I'm not really sure if I'm supposed to put a warning for this but there's a slight hint of an ED here. Better safe than sorry. Enjoy Italics Is the thoughts Darling has. My writing isn't up to par when I can just make thoughts flow like that. Sorry about that.


It was easy to find Rosabella's sports bag. It was the only pink and purple one, which had ROSABELLA BEAUTY on the side in bright yellow writing. It was helpful her clothes were labelled on the inside, rather than the outside. Darling picked up the shirt first. It didn't actually smell that bad. In fact, Darling actually liked the smell. There was the faintest smell of sweat, hidden within the light fragrance. It smelt like a spicy flowery rose, but not. It was hard to phrase, it made her brain feel muzzy, but it was a good feeling. Was that her natural scent? Then Darling saw her deodorant lying at the bottom of the bag. Curiosity got the best of Darling. She sprayed her hand, and the scent of the deodorant smelt nothing like Rosabella's shirt. Grateful for the deodorant she used it. Rosabella definitely came well prepared – and there's a hair band too.

Nervous, Darling exited the changing rooms behind the small crowd of girls. She wondered how the usual quiet sports hall was filled with ambient chatter, then she saw the guys sitting on the floor, including Chase who was sitting cross-legged with his usual shy smile on. That instantly changed when he spotted Darling and started waving while wearing his goofy grin.

Today, the girls and boys would be having PE together. Due to the girl's PE teacher being away on a match with the older years. Excitement rushed through her core as she heard the words 'competition' and 'prize'. Darling was placed into group 5 along with Sparrow, Cedar, and Poppy. Darling felt really confident in her group's skills but when it came to team work… not so much. It wasn't as if Darling hated her team mates, she liked them all, really. But it was Poppy. Poppy was glaring at her all the time. Maybe not all of the time, but when Darling glanced over, it on confirmed the feeling that someone was watching her. The strong frown on Poppy's face didn't even try to hide. Darling could only avoid eye contact. She'd much rather be placed into Chase's group. Then she'd be with two guys she talked to. Sparrow at least, tried to make conversation but it went along the lines of "I've been charmed by your beauty." Like I haven't heard that one before."Want to meet up Saturday?" He was practically screaming I'm horny. Cedar wasn't really talkative but she was fast and got the job done.

Unlike Poppy who is still glaring. Making Darling very uncomfortable. She wanted desperately to go to Poppy to confront her about the glaring issue, but it built an invisible barrier that held Darling back. Darling was unable to find a way out of her situation, kind of like a knight who was stuck in the middle of a battle without any armour.

Unknowingly to Darling, the teacher approached her from behind and tapped her shoulder; jerking Darling out of her thoughts. "Miss Charming, please could you do me a favour and get twenty hurdles from the storage room in the sports office. " Darling didn't have a choice but to accept the key; she was ready to leave the hall, until she heard the shocking piece of news that crushed her confidence to complete the simple task. "Um, you might need to go with someone. Ah yes Poppy!" Her heart sank. No, no. I need to be more positive. I can use this opportunity to find out if Poppy has a problem with me or not.

Poppy didn't know why she was so fucking irritated. Maybe it was the way Sparrow's voice smoothed when talking to Darling like he was flirting with her, and the way Darling was responding with her witch giggles. She hated it. Couldn't they just shut up, and focus on the work they had to do. Running about twenty metres isn't hard.

Sparrow was definitely flirting with Darling - the words he was saying; the way he was phrasing them. Darling wasn't even thinking of Chase as far as Poppy knew. But their relationship had nothing to do with Poppy. She wasn't even close with Chase anyways to care. But it still pissed her off.

Her head felt way too warm. When she heard they were taking a break a wave or relief past over her, and she felt her tensing shoulders relax. Poppy needed that; her body ached. The course didn't seem worth it anymore. Poppy was sweating more than she had liked. Working with the boys was challenging. Then the boy's PE teacher approached her. When she was first offered to retrieve twenty mini hurdles she accepted, until she realised she would be going with Darling Charming. She just wanted to do JUST that, and ONLY that. The less time spent together the better.

