A/N: Not sure if the disclaimer is necessary. If you don't know which characters I don't own, please slap yourself repeatedly. Xx Ella

P.S. I'd like to specially thank all of my reviewers for leaving amazing comments. Thank you to wintertwist87, SinisterShadows, Arinna Black, not-so-average-07, TragicCure, Leave your hat on, Kermitfries, SleepWalks, Neith4Weiss, Hayley Jean, lovelylinds, Kris Death, casadora22 and Obsessedfan13!

P.S.x2: I received a long and drawn out message earlier, from a user I won't name, bashing my stories. So just to clarify, for that person who shall remain nameless, I'm not following the movie or the character's personalities from the movie, because:
1. It was a fantasy movie
and 2. It's fiction.
My main characters in my stories may be Mary Sue's, but let's just leave it at what they are... Stories.

Chapter 7

Blasphemy. Today was going to be crap. Seriously, a big stinking crap. I could just feel it. The clouds were grey with rain, my head was pounding, and I had an enormously large knot, tied in a bundle of nerves and anxiety, lingering in the deepest pit of my stomach. School had only been in session for five minutes but I already knew it was going to be the worst day of my life. Okay, maybe I was exaggerating, but still. You catch my drift.

I was tired, due to the fact that I had gotten absolutely no sleep the night before, and I was cranky because nothing was working out for me. My hair was frizzy, despite the fact that I had probably sprayed it with an equivalent to three tons of extra-hold hair spray, and had flat ironed it to the point I thought every strand of my hair would either fall off or incinerate, and I was wearing the same grass stained Mary Jane shoes as the previous day. There's no bigger fashion mistake than wearing the same shoes, two days in a row. Yup, today was definitely going to be one of those days. I could just tell.

You would think admitting to yourself that you're in love with your childhood best friend would be easy, right? Well it's definitely not. Subconsciously, I already knew this little fact. But the conscious part of me was way too stubborn to even think it. It kept telling me that my little infatuation with Reid Garwin was just a phase. It was like those cheesy sitcoms where the main character is torn between two decisions, good vs. evil. Where a little version of themselves appears on their shoulders as both an angel and a devil; each one telling them two different things. Yeah, well that's what happened to me. Except I was the angel and Justine was the devil. There's an analogy for you!

On one side, there I am as the angel, telling myself to pour my fashionably cute heart out to Reid and just hope that he feels the same. Then there's the other side, the Justine side, telling me I should just go about my life and pretend I don't care. How come in the movies, the main characters having these conflicts always know which side to choose in the end? Always the good side and never the bad! What if I choose the good side and Reid doesn't feel the same way? Ugh, I wish my life was scripted.

I'll get over him, eventually. Right? I did so when I dated Bordy. At least, that's what I kept telling myself all day during school. I'll get over him. It might take me awhile to find someone else, but it will happen. Sooner or later.

xx

Third period English finally came around. Thankfully, I had finished my creative writing paper (a love story inspired by Reid and yours truly) last night, because today we were supposed to be turning them in.

"We are going to be editing our creative writing stories in pairs." Mrs. Jordan, our English teacher, scowled as the entire class applauded. "The catch is that I'll be assigning the pairs." She smiled widely as the class groaned. I silently cursed myself for writing the story I had, because I thought only Mrs. Jordan would be reading it. Instead, I'd be sharing my most intimate confessions with a stranger. Or Reid. I don't know which would be worse. I prayed I was paired off with Naveed. At least she would be sympathetic. The two main characters in my story were named Reese and Elisa. I'm sure even Ryan Bael, the idiot of Spencer's, would be able to figure out the connection. I cursed myself for being so stupid.

"Now that we have that settled, I'll be going alphabetically by your last name."

"Oh shit." I muttered under my breathe. "Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit."

"First to be paired off, Justine Baker and Eliza Brennan." Mrs. Jordan's voice resembled the sound nails make when scratched along a chalkboard. Shrill. Chilling. Evil.

