Hey! Here's the next chapter! I hope you enjoy it!

I woke up the next day with a throbbing head ache, I sat up and looked around, I wasn't in my bed, or even in a bedroom. I hadn't made it past my father last night, he had beaten me unconscious in the hall way and left me there. I got up and quickly ran up to my room, hoping that I didn't meet him on the way but I doubt he was even awake. I locked the door behind me and looked in the mirror to assess the damage, I gasped. My eyes were surrounded by deep black shadows, probably from a broken nose, I could feel a few cracked ribs, I lifted up my shirt slightly and saw my stomach covered in bruises. I sighed this was going to take a long time to cover up. I quickly glanced at the clock and cursed I was going to be late! I quickly grabbed my make-up and went to work covering the black eyes on my face. I wouldn't have time to cover my stomach, but that wouldn't matter I'll just have to make sure that I don't get changed for gym in front of anyone.

When I was done I looked myself over, I couldn't see any of the bruises, good. With that I dashed out of my room grabbing my bag and an apple as I ran out of the house. I sprinted down the street but I was still going to be late. I hadn't been late in years, I didn't like to anger my teachers but I guess I had no choice now.

I arrived at the school gates almost three quarters of an hour late and slightly out of breath. I dashed through the door and grabbed my books. My first class was English, so I headed that way. The lesson had already started when I reached the room. One good thing for coming in late was that all the spaces around the 'heartbreakers' were full, there was no chance of them sitting near me.

"And why are you late, Miss Acre?" Miss Hawk asked sternly.

"Um . . . I overslept. I'm really sorry, it won't happen again." I said and it was partly true as I wasn't awake early enough, it just wasn't my fault.

"That may be so, but I am still going to have to give you a detention." Miss Hawk said whilst giving me a firm stare. Detention?! I haven't had any in months and months but all of a sudden I've got two in two days! If I get another this week the head will telephone my dad! I can't let that happen! No matter what I have to be good, I'll have to be the best student that any teacher could wish for so that there is no reason at all for them to complain. I grudgingly nodded to her and took the last seat left in the room.

"Now that everyone is here," Miss Hawk said giving me a pointed look that made me shrink into my seat. "Split up into your project groups, everyone." She instructed causing me to groan internally, my day was just getting worse. I didn't move, they could come sit next to me but I was not going to them. The boys quickly moved away from the simpering girls clinging to their chests and sat around me.

"So why were you late?" James grinned at me.

"I said, I over slept." I stated.

"Yeah, but that was a lie, what's the truth?" James asked casually. How did he see through that? I was a brilliant liar, I had to be. But no one ever saw through my lies, how did someone who knew me for less than a day recognise when I lied. But I didn't let any of these thoughts show on my face.

"None of your business." I said and leant over to grab my copy of Hamlet from my bag. I had my hand stuck in my bag when I felt my shirt start to ride up. I thought I heard a gasp from behind me and that triggered something in my brain. Oh my god, they can see my bruises! I tried to sit up as quickly as possible and pull my shirt down at the same time, I almost fell off whilst trying and was only saved by a strong grip on my arm. It was Tom, I turned to say thanks but it got caught in my mouth by the expressions on their faces. They ranged from shock to downright anger.

"Um . . . Thank you." I finally managed and stared down at the table.

"What happened to you?" Ryan growled in an angry voice. I didn't show it but that scared me, I knew that when people were angry they weren't always in control of what they did and they were unpredictable. That put me on edge.

"Again it's not any of your business, but something you will learn about me is that I'm very clumsy and last night, me being me, I managed to trip on the stairs!" I replied angrily, lies like these came to me easily these days, it was like second nature to me to lie now, especially about injuries.

Ryan didn't look convinced, had he seen the almost hand-like shape the bruises had taken? Could he see through my lies? The others though were convinced and let it drop, for which I was really grateful.

"So who read any Hamlet last night?" I eyed them suspiciously, already knowing that they won't have done anything. They all purposefully avoided my gaze, proving me right.

