Olivia was clutching her books to her chest, the near-personification of the heart-eyes emoji, as she watched Alex Knox dig through his locker across the hall. Annaleigh was standing next to her, chattering about "the socio-cultural implications of Frankenstein". At least, that's what Olivia thought she was talking about. It was a little hard to hear over the sound of her own heartbeat in her ears. Said heart started thumping even louder when Alex made eye contact with her and smiled. Dumbly, she waved at him. He nodded his head at her and closed his locker before joining his friends further down the hallway.

"Do you have any idea what I just said?" Annaleigh asked, snapping her fingers in front of Olivia's face. Blinking her eyes rapidly to help her focus, Olivia finally tuned in to her friend's one-sided conversation.

"No. I honestly have no clue what you were talking about. I was staring at my future husband."

Annaleigh snorted at her friend's answer. "You're over Brett already? That was a pretty quick turn around."

"I told you that in confidence," Olivia hissed, one hand releasing her textbooks so she could playfully smack Annaleigh. The other girl laughed the hit off and pulled her phone out of her hoodie pocket.

"Okay, so yesterday I was texting my ex-girlfriend Lola. We're still on good enough terms and we go to the mall with her current girlfriend sometimes. They're really good at finding deals on shoes. Anyway, she told me that Alex just recently broke up with Tasha Gold, some sophomore over at Brookston High, and he is officially on the market," Annaleigh informed her friend. She wrinkled her nose as Olivia let out a small squeal of delight. "Did you really have to do that?"

"Of course I did!" Olivia declared, trying her best to defend herself. "A nice, cute, single boy is rare these days. And he's smart. He's the complete package."

"Liv, you need to chill," Mason said as he approached the two girls, "Your thirst is showing."

Olivia lightly slapped his shoulder, faux-pouting. "Like you're one to talk, Mase. I've seen you at lacrosse practice. I'm honestly surprised there's not a puddle of drool under the bleachers."

"Speaking of talking," Mason said after he was done pretending to scowl at Olivia, "Have you heard from Liam today?"

"No. I thought you two were going running," Olivia replied as she finally started putting her books in her locker. It was the task she'd been about to do before Alex had entered the hallway. She was essentially a complete wreck around cute boys, especially when she was interested them. (Of course, Brett was an obvious exception nowadays.) It was her fatal flaw, so to speak.

"Well, we did," Mason admitted, leaning against a locker next to Olivia, "But he sprinted off halfway through, and I haven't seen him since."

"Did you try texting him?" Olivia inquired as she closed her locker. She adjusted her backpack so it wasn't bouncing all over the place as she turned to look at him. Now that she thought about it, he hadn't been in English or History today. She really should have noticed that, but she was too busy talking to Annaleigh, she supposed.

Mason huffed. "Of course I did. You think that wasn't my first course of action?"

"Hey, no need to get snippy," Olivia said defensively, "I was just asking."

After a moment of silence, Mason sighed heavily. "Sorry, Liv. I'm just concerned. Who knows what your brother will do sometimes, y'know?"

Olivia nodded as she pulled out her phone. She checked the time and typed out a quick text before returing it to her pocket. "Okay, if none of us have made contact with him by lunch, then I'll be worried. You of all people know how he gets. He's probably just hiding out at home, pouting and playing video games. He's been doing that a lot since Lydia's party."

Mason agreed with the plan and left for his next class. Annaleigh and Olivia linked arms and headed to their science class. The whole way, Annaleigh chattered on about the oppression of women in the sciences, but Olivia didn't pay her any attention once again. She knew she was being a bad friend by not listening, but she was honestly worried about her brother. He hadn't exactly been himself lately, and she was afraid that he might start lashing out again. He better not, because their parents would not be pleased. Neither would she be, for that matter.

"Liam, where were you all day?" Olivia asked Liam came home late that night. She'd had to cover for him with their mom again, and she was fine with doing that, as long as she knew what was really going on. But Liam hadn't confided in her yet, which was not behavior she was used to from him. They usually told each other everything, although that confidence had sort of collapsed after the Brett incident.

Liam was in sort of a trance when he walked through the door, but he snapped out of it when Olivia spoke to him. "I was at the bottom of a well," he replied seriously, and she couldn't help but snort.

