Derek just ignored them both and continued to look on his phone. Everyone was ready to order and for some reason he felt out of place. "Derek?" One of them called to him and tapped his head. Derek raised his head looking over at his friends. "Do you still have your hangover?"

Derek's quick thinking brought him to say. "Yeah I do." He said coughing a bit after he said that. When the waitress came everyone ordered while Cadence pulled up a picture of Diana.

"This was my old friend, we are just Facebook friends now but do you think she is pretty?" Cadence asked showing him the picture of her old time friend on her phone. It took Derek a moment to realize that she was even talking to him until she moved his arm. "Derek." She said with a stern voice.

"What?" He asked looking over at her phone then raised his eyebrows at the Facebook picture. "Wow she's beautiful." He said without thinking. He thought she was prettier than Cadence until Cadence closed her phone and raised an eyebrow. "What?" Derek asked looking at her.

"You've never called me beautiful." Cadence said making tension high. Derek paused for a moment, confused. "Like ever."

As he called the girl in the picture beautiful, Diana buried her face in her hands to hide a blush. She pretended she was just rubbing her face from sleepiness, though. He essentially just called her beautiful. There's no photos online of me with short hair, so he must be looking at long haired me. That's not a super big difference. Does still think I'm attractive now? Or is he immune to thinking of other guys as attractive? Diana pondered this.

The waitress left after taking everyone's order. She seemed to scurry away because she could sense the tension in the air after Cadence's comment. Diana drew her hands away from her face and looked at her and Derek. She wanted to say something, but she didn't know what to say.

Until something popped into her mind.

There was a few moments of heavy silence until she spoke, "She's not that good looking. Maybe a 5/10, tops."

She had never been so self deprecating before, but this situation called for it. Of course she didn't really think that way about herself, it was just to lift some of the dense air.

Derek raised an eyebrow. "Seriously? You just asked me if she was pretty and I answered Cadence." He said shrugging it off and rolled his eyes. She was about to snap back until Diana spoke and said that. "Yeah you're her cousin right?" He said looking at Damien rolling his eyes and looking at Cadence. "I think she's beautiful, why do I have to deny that for a girl I don't know and probably will never know, Cadence? It doesn't mean I don't think your-"

"Why don't you go date her then?" Cadence snapped grabbing her stuff and leaving the restaurant. Derek watched her go along with her friend. He grabbed his water smiling at the guys who were awkward.

"I guess that ended.." he laughed quietly drinking some water.

"You could've just said the girl wasn't pretty." Harry laughed a bit as he grabbed his drink too.

"Well I thought she was prettier than Cadence but I didn't want to say that now did I? Plus she asked." Derek said giving a shrug. "She'll be back around a week." He laughed. They all sort of laughed and started a regular conversation again.

Diana had opened her mouth to clarify that the girl in the photo wasn't her cousin- it was just another girl named Diana- but Cadence's terrible mood made Diana reconsider and shut her mouth. She was bummed that her friend left as well when Cadence stormed out. Now she was the only short one again.

Moving on from the topic of, well, herself, Diana took a sip of her coke then joked, "When I ordered coke, I was expecting it to be more powdery than this." A dumb grin was plastered across her face as she said that.

It was odd seeing a childhood friend again while pretending to be a different person. She knew who Cadence was but she didn't know who she was. Diana couldn't help but feel a tad guilty for at least temporarily ruining whatever was going on between Derek and Cadence.

Derek laughed a bit at his statement. "Damien, don't feel bad about Cadence. I'm sorry you had to see that as a first day kind of thingy but that happens a lot actually." He said giving a small shrug. "She tries to make an excuse to get jealous like that, this time I just actually made her mad instead of defending myself all of the time. Hey, you're cool. Want to come out with us tonight? We are going out drinking." He asked smirking a bit.

(When do you want him to find out? Like him walking in on her changing?))

That made Diana feel better. If Cadence ran back to him in the past, she'd likely run back to him now. "Drinking..?" She said hesitantly, looking at the other boys then back to Derek. "I don't know. I don't think so." It was in her nature to be a goody-goody. She didn't get into Student Council at her old school for no reason. She never really liked people who snuck out or ditched class to do drugs. To her, it was irresponsible.

