Part 1

How it all begins !

Cora Kelley’s Point of View:

 

          Sometimes I feel like I’m just not a good person. I know there are some things I just shouldn’t say, and some I just shouldn’t do, but he finds a way to make me be the worst version of myself possible. Before I met him, I didn’t think I could ever be like that. I always imagined myself being a laid-back type of girlfriend, or a good one at least. I knew I wasn’t, but I did try. And I did love him, although at the moment it sure didn’t feel like it.

          The phone rang. I answered, and then hung up just as quickly. I didn’t want to talk to him. If I did, who knew what other horrible things would come out of my mouth? I didn’t want to deal with the self-loathing that I knew I would feel if I even tried to communicate with him.

          For a second, I couldn’t even remember why I was so angry. I think it was because he had ignored me earlier today, and then didn’t even apologize for it. Or maybe it was just the fact that he could be so completely immature. It also could have been my doubt that he is really even in love with me at all. Maybe it was all three.

          The phone rang again. This time, thanks to my lack of willpower, I answered.

          “Hello?” I answered in an incredibly displeased tone.

          “Listen, Cora, I’m sorry. Can we just forget about all this?” Came Cameron’s voice on the other line. He sounded exhausted, annoyed and fed up. In that tone, his apology meant absolutely nothing.

          “The problem,” I began. “Is that you want to forget it so easily. We never solve anything that way. That’s why we keep on having these fights.”

          “No, we keep on having these fights because you never accept my apology. It’s not even a big deal.”

          “I think it is. And the fact that I think it’s a big deal should matter to you. You should care about the fact that something you did made me upset, you shouldn’t get all frustrated about it. If you had of just said sorry nicely in the first place, then we wouldn’t be having this problem.” I huffed, uncrossing my legs and lying down on my bed. I knew I shouldn’t have answered the phone.

          There was silence on the other line. I waited for a while, but he didn’t say anything. The only thing I could hear was the rain coming down on my roof in a steady beat, and Cameron’s breathing, unsteady, but still a beat of some sort.

          “Hello?” I whispered into the phone. It made me so upset that Cameron never had anything to say; meanwhile I tried so hard to explain everything so that it would make sense to him. It just enforced my theory that he didn’t care about me, or our relationship.

          “Yeah?” He sounded even more exasperated than before.

          “You didn’t say anything.” I knew I sounded mad, but didn’t care.

          “Oh.”

          “Brilliant response, it really meant a lot.” I snapped, annoyed with his lack of words.

          “Well I don’t know what you want me to say.”

          I sighed. “I don’t want you to say anything. You should already know what to say. If you really loved me, you would just know.” I knew the “if you really loved me” stuff was nonsensical and just a dumb thing to say in general, but I again found myself not caring.

          “I do love you, Cora, but I’m not good with, like, explaining my feelings and stuff.”

          I rolled my eyes. “Alright, then. I have to go. Bye.”

          “Don’t be like that,” Cameron groaned, adding to my fury.

          “Be like what?” I challenged.

          “Mean.” He answered.

          I flinched, “mean” was the last thing I wanted to be known as. It hurt to have him say I was. “Oh.” I replied, my tone sad. “Well, I do really have to go. Goodnight.”

          “Goodbye, Cora. I love you.”

          For some reason, his words hurt me. I had wanted him to ask for me to stay. But of course he wouldn’t. I mean, who would ask for someone who acted the way I did to stay?

          “Bye.” I said a final time, and hung up. I knew it would hurt him that I didn’t say “I love you” back, and it hurt me too, knowing that I didn’t want to.

          I sat up, brushing away the tears that had welled up in my eyes. It felt like when I was with Cameron, I was at my worst, and I knew that wasn’t a good way to be. But we had been together for over a year, and I felt strange when he wasn’t there. Giving him up would be impossible, even though I knew it was the right thing to do if I didn’t want to be so terrible. So, my choices were to do the impossible, or feel horrible. Not exactly the best situation.

