HI GUYS THIS IS VERY EXTREMELY EXCITING NEWS BUT FROM NOW ON I'M GONNA BE UPDATING ONE OF MY STORIES ONCE A WEEK AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! So as of now I'm thinking of setting my update day as Thursday, so be on the lookout:) Oh and honest question, but do you guys think the girl in this chapter picture fits Lyla better, or the girl in like the second chapter picture?

Grant was running late again. He gripped his bicycle till his veins were visible amidst the rest of his smooth skin as he tried to free it from a navy blue jump rope. Colorful curses escaped his mouth while he strained against the rope. As Lyla was standing next to her own 2001 Honda Accord, he stopped trying to untie the knotted rope and instead, he jogged over to her with his hair flopping all over his forehead.

Panting, he leaned on the side of the car and held onto its roof with his left hand and asked, "Can I get a ride? My bike is-," he gestured behind him, "-tangled, and my parents won't let me take any of our cars out, so-"

"Get in."

"What?"

"Are you deaf? I said, get in."

He just looked at her with wide eyes, but they soon narrowed. "Is this because I lowkey kicked you out of my house yesterday?"

"No, it's because we're both about to be late if you don't shut up and let me drive. If you're not in the car by the time I count to three, good luck getting to school today 'cause I'm about to leave without you."

"Woah, chill Lyla, I'm-," "1-," "I'm going, just-," "2-," He swiftly opened the door with gusto and threw his backpack in the back seat. Lyla frowned at his carelessness and she slammed the door of the front passenger seat closed. She swiftly walked to the other side, opened the door, sat inside, and slammed the car door while revving the engine. She held the back of Grant's seat and twisted herself out of her seat to get a better look of the driveway behind her, and she carefully pulled out, and sped off to the Academy.

The ride was short, but it was punctuated by the sounds of other cars honking at Lyla's speed driving. Even if the school was closeby, she still reached a high of 70 mph on a road with pedestrian crossing signs scattered all along it. In her peripheral view she could see Grant's fingers digging into the fabric of his seat while his nose was pinched upwards and his eyes were closed. When she finally pulled into the parking lot of the school, there was not a person in sight, but there was a lot full of cars. The time on the dashboard read 8:00 a.m. But then a high-pitched RIIIINNGG rang through the entire campus.

Lyla clenched her fists on the steering wheel, squeezed her eyes shut, and took calming breaths in and out through her nose.

"Are you okay?"

Lyla couldn't believe his nerve.

"Get out."

He looked at her with his left eyebrow raised. "Ummm, no. If you're going to have a mental breakdown in the car over being late, I kinda just wanna watch. It'll be more entertaining than listening to an old lady drone on about AP Physics anyways. Plus, I already got a 5 on the AP Physics test so there's no point in me really attending."

Lyla stilled. Of course. Why hadn't she thought of it earlier?

Here they were, entirely isolated from the rest of the world (aside from the rather public building they were parked near), and she didn't even think to interrogate him.

Lyla slowly turned towards him. She just looked at him, assessing him, his position, everything. He was wearing a black shirt with the Vans logo on it, with a black bomber jacket on top of it, dark wash jeans, and a white vans, complete with his signature messy hair. 

"You're drooling." 

"No, I was just thinking about how an asshole managed to score a 5 on the AP Physics test." 

"Are you always this pissed off, or just when you're jealous?" 

"What's there to be jealous of?" 

He gestured to himself and said, "Ummm like all of this?" 

"Let me repeat myself: What's there to be jealous of?" 

"Haha, you're so funny," he deadpanned.

Lyla's lips stretched across her face, and she raised her arms and said, "I only speak the truth." "Right, Lily. Of course you do." Lyla was quite proud of the poker face she kept at that moment. "I'm glad we agree." A tense silence ensued until they both started, "So-" "Why-" They stopped and Grant gave a small gesture towards her and said, "Bitches first." Lyla couldn't have cared less what she was referred to as. "Why? Why did you already take the AP Physics test?" There was so much more she wanted to ask, but she couldn't give away how much she knew either. "I'm in an accelerated academic program outside of school so I learned AP Environmental Science in 6th grade, AP Biology in 7th grade, AP Chemistry in 8th, and AP Physics C in 9th. That was my sciences. I learned AP English and AP Literature both in 9th. I finished AP Calculus BC in 8th and AP Statistics in 9th.I finished AP World History in 9th, and AP U.S. History in 10th. I got 5s on all the test except AP Environmental Science; I got a 4. I kinda fell asleep on that one," he said sheepishly, while running his fingers through the hair on the back of his head.

Lyla was astounded at how freely he said all of this. Did he not care about secrecy? Did his father not tell him that Grant himself was his own best secret-keeper?

Huh.

"Since we're clearly playing 20 questions, I think it's my turn."

Lyla looked at him. Her left eyelid twitched. She looked at the dashboard.

8:26 a.m.

They were wasting time, too much time. But this was such a good opportunity.

"Fine."

He gave her a smug look.

