Chapter One:
"Dianne?" Asks Sami, waving her hand in front of my face.
I jump and turn to her from my position by the window. She smiles at me, amused with my short attention span.
"Diana? Did you even hear me?" She asks, shaking her head at me. "You have the memory of a fish." She jokes.
"Sorry, Sami." I tell her. "I'm just thinking."
Sami rolls her eyes at me. "I didn't even know you did that anymore."
I gasp at her overdramatically. "You wound me."
"Yeah!" She says, throwing her fist at me playfully.
"You are soooo optimistic." I tell her, rolling my eyes and smiling at her. She smiles back her contagious smile and leans back in her seat, making sure Harris isn't trying to glare daggers into us. But his back is turned to the students and he scribbles on the board.
"Hey, do you know when Martin is getting out of the hospital?" I ask, wondering about Lydia. Who was almost killed during the school dance.
"Since when do you care?" She asks, eyeing my new suspicion.
I shrug my shoulders, tapping my pencil on my desk. The bell rings and I jump as kids burst from the room. Sami lugs me out and drags me to her locker. She looks over the edge and smiles. I follow her line of vision and smirk.
"Sami's got a little crush." I sing. She narrows her eyes and caves.
"Maybe." She murmurs.
I look back to the sheriff's son. "Isn't that the kid who killed my hamster?"
"It was eleven years ago, Diana." She scolds me for accusing her crush. "Go get a new one."
"There was no other hamster like Pumpernickel." I defend, trying to fight off the awful memories of my hamster.
Sami laughs at me and rolls her eyes.
"It wasn't funny!" I yell at her. She shakes her head, puffing out her lips slightly.
"No, no. It was an awful accident." She says, nodding in agreement.
"It wasn't an accident." I say, giving her a look. Sami bursts out laughing and I hit her shoulder lightly. "Shut up." I whine.
She nods and stops laughing, but she's still smiling at me. She checks her watch. "I gotta run, Di. I'll see you at practice!"
"I'm not cheering!" I tell her. Sami's bubbly personality urges her to make me try new things and be happier. Cheerleading wasn't on that list for me.
"Yes, you are!" She sings happily to me, waving around the corner at some other girls. She was very social with everyone.
I groan and slam her locker shut for her. I spin around into Jackson Whittemore.
"Hi, Jackson." I say, none-too-happily.
He sighs and looks at me for a long second, then leans down to whisper, "You should watch where you're going. Never know who you'll crash into."
I lean against my locker and watch him walk away. He was always so arrogant. That's the reason I broke up with him in the first place.
I straighten out my tan leather jacket and turn around the corner and into my next class. I sit behind Isaac, a quiet but good-looking guy. Whenever I had gone over to Jackson's, I had heard his father yelling at him and throwing things.
"Jackson? Should we call the cops? It sounds bad." I remember telling him one night.
"Baby, stop worrying about everyone else." Jackson told me, throwing an arm around my shoulder and guiding me to the house. I looked back and bit my lip as glass shattered.
"If he's not at school tomorrow…then we'll call the cops." He told me, shutting the door behind him.
I snap out of my trance as Isaac turns to face me.
"Hey, Diana?" He asks.
"Yeah?" I nod and notice his black eye.
"Do you have a pen I could borrow?" He finishes.
I dig one out of my bag and hand it to him.
"Isaac? What happened to your eye?" I ask him.
He freezes for a second and shrugs, "Lacrosse. Don't worry about it." He turns around and begins copying the board on a piece of paper.
After school, I meet Sami by the bleachers, where I'm wearing running shorts and a tank top.
"I'm not too thrilled about it either, but you're mother said we should try it." She mutters to me, eyeing the supermodels stretching across the field by the lacrosse players.
I do not want to do this.
"Sami." I whine, tugging at her arm.
"Relax." She tells me, "Just try it. You're mom will let me have a house key so we can sneak out late."
"My mom's letting us sneak out late?" I ask.
She rolls her eyes at my stupidity.
"No, that's the definition of the term 'sneaking out'." Sami tells me.
I sigh and look across the field. My eyes stop on a man.
