I woke up surrounded by water.

I shot upright in horror, thinking I'd peed myself. Oh my gosh, I's better not have. I was flipping seventeen (well, technically nineteen now in this body) and I left wetting the bed back in kindergarten. But I quickly realised it was just a pile of drool on my wet pillow that had trailed down over the blankets. I wiped my mouth with the back of my sleeve, relieved.

Wiping my bleary eyes, I reached over to look at the clock. Seven pm. Groaning, I collapsed back down into the bed. I could still grab another hour or two of sleep, as Julia and Harriet hadn't even woken up yet. I could tell by the extremely loud snoring.

But going back to sleep didn't seem like an option anymore as last night's drinks flooded up from the pit of my stomach into my throat. I scrambled out of bed, skidding across the hall floor in my bare feet towards the girls' bathroom. I pushed open the stall door just in time as the bile rose up my throat and shot straight down the toilet in the most disgusting way possible.

Over the next twenty minutes, my stomach seemed determined to rid itself of all the drink I consumed last night. My face pale, I finally had nothing left to throw up. I headed back to my own room, as I had no clothes or anything in Julia and Harriet's. A yawn escaping my body, I trudged sleepily along the corridors, earning several stares along the way. A quick glance in the door's reflection left me stumped. My hair was as shiny and beautiful as if I'd just washed it, my skin only a degree paler than usual. I wondered about the logic of this. If I was in my normal body, I'd be sporting my usual blonde puffy bird's nest, a sure sign I'd just awoken. And after being sick, I should NOT look so healthy. In fact, the only real reason I was being looked at is because I was wearing Julia's too-small pyjamas and I wasn't wearing any socks or shoes.

As I reached out to turn the handle, my foot slipped. As my body propelled backwards I held onto the handle for dear life - which apparently wasn't enough to stop me colliding with the floor. My poor bum took most of the impact, and I was pretty sure I'd permanently dented it. Wincing, I glanced at the purple fluffy thing lying at the door of my room. Evil tripper upper. But what exactly was it doing there? Hauling myself up, my fingers lightly brushed the door handle. Puzzled, I swung open the door. And nothing could have prepared me for the sight that followed.

My eyes went wide. I stumbled backwards a little out the door, standing on the purple fluffy thing I now realised was a sock. I took it all in, trembling, the scattered items around the floor that lead to the edge of the bed. The blood red dress. The trousers. The belt. The high heels. The black bra dangling precariously off the edge of the bed, threatening to fall at the slightest movement. But most importantly, the sheepish face poking out from under the bedcovers beside a peaceful, sleeping one.

I did the only logical thing I could. I screamed at the top of my lungs.

Fiona scrambled out of bed immediately, dressed in only a long, trailing white t-shirt that did most definitely not belong to her. She pulled me gently outside, closing the door quietly behind us. She waited patiently as I tried to think of words to describe that unfortunate event.

"Where... What... Why?" I choked out, gesturing at the door and the person that lied beyond it. Fiona sighed.

"Last night at the party, I went to find Nathan. He actually payed attention to me, because of your makeover! We left pretty early and spent the entire night together. It was wonderful." She said breathlessly.

"But he's a player!" I retorted, my voice raising a little. "He takes you for one night then he's gone!"

But Fiona shook her head. "I know he does that, but this is different! He says he wants me to be his girlfriend!"

She was being so insistently stubborn and blind that I wanted to scream. Oh wait - I'd already did that. All that was left was trying to knock some sense into her. With a rue glance at my tiny wrist, I realised that unfortunately I wouldn't be doing that literally. "Oh, because that means a lot! Sure, Daphne's already his girlfriend and I doubt he's giving her up because she practically thrusts her cleavage in his face! And he has so many random girls over each night it's a wonder you can even call yourself a girlfriend! More like a girl he has more than once!"

