Hi everyone! This is mostly just a cute chapter about Murphy's relationships with everyone are growing and how she's becoming attached to them.

The song for this chapter is "Soft Shock" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

I've linked pictures of Murphy, the other OC's cars and a few other things in my profile. If it has a chapter number on it, don't look at it because it's a spoiler. I've also linked youtube videos for all of the songs for this story in my profile.

Chapter 4

The Right Way

The class room was practically empty, why did Chase have to sit next to me out of all the places he could have sat? He made me uncomfortable and there was no way in hell I would be sitting next to him for the whole year. I took my stuff and swiftly moved to the other side of Sarah so there was an empty seat next to Caleb. I didn't care if he thought I was rude, I needed to move. I could tell he saw the look on my face when he sat next to me and knew perfectly well that I didn't like him. Good maybe he would leave me alone.

I could tell that this year was going to be hard before the first day was even over. We had a test in English on the summer reading, which I thankfully did. There was going to be so much writing in that class which I didn't really mind, but it would be very time consuming.

History was next, and it wasn't so bad. This was a class that I could say that I was looking forward to for a few different reasons one being that I'd always liked history. Tyler, Pogue and Reid were in this class too. I sat between Tyler and Pogue, with Reid on Tyler's other side in the back of the room. How Reid managed to get into AP, I couldn't guess. Since we were so high up in the auditorium style seating we could get away with talking almost freely. There was no way the ancient teacher could hear us all the way up here.

Since it was the first day, we didn't do anything and that was a relief. I sat in the back with the boys and we started talking about schedules and classes we were ready to hate. It turned out that both Reid and Pogue were in gym last period along with me and Tyler. That was going to be fun. I was quick to inform Reid that Tyler was my partner.

"What!" That's bullshit! Baby Boy's been my gym partner forever!" He really looked hurt, and I thought it was funny; apparently Reid's kryptonite was Tyler. "See if I ever pick either of you for my dodge ball team."

"Sorry, but, you're going to have to deal with it," I said playfully.

"I'll live girly, I promise you." He was trying to be funny now by checking me out and I rolled my eyes. Now that I knew he was harmless I could relax when he joked with me like that. A few minutes of silence passed as the teacher read out the attendance list and I tried to think of something to say. I hated silences, they make me uncomfortable. I couldn't even sit in my room in silence. I even had one of those pathetic sound soothers that played a continuous loop of ocean waves crashing so I could get to sleep at night.

"Whens the next party?" I asked, for lack of anything else better to say. Reid smirked at me. I knew this was right up his alley; he was always throwing or promoting parties.

"I'm having one this weekend at my place. My mom is away again. It should be fun. Have you ever been to one of my parties before?" Reid asked and I blushed. I had been to one of his parties before and it had been the first and last of his parties I had been to. I'd embarrassed myself beyond belief. "Oh yeah you have. I remember now." He looked at me and licked his lips and I wanted to sink into the floor and die. It's not like we'd even done very much, but it was enough to regret and to pretend like it never happened.

Thankfully the bell rang and we all got up to leave. I said goodbye to the boys and made my way to my next class. The rest of the day went by pretty uneventfully. Caleb was in my AP Physics class, and we were assigned to be lab partners. Next was AP French with Sarah and Pogue. Then I had AP Economics with Tyler. Next was AP Journalism with Kate. This was a class I was looking forward to. I want to major in Journalism so this was going to be fun. By gym I was exhausted. It was only the first day and I was already loaded with work. Having gym last period was a relief because we got to play whatever game we wanted and got credit just for changing. It was a nice break between school and cross country practice.

I changed quickly and was one of the first people out in the gym. I started stretching while I was waiting for everyone else to come out of the locker room. Pogue was first out of the locker room followed by Tyler and Reid. Mr. Kaste, the gym teacher, came out of the locker room last, quickly taking attendance and then telling us to jog for two minutes.

"We get to pick what games we want to play this year," Tyler informed me while we were jogging. He was excited like the rest of the boys. This was going to be a fun gym class.

