{Adara's POV}

Maysam High School was not the typical high school. We didn't have the ruling b****y girls, the jocks, nerds, emos, and freaks. Of course everyone had their own group of friends, but they were all mixed. There were also the people more known than others, but no one was specifically popular. We were mostly all nice to each other.

This all turned around when Bade Lowlen and I started the War of Maysam High. It all started out innocent, I swear. But instead of coming in at the middle - or rather the end - let us catch you up in full detail.

-About 41 weeks before everything got f***ed up-

{Bade's POV}

"How do you know this will work?" my twin sister, Addae, asked me.

"I don't. That's what makes it fun," I replied with a grin. I turned back to my project.

I was currently building a toy car that is supposed to go 40 mph. I love cars of all types so I wanted to see how fast I could make a toy car. I have no idea, as Addae so helpfully pointed out, if it will work or not. There is a serious possibility that the tires could burn up.

"Has anyone ever told you that you have a very twisted definition of fun?" Addae asked sitting on my bed.

"Only everyone since the fourth grade," I said turning around to give her a c***y smile.

In the middle of the fourth grade I decided I wanted to be a storm chaser. It was a huge thunderstorm with lightning and high winds, making it one of the worst storms Maysam, New Mexico ever had.

My mom was looking away while trying to round up my younger siblings and I decided this would be a good time to test out my storm chaser skills. I grabbed the family camcorder and ran out the front door. The rain was pounding and I got soaked to the bone. Even though lightning had just struck less than a mile away from where I stood, I pulled out my camcorder and started shouting over the roar of the wind and the claps of thunder so intense they shook the ground.

I don't really remember what I said, but I remember I wasn't found until the 35 mph winds blew my hat against the door. My little sister saw it and she screamed. (I later found out she thought it meant someone's head had blown off.) My father ran out in the storm after me and dragged me back inside. My mom was too stressed, or maybe too happy that I wasn't injured, to yell at me. Ever since then, people have told me that I had a weird idea of fun. (After that, I didn't want to be a storm chaser.)

"Done," I said throwing down my tools and holding the car up like the baby from the Lion King. My sister gave me a look of amusement and annoyance. "Let's go test it out," I said with a wild look. Without stopping to see if Addae was following me, I threw open the door and sprinted down the stairs.

"Where are you two going?" my mom asked, exasperated.

"Somewhere," Addae responded, hurrying out the front door behind me.

Running off together wasn't exactly a new thing or us. Since the age of five we would just run out of the house together and do something. My mom yelled at us the first few times, but eventually gave in to the fact that this will be happening for a long time. Our cousin, Carmen, always made of point of yelling at us though because she had a twin brother too and they barely saw each other. Carmen thought that we were the reason everyone thought that twins never strayed from each other.

"Can I drive it?" Addae asked desperately.

"Did you build it?"

"No. I guess you can drive it first."

"Really? I can be the first one to drive my own car? Thanks, Day," I said using my nickname for her and trying to sound as sarcastic as I could possibly be.

"Haha. Just drive the stupid car will you?" she asked, clearly annoyed.

"Ok."

I started up the car and I could hear the motor running like it was supposed to. I hit a bunch of buttons and the car sped off down the sidewalk. I pulled out my dad's speed gun (he is a baseball scout) and measured the speed of the car when it came back. I jumped and screamed when 42 mph came up on the screen.

"Does it work?" Day asked with a hint of shock I couldn't help but be offended by.

"Yeah. It goes even faster than I wanted it to, and you can adjust the speed. It's pretty much a car, but smaller." I couldn't hold in my excitement. However, I had to stop when I heard my mom.

"What is going on out here?" she shouted from the front door. I stopped the car and hid it from my mom's view. Addae looked like she was about to tell our mom what I did.

"Twin Team," I said disguising it as a sneeze.

"Jumping and screaming," Addae responded like it was obvious.

"Yes. Why are you jumping and screaming?"

"You have known us our entire lives. I don't understand why you still ask us why we do things." Holding in my laughter was difficult, but I managed.

"Ok. Whatever," my mom said throwing her hands up and closing the door. As soon as she was gone Addae turned to me.

"Why are we Twin Teaming on that?" she asked sounding exactly like our mom.

"Because I don't think she will like me giving super powers to a toy car."

"Fine. But next time we Twin Team, tell me ahead of time," Day said turning on her heel and walking. I followed her, still trying to keep my car hidden.

Twin Teaming is something we came up with at a early age because of the trouble we would get in. When one of us says "Twin Team" the other person can't give detail on what the other twin is actually doing. It was a thing that we both follow without exception.

Our mom gave us a look as we walked in the door, but we just walked right past like we didn't even notice. We got up to my room and started on our homework.

"Is Day in here?" my younger sister, Winter, asked about 20 minutes later.

"What's up?" Addae responded still trying to copy down formulas.

"I need a tampon. I'm out."

"Ok," Day said closing her homework and going into her room with Winter behind her.

Most brothers would freak out about the mention of a period, but that kind of thing is totally normal in our house.

"Dinner!" my mom called 15 minutes later. As one, my five siblings and I opened our doors. Breeze (seventh grade) went first, then Winter (eighth grade), Addae and I went together after her, followed by Zephyr (Sophomore), and Lilac (Senior) bringing up the rear.

"Looks amazing mom," Zephyr said sitting down at his usual seat.

"Thank you, Zeph," my mom said with her famous smile.

"How are college applications going, Lilac?" my dad asked helping himself to some potatoes.

"I applied to Northwestern, University of Michigan, Rochester Institute of Technology, and University of Alabama," Lilac said looking proud of herself.

"Very good," my dad said in an approving voice. "Did y'all hear that Kasich dropped out?" His annoyance at this fact was quite clear. Kasich was his favorite candidate and constantly reminded us that he was the only one who was even partially sane.

"Yeah," my mom said , also annoyed. "He was a great candidate compared to Donald Drumpf." This is how dinner normally functions at our house. My dad asks about school and then we talk about news. Now that there is a presidential election the topic of discussion is now politics.

After a 10-minute debate on whether Drumpf could be able to do the things he wants, or if he will just be an asshole for us to laugh at (I think the latter), we cleaned our dishes up and returned to our rooms.

{Adara's POV}

"Adara! Come down here for a second!" my dad called up the stairs.

"What's up, Dad?" I asked, bouncing down the stairs.

"Do you want to go out for dinner or does someone want to make something?"

"Can we go out? I'm craving a fast food burger right now."

"I was really hoping you would say that," my dad said grabbing his keys.

"Whopper?" I asked hopefully while tucking my phone into my back pocket.

"With Chicken Fries," my dad answered with a smile and we both ran to the car.

It was common for us to go out for dinner. My dad is a single dad after my mom ran off when I was less than a month old. He didn't have a fantastic job, but we lived a comfortable life. Neither of us has ever been very into cooking and I have a lot of school work I need to get done so it was more convenient to eat out. It was also a good way to meet people and my dad is very social.

"Good evening, Mason," Tyler, a cashier at Burger King, greeted my dad.

"Hey, Mason," Zach, Connor, Bridget, Lydia, and a one other worker I didn't know chimed. My dad waved with a smile in response to all of them and they turned back to their respective jobs.

"Usual?" Tyler asked, ready to type in the order. I nodded when my dad looked back at me in question.

"Sure," my dad said grabbing his wallet from his pocket.

"Here are your drinks," Bridget said handing me empty cups. I walked over to the cool drink machine with the flavor shots. The only bad thing about this was they only had one, so there we long lines.

"How is school?" my dad asked when we sat down with our food a few minutes later.

"Good," I responded after swallowing the first bite of my Whopper. "We are going to start our freshman project soon."

"What's that?"

"They haven't told us much except that we will be working on it for most of the year, it has to be about the school, and we have to present it to coming freshmen. They said it was so the new freshmen know what is coming from a freshman's eye. I think it's kind of weird but some people are really excited."

"Do you know what you are going to do?"

"No. I won't think about that until I have to," I said with a mischievous smile which my dad returned.

I take after my dad in the way of school. I get really good grades but I don't do much planning ahead of time. My mantra is "I will cross that bridge when I come to it".

"At least you don't have more attentive siblings for me to compare you to," my dad said finishing his meal.

"The beauty of being an only child," I said with a smile.

{Bade's POV}

I was never popular, but I'm not a loser. I always just try to stay on the good side of everyone just in case. I guess that plan didn't work out.

-About 40 weeks before everything got f***ed up-

{Adara's POV}

I came into school not ready for the project. They told us two days ago to come in with a brainstorm ready. I didn't have one; the well of inspiration was dry. Nevertheless, I walked into class ready to fake my ass off.

"Everyone's brains should have had a major storm last night. I hope you are all prepared," Mr. Baylar said, walking in and clapping his hands. "I must say that we have a change in the project this year. Due to the length of the presentations in the previous years, we have decided to give you partners." Usually the project is done on our own and not with a partner. I'm not the only one that has this on their minds.

"This is insane, Mr. B. As long as this project has existed the freshmen class has never had to work in partners. If this was going to happen we should have had a prior notification in order to fully prepare ourselves for the work, we thought would be handled by someone else. Now you want us to try and work out a time to work on a project about this school with all of our busy schedules? The school year started not even a month ago and not a lot of us are used to the work load with all of our extracurricular activities. You can't expect us to do this, you just can't," Nayda exclaimed just short of jumping out of her seat and possibly out the window. We all cheered at her argument.

Nayda was the type of person to speak up for everybody. Sometimes we didn't understand the words she was using, but we always understood the point she was trying to make and we usually agreed with her.

"When I say your name go sit with your partner and discuss you brainstorms," Mr. Baylar continued as if nothing had happened. I sat anxiously waiting to see who my partner is. "Taylor and Simon, Rachel and Adam, Adara and Carson-" Mr. Baylar stopped at the sudden silence that fell over the classroom. Everyone snapped their heads towards me only to be met with my pissed off face.

Carson Saycar is by far the most disgusting person in the freshman class and maybe the entire school. He goes after every girl in the freshman class and falls just short of sexual harassment.

The class can't tear their eyes away as Carson worms his way through the desks and up to the place where I sit. Caught somewhere between pity that I had to be paired with him, and relief that they didn't have him, the class turned their attention back to Mr. Baylar who continued to pair us.

"Amex and Lewis, Ashley and Frank, and Bade and Nayda. You have the next 45 minutes of class to discuss what you came up with last night. Good luck and have fun!" Mr. Baylar said with a smile and returned to his desk.

"So, babe. What do you have for me?" Carson asked in his greasy voice while his eyes raked over my body. This is not going to be fun.

{Bade's POV}

"No. Travis Barker isn't an original member of Blink-182. He joined in 1998 as the drummer when Scott Raynor left," Winter said to me in an argument about music we were having after I got home. I don't exactly remember how we got into this argument, but Winter just proved me wrong and I know it. She knows it, too. "Now that I've clearly won this argument, I'm gonna go get my homework done now," Winter said jumping up from her chair. I didn't have a lot of homework to do so I walked into Zephyr's room.

"Hey, Zeph," I said flopping onto his bed.

"What's up?" Zeph asked, still focusing on his homework.

"The sky," I responded, staring at his ceiling.

"Nice. How is freshman year treating you?" he asked, finally turning around from his desk to face me.

"It's ok. We just got assigned partners for our project," I said getting up from the bed because I could hear my mom setting the table. Zephyr followed me on the way downstairs.

"Partners? Why?" he asked.

"Because last year's presentations were too long. We got bored listening to them."

"It's not like the projects were particularly interesting in the first place."

"Oh good. You boys are here to help your mother set the table," my dad said when we arrived downstairs. Looking around I noticed that he had bought what looks to be about 28 tacos.

"Why tacos?" I asked grabbing a couple plates form the cabinet.

"It's to celebrate the start of Bade and Addae's freshman project."

I forgot. She did this each year when someone started their freshman project. She said it marked the official start of our high school career.

"Bade, can you call everyone for dinner?" my mom asked after we finished setting the table.

"DINNER!" I yelled up the stairs. My mom gave me a look but didn't say anything. In a matter of seconds my three sisters came stomping down the stairs.

"Tacos!" Breeze exclaimed practically running to her seat.

"Did you-" Winter started to ask, but my mom cut her off.

"Yes, sweetie, we got you four potato tacos instead of beef." My mom added an eye roll to this statement. Sometimes she acts more like a teenager than I do. Once, she actually snuck out of the house to see a concert. My dad came into our rooms asking if we knew where she went. An hour and a half later she came in through the living room window sporting a Blink-182 shirt. Not realizing we were in the living room watching her, she silently crawled through the window and closed it behind her. When she turned around she saw us and stopped in her tracks. At first we were all confused but then we laughed it off. My dad pretended to ground her for a month and they went back to their bedroom. I think they had sex that night. I wouldn't know for sure because I was seven, but nine months later Breeze was born.

"How's the project going?" Lilac asked Addae and me while diving into her share of tacos.

"They put us with our partners today," Addae said reaching for the hot sauce.

"Why?" Lilac asked, leading them into almost the exact same conversation I had with Zeph ten minutes ago.

"Because people in our class are dumb and can't think of one idea themselves," Addae said totally normal. I wasn't expecting this and I almost spit out the Dr. Pepper my mom gave us. After I successfully swallowed it I burst out laughing.

"Addae," my mother said in a criticizing tone of voice. "That was rude."

"It's true," I said more to my taco than anyone else.

{Adara's POV}

"So tell me about this project," my dad said over our Chinese takeout. I was picking his brain for ideas as my partner was no help and I couldn't come up with anything by myself.

"We have to come up with a creative project to introduce the new freshman class to Maysam High. We need to work on it all year and present it to the new freshmen at the end of the year."

"Just think of something you wish you knew before going to school there." He made it sound easy. The trouble is that I'm not an idiot and I figured everything out on my own."

"Why don't you do something on how to efficiently stack your locker?"

"I don't know, Dad. The whole project seems like a stupid waste of time," I said. Frustrated, I shoved my fried rice away from me.

"Maybe it is. But when life gives you lemons, make lemonade."

"I hate lemonade."

{Adara's POV}

I guess for almost a year now I have been hoping that it was some long, horrible nightmare that I will wake up from. I sometimes hoped that I was in a coma and imagined all of it. If I could take it back, I would. I never meant for this to happen.

-About 39 weeks before everything got f***ed up-

[Bade's POV}

"Carson Saycar," A man said making us all look up from the project we had been working on for a week after getting our partners. Two police officers came into our English class looking for Carson. We all looked straight at Carson who looked extremely nervous.

"I'm assuming you're Carson," the other officer said.

"Yeah," he responded with a shaky voice.

"You are under arrest for the possession and distribution of pornography of minors." The officer went behind his chair, pulled him up, and cuffed him. The officer continued to rattle off Carson's rights and other things. Everyone was staring as Carson was lead out of the classroom.

"Ok. Well let's get back to work," Mr. Baylar said after a minute of being in shock. I tuned back to my project unsure if it was bad to be happy that he was gone. I mean it sucks that he got arrested but he had it coming and he is now out of my hair. Besides, I can totally do this project by myself. I was about to make a note on the plan of my project when Mr. Baylar called me up.

"Are you ok doing the project without a partner? If not, I can partner you up with someone else."

"That's ok. I can do it by myself." I tried to be polite but I was kind of annoyed that he thought I couldn't do this project alone.

As I was about to continue with my project, the bell for math class came. I scooped up all my stuff and shoved it in my messenger bag. I didn't necessarily not like math, but it wasn't the best. We took notes on angles in our packets and started on the homework. I usually finished pretty fast so I took out a sort of side project I was working on. While I was thinking about where everyone should go, a kid I recognized from my English and Spanish class came and sat next to me. He just sat down and opened his Spanish book without looking at me lie this was completely normal. I turned back to my work to try and figure out what was wrong with it.

{Bade's POV}

I've noticed that during Geometry a girl from my English and Spanish class, Adara, was working on something after her homework and looked confused sometimes. I was extremely curious what she was doing so I moved to sit by her today. I sat down and opened my Spanish book to start studying for the test I had in two periods. Adara looked at me weirdly but turned back to her project. I looked over her shoulder to see what she was working on and saw circles with names in them. Upon further examination, I realized that those names were people from the school. I didn't know then, but those circles would be my undoing.

{Bade's POV}

Part of me isn't sorry I got involved. I got to get to know her and her... whatever he is. Besides, this school had it coming. It was only a matter of time before the student body did this themselves. And I guess we had it coming, too.

-About 38 weeks before everything got f***ed up-

{Adara's POV}

The guy I don't know who randomly sat next to me in Geometry last week, cornered me at my locker after lunch.

"Do you tutor?" he asked as I was putting my English, Geometry, and History books away. We finally stopped doing our projects in school and had an actual English lesson.

"Why?" I asked with a skeptical look. I don't even know this kid's name.

"Because my seventh grade sister needs one. You passed the seventh grade, right?" he asked with some sass.

"Yeah. But why can't you do it?" I asked walking with him to our Spanish class.

"Because my mom thinks I'll be too soft on her because she is my sister. And she is always looking for ways to give work to kids in high school because she respects kids with a plan."

"What's your name?"

"Bade."

"What's your sister's name?"

"Breeze."

"When do I start?"

"After school. My house."

"What's your address?"

"It's a seven-minute walk from here. We can go together."

"Fine." I turned my attention to Senor Salas as he passed out the beginning of the week test.

"I don't think I did very well on the Spanish test," Bade said to me on the way back to his house.

"Why not?"

"I just feel like I got a lot of things wrong. I'm also bad at Spanish."

"I can tutor you if you want," I said jokingly.

"I know your joking, but I seriously might need that. Here's my house." We walked up to a large, beautiful house.

"Bade! Did you find a tutor for Breeze?" Bade's mom called from somewhere.

"Yeah she's here." Bade's mom came into the entryway. She was beautiful. She was tall with brown hair that perfectly framed her face when it fell naturally. Her skin had a natural tan to it, reminding me or Ashley Tisdale.

"Hi, Mrs. Lowlen. I'm Adara Kidling."

"Please, call me Reagan," she said pulling me in for a hug. "Breeze! Carl! Come meet the tutor!" Reagan called up the stairs. A girl who I assumed was Breeze came down the stairs. A man who looked about the same age as Reagan came from the living room.

"Hi. I'm Bade and Breeze's dad but please, call me Carl," he shook my hand with a big smile. I could see the similarities and understood why they were married.

"Sup. I'm Breeze," she said nodding her head and shoving her hands in her pockets.

"I'm Adara. Shall we get started?" I asked not really sure what else to say.

"Sure. We have what we call "The Homework Table" in the living room. It is right over there," Carl said while Breeze left to get her work.

"Where do you want to start?" I asked Breeze when she came back with her homework.

"I guess Pre-Algebra."

"Ok."

{Bade's POV}

Breeze seemed to be pretty happy with the tutoring session for the past three days. She liked Adara and I think Adara liked the money. Not exactly easy money but money all the same.

"Hey, Mom. Can one my partner for the project come over to work on it?" I asked while I was eating my pretzels.

"Sure, sweetie."

20 minutes later Nayda arrived at my house and the introductions were similar to those with Adara three days ago. We sat at the Homework Table and took out our outlines. We decided to make a model of the school. Nayda brought some cardboard and I got paint. We worked for three hours and got a good amount done when my mom called for dinner.

"That's ok," Nayda said after my mom told me to clean up for dinner. "My dad is probably almost done with dinner now, too. Can we just leave the model here since it will be hard to transfer between houses?" she said cramming the last of the materials in her bag.

"Sure." I walked her out and closed the door behind her. I turned around to see Zeph raising his eyebrows at me with a knowing smirk.

"It's time for dinner," he said still with that annoying smirk.

"Shut up."

{Adara's POV}

I usually only worked on my side project in Math but we had a test today that took me the whole class, so I planned to work on it during lunch. Unfortunately, I forgot today was Mix Day and the teachers assigned us our tables. Annoyed that I couldn't sit with my friends, I sat down at the green table with my lunch paper and pen. My annoyance grew when Bade sat down across from me.

"Hi," he said with that same smirk he gave me that day in Geometry.

"What are you doing here?" I asked sounding a little more annoyed than I felt.

"Green," he said showing me his index card.

"Fantastic." I turned my attention back to my project trying to ignore everybody.

"Now is a time for talking to people, not for ignoring people," one of the teachers said trying to pull away my paper and pen.

"I'm not ignoring people. Bade was eating so I decided to take some notes," I said resisting her pull.

"Really? Bade, is this true?" the teacher I had never met asked looking at Bade with piercing eyes.

"Yep," he said taking another bite of his burger with the same smirk I have seen three times.

"Ok." She let go of my paper and pen and walked away.

"Thanks." I turned back to my paper hoping to be left alone when Bade continued talking.

"You owe me one now."

"Why?"

"Because I bailed you out."

"What do you want?"

"Answer me a question."

"That depends on what the question is." I wanted to work on my circles but Bade wouldn't leave me alone.

"What is that thing you're working on?"

"It's nothing."

"Liar." This guy is relentless.

"You asked a question and I answered it. Now I don't owe you anything."

"That wasn't a real answer."

"Yes it was."

"You work on it so hard all the time. It's obviously not nothing." I thought it was kind of funny how badly he wanted to know.

"Fine. It's a side project I have been working on," I said putting my pen down with a sigh.

"Like a side project from the freshman project?" he asked too excited.

"Yeah. I'm not really sure where I should go with it right now."

"Do you need any help?" he asked with a smile.

"Maybe."

"Can I help?" he asked over the lunch bell.

"Maybe," I said getting up from the table and leaving.

{Bade's POV}

My curiosity took me to the table Adara was sitting at. I was never really assigned to the green table but I told my teacher that my parents didn't like ink on my skin so she just told me I was the red table. After class I took a green marker and put a green line on my arm and sat across from Adara.

I had to bail her out of trouble from the stupid teacher and finally got a sort of answer out of her. I also may have the chance to help her out. And I have to admit that this wasn't exactly because I was curious about what the circles meant.

I watched her leave and eventually followed. When I got up something fell off the stack of my books. I bent down and saw 10 digits written on the piece of paper. Adara had somehow slipped her number on my stack of books. I took this as a good sign and left the cafeteria with a smile.

{Adara's POV}

It wasn't exactly my fault. Yes, it was my idea but I never really meant for it to get out. Just stick with me. I promise, you will be filled in.

-About 37 weeks before everything got f***ed up-

{Bade's POV}

I stared at the number written on the piece of paper Adara slipped me during lunch last week. I considered texting her for a few days. Deciding I needed a girl's opinion, I knocked on Winter's door.

"Come in," she answered and I opened the door. She was sitting on her bed reading a book. You could usually find her on her bed reading or watching Netflix on a Sunday afternoon if she didn't have a swim meet.

"I need your help," I said sitting in front of the desk next to her bed.

"With what." I must have got her attention because she closed her book.

"So you know Adara?"

"Yeah."

"Well she is working on this project aside from the freshman one and I asked her about it a few days ago. She told me a little about it and I asked her if I could help. She said maybe and slipped her number on my books. For the last few days I have been wondering if I should text her or not. Any advice?"

"When did she give you her number?"

"Friday."

"I think you're good. What is the project?" she asked opening her book again. I don't know how she does it but she is the master of reading and holding a conversation at the same time.

"I don't exactly know, but I'm hoping to find out. Thanks, Winter," I said leaving her room with a huge smile. The only problem now was trying to figure out what to text her.

After a few minutes for weighing what felt like all the options, I went with something simple.

Me: Hey it's Bade

Adara responded almost immediately.

Adara: Hey it's Adara

Me: I guessed as much

Adara: I'm guessing you want to know about the project

Me: Yes

Adara: I'll talk to you when I come over to tutor tomorrow

Me: How about in Geometry

Adara: Why do you want to know so badly?

Me: Because you work on it really hard

Adara: It's really not that interesting

Me: I think it is really interesting and you just don't want to tell me

Adara: I have to go babysit. I'll talk to you later

Me: I'll hold you to it

I really hoped that she wasn't making up excuses not to talk to me. She seemed really cool.

{Adara's POV}

"Adara! It's time to go! You don't want to be late for the Jackson kids!" my dad called up the stairs. I grabbed my phone and took the stairs two at a time.

I got to the Jackson house and the kids practically tackled me when I walked through the door.

