Disclaimer: I don't own the Vampire Diaries! I only own my OC, and any other characters and plotline I make up along the way!

Author's Note: For those of you asking questions, I've tried my best to answer but everything will be revealed eventually!

Now, Lexi's first day of school. What could go wrong?

Enjoy!


Mornings were my sworn enemy. I must get that from Mom, because Dad always had to drag her out of bed in the morning, and he sometimes had to recruit me to get her out of bed.

However, today was the first day of school. Moving in the middle of the first semester (especially of your junior year) was always a pain, because that meant that everyone already knew each other and the chance of making new friends was long gone.

But, I was the Queen of Being the New Girl, so I just held my chin high as I changed into a pair of my best jeans, an opened blue checkered shirt over a black tank top with long brown boots (TV wasn't kidding when they said that London was a rainy, cold place-this time about two months ago I was soaking up the last of the summer sun), grabbed my backpack, and headed down the stairs.

I knew I'd be recruited to help finish the last of the packing after school, since when I went to bed, Mom and Dad didn't look anywhere close to finishing. Also, they snuck out again last night. They didn't think I noticed, but I did. I just never said anything. Whatever they did whenever they snuck out was their business and to be honest I didn't want to know what kind of rendezvous my parents were up to.

The only reason that I was going to school the first day after moving in was because my parents didn't want me to fall behind in school-I was already drowning when we left Idaho, especially in math. I practically seethed when I had to leave my hot math tutor, which was probably the reason why I still sucked at math.

I felt kisses and pats as I walked in, and Dad was already getting ready for the day. Mom was the new history teacher at the school where I'd be attending (John Adams High School) and she apparently needed to be there early to talk with the principal so she left already.

Dad was just on his way out the door when I walked into the huge kitchen, but I smiled when I saw the pancakes that were left on the table. Mom and Dad (and when I say Mom and Dad I mean Dad because Mom couldn't cook to save her life) always made chocolate chip pancakes on my first day of school.

I gobbled up the pancakes and grabbed the lunch that they had apparently also prepacked for me and made my way to the door. Nobody owned cars in London and since I had absolutely no idea how to operate the train or the bus and Mom and Dad didn't leave any cab money, I had to walk to school. The first two mile walk to the city made me want to die (note to self: beg Dad for a car, this walking crap was insane) but I felt a little better by the time I was back in the presence of a city. I had Googled and printed out a copy of the directions just before I went to bed so I felt a little safer, but of course, I wasn't looking where I was walking due to the fact that I was looking down at my map. So, I didn't see the bike that was barreling towards me until I felt it crash into me.

"Ow!" I hissed as I fell backwards and there was a crash next to me as the person fell off of their bike.

The person was quick to scramble up, though. "I'm so sorry!" A female voice said. "Are you hurt?"

No shit, I'm hurt, I was run over by a bike! was what I wanted to say, but because Dad said that one of the things that he loved the most about Mom was her compassion for everyone and I wanted to be exactly like my Mom when I was older (God, I was such a little Mommy's girl-but could you blame me? My Mom was practically my best friend) I shook it off and grabbed the girl's hand. "I'm fine. It was totally my fault, I should have been watching where I was going."

"Are you lost?" the girl asked. "Where do you need to go?"

"John Adams High School," I answered, showing her the map, but she waved it away.

"Just follow me. I was heading there anyways," She smiled, her impossibly blonde hair framing her heart shaped face. "I go to school there. I'm Jenna, by the way. Jenna Posen."

She stuck her hand out, and I tenatively grabbed it. "Lexi. Lexi Salvatore."

"Are you new here? I've never seen you around before," Jenna asked as she picked up her bike. She started walking past me and it took me a second before I realized I was supposed to follow her and scrambled after her.

"Uh, yeah," I answered when I fell into stride with her. "My parents and I just moved here. We're living at the Stone's residence, about two miles away from here."

Jenna shook her head. "I don't know where that is, but maybe I could see it sometime."

