Author's Note: Thanks to all our reviewers for letting us in on your thoughts! We appreciate it. Keep reviewing! Don't be afraid to click that button! Kudos to anyone who picks up on the movie refrence in this chapter.

Disclaimer:

We still don't own the Covenant in any way shape or form, however, Becks and Abby are all ours.


Chapter 4- An Inevitable Part Of Life
"If I were asked to give what I consider the single most useful bit of advice for all humanity it would be this: Expect trouble as an inevitable part of life and when it comes, hold your head high, look it squarely in eye and say, 'I will be bigger than you. You cannot defeat me'."
-Anna Landers

"Come on Becks, talk to me. You haven't said a word since you got back from your dad's house. What happened?" Abigail asked for the millionth time this morning, only to be met with silence for every answer.

Rebecca's Oxford shirt fit tightly to her thin frame, hiding the bruises from daddy's blows of encouragement. Her blonde hair hung loosely over her shoulders and her eyes were hidden under the side bangs she had just gotten done a couple of weeks before. She threw the hood of her Spencer jacket over her head and sunk low in her chair, the tears falling carelessly down her cheeks.

Abigail looked at Sarah with a frown and an aggravated sigh. Becky had tried to call her late Saturday night, but all Abigail heard was a man's loud screams and a dial tone. Ever since then, Abigail had been worried. The fact that Rebecca was silent didn't make matters any better either.

When the bell rang, Rebecca kept her head hidden in her hood as they walked the crowded halls of Spencer Academy. Abigail waved goodbye to Sarah as they made their way to their English class.

"Becky, please say something to me," Abigail pleaded, grasping Rebecca's arm lightly, standing beside the entrance to the classroom.

Rebecca huffed a sigh and without a word pulled down her hood and pushed blonde strands of hair out of her eyes. She revealed a slightly blackened eye and a cut on the bottom right of her lip. She looked up at her friend with tired eyes and without a word fixed her hood and her hair and walked into the classroom, taking her seat. Abigail walked in after her with a frown, taking her seat next to Reid like she was assigned to on Friday. Tyler, from his place next to Reid, watched as Rebecca went to her own seat.

Reid looked over at Abigail. "Hey there sweetheart. How was your weekend?" he asked her, taking advantage of the fact that the bell still hadn't rung for class to start yet.

"It was super," Abigail replied bitterly, taking out her book and notebook for this class.

"That doesn't sound convincing," he answered leaning a little closer to her.

Abigail huffed a sigh and made eye contact with the shaggy blonde who had just about pushed every button on her body. "What will it take for you to understand that I am not interested?"

Her tone of voice startled Reid, and he slightly scooted away from her, eyes shifting over to his friend, who, once again, met him with a shrug of his shoulders. He huffed and decided to find a new conquest of the day.

xxxxx

Monday and Tuesday were awkward days. Becky hadn't made much contact with Abby, and Sarah decided she'd leave them alone for a while. Wednesday made it's way slowly and Rebecca was talking a little. It was time to get over the incident with her father and step up her grades, so something like that would never have to happen again.

Calculus- the dreaded class that got her father angry, that got her these nasty cuts and bruises. Becky felt empty without the comfort of her friends, mainly Abigail and Sarah, but she shook it off and tried hard to take notes in the class. She groaned at the C- minus on the last test she had taken and crushed it into a paper ball chucking it in the garbage when Conley had her back turned. When class was over, Becky made her way through the people slowly filing out of the room and walked over to Mrs. Conley's desk.

When the older woman turned to look at her, Rebecca mustered a warm smile on her face. "I know my grades aren't very good in this class, it's a difficult subject for me. I was wondering if I could get a tutor to help me out?" Rebecca asked as kindly as she could.

Mrs. Conley smiled at Becky's effort to better herself in class and looked over her roster. Catching sight of a name and his figure making it's way out of the class, she quickly called out, "Mr. Simms!" Tyler halted at his name being called and made his way to Mrs. Conley's desk. He took notice of Rebecca and smiled at her. "Miss McAlister here is looking for a tutor to help her in this class. Would you be interested in assisting her?"

