After leaving the parking lot, Brynn made her way through the school, down the hall, and to the auditorium, where she walked straight down the stairs towards the basement. It wasn’t morning show time just yet, but she did have a reason to be down there this early.

And his name was Tom Michaelson.

The girl gave the captain of the basketball team very specific instructions on where to be and when- after all they did have only a solid 20 minutes to… you know. However, she felt quite queasy when she arrived and saw him sitting there on one of the couches, seemingly ready to go. She didn’t think that this would be too big of a deal, but after yesterday’s conversation and this morning’s events with Sean, things definitely felt off. Why wasn’t she excited? Tom was hot, and clearly wanted her, so what was the big deal?

“Hey, you ready?” The boy greeted, an excited look on his face. Brynn watched as he walked toward her expectantly, checking her out in the process. Ew, She thought as he wrapped his arms around her torso. Wait, since when did she find other guys checking her out revolting? Shuddering instinctively, she tried to shake off the uneasiness and smiled up at the blonde boy. “Yeah… but uh…” She stammered, the notion that she was making a bad decision remaining clear and present. Tom gave her a confused look, raising an eyebrow, “You good?”

Brynn couldn’t even look at him, that’s how strange she felt. But she didn’t need him to know that she was feeling off, so she played it off, searching around the room for a solution. “Let’s... let’s go into that closet- I think we’d have a little more fun in there.” The word was even nauseating. Not even waiting for his response, she grabbed his hand and dragged him to the nearby room, slamming it behind them.

She immediately pressed her lips to his, trying to silence the demons in her head that were telling her every single thing that was wrong with this movie. Just get him off, it’ll be quick, he’s notorious for finishing fast, this’ll be easy Brynn thought to herself as she threw off Tom’s shirt, her hands reaching everywhere and anywhere. But sirens were going off in her head, and not the good kind.

All she could see was Sean, and the room was pitch black. All she could hear was Sean’s smooth, sexy, voice, and her surroundings were nearly silent. All she could feel was Sean’s gentle touch when currently aggressive hands were pulling off her lingerie.

What was this feeling that was coming over her all of a sudden? Did she come down with some sort of illness within the past five minutes? The thoughts in her head were beginning to manifest physically, the girl beginning feeling hot and clammy, her palms beginning to shake. What was happening to her? And then it clicked.

Brynn had caught feelings.

Desperately trying to push the emotions back down where they belonged, she deepened the kiss, making sure Tom didn’t suspect anything was wrong, but her thoughts went wild. Brynn Payne never caught feelings, it was against the law in her own little country of Brynn-land. In fact, this was the very first time she had ever felt this way, about anyone.

Without even thinking, her emotions bubbled over and she broke off the kiss abruptly, letting out a deep exhale. Her brain couldn't fathom the fact that she was making out with someone other than Sean. In the dark, she couldn’t see it, but Tom was pretty annoyed. “What the hell?” He mused, running a hand through his hair. “Brynn, you okay?” Tom asked, moving his hands across her body. No. She was certainly not okay.

“Um… no, actually, I’m not feeling the best this morning. I,” Brynn had to think of something that would get him leave. Just then the perfect scenario popped into her head, the perfect excuse that all girls turned to at least once or twice to get out of a bad situation. “I have really bad cramps. I think it’s about to be that time of-” The brunette began to say, and Tom almost immediately caught her drift.

“Oh shit, well uh..” He mumbled uncomfortably, “I’ll just um, get out of your hair then.”

Works like a charm She thought to herself as Tom threw back on his shirt and exited the room faster than lightning, bounding up the stairs and out of the studio. As soon as the coast was clear, a dumbfounded Brynn pulled on her top and made her way out of the closet and onto one of the couches, collapsing into a puddle of tears. Why was she trying to fight this? Sean was a good guy- he was kind, and made her feel special. She had been trying with every single bone in her body to push herself away, but it was all to no avail. Brynn Payne had it bad, and there was absolutely nothing she could do to stop it. It was like an avalanche; once it started, it was only bound to continue going at full speed, destroying everything in its path.

Wiping away the waterworks, she got ready for the morning show, knowing that she and Sean would be having a very interesting conversation later.

A Double was sitting in the car with Q, at a stoplight as they headed toward school together. A Double had a few questions: He wasn’t sure how this whole… dating thing worked? He’d done some Google searches, but now he had to implement the suggestions he’d found. He’d have to exercise communication! Which wasn’t normally a big deal; he and Q got on super well… why was it so weird now?! Maybe it was the subject he wanted to talk about. Talk about ‘us’? Talk about ‘what we are?’ Weird. They should just talk about cartoons and weed.

That was easy.

But this was not. “Hey, Q. I was wondering. Should we like… have sex, you think? I dunno how that works. Like, do we decide when we’re gonna do it before hand? Does it just happen? What’s the path? The protocol? How does it happen? Do you want it to happen? Do I want it to happen? Is it even fun?”

Q was confused, to say the least. She was happy, yeah. But confused. And a little scared. She was dating A Double. Like, actually, really dating him. And that was cool. She guessed. Quincy hadn’t been in a relationship, not since her and Derek broke up last year. And that had been, well it had it’s ups and downs. Derek was an asshole, but he had been a decent boyfriend, at least in the beginning. Except A Double wasn’t Derek, and A Double was new to this. And if she was being completely honest, it felt like Q was new to this whole thing too. And here was A Double asking her questions on questions. She pursed her lips and turned to face her boyfriend.

”Sex...sex is complicated A Dubs. And, it’s a lot sometimes. Sometimes it happens, and sometimes you talk about it. Me and Derek, well, we talked about it for a bit before I decided I was ready. We’ve only been dating for a day A Double. There’s no rush,” she explained, hesitating a moment before bringing up Derek, but going for it anyways. A Double had never struck her as the jealous type.

A Double had to think about what she said, carefully. He had to think about it carefully, because A Double was confused by this stuff! The entire sex thing was crazy! “That’s good! Because really? Sex to me seems like really complicated and convoluted and like it’s just this crazy way to say you love someone, but I can just say it aloud! I love you, Q. See? That wasn’t hard. And I do love you! If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have hung out with you so much for the past like year! But, like, now we’re dating and like my love for you has been… upgraded? It’s different now. Because it’s romantic. And like I like that a whole lot, but I’m not sure how to express it? Before it was easy: I picked you up to take you to school, I brought you weed and shared my snacks with you… Now it’s different! I gotta do that stuff and I have to hold your hand and kiss you and hug you and hold you, and like it’s great and I love doing that stuff, but I think to myself: what if I don’t do it enough? What if she stops wanting to date because I don’t do enough? It’s tough. It’s tough. Let’s skip school and go back to Dreamland and eat chips.”

Q grinned. Really and truly, one of those big grins that takes up your whole face, the kind you get when you’re a kid and you see Santa, or when you see snow for the first time, or when your boyfriend tells you he loves you as the sun rises above the Beverly Hills skyline. “Babe, you’re starting to sound like me,” Q said, leaning in and kissing him. ”I’m dating you for you. Not for the hand holding, and the making out. Those are pluses, but if we never did them again, I’d still care about you. Okay?”

A Double let out a huge sigh of relief and nodded, “Well, that is just a huge weight off of my shoulders. I was gettin’ really stressed about it…” He muttered, before turning off the car and turning to her and smiling. Oh! That reminded him. There was some kind of dance coming up, but he… didn’t really remember the specifics. Since they were dating now, he supposed he’d better ask. That was the man’s job, right? “Hey, Q? Do you wanna go to the dance with me? The… Valentine’s one?” Boom. Boyfriendly job done.

Quincy grimaced. ”I mean, do you wanna go?” Q asked. If A Double wanted to go, then she’d go, because that was the right thing to do, but Q wasn’t in to dances. Especially Sadies. She thought the whole idea was sexist to begin with, but the idea of getting all dressed up and drinking punch and being in a hot, sweaty gym? It seemed like a bad flashback. Jenny went to school dances. Quincy did not.

A Double looked over at her and shrugged his shoulders. “I just... want you to be happy. So, if you wanna go, we can, if not… I don’t care, we can just stay home and chill. I’m flexible, Q.” He said, opening his door and stepping out of the car, “Well, here we go. Another beautiful day in paradise,” he said, giving her another grin.

Q grinned and joined him outside, giving him a quick kiss and linking arms with him. ”Away we go.”

Yes, Katie Callaghan was in chess club. And yes, she’d heard every joke about chess club imaginable. There really weren’t many. Now, why was she in chess club? Well, there were a few reasons. One, was that she was pretty ace at chess. Two, she needed an extracurricular that wasn’t drama, if she wanted to seem like a well rounded student. And three, He was in chess club.

As Katie strutted into the sparsely populated club room, she took her seat at the front table, the table that was always reserved for their first game. And their second. And third. He’d won last time. Not today. She set up the board, taking white for herself, and waited patiently for Him to arrive, her phone in her hand. Anywhere else, she’d be up and chatting, but this was a battlefield. She couldn’t distract herself. The others in the club knew that. She needed to focus, prepare, all so she could win. Because she was going to win. She’d had a few weeks to prepare, to train. This time, she had it in the bag. She was sure of it.

To their peers, this was a big deal. Even to the teacher advisor for chess club, this was a pretty big deal. Katie and her rival were the undisputed chess grandmasters of BHHS. They were real damn good, and they practiced relentlessly. Why? Not so they could be better. So they could beat each other.

At its core, that’s what His and Her rivalry was! It was the driving point behind them being better. So, while to those who were watching this upcoming game of chess, this was a battle of the Titans… to Katie Callaghan and Scott Lyon, this was just another Tuesday.

Which did not excuse Scott’s tardiness.

Scott rolled into the club about ten minutes after he was technically due, and he sat down across from Katie. Scott snapped his gum and took off his hat, putting it down beside him, “I’m baaaaaack.” He said, snapping his gum and smiling across the way at Katie. “Alright, your move.”

Katie smirked. Scott Lyon in the flesh. ”You’re late,” she said, cocking an eyebrow at him as she moved her first piece, a calculated move, one she’d been pondering since she’d walked in. ”Let me guess, you and AJ were off screwing?” Katie said, going straight for the masculinity. Such barbs were child’s play to the pair at this point. Their verbal sparring had lasted since they’d met, and it wasn’t about to end today.

“Hey, AJ and I don’t screw. Even if we did, at least I get laid. I don’t think you’ve ever even been on a date, have you?” Scott asked, looking down at the board and moving his first piece forward. He didn’t have to consider things. He already knew how to win. King’s Gambit. Besides, if it didn’t work, they’d probably play the whole time they were in chess club anyway. He had more than one game to beat her up.

Katie shook her head. ”King’s Gambit? Really? Come on Scotty, I thought you were a bit more advanced,” Katie chided, opening up her center for a countergambit to go for his weakened kingside. ”Has it ever occured to you Scott, that maybe I don’t need a relationship to survive? That I’m perfectly okay with my own excellence?” she asked, her eyebrows raised as if in challenge.

“What excellence?” Scott teased, staring at the board. Well, they didn’t call it a ‘gambit,’ for nothing. Should have went with Queen’s gambit. That was less reckless at least… He’d figure it out. “Maybe I just forgot everything while I was gone. Looks like you just got even more egotistical though, so that’s cool.” He replied, before finally moving a piece. He may end up losing this game… but he would not lose the war.

Katie sighed and moved her next piece. ”You open up with King’s Gambit and call me egotistical? Really?” the blonde jabbed, looking across the table at her old foe. He was the definition of prick. Rude, arrogant, obnoxious, and constantly using his money to get whatever it was he wanted. She couldn’t stand him.

“Yeah, I do. Lil miss perfect over there. I know you think you’re smart because you’re all that in drama and speech and debate and whatever, but hey.” Scott moved his next piece and took a drink from his water bottle, swishing it around for a second. “I dig it. You’re a middle child, so you have to act out to stand out. I get it, really I do. But do you have to be so obnoxious about it? You’re like an internet stereotype coming true right before my eyes.” He explained. The banter was gonna get way too real, way too fast, but Scott had to keep himself in the game. If he kept taunting her, she’d eventually forget about the game and misstep and lose. And he would win, and prove once again: He was superior.

He was baiting her. She knew that. But that didn’t mean she was any less pissed off. Gritting her teeth, she moved her next piece into position, carefully, scanning the board. She wouldn’t do this too fast, she was too good, she’d trained too much. ”Drop dead twice, Scott,” she retorted, her annoyance clear. How long until this turned into their usual chaos? Not long likely. The rest of the club was already beginning to watch their game more than their own. They knew where the entertainment was. ”I can’t help that I’m better than you Scott. Maybe if you pulled your thick head out of your ass for once, you’d be able to see that much.”

