November 14th 2014. Italy.| Zachary.

As I stared into her icy blue eyes, part of me scanned her face to look for a small speck of the old Jacquelyn was still present in the woman that stood in front of me. The old Jacquelyn that I loved. But as soon as the thought crossed my mind, I rejected it, reminding myself that she had never truly been the Jacquelyn that I loved. I reminded myself firmly that she was Alexandria Jacquelyn Romano and that unfortunately I had once fallen for one of her many masks.

But not anymore. After all, only a fool did the same mistake twice.

To suit her current mask, which she had given the name of Julia Rossi she had chopped off her brown mane that once cascaded down her back in luscious waves, into a sleek bob that framed her sharp cheek bones. For a fleeting instant, I thought had seen a flash of pain cross her face as she looked at me. But the next second, I told myself that I had imagined it as she then glared at me and stood her ground as firmly as ever as she said:

"Seriously?! Is this a new way of flirting, where you pretend to know the person or something? Well let me inform you that it's not working, so get lost."

Typical Jacquelyn. Lying. Lying to keep lies hidden. Lying to hide lies told to hide other lies.

"Oh sorry I forgot!", I exclaimed, feigning worry, " Should I call you Julia Rossi? Or is Jessica Walker better? Oh never-mind, you faked her death two years ago in a car accident. Or should I call you Clarissa James? Oh wait, you faked her death last year in another car accident. I guess I should just call you Alessandra Jacquelyn Romano, right? Or is that name fake as well?".

She flinched upon hearing her name and grew nervous as my voice grew louder.

"What do you want? Why are you here, Zachary?", she whispered nervously as her eyes darted and scanned the bookshop, hoping no one had heard me.

"Now, Alessandra. Is that how you greet an old friend?", I answered smugly, enjoying her helplessness.

"Quit the bull shit, Steele. Get to point!", she clenched her jaw with her eyes sending daggers at me.

"Don't worry, Alessandra. You'll soon find out," I continued, glancing down my watch with a smile, "In 3..."

"What-"

"2..."

April 6th 2010. USA| Jacquelyn.

"1!", I exclaimed.

"Wait wha-"

"HEY YOU!", an angry voice screamed from just a few meters away.

"Damn it.", he grunted as he twisted the key. The engine roared while adrenaline rushed through my veins, and I threw my head back laughing.

Before Max's men could even call out once more, we were already speeding down the street.

"Why the hell are Max's men after us?", he asked, clearly annoyed that he was left out of the joke.

"Because," I answered, once I managed to stop laughing like a banshee "they lost a shit ton of money when I took down Minotaur since he was the club's MVP. Seeing my strength, they were too intimidated too come after me, so instead they offered to get me a fixed position in the league. But now that they know that I'm a girl, they seem to think I would be easy to get rid of."

"God, what mess did you get me into."

"Aw, town's notorious bad boy is scared?", I said teasingly.

"Clearly you don't know who you're dealing with, Max has full control over the town. You would never be able to hide.", he answered with a worried tone.

"Don't worry about me, Steele. Hiding is my specialty..."

November 14th 2014. Italy.| Jacquelyn.

"...3."

As the word left his lips, gunshots echoed from outside, where my team awaited my return and abruptly, the bookstore's windows shattered into millions of fragments.

"What have you done?!", I screamed over the noise, paralyzed with fear.

Zac simply smiled and replied, " You didn't think the Serpents would let you go so easily, now did you?".

The Serpents. He was back with the Serpents.

"Zac you-", I was about to continue, but he suddenly pushed me aside as a bullet streamed through the air, scraping my arm.

Flinching slightly, I glanced at my arm to find a small gash. When I looked up, I found him staring at the wound with worry, which wiped off his face when I shook off his hand angrily.

"I-"

"Shut up!", I screamed angrily, looking around for a way to escape.

"Well sorry, 'cause this might hurt...", he mumbled.

I was about to question him, but felt a strong blow to my head and everything went dark. The last thing I heard was Becca freaking Clington's voice.

April 24th 2010. USA.| Zachary.

An enthusiastic crowd was cramped on the dance floor, as I squeezed out of the flood of sweaty teenagers. Heading towards the bar, I grabbed a drink and stood there, observing the place.

