Conditions for us keeping quiet. (The Contract)

1. You do as we say without arguing.

2. You pretend to like Bella in front of everyone.

3. Date her so you could get us everything we need. Without arguing!

4. Keep your mouth shut about this—let it slip and every single one of your secrets will go out. One by one.

Yang        Winnie       Noelene.

Justice.

After the moment with Beau, Bella was expecting a drastic transformation... but not like this.

When she got out of the car in the school's parking lot, she saw Ashton looking at her. Usually, when they saw each other in the morning, he would wave at her just to annoy her. But today, Ashton was giving her a solid glare.

"Why's Ashton glaring at me?"

Cody got out of the car, too, slamming the door shut, and she pushed her hair away from her face. "Maybe you did something," he said, narrowing his eyes at her. His expression mirrored Ashton's.

"What? You too?"

"I'm not talking to you right now." He walked to Ashton, leaving her standing there, dumbstruck.

What did she do?

As she walked into school, she noticed people staring at her. A group of students stood together, watching something on someone's tablet. They all suddenly let out the I-can't-believe-this-it's-so-awesome ooh, huge grins on their faces, and a few girls placed their palms over their mouths, their eyes twinkling in delight.

"Replay. Unbelievable..." a guy said, his attention on the tablet.

She walked past them, just wanting to see Beau. He had left her place the previous day when she realized her mom would be home soon. There was a moment when he slightly pulled away from her and it looked like he wanted to kiss her, but he pressed his lips to her forehead, instead, and whispered a thank you.

She smiled at the memory, stopping by her locker first to take some books out of her backpack. Immediately she opened her locker, a note fell out.

She stared at the pink-colored paper in confusion for a few seconds, before picking it up and turning it over. She wanted to believe it was from Beau, but he didn't use colored paper, and he certainly didn't write to her in cursive.

She read the note, freezing in place when she saw who it was from. YWN.

I know you and Travon shared a kiss the other day. I know ALL your secrets.

This note was in her locker, so did that mean...?

She spun around, her eyes searching around wildly. YWN went to Wyland.

No one looked suspicious, except for a few students giving her weird glances, but she was getting used to that. She subconsciously balled the note, freaked out of her mind. How did this person know about the kiss? And Viola? And how were they sure they knew who she chose between Beau and Travon?

She heard a squeal behind her and turned too quickly, a bit disappointed at who she saw. Her life felt repetitive with her seeing Jessica Lupinacci like this in the hallway. She never brought good news.

"I need to watch this with you," Jessica said, going to stand beside her, a phone in her hand. She held the phone between them, then tapped on the play icon on a video.

Bella was hardly concentrating, but when she saw what the video was about, her eyes widened in shock.

No way!

In the video, Travon was standing close to her—so close. Then he whispered something and kissed her.

No. Way.

It was a video of their kiss in the robotics lab.

On video, it looked deliberate, like they were in love. It looked incredible. It wasn't long enough to get to where she pulled away and stared at him in shock, though—it stopped where she kissed him back.

"Oh my God, I'm gonna cry," Jessica said, her voice annoyingly high. "I've watched it, like, ten times, but I still find it beautiful. Hashtag Travella fan for the rest of my sophomore year. And you said you were just friends. Babe, this is beyond friendship!"

Bella was on the verge of crying. Beau couldn't see that. It would complicate things so much. "Jess, where did you get this?"

"Fashionella Dirt's YouTube channel."

A ringing sound filled her ears. YouTube? "No."

"What happened?"

Her question suddenly made Bella panic. "H-have you seen Beau anywhere?"

"Beau Algernon?"

"Yes!" Bella shouted. "Is there any other Beau in this school?"

"Yeah, actually. There's one on the—"

"I don't care! Tell me where Beau Algernon is if you know." She couldn't let him see that video. She'd do anything to stop him from seeing it. Steal his phone, break it... anything. She was feeling really desperate right now.

