The Academy of the Elite

These past four weeks have been stressful. I haven't talked to Vic since that night that I told him off. I mean we said hi to each other from here to there, but I want to know how he felt about the Lounge night and Lizzy's performance. I need to know! I haven't really talked to Lizzy either since the Lounge night. She's been too busy cramming for finals and focusing on her piece for the Major show. Not to mention she had a relapse from the Lounge night. After Max walked me to my room I went to check up on her but she wasn't there. I figured that she was with Kellin, they're inseparable. Anyways, Lizzy and Vic aren't the only people that have been weighing on my mind. Max has been acting a little different lately. I mean yeah, he still says I love you and hangs out with me, but it's little things that I've noticed. Some things seem kind of strained. I don't know what it is...is it me? Was it something I did? Said? Did someone talk to him about easing up on me? I don't get it. Whatever. I give him his space when he needs it; it's probably a passing phase. I really hope so. Not to mention today's the Major show. Not that I'm nervous or anything but I'm not as excited about it as I was just a month ago.

I huff and push my hair out of my face, sitting up in bed. I'm just happy that today is Friday, a much needed day off. Not to mention that it’s the last day of school, the start of many needed days off. I roll out of bed, plopping onto the floor and grumbling about how thankful I was for this rug. After getting myself up, I shuffle over to the bathroom to take a shower. Man, I love showers. I get out, dry myself, and then finish my usual hygienic routine. I tie my hair into a high loose bun as I walk to the closet to pick out an outfit. After spending what seemed like an eternity of staring at my clothes, I end up with a complex outfit. Today is just one of those days where I feel the need to dress up. I throw on a Carrie tribal print tee that I ordered online from Forever New then pull on a pair of purple skinny jeans that Naomi bought me from her job. What a doll. I lace up a pair of gray chucks then untie my hair and tuck parts of it into my gray beanie. After slipping on a couple of wrist bands and putting on earrings and a necklace, I walk over to the mirror and put some make up on. When I'm done, I slip my phone into my pocket, grab my keys and rush out to the cafeteria. I take my seat at the group table at the corner next to Jaime and across from Lizzy and Kellin.

"G'morning guys," I say lazily.

"Hey there," Jaime says pulling me closer. At this point, I don't even care.

I am so done with these guys and their flirting, Max was acting suspicious anyway, so I just let it slide. Jaime knows that I'm someone else's girl, and he is just playing around anyway, so it's nothing harmful.

"Good morning Ally," Lizzy gives me a tight smile, looking past me.

I figure that the expression signaled that Max was behind us. I shrug and whip my head around, proving myself right. He approaches the table, looking attractive as ever. And he was only wearing a t-shirt and sweat pants. I loosen myself from Jaime's grip and straighten up.

"Hey Ally," Max begins.

"There's other people at the table you know," Mike pipes up.

"Yeah sorry, hi guys. Ally, can I talk to you for a second?" He shifts from one foot to the other, shoving a hand in his pocket.

I get a bad feeling in my stomach as I stand up and follow him towards the corner of the room.

"Is something wrong?" I ask trailing behind him like a lost puppy.

"No, nothing to worry about," he chuckles, "but I'd like it if we had a date this afternoon. If you didn't have any plans?"

"Yeah of course, what time?" I instantly feel myself calming down, easing the tension that I had.

"Meet me at the track field at 12," he smiles, grabbing my hand.

"Sure," I return the smile.

He lays his hands on my waist, staring into my eyes. For a second, I swear that I see a flash of hurt in his eyes, but then he leans in fast and kisses me. When we break apart I feel lightheaded, but in a good way.

"I'll see you later," he barely whispers, then turns and leaves the cafeteria.

I stand there for a second, confused and happy at the same time. I practically float back to the table and resume position at my seat.

"Jeez," Tony smirks, "I don't know what happened over there but you're like oozing hormonal joy."

I sigh, smiling and lean my head on my hand, propping my elbow up on the table. "And I don't doubt that. Where did Kelly and Lizzy go?"

“Uhh don’t you mean Kellin?” Justin piped up from the other end of the table.

“No, I meant Kelly.” I rolled my eyes at him.

