My back was slammed against a hard stone wall so forcefully I knew it would leave bruises. I was too scared to complain though. My heart was racing in my throat and my stomach was doing flips so fast I wanted to be sick.

"No need to be so rough," a male voice cut in, it wasn't one I recognised but a hand was still clamped over my eyes so I couldn't see him. At least it didn't sound like him though, it could be someone he'd sent to speak to me.

Suddenly, the hand from my eyes vanished and I was hyper aware of everything around me. The way the wall was sticky and cool on my back, how the scent of urine and disinfectant flooded my nose and how my heart was racing in my chest so quickly that I couldn't catch my breath.

Then my sight fell into focus, in front of me stood three boys, lined up like the Great Wall. My gaze lingered over each of them waiting for a sign of recognition but nothing. They looked like ordinary high school boys, a little tougher maybe but nothing remotely menacing. Wait, was the central boy in my math class?

I let out an almost audible sigh of relief, they were harmless boys in my year. I mentally shook my head at myself, I'd just been snatched and shoved about by these three boys yet I was relieved? My brain was seriously fucked up.

"Cara Collins," the ringleader, the one in the centre stepped forward, he had that swagger about him, one that showed he was trying much too hard to look more impressive than he actually was. Defensive mode flicked on in my brain and I folded my arms as I waited to hear the reason for my kidnapping, nothing.

"Are you going to state something other than my name, something worth my time or should I just go?" I retorted forcing my voice to sound bolder than I felt. I imagined my mom sat with a row of cards in front of her with her chin titled up and famous poker face staring defiantly at her opponent, no matter her hand.

"You're the new kid on the block so I thought I'd explain the rules so you don't have to make the same mistakes again," he rocked back and forth on his heels thinking he looked cool. He looked like a fool.

"Rules?" I raised my eyebrows.

"You brought Kings Bridge boys onto our territory."

I couldn't help the snort that escaped my mouth.

"Seriously?" The boys face didn't look like he was joking around, "our territory! I'm sorry I didn't realise I'd walked into some cliché werewolf film. Last I checked people had the right to go wherever they wanted."

"They're not welcome here and they know that," the boy hissed through his teeth, he looked a little more ominous now, "especially when they flaunt you as their way in."

I felt like I'd been slapped in the face, was I their way in? Was this just some stupid rivalry that I'd been unknowingly dragged into and was now being used as a ploy to get into Ainsley territory.

No, the boys weren't like that. Some nagging part of my brain didn't fully believe that though. People lied, it was no surprise.

"Any particular reason why they're not welcome, or just for dramatic effect?" I rolled my eyes at the stupidness of the whole thing. And to think I thought my life was in danger a mere minute ago.

"There's not a good history between our schools, it goes way back, that's always how it's been. Also, that huge guy messed around one of our girls. Now you come here flaunting their school jacket like you're one of them. I'm telling you not to bring them back because it won't end well, you should be thanking me for warning you."

"Sorry," I made my voice high pitched and squeaky, "thank you so so much for grabbing me and hurting me and then giving me some ominous warning about where I can and can't go with my friends but ...,"

"Trey."

"Trey, I don't appreciate being told what to do," I shrugged, "so if you don't mind I'm going to sit with my friends in a place we're perfectly entitled to be. And I can wear want I want." I nodded to the jacket, I knew it was a bad idea from the second I'd put it on.

"When this ends badly don't say I didn't warn you," Tyson's voice was low and threatening in my ear as I shoved past him, "and when one of them dumps you like trash I get to say I told you so."

"I'll bear that in mind," I tossed over my shoulder carelessly, "and they can't dump me because they don't have me."

I left the three of them standing behind the bathroom block staring after me with their mouths hanging open ever so slightly. I turned away, how pathetic.

There was still a queue for the ladies restroom but suddenly I no longer needed to go. So I decided to head back to my seat, the game had started again and the crowd was in a hushed trancelike silence. The area that had previously been packed with people was now strangely empty. My eyes darted around wanting something else to focus on other than the sound of my own footsteps.

That's when I caught sight of a slight movement in the parking lot, my eyes squinted in that direction. My gaze zeroed in on the figure of a man in a suit darting away through the cars. He was gone so quickly I even doubted that I saw him. Maybe because I wanted it not to be true.

Fear twisted my insides brutally, he was having people watch me, of course. I would be stupid to think otherwise. I couldn't be trusted in his eyes and he wasn't the kind of man to leave things up to fate. He would always have an eye on me and a way to make sure I was sitting right in the palm of his hand. And there was absolutely nothing I could do about it.

So I went back to my seat and when all the boys faces tilted towards me I forced myself to smile back, albeit a fake one. I took my seat again and attempted to act like my stomach wasn't in knots and my mind wasn't racing over all of Trey's words and the never ending string of threats that seemed to haunt me.

"You were gone a while," Grey commented in my ear.

"Long queue," I replied. Somethings were better kept to myself.

Although I made my eyes focus on the game I couldn't make my brain.

"Our schools have a bad history," that's what Tyson had said, "that's always how it's been."

"That huge guy messed around one of our girls," did he mean Mitch? What had Mitch done to make them hate him so much?

I remembered the stares of the whole school heating my skin when we walked in. They way everyone had looked at us like we were escaped animals from the zoo.

"When this ends badly don't say I didn't warn you," Tyson's threat weighed heavy on my shoulders as my brain processes his words over and over.

"Don't let those new friends of yours get too close now." The warning came flooding back to me like a bad dream, everything was telling me to distance myself from the Silent Boys.

I was being followed, I was being threatened. I had no fucking clue what to do and the only people who I count count on were half the reason for all my problems.

I just wanted my mom, she would know what to do. She'd make everything make sense, her brain would tick behind her intelligent eyes and she'd come up with a solution. Like she always did, when money was short or we'd been kicked out of a hotel, when a business mogul turned on her or her she was losing a game. But she was gone.

I was alone and terrified.

"Cara, are you okay you don't look so good, was it touching the toilet? Do you have a germ phobia or something?" I could hear the mocking voice but it sounded like I was underwater. Nothing was clear any more.

"Cara?" Another voice somewhere far, far away.

"I need air," was all I could manage to say.

Somehow, by some miracle, I managed to push myself up and head straight for the exit. I could hear complaints of people as I shoved past but I was too focused on my destination and making it there without throwing up that frankly I just didn't care.

"Cara what's wrong?" A panicked voice filled my ear when I finally got off the bleachers. The boys must have followed me.

My entire head was spinning with so many words and so much fear that I was overwhelmed. Everything was too much. It was all too much. I couldn't do this.

I was so damn scared.