"ADARA!" they screamed at my legs. There were four kids. A set of triplets, all five-year-old girls, and a seven-year-old boy. Taylor, Skylar, and Dylan are the triplets and Logan is the brother. Logan said he didn't like me that much, but I knew he liked me at least a little.

"The new doctor's name is on the counter and all the other numbers are the same. Hank and I will be at Spunchy's Diner after the buffet. I wrote down the number of the place of the buffet and the number of the Spunchy's if you can't reach us," the mom, Yeva, said grabbing her purse.

"Good luck with the rascals," said Hank, the father, dragging Yeva out the door.

"Thank you." I closed the door behind them. "So. Who's ready to have some fun?"

I returned to my house at 11:30 and $50 richer. My phone dinged and I saw a text from Bade.

Bade: Done babysitting?

Me: Just got home

Bade: How much?

Me: $50

Bade: Awesome. Gotta get dat $$$

Me: I also like the kids

Bade: I was really hoping we could talk about your project but I guess I will have to hear about it tomorrow when you tutor Breeze. My mom just called me for something.

Me: Bye!!

Bade: BYE!!!

I laughed that he tried to outdo me. Sometimes that boy gives me a headache. Since I ate dinner while babysitting I decided to go to bed.

{Bade's POV}

School on Monday sucks usually but sucks even more now because I was on the verge of changing my life. Yes, I know I am being dramatic but I feel like it could. This could also bring out my feelings about her.

The last period bell rings and I shoved my homework in my bags as quickly as I could and rushed over to Adara's locker. Ever since she started tutoring Breeze, we have been walking to my house together.

"Hi, Bade," Adara said with a laugh.

"Hi, Adara. You ready?" I asked bouncing on my heals.

"Yeah," she said closing her locker.

"Awesome. Let's go." We walked out together. After we ran out of things to talk about, Adara pulled out her Spanish book and we started studying for another quiz Senor Salas was giving us. We had covered half of the vocab on our current chapter when we arrived at my house.

"Breeze!" Adara called as she usually does when it was time for Breeze's tutoring session.

"BYE!!!" I called to Adara's retreating back in a response similar to the one I gave over text last night.

{Adara's POV}

"Come on, Breeze. You know this one," I said putting the pen down on the textbook.

"I know. Can we just do this tomorrow?" She looked frustrated and like she wanted to tell me something but decided against it. Though skeptical, I got up.

"Sure. I'll see you tomorrow and get some rest. Could you also tell your mom I left early? I think it's better that she doesn't pay me more than she owes.

"Yeah," she said with a sigh. Something was definitely up, but I left anyway.

"Adara! Wait." I turned to the source of the noise and saw Bade coming down the stairs.

"What's up?" I asked adjusting the strap of my bag.

"I need to make a little extra money and I was thinking about babysitting. Do you know anyone who could hook me up?" he asked shoving his hands in my pockets. I had a family, but I didn't think he would like it.

"Yeah, but I'm not sure you will be able to step up."

"I can do it. Can you give me their number so I can set it up?"

"Sure." I pulled my phone out of my pocket and searched for the number. "Here it is," I said handing my phone over.

"Great. What's their name?"

"Saycar." At the mention of the name he stopped dead.

"Like Carson Saycar?" he said with his eyes bugging out.

"Yeah. He has an eight-year-old little brother, Micah."

"Ok. Thanks."

"Sure." I smiled and walked out the door.

{Bade's POV}

I showed up at the house of my former classmate, Carson Saycar two days after Adara gave me their number and I asked them if I could babysit. They agreed and said they were desperate. Apparently it hadn't been easy getting someone because they all knew what Carson was like and expected Micah to be the same. They told me to come on today because I didn't have a car and Wednesdays were the only days when Micah didn't have anything to do after school.

I walked up to the door, took a deep breath and knocked. A lady I assumed to be the mom answered immediately and ran through everything I needed to know. When I finally wrapped my head around everything the door closed behind the parents and I was left with the mop of auburn hair I could only assume belonged to Micah.

{Adara's POV}

I came home after school and photography club on Friday relieved that it was the end of the week.

"Hey, Dad," I said sitting on the couch in front of the TV. My dad was in the kitchen which was right next to the living room.

"Hey, Adara." He didn't look away from what he was working on. I didn't care about what he was working on until I couldn't find anything on TV and had nothing to do. As I walked over I could see he had a bunch of ingredients laid out and was mixing something in a bowl with his hands.

"What are you making?" I asked. I knew he could cook somethings but usually didn't have time or didn't want to. It also reminded him of my mom who really liked to cook.

"Porcupine balls." That didn't really answer my question so I looked in the bowl. All I saw was ground beef, dry rice, chopped onions, and green peppers, but that still gave me a sense of déjà vu. "It will be ready in about an hour, maybe more."

"Ok." I went up to my room with the intention to read but one look at my bed made me realize how tired I was. I collapsed on the bed and fell asleep almost immediately.

"Adara! Adara!" I woke up when my dad screamed this up the stairs. Laughing, I reluctantly took the blanket off me and went downstairs.

"Bro?" I asked when I reached the kitchen.

"Yeah." He said that with a smile so big that it made me roll my eyes.

"You drive me insane sometimes."

"I'm you father. That's my job," he said handing me a bowl of what looked like meatballs covered in sauce.

"Where is the spaghetti?" I asked.

"They are called porcupine balls. They basically are meatballs with onion and green peppers and rice. When the rice cooks in the V8 it puffs out like a porcupine."

"So that is V8?" I asked, my disgust clear.

"Yes. I know you hate it but you can't even taste the V8ness. Just try it. You'll love it." My dad cut his meatball up and ate it. Skeptical, I cut mine up and ate a tiny bit. It was actually really good. My dad looked at me, anxious to see what I thought of it.

"It's really good," I said with a laugh and took an even bigger bite.

"I knew you would like it."

"Why did you make it?" It seemed like it took a lot of time to do and he is usually pretty busy with work.

"I was shopping for some food and I saw the V8 and remembered how much I loved this. I knew you would to so I picked the ingredients up and decided to make it. Also, I could sense you were going to be worn out when you came home and figured it would be easier for you if we didn't go out."

"Well, I don't know how you did it, but this is amazing and exactly what I needed. Thank you."

"Your welcome." As I continued eating I couldn't help but think this wasn't entirely his idea. I mean he knew how to make things in the microwave and the most he ever made on the stove or oven is spaghetti or frozen dinners.

"Dad. Did you get this recipe from Mom?" As soon as the words left my mouth I regretted asking that question. He stopped eating and was quiet for a while before he responded.

"Yes, I did." If he said it any quieter, I wouldn't have heard. "She left a book of recipes and notes about what her siblings liked, what her parents liked, and what you and I liked." This was the first time I had ever really heard about my mom and it pained me to hear about as much as it seemed to pain my dad talking about it. "That book wasn't the only thing she left behind."

I had no response to this so I just kept eating. The food didn't taste as good when I knew it was a recipe left by my mom. I got a little bit madder every time I ate a piece. I could never understand why she walked out on us and I don't think I ever will. If she made all those notes in her recipe book, then it seemed like she cared about us. But she couldn't have because a person who loves and cares for you doesn't walk out the front door with no explanation what so ever.

Without another word I cleaned up my dishes and went back upstairs to Netflix my feelings away. Mean Girls had just started when I heard my dad go up to his room. I watched with an empty mind until Gretchen presented her essay about Caesar when I got an idea.

I paused the movie and tiptoed downstairs to the cabinet that held my mother's recipe book. I'm not sure how I knew it was there, I just did. When I opened to the first recipe I saw my mother's handwriting. It was neat and elegant like I expected, but it was rather large and practically illegible.

I searched in silence, unaware what I was looking for until I found it. An address. I looked at it once and knew I had to go there. I had to find out why. I had to find my mother.

{Bade's POV}

I know it probably seems ok for now and you are wondering what we are talking about when we say things got f***ed up, but this is just the beginning. Sorry, let's get on with it.

-About 36 weeks before everything got f***ed up-

{Adara's POV}

"Damn it," I whispered as I was sitting with Breeze on Tuesday.

"What?" she asked turning away from her History homework.

"Nothing," I said tucking my phone away. "Keep going with China." I tried to help her find the names of the emperors during the Qin Dynasty, but my mind kept floating back to what I found (more accurately didn't find) on the internet. Ever since Sunday when I found out my mom lived near us, I have been looking up Sydney Marks. I couldn't find very much, but I looked it up every day. Deciding to push that from my mind, I turned my attention back to Breeze.

Looking at Breeze's homework gave me mixed emotions. I was frustrated because the questions were stupid, jealous she got easier homework than I did, and happy I was done with the confusing s*** that had to do with the dynasties of China.

"Psst," Addae said poking her head around the corner. Breeze squealed and let out a jump. Winter and I were both shocked at this because no one was trying to scare her. We also knew she wasn't someone who was easily scared, so this kind of freaked us out. Addae and I both stared at Breeze who looked embarrassed.

"Sorry. Just a little jumpy today I guess." One look between Addae and I was all that was needed for us to agree that she wasn't just a little jumpy and there was something else to it. I grew a little more worried when I realized that she was like this earlier and I just didn't notice.

"Ok..." Addae shook her head as if trying to get rid of the memory. "Adara. Do you know what the Science homework is?"

"Yeah. It's on the layers of the sun."

"Thanks." Addae left and I focused back on my job. Breeze had turned a weird sort of color I didn't know how to describe.

"Breeze. Are you ok?" She jerked her head toward me as if she only just realized I was there.

"Yes. I'm totally fine," she answered after looking at me curiously. Suddenly, he eyes bugged out like she had just forgotten something and she whipped her head around so fast I was worried her neck might break.

"You are not fine. What is going on?" I asked urgently, closing all the books.

"Nothing. Like I said I'm just a little jumpy." A timer went off somewhere in the house and Breeze and I both looked up at the clock. "Well 5 o'clock. Time for you to go. Thanks for being here and I will see you tomorrow." Breeze practically sprinted to the door and held it open for me with a huge, and extremely fake, grin.

"Ok then. I'll be back tomorrow."

"Bye!" she said overexcited and slammed the door before my brain had time to process a response.

"That girl," I said as I slung my bag over my shoulders and mounted my bike.

{Bade's POV}

Adara just left and she still hasn't acknowledged that she said she would talk to me about her project. I know I'm being a little ridiculous but I really want to know. She looked really invested and I really wanted to help. I was pulled from my pity party when my phone dinged. I rushed to it hoping it was Adara, but was let down to see it was only Ryan, the head of the National Honor's Society at our school, telling us the meeting has changed because he has football practice.

Maysam High is not a normal high school. We don't have cliques or certain roles everyone plays. Everything is all mixed. Ryan is a football player and head of NHS, the head cheerleader is best friends with the girl who has worn braces or three years and makes robots in her free time, and the captain of the glee club is dating the top basketball player. The closest thing we have to a clique are the people who get high all the time and never want to socialize with anybody else no matter how hard we try. We are basically the polar opposite of Mean Girls.

"Bade! Mrs. Saycar is on the phone for you!" my dad shouted. I went downstairs to where the phone is and answered it.

"Hello."

"Oh Bade thank god!" Harry said on the other line. "I'm sorry we didn't notify you sooner, but there has been an emergency with Carson and we need someone to watch Micah. Do you think you could come over? We have cancelled his after school activities so you don't have to take him anywhere. We will pay double for the inconvenience."

"Sure I'll come over. It is no problem." I mimed to my dad that I needed a ride and he grabbed his keys.

"Thank you, Bade. You are a lifesaver," Hank said with a sigh of relief.

"No problem. I'll be there in five minutes."

"Amazing. See you in a few."

"Ok. Bye." I hung up the phone and sprinted up the stairs to grab my own. As soon as I was downstairs I could see my dad had already started the car.

"Saycar?" my dad guessed as I buckled in.

"Yep." We were already out of the driveway by the time I responded.

"Why in such as rush?" he asked.

"There was an emergency with Carson. Harry sounded extremely desperate." I didn't have to explain who Carson or Harry were because Maysam is so small that everyone knows each other. It's actually a suburb of Albuquerque, but we all still say we live in the city because no one knows Maysam exists.

A few minutes later we pulled into the driveway of the Saycar house and Harry met me outside.

"Everything is the same as last time. We will be down at the Department of Corrections in Alb (slang for Albuquerque because it is so long) so I left the number for that on the counter. Sorry for the rush but we need to get down there. Thanks again." Hank jumped in the car and peeled out of the driveway without another word.

I walked in the house and saw Micah sitting on the couch. His face was blank but he gave me a weak smile when I walked in.

"What's up, bro?" I asked flopping down on the couch next to him. He turned toward me and his eyes the color of the ocean met my emerald ones.

"The sky," he said expressionless and turned back to staring at the TV that wasn't on. I didn't usually see him like this so it worried me. Deciding not to say anything about it, I opened the homework I had brought and began to copy equations. I was trying to figure out the volume of a sphere when it happened.

Micah started making some weird sounds.

"Micah," I said closing by book and turning to him. He was facing away from me and now staring at the kitchen. "Are you ok?" I tried to get him to face me, but when that didn't work I just went around him. What I saw shocked me. There were tears streaming down his face.

"It's not fair," he practically whispered.

"What's not fair?"

"What they did to Carson." I knew that by locking him up Carson got what was coming to him and it totally was fair, but I thought it best not to mention this.

"I know it sucks," I said attempting to hug him. As soon as I got close, he bolted off the couch and up to his room. I didn't see or hear from him the rest of the time I was there.

"Thank you so much," Harry said three hours later when they returned. I told him about Micah and didn't seem surprised. "He and Carson were quite close. He hasn't given much of a reaction before now. I also don't think he totally understands why Carson is gone. I just hope he is strong for his mother. She has been a wreck ever since, so I have been handling most things. Anyway, double payment as I said. $60 is now yours," Hank said handing me three 20-dollar bills.

"Thanks," I said shoving the money in my pocket.

"Your dad is in the driveway already. Thanks again for coming on such short notice."

"Yeah, it was no problem. Bye." I closed the door behind me and walked down the driveway to my dad's car. I wish I knew what happened with Carson, but I thought they had been through enough and asking probably over steps the boundary. I wish someone would at least give us updates. I mean, he was in our class and we knew him. It would be nice to at least hear he is ok, even if I didn't like him.

{Adara's POV}

"Damn it!" I exclaimed to myself when another search of Sydney Marks came up with nothing. I checked all social media, even MySpace I was that desperate, and nothing. Of course I had a picture of her to compare photos, to know if it was the right person.

The photo was taken when I was only a few months old. My mom is holding me while standing in front of the "Welcome to Maysam" sign. That gave me an idea.

I went back to my computer and typed in "Sydney Marks Maysam, New Mexico" and got a hit. My excitement was cut short when I realized what came up was things with the town divorce lawyer, Edward Wrightlock. Everyone knew Edwin (I don't know why that was his nickname). In a small town you have a normal lawyer to deal with contracts and things (Alex Nowsee) and a divorce lawyer.

I clicked on the name and there were documents about their divorce. I never knew they got divorced. My dad told me that my mom basically got up one morning and decided to leave. I scrolled down the page until my name caught my eye. It was the child custody settlement. I wasn't a lawyer but I think what it said was that my mom basically handed over full custody to my dad and the divorce was finalized. I looked at the date and saw it was three days before my birthday, one day before my mom left.

Shocked and upset, I closed the computer lid. So what my dad had told me about my mom wasn't entirely false. It seemed that she flat out told the judge that full custody is to my dad and that was that. She didn't even want me at all. I didn't leave my room for the rest of the day. Thankfully, my dad knew when I was upset and inconsolable, and didn't bother me for the rest of the day.

{Bade's POV}

I walked into school on Thursday unsure of where I stood with Adara. I was going to talk to her yesterday, but she looked upset and out of it. I told her to stay home from tutoring and she just nodded like she barely heard me and walked off.

"Hey." I looked up from my seat in English to see her standing in front of my desk.

"Hey," she said and sat down next to me. "Your partner is absent and mine is in jail, so I talked to Mr. Baylar and he said it was cool if we help each other out for today since we are back to doing these stupid things during class. Or do you not want to know about my project?" Yes. Today is finally the day when I get to know what those weird circles mean.

"Yeah, totally. So what are you doing?" I asked turning away from my own project. Adara pulled out a piece of paper that didn't look like what she had been working on before.

"Well I decided to do a map of the school, but with the lingo. I remember being confused the first day when everyone called the cafeteria the Mason." I forgot people said that.

We called the cafeteria the Mason because it was a huge round room in the middle of the school and all the walls were windows so it looked like a Mason jar so it got the name the Mason. It wasn't just what the students named it. Our first week here we had an assembly and the principal got over the PA to announce the assembly in the Mason and none of the freshmen knew what he was talking about until a teacher told us.

"Not the school project," I said a little disappointed. "The other one with the circles." She rolled her eyes.

"Well a promise is a promise." I could feel myself getting excited as she slowly pulled a paper out from her textbook. She put it in between us so I could really look at it.

There were circles labeled and names in each circle. The athletes were in one labeled "Jocks," the smart kids were in a circle labeled "Nerds," and so on. The paper made no sense to me. I knew which people were athletic and which people were the high performers but most of them are mixed. What was this?

"I've been separating people," Adara said as if reading my thoughts. "Putting everyone into cliques as if we were a normal high school. Wanna help?"

"Of course."

I wish I knew when to say no.

{Adara's POV}

This is where things take a slight turn. Part of me wishes it didn't happen this way, but I guess we have to deal with it.

-About 35 weeks before everything got f***ed up-

{Bade's POV}

"Noah Wesley." I had no idea who the hell that was, but I looked up with the rest of the class anyway. I guess I expected some punk guy with the name Noah, but he just looked like a cooler version of me. Noah walked up to the teacher with a look that was its own question. "Your seat is right there," Mr. Triff, my history teacher, said pointing to the empty desk to the left of me. Noah nodded his head in Mr. Triff's direction and came to sit next to me.

"Sup," he said as Mr. Triff turned back to the board to continue with the lesson.

"Sup. I'm Bade." I stuck out my hand for him to shake but he gave me a high five instead. I was going to say something else when he turned his head to the front of the class and began to take notes without another word.

I left history 40 minutes later and my mind was drawn to a different subject: Breeze. I saw Adara at her locker and remembered what had gone down the last week. Adore and I weren't the only ones who noticed Breeze becoming a little different. She seemed worried and paranoid lately and I didn't know what was going on with her. Her weird behavior only seemed too happened about once or twice a week. I knew something weird was going on, but I didn't know what. As her older brother I was determined to find out.

"Hey Adara!" I called chasing her down. She was walking toward her last period, science, but stopped at my voice.

"What's up?" she asked a little confused. I imagined I had some sort of worry face on right now.

"I need to know what is going on with Breeze." Adara sighed at this and continued walking at a slower pace.

"I wish I knew. I don't think it's the work. She only freaks out once or twice and those are sometimes on light homework days." She shrugged her shoulders and got a kind of fare off look on her face. I could tell she wanted to know almost as badly as I did.

"Maybe she is upset that she needs a tutor?" I asked. I didn't exactly think that was true but I was trying to find something to explain why she is acting odd.

"No. I don't think it's that. She came to the table one day brandishing an English test that she took and got a good grade on. She kept thanking me for helping her every day. She seemed very sincere." We continued walking and thinking when the warning beep sounded over the PA and we each rushed to our respective classes before the late bell rang, leaving an unfinished conversation in our wake.

{Adara's POV}

I walked into science and noticed an unfamiliar face sitting in the usually empty desk to the right of me.

"Hi," I said and put my books down. "I'm Adara." I held out my hand for him to shake, but he just looked at it and laughed.

"What is with everyone and wanting to shake hands in this place. The principal, the vice principal, the guidance counselor, my teachers, and that Brave kid," the new kid said with exasperation.

"Do you mean Bade?" I asked moving my hand down after his mini-rant. I know we have our fair share of strange names in this school, but I can tell you for a fact that there is not a single person in our school named Brave.

"Yeah. I sat next to him in history and he wanted to shake my hand. I just gave him a high five." Thinking I would get one too, I held my hand up vertically and he just laughed again. I was about to return my hand to my side for the second time when he surprised me and shot his hand up to meet mine. "I'm Noah by the way. Nice to meet you, Adara. Please, sit," Noah said gesturing to the stool next to him. I rolled my eyes and sat down as Mrs. Polet came into the room.

"Where are you from?" I asked as my practically deaf science teacher droned on about something she had already taught us.

"Places," he responded simply. It has been just me and my dad for a while so we go where his job takes him.

"Same. Well the part about living with just your dad. My mom ran off when I was two."

"Mine ran off right when I was born. Mumbled some stuff about not being able to do it again. My dad was never quite clear what she was talking about but he thinks she may have had another kid before me."

Noah and I got to know each other for the rest of science. It turns out he was also annoyed that he was put in this class because he knew most of it.

"Guess we are just super human smart," I said with a smile while gathering my books after the dismissal bell rang.

"Do you wanna hang out?" Noah asked me as we walked out together.

"I can't I have to tutor. I'm sorry."

"That's ok. Just let me know when you're free. Here, put your number in," he said handing me his phone. I reached into my back pocket and handed him mine. When we had each other's numbers in our phones we handed them back and parted ways.

"Come on, Breeze. What is up with you?" I was getting tired of this. She just gave me an answer I know she knew was wrong.

"Nothing! I'm just too stupid to understand it! I'LL NEVER GET IT SO WE MIGHT AS WELL STOP!" Breeze yelled. She let out a loud, frustrated scream, grabbed the English textbook, and threw it with all her might out the window. I just stood there shocked, staring at the broken glass from what used to be the window as everyone else came downstairs. Everyone stared at the window for a moment and no one spoke. I looked back at Breeze who had tears falling so hard down her face it looked as though her face had sprung a leak.

"Breeze!" Reagan exclaimed after a quiet minute. She seemed more utterly bewildered than angry.

"Breeze! What on Earth did you think you were doing?!" Carl practically screamed. "You had better-" Carl started to say, his face turning red, but I cut him off.

"Can I just have a minute with Breeze?" I asked.

"What?!" Carl exclaimed. He started looking around not sure what he was angrier about, when his wife put an hand on his shoulder which seemed to calm him down.

"You have five minutes, girls," Reagan said totally calm. Carl whipped his head toward his wife about to object, but she gave him a stern look and followed the rest of his family out. After they had all left I handed a box of tissues to Breeze. She cleaned of her face and looked at me, her face full of guilt.

"What's going on?" I asked her calmly. She sighed and took a seat.

"You know how I wasn't doing too well in school before you came along?" I nodded. "Well something happened in the English department last year so I have the same English teacher this year as I did last. Going into this year she knew my work and didn't believe in me. I wasn't very good in the class, like last year, so my teacher told my mom. That's why she hired you to be my tutor. Well, I never told my teacher that I had gotten a tutor. Then we took that English test that I did so well on because you explain things a lot better than that old hag. Well, she didn't think there was anyway I could have improved, so she accused me of cheating on the test. I told her I didn't, but I guess she wanted to prove to the class I was an idiot or something. So once or twice a week she would call me out even if I was in her class or not and ask me a question about English we hadn't learned yet. Of course I didn't know it so I guessed and when I got the answer wrong she would just laugh and call me stupid. Once she came into science while I was taking a test, and as you know science is my good subject, and she told the teacher to make sure I wasn't cheating on my test. Except she said it super loud so the whole class could hear. And to make things worse she is like a really respected teacher so my science teacher believed her and called me up in front of the whole class and checked my backpack, desk, and pockets. Of course she didn't find anything so she let me sit down and finish my test but the whole class was laughing. And another time she came into my history class because the teacher was late and asked me a really hard question. I was caught off guard and didn't know the answer so that made her and the entire class laugh at me. Then today she put this in my locker."

Breeze dug out a piece of folded paper from her pocket. I unfolded it. It was a copy of the grade sheet they always give us in middle school. The English teacher had given her an F on every single assignment. In our school if you fail for one quarter then you get put into remedial classes and everyone makes fun of you.

"You should report this. She can't give you false grades like that," I said outraged.

"I don't have any proof that they weren't false grades," Breeze said, defeated.

"Did she give the assignments back?" I asked.

"Yeah."

"Do you have them?"