“I don’t know, he ran off with Lizzy.” Gabe said causing Vic and Tally to glare at him.

After a quick rehearsal with the boys, I say a "see you later" then run to my dorm room. I'm just so excited about my lunch date with Max. Maybe it's to make up for the way he's been acting lately. And that kiss? Boy, he was missing me. I jab my key into my door and throw it open, contemplating if I should change my outfit just for the date. I would…but I don't really feel like changing again since I will have to change later for the Major show. Ah whatever, I'll just keep this outfit on. I walk across the hall and bang on my sister's door, I have an extra 10 minutes, and I can spend it gushing about Max until I have to leave.

"Come in, it's open!" She yells impatiently.

I creak the door open slowly, hiding behind it, but exposing my face with a big grin on.

"Stop being a creep," she giggles, throwing a pillow at me.

I pick it up and walk into the room, placing it back onto her bed. She was at her desk; she seemed to be making some final adjustments to her poetry piece. I plopped myself onto her bed and stared at her as she was writing. How dare she mess up her beautiful hair?!? When she talked about dyeing it, I didn't take her seriously.

"But you had to cut it?" I said out loud by accident. She turned around in her chair giving me a confused look.

"What?" She didn't say it much as a 'what did you say?' She said it more as a 'repeat what you said so I can make sure I heard you right'.

"Nothing," I mumble.

"You don't like my hair?" She asks, her hand flying up to touch it. Well, at least what was left of it.

"It's not that I don't like it," I say, getting up from the bed, "it's just that you're hair was perfect before and now it's..." I look down at her and notice her serious expression. "I don't know, it doesn't matter." She stares at me for a second before going back to her writing.

She sighs. "It's okay, I did it for me and it's already done so there's nothing I can do about it."

"Hm, okay Ms. Feisty. I'll check in with you later," I kiss her on the top of her head and she smiles an 'okay' then I'm out the door.

I speed toward the track field and plant myself onto the bleachers. I peer to the right of me to see Max walking in my direction, right on time. I jump up, a smile plastered on my face. He grabs my hand, with no greeting or anything, leading me towards the woods. All thoughts fly out of my head, then I remember:

“Aren't we not supposed to go into the woods?” I say as he drags me in that direction.

"It's okay," he turns to face me, "they won't catch us."

We come to a halt at an opening where there were more stumps and marshes than trees. He lets go of my hand and stands awkwardly, his head facing the ground.

"Um," I laugh nervously, "I thought that we were having lunch." He bites his lip, ignoring what I had said.

"Ally, I.." He trails off as he looks up at me, shaking his head. "I can't do this anymore; I don't think we can be together."

As those words processed in my head, it felt as if my heart cracked.

"Wh-what?" Tears start welling up in my eyes as I step closer to him. "Is this some sort of joke?" I whisper.

"No Ally," he says looking away from me again, "we need to break up. I did something and I-" he steps back, "I just can't be with you."

"What did you do? We can work-"

"No!" He cut me off, scaring me a bit. "I cheated on you and that's it, I can't be with you, it's over."

"You cheated..?" I couldn't wrap my mind around the thought. Max cheated on me? "How? Why? Everything was going so well. I thought that," the tears started to stream down my face now, "I thought that you loved me."

"Yeah, but it just happened. I used to like her before you stepped into the picture and then-"

"Who?!" I shouted. I couldn't believe that this was actually happening.

"Shh, if you yell they'll catch us!" He whispers harshly.

"Excuse me? Let them catch us! I don't care! I can't believe you did this to me; after all the crap we've been through and the time and effort you took to regain my trust the first time around. And you go and do this to me?" I balled my hands up into fists.

"I know, and I'm sorry but-"

"Sorry nothing!" I cut him off, "You're such a jerk!"

"Oh, stop throwing yourself a pity party, I know that you and Jack kissed the night of his party so I'm not the only one at fault here," he said raising his voice.

I freeze for a second. I had totally forgotten that that had happened.

"That doesn't count, he kissed me. And how did you even know about that?" I weakly defend myself.

"It doesn't matter anymore. We're even now." He hissed at me, eyes narrowed.

