Betrayed Book One E-Book

megan Lofthouse

• Herausgeber: BookRix
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

For as long as Ruth could remember, she's been on the run from her kidnappers; including her evil dad Eric. With added complications along the way, will she ever be able to break free from her escape?   The problem is, her kidnappers will stop at nothing to get to her. The question is, can she even trust her friends when she needs them the most?   Join Ruth on her journey to fight against the odds. With challenging relationships and betrayal along the way.   To add to the twist, Ruth's sister was murdered; will they ever find out who did it?

Leseprobe

megan Lofthouse

Betrayed Book One

Keep Your Friends Close, But Your Enemies Closer

BookRix GmbH & Co. KG80331 Munich

About Me

The Escape Mission

Betrayed Book One

‘Keep Your Friends Close, But Your Enemies Closer’

For as long as Ruth could remember, she’s been on the run from her kidnappers; including her evil dad Eric.

With added complications along the way, will she ever be able to break free from her escape?

The problem is, her kidnappers will stop at nothing to get to her.

The question is, can she even trust her friends when she needs them the most?

Join Ruth on her journey to fight against the odds. With challenging relationships and betrayal along the way.

To add to the twist, Ruth’s sister was murdered; will they ever find out who did it?

Hi guys, I wanted to thank the contributors, Joanna Lofthouse (my mum), Emma Lofthouse (My big sister), Carmel Baker, Abbey Scofield-Marlowe, Pam kelsey, Ruth Farmer, Richard Musaabi, Nalini Seetah, Clayton Murray and Davina Mcintyre-Stewart for editing this book and making it possible for me to publish 

I would also like to thank the readers that read my book when it was on a site called wattpad. Without you, this book would never have taken off

Also I want to thank everyone on Mind’s website Side By Side for helping proof read

I’ve been writing ever since I was little and have always dreamed of having something published. I started this piece back in 2010 at age 15.

Shortly after starting this book, I lost it. Unfortunately, I experienced a bout of depression during this time and, not only did I lose the energy to concentrate and carry on writing, but I also did not remember to do simple things like save what I was doing on the computer. This depressive episode continued between ages 15-16, however I rediscovered it in April 2021.

I’m currently in hospital due to my anorexia and other mental health issues, being fed through an NG tube.

I’m currently mute but use a notepad to communicate with others.

Hope you enjoy. And thanks for buying this book! 

Megan Lofthouse

I also wanted to say that I have autism and other learning disabilities, so there may be some grammar mistakes in here!

I was going to wait for it to be completely proof read but got impatient. Ha-ha

It was also hard for me to decide what format I liked as I like the writing centred, but books apparently don’t get centred

Prologue

Prologue

Hmm my life....my life is like a leaf! Yes, a leaf: a leaf, being blown about on a cold autumn’s day. Then, SCRUNCH!!! Suddenly, it gets trampled on; by running children. That's what I feel my life is like now. No one ever thinks of a leaf like a living thing because they fall off the tree all the time right? Well I have come to the conclusion that they are living things, just like me or you. Where am I going with this? I am trying to say that, of course I'm not a leaf blowing in the wind; the thing I'm trying to say is that people, when they are kids, never imagine their lives going horribly wrong. They just think of becoming millionaires or princesses or....well you get the drift.

So what came to my conclusion was if we can think like that, then leaves might think that too, right? Okay I may seem nuts but I am trying to get somewhere with this, I'm talking about my life and possibly anyone's life. I bet if I go back to when you were little and ask how you think life will go for you, you would answer the obvious, “great” I bet if I were to ask you how your life is going now you would say almost the opposite. No one knows how their life will go or turn out, they can only dream or imagine. You do not know what illness you will suddenly get or what accidents will befall you. You just have to get on with your life and see how it turns out. I bet if I asked you if you've lost a family member, friend or relative at least ninety percent of you out of a hundred will say they have lost someone. My point is no one even thinks about all these sudden accidents and deaths until they happen or it happens to you. You could even get close to any of these tragic things that may or may not happen to us, what I am hoping to get into your mind is that no matter how old you are no matter what people tell you, not everything will go the way you planned or hoped; sad isn't it? Well...that's the horrible facts of life for you, if you are reading this right now and you are under the age of fifteen you won't need to worry right now. Enjoy all the great times you get while you are a kid because when you get to the teenage years, sad things are bound to happen to you; friend fall outs, arguments that you can't stand, people talking behind your back etc ……you name it. Please....please don't take this personally though, just because I've said all of this doesn't mean that you cannot still have fun, or enjoy being alive, or go out enjoy the fresh air, hang around with friends, or do something. Anything that you can think of, live, and enjoy!

I lost my chance to have fun and do that sort of stuff, but, you’re not me. Have as much fun as you can and don't let this get to you because I didn't say all of this to put you down. I wanted to tell you this to energise you and for you to look at life from a positive perspective

Dear mum and Ruth I love you so much so this is so hard dear to

Dear Mum and Ruth, I am sorry in advance for this, by morning I will be gone. It's not that I don't love you because I do! It's because I can't take any of this anymore, I just want a break from all of this. I hope you understand all of this I will miss you all, bye!

Lisa

'Hey sweetheart, need a ride?', 'no thanks I'm fine and I'm not your sweetheart'.

'That’s no way to speak to your boyfriend', 'Ex'.

'Ahh don't be like that, are you sure you don't need a ride?' .

'Yes Carter I'm fine now go away and leave me alone!'

'Ahh honey'.

'I'm not your honey Carter, go away'

'Are you sure because Michael would be fine to give you a ride wouldn't you Michael'.

'Yep of course’,

‘well I don't need a ride so go away'

'Are you sure because you know we wouldn't mind'.

'I SAID I WAS FINE NOW GO AWAY'.

'Okay, okay'.

'GOOD',

BANG!!

'Ruth is that you?' '

Who’s asking?'

'Lisa, your sister Lisa'

'Oh my goodness Lisa! It's been so long!' We hugged

'I know....so what have you been up to since you left?'

I sighed 'Lisa it's not like that, I didn't want to leave'.'