"Everyone better vote for dodge ball," Reid said with a threatening look at me.

"You've got my vote," I said with a look of mock fear on my face.

"I hope you're not on my team so I can hit you in the ass with a ball," He replied smartly, jogging away.

Mr. Kaste, blew his whistle and we stopped running. "What do you want to play today?" He asked. Reid immediately said dodge ball and most of the class agreed. One person feebly suggested capture the flag, but it was no use. Dodge ball it was.

"Alright, team captains…. Abbot! And…. Murphy!" Mr. Kaste said. Damn it. I hated being the one to do the playground picking. I went to the middle of the gym and stood next to Aaron who looked at me like I was an idiot; like I really cared about a stupid game of dodge ball.

"Ladies first," Mr. Kaste said, indicating that I should pick first.

"Tyler," I said, obviously. Aaron picked one of his meat head friends. We went back and forth until the whole class was on one team or the other. I ended up with Tyler and Pogue on my team, while Reid was pissed off that he ended up on Aaron's team.

"Sorry," I said, "I just found someone more valuable."

"It's okay, you're gonna lose anyway." We spent the next hour hurling balls back and forth to the other team. I didn't really throw any because I had bad aim, and it would move so slow that the other team would defiantly catch it. I did catch a ball that Aaron threw and that pissed him off. Reid 'accidentally' hit me smack in the rear end with one of the balls. In return Pogue 'accidentally' hit him in the face. In the end it was a draw, two games to two games.

After I changed I met up with the boys outside of the locker rooms. We all headed back to the dorms to get ready for our practices; they were going to swim practice and I was going to cross country.

"Are you going to be around later?" Tyler asked me.

"I have a lot of work to do after practice, why?"

"We're all going to hang out in the common room later if you want to come. We might be doing work, but probably not." I knew that I probably shouldn't go, but hanging out with everyone was something that I wasn't about to pass up.

"Yeah I think I can hang out for a little while." It was against my better judgment, but what the hell, it wouldn't kill me.

"I'll see you later then?" He asked.

"Yeah." He seemed like he really wanted to hang out with me, and that made me excited. I felt like I was thirteen years old again with a little crush. I giggled to myself as I walked down the hall and entered my room. I put on a pair of shorts and a running tank top, and grabbed my shoes. I picked up my plastic water bottle from the floor and filled it in the bathroom sink.

As I walked over to the back field, and the running trails behind the dorms, I bumped into Mel. She was heading over to field hockey practice and I had forgotten that we didn't have any classes together. She, like most people, was taking senior year easy.

"I missed you today," she said putting an arm around me.

"I missed you to," I said sadly. "I didn't even get to hang out with you last night."

"Oh yeah, Chase and I were hanging out earlier that day, and we sort of clicked I guess." I smiled and tried to look happy for her, but I really wasn't. She was so excited for herself, that she didn't notice my smile was fake. She was babbling on about how nice and wonderful he was. "A true gentleman." I really wanted her to stop talking. We made it to the front field where the field hockey practice was, and parted ways.

"I'll talk to you later," I told her. She smiled at me and then turned around to join her team mates.

I walked over to the group that was forming in the back field, and stood next to them. We went of the familiar routine of "How was your summer?" and "I missed you during the off season." That was a lie; when you ran for a team as serious as Spencer, there is no off season. Coach came over to us and gave the usual first practice of the year speech. The whole, "This is a team sport," and "You need to come to practice every day," and the dreaded "If you are caught partying, you will be kicked off." That was also a lie. Coach didn't like partying, that was true, but if we did get caught, she wouldn't kick you off if you were an asset to the team. If you're good, you can pretty much do what ever you want.

"Now for this years team captains." I had forgotten that just the other day I was telling Mel how much I wanted to be captain. My heart was pounding hard and fast. I wanted this so bad. "The boy's captain is William Madison. The girl's captain is Murphy Riley." Will and I both stood up and we were congratulated by applause. I had a stupid looking grin on my face, but I couldn't help it, I was happy.

