It was a little strange, having all my friends back. I was so used to being the only one there other than Hank and Nay that sometimes I got caught off guard when I heard other voices. Sometimes I'd think someone had broken in, but then I remembered my friends had just returned.

Like one night, I got up to use the restroom. I heard footsteps coming from the exercise room and immediately went into defensive mode. I made my way quietly and slowly into the exercise room, undetected by whoever was inside. I jumped out at them and immediately got their attention, causing them to scream.

Turns out, it was only Aiden getting water. And I gave him a good scare, too. I definitely enjoyed that.

The only person I had been used to having around was Lena, so when she came over to hang out it wasn't very different from how it'd been the last couple of months. But now that Dex was back, Lena seemed to have a bone to pick with him.

"Just because your boyfriend is back around doesn't mean you can just abandon your best friend, got that?" she said to me with her hands on her hips, and it wasn't much of a question as it was a statement.

I felt my cheeks turning red. "He's not my boyfriend."

Lena rolled her eyes. "Whatever you say."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I think you know what it means," she sighed, clearly thinking I was the stupidest person on the planet. "Even if you can't call him your boyfriend now, you definitely will be able to."

I didn't know what to say to this. I didn't know what it was like to have a boyfriend... It was kind of a scary thought.

I was seventeen, along with the rest of my friends. Having a boyfriend or a girlfriend at this age wasn't abnormal, but it was such a strange concept to me that I didn't like to think about it. Not that it was a bad thing... but I had other things to be worrying about than having a relationship.

"You've seriously never thought about Dex as a boyfriend before?" Lena asked me, as if reading my mind. "Like, never ever?"

I didn't want to have this conversation. I would have really rather been doing anything else other than that. It just made me feel so awkward.

"It's to something I'm worrying about right now, Lena," I sighed, pushing myself up off my bed and over to my dresser, not necessarily looking for anything in particular, but just trying to busy myself with something. "I'd like to focus on myself for a while before I even think about having a boyfriend."

Lena nodded, understanding completely what I meant. No one really talked about it much anymore, but the fact that I was an Ender was always in the back of my mind. Mostly because I still didn't really understand what it meant. I knew that I was powerful, and I got a few extra little powers. But what was so important about all of that?

Did I even want to know? If Redrum could possibly come after me, that meant that it was something valuable. But I still just didn't understand what. And that was what was driving me crazy.

And what also was awful was that I felt like I couldn't talk to anyone about it. No one understood what I was going through, at least no one that I knew. I knew that there were other Enders out there, but I had no idea where they were, or even who they were. I felt completely alone even when I was surrounded by my friends.

It was almost as if I was trapped back inside my room, all alone with no one there for me. My foster parents didn't care about what I did, all they did was make sure I was fed so they wouldn't get in trouble and then ignored me completely other than that. They would tell me to go to my room and stay there; I was never welcomed outside. They didn't want to see me. I had no one else to share my problems with.

But this... this was even more painful. Because now, I did have people that would listen to me if I spoke to them. They just wouldn't be able to understand what I was going through. But even though that really sucked, I was glad they couldn't understand. I wouldn't wish this kind of feelings and confusion on anyone else.

"I want to go rollerskating," Lena suddenly informed me out of nowhere.

I blinked at her. "Rollerskating?"

She shrugged. "I like rollerskating."

I could figure that, considering it wasn't the first time she had wanted to go rollerskating. It wasn't something I enjoyed much, but it seemed my best friend liked it a lot.

"I'm pretty sure last time you took us rollerskating, we got in a fight and then got in trouble and then we had to learn a bunch of different dances," I reminded her, and it felt like such a long time ago even though it really wasn't.

Lena rolled her eyes. "You got to dance with Dex. Stop complaining."

"It was awkward back then!" I nearly shouted, biting down on my lip when I realized how loud I had been. We weren't that close."

"Oh, but now you're definitely close."

"I don't like the tone you're using," I frowned, really not liking where this conversation was about to go, but Lena could have cared less.

"So, how far have you gone?" she asked without even thinking twice about it.

I nearly choked on my own spit as I practically shouted, "I... I don't think that's really any of your business!"

