chapter 2

ISABELLA~

'I will ruin you. Even if I die, I'm going to destroy you.'

The words echoed in my head as I sank into the darkness. Phillip's face was imprinted behind my eyelids, and my hatred was so thick I could taste it.

He was going to pay.

I was going to make him pay.

If I ever got a chance.

Just. One. Chance…

Light seemed to explode before my eyes, and I flinched, stumbling backwards. Only for someone to steady me from behind.

"Whoa there, Sinclair," a cheerful voice spoke. "You're not hungover, are you?"

I froze, because I knew that voice.

I knew that voice just like I knew how impossible it was that she was speaking right now. I whipped around so fast that my back hit something hard.

"Oof," she laughed. "You sure are falling around this morning. Late night?"

I couldn't answer.

I could only stare at her, my eyes going wide as dinner plates. Jessica Suarez has been my best friend since high school. She has also been dead for close to two years. Suddenly, I was back to that awful day, holding her body and screaming. My best friend had cut her wrists and I never knew why.

"Hello…?" she said, waving a palm over my face. "Earth to Isabella? Look, I know I'm gorgeous but it's going to get a little weird if you keep staring—"

I didn't wait to hear any more.

I lunged forward, wrapping my arms tightly around her like she was going to disappear. For all I knew, she was.

She was dead, after all, but she was somehow in front of me. I must be dreaming, then. I must have died when Philip pushed me down the stairs, and this is my life flashing before my eyes.

I could feel Jessica's confusion, but she hugged me back anyway.

"That bad, huh?" she said. "What happened? Did Philip cheat again?"

Phillip.

His name had me straightening up and looking around. Was he in this dream too?

My hands clenched as I asked, "Is he here?"

Jessica's eyebrow lifted.

"Is who here?" she replied.

"Philip," I said through gritted teeth.

"Uhh… this is the women's locker room, so I'd hope not."

"The women's what now?"

I looked around again, taking in the open lockers and women chatting as they stowed away their gear and banged the doors shut.

Gear.

Hockey gear.

I turned around, and sure enough, the thing I had bumped into was my own locker.

"Am I still dreaming?" I whispered, staring at my hands.

Everything felt so real.

"We have Philosophy this morning, so I hope so," Jessica replied with a grin. "Let's go."

I had no choice but to go with her.

**********

The whole day, I kept waiting to wake up.

Instead I sat through a boring Philosophy class, then even more classes, then went for lunch, and I still didn't wake up. I even pinched and slapped myself, but that only left me with bruises.

In the end, I had to accept the truth. Somehow, I had gone back in time. And if the calendar was correct, I'd gone back to the day, one year ago, that I was kicked out of the Unisex hockey team.

Jessica and I were heading for evening practice when someone covered my eyes from behind. I immediately knew who it was.

Phillip.

At this time, he was my boyfriend. He was also the reason I got booted off the team. He had been caught doping, and I, like the lovesick fool I was, chose to take the fall for him. But that won't be happening anymore.

When I didn't react to his prank, he let go and looked at me with a confused frown.

"Isabella?"

I wanted to put my fist through his face, but attacking a teammate would get me penalized. So I just gave him a plastic smile and turned to leave. But instead of going with me, Jessica stood there looking stunned. I had to snap my fingers in her face before she blinked and quickly scurried after me.

"What was that about?" I asked.

"Nothing," she replied, but her cheeks had gone pink.

Huh.

If I didn't know better, I'd think she has a crush on Phillip or something.

Speaking of Philip, this was the perfect time to begin my revenge. Right now, he had the performance-enhancing drugs in his locker. I just needed to give the whole team a reason to search it.

As we approached the rink, I suddenly had an idea.

"I need to use the bathroom," I said. "Could you go on without me?"

Jessica shrugged. "Sure. Catch you at practice."

I waited till she was out of sight before heading to the men's locker room. There, I opened the team captain's locker, grabbed his skates, and shoved them into my bag.

Then I went for practice.

Except of course, practice couldn't start, because the team captain's skates were missing. The first fifteen minutes went to the team debating on what to do.

"We could always practice without him," someone was saying, "but then we wouldn't be as coordinated—"

"Actually…" I said, stepping forward. "I have an idea."

Twenty attentive eyes swung to me.

"Phillip has an extra pair," I lied. "But his locker is kind of a mess, so it'd be faster if we all looked."

Phillip stared at me. "What extra pair?"

"Oh please," I made a show of rolling my eyes. "You can never find the damn things. Like I said, messy."

There was a lot of good natured laughter, then everyone headed to Phillip's locker.

I was his girlfriend, so of course they'd take my word for it. Everybody knew he couldn't do a project or find his own socks without my help.

He really was messy.

We got to Phillip's locker, and I hid my smirk as it was thoroughly searched. Any moment now, they would find the drugs, and that would be it for his career.

When they shut the locker without unearthing any illegal drugs, I couldn't believe my eyes.

"We didn't find them," one of the guys said with a helpless shrug.

What? That doesn't make sense.

The drugs are supposed to be right there. I was about to blurt that out, to demand that they search again, when I remembered that he wasn't talking about drugs. He was talking about the imaginary skates they were supposed to find.

"Oh," I said, forcing myself to sound cheerful. "He must have misplaced them, then. Typical."

But I couldn't stop thinking about it.

We ended up practicing without the captain, but I was distracted the entire time. I barely heard Jessica chattering to me as we returned to our locker room.

'The drugs were right there,' I thought. 'Where did they go?'

As soon as I opened my locker, I realized where they had gone. Because cards of the tablets tumbled out of my locker and hit the floor, getting everyone's attention.

Before I could do anything, Jessica bent and picked one up. Her eyes widened as she read the label, and she stared at me in shock. The other women clustered to read over her shoulder, and soon everyone was staring at me like I had grown horns.

'Well played, Phillip,' I thought bitterly.

So he had decided to frame me.

I kept my cool, staring back at the accusing glares that threatened to set me on fire.

"Well?" one woman demanded. "Nothing to say?"

"Oh, I do have something to say," I replied calmly.

One thing Phillip didn't know about me was that, after getting bullied my freshman year, I installed a spy camera in my locker to make sure nobody could tamper with it again. I reached in now and pulled it out.

"So," I said. "Let's find out who played this nasty trick, shall we?"