Diana had not gone to the art room the following Thursday after school. She had said nothing yet to Mr Jones about her refusal to paint Alex. She was still building up the courage to tell him; there was also the small fear that he would simply force her to paint Alex, regardless of what she said to him. And for one, Diana knew she couldn't bear doing so anymore.

During first period, she'd see Alex in math class, seated in her usual position at the other side of the room. At first Alex tried to catch her eye but Diana was adamant about ignoring her and every gesture that she made in her direction. She was done.

It was the day of the first game of the season and that was all the buzz throughout school. As usual, Diana kept her head down and went about her business. It was any other day for her as she cared as little about school sports as she did about the school itself. She was glad when the school day was over; the weeks just seemed to get longer and longer. All Diana wanted to do was head straight home and get some rest before her shift that night at Tracey's, but her plans were instantly cut short when she got a text from her mother telling her she had a meeting at work that had come up and needed her to pick Tyler up from school.

So rather sluggishly, Diana got onto the bus heading in the direction of Tyler's school.

"Why are you here?" Tyler asked the moment he caught sight of Diana standing awkwardly by the elementary school gate.

Diana knew that he had not asked out of spite. He was genuinely curious, seeing as it was usually their mom that picked him from school. Yet, Diana couldn't help but feel there was a tinge of disappointment in his voice.

"Hey Ty," Diana said, pushing her thoughts to the back of her mind as she smiled at her brother, "mom had a meeting at work so she sent me to pick you instead."

"Oh okay," Tyler replied. The disappointment was clear in his voice this time.

"Is there a problem?" Diana asked, cocking her head slightly to the side as she looked at her brother dressed in his school uniform below her.

"No, It's just that I don't want to take the bus."

Diana wasn't sure how to respond to this. The few times that she was the one to pick Tyler from school, they had to take the bus home, seeing as she didn't have a car of her own. Hell, she didn't even have her license. But her parents' refusal to get her a car was on them, not her. Diana couldn't help feeling that Tyler was being a little unfair.

"Come on, let's go home," Diana said quietly as she turned to leave the school.

"TY-LER!"

Diana turned immediately, recognizing the little girl running towards her brother. Truth was, she would probably recognize that face anywhere. After all, it was nothing but a younger version of Julia's.

"Stacey," Diana said, smiling genuinely, "how have you been?"

Julia's younger sister, Stacey looked up. Her face was slightly red from the running she had just been doing, and her breath came out in small puffs. "Hello Diana, I just came to say bye to Tyler before he left."

Diana nodded her head and watched for a few seconds as the eight-year-olds conversed between themselves on whatever it was that eight-year-olds talked about. She felt a calm rush over her as she watched them. They both seemed at peace, so innocent, oblivious to everything. That was, until Stacey looked up, running her fingers absentmindedly through her pigtails.

"How come you don't come around anymore? You used to come home with Julia every day."

Diana swallowed quickly as she stared into Stacey's large blue eyes.

"That's true," Tyler suddenly said, chipping in, "also, Julia doesn't come to our house anymore."

Diana had been presented with a question, yet all she could think about was the fact Julia hadn't told her younger sister about their fallout. But at the same time, she had never told Tyler; she had much rather preferred to avoid the topic altogether. It was easier.

Diana continued staring at the children before her, unsure of how to reply. Luckily (or unluckily), she didn't have to, as at that moment there was a loud horn.

It was Julia. Diana could recognize her bright red car anywhere. She often found herself thinking that it made sense that Julia's car was bright red. She liked to stand out, to have attention drawn to herself.

"Hey Stacey, come on!" Julia yelled out at her younger sister from the driver's side of the car.

Whether or not Julia had noticed her standing there, Diana couldn't tell. She soon got her answer when Stacey pointed her out.

"Hey look, Julia! It's Diana! She came to pick Tyler up today."

For a brief moment she and Julia made eye contact. It was weird, strained. Much more, there was the fact that they both knew that they were being watched by their oblivious younger siblings, which heightened the tension at the moment tenfold.

Julia finally resolved to offer Diana a strained head-not, which Diana responded to in the same way. Just as awkward and high-tensioned.

"Come on Stacey, we don't have all day," Julia called out to her sister once again, taking her attention off Diana.

Diana watched as Stacey gave Tyler one last hug before running up and getting into her sister's car. In a few moments, the bright red car had disappeared from view.

"Come on, Tyler," Diana said, taking hold of her younger brother's hand as they both began to walk down in the direction of the bus stop.

"That was weird," Tyler said. Diana kept on walking, pretending that she had not heard his comment. No doubt that Tyler, and probably even Stacey, had caught on to the tension between Julia and herself.

"I don't want to have to take the bus," Tyler whined. "Why don't you have a car, all the kids your age have cars. Stacey got to go home in her big sister's car and I have to take the bus. It's so unfair."

