I wake up with a start. Feeling my body, I realize that I didn't wake up because of the pain or fire. If it wasn't that, then what did I wake up to?

Suddenly, a long howl fills the silence. Shivers run down my spine at the noise. The howl ends and another one starts up immediately. I am frozen as the howls continue. They don't seem to stop. I didn't know there were wolves this close. I guess it makes sense because we are surrounded by forest.

My thoughts are interrupted by another howl, though this one seems to be from right outside my window. I stop breathing. They seem so close.

Another howl, louder than the rest and also seems like it is right outside the house, sounds and the howls stop. I wait a couple minutes and there aren't any more. My breathing slowly starts returning.

I lay back down from my sitting position and look at the clock. It says that I still have four hours of sleep left. I try to close my eyes and relax, but they don't want to close.

Why are there wolves so close to the house? I know that there's a forest surrounding the house, but wouldn't the wolves know to stay away from people? Shivers again dart down my spine as I think of how close they actually were.

I stare at my clock, watching the numbers change. Eventually, my eyes start closing and I start relaxing. Before I realize it, I fall into sleep once again.

A loud beeping noise fills the air. I groan as I turn around to face my alarm clock. My arm feels heavy as I lift it, only to let it slam down on the snooze button. I turn back around with a sigh, only to hear my dad's shout to get up. I groan again.

"I'm up, promise." I yell back, hoping he will leave me alone now. True to my word, I sit up and stretch my arms up into the air. I turn and put my feet on the floor, stand up, and do a full body stretch.

About twenty minutes later, I stand in front of the mirror and observe myself. I look healthier than I was just a few days ago, and not only that, but I feel healthier. I smile at myself in the mirror.

I turn around and walk out of my room. I jog downstairs and walk into the kitchen. Grabbing an apple and my lunchbox from the fridge, I walk over to my backpack and put my lunchbox in it while taking a bite from the apple.

"Hey sweetie, ready to go?" Mom says as she comes into the kitchen.

"Yep." I respond cheerfully.

"Alright, here's the keys," she throws me the keys, "go start the car and I'll be out in a minute."

I nod my head and put my backpack over my shoulders. With the keys in my hand, I walk out into the garage and open the garage door.

As it opens, I notice a sleek, dark blue car, that I've never seen before, sitting across the street. I watch the car out of the corner of my eye as I unlock our car and get in. Once in, I adjust the mirror so I can watch the car. It's suspicious, just sitting there with no one getting our or getting in.

The door to the house opens and my mom comes out. She walks over to the drivers side and gets in.

"Why didn't you start the car?"

"I forgot, sorry," I say absentmindedly, "who's car is that?"

My mom glances in the mirror, "Probably the neighbors or their friend's. Does it matter?"

"No," I say quickly, "it's just, it's a nice car."

"Yeah, I guess." She responds and starts the car. We back out and pass the car and start driving towards the school. I watch the car grow smaller through the mirror.

Suddenly, right before the car is about to disappear from my sight, it makes a U-turn and starts following us. It keeps it's distance, making sure that it stays small in the mirror. What the hell?

"Mom, the car's following us." I whisper like the car can hear us.

She looks in the mirror and sighs, "It's probably a student Evangeline. What's got you so worked up?"

In the back of my mind, I hear the wolves howling, "Nothing. You're right. It's just a student." Even I don't sound convincing to my ears.

"Did you hear anything last night?" I ask suddenly.

"Besides your father's snores, no," she chuckles, "why? Did you hear something?"

I pause, "I think I heard the house creaking during the night."

"It is an old house. It'll make noise. Is that what has you so nervous this morning?" Mom asks.

"Yeah, probably."

We settle into silence for the rest of the ride. My eyes never stray from the mirror as I watch the car follow us at a distance. In my peripheral vision, I see the school. Mom pulls into the school parking lot and drives to the front of the school so I can get out. Before she stops the car, I watch the blue car speed up and drive past the school.

