DIRTY LITTLE SECRET
Part 1
By Toni

She knew she wasn't suppose to be doing this, but she peeked. Just one page. Pacey wouldn't mind. How many deep dark secrets could a confessed under achiever have anyway?

What she found wasn't what she was expecting.

Dear Diary,

I'm not usually one to keep a journal but ever since Joey and Dawson have started a "relationship"... I've been feeling quite left out. Thank God for Andie otherwise I think I'd truly go insane.

Andie McFee read the entry over one more time and wanted to cry. He really did care for her. She sighed and held the black composition book close to her heart. A muffled noise scuffled down the hallway. Andie quickly slid the journal back into its original hiding place under Pacey's mattress.

It had only been the cat but the fright was enough for her to stop snooping. Pacey walked in only a second later. How close can you cut it McFee before you get caught?

"Hey, McFee. What are you doing here? Everything okay with your mom?"

Andie felt like she jumped a mile. She hoped Pacey didn't notice. She also hoped her eyes weren't that horrible shade of red either. No, she scolded herself. No, they definitely were *not* that shade of red. She made sure of that before she left home, right? She always made sure. That was her ritual. She always made sure. No one could know the truth.

It had taken some effort but Andie managed to place her attention back on Pacey. His smile lit up the room. He had said something about her mom, didn't he? Andie knew that Pacey was only trying to be nice, but he couldn't know how hard it had been. He didn't know what really happened when her brother died. She didn't want anyone to ever know... EVER!

Andie smiled at him and politely changed the subject. She seemed to be doing that a lot lately. Changing the subject. Evading the question. Dodging the bullet. But she couldn't help it. After the fiasco of running for student government, her whole world started to crumble again. All because of that trouble-maker Abby and her motor mouth spreading gossip as fast as the White House's rumor mill.

The funny thing was. The rumor Abby spread wasn't even true, but that didn't make it any less crushing or brutal. Abby was a first class bitch. No one would ever take that award away from her.

Despite Abby and her back stabbing political campaign, she knew it was for the best. Jack had been right all along. Jack told her it would be better this way. Better that the school, their friends, their neighbors, thought their mother was the one responsible for the accident. But it was so hard to blame someone who didn't know any better. Someone who didn't know that she was the butt of everyone'sjoke.

How long could they keep blaming their mother before someone found out the truth? How long before the entire sophomore class at Capeside High knew that Andie McFee had killed her own brother? And that it hadn't been an accident.

To be continued.