"This salad tastes like sadness."

Casey sighed and glanced at me. "You're annoying."

"You're annoying," I retorted.

She let out a laugh and reached over to smack my arm.

"I seriously cannot with the kids at this school!" Sophie huffed, joining us at the lunch table.

Madison sighed and sat beside Sophie. I gave her a questioning look and she shook her head. "Trust me, you don't wanna know," she said with an additional sigh. "I'm exhausted just thinking about what goes on up there." She pointed to Sophie's head and received a glare.

"What happened?" I asked Sophie.

"Krista happened," she huffed.

I exchanged glances with Casey who just rolled her eyes and popped a fry in her mouth. She then proceeded to scan the cafeteria while sipping on her coke.

"This sounds promising," I told her.

"She doesn't even have a valid reason to be upset," Madison scoffed.

"I do too!"

"Do not."

"Do too!"

"You two are just dumber than a bag of hammers," Casey muttered.

I shushed her and turned to Sophie. "I'm listening."

"So, we were in Bio when―"

"Krista did nothing," Madison cut in.

I chuckled and took a sip of my water.

I only had two friends back home, so having a group of them now was kind of exciting and although Sophie and Madison's friendship took some getting used to, I actually enjoyed their little arguments. When it was just April and Jason with a very disgruntled me stuck in the middle, things tended to get weird when they fought.

Sophie sighed. "I'm just upset because I was not the centre of attention and nobody said I was the prettiest."

"Are you―" Casey started and then paused to suck in a breath. "You're freaking kidding me, right?"

"Told you," Madison muttered. She held up her thumb and index finger together. "I'm this close to losing my shit."

I started laughing and almost choked on my water, but it was worth it. It felt good to be back.

***

"Where do you see yourself in five years?"

Rolling naked in money.

"In a beautiful house on the beach that overlooks the ocean, with my husband and two kids, a dog and possibly a cat too."

The class laughed and I turned to stare at Savannah. I'd never noticed her in any of my classes before I actually knew who she was, but it turned out that we had Psychology together.

I've decided that I don't like her. To be fair, she's never done anything to me personally, but she broke girl code by dating Blake, so that means that I simply don't like her, on principle.

"Settle down now," our psych teacher Mr. Aurelio said with a chuckle. "Thank you Savannah, would anyone else like to share?"

This was actually my favorite class. I loved analyzing people and over thinking situations, not even the fact that I had it with Savannah could ruin this for me. But that didn't mean that I was gonna go volunteering to share anything with these kids, I barely knew them.

"Ms. Matthews?"

"What?" I gasped. "My hand wasn't even raised!"

"That's the beauty of it," Mr. Aurelio replied with a lazy smile.

Rolling naked in money, was the only thing that I thought of when he'd first asked the question but now that it was actually directed at me, I came up blank. "Um..." I started.

"Do you see yourself in a beautiful house overlooking the ocean as Savannah said..." he began.

No way Jose! While that was the ideal goal that most persons had, it just wasn't for me.

"Or..." he prompted.

The truth was that I didn't like to think about my future anymore. My dad and I used to sit and talk for hours about the future I had ahead of me and we'd even discussed me deferring college for a year so that we could just travel the country together, but since his death I hadn't really thought about the next five years beyond graduating high school and sleeping for a full two years after that.

Sounded like a pretty bleak future to me.

"I see myself five years into the future celebrating the fifth anniversary of you asking me this question," I replied with a cheesy smile.

"Good one," he laughed. "I'll get back to you in a minute."

I nodded and flashed him a thumbs up. He was easily my favorite teacher.

"What about you Oscar?" he asked a boy a few rows away from me.

"With you. Seriously, I'm never leaving."

I chuckled and mentally gave him a pat on the back.

Mr. Aurelio laughed and muttered "God forbid," which made the rest of the class crack-up. He raised his hand in the air and signaled for us to settle down before writing something on the board. "Your homework," he told us with a devilish grin.

Where do you see yourself in five years? (500 words)

"It's worth 30% of your final grade for the semester," he added. When he saw our shocked faces he burst into laughter. "It was a joke people. Lighten up!"

Haha! This guy.

After school I was sitting on the steps waiting for Carter's practice to be over and playing a game on my phone when someone stumbled into me.

"I'm sorry," a familiar voice said.

I looked up, shielding my eyes from the sun and found myself staring at Aiden. "Hi," I giggled.

"Hi," he replied with a laugh. "I didn't see you there."

"I figured as much. You literally stumbled into me."

"Yeah," he scratched the back of his neck. "Sorry."

"No worries," I shrugged and turned my attention back to my game.

He stood there for a few more seconds before he sat beside me. I raised my brow at him but remained silent.

"Nice weather we're having," he casually commented.

"Really?" I laughed. "You want to talk about the weather?"

He gave me a sheepish smile. "I'm sorry, but you make me nervous. It's really your fault that I drew a blank."