"He already explained to me that our relationship wasn't exclusive," she said defensively. "And I'm perfectly fine with that. I mean, he told me he loves me, so I definitely know he'll just come back to me one day. And who am I to deny him plenty of experience when he's young? It's a good thing actually, because it means he'll be really good - not that he isn't already!" She let out a girlish giggle that didn't sound right coming from her usually sensible lips
"He told me I can do the same too, like Daphne does, and besides, once we're married it'll just be the two of us. I got to allow him his freedom."

"For such a smart person who gets A*'s on all her essays, you are so insanely THICK!" I yelled. "He won't settle down, Fiona, he won't bloody marry you. And it's pretty obvious he only said 'I love you' to get into your bed! And I can't believe you spent your first time with him, Fiona. I thought you said you wanted it to be special!"

"It was special!" She yelled back. "Because we're in love with each other! And love leads to marriage so I bet five years from now you'll be watching me and him say our vows!"

"You're disillusioned! He doesn't love you; he doesn't love anyone! And I bet if you look deep down you'll find ours not in love with him either! It's just a stupid crush, an obsession more like, and you only like him because he's good looking! There's someone else out there that's perfect for you, and who really loves you, and underneath all this you love them too. Just end this thing with Nathan and tell him how you feel before you break his heart." I pleaded.

"I don't know who you're talking about," she replied shakily. "I'm in love with Nathan."

I put my hands on her shoulders and forced her to look me in the eye. "No, you're not," I said gently. "You're in love with Owen."

She pulled away from my grip, her eyes flashing. "You can't decide who I love!" She declared, swishing her loose hair back round over her shoulder. "Stop messing with things you know nothing about!" I tried to reach out, but she knocked my hand away sharply. "Get away from me, you bitch!"

I couldn't quite believe my ears. "Fiona, this isn't you! You never swear! You need to stop changing yourself for a boy. He should love you for who you are, and there's someone there who does."

She lashes back so sharply I took a step back as a reflex. "You don't know me! You've been here, what, a week?" Understanding suddenly dawned on her face. A smirk tugged at the corners of her lips, as she twirled a stray strand of hair around her finger. "I see what this is. You may be fooling the others, but you can't fool me. You're in love with Nathan too, and you want him all for your self absorbed, stupid little self."

"Are you kidding?" I asked, incredulous. "I hate Nathan! What sort of conclusion are you coming to? The one in the land of lies?"

She laughed infuriatingly, a knowing look in her eyes, as if she'd got me all figured out. "Sorry, Jessica, but we all know Nathan doesn't go for ugly, fat, bitchy girls like you."

I couldn't hold myself back any longer. I swung my fist sharply, aiming straight for her smug little face. She didn't see it coming until it collided with her face. "Ow!" She cried out pathetically, clutching her bottom lip. "It's swollen, you little bitch! You know what? I'm transferring out of my room! Which should really be you doing that, because I'm the victim here!"

I laughed. "Victim? Please, you're the one who's totally changed because of a boy."

"Well, you just punched me!"

"You were being like one of those silly popular girls!"

With a final look of content in my direction, she sashayed back into her room, cooing, "Nathan!" But with all her attention spent shouting at me, she
didn't notice that three minutes earlier, Nathan had sneaked back out of her room, lured by a black haired beauty.

***

"This isn't fair," I grumbled, purposely making my steps more slow. Julia smiled, giving me a friendly little shove in the back.

"It's completely fair. We were at a party last night, so now we have to clean up the mess we made," Julia stated. Then she sighed herself. "But you're right. It's a waste of a Sunday afternoon. I could be getting my essay polished over. I think I could extend my thoughts in the last paragraph."

Harriet laughed. She was in an unusually good mood for someone who was in hospital last night; a sort of freaky mood, actually. She was smiling and laughing and she hadn't said one bad word to anyone all day. I wondered if she really did have concussion or something. I kept waiting for her to be grumpy and say things to me again, but she didn't. Perhaps she and Fiona had swapped their attitudes. That would make a lot of sense. "You want to polish off your essay by extending it, even though it's already three thousand words over what we were meant to write? I haven't written more than 'by Harriet Kelly'."