          I grabbed my science binder off the floor, and opened it so I could briskly study for tomorrow’s quiz. Even though I was upset, I would never allow that to distract from my grades. I needed my grades to be flawless, so that way I could always be sure that at least one thing in my life was going perfectly. It may seem silly, but when I’m depressed, getting a hundred percent on a history test is a real pick-me-up.

          I looked outside my window at the rain, which only blackened my mood. I hated grey, and I hated wet. Well, I did find it kind of romantic when the rain was coming down so hard that it bounced off the pavement. But this was kind of a gross mid-drizzle, so I wasn’t at all a fan. However, it was the end of April, so I knew the showers would stop soon and I could get all the sunshine I wanted.

          I glanced at the clock, 11:11. I knew that if I wanted to make a wish, this would be a good time to do it. Not that any wishes made at this time had come true before. But what did I have to lose? Absolutely nothing.

          I wished on a perfect relationship. But since there was no such thing, I highly doubted it would come true.

          I continued sitting on the floor in my room, leaning against my bed, re-reading my science notes over and over again. I somehow managed to fall asleep in that position, although a thing like that had never happened to me before. It was like I had just let my monotonous yet exasperating life consume me in its perpetual boredom.

          That sounds awful, I know, and incredibly depressing. However, I am not a depressing person, or at least I hope not. No, I was pretty sure I wasn’t. It was just that single moment, that realization that I was currently bored of life. I didn’t like the feeling. I needed to make things exciting again. It was only a matter of how.

 

Reese Tannenbaum’s Point of View:

 

          I woke up that morning feeling strange, as if something was destined to happen. It was an unusual feeling, one I’d only gotten twice before. The first was when I was eight and it was Christmas morning, and my two sisters and I had received tickets to Disney World. The second was the first day of high school, where I instantly became wildly popular. That’s how I knew that something good was going to happen today.

          Because of this promising feeling in the pit of my stomach, I wore my favourite pair of Lululemon yoga pants, and sprayed my wrists with my newly-acquired Abercrombie perfume. It’s going to be a good day, I told myself over and over again. But I knew that it was going to be more than just good, it was going to be life changing, just like my MAC Happy Together Blush.

          I examined myself in my bathroom mirror, thinking I looked pretty good, minus the small zit on my forehead. I’d taken a small-barrel curling iron to my long, golden blonde hair and it had turned out into perfect ringlets. I smiled, proud of myself. I allowed myself one final squirt of hairspray, and then headed downstairs.

          When I stepped into the kitchen, I realized that my sisters, Olivia and Cassidy, seemed incredibly excited about something. Olivia was younger than me, in the eighth grade, while Cassie was going to graduate high school in a few months. Olivia had hair like mine, except it was more of a white-blonde, while Cassidy was the brunette of the family.

          “You two look happy.” I commented as I slid on to one of bar stools at the island in the middle of the kitchen.

          “We are. Mom brought us each Danishes from that new Dutch bakery that just opened on Main Street.” Cassidy smiled. Her love for pastries was not well-hidden, and neither was my mother’s distaste towards anything with calories.

          “Wow,” I said, as I fluffed my hair. “Give me mine.”

          “You took too long upstairs so Cass and I split it.” Olivia grinned, as she swallowed the last of her Danish.

          “What?” I gasped. “How horrible. Today is supposed to be a good day.” I pouted at them.

          “Why’s that?” Cassidy asked.

          “Just a feeling. Now, since you two ate my Danish, can you put some bread in the toaster please and pass me the box of Lucky Charms?”

          Cassidy did as I asked while I grabbed a bowl from the cupboard and some milk from the fridge. “Eat your breakfast quickly, Reese, I have to be at school early to ask my teacher some questions about the Physics test before it starts.”

          “Yeah, yeah.” I said through mouthfuls of rainbow-shaped marshmallows. “Where’s Mom?”

          “She went out for a jog. It’s actually a nice morning. I think we’re passed the rain.”

          “Hm,” I murmured, as my toast popped out of the toaster. I dipped a butter knife into the jar of peanut butter that had been left out on the counter and spread it on top. The sound of the knife scraping against the crispy bread made me lick my lips.

