My mother owns a bakery near Summer Hill's shopping arena while my father owns a car dealership business. Mom started her bakery about ten years ago and by now, everyone in the town pretty much recognises her, hence recognise Dylan and me as her kids as well.

Summer Hill isn't the kind of town where everyone knows everyone but it also isn't the place where it would take a lot of effort to actually find someone. The neighbourhood kind of just goes in circles.

"So, how was your summer?" I ask Josh when it's finally the two of us, chilling outside Mom's bakery.

"Magical." He grins at me, his expressions contagious. There's a small twinkle in his eyes which make me gasp.

"You met someone, didn't you?" I shove at his shoulder and he chuckles, shaking his head. "Josh, seriously? Tell me."

He finally turns his body completely towards me, "I was messing with you. I talked to you every day when I was away. If someone was in the picture, you would've known."

My shoulders slump, my excitement dying down but then he's right. If he was seeing someone, it would've been more obvious. He spent the entire summer travelling around with his mothers. Josh isn't secretive, he's the most open minded and honest person I know. A quality that flourishes our friendship beautifully.

"So, how was your summer?" He gives me a knowing look.

I groan in response, "Terrible. Don't wanna discuss."

"Fionna filled me in on the glory details that you missed out." He laughs and my cheeks heat up from embarrassment. "Aw, you're blushing."

"No, I'm mortified!" I shake my head at him, reaching out to take his chocolate milkshake. I sip on the drink and use it as an excuse to hide from his intense gaze.

"How are things at home?" He asks, and I frown at him.

We don't talk about things at my home. Ever. Fionna and Josh are the only two people I once confided in about how fucked up my parent's relationship is. Only because they found me crying in the bleachers. But I never discussed it, never have, never would want to.

"Same old." I shrug and he nods, offering me a comforting smile.

I look away from him. I don't want anyone's sympathy, even if it's my best friend's. Josh and I have been hanging outside the bakery since more than an hour now because we both had nothing better to do. With senior year just beginning, we're yet to reach a stage where we're burdened under the pile of assignments.

Unlike the three other idiot guys I know, Josh doesn't play sports. He's least interested in it, much like me. That's another reason we bond together so well.

"Is that Dylan?" Josh squints his eyes as if to focus better and I turn around to see my brother entering Ted's diner.

"He must've gotten free early from the practice." I shrug and he nods, but still seems to be in a daze. "What?"

"Nothing." He shakes his head, smiling a little but it doesn't reach his eyes.

"Fionna was being all cryptic around him today. Do you know what that's about?" I ask.

"What?" He frowns in confusion. "Is she losing her cool around him again?"

"Yeah. I thought you'll know. Never mind." I wave it off.

"How's your sociology class coming along?"

"I have to start working on my project." I groan, almost forgetting about it until he brought it up.

"You've got individual projects?" He sounds surprised.

"Yup, and it holds majority of my grade," I tell him. "I kinda have a topic in mind already."

We were introduced the project and it's importance on the first day of the class. It piqued my interest drastically in the subject so I spent the last week exploring topics that I can easily work on but would also be interesting enough to grab me a good grade.

"Well, tell me?"

I smile at how curious he sounds, "Okay. So you know how we like to believe we are living in this modern era where the Gen Z are more open-minded and accepting of the world and each other?"

"Yeah?" He seems confused, like he doesn't know where exactly I'm leading with this.

"I think that's bullshit. I think high school kids like to pretend that they understand the world and are nice and accepting but deep down, they're all little shits," I try to ignore the amusing brow he raises at my choice of words, "I want to explore how high school students face discrimination based on factors like race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. by other high school students. It can vary from bullying to very discreet discrimination, like ambivalent sexism. That's the basic idea, how does it sound?"

He blinks at me, his lips parted a little, "You came up with that on your own?"

"The core of it, yes. But I've been researching how to go about it. What do you think?" I wait patiently for him to contribute.

"I think it sounds amazing, Fay. That sounds like some good full-fledged research project you can carry forward in college, you know?" He suggests and I think about it for a second.

