Hi everyone! This is chapter 2. Check out my profile for Murphy's character concept.

The song for this chapter is: "Rainy Monday" by The Shiny Toy Guns.

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Chapter 2

Change of Pace

I rolled over with a groan looking at the clock, having one of those 'How did I get here' moments. The clock read 3:30 pm. Closing my eyes with a grunt and rolled back over, defeated. That was as much effort I could exert for the rest of the day. I was fully intending to go back to sleep when Keira came into the room. I groaned again, but this time it was because I didn't want to hear her voice when I was in such a delicate state.

"It looks like someone had a little too much fun last night," she said, scanning me judgmentally. She really could be a huge bitch.

"Yeah, I had a great time," I said sarcastically.

"Well it was a sight to see your head stuck in a toilet," she said in her snarky voice "It was almost as funny as the time you mooned the entire campus last year after the end of the year party." I didn't even realize that I had thrown up, now I knew where that awful taste in my mouth came from. And she just had to bring up the mooning incident. I had the tendency to do stupid things when I was that drunk. Why did I have to get that drunk?

Despite how bad I knew I would feel if I got up, it would be one hundred times better than sitting in there with Keira. I slowly pulled myself up and swung my feet onto the cold floor. I put on a clean t- shirt and shorts, slid on a pair of flip flops, and grabbed some aviator sunglasses.

I made my way down the hall while dialing Mel on speed dial. She answered after two rings.

"Where are you?" I asked

"I'm in the dinning hall eating lunch. Are you up?"

"Yeah I'm walking over there now, I can't believe I threw up, I thought I was doing so well," I whined.

"It was pretty messy, but the only person who saw was Keira," she tried to comfort me.

"That's good I guess, I mean the whole school probably knows by now,"I said sarcastically hanging up the phone without saying goodbye.

I pushed open the heavy dorm doors and stepped out into the sunlight, slipping on my aviators. It was a beautiful day, and the sun warmed my skin. I walked across the campus to the dinning hall and went right into the coffee line. The school had a state of the art coffee bar, complete with its own staff. This was courtesy of someone's parents trying to keep their kid from being expelled, and it must have worked wonderfully, because everyone loved it.

I ordered a black coffee and looked around to find Mel. She saw me and waved, gesturing for me to come over. She was sitting with a boy who's back was to me. I made my way over, keeping my sunglasses on even though I was inside, so no one could see how bad I looked.

"Good morning sunshine," she said with an enthusiasm she knew I hated and I gave her a sarcastic smile. I turned to the boy she was sitting with, and realized that I knew who he was. It was the same boy from last night that tried to dance with me; his name was Chase I think.

"Hi," I said shortly, sitting down next to Mel. I don't know how she met Chase, but he was still as creepy as I remembered from last night. I gave him an awkward nod and sipped my coffee.

"Chase was just saying how he just transferred here from Hastings,"

"So I've heard," I stated. I couldn't put my finger on why he made me so uncomfortable. He wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary but I just couldn't bring myself to stick around. "I'm going to finish unpacking my stuff," I told Mel, I just wanted to get out of there.

I went back to my room but I had no intention of staying there. Keira was still there figuring out where to put her ugly posters on the wall. She looked at me when I came in and rolled her eyes. I ignored her and finished off my coffee. I went into my box of shoes that I hadn't unpacked yet and searched for my running shoes. I changed into a running tank top, and put the shoes on. On my way out I grabbed my old Red Sox hat and my Ipod. Cross country practice started tomorrow and it wouldn't hurt to get some mileage in. I needed to relax anyway, and running was really my only healthy outlet.

As I made my way down the stairs, I ran into Reid Garwin of all people.

"It sure seemed like you had a good time last night," he said smoothly, trying to make me mad. He always did this to me. He was forever trying to get me to go out with him, and I was forever denying him. Although his efforts weren't what the used to be.

"It was quite lovely, thank you," I said in a faux polite voice and brushed passed him. I was sure I wasn't the only person on the whole campus who had thrown up, so why was everyone harassing me about it? He continued to follow me down the stairs. "It would be nice to talk to you and all, but I have some running to do." Before he could respond, I pushed open the door and started running away, putting in my ear buds, but he had had the nerve to follow me. That was alright though. Even though Reid was a fantastic swimmer, he couldn't keep up with me for more than 400 yards, he'd tried before.

"I think I might join you today," he said mid stride.

