Chapter 2

Avery decided to drive to school today. She had given Carson an earful over the phone last night while knowing he wasn't completely to be blamed. He was simply doing her a favour when he offered to drive her to school and he had hoped she would stay behind to watch him practice.

As she carefully pulled into the school parking lot, she could spot her best friend standing up anxiously, waiting for her. When she parked and stepped out of the car, Carson ran up to her, worry etched on his features.

He ran his hand through his blond hair, "Are you really sick? When you told me you were actually coming to school I thought it wasn't that bad but, look at you, your nose is all pink." He felt her forehead and continued rambling, "I really didn't mind taking you home yesterday. I thought you would watch me practice."

Avery slapped his hand away, sniffling. "Good morning to you too," she mumbled, "And I'm not really interested in watching people kick around a ball."

Together, they walked towards the school building, Carson sending worrisome looks to Avery every now and then. She sneezed and felt her whole world shake.

"Should you even be here? You never come when you're sick," Carson handed her a tissue from his bag. She took it with a 'thank you'.

"Maman forced me because-"

Avery's sentence was interrupted by one of Carson's football friends calling to him in the corridor.

"Sorry Aves, I'll catch up to you in a bit, okay? Don't die while I'm gone," he rushed over to the other boy, and they both erupted into an animated conversation.

Avery kept walking. She was used to things like this happening. Carson was significantly more popular than her, not that she minded. She preferred not being noticed. Why would she be anyway? She wasn't apart of any special sport or clique. She didn't go to school in fabulous clothes and heels, she put effort into her outfits but, not a lot. Just enough to blend in.

The school population was too big for her to be well-known without reason. Her main best friend was Carson and she had the occasional acquaintance in each of her classes.

Avery's thoughts drowned out the noisy hallway as she made her way to her locker. Classes were about to start, so the corridors were crowded with the hustle and bustle of students. It was expected to brush a couple of shoulders here and there with different students, but what she didn't expect was to roughly bump into another person.

This snapped her out of her mind and her body switched off its 'autopilot', looking at the taller girl in front of her. When the realization set in that the person looking down at her with a scowl on her face was none other than Alex Rivers surrounded by her posse, her body tensed.

"Can you watch where you're going?" Alex glared. Avery was struggling to find her voice and her eyes shifted from the floor and back to her, nervously.

"Cat got your tongue?" Alex smirked at the shorter girl's silence. Her smirk was soon replaced with disgust when Avery opened her mouth to respond but instead sneezed.

On her.

On Alex.

When Avery looked back up and noticed what she had just done, she froze.

She got snot on Alex Rivers in front of a whole crowd of students who had stopped to observe the altercation.

So much for not dying.