"Yeah!" she shouted with joy, finally catching on. She raced up the stairs, past the rest of her family who were trying to look like they weren't listening, and up to her bedroom. When she came back to the table in less than 30 seconds she was panting and looked extremely excited. Breeze shoved the folder into my hands and I opened it to see a lot of graded papers. There were only two out of about thirty that had an F. Three had a D, Eight had a C, and five had a B. It looked to me like there were one or two B's that could have been A's but at least with all of this there was no way she could fail this quarter.

Everyone else decided to stop pretending that they weren't listening to the entire conversation and came in to look at the papers. We spent a good amount of time just happy that we were going to take down a bad teacher. I didn't realize I had spent an extra hour there and got up to leave.

"You're leaving?" Lilac asked as I packed up my stuff.

"Yeah. I need to get home for dinner."

"Hey," I heard Bade say from behind me. "Thanks for what you did. Not just calling out that horrible teacher, but being around for Breeze. It sucked to see her so disappointed about the grades she was getting in English. We are really close so I know how much you helped her and how much you mean to her. Thanks a lot. Really," he said with so much meaning in his voice and on his face.

"No problem. But I really have to go."

"Ok. Bye." He opened the door for me and waved goodbye before he closed it. I pulled out my phone to text Noah. I decided I was going to skip tutoring tomorrow to hang out with him.

{Bade's POV}

"Hello my dear family," Breeze said coming home the next day with a huge smile on her face. As soon as we heard the door open we raced out to the front door to see Winter and Breeze walk in. They got home last because the middle school got out later than every other school in the district.

"Did you do it?" I asked getting excited. Breeze went to school with the printed out grade sheet and a folder full of her graded assignments. She nodded with an excited smile. She pulled out a chair and told us what happened.

Apparently, her English teacher marched into her lunch period and shouted of the noise, a question. Luckily, Breeze was ready for this. She stood up and admitted she didn't know the answer. Then the teacher said that was the reason she was failing her class this quarter. By that point everyone in the cafeteria was quiet. Breeze calmly told her she wasn't failing the class and presented her with the assignments.

The teacher started yelling that she had forged the grades. That's when the teachers who were monitoring lunch came over and looked at the papers. The other teachers believed Breeze and took the English teacher to the principal's office like they would a misbehaving student. While she was being taken away all the students cheered and high fived Breeze. I guess they weren't the only ones who hated that teacher.

After we all calmed down, Breeze went up to her room because Adara had asked for the day off so there was no tutoring today. Smiling, I followed my sister upstairs and went into my room.

{Adara's POV}

"Hey," Noah said as I met him at the park.

"Hey," I said with a smile while dismounting my bike. "What are we doing?"

"Isn't it obvious? We are going to play in the park," he said with an even bigger smile and opened his arms to his side.

"Favorite food?" I asked while we bounced on the seesaw half an hour later.

"Burgers. Or pasta. I can never decide."

"Same."

"Siblings?"

"Only child."

"You?"

"Same," Noah said and got off the seesaw and walking toward the swings. "I mean; my mom did run away right after I was born.

"I'm sorry," I said sitting down on a swing.

"Don't worry about it," he said coming around behind me and pulling the chains of the swing toward him. "At least I met you," he said letting go of the chains.

{Bade's POV}

Things have been getting slowly worse as we go on. The worst part is that we knew what we were doing was bad. I don't know why we continued doing it. It's not like we were forced to, we had the choice not to. Anyway, here is more about our life regrets.

-About 34 weeks before everything got f***ed up-

{Adara's POV}

"Come on," I called to Noah during lunch on Wednesday.

"I think Levi would be best with the nerds rather than the cheerleaders," Bade said as Noah took a seat next to him.

"Why?" I asked confused.

"He is the worst of the group and I think he'll fit in better there." I understood his point and wrote Levi into the nerd circle.

"What are you doing?" Noah asked opening his soda.

"It's something I'm doing apart from the freshman project. I put everyone into cliques based on who I think they are the most."

"Isn't that kinda mean?" Noah asked me.

"It's not like anyone is gonna see it. And we don't mean anything by it," I said trying to figure out where to place Will.

"Can I help?" Noah asked. Bade and I just looked at each other. I reached into my backpack for the last few yearbooks and slammed them in front of him.

"Study these," I said. "Observe the people around you. Find out who they are and where they belong. Take notes if you must. Deliver your findings and maybe we will use them." Noah looked at me strangely.

"Ok," he said obviously very determined.

"Awesome." Bade and I got up at the lunch bell and left Noah alone with a huge pile of studying to do.

{Bade's POV}

Me: Adara gave me your number

I decided to text Noah the day after we loaded him with the yearbooks.

Noah: That's cool. I was wanted to talk to you too

Me: About what?

Noah: Adara

Me: What about her

Noah: I feel a sort of connection to her

Me: You want to ask her out?

Noah: I'm not sure. Maybe

Me: Why do you want to talk to me about it?

Noah: You seem to know her well

Me: Not really. I only really got to know her a few weeks ago. I'm sorry. I gotta go work on my project.

Noah: That's cool

"Are you back on Earth now?" Nayda asked me.

"Yeah sorry," I said grabbing the glue gun she handed me. I glued the tiny desks to the diagram while consulting the picture we took of each classroom.

"That's ok," she said also gluing things down. "Were you texting Adara?" she asked raising her eyebrows.

"No. Why?" I asked confused.

"Aren't you guys dating?" she asked as confused as I was.

"No." Nayda laughed.

I know I said our school wasn't like all the others, but we still had dating rumors. We weren't that strange.

"Everyone thinks you are," she said still chuckling.

"We're not."

"Is she dating Noah then?"

"Why do you think she is dating someone?" I asked finishing Mrs. Stevens class.

"I don't know. It's just what I heard and I wondered about it."

"Well she's not dating anyone. At least not yet." I said the last part under my breath but she still heard it.

"Yet?" she asked gluing down the whiteboard.

"Nothing."

"Ok. Now that you finished Mrs. Stevens class I think we should leave it here," Nayda said putting down her glue gun.

"Alright." I put my own glue gun down and took the diagram to its place in the corner of the room.

"See you later," Nayda said and I closed the door behind her.

{Adara's POV}

"I studied those yearbooks you gave me two days ago and I think I could help," Noah said while reaching for one of my fries.

"First of all, don't steal my fries, and second of all, if you really think you can help, go for it," I said handing him the paper. He pulled out a pencil, the eighth grade yearbook, and started writing. He had a furrowed brow as he tried to decide where to place someone. A glance at the yearbook told me it was Veronica Dadling. He considered the Jocks (field hockey) and the Basics. I have to admit it was a hard choice. The main thing keeping her from an automatic placement in the Basics was field hockey.

"Hm. This is hard," he said lifting the pencil to his mouth. He pursed his lips and hovered over the Jocks. Noah finally decided to put her in with the Jocks.

"Good choice," I said taking a sip of my smoothie.

"Part of me hates this, and part of me loves this," he said.

I should have made him stop there.

{Adara's POV}

Now that Noah is in this story things get steadily more complicated. I know that it might not seem it like that but there will come a time when you wonder how the hell it got as bad as it did. We wonder that too.

-About 33 weeks before everything got f***ed up-

{Bade's POV}

Adara: Do you want to come over? We can work on the circles more

Me: Sure

Adara texted me her address so I hoped on my bike and rode to her house. 10 minutes later she opened the door at my knock.

"Hey," she said with a smile. "My dad wants to meet you." As soon as she said that I got a little nervous. "He's right in here," she said leading me into the living room.

"You must be Bade," Adara's dad said standing up and holding out his hand.

"Yes, Mr. Kidling," I said shaking his hand.

"No, no. Just Mason, please. Mr. Kidling makes me feel old," he said with a smile.

"Ok. You kids behave," Mason said with a smile and sitting back down. Adara and I walked into the kitchen.

"Noah got Veronica and Sara in the Jocks and the Bible Thumpers, respectively," she told me as she took out the circles I have become so familiar with.

We discussed where to put some people for the next two hours. It was a little difficult so we only got three more people placed.

"Here. I have a lot of other things I need to do and I need a break from this. You take it," Adara said handing me that paper. I took it and the soda she had offered me, and left the kitchen behind her.

"Nice to meet you, Mason," I said shaking his hand once more.

"You too, Bade. Feel from to come over anytime," Mason said with a smile. I returned the happy grin and left the house.

{Adara's POV}

Noah: Wanna come over?

Me: Sure

I jumped down the stairs and asked my dad if I could go over to Noah's.

"Bade yesterday and now Noah today. Jeez, Adara. Do you have any friends that are girls?" my dad asked partly joking.

"No," I said seriously. My dad laughed.

"Ok," he said shaking his head with a smile.

"Awesome," I said turning around to run up the stairs to grab my phone. I looked at it and saw that Noah had already sent me his address. I grabbed my bike and headed toward his house.

"Hey," Noah said after he opened the door a few minutes later.

"Hey," I said happily.

"Come on in." He opened the door a little wider and moved a little so I had a clear path.

"Hello. You must be Adara," what I assumed to be his dad said. "I'm Noah's father but I prefer Dylan. Mr. Wesley just makes me feel old," Dylan said standing up with a smile.

"It's nice to meet you." I expected him to want to shake my hand but he went right for the hug instead. I was a little surprised and he knew it.

"I think shaking hands is too formal. I do that at interviews and dinner party's when I'm trying to kiss someone's ass. Meeting new people calls for a hug," he said when he finally let me go.

"It's no problem," I said chuckling a little.

"You kids have fun. But not too much," Dylan said with a smile and a wink. Noah and I both laughed.

"We promise," Noah said while leading me to the living room. "What do you want to do?" he asked as I looked around the room.

"How can I pick?" I asked with a light laugh. There were way too many options. The room was full of movies, TV shows, video games, board games, puzzles, puzzle books, and decks of cards.

"I know. We have pretty much anything you would want to do. My dad's super into games," Noah explained. After a couple minutes of debating, we decided to play Stratego. I won.

While we were playing I realized that I felt a sort of connection with Noah. He is super cool, really chill, and reminds me of me.

{Bade's POV}

"What's that?" Micah asked sitting down next to me.

I have to babysit Micah again, so I decided it would be a good time to work on the circles.

"It's my freshman project," I said coming up with a lie.

"Cool. What are you doing for it?" he asked looking over my shoulder.

"I'm sorting people out," I said trying to be as vague as possible.

"Like in Harry Potter?" he asked excited.

"Sure." Just as Micah was about to ask another question his parents came through the door.

"Bye!" Micah called to me as I left after a quick chat with his parents.

"Bye!" I called back with $50 clutched in my hand.

{Bade's POV}

What we're about to tell you may or may not blow your minds. It blew ours. Anyway... prepare yourself for what we are about to tell you.

-About 32 weeks before everything got f***ed up-

{Adara's POV}

"Do you want to come over again today," Noah asked me after school the following Tuesday.

"Sure. I can kick your ass again," I said with a smile. I texted my dad that I was hanging with Noah and we rode our bikes to his house.

"Back again, Adara?" Dylan said when Noah and I entered.

"Hey, Dad," Noah said with a sigh. I could have sworn I saw the ghost of a smile on his face anyway.

"Hi, Dylan," I said laughing at Noah's reaction.

"What do you want for dinner, Noah?" Dylan asked putting down his puzzle book.

"Pizza," he said with a smile.

"Ok. I will order it in about an hour. Do you want to stay for dinner, Adara?" Dylan asked going toward the fridge.

"Nah I can't. My dad gets kind of lonely if I don't eat with him." I really wanted pizza so I made a mental note to ask my dad to order us pizza.

"Ok. Soda?" Dylan opened the fridge so I could see the cream soda. He's only known me for a day, but he already knew that was my weakness. I smiled and walked over to the fridge. Dylan handed me a can with a triumphant smile on his face.

"Come on, Adara." Noah grabbed a can of his own and we went upstairs.

"We should probably do our homework," I said throwing my heavy backpack onto one of the chairs in his room.

"I think you're right. I think we should start with the introduction essay," Noah said and pulled out his outline. Our assignment for English was to write an essay introducing ourselves.

"I like to write, but essays suck," I said after about a minute of filling out my outline. As you have probably guessed, I'm lazy and tend to give up easily.

"I don't know what time I was born," Noah said referring to the question that asked us what time we were born.

"It'll say on your birth certificate," I said pushing myself off my stomach.

"I don't know where it is," he said also putting down his outline.

"Do you have an idea where it might be?"

"Probably in the guest room. It has some of my baby stuff in there."

"Let's go," I said jumping up off the floor, out of the room, and walked into the guest room.

"What?" Noah asked running in after me.

"Yes. I will take these boxes over here, and you take the ones over there," I said pointing to boxes marked 'Noah's Baby Things' with complete sincerity.

"Why not?" he asked rhetorically.

"Got it," I said after 15 minutes of sifting through pictures, baby clothes, and baby books. I looked at it to see when he was born. "Oh my god," I said quietly after looking at it. I couldn't believe. There had to be a mistake. "It's not possible."

"What?"

{Bade's POV}

Noah: You busy?

Me: Nope. Whattup?

Noah: Adara was over at my house working on our introduction essay. I didn't know what time I was born so she offered to help me find my birth certificate. She found it and when she saw it she just starred at it like she was hoping she was dreaming. Then she just turned around and bolted out of my house leaving all her stuff in my room. What do you think was up?

Me: Idk man. She is kind of weird and mysterious for no reason. Have you asked her what was up?

Noah: No. Well I tried when she left but she just ran like she didn't hear me but I know she did

Me: Just ask her bro

Noah: Thanks man. I gtg eat pizza.

Me: No prob man see u later

"KIDS! DINNER!" my mom shouted up the stairs. I opened my door and walked out with a sort of frustrated face on.

"Whattup, Buttercup?" Lilac asked me.

"He's frustrated with Adara, Noah, and the thing he is working on with Adara and Noah," Addae said without so much as a glance at me.

"Forget I asked," Lilac said walking in front of us.

"How-" I began to ask but got cut off.

"We shared a womb for nine months, we are in the same grade in a small school, and it doesn't take a genius to read your expression," Addae said without a second thought.

"Hello, my little ducks," my mom said when we finally all got downstairs. She called us her little ducks a lot and has never given us a very good reason why.

"Cabbage and noodles!" Winter and Zephyr screamed from behind me. This is their favorite dish so I wasn't surprised.

"Crazy kids," my dad said sitting down.

"THANKS, MOM!" Winter practically screamed while reaching for the spoon for the noodles.

"YEAH!" Zeph said fighting Winter for the noodles.

Dinner proceeded in this fashion with Winter and Zeph fighting over the kielbasa and the cabbage and noodles. When my pigs of a sister and brother finished off all the food, I went back upstairs. Having finished all my homework, I went back to the circles.

"Damn it," I whispered to myself as I spent a good 20 minutes trying to figure out where to put Seth Taylor. The trouble with this is most people can be broken down into two groups that would define them very well. You had to analyze their personality and study how they act now and how they have acted in the past to determine where they fit in the best. I put my pencil down and turned on my music instead.

{Adara's POV}

No. No. This is not happening! They messed something up. The hospital must have misprinted something, or... or... I don't know. Something went wrong, I just know it.

"Adara! Noah's here!" my dad called up the stairs. I didn't exactly want to see Noah, but I needed my homework and I knew he had it. I took a deep breath and prepared myself for what was about to come.

"Hi, Noah," I said not as excited as I would have been under different circumstances. He was standing in my living room with my backpack in his hand.

"Hey. I brought your stuff," he said lifting my bag.

"Thanks," I said emotionless. I grabbed my bag and from him and tried to ignore his confused face.

"What is going on with you?" he asked a little frustrated.

"It's your birth certificate," I said finally letting it out.

"What about it?" he asked getting annoyed.

"The line where they list parents. You're my half-brother. We share a mother."

{Adara's POV}

As you can imagine, I was freaking out. Noah was about the same because he is a little more emotionally stable (he says). Don't worry, it gets worse. Anyway... here we go.

-About 31 weeks before everything got f***ed up-

{Bade's POV}

Me: Did you figure it out with Adara?

Noah: Yeah. Sort of

Me: What's up?

Noah: Apparently we share a mother. Adara and I are half siblings.

Me: Holy s***

Noah: Yeah I know. But I really don't want to talk about it

Me: Ok yeah I get it

Noah didn't respond so I decided to text Adara.

Me: Noah told me what's up

Adara: Yeah well if it's ok I don't want to talk about it

Me: Yeah that's that fine

That got me worried. They should really talk about it. I sighed to myself and collapsed on my beanbag chair. If they didn't talk about what is going on then everything will blow up. Everything will end with them resenting their parents and each other. I had to fix this.

{Adara's POV}

I laid on my bed staring at the ceiling. Typical, I know, but it's actually really calming. Finding patterns on the ceiling is addicting.

"Adara," my dad said knocking on the door. I didn't want to answer it. There is no way I could face him. Yeah, he probably doesn't know, but I'm still angry.

Sighing, I got up and opened the door.

"What?" I asked exasperated.

"Dinner?" He was holding Chinese food in his hands. Swearing to myself, I took the fried rice and followed him downstairs.

"Thanks," I mumbled.

"What's up with you?" my dad asked. At first I was confused, but then I realized I was taking my anger out on my rice.

"Did you know?" I asked putting down my rice.

"Know what?"

"About the relationship between mom and Noah." He looked up and set his food down.

"What you have to understand-"

"YOU KNEW?!" I screamed cutting him off and jumping out of my seat.

"Adara, please just list-"

"NO! I WON'T LISTEN! HOW COULD YOU NOT TELL ME?!" There wasn't a single part of me that tried to hold back my anger.

"I wasn't sure you would take it well." His calming tone made me even more angry.

"Really? What gave it away?" I yelled sarcastically. With a rush of anger, I ran right out of the house.

"ADARA! ADARA! COME BACK!" Ignoring the calls from my dad, I jumped on my bike and rode to Noah's house. Now is the time to sort this all out.

I was met with yelling when I pulled up to Noah's house. Noah stormed out of the house looking as angry as I felt.

"Noah!" I shouted, my voice hoarse from all the yelling I did earlier. He turned around at the sound of my voice.

"Your dad know, too?" he asked guessing from my red face. I couldn't help but notice the lingering anger in his voice, but I knew it wasn't directed at me.

"Yeah. Let's get the f*** outta here."

{Bade's POV}

At some time in your life you have probably wished to go back in time and fix something. I would give up all my good boy points to fix this. Sadly, that's not how the world works.

-About 26 weeks before everything got f***ed up-

{Adara's POV}

"It's total bullshit," I said to my dad after I got back from therapy.

"She can help you cope with this," my dad said calmly.

"I'm fine, Dad." I retreated into the kitchen hoping to avoid this very conversation.

"Then why did you run away five weeks ago?" He brought this up every single day.

"Because I wasn't coping then. I was in shock," I said imitating my stupid therapist on that last part.

"You say that every time." It wasn't news to me that he wanted the answer to change. It never will.

"Because that is what was happening. I know you don't want it like that, but that is what happened. End of story."

"Adara. You can't shut me out like this," my dad said.

"Like you did to me about Noah." That was the last thing I said before I marched upstairs.

{Bade's POV}

"Hey, Noah," my dad said when Noah came in.

"Hey," he said back. My dad looked confused. He hadn't talked to Noah since he ran away to his dad's friend's house in Alb. Since Noah and Adara were pretty much dragged back to Maysam they have both closed up a little. My dad wasn't used to such a distant greeting from Noah. I shook my head at my dad silently asking him not to press the issue, then Noah followed me upstairs.

"What do you wanna do?" I asked him. He shrugged and started looking through my video games. He smiled and picked out Grand Theft Auto.

"Come on. Do you really suck that bad?" Noah said laughing after I failed to steal a car.

"I usually play games on the computer and not with a controller," I said finally getting another car and immediately crashing it.

"Oh my god! You do suck that bad!" Noah said falling on the beanbag chair while cracking up.

"Shut up," I said stopping the game. "Why don't you play it then if you're so f***ing fantastic," I said throwing the controller at him.

"Fine." He walked over to the TV and started playing. It turns out he was really good.

"What the hell?" I asked as he finished the campaign.

"F*** yeah," he said throwing down the controller.

"Asshole," I mumbled under my breath.

"You're just jealous," he said plopping down onto the beanbag chair next to me.

"Whatever. Do you wanna go get something to eat?" I asked jumping up. "I'm going to get some anyway even if you don't come."

"Wait! I want to eat, too," he called dramatically after me.

"Then catch up."

"Sandwiches?" my mom asked when we arrived in the kitchen.

"Yes," we both said grabbing a plate.

"I thought so," she said with a smile and handed us a glass bottle of lemonade.

"Fancy," I said with a smile, referring to the glass bottle.

"Your father is working at the table so you two can sit in front of the TV if you keep the crumbs on your plate and watch something normal."

"K, Mom." I joined Noah on the couch and he flipped on the TV.

"I can't believe we are spending the rest of our Friday playing video games and watching movies," Noah said as the first part of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone played. This movie was fine with me because it had been a long day at school. Winter break starts next week so we have our midterms. I tried to push those from my mind and fall into the world of wizards and witches.

Just after Snape finished quizzing Harry in Potions and the movie went to commercial, there was a knock on the door. I opened it and was met with Adara.

"Hey," she said with an awkward smile. "Can I come in?"

"Yeah." I moved over so she could come in. She did but stopped when her eyes landed on Noah. She lightly shook her head, kept walking toward the couch, and plopped down next to him like everything carried on as normal as it always had the last five weeks.

"I love this movie. Oh thanks, Reagan," Adara said as my mom handed her a sandwich and bottle of lemonade. I knew that my mom must have heard Adara's voice and made more food. That's my mom for you.

"This is my first time watching it," Noah confessed. Adara stopped just before taking the first bite of her sandwich.

"How the hell have you not seen the movies based on one of the best book series of all time?" Adara asked without even attempting to hide the horror in her voice.

"I've never gotten around to it. I've read the books though."

"Oh thank god." She put a hand to her heart like she was going to have a heart attack. Noah and I cracked up. Adara rolled her eyes and checked the channel's schedule. "Yay! It's a marathon of all eight movies," she said, her eyes lighting up.

"How long would that take?" I asked sipping my lemonade.

"Without commercials it would take about 20 hours," she said after a quick search. "Except they have commercials and all the movies are spread through the weekend. We could either meet up here every day, or after this one finishes we can go to my house, my dad is loosening the reins a little, and pull an all-nighter and finish the whole series at about 3 pm."

Noah and I looked at each other. It was clear that Adara was really considering this. Noah shrugged in agreement. While I was debating whether my mom would let me spend the night at Adara's, I got an idea.

"Be right back," I said as I raced up the stairs and knocked on Addae's door.

"Entra," she said in a Spanish accent. Rolling my eyes, I pushed open the door and rushed over to where she was watching Netflix on her bed.

"Do you want to stay up all night-"

"And dance around until we see the sun?" she asked cutting me off with One Direction lyrics.

"No," I said rolling my eyes again. "Watch a Harry Potter marathon with me, Noah, and Adara at her place?"

"Ok, sure. But aren't they your friends? Why do you want me to go?" she asked closing her laptop.

"We are all the same age, they are super cool, you-"

"What do you actually want?"

"I don't think mom will let me spend the night at Adara's with Noah by myself, but she might let me go if you go, too."

"Let's ask her," Addae said getting off her bed rather reluctantly.

"Awesome. I love you," I said following her to our parents' room. Addae knocked on the open door and we walked in.

"Hey, Mom," Addae said with a smile and sat down at the foot of her bed and I joined her.

"Hi," she said a little suspicious as to why her twin children were both sitting on the foot of her bed with smiles plastered on their faces.

"Could I go with a Addae to Adara's house and spend the night there?" I asked. I specifically worded it the way I did so it seemed like Addae was going to go anyway and I just wanted to tag along, not the other way around.

"Hm," she said closing her book. "You, your sister, and Adara spending the night together. Anyone else?" she asked looking at me. I swear she could read minds.

"Noah." I looked at her trying to read her mind like she did to me, but clearly it was only a super power moms have. I was about to say something else when she started cracking up.

"Mom...?" I asked really confused. Addae met my eye and I could see she was confused, too.

"Two sets of siblings hanging out?" she said once she finally calmed down.

