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The small black car took its
time changing lanes and then finally pulled off to the side of the
road. He backed up a bit and I saw him open his door and jogged
back toward the truck. The truck laid upside down, its wheels still
spinning and that's when I woke up. I wrote it all down just like
Nic and I planned, dated it too.

The next
day I didn't want to go to school afraid everyone would
tease me about my incident, I was sure the rumor was all over
school by now. I walked in expecting the heckling to begin
immediately. Someone smiled and said the usual "Hi" in passing, no
weird looks from anyone, or name calling either. I realized Declan
didn't say a word to me about it on the bus
either. 

Declan hadn't mentioned a
thing to me this morning on the bus; not even that he thought it
may have been someone else. So maybe no one knew, then again, maybe
only half the school knew by now. Grin and bear it, I told myself.
I'm sure I'd hear something in first period, no pun
intended. I got to class and sat down quickly vowing
never to wear white jeans again. 

Class started and class
ended and not one word about yesterday’s incident.
Algebra came, I saw Shelby and she didn't even bring
it up, she acted as though we were new friends and that nothing
ever happened. Shelby must not have told a soul! I guess
she is a new friend, except for the fact that she is dating
Storm. From here on out I will put Storm and
Shelby in my head as a 'couple' and as friends. 

I have clean clothes, a
clean start and a new friend. It’s all good, I'm just a freshman in
high school and no one knew anything had happened to me. While
I'm on a new kick, I vow to stay out of
trouble, I will never drink again or do whip
its. I am a clean, honest person that's going to stay out
of trouble.

We were going to have our
first football rally today; I guess they have them on Fridays
before home games. Before the rally all the freshman girls met in
the gym first, we were wrangled there fifteen minutes
prior to the real assembly. The teachers warned us to stay away
from the senior boys, that they would all be interested in the
freshman girls to try and “
score.
” They didn't use the word
score but that's what they meant. They told us not to feel
pressured to have sex with a boy and if you did there were safe sex
measures to take. If you were thinking about having sex you should
talk to your parents – ew! All of us had to take a “Health” class
this year too. Of course, they warned us not to buy an elevator
pass, because there's no such thing and a few other such
rules. It was a little embarrassing but not so bad in a
group.

Afterward, everyone
scattered and the rest of the school started to come in. Nic and I
moved to the top of the bleachers thinking this was going to be
lame. Declan found us, Tori sat a few rows in front of us, she was
hand in hand with Alec. Storm and Shelby found us and sat in front
of us.

The principal came in and
made a few announcements and then said "Here are your
cheerleaders!" And the crowd cheered, the principal came back with
"Did you say something?” Cupping his hand around his ear, “I said,
here are your cheerleaders!" he shouted. The cheerleaders came
tumbling into the gym and the crowd roared loudly, shouting for the
cheerleaders. Very loud music was played and they did a dance, an
awesome dance, actually. The football coach was up next and
announced he thought they were going to have a great year; the
crowd cheered, introduced a few star players and then the whole
team. We all roared some more. The team leaders made an
announcement and then four other football players came out dressed
as cheerleaders and did a short dance to some music, hysterical!
Then the team captain said “Thank goodness we have professional
cheerleaders, let's give them a round of applause!” and we
did.

The cheerleaders did a cheer
and everyone cheered back! And then they did another dance and
everyone roared again. All the players came back in, students and
teachers were riled up and screaming from the stands. Afterward,
everyone was in a great mood, including me. Everyone met on the gym
floor and it was over. Now all I needed was something positive to
happen for me; so far my High School luck
stunk. I definitely needed something positive to happen.
And I may need to make it happen.

My mom and I, along with
Tori and her friend picked up Nic to go to our first home football
game of the year. We were stoked. We got there early which was fine
with me. It only took a few minutes after we got there for the
parking lot to get all jammed up with traffic. Parents and students
started coming in the gates. Nic and I walked around the entire
football field just checking everything out, and then started to
tour our side of the bleachers. Nic knew a lot more adults than I
did but we chatted with all of them a couple of minutes regardless.
We even went over to Tori and said “Hey” but, that was short
lived.

We leaned against the fence
that encircled the field to watch the first kick off. Everyone was
cheering and the cheerleaders were actually really good, they kept
the crowd cheering. Declan walked up to us while we were leaning on
the fence. We chatted for a bit and just as Declan left three other
boys came up to us. The one in the middle was Frank; he was in my
history class and a freshman like us. I hadn't realized he knew I
even existed seeing he was the most popular boy in our class. He
was very good looking with smooth light skin and brown hair with
natural blonde highlights most likely from this summer. He said
"You're Addie Gellar right?" And of course I agreed with him. I
thought finally my luck is going to turn-around. We had the most
popular boy in our class talking to us!

He continued "Your boyfriend
is Logan Harper right? He told me that he's madly in love with you
and he needs your phone number." I just looked at him with my smile
frozen in place, Nic said "Logan who?" He started to laugh, "You
don't know who Logan is? Well he went on and on about you. Said he
met you this summer and that you are awesome and he can't wait to
see you again."

Frank was looking at me
waiting for a response. I didn't move or say anything, my mind was
blank. "You supposedly met him at Kevin's house. Ring any bells?"
He said a little sarcastically. My smile dropped and I went still.
I lost all expressions and felt all the blood leave my face, my
body felt limp as if I had no control. Still nothing came from my
mouth, I couldn't speak.

