TEETH [chris sturniolo]

7.

Piper was running late.

Quite literally.

As she sprinted across the long hallway and tried to keep her skirt from accidentally flashing the few students that weren't yet inside a classroom, she cursed her mother out in her head.

To say she had a bad weekend was an understatement. Elizabeth had entered the Cruz' household one late Saturday evening and drank herself to sleep, of course, Piper was worried about the older woman for the rest of the day because she wouldn't wake up, so the girl ended up not sleeping at all. The next day, her mother opened her eyes and immediately got mad at the sight of her daughter looking after her.

Her cheek stung a little from the stupid fight they had over her mom's boyfriend, whose name was Oliver and he was a junky.

"I'm so sorry, can I come in?" Piper said from the entrance, out of breath and probably looking like she ran a marathon. She definitely wasn't an athlete. "I lost the bus." She explained further, shifting the weight on her feet.

Her algebra teacher shook her head in disapproval but still waved for her to come in.

"Don't let it happen again, Mrs. Cruz. This is unlike you."

She nodded and looked around the room, the seats weren't assigned but everyone sort of just had picked their spot at the beginning of the year and it stuck. Except of course, the one day she doesn't get in the classroom on time, the only available seat is next to Bella Atwood.

Piper walked over, avoiding everyone's eyes on her.

She wasn't oblivious to the fact that her classmates were looking at her because of what the tea page of Las Cañadas had posted Friday night.

"Hi." He whispered as she quickly sat down besides the strawberry blonde girl.

Bella ignored her but had the audacity to copy every single thing she wrote down on her notebook.

When the bell rang, Piper ran out to her next class when she noticed Bella was about to open her mouth to say something to her. Obviously she was the first one, but as the room started to fill, she dreaded one person walking in.

She hadn't thought about her proposal to Chris very thoroughly. Piper wasn't even sure she could muster up enough energy to pretend to like him, after all those years of screaming back and forth, her feelings were conflicted.

That could count as acting experience, right? As long as she saw their little ruse as that, it would be fine. Mushy feelings wouldn't be involved and Piper would come out of this unscathed and a better actress.

Deep in thought, she didn't noticed Chris sitting next to her. It was when he leaned in and pressed a kiss to her cheek that her bubble popped.

"Hi" He said, voice barely above a whisper.