Hello :D Another chapter for you because I hit 300 fans... and also because I'm supposed to be uploading today anyway, aha. I hope you like it! This story will be over in about 10 chapters, which is weird 'cause I've been uploading it for so long. Still a way to go yet, I suppose! Anyway, enjoy :)

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"So you guys are like, dating now?"

Olivia looked at both of them in disbelief across the cafeteria table. It had been a seemingly normal lunch time - that was, until now, when Chelsie and Fred had announced they were now involved romantically with each other – and as casually as they were mentioning what they ate for breakfast. She couldn’t stop herself from frowning at the weirdness of it all.

To tell the truth, Chelsie and Fred announcing they were now going out was one of the most unexpected things she had heard in a long time. At first, she had thought she had heard them wrong. But after three repetitions of the same sentence, and Chelsie beginning to look bored of the subject, her brain had to begin to process it.

They were best friends, and had been for years. Neither of them had shown the slightest bit of interest in each other before - at least, not in that way. They were probably the last people on Earth she would’ve paired up together. She wasn’t even sure how it had happened.

"Whoa..." she said, widening her eyes as she shook her head from side to side, as if to clear her head. "Sorry, but it’s just... unexpected."

"I know - it was unexpected for me too. But I guess when he admitted that he liked me... I realised I did too," she smiled in Fred’s direction, as she speared a fry with her fork and brought it to her mouth.

The cafeteria was abuzz with its usual hum of noise, although for some reason it seemed more cramped than usual. Tables were filling up quickly and people seemed to be in much closer distances of each other than before. Olivia looked round absent-mindedly, as if to find the reason for the seemingly increased number of students packed into the room. But instead, her eyes met with a familiar figure who was waiting at the cash registers, and she looked down quickly, feeling her cheeks start to flush.

He had obviously been looking at her, trying to catch her eye. Ethan was still in the madly apologising stage, and didn’t seem like he was about to give this up any time soon. However, this only infuriated Olivia even more – if he was so unbelievably sorry, why did he even go there in the first place? She shook her head slightly, trying to push him forcefully out of her head and concentrate on the conversation with Chelsie and Fred.

"We’re going to try and keep it quiet, though," Fred mentioned. "You know, because if people find out that Fred Thomas has got a girlfriend... it could damage my bad boy reputation."

Chelsie creased up into laughter, shoving him playfully. "Dream on."

Olivia couldn’t help but giggle too at his joke. He was funny, and although the idea of the two of them dating was weird, she supposed she would be able to get used to it. They were her best friends, after all, and were still the same people... even if they were now romantically involved with each other.

"So you guys are now going to be all loved up and mushy, and leave me out, right?" Olivia pouted.

"Pretty much," said Chelsie, before breaking into a grin. She definitely seemed a lot happier today. The smile had barely left her face for the entire day. "No, I’m kidding. Of course not. Fred’s not exactly the romantic type anyway..." She glanced at him, as he lifted up a piece of pizza to inspect its underside with a concentrated expression.

Olivia giggled in response. "Yeah, I suppose so."

"Anyway, what’s the deal with you and Ethan? Weren’t you kind of like, almost a couple? Everyone was talking about it." Chelsie shrugged.

Olivia froze, suddenly feeling nervous. She had been very secretive over the situation with Ethan, barely telling Chelsie or Fred anything that had happened. In a way, she was kind of embarrassed that he had even asked to keep the whole thing a secret, as if he was ashamed of her. It wasn’t something she was eager to discuss, even with her best friends.

But... everyone had been talking about them? That sentence pushed her even further towards the brink of nervousness. "What do you mean?" she asked slowly. "What have people been saying?"

"Oh, nothing in particular," Chelsie shrugged, popping another fry into her mouth. "Just that you two have been hanging out a lot and that... no, don’t worry."

"No seriously, what have they been saying?" Olivia was feeling anxious now. Why was Chelsie so reluctant to tell her? People could be brutal, she was aware, and even more so at Serenity Falls. They could’ve been saying absolutely anything about them, all while she was unaware.

Chelsie swallowed her mouthful. "I don’t know, just that you two have like massive crushes on each other. Stuff like that."

"Oh."

Well, it could’ve been worse. Although the thought of anybody gossiping about her and Ethan made her nervous. She hated the spotlight being on her, especially when it was for the wrong reason. That was where her and Alyssa differed majorly - Alyssa would lap up any kind of attention she could get, and even if it was negative, she would try to manipulate it into something good. Olivia, on the other hand, completely shied away from the spotlight.

"But seriously, what is up with you two?" Chelsie continued. "You’ve hardly told us anything that’s been going on."