Weeks had passed since the last time I had seen Jackie, when I dropped her on a block at the end of the town... She had smiled and told me not to worry, but after hanging around the area for a few days without coming across her a single time, I was very much worried.

I had looked everywhere, trying to find her.I had even asked the guards of Max's warehouse that I was familiar with, but little Jack hadn't been anywhere around the area. Early mornings, I had driven to the road where I had dropped her off, hoping she lived close and would probably walk by there, but in vain. So all I could wonder was whether she was awfully good at hiding or if she in actual trouble. But above all, there was nothing I could do about since I was stupid enough to not ask for her name.

It was absolutely hopeless...No. Actually I was a hopeless case. I didn't even ask her for her name, so asking for her phone number was far from having happened.

"Zac. Zac.Zac!!!", a familiar voice suddenly shouted in my ear, yanking me out of my thoughts. Tyler was shaking my shoulders nonstop,making my drink spill all over the counter.

"Dude, what's wrong with you?", I snapped at him.

"What's wrong with me? What's wrong with you! You've been acting all weird...", said Tyler, with his eyes narrowed, "Anyways, get your ass to your starting line, you're up after me."

As he walked away, I looked around, scanning the area for my opponents. In Redwood's racing world, the annual Red Lake Contest was a big deal. The events were all planned and made possible by some rich dude from our school who was crazy about races. He was the MC of all the races... Every single race. No one ever bothered to remember his name, because all they cared about was enjoying parties and races he wasted his money on. The whole area where we raced belonged to his family. Apparently the whole racing thing was started by his brother, but after his brother went to a college in London, he took over. A fifty meters away from the race track, there was a lake with a DJ, a dance floor, tents, a bar and what-not, along with a bunch of cars and bikes lined up on a side of the area.

The guys were at the starting line of another track of Red Lake, where Tyler was preparing for his upcoming race which was supposed to start in 20 minutes, and they were going to join me here after Tyler's race, to see mine.

I started heading towards Track 2, when someone addressed me.

"Well, well look who's here...", spoke a familiar voice from behind me, making my fists clench. Turning around, I was blessed with the wonderful (note the sarcasm) presence of Alec Woods. There he stood eyeing all those surrounding him, as if they were his peasants, while his arm rested on Becca Clington's waist, who was clinging to his arm like a leech.

Isn't life just great?

Well, at least the the boom boxes are blaring with good songs.

Seriously?!

"Woods", I nodded stiffly to show acknowledgement.

"Steele", he repeated my actions, but he wore a broad smile.

"Won't you greet Becca as well?", he asked smugly, making my jaw clench. He grinned, when he saw that he was affecting me."Don't you miss your friend."

Glancing at Becca, I saw that she was furrowing her eyebrows at him, wondering what game he was playing at.

I opened my mouth to reply, but was interrupted by some random dude.

"Hey Alec! Thanks for the invite to your party, mate."

"No problem, after all it's just to share my happiness and victory with all off my friends", Alec spoke with a lop-sided grin.

The guy walked away, as I looked at Woods with disbelief, "You already organized a party, before even doing the race?!".

"Tsk-tsk, Steele. You still didn't realize that you aren't much of a challenge for me? Don't you remember last year's Christmas race, where I won?."

"Don't you remember last year's new year eve race that I won?."

"Pff. I didn't want you to feel bad about losing the previous race, so I was less harsh on you."

"Sore loser.", I muttered under my breath.

"Anyways", Alec continued, pretending to not have heard anything, "I'm going to leave you two for some bonding time."

And he left me with the cheating leech... joy.

"Hey... Um, we haven't seen each other for a long time.", she attempted to casually start a conversation.

"Yeah... I wish I could keep it that way!", I replied with mock enthusiasm.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you Zac. It was an accident.", she mumbled with her eyes brimmed with innocent tears. But by now, I knew that those were just crocodile tears.

I chuckled at her words and said, "Wow, you accidentally fucked him. Who are you kidding? Plus, that was a year ago, it doesn't even matter anymore. I'm over it."

"You haven't gotten over me yet, Zac. If you had, you would have been dating someone else by now.", she said smugly, her sad tone drastically changing.

Oh that's what she was trying to get to.

