Jay parks in one of the empty spots in the very back corner of the school parking lot, I'm assuming so no one can suspect that we drove ourselves here on a permit with no adult supervision. Who knew that on the first day back we'd be rebels?

Anyway, Jay and I have pretty much downed our drinks while Piper barely finished hers halfway. I sneak another glance at her. She looks like she's going to have a panic attack. I know somethings up on top of the million signs she's already been giving us. I just hope Jay notices too.

"Piper.." I say. She ignores me and heads out of the car. I decide that maybe this is not the best time to talk to her, then.

We head out of the car. Jay and I struggle to keep up with Piper, but we manage to match her speed. We're speed walking as if we're late to class. Piper is in between us, making Jay and I look like her bodyguards. This gives me some sort of deja vu feeling. I glance at Jay hoping to lock eye contact with him. Luckily, he notices my gaze and I signal to him that Piper is not okay. He nods and starts to ask her something.

I would do something if I knew how, but I don't know what I should do. Why is she so upset? Piper is always good at cheering us up, just like Mom. I just want to do the same for her.

Wait, Mom.

Oh.

That's why Piper's upset. She either really misses Mom or today is somehow connected to Mom, or both. I glance at my phone, hoping it would give me the answer. September 4th.

September 4th..... That was Mom's burial.

Then a wave of emotions hit me. I fight them back and within a second I have mastered my expressionless expression. I'm so good at masking my emotions, one could say I'm an actor. I might have to say the same thing for Jay too, we just don't like to show emotion.

All of a sudden Piper freezes. I don't know what Jay asked her, but whatever it was, it made her stop walking. I watch as she struggles with a response, which means whatever she's about to say is a lie.

She swallows. "Yeah I'm fine," she forces out. "I'm just.. tired." She continues to walk again and we follow her lead.

I glance at Jay, he knows she's lying too. Why can't she just tell us what's up?

We're at the school entrance when Piper stops again and reaches for Jay's hood. She pulls it down and ruffles his chestnut brown hair, the same color as mine. Usually, he'd fight with her or grumble for messing up his hair, but he does neither since he knows she needs this sense of normalcy.

Piper then turns to me and fixes the strings of my hoodie to make it even. Control freak alert! Then, she fake punches me in the arm. "See ya, dudes," she says enthusiastically. It's too cheery, it's fake. Anyone else would think that really nothing is wrong, but I know Piper so well. She can really put on an act, but I can see through her cracks. I guess one could say that the three of us are actors.

We watch her walk into the building and then I stop Jay.

"It's probably about Mom," I say, trying to mask my worry.

"Yea, I figured," Jay replies, sighing. "To save her dignity, let's not say anything about it. Maybe, just keep an eye on her. And support her?"

I think, running that plan over in my head. Shrugging, I say, "Yeah sure. I'll try not to seem sus."

Jay gives me a look. He knows I won't be able to. He runs his hands through his hair and throws his hood on.

We both go our separate ways. We don't have the same group of friends. I don't understand why Jay has a problem with my friends. In middle school, we all used to hang and now Jay avoids them. I really don't understand what's up with that. Even now, I remind Jay he could always hang out with us. If they have even the slightest problem with him, they'd forget they ever had a problem by the time I'm through with them. He always turns me down, though. I guess my friends really aren't his type or something.

I flock to my group and notice Piper's group is right next to us. We're both pretty popular and our groups sometimes mix. Some of the boys in my group are even dating the girls from hers.

I dab my boy, Andre, up and I jump into the conversation. The conversation is a mix of tiktok trends, girls, and celebs. I could honestly care less. I glance over at Piper's group hoping she's okay. She smiles and talks with her friends, but I notice that her eyes look sad. Hang in there Piper. You can do this!

I guess I was staring her way for too long because Caleb shoves me playfully saying, "Ryan. Which girl caught your eye? I bet-"

I cringe at the name "Ryan", he's been calling me that for years and even when we all correct him, he still calls me that. I quickly answer him though, before he can finish his sentence. "Jess," I say. Jess is Piper's best friend. With Piper in my mind, she's the only name I could come up with.

"Bro, you should totally ask her out. Word on the street is that she has a crush on you too. But, you really be going for your sister's bestie huh," Andre says.

"I mean why not? I can't help my feelings dude." I don't really like Jessica. But, I guess I'll pretend for a bit. It's an excuse to look Piper's way anyway.

"Ha! Look at me being all hyp-o-critical," Andre says, sounding out the last word and pulling me aside from the rest of the group. He doesn't use big words that often so they come out slower than the rest of his speech. He licks his lips before saying, "...as I'm kinda catching feelings for your sis, Piper. Gauge my chances will ya? I'm planning on asking her out real soon." The lip licking is a habit, I don't think he's a creep.

The bell rings and I answer with a quick "sure man" and head to my first class I share with Piper: math. Dang, Andre likes Piper? I didn't see that coming. That's some new info for sure.

I push that to the back of my mind. Piper. I need to support Piper, subtly. I'll have to make an effort to sit next to her, so I can check on her, but not sit next to her, so it won't look weird.

I walk into class that is basically full and I sit in an empty seat in the back, near Piper. I never thought she was a backrow kind of person, but I pretend not to notice. The teacher is busy at the board, so I look through my snap.

One is from Jay, saying 'good luck'. I roll my eyes. This dude has no faith in my huh. I look through the rest of them and I think about texting Piper, but I decide against it.

The teacher then turns around looking at the whole class. The board reads Mrs. Johnson. She goes on and on about stuff I could care less about. Instead of paying attention, I think about Mom.

I really miss her a lot, but I push down the feelings so I can be strong for Piper. If I was emotional along with Piper being emotional, then Jay and Dad won't be able to handle us. Besides, I'm not a softy.

