"I swear to God, if I have to sit through another one of those English classes I am officially dropping out." Kyle angrily announced as we approached the bleachers, causing our friends' attention to turn to him. He dropped his backpack into the empty seat in the row above us with a matching frustration, before sitting next to Carter and running his fingers through his hair in exasperation.

They were all hanging out at the bleachers situated in the swimming pool arena, waiting for me and my best friend to return from class and join them.

Kyle and I had just come from one of those English classes. One of those classes that are so boring that your eyelids move independently from your body and they just force themselves shut.

"Dude, what happened?" Ben asked Kyle, a chuckle escaping his lips.

"Ernest Hemingway happened." I said, answering the question before Kyle could.

I sat down in one of the empty seats, and tossed my backpack into the row above us, like my best friend.

"No." Kyle corrected me. "The problem isn't Hemingway, the problem is Mrs. Gifford. She happened, okay? She is the problem."

"Oh, we had her last year too." Carter opened his eyes wide. "Can't say it was easy."

"We got a test coming up next week." I said before taking a deep sigh and pointing to my best friend. "I'm gonna need your help."

Kyle complains about English class and Mrs. Gifford but he's a genius - a prodigy, some would say - at English class, due to the fact that he was a theater kid. The subjects we learn at English class sometimes resonate with some of the things he learns at theater club, so he has that in his favor. Plus he has amazing interpretation skills, and that's pretty much half of what English is all about.

"Friday night, at my place?"

I was about to accept Kyle's offer when Chloé cut me off right before I could even speak.

"Why don't we just go somewhere and study together?"

"You mean, study group?" My cousin Harper - who had become a constant presence amongst all of us - asked.

"Yeah." The brunette shrugged. "Look, we got some notes we could give you guys if you want." She offered, looking in between me and Kyle. "Plus, we also got a test next week and I need to ace that one so I don't fail biology."

"You do realize that a study group is for when a group has to study for the same class, right?" Harper shot back before taking a sip of her water.

"Who even cares?"

"Where are you thinking?" Kyle asked, only to be interrupted by Noah before there was an answer coming for him.

"Slow your roll, loves." Noah said, holding his hands up while looking between all of his friends. "I'm working Friday night."

"Oh, that's even better! We can study at the restaurant!" Chloé rushed to say, enthusiastically.

"That pizza place?"

"Slice of Heaven?" I questioned, letting out a laugh.

Noah shot Chloé a questioning look that mirrored all of his doubts about the plan, but she rushed to change his mind. "Come on, Noah, it's such a great idea! Plus you can feed us for free. And you know, we need food to study, we need energy."

We all looked at Chloé funnily before we started laughing at her way of convincing the head of brown curls that was full of doubts about this plan.

"What?" She asked. "I may not know much about biology but I know that food turns into energy, which we need to do everything and anything. Including studying and memorizing all this shit." She pointed at the biology notebook she had on her lap.

We all continued to laugh at her antics until Noah stopped to agree to her decision.

"Fine. You can all come and stay in the back booth."

"Where is that pizza place anyway?" I found myself asking while I dug my hand inside the outer pocket of my backpack and fished for the scrunchie I needed.

"Santa Ana."

"Oh." Was all I said at the sound of Noah's words, my eyes looking far into the distance to avoid any undesired eye contact. I had no clue his job was that far away from here.

"Zoey, you're coming, right?" Kyle asked, almost as if he was reading my thoughts.

"Sure. My dads can drop me off." I said with a smile before returning to my task of tying my blonde hair into a bun on top of my head.

The sound of goofy laughs and small talk vanished, and silence reigned between the group.

"I'm sorry, did you say dads?" Ben questioned.

"Yep." I responded, bluntly, as I dropped my arms from my head. "I'm adopted."

"Woah, you're adopted?" Noah blurted out his question, sounding more surprised than he'd probably intended to.

"What's your problem with it?"

"And the claws are out." Ben commented, dragging the sound of the first word, with a shit eating grin as he chuckled.

