CHAPTER THREE: THE SECOND QUEEN

Adam exited Ms. Oh's classroom as casually as possible. It was still his first day back in this hellhole. He had still not seen any fly glimpses of Fiona either. But then again, it had only been an hour and twenty minutes since he'd run into Bianca again for the first time in ten months.

Speaking of Bianca, Adam could see her standing at the end of the hall while talking to Principle Simpson. He didn't look very happy about something. So it looked like Bianca Desousa was still living up to her famous reputations.

Maybe jail really was the only place where people could make a total 180. Well jail and a school filled with two psycho murders.

Simpson pointed a stern finger at Bianca, causing her to flinch slightly. Adam felt the urge to go back and time and put Simpson in a coma instead of poor innocent Wesley.

Bianca crossed her arms and jutted her hip out to the side. Adam found it amusing how she would stand there and ignore any teacher's lecture, and they would never notice it. Or maybe they actually did notice it but were too lazy to say something about it and start up a whole other lecture.

"And I have had it up to here!" Adam overheard Simpson holler. A few passers glanced over and began walking faster when they saw how much of a resemblance Simpson's face had to a tomato.

Simpson finally took a step back from Bianca and sighed, making his face return to it regular color. "Now, you can go spend your lunch with the school counselor. She should be able to give you a small attitude adjustment."

And with that, Principle Simpson spun around on his heel and headed back towards his office. Bianca shot him the finger before noticing Adam leaning against the lockers looking amused.

"I bet you enjoyed that," she sneered at him.

Adam smirked and asked, "What did you do this time?"

"I didn't do much of anything," she confessed. "Simpson's just on his permanent period right now. But it looks like thanks to him, you no longer have a lunch buddy."

Adam had to admit, he was a little heartbroken that Bianca wouldn't be able to eat with him. Well at least he'd brought his lunch today, so he'd probably go eat up in the art room or something.

"Darn, I was really looking forward to it," he sarcastically noted in a low voice. Bianca shoved his shoulder playfully, but she got no boyish grins to arrive in Adam. He was looking so depressed that it made Bianca's heart ache for him. She couldn't imagine what he was going through right now. It had been leaked from someone that he'd been prescribed pills for false sightings of the friends he'd lost that night ten months ago in late December.

And he'd looked so horrible in the hallway when she'd first sighted him. He still looked sick, and every one in awhile he would make a clumsy movement before catching his balance at the last moment. He was sick. Adam Torres was sick with something called the I-just-lost-almost-every-friend-I-have-to-a-psycho-so-now-I'm-practically-loony-with-apathy syndrome.

So Bianca flashed him her kindest smile to try and cheer him up. It didn't do much, but at least she'd snatched his attention back to her instead of the main doors behind her.

"But I'll see you later, okay? Maybe Fiona's roaming the halls."

Bianca gave his cheek a light pat before prancing off to the counselor's office. She must've been there at least four times already just this year. Adam watched her until she was completely out of sight before heading off to his locker.

After spinning around the knob on his locker a good six times, it finally opened for him and let him retrieve his brown paper sack with a sandwich, some potato chips, an apple, and a water bottle inside.

And that's when Adam caught sight of the orange capsule of pills at the bottom of his locker. They must've fallen out of his bag this morning while he was trying to get to class almost completely blind.

He reached for them when a giggle echoed through the empty hall. Adam jumped back almost instantly and peeled the hall with his blue eyes.

"Is someone there?" he called out. There was no answer.

Adam shrugged before turning back to grab the capsule he'd been focused on earlier. He had the pills in his grip when the laughter started up again, only louder this time.

Now he was definite on the fact that he'd just heard the laugh of a friend he hadn't seen in ten months. Idiotically, he dropped his capsule of pills and left his lunch on the floor as he took off in the direction of where he'd heard the laughter.

The laughter made Adam feel warm and almost happy inside. It did this sort of echo through the halls before starting up again. The familiar voice even called out to him by his name a few times.

