New chapter!

HEAD UP, HEART DOWN

Was it possible to become completely invisible? Pulling up to school in her car, Eve spent a couple of minutes sat silently in the driver's seat, contemplating whether she should just turn the car around.

No, she told herself. She couldn't put off going to school, her education wouldn't suffer because of her personal life. She thought back a couple of months to when she rejected Jack and didn't come into school full-stop. Running away didn't help matters then – if anything, it made it worse - and it wouldn't help this time.

With a deep breath, she applied a fresh coat of lipgloss, ran her fingers through her tousled curls and got out of the car, locking it in the process. She was five minutes late so classes had began and the parking lot was almost totally empty, allowing her to begin her walk in peace. When she got inside, the school halls were also reasonably empty, only a scattering of hall monitors telling her she needed to get her ass into gear. The lingering students would glance in her direction.

So news of her breakup with Jack had got out.

Of course, she shouldn't have cared – after all, he was the jerk and she'd broken up with him – but she did care. It was no-one else's business yet somehow people felt they had a right to know - the unfortunate tag that came with being a cheerleader.

Approaching her English class, Eve's stomach was doing furious somersaults. Everyone would know what'd happened and the only people in her class she was friends with were Brie and Nikki. Eve had quit the team; there was no way any of the cheerleaders would stick by her. She wrapped her hand around the handle, pushed open the door and felt twenty six pairs of eyes flicker in her direction.

"Sorry I'm late," Eve said quickly, taking her usual seat in front of the twins, making sure she didn't meet their gaze.

"Glad you decided to show up, Miss Torres," Mrs Ainsbury said from the front of the class, frowning at the late arrival. "Please take out your copy of The Crucible and turn to act three."

Eve did as she was told, fumbling in her bag for the book, quickly finding the page and getting lost in the story for the next forty five minutes. Unlike most of the class, Eve enjoyed The Crucible and loved losing herself in a book; sympathising with the characters and comparing the story to real life. She thought of the manipulative Abigail Williams and her anti-compassionate attitude. Similar to a certain head cheerleader, Eve thought, holding back a smirk.

"Good morning, Beverly Hills High juniors," The voice on the PA system was that of fellow junior Ashley Valance. President of the events committee, captain of the debate and volleyball team, general hottie and pretty much anything else you can think of. Oh, and she read the morning announcements. Duh.

Ashley Valance isn't the kind of girl that would conspire against you in a plan for her ex to take your virginity.

"The votes for this year's prom king and queen nominees have been cast..."

The potential kings were announced first; Jack, Miz, Kofi and John Morrison. Despite any personal vendettas Eve held, she decided these were reasonably predictable.

"And for prom queen," Ashley's peppy voice came through into the classroom. "Ashley Valance – that's me. Thanks everyone!"

Insert peppy giggles that made Eve want to throw something at the speaker.

"Maryse Ouellet, Alicia Fox and Eve Torres."

The Latina froze as every pair of eyes in the classroom once again fell on her, bringing a blush to her cheeks. Before, she'd have been thrilled to be nominated, but now? It felt wrong. Like she didn't deserve it.

"I guess I should be congratulating you, Miss Torres." Mrs Ainsbury smiled, lacking genuineness; however the bell rang before she could offer anymore fake praises. "I want everyone to read the final act for homework and I'll know if you don't, because there's an act four pop quiz next class!"

The class filtered out of the room almost instantly, even Mrs Ainsbury left to have a cigarette in the teacher's lounge, leaving Eve to pack up in silence. Unsurprisingly, Brie and Nikki – who'd normally have waited for Eve – were the first two to go. Eve wasn't shocked, nor did she blame them; Maryse wouldn't be happy if they hung around.

Slinging her bag over her shoulder and her posture sloping slightly due to the heavy weight of it, Eve made her way out of the classroom, only to be greeted by the last person she expected to want to talk to her.

"Hey," It was Tiffany. The girl she'd been too shallow to ever attempt to regain friendship with.

"Hi."

"Congratulations on your prom queen nomination," Unlike Mrs Ainsbury, Tiffany sounded like she actually cared. Eve thought to herself that Tiffany was the kind of girl that should've been nominated; she was beautiful, smart, kind...but she just wasn't Beverly Hills. She'd have been the queen of a smaller town. "You've got my vote."

"Seriously?"

Tiffany nodded. "Well, I hate Maryse and Alicia and if Ashley Valance wins junior prom queen, her ego will gain its own gravitational field. So that leaves you."

Eve laughed her first real, honest laugh in days. "Thank you."

Slipping into the empty seat at the lunch table – a seat always reserved for her – Maryse noticed a both uncomfortable and uncommon silence between the girls.

Alicia, who'd been a total basket case since her break-up with Kofi, was even quieter than usual, sat stabbing at her plate of green leaves, as if she were trying to tame it. Brie and Nikki were sharing a smoothie, their straws intertwining in the thick liquid, so they'd have to occasionally prise them apart. Rosa wasn't even attempting to busy herself; she sat staring at nothing until Maryse arrived, that was when her head snapped up to look at the blonde.

Maryse decided to ignore the tension, instead sipping at her smoothie before wrinkling up her nose. "No wonder you guys aren't drinking much," She pointed at the twins' full glass. "Tastes of shit."

"Where's Eve?" Alicia piped up, still poking her salad. It was as if she wasn't even aware of the tension and it was just a simple question.

With a bored sigh, Maryse looked up at her friends. "Eve withdrew herself from the squad."

There was a collective furrowing of brows around the table, as each cheerleader digested what the head had just told them. They already knew that; a collective Blackberry email from Maryse informed them all that they were one woman down.

"You never told us why," Brie spoke up, pushing her smoothie aside.