"I think I saw him studying in the cafeteria."

She didn't wait for Jessica to say anything else before turning around and heading to the cafeteria.

"Bella, hold up! Are you and Travon, like, a couple now?" Jessica shouted behind her, but she ignored her. "I'm writing an article on Travella!"

Oh, just shut up, Bella wanted to scream.

When she got to the cafeteria, she was a bit surprised to see Beau sitting at a table, peacefully writing something in a notebook. She had no doubt he was solving his math equations, and she paused by the door and watched him. He was so focused and looked like he really knew what he was doing, then at one point, he dropped his pencil and slumped back in his chair. That was when she walked to him.

"Hey," she said, taking her backpack off and placing it down by the chair next to him.

He looked up at her, then a small smile went up his face. He had no idea how happy that little gesture made her. "Hey," he softly replied, his eyes lingering.

She sat in the chair next to him, then moved it really close—so close that it made them look like they were snuggling. She looked into the notebook in front of him, then asked, "You're studying?"

"Yeah." He gave the book a wary look. "I'm trying to study, actually."

"Do you have a test?"

"Nah, I just wanted to get my mind off things."

She felt relieved when she noticed that he wasn't with his phone. That was a good sign. She studied his calculations for a while, and he studied her. Finally spotting a fault, she pointed to a line in his notebook. "You skipped a step here."

"Really?" He spared the book a glance before looking back at her.

"Yeah. A pretty important step, I might add. That's why you're not getting an answer." She glanced at him, doing a double take when she noticed he was staring at her.

"And you know that just by glancing at it?" He gave her a lopsided grin. "I've been trying to solve this beast since last night. I don't even get the point of math."

"I could solve it for you, but only if you promise not to hate."

"I'm not hating. Just expressing how I feel."

"You skipped an entire step. How is that math's fault?"

"Okay, then." He picked up his pencil, then gave it to her. "Solve away."

She took it from him. "Lemon squeezy. Pay close and perfect attention."

"Yes, ma'am."

Beau lied. As Bella solved the equation and explained it to him, he didn't take his eyes off her. She was oblivious at first, then she saw him in her peripheral vision. Her hand went to the back of his head without her looking, and she pushed it down to the notebook.

"Focus," she said, and he laughed. A beautiful-sounding laugh.

"You have this look in your eyes right now that I really love. You can't blame me."

Her mom once told her that her eyes glinted brighter than usual when she was scared, and she wondered if that was what Beau was talking about.

She turned to him, and he leaned closer to her, placing his forearms on the table. When he was close enough, he whispered, "That's more like it."

"We're in the middle of a math crisis, I hope you remember that."

"I'm not sure."

She kept the pencil back on the table, then put her right cheek on her fist after placing her elbow on the table. "How are you, Beau?"

"I should ask you that. You had to put up with a lot last night."

She let out a breath, subconsciously reaching a hand out to smoothen his hair from where she had touched it earlier. "I'm fine. But I still want to apologize—"

"Hey," he interrupted, "it's fine. We've gone past that, haven't we?"

"I know. I just feel like I could've done better. At this time yesterday, I was being all Mr. Squidward on you for no reason."

"I think you're cuter than Squidward."

"Beau."

"What?" He was smiling at her, teasing her, and she shoved his shoulder, making him laugh again. Before she could take her hand back, he took a hold of it, then grazed his lips over her knuckles. The gesture surprised her more than it should've, and she stared at him. "Forget it, okay? It's fine. Okay?"

She took a while, before she replied, "Okay."

"Great."

He pushed the notebook aside, and both math and the video—AKA the reason she came here—was forgotten.

Beau gave her an easy smile, and they spent the next few minutes talking to each other like spies coming up with a plan to break into a secret organization.