Addae and I looked at each other and rolled our eyes.

"Yeah. I guess if you want to think of that sure," I said wanting to be as nice as possible so we could do this.

"Well, I trust you guys not to do anything you shouldn't do... so I guess you can go."

"Thanks, Mom!" Addae and I screamed and hugged her.

"Your welcome, my darlings. Do you need a ride?" she asked after we let her go.

"Nah. We can ride our bikes. Thanks though," Addae said getting up and leaving the room.

"Thanks again," I said over my shoulder as I followed my twin sister out of the room."

"We better get packing," Addae said when I got into the hall.

"Yep." I went back down to the living room and told Adara and Noah that I could go and was bringing Addae with me. They were cool with it and Noah left to get packed after he called his dad to ask if he could.

{Adara's POV}

"Hey, Dad," I said as Noah, Addae, Bade, and I came into my house. "This is Addae, Bade's twin sister," I said in response to his furrowed eyebrows as his eyes found the face he didn't recognize.

"I'm Mason," my dad says introducing himself to the last of my friends. "So you all are spending the night here?" he asked in a conversational sort of way.

"Yep."

"The attic is all set up for you. Do you want to order some pizza for dinner?" he asked already going to the phone.

"Sure," we all responded.

"Is plain cheese ok?" he asked dialing the number.

"Yeah," we said while looking at each other for confirmation.

"Ok. It should be her soon," my dad said after he hung up the phone. "You kids have fun." He smiled at us as we left the room with a bag full of soda cans.

"Attic?" Bade asked clearly thinking of a small room covered in cobwebs where we store memories of me as a baby.

"Yep," I said walking into the garage and pulling down the ladder.

"Woah," I heard from behind me as everyone saw the epicness of my attic.

"This is fantastic," Addae said running her hands over the cool chairs.

"Yeah we redid it," I said walking over to the makeshift kitchen (a mini fridge, microwave, cupboards, and a bar to eat at) and put the extra sodas in the mini fridge.

"Ready for 20 hours of Harry Potter?" Bade asked as everyone sat on the extremely comfy chairs in front of the TV.

"Here we go." I pressed play as the camera zoomed from the opening title to Harry in his room on Privet Drive.

{Adara's POV}

Looking back on it, we should have stopped after this week. We should have left it alone and gone on with our sad lives. Once again, we continue to do the wrong thing.

-About 25 weeks before everything got f***ed up-

{Bade's POV}

"Here. I forgot to give this back to you at the Harry Potter party. I tried but I couldn't fill much more in," I said handing the circles back to Adara.

"Thanks. I think I'm gonna have Noah try some more because he seems excited to," she said grabbing the paper and looking at it with a sort of longing look. I assumed she wanted it to fill itself in because we have all been thinking that.

"No problem." We stood there for a few moments before I remembered I had other thing I wanted to say. "Do you want to go bowling with me next Saturday? Noah and Addae are also going, so if you go we could do a girls against boys thing."

Adara looked at me curiously and I hoped I didn't sound too obvious. Originally, the plan was for the two of us to go, but since the Harry Potter thing was for Noah, I wasn't sure what was going on between us and I thought this would give me a better idea.

"Sure," she said with a smile and I let go a quiet breath of relief. "Let's get to lunch. Noah and Addae will be waiting for us." I nodded and Adara and I walked to lunch together.

Of course, Adara was right and when we arrived at our table Addae and Noah were discussing something.

Addae started sitting with us since our Harry Potter fun four days ago. She didn't have super clingy group of friends so they didn't mind. I'm pretty sure the main reason is that they think Noah likes her and they want to give Addae ample opportunity to talk to him.

"Hey," Noah said when Adara and I sat down next to each other across from Noah and Addae so we all formed a square.

"Hey," Adara said back and shoved her stuff aside to eat.

"What's up?" I asked Noah. He looked a little anxious and kept glancing at the part of the table near Adara.

"Nothing," he said but tried to say something with his eyes. His eyes shot over to Adara's books so I looked over and saw he was hinting at the circles, but I didn't know what he meant. Glancing over to see that Addae and Adara we too deep in their conversation to notice what we were doing, I gave Noah a confused look. He looked at the circles then at Addae. I finally understood what he meant. I shrugged and was about to tell him it was Adara's decision when she finally noticed our weird behavior.

"What are you two doing now?" she asked exasperated and taking a sip of her milk.

"Talking about penises," Noah said, trying to think of something quick. Adara was not expecting this and burst out laughing so hard that she spit her milk on her tray, a little on her jeans, and on the table between her and Addae.

"Oh my god that is disgusting!" Addae exclaimed jumping up from her seat and backing away from the table like it was going to attack her. Adara, Noah, and I could barely breathe from laughing so hard. Addae just rolled her eyes and went to get one of the rolls of paper towels they had out in the cafeteria for occasions just like this one.

"Oh my god," Noah managed to get out through his laughter.

"You people," Addae muttered under her breath as she watched Adara clean the spit up milk. She sounded a lot like our mom and I have no doubt that she got that from years of watching her.

By the time we had all calmed down the bell rang and stalked off the English still a little huffy.

{Adara's POV}

"Dad," I called as I got home from school that day.

"Whattup, girl?" he asked poking his head out of the open door in the hall bathroom. Rolling my eyes at him trying to be current, I continued with what I was going to say.

"Can I go bowling with Bade, Noah, and Addae next Saturday?" I slipped Noah's name in the middle on purpose so the first person he heard wasn't Noah (he was still a little sensitive about that) and not last so it didn't seem like he was an afterthought I didn't care about or was excited about.

"Hm. Bade, you say?" Oh no. The way he said that could not have been good. "I guess so. Just let me know when you need me to take you," he said returning to the bathroom with the door still open.

"What are you doing in there?" I asked walking in.

He was in my bathroom, not that I minded, but mine was covered with bottles of lotion, acne cream, boxes of tampons, razors, and hair stuff.

"Woah." Some of my stuff was moved aside and there were things men used in their place, like after shave and cologne.

"Bigger mirror. Is it too much?" he asked brushing off the first comment and anxiously waiting an answer to his question.

"Is what too much?" I asked with a laugh. My dad made a frustrated sound and turned back to the mirror with a helpless expression on his face and began to fiddle with his tie again. His tie? I had only just realized he was dressed kinda fancy compared to what he usually wore.

"The after shave, the cologne?" he asked and I could see how desperate he was for an answer.

"Who's the lady?" I asked with a sigh and standing to the right of my dad and leaning my back against the counter.

"I met her at the store," he said deciding it best not to lie to me. If I need to find something out, I will.

"Nice," I said with a laugh and he glared at me.

"She was debating on the best kind of frozen pizza to get and I told her it's better to get it fresh. She laughed and we talked. Turns out she had a son and when the father found out, he split. I said that I had a daughter and her mother split and she says that her son is a sophomore. His name is Luke Rygart. Do you know him?"

That question was almost laughable. Of course I knew Luke. He wasn't exactly popular (no one really was) but everyone just knew each other. He was one of the easier ones to place on the circles. We had one called 'The Dateables' who were super chill and nice people who would be awesome to date. He is pretty laid back and funny. Everyone called him Luck because there was a substitute teacher in Advanced English two years ago who needed reading glasses but didn't have them with her. She misread his name and called out Luck. The class burst out laughing. At the end of the day the whole school knew that a sub called him Luck, and the name stayed with him since. He actually liked it and asked teachers to call him that.

"Yeah, I know him. He was in my Advanced English two years ago and we got along well. We were never friends per se, but we know each other," I said holding back a laugh.

"Good. Because I invited him and his mother out for dinner tonight."

"What?" I asked surprised, pushing myself off the counter.

"Yep," he said fixing his hair in the mirror.

"We are going to that Italian place you like so much, so make sure that you dress a little bit nicer than usual. We are going to meet them there in about two and a half hours," he said looking at his watch to make sure.

"Ok. I will take a shower and get dressed then you will take one," I said pushing him out of the bathroom.

"What? Why?"

"Because you put way too much product on and you smell weird. After you shower put on those black jeans you have with that white button up. Leave the top two buttons undone and have the shirt hanging out. Then put on those black shoes. When you are done I will help you with the hair and stuff. I have more I need to do so you will shower after me and I can get ready while you are showering so that once you are ready we can leave. If we get you ready first, then you will mess up your hair or something." I explained this all to him while shoving all of his man products into his hands and pushing him out of the bathroom.

Half an hour later I turned off the shower and wrapped myself in my towel. I rubbed some lotion onto my freshly shaved legs. Then I wrapped my towel around my hair and picked out an outfit. After some deliberation, I decided on a grey skirt with navy blue horizontal stripes, a plain navy blue shirt, and black high tops. I then blow dried my hair and, on a whim, decided to straighten it. It looked really good and I came out of my bathroom to be met with my dad wearing exactly what I told him to wear and looking anxious for me to fix him up.

"Come with me," I said and lead him back into my bathroom. I opened the cupboards under the sink and looked for my gels and creams that I used a couple years ago when I had super short hair.

"Aren't those girl products?" my dad asked skeptical. I rolled my eyes and told him to sit on the floor so I could do his hair. I didn't put much product in his hair; just enough that it will stay out of his face, but not look too greasy.

"There," I said screwing the cap on the jar of gel I was using and washing the remaining product off my hands.

"Thank you so much, Adara," he said with a sigh of relief and giving me a hug.

"No problem, Dad."

"We need to get going," my dad said looking at his watch and grabbing his wallet. I grabbed my little pouch that held my phone and student I.D. when I didn't have pockets, and we left.

"Hello, Mason," what I took to be Luck's mom said and she kissed his cheek.

"Hello, Danielle," my dad said doing the same.

"Hi, I'm Danielle," Luck's mom said holding out her arms for a hug.

"Adara," I said over her shoulder.

"It's lovely to meet you," Danielle said when we separated. "I believe you know my son, Luke," Danielle said gesturing to Luck.

"Yeah, I do. Whattup, Luck?" I asked when we made eye contact.

"Not much, Al. And you?" he asked, smiling because he used his nickname for me that he knew got on my nerves a little bit.

"Nothing. I think you know my dad, Mason," I said jerking my head in my dad's direction.

"I've heard the rumors but have never had the pleasure of a meeting. I'm Luke," Luck said holding out his hand for my dad to shake.

"I assure you that only the good ones are true," my dad said with a smile and shook Luck's hand.

"Well," I said under my breath and my dad chuckled.

"Should we get tables?" my dad said trying to keep the conversation from totally dying.

"Tables?" Luck asked confused looking at his mom. I looked at my dad with the same confused look, secretly glad that he asked first.

"Yes," Danielle said. "We figured that you two would rather not listen to us get to know each other so we decided that Mason and I would take one table and you two would take another. Far enough that we don't have to hear each other's conversations, but close enough that we can keep and eye on you." It was hard not to admire Danielle and the way she could perfectly meld strict parenting and politeness.

"Ok," Luck said and I nodded. Two waiters came and lead us to our respective tables. Luck and I sat down across from each other while the waiter took our drinks. I ordered a raspberry lemonade and Luck ordered sweet tea.

"I never expected you to order sweet tea," I said trying to hide my smirk behind my menu while looking casual at the same time. I, of course, failed and Luck gave a little laugh.

"I usually order Powerade, but I figured I'd better mix it up," he said with a smile and I started laughing.

"I hope you realize what Danielle meant when she said they were 'getting to know each other', right?" I questioned Luck while examining the different kinds of pasta.

"Yes. I was really hoping you also caught onto that."

We had only been seated for a couple minutes when we heard our parents arguing with one another. We exchanged worried glances and I turned around. I rolled my eyes when I realized they were only arguing about who was paying. Each parent wanted to pay for the whole thing. They finally decided that my dad would pay for him, me, and Danielle, and Danielle would pay for Luck.

I thought the dinner went quite well. The food was delicious and Luck and I had a great time. During the dinner I realized that I made a good choice putting him in the Dateables. He could hold a conversation and shared the same sense of humor I did. It was so much fun I didn't think about the circles the rest of the night.

{Bade's POV}

The day we spent bowling kinda messed up what we thought about our little group. I guess maybe not Addae, but let's travel back to that Saturday shall we?

-About 24 weeks before everything got f***ed up-

{Adara's POV}

"Can you drive me over to the Alley?" I asked my dad when the Saturday for him to take me finally rolled around.

"Sure. You might have to get a ride from someone else because I am going out with Danielle again and I'm not sure how long it will take. How do I look?" he asked turning around so I could see his outfit.

"Where are you going?"

"Roller skating."

"Good," I said while trying to fight the urge to crack up. Unfortunately, my father can read minds.

"Don't laugh. We like roller skating."

"I'm not laughing," I said with a smile that I hoped looked innocent.

"Whatever. Let's go." My dad grabbed his keys and we left.

"Thanks, Dad," I said when we pulled into the Alley. (That was the literal name of the bowling alley. Super creative, I know.)

"Just text me when you're done, and I'll say if I can pick you up or not. If not, tell me who is taking you home."

"Ok. Probably Noah's dad. Bye!" I said and closed the door.

"Adara!" someone screamed from behind me just after my dad pulled away.

"Me." When I turned around to see who it was I got attacked with a hug from Addae.

"I'm so happy you're here. Bade and Noah have been torturing me with gross man talk for the last two minutes," she said linking arms with me and we walked toward the boys who were standing right by the entrance.

"Shall we?" Bade asked opening the door for us.

"We shall," Addae and I said together.

{Bade's POV}

"Go, girl!" Addae said giving Adara a high five after Adara got her third strike in a row.

"Thank you," Adara said sitting down.

"You're up, Noah," I said and Noah decided to strut instead of walk. He grabbed the ball, lined it up with the pins, and let go.

"YEAH, NOAH! KILL IT!" I screamed as Noah unleashed a speeding ball down the lane and into all the pins in a swift and solid motion.

"You might have some competition," Noah said with a smug look and poured himself some root beer as I walked up to take his turn.

"I doubt that very much," Adara said from behind me as I grabbed a ball.

"C'mon, bro," Noah cheered from the table. I performed my normal ritual and pulled the ball up in front of my face and took a deep breath. I took one quick glance at the pins above the ball, swung the ball back and released it. It shot down the lane with incredible speed. Unfortunately, what I have in power I make up for in lack of aim. The ball just missed the all the pins and swerved to the left.

"Really?" I asked under my breath.

"It's ok, dude. You have another go." Noah's horrible British accent made me laugh and that eased some of my nervousness.

Our game was boys against girls and I wish I could say this was the worst I've done in this game. Thankfully, Noah is a good bowler so we aren't too much behind the girls. And fortunately, no one in the Lowlen family has been a particularly good bowler so we were pretty evenly matched. Adara was the only thing I was worried about because she only didn't get a strike once, and got a spare instead.

"That's what's up," Noah said making me open my eyes that I didn't realize closed as soon as I released the ball. Backing up to look at the score, I saw that I had bowled an eight.

"Wow! An eight," Addae said sarcastically. "Watch and learn boys. I can do better than that."

Ok. I know I said that my family isn't very good at bowling, but we get lucky sometimes. Addae bowled a spare to add to their score and the rest of the game continued in this fashion. I got three strikes and two spares after my horrible start, but the girls won 345 to 317. Adara came in first with 227, Noah in second with 192, followed my me in third with 125, and then Addae with 118.

"My dad can't pick me up. Can I ride with someone else?" Adara asked after we returned our shoes.

"Yeah. My dad won't mind. He loves helping people out," Noah said.

"Our mom isn't coming until she gets out of a meeting in about half an hour and I'm hungry so do you guys wanna pool for pizza?" Addae asked speaking for the both of us.

"Yeah." We all pulled out what was left of our money and discovered we had enough for a large cheese across the way.

"Large cheese please," I said when we arrived at the counter at the pizza shop.

"$20.62," the bored looking teenager said. I pulled out the crumpled up money everyone had handed me and after some searching put one ten-dollar bill, two five-dollar bills, and a one-dollar bill on the counter. The cashier guy looked at me with an annoyed look and straightened the money while counting it. He handed me my receipt and 38 cents back and I tossed the into the charity jar with a smile.

"How long?" I asked the guy.

"That will be about 15 minutes," he said with a look that either meant he wanted to kill me or himself.

"Thank you. Have a nice day!" I said with a little wave and walked back to everyone else who weren't trying not to die of laughter.

"Let's go find a table," Addae said after everyone had calmed down. We had just sat down when they brought us our pizza and we dove in. Everyone was quiet as we were all shoving pizza into our faces like it was the last pizza on Earth.

"Ok," Noah said once we had finished. "I want to introduce you guys to a ritual my dad and I do when we eat pizza. Everybody goes around and says one thing that nobody knows about us."

"Why the hell you would do that?" Adara asked sounding a little angry.

"Because pizza isn't very healthy so that makes us not eat pizza too much," Noah said and Adara rolled her eyes.

"Come on. It'll be fun," I said. I didn't have Addae and I didn't have a lot of secrets from each other and our friends so this would be fine for us. Anything we haven't mentioned wouldn't be anything interesting.

"I'm game," Adara said after a moment of silence. I agreed and Addae nodded.

"I'll start," Noah said and thought about what he was going to say. "I want to be in a band that tours the globe and everything. Like 5 Seconds of Summer. They helped me realize that I wanted to do that." Everyone seemed impressed my what Noah wanted to do.

"Ok. I'll go. I want to be a therapist," I said an Addae sat up straighter. I knew she didn't know that. "I really want to help people who have mental issues and things, so I feel like a therapist would be a good job. I'm also really interested on how the mind works."

"Me?" Adara asked when I had finished. "Ok. I guess I'll follow the trend of what are dreams are. I want to be one of those people that works at a stadium and organizes things on stage and everything. I always thought that would be really cool."

"Ok," Addae said when we all looked at her. "I want to get married... to a woman. I'm lesbian."

{Adara's POV}

As you may have guessed, we made many mistakes. Some bigger than others. Now is time to hear about one of those bigger ones.

-About 22 weeks before everything got f***ed up-

{Bade's POV}

"I still think you should tell mom and dad," I whispered to Addae after we got back from our two week Christmas vacation in San Diego.

"Bade. Could you please just let it go?" Addae asked pulling her bag from the car.

"Addae," I said throwing her bag back down. "You faked having a boyfriend. Why can't you just tell them."

"Because I can't. I don't expect you to understand, Bade," she said wrenching her bag from my hand and storming into the house.

"What's up with her?" Lilac asked me. I sighed wanting to tell her but knowing that this was a Twin Team.

"I wish I knew." That was the truth. I wish I knew why she can't tell anyone. She had no problem telling Adara, Noah, and me. Addae knew that we all love her no matter what. My thoughts were interrupted when I almost knocked into my mother.

"Watch where you're going, kid," my mom said trying to sound like a bully. I just rolled my eyes and kept walking. "That's right. Run away," she yelled over my shoulder just in time for Zeph to come out of his room and give me a look of confusion.

"Women," I said trying to play it off as nothing. Zeph gave a slight laugh.

"I get that," he said and continued his way into the kitchen.

"What am I gonna do?" I asked myself flopping down onto my bed. I finally reached over to my bedside table and grabbing my phone. This was an emergency, no time for texting.

"What's up?" Adara answered.

"I need your help."

{Adara's POV}

"So what is exactly is your plan?" I asked Bade when we met with Noah in the park around our houses.

We were seated on a grassy patch in the middle of the woods you could only get to if you know that it exists or you really like to walk. The grass is thick and green in the spring and summer. In winter, the grass isn't as healthy, but is still comfortable and pretty.

"Yeah. And what exactly is going on?" Noah asked seeming annoyed that he came at all.

"Addae refuses to come out to anyone else." I waited for the same sort of reaction I gave.

"Ok. What do you expect us to do?" Adara asked.

"Help her!" It annoyed me that they didn't find this as important as I did.

"You shouldn't force her to come out if she doesn't want to," Noah said sounding like a parent. This only aggravated me even more.

"But she is pretending to be straight and I know it's because she is afraid that people won't except her." They needed to understand. It was for the best.

"I'd love to help, Bade, but I think it will be easier for her if you just let it go," Adara said standing up and walking over to her bike.

"I'm with Adara on this one Bade," Noah said apologetically. "Enjoy the rest of your break. I'll see you at school on Monday." With that, Noah mounted his bike and rode off.

{Adara's POV}

"There is a problem we need to address that I kept forgetting about," Mr. Baylar said in English on our first day back. "Noah Wesley needs a partner for the freshman project. Adara. You will partner with him." I looked up at my English teacher and opened my mouth to protest. "Yes, I am aware that you two don't have as much time to work on it as the other students, but you are the only one without a partner. Do you think you can manage the task?"

"Yeah. I got it," I said knowing that I didn't have a choice.

"Fantastic," Mr. Baylar said and continued with class.

"Kill me," I said to Bade, Addae, and Noah as we walked to Bade and Addae's house.

"Why?" Addae asked.

"Noah. We are scraping any idea I had and both of us are going to come up with an entirely new freshman project," I said turning to my left so he could hear me better. Next to Noah I saw Addae nod in understanding as I had answered her question.

"We aren't doing the circles?" he asked curiously.

"No. I've given up on those." As we walked I adjusted my bag on my shoulder and continued to walk, now looking forward.

"Why?" Addae asked. "I was starting to like that." I had given Bade and Addae the circles over break so they could both work on it.

"It's hard." There was no other answer. "So many people fit into so many categories and it's taking up too much of my time."

"Can I work on it then?" Addae asked. I flipped open the flap on my messenger and pulled the paper out.

"Have at it," I said handing it across Noah to her.

"Awesome," she said and reached around her back to put it in her own bag.

"Yeah not really," I said so no one else could hear. We continued to walk until we reached to twins' house.

"See ya," Noah and I said to the twins' backs and they waved in response before disappearing behind their front door. Noah and I continued to my house in silence.

"Hey, Dad," I said opening the door and leading Noah inside.

"Hey, Adara. How's it hanging, Noah?" my dad from the couch in front of the TV.

"Good," Noah responded closing the door behind him. "How are you?"

"Living the dream," my dad said flipping the channels once the show he was watching finished. I rolled my eyes and walked into the kitchen to grab some snacks.

"Noah and I are going to work on our project," I said closing the refrigerator with my foot as my hands were full with the bowl of fruit, two forks, and some napkins.

"Ok. Have fun."

"That's likely," Noah and I said, together quoting Fred and George from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

"Alright," I said setting down the bowl of fruit and handing Noah a napkin and a fork.

"What's the plan?" he asked while stabbing a chunk of pineapple.

"I think we should do something with the food in the cafeteria. Like telling people what is good an what isn't."

"Ok. How will we do that?"

"I was thinking that we could make a calendar with usual lunch options and tell people when to pack their own lunch and when they can buy a school lunch."

"Alright. Let's get working."

Half an hour later we decided that we would only make a calendar for one month instead of the whole school year and had already finished an entire week. It's harder than it sounds trust me. We have to figure out what they usually serve on what day. We also decided to decorate the calendar, so that would also take some time.

"Adara! Could you come down here please?" my dad called up the stairs.

"One second," I said putting my marker down and walking down the stairs.

"I hate to interrupt your work, but I invited Charlotte and Luke to dinner tonight. We are going to cook this time so I'm going to need your help ASAP," my dad said with his back to me as he was busy searching the cupboards, most likely for something to make.

"That's ok," I said knowing Noah would be cool with it. Sure enough when I explained the situation to Noah he packed his stuff up without question.

"Thank you so much for understanding, Noah," my dad said pulling pots out of the cupboard as Noah walked to the door.

"It's no problem. I'll see you later."

"Bye," my dad and I said and I closed the door behind Noah.

"What are we making?" I asked walking back into the kitchen.

"Spaghetti."

{Bade's POV}

If anything was ever normal in all this, it would be what we are about to tell you. Normal students doing normal student things.

-About 21 weeks before everything got f***ed up-

{Adara's POV}

"Listen up!" Mr. Baylar said to us. "It has been five months since we assigned you the project so you should at least know what your project is even if you haven't started on it yet. A rough draft of what you will say at the presentation is due in three weeks. This is a plan of what you will say, so it isn't the end all be all, but your final presentation has to be similar to the draft you turn in. As the teacher in charge of the project this year, all drafts will be turned into me. You have three weeks. Pack your things up the bell is about to ring."

