When Alaska Velazquez clung tightly to Valerio's Montesinos' body, she didn't let him go for a whole minute and roughly twenty three seconds.

Her heart was still racing with surprise, trying to come down from the fact that Valerio, Valerio, was right in front of her, leaning down to return her tight hug. She forgot for a split moment that she was even in school.

"What the absolute hell are you doing here?" Ala asked, unable to stop the smile growing on her face. 

"Mamita, when the city of Gotham calls-"

"Don't say Batman arrives-"

"Batman arrives." Valerio concluded, tapping her slightly on the nose at her fake annoyed expression.

"I'm being serious, Rio." Alaska responded, shoving him slightly, which finally led to him giving a real answer when he sighed and smirked.

"Boarding school was a hard hit and miss so I'm back here to grace all of you with my presence. Especially yours, because I know you've missed me too much and probably can't finish the year without me." he replied with a mock bow.

Just like that, several seconds had passed and Valerio was holding her backpack as she took out the second pack of six juice boxes to stack in her locker to make it twelve. To say Valerio was happy to be hearing the voice of his friend after so many years in person would be an understatement. 

When the brunette first left for boarding school, it was an emotional departure. He even felt guilty for having to leave her at such a raw time in her life when she was still recovering from her father passing. Valerio remembered how he'd put off telling about how he was leaving until the night before. He went to her house after school and himself, Alejandro, and Alaska were all playing video games all day. When it got to around six o'clock, in her bedroom, deep into a make-out session, Ala pointed out how his vibe was off, and that was when he broke the news.

Let's just say it took an entire year before they got into contact again.

Even then, it was very mild with "Happy Birthday's" and "Merry Christmas's" up until the point where there was no communication. But there was no animosity between the two of them. They just lost touch. But one thing Alaska wouldn't admit out loud was that she'd missed him more than he'd ever realise.  The only thing that sucked was that he was Lu's half brother, so being friends with him meant seeing more of Lu. 

"I'm happy it didn't workout because I missed you so much." Ala admitted, giving him another hug. 

When they let go, Valerio leaned on the lockers next to her as she continued to arrange her own. The question that he wanted to ask her dead on his mind as he debated whether or not he should in fact talk to her about it or ignore it. He had a feeling that any topic about Guzman was still raw with her so he didn't know if it was the right time. 

As Ala put the last book in, she was listening to Valerio go on about how many parties he was excited about going to, but she didn't tune him out once. Hearing his mischievous plans was by far the highlight of her morning.

It was when his voice faded slowly to a pause that she looked at him and saw his eyes looking in the distance behind her. Ultimately, this made her turn as well, and just in time too because she witnessed that it was Samuel beginning to descend down the stairs that caught Valerio and apparently everyone around them's attention . . . including that of Alejandro, Ander, Lu, and finally, Guzman himself. 

"No, no, no." Ala quickly reputed, turning to Valerio. She ignored her heart beating out of her chest, filling with pain as she saw Guzman's back. She wasn't even looking at his face and she. felt all of whatever little growth had happened to her over the summer was feeling set back and had to leave at once. "I don't even care about the rivalry between them right now, I'm not staying for this childish foolishness."

Valerio watched as she just about slammed the locker door shut. The tall brunette could care less about what was about to occur either as he followed behind his friend into the classroom beside them to avoid what ever altercation was about to occur between them.

The pair didn't even get a chance to sit down fully when the door barged wide open with the internal handle banging into the wall. The metallic clank alone was enough to cause Valerio and Alaska to flinch and turn to the direction of the door, to see Guzman shove Samuel in through the door.

Alejandro didn't know what to do.

Ander knew about the tension between both of his friends and as much as it hurt him, he understood and didn't force anything that couldn't be there just yet. Ander told Alejandro to give him a quick second while he crossed across the hallway to where Guzman stood with Lu having a chat.

But everything happened so fast. It was the cracking sound of a fist against a jaw that made Ale drop whatever he was doing and turn abruptly to find the source. That was when he saw Guzman drop his bag aggressively and topple Samuel. 

Samuel fell into the door, breaking it open. Everything was moving too fast and all anyone who was around them could hear was protest to break up the fight. A series of 'Stop' over 'Ooh's' could be heard from all around the corridor as students preferred to stop and stare rather than help. 