"Oh, come on," she sighed, plopping down on Kristie's bed and sprawling out on it. I continue to awkwardly sit on mine, still not enjoying this conversation. "I'm your best friend, aren't I? You tell your best friend these types of things."

I blinked at her. I hadn't known this. "You do?"

She only rolled her eyes at me. "Duh. Who else are you going to tell? Hank and Nay?"

"I feel like that would be really awkward."

"Of course it'd be. That's why you tell me, not them."

"Oh." I stared down at my hands as I played with my fingers. "Well..."

"So how far have you guys gone?" she asked again.

I really thought about what she was asking and my whole face suddenly turned red just at the question. The last thing I was expecting was for her to ask me something like this.

Lena gasped, suddenly smiling like an idiot, as if just by my reaction, I had told her absolutely everything. "I can't believe it!" she exclaimed, and I really had no idea why she was acting this way. "I never would have thought you two went all the way in such a short amount of time!"

"What?" I screeched, slapping a hand over my mouth when I realized how loud I had been. I lowered my voice immediately before continuing, "We have not done anything like that!"

Lena almost seemed disappointed, and I didn't know how to feel about that. Dex wasn't even my boyfriend; I definitely wasn't going to do anything more than kissing. That was already pretty weird in itself.

"We've just kissed," I finally answered her.

"Just kissed?" my best friend sighed, still disappointed that I couldn't give her a better answer. "That's it?"

"Is that a bad thing?" I questioned.

"With tongue?" she continued to pry.

I was just getting more and more embarrassed. "Yeah..."

"Okay, that makes it a little better." She sat up from Kristie's bed and stretched, only to fall back down onto it, sprawled out once again. "I was gonna say, if all you've given Dex so far is regular kissing and he's still as crazy for you as he is, than he's the kind of guy every girl would want."

I didn't even know what to say to this. Lena knew more about boys and social things than I did, so I believed what she was saying. Why did Dex like me so much if I just kissed him? It wasn't that I was complaining, I just didn't understand...

"Let's go rollerskating," Lena suggested once again.

"Why?" I whined, just not in the mood to go out anywhere. "Why do you always want to go and do something? Can't you just take a break?"

Lena's eyes narrowed at me. "No."

And that was that, then. It was pretty difficult to change Lena's mind once she decided something, so I knew that I really had no say in the matter, especially since all my friends seemed to agree with her.

I let out a sigh. I hated when my antisocial tendencies began to surface again. It wasn't something I intended; sometimes it just ended up happening. And then I had to remember how miserable I was when I was all alone, so I had to enjoy the times I had with my friends.

I didn't like to think about it, but I really did have no idea how long I'd have with my friends. Teams in the DAU didn't last forever; my parents' team proved that along with Hank and Nay's. I didn't even know who was on Hank and Nay's team except for Malicius. I didn't even know what the team name was. I'd have to ask about that some time.

"Come on," Lena continued, grabbing onto my arm and practically yanking me out of my room and into the hallway. "Let's go get the others."

I know I didn't have much of a say in any of this, so I said nothing to argue. It wasn't something I was really against anyway; hanging out with my friends seemed like something I'd probably enjoy. Even if it was something like rollerskating.

She led me to the boys' door and knocked roughly on it. I was surprised she'd actually knocked, since she never knocked when she came into my room. There were many times that I had been changing and Lena would just barge in. I assumed she didn't want to see something she could possibly regret seeing by opening the boys' door without warning.

Surprisingly, none of my male teammates were the ones who opened the door. My female teammate was the one, however. And the three boys were in the room behind her.

Lena's eyes narrowed at her. "Why are you in a bedroom with three guys by yourself?"

"Because we're hanging out," the redhead shrugged, just as innocent and clueless as she always was.

"I wouldn't call it that," Lena glared.

"Believe me, you'd be able to tell if it was anything else than just regular hanging out," Dex suddenly cut in, emerging from behind Kristie and into the doorway. "I'd probably have a smile on my face if it was something else."

"You're disgusting." Lena's face was just scrunching up more and more as everyone spoke. "You have someone else for that, thank you very much."

Dex rolled his eyes at her. "Girls can't take a joke, can they?"