"Alright, alright!" Coach said cutting off the clapping. "Do a warm up of two miles, I don't care where you run, then come back here. The vets, will be doing, timed mile, eight-hundred, four-hundred, eight-hundred, mile, two mile. I'll decide what the new kids are doing when everyone gets back." This was a speed work out so it wouldn't be too bad. I felt bad for the new kids; Coach always went hard on the first day to weed out all the quitters.

The work out was exhausting, but I was still looking forward to hanging out with Tyler. I was in an over all good mood, due to the exercise, captain-ship, and hanging out with everyone later. Despite all the work I had, this year looked like it would be a good one.

I went up to my room, took a quick shower, put on some comfortable but cute clothes, and went down to meet everyone. It was relaxing. We were all just kicking back and enjoying each others company. I was laughing and joking with everyone, like I had been friends with them forever and they made feel comfortable in a way that I hadn't ever felt with other people. Kate was still a total sweetheart, and Sarah proved to be funny and outgoing. Pogue was a perfect match for Kate. He was mellow and laid back, the perfect counter to her bubblyness. Caleb was different from what I expected. He actually had a sense of humor for one, and when I hung out with him he wasn't really a know it all. He wasn't as serious as I thought, and he was really laid back. Reid was still Reid, but I was learning to appreciate his sense of humor. He was still a pompous ass hole, but a lovable one. And then there was Tyler. He was by far the Son that I had miss judged the most. He was spectacular. He was full of life and I couldn't take my eyes off of him. Every time he smiled at me I felt like I'd aced a test or won States.

The rest of the week passed by smoothly. I was hanging out with the Kate, Sarah and the Sons more, and Mel less. I found myself not really missing her. Every time I saw her with Chase I cringed.

The weekend finally came, and it was time for Reid's party. I had to admit I was excited to go. Things between me and Reid had changed and I wasn't so embarrassed by what had happened; it's not like I was the only one considering a very similar thing had happened to Kate.

I arrived with Kate in Sarah in my car and pulled into the circular driveway of a massive house. It looked old, and had about a million windows. It was just how I remembered it. I looked around at the other cars, and spotted what I was looking for; Tyler's Hummer. I couldn't help but smile. Kate noticed and gave me a look.

"What?" I asked, threatening her to say something.

"Nothing," she said. I knew that she noticed me looking for his car, and she knew about my crush. She had been suspecting me all week, but my blush just confirmed it.

The three of us walked up the steps and into the house together. No one ever knocked at Reid's parties; they were open invitation. As we walked through the door, we were greeted by an already slightly drunk Reid. He put his arms round both me and Sarah, and attempted to kiss us on the tops of our heads.

"Hello my beautiful ladies," he said, looking particularly happy.

"It's nice to see you too," I said, gently taking his arm off of me as I moved away leaving him there with Sarah and Kate. He was telling them that all the alcohol was free and that later, if they were good he was even going to show them his bedroom. They laughed at him, as Pogue came up and put his arms around Kate's waist. Caleb came over and rescued Sarah by asking her to dance. She gave him a grateful smile.

I found Tyler finishing a game of beer pong with a few other guys. He, like Reid, was already a bit drunk.

"Hi!" he said a little too loudly and I couldn't tame the smile that spread across my face.

"Hi," I said back sipping on some drink that Reid insisted on making for me. It had an energy drink in it, and I was probably going to be off the wall in a few minutes.

"Want to dance with me?" he asked. I was surprised since he claimed he was a bad dancer, but he wasn't that bad.

"Okay," I said, finishing off my drink. He took my hand and led me over to the makeshift dancefloor. He took my waist and we moved to some new rap song. My heart was beating so fast, I thought it was going to fly right of my chest. I wouldn't be surprised if he could hear it even over the loud bass coming form the speakers.

When the song was over, we left the dance floor to get more drinks. I could feel the one Reid had made me and I wanted another one. I looked over to ask if he would make me another, when I saw him macking it to a dark haired girl that I didn't recognize. I didn't want to bother him so I made one myself. I went behind the bar and filled my glass half way with 151, and filled the rest with coke. This would be enough to get me pleasantly intoxicated while allowing me to still make good choices.

