Erin studies her reflection in the mirror. She still wasn’t far enough along to show, but it wouldn’t matter anyway; the uniform that she and Daenerys would be forced to suffer in during school hours seemed to have been made to avoid showing off curves of all forms. When she had found out that she would have to be wearing a uniform, which Zack had failed to mention back when he told the girls about their new school, she nearly threw her new phone on the ground out of anger and frustration. Girls like Erin didn’t belong in uniforms – they belonged in the trendiest, most slutty outfits. The belonged in the spotlight, showing off their curves, and making every boy swoon.

This – this was blasphemy for girls like Erin.

Even still, she held on to some hope that, if she behaved like nothing bothered her, then she might be able to convince Zack to send her back to Michigan.

The private school that the twins were being sent to was one of Orange County’s most prestigious schools – it had a high reputation, and a high graduation rate. Erin wished she could be more enthusiastic about such high-quality education, since going to college was something she really wanted to do someday, she simply could not pretend, not even for a moment, that everything was going to be okay. She was going to start putting on weight, people were going to notice; she would have to face her pregnancy alone without her best friend, without her mother…

…Unless she did something about it.

She shakes her head as various thoughts begin bouncing back in forth, like some sort of ping-pong match. She couldn’t tell anyone and risk losing everything, but she couldn’t bring herself to get rid of it, since that wasn’t within her moral code. And she couldn’t run away, since she had no means of staying alive on her own.

Erin hears Zack call her and Daenerys downstairs so they could leave for their first day of schools. When she gets to the entryway, she notices right away how Daenerys’ uniform doesn’t match the uniform criteria at Orange County Prep. Her navy-blue blazer is missing both its sleeves, and her tie is missing entirely from the ensemble. Compared to Erin’s completely put-together look, she looked like, well, a drug dealer.

Erin can tell she’s walked in on an argument between the two, though it’s a lot quieter than you would normally expect from the two. Zack nods at Erin, his annoyed look changing to that of relief upon seeing that at least one of his daughters would be minding the dress code set out for them. He mumbles a quiet, “Let’s go,” before grabbing Daenerys harshly by the shoulder and leading the two girls outside.

Since Zack lived on the richer side of town, the drive to OCP was relatively short, since it was, what people like Daenerys would call, “a rich-people school”. The tension in Zack’s overpriced BMW is thick as they pull up in front of the school. Already, hundreds of students in uniform are swarming outside the front steps to the two-hundred year-old building. Erin feels sick to her stomach at the idea that other supernatural entities may be swarming the building, even though she always had to convince herself that there was no such thing.

Daenerys doesn’t hesitate to get out of the car, pulling out her phone as she did so, rapidly texting someone. “Since when does she have anyone to text?” she asks aloud. At this, she hears Zack sigh beside her.

“Give your sister a break,” he tells her gently, keeping his eyes trained on Danny as she stepped through the front doors. “See? She already seems to be heading to where she’s supposed to.”

“Yeah, she seems to,” Erin replies in an exasperated tone, which causes Zack to sigh again.

“She’s trying, Erin,” he argues and she rolls her eyes.

“She’s just putting on an act.”

“Kind of like you,” he mutters under his breath. She pretends not to hear him. “Look, if anything happens to your sister, let me know right away. I don’t care if you’re in class; I need to know. Okay?” She rolls her eyes again, but nods anyway.

“Whatever.”

She steps out of the car into the merciless heat.

“Oh, one more thing!” he calls after her and she stops for a moment. “The guys are coming over later this afternoon. They want to see you. Both of you.”

~

Erinyes was a socialite. She wasn’t afraid of going up to people and asking them for directions, which was exactly what she did the second she received her schedule.

Like a bloodthirsty shark, she swam through the sea of students towards whom she decided would make a nice first “victim”. He wore an almost puzzled expression as he leaned against his locker, read over whatever it was that was in the composition notebook he was pouring himself over. He frowns slightly, which Erin can’t deny makes him rather attractive. Apart from his short brown, flippy hair, and piercing blue eyes, his soft jaw line and rather perfect nose made it so any girl would swoon over him. And, whether she would admit it aloud or not, Erin just so happened to be one of those girls.