Julia looked at her incredulously. "But that essay is due first thing tomorrow morning!" Harriet just shrugged in reply.

We reached once again the house that served as party base last night. It looked so different in the daylight. The building looks so much more creepy, the greenery now so obviously overgrown and uncared for. As I walked on the grass the tips of it skimmed my bare ankles, making me shudder. At the doorway, instead of drunk college students there was plain clothed adults, standing primly with black bin bags and blue disposable gloves. As they handed us each an item, I pulled the plastic gloves over my hand and gripped the bin bag tightly towards my chest.

"Hello girls!" Said a woman cheerily to us, who was obviously in charge of the clear up. Her tone was way too bright for my hangover's liking. "Thank you for coming to help clear up the house! Could you three please clean the upstairs bedroom for me? It's the second one on the left. Thank you!" She turned around to greet another group.

Julia stood at the bottom of the stairs, her hand frozen on the edge of her banister. Her eyes were glued to the top of the stairs, and I knew what she was thinking; is it the bedroom we were in last night?

But fortunately it wasn't. It was one of the smaller rooms, with faded wallpaper that at one time might have been a promise yellow. The floorboards underfoot creaked at even the slightest step, and they were covered in a fine layer of dust. The sheets on the bed were crumpled and stained, the covers lying discarded on the floor. There was a few empty bottles of cider lying in the corner in a huge damp spot.

I tackled the cider. The glass bottles with a little liquid left swishing at the bottom went straight into the bin bag. I headed quickly into the bathroom, which was covered in sick, among other utterly disgusting things. I grabbed a huge pile of toilet roll to layer over the damp patch. Meanwhile, Harriet and Julia moved over to the bed. Wincing in disgust, and declaring to use her Dettol hand wash later, Julia whipped the sheets quickly off to be washed later. There was already a huge pile of sheets and bedcovers lying in the hallway to be taken to the laundrette later.

"Do you think that's us done?" Harriet asked. She somehow managed to wriggle her way out of doing the work, leaving me and Julia to replace sheets and so on. She basically stayed on her phone the whole time, smiling from ear to ear, which made me very suspicious. One thing I knew about Harriet is that she simply didn't do happiness.

"That's us," Julia confirmed. Harriet nodded at her briefly before flipping her phone cover over again to resume furiously texting. I doubled back under the pretence of checking something as they left the room, meaning once I caught up with them I was walking behind them. I tried to appear subtle as I leant over Harriet's shoulder. Can't wait till you get back, sweetie. I know you don't believe me, but you'll see what I mean at -

The phone's screen suddenly went black. Looking nervously up, I came face to face with Harriet's angry... face.

"Were you reading my text?" She demanded, sounding a lot more like the girl I met last week. My tongue was on the verge of saying no, but then I realised there was no point denying it when I was caught in the act.

"Rosie? You wouldn't, would you?" Julia questioned. I looked her straight in the eye.

"Yes, sweetie," I replied honestly, hoping to provoke some sort of reaction. As if on cue, the faintest hint of colour began to creep into Harriet's cheeks. She shot me a look that clearly meant, if you don't pursue this I won't either. I gave a tiny nod of recognition in her direction.

"So," Harriet swiftly changed the subject. "Who wants ice cream? I'm thinking triple scoop, vanilla, strawberry, bubblegum, with a flake and some chocolate sprinkles. My treat."

Hi guys! Sorry it's been so long without an update, I've been crazy busy with preparing for a big event, a wedding! Guess who's reading at it! Plus my schedules gonna get even worse with my exams approaching. Please don't think I've given up on this book, because there will be updates, just not that frequently and I can't honestly say when I'll post next, but I'll try to make it soon. I'm so sorry!

Zoe xxx