I turned to the right, to see Justine's mouth drop open and the class gasp in response to Mrs. Jordan's selection. I guess everyone could sense the tension between Satan's right hand (wo)man and I.

I couldn't help but laugh, loudly. I looked past Justine, to Reid, and I could have sworn I saw his infamous smirk. Meeting my gaze, he automatically tensed up and turned away. He must think I'm some sort of sociopath or something. Maybe I was. Why the hell was I laughing? It was almost uncontrollable.

I heard Mrs. Jordan ramble off the other pairs in the background to my thoughts. I couldn't take my eyes off the blonde sitting three people down from me. How could I not be attracted to him? He was beautiful in every sense, despite the fact that he's an ass, can't hold a conversation without making an obscene sexual gesture, and laughs childishly at fart jokes. Even with all of those bad qualities, I still liked him. Just as he was.

"Naveed Frost and Reid Garwin." I heard Naveed moan out an "Aww man" as Mrs. Jordan kept on talking. Her and Reid never really got along too well.

I saw Justine glance in my direction as Mrs. Jordan kept speaking. I think she thought I was staring at her. Figures, a conceited hack like her would think something like that! She glared at me and turned back towards our teacher. I rolled my eyes and looked at the clock. Class had only just begun.

My breathing nearly stopped as I remembered something I had said the night before to Cee and Naveed when we were drinking our coffee outside. "All I know is that I have to get to Reid. And right now, the only way I can do that is through someone else, because he's not speaking to me."

I smiled to myself. Naveed was my someone else; She was going to be my connection. I prayed to God, Jesus, Buddha, Zeus, Pisces, Fairies, Saint Andrew, Mother Earth, Leprechauns, and anything else I could think of, that Naveed would agree to talk to Reid for me. I had absolutely nothing planned out, but I hoped to all of those Gods, that she would.

xx

I closed my eyes and sighed deeply. "This can't be happening, this can't be happening, this can't be happening" I muttered, over and over, to myself.

"Oh, but it is happening." Justine spoke smugly as she threw her bag down, and took the seat next to mine. "Look, I don't like you. You don't like me. Let's just get through this and we won't have to talk to each other ever again." She used her hand to brush her hair off her shoulders.

"This," I pointed back and forth, to the two of us, "is a weeklong affair." I reminded her. Mrs. Jordan, stubborn as an ox, wouldn't let me switch partners, even when I replayed the events that had happened in PE a few days ago.

"I know that, Brennan." She talked down to me as if I were a five year old. "Let's just get this over with." She slammed down her neatly typed paper in front of me. It was titled "A Tail Of Two Rabbits." I tried hard not to giggle. A pun! Who knew the girl had a sense of humor? Well, maybe I already knew… have you seen her face?

"Fine." I pouted, handing over mine entitled "Reese's Sword In My Heart." It was corny, and I had no idea what it meant, but titles really aren't my thing. Neither is psychology.

xx

"Five minutes until the bell rings, I want you all to hold on to your partner's papers and bring them back tomorrow completely edited so we can begin our second drafts." Mrs. Jordan called out from her tiny desk in the front of the room. No, no, no. Justine can't keep my paper! It's only obvious who I wrote it about!

"Well, this is an interesting read." She spoke in a rather dull voice, as if reading my mind. "I wonder who it's about." So now she was trying to be sarcastic. Girls like her should just be shot. "So just to clarify, Elisa and Reese are two teens in love being kept apart from an evil dragon named Christine. Elisa and Reese end up slaying the dragon and running off to New York City just in time to make it to the Fall Fashion Preview and then live happily every after. Doesn't this sound familiar?" Shut up, it was a creative writing paper and I finished it in the middle of the night! You try writing something better without sleep and a stupid blonde boy on your mind!

"Just the classic Romeo and Juliet." Sure, that was a lie, but it was the only thing that seemed to pop into my head. And like everything else, as soon as I had the thought, it was already out of my mouth. I have a severe and permanent case of verbal diarrhea.