My heart rose at the thought of a new friend.

"Are you nervous about school?" Jenna asked.

I shook my head a little. "I'm used to moving around because of my Dad's job. I like to think of myself as the Queen of Being the New Girl."

"I know how you feel, by the way," Jenna said. "I'm new, too."

"Really?" I asked. "How new?"

"Well, not as new as you," Jenna allowed. "I started in the middle of sophmore year. John Adams isn't the worst place to be."

"With the amount of schools I've been to, I'm sure it'll be great," I said sarcastically as we reached the front of the school. There weren't a lot of people, and I was grateful for that.

I waited for Jenna to put her bike away and afterwards she showed me the way to the office where I'd pick up my class schedule and my new locker number. She also accompanied me to said locker, which turned out to be right next to hers. I put some stuff in there and grabbed my schedule, shoving it towards her. "Any idea where any of these rooms are?"

Jenna frowned as she studied the names. "You have Chemistry first period, we have the same English second period, third period is Math, fourth period is lunch, fifth period is History, which you also have with me, and last period is PE, which is also with me. I can show you to your Chem room, if you want."

"Ugh, PE?" I groaned, though the thought of Jenna being with me made me feel a little better about it. "How annoying."

"At least it's not co-ed," Jenna pointed out as she handed me my schedule back. "And at least it's last period so you can go straight home afterwards and people don't smell your sweat."

"You're very blunt, has anyone ever told you that?" I asked as I started following Jenna.

"My parents say it's one of my best qualities," Jenna laughed, and I couldn't help but laugh too.

Maybe today wouldn't be so bad.


Of course, after I thought that, my day went downhill.

It all started in Chemistry. After Jenna dropped me off, I had forgotten I knew absolutely no one in the school, and everyone already had lab partners, given the fact that I had transferred well into first semester.

I stood awkwardly by the teacher's desk (mainly because I had to give him some sheets but mostly because I had no idea where else to go) as students began piling in, all laughing and talking like nothing was wrong. A few of them took notice of a weird girl standing at the front of the room, but most of them didn't even spare me a glance. Good. This was normal, New Girl behaviour.

Finally the teacher, Mr. Brown, strolled in with a mug of coffee in his hands. He was a tall teacher and looked a little older than my Dad. "Ah, you must be Ms. Salvatore?"

"Yeah, I'm Lexi," I said in a bored tone. I'd been through this routine so many times I couldn't even count on two hands. I handed Mr. Brown my papers, and he handed me a textbook before pointing behind me. "You may take a seat next to Mr. Mercer. He'll be your lab partner for the rest of the semester."

I thought it was a little odd that they actually had an empty seat in the class (in the past when I'd transfered, I'd get put into a group of three and the other two would do all the work while I just copied), but I wasn't prepared when I turned around.

Now, I wasn't the type of girl to go fawning over hot guys, but Mr. Mercer seriously took my breath away. He had the most gorgeous pair of blue eyes that I'd ever seen, with brown hair that was all tousled and almost just as dark as his eyes, like he spent his day running his hands through it. I stood a little stupidly for a few seconds, before snapping myself out of my stupor and powerwalking over to Mr. Mercer. I made sure no eye contact was made (God help me if eye contact was made) and didn't say anything to Mr. Mercer at all as I sat down in the seat next to him.

I know the whole "chemistry in chemistry class" was done to death but there were weird sparks practically emitting off of Mercer. And for that exact reason, I avoided looking at him. Instead, I busied myself with taking out my binder and all my other essentials for class. I felt my throat getting dry, so I took a swig out of my water bottle before dropping it back into my bag. I kept my body positioned forward as I put my hands on top of the shared desk.

Wait, I didn't have anything else to do! I quickly picked up my pencil and began tapping it against the desk to give me something to do.

"Excuse me, but could you stop doing that?" I heard from beside me, and I nearly fell off my chair. Weirdly enough, Mercer didn't have an English accent, either. I carefully looked over at him, willing my face and neck to stay a normal colour. "I don't mean to be rude, but it's a little off putting."

