The bell for lunch rang loudly, echoing through the halls as students across Summerland High began to pack up their things to start heading to lunch. Alice closed her notebook and began tucking her pen away in her fluffy yellow pencil case, her expression subtly blank as other students began to talk animatedly around her. "Don't forget your essay on the retrieval of memory is due next week Thursday! Don't leave it to the last minute!" The professor called over the buzz of talk as Alice slid her notebook and pencil case into her bag and picked up her text books to leave.

People watched her as she moved past them, stepping between the desks and keeping her eyes ahead as she heard conversations filter into whispers as she got closer. It had been like this for just under a week, ever since news broke of Jasper actually being an Andrew and blurred pictures of her nudity were leaked onto the web for all to see. Whispers and rumours spread through the school, and much like Chinese whispers the ones that got back to her ears seemed to be so far from the truth.

Once back at her locker she quietly put in her pin, hearing the quiet snickers of laughter from behind her. She ignored it well, but as she opened her locker, a sheet of paper fell out and wafted to the floor. Alice glanced down at it after sliding her book into a free slot and bent down to pick it up, ignoring the gathering of quiet laughter from across the hall behind her that was growing to irritate her, even if it was meant to blend in with the buzz of talk in the hallway.

She opened the paper, folding it up since it was only folded it two... and saw a blurred images of her with breasts sketched where hers were meant to be and a badly drawn figure of a man with his face in between them. She assumed the figure was meant to be Andrew, and she exhaled carefully as she continued to stare at it, feeling her heart begin to thud angrily in her chest. She found it amazing, how even in a messed up situation like this, someone managed to twist it to make it into a bad joke for their amusement. She knew some of the rumours had been that she had been sleeping with him, and that was obviously why he hadn't kidnapped or hurt her like the rest. She was being labelled as the girl who seduced the serial killer to escape death, and the amount of 'survivors guilt' some students, and even some parents, were trying to make her feel almost made her want to feel it.

The picture was suddenly taken from her hands, and Alice felt her heart jump as she had zoned out and hadn't noticed someone approach her. "What the fuck is this?" Magnus asked, his voice tense and angry as he stared down at the image.

"Nothing," Alice replied, taking the image back and scrunching it up. They had barely spoken since Monday, considering Alice still felt the stinging of anger in her chest. Their argument hadn't stopped them being around each other, but the tension was there nevertheless.

Magnus glanced up and around him, hearing the quiet chuckles seconds before the group of boys even noticed him there. His eyes focussed on one of them making an inappropriate gesture with his hands and his temper flared. He continued to stare angrily for a few seconds, and the boy felt the burn of it and looked back over, only to suddenly stop laughing as he saw Magnus glaring him.

They turned and filtered away into the sea of students in the hall before Magnus could comment, however he made sure to remember the faces of every person that had been in that group. "Since when did people start doing this?" Magnus asked as Alice stuffed her back into her locker and began to close it.

"Just today." She replied simply, tucking one side of her hair behind her ear and turning away to make her way towards the library. Magnus followed, his long strides putting him into step with her within a few seconds.

"Are you still not going to talk to me today?" He asked, the calmness in his voice irritating Alice a little as she glanced around her, seeing people whispering or looking her over, only to look guilty as she caught them side glancing her.

"I have been talking to you." Alice replied in the same blank voice she'd been using all week. She pushed open the door to the courtyard and let it go as she walked through, meaning Magnus had to catch it before it thumped it. He watched her angrily for a second before continuing to follow.

"So you're going to keep this shit up then, I'm assuming." He snapped, his voice loud enough for Alice to hear. She stopped and felt the sting of her temper flare and inhaled slowly, trying to control her sudden urge to shout.

"What?" She asked, turning around to face him, feeling the slightly chilly wind begin to tickle her face as it brushed strands of her hair across her skin.

