"Did we really have to come to this?" Sam huffed, standing by her mom as Sadie walked over with a chocolate milkshake. "I do have a girlfriend now."

"Uh, Sheila's worked for us for ten years. She's practically family. And Sadie's having fun." Amanda gave a point toward Sam. "Anyways, you used to love to babysit Cindee. Oh, Hi!"

Sadie thought Amanda was waving at her, waving back. "Hi."

"Come on." Sam pulled Sadie toward one of the empty tables, sliding in as Sadie went with her. "What'd you get?"

"Two straws." she popped them into the milkshake. "And some greasy fries are on the way."

"Cool." Sam smiled, sipping the milkshake as Sadie did the same. "Did you skip first period?"

"Didn't feel like getting up." Sadie said back, whipping her lips. "Correction, literally couldn't get up. I was, like, so tired or something."

"Up all night figuring out Mouses tank?" Sam joked. "How is he?"

"Good right now." Sadie nodded her head, taking another sip. "Did I miss anything?"

"No, we just continued the reading." Sam said back, leaning against the seat as she met Sadie's eye, getting a comical grin in return. "So, Eli brought something up to me."

"Oh, god. You guys are talking?" Sadie looked in her direction. "That can't be good."

"When Johnny put your name on the sheet to compete at last years All Valley, did he put your real name?" Sam looked over at her, Sadie pulled a confusing look. "He said that Johnny had him down as Hawk, just Hawk."

Sadie thought about it. "The announcer called me Fangs but i'm not sure, I can ask. What does it matter?"

"Because if Fangs is banned, Sadie isn't." Sam said, making Sadie turn to her with with a blink. "Meaning you could still compete."

Before Sadie could say anything, she recognized a face in the line of mermaids. "Is that-"

Sam turned, a laugh left her lips at the sight of Tory. "My day just got so much better."

Sadie let Sam bother Tory, keeping her distance to avoid any fighting of her own. That resulted in her sitting alone, which she wasn't necessarily happy with. Sam invited her, and then ditched her to mock her enemy. Sadie didn't blame her for wanting to bother Tory, but she knew no one else here and felt awkward sitting alone. In the mean time, she looked at the D tattooed on her wrist. She thought about the boys, and wondered what they were doing.

The normal person thing to do would be to text and see what was going on. But, her and Demetri hadn't really been on a texting level, and her and Eli were still fighting. She hated thinking about their relationship, usually because it scared her. When she though about Demetri and Eli, she immediately thought about their break up, how she scared Demetri, how Eli hurt her. That alone made her insecure as a girlfriend, and scared of her partner. It was ridiculous, but she wasn't stupid, Sam cheating on Robby was something Sadie thought about a lot.

"Can't believe you're dating a girl like that." Tory brought her out of her thoughts, coming to the desk to get a new book for the kids. "Seriously, i'm just trying to do my job."

"You really don't think you wouldn't do the exact same thing she's doing if the roles were reversed?" Sadie asked her, meeting her eye. "I like the purple, by the way, suits you."

Tory rolled her eyes. "Yeah, of course you'd defend her."

"I'm not defending her, I think she's being ridiculous." Sadie shrugged as Troy looked at her again. "But i'm not gonna be the one to say anything to her when we both know you'd do the exact same thing."

"It's funny." Tory looked at her. "You settle down for a change and the first girls it's with is a cheater? Is that not why you and Hawk broke up?"

Sadie starred at her. "Don't you have a job to do? Or are you getting paid to talk bullshit to me?"

Tory gave her a minor glare. "All i'm saying is that you should really keep an eye on who you let close to you. If anything, i'm trying to help you."

"And why would you do that?" Sadie crossed her arms. "Kreese teach you that form of manipulation? You wanna gaslight me next? Go ahead, babe."

"Because you and I both know which dojo you actually belong in." Tory gave Sadie a knowing look, grabbing the book. "Difference is, only one of us can admit it."

Sadie watched Tory walk away, going back to the little kids. Sadie huffed, this time headed to grab her bag at the table. When she turned back around, she came across the little kids throwing cups of glitter at Sam. Sadie gapped, looking as Tory blew a kiss with two fingers, forming in a heart. Sam turned around, storming back toward Sadie. "I can not believe she just did that."

"What'd you expect?" Sadie asked, pulling her bag up on her shoulder. "You bother her, she's gonna bother you."

"Are you seriously taking her side?" Sam looked at her girlfriend in disbelief. "Compared to all she's done that's nothing."

"I agree." Sadie rose her eyebrows with a nasty look across her face. "You wanna piss her off, that's cool, be my guest. But don't throw a fit when it happens to you."

Sam was taken back by Sadie's sudden attitude, realizing it was probably a lot more then what she was letting on. "What's going on? Are you mad at me?"

"No, i'm just going home." Sadie said, walking toward the door.

"Why? I thought you wanted to hang out today?" Sam followed her, grabbing her arm. "Sadie."

"Sorry, did you actually want to talk to me? Or would you rather spend time with Tory and leave me all alone?" Sadie asked her bitterly, grabbing the door knob. "I'm tired. I'm going home."

Sam sighed in sadness as Sadie hurried away.

The thing was, her mom had it. Sadie had seen it happen before, which shocked her considering she didn't realize what was going on with her. Why was she always so tired? Why was the only thing she want to do is sit around and do nothing? Why couldn't she get out of bed some mornings, even if she wanted to so bad? Why was she constantly in a state of sadness? Why was she loosing interest in everything she once loved?

I'm not sleeping enough.

I'm just having a lazy day.

I'm too tired to move.

I just miss my parents.

I'm just not interested anymore.

Excuse after excuse. Everyone had heard it, no come realized that maybe she wasn't telling the truth either. Sadie couldn't blame them, especially when she didn't even realize it was happening either. She was a good liar, always had been, and what person clicks soon enough to realize that something might be wrong? She knew she definitely wouldn't.

"Sorry Sam pretty much pushed you to the side." Moon said, the first person Sadie went to when she wanted a hit. Moon supplied her with all the weed she wanted. "I'm sure she didn't mean to."

"Maybe not." Sadie blew from her mouth, sitting with Moon on one of her balconies. "Thanks, Moon. I really needed this."

"Sure, we grow it in the back yard." Moon nodded her head, sitting across from her. "I haven't seen you in the foreign language club."

"Just not feeling it anymore." Sadie said back, taking a long inhale. "Too busy."

"Yeah, I get it." Moon agreed, laughing slightly as Sadie coughed. "How's school been? I'm struggling in Chemistry."

"Yeah, same. I'm pretty much struggling in everything." Sadie agreed, offering a hit to Moon, getting a head shake. "Doesn't matter anyways."

"You don't think school matters?" Moon gave a curious look. "Why do you say that?"

"Just doesn't." Sadie met her eye with a shrug. "Nothing really actually matters, if you think about it. There's seven billion people in this world, we're literally just like little dust particles from a distance. Everything we do isn't gonna actually matter unless we find a way to cure cancer or leak the presidents sex tape. I mean, we can literally die and it wouldn't make a difference in what happens to the world tomorrow."

Moon watched Sadie a second before she laughed. "I think you smoked a little too much."

Sadie passed it back to her with a half grin. "Probably so."

•

kylie speaks

check on your friends, babes.
check on your friends.