Mom stops the car and I open the door quickly, "Bye mom."

"Bye sweetie." She responds before I shut the door.

I turn around and walk quickly into the school. I hope I can find Josh before school and tell him about the car. I would think he would know it because he's lived here longer and seems to know a lot more people than I do.

Shit! Mr. Johnston's Romeo and Juliet quiz. I forgot I needed to take it this morning. I quickly change my direction and head to my communications classroom. I walk there quickly, hoping that he won't be too mad I'm a little late.

I walk into the classroom, "Mr. Johnston, I'm sorry I'm late. I almost forgot."

He smiles, "You're fine, Evie. Right on time, I have the quiz right here," he holds up a piece of paper, "pick a seat and I'm pretty sure you will finish it before school starts."

"Thank you." I respond as I walk to a desk to put my backpack down. I put it down and turn around and walk to Mr. Johnston's desk and grab the quiz. I return to the desk and get out a pencil.

For the next fifteen minutes, I take the quiz. It was surprisingly really easy. I found myself filling in every blank quickly, which might be due to the fact that I've already read Romeo and Juliet. With five minutes left before school starts, I hand in the finished quiz.

"Thanks Mr. Johnston." I say back as I walk to the door.

"No problem." He responds.

I walk out of the classroom and head to history. I groan at the prospect of seeing Ashton again. I don't know what the hell's going on with him. He needs to leave me alone. Isn't that what he wanted in the first place, for me to leave him alone? Well, he needs to return the favor.

I walk into history and again am surprised to see Ashton already sitting at our table. As soon as I take my first step towards our table, Ashton's head shoots up and my eyes are immediately caught in his gaze. His eyes scan my face as I continue walking to the table. I break eye contact when I set my backpack down on the floor and sit down. I can still feel his eyes looking at me, though for what, I don't know.

He breaks the silence, "Where were you this morning?"

I scoff, "None of your business."

"It is my business. I was waiting for you, here." His voice turns hard.

"My life is not your business and I don't need anyone waiting for me," my voice is also a little harder, "especially you." I say quieter. Who the hell does he think he is? Why can't he leave me alone?

His gaze drops and he turns his head to face the front of the room. I keep my eyes at the front of the room.

"The project's done. I turned it in this morning." Ashton whispers, extremely quietly. So quietly in fact, that I'm not sure that's what he said.

"Excuse me?" I exclaim, quickly turning my head to face him. He slowly turns to face me and can see sadness in his eyes.

"I turned in our project this morning," Ashton says loud enough for me to be positive he did say that, "sorry about making you do it by yourself earlier." Regret is clear in his voice.

I sit there stunned. How the hell am I supposed to respond to that? I stare at him, waiting for the punchline of the joke, because he's got to be kidding. But Ashton doesn't say anything. He sits there, staring back into my eyes.

"Alright class," Mr. Holland starts class, but I block out whatever he's about to say. Ashton breaks our eye contact when he turns to face Mr. Holland. I continue to stare at the right side of his face, still unbelieving that he actually did something even remotely nice.

"Get to it." Mr. Holland's voice breaks me out of my trance. I look to the front of the room, hoping that I can catch up on what in missed, but Mr. Holland had already reached his desk. Conversations drift toward me as I realize we're supposed to work with our table partner.

"Well, since the project's done, I guess we can immediately start on the class work." Ashton's voice cuts through our table's silence.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" The outburst comes out of my mouth without my consent.

"What do you mean?" Ashton asks me, his voice guarded.

My mouth just doesn't know when to stop, "Do you think I can't do a project? Do you think I'm going to mess it up? Am I really that bad that I can't do a simple project? You have to do everything and turn it in by yourself, making me look like the person who's been lacking off. What's wrong with you?"

Ashton looks taken aback by my outburst. Even I don't know where it came from. I don't say anything after that and silence settles over us again. I look away from Ashton's gaze and instead look at the table.

