When Lia finally reached her apartment, it was over an hour later. Besides the fact that she had left Ayden's car on a random block, she didn't have her phone to help her navigate.

Although normally the time to herself would offer her some clarity, this time had the exact opposite effect. Without her phone to distract her, she was left with her thoughts and the accompanying New Yorkers also on the bus. Lia was grateful she had brought a pair of sunglasses with her and had maintained her composure since leaving Ayden. The last thing she needed were anymore unflattering images of herself out in the media.

The more she thought about everything Ayden had said, the more angry she became. Angry at him for lying to her and dismissively hurting her. Angry at her so called friends for using her. Angry at herself for being stupid enough to let it all happen.

Most of all, though, she found herself angry at Lin. It didn't help her emotions subside when she walked through her front door and Lin and Vanessa were on the living room couch making out.

"Great, you're here," Lia said in a disgusted tone, pushing the door behind her and shrugging off her coat as Lin and Vanessa quickly pushed themselves off of each other with mortified smiles in their faces.

"Hey," Vanessa said as she smoothed out the wrinkles of her shirt and got up off the couch to give their daughter a hug, "You're getting back late. And we have something exciting to tell you," She was as giddy as a kid in a candy store to tell Lia she'd be gaining two siblings in a few months' time.

"Well, that's what happens when you have to take three buses to get back to Brooklyn." Lia responded dryly, disregarding whatever news her mother wanted to share.

"You okay, Lia?" Lin asked cautiously, aware of the scowl on Lia's face and the slight falter of Vanessa's smile.

"If I had my phone, I could have just gotten a taxi or gotten the subway schedule,"

"Now you can say you got the real New York experience!" Lin joked, trying to lighten the mood.
"And you'll get your phone back next week."

"That's not the point," Lia replied with a scowl.

"Then what is the point?" Vanessa interjected, crossing her arms. She knew there was something up with Lia. She had never been one to hold a grudge for too long; especially not over something as menial as not having her phone.

"The point is that if it wasn't for Lin I wouldn't have just wasted the past hour of my life trying to get back here,"

"You know that's not fair Lia," Lin spoke up, a slight frown on his face.

"And why did you run into so much trouble? You've taken the subway from school countless times," Vanessa added, trying to figure out the full story.

"Because my boyfriend was driving me home because we both got detention and then I got out of the car when we broke up," Lia admitted, as the tears she had been holding in made their way to the surface, "Because of him!"

Vanessa looked at Lin with a confused look, in part because of the revelation that their daughter had somehow landed in detention, gotten it with her boyfriend and then broke up with said boyfriend all in a day, and somehow Lin had something to do with that.
She didn't know if she felt relieved or not when Lin looked just as perplexed. "What are you talking about?"

"If it hadn't been for Lin, I wouldn't have spent half the day arguing with my boyfriend over a drunk video of me that's everywhere!"

"What video?" Lin asked. He hadn't checked his phone since Vanessa and him had gotten back from their appointment. He immediately pulled it out of his pocket and saw the abundant amount of notifications he had. Before his mind could even go down the rabbit hole of possibilities of what a drunk video of his fourteen year old daughter meant, Lia continued.

"A video of me making a complete idiot out of myself rapping, because I had the stupid idea that I had to prove to god knows who that I'm your daughter!" Lia yelled, as she finally let the damn break and the tears rolled down her face, "If it wasn't for you, my life wouldn't be like this! I wouldn't have to be constantly worried that some maniac with a camera is going to take a photo of me. I wouldn't have to find out that the only reason anyone likes me is so that they could get tickets! I wouldn't have," Her mind caught up with her rant before she admitted that she bought the exams. She knew she should stop; she could tell by the looks on her parents' faces, but she didn't want to either. "I wouldn't have ever tried to win those freaking Hamilton tickets to begin with." The last sentence was the clearest one she said, and the one that hurt Lin the most.

Before either one could say anything, Lia stormed off to her room, leaving all of her stuff behind. She slammed the door behind her, and threw herself onto her bed, reaching for her old teddy bear. When she pulled out her iPod, and the first song that came on was, '96,000' she threw it against the wall. Holding tight onto the bear, she let all of the sadness and humiliation and heartbreak she was feeling completely overtake her.

—-

Lin and Vanessa sat back down on the couch, feeling the weight of their daughter's words. This had all been so much for her to deal with and she'd hit a rough patch to say the least.

"She didn't mean it," Vanessa told him gently after a few moments of silence. "She's just upset."

Lin sighed, resting his forearms on his thighs. "But there's some truth to it," he pointed out. "None of this would be happening if it wasn't for me. It's not fair to her."

Vanessa linked her arm in one of his. "Fair or not, we're family and we'll get through this together. High school is rough, even without a famous parent. Every kid is gonna get dumped or have something embarrassing happen. She'll get over it."

Lin wasn't so sure. He didn't know their daughter that well yet but he'd never seen her so upset. She looked at him with pure disgust. Lin sighed and stood, rubbing at the back of his head.

"I need to get some air," he told Vanessa. "Plus I'm on tonight. Call me if you want to talk, okay?"

Vanessa stood and nodded, and they exchanged a brief kiss. She knew when he was in his head he just needed to be alone. She hated to see him hurt but knew he needed to leave for a while. Vanessa followed him to the door and sighed after she'd locked it behind him.

—-

The next day at school, Lia had only made it to second period before she'd snatched a phone out of some random classmate's hands and threw it down the hallway. Now she was being paged over the loud speaker as she hid in the third floor bathroom.

