One Of The Enemy Excerpt

Prologue

 

“Cayla, Cayla, pleeeeeease let me sit behind Uncle Craig so I can see it when we drive by!” My three year old cousin asked bouncing up and down.

I grinned down at him and lifted him into the car seat behind my Dad. After all who could deny him anything with those blonde curls and bright blue puppy dog eyes he set on everyone whenever he looked at them.

We were on vacation in Florida and had booked tickets for Disney World, but we wouldn’t be going there until tomorrow. Of course my cousin was dieing to go and wanted to see it as we drove by on the way to the hotel.

“Thank you Cayla!” He said excitedly clapping his hands together and still trying to bounce up and down even though he was now strapped into his seat.

“Cayla honey, hurry up we need to get going.” My Mum called before climbing into the passenger seat next to my Dad who already had his hands on the steering wheel ready to drive.

“Coming!” I shouted as I closed Toby’s door and ran around the car to get in behind my Mum.

“Queit down Toby, your Uncle needs to concentrate.” My Mum scolded the bouncy little boy, but I could hear the smile in her voice. No one really could get angry with him, he was just too cute.

“Yes, Aunt Penny.” He answered as he stopped bouncing.

I glanced at him and couldn’t help, but grin when he started swinging his legs as the energy he seemed to have just poured out of him.

The moment my Dad started the car and began to drive Toby pressed his nose against the car window despite the fact we were still a good thirty minutes away from Disney World. He had already spent the last hour panicking because he realised he was on the wrong side of the car after asking my parents which side it would be since I usually sat behind Dad.

Toby was like my little brother, he spent more time with us than he did my Uncle Nick. His job took up so much of his time he barely saw his son, but anyone that saw them together could tell that he adored him even though he hadn’t been sure how to look after him when his wife had left him with their newborn child and a note saying that she didn’t want to be with him anymore. My uncle had almost had a nervous break down before my parents had stepped in and helped him out.

He and my brother were twins, but their personalities were like opposites, my Dad was carefree and happy, but my Uncle was uptight and dealt with things by drowning them out with a bottle of alcohol. He was a terrible drunk, but he had seemed to let up on it a bit whenever he had his son with him. Him being the only other family we had me and my parents tended to try and ignore it.

“Cayla, can you help me find Mickey when we go please?” Toby asked me suddenly not even looking away from his window.

“Absolutely, we will search the whole place until we find him.” I said rubbing my hand against his hair until it stuck up knowing he hated it.

“Caaayla.” He whined.

I chuckled at his expression before he turned back to the window.

“Cayla, stop teasing your cousin.” My Mum said.

I rolled my eyes. “Yes Mum.”

“Don’t roll your eyes at me sweetheart.”

I just laughed in response. She knew me way too well, but then again she had given birth to me almost eighteen years ago so it wasn’t much of a surprise.

“Are we almost there?” Toby asked who was on the verge of bouncing in his seat again.

“Not far now.” My Dad answered as he navigated the busy unfamiliar roads we were on.

I grinned as Toby finally gave in to his excitement and started bouncing again. Dad suddenly braked with a curse and we all shot forwards until our seatbelts halted us before any damage was done.

“Sorry about that guys, is everyone ok?” My Dad asked looking around at us as we all nodded.

Toby’s eyes had gone wide and frightened looking on the verge of tears.

“It’s ok Toby.” I told him

It was then that I realised we were in the middle of a crossroads and my Dad didn’t seem to notice, he was still checking that we were ok.

“Dad, look out!” I screamed as a car came towards his side of the car going way too fast.

It was too late though, my Dad had no chance of moving before the car collided with the side of the car. Then a car swerved in front of us and smashed into the front as I began screaming. I was the only one making a sound, I was the only one moving, I was the only one left alive.

 

 

 

 

Chapter 1

 

My screams woke me up with a jolt before I closed my mouth panting. I had been reliving the same memory every single night for the past month since it had happened.

I glanced around at my new unfamiliar bedroom at my Uncle’s house in Forest Lake, Minnesota. The clock told me it was 5am, great it was my first day at this new school and I was going to be exhausted. I had only moved in here yesterday, it had taken a long time to sort out my parents house and finally sell it, but the moment the offer had gone through all my stuff had been delivered here and I had been taken by taxi.

My Uncle had shown me to my new room and that had been all I had seen of him. He had looked absolutely terrible and from his stagger and bloodshot eyes he had predictably been drowning his sorrows in the form of alcohol rather than facing them.

