Thank you to all those that reviewed. You're all amazeeeee.
Considering the amount of subs I get, I wouldn't have minded a few more views but I'll carry on because I'm really excited about this fic :)

Hope you enjoy chapter 2 :)

AFTERMATH

For Mickie, the past week had been the worst of her life.

Her step-sister's sudden death had been nothing less than devastating and Mickie was definitely struggling to deal with it. It felt as if someone had reached into her chest and was squeezing at her heart, draining the rest of her body of blood and emotion. She was exhausted, physically and mentally, and didn't know how to deal with her feelings.

The first couple of days after the car accident were just awful. Mickie couldn't stop crying, her eyes were constantly red and puffy and she'd bury herself in bed all day, her earphones jammed into her ears so she didn't have to listen to anyone other than Ron Pope and Secondhand Serenade. She couldn't sleep at night and when she did, she'd be woken up by the nightmare flashbacks to the day Maria died. The image of her step-sister's dead frame being taken away in a body bag would wake her in a cold sweat with warm tears leaving her eyes so she cried into her pillow until she fell asleep again.

No, Mickie wasn't crying anymore but things weren't exactly easier. Now she just felt...numb. Like she was just a body and there was nothing inside, just skin and bones. She walked around her house like a ghost, as if Maria had taken Mickie's spirit to the other side with her.

Even though she was drained, she was now being helpful. Deciding not to elongate the process anymore, Richard James and Janet Kanellis decided to start sorting out Maria's bedroom. Most of her items went into the attic but her clothes were another debate. Richard suggested auctioning them off at school but Mickie was completely against the idea. The thought of seeing people around school wearing Maria's clothes was mortifying. Who'd want to wear the dead girl's clothes anyway? In the end, they decided to just send them to a charity store.

At least she didn't have to worry about hanging around the house. It was her first day back at Fitzwinter High and it was just as hard as she expected.

Standing at her locker, every eye in the Guymer Hallway was on Mickie. They all felt sorry for her and she knew it. Trying to ignore their prying stares, she continued to look for her history textbook, buried deep at the back of her locker.

"Hiding out?"

Behind Mickie stood her best friend, Melina Perez. The pair had been close since junior high when Melina moved from Los Angeles.

"A little bit." Mickie admitted.

No more words were needed as the Latina pulled her grieving friend in for a hug, able to offer her little else. Other than the occasional text message, they hadn't had much contact; Mickie had definitely isolated herself. Upon hearing the bell, they separated and headed for history. "So this is probably a stupid question," Melina began, "But how're you holding up?"

"Knowing I'm never going to see her again is the worst thing." Mickie decided after a couple of seconds, lowering her voice as they entered the classroom. "I'm never gonna go down for breakfast and see Maria dancing around to the radio, eating Magic Charms...and the ride to school this morning sucked." She attempted a laugh at the understatement of her words. "Normally she'd riding shotgun, going on and on about John. I used to tell her to shut up but right now I'd give anything to hear her again."

"I know, sweetie-"

"Mickie?" The brunette turned around and saw Dolph Ziggler stood there, nervously there wringing his hands together. "I just wanted to tell you how sorry I am about what happened to Maria..."

This didn't surprise Mickie. Dolph was Maria's first real boyfriend from freshman year – the guy Maria lost her virginity to – and they really loved each other. It was just a shame Dolph had an eye for the ladies and slept with Kaitlyn the cheerleader after four months. Maria never held a grudge though; she said it was Dolph's loss and a month later, she started dating John and never looked back. It just showed what kind of girl Maria was; even after he cheated on her, she was nothing but nice to him and they managed to be friends.

"...yeah, I mean, she and I had our ups and downs but I always cared about her." He continued. "I'm gonna miss her so much...I can't believe she's really gone."

"Me neither," Mickie whispered.

When Mickie didn't continue, Melina leaned forward to smile at Dolph. "We're all gonna miss her. She was a great girl."

Luckily, no-one had to say anything else as the door swung open and their history teacher Mr Conrad walked in, barely acknowledging Mickie other than with a small nod. If anything, that was reassuring; she didn't want special treatment, she wanted to move on. "It's presentation day!" He announced, eliciting groans from the whole class apart from Mickie, who stared straight ahead. "So who's first?"