There was what I thought the
longest intermission in a conversation ever, until Nic chimed in
"Logan is an ass and Addie has no interest in him at all." He just
looked me up and down and said "Cat got your tongue or what." I
cleared my throat "No I'm just trying to figure out what he looks
like, I barely remember him." I said shakily and without
confidence. I hadn't even thought for a moment that Logan, Kevin or
Lucy would say a word to anyone about anything. I just assumed
everyone was keeping it quiet like Kit, Tori and I. I certainly
didn't think anyone here at my school would find out about
it.

I turned around and leaned
on the fence, reminding myself to breath, hoping they would leave.
I pretended to be interested in the game, so much for my lucky
day. 

From behind me he said,
“What do you want me to tell him?” Nic replied “That she thinks
he's an ass and to bug off." I turned around, and gave him a half
smile in agreement with Nic. She grabbed my arm and we walked a
little ways down the fence.

Was Logan insane? Doesn't he
know that what he did to me was wrong? I barely had a conversation
with him and he attacked me as if that was normal for him. Nic
turned to me put her arm around me and said "You okay?"

"Yeah, I am fine....is that
weird or what? Is Logan insane or what? I didn't flirt with him I
swear I never even talked to him alone!"

“He
is
obviously crazy” she
said.

Nic's my best friend and I
knew she would support me no matter what but I wanted her genuine
opinion about what she believed. I hadn't said a word to her; it
was like she knew what I was thinking. That's what I like about Nic
you don't have to spell everything out to her.

She just started talking
"Look Addie I believe every word you told me. You don't have to
convince me it's not your fault, or that it happened exactly like
you said it did. Since Tori already knew, I verified it with her,
and you made it sound less dramatic than it was too. She's worried
about you but she's glad you told me.” She took a breath and she
held up a finger and pressed on it with her other, “My thoughts
are, number one - why would you lie about something like that? It
doesn't make sense. Plus, we always tell each other everything no
matter what, whether we're at fault or not. Number two,” she held
up a second finger “if a guy likes you or you flirted with him, him
attacking you or even laying one finger on you without your
permission is wrong. Number three - I don't care what any girl has
done or said she doesn't deserve to be sexually assaulted. Number
four and last but not the least - if he violated you like I know he
did, because I saw the bruises, then he is a mean, vicious, crazy
son-of-a-bitch who probably has a screw loose or two. So of course,
he thinks he's in love with you, he is demented! He sexually
assaulted you because you’re gorgeous and he knew you were out of
his league. Plus, he's probably never had a girlfriend
before."

I let out a little laugh.
"Thanks." I said and wiped a tear from my eye. We waited there
until I was able to push them all back. I concentrated on the game
and Nic stayed close by.

After I pulled myself together, Nic and I
walked all the way around the field. She took a plastic bottle out
of her pocket filled with a clear liquid and she pushed it into my
chest, “Here.” It was in a rubbing alcohol container.

"What's this?" I asked.

“It'll calm your nerves.” She said. So I took
a sip, it tasted awful, I handed it back to her saying “Ewww.” She
took a sip and said “Ewww” too.

“I told you it was gross.”

She handed it back to me. "I don't want any
more of that." I replied. “It's awful.”

"Come on, one more sip you'll feel better,
it'll calm your nerves." Nic said. So I took another swig and so
did she. "It is awful" she retorted. “Next time I'll add
juice.”

We ran into people stopping to chat and
before I knew it the game was over. To my amazement we did not sit
down the entire game, and I did feel better, more relaxed. I hit
Nic in the arm “Hand it over – I need one more.”

We headed out to the bonfire and not five
minutes into it Frank came up to me, this time he was alone. I'm
standing at the edge of the huge roaring fire and he stood next to
me, casually, like he knew me and nudged my arm. "I'm glad you
aren't seeing Logan, that guy is bad news and I can tell you're a
nice girl."

"Thanks." I said. "You know if he actually
was my boyfriend I would have given him my number."

He laughed and said "Yeah good
point." 

After the first four weeks of
school I hadn't been approached by any boys, no dates for me. Of
course, I guess I wasn’t expecting it either. My sister, on
the other hand, had been asked out several times over even
though she had a boyfriend.  

My sister Tori was short, petite and pretty
and all the boys liked her. She had the same bra size as me
but since she was short she was what the boys like to call
'
stacked'.
Because I'm taller I don't look as
'stacked'
. I thought that was unfair. All the boys
were always fawning all over her and when she would
turn them down, she turned them down flat! After they'd come
crawling to me for help. I never had any help for them but I
would get to know them and sometimes I would be second on their
list, never accepting any dates, thinking they had no real
interest. Most of the time I just made another
friend and friends are good.

All in all she was much prettier than I.
She told me it was only because she took the time to do her
hair and make-up making her appearance better. We do have
similarities. However, I get to sleep an extra 45 minutes a day!
She gets up earlier to shower, style her hair and put on
make-up, and dress nice. I don’t care so much, I get up wash my
face, brush my teeth, throw on a t-shirt and jeans and I'm good to
go. Sometimes, I put a brush through my hair, but sometimes I
don't, with my hair being curly-ish leaving it alone looks better.
Tori got all the attention and I didn’t really care, we usually
didn’t like the same type of guys anyway.

Since my sister and I were in the same grade,
I was hoping
not
to have any classes with her in High
School, but of course, we had first period together which neither
one of us liked. The class itself I loved, it was Art class and
since it was the first class of the day maybe she'll be too tired
to fight with me.

We used to fight all the time like any
siblings would, but, we did get along when we needed to. My sister
was held back in first grade because my family was transferred that
year, plus to boot, she got pneumonia which put her behind even
further, so they held her back. And my mom started me early, which
she liked because we always had the same school schedule that
way. So there you have it our small story of how we got
to be in the same grade. Since we looked similar, we always just
told everyone we were twins. It was easier and shorter to tell.
Everyone believed it.