Mom was there when Dad wasn't. Sure they both worked hard jobs, but Mom always made time for us. If only she were still here.

"Morrison!" Mrs. Johnson calls. My brain returns back to class. I realize that we're doing attendance.

"There's two Morrisons in this class," a girl named Jadah, responds.

"Oh, that's weird! I didn't know this school allowed twins to be in the same class?"

I remember that Mrs. Johnson is a new teacher. I'm about to correct her when Jadah says, "They're triplets, actually. They also have a brother named Jack."

"His name is Jay, actually," Jonathan corrects her. Jay and Jonathan are close friends. I'm pretty sure they met during some video game thing.

"Oh that's nice," Mrs. Johnson says. "So Piper and Bryan.. you guys are here." She marks off the attendance. "Would you guys like to say something about yourselves?" She doesn't wait for a response. "Bryan, you go first then Piper."

"Sure," I say, standing up. "Hi, I'm Bryan Morrison. You guys all probably know me already." I glance around, probably everyone except this new kid sitting in the front. "I'm on the varsity football team and I got a dog this summer." I sit back down. I couldn't have been so lame.

"Aww, that's nice. What's the dog's name?"

I resist the urge to scrunch up my nose. "Fifi." I absolutely hate her name, but Piper begged to name our dog that.

"Oh, what a lovely name!" I almost scoff. "Miss Morrison.. I mean Piper. Go ahead and tell the class something about yourself."

Piper stands up and I watch her plaster a smile on her face. She talks in a high voice, the kind of voice that makes her sound like a pick-me girl. "Hi I'm Piper! Like most of you already know I have two brothers and we're triplets. It can be a pain sometimes being the only girl in the house.." I watch as Piper's face flickers, but she recovers instantly. "I am on the varsity dance and cheer team and I love watching movies."

"Unfortunately there will be no movie watching in my class." Mrs. Johnson laughs at her own joke. "Ok, is Jared Mosley here?"

I glance back at Piper and her face is very downcast. I decide to text her.

B: Yo, whaddup Pip?

P: hey loser. what do you want?

Do I want to go serious or playful?

B: Why did you name our dog Fifi?

P: cause she looks like a fifi. she's small and cuddly.

B: She does not look like a Fifi.

...

I wonder what she's going to say next.

P: what do you really want?

Dang, this girl is good.

B: Are you okay?

P: no.

I decide to play dumb.

B: What's wrong?

P: i don't want to talk about it.

B: Why?

Read.

I just want to help her and she decides to push me away, great!
I try to pay attention to what's going on. Mrs. Johnson is just talking about the syllabus. Fun! School this year is going to be great. I open up TikTok on my phone and scroll through a couple videos.

Suddenly everyone around me is gathering their stuff. Is class over already? I quickly glance at the clock, yea no it can't be. I then remember the assembly we're having today. I don't know what it's about, but I use this as an opportunity to approach Piper.

"Hey," she says quietly. I want so badly to give her a hug. Instead, I give her shoulder a squeeze. She looks up at me and smiles. I stare into her crystal blue eyes, to make sure she's genuinely happy.

"It's okay, it's going to be okay," I respond to her unsaid thoughts. Anyone listening in would be so lost, but we have some sort of telepathy way of speaking and she knows I understand.

Her friend, Jess, somehow magically pops up to her side. And starts babbling about nonsense. I start moving away and sneak a glance at Piper. She mouths a 'thank you' and then turns to Jess who isn't paying attention to anything, but herself.

I search the crowd for Jay and tell him about how successful I was.

"Good job on not making her feel worse, kiddo," he says mimicking an adult. He quickly goes silent. Kiddo was one of Mom's words.

At lunch, I decide to ditch my friends and head to Jay's table. But to my surprise, Jay decided to sit away from his friends as well. I guess we both need some sort of alone time. Today's been pretty long already, even though we're only halfway through the school day. I see Piper walking toward our table. Her friends look back at her stunned.

I smile at her, happy for her choice. She plops her lunch tray down as a tear runs down her cheek.

Jay and I look at each other. Should I say something or should he say something?

"Pi," Jay starts as Piper lifts her head to look at him. "We'll get through this together. It may not seem like it, but it's hard for us to get through this day as well."

Dang. Jay always knows the right words to say. I gulp. "Yeah, the tough guy act is a scam," I say as a joke.

This makes Piper smile. "Thanks guys," she says looking much happier. Then she whispers, "PB&J, boys!"

"PB&J," Jay says smiling back at her.

"PB&J, for sure," I say a bit louder than Piper and Jay. A couple people turn around and look at us. This makes Piper blush and punch me in the arm, playfully. It's sort of our little secret code or something. It's like saying everything will be alright and we're going to get through this together. We catch up with each other on our day so far. And I seem to be the only one seeing Jess walk over.

Shoot. I have to pretend I like her. She comes over and says hi to Jay and I. Her eyes linger on Jay, and she grabs Piper's arm in a way to drag her back to their table.

"Adios," Jay says and I wave as Piper heads off to her table.

"Bro, she's definitely into you," I say to Jay.

"As someone as oblivious as you, I'm surprised you noticed that," Jay says, opening his phone, probably to play a game.

I roll my eyes. "Dude, I told my guys that I like her because I was being sus looking her way." At the word, sus Jay laughs. He probably expected that. I continue, "I obviously can't say I'm checking up on Piper, cause she won't like that. So it's good she doesn't like me since I don't really like her and..."

Jay continues to play on his phone. Without looking up he cuts me off saying, "Okay, dude. I don't fully understand what you're saying, but I was going to say I like her too."

I open my eyes in shock. Jay likes Jess. I didn't think she was his type. Jay ignores my shock and continues to play his games.