"Are you sure? It's going to be a long one, I'm thinking 10 miles," I informed him even though I had really only planned on doing five. He wasn't really bothering me, I just wanted to make him tired.

"I think I can keep up." I stared off with a hard pace; I guess I was trying to prove that I was good.

"How was your summer?" He asked after about a mile. I was impressed that he wasn't heaving. He must have been running over the summer.

"It was good I spent it with my family in Ireland," I told him. Despite what I said earlier about the Sons, they were alright most of the time. I spent time with them during the school year because of Kate, but I guess I didn't really consider them my friends, they were more like acquaintances. I could give Reid the benefit of the doubt, there were times when he wasn't a total scum bag like now for instance.

"What did you do this summer?" I asked. I really was curious. He was very mellow right now and I found myself wanting to talk to him.

"I spent my summer here mostly, and the beach. I didn't really want to go any where special. It was fun though. I ran more too, if you can tell."

"I can tell; you're not dead yet, that's a good sign," I joked. We ran along in silence for a while. Every mile I would increase my pace a little; I wanted to sweat out my hangover. Around mile five, Reid dropped out. I looked back and saw him waving me on. He was better, but he still was no runner. The pool was his thing. I put in my head phones back on and turned the music up loud.

A quote from one of my summer assignments popped into my head. "The unexamined life is not worth living." It was one of those things that I paused over and read over and over, trying to find the real meaning. I had to face it, I wasn't happy. Sure I wasn't depressed either, but I could be so much better. As I ran I was trying to see what I could do better.

I was thinking about the party, and it hit me. When I was looking at everyone, I was only pointing out the negative things in them. Like with the Sons. Maybe I really am a stuck up bitch.

It was really hard to admit this to myself, but I did care what other people thought of me. There are people who weren't worth my time, like Aaron and Keira, but there were people who are worth it, and I just hadn't given them the chance. Running with Reid sort of proved that to me. He wasn't being an ass, and he was a real person, and I enjoyed our time. Maybe I could make more friends. The problem isn't other people, it's me. I've spent so much time thinking that I was surrounded by stupid people when really I was the one being stupid. I guess I'd known this for a long time, but it was senior year and I didn't want to leave Spencer with no good memories.

I felt pathetic, but I guess I just hurt my own feelings, because I started crying. This was why I loved running. There was no one to be tough for, and I was stuck talking to myself.

I was coming to the end of my 10 mile loop and could see the school through the cluster of trees at the end of the running path. I had an agreement with my self to be nicer to everyone, even Keira. I jogged back up to my room to get my things for a shower. Keira was still in there, doing a last minute math assignment that should have been done a long time ago.

"Hi," I said surprising her.

"Can I help you?" she answered suspiciously.

"No," I said simply, catching a glimpse of her assignment and recognizing the problem. "It's thirteen over five. You forgot the middle step," I said, giving her the answer as I walked out of the room heading for the showers. I bumped into Kate on my way there.

"Hey," she said "I'm glad I bumped into you. A bunch of us are going to Nicky's in an hour if you want to come?" It was obvious that the Sons would be there, but I decided to go, maybe I could actually be friends with them. Out of all the people at the school, they seemed like the best candidates. We were half way to friendship already.

"Yeah, I just need to take a shower."

"Great! Meet us in the lobby at seven-thirty, we're taking Tyler's car," she told me.

"I'll be there," I said, giving her a wave as I opened the door to the girl's bathroom.

I took a quick shower, so I would have time to dry my hair and went back into the room to see that Keira was no longer there. Even though I was trying to be nicer to her, I was glad to see her gone. I went over to the vanity and dried my hair while listening to the radio. Looking at the clock and seeing that I only had fifteen minutes left, I quickly pulled on a pair of dark skinny jeans, a light white shirt with a low back, and brown riding boots before going back over to the mirror to put on my makeup. I never had much patience for makeup, but today I wanted to make an effort, to show people that I care. I lined my bright green eyes with a brown liner, and then framed them with dark brown mascara. I applied foundation to my pale complexion and some lightly tinted lip gloss and ran a brush through my long blond hair one more time before heading out the door.

I met Kate down in the parking lot with Tyler, Reid and Pogue. She told me that Sarah and Caleb were out and that they would meet us later and climbed into the back seat of the Hummer with Kate. Tyler started the car and I couldn't help but smile as the familiar heavy beat of dubstep filled the massive car.

"Why do you have to listen to this shit? It's just the same beat over and over," Reid whined from the passengers seat, picking up the iPod and attempting to scroll through it.