"Tragic. I get that." She was still speaking in a dull voice, shoving my paper into her bag. I wanted to shove her face into that bag. Lucky for her, my urge was stopped by a loud squeaky noise vibrating from across the room.

"You better not do that, Hitler!" I recognized the voice at once. It belonged to Naveed. Reid was holding a paper above her head. He was apparently playing a one man version of Keep-A-Way.

"Just say it once and I'll give it back to you." He responded in his usual cocky voice.

"No, I will not you asshole!" She was standing on her tip-toes, wailing her hands about in the air above her hand. She looked like she was trying to sign to a deaf kid.

The class got silent. Naveed never swears. Never.

"Miss Frost, see me after class." Mrs. Jordan demanded, without taking her eyes away from her computer.

"All you had to do was say it." I heard Reid taunt.

"Slushy, slushy, slushy." She said in her best Indian accent.

Reid started cracking up and handed her back the piece of paper. Naveed being my connection to Reid, was going to be a lot harder than I thought. These two, no matter how much money you offered them, would never get along.

xx

"Hey, where are you headed to?" Bordy asked, breaking through a group of freshman girls huddled at their lockers. His hands were full of books and loose crinkled papers. Not many people knew this (because he was friends with the biggest idiots of Spencer's), but Bordy was extremely intelligent. In fact, every class he was in was either advanced placement or honors. He took his studies very seriously, in private of course. Aaron would have given him shit if he knew how much of a nerd Bordy was.

"I've got detention with Mr. Pennyworth all week long." I threw my English binder into my locker and slammed it shut. I had no reason to do it but I was happy to see that it lifted my spirits. Physical force really does release stress.

I was dreading detention, especially after last night's love revelation. So many thoughts were running through my mind I was surprised I could focus on anything. How was Reid going to act? Was he going to ignore me or would he bring up what happened yesterday? Would I act differently around him now that I was fully aware of my feelings? I hated being a teenager. I especially hate all the angst that comes with the hormones. It's inevitable.

"What's wrong with you?" He looked down at me with questioning eyes.

"I didn't sleep very well last night." I mumbled and started walking towards my unavoidable doom. Detention with Reid and Justine.

"Do you have time for a quick cup of coffee?" He smiled and shrugged his shoulders. "No offense or anything, but you look like you could use it."

I laughed and followed his lead. No I didn't have the time, but, oh well. I was most certainly going to be late to detention today.

xx

"So…" he trailed off, "what are you doing this weekend?" He looked up at me from across the table at Spencer's Coffee. I was supposed to be in detention five minutes ago.

I looked at him confused. "Why are you asking?" I answered his question with a question.

"Just trying to make conversation." He said smoothly. I rolled my eyes and looked at my invisible watch. I doubt he noticed. He was too busy ogling the girl that had just walked in. I had forgotten about those roaming eyes. Should have figured he'd cheat when I caught him checking Cee out when we first started dating.

"Gotta get to detention." I said hurryingly.

He must of gotten the hint and nodded his goodbye as I threw my coffee away and slowly made my way to my history class. Why did he want to know if I was doing anything this weekend? Stupid boys! Why do they have to be so confusing? Why couldn't he just be like he was last night… normal and not at all creepy.

"You said 'yes' to him?" Reid looked livid. I guess everyone at school had heard about Bordy and I becoming official. I, at least, had made it my mission for that week. I had even threatened a freshman girl with a plastic spork when I saw her do a double take on my man. There was no way in hell I was going to let anyone NOT know that Bordy and I were together. "Yeah, and what's your problem anyways?" I yelled back, hoping I wasn't causing a scene. It probably wouldn't be a great way to start off a new relationship by screaming at your best friend in public. People would talk. And even worse, people would assume. The last thing I wanted was Bordy to assume anything was going on, especially with Reid. However, my anger was getting the best of me, and I couldn't help but scream on the top of my lungs, "You're being a jerk! You should be happy for me! You should be anything but mad! You're acting like a selfish pig right now!"