Adam did a sharp turn around the next corner when he saw them standing there in the hall. They were very much alive as they'd been before they had been murdered.

"Adam," Clare said in a sweet voice, "I knew you'd come."

Eli spoke up next to her. "He'll always come if we call for him, Clare."

He wrapped his arm around Clare's shoulder and shared a warm smile with her. Eli glanced down at his girlfriend and placed a warm kiss to her forehead before glancing back at his shocked friend.

"Why do you look so surprised, Adam?" he asked almost teasingly. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

Adam blinked slowly, and when he opened his eyes his friends were gone. It was like they'd never been there in the first place. Maybe he should've taken one of those stupid pills before chasing after Eli and Clare's distant laughs.

Before Adam left the deserted hallway, he made sure to glance over the place one last time. It was as if he was waiting for Eli to jump out while holding Clare's hand. But he knew that that would never happen. Eli and Clare were both six feet under. It was just something he'd have to accept in time.

He trudged up the stairs in a moping mood. He didn't even go back to where he'd left his lunch and pill capsule on the ground next to his open locker. Anyone could steal something, and Adam wouldn't care if they did.

He just wanted to find somewhere quiet right now. So he trudged his heavy body down the hall and found his way to the art room where he'd shared many laughs with his girlfriend, Fiona.

Adam gave a defeated sigh and entered the art room with his eyes on the ground. It wasn't until he looked up and saw the familiar girl with her back to him with earphones playing Adelle.

He looked her up and down and found himself smiling. Really smiling. She still looked beautiful with her back to him. All Adam wanted to do was sweep her up. But he was scared of what her reaction would be.

Would she smile and hug him tightly like Bianca and Holly J had done? Or would she slap him and start yelling at him about how disappointed she was in him? Either way, he wouldn't know until he tried.

Adam approached her slowly and glanced over her shoulder to see her sketching some kind of exotic purple dress. Classic Fiona.

He cleared his throat, swallowed his pride, and tapped his fingers as gently as possible on her shoulder. Evidently he'd been too gentle because she didn't even glance over. So he tapped on her again, this time a bit more forcefully.

Fiona finished with the curve of her dress before yanking her earphones out. She turned around and asked rudely, "Excusez-moi?"

Her mouth dropped open as soon as she'd said the words. Adam gave her a smile and opened his mouth to say something, but she kissed him with an open mouth before he could say the words forming in his throat.

The kiss surprised him at first, and he just let his arms hang by his sides for a few moments. But then he reached up and pulled her closer while kissing her back.

She finally pulled away and hugged him tighter than ever before he could say the words he'd planned. And he hugged her back just as tightly with his eyes squeezed shut.

"I missed you so much it hurt," she whispered in his ear.

He shushed her and replied, "I know, I know. I'm so sorry I did that to you, Fiona."

They continued to embrace each other in a comfortable silence before they both pulled away and sat next to each other at the table where Fiona had been sketching her purple dress.

"You're not mad at me, then?" Adam asked wondrously.

"Mad at you?" she asked curiously. "Adam, how could I ever be mad at you? We were all going through hard times. I guess physical violence and public intoxication was just your way of letting it out."

Adam didn't respond and instead focused his eyes on the desk. Fiona didn't hesitate to scoot her chair closer and tilt his chin up with her fingers.

"Hey," she smiled, "I'm not mad at you. I love you, Adam. I mean it."

Adam smiled although his eyes were glued on something on the desk farthest from them. "I'm not going back to that, Fiona. I promise."

"Good. I like your face when it's not covered in bruises," she teased him. He smiled against the next kiss they shared while Eli and Clare sat at the farthest table from their friends on the other side of the room.

A/N: Yeah, most of you guys guessed it. I'm putting Bobby in this story. And just to make you happy, he'll be trapped inside the school along with the other main characters I've chosen for this.