—

It had been all but ten minutes since Melanie stepped onto school property, and she was already ready to go home.

From this morning at breakfast when Zach had been staring her down to now thinking about those tapes anytime she made eye contact with people who were on them.

Her eyes rolled at the mere thought of them. She was so sick of these damn tapes. And she knew things would only get worse from there. Especially considering Clay wasn't even close to finishing them.

Don't even get her started on how she practically ran out of her bedroom to avoid Mattias.

The two had spent the majority of the night awkwardly cuddling. And when they woke up the next morning, all he had gotten from her was a good morning and a quick 'I'll text you when everyone leaves so you can eat breakfast.'.

After they kissed, they simply went back to the mission of hiding him away from her family. No talk about it, or anything, which seemed to be the best considering things. Melanie had come to the conclusion that it would only become suspicious when it came to feeding Mattias.

It wasn't completely unusual for the Dempsey siblings to bring their food upstairs when they weren't feeling decent enough to sit at the table. While they would get an earful from their mother, they often made the risk to avoid talking about their days with her.

What made Zach confused was when he saw the amount of food Melanie brought to her bedroom. It was even weirder when he noticed she came back with a completely empty plate. Mel almost always had leftovers after dinner.

The action that caused a permanent furrow in his brows for the night was when she then made her way to the pantry to grab a family-sized bag of potato chips and a Pop-Tart.

As much as she called him the word, Melanie knew that her brother wasn't an actual idiot. She'd give it a week before Zach's curiosity got the better of him and he barged into her room to see Mattias De La Cruz cuddled up in her sheets.

It was safe to say that she wasn't doing much to hide the fact that she was holing someone up in her room.

And when Zach does find out, she can only hope he would hear her out before snitching.

•••

As part of the school honor board, it was Melanie's job to essentially punish other students.

In this case, Monty versus Alex.

Or more so, everyone in the room versus Monty.

On her end, Monty wasn't really in the wrong. Sure, he was "reckless" driving, but Alex did start the fight. And Mel watched the whole thing go down. It wasn't like Montgomery was speeding through the parking lot.

Though Liberty High School was ridiculously and stupidly biased and wanted to side with what they thought would work out in their favor.

And in the end, it almost never did.

The school wasn't even focused on the fact that Alex practically begged to get his ass kicked. They were just focused on the fact that Montgomery's knuckles were red with blood that didn't belong to him, and Alex could only see out of one eye.

It was a bit unfair that the De La Cruz's held a reputation that resulted in them getting the short end of the stick no matter the situation. Then again, they had no one to blame but themselves.

Anyway, as Melanie sat in between Clay and a girl she couldn't bother to remember the name of, she attempted to block out the sound of Marcus and Courtney's voices.

She watched from the corner of her eye as Clay doodled on a piece of paper. Her brows creased as she struggled to remember where she recognized that stupid bunny from.

Her eyes flickered up at the next words to leave Marcus' mouth.

"You could've killed somebody. It's our job to protect the students of this school."

The snort that left her mouth was enough to draw the attention to her. She let out a loud sigh, one that Marcus mocked.

"Anything you want to say, Melanie?"

"No, I mean..." She chuckled, "Whose job is it?"

He didn't seem to understand why she wanted him to repeat himself, but he did, "Ours."

"Right..." She nodded, "That's funny."

"I don't understand what's funny about it." His voice had an underlying edge to it. One that only a few people seemed to pick up on.

Deciding she didn't want to continue talking to him, she shrugged, "You knew Hannah, right?"

The silence that filled the room was deafening. The mere mention of the Baker girl was scary enough, but no one had gone far enough to use her name in such a serious way.

The only one who didn't seem all that bothered was Montgomery.

Porter stood straight. "Ms. Dempsey—"

He was cut off by Melanie's chair scraping the floor as she stood.

Exiting the room, she could hear Alex ranting on about how the school's honor board lacked the honorability they claimed to have. And she couldn't agree more.

What was so honorable about driving a girl to kill herself?

•••

"Jensen!"

Scott chuckled, "Jesus, man. Can't you see they're having a conversation?"

"I don't think he cares." Melanie shared a laugh with Leah, Jeff's girlfriend.

Jeff ignored the three, greeting his friend, "What's up, Clay?"

"Hey, Jeff." Clay drew his lips into a smile, looking past him, "Hi, Mel. Scott."

He sent Leah an awkward wave, having not known the girl much.

"Let me guess: you guys are seeing Never Say Goodbye for Valentine's Day."

"Not at all." Scott scoffed, eyeing the snacks below him, his hand excitedly latching onto Melanie's at the sight of the purple bag of Skittles.

"Nah, we're seeing Thirty Ways to Die. Scott's idea."

"You're a classy date." Hannah giggled. She looked over at her former friend. "I thought you hated scary movies."

Deciding to be cordial, Melanie nodded with a playful eye roll, "I do."

"It gives me an excuse to coddle her without getting hit for smothering."

"I get hot." Melanie defended herself.

"What's up with you, man? How'd that Dollar Valentine work out?"

Melanie wasn't around when Clay was caught signing up for Dollar Valentine, but she heard all about him watching Lord Of The Rings three times a week.

Judging by the look on his face, this wasn't something Jeff was supposed to bring up.

"Oop." She accidentally let it out, earning a confused look from her boyfriend. Without shame, she leaned over to whisper, "I think he told Hannah he wasn't doing it."

Upon realizing eyes were on them, Scott attempted to ease the tension with an awkward clear of his throat.

"Can I get two packs of Skittles?"

—
A/N: hello!!