Here we go. This wasn’t going to get any better, Scott knew that much, and he knew it well. But she had started it! He’d just sat down, to play some chess and she’d started shit with her first words. Scott picked up his next piece and slammed it down onto the board with authority, “Listen up, slag, have you ever considered not being such a bitch? Maybe then you’d have more than two friends…” Scott retorted, glaring at her. “News flash: people don’t like hanging out with people who do nothing but bitch!”

Katie scowled and slid her next piece across the board, practically carving a path into the table with her grip. It was official, she was pissed. ”What the fuck is your damage, Scott? You are such an insufferable little prick! Let me guess, you feel the need to walk around like Caesar because Owen’s little affliction, runs in the family?” Katie quipped, this time, without any of the humor. They were at war now. And the Chess Club was loving it.

“Wouldn’t you like to know, Katie? You wanna see it, just ask. I’m sure you’ll be blown away — or you’ll run off crying scared, since I know you ain’t never seen one before.” Scott hissed in retaliation. He grabbed a piece and moved it, though he was just as blinded by anger as she was now. He made a move that wasn’t good at all, but he didn’t care. Knocking Katie down was priority now. “You just walk around thinking you’re all that, where you’re nothing Katie Callaghan!”

”At least I don’t have to hide behind all of my family’s money to feel important! Some of us are able to find our identity elsewhere you spoiled little sleaze!” she shouted, using one of her rooks to knock one of his bishops off the board and to the ground.

“Just because my family does alright for themselves doesn’t make me spoiled! Don’t hate me because my life is beautiful bitch, maybe if you lightened up a little you could at least find a man who could tolerate you! Besides, you got just as much expensive shit as I do!” He snapped, using his queen to barrel through her rook. Who did this girl think she was!?

”Why are you so obsessed with my love life or lack thereof? Is your’s so stale that you need to harass me about mine twenty four seven? Or maybe, you’re so obsessed with me cause really all you want is to have a shot, and you know that I have enough self respect in my fucking pinky finger, that you’d never have a shot!” Her bishop took his queen and her look of rage changed to one of antagonizing smugness, her smirk an intentional challenge. Try me.

“Oh, please if I really really wanted you, then I would just go pluck a carbon copy off of tumblr because girls like you are a dime a motherfucking dozen!” He yelled, pushing one of her bishops off of the map aggressively with one of the knights. Man, they got really loud…

Everyone had a breaking point. And Katie Callaghan had reached hers. ”You dick!” she shouted in a rage, her hand flying instinctively to a chess piece and then launching it at Scott. ”You wanna talk to me about carbon copies? Have you seen yourself? You’re just trying to be Owen so bad that you came out a watered down version of AJ, who’s already just a douchier Owen! You wish you were half as unique as I was but I think you know damn well that you’re just trying to be like every other guy at this shitty school!” Another chess piece flew from Katie’s hand as her face grew red with rage.

“I HATE YOU SO MUCH!” Scott screamed, using his hand to throw the chess pieces off to the side before she could use it as more ammunition. “You know what it sounds like to me? That SOMEONE has a crush on Owen! Shit taste, Katie — Owen’s a fuckin’ asshole, I’ll just add that to the MASSIVE LIST OF REASONS THAT I HATE YOU!” Scott threw his middle finger at her, before snatching his hat and turning to storm out of the Chess Club meeting room.

Katie let out a noise, somewhere between a groan, a sigh, and a shriek, before turning to the rest of her club members. ”Mind your own business!” Katie shouted, grabbing her backpack and past the club advisor, who was walking in just as Katie stormed out. Fuck Scott Lyon.

“MOM. Trixie is taking 5eva." Stella dramatically slid in the back seat of Juliana Locke's candy-apple-red Lincoln navigator. The gorgeous mother, who looked like she could be her kids' sister, responded with a wide yawn. It was so early. Her twins had pounced on her while she cuddled her three Pomeranians (Tootsie, Goldie, & Sugar), babies of her late Lady, and woke her up out of her unfortunately not so deep slumber. It wasn't even time for her to wake up and open the salon! But her sweet yet simple Stella said she absolutely had to go on a mission with them.

Non-negotiable.

Essentially, Trixie wanted to take a day to herself, a pamper-me day. Do know that this is coming from her niece that has perfect attendance. Trixie would brave a storm just to go to school. Today was different. Julie assumed her twins took part in convincing their cousin to play hooky and spend it with them, since they didn't find it necessary to go to every single beauty school session. Let's just say her daughters chose when they wanted to go to beauty school or not and Julie wasn't the type of mom to tell them what they can and cannot do. They know the deal. They graduate. How they get there, doesn't matter to her, but they will graduate. They come home with exceptional praise and grades, for being the biggest slackers at their school. That was good enough for her.

And so here they were, by the entrance of Beverly Hills High. It seemed Trixie needed to go to school to do an 'errand' that would only take a second.

Juliana brushed a strand of hair out of her face and pouted to herself. She had yet to eat breakfast. Her Tiger always made breakfast for her around this time. Sigh. But for the love of her children and niece, who all had an irrational fear of driving, she would do this. "She literally left a minute ago." Julie grumbled. She was grumpy. Mornings made her grumpy.

“I think we should make sure she gets to his locker safely." There Stella went... letting her mom's words fly right over her head, caught up in her own world. Stella's World. Let's be honest, her baby wanted to see the school. With all the stories going around, of course, she wants to explore the school. "What if she bumps into him? How's she even going to handle that? She'll probably cry. I'd cry."

Juliana rubbed her forehead. It was too early for this.

The car's side door opened, bringing Julie's attention towards it. Luna gestured for her sister to lead the way. "We'll be back." Her Luna being a hero. Giving her peace and quiet, and satisfying her twin's needs to walk into that damn school. Thank you, moon.

Julie gave her daughters a groggily nod, "No more than ten minutes. I'm hungry." Julie being hungry was the end of the fucking world as we know it. If there was someone that could eat non-stop, it would be her, and somehow, blessed be some higher power, she kept her figure. The obvious theory? It went straight to her Spanish booty.

Hell yeah! Stella hopped out the car, blew kisses to her mom, waited for her sissy to close the door, and then, only then, did she grab Luna's hand possessively and skipped toward the big, big building.

Onward we go! She's lucky I'm patient. Sleepy sleep...

As the twins walked throughout the school, they both came to the realization they knew where nothing was. Were they lost? They couldn't tell. Somehow, they found themselves in the music and theater wing. “I don't think we're in Kansas anymore!" Stella giggly joked, gripping onto her sister's hand tighter. Being in a place that she didn’t know made her nervous, but she was pretty good at hiding the fact that she was panicky. People were staring at them! All they were doing was walking down the halls, aimlessly, trying to find Trixie, who would be at Owen's locker. They were just girls! Walking. Why did their stares give her shivers? Some dude even whistled. It was ew.

"We should ask someone how to get to our... destination." Luna was calm, composed, and unlike her sister, she was aware of the eyes and why. Two cute blondes no one's seen before besides probably Stella's instagram? Yeah. It made sense they'd catch eyes. They were hot. And yet, only one twin knew that.

The hallway they were in was kind of deserted. There probably wasn't any classes in this area yet… they should definitely turn back.

“Oh this room has a piano! I want to play!" Stella released her sister's hand and ran into a music room. Luna tried to grab her sister's wrist, but was too late. Fucking shit. This girl could never focus.

Lordy, give me the strength to not leave her behind.

This place is a wasteland… Marshall thought grimly, staring at the glaring white walls of the practice room. He was lying on the floor in the middle of the room. He didn’t know how long he’d been in here, but his eyes had run out of tears a while ago, and now he just felt kind of… numb. Numb was probably good. Marsh was an excellent actor, he could get through the day smiling even when his insides felt hollowed out, now that he was sure that he was done being pathetic. He just had to make it through class, and then he could go home and pour his heart out to his mom, or his sister, or both. Maybe neither. Whatever…

The drama king stood up and left the practice room in silence. There wasn’t anyone in the instrument locker room, which was an ideal state. He heard a piano being played from the music room off to the right. It was being played badly, if he was being honest. Curious, he poked his head into the doorway to see who it was — probably some freshman or something.

A random freshman, it was not. Was that... Stella… in BHHS? “Stell? … what are you doing here?” Marshall sounded confused and, having not yet spoken since his fit of misery, his voice still had the thickness of a person who had just spent a lot of time crying.

Clank. Clank. Clank. “Oh my god, MarMar!” Stella pulled away from the piano super duper happy to see her cousin’s gay friend. She’d say gay best friend, but she thinks Jamie is more Trixie’s gbf… they spend way more time together. “I’m so happy to see you!” After clapping with contagious excitement, she crashed into the sad boy.

From behind her, appeared Luna, who was annoyed, irritated, frustrated, not having Stella's shit today. She acknowledged the welcoming sight of Marshall with a sigh of relief. Her expression lightened up when she saw someone they knew. Thank goodness. "Oh, cool, Marshall. A fantastic person to stumble upon!”

“Were my piano skills snazzy? I’m so snazzy.” Stella rambled, before she looked at the boy’s eyes and came to a daunting realization. Her expression switched from overly bubbly to tragically doleful, “Are you okay? What happened? Did someone bully you? Do I need to send Trixie on their butts?”

Luna came closer, with an equally concerned look, and lightly brushed her fingers on his cheek, "Not even makeup can hide that. Want to talk about it?”

“Not really… I’m just… I think I need to move back to New York.” Marshall sighed and looked from one ridiculously pretty blonde to the other. His gaze settled on Luna, whose fingers were still on his cheek. Marsh leaned into the touch and closed his eyes. “Is it really that bad? I probably look hideous…” He pouted.

"Oh hush.” “You’re beautiful!” "You’re not moving.” “We’d miss you!” "We know just what you need.” “HELP US FIND OWEN’S LOCKER.”

Marshall’s eyes widened in shock. Or fear? Truly, a little of both. “What? Why? Is that why you’re here? … you’re not gonna like… trash it or something, are you? Because, I really don’t recommend that these days.”

The twins released Marshall and changed their position to where they were both latching onto one of his arms, like some accessories. “Trixie is there. We need the Trixie.”

"Find Trixie, then we are taking both of you on an adventure. A spa adventure.” Luna’s stare gleamed, as her lips rose into an impish smirk.

“We won’t take no for an answer! We will literally kidnap you.” Stella stuck her tongue out, pushing it as far as she could (she had such colorful expressions).

Guiding these girls to Owen’s locker? After his conversation with Owen this morning? After finding out that he decked Jam— Marshall’s stomach felt like it took a direct hit. Fuck... Fuck it, sure, why not? What’s the worst that could happen now? At the mention of a potential spa adventure, a hint of light colored Marshall’s eyes for the first time in their conversation thus far. That… sounded perfect. “Oh, I will sooo gladly be taken. I’m yours, girls. Let’s find Trix!”

Forlorn. Beatrix may have lost track of time. Owen’s locker was still open and she had placed the shoebox in it, on top of his day planner, which she did write in... a little note... it doesn't matter... but she couldn’t help but stare at the face down frame, hidden under the books. She had given that to him after six months of dating. It was a picture of them on the grass, enjoying the sun, their first summer together. A selfie she had him take because he had longer arms.

“Youhooooo!”

With the sound of Stella, Trixie’s eyes widened and her face flushed. Quickly, she shut Owen’s locker, turned his lock with one fluid movement, and then brought her attention to her cousins, “Oh hey!” Her eyes immediately went to the boy at the center of a twin sandwich. Yepp. Her cheeks would show color for sure now.

This was just like them. Her cousins would obtain the first person they recognized. Playing it off like she wasn’t just in her ex’s locker, she waved at her friend, “I see you two have brought MarMar.”

“Of course we did! He is sad potato. So we decided to make him ours today.” Stella admitted, while googly eyeing her sister to confirm the facts. Luna rolled her eyes and nodded. Facts confirmed. Marshall is sad.

“Oh?” Trixie locked her gaze with Marshall’s.

“It’s true, they rescued me from despair with the promise of heavenly spa treats!” Marshall exclaimed with a smirk in token dramatic fashion. Atta boy Marsh, just bury the bad feels with thespian tricks and misdirection. He noticed her blushing, and recognized the journalist’s story-hungry gaze, and met both things with disregard. At least within the gossiping halls of BHHS, they could have a mutual agreement of “I won’t ask, if you don’t.”

Easily, Trixie got the picture. She was observant like that, hence why she knew when Owen was on the verge of exploding. She was good at reading people, even people who kept things bottled in, like Owen, or used acting to hide their problems, like Marshall. “Seems like we have ourselves our very own superheroes.”

“Stella and Luna saves the day! We kick sadness out the door and now it's our job to transform you two and make ya' sparkle!” Trixie nodded along with Stella’s words. Sometimes she wondered about that one… but you know what was more amusing than her silly cousin? The sight of Marshall having two hot babes on his arms. What a sight to see. If only she could take a picture.

