'No,' Nevaeh sighed, 'Nothing could ever be simple with Adora."

Nevaeh had expected something to go wrong, but she had thought it would occur later on in the day. Her hopes of a day driving around town, going nowhere and everywhere, were dashed when she saw that Adora hadn't pulled up to collect her from school; Nadir's car, old but well maintained was in the parking lot. Nadir himself was sat on the hood of his car, idly playing on his phone. His solitare app was the closest thing he had to a girlfriend, (which Nevaeh liked to playfully tease him about) so he was most likely playing that.

While Nevaeh was glad to see Nadir, she knew that meant Adora wasn't available. Nevaeh wasn't particularly excited about that.

Nevaeh kept a steady pace, her worn sneakers were practically silent compared to the sounds surrounding them. This is likely the reason that Nevaeh was able to startle him so easily, added to the fact that he's always been jumpy.

The laughing pair merrily started to drive, Nevaeh driven to chuckles by learning that Nadir had been playing Solitare. "You couldn't have shown up sooner, I didn't realize high school girls would be so fixed on the fact that I'm a freshman in collage. I could hardly get them to leave me alone. It was awful."

"Sorry about that, but uh, where's Adora? Wasn't she gonna pick me up?" Nevaeh knew something was up, and she wanted to know what so that she could start to plan different ways to help her friend.

"Ah, I was wondering when you'd ask that. When I left she was in the middle of baking something. It might've been cupcakes, or brownies. I'm not entirely sure." Nadir explained. "I think she's having a Bad Day."

Nevaeh nodded, knowing exactly what he meant. Adora was infamous in her family (and Nevaeh's) for her 'Bad Days'. It was almost a trademark. After knowing Adora for years, Nevaeh knew a number of things she could do to help everything depending on how Adora was feeling.

Nadir studied French when he was in highschool, and Nevaeh had followed his example. It was their thing, to speak the language only they knew when they wanted to say something others couldn't hear. Nevaeh knew hearing it would help calm Nadir, let him know she would help. "Ne vous inquiétez pas, malade," She told him. "Don't worry, I'll help." He nodded, smiling at her, silently appreciative of her help.

When they arrived at the house, it seemed very quiet; it always did when Adora had bad days. Most of the time there were no adults around, expect Nadir, but he was hardly considered an adult. Gaines was a small prescense in the house. He was very tall, but he seemed the opposite. He was always jumpy, skittish and any other synonym Nevaeh could think of; he always seemed so small. Nevaeh always felt small pangs of sympathy for him but she was never able to fully pinpoint why.

Nadir's prescense was never one to take up a full room, even less so a full house. The air around him was very reserved or closed off. Like, there was a door that needed to be knocked on and you need to be allowed through before you could enter his prescense. Once allowed in he became very sweet, but people were rarely let in. Nevaeh was glad she was one of the few.

Adora was mostly in charge of making the house seem less cold than it was. She always tried to carry an air of playfulness, she always seemed excited; she never seemed to need a reason to be happy, she just was. It was endearing, she wore her emotions plainly. Her eyes weren't windows to her soul, they were windows to her heart. Her heart was unfathomably wild, and it shone through her eyes, they reminded Nevaeh of stars. But, sometimes Adora wasn't as happy as she normally was. Sometimes her smiles were forced, or in very bad cases, nonexistent. These were her Bad Days.

When the pair entered the house, Gaines was sitting on the front rooms couch. He hastily stood up when they entered, presumably to leave the room, but slowly settled back into the sofa and gave them a shaky smile when he saw it was Nevaeh. Nevaeh held sympathy in her eyes as she smiled back. Gaines was always so frightened.

"The house smells good, what is that?" Nevaeh asked.

"Um, I think she said it was brownies, with some sort of nut in it. I think it's almonds, but I'm not entirely sure, so, sorry if I'm wrong." Gaines responded. His eyes never made contact with hers, they hardly made contact with anything; they were always moving.

She pat his shoulder softly as she passed him going into the kitchen; he didn't flinch under her palm and she considered this an accomplishment. There was five minutes left on the oven timer and Adora was no where in sight. With an acutely growing sense of dread, Nevaeh made her way to Adora's room: she wasn't there either.

"Um," Gaines said softly from behind Nevaeh. She would have been startled out of her skin if Gaines voice was so soft she could barely hear it. "She's at the, uh, the park, down the street. The one with the swings that creak a lot, and green slides."

"Thank you," Nevaeh responded. "I'll go get her. Can you make sure the brownies don't burn? Please?"

Gaines nodded and Nevaeh smiles at him. For as shy this boy was, he was reliable, and sweet. Nevaeh wondered if he was born trembling, or if something happened that caused him to start shaking and never stop. She didn't think she would ever have the courage to ask.