Through three presentations, Mickie drowned out the voices. Maria used to be in this class, sat on the desk behind her, and whenever Conrad went off on one of his boring rants, the redhead would pass notes to Mickie.

"Mr Ziggler?" Conrad's loud Texas accent brought Mickie back to reality. "Your turn!"

"The thing is, sir-"

"Oh dear, what's the excuse now? The dog ate it? The cat was sick on it? Come on, boy, you've had two weeks to prepare a good excuse."

Cautiously, Dolph glanced over at Mickie. "Maria was my partner."

Each member of the class gawped at Mickie, as if they expected her to run out of the classroom in floods of tears. Instead, she stared straight ahead at Conrad, waiting to see how he solved the problem.

"Well," The colour rose in the history teacher's cheeks. "You can find a new partner and do it next week."

"Thank you, sir." Dolph sat back down.

Deciding to take initiative, Mickie tapped Dolph on the shoulder, as he sat on the desk across from her. "Hey, I'll be your new partner."

"Really?"

"I've got to catch up on the work," She shrugged, "Plus, I think we still have Maria's notes at home."

"Cool," Dolph grinned. "Thanks."

Feeling the rest of the class eavesdropping on her conversation with Dolph, the brunette sank down in her chair. Hopefully not all her classes would go like this.

"...so she turns to me –she's totally up for anything at this point – and she says 'Right here, right now, Adam'."

All of the football team sat enthralled by Adam Copeland's tale, their forks frozen mid air and mouths open as they listened to yet another of his sexual escapades. "So what did you do?" Jack Swagger, a recent transfer from Oklahoma who was still in his first month at the school, found himself enthralled.

"What do you think I did?" Adam laughed as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "I grabbed a rubber from the glove box and fucked her on the backseat."

High fives ensued as the footballers table erupted into congratulations for the blonde charmer and all his successes from the previous night. Somehow, even John found himself cracking a smile at Adam's ability to win over the ladies.

"Not bad, right? Not bad." The Canadian whispered to himself, his fingers tapping at the table as he glanced over at John, whose smile was now fading again. "I was planning on going out again on Friday," He announced for the benefit of John. "You guys coming?"

After a collective grunt of 'yes', attention turned to John Cena.

"Sure, why not." The captain agreed, to which the other guys actually looked shocked at. "Yeah, it'd be good for me to get out again."

"Awesome, so I said I'd meet-"

"Would John Cena please come to Principal Winston's office. That's John Cena to Principal Winston's office."

The sound of Principal Winston's assistant Sarah came through the PA system and the captain got to his feet, aware that everyone would be wondering what was going on between them in the office. After all, even before Maria's death, his own business seemed to be of the utmost interest to everyone else.

He walked the hallways towards the office and when there, sat down on a chair outside, at the instruction of Sarah. It was deathly silence, other than the scratching of the assistant's pencil. After about a minute or two, Sarah called John inside.

Principal Winston was sat at his desk, typing at his computer, brow furrowed in concentration. A couple of seconds later, he looked up at the football captain and smiled. "Ah John, sit down." He signalled at the available seat, which John sat on. "I wanted to see how you were doing. I haven't had the chance to speak to you since Maria's...accident."

He said accident as if it wouldn't remind John that his girlfriend died.

"It's been weird." John replied.

It was strange how things turned out. How you could go from kissing your girlfriend after school, to go on to football practise, to have your phone battery die, to hang out with the guys at the local burger joint and finally to come home and have your mom tell you that she couldn't get in touch with you to tell you that your girlfriend had died a couple of hours ago in a car crash.

John couldn't get his head around it.

He didn't feel depressed or distraught because it didn't feel real. To him, it felt as though Maria was still alive, just not with them. She'd been in his life for so long it was difficult to consider her not being around.

"It's certainly been an adjustment for everyone at school." Principal Winston said delicately. "I called you in here, John, because a couple of weeks ago, you said you'd show around a new student who'll be arriving in a couple of days."