"Whatever," my best friend waved away, clearly not wanting to have an argument, which was strange for Lena. "We're going rollerskating."

Dex seemed puzzled by this sudden statement. "What?"

"Don't worry, Dex, you'll enjoy it," Lena grinned, and I wasn't so sure I wanted her to continue with whatever she was going to say. "Violet's going."

Dex's eyes narrowed at her, but he said nothing to argue, which made me a little happy. I enjoyed when I got to spend time with him, so I really hoped he enjoyed it when he spent time with me...

I let out a sigh. This wasn't the kind of thing I should have been worried about. In the long run, it didn't matter. So I shook my head and forgot about it.

And we went. Aiden had some complaints about it, but finally he agreed on going when Kristie said that she thought it would be fun. I didn't have much of an opinion on that, since it probably would have been a much better experience if Aiden didn't come along. But it wasn't like I was going to say that.

There weren't that many people there, which I was happy about. I didn't really like being in really crowded places. Especially when I was doing something I didn't really enjoy in the first place.

But as time went on, I couldn't help but have fun. I liked spending time with my friends. We didn't always get along, but when we could set our differences aside and actually have fun, it was nice. It made me regret ever thinking I didn't want friends. It made me regret never even trying to go outside of my room.

But then I noticed the person staring.

At first, it made me feel a little uneasy. Whenever I noticed anyone staring at me or my friends, it made me ridiculously alert. I used to think people were just being judgmental, but now I had better reasons to be paranoid.

It was just a teenage girl that looked a little younger than us, but I'd learned from being in the DAU that even people our age could be dangerous. Age was but a number.

I stared right back at her, hoping she'd see what I was doing and stop. I stared for a good two minutes, but she didn't stop. She didn't even notice me. I then realized that she wasn't looking at me. She was looking at Anthony.

I didn't know if I should have felt uneasy or not anymore. It could have been for threatening reasons, but something told me it wasn't. But as the girl slowly approached my friend, I inched my way closer just in case.

"Hi," she greeted Anthony, and this caught him off guard.

"Hi," he said back, obviously confused as to why a random girl would just come up and talk to him.

"You're gorgeous," the girl gushed.

"Thanks," he smiled awkwardly, his whole face turning bright red. It clearly was going to be difficult for him to get used to this attention.

"This is weird," Lena mumbled, and I couldn't tell if it wasn't meant to be heard by anyone else but her.

"Jealous?" I couldn't help but smirk at her.

"No, I'm not jealous!" she gasped, and it was the kind of shocked look I'd never really seen on her face before. "This is just weird!"

"I've got to agree," Dex cut in, and I rolled my eyes at him. "It's really weird."

"Are you jealous?" Aiden now questioned with a smirk.

Dex scowled at him. "Why the hell would I be jealous?"

"I mean, you're used to being jealous, right?" our leader shrugged, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world ."It's pretty easy for you."

Dex took a step toward Aiden. "Will you shut up—"

"Usually you're the one who gets hit on by all the girls," Aiden continued, his smirk only growing on his face as he continued to make fun of Dex. "But now it's Anthony."

"And do you think that bothers me?" Dex seemed like he could care less what Aiden had to say about him, and I couldn't help but agree at this point. I'd learned to stop caring about Aiden's opinion. "It's not like I'm the ugliest guy on the team."

Aiden's smirk suddenly disappeared. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You know what it means."

"It's really hard to take guys that are fighting seriously when they're on roller skates," Lena whispered to me, and I couldn't help but agree, though I said nothing back to her.

I didn't understand why it was so difficult for us to get along. And it seemed even more difficult for Dex and Aiden to get along than anyone else. Their fathers had once been best friends; I was sure they never would have thought their sons would fight so much with each other.

"Do you really want to start this so soon?" Aiden questioned with a wry smile, and I could tell he was trying really hard not to just go off on Dex. "We just got reunited, didn't we?"

Dex sneered at our team leader. "And you think I'm going to be all sentimental and sensitive about that?"

"I mean, I know there was only one person you really missed—"

"You can't give me shit for that when you only have one person on your mind all the time—"

"Well at least mine is pretty—"

"Excuse me?" Dex's hands suddenly balled into fists at his side. "Say that again, I dare you."

