Winter break ended with the ringing in of the new year, and it wasn't long before I found myself back inside the familiar walls of Beaufort High School.

"At least I can finally leave the house again." Mia said glumly as she shoved her Chemistry book into her locker and grabbed her Spanish one instead.

I grimaced, reaching over to shut her locker for her. "I think I'd rather stay home."

Mia shot me a look that said no you wouldn't, trust me. "God I really hope I don't run into Luke today." She worried, shifting her books so that she could push the hair out of her face.

I nodded in agreement, glancing around as if we were tempting fate and he were going to appear at any moment. "So I take it that now you finally see what Brooks meant when he said that Luke's bad news?" As far as I was aware, Brooks still hadn't told Mia why he and Luke were truly on the outs, but after being grounded and having enough free time to think over the whole situation, I was pretty sure that Mia saw things in a new light.

"Definitely. I mean, it sucks, but I get it now. I just kept waiting for the guy I saw at the beach all those years ago to make a reappearance, when he clearly wasn't going to. Anyone who is willing to hurt innocent people and my family is not a friend of mine." Mia told me matter of factly, and I gave Mia a proud grin.

Atta girl.

"Good on you, Mi. The right guy's out there, I know it. In fact he's probably right under your nose."

Cough, Dallas.

We continued down the hallway towards our Spanish class, narrowly avoiding running into a Freshman who was sprinting to class.

"I don't know, Sav. They say the number of fish in the sea has dropped this year. Pollution and all that." Mia told me with a shrug, and I rolled my eyes at her playfully.

"Come on Mia. Are you seriously telling me that nobody around here other than Luke has caught your eye?" A mischievous smirk spread about my lips as I goaded her. I was never going to spill Dallas' secret— it wasn't mine to tell— but that didn't mean I couldn't gently nudge her in his direction. "Not even a certain older brother's best friend?"

Mia stopped so suddenly that she almost dropped her books, and her bag fell down her shoulder onto her wrist. "Dallas?!" She asked incredulously, reaching down to readjust her bag once she had regained her composure. "As in, Dallas O'Laughlan?"

I led the way into our Spanish room and took a seat in the middle, dropping my books onto the table with a thump.

"Sure, why not? I mean he's sweet and funny and cute. What's not to like about him?" I shrugged casually, opening up to a fresh sheet of lined paper and dating the top '3 de enero'.

"But he's... he's... he's Dallas." Mia stumbled, staring at me as if I were speaking a foreign language.

I chuckled, nodding at her. "Yeah, Dallas. One of the nicest guys I know and, trust me, I've met a lot of guys. I just think that you would make a good couple, that's all." I continued scribbling in my notebook, writing down random Spanish words and phrases that I knew, trying to recall some of the more difficult grammar rules that my tutor had taught me on set.

At that moment our Spanish teacher walked into the room, but she didn't even acknowledge us as she quickly wrote a textbook page number on the board and then flopped down at her desk and opened a gossip magazine. Horrifyingly, there was a small thumbnail photo of me on the cover and I prayed that no one would notice. I still got quite a few stares in class and in the hallway, but people seemed to be approaching me less and less for whatever reason. I wasn't complaining.

Mia scrutinised me, crossing her arms over her chest and turning her whole body to face me. Her expression became smug. "Alright then, Cupid. What about you and my brother huh?"

My pen stilled on my notepad, and I turned my head slowly. "What about me and your brother?"

Mia lifted a blonde eyebrow knowingly. "Don't even try and play dumb. You think I don't notice you eyeing each other all the time?"

I opened my mouth to make a smart response, but closed it again when I realized that I didn't know what to say. Did I really stare at Brooks that much? We had barely exchanged two words to each other since our fight, and things were more tense than ever. Was I overcompensating for our lack of conversation through eye contact?

"And I know all about the crush you had on him when we were kids." Mia teased, causing my cheeks to flame red. I reached up and covered my face with my hands. How had we gone from Mia and Dallas to me and Brooks?

