"How long have I been out," Sammy asked Stass as he awoke in her bed.

She tossed his shirt at him and walked over to the window bench to sit down. She looked out her window at the clear blue skies wearing a sweatshirt & shorts.

"Well let's see," she cleared her throat. "You showed up around midnight, drank the last of my wine, and talked yourself to sleep around 1:30."

"...Did we--"

"Nope," Stass shook her head. "Look Sam, I see what you're doing. I thought you just wanted to be cool but I can't take another girl's man. Especially not Serenity's."

"I'm sorry." He ran his fingers through his hair. "I just thought there was some sort of chemistry between us and I wanted to dig a little deeper."

"Maybe you should stop digging," Stass shrugged. "At least break up with her before being all exploratory, for fuck's sake. By the way, she called 3 times last night."

"Shit," he whispered.

"You should get dressed and go, anyway. She'll be here in an hour to do me and Justine's makeup for a photoshoot."

Sam put his shirt on and got out the bed to next put on his shoes.

"Please don't hate me," he pleaded.

"You'd have to do some real fucked up shit for me to hate you."

. . .

"I feel..." Kian thought. "I feel corny." His face scrunched up as he patted down his chest.

Kian and Lucy walked up to Gilinsky's front door and she fixed his blazer for him.

"I'm not the one who told you to wear a blazer with a t-shirt," Lucy chuckled.

"Not this," he grinned. "This whole double date thing. I mean...she's my stepsister, it's gross."

"Don't be such a baby."

"We're having dinner that they cooked together in a dining room they set up together," Kian cringed. "Didn't know we're a middle-aged couple that dines with our friends from the country club."

Lucy tried not to laugh too loud. "Relax. We're young as hell and we're not part of a country club. I'm a woman of color for fuck's sake."

"Which means nothing," he shrugged. "Your parents go to the same club as mine, all walks of life for your information, Tumblr user."

"You know what I meant." She poked him before ringing the door bell. "You look fine."

"You look better." He leaned down and kissed her on the forehead.

The door opened and the scent of apples hit them like a brick wall.

"Hey!" Vanessa exclaimed, wearing an apron.

"Is it them," Gilinsky shouted from the kitchen. The sound of a spoon clanked against a pot.

"Sure is," Vanessa answered.

Both Lucy and Kian's eyebrows were raised at the level of excitement from the pair.

"Good evening," Kian mocked in an equal high-pitched tone.

Vanessa rolled her eyes, "Don't be fake. Come in!"

They followed Vanessa further into the house and into the kitchen where Gilinsky was stirring something.

"Missed you," Gilinsky spoke softly before kissing Vanessa.

"She was gone for 30 seconds," Kian mumbled under his breath but Lucy heard him clearly.

"This is gonna be one of those nights," Lucy mumbled back.

"Mmhmm. So!" Kian spoke in a louder tone. "What's for dinner?"

"We made a feast! There's chicken, I'm stirring up some gravy right now. Vanessa made dinner rolls from scratch and some string beans."

"String beans?" Kian's face scrunched up.

"We can't forget the salad Jack put together, you guys are gonna love it," Vanessa smiled.

"Well," Lucy nodded. "We're ready to eat when you are."

Hours later, Kian and Lucy leave Gilinsky's house ready to scream. They waste no time getting into Lucy's car and driving off.

"I don't even know how to summarize today," Kian spoke.

"No need. I say we get some ice cream."

"How about we smoke and then get ice cream?"

"Let's do it." Lucy sped up. She couldn't get to the ice cream shop any faster.

. . .

Monday approaches. It's the last week before spring break. Nate had to enter the halls of West Bev in a wheelchair, something he wasn't looking forward to. It wasn't big news around school about his incident and he wanted to keep it that way. But he's sure word is about to travel fast anyway.

He reached into his locker and ended up dropping a binder onto the floor. When he tries to reach for it, it hurts too much to bend forward. He leans back in his chair, pissed off. Lucy walks up and picks it up for him.

"Where's your friend," she asked.

"Who." He took the binder from her.

"Derek."

"He ain't in high school anymore. Where's your boyfriend?"

"On his way."

"So I guess when he gets here you're gonna abandon me?" He closes his locker and begins to wheel himself down the hallway as she walks beside him.

