~A