"I'm a selfish pig? You couldn't even spot one if you were eating bacon! You know Kate was right about you!" He was pacing around the lawn in front of me.

"Where the hell did that come from? I don't even eat bacon!" So now his "friends" were talking about me? Sometimes he could be such a girl.

"You want to know what she tells me! Do you?"

"No Yoda. No I don't!" I yelled back. I was trying everything in my power not to hurl my psychology textbook at him.

"She told me that you're just a stupid ditz that cares only about materialistic things!"

"Do you believe her?" Of course, he wouldn't think that. He couldn't think that. He knew me better than I know myself! I'm not a ditz either! Sure, I'm not the smartest kid to have graced this earth but I'm no Paris Hilton either!

"I'm starting to." He shot back at me.

I dropped the text book in shock. How could he think something like that? "Well then," I stopped yelling but I was still angry, "we're not as close I thought we were."

"You've changed." His face was still flushed with anger as he spoke, yet his voice wasn't. His voice was eerily calm.

The air around us suddenly became thicker, and I started breathing heavily. "So have you." My heart was beating faster than it ever had before, I was scared, no doubt. I was scared because Reid never got this angry with me. Even when I had accidentally ran over his foot with my dirt bike when we were twelve he had never gotten this angry. This, this angry Reid standing in front of me, was beyond terrifying."Don't talk to me anymore." His voice may have been calm but his words were harsh. I took a sharp intake of breathe while I fully comprehended the words he just spoke. "Fine! I don't need you anyways. I have Bordy now!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, finally exhaling the air I had been holding inside. If he didn't want to be my friend then I didn't want to be his. I picked up my textbook and stormed off in search of Bordy's dorm room. Screw Reid. What I had said had been true. I didn't need him. Bordy was all I needed.

"You are late." Mr. Pennyworth wasn't amused. He sat at his ancient, faded-brown wooden desk and crossed his arms. "You'll be spending an extra hour with me today Eliza. Please sit down so I can start timing you."

I secretly think Mr. Pennyworth gets off on giving out detentions. He always seems so in to it anyways. I watched as he jotted down the time on the blackboard.

"Sure." I mumbled and sat down a row in front of Reid and Justine, keeping my eyes on the floor. After I sat down and situated myself, I pulled out my compact to apply some extra lipgloss. Well, that, and to see what Reid and Justine were doing. That was when I noticed an extra body sitting two rows behind me, directly behind Justine.

Naveed. Her head was resting against the back of her chair, hair falling into her face. I could tell she was sleeping. I don't think she's ever had detention before.

Truth it, I was late on purpose. Sure, getting coffee with Bordy happened spur-of-the moment but still, the last two people in the world I wanted to see would be spending the next hour with me, and I didn't want to have to speak or even see either of them. Plus, I was still embarrassed about the scene I caused yesterday. Yeah, mainly it was because of that little man grabbing scene.

Reid and Justine were off in their own little world anyways. She had her arm looped through his while resting her head on his shoulder. He was writing something down in her binder and she giggled. I mocked her giggle as I watched the duo through my compact mirror. Reid looked up and we made eye contact. I quickly snapped my compact shut and pretended to rummage around my bag for something.

I put away my compact and pulled out my math book and began the horrible experience one would call "math homework." I was about to begin breaking down the first problem in my homework, when I felt my phone vibrate. I glanced up at Mr. Pennyworth who was consumed in his book while I flipped open my phone and began reading my message. You just got caught. It was from Naveed.

I replied quickly, not wanting to get caught. If giving out detentions was foreplay to Mr. Pennyworth than catching kids using their phones during class (or detention) was probably his biggest release. He was known to take away students' cell phones for the remainder of the week. If I got caught, I don't know what I would do without my phone. To be honest, I don't ever want to imagine that. Shut up. I thought you were sleeping.

