Peyton crossed her arms and remained standing with her back against her bedroom door. “My parents are getting a divorce.”
Sailor nearly dropped the remote and Gigi noticed but didn’t say anything. Sailor tossed the remote on Peyton’s bed and gave Gigi a dirty look. “What’s your problem?” Sailor snapped at Gigi.
Gigi took a seat in Peyton’s pink plush chair facing Sailor. “Why are you so angry with me?”
“Why are you so angry with me?” Sailor mimicked. “Don’t ask me stupid questions like that!”
“If I don’t ask you, then I’ll never know why you act like a mean, old, crabby, lady.”
Sailor’s face was covered in a frown. “You want to know why I’m so angry with you?!” Sailor said, her voice rising with every spoken word.
Peyton just stood there watching them with a blank look on her face. Sailor glanced over at Peyton. She didn’t want to let Peyton see her arguing with Gigi.
“I’m glad you two finally shut up,” Peyton admitted.
“Who is she?!” she heard her mother yell at her father.
Sailor and Gigi locked gazes with each other while Peyton dreamt of a place she’d rather be than home.
“You have the nerve to ask me that question when I found you…”
“Let’s get out of here,” Peyton said, raising her voice. She didn’t want to hear her parents’ argument. She opened her bedroom door and ran so fast that even Sailor and Gigi lost sight of her. Sailor grabbed the remote to turn the television off and then walked out of Peyton’s bedroom with Gigi following behind her. Once Sailor walked out the front door, Gigi stayed behind in the living room. Peyton’s parents were now arguing down the hall in their bedroom with the door closed.
Gigi looked up at a family picture of Peyton and her parents on the mantel above the fireplace. They were all smiling in the picture and their smiles had all but disappeared in the next picture beside it.
Gigi reached for the smiling picture of the Evers family. This picture was more beautiful to her than anyone could ever realize.
Chapter 10
Leighton didn’t sleep well last night. She kept having nightmares that she was being chased by Peyton. She didn’t share information about her dream with her mother or Zayley. Before class the next day, she and Zayley stopped by a gas station before class and purchased two cups of cappuccino.
Leighton walked to her locker to gather her English textbook and notebook. Her completed English paper was in the notebook. She began to walk down the hall to her first class of the day and saw students standing outside the classroom.
“Hi,” Vanessa greeted her with a warm smile.
“Hi,” Leighton responded.
“I just saw Ariana and Sage.”
Out of habit Leighton gazed around for any sign of Peyton. So far so good. “Today’s their first day.”
Vanessa lowered her voice. “Sage seems to be the same but Ariana is more…intense than I remember.”
“Yeah.” Leighton didn’t tell her that Ariana had been this way since her father passed away. Ariana wasn’t one for crying—at least she hadn’t witnesses her crying—but she was still grieving the loss of her father.
They both heard Ms. Jennings gentle voice tell them that she was coming down the hall to unlock the door.
“Have you seen Aidan?” Vanessa asked Leighton.
“No, I haven’t.”
“I called and texted him, but he hasn’t returned my calls or texts.”
Leighton got a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. She knew that his parents were getting a divorce and that they argued constantly in the home. She wondered if her friend was okay. The look on Vanessa’s face told her that she was thinking the same thing.
Ms. Jennings finally made it to the door and unlocked it. She flipped on the light switch and noticed something white on her desk. She strode over and picked up the typed paper and read it while the students took their seats.
Everyone has a secret that they would rather keep hidden. I even have a secret or two, but my secrets are not up for discussion. Peyton Evers has a juicy secret that she’s keeping all to herself. Not even her friends know and best friends are supposed to share all of their secrets with each other.
There is also someone else at dear old Sentinel High who has a secret so big it could blow her daughter’s secret out the window. If you guessed Principal Evers, you deserve a gold star.
By the way, I’m laughing like hell as I type this. That may make me sound like a bitch. But Principal Evers’ secret makes me look like a saint. It makes most of you look like saints—even Peyton came close to making the cut.
Now that I have your attention I’m going to get right to it. I’m getting bored…very… very bored. I’m also getting tired…very…very tired. Those are not good combinations for me. Principal Evers and Peyton Evers’ secrets are about to be revealed. I only hope that Principal Evers husband will be able to forgive her and hopefully Peyton will not hate her mother. Even if their secrets blow them to hell, oh well, who cares? This has been a long time coming.
XOXO
Your Biggest Nightmare
Everyone’s cell phone started to buzz in every classroom on campus. Peyton read the message on the phone in shock.
Peyton, Sailor, and Gigi sat in the back of the classroom and read the letter in silence. “Peyton,” Sailor began, with her eyes glued to her cell phone’s screen, “what is this?” She could hear students whispering and laughing about the lengthy text as if it was some kind of joke.
“I…I don’t know,” Peyton answered in a shaky voice.
“Maybe this is just a sick joke,” Gigi suggested.
“It doesn’t sound like a sick joke to me,” Peyton said, her voice still shaky.
“Someone’s targeting you,” Sailor admitted.
