I loved feeling this way. I loved feeling happy, even if it meant I wasn't acting like myself. But then again, was I really not acting like myself? I always said that I wasn't how people thought I was. So I could act girly and happy over a guy and still be myself, right?

"Stop acting like you're high," Chloe ordered flatly from beside me as we made our ways down the hall after school. "People are going to start thinking that you're poor and a stoner."

"Can you blame me for being happy?" I asked with a smile, clutching onto the scarf around my neck as we headed toward our lockers. "The guy I like sent my flowers after I kissed him! I can't even remember a time I've been this happy!"

Chloe only stared at me flatly as we stopped in front of her locker. She opened it quickly as I continued to stay in fantasy land. I hated that Jack was doing this to me, but I just couldn't help but feel this way. How sweet was it of him to send me flowers? He couldn't have been a player!

"What did he say about the flowers in the class we have with him?" Chloe questioned now, digging through her locker now and not even looking up at me. "One of you must have said something about it, right?"

"No," I answered with a shake of my head, leaning back against the locker next to hers. "He didn't say anything about it, and I didn't want to seem pushy or anything by mentioning it. I bet he was just shy about it..."

Chloe only continued staring at me flatly. "Shy is definitely the last thing Jack Ricketts is."

"You don't even know him," I defended, my eyebrows furrowing as she pulled out a book from her locker. "He was nice and sweet to me all day yesterday. He comforted me when I really needed someone to... I really like him a lot, Chloe!"

"You just met him yesterday!"

"Not really. We met in a coffee shop a couple of weeks ago, where he saved me when I knocked into Eli and spilled my hot chocolate all over his shirt," I informed her with a shrug, trying to act as uncaring as possible. I just hadn't been acting like myself lately... "And we just made out. It's not like we slept together or anything."

"You should go get your textbook from your locker," Chloe sighed, shutting her locker as she now held her math book in her arms. "I'll meet you back at the dorm. Hurry, okay? I need help in math and since you're a scholarship student and all, I'm sure you can help me."

"Yeah," I nodded, pushing away from the locker I had been leaning on. "I'll meet you back at the dorm then. I'll be there in about ten minutes to help you."

Chloe smiled brightly at me. "Okay! Thanks!"

I chuckled, spinning on my heel and walking away in the direction of my locker. I wasn't looking forward to doing homework, but I couldn't remember a time when I did look forward to it. Who liked homework? I definitely didn't. And even though I was the scholarship student, I still skipped out on assignments every once and a while when I just didn't feel like doing them.

I spun the lock on my locker until I hit the three numbers that was my combination, and I lazily opened my locker and raised my hand to find my mouth book. But I found something spilling out and onto the floor as the locker door swung so violently that it smashed against the locker next to it.

I screamed when I saw snakes, and lots of them, slithering around my feet. And if that wasn't bad enough, there had been a jar connected to my locker door by a string. When I had opened the door, the jar had fell and smashed onto the floor. So not only was there broken glass and snakes, but there were also hundreds and hundreds of spiders crawling over the floor after they had gotten out of the jar.

I stepped back, not knowing what I was supposed to do. I was terrified of snakes, and I was even scared of spiders! Who the hell would have done something like this to me?

My eyes widened as I stared down at one of the ugly little snakes. Only three people knew that I was scared of snakes. And that was Jack, Eli, and Courtney...

I remembered how Eli had told me he was going to do things to make me fight him. My anger boiled, and I felt my hands ball into fists as other girls ran around the hallway, away from the terrifying creatures that slithered and crawled all over.

I was going to kill Eli! There was no way he could have done this to me, even if he did hate me! This was way too much for me to take! I couldn't stand snakes!

I let out another screech when I felt a pain in my ankle. I looked down at my feet to see a big snake bite, and I couldn't help but freak out even more. What if it was poisonous? Was I going to die? Would Eli be charged with murder if I did?

A million questions ran through my head, and I had no idea what I was supposed to do anymore. I didn't even know what I was supposed to think. There were still so many creatures moving around the hall, and now staff had ran into the hall to see what the commotion was about.   

My breath went jagged from anger, and I quickly spun on my heel once again and made me way to where I knew The Lost Boys would be. They always hung out right outside the cafeteria right after school, and I hoped that I'd be able to catch that bastard leader of theirs before they left to go home.

Forgetting about my bleeding and hurting ankle, I quickly walked through the hallways until I finally got outside. I found myself smiling when I saw that The Lost Boys were still outside the cafeteria, all laughing over something that I hadn't heard.

When I got up to them, they all fell silent and Eli smirked.

"Well, if it isn't the poor girl," he greeted with that lazy grin of his.

"You think you're so cool, don't you?" I spat, poking him in the chest so hard that he took a step back. "What, do you think you're the almighty king of the school or something? Do you really think in that big head of yours that you're really that important?"

Eli smirked at me, eyeing my ankle now. "I see you've opened your locker."

