Alexis continued her day nervously walking through the halls between periods since her encounter with Nathan. He was unusually scary as of late and she didn't want to deal with that again, but, unfortunately, she had a Fine Arts class with him at the end of the day.

If she didn't have to finish this last project for a large chunk of her grade, she would've gladly skipped out. Just her luck.

As time stood agonizingly still, she stared at the clock with hopes of it speeding up. Any second now the bell will ring and she would have to come face-to-face with an angry Nathan once again.

Maybe he was calm by now, maybe he was even more angered. Either way, she just wanted to get it over with.

She gulped as the big hand moved slightly, the bell ringing throughout the entire school.

Here we go, she thought to herself as she shoved her English notebook into her lime green backpack. She stood up, walking slowly out of the classroom and to the next, which was conveniently just a few doors down.

As she walked in, she glanced at all the seats until she reached her own. He was always late to this class, though, so she would still have to wait a few minutes.

She placed her bag on the floor next to her seat and went to get her work. She walked to the thin elongated drawers to take out her art piece. There was a large sheet of watercolor paper with newsprint taped over it to keep it from getting dirty.

She took the sheet out gently and brought it to her table, going into her backpack and feeling for her personal art supplies. She always preferred her own over what was provided by the school. Granted, they did have top quality supplies, but there were certain things she was comfortable using over said items.

She examined her piece as her classmates piled in and the bell rang once again to signal everyone must be in their classes. The project was to demonstrate texture and proper placement of items in a picture to create movement throughout, something she was also able to use in her photography class.

Before starting, she looked around again. Still no Nathan. As much as he was an intimidating student as well as classmate, he never did skip classes. At least not this one. She was sure of that. But today, he just didn't show up.

It was a load off her back, she didn't have to deal with that again.

After class ended and the school day was finally over, she walked back to the dorms.

Her room was simple. She had her bed, a desk with her PC and printer, a flat screen TV and a shelf for her gaming consoles. The walls were pretty empty with the exception of a couple of posters of her favorite bands and TV shows.

For the rest of the day she did her usual routine of getting into pajamas and playing games with some friends until she fell asleep to repeat her day all over again.

The next morning she got up and headed straight to the showers. It was a shared shower room and she hated it with a passion. She didn't want to hear the morning gossip of Victoria and her posse, who always took showers at the same time as Alexis. Then again, it kept her up to par with what was going on in school since she didn't socialize much with anyone.

"She's going to look like a fool to the entire school," Alexis walked in on Victoria chatting up Taylor and Courtney.

Alexis gave a sarcastic smile as she headed straight to the shower, getting an eye roll in return. Victoria was barely nice to anyone; She was the female equivalent to Nathan.

She really hadn't the slightest idea what she was up to today, but it seemed Victoria was always out to make other people's lives harder than they already were. She was just thankful that she wasn't a target. At least not yet.

She finished up her shower and got clothes on while wrapping her hair in her towel. She walked to the mirror to brush her teeth and then returned to her room to get her stuff together.

She decided to let her hair air dry today and just put it up in a loose ponytail before grabbing her backpack to leave.

First class dragged. She didn't particularly enjoy math at all, but does anyone really enjoy math? It's just mandatory.

She was rather excited for her science class, which helped math go by quicker. The subject they were on was about geology, something she actually enjoyed. Now this she could understand.

The entire day dragged for her until she got to her art class. This time Nathan wasn't absent. He sat at his table with his work sprawled in front of him, surprisingly early to class.

Alexis swallowed, hoping she could try and fix his attitude towards her by taking a look at what he was creating. She walked over to the table, her eyebrows raising in slight shock.

His piece was very provocative and dark, almost..kinky? His medium was charcoal, making for a very smooth appearance which kind of went against the edgy subject.

"Wow, that's looking good so far, Nathan," she commented, taking a better look at the picture.

He turned swiftly, giving her a dirty look, "oh, it's you. Whatever."

"I was just being nice. What is your problem?" she asked, getting rather annoyed by him now. This seemed to just anger him more.

"Why the fuck are you being nice to me? We haven't spoke a single word, ever."

"Why do I have to have a reason?"

"It's because of the bathroom, isn't it? You're trying to make up for that, huh?" he laughed, turning back to his work. His legs were shaking and he was agitated more than she's ever seen.

"I-I- No, that's not-" she sighed, "forget it."

She grabbed her work and pulled it out, taking her seat and trying to finish her project without thinking of that interaction. At least he didn't punch anything, right? That's always a good thing.

Her piece was the opposite of his - Light, vibrant, relaxed. Not at all what she was feeling inside, but it would get her a good grade.

Oh well, she thought, let's just get this day over with..

When the bell rang, she decided to stay after to finish her project as she was almost finished. Everyone rushed off, including Nathan, who practically ran out of the room like he was late for a very important date.

"Good work, Alexis. You're really putting to use what you learned," her teacher praised, making her smile. Finally, some recognition. Even if it was as small as telling her she's going in the right path, she will take it. Hell, she needed it.

She studied her image, wondering what she needed to add to give it that final touch.

"Maybe...this," she picked her brush from the water cup and swirled it in some yellow paint, allowing the water to pool up and thin out the color. She raised it to her picture and began painting over the blues, turning them into a nice shade of green.

Bang! She jumped, her brush sliding over the paper and going over areas she didn't want to touch, "shi-"

Before she could think about what the loud noise was or her mess up, everything around her began to blur and speed up like someone rewinding or fast-forwarding a movie.

She started to panic, looking everywhere and trying to focus on one thing, but nothing would slow down. What the fuck was happening to her?