{ Ch. 7 }

I tense up in the passenger seat of Noah Slater's beautiful cherry red Rolls Royce, "I don't do that anymore Noah. I can't." Talking to the most gorgeous person I've ever met wasn't as hard as this. Explaining - just a bit - about how I don't hack anymore.

Noah looks at me form out of the corner of his eye driving to God knows where. I got to school, mostly content with life as I sat on my usual place in Mr Holland's class, until Noah practically strong armed me to the parking lot. Dazed and confused, I hardly paid attention to anything that happened. I was officially an idiot who got starstruck by Noah Slater, like all the girls in this stupid school - with the exception of Morgan who was too busy looking at Lloyd to notice anything else.

"Well sunshine you have to and you can. I have New York city's finest hacker in my town and the best part is no one has heard of you up until a week ago." He says stiffly and I sit up straight. How does he know all this shit about me? I'm pretty sure he's not in a gang otherwise he'd have known I'm a freelancer. Maybe he does know.

Hell I don't even know anymore.

"This is all I'm doing for you." I state and he nods. I look at the enigma that is Noah Slater. Damn I'm missing school for this.

We pull up in the richer side of town and he gets out of the car. Me following him like a lost puppy.

"You still haven't told me what you want me to do." I say a little amused despite my nervousness. He doesn't spare me a glance. "You'll see." I follow him into what seems to be a dining room. I can't really tell since it's covered from head to toe in what appears to be wires. "Oh good you're finally back." A voice calls with an English accent to drool over.

"I thought you said you weren't going to go to school today." The owner of the voice comes into view and I grin. "Of course it's you." He sighs and I smirk. "Well Gunner I never knew you were in town." I say innocently and he groans. Noah looks at his friend blandly. "I see you two know each other." I shrug. "I'm the bane of his existence." "Stop lying Delilah. That title belongs to Wolfe and you know it." He mutters and Noah tenses. "Where's Kael or are you alone today." I look away. "Oh this shit is priceless. He doesn't know you're here does he." I flinch.

"Leave her alone Gunner. She has a job to do." He sets out a laptop. "I need you to hack into Zachary Wolfe's surveillance system. All you have to do is save all of the footage."

I can't. Kael set up Wolfe's firewall. Kael will die if I do this. Wolfe likes taking out his anger on people who don't deserve it and Wolfe will blame Kael if someone hacks into his 'unhackable' security system. "I can't." I say blankly. Gunner looks at me with sympathetic eyes while Noah looks at me with cold ones. "You have to." I shakily steady myself. If something happens to Kael I'll never forgive myself. Or worse he'd take one of the others. He knows exactly how to hurt me.

"Delilah." Gunner says softly. "You could save someone's life to do this."I reply my voice strong. "I'd save one life to condemn 5 others." I look at Noah. "I'm sorry but I can't do this." "You can." Noah says unchanged handing me a drive that could change this entire situation. "A ghost drive." My face giving away my awe. A ghost drive shows me everything I want to see without having to leave behind a virtual footprint. Meaning I can save the footage without tripping the system's alarm or any evidence of me being there. No IP locating either. Despite what they show you in movies these things cost a fortune.

I can do it. "I'll do it." I say confidently grabbing the laptop and plugging in the drive. The feeling of doing something you aren't supposed to do thrilled me. It always had. But doing something you weren't supposed to do and getting away with it? That's what enticed me. The adrenalin that courses through your veins and enhances your brain performance kicks in giving you that rush. The one that makes everything so vivid and clear. "I'm in." I smirk.

I hack into the security mainframe trying to bypass all of Kael's traps.

I finally find what I'm looking for. Bingo. Security footage uploaded.

It takes about a minute to download completely but the wait was worth it. As soon as the download ended I got the heck out of dodge.

I hand the Ghost Drive to Noah with a slight smirk on my face. "I owe you nothing now." He looks at me stoically. "Fine."

Gunner checks the info as I wait for Noah to finish up so he can drop me at my house.

"Thank you."

I wasn't expecting a thank you from Noah so it surprised me when he did. He really doesn't look like the type of guy to say thank you to anyone. Huh. Shows what I know.

I smile. Maybe he's not as bad as he seems. I get in the car giving Noah instructions to my house.

"Shit." Dad's at home. He probably already knows I skipped school. Unless Madison covered for me.

"What?" Noah asks at me his permanent poker face firmly in position. "I just remembered my dad is at home." I swear and Noah's eyes fill with laughter while his face remains passive. "And?" I groan. "I'm probably going to get grounded." I think for a moment. "Drop me off a block away please." I finally, with the help of Jessica, got my father amd I's relationship to a better place... I actually liked having my dad back - even if he was overbearing at times. I was just glad that I was with him, I didn't really care about how pathetic it made me look - he's my dad.

Noah relaxes a little his face still guarded. Would it kill the guy to smile? "And why would I do that?" He asks his voice laidback. "Because you're a nice good person who's never been mean to anyone especially innocent new girls." I bat my long eyelashes innocently. He laughs and I smile.

Finally he laughs. I was beginning to think he was a robot. "Too bad I'm not a nice good person." He says mischievously pulling up in front of my house. I glare daggers at him as I get out of the car. "I hate you." I hiss and I look at the house only to see my dad opening up the door. He chuckles softly. "No you don't." I walk to the door where my dad is waiting expectantly.

What do I do now? I walk up to him nervously as Noah peels out of the driveway with a grin on his face.

If glaring were daggers he'd already be dead.

I turn my head around to look at my father with a smile. "Dad... " I drag out animatedly. "Have I told you that you look absolutely dashing today?" I say sweetly pushing him inside the house, out of sight of the pretty boy. "Oh no you don't young lady." He starts. "Who was that boy? Why aren't you at school?"