"Sorry, it's what I do when I'm nervous," I stammered, wincing at my blurt.

"I'm guessing you're new here?" Mercer asked. "I'm Archer."

"Yeah, I'm new," I replied quickly. "I mean, my name's not New, it's Lexi. Lexi Salvatore."

Right Lexi, time to shut up. I turned back to face the board, trying to tell him that I was done talking.

"You know, when most people meet for the first time, they shake hands," Archer said, and I winced as I turned to look over at him, and sure enough, his hand was outstretched towards me.

I gulped but put my hand in his to shake it. As soon as I did, I felt a surge of electricity flow through our hands, and at the same time, Archer and I let go of each other's hands. The both of us had freaked out expressions on our faces, leading me to believe that whatever had happened, he felt it too, but before I could ask anything, Mr. Brown began the lecture.

It took everything in me to focus on the lesson, but I managed to do it, though the entire time I was thinking about what happened. The "sparks flying" thing was horrible cliche, but what else could that have been? But, last time I checked, it wasn't actual sparks. Maybe it was just static electricity.

I also couldn't help but notice the weird looks that the kids in the class were giving me. I just assumed that it was the fascination of a new girl, but I had a feeling there was more to the story.

But I never managed to ask Archer because when the bell rang, and I had just put my stuff away in my backpack and turned to my seat partner, Archer was already out the door.

Strange. I didn't ward off boys that much.

Jenna was waiting for me outside of the classroom and picked up on my obvious bewilderment. "Hey, are you okay?"

I readjusted my backpack on my shoulder. "Yeah, I guess, but something weird just happened."

Again, Jenna just started walking, and again, I scrambled to catch up with her. "What happened? Did you blow something up? Because I've heard that that's common in Mr. Brown's class."

"No, nothing like that." I hesitated a bit. "Do you know Archer Mercer?"

Jenna half laughed, half scoffed. "Oh man, who doesn't know Archer Mercer? He's like the guy every girl in this stupid school wants."

"You don't want him?" I asked.

She shook her head, her blonde locks flapping against her shoulders. "Nope. I find him rather displeasing, actually."

"'Rather displeasing'?" I repeated. "Did you really just say that?"

I immediately regretted the words at the faltering look on her face. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean that. It's just, that's how my Uncle Klaus and his family always talks so I just-"

Jenna waved me off, a-strangely enough-smile on her face. "Don't worry about it. I read a lot of classic books, so sometimes I just slip into the speech of it. My parents both teach English literature at Sheridan University, and they always have books laying around."

"So, I haven't offended you?" I asked as a classroom came into view.

She shook her head. "Not at all. Believe it or not, Lexi, but I need you just as much as you need me."

"What do you mean?"

Jenna looked a little shy and embarrassed as she answered. "I don't have very many friends. None at all, really. I mostly just stick to myself, but ever since transferring here. I've never managed to make any good friends. That is, until I met you." We reached the classroom as a smile grew on Jenna's face. "I hope we can be good friends."

I beamed. "Me too."


The whole "Archer Mercer" thing completely went over my head as I dove into the world of Shakespeare. It turned out, Mrs. Cross wasn't about to give me any special treatment for being new and late to the semester, but luckily for me, Jenna was really good with Shakespeare and offered to help me.

Honestly I don't think I needed any more friends than Jenna.

It also disappeared in my head during Math. Math was disgusting in its own right, but at least I was good at what we were doing right now-Trigonometry.

In fact, I hadn't thought about Archer at all.

That is, until lunch rolled around.

Now generally speaking, cafeteria lunches were horrible. The food was disgusting, and the overall atmosphere of students bitching about people, cliques and students drowning in homework was very off putting.

However, the situation at John Adams High wasn't all that bad. It was certainly better than my school back in Idaho, where everyone competed for things. It took everything in me to not yell "OH MY GOD IT'S JUST A DEBATE FOR ENGLISH CLASS PLEASE GET OVER IT" on a daily basis.