Noah's best friend loved to point out whenever I got more defensive, especially when it was towards anything Noah said.

I ripped out a sheet from my notebook and rumpled it using my hands, quickly forming a makeshift ball with my fingers and then tossing it at Ben. It landed on his chest and he let out a dramatic, loud grunt, pretending to have been shot. We all laughed and carried on with our conversation.

"No, it's... no problem." Noah shrugged. "I just- I didn't expect that, that's all."

"Well, excuse me if I don't have adopted by gay parents written on forehead." I rolled my eyes as I leaned back, and rested my body against the upper row of seats.

"But that's pretty cool." Carter said, trying to save his friend. "I bet you have a different experience than all of us growing up."

"I really hit the jackpot with my dads." I said with a genuine smile that crept in my lips.

Not too long after and, one by one, they started leaving, which left just me and Noah. We were both sticking around for the extra swim practice.

The coach had been watching me and Noah practice for the last few weeks and said that by the time being, another extra practice on Wednesdays wouldn't hurt. So, on Wednesdays, Noah and I waited for the juniors team to finish their practice to get back in the pool.

Without a word, he got up from his seat and made a beeline for the door that led to the locker rooms, where there was a vending machine in the corner of the room. He fished into his pocket for some money and introduced it in the machine, after selecting his pick.

Noah came back shortly and took a seat next to me, handing me a bag of gummy bears while he ripped open the wrapping of the candy bar he chose for himself with his teeth.

"What's with this?" I asked, holding up the gummy bears.

"My treat. Consider it a little energy boost before practice."

I looked down at the colorful plastic package and then looked up again when I heard his next words, that rolled out of his tongue so fast that I didn't have time to thank him. "And I got curious."

I stood still, looking at his brown eyes, my mouth agape, and not knowing what to say.

"About you and your adoption. What I said before really came off wrong, I'm sorry about that."

I drew up and dropped my shoulders. "What do you want to know?"

"Whatever you wanna tell me."

"Uh..." I started, not really knowing where I was going with this. "Well, my parents are the best parents in the whole world. Gavin is an architect. He designs people's homes for a living. He is the human definition of joy." I smiled at the thought of one of my rocks and biggest support system. "He's always fun, always positive."

I opened up the plastic bag with the gummy bears.

"Jack, on the other hand, is the complete opposite. He's more serious, he's..." I hesitated as I searched my brain for the right word. "Racional, while Gavin is more of a dreamer. Jack doesn't do things out of impulse like my other dad does, he is the best person I know at giving out advice. He's a computer and technology specialist."

"Have you been with them long?"

"Yeah, ever since I was born." I nodded while running my fingers through the colorful gummy bears.

"Oh." Was all he said, almost as if he wasn't expecting. "When you said you were adopted I thought you had been through the system or foster care or something." I looked him in the eye, squinting my own and he added. "I'm sorry, I don't know if that's correct, I don't really know how that works."

"Well, with some kids that happens, but that didn't happen for me, thankfully."

Noah nodded and I continued.

"No, I-I was put up for adoption by my biological parents really early on in the pregnancy."

"Do you know anything about them?" He asked.

I took in a long and deep sigh as I thought about it, and popped a yellow gummy bear into my mouth.

"Just that they were really young when they had me." I stared into space, my brain reliving the time when I learnt the information about my biological parents. "And that they had STDs, which is why I have a low immune system."

At the latest information dump, Noah shot me a questioning look, wanting to know more and yet at the same time, looking shocked at my confession.

"There's..." I started, not knowing at all where to actually start. "I mean, it's very likely that they had HIV and or other diseases and the pregnancy wasn't exactly safe." He still looked puzzled and I explained a little bit better. "They didn't go to the doctor and my mom barely got any ultrasounds done."

"Aren't you curious?" I was the one looking puzzled now. "About them? Who they were and what they did and... what happened?"

I took my sweet time to think about his questions and what they all meant. I had been asked this only a few times in my entire life, probably because most people who wanted to ask were too much of a coward to actually ask them out loud.

