On Monday morning, I woke up expecting that everything that had happened was a dream, but found that it wasn't. Tay was really gone and she wasn't ever coming back. I got out of bed and winced as I stretched out my newly cut wrist. I felt one of the wounds open up and walked into the bathroom to put a damp towel on it to ease the burning and stop the blood flow. Once I was cleaned up, I walked back into my bedroom and changed into my Spencer uniform. Since I was a transfer in the middle of the year, they weren't able to get me a dorm yet so I would be staying at my Uncle Carter's house for the time being and drive myself to school. I hated wearing the skirt, I wasn't the biggest girly girl and this ugly blue plaid skirt was why. I sighed as I finished getting ready and walked out of my room to find Uncle Carter at the kitchen table with my Aunt Claire.

"Good morning Peyton." Aunt Claire said, giving me a warm smile.

"Morning." I replied. There was nothing good about it, not anymore.

"Ready for your first day at Spencer?" Uncle Carter asked.

"I guess." I shrugged. "Where are my keys?"

"By the door." Aunt Claire said. "I put your bag there too."

"Okay." I said as I walked out of the kitchen.

"Don't you want any Breakfast?" She called out.

"I'm not hungry." I called back as I grabbed my bag and my keys before walking out of the house. I threw my bag into the back of my Uncle's 1995 Camaro Z28 and slid into the passenger seat. I was able to control my shaking as I started up the car and sped away from the house. I made a quick stop to Starbucks to get a tall Vanilla bean frappuccino and then continued on my way to Spencer. I parked the car in the center of the student lot and then walked into the school. I was vaguely aware of the stares I was receiving as I walked through the halls and followed my schedule that I had gotten when I registered. I walked into my new literature class just as the bell rang.

"How can I help you?" the professor asked.

"I'm Peyton Cahors." I said, showing him the new schedule.

"Ah yes, I was expecting you." the professor, I looked down at my schedule to see his name, Clay said. He then turned to the class.

"Now class, we have a new student." I groaned as the class went quiet and all eyes were on me. "This is Peyton Cahors."

"Total Hottie." I looked up to see a boy with tan skin and curly brownish-red hair looking down at me with a smirk.

"Andrew Abbott, I don't want to hear another word from you today." The kid Andrew just smirked. Professor Clay then scanned the class and turned to me. "Why don't you go take a seat next to Mr. Parry." He pointed up to the fourth row to an empty seat beside a boy with very tanned skin and dark brown hair. I nodded as I walked up the steps to sit beside him. I put my bag on the desk and leaned back in my chair.

"Jeraud Parry." He introduced himself.

"Peyton Cahors." I said as I crossed my arms over my chest and tried to focus on the lesson.

"What brings you to Ipswich?" Jeraud asked.

"I don't feel like talking about it." I said, not turning to look at him.

"Alright. I'm sure you'll like it here though." Jeraud said with a warm smile.

"I highly doubt that." I said dismissively as Professor Clay discussed To Kill a Mockingbird.

"Stupid fuckin book." I muttered under my breath. Taylor and I had been reading that for our literature class.

"Got something against it?" Jeraud asked. I didn't know that he could hear me.

"Kinda, yeah." I nodded.

"Care to share?" Jeraud asked.

"Not really, no." I told him.

"You're not a very open person, are you?" He asked.

"Apparently not." I answered. Well the bell rang, I picked up my bag and walked out of the classroom as fast as I could. I wanted to leave Jeraud behind. I took a sip of my still good frappuccino as I continued down the hall and into my next class, Physics. I showed my schedule to Professor Johnson who sat me at a table with a tall broody looking boy with short black hair and blue eyes.

"Brian Danvers." The boy introduced himself.

"Peyton Cahors." I said my name and turned away.

"So where did you transfer from?" He asked.

"Salem." I answered.

"Why did you come so late?" He tried again.

"Didn't have a choice." I said simply.

"You are a girl of few words, aren't you?" He tried.

"Yep." I nodded and started jotting down notes that Professor Johnson gave. I felt as though this was going to be a long day if everyone tried to get me to talk. I was about to fall asleep when the bell signaled the end of class. Before Brian could try and get me to talk more, I grabbed my stuff and booked out of that class. I looked down at my schedule and saw I had Calculus next.

"Oh joy. More hard shit." I mumbled to myself as I made my way down the hall, hoping that I was heading in the right direction. I finally found my classroom just as the bell rang and told Professor Connors that I was a new transfer student. He looked at his seating chart and sat me beside a boy with coppery red hair and blue eyes.

"Edward Simms." The boy told me. God Damnit. I said to myself.

"Peyton Cahors and no I do not feel like talking." I told him before he started to spout off a thousand questions.

"If that's what you want." Edward said indifferently. "But incase you have any questions, I'm here to help."

"Gotcha." I said as I watched the lesson. My mind started to wander back to Salem days.

"Can you answer the question Taylor?" Mr. Janes asked, looking over to where Taylor and I had been laughing.

"Uh, depends on what the question was." Taylor said.

"How do you solve this equation?" He asked again. Taylor looked at the board and then back over at me. I just shook my head.

"Uh, add a number?" Taylor asked.

"It's a little more complicated than that Taylor." Mr. Janes said, turning to me. "What about you Peyton?"

"Subtract twelve?" I guessed, shrugging.

"Do you girls really believe that you will pass my class at this rate?" Mr. Janes asked.

"Not really." We replied at the same time.

"That's what cramming before finals is for." Taylor said.