Then....why...did you leave'

I sighed 'it's...complicated'

'Well...how complicated?' '

Too complicated to tell you'

'Oh come on Ruth I'm your sister'

I sighed 'it’s just too...complicated to explain and you wouldn't understand’ I could tell this was getting her annoyed.

'Oh come on please'

I sighed 'I was sent over here to do a project' I lied, she looked suspicious.

'A project...?'

'Yep, a secret one'.

'And that's hard to explain....'

'Yep very'.

'Okay then...what did you have to do?'

'I can't tell you'

She rolled her eyes,

'okay....anyway you left Ruth'

'Well....yeah...I told you I had to do a secret mission'

'Whatever, Ruth you upset us all'

This annoyed me 'WELL I'M HERE NOW OKAY! So can't we just get over all of this'

She sighed, ‘okay, come on then'

Chapter One

Chapter one

'RUTH, RUTH WAKE UP' 'RUTH WAKE UP'

I groaned 'what’,

‘you were making noises again'.

'Sorry'

she sighed.

'Ruth, are you okay? This is the third day that you have been doing this'

I sighed, she was right but I was doing it for a good reason

'Yeah I'm okay' she then glanced at Lisa's runaway letter, ‘Shoot! I forgot that I had left it there.’

She sighed and picked the letter up. 'Ruth, give it up. Lisa is dead, she died two months ago'

Okay now I was angry 'SHE'S MY LITTLE SISTER, LILLY, AND SHE'S DEAD, I WILL NEVER GET OVER IT!' she could see my sadness

'Yeah you’re right, I'm sorry'

I started crying 'she's dead and it's all my fault'

She looked at me and hugged me to try and cheer me up

'Oh honey it’s not your fault, she ran away and it cost her, her life'

'I know but she had had enough of everything, the letter says that she was annoyed. It's all my fault'

'It’s not your fault, she was just having troubles, neither is it your fault nor your family.

This is why I love my best friend Lilly, she's always there for me, I smiled 'yeah I guess you are right' and then I remembered her ex, Carter 'It's Carter's fault, he annoyed her and broke her heart' I screamed

She sighed 'maybe it is'

'IT IS, SHE CAME HOME CRYING BECAUSE OF THAT JERK'

'May be so, but why would it cause her to run away?' She had a point.

'I wish she would have just told me about Carter, I bet she had had enough of him and she couldn't stand to look at him again, I bet that's why she ran'

'That’s just a guess though, it could be any reason'. 'She died Lilly'

'I know that but how does this link to her death, okay maybe to her running away but not her death'.

'I never mentioned how I think she died....' She sighed

How strange, does she have anything to do with it? 'Lilly how do you know, seems to me like you're trying to keep something from me, do you have anything to do with it?'

'No, of course not, I loved Lisa; I'm not hiding anything from you'

'Really? Then, how come you keep bringing up Lisa's death,' I looked at her shocked face: 'how come you keep trying to disagree with why I think she ran away' I knew she had nothing to do with it but I had to check,

'Are you sure because you should know that you can't keep things from me for

long, as I'll find out, where were you when she died?' She laughed

'Ooh look at you going all Nancy Drew on me, I was at your house, remember?'

I laughed, oh yeah 'Oh yeah, you have a point’, she laughed.

'Yep, ohhh! And, Ruth - don't ever try to be Nancy Drew again, because you can't pull it off, leave it to the detectives' she joked

'Oh ha-ha, I think I make a nice Nancy Drew actually' I joked

'Oh yeah, yeah let’s see what the others think of that tomorrow at school, shall we?' she joked

I laughed 'and I'll win for definite' I joked

'See that cheered you up, I still think that you suck at being a detective though' she joked

I laughed and threw a pillow at her causing feathers to come out. 'Pillow fight!!' she screamed.

'Bring it on' I then started pelting pillows at her and she did the same. This went on for an hour before our beds were literally swimming in pillow feathers. We were out of breath but we were both laughing 'Oh,' I said laughing but out of breath 'I've never had so much fun since Lisa died'

'Yeah me too,' she laughed, we then looked at our mess that we had created

'Oops, look at the mess' she laughed

'Oh leave it who cares' I laughed 'I WON' I said still laughing, I was laughing so hard that my chest hurt

'You so did not, I did' she laughed,'oh this is so on, I won'.

She then started throwing the feathers at me

'This is on, winner gets to win - the pillow fight' I laughed

'This is on'

With that, we started throwing feathers, I was still laughing so much that my chest hurt but I didn't care

'Carter, Carter, Carter made me run'

I jumped and stopped throwing feathers, ‘Ruth what’s the matter?'

'Lilly did you just hear that'

'Hear what?’.

’Lisa just spoke to me'

She sighed.

'Ruth that's impossible she's dead, dead people can't talk'

'Lilly trust me I'm not crazy I heard her, she said “Carter, Carter, Carter made me run”

She sighed

'Again with this Carter thing, Ruth we have no proof of that'

Oh I was so going to kill Carter tomorrow, I don't care what Lilly says

'Come on Ruth I've just got you happy'

She then started throwing feathers at me again, I sighed and continued, this went on for another hour

'Oh shoot is that the time already,' she sighed 'I have to go mum's home today and she wants me home', I sighed 'do you have to?'

'Yes, the last three days with you have been fun thank you for saving me from having to go to Cornwall with my Aunt'. She then started packing

'You are welcome' I then started to help her, finally she had packed

'Bye Ruth see you at school tomorrow'

'Bye, do you want me to walk you home,' she shook her head 'or... at least to the door?'

She smiled, 'no it's okay, I will see you tomorrow’, ‘Bye' I said while I was waving

'RUTH WHAT'S HAPPENED TO THIS ROOM...?' mum shouted, oh shoot the room 'NOTHING MUM, I'LL CLEAN IT UP' I shouted back, with that I went to the guest room and started cleaning up feathers.

The next day came really quickly; I was half-dreading it though because I was so mad at Carter. I had a plan though; I was going to take my anger out on him

'Ruth are you going to get some breakfast before you go?' I gave that some thought, was I hungry or not?