She approaches him, tapping him gently on the shoulder. He jumps violently, dropping the notebook onto the floor, exposing the cover, which reads ‘KEEP OUT’ in big, black bold letters; skulls decorating the front, as if some sort of warning.

“I’m so sorry!” she exclaims, but before she can bend down to pick it up for him, he snatches it up off the ground, glaring at her angrily. She opens her mouth to apologize again, but he quickly slams his locker and stomps off.

She feels dozens of eyes on her, her embarrassing encounter not going unnoticed. Her stomach churns violently, but she refuses to let it go. Suddenly, she feels someone tap her shoulder, and she turns around to see a tiny, blonde girl smiling up at her, revealing bright pink and blue braces.

“Don’t worry,” she tells her reassuringly. “Will’s like that with everyone. I’m Liberty.” She holds her hand out towards Erin. Relieved, she shakes it, smiling back. “You’re new here, right?” Without waiting for a response, she continues enthusiastically, “Don’t worry; this school may be old, but it’s really advanced. We get a lot of funding, especially in our technology department. And it may be huge, but each grade kind of has its own ‘hall’ where a lot of their respective classes are.

“You’d be surprised to know that a lot of people are actually here on financial aid,” she continues, as she begins leading her down the hallway. “Although no one has a GPA below 3.7… At least, not that I know of. And I know almost everything about this place.” They stop in front of a classroom, and Liberty pulls her over to the side to avoid the students wandering up and down the hallway. “This is my homeroom, but if you need help finding yours, I can do that real quick; classes don’t start for another twenty minutes, anyway.”

Hesitantly, she pulls out the schedule she had picked up at the main office, only for Liberty to practically snatch it away and look it over herself. “Oh, look! You have the same homeroom as me! And you have my sixth period as well. Which is good, because everyone in that class is a senior and I have, like, no friends.” She hands back her schedule and gestures her to follow her inside.

To Erin’s pleasant surprise, the classroom isn’t nearly as gray and dismal as the rest of the school so far. Its walls are painted a bright red, and are decorated in “motivational posters” and other various trinkets that gave the classroom a sort of warm feeling.

“Don’t be fooled too easily,” Liberty warns her, noticing the calm look on her face. “Wickwire’s a bitch.”

Stunned by such coarse language coming out of such a seemingly innocent girl’s mouth, she watches in silence as she flounces happily over to a group of people sitting in the back of the room, her too-short blue plaid skirt bouncing just high enough to reveal her polka-dot thong with every step. She follows a couple seconds later, after Liberty notices she isn’t right behind her, and beckons her over. She takes a seat beside a read-head girl, who reeks of cigarette smoke – a scent she was only so familiar with because of Zack and Daenerys’ poor smoking habits.

“Guys,” Liberty announces rather loudly, getting everyone’s attention. “This is Erin. She’s new.” Three pairs of eyes begin looking her over, everyone except the red-head smile warmly. “Erin, this is Jaclyn,” she points at the average-looking brunette sitting beside her, “Jackson,” she points at a boy, with a football player’s body, soft blonde hair, piercing blue eyes, and a smile that could make any girl melt more than Will ever could, “and Viktoria.” The red-head glares at Erin, unbeknownst to the rest of the group.

“Where’re you from?” Jackson asks her almost immediately, smirking slightly.

“Michigan,” she replies softly, suddenly feeling shy under his gaze. She hears Viktoria scoff.

“No wonder you’re so pale,” she sniffs. Liberty shoots her a harsh, scolding look, which she ignores. Erin too does her best to ignore the comment.

“I think she’s fine,” Jackson insists, jutting out his bottom lip at her. Viktoria rolls her eyes.

“Yeah, whatever; if you’re in to that kind of stuff.” Jaclyn and Jackson both shake their heads.

“So what made you move to Cali?” Jaclyn asks her, her brown-black eyes lighting up with curiosity. Liberty and Jackson look at her expectantly while Viktoria just rolls her eyes and checks her phone.

“My mom thought we needed to spend more time with our dad,” she replies slowly, not wanting to say too much, since she had just met these people.

“Who’s ‘we’?” Liberty asks.

