I woke up expecting to find myself in a dark dusty closet but instead found myself lying on my own bed in my own room which for one was pretty weird.
How exactly did I get back in my room when the only distinct memory I had before passing out was staring blankly into space after I could no longer cry again? I had completely no idea.
Still confused as to how I got home, I reached into the inside pocket of my jacket and pulled out my phone to find tons of missed calls from Nellie.
Perhaps she'd found me after all.
Feeling the need to confirm it, I dialled Nellie's number and waited for her to pick up. As soon as she did, she immediately yelled, "Allison, oh my gosh! You're actually alive! Just where the heck have you been, young lady and why didn't you pick all my calls? I've worried sick."
"Wait, you didn't bring me home?" I asked thrown off by her questions.
"Bring you home? What do you mean?" was her response over the phone.
"
Derris' presence in Miss Audrey's dance class was definitely a major surprise to everyone, me inclusive. While everyone around me, mostly girls, murmured and gave possible options as to why he was here, I could only stare at him.Reason and logic told me that I was supposed to hate him and not find anything about him attractive at all but my heart was a different case entirely.Everything from the inky black hair to his stormy gray eyes and those lips of his that screamed ‘Kiss me!’... I had kissed them only for him to refuse to acknowledge it the very next day.That was enough to snap me out of my physical assessment. I overlooked the signature smug smirk, confident stance and everything else about him that reflected elegance and looked away from him completely."Is there any reason why you're here, Mister Fox?" Miss Audrey asked after managing to quiet the class."No particular reason really but if it wouldn't be too much trouble, cou
"Gently. Gently," Nellie repeated continuously while carefully assisting me out of Max's car. I rolled my eyes at her but still did as she said.When I was on my feet and Nellie still wouldn't stop holding me, I turned to her and groaned, "For the love of God Nellie! I'm okay. I didn't break any bones and I can walk by myself. Now could you quit coddling me? I'm not an invalid!""I'm just being cautious, Allie. You really scared me today when you blacked out," she admitted soberly. I relaxed and wrapped my arms around her. "I get that, Nellie and I love you for it but I'm okay. Seriously.""I know. I know. You're just so fragile sometimes like a little egg and that makes me just want to cuddle you." She wrapped her arms around me even tighter until I couldn't breathe."Nellie!" I managed to croak, my voice raspy."Oh right. Sorry. I'll be inside if you need me," she winked suggestively at me before heading into my house, leaving me alone with Max.
"Max! Why won't you tell me the surprise?!" I whined as Max helped me out of the car, still blindfolded."Are you always this impatient?" He chuckled as he held my hand to keep me from stumbling as we walked towards his surprise."Sorry but I don't like surprises. Not that I've gotten a lot of them though," I added and pouted sadly."You've never been surprised for your birthday?""My parents used to surprise me for my birthday sometimes but after the thing with my siblings...you know how it goes?" I let him fill in the blanks by himself."I'm sorry about that, Allison and I get it but now that you're with me, you should get ready for even more surprises." I couldn't see his face but I could tell that he was being genuine and I felt my insides light up at the thought of being surprised by the dashing way-out-of-my-league superstar beside me.Eventually we entered a building and after walking just a little bit more, Max stopped me and pulled
After being close to having my second kiss and having that be interrupted by Derris Fox of all people, I was really curious to know his reason for calling me up at such an hour."Derris?" I said immediately I picked up. There was a brief silence where I was almost convinced it was an accident and he didn't even know he called me until he eventually answered, voice low, "I'm here. Are you busy?""Um, kinda. I'm on a date." Somehow I found that quite hard to say considering the position Derris had once held in my life."Oh, with who?" Disappointment was clear in his voice as he talked which really caught me off guard."Max. Did you want something?" I inquired, a bit desperate to keep him on the line."Um no. It's nothing. Nothing at all. Bye...Red," he mumbled, the last word coming out a lot more breathy than the rest of his sentence. He sounded sad and I would have wanted to ask him about it but he'd already cut the call.I could have called
When the limousine pulled up in front of the school, I could feel the excitement and trepidation build up in me all at once. Nellie had been the first to alight, followed by Max who extended his hand towards me.So this was actually happening. Max Crest was actually my date to the school dance. Me, Allison McConnell of all people. The more I thought about it, the less real it felt. But it was very much real."Allison, are you ready?" Max spoke up, still holding his hand out to me. "Yes. Yes I think I am," I answered, accepting his hand and letting him help me out of the car.And then, arm in arm, we walked to the Hall where the dance was being held.As Max and I walked to the hall and even we eventually got there, I was aware if just how much attention we'd attracted. After all, it was public knowledge that Max didn't date. He wasn't particularly antisocial but he just didn't date and had never been caught with a girl unlike his other bandmates.Th
[Author's POV]Max stood outside the main school building along with the rest of the students, watching the fire quickly spread through the school. Of course, the firemen had already been called and were already combatting the fire.But Max didn't care about that. He hadn't seen Allison since she left to clean her dress and had no idea if she'd made it out.And not knowing was killing him.He continued looking around and eventually ran into Nellie who also didn't know where Allison was."Could it be that she's still inside?" Nellie wonderful as she glanced at the blazing building. "Could be."Max wanted nothing more than to search for her but as it was, no one was allowed into the school so all they could was wait and hope that Allison got out safely.***Behind Nellie and Max was Derris who got wind of their conversation. He stared at the building that was still on fire and knew that he couldn't just sit around and hope the fi
[Author's POV] Derris hurried over to his car without attracting too much attention, deposited Allison in the backseat, got in the car and began the drive to a nearby hospital. He was however unaware of the car trailing behind him, a car that belonged to his best friend. While he drove, he couldn't help but pass glances at Allison through the rearview mirror. He had no idea how long she'd been in the room but since she still had a pulse, he could only hope that she would be okay. Meanwhile in the other car, it was dead silent with Max keeping his eyes only the black car not too far away from them and Aria leaning her head on the window. Max had never thought it would come to this, scheming with his best friend's ex just so he could get a girl; it seemed so beneath him and yet here he was, about to do just that. Then again, what exactly were they doing? "Aria. You haven't exactly told me your plan yet." Max's eyes were still dead set on Derris'
[Author's POV]As he watched Derris drive away, Max wondered what Aria was up to as he was now getting anxious. Few minutes later, his phone buzzed and on picking the call which happened to be from an unknown number, Aria said over the phone, "You can come in now."Max nodded even though she probably couldn't see him and the call. He wondered whether or not to save Aria's number but decided against it and stepped out of the car.Just before he walked into the hospital, Aria pulled him to the side and whispered, "Allison is in room 6B and remember you're the one who saved her and brought her to the hospital. Got it? Okay. Good luck." Then she pushed him into the reception and Max had to stop to glare at her but she was already running across the street.Taking a deep breath, Max walked right past the receptionist desk, surprised that nobody stopped him. He quickly found room 6B and walked in and true to Aria's words, Allison lay unconscious on the bed with
"Are you sure you don't want to go to the hospital?" I inquired, looking at his stitched-up wound with concern. "I'm sure. You heard the medic. It wasn't really serious. The bullet just grazed me. I'll be fine," he assured me but it did nothing to abate my worry. "But still... You could have been seriously injured. Why did you have to rush in like that?" "It was all worth it to make sure you didn't leave here in a body bag. I'd do anything to protect you," he stated, staring seriously at me. "How about you try not to die while you're at it?" He chuckled. "I'll do my best." I nodded to show that I was satisfied and continued to look at his wound. "Allison?" he called. I looked up from the wound. "Yes?" "About what Aria said—" he started. I raised my hand to stop him. "I don't want to hear it. Be it the truth or not," I told him. "I still want you to know. I've kept it to myself for so long but I didn't know how I w
I had several hours before my flight to England which was taking off early tomorrow morning. Nellie being Nellie, she'd organized a get-together for all of us. A farewell party for me.At the party, she'd decided to embarrass me by unexpectedly showing up with an album containing pictures from my childhood that had somehow ended up at her place.Baby photos, bath photos, birthday photos, embarrassing pictures; it was there and Nellie was taking great delight in my embarrassment."I hate you!" I whispered to her while Max and Derris were laughing over a picture taken of me trying to steal a piece of my birthday cake before the birthday and ending it with it all over."Aww! I love you too, boo," she replied, blowing a kiss at me. I rolled my eyes at her before attempting to snatch the album from them."Hey! What gives?" Max whined. "I think that's enough pictures for one day, don't you think? Besides, aren't you guys supposed to be sad that I'm leavi
Neither Derris nor I spoke about the situation with his mom again. Things were a little tense because of it so ignoring it was probably for the best. The next day, Derris got discharged from the hospital so he could finally go home which was enough cause for celebration. But I was also reminded of the fact that that meant I would be leaving soon. I had told my dad to book another flight, guaranteeing him that nothing was going to stop us from leaving this time. The flight was booked to go in three days. Three days to say goodbye to everything and everyone I'd ever known and loved. It was a little depressing but I tried my best not to focus on my nearing departure and just live in the moment and at the moment, I was happy that Derris was doing okay and out of the hospital. After he was released to us, we — consisting of Max, Caleb, Jeremy, Nellie, Derris and I — piled into Max's car and drove to Derris' house. The atmosphere was filled with excitement
Derris made a quick recovery afterwards. It was probably because of his phobia for hospitals after his experience when he was younger but either way, I was happy about that. But despite all my pleas, he'd still refused to see his mom and even when she tried to speak to him, he'd either ignore her or coldly tell her to leave because she wasn't wanted. It was clear he'd made us his mind and that was what worried me. I knew that if he continued to hold on to his resentment for his parents, it would only come back to harm him later on. In a way, it already had. I just had to make him see that. A day to his discharge, I was with him in his ward, reading a book to him like he'd asked me to. When I looked up from the book though, he wasn't looking at me like he always did. Instead, he was staring into space thoughtfully. I dropped the book on my lap and tapped him. "Hey. What are you thinking about?" "Everything and nothing, I guess. Why'd you stop?"
Long story short, I missed my flight the next day. It was a little hard to explain why I couldn't leave town just yet to my dad but being the caring person he was, he understood. Since the family who bought our house didn't have plans to move in just yet, we didn't have to move out yet so our accommodation was settled, at least for now. The next few days after Derris' accident though, were anything but. As it turned out, his injuries were a lot severe and he had to be rushed into surgery two times while still being in a coma. Every moment he spent in surgery was a moment I spent wondering if he would come out alive. And when he did, I was torn between being happy that he made it out and devastated that he was still in a coma. But after seeing his car and the accident scene, it really was a wonder he hadn't died on the spot. Supposedly, Derris had crashed into a parked car from behind and then had his car run into by another car. The police rep
Things progressed smoothly for a while. My dad got a few offers for the house and eventually decided on one. With the down payment, we were able to find a little flat abroad which we paid for upfront.The plan was to move to England about a month before I was to resume at Sunnyside which would give us the time to settle in at our new place.To get rid of the stuff we couldn't bring with us, my dad insisted we had a yard sale which turned out to be a little harder than I thought.We kept only the things that were important to us and our family as a whole and put the more trivial things on sale but even then, seeing other kids touch my little sister's old dolls, the twin's colouring sets and other things like that...It was a lot harder than I thought it would be.But after the yard sale ended, it felt as though a load had been lifted off my shoulders and I could finally breathe. We'd kept those items around for so long and now that they were g
After my conversation with my dad, I got back to Mr Raymond as soon as possible and told him that I had accepted his offer. He was ecstatic, to say the least. He told me to inform him whenever I planned to come to England so my accommodation could be made available.I did, however, have a few months before the dance academy came back into session.My dad and I planned to move to England though as soon as the house sold so we were working towards that.The thought of moving filled me with fear and excitement. I would be leaving Nellie and the life I had known for years to an entirely different environment. Then again, after the year I had had, the prospect of moving was pretty exciting.It was a mix of emotions. Nellie had been pretty sad when I told her my plans."You know I'm always going to have your back no matter what. I'm so happy for you— and also sad. I'm going to miss you, Allison," she sniffled. I rolled my eyes at her dramatics.
Later that night, I was in my room, browsing through my computer for information about Sunnyside. Turns out it was a pretty big establishment and a highly respected one at that.I had no idea how I never knew about them but the more stuff I learnt about, the more my desire to attend the school was piqued.There was just one problem. The school was far away in England and would require me to stay there. Was I ready to uproot my life and that of my dad's? Would my dad even agree to it?I sighed as I turned off my laptop and walked over to my bed, sighing heavily as I flopped on the bed.I still hadn't told my dad about the leaked video and now there was this. The offer was literally godsent but what would my dad think of it?At that moment, there was a knock at my door before it was opened and my dad popped his head in. I sat upright and smiled as my dad walked in, bearing a tray."Hey Dad," I mumbled."Hey, sweetheart. Just thoug
The next few days after my return to school were tumultuous, to say the least. After what Derris did to the guy who assaulted me, no one approached me directly again.Instead, their attacks were more discreet. I got messages instead. Notes, private anonymous messages from people telling me all the nasty things that they couldn't say to my face for fear of upsetting Derris.Every day, I walked into school, looking at the faces around me, wondering who sent the last messages.Nellie told me to just ignore it and not read them but sometimes I just couldn't help it and I got hurt.Some were even accompanied by pictures from the clip and lewd messages. The video had been taken down but pictures couldn't exactly be erased.I tried to ignore it and not let all the whispers, murmurs and messages get to me like Nellie advised but it was easier said than done.I felt trapped at school like my every move was being watched and at home too. I knew that s