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Dedication: Heather_Dianne for the amazing cover! Thank you!

Recap:

I moved my face just in time for her to just clip my nose. Her knuckles jabbed into my cheek bone and it hurt like hell. White, hot pain burned at my face and I sagged to the ground. My body was jerking. She spat, the liquid landing on my clothes.

"Crawl back into whatever hole you came from, white trash."

With that, she strode from the bathroom, the other two trailing behind her.

Just because I needed another reason to dislike Owen.

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I grimaced, staring at my face. It. Was. Ugly. Maybe Owen won't like me as much now? One can only hope.

I thought about not making an appearance at school today, but that would make me look weak. Which I am in some ways, but not when it comes to Amelia and her wannabe gang.

At least she did the hitting herself. It was pathetic that she had to have help, but it would have been even more so if she couldn't even do the deed herself. So points for that, I guess.

The skin had broken form the force and did not stop bleeding for ages. It was really annoying. Dad told me to 'knock the bastard's head in' and mum wants to pull me out of school. That would be want Amelia wants, so no, that is not going to happen. I would like to graduate and go to university.

To study what, I don't know, but graduating at least would be a good start.

"Which one was it? Hmm?" dad asked, surveying the clumps of school kids milling at the front gates. "I'll give them a talking to you, believe me!"

"Oh my God, dad," I groaned. He insisted on driving me to school, which was a first. "I can fight my own battles."

"I know, but let me know if you need me to rough anyone up."

"Er-right. I'll do that." I slid from the car and hauled my bag with me. "Thanks for the ride. Later."

"Love you," he called as I shut the door.

He did a humiliating skid as he pulled from curb and I ducked my head. Way to score me some cool points, dad. Grumbling to myself, I skulked into school, wanting to be anywhere but here.

Not that I had anywhere else particularly exciting to go.

"Hey what happened yesterday?" Marissa frowned, rummaging through her bag. "I waited and tried to call you but – oh my God! What happened to your face?"

I scowled, shaking my hair over my face. I purposely left it down for that reason, although it annoyed me to no end and all I wanted to do was brush it back. "Nothing."

"That's not nothing!" she exclaimed, her tone too high pitched for my liking.

"Shh!" I scolded, my eyes darting around. "Stop making a big deal out of it."

"Did... did something... I don't mean to pry..." Marissa asked, biting her lip, looking nervous. "Did something happen at home?"

"What? No, of course not." I said, shaking my head. "God no, I don't get abused or anything."

"Oh, good, thank God," Marissa said, blowing out her breath. "I don't know what I would have done if you said otherwise."

"No, all good," I said with a small smile.

"What really did happen? You can tell me."

"Promise not to tell any teachers or anything? Because I can handle it myself."

Her eyes widened. "Woah, did someone at school do it?"

"Promise?"

"Yes, promise," she said impatiently.

"Amelia came up to me after class yesterday."

She let out a dramatic gasp and I rolled my eyes.

"Oh my God! What a cow! She can't get away with that!"

"What can I do? And besides, I don't care. She obviously has a boring life to want to sabotage mine."

Can't she see it's already in shambles?

Maybe the fact that I've been coming out of my shell a bit more has her feeling threatened. Why, I have no idea. I'm pretty, I guess, but I didn't think I was her level, not that I want to give her any compliments.

"Wait till I tell Owen-" she began and a new voice entered the conversation.

"Tell me what?" he asked, appearing from nowhere, much to my displeasure. "Did Sadie finally confess her undying love for me?"

I scoffed.

"No, but you won't believe-"

"Woah, Sadie, what happened...?" he blurted, interrupting Marissa.

"Nothing," I snapped quickly, narrowing my eyes at Marissa before she could say a word. "Nothing happened."

"But-"

I glared at Marissa and she snapped her mouth shut.

"Aw, why can't you guys ever tell me anything?" Owen whined. "If someone hurt you Sadie, I swear to God-"

"I fell down some stairs, don't worry about it."

He stared at me a little dubiously. "Well that wasn't very smart."

"No, it wasn't."

"Do you have stairs in your house?"

"Yes Owen."

"I'm surprised you don't know that already, since you stalk her," Marissa smirked, tucking a loose tendril of her auburn hair behind her ear.

"I don't stalk her."

"You do." She argued, nodding. She turned her round eyes to mine. "He does."

"Everyone really needs to get a life around here." I muttered, shaking my head.

The cicada-sounding bell pierced through the air and I was actually relieved from their prying questions. However, we had English which we were all in, so I couldn't avoid either of them.

"I entered that comp I was telling you about," Marissa said, shrugging her bag onto her shoulder as we made our way to R block.

"Um, can you refresh my memory?" My mind coming up completely blank.

"You know, the one on the radio about the Splendour tickets?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"I told you last week!" she said in exasperation, her cheeks burning pink. "Anyway – I had to answer these questions about music, I just googled them and dad knew half of them, to enter this draw to win two free tickets!"

"I've never been to Splendour."

Splendour is a famous festival that all Australian's know about. It's almost like a rite-of-passage to go between the ages of 16-20. You can go if you're older, of course, it just seems to be the cool thing to do when you're that age.

It's where all our favourite Australian (plus some overseas singers) come and perform. It goes for three days and people basically just get blind drunk, high on drugs or neither (that rarely happens though, even the good girls go bad at Splendour) and just escape reality. Casey and I planned to spend our 18th birthdays there as mine falls on the exact weekend of it every year, but clearly, that never happened. A/N: Fun fact, the festival Splendour in Australia really does fall on my birthday every year ;)

"Oh, it's so much fun!" Marissa gushed. "We had a blast last year, didn't we Owen?"

"Yeah, dancing by myself in the mosh pit for six hours tripping that I had lost my arms was great!" he mumbled, a frown etched into his features.