"Actually that sounds pretty good. It'll definitely help with the applications." I smile at his approval. "I was thinking interviewing some people for it. I don't want to keep it too broad that I cannot manage it with other things."

"Well, you have your first interviewee sitting right in front of you." He grins at me and I laugh, nodding.

"Of course, he is. Half-korean, bisexual and like Ethan puts it, product of two Mommies. Where should I even start from?" I tease.

"I choose all of the above." He retorts with a serious face before cracking a smile himself.

Mom steps outside the bakery with her apron still wrapped around her. She's carrying two muffins in her hands and a small smile on her face. After making her way to our table outside, she pauses a little.

"Got you kids a little something. I'm trying my hand on this new recipe. Tell me how it is." She pushes it in our direction.

"See, this is why you're my favourite, Lee. You get me free sweets filled with love." Josh butters her up before biting into the muffin as I do the same.

"Holy shit." I mutter, my mouth still full of this delicious blueberry muffin.

"Language, Farrah!" She narrows her eyes at me.

"Mom, it's so good," I tell her, Josh nodding along but he's too busy making out with the muffin to actually comment on it.

"Really?"

Before I can take another bite, a hand snatches it from me and I whine out loudly, turning around to find Dylan hovering over my chair. I'm yet to protest when he devours the entire muffin.

"She's right. It's amazing, Mum." He nods along, his eyes half-closed from how good it actually tasted.

"That was mine!" I swat at his stomach and he chuckles, ruffling my hair. "Don't do that."

"So easy to get under your nerves, munchkin." He seems so amused that I don't even feel like bickering back.

"I've got a whole batch. I'll ask Peter to get you some more." She pats Dylan's head before going back inside.

He takes a seat around the table by my side. Josh's the one who speaks up, "Why are you crashing our friends-date?"

"Uh, your what?" Dylan gives him an incredulous look.

"Friends-date. Aren't you supposed to be at practice?"

I frown at Josh's tone. Dylan and him don't have the best of the bond, but at least they tolerate each other. This is something entirely new for me to witness.

"I was at practice but then Coach let us out early. Why are you being so pissy?" Dylan mirrors my expressions, taking the chocolate milkshake.

"Your friend needs to learn some manners about how to treat your sister."

Shit. It takes me a second to connect the dots. Josh's pissed at Ethan and he's displacing it on Dylan. My brother's frown just turns deeper when he glares at my best friend.

"I'm sorry, unlike you two, I'm not attached to my friends on the hip and can't control their actions." Dylan snaps back at him.

"Okay, enough you two." I slam my palm on the table. I look at Josh. "It isn't his mistake, you know?"

Josh sulks back into the chair, looking away as his jaw twitches a little, "I know. I don't like Ethan."

"I'm sure it'll be on the list of the reasons why he cries tonight." Dylan sneers at him.

I flick my fingers on his forehead, "Play nice."

"He started it. You're my sister, I can look after you. I don't need another guy telling me how to be a decent brother." Dylan scowls at me, his words making me realise how he's hurt.

"Neither of you need to look after me. I'm very much capable of doing it myself. And I don't think Josh meant you're not a decent brother," I tell him, my gaze moving to the other guy, "Right, Josh?"

He sighs, nodding. "Right."

Two of them refuse to look at each other. Dylan pulls out his phone to start texting and I roll my eyes at their egoistic behaviour. I text Fionna to ask her about her whereabouts but something tells me that she still must be in practice.

A new presence on the table catches my attention so I look up to find Kace and May. They pull chairs from other table and Kace plops down by my side while May sits between Josh and him.

"What's up?" May claps her hands together and Josh rolls his eyes subtly, making me smile a little.

I know he was looking forward for it to be just the two of us because we haven't met in so long. But now he has to put up with everyone because Dylan obviously invited them.

"Where's Ethan?" Dylan asks them.

"Probably sucking off some girl's face." Kace replies casually, and I almost shudder at the mental image.

"Good. I don't want him here," I tell Dylan, and he starts staring at me. "What? The guy didn't even apologise. I don't want to see his face."