But hey, the situation was a bit different now.

She sighed. The waitress swung buy holding a tray filled with their orders. "Ok, a Caesar salad for..." she trailed off as her eyes scanned the table, trying to find Cadence.

"She left, sorry," Diana explained. "So did the other one who ordered the lobster."

The waitress raised an eyebrow but didn't press further about it. She simply handed out the rest of the orders before returning to the back.

Derek stared at Damien, realizing that he shouldn't have let his guard down so fast. "Okay, well.." he said messing with his phone while the waitress came over and started to talk. He thought about how he should put this. Derek had a feeling not to threaten him so harshly enough to scare him away and rat him out but enough to make him realize that he would be mistaken to do that. When the waitress left, he looked up with a serious face. "You can't go telling the school board about us going out to drink." He said. The other guys kept a watch on Damien too.

He realized this was childish. But sadly this was the way he had fun. Under all of that good guy, and a player for the girls this was a way that he could finally feel his true self. He wasn't happy. He was shocked as many people he's been around or girls he's been with no one has even bothered to notice. They only stuck around for the money and his reputation. It made them and they're family look good too.

"At least come with us you don't have to drink just come with. Look, it's hard to trust anyone so we don't invite just anyone to come with us. This school is super strict." Baylor explained to Damien as Derek started to think. Baylor didn't understand as to why Derek would invite him so quick but he had to explain.

Diana blinked twice, surprised by their suddenly serious tone. Even when Cadence stormed out, they were still pretty carefree. "Hey man, don't worry about it," she reassured Derek. "I have better things to do than be a snitch."

Mental high-five for that one! That definitely sounded like something a guy my age would say.

She started eating her food as Baylor tried convincing her to at least tag along. She thought for a bit before replying, "Well.. I guess I could be that one sober friend that keeps all of he- his- tipsy friends in check," Diana replied with a little shrug. It had been a long day already, so she didn't even know how long she'd be able to stay awake. She didn't want to disappoint her new friends.

(Forgot to say this in my last post! I don't really know or care how Derek finds out, as long as it comes up naturally. So he could walk in on her changing, or he could stumble upon her tampon box while looking for something, or unlock her phone and find out from there, etc :) )

Derek felt comfort from his statement. "Okay dude good.." he said looking up at him. For some reason, he felt like Damien looked that girl so he felt like he was attracted to him. His stomach drop as he realized what had just come into his head. He heard Baylor try to convince him. "C-cool." He cleared his throat smiling up at him. "You can make sure we don't do anything stupid. But it's hard for me to get drunk i can drink a lot." He laughed.

After eating everything, Derek paid for everyone and stood up to leave with everyone standing up. "Thanks Derkie." The boys teased him and rubbed his hair as they walked past him. Derek forgot Damien didn't want him to pay for him but it was so normal for him to pay for everyone he completely forgot.

(Okay cool! I like things to flow naturally!)

After Derek settled the bill, the boys and Diana walked out. The boys strolled a bit ahead of them as she suddenly drew a ten dollar bill from her pocket and shoved it into Derek's hand. "There. It's yours now. Compensation. No take backs," she said in a soft and serious voice as if they were spies in a movie. She smiled at him and ran off to catch up with the other boys before he could say anything in reply.

As she caught up with the other boys, she laughed and commented, "So you guys call him Derkie?" In reference to them teasing Derek earlier. That was humorous to her for some reason. Must have been the irony of giving such an independent person a baby-like nickname.

Derek was just thinking about the party tonight. How he would see Cadence trying to make him jealous by dancing against another guy but that didn't bother him. Suddenly Diana's actions surprised him he thought it was someone else trying to mug him so he would've attacked until he saw Damien. A soft smile came onto his lips. "Okay dude.." he said softly watching her go to the rest. He smiled after him. It was kind. No one has ever done that before, he held onto the ten dollar bill and just smiled until he heard his name turn into a teasing name. "What the-"

Harry threw his arm around Derek. "Yeah we call our Derek, derkie. Derek and I grew up together so when we were young I called him that until 9th grade and then he got "too cool" for that name." Harry teased.

"Shut up, now the whole group knows now the newbie knows." Derek complained.