"This shit you're doing," Magnus continued, taking the few steps to close the gap between them. "Short answers, walking off, you barely let me touch you-"

"Are you stupid?" Alice snapped, her eyes widening as she felt her temper break through the resistance and crawl up her throat. "Are you so incapable of empathy that you cannot understand why I'm mad at you?" She snapped again, making Magnus's expression harden at the insult. "Or maybe you just don't care!"

"Alice." Magnus warned as a pair of students walked past and glanced at them, wondering what was happening after hearing the end of Alice's sentence.

"Do you not care? Is that it? Because I'm genuinely interested to hear the reason behind why you're so happy to follow me around but have yet to apologise!" Alice gasped angrily, now staring into his eyes.

"If you don't want me around you then I'll go." He replied simply, and almost saw the anger intensify in Alice's eyes even though her expression didn't change. She swallowed and leant away from him, reaching up to move some hair from her face and tuck it behind her ears whilst she exhaled carefully.

"Then go." She replied in a calm voice before turning away and continuing towards the library. Her dismissiveness irritated Magnus, and he turned away to leave too but stopped, looking back towards Alice as she walked away, wondering why she had suddenly calmed down so quickly. She didn't turn around like he expected her to as he stared, and she vanished behind the door to the library and left him to stand there in silence. His own temper bubbled away beneath the surface and he walked off finally, feeling his phone vibrate in his pocket and assumed it was Trey wondering where he was.

When he finally reached the parking lot, he saw Charlie and Trey waiting by his car, looking slightly confused until they saw him approaching. "Where'd you go?" Trey asked since they'd assumed he'd be waiting for them but hadn't been there when they'd arrived.

"I was with Alice." He replied bluntly, his evident bad mood written all over his face as he unlocked his car and aggressively pulled open the driver's door.

"Oh," Trey replied, glancing at Charlie who made a face at him. "Trouble in paradise?" He asked as he got into the passenger seat and Charlie got in behind him.

"She's still fucked off with me because of the media thing." Magnus spat, "I didn't know they were going to put the pictures up as well, it's not like I asked them specifically to post her fucking nudes and she's acting as if this is all my damn fault." He continued angrily, putting the car in reverse to get out of the parking space without looking. He swerved the car back, slamming his foot on the break then drove away aggressively, not noticing the couple of students who had to jump back in order to not get hit. "She won't talk to me, she will barely look at me, then she asked if I was stupid."

"Ouch." Charlie murmured, unsure of what to say.

"Dude I mean-" Trey began as he scratched the back of his head, noticing how frustrated Magnus was as he drove about ten miles above the speed limit. "Can you really blame her?" He said anyway, and Magnus stayed silent, even though he could feel his heart thumping angrily in his chest. He fought the urge to spit acid at Trey, since the only time Trey ever disagreed with him was usually when he felt he needed to. "She is in a really vulnerable place right now, and some of the shit I hear people saying about her is kind of fucked up."

"What are they saying?" Magnus asked, flexing his hands on the steering wheel as he turned into the Tim Horton's parking lot.

"Things like how she was sleeping with that guy-man to keep herself from being killed. And how she actually knew about it all happening and shit, I doubt people believe it but they're talking about it anyway." Trey replied, glancing back at Charlie who pursed his lips.

"Yeah and some online places have been going through her social media and talking about her clothes and stuff, saying she's provocative..." Charlie added carefully, remembering seeing some of his classmates looking at the websites in class.

"They are?" Magnus replied, his voice lowering as he realised he hadn't kept up with it as much as he should have. He'd deliberately stopped looking for it, stopped looking at his phone, tuned the gossip out and continued to mind his own business... He felt the more he ignored it the quicker it would all filter away and the faster Alice would forget about it too. He'd pushed the usual routine, managing to twist it in his mind that everything was fine. And in reality it was, for him, for his friends... but for another significant person in his life, her life was now very much different in more ways than one. He felt a strange twist in his stomach as he thought about it... He was too used to living his life in his own bubble, not having to think about what his actions would do to affect others. He'd been so caught up on keeping himself out of it, he hadn't realised how much he'd thrown Alice in it. "Maybe I am stupid." He muttered without thinking.

