Sparks by Coldplay

My heart is yours. It's you that I hold on to. Yeah, that's what I do.

I walk towards Avery's room, planning to tell her about my dilemma. Dance vs Jameson. When I arrive outside her room, Eli stands guard by her door. I knock on it gently. Nothing. I knock again. Eventually after some continuous knocking I hear her voice say, "would you get that?" 

The door opens and I'm met with Jameson looking down at me impatiently, when he realises its me his face softens. Perfect. The face of my current problems. 

He moves to the side and I walk in. Avery is using a cipher key to solve something and writing down the letters as she solves them, she's so engrossed she doesn't even look up. 

"Who is it?" she asks, its clear she doesn't actually care much for who's here. "Me" I reply walking towards her. Jameson shuts the door and joins us. 

"What are you solving?" I ask curiously. I don't get an answer. 

Avery quickly finishes and Jameson reads out the results. 

"Secrets, lies,

All I despise.

The tree is poison,

Don't you see?

It poisoned S and Z and me.

The evidence I stole

Is in the darkest hole.

Light shall reveal all

I writ upon the..."

"That's it. It ends there." Avery informs us. 

"Secrets, lies, All I despise. The tree is poison, Don't you see? It poisoned S and Z and me. S and Z is Skye and Zara" Jameson solves. "The evidence I stole. What evidence?" Avery continues.

"Is in the darkest hole. Light shall reveal all I writ upon the..." Jameson reads and something clicks in Avery's mind. 

"There's a word missing." She enlightens. "And it rhymes with all" she adds.

Something clicks in Jameson's mind too and suddenly we're all running towards Toby's wing. We step passed the broken wall and follow him to the room.

Light shall reveal all I writ upon the...

"Wall" 

"What wall?" I ask. Getting more invested in this than I previously wanted myself to be.

It suddenly hits me.

"Invisible ink" I mutter.

"Now you're thinking like a Hawthorne" Jameson smiles proudly. 

"Light shall reveal all" I quote. Our eyes meet. We share a knowing look. 

"We're gonna need a black light" he says.

Turns out we need a little more than a black light. As it happens, Xander Hawthorne has potentially the largest collection of black lights known to man kind. 

We turned the overhead lights off and the black lights on. Toby Hawthorne didn't leave one message on his wall. His entire room is filled with his life story, scrawled around the walls. 

Everyone stays silent taking in the writing, "most people keep a diary.." I joke as I start reading the entries. 

"Avery?" Xander asks warily, both seemingly a little farther ahead than me. 

That's when I read it. The turning point. 

"You okay there champ?" He asks her placing a hand on her shoulder, all i see in her face is numbness. 

"Toby was adopted." She recaps. 

"Nobody knew. Not Toby. Not his sisters. No one. Your grandmother faked a pregnancy. When Toby was sixteen, he found something. Proof. I don't know what." She starts, speaking quickly "They adopted him in secret. He wasn't even sure it was legal."

"Why would anyone keep an adoption a secret?" Xander asks sounding seriously confused. 

"His handwriting.." Avery starts, reaching out and touching the walls. I know where she recognises it from. Hell, i recognised it the second i read the extract.

'I have a secret about the day you were born' Our Mother had told her. 

I reread the entirety of the wall at record spread, just to confirm what I already know.

The perfectly neat cursive writing matches Avery's birth certificate. 

Avery Kylie Grambs is the daughter of Toby Hawthorne...

This is shocking to me, i can't imagine how Avery feels at the moment. 

Jameson and I lock eyes. The look we share is equal concern and curiosity. 

I'm glad to know someone's problems are worse than mine right now.

Later that night Jameson and I returned to my room, he decides sleep in my room tonight. We learn from last night and decide to keep some of our clothes in the others room. He gets changed in the bathroom and I do in my room. 

When we're in bed I lay down. Both of us facing each other. 

"You know what all of this means right? Avery isn't Libby's sister, basically only half mine" I say sadly. 

"Are you saying my Brother's aren't my brothers because we have different Dads?" He asks softly. "No of course not" I reply. "Then you three are sisters." He dismisses. 

As I look into his bright green eyes my mind goes back to my own dilemma. Dance or Jameson? Both of them give me an overwhelming amount of joy but which do I choose?

It's the 28th of June. I have 6 days to make up my mind before the deadline hits. 

I think I choose dance but then how do I break the news to Jameson? Jameson is the easier choice but will i regret not letting myself follow my dreams if i don't choose dance.

"What's going on inside that beautiful mind of yours Eiffel Tower?" Jameson says in a gravely but quiet voice. I blink up at him. I reach a hand out to his hair, slicking it back playfully. He keeps his eyes on mine. 

"I love you Jamie" I sigh softly. "I love it when you call me Jamie" he grins. "I refuse to call you Jamie ever again until you give up the whole Eiffel Tower thing." I grin jokingly.

"What should I call you?" He starts, "Pear?" He mocks Libby and Avery's nickname for me, sounding weird coming from him. "How about Paris?" I suggest sarcastically.

"I like Riley, I should call you Riley." He smiles using my middle name. I frown and shift uncomfortably. "No uhh.. Eiffel Tower's good" I lie to change the topic. 

"Girls, why don't we play a game? Whoever wears the most clothes wins. I call it the layers game." My Mother had said. I could feel myself shivering but was too excited for the challenge I forgot all about it. 

I had pilled myself into a total of 12 layers, Avery had only managed 10. "Our new champion, Riley!" My Mom celebrated. She always called me Riley. She was the only one allowed to, not Avery, not Ricky, not Libby. Just Mom. It was our thing.

Jameson wears a hint of regret and a frown that makes me feel guilty. "Sorry, Paris" he frowns. "No, I'm sorry. Nobodies called me that in a while." I withhold the truth from him. 

His frown grows into a small smirk as he snakes his arms around my waist and pulls me close to his chest where I find comfort and grant myself sleep.

(a/n. Sorry this one's a little shorter than normal. I might post chapter 38 as well as a treat because I've had some spare time this week that I've spent writing so I'm a bit farther ahead than normal. Let me know if you want one tonight/tommorow or next weekend. Thanks for reading, have a lovely day/night)