'No thanks mum I'm not hungry, see ya.'

To my luck when I had got to school I saw Carter, I then ran up to him 'CARTER'

He looked at me and went 'Huh?'.

'YEAH YOU HEARD ME, WHAT DID YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING UPSETTING MY SISTER LIKE THAT!' I screamed

'She dumped me'.'YEAH BUT FOR A GOOD REASON, YOU CHEATED ON HER'

'SHE HAD IT COMING'

I was so angry at him, I darted for him knocking him over 'YEAH WELL YOU MADE HER COME HOME FOR WEEKS CRYING, YOU MADE HER RUN TO HER DEATH! SHE WAS HAPPY BEFORE YOU BROKE HER HEART' I shouted

He hesitated, 'OH YEAH THAT'S NOT WHAT SHE TOLD ME'

Oh now I was annoyed 'WHAT WOULD YOU KNOW?' 'YOU KEPT STUFF FROM HER, THIS ANNOYED HER'.

I got so annoyed that I hit him hard but he hit me back harder, I screamed and started kicking him. Our fight didn't go unnoticed, as soon as I had hit him everyone gathered around us shouting “FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT”

Immediately Lilly ran up to us with our head teacher, Lilly pulled me apart and our head teacher pulled Carter away

'Alright what’s going on here!' our head teacher shouted

'They are arguing about Lisa'

Even if we were now apart I was still in an argumentative mood

'HE MADE MY SISTER RUN TO HER DEATH' I shouted

'SHE HAD IT COMING, ANNABEL WAS AND STILL IS A PRETTIER GIRL THAN LISA.' he shouted back

Oh now I was really annoyed 'TAKE THAT BACK' I screamed

'MAKE ME'

This really annoyed me; I struggled in Lisa's hold and got free. I then plunged at Carter

'Right! That's it, I've heard enough! You two will face a detention but a special one'

For some reason my face lit up to what our head teacher said

'Not one to smile to Ruth, this one will help you get along with Carter'

WHAT! 'WHAT! I'D RATHER DIE THAN GET ALONG WITH CARTER, HE MADE MY SISTER LISA RUN TO HER DEATH' I screamed

He ignored me

'You two will be locked in a room until you get along, are we clear?'

Me and Carter sighed 'Ye....s' we moaned

Lilly then held my arm again and followed our head teacher to a room; I looked at Lilly with a death look

'Sorry Ruth, I warned you, not to go for Carter but you did, so in a way it's your fault'

They then left the room and locked the door

'Oh great!' I said

'for once I actually agree with you on that one,' he looked at my slight smile and snapped back to the normal Carter that I knew 'LOOK YOU STAY ON THAT HALF, AND I'LL STAY ON THE OTHER' he said harshly

So I sat on a chair and stared at the ceiling, I stared at the ceiling for an hour until I heard loud screaming 'what's that?' I panicked

Carter rolled his eyes

'Oh! Chill it's probably nothing'

I wasn't convinced though, so I went and peered through the window on the door. This showed me what was going on 'uh Carter! It's not nothing, the schools on fire'

'I won't believe that until I see it'

'Come here then'

He sighed and walked to the door where I was standing

'Move aside' he said, pushing me out of the way

'Yep, you are right and it’s spreading fast' he panicked

'What do we do?' I asked

'We?'’

I sighed; I didn't like it either 'do we want to get out of here or not?'

He sighed

'Good point, we’re going to die.' he panicked

I felt the same 'oh! Calm down, we won't die' I then tried pushing the window 'the window won't budge'

'We’re going to die!' he panicked

When I said nothing he knew that I felt the same

'Ruth, I have something to tell you before we die'

'What?'

'I still love your sister'

That made me smile 'then, why did you cheat on her with Annabel?'

He sighed 'we got into a fight; I thought she would do the same but it's obvious that she didn't'

I sighed 'what was the argument about?'

'My friends didn't like her and they didn't like that I was going out with her, so I made them believe that we had split up'

'And they liked Annabel?'

He sighed

'Yeah, things went wrong because they tried to convince me to go out with Annabel. When I was around with Lisa and my friends were around I acted weird, when she tried to talk to me I wouldn't. They then paired me and Annabel up and she flirted like mad and I had no choice but to do the same. Lisa realised and we had a big argument about it, I thought she had dumped me that time.'

This all made sense, 'so you then asked Annabel out....'

'Yes and Lisa saw us, this time she dumped me for real'

'Carter you do realize that because of that she ran away and died...'

'Well when you told me yeah, I know something that you don't know though'

'What’s that?'

'That wasn't the only reason, you were hiding something'

I sighed 'that was a year ago; she couldn't still be upset about that'

'she was, she told me that you had disappeared and that she had found you in America two years later, she asked you why and you didn't tell her. You lied and said you were on a secret mission but everyone knows that there are no secret missions in America'

I sighed 'how come she didn't tell me about this?'

'She knew you would never tell her the truth'

I sighed 'hold on I'm going to see how much time we've got before the fire reaches this room' so I then headed to the room and Carter followed, to my fear I saw the people that had probably started the fire 'Carter get down' I said as I was ducking

'Why?'

'Just do it!'

So he did

'Why did we have to duck?'

'I have to tell you something only I know, when I was twelve I was kidnapped by a group of people, to my shock I found out that they were vampires-'

'But vampires don't exist'

'that's what I thought but when he showed me evidence that they were vampires everything got really real for me, I was kept there for a year until I was able to escape, they nearly killed me.'

He was shocked 'is that why you disappeared?'

I nodded

'Where did you live before that?'

'Australia, they took me to America and I had no idea where I was. Still I ran and ran until I was able to hide; I hid there for a year. How I survived, I became a robber and stole food and water to keep me alive, unfortunately, when I was fourteen, I was caught though where I was brought to prison. They couldn't keep me there though so they gave me to a family that was willing to look after me, that's where I found Lisa.'

He was speechless

'Wow!'