"Do you need to start going back to the psychologist? If you're struggling with your depression so much that you're using metaphors for it, I think you need to be back on your meds," Olivia said as he plopped down next to her on the couch. She moved her French textbook from her lap to the coffee table, intent on spending some time with her brother. They hadn't had any bonding time since winter break, and even then it had been mostly her trying to talk him out of fighting people at Devenford.

Liam didn't say anything, so Olivia decided to turn on the TV. The first channel to show up was the local news, and Olivia watched with wide eyes as a reporter announced that Garrett and Violet's lifeless bodies had been found on the side of a road. No pictures of the bodies were shown, but Olivia still felt the urge to vomit. Granted, she hadn't really liked either teen, but it was weird to think that people she had seen just yesterday had been found dead in a ditch today.

"Did you know about this?" Olivia asked her brother, tilting her head to look at him. Liam was spacing out again, and she snapped her fingers in front of his face to gain his attention. "Liam, did you hear about Garrett and Violet?"

Liam shook his head quickly, similar to a dog after a bath. "No. I've been busy all day. Definitely haven't seen either of them today. That'd be crazy."

"Lee, calm down," Olivia said, placing a hand on his shoulder to steady him, "I was just asking. No need to get all freaked out."

Sighing, Liam massaged the bridge of his nose. "Sorry, Liv. It's just been a long day." He looked so sad and so stressed, Olivia had no choice but to wrap her brother in a hug.

"Chill, Lee. Maybe you need to go to bed."

Liam nodded as he hugged Olivia back. "I mean, probably. I haven't been sleeping well lately."

The twins released each other, and Liam got up from the couch. Before he could get too far, Olivia snagged his arm. He looked down at her, and she plastered a smile on her face. "I'm not going to push you, but I'm here if you want to talk. And I won't tell Mom or Doc, I promise."

Olivia was rewarded with a small smile from Liam. "Thanks, Liv. Night."

The next day, Olivia got up at sunrise. It was Saturday, but she had no time for sleeping in. She was going to be taking the PSAT at school today. The test was generally for juniors, but the school counselor had looked at her grades and told her that she was obviously prepared. Apparently, Lydia Martin had done the same thing just two years ago. Olivia felt extremely flattered when the counselor compared her to Lydia, who was easily the smartest person in school.

Of course, she felt extremely intimidated standing in line with a bunch of juniors while they waited for the test. She didn't know anyone and so had no one to talk to. She probably could have joined Scott McCall and his friends, but they only casually knew each other, and she was still mad at him for Liam's leg. So she ignored them, even when Scott saw her and waved at her. Meanwhile, Stiles scowled in her direction, so she was completely happy to pretend he didn't exist.

A lot of the students in the testing room looked stressed out, but Olivia was feeling surprisingly apathetic about the whole thing. If she didn't do well today (which she doubted would be the case), she had two more years to try again. Still, all of her calm disappeared the moment a girl fell out of her chair in the middle of the test.

"Sydney! Are you all right?" Ms. Martin said as she went to assist the girl. Sydney struggled, but eventually got up by leaning on the teacher.

"I'm okay. I just got kind of dizzy," Sydney said. Olivia personally thought the other girl looked more than kind of dizzy, but she didn't say anything. It wasn't her place to interfere in the affairs of someone she didn't know. At least, not when they had a qualified person to help them. She returned to her test and ignored the rest of Sydney and Ms. Martin's exchange. She only resumed paying attention to what was going on around her when Ms. Martin started yelling in the hallway.

"Get back! No! Don't come in here! Get back outside!"

The other students started to get up to see what the commotion was, and Olivia's innate curiosity was piqued. Yet, she didn't get up because the test was still going and she refused to waste any time. When the students were informed that they had to stop the test because the CDC was coming in, Olivia started freaking out. She prided herself on having an above-average immune system, and this situtation was definitely going to put a damper on her healthy streak.

After the CDC officials arrived, Scott went with Ms. Martin to help her take Sydney to quarantine. Meanwhile, the unaffected students stayed in the testing room with the other proctor. He was a pinched-faced man that didn't seem to be very interested in anything the students were up to. Granted, she wasn't particularly involved in anything the other teenagers were talking about, but then again, she wasn't being paid to essentially babysit like he was.