          I ate quickly, and had just enough time to throw on a turquoise, velour Juicy hoodie as I walked out the door. I slipped into the passenger seat of Cassidy’s silver BMW (it was used so not really all that impressive), and checked how my eye makeup was holding up in the mirror.

          “You are obsessed with your appearance.” Olivia said from the backseat.

          I flipped the mirror up and spun around to glare at her. “I most certainly am not.”

          “Yes you are. That’s why people don’t like you.”

          I laughed, shortly and bitterly, at this. “People like me just fine. Better than fine, actually. Everybody’s my friend. Except for the sketchy ones, and the ones I don’t like.”

          “All the girls in my class think you’re really mean and stuck-up.” Olivia shot back, clearly passionate about this whole issue.

          I rolled my eyes at her as Cassidy drove us through our lush, green neighbourhood. “Do you really think I care what eighth-graders think of me? The answer is, no, I don’t.” I slid on my Ray-Ban sunglasses to block out the glare of the sunlight seeping through the windshield.

          Cassidy laughed breezily, her head tilting back so the light caught the shine in her light brown hair. “Oh, Olivia. Those girls are just jealous of Reese. Do they really even know her? They probably just creep her Facebook profile pictures and wish they looked like her, and since they don’t, they choose to hate her. But I bet you one million dollars that if Reese walked up to one of them right now, they would fall all over themselves complimenting her.”

          “Oh, Cass.” I blushed. “I’m not really that pretty. In fact, haven’t you noticed how fat my calves have been getting? I nearly have cankles!” I giggled a little at this, although there was a bit of a nauseous feeling in the pit of my stomach at the thought. I’d stopped going to the gym lately, and I did think the effects were starting to show.

          Cassidy just shook her head, not going to even bother to argue with me. Her reaction immediately took me back to science class last Monday, when Cameron had done the exact same thing when I explained my cankle trouble to him.

          His green eyes had shone, so piercing and mysterious...  I wanted him so badly. And that wasn’t a good thing. He was dating my best friend, after all. But I couldn’t help it. He was just so handsome and so perfect.

          Unfortunately, Kieran Glover had interrupted the glorious moment where Cam had denied my having cankles, by asking some stupid question about if ionic compounds were electrolytes. It was stupid because I obviously wouldn’t know. I was failing the class with a forty-four percent, and Kieran knew that. He probably was just looking for an excuse to talk to me.

          Kieran Glover was a boy with some sort of a sick, dark sense of humor, and I was stuck with him as my lab partner. Why couldn’t Mr. Martin have paired me with Cam? That would have been perfect! I think he has something against me.

          I rolled my window down, letting the slightly warm breeze ruffle through my hair, giving my curls that perfect soft, windblown look. A small smile lit my lips. Even though Cameron wasn’t mine, and probably never would be, today would be another fantastic day and my favourite place, high school. I felt good, and I knew I looked good, so there was nothing to fear. Except my math test. Forgot about that.

 

Jamieson Porterfield’s Point of View:

 

          I leaned against the wall, tired and bored. I’d been up until two in the morning last night, since I was just not able to get a good night’s sleep. I had felt nervous and stressed, unsure of how today would go. It was hard going to a new school in the middle of the semester, and hard moving to a small place altogether. I had come from a big city, Toronto, and now here I was in Huntsville, a small town. It could have been worse, but it still wasn’t great. Huntsville was boring, and there wasn’t much to do. It didn’t have the pulse and vibrancy of the city, or anything close to it for that matter. Long story short, I wasn’t intrigued.

          “Allie!” I called, annoyed. The letter we got in the mail two days ago had informed us that our school bus would be arriving at eight, and it was five minutes to. I wasn’t getting my G2 for another week still, but once I did I would able to drive my Dad’s old truck, which would be a lot better than the bus.

          “Yes?” I heard Allie shout from upstairs.

          “You need to hurry.”

          “I’m not done my makeup yet though!” She whined. I frowned, irritated.

