So I hope you like this chapter, there's a new character and I promise she will cause a lot of drama! I am almost at 15,000 reads so thank you so much everyone :) Remember to vote if you like it! <3 leigh_

PS: The image on the side is of Sammi. That's not exactly how I imagine her to look, but it's very difficult to find a good picture. But well done to KristenBusbee who found the closest one so far :D

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It was a few days later, before school, when Ethan was standing at his locker, taking out the books he needed for his first couple of classes. The morning had been somewhat stressful for him – his younger siblings had been screaming even louder than usual and his mom, having been up most of the night with them, had been tired and irritable. Being cooped up in a tiny house with all of them was close to torture, and he’d been thankful when it was time to leave for school.

So, it wasn’t the best of days to hear that voice call his name from across the hall.

"Ethan!"

As he glanced over his shoulder, he recognised her straight away. That sleek black graduated bob, the hitched up skirt to show off the tops of her tanned legs, the cat-like narrow eyes outlined thickly in kohl and the sweet, mischievous smile on her face that he had once adored. Who else could it be?

"Sammi? What the hell are you doing here?"

He hadn’t meant for his words to sound so sharp, but he was unable to mask his shock. What was she, his ex-girlfriend, doing here? She had mysteriously dropped out of school months ago, with no reason and no goodbye. It had been a couple of weeks after they had broken up, following an argument over something Ethan couldn’t even remember, and no one had had any contact with her since. Rumours had flown about wildly for weeks afterwards – some of the most popular ones alleging that she was pregnant, or that her mom had been arrested for dealing drugs.

"Wow, good to know you’re glad to see me," Sammi said sarcastically, stepping over to her ex. Even in heels, she was still only about 5 foot 4 inches tall, and had to look upwards to see Ethan’s face.

"I’m sorry, it’s just... surprising," Ethan admitted, reaching his hand up to scratch his head. "I mean, what are you doing here?"

"Don’t I at least get a hug or something?" Sammi asked, ignoring his question. She reached out her arms and pulled him in awkwardly, her overpowering perfume-y smell lingering by Ethan’s nose even after they had broke apart. That smell – that smell he had once thought the best thing in the world, yet now almost repulsed him.

"Where did you go?"

"Oh," Sammi rolled her eyes. "My mom thought I was getting out of control or something, so she sent me to this super-strict Catholic boarding school, thinking it would ‘sort me out’. Well, guess what. It didn’t work, so I guess her stupid little plan backfired."

"You were at a Catholic boarding school?" Ethan raised his eyebrows, almost disbelievingly. Sammi was the last girl on the planet he could imagine at some strict religious school. Especially after dating her, he knew what she was like a great deal more than anyone else.

"Yeah, and it sucked. I swear, it was absolute shit. The girls there had never even been near a guy before, and they all thought I was some massive slut. So did half the teachers. And we had to sing all these stupid songs about God or whatever every morning. I know, every morning! It’s all a load of crap. So I got myself chucked out of there and then... just begged my mom to let me come back here. So, here I am!" She rolled her eyes at Ethan’s expression. "God, don’t get too excited."

Ethan watched as she spoke, her small pouty lips moving in perfect rhythm with the pace of her speech. Everything about her was so smiley, and yet with underlying tones of arrogance. There was no doubt she was confident in herself, but she had a way of speaking that made her seem superior to everyone else. He had always seen this as confidence, when they had been dating, but at the present moment she was just seeming cocky.

Maybe it was just because every time he laid eyes on her an image of Olivia popped into his mind.

She stepped forward slightly, leaving only a couple of inches between herself and Ethan, reaching her arms up until they were crossed behind his neck. Her eyes lingered on his for a few seconds, glinting mischievously, before she leaned in, closing the gap between their faces. However, her lips only touched with his for a mere few seconds before she could feel him pushing her away.

"Sammi, what the hell are you doing? We broke up, remember?" Ethan said, as he wiped traces of lip gloss from his mouth with the back of his hand.

"What, that silly little argument? That didn’t mean anything, did it, babe?" she said, running her hand across his cheek lightly before leaning in again, but this time their lips did not even meet.

"Sammi, seriously. No. We’re done. We have been for months, okay?"

"Oh, Ethan. Don’t you remember how good we were together? And everyone loved us," Sammi smiled, in a way that she intended to be seductive, but had almost the opposite effect on Ethan.

"That was months ago, Sammi. Things have changed. We’ve both changed."

"Oh, I haven’t changed one tiny bit," Sammi said with a smile, her voice so quiet it was almost a whisper. Her face was so close to his that he could feel her breath on his cheek.

As Ethan looked at her, he wondered what he ever saw in her. At the time, Sammi had been... perfect. Completely and utterly perfect. And they had been perfect for each other, or so everyone had kept saying. People said it so often Ethan believed it himself. Maybe their whole relationship had been a distorted image, as if they were forced together because it was good for everyone else. Perfect.

A relationship was not meant to be perfect.

"I’m sorry, Sammi. It’s just not going to work out, okay?" Even as the words were coming out, they felt wrong. Once everyone knew that Sammi was back for good, they would all instantly expect them to get together. After all, they had once been the schools’ golden couple, along with Alyssa and Carter. People would inevitably ask questions. This was bad for Ethan’s image; he was well aware. But maybe, he was just beginning to realise, his image was bad for him.

"Well, well, well." Sammi’s face was almost smug, yet it wasn’t difficult to see she was surprised. After all, she had certainly not expected to be rejected by the same guy that had once been all over her. There had to be a reason. "Who’s the girl, then?"

"What girl?" Ethan’s voice attempted naivety, but Sammi was not easily fooled.