I had cried so many times since the accident, sometimes I would just see something that reminded me of one of them and would have to excuse myself so I could collapse into a ball of broken-hearted sobs, but no matter how many times I did it I still seemed full of the pain of them being gone.

I was almost certain I wasn’t ready to go back to school, but if I didn’t I would sit around all day and probably cry for most of it so I had decided to go see what my new school would be like even though I had spent the last month avoiding as many people as possible.

At seven thirty after failed attempts at getting a bit more sleep I stumbled out of bed and made my way into my en-suite bathroom for a shower. When I was done I felt a bit more awake and pulled on some jeans and a plain t-shirt before drying my long wavy hair. After that I went in to the bathroom and stared at myself in the mirror.

There seemed to be almost permanent bags under my blue eyes so similar to Toby’s with the exception of being slightly darker. The small scar I had acquired a month ago in the accident just below my right eye was still noticeable and my once shiny brown hair with natural blonde highlights seemed to be dull and lifeless no matter how many times I washed it or how many different hair products I used.

With a sigh I turned away from the mirror, picked up my backpack from my bedroom and headed into the kitchen.

“Morning.” My Uncle muttered when I entered.

“Morning.” I answered as I noted all the signs of a hangover.

We made small talk while I tried to swallow some breakfast and he had morning coffee with a generous portion of vodka added. I had never seen him drink this early before and if it was the only way he could deal with the loss then it would only get worse.

It wasn’t much later before I said goodbye to him and left his apartment. His apartment was on the seventh floor and I took the elevator down before pulling my backpack onto my shoulder and exiting the building giving a slight nod to the receptionist on the way.

Having avoided getting into a car unless absolutely necessary since it had happened I walked to school. Although it was completely ridiculous I felt like everyone was staring at me as I made my way there. It had been that way since I had survived knowing if I hadn’t let Toby sit in the seat I usually did then he would be the one alive. It felt like everyone was blaming me for it, the guilt tried to consume me whenever someone so much as glanced in my direction.

I zoned out for the remainder of the walk which wasn’t uncommon for me to do nowadays. When I walked through the school doors I almost turned around and ran back out when I realised that everyone actually was staring at me. It took me a moment to remember that it would be because I was now the new girl in the school.

I had made it all of about ten feet before I was confronted in the hallway. My head rose slowly taking in long legs, blonde hair and a body that most girls would die for. She and her two sidekicks were clad in cheerleader outfits, it didn’t take a genius to realise they were the popular girls and the look of hate that was directed at me suggested I had done something wrong despite having never seen them before.

“I’m Maddy Rowe.” She stated with her nose raised as if she didn’t have enough height on me.

“Hi.” I responded trying not to feel at all intimidated.

“You’re the new girl.”

I just nodded at her.

“Don’t come near us.”

“Ok.” I replied wondering why the hell I would want to be near someone like her.

“You’re too ugly to hang with us.” She added before I could walk around her.

Her two sidekicks snorted.

“Gee, thanks.” I muttered before walking off towards the receptionist to pick up my schedule.

I wasn’t clueless about how girls like her were, there had been one at my last school and by now I was pretty much immune to their petty insults, but she could have at least given me a chance to have done something to offend her before she started.

Shaking my head I picked up my schedule and headed to my first class, which was Biology.

After my talk with Maddy in the hallway and picking up my schedule I turned up late and unfortunately just drew more attention to myself, which I had really wanted to avoid. Everyone’s gaze was on me as I asked if I was in the right class.

Mr Davis was giving me a death stare until I told him I was new, then his eyes softened as he realised it wasn’t just a random student interrupting his class.

“Cayla Thompson is it?” He asked looking at a piece of paper on his desk.

I nodded in response trying not to fidget knowing everyone was staring.

“If you just take this seat at the front we are just starting on a new topic so you should be fine.”

I nodded again as I glanced at the seat he was motioning to before looking at my feet letting my hair veil my face as I walked over to it and sat down. Mr Davis turned towards the board and began writing on it as I began to wonder if I was really ready to be here or not. I was pulled out of my thoughts by a male voice, which I turned towards to find a skinny guy with dark blonde hair, blue eyes and a boyish face giving him the appearance that he was too young to be in this class.

I had to hold back tears at the similarities between him and Toby as I wondered if he would have looked like that if he had been given the chance to grow up.

“Sorry, what did you say?” I asked after blinking and realising he had been talking to me.

He smiled. “Wow, you seemed to be in your own world there for a moment. I was just saying hi, I’m Andrew and asking when you had moved here.”

“Oh.” I forced a smile back. “I’m Cayla and I just moved here yesterday.”

