The dinner was for the most part very awkward for Hayden. He had no idea of the previous argument that had went down so when he saw Kade glaring at Ares the entire dinner, he felt as if maybe he should say something but at the same time didn't know what to say.

The others seemed not to care as Kade stabbed at his chicken, probably imagining it as Ares' face, and said man looked as if he was about to drop a load in his pants.

Hayden glanced over at Ceres who was eating normally and he decided that he too should try to enjoy the food. It was very good after all.

"So Hayden, any plans for after high school? Are you going to college?" Arthur asked as he looked at the boy across from him.

"Yeah, I do plan too" Hayden said and Arthur hummed in approval.

"Do you have anything specific you want to major in?" He asked and Hayden shook his head.

"I'm not really sure, I thought I could just take a liberal arts course and figure it out" Hayden answered truthfully. He hoped that his answer wouldn't make Ceres' father disappointed since he would most likely want his daughter to be dating someone who has their life together.

Something Hayden didn't exactly have at the moment.

"Well, you're still young. You have plenty of time to think of what it is that you really want to do. All of my sons have majored in different things, I'm sure you can ask any of them for some advice as to what theirs entailed" Arthur said and at the mention of them, the guys turned to their father.

Ceres had given a quick explanation as to what her brothers took up in college. Lance majored in Business Management, Roman took up writing and literature, Ares had decided on Psychology, Kade surprisingly went for engineering, Lucas went for biology to make his way to the medical department, and Max obviously took up arts for his painting.

"Yeah but you might wanna ask Ares first since it doesn't seem like he has much time left" Max snickered and Ares rolled his eyes.

Hayden couldn't help but let out a smile at the two.

It wasn't easy at first to get them to like him, if he was being honest he felt that they still didn't really like him, but he was grateful that they were willing to talk with him and help him.

He was grateful that Ceres' family was very understanding and he made a promise to himself that he would do his best to work hard so that their advice didn't go to waste.

~ Next Day at School ~

"AAH!! WHAT IS THAT?!!! A CORPSE??!!" Diana screeched upon entering their class. She had stumbled upon a dead body slumped over the desk that was usually occupied by Ross.

Ceres and Hayden looked over at the body and Ceres turned back to Diana.

"This is not a corpse. It's a Ross" She said bluntly as if Ross were an item on sell.

"Studied....worked...so...ha..rd" Ross muttered things that the trio could barely hear. His eyes were bloodshot and bags dropped heavily from underneath them. His hair was also frazzled and his clothes were wrinkled.

"I don't understand, you've never studied this hard before" Diana said as she observed Ross' appearance.

"Carter is what happened" Fred said from behind the group, effectively scaring Diana at his sudden appearance.

He too had the same disheveled look but he wasn't as bad as Ross. He actually had the energy to tidy himself up in the morning.

"Ross blabbed about his test and Carter interrogated us about our grades then forced us to work until we got every problem on our homework right...all with that shit eating grin on his face" Fred explained with an annoyed look on his tired face.

"Oh...poor Ross" Ceres muttered.

"I like Carter! He's actually getting these lazy bums to do their work" Diana said with an approving nod.

"Let's just sit before the teacher comes in" Hayden urged the girls to their seats and just then the teacher walked in.

Class went by pretty quickly as the teacher had introduced a small project to the class and assigned everyone groups. Hayden and Diana had ended up in a group together with two other people, while Ross and Ceres were in groups with other people.

Ceres found herself not having a problem communicating with her group members as everyone seemed to take the responsibilities of their own parts. She was glad that she got lucky unlike last time where she had members that were flaky.

After class, the group of friends left the room and reconvened at Fred's locker.

"What time do you guys wanna meet up for the open house?" Diana asked.

"Around 4 should be fine" Fred said.

"I'm going to be at the school but I'll be a little late to the open house since I'm helping set up" Hayden explained and the others nodded in understanding.