Trey raised his eyebrows whilst Charlie decided to stay out of it, each of them quietly thinking the same thing. They were aware their minds worked differently to Magnus's, but they knew even he should've known that this wasn't going to end well for someone. They felt slithers of guilt move through their blood stream, having watched in silence from afar the rumours spread like wildfire throughout the school knowing they could've stepped in.

Each of them sat in silence in Magnus's car, watching the seconds tick by as they became aware that they were feeling bad for Alice Murphy.

"You guys should go in, I've got some shit to sort out." Magnus finally said, returning his voice to his usual calm tone. "But I need you guys to do something for me, too." He added before they could leave, causing Trey and Charlie to raise their eyebrows. "There's this kid, about five-nine, mousy blonde hair, brown eyes, and these three spots across his chin in a line right here." He began, pointing to his chin. "I need you to find him when you can." He said, lowing his voice so Charlie and Trey knew exactly what he was talking about.

"Sure, we can do that." Trey replied, putting his hand on the door handle of the car and opening it. Charlie did the same, getting out just as Magnus turned the engine back on, the description of the kid Magnus had asked them to find sticking in their mind. The door closed seconds before Magnus pulled out of the parking space, turning away and driving a little too fast out of the parking lot...

"You wanna know what I think?" Charlie began as they walked side by side towards the entrance of the restaurant just as it began to rain. "I think this whole thing is gonna change him."

"Change him how?" Trey asked, opening the door and letting Charlie walk in first.

"Thanks. But did you see that look on his face?" Charlie continued, "When has he ever had that look on his face? I can't believe he actually felt guilty. Her vagina must be like where the entrance to heaven is."

"Charlie." Trey scoffed, screwing up his face as they walked up to the counter to order.

"What? I'm being serious. There is something about her, I can sense it." Charlie continued, as he tapped his temple, now pausing his sentence to order as Trey rubbed his forehead. "I just mean like... it's crazy considering what that girl has gone through. She found a... body... not even a flinch. She stole the same body from a damn hospital and got it done in thirteen minutes dude. Could I have done that? No. I'd definitely fuck it up. Candice went into full break down mode and Alice barely batted an eyelash. She got put in a hole to die, twice, man. She got out. She is either the devil or- or... I don't know, because I don't know a single person that would still be able to get out of bed after all that shit."

"Well, when you put it like that..."

"Who is this girl." Charlie replied with wide eyes, "Have you ever been put in a hole to die, Trey?"

"Um, no-"

"Crazy." Charlie scoffed as he bit into his burger. "I might be in love with her too, I don't even know now. She could kick my ass, I'm sure of it."

"To be honest it makes sense as to why Magnus is so... you know." Trey replied as he sipped his coffee. "But I think he definitely needs to apologise, after everything we just talked about I doubt Alice will let this go easily."

"Do you think we should apologise too?" Charlie asked, and Trey looked up at him with slight confusion as he was just about to bite into his own burger. "We have played a part in this too, like it's not all Magnus's fault. And it would help Magnus's case anyway. Last thing we want is for him to get dumped or something and he ends up taking it out on us..." he continued in a lower voice as Trey thought about it.

"We could always say something next time we see her." Trey mumbled, thinking quietly to himself how different his life had become. He barely spoke to his sister, who either spent most of her time in her room or at various friend's houses... He was watching his best friend fall in love and spend nearly all his time with his girl. Their routine was slowly changing... and he couldn't help but feel that Magnus would only drift further away from them as Alice started to become more of a priority...

... At the same time across town, Alice was sat at a table on her own in the library, skim reading a psychology text book on memories and brain function... She sipped her coffee quietly, trying her best to ignore the lump in her throat as her mind kept replaying each negative thing that had happened that week. She could feel it when other students were staring at her, and glanced up to catch them several times, but almost like addicts for gossip they couldn't seem to stop glancing over to look at her.

