Disclaimer: I own nothing that does not belong to me. You already knew that though. Right?

Chapter One

People have always told me that if I work hard enough, I can be anything I want to be. Which is nice, until they start to suggest things – things like modeling, or acting. If I wanted to be a bimbo, I'd have gotten there already. But, they insist that money is the most important thing ever. Again, if that was my important thing, I'd kill myself. Who wants to waste time worrying about how much money they have and getting jealous of other people making more money? I have better things to do with my time. Not really, but still. Why would anyone want to waste time like that? It's completely pointless. If you're going to worry about something, worry about something that matters. I mean, seriously. Don't be an idiot, please. There are too many of those in the world already, we don't need another one.

But enough of that. I should probably be listening to what I'm supposed to be listening to, which is my health teacher's lecture. It had something to do with how drugs and alcohol stopped you from doing anything with your life. It ruins your chances at doing what you want to do, you know! Which is exactly how I got started on my rant. No one was listening to her, anyways. Besides, I wasn't going to do drugs, anyways. Who wants to waste their life like that? Apparently some people, because otherwise we wouldn't be having this lecture in the first place. Stupid Health requirement. If it wasn't for that, I'd be sitting in a much more interesting 7th bell class.

'Tell us something new, damn it! We know all this already!' Oooh, brave student. Not many would say something like that aloud. I waited for the teacher to tell off the troublemaker. To my surprise, the teacher ignored the comment completely. Well, whatever. If the teacher doesn't want to tell someone off for back mouthing her wonderful teaching method, that's her problem, not mine.

'Damn, even the teacher looks bored by her lecture!' …What? Now that I think about it, the teacher does look bored. But who would notice that and then say it out loud during class? Only an idiot. I glanced at the teacher, who was still ignoring the whispers! What's wrong with this picture? Normally she would tell them off immediately. Can't she hear them talk?

I was interrupted from my musings by yet another mumble.

'2 minutes left, and I'll be out of here!' I was shocked. That was Kevin. Kevin the quiet. Kevin who should be on the football them because he's freaking huge Kevin. The Kevin who spoke twice a day, maybe. I waited for the surprised muttering to start. Nothing. What was wrong with these people? First they mumble, and then they ignore Kevin talking, even though it was practically a new record for his words. Wait, he was talking again. Well, I wanted to listen. How often do you hear the silent talk?

'…dance lessons. We're supposed to be learning a new routine today and I…' Shocking, to say the least. Who knew that Kevin took dance lessons? I guess it's not really any of my business. Still, it was interesting. I'll probably end up telling Zack. Zack was my best friend in the world. He was pretty much my only friend, or at least, he's the only friend worth mentioning. All the others change friends depending on the fashion. Right now, apparently, it's in fashion to be friends with me, and so, I've gotfriends. Hurray! Not. Pretty soon I'll be out of fashion (hopefully), and thenmynew 'friends' will leave me alone. I still haven't figured out why they're even bothering to pretend to be my friends. It just doesn't make sense.

Ding! The school bell interrupted my thoughts. It was finally the end of the day. I glanced up as Kevin's chair scraped across the floor. He looked happy. I'm definitely only telling Zack. He knows how to keep a secret, thankfully. But, I wasn't going to think about secrets right now, no matter whose they were. No, I was not going to think about secrets, even mine. Shit. I walked out of the classroom and down the hallway. Not thinking about it, not thinking about it, not thinking about it. I'll think about…books. Not ones set in high school, though. There are too many secrets in high school. Shit, shit, shit. My pace increased, and I was quickly at my locker. I grabbed my things and shoved them in my backpack. I wanted out of this stupid high school with its stupid secrets. NO. I'm NOT THINKING ABOUT IT! No, no, no. I slammed my locker shut and started down the hallway, still at my quick pace, when I heard another mumble. This one was louder than the others, but it was still creeping me out.

'Oh my god, here comes Sara. She looks like she's in a bad mood. I'm soooo dead.' Sara, queen of school, and acknowledged airhead. Isn't high school great?

"Lara!" A now familiar squeal made itself heard. It was Sara. Oh, Sara. Sara, Sara, Sara, my first new 'friend' and the one who annoyed me the most. I looked her over. She didn't look like she was in a bad mood. Still…

"Hi, Sara," I said cautiously. It was always safer to be careful with what you said around the popular crowd. They're liable to insults and destroying self-esteem. If you hear it enough, you start to believe it.

"So, Lara, like, what's with you and Zack?" she asked. "I've been hearing some, you know, rumors." She said rumors like it was the most holy word ever. "Are you, like, seeing each other?" Shoot.

"What are you talking about?" I replied. Maybe. I don't know myself. Not that I was going to tell her that. It was simpler to keep her guessing. And it was more fun. Seeing Sara's reactions was a big part in my not ditching her and her crowd.

"Like, are you dating?" She pressed. What's with all the questions about Zack? Does she like him or something? Hmmmmm. That might be the reason she hangs out with me.

'OMG, Lara better not be dating MY Zack.' 'MY Zack? MY ZACK?' What the heck? Since when has Sara started referring to Zack as HER Zack? And following the stupid mumble trend is so stupid. Although…I might be able to use this. Zack had told me that he found all my new 'friends' very annoying when I complained about them one day. I tell Zack pretty much everything. Sometimes I think he knows more about me than I do. He didn't like their shallowness anymore than I did. I opened my mouth to tell her that 'no, we weren't but I'd had a crush on him for years and wouldn't she help me out?' when a particularly load mumble stopped me.

