Hello! A long-ish chapter for you, so be grateful :) Once I finish uploading this I have to go do some revision... which is probably why I'm trying to make this author's note as long as possible :P No, but anyway, I hope you like this chapter. It's dramatic, so enjoy! :-)

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The next few seconds were a complete blur. Everything happened so quickly, flashing past everyone’s eyes so fast it was impossible to focus, and yet at the same time, the whole sequence of events seemed to be in slow motion.

Courtney was standing on the stage, watching everyone’s shocked expressions as they tried to process the information that they had just been presented with. No one could quite believe it - there wasn’t a soul at Serenity Falls who didn’t know that Mr Hammond was the hottest teacher around, but no one had actually expected anyone to make a serious move on him. Not even Alyssa Taylor.

She was certainly not anticipating the next thing that occurred.

Alyssa ran forwards, suddenly emerging from the side of the stage, pouncing on Courtney and tackling her to the floor. There was a loud thump as the microphone slipped from Courtney’s grip and tumbled to the floor, eventually colliding with the wooden floorboards and echoing the noise of its impact around the silent hall.

"You bitch!" Alyssa screamed, as she straddled Courtney, clawing at her face and tugging the strands of her hair as hard as she could.

The tense atmosphere was broken as suddenly as it was created as the audience erupted into a mix of shocked gasps, laughs and cheers.

"You brought this on yourself, Alyssa!" Courtney screamed back, snapping back into her senses and trying with all her might to fight back. She grabbed Alyssa’s arms, curling her hands round them as she dug her sharp nails deep into her skin.

"Break it up!" Mr Delmar shouted, as he and two other teachers rushed forward to try and pull the pair of them apart.

Courtney gained strength suddenly and she managed to push Alyssa off of her, rolling over smoothly so that they had swapped positions and she was in the dominant space above her opponent’s struggling body. She was oblivious to the hundreds of people in the room with them, oblivious to the teachers trying desperately to prise her away. This was just about getting revenge on Alyssa, and making sure she got humiliated in front of the entire school while she was at it. She reached out, grabbing locks of Alyssa’s blonde hair with both hands and yanking it as hard as she could, causing her to cry out in pain.

But Alyssa was a determined fighter, and with all that anger bottled up inside her from the past weeks - Carter, Courtney, Tiffani’s pregnancy, her father not believing her - she was not about to give up that easily, especially when she had just been presented with the perfect opportunity to beat the crap out of Courtney.

She balled up her fist and slammed it hard into Courtney’s face which so much force she even surprised herself. As her knuckles collided with her cheekbones, she felt a shooting pain spread throughout them as quickly as fire. But she couldn’t let that stop her. Courtney was struggling, one eye creased up in pain as she tried to block Alyssa’s punches while inflicting some damage of her own.

"I fucking hate you, Courtney!" she screamed as loudly as her throat would allow her, as she felt the weight being suddenly lifted off her body. Opening her eyes more widely allowed her to see that Courtney was now being dragged away by one of the teachers, their arms tightened in a firm grip to keep her from escaping.

"I fucking hate you too!" Courtney shouted back. She was desperately trying to free her arms from the teacher’s grasp - anything that would let her have one final punch at her sworn enemy. Just the sight of Alyssa’s face was enough to send her into full rage mode, and with that blonde-covered expression staring back at her, she was barely able to stop herself from killing her.

"Girls!" Mr Delmar’s voice could be clearly heard above the noise of the crowd, his voice somehow distinguished from the others. "Will you both just calm down?!"

Alyssa felt herself being dragged to her feet by another staff member, her hands held tightly behind her back in a grip that would not allow her to escape. She threw her head back in an attempt to remove the strands of hair that had fallen in front of her face, which let her gaze fall upon Mr Delmar’s face.

She had not seen him like this before – he looked angrier than he had ever done in all of her time at Serenity Falls. Even when she had ended up in the office with Olivia following the drug scandal, he had not reached this level of fury. It definitely caused a feeling of nervousness to rise up through her body, washing over her like the tide.