Aiden took this challenge and didn't back down. Not that I was really expecting him to. "At least. Mine. Is pretty," he enunciated slowly.

"Someone's about to get their ass kicked." Lena wasn't even looking up when she said this; her attention was purely on her nails. "About time, honestly."

This clearly angered Dex, and I couldn't help but grow more and more worried. If they got into a fight right here, we were going to get in a lot of trouble. Not just with whoever worked here, but with Hank and Nay as well. And I was already pretty much on probation so I did not want to get in trouble.

But instead of attacking Aiden like I thought he would, Dex smirked. But I knew behind that smirk, he was boiling on the inside.

"Last time I checked," Dex began, that smirk still apparent on his face, "she wasn't even yours."

This seemed to piss Aiden off more than anything. He took a step forward, about to pounce right on Dex, but I wasn't about to let that happen. Especially when they were wearing roller skates.

"Okay, we're not about to have you two start fighting in public," I snapped, rolling in between them before they could embarrass themselves. "If you want to beat each other up, you can do it later at the DAU for we have privacy."

Aiden didn't even look at me as he glared at Dex. "Planning on it."

"Let's just go," Lena groaned, grabbing onto my shoulder and turning me around and rolling us away. "Aiden killed the fun."

"This wasn't fun to begin with," he called out after her.

She turned to glare right back at him. "No one cares about your opinion," she snapped.

I wanted to second that, but decided that it would be the best not to. We didn't need to continue arguing.

My friends followed after Lena and I, knowing that it was time to go. Once again, something that was supposed to be fun was ruined by an argument. I was starting to think that that was just inevitable.

As I sat to take my skates off along with my friends, I suddenly got a very strange feeling. It was something I didn't even know how to explain. I looked up and around, as if that would somehow answer why I was feeling this way, but no solution came to me.

A flash of red suddenly caught my eye, and I turned to see a girl with bright red hair making her way by us. I suddenly felt a flash of heat come over me, but in a matter of seconds that feeling and the girl were both gone.

I stared off into the distance where I had seen her. "That was... weird," I couldn't help but comment.

Dex looked down at me, confused. "What?"

"That girl that just passed," I explained, gesturing in her direction, though she was already gone. "The one with the really bright red hair, if you saw her. Something just seemed... off about her."

Unlike Lynx, who had bright orange hair, and Kristie, who had a much lighter and natural shade of red, this girl's hair was so vibrant that you'd think it was dyed. I doubted that it was even possible to have a natural hair color that intense.

Aiden rolled his eyes at me. "You're just being paranoid for no reason."

"I think it's been proven that Violet can tell things about people a lot better than you can, Aiden," Lena snapped, glaring at him.

"Just because she's an Ender doesn't mean she's all that special," he continued, rolling his eyes once again.

Dex shook his head. "I think that's exactly what it means."

"Of course you think she's special," Lena smirked, teasing him. Dex scowled at her.

"Special ed," Aiden muttered.

"What, are you in seventh grade?" Lena snapped, and I couldn't help but agree with her. I'm sure we all did. "That's such an out-dated insult that it almost physically hurt me."

"Don't make me physically hurt you," Aiden threatened, taking a step closer to Lena.

She didn't seem threatened at all; she seemed much more bored than anything else, but this didn't stop Anthony from stepping in front of her, blocking her from Aiden's past.

"You're going to be one of those cowards who hits a girl?" Anthony questioned, his eyebrows furrowing at our team leader.

It was almost funny how Aiden was now shorter than Anthony. He'd changed so much in the three months we were separated that it was kind of weird. It wasn't bad, but just something that was going to take a long time to get used to.

"Can we just go, please?" I asked, getting really tired of the arguments. It made me wonder how the three boys could room together without killing each other. They must have just not talked to each other.

"Good idea," Dex agreed, starting toward the door. I followed right after him.

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Ahahahaha... I'm so sorry.

It's been three months. School has been taking over my life completely. I'm literally sitting in class. I finished this chapter in class. I probably should be paying attention.

Please COMMENT, VOTE, and FAN!