Tyler's intense blue eyes glanced over at Becky and a grin formed on his lips. "I'd be more than happy to help her out," he accepted whole-heartedly.

Rebecca blushed slightly and her gaze fell to her feet as she kicked up invisible dust off of the ground. "Thanks for the help Ty. I appreciate it," she said as they made their way out of the class.

"It's no big deal, I'll meet you in your dorm later on." Tyler waved at Becky after she gave him her room number, blushing a little himself, before they parted ways to their next class.

xxxxx

Pogue didn't know how much longer he could take it- the smirks, the looks, the whispering. He really needed to talk to Kate. Rumor had it that she had been seen exiting the dorm room of some basketball jock earlier this morning. Knowing Kate, she could have done it just to get a rise out of him; it always worked. But the rumors were getting to him. It wasn't the first time this rumor had been circulating around the school, and he was tired of hearing it.

He turned off the water to the locker room showers, wrapped a towel around his waste, and headed for his locker. After putting on his clothes, he stuffed his swim trunks and cap into his bag and closed his locker. Turning around, he was met with the site of Aaron Abbott's face sneering at him. Pogue groaned; he didn't need this right now. He walked around the curly-haired boy but stopped when he heard his voice.

"Could you give Kate a message for me? Tell her if she wants to have some more fun she should come visit me. I'm in room 304."

For some reason, this comment didn't bother Pogue as much as he thought it would. He barely glanced over his shoulder, quickly making eye contact with Aaron before turning back towards the door. "I'll let her know." With that, he exited the locker room and headed to the dorm he had made plenty of previous visits to.

He reached the door and knocked quickly before opening it, without waiting for a reply. A blonde looked up from where she was lying on the bed whilst a pretty dark-skinned girl glanced up from the desk, before turning her head back to her homework.

"Hey Sarah," he said glancing at the blonde, then back to the brunette who was reading her book intently, "do you think you could-" he was cut off by the blonde gathering her books and heading for the door.

"Yeah, I'm gone. Take your time." She threw an encouraging smile towards the pair and hurried out the door into the hallway.

Kate continued to stare at her book, pretending to read even though her eyes were not moving. Pogue leaned awkwardly against the door as he thought of the best way to start the much-needed conversation. "Were you gonna tell me?"

She looked at the wall across from her and she closed her eyes to think. "No," she said after a few moments, opening her eyes to glance at him quickly.

Pogue let out a dry laugh and shook his head. "Yeah, that's great. Two fucking years Kate, TWO YEARS! And this is how you want things to end?"

Kate's eyes quickly met his; unshed tears placed in her eyes. "Pogue," she didn't know what to say. After all of her flirtatious episodes with other guys, they had never talked about an actual break-up. "It's your fault I went down there. You just had to start another fight yesterday. Besides, nothing happened this morning, we were just messing around."

She said it in such a nonchalant way that Pogue let out a deep laugh, startling Kate. "Just messing around? That makes it so much better. You're always 'just messing around.' You don't see me messing around with other girls, you don't see me flirting with other girls."

"What are you saying, Pogue?" she asked, with anger evident in her voice.

"I'm saying if you want this relationship to continue, you need to stop being such a whore."

The slap that resounded in the confined room was the only noise for a few moments. All was quiet as the couple stared at one another, Pogue's face and Kate's hand both stinging.

"How dare you come in here and accuse me like that! I've never lied to you, I've never cheated on you."

"Oh don't bullshit me Kate. I'm done with it. You can flirt with whoever you want now, it's over."

Kate stood and looked at him, shocked. "After all I've done for you? You're just going to end it like that"

Pogue stared at her with a sad expression in his eyes. "No Kate, it ended when you decided I wasn't good enough." He turned towards the door, ready to get away from the tense room.