The walk felt like it dragged on. Darling kept jingling around with the keys which pissed Poppy off because she was pretty much saying I'm-the-Boss-Of-You-Teacher-favours-me-more-because-I'm-a-Charming. The jingling stopped after Darling almost collided with the bin. A smile crept on Poppy's face but faded soon after. After that there was no more jingling. Just silence. Good thing too, Darling's self-righteous act almost made Poppy want to claw her eyes out. Almost.

Walking with Poppy was a deathly silence. Darling kept fidgeting with the keys. Staring at them for intricate details, for patterns. She hadn't noticed the upcoming bin which she barely scraped past. After that she looked up, but her eyes kept peeping towards Poppy, and she was still wearing that I-Hate-You-And-I-Would-Rather-Be-Anywhere-But-Here frown. At least that's what Darling liked to call it. Darling shook her head violently, she wasn't going to get distracted. She was going to complete her quest, get the hurdles and possibly settle the angry tension between them.

"Do you like me?" Poppy almost choked on air. What shocked her wasn't the question, but the amount of sincerity in Darling's voice. It kind of made her sound... Sociable. Which was completely odd because the person she had heard to describe sounded like a villain out of a Disney movie, the ones with no soul, or love or compassion for anyone else. Poppy nearly felt guilty for the first answer that came to mind.

"No I don't."

"Can you tell me why?" Poppy answered in a stoic manner, as if she was stating a fact everyone had come to terms with.

"You're a bitch to everyone."

Oh.

Darling was not expecting that. She was fairly sure she was very kind to people; she couldn't even remember the last time she did anything wrong to someone. She had always been following her mother's advice to make sure she could easily befriend strangers. Had she come off as too posh? Or weird? Or snobby? At times like these Darling wished she was more social so she knew exactly how to get what she meant across, and prove she wasn't a bitch.

They had reached the sports office, which Darling unlocked. Poppy took most of the hurdles while Darling was holding doors open. "Does Chase know?"

"Does Chase know what?" Does Chase know that I'm a bitch to people?

"Does Chase know the way you flirt with other guys when he's not here?"

"What? Chase and aren't dating."

"So you broke up with him or did he break up with you?"

"Chase and I were never dating, EVER we're are just best-friends." Poppy couldn't believe what she was hearing. They were definitely the school couple. Chase and Darling never seen apart.

"What about that other night when Lizzie was going over to Chase's for a family meeting and you were there. That seems kind of intrusive."

"Of course I was there! I'm Chase's sister." Darling was hoping Poppy wasn't taking what Darling said seriously. She'd hate to explain their relationship, because:it would take a long time to explain without causing misunderstandings or thinking we're really weird (although we totally are); and it would be very, very actually burst out laughing. Darling had no clue why.

"That's funny, because Lizzie thought you and Chase were going to do it."

"It?"

"You know... SE-"

"Ew gross. Not with Chase EVER."

"Okay what about the other time when you went with Hunter for a make out sesh while he was dating Ashlynn."

"I have never made out with Hunter ever either. Where are you getting all this from? They sound like rumours." Now that Poppy thought about it, these were all things she heard from her friends. She hadn't actually seen it happen, or asked Hunter if it was true. She had only seen Ashlynn burst into tears while being confronted by Goldilocks. That didn't mean they were talking about Hunter cheating on her with Darling.

"I'm sorry."

"Huh?"

"I mean I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions and judged you like that."

"Oh... That's okay."

"Really? It's okay for people to call you a bitch and shit like that?"

"What? No that's not what I meant." Poppy laughed again.

"I know I'm just messing with you."

The chemistry between group five was much better. It turned out the hurdles they were told to fetch weren't even for the lesson which made Darling wonder if the teacher knew about Darling's situation with Poppy. Maybe. After that their team's performance was much better and they started rapidly gaining points. Darling, though, wasn't focused fully. Something kept nagging her mind. This wasn't the first time she had heard about rumours, but it was only then she questioned how many more rumours there were. She believed that her and Chase dating was the only one. Darling could accept that, that rumour didn't cause any harm. But her and Hunter making out? Poppy believed she was a bitch which meant there were probably rumours about her mistreating other people too. How many rumours are there? I guess that explains Lizzie's also explained why Darling always sat by herself during Lunch when Chase wasn't around.

