Before I begin this story, I just want to say that I love the idea of Annie and Liam together. Honestly, I haven't 'shipped two characters this hard since...well, I can't even remember the last time I 'shipped two characters this hard. But with that said, I would also like to say that I believe the writers could have done a much better job with their build-up. I believe that Liam should have handled things a lot different concerning the whole Naomi-thought-Annie-slept-with-Liam fiasco – he should have come clean LONG before he did. The fact that he let Annie suffer for half the season was inexcusable. And the way that Annie befriended him so easily after his apology kinda rubbed me the wrong way as well. She should have made him earn her forgiveness and friendship. But oh well. This is why fan fiction was invented, right?
Anyway, I'd say that this story takes place post episode S2.12 "Winter Wonderland".
Disclaimer: I don't own 90210.
She couldn't have felt more alone.
There was a time when Annie Wilson enjoyed Ryan Matthews' class – about as much as she enjoyed any class, that is. She liked the young teacher. He was only six or so years older than the students in her class, which somehow almost made her feel as though he was one of them. After all, it wasn't that long ago that he himself had been sitting in one of these classrooms, ignoring everything the teacher was saying while staring up at the clock, just counting each second as they ticked by. If he had taken any notice of her lack of attention, he most likely would have been able to empathize with her. However, he seemed so engrossed in whatever it was he was discussing up at the front of the room that she felt reassured that he hadn't taken any notice at all.
Lucky for her, as she'd been spending the entire period lost in thought. A few weeks had passed since her "friends" had started speaking to her again. She had once thought, at the beginning of the year, that if that day ever came, everything would be good again. Everything would be right. But she had been wrong. Yes, she'd received apologies from them. Yes, she was being including in their conversations. Yes, they were acting as though nothing had ever happened.
How soon they could forget.
But she was a kind, forgiving person and she had plastered on her bright, signature smile to assure them that all was forgiven and forgotten. Who cared that they had completely disowned her just when she'd needed them the most? Who cared that they had all thought the worst of her? Who cared that nobody had felt as though they could trust her word? Now that the truth was out, and her name cleared, everyone could go back to their regularly scheduled programs.
Everyone but Annie. But they didn't know that. They didn't know that, because none of them cared enough to notice that something was wrong with her. Or if they had, they simply didn't care enough to confront her about it.
Gritting her teeth, she began to scribble on the pad of paper in front of her. At least this way, it looks like I'm taking notes, she thought, dragging the tip of the number 2 pencil from one side of the paper to the other so hard that the lead broke off after only drawing three simple lines. She sighed. So much for that plan.
"Okay," she heard Mr. Matthews say and glanced up in time to see him grab a clipboard off the top of his desk. "I will be pair you all up this time."
Annie groaned but the sound was drowned out by the groans of all the other students, who never liked it when teachers paired them up. Nobody ever ended up with who they wanted. But it didn't matter to her. She'd been able to convince Mr. Matthews to let her work alone for the last two projects. He surely would know by now that that was how she liked it and probably wouldn't even bother to call out her name.
She turned her attention to the clock on the wall as Mr. Matthews began reading off the list. "Jenna and Michael. Andrea and Kayla. Mark and Jason. Emma and Luke. Sara and Casey. Jordan and Ashley. Taylor and Kyle. Amber and Sienna. Kevin and Sabrina. And last but not least, Annie and Liam."
Annie's gaze immediately shot to her teacher, who was now looking over at her.
"Looks like you'll have to meet up with your partner later and fill him in," he said, motioning to the empty desk a few rows over. Liam Court had not shown up for class today – something she had been happy to note as soon as she'd stepped foot into the classroom.
Annie opened her mouth to respond – no, to protest – but the bell rang before she had a chance to speak.
"Everyone, get with your partners later and discuss what your topic is going to be," Mr. Matthews said as the students all quickly grabbed their stuff in hopes to make a speedy exit. "I'll be expecting an update tomorrow."
