MONDAY mornings were never a particular favourite of mine, a shocking revelation I knew was truly unique, but I felt that this was a especially terrible one. Easily one of the worst Mondays ever conceived, and that was a pretty high bar already.

But having my neck and face covered in red, ridiculously itchy blotches and pasty white calamine lotion, looking the pinnacle of all things high fashion I'm sure, all while trying my best not to claw off all my skin- well, that was, by any means, just a bad time.

A very panicked and horrified trip to the doctor's on Sunday brought the burning words of poison ivy along with the promise of a week or two more of this hell. Because this was, of course, my life. And having scrapes and bruises all over my body clearly was not bad enough for me.

Reese's presence really was on a path headed straight for death, and my body was deteriorating one day at a time. I was sure of it.

Heaving another sigh, I sat on the steps in front of my house, watching as Savannah's sleek, navy car pulled up into my driveway. She rolled down the window, poking out her blonde head of hair and wincing as soon as she caught side of the damage.

"It's not, uh, it's not that bad?"

Her face read a completely different story.

I shot her a dry look, throwing my backpack over my shoulder and stalked towards the car, unimpressed, to say the least. "Save your false words of comfort," I advised, "I am the unfortunate owner of a mirror and am painfully aware that it is very, if not every single type of bad."

Savannah shot me a sympathetic smile, those crystalline eyes drowning in pity. "Hey, didn't you say that in a week or two it'd all be cleared up? I still don't know why you were walking in that forest, but it'll be fine. Time will fly, trust me."

I fixed her with a skeptical look. "I trust nothing other than that hell's fire is occupying my face."

Savannah cracked a grin and rolled her eyes, peeling out of the driveway.

I'd recounted a watered down version to Savannah and Eva, where I was taking an innocent walk by myself in the forest and then catastrophe struck, purposely leaving out a few key characters due to the fact that I was now a horrible friend and a liar.

It was like my mom knew and that was why she was forcing me to go to school after I'd begged shamelessly for hours, which she was having none of. Now I was forced to endure my punishment.

Which was of the cruel and unusual temperament, as I slunk down the halls and tried to convince myself that everyone was totally not staring at me. That was a lie. Everyone was. I looked like a creature from the black lagoon.

When Eva saw me, she barely stifled a gasp from those cherry red lips. Her next immediate action was snatching a blanket-esque scarf from her purse and lunging, cocooning my face in the fabric. I watched her from the slit she allowed me, shooting Savannah a questioning look, but taking it nonetheless.

I knew better than to fight it.

"It's hot," I complained, voice muffled by layers of silky mauve.

"But you look so much better," Eva insisted, eyeing her work with approval. "No one can even tell, it's perfect!"

I blinked, feeling not very perfect at all. "I look like a mummy."

"Well it's either mummy or zombie, so pick your poison, Stella. Beggars can't be choosers.

Savannah rolled her eyes, but when we locked gazes I could see the small smile toying on her pale lips. "Maybe you should concentrate more on getting better and less about striding down the cat walk." Which was easy enough for her to say, with her effortless braid and loose white t-shirt she looked more like off-duty model than childhood nightmare.

Eva shot her a hard look, those thick brows unimpressed. "Um, are we ignoring the fact that she has geography with Tyler? I think no face is better than ugly face, no offense Stella, I love you, and usually you're a total babe but you're looking a little rough," she admitted in all painfully honest Eva fashion, clapping me with a sympathetic hand on the back.

I groaned, reminded of the awful truth in her words, and a key factor of why I begged my mom so long. It was bad enough that he saw me with my gaping gash and animal shit ensemble, the embodiment of zombie infection was not exactly the follow up I was hoping for.

"Do you even want a boy who would judge you on that?" Savannah asked.

"Yes," both Eva and I agreed in unison. We turned and grinned at each other, although mine was still hidden beneath my mummy couture.

Savannah rolled her eyes and hiked her pale pink backpack higher on her shoulder, a betraying smirk still finding her mouth. "Well I think that we are all better than that, and shouldn't waste our time on assholes."

Eva opened her mouth to no doubt argue, when a deep voice cut through our conversation.

"Stella?"

All three of us turned, and I peered through my eye slit only to grimace. I'd been hoping so dearly I could avoid him without any trouble.

"What?" I asked sharply through muffled fabric, eyes narrowing.

It wasn't like I was saying it was his fault, it was just- well, no, I blamed Reese entirely. This was all his stupid fault.

"It's not my favourite look, but I could get into it," Wyatt mused, flashing an impish grin my way. I didn't return it.

Reese lifted his hands in innocence, brows raised in question. "Just wondering how you were feeling today," he mumbled, shrugging.