I gave him a sidelong glance. "You thought you lost your arms?"

Marissa giggled. "He took one too many pills!"

"Did you?" I asked, turning my eyes to her. "Take any?"

"No, no, I don't do that. I just got super drunk."

"And hooked up with every second guy," Owen muttered and I glanced at him, surprised to hear a hint of jealously in his tone. Maybe he has liked Marissa before but she had either friend zoned him long ago or was just completely oblivious. Probably a bit of both.

"Hey! I wasn't that bad!" she cried defensively.

Owen looked unconvinced.

"Anyway, Sadie, Owen and a few others already have their tickets and I missed out, so if we somehow win two of the fifty they're giving away, will you come?" she asked, her eyes pleading. "Pretty please?"

"Nah, probably not." At least I was honest.

"Come on, it's so much fun! If you don't like it after one day, we can just go home. We'd have gotten in free anyway."

"You should go," Owen said, sounding a little happier now. "It is pretty fun. Most of the time."

"I'll think about it. You probably won't win though, so don't get your hopes up."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," she mumbled as we came in close proximity with the bare white door of the English classroom.

A festival could be kind of fun, I guess. Not that I particularly felt like I was the dancing and carefree type anymore.

But like I said, she probably won't win.

***

Marissa's excited squeal was ear-splitting.

I winced as eyes swivelled towards our table. Just because I needed more attention drawn to be battered face. My eyes met Amelia's dark, brown ones and I scowled, looking back to where Marissa's cheeks were now darker than her auburn locks.

"I won, I won!" She began doing a little dance in her seat. I didn't miss the huge grin that spread across Owen's face.

"Won what?" I asked, completely having forgot out conversation this morning.

"The splendour tickets!"

"Oh." I said, my voice monotone. It then dawned on me that she actually won. Which means she wants me to go. "Oh. Shit."

Owen laughed at my lack of enthusiasm.

"I can't believe I just won free splendour tickets." She gushed, her eyes brighter than I'd ever seen them. "I read the rules wrong, they're actually only one day tickets, not three, but that's still really cool."

"I'm sure you'll have a lot of fun." I managed to force out.

"We," she said, pointing at me and then herself. "We will have fun."

"And me, since you excluded me again." Owen added, his tone sour.

"I don't want to go."

"You said you'd think about it!" Marissa whined.

"I have."

"Have not."

"I have."

"You have not!" she argued, frowning at me. "It's one day. Are you doing anything on the 22nd of July? I'm sure it won't be more fun than splendour!"

I flinched slightly. "It's my birthday."

Her mouth fell open and Owen even looked surprised. "Oh... well, even more reason to go! Unless you have something planned with your family."

I usually spent the whole day with Casey. Things were now different, obviously, so I didn't have any traditions anymore.

"Huh," Owen said, studying me. "You don't seem like a Cancer."

"Huh?" I asked, not really having paid attention.

"Your star sign. Cancers are meant to be very loving and compassionate. No offence."

"Owen!" Marissa exclaimed in shock. It was the first time he hadn't given me a compliment. I was not fazed one bit. I'm glad he was being real with me for once.

I mock-glared at him. I was all the things of a typical Cancer, until my life was submerged into complete chaos. I was a much more twisted and bitter version of myself now.

And no one here, will ever understand that.

"Yeah." Was the genius response I came up with.

If only he had met me two years ago. A bit over one year, technically.

"Anyway," Marissa interjected, breaking the awkward tension that suddenly filled the air space around us. "That means we only have two weeks to get prepared."

I snorted. "Two weeks is a long time."

"We need to organise accommodation, transport, how we're going to sneak our drinks in, what we actually are going to drink, and most importantly, what we're going to wear!"

"Why don't you just buy drinks there?" I asked.

"Um, because they're super expensive?" she said in a duh tone. "And besides, we're under 18, remember?"

I stared at her in silence.

"What...?" she asked slowly, her forehead wrinkling in confusion.

"I'm nineteen this year."

"What?" she exclaimed and Owen choked on his apple. I quirked an eyebrow at their extreme reactions, slightly enjoying Owen's discomfort.

"I've never dated an older woman before..." he muttered, staring at me in complete shock.

"We're never going to date." I responded flatly.

"Why are you... um," Marissa started, obviously unsure how to actually ask what she wanted to.

"Am I so old?" I finished bluntly. "I had to repeat year twelve."

"N-no, that's not what I meant," she stammered, a blush forming on her cheeks. "I just meant, I thought, you were, er, seventeen, like us, not that you're old because that isn't old but-"

I cracked her a forced grin. "Chill, it's fine."

"Why did you repeat?" Owen asked. His tone was casual and he purposely wasn't looking in my direction.

My face remained emotionless as I gazed coolly at him. I half-shrugged, trying to seem as nonchalant as possible.

"Just reasons."

They both left it at that, which I'm thankful for. The light hadn't dimmed in Marissa's eyes and she could hardly sit still. I watched in amusement as she squirmed, unable to hide her glee at all.

"What?" she asked, a sheepish grin on her face.

"You're really excited about this, aren't you?"

"Yes! You don't understand how disappointed I was missing tickets."

By the look of Owen's face, he had dealt with that. I can't really remember when the tickets were released.

"And you really want me to go?"

"I really, really, want you to go." She pleaded, giving me her best puppy-dog-eye look.

With a sigh, I threw my hands up. "Fine."

She cried out in joy and began doing her little dance again, whereas Owen looked at me like I had three heads. I gave him an amused grin.

"Pick up your bottom lip, it's not that big of a shock."

"It really is." He said in all seriousness.

I guess it was.

I was so going to regret this.

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Any of you heard of Splendour before?

Do you think it's a good idea for Sadie to go?