"I can’t believe you would even think of doing something like this!" he shouted, turning his head to look at both of them. "You are running for student body president, and you think it’s acceptable for you to have a full-blown fight on stage?"

"Mr Delmar–"

"Alyssa, don’t even start!" His head turned and his angry eyes burned right into her skin. "After the photographic evidence I have just seen I don’t even know what I’m going to do with you!"

She froze. In her consuming rage towards Courtney, she had kind of forgotten about the fact that the whole school now knew about her relationship with Mr Hammond. He had been right about trying to keep the whole thing quieter, and now this had happened.

Mr Hammond would get fired, maybe even arrested, and she would never see him again. And it was all her fault. She couldn’t stop the overwhelming sense of guilt that suddenly descended on her as the realisation sunk in.

"I think it goes without saying that you both are disqualified from the election!" Mr Delmar bellowed, so the silenced audience could hear. "If this is how you choose to behave, then you are in no way ready to act as student body president."

Courtney opened her mouth to protest, but closed it quickly when Mr Delmar shot her another furious look.

"Both of you, in my office... now."

***

"I know you said election day would be dramatic, but I didn’t think it would end up like this." Olivia stared at the various pieces of paper that were pinned to random spots on the cafeteria wall, reading Voting stations this way. They now served no purpose, considering that the only two candidates had now been removed from the running.

She grabbed a bottle of water, placing it on her tray alongside her plate, as she stood in the queue next to Chelsie.

"Well, it’s never been like this before," Chelsie stated. She handed her money to the cashier to pay for her meal and then proceeded to wait for Olivia to do the same. "But then again, this is the first time that Alyssa and Courtney haven’t been friends."

The two of them made their way down the rows of tables, in the direction of the back where they usually sat. Fred was already waiting, and greeted them with a smile as they settled into the uncomfortable plastic chairs they were forced to sit in every day.

"So, what’s going to happen now both of them are out of it?"

Chelsie shrugged. "I don’t know. I doubt Mr Delmar will let either of them run again, and I don’t think anyone in this school’s brave enough, even without Alyssa as competition."

Olivia pondered on the thought as she lifted her fork to her mouth. "What about vice president?"

Chelsie thought for a second before lifting her shoulders to shrug again. "Maybe. I don’t even know if anyone ran for that title, though. It’s a complete waste of a job, especially if all they were going to have to do was just stand there and listen to Alyssa or Courtney’s orders."

"True."

She glanced to her side, absent-mindedly scanning the room full of students – the same people that she saw every day, sat in the exact same seats with the exact same people. It was as if nothing had changed, and yet everything was so different at the same time.

Her eyes wandered further up the cafeteria, and before she was even aware of it she was looking directly into the middle of the popular crowd. But something was missing today. Alyssa and Courtney were not at their usual tables, and Kayla was looking distant and lost without her friend to follow. Carter was at another table, surrounded by the loud jocks, but he too looked withdrawn from their conversation.

Ethan was missing, too.

Of course, Olivia had heard him having some sort of argument with Carter the other day. They had been talking so loudly it was impossible to ignore them. But even so, she had not been able to work out completely what they were arguing about. Whatever it was, Carter had obviously upset Ethan as he was nowhere to be found.

She couldn’t help but wonder where he was spending his lunchtime. Maybe he was in the gym, getting in some extra hours of practice for the upcoming season. Or he might be in the library, catching up with studying, if he didn’t think that would arouse too much suspicion.

Even though she was still exceptionally angry at him, she still found herself concerned for his whereabouts. She didn’t like to think of him spending his lunch hours alone, even though that was probably what he deserved. No matter how hard she tried to push him out of her mind completely, it just wasn’t possible. He had made too much of an impact on her life to be erased that quickly.

She snapped back into reality when she realised Chelsie was talking.

"Is he heading over here?"

