I'm sorry it's a bit late, but I've been working on a one shot for XxSkater2Girl16xX's contest and I only had 2 days to get it done! Here's the next chapter though, and I hope you like it :)

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"No... way." Alyssa stopped in her tracks, her mouth falling open slightly as she realised what – who – was standing in front of her.

This could not be happening.

"Oh God..." Kayla said. The most recent member of Alyssa’s campaign, she was standing next to Alyssa, wearing a pink badge and carrying one of the many baskets of cookies Alyssa’s team had brought in as freebies. She had ordered the culinary staff at her house to make them yesterday evening, and Luigi and his team had stayed up most of the night baking batch after batch just for her campaign.

"Make sure you vote for me!" Courtney smiled sweetly at a scared-looking freshman student as she handed them a cupcake, swirled with pink icing and glitter. She turned round and her gaze met Alyssa’s, her lips curling into a small smile. "Oh, look who it is."

"You’re running too?" Alyssa said, her voice faltering, as if she was trying not to laugh. "Against me? You’ve got to be kidding me."

She placed her hand on her hip confidently, raising her eyebrows at her former friend. Did Courtney really think that she could beat Alyssa Taylor on her own? Ha! Alyssa had practically made her. She wouldn’t have even been popular if she hadn’t have been friends with Alyssa. And now she was turning against her?

Courtney had pinned an even bigger badge to her shirt, and she was carrying a large box full to the brim of perfect baby pink cupcakes. And the hall walls were plastered in dozens of posters, all bearing Courtney’s (photo-shopped) face, ordering students to vote for her.

"Yeah, actually," Courtney said, smirking at Alyssa’s basket. "And I’m going to win."

"Keep dreaming," Alyssa snorted, stepping closer to Courtney and eyeing her up. "You really think that you can beat me? That’s funny."

"Not really," Courtney answered, her fake smile still plastered on her face. "You see, you might have won for the last two years but word on the street is, people don’t like you anymore. You’re getting trashy, Alyssa, and everyone knows it."

"Well, we’ll see about that when I win." Alyssa narrowed her eyes. "You know, people never liked you, Courtney. You were only popular ‘cause you were with me. And now everyone knows what a back-stabbing bitch you are, no one likes you at all."

"Wow, I’m hurt," Courtney said sarcastically.

"Hey, babe!" said a voice from behind her. Courtney spun round quickly and grinned when she saw who it was.

"Hey, gorgeous!" Courtney squealed, smiling as Carter grabbed her round the waist and pulled her in for a kiss. She dropped the box of cupcakes on the floor and threw her arms round his neck, her lips touching his and her tongue darting inside his mouth, obviously showing off in front of Alyssa.

"Slut," Alyssa hissed, as she strutted past the couple, Aiden and Kayla following obediently.

Courtney pulled her lips away from Carter’s for a second, but stayed locked in his arms. "Do I smell jealousy?" she asked sweetly, laughing as she squeezed his butt playfully. "Come here, gorgeous," she purred, crashing her lips back down onto his again.

"Have fun losing the election!" Alyssa called back to Courtney, with a wave of a hand and a smirk. "Because I’ll sure as hell have fun beating you."

***

"Attention students." Mr Delmar’s voice boomed through the speakers in the cafeteria. The noise level in the room dropped slightly, but the majority of the students still weren’t paying too much attention to the announcement over the speakers. There was far more interesting gossip to be catching up on, after all. "We now have a message from one of your potential class presidents... I hand you over to Courtney Powell."

"What the fuck? She’s taking over the loudspeaker now?" Alyssa scoffed, folding her arms as she heard the announcement. Even she had to admit, she hadn’t thought of that idea. She was definitely going to need to step up her game if she was going to thrash Courtney.

"Hi guys!" Courtney squealed, a little too loudly and at a pitch high enough to hurt anyone’s ears. "This is Courtney here, just to let you know I’m giving out free cupcakes if you vote for me for class president."

Some of the jocks near Alyssa’s table started to whoop, but soon stopped after Alyssa glared at them. What were they doing? They were supposed to be on her side, not that pathetic attention-seeker’s. Why was everyone falling for her charm and cupcake bribes? No one even liked her that much... or did they? People rarely spoke of her, especially when she was always standing in Alyssa’s shadow. After all, what was there to say about Courtney when Alyssa was always a few feet away?

There was suddenly feedback over the loudspeaker and the sound of fumbling, before Carter’s voice could be heard. "And you should also vote for her because she’s the hottest candidate."

"Shut up!" Courtney could be heard, laughing, but it wasn’t difficult to tell she was soaking up the attention, even from the tone of her voice. There were a few wolf whistles and cheers from various tables in the cafeteria, and Alyssa rolled her eyes.

"Be sensible, please..." Mr Delmar’s voice could be heard in the background, a warning. He didn’t seem amused by their joking around. It was a surprise that he had even let them take over the announcements, as he didn’t usually permit that kind of thing.

"So yeah! Vote for me!" Courtney said cheerily, as the loudspeaker clicked off.