I shoved my notebook and textbook in my bag and joined the mad rush to leave the classroom when the bell rang.

"Here you go," Bade said when we took our seats in Geometry. I looked at what he was holding and saw the circles.

"Just keep it," I said shoving the paper away from me.

"Why?"

"I told you last week. It's hard and I just don't want to anymore."

"But-" Bade started to say but was cut off by the teacher telling us to take out our notes.

"Drop it," I whispered to him and faced to front to copy down today's notes.

{Bade's POV}

"So how's it going with Addae?" Noah asked me as we sat in my room after school and ate the sandwiches my mom made. (I swear she likes sandwiches too much.)

"It's not," I said with a sigh.

"I'm sorry, man."

"Well, it is what it is."

We sat in a thick silence for a couple moments before Noah broke it.

"I can't believe I'm about to say this, but you know Addae better than everybody else, so if you think it's best that we help Addae come out, then I will help you," he said with a sigh. I could not believe he even spoke those words.

"Yes. Let's do it!"

"Ok. But I think we need to make a plan first."

"Alright, so-"

"Bade! Nayda is here to work on your project!" my mom called up the stairs, cutting off what Noah was saying.

"S***! I forgot she was supposed to come over today. I'm sorry, Noah," I said putting my food down.

"It's cool," he said and grabbed his bag.

"I'm sorry," I said as I followed him downstairs.

"It's really fine."

I closed the door behind Noah and turned around to Nayda.

"Hey," she said with a smile.

"Hey. I'm sorry. I spaced," I said walking with her to the room where we kept our project.

"It's cool. Happens to me all the time. I'll get started on the art room and you cover the music room.

{Adara's POV}

"Adara!" I heard my dad call as soon as I got back from school.

"What's up?" I asked, setting my bag down in the living room.

"Since dinner went so well last week, Charlotte and I scheduled another one except it is at her house this time."

Yes! I get to see Luck. I know I probably shouldn't say that since his mom is dating my dad, but I couldn't help it. He is super cool and I put him in the Dateables for a reason.

"Cool. When are we leaving?" I asked trying not to think about the circles ever again.

"In about an hour and a half. It's nothing fancy so what you are wearing should be fine."

"Ok," I said and walked upstairs to start my homework. I got halfway through it when my phone made a noise.

Luck: U cmg 2 my house 4 dnr 2nite?

That was Luck for you. While he had a lot of really good qualities, he was a major text talker which I found quite annoying sometimes.

Me: Yeah. We are leaving in about half an hour.

Luck: Kewl. Lkng 4ward 2 it

Me: Same. See you soon.

When I got off the phone I turned back to my Spanish homework with the time I had until we left.

"Come on in," Charlotte said when we arrived at her house for dinner 40 minutes later.

"Hey," Luck said to me.

"Hey," I replied while our parents embraced.

"I hope you don't mind, but we aren't much for cooking and Mason I remember you told me once that the two of you like Chinese food, so we got some takeout. I thought we could just get to know each other a little better. All of us together," Charlotte said with a smile so infectious that I couldn't help but return it.

"It looks great," my dad said, pecking Charlotte on the cheek.

"Really?" Charlotte asked, clearly a little nervous. "I wasn't sure what the two of you liked best so I got what I thought you might like."

I looked down at the options and noticed that all of my favorites were there. There was vegetable lo mein, fried rice, egg rolls, and orange chicken which all happened to be in large supply.

"Here are the plates and forks," Luck said handing me some of both.

"Help yourself. We have soda, water, juice, and milk in fridge if any of those strike your fancy."

"Soda," Luck and I said at the same time. He smiled at me and grabbed two sodas from the fridge and handed me one.

"Thanks," I said and turned to serve myself some lo mein, rice, and chicken, then walked over to the table.

"So, Adara. Tell me about yourself," Charlotte said once everyone sat down.

"Where to begin?"

{Adara's POV}

I guess you could say that this was a good part in the whole s*** fest. Looking back on it, good things happened to all of us. But just wait. We will get there.

-About 20 weeks before everything got f***ed up-

{Bade's POV}

"We need to talk," Addae said storming into my room. I jumped at her voice and so did Noah. He was in my room because we were making a plan to help Addae come out when she stormed into my room.

"What's up?" I asked while trying to look innocent.

"I've decided to take your advice. I'm going to come out." she said with a sigh like she couldn't believe she was finally admitting to it.

"Are you serious?" I asked jumping up.

"Yeah. The closet is getting a little cramped anyway."

"Awesome! When?" Noah asked jumping up beside me.

"I don't know. Now I guess. I got a girlfriend last week and she wants to come over so I guess I'll just ask if she can come over and mom can figure it out."

"Really?"

"Yeah. And I want you to be there."

"Why?"

"You're my twin. You've been there literally my entire life. And this is a big point in my life and I want you to be there. Also, moral support. And Noah you can come too if you want."

"Yeah, sure, I'll go," Noah said.

"Ok. But you go first and just hang down there for a little and I'll come down so it doesn't look too suspicious."

"Ok."

Noah and I shrugged and walked downstairs to be met with my mom's usual ambush of food. I don't know how, but she just always knows when we are coming down and are hungry.

"How do you always know when to have food ready?" Noah asked gladly accepting the sandwich wrap and water bottle my mom offered each of us.

"Maternal instinct," she said with a smile. Noah and I returned it and sat at the table so we could see what happens when Addae comes out.

"Hey, Mom," Addae said about a minute later when she came down the stairs. Addae gave Noah and I a sly smile and Noah and I looked at each other.

"What's up, darling?" she asked turning around to face Addae and handing her a wrap and a water bottle.

"Can my girlfriend come over tomorrow?"

"Sure. Is she one I've met?"

Addae, Noah, and I met each other's gaze while my mom's back was turned. She clearly didn't understand what Addae was saying.

"No. We just started dating last week," Addae said which then caught my mom's attention and she turned around.

"Oh. You meant a literal girlfriend. Um... I guess if you keep doors open and things. But you need to let your father know because I'm sure you are aware of how he can get about things like this," she said turning back to the food.

"Ok," Addae said. She set her plate down across from me and dove into her wrap while shrugging at us.

{Adara's POV}

"Adara! Can we talk?" Luck asked as I was closing up my locker after the last period bell.

"What's up?" I asked shoving my book into my messenger bag and throwing it over my shoulder.

"Are you busy on Friday?" he asked walking next to me.

"Why? Is it another group date with our parents?" I asked with a smile.

"No. Not including our parents."

I stopped walking.

"What?"

"What do you mean? Have you never been asked out before?"

"I mean, yeah, but I just wasn't expecting it."

"Is that a yes or a no?"

"What time?"

"I'll take that as a yes."

"It is. So what time."

"How's next Saturday at 6:00? I can pick you up at your house."

"You can drive?"

"Yeah. I'm 16," Luck said like it was obvious.

"Well, I knew that. I just never thought about it."

"Ok. Well what are we doing?"

"I don't know yet."

"Will it be something good?"

"I promise. Do you need a ride to your house?" he asked pointing to his car.

"No. I'm just a couple minutes to my house. Thanks though."

"Ok," he said taking a small step closer to me. "But you can't escape me that easily."

{Bade's POV}

This still pains me to talk about, and it might pain you to hear about it depending on whose side you are on, but know that this is not the worst to come. Not even close.

-About 19 weeks before everything got f***ed up-

{Adara's POV}

"Bye, Dad!" I called to him when I saw Luck's car pull up.

"Bye! Have fun!" he called back and I walked out to meet Luck

"Don't you look fantastic?" he said meeting me in the driveway.

"Thank you," I said while looking down at my black jean shorts and the grey college shirt that I paired with my black high tops. "You told me to dress casual."

"Yes I did," he said while opening the passenger door. Luck closed the door behind him and walked around the car to the driver's seat.

"Is now when you tell me where we are going?" I said after a few moments of silence on the road.

"I guess. So when you and your dad came over and we got to know each other, you said that you loved kids."

"Yeah," I said still not sure where we Luck was driving us.

"I usually go to the children's hospital some weekends and play games with the kids. I thought you would like to come with me. We are on our way to St. Jude's Children's Hospital."

"Really?" I asked with excitement.

"Yeah. Like it?"

"Yes! I love it!"

"Hey, Luke," said a man from behind the counter when we arrived at the hospital.

"Hey, Zeke," Luck said to the man as he handed Luck a clipboard. "This is Adara. She's helping out with me today," Luck said gesturing to me and passing me the clipboard and the pen.

"Cool. We love to have other people help out," Zeke said taking the clipboard from me after I signed my name under Luck's.

"I'm happy to be here," I said with a smile and turned to follow Luck to where I assumed the kids were.

We walked along a long hallway which Luck told me was where the rooms of the kids who had the more treatable diseases were. Luck and I spent a couple of minutes visiting some of the kids he knew that stayed in those rooms. After we finished visiting the last kid we walked to the end of the hall where the rec room is.

"LUKE!" the kids screamed when they noticed Luck come through the door.

"KIDS!" he screamed playfully back at them and hugged the kids that gathered around his legs.

"Nice to see you again, Luke," said a woman who looked like a nurse.

"You too, Lisa. This is Adara. She is helping out today," Luck said while picking up a girl who looked to be about five.

"Nice to meet you, Adara. I'm Lisa, one of the nurses that watches over the rec room," she said with a smile and holding out her hand. I shook it and was about to say something when a little girl walked up to me.

"Hi. I'm April because I was born in April." I looked down at April and saw that she couldn't have been older than six or seven.

"I was born in April, too," I said kneeling down on the floor in an attempt to be eye level with April.

"What day?" April asked her eyes getting wide.

"23rd. You?"

"16th."

"Then I promise that on your birthday I would bring you a present. What would you like?" She thought about it for a moment.

"A deck of cards that have Disney princesses on them."

"I think I can get that for you," I said hugging her.

"Come on, April. Stop hogging Adara," Luck said from his spot on the floor in the middle of the room. "Everyone, this is Adara. We are friends from school and she is helping out today." Friend? Did he just say that to make it easy for the kids, or did he just ask me out then friend zone me?

"What are we doing today, Luke?" a boy asked who was sitting by Luck's knee.

"What do you think, Adara?" Luck asked looking at me.

"I don't know," I said sitting down more toward the back of the room and April sat on my lap. "What do you guys usually do?"

"It depends on what we feel like doing. Sometimes we play games, or sing songs, or pretty much anything we want as long as everyone can do it." I scanned the room at his words and noticed that there were a couple kids in wheelchairs and some with crutches.

"Why don't we play Down by the Bank?" I suggested upon seeing all the chairs that were available.

"Do you guys wanna play?" Luck asked looking around at all the kids.

"Yeah," they all said together.

"Alright, Adara. How do we play?"

"Everybody grab a chair and sit in a circle." Luck and I helped the kids in wheelchairs get in a circle and get chairs down for the kids that couldn't.

"Now hold out both your hands. Put on of them on top of one of your partner's hands and the other hand beneath your other partner's so that one had is on the top and one hand is on the bottom," I said once everyone was seated comfortably in the circle.

"Now what?" Luck asked and I looked around to make sure everyone got it right.

"Now I will sing a song and while we go you have to give one of your partners a high-five." The kids looked confused. "Let me show you." I took my right hand which was on top of April's and moved it in an arch so that it came down on Rick's hand in a sort of high-five. Rick gave me a confused look and I put my hand back on top of April's. "You do the same thing I just did." He did and everyone looked at me again. "Once your partner gives you a high-five then you can go and give your partner a high-five so it continues in a circle. While this happens I will sign a song and the last person to get a high-five when I say 'splat' is out. But the first one is just a practice so everyone gets a feel for the game, but people will be out on the second round. Got it?"

"Got it!" all the kids said and I could hear how excited they were.

"Ok. Down by the bank..." I went through the whole rhyme and the kids seemed to really enjoy the game. About 10 minutes later the only two left were me and Luck. The boys were cheering for Luck and the girls were cheering for me, so we were about even in our support.

"You do know they call me Luck for a reason, right?" he asked, I guess trying to trash talk me.

"Wasn't it because the teacher messed up your name?" I asked while the kids cheered our names.

"Yes. You were there right?"

"Yeah," I said unable to hide my surprise.

"I remember you from that class."

"Really?"

"Are you guys just gonna sit there or are we gonna find out who wins?" Alan asked.

"Yeah," I said breaking myself out of the trance I found myself in while looking into Luck's eyes.

"How does this work?" he asked while shaking his head slightly.

"Grab my hand," I said holding my hand out like I was going for a handshake. He looked at my hand skeptically but took it nonetheless.

"Now we push back and forth and when I say 'splat' whoever's arm is pushed forward wins," I said feeling the competitive look in my eye. When he said that he understood I went ahead with the rhyme. As I got closer to the end, Luck started to get nervous. When I reached the end I shoved my body weight behind my arm and almost pushed Luck over. The kids and Luck all cracked up.

"I think you made your win clear," Luck said with a laugh.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it. It was a fun game," he said with a wink as the girls surrounded me in hugs. I smiled back at him until he disappeared from my sight when the girls went for a full group hug.

"I had a great time," I said to Luck as we walked out of the hospital hand in hand and hour and a half later.

"So did I." He shot me a smile and we were quiet for a moment until I decided to break the silence with a question that had been on my mind for a while.

"When you were talking to the kids you introduced me as your friend. I know this sounds petty and ridiculous, but I was confused." He chuckled.

"I wasn't sure what you would think if I introduced you as my girlfriend. I didn't know if that was too much. I also knew that if you had a problem with me saying friend you would have brought it up. It is quite a relief that I know you so well."

"I'm totally fine with you introducing me as your girlfriend." Luck stopped walking so I did too.

"Are you serious?" he asked with a disbelieving face.

"Totally." Before I could even process that he was leaning in, his lips were already on mine.

{Bade's POV}

"You did what?" Adara asked at lunch on Monday.

"I had my girlfriend come over," Addae responded like it was nothing. "It was a little awkward at first, but everyone, meaning my parents, got used to the idea in a matter of minutes.

"So that's how you came out? Just asked your parents if your girlfriend could come over?"

"Technically I asked my mom and then she told my dad. But yes, that is basically what happened."

"Why don't you tell us about your adventure on Saturday, Adara," Noah asked while taking a bite of his hamburger.

"I went to the hospital with Luck and we played with the sick kids. It was quite fun actually."

"Some date," Addae muttered.

What? She is dating Luck? I thought that they were just friends because their parents are dating. Wait. Their parents are dating!

"Aren't your parents dating?" I asked trying not to look like I was too interested. From the look on Adara's face I don't think I was that convincing.

"Yes," she said a little defensively. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Nothing," I said while trying to keep my cool. "Just trying to make conversation."

"That can't be all that happened. I heard a rumor you held a hands. Anything else you aren't telling us?" Addae asked raising her eyebrows.

"Yes, we did hold hands. And lips."

"Are you serious?" Addae asked with a smile and a gasp, her lunch forgotten. Adara could only manage a nod from due to the smile that seemed like it would never wipe from her face. Noah kicked me underneath the table and gave me a look. I shook my head and got up from the table.

{Adara's POV}

I really wish that I didn't have to tell you this, but unfortunately you are here for the whole story and I have promised to deliver. As I have said many times, I wish we knew when to stop and when to say no. But once again, we aren't that lucky.

-About 18 weeks before everything got f***ed up-

{Bade's POV}

"In my hand I hold your rough drafts that you turned in last week. All of the freshmen teachers have spent a long time looking through them. Since this is a draft the grade we marked on your paper is not a real one that counts toward your final grade, but rather a guide," Mr. Baylar said as he passed back the drafts. "This is the grade you would have received had you used this at the final presentation. Make edits and make them wisely. This project is 40% of your grade."

"What did we get?" Nayda asked after Mr. Baylar placed my draft on my desk. Tearing away my eyes from Adara I looked down at the draft Nayda and I prepared together.

"96%. We messed up on some vague grammar rules. Nothing we can't fix."

"Nice. The next thing we need to do is make a plan to finish the project."

"Why? We have months to finish it."

"I know but I want to finish it in about a month, possibly by March 1st, so that if we need to make revisions and other things we have time."

"Ok. So we can do it pretty much anytime at my house cuz my mom is pretty chill. But my family and I are going on vacation during spring break."

"Ok. When is that again?" she asked pulling out the calendar we were given at the beginning of the year.

"April 14th to April 21st."

"Yeah that's ok. I might not have time to work on it during April because my family is always busy around then."

"So most of it in February and March, then the small bit left in the beginning of May?" I suggested.

"I think that should work. But you are right, most of it before April. However, I don't want to rush it just to get it done. If it takes more time to get it done for a good grade, then so be it. We can work on it separately and we can adjust our schedules. This is worth too much."

"Yeah I know. I got this," I said turning my attention back to Mr. Baylar who began to get back to teaching English.

{Adara's POV}

"Hello, Luke," my dad said at the doorway. Unfortunately, I didn't get to the door fast enough to intercept Luck. He didn't seem to mind though and smiled as he shook my dad's hand and made polite small talk.

"Ah, Adara," Luck said and only someone who really knows him like I do could tell that he was relieved for an escape from the conversation.

"Hi. Dad I hope you aren't smothering Luke," I said with a joking smile even though I was only half joking.

"No, everything is fine," Luck said.

"I don't mean to be rude, but forgive an old man and his fading memory, what are you hear for again, Luke?"

"He is helping me work on my freshman project. Since he has been through it before I thought he could help me and give me some pointers."

"Ok," he said with a skeptical look. "Doors open please."

"Of course, Mason," Luck said and followed me upstairs.

"So basically I'm making a calendar for school lunch which says when you should bring your own and when it is safe to buy." Luck laughed at that.

"What's this?" he asked. I turned around to see him pulling out a paper from my binder. Too late I realized that he was holding the circles.

"It's something I thought I was going to do for the project but it didn't really work out. I wanted to get rid of it but I think my partner for the project put it back in my stuff without me knowing. He thinks I should use it but I'm not sure. It's hard and I don't think it will go over well," I said reaching for the paper.

"Don't give up on something just because it's hard. Come on, we will work on it together. Just explain it to me. I sighed and pulled up a chair up to my desk on the right of Luck.

"So you know how our high school doesn't have cliques and things like that?"

"Yeah."

"Well this reverses that. Me, with the help of my friends, have sorted the students into cliques. It's a little difficult because people are so mixed."

"Am I on here?" Looking away and biting my lip slightly in nervousness, I pointed to the circle for the Dateables. He looked where I was pointing and laughed when he saw the name.

"Don't ask me how the name and idea came about because I'm not exactly sure."

"Have you discovered the truth?"

"What do you mean?"

"Am I dateable or not?"

"Oh, most definitely not," I said unsuccessfully trying to hide my smile.

"You're so mean," he said with a smile and leaning into kiss me.

"Hahaha," I said faking an evil laugh just before his lips met mine.

"Now let's get this done," he said grabbing a pencil and turning the circles toward him.

{Bade's POV}

I guess if we had to pinpoint the biggest turning point in the whole s*** pile, this would be it. Adara got so pissed and frustrated in the time that followed. So buckle up, because here we go.

-About 17 weeks before everything got f***ed up-

{Adara's POV}

"Noah. Do you have the calendar?" I asked after I was unsuccessful in finding it.

"No. You said you wanted to work on it so I gave it to you."

"Can you look in your stuff?"

"Sure." He searched and couldn't find it. I looked again in my stuff before I started to freak out.

"Is it in your locker?" I asked pacing around my room in accordance with my nervous habit.

"No, my locker is neat and I would've noticed it. I suppose the same goes for you."

"Damnit," I practically screamed and shoved my books off of my desk.

"Adara! Calm down."

"Are you serious? We don't have time to redo it."

"There is another option."

"What could you possibly be imagining?" I yelled with more distain than intended.

"The circles." I stopped dead.

"No."

"What is with you and the circles? You started it." Try as I might I couldn't find anything to say. Noah was right. This was the only way to save our project and our grade.

"Fine. Those I have." With great reluctance I moved to my fallen books and pulled out the circles. Sadly, I knew exactly where those were. Whether I wanted to use them or whether it was because Luck and I worked on them together, I felt a little happy as I looked at them.

"Alright," Noah said and took the paper once again. "Now we need to finish it no matter what."

{Bade's POV}

"I think we should add people in the halls and classrooms and stuff," Nayda said as I put some light touches on the art room.

"Will we have time?"

"I'm not sure. We can work on them over break."

"Yes, but even with the both us we would have about 550 to make. Then we have to place them strategically through the whole thing. It would take a while."

"Ok bad idea. But I feel like we need something more," she said while looking at the setup we had. I looked at it too and an idea came to me.

"What if we wrote on the blackboards in white Sharpie."

"White Sharpie?" she asked amused.

"Yeah," I said with a little defiant smile. "It will be hard to find, but I'm sure they make them, right?"

"If you think so."

"Give me a second. My brother, Zephyr, loves art, especially with Sharpies. If a white one exists, then he will have it and let us use it." Nayda nodded at me and I got up to talk to Zeph.

"What do you want, little bro?" Zeph asked with his back to me when I walked into her room.

"How do you always know who comes in?" I asked a little annoyed.

"Each of my dear siblings has a specific way of invading my privacy, as does our parents. Now, what do you want?" He finally spun his chair around and looked me in the eye.

"Nayda and I are working on our project and we need to add something cool to it. Do you happen to be in possession of a white Sharpie?" Zeph chuckled.

"Honestly, I'm surprised that you thought you even had to ask," he said with the smile still playing on his lips. I rolled my eyes and leaned against the doorknob as I spoke.

"The asking is the request for me to use it. I knew you would have one, if not more."

"You know me well," he said folding his hands over his stomach.

"Will you help us or not?" I asked with a sigh and continued to lean further on the doorknob.

"Yeah." Zeph reached over to the bag of Sharpies and threw it at me.

"Oof," I said as the heavy bag collided with my abdomen.

"Don't ruin them."

"How many f***ing pens are in here?" I asked while turning the bag of what appeared to be at least 50 permanent markers or all tips.

"64. I know how many of each color, size, and tip are in that bag and I will be checking all of them. If any are messed with then you will feel my wrath."

"Ok," I said and turned out of the room without so much as a backwards glance to avoid more of his insanity.

"Got it?" Nayda asked when came back to my room.

"All of them. He did kind of threaten me though."

"Weird."

"Actually his name is Zephyr, but it should be Weird. It would describe him much more accurately than a version of the God of the West Wind."

"The wind is a mystery and so is your brother. I think the name describes him most accurately."

{Adara's POV}

I'm still pissed, even now, months later. I promise that I will never forgive him. EVER.

-About 16 weeks before everything got f***ed up-

{Bade's POV}

"How are the projects going?" Winter asked over cheeseburgers.

"Good," I said taking a bite of my macaroni salad.

"Same," Addae said.

"What's your project? I forgot," Lilac said.

"Quinn and I are making a list of things that most people don't know about the school and the teachers. No bad things, just things that could help get on the teacher's good side," Addae added at the fierce look of our mother.

"Aren't the teachers at the presentations?" our dad asked.

"No," Zeph answered. "Just the students. Some off the senior class is there to keep the students in check."

"Bade, Nayda has been here a lot to work on the project but you mother and I have seen the project and it doesn't seem quite ready yet," my dad said.

"We're working on it. There is a lot to do. It is a model of the entire school after all."

'If you need help you know you can ask any of us," my mom said with her usual concerned mom voice.

"I know," I said with another bite of my burger. The rest of dinner continued with a talk to school. When I finally retreated to my room I was met with the ring from my phone indicating I received a text.

Adara: We need to talk

Bade: About what?

Adara: Project emergency

Bade: Shouldn't you be talking to Noah about this?

Adara: He already knows. It's about our project and the circles. Bring Addae.

"Day," I said going into my twin sister's room. "Adara needs us. It's about the circles."

"Let's go," Day said and got up from her bed without a second thought.

"Slow your roll, twin sister. We have to ask mom first."

"Let's. Go," she said slightly annoyed.

"Mom!" I called as Day and I ran down the stairs.

"What is it, my darlings?" our mom asked as she picked up a card in accordance with whatever game she was playing with our dad.

"Can Bade and I go to help Adara with a project emergency?" Day asked.

"Sure," she said with a smile I assumed had to do with the card game.

"Awesome," I said. As Day and I went to leave our dad stopped us.