"Bet they're thinking smallpox," Olivia heard Stiles whisper to Kira and Malia. They were sitting very close to her but not paying her any attention, so it wasn't really like she was eavesdropping. She wasn't the only one that heard his comment, as was proven when the proctor spoke up.

"Not likely," the man said derisively, causing Stiles to look at him. "Smallpox was eradicated worldwide in 1979. We've only managed to completely eradicate two viruses in history. The other was rinderpest. It killed cows."

This was actually something that Olivia knew, having learned it from her stepfather a few years ago. He'd been complaining about how three patients had come in that week claiming they had smallpox. She was always amazed by how ridiculous people could be.

"So we should be comforted by that, right?" Stiles asked, and she could hear the hopeful optimism in his voice.

"Unless it's something worse," replied the proctor. Olivia cringed. It had better not be something worse. She couldn't die yet. She had a lot of things she wanted to accomplish before that happened. She hadn't even had a chance to audition for a school musical yet.

"It's probably nothing," Olivia chimed in, and the three juniors turned to look at her. "Statistically, most CDC calls are false alarms. They're just hyper-vigilant. Of course, there's nothing wrong with that. But I'm pretty sure we'll all be fine."

"Oh, Olivia!" Kira said in surprise, "I didn't even see you there!"

Olivia quirked an eyebrow. "You know my name?" Kira flushed in response.

"Yeah. Of course. I did take your brother to that party, after all. He talks a lot about you. Like, all the time."

Furrowing her eyebrows, Olivia considered this. It seemed like a plausible enough explanation, and she was really too tired to think it over. Besides, the trio of juniors had closed ranks again.

"Whatever it is, they're taking it pretty seriously," Malia said, "There are a lot of cars and trucks out there. Your dad's with them."

Of course, there was no way Malia could know that. She was sitting too far away from the window to see anything, let alone hear anything. She had to just be guessing. And yet, Stiles seemed to take her word as law.

"Hey, I should probably call him," Stiles said as he got up from his desk and went to the basket of phones. He started flipping through envelopes, looking for the one marked with his assigned number.

"Don't bother," the proctor said, scorn clear on his face, "They would have shut off any access to all outside communication by now. No cell service, no WiFi. No one starting a panic. Looks like we're all just going to have to wait here and see what happens."

Olivia would have been fine with that, except for the fact that she had nothing to do. But then she remembered she had packed Les Misérables in case her mother had to run any errands after picking her up. She was immensely pleased with her own foresight, even if it was hard to read with everyone in the room chattering.

She gave up on reading about the time her history teacher, Mr. Yukimura, came to get Stiles. Apparently Scott was stuck in the bathroom and wouldn't come out until his best friend arrived. Olivia was reminded of Mason's comment from lacrosse tryouts, of how he would've sworn the two boys were dating. She smiled to herself. But her frown returned when someone from the CDC came into the room and told them they all had to get their blood drawn for testing. She hated needles more than anything.

Olivia ended up in line right behind Malia and Kira, but neither of them really noticed. She was kind of offended that she was so invisible to these upperclassmen, but she also didn't really want them talking to her. She tried to stay completely out of their conversation, but they were too loud for her to ignore.

"Kira," Malia said, causing Kira to turn around, "Do you ever get the feeling that Scott and Stiles aren't telling you everything?" Everything about the girl, from her stance to her voice, was awkward as all get out. Olivia almost felt sorry for her.

"What do you mean?" Kira asked, looking flabbergasted.

"Like they hide stuff." From Malia's mannerisms, it was obvious she wasn't pleased with her boyfriend and his best friend, even if she tried to hide it. Maybe she thought they were too close, just like Mason. Maybe she thought they were secretly dating!

Kira appeared stunned, and her face said that she was clearly trying to keep a secret. "I think if they did, they probably have a pretty good reason." Maybe one of the boys' parents was homophobic? Her money was on Scott's dad. She'd met Nurse McCall at the hospital and had been impressed with her kindness. And Sheriff Stilinski had been good and fair with Liam back at Devenford. All she'd knew about Agent McCall was that he worked for the FBI and was never around.