"Technically," she answered bluntly. "But that's only because he'll show probably 2 minutes before the last bell. So you'll be in class anyway."

"Oh," he chuckled to himself.

"But no worries, I'll be there after school for your physical therapy."

"Lucy, you know you don't have to be there."

"Let me be your friend," she laughed. "You're so weird sometimes...a lot of the time."

"I just don't want you to feel like you owe me anything. I kinda get the feeling you feel responsible for some reason and it ain't your fault, babe."

Lucy got a slight chill from him calling her 'babe'. She paused to look at him.

"I-I don't. I just--"

"Whoo!" Kian shouted from down the hall. "I made it on time. Who's the man? I'm the man."

Kian caught up to Lucy and kissed her on the cheek, then looked down at Nate.

"What's up man?" Kian asked him. "How's it hangin'?"

Nate shrugged. "Oh you know, a little long and to the right. Gotta get to class."

Nate rolled off and Kian stood in confusion for a moment but then he got the joke and cringed. Lucy tried not to laugh.

"You're so cute when you're disgusted."

. . .

Nadia walks into Ms. Kendrick's office, one of the assistant principals.

"Sorry I'm late," she huffed. "Got held up in AP English."

Nadia pauses in her tracks once she takes a seat and notices John is seated in the chair.

"Why is he here?" She asked.

"Well," Ms. Kendrick leaned forward behind her desk. "Mr. Swift brought up an interesting point to me that there wasn't enough male influence on the school events committee."

"Yeah there is, we have like, two guys," Nadia argued.

"Who both barely have a say," John added. "I wanna change that."

Nadia scoffed. "You? You wanna join the events committee? Are you-- is he serious? Is this a revenge plot?"

"Not everything is about you, Nadia." He shook his head.

"I'm appointing you both as the heads of the committee. I want you to work together and come to a collective agreement for both the senior trip and senior prom. You have two weeks to come up with a budget, locations, decorating scheme, activities..." Ms. Kendrick shrugged. "I'm sorry Nadia. I know this was going to be your star-shining moment but you have to remember that there is no 'I' in 'team'."

Nadia leaned back in her chair, trying to take deep breaths and stare at the ceiling.

"Is she okay," Ms. Kendrick asked John.

"She does this all the time."

Moments later, the two leave the office with Nadia charging her way down the hallway.

"Nadia," Kali called out from her locker.

"Not now," Nadia angrily replied.

Kali noticed John trailing behind Nadia.

"So are we gonna work together or not," John asked out loud.

Nadia stopped and turned around to face him. "You just couldn't drop it huh? I've been waiting for this my entire high school career and you can't let me have this one thing?"

"Let you have this one thing? Nadia, you always have everything! The perfect family, the perfect wardrobe, the perfect car, cheerleader captain, homecoming queen, you name it. And I'm sure you've been having the best of times with your new boyfriend."

"There it is," Nadia chuckled. "How did I know you were gonna bring that up?"

"Can you get your head out of your ass for one minute?" John took a deep breath. "My family fell apart. I ruined any chance at a football scholarship. I fucked up with the one girl that was there for me and took too much shit to heart. I don't have anything! So if you don't mind dimmin' your spotlight for the rest of the year, it'll be greatly appreciated."

They glared at each other until Nadia broke it, turning around and out the front doors. Derek was outside waiting for her in his convertible.

"Gorgeous," Derek smiled once she got in the car. He leaned over and kissed her deeply. He opened his eyes a bit while they were still kissing and saw John staring at them. "What's his problem?"

Nadia sighed. "Ex-boyfriend. Just drive."

"My place or yours?"

"Yours."

Nadia put her sunglasses on and Derek felt inclined to wave John goodbye.

"Trouble in paradise?" John heard Madison ask from behind him.

He didn't bother turn around. "What paradise?"

. . .

Serenity sat on the bleachers with Tiffany after school.

"I don't know how Sam will take it," Serenity told her. "It's not part of our plans."

"But it's New York City!" Tiffany beamed. "Far as hell. But the chance of a lifetime. The best cosmetology school in the country that's not a ripoff."

"I know," Serenity looked down at her acceptance letter. "Did you hear back from Yale?"

