The sound of the school bell echoed through the halls, and almost immediately the students of Summerland High began to reluctantly head to their first period...

The first day back after a vacation was always the hardest but there was always one particular student who didn't seem to mind being back at school. At that moment, Alice Murphy placed a book into her locker, dressed perfectly for the first day since she felt 2019 was a chance for her to wipe herself clean and start again, this year she wanted change, and decided to kick it off with a coordinated, eye catching outfit. She caught a glimpse of her appearance in the mirror stuck to the inside of the door, and looked over her face...

Her thick light blonde hair was slicked up into a high pony tail, her eyes perfectly framed with mascara and a little pink but perfectly blended eyeshadow, her skin radiant and glossy from the liquid highlighter she'd added after her foundation. She gazed at her own appearance for a few seconds longer than she usually would, gently touching her cheeks and examining her skin... she looked good and she knew it, and found herself almost smirking at that realisation. There was something that had changed about her, and even she couldn't put her finger on it. Maybe it was her hair, or her face, or her growing self confidence, but how Alice Murphy looked now, looked significantly different to how she looked less than six months ago.

Suddenly her locker door slammed shut, and Alice was welcomed with the sight of an angry looking Candice, whose curly brown hair seemed extra wild that day, yet still looked effortlessly gorgeous. "Where the fuck have you been?" She spat angrily, holding her palm against Alice's locker so that it stayed closed. "I've been calling, texting, I even emailed you, okay. I was one day away from turning up at your house unannounced. What the hell, Alice?!"

It took a moment for Alice to register what had happened, she'd barely flinched from the loud noise of the metal door of her locker slamming shut. She admitted to herself that she'd barely thought about her friends over the past week... and maybe she would have felt guilty if the timing was right, but as she searched for the emotion, she found it not to be there, and simply smiled instead. "I'm sorry, I've barely looked at my phone," Alice replied calmly, pushing Candice's hand off her locker door gently and opened it again to grab some spare pens and her reading book for English class, which is the only class they shared.

"Why the fuck are you smiling like that?" Candice snapped, "You can't just ghost on me after what happened at the New Years party! Olive's not talking to me, you weren't talking to me - what the hell was I supposed to think?! I almost had a mental breakdown."

"I was just busy, Candice - I'm sorry," Alice replied calmly, pushing her ponytail back over her shoulder and grimacing a little. "But I'm here now, so what's up?" she added, closing her locker and holding her books to her chest as Candice stared at her then looked down over her coordinated outfit. A black, white and red checked skirt with a matching blazer and her favourite white turtle neck underneath, layered gold necklaces over the top to finish.

"You look very... 90s clueless today," Candice pointed out, "It's annoyingly cute,"

"You're mad, I get it," Alice smirked, "Honestly, I just zoned out for ages. Things have just been so weird." She continued as they both began to walk to English together, holding their books to their chests and moving past other students who were still walking to their classes.

"Weird, how? What's going on?" Candice asked as they walked past one particular senior that neither of them seemed to notice as they began their in-depth conversation about strange things going on in their lives...

Noah watched the pair quietly as they walked passed him without noticing him stood there. He closed his locker quietly, irritation spreading through his veins and continued to watch Alice as she walked down the hall, her short skirt showing off her legs. He took a deep breath and swallowed heavily, remembering in detail the last time he'd spoken to her, and how she'd agreed to see him again, but then proceeded not to return any of his phone calls or messages. His jaw clenched and unclenched as he stared, his mind replaying how soft her skin had felt on his fingertips, how she'd been so eager to-

"What are you doing?" Trey's voice asked as he caught Noah starring intently after his little sister and Alice Murphy who had only just turned a corner.

"Nothing," Noah muttered, feeling his heart jump suddenly at the sudden unexpected presence of his friend.

"Didn't look like nothing." Trey muttered as Noah turned around to face him, "Jesus fucking Christ, when was the last time you slept?" He laughed unsurely, seeing the dark circles around Noah's eyes behind his glasses.