"Stop playing with me here. It’s obvious, isn’t it? I’m gone for a while, I assume you’re torn apart with grief, and yet I come back and you show no interest in me. There’s someone else."

"What? Honestly, there’s no one."

"Okay. If you want to play games with me, then so be it. But I will find out, Ethan. Don’t think you can keep a secret from me," Sammi smiled, her usual mischievous grin once again adorning her face as her eyes glinted. "I’ve known you too long for that."

And with that, she pivoted on her heel and walked away, the only trace of her left being the smell of her strong, floral perfume that was still lingering in the air.

***

Courtney was standing in the hallway by the water fountain, leaning against someone’s locker and tapping her shoe impatiently on the polished floor as she waited for Kayla to return. She had been gone for at least ten minutes now, and Courtney was beginning to get bored. How long did it take to tease her hair and apply a spot of lip gloss, for God’s sake?

The hallway was filled with people, all dressed in the same drab old uniform, each one who walked past looking no different from the next. Most of them she recognised, a few gave her a smile as they passed her, but they were just suck-ups, desperate to stay on the right side of them in case they suddenly found the urge to recruit new members.

The worst of them was Brooke, who flashed a cheesy grin and called, ‘Hi, Courtney!’ as she went. Ew. Hadn’t that girl ever heard of straighteners? The worst part was that she actually thought the three of them genuinely liked her. Hello? They wouldn’t be caught dead hanging out with a girl with a tan so fake and hair like that.

"Hey, beautiful."

She recognised the voice almost immediately, but it made her freeze to the spot, instantly pushing her to the edge of nervousness. He approached her with a mischievous smile on his face, slipping his hand into Courtney’s when he was close enough.

"Carter, stop it. Someone’s going to see us," Courtney snapped, shaking off his hand. Despite using the word ‘someone’, it was obvious who she meant. "She’s going to be back any second now." Her voice lowered.

"Well, come on then."

He tugged at her arm gently, indicating for her to follow him. She sighed, but went with him all the same, glancing over her shoulder every couple of seconds to make sure that no one was watching. The last thing she wanted was to arouse suspicion, because after suspicion came rumours, and those damn things spread faster than STDs in a place like Serenity Falls.

"Where are we going?" she asked, after she’d followed Carter up a couple of flights of stairs and through what seemed like endless hallways, all packed with students. However, once they were on the second floor where there were less classrooms, the deep oceans of people decreased into mere streams and there were only minimal amounts passing them. It was definitely safer up here.

"You’ll see," he answered her.

He rounded one last corner and headed for a small wooden door with no sign. It looked old – out of place in a school where everything was shiny new and pristine – and made a loud creaking sound when he pushed it open. The noise was loud enough to serve as its own alarm. One thing was for sure, they definitely weren’t supposed to be in there.

The room was dark, and shutting the door behind them made it even worse. The place was windowless, aside from one small square one near the top of the wall, but the darkness didn’t disguise the cluttered shelves and a dirty mop in one corner. Whoever used this room obviously didn’t care much for tidiness, as was evident when Courtney could barely find a clear spot of floor to stand on.

"The janitor’s closet? Real romantic, Carter!" Courtney rolled her eyes, placing one hand on her hip. She looked around the room in disgust – at the rolls of toilet paper stacked on the shelves, the leaking ceiling that dripped water into a bucket every few seconds and the cleaning supplies stored in a box on the floor. Was Carter on crack? Did he really think this place was okay?

She knew that she would have to compromise if she wanted to spend time with Carter, but this was definitely not what she’d had in mind. The janitor’s closet?! She couldn’t even contain her disbelief.

"Well, if you’re so paranoid about anyone seeing us, this is what you’ve got to put up with, you know," Carter said, his voice irritated. Courtney had been driving him up the wall lately – every time he went near her, she ushered him away quickly, afraid that someone would see and tell Alyssa. Even though they had now broken up, Courtney was still insistent on waiting until Alyssa was ‘completely over it’ – but how long that would take was unclear.

She was so scared of getting thrown out of Alyssa’s exclusive clique, so afraid that she would end up at the bottom of the social ladder with her precious image in tatters. Her worst nightmare. After she had worked so hard to get up there in the first place, she was not about to let herself slip downwards through the fault of her own actions. If she had to go down, she would at least put up some sort of a fight.

"And all you could think of was the janitor’s closet?" Courtney scoffed, folding her arms and narrowing her eyes at Carter. She was suddenly doubting their relationship, despite the obvious chemistry between them. Sure, he was gorgeous, but he could be just as much of an airhead as Kayla sometimes.

"Well, where else? Give me a break, I found a place, didn’t I?" Carter said, his tone harsh as he shot a glare at Courtney to relieve the irritation prickling his insides. Then, his face softened and he moved in closer to her, wrapping his arms around her waist and gently kissing her on the lips. He felt her relax, her muscles loosening as she leant her body against him – the feeling making him smile slightly into the kiss.

She outstretched her arms, curling them around the back of his neck until her hands met up again, her fingers brushing the strands of his blonde hair. She loved the way it felt against her skin, the way it tickled ever so gently with every movement.

Okay, maybe it’s worth putting up with the janitor’s closet, she thought to herself, as her skin tingled with the chemistry that was sparking between them. Her grip tightened and she deepened the kiss, making her lips move faster as her heart began to pound with anticipation.

"Okay, babe," Carter breathed, pulling his lips away slightly so he was able to speak. "If you want to keep this a secret for a bit longer, then I suppose we can."

She looked at him, her gaze lingering on his soft blue eyes as she stared intently into them. "Thank you," she whispered in response, before pulling him closer again, unable to bear their lips being apart for longer than a few seconds.

And before long, she was hastily fiddling with the buttons on the front of his shirt, attempting to pull it off quickly whilst he did the same to her.