"No it's not," I spoke up. "It has a lot of depth and a lot of different sounds." I listened to it a lot while I ran.

"Quite from the peanut gallery back there," Reid fought back, with lack of a better comeback.

"She's right dude," Tyler chimed in. "It's really soothing." He caught my eye through the rear view mirror and smiled. Being friends with them is going to be easier than I thought.

We pulled into Nicky's and piled out one after the other. The hummer must have seemed like a party bus the way the music was blaring and how the five of us came stumbling out. The music was still on when we got out of the car because Tyler hadn't gotten out yet, and Kate grabbed my hand and we started to dance very silly attracting the attention of every one in the parking lot. The music stopped abruptly when Tyler turned the car off and Kate and I broke out into hysterics. My night had barley started and I was already having more fun than I expected.

We walked into Nicky's to find it ridiculously crowded. All the Spencer kids were there trying to have a good time before school started the next day.

"It's wicked crowded," Reid complained, "even more than last year and I thought that was bad." Nicky probably wasn't having a good night. He hated having kids in the bar; it took away from his alcohol sales, but there was really nothing he could do about it since it was technically a restaurant and we could be there. It's not like he would go broke on us, I considering how much food the jocks consumed.

We found a table that had just been vacated and took our seats. Reid stood up and looked in the direction of the pool tables.

"I'm going to see if some poor sucker wants to play me; I'm a little short on cash." Tyler nodded to him and Reid went over to the pool tables and started conversing with a few guys who looked like they weren't sure what they were doing.

I sat down and stretched my slightly cramped legs. I hadn't had a chance to stretch after my run and I was starting to feel it now. I looked around seeing the familiar faces of the kids who were at the Dells party. None of them seemed to notice me, and weren't giving me weird looks so I must not have been that bad last night which was a relief.

Kate spotted an empty foosball table.

"You guys want to play?" she asked enthusiastically. I'd never been much good at foosball, but it was fun, and if I had a partner it would be easier. The changing handles part was always hard for me.

"Sure," I said and stood up.

"Me and Pogue vs. you and Tyler." Kate declared, looking between Me and Tyler slyly.

"Oh you're going down," Pogue taunted.

"Nah dude, Murphy here's a champ, besides you know that I always kick your ass every time we play," Tyler retorted.

"Let's see what you've got," Kate said, getting into the tough guy act.

We made our way over to the table and Tyler leaned in and whispered to me.

"I hope you're good. I have a perfect season so far and if we lose, I'm going to have a blemish on my perfect record," Tyler joked.

"I'm alright, but I'm no David Beckham," I said. He smiled at me, then retrieved the ball from the goal and got ready to drop in the center circle.

"Ready?" he asked everyone. We all nodded and he dropped the ball. I was the defense and the goalie; he was the mid fielders and the forwards. He spun the handle around easily gaining possession of the ball. Kate squealed and tried to block his forwards by moving hers. He spun the handle again and sent the ball flying towards the goal where it was blocked by Pogue and sent in my direction. I hit it with my defense-man, passing it up to Tyler's players. He flicked his wrist again and this time the ball connected with the back of the net.

"Yes!" he said and slapped me a double high five. The fun thing about foosball was that you got so excited and jump around, and it takes so much energy, but the only thing in the game that you're moving is your hands. Throughout the game we were all yelling and tilting and jumping up and down. It was more fun than I'd had in a while.

"Just hit it harder baby," Pogue was coaxing Kate. They were down by one and we only needed one goal to win. Pogue was getting frustrated with Kate's dainty hits, and was about to take over the offensive line. We had possession and Tyler was moving in for the final goal.

"Go! Go! Go!" I yelled getting excited. He spun the handle around hard and the ball bounced off the goalie, and rolled into the net.

"Yes!" I exclaimed and jumped up in the air as Tyler lifted me up into a hug.

"Look who's the best now," Tyler said smiling.

"Shut up man," Pogue said, but he was smiling to.

"Sorry I wasn't a better forward babe," Kate said to Pogue.

"It's alright," He smiled and put his arm around her.

This night was going really well. I felt like Tyler, Pogue and Reid really were my friends. Pogue got us all drinks, and Tyler went to go find Reid at the pool tables. I was just sitting back in my chair when Sarah and Caleb came in. Kate smiled and waved them over. What I didn't expect to see behind them was Mel and Chase coming in, hand in hand.

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