She walked into the cafeteria with a small lunch bag in her hand. Ashley looked at the hundreds of kids seated, eating and talking. Wow!! So many guys were there!! She couldn't help but admire some of the boys that were in the cafeteria.

"You should sit with us." Franz said, snapping her back to earth.

Ashley turned to him. "Sure." She nodded, walking side by side with him. She had soon seen the handsome guy-- Jason, she had come across in the morning. She just found herself gazing at him. Even more, when Franz went over to the table he was seated in. Ashley settled herself beside Jason who was on his phone.

"Ashley!" Someone snapped her name.

"Wha.. Huh.. Yes?" Ashley turned sharply away from Jason looking confused.

"H-hey. I was calling your attention." Faye chuckled with a small questioning frown.

She didn't even notice that Faye was seated on the same table... Or any other person. "Hey." Ashley had to give Faye who was seated across the table a wide bright smile.

"You good?" Faye asked her with a warm smile.

"Yeah, sure." Ashley answered with a nod.

Faye nodded. "Shame we don't share classes together." She said, before turning to her friend Reese. "Speaking of classes, do you think we have chemistry test tomorrow?"

"Oh look, the cheerleaders." Rya hit Franz's arm.

Four girls had just walked in dressed in their cheer uniforms with the skimpiest mini skirts.

"Damn her boobs are getting bigger." Rya's eyes was glued at the blonde girl in the middle. EvennAshley was caught up, staring at the girls.

"Aren't they just too hot?" Rya turned to Ashley. "The trendsetter seniors of Skye Academy.  The fine blondie is Lydia and her ex or not ex boyfriend is Jason who's sitting over there." Rya gestured across the cafeteria.

"Stop talking about other people Rya." Franz shook his head.

   "Lydia's cheer captain, just so you know. Her life is just as perfect as she is." Rya smiled.

"Ashley doesn't want to know." Franz eyed Rya.

"She has to." Rya stuck a tongue at him and soon, an argument broke out between her and Franz.

Faye and her friends joined in the argument leaving Ashley slurping from her  juice. She had her eyes fixed on Jason who was talking and laughing with people on his table.

   She had a feeling that it was the same hoodie guy at the party but since he was being rude and proud, she decided to forget about him. While making up her mind to forget Jason, someone else walked up to the table.

"Hey guys." He greeted casually.

"Oh heyyy!" Faye squealed happily, getting up.

Ashley turned, spewing out liquid. In front of her was the one person that she didn't want to see. The same person that she was avoiding at the party she attended.

"Ashley are you okay?" Franz asked her, pulling out tissue from the tissue box on the table.

Ashley looked away, taking the tissue from Franz's hand. "I'm fine, yeah." She cleaned her necktie to get rid any stain.

"So Ashley, meet Korey. My boyfriend." Faye clung on to his arm, smiling like she won a lottery.

His eyes settled on her, "Ashley?" Korey frowned like something was not right.

"Bo-boyfriend?" Ashley's eyes widened in shock. "You're dating... I thought you weren't dating anyone." She frowned at Faye. "On your Live feed you said-"

Faye chuckled. "I know what I said. Korey and I just got together." Faye sounded happy.

"And they make the best couple!" Shirley, Faye's friend butted in.

"IKR." Faye pouted, batting her lashes.

"I-I K what?" Ashley glanced at the people around her as she was lost.

"IKR, I know right, duh?" Rya rolled her eyes.

"Oh, right." Ashley nodded in understanding. "Um, I uh, I wanna use the bathroom, give me one minute." She stood up nervously.

"Sure." Faye nodded, paying attention to her boyfriend.

Rya was busy talking to the other girls about the latest designs while Franz gave a glance at Ashley.

"You good?" He asked to be sure.

"Yeah. I won't take too long." Ashley faked a smile before leaving. She glanced at Korey who was gazing at her without stopping.
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Ashley paced back and forth around the restroom. She kept taking breathing exercises to calm her nerves.

"Okay, just breathe Ashley, breathe." She closed her eyes for a quick second, exhaling slowly. Then she turned to the mirror and walked up to the faucet, splashing water on her face. She took out a tissue from the box and dabbed her face with it. "My life is going according to how I want and now, that... That... That..." She groaned aloud.

She looked at the mirror, pulling the rubber band off her hair only to redo a messy bun, leaving stray hair at the sides. "Of all boys, why does Faye's boyfriend have to be Korey?" Ashley sighed to herself.

The entry of other girls into the restroom made Ashley gather her thoughts to leave. She immediately tossed the used tissue into the trash and walked out of the restroom. She turned to her left trying to survey the area like she was a thief or probably trying to hide. Wasn't she trying to hide from... Korey?