"Shut up." Noah muttered as he fixed his hair so that it was hanging in front of his eyes and pulled his beanie down more. "What do you want?" He then asked, glancing towards where he'd seen Alice last walk, but instead he saw an empty hallway.

"...We have bio together," Trey said quietly and then furrowed his eyebrows as he pulled his backpack up his shoulder. "Is everything okay?" He asked slowly, seeing Noah's vacant behaviour.

"Yeah. Let's just go." Noah muttered as he grabbed his own backpack from the ground and tugged it up his shoulder. Trey watched him carefully for a moment as he stalked off, noticing that Noah was acting a little stranger than usual. Although he knew that none of his friends were exactly normal, there was something about Noah that was unusually off that day... and he'd only seen him behave like that once before.

* * *

At lunch Alice followed Candice quietly as they picked up their food from the cafeteria line, the bustle of students surrounded them as everyone talked vibrantly about their Christmas break with friends they'd probably only seen just the week before.

After glancing in subtle disgust at the meat option for lunch, Alice went for a vegetarian option, and raised her eyebrows when she was presented with a fairly strange looking potato salad. "Thank you," she mumbled, grimacing as discreetly as she could as she left the line to sit at their usual table after Candice. "Are you not getting anything?" Alice asked, seeing her friend holding only an apple as they sat down.

"No... it all looks fucking vile," Candice muttered in response and bit into her apple as she let her eyes wander the crowded cafeteria. Students were dotted in large groups around the room, collecting at tables, some sitting, some standing. The buzz of noise was loud, and collected together like one single mass of chatter, but it seemed to fade into the background as Alice ate her lunch in silence and Candice zoned out thinking about nothing and everything at once.

Alice couldn't help but glance around herself, wondering and subtly hoping to see someone she also wanted to, kind of, avoid. Ever since the pictures Magnus had sent her of them post-kissing at his New Years party, she couldn't help but feel the annoying glimmer of hope in her chest that he might... possibly... feel something for her. But then again... a kiss was only a kiss, a brief touching of lips, and she knew of so many people her age and some older, who had sex with others that they didn't even like and for it not to mean a single thing. The thought only made her heart sink, and suddenly the potato salad looked even more unappetising than it already was. "Whats wrong?" Candice asked, seeing Alice's expression change suddenly as she put her fork down and sighed quietly.

"Hm," Alice mumbled, wanting to talk about her problems but she wasn't sure if she could. Magnus was so secretive... and he did scare her just a little still, since she didn't want to cross him. And Noah... she felt bad about Noah. And she felt angry too, but she wasn't sure what to say to him at this point, had it been some kind of sick game of pass the parcel? Or did he have no idea? "If I tell you something, can you swear on your your life that you won't tell anyone?"

"Okay," Candice agreed and placed her hand on her heart, "I swear," she added and continued to look at Alice with intense interest.

"Okay," Alice sighed and rubbed her lips together as she hesitated, getting the feeling as if she wasn't meant to say anything but she did anyway. "Okay," she said again and placed her palms flat on the table. "So you know at the New Years party, I think I vanished for a while,"

"Yeah you did, after the argument with Olive you literally disappeared," Candice replied and continued to hold eye contact.

"Well- I, um, I kissed Magnus Johnson... Or- he kissed me, I don't know, I can't remember how it happened." Alice said very quietly and glanced around herself before looking back at Candice whose eyes had gone wide.

"Oh my-" Candice gasped and cupped her hands to her mouth, "You kissed-?! Oh my goodness!"

"Stop, no," Alice rushed and blushed a little at Candice's reaction, worried that someone might hear her amongst the loud bustle of Boise. "I was meant to be with Noah, like as his, I don't know- date? But I kissed Magnus instead of him at midnight. And then the day after, I don't know what was wrong with me, I was hung over- and Noah drove me home and I got caught up in the moment and kissed Noah too and we almost had sex, and-"

"What?!" Candice hissed quietly, "Rewind, What?" She asked, her eyes blinking quickly as she raised her hands.

