"Did you find an apartment yesterday Dad?"

"Nope. I'm going searching again after work today. I could pick you up after school if you want to come with?"

"That'd be nice. See you then." Lily said, slinging her bag onto her back and heading out for school. Her phone vibrated in her coat pocket,

Jacob - Hey, Lily? Do you have any more gigs coming up any time soon?

Lily sighed, and pocketed her phone again. She unlocked her bike and saddled it, preparing to race to school, as she was already running late.

"Lily, you're late, do you want to go in the car?" Her father said, emerging from the house.

"Thanks Dad." She hastily relocked her bike and climbed into the hatchback.

"I was thinking you could drive. To practice. Seeing as you've got that Learner's License." He said through the window.

Instead of getting out and walking round, Lily tried to clamber over to the driver's seat. She rolled her eyes as her father tutted at her antics, and when he was seated and strapped she started the engine.

Lily reversed out of the driveway and made it all the way to school just in time for the first bell. She waved frantically at her father as she sprinted to the school doors.

She burst into her math classroom and slumped down into the last seat.

"Late start huh?" Lily mumbled in response, trying to get her breath back before replying.

"I slept past my alarm Jake. Don't bug me. You know I'm usually great at getting to school."

"Mm. Like the time you whacked that Freshman?"

"You're pushing it Jacob. You're like, this far from over the edge." Lily placed her fingers together and waved them in front of Jacob's face. "You have no idea how lucky I am that this teacher's always late." As she said that, the door swung open and the teacher strode in, piles of books and folders in his arms. He dumped the lot onto his desk.

"Do you want to have lunch with me?" Jacob whispered, getting started on the problem on the board.

"Sure." Lily said, pulling her books out of her bag and taking a pen out of her pencil case.

---/|\----

A few hours later, at lunch, Lily was slumped on a bench on the field, waiting for Jacob to reappear with his lunch from his locker. She was sprawled out, exhausted from her lessons. She was sweaty and hot, even with her jumper off, and sitting out in a weak but warm sun wasn't really helping.

"Jakey-boy, I need an icepack." She exclaimed as Jacob sat down on the grass beside the bench.

"What did you do?"

"I decided to come to school on a day like this. The weather's not even good."

"Come on, lighten up. You've got what? Less than a half day left then you're off! I have Double Science then Double PE."

"Yeah. I have English Lit, then I have to go look at apartments for my dad to move into, then I have to go back home to my parents, who are currently going through a divorce and can't stand a day without shouting at each other! Who has it best, Jacob?" Jacob looked down, "Sorry. I'm just... Not in a good place right now."

"It's alright. You know, if you want, some time this week you could vent some anger out, in, say, another chocolate torture session?"

"No. I may be cruel but I'm not that cruel. Is there anything I could torture Dylan with?"

"Well he doesn't like losing at Monopoly-"

"I'm ace at Monopoly!"

"He doesn't like bananas... And he hates his brother, so there are three things that you can do to piss him off, get his brother to eat a banana while winning at Monopoly."

"Fantastic. We'll organise that, and we can pass it off as an excuse for him to meet REJ. This'll be great!" Lily yawned in the middle of the sentence and the words were deformed and inaudible.

---/|\---

It was nearing the end of Lily's final lesson and she was slumped over her desk, not paying much attention to the teacher.

"Lily? Miss Darkston, are you paying attention?"

"No. Sorry Miss." Lily said, enticing an 'ooh' out of her classmates.

"Lily, I'll need a word with you after class please." Another 'ooh' was extracted from the class and they all grimaced in Lily's direction.

After enduring the rest of the lesson, being only a little less focused on her personal problems, Lily walked to her teacher's desk as the rest of her class filed out of the room.

"Lily, how are you?"

"I'm fine. Physically."

"What about mentally or emotionally?"

"Stressed."

"And why is that?"

"Because my parents are going through a divorce and they can't not shout at each other."

"You do know that if you ever need someone to talk to-"

"I can come and find you, I know that already but I don't need to. I have plenty of friends that can help." Lily walked out of the classroom without letting her or her teacher utter another word.

---/|\---

After hours of apartment hunting, Lily and her father returned to one of the first ones that they'd looked at together and Johnathon filled out an application, but Lily was standing in a corner, flicking through emails, replying to messages and checking facebook and twitter and Instagram and snap-chat.

"Come on Lily, we'd better get you home."

"Oh thank God. At. Long. Last! I'm starved." Lily exclaimed, striding out of the apartment building door, and making straight for her father's car.

"So, how was school?"

"Oh, you know, terrible. Aside from the lonely free periods I spend in the practice rooms once a week, it was boring."

"Well, next year you'll be off at college doing whatever you want to do, whenever you want to do it. And anyway, why don't you take Jazz or Richard or Eleanor?"

"They don't have free periods, plus they'd be really distracting. I wouldn't get anything done!"

Soon enough Lily and her father arrived at home and were getting out of the car when a familiar car drove up with the window rolled down, "So this is the one?" Dylan said, Lily nodded in response, grinning widely, "Well, I've heard a lot about you, Graham."

"I'm surprised you remember! I mentioned it once when we met in the park."

"I'd just like to interject here, I don't like being referred to as 'it' and my name is not Graham." Johnathon joked (knowing full well that Dylan was talking to the car), his own wide grin on his face, "Anyway, Lily, introduce me."

