I stare at the pile of discarded clothes on the floor of my bedroom. Those are all the clothes I can't possibly wear to meet the school administrators. It's all either too short, too dressy, or not dressy enough. Gosh I'm so stressed, I really want to make a good impression.

"Did I own any normal pieces of clothing?" I ask aloud to no one in particular.

After I've taken everything out of the closet, I decide to rummage through the dresser, even though I'm 90% sure it's all sweat pants and pajamas. But after about another ten minutes, I finally find a decent outfit: Jeans and a plain teal shirt.

"Hm a bit bland but at least it goes below my thighs."

I plop down on my bed and stare at the ceiling. I'm not gonna lie, I'm really nervous. Going to school, seeing all those people who I used to call friends...it's going to be a lot, but maybe with Steve and Kevin I'll actually be fine.

Steve promised that he wouldn't let anyone bombard me with questions about the coma. He knows the headaches I get every time it's mentioned and how depressed it makes me sometimes. Steve's also one of the only people I've told about my life as Olivia Wright. I'm still not quite ready to be in a relationship but part of me knows that I have to move on from Blake because he wasn't, well he wasn't...

Real

But he'll always be real to me

I shift to the other side of the bed and think about Kevin. I haven't spoken to him since he got all weird last week. The questions keep bouncing around in my mind: Why did he come sit with me at the hospital? And why is it such a big deal? What caused him to go from happily talking about Harry Potter to excusing himself to the bathroom?

What

"Peyton! Its time to go! I'll be waiting in the car, please come soon!" Rachel calls from down the stairs.

"Ok coming!" I yell back.

Well, this is it, I think to myself as I lace up my converse and head down the stairs.

I hop in the front seat and shut the door. We pull out of the driveway and head down the road.

***

"Olivia! Olivia where are you? We have to get to school!"

A flash of auburn hair whips out of sight and goes behind the couch.

Her mother smiles,

"Come on Liv, don't you want to see your teachers again? You might even meet some new friends!"

"No!" Yells a young voice from behind the couch. "No I'm not going!"

This time her mother sighs and goes behind the couch where her daughter is crying. She picks her up and holds her.

"Why don't you want to go? I thought you liked your teachers?"

"I did! But there's going to be other kids, not just me! I don't want to make new friends! And-and I don't wanna leave you!"

The mother laughs and holds the daughter tighter.

"Oh honey, I'll never be gone! Even if I'm not right next to you at school, I'm still there."

"How?"

"This is how!" She begins kissing the girls face until she shrieks with laughter.

"See? Now I'm all over you! There's no way you can get rid of me. Now are you ready?"

The girl laughs, "Ready!"

She takes her mothers hand,

"Don't let go." She says softly

Don't let go, Don't let go, Don't let go

Peyton, Peyton, PEYTON

***
I snap awake and it takes a minute to remember that I am not Olivia I am Peyton.

"Peyton, we're here come on! You dozed off the whole car ride. I didn't know you were tired." She says getting out of the car.

"Yeah I didn't know I was either." I mumble.

We walk through the parking lot down to the school, forcing the strange dream from my mind. I'm super nervous, what if make a bad impression? What if they decide to expel me before I even start? What if-

"There's no reason to be nervous you know, you'll do fine!" Rachel reassures me.

She takes my hand as we push open the glass doors.

"Don't let go." I say barely above a whisper.

We pass hallway after hallway until finally we reach the principals office. This is where I will meet with the school administrators and the head of the leadership committee, who will give me a tour of the school.

Rachel raises her fist to knock but before she does, she turns back to me,

"Ready?"

I take a deep breath, "Ready."

She knocks on the door and we wait. One minute. Two minutes. Five minutes pass before we hear a deep:

"Come in!"

We push open the door. There are four people in the small office: A fat, balding man sitting behind the desk, an elderly man and woman in identical uniforms off to the side, and a girl about my age with frizzy blonde hair and glasses. The office is very cramped.

"You may sit down ladies." Says the elderly woman.

Me and Rachel sit down across from the fat man, who I'm guessing is the principal.

"Good evening Ms Comber, Peyton. It such a pleasure and a blessing to your faces again!" He says nodding towards me.

Rachel nudges my arm,

"Oh, thank you. Mr.."

"Baldwin" He says, "Peyton we are all delighted that you are alive and well! The past years have been tough without knowing if you were...well never mind that. Anyway, the school administrators are going to ask you a few questions and then Allie Baker, head of leadership and in your grade, will give you a tour of the school while your mother will be asked some questions of her own."

I nod and the elderly man and woman come forth and ask their questions. There fairly easy really, just mainly asking if I've been feeling well and how I've been adapting to my life now. Its not too hard, though I do leave out Olivia Wright because well, I don't want then to think I'm loony. Eventually the questions end and relief takes over. They look satisfied. All I have to do now is do the tour with Allie.

Allie's the first person my age, besides Steve and Kevin, that I'm going to make contact with. A new wave of stress washes over me, I really hope I make a good impression on her. Maybe if I get this right, we can become friends or something.  

I look up at Allie and almost jump. She's glaring at me and I mean glaring hard. Have I messed up already? What could I have possibly done to make her hate me this much so soon?

"Peyton? Are you ready for Allie to give you the tour?"

"Hm? Oh yeah sure."

He turns to Allie whose expression is suddenly sugar sweet.

"Of course Mr Baldwin! Follow me Peyton!" She says heading out the door.

I follow with one last look at Rachel, she gives me a smile and I head out behind Allie.

As soon as the door shuts her face is cold and expressionless. She leads down a hallway walking fast. We walk in silence for most of the tour, only speaking when we enter classrooms, labs, the cafeteria, until finally the silence breaks in front of water fountain.

"Ok stop pretending to be nice!" She shouts.

I stop walking, confused "What?"

"Stop acting! Your horrible at it honestly!"

"I'm not acting! I'm just being nice because I'm a good person!"

She laughs,"Oh is that what they told you? That's rich!"

I furrow my brow, "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that you were-are I mean, an arrogent, rude, self absorbed, diva!"

"What?"

She smirks, "What? Surprised your not the angel every one says you are? You were one of the biggest jerks in school! Honestly I'm surprised no one's said anything about it!"

What? No that can't be true, it just can't! I'm a good person...right? Or is she right, that I was a bully, that Steve and Kevin have been lying to me this whole time. Why wouldn't they tell me? Is that why Kevin came and sat with me? Because I was so awful he felt sorry for me?

"Maybe that's who I was...but that's not who I am now." I say softly and a bit unexpectedly.

I don't even know where it came from but I know it's true, at least I'm hoping it is.

"Yeah right. No one that evil can change so quickly. In my eyes, you'll always be the villian." She says in a low voice.

Burning anger courses through me and I so very want to punch her, but I don't. She wants me gone and if I hurt her, there's no way they'll let me in to school. So instead I just clench my teeth and keep walking. We reach the principals office and she opens the door.

"Well that's the end of our tour! I hope to see you again when school starts!" She says in her sugary sweet voice.

Two can play that game. I smile really big and say:

"Thank you so much! I hope to see you again too!"

Hope you liked that chapter! Please vote down below and if you have time, please go check out my other book: Skylur Storm and The School of Halfbreeds! -Vanna