She'd at least calmed down enough that she wasn't hyperventilating. The video was now viral. Not only had everyone at school seen it, but people all over the world. Everyone was laughing at her and there was no escape.

Finally she wiped her eyes with some toilet paper and composed herself enough to come out. It wasn't passing period luckily, so she walked quickly and with her head down towards the main office. When she arrived she told the secretary her name and she told her to sit down. The principal would be with her shortly.

A few minutes later the door opened and she was surprised to see both Lin and her mother inside. The principal waved her in and somehow she found her footing. In all her years of school she had never been called to the principal's office. She never would have imagined it. It would mean the world had ended.

Lia bit her lip and took a seat, avoiding looking at her parents. Were they fuming? About to murder her? She was surprised when she felt her mother reach over and squeeze her hand. Her eyes brimming with tears, she looked at her mother and saw a look of sympathy.

"Lia, we called you in here today first and foremost because you destroyed another student's property, but also because we're very concerned about you," the principal began. "Apparently there's a video of you circulating online?"

"Yes," she responded weakly, looking down at her feet.

"And where was this video taken?" He probed, pen and paper out.

"At a party," she told him. "Austin Leacock's."

"Do you know who originally posted the video?"
He asked.

"No," she said honestly, though she was beginning to suspect some 'friends' may have been responsible. Ayden's words still had her reeling.

"We'll be opening up an investigation here at school," he told her. "While it didn't happen here, there is cyber bullying involved which we always want to handle at school. In the meantime, your father is working on getting the video taken down."

They all knew that was next to impossible. The video would live forever. It could come back to
haunt her years from now. Like when she was applying to colleges.

"We will hold those students accountable and hand out consequences as necessary," he assured them all. "As for the broken cell phone, I'm afraid I'll have to suspend you for the day. And you'll need to replace the boy's phone."

"Which will come out of your allowance," her mother informed her. Lia closed her eyes and sighed.

The principal stood. "We'll see you back here tomorrow and I'll keep you informed about our investigation."

Lia walked out and headed straight for the door as her parents shook hands with the principal. She kept her head down as she reached the front steps, relieved to be out of there.

"Lia!" Her mother called, causing her to stop halfway down the stairs. She waited for them to catch up. Her mother guided her to turn, putting her hand on her upper arm. "Sweetheart, I'm
so sorry this happened. I know you told us last night but we didn't know it had gotten this bad at school for you."

"It wouldn't make any difference anyway," she spat, trying to will herself not to cry. "You don't actually believe you can get everyone to take that video down do you?"

"We'll certainly try," Lin told her.

"Don't bother," she growled, shoving her hands farther into her pockets. "I just...I want to be left alone! Why can't everyone just leave me alone?!"

Vanessa could see her daughter was getting irate. She knew her freshman year had been tough but the kid was clearly in over her head. Before she knew it, Lia had turned on a dime and was having a full blown panic attack. She was sobbing and letting out a choking sound, unable to control her emotions. Lin's eyes narrowed on his daughter. He'd struggled with emotions as a kid himself and could see himself in Lia. He sprang into motion, guiding her to sit down on the steps.

Lia allowed him, feeling completely lost. His hand rubbed at her back as he began to gently guide her to slow her breathing.

"Fill up your lungs like a balloon," he patiently said, and she tried to follow, letting out an occasional sob. "Good. Now hold it. They waited for four seconds. Blow it out slowly."

Vanessa stood close by, watching Lin calm down their daughter. She'd never seen anything like it. Vanessa had never known what to do when Lia got like this but Lin seemed to know exactly what she needed. It made her fall ever more in love with this man; this man she hadn't wanted in her life.

"Good," he praised her gently after leading her through some breathing a few more times. "Better?"

She nodded and wiped under her eyes

Lin stood and helped Lia up with him. "Let's get you home."

—-

Vanessa took the rest of the day off work and they both took a taxi home with Lia. She fixed Lia some warm milk and took it to her bedroom. Lia had changed into pajamas and was just climbing back into bed.

Vanessa set the glass down on the bedside table and helped pull the sheets up. "How are you feeling?"

"A little better," Lia replied, feeling better safe at home.

"Good," she smiled, stroking Lia's hair.

"What was the news you guys were going to share with me?" She asked.

"Well," she recrossed her legs. "Not only am I pregnant, but I'm having twins!"

Lia's face lit up. "Twins?? Really?!"

Vanessa nodded, beaming. Lia noticed that her mother's face glowed like it never had before. She wondered if her face glowed like that when she was pregnant with her. Or was she just too scared?

"I'm sorry I yelled at you yesterday," she said.

Vanessa continued to stroke her hair. "Well, we knew you were under a lot of pressure. We just didn't know how much it was getting to you."

"Is Lin mad?"

"Not mad, just worried about you," she said. "I think you two should talk once you've calmed down and had time to think."

Lia nodded and settled in further.

"You sleep for a while then we'll order in some lunch," she said. She kissed Lia's head and left her to sleep.

——

A few hours later, Lia woke, feeling refreshed. She yawned and stretched then got out of bed. Her Chromebook was sitting out on her desk. The afternoon would be filled with make up work so she decided to take a peek at her Schoology page.

She scrolled through the notes from the day and saw what assignments she needed to submit, then she checked her messages.

There was a strange username she hadn't seen before but she clicked it anyway. The message floored her.

I know you've been buying Mr Martin's tests. Pay up or I'm selling the story to Buzzfeed.

Lia read it several times and her stomach dropped. What had she gotten herself into?