"What cards are in your mother's hand?" he whispered to us. Our mom glared at him and he let us leave.

"Why did you call us here?" Day asked as we sat in the same spot Noah, Adara, and I sat in when I tried to enlist their help to convince Addae to come out.

"Noah and I can't find our project. We have been forced to resort to using the circles."

"Is that a good idea?" I asked with a worried face.

"It's either that or fail," she said with a shrug and bit her nail.

"That doesn't even really fill the requirement of the project," I said.

"I will make it," Adara responded. "I can talk about how our school isn't one to have cliques so I thought it would be interesting to see if I could. I can talk about how difficult it was." Addae and I shared a look and we knew that she was reaching.

"Yeah, that's good. I'm sure you'll get one of the top grades." We all knew that was a lie but chose to overlook it.

{Bade's POV}

This week turned out well for me. Sure we didn't get a lot of our project done, but... well, you're about to find out.

-About 15 weeks before everything got f***ed up-

{Adara's POV}

"I think Lola should be in the Tomboys," Noah said during lunch on Monday with half a bite of sandwich still in his mouth.

"Why?" I asked partly ignoring Bade and Addae when they sat down across from Noah and I.

"Look at her," Noah deadpanned. I did and wrote her name down for the Tomboys without a second thought.

"How's it going?" Bade asked with a small smile. I glared at him.

"We are almost halfway done." As I said it I could feel my hope draining. There was no time to start a project over even if we knew exactly what we wanted to do and how we would do it.

"Jocks, Cheerleaders, and Foreigners are mostly full as they are the most obvious. The Gamers are almost done, along with the Class Clowns and the Punks," Noah said as she wrote down Yuda in the Hipsters.

"How many groups do you have?" Addae asked with a hint of either surprise, disbelief, or both.

"13," I said like it was normal.

"What are they?" Addae asked.

"Jocks, Cheerleaders, Troublemakers, Foreigners, Gamers, Class Clowns, Punks, Hipsters, Tomboys, Girly Girls, Slackers, Peacemakers, and Artists," Noah said holding up a finger for each one he mentioned. I double checked what he said with the paper and nodded seeing that he got them all.

"A little ambitious are we?" Bade asked with an airy laugh.

"It's only 40% of our grade at stake. Why try to go above and beyond?" I said with a significant amount of snark and sarcasm.

"Exactly," she said with a huge smile and the same amount of snark.

"Artists," Bade said a handful of minutes later when he saw that Noah and I were having trouble deciding where to put James. Noah and I looked at each other and decided that is where he should go.

"One in the Artists. How many students are left?" I asked through another bite of my apple.

"138," Noah said after taking a quick count of the names crossed off on the list of the students in the freshman class.

"138 students?" Bade asked with raised eyebrows.

"Yeah," I said and pointed to Anthony on the list, silently asking where we should put him.

"Peacemakers?" he asked with a shrug.

"Remember that time when he super glued all of the teacher's stuff to her desk?" The four of us cracked up at the memory of that prank.

"I see your point, but I don't think that's enough for the Troublemakers."

"He likes sports," Bade suggested while trying to sound hopeful.

"Too many are in the Jocks right now," I said with a sigh and tapped a rhythm out on the paper with my pencil.

"Guys, the bell's about to ring," Addae said and we all gathered up our stuff.

{Bade's POV}

Noah: I need your help with a girl

Me: What do you want me to do?

Noah: Help me out. I don't know what to say to her

Me: Who is it?

Noah: Vanessa

Me: Good luck bro

Noah: Thanks for the vote of confidence

Me: Your welcome

"Bade! Nayda's here!" Breeze called up the stairs.

"Ok!" I called back.

Me: I gotta go. Nayda's here

"Hey," she said from the doorway after I came down the stairs.

"Hey. So what do you want to finish today?" I asked and pulled out the model once we got to the homework room.

"I was thinking that we could just work on it and see what we could do," she said and put her backpack down.

"Alright. Let's get started."

"So you're cool with the whole Adara-Luke thing?" Nayda asked picking up the white Sharpie my brother lent us.

"They're just dating," I said, putting down my paintbrush.

"Yeah. That doesn't bother you?"

"I don't love it, but I'm not flipping tables."

"Well, Addae is dating, I heard Noah is after someone, and Adara has Luck," Nayda said a little slower than I thought was necessary.

"How did you hear that Noah was after someone?" I asked turning to fully face her.

"I have ears around the school. My friends like to gossip," she clarified with one glance at the confusion on my face. "But that's not the point."

"What is the point?"

"I mean; we have been spending a lot of time together..." she said trailing off.

"Are you asking me out?"

"Ye-" she started to say but I cut her off with my lips on hers.

"Sorry," I said when I pulled away and was met with her face of confusion.

"The only thing you should be sorry about is that it didn't happen last week in time for Valentine's Day," she said and grabbed my shirt and pulled me back to her lips. Needless to say, we didn't get very far on the project.

{Adara's POV}

"There she is," Luck said when I arrived at his house.

"Hey," I said with a smile and kissed him.

"You look gorgeous," he said when we broke apart.

"I'm wearing sweatpants and a sweatshirt," I said and flopped down on his couch.

"You still look beautiful," he said and put his arm around me. I snuggled into his chest and turned on the television.

"Will your mom be mad if she sees us?" I asked as I settled on If I Stay.

"She's gone." I smiled at him and he pecked me on the lips, then turned back to focus on the movie.

{Adara's POV}

If I knew what I know now about him, I wouldn't do anything that I did. Regrets upon regrets upon regrets.

-About 14 weeks before everything got f***ed up-

{Bade's POV}

"Is it true?" Noah eagerly asked when I sat down next to him at lunch the following Monday.

"Is what true?" Adara asked.

"Bayda," Noah responded with a smile.

"Yes, it is," Addae said, looking smug with herself. I glared at her and she gave me a snotty smile in return.

"Really? Nice job, bro!" Noah said, thumping me on the shoulder.

"Can someone catch me up please?" Adara asked, exasperated.

"Bade and Nayda are dating." I couldn't help but notice some emotion I couldn't figure out flashing past Adara face when Addae delivered the news.

"So you two finally got together then?" Adara asked, covering up whatever she felt about me with Nayda.

"Yeah," I said with a smile and dove into my food hoping to avoid the topic. Unfortunately, I'm not that lucky.

"Shouldn't you be sitting with her?" Addae asked.

"She has lunch next period," I responded with a shrug.

"How did you find out they were dating?" Adara asked Noah.

"Please, girl. We may not be a normal high school, but we are still a freaking high school and gossip is still a thing. Ray just told me in the lunch line."

"And I knew because Nayda came over last week to work on the project and she left super happy. Then at dinner Bade was all smiles. Then she came over Thursday and stayed for about three hours, but when I checked their model after she left it was barely different. My guess is they were working not on the project, but on their techniques for making out," Addae said, wiggling her eyebrows.

"Must you do that?" I asked incredibly annoyed at my twin.

"Yes. We should know all the details before we decide if you guys are OTP or not."

"Eden?" Noah asked from the right of me. At first I was confused, but then I realized he was talking to Adara and they were focused back on their project.

"She's so basic," Addae scoffed and took a sip of her soda. Noah and Adara looked at each other with excited faces and Adara made another circle.

"14," I said under the assumption that they had just made another group.

"What?" Addae asked.

"We just made a new group called the Basics," Adara said with a smile.

"I think we should make two groups. One for girls and one for boys," Noah said with a bite of yet another sandwich.

"Why? Would it really be that full?" Adara asked.

"Yes," Noah, Addae, and I all said at the same time.

"How do you all know that?"

"Look around," I said.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," she said after looking around and made another circle.

"15."

The rest of lunch went along like this as Addae helped Adara with the circles and I helped Noah with the presentation speech.

"We should really get working," Nayda said when she was over at my house the next day.

"No," I said leaning back in to kiss her again.

"Bade." She said that we should stop but she kept letting me peck her.

"Nayda."

"Seriously, Bade. We need to work." She turned away from me and I whined.

"Ok," I said reluctantly and pulled out the model.

"No," Nayda said when I reached for the paintbrush and paint. "You work what we are going to say."

"Apparently, people at school are school are talking about us."

"Of course. Kids like to talk and now they have something to talk about."

"You don't mind that?"

"You do?"

"I'm not super excited about it, but I'm not flipping tables."

"Have you noticed that you say that a lot?"

"It's a g-" I started to say but stopped when I heard a scream from the kitchen. Nayda and I looked at each other and but down our materials to go investigate.

"What's wrong?" I asked rushing into the kitchen with Nayda behind me. Lilac was staring down at a piece of paper in her hands with her mouth open and ignored my siblings and I when we all stormed into the kitchen.

"Lilac, honey. What happened?" my mom asked with an expression of worried confusion on her face and rubbed Lilac's arms.

"I got in," Lilac whispered so quiet I could barely hear her.

"Where?" Winter asked excitedly. She was the closest to Lilac so if Lilac was ever excited, so was Winter.

"USC," she said with her smile bigger than ever.

"That's fantastic!" my mom squealed.

"Holy crap, Lilac! Congratulations!" Winter yelled and ran to hug Lilac.

"This seems more like a family thing. I should go," Nayda said.

"Ok," I said not wanting her to leave but knowing that my mom would be suspicious if she stayed. "But come back tomorrow and we'll work some more." I winked at her and she smiled at me.

"I will," she and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek and turned to leave.

"I saw that," Addae said from behind me after Nayda left.

"Good for you," I said with a significant amount of snark and did all I could not to tell her to mind her own f***ing business. Addae was about to say something more but I turned around to congratulate Lilac in order to ignore it.

{Adara's POV}

"How is the project?" Luck asked me at our local café on our date on Saturday.

"It's kind of a nightmare," I said taking one of his fries.

"What's going on? Anything I can help with?"

"No, it's not really a big deal but it's just kind of frustrating. First we lost our project, so we had to go with the circles, which is really hard, and we have to redo the speech thing, all in the span of about three months. I know it sounds like I'm being overdramatic but you should see the amount of work we get done. It's pathetic."

"I believe in you, babe," he said grabbing my hand. I smiled and grabbed another one of his fries with my free hand. "Do you need help?" he asked rubbing the top of my hand.

"No we got it. And besides, we know the freshman class better than you do."

"Ok. Just don't stress yourself out too much. And promise me that if you have ever have to work on the project when we have a date, you will work on the project. No. Promise," he said when he saw that I was about to object.

"Fine. I promise," I said reluctantly. "Just give me the rest of your fries." Luck rolled his eyes and pushed the basket of fries over to me and I smiled with my success.

{Bade's POV}

As we inch closer to the root of the problem, several things with happen at once. Try to keep track because reliving this even once in this amount of detail isn't exactly exciting for us. Mostly for Adara at this part.

-About two weeks before everything got f***ed up-

{Adara's POV}

The rest of March, April, and the first part of May passed in relatively the same manner as February. The freshmen were working during every lunch to finish their projects.

"How do the presentation work?" Noah asked at lunch before the first round of presentations.

"Alphabetical order. So we will go when the students with the last names that start with K go, because my last name comes first," I said.

"When is that?" he asked.

"Next week," I said while taking a slow breath to settle my stomach.

"I'm going to vomit," Noah said putting his head on the table on top of his folded arms.

"What's up with him?" Addae asked, setting her try down.

"Presentations," I said with a groan.

"Don't worry. You'll do fine," Bade said sitting down next to his sister.

"Easy for you to say. You get to hear about how we f***ed up before you have to go."

"Stop whining, Adara. I have to go first of everyone in the class," Addae said looking pissed.

"Who is your partner?" Noah asked.

"Quinn Aceman." Addae rolled her eyes as if the very thought of her partner drives her crazy. It wouldn't surprise me if that was the truth.

"Slacker," I said on an impulse with my mind still on the circles.

"Good luck," Bade laughed.

"Shut up. What were you doing with Nayda last night by the way? It sounded very loud." Bade looked at Addae with a murderous look.

"What??" Noah and I asked at the same time, both of us an inch from losing it and cracking up.

"Nothing," Bade said trying to tell Addae to shut up with his eyes. Either she didn't understand what her brother was doing, or ignored it because she kept talking.

"Based on the noises she was making; I think I can safely say that whatever was going on between the two of you was most definitely not nothing."

"Nice job!" Noah said with a huge smile. Bade glared at him, too.

"Can we just shut up about this?" Bade asked without even attempting to hide the desperation in his voice.

"Ok, ok. Do you want to practice the presentations?" Addae asked throwing a chip in her mouth and pulling out her notecards.

"Sure," I said pulling out the cards Noah and I made for our speech. "We have it mostly memorized but we should probably practice." That's what we spent the remaining time of lunch doing, and we weren't the only ones: almost every student in the freshmen class was practicing their presentations.

"Ready for this?" Bade asked Addae as she left for the auditorium for her presentation.

"No," she said and rubbed her palms together.

"You'll be fine," I said giving her a hug as Quinn joined Addae. She took a step back and gave his back such a strong look of pure annoyance and loathing that I had to bite the inside of my cheek to stop from cracking up.

"Good luck," Noah said as we left for class and she remained behind with Quinn and the nervousness of her coming presentation hanging over her head.

"Hi," I said when I saw Luck ride up the entrance of the park.

"Hi," he said with a smile and walked over to give me a kiss. When we separated he took my hand and we walked into the woods with our finger interlocked. The subjects of our conversation cover everything from the tress to our family until we landed on the inevitable topic of my project.

"Noah and I present next week. I just wish we had the calendar instead of the circles," I said still frustrated at what happened.

"Yeah. About that..."

"What?" I asked confused even though a part of me knew where this was going. Luck stopped walking and looked over at me guiltily.

"I stole your calendar because I thought you should use the circles instead. I wanted you to push yourself and not give up just because something was hard."

"What the f*** is wrong with you?" I yelled at him, throwing his hand away from mine.

"Adara, I just-"

"NO! YOU PURPOSLY SABATOGED ME!"

"It wasn't like that!" he said desperately trying to salvage the conversation and the date.

"YES IT WAS!" I yelled completely outraged that he would even consider doing that to me, much less actually do it. "F*** you, Luke." My voice was dripping with distain and loathing. I used his real name to emphasize how upset I was with him. "We are done!" After I felt that I had dug the knife in, I turned on my heel and ran from the woods with him calling and running after me. When I finally reached the edge of the woods and mounted my bike, I could barely go anywhere because the tears filling my eyes were making everything blend together and made my vision blurry. As I rode I swore I could hear my heart cracking and coming apart in my chest.

{Adara's POV}

One small, stupid little thing and our lives are basically ruined. Maybe that is a little dramatic, but this certainly didn't help us in our journey. At least we got to be relieved for a little before the majorly small f*** up. Anyway, here it is.

-About one week before everything got f***ed up-

{Bade's POV}

"Are you ready for this?" Nayda asked as we stood outside the auditorium with all the other people that were presenting today, including Adara and Noah.

"Yeah," I said, trying to convince myself that I was. Nayda didn't fall for it and squeezed my hand for reassurance.

"Bade Lowlen and Nayda Kettle," one of the aids for the special education students said when she opened the door.

"Good luck," Adara said with the biggest smile she could muster. I knew that she was still upset that Luck stole her project. She called me last week in tears. It took me a couple minutes to figure out what was going on because she could only talk between sobs, but I understood why she was so upset. She thought that she was going to get a bad grade because the circles don't really fill the requirement. Adara was also feeling the sting of betrayal from her boyfriend. As I understood it, she really liked him. Even though I had Nayda, it still pained me to hear her so hurt.

"Thanks. Good luck to you guys, too," I said with a smile trying to make Adara feel better. It didn't work but I think she knew that I tried.

"Come on," Nayda said and we walked into the auditorium. The aid took us around the seats that practically hugged the wall so we didn't disturb the current presentation. I looked up at the stage and saw that Michelle and Carden were presenting whatever they had done for their project. When we arrived backstage, I set the model down and turned to the aid when she began to give us directions.

"Wait here until your name is called. When it is, you'll take your project and put in on the podium. The projector will already be set up and turned on so everyone can see your model clearly. From there, the presentation is up to you."

"Thank you," Nayda said after a moment when I didn't say anything because my nervousness prevented my mouth from moving and my brain from functioning.

"Mhm," the lady said with a wave and turned to leave.

"Calm down," Nayda said with a slight laugh.

"Do you realize how much this contributes to our grade?" I asked shaking my hands in order to cool them down and because I hoped I could shake the nerves out through them.

"Yes, I do. But now is not the time to think about that. Come on, we are about to be called." I knew she was right because I heard clapping. "Just relax and do what we practiced and we'll be fine. Ready?"

"Ready," I said and we put our microphones on our heads just in time for Mr. Baylar to introduce us. Nayda picked up the model because my hands were shaking so bad I might have dropped it.

"Hello incoming freshmen!" Nayda said with a smile after she set the model down. "I'm Nayda and this is my partner Bade." After that I don't really remember much except the faces of the people I will be seeing around school for the next three years. Or so I thought.

{Adara's POV}

"Adara Kidling and Noah Wesley," the aid that called for Bade and Nayda said poking her head out of the auditorium door once more.

"Let's do it," Noah said. We both sighed and linked arms to walk in together. As we walked next to the chairs that almost hugged the wall, I saw that Bade and Nayda were finishing their presentation.

"Here we modeled what the hall usually looks like after third period. This is because some classrooms of each class are in this hallway," Bade said. I smiled before I could stop myself because I knew how nervous he was about the presentations. I tore my eyes away from Bade and Nayda when we arrived backstage and the aid started to give directions.

"Wait here until your name is called. When it is, you'll take your project and put in on the podium. The projector will already be set up and turned on so everyone can see your map clearly. From there, the presentation is up to you."

"Thanks," Noah said quickly when he saw that I was about to argue that it was not a map. The aid gave us a smile and walked away.

"Ready to blow these little eighth graders' minds?" I asked with a smile and hooked my microphone onto my ear.

"You know it," he responded and we walked out into the stage with a little bounce when we walked.

"Welcome to Maysam High School! My partner over there is Noah and I'm Adara!" I said into my microphone while Noah put the circles under the projector. I could see the interest spike in a some of the students. "As it probably is in your school, the students of MHS have never formed into cliques. For our project, Noah and I decided to undo that."

"Through long hours of intense analyzing of people's traits and sometimes just staring at a piece of paper of circles with names on them, we placed each student into cliques," Noah said, coming to my side after finding the right place for the circles to go.

"We have 15 groups for 152 students: Jocks, Cheerleaders, Troublemakers, Foreigners, Gamers, Class Clowns, Punks, Hipsters, Tomboys, Girly Girls, Slackers, Peacemakers, Basic Girls, Basic Boys, and Artists," I said pointing to each circle that I mentioned as I mentioned it.

From there, Noah and I told the students how difficult it was, but we also learned a lot about our peers and ourselves. As we talked, I saw that some students began to sit up straighter and pay more attention.

"Thank you for your attention," I said at the end of our presentation. The applause was more than I expected so when we returned to the safety of backstage, I gave Noah a hug and a high-five.

"Nice job!" Noah said with a smile and we walked out.

{Bade's POV}

I admit that I should have taken this more seriously, but it just seemed ridiculous at the time. I thought the girls were just being crazy and Noah was close with Adara so I thought he was just pretending for her sake. Even if I had realized it at the time, I don't think things would be much different. But I'll let you decide.

-The week everything got f***ed up-

{Adara's POV}

"Something seems off," Addae said sitting down for lunch.

"What do you mean?" I asked as Bade and I sat down next to each other.

"Ever since presentations finished up last week, things have felt different," she said with a curious expression while looking around.

"It's probably the buzz from summer being a week away," Noah said taking the seat to the right of Addae and across from me.

"No. I think Addae's right. Something is weird." I put my fork down and looked across the cafeteria, trying to figure out what it was while mirroring Addae's expression of curiosity.

"You guys are just crazy," Bade said brushing the conversation away and diving into his food. Addae shrugged in defeat and bowed her head to her food as well. I couldn't let it got that easily; something was wrong here and I was determined to figure it out.

{Bade's POV}

"Something is wrong and I know it," Adara said, pressing the issue as we walked to her house.

"Adara. Let it go. Everything is fine," I said with a sigh.

"Come on, Bade. You can't tell me that you don't think something fishy is going on."

"No." She glared at me. "Ok. I guess it is a little different, but I don't think it is anything to worry about."

"Maybe not to worry about, but now that I have realized it, I have to know." As soon as she said it she – much to my surprise – turned down the side street that lead to her house. I let her go because I knew that look on her face and the way she walked. She was determined to figure out this "problem" no matter what anyone else said. Great. I sighed and continued on toward my house.

"Got it," Adara said jumping into her lunch seat with a nervous expression the next day.

"Got what?" I asked, trying to decide if I should lick the pudding off the lid of my pudding cup. After staring at the chocolate, I realized that I wanted to, so I did. Adara gave me a weird look but continued.

"Why everyone is acting so weird. And it's not good." Her expression darkened at this and she now had the undivided attention of all three of us.

"Look around. Yuda, Wyatt, Julie, and Hamilton were all put in the Hipsters and are sitting at the same table. Tyson, Eli, Anthony, Justin, Danny, and Angel were all put in the Artists and are sitting together. Same with Gamers, Jocks, and all the other categories. People are starting to divide into the circles we put them in."

No one moved. No one blinked, or even drew a breath. All we could was stare at Adara in shock.

"Are you sure?" Addae asked after we sat there, unmoving for at least a minute.

"She's right," Noah confirmed with horror stricken on his face.

"How did they even find out. It's not like they were there for the presentation and I doubt anyone who was there would be able to remember the places of 152 students even if they put their heads together," Addae said with an emotion that looked like a cross between worry and suspicion.

"Do you have the circles?" Adara asked Noah. He shook his head.

"I think they somehow got a hold of them. I don't know how, but that is the only explanation. But that's not all. Luck said that the sophomore class saw them and decided to figure out where they belonged themselves. Same with the junior and senior class." Our faces fell along with the silence.

"What's the big deal?" I asked finally able to eat the pudding I opened minutes ago.

"Haven't you seen High School Musical?" Adara asked, outraged. "'Stick to the status quo.'"

"Isn't this the status quo?" I asked gesturing to what Addae, Adara, and Noah considered to be complete and utter chaos.

"It is now that we've changed it. We were supposed to stick to the status quo of not having cliques, of everyone being mixed. Now we've taken away probably the greatest thing about this high school. MHS is turning into every other high school. Soon enough, people will be shoved into lockers and we will have the terrifying popular girls. We have to fix this."

"Why?" I asked still not understanding the big deal.

"'If you wanna be cool follow one simple rule: don't mess with the flow no, no.'" Again with the HSM quotes.

"Exactly. This is the new flow; don't mess with it." I took my lunch and got up from the table to get away from this madness.

{Adara's POV}

Now, we come to the end of the beginning. As you can probably imagine, we are nowhere near the official end. But if you are interested to hear the official end, you are welcome to join us when we cover that. Please, enjoy this more than we did.

-Later that same f***ed up week-

{Bade's POV}

"What is going on at the high school?" Winter asked the next morning on the way to school.

"What do you mean?" I asked, turning my attention away from the window.

"Addae told Breeze that s*** just hit the fan at the high school and you are completely ignoring it," she said with a look that reminded me of Hermione Granger the scene from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One when she yells at Ron for leaving. Flames were practically shooting from both girls' eyes.

"Adara, Day, and Noah think that the freshmen have divided into the cliques that we put them in. They are overacting though. Everyone is just excited for summer break," I said with a sigh and relaxing when I realized that it was nothing serious.

"I hope your right," Breeze said with a worried expression.

"Don't worry. I am," I said and followed Addae, Zeph, and Lilac out of the car and into the front doors of the high school.

"What makes you think you could talk to her?" I heard an angry voice say while walking to my locker. When I looked up to see what was happening, I saw Jared holding Kyle up against the lockers while Jared's friends stood around, laughing.

"I just bumped into her and was apologizing." Kyle looked completely terrified.

"So you bumped into my girlfriend?" I tried hard to ignore the scene, but it was happening only a few lockers down and I couldn't help put to watch from the corner of my eye.

"It was an accident." Jared didn't like Kyle's answer and delivered a blow to Kyle's stomach. Jared and his friends laughed at the sight of Kyle doubled over on the ground. As soon as they walked away – slamming my locker closed on their way – I ran over to Kyle.