"You're messing with the wrong girl," I warned, my eyes narrowing at him as my hands balled into fists at my side. I was pretty much getting in his face, but I couldn't have cared less. "I'm not going to fight with you or anything, because I know that's exactly what you want. So I'm not going to hit you or anything, because there's no way I'm going to leave this school."

Eli only continued smirking at me. "Don't you see it, poor girl?" he asked, moving his face even closer to mine. "You don't have a say in it. This school will listen to anything I have to say, because if it wasn't for my parents, they wouldn't be doing anywhere near as good as they're doing now. So you don't have to fight to have me kick you out; I can just go to Headmistress Bistro and make up some a lie about you and she'll have to believe me."

I was still breathing heavily as the words he had just told me went through my brain. He was right, and I knew it. He had all the power and I was just a powerless fool who thought she could actually win a fight with the richest kid in town.

"You'd need proof, wouldn't you?" I challenged, even though I found myself weakening with every word I say. "Headmistress Bistro can't just believe what you have to say. And since I haven't broken any kind of rule, you're just out of luck."

Eli laughed, and it honestly scared me just a little. He didn't seem like the kind of guy that laughed unless it was because of someone's misfortune. I looked back at Jack, asking him with my eyes to help me, but all he did was avert his eyes to the ground. Chris just grinned, as if completely oblivious to what had happened, and Tyler just looked uncomfortable all together.

"I've just made up a new rule," Eli informed me, leaning forward so that his face was so close to mine that our noses were almost touching. "I can do that, since my family gives the school so much money. I might not have been able to stop you from getting into this school, but it can be so easy to get you kicked out. So do you want to know what this new rule is?"

I gulped, knowing that I didn't want to know this new rule he spoke of. But I only continued to look right into his green eyes and say without my voice shaking one bit, "Lay it on me."

"No poor person can have a romantic relationship with a rich person," Eli informed me with a smirk, shoving his hands into his pockets and straightening himself back up. My eyes widened when I realized what he was talking about. "So that means... whatever's going on between you and Jack needs to go bye-bye. Or you could just leave the school and you can have any kind of relationship with Jack that you want..."

Chris and Tyler both looked shocked at what Eli was saying. They didn't know that anything was going on between Jack and me, and I was hoping that it would stay that way for a while. But obviously, Eli had to open his big mouth and tell me this stupid rule in front of them...

My eyes widened in anger, and I couldn't believe he was actually telling me this. How could this jerk just go off and act like this was nothing at all? And how did he even know that there was something going on between Jack and me? Unless he had seen us in the parking lot...

That had to have been it. He saw us kissing in the parking lot, and he probably saw us kissing in Jack's car also. Why did I have to be so careless?

"Jack?" I blinked, now wanting him to finally jump in and save me. He had done it so many times, so why couldn't he have just done it when I needed it the most? I really needed someone on my side!

"Fine," Jack sighed, shoving his hands into his pockets as he lazily stared at me. But I knew he was talking to Eli. "I'll stop seeing her."

Eli smiled evilly down at me, and my eyes just widened even more. What was he talking about? Was he seriously just going to forget about what had happened the night before all because Eli wanted him to?

"Jack!" a new voice rang out, and suddenly a brunette girl emerged as she practically tackled Jack in a hug. She giggled as his arms quickly encircled her waist in a hug, but he quickly pushed her away without even looking at me. The brunette continued flirtatiously, "I just wanted to say that this morning was amazing! I can't wait to have even more times with you like that!"

Little by little, I felt my heart cracking. Jack said something to the girl that I didn't hear, and she nodded and happily scampered off. My breath was shaky, and I had to bite my lip to stop myself from crying.

"See?" Eli asked smugly, crossing his arms over his chest as he cocked his head over toward Jack. Chris and Tyler stayed silent, but I didn't even look in their direction to see how they were reacting. "I know I wasn't the only one that told you how he really was."

"But... the roses..." I blinked childishly, not understanding why he would have sent me roses if he was off with some other girl. Did he think that I wasn't going to find out?

"Oh, yeah. Those," Eli smirked archly, and I found my urge to cry strengthen as he let out a laugh. "Those cost me thirty bucks. You can pay me back whenever. They're some pretty damn good roses. Oh, and those snakes weren't poisonous, just to let you know..."

I only stood there for a second, and I couldn't believe what I had been hearing. Jack hadn't sent me the roses. For all I knew, he could have been in on it with Eli. Was this just a joke all along? Did he never really care about my feelings? Was this just a way to get me out of the school for good?

He said he wanted to take walks with me.

How much you wanna bet that that was a lie, too?

"I thought you were different," I told him, taking a step so I was right in front of him now as I bit the inside of my lip as tears threatened to fall. "I really thought you were different from every other jerk that goes to this stupid school, but I guess I was wrong. You're just like the rest of them. You're just as horrible as your stupid friends."

I turned around and started to walk away, but Jack grabbed onto my arm to stop me from moving any farther. "I didn't think you'd get this upset."