I was trying to but Justine's manly laugh started vibrating through the seats and it made my head hurt. I supressed the laugh that wanted to escape my mouth as best as I could. Haha. Justine did have a deep voice.

Meet me at the library around 5:30?

Why?

Too long to text. That was somewhat true. Plus, I didn't feel like arguing with her.

He's watching you.

I looked up to see Mr. Pennyworth flipping to another page in his book. Who is?

Reid.

I turned around and met his gaze. Justine was sleeping, her hoodie pulled complety over her head. His blue eyes burned into my green one's. Did I forget to mention thah Reid likes to stare? Not just at me, but at anyone, or anything in particular. He once told me he likes to watch people fidget nervously when they know they're being watched. He's quite an ass, too.

I quickly turned my attention to one row up, at Naveed. Like hell I'd let him think I was staring at him. Naveed raised an eyebrow as if to say "What the hell?" and I turned my attention back to Reid. He was still staring. This time, he had a knowing smirk spread across his face. I smirked back at him. If he wants a staring contest, I'll give him one. The first one to blink loses. I never blink.

Five minutes later, Reid's tilted head rested on the palm of his hand, an amused expression plastered against his face. I was trying so hard not to blink, tears were running down my eyes, and I felt as though my eyelids were going to stretch so far they'd break. "Eliza, I'm sure Mr. Garwin is a lovely man, but would you please turn around in your seat and stop flirting." Mr. Pennyworth's accusation made me blush furiously. I quickly turned around in my seat and focused my attention on the clock mounted against the wall. I wished I could disappear.

I spent the rest of detention damning myself for plaiying along with Reid and his stupid games. What the hell was the point of staring anyways?

xx

"No, absolutely not." Naveed was being stubborn. "No, Eliza. I mean 'NO'!" She sounded out the last part for me.

I shrugged, letting my shoulders sink and my head fall into my chest. I knew this was going to happen. I knew that Naveed would not agree to talk to Reid for me. But I figured that throwing in the dramatic body language couldn't hurt.

I sighed, a long and drawn out sigh.

No reaction.

I sighed again. This time longer and louder. I slightly turned my head and looked back, to see if I had her attention. I did. She was staring straight at me.

But, still, no reaction.

I sighed for the third time, holding the sharp intake of breathe until I could feel my face turn bright red.

"FINE!"

I smiled and turned around to hug her.

"But only once."

I gave her the tightest hug I've ever given. I had never been so happy in my life. Well, okay, I'm lying. The day I had purchased my very first pair of Manolo Blahniks, was by far, the best day of my life.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you" I repeated as I kissed her on the cheek. "You are so amazing, like you have no idea! I love you so much for this."

"Yeah yeah." She spoke dully. "What do you want me to tell him?"

I dropped my hands. "Oh." I had forgotten that part. You know, that part with words. Yeah, I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to say to him. "I don't know yet." I answered truthfully.

Naveed rolled her eyes. "Let's go grab some dinner and I'll help you come up with something." She sounded annoyed rather than amused. I guess, if I were in her position, I would be annoyed as well.

We pushed back the wooden doors the library and headed off towards the cafeteria. I hadn't eaten much all day and food was sounding pretty good to me. We started walking past a group of girls huddled around a table just outside of the cafeteria when they stopped and started giggling. I looked over at Naveed and she just shrugged.

We continued walking, while the people we had passed, stopped talking and starting whispering or laughing. I looked over at Naveed again, and this time she didn't shrug her shoulders. She looked worried. I looked over at a kid wearing glasses and ripped out the paper he was holding in his hands. I know it really didn't happen, because I didn't die, but I could have sworn my heart had completely stopped.

"Reese's Sword In My Heart" in big bold letters greeted me, and I flipped through the next two pages and realized that this was my creative writing paper. Someone had copied it and had given it to everyone around school.

Justine. That bitch.