Diana laughed as Harry explained the history behind the nickname. What a small world it was; not only was somebody from her childhood in the town, but also from Derek's, too. But perhaps their families lived closer to the school so it wasn't as special for them. She didn't know.

"Aw, lil' Derkie has grown out of his nickname," Diana teased, reaching up to playfully pinch Derek's cheek. She found herself wondering how Derek acted as a child and how it was perhaps different from now. Was he more flamboyant? Rebellious? Or maybe a goody two shoes, like Diana? She smiled and lowered her hand down from his face. Either way, he had definitely been shaped into a lovely & honest young man.

What am I thinking? Snap out of it, Diana! She put both of her hands into the pocket of her hoodie and kept strolling along.

Derek couldn't help but smile when Diana pinched his cheeks. "Not you too." The whole group laughed as they went back into the building. Later that night, when curfew set into place. Everyone had gone into their rooms like they were told. After a teacher had came into everyone's room to make sure they were asleep, Derek sat up after the door was closed. He looked over at Diana. "It's kind of creepy they come to check if you're sleeping or not you know?" He whispered quietly still not making a sound. "After they check us, we are the first room they check them they go down the hall so we have to wait for like thirty minutes to even leave. The other boys in our group get to leave earlier because they're floors were already checked. You and I have to wait." Derek said really quietly leaning against the wall his bed was up against. "You know, I never really got to hear about your small town of yours. Did you not like the high school or something? Why did you come up here?" He asked. The only light that came into the room was the moons light that shined through their balcony window. "Does your family not want you there in a normal school?"

Derek couldn't help but he intrigued by his new roommates previous life. Not that he really cared for his past roommates, but that's mostly because he got a long with who he thought was Damien and it was just easy to be around him. But even then he didn't really understand why he wanted to know his life like that. He thought about when he found this guy attractive. Its okay to find another guy attractive.. He thought calming himself down when he was overthinking and thought he was gay. He smiled at himself. No I'm not. He just sort of looks like that girl who I thought was attractive When he told himself that, he finally relaxed his shoulders.

She sat up after the teacher checked on them. "Yeah, that is pretty creepy," she agreed in a whisper. Her throat was starting to feel a little sore from talking in a lower voice all day. Even now, talking in a whisper, she had to make her voice a tad lower. "After taking the first two years of high school at my local trashy high school, I realized I wasn't growing into the best person I could be. The learning criteria was easy peasy, the people around me were dumb druggies, and none of my friends seemed to give any thought to their future, let alone give any support to my goals. So I looked into private schools away from my town, and the rest is history," Diana explained, looking ahead of her as she explained this. She then turned to Derek. "Are you from this town? Have you been going to private boarding schools your whole life?"

She was realizing that she, too, wanted to learn more about her roommate. So far all she knew was that he's known Harry since childhood, used to be called Derkie, and has some on-and-off thing going on with Cadence. What if we run into Cadence tonight? Diana thought. Is she the type of person to sneak out like Derek is?

Derek listened, and wasn't really surprised from what he was talking about from the town he was from. His cousin lived there, she always hated how her small town didn't have any future for itself except drugs and she always vented to Derek about how that made her thought about moving towns. It was a good town, nothing really too unaverage though that Derek noticed. From what he saw, he never saw druggies or drunks on the street. He thought of this as he tried to remember that small town. But then again, he knew he wasn't really going into the real town. He would go into a small grocery store or to a small movie threater but that was it. Damien lived in that town and knew it better than him. When he heard him ask those questions, he looked up away from his thoughts to the sound of his voice.

"No I was always home schooled. My family are the Waltons, and if you don't know, my dad basically is charge of the whole Apple company. He's connected to celebrities, NFL, and just big names like that. So he wanted the best for his son by buying me a teacher most of my life. Harry and I had that teacher together since Harry's dad was my dads best friend since they work together. But then we both convinced our parents to let us go to a public school, which took two years to finally have both of their approval. But when we went, Harry slept with a girl and it almost made my family look bad when she came out and said she got an abortion, which was true. Anyway, it made his family look bad to the public and almost mine so they decided to send us to a boys only school. My dad doesn't want me to be with the "average girl" he always wanted the smartest and most beautiful girl. But I've just avoided dating in general because girls will always try to bring my reputation down or are only with me for money. Like Cadence." Derek said then heard himself go on and on, and realized he just went on about his life story. "Oh I'm sorry I rambled.." he apologized to Damien. "You're just super easy to talk to and I don't know I find myself comfortable enough to talk to you." The way he just spoke, Derek noticed he never talked to another guy like that. He figured he'd talk like this to a girl if he actually sat like this with but never a guy.