Olivia frowned at her friend, trying to work out what she was talking about. Her gaze was fixed behind them, in the direction of the door, and seemed to be moving closer towards them as she followed the object she was looking at.

"Judging by the direction he’s walking in," Fred said, "I would say the answer is yes."

"What are you talking about?" Olivia asked, twisting round in her seat to find out what they were talking about. However, she could not see anything out of the ordinary. Everyone still remained in their seats, chatting to their friends in the same way that they always did. But then... she saw him.

His face hinted at nervousness as he strolled through the rows of tables, his walk showing the confidence that his expression did not. Her eyes met with his for a split second, making her heart leap, but she forced herself to look away.

"He’s definitely coming over," said Chelsie, her voice hushed.

"Why?" Olivia hissed, forcing herself to keep her eyes on the plastic tabletop. She wanted to look round so badly, to see how close he was to approaching, but she knew that would only lead to more awkward eye contact.

She had already told him that she wasn’t going to forgive him. He knew that she just wanted to forget about the whole thing, so why was he making that so much harder for her?

Maybe he was only coming over because the argument with Carter meant he didn’t have anyone else to sit with. Well, she wasn’t about to be used like that. Anyway, wouldn’t sitting with nerds like them be even worse than sitting on his own?

Her train of thought was interrupted by the presence of a figure behind her.

"Hi."

His voice was soft, swaying towards reassuring and it almost made her wonder how this could be the same person that had hurt her so much. She stayed frozen to the spot, her gaze still focused on the shiny metal of her fork that was lying on the countertop. She had never known one to be so interesting, but when she was trying desperately to avoid turning round and laying eyes on Ethan, it had suddenly become fascinating to her.

"Um, hi... Ethan," Chelsie said slowly. It was obvious that she was unsure of how to react – after all, it wasn’t every day that one of the hottest and most popular guys in school came over to their table and greeted them casually as if it was a normal occurrence.

"Hello," Fred greeted him, a lot more confidently than Chelsie had just done. But after all, being a guy, he obviously wasn’t affected by those striking good looks that were enough to make any girl at Serenity Falls go weak at the knees from one glance. He didn’t seem fazed by the unexpected situation in the slightest.

Ethan nodded politely in response to them, but it was easy to see who his attention was really focused on. "Olivia?"

She closed her eyes for a moment as she heard her name being spoken, as if wishing she were somewhere else. There was no way she could avoid turning around now – it was inevitable that she had to face him, much to her dismay.

Pulling her leg over the other to cross them, she swivelled her body round so she was able to look up at him. Even with her back to her, she could tell that Chelsie was staring into her back with awe. Her best friend had still not quite got accustomed to the idea that Olivia was so friendly with Ethan, especially after he had been a premium member of the A-list crowd for as long as she could remember. It was not often that the two worlds mixed, and the thought of Ethan coming over to their table specially to talk to Olivia still left her surprised.

"Ethan." Her greeting was short, sharp and somewhat cold.

"Uh..." She could see that he was slightly taken aback by her indifferent response. "I saw you had a spare seat here." His eyes shifted to the empty plastic chair by Olivia’s side.

Olivia sighed inwardly – she had known something like this was coming. "And?"

"I was wondering if I could sit there."

She narrowed her eyes slightly, wondering why he was doing this. By now everyone was looking in their direction, hoping to see something that would give them some gossip to tell their friends later. Her mind pondered on the thought as she studied the expression behind his eyes.

But in a swift movement, she had pushed her bag onto the seat, rendering it unavailable.

"Sorry, it’s taken."

She watched as his shoulders drooped marginally in disappointment and hurt. Even though he had not expected her to give in easily, he had definitely not foreseen that she would be so harsh. But he was determined not to be shot down by her, and he took a deep breath, taking a second to swallow before forcing his next words from his lips. "Olivia, please don’t be like this."

"I’m not ‘being like’ anything," Olivia stated. "I just don’t think it’s a good idea for you to sit here."

"Why?"

