★

"WAKE UP!" AMARA CALLED, banging on Silvia's bedroom door. "You're gonna be late for school!"

"I don't want to go," her sister's voice whined from behind the wall. Amara held back an eye roll. "Lip isn't going! Why do I have to?

"Because Lip has a little dick, and wants to throw away his future because he's an idiot," she answered, swinging the door open. "And I'm not letting that happen to you. You're eleven. Now get up, there's cereal and oatmeal downstairs."

"Gross," Silvia mumbled, brushing past her. "Why can't we have good breakfast foods?"

"We're broke, hello?" Amara reminded her, smacking the back of her head. "Steve will be giving you a ride again, so don't be late!"

With a sigh, Amara slung her bag over her shoulder, and made her way next door to the Gallagher's, which was chaotic as always.

"Morning, losers," Amara greeted, stepping into the kitchen, narrowly avoiding a dramatic Debbie who was lying on the ground.

"Hey," Fiona responded, looking up from the lunches she was packing.

"Lip's still not coming to school?" She asked in disbelief, taking a mental head count and realizing the blonde boy wasn't in the room. Fiona shook her head. "Jeez, if that boy's got anything, it's stubbornness."

"You're telling me," Fiona scoffed. "You're my last resort. If he doesn't listen to you, I'm gonna have to figure something out."

"I'll try," Amara told her, dropping her bag onto the table, before she made her way upstairs. She walked into the room, the door already open, and stepped in front of Lip's bed. "Hey," she smacked his bare back, making him groan. "You lazy piece of shit. Get up."

"I told you," Lip's voice was muffled due to the pillow as he spoke. "I dropped out so I can take care of Karen and my baby."

"You don't even know if it's your baby," she pointed out, yanking on his foot, which he quickly hid under the blanket. "Lip, stop being a stupid asshole."

"I'm not being stupid," he defended, now sitting up. "Karen needs me."

"Karen has Jody. Also, I thought you two weren't getting back together. That's what you told me the other day. Unless it changed...again."

"No," Lip told her. "No, we're not back together. Honestly, I don't even have feelings for her anymore."

"So what the fuck are you doing?"

"I'm not gonna be Frank," he stated simply.

"Well, you're being a dumbass right now, so I think you're already on the road to being Frank."

"Get out."

"Only if you come to school today."

"Nope," he flipped back around, so his back was facing her.

"Fine," Amara responded, sitting down onto Ian's empty bed. She stared impatiently at the back of his head, until he slowly turned to face her again.

"What're you doing?"

"If you don't go, I don't go."

"Don't be stupid."

"I'm just doing what you're doing."

Lip let out an annoyed huff. "Fine. I'll think about making an appearance. Happy?"

"Fine. But if you think you can slip by all day and not show up, I will make your life miserable."

"I'm already miserable."

"Oh, don't worry," she threatened. "You can be much, much more unhappy. See you in school, nerd."

★

"This kind of hurts," Amara commented, watching Kev cover the ice cream truck with a tarp. "I mean, we literally started school a week ago, but seeing you do this is like telling me that summer is really over."

"Was your summer good?" Lip asked from besides her, and she shrugged.

"Chaotic, as always. Plenty of pool days—water fights, and sleepovers. Although, I never really had my life sort of threatened because I broke a guys nose, but it was an interesting twist. Gonna have to find a new job, though. Since the ice cream parlor is only open in the summer."

"It's amazing when you start thinking about babies," Kev commented, out of the blue. "My testicles have never been my ally. It's a whole other thing, shifting from screwing just as, you know, screwing, to screwing with the purpose of creating a new person."

"Of course," Kev continued. "You know that already, you've proven sperm can spawn a new life."

"Gross," Amara mumbled, helping Lip pull down the tarp so the ice cream truck was completely covered. Kev took the last step off of the ladder, and pulled it shut.

"Yeah, well," Lip replied, placing cinder-blocks onto the tarp. "The baby might not be mine. And it's a little different when the baby's a surprise and the mother doesn't want it."

"Karen decide what she wanna do yet?"

"Surprised she hasn't thrown herself down the stairs, to be honest," she said, and Kevin pinched her arm to get her to shut up.

"We're seeing a family attorney this morning," Lip answered. "Ask me again after school."

"Speaking of school, I can't believe you only decided to go back because you made a deal with Fiona. I mean, seriously. If you're not gonna go back for you, go back for me. I can't go to that hellhole without you by my side."

"Yeah, yeah," Lip waved her off. "I know. I'm a dick. You told me already."

"Well apparently, it's not going through that thick head of yours."

"You're back in school?" Kev asked.

"Yeah. I promised Fiona I'd go back if she did."

"Holy shit," the older boy mused. "Fiona's back in high school?"

"Trying to get her GED. She'll fail, and then I can quit again."

"I hate you," Amara told him. "Dickwad. Leaving me to fend for myself. Bitchass," she shoved his shoulder.

"She won't fail," Kev argued. "Fiona's smart."

"Yeah, but not school smart."

"Dude, who the hell is going to go to school around here if the one smart guy quits?"

"Thank you!" Amara yelled. "That's what I've been saying."

"That's not my problem," Lip said.

"I disagree. If you wanna quit something, quit trying to make your life so complicated. Go to school, enjoy being smarter than everyone, and become master of the universe. I mean, fuck."

"Well, what if I don't want to be master?"

"Cry me a river," Amara told him. "You big baby."

"Yeah," Kev agreed. "Tough! You've gotta be one of those ridiculously rich successful dudes. And put my kid through college one day. No pressure."

"Amara's got that covered," Lip said. "She'll be some famous author or some shit. She'll put your kid through college."

"That's my plan," Amara said. "Not yours. Besides, authors don't make that much, I don't believe, anyways. And if you think you're getting rid of me within the next ten years, you're wrong. For one, I will in fact be living with you in your ugly ass mansion that will probably have absolutely no style inside because you were rich enough to get some tasteless interior designer to decorate it. And two, if you don't go back to school—even if Fiona fails her GED, I will never let you live it down."

"Fine!" Lip said. "Alright. You've made your points. Especially you," he wiggled his finger in Amara's direction. "Because you don't know how to give up."

"So what're you saying?"

He sighed. "I'm saying, I'll stay in school."

"Promise?"

"Yeah. Sure. Promise."

★

a/n

i love how the title is lowkey fitting because summer is literally over and we're all going back to school. i hate it