A/N Here it is: chapter ten. Hopefully I'll be able to post another chapter before I leave for camp. Then you'll have to wait three weeks until another. Sorry, but I can't bring my laptop to camp! So with no further ado, here is chapter ten! (review please!)

Overall, it had been a pretty awful morning.

I had called Ivy several times, with only one being successful. The conversation had been short; or maybe miniscule would be the better word.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Ivy, it's Kiera."

Beep. She'd hung up.

The other calls had gotten no answer and unfortunately her dad wasn't there this time to make her talk to me.

I could just imagine her sitting there next to the phone, listening to my messages.

"Ivy? You there? I really want to talk to you! Call me back as soon as you get this!"

They got more and more desperate until I was practically sobbing into the phone.

"Ivy, please pick up! I'm so sorry about last night, will you ever forgive me? I swear I never meant to, it completely slipped my mind. Pick up, please, oh please!"

We didn't hear anything from Dylan either. I had been hoping he would call just to get on our nerves, but he didn't.

I had come down to two conclusions. One, he had suddenly matured so much that he did not take pleasure in annoying me anymore (which was very unlikely); or two, something was terribly wrong,

I wasn't sure why I thought that, there wasn't much evidence to prove my second theory correct. It was just a feeling I had in the pit of my stomach that something was out of place.

The next day was cold and wet. The first thought that popped into my head when I woke up was that I would be seeing Edward shortly and the next was that the same would be true with Ivy. Once I met her face to face, she couldn't possibly run away.

I dressed with special care, wolfed down some breakfast, pulled on my rain jacket and ran out the door.

It was then that I realized I had no way of getting to school. My mom and dad had left a few minutes ago for work, and Dylan, my usual ride, was off with his friends. I thought of the two-mile journey from here to school, took a glance up at the dark gray clouds and the rain pelting down, and felt like curling up in a ball and crying.

Suddenly, I was blinded by a bright light. Putting my hand up to my eyes, I saw a car pulling into the driveway.

It was a silver Volvo.

The window rolled down and with a thrill I recognized Edward grinning at me.

"Need a ride?"

Feeling much better, I ran to the other side of the car and was just about to open the passenger door when I saw Alice glaring at me from the other side.

I slipped as gracefully as possible into the back seat and pulled down my hood.

"How did you know to get me?"

"I heard your thought from a few streets away."

"Oh." I didn't know he could hear that clearly.

"Your thoughts are pretty loud." Edward laughed and I joined in hesitantly.

"Yes, most young teenage girls do think and act in a loud sort of way." A smirk was playing on Alice's lips.

We didn't talk anymore until we had parked in the lot at school. Alice climbed out and was gone in a flash.

Edward opened my door and together we walked towards the buildings. It was so unfortunate that we both had jackets covering our faces; else I would be the envy of all the girls in the school.

"So Alice is still mad at me, huh?"

"She's not mad."

"Yeah right."

"Ok, a little upset. Nothing for you to worry about, though."

Unconvinced, I dropped him off at the main office and trotted off towards my locker. Lacie was waiting for me, munching on an apple and leaning against the wall.

"Hi Kiera."

She, at least, was friendly enough. We talked a bit about things we had done over the weekend and then started off together to first period Spanish.

"Have you seen Ivy today?"

"Yeah."

I glanced sideways at her. She was determinedly not looking at me.

"And?"

"Well, I'm sure you can guess what she's like."

This was exactly was I had hoped would not happen. Wouldn't our strong friendship help cover this up, or had a made too big of a mistake this time?

"I don't think she's just mad about Saturday night, but it was kind of the last straw after Friday, you know?"

I nodded. I guess I understood, but I still thought she was overreacting.

Ivy was already in the classroom when we arrived. She had saved one seat next to her and patted it.

"Sit over here."

Not thinking, I walked over and was about to reach for the chair when she pulled it away.

"Not for you, stupid. I'm saving it for my friend."

Stung, I moved away and sat in the back, thinking what I could possibly to make things better.

The next few periods past very slowly. Ivy was completely ignoring me. This was far worse than the mean comments and cold glares I had prepared myself for all of last night.

In English, I got a huge surprise.

"Alright, books away, class. Hurry up now, you only have forty minutes as it is." Mrs. Dellir said in her usual crisp voice.

"Why?" I said blankly, praying that we weren't going to have a pop quiz.

"We have a test, Kiera." She said disapprovingly

"What? Since when?" I was aghast, I didn't remember anything about a test.

"Since the beginning of the year, dearie. It's been on your calendar for weeks. Do you recall our review day on Friday?"

I nodded, trying to keep my face from showing the shock. Of course I recalled no such thing. My thoughts had been deeply preoccupied with Edward that day, and I had forgotten all about the test over the weekend. Apparently I was going to pay for my lapse of memory.

This day was turning out to be no better then the one before.

Feeling increasingly miserable, I walked down the hallway after English, trying to remember if there was at least one question I could get partial credit on.