“My sister.” Jackson tilts his head to the side.

“You have a sister? Is she as hot as you? …Ow!” He rubs his arm where Jaclyn had just hit him.

“Oh, trust me,” Erin mutters in reply. “You don’t want to associate yourself with her.” They all seem to take her word for it, and she’s thankful that the bell happens to ring just then, signaling the start of class. Other students that she hadn’t noticed had come in begin filing to their respective seats, as Miss Wickwire enters, wearing the most business-y looking outfit any high school teacher can put together.

As soon as her eyes connect with Erinyes’, she smirks and Erin shudders. “Well, class,” she announces loudly. “Looks like we have a new student.” Everyone turns to look at her, and Erin can feel her face heat up with embarrassment. “Care to introduce yourself?” She doesn’t realize she’s shaken her head until Wickwire gives her a fake sympathetic look. “Oh, well that’s a shame.”

Soon after she says this, all the attention is torn away from her, and she feels a huge weight leave her shoulders, though this is soon replaced by a sense of failure. Never once in her life had she frozen up in a social situation like this before, and it scared her. Perhaps it was all on Wickwire; Liberty had said she was, quite simply, ‘a bitch’ not too long ago. But it bothered her that, not even two minutes after meeting each other, she seemed to already have it out of the poor girl, though she knew little to nothing about her.

The first period draws on slowly, and finally, the class ends. As she gets up to leave, Wickwire calls her to stay behind for a moment.

“I just wanted to formally welcome you to Orange County Prep,” she begins, and Erin relaxes for a moment. Wickwire narrows her eyes at her. “But don’t be expecting any special treatment from me.”

“Sorry?” She cocks her head to the side, clearly confused.

“Just because your father is some huge rock star doesn’t mean you’ll be getting any sort of special treatment. I treat all of my students equally.” Erin blinks; she never expected this out of any of her teachers, since in the past her father’s job meant next to nothing to all of them before. But apparently here, they were aware of who her father was, and Wickwire was proof that they expected her to behave like the daughter of a rich and famous rock star might do – uses her father’s name to get what she wanted.

Erin had to admit, she was rather impressed with Miss Wickwire, even though she was living up to the label Liberty had happened to put on her the moment she stepped into the classroom.

Nodding in finality, she dismisses her off to her next class. Liberty and Jackson are waiting for her anxiously outside the classroom.

“What did she want?” Liberty asks right away. Erin just shakes her head. “Oh. Well, Jackson and you have the same second period, so he’s offered to walk you to class.” He smiles at her and Erin’s heart flutters just a little.

Taking this interaction as an ‘okay’, Liberty nods happily and practically skips off, calling over her shoulder that she’ll see them at lunch. With that, Jackson proceeds to lead her down the hall to their next classroom.

~

The first person she sees as soon as they arrive is the mysterious Will, who recognizes her right away. He frowns deeply when he sees her and turns away, tapping away at his phone.

“Don’t mind him,” Jackson tells her as he leads her to an empty seat in the front of the room. “He won’t talk to you if you don’t buy from him.”

“Buy from him?”

But before she can get an answer out of him, the bell rings, and everyone has to sit down. As the teacher, whose name Erin can’t be bothered to remember, starts taking roll, the door swings open rather forcefully, and Daenerys, in all her glory, stomps in. The teacher barely acknowledges her as she takes a seat beside Will, who actually gives her a kind smile, much to Erin’s surprise.

Erin pretends not to notice when she feels Daenerys’ judgmental glare directed towards her, as it remains there for the rest of the class period. As she and Jackson get up to leave, she notices out of the corner of her eye, a young boy approaches Will cautiously, sliding him a small wad of cash. He pockets it, before taking out a small baggy and handing it to him, the teacher completely oblivious to this exchange.

Suddenly, it made sense; Will only talked to the people he sold drugs to.

Notes

A/N: I was originally going to wait until this story was competely up-to-date with the one I posted on Mibba, but I really wanted to update this, so yeah.

To be honest, this is probably one of the first stories/fanfictions I've ever written where the school in the story is completely made up, so that's a little cool I guess.

Hope you guys enjoyed.

~WOLFY~