"Oh yeah, the girl from England."

"Yes. The offer obviously still stands for you to be her tour guide however taking recent events into account," The principal paused, trying to gather his thoughts. "If you don't want to show her around, I'll understand and assign someone else the role."

"Actually, I'd still really like to do it. It'll take my mind off of Maria." As soon as the words left his mouth, John realised how insensitive it sounded. "I didn't mean-"

"Don't worry, John, I understand." Principal Winston smiled. The sound of the school bell cut off any further conversation. "You'd better get to class, I don't want you to be late."

"Thanks sir." John left the office and made his way to his math class.

He took his usual seat, he watched the substitute teacher copy the page numbers up onto the board and he flipped through his textbook to find the work. Other than the sinking feeling inside, like his stomach had been lined with rocks, he felt nothing.

Maria was gone and he felt nothing.

Jeff Hardy never told anyone how he felt about Maria Kanellis.

His love of her began at the beautiful redhead's third grade birthday party. She'd invited the whole class to her house where she was celebrating with a magician, party games and a giant pink cake.

The younger Hardy was a shy kid and preferred to hang out on his own or with his older brother Matt but his mother firmly told him 'You're going to that little girl's party and you're going to interact with the other kids.' And in the end, he had a lot of fun. The magician made him drink a glass of water and then squeezed water out of his elbow, which made him and all the kids laugh for the rest of the party.

The best part of the day was when everyone sat in a circle and watched the birthday girl open her presents. Mrs Hardy insisted she buy a present for Maria but Jeff wanted to make her something himself; he'd spelt out 'Maria' in Scrabble pieces and threaded them onto a black string so she could wear it around her neck. When she opened the present, her green eyes sparkled and her grin only widened.

"I love it." She giggled, pulling the string down over her head so she could put it on straight away. "Thank you." She crawled across the circle to where Jeff was sat and placed a kiss on his cheek, to which all the adults that sat around the edge of the room cooed at.

Although it was almost a decade ago, that kiss had lingered on Jeff's cheek, no matter how many times he washed it. The first girl that ever showed any real genuine appreciation towards him was Maria and for that, he'd never forget her, despite the fact they hadn't properly spoken since that party.

Yet now she was dead. This girl – this enigma – that he'd worshipped from afar since his childhood was gone and he'd never see her again. No-one knew of his feelings for her and it wasn't like he could say now. There was very little he could do, except walk to her locker and lay down his bouquet of flowers next to everyone else's.

It was a sad sight. Everyday Maria would stand at this spot, laughing with her friends as she got her books out of her locker. Now it was just somewhere where people could wonder how something so horrible had happened.

"You made a good choice. She really liked carnations, especially the yellow ones. Actually, yellow was one of her favourite colours so she liked any yellow flower."

Looking to his right, Jeff saw Eve, Maria's best friend and his brother's girlfriend. He didn't know Eve that well – they hadn't spent a lot of time together – but she seemed like a nice enough girl. It was impossible for him to imagine how she was feeling, considering her best friend had just died.

"And you left a note?" The brunette picked up the bouquet and read the piece of paper aloud, making the colour rise in Jeff's cheeks. "'You have no idea how many lives you touched in your short time on earth. Maybe I'll see you again someday. Jeff Hardy. X'"

There was a silence as they just absorbed what Eve had read aloud, Jeff awkwardly shuffling his feet and Eve letting her eyes run over the note time and time again.

"It's true though, isn't it? There were so many people that cared about her and none of us realised. Hell, some people didn't realise they cared about her until after she was gone." Eve used the back of her hand to wipe at her teary eyes, clearly overcome with emotion. "I'm sorry, I've been a mess since...it happened."

Jeff wasn't too sure of what to do. He reached out a gently touched Eve's arm but she responded by throwing herself into his arms and sobbing into his shoulder. It was a bit of a blur for Jeff, as a couple of seconds later, Matt seemed to come out of nowhere and take her away from Maria's locker, the sight which brought so much sadness to her heart.

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Next time - Maria's funeral arrives and everyone says goodbye.