It wasn't until Polo and Ander held Guzman back while Alejandro shielded Samuel to prevent him from lunging again and the principal barged in to break up the fight herself  with Nadia following closely behind her.

Valerio was so engrossed in all the drama that he didn't even notice until the last minute that Alaska had left a few seconds earlier and was no longer in the room. 

-

"That wound that Marina's death has left in all of us . . . will take a long time to heal." The principal started, looking all around the room.

Samuel frowned as he held an ice pack over his bruised left face and felt himself tense up at the word 'wound.'

"I need help to achieve it," she continued while looking at Samuel and starkly looked towards Guzman, "from all of you."

"Guzman . . . I can't even begin to imagine what you're going through."

It was clear the the principal's expectation and intention was to sympathise with the blonde, but all he could do was look at her angrily with red-rimmed eyes. Spitefully, he said:

"Then imagine," he snapped and leaned closer, "that you had to bump into the one to blame for all that pain everyday in the halls-"

"Samuel isn't the one to blame."

"If Samuel hadn't come to this school . . . If him and his fucking brother had stayed in their shitty little village, none of this would ever have happened."

"Your father got him the scholarship."

"You're the one that renewed it. Por que?"

"He's a good student. It wouldn't be fair."

"Fair?" 

Alejandro and Ander, who were seated together looked at one another and cringed knowing his tone alone suggested that instead of calming him down, the principal was only enraging him even more. Guzman stood up and walked slowly towards her.

"Marina is dead. My sister is dead at sixteen years old. Is that fair?"

"I'm to going to argue with you-"

"From now on," Guzman cut her off by turning around and facing the class, "just so you know, if you talk to that vermin, you are dead to me! If you're with him, you're against me."

"This is not about taking sides."

"Yes it is, and you have already chosen yours." 

With that, Guzman stormed out of the classroom right before Valerio could begin his rant about how he thought a good party was in order, but Ale and Ander looked at one another again and began their own conversation when Ander looked around and realised he still hadn't seen Alaska yet.

"Did Alaska drop English this year? She's not here."

"She said she's taking it this year but I don't know why she's not here. I hope she's not skipping it because-"

"Because of Guzman and Lu?" Ander asked, sympathising.

"Guzman, Lu, Samuel, Nadia , joder, everyone in this room."

"Is she still struggling? I thought she was over the breakup."

"Ander honestly, I don't know. She says she is and I believe her, but I don't know why she's skipping this class. I'll text her later and find out if she misses the next one too."

-

The worst lesson of Samuel's schedule absolutely had to be P.E. 

He absolutely loathed the class with a passion because he hated having to change from outfit to outfit and thought that was a huge waste of time. He slowly lugged over the track field, spotting the tall brunette who had waltzed into the school earlier that day and caught everyone's attention with her . . . interesting choice of fashion.

When he saw her cellphone in her hand with light music blasting from it, he took his chance.

"Better put your phone away. If you get caught using it, they'll confiscate it."

The girl humphed and put her phone back in her pocket and continued on until Samuel spoke again.

"Are you a scholarship student?" To which she scoffed.

"You see this?" She asked rhetorically, pointing at her hoop earring, "pure gold, kid."

"Well then you must, be rich but you aren't like the others."

"And proud of it. You got a problem with that?"

"It was a compliment."

She didn't have enough time to reply until the teacher called everyone in to circle together. 

"Rebeka; with a 'k'. But my friends call me Rebe." She introduced, outstretching her right hand for a handshake.

"Samuel."

When the P.E teacher asked everyone to form groups of six with both boys and girls to start with dynamics, Samuel watched as Rebeka looked around until she saw Nadia and ushered her forward. Samuel couldn't lie and say he didn't feel slightly awkward especially since he hadn't talked to Nadia since school ended last academic year. But when Nadia came over and her and Rebe kissed each other's cheeks as a greeting, he felt whatever nervousness disintegrate.

"We need three more over here!" Rebeka called out again to the teacher.

Samuel then felt nervous. Where the teacher was standing was around the more popular kids. Which meant that if he wanted to, he would easily pick anyone from that group. Which is exactly what he did as he shouted: "You two get over there!" to Christian and Carla, causing them to reluctantly make their way over towards their small group. 