"Okay. Mom is going to kill us if she doesn’t get breakfast in her tummy soon. So… let’s walk and talk. Multitasking, people.” Luna sassed, having allowed everyone to talk for far too long. Their ten minutes had run out five minutes ago, and she could feel her phone vibrating in her pant’s pocket.

Mama was hungry.

“Mau.”

Owen’s eyes cracked open and he found himself face to face with the one eyed cat that he’d called his for almost ten years. Oreo. His best friend in the whole world, doubly so since his best human friend had abandoned him, and his human life partner had left him in the dust as well. So, now, all he had was this here cat. Which was perfectly fine with Owen, Owen loved his cat. He reached out a sleepy hand and scratched behind Oreo’s ear. “Hey, buddy…” Owen said in the tired croak of a freshly woken boy.

“Mau.”

“What? I would never abandon you. I’ve just been busy. I couldn’t come back here.” Owen protested, sitting up in the bed and letting the blankets fall down. “Don’t say things like that, Oreo. We’re a team.” He said, and the cat came up to his chest and nuzzled him, while Owen gently petted him.

“Mau.”

“No, I haven’t made nice with them. I don’t think I’m going to.” Owen retorted, squinting down at the cat. He then shrugged his shoulders and threw his legs over the edge of the bed, jumping down onto the floor. Owen scratched at his own back, as the cat followed him down to the floor. “Marshall thinks I want to kill him. Can you believe that? I’d never. He’s not worth the extra effort.”

“Mau.”

“I wouldn’t go that far. I don’t think my honor hangs in the balance, do you? It’s just high school. Life goes on. I could quit, and never show up again, and I don’t think anyone would even notice. Maybe I’ll just do that, huh? We could leave the country, Oreo. Me and you vs the world. I hear New Zealand is nice during this time of year. What do you think?” Owen looked down at the cat, for confirmation of denial, and received neither. “I guess you’re probably right. At the very least, I should finish what I’ve started. Then I can leave. Maybe Greenland? Greenland is pretty nice yeah? I could go to South Korea, too.” Owen mused, stepping into his private bathroom with Oreo behind him.

“Mau.”

“You’re absolutely right. Fuck ‘em, dude. I already busted Jamie upside his stupid head. Might as well complete the set and bash Marshall’s dome in, right? Right, buddy? Nah, I’m just kidding. Hitting Jamie was kind of a fuck up. But he pushed the right buttons, whether intentionally or not. If he comes back though, then we’ll see where it goes. I can hit harder than that.” Owen shrugged his shoulders dismissively, stepping into the shower. Feeling the hot water pounding onto his chest, Owen thought about his gameplan. Was he still okay to hang out with Damian and his friends? Owen wasn’t sure. He was basically just an enforcer for them.

Owen didn’t really have a people, or friends. He wasn’t really a member of any particular. He was a loner, which was arguably how he liked it. Even introverted people though, even loners, needed friends. Eventually, being left alone to your thoughts made you vulnerable, and Owen wanted to be anything but. “I think I have a plan, Oreo.”

“Mau?”

“Don’t you take that tone with me, mister. It might work. He doesn’t seem to have any friends. I don’t have any friends. It’s worth a shot. Besides, I can’t sit with A Dubs and his friends all the time. Trust me, the way his girl was looking at me… I don’t belong there either. But this might work. If it doesn’t work, whatever. What have I got left to lose?” Owen asked, washing soap from his hair. This plan could work. He killed the shower, and toweled himself off. “What’s the worst that could happen, anyway? Some bitching from one of the Bitch Brigade? I don’t care about that. Half the school thinks I’m a woman beater anyway — if one of them steps up, I’ll knock them right the fuck back down.”

“Mau!”

“What?! I’m just kidding, dude!”



Marshall Radley was a coward. A weakling. Full of fear, and nothing else. A coward. A weakling. It was, however, important that he bring a message to Jamie, and Owen had to admit he appreciated Marshall’s willingness to do so. Owen was, nonetheless, angry again. What had started as a more or less pleasant morning had quickly deteriorated after he’d interacted with Marshall in the parking lot. As expected, it hadn’t gone well. Owen wasn’t sure if he should continue with his plan in this type of mood…

He spun the lock in front of him, and pulled it open. “...huh?”

Someone had been in here. And there were only two people who knew his locker combo (not counting the janitor): himself and Trixie. Owen reached out a slow hand and flipped down the picture of himself and Trixie, which had been stood back up. Then he turned his attention to the small box of stuff sitting there. He pulled it out and opened it. Looking inside, he frowned. This was all the stuff he’d tried to give her back! There was a couple of extra things too…

What was she thinking? Honestly. Owen dug around, looking for something new… and found his anniversary present to her two years before. It was a ring; a nice one, as it happened. More or less, it had been his promise to her, that they would stay together… forever, basically. She had faithfully worn it until, well, until the thing. And here it was. In a box. In his locker.

There was a small tag attached to it, and Owen held it closer to his face, reading it. Lost. Will be found.

Owen blew at his bangs. Okay. So what? She was going to come and get it this time? Alright. He slipped the ring into his pocket. He could deal with that. Owen grabbed his day planner, which had apparently been fucked with as well. Maybe she put a date in here? He flipped through it quickly, but found nothing. Frowning now, he opened to the cover page, and was presented with more writing from his ex-girlfriend (and reminded of how pretty her handwriting was): The gym. Late. Which day? Who knows?

Well fuck. He’d have to bring Oreo with him, he couldn’t leave him at home alone anymore.

Owen shook his head, and slammed his locker shut. Heading down the halls, he noticed the flyers. Another party? Fuck. That. Owen grabbed one of the flyers, and ripped it down, tossing it into a nearby trashbin. No fucking way. Owen would spend the night with his parents, playing bingo, or whatever the fuck adults did. Fuck a party.

Owen walked into homeroom in a better mood than he thought he would. His emotional state was lifted by the box in his locker, and the possible prospect of actually talking to Trixie. Look, even if they didn’t get back together, closure was… important to him. Fueled by that, Owen felt more comfortable going forward with his plan. He scanned the homeroom and found his target, closing the gap and sitting down across from him. Owen held out his hand. “Hi. I’m Owen. Owen Lyon.”



Something Sean hadn’t learned at the Academy was that women were complicated. The Academy trained you to be a warrior, it didn’t care about your ability or inability to maintain healthy relationships with the opposite sex. As such, Sean had done nothing since returning home but find himself continually confused by both his sister and his… friend with benefits. Both Selena and Brynn claimed to be close friends, and yet, all they did was fight with each other.

It made no sense to him. When boys or men were friends, they were just that. Friends. It meant they liked the same kind of thing, or worked in the same type of field. They talked fondly of one another, and helped each other out when times called for it. Apparently, women were the opposite. If two women were friends, they were awful people to each other? Didn’t make any sense, not to Sean. What if Brynn needed help? Would Selena go the distance? What if Selena needed help? Could Brynn swallow her pride and help? Would they even accept each other’s help? Sean had no idea. Not a single clue.

Brynn in particular was confusing. She didn’t want to hook up with him, but then she did want to hook up with him, and also she didn’t want to see him, but then she did want a ride to school from him? Were they not going to hook up again? Were they going to? Did she like him, hate him? He didn’t know. He couldn’t know, because he had no idea how women worked. And he certainly couldn’t ask his mother, Cassie was not the person to talk to about this.

Really, Sean’s best option was to talk to Selena, because they were twins. But Sean couldn’t talk to Selena about this because honestly? Selena was weird too. She was catty and bitchy, just the same as Brynn. Sean had been caught in the crossfire of the two of them exactly once, and that one moment had been enough reason for him to never want to talk to one of them about the other, ever again. Sean needed to make a friend. A neutral, third party who could give him some advice.

That would come at another time though: this was homeroom. That meant this was naptime. Sean made a note to purchase a pillow for his homeroom desk, so that he could be more comfortable. For now, though, he was happy to rest with his sweatshirt balled up underneath him. He had his eyes closed, a show was playing on his phone… Sean, with no Brynn to disturb him this time over a shirt, drifted off to peaceful sleep.

That peaceful sleep lasted five minutes.



“Hi. I’m Owen. Owen Lyon.”

Sean’s eyes cracked open to find himself face-to-face with the man from the party. At this, Sean straightened up a little bit. He wasn’t happy about being woken from his nap, and he was undeniably groggy, but… he had a feeling this was going to go poorly. “Yeah? I, uh. I know. I’m Sean Sterling.” Cautiously, Sean reached a hand out and accepted the offered handshake from the other male. “I met you at the party. I sort of got your name from them… you dated Trixie, right?” He asked, and Owen tensed up.

From Owen’s point of view, things had been going well right up until that exact point. Where was this going to go now? Was Sean going to question his relationship with Trixie? If that happened, Owen knew this would go poorly. He’d gotten a lot of his negative emotions out the night before, but… confrontations never ended well for him. Rather, the person he was in a confrontation with.

Cautiously, Owen responded. First with a nod, then with words to back himself up. “Yes. I did. And yes, from the party. That’s kind of why I sat here… I wanted to formally apologize to the only person I think deserves one. My behavior at the party was frankly unacceptable, and there was no reason for you, someone completely uninvolved to be caught up in the drama like that,” Owen explained, and he held his breath as he waited for Sean to respond. He had to take this well, right? Please do.

As Sean gave Owen a surprisingly warm smile, Owen let out a huge sigh. “It’s okay. From my perspective, things aren’t going too well in either party. I think they’re giving to you too harshly, and I think they’re taking what you do too seriously. It’s nice to meet you. Properly, I mean. I hope you can forget about what I did, and that maybe we can be friends? There are no hard feelings from me. Yes, Trixie is my cousin, but I don’t know what happened. Honestly? I don’t care. I judge people on who and what they are now, not on their past, or even their future.”

“That’s okay! Looking back, I think you did the right thing. You defused the situation without violence, and that was our best play.” Owen was finally getting somewhere! “Great. Thank you. I’m sorry I interrupted your nap, though. I guess I’m just desperate at this point. I’m pretty downtrodden at this point.”

“I know how that feels.”

A brief period of silence.

“You should come by the 365 Combat Club sometime. I practically live there. We could spar.”

“I might take you up on that.”

Success.

Rose sat on the stairwell where kids made out or smoke or both underneath it, where the cove was. Her pants were decorated with the solar system (that she drew) and she held a flyer showcasing a party being thrown on The Destiny, a boat. A party thrown by the Helmsley Three; people she rarely talked to. She knew of them. Everyone knew of them. The Helmsleys were some of the biggest business partners of the family that got her parents famous. The Greens.

Green was a way of life and they offered fame to all those who would kill to see their name up in the lights. Fame was ultimately what their clients made of it, and her parents were some of the more humble products of Green, but still, her parents were products of Alyssa Green and stood on the woman's Green stage. They were famous because of Green money. Yes, her parents were wonderfully talented but without Alyssa's help? The grass wouldn't be Greener on the other side. They probably wouldn't have gotten back together and Rose wouldn't have been brought into this world. Thanks to the Greens, she existed and her parents' love lived on.

Of course, she knew them. The Helmsleys were involved with the Greens. Two of the big five. Household names. Greens, Helmsleys, Lovelaces, Belleroses, & Lyons. The ones that had their fingers in everything that made up society. All connected in one way or another. A blessing? Or a curse. Rose liked to think a bit of both, watching from afar. The sidelines. Her life? She owed it to the Greens and it was weird. Life was weird.

As for the party...

Did she want to go? She wasn't sure. The New Year's bash was only days ago, she didn't know if she necessarily could handle another bash where someone kisses her. She had yet approached the culprit! Rose wanted to speak to him but they hadn't talked 'one on one' in years. There was a time where they were close. A long time ago. Then things changed and she couldn't find a way to tell him how she felt. They were too young. They were too different. They were too... naive. He was and still is a millions worlds apart. She'd rather bury the hatchet and focus on her own worth that wasn't defined by the Greens than let a heat of the moment kiss take over her thoughts.

Something that was entirely her own: Her imagination and creativity. That's what Rose thrived on. Not some kiss.

Looking down on her lap, she realized she had made a paper airplane out of the flyer. Oh dank. Should she get up and let this soar off the roof? No, she had to stay. She was told to be here. She needed to wait. What was taking this person so long...? They told her to be here at a specific time. A stranger had sent her a message, ominous and cute, all at the same time, to be here at 6:30 am — a ridiculously early time. Rose trusted the message enough to go. The person sounded young. And yet, that didn't change that Rose had places to be, people to see, like playing hooky with Quincy so that her photography project could be da-bomb-dot-com.

Hearing someone walking on the steps, Rose stood up and turned on her heel, only to see Jax Dalton. Someone as equally as creative as her and actually hung out with her and her friends. Weird.

What was he doing here? She confusingly blinked at her comrade. She had his number saved on her phone. Why did he... text her with an unknown number?

"Oh, Rose, it's just you. What's up? Did you get a new phone?" Jax scratched his head, seemingly as confused as her. She watched him carefully take out his phone as he went to save the number in her name.

