"Mackenzie! Mack darling!" My mother beamed brightly, poking her head into my room.
  The crisp, yellow sun seeped through my white curtains and the faint sound of birds chirping merrily mocked my terrible mood.
  My eyes burned at the morning light and felt puffy and crusty from that night. I didn't remember much from the day before but having to—by some miracle—survive the rest of the school day, arriving home, crashing and burning as I entered my room then managing to cry myself to sleep.

The more I thought about all that happened, the more I felt helpless. Weak. Broken. This can't possibly be my life right now, I thought miserably.

"Mum?" I called as I made my way down the carpeted staircase. "Can I stay home today?"

My mother stared at me questionably with her mud brown coloured eyes reminding me of a dirty puddle after the rain.

I quickly added," You know..dad might've let me."

"Well, your dad's at work. So, who's gonna allow that now?" she smirked.

I put on my best pouting face," Maybe, there's this really nice person. Mmm..what's she called again? Oh, yeah. That's right. It's mum."

"Nope." She thinly smiled. "Plus, why would you want to do that? Huh, hunny?", she ask, sliding a cold cup of chocolate milk over to me.

I took a huge gulp and my tastebuds couldn't help but dance. "If I told you that I was too sick to go—"

"—I wouldn't believe and send you to school anyway." She grinned and headed out the door, offering me a ride to school, if I could finish getting reading in five minutes.

I gladly agreed and flew back to my room. I ripped off my fluffy, dark blue robe and revealed my outfit; brown skinny jeans, a white, cotton sweatshirt and a pair of white sneakers. I knew that my mum would never let me miss school, but a girl can only hope.

At the speed of light, I frantically rushed back to the kitchen and chugged down the last of my chocolate milk. I raced out the door with my backpack swinging on my shoulders.

We drove off, with a trial of white smoke vanishing behind the car.

                                                                                                   ***

The halls were filled with people hustling and bustling toward the front of the staff room, where even more people were packed like sardines in a can.
  I tried pushing past a few other students till I could manage to see what the commotion was all about.
  A huge table covered with orange, silk cloth had stacks of paper. Maybe Bristol Board. Cute plastic leaves, streamers and vines decorated the table and it's surroundings. Some girls from the student council were lined up behind, hastily selling the thick, rectangular paper. Huge, sings in the colours of fall covered the walls.

"Fall formal. Get your tickets now before they're all sold out," I read out loud, realizing that the paper was tickets.

"Wait..what?" I mumbled right before the crowd started to get hyped and began pushing and closing in.
 
Instantly feeling cluster phobic, I forced myself out the rampage.

As I made it into the clear, I doubled over and tried catching my breath, fully aware that my bun had become undone and my sweatshirt strings were at the back of me. My white shoes weren't so white anymore.

"Hey, are you okay?" A familiar, strong, leader-like voice asked. "It must seem really crazy to go through that for tickets, huh?"

I tiled my head up slightly to find, Ethan Myers standing beside me, holding out fall formal fliers.

Being around the leader of the student council and the smartest guy at school, made me want to stand up straighter. I struggled to neaten myself and act more presidential. "Yes. I mean, I'm okay. I didn't try to get tickets or something."

Ethan's dark brows slightly frowned and I realized that I must've said something wrong. "I didn't try getting any tickets or anything of that sort," I somewhat correct myself, knowing that it didn't sound any better the second time around.

He briefly smiled, the way he did for his speeches. "Right.."

For some unknown reason, I felt the need to make this forced conversation less awkward and introduced myself,"Yeah. Well..um, I'm Mackenzie."

"I know. Mackenzie Blue, right? I believe we have several classes together."

If I wasn't trying so hard to seem as professional as Ethan was, my mouth would've dropped wide open. I knew that his job was to know mostly everything that goes on at school, but I wasn't expecting a person who spends their days planning, organizing and studying to know...me. But with all the drama that was currently happening, it was hard not to know my name—and all for the wrong reasons.

  "It's actually Blues. But yeah," I corrected him.

Ethan looked at me,"Right. My apologies. Hey, aren't you in the video and photographer club? The one who helped majorly in the ideas for the—"

Before he could finish his sentence, someone called for him back at the fall formal table, apparently in need of help. He politely smiled and nodded to the direction of the chaos, asking to leave.

I shrugged my shoulders and he turned away.

Exhaling a long, shaky breath, I felt relieved and without having to keep my posture perfect, I slumped toward class and the rest of the day trailed on.
 
                                                                                                    ***

"Hey! Mack!" Ocean flew through the door of our Spanish class. "Hey." She whispered when she was next to me.

Her forehead beamed with sweat although it was quite chilly out. I took one look into her eyes and got a hit of how stressed she was. Even though she wasn't wearing eyeliner, there was dark lines around her wide eyes.

She forced a smile and we sat together.

I tried to resist the temptation of asking her what was wrong, since I already had a few clues.

"Hola clase. Por favor tome sus asientos," greeted Miss Perez, our Spanish teacher.

We began class and I tried as hard as I could to concentrate but it felt almost impossible.

Most people believed that rumor, others didn't and some never even saw it—yet. I just wished that the truth was a little more obvious to the people that I thought it would be.

Sighing at my thoughts, I scribbled down in my notebook, whatever I could hear as my own voice continuously distracted me.

Halfway through the class, Ocean loudly inhaled and opened her mouth to speak but before she could I stopped her, knowing exactly what she was going to say.

She seemed disappointed, and I assumed that she spent most of the period trying to figure out how to tell me what was bugging her.

"I know. I'm sorry. But...not now. Okay?" I focused my attention back to the white board.

A ghostly smile flashed on her face for a second and she responded,"Yeah. Okay. After class?"

I nodded, still not looking at her and absently made it through the rest of the session.

"Adiós estudiantes," Miss Perez dismissed us.

Ocean filed behind me and the moment our feet crossed the doorway, she began. "Is everything okay? I mean, I know it's not but..are you okay? Is everything going to be okay? What happened exactly? Was there violence? 'Cause that would really..damage things. I have to know..I feel so excluded. Can this be fixed, though?"

I stopped dead in my tracks and faced her. "No, everything's not okay. Yes, I think I'm okay. I'm not sure, I wish it will be okay. A lot..a lot happened."

A rumor, fighting with Cherry and then loosing her after she thought the rumor was true, I left that part out, saving the painful details for later. "And no. There was no violence..but things were still damaged. I really don't know if this can be fixed."

But would I like that? I would've if I hadn't see a part of Cherry I never knew.

Even if things turn out okay, it'll never be the same again.

She didn't believe me.

She didn't trust me.

I paused for a breath then added,"As for you being excluded, just think of it as not being at the scene of crime. And 'bout the details, can you do me a favor and let me explain..later?"

She tried to play the brave friend card, failed at it then shook her head understandingly.

As she flipped her hair up into a messy ponytail, a buzzing sound came from her back pocket of her blue washed jeans.

Ocean slipped it out and read something. "Hey, listen...Cherry and I have to go this museum place. I..I promised her since like, two weeks ago."

I pursed my lips at that and allowed her to continue.

"You can get a ride home, right?"

"I think my mum can come for me. Talk to you later, 'kay?"

She stepped backwards and smiled,"Yup! You better!"

I watched her walk out the school's entrance and pulled out my phone to call my mum when I received a message. "From Dylan?"