Avalanche.

o1. all aboard

Katie knew from the minute she set foot into Pinewood that she didn't like it. The picturesque Main Street, the townies in their chinos and day dresses. Everything about this seemed alien to her. Yes, she grew up in a nice area with plenty of money and friends in the same boat, but her hometown never flaunted it's affluence quite like Pinewood did. Her new home on Evergreen Terrace was everything she hated about America. White picket fences, large lawns with political signage hammered into the grass. In her eyes, it was all propaganda. Just like when guys would drive around in sports cars and rev their engines at an obnoxious level. The people living there were trying to compensate for something, and Katie knew that was probably their lack of depth and grit.

Her school was the same. She'd only been there for a week, but she could already see it was just like the movies made it out to be. Full of cliques and outcasts, the canteen divided with scarlet lining. If you crossed into another tribe's territory, you were fair game - the perfect prey. She somehow managed to end up in the Lion's Den on her first day. Maybe it was because she was new, or conventionally attractive, or maybe even that she clearly didn't care what people thought of her - but Katie survived and became the newest member of the pack, much to her dismay.

Her new group of friends consisted of five girls, the leader of the pack being Arielle Marks. Arielle was everything Katie tried not to be. Stuck up, arrogant and obnoxious. She was beautiful, but she knew it. And that made her unbearable. Arielle would enter a room and everyone would part like the Red Sea, allowing her to strut through with her minions following. These minions formed of Skye, Angel, Grace, and Olivia. They were each carbon copies of each other and would never dare to disobey or argue with Arielle. That was a recipe for disaster.

Every moment that Katie spent with this group of girls, she could feel herself losing a brain cell or two. Back home, her friends were so relaxed and chilled. During lunchtimes they would sit in their cars and order pizzas, or hang around at their local park. They were popular, but not this kind of popular. Sitting with Arielle and the girls made Katie feel like she was with Regina George. Her whole situation was now about self preservation and ensuring she didn't get eaten alive by her new friends.

Around a week since she arrived in Pinewood, Katie was sitting during lunch with her 'friends', texting her old friends as she overheard a conversation taking place.
"Well everyone else is going. And as cheerleaders it's our duty to be there to be the hottest juniors at the party" Arielle bragged to her willing puppets, smirking as she nudged Katie. "Boat party. Tonight at 8oclock. You're coming, yes?"

Katie internally groaned, weighing up her options. She had three choices here. She could
1) attend said boat party with these girls and make her social debut as one of Arielle's drones
2) attend on her own accord and actually enjoy herself, making new friends along the way, or;
3) stay at home and pretend she was still in Canada.
She decided to opt for option 2, feeling she could revert to either of the other options if needs be. "Yeah sure, I'll be there." She nodded and diverted her attention back to her phone. The rest of her lunch time was spent scrolling through the images of fabrics she had, contemplating which one would be quickest to make an outfit from.

Once she got home, Katie silently slipped upstairs to get ready. She could hear her family laughing and joking together and couldn't help but feel a twinge of jealousy. She had never been close with any of her family, through no choice of her own. She longed to be close with her older brother and parents, yet they were not the hands dealt to her in life.

After some quick designs and whipping out her sewing machine, Katie slipped on her new black dress over a lace lingerie set. Knowing her, she'd meet someone at the party and sleep with them within an hour or two. That's just how she worked. She looked herself over, smirking at the sight of her butterfly tattoo on her inner arm.

As she heard the honk of a horn, she headed out without a word to her parents. She knew they wouldn't care that she was going out, or where she would be going to. All they cared about was that her chores had been done. She jumped into the back seat of Angel's car and they drove off towards the docks, the girls flooding her with compliments over how good she looked. Katie just smiled and nodded, knowing she looked good. She didn't need other people to tell her.

As they arrived at the docks, the music from the large boat was blasting. She could hear the guttural base of the beats, smirking as she headed onto the boat infront of Arielle. Upon her entrance, Katie could feel many eyes on her, one pair especially belonging to the appalled Arielle who's entrance had just been upstaged by the new girl. Katie glanced back at Arielle and smirked softly, before flipping her off and walking away. An uproar of chirps and chatter emerged from the affronted group of girls, but Katie just shrugged it off and made her way to stand with a guy she'd met in bio earlier that day.

Bottle of tequila in hand and feeling eyes captivated upon her, Katie knew that this night was one to be remembered. But, what she didn't know, was that this night would change her life.