"That's not my number, Dalton...." What was going on? Rose dropped the paper plane on the floor and took her phone out to reread the message from yesterday.

Ana, dolly, I need to talk about something very important with you tomorrow! Really really really important. Meet me at the school @ 6:30, kay? The stairs. You know the ones. There will be no regrets I promise! Stay cute.

"I received a similar text." Rather than showcase his phone, Jax pocketed it and picked up Rose's paper airplane. "Weird, right?" All Rose could do was nod. The stranger had used a nickname hardly anyone uses on her, since it was what everyone called her grandmother. The only other person that's called her Ana... well, she had to schedule a chat with him, later. This didn't make sense at all. Who would call both her and Jax and for what?

And then the devil appeared out of the shadows of the cove, causing Rose to rub her eyes, as she saw a really tiny person smile mischievously up at the two and approach her and Jax's back (since Jax was facing Rose). She wore a beret and some of the most fashion forward clothes that existed today.

"...Mina?" Well, shit. Another big five was back in town. The princess of fashion. Daughter of Maxwell Bellerose Jr, the son of a multi-billionaire high fashion designer, who followed his father's footsteps, and took over VBR, the largest french multinational luxury goods and High Fashion brand. She was also the daughter of Bianca Esposito-Bellerose, a famous painter and opera singer that Rose secretly admired (but what the majority of the world didn't know, including Rose, was the Espotios were one of the big Italia mafia familias in America). Mina Bellerose. A triple threat, who could act, who could sing, who could dance, and who has been gone because of her filming schedule with her man, Christopher Everett, who matched her in skill and who both were obsessively in love with one another.

They were the teen celebrity couple that were making the tabloids for the past year. They were the It Couple that everyone was talking about. They acted together. They sang together. They did everything together. They were what media sensationalized. A perfect young love.

Jax turned around only to take a step back, seeing a girl that stood at 4'9" looking up at him with a hungry gaze. "Uh, hi?" He wasn't as involved in knowing famous people as Rose was.

"Hi Jax, Rose." She hopped up as high as she could to snatch the paper airplane, before skipping up the steps so that she could match in height with her colleagues. "I know you know me, Ana—"

"Ana?" Jax looked from Rose then to the tiny girl he knew nothing about. Rose simply shrugged in response.

"—but you don't, Jax. I am Mina. Mina Bellerose. Know me now? Doesn't matter. I called you here, today, to meet me at this specific time because I'm not ready to tell people I'm here! I have to go back home and snuggle with my Teddy Bear. This is crucial to my life. Do you know how much I do? So much!" Mina was definitely a vibrant character, but all Jax could see was a little girl. Man, she was super tiny. How could anyone take her serious? She stopped and creepily tilted her head at the blonde boy, "Do I have something on my face?"

"No, you're good. Continue. Why are we here?" Jax crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. It was early. She was lucky he even came here, when she was the weird one and not specifying her identity. But, he was utilizing the sound labs and making music. He also got a text from Brian Helmsley asking him to be the DJ to the boat party, so yeah. There was that.

"I need you to first promise me you won't tell a soul I'm here! I'll come after the hype of the Helmsleys." With her free hand that wasn't holding the plane, she took out her pinky. PINKY PROMISE. Rose was the first to go for it, still having not said anymore words. Curiosity was filling her inner chalice. She wanted to know what this girl wanted. Jax looked down at the girl, then her pinky, then the girl again. Man, that's something Honey would do. He shrugged, not one to talk about other people's business anyway, and gave Mina his pinky.

"Good." A impish giggle escaped her lips before she cooed, having released him from her pinky hold, "You two are some of the most creative people at this school. Like stupid creative for no good reason besides boredom. Well when I come back, I have a pet project I want to start."

"Pet project?" Jax interrupted. This girl was strange.

"LEMME FINISH!" Mina puffed her cheeks and huffed. Jax rose his hands, and his expression displayed 'aiight, I'll shut up now.', and once again, she continued, "I want to follow my Zio's steps and make a documentary about the school. I know how bad you want to submit a film in a festival, Jax." How did she know that? "And I know that you, Ana, like to do stuff. Really meaningful stuff. And this will have a lot of meaning. A pet project is essentially me doing stuff that keep me sane from my busy schedule! I want to make a film. So I'm going to make a film. But I need help. You two are the first I'm coming to with this proposition. Since I'm making this about the school, why not get my school apart of it? I want you, Jax, to help me with the camera work, and you, Rose, with the story. And I want us all to work together with the direction. Together, we can make something great!"

"That's, um, nice of you." Rose didn't know how to think about this offer. First, theater club wanted her to act, now the successor of the Bellerose name wanted her to make a film with her. These days keep getting weirder. Rose clicked her tongue in thought. Jax could read that Rose was on the fence with this and Mina looked like she wasn't going to take no for an answer.

"Let's go on a... coffee date this weekend? To talk further about this." He'd do it. He got bored easily and this sounded like a fun time killer. Rose, though? She needed more time to be convinced. She had a lot of stuff she was juggling, but this would be a cool opportunity for them to work together. Jax really hoped she'd be down. Two creative minds, were better than one. Add another? Who knows what they could make!

"Well, duh! I need my Teddy Bear to talk more about our ideas. I expect you two to take the next couple of days to think about it, okay? This could be more than just kids doing projects together! Lets be friends~" She hopped down a step and put the airplane at the center of them, "In the name of creativity!" She looked at both of them expectantly, before she grumbled, "Put your hands on the plane." Rose and Jax looked at each other and then without argument, but definitely with bewildered expressions, they did as Mina told them. "To new beginnings and plenty of tea party dates. I don't like coffee." With that, Jax and Rose copied the tiny girl's actions, lifting their hands up like they were doing a hype-gesture before a football game.

Ah yes, this was perfect. Absolutely perfect. Mina was satisfied. "Now remember, no one knows I'm here. I'll see you guys whenever! Chow~" Gracefully waving, the mysterious girl made her great escape after giving a little twirl. As she ran off, she threw the plane down the stairs towards them. The plane smoothly glided down and landed in Rose's hands.

Mina took out her phone and sent a text to her lover.

To: Teddy Bear ^@Universorum
I sowwie I'm not there! I'm coming home now. I love youuuuuuuuuu
I'll never leave without you knowing, ever again.
Please forgive me.

Yours forever. XOXO. Keep the bed warm ❤

Henry was sure they were going to be late. In fact, it was a wonder they weren’t late every day. Between Parker sometimes not wanting to get ready, and Henry never wanting to get ready, the trio of Henry, Parker, and Min-seo had exactly one responsible person between them: Min-seo. Min was always ready for school on time; in fact, she was often doing work before they even needed to be ready. Parker and Henry held her back, but! They’d gotten in the car and were on the way to school! Which would hopefully only be half as terrible as the day before had been. Henry had been sentenced, but things were looking up, after all, the Helmsleys were back. Never, could that be a bad thing.

There was something that Henry needed to get off of his chest. See, the night before, when that girl had been around taking pictures of Parker (some kind of school project), Henry had flipped through the photos she’d already taken and learned something about his younger friend that didn’t exactly make him happy. Parker lived in a tent. That was not okay! For a bunch of reasons, but they weren’t very important. What was important, was that Henry had made an executive decision. Parker was moving in!

He just hadn’t told her yet. First he had to broach the subject to Parker. Henry had been awkwardly glancing at her in shotgun for the past few minutes… but now? He decided to attack the issue headlong. “Parker. Why didn’t you tell me you lived in a tent, man?” He asked, giving her a sidelong glance again as they drove toward the school.

From the back seat Min had quite the vantage point. While she was occupied by doodling, as she often did to pass the time, she couldn’t help but to notice the way Henry seemed to be stealing glances towards Parker; Parker, who was occupying herself by looking at her phone, seemed oblivious. But Min could tell straight away that her assessment was accurate. Only boyfriends looked at their girlfriends like that. Min wasn’t upset, just surprised that Henry’s type tended towards the...loud. Maybe it was an American thing.

Parker on the other hand hadn’t even noticed the looks from Henry. She had other plans. Plans that included watching clips of cartoons to stave off the boredom that came from riding in a metal box to school. She had called shotgun even before they had left the house, which was a total faux pas but Min still didn’t even understand the concept of ‘shotgun’ and was happy to sit in the back anyway. Her attention was on the wacky antics of colorful characters until she heard her name and suddenly her little bubble was bursting.

"YOU DIDN’T ASK! AND YOU NEVER COME OVER!” Parker’s answer was as blunt as can be and she was back to her phone as if the interruption hadn’t even happened. "DUMB PHONE! YOU CAN’T SKIP THE COMMERCIALS!” Parker, in her impatience, wound up pressing the ad, bringing her to an entirely new section of the internet where commercials and ads were on the side bar.

And in the back, Min-seo kept looking between the two in the front, wondering just when that whole thing started.

Henry put his head back against the headrest, and shook his head. He shouldn’t have had to ask about that! She should have just told him, and asked him for help. But he supposed he should have known better when Parker was involved. “I guess it doesn’t matter anyway. Look, there’s a party tonight, but you’re not goin’ Park. You’re movin’ in with us, so after school I’m gonna leave you with Butler. Hailey’s butler, that is. I talked to him and, well… her, and she has no plans tonight other than to stay in. So we’re borrowing him. He’s gonna take you shopping for some furniture and stuff and help you move in…”

Henry briefly twisted his head to glance over his shoulder at Min-seo in the backseat. “to Min’s room. You guys are gonna share a room. Is that cool? I don’t think there are many options near me that are open, so I thought you guys could share?”

Min was, in a word, speechless; she didn’t exactly understand the why of it only that Henry had decreed that Min-seo was going to have a sudden room mate. The room was plenty big enough but it was a bit unexpected. Maybe he wanted to live together with his girlfriend but in that case why have Parker move into Min-seo’s guest room? Why not room together? She had thought American couples slept in the same room, or maybe that was just a marriage thing specifically. "Cool? O...Okay.” She didn’t want to be the one to come between lovers. But Min-seo didn’t mind Parker, she was often exhausting but she made Min-seo laugh. How bad could it be,honestly?

"WE’RE GONNA BE ROOMIES! LIKE SISTERS! CAN WE GET BUNK BEDS?” Parker was excited enough for the both of them; she was practically bouncing in her seat and if the seatbelt hadn’t been in place she probably would’ve faceplanted onto the dashboard.

"Wait...party? Another party?” Min-seo looked towards Henry now, her eyes already prefacing what she was about to say. "No serve drinks...please. No more.” Last time had been overwhelming and if she was going to go she would have liked to go without the pressure.

“Nah, don’t worry about that, we won’t be bartending this time. It’s on Becca’s boat, and I know her and her family. There will probably be a paid professional bartender happily serving alcohol to underage kids. It’ll be great,” Henry grinned, and winked at Min before he looked at Parker and shrugged his shoulders. He didn’t give a shit if they got bunk beds. “I don’t give a shit if you get bunk beds. I told Butler to buy you whatever you think is essential, so go ahead and do whatever. He’s gonna swing by your place too and he’ll help you box up whatever you want… a tent, Parker?” Henry had a ton of questions left to ask, but he didn’t think now was the time. Parker was way too focused on whatever she was watching.

Henry brought the car to a stop in the normal parking place in front of the school, and peered over at Parker’s screen, “what are you watching, anyway?” He asked, before he had a sudden realization, and snapped his fingers. “Oh yeah! I forgot, Min, but if you’ll open the center console, and the little door behind it… you’ll find a token of my appreciation for all the hardwork you did at the party.” Henry grinned. In the hidden compartment, was a small stuffed Donald Duck, who was holding three tickets to Disneyland, dated for later in the month.

Min-seo let out a small sigh of delight. She was okay with a party - it was a school night so she would make sure her homework was done first - so long as she didn’t have to stress out over drinks. That had been a nightmare but also a learning experience. She learned the names of drinks, she learned that tequila came with a chaser and a lime and salt - usually on the body of someone - and she learned that American party music was just as loud as the pop music she was used to.

The foreign exchange student was curious enough to look into the compartment - cars were full of surprises - and after struggling a bit to get the door open she let out a happy little shriek. "Donald!” She exclaimed as she hugged the stuffed thing close, not even noticing the tickets in favor of hugging the sailor-suit wearing duck mascot. Today was going to be a great day, Donald was going to go to all of her classes today!

"I’M WATCHING MINCY!” Parker answered the question, bringing the happy mood of Min-seo crashing down a bit. "LOOK, MINCY, IT’S YOU!” Parker had gotten lost on the internet and began clicking around different commercials, which had been shockingly funny, and the rabbit hole led her to foreign commercials which were much brighter and full of choreography. Min-seo’s face dropped as Parker held the phone out, making it visible for both Min-seo and Henry.

