Okay. Before you guys all destroy me [[That is, if you still care about me ._.]], I want to briefly explain how busy my life has been.

The transition from seventh to eight grade was pretty okay, but OH MAH GAH. High schools? Synonym for death. Applying to high school? SHOOT ME NOW. And who knows whether I'll get in or not?! -.-"

Anyhow, I won't bore you any longer with details of my life.

Instead, I will use up your time and this space to tell you JUST HOW COOL MY FRIEND IS. She went and sneakily reviewed every chapter of all of my stories, with hugely long critiques.

Jesus effing Christ, man, and this is coming from a semi-atheist-but-certainly-not-Christian person.

So, as a tribute to her...CYBER-CUPCAKES AND CYBER-COOKIES FOR YOU, evermorefire!!! [[Notice that I didn't use your real name O.o]]

Moving along....

ze story. I'm very well aware that many of you are going to flame me after this, with 'NOOOO OMG whats rong with u u stupid idiot i hate you'-type reviews. And then, the infuriating little idbits. Such as 'I LOVE THIS STORY KEEP UPDATING'.

If you're going to flame me, do it properly.

And if you're going to review?

For my dear Bblion's sake, don't leave behind a tiny pile of crap, such as the all-too-infamous "such a good story keep writin :D"

And if you don't know who Bblion is, then...

You aren't cool XD

Okay, onto the story.


1 WEEK LATER

Claire

I walked through the hallway, clutching my books tightly to my chest. Conversations swirled around me as students at their lockers argued and chatted animatedly. I kept to myself, ducking my head and staying silent while attempting to navigate a path through the crowded hall. School was closing in a week, and it was affecting everybody. I smiled at the thought of summer, but frowned again at the realization that I had no one to share it with. I could possibly drive down to Delia's house and spend a week or two there; or something like that.

I arrived at the doorway of my next classroom. Sighing, I blew my bangs out of my eyes and walked to my seat. I got out my Chemistry notebook and a pen. Within a few minutes, the rest of the class arrived. My lab partner, a sweet, shy girl named Hannah, was absent.

Knowing that we wouldn't do much work in the class anyway, I took out a pencil and eraser and opened to a fresh page in my notebook and started to doodle. I sketched a big, bulky figure holding a petite girl in his arms without even realizing it. I was just about to add details to his face when I realized just exactly who I was sketching.

I smirked, bitterly thinking that the illustration was accurate, but the girl was not me.

I erased the picture furiously from my notebook, using all of my power.

When the paper began to rip, I realized that the small piece of rubber could help me no more, and put it away.

The light outlines of what could have been, what should have been, were still reflected on the paper.

I sighed, frustrated, and tore the paper out, crumpling it between my small fists.

I stared into space, silently willing the period to pass by.

I glanced at the clock, and was shocked to see that only five minutes had passed.

Just shoot me now, I thought to myself.

"Anything you would like to share, Ms. Uley?"
I smiled sweetly at the teacher who was questioning me.

"Sorry, Mr. Takenotas. I was just thinking aloud. I didn't mean to interrupt the lesson."

He resumed the monotonous lecture on something we could care less about. I decided to observe what was going on around me.

On my right side, some random jock was sleeping soundly on his table. I could spot a small puddle of drool oozing out of the side of his mouth. I shuddered.

I turned my head to my left. Two girls were having some sort of telepathic conversation – they were both concentrating so hard that it appeared that they were constipated.

I turned around to look behind me and wished I hadn't. A jock and cheerleader were making out. The jock's hands seemed to be glued to a certain spot underneath her short skirt, and I turned around to face forward so that my breakfast wouldn't stain her white sweater an ugly shade of brown.

Staring now at the huge mole on Mr. Takenotas's face, I found myself utterly disgusted. How could something so ugly exist? I thought to myself.

While I was pondering the blemish on his chin, the door opened and a guy wearing a black shirt and skinny jeans stepped in. He strode over to Mr. Takenotas and whispered something into his ear.

"Class, this is our new student. His name is Andreas; he'll be in this school from now on. Tell us a little about yourself, Andreas."

The boy looked a little sleepy. He opened his mouth, and began to talk.

"I'm Andreas. I guess you already know that…um…I love to skateboard. And surf, I love surfing. I'm going to be going to this school because my mom got a job transfer. Yeah. So…that's me. Can I go sit down now?"

Mr. Takenotas looked a little put out – he had obviously been hoping for a get-to-know you session that would take the whole period, but nodded.

"Sit next to Claire. She's the one over there wearing the purple skirt, see?"

Andreas slowly walked towards me. He placed his books on the edge of the table, and sat down. Flipping his beach-blond, super-skater hair a little, he smiled a crooked hello.

"So you're Claire, huh?"

I smiled in response and nodded.

"Yeah. This is a pretty boring class, just FYI. And it's easy to ace. And he never notices if you're not listening…a prime example of that is sitting behind us."