"Dad, this is Dylan, Dylan, this is Dad."

"Hey man. 'Sup?"

"Dad, stop. Just... Just stop." Lily cringed, pushing him towards the house hurriedly.

"Can't stay Lily, but it was nice seeing you!"

"You too. Bye." Lily turned back to her father, to see him still grinning with childish glee,

"Should we be expecting wedding bells soon?"

"He is a friend, Dad, and just a friend."

"For now?"

"Oh. My. God. Dad. Just let. It. Go."

"I know what that means 'Lily-Willy'!" Her dad skipped away, laughing like a maniac. He danced through the door, held open by a befuddled looking Nathan.

"He thinks Dylan and I will-"

"Oh, I know what he thinks Dylan and you will. But does he have to make so much noise?"

"Well you are, technically, meant to be working. Why you off shift?"

"I'm... Shall we say, entertaining?"

"Ew. TMI Nate. TMI." Nathan wandered back upstairs, chuckling, as his sister stood cringing in the doorway, "Why'd you have to say it like that? That's just- That's just- Ew!" Lily shouted, accentuating her point by slamming the door shut behind her.

She wandered to the kitchen, pulled an apple out of the fridge and headed upstairs.

---/|\---

Lily tiptoed past her brother's bedroom door, and when it opened she stopped and immediately closed her eyes. She felt along the wall and used it to guide her to her room.

"Hey, are you alright?"

"Um yeah. I just... Nate said he was 'entertaining' his new lady friend."

"He meant like entertaining. As in, board games and that crap. Your brother is adorable."

"My brother? No! My brother is an asshole." She said, opening her eyes to find the same attractive young woman as the last time. Dark-skinned with shiny teeth on show because of her delight, her smooth dark hair was pinned into a neat bun.

"Psh!"

"Jaz! It's your turn." Nathan yelled from his room.

"Oh. That's going to get weird later..." Lily muttered under her breath.

"So, I've got to go, your brother awaits defeat!" Jasmin slid back through the door. Lily shivered.

She took a bite of her apple and carried on to her room, with her unoccupied hand she pulled out her phone and started texting Richard.

Nathan's new GF is called Jaz... KMN

Richard - You poor soul. What's in it for me?

Some Oreos?

Richard - Oreos?!

Richard - Oreos?!?!

Richard - Screw my art homework! I'm there!

Lily sighed, having already known that the promise of Oreos would drag Richard out of his house.

"Oh, hi Richard. Lily's upstairs, head on up." Her mother said as she opened the door for Richard. He made his way noisily up the stairs and announced himself as he strode into her room.

"Richard is here!"

"No! I don't believe it." Lily's voice dripped with obvious sarcasm.

"You know, guys have feelings too. Your sarcasm cuts through me like a knife."

"So which would hurt more?"

"The knife. Definitely. I mean, that's physical pain. See? I'm already over the whole snarkiness thing."

"It was not a thing! It's just me when I'm bored."

"Well let's give you something to do then, shall we?"

"Please!" Lily nodded her head excessively.

"Shall we embarrass your brother? Who, to be fair, has quite disappointed me today."

"What? Why?"

"Because he still hasn't seen the error of his ways, and that he's condemning thousands of humans to live without even the chance of him."

"Oh, shut up! He's straight as spaghetti!"

"Ah. But spaghetti is only straight until you get it wet."

"A shatterproof ruler then! He's not interested."

"Fine." Richard huffed, planting himself on the bed with his arms folded tightly across his chest, "Now where are those Oreos I was promised?"

Lily stood up and opened the door, "You coming?"

"Take me to your biscuits."

They made their way downstairs, Richard sniffing and huffing alternately in annoyance.

"Alright! Alright! Calm the hell down! I'm getting you your Oreos." Said Lily, her head shoved in a cupboard, her hand reached in and was awkwardly manoeuvred out with a long tube of Oreos held in it.

"Yes! My babies!" Richard yelled out, snatching them away and hugging them to his chest.

"Right... So... You're just going to- I'll just leave you to eating your babies then, shall I?" Lily shuffled back to the staircase, but her mother intercepted her before she could start up it,

"Oh, Lily darling, do you want to invite Richard to stay for dinner?"

"That'd be great!" Said Richard, appearing from the kitchen with the packet of Oreos open and about four in his hand at once. "My family's having all-veg night... It's not a bad thing, but it means a vegetable dessert, if only because Mom is insane." He shuddered violently.

---/|\---

Johnathon, Elizabeth, Nathan, Lily and Richard was sitting around the dining table in silence. Nathan and Lily were afraid to talk in case their parents started shouting; Johnathon and Elizabeth were afraid to talk in case they started shouting; and Richard was afraid to talk in case Nathan replied. Elizabeth cleared her throat,

"So, I'm out of town for a couple of weeks, so if you two want to invite a couple of friends round for some pizza some nights, that would be totally fine."

"Wait, when are you leaving?"

"Three days, why?"

"I've got a work trip in two that will last at least a week. If not more." When her father said this, Lily immediately looked at her brother, who had a sly smile on his face. She knew exactly what he was thinking.

"Well, Nate's an adult now, I think we can trust him to run the house for a week or two, don't you Lily?"

"Oh God no! Please don't go anywhere." Lily exclaimed, causing the whole table to burst into laughter.

"You'll be fine."

"Famous last words Mom."