True enough, Parker wasn’t just being accidentally insensitive. There on the screen, doing a bubbly dance while holding a soft drink and wearing a much less conservative outfit, was Min-seo. A remnant from her past in Korea, though this commercial was shot back in October, and the only difference between the Min-seo in the commercial and the one who was scrambling to get Parker to click the ad off was the fact that the carbound Min-seo always made sure to wear shirts that covered up.

Henry turned his attention to the phone that Parker was holding. He stared at the screen, and could verify that yes this was Min-seo. HOWEVER, the Min-seo on the screen was dressed much more… provocatively. In fact, it was perfectly fair to say that she was dressed exactly how Henry liked. “Oof.” Henry leaned toward the phone in Parker’s hand to look more closely at it, and then glanced back at Min-seo. “How come you don’t wear that shirt?” He asked, pointing at it.

“Because you should. I like it a lot.” He said, before going so far as to rewind the video to watch again. “Hey, Min, you wanna go to the party tonight? Like with me. As a date.” Henry made sure to be very blatant with his clarifications, so that nothing to lost in translation here.

Suddenly Donald Duck was the furthest thing from Min-seo’s mind. She squeezed the stuffed duck tight but that was more for her own comfort and sense of security than the cuteness that had caused her excitement mere seconds ago. She was, of course, aware of the existence of the commercials - that they existed were courtesy of her stepmother - and she couldn’t exactly get them removed as she was not the owner of the product or the video in question. The very last thing she wanted was for them to be discovered, and she felt like she had a good handle on it. After all, who at this school knew enough about Korean pop culture to care about their commercials?

She was embarrassed, given that she was using Donald Duck as a way to hide her face, but she didn’t know quite what to say. "I left the shirt...home.” Min’s answer to the question came through the wall of Donald. Her clothing choices had been much more modest, a means of separating her Korean life from her new one in America. It wasn’t as if Min-seo was some kind of ugly duckling, just that she had made strides to keep herself plained down.

"D..Date? I...I can’t you...you are with...Parker.” It wasn’t exactly a no that Min-seo was putting down.

At this, Henry froze. With Parker? He slowly shook his head. “What? No I’m not. Parker’s just a friend of mine. We’re definitely not dating,” Henry was sounding a little defensive, but honestly? He felt justified in doing so. Min had been with them for a few months now, and she thought he and Parker were dating? Come on, half the time it was pretty plain to see that he was almost babysitting Parker. Definitely, not dating her. “Where did you get that idea? Tell her, Parker.” Now, Henry wanted some back up.

Parker and Henry weren’t dating? Min-seo blinked behind the duck, confused. They had to have been, right? "But...she’s always at your house. And on New Year’s you...you took her up the stairs. You were looking at her…” She was seeing things that happened but reading different interpretations of it. All signs pointed to them dating.

"HENRY? EWWWWWWWWWWW” Parker was vehement in her denial, shaking her head like Henry had a case of the cooties. "HENRY’S MY BEST FRIEND, MINCY. BUT YOU’RE PRETTY OKAY TOO. HE’S LIKE...LIKE MY BROTHER. AND BROTHERS DON’T KISS SISTERS. THAT’S GROSS. DON’T BE GROSS, MINCY.” Parker wasn’t sure where this whole thing got started but over the past few days people had been asking her about Henry and her and she was getting really annoyed by it. How many more times would she have to say it!

"But...you...it looked...I am sorry.” She was already embarrassed but now Min-seo felt like she wanted to just disappear forever. What a colossal misunderstanding she had caused. "Can I still...party?”

Henry rolled his eyes over at Parker. She had a point, though! Henry was like her older brother, and she was like his littlest sister. Even more so than Cyndi, his actual youngest sister. When Min asked if she could still party, Henry fired back with his answer. “Yeah, if you go as my date.” He paused, and then casually added, “And wear that shirt, from the commercial.” There, ultimatum laid. Game set and match. Your move, Min-seo.

There was a problem in the request which might well have put a damper on the party. It wasn’t that Min-seo was opposed to showing up as Henry’s date - she actually wasn’t since it seemed like the only means of getting into the party anyway, it was the fact that the shirt in question was an ocean away. Min-seo shook her head at that, Donald slowly being lowered to a more reasonable position, hugged tightly against her chest. “I...don’t have. The shirt is..at home. Home home. In Korea.” If that was going to stop her from going to the party, so be it. But there was no way to get the shirt from Seoul to Beverly Hills in time.

Henry’s face immediately erupted into a huge frown, and he considered his options. Who did he know that knew a thing or two about clothes and could help him out in his time of need? Not many people. But… there were his half-sisters. Luna and Stella. They would be exceptionally helpful in this situation! “That’s okay. I’ll take you to see my half-sisters after school. They’ll doll ya up for me, then drop you off at the party, or somethin’. Is it a date?” Henry asked, putting the final say in Min’s hands.

While waiting for her to answer, Henry had the silent realization that he was looking at Min in an entirely new light. Shocking what seeing someone in a crop top would do to him. But Min was seriously, seriously cute. Maybe it was helped by the Donald stuffie that she held her hand, but Henry’s face softened from the frown, to a more half-smile, “pleaseeee?”

Hopefully Parker never wore a crop top.

Min-seo was already on the verge of agreeing, though why she had to see half-sisters after school confused her. Couldn’t she just show up at the party with Henry? After school was typically when she did homework, what did ‘doll up’ mean? She wasn’t a doll! But still she sighed; she’d never seen Henry act like this, he must’ve really wanted her to come and it was bound to be another learning experience. Was that not the point of the exchange program?

"Okay. It is..a date.” Min agreed with a nod, then had Donald Duck nod his head as well. She was still heavily embarrassed that her secret was out, but she trusted Henry not to run around telling people about it. Parker, though? Min-seo trusted Parker less but it was likely she was just as soon going to run around saying she was getting a bunk bed as she was saying she saw Min in a commercial.

Regardless, Min-seo had a date to a party.

Another day, another change to Riley Wells’ morning show. Rise! Something that didn’t even exist before Riley came into the picture. Three years ago. You know what they use to showcase in the morning? The Vice Principal’s extremely caked face while she boringly read a script of exciting school events and news. Mrs. White tried to be hip with her jokes and stay relevant by bringing up celebrity news she read out of the Gemma Clark mags — the Weekend Warrior of the world. She tried, but none of the kids really cared what was on the homeroom screen unless the celebrities involved people they actually knew. Now at least kids take the time to watch the screen, regardless of how informative an episode actually is.

Riley wasn’t going to let other people make him feel like his work was for not, but he would be professional. He would be open to ideas. He would be open to change. Daily special guests wasn’t a bad idea. If anything, The (Normans’) Morning Show: Rise could only move forward from here on out. But first, he would break the ice in the way his dad, Remy, would do. Food. He was holding Brynn’s freshly brewed coffee, with no add ins, and a box of donuts. Beside him, walked one of the big faces at this school, Brian Helmsley. After texting both Brynn and Brian separately early this morning, he discovered Brynn likes black and bitter coffee, and Brian likes pricey mineral water. Luckily, his dad Wells also liked water of the same calibur.

They were almost at their destination. The basement of the auditorium. The place Riley hosts TV & Broadcasting club meetings. Today’s episode, Riley made a firm decision to keep it here. Yesterday’s episode was a bit… much. Stationary and classy was his goal for today’s show. A good break from the drama that transpired with Mrs. Green and Mrs. O’Connor appearing out of the blue. “... if you don’t mind me asking, Brian, what brought you back?” Riley had an idea, but he didn’t want to assume. Assumptions got him in messes, even though he wasn’t the one assuming in a particular closet incident.

Brian looked over at Riley and shook his head. He did mind Riley asking, but he figured he could at least give a half truth. It was okay, if he didn’t give away his intentions, ideas, feelings, and everything in one go. That was what half truths were for. He took a sip from his water, and responded. “Drama came up. I don’t like drama, really? Especially when it involves people that I care about. So, I wanted to be here to support my friends.” He explained. Pausing at the entryway, Brian turned to face Riley fully, “I really appreciate you letting me be a guest on your show. I’ll do a quick opening at the beginning of the show, then I can back out of your hair. I don’t want to overstep my bounds.”

“Oh no, don’t worry. I was in a mood, yesterday. I’m better. I think you coming back with your sisters is the most noteworthy thing that’s happened since the last show. And usually my best segments cover stuff like that. We can talk more later, but I’d like you to stay through the entirety of this segment. If you just jumped out, I think we’d lose their attention.” Shrugging to himself, Riley gestured with his head for the Helmsley boy to open the door, please. His hands were full.

With that, Brian put his hand on the doorknob and turned it, pushing the door open to reveal… Brynn, crying on a couch? Brian had no interest in dealing with this. He pushed Riley forward slightly, flicking his head toward the sobbing girl; his way of saying: Handle this.

Oh. Okay. Emotional, probably hormonal girl. Yeah, Riley could handle this. If he could stop Marshall from crying, he could definitely stop his co-host he just recently had close interactions with stop too. Clearing his throat, to announce the arrival of him and Brian, Riley cautiously approached the girl, with an offering of coffee and donuts, “...you good?”

The brunette had been wallowing in her own self pity for the past 10 minutes, upset and emotionally exhausted. She didn’t hear anyone coming, but Brynn’s face went absolutely stark white when the door opened and revealed her co-host and... Brian Helmsley? Wiping away her tears as fast as she could, she stood up, brushing herself off both physically and mentally. “Who’s crying, no ones crying, I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Brynn rationalized, trying to distract from her tear stains. She saw the coffee in Riley’s hand and reached out to take it from him. “Thanks.”

After making sure Brian was out of earshot, which honestly seemed like his goal while Riley dealt with this, Riley gave her the black coffee and a genuine smile, that contrasted how he was yesterday, as he whispered, “Want to talk about it later? You don’t have to, but the offer is on the table. Sometimes it’s nice to let it all out and if you need a ‘me’ day, that’s fine too. Brian is actually going to take over half of the show to make an announcement.” Coming from someone who was piss poor at talking about things with his family, hey, maybe Brynn needed a third party that wasn’t directly involved in her life. It was that or the option of therapy!

Brynn was a little taken back by the difference in Riley’s actions from yesterday’s show. She gave him an appreciative smile, “It’s nothing, but thanks.” She’d figure this out in all due time, and would probably just discuss things with Sean himself later. “What kind of announcement is he making? I saw all the flyers around school…”

Opening the donut container, Riley pulled out a chocolate frosted glazed donut and glanced over to Brian, “I imagine it’ll cover that. And more. I’m not fully sure what he’ll drop on our school. Today, I’ve decided to just go with the flow.” Lifting the container up, the aspiring TV personal offered, “Donut? It’s homemade.” There was an assortment of 10 donuts, a lot, but like, Riley wasn’t going to waste this opportunity to utilize his dad’s baking skills.

Meanwhile, Brian was looking around at the room, sipping at his water. He walked over to the painting of the school hanging on the wall and absentmindedly tapped it, before wandering to the mural of the microphone, taking what seemed to be an incredibly deep look at it while he took a drink of his water. He looked at the long line of stools, and raised an eyebrow, before he turned around fully to look at Riley and Brynn, one hand in his pocket.

“With a few basic changes, I think I could really make this place work.”

“Work for…?” Riley’s gaze went from Brynn to Brian.

“You told me you wanted me to be full time, right? Then I might have some suggestions to make.” Brian explained, taking a seat on one of the stools. “There are three of us. There were two of you. Before that, there was only one. Why do you have so many stools? The painting should be green screen, and whoever’s running the live stream should put up… something relevant to the show in its place. We can do pre-recorded interviews and put them there, or live stream them to that. Also, this is just me, but I think the mural is… a little much. It should be simpler. But first step…” Brian stood up, and kicked over eight of the stools, leaving three standing.

“Get rid of the stools. And the tables, we don’t need the tables. Actually…” Brian knocked the last three stools down as well. “Screw the whole thing. Get a desk and some comfortable chairs. Ergonomic. Brynn has a figure to keep in mind.” Brian sipped his water, and snapped his fingers. Wasn’t there help around here somewhere?

“Eh-hem.” Riley closed the donut container and walked to one of the tables that Brian wanted to be removed, stepping over a fallen stool. “This section doesn’t actually get on camera. It’s for meetings where the team brain storms next week’s episodes. By team, I mean me and usually the three people in the control room. We’re a small club. Also all this, was freshmen Riley’s brain. I mean, I could talk to Trixie… about the budget… but we’re very limited and this is our only space. The fact that I even got a show to display on every homeroom tv at a specific time is a fucking miracle. This club was only radio before I came.” Yeah, Riley was getting defensive. He was open to change but this guy was basically saying all his hard work was fucking shit. That’s not how you go about moving something, his creation, into a positive direction. Forward. His ‘suggestions’, although they were good, were more demands. That made him grumpy.

