I woke up tired but refreshed. I must have almost fallen asleep during the third movie, because I had foggy memories of driving home and being carried inside koala-style by a pair of strong arms.

I stretched my arms above my head and stared at my fingers, listening to the rain fall outside. Today is going to be a good day, and here's why, I thought, smiling at my reference.

I showered and dressed, thinking about last night. I didn't exactly mean to snuggle up to Tennyson. It just sort of happened. And he didn't seem to mind, either. I giggled, remembering how he'd been right about Jonty falling asleep, his quiet snores punctuated by little snuffles.

I packed my bag and went into the kitchen to get breakfast, about half an hour till the bus was supposed to arrive. But Mum was in there, looking at her phone and crying. I went up behind her and slipped my arms around her waist.

She jumped slightly and sniffled, turning around and hugging me.

"You need to delete your old conversations with him," I said, patting her back. "He doesn't deserve your tears."

She hugged me tighter. "I know,"she said, sniffing. "It's hard though."

I felt myself tearing up. "I know." I didn't tell her how I still looked at my old texts with Dad. "But he left us," I said, leaning back and looking in her eyes.

She wiped a hand over her eyes, smiled, and booped my nose. "And whoever does that can't be in their right mind."

I hugged her tightly again. "Do you want to have breakfast with me?" I said, letting go of her.

She nodded. "Just let me wash my face."

While she was in the bathroom I prepared cereal for both of us, nothing fancy, but still nice, setting the bowls on the table with my orange juice; and made Mum's coffee, sweetened with honey, and with just a touch of milk.

She came out looking fresher and she smiled at me as I carefully put the overfull mug on the table.

"Thanks, Darcy," she said.

We ate our breakfast in companionable silence before she shooed me outside when the bus arrived.

I sat beside Ally feeling subdued but still happy. I looked out and waved at Mum, who blew me a kiss through the window. I turned to Ally and smiled.

"Hi," I said to her, and June and Lola across the aisle.

She grinned at me. "Hi. Did you have fun last night?"

"Yeah," I said. "I don't exactly remember, how late did I get home?"

"Don't worry, we got you home by eleven," Ally said. "Although I fell asleep, so I can't be entirely sure."

I laughed, and then yawned.

"Tennyson said that when he carried you in, you looked at your mum and said 'I've had a good night'."

"I did have a good night," I said.

She glanced back the way we came. "So is it just you and your mum?"

I looked down at my hands. "Um, yeah."

"Oh, okay. What does she do? Like, for work?"

"She's, um, she's a counsellor," I said. "She does it independently, so at the moment she's just letting all her clients know about the...new address..."

"That's cool," Ally said. "So why'd you move?"

I scratched the back of my neck. "I, uh, I don't really want to talk about it."

Ally shrugged. "That's fine." Then she grinned wide. "Jonty says he's got a plan for dumping Gail. I bet it's gonna be good."

It was.

(Time skip brought to you by my very interesting search history)

Because of the rain, we couldn't go outside to eat, do we were released into the gym, where our little squad say on the bleachers with our lunchboxes.

We'd hardly started eating when Gail came up and slung an arm over Jonty's shoulders.

"Hey babe," she purred.

Jonty shrugged her arm off and kept eating.

Tennyson and June pulled out their phones. Tennyson was sitting next to me, and I saw him start recording, careful not to let Gail see what he was doing.

She looked at Jonty with a hurt expression. "What's wrong, sweetie?"

He ignored her.

"Jonty, baby?" she said, sounding a but cross now.

Jonty looked up at her and raised his eyebrows.

"What's going on, Jonty?" Gail asked.

There was a pause, and then Jonty suddenly sang, "I remember when we broke up the first time."

June snorted and held up her phone, clearly filming, and I tried to hold back a laugh as I realised what he was singing.

"What?" said Gail, confused.

"Saying "this is it, we've had enough," cause like we hadn't seen each other in a month," Jonty continued.

"Babe, I don't-" Gail tried.

"When you said you needed space, then you'd come around again and say-" Jonty kept singing, slowly standing up and looking straight in her face. "' Baby I miss you and I swear I'm gonna change, trust me' remember how that lasted for a day?"

People were looking now, and Ally was recording along with Tennyson and June.

"I say I hate you, we break up, you call me, 'I love you.'"

Jonty had a better voice than I would've thought, to be honest. It was really good.

"Oooh, we called it off again last night. Oooh, this time I'm telling you, I'm telling you-" he sang, Gail standing there looking utterly perplexed and furious.

By now everyone in the gym was watching as he climbed up onto his seat and sang clearly, "We are never, ever, ever getting back together. We are never, ever, ever getting back together! You go talk to your friends, talk to my friends, talk to me." He raised his hands and half the gym joined in with "BUT WE ARE NEVER, EVER, EVER GETTING BACK TOGETHER!"

Gail was stunned and obviously fuming as Jonty leant down and right in her face said, "We're never getting back together. Like, ever." in the best Taylor Swift voice I'd ever heard.

Gail opened and closed her mouth a couple times. Clearly not finding anything to say, she let out a seagull sounding shriek, stomped her foot like a toddler, and ran out of the gym.

Silence for a second - then the gym burst into applause and laughter.

Jonty bowed exaggeratedly and sat down.

"That was amazing, Jonty," said Lola.

Jonty grinned. "I know, I know."

"And the way she reacted!" said June, giggling. "Her face was GOLD."

Tennyson winked at me, making my stupid face burst into flames. He held up his phone to Jonty. "I saw more than a few people filming, Jonty. You're gonna be all over social media tomorrow."

Jonty shrugged. "Eh. It was good though."

I smiled and put a forkful of omelette in my mouth.

I like these people.

•••

I was kept busy for the rest of the week with school and homework and getting to know everyone better. In Friday I dropped into my bed and realised that for the first time in a long time, I felt totally at peace.

That night my nightmares returned.