"Uh..." Olivia took a deep breath, trying to find an angle on the situation that she could explain without too much difficulty or embarrassment. This was an impossible task, as she discovered. "I don’t really wanna talk about it."

"Aw, come on. We’re your best friends, aren’t we? You can tell us."

"I know that, it’s just... honestly? I’m trying to forget about the whole thing."

"Really?" Chelsie raised her eyebrows, transforming her face into a surprised expression. "You guys aren’t speaking? Did you have some kind of fight?"

She sighed, suddenly realising how much she had been keeping from her best friend. In hindsight, it was a bad idea. What was that saying? A problem shared is a problem halved. Maybe that was true after all. "We hung out. He took me to the park and it was really sweet, you know. And uh... he kissed me."

Chelsie almost choked on the mouthful of food she was chewing. After a few coughs, she managed to say incredulously, "You kissed?"

"Shh!" said Olivia desperately, feeling her cheeks flush as some people on nearby tables turned their heads towards them, trying to see what the fuss was about. Attracting even more attention to herself was the last thing she needed at that moment in time. All she wanted to do was hide away from everyone else at Serenity Falls – at least until the situation with Ethan died down a little. But in a place like this, it just wasn’t possible. Everyone knew everyone’s business, and there wasn’t any conceivable way to stop that from happening.

"Sorry!" Chelsie said, lowering her voice. "But come on, Olivia! You freaking kissed Ethan Shaw and you didn’t think to tell me?"

Olivia looked down at her tray. "I don’t know! But anyway, it doesn’t even matter anymore. We saw each other the next day, and well, he told me he really liked me and asked me to be his girlfriend."

At that point, Chelsie looked ready to burst with excitement. "Oh my God, Olivia! You freaking scored with one of the most popular guys in school!"

"But," Olivia continued, shooting a look at Chelsie. "He told me he wanted to keep it secret, because..." Her voice trailed off, suddenly realising she had said too much already. Even if she and Ethan weren’t on speaking terms, she wasn’t about to spill his deepest secret. Even if it was just Chelsie and Fred, she didn’t want the added guilt of that resting on her shoulders. "Because he thought it would be bad for his reputation, you know, dating a nerd."

"And you refused?"

"Mhm." Olivia nodded, pushing food around her plate with her fork. "Well, I didn’t really want to be his ‘secret’ girlfriend, you know, something to be ashamed of..." She sighed. "And he tried to apologize but... I knew that he meant it. Still, I’m trying to forget about it now. Just be normal and try to survive high school, you know?"

"So no more dating jocks?" Chelsie asked, with a playful smile.

"Nope," Olivia answered her.

"Are you sure you don’t want to make a pass at Carter?" she teased.

Olivia scoffed. "No, thanks. He is really not my type. Plus, he’s like Courtney’s property. Have you seen how possessive she gets over him?"

She did feel better after telling Chelsie about the situation. She guessed the saying was true, then, because it did feel like a big weight had been lifted off her shoulders. Even though she still wasn’t totally over the Ethan situation - in fact, far from it - she felt like getting back to her normal life would be a lot easier than she had first anticipated.

Things were looking up, she supposed, even if tensions at Serenity Falls were running at an all-time high. With the pressure of the elections and the A-list crowd being split in half, they were constantly at each other’s throats. Last minute bribes were being thrown at every student by Courtney and Alyssa before the upcoming speeches next week, which would be followed by voting.

And quite frankly, every student in the whole school was looking forward to seeing Alyssa and Courtney fighting it out on stage - maybe literally if the discussion got too heated.

Once she could bring herself to push Ethan completely out of her mind, life would become so much simpler. She could focus on her school work - that was what she came to this school for, anyway, even if it was filled with complete and utter airheads - and surviving high school with the least amount of emotional scars as possible.

And with trusty friends like Fred and Chelsie intact, it would be a whole lot easier - even if they were dating and becoming mushier than they had ever been before.

***

"Ethan!"

Carter’s voice raised above the buzzing noise of the cafeteria, trying to catch the attention of his friend. Ethan was wandering aimlessly through the room, his eyes focused somewhere near the back. Sure enough, he was moving, but he wasn’t heading anywhere near the direction of their table.

What was he even looking at? It was impossible to see over the ocean of heads that crowded the room. It couldn’t have been anything remotely interesting, anyway. The only people that sat near the back of the room were the nerds, so why was he so engrossed in that direction?

"Ethan!" he repeated, a little louder this time, sending his voice travelling across the room a little faster than he had anticipated. However, it did the trick, because Ethan stopped in his tracks and turned his head towards the source of the noise.

"Get over here, man," he said, motioning with his hands and frowning to express his confusion.