On seeing Korey and Faye in the midst of other students approaching, Ashley took a sharp turn to avoid them. But in the process of turning, she bumped into something or... someone?

"Watch it."

She felt hands push her off gently. Ashley shook her head and then squinted at him. It was Jason. "What did you say?" She asked.

Jason lowered his blue eyes to look at the person an inch away from him. She had stray hair falling to her face. He figured she had no make up done, making her look as natural as possible.

"I said get out of the way." Jason frowned. But when he tried to get around her, she got in his way again. "Move your ass." He seemed impatient.

Ashley shook her head in pity. "Such an asshole." She said, rolling her eyes at him before moving to take her leave.

Jason turned to look at her, repeating what Ashley had asked. "Wait, what did you say?" He looked at her with amusement.

  Ashley didn't bother to respond, instead, she walked away.
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"So Ashley is your neighbor." Rya said to Franz, while filing her nails.

They were both heading to the field. Franz played ice hockey while Chathurya was a track and field athlete for their school team. Franz had seen his ex-girlfriend Nicolette talking to another guy.

"She's a slut, okay, move on." Rya said in a duh tone, pulling Franz along. When they had gotten past Nicolette, Rya released him to look at her. "Why don't boys ever get it? She doesn't deserve you, she cheated on you. Get over her." She made it seem like she gave him a command.

"It's not as easy as you make it sound Rya. Nicolette and I only just broke up but she's flirting with every Tom, Dick and Harry!" Franz ran in fingers through his fine curly hair.

"Now you're going to make me say I Fucking told you SO! Franz I can't believe you're behaving like this, I mean you and I practically caught her in bed with someone else. Just forget about her. Look, Faye already blacklisted Nicolette for your sake. So stop being an idiot."

"Then what do you want me to do?" Franz shook his head, walking ahead of Rya.

"A distraction." Rya said going to catch up with him. "You need a distraction."

"I don't want another girlfriend Rya."Franz told her.

"I'm not saying another girlfriend." Rya jerked her head towards across the field, only to see Ashley coming towards them. "I'm saying a distraction."

"Hey guys, um, I think I'm lost." She chuckled, holding out the map guide she was given earlier. "I was on my way to the library but I ended up on the field, can you point me at the right direction to the library please?" She requested, smiling at the two of them.

"Of course." Franz offered to help with a smile. "Head straight," he pointed. "Three blocks away you'll see the library. It has a signpost." Franz said to her.

"Thank you, I'll see you two later." Ashley said before taking her leave.

Rya looked at Franz who was still watching Ashley. "You see, a distraction."

Franz turned to Rya. "What do you mean?"

"I mean Ashley is gorg, cool and seems nice, so why not?" Rya smiled at him.

Franz raised a brow at her. "Why not what?" He folded his arms over his chest.

Rya rolled her eyes at him for pretending not to know what she's referring to. "Go out with her duh?"

"I don't exactly know Ashley as much as I knew Nicolette and -"

"You dated Nicolette for three months but you didn't know she was screwing someone else under your nose. Isn't it the devil you know is better than the devil you don't?"

Franz blinked at her confusingly. "How does that correlate with what we are talking about? If you wanna use some cliched proverb, get it right."

Rya waved her hand carelessly, knowing that what she had said was off point. "Whatevs! As long as you get my point."

He sighed. "Ashley is new here Rya. I don't think your so called-"

"But you're her neighbor, it should be easy to get closer." Rya shrugged with a wicked smile.

"O-okay, what if she has a boyfriend?" He asked, skeptical about Rya's plan.

"Do you want me to ask her, I can do that." Rya said as it was no big deal to her.

"No need. I'll do it." Franz reluctantly agreed.

"Good. You have her number? Chat her up." Rya advised him. "The sooner you get a distraction, the better for you to forget that slut." She poked his chest, turning to walk away.

"Watch your mouth. And what about you? How's Ty?" He asked, following Rya behind closely.

"He's good. We're actually going on a date tonight. Hurry up and get over Nicolette so that we can both go on a double date." She said to him.

"I still wonder how you do it?"

"Do what?" Rya asked him.

"Hide that you have a boyfriend from your parents."

Rya scoffed at the question. "Tell them I'm dating someone who isn't part of our social status, lives in the place they fondly call 'shithole' when they have never been there. Yeah, I'd be toast, grounded, confined, shipped off, whatever! I don't even want to think about what they'll do, cos they will never find out." She said to him.

"Then you should have just dated me instead." Franz joked.

