I was genuinely shocked to hear the gentle patter of rain when I woke up. After the weather remaining undecided for the entire weekend, it's nice to see that the heavens finally made up their mind and let the rain that was stored in the cloud fall to the ground. The wonky weather didn't stop the four of us from having a great time and I can say with confidence that my first girls' weekend was a blast. 

I roll, out of bed and head over to the window pressing my palm against the glass I watch the rain come tumbling down, soon followed by a crash of thunder and a flash of lightning. All of this sends a smile to my lips, I've always been a fan of storms they make me see that even Mother Nature needs to let out her frustration here and there. But, out of every weather condition, my absolute favourite would have to be hail.

Most people think it's a scary thing, large chunks of ice falling on the earth and damaging everything it hits. I was scared the first time I saw it, my family and I were sitting in the living room enjoying the sound of the storm when a giant hunk of ice suddenly crashed through our window and hit the couch next to me. I screamed so loud and for so long while my dad tried his best to console me. I only calmed down after my mom handed me the piece of ice and as I held that hunk of ice, and rolled it around in the palm of my hand all of my fear about hail disappeared.  I know that ice is such an obscure and random thing to love but I guess that's part of what makes me special.

A series of knocks suddenly echo from my door. I half expect it to be my dad again but to my surprise, it's my mother who calls out to me. 

"Are you awake?" 

"Yes!" I call back making sure she can hear how annoyed I am.

I don't need either of them to check on me and make sure I'm awake and ready. I'm grown up (mostly) I can handle some things myself. Getting up and ready for school at an appropriate time is one of those things.

"Okay, well breakfast is ready."

I hear her descend the stairs and with my stomach grumbling I rush to my bag, sling it over my shoulder, and head down the stairs behind her.

"You know you guys don't have to check if I'm awake. You can trust me to get ready in time for school," I chuckle as I sit down at the table and start to eat the breakfast my mom prepared for us. 

"We can never be too careful honey," my dad mumbles taking a bite out of his piece of bacon.

"Yeah well, I have an alarm to tell me to get up I don't need you guys to do it as well."

"Alright, sorry honey," my mom apologizes.

"How was your weekend?" my dad asks me. "I was going to ask you yesterday but you for home so late," he adds as he leans across the counter and puts his dirty plate into the sink.

"Oh, yeah... um... it was great. We talked a lot, watched some movies, styled each other's hair, and we ate so much food it made us pass out."

My mom smiles. "Sounds like you had fun." 

"It was," a small smile breaks into my face, "Anyway, I have to get to school."

"It's a bit early to leave isn't it?" my dad asks as he looks down at his watch.

"I want to print some photos to decorate my locker," I quickly explain as I grab my bag and start heading toward the door.

"Well, we don't want to keep you from that, have a great day honey," my dad smiles and before I can leave he grabs my arms and plants a quick kiss on my forehead. 

"Bye!" I call out to both of them and head out.

It was just my luck that the rain started to pour harder as I ran to school. The droplets clouded my vision with every step I took. But by some miracle, I made it to school without having a single accident. Sure I am sopping wet but at least I didn't slip and break my ankle.

Just as we had planned over the phone Jade was already waiting for me by the front door.

"Well, don't you look ravishing in all that rainwater?" She smirks as she saunters over to me.

"Yeah, it's my new look," I laugh and wipe the water off my face and out of my hair.

"Well it looks great," she laughs at her joke for about a minute before she turns all serious. "So why did you want me to meet you here so early?"

"I want to go to the library to print some photos for my locker and I was wondering if you could help me out?" 

Leaning forward a bit she playfully punches my shoulder.

"Of course, I'll help you besides who doesn't love a trip to the library?"

I raise an eyebrow at her.

"You like reading?" 

Normally I would never judge a person, but I have never seen Jade pick up one of our schoolbooks let alone a work of fiction to enjoy as a pass time. However, the shocked and disgusted look on her face tells me that my judgment was way off.

"Of course, I enjoy reading what makes you think I don't?"

The more she aggressively steps toward me the more I step back until eventually, the wall stops me from going any further. I raise my hands in the air to signal my surrender.

"I'm sorry, girl, just calm down."

She continues to stare me down with an expression that can only be described as downright sociopathic when suddenly she bursts out laughing.

