NOEL WOKE up to the smell of fresh eggs, he clambered out of his mom's bed, tentatively making his way down the steps, only to be greeted by his mom flipping eggs in the air and frying bacon.

"Good morning!" Her hair was in loose tousled waves, her face smeared with light makeup and a bright smile. She looked youthful, fresh, glowing, a stark contrast to the empty shell Noel had grown so used to seeing. "I've made English breakfast...there's toast in the toaster over there, sausages cooking in the oven, I'm boiling tea on the kettle...oh! Sausage is done!" Soon all the food was plated up and lay restaurant worthy on their dining table. They sat down together, crunching on toast and downing on eggs and laughter.

"I was thinking..." Noel's mom had dabbed at her lips, taking a sip of her milky tea. "About moving?"

"M-moving?"

"Just to a little apartment in town."

"Ohh, okay, I thought you meant to another state or something."

"No! I would never do that! You're settled here. It's just, we've been leaving in this house for so long and it doesn't have many good memories for us, I thought it'd be good to start afresh, something a little smaller, an apartment perhaps?"

"That'd be great. That's amazing Mom." Noel couldn't quiet the grin on his face, this was what his mom needed, this was what he needed. Although he'd definitely miss where he grew up, the memories were stifling to be around. "Have you seen any you liked?"

"Not yet...but I'm thinking very nature orientated, plants and all of that stuff. Something that reminds me of my home back in Japan."

"We can go over to Plantworld and pick up some plants."

"Yeah we can." His mom picked up her plate and mug and dumped it into the sink, she turned round to look at Noel, tucking her hair behind her ears. "Need me to drop you at school?"

"Nah, I'm good, I'm going to walk, it's a good day today."

"Okay."

"And I might be going to chipotle after school since it's the last day of the semester."

"Alright have fun."

Noel stood up from the table, he washed both his plate and his mom's quickly, turning to the door, whilst slinging his backpack on his shoulder. He stopped for a moment before backtracking to where his mom was still standing. He reached his arms out, engulfing her into a warm and soft hug, his grip tightening on the folds of her blouse. "I love you Mom." Noel whispered into her clothes, his voice was so quiet he wasn't sure his Mom had even heard him.

"I love you too." And his mom squeezed back, just as tight.

----

"Noel!!!" Noel turned around to see May shrieking and jumping in the air. She ran to him manically, engulfing him into a tight hug. "Where did you go? You literally didn't turn up to school for the whole of last week! You probably won't believe it but Bethany was so worried about you...I knew she loved you!"

"I'm never gonna let her live it down." Noel chuckled against May's ecstatic frame, they were almost about to swan into the school gates, but he could tell by May's slowing steps that she wasn't ready to enter yet.

"Seriously though? Where did you go? I tried to go to the venue of the wedding, in fact the whole group did but it was empty."

Noel took an exaggerated dragged breath, choosing to lean against a wonky steel pole. "That's a long story for another day, which I will tell you...I just want this to be a good day, y-know?"

May nodded happily. "I'm just glad to see your back! It was so weird without you, it's funny how you were never in my life before, but now I can't imagine you not being there. It's not the same."

"Really?" Noel breathed out, he couldn't even fathom how he was able to make such good friends, before he was a recluse, a damaged shadow not fit for social interaction, but now? He had a group of friends who cared for him and something about that still felt unbelievable.

"Really! You don't understand how many people were asking Bethany, Dylan and I where you were, they were like 'hey where's that kid that wears the sickest clothes, he's always hanging around you lot'"

Noel was the 'kid with the sickest clothes' and he felt like bursting into both tears and laughter.

"May? Can I ask you something?"

"Ask away!"

"Remember when you and Bethany gave me this makeover...you gave me two phases, phase two being the makeover and phase one being 'Mama May's magical concoction'"

"I can't believe you remember that!"

"Well, you never gave me the concoction."

"Yes I did." May said simply, she smiled at Noel coyly, nudging his shoulder slightly. "Have you seen your skin recently?"

"Not really to be honest."

May kept her mischievous smile on her face, taking her backpack off her shoulders and hunting for a small pocket mirror. (The sight of one still gave Noel the shivers after the whole Ron thing). She angled it towards Noel's face, the sunlight catching it and eliciting a golden glow around Noel.

His skin was clear.

Now it wasn't clear, clear, like Korean glass skin clear, or smooth as a baby's butt clear, he still had acne scars- quite a lot of them too, mainly scattered across his chin, but apart from that there wasn't a pimple in sight, his face glowed from inside out.

"How did this happen?" Noel couldn't wrap his head around the fact, how something as big as clearing his skin went under his radar. "How did I not know? Were you putting something on my face?"

"The only thing I tried to give you was confidence." May whipped her short hair into a bun. Joining Noel to lean on the pole. "As I said before, there's no point in clearing your skin if you don't change your mindset. The sooner you stopped thinking about it, the sooner it cleared up. I'm guessing it wasn't important in your life anymore, having bad skin isn't the be-all end-all, and once you stopped stressing and worrying about your acne, the sooner it will leave. Sometimes you've got to let your face breathe from all the acne products and chemicals. Sometimes you've just got to go outside and hang out with your friends and explore nature and explore the world. The quicker you stopped your skin from holding you back, the sooner it went away, I tried to help you by being your friend and buying you new clothes. That was the magical concoction, whether your acne went away or not, I wanted you to know, it doesn't control you...it's just acne."

Had the school bell not rung loudly, alerting pupils to get to class, Noel might have cried. Instead he grabbed May into another hug before linking arms with her into the school building.

"What are you thinking about chipotle after school with the gang?"

"How about fro-yo, oh wait I forgot you don't like fro-yo, nor does Bethany actually."

"I lied. I love fro-yo, I just thought dairy would give me more acne..."

"Noel!"

"Honestly it gets to a point where you believe anything, like...for example...rubbing raw potatoes and bananas on your skin."

"Bananas?"

"Yes, bananas."

And then for what felt like the third time that day, Noel burst into laughter again.