"Listen," Ashton starts and I feel his hand on my shoulder. Sparks erupt from the contact, "I'm sorry, you have no idea how much, but I am sorry I was making you do all the work. I thought the only way to make that up to you was to do the whole project myself, and give you most of the credit for it."

The sparks kept on increasing as Ashton talked and it was hard to concentrate on anything other than the sparks. Though somehow, Ashton's voice got through the intensity of the sparks. And I was surprised to hear what he said. It didn't sound like him at all. With that in mind, I shrug off his hand.

"Please don't touch me." I mumble. Ashton's hand drops down to his side. He opens his mouth like he wants to say something, but I cut him off before he can say anything.

"And like I said yesterday, I don't want your stupid apology."

The rest of the class passed very slowly and very silently between Ashton and myself. I didn't want to work with him, so I did the partner work by myself. Ashton must of taken the hint to leave me alone because he started doing the partner work by himself. He looked like he was arguing with someone, though there was no one around and he wasn't talking. I decided to completely ignore him.

The bell rang and I packed up my stuff as quickly as possible, unable to deal with the silence any longer. I stand up and start walking to the door.

"Evie." A shudder goes down spine when Ashton says my name. I ignore it as I walk out of the room. I walk quickly to math class.

Surprisingly, I am in the class before Josh. I go to my seat and sit down. A loud sigh comes out of my mouth. What the hell was that? I put my head in my hands and sigh again.

"What's bothering you, darlin'?" A southern accented voice comes from my right. I look over and find Josh smiling at me. When I don't smile back, his smile falls into a concerned face.

"What's wrong?" Josh asks, concern clear in his voice. His eyes dart everywhere, his nostrils flare and he starts to turn his head so he can see almost the entire room. Josh's body tenses like he's about to run, and his hand grabs my wrist like he's going to pull me with him if he runs.

"Wow Josh. Calm down, I'm just," I sigh and search my brain for the right words but I can't think of any, "I don't know."

"What's wrong?" Josh repeats, still looking tense, but his eyes dart to mine and I see concern shining through.

"Josh, calm down," I repeat, "it's nothing. I'm just a little confused on some things."

"Oh," Josh's body relaxes, "well what are you confused about?"

I hesitate, not sure if I want to tell Josh what's going, "Just some school stuff that I missed. It's hard to catch up on everything in every class." I lie.

Josh looks a little disappointed at my answer, "Oh, well do you need some help on some stuff?"

I smile at his offer, "No, but I'll let you know."

"Evie," our conversation is interrupted by Mrs. Flemington, "would you like to take the test today?"

"Yes I would." I respond, feeling lucky that I studied last night.

"Alright, please come up and get your test. Then if you could go into the hall to take your test so I could pass out the graded tests." Mrs. Flemington says absentmindedly as she go through the many papers on her desk.

I stand up, grab my binder so I can write on a hard surface, and walk to her desk. When I reach the desk, she hands me a test and I go directly to the hallway. Once in the hallway, I lay down across from the room and start my test.

The door opens and Mrs. Flemington steps out of the room, "Evie, class is over in two minutes. Are you almost done?"

"Oh yes, I just have to put down my last answer." I respond quickly. I didn't realize time could go so fast. I turn back towards my test, and hearing a small click telling me that Mrs. Flemington went back into the room, I put down my answer for the last question. I stand up with my test and walk back into the room.

I spot Josh's scowl when I walk in. I smirk to myself and walk to Mrs. Flemington's desk. I hand her my test, to which she smiles, and I walk back to my desk.

"Why so down?" I ask Josh mockingly.

Josh scowls, "I got a 'B'."

I laugh at him, "I told you not to gloat."

"You never told me any such thing!" Josh exclaims, his hands flailing around.

"You just didn't listen." I say like a parent scolding his or her child. A smile threatens to break out on my face at Josh's flustered expression. I know I really didn't say that, but it's too much fun watching Josh's expressions.