"Relax I was just talking shit." Her eyes pool with tears as she continues to laugh.

As angry as I want to be with her for tricking me like that I can't keep my laughter back.

"Wow, I actually believed you." I grab my ribs because they are hurting so much from laughing.

"Good, now let's go to this God-forsaken library."

In my old school, the library was like a hangout for most students. It was generally packed with people either studying, doing last-minute homework, or chilling with a good book and their friends. It was never empty nor was it ever quiet, even though you are supposed to be silent in a library our librarian would encourage us to converse with one another. The only exception to this rule was if the library was being used as a classroom.

The library here is very different. Very very different. It is as silent as a tombstone and the only soul in here is a wrinkly old woman who (I assume is the librarian) sitting behind the desk reading a magazine about knitting.

"That's Mrs. Ossxan she's been the school's librarian for like a hundred years now. I'm sure she was here when my grandmother came here," Jade says not caring how loud her voice was.

Mrs. Ossxan drops her magazine onto the desk and glares at us.

"Quiet," she hisses.

"Sorry," I quietly apologize for Jade, but this doesn't seem to do anything and the woman continues to glare at us. Her wrinkled eyes are pulled together in a way that makes her look like an evil psycho lady in a horror movie. "She seems like a lovely lady," I whisper as soon as we are far enough away from her.

Jade scoffs. "Sure, if you consider the pure embodiment of evil lovely then she is the most wonderful woman in the world."

Not being able to handle myself I let out a loud laugh that I'm sure if we were in one of those strange etiquette classes from the movies I would be scolded.

"Quiet!" Mrs. Ossxan hisses and even though she is a decent distance away from me I can hear her scruffy voice perfectly.

"Sorry," I apologize again making sure to keep the tone of my voice as low as possible. 

"She also has a very short fuse."

"I can see that," I whisper, "Where are the printers?"

"In the corner." 

"Let's go print some pictures so that we can get out of here before she puts us in some dungeon," I whisper and dramatically raise my flash drive like it's a sword and I'm about to head into battle.

As soon as all of my photos were printed Jade and I rushed out of the God-forsaken library and away from that horrid librarian.

We headed off in different directions to our lockers and after I packed all the books I needed I started pinning up the photos. As I pin up the one I feel a hand lightly grab my shoulder soon followed by an intense feeling of ice racing up and down my spine. I look behind me expecting it to either be one of my friends or Toby but to my surprise, Seth is the one standing behind me.

"Hey," I nervously smile at him not knowing what else to say. 

He crosses his arms over his chest and leans slightly forward.

"You look surprised to see me?" he chuckles.

"Yeah well, you don't exactly talk to me a lot," I giggle. I want to kick myself for acting like such a schoolgirl right now but there is just something about him that is making me act like this. Maybe it's the rain droplets glistening in his hair, they are quite distracting.

"Good point." He tugs his lip with the top of his teeth which is yet another thing that distracts me. "Anyway, I was wondering if you were doing alright?"

Once again I am taken aback by him. Last week he talks to me for the first time and now here he is asking me if I'm alright.

I feel like there must be a glitch in a matrix because I can't think of any other reason he would be this interested in me. 

"I'm fine," I politely say. "Why are you asking?" I add.

He shrugs and casually leans against the locker next to mine. "No reason. It's just that last week was your first week in a new school and I could see it was stressful. So I genuinely wanted to know if you were alright." 

The more he speaks the more confused I become. There must be something going on that I'm not aware of.

"It was stressful but luckily I have three amazing friends to help me out."

"Well, that's good," he smiles which causes his dimples to stand out.

A blanket of awkward silence wrapped around us and only now I remember Jade's warning to stay away from him. That combined with the image of him viciously attacking Toby instantly makes me decide that I have to cut this strange and awkward conversation short.

"Well thank you for checking up on me that was really sweet, but I promised Jade I would help her rearrange her locker so I should get going."

"Okay well, I'll see you in maths."

I breathe a sigh of relief as he turns around and starts walking away but before he reaches the end of the hallway he turns back around.

"Oh, and Vega if you ever need anything just ask and I'll help you out!" he calls out to me.

I don't know if it's the emptiness of the hallway or the fact that I'm terrified that Jade will see him talking to me but his voice seems extra loud and as much as I want to scream at him to leave I simply nod and smile at him. 