"You're right Pogue, you were never good enough for me. I deserve much better than you." She crossed her arms over her chest, hoping to get more out of him.

Pogue glanced back, hand still on the door. A small smile passed his lips and with a slightly sarcastic tone he said, "Yeah, you do. You deserve much better." And with that, he was out the door and down the deserted hallway, leaving a stunned Kate standing by her desk, homework completely forgotten.

xxxxx

When Sarah had invited Abigail and Rebecca to Nicky's again that Friday, Abigail looked questioningly at Rebecca, and was shocked when she said they would love to go. When she later questioned Becky's need to go after the weekend she had had, Becky had said that seeing Tyler would make her forget all about it. So here they were, entering the lively hangout spot that was already filled to maximum capacity and then some. They leisurely walked over to a table that currently contained Tyler and Pogue. They exchanged greetings and Tyler and Rebecca exchanged shy glances. Pogue, on the other hand, looked as glum as ever. Of course everyone had heard about him and Kate's explosive break up, it was the talk of the school.

They sat down and asked where the rest of the group was. Tyler spoke up and said, "Reid called and said he'd be here soon and Sarah dragged Caleb onto the dance floor about 5 minutes ago."

The girls laughed at this comment and after a few minutes, Abigail said, "I'm gonna go get a drink, anybody want anything?" Tyler and Rebecca shook their heads, while Pogue merely sat there, staring the table. She got up and walked over to the bar, waiting for some attention from the bartender. She looked around the packed room, watching the people that were trying to dance.

When the bartender finally made time to come over, she asked him for a coke and waited, once again, for him to bring it to her. She glanced back at the table to see Reid standing there, talking to Tyler, who then looked at Rebecca and said something to which she replied with a smile. They all glanced at Pogue, who waved them off. He was then left alone at the table as the others made their way to a pool table.

When the bartender came back with her drink, she asked kindly, "Could I get another one, please?" The bartender gave a small smile and went to retrieve another drink. Returning with the full glass, she sent him a bright smile, handed him some money, and picked up the two drinks. As she walked back to the table, she spotted the back of Sarah's head and the much taller Caleb on the dance floor, moving to the beat of a rap song.

She put the drinks down on the table, sliding one in Pogue's direction, the other in front of the seat she was about to occupy. As she sat, Pogue slowly said, "Do I always look really pathetic or do you just like buying me drinks?"

She laughed at this and saw a faint smile grace the striking face of the boy across from her. "I'm trying to get you drunk off of Coke," she said with a smile. He returned it and then sipped from the drink in front of him. Before she could say anything else, the usual weird song was heard coming from her cellular phone. She rolled her eyes and dug into her pocket, sending an apologetic glance at Pogue.

Taking a quick look at the caller ID, she put the mobile device to her ear and said, "What?"

She heard the ever-familiar laugh followed by, "You haven't been returning my calls sweetie. That's not very polite of you. I'm giving you a second chance, you should be grateful for this opportunity." This was said so casually that she had to laugh.

"I'm not interested." She seemed to be saying that a lot lately. "Bye Eric." With that, she hung up and turned the phone off so that she couldn't be bothered anymore that night. As she put the phone back in her pocket, she saw the slightly curious look coming from the biker across from her.

"Friend?" he asked quietly.

She gave a slight laugh. "Hardly." They sat in a comfortable silence, sometimes making comments about people's horrible dancing or the music being played.

After a while, Caleb came creeping over, looking around wildly. "Is she gone?" he asked, out of breath.

Pogue and Abby exchanged glances. "What are you talking about man?" Pogue asked in confusion. Before Caleb could answer, Sarah came bouncing over, grabbing on to Caleb's arm.

"Are you tired already?" she asked in mock surprise. The group laughed as Sarah continued, "Sit down babe, I'll go get you a drink." She pushed Caleb into a seat and he sighed in relief, exhausted from the non-stop dancing.

"I'll come with," Abigail said, abandoning her drink and getting up to follow the blonde. Sarah sent a smile her way as they began the walk to the bar.

