Delilah. The girl who took to it to make Grace's school life miserable. All hope of the bully going to a different school vanished in a whoosh as Grace deflated at having to face her again. This wasn't just facing a bully, it was facing someone who set out to destroy her life and succeeded at it. And Grace didn't have the guts to face her.

"Why hello there pretty boy," Delilah's voice turned much nicer as she waltzed over to Nick. Grace had to admit that Nick was cute, although she would never call him pretty boy. "You call call me Lilah, makes life so much easier." She purred, flicking Nick's chin.

Nick remained very stiff, looking quite uncomfortable. His eyes flicked over to Grace, basically asking who this person was. Ryan looked equally uncomfortable, but was the only one to speak up.

"If you don't mind, Lilah, we have classes to get to." He grabbed Grace's hand, pulling her out of her state of panic. Tapping Nick on the shoulder as well, Ryan led the both of them into the school, leaving a sneering Lilah behind.

When they had gotten a fair distance away from her, Grace whispered to Ryan, "Thank you."

Ryan squeezed her hand before letting go. "Think nothing of it. I knew Lilah in my past, it's clear she hasn't changed." He glanced over to see that everyone had stopped walking. Nick seemed especially embarrassed.

"I'm sorry I didn't do anything." Nick mumbled, staring at the asphalt floor. He seemed quite embarrassed that he had just stood there when Grace was clearly in shock.

"Hey, it's okay!" Grace tried to cheer him up. She pulled her backpack up to the front and pulled out the schedule and map for the school. Estimating they had about ten minutes before the bell rang, Grace had to ask the two people who were the nicest as of yet to her. "What do you have for first period?"

Ryan spoke up first. "I have physics with Mrs. Scott." He clearly had his schedule memorized by heart as he made no move to pull out a paper.

Glancing over at the perfectly prepared Ryan, Nick cleared his throat and proceeded to dig through his bag for the next minute. "Ugh, I have Biology with Mr. Davis."

The three checked their schedules before having to rush off to the different classes. They had figured out that they shared the same lunch period, but that was about it. Grace was rushing up to her math class on the second floor, making it yet another opportunity for her to trip on the stone steps. I need new shoes... Grace thought to herself as she narrowly avoided a puddle that would have surely sent her to the hospital. 

When she reached the corridor between hallways, Grace noticed the lack of bustle. No noise of rowdy high-schoolers, no chatter, nothing. About the open the door to the inside, Grace heard the horrible voice again.

"Let me make this clear, Grace." Lilah made Grace's name sound horrible when she said it like that. Grace slowly turned around, praying that someone would come to this corridor. Beside Lilah were two girls, presumably her cronies. "Now that your boyfriend, Ryan, isn't here, I can finally make this clear." Grace swallowed hard as Lilah took a step forwards. She had just met Ryan, he was far from being her boyfriend. "I own this school. Is that clear? If you don't go by my rules, you suffer. Is that clear?" She pushed her face really close to Grace's, waiting until she nodded. "First rule, you stay away from the cute guy."

"N-Nick?" Grace managed to gulp out.

"Oh so that's what his name is?" Delilah examined her perfectly manicured fingernails. "Whatever his name is, he's mine, you understand?" Lilah didn't wait for a response, she just pushed Grace against the wall and sauntered out of the hallway.

Heaving a breath, clutching her chest, Grace sank down the wall and stared off into the distance. First day of school and I'm already making enemies. She was broken out of her reverie by a gentle but strong female voice.

"Hey, you okay?"

Grace looked over at the girl who asked. She had firey red hair, curled to perfection. Her eyes were a soft gray, filled with concern and kindness. Just one glance told Grace she wasn't one of the popular kids, but she didn't care what people thought of her either.

"Yeah..." Grace got up from the ground and dusted off her jacket. She made to leave put was stopped by a call from the other girl.

"What's your name? Mine's Amy."

"Grace," She replied, turning around. "Thank you, but I really must get going."

To her greatest surprise, Amy followed her. "My class is this way."

Grace nodded and continued to walk down the hall in comfortable silence. The hall was the usual unexciting color of a high school. Barebone walls, scuffed linoleum, tape stuck to the walls, bugs stuck in the lights. Definitely not appealing. Teens also chattered loudly as they prepared for class. Lockers lined the right side of the hallway; Grace would have to put her stuff and lock it using a lock that had been passed down from her parents.

"My locker is over here," Grace pointed to a section of lockers, their numbers in the hundreds. Tracing a finger across them to better remember where it was at, she located the locker she had been assigned. No wonder they had lockers, Grace winced as she let the bag slide off of her shoulder. It wasn't evident while she was wearing it, but the backpack certainly dug into her shoulders.

Over time she would personalize the locker, for now though it was just plain gray metal. Shoving everything she didn't need for the math class in the locker, Grace was surprised to see Amy putting her stuff in the locker one over.

Amy shrugged, a goofy smile upon her face. "Let me guess, you have math for first period too?"

Grace nodded and couldn't help laughing. First day and someone whom she happened upon would probably be her greatest confidant. Usually this kind of scenario ended up in strong friendship.

"Well since it seems that our friendship is clearly destined, let's make it official. Friends?" Amy held her hand out and pushed some of her hair out of her face.

"Friends." Grace felt much happier now that she had another person on her side. She was about to say something more when the bell rang.

"Well, what are you waiting for? We don't want to be late to class!" Amy grabbed her small pile of stuff and rushed into the classroom, Grace following quickly behind.