"I will."

It's a false promise but he doesn't have to know that. Before he tries to talk to me again I slam my locker shut and hurry off in the opposite direction.  Only it seems the further I step away from him the more I want to turn back around and run toward him. Why can't I have a normal conversation with a boy? The only two here that talk to me either make that strange cold feeling appear or I'm weirdly drawn to them even though I barely know them. Either way, I think it's best I steer clear of both of them and head over to Jade.

As I turn a corner a mysterious figure comes out of nowhere and shoves me to the ground. The impact knocks the breath from my lungs and a groan tumbles from my lips. I try to push myself up off the floor thinking that this shove is the last of the attack against me but it isn't and the figure kicks me in the ribs a few times. Every time their foot came in contact with me that same massive chill shoots through me. Eventually, the savage attack against me stops. My ribs throb with the pain, and small amounts of blood dripped from my nose from when this person's foot accidentally (at least I think it was accidental) hit my face instead of my abdomen.

Groaning and moaning in pain I roll onto my back and look up at my attacker. It takes me a hot minute to recognize her but as soon as my eyes lock with her muddy brown ones filled with anger her name pops into my head. Carla. Head cheerleader and number three on the top three people I have to stay away from lists.

She menacingly glares down at me, her eyes shining with rage and hatred. "Stay the fuck away from Seth," she hisses. 

"What?" I cough as pain shoots from my ribcage and through the rest of my body. 

Screaming through clenched teeth her leg flies out and her foot connects with my side. I scream for her to stop but she doesn't until she's kicked me at least five more times.

"Listen you worthless bitch he is mine. He has always been mine and I'm not going to let you the pathetic new girl take him away from me!" she yells, suddenly her expression changes and a smirk appears on her lips. "Here's a little something to remind you of that."

She drops to her knees and harshly grabs the bare skin by my wrist. This action confuses me but I don't have time to think about what she's doing because out of nowhere I feel my skin begin to sizzle and the smell of burnt flesh fills the air.

More blood-curdling screams rip from my throat. I reach my hand out and try to push her away but she swats them away like flies and grips my arms tighter. Before my skin can burn even more I reach out again and shove her, this time she doesn't swat my hand away fast enough that I make contact with her. The force of my push causes her to lose grip on my arm and fall. I look down at my wrist shocked to see that it wasn't my imagination and that there are burns on my skin.

"What the fuck," I gasp.

"You're going to regret that," Carla growls and attempts to lunge at me, but before she can get a chance Jade, Nicci and Kim step in front of me creating a shield around me.

"Back off bitch or you will regret it," Jade hisses.

I can see the calculations running through Carla's head. She's trying to see if attacking me again is worth the risk, and it turns out it's not. Frustrated she heaves herself off the floor and storms away.

"Thanks, guys," I wheeze my ribs aching as I talk.

"Are you okay?" Nicci asks as she tries to examine my injuries.

"Why did she attack you?" Kim asks.

"She said—"

"Vega, are you alright?" Seth's voice suddenly echoes through the hallway.

I look behind me to see him sprinting toward me. When he reaches me he tries to lean down to touch me but Jade steps in front of me blocking his path.

"What's it to you?" she hisses at him. 

Glaring at her he takes a few steps away from me.

"I heard the commotion and came to see if I could help," he explains, he shifts his body so that he can look around Jade and his eyes lock with mine. "Vega, I'm so sorry she did that. I didn't know Carla was still obsessed with me."

It's strange how I can tell that there is genuine worry and concern in his voice, it sounds even more real than when he was talking with me earlier. A warm feeling spreads within my chest as the idea of him taking me into his arms and comforting me suddenly surfaces. I can almost picture it so perfectly, I can feel our bodies connecting perfectly as if it has happened before.

Carla must have hit me harder than I thought.

"Listen to me you prick you need to stay the hell away from Vega. She got hurt because of you so I highly doubt more of you will help her!" Jade yells at him.

Seth barely pays her any attention, his eyes remain locked with mine.

More images of him holding me reel back and forth, playing a small movie inside my mind.

Please stay.

I want to tell him that, but the words dare not leave my mouth and I watch as Seth shakes his head and walks away.