"You know Ethan would never apologise, right?" Josh blinks at me, as if I've lost my mind.

My eyes flicker to Kace, "People can surprise you."

Peter comes out with a tray filled with muffins, distracting all of us as he sets it down on the table.

"Hey, Farrah!" He smiles at me and I return it.

"Hey, Pete. How you doing, buddy?" I pick up a muffin. "Thanks for this."

"Pretty good. How's senior year treating you?" He asks.

"Eh. High school's boring as always." I click my tongue and he laughs. "What?"

"I thought senior year high school was supposed to be the most dramatic one."

Dylan beats me to a response, "Well, what can anyone say? It's Farrah's life, Peter. If it ever gets interesting, the town will get a memo."

Peter offers him an awkward smile and nods at me before going back inside. I gape at my brother, "What was that?"

"That was me being a decent brother and scaring off creepy guys."

"What are you talking about?" I stare at him, baffled.

"C'mon, Sparks. The guy has a crush on you." Kace states like it's the most obvious thing in the world.

"No, he doesn't." I defend Peter.

Peter works at Mom's bakery full-time. He was one year ahead of us in high school so he graduated some months back. He goes to the community college, attending classes either in the evening or around the weekend. I've known him for a few months now because we never talked when he wasn't working here.

"Yes, he does. The guy comes to table, doesn't even acknowledge anyone and only talks to you. That screams crush." May contributes into the conversation.

"Uh, no. Josh, tell them they're wrong." I look at my best friend for help.

"Sorry, cupcake. But they're right. You can be a little dense about such stuff sometimes." He shrugs, biting into the muffin and I gasp at him dramatically.

"What a traitor."

Peter has a crush on me? On me? The thought almost causes me to laugh. I'm not very crush-material. People have crush on Fionna with her beautiful dark skin that glows magically, her long black hair and just how she's a wholesome beautiful package. People even have crush on Josh and Dylan, because let's be honest, they are both kind of gorgeous.

Even though we're twins, Dylan lucked out on in the looks department better than me. I'm not saying I'm ugly, I'm decent to look at but not good enough that you can stare at me for a minute without pointing out a flaw or my most prominent flaw — the bags underneath my eyes. I'm not skinny, but I'm not fat either which works fine by me, to be honest. But people don't usually have a crush on me, so it definitely does take me by surprise to hear that Peter can see me in that way.

I'm yet to discover how exactly do I feel about it.

"Hey, when are we supposed to submit our project topic?" Kace asks, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"We've got more than a week to figure it out, I guess." I inform him but then my curiosity gets to me. "Have you thought about something?"

"I was thinking of exploring something related to impact of different cultures or parenting on the upbringing." He shrugs.

That actually doesn't sound bad. It sounds pretty damn good. I'm just surprised because I haven't seen Kace taking academics very seriously but I know he has decent grades. Like Dylan. And me.

It's Josh, Fionna and May who are straight A students. Ethan, well, it's a miracle if he doesn't flunk a subject.

"That sounds amazing." I smile at him genuinely.

"Yeah? I'm still a little unsure." He doesn't sound very confident.

"No, I think it's great. You can talk to some people, you know? Instead of basing it off entirely from the internet. That's what I'm planning to do."

I know it's not something everyone would do but his topic and mine are completely different. I don't mind sharing a little bit of my idea with him if it can help him out.

"Yeah, I don't know about that." He brushes it off.

"That sounds pretty damn good, Kay." May pipes in. "She's right. It'll just make it seem more authentic, plus I'm sure you'll have fun doing it."

"Yeah?" He looks a little more convinced than he did a second ago.

I'm not sure if the two of them are dating, or whatever their scene is. But one thing I know for sure is that Kace definitely feels something more for May. It's kind of obvious in his actions.

"Yes. You should go ahead with it." She gives him an assuring smile.

He turns to me, beaming a little, "Thanks, weirdo."

I try not to ponder on the feeling that takes over me. Apparently my word isn't credible enough against May's. It's weird to feel this way, but I've always been competitive in life so it's also somewhat familiar emotion. Maybe Kace is right. I'm a weirdo.