"Trust me, Ty," Diana said as their bus pulled to a stop in front of them, "I know."

When they arrived home Diana fixed Tyler a snack which he ate hurriedly before starting on his homework. Diana did some of her homework as well before heading upstairs to take a quick nap before work.

For the past few days, Diana had started coming to work a little earlier. This allowed her to spend some time with Grey, who she was growing fond of. He had a certain warmth about him, which wasn't obvious at first.

"How's high school?" Grey asked as he arranged ornaments on the counter.

"It's alright," Diana said, struggling casually, "it's high school after all."

From the way he glanced at her, Diana could tell that Grey could somehow see through her reply. However, he didn't press on the topic and just nodded his head.

"Are you thinking of college?" he asked, leaning on his elbow as he looked at her.

Diana shook her head.

"I get that. It wasn't really for me either. You know, we go through school being told to aspire for college. But the truth is, college isn't for everyone, and that's just it. It's over-hyped anyway, just an elitist institution."

Diana laughed at this. It was a genuine laugh and she couldn't remember the last time she had laughed. Grey was grinning at her.

For a moment Diana considered telling him about art school, and the way her parents had suddenly cut her dreams short. She knew that she could trust him, it'd probably be nice to have someone to talk to.

"Okay, that's my shift done," Grey said, glancing at his watch. "It's all you now, babes."

Diana gave him a small smile and waved as he made his way out of the cafe. For the next few moments, she served some customers that had wandered in, keeping herself occupied. But it wasn't long before she was alone. Over the past weeks Diana had gotten used to this; being alone in the dark cafe dead in the middle of the night didn't frighten her as much as it initially had. Their town had a low crime rate, and it was mostly peaceful. Also, little to nobody really came the later it got. For a few moments, Diana found herself wondering why the manager even insisted on keeping the cafe open overnight.

At that moment there was a jingle and Diana looked up from her homework, which was spread on the counter in front of her as a group of teenagers walked in. It didn't take long for Diana to realize that they were drunk. In fact, this was the very first thing she realized. What came after was that they were people from her school.

This second fact put a significant damper on Diana's mood. A feeling of annoyance filled with slight panic swept through Diana as she watched the small mass of her schoolmates. Who the hell showed up late to a cafe in the early hours of the morning? Was this their idea of fun? It was clear that they had all just come from a party of some sort, no doubt celebrating the victory of their first game of the season.

"Hey, waitress! Can you serve us!" some guy yelled as they settled down at a table towards the back of the cafe. A couple of feelings shot through Diana. This was a cafe, not some high-end restaurant. They were meant to come up to the counter to take their orders themselves.

However, Diana found herself walking over to the tables where her schoolmates had gathered. Half of them were probably way too drunk to even be aware of where they were. Hopefully she could just give them what they wanted, and they'd be out of the cafe in no time.

"Hi," Diana said, her voice was monotone. "What can I get for you all tonight?"

The table filled with male athletes began giving out their orders, and Diana quickly jotted it all down before making her way back to the counter. It was clear that none of them seemed to recognize her from school, which she was very thankful for. She found herself wondering how they were so comfortable just moving around drunk off their asses, especially when they were all underaged.

Diana shook her head as she got their order ready. She of all people should have known by now that there was a certain level of popularity and privilege which people had that basically allowed them to do whatever they want and get away with it. Alex Perez was a breathing example of such.

At that moment there was a jingle at the door of the cafe and Diana looked up to see none other than Alex walk in. She wasn't alone; she had come in with more athletes, mostly cheerleaders. Diana immediately spotted Julia's blonde hair and let out a shallow groan in her throat.

But then she looked at Alex just to see that the other girl was looking directly at her. From the loud chatter and squeals, Diana could tell that they had just come from whatever party that the first group had been at. She could also tell that just like the first group, they were probably drunk or high off their asses.

Alex was still looking right at her. Diana noticed the shorter girl standing next to her dressed in a bralette and mini-skirt, Diana noticed Alex's arm snaking around the girl's bare waist and concluded that she must be her "fling" for the week. She rolled her eyes as she watched the second group of people make their way over to where the first group was seated towards the back of the cafe. At this point Alex had torn her eyes away from her, focusing instead on the girl hanging from her arm.

"Hey, what's taking so long!" the same boy from before yelled, instantly snapping Diana out of her thoughts.

Diana took a deep breath before making her way to the table, balancing a tray of milkshakes and snacks in her arms.

"Here you go," she said, dropping the tray onto the table, "enjoy."

Diana was just about to walk away when she was cut short in her tracks.

"Hey, aren't you going to serve us too? I'd like something to eat as well."

The tone of the voice was demanding, and Diana could already envision the smug look before she even turned around, coming face-to-face with none other than Alex Perez.