'Yep, that's why I couldn't tell Lisa, she would freak out and she was my little sister, so I hid it from her'

He was silent for a while

'Wait what does this have to do with those men?'

'They’re the people who kidnapped me, a few of them anyway. They started the fire in hope to find me, I've been running from them ever since I was able to escape'

'How did they find you?'

'I don't know someone must have told them, we've got to find a way to open that window so I can escape them again.'

'Wait! So you can run again?'

I nodded 'do you want to come?'

'What about our family?'

'I've been running which means I couldn't care less about them, mean I know but I can't risk them finding me again. Yours in the other hand might be worried but if they find out that you know they might take you'

He sighed 'so I guess I have to come with you then'

'Yep, sorry Carter I shouldn't have brought you into this'

He sighed 'it's okay, I didn't really like them anyway and I bet I would've got in deep trouble because of the fight today anyway'

Carter was the last person that I expected to be running with but now I had no choice, I guess I was surprised that he would believe me as well

'So um...how are we going to get out?'

'We could easily just smash the glass'

'Yeah...slight problem with that, we'll cut ourselves and they will hear us' I said

He sighed

'How else are we going to escape?'

He had a point 'good point, smashing the glass it is'

He smiled

'We have to find something hard that will smash the window'

So I went searching for something hard until I ran across a weird metal bar 'how about this'

He just stared at me, I sighed

'We’ll how else, it's heavy, hard and metal'

He rolled his eyes

'Let’s try it then'

So we did and we successfully broke the glass 'Carter wait, we need to smash the whole window'

He sighed and started smashing more

'HEY GUYS SHE'S IN HERE GET HER!' they shouted

'Carter hurry we don't have long!'

They were banging and banging on the door

'Ruth I'll get out first then I'll help you'

'Okay but hurry' I screamed

'RUTH HURRY'

I panicked and tried to jump on the table to get out but I failed 'CARTER I CAN'T' I then realised that I had a skirt on 'OH GREAT CARTER IT'S MY SKIRT!'

'TRY!'

So I did and I successfully managed to get on the table but they had managed to get in

'GRAB HER!'

'CARTER HELP!' I screamed

By the time that I had said that they had my leg 'CARTER THEY HAVE MY LEG HURRY!'

I was half way out

'HANG ON!'

He climbed back in

'HAY FREAKS LET HER GO!' as he said that he took the pole and started hitting them but it had no effect on them

'RUTH GET OUT I'LL JOIN YOU IN A MINUTE!'

'GET THE BOY!'

I panicked 'NO I CAN'T JUST LEAVE YOU!'

'GET OUT!' he screamed

so I did but he didn't follow, I knew that they had got him and I cried, I had to run though so I did. He had saved my life and I couldn't just leave him so I ran back in and started searching for him

'CARTER WHERE ARE YOU!' I screamed, the fire was everywhere 'CARTER!' I searched forever 'CARTER!' I screamed and started crying, wow I never thought that I would cry over Carter 'CARTER IF YOU CAN HEAR ME CALL MY NAME!'

'Ruth'

'Carter is that you?'

'Ruth I thought I told you to run'

Where was Carter 'Carter where are you?'

'Ahead of you, about five steps, there's smoke everywhere'

So I headed in the smoke and found Carter 'Carter come on we've got no time, can you walk?'

He nodded

'Yeah but I've hurt my ankle'

'Come on I'll help you' so I went up to him and held his arm and led him out. What made me wonder is how did he escape them, as soon as we were out I sat him down 'How did you escape them?'

'it wasn't easy they are really strong but then I remembered that I'd read books about vampires and I read that they don't like fire, so I pushed them towards the fire until they let me go and then I ran towards the fire and I fell where you found me'

I was speechless 'wow Carter'

'Yep, I was surprised myself'

I was still shocked wow he knows a lot about something that he didn't even believe existed a few minutes ago 'weren't you scared that what's in the books about them wasn't going to be true?'

He hesitated 'I was but I had to take the risk'

Wow he's brave, then I remembered that he didn't kill them 'come on let's go who knows how long it'll take for them to realize that we escaped'

'Good point, so where to?'

I sighed, he's not going to like this 'far away from here, I'm sorry Carter'

He sighed 'it’s okay Ruth'

'Come on then'

So we headed out of the North Coast to the South Coast of North America. We caught three buses and walked the rest. It wasn’t easy though, we had to use pretty much all we had combined to buy tickets. 'So I'm getting pretty tired do you want to stop at the cafe ahead and get something to eat?'

'Uh yeah sure'

So we headed to the café, I had a piece of cake and a coke and he had a piece of cake and a sprite.

'How are we going to pay for this?'

I sighed 'the lady that took me in gave me money and I stole some as well so we have enough. Despite how much we spent on the bus fares'

'Oh fair enough'

After we had eaten I paid for our food and we continued our journey

'So um where are we going exactly?'

'far away from here, I have no map but I'm hoping to lead us south, also I'm following the sea' okay so stupid plan but I had to get out of here. After two long hours of following the sea I decided to stay where we were

'We’re stopping here' I think he was pretty glad that I had said that because he looked exhausted, I was exhausted as well. 'So this is the hard part, we've got to find somewhere to stay'

Chapter Two

Chapter two

'Where are we?'

'I think pretty much bang smack in the middle of the South Coast of North America,' I looked at him and he smiled 'why?'

'This is actually something that I'm good at, I have a friend who lives here and he owes me a favour'

I was confused 'so....'

He rolled his eyes

'So I might be able to convince him to let us stay with him'

Oh...., now I felt stupid 'oh.....'

'Yeah....'

Suddenly I thought, Carter couldn't just go up to his friend and say “We need a place to stay because some vampires are after my friend Ruth and we have nowhere else to go.” He would think that we've gone mad.

'Uh Carter, what are we going to say to your friend because we certainly can't tell him the truth, he would think that we're mad'

He smiled; Carter smiling? Wow!! That's a first.

'I Know that, that's why I'm going to tell him that our school caught fire because someone left something in the oven during food tech and now, we don't have school until they repair it. But, that could take a while-'

‘He’s kidding right,’ I thought to myself? 'You’re kidding right?'

