Behind These Refuge Walls

"We should do something fun this weekend," said Nate with a bored look.

His school finally came into view. Just like the rest of the morning, I replied with a distraught nod and muttered a 'mhm', while staring off distantly. Nate threw me a confused and somewhat bothered look before genuinely hugging me.

I chose to walk to school on that particular morning. Not even the fresh air could do wonders for my tensed nerves. Nate was yet to find out the reason for my sudden tension that seemed to grow by the minute, given the impossibility to go to the gym during school. Judging by the things evolution, though, I predicted that I would be skipping class rather soon.

For once, both Jake and Janice arrived earlier than me, hence they waited patiently by the student's entrance like bodyguards. There was no point in denying that without them, I probably wouldn't have come to school.

"Paige hasn't stopped talking all morning," Jake informed me.

"You'd figure that big cow would spread shit about you." To me, Janice seemed more angry at herself than at Paige. I knew exactly why she felt so, but abstained myself from saying anything to her.

We began making our way through the mass of tired students - who were too sleepy to see who was pushing her way around them. As we took our seats in English, no one said anything. Our teacher decided we should all have an open discussion over Shakespearean plays. I would have loved - and not only loved, but adored - to be a part of that conversation, but of fear of suddenly being remembered as the latest gossip subject I kept my mouth shut. Janice was silent as well, but this was how Janice was. She rarely talked during classes, although she knew more than half of the answers that should have been given. Jake was indulging his eyes with a slim blonde sitting in the other side of the class - we later discovered this was his love interest - and only talked to us every once in a while, so the chances of him paying attention to our teacher were minimal.

"Alright kids," our teacher announced proudly, "tomorrow I'm bringing by some tapes with several plays and over the few following classes, we'll be watching those. How cool is that?"

By the end of the class, no heads were turned my way, no sneaky glances were exchanged and I was left to think - and hope, for once - that I had been forgotten. Funny how that thought actually seemed to please me.

Yet, of course, fate turned around and bit my behind to prove me that life indeed sucks. We walked out of English seemingly pleased with ourselves and walked to my locker so I could get some of my books.

"Look who we have here."

I didn't have to turn to see the satisfied look on Paige's face. She stood with Melissa who shot me the mother of all idiotic glares.

"Morning, Paige," I grinned, though my insides burned with anger and my brain screamed for me to jump at her neck. She chuckled lightly, looking me up and down.

"Still haven't improved your sense of fashion, huh? Then again," - she leaned in to supposedly whisper to me, though half the people around us could hear - "I hear that's what happens to people like you." Her group roared with laughter and she took notice of Janice, who was gritting her teeth beside me. Jake had been leaning against the lockers up until the point where Melissa had walked up to him, smirking. "Hi, Jan. Here with your loser girlfriend?"

Again, everyone laughed, but just as I opened my mouth, they took off to our next class - a class that we had in common. Janice took a step further from me.

"Charlie, I'm really sorry about this..."

I gritted my teeth. What would be the point of telling her that I didn't want her mercy?

"Shut up and get a grip, woman."

Her eyes grew to the size of saucers. Offering to carry my books, Jake led us towards our next class. I got the feeling that he was slightly pissed off, but didn't pay much attention to it.

"So..." I mused in a failed attempt to make small talk as a red head from the front rows shot me an amused look.

"I can't wait for this day to be over," Janice muttered.

"Yeah, at least you're not the one targeted by Paige for social death."

"Actually, judging by the latest rumors, you'd say I am." Giving her a questioning glance, she carried on to explaining. "According to Kevin Monroe, you and I are having a secret relationship."

My look said it all: disgust, shock and anger. Of course, the idea didn't seem that surprising when you thought about it, considering this was high school and I was an out of the box character, along with Janice - who was turning out to be quite an enjoyable friend. After all, what else could one expect from a popularity vampire - a creature who only feeds on fame and sucks it out of everyone else?

And the tramp's mouth kept going during first period, second period and third period. By the time lunch ended, I was in desperate need of a distraction. Granted, it came.

Janice and I walked through the crowded hallway in the attempt to find a quiet spot. As my eyes searched the place, I spotted a buff short haired boy who spoke with a smirk to a curly haired student. I recognized that kid's noisy words anywhere. He shook his head at something Ryan had said and managed this way to make his gaze land on me.

"CJ?! Radical!"

