★

AMARA GRABBED THE HOT plate of pancakes out of the microwave, and handed them to Silvia, who sat at the kitchen table. "Alright, you woke up late so you better chug your orange juice and stuff those pancakes in fast. We've gotta hurry."

Silvia frowned, "how come we have to walk instead of getting dropped off by a car?"

"Because we don't have a car," she answered, rushing to pack their lunches. "We're broke."

"Can we get un-broke?"

"Yeah, sure. Maybe one day." Amara abruptly clapped her hands together, "hurry up! We've gotta be at school in ten minutes—and it takes fifteen to walk."

★

Amara leaned against the sink in the empty bathroom at school, currently ditching third period with Lip, Ian, and Karen. The other girl was perched on the windowsill, smoking a cigarette. Amara watched her with a disgusted look on her face.

"So, are you guys going to the parent-teacher conference tonight?" Karen asked, and the other three all let out humorless chuckles.

"Bold of you to assume I have the parents for that," Amara replied, trying to keep the bitterness out of her voice. She still had absolutely no idea why she hated Karen so much, the girl never did anything to her. She just had an overbearing amount of bad vibes that rolled off of her, and Amara couldn't ignore them even if she tried.

"Hey," the blonde started, turning to look at Lip. "Louise got an A on the paper you wrote her for her English class. How do you keep doing that?"

Lip's head whipped up, and he glanced to Amara. "Well, I've had a pretty good tutor."

"What? Amara has been helping you write them?"

She scoffed. "Why did you say it like that? And no, I haven't. Not recently, anyway. He was never able to write a proper sentence until the eighth grade when I helped him with an essay about what we did over the summer . I mean, seriously, his sentences were all like: 'This summer I swimmed.'"

"Okay, okay," Lip cut her off with the wave of his hand. "Yeah, I used to be a pretty shit writer. Now I'm just smart."

Amara laughed, shaking her head. "Sure, sure."

The bathroom door bursted open, and two football players walked in. "Eighteen seventy!" He exclaimed, bringing Lip into a hug.

"All right!"

"Thanks man, I appreciate it."

"Perfect for the Big Ten," he told the other boy. "Happy to help, man."

"You more than helped. Now I'll definitely be a beer swilling, roofie slipping, Fighting Illini next year."

They watched as the boys left, and Karen hopped of the windowsill. "Why do we help people we hate?"

"I believe we're just taking our cue from American foreign policy," Lip said, making them chuckle. They each trickled out of the bathroom separately, Amara being the last one to leave, the door shut behind her as she made her way into the hallway.

She turned the corner, and Lip stood up from his locker. "Were you waiting for me? That kind of defeats the whole purpose of us not looking suspicious."

He rolled his eyes. "I'm gonna need a study buddy for my calculus test next week. Can I come over tonight?"

She shoved past his shoulder in a joking manner. "Nope, you're banned from my house."

"Since when?"

"Since my mom thought we were having sex in my room a week ago. She said something about drowning me in the bathtub if I got knocked up, so I'll come over instead."

"No power."

"Oh, Jesus. Just sneak in through the window then."

Lip smirked at her as the bell rang, and the two of them went their separate ways as the school day dragged on.

★

There was a loud crash from outside of Amara's room, and she jumped at the sound, just as Lip slid the window open. She clutched her racing heart, staring at him through wide eyes. "Jesus Christ, so much for being subtle. The entire neighborhood knows you're in here now."

"Sorry, sorry," he apologized, shutting the window firmly behind him. "You'll never guess what happened to me earlier."

Amara stared at him as she awaited his explanation, but he didn't say anything. "Well, come on. Spit it out!"

Lip fell onto her bed. "So I got caught."

"Caught doing what?"

"Taking tests for other people. And the guy thought I was cheating, so he brought me in, made me take a newly printed test. I got a perfect score."

Amara blinked. "Well thats no shocker. We already knew you were a genius, Lip."

He pulled something out of his pocket—Amara realized it was a business card. "He offered me a place at the University of Chicago."

She gaped at him, before standing up, and jumping up and down excitedly. Amara plopped down onto the bed next to him. "Oh my God, Lip! That's amazing! Why don't you seem happy?"

"Because I'll never be able to afford it."

"Oh, with that big brain of yours we'll figure something out." He went quiet, his gaze unfocusing as he stared at the far away wall in her room. Sensing that he didn't want to talk about it anymore, she decided to chance the subject. "So, how did the school thing go with Carl?"

He scoffed. "Shitty. Frank didn't show, of course. But I'm pretty sure Steve smoothed things over, so they might not call social services on us."

"Well, that's a plus," Amara said, trying to be optimistic. "Okay, well what're you waiting for? You came over to study, right?"

"Right," Lip agreed, grabbing some things out of his bag. They both sat together on the floor, switching between asking questions, and solving problems. By the time they finished the textbook chapter, it was midnight, and Amara found herself struggling to keep her eyes open.

Footsteps stomped up the stairs, and Amara immediately sat up. "That's my mom. Hurry! Hide under the bed. She has a gun that she likes to wiggle around sometimes." With wide eyes, Lip pushed himself under her bed, just as her bedroom door swung open.

"What's with all the racket?" Her mother demanded, swaying on her feet.

"I have to make up for having no friends by talking to myself," Amara lied. "I'm schizophrenic, I get it from you. Remember?"

Margot clearly didn't catch onto the insult, and she wiggled the beer around in her hands as she spoke. "Why do you have two textbooks?"

"I like to study twice as hard?"

"You're not going anywhere in life, dumbass," her mother told her. "Too stupid. You've always been a moron. Used to touch the stove when I was cooking after I told you not to."

"Thanks for the insight," Amara commented. "I really appreciate it. Can you go now?"

"Soon as I get my money back."

Amara swallowed, her eyes subconsciously sliding to her bed, where Lip was listening. "Money? What money? I don't know what you're talking about."

"The two grand, fuckhead. Gone. Where did it go? I know ya' sister didn't take it, she's too afraid to even look at me. But you, you've never had no problem giving me a hard time. Where is the goddamn money?"

"Doesn't that bother you?" Amara wondered. "I mean, your ten year old daughter is terrified of you. Sometimes, you're even worse than Joe. How can you even sleep at night?

"You watch your tongue!" Margot snapped, before shooting a few more slurs her way, and slamming the door shut behind her.

"Jesus," Lip mumbled, crawling out from under his hiding spot. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," she answered honestly. "She won't even remember that conversation in a few hours. Sorry you had to hear that."

"It's fine..." He trailed off, an awkward silence coming over them. Amara blinked in shock, there had been a lot of awkward tension between the two best friends recently. She had no idea why, it had never been like that before. "I should get going."

"Yeah," Amara agreed. "You're right. It's late. See you in the morning."

She watched as he climbed back out the window, before she shut it once more, and fell onto her bed with a sigh.

So many things felt like they were changing, too much, too fast. And she had no idea how to stop it.

★

author's note

lowkey a filler chapter oops