“Budget?” Brian stared at Riley as if he were incredibly injured. “Riley, I’ll bankroll it. There’s no rule against donations. And, that’s great and all. You did good, but you’re not a freshman anymore. You have the rest of this year and then next year to set the stage for whoever comes after you. Don’t leave them with outdated stuff, that’s all I’m saying. You can do better. We can do better. This space is perfect. It needs a couple of hardcams, and like I said, a few changes… but the stools and the tables have got to go, man. Look, I offered to leave. You said stay. I’ll stay, but my terms and conditions are as follows: we upgrade the place. I’m not busy after school, you and I will go see what we can find in the hardware store. I don’t think we’ll find any useful A/V equipment unless we go to like, Microcenter, but that’s okay. Mom and Dad might have some stuff lying around… I’m not trying to offend you and you shouldn’t take it that way, or get all defensive with me. I’m just saying. Why don’t we make it better? You were a small club. You might still be small, but now you’re small with me here. And I won’t be a big fish in a small pond.”

Brian sipped at the water again, and found that he was now out. Scowling at the bottle, he looked at Rye and spoke in a very serious tone: “If I have to, I will rebuild this pond with my own hands to make it as big as the Pacific ocean.”

Man, this guy was intense. Riley furrowed his brows, considering the man’s words. He was a good talker. Riley would give him that. Insistent, annoying, but Rye knew when to stop and recognize when someone was better at something than him. In this case. Brian was better at business. Riley was no businessman. The three in the backroom weren’t business people either. If anything, they goofed off more than they actually helped. If they knew how to diffuse fires, yesterday’s episode wouldn’t have gotten as far as it did. And Brynn? Riley didn’t know enough about her. What he did know was she’s a pretty face, works the camera like a goddess, absolutely flawless, and was surprisingly clever. The wit he liked the most. He would never admit that he was impressed with her performance from yesterday. At least not anytime soon.

Riley hardly knew this kid and he had so much to say. This was one hell of a ice breaker. “I guess you’re right. But I have some terms and conditions myself before I agree with upgrading. I want this, whatever this is.” He gestured to all three of them. “To feel like a team. You two are some of the most popular kids at this school. Where does that leave me? The creator of the morning show? Probably in the shadows. I don’t want the politics that run through these halls to influence how we treat each other. We are equals. I don’t care who your parents are and you shouldn’t care about mine. In these walls, we are just us. The moment I start feeling like my voice doesn’t matter, I will cut the plug. So, treat me with respect and I’ll do the same. Deal? You too, Brynn.” Riley turned his head toward her.

An oath. All three of them walked with different people in the halls. Talked to different people during lunch. They were different people, but Riley didn’t want their differences to run the show. He wanted their similarities to bring them together. To bring the school together. They were three teens that had their own goals and aspirations. Their own issues. Aside from that? Nothing else mattered.

“You’re weird.”

Brian sat the empty water bottle down and folded his arms over his chest. Had Riley lost his mind? He was wildly overthinking this whole thing. Brian had only wanted to come on, talk about the party, and move on with his life. Now it was becoming some big thing? He himself didn’t care about the politics of the school, and he didn’t even feel he was that popular. “I mean you can make the demands you want, and I’ll agree to them, but nothing’s even happened yet. Except I knocked down a couple of stools.”

Brynn was definitely shocked with Brian’s actions. Sure, he was Brian Helmsley, BHHS kissed the ground that his family walked on, but that didn’t mean he could just come in here and change every single thing that Riley had worked hard to make. Yesterday, she wouldn’t have given a glance to this ordeal, but with the kindness that Riley had shown her, plus after noticing how hard he had worked, she didn’t want to let Brian walk all over him. “You know that I’m in, Riley. We already talked about how I’m just regular Brynn in this room. Brian, I suggest you leave your shit outside if you’re gonna come in here.” The brunette turned to the two boys, taking a long sip of her coffee. This morning had already been an emotional rollercoaster, and she didn’t need this on top of it.

Brian snapped the gum in his mouth and stared at the two people in front of him. Nah, son. He stood up each of the stools back onto their feet, before he sat the empty cup onto one of the tables, and looked at Riley, holding out his hand to shake, with a smile on his face. “Thank you for your time, but I think I don’t want to do this after all. You’re welcome to use some of my ideas, however you see fit. Good luck, and I wish you all the best in your future endeavors. I thought this would go some other way. I appreciate the offer for a permanent position, and I appreciate your willingness to let me have a spot on this show.”

At this point, Riley was only one thing. Confused. Brian went out of his way to contact him to do this and now he’s bailing? Maybe he wasn’t that good of a businessman after all. Riley didn’t know what he thought. He hardly knew both of these people but there was something about these sporadic moments that actually felt like it was helping in some way. Helping him talk to people. “Okay, everyone. Chill. It’s far too last minute for you to not do at least today’s show, Brian. You went out of your way to talk to me, so what you want to do must be important. You care about something enough to do this, right? I don’t want you to give up on that.” Riley, scratching his head in thought, made his way to the other boy, “I’ll trust you, okay? I can’t speak for Brynn, but I can speak for myself. This is… a lot to digest in one sitting. If you don’t want to stay, that’s all on you. I can’t stop you, but can I still go to you as, I don’t know, a consultant? My brother likes you and you’re really good at this, so I wouldn’t mind doing something like that…” His dad always told him that sometimes it’s okay to put your stubbornness aside, your guard down, and your pride away, when opportunity knocks at your door.

Brian and Brynn were opportunity.

In many ways, the Helmsley boy was right. When Riley was gone, who would take over? When Riley was gone, what would be left behind? When Riley was gone, would the show even exist anymore? He needed to consider these things. It simply took an acquaintance to realize all this.

Riley did have his hand out but he didn’t reach for Brian’s hand yet. In all honesty, his eyes were hopeful. Riley didn’t know how much Brian knew about him, but if Trevor did talk about him to his friend, Brian would know that being ‘socially awkward’ was part of Rye’s charm.

Brian supposed that Riley had a point. He could at least do the segment he’d signed up for. “Alright. I can do the segment that I said I would. As for the consulting thing… I don’t know. I’ll think about it. If I’m going to do anything down here, I need to make a phone call.” But the truth was? Brian wasn’t sure he wanted to spend his time working on this. It seemed both people had heavy misunderstandings about him, and he wasn’t interested in getting past that. Brian was mission focused, and his mission didn’t involved Riley’s show, not really. “When do we get started, anyway?”

And so the show came and went, with Riley and Brynn displaying better chemistry than the previous day. Perhaps they could work well together, with a little more understanding of one another. They primarily focused their segment on the Sadie Hawkin’s Dance, putting great emphasis on what makes this dance different: the girl asks the boy out. Cue jokes on gender equality, sexism, young love, and staying sane during this semester by bad dancing, ‘interesting’ chaperones, and one-of-a-kind punch (not like it gets spiked or anything). But the highlight of the show was when Riley let Brian Helmsley take it away. It was an executive decision to end it with whatever Brian had to say, because Riley knew after that boy talked, no one would care about the rest. Why would they? There was a party on a boat happening and people had to be there. The hype would be real.


Brian stood front and center on the camera’s line of sight, and held eye contact with it, as if he were staring at whoever was on the other end. “Hi, I’m Brian Helmsley. I’m here on the show this morning to make something of an announcement. I’m sure all of you have seen the flyers on the walls, and yes. It’s true, we’re throwing a party on our first night back. But don’t thank me, or Bailee, or even fully Becca. Damian’s the cohost, so thank him. I know what you’re thinking: a party this soon after the catastrophe of the last one? I don’t know why he’s doing it, but he said screw it, let’s do it.” Brian shrugged his shoulders at the camera, and there was a brief pause as he let everyone digest it — Damian was a truly mad lad — before he kept talking. “I want you to know that everyone watching this is invited, and encouraged to come. If you thought Damian’s beach party was crazy, well you have my personal assurance that this is going to be even better.” Brian leaned closer to the camera, and smiled.

“I’d especially love it if everyone’s best friend, the Weekend Warrior, showed up. I hope you’re watching, because please. Come to the party.” The smile grew a little bit more, flashing perfectly straight and white teeth. “We’ll get together. Have a few laughs.” Brian winked at the camera. It was a dare. It was a challenge. It would surely be accepted.

He straightened back up, and finished off. “Boat leaves at 8:45 tonight. Don’t be late. Thank you for your time, and have a beautiful rest of your day. If you have any questions about the party, find myself, one of my sisters, or Damian and we’ll fill you in on the details. See you there.”

Brynn raised an eyebrow at Brian’s little monologue. Another party? Hosted by the Helmsley's and Damian? This was sure going to be interesting. She looked over to Riley, searching for some type of guidance on how to handle this, but then just decided to fuck it and respond on a whim. “Thank you, Brian, for coming on the show this morning.” Not wanting to get into trouble with the administration or her cohost, she followed up with a brief disclaimer for the audience. “Please remember that if you do decide to partake in tonight’s...events, make good choices and don’t have too much fun. After all, tomorrow is still a school day!” The words tasted so sour in her mouth. Since when was she the poster child for good decisions?

At this point, nothing could surprise Riley. Brian announcing a party, after yesterday’s incident, and also challenging the largest radical that walked this school, and Brynn simmering down the reality of the situation. Another party. Bigger, better, and most definitely badder. But what was administrators going to do? Take their students’ rights away to enjoy themselves outside of school hours? Potentially losing an exceptional amount of funding from the people that keep this school growing and thriving. Yeah, right. Punishments would happen after the storm. For now, it was the calm before the storm. “Look at Damian go. Keeping the Norman community together! A celebration of the new semester, which will be the best one yet. What’s our motto? ‘Today Well Lived’. So Beverly Hills High, keep living. Make memories. And don’t stop being you. Here’s to the New Year! I’m Riley Wells, this is my brilliant co-host Brynn Payne, and our star guest, Brian Helmsley. Thanks for watching.”

End of segment.

Brynn hadn’t been able to focus all day. She doodled in her notebook during Math, stared blankly at the wall during Science, and even skipped History. No matter what she did, her mind kept wandering to this morning’s events, and how she let herself cry. The last time she cried was in 2034, so this was a big deal. Brynn never let herself get hurt; she was the heartbreaker who crushed the dreams of her suitors, but here she was, an unstable ball of emotion on the receiving end of things. This whole situation was strange and foreign to her, and she couldn’t deal with it like a normal human. For most people, catching feelings would be a good thing, but for cold-blooded and indifferent Brynn, this showed that she actually had a heart- contrary to BHHS’s beliefs- and that meant game over.

Sitting on the ground against the wall of the janitors closet during lunch period, she sent a short text to the person she needed to talk to most at that very moment.

To: The Hotter Sterling
I need you. Janitor’s closet, fourth floor.

Though he didn’t respond to the text message she’d sent, it didn’t take long for Sean to show up at the janitor’s closet. Maybe it was that he detected a hint of urgency in her text, and he’d moved quickly, or maybe he’d just been on the same floor already. It didn’t really matter. The important thing was less than a minute after she’d sent the text, the door opened and Sean let himself in.

He shut it quietly behind himself and looked down at her. Before asking what she wanted, and rather than assuming she wanted him sexually, Sean opened with. “Are you okay? You worried me.” He said, folding his arms over his chest. She seemed alright… “What’s up, Brynn?”

Brynn was shocked with how quick Sean appeared in front of her, it was as if she had snapped her fingers and poof! he was there. Looking up at him somberly, she didn’t bother to remove the hair that was covering her right eye, which made her look all the more pathetic. That’s what she was at this moment- pitiful. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” She mumbled in a quiet voice, a tone that she’d never really used before. “It’s been a rough morning.”

It was then that Sean got a better look at her. She looked so… broken. Sean sat down beside her and wrapped his arms around her shoulder, pulling her toward him. “Hey, we all have rough days sometimes,” he said, giving her a tiny smile before he reached out with his hand and moving the hair out of her right eye. “There. Now you can see me. Wanna talk about it? I don’t think anyone is going to bother us here…”

Brynn let out a deep sigh, looking over at Sean, leaning into him and letting her head rest on his shoulder. Affection was nice; she would never outright admit that she was into this touchy-feely type of interaction, but she did indeed crave it every once in a while. “No one’s gonna bother us- they saw me walk in and no one ever knocks on a door after I go in.” Brynn didn’t even let out a laugh at her own self-deprecating joke- that’s when you know something is off.

“You know when you’re sick, and your parents try to give you medicine, but you don’t take it cause you think you’re invincible?” She asked, the random thought coming to mind out of nowhere. “You go on and on saying that you’re fine without it, using every opportunity to show them that you’re better, and then eventually it just hits you that you should’ve taken it when you had the chance?”

“Yeah, I think I know what that's like…” Sean said, using the hand tucked around Brynn to play with her hair gently as she spoke. “Brynn, what's going on? You don't seem very Brynn-y to me. I'm not sure if I like it.” He explained, peering into her eyes.