Like now. How the hell did Darling miss the whispers and sniggers around her. Was she oblivious? No, she knew they were there, she just didn't know that she was the reason. How the hell did that happen?Darling looked up from her meal, and could see in between the gaps of heads Goldilocks. They had a brief eye contact before Goldilocks viciously tore it away. Was she staring at me? Before Darling could look any longer her view was blocked, by a person. That person just happened to be Poppy. Outstandingly she wasn't sitting with Darling out of pity. Even more surprisingly there were more people like Cedar, and Rosabella, and another girl Darling didn't know the name of. Darling looked around for any free seats and there seemed to be loads, especially on Goldilock's table. Do they just want to sit with me then? Darling knew better than to get her hopes up though.

Then Chase joined, bringing Alistair along with him, not really realising the girl were sitting WITH Darling and not just NEXT TO her. So when Chase started a conversation with Darling and they all started contributing he became very shy, very quickly. He didn't mind though. It gave him relief that he didn't have to see a mopey Darling, every time he walked into lunch because she was too busy wallowing in her own self-pity. Then Poppy suddenly changed the mood of the conversation they were having.

"I've been so pissy lately, it's not even funny." Poppy started. "Basically what I'm trying to say is... I'm sorry for being a bitch to all of you."

"You want to talk about it?" Cedar offered.

"No not really... " The group sat in silence for a bit, until Poppy sighed.

"It's Holly. She's been avoiding me all month; at first I ignored it because she wanted some space. I just thought she didn't want to be seen hanging around with her twin all the time. But then space just kept getting bigger and bigger, and now she's stopped talking to me completely. Like what the hell is going on with that?" Her voice was kind of strained when talking, but her face remained calm. "Like I'm not sure what the problem is, whether it's me or her. But I'm not really sure what to do, because when I ask her, she just doesn't respond. I understand if she just hates me all of a sudden, because then I'd know I shouldn't try to force myself on her, but I don't know if she's upset or something. I just don't want her to get back- back into it." Rosabella simply nodded. Darling had no clue what she meant by 'it', but it wasn't something Darling was willing to push.

Discreetly Holly walked into the room. Her hair seemed to be flowing behind her, and a smile radiated of her. Her eyes held onto a connection with her twin. A wave of guilt and sadness rushed over her, and reflected in her smile, which was no longer glowing. Outside she may have been one of the happiest girls in her school, but trapped deep inside was her tortured conscious. She knew she was doing the wrong thing - the one against her morals, her beliefs, who she was. "Who I still am." She hoped.

She betrayed her sister.

She looked away; she sat next to Goldilocks who was giggling next to her. What really made it hurt, was that Holly and Poppy always used to sit together. Always. Poppy was confused and aching by Holly's actions. Holly knew that, but she continued to do it anyway.

"Don't worry I'll talk to her for you. " Rosabella offered.

"No thanks, it's nice and all that you care, but this is family issues. I'd hate to drag you into something you'd better off not being in." With that Poppy just stood up and left. Not caring to look back to see if Holly cared if she left or not. Poppy was irritated. She knew that. Yet it didn't stop that nagging feeling called regret that was haunting her when she realised it could've been an opportunity to re-connect with her sister.

Darling had no clue what happened though. One minute they were talking about the unfairness of teachers, next minute Poppy practically stormed out. Now they were just eating in silence with their heads down. It wasn't just them. The entire dining room was silent. No one had the courage to speak, and release everyone from this tension.


Updates are going to take a slighty (I'm pretty sure I'm exaggerating here. They might take weeks.) bit longer because I'm back in the education system. Yeah no holidays. This chapter took long because it wasn't flowing the way I wanted it to, and seemed really draggy. Any errors don't be scared to PM me. Reviews are welcome. I hope this chapter doesn't confuse you too much. It's just so that the other chapters make more sense, and flow better too. I like my flow. Read you later?

Crunol.