"So Lyla, what's up with Lily?"

"I think that it's a nice name-" "I agree, Quatry is a beautiful name, but I don't see why you felt the need to change both your first and last name. That is a bit odd, isn't it?"

"You're very judgemental, there are quite a lot of people who have changed both their first and last names."

"Cut the bs and just tell me the truth, I won't judge."

"Bs."

"You caught me. I can keep a secret though."

"I've come to assassinate you."

"That's nice. Anything else you want to get off your chest?"

"I have a nipple ring."

He raised his eyebrows. "I'm not gonna lie, I didn't quite pin you as that kind of girl, but...want me to take it off?"

"Later."

He slowly edged away. "Did you somehow get high in the middle of our conversation? Because you're usually a 'little miss prissy' Lyla, not 'I have a nipple ring' Lyla."

"You're not very good at 2 truths and a lie are you."

His shoulders visibly loosened.

He looked at her ears and said, "So no piercings and no "later" for me, huh."

"Definitely not."

"You're good Lily, but not good enough."

"I figured."

"So I'm not getting the answer to my question anytime soon no will I."

"I highly doubt it."

He looked at her, bit his upper lip, and opened the car door. He put one foot out, but he suddenly twisted around to face the back of the car, and he pulled his black Jansport backpack out from the backseat. He pushed himself off the seat and slung his backpack around his shoulders.

"See you around Lily."

He slammed the car door; the car shuddered underneath his force.

You're good Lily, but not good enough.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She and Grant had the same schedule:

1.)AP Physics

2.)AP Literature

3.)AP Computer Science

4.)AP Calculus BC

Lunch

5.)Psychology

6.)Art 1

So when she emerged from her car 15 min. later, she received a tardy, but she didn't get the slip since she just had skipped first period altogether, and had decided to join school at the start of second period.

When she walked into her second period class, teacher was writing the chapters they had to read on the board. So far, AP Literature on its own was quite an enjoyable class. The teacher was rather aloof, but so far The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was proving to be an enjoyable read. It was much more realistic and attested to what Lyla had seen in human nature so far in life. Especially when it came to what she had seen in Grant.

Tom and Grant - both were mischievous, and rather reckless, but they fixed their problems. At least, according to how he had so far acted in front/to her.

He was currently texting Evans; both of them sat near each other, with Evans a row and two seats in front of Grant. They looked at each other every now and then with incredulous faces plastered on for some reason. She would have to look into that later.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next two periods were quite...bland. AP Computer Science was already proving to be a pain - Mr. Kumar's thoughts on homework had no bounds. When he mentioned homework, Grant took it in stride; he didn't groan with the others at the mention of homework, he just wrote it down on his planner.

Ms. Chung, their AP Calculus BC teacher had given them a diagnostic test today. While it had been some time since Lyla had done precalculus, she did believe that she had scraped a B on the diagnostic test. She would have to check up on some sections though, especially trigonometry.

It was lunch time. Yesterday during lunch she had just waited in the cafeteria line, but today, she would have to integrate herself into school life. The best way to do that was, Lyla assumed, by making friends.

There was an empty table with two girls, one was caucasian, with a rather rotund figure and blonde-dyed blue hair (only at the tips). She looked to be rather short, and she wore all black, except for her galaxy tights, which were paired with black ankle boots. Her friend was asian; she wore a "Rock-Climbing Club 2016" blue jacket, and netted tights. Her black hair was bleached at the tips, and her face had remnants of acne scars littered across her cheeks.

Lyla blew out a breath and walked towards them.

"Hi, my name is Lily, and I'm new here, so is it alright if I sit with you guys?" she said, while gesturing the the six empty seats near them. They both looked up at her warily.

"Are you sure you're new?" said the asian girl.

"Ummm...yes?"

"The name sounds pretty familiar. We thought you were...nevermind. You don't look like her anyways so...whatever. Let's start over. Hi, my name is Maggie, and this is Rachel," she said pointing to her caucasian friend.

"Nice to meet you."

She sat down and pulled her lunch out.

"So, that guy over there, his name is Grant, right?"

"Don't tell me you already have a crush on him," exclaimed Rachel.

"Her and every other girl," said Maggie in response, rolling her eyes.

Rachel put her hand down on the table and said, "Look, to put it simply, he's an asshole. He's nice to you whenever he needs something, but after that, don't expect anything else. Trust me, I have experience."

"Oh?" Lyla cocked her head.

"What happened?"

"When he was running for President of Class Council, he needed votes, so throughout voting week, he would make sure to be as kind and as sweet as possible to everyone who wasn't popular to get votes. When we became lab partners for chem a month later, after he became class president, he made me do all the work. Once, I didn't even go to school for the lab, but he still made me write-up the lab report." She shuddered. "I'm ashamed to say I voted for him."

"That's terrible."

"I know."

"What about his friend, Evans?"

"Wait, you really don't know?" asked Maggie.

"Know what?"

"Holy shit."  

Picture: A more fitting version of Lyla Scorzer (my opinion:)

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