Brynn looked down at the ground. “Well, that’s how I’m feeling right now.” She stated, still not bothering to look over at Sean. Letting her guard down was tough, and it was something that Brynn almost never did. Because when she open the floodgates, it becomes a tidal wave that you can’t stop. “I think that I’m invincible most, if not all, of the time, and I push everyone away because I like to call the shots. It’s fucked up, I know it’s fucked up. It’s the way I am,” She shook her head, exhaling loudly to break up her thoughts. “But I’m the sick kid who won’t take the medicine when she needs it. I’m pushing you away when I really shouldn’t be.”

“Being invincible, like really, truly invincible… That would suck, don’t you think?” Sean asked, initially choosing to not address what she said about pushing him away. “I think most of what makes us human is stuff like that. Like, feelings. Or even being sick. Weakness makes you human. Being invincible would just be shitty. As for you pushing me away…” Sean was preparing to address the big hitter, and he cupped Brynn’s chin in his hands and tilted her head so she had to look at him. “Well, I’m still here aren’t I? I told you not to worry about that. Push and shove all you want; I’m not going anywhere. Okay?”

“Yeah, it would. But sometimes I wish I was invincible so that I could just do whatever I wanted with no consequences.” Brynn continued shifting her gaze towards the floor until she felt Sean’s gentle touch moving her chin towards him. She didn’t want to make eye contact, but he thought otherwise, so she obliged and looked him straight in the eye. “You’re still here now…” She started, continuing on after gazing away at the supplies stacked against the wall. “But I can’t control if in the future you leave or stay and that’s what scares me most.” Brynn finished her thought, begrudgingly shifting her eyes towards the blonde.

Sean leaned down and kissed Brynn gently, pulling away to smile at her. “Brynn, it’s okay. Just be good to me, and I won’t go anywhere. I’ll be good to you, and you won’t go anywhere. That’s how this works, right? It’s not hard. Just chill. Be yourself, and I’ll be myself. Isn’t that good enough?” He asked, resting their foreheads together. “No one is invincible, Brynn. Not me, not you. Not Selena, not Hailey. Nobody. It’s just, life. Sometimes it sucks, sometimes it doesn’t suck. I’m offering to be with you during the times that it sucks, and the times that it doesn’t suck. Like… a team, I guess? I dunno. I’m new to interacting with girls. Especially cute ones.”

The brunette sighed, closing her eyes and breathing in Sean’s manly musk as they pressed foreheads. He smelled good, a woodsy aroma, and the scent helped her calm down just a tiny bit. Brynn let herself smirk at his comment, the first smile she had worn during the conversation. “Yeah, that’s good enough, that’s more than good enough.” She replied, letting her lids flutter open to Sean’s baby blues. “You better hang on though, I’m known to be quite the rollercoaster.”

“I’ve never been on a rollercoaster before.”

Josephine slid across the hardwood with her socks, coming to a stop she glared at the dog that was standing seven feet in front of her wagging his tail, a shoe in his mouth. “Duke I swear. This isn’t a game. I don’t need you destroying another shoe, plus I don’t have time for this. Savannah is going to be here soon, so be a good boy and Drop it.”

If dogs could smile, Duke would be grinning as he took off running again. A groan followed by a few curse words escaping Josie’s mouth as she took off after her pit bull. He was typically well behaved and really good at listening to commands, he had been trained and raised in a military house. But it seemed to be that when it came to Josie’s shoes everything he was taught was forgotten.

The chase had been going for at least ten minutes now through the Erickson household, a slight trail of chaos following the two as they ran through the house. Finally getting an opening, Josie jumped and basically tackled Duke to the ground. The dog just thought it was part of the game as he began to wrestle free from her grip but Josie just grabbed her shoe and tried to pull it from Duke’s mouth, thus they reached a stalemate as they both held onto the shoe tightly. Duke growled playfully at Josie and Josie growled back at her dog, a slight grin on her face. Even if it was her shoe, she loved playing with her dog.

Savvy made her way down the street, walking towards the Erickson household with a spring in her step. She and her best friend didn’t live too far from each other, which was nice for days like today when the sun was shining brightly and the redhead wanted to get a little bit of exercise. After all, she was going to be drinking at the party tonight and she wanted to burn off some calories before she consumed anything. Additionally, she couldn’t drive over, because she was being picked up by a very special someone for a very special reason.

Although she was extremely excited to get to spend some extra time with Trevor before the party, nerves coursed through her veins at the thought of hanging out alone with him. What if they had nothing to talk about? What if she said something stupid? Different scenarios ran through her head as she walked up the front steps of the house that had become her second home over the past 6 months since she moved to Beverly Hills. Not bothering to knock, Savannah turned the knob and pushed open the door, coming face to face with Josie playing with her beloved pup. “Hi love,” She greeted, slipping off her shoes in the entrance way.

At the sound of the door opening Duke’s ears perked up and he let go of the shoe when Savannah spoke up, bounding over to the redhead happily, his tail wagging back and forth. “I Win! That’s a forfeit Duke. The shoe is forever mine, as it should be.” Josephine pushed herself off the ground and smiled at her friend, shoe in hand. “Hey girl! Ready to get all done up for your pre-party date and possibly post party date?” Josie wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.

Savannah bent down and rubbed Duke’s belly, letting out a laugh at the dogs excited nature. Looking up at Josie, eyes wide like a deer in headlights, she stood back up and sighed. “I’m so not ready for this,” She exhaled, running her hands through her hair. She meant it both literally and figuratively, as she had yet to do her makeup or pick out an outfit in addition to her reckless nerves. “You’ve gotta help me, or else there will be no post party date, or date on Friday, or anything ever.”

“You know I will always help you Sav.” Josie walked over to her friend and grabbed her hand, “Now let’s go get you looking all fly so he can’t keep his eyes off you-” She paused for a moment looking over her friend. “Scratch that, so he can’t keep his hands off you cause darling, he already can’t keep his eyes off you!” Josie winked before pulling Savannah through the house to her room.

Pushing Savannah gently into the chair in front of her vanity, Josie ran off to her closet. Going straight to the back she smiled to herself as she went through a section of clothing hanging in her closet that was different than the rest of her clothes. It was clothing Josie had bought specifically in her friend’s style and size for whenever she stayed over and in case of times like this. She’d already surprised Savannah with it, yeah it was a bit weird and excessive but Josie had gotten bored one day plus she just loved her friend so she decided why the hell not.

After grabbing a few things to create a few outfits, Josie walked back out to her friend, a grin on her face. “So you got options! In your fashion style and size, a part of your section in my closet that I have kept secret for a moment like this.” As she spoke, Josephine laid out the outfits on her bed shoes, accessories, and all. “Sooo… What do you think?”

Savvy followed Josie up to her room, making herself comfortable in front of the girl’s vanity. Gazing at her reflection in the mirror, she sighed, nerves becoming more and more present. She was getting all worked up about what to wear and how to look, but she knew that wouldn’t matter at the end of the day. Still, Savvy wanted to look and feel her best going into this. When her friend reappeared, tons of options in hand, she stood up and meandered over to peruse the outfit choices. Somehow, Josie got Sav’s style down to a tee, as all of these would be something she would pull out from her own closet. “Aww, Josie, you shouldn’t have…” She started, looking back up at her friend with a smile. Sav was lucky to have Josie as a friend- especially since she went out of her way and did such nice things for her like this. Her eyes darted back to the clothes, trying to decide what to try on first. “Hold tight, I’ll try some stuff on.”

Grabbing outfit number one, she headed to Josie’s closet, pulling on the top and jeans. Reappearing quickly, she gazed at herself in the mirror, admiring her reflection, but scrutinizing the outfit. “Although I love the shorts, I think it’s a little too casual. I could definitely dress it up a little bit. She murmured to herself, playing with the hem of the shorts. This would be something she’d see herself wearing to school, but today was more important than that!

She grabbed option two, the dress having stood out among the rest of the choices. A dress would be cute, right? Returning to the closet, she slipped the thin fabric over her head and pulled on the matching sheer cardigan. Stepping out, she once again didn’t think this was the right look. She didn’t want to dress up too much, and besides, it was still January, and Beverly Hills was surprisingly colder than Texas during this time of year. Savvy didn’t want to be cold, they were getting ice cream! “This isn’t right either.” She grumbled, shaking her head as she gazed at herself in the mirror. Picking up option three, she tried it on like the others, and yet, it still didn’t scream ‘I’m going on a date with Trevor and I look great’. Admitting defeat, she flopped down onto the bed, “It’s no use, I’m a lost cause. Game over, I’m not going.” She complained, her voice very muffled as her head was buried in Josie’s bed sheets.

Watching her friend silently as she tried on each outfit Josie couldn’t help but think her friend looked great in each outfit but she could tell that Savannah wasn’t feeling any of the outfits. When her friend decided she was done and that she wasn’t going, Josie just shook her head as she stood up. “You are going. No ifs, ands, or buts!”

Jumping up onto the bed and standing above her friend she looked down at her, “Now get your booty up and into my closet! We are going through every item I have for you and all my clothing if we need to. An outfit exists that will make you feel good and make Trevor go ‘Hot Damn!’” To emphasize that she would not take no for an answer, Josie began jumping up and down on the bed to bounce her friend.

As the bed began to bounce, Sav groaned, too frustrated to move herself from Josie’s path of destruction. However, after being moved around, she obliged. “Okay, okay, I’m going…”Flipping over, she grabbed one of the pillows off of her friends bed and chucked it in her direction, not bothering to aim. “Can I wear a paper bag? Maybe that’ll do the trick.” Savannah sighed, sitting up properly and looking up at her friend. With a final loud exhale, she stood back up and meandered into the closet once more in search of the perfect outfit. “Will you notice if I just take up residence in here? Lord, you have SO MANY shoes…”

Catching the pillow her friend threw at her Josie jumped to the ground tossing the pillow back on the bed carelessly. “I mean if you just wear a paper bag and nothing else…” She trailed off winking at her friend as she went ahead of her to her closet and began looking through the different clothing.

“Honestly, I probably wouldn’t notice. I could probably make furniture out of all my shoes and it could be like a mini apartment. And yes I know I have a lot of shoes, I take pride in my foot apparel… plus I keep having to replace the shoes Duke decides to destroy….” Josie turned and looked back out to her room where her dog was currently taking up residence on her bean bag. “Little brat…” She muttered before turning and looking to the redhead. “Now tell me, what vibes are you wanting to put off tonight?”

“He’s lucky he’s cute.” Savvy stated, gazing over lovingly at the adorable pup lying comfortably and quietly, a stark contrast from before. Looking over her shoulder at Josie, Savannah sighed, rummaging through the closet whilst talking. “I don’t know,” She started, leafing through item after item, “I just want to wear something that’ll make me feel confident. I like Trevor a lot and I don’t want to mess things up before they can even begin.” She turned around completely, looking her friend in the eye.

“He’s special- I can’t ruin the chance I’ve got here. I-” Savvy started to say something else, but something behind Josie caught her eye. Moving around her, she plucked the dress off of the wire hanger and held it up against her body. “I need to wear something like this.”

Josie nodded, listening to her friend as she looked around the clothes in her closet trying to figure out the perfect thing for her friend to wear. It was when her friend found a dress for herself that the wheels in Josie’s mind really got turning. Taking one long look at the dress, she pieced together the other parts of the outfit in her head before even turning to get them. Making her way from one section of her closet to another, grabbing shoes, a jacket, and some accessories, Josie got the things that she felt would complete the outfit. Turning to her friend with all the items in hand, she wore a grin. “Try it on with all of these.” Is all she said before shoving the things into Savvy’s hand and exiting the closet.

In Savvy’s eyes, Josie was a outfit making machine. Not even two seconds after she had spotted the perfect dress, her friend had already accessorized it perfectly, coming up with an ensemble that the redhead could have only dreamed about making up herself. Slipping everything on quicker than lightning, Sav emerged from the closet wearing the clothes, an excited smile beaming on her face. This was the kind of outfit she needed; it was casual enough to make it seem like herself, but dressed up enough to show Trevor that she put effort in. And she wanted to make sure that he could tell. Bonus: It was perfect for the party. “I love this, do you?” She asked Josie for her approval, sitting down at the vanity and looking over at her friend expectantly. Next was hair and makeup, which would be a breeze in comparison to this.

“Girl I loved everything you tried on, but this one is especially perfect for tonight. I could tell from the moment you walked out that it was the one. It enhances your natural confidence and beauty! Now for hair and makeup I say we go loose curls and just the lightest touch of makeup because it would be a sin to cake your gorgeous face.” Josie walked over to her friend and turned her so she was facing the mirror, her hands on the red heads shoulders. When she finished talking she winked with a playful smirk on her face before going and plugging her curling iron in.