“I saw you in the hallway with Maddy, Suzanne and Liz.” He stated. “They always give new students a hard time.”

I shrugged. “I think they need to be qualified in the art of bullying to be cheerleaders.”

His eyes went wide as if he hadn’t been expecting that before he snorted with laughter.

“Mr Rogers, would you like to share with the class what’s so funny?” Mr Davis asked suddenly making me jump.

“No thank you sir, I’m good.” He answered seeming to find it difficult to keep a straight face.

“Sorry.” I mouthed when the teacher had turned back to the board.

He smirked and shrugged in response before we had to start on our work.

“So, what’s your next class?” Andrew asked me as we walked out of the room.

I glanced at my schedule. “English, Math, History then Kickboxing.”

He looked over my shoulder and asked. “What teachers?” I didn’t bother to answer as he could clearly read them. “Hmm, I’m in your English and Kickboxing class.”

I just smiled in response, and before I could return my eyes front I walked full force into somebody before I felt hands on my shoulders steadying me.

“So sorry.” I muttered before looking up and up into green eyes peeking out from black messy hair that had fallen across them. “Sorry.” I muttered again before stepping away from the most attractive six foot guy I had ever seen in my life.

“Don’t worry about it.” He answered letting his hands drop from my shoulders before the corners of his full lips tilted upwards into a smile. I couldn’t help, but smile in return. “Hey, you’re the new girl right?”

I nodded in response that was all I could achieve in that moment before Andrew snapped me out of it by grabbing my arm and saying. “We are going to be late.”

I nodded. “Right.” I glanced at him one last time. “Bye.” Before letting Andrew drag me off in another direction.

When we were out of earshot Andrew stopped and waved a hand in front of me. “You should forget you ever saw him. Maddy will kill you if you so much as look at Dominic the wrong way. She’s been after him for years and as far as she’s concerned if she can’t get him no one can.”

I rolled my eyes. “I can think he’s attractive, I mean who wouldn’t? It doesn’t mean I’m going to stalk him or anything.”

He chuckled. “I’m just warning you before she threatens you.”

I just smiled in response, maybe school wouldn’t be so bad if I had Andrew around to help stop me from thinking about certain things.

English went by fast, but Math was much slower without having Andrew to talk to or anyone else to distract me from letting the memories into my head. By the time I walked into History I didn’t think I was going to be able to make it through the rest of the day without falling apart.

“Hi. I’m Mr Lewis.” The teacher introduced himself.

I could have sworn that he looked like an older version of the guy I had walked into earlier.

“This is my son, Dominic he will help you to catch up on what you’ve missed.”

I looked at his son, well that would explain the similarities considering this guy was his father. I nodded and sat down next to Dominic where he was pointing to. When I sat down I tried not to look at him still feeling embarrassed for walking into him earlier, but he didn’t seem to be bothered.

“Well, it seems we meet again.” He said with a grin.

“It would seem so.” I murmured trying not to look at him directly as I unpacked my stuff.

Faster than I could even process what he was doing he had moved his chair closer to mine and pulled his history book between us before explaining what they had been learning. I kept zoning out, he had a deep sexy voice that I could have just listened to for hours without even taking in any of the information.

Everything was going fine and I started to think that I stood a good chance of making it through the day again until we got halfway through history and Mr Lewis for some reason best known to himself decided that it would be a good task for bonus points to write a five hundred word essay on the history of Florida.

I grabbed onto the edge of the desk as I tried to ignore the agony the memory of it caused me each time something like this happened. I tried to steady my breathing, but it was coming out in short gasps as I tried to hold back the tears that wanted to overflow.

“Hey, are you ok?” Dominic asked me suddenly.

I nodded and closed my eyes as I tried to get myself under control, but closing my eyes only caused the memories to flash in front of my eyelids and I snapped them open again tightening my grip on the desk.

“Cayla, do you need to go to the nurse?” Mr Lewis asked me.

I shook my head. “I th-think I just need some air.”

I barely heard him say to Dominic. “Take her outside son, if she gets worse take her to the nurse.”

Dominic was practically carrying me by the time we got outside. The minute he let me go my weak knees gave way and they hit the grass before I pressed my forehead down against it and tried to catch my breath. Breathing in the fresh air helped a lot and somehow I managed to hold back the tears that tried to bombard me.

When my breathing resembled something close to normal I felt a hand on my back before I heard Dominic’s voice.

“What happened? One minute you were fine and the next minute, well you weren’t fine.”