"Why did she leave the squad?" Nikki chipped in.

"And don't tell us that it's because of her and Jack, because that's bullshit."

Maryse arched an eyebrow; since when did Brie Bella grow a pair? Normally she preferred Brie, she had more common sense than Nikki, but right now, she was getting on her last nerve; this demanding bitch attitude wasn't going to make her popular with the head cheerleader.

"Maryse, we just want to know what's going on," Rosa said softly, trying to reason with her best friend.

"I don't know why you're all trying to turn this around on me," Maryse snapped. "I didn't kick here off the squad; she chose to leave herself-"

"Yeah, but you're the only one who knows why." Rosa added. "Miz told me that he and Jack made a bet to see who could screw Eve first-"

"And I knew about it." Maryse finished. "I knew about it and I enjoyed it because I hate Eve Torres. She didn't like that I knew all along so she left the squad. We managed before she came along, and we'll manage now she's gone." She looked around the table at the stunned expressions. "Now, can we move on? We've got the state cheerleading cup to think about in June-"

"How can you think we stand a chance at that without Eve?" Brie raised an eyebrow in a similar manner to Maryse earlier on. "Before we had Eve, yeah, we were good, but now we have the potential to win the whole state contest. Then we could go to nationals! Come on, Maryse, we need Eve-"

"We don't 'need' Eve-"

"Why don't you shove your pride aside for a minute and think about the team instead of your own selfish needs?" First Brie, now Nikki was giving her attitude? Maryse was shocked; it must be twin time of the month.

"Maybe you girls should remember your places." Maryse hissed, not wanting to cause a commotion in front of the whole cafeteria, "I'm the captain and therefore, I make the important decisions. And I say we're doing this without Eve."

Brie looked over at Nikki, who nodded back at her. Twin intuition at its finest. "If we're doing it without Eve, you're gonna have to do it without us." Without saying anymore words, both twins rose to their feet and left the cafeteria. The squad was down to three.

Maryse scoffed, looking at the door they'd just exited out of. "Whatever, they were the weak links anyway." She looked over at Rosa. "So is it still alright for me to-"

"Sorry, Maryse, I want to be on your side..." Her voice trailed off as she swung her handbag over her shoulder. "But the twins are right. We're a team – it's all or nothing. And that includes Eve." She went to kiss Maryse on the cheek, but the blonde turned her head so she couldn't. "Text me when you've calmed down."

Looking over at the last remaining cheerleader on the table, Maryse sighed. "And I suppose you're going to get up and leave in a minute too, right?"

Alicia looked up from her salad, having blanked out the whole conversation. "Huh?"

And Maryse thought Brie and Nikki were the weak links.

The lunchtime sun beat down on the courtyard so most of the students were sat outside, soaking up the rays. Arriving later than most, Eve, Kelly and Tiffany managed to find a small shady spot underneath one of the trees before pulling out their cafeteria lunches.

"There's a hair in my sandwich," Tiffany pulled out a thin black hair from between the slices of bread. "And it's definitely not mine."

"Ew," Kelly slapped Tiffany's hand so the hair blew away in light wind. Both blondes stopped giggling when they looked over at Eve, who was frowning. Kelly, who was closer to Eve than Tiffany, leaned over to touch her friend's knee. "Aww, sweetie, how're you feeling?"

"Like shit." Eve allowed herself to smile. "Even the whole prom queen thing just seems awful. I should be ecstatic but all I can think of is how with homecoming in a couple of weeks, I'm going to be dateless."

"Hey, we're going to be dateless too." Tiffany nudged the brunette encouragingly. "I'll be your date." She looked over at Kelly. "Or we can be a prom three-way. Like Three's Company or something."

"Actually," Kelly laced her fingers together and stretched them out in front of her. "I don't know if I'm going to be coming to prom."

"What?" Both Tiffany and Eve looked at the beauty in disbelief.

"You can't not come to prom." Tiffany announced. "And it's not even just a normal prom, it's homecoming. Everyone comes to homecoming!"

"I need you there, Kelly." Eve decided to use her current sad state to her advantage. "I need all the moral support I can get. Plus, if on the rare chance I do win prom queen, I want you to be there to see it."

"Sorry guys, I said I'd work an extra night at the Grape Vine." Actually, Kelly offered to work another night at the restaurant. Her recent encounters with Kofi had showed her she wasn't ready to go to homecoming and fake a smile whilst he showed up with some pretty girl on his arm. It'd be way too painful for her.

"Oh my God," Eve whispered. "Ted's over there."

All three swivelled their heads to look over at one of the nearby buildings Ted was exiting from, along with Cody and a couple of other guys from their class. He'd yet to notice Eve, but she'd definitely seen him.

"I can't talk to him right now." Eve quickly gathered up her books and before the blondes could even attempt to talk to her, she'd dashed out of the courtyard towards the girls bathroom.

"What was that about?" Having only made up with Eve around a couple of hours earlier, the whole story had yet to be told to her.

"It's a long story," Kelly muttered.

"Hey," They both looked up and saw Ted walking towards them, leaving the group of guys behind. "Where'd Eve go?"

"She... had to..."

"Go to the bathroom?" Tiffany quickly added with a shrug.

Ted wasn't an idiot. Eve had been ignoring him ever since they spent that night together and he'd heard all about her break up with Jack. Everything. But that didn't mean she had a reason to ignore him. "Is she mad at me?" He asked Kelly. Other than him, she was Eve's best friend and surely knew everything.

"She just needs some space at the moment," Kelly told Ted sympathetically. "Just give her some time."

The thing was, all he'd given her was time.

Perhaps Maryse has had a taste of her just deserts :)
And will Kelly show up at homecoming?
Leave a review and find out in the next chapter! Xx