***

Brody practically skipped away and exited the gallery, whistling a gleeful tune.

Jesse finally decided to speak up. "We got ourselves a plan!"

This time I stayed quiet and observed Millie's features and how different emotions danced around in her eyes. It kind of looked as if though they were having a sword fight to see who would come up on top.

After a brief pause, she finally opted to go for her signature, sweet smile, but I saw right through it.

"Can't wait!" She said.

Oh Millie...

You're gonna' regret ever saying that.

***

Football games like these can only go one of two ways.

Let's just say this one was going to be hard to forget, for more than one of us.

"I'm serious! I had no idea what he was talking about!"

I rolled my eyes at Millie's annoying squeak and all the energy that came with it.

But apparently Jesse didn't seem to mind it. In fact, he looked like he was enjoying himself. She's making it harder than I thought it would be. I didn't think he'd be into so much sweetness and stuff. Ugh, just saying it makes me cringe.

The arena was close to campus, so we'd gathered around at Brown and decided to walk there all together.

"So, Jade- " Tyler tried making some conversation. I guess his concert fling was no longer a thing? "- what do you study?" He asked me.

Same old boring question, the classic- so what do you do?

"Business Studies."

"Cool." He cleared his throat. "How are you liking it?"

"It's okay, I guess."

Liz let out a quiet snort at Tyler's struggle to maintain the conversation afloat, it looked like she was having fun.

That makes one of us, I'm just here wishing this was over already.

And I am so regretting this choice of hoodie too, I had gone too far in the winter department, it had way too much fur on the inside and now I was debating whether or not to take it off or endure the heat.

The thing is, it was one of those days where you can sense the cold wanting to come in and Winter try to take over but it's not quite there yet. So I was pretty sure if I took it off, I'd just feel cold again.

Hard life decisions.

I noticed Tyler had given up on our little word exchange and was now trying to talk to Liz in order not to bore himself to death. He was lucky Liz was more of a people person than I was.

That's it, I'm taking it off. I can't stand it.

I slid the hoodie up over my head, which unfortunately latched on to the t shirt I was wearing beneath it, exposing a little bit of my underwear.

"Shit," I mumbled with the hoodie still covering my face.

When I finally got it to work in my favour and managed to get it off, I noticed Jesse staring once again, just like in the Lake Party. Although this time it was completely unintentional on my side.

But that doesn't mean I wasn't going to take advantage of the situation.

My lips produced a taunting smirk. "Close your mouth, Jessica. It can't be the first time you see a bra."

Jesse's blush crept all the way up from his neck, reaching his cheeks but he just rolled his eyes at my comment.

"Or is it?" I raised my brows. "How was the experience?"

He pursed his lips together and narrowed his eyes. "Shut up, it wasn't the first time."

"Sure, whatever you say," I muttered lowly, a knowing grin hidden behind my neutral expression.

"I need to pee," Liz announced openly.

"Good to know," Tyler said, which earned him a hard stare from Liz.

She rolled her eyes and said, "I'll be right back, wait for me."

"Actually while Liz goes to the bathroom, I'm going to get us some stuff to eat and drink," Tyler suggested. "Anything in particular that you like?" He asked generally.

Clearly he wanted to save himself some awkwardness of having to come up with conversation points to discuss with me so that was the perfect excuse.

"Jess, help me carry them back?" Tyler added.

Jesse hesitated but finally agreed and they were both off.

Now it was just Millie and I, all alone.

This wasn't awkward at all... I couldn't be bothered to make the effort to talk to her, I didn't even look her way, in fact.

However, it seemed like she had different plans.

"What do you think you're doing?" She snapped, breaking me from my thoughts.

I was wearing my usual blank expression before I raised my eyebrows at her slightly contained, but still excessively emotional outburst. "What do you mean?"

"You're really going to play dumb now, aren't you?" She scolded.

When she saw how much indifference this conversation was sparking in me, the frustration inside her escalated.

"You obviously know I'm into him, so what the hell is it you are you trying to do? I mean you already left it pretty clear you guys aren't a thing," she went on.

My face stayed right as it was. "Okay, you need to chill."

What has gotten into her? They literally know each other for three weeks, tops.

"You think I haven't noticed how you constantly hit on him?" She reprimanded.

"Oh my god, how many people do I have to say this to?" I questioned. Honestly, it was something that really irked me. "Intergender friendships are a thing."

Like what I had with Leon's best friend, Ben. I smiled internally as I recalled the memories I made in that place.

"So you haven't been flirting with him," Millie spoke, yet again.

I let out a small laugh. "Oh, I didn't say that."

Unlike me, she didn't find anything about our word exchange funny, she was dead serious. Narrowing her eyes she demanded, "What's your deal, Jade?"

I tilted my head as I observed her reactions to my presence. "That's for me to know and for you to stay out of," I told her with a fake smile, similar to those she'd been giving everyone ever since she stepped foot in that dining hall.

She inhaled sharply, trying to contain herself from shouting at me and decided to threaten me instead. "You know I've heard about you, right? So you better watch it."

I allowed myself to give her a dry chuckle. "That's cute," I said. "Don't worry too much about me. Besides, I don't think you should be treating Jesse as if he was your little puppy, but I guess that's just my opinion."

Millie was filled with rage, she obviously wasn't too fond of me. Her features were warped by an exasperated scowl but Jesse and the others were already coming back, so she had to keep it together.

Her voice turned into a quiet but stern whisper. "Look, I don't like you, I don't trust you and I-

"Good." I cut her off, not bothering to lower my voice. I scrunched my nose and curled the corner of my lips upwards ever so slightly. "You shouldn't."