Jenna and I found a small table in the back of the cafeteria, away from the whole crowd. I noticed that I got a few looks from a lot of the students when I sat down with Jenna, but I opted to ignore them as I chatted with her. What was everyone's deal with Jenna, anyways?

I ate the sandwich my parents sent me while Jenna downed her fruit punch. After we were done, we decided to go to the library so she could help me with Shakespeare because it would have been too hard for me to hear her talk over the sounds of about five hundred kids and try and understand her speaking in Shakespeare.

We got up from the table so we could throw away our garbage but when I turned around to find a trash can, I collided with a very hard surface as food and soft drink spilled all over the front of my top.

I gasped in shock and surprise as I felt the food and liquid beginning to stain my clothes. I looked down at my ruined clothes, feeling like I had been shot.

The entire cafeteria had begun to erupt into laughter as I felt dread build up in me. Great. Humiliating myself in front of the entire school on my first day was something that I needed to cross off of my bucket list.

I looked up to see who had splattered me, and I was surprised to see Archer, who had a puzzled but horrified look on his face. He snapped back into attention when he realized what he had done.

"Oh my God, I'm sorry!" He immediately said as I pulled my ruined tank top away from me a little to try and prevent stickiness. "Here, let me help you-"

"I think you've done enough, Mercer," Jenna said as she put her hands on my arms and pushed me around Archer. It was a good thing she had, too, because I felt like my legs were too stiff for me to move them on my own. I was still in a state of shock, at least until we got out of the cafeteria. That was when I shifted back into focus and looked down at my destroyed top. I fingered the fabric hopelessly. "What am I gonna do? I can't continue like this!"

"Don't go being overly dramatic," Jenna instructed as she grabbed my arms and began walking me again. We passed a few hallways until we got to her locker. She spun the combination and opened it. She reached in, grabbed a pink hoodie, and tossed it to me. "Here, you can just take off your shirt and put this on over top."

I caught the hoodie in my hands. "Are you sure?" I asked.

She nodded. "As long as you can get it back to me this week, yeah, no problem."

"Jenna, you are a lifesaver," I said to her as she led me to a bathroom.

"Not something I've been called before, but thank you," She said as we walked in.

I ran into a stall and stripped myself of the ruined shirt. I had Jenna wet some paper towels for me so I could clean off the stickiness of the soda that Archer had spilled all over me.

What...what a jerk! Now I knew why Jenna found him rather displeasing!

I shoved my shirt into my backpack and walked out of the stall. Unfortunately, once I had walked on, I heard giggling as the door to the bathroom opened, and that could only mean one thing: Mean girls.

I didn't know what it was, but wherever you went to school, you could always tell who the mean girls of the school were by their giggling and by their shoes. Mean girls always wore high heels-I thought it had something to do with wanting to tower over people but honestly? Even I felt powerful whenever I had to wear high heels.

I was surprised by the leader of the pack, evident by the way that she stood more in front of the other two girls who were behind her. Most mean girls had blonde hair, but this one had brown hair, much like my own, which was infuriating.

Their laughter immediately ceased when they caught sight of Jenna, and their faces turned from smiles to sneers. Jenna uncomfortably looked away as she cupped the back of her neck.

"Oops, didn't realize this was the freak bathroom," the ringleader said, probably the first person I'd heard with a British accent, and the other girls giggled behind her.

I felt anger rise up in me. "Then why are you still in here?" I blurted, and I mentally started beating myself up.

The Ringleader turned to look at me, and her sneer transferred from Jenna to me. "And who are you?"

"Um...I'm new," I managed to stammer. "My name is Lexi."

The dark skinned girl behind the Ringleader nodded in realization. "It's the girl who got food dumped all over her," She said.

