Chapter Three
Alexis Anthony
6 years ago
"Okay, I'll trade you my cup of banana pudding for your chocolate muffin."
"Lex, you know that such an unfair deal. So no."
"Come on Claire! I'll throw in a cookie too!"
She pondered the deal for a second before shaking her head. "Nope, not worth it."
"You know what? Keep your muffin. I'm cool with that, I'll just sit here and happily eat my banana pudding." knowing full well that Claire loves banana pudding more than anything.
"Fine fine! You have a deal. My chocolate muffin for your cup of banana pudding and cookie."
"Nope. The cookie is out of the deal."
"What?! But..."
"Sorry Claire, that's what you get for being greedy and trying to hassle your best friend out of all her food."
She sighed in defeat "I guess I had that one coming."
I tossed her the cookie anyways, she stares at it in shock, and then stares at me in shock, but proceeds to eat it (Yeah, I know I'm a good person)
"Oh Claire, you should really stop eating all that food, if you don't, well who knows what Conner might think." I glared at the girl who spoke harsh words to my best friend.
"Jessica, shut up. Claire is beautiful and you're just jealous of her." Claire's dark brown eyes showed gratitude.
Jessica opened her mouth to say something else, but I cut her off "Yeah yeah, we know you're here to boost your self-confidence blah blah blah make others feel bad about themselves blah blah blah now just go away. Okay? Okay." she stomped her foot down like a spoiled little princess and stormed off.
"Thanks."
"Hm?" I swallowed down the rest of my muffin "oh that. You shouldn't be thanking me, I just spoke the truth. But I do get some points for being the amazingest best friend ever, right?"
"Uh, duh." Claire says, trying to mimic Jessica.
I laughed "Oh goodness. Pinky promise me you'll never turn into her, you do that voice way too well."
Our pinkies intertwined with each other's "Pinky promise."
I stared at the figure. My mind trying to process the image.
If she had notices me, she didn't show it, her attention was focused on the male figure sitting in front of me. She had changed a lot in the four years I've seen her. Her beach-blonde hair had streaks of black in it, her normally pale skin was tan, and her kind eyes were cold and empty. She wore the same revealing cheerleading uniform as the girl we both use to hate and her pom-poms were "flirtatiously" ruffling the boy's hair. Claire, what happened to you?

Nathaniel Blake
Lex was an open book, if you really paid attention to her. When Claire Bennett walked up to me and attacked me with her pom-poms, well, at first Lex was calculating towards the new stranger that approached our table. She was deciding how to act, who the girl is, blah blah blah. You can tell by the small squint in her eyes and how she pressed her lips together. Her eyebrows were scrunched up together when she vaguely recognized the person standing in front of her. Her next reaction was shock when she realized that it was her ex-best friend. Her mouth was opened just a little and her eyes were wide. Then her normally sea green eyes turned gold for a brief moment: betrayal. I've only seen that look on her once, and trust me, it was awful. Then her eyes soften, she let out a small sigh, and she appeared less tense. But she still had a small frown on her face and her eyebrows were sightly scrunched up: Concern. I wouldn't blame her for feeling that way, four years ago, Claire was the kind quiet girl that everybody liked, now she's basically a second Jessica.
"I think the art classroom is opened." Claire whispers into my ear.
I felt excitement ripple through my body (I'm a guy, she's an attractive girl, can you blame me?)

Alexis Anthony
"Look Andrew, this was fun and everything, but I should go look where my next class is."
"You want me to show you?"
I shake my head "No it's fine."
I walked around random halls, I walked up random staircases, basically I had no idea where I was going.
"Lex!"
I turn around.
"...Nathan?" I say uncertainly "Why are you here?"
"I go to school here?"
I scowled at him "You know what I mean."
"We need to talk."
Well duh. I already knew that part "Like right now? Lunch ends in two minutes."
"What's your next class?"
"...off period."
"Oh really?" his lips form a grin "I remember someone telling Andy that they should look where their next class is."
"Well sorry for not wanting to be in the same room as you and Claire while you two talk about, you know, doing it."
His face immediately becomes serious "Look Lex, I haven't and will never have, sex" I flinched "with Claire Bennett." the grin is back on his face "what? Something wrong with" I pinched his cheek. (our teachers would always do that to us when we kept yelling at each other) "Ow! Wex, wop it!" he pleaded. I let go. "Owwww..." he rubbed his cheek "my complexion."
I rolled my eyes right as the bell rang. He grabbed my hand and dragged me off to who-knows-where. "Wait, where are you taking me?"
"Relax, it's not like I'm kidnapping you or anything."
"Don't you have a class?"
"Yeah"
"Shouldn't you-" "Sweetheart, this wouldn't be the first time I'm cutting class."

Nathaniel Blake
I took Lex to one of the study rooms connected to the library. "What if someone needed to use this room? But they can't cause we're in here. Then they end up failing their test. Drop out of school. Parents kick them out, and die alone. All because of us."
"You know there's like ten other rooms right?"
"No I didn't know that, I'm still new here. Remember?"
How could I forget? You were gone for four years. Four freaking years.
"Sooo" Lex says "what she would talk about?"
"Is Chubby still alive?"
She bursted out laughing. She must've seen my confused expression because she started to explain herself. "When you asked I was like "what? But you're right here!" but then I realized you're talking about the original Chubby...and...yeah. Never mind. No, he isn't. My dad ran him over two years back and said that he ran away. He got me a Turtle though, Bowser. He's still alive." she concluded.
"Oh...yeah, that's good."
She nodded enthusiastically. She then leaned forward, as if she was telling a secret "So what happened to Claire? How'd she...become that way?"
I scratched the back of my head "I'm not really sure. One day she was good ole' Claire and then boom! She's like that."
"It doesn't just happen in one day, I mean I don't really know, but wouldn't it happen over time?"
I shrug "Did you not keep in touch with her when you were wherever?"
"I did. For a couple of months, and then one day she just stopped replying or answering my calls."
"Well..." "What?" "You were her only friend."
Her eyebrows scrunched up and my heart did a weird flutter thing (what the heck?) "No I wasn't, Claire had a lot of friends."
"Acquaintances. There's a difference."
"But-"
"I remember in 5th grade, you had the flu, you were out for a week. She barely talked to anyone. It was basically liked that when you left, but this time she knew you weren't going to come back. I guess she had to make new friends. Why Jessica of all people? I don't know. Popularity?" I suggested.
"So...it's my fault?"
"Look Lex, the chances of you being around Claire your whole life isn't very high, she had to eventually make new friends. Think of this as a good thing."
"But it's not a good thing! She turned into some, some...prostitute!"
"Whoa, I wasn't expecting that."
She punched me "lightly" (it really hurt, but if you're a man, you're suppose to take it and call it nothing) "I say bad words all the time."
"One time."
"Twice now."
"Prostitute doesn't really count, that's a profession. And the other one doesn't really count either."
"Yeah it does!"
"Sweetheart, you were trying to say the word "birch" and messed up."
"It still counts!"
"Not really..."
She glared at me, but it came out sort of cute looking. "Do you want to go out on a date with me this Friday?" the words were out of my mouth before I knew it.
She was shocked, but recovered quickly "Nathan-"
"I promise it'll be fun. I'll be all gentlemanly, treat you like a princess" "Nathan-" "so how about it?"
"Nathan, I already have a boyfriend."