“But why?” Peyton wasn’t always nice to other students the way she was to Sailor and Gigi who she considered her close friends. She knew that many of her peers hated her so any one of them could’ve sent this disturbing letter.
Sailor gave Peyton a look. “What if someone starts to target us?”
“Who?”
“Me and Gigi.”
“Peyton looked at Sailor with a worried written all over her face. “Why would someone target you guys? The letter only mentions my mother and me.”
“That doesn’t mean that this sick freak isn’t going to come after Gigi and me.”
“I don’t believe that whoever is doing this is going to target you guys.”
“How can you be so sure of that?” Sailor questioned her.
Peyton swallowed back a hard jump in the back of her throat.
“I’m not certain of that at all.”
Sailor frowned. “You pissed someone off and now we have to fix it.”
“You make it sound like it’s my fault and I don’t like that. We’ve been friends for too long for you to blame me for something I didn’t do.”
“You two are giving this person exactly what they want,” Gigi chimed in.
“And what’s that?” Peyton asked.
“Attention. They make it sound like they know a lot but they didn’t reveal anything.”
Sailor leaned in. “What if they know something and they’re planning on revealing it in the future?”
Gigi held her phone in her hand and read the letter again. “There are not really any clues in this letter as to who this person is. It would’ve been easier if the letter was handwritten.”
“Then we could’ve compared handwriting,” Sailor added, feeling smarter by the second.
Gigi nodded.
“So what are we going to do?” Peyton asked.
“We should find out who did this but it won’t be easy,” Gigi stated. “But Dill may be able to help us.”
Peyton sighed. “I’ve been so mean and bitchy to him I doubt he wants to help.”
“I’ll ask him anyway.” Gigi knew that if she asked, there was a better chance of Dill agreeing to help her.
“We wait,” Peyton answered with tears in her eyes.
For the first time in her life, Sailor witnessed fear in her best friend’s eyes.
Chapter 11
It’s officially Sage and Ariana’s first day of school. Many of their classmates adore them much to Peyton’s dismay. Ariana’s a whiz in her advanced anatomy and physiology course while Sage’s love for baking cookies wins over her home economics class.
Despite the smiles on their seemingly happy faces, both girls are still hurting over the loss of their father.
For Sage school wasn’t enough to occupy her mind. When she thought her mother and Ariana were asleep, she’d tiptoe into the kitchen to help herself to a glass of wine. Then that led to her chugging down a bottle of beer. On the night her mother caught her, she’d been awake the entire night. She’d lost count of how many drinks she’d had after the third drink. The only thing she remembered was her mother yelling at her and Ariana pulling her into her room to sleep. Now her drinking days were behind her. Her mother tossed all the wine and beer bottles in the trash. She didn’t want Sage drinking any of it.
Ariana, on the other hand, didn’t seek comfort from a bottle. She quit the soccer team and cried every day after school in her room. Her father played soccer while he was in college and for a long time it had been her dream to do the same. But things changed. Soccer reminded her of her father so much that just seeing the soccer ball made her cry.
She was actually somewhat relieved to transfer from The Academy to Sentinel High.
“Your hair is super pretty,” the girl sitting next to her complimented.
“Thanks.” She was wearing her brown hair wavy instead of straight.
“So you transferred from The Academy?” another girl turned around and asked.
“What was it like?” a third girl jumped in.
Ariana gazed around at the eager faces. She was not accustomed to getting this much attention in school unlike her older sister, Sage. She was always one level lower in popularity and one level higher in academics than her sister. Ariana always stayed to herself and had a few trustworthy friends she could count on one hand which suited her just fine. She’d rather have solitude than twenty girls in her ear gossiping.
She slightly turned her neck to face the girl sitting in front of her. “Yes, I transferred from The Academy.” Then she slightly tilted her head to the side to give her attention to the girl sitting across from her. “It isn’t much different from Sentinel High.” Now she was about to make them like her even more. “We had to wear uniforms while you guys got to be stylish and wear whatever you wanted. Like that pretty pink sweater you’re wearing,” she referred to the girl in front of her, “you couldn’t wear that at The Academy even if it was in the school’s colors, blue and white.”
“Wow,” a student said amazed.
“But what about the students?” the girl sitting beside her questioned.
“What about them?”
“Are they like the students here? Is everyone nice or…?”
“No, everyone is definitely not nice there. It’s just like every other high school in America. You have the jocks, the nerds, the popular kids or maybe I should say popular kid.”
Now she had their attention more than ever.
“Popular kid?” the girl across from her said. “It was just one?”
Ariana nodded. “She runs that school. If you’re not a part of her in crowd, you are practically a nobody.”
She began to see a look of despair and sadness on some of their faces. She was getting the answers she needed without them giving her a vocal answer.
“That sounds like Sentinel High,” the girl in front responded.
“Yeah,” another girl added, “Peyton Evers runs this school and everyone hates her and her mom.”
“Except her best friends, Sailor and Gigi,” the girl beside her said.
“I hate those bitches,” someone huffed behind her.
“Gigi’s not as bad as the other two, but I still don’t trust her since she’s Peyton’s friend. By the way, I’m Anais,” the girl beside her said.
“I’m Harper.” The girl in front gave a small wave.