"So that's what this is about? Getting even? That's so low Max, even for you." I spit the words at him.

"Oh, well sorry for ruining your expectations. I was just so tired of you pushing me away, and like I said, she was there first, so she should be the one that's hurt." He shrugged as if my pain meant nothing. As if we meant nothing.

"I don't care if she's hurt Max," I shout, throwing my arms in the air, "you chose me, didn't you? You should've kept faithful and this wouldn't be happening right now."

"Whatever, I'm out of here," he says walking away.

"Are you kidding? You're going to dump me in the middle of the woods and just leave me?" He doesn't even spare me another glance. "I hate you!" I yell out to him, but he was already out of sight.

I drop to my knees and lay my face in my hands, sobbing all the while. Did that really just happen? Or am I in a terrifyingly realistic nightmare? No, this has to be reality. Right on cue to make things worse, JT comes sprinting through the trees looking angry. His expression dies down a bit once he notices that I'm crying, but it stays stern enough.

"Aaliyah, what happened over here?" He helps me to my feet and I wipe tears off my face.

"A messy breakup, I guess you can announce that Max and I aren’t a couple anymore." I shake my head.

"Well I'm sorry to hear that," he frowns, "but you know that students aren't permitted to go past school grounds." He shakes his head with a disappointed look on his face. "Aaliyah, this is serious. You have just earned yourself a strike. I didn't expect this kind of behavior from you."

"But-"

"No excuses. When you're more stable, come pass by my office so that I can explain to you how the strike system works." He shakes his head again. "I'm very disappointed."

He turns and walks off back towards campus. I trail behind him a couple of yards, sobbing quietly. I stop at the bleachers and sit on the first step. I got a strike. This cannot be happening. I am so upset right now. This is all Max's fault. I've spent the past 10 months with this jerk, told him I loved him. Just for him to throw it all away and break my heart.

"Ally?" I look up to see Jack with a worried look on his face. "What happened?"

He sits beside me, wrapping his arms around me. I just couldn't find the words to say, so I just kept crying against his chest. After a while, I calmed down and told him what had happened. Everything. The way Max had been acting lately. The break-up and now the strike. You could tell that he was furious. He got up and started pacing; mumbling to himself about how much he couldn't stand Max at the moment. Then vowed to himself that he would never speak to him again. When that was done, he cooled down a bit then sat back down next to me.

"I'm here for you Ally, you do know that, right?" I nod and lean against his chest again. I'm so over MJ Academy right now.

"Can you walk me back to my room please?" I ask with a strained voice, looking up at him.

He gets up, then takes my hand and helps me up. As we walk to my room, I get paranoid that I would see Max just lounging around with his cheating partner. I pick up the pace and Jack catches my drift, walking faster. When we get to my door I hand him the keys and wait for him to unlock it. I walk in and throw myself onto the bed. He pulls the blanket over me, and then joins me. We lay in silence my eyes feeling heavy after a while. He sighs loudly and clears his throat.

"I'm sorry that I have nothing reassuring to say, I wish that.." I feel him shake his head, "I wish that I had known this would happen, so that I could've prevented it from happening."

"It's okay Jack, I don't want you to blame yourself, it's not your fault." I turn to face him, "what matters is that you're here now."

A small smile forms on his face as he moves some of my hair out of my face.

"Ugh, you couldn't put water proof makeup on?" I frown and he starts laughing. "I'm just kidding, it's fine."

I punch him in the arm, giggling myself.

"You're the best," I sigh.

"Huh?"

"You've been there for me since I came to this school, putting up with all my crap and I don't get why," I sit up and lean my back against the headboard.

"You know exactly why, Ally." He gets up and walks over to my fridge, grabbing a water bottle from it.

I totally forgot that that was there. And I don't see how, all this time I could have had snacks stocked away in my room.

"Right," I say, pursing my lips.

He sits beside me on the bed again and guzzles down some water.

"So, today's the big day," he states flatly.

"Mhm, it's going to be great, now I have some real emotion to pump out for my song. I can't wait," I jump up and harshly whisper the second verse of If You Can't Hang into my fist as if it were a microphone. This performance will be over the top.