He's gorgeous, let me tell you. His black hair is spiked up and he's donned in the sexiest bad boy apparel. A white t-shirt, a leather jacket and ratty old Nike's.
His eyes could be green, gray or blue. From a distance, I can't tell. His eyes land on me and his head tips to the side slightly, looking me up and down.
I give a small smile back to him and he darts his eyes back to the field and steps away after casting another glance my way.
"Who is that?" I murmur to Sami, who is watching a player on the field.
"Who's who?" She asks me, looking in my direction. The man's gone and I shake my head.
"Never mind." I mutter, starting to follow her to the cheerleading try-outs.
After about thirty minutes of pointless routines and trying lift skinny girls up on our shoulders, I sink down into the grass next to Sami, who's sweating.
"Secondly, cheerleading has been noted as the most dangerous sport in the U.S." She tells me, smiling.
I smile back, "I'm going to go hit the showers."
"I'll go with." Sami says, sitting up and twirling her fingers in the air. "Help me."
"Help me, help me." I mock, reaching for her overdramatically shaking hands. I laugh as I pull her up and we walk to the showers.
I strip out of my sweaty clothes and spin the rusty handle. Sami goes in the other corner and we turn our backs to each other, giving us some privacy.
"What were talking about during practice?" Sami asks me.
"I saw some guy standing on the other side of the field." I tell her, rinsing my hair of the shampoo.
"Was he good-looking?" She asks me. I can practically feel her cocking her eyebrows at me.
"In a bad boy sort-of-way." I add. "But yes, he was good-looking."
Sami snorts at me. "Okay."
I step out and dry off my hair, changing into some jeans and a button-up and pull on my Vans.
"Do you have hair-tie?" Sami asks me, pulling her strawberry blonde hair in a bunch. Her dark green eyes dart around the room, looking for a ponytail.
"Uh, yeah." I say, pulling one off my wrist and handing it to her.
"Thanks," she mutters, bunching it together.
I say goodbye to Sami and begin to drive home in the pouring rain that started after practice.
I put on some Marina's Trench and begin to sing along.
"I know,
I never make this easy.
It's easier to disappear."
About when the chorus comes on, I slam on the breaks, spying a small animal in the middle of the road. It starts breathing and I mutter, "Oh my God," and pull on my hood.
I step out and examine the small kitten in the middle of the road. I bend down to check it and it wails a tiny mew trying to stand up. I look and see it's leg bent at a funny angle.
"Hold on, baby." I coo, wrapping it in my jacket, careful not to bother the leg. It hisses at me and I scratch it's head. It starts mewing softly as I take off my jacket and lay the little kitten in the front seat.
"Don't worry, baby." I tell it, rubbing its head again. "I'll take you to the vet and he'll heal your leg."
It's raises its head and I drive off.
I pick up the small thing and carry it inside, shaking off my wet hair and knocking on the closed sign.
The McCall kid from school smiles at me slightly and opens it, seeing the little kitten in my arms.
"You think you could take a another patient before you check out?" I ask, smiling at him and rubbing the little baby's head.
"Uh, yeah." He says, staring at my eyes and smiling again. "Dr. Deaton's here."
"K, thanks." I say, stepping inside after him. After a minute Scott appears back in the room with the vet. He's the friendliest man I've ever met next to Sami.
"Who do we have here?" He asks with a smile, taking the kitten from the jacket.
"I found her in the road." I tell him, "I think her leg's broken."
"Yes, well, we'll see what we can do." He says, searching through the baby cat's fur.
"Can I come back tomorrow and check on her?" I ask. "I have to pick up my brother."
"Yes, of course." He says. Scott stays to the side, smiling slightly at me. I smile back lightly. "What's your name?"
"Diana Arvin." I say. "And thank you for checking on her this late."
"No problem." He smiles at me.
Ah! New story is beginning! Sorry this is a short start, but the website is being dumb and it won't let me watch the episodes! Ugh! Updates may be a little slower but I will work on it! I promise.
And I don't know if the image stuff works or not but i have a pic of Diana on my profile.