None of the students appeared to be paying any attention to him as they piled out of the room. In fact Annie, who was still firmly planted in her seat, was willing to bet she had been the only one to hear him.
He glanced at her curiously for a moment before walking around to the back of his own desk and taking a seat in his chair. "Is there anything I can help you with, Annie?"
Slowly, cautiously, Annie stood up and grabbed her books. "Um, yeah, actually." She started toward his desk. "I was wondering if perhaps I could maybe work on this project...alone?"
Ryan sighed and sat back in his chair, folding his arms over his chest. "I'm afraid not."
Annie's breath hitched in her throat. "Well why not? You let me work alone on those other projects."
"Yes, I did," Ryan said with a nod. "But that was when we had an odd number of students in the class. But now that Maya transferred schools, we have an even number. If you worked alone, that would mean that somebody else would have to work alone as well."
"Not necessarily." Annie shrugged. "Just put Liam with one of the other pairs. He probably won't contribute much, anyway."
With a smirk, Ryan leaned forward and rested his elbows on the top of his desk. "Sorry, Annie. You're with Liam. End of discussion."
A wave of unbridled frustration washed over Annie as she attempted to stay calm. She knew that there was no point in trying to bargain with him, but she would have been disappointed in herself if she didn't at least give it one more try.
"Are you sure you can't be persuaded?"
Ryan shook his head. "I'm positive."
"Fine," Annie said, forcing a smile onto her face. She turned to leave, but stopped when Ryan spoke again.
"Hey, Annie," he said. When she turned back around to face him, she couldn't help but notice the uncomfortable look on his face, although he wasn't sure whether or not he should say anything else. "I couldn't help but notice that you've been doing quite a lot of things alone this year."
Annie inhaled sharply. Here it was. The lecture she knew she was bound to get eventually. She just hadn't expected it to be from Mr. Matthews.
"I don't mean to sound like a guidance councilor," he continued and then added with a light chuckle, "because God knows I'm not nowhere near being qualified to be one, but...look, I know that you had a falling out with your friends–"
Annie snorted. A falling out? That was a bit of an understatement. She should have just let it slide though, because obviously he wasn't privy to all the information of what exactly had happened. But she couldn't. The comment had struck a nerve, and her gut reaction was to defend herself.
"I didn't choose to be alone, Mr. Matthews," she said, her voice shaky. "My friends all disowned me. Even my own brother disowned me. I didn't ask them to. I didn't want them to. But they did. Now, I'm sorry if you have a problem with students who aren't perfect little social butterfly drones, but I–"
"Annie." Ryan interjected. "I'm sorry. It's none of my business, I shouldn't have brought it up. I apologize."
"It's fine," Annie mumbled. After a moment of uncomfortable silence, she cleared her throat and said, "I should get going."
Ryan gave her a small smile and nodded as she turned once more to leave the room.
She emerged from the classroom with a frown on her face. It didn't surprise her that even the teachers had noticed how much of a loner she'd been all year. She was just surprised that one of them had dared to bring it up to her.
With a sigh, she began heading in the direction of her locker. The day was almost over; just one more class and she could go home and hide up in her bedroom. Maybe today she would read a book. Or watch a movie. She smirked at how pathetic her life had become.
"Annie! Hey, Annie wait up!"
She froze when she heard the voice call out to her. It was a voice she had liked hearing once upon a time. Now, it made her blood run cold.
Jasper.
Not all that long ago, she had been in love with him. Or, at least, she'd thought she had been in love with him. But things were complicated when she was the only one who knew the truth – that she had accidentally killed his uncle on Prom night. Once Jasper had revealed that he knew the truth as well, everything changed. Suddenly, she could see what others had already seen and tried to warn her about. The drug dealing. The temper. The boy had issues. Serious issues. And when he had blackmailed her into staying with him, it was confirmed.
He was bordering on psychotic.
