Chapter 4:
It had been a few weeks since PCA had started school again, and everyone was once again back into the swing of things. James, who'd come a week after school had started, due to his trip through Asia, had come back and reconciled with Zoey. He and Chase hit it off almost instantly, and they spent their time joking and laughing with each other. Michael and Lisa were reunited and inseparable, they could be found in the music room on most days. And Lola and Vince were usually together, each time something else changed about Lola. Recently she'd gotten her hair tipped with purple, and she'd entered into this hippie style. All of it was Vince's idea. Quinn could be found with Logan on most days, either that or in a science lab. And whenever Quinn wasn't with Logan, he was with Dana. They spent most of their time together, catching up on each other's lives and challenging each other to a stream of sports. Quinn found this annoying at first, but noticed that their relationship seemed as platonic and Michael and Zoey's.
"Hey," Quinn said to Dana. It was first period calculus. Dana was sitting at their usual spot with her feet up on the desk, drinking a latte.
"He seriously gave us a test today!" Dana scoffed. "If he wasn't a teacher, I'd mess him up!"
"Oh would you, Miss Cruz?" asked Mr. Rimms.
"Just kidding, Mr. Rimms," Dana said before taking her feet of the desk and looking at Quinn who's expression was just as shocked as hers. The two suppressed a laugh before Mr. Rimms passed out the test. Quinn had already completed half of her first semester course for the college she was at, and the teacher had asked her to not finish the second half until his actual class had reached it. So instead of doing her usual work, Quinn pulled out a book and began to read. She was quickly interrupted by a buzzing that was coming out of her bag. Quickly grabbing her phone before the teacher saw, Quinn hid her phone behind her book and opened it. There was a message from Dana that read, "Help me, stuck on number 22."
Quinn looked over at Dana in shock. "That's cheating," she whispered. Dana rolled her eyes and mouthed the words "so." Quinn closed her phone and continued to read. She was soon stopped by another text from Dana that had the same message. Quinn once again said no, and tried to read. This time Dana snatched the book and phone right out of her hands and started typing things on both of their phones. Quinn tried, quietly, to get her phone and book back, but only succeeded in getting shoved. Soon a loud ring filled the room and everyone's heads shot up.
The ring had come from Quinn's phone, and Mr. Rimms was making his way over to her.
"Ms. Pensky, I understand that you're ahead of everyone on this level and have no need to take this class or test, but others do. I, and everyone else, would highly appreciate it if you could show some respect and not use your phone during this class."
"I'm sorry, Mr. Rimms," Quinn said before the teacher turned on his heel and walked back to his desk. Quinn glared at Dana until her phone was returned to her. She leaned over to place it back in her bag when Mr. Rimms's hand snatched it.
"Ms. Pensky, I would appreciate it if you took your things and went to the dean's office immediately. I think he'd be very interested in this." Confused, Quinn gathered her things and quickly left the classroom, never getting her phone back.
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"Quinn, you're a star student here. Why in the world would you cheat?" asked Dean Rivers.
"I didn't cheat!" Quinn exclaimed. She had been arguing with the dean for the past hour. He was convinced that she'd helped Dana cheat on her test, or at least tried to. For some reason, all of the messages that they'd shared during that class had been deleted except for one coming from Quinn's phone saying "do you need help with number 22?"
Quinn was outraged. She felt the urge to hurt someone, namely Dana. How could she? Quinn spent all of this time thinking that Dana had changed. That she'd been her friend. She'd trusted her.
"Quinn, this is very serious business. You could be expelled for this!"
"I didn't cheat! It's the truth!" Quinn couldn't believe what she was hearing, why would she of all people help someone cheat?
"Look, I can see how upset you are by this, so I'll do you a favor. I'll over look this with a warning because there's no real proof beside this one message, and our tech person informed me that it's easy to make mistakes with text messages. However, the odds are against you at the moment. I'll excuse you this time, but if there's any proof, you'll be expelled."
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"She did what?" Lola exclaimed. She was friends with Dana. They'd talked and laughed about things, but Quinn was still her best friend. But, could Dana really do something that bad? Lola couldn't believe it. She and Dana had this instant connection; it was like Dana was the only one that understood the annoyance of a language barrier when it came to Spanish. And she didn't judge Lola with her sudden change of style. And unlike Zoey, she was always around, and she never spent her time moping like Quinn did when she saw Logan laughing with some girl.
"She framed me!" Quinn yelled. They'd been over this twice already, but Lola couldn't believe it for some reason.
"I don't know. I mean come on, Quinn. That's a bit much. And your phone does say-"
"You've got to be kidding me!" Quinn screamed. "How in the world do you believe her over me? I'm your best friend!"
"Yeah, and you're also extremely jealous at the moment," Lola sighed. All she wanted was to go and hang out with Vince; she really didn't need this right now.
"Lola, she set me up! She's a witch and a liar! How could you believe her over me? Some friend you are."
"Me? Quinn you've been the worst and most annoying friend ever! All you ever do is complain lately. I mean seriously, get over yourself already. Nobody cares if Logan talked to some girl, and no one wants to hear about how annoyed you are with Dana! Even Zoey, who's barely around anymore is acting like a better friend than you. Everything is not about you!"