"Are you ok?" I asked, helping him up.

"I think I'll be back to normal in a few minutes. When did this happen?" he asked me but was met with my face of confusion. "That was the captain of the football team beating up the Gamer because he talked to the football player's head cheerleader girlfriend. When did we become a typical high school?" He limped toward his homeroom leaving me with the thought of what just happened. S***. Adara was right. We f***ed this school up and we had to fix it.

{Addae's POV}

This  is a continuation of the story that Bade and Adara told. If you weren't around for that, be sure to check it out because I'm not about to explain everything all over again. Anyone who is familiar with the beginning of the story, welcome back, and I hope all of you enjoy the story told by Noah and I.

{Addae's POV}

We f***ing told Bade that something was up. Now, b**** learned the hard way. I'm sorry. I know I swear a lot but I'm working on it so bear with me.

-About 11 weeks after everything got f***ed up-

{Noah's POV}

"Is it really that bad?" I asked as we sat at a table in the local frozen yogurt store.

"Yes," Adara said. "We started this and messed it up. The good thing about Maysam High is that we aren't basic. Well, weren't basic. It's our job to un-f*** everything."

"Do we have to?" I whined.

"Yes. We aren't having this conversation again, Noah. You are helping un-f*** because you helped f***. We all did. This is our job. Together. So calm down, ok?" Bade said, annoyed.

"Ok, ok. But does anyone have any idea how we are going to fix it yet?" No one answered. Everyone just sat around and looked at everyone else and awkwardly ate their yogurt.

"What now?" Addae asked, taking a sip of her water. Once again, no one had an answer.

"We could possibly try to fix it the way we screwed it up," Bade said with a shrug.

"So we go back to freshman year, work on two projects, have Adara's boyfriend steal one so we have to revert to the one that will magically fix everything. Speaking of. How is it going with Luck?" Addae asked with a smile and shook her shoulders. Adara glared at her.

"We broke up," she said with her expression as hard as stone. "After I found out that he stole my project I was mad, but I thought I could forgive him. But when everything went to hell I knew that I could never forgive him, so I kicked him to the curb." Adara didn't seem the least bit sorry when she said that, and I understood. I knew how upset she was, especially now. I couldn't help but notice that Bade looked a little hopeful at Adara's words. I didn't think he would have a shot, but you never know.

"And what about your dad and his mom?" I asked, popping a strawberry in my mouth.

"Do you guys ever listen?" Adara asked, throwing her arms up in exasperation. "They broke up over spring break. I texted you guys." Adara's annoyance was getting amusing at this point.

"But seriously guys. What the hell is the plan?" Quiet.

"Look guys. I'd love to share silence with you, but I have things I need to do. I'll see you later."

{Addae's POV}

"Did anybody think that was super weird?" I asked, referring to Noah's behavior.

"I guess, maybe," Adara shrugged. I figured that she would care more about what he was up to considering that they are half-siblings. Using that logic, maybe she would care less. I tried not to worry about it, but I couldn't help it. If he was changing a week before school started, that's just a little bit of a problem. We were going to be sophomores, who might as well be freshmen considering the amount that the school has changed. Despite my best efforts, I caved to my curiosity.

"I've also got to go," I said standing up and cutting off the conversation that was going on between Bade and Adara about something I didn't care about.

"Day. You can't leave until I do," Bade said while shooting me a look that made me want to punch him in the face.

"Then let's go."

"But I was talking to Adara," he protested as I dragged him up by the arm.

"You can flirt with her later, but we have more important issues. Mom wants us back at the house ASAP so if you want to push her, be my guest." I let go of his arm to cross my own, making sure that he knew I mean business. Thankfully, he realized that he was fighting a lost cause and said goodbye to Adara and we walked out the door.

"I know that Mom didn't call us back, so I think you should explain what is really going on."

"I want to follow Noah. He is acting strange and I want to know what's going on." Bade gave me another look of pure annoyance and I once more felt the urge to hit him.

"You gotta be s***tin' me."

"No. I'm not. Now shut up and follow." We got on our bikes and pedaled in the general direction that Noah went in.

"He is gone, Adara," Bade said after a good 15 minutes of riding around all over the place.

"Fine. Let's go back. But next time we are going to find out what is up with him."

{Noah's POV}

Breaking News: Noah Wesley has just discovered that high school is the actual worst.

-About 12 weeks after everything got f***ed up-

{Addae's POV}

"Look at all my big high school students. You all have grown up so fast," my mom whined, wiping away an imaginary tear. Breeze coughed. "And my eighth grader," she added.

"Don't worry, Breeze. You'll be there soon," Winter said and patted Breeze on the shoulder. "But for now you rule the middle school and that has to be enough."

"Little freshman," Bade said to Winter and she whipped her head around to glare at him. He recoiled at the murderous look. I laughed and gave Winter a high-five and looked quite smug.

"Little sophomores," Zephyr snorted. All of us glared at him.

"Stop making fun of the lower-class, everyone. Remember that Lilac is currently a freshman in college," my mom said, putting stress on the word college. Then, she once again realized that she now had a child in college and she shooed us out the door to the car where Dad was waiting so that she could be self-pitying about how old she is.

"Ready, kids?" Dad asked as we pulled out of the driveway.

"Ready," Zeph and Breeze said with confidence while Winter looked nervous that it was her first day at high school, and Bade and I looked nervous because everyone knew that it was us who messed everything up with the circles.

"Maysam Middle School," Dad said as we made our first stop at Breeze's school.

"Take me with you," Winter said as Breeze went to get out of the car.

"I wish," Breeze responded to her closest sibling and closed the door with a sad smile.

"Don't worry. It will be fine," I told Winter as we pulled away closer to the high school. She turned toward me and her face was void of color.

"Are you sure?" she asked, her voice practically shaking.

"Yep." I told her to take deep breaths and that if she needed us, we were there. That seemed to calm her down and some color started returning to her face and by the time we pulled up to the front doors, she looked fine. "If you get lost just act like you know where you are going and that will probably get you where you need to go," I said and she nodded as I opened the door to hell.

"Oh s***," Bade said as soon as we entered the cafeteria where everybody hung out before the bell rang. I could see exactly what he was talking about. What we thought was bad at the end of last year was nothing what it was now.

Cheerleaders were all wearing their uniforms and laughing at people. The football players were wearing their jerseys and hitting shoulders. They seemed to be enjoying it. The nerds were gathered around with their handheld games and ignoring everyone. The goths we covered in black clothes with streaks of red, purple, or pink in their dyed black hair. There were groups that we made, and groups we didn't littered all over the cafeteria.

"Are you guys seeing this, or am I just hallucinating?" Adara asked when she appeared next to us with Noah. The cafeteria suddenly got quiet and all eyes turned toward us as we stood and looked at the mess we created.

"No. Sadly, this is reality," Bade whispered and we walked toward a table that wasn't surrounded by changed people. Everyone's eyes followed us and it seemed like no one even took a breath. After close to a minute of all this, the bell rang and people started to shuffle out of the cafeteria. I was hoping that everyone would start up their normal chatter, but the noise level only increased to people whispering to each other in disbelief.

"It's them," they would say as if they came to the zoo to look at the new, main attraction. "I can't believe they came back... they are the ones who made the groups... my brother said their presentation was stupid... I can't believe they would dare to come back." You name it and they probably said it.

"I'll walk through hell with you," Adara said and together we marched into the maze of hallways that make up Maysam High School.

{Addae's POV}

I think that parents should just be right all the time so you know what to do. Sadly, the world doesn't work that way and this is one of those times when I wished that.

-About 13 weeks after everything got f***ed up-

{Noah's POV}

"I don't think I've ever had a worse first week of school in my entire life. I'm so glad it's finally the weekend," I said flopping down on the couch and letting my backpack fall to the floor after I got home from school on Friday.

"What happened?" my dad asked, closing his laptop. I sighed. The time had come for me to come clean to my dad about what happened at the end of freshmen year.

"You remember my project that I presented with Adara at the end of last year?" I asked sitting up to face him.

"The circles that you were forced to present, yes," he said, confused as to where this conversation was going.

"Well somehow those circles got out and everyone at the high school I guess decided that it would be fun to split themselves into the groups that we assigned them. And over the summer, it was taken a step further and people created their own groups and each group built a sort of wall and everyone is pulling further away from everyone else. Bade, Addae, Adara, and I are all to blame for everything that went wrong. Now everyone hates us because we f***ed up the school and everything that was good about it."

He didn't react at first. He just sat there with his lips pursed and looking at me. Then, he sighed and rubbed his face with his hands.

"This is just typical high school. For some people it is the best time of their life. For others, it is one of the worst. You just have to suck it up, because that is the way the world works."

"That's the problem. Before we messed with everything, Maysam wasn't like that. Everyone was friends with everyone and no one really got pushed around more than anyone else. It wasn't a typical high school and that made it so much more enjoyable. How do we fix it?" I asked desperately.

If anyone had the answer to the problem, it was my father. Ever since I was little he has known just what to say and just how to fix things. He would guide me out of trouble, not do it all himself, and he always had something to teach me about life. I was just waiting for him to help me out on this one, too.

"I can't," he finally said. Just like that, my hope crumbled.

"Why not?"

"I don't think there is an answer, son."

"What do you mean there isn't an answer. Of course there is an answer and you have it. I will learn the life lesson later, but right now I need your help." I was starting to freak out. If there really wasn't a solution then we were f***ed. Majorly.

"Noah. Calm down. I don't go to you high school. There could be an answer and I just don't know what it is. I never will unless you find it and tell me. You know the school, the project, and the students. If you want an answer, you have to find it yourself."

"I don't really know the school! We moved here a year ago and just as I was starting to understand it, it changed!" I was yelling now, but I couldn't care. This was by far the worst thing that has ever happened to me.

"Noah! Relax. I know you better than anyone else, and I am completely confident that you will find some way to fix it. Just give it time, son. Give it time."

{Addae's POV}

"I think I speak for everyone when I say that was awful," I said at dinner on Friday.

"Not me," Breeze said with a smile that fell when Winter shot her a dirty look.

"For me, yes," Winter said, still glaring at no one in particular.

"Yeah. And me," Zeph said and joined Winter in what I now knew was glaring at everyone, not no one.

"What happened?" my mom asked, clearly worried.

"Once everyone found out that Winter and I were related to Bade and Adara, they practically shot us," Zephyr said while stabbing his broccoli with his fork.

"Why is that?" my dad asked, looking at the guilt on the faces of Bade and I.

"Because they screwed up the school!" Winter yelled, sitting up, but sank back down in her seat when Mom gave her a stern look.

"How did you do that?" my mom asked with the stern look still present on her face. I stared at my plate and silently asked Bade to take over. He did and with a sigh explained the project and how we messed it up.

"Well how is it your fault if it wasn't even your project?" my dad asked, confused.

"Because we helped... a lot," I said and looked down at my plate once more. I suddenly wasn't hungry.

"What are you going to do now?" she asked.

"Hopefully, fix it."

"Good luck to you," my dad said, raising his glass.

"And may your success come swift fully and easily," Zeph said also raising his cup. Breeze followed and so did Winter who never broke eye-contact with me.

----------------------------------------------

Chapter title credit to "Raise Your Glass" by P!nk

{Noah's POV}

I'm a genius. A regular Einstein. Anyway, here's what I did. Part of it.

-About 14 weeks after everything got f***ed up-

{Addae's POV}

"We need a plan of action," Adara said as I scooted over to make room for Bade at the lunch table.

"To make everyone stop hating us?" Bade asked with a sigh and plopped down on the seat to the left of me.

"I don't think they necessarily hate us," Noah said, but trailed off while taking a look around the cafeteria.

"Yes, they do," Adara said with a sideways glance at Noah.

"Even the staff," I said and head turned to me in disbelief. "Yeah. One of the lunch ladies only gave me, like, a half-scoop on my noodles, and glared at me while she did it."

"Aren't lunch ladies supposed to be like that?" Bade asked and I whacked him on the back of the head. "What was that for?" he asked, looking at me outraged and put a hand where I hit him.

"That's her point, d*****bag. Even the staff found out about what we did, changed, and then got mad at us. I don't really understand it, but whatever," Adara said while rolling her eyes.

"Yeah, me neither. If they hate it so much, why can't they just not go with it. Like, just change back."

"I think they believe that everything is the way it should be now. Almost like they are fixed," Noah said, looking around the lunchroom. The expression on his face made it seem like he was trying to read everyone's minds, to figure out what their problem is.

"You're f***ed up, people. Realize it," Addae whispered, looking around at everybody. The rest of lunch went by without a word. When the bell rang, we stood up and parted through our different hallways.

{Noah's POV}

"I was thinking," I said to Addae, Adara, and Bade at the local café after school. "Why don't we fix everything the same way we f***ed it up."

"What?" Addae deadpanned.

"Why don't we make a different project, and just put everyone in one big circle?" They stared at me.

"What?"

"I'm serious. Apparently, the student body listens to pieces of paper made by us. Besides, what more damage could we possibly do?"

If I only knew.

{Addae's POV}

You are going to want to stick around for this part of the story. I laugh every time I think about it. Never gets old.

-About 15 weeks after everything got f***ed up-

{Noah's POV}

"Ready to do this?" I asked everyone at lunch the next week. I slapped down a clean, fresh sheet of printer paper in front of everyone, along with a pencil and a compass.

"I don't know about this," Bade said, looking uncomfortable.

"What do you mean?" I asked, already loading the pencil into the compass.

"This idea is what got us into this mess in the first place."

"Exactly. So this will get us out of it."

"How do you figure that out?" Adara asked, giving me a crazy look.

"Well, to make an antidote to snake venom, you use venom from the snake, right?" Instead of murmurs of agreement, I got blank stares. "Well, that's how it happens."

"I still don't-"

"Please enlighten us with your idea that is so much better than this one," I practically shouted at him. Everyone looked taken aback but my focus was on Bade right now. He shrank down on his chair and lowered his head a little bit.

"At least this won't take as long as the other one did. All we have to do is go through the yearbook, and put everyone in," Addae said with a bright smile.

"It's actually not that simple. We don't have a yearbook for this year so we have to weed out the ones who have already graduated, and get the names of the new freshmen. Then there are new students, and students who have left." Collectively, our shoulders sagged.

"I have a feeling this will actually be worse," Adara said.

"Yeah. And then we have to get it out, and somehow make everyone follow it."

"They followed the last one. What makes us think that they won't follow this one?" Addae asked.

"Because they hate us now," Bade responded, and we all looked around the cafeteria. Sure enough, there was almost never a moment when someone wasn't glaring at us. We all shared miserable looks.

"We better get started right away then." In silence, I drew a giant circle on the piece of paper.

{Addae's POV}

"Hey, Adara. Can I talk to you?" a voice asked the next day at lunch. We all looked up from the circle and saw Luck, looking nervous. Our attention then turned to Adara.

"Sure," she said, her face and voice void of emotion, and got up to follow Luck away from the table.

"Holy crap. What do you think he wants to talk to her about?" Noah asked, earning a slap on the arm from me.

"He wants to get back together with her obviously," I said, my eyes, along with everyone else's, trained on their conversation. It seemed normal. Adara had a hand on her hip and was giving Luck a stony look as he nervously ran his hand through his hair while he talked.

"Check it out," Bade said and I looked where he was pointing. It was Luck friends filming the conversation and giggling while they did it. Their table was closer and I was pretty sure that they could hear what was going on.

"I can't believe he took the dare," another one of Luck's friends said while he passed our table on the way to his. Everything suddenly made sense.

Luck took Adara abnormally far from our table and much closer to his. While he was talking to her, he looked nervous. Luck NEVER looked nervous. And, his dumbass friends are filming him do the dare, in accordance with the rules.

"Damn it," I whispered and angry-walked over to where Adara and the King of the Assholes were talking. As I passed Luck's friends' table, I flipped them off.

"Oooo," they all chorused, but I ignored them. I grabbed Adara's arm when I reached them and continued down the hall with her in tow.

"What the hell are you doing?" she asked, a touch of outrage in her voice.

"What did Luck say to you?"

"Nothing."

"Tell me," I demanded. She glared at me.

"He explained again why he stole the project, said he was sorry, and asked me to forgive him."

"And what did you say?"

"Nothing. You dragged me away before I could." There was a hint of bitterness in her voice.

"Don't be made at me for that. I did you a favor."

"What are you talking about?"

"Luck was dared by his stupid friends to apologize to you and act like he wants to get back together. At least that is what I assume the dare entailed."

"How do you know?" she asked, and I explained what went down.

"I'm really sorry," I said because she looked disappointed.

"Why are you sorry? I'm the one who should be apologizing."

"Why?" I asked, looking at her like she was crazy.

"Because I'm about to get suspended."

"What?" I exclaimed, but she ran out too fast and I followed her.

"You little piece of s***!" she screamed at Luck and slapped him across the face. The cafeteria was silent because everyone's jaws were on the floor. Luck was holding the left side of his face which was already turning red from when Adara put him in his place.

"Adara Kidling!" the vice principal said coming into the cafeteria. "My office, now!" Adara smiled and turned on her heels to follow the vice principal out. I started clapping and soon everyone joined me. Adara turned around and raised her hands in the air in triumph. Everyone clapped even louder.

"Do you want to explain that to us?" Noah asked. I smiled and filled them in.

{Noah's POV}

Now that things don't suck so much, we can try to get back to being normal high schoolers. Or at least start trying to be normal high schoolers.

-About 16 weeks after everything got f***ed up-

{Addae's POV}

"My dad chewed me out," Adara said as we walked into school a week after she put Luck in his place.

"Of course he did. But now you're back, and ready to own this school," I said with a smile and started to walk a little faster.

"What have I missed?" she asked and spun the lock to the numbers of her combination for her locker. I did the same to mine, talking while I switched out my books.

"You gained some street cred, and so did we by association. Which also means that people don't hate us as much. Um, we are having about as much trouble with the latest project as we had with the previous one. Some girl keeps hitting on me and I can't decide if I like it or not. That's pretty much it."

"Who is this girl?" Adara asked, closing her locker, and we headed to History together.

"Francie Diley."

"Jock," we said at the same time.

"So what's the problem?"

"Well, she comes up to me, uses a stupid pickup line, and then all she wants to talk about is why the football and hockey teams should allow girls. Like, I'm all for feminism and I totally agree with her, but I don't really want to hear about more than once, maybe twice. If you want me to get with you, try to talk about things that I like."

"Yeah. Well what are the good parts?"

"She is really hot and pretty funny. She's also nice when she isn't annoying the s*** out of me with all the sports talk I don't understand. And, she didn't totally hate us when the circles ruined everything."

"Hm. I see your dilemma."

"Also, I'm sure I'm over... her."

My previous girlfriend and I went through a really nasty breakup before the school year ended. It was so bad I didn't even tell Adara, Bade, and Noah about it until two months after it had happened, and I can't speak her name without my heart aching. I thought I loved her, but she just took my heart and stomped on it. But I'm not bitter or anything.

{Noah's POV}

"Adara, you are amazing," Bade said sitting down behind his lunch tray at our usual table.

"What did I do?" she asked looking at us in confusion.

"You have boosted our popularity. Now, instead of everyone glaring at us all the time, they are just ignoring us like they used to," Bade said like someone would say when their crush asked them to prom.

"Ok," I said, glossing over what Bade just said. I put down the circle and each person put down a copy of the yearbook from our freshman year. Addae put down two copies of that yearbook, one said that it was her sister, Lilac. She also put down one for the middle school that said it belonged to Winter.

"I convince Lilac to lend me her yearbook. I thought we could use the names of people who signed it to know who the seniors were. And, if there's anyone we are unsure about, I can just ask her. Same with Winter and the freshmen"

"Genius. Let's get started."

We spent the remainder of lunch pouring over yearbooks and trying to figure out who still went to Maysam High and who has gone. After the bell rang, we silently gathered our respective yearbooks and walked to our class with a wave of the hand to each other.

{Addae's POV}

He is so hot I was almost turned. Boy is the definition of eye candy, and if I weren't lesbian, I would so jump on that. I mean, when there's a that to jump on.

-About 17 weeks after everything got f***ed up-

{Noah's POV}

"Who's that?" Adara asked, leaning into Addae as they practically drooled over some guy walking down the hallway.

"I may be gay, but even I can tell that is one hot guy." Addae's eyes widened.

"Wipe your mouths please," I said. Bade and I shared a glance as we looked at the love-struck girls to the left of us.

"Excuse me," mystery guy said, coming up to us. Adara and Addae tried to quickly compose themselves. "Can you tell me where English with Mr. Trude is?" The girls just stared at him, so I spoke instead.

"Yeah. You have that class with Addae and Bade." Addae shook her head and snapped out of the trance she was in. "That's Addae and that is Bade." I pointed to each of them. "They're twins. I'm Noah, and that's Adara."

"Sup," Addae finally managed.

He laughed.

"Sup."

"Come on, Bade. Let's walk... um..."

"Vance."

"Vance, to class."

Addae raised her eyebrows and smirked at Adara and she grabbed Bade's arm and dragged him along on her right and started talking to Vance on her left. Adara and I were left to watch them walking away.

"Come on, brother," Adara said. "Let's get to class." We linked arms and walked down the hall until she went left to her class, and I went right to mine.

{Addae's POV}

"Where are you from?" I asked Vance as we sat in English waiting for the bell to ring.

"Montana," he said with a smirk. "By the way, we aren't all farmers."

"So where did you live?"

"Livingston. It's a small town where everybody knows everyone else. I know it sounds cliché, but that's really how it is."

"Sounds beautiful," I said, mesmerized.

"It is. Have you ever been?"

"No. I want to, but my family isn't very big on travel."

"We should go sometime! But that probably wouldn't be the best first date. We should probably do something else first. Do you go to the football games?"

"Slow your roll," I said holding up a hand. "I'm lesbian. Unless you have a v and some breasts, I'm not romantically interested."

"I'm sorry," he said, obviously getting a little uncomfortable.

"It's ok. You didn't know. But if it helps, I think Adara might be interested," I said with a wink and turned back to my notebook as Mr. Trude walked in.

"Thanks. Maybe-"

"Ah. Mr. Roland," Mr. Stanger said, cutting off whatever Vance was saying. Vance snapped his head up to the teacher at the mention of what I could only assume was his name. "Since you like to talk so much, why don't you introduce yourself?" he asked in his typical Mr. Rude fashion.

Mr. Trude had a lot of nicknames because he was such an ass. Mr. Rude, Prude, Crude, and Tude. There were so many more of where those came from, and some I probably hadn't heard.

"Sure," Vance said a little awkwardly and walked to the front of the room. He looked at everyone in the room and explained that he was from Montana, and moved here because his family thought it would be nice to have a fresh start. I was curious as to why they would need a fresh start, but he just left it at that.

"Nightmare?" I asked when Vance got back to his seat.

"I don't have a problem with speaking in front of people, but that guy is an asshole," he said, referring to the teacher. We were speaking quieter now in order to avoid being scolded a second time.

"How was it with Vance?" Adara asked me as we sat on the floor in my living room after school.

"Ok. But Mr. Tude totally called him out for talking to me and made him introduce himself to the entire class. Vance hates him now."

"Classic," Noah and Adara said at the same time.

"Vance spent the whole time talking to Addae and pretty much ignored me," Bade said. I couldn't detect what emotion was behind those words, but I made fun of him anyway.

"Aw. Is little Bade jealous?" I asked with a baby voice and started to pet Bade on the head. He glared at me. Everyone laughed.

"I have History with him and he seems pretty cool. He kept trying to mouth words to me from across the class, but I'm really bad at that kind of stuff so I had no idea what he was saying."

"Lemonade?" Mom asked, coming in with a tray with four glasses of her famous lemonade on them.

"Yes, please," Noah said, and we all took one.

"Now that we have sustenance," Bade said. "I think we should get back to the circle." He pulled out the sheet of paper I was already getting sick of, and Adara and I groaned in response. The guys gave us a look.

"We need to get this done," Noah said.

"Yes, you do," I said and grabbed Adara's hand. "We will be watching TV while you do that. And remember, we are eating at 6:30. Have fun!" I yelled over my shoulder and Adara and I got comfortable on the couch with our lemonade and Chad Michael Murray playing on the television.

