In The Midst Of A Crowd

Chapter 3

"Well, well, well. Looks like I'm gonna be next to you all year, Sweetheart." A familiar voice booms from behind me.

Crap. That's all I can think as I instantly tense and push him off. "Screw off Austin. I don't know why you're here and I don't really want to know, so just leave me alone. Go find someone else's life to ruin because I'm done with you." I say all of this without turning around, and as soon as I'm done talking I walk off, looking for Tyler.

Austin Grey and I used to be best friends in middle school, back in my hometown of Calgary in Canada. I trusted him with everything; that is until the first day of eighth grade. He spread a rumour about me having eating disorders and found out that my dad doesn't want me, so he started spreading rumours about why that is. Anyways, I had somehow managed to get my dad to move my brothers and I out here to Los Angeles for ninth grade (two years ago), to get away from our past. Both of my brothers have helped me move on, but hearing Austin's voice... I don't know how I walked away without falling apart.

As I was looking for Tyler, I saw Jacob talking to the other Football players. As I walk over, Jake turns to look at me, and he must know something's wrong by the look on his face.

"Excuse me boys, but I need to talk to my brother for a second." All the footballer's look at me and Jake with confused expressions, but they just nod because of the seriousness of my voice.

"Ash. What's wrong?" Jake asks me.

"I'll tell you when we find Tyler. Can you text Katie for me and tell her that I'm not gonna make it to the cafeteria." I say and he nods, taking out his phone.

After a couple minutes of wandering I spot Tyler talking to James and Chase over by James' locker. James is the first to see me and waves. Both Chase and Tyler turn around and Tyler must have seen something on my face, which makes him say something to Chase and run over to me, giving me a hug.

"Ashlynne! What's wrong? What happened?" Tyler asks.

This is when I break down into tears. "Austin... He's here... Next to my locker... I can't do it."

"Ashlynne. Take deep breaths, okay. We can't understand you right now." Jacob says.

After I take a deep breath I tell them everything that had just occurred with Austin.

"Okay, we will go to the office and ask Ms. England to change your locker and any classes you may have with him. After all, she's the one who helped us come here and she understands what happened." Tyler says. Ms. England is our school's vice principal. She is the only one, next to my brothers, who knows why we moved from Calgary and came here but she doesn't know all that much about our father, just that he isn't around that much.

After a couple more minutes of walking, we made it to the office. We were all given excused late slips, because homeroom had already started. After signing in we were ushered into Ms. England's office.

"Good to see you guys! I hope you all had a very good summer." She says as we take a seat in the three chairs near her desk.

"It was very good, thank you Ms. England. We understand it is our first day back, but we have a problem." Tyler says.

Ms. England's face darkens and her voice is barely audible when she asks "What happened?"

After telling her all the same stuff I told Tyler and Jake, minus the hugging part, she stays silent for a few minutes. She finally breaks the silence by typing on her computer and printing two pieces of paper.

"Here you go dear," she says handing me one of the pieces of paper. "Most of your classes have been changed, but unfortunately I couldn't change all of them the only ones you share with Austin now are Gym and Spanish, but I will make sure Coach Hudson and Ms. Rosa are aware that the two of you must not be near each other."

Graham, Ashlynne Mackenzie
Locker 81: 34-36-26

1. Homeroom/Biology, 32, Mr. Greene
2. English, 17, Mr. Edwards
3. Spanish, 18, Ms. Rosa
4. Algebra, 25, Mr. Williams
Lunch
5. History, 20, Ms. Meyer
6. Music, 2, Ms. Swift
7. Free Period
8. Phys Ed, Gymnasium, Mr. Hudson

"Thank you so much Ms. England. I'll come back at the end of the day to let you know how it was." I say giving her a hug before walking out with my brothers.

This is gonna be one heck of a day.

**********
A/N:

Let me know what you guys think! If you have any ideas about what should happen please let me know! Thanks for reading!

Pictures at the top are of Sadie, Renee and Austin.

-Cae :)