"Ah, Spaghetti Shirt," The Ringleader nodded in agreement as she eyed me up and down. I wasn't gonna lie, I felt violated. And Spaghetti Shirt? My only label had ever been New Girl. Next time I saw Archer, he was dead. "Well, I'm Erica. And, one thing you should know? Don't go bad mouthing the most powerful girl in school on your first day. Now, I'm feeling generous today, so I'll let you off with a warning. Oh, and never step foot in this bathroom again."

"Oh, who are you, the Queen?" I asked.

A grin spread across Erica's face. "Yes, I do, actually. So please see your way out of the castle, Cinderella."

I didn't even bother pointing out to Erica that Cinderella ended up marrying the prince and having the best life because it probably would have gone over her head. Instead, I sucked in a deep breath, grabbed Jenna's arm, and began walking towards the door.

"Oh, and Lexi?"

I turned around to face Erica.

"I'd lose the geeky sweater," She said, and her crew giggled.

I rolled my eyes at her as I pushed the door open and dragged Jenna out of the bathroom. I was practically stomping in the hallway and this time, Jenna had to keep up with me.

"Lexi, that was amazing!" Jenna said as she followed me. "No one's ever stood up for me like that."

"Trust me, I've met plenty of girls like Erica before," I said. "It was nothing I couldn't handle. No big deal."

"Yeah, it was actually," Jenna said as she turned and stood in front of me, keeping me from walking. "You just put yourself on Erica's hit list. Just for being associated with me."

"My Uncle Klaus always said that if you had nothing nice to say, say it anyways because some people deserve to hear the bitter truth." I shrugged. "Besides I'd rather be associated with you than a bloodsucking monster."

I couldn't help but notice that Jenna flinched a little bit, but I ignored it in favour of looking behind me at the bathroom, where the vampire herself Erica was walking out with her crew. She caught my eye and shot me a look, and I could only imagine her tripping and falling flat on her face.

Just as I imagined it, Erica bumped into the other minion and lost her footing as she tumbled to the ground. A loud smacking sound echoed throughout the hallway as her face made contact with the floor. Immediately, blood began spewing out of her nose.

Jenna and I both gasped at the action. I looked over at Jenna, who was suddenly breathing really heavily. Her eyes were closed, and she was breathing out of her mouth. Quickly, she turned away from me and covered her mouth.

"Hey, are you okay?" I asked her.

She nodded. "Yeah, I'm just squeamish when it comes to blood," She said shakily. "Really squeamish."

"Do you want to go to the nurse?" I asked. I looked back over to Erica, and her friends were picking her up from the ground and leading her down the hallway to where I assumed the nurse's office was.

Jenna turned back to look at me, and she looked fine. She shook her head. "I'll be okay. Let's just get to history class. I heard we have a new teacher."

"You're in luck," I said. "The new history teacher just so happens to be my mother."


"That's your Mom?" Jenna asked as we peered into the history classroom. Lunch wasn't over just yet, and since we had fourth lunch, Mom was finishing up with her fourth period class. "But she looks so...young."

I shrugged a little as I watched Mom flip her hair over her shoulder as she turned around to write on the whiteboard. "The years have been good to her," I replied, using Mom's reasoning.

Mom just looked so natural in the teacher position as she lectured the seniors. It all came so naturally to her that it was hard to believe that this wasn't what she was originally planning on doing. According to Mom, just before Aunt Elena died, she was still in college and not really doing anything specific. Before Aunt Elena's accident, she told Mom that she always saw her becoming a history teacher, like Grandpa Alaric was (Grandpa Alaric was Mom, Aunt Elena, Aunt Caroline, and Aunt Bonnie's history teacher when they were in high school, and Grandpa Alaric had dated Great Aunt Jenna before she died in a freak accident), and Mom agreed to it, partly because Aunt Elena wanted her to but mostly because when Mom started studying to become a history teacher, she just fell in love with it.

The bell officially rung and the door opened to allow the students to come out so that the fifth period students could come on. Mom was erasing the whiteboard when Jenna and I walked in. She grinned brightly when she saw me. "Hi, Sweetie!"