“I thought so too. I feel like this one is me, but the enhanced version of me.” Savvy replied with a bright smile, even brighter than the one before. Looking over to her friend, she truly realized how lucky she was to have someone so caring on her team. Her worst fear of people abandoning her was the last thought on her mind when she was around Josephine, since she knew that they’d remain friends- best friends- for a very long time. Heck, they’d probably have rocking chairs next to each other in the nursing home.
“Loose curls sound good to me. I seriously don’t know what I’d do without you Josie.”

“You’d die of boredom without me.” Josie joked as she picked up the curling iron and got to work on Savannah’s hair. After years of dance competitions she had gotten the art of doing hair down to a tee. With the redhead’s hair being silky smooth and not like Josie’s coils at all, the process went quick and easy. The curls turning out perfect in Josie’s eyes, no where near as perfect as her friend though. She had always dreamed of getting to get to do girly things with a best friend when she was younger. Living in a military home being raised by just her father with an older brother made it so things were always more rough and dirty during her childhood. She didn’t mind roughhousing or training with her father and brother, but she always wanted a connection with another female. Luckily that is what she got with Savannah and she knew that their friendship would last years.

“There you go. Hair done! I can do your makeup too if you want but I feel you are better at natural makeup than I am. You know the only makeup I tend to wear other than eyeliner is dance makeup and well that’s usually… you know… intense.” Josie made a face when mentioning the dance makeup she has had to do, internally cringing at the thought of some of the worst looks she’s had to wear. “Yeah… You should definitely do your own makeup.” Josie giggled and smiled at Savannah.

Savvy admired her curls in the mirror- damn Josie was certainly good at doing hair. Much better than Sav would ever be. Checking the phone, she realized she didn’t have too much time left before her prince charming showed up, so her makeup would have to be a little rushed. Quick under pressure, she pulled out her makeup and began applying it at an accelerated speed, all the while making sure it remained up to her standards. Foundation, concealer, eyeshadow, eyeliner and mascara made their way onto her face, seamlessly tying everything together. Exhaling a sigh of relief, she checked the time on her phone, and was pleased to find out she had five minutes to spare. “Trev’s gonna be here any minute. Any last adjustments?”

Speak of the devil, and a particularly angelic redhead shall appear. Trevor Wells had been by Josie’s house once or twice before, but that was a long time ago, so he still had to GPS his way there. An army green Jeep pulled up to the curb beside the Erickson’s driveway before the engine fell silent. Inside the Jeep, Trevor nervously ran his his palms over his thighs. Should he have prepared more? Like… brought flowers? He was overthinking things, probably, this was only their first date. Semi-date? Holy crap, he was going on a date. Sighing at himself and his inability to be as cool as someone like Damian in this situation, Trev stepped out of the vehicle and made his trek towards the front door. Trevor paused a moment before ringing the doorbell and then immediately put his hands in his pockets while he waited for her.

The sound of the doorbell echoed through the entire house, and Sav’s face paled immediately. “Oh jeez, no time for last minute adjustments. It’s go time.” Looking over at Josie nervously, Savvy inspected her reflection in the mirror one last time. “Guess it’s now or never.” Gathering her purse, wallet, and phone, she made her way down the stairs and towards the front door, hoping Josie was not too far behind. Taking a deep breath, Savvy turned the knob and opened it to find herself face to face with Trevor. God, could he be any cuter? “Hi,” She stated casually, a smile forming on her lips.

Josie followed behind Savannah after the doorbell rang, biting her lip to hold back a huge grin at the thought of the two seeing each other. They were two cute, awkward redheads, and she knew it would just be the most precious thing ever. They already were the most precious couple in her mind and they weren’t even dating. When Savannah opened the door, Josie decided that for the meantime she would stay silent and in the shadows for now. But she wanted pictures of the two before they left and she would make herself known then.

Trevor didn’t know what he had expected. Perhaps for Josie to have answered the door? Instead, he was face to face with his dream girl looking… very much so dreamy. Trev took his hands out of his pockets and stood up straighter, feigning confidence. Silently, he just stared with a slight smile on his face until she spoke. Right, he shouldn’t just stare, say hi, Trevor. Yikes. “Hi.” He responded in greeting. “You look… great. Really great.”

Only six words had come out of Trevor’s mouth, and Sav was already the color of a firetruck. Her crush has just told her she looked great! Wow, what a date this was going to be. Sav looked down bashfully at the ground, a shy laugh preceding her response. “Thanks,” The redhead looked back up at him for only a moment, just so she wouldn’t turn more red than she already was. Gazing over her shoulder at Josie, Sav gave her a little wink in thanks. She would have looked like a hot mess if it weren’t for her bestie coming in to save the day. “Um, shall we?” Savannah asked nervously, wanting to make an exit quickly before Josephine could do anything embarrassing- she knew she would if given the chance.

“Hold up. You two don't get to go anywhere, not yet. First ya girl is gonna need some pictures of her favorite redheads!!!”

A Dubs wasn’t gonna do well in school. It was just a fact of life! His mom always said that some people were learners, and some people were doers, and that he was a doer! Now he wasn’t sure exactly what that meant, but he was confident that his mom wouldn’t totally mind if he skipped a class every once in a while. So, he did! Every once in a while. Maybe once a day? Sometimes twice. That was every once in a while, as far as he was concerned. A Double popped up onto the roof and looked around, and found… another person!

Well, this was awkward. Carefully approaching the other male, A Double asked, “Hey, man. Is this roof taken? Cuz I was tryin’ to refresh my high.” There, take it casually. If the dude said no, then as long as Brynn wasn’t busy, underneath the bleachers would probably be free! A Double had options, he just liked sitting up here and staring out into the distance.

Topher had rushed upstairs as soon as his last class had ended, he needed a cig and he needed one badly. It was a terrible habit that he knew that he needed to stop, but hell, no one said he should quit, so he didn’t. His parents would kill him if they were to ever find out, but they hadn’t noticed him since his 15th birthday, so he was in the clear. Looking over at the guy who had spoke, he breathed in deeply and exhaled smoke, “You and me both.” He replied, taking another drawl from his cigarette before speaking once more, “It’s a free country, aint it?” Scare people off all he wanted, but he couldn’t claim territory even if he tried. Stupid “This land is your land, this land is my land” bullshit.

“Sorta, but not really. There’s a lot of stuff that we can’t do and a lot of stuff that should be free, but isn’t. Like water. My family has a well we drilled ourselves — I hit the button that drilled it! — and we still have to give the city money on taxes over the water. Isn’t that wild?” A Double asked, before he slung his backpack in front of him and grinned at the other guy, sitting down on the floor and unzipping it. He pulled out his drug paraphernalia of choice: James Bong, followed by his lighter. “Hey do you want some of this? It has less tar than normal cigarettes. It tastes better too, I assume, since cigarettes kinda smell icky. You can say no though.”

“Yeah...wild.” Topher replied, unenthused by this guys story. He didn’t find too many people interesting, so it was quite difficult to hold his attention longer than five seconds. At the offer of something other than a cigarette, Toph shook his head, taking another drag of his tar filled cancer stick of choice. “I’ll pass, appreciate the gesture though.” He thanked the boy. Guess he should probably introduce himself, after all, this kid offered up his own personal stash, the least Toph could do is offer up his name. “The name’s Christopher, but call me Topher. And you are?”

“Nice to meet you, Topher! My name is A Double. Like, there are two A’s. Two A’s in my initials. So Double A. You know what I mean? You can call me A Dubs if you want. Or whatever. Just don’t ask what the A’s stand for.” A Double explained, waving from his seat on the floor. He leaned down to the piece of glass, sucked, and lit it. Then he pulled away and started coughing, looking up at the sky for a few seconds before he stabilized again. “What are you doin’ on the roof?” A Double and Topher were different people. A Double was social and happy, Topher… wasn’t.

Topher nodded, “A Double, don’t ask, got it.” He repeated to himself, blowing smoke out of his mouth once more. Looking around, he tried to think of an answer to the question. Why was he on the roof? There were many options for smoking, but he always came here. “Because instead of having people staring at me, I get to smoke up here in peace while I stare at them.” Toph replied. Up here, people didn’t glare or gawk at him, and instead he got to look down on everyone else. “I could ask you the same thing, though.”

A Double thought about it, then shrugged, “Same thing, basically. I like to look out at the horizon. It’s like a video game, you know? Sort of. Anywhere I can see from here, I can go. That’s crazy, to me. It’s pretty cool. Maybe we are free, huh?” A Double moved to put his glassware away, before he paused and gave one last valiant offer. “Are you sure you don’t want a hit? I promise it’s good. It’s the best, even.” There, now no matter WHAT, A Double had given it a beyond solid try.

Toph smirked, this kid was deep, much more than indicated on the surface. Maybe he should hang out with the burners more often; maybe he’d get some song inspiration this way. In regards to the weed, he caved. “Yeah, sure. One hit.” He took it from A Double’s outstretched hand and pulled out his trusty lighter. Inhale. Light. Exhale. He could go through the motions of smoking a bowl in his sleep. He was right, it was good, better than some of the shittier strains he’d experienced in his life. “You didn’t lie, thanks man.” Topher stated, handing back the piece to him.

A Double beamed and took the piece, carefully sticking it back into his backpack. “hey, thanks! I always load James Bong in the morning with the flavor or the month. See, my dad’s friend’s parents, so my friend’s grandparents are like… weed barons. So I always have the best of the best of the best that this world has to offer.” A Double explained, zipping up the pack and standing up. “There’s more too, but I just take a little bit in my backpack while I’m wanderin’ around the school. I have some in the car and some in the locker too, but a lot of it is at home. If you ever wanna come over and get high and like… ride dirt bikes, let me know. That would be cool.” A Double suggested, looking out into the depths of Los Angeles.

“James Bong… what a name.” Topher laughed, instantly thinking about how he referenced himself as James Bond to Miriam yesterday. He hadn’t seen her since band practice… maybe she’d be at the party tonight? With a sigh, the brunette boy replied to his new friend. “That’s nice that you’ve got a solid connection. I don’t smoke a ton of weed, but I’ll indulge occasionally.” Taking one last puff of his cigarette, he let the butt fall to the ground and let his shoe do the work. “Sure, that would cool.” He nodded, thinking to himself that it actually would be nice to have some friends other than Lucky and… well, Lucky.

“Dope. Does tomorrow work? I’m not busy tomorrow. Or today. Technically I’m a little busy today, but I could just like add you to the plans for today. Unless you’re going to that party? See, my plans for the day basically revolve around… not going to the party. But you seem like one of those ‘cool dudes.’ You know, the dudes that wear sunglasses and try to hook up with as many girls as possible? Parties are probably your jam. And that’s cool and all, but I’m all partied out for the rest of my life probably. I think if I NEVER went to a party again, it would be too soon.” He paused. Breathe in. Exhale. Reach into the jacket pocket. Gummy worm. Eat the gummy worm. Breathe again. Exhale. Talk. “Maybe you can hang out with me and my friends for lunch if you want. Then we can get things like, planned. For tomorrow, I mean. There’s other stuff to do at my house too, if you wanna do other things.”

Toph nodded, startled slightly by how long A Double could ramble on without breathing. Kid had strong lungs. “I guess I am one of those ‘cool dudes’.” He airquoted, pulling out his sunglasses from the pocket of his leather jacket to show as proof. “Yeah, I’ll be going to the party tonight, I’ve got some things to take care of. But hey, lunch sounds good.” Topher replied, stuffing his hands into his pockets and looking down off of the roof where students were meandering.

“Nice, dude you even have the shades! That’s wicked. I’m over here, just a pothead. I wouldn’t change a thing though. Labels are just labels! You are who you make yourself out to be, nobody else has any influence on that, y’know? I work hard to be someone that people can enjoy spending time with. And I think I accomplish that. You know, mostly.” A Double shrugged his shoulders, then tapped his chin thoughtfully, “so for lunch, just meet us here? I’ll bring my crew here, then as a bigger crew, we can go as a team to lunch. We’re gonna go get wings from the place down the street — the place that has really yummy potato wedges as well as chicken stuff? — and then across the street from there they have this frozen yogurt place where you just take tubs and fill them up with yogurt and as many toppings as you want and then you give it to the nice lady with the nose piercings and the neon blue hair and she weighs it and then you pay by weight. My treat, I’ll pay since it’ll be your first adventure with us.”

“Yeah, I’ll meet you here… who is the ‘us’ you’re referring to?” Topher asked, curious as to how many people he was talking about. But food did sound good right about now; his stomach rumbling slightly at the thought of something to eat. “Wings and frozen yogurt would hit the spot right about now,” The boy laughed, realizing how hungry he actually was. He had only eaten a small breakfast, after all, there wasn’t much food in the house.

“Well, there’s me… and Q… and Wyatt… and Raf… and Raf’s girly friend… and now you. So that’s us.” A Double explained, counting on his fingers. “Seven?”

“You know, 7 is a lucky number...”