He smiled again

'I'm afraid not' was his retort

'Your friend will think that we’re mad plus we'll get in trouble'

'More trouble than we’re already in?' he looked at me and my sigh said everything 'what else do you propose'

I came up blank to the question. I guess we would look mad either way 'okay we go with your plan'

'Should I call my friend then?'

I nodded in agreement and he called his friend; after a minute or so he was finished on the phone.

'It's sorted and we’re going there now'

‘Cool’ I smiled. I had to admit that I was glad to have him with me but kept thinking, he was only nice to me when he thought that he was going to die. It took about an hour for us to walk to his friends’ house but finally we got there. Wow! The house was huge.

'Hello Ben, this is my friend Ruth,'for some reason he looked at Ben and winked 'you know the girl who I was on about earlier'

I decided to ignore the weird wink to stop arguments; I just smiled 'Too busy flirting to notice the oven, tut-tut' he joked

'Yeah something like that' I joked

Carter smiled

'She’s right me and my girl friend,' girl friend oh he's got to be kidding me, he saw my reaction and laughed again 'Ruth, we where flirting and we sort of lost track on the time'

I choked as a joke ' yeah totally' I joked

Ben smiled

'Okay....' he said winking at Carter again.

Why the hell are they winking at each other? I thought. “Hmm”

'We were cooking chocolate chip cookies, shame we burned them, I was looking forward to eating them with my girl friend'

Okay I had to admit this made me laugh, this was mean to Lisa though and I had to stop

'Our family just couldn't have enough of him, first Lisa now me' I smiled.

Carter was a little frustrated that I mentioned Lisa’s name. Oh well.

'Yeah I know’ Ben retorted, “he was destroyed when he and Lisa broke up, especially when he-'

Carter looked at Ben and he stop mid-sentence.

Huh!!!! This was weird. I tried to prompt Ben to continue his conversation

'Especially when he what..?'

'Nothing…. it doesn't matter' said Ben

This annoyed me 'yes...it does, Ben what's going on?'

Carter looked at him and so did I

Ben smiled at Carter apologetically

'Sorry Carter I thought she knew. When Lisa ran away Carter found her,' Ben looked at Carter's face suddenly get worried, I noticed this. Then Ben winked at Carter and he didn't look worried anymore, strange.... 'She was sulking on a park bench and Carter tried to cheer her up. Her response was to shout at him and then she ran away. Carter let her go; He only didn’t run after her because he couldn't face seeing her anymore upset.'

I was confused 'wait...I thought that he cheated on her with Annabel and that's why she dumped him and bladiblah'

'He did but he didn't mean to'

I sighed 'yeah I know he told me' something’s strange about all of this, why was Carter so worried about Ben telling me that and why do they keep winking at each other. Unless.... No, that can't be. Ben and Carter are perfectly nice people dare I say it, as much as I hated Carter before I don't think they would be so heartless to kill Lisa. I was just being paranoid that's all

'This is all true but that hasn't put me off loving Ruth'

Oh this made me sick, I was no longer in the mood to make jokes about this 'uh Carter I'm tired so I think I'm going to go to bed, Ben can you show me where we’re sleeping'

Carter looked disappointed in me and I notice it

'Sorry Carter, I guess...I'm just tired from our journey here'

Carter said nothing

Ben then showed me to my room. Shock! Only one bed, a double bed, what has Carter been telling Ben, what lies?

'Here you go. I originally had a room with two single beds ready for you two but seeing as you and Carter are a couple, I figured that you'd like the double bed'

I wasn't comfortable with the thought of having to share a bed with Carter but I just went with it

‘Uh...yeah...that's fine, thanks Ben'

He didn't look so convinced but he smiled and left, soon I fell asleep but that didn't last long because Carter woke me up when he sat on the bed.

I moaned 'Oh Carter...'

He tucked himself in

'Sorry precious' he joked

I wasn't smiling and he could tell

'What’s wrong?'

I sighed 'Carter what does this mean, are we pretending to be a couple now?'

He sighed 'Well I was thinking about it,'

He saw my frown

‘You know to hide our identity a little bit, if that's okay with you'

I frowned

'Carter I don't know...that would be weird, even pretending to be going out with my sister's ex'

He smiled

'I know but we can't risk anyone knowing who we are'

I rolled my eyes.

'And just pretending to be going out is going to stop people from knowing who we really are...' he had a point though even if people would have no way of knowing us, I'm pretty sure that we will be reported missing, then they would recognize us 'Carter you have a point though I'm pretty sure that soon we will be reported missing and that anyone would be more than happy to call up letting our parents know where we are'

He sighed

'Yeah I know, we could fake our names as well...'

I sighed 'okay sounds like a good idea'

He smiled

'So, um how about your name being Annabel?'

I frowned, Annabel you've got to be kidding me 'Annabel why Annabel?' then something hit me 'if people think that my name is Annabel wouldn't people recognize you'

He sighed

'Good point,' he stayed silent for a minute 'how about Sophie'

I smiled 'yeah sounds good,' I then looked at him for a minute 'how about the name Arron for you?'

He smiled

'Yeah seems good'

'Well then we’re sorted then, my name’s Sophie and I'm in a relationship with a boy called Arron, that's you' okay this is going to be a challenge, how am I supposed to pull off being in a relationship with Carter? The next day we filled Ben in with our plan apart from the fake relationship thing.

Chapter Three

Chapter Three

Ben was surprisingly okay with our plan; he was even agreeing to help us. I wasn't sure though 'Carter are you sure this is going to work?'

'Positive'

Ben smiled

'You will be fine,' he then looked at the clock 'come on guys’ time for your first day of school'

Well no turning back now, I sighed: 'come on then'

It took about four minutes to walk to school; the school was massive 'wow'

Ben rolled his eyes

'Come on, this school is nothing compared to others around here'

I was shocked; ‘oh man I'm so going to get lost here’. The school looked nice though, I looked around to take in all of it and I saw millions of people walk past us

'So who are they?'