{Noah's POV}

We have discovered that we, with the exception of Vance, don't really like football.

-About 18 weeks after everything got f***ed up-

{Addae's POV}

"Do you guys want to hit up a football game?" Adara asked cautiously at lunch on Friday. We all looked at her.

"Why?" Noah asked.

"Because we should," she said a little quieter and looked down at her food.

"Because Vance asked her," I said in a singsong voice and shook my shoulders at her. I couldn't help but notice that Bade's eyes widened slightly.

"Maybe," she said with a smile and blushed a little.

"What are we talking about?" Vance asked, sitting down between Adara and Noah.

"Going to the football game tonight," Noah said. Bade gave Vance a look he didn't see. It was something only I could detect as a look of jealousy.

"You need to relax," I said leaning to my left to whisper in my twin brother's ear.

"What?" he asked.

"Don't play dumb. I know you've been after Adara for a long time now. But if she is interested in Vance, you need to accept that and chill out."

"What if I can't?"

"Find a way, because Vance is now a part of this group and all our lives. Resenting him will only make things horrible."

"So I'm just supposed to let him do what he wants?"

"Yes. Because you can't control him. You aren't in charge of him." I leaned back onto my seat and gave Bade one last shrug. He looked downcast and Noah gave us a look, having noticed our whispered conversation, but not knowing what it was about.

{Noah's POV}

"Please remind me why we are doing this?" I asked the group as we walked into the football game on Friday evening. Everyone was walking around, talking to their friends, and shouting to other ones. I felt very out of place and imagined the others did, too.

"You guys excited?" Vance asked with a smile and looked around.

"Not really," Bade said and sucked in a breath of annoyance that Vance was accompanying them. Addae turned her head to the right and quickly glared at Bade. I also elbowed him on my left and turned to Vance.

"We've just never been to a football game before. Last year and the beginning of this year we weren't exactly popular," I said and Adara scoffed to the right of me.

"That's an understatement."

"I heard about that. What happened?" Vance asked as our circle stopped by the fence that separated the track from the area at the bottom of the bleachers.

"Maybe later. It's a long, painful story," Adara said.

"Ok. I'm thirsty. Do you guys want anything?" Vance asked, pushing himself off the part of the fence he was leaning on and looking at the rest of us.

"I'll have a root beer," Addae said and pushed some money toward Vance.

"Make that two," Adara said, also handing him money.

"No, no. I'll cover it," Vance said with a smile and held up his hand to push their money away. I saw the annoyance on Bade's face grow slightly. I smirked slightly as Vance and Adara walked to the concession stand. Addae and I simultaneously turned to Bade.

"Stop," I said, giving him a stern look.

"What?" he asked, trying to look innocent.

"Stop pining and whining about Adara. She likes him, and he likes her. You need to let it go, and get over it."

"What is with you two?" he asked, slightly outraged. "I can't just stop loving Adara!"

"Fine. But at least stop hating Vance. He didn't do anything."

"It is more my fault. After he asked me out, I sort of pointed him in Adara's direction," Addae shrugged.

"He asked you out?" Bade asked, completely forgetting his anger and turning to his sister.

"Yeah, but not the point. The point is-" Addae was saying but cut herself off when Vance and Adara came back over to us.

"What are you guys talking about?" Vance asked and handed us the drinks he bought us.

"Girl problems," Addae said coolly and took the drink offered to her. I was impressed, and a little scared, that she could lie so easily. Vance just nodded awkwardly.

"Should we go get our seats?" he asked, breaking the silence. We nodded and Vance and Adara took the lead and the three of us followed in a line behind; Addae and I still trying to coach the love-sick puppy between the two of us. He insisted that he didn't have a problem. We decided to let it go for now in order to not make our current situation worse.

"Give it up for your Maysam High School Tough Tigers!" the announcers exclaimed over the speaker and the football team ran out onto the field among insane shouts and cheers from the student section.

All five of us sat and watched the game. Vance looked really excited the whole time, and I was pretty sure he was the only one of us who actually knew what was going on.

"And now, the pride of Maysam: your Maysam High School Marching Band!" the announcer called at half time. Addae, Adara, Bade, and I smirked at each other, knowing that we put most of these people either with the Basics, or the Artists.

"What?" Vance asked, noticing the look we shared.

"Nothing," Adara said with the ghost of a smile still playing on her face.

That was basically how the rest of the night progressed. Vance got very into it, we made inside jokes, and politely declined when Vance suggested we get fast food. I think all of us have had enough of him for one day.

{Addae's POV}

I swear we could have a newspaper just dedicated to the goings on of Vance, and we still would always be behind and confused. Always something to discover about him.

-About 19 weeks after everything got f***ed up-

{Noah's POV}

"This is getting ridiculous," I said to Adara as we sat back to back in her living room on Thursday. I passed the container of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream back to her.

"What is?" she asked, and passed the container back again after taking a giant spoonful.

"You and Vance."

"You think?"

"You don't?"

"I'm biased."

"True. I'm just not sure what his deal is?"

"What do you mean?" I could picture her wrinkling her eyebrows as she said that.

"I don't really know. It just seems like he isn't being honest with us."

"We've known him for less than a month."

"Yeah, but it just seems like he's putting on an act."

"That's pretty dark."

"I don't think it's like he so depressed he's acting happy. It's just... I noticed something at the football game."

"You mean the one where we lost the playoffs and killed our season?"

"I guess. He just seemed different than what we know him as," I said, thoughts drifting to possible explanations.

"I'm not going to ask him if that's what you're implying."

"No, I didn't mean it like that," I said, getting pulled from my trance and losing my train of thought in the process.

"Whatever. I'm a little sick of talking about Vance all the time. Do you want to watch a movie?" she asked, standing up.

"How about we binge watch Stranger Things instead?" I said, and stood up, too.

"Yas! Perfect show for Christmas."

{Addae's POV}

"Have you guys worked on it at all?" Bade asked on Friday at the Winter Formal that we for some reason have during break.

"What?" I asked confused. He just gestured at the people pouring into the gym. I nodded my head in sudden understanding.

"I haven't," Noah said.

"Me neither," Adara said.

"Sucking face with Vance?" Bade asked with a trace of poison only someone who knew him as well as I do would be able to detect. To everyone else it just sounded like a joke.

"No," Adara laughed. (Told you.) "We're just friends."

All three of us simultaneously raised our eyebrows. The sexual tension between the two of them was so strong I could practically smell it.

"Fine. But we haven't done that."

"Then you must have-" Noah started to say, but I slapped him when I saw Vance coming into the gym. When he turned to tell me off, he saw Vance too and shut up.

"Hey, Adara. Could I talk to you?" he asked when he reached our table. "In private," he added when he saw we were looking between him and Adara.

"Sure," she replied and they walked a little ways down the hall before stopping to meet each other's eyes.

"What do you think he's saying?" Noah asked, putting his head between my shoulders and Bade's.

"He's obviously asking her out," Bade whispered unnecessarily.

"I don't think so," I said, getting a little confused as to what their conversation could possibly entail.

"Why?" Noah asked.

"First of all, they have been talking for too long. Second of all, it looks like she is confused and he is trying to explain something to her."

"Shut up. She's coming," Noah whispered as Adara made to walk over to us. We all turned around, and I quickly realized how obvious and stupid we looked.

"Stop it. I know you guys were watching," Adara said when she made her way toward us.

"Sorry, sis," Noah said, creating major awkward silence. We never really acknowledged that Noah and Adara were related. We just let it be.

"He didn't ask me out," she said, ignoring what Noah said and continuing on to why she came back over to us. "He asked me to tell you something."

Adara looked nervously back at Vance and he gave her the most unsure nod I have ever seen in my entire life. He looked paler than usual and like he was about to vomit. Adara turned back to us and cleared her throat, about to start what I imagine will be a prepared speech.

"Vance thinks all of us are pretty cool, but he thought that there is something we should know about him before this continues." She took a deep breath. "He wanted me to tell you he is transgender. Born female, and when he was 10 he finally understood why he felt so out of place. It wasn't until he was 13 that he started to identify as male. Apparently, he got bullied pretty bad for it, and lost all his friends. His parents decided he needed a fresh start, and they moved here. He said that he wants to be friends with you guys, but not if you can't be ok with the fact that he's transgender."

We just kind of looked at her, a little surprised.

"Ok," Bade said after the few seconds of shock wore off.

"Ok?" she asked, worried. "What does ok mean?"

"It means thanks for letting us know."

"Does that mean you're ok with it?" Noah and Bade gave her a look of slight annoyance.

"Didn't I just say ok?" Bade said and rolled his eyes. He then left with Noah to go talk to Vance who looked more nervous than ever.

"And they think women are confusing," I said as Adara moved to stand to the left of me while we watched the interaction between the guys.

"You're cool with it, right?" she asked.

"Well, I'm pretty old fashioned, but I think I can be ok with this," I said, jokingly. Thankfully, Adara laughed, and we started to walk over to the guys.

"But we really need to work on unf*ing the school," Adara said, now that one issue had been taken care of.

"Ugh. Later."

{Noah's POV}

I guess if you tried to pinpoint the best thing we did in the midst of all this, it would be this. We finally came together on something. I wonder what would have happened then if we knew what was going to happen in the end.

-About 20 weeks after everything got f***ed up-

{Addae's POV}

"Did you guys hear?" I asked when I got to the place in the park we were meeting at on Monday.

"What?" Noah asked, head bent over the circle and trying to write next to Bade.

"Vance and Adara are official now?" Neither one of them reacted.

"She's really flying through them," Noah said.

"What?" I asked.

"The guys. First it was Luck, now it's Vance. It's only been, like, a year."

"In comparison to the other girls in this school, that is not quick at all," I said with a laugh and Bade shrugged in what I could only assume was agreement.

"Ok. Let's do this," Adara said and sat down with Vance. Noah quickly stashed the paper back in with his stuff. Vance didn't notice that, but Adara gave Noah a confused look. Bade, Noah, and I shared a knowing look and I said to Adara,

"Can we talk for a second?"

"Sure," she responded, and followed me through the clearing a little bit.

"Are you really doing this again?"

"What do you mean?"

"Are you trying to bring Vance in on the circle?"

"Yeah. Is that a problem?"

"Do you remember what happened last time you introduced your boyfriend to our project?"

She was silent for a moment.

"Vance isn't like that."

"You can't be sure. Just don't put him in. It's not like we need help with it like we did last time. Besides, even if we really did need help, he wouldn't be useful. He's new, therefore wouldn't know anyone who has left."

"Fine. But don't tell him that we are excluding him," she said and stalked off.

"Wasn't planning on it," I said to her retreating back. I sighed and followed her back to the table.

{Noah's POV}

"I'm just saying he could be useful," I whispered as Vance awkwardly looked around.

"How?" he asked.

"Think about it. He probably knows all the new students. I heard they had to have a special lunch to get to know each other and talk about their stories, or some bullshit. The point is, that will save some time."

"I don't know about this," he said, pulling on the sleeves of his jacket in accordance with his usual nervous habit.

"What do you mean?"

"You do remember Luck right?"

"I don't think Vance is like that," I said. We both looked at Vance. He looked at us and smiled strangely, obviously aware that we are talking about him. I couldn't help but noticed he looked like a lost puppy.

After a few minutes of uncomfortable staring, Addae and Adara came back. Addae looked satisfied and Adara looked vaguely annoyed. I shot Addae a questioning look and she lightly shook her head, meaning she would tell me later.

We made small talk for a little bit and went our separate ways around four. We didn't talk to each other until the next day when it was clear Adara was going to have trouble letting this Vance thing go.

Adara: you guys are assholes

Me: what did we do now?

Adara: you made Vance think that you guys don't accept him cuz he trans

Bade: no. we don't accept him cuz he seems like a repeat of Luck

Adara: HE'S NOT!!!!!

Addae: as I've said you don't know that

Adara: i have a feeling

Addae: and what happened to not telling him we're excluding him?

Adara: it's not like he's a complete idiot

Bade: so you admit he's an idiot

Adara: no

Me: GUYS!! Adara is our friend

Adara: you just figuring that out?

Me: shut up. I'm trying to help you

Me: like it or not she is friends with Vance and he isn't that bad. yes he may be a repeat of Luck but I doubt it

Bade: you think we should let him in?

Me: not entirely. I think we should ask him about new kids and things that could be helpful to us but not really tell him why we're asking

Adara: and if he does ask why we are asking

Addae: tell him we were just curious

Me: are we all agreed?

Bade: yeah

Addae: yeah

Adara: yeah

Addae: i think i have something that could help us

{Addae's POV}

"Winter!" I yell after sending my last text to the group chat.

"What?" she yells back.

"I need your help!"

"With what?" I was about to yell back to her when my mom interrupted.

"Why don't you go in her room instead of yelling?"

"Hypocrite," I yelled to her and went to text my sister instead.

Me: come to my room. I need your help

Winter: You are the one who wants help, so you come to my room.

I rolled my eyes at her very grammatically correct text and went to her room.

"How can I help you?" she asked with a slight grin of triumph.

"Can you give me a list of all the freshmen?"

"I assume that this has to do with you fixing the school," she said with doing air quotes when she said fixing.

"Yes."

"Will it work?"

"Don't know until we try."

She sat with her chair turned away from her desk with her arms folded across her stomach and started thinking for a minute.

"Fine," she said with a sigh and turned back to open a new document on her computer, and took out her eighth grade yearbook for some help.

{Addae's POV}

I don't even know why we bothered trying at this point. We should have given up and left things. Anyway...

-About 21 weeks after everything got f***ed up-

{Noah's POV}

My phone buzzed and I lunged to it, desperate for something to tear me away from my essay on Fahrenheit 451. I really liked the book, but I was s*** at writing essays, so I spent the last 15 minutes staring at a document with just my name on it.

I opened the message from Addae to discover it was a picture of a document with a lot of names on it.

'a list of all the freshmen that currently go to MSH as far as Winter's knowledge' was the message attached to the picture.

Bade: who has the paper?

Me: i do

I grabbed the paper and a pencil and started to write down the names.

Addae: you don't have to write all of them. if you bring the paper to school we can all help.

Me: i was gonna do that anyway

Adara: proposal

Addae: i do

Adara: shut up

Bade: go on

Adara: what about adding Vance to the group chat

No one texted back. I think we were all trying to use telepathy to ask each other what everyone thought about this idea. Rolling my eyes, I grabbed my phone and made another group chat, this time without Adara.

Me: what do we think?

Bade: remember when we were trying to exclude him?

Addae: remember when i gave you all that lecture about not excluding him because Adara is friends with him

Bade: trying to forget

Addae: well don't. I think we should

Me: so do i

Bade: i don't know about this

Me: he doesn't have to be totally involved and i really don't think he should be until we get to know him better. deal?

Addae: deal

Bade: deal

Me: ok. now let's get back to the other group chat cuz i think Adara is getting annoyed

Adara: what is with the silent treatment

Me: you're sick. it's the only thing that will work

Adara: why did you all go quiet?

Adara: were you talking about it without me?

Me: no

Addae: no

Bade: yeah

Me: Bade!

Addae: ID10T

Adara: that's not cool

Me: if we did it with you then you would just get all defensive. we don't need that

Adara: whatever. what did you decide?

Bade: we are going to let him in a little a bit

Adara: i'm sure glad that i have your permission to talk to my friend

Me: it's more complicated than that

Me: but it's getting late so let's talk tomorrow at noon at the Caplin

Addae: is that really necessary?

Bade: noah's right. this is a big decision

Adara: fine. i'll meet you guys tmrw

{Addae's POV}

"Let's go!" I said, reaching into Bade's room and dragging him by the sleeve into the hall.

"Chill!" he said and stumbled in the hall while he was trying to regain his footing.

"Mom!" I called as I ran down the stairs, still dragging Bade with me.

"What?" my mom called from the couch in the living room where she is reading a sports magazine. Yes. My mother is reading a sports magazine. No one could kick gender stereotypes in balls like my mother.

"Can Bade and I go to Caplin?"

"Sure. With Noah and Adara?"

"Yeah. We should be back before dinner."

"Alright. Do you have money?"

"Yeah," Bade and I said simultaneously.

"Don't eat too much and spoil your dinner," she said in a mom voice.

"I promise," I said and we ran out the door.

"What is wrong with you?" Bade asked when we got outside.

"Noah had become an ass about punctuality," I said as we jumped on our bikes and rode next to each other down the street.

"I didn't know that."

"Of course not. You're a guy."

"Sexists."

"Here you go everybody. A white man complaining about oppression. A real sight to see."

"Shut up," he scoffed and pedaled past me. I knew this was a race and kicked it up a notch.

One summer, when Winter was super into competitive swimming, she made me go with her to the pool every day for two hours. We did sets that kicked my ass, but I worked hard on them. Needless to say, I developed some legitimate muscles and easily surpassed him.

"Haha!" I yelled over my right shoulder to him.

"Damn it!" he yelled and slammed his hand on the handlebars.

I was still going pretty fast from my annihilation of my twin brother, so I easily glided into the parking lot.

"Loser," I said with a teasing smile as we locked our bikes onto the bike rack.

"Whatever."

"Hey people!" Noah said, gliding into the parking lot

"Hey. Where's Adara?"

"Whattup bike-riding freaks?" Adara yelled from the window of her car. Bade, Noah, and I looked at each other and did a double-take.

"When the hell did you learn to drive?!" Bade and I asked at the same time, ignoring the look Noah gave us.

"I got my license yesterday. I didn't tell you that I was learning cause I wanted to surprise you guys. Vance is also here by the way," Adara said and we saw them both get out of the car.

"Alright. Let's get inside."

"Ok. Game plan," Adara said when we sat down with our boxes of fries.

"Explain everything to Vance, hope to finalize the circle, and figure out to to spread it," I said and shoved a couple of the world's greatest fries in my mouth.

"What?" Vance asked, clearly confused and intrigued. All four of us traded looks and launched into an explanation of our project.

{Noah's POV}

If I had a time machine...

-About 22 weeks after everything got f***ed up-

{Addae's POV}

"Back at it," Bade sighed and looked around the cafeteria on our first day back. We nodded and looked at our classmates somberly.

"How far have we come on the project?" Vance asked. I sighed and pulled the ever familiar paper out of her bag.

"We still have some people left to add on. I have a friend in yearbook club who used his account from last year and this year to figure out who we had left," I said.

"You told him?" Noah asked, clearly annoyed.

"No. He gave me his username and password and I figured out who we had left. Well, I started figuring it out, but I haven't finished it yet. Story of our lives."

"How many?" Vance asked. I shot him a glare so quick I don't think he even noticed it.

"About 50. Most are freshmen. Our biggest problem are the people who have moved here. Vance. This is where you come in. How many new kids are there?" I asked and everyone snapped their heads in Vance's direction, eager to here the answer to the question we have been sitting on the edge of our seats for.

"More than you would think. I don't know the exact number, but if I had to guess I would say about 12."

Bade and I nodded, both in thought.

"There is also the issue of who has left," Adara said. Bade and I gave each other looks knowing that Adara just read both of our minds.

"Easy. We just cross-reference the yearbook pictures for this year and last," Noah said.

"Ok. Then what about the people who missed pictures or something?"

"I can probably hack into the system and get lists of each person enrolled in each class. That could be a sort of checklist for us to make sure that we have everyone," Vance said with a shrug.

We all stared at him.

Adara hit him.

"And you couldn't have thought of this earlier?" Bade practically yelled.

"This could have saved us a hell of a lot of time had you thought of this before."

"You only told me about this last week," Vance deadpanned.

"Why didn't you mention it then?" Adara inquired, slightly pissed off.

"I didn't think about it."

"Well, get to work computer genius. We have a circle to finish."

We all got up, left and went our separate ways.

{Noah's POV}

"We need to talk," my dad said when I came back from hanging out with everyone.

"About what?" I asked, and flopped down across from the man who gave me life.

"I'm worried about you." He folded his hands across his stomach like he does when he is feeling the fatherly mood.

"Why?"

"You never spend time with anyone except Bade, Addae, and Adara.

"Adara is my sister. Shouldn't I spend time with her?"

That was clearly a bad move because my dad looked down at his hands, sighed, cleared his throat, and looked up at me again, calm features attempting to mask the annoyance in his eyes.

"I'm not saying you shouldn't spend time with her-"

"Then I see no problem. Thanks for the talk, Dad. Bye!"

I jumped up from my chair and ran to my room so fast he couldn't even finish my name before I slammed my bedroom door and silenced him.

{Addae's POV}

Maybe if my mother was crazy then she would have rejected the insane number of copies, and things would be better. Yes, I know that's reaching, but I'd really rather not blame myself.

-About 25 after everything got f***ed up-

{Noah's POV}

The following weeks were spent checking and double checking that we had everyone somewhere in the circle. A couple we didn't recognize someone, but then discovered we had their names down. The only thing we had left to do was to find a way to spread it.

"Why don't we have an assembly like you did for the first one?" Vance said while, once again, giving the circle a look.

"We can't just form an assembly. If a student runs one then it has to go through a million people in the main office. Besides, seniors are allowed to call assemblies, and even that is rare. There's just no way," Adara said.

"Why don't we just go all Mean Girls on these b****es?" Addae asked, opening her arms and stretching a smile across her face.

"What does that mean?" Vance asked.

"Make a s*** ton of copies of the circle and spread it around school!"

No one said a word.

"I don't know, Day," Bade said.

"What?" she asked. "It's perfect, and it's relatively the same way our original plan got spread around the school, but we just hit fast forward."

Everyone looked at each other, trying to communicate telepathically.

"I think it's the best idea we've got," I said.

"Yeah. I say we run with it. Who's with me?" Vance asked with a raised hand.

Addae raised her hand. Bade raised his, and Adara and I followed suit.

"Than it's settled," I said. "I'll email you guys each a copy of the circle and you print out as many copies as you can. Take them with you to school next week, and we will spread the message," I said and we all got up.

We gave each other one last long look, hoping that this would end once and for all.

{Addae's POV}

"Mom!" I yelled when I got the email from Noah I had been waiting for for the last 45 minutes.

"What?" she yelled back as I finished running down the stairs.

"Can I make a punch of copies of something for school?"

"Sure. How many?" she asked, not turning away from her spaghetti.

"As many as you will allow me to make."

"How about 150?"

"Sure! Thanks, Mom," I said and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

"You're welcome, sweetie."

"Bade!" I whisper yelled when I burst into his room a record seven seconds later.

He jumped.

"What?" he said back in the same fashion I did to him.

"We are going to save the school with 150 copies of life rafts of our very own."

{Noah's POV}

Here it is. The close of the worst time of our lives. I hope that you now feel better about anything you have ever done. Enjoy the end.

-About 26 weeks after everything got f***ed up-

{Addae's POV}

"Everyone have their copies?" I asked before school, my own in a manila folder full of copies in my messenger bag.

"Yep," they responded and each pulled out their copies.

"Ready?" Adara asked, and bounced on the balls of her feet.

Everyone nodded.

"Let's go," I said.

We put copies of the circle everywhere. In lockers, in between lockers, in classrooms, taped on walls, in the desks, and all over the floor. It only took us about half and hour to get it all done, but it definitely looked like Mean Girls with all the papers scattered everywhere.

All that's left to do is wait.

{Noah's POV}

I opened my locker at the end of the day and was bombarded with paper. Upon further examination, I realized that the papers I was drowning in were the copies of the circle.

"I don't get it," Bade said, reading my mind. "What happened?"

"We should have learned," Addae said with a sigh.

"What do you mean?" Adara asked. Vance, Bade, and I shared her look of confusion.

"Did High School Musical teach us nothing? Don't mess with the flow no, no. Stick to the status quo."

"We did. Then we broke it, so we tried to fix it," Vance said, and we nodded.

"No. This is the new status quo. There is no changing this. This is the future we created for generations of Maysam High School students to come," Addae sighed and looked around at the mess we created.

The captain of the football team was beating up a member of scholastic decathlon who he used to be friends with. The cheerleaders were throwing themselves on the football and basketball players, nerds were taking different routes out of school to avoid the popular people.

Nothing was how it should be. Nothing was right.

"Damn," I whispered.

"What?" Addae asked.

"Together, we are trouble."

We all solemnly nodded and looked around at our handy work one last time before we linked arms and left Maysam High School in ruins.