I looked away to hide the tinge of pink that was sure to be on my cheeks. "Uh huh," was all that I could muster.

I made him nervous? *Cue the internal giggle*

"You don't believe me?"

I shrugged.

"I was so distracted by you that I walked right into you."

"You told me that you didn't see me."

"I lied."

I glanced at him and burst out laughing at his expression. He was sporting the pouty look and it made him look so... "Adorable," I whispered.

He smiled little. "Did you just call me adorable?"

I raised my brow. "Did I?"

He nodded and accidentally brushed his leg against mine, sending tiny shivers throughout my entire body.

I gasped and he stood up in a rush. "I'm sorry, but I've gotta go do...a thing."

I swallowed and nodded at him before he sprinted down the stairs. My eyes followed him all the way to the parking lot before I looked at my phone.

What just happened?

***

"Can I have those fries?" Caitlyn asked.

I looked up from my homework and raised my brow. "No?"

"Why not?"

Did I really need to say it? I gently placed my pen on the kitchen counter beside my notepad and laptop, and narrowed my eyes at her. "Because they're mine."

"Someone needs a lesson on sharing," she replied with an amused laugh.

"Tell you what," I said, leaning forward and clasping my hands in front of me. "When you learn how to be nice to me, I'll consider learning how to share with you."

She rolled her eyes and grabbed a handful of my fries before sauntering away with another laugh.

I chuckled to myself and picked up my pen. Sometimes I saw hope for an amiable relationship with Caitlyn and this just happened to be one of those times.

I was almost done with my essay for Mr. A―an essay that I bullshitted my way through by the way―when my phone vibrated. It was a text from Casey. Can I sleep over tonight?

Sure, I'll let Tori know. I replied and hit send.

Thanks! Be there in 15.

I closed my laptop and gathered my things before making my way to my room. I did a quick sweep of the room and packed away a few stray items before going back downstairs.

April was the only person that I'd ever shared a room with and I'd never bothered to tidy up before she came over. We'd grown so comfortable around each other that it had never even crossed my mind.

My friendship with Casey, however, was still pretty new so tidying up a bit was necessary. I didn't want her to think that I was a total slob. Because I wasn't, but cleaning my room just wasn't the highlight of any of my days.

I found Tori in her study and told her that Casey would be spending the night, then I ordered a pizza for us and fries for Caitlyn.

"Can you get me breadsticks?" Carter asked, poking his head into the kitchen.

I flashed him a thumbs up and called back the Peach Pit to add the breadsticks to our order.

Casey showed up a few minutes later. "Thanks for letting me spend the night," she sighed, giving me a hug.

I grabbed her bag. "Since when are you a hugger?" I asked as we climbed the stairs to my room.

She shrugged and opened the door. I let her go in first before depositing her bag next to mine on the floor.

"This is nice," she commented, surveying the room. "Needs a bit more color though, but it's homey."

I sighed and gave her a pointed stare. It wasn't the first time that she had been in my room and it wasn't the first time she'd told me that it needed more color.

"A little bit of yellow would be nice," she mused.

"Nobody asked you," I snorted and stuck my tongue out at her.

"Real mature," she replied, rolling her eyes. She walked over to the bed and plopped down.

"Are you hungry? I ordered pizza but it should've been delivered by now," I mumbled more to myself than to her.

"I already ate," she answered distractedly. She was rummaging around for something to change into.

"T-shirts are in the second drawer and there are towels in the closet," I told her before I left the room.

I found Caitlyn in the kitchen munching on her fries, the box of pizza was left untouched. She nodded at me and slid a can of coke across the counter. I grabbed it and popped the lid. "Casey's here," I informed her.

She arched her brow but remained silent.

"What?" I asked, taking a sip of the coke.

She shrugged and put her fries away, before leaving the kitchen.

I don't think I'll ever understand that child.

I finished off my coke and threw away the can before leaving the kitchen also.

As I made my way to the living room, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and scrolled through my contacts. When I found the one that I wanted, I clicked it, quietly opened the door, and stepped onto the porch.

"Hello?"

"Hi," I said softly. "It's me."

"What do you want?"

Taken aback by his tone I gasped. "Jason?"

"Yeah?"

"It's me, Camille."

"I heard you the first time," he snapped, clearly annoyed.

Something was wrong. Jason never snapped at anyone, let alone me. "Is something the matter?" I asked after a second.

"What do you want?" he repeated.

"I just called to say hi," I mumbled.

"Okay."

"Seriously? What's with the cold shoulder, Jase?"

"It's Jason," he said, his voice strained. "You don't get to call me Jase anymore."

"I don't underst―"

"Look, Camille," he sighed. "We haven't spoken in months, so I really don't know why you're calling me now, but if it's about April then the both of you can just go ahead and shove it."

And with that the line clicked dead.

I stared the screen in disbelief. What the fudge just happened?