I jumped and turned around to see a pretty looking girl, holding a handful of books. She had brown eyes and long black hair. She was wearing a rather elegant dress that could be nice enough to wear at a prom

'Oh hey Tara,' he turned and looked at me and smiled 'this is Sophie,' he then turned to Carter 'this is Arron. Arron is an old friend of mine who will be staying with me for a while'

Oh! Right! Sophie how can I forget... 'My boy friend Arron has great friends letting us stay with him at the last minute'

This made Carter smile, Tara smiled too,

'So, um, Sophie what brings you here?'

I almost laughed taking in all of these lies, stay strong, Ruth stay strong, 'um well, after the fire at our school, there was nothing to do; the school being closed and all. I told Arron that I wanted to get away. He told me that he knew someone in these parts.'

'My girlfriend’s parents told her to take a break, and having spoken to me, I remembered Ben. When Sophie asked me, and Ben said okay, it was like FATE. That meant that we could continue our studies if we got into the school. How that worked out I am not so sure.'

‘Wow! He was good at sticking with these lies.’

Tara smiled:

'Well! Welcome, this school is great'

I smiled: Great! Huh 'cool, I'm glad that the school is great'

'Oh! It’s great, trust me,' she then looked at Ben and Carter 'Ben why don't you show Arron around and I'll show Sophie round and we'll meet back up at lunch'

Ben smiled

'Yeah sounds great'

'Okay, well, um... Sophie do you want to come with me then'

I smiled: 'okay'

As soon as we said that she took me into the school and started pointing out places that I should know

'Okay, the girls’ bathrooms are ahead of you on the right; if you ever need the loo.' She then lead me into the gym, it was Huge 'this is the gym. This is where we do P.E. Every Monday, Thursday and Friday'.

Wow! That's a lot of times. Next we went into a classroom with a globe, loads of tables, a ridiculous-size smart board and loads of computers.

'This is where we do History, every Monday and Tuesday'.

Wow ! This room is massive. There were load of other classrooms that she showed me as well and a large hall, three play grounds and best of all, my favourite, a massive swimming pool. So cool! The lessons that we had to go to were a drag and just seemed to go slowly, finally though we reached lunch time. The hall looked different now, there were really nice dinner tables out with metal tables and cooked warm food in warmed containers out.

'The food is over here and we are free to pick whatever we want'

'Wow!'

'Yep you'll get over it eventually though'

Will I? This place was like a dream, I could love being at this school. I probably would never get over how big it was though, the dining hall filled up really quickly and as soon as I could say “I pick here” all the seats against the walls were taken.

Wow!

'Hey guys over here'

I looked around to see Ben and Carter sitting down with two free seats, I smiled 'hey guys,' I then turned to Carter: 'did you like your tour around this mansion?'

Carter smiled:

'Yep, massive isn't it'

I nodded

'With this school we are never going to want to go back to our old school when it gets repaired'

I was telling the complete truth, I already didn't want to go back. The question is with my situation would I even be able to go back, would it be safe enough?

Carter frowned:

'Let’s...let’s not think about that right now'

I knew by his voice that he felt the same as I did

'Hey Tara! There you are.’ He looked at us. 'Who are they?'

I looked at the boy, he had hazel brown eyes with brown hair and he was wearing typical boys’ clothes, a t-shirt and some long baggy trousers

'Luke...hey,' she blushed a little and I noticed that she pushed a strand of her hair behind her ears, then she looked at me and Carter.

'This is Sophie and Arron, they are newbies around here. They are staying with Ben'

Luke looked at me and smiled, 'Hello! welcome!'

I smiled “Hi” Carter nudged me and my smile faded a little 'Yes Arron'

'Good, I thought I would introduce my GIRLFRIEND Sophie, we've been going out for about three months now'

Oh man why did he do that, if I wasn't mistaken I would say that someone’s getting jealous. Just like that Luke's smile also faded

'Oh!...sorry!....I didn't realize that you were together’

As soon as he had said it, Tara gave me the evils I think she caught up that he might have been interested; I have a feeling Carter did as well. Ben just smiled. The rest of the day went really slowly so I was glad when the day was over

'Luke fancies you, you know' he said when we were home and when Carter was sorting stuff out in our room,

I smiled 'how can you tell?'

'He never talks to people other than me and Tara; I can tell he has feeling for you.'

I smiled 'but what about Tara, she fancies him'

'Yeah but he only considers her as a friend'

I then realised that I shouldn't be smiling because I'm supposed to be going out with Carter

'You should give it a try and ask him out'

What was he on about? I thought that he thought that I was going out with Carter

'I'm going out with Carter though'

He sighed

'But, Are you? You know, you can tell me if you’re not'

Oh! No, he's catching on more than he should know, that's a problem

'What...are you talking about, I love him'

I tried my best to make it seem as though I was upset but as well shocked

'Ruth, what's going on? Don't worry I'm not angry I'm just curious'.

I sighed: oh poo! he's found out more

'You and carter aren't a couple are you?'

I sighed and shook my head: 'how did you know?'

'It’s simple every time you said that he was your boyfriend and when he said that you were his girlfriend your facial expression changed a little and you didn't look happy with hearing or talking about that. Plus I know Carter and he would never do anything bad. So, what really happened?'

I sighed ‘he's going to kill me for this. Someone who is after me set the school

alight and we ended up escaping out of the window and ran here’. It shocked me when carter told you that I was his girlfriend because I hated him before all of this. so...'

'Yeah, I understand, why didn't you just tell me all of this though?'

I sighed: 'I don't know, I guess I just thought that it would be a bad idea if you knew....you will keep our secret though, right?'

He smiled

'Of course, I will, I kept; the fact that your name isn't really Sophie, didn't I?'

He had a point 'oh! good point'

'Hey sweetie! Sorry! I was just sorting some stuff out, I'm here now though,' he looked at me and Ben standing next to each other trying not to laugh'

'What’s so funny?'

Okay! now I couldn't keep it in anymore and me and Ben started laughing

'What’s so funny?'

