Highmore Manor

I would have fallen off the cliff if someone hadn't suddenly grabbed my right hand at the very last minute. I went flying towards the cliff face but managed to turn my back to the hard rock, smashing my side against it, pushing all the air out of my lungs. I stopped screaming and gasped in pain. I was hanging about 40 metres above the angry ocean holding onto someones hand, and the grip was slowly slipping.

"Don't move, I might drop you," a male voice called out from above me. I looked up but couldn't see anyone, the edge of the cliff was blocking out the person's face.

I took deep breaths to stop myself from panicking but the fact that I was hanging over the edge of a cliff and there was a possibility I could still die freaked me out.

And to top it all off it was my fault that I was in this mess.

If only I had listened to Jesse.

I could feel my hand slipping through the guy's hand. I attempted reaching up with my left hand to grab his but I couldn’t get it up high enough without knocking the guy off balance.

Stupid gravity.

Suddenly my hand slipped further down and I dropped a few centimeters towards the roaring waves. I cried out in fear and pain as my arm was wrenched half out of the socket. My grip weakened as the pain in my shoulder intensified.

But just as I was about to let go completely a strong hand gripped my wrist and started pulling me up. After a few tugs I was up high enough to get my elbows over the edge of the cliff. Someone grabbed my armpits and pulled me up the rest of the way, staggering slightly under my quite small but still significant weight. We all collapsed into a pile, all of us panting and out of breath. I was on my side clutching my right arm and staring at the mud beside my head.

That's when it all sunk in.

The pain, the fear, the relief, the fact that I had just been dangling over a cliff and had been saved all sunk in at the same time with a huge thud in my chest.

I let out a huge sob and tears started pouring down my face. Suddenly Alex appeared in front of me, dragging me up into his arms, engulfing me. I cried into his jacket and just stayed like that for ages.

I was aware of someone rubbing my back, someone talking on the phone and then the wail of sirens getting closer. But I was in too much shock to register anything properly. I was loaded onto a stretcher and then into the back of an ambulance. Someone was holding my left hand; squeezing it rather tightly and telling me it would all be ok.

Just before the doors closed behind my head I felt someone brush my hair out of my face kindly. I managed to tilt my head back against the neck brace just enough to look into the two clearest but unfamiliar green eyes before the doors engulfed me in darkness.

♥♥♥♥♥♥

"A dislocated shoulder, two fractured ribs and a very bruised back, you're lucky it wasn't worse then that," Doctor Murphy said putting the clipboard back down on the end of my bed. "We'll get a nurse in to bandage you up and prescribe some salve for those bruises. You should be able to go home today though, just lots of rest," he said with a quick smile.

"I'm sorry for all this trouble," I said.

"I think that's something you should be saying to your friends, they're all a bit worried, but don't worry patching people up is what hospitals are for," he grinned. I nodded slowly. He headed out of the room and then a few seconds later Callie rushed in.

"Oh my god, I thought you were dead," she said collapsing into the chair beside me. I just looked at her warily, waiting for her to snap at me. She noticed my expression and said: "I'm not angry at you anymore, Hayls."

"Why? Because I fell off a cliff?" I asked slowly.

"No, you told Ryan how you really felt and that takes a lot of bravery," she said. "And you fell off a cliff," she added with a smile. I smiled back.

"I shouldn't have led him on," I said slowly.

"It's all over now, apart from being a little angry with you he's finally got the message," Callie said. I still felt a little cautious of her considering what Brittany had told me. I just nodded and smiled slightly.

"That's good, I guess," I said. "I shouldn't have gone down that path either."

"Yeah, I kind of want to know why you did that?" Callie asked.

"I wasn't thinking straight and I was angry I think, I just sort of thought 'well I want that photo' and then just went for it. I'm so dumb," I said with an awkward smile.

"We all make mistakes, we all think we want something and then face the consequences," Callie said patting my arm. She'd given me the perfect opening to what I wanted to talk to her about. Thinking she wanted to be in Camilla's group.

"About that, Cal," I said, Callie turned to look at me. "Brittany and I were talking about when you guys first got to Highmore…" I started, Callie's face suddenly went pale but someone walking into the room exclaiming interrupted me:
"Hayley? Callie?"

I carried on looking at Callie kind of expectantly but she turned around quickly and went over to the person who had just rudely interrupted everyone's conversations.

"Hayley, I want you to meet Chase," she said, her face was tightened slightly but had brightened a little with the presence of the boy she was standing with.

The breath stopped in my throat.

My heart beat sped up to almost twice the sped, and if I had been hooked up to a heart monitor everyone would've known.

His eyes shone a bright green - the exact same green from before - he was almost as good looking as Jesse.

I halted my thoughts before Jesse overran them. Jesse didn't like me anyway.

"Hi," I said in a slightly strangled voice, Callie shot me a weird look and then turned to back to Chase.

"He, like, saved your life," she said all giggly and girly, like I'd never seen her before. She even said 'like' in that very LA voice. It was my turn to shoot her a weird look. Chase just smiled and then handed me a box of chocolates.

"For you, I hope you feel better soon," he said coming to sit in the chair beside my bed.

"I should really be giving these to you, but thank you, for everything," I said with a quick smile. He grinned and I melted.

"It was my pleasure, saving someone as beautiful as you," he said softly. I caught Callie's glare and I understood in that second that she was jealous. I smiled slowly at Chase, I could feel my cheeks heating up and by the way he started smirking slightly I knew he knew.

"So Chase, do you want a drink?" Callie asked.

"A lemonade, thanks Callie," he said dismissively. She scowled slightly and then stormed out of the room.

"How did you get to me so fast?" I asked curiously.

"I was walking down the path that connects with the one you guys were on and saw you go down the path, I could here Jesse calling out so I went down the path to check that you were ok and then you fell, I managed to grab you before you went too far," he said with a shrug.

"Well thank you for following me down anyway," I said.

Just then a nurse came over with some bandages and told Chase to 'please excuse us for a moment sir,' and then proceeded to mummify me in bandages. She told me I could go home as soon as I got a ride and then left me. She's wrapped the bandages quite tight so I felt like I was wearing a corset.

I walked out into the waiting room where Chase - sipping a lemonade - and Callie were waiting for me. Unfortunately Callie couldn't drive and Chase hadn't brought his car so we had to call Jesse. He came and got us in his Range Rover and drove us home in silence.

Halfway home Callie decided to interrogate Chase, I would've had no problem with it, because it was rather interesting, but she was being all flirty at the same time.

What had happened to her and Alex?

"So Chase, what are you doing at Highmore Manor?" she asked smiling as cutely as possible.

"I'm staying at the Manor with Principal Reed while my dad does some important business work," Chase said with a quick shrug. "I thought my old friends would be a bit more welcoming." I turned around in the passengers seat just in time to catch him shooting a look at Jesse through the rear view mirror, Callie carried on talking oblivious.

"So how old are you?" she asked with a small giggle, he looked down at her oddly but carried on.

"I'm 19, I graduated Highmore last year, I don't remember you though," he said. Callie giggled.

"Oh well you can get to know me now, and you're only two years older then me," she said, Chase and Jesse both shot her a weird look, they both knew exactly what she was getting at, and although I didn't shoot her a look I knew as well. Jesse coughed.

"So, Cals how's Alex?" he asked a little tensely.

"Oh he's doing great," she said tightly, glaring at Jesse. "He's my cousin," she explained to Chase. I froze in my seat.

Cousin? More like boyfriend.

I felt Jesse's shock as well, he turned to look at Callie meaningfully and as he was turning back to look at the road he caught my eye and raised his eyebrows for just a second.

"Oh that's cool," Chase said in a bored voice.

"So, is Ryan really angry at me?" I asked quickly, changing the subject.

"If muttering about leading him on and flirting with other guys counts as angry, then I suppose so," Callie said casually.

"Oh, I wish I hadn't snapped at him so much," I said with a sigh.

"He deserved it," I heard Jesse mutter, Callie didn't hear him and just shrugged.

"Oh well, it'll keep him off your back for a while. And your complaining about him always trying to impress you will stop as well," Callie said a little icily. We just stared at the gates of the school as we pulled in. The air in the car had suddenly just got a tad bit cooler, and it had nothing to do with Jesse's hand hovering over the air conditioning controls.

♥♥♥♥♥♥

School turned into a sort of hell for me.

Everyone at school who hadn't been at the accident - which was everyone - decided to treat me like a celebrity, and I hated it. I walked around school with my head down, ignoring everyone who would say 'Hey you're the girl who fell off the cliff?'. It was embarrassing and annoying, but I guess when your picture turns up in the paper you bound to be talked about a lot.

Ryan was angry with me, preferring not to make eye contact and staying out of my way as much as possible.

My conversation with Mum on the phone had been very dramatic. She insisted in flying over to England to make sure I was ok but I managed to talk her out of it. The conversation with Payton however was a little strange. She thought falling off a cliff sounded like 'quite a bit of fun' and told me I should take up abseiling or something. I informed her I now had a slight phobia of cliffs and that wasn't a great idea right now. Apparently her and Ricky were getting close and he was introducing her to things like rock climbing, I told her that was great and I meant it. Finally things in the Ricky and Payton area were looking up.

The teachers decided that they would be sympathetic but not lenient with my schoolwork and I didn't really blame them. I had unfortunately dislocated my right arm so writing was a little sore, but my homework was heaped up on my table ready to be done.

But at least three good things came out of falling off the cliff though. 1) Callie and I ended up talking and resolving our problems to an extent. But Callie had changed in the few days we had fought, she had become more of a girl somehow, 2) Although Callie still continuously flirted with Chase she was on slightly nicer terms with Alex again, although he still didn't know he was supposed to be her cousin and 3) I met Chase.

He took to being my bodyguard around school, fending off all the nosy students wondering if I had actually just been attempting suicide not trying to take photos of the scenery, and becoming a really great friend.

He started hanging out with our group more and more, which Alex, Jesse and Ryan didn't seem to appreciate but they wouldn't tell Callie or I anything so we carried on hanging out with him.

It was like a silent battle to see who could get him first and no matter how many times I reminded Callie that she still had Alex she carried on flirting with him, even in front of Alex a few times. I wasn't really fighting her for him but she sort of made it that way, and anyway she was technically cheating if she did anything with Chase so I was entitled to win.

Right?

"So he invited me to his Christmas party on his boat in the first week of the Christmas holidays. I can't wait, it'll be my chance to get him," Callie gushed without knowing that I too was invited to the party.

I began to wonder how well I actually knew this girl as she gushed and went on about Chase without a second thought for her boyfriend. I'd never seen her like this before in my life, she was so - girly. I was used to Callie being quite shy and almost tomboyish, this was the complete opposite.

"It's such a shame you'll be in New Zealand at the time of the party, I would've asked Chase to let me invite you if you weren't going to be away," Callie's constant annoying talk slowly faded into the background as I concentrated on studying my nails, which were slightly torn and gross from dragging them through the mud when I got back up the cliff. This was the side of Callie I supposed Brittany had been talking about, the side that made her somewhat conceited and arrogant.

"So do you know what you're going to wear?" I asked when I realized she'd stopped talking. My question sent her into frenzy; she hurried over to her wardrobe and started fussing through her dresses.

"I suppose I can get Mother to send something over," she said a little worriedly. I stared at the roof of out bedroom. All Callie ever did was talk about Chase; this was maybe the fifteenth conversation we'd had about him in the two days since we'd met him. I got up and headed over to my desk piled high with homework, easing down into my chair.

"Are you listening to me Hayley? Which dress looks better?" Callie asked a little impatiently. I turned around to glance at her, pointed at a pink dress she was holding up and then turned back to my work.

"Oh, Hayls I'm so excited. I really want to impress him," she said happily. I nodded turning over a page in my science book. I looked up at the grey skies outside watching the clouds merge together and form weird patterns on the sky wishing I could fly up there in the clouds when suddenly something Callie said brought me back to reality.

"What did you say?" I asked turning around to stare at her.

"I said, I think I'm in love with Chase Birchall," she giggled. I gaped at her.
What about Alex? I thought.

Was this the real Callie? Who gave up on her boyfriend a week or so after their anniversary for a boy she hardly knew?

I had to admit, that if this was the real Callie, I didn't really like her.