"So it's about you then right? Oh, no wait; it's about Vince," Quinn glared, "because if Vince doesn't like it, than it's not good enough. If Vince wants it, than he gets it right? I mean look at your hair. It's so original! I love how you got it right after Vince told you to, and your clothes, they just scream you! Did he get them from the same place he got that lovely green sack you were a few weeks ago?" Quinn screamed. She reached into the closet and threw the sweater at Lola.
"Well, at least my boyfriend wasn't ashamed of me! At least he didn't wait to tell his friends that we were together, even after we told everyone else at the school that we loved each other," Lola screamed back.
"Of course he's not ashamed of you! Why would he be? You're the perfect little accessory. I mean, it's his turn now right? Now he gets the chance to have the dumb, pretty girl hanging on his arm. And when college rolls around, he can dump you and go out with some hot blonde girl who actually uses her brain! Hmm, maybe he can fight with Chase over Zoey!"
"Yeah, and when Logan goes to college he'll dump you in a flash, because he's already used both of his free rides. Then he can go out with someone that can actually catch someone's attention. Maybe then he'll be able to be happy he even has a girlfriend. Maybe he'll go out with Dana. At least she isn't the biggest freak on campus, and people actually like her! But then again, she doesn't bring her family problems to school, does she?" Lola's face immediately softened as she realized what she said. "Quinn, I…."
Quinn just ran, she had tears welling up in her eyes, and she could barely see. Her instincts told her to run to the person that she wanted the most at the moment. So she did, she ran as fast as she could to Logan.
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"Quinn?" James's voice was barely audible to Quinn over her gasps for air. She was sure that she looked a mess, which was true. Her hair was all over the place, and she had a mixture of tears, snot, and sweat protruding down her face. Her clothes had little spots from grass stains sitting there plain as day. He quickly ushered her in, not asking any questions.
Logan was sitting down at his laptop checking his emails when he turned to see Quinn. His face immediately broke into a worried expression as he practically ran over to her. Quinn threw herself against him and allowed her self to explode with emotion, letting her tears fall and her screams to drown out the music coming from the TV. Causing James to leave the room and quickly shut the door behind him. Soon her screams and crying turned to quiet sobs as she rested her head against Logan's now wet chest. His hands combed through her hair and rubbed her back, calming her down. She reluctantly pulled back to see black eyeliner splattered across Logan's shirt, surrounded in her tears.
"I'm sorry," she whispered.
"Don't be," Logan reassured her and led her over to the couch. Once they were sitting down, he pulled her into him, tightly, and waited for her to talk. Quinn knew that she'd have to talk about Dana and go through all of the harsh things she's said about Lola, and admit that she was uncomfortable with Logan hanging out with Dana. But she was tired of holding things back, so she just let it all go and told him everything. He listened intently, but looked at her in shock when she talked about Dana. He waited until she was done, and a good amount of silence had passed to talk once again.
"Quinn," he began, but then stopped himself.
"Tell me," Quinn said. Logan sighed but continued.
"I'm sorry. I find it…… extremely hard to believe what you said….. about Dana?" Logan said, forming it into a question, for fear of being yelled at.
"Of course. Logan, she's not who you think she is. She's terrible, and I don't like her."
"Quinn," Logan sighed once again. "Dana's a hard case to get, but if you got to know her-"
"I don't want to get to know her!" Quinn exclaimed, suddenly tired of this.
"Then what do you want?" Logan asked.
"I want you to believe me and get mad at her. I want you to tell me that you love me and to tell me that things are going to be alright. I want you to tell me that you're not ashamed of me. I want you to be Logan, not Dana's, mine!" Quinn finally sighed.
"Dana's Logan? I'm not her anything. All I do is talk to her. Quinn, I think you're blowing this whole thing out of proportion."
"Why is everything about Dana? Did you completely ignore everything else I said? Do you not even care?" Quinn was starting to yell again.
"I do care, but you're accusing her of something that she wouldn't do!" Logan yelled back.
"I can't believe you! You're the one person that's-"
"Supposed to feel sorry for you?" Logan asked. He was annoyed that she'd accuse Dana of something so terrible.
"What? Why would you even-"Quinn just sighed and stood up. She wanted to fall on the carpet and crawl up into a little ball and go into her own world, the one where Logan was the boy that understood her, and Lola and Zoey were always there for her. She wanted to laugh at Michaels' jokes and dance and sing to Lisa and Michael's songs. She wanted to laugh when James and Michael played basketball. She wanted to crack up when Chase tripped over nothing, and most of all, she wanted things to be the way they were before Dana came back.
So I've decided to upload this chapter now because I probably won't be able to put on the other chapters until the weekend. I want to thank everyone so much for reading my story! Special thanks goes out to QOUGANFREAK4LIFE, MaxRideFan4, ZoeyChase08, DarkVampireAngel81, and Seatle90210 (my first reviewer!)! You are all so mazing and you made me so happy! Thanks so much!