          “Then I’m leaving without you.” I informed her. “Bye Mom.” I called into the kitchen.

          “Bye, honey, have a great first day.” She gave me a quick hug. “And don’t worry about Allie; I’ll make sure she’s there on time.”

          “Okay,” I replied, as I slid my shoes on and grabbed my backpack before I dashed out the door.

          I stepped out into the crisp morning air, and I had to admit it was pretty here. But what made it even prettier was the girl I saw walking down the road. Her steps were quick, and her gaze was fixed. It appeared as though she was on some sort of a mission.

          I hurried up my driveway, and mustered the courage to fall into step with this mysterious girl. She didn’t seem to notice me at first, but when she did, it seemed that I was quite a surprise.

          “Oh!” She gasped, her brown eyes wide. They were filled with small gold flecks, I noticed, which were enhanced by the morning sun.

          “Hello,” I said to her, studying her face. She had a luminous, almost golden skin tone and perfect bow-shaped lips. Her eyes were wide with confusion, her long dark hair ruffling around her stunning features.

          “H-hi,” She stammered back, clearly flustered. “Who are you?”

          “Straightforward,” I commented. “I’m Jamie. I just moved in.” I pointed over to my house.

          “Oh.” Her smile was weak. “Interesting.”

          “You looked focused,” I told her. “When you were walking.”

          “I was studying in my head.” She replied, her eyes flashing to my face and then away. We kept walking, and I saw her sights were fixed on a red stop sign up ahead. She went on my bus.

          “Studying in your head? That takes talent.” I replied, as if I was impressed. And strangely, I was.

          “Not really. I just have too much time on my hands.”

          “But you’re probably going to ace that test? So that’s a bonus.”

          “It’s just a quiz.” She shrugged, her lips curved into a small smile.

          “And you studied?” I asked dubiously. No one ever studied for quizzes, except for overachievers. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if this girl was one.

          “As I said, I have too much time on my hands. Especially on week nights when there’s no good television.” This time she really smiled, and my breath caught in my throat. Her smile had stunned me, and confused me, but I knew it was beautiful and I wanted to see it again.

          “What did you say your name was?” I asked, returning her smile.

          “I didn’t. It’s Cora.” She said as we came to a stop. Cora immediately dropped her oversized bag that had been hanging off her shoulder and sighed in relief. “I’m guessing you’re going to my high school now?”

          “Good guess. I’m in the tenth grade, and you?” She looked like she was my age, but she had a softness and vulnerability to her that made her seem younger.

          “Same. What are your classes?” Her head, adorably, tilted slightly to the right.

          “Gym, English, Tech Design and History. In order.  Am I lucky enough to share a class with you?” I smiled.

          I noticed her cheeks flush slightly. “Well, I wouldn’t call it lucky, but you’re in my History class.”

          I had been hoping for more than just one class with Cora, but this would do. “Tell me, is it a good class?”

          “It’s my favourite this semester. The teacher’s really sarcastic, which I like, and I find it pretty interesting.” Her smile was easy as she said this, and she seemed to be more comfortable talking to me than she had been at first. I considered that a good sign.

          A sudden roaring in the distance had us both staring down the road, as a huge yellow vehicle pulled up in front of us. I glanced behind me, and there was no sign of Allie running frantically down the road.

          “Hm,” I pondered as we boarded the bus. Cora picked a seat in the second row from the back, and she slid over a little when I approached. I took this as an invitation to sit with her and did just that. She smiled at me when I did, and I lost my train of thought. “My sister missed the bus.” I said, for lack of a better thing to say.

          “You have a sister?” She seemed intrigued.

          “Yes. A twin, actually. But I’m a solid nine minutes older.”

          She laughed. My heart beat faster. “I wish I had a twin.”

          “No,” I said firmly. “You don’t.”

          “Don’t get along?”

          “Of course not. I’m guessing you don’t have any siblings, or you wouldn’t have asked that question.” I smirked.

          “You’re right on that account. I’m an only child.” She grinned, and then reached into her bag and pulled out a container with some bread in it. It didn’t look normal, though, sort of like whole wheat bread but browner and seedier.

