This was it. Another big Monday morning. If Kat fucked this up then we couldn't proceed with the plan. She was waiting next to Drew's locker and applying lipgloss. She wore a white skirt with a printed crop top and sandals. Her hair was in it's classic white girl bun and she had caked her face like a boss. I approved.

Drew walked up to his locker, attracting the usual stares from his female fanclub. As he was closing his locker, he finally noticed Kat. And his jaw dropped in a split second. Drew ran an appreciative eye over Kat's legs.

"Hey sugar. Have we met?"

Ugh. Gag me.

"Haha no I don't think so."

"Why don't I walk you to homeroom?"

What an idiot. He didn't even realise that she was in his class.

☆☆☆

For the days remainder I received some looks about my eye. Drew and his meathead friends had mostly healed but still had a lot of bruises. My eye had faded to a lovely shade of black and I had taken to wearing aviators when I went out. Matt, Nate and Kyle had also recovered with barely any bruises or scars.

Kat and Drew had sat and flirted the whole of lunch. They even both cut PE together to hang out. You could say things were going perfectly.

After school, Scarlett and I went to audition. Leah and Nate were already there warming up. They were doing a hip hop number to Downtown by Macklemore. Kat had come to watch Drew audition. He was also already there, tuning his guitar.

Mr Shay and Mr Navarette and Mrs Fitch all took a seat at the judges' table. They had lost all traces of the familiar, hip, friendly faces that most of the students liked. They were here to judge the crap out of us.

I took a deep breath when Mr Shay called us up to audition. Scarlett and I walked calmly onto the centre of the stage.

"Scarlett Benson and Jay Wilde?"

"Yes, sir."

"What will you two be performing for us?"

"1979 by Good Charlotte."

"Okay. Good luck!"

I took a deep breath and started strumming my guitar. Then, we sang. We went through the entire piece we had prepared without a single technical glitch. We were flawless.

"Thank you I really enjoyed that."

We walked off stage and sat down in the auditorium. Next was Drew's performance. He sat down on a stool on stage and introduced himself. The song he was performing was an acoustic cover of Chandelier by Sia. And dammit, he was amazing.

The moment he stepped off stage, Kat ran over to congratulate him. She was doing really well. Now all she had to do was get him to ask her to join his act.

☆☆☆

When I got home, I saw my dad's car in the driveway. He was coming home a lot earlier these days.

"Hey sweetheart. How was school?"

"Good."

"And your audition?"

"You remembered?"

My dad barely remembered to ask what my grades were after the semester. I was actually really touched that he remembered.

"Actually it went amazingly. We'll find out tomorrow if we got through."

"I don't doubt you will. And your eye is looking a lot better."

After I got home from detention that day, I got home to find my dad on the phone with Principal Rivers. He was so mad at my suspension and that I got into a fight. But now my suspension was over and the war was experiencing the calm before one motherfucker of a storm.

"Yeah it doesn't throb anymore either."

Then a thought occurred to me.

"Dad, why didn't Christine give me looks or ask about my eye the other night?"

"I told her what happened and asked her not to question you about it. I thought it would be best if we just pretended like it wasn't there."

"Oh."

"So, I am starting to plan my proposal. I just want to check that you're really okay with this?"

"Yeah. I'm happy that you're happy. Just promise me we won't move again unless it's back to Sydney."

"Okay. Deal. By the way, we're having dinner here tonight and we need to tell you something. Just promise you won't freak out okay?"

"Depends."

I went upstairs before my smile could look noticeably fake. What could I say? I was genuinely happy for my dad but I didn't exactly have a great experience with mothers. My biological mom had put me up for adoption and my adoptive mom had disowned me. Christine seemed nice enough but don't know if I'll cope with actually living with her. And what on earth could this announcement be? Surely he hadn't proposed already?