As they stood waiting at the counter, Sarah's brow furrowed and she nudged the equally short girl beside her, pointing a finger towards the pool tables. A curly-haired boy had made his way over to where Becky was waiting for Reid and Tyler to return to the pool table.

"Oh great," they both murmured at the same time.

xxxxx

"Hey there sweetheart. You know, if I could rearrange the alphabet, I'd put U and I together." Aaron stood in front of Becky with a small smirk.

Beck rolled her eyes. "I think N and O are together for a reason," she said simply. She could see Abigail and Sarah making their way over to her.

Aaron just laughed and said, "Feisty, I like it. How about you come dance with me?"

"No thanks, I'm not really into guys who treat girls like trash."

Aaron huffed an annoyed sigh and crossed his arms. "You could at least dance one song with me. Who knows, you might change your mind about me."

Rebecca glanced from Sarah and Abigail, who were now standing next to her, and back to the curly haired boy in front of her. "How about this," she said shakily, "we play a game of foosball. If I win, you leave me alone. If you win; I'll go dance with you." She grimaced at the thought, but tried to put on a brave face. Sarah and Abigail exchanged looks; everyone knew that Aaron was terrible at foosball, so maybe this would actually work.

Aaron gave a confident laugh and said, "Hell no, I hate foosball. How about pool?" So much for that plan, Rebecca was horrible at pool. She contemplated on telling the boy to go screw himself, but before she could voice anything he said, "Unless, of course, you're scared. Then you could just go ahead and dance with me."

Abigail rolled her eyes as Rebecca glared at him, knowing what her blonde friend was going to do. "Fine, you got a deal." Abigail sighed as she, Sarah, and a few of Aaron's goons followed the pair over to a pool table. Rebecca glanced nervously at Abigail and mouthed, "What do I do?" Abigail just let out a short laugh and walked the few steps to her friend, trying to give her a few tips. She didn't know much more about pool than her friend did, but she tried to help nonetheless.

About half way into the game, Rebecca was loosing badly, having only sunk 2 of her 7 balls, while Aaron had gotten in 5. Abigail sighed; her friend was fucked four ways to Sunday. Tyler and Reid wandered over, standing next to her, eyes focused on the game that was in front of them.

"What's going on?" Tyler asked, looking from the table to Abigail, who was chewing her lip nervously.

"Yeah, your friend sucks at pool Abby." Reid decided this was an appropriate comment to throw in.

Abigail rolled her eyes, ignoring Reid's comment and answered Tyler's question, telling them what had gone down a few minutes ago and how Rebecca had gotten dragged into the game.

Reid let out a laugh and watched as Rebecca missed a relatively easy shot. Tyler glared at a jovial Aaron, who was lining up his next shot. An idea popped into his head; he knew Caleb would rip him apart, but he figured it was worth it. A smile graced Tyler's lips as Aaron missed his shot, yelling a "what the hell?" to anyone who cared to listen.

Reid glanced at the younger boy next to him and a smirk made it's way upon his face. "Way to stick up for your woman baby boy."

Tyler glared at the blonde next to him. "Shut up, she's not my woman. I'm just helping her out." He looked back to the game, seeing Rebecca about to take her shot. She gasped when the white ball knocked two of hers into the left corner pocket. Aaron stared on, wondering how the tide had changed so quickly.

This went on for a while, Rebecca making her shot and Aaron missing his. Abigail couldn't believe her friend was actually winning, not that she wasn't glad; her friend was just horrid at pool. When the game finally ended, Rebecca was staring in shock at the pool table, which was empty save for one of Aaron's striped balls, meaning she had won.

"I won? I won." She walked over to Abigail, who was standing in shock at what had just happened. "How the hell did I do that?"

Abigail smiled at her friend and said, "Your pool skills really came at an opportune time."

A smirking Tyler glanced at Reid and muttered, "Didn't it though?"

Reid let out a laugh and said to the group, "Let's get drinks to celebrate, my treat!"