Side Effects

Chapter One: Mischief Managed,

Halia's POV

A year ago, I was in a dungeon. I was chained, gagged, tortured beyond belief. I wasn't fed for days, I had to pee from where I was chained. I went through this and so much more, but here I am a year later. Stepping out of class on the last day of junior year.

Everyone was loud today. Papers flew and textbooks fell as I walked out of sixth period. You know, the usual last day of school shenanigans. Not like I would particularly know.

Nobody could take their eyes off of the clock the entire day. In my Spanish 3 class, our Spanish teacher Mrs. Rojo (by the way she did look very rojo in the face most of the time, too much blush) punished us all by making us revisit learning how to read a clock in Spanish.

I pushed a lock of hair behind my ear and walked towards the front doors and into the student parking lot. The crunch of the rocks on the cement against my white low top converse did little to remove me from my thoughts. The doctors had said after my escape that I would be more reserved; I'm not sure they expected me to not make any effort whatsoever with having a social life.

I thought back to the rest of my classes. It had gotten worse in English class; my AP Lit teacher tried to force all of us into writing an essay about what we planned on doing this summer. Who did she think we were? Second graders? I didn't choose to take AP just to write about my boring ass summers of sitting at home and being forced to do nothing.

There were more people outside. Their laughter and talk of making summer plans made me yearn to be apart of them. Hitting the beach, road trips, Disneyland! was all I could make it in the commotion and chaos that was high school. One thing they wouldn't have to plan was fake tanning sessions, since living in California gave you the perk of being tan year round, since it was hot here eight out of the twelve months.

Sometimes I wish I was normal enough to be just like regular old people. But no. My lifestyle was my source of comfort. It was my forte, my LIFE for gods sake, I couldn't imagine life without it. I wouldn't give it up for anything. I shook the deep thoughts out of my head as I removed my keys from my bag and unlocked the door of my red Ford Taurus.

Just as I started throwing my bag to the passenger seat, I felt a shadow cross my face, and looked up to see four of the most popular boys in school amazingly staring back at me. Knowing from their stares, they wanted something from me. Well, most of them did, the tallest of the four seemed bored.

Bored my ass. I thought as I tried to swiftly sit in my seat and close the door. As if karma already didn't hate me, the boy who looked bored grabbed my door before it could close.

"Shit," I muttered underneath my breath. I instantly regretted my ill choice of words as I heard a fake gasp.

"OH, so she does speak!" sarcastically gasped a short blonde haired guy, mocking me to probably try to get a bigger rise out of me.

I knew I was in trouble. The whole point of my junior year this year was to recover and get a chance to be normal. After my mission had failed, HQ and all the very important people above my status in the government decided that it was best that I keep a lower profile and become a regular teenager to help me recover. Recover from the nine months of hell. They even promised that if I could get better in two years time, then I could return back to my home: the C.I.A. And return to my regular functions as a USA spy.

These boys were going to ruin everything.

I rolled my eyes and jerked my arm, knowing that it would surprise boring "fuck me"-faced boy. I watched in amusement as exactly what I planned occurred.

The four of them stared in shock as I stared up the engine with me key, pushing on the gas hard to make a point. I thought I was in the clear and began to back up, but not before I almost ran over another popular one fourth of the four.

"HEY! A VERY HANDSOME HUNK OF MEAT WAS ALMOST RAN OVER, CAN YOU PLEASE JUST GIVE UP AND STOP IGNORING US!" screamed a cute other half of the popular boys, I recognized him from my English class. Evan was his name.

I can't believe that one of them managed to get from point a to b (a being the front of the car and b being the back of my car) in between me starting my car and, well, BREATHING. I rolled down my window, and beckoned them to my car.

"What do you want from me?" I narrowed my eyes at them, not caring if I was starting to attract even more attention. These boys were ridiculous.

That's when probably the hottest boy I've ever seen stepped into my vision.

"We just wanted to say that we were throwing a party around Wes's house later tonight." Hottest boy ever gestured to the sarcastic one who mocked me earlier.

I then recognized where I had seen the oh-so-sarcastic one before; he was my next door neighbor.
    
"You're the one who always throws those loud ass parties next door. My dad complains about finding naked teenagers in our bushes every morning after one." I stated, looking at the apparent Wes.

Wes chuckled, "Yes, and that may be the fault of--" Hottest boy ever gave him a bone breaking look"--umm I mean NOTHING nothing at all."

Bored-faced guy decided to make an appearance, pushing his way to the front of the pack and saying, "Look, we wanted to invite you to our party because you've been here for a year and have made no friends. We all have seen that your perfectly capable of making friends, but you seem to never give yourself an excuse to. Come over tonight."

Fell-from-Heaven-hot guy joined in,"It was my idea," He boldly looked me straight in the eye, which made me feel even more attracted to him. He seemed to noticed, because the gleam in his eyes changed into mischief. He even decided to lean his arm on my window, his dark eyes catching mine again. He continued, "I think you're cute, you live right next door to Wes, and it would make my night if you were to come over. Just consider our generous offer."

All of them turned to leave, but not before hot guy stopped and looked back at me.

"I never seem to have caught your name."

Evan and Wes turned back impatiently, wanting to tell him my name. They obviously knew, but I don't like giving people satisfaction. Better cut to the chase then.

"Halia. I'll see you at the party." I sighed, turning away from them and turning my attentions on the road. This could turn out to be the second worst decision I've ever made.

The four boys exited my parking space, laughing and clapping hot guy on the back for a job well done. I had been at North Bay High for a year, and I had absolutely no friends, no life here. All I wanted was to get back to where I truly belonged. But, something told me that those four boys had flipped my life around.

The whole trek home, I was stuck thinking about whether or not my life had flipped for the better or for the worst.