Alice rubbed her cheek as she lowered her head slightly, turning her body away from the majority of the students and felt her heart jump suddenly as someone sat down opposite her. "Hey," Fei breathed, moving her hair out of her face before she placed her packed lunch down on the white table. "Are you not eating today?" Fei asked, opening the lid of her Tupperware box.

"Not hungry," Alice replied quietly, tucking some of her hair back behind her ears she glanced back down at her book. Fei looked over at her, furrowing her eyebrows a little as she heard Alice's tone of voice.

"Are you okay?" She asked carefully, knowing she'd asked that question every day that week but today seemed different. Alice's cheeks began to turn a little red, and she licked her lips as she nodded, but from across the table Fei could see her eyes beginning to water. "Oh, Alice-" she cooed, about to get up to sit closer to her but Alice shook her head.

"No," She replied quickly, "I don't want to focus on it, can we just talk about something else?"

"It's good to talk about these things," Fei replied, feeling a little worried since Alice's body language seemed to scream defeat. She hadn't been herself since Monday, and although Fei knew why, she worried about why Alice didn't seem to want to react or talk about it.

"I know but..." Alice mumbled, licking her lips again and then sighing as she felt them drying. She reached into her jeans pocket and pulled out her lip balm, feeling the urge to cry just reaching the tipping point but she continued to force it back down. "I just don't want to think about it."

"Okay," Fei sighed, her voice quiet now as she watched Alice for a few seconds longer. "So have you seen Magnus today?" She asked, changing the subject to something that she assumed would cheer Alice up but she only nodded and seemed to crumble her expression slightly. "Okay, wrong topic, um..." Fei panicked, looking around for something to talk about when her eyes landed on Alice's flower pendant that hung delicately around her neck. "Oh my god, when did you get that?!" she gasped softly, leaning closer from where she was on the other side of the table as she recognised it. "That's Tiffany's right?"

"Um, yeah. Mags gave it to me." Alice mumbled, reaching up to touch the necklace and exhaled softly. She wished in that moment that he could understand why she was mad at him, or even if he did, she wished he would care enough to try and patch things up between them instead of getting mad at her. It was strange for her, since she knew she could care more about the photos and the fact that people were making up insane rumours about her, but she was more angry and upset about the fact Magnus didn't care enough about it.

"He must really, really like you then." Fei chuckled in quiet disbelief as she remembered looking at the price of pendant and whining sadly a few weeks back.

"Why?" Alice asked, furrowing her eyebrows as she continued to fiddle with the necklace.

"It's like... I feel weird telling you, it was a gift." Fei smiled, waving it off even though Alice's curiosity now intensified.

"Tell me what?" She persisted, her tone telling Fei that she was only going to keep asking.

"I-" Fei began but stopped herself as she made a face. "Mmm.. I feel weird!"

"Fei just say it!" Alice gasped and Fei flapped her hands before she spilt.

"The necklace is almost thirty thousand dollars," she blurted quickly and as quietly as she could. "It's platinum and diamonds, Alice. No one would buy that kind of jewellery for just anyone." Fei continued, "Like... Tiffany&Co is a romantic brand."

Alice blinked in quiet shock and glanced down at the pendant, wondering why it looked so different now that she knew how much it was worth. "Thirty-K is peanuts to Magnus." she replied quietly, "I don't think it means all that much to him, he probably just thought it would look nice on me. Like, we've only been dating for, like, two minutes." She mumbled, even though she knew it had almost been a month, it still wasn't very long.

"That still speaks volumes to me," Fei replied, as she picked up her fork and dug it into her pasta salad. "I say he's whipped. I'd happily bet money on it."

Alice smiled a little, caressing her thumb over the necklace and staring at a space on the table... she could hear the what if's- beginning to start and shook her head, exhaling heavily as she let go of the necklace. "I'll bet you fifty cents it doesn't mean anything."