Another old chapter because I'm a bloody tease. ENJOY.

The next day, I was practically screaming with happiness as I went to school. The usually boring bus ride was suddenly pleasant, the commons room with all its raucous chatting and laughter was homey, and I even tried my hand at the wheel in my first period pottery class.

"You sure seem happy," My friend Alison said, her usually spiky pink, orange, and green hair sleeked back into a neatly parted 12-year-old-school-boy look. She wore a hair band to look more feminine, and a pair of maroon skinny jeans with a band tee. I didn't recognize the band name. Her wrists were covered in bangles, and all thirteen of her ear piercings were filled with out-of-the-ordinary earrings. She looked awesome… as she always did.

"Yup," I replied, attempting to centre my clay once more before just asking Mister Misley to help me. "My birthday turned out awesome." It was kind of a white lie, but I didn't care. Alison was always very perceptive and would sense something wrong if I didn't act cheery.

"Oh yeah, happy belated b-day, Jen. What'd you guys do yesterday other than go to church?" She knew my grandmother was really religious, and so was I. My religion was just undefined as of that moment. I still swayed more toward Christian, but Jason's death caused it to waver.

I grinned and rolled my eyes. "Grammy decided to forgo the whole church thingy in favor of breakfast in bed and a day out with her and one friend."

"And you didn't invite me?"

"Nope, sorry. Michaeline had dibs on my birthday." Pottery was the one class I had with Michaeline (being the part time super senior she was), and Alison glared over at her.

"What if I wanted dibs?"

"Should have called it before the weekend then. She got to me first. Maybe next year?" I looked up at her with a grin to see her stick her tongue out at me. "Very lady-like," I observed sarcastically. She just laughed.

"So where'd you three go? To see some Mayan ruins? The Bahamas? Ohio? Maybe the park?" She successively made the places less grand, hoping to guess where I went. I just shook my head at each guess, outlandish or not. "Then where?"

"Crystal Lake."

"That closed down place?!"

"Of course."

"Was your grandmother a bit off her rocker yesterday?"

"No."

"Then why'd you go? After that Voorhees lady killed all those kids, you wanted to go there of all places?" I had never told Alison about Jason, so she was right to think I had no motive. So I thought of the next best thing.

"I wanted to see if there were any bodies left over."

"And your grandmother went for it?" I nodded and she practically purred. "Wicked. Did you find any?"

"Well, I found a body of sorts."

"Spill it."

"Some guy tried to kill me."

"Seriously?"

"No, Alison, I'd lie about something like that. He really did try to kill me! The guy had a hatchet and everything. The freak was even wearing a bag over his head… I think he tried to choke me. That psycho was pretty bloody strong." I hated saying things so derogatorily but I always used it around Alison. And I hated every moment.

Her mouth hung agape, so I used one slip covered finger to push her chin back up to connect with her upper jaw. "Why was he wearing a bag?" She finally asked after muttering something about how only I got all the fun things.

"Dunno. Maybe he wasn't much to look at. Well, at least his face wasn't much to look at. The rest of him, now that I think of it, was pretty attractive." I began to think of how much I also disliked talking about any man as if he was a piece of meat. But the only way to get a point across to Alison was to make it blunt. And interesting enough to hold her attention, that bluntness has to be a bit sexual at times.

"Ooooh, details?"

"Let's just say that the Spartans would have to compete with him for muscle mass and swagger," I said grinning, finishing my simple pot (because Misley did most of it for me) and placing it on the fresh pottery shelf behind me. "And he had the most beautiful eye. And hands."

"Eye? As in only one, not two?"

"Yeah, the bag had only one hole to show his left eye. Brown, very expressionful and, well, beautiful. But his hands were just… wow. Allie, they were huge and looked so good…"

"And do I sense a hand fetish coming on?" She winked at me and wiggled her black nailed fingers in my face. "Ooooh, look at the seeeeexy hands!"

I laughed and swatted her hands away from my face. "Yeah, sexy hands. Now your sexy hands and your face have slip all over them," I said with a Cheshire cat grin as I wiped my hands all over her arms and face. She flipped me the bird happily and went to wash up with a smile. Sometimes, Alison was the most fun person I knew. So much more well-tempered than others…

At that moment, Michaeline decided to grace me with her presence and the presence of her fan boy crew. "Hey, Jen, how's everything going since yesterday?" She knew I hated her bringing up embarrassing moments in front of her pretty-boy followers.

"Fine."

"No more screaming, right?" The three guys that had come with her (they were different than last time) laughed a little at her 'question'. So the bitch wanted some attention? She had another thing coming.

"Naw, the screaming bit is done for now. How's your hair? It looked like shit yesterday after that swim… and I swear I saw some sort of water-fowl crap in it." I didn't smile because I wasn't happy with being mean to her. She was my friend but had no courtesy for me. Apparently she was born to be mean.

Her jaw tightened a fraction, her eyes sweeping the room for Misley. When he seemed to be nowhere near us- he was at the kilns on the other side of the room- Lina bent close to my face. "You try to embarrass me again and I swear I'll make your life a living hell." She spoke just loud enough for her duck-like followers to hear, whispering 'ah' and 'oh'.

I just snorted and walked away. "Michaeline, don't try threatening me. My life is a living hell as it is; I doubt your attempted tortures are any worse than anything else I go through," I yelled back at her as I walked off to Misley's side of the room. He was a good conversationalist, at least a bit better than Michaeline.

"What was all that about?" Misley asked, his blue eyes glancing at Michaeline before making contact with mine.

"Nothing, Misley. She's just mad 'cause I embarrassed her in front of her cronies," I said with a smile, eliciting one from him as well. "But I suppose I shouldn't let her talk get to me… after all, it's not like she'd really do anything bad just because we were mixing a few heated words."

I began to wash my hands at the nearest sink as Misley spoke. "You just be careful, Costello," He always used my last name the same way I used his, "As the old saying goes, 'Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.' Or at least it goes something like that."

The bell rang so I dried my hands hastily and picked up my green canvas messenger bag. "Thanks, Misley, that'll be real helpful," I said sarcastically with a laugh, waving as I exited the pottery room to move onto my government class. Hopefully Michaeline would never really do such a thing as to hurt me intentionally. After all, we had been friends for quite a few years. One little tussle would seem like nothing. Or should seem like nothing.

Oh, how wrong I was.

Got one more coming along soon... but no guarantees on anything past that. I'm probably going to just keep working on original works. Sorry, y'all. But hey, you never know. I might get into a Ft13th/teenage romance mood again.