Ethan got the picture though, because he nodded slightly and started to make his way over to their usual table. As he approached, and settled into his usual seat with his lunch tray in front of him, Carter shot a confused look in his direction.

"What is up with you, today?" he said, as Ethan looked down at his tray, poking his fork mindlessly in his food, not even bothering to bring it up to his mouth.

"Huh?" he responded, looking up at his friend and shaking his head lightly to clear his head. "What do you mean?"

"You’ve been like this for days now," Carter said. "Seriously. You’re all distracted and depressed. You’ve barely been able to concentrate on a single conversation, and you always look like you’re waiting for someone. What is up with you?"

Ethan’s brows furrowed. "Nothing’s up. I’m fine."

"Well, you’re obviously not. Come on, man. I can’t take much more of it; it’s driving me up the wall. And if you’re like this at practice, Coach will kill you. Literally - she might even stab you. Is that what you want?"

Ethan chuckled weakly. "Uh, I think I’ll pass."

"So what is it? Problems at home, or what? Wait... is it to do with that girl you’ve been hanging out with?"

Carter watched as Ethan’s expression changed. Yes, of course - it had to be that. He had been spending an unnatural amount of time around her lately, and Carter didn’t have the faintest idea why. She was a nerd - nothing special. She wasn’t even remotely hot. So why Ethan had taken such a shine to her remained a mystery.

Ethan swallowed. "What girl?"

"Dude, don’t act dumb. You know perfectly well who I mean. Olivia."

"Oh. Her," he said, shrugging as if it was no big deal. Well, he was a bad actor and Carter had known him much too long to be fooled. "What about her?"

"Listen, man. I don’t even know why you’ve been spending so much time with her. But I do know that since then, you’ve changed. You’re more... emotional. You care about things. It’s whack."

"How is that whack?"

"I don’t know." Carter shrugged. "But whatever it is, it’s bad. You shouldn’t be hanging out with that girl, anyway. She’s a nerd, Ethan. She’s not like us. Do you really want people to start talking? Something like that could really damage your reputation, you know."

He looked around the cafeteria, his eyes scanning the groups of people that were seated at each different table. After a few seconds, he turned back to face Ethan. ‘Look, you see how these people are all sitting? The ones up here - they’re us.’ He glanced to his sides, at the various other members of the A-list crowd, exchanging small smiles with one or two of them as he caught their eye. "And then the people over there..." he gestured to the far side of the room, "they’re nerds. Not us. Just... just don’t even go there."

"I haven’t even been spending that much time with her," Ethan said defensively. Carter wasn’t aware that they had been meeting up outside of school hours, but even so, people had noticed them together in the hallways. He was no more the wiser than any of the other students in the school, and at that time, he was thankful that his best friend was still kept in the dark.

"Even so, Ethan. She’s a scholarship kid. You’re not. The two just don’t mix, okay? And you’re not going to change that."

"Why are you acting like I’m completely obsessed with her?" Ethan said, his voice coming out a little sharper than he had intended.

"I’m trying to warn you before you get to that stage," Carter shot back, narrowing his eyes. "Seriously, I’m telling you, man. Don’t get involved with her. I don’t even know why you’re so interested - it’s not even as if she’s hot."

"Just shut up!" Ethan shouted, standing up from his seat, his voice so loud it burned his throat. The entire population of the cafeteria suddenly hushed at that point, their heads turning immediately to get a look at the brewing situation. After all, there was not much that was more exciting than two of the most popular jocks in school having a full-blown argument in the middle of lunch. Especially when the duo were usually the best of friends.

"Whoa, dude... calm down," Carter said, holding his hands up. "I was just saying."

"Well, don’t just say!" he yelled, slamming his fist down on the table with so much force it made his fork leap up into the air, before clattering back down onto the plastic-covered tabletop. "I don’t know who you think you are, but you don’t have the right to tell me who I can and can’t hang out with!"

"Ethan..."

"Just shut up, okay?! You’re not the boss of me! I can do what I like."

"I didn’t mean it like that," Carter said, for the first time looking slightly wary of his friend. He had never seen him this angry before, and didn’t know how much it would take in order for him to snap. From the frequency and intensity of his workouts, it was likely that he could pack quite a punch. "Just sit down, okay? We can just forget this ever happened."

"No, thanks," Ethan spat. "I don’t think I want to sit here anymore."

And with that, he snatched up his bag, swung it fiercely over his shoulder and stalked out of the cafeteria, leaving the whole room in complete and utter silence as they wondered how to react.

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:O What do you think? And just as a side note, if you haven't already, please would you take a look at my new story? It's called "Musically Gifted? Well, I Used to Play the Recorder..." and it's so much better than this story, I swear. Until next time... and remember to vote :D