3 ~°~Chapter Three~°~

Hayden! Virgil!" Shana screams running towards us like a human rocket, her pink hair waving madly.

Virgil and I share terrified looks, it's too late to run.

"I missed you guys so much." She screeches, crashing into us, her cotton candy pink hair getting everywhere, in my eyes, my mouth, every where.

"Take your tasteless cotton candy far from me." I command, annoyed at having to hug them. "None of you picked up my calls this weekend, you don't deserve my hugs." I grumble, my 4"11 form practically buried by my taller friends but I don't make a move to get free.

Shana pouts. "We're sorry, it won't happen again." She promises.

I'm really not angry, I'm very relieved to see that their fine, I know they go to some obscure cabin to spend family time together some weekends and crazily enough they aren't even related but they're are close enough to be.

"Fine." I eye roll, "Now get off me before you rub your hideously smelling perfumes all over me." I push them away and we walk into school.

"You know, you're a mean person who shouldn't have friends." Shana mutters.

I sigh. "And after I've forgiven you too."

She freezes. "Fine you're not mean." She bites out.

Virgil just has a smile on his face as he watches us banter.

"Wait a sec." I suddenly say, closing up my locker. The hallways were still scanty, we liked to come earlier so we could hang out together before classes. "Virgil, what's that?" I ask suspiciously, walking closer to them, their lockers were directly beside each other but mine was a little far down.

"What's what?" He asks, not meeting my eyes.

"You got your ear pierced!" I half shriek when I get close enough to recognize the single black stud in his left ear.

"W-What?" Shana mumbles absently, staring up from her locker. "What's wrong?"

"Virgil got his ears pierced." I tell her, expecting her to go batshit like I'm about to.

We were all crazily close and it is the weirdest thing because people like Shana and Virgil should have never noticed someone like me in the first place, they were elite material but instead they preferred to hang out with me. Not that I'm complaining, I've known them practically forever.

But all she does is widen her eyes a bit and she let's out a weak noise of surprise. She's usually not a bad liar but I caught her off guard.

"You knew!" I accuse, hurt. "That's it. I'm breaking up with you guys." I throw my hands up and start making for our hangout spot on the roof.

This part of it is abandoned, some teacher or student tried making a garden here once and now the plants just ran wild, giving it a hanging indoor garden kind of look.

I'm barely settled on a bench when they're coming up, surprise written on their faces.

I forget about the unknown piercing for a short while. "Did something happen?" I can't help asking.

"Elaine just told me that there are new students coming today." Shana says as they get comfortable in their favorite spots.

I frown. "New students? The term is nearly halfway done."

"They're transfer students and in our year, I hope they're cute." She fawns,

"But next year is our final year, why would anyone change schools?" Virgil asks.

"Who gives a damn why they did?" Shana says blissfully. "

"Maybe they moved." I tell Virgil, then throw a flower at Shana. "You might not want to calling dibs yet, they might turn out to be scarily ugly."

She blinks, like she had never considered that. "That's impossible, every book and movie ever will tell you that the new mysterious kid that gets transferred is always edible." She argues.

I roll my eyes, really not interested in arguing with her and over a boy. "I don't care Shana, it's not like I'm going to be a possible date candidate. I'm a boy remember, I'm not fan-girling with you."

"I'll fan girl with you." Virgil offers, his blue eyes twinkling.

"You have no idea what it means do you?" She asks dryly.

"Nope."

"When did you pierce your ear?" I ask quietly, studying his blindingly handsome face.

"Over the weekend." He says sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. "I couldn't tell you because..."

"Oh yeah," I cut in. "Because, none of you picked up my calls."

"So how do I look?"

"Like a beagle." I say shortly not even looking at him.

Silence greets my retort and after an uncomfortable while I'm looking up to see them shaking in silent laughter. The bell rings.

I give them a frustrated look but still wait for them to get over their hysterics, if I were a nicotine addict, I would have puffed through a couple packets of cigarettes by now.

"I ask myself everyday, why I keep up with you two morons?" I shake my head.

"Because you hate everyone else." Shana says, slinging a hand over my shoulders as we make our way to class.

"It's called social anxiety Shana." Virgil say, struggling with her over who would get to place their arm on me.

"Cut it out." I whisper yell, as we arrive at a crowded hallway. "I'm not your bloody arm holder and people are staring."

"Sorry." Virgil whispers even though he knows we always attract attention.

"Why are we stage whispering?" Shana asks, winning the battle of who gets to place their arm on me.

I just roll my eyes, they might be my close friends --- scratch that, only friends but I've had enough social interaction for the next couple hours, thank goodness I have different classes without them till lunch break. I'm not socially anxious, I'm just a very concentrated introvert who might swallow his tongue if he's the center of attention.

I'm escorted to my class by my two bodyguards as usual, I can't exactly remember when it started, we live in a small town anyway so we've always been at the same schools and they've always hovered around me. It's rare to see just one of us alone, it's always Virgil, Shana and Hayden, we we're inseparable.

"You don't have to walk me to my class." I tell them softly as we walk down the halls, Virgil's the school heartthrob so every girl has their eyes on us. "I'm pretty sure I'll be less noticeable all on my own." It's sad but true, no one would even bother to look at me the second time if I were all alone.

"And risk Tyrone getting his hands on you again, not a chance." Virgil scoffs.

"It was just that one time..." I start to complain, my palms getting sweaty from all the eyes on me, too many people overwhelm me and the only reason I'm not home schooled is because my mom might mistakenly murder me that and Virgil constant need to watch over me.

"And you had bruises all down your sides that you tried to hide from us." Shana says darkly, the little bubblegum of happiness terrifying me. "And really Hayden, one time?" She asks, old hurt and unforgiven anger flashing in her hazel eyes.

I don't reply, the truth is Tyrone and his gang bullied me for a month straight and threatened that if I told on them they would hurt my friends, I managed to get away with it for that long which was a huge surprise as we had sleepovers, swims and lots of other things that guaranteed my bruises would be found out.

Well, long story cut short, Virgil found out and I'd never seen him so angry before, he even gave me a new bruise on my arm which darkened immediately and took a really long time to clear up. I wasn't mad or scared of him even though he apologized furiously with tears in his eyes when he found out he'd hurt me. I didn't see Tyrone for a whole week and when I did he had bruises and bandages all over and kept glaring covertly at me. So I understand their paranoia but that doesn't change the fact that my heart is beating at thrice it's usual amount.

"See we're here." Shana says cheerily, all traces of her previous anger totally gone. "You didn't die, did you?" She asks sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

Virgil doesn't say anything, his electric blue eyes dark and dangerous, his face a cold mask.

I sigh as we halt just outside the door of my first class, I know what it means when he gets like this. "I'll be fine Virgil, that happened months ago, we'll meet up at lunch." I say.

Shana grins at me then tugs on his arm to pull him to their first class.