"Mom!" I whispered harshly, looking around the room to make sure that no one had heard. So far, it was just Jenna and me in the class. "Do you remember our school rule?"

Wherever I ended up, Mom was somehow always the school's history teacher. It was weird, but helpful. Mom gave me a look. "Don't make public displays of affection," She said. "But I can't help it. It's too fun embarrassing you."

"And yet you get mad when Dad does it to you," I mumbled under my breath.

"I heard that."

She always did.

I looked over at Jenna. "Mom? This is Jenna. She's my new friend."

Mom's eyes brightened a little but softened at the same time. "I had an Aunt named Jenna." She cleared her throat a little as she turned to my friend. "Well, it's nice to meet you, Jenna." Mom and Jenna shook hands.

"It's nice to meet you too, Mrs. Salvatore," Jenna said.

Mom turned towards me. "I heard about the cafeteria incident," She told me as she eyed the sweater that Jenna lent me.

"What?" I asked, my eyes bugging out. "How?"

"Honey, don't you know anything?" She asked. "Kids tweet and post and text everything."

"Great," I grumbled as I went over to a seat and plopped down in it. "My first day and I'm the laughing stock of the school. I'm not New Girl, anymore. I'm Spaghetti Girl. I didn't even see any spaghetti on my shirt!"

"It wasn't that noticeable, if it makes you feel better," Jenna offered.

"It doesn't."

"You're pessimistic, hasn't anyone ever told you that?"

"Some people say it's my best quality."


After a lecture on the Civil War and Mom telling me that she had a meeting after school and that I should find another way home, it was time for my own personal hell: PE.

Well techincally, I had a lot of personal hells, but PE was close to the number one spot.

It wasn't fair. Almost everyone in my family was super strong and fast and agile and then there was me, who couldn't even hold a baseball bat properly.

We played badminton, and Jenna, bless her soul, made herself my partner so that i didn't have to do much. Jenna was super strong; her spikes were crazy fast.

"You're the size of a pea," I said as I eyed the petite blonde. "How are you so strong?"

"It's all muscle," She said as she patted her abdomen. "That's what riding a bike every day will do to you."

Unfortunately, Erica was in my gym class, but fortunately, her broken nose allowed her sit out. Personally, I thought she was okay enough to play, but I didn't dare say anything. However, I did feel her gaze on me the entire time, which ended up in me getting so distracted that I hit Jenna multiple times. Even though I apologized relentlessly, the whacks barely bothered her. In fact, she didn't even bruise.

At the end of the day, Jenna and me won all of our matches, but the credit for that all went to Jenna. I didn't bother using the gross showers at the school, instead opting to shower when I got home. Jenna was right: it was lucky that we had PE last.

I could still feel heat radiating off of me as we walked out of the school. Jenna pointed behind her to the bike rack. "I'm sorry I can't walk with you. My parents need me to be home right away, we have somewhere to be right after school."

I waved her off. After everything she'd done for me today, she could forget about walking me home. "It's fine. This part at least I know how to do."

Jenna gave me a wave as she made her way to the bike rack, and I pulled the hoodie closer to my skin. England in mid-October was cold-I was freezing, despite the thin layer of sweat on my body.

I began the almost two mile walk back to my house when I heard a car beside me on the road beginning to slow down. Natural curiousity made me look over and my breath hitched when I saw Archer through the lowered window. I was a little startled to see him on what was the passenger side but then I remembered here in England that they drove on the opposite side of the road.

"I'm sorry about today," he apologized as he drove. "To make it up to you, I'll drive you home."

Uh, hello? Stranger danger? "After what happened today? No thanks."

"Come on, I said I was sorry, Salvatore."

I stopped walking and spun on my heel to stare at him. "I'm now dubbed 'Spaghetti Girl' because of you, Mercer. 'New Girl' I can handle, but being nicknamed after a meal isn't what a girl wants." I turned and began walking again, hoping that I'd have the last word and that he'd leave me alone, but he kept following me.