"Yeah, and coffee." I added as we both laughed.

"Can you girls please take this seriously?" He asked.

"Not really." I said.

"Sorry." Taylor said as we both laughed again.

"Peyton." I was brought out of my mini flashback by Edward waving his hand in front of my face.

"Huh?" I asked, jumping slightly.

"Class is over." he told me.

"Oh, thanks." I said, a tad embarrassed as I collected my things.

"Are you alright?" he asked me.

"I'm wonderful." I told him.

"Do you want me to take you to the infirmary?" Edward asked.

"I'm fine." I told him as I walked out of the classroom. I looked down at my schedule and saw that I had gym. I sighed as I made my way down to the gym area and showed Ms. Davids my schedule. She told me I could sit out today which I was thankful for because they were playing lacrosse and that did not go well with me. That was a sport that didn't go well with me. I sat to the side and watched the girls play, it looked like they didn't like it much either. Ms. Davids yelled on more than one occasion and I knew right then and there that I would not have any fun in this class. I didn't talk to any of the girls, I didn't feel like bonding.

The bell rang again and I found that I had lunch next. Wonderful. I walked up to where I guessed the lunchroom was and got in line to see what they had. I didn't really feel like eating anything that was up there so I just grabbed a small bag of Doritos and a diet coke. I paid the woman and went to find somewhere to sit. I didn't really want to be surrounded by people so I took a seat far away from everyone else near a window and opened the Doritos. I pulled out my phone and saw that I had a few messages from Dan asking if I was okay and how I was taking to Spencer.

'I hate it here.' I texted him. 'There are all these happy people and I sit next to three boys in my classes who Tay would be all over' I slipped my phone back into my bag and finished my chips, taking a few sips of soda. I looked up and saw Jeraud, Brian, and Edward sitting with a blonde boy talking in hushed voices, looking up at me every once in a while. I tried to ignore it as I stood up and walked out of the lunchroom. The bell sounded behind me and I figured I should make my way to my next class, Mythology.

"Why did I let Uncle Carter make up my schedule?" I mumbled to myself as I walked into the classroom and like my other classes, showed the professor my schedule.

"Alright Ms. Cahors," Professor Hanson started. "You can take a seat beside Mr. Garwin." I looked up to see the blonde boy that the others were talking to look up with a smile.

"Jacob Garwin." He said with what seemed to be his sexy smirk.

"So I saw you and your friends talking and looking at me so I know you know my name." I told him.

"Peyton." Jacob nodded. "Yeah, I heard."

"So what was you little group saying?" I asked.

"That you don't seem to talk much, but it seems as though I got you to talk more than they have." Jacob said.

"Well don't get used to it." I told him.

"But why not? You have a beautiful voice." Jacob told me.

"Because I'm not a talker." I said.

"But you're talking now." Jacob tried.

"That's because I'm letting you know that I like my space." I told him before turning away from him and listening to Professor Hanson's lecture. As the class went on, I really wondered why my Uncle had signed me up for this class. When the bell rang, I quickly bolted and searched for my last class of the day, History. When I found it, I walked in and showed Professor Mates my schedule.

"Looks like we have a full class." He muttered to himself as he looked over his seating chart. "But it looks like there is a seat available at the top row beside Mr. Parry." I groaned and looked up, seeing that Brian and Jeraud were sitting together and two rows down Edward and Jacob were together.

"Wonderful." I muttered as I made my way to the top row and sat down beside Jeraud.

"We meet again." Jeraud said with a smirk.

"I guess we do." I nodded. I put my bag on the desk and laid my head down on it. Today was just so tiring.

"Come on Peyton." I turned to find Taylor a few feet in front of me, very much alive.

"Tay?" I asked, shocked.

"Come on slowpoke, We need to get to PeyTay." Taylor said, using our name for our special place. She then took off running.

"Wait up." I yelled after her as I followed her. "Damnit Tay, you know I'm not as fast as you." Taylor didn't seem to hear me as she continued to run all out.

"Come on Peyt, I gotta tell you something when we get there." She told me.

"Well if you slow your ass down, you can tell me now." I told her.

"No, you gotta hurry up." She called behind her with a laugh. I rolled my eyes and caught up to her by the creek.

"Okay, tell me." I told her. She just turned to me, the light gone from her eyes as she grabbed hold of the rope.

"How about I show you." She kicked off and started to head across the creek when the rope broke and she fell into the overflowing creek.

"Tay!"

My eyes snapped open and I found myself back in my History class. I looked around and found that everyone's focus was on Professor Mates except for Jeraud; his eyes were on me.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"F-Fine." I nodded.

"Are you sure? You don't look so good." Jeraud said as nicely as he could.

"I said I'm fine." I whispered harshly as the bell rang and I practically ran out of the class and out of the school. Once I was back in my car, I looked my appearance over in the rearview mirror. My blonde hair was sticking out at all different angles and my skin was paler than it normally should be. My eyes had a scared glint in them that they'd had for the past month. I carefully backed out of my parking space and sped away from Spencer and back to my Uncle's house. When I walked in, Aunt Claire was in the kitchen working on dinner.

"Oh you're home." She said, smiling warmly. "How was your first day?"

"Boring." I told her. She took in my appearance and frowned.

"Are you feeling alright Peyton? You look a little sick." She said worriedly.

"I'm fine. I think I just need a nap." I told her as I left her in the kitchen and retreated into my bedroom. I threw my bag on the desk along with my keys and collapsed on my bed. I soon found myself in a dreamless sleep for the rest of the night.