I rolled my eyes at his faux-virtue, slowly unravelling the cocoon to reveal my red and blotchy face. "Absolutely wonderful," I drawled, trying to ignore the fervent itchiness of my face. "Just swimmingly."

Wyatt hissed, wincing, and Reese's eyes grew wide with shock. "Oh, wow."

"Yeah, well, turns out that me taking a walk was literally the stupidest idea in the world, and I'm a total idiot for thinking of it in the first place, and I never really should have trusted my dumbass instincts, because look where it got me." I grinned at him with a deceitful sweetness, and I was slightly conscious to the fact that Eva was giving me a sideways look, but I ignored it in favour of driving my point across.

"More like poison icy, am I right?" Wyatt grinned too hard at his own pun.

"Well maybe you shouldn't be so hard on yourself because it was actually a really good idea, and accidents happen, and maybe it was more of the execution than the idea itself, I think," Reese countered, returning my pointed stare with a challenging edge.

I faked considering his idea. "Yeah, no, I'm pretty sure I'm just a total dumbass."

"You're not a dumbass," he insisted.

"Pretty sure I am."

"Pretty sure you're not."

"Am I missing something here?" Eva interjected, eyeing us both warily. I turned and could see that Savannah too was glancing between us with a strange look.

I paused and realised that we weren't being very inconspicuous about the whole thing, and I managed to swallow my anger for the time being. "I'm just a little twitchy 'cause my face hurts," I brushed them off, shrugging casually.

"And I think Stella shouldn't be so hard on herself," Reese agreed with me, grinning for reassurance purposes and throwing an arm around my shoulders.

"Too far," I said through my similar grin.

He dropped his arm and stepped to the side, creating a safe distance between us. "We're all friends here."

All three of them were now carefully eyeing us with suspicion, but thankfully the bell rang and I welcomed this opportunity to run with open, inviting arms. "Ah yes, well, class time! Time to go learn! Let us be off!"

I grabbed both Savannah and Eva by the arms and guided them in the opposite direction, not even sparing a goodbye for Reese or Wyatt or that absolutely terrible situation we were leaving behind.

I heard both of the boys call out to us but opted to ignore them instead, actually finding Chemistry to be less painful than whatever the hell that was. I didn't think something less painful than Chemistry existed, but well, Reese was always full of surprises.

When I unconsciously lifted my hand to scratch my face, Savannah slapped my fingers away. "No touching!" she scolded, and I frowned at her in defeat.

This day was not going to end peacefully and safely, I just knew it.

***

I swallowed my nerves and forced myself to take a step into the classroom, holding my breath as I entered into the wonders of geography. The rest of the day had been suspiciously uneventful, other than the hordes of curious people who were not too shy to ask what had happened, which I had to explain multiple times in every period so far. Welcome to high school.

Tyler looked up at my entrance and I inwardly cringed, ducking my head out of instinct. It was too late. He already saw me, and now I could never tell this story to our non-existent future children.

"Stella? What happened?" he asked, eyes wide and melded with concern.

"Oh nothing," I brushed him off while dropping my backpack to the floor, slipping into the chair. "Just some poison ivy."

"Ouch," he hissed, "That looks rough. Guess it really hasn't been your week."

I nodded in complete agreement. "Oh, you don't even know."

"Well, hope you feel better soon," he said, shooting me a soft smile and turning back in his seat.

As I stared at the back of his head the same way I had done days and days before, I felt a little warmth blossom in the pit of my stomach. Tyler McMaster turned around, and he talked to me. We had what others might consider a full-fledged conversation. And I couldn't keep the grin off my face as the realization dawned on me, because although I was essentially an itchy, blotchy red mess, Tyler had turned around to talk to me. And it was sort of, almost, worth it.

Which was my only thought after class as I turned the corner outside, holding my books to my chest and an involuntarily smile still stretching my lips, imaginary hearts circling my head. I was so enveloped in my reverie that I barely had any time to process the "Heads up!" before I felt a large, blunt object smashing me in the face.

As I lost my balance and found myself splayed across the concrete, a throbbing pain occupying my face and the sunlight piecing into my eyes, I groaned.

"I'm so sorry!"

"Someone grab the football!"

I sighed. "Fucking ow."

***

Ahhhh! First of all thank you guys for 1.1K reads! That's so awesome and I'm so glad that you guys are liking this!

This was sort of a filler-y chapter, I'm aware, but next chapter things will be happening! So do not be disheartened! THINGS WILL HAPPEN. MAYBE. There are words for this... they rhyme with... shmow shmurn? What could it be?

Also I can't believe we're almost at double-digits, ahhh! THIS WILL NOT BE A SINGLE DIGIT FAILURE. MAKING PROGRESS.

As always, thank you so much for reading! You guys are the best!