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Chapter 2

Monday morning, Emily woke up very tired; it was the first day of classes and she had nervously tossed and turned half the night, finally falling asleep sometime after three. She had only been asleep for a few hours when she woke up again and she had been lying in bed since then, watching the room get lighter and lighter until it was time for her to get up. Sighing, she reluctantly wrapped a blanket around her shoulders and shuffled to the living room.

"Morning," Effy said as soon as Emily had sat down.

Emily jumped. "When did you get up?"

Effy shrugged. "A little bit ago."

"Do you come from a family of ninjas?" Emily asked, causing Effy to smirk.

She was actually serious about the whole ninja thing, though. Emily had once met Effy's brother at a friend's funeral and he was exactly like his sister; they were both charismatic and had those eyes that could pierce right through you. He also seemed to have the ability to appear out of thin air and to disappear just as quickly. Emily wondered if it was trait that all the Stonems possessed.

"Sleep well?" Effy asked.

"Not at all," replied Emily.

"I thought I heard you tossing around all night," Effy stated.

"I guess I'm just nervous about today," admitted Emily, tucking a strand of her vivid red hair behind her ear.

Effy smiled. "And Katie's snoring doesn't help anything."

"No it doesn't," Emily said, laughing. "After eighteen years, though, I'm used to that."

"What classes do you have today?" Effy asked.

"Psychology, Algebra with Katie, and then Communications with you," answered Emily.

Effy nodded. "Cool."

Emily looked at the clock and sighed. "I'm going to shower before Katie wakes up and spends an hour in there."

She showered as quickly as possible and came out to find Effy lounging on her bed, with a book in her hands, but her eyes were not moving. She glanced up and then back down at it.

"I tried waking your sister," Effy stated.

Emily looked over at her sister and she had a pillow over her head, muffling her snores. "How'd that go?"

"She hit me," Effy said, raising her arm, showing Emily the bruise that was already forming.

"Yeah, she does that," Emily said, shrugging.

Emily could feel Effy's eyes on her as she walked to her closet and pulled out a skirt and several different shirts. Scrunching up her face, she held them up in front of herself and looked in the mirror.

"The black one," Effy stated.

"You think?" Emily asked with a frown.

"Definitely," replied Effy.

Changing a shirt in front of Effy was one thing, but Emily felt too self-conscious to remove her towel when Effy was staring at her so intently. Instead, she grabbed her clothes and went into the bathroom to quickly change.

"Wow," Effy said as she came out.

Emily looked down at herself. "What?"

"You look perfect," Emily said with a genuine smile.

This caused Emily to snort. "Hardly."

After Emily fixed her hair and makeup, she was out the door. She wasn't sure how long it would take her to find her first class, so she ended up arriving twenty minutes early. When she walked into the classroom, she was the only one there, but after a minute, another nervous looking freshman arrived. Emily sat there listening to her iPod as more and more people filed in. The actual class was rather uneventful; the professor explained what they would be studying over the semester and then sent them on their way, so Emily walked across campus and waited for Katie to show up, which she did about five minutes before class was supposed to start.

"What took you so long?" Emily wondered.

"I met a guy in the hall," Katie proudly said.

Emily rolled her eyes. "Of course you did."

"How was Psychology?" Katie asked.

"I think it'll be fun," replied Emily. "The teacher seems nuts, but in a good way. I just wish you or Eff were in there with me, but you're—"

"Not into that shit," Katie supplied.

"And, well—" Emily didn't need to finish her statement.

"Yeah," Katie said, knowing exactly why her sister hadn't asked Effy about taking it with her.

"Does she ever talk to you about it?" Emily wondered.

"No," replied Katie.

"I don't think she's sleeping very much," Emily said. "This morning she said she heard me tossing and turning all night and she was up before I was." She sighed and looked over at her sister. "I'm worried about her."

"Let's keep an eye out, okay?" Katie responded.

Emily nodded in agreement and pulled her notebook out just as their Algebra professor came in and said hello to the class. It went much like her pervious one; their professor went over the syllabus for the class and gave them a few problems to try on their own to see how much they already knew before dismissing them.

"That was a bit pointless," Katie said as she left the room.

"A bit," agreed Emily, following her sister down the hall.

"You and Eff are going to meet me for lunch, yeah?" Katie asked.

"Yeah," confirmed Emily.

"See you then, bitch," Katie said with a smile.

"See you," Emily quietly said back.

Emily only had to walk down a few flights to get to her next class where she found Effy sitting on the floor, dressed in her usual black, with an unreadable expression on her face.

"You're here early," Emily said to her friend.

Effy shrugged. "First class got out early."

"Mine too," Emily said, sitting down next to the other girl. "How was it?"

Effy shrugged again. "Fine."

"Katie wants us to meet her for lunch," Emily said.

"Cool," replied Effy.

"You're very chatty today," Emily joked.

Effy smirked. "Aren't I always?"

"Are you okay?" Emily inquired.

"No," Effy admitted. "It's just one of those days."

Emily nodded. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Effy gave a sad smile. "No."

"Okay," said Emily, sighing.

The two sat there silently and Emily watched other students arrive while Effy just stared at the floor. Emily wanted to say something else to her, but she wasn't really sure what to say. Saying that it had been a rough year for Effy would be an understatement and Emily didn't know how to broach the subject and her friend wasn't exactly renowned for opening up to people. Eventually, though, the class that was in the room before them let out and the two stood up to go in the room.