"We may have accidentally forgotten to read it." Luke mumbled.

"Why am I not surprised?" I grumbled flipping open my copy of the play and starting to take some notes. I need to stick to the plan! I can't let them find out anything about me, it's too risky.

"So how did your family thing go last night?" Luke asked, whilst getting out his copy of the play. I stiffened, what did he say? He couldn't possibly know what happened last night. There was no way. Calm down Tori!

"What?" I asked hoping that my panic wasn't as easy to hear in my voice as I thought it was.

"Last night you said you had to leave because you had a family thing." Luke explained

"Oh that! Yeah it was good. Pretty boring really." I said a bit too quickly.

"If I didn't know any better I would say that you just wanted to get away from us last night." Ryan said with a smirk.

"Now what would make you think that?" I said sarcastically, not even looking up from my notes that I was writing.

"Ouch! You're hurting my feelings here." He said in mock pain, clutching his heart.

"Well you're not taking the hint. None of you are." I said looking up briefly to send him a quick glare.

"You intrigue us. We've never had a girl who hated us so much when she didn't even know us." Tom shrugged. What? My attempts to get them to leave me alone were making them more interested in me? That's not fair! What am I meant to do now? Why can't they just leave me alone? I groaned out loud and shoved my head in my hands. This made them laugh, yeah they can laugh about it but I'll be the one being hated by a group of jealous girls.

"Why don't you just find somebody else to annoy?" I groaned, I mean I don't know why they were bothering, I'm not anything special.

"Because you're much more fun." Ryan said smirking.

"And the other girls kind of scare us." James said with a worried face that made him look really cute.

"Aw, are you scared of the big bad girlies?" I teased in a baby voice making James just stick his tongue out at me.

"Well, wouldn't you be scared of that lot?" Tom asked pointing at the rest of the class. I turned to look and was surprised to find them all starring at us, well more like glaring at me and drooling over the 'heartbreakers'.

"Actually I think I have more of a reason to be scared of them than you do." I muttered.

"You may have a point there." Luke chuckled making me glare at him.

"Oh, so me being attacked by your crazy, jealous fans is funny to you, is it?" I snapped suddenly feeling really tired. Even though I probably was asleep for longer than normal, I felt like I hadn't slept in weeks.

"I personally think it would be hilarious."Ryan laughed and I just knew that he was picturing it. I glared at him but I didn't snap back at him like I wanted to because Miss Hawk was walking past and what I wanted to say would definitely get me another detention. So I just gritted my teeth and bent my head over my notes.

"What? No smart remark?" Ryan teased. I was literally biting my lip so as not to shout at him. I had never been so annoyed by anyone before, I just wanted to . . . to . . . to hit him. That made me freeze. I had never thought of myself as a violent person, especially after my home life. I never think of violence as the answer, yet here was this boy that I just wanted to smack around the head!

I would never have dared to even think of this before. The thought of confrontation scared me. I would never be the one to start it and I would always try and shy away from it, terrified of what could happen. But yet with Ryan, I don't even know why but I had a feeling that even if I did hit him, he wouldn't hit me back. Stop it Tori! You shouldn't even be thinking of hitting him! He's obviously much stronger than me, that is stupid! You're asking for trouble. I shook my head, clearing my head of those thoughts.

"I don't need to get in anymore trouble." I muttered quietly, not looking up at him as I knew that the sight of him would probably just provoke me.

Thankfully, before he could reply the bell rang and I leapt out of my seat and practically ran from the room. When I was out in the hall way I wondered why I bothered, they were in my next class too!

Walking into my maths class I found that I was one of the first to arrive as I had been power walking away from 'the heartbreakers'. Great! So there was no chance that all the seats around me would be full before they arrived.

Wait! I'm being really self-centred here! They probably don't even want to sit next to me! I won't have anything to worry about. They'll want to sit with their adoring fans who actually appreciate their company.