Annie quickened her pace. She was in no mood to speak with Jasper today – or any day, for that matter. Not that she had a choice in the matter, but the longer she could pretend not to hear him calling after her, the less time she would have to spend talking to him before class.
"Annie." She heard her name again, only this time it came out more like a hiss. And then she felt a hand clamp down on her arm, instantly bringing her steps to a halt.
Jasper was in no way a big, strong guy, but he could be forceful when he wanted something – and judging from the grip he had on her arm, which was just tight enough to hurt, he wanted her.
Closing her eyes tightly, Annie took a deep breath and held for a second before yanking her arm out of his grasp. Turning to face him, she shot him a glare and snapped, "What do you want, Jasper?"
He looked hurt at her tone of voice, or at least pretended to. "Well you don't have to be so rude. I just wanted to say hi."
Annie shook her head and averted her gaze away from his. He had nice eyes, almost hypnotizing. When they were truly dating, she could have gotten lost in those eyes. Now, their intensity scared her.
"Okay then," she said, not bothering to hide the animosity in her voice. "Hi."
Jasper smiled and reached out, placing a hand gently on the side of her face. Annie cringed at the contact and braced herself for whatever he might do next.
He leaned forward and kissed her lightly on her forehead. "I was thinking maybe we could do something after school today."
Annie retracted as though he'd just touched her skin with a branding iron rather than his lips. "Don't do that," she hissed. "And no, we cannot do something after school today."
Visibly frustrated, Jasper shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans and said, "Well why not?"
She gaped at him. Was he serious? He knew damn well that they weren't together anymore. At least, not mutually together. Jasper still viewed their relationship as a fairly stable one, but he was in denial. Blackmailing someone into staying in a relationship was possibly the worst foundation for one. Annie knew this. She just couldn't understand why Jasper failed to see it.
As much as she wanted to come right out and remind him that she no longer loved him and had no desire to hang around him due to the fact she now felt unsafe around him, she knew he would just ignore her words anyway. So instead, she decided to just make up an excuse. She knew it would be so much easier and quicker to get him off her back.
"My parents want me home after school today," she said, hoping she sounded convincing enough. "Wednesdays are our designated 'Family Day'."
It was only a half-lie. At one point in her life, Wednesdays were designated Family Day. It was the one day of the week that she and Dixon were required to come straight home from school and spend the entire night with the parents – eating dinner, playing games, talking. During Family Day, they weren't even allowed to receive or make phone calls to their friends until after either their mother or father declared Family Day as being over.
Granted, the Wilson clan hadn't had a Family Day since Annie and Dixon were about twelve years old, but Jasper didn't have to know that.
For a moment, Jasper studied her and Annie knew he was trying to determine whether or not she was telling the truth. In an attempt to convince him, she stared him straight in the eye. Normally when she would tell a lie, she'd avoid eye contact. But even though Jasper's gaze was intense and bordering on creepy, she was able to hold it with her own – almost to the point of staring him down.
Finally, he broke the stare and averted his eyes to the floor. "Okay," he said, sounding convinced enough, "Well then how about tomorrow?"
He didn't get it. He just didn't get the fact that she wanted nothing to do with him. Or if he did, he chose to ignore it. Shaking her head, Annie opened her mouth to decline his offer, but stopped when something caught her attention across the crowded hallway.
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me," Annie said through clenched teeth.
"What?" Jasper shot her a curious look. He stared at her for a moment before following her gaze over his shoulder to see what she was looking at.
Liam – her previously absent English project partner – was currently not absent. In fact, he was quite present and making out with Naomi by his locker.
"I have to go," she muttered suddenly to Jasper and brushed past him without waiting for any sort of response. She could hear him call out her name as she walked off but did not acknowledge that fact.
She was on a mission.