Rya halted, turning to him with a scrunched face. "Ew. Double ew. You're not even my type, ugh." She said faking a disgusted look. Then she smiled. "But don't worry, you'll find the perfect match."

Franz chuckled. "Just so you know, I can't date you either. You look like a freaking squid." He laughed lightly, ruffling her hair before walking out.

"Hey!" Rya glared at him. She went after him, hitting his back repeatedly. "Don't insult me pea brain." She said, assaulting him.
................................................................................

In her flowery pajamas, Ashley laid on her bed while going through her laptop.

"I just can't believe this." Ashley scoffed. "Why did they...." She groaned. "Are they really trying to remove every trace of me?"

She had just been removed from her former school's group chat. Why they removed her? She had no idea! She felt wronged and sidelined in a way. Even though she knew the person who had removed her was... let's just say they weren't friends. Ashley sighed, finally accepting that maybe it was time for her to move on from Geraldine school. She went over to Skye Academy's page and made sure to follow them on all social media accounts.

Just then, a message popped up. It was a message from someone she was following on Instagram. As soon as she tapped on it, she read mentally 'a quick one, can you look out your balcony?"

She glanced at the sender's name. "Oh my God Franz!" She immediately hopped out of the bed, grabbing her phone in a flash and fixed her hair in a loose bun before hurrying to the door leading to her balcony.

"Hey!" He yelled, waving his hands swiftly.

Ashley waved back with her phone in her hand. She opened the messaging app on her phone to text back at him.

I_am_Ashley: you're still up?

She sent the message to him, and almost immediately she got a reply.

Franzmidwest: couldn't sleep. U?

I_am_Ashley: same.

Franzmidwest: it's a full moon today. You wanna come outside and hang out with me?

Ashley frowned at the question that she had just seen that he had just sent so she glanced up at him, but he just put his hands up. So she decided to type back.

I_am_Ashley: like now?

Franzmidwest: yeah.

I_am_Ashley: Lol... I can't. It's late, like past 10?

Franzmidwest: are you afraid?

I_am_Ashley: I can't. My parents.

Franzmidwest: should I come over then?

"What is he talking about?" Ashley seemed confused as to why he wanted to come over. But of course, this was freaking Franz MidWest asking if he could come over!!!! More than dream come true!!

I_am_Ashley: meet me outside in... 5!

Franzmidwest: great! I'll see you then.

Ashley watched him blow a kiss to her from his window and it melted her heart. Now, all she had to do was sneak out without her parents knowing or any of the staff finding her out. She got into a pair of fancy flip-flops heading out her room. She walked down the hallway, taking an alternative route to evade her parent's room. Tiptoeing down the grand staircase, Ashley hurried towards the entryway when she heard an ahem coming from behind the house as soon as she reached the foot of the stairs.

Ashley abruptly turned, only to see her sister folding her arms with a questioning look on her face.

"I-I-Isla." She chuckled awkwardly. "I um.... I didn't see you there." Ashley scratched the back of her hair.

"Where are you going missy?" Isla asked. Isla was a young lady with long natural, graceful, wavy hair, brown eyes like a doe, slender but tall. She was equally as beautiful but was also the female version of their father.

"Well uh... I uh..." Ashley cleared her throat. "I won't be long. I'm stepping outside a bit."

"You are? Why?" Isla narrowed her eyes at her younger sister.

"Fresh air." Ashley answered with a fake smile.

"Then why are your movements suspicious?" She probed Ashley.

"Suspicious how?"

"Oh you were tiptoeing hurriedly down the stairs." Isla pointed to the stairs.

"I was?" She feigned innocence. "Was I?" Ashley looked at the ceiling, faking ignorance.

"And by outside, do you mean outside the gates?" Isla eyed Ashley.

"What?" Ashley laughed awkwardly, turning to her sister. "Why uh, why would I want to do that?" She shrugged her shoulders, followed by her arms being folded over her chest.

Isla's face loosened up and lit up with a grin. "Anyways sis, you can go. Just stay out of trouble."

"I can?" Ashley batted her lashes at Isla.

"Sure. But don't stay out too long. Hold on, you're just gonna be around right?" She had to make sure Ashley wasn't going too far.

"If it gives you more assurance, I'm going to be with our neighbor."

"Really? Oh, cool. And um, one question, you're hanging out with which one of the twins, the boy or the girl?" She asked, placing a finger on her cheek.

"The boy... Why?" Ashley frowned at her sister.

"Oh." Isla nodded in acceptance. "Cool cool, 'cos mum and daddy told me about the gay talk you dropped on them." Isla told her.

"Seriously? They told you?" Ashley scoffed, turning to the door.