The atmosphere around them was uncomfortable, therefore quiet enough for Samuel to catch onto how quiet Christian was. It was very unlike him; very out of character, especially since last year he was far more vibrant and outgoing. Now he just looked very on edge and nervous almost as if-

"Can the old man not count or what; Señor! I said we needed three more, we're five now!"

From Samuel's perspective, he could see the teacher count over him and his group, ad when he realised that we were in fact five, he looked next to him and pointed one more time at the new brunette he was hoping deep down wouldn't get called.

Alaska wasn't even paying attention as she crossed her arms and was daydreaming at her semi frozen yellow Yeezys. But when the coach blew his whistle, she was snapped out of her daze and she looked up at him confused, only to see that he was pointing to his left.

"Join that team, Alaska." 

With a frown, Alaska looked behind him to see exactly the team he was telling her to join and when she did, she couldn't stop herself from looking at the teacher up and down in annoyance. Thankfully, he didn't notice. 

But Ander did, to which he chuckled lightly. 

Samuel watched as the brunette walked over slowly and reluctantly, not making eye contact with anyone and a frown across her face. Unconsciously, Nadia and Samuel all glanced at each other quickly, as if thinking the same thing. If Samuel thought it couldn't get any more awkward, he was naive.

In a flash, Christian's frowned was turned upside down as the whole group noticed him beam widely when Alaska finally got closer. The two gave each other a small smile, and a side hug to which they didn't let go of one another until the teacher blew the whistle to announce the commencement of activities. 

Little did they both know that they needed one another's company more than anything right then. 

The sports class was annoying. 

Shortly after they were finished with the quick drills, the teacher had them do a bunch of rather random sports, almost as if he'd planned them on the spot as the time went on. Ala didn't complain though because she knew deep down that if she didn't do P.E, she'd have no other form of exercise. 

The jumping jacks she'd just finished wasn't even the strangest part of the class; Rather, it was Christian's unusual stand-offishness. Her friend was only somewhat happy  when the dynamics began, but when it got to the other activities, he became more closed off. At one point, when it was his turn to run forwards towards the post, everyone did except him. His expression alone was enough for Ala to know that something was definitely wrong with him, but she would get to the bottom of it later. The problem she was facing in that moment was that she had to do seven reps of ten crunches with a partner. But Ander, the only other person she shared the class with that she liked, was ahead of her on the fifth exercise while she was on the fourth. 

Ala was one rep into the workout when she felt darkness around her already closed eyes which signalled that someone was standing right in front of her, and they were blocking out the sun. But when she opened her eyes, ready to tell them off, she wished she kept them closed at who the person was. 

"T-The teacher said I should spot you because we both don't have partners . . ." Nadia stuttered, nervously.

"I'm fine." Alaska said coldly as she looked ahead and struggled just a little bit to make the second crunch. She was 0.5 seconds into closing her eyes when:

"Nadia, do you know what it's like to fail on the first day? That is what you will be doing if you don't assist Alaska in the next three seconds."

Ala's eyes opened again as she scowled knowing there was no way out. 

She felt Nadia small hands pressing on the top of her sneakers as she slowly went back down again. The two didn't speak another word more. It was bad enough that the other P.E class was full, so she couldn't drop this one and join her brother's class because at least she'd have him; no. She was forced to interact as well while being stuck in the class she hated filled with people she loathed, and there was nothing worse. What made matters worse was that Guzman was in this same class as well, but luckily for her, he wasn't doing the random exercises and was on the track instead. It put some sort of distance between them that she appreciated-

"Ala . . ."

The brunette's frown deepened as she heard and ignored Nadia calling.

"Alaska-"

"What?"

Nadia paused slightly taken aback at her sharp tone, but she didn't let that discourage her.

"I just- I just want to apologise-"

"Apology not accepted."

"Please just hear me out, okay?"

"Nadia, por favor," Alaska scoffed, leaning back into the crunch.

"Listen to what I have to say. I feel ashamed of myself and I want to apologise for keeping such a deep secret from you especially now that I've understood that I betrayed your trust but Guzman-" Nadia quickly tried to rush through but was stopped when Alaska stopped the exercise completely and sat up, making Nadia push back.

"Nadia, how long did you know?"

"Ala-"

"Answer that question. I don't want to hear a story, all I want is for you to answer that question."