We then started laughing even harder 'Ah sweetie' I joked and then we both started laughing again

'What’s so funny?'

I could tell now he was starting to get annoyed but I couldn't help it

'Right, I'll leave you two cuties alone shall I?' he joked and with that he left. I laughed again

'WHAT’S SO FUNNY!'

I laughed again 'Um….. sweetie!' I joked. 'Ben knows'

'He what?'

‘Okay! What have I done? It was still funny though 'calm down sweetheart!' this time I didn't laugh, the joke was over. 'I'm sorry, Carter'

'How does he know?'

I sighed: 'he saw it in my facial expressions. He also knows how the fire really started, I'm sorry'

'How?'

'I couldn't keep it from him, he knows you too well'

A sudden grin made itself onto his face: 'What?'

'I say, that we get our own back on him'

I was confused: 'I was involved in the laughter thing though'

He rolled his eyes:

'Not that, because he found out'

‘You know, that was actually quite a good idea.”

'Good idea! How?'

'Well...,' he then looked around: 'where is Ben?'

That’s actually quite a good point 'um! he said something about having to do a job for a friend, I think we’re safe'

He sighed in relief

'My plan is to pretend that we can't stand each other'

I smiled, that was actually quite a good idea 'you know...you might have just come up with a brilliant idea for once'

'Oh I know, wait what do you mean for once?'

I laughed 'I was joking, it’s a good idea'

'Great!'

I smiled

'RUTH GET OUT, I CAN'T STAND TO SEE YOU RIGHT NOW!'

It took a while to take it in but I went with it ‘YEAH YOU KNOW WHAT, I WILL, IT'S BETTER THAN SEEING YOUR FACE. OH! AND DON'T BOTHER TALKING TO ME TOMORROW'. I screamed and slammed the door. I couldn't help but giggle inside me though. Sneakily, I opened the door again and winked at Carter and then ran to my room

Chapter Four

Chapter Four

Today would be great fun; I would just have to try not to laugh because if I did it would give it all away. 'Ben, can we go? Already, I can't stand waiting with that jerk'

Ben raised his eyebrow:

'What happened between you two?'

Oh no!, we didn't have a reason, shoot!

'I would prefer if I told you and not that bitch and I'm not in the position to tell you right now, give me at least a day'

Smart!, why didn't I come up with something like that?

Ben rolled his eyes:

'Right!.....'

'As much as I hate to say it, he's telling the truth, he is in no position to tell you and neither am I'

.

With that he took us to school, a silent journey through because none of us spoke

'Sophie!'

I jumped and looked around to see Luke looking at me

'Uh! Hi Luke, sorry, I was just a bit distracted'

He laughed

'Yeah, I can see that. Are you okay?'

'Uh yeah!... I'm just not talking to Arron right now and I think that I've got Ben angry at me now as well'

He sighed 'oh dear!'

I frowned 'yeah, the last thing that I want is - to see them right now'

He smiled that confused me. 'What’s the smile for?'

'You not wanting to see Ben and Arron, means more time that I can spend with you'

I wasn't sure if I should be happy or sad about that 'where is Tara?'

he frowned 'oh...uh...I haven't seen her since we got in to school, we saw Arron run one way, you run the other and Ben run to the other. This is how I figured that you were annoyed, she may have run to see if Arron or Ben was okay but that doesn't matter'

How strange, he was hiding something but I wasn't sure what yet, ugh I hate being left in the dark. 'Doesn’t it?'

'Nope, Tara is either with Arron or Ben I think... she'll be fine'

'That’s not what I meant, she loves you Luke'

'Yeah...I don't though, there's a difference'

I tried not to smile, why didn't this bother me?

'Hey Sophie, I know what will cheer you up'

'Oh! And what’s that'

'Ah, that's a surprise. Follow me and the surprise will be revealed'

A surprise huh, how interesting. 'A surprise, huh?'

'Yep, are you going to come with me?'

I nodded; whatever surprise he had planned, I wanted to find it out.

To my surprise as well as shock he led us into a hall that I've never even been in 'uh Luke where are we?'

He smiled

'The hall that they use for discos, it's off limits until a disco is being held. No one knows about this place'

'Wait how do you know then?'

He smiled 'my big sister holds the discos here'

How cool 'so...why are we here?'

He smiled 'there is an invitation only disco that is being held by my sister tonight and I want you to come'

'I have no invite though'

He smiled 'my sister is the person who's running the disco remember?'

I finally got what he was trying to say 'Oh, Oh no, No how am I going to-.... what am I going to say to Ben it's an invitation party only...'

'Sophie calm down you make it seem like a crime or something that you’re going to die for, chill, my sister allows me to take one person every time, that person is you'

Uh-oh what about Tara, she's going to kill me, that's if I decide to go though 'what about Tara though?'

He smiled 'like I said before, I have no feelings for her, you know, in a relationship way. Tara went last time, and this is the time for her to step down'

I smiled to that, why did I smile to that?

'Oh come on it'll be fun and it will cheer you up, I promise

I smiled 'okay...but what am I going to tell Ben and Arron?'

'You say that Ben is angry at you, there's your plan, just leave'

'I said he MAY be angry I didn't say he was'

'How hard is it just to leave?'

I sighed 'quite hard seeing as they like to know where I go after school'

He thought for a while

'Tell them that you've volunteered to help at the disco seeing as they are angry at you'

Wow, he comes up with good ideas 'sounds cool' oh Carter's going to kill me because of this 'yeah sure I'll be there'

He smiled

'Great, I'll meet you by the school doors at six'

'Okay, I'll see you at lunch as well'

The whole day went slowly as usual, even lunch seemed like a drag, it didn't seem as cheerful as normal, I'm glad that I'm home.

'How was your day' he whispered

'A drag, yours?' I whispered back

'Same, Tara is really annoying you know that, she was on about going to some disco with Luke tonight all day'

I frowned at that, Tara is going to kill me 'um Carter, don't hate me for what I am about to say, do you promise?'