'Damn it!' A voice I didn't recognize was in tears. 'My parents are going to kill me! My iPhone's been stolen! It was brand new and I promised not to lose it and now it's been stolen!' Now that was weird. No one, NO one would say that they'd had their brand new iPhone stolen, even if it was part of some new trend that I didn't care about. I frowned, thinking it over. It didn't make sense. I can understand the rest of the world being insane and following pointless money-wasting trends, but even for that, no one tells the world that they've had something stolen, not during high school, especially not this one. They'd never see it again. So…why start now? It just didn't make sense.

"Well?" It was Sara again. 'God, are you going to answer me or not?'

"Yes," I said distractedly, "did you h—"

"WHAT?" She shrieked. Wait, why was she shrieking? …… Oh, right. Shit. I just told her that Zack and I are dating. "YOU'RE DATING?" She continued to shriek, but I stopped listening. People were starting to look up, annoyed. When they saw it was Sara shouting, they hastily looked away.

'Oh, god'

'That Sara is always…'

'Jeez, what is Lara thinking, making Sara mad? It's so …'

'If I don't look at them, Sara won't notice me…' The mumbles were getting louder, with traces of panic in them. Who knew that Sara could inspire such fear in all of our peers? The mumbles swelled to a roar, each one indistinguishable from the next. A pounding headache grew in my temples. Dimly I could hear Sara shrieking continuously, but her voice was drowned out by the other ones. My face scrunched up in pain, and I put my hands over my ears, trying to stop the noise, or at least, block some of it. It didn't work. A hand shook me. I looked up into concerned black eyes. Zack. As I focused on him, the noise I was hearing quieted a little, maybe because I wasn't concentrating on it anymore. Even Sara had shut up.

"Lara, are you okay?" He asked quietly, "It looked like you were hurt or something." He gave me a small, concerned smile.

"Zack! Tell me it's not true!" Sara wailed. She is such a drama queen, and so cheesy too. Although, I bet she didn't even realize how cheesy it was to say that.

"Tell you what isn't true?" Zack was, understandably, confused, seeing as we weren't dating, and I'd told Sara that we were on accident. I wouldn't mind dating Zack, of course, since he's definitely the cutest and nicest boy in school. Ah! That's why Sara started hanging out with me! I realized. She does like Zack! HA!

"That you and Lara are dating! You're not are you?" Sara's voice was increasing in pitch and decibels. Pretty soon the windows would crack. It probably would've annoyed me more if it wasn't for the headache I had. The murmur of voices swelled. Ugh. What was with these people? They were so loud. Jeez. I can't hear Zack, and he's right next to me. Glancing around, I frowned. No one was talking. At least, not at the volume I was hearing. That's … weird, to say the least. If no one was talking, what was I hearing? I had never heard of a sudden onset of insanity. Normally someone is born mad, or goes mad after some sort of accident, and I hadn't been in an accident. Had I? I searched my memory, looking for some sort of gap. I couldn't find anything. I'd never woken up in the hospital and not known how I'd gotten there. I'd never woken up and found it was days later than I thought it was. So what was happening to me? I was seriously starting to panic.

'…nuts, taking on Sara like that…'

'…my iPhone! I can't believe I…'

The voices got louder, each one shouting at me. A quick glance at Zack told me he was slightly angry, but he didn't seem to hear anything. A look at Sara told me she was furious, but not nearly as mad as she'd be if everyone in the hallway was talking over her. So she wasn't hearing anything either. She gestured toward me, sneering. Her mouth shaped some words, but I didn't hear her voice over the clamor of voices in the hallway.

'…looks so confused. So much for her confidence.' This voice was condescending. 'I knew Lara wasn't as confident as she seemed.' My eyes widened. I knew that voice. 'Humph. I guess she is only a pretty face. Ugh. I told Sara to ditch her, but she was so hung up on Zack that she wouldn't listen. And now, it turns out that Lara and Zack were dating! This is just too funny!' Chloe. That was Chloe. Okay. Seriously freaking out here. I was definitely going mad, if I was hearing Chloe's voice in my head. Why her, of all people? If I had to hear voices, why couldn't I hear the voices of people I actually liked? Jenna, for example, or Amy. Now there were nice people! They wouldn't judge a person just because they looked confused. Why couldn't everyone be that way?

Wait. I don't want to know.

Really, I don't.

Chloe was still blabbing on and on about some ridiculous thing, but I ignored her. She annoys me. A lot.

Zack grabbed my arm and started to walk away. It was go with him or be towed. I chose to talk. He didn't say anything; he just watched me as we walked out of the school. It wasn't until we were in his car and safely on the road – the voices fading into the background, thankfully, - that he turned to me.

"What was that?" He was, understandably, angry. "Why did you tell Sara we were dating?"

"You make it sound like you care about what they think." I commented. His mouth formed a tight line.

"I don't' care what, if anything, they think. What I do care about is what they'll do to us when they stop giving us the silent treatment – probably over the weekend, when they've had a chance to cool down." I winced. Could I survive an entire day with all that noise? "Well?"

"I didn't think you'd mind dating me this much." My tone was conversational. He scowled, his eyebrows snapping together.

"If that was my problem, I'd have told you already." He accelerated down my street, completely ignoring the stop signs and the speed limit. "Stop stalling, Lara."

I sighed. "I'm not sure what happened, exactly." I began slowly. "I'm not sure how to explain it." He pulled into my driveway and screeched to a halt.

"Try."

Still, I hesitated. He turned the car off and waited. I closed my eyes and told him.

"I'm hearing voices."

A/N: Reviews make me happy! The buttons right there... ;D why don't you click it and tell me what you think?