Serenity Falls

Chapter 9

I promised I would upload yesterday... sorry I made you wait another day! Hope you all like it - if you do, make sure to leave a comment and let me know, I love getting them :)

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Olivia’s first week at Serenity Falls was drawing to a close. She had spent the rest of her lunch breaks with Alyssa and her friends, and had been introduced to a whole new crowd – the A-listers. It was a type of school life she had never experienced before, having been branded as a total nerd in her previous school which had severely limited her social calendar. She had even been invited to one of the ‘cool’ parties at the weekend, thrown by Alyssa’s most dedicated wannabe, Brooke, at her family’s summer cabin, which was eagerly awaited upon by half the school.

However, life was not so sweet on the other side of the pond. Olivia and Chelsie had not spoken since Monday, and, although she put on a front that gave the impression she couldn’t care less, Chelsie was deep down wishing that it had been her who had been welcomed into their crowd. Even Fred had become slightly bored of her rants at lunch times about how it would soon fall apart and how Olivia would soon be begging to come back to them, which he didn’t quite believe.

Friday morning was sunny and pleasant, with streams of golden sunlight shining into the rooms and corridors of the school from every angle. The weekend ahead promised to be a good one, which made the atmosphere of the place cheerful and excited, the shiny corridors lined with students chatting light heartedly to their friends.

Chelsie Marshall was one of the few people who was not in high spirits. She strode down the hallway, her satchel-style bag draped over her shoulder, doing her best to ignore the sniggers that followed her wherever she walked. She would be out of here in a couple of years, away from these spoilt brats that she was forced to share her education with.

As she approached her locker, which was situated conveniently opposite her homeroom classroom, she noticed a group of people that she hadn’t exactly been hoping to see.

"Excuse me," she said to the blonde girl who was leaning on the lockers, restricting her access to her own. The girl didn’t even turn her head. She was too engrossed in some pointless conversation with her cronies.

"So then I was like, oh my god and–"

"Excuse me!" Chelsie said more forcefully, causing Alyssa to turn her head and roll her eyes.

"What’s put you in a bad mood, loser?" she said, glancing at the three girls she was with, who laughed hysterically with her.

"Hey, isn’t that your little lesbian friend?" Courtney said, punching the girl next to her in the arm.

"Oh my god, shut up!" She laughed.

"Just let me get to my locker, alright?" Chelsie growled as Alyssa moved away slightly. As she entered her combination and took her books out, it suddenly clicked in her mind who the other three girls were. There was Kayla and Courtney, but there was never a time when they weren’t firmly glued to Alyssa’s side. But the other girl, she was a new addition. She looked a little different – okay, a lot different – but Chelsie soon recognised her.

"Olivia?" Chelsie raised her eyebrows.

Olivia glanced over and rolled her eyes. "What?" she asked, irritated, in a voice that was directly imitating Alyssa’s. She was even starting to look like her – her once dull brown hair that had been hidden in a neat ponytail was now shiny and straight, cascading down her back, and she was looking a lot more tanned than before. Her skirt was hitched up and she’d even borrowed a pair of Alyssa’s shiny black heels that, despite making her look a lot taller and leaner, she could hardly walk in.

"Can I talk to you?"

Alyssa began to laugh and jeered "Ooh, I think she wants a little bit of lesbian lovin’!", causing the other girls to collapse into fits of laughter. Olivia followed reluctantly as Chelsie turned down a corner, out of sight of the other girls. Chelsie thought that maybe if Olivia was away from her new-found ‘friends’, she would be a little more like herself. She couldn’t have been more wrong.

"What?" Olivia sighed, when Chelsie turned to her. Her face expressed no interest.

Chelsie glanced down at her new slutty appearance. It was certainly having an effect – most of the guys who passed them in the hallway turned their heads to have a good stare, as well as a few of the girls. Maybe it was the look Olivia had been going for, but having people staring at your ass all day was not something that appealed to Chelsie. "Had a bit of a makeover, have you?"

"Yeah, well, it’s better than looking like that." She nodded her head in Chelsie’s direction, who narrowed her eyes in response.

"I don’t know if you remember, but you looked a little different at the start of this week."

Olivia snorted. "God, don’t remind me. How did I look in the mirror and not start puking up?"

"Just quit the act, already!" Chelsie shouted, suddenly finding herself pushed to the edge of her temper. "What has Alyssa done to you? It’s been less than a week and you’ve turned into… this! What the hell is wrong with you?"

Olivia rolled her eyes again, not the slightest bit bothered by what Chelsie was saying. Why should she be? She was only some little loser who was getting too big for her own boots, thinking she was better than people who were clearly above her in the social hierarchy. "Are you just here to try to get me to turn back into a nerd like you, or have you got something you actually need to say? Some of us actually have stuff to do, believe it or not."

"Just stop it! It’s obvious Alyssa’s up to something! I can’t believe you’d be taken in that easily."

Despite being originally dubious, all remains of doubt had now become extinct from her mind. It was as if Alyssa and her charm had fought its way into her head and erased all potential bad thoughts about herself. She was so sweet and fun to be with, and quite frankly Olivia had found a great amount of pleasure in gossiping about all the other girls.

"You don’t know anything about her. I think maybe you’ve just got it in for her." Olivia folded her arms defensively over her chest.

Chelsie scoffed, barely able to keep herself from laughing. "Me? Got it in for her? Are you seriously kidding me?"

"Just admit it!"

"Oh, go to hell, Olivia! And while you’re there, get your head out of your ass!"

Olivia scoffed, ready to fly at Chelsie with a swarm of insults, but nothing smart would come out of her mouth. Instead, she glared at her, with a look that seemed to burn right through her skin, turned on her heel and marched off in the opposite direction, leaving Chelsie standing there with a smug smile on her face.

She stomped down the corridor, doing her best not to stumble in her heels, shoving people out of the way who happened to be in her path. How dare Chelsie? How dare she? Who did she think she was, for Christ’s sake? She was just jealous of everything! Her friends… her relationship with Aaron… speaking of whom, she hadn’t seen around school since Monday afternoon. It was if he had mysteriously disappeared off the face of the earth. Thoughts of him had slipped into her mind fairly frequently, but she had been so busy making herself look good for other guys that she hadn’t really pondered for too long on his whereabouts.

She ignored the mindless wolf-whistling that came from one of the guys on the football team as she strode past, the anger inside of her bubbling and slowly increasing as she thought more and more about what had just happened. Where was she even going? She didn’t even have a clue. She just kept walking, walking until she was sure that she was just going round in circles. A lot of the people she passed did look increasingly familiar, but with everyone in the same uniform, it was sometimes hard to tell.

It was after she’d been walking aimlessly for around five minutes when she realised she didn’t have the slightest clue where she was. The school was huge and confusing for some of the older students, let alone for Olivia. She rounded a corner which she thought looked familiar, until she was confronted with something that made her stop dead in her tracks. Something that made her heart grab an anvil and freefall to the bottom of her stomach. Something that made her want to throw up. Something that she’d been warned about.