Psychotic craze

After a painful hour of history I found myself moving with the masses of bodies going to their lockers and then rushing to the lunch room and I hadn't noticed a girl trying to catch up to me.

"Hey, Alison right?" Her American accent was thick; I studied her. She had an athletics body but her skin was however pale, her eyes were layered with a lot of makeup and her cheeks were red.

"Hey, yeah." I replied noticing she was the girl I sat with in history who had kept smiling at me.

"Verity Keels, captain of the cheerleading squad." She held out her hand proudly. From all of the cliché love slash high school movies I had watched I was expecting the head cheerleader to be orange with bleach blonde hair and completely up her own arse.

"Oh cool."

"Yeah, so I noticed you were tall and you're cute, just to let you know cheerleader try-outs are this Friday and I'd love for you to try out, we have 3 places on offer this year." She laughed lightly whilst tossing her strawberry blonde hair over her shoulders. I had also thought cheerleaders were supposed to be mean for some stupid reason, don't blame me I thought, it's those stupid movies and the fact that there were no cheerleaders at my old school.

"Oh - huh me?" I blurted out, me cheerleading? I was the girl who kicked footballs not cheer them on!

"Totally." She grinned.

"I'm sorry; I don't think I'm the right person to be considering." I bit my lip as a breeze blew my hair about; I clasped it in one hand and tied it up in a messy ponytail before entering the lunch room with Verity.

"Well have you done it before?" She asked putting her hand on her hip and posing for some guy who just wolf whistled.

"Not really and I don't intend to." I told her bluntly.

"Now really at least think it over longer, you'll look great with us, let me know soon sweet-pea." She patted my shoulder before practically galloping over to a table that held the rest of the cheerleaders. They were all really pretty and smiled as Verity sat with them and all in all they looked friendly. I tried to shake the stupid stereotype out of my head - the bitchy orange girls who wore short skirts and tight tops all of the time. These girls were normal colour and wore casual clothes like the rest of us; I made a mental note not to take notice of the stereotypes portrayed by these stupid films.

I queued up for lunch noticing the looks I was getting from boys and girls around me but I was glad I came today just to get my first day as a new kid out of the way. Looking around at the tables I noticed that the biggest table had an equal mix of girls and boys, amongst them were Toby, Alec and Daniel along with Lora and Kelly. I sat down on an empty table and decided to eat as fast as possible, get out of there and well explore the school and find out what's going on. Just as I was about to finish someone sat down in front of me and grinned wildly.

"Hi I'm Brad." He winked.

"Hi." I said quietly watching as he turned around to another table which was full of guys and girls and gave them two thumbs up, they all laughed and he turned back to me - what was going on?

"So you're new here right?"

No I've always been here you're just too blind to notice.

"Mhm." I replied trying to figure out why he was over here.

Someone shouted something from his table and he laughed before winking again…

"You know this school is pretty big, if you want I could show you all the good places…" He widened his eyes in a knowing manner.

"No thank you." I replied quickly putting my eyes back to my plate.

"Or we could hang out?"

"Or you could get back to your own table and leave her alone." I heard an angry voice, I looked up quickly to see Hazel push Brad out of his seat and sit down in it herself. She grinned at me wildly and I could faintly smell cigarettes on her.

"Loser." She shouted as he walked away shaking his head.

"Where did you go?" I asked casually.

"Here and there, well actually I got this." Her grin deepened as she showed me the other side of her wrist, there was a small patch on it which she carefully pulled back to reveal a black star and the skin around it was red and sore.

"But you - that - won't you get into trouble?" I asked breathlessly as she covered it back up and coughed - smoker's cough.

"That's the fun part." She laughed and this confirmed the fact that she was bad news.

"Me and you Alison, we have to stick together because we're both new you know?" She spoke more sincerely now.

"Right yeah." I replied, tapping my fork against the plate quietly.

"So how come you moved from England?" She asked leaning forwards so we could have a quiet conversation. I wasn't expecting her to ask me this so my mouth opened quickly but stayed open without any sound coming from it.

"My dad died, so I had to move out here to live with my mom and my brother Daniel." I finally answered her quietly.

"Tragic." She whispered and just for a split second she shot me a look of sympathy before her expression changed.

"England sounds fun; we should go there one day."

"What are the boys like?" She added laughing and at her words my mind flew back to Jake - the guy that made my heart flutter and my cheeks burn but now it was dying, it would be stupid to let myself dwell with thoughts of him.

"Boys will be boys no matter where they are." I rolled my eyes and saw her scan the room in boredom and then finally stop, I followed her now cheeky smile and stare to see her looking at Daniel's table - oh please no.

"Hey, so how come your mom was warning you about making this work or something?" I waved my hand in front of her face and brought her attention back to me.

"I have a tendency to mess things up." She shrugged.

"I do my own thing you know, do what I want and I sometimes I get carried away." Yeah no kidding.

"So this is your last chance then eh?"

She nodded slowly and then her eyes brightened.

"You'll keep me out of trouble though won't you Ally pally." She chuckled and I felt my face grow hot - Ally pally? Before I could reply she had her back to me again and was staring at Daniel's table.

"Now that is what I call some serious -" She began but I didn't let her finish.

"Hazel - no - ew."

"I've heard about him, Daniel Dawson - freaking hot."

"And also happens to be my brother and if you don't mind I just ate!"

"Too bad he's taken, what is that a dwarf?" She pulled a face after seeing his arm around Lora; I saw her eyes move to Alec next.

"He has a girlfriend." I added quickly as she saw Kelly and then her eyes rested on Toby.

"Yes but I don't think he does." She turned back to me her smile widening.

"Hey I have gym with you next don't I? I'll see you then." She spoke getting up and walking towards Daniel's table she walked so confidently yet so graceful. When she reached the table I saw her mouth move a little and then she laughed contagiously and smiled. I blinked and the next thing I knew Hazel was sitting next to Toby and was talking to him - actually talking, laughing and no doubt flirting.

I shook my head a little as the bell went signifying the start of the next class and my thoughts went back to Jake and how there had been so much between us but it was all unsaid. How one smile from each other would be a conversation on its own and stay between us for a long period of time. Now that was all over and I was in America, I wanted to make this work for dad but there was something more that I wanted to do.

I watched Daniel laugh and swing his bag coolly over his head as he walked down the corridor.

I was going to confront him today.