* * *

Bella succeeded in keeping Beau away from his phone all day, sticking to him like slime to a frog. She didn't want to come off as clingy, so she made everything look like a coincidence. Like in the cafeteria during lunch, when she noticed he was about taking his phone out of his pocket as he approached the door, she ran in his direction and bumped into him, making him drop the phone.

She blamed that on sugar—I had a lot of ice cream yesterday, sorry!

People stared at her so much, and she felt worse than she did when her dress got messed up that one time during her period. She could almost see the questions floating above their heads.

You won't go home with Beau, you know. You can't keep him away from his phone any longer, a voice in her taunted, and she urged it away. It was true, but she didn't have to think about it.

Tell him. Just tell him. He'll understand. No, it'll cause a problem. I can't tell him.

Travon crossed her mind briefly in her last class, and she realized she hadn't seen him for two days.

When the final bell rang, she got out of class, then went to her locker, where her brother was waiting.

"Are you happy now?" he asked immediately, glowering, and she didn't want to believe he had seen the video too.

Oh no! "What does that mean?" she asked, putting in her combination.

"You're seriously asking me that, Bella? I warned you, didn't I? Yet you still let him use you like this."

Wait. She turned to him. "Use me?"

Cody gave her a humorless smile. "So you're not aware that he knew about the video before it was even uploaded."

"Who told you that?"

He looked away in frustration. "Bella, open your eyes! Travon planned this. That's why I was warning you to stay away from him. I knew he was up to no good with you."

"You can't be sure he planned this," she defended, even though a part of her was already panicking.

"I have a video of my sister and some dude kissing going all over school, and here that sister is defending said dude—who's also the culprit." He ran a frustrated hand over his face. "God, I wish I punched him harder."

She immediately grew alarmed. "You punched him?"

"I did. And I don't regret it. You don't believe he did this? Fine. Go talk to him and hear what he has to say. He'll obviously lie to you like he's been doing, but whatever. I'll be waiting in the car." He walked away after that.

Bella walked into the robotics lab this time like she belonged there. Cody's instruction echoed in her head as she opened the door, and she couldn't believe she was doing this.

This was Travon Justice they were talking about. Travon Justice—TQJ. Her school-girl crush.

She wasn't expecting to see him so quickly, but there he was, cleaning the worktables.

He stared at her after noticing her arrival, looking a bit alarmed, and she noticed the swelling beneath his left eye. Cody did that to him?

"Travon, we need to talk," she said, not moving any closer to him. Her voice was softer than she wanted, and she hoped it conveyed her message.

"Sorry, Quincy, but I'm... kind of in a hurry right now. I was just about leaving."

He quickly dropped the black piece of cloth he was using to clean the tables, then grabbed his backpack. It was open, but he didn't seem to notice.

"Travon, it'll only take a minute, I promise."

"I have to go."

Was she dreaming, or was Travon ignoring her? Was what Cody said true?

She stepped in front of him, hoping it would stop him, but he only said, "Maybe some other time," then rushed past her after planting a quick kiss on her cheek, bumping into her shoulder in his hurry.

Bella stood there for a few seconds, trying to make sense of what just happened. Travon looked a hundred kinds of relaxed when she walked in, then he suddenly became all nervous and fast. Even the kiss he gave her felt needed; it felt like he was trying to assure her of something she wasn't getting.

She finally turned to leave, but a piece of paper on the floor, by her feet, caught her eye. It must've fallen out of Travon's open backpack.

Crouching, she picked it up, figuring it would be a good excuse to talk to him again. But something drew her to that piece of paper, and she found herself reading what was written on it.

There were about four different handwritings, and she didn't recognize any. But...

Conditions for us keeping quiet. (The Contract).

Bella's throat and chest constricted as she read it, and she realized Cody was right. All of it was fake. Travon played with her. It was in that contract, and he signed it.

Date her so you could get us everything we need.

As she struggled to imagine how far they would've gone if she hadn't found out about this... game, she noticed something else about the signatures above Travon's.

Yang, Winnie, Noelene. YWN.