"You didn't think I would get this upset?" I demanded, ripping my arm from his grasp and spinning on him now. "Why the hell wouldn't I get upset? I'm a girl, God damn it! I have feelings too, alright? Don't be like everyone else I've ever known and assume that I don't have feelings!"

Jack blinked at me, his eyes going wide just a little. "Assume you don't have feelings...?"

I couldn't help but notice that Eli looked shocked at what I had said as well, but I didn't even acknowledge him anymore. Chris and Tyler still didn't say anything, so it was like they weren't even there anymore, and I didn't really mind that at all.

"Just forget it," I sniffed, taking another step away from him. "You can go sit under the slide by yourself. You can go take walks in the poor part of town by yourself. Because I don't want anything to do with you anymore."

Chris let out a bark of laughter. "Do you seriously do that, dude?" he asked, slapping his British friend on the shoulder. Jack's face turned red, and I knew I was effecting him now.

"Of course I don't," he snapped, slapping Chris's hand off of his shoulders as he turned to glare at me. "I don't know what she's talking about. She's obviously delusional to think that I do any of those things. She's delusional enough to think that we even had anything going."

"Womanizer!" I cried, squeezing my eyes shut to stop the tears from falling. "Womanizer, womanizer, womanizer! I should have listened to everything that everyone said! I should have listened when they told me that you were just a player! But no, I had to ignore them and fall for all your stupid tricks! You're no better than everyone else!"

"Why don't you just run off to that poor boyfriend of yours?" Jack snapped, his eyebrows furrowing as he glared at me. For the first time ever, his accent absolutely disgusted me. "He's the only person that you could ever possibly go out with."

I wanted to hit him so badly that my fist hurt, but I knew that I couldn't. If I wanted to stay in the school and with this fight, I was going to have to fight my urges to hit him. No matter how much I wanted my fist to connect with his nose, I knew I couldn't...

"You're a womanizer," I spat at Jack, taking a step away so that I was now in front of Chris, Tyler, and Eli. "You're an idiot, you never talk, and you're just a spoiled rotten brat!"

Eli's eyes widened at me in shock, as if he hadn't ever heard that insult before. The way he was looking at me was so strange, and I couldn't tell what he was thinking.

"I'm not giving up," I sneered, taking a step back so I could finally be away from them all. As much as I wanted to leave the school and never come back, I wasn't about to let them win. "You can't do anything that could make me leave this school. You're stuck with me, you bastards, and there isn't anything you can do about it."

I spun around, walking away as quickly as I could without any of them stopping me. I wasn't about to give them what they wanted by letting them see me cry. I wasn't going to let those assholes win.

When I got back to the dorm, I slammed the door open so hard that it smashed against the wall and caused Chloe to jump from her bed.

"Ivy, are you okay?" she asked, ignoring her homework that had fallen when she had jumped. "Why are you crying? What happened?"

Before I answered her, I slammed the door shut behind me and made a beeline toward the roses that continued to sit on the table in the middle of the room. I shoved them off, letting them crash onto the carpet. I didn't care if any water got onto the floor, because I knew that it would just dry later.

I took the card and ripped it up, letting it land wherever it wanted to. I then looked at the dozen roses as they stared up at me from the ground, and I stomped on every single one of them.

I then picked up what was left of them in that stupid red vase and made my way to the window. I opened it up, resting the case on the will for only a moment before throwing it out and watching it shatter as it hit the ground below.

I turned around to see Chloe already picking up the extra rose petals and pieces of the card. "You don't have to tell me what happened yet, Ivy," she told me quietly, not even looking up from what she was doing. "I think I already have an idea of what's going on."

I collapsed onto my bed, letting out a loud sob as I shoved my face into my pillow. How could I have let myself get tricked like this? Everyone had said that he was a player. Everyone tried to warn me, even the bastard Eli Hunter himself. And yet, here I was all because I didn't listen to anyone.

How could Jack have thought that I wasn't going to get hurt? He was just like everyone else, wasn't he? Everyone thought that I was so coldhearted and emotionless just because I would get into fights. But that wasn't how I really was! My feelings had been hurt, and I didn't know what I was supposed to do about it.

 Had he meant anything he had said? He had told me a lot of things about himself... But did he tell every girl that? Did he want them all to sit under a slide with them or take walks around a place he didn't belong? Did he tell them that he didn't want to be rich or feared?

He had denied all of that when I had told his friends about it. So did he tell any of the other girls about it? Something was telling me he hadn't. But why would he tell me something but then not tell any of the other girls that he had been with? Why would he do something like that?

My head was starting to hurt, and I didn't want anything to do with Jack anymore. I couldn't think of him anymore, or my head was going to hurt even more. I couldn't let him get to me like this! I shouldn't have gotten myself so attached after only really knowing him for a day... But I couldn't help but feel attached to someone like him.

I had let myself be tricked. I let my guard down and I trusted him. I knew that I couldn't make that mistake again. It seemed like I couldn't trust anyone at this school except for Chloe, and I was afraid that it was only going to get worse from here.

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