Tyler grabbed my hand again and we dragged me back on the dance floor. I tripped a little and be both started laughing. We found Sarah and a stumbling Caleb on the dance floor. It was funny to see the cool, calm, and collected Caleb being goofy. We danced for a while longer and it was really fun. Finally it got really hot in there and I asked Tyler if he wanted to go outside. He said yes, and led me through the crowd to the back door.

We escaped into the cool breeze of the porch and I looked up at the clear night sky. It was still pretty warm out since the autumn chill hadn't had time to settle in yet. We were alone and I still had enough sense to see that this was romantic. Tyler spotted the open pool and looked at me playfully. I knew what he was about to do but in my drunken haze, I didn't do anything to stop him. Even if I wasn't drunk, I don't think I would have stopped him.

He picked me up and threw me over his shoulder just like he had that night at the Dells. I let out a small scream and a laugh. I was so hot and the water would feel so nice. He swung me down and dropped me in the pool. I sat under the water for a few seconds before coming back up. I had a mouth full of water and I spit it at him.

"Hey!" he said, wiping the water off of his face.

"You threw me in, you deserve it. Why don't you come in? The water's really nice." He walked over to the other side of the pool and got on the diving board. He kicked off his shoes and jumped up and down a few times, then leaped sideways, a bit clumsily into the water. He swam the length of the pool under water, then came up next to me in the shallow end. As he came up he spit water in my face.

"Hey!" I exclaimed and retaliated by splashing him. He splashed me back and it was war. He picked me up and dropped me back in the water. I came up laughing. When I surfaced, he was looking at me. He wasn't staring rudely or perverted or anything, it seemed like he was just taking me in. His brilliant blue eyes traced my face and I savored the moment.

"You are beautiful," he said simply. Smiling was an understatement, I was beaming.

"You are to," I said stupidly. He let out a small laugh and reached out and touched my face. Our eyes locked. I was so lost in his clear blue eyes, that I barley noticed him leaning towards me. When our lips met I was surprised, but pleased. I put my arm around his neck, and the other one on his back. He deepened kiss by opening my mouth and slipping his tongue in mine. We stayed like that, for I didn't even know how long, but my toes started to prune and I was getting cold, but I couldn't stop, I didn't want to stop. He noticed me shivering and much to my dismay, he pulled away.

"Do you want to go in?" he wasn't drunk anymore, and but I still a little, but mostly I was tired.

"No I want to stay out here with you." I sounded like a little kid whose parents wanted to put them to bed early.

"I'll come with you," he assured me.

"Do you promise?" I asked, concerned. I didn't want to be separated from him, not even for a second.

"I promise," he said, kissing me again sweetly. He lifted me up and placed me on the edge of the pool, before getting out himself. I was so tired, I couldn't move. Once he was out of the pool, he picked me up and carried me bridal style back into the house. Everyone was gone except for Reid, Caleb, Sarah, Pogue and Kate who were all spending the night. He brought me up the stairs and into a bedroom.

"The spiked energy drinks must have made you crash," he said, while digging through some draws, which I guessed were Reid's. He found a t-shirt and some shorts and brought them over to me as he went into the conjoining bathroom. I changed out of my wet clothes quickly and dumped them unceremoniously onto the floor.

Tyler came out of the bathroom wearing some of Reid's clothes as well.

"Are you alright?" he asked as I flopped down on the big bed.

"Yeah, I'm just tired," I told him with a smile. I cuddled into Reid's bed.

"Okay, I'll let you go to sleep then," he said, heading toward the door.

"No! I want you to stay. Will you stay with me?" I asked a little desperately. I didn't want him to go. I wanted him to stay with me forever.

"Alright," he said with a laugh. "Move over." I moved over on the bed and he got in next to me. I shifted closer to him and put my head on his chest. He put his arms around me. I had never felt so comfortable in my life. I fell asleep almost instantly, and dreamed of our kiss over and over again.

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