"I thought I kissed Noah. Because I remembered kissing someone, but I thought it was Noah because it seemed logical. So I wanted to kiss him again, obviously, and well yeah. My parents weren't home and I just got caught up-"

"So you were horny," Candice summed up for her and Alice shrunk in her chair and rubbed her back of her neck, "I mean I don't blame you, he's cute. But kissing Magnus? Oh my god. I have so many questions," she continued in a rushed, hushed voice.

"Mmm," Alice grimaced and prepared herself to answer every detail.

"First of all, why didn't you just ask Noah if you guys kissed? And second of all, why was he so down to fuck so fast? He obviously likes you, like a lot. Anyway, third of all, or- thirdly? I don't know," Candice said in one breath and stopped to flick her hair out of her face, "Magnus?! Like, how did that even happen? How did you find out it was him? Do you guys talk, low key? I've seen him stare at you before, like it's like he wants to eat you or something- it's kind of hot. Fourthly of all," she stopped to breathe in, "What did Noah say?" She huffed and clasped her fingers together tightly.

"First, I don't know why I didn't just ask him, I didn't think about that, which was dumb. Second, I don't know? Maybe be does. But maybe he was just horny or something too? We didn't talk about it. And I haven't spoken to him in a week... Third, yeah. Um, well Magnus told me, he sent me pictures like- I'll show you..."

Alice reached into her bag and began to rummage for her phone as Candice waited eagerly, "You guys took pictures? Oh my god," she whispered in excitement. But out of the corner of her eye, Candice noticed the third party in their usual trio approaching the table with another one of their friends, Georgia. "Abort," she whispered and Alice looked up with confusion just as Olive and Georgia arrived beside their tables.

"Oh," Alice whispered quietly and put her phone back into her bag.

"Hi," Olive said, tucking her hair behind her ear. She was holding her lunch tray with one hand, as Georgia stood behind her holding her own with two. They were dressed down in black leggings and overused jumpers, which was not the usual attire for their trio. They made a silly pact in freshman year, that they'd actually kept, to make an effort every day for school, with either hair, make up or clothes. It was trivial and when they were much younger it seemed like a serious commitment, but Alice enjoyed making an effort and so did Candice, each of them stood out for their style choices, and Olive used to as well, but it seemed today that she had decided not to make an effort with any. "Can we sit down?" She asked, looking at Candice directly and ignoring Alice.

"Sure, of course," Candice rushed, looking shocked at how Olive seemed to behave as if they barely knew each other. "How have you been? We've barely heard from you," she continued as Alice felt the awkwardness settle in around her like someone had draped her in a cold blanket. She didn't remember the fight exactly, but what she did remember was the feeling of anger and irritation in response to something Olive did that she felt was unjustified. The details of that were still slightly blurry.

"Well I mean you guys barely made an effort to reach out, so," Olive muttered, her tone flaring irritation inside of Alice.

"It's a two way street, Olive," Alice muttered, surprising Candice again at her developing confrontational behaviour. In the past, she would've stayed silent.

"Seriously Alice?" Olive asked, her tone dripping with bitterness as her eyebrows furrowed together tightly.

"Why did you sit with us if you're just going to argue..." Alice said, her voice low as she furrowed her eyebrows a little.

"Okay, lets not-" Candice said before Olive could reply. "I think we can all admit we behaved super badly at the party last week..." she continued, feeling strange to be the peace maker since that was usually Alice's role. "So, um, can we just forget it? And move on? All of us fighting is weird,"

"Fine," Alice shrugged, feeling unbothered either way and that feeling shocked her... even though she didn't outwardly show it. Something was going on with her emotions recently, and she was starting to notice it more and more. Sometimes she was detached and felt nothing at all and other times she felt far too much... and each of those times she'd always been in the presence of none other than Magnus Johnson.

The thought of him made her stomach twist and she felt her cheeks warm. She didn't want to think about him... but he infected her mind like some kind of deadly virus. Her heart ached and her chest felt tight. She pushed her lunch away from her a little and lent her elbow on the table, resting her chin in it as she sighed heavily through her nose.