But Noah had the guts to ask them to me, so I felt the need to grow a pair and give him a proper answer.

"I don't know, to be honest." I sighed, trying to wrap my brain around the whirlwind of thoughts that invaded me. "When I first knew I was adopted, I didn't want to know. My dads were all I knew as parents and I was perfectly fine with it because they were," I stopped to correct myself. "They are my parents."

My thoughts trailed off and it took me a while to regain the courage to continue. "But as I grew older and I started to put the puzzle pieces together, I realized that some pieces are missing, because there's a lot I don't know about them or their past."

He nodded in silence, in an understanding way.

"Maybe, now, I do want to know but, at the same time..." I trailed off, as I thought about it. "Ignorance is bliss."

I pursed my lips into a tight line, refraining myself from speaking any more. I knew the meaning behind that expression and I knew how it applied to me and my situation. And thinking about it too much was making me second guess a lot of things.

Noah could tell as well I did that my mood had shifted, and that I was no longer comfortable with where this conversation was going. So, he changed it up a bit and went for a safer question.

"When did you know?" He asked before adding. "That you were adopted, I mean."

"Um... I think I was around four or five years old." I thought back to that day I still remembered so well. "My dads weren't planning on telling me so soon but I was at kindergarten and you know how kids are." He nodded, but remained silent, waiting for me to continue.

"Why do you have two dads and no mom?" I quoted with a faint laugh. "So, they had to explain the adoption to me. And as I grew up, I started to know more and it all added up, it all started making so much sense..."

I was brought back to memory lane again and I couldn't help but think of how badly I could use a shot of that strong tequila. Turns out, deep conversations go much more smoothly when you have alcohol coursing through your veins.

"I was told that my immune system was low because of an unsafe pregnancy, so I think I left some things to my own imagination. Maybe they were teens, who were in love and poor and chose to give me away to a better family." I shrugged before a weak smile graced my lips, and the words rolled out of my tongue in an unwanted whisper. "But that might not be true."

Damn, where's that tequila when you need it?

By the look on Noah's face, the amount of information I just told him was clearly much more than what he'd expected when he asked his first question.

"That's... that's a lot." I nodded in agreement before taking two red gummy bears to my mouth. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be!" I almost jumped as I said it. "I wouldn't change it for the world."

"No, I'm not sorry for your family situation..." He made a weird facial expression, but he went on. "You're so damn lucky to have two dads that love you endlessly. I'm just... sorry that you don't know everything about your past. It's unfair."

It is. It is so goddamn unfair. And why hasn't anyone ever realized that's exactly how I feel? Instead of showing me sad looks and telling me I'm gonna be fine, why don't they just say that this is unfair for me?

And why did Noah have to be the one person to make me realize that?

I shook those thoughts away, wanting to get away from this topic as soon as it was humanly possible.

Thankfully, and in perfect timing, I spotted with my little eye a group of swimmers just coming out of the pool, which meant it was time to go for our extra late practice.

"Well, look at the time." I stated while I got up from my seat, grabbing my backpack with me and tossing its strap over my shoulder. "Come on, those waters aren't gonna ruffle themselves." I said, referring to the swim practice we were bound to get to.

Happy to bury the subject, I turned in my heels and made my way to the locker rooms, whilst listening to Noah following me.

He gave me a sweet, tender look that said a thousand unsaid words. We parted ways and he went to the male locker room while I went to the girls'.

But the unwanted thoughts still hung on my head for longer than I'd wished for. Especially the thought that this brown eyed guy got me to crack the code on things I didn't even know were locked inside my head.

Well, one thing I know for sure: Ignorance is bliss.

* * *

author's note: okay so... THIS happened! we found out a lot more about zoey's past and what are your thoughts?! let me know!

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lastly, don't forget to follow me on ig (missmarswrites) for special story content and information about my upcoming projects! speaking of... "plot twist" is coming pretty soon, on april 5th! go check out the synopsis and the character aesthetics if you haven't yet!

xoxo, mars