          “What’s that?” I asked curiously.

          She took a bite, chewed, swallowed and then answered. “It’s Ezekiel bread. It’s made with sprouted grains, or something. It’s disgusting.”

          “Why do you eat it then?”

          “My best friend Reese says it’s really good for you, and it makes you get a flat stomach or something. Plus, my Mom wanted me to start eating breakfast in the morning, so I figured I might as well.” She said in a rush. She talked fast when she really got going, but I managed to catch every word.

          I was going to tell her she already had a flat stomach from what I could tell. But I decided that could be awkward, so I said something else instead. “You didn’t eat breakfast before?”

          “I don’t like most breakfast foods. Not a cereal fan, except for dry rice krispies and honeycombs. I like fruit though.”

          I laughed. What she said hadn’t been funny, it was just cute that she was telling me all these random details. I liked it, I found it incredibly endearing.

          “You know,” I began. “I get my G2 next week. That means I get to drive my Dad’s truck to school. Could you use a ride or are you happy with the bus?”

          Cora stared at me like I had just saved her life. “You would really give me a ride? That’s so nice of you. I hate the bus, you know. And now I can sleep in longer. That’s really helpful, thanks.” She beamed at me.

          I melted. Her smile had some sort of crazy effect on me. I just wanted to see more and more of it. I could get used to seeing it every single morning.

          Suddenly, Huntsville didn’t seem so dull to me. In fact, sitting on the bus with Cora has to be one of the best places I’ve ever been.

 

Cameron Hale’s Point of View:

 

          I shut my locker, and turned around to face Landon Cosling and Henry Miyagi, my two best friends. We were all on the lacrosse team together, and they were a good way to pass time while I waited for Cora to show up. She hadn’t been too happy with me last night, but she almost always was in a better mood by morning.

          “Have you seen Reese Tannenbaum today? Her top doesn’t even cover her stomach. It’s so hot.” Landon was saying, as he bit into an apple. I tried to resist rolling my eyes. In my opinion, Reese was sort-of boring looking, and thought too highly of herself. She was nice to me though, and Cora’s best friend, so I didn’t mind her too much.

          “I think she looks like such a s**t.” Replied Henry. “She just wants attention.”

          “That’s true, but she’s still hot. I made out with her once in grade nine.” Landon nodded with pride.

          “Okay, that is pretty impressive.” Henry smirked.

          I had stopped listening by now though, I peered around Henry to see Cora walking through the hall. She looked cute today. She was wearing short shorts, showing off her tanned legs, and a lacy white top. I started to approach her, but then I saw the guy standing beside her. They were engaged in conversation.

          I had never seen this guy before. He was pretty tall, with messy black hair. He was certainly the kind of guy I should feel threatened by, and I did. He was definitely more muscular than I was, and I felt angry that he seemed so interested in Cora. Nobody looked at a girl like that unless they really liked them.

          Infuriated, I walked right up to Cora. “Hey baby,” I grinned, slipping an arm around her.

          I noticed her eyes widen, and flicker to the tall guy. “Um, hi.” She replied, and I could feel her loosening herself from my grip.

          I ignored her for the time being though, and stared at the mystery guy. He looked surprised, and maybe even a little dejected. Good.

          “Hi,” I smiled at him confidently, keeping my arm around Cora’s waist. “I’m Cameron, Cora’s boyfriend. And you are?” I asked, stressing the word boyfriend only slightly.

          “Jamie Porterfield. I just moved here.” He grinned back, just as confidently.

          “Oh,” I replied, not knowing what to say. “Cool.”

          “Yes,” Cora interjected. “I was just showing Jamie to his locker. It’s near mine. So if you’ll excuse me--”

          I quickly cut her off. “I’ll come too.”

          Cora grunted, but didn’t protest. I wished she would have been in a better mood with me so that I could show Jamie who Cora really belonged to.

          She went up to the third floor and into Science hall. “What number was it again?” She smiled sweetly at Jamie, and I tried to resist punching him in the face.

          “3339,” He replied, smiling back. I watched as his eyes canvassed her body. My jealousy got even stronger.

          “Here you go,” Cora tapped a locker. “Mine’s just down here.” She pointed down the hall.

          “Great, now I’ll know where to find you.” He beamed at her.

          “Perfect. I’ll see you in History?” She cocked her head, her hair swinging.

          “See you then.” His tone was so joyful that I wanted to light myself on fire. I grabbed Cora’s hand and pulled her down the hall before any more of this could go on.

          “Jeez,” Cora said, ripping her hand out of mine. We were at her locker now, and she started spinning the combination. “What’s wrong with you today?”

          “Nothing.” I huffed. “Listen, I’m sorry about how I was acting last night. I shouldn’t have been that way. But I just want things to be happy again. You look beautiful today, by the way.” I smiled at her.

          She tried to resist grinning back, but failed. “Okay,” Cora said, giving in. “I wasn’t acting so great either. In fact, I felt bad. I wasn’t being all that nice.”

          “Neither of us were. But mostly me. I won’t make you feel that way again, I promise.” I murmured, bringing my body closer to hers.

          “Good.” She smiled, and I leaned down to kiss her. My eyes flickered over to Jamie, he had seen us. Good.

          I pulled back, satisfied. “So that Jamie kid seems nice, huh?” I lied.

          “Really? It didn’t seem like you liked him. But yeah, he’s a good guy. At least from what I can tell. He’s going to give me rides to school starting next week. Isn’t that great? Now I don’t have to take the bus.” Cora rambled excitedly.

          My heart dropped. “He lives near you?”

          She nodded. “Just a few houses down.”

          “And he’s in our History class?” I sighed.

          “That’s right.”

          “Great.” I tried to sound enthusiastic. “By the way, Reese was looking for you this morning. She said she had something really exciting to tell you.”

          “Huh? Really?” Cora pulled out her Blackberry. “She didn’t send me any BBM’s.”      

          I shrugged. “It’s just what she said.”

          “Whatever, I’ll talk to her at lunch.” Cora smiled at me, and a bit of my earlier jealousy melted away. “I have to go to science, see you later.”

          I gave her a quick kiss, and turned to go to my first class, Gym.

          I entered the gymnasium after hurriedly getting changed, the voices of my classmates echoing throughout it. I spotted Landon running a few laps, and raced up to join him.

          “Hey,” He huffed, out of breath. His blonde hair was already soaked with sweat. “Have you met that Jamie kid? I asked if he played lacrosse and he told me he played for Toronto’s triple A team. I told him to try out for our team tonight. Maybe we’ll actually start winning some games.” Landon grinned, clearly happy about this, but anger flared up in inside of me.

          I was the co-captain of the lacrosse team, with Landon being captain, and I was always midfielder. And I’d never been able to make triple A, let alone Toronto’s triple A. That meant Jamie had to be at least ten times better than me, and would definitely steal my spot as co-captain if he joined the team.

          I groaned internally, when I noticed Jamie sprinting past me, with Henry at his side. He’d been at this school for fifteen minutes and had already managed to flirt with my girlfriend, make friends with all of my friends, and become a threat to my position on the lacrosse team. Needless to say, I didn’t like him. But if I were to make that obvious, it would just make me look bad. I knew Cora would get mad if I mentioned anything to her about my suspicion of Jamie being interested in her, and Henry and Landon would disagree with my not wanting Jamie on the team. So, I would just have to go along with it for now. Or maybe become his friend? That way, I could make sure he stays away from Cora, and perhaps convince him not to join the team.

          I raced up to him, a ready smile on my face. “Have plans for lunch today? Landon, Harry and I were going to grab something in town.”

          He smiled back, looking pleased. “Sure, thanks.”

          I took a deep breath and quickly ran a final lap. I finished with a long exhale and the thought that maybe Jamie wouldn’t be such a threat after all.

 

Author's Note

Really hope you enjoyed it ! I would absolutely love to hear your comments, thoughts, cristism, everything <3