"I'm sure it will be, what's your second song by the way?" Jack gets up to lean on the door; I guess he feels awkward so he has to move around.

"You'll see," I grin, looking up at him and pushing my hair back.

"Alright. Well, I'll see you later Ally," he twists the knob open, ready to leave.

I rush over to him and shut the door before he could make it out. I embrace him, leaning my head against his shoulder.

"Thanks again, Jack." I could sense the hesitation, but he wraps his arms around me, planting a kiss on my head.

"If we stay like this for any longer, I might just not leave."

I smile and look up at him, only to see that he wasn't the least bit joking. I let go and open the door for him, looking down.

"My bad, see you tonight." And just like that, he's gone.

I can't believe how selfish I've been, not even considering Jack's feelings. All this time I've been with Max, and all he could do is sit back and watch me be with somebody else. To make it worse, Max is his best friend. It must have been killing him that Max and I went out in the first place. I know it is, because it's bothering me. How could I have been so stupid? If I had never gotten drunk at Jack's party, I wouldn't be in this situation right now. I'd be with Jack, happy as ever because he would never do anything to hurt me. I shoot Naomi a text before falling back onto my bed. She's here instantly; opening my door and rushing in.

"Oh my gosh, what happened to you?" She comes to my side and sits down beside me.

"It's a long story, I'll tell you later. Can you help me pick an outfit for tonight?"

She gives me a sympathetic smile and mouths 'okay' to me. I walk over to the bathroom and strip off my clothes then jump into the shower. I practice my songs for the performance, ready to blow the students socks off.

After about hour of trying on and trading clothes, I ended up wearing Naomi clothes, and she, mine. She handed me her red 'I Mustache You' crop top that I put on over a black tank top. Then I pulled on a pair of royal blue skinny jeans and laced up a pair of black knee-high chucks. Simple, "but totally rocker-chic," she commented. With a few accessories here and there, my outfit was complete. Then she sat me down on my desk chair and grabbed my shoulders.

"Okay, I want to do your hair, I have an idea for it, but you'll have to trust me." A smile spread across her face.

"That doesn't sound too safe," I say raising an eyebrow.

"No, seriously. Trust me!"

"Fine," I whine. She opens her bag on the desk and slowly pulls out a can. I quickly grab it, and read out loud:

"Spray-on hair color...wash off...royal blue. This matches the pants that I’m wearing; you planned this, didn't you?" I smirk and place it back on the desk. "Fine, but only because I can wash it off later." I cross my arms and watch her as she pulls a pair of scissors out of the bag as well. "Oh no no no, there is no way you're cutting my hair."

"Why not?"

"Are you kidding me? I love my long hair! I'm already mad that Lizzy cut her hair, you can't just chop mine off!" I grab my hair defensively and stroke it as if it were a cat or something.

"Ugh c'mon Ally, do something different! It's for your performance; you got to be dramatic, out there. I won't cut it short, just up to your ribs. And I remember you telling me about how fast it grows so this shouldn't be a problem." She stood there with a hand on her hip.

"I don't know," I dragged each word out, biting my lip.

"Pleeeaaasse?" She got down on her knees, pouting and folding her hands.

"Fine! Just hurry before I change my mind."

"Yay, okay, you won't regret it." After a few minutes of snipping here and there, and some spraying,
Naomi covered my eyes and walked me over to my standing mirror so that I can see the complete outcome. When she took her hand off of my eyes, I gasped.

"I look like a completely different person...” She held her breath to see any further reaction. She couldn't take it much longer as I just kept staring at myself.

"What do you think Ally? Spit it out!"

"I actually kind of hate it."

"What?" I heard disappointment in her voice, poor child.

"I'm just kidding Naomi, I love it! I have to do this more often." I pose as she releases a sigh of relief and throws a pillow at me.

"Jerk. Now come here, I have to do your make up." She rolled her eyes at me, grabbing her makeup kit.

I can't believe it's the night of the show already. I remember months ago just brain storming on our song. Now, I'm backstage and in 10 minutes I'm going up to perform.

"This is crazy," Tony says, peering out at the crowd from behind the curtains.