“And I’m Jade,” the girl sitting across from her said.
“I’m Ariana.” She gave a small smile.
The girls returned a smile.
Everyone’s phones began to vibrate.
Ariana removed her phone from her purse and looked at the screen. “What is this?”
Anais leaned over to peep at her phone. “You got the same message as me,” she observed.
“Is your message about Peyton Evers?” Jade questioned.
Anais and Harper nodded in unison.
“I hope this isn’t an everyday thing. I don’t want to get messages about someone I don’t even know,” Ariana remarked.
“You’ll get to know her soon enough,” Jade said.
“Not that you’ll want to,” Harper added.
Ariana read the letter while her other classmates voiced their opinion of it.
Everyone has a secret that they would rather keep hidden. I even have a secret or two, but my secrets are not up for discussion. Peyton Evers has a juicy secret that she’s keeping all to herself. Not even her friends know and best friends are supposed to share all of their secrets with each other.
There is also someone else at dear old Sentinel High who has a secret so big it could blow her daughter’s secret out the window. If you guessed Principal Evers, you deserve a gold star.
By the way, I’m laughing like hell as I type this. That may make me sound like a bitch. But Principal Evers’ secret makes me look like a saint. It makes most of you look like saints—even Peyton came close to making the cut.
Now that I have your attention I’m going to get right to it. I’m getting bored…very… very bored. I’m also getting tired…very…very tired. Those are not good combinations for me. Principal Evers and Peyton Evers’ secrets are about to be revealed. I only hope that Principal Evers husband will be able to forgive her and hopefully Peyton will not hate her mother. Even if their secrets blow them to hell, oh well, who cares? This has been a long time coming.
XOXO
Your Biggest Nightmare
“What does this mean?” Harper said.
“I wish it meant the end of Peyton and Principal Evers,” Anais lowered her voice.
“I think this is just a trick. She probably did this on purpose,” Jade added.
“Who would send someone something like this about themselves on purpose?” Ariana asked.
“Peyton loves attention,” Harper stated.
“But this is the wrong kind of attention,” Anais informed.
“Who knows? If it is true, it would serve her and Principal Evers right for being so cruel to people,” Jade added.
The other girls nodded, agreeing with her. Ariana’s curiously spiked. Was Peyton really that desperate for attention that she’d send a message like this to everyone? Or did someone really have it out for her?
Chapter 12
Lunch time for Peyton Evers was one of the most unpleasant experiences she’d had to deal with in quite some time now. Since her mother was the school principal, she didn’t really have any negative experiences in school. Students and teachers alike were fearful of going against her since she was the boss’ kid.
So much for that.
As soon as she entered the cafeteria, the snickering and whispering began. For the first time ever she felt uncomfortable entering a room. She wanted to give them a piece of mind; she wanted to erase the lies that were spreading faster than any lie she’d ever started.
Here she was standing in front of the cafeteria looking like the most unpopular girl in school with her two best friends by her side.
“Do you think we should leave?” Sailor questioned Peyton.
Peyton looked at her but said nothing.
“If we leave,
it will make us look like we’re scared of them,” Gigi said.
“She’s right,” Peyton agreed. “We’re not scared of them.” She moved forward and continued to walk with her chin held high until she reached the table in the center of the cafeteria. Sailor and Gigi followed behind her.
“It’s that damn letter,” Peyton growled, as Sailor and Gigi seated themselves at the table.
Sailor and Gigi looked at her but remained silent.
“Whoever wrote that letter and sent it to everyone is going to pay for this. I’m going to find out who did this and break their ass in half.”
“Peyton,” Gigi said in a low voice.
“What?” she snapped. “What is it now?”
Gigi stared at her phone. “Dill isn’t going to help us.”
Peyton snatched the phone out of her hand and read the message Dill sent Gigi: You help her. I’m not doing it. Then, she handed the phone back to Gigi.
Peyton threw her hands up. “Well, that’s just great. But you know what? I don’t care. Someone sent that letter to everyone in this school—not just about me but about my mother, too.” She paused, her eyes landing on Leighton. She was going to send a message to everyone that they wouldn’t forget any time soon. She was making a mental list of people she’d target first for her new mission.
And Leighton Kressel’s name was at the top of the list.
Chapter 13
Leighton glanced at her phone again and was disappointed when she didn’t see any new texts or even a missed call from Aidan. She still had that sick feeling in the pit of her stomach so she didn’t even try to eat anything. From the looks of Vanessa’s plate neither did she.
“Still no response?” Vanessa asked.
Leighton sadly shook her head. “I’m going to his place after school.”
“I’ll go with you,” Vanessa insisted.
“Thanks.” Leighton smiled but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “I just need to make sure that he’s okay.”
She looked up from her phone and saw a pair of gray eyes staring back at her in the crowded school cafeteria. Vanessa turned around to see if she could spot who or what Leighton was looking at.
Aidan gave her a smile.
“Oh, hi, Aidan, are you okay?” Vanessa said. “We’ve been worried about you.”
He sat down beside Leighton, his leg resting against hers underneath the table. He found comfort in being so close to her.
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