"You know perfectly well why."

She wanted to turn back round at that moment, to continue eating her lunch and ignore his saddened face behind her, but movement was not possible when she was frozen to the spot. Her eyes couldn’t tear themselves away from his perfectly sculpted features and regretful expression.

"Look," she said, the pain in his eyes finally breaking through to her, causing a sense of guilt to well up inside. "I don’t know what you and Carter were arguing about the other day, but whatever it is, you can work it out. Just go over there and apologise and I’m sure you can sit back where you normally do."

"Carter and I aren’t really on good terms at the minute."

"You can sort it out. Ethan, that’s where you belong, okay? Over there with him, on one of those tables. This..." she gestured to their table, and to the various other scholarship kids that they were surrounded by, "is not you."

He took a deep breath as Olivia’s words sunk in. He knew that she was right, but a spur-of-the-moment decision had made him think that this was the right thing to do. At the present moment, he barely knew which way was up, let alone what was right and wrong.

He knew that sitting with them would cause even more rumours to fly around, but the A-list crowd was so fragmented today he doubted that it would even matter. Everyone over there looked a lot quieter, as if wondering how to act without their leaders. But even so, he didn’t want to just suck it up and go back to Carter after what he had said about Olivia.

He was his best friend, though. Maybe he should consider it.

Olivia was still looking up expectantly at him, but her bag remained in the empty seat. He was still mentally kicking himself for even suggesting that they should keep their relationship a secret – look where it had ended up. Olivia was still so angry with him she was barely willing to speak, and now any sort of romantic relationship was definitely out of the question.

"Okay," he said finally, feeling defeated. He was still well aware of all the scholarship kids ogling him, ready to squeal into excited discussions with their friends when he walked off. "I’ll go sort it out with Carter."

"Good," Olivia nodded back at him. "See you."

And with that, she swivelled back round in her seat until her back was turned to him again. Even though she had been so icy towards him, she could feel the blush rising to her cheeks from just a conversation with him. Behind her, he was hesitating – she could still feel his presence. Seconds passed and she kept her eyes firmly fixed on her plate in front of her, until she could hear his footsteps in the opposite direction.

"How could you do that?" Chelsie shrieked, when he had walked out of earshot.

"Do what?" she queried.

"Shoot him down like that!" She was looking at Olivia disbelievingly. "Come on, Olivia, I know you’re still pissed off with him, but he was willing to sit at our table, for God’s sake! Our table!"

"That’s only because he had an argument with Carter," she said dully, rolling her eyes. "Trust me, he wouldn’t sit with us unless he absolutely had to."

"You can tell he’s really sorry, though," Chelsie said, her eyes wandering over in the direction of the A-list crowd as she focused on Ethan, who was talking to Carter. "I know you’re upset, but I think he really knows he made a mistake."

"Look, I don’t care whether he knows it or not," Olivia said quickly. "I gave him a second chance, and he didn’t take it."

"What second chance?"

Olivia sighed, realising she hadn’t mentioned this to Chelsie or Fred. It was a difficult subject, especially trying to tell it without revealing the fact that Ethan was on scholarship. "Uh... I just gave him another chance, saying if he really wanted to be with me then he would have to tell everyone. But he said no."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"Honestly, I don’t have a clue what’s going on with you two." Chelsie shrugged. "But it’s your choice, whatever happens."

"Mmm," Olivia murmured in agreement. "I just hope that soon enough he’ll get the hint and stay away."

She glanced over her shoulder in the direction of Carter’s table, purely out of interest. Ethan had now reached the table, and was standing there talking to him. Carter looked almost pleased to see him, and within seconds Ethan had settled down beside him, resuming their chatter as if nothing had happened between them.

That was the way it was supposed to be.

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Hope you like it! This is the last update before Christmas so... merry Christmas everybody! Unless you read my other story (which you should be!), then I'll be updating tomorrow. Have a good one and remember to vote :-) (That can be my Christmas present :D)