"You think this is crazy? Just wait till you get to Warped Tour man," Jesse snorts, "that's crazy."

I pace back and forth, waiting for the first act to finish. Up first is Lizzy, and I've got to say, my sister is ah-may-zing. She's performing a heartbreaking soliloquy. Beautiful. When she's done, she comes back stage and gives me a tight hug.

"That was so, like, wow."

"Thanks sis, break a leg," she pecks me on the cheek then runs to Kellin as he walks into the room.

They have a weird interchange that I couldn't really hear, but I could see their expressions. Those two are oddly close...whatever, just best friend stuff I guess. I whip my head around when I hear JT introduce Vic's group. I finally get to hear the songs that they have written, because Vic doesn't know how to tell me anything. That bum. I creep up to the curtains at the right side of backstage and peek out to see their group perform. Vic steps up to the mic.

"Uh hey guys, we're going to perform two original songs. This first one is called Disasterology, we hope you like it."

What a lame introduction Vic. Ha, just kidding, love you. He looks back at Mike to signal the start of the song when he spots me and I give him a quick thumbs up. He turns back to the audience as Mike hits his drumsticks together and starts the song.

"I laid down,
I drank the poison then I passed the heck out.
Now let me tell you 'bout the good life,
I have a million different kinds of fun
when I'm asleep and in a dream that I'm your only one.
Can we create something beautiful and destroy it?
Nobody knows I dream about it, this is my imagination."

Dang, Vic has got some real nerve going up and performing that song, even though it's a great song. I wonder how Lizzy feels about it. I back away from the curtains as Vic ends the song to see if I can catch Lizzy’s reaction. Her face was blank as Vic starts to sing Bulletproof Love.

"Alright guys," I whisper as I wave my group over to me. "Let’s go out there, and remember to rock out, we've got this!" I high five them one by one and stop at Kellin to bop him on the head.

"Ah, what was that for?"

"Nothing really," I smile. "Hey, I don't know what's going on between you and Lizzy but I hope that it doesn't hinder our performance," I cross my arms.

"What, you think we're dating?" He asks, wide eyed.

"I don't know what to think!"

He smirks. "Hm, good."

"Loser."

"Tone-deaf."

"Imbecile"

"Rude!"

JT interrupts us with: "Alright, up next we have Aalyiah Leon, with her group members Kellin Quinn, Jesse Lawson, and Tony Perry."

"Alright, that's us," I breath in heavily and let it out, "it was nice working with you guys. Even you Kelly."

"Now let’s go show them what were made of," Kellin pipes up with a determined smile, ignoring me.

We walk onto the stage and the crowd instantly goes up in a roar of screams and applause. I'm sure most of it is coming from girls who like Kellin, but it's still good audience feedback. Kellin walks up to the mic and the screams get a little louder. Oh yeah, definitely the girls.

"Hey guys, we're going to start things off a little slow. This song is called With Ears to See and Eyes to Hear."

We sit on the stools provided for us and wait as the boys tune their guitars. Then Jesse counts us in and Kellin starts the first verse. When the chorus comes around we harmonize, me going an octave lower. I jump into the second verse, closing my eyes and swaying as the words flow out. After the chorus, Kellin screams the bridge, then we harmonize on the ending, getting a couple of people in the audience teary eyed. Success. We finish the song and the audience gives us a small applause as I approach the mic.

"Well, we're glad you liked that song. Now, we will speed things up a bit with our last song, and this is called If You Can't Hang."

As I walk back to my stool, Kellin shouts out, "This is dedicated to two special people out there in the crowd, hope you like it," he winks at me.

I whisper, "you know?"

"Yeah, Jack told me." He turns around and nods to Jesse, whom was plugging in his and Tony's electric guitars.

This time I start the song with the first verse, standing up and grabbing the mic. I stand there; hand on my waist, looking out for my target. When I finally spot Max, I'm already singing,

"If you can't hang then there's the door baby, if you can't hang then there's the door baby, if you can't hang then there's the door baby, if you can't hang then, there's the door..."