 I lifted my forehead from the grass and shook my head. “I’m ok, I just have panic attacks sometimes.” I said knowing that was as close to the truth as I was willing to tell anyone at the moment.

I looked at him into his concerned eyes and forced a smile as if to emphasise that I was ok, but he frowned in return, which just proved that my smile had looked as fake as it had felt.

“We should get back to class.” I said giving up on trying to smile and getting to my feet only to wobble and feel my knees start to give way before Dominic was grabbing my arms and steadying me. The skin on his palms felt warm against my arms and I felt tingles run through my body before he asked.

“Are you sure you’re ok?”

I nodded. “Thank you for taking me outside by the way.”

“No problem.” He answered and we stayed silent as we walked back to class.

When we entered the room we only had ten minutes of class left and to my dismay I now noticed that Maddy was in my history class. If looks could have killed I would have dropped dead on the spot at that point. I was now on her hate list, great that was all I needed. Sighing I took my seat next to Dominic again who kept looking at me as if he thought I was going to drop on the floor. I looked down at the table until my hair had covered my face, that way I could pretend that Dominic and his father didn’t keep looking at me and that Maddy and her sidekicks weren’t staring holes into the back of my head.

When lunch arrived I almost ran out of the classroom and met up with Andrew before we headed to the cafeteria. After my little episode in history I couldn’t force myself to eat anything no matter how hard I tried. It wasn’t until we were halfway through our lunch hour and some guys walked past calling Andrew names that I realised he didn’t have any friends here and he was gay. He went quiet and looked at me as if he expected me to get up and walk away from him when I found out, but I just sat there wondering why people were so mean. When he realised I was staying he seemed to relax again and went back to being chatty.

“Let’s go kick some ass!” He exclaimed when we reached the sports hall used for our kick boxing class.

I grinned. “Sounds good as long as Maddy isn’t in this class.” I had already told him about history leaving out the part about a panic attack.

His face fell and I groaned knowing the answer just from that look.

I tried to stop my brain from thinking that she was going to kill me and make it look like an accident as I got changed into some shorts and a t-shirt. After convincing myself that she wouldn’t kill me in front of lots of people I went out into the hall and glanced around until I saw Andrew before jogging over to him and standing next to him.

After a minute he smirked and whispered. “Dominic is looking at you.”

I glanced around until I found him and Andrew was right he was definitely looking at me. Our eyes met and he smiled at me without looking away, I gave him a slow smile in return until Maddy stepped between us and stared at me like she was about to kill.

“Save me.” I whispered to Andrew.

He chuckled. “Don’t worry she wouldn’t dare do anything in here.”

Mr West walked in at that moment and made us all line up facing him before he stared at all of us as if assessing what we could do. His eyes went along the line steadily until he reached me and paused.

“Cayla Thompson?” He asked me.

I nodded.

“What level of kickboxing are you at?”

I frowned. “0?”

Several people chuckled and Mr West’s nostrils flared as if he didn’t find it funny so I quickly added.

“I’ve never done it before sir, I was being serious.”

“Despite not having done it before you will still have a level.” He insisted.

“Well, in that case I have no idea.”

He sighed as if it was a huge inconvenience to him and looked around. “I need a volunteer to fight with Cayla so that I can assess her level.”

I grabbed Andrew’s hand quickly. “Andrew will fight me.” I looked at him desperately. “Won’t you Andrew?”

He smiled. “Of course.”

To my dismay Mr West shook his head. “No, no I need you to fight with the same sex so it’s a fair fight.”

I whimpered quietly knowing what was coming and Andrew squeezed my hand trying to reassure me.

“I’ll fight her.” Maddy said stepping forwards.

I was pretty sure I almost cut of Andrew’s blood circulation in his hand at that point where I had squeezed it so hard.

“Help me.” I mouthed at him.

“It will be ok.” He assured me trying to pull his hand away and push me gently towards the teacher.

Reluctantly I let go of his hand and slowly walked towards the middle of the floor where Maddy was waiting with the teacher.

“What are the rules?” I asked Mr West.

He shook his head. “No rules, I just need to see how you fight.”

I really didn’t like this teacher I decided at that point as he walked away from us and stood with the other students. The moment the teacher told us to start Maddy stalked towards me and I cursed at myself for being so small. It wasn’t until she reached me that I realised it could be to my advantage, I may not be able to fight as well as she could, but it would be easier for me to dodge her attacks.

Moments later she curled her hand into a fist and swung it towards me, at the last second I crouched down only just missing the punch. I was so surprised that I had done it that I wasn’t prepared for another attack so soon so when she swung her foot towards my face she hit my jaw full force sending me sprawling on the floor.