"Do you know what they're hiding in the bag under Scott's bed?" Malia inquired, obviously done with dancing around her question. Olivia raised an eyebrow at that. So, Malia didn't think the boys were dating...but what could they be hiding under Scott's bed? Perhaps they had a secret collection of Playboy magazines? She'd found Liam's stash last year while looking in his room for a book she'd loaned him. It had been extremely awkward between the twins for a few days, to say the least.

"What?" Kira scoffed, "No, I've never been under Scott's bed. Or in it. Just on it...wearing clothes." This poor awkward child. Of course, Olivia wasn't really one to talk. She'd probably act just like Kira in this situation. Although she wasn't sure why Kira was trying to hide how far she may or may not have gotten with Scott. Wasn't Malia supposed to be her best friend, at least according to Mason's gossip? Weren't girls supposed to tell their best friends everything?

The conversation was interrupted by a CDC employee announcing Kira's name as the next student to have their blood drawn. The employee tried to make small talk, but that all came to an abrupt halt when she dropped the needle and her suit started smoking. Olivia wasn't quite sure what happened, but the other CDC people started to freak out. The lady was rushed out of the building, and Kira and Malia took that as their chance to escape.

Of course, Olivia thought about escaping as well, because she was not at all excited about getting stuck with a needle. But she was a goody-goody at heart - something that Liam liked to mock her for - and she knew that she was never going to disobey an authority figure. Nothing was strong enough to get her to do that, not even her needle phobia.

After her blood was drawn, she was allowed to return to the classroom and continue reading. She also slowly watched as, one by one, her classmates started getting sick. It was eerie watching the classroom drain of people until she was the only one left. She wasn't sure why she had managed to be the only healthy one, but she wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth, so to speak.

Eventually, way after Olivia had become fully engrossed in her book, Ms. Martin came rushing in with a huge smile on her face. "Everyone's getting better!" the older woman said as she approached Olivia. The younger girl smiled back as she closed her book and placed it in her bag.

"That's wonderful news. Does that mean we get to go home soon?"

Ms. Martin nodded. "It does indeed. As soon as the CDC has released the quarantine."

The two women headed out into the hall, where students were starting to be freed from their isolation. People were hugging and clapping each other on the shoulder, and there was a huge air of relief all around. Olivia was sure she would have joined in if she knew any of these people personally.

"Liv! Liv!" A shout rang out from down the hall, accompanied by a cry of, "Mom! Mom!" Both Olivia and Ms. Martin turned to see Lydia and Liam rushing towards them.

The twins embraced, and Olivia couldn't help but start to tear up. "Why are you crying?" Liam asked, pulling back to look at his sister.

Smiling, she sniffled a bit and he chuckled. "I was worried. But I guess I had no reason to be. I didn't even get sick. I was the only one."

Liam cocked his head and narrowed his eyes. "Seriously? How'd you manage to pull that off?" Olivia tried to shrug, an action that was hard to accomplish with her brother still holding her.

"I'm not sure." She paused to consider the area around them. The hall was filled with students and CDC employees, and Olivia didn't see anyone else that she knew. "How did you get here, Lee?"

Liam flushed and, releasing his sister finally, he rubbed the back of his neck. "I got a ride with Lydia. She knew that you were at the school and she knew I'd be worried. Mom's still out of town, and Doc got held up at the hospital, otherwise they'd both be here."

Olivia wasn't sure how Lydia knew she'd be at the school to take a test intended for juniors, but that was an inquiry to explore at a later time. For now, she just basked in the knowledge that she was okay, and that she could finally go home. Today had been a much longer day than she had intended, and she had never been so eager to leave school before.

"Can we go home?" Olivia asked her brother, who grinned in response.

"Yeah. Lydia said she would give us a ride home. Why don't you go get checked out by the CDC people and I'll let Lydia know?"

Olivia nodded and headed out to the parking lot where the CDC was doing their final checks of students. She'd do pretty much anything to go home now, even if it meant getting her blood drawn again. "What a day," Olivia muttered to herself as she pulled out her phone. Wait until Annaleigh heard about this.

A/N: Kind of a boring chapter, but Olivia is getting suspicious. Don't worry, excitement is coming. Just hang in there!

This chapter goes out to dubonet, lydamartin, and missunderstoodxoxo on tumblr. Thanks for supporting Olivia and her story!

Please leave a reviews, as it would make my day, and it inspires me to keep writing!