"I don't know what you're talking about." I defended myself, playing dumb despite remembering how hard it had been as a twelve-almost-thirteen-year-old not to gush about Brooks to Mia. But she was his sister, and it would have been weird.

Mia laughed out loud, making the girl sat next to her turn to see what was so funny. "Are you kidding? 'Do you think Brooks likes the color of my shirt? Brooks' favorite movie is Batman, did you know that? Brooks says that if he could have any superpower it would be to eat all of the food in the world and not get fat. Isn't he funny?' " Mia twirled a strand of hair around her finger and put on a stupid high pitched voice, clearly trying to impersonate me as a child.

I reached over and shoved her shoulder, trying to hide my embarrassment. Preteen me thought she was being so sly and subtle. Clearly, she wasn't.

Mia's laughter died down and she organized her belongings on the table. "Don't worry, he did exactly the same thing. Talked about you all the time. Or at least he did until—" Mia stopped herself short, chewing on her lower lip.

My heart sank in my chest, knowing where this conversation was leading. "Until I left."

Mia nodded once. "Yeah. He stopped talking about you altogether for a while. But, if it makes you feel any better, he watched every episode of Scandalous with me. I think, when he wasn't being so angry, he was pretty proud of you."

I took a moment to digest Mia's words, an overwhelming sense of warmth washing over me. For some reason, the way Jazmin's eyes had lit up when Brooks admitted to liking someone in our friendship group during our game of Never Have I Ever back at the lake house came to mind, and I gnawed on my lower lip as the warmth in my chest dissolved. "This is a silly conversation Mia. Brooks hates me currently and I'm none too fond of him either. Besides, it's clear that Jazmin is into him and I'm pretty sure he would feel the same way about her if she told him."

My best friend frowned, a dimple forming between her eyebrows as she glared at me. "Jazmin's my friend and I love her, but Brooks does not like her like that, trust me. I'm his sister and I know these things."

I didn't argue with her, though I knew that she was wrong. Jazmin was gorgeous and intelligent, and she had been here for the last four years while I hadn't. They made sense.

Mia took my silence as a chance to fire another question at me, but this time one that she deserved the answer to.

"Why didn't you ever call or visit us once you moved away?"

I stared down at my fingernails, realizing that even though Mia had forgiven me, I had still hurt her when I cut off all contact with Beaufort. "At first I was scared, I guess. I was scared that Brooks would want answers or would yell at me, so I avoided calling you. Then I became busy with work and events, and my parents split up and moved away and left me with a bunch of babysitters. The more time that passed by the harder it became to call. I really really missed you though Mia. Both of you."

Mia chewed on the end of her pen thoughtfully. "I missed you too. And I kinda get it. I mean, I wish I could've spoken to you and seen you, but I know why you had to move away. It was your dream job and you weren't happy here. After you left Brooks told me how the kids at our middle school used to bully you. I don't know how I didn't see it."

I did. Because I'd been good at hiding it. So were they. Everything about me was a joke that could be laughed at— my hair, my face, my body, my personality. But it was a private joke between me and those few kids, and eventually Brooks. Acting had always been my escape from it. It allowed me to be somebody else for a little while— to leave the mind of Savannah Silvers the loser and become whoever the hell I wanted to be that day. Sometimes it still felt better being Scandalous's Veronica Hart than it did being Savannah Silvers, but Los Angeles had given me a thicker skin, and I no longer felt like a helpless kid. I'd made a pact with myself once, to never let myself be treated like that again.

I was still learning how to be powerful and assertive without being rude, and I had definitely been led astray once or twice. But shy, awkward, defenceless little Savvy was no more.

I smiled at my best friend, reaching over to squeeze her hand. How could someone be so forgiving and understanding? "You're really something, you know that Meeps?"

She flicked her hair as if to say I know I am, and my grin widened even further.

"Also, just think about Dallas will you? I think he might surprise you."

People had a tendency to do that around here.