As he turned around, I got a good glimpse of the back of his shirt. In neon green letters, it said 'WTF?!'.

I snickered a little at that – he evidently had a sense of humor.

When he turned around, he looked slightly green.

"I know. I nearly vomited."

He offered me a weak smile.

We both turned our attention to the front of the classroom, where our teacher was currently lecturing us on some random subject that was quite obvious from the giggles at the front of the classroom.

"—third pregnant person this year! You students need to learn the merits of —"

I decided that I didn't want to hear any more of this rant. I pulled my hood up and subtly inserted one earphone. I turned to Andreas and offered him one. He shrugged and took it, scooting his chair a little closer to me. Taking my iPod out of my pocket, I selected my favorite playlist, made up mostly of Linkin Park and Three Days Grace songs.

As the music started, Andreas smiled.

"I love Linkin Park. If you like them, you should try listening to Tokio Hotel. They're a really good band." He smirked a little and bit back a laugh at some hidden humor.

Shrugging a little, I nodded my thanks. He seemed pretty cool.

"What class do you have next?"

I recited the rest of my schedule by heart.

"I have gym next–"

I was interrupted by a slight groan by Andreas.

"What?" I asked, a little confused.

"Me too. Ugh!"

"You don't like gym, huh?"

"You bet. It's so difficult to run in skinny jeans…ugh."

I smiled again, and then realized something. This was the first time that I'd smiled so much since I last saw Quil.

"Want to walk together?"

He shrugged. "Sure."

***

The rest of the lesson passed fairly quickly. We gathered our books at the bell and walked to gym together.

After suffering through 45 minutes of sheer torture, we retreated to our respective locker rooms. I splashed some water on my face and dried it off with a paper towel. Gathering my books, I walked outside slowly. Next period I had lunch, so I'd be seeing Andreas again. For some reason, I started walking a bit faster, eager to see him.

I scolded myself.

Replacing Quil isn't going to make you any happier, Claire. Confront your problems, don't try to avoid them.

Was that what I was trying to do?

Replace Quil?

I was jolted out of my trance by massive amounts of pain echoing through the chambers of my head. I dropped my books and sat on the floor, holding my head tightly.

The pain was so excruciating that I was sure that my head was going to split in half. Blood dripped, sticky and warm, through my fingers as I tried to stifle my sobs. My vision was blurry and I was seeing random black spots scattered across my vision. I was so STUPID!!

I felt warm hands on my back, helping me up. My eyes were scrunched up tightly, so I couldn't see who it was. The ground left my feet all of a sudden, and I let out a piercing scream. What was happening?

"Shhh, Claire, you'll be fine. It's just me, Andreas. Remember, we had Chemistry together two periods ago? Wow, that sounds incredibly like a corny pick-up line. I assure you, I am not trying to get it on with you."

He punctuated his speech of sorts with laughter.

I opened my eyes a tiny bit to discover that Andreas was carrying me piggyback through the hallways. I bit my lip against the pain, and fought to keep a calm voice.

"Where are we going?"

He turned his head back a little to face me.

"Nurse's office. Your head is bleeding quite a bit; I think you'll need stitches. You should have seen how gored up that door was; it looked like someone had puked on it. Quite gross, really."

He turned into the nurse's office, and cleared his throat.

The nurse took one look at us and her eyes widened considerably.

"What in the world happened here?"

I could barely imagine how weird this looked. A wimpy-looking , skinny kid was carrying a girl who was almost his height on his back, while she was holding her head and blood was gushing everywhere. Really, this was very awkward. The bare skin of my upper thighs was pressed against the bare skin of his lower back – his shirt had ridden up and his pants were sagging – but even so, it didn't feel that awkward. It probably looked it, though. I almost laughed at the hilarity of the situation before another wave of pain overwhelmed me.

"Put her on this bed immediately!"

The nurse turned a commanding glare towards Andreas.

He lowered me carefully to the bed, and then I saw what my bloody forehead had done to him.

His previously platinum hair now had ugly rust-color streaks in it. There were a few small trickles of it going down his neck and into his shirt.

My observation was rudely interrupted by an explosion of pain.

I closed my eyes, and willed myself to sleep.


So I figured, better post a new chapter that's a bit of a filler than keep procrastinating and schiesse.

I think my interest in this story has been rekindled a little -- if you review, more chapters will be posted sooner. See, you guys are the reason I keep writing, because if someone gives me a nice review, I write quicker. And before you start giving me that if-that's-so-then-why-didn't-you-post-this-chapter-earlier look, I had it ready, but no one wanted to beta for me.

So...REVIEW!!!! 3

I give you a cupcake if you do :D

xx

Amoeba

Oh, and by the way, go listen to Tokio Hotel. Bill = LOVE 333

And yes, all four of them are guys. Manly guys. With muscles -waggles eyebrows-...

I'll stop boring you. NOW GO REVIEW BEFORE I ATTACK!!!!! XD