“Ow.” I moaned clutching my face.

She stared down at me then and hissed quietly enough that only I would hear. “Did no one ever tell you not to mess with things that were mine?”

My eyes widened when she launched herself towards me as if to land on me, before I got flattened I rolled to the side hearing the sound of her hitting the floor before I scrambled to my feet. She grabbed my foot almost tripping me up, but she was really pissing me off now and I turned around before kicking her in the face. The kicks were pathetic to say the least, but after a few of them she let go and got up to stare at me angrily. For some stupid reason I felt a bit more sure of myself at that moment and I didn’t even realise the punch was coming until it was too late.

I saw stars for a second before I fell on my ass and covered my nose with my hands as it gushed with blood. There had been no sound of a breaking bone so it wasn’t broken, but it still hurt like a bitch.

“Maddy! You know that we don’t draw blood here.” Mr West was shouting.

“Take her to the nurse Dominic.” He ordered.

Damn, why did he have to choose Dominic? He was how I got in this mess to start with, but at that moment I didn’t care, my jaw was throbbing and my nose felt like it had doubled in size.

Dominic lifted me off of the floor easily as I kept my hands cupped over my nose to stop blood pouring all over the floor as we walked out off the sports hall and down the hallway.

“You doing ok?” He asked me suddenly.

“Great.” I mumbled. “Best day ever.”

He chuckled. “I would have thought he would learn not to let Maddy fight the new student by now, but apparently not.”

I raised my eyebrows at him questioningly and he shrugged.

“She never holds back like the rest of us do, admittedly that was a bit more brutal than her usual attacks. She seems to have something against you.”

“You noticed?” I muttered. “I haven’t even known her a whole day.”

He gave me a small smile. “You weren’t actually doing too badly, you’re so tiny you could be dangerous with some training.”

“I’m not that tiny.” I objected.

He chuckled. “You are a bit, but it’s cute.”

I was glad I had my hands over my nose at that point so that my hands covered the blush that was now staining my cheeks. A few minutes later he held the door open for me into an all white room with a fussy woman who I assumed was the nurse.

“Oh, I do wish they would stop with that kickboxing nonsense.” She groaned after Dominic had explained what had happened and my nose was being cleaned up.

When she touched my jaw I winced and she shook her head. “You’re going to have a nasty bruise in the morning, but your nose should be fine after the bleeding stops.”

I nodded and Dominic and I listened to her whine about the kickboxing class until my nose was blood free. When she said I was free to go we almost ran out of the room to get away from her continuous complaints.

“She always does that.” Dominic told me the minute we were out of earshot.

I chuckled. “Why does she work here if she hates it so much?”

He shrugged. “She’s good at the job, I think she just likes to complain about things.”

We went quiet then and I couldn’t help, but keep glancing at him admiring his muscles through his tight t-shirt. I could definitely see why Maddy would want him, he was the guy every girl dreamt about being with. Heat spread through my cheeks when I glanced in his direction the same time he glanced in mine and our eyes met momentarily before I looked at the floor and kept walking. When we reached the sports hall I muttered a thank you to him before running over to Andrew where he was fighting a smaller guy who I didn’t remember seeing in any of my other classes.

When he saw me he smiled and broke away from the fight before asking.

“How you doing?”

I shrugged. “I’ll live.”

“Cayla, you feeling better?” Mr West asked from behind me.

I turned towards him and nodded. “Yes sir.”

“Good, I’ve assessed your level to be at a level five.”

I frowned. “Is that good?”

“Highest is level ten, so it’s average, but you definitely have the potential to be a lot better with some training.”

“Ooooh go you!” Andrew exclaimed.

I smiled at him and then Mr West walked off shouting. “Ok, we are done for the day, I’ll see you all tomorrow.”

“How do you get into school?” Andrew asked me as we walked across the sports hall.

“Walk.” I replied.

“I drive, I can give you a lift if you like?” He asked as we stopped outside the changing rooms.

I swallowed at the thought of getting into a car again, the taxi I had taken here had been scary enough.

“Hey, are you ok? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

I jumped at the sound of his voice and forced a smile. “I’m fine, and thanks for the offer of a lift, but I like to walk.”

He frowned at me for a minute before nodding. “Ok, well I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

I nodded and said. “See you tomorrow.” Before we went into our separate changing rooms.

After changing back into my jeans and t-shirt I walked out of the changing rooms and then out of the school doors. I had actually managed to make it through my first day of school.