"Yeah...I got in."

"You seem so thrilled."

"I didn't tell my parents," Tiffany shrugged. "I'm gonna lie. I never wanted to go to Yale anyway."

"Are you kidding? It's an ivy league school, do you know how many would kill to go?"

"I could say the same for your situation! Besides, I already have a job, an awesome job, that will open all the doors I want opened. Yale...I'll just be bored and wasting my time. It's all my parents idea."

"I forgot about your job, how's that going? How's Mr. Howell?" Serenity playfully elbowed her.

"Stop," Tiffany giggled. "He's-- the job's great. That actually leads to my next bit of news: I'll be spending half of spring break in Catalina with him--"

"What?!"

"It's not what it sounds like. It's for a movie and I'll be watching after his son."

"Oh, your future son in law?" Serenity joked.

"Shut up," Tiffany laughed but then stopped once she saw Sam walking up the bleachers toward them. "I guess this is my cue...good luck."

"Thanks."

Sam and Tiffany acknowledge each other when they pass. Sam kisses Serenity before sitting down.

"You wanted to talk," Sam asked.

"Yeah," Serenity took a deep breath. "Um...so do you remember how we said we were gonna go to Berkley together?"

"Uh huh," he nodded.

"Well, plans might change. See, I got into my dream school. It's a top notch cosmetology school in NYC and I never thought I'd get in but I did. And I really wanna go but I don't want you to be mad at me."

"Why would I be mad?" He grinned. "I'm happy for you. Don't let me stand in the way of your dream, babe."

"I know, it's just...I'm gonna miss you. We've been through all this and I'm just gonna up and leave to go across the country. It's crazy."

"Did you ever think that...maybe that's a good thing?" Sam couldn't look her in the eye.

"What? What's that mean?"

"We've been together for a while and with college coming up soon, don't you look at it as a fresh start?"

"You're scaring me." Serenity folds up her letter and shoves it into her bag. "Wh-why are you talking like that?"

"Don't overreact."

"You're breaking up with me aren't you?" Now Serenity couldn't bear to look Sam in the eye.

"I just feel we're going down two different paths now. It's not the same anymore. We need to see what else is out there and who else is out there."

"...I can't talk about this right now. We are not breaking up!" Serenity stands up and makes her way down the bleachers.

"What, do you wanna wait until I cheat on you?" Sam shouted, causing her to turn around.

"Is that what this is? You want someone else?"

"I told you already what this was. I want to see what else is out there and I'd rather do it this way instead of messing up behind your back. I almost did! And that person made me realize you don't deserve to get cheated on."

"What person," her lips pursed.

"That's not important."

Her eyes start to tear up. "Screw you, Sam. Just...don't talk to me."

. . .

Lucy sat on the sidelines as she watched Nate work with his physical therapist. It was hard for him to take a simple step. He nearly cried a couple of times and got angry when he couldn't walk normally at all. During break, Lucy brought him his water bottle.

"You're doing great," she told him. "All it is, is baby steps. It's not gonna happen overnight, Nate."

"I just wanna be me again."

"You never stopped being you." Without thinking, she placed her hand on his knee and he placed his hand on top of hers. She moved her hand and cleared her throat. "Anyway, your main focus is to keep the blood flowing in your legs. Then you can worry about skipping down the street."

"I always think about the things I'd do once I could walk again," Nate grinned. "I'd play more ball. I'd take more jogs. I'd even...pick you up, swing you around."

Lucy chuckled. "Okay Superman. One day at a time, okay?"

"Okay," he nodded, looking up at her as she stood up. "Just remember you didn't exactly say 'no' to me picking you up."

"What am I gonna do with you?" Lucy sighed.

"A lot, if you let me."

"You're on a roll today. Time to find your therapist." Lucy patted him on the shoulder and went to go find the therapist.

Nate is realizing that Lucy is getting tougher by the day. But it's only another step closer to unraveling a master plan to get her back in his arms once again.

_________________

Author's Note:

Nate, Nate, Nate, being a naughty boy.

It's the battle royale! Whose side are you on?

We have Nate vs. Kian.

Nadia vs. John

Derek vs. John

Even Serenity vs. Sammy

Vote & Comment!! xx