That's Noah Slater and oh don't worry but I hacked into a gang leader's security footage for him because I stupidly agreed to and I kind of owe him.

That's never going to go down well. I look at my dad smiling ever so sweetly. "That's no one dad." I lie through my teeth. "Absolutely no one."

After explaining to my dad vividly lying about what exactly Noah and I were doing together while school was still on proved much harder than I thought.

The man nitpicked every single detail. From why exactly I wasn't feeling well to why Noah was the one who dropped me off instead of Madison.

I got kind of creative with them. Madison is now in cheerleader practice. I got sick during 4th period and Noah generously offered to drive me home.

My father bought it just like I knew he would (well, i was betting on it).

"What the actual fuck is up with you Dels?" Madison asks me a pissed expression written all over her face. "First you start a fight with my boyfriend... " I raise my hands in surrender. "I didn't know he was your boyfriend!" My protests fall on deaf ears as Madison keeps talking.

"Then you ditch me during break for fucking Noah Slater!" She rattles off checking each statement with a finger. "I was ordered by the king." I laugh.

God, Noah really was the king of Seaview High. Maddie doesn't even notice my interruptions. She's definitely on a roll. Morgan just shrugs, falling onto the bed.

She throws her hands into the air dramatically. Done like a true drama queen. "Then you disappear after school and I have to hear from fucking Carter that you went God knows where with Noah Slater."

I look at her tapping my foot impatiently. "You done?" She sighs massaging her head with her hands in therapeutic circles.

"I need to know that you won't flake out on me Delilah. You are the only one apart from Morgan and Noah that can actually do me any harm at school and my bitchy persona has to stay alive to uphold my reputation of a no-nonsense evil high school cheerleader." She says her words on top of each other.

"Wait Noah has shit on you too?!" I say a bit taken aback by the sheer amount of influence Noah had.

The boy practically screamed stay the fuck away from me or suffer my wrath. I ponder my question for a few minutes. Intimidating Noah Slater. "Never mind I get it."

Maddie sighs plopping herself down on my bed, next to Morgan. It was like I stepped into a twilight zone but in actual fact I know it's jist because I've already been in Seaview for three months. "Noah Slater and Lloyd Nichols are the official badboys of Seaview High." She whines. "I'm stuck being feared by the entire school population besides those two and Mogan."

Morg smiles faintly. "They never fall for her bullshit." She smiles at a memory - probably a memory that mainly involves Lloyd bit who knows?

I shift on the bed and her head snaps toward me. "So is that all you wanted to do?" I ask raising my eyebrow. "Bitch at me for ditching you?"

"No." Her eyes narrow. "I was gonna invite you to your welcome home party." I look at her in confusion. "Welcome home?"

Maddie rolls her eyes. "Yeah,I know it's long overdue but Morg keeps irritating me about it so..." She says in a duh tone.

I look at Morgan, I mean really look at her. She was surprisingly kind. It was soo sweet of her to do something like this for me.

She could've made my life hell but she didn't. "Why are you staring at me like that?" She asks getting creeped out at my profound staring.

"Nothing." "It was an excuse for a party Dels." She pats my head. "Don't over think it."

I smile as we walk out of my bare looking room as Maddie eyes my room disgusted at the lack of - well, me.

"We have to paint your walls this weekend." I sigh at her dramatics. "I'm leaving at 8 Delilah. We have to be ready by then." Maddie waves her hands as she talks throwing me a tight pair of dark blue ripped jeans and a black tank top.

"I got your style down pat." She says proudly and I agree. All the outfit needs now is a pair of combat boots.

I shower quickly as Madison types away on her phone.

I look around her room throwing a apple green halter neck crop top paired with a pair of acid wash jeans and a killer black stiletto heel.

"I got your style too." I smile as she stares shocked at the outfit in front of her. I just laugh blow drying my wet hair amd Morgan yells at us to hurry up.

At 20h30 we're finally ready - late, but ready. "Shit." Madison swears and steps on the gas; Morgan, Rey and I bracing ourselves against the leather seats.

I look around me warily not knowing where we're going but committing the route to memory as we drive. "Where are we going?"

"The party is at Jeremy's house but it is your party. Jere's just hosting." Morgan adds her blond hair blowing in the wind as Madison parks in front of the garage.

Obviously the girlfriend gets best space. "Great." I say sarcasm getting the best of me.

The double-storey house looked really nice. It's deep in the edge of the town nearest to the forest and surrounded by a lake.

So it was actually a lakehouse - huh.

There were swarms of people around and I secretly hoped no one would start something with me.

I think I'm really going to have to get drunk as hell.

A path opens for us - although I think it was more for Mads and Morg than for Rey and I.

I see beer pong in the one corner and a bunch of people near the DJ's booth and the beer keg right next to it.

The DJ stops the music for a second and Jeremy hollers through the mic. "Well, well, well if it isn't the reason for this whole party, Delilah Kade!" Jeremy smiles as Maddie glares at him. "Welcome to Cali Dels."

Maddie gives him a thumbs up and he breathes easier. I laugh as people welcome me and I decide to get a drink.

Lloyd hugs me from behind, pissing off both Morgan amd Noah in one go, and I smile at him. Ever since Noah discovered that Lloyd and I know each other from New York, he's been more snappy than usual - and Morgan liked Lloyd so no explanation needed. "Welcome to California Dels." A few girls glare at me and Lloyd. "Uh oh. See ya 'round before you scare away all the girls."

I roll my eyes, shoving him off of me before grabbing a red solo cup of beer as down it in one go.

Time to have fun.