I stopped suddenly, hearing a familiar laugh. I peered around the corner and was surprised to see a group of freshmen girls huddled around one in the center. Moving closer, I could see exactly who it was.

"Ivy, are you sure?"

"Yeah, I saw her."

"Ginny is going to be so mad!"

"Oh yeah, I forgot." Ivy continued, with a mad smile on her face "I saw her making out with Tommy too."

"What?" One of girls seemed to growl.

"I walked in on her yesterday in the empty Latin room."
"How could she do that?" The girl whimpered and I could see a tear run down her cheek.

"Because she's a slut." Ivy said, with a malicious glint in her eye.

"But Kiera's always seemed so nice."

My stomach dropped. What rumors were Ivy spreading about me? I wanted to go over and tell them it was a lie, but I couldn't move, I couldn't speak.

"That's just her disguise," continued Ivy, "Believe, me, I used to be friends with her. Then I realized what she was."

"Thanks for the warning, Ivy."

"Yeah, now we can watch out."

"What other guys has she made out with?"

Finally I was able to move. Before I could hear Ivy's answer, I ran away from the group of girls, which was getting larger every second.

How could she betray me like that? Now the whole grade would be against me.

Tears were beginning to well up in my eyes. I blinked furiously and turned another corner so sharply that I bumped into someone going the other way.

"Ouch! Sorry!" I looked up into the face of Dylan's best friend, Mark.

"Oh, hey, Kiera!" he laughed. "Is Dylan sick?"

"No. Isn't he at your house?"

"Nope. Why would he be there?"

"Well he left a note saying he had gone to stay at someone's house. I just figured it was yours."

"I have no idea where he could be. All of our friends are at school today, and he isn't here with any of them."

My heart turned over. Mark looked down at my worried face.

"Listen, Kiera, I'm sure he's fine. You know as well as I do that he's not the sort of person to do anything really bad."

"Yeah, but he's not the sort of person to skip school either."

Mark smiled, "I wouldn't put it past him."

He was trying to cheer me up, so I smiled back and pretended to be feeling better. As soon as he was out of sight, though, my grin vanished. I was worried sick. It was alright for Mark so say that Dylan wasn't in trouble, but he didn't know that a group of vampires were living here, maybe with an evil one tailing them.

The rest of the day was terrible. All the girls were glaring at me throughout the classes and in every hall way there seemed to be someone talking about me.

"Did you hear about Kiera and Willy?"

"Mandy is so mad at Kiera!"

"Kiera actually got caught after school yesterday by Mr. Fernod. She and Jason got in so much trouble!"

I didn't see Edward all day. I passed Alice in the hallway once, but she just ignored me and kept walking.

After school was done, I grabbed my things and hurried outside, eager to get away from everyone.

Lacie was waiting for me. As soon as I walked out the door, she came up and wrapped her arms around me.

I couldn't hold them back any longer. Tears flooded out of my eyes and I sobbed and sobbed.

Lacie held me close and rubbed my back. "Its okay, Kiera. Calm down, its okay."

"N-no it's n-not!" I cried "H-have you heard w-what people have been s-saying?"

"Yes, I have. But I know for sure that they're all lies."

I looked up into her face and I felt an immense wave of gratitude flow through me for this perfect friend that cared so much.

"Really?"

"Kiera, do you really think I would?"

"No, I guess not. But Ivy-"

"She's being a bit of a jerk right now, yes-"

"A bit! She's been-"

"Kiera, listen to me! Look at it from her point of view. You did abandon her on Saturday."

"Yeah, I know. I feel terrible about it! But can't she just accept my apology?"

"That's where she's in the wrong. She's taken it way too far."
"Now everyone hates me!"

I started crying again, and Lacie continued to rub my back. "I don't hate you."

I knew this was the truth. Lacie had never been mad at me before, and I knew she never would be.

"Oh, you're the best!"

I hugged her back.

Feeling much more loved and slightly better, I walked out to the parking lot with Lacie.

Edward was leaning against his car, smiling broadly when he saw me.

"Who's that?" Lacie whispered in my ear.

"Edward."

Even though she hadn't read Twilight, Lacie had heard Ivy and I talk about it enough to recognize the name.

"I'll call you later." I said meaningfully. Then I walked over to the car.

"Alice is going home with Jasper." He said before I could ask.

"Was he at school today too?"

"Yes, but he came in a separate car."

I slipped into the passenger seat and we were off.

"What's wrong?"

He had noticed my puffy eyes.

"Oh, just a bad day at school."

"I hate those."

He had enough sense to not ask what exactly had gone badly, and I quickly covered up my thoughts.

I noticed that we weren't going the right way to my house.

"Edward, where are we going?"

"Well, I thought you might want to do your homework at my place. I could help, if you want."

My heart leapt. "Sure, I'd love to!"

"And after we're finished, maybe we could go out to the meadow again."

I nodded happily, hoping that maybe something today could go right.