A/N: Here's chapter 1. Enjoy, people.

I tried.
I failed.
I'm sorry.

Arya:

It was cold.

Not 'Christmas commercial curl up against the fireplace' cold but the 'My toes are going to fall off' cold.

I shivered in my flimsy cardigan, wrapping it tighter around me in a vain attempt to keep warm.

Declan and his merry band of idiots had thought it would be 'funny' to dump ice cold water on me after school and put bags of slime and sand all over me. Where he got the sand from, I have no idea. Maybe he made a deal with the sand man.

So, not only was I cold and dirty, I was also very late- which meant no dinner again this week.

I was brought out of my reverie when the grey clouds above me rumbled. The heavens began to weep, drowning the Earth in its sorrows. I groaned loudly, my frustration reaching its peak. I'll have to take a shortcut today. I tried avoiding 'The Shortcut' as much as possible- since it took me past a well-known crack den. But today, I was desperate.

I turned right into an alleyway and stopped short at the sight that greeted me.

Five scary boys dressed in black had cornered three other, less scary men. My eyes widened and I saw the five take out guns and shoot the other tree.

"Sweet baby Satan!" I screamed, accidentally gaining the attention of the murderers. Act natural, Arya.

"Did you just shoot them?!" I mentally face-palmed. So much for acting natural, "Why did you do that? Holy cheese balls that's a lot of blood." I swallowed, willing my legs to do something goddammit. But they refused to cooperate. "You know what? I'm just gonna turn around and walk away. I swear on pink fluffy unicorns that I will not tell anyone-"

"A-Arya?"

Air whooshed out of my lungs when I heard that voice. A tornado of emotions swirled through me and I felt warm tears trace down my cheeks, mingling with the raindrops.

Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain at the back of my head. My knees buckled and I hit the cold, wet pavement. I fought to remain conscious, but the darkness won out in the end.

Caleb:

Ethan stood over the now-probably-dead girl. After Chris had said her name- Arya?- Ethan had whacked her upside the head with an iron rod. Bit of an overkill if you ask me.

"What the hell?!" Chris shouted, running over to the girl. He pressed two fingers to the side of her neck and let out a sigh of relief.

"Don't 'what the hell' me." Ethan frowned, "She's a witness so I did what we always do with witnesses."

But Chris was staring at the girl like she was lost treasure or something. Me and the others were extremely confused. Why would he care about some girl he'd never seen before?

Chris gently lifted her up and my jaw dropped. With all the rain and thunder, it looked like a scene out of a depressingly cheesy romance movie.

"Come on, let's go." He said, walking past the four of us, "We can treat her in our medic rooms."

"Dude, are you okay?" My twin- Nick- asked. "Like, I haven't seen you act this nice to a girl since... well, since ever."

Chris shook his head, "This one's different."

"Since when did you get all sappy?" Isaac- the oldest out of all of us- asked, shaking his head in disbelief.

"I'll explain later. For now, can we get Ski- Arya some help first?" He snapped. Woah.

"First we have to get rid of these bodies." Ethan nudged one of the dead men with his toe, his expression disgusted. I couldn't blame him- those three men were some of the most vulgar and revolting men I'd ever met. And that was saying something.

"But-" Chris stopped at Isaac's glare. He sighed, "Fine. But be quick."

In ten minutes, we'd disposed of the corpses- a record for us. Of course, it helped to have Chris screaming in our ears, 'HURRY UP OR I'LL SHOOT YOU ALL!'

The sky was now a blanket of grey with sharp flash of white penetrating the gloom. Thunder grumbled in the distance, like a hungry stomach, as the six of us traipsed to the car.

We sat in the car, pointedly ignoring Ethan's complaints of how the water was going to 'ruin the leather of his precious baby'. He'll just have to suck it up.

Chris was still holding Arya tightly, as if worried she would evaporate at any moment. It was strangely protective of him.

"So, Chris," I said casually, "who's the girl?"

"Arya McKenzie." His smile faltered, "my ex best friend."

End of chapter 1.

I hope you guys liked it!

Stay safe and thanks for reading :)