"Fine," Olive agreed too, side glancing Alice's behaviour and began to eat her lunch reluctantly and silently. A silence settled between the four girls, and Alice played with her lunch with her fork as she tried to distract herself... a part of her didn't understand why Olive was suddenly so angry at her and Candice. They'd been a trio for so long without any problems, for two years it had ran smoothly, but now... all of a sudden, it was starting to get rocky. And with everything else going on, she knew she was meant to feel guilty for not paying as much attention to her friends as she should and did before, but the guilt never came. Instead, more thoughts of Magnus's pouty soft lips drifted into her mind...

"So! Who's trying out for cheerleading with me this week!?" Candice asked excitedly, wanting to break the awkward silence quickly since Georgia, who was no part of the fight, made no effort to start a conversation. Alice scoffed and kept her head down as Olive rolled her eyes, none of them had been a fan of the sport throughout the years but recently Candice had been excited to join. "So... none of you, great." She sighed and sat back in her chair and folded her arms in disappointment... deciding to let the other wallow in their own self pity as she began to mind her own business.

... At that same moment Magnus was getting out of his car, a large McDonald's brown bag in his left hand as he shut the drivers side door. On the other side, Trey got out, taking off his sunglasses and putting them on his head as he took a deep breath of fresh air. It was unusual for seniors to stay on campus for lunch, given their privileges, but today Magnus wanted to come back... he didn't want to openly admit it to himself, but he wanted to catch a glimpse of the pretty blonde who had been playing on his mind for the past week.

It was bright and sunny that day, which one could have mistaken for spring weather, if it wasn't for the cold, crisp light breeze washing through the town. All over campus students were outside enjoying the sunny weather, even thought it was still fairly cold, that didn't seem to affect the enthusiasm. "Have you seen Noah today?" Trey asked Magnus suddenly as they began to walk side by side into the school building. Magnus was dressed in dark olive green fairly loose skinny jeans and a baggy black sweater with a dark beanie covering his hair to match. He liked baggy clothes, and even though he had a good body that anyone else his age would enjoy showing off with tight shirts, he didn't like how constricting it felt. However Trey felt the opposite, given the chance, a tight t-shirt always made an appearance to emphasise the muscles he had underneath, even if it meant he'd be cold showing his body off.

"No," Magnus replied, digging his hand into the McDonald's bag and pulling out a salty French fry. He placed it into his mouth as a collection of freshman girls gawped at him whilst he loped effortlessly past with his ray bans still covering his eyes even though he was inside now. His reputation for being undeniably handsome and intimidating spread like wildfire through the different grades... people stared at him wherever he went and he'd grown to ignore it over the years... But to begin with, it was something that used to immensely bother him to the point where he'd disappear from school for numerous days at a time when he was much younger.

"He's been acting kind of strange. I think he's on those pills again," Trey said as they made their way through the vast halls of the high school towards the courtyard.

"Speed?" Magnus asked as they approached the courtyard outside the cafeteria and walked towards a bench that was directly in the sunlight, next to an olive tree which looked slightly out of place in such cold weather. "Well that's his choice-" he continued just as they approached the bench that had a group of Sophomores already on it. He motioned for hem to move aggressively as they saw him getting closer, swatting their presence away like flies, and they instantly began to collect up their lunches and move their stuff quickly. They'd almost left the table by the time Magnus and Trey reached it, but one of them had left a jacket by accident, which Magnus picked up and threw to one side before sitting down.

"Yeah but he looks fucked up," Trey continued as Magnus handed him his half of the fast food calmly, as if he hadn't just disturbed someone else's peaceful lunch time. "He could do something dumb..."

"I don't give one flying fuck about Noah right now." Magnus spat as he unwrapped his burger and took a bite.

"I know you don't," Trey replied, seeming to be one of the only people unfazed by Magnus's cold personality. "But maybe you'll give a fuck about Alice Murphy," he countered, waiting for the reaction he predicted he would get.