Diana listened calmly. She wasn't too surprised to hear he came from a big name and a wealthy family, given how Derek had so naturally paid for his friend's meals and looked well kept. His parents so heavily wanting their son to be perfect must have been stressful for him. They wanted him to have the perfect education, perfect girl, perfect everything so he himself could be perfect and live up to the family name.

She felt sympathy for him. Something she was surprised to hear about was his view on relationships and girls. "Oh, so you never actually dated Cadence?" She observed. Given how clingy she was towards him, it was easy for her to assume they were an item. As he admitted he knew she was only using him for money, her heart broke a little both in pity for him and knowing her ex best friend had changed for the worse. "Listen, dude, I'm no 'love expert' but if you don't see a future with Cadence, just drop her once and for all. This isn't a game of House. We're all growing up and we need to decide what's best for ourselves." Diana slid off her bed and slipped on her Nike shoes. Continuing, she added, "If you really want to live your life as a bachelor, that's fine. But I know you'll find somebody perfect for you someday. All you have to do is open your heart to them."

That went deep. Diana grabbed her phone off the charger and slid it into the pocket of her hoodie. Since she was heading out again anyway, she had never bothered changing clothes before slipping into bed.

"I don't want to be like this my whole life, I want to married and have kids with my wife that I'm in love with. But Cadence, the reason she isn't gone yet is because my dad likes her a lot. He's met her and she use to come to family parties but-" Derek stopped mid sentence when he heard a pair of high heels walking towards their room. "Lay back down!" He ahjserped laying back down himself. He got under the covers and closed his eyes.

A knock came onto the door. Mr Wilton. Are you asleep? I can hear sounds coming from the room." A teacher said. It was silent for a moment but when she didn't hear anything she snorted and told another teacher near by that everyone was asleep and she thought she heard our room awake but it was just her.

Diana dived back into the bed as soon as Derek told her to. The bed bounced a little in response. That was fun. The teacher sounded female and Diana couldn't help but wonder if some thirsty boys hit on her. It depended on how old she was, Diana figured. When the teacher walked away, Diana waited a few moments before getting back up again. "Close call," she commented in a whisper. Checking the time on her phone, she saw it was a little past 11 pm. "C'mon, get out of bed before I physically drag you from there," she said softly with a giggle. Quickly, she covered up the giggle with a little cough. She wasn't particularly excited about going out and watching her new friends get drunk, but it was something to do and some motherly instinct in her wanted to make sure none of them did something stupid. Her parents would flip if they knew their daughter was sneaking out. Diana imagined Derek's parents would flip even more if they knew what their son was up to.

She chuckled, imagining their parents having a flip-off.

Derek laughed quietly along with her giggle. "Okay okay." He said getting up and listening quietly. He grabbed her arm to pull her behind him. "Wait. Here's the plan, we are going to go to the fire escape at the end of the hallway and go down there. But we can't talk in the hallway it's took risky and we have to run but not too loud." he said letting go. He realized how small his wrists were and looked back at him. "You're tiny as fuck." Derek teased opening the door very slowly. The hall was empty and dark. It was so silent. Derek stepped out glancing around to make sure the coast was clear. Quietly, but oddly fast Derek ran to the other side of the hallway and pulled out a key. With this key, he put it into the door and turned it. It was the key that stopped the alarm from going while he pushed it opened.

She followed Derek into the hallway. "Cue the Mission Impossible theme song," she whispered. Making her way to the fire escape, she walked with her back to the walls and constantly checked around herself to make sure the coast was clear. Since Derek ran, he got there a bit before she did. While he was sticking the key in the door, Diana dropped down and did a somersaulte. Standing up, she was now right behind him. "Now cue the Spy Kid's theme song!" She whispered as she dramatically tip toed down the steps once he opened the door.