"Alright, see you guys then" Ross said and the
group of friends went their own ways.

"You look excited" Hayden commented as he  and Ceres walked on the semi-empty street.

"I am. I can't wait to see all of the things everyone thought of. I even heard there's going to be a haunted house" Ceres said. She was an avid fan of horror related things, even the movies that looked really fake.

"Are you inviting anyone?" Ceres asked curiously.

The open house was open to all, not just incoming students, so many other students invited their friends and family. Ceres had already invited her brothers who didn't mind attending and some even cleared their schedules just so they could.

Hayden shook his head at the answer. He highly doubted his parents would be home, they were too busy traveling for their jobs. And even if he did manage to ask one of them, they'd probably call it a waste of time.

"No" he said shortly and Ceres hummed.

"Not even me?" She asked with a small smile. Hayden gave the shorter girl a questioning look.

"You're already going though" he said.

"Nope, I won't go unless you invite me" Ceres said while pretending to stick her nose up stubbornly.

A warm feeling blossomed in Hayden's chest and he was once again reminded of the many reasons as to why he loved Ceres. It seemed like she always knew what to say or do in the right moments.

Letting out a laugh, Hayden looked to Ceres who was now also looking back at him.

"Will you come to the open house with me?" Hayden asked and Ceres made a fake surprise expression before nodding excitedly.

"Yes, I will" She said and grabbed Hayden's hand.

The two had arrived at her house and Hayden hadn't even realized they made it there so quickly. He wanted to spend more time with Ceres but it seems good things always had to come to an end.

"Thank you for inviting me" Ceres said with a smile.

It was as if something took over him inside and Hayden hadn't even realized that he was moving closer to Ceres but it was too late when he did as he had already pressed his lips against hers in a soft kiss.

Ceres stood there for a moment in shock but surprisingly, she didn't mind the sudden kiss. It was her first kiss and although it was unexpected, she felt nothing but butterflies erupting in her stomach as Hayden pressed his lips more firmly against hers and began to move them.

The kiss was very sweet and slow as both of them were still a bit timid. It was both of their first kiss' so they weren't exactly sure how far it should go.

Breaking away for the unfortunately necessary oxygen, Hayden leaned his forehead against Ceres.

"I love you so much that I don't know what to do with myself..." Hayden muttered against her lips. Ceres' face bursted in to flames at the words but nonetheless showed a loving smile.

"Mm, I love you too" Ceres said softly.

"I guess I'll see you tomorrow" Hayden said and Ceres nodded. Hayden placed a lingering kiss to his girlfriend's forehead before letting her go off to her house.

Ceres walked into her house left in a daze. Her heart was thumping at an alarming rate and her face was still burning that bright red. She could feel her lips tingling from the kiss that she had experienced not even minutes ago.

"Huh? Ceres, you okay? Your face is super red" Max said as he noticed Ceres walking to her room. He was coming out of his to go and get a snack downstairs when he saw Ceres walking as if she were in a trance.

"I..." Ceres trailed off and Max furrowed his brows concernedly.

"What's wrong?" He asked taking a step closer.

"I had my first kiss..." She said looking at Max and Max could only just look at her in surprise.

"Oh..." Max muttered.

He felt a bit awkward as he wasn't exactly sure on what to say but he couldn't just not say anything.

"Well...how was it?" He asked awkwardly and he relaxed a bit when seeing the small smile on Ceres' face.

"It was...nice" She said in a soft, almost whispering voice.

"That's good" Max said before ruffling Ceres' hair.

"Just don't go around telling the others, they might flip" Max said with a chuckle and Ceres also let out a small laugh.

Ceres went into her room and flopped down on her bed next to Bubble who looked at her curiously, seeing that her owner was in a happier than usual mood.

"Bubble...you won't believe what happened today" Ceres said as she stroked Bubble's fur and from there, she began to retell her experience to her cat that probably couldn't even understand her.