"I- A few days into the first week of school." Nadia sighed, and looked down in despair. 

"Okay," Ala said simply and stood up off the grass. Alejandro had filled him in on the details of everything he knew about the entire situation, and part of those details was that Nadia found out when they had just begun to be friends, but she didn't know exactly how long. This upset her even more.

"I will repeat it again, apology not accepted. And learn to take blame when there is some. No one held a gun to your head or your family hostage. But don't say you were my friend when you withheld serious information like that from me. And don't worry, you're not the first person to let me down." With that, she turned around and despite her name being called by her teacher, Alaska stormed off towards the main building, still shaking with anger.

-

"I'm hungry." Valerio said blankly, looking around the kitchen as soon as he stepped into it. 

Ala rolled her eyes and placed her phone on the table and propping up on a bar stool.

"What do you want to eat?"

Valerio's eyes stopped surveying the area and smirked as he looked at her at her question.

"You."

"What're you waiting for then?" Alaska fired back quickly, definitely playing along, even though the part of her still attracted to Valerio hoped he wasn't playing. 

"I am right fucking here! Relax!" Alejandro yelled with disgust giving dirty looks to the both of them, while opening the fridge.

"You can watch if you want, but it's going to get awkward for you since she's your sister." Valerio joked, wrapping his arms around Ala's mid-section as she leaned her back into his chest.

"I will ban you from this house."

Ala and Valerio couldn't help but laugh at that one, because it was still funny how uncomfortable Alejandro felt at the naturally sexual nature of their friendship. He never understood how they could keep feelings away, but he didn't even try to ask. As he cut the cake slices for them, he heard Valerio ask as he made a cup of Kool-Aid:

"So the club tonight-"

"I'm not going."

Valerio pushed his sunglasses down his face and looked at her with a shocked look even though deep down he wasn't shocked.

"Y por que no, mi vida?" Valerio asked, leaning his elbows forward on the counter.

"It's not my thing." She replied simply.

"I'm calling bullshit. Is this about Guzman and all the other weirdos?" 

Alaska felt tensed and while she was thinking of how to answer the question, Alejandro came back and interrupted, setting the plate three cake slices on the counter with three forks next to them. 

"Si. She doesn't want to go because she doesn't want to risk running into your sister and knocking her out."

"Half sister," Valerio corrected, and turned back to Alaska who shrugged, "and please don't knock her out. My father will ask too many questions that I don't have the answers for."

The remark made Alejandro burst with laughter as he walked out of the large kitchen towards the stairs, claiming he was going to get changed out of his uniform.

When he was gone, Valerio turned back to Alaska who was still heavily invested in the cake in front of her. The two made small conversation but not awkward conversation, while they continued to munch on their cake slices, until Valerio interrupted. 

"Talk to me. I don't actually know what happened between you two except that it was a "bad breakup, and now he's with Lu." He said calmly, resting his palm on top of hers, in a tone he used all the time when he wanted to coax her into doing something because he knew she couldn't ever say no to him whenever he spoke so soft like that.

Ala looked up at him, noticing his genuine concern and sighed. 

"Guzman was cheating on me with Lu since like that summer before school started and now he's with her. I don't want to get into the details but Rio, I can't be around those people okay? It doesn't make feel good inside, Rio. We're going to be in VIP, so we're secluded; you, Ale, Ander, and if Christian comes, Christian, are the only people I'm going to be around. But each of you have your own thing going on and when we get there, you're going to leave me."

Valerio scooted his chair in closer and lifted up her other hand with his other one this time.

"I won't leave you for a second-"

"And I won't either," Alejandro called from behind her. She didn't even get a chance to turn around at him as she felt his long arm cradle around her shoulders, "if you feel uncomfortable at any point, just tell me, and we'll leave."

She watched as both boys looked at her with reassuring smiles on their faces. She couldn't help but slightly consider the proposition of going out. She was itching for a night out to dance and let lose, but what stopped her always was the thought of her running into Guzman especially, which would ruin her entire night because the the thought of him made her heart hurt. But she believed the boys in front of her when they assured that they'd try to make her have as much fun as possible. 

Alaska appreciated that.

A/N: Surprisingly, I don' t have much to say. Hope you're all okay and well! See you in the next chapter WHICH I WILL TRY NOT TO DELAY. <3