Josh opens his mouth but is interrupted by the bell. I laugh at him and pack up my stuff. I stand up and hoist my backpack on shoulders and walk to the front of the classroom where I wait for Josh.

Josh sluggishly hoists his backpack on his shoulders and walks to the front of the room where I am.

"Oh cheer up Josh." I mock him.

"Shut up. I wanted an 'A'." He mumbles.

I shrug my shoulders and start walking out of the classroom. Josh walks next to me, still acting sluggish.

I sigh, "Josh, you're bringing my good mood down." I emphasis 'my'.

He smiles at me, "Good."

"Bastard." I mumble.

"Don't be rude." Josh takes on the tone I had in the classroom, a scolding parent.

"Bye Josh." Coincidentally, my next class comes up. I speed up and quickly walk into the classroom before Josh can respond. I rush to my desk and quickly put my backpack down.

"Bye Evie." Josh shouts through the doorway. Damn it!

Sighing at my failure, I look around for Katherine. My search also fails to find her.

"She's not here today." Delilah's voice makes me jump.

"Oh, okay." My good mood again takes a beating.

Class starts and Mr. Johnston repeats the Romeo and Juliet scene instructions and lets us get to work. My group gets together and continues our work from yesterday.

We discuss and start writing our script, with the language straight from the book like Katherine wanted. Completely caught up in our work, I didn't hear the lunch bell go off until I noticed other students around us packing their stuff and heading out the door.

"I guess we will continue this tomorrow." I say in the direction of my group while I pack up my stuff. I hoist my backpack on my shoulders, with the subtraction of my lunchbox which I am now holding in my hands. I start walking toward the door.

"Evie, wait up." I hear a male voice behind me. I turn around and take a step back as Grant hops next to me. He smiles at me and gestures for me to exit the classroom first.

I exit the classroom with Grant hit on my heels. He again hops up next to me and starts walking at my pace despite his obvious longer stride.

"What's up Grant?" I say cheerily.

"Nothing, just wanted to walk to the lunchroom with someone. How about you?" He answers just as cheerful. I guess the prospect of food is making everyone happy.

"I'm so ready to eat." My statement is backed up by a loud growl from my stomach. Grant laughs at the noise and I soon join in.

We turn the corner to the doors to the cafeteria, and I am surprised to see Josh and Ashton whispers furiously to each other. I stop in my tracks, remembering an incident on one of my first days here when Ashton had caught Josh and I in the middle of a conversation. They didn't seem to be buddies back then, so why were they together now?

Suddenly, Ashton stopped whispering whatever he was saying and seemed to tense up. He whipped his head so he was looking at Grant and I. His eyes quickly scanned me before they turned to glare at Grant. A growl like sound seemed to emanate from him as he continued to look at Grant.

It was then I glanced at Josh. At first he seemed confused as he looked at Grant and I. He glanced at me, making eye contact, and then at Grant, and lastly at the space between us before looking at me again. Josh made eye contact with me again and this time I could see past the confusion and instead I could see a hint of worry in his brown eyes.

Suddenly, Ashton turned and headed to the door that led to outside. He was the only one moving, Josh, Grant, and I were still frozen, and Ashton opened the door roughly and sprinted out into the forest. I feel my eyebrow cock in confusion, why would he go into the forest?

"The forest helps calm him down." Josh answers my unspoken question and at the same time, breaks the awkward silence.

"Why would he need to calm down?" I ask suspiciously.

Josh pauses, his eyes seem to widen in panic before he quickly covers it, "Bad test. He got a 'D' and he's really upset about that."

"Oh," I look at Grant who seems to be as confused as me, "are you ready to eat?"

"Sure." Grant responds unsurely.

I look back at Josh and gives me a small smile, "Well, I better go after him." He doesn't give me time to respond as he rushes out the same door Ashton rushed out of and heads the same direction as Ashton went.