With that comforting thought in mind I slipped into a seat and relaxed. But that comfortable feeling disappeared as soon as I saw 'the heartbreakers' walk into the room. Tom smirked as he noticed me trying to hide behind a book, sliding into the seat next to me. I repositioned the book so that it was still hiding my face from him, making him laugh, but as I couldn't see his face I didn't know what he was planning. So when I heard a loud "Boo!" next to my ear, I shrieked and literally jumped out of my chair, much to Tom's amusement.

I glared at him and quickly scanned the room hoping that there was still a free seat I could move to but Tom obviously saw my plan and grabbed my arm yanking me back into my seat. I had to stop myself from screaming as I felt his hand around my wrist. When I was back in my seat I yanked my hand out of his grasp and started to count backwards from twenty to try and calm down my frantically beating heart. My other hand circled around my wrist and I stared at my desk. See! This is why you don't even think of starting a fight! You can't handle having anyone touch you without freaking out, you were just kidding yourself when you thought you could hit Ryan.

"Hello? Earth to Tori!" Tom said waving his hand in front of my face. I flinched slightly but I don't think that anyone noticed.

"What?" I asked, turning to look at him, hoping that none of my panic was clear on my face.

"You left your book." Tom said handing it to me with an amused smirk.

"Um . . . thanks." I muttered shoving deep in my bag. It was then that I realised that I was surrounded by 'the heartbreakers', they had taken up all the seats around me trapping me in. I cast a nervous look at them all, which just made them grin at me. "What are you guys doing?" I asked worried, and my heartbeat took off again.

"Nothing." They all said at exactly the same time. This was starting to freak me out, I didn't like being trapped, especially by four very suspicious looking boys.

It was then that Mr Evans started the lesson and I was grateful to have an excuse to look away. I purposefully stared at the board for the rest of the lesson, ignoring whenever James would throw a bit of an eraser at me trying to get me to look at him. I acted as though I didn't see him and focused solely on the lesson.

Again as soon as the bell went, I tried to leave as quickly as possible, but I found my way blocked.

"Please move, I have to get to my next lesson." I said trying to not get annoyed and refused to look up at Ryan who was stranding in my way.

"Well it's our next lesson too, why don't we walk with you?" Ryan asked, grinning. There were many reasons that I would like to have said why he couldn't walk me to my next class, but I think it was meant to be a rhetorical question and before I could answer he looped his arm through mine and was dragging me out of the room.

My heartbeat took off at the touch, and I had to screw my eyes shut to keep the panic from crashing over me. Too many people had touched me today, and after last night I was starting to feel its effects, my nerves were rattled and I don't know how much more I could take of this. The panic kept most of my attention so I didn't realise for a while that every girl in the school was glaring at me as I was dragged past.

Please! Switch places with me, I don't want this! My brain cried out. I ducked my head hoping that no one would recognise me, as I really didn't want to be targeted by angry 'heartbreaker' fans. I tried to tug my arm away from him but he just tightened his grip, which made trying to calm down even harder.

I was only about ten metres away from the class room when I spotted Jazzy walking along with Kelsey. They stared at me with their mouths open and I sent them a desperate look. I think Jazzy noticed the panic in my eyes, but Kelsey just sent me a look that said we were going to be talking about this at lunch. Before I had the chance to call out for Jazzy to help me I was being pulled into the class room.

Once I was in the room Ryan finally let go of my arm and I immediately took a step backwards, putting distance between me and the 'threat', I know realistically that he probably wasn't a real threat but my body still reacted as though he was. My dad had really screwed me up, any other girl would be dying to be in my place.

"Are you going to sit down?" Ryan asked in an amused voice.

"Not until you do." I said firmly. Once he had taken a seat I was going to sit at the other end of the room as far away from him as I could.

"Nuh uh, I'm not letting you get away from us." He smirked.

"Is this a game to you? Are you only following me around because you think that my reactions are funny? Because if you are please just stop it, because I don't find it funny. I really don't." I pleaded seriously.

"I'm not ONLY following you for that." Ryan teased, causing me to groan and fall down into the nearest seat. "But I won't lie, that is a major reason." Great! I thought sarcastically.