He raised his eyebrows

'Depends what it is'

'Turns out Luke isn't a giver upper, you know that disco, it's an invitation disco only party, and instead of inviting Tara, he's invited me'

He looked as shocked as I had looked when he invited me

'Wow' that was all he said

'Yeah Tara is so going to hate me after this'

'Yep, she will be, she loves Luke that would be a recipe for disaster, you didn't accept did you?'

I frowned 'I accepted, I'm so sorry'

'It’s not me that you should be saying sorry to'

He had a point 'good point, if she can still look at me I'll tell her that I'm sorry' I then remembered Ben 'is Ben angry at me?'

'Kind of…. but he's angry at me too. Turns out he hates being kept in the dark'

'Doesn’t everyone?'

'Yeah……pretty much'

I sighed, I knew that he was keeping me in the dark and I didn't like it.

Chapter Five

Chapter five

I took a deep breath; it was time, time to meet Luke to go to the disco. I quickly put on my best dress with my best high heels and headed for the door

'I'm off to meet Luke, like you'd care but bye'

With that I walked out of the house and to the school. 'Hi Luke'

'Hi Sophie,' he looked at my dress 'you look….'

I smiled 'Horrible I know, I don't have nice dresses like Tara'

He smiled back

'Not what I was going to say but....'

'What were you going to say?'

He smiled

'I was going to say that you look pretty tonight, it doesn't matter what you have or haven't got. I fell in love with this girl, not a Tara look-alike girl'

Did he just say what I thought he just said? I blushed 'you love me?'

'Yes, do you love me?'

I smiled but then remembered Carter, ‘oh shoot, too late though and kissed me. I had to do something to protect our secret though, so I pulled away

'Luke, stop, I'm going out with Arron'

He sighed

'Yeah but you are angry at him and he is angry at you

'That doesn't mean that you can kiss me'

He sighed and then grabbed my hand

'Come on then they will be wondering where we are'

I nodded and he led me into the disco

'Hello Luke'

'Hi Rachel'

She then focused her attention to me

'And this is?'

He looked at me and smiled

'Sophie'

She smiled

'I haven't seen you around here before are you new?'

I smiled back 'yeah, my old school caught on fire so while they do the repairs that could take ages I decided to come up here'

'You are welcome in'

Luke led me in, the whole hall was transferred into a glittery room with chairs and drinks everywhere; music playing with about ten disco balls attached to the roof, the walls looked like they were spinning.

'So do you want to dance?'

Okay this is where I embarrassed 'I can't dance'

'Everyone can dance if they try'

I laughed 'no I'm telling you now, I can't dance'

'Sure you can come on'

I smiled 'okay but I warn you I can't dance'

'Oh come on' he said pulling me onto the dance floor. I was still thinking about what happened earlier, the kiss. I felt bad 'Luke I'm sorry'

'For what'

'For...you know…. the kiss thing. I shouldn't have pulled away, I'm sorry’

He smiled

'It doesn't matter you’re a really nice girl, Arron is a very lucky man,' he looked at me and smiled 'come on I'll teach you a few steps just follow me'

He then spun me around and spun me back

He smiled

'I warn you about the next move, close your eyes'

I was confused 'why'

'You’ll see'

He then lifted me up and threw me into the air and caught me again, I was breathless 'wow'

'I warned you to close your eyes'

He was right but what got me was how he was able to throw me so high into the air and catch me again, I decided to keep it to myself though. The disco was so fun that it went really quickly 'wow that was fun'

'Yep I told you it would be'

It went so fast and I didn't want it to end 'well I suppose I'd better go then, see you tomorrow'

'Wait! Who said that it was over'

I raised an eyebrow 'everyone's left and Rachel is clearing up'

He smiled 'the night's not over, I have yet another surprise for you'

I raised my eyebrow 'what other surprise?'

'Ah that's a surprise, if you knew it wouldn't be a surprise now would it. Close your eyes and I'll lead you to the next surprise but don't open your eyes until I tell you to'

I rolled my eyes 'okay' I mean what harm can it do? So I let him lead me to my next surprise

'You can open them now'

So I opened my eyes and to my surprise I found myself in the swimming pool room 'Uh Luke what are we doing here?'

He smiled 'This is your next surprise'

Wow, does he actually expect me to get in? I've got my best dress on

'No way! I've got no swimming costume '

'Oh come on'

'No, no, no!'

He laughed, then ran up to me, grabbed my arm and jumped in with me

'NO...!' as he pulled me into the pool 'I'M GOING TO KILL YOU FOR THIS I SCREAMED'

He laughed

'Now how are you going to do that?'

'By drowning you'

‘You'll have to catch me first'

'You’re on' he then swam away. Wow! He was actually a fast and competent swimmer. He then swam under water

'Hey that's unfair’ I said

Suddenly I felt a grip on my leg pulling me under, but I knew who it was. I gasped, took a deep breath; went under and punched him. We surfaced; I was having so much fun

Luke joking said, 'I think I've proven that if anyone is to kill anyone, it will be me killing you not the other way around'

I laughed 'Hey that was totally unfair, especially seeing that you are bigger, stronger and faster ' I joked

'I know, I was just emphasizing' he joked

We stayed in the pool for another hour.

I was now dripping wet with no idea of what to do next. Luke lived close enough and he suggested we go there to dry off before going home to a load of questions from Carter and Ben. I really didn’t want to go back to his house but it was better than the inquisition that would follow if I went home in wet clothes.

'Okay'

Chapter Six

Chapter six

Luke's house was sooo nice. I seem to be saying that about everything I saw. Was everyone who lived round here really rich?...Massive living room, wide screen TV that practically took up the entire living room wall it was hanging on. The settee, Amazing! You could literally sink into its softness, warm; I could stay sitting there forever. I then snapped back out of my head and looked at Luke

'Thanks for the spare clothes Luke,' Looking around the living room I commented, ‘This house is beautiful'

'I know'

Remembering his room which I used to change off; king sized heated water bed that was extra... comfy; state of the art stereo, with massive speakers and loads more, I added, 'Your room is amazing too'

He smiled

'Yeah, I know'