"What if I said I could get the kids at school to not call you that anymore?" He asked.

"I'd call you a liar."

"You don't even know me and you're calling me a liar."

"You dumped food on me-I don't have to believe a single word you say." Besides, the weird feeling I felt around Archer was back, but it wasn't excitement. It was...dark. A little dangerous. It was like there was a sign behind Archer that said to run away from him.

"I'll leave you alone if you let me give you a ride home," He offered.

I stopped walking and turned to face him again. "You're not going to give up, are you?"

"Nope."

I huffed but made my way to the passenger side. "I swear to God, if you're actually kidnapping me, I will grab a hold of the steering wheel and crash us into a tree. I don't care if we both die."

"Nice to know."

I opened the door and slid into the car. Archer's car had the same weird feeling as Archer himself had, but I chose to ignore it as I slipped on my seatbelt.

Archer frowned at me as he eyed me, but he turned his attention back to the road as he began driving. "You've got water on your head."

"That, dear Mercer, would be sweat," I said as I settled into the seat.

"Please don't get sweat on my seat."

"No promises."

We were mostly quiet on the road, and I was grateful for that. The only occasional comment was me telling Archer which directions to take to get me home. Once he stopped in my driveway, his jaw dropped at the sight of the house. "This is where you live?"

I shrugged a little as I eyed the house. "It's not that impressive," I said, though it totally was. I was just trying to make Archer...awed? Annoyed? Jealous?

Why would Archer be jealous of a house?

A thought that was tugging at the back of my mind surfaced, and I was asking Archer the question before I could stop myself, "Why doesn't anybody like Jenna?"

Archer gave me a confused look. "Jenna Stewart? She ate a frog's legs during dissection last year and had to go to the hospital."

"First of all, ew," I said as I shuddered at the thought of Jenna Stewart-who would eat a frog's leg-eating an animal for dissection. "Second of all, I meant Jenna Posen."

"Oh yeah, Erica mentioned that you were with her today," Archer said casually, though I felt a strange stabbing feeling when he mentioned Erica. Were they dating? Why did I care? "I don't know why people don't really like her."

"What do you mean?" I asked. "I mean, there has to be a reason. I get the whole Jenna Stewart thing, but why Jenna Posen? She seems perfectly normal to me."

"Yeah, I guess," Archer shrugged. "Kids here-kids in high school in general-aren't accepting of people. Jenna came late into the semester, and no one became friends with her, I guess. I mean, she's a pretty isolated person. I haven't seen or head her try to make an effort to make friends, that is, until today."

"Do you know why Erica and her friends call her a freak?" I asked. "It seemed to hurt her feelings."

"Oh, Erica just hates when other people get more attention and are more prettier than her," Archer waved off. "And her friends just follow her every move. I've been waiting for the day where Erica gets sick and doesn't show up to school to see what her friends do."

I had to swallow the laugh that was building up in my chest. I took my seatbelt off and turned to look over at Archer. "If you think this is the part where I invite you inside, you've got another thing coming."

Archer laughed, a real, genuine laugh. "You're one strange girl."

Was that a good thing? Ugh, boys.

"I really am sorry about earlier today, Lexi," Archer said.

"Get me a new shirt and we'll call it even."

Archer laughed again as I opened the door and got out of the car. "See you tomorrow, Salvatore."

I saluted him. "Whatever, Mercer."

He then drove off, and I couldn't help the tingly feeling that was forming throughout my body. But there was still something in me that was telling me to stay away from Archer. Should I ignore my gut instincts? More often times than not, gut instincts have been proven to be true.

I thought back to Archer as he laughed when I joked about him coming into my house.

Maybe I could ignore it for now.


TBC...

I've been loving this story! Let me know if you have been too! Next chapter we'll get to hear from some old family of Lexi's!

REVIEW! FOLLOW! FAVOURITE! THANKS! STAY TUNED!