"Hey, what are you guys talking about?"

I held eye contact with Millie for a second to let her know who she was dealing with before turning to them, smothering a cruel grin.

Two can play this game, Millie. You want fake? I'll give you fake.

"Nothing." I seamlessly plastered a genuine smile on my face. "Millie was just asking me for a tampon. Don't worry, girl. I got you."

Millie's cheeks immediately flushed bright red, but I'm guessing that wasn't solely out of embarrassment.

I forced my eyes shut and facepalmed. "Oh shit, my bad," I said in regret. "You guys didn't hear a thing." My index finger landed on both of the guys as I tried to get my point across.

Jesse raised his eyebrows and glanced over at Millie while Liz was simply and utterly shook. I wonder what they're all thinking.

Millie pursed her lips and gave him an awkward smile. "Yeah... it's that time of the month," she muttered.

Damn, I really am heartless.

"Anyway..." Tyler intervened, trying to get away from the awkwardness, once again. "Let's go sit down or we'll be left with the worst view."

We finally got to our seats and were about to sit down to enjoy the game when Liz grabbed my arm.

My blank gaze drifted upwards to meet hers.

"A friend of mine told me Victoria would be here," she said.

I just kept looking at Liz, confused.

"The bitch who stole my painting," she explained.

"And that affects us, how?" I questioned.

"Jade, we can confront her and get my work back."

I really didn't want to be dragged into any more confrontation but that piece of artwork meant a lot to Liz, so I ended up tagging along.

Let's just hope it doesn't get messy...

***

"Liz, we're getting back at Victoria, not overthrowing the Lannisters."

She stopped in her tracks to exclusively glare at me that much more intensely.

The inner corner of my lips arched upwards in response to her reaction and I resumed my pace, scanning the place in the lookout for the idiot that stole Liz's work.

"Yeah, well- " Liz began as she caught up to me, "- I still think we need a plan." She raised a hand up to her chin as she continued to think out loud. "I mean, for all we know, she could be dangerous."

"She did steal from you," I pointed out.

"Exactly," Liz agreed. "She's a criminal."

I chuckled, still looking around until my eyes landed on a tall girl with ashy blond, short hair.

"Found her."

"Where?" Liz demanded.

Coming closer to my best friend, I pointed towards the south bleachers, where Victoria was sitting and talking to a couple of her friends.

"She's dead," Liz growled and started heading in her direction before I swung my arm out in front of her chest and stopped her.

"We might not have a plan," I said. "But we have to be smart about this."

Liz shifted her attention to me and tilted her head. "What are you saying?"

I smirked knowingly. "Just follow my lead."

Liz and I both strode towards the bleachers to teach that moron a lesson and came to a stop right in front of Victoria, blocking her view of the game.

A perfectly bored expression rested on my face as she turned her focus on us.

Victoria arched an eyebrow. "Can I help you?"

Liz glanced at me expectantly, curious as to what I had come up with and waited patiently with both hands propped on her hips.

When I saw her, I thought twice about what I was doing. This was Liz's fight, she was perfectly capable of schooling this idiot on her own, so I just nodded at her, approving of whatever she wanted to do or say to the girl that was sitting in front of us.

Liz smiled in response and directed her stern gaze at Victoria. "Funny, I was about to ask you the same question."

The tall girl's face contorted into a brooding frown while she tried to decipher what Liz was implying by that. "Why would I need your help?"

Liz crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Well, clearly you're having trouble keeping up with me in visual studies," she explained. "Otherwise you wouldn't have stolen one of my final pieces."

Victoria's jaw basically touched the ground as she realized Liz had figured out it had been her who'd stolen that painting, but she quickly recovered and tried to play it off.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," she said, standing up opposite Liz.

They stared each other down, sizing the other up, and held eye contact for a while, waiting to see who would be the first to break.

I reckon there is really no need for me to tell you who caved in first.

I taught Liz everything she knows, so it came as no surprise when Victoria finally flinched under the intensity of Liz's defiant and rather gelid lour.

Before I had time to comment on this exhibit of hate and low-key sexually charged atmosphere, Victoria tried to make a run for it but ran into me instead, causing me to stumble backwards and hit my head thoroughly against one of the seats.

She even had the audacity to curse and still end up bouncing off prior to us having the chance to react, that raging lunatic.

Liz's voice vibrated faintly above me. "Oh my god, are you okay?"

"Shit," I muttered to myself.

"Oh, I am so killing that bitch."

With that, Liz was off, determined to break a few bones in Victoria's body. If she could find her, that is.

I rubbed the back of my head, trying to alleviate the throbbing pain. Pulling my hand away from my head, I checked to see if I had any blood.

Thankfully, that wasn't the case.

I'm pretty sure it had just been an insignificant hit to the head, but damn it, did it hurt.

I hadn't noticed Jesse running up to me and kneeling down on my side until I felt a hand touch my shoulder.

"Jade?"

I lifted my gaze up from the ground and searched for his.

In the process, I caught sight of Millie's truculent glare from behind him, which got me thinking.

That girl had some serious jealousy issues.

I clearly hadn't planned any of this but I was damn well going to use it in my favour.

See? Another downside of showing emotions, other people can see right through them and use it against you.

Just as I was about to do to Millie.

***

A/N

Ayeeee and another one down!!

Millie has a tough side, huh? I wonder what else she has...

And I missed Jade's inappropriate comments towards Jesse, even if there was only a small one in this chapter, hopefully those won't stop, loll. So what do you guys think Jade is about to do? And how do you think Millie will react? Is there a battle coming? Or better yet, a full blown war? Hehehee...

Anyway, thank you guys and catch you later!

***