"Sorry to interrupt, but I heard my name... well kinda," a familiar voice suddenly spoke up. I whipped around to see Jackie.

She still looked the same, with her striking blue eyes and mischievous smirk. But this time, she had swapped the baggie hoodie (reserved for pretending to be a dude at the underground fight) for leather jacket that hugged the curve of her waist perfectly.

Of course she looks the same, you saw her two weeks ago.

She walked towards us, with her eyes glinting with mischief. Much to my surprise she stood on her tip toes and gave me a peck on my cheek. While she was leaning in, she whispered into my ear,"Play along if you want to get rid of the clingy ex," making my lips twitch with amusement, as she held my hand.

"Oh my god!", Jackie faked a gasp and said, "Am I interrupting something? It's just that I heard my name, well I heard something about him dating someone and I am his girlfriend so I figure you were probably talking about me. Oh wait, I didn't introduce myself. I'm Jacquelyn, Zac's girlfriend".

Oh so that's her name.

"Oh really? How come no one knew about you then? I mean, Zac is quite the popular guy in town. In fact, I've never seen you before." said Becca as she narrowed her eyes skeptically at us.

If looks could kill, both my ex-girlfriend and my fake girlfriend would be ten feet under the ground, because they were glaring daggers at each other.

Faking a smile, Jacquelyn continued, "That's because I moved into the edge of the town about a month ago and we met that week itself. What can I say? It was like love at first sight. But why are you so curious on the matter?", she feigned an innocent questioning expression before saying "Oh wait, are you Becca? The cheating, desperate and bitchy ex?".

"Excuse me?", Becca gasped with shock.

"You're not excused".

By now, I had to purse my lips tightly together to stop myself from bursting into fits of laughter.

"You-", Becca started angrily but before she could say another word Jacquelyn interrupted her.

"Will you go away if I threw a stick?", she asked abruptly.

"What does that even mean?", Becca asked with a confused look.

"Oh gosh, I'm sorry. Shouldn't have called you a bitch, that is an insult to adorable dogs. After all, they're loyal."

Now that combined with Becca's angry tomato face, made me crack up. Meanwhile, poor Becca kept on getting interrupted, since right when she was about to snap back, her boyfriend appeared.

"I'm back. So-", he paused upon noticing Jacquelyn's presence, "Well hello Jacquelyn".

"Knock it off, Woods.", Jacquelyn snapped back, clearly annoyed by his presence.

Wait, am I missing something? Since when do they know each other.

"How do you know Zac's girlfriend?!", Becca asked, looking just as bewildered as I felt.

Clearly unable to conceal his surprise, Alec spoke, "The two of you are a thing?!".

"Yes. What's your problem, Woods?", I barked at him.

"Nothing, but...", he started eyeing Jacquelyn with a smirk, "Since the whole competition between us is getting boring, how about we take it to another level? What say, Steele?".

I raised an eyebrows signaling him to continue.

"Our girlfriends are going to race against each other. I'm sure you must have taught your girl some tricks, or does she just sit and look pretty?", he finished with a chuckle.

"Didn't have to.", I spoke confidently, "She doesn't know all the tricks in the book, she wrote the book."

God, please tell me that Jacquelyn knowing my bike's model last time and insisting to ride it the other day means that she knows her ish.

But my doubts were erased when I saw the unfaltering confidence gleaming in Jacquelyn's eyes.

"Guys, I feel really flattered but can we just start the fucking race?!", Jackie groaned impatiently.

"Ooh, feisty!."

"Ooh, your girlfriend needs your attention, not me!", Jacquelyn answered, mocking Alec's tone and in the meantime Becca's face was getting redder and redder, who was gaping at her like a fish, not knowing how to reply.

At this point, even Alec looked like he wanted to laugh just as much as me, in spite of the fact that his girlfriend was being insulted.

"Seems like my girlfriend won the verbal fight...", I smiled smugly,"Let's see who'll win the race."

We walked towards the start line, where Delilah (my bike) was beautifully posing.

Wait a sec. Jackie is going to race with my bike!

"Well, well. Looks like it was meant to be...", Jacquelyn whispered into my ear, making me groan angrily as I threw the key in the air, which she grabbed swiftly.

She got onto the bike, twisted the key and revved the engine.

Let the games begin.