"Front or back?" Emily asked, all ready knowing the answer.

"Back," Effy replied.

Emily led them to the back on the opposite side of the door where they shared a table. After sitting down and watching everyone come in for a while, Emily turned to Effy.

"I wonder what this class will be like," Emily said aloud.

Effy shrugged. "Communicating?"

"I hope we don't have to give speeches," Emily said, suddenly feeling nervous. She was definitely not one for getting up in front of large groups of people. Having everyone stare at her was more her sister's thing.

"Okay everyone," an older man said as he entered. "Reply when I call out your name. Ian Abbott."

"Here," the blonde guy in front of Emily and Effy said.

"Crystal Atkins."

"Here," a small voice said from across the room.

"Jessica Bennet."

The slutty blonde to Emily's left replied, "Here."

"Logan Blake."

"Here," a gruff voice called out.

"Naomi Campbell."

Everyone in the class snickered.

"Poor girl," Emily whispered to Effy.

Effy smirked. "Her parents must hate her."

"Jesus," Emily said, looking across the room and seeing the girl that had responded. "You've got to be fucking kidding me."

For once, Effy actually laughed. "It's our mystery blonde."

"Here," Emily said, barely realizing the professor had just called her name. "Why does she have to be in here?"

"It's a conspiracy," Effy deadpanned.

Emily just rolled her eyes and listened to the man call out the rest of the names.

"The syllabus has already been emailed to all of you and I expect you to look at it," he said upon finishing. "You all will be split into pairs and you will be working with your partnet for the rest of the semester. And you won't be working with your friend unless you're lucky enough to get their name from the bowl." He shook the bowl, which contained a bunch of slips of paper.

"Effy Stonem," he read aloud. "And Alexis Richards."

"Shit," Emily said under her breath.

"Sorry," Effy whispered, looking at Emily sympathetically.

He announced a few more pairs before pulling Emil's name out. "Emily Fitch and Naomi Campbell."

"Oh fuck," Emily said, sinking into her chair and closing her eyes for a moment. "Anyone but her."

Emily watched as the blonde looked over and realized who she would be working with; Emily imagined her face looked about as happy as Naomi's did at the moment.

Emily looked over at Effy who was smirking even more than normal. "It is not funny."

"It's kind of funny," Effy disagreed.

"You're not the one working with a total bitch that already seems to hate you," Emily said, crossing her arms.

"Okay, that's it for the day," their professor said after he'd paired off the last two people. "I'll see you Wednesday."

Emily was still scowling when she and Effy gathered up their stuff to leave.

"Cheer up," Effy said, watching Emily and trying not to show her amusement. "It could be worse."

"How?" Emily wondered and Effy shrugged. "Great."

"Let's go find your sister," Effy said, pulling Emily by the arm.

As Emily was being pulled to the door, she couldn't help but to look back and see the look on Naomi's face. She still looked angry, but there was something else there. Emily thought for a fleeting second that the blonde looked afraid, but she caught Emily looking at her and her face became unreadable.

"This should be interesting," Effy said, letting go of Emily.

"What?" Emily asked, following Effy.

Effy smiled to herself. "Nothing. Where was your sister going to meet us?"

Emily shrugged. "She didn't actually say."

"Never mind," Effy said, seeing Katie sitting on the concrete wall, swinging her legs. "Hey, Katie."

Katie looked up. "There you are."

"Professor guy kept us the whole class," Emily said.

"Well, let's go," Katie said, jumping down. "I'm starving."

"If you didn't take so long getting ready, you might be able to eat in the morning," Effy noted.

Katie scoffed. "A girl has to look perfect on her first day."

Emily walked behind Katie and Effy as they threw insults back and forth. She rolled her eyes, but couldn't help but be amused at the same time. Effy looked slightly tired, but also moderately happy and Katie just looked annoyed, which was always a good time; at least it was when she was annoyed at someone other than herself.

"I'm getting something from over there," Emily said, breaking away from the other two and walking to the other side of the cafeteria to get in the line.

The line was long, but moved fairly quickly. Emily had her food and was checked out within a few minutes and she stood there, looking around for any sign of Effy or Katie. A few moments later, she saw her sister sitting by herself at a table on the other side of the room so Emily made her way through the maze of tables and finally sat down.

"Where's Eff?" she asked.

"Getting something to drink," Katie said, taking a bite of salad.

"Shit," Katie said, looking a few tables away. "Why is that bitch everywhere?"

Emily looked over and saw who Katie has spotted. "She's in our class."

Katie snorted. "Seriously?"

"And guess who got partnered up with her for the whole semester," Effy said from behind Emily.

"You?" Katie asked Effy.

"Nope," Effy said, looking at Emily and smirking.

"Have fun with that," Katie sarcastically said to her sister.

For a moment, Emily felt like she could feel Naomi's eyes on her, but when she turned to look, the blonde was looking away. When she turned back around, she caught Effy's eye and the brunette just smirked at her.

Emily sighed. "What?"

"What makes you think there's something?" Effy asked back.

"You have that look," replied Emily.

Effy's blue eyes were glinting. "What look?"

"That look that you know something I don't," Emily said, trying not to sound as annoyed as she felt.

"Sorry, that's just my face," Effy said, causing Emily to roll her eyes.

There it was again—Emily felt like she was being watched. She felt like the blonde's eyes were on her, but this time she didn't turn around to check. Besides, she figured she was probably just plotting the best way to murder her and make it look like an accident.