The cafeteria erupted into its usual level of noise as everyone resumed talking, presumably about her little speech and who they were thinking of voting for on election day. Alyssa slumped back in her seat, her arms folded.

"She’s such a slut," she muttered, focusing her eyes moodily on the table in front of her. Inside, she was actually kind of annoyed that she hadn’t thought of the idea herself. "Flirting with Carter on the loudspeaker... who does she think she is? As if anyone’s going to vote for her."

To tell the truth, she was still angry about Courtney going off with Carter. Even though she had just been one of her followers, she had actually considered her as a friend, and she wouldn’t have thought that she would’ve ever done something like that. Well, at least now she knew what Courtney was really like, and she wouldn’t make the mistake of ever trusting her again.

"Totally," Kayla nodded in agreement.

"And you’re way hotter than her, babe," Aiden said, grinning, his hands trailing down her back and onto her toned butt with a mischievous wink. "Trust me."

"I know, right?" Alyssa smirked, wrapping her arms around Aiden’s neck and pulling him closer as her confidence returned to her. She was the hottest and most popular girl at Serenity Falls, and everyone knew it. Not even Courtney and her new-found sluttiness could take that away from her. And while she had the popularity, she might as well enjoy it. "Come here, gorgeous."

"We are gonna win this," she said, smiling once their lips had broken apart. "And we are gonna thrash that pathetic little slut."

***

"Olivia!" Ethan called as he rounded the corner and saw her standing by her locker. He had been looking for her all day, but to no avail. Her cell phone had been bombarded with texts and phone calls, none of which she had responded to. It was more than likely that she had been avoiding him, but he hoped that this would finally be his chance to speak to her and explain.

"Olivia! Please, wait!" he called, as Olivia recognised his voice and stalked off quickly in an attempt to get away from him.

He sprinted through the hallway, dodging expertly to avoid the stream of oncoming students, until he was standing directly in front of her. "Please. Just talk to me."

"Ethan, just leave me alone," she said, as she tried to continue walking past him. However, he put a hand out against the wall to prevent her from passing, which only infuriated her even more.

"Do I have to get a restraining order or something?" she said, the tone of her voice miles away from humour.

"Can you just give me a chance to explain?!" His voice was sharp, hinting at desperation. "Please." His face softened and he bit his lip.

Olivia sighed, folding her arms defensively across her chest, but her eyes didn’t meet with Ethan’s. She knew that if they did, she wouldn’t be able to control her emotions and she would find herself falling for him a second time. And there was no way she was making that mistake again. "Go on then."

Ethan took a deep breath, suddenly realising that he had no clue what he was going to say. He had spent so long tracking her down, seizing every opportunity to contact her, and yet giving no thought to what he was actually going to explain.

"You’ve got to believe me when I say I don’t like Sammi in that way," Ethan said, his eyes pleading. "I know it looks like it but–"

"And you’ve told me that so many times, Ethan," Olivia snapped. "And I want to believe you, I honestly do, but every time I do you prove me wrong."

"Sammi only came over yesterday to apologize. I swear she did."

"Sammi, apologizing?" Olivia raised her eyebrows. "You really expect me to believe that? You could’ve at least come up with a more convincing story if you were going to lie, Ethan."

"I’m not lying!" His voice came out louder than expected, causing a few passers-by to look around quickly. He lowered his voice. "I swear I’m not. She really did come to apologize. She’s finally got her head around the fact that we’re not together anymore."

Olivia tilted her head to the side slightly, sighing as she let the words sink in. His words did sound sincere, but then again, they had done before. She desperately wanted to believe him – all she really wanted to do was throw her arms around him and start kissing him in the middle of the hallway, but she couldn’t. That would only lead to heartbreak, and the only way to avoid heartbreak was to not fall in love in the first place.

"I really like you, Olivia." She looked up slowly, her eyes suddenly locking onto his. She could feel her insides melting already. No, she told herself firmly. This was how it began, and she was not about to let it happen again.

"I thought you did before," Olivia couldn’t help but find herself saying. "But that obviously wasn’t the case."

"I did! I really did," he said. "I know I was stupid to mess that up and..."

"I’m sorry," she said, shaking her head as she pulled away her gaze. She began to start walking off, but Ethan touched her arm. She tried to ignore the sparks that were sent shooting through her body, making her skin break out in a severe set of goose-bumps.

"Wait... can’t we at least stay friends?"

Olivia sighed. "Um, yeah. Okay." She nodded slowly. After all, it was stupid of her to break off all contact with Ethan just because he still had feelings for his ex-girlfriend. And they had had an easy friendship before Sammi had returned to Serenity Falls. "Friends."

The word felt bitter on her tongue, and she couldn’t help but feel pain consuming her entire body. All she wanted was him... and he was offering that. But there was no way that could happen, and she used all her strength to smile at him weakly and walk off without breaking down and crying.

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PS: Could you do me a MASSIVE favour and check out my one shot entry? I've posted it as a story on my profile and if you're an APR/ASR fan, I think you'll like it :D