I hate this. My life was perfectly fine before the Maddox family moved back. I was happy. I was enjoying my friends and their company. I loved to live.

Now, I don't even recognise this tear-streaked face looking back at me in the school mirror. I'd ran away here after I got lunch with my friends, using a lame excuse of desperately needing the toilet. I know I'd seemed fine when talking to Kite, with a smug expression on my face after my slap. And that slap gave me some sort of revenge, but it wasn't nearly enough.

I hated Kite with my life, no matter how pretty he was. I hated the way he made my feel. And he saw a bit of my weakness, my irregular breathing.

I physically couldn't do this. But I know I had to.

I was glad I'd gone to the disabled toilets. No one could come in and see me. I look at my face, and then take some toilet paper, and wipe my face. The tissue runs over my pimple, and I want to scream. Today was going horribly. Thank god there was only one more lesson after this.

When I'm ready, I unlock the door and exit. Thankfully, no one's waiting outside. Knowing my luck, I wouldn't be surprised if Kite was just standing there.

I walk as fast as I can towards the area where everyone in KS4 was required to go. I spot my friends right at the end of grounds.

And, obviously, Kite Maddox had to be somewhere. He was standing with his group at the large fence, stopping us from leaving the school. He was leaning against it, thinking he looked amazing.

I begin to walk to my friends. As I'm doing so, Kite meets my eyes. His expression is stony, but who knew what he was thinking? I glare back. It was probably obvious I'd been crying, so I made sure he knew it was his fault.

I think he got the hint.

I eventually reach my friends, which took far longer than it needed to. I think they could tell something was wrong, but I'm guessing from the look on my face they didn't pester me.

I join them seated underneath the tree. They're talking about some school project.

"Oh, Dove, did you remember?" Maya asks me, smiling at me. Ugh, I loved my friends. I felt comforted immediately.

"Remember what?" I smiled back, genuinely interested.

"Tomorrow, we get put into pairs to work on this project that is, like, 1/4 of a exam scores." Alina explains.

I do, now that I think about it, remember this. As Alina said, this project would be a 1/4 of our score. We would be missing normal lessons for 2 months, up until the 28th of February. In that gap, we would have to come in to school to get our attendance mark, but after that we could go wherever we wanted, in school or out, to complete the project. What the project was, I didn't know, but 2 months of no school, 2 months without seeing Kite Maddox everywhere I went, was bliss.

Lola snorts. "You seem happy about that."

I slap her arm gently. "Obviously."

For the first time today, I was actually excited. I really hoped I was with one of my friends. As all of the Y11s were split into groups of 5, (you only had lessons with people in your group), I would most likely be with them. But even if I wasn't, I was friendly with some of the other people in my group, so that was okay. It was only Kite and his friends who I had a problem with.

Apart from Rocky. He was alright, especially since he was closer to Alina.

Suddenly, the bell goes, signalling the end of lunch and the start of the last period. The last lesson I had for the next two months.

I get up, brushing my hands down my bum to make sure there were no twigs or rocks sticking to my skirt. I smile. I'm actually optimistic. I have hope.

Our last lesson was Maths. Me and my friends were all in the same lesson, so that was good. Alina links up my arm and chats happily.

"You know, girls, we really need to hang out one day." She says, as a cold breeze whips our faces as we walk into the school building.

I snort. "Don't we always?"

"Obviously, Miss Sarcasm, but it's not enough for any of us." I laugh as Alina speaks, eyeing me up and down jokingly.

"Ashfield Mall?" Lola suggests, tucking her blonde hair behind her ear. Randomly, I realise that Kite and his friends have already gone inside.

"I'm fine with that." Alina nods in agreement, always excited.

"Yeah, me too." Maya says.

"I should be. I need to ask my parents." I say, as we enter into the building and climb up a flight of stairs. As we do this, I think about enjoying the company of my friends in the mall.

Ashfield Mall is surprisingly not that small, especially for a little town like Ashfield. It's also pretty obvious that the council aren't very imaginative when it came to naming buildings. Anyways, Ashfield Mall had plenty of shops, places to eat, places to spend our money. I actually couldn't wait.

"When are we going?" Maya says, reading my mind as I was about to ask that question.

"Weekend?" Alina says, and we all agree.

We reach the Maths classroom and enter. I was surprised to see Kite wasn't here. I guess he wasn't good at Maths, as this was the highest set.

I see that our Maths teacher is not in, so we have a substitute. A new seating plan was on the board. I see I'm sat at the back corner.

I take my seat. I sit next to a ginger, freckled-face girl, with round glasses. She smiles at me, and I smile back.

To my horror, I see Maya and Alina sat next to each, (the tables were in rows and columns of 4, 2 people per table), and Lola sat in front of them.

Lucky rats.

The rest of the lesson dragged by slowly, and my mind was not thinking of maths, only of how I could collapse on my bed when I got home. I was too tired. Way too tired.

Hopefully tomorrow would be better.

~

A/N

Thank you everyone for voting and commenting on my story! Appreciate it! Next chapter will be from Kite's perspective!