Authors note - this is like the third Rich kids boarding school story so you probably can read this straight from this one, it might be confusing for a little while, I would suggest you read the other two. There on one of my story groups, both of them. But hey, whatever!

Enjoy.

1

Skye's POV

'Oh, Skye you're so funny' said Natasha, laughing exaggeratedly. I smiled, taking a sip of my drink and trying to remember what I had said, I was sure it hadn't been funny at all but sure, Tash could laugh if she really wanted to.

'I do try' I replied, and she grinned at me.

'I really like you Skye' she informed me.

'I like you to' I replied. Well... kinda. Natasha was my third proper girlfriend actually, including Nerina who hardly counted, and she was nice. As nice as a girl who always had everything she could ever want and always knew what to talk about and how to act could be. And she was gorgeous. Long blonde hair, slim but still with nice boobs, kinda tall, fake tanned in a classy way that hadn't gone in splotches like that one time Blake tried to do it when we were...

It didn't matter.

But Natasha was nice, she was your typical privileged upper New Yorker, who was bound to go on to marry some rich lawyer or businessman who would be picked by her dad and support her for the rest of her life. The kind of girl I should be wanting. Basically, we had met through our parents and well, now she was my girlfriend of two and a half weeks.

'You won't forget me when you go to your school' she said.

'I won't' I replied. She smiled at me.

'You know, since it's your last night. You don't think you'd want to spend it at mine do you?' she asked, lightly. My mouth went dry.

'Umm, Tash I'd love to it's just-'

'Don't worry' she shook her head, then took a sip of her espresso, staring out the window.

'I like your hair like that' I said, to fill the silence.

She looked back at me 'you always tell me that when I curl my hair Skye' she said.

'Well, it's true' I said 'have you ever thought about dying it'

'I do dye it' she replied, 'well... I highlight it-'

'Yeah, yeah' I said quickly, before she went off into a rant about her hair that never ended. 'But I mean a more dramatic color, like pur-' I stopped myself, wincing.

'What color sweetie?' she asked, grabbing my hand.

'Umm... nothing' I said, quickly.

'Seriously, anything to make you happy Skye' Tash said in sugar sweet voice, eager to please as always. Then I found myself wishing that she could be more fiery, passionate. But since when had I wanted that?

This whole holiday had gone quickly, too quickly. I had spent a painful Christmas day with my parents and older sister River, pretending to be a "happy family" but had spent most of my time out of the house to be away from them. Since my friends were scattered around the country, Natasha was the only one I could spend time with and she had mistaken it for me being really, really into her.

'I dunno, pink' I said quickly.

'Pink' she repeated, confused. 'Sure... Skye but isn't that weird?'

'No. Don't worry about it. It's just a stupid idea' I muttered, then paid for the bill and we walked to the movies, Natasha grabbing my hand annoyingly but I took it and squeezed it in the way girls love and it made Tash smile.

You know, maybe I could marry her. Natasha would make a great girlfriend and wife, just the kind mum and dad wanted me to marry. Just the kind of wife mum was, well look how that turned out. A fake marriage, at least fourteen affairs and two really confused kids. I don't know, I guess that could be me. At least I wouldn't have to go through all that crap with Blake again.

Why the hell had I kissed her?

And why did I so badly want to make everything in her life better?

And why did I want to do both of those things, but still hate her?

I shook my head and looked back at Natasha. She was looking concerned.

'Skye, are you-?'

'I'm fine baby' I murmured, wrapping my arm over her shoulder.

Blake's POV

'Honey, why did you dye your hair purple?' asked mum across the kitchen table the morning of the day before I left.

'I like it purple mum' I said.

'But it's strange' she complained, drumming her fingers on the table, 'don't people stare at you as you walk past?'

'Yeah. But I like that mum. It's unique' I replied. Of course mum didn't want to be unique, my eyes scanned her arms, she was wearing a long sleeved t shirt but I could see a bruise appearing on her wrist and tore my eyes away. But looking around the house wasn't any better. Even this kitchen had memories. There was the sink I had made myself sick in when I was eleven and mum had been having a house party, over by the door was where I had hidden while my mum and Paul fought next door and of course the numerous ruined family dinners. Including Christmas. Why the hell did I have to come back? Couldn't I have just stayed at boarding school forever?

'Wouldn't you rather be blonde?' she asked, touching her own hair. 'You know, guys like blondes.'

No guys like half Russian models. And sluts. I bit my lip.

'Fine' I sighed, what did it matter anyway? I could be a bit more normal, it might help.

Mum grinned 'I'll take you to the salon at eleven then.'

'Yeah, sure' I said, drinking my coffee.

'You'll look so nice honey, now maybe you'll get a boyfriend you're not ashamed to bring back home' she said. I rolled my eyes to myself. What boyfriend would be happy to come back to my house, I would judge him for wanting to do it.

'What's Blake doing?' asked a familiar voice and mum looked up, smiling.

'Dying her hair blonde' she said, grinning. He walked over to her and kissed her before sitting down opposite me. I felt sick.

'You'll look really nice Blake' he said.

'Thanks' I replied, gritting my teeth and trying to smile. 'Do you not like purple then?'

'Well' he shrugged, I remember him saying I looked really nice with purple hair when I first dyed it. But I guess it was all sugar coated crap. 'It's nice for a teenager, but it's a bit childish now. Your seventeen, basically an adult and no one will take you seriously when you walk around looking so different.'

He was right. Fuck him for being so right all the time.

'Excited about going to boarding school tomorrow?' he asked.

'Ecstatic' I said, sarcastically but he didn't pick up on it. When I went back tomorrow who would I have to face all over again? Let's see Dino, Skye, Natalie, Nerina, even with Jasmine it would be freaking uncomfortable. But the other four it was unbearable. Dino, after what we'd been through and what I'd said it could never be back to normal friendship again. Well done on making that situation happen Blake.

Skye, why the hell did he have to kiss me anyway? And why did I tell him about everything?

Natalie just needed a smack.

And Nerina, Nerina didn't even know anything was wrong. But everything was wrong, everything was screwed up beyond belief. More than that actually I couldn't comprehend any of it.

I looked back at my reflection.

'Hi, I'm Blake' I said. The reflection said it too. But it didn't look like Blake, I didn't look like Blake. Sure the hair was nice, more fashionable and a lot less weird than purple. But it wasn't MY hair. And it made the rest of my face look different. My eyes for one, they weren't violet anymore. Literally they were just blue now, dull ordinary blue, and the hair made my whole face look softer and I just looked like another one of Silkie's minions walking around the school, no different to anyone else. Maybe that was good. Maybe people would stop staring. Maybe then no guys would follow me around, Skye and Natalie would stop their quest to destroy my life, maybe everything could be better. But I still didn't look like me.

Then I heard raised voices downstairs and froze. My mind an over where my brother and sister were, friends houses and a club. I breathed a sigh of sort of relief. Then heard mum cry out in pain and shut my eyes, I wanted to make myself sick again but there was no way I was relapsing back to that.

I stood up, knowing what I had to do, and walked down the stairs.