Lily started to feel physically ill after her outburst in the corridor. She only managed to get through her first period of Biology and registration for History before she ran out of class to be violently sick in the ladies' room.

She stumbled down the corridor to the Nurse's Room. Nobody was sent to follow her or track her down. She was handed a few small tablets, which she pretended to throw down her neck, but she stowed them away in her pockets.

"I'll call for your mom to come pick you up."

"Can you - Call my dad, actually?"

"Sure," The nurse said, nodding slowly.

"Thanks," Lily croaked. She held her stomach and could feel it writhing again, "Bucket! Bucket, please!" She yelled and it only just got to her in time.

"Could I speak to Johnathon Darkston please?"

"Yes, yes, I understand completely, sir. But his daughter is sick and needs to be escorted home by a parent as soon as possible."

"Alright then. I'm very sorry for disturbing you sir," the nurse put the phone down. "Lily, I'm going to have to call your mother. Your father has very important business to be tending to."

"Fine."

---/|\---

The sleek black car was pristine, and at that moment Lily just wanted to ruin it by spewing out her insides. She sat in the back, bucket in her lap while her mom was sat twisted around in the driver's seat. They were parked in the front drive while Elizabeth gave her daughter a lecture on how it was the last time she was taking Lily out of school,

"It's your senior year, honey. If you want to get into a good college you really need to do well."

"Mom, I was vomiting all over the place! You're saying that next time this happens, you're going to make me stay at school?"

"No. Lily, I'm saying that it'd better not happen again," Lily sighed heavily in exasperation and got out of the car. She slammed the door as hard as she could, heard the reverberation throughout the suburbs and stormed into the house. Elizabeth was blinking rapidly, surprised at her daughter's sudden outburst.

Lily dropped her bag right in the middle of the hallway before running for the bathroom yet again.

She started to choke on tears, her throat burning. Lily promised herself that she was going to apologise as soon as she could drag herself away from the toilet. She didn't want to throw up in the middle of the word (would you?).

---/|\---

She was stuck in the bathroom until early afternoon, her throat was parched, her eyes were dry and her mouth was stuck with the bitter, disgusting taste of stale stomach acid. Lily had heard Nate come home and heard her mother leave for coffee with friends.

Nate's heavy metal music was as loud as it would go and he was, no doubt, in the kitchen downing a beer.

Lily staggered out of the bathroom and leaned against the door jamb of the kitchen. Crossing her arms tightly across her chest, she watched Nate head-banging violently and playing the air guitar,

"You know you're killing your brain cells? No wonder you're just the local pizza delivery boy without a girlfriend," He spun round wildly, almost knocking over his open can of beer, with a hand on his heart and a look of pure horror etched across his face. He slammed the pause button.

"What the hell? Lily! When did you get here?"

"About four and a half hours ago," She replied matter-of-factly.

"What's wrong, Lil?" he said, concern covering the shock. Lily fumed at the use of her old nickname.

"A, that name. And B, I was sick at school today."

"They told you, huh?"

"Yup," she said, popping the p.

"At least you weren't awake when they started shouting their heads off last night."

"You were?"

"Nah. They woke me up. I hate you for being such a deep sleeper."

Muffled shouting broke through the open window.

"And they're at it again," his arms flopping in exasperation, helplessness and uselessness. The door opened a crack and the volume grew by a few hundred decibels.

"And you were too busy to even talk to your only daughter today, who was sick at school because of what you told her this morning!"

"Hey, Nate -" Lily was cut off for a few moments by the sound of the door slamming, "Want to go get a coffee?"

"Coffee sounds good."

---/|\---

The two left promptly, picking up keys phones and change on the way out of the door. Both pressed the lock button to check for messages; Lily had dozens of messages from Jazz, Eleanor Richard and an unknown number.

-Jamie (Jazz) gave me your number. You weren't in Math today and I just wanted to check whether you were alright and also when I should give you the homework. It's Jacob, by the way.

Lily smiled to herself; Jazz never gave her real name away lightly. It had taken Lily four years to find it out, and even then it was from her parents. This probably meant that she was into Jacob and Lily was glad, Jazz hadn't been on a proper date since Ben.

"What are you smiling about?" Nate asked, nudging her shoulder and raising his eyebrow quizzically.

"Nothing. Just Jazz," she looked up at him and wiggled her own eyebrows.

"Another one, huh? I swear, she goes through the boys in your school like a blender. Note the sarcasm."

"No. You're thinking of Eleanor."

"The quiet one?"

"Yeah, sure, Nate. Note the sarcasm. Duh."

---/|\---

They reached the coffee shop in no time, Nate ordered a tall Americano while Lily ordered a chocolate muffin and a large hot chocolate. They found a small round table tucked away in the corner.

"So, anything happening in your social life?"

"Well, I was thinking of going to-" The rest if Nate's response was cut off by a burst of raucous laughter coming through the door. Lily's head whipped around and she recognised Jazz's bright red hair and Jacob's tall figure.

Her mouth paused mid-chew as she contemplated why the both of them would be here. School had just finished and Jazz never visited this coffee house unless she was with Lily.

"Oi! Lily! Nate! The Darkston two!" Jazz yelled across the room, turning everyone's heads. Lily waved half-heartedly. "Anyway, we were just on our way to your house," Jazz said, gradually getting quieter as the proximity between them grew.

"Oh. You don't want to go there. That's why Nate and I are here." Jazz threw them a sympathetic smile and Jacob looked more than a little confused.

"So, Lily, why'd you skip Math today?"

"I was sick, physically, violently sick and had to go home with my mother." Jacob's confused expression grew larger, so Lily tried to change the subject.

"So, Jacob, why're you here?"

"I'm dropping off your Math homework. We covered extended algebra. I wrote notes for you too," he said while rummaging around in his messenger bag, "We also got our mocks back," He produced a bundle of papers and, checking that all the pieces were there, he continued, "You got the joint highest mark with Virginia and Harry."

"Um. Thanks." Lily took the papers from him. "I'd forgotten how this place serves, like, the best hot chocolate ever! Jacob, you have to try it," she said, offering him her mug.

"No. I'm fine," he said, but Lily pushed her drink further under his nose. He leaned away, "No. Honestly. I don't like chocolate."

"And... By extension, hot chocolate? Chocolate cake? Chocolate ice cream?" Lily said, gasping for air in between products.

"Anything remotely chocolate related."

"Chocolate muffins?" Jazz's tone grew mock desperate.

"Nope."

Nate chuckled. He'd remained silent throughout most of the exchange, "I'm very sorry, Jacob my friend, but these two take trivial issues very seriously." He leaned forward and watched out of the corner of his eye ad his sister pretended to have a panic attack and pass out.

"I figured," Jacob replied as Jazz fell out of her seat.

Lily's eyes flickered open and a massive grin appeared on her face. Her brown eyes sparkled happily as Jacob's green ones found them. She reached blindly for another piece of chocolate muffin.

"Well, that was fun!" Jazz popped out from under the table. Jacob opened his mouth to reply.

A rather large piece of chocolate sponge was fired into his mouth. Nate had leaned back in his chair and was 'discreetly' high-fiving Lily under the table. Jacob glared at him incredulously.

"Don't blame me! Lily did it."

"But you encouraged it."

"True enough," Lily said, sighing heavily.

"Anyway, Lily, we'd better be going."

"Do we have to?"

"Yes, we have to." Nate dragged Lily out of her chair.