Then Kellin jumps in to harmonize with me for the chorus. He takes over the second verse, being really expressive with each word. I've got to give this guy some credit, he's great. We get to the bridge when Kellin screams his part and I continue the chorus, making a big finish as we join our voices once more before the end of the song. The crowd erupts into applause and screams as we bow before walking backstage. I'd say that went pretty well. We run into a group hug, laughing excitedly.

"We were totally awesome," I gush enthusiastically.

"Yeah, you weren't as bad as you usually are Ally, nice job," Kellin says.

"Shut up, you know I was awesome."

"You're right, good job out there," he gives in.

I smile victoriously as I grab a water bottle from the cooler and commend Jesse and Tony. After going around and complimenting each other on riffs and such, I leave backstage to go find Vic. I wasn't going to let him escape me this time. I find him sitting alone by a tree, picking at his guitar. I plant myself beside him and pluck a reed of grass to play with.

"Hey bud," he says.

"Hi, we've got some things to discuss."

"Right," he says while putting his guitar away in its case. "I wanted to talk to you about Lizzy, I think I finally know what I'm feeling."

"That's great! Tell me everything," I say jumping up. He gets up as well, grabbing his case.

"Okay, but before we start talking about that, I've been wanting to mention to you that my band is going to perform this year at Warped Tour," he flashes a big smile.

"Oh my gosh, that's great Vic!" I hug him and clap my hands excitedly. "Congrats! So that's what Tony and Jesse were talking about."

"Yeah, I'm really pumped up for it, we're going to be on the amateur stage, but at least we're starting somewhere, am I right?" He seems to get distracted, looking past me.

"Yeah, but it's not going to be the same without-" I get cut of when Vic presses his lips against mine.

When I finally realize what's going on, I push away, confused.

"What the heck, Vic?!"

"I'm so sorry Ally, I just thought...."

"You thought what?!?" I shout, looking around nervously.

"That best friends can be more than best friends." He looks up past me again and I turn to see what he may be looking at, but I see nothing.

"That's it, Vic. You need to get your life together because...Ugh!" I walked away from him.

“Wait for once would you let me explain, Ally?!” Vic shouts at me, so I turn around and walk back towards him. “I just saw Lizzy and panicked! I still love her and today, well, everything got so messed up with Tally and..." He gave me a knowing look, "Anyway, I heard that the night of the open mic Lizzy spent it with Kellin. Then Jonny said that they kissed at lunch today.” He combs his fingers through his hair. “I don’t know what to do anymore. How do I even begin to fix this? I have screwed up big time and kissing you probably just made it worse.”

“How could you, Vic?!” I fight back tears. “You can't just use me like that. Plus, Lizzy is going to hate me for this! I need to be alone.”

I storm away to my room, getting more upset by the second with the events of today playing back in my head. Why is all of this happening to me? I don't get it! I rummage through my closet and snatch a small suitcase out of it. I open it then throw some blouses and jeans into it, shoving some books into it as well. I grab my keys, phone charger, and wallet from my night table and leave the room, locking the door behind me. I storm over to the headmaster’s office just happy to see that JT was closing up.

"Hey, Aaliyah, great performance, I enjoyed it."

"Thanks." I paused before saying, "I just stopped by to tell you that I'm leaving tonight. I'm going back to my home to spend time with my family; I'm getting a bit homesick." I lied through my teeth, just eager to get the heck out of this place.

"Oh, sorry to hear that, I guess I'll send the check-out form to your house, and we'll talk about you're strike another time."

"Great. Have a goodnight Mr. Timberlake."

I was ready to head to the bus station and purchase myself a one way ticket to home, but I realized that it would be selfish to leave abruptly and not tell Lizzy. I turn back to the dorm, moving quickly to make sure that I wouldn't get caught by any of my friends. I walk into Lizzy's room and grab a post-it from the pack that she had on her desk. I write:

Hey Liz,
By the time you read this I'll be on a bus ride back home. I can't take it anymore. I'm also going to shut my cell phone off until further notice. I love you and I'll see you soon.
Xoxo, Ally.

I leave the note on her pillow and stomp out of the dorm building, dragging my suitcase right behind me. I sigh, not even sparing a glance at the campus as I march out of Michael Jackson Academy.