Liam Court and Naomi Clark were currently not on Annie's list of favorite people at school. Sure, they had apologized to her and she had accepted their apologies, but a part of her still resented both of them – Liam the most. Even though Naomi had nearly destroyed Annie's reputation with that horrible sext she'd sent out to the entire school earlier in the year, she would have never been inclined to do so had Liam just cleared Annie's name to begin with. They had both managed to ruin her life, and all because of their inability to communicate as a couple. So while she had given them both her forgiveness, she still couldn't help but feel her blood pressure rise slightly at the sight of them. Especially the sight of them together.
"Hey," she called out to them as she approached. She was so sure that it would take more than that to break them apart, but at the sound of her voice Liam instantly pulled away and both he and Naomi turned to her with smiles on their faces.
"Annie, hey," Naomi drawled, her voice disgustingly chipper.
"Hi, Naomi," Annie greeted her with a tight smile before immediately turning to Liam and frowning. "You weren't in Matthews' class today."
Liam arched an eyebrow and for a brief moment looked confused as to what she was talking about. Then he flashed her a smirk and said, "Oh, right. I had a dentist appointment."
At the look of skepticism on Annie's face, he added defensively, "I have a note."
Annie snorted. "Yeah, I'm sure you do." What he had most likely meant was that he had forged a note. There was no doubt in her mind that the only action his teeth got while being absent from English class was from Naomi's tongue. It wasn't unusual for them to sneak off somewhere during school hours to make out – especially after getting back together.
"Well, whatever," she said, not even bothering to try and hide how annoyed she was. "Could you please refrain from scheduling any more appointments during school hours, at least for the next couple of weeks or so? Matthews has paired us up for a project and I would kinda not like to fail it on account of my partner being incapable of showing up to class."
Both Liam and Naomi seemed slightly taken aback by the tone in her voice, but Naomi quickly recovered when she spotted something over Liam's shoulder.
"Oh, there's Silver. I gotta go talk to her." She grabbed Liam by the back of his neck and pulled him for a quick but sensual kiss. "I'll see you later," she purred. To Annie, she smiled sweetly and waved goodbye before trotting off.
As soon as she was gone, Liam leaned up against his locker and focused his attention on Annie. "So a project, huh? On what?"
Annie shrugged. "That's what we'll need to decide."
Liam nodded. "What are you doing after school today?"
She had a feeling he was going to suggest getting together, so she considered lying to him about her plans like she just had with Jasper – but quickly decided against it. As much as she had no desire to do anything with him after school, or even at school, she wasn't going to risk flunking English just to avoid him. "Uh, I don't know. Homework, probably."
"Well great, me too." He smiled what looked almost like a sincere smile. "Why don't you come over to my place later on and we'll work on our homework together and discuss our project? How does that sound?"
Miserable, Annie thought to herself. But instead of blurting that out, she replied, "Yeah. Sure. Fine. Whatever."
"Okay then." Liam opened up his notebook, tore out a piece of paper and began to scribble on it. When he was done, he handed it to her and said, "This is my address; plug it into your GPS. I have a surf meet after school, but I should be home by five. Does five-thirty work for you?"
Annie stared down at the piece of paper in her hand and gave him a weak nod. "I guess so."
Liam smirked. "Great. Then it's a study date."
Annie's only response to that was an eyeroll as he took off down the hallway.
She couldn't believe how nonchalant and back-to-normal he was acting, as though the last few months had never taken place. He'd already gotten out his apology to her, and it had seemed sincere enough, but did he honestly think that suddenly made everything okay between them? They hadn't been friends before everything went down on Prom night. In fact, she'd never liked him. He had been nothing but obnoxious and snarky to her from the moment they'd met, and she'd always wondered why Naomi was so smitten with him. To her, he was nothing but a loser. But for some reason beyond her, she had forgiven him anyway.
Crumpling up the piece of paper in her hand, she stuffed it into her bag with a defeated sigh as she began to head for her next class.
It would only be for a couple of weeks, she assured herself. They would work on the project together, get it done, hand it in and then with any luck after that, she would never have to speak to him again.