"Max?"

As Janice and I finally neared the two, Max's grin grew wider and wider and he rushed to pull me in a tight hug. We were viewed with weary eyes and some people actually began mumbling things, but I decided to ignore them and instead, to focus on the satisfaction I got from seeing Max. Oddly enough, I missed the familiarity of that noisy, annoying, ignorant brat.

"Where the hell have you been?" I found myself asking, a spark of actual excitement in my tone.

"Oh, I skipped school for a little while. I had some...stuff to deal with." At this, he shot Ryan a look I couldn't catch.

"So, Max, I had no idea you two knew each other," said man interrupted with a light smirk.

"Oh, yeah, CJ and I go way back." I quirked my eyebrow, but he didn't even flinch. Instead, after a few seconds, realization seemed to dawn on him. "Wait...how do you two know each other?" he asked, pointing between the chatty Ryan and I.

"Health class."

"Irrelevant. Max, this is Janice," I said, looking at the now awkward looking girl. Max smirked in what he must have thought to be a seductive way before kissing Janice's hand. She watched him bemused, probably thinking of her boyfriend in the meanwhile.

Without my knowing, Ryan had snuck up beside me and was playing it cool. To say the least, the style fitted him.

"Need an escort to Health Ed, partner?"

I scowled, but pretty much had no choice, seeing as Janice and I had already started walking with him. Behind me, Max yelled something about seeing me after class. I was half glad that by the time we got there, there weren't too many students seated and half upset that by the time everyone would walk in, they would no doubt lay eyes on me and Ryan - who had so kindly helped me reach my seat. I couldn't understand the guy.

My eyes instantly shot up as Paige strutted in stiffly. As her eyes landed on me and then on the ignorant Ryan, her face fell. The second she decided to open her mouth, however, in walked the athletic tanned girl who had flirted with Jake during our first days at school. I watched in shock as she passed Paige, hitting her with her right shoulder, leaving the blonde girl with an angry expression. What really left me speechless was Paige's lack of action on the matter. The first thought that occurred to me was that Danielle had something that scared Paige.

Danielle plopped herself proudly on the seat in front of me, shooting Ryan a smirk. He returned half of the gesture and I could feel curiosity rise in me. She glanced at me and scowled.

"What crawled up your ass?" I hissed under my breath and oddly enough, she heard me. All she did was shoot me another death glare.

Miss Kroft entered the room in her usual cheerful manner, making me instantly hate her for being the opposite of me. She smiled widely at the class and leaned on her desk.

"So...I was thinking we should all have an open conversation today and get to know how each of us thinks. I see you're all seated as you got paired. So, we'll work in pairs. Both partners have to write on a piece of paper the description of the other one."

I wanted to ask her how any of this was relevant to an actual health education, but restrained myself. Maybe she was just weird, like that.

"Make sure your partner doesn't see what you're writing. Simple enough?"

It was just as simple as describing an iceberg. Let's see...big, cold, icy. My inner bitch laughed at the idea of writing those three words as Ryan's description. I took a deep breath and attempted to be serious, although all the while I was being watched by my 'partner' with sneaky eyes.

Ryan McCarthy

He is an obvious tough guy who doesn't really need to keep to himself. He has a taste for girls and is an obvious womanizer and loves the attention. He is the owner of a reputation which he almost doesn't have to protect. Others do it for him.

I watched Ryan as he kept writing and couldn't help but stare. Was he trying to write a love letter? The second he lifted his gaze from the paper, miss Kroft made us all put our pens down.

"Alright, gang. Now switch papers."

Her order was met with plenty of shocked stares and with people yelling out 'what?!' or 'is she serious?'. Turning to Ryan, I offered him the paper. Being the obvious flirt he was, he held my hand for a second too long before smirking. I shook my head.

Charlotte Sanders

takes great pride in her dignity. She is selfish, proud and determined. She is easy to judge, because she first shows off her flaws and not her qualities - she keeps those to herself, probably lacking faith in them. Although she may seem to hate people, it's not hate that she actually feels, but mistrust.

She prefers the name Charlie to Charlotte because she thinks it makes her seem stronger and less special. She avoids that last adjective and prefers to be viewed as 'ignorant' and with no feeling.

She wears dark colors because she feels that she's better ignored that way. She's a beautiful girl and doesn't even know it.

Everything about her may scream 'get away from me!' to those who are shallow and idiotic, while to everyone else it's an open invitation to explore her unknown.

I blinked once, then did so twice, yet the words didn't disappear. The silence that had taken over as everyone read their notes was quickly smashed by a girl's high pitched voice, yelling something among the lines 'this is ridiculous, you ass!'. And after her, other people stood up, clearly disagreeing with the words their partners had written.

And in that chaos came Ryan's clear, manly laugh. I stared at him like he was an imbecile - which, granted, he may have been. Paige glared daggers at me, whereas the teacher watched him a smile.

"Is something wrong, Ryan?"

"Oh, no. I just received a remarkable description, that's all."

I denied the red that now covered my cheeks. No way in hell was my pride going to be smashed like that.

"Are you serious?" I asked as he returned his gaze to me. At the questioning look he shot me, I frowned. "Remarkable description?"

"You mean you didn't mean those words?"

"You mean you meant yours?"

"Yes."

My face fell. "Oh." I had no idea whether I should have felt utterly disgusted that I could be read like that or flattered that this guy actually knew what he was talking about.

He smirked then sighed as he leaned in his chair.

"You're good, I have to admit."

"Ugh...yeah, well...you got some things right, too." Or most of them, if I were to be a good sport (Thank God, I wasn't).

I don't think I had ever been more intrigued about someone. I thought there was nothing more to that 'I-am-Rambo' façade, but I had been terribly wrong. As we exchanged short one liners (and him trying to make his way into my pants), Ryan still seemed to be hiding something.

"You're kidding me. Ryan McCarthy is smart?" Janice asked, while laughing her ass off as we walked into the parking lot.

"No, no, m'dear. Don't twist my words. I said he seems to be something else, not actually smart."

As she continued to say something about Ryan's intellect, my gaze fell on a black car parked a few ways from us. Leaning against its hood was a tall boy with a red mohawk and his side, his well built friend. His eyes met mine and I froze.

"Oh, look, there's James. And Cain."

Cain. Yeah, that was his name. I hadn't forgotten it, oddly enough, but neither had I thought about him too much. What point was there in thinking about sometoo hot to be alive stranger?

"There's the tramp."

The weird moment I had with the jet black haired man was ruined within seconds. My heat snapped in the direction of Paige.

"Oh, come on," I heard Janice say. The presence of James - although he was mildly too far - seemed to braven her.

"Shut up, Stratford rat!"

"Paige, how about you stop involving others in this little thing you have against me?" Woah, did I actually sound so bloody self righteous? I deserve an Oscar.

She narrowed her eyes and chuckled. I realized then that behind her stood Damian, watching his girlfriend with pride as she attempted - quite lamely - to disown me.

"Looks like you can talk," she mocked. "I was beginning to think you were one of those drag queens who lost their tongue during some...acts."

They laughed and laughed up until the point they choked. No, that only happened in my head.

"Drag queen? Wow, Paige, you really got some creativity, huh?" Janice wasn't as tall as Paige, but nevertheless, her cold stare made them equal. The blonde ignored her and continued to watch me with a mocking glare.

"You may think you know what's coming your way, but you have no idea."

And with those wide words, she rode off into the distance in a silver convertible. The only thing that made her actually take off was Jake - followed by a tripping Max. So the two must have met.

"CJ, I just caught Kevin and Diane making out. Wanna see?"

Janice said something to reply, but I wasn't paying attention. Instead, I stared with a frown at Ryan as he ran to his gang around the black Escalade. The confident smirk that never seemed to leave his features creeped me out, to say the least.

"Charlie!"

I moved my gaze back to Janice who now held James' hand. The boy grinned widely and winked.

"Staring at your knight in shining armor?"

I do believe my jaw hit the floor and given how terribly amused Jake and Max were, I could tell James was very proud of himself.

"Actually, no."

"So I'll just head off. I'll see you tomorrow, Charlie. And don't mind Paige," Janice encouraged before leaving with James towards Cain. I didn't look at him anymore, deciding it was best if I avoided weird contests of staring at each other.

"So, CJ, my home girl. How 'bout I give you and Jake a ride home? We can pick up your brother from school, too."

Jake grinned like a madman at the sight of Max's car, so what point was there in saying no? I knew all too well the grin that would make its way on Nate's face when he'd see the beautiful Mustang.