed on her face - the picture of beauty and grace.

She knows Kadence better than anyone else. She knows that she loves pretending, faking it until she makes it. But Kadence, for all her beauty and brains, does not know how people will react. Last year today, Blaire DuMonte's body was buried in the ground. Last year today, one of their best friends died. Today, Kadence is allowed not to be picture perfect - she is not supposed to. She is supposed to cry, to be a bit more quiet, to mourn the death of the girl she used to call sister.

Xienna sighs, knowing that Kadence can clear her mess up later. She walks into the canteen and takes her seat beside her best friend. All eyes are on the two of them, she knows this for a fact. Xienna wants to do nothing more than give Kade a black eye, and she knows that if she punched anyone else, no one would really be surprised. But punching her best friend would mean that Kadence would cry and slip into a different person. See, where Kade was a verbal abuser and pretender, Xienna was the physical tormentor. They were a match crafted by Satan themselves.

For the first time since last year, Xienna, Kadence, Braxton, Maverick and Orianna remain quiet, allowing the others to make conversation around them. The others - the girls and the boys who know nothing about Blaire DuMonte - their voices carry, and float in the air. People who Xienna doesn't really care much for.

She doesn't care for them - but she envies them. She wants to go back to last year when she was them, when she could sit in her seat and pretend that everything is fine.

- - -

MAVERICK FAWKES WANTS everyone in the goddamn Middle Table to shut up. Is that so hard? Today is Blaire DuMonte's death anniversary, for crying out loud. But no one seems to care, because Blaire DuMonte is just a ghost in everyone's minds. She was the wild child, who wore her skirt an inch too short. She was the pretty girl who spent her nights in pubs, getting piss drunk and wasted. She was one of Kadence Gaardner's side bitches, who the rumor mill revolved around.

Was.

But to Maverick, she was more than that. She was lavender candles and warm bed sheets. She was pastel colored pens and patterned paper. She was weekends spent at orphanages. She was movie dates and the smell of caramel popcorn. She was 3 am phone calls, whispers about women's rights and equality. She was Blaire DuMonte - his Blaire DuMonte.

Maverick can't help it. He can't understand the light conversation around him, about what their plans are for tonight and what they had for breakfast and how shitty Mr Marx is as an AP Physics teacher. He can't help it when his fist trembles against the faded yellow table. He can't help it when he stands up and bangs his fist against the table. He can't help it when everyone turns to look at him as he strides out of the cafeteria. He can't help it when his foot jams into the lockers.

And he can't help it when he feels a tear roll down his cheek.

- - -

BRAXTON RYCE DOESN'T move until he realizes that his best friend has left the cafeteria. Kadence looks at him almost immediately, dark eyes narrowing into slits, waiting for Braxton's next move.

He tries to remain calm, because Kadence is calculating something, although no one would guess her scheming that hid beneath those long lashes. Lots of people, even those closest to her - assume that Kadence is too blunt for manipulation, but he knows better. Braxton takes a sip of his coffee, eyes trained on Kadence's. "Excuse me," he says, using that tone that he knows Kadence hates - the one he uses at his parents' galas.

Braxton stands up and walks out the cafeteria, the same path Maverick took. When he sees Maverick's blond curls, he stops and grabs Maverick's shoulder.

"Mavi," is all he needs to say before Maverick hugs him tightly. Braxton understands the love Maverick had for Blaire DuMonte - he's been there when his best friend crushed on the stubborn new girl, when the two got together, every instance they broke up and when Blaire's body was found at the bottom of the lake.

In some ways, Braxton understands too because that's the way he always felt for Kadence, though he prefers to be less vocal about it.

So Braxton hugs his best friend and he doesn't tell him that's everything's going to be alright because he knows that he can't promise these things to Maverick Fawkes and get away with it.

And as far as Braxton's gut feel goes, everything is going to go downhill.

- - -

ORIANNA RYCE IS worried. She looks at her ex-girlfriend, Xienna Alister, and wonders whether she should go out and check on her brother.

Step-brother, but brother none the less.

Orianna stands up abruptly, lacking the charisma that Braxton exudes and grabs her chocolate milk. She's full aware that everyone in the cafeteria is staring at her, but she's attracted the attention ever since she came to Avensgrove - with her skin the color of a starless night and her Jamaican accent that no one could really place and her preference for females.

Orianna does not bask in the attention like Xienna or Kadence, she shrinks in it. She shakes off her nerves and stalks out the cafeteria, sipping her little bottle of chocolate milk. Her long, dark tendrils swish as she walks out and her shoulders immediately relax once she can no longer feel the eyes burning holes into her soul.

"Brax, Mavi. Are you guys okay?" she asks, playing her sister role perfectly - that's how the two boys see her anyway.

Maverick gives her a shaky nod and wipes the tears rolling down his eyes. Orianna grabs his hand in an attempt to comfort him. If it had been any other person, Maverick would be blushing. But this isn't just anyone. This is Ori.

The next thing the three know, is that they're joined by two other individuals - a Thai girl with narrowed eyes and a petite blonde. Kadence and Xienna, of course.

"Is anything wrong?" Xienna asks, and Orianna would be surprised at how gentle she sounds. But she can't say that she is, because Xienna, for all her fists and hot-headedness and knack for violence, has a soft spot. She knows that soft spot. She's touched it - literally and figuratively.

But Maverick pulls away, glaring at Xienna. "What do you two want?"

Xienna's jaw locks immediately, but Kadence takes the lead. "To check on you. Mavi, we're your friends," she says.

Orianna looks at Maverick, an eyebrow quirked, waiting for his response. "You were our friends. Just because we eat lunch together doesn't mean that we're friends. So you can go, I dunno, do your nails or something."

"You fucking misogynist," Xienna starts, but before she can finish her sentence, Orianna grabs her hand and Xienna freezes.

Orianna lets go before anyone can say anything and leans against the locker, fumbling with her bracelet.

"We're still your friends, Mavi. You don't need to dramatize everything," Kadence says with a perfected eye-roll.

"Go fuck yourself, Kade," Maverick bites.

"Hey, now," Braxton intervenes, stepping in front of Maverick. "Easy." It became a habit for the Ryce siblings to be the peacemakers, even before Blaire died.

Kadence smiles, eyes glowing maliciously. "Actually, Mavi, I can ask someone to do that for me."

"Bitch," Maverick hisses.

Xienna folds her arms. "Sorry for trying to help with your issues, Ricky," she spits, using the nickname Blaire gave him.

"What did you just say?" Maverick says through grit teeth, taking a step towards Xienna. This isn't new, not for any of them. Xienna and Maverick were the two hot heads of their group, and they always clashed. Xienna has punched Maverick about fifteen times since they became friends.

Xienna takes a step forward, a smirk playing on her lips and a glint of a challenge on her eyes. "You heard me, Ricky."

Everything happens too quickly for Orianna to process. Maverick raises his fist, Xienna raises hers. But before either can make a move, there's a voice behind them. The melody of an angel's song, the sound of perfect, practiced saccharine sweetness. It could only belong to one person.

"What, a family reunion without me?" the voice asks.

Everyone turns around, their faces pale as if they had seen a ghost. Because there, with her fiery red hair and eyes the iciest shade of blue is the girl who disappeared exactly one year ago. The girl who tried to kill herself. The girl who ran away.

Standing there is Greyson Chandler, one of their best friends - ex-best friends. Blaire DuMonte's shadow, Blaire DuMonte's confidant. By the end of the year, she was practically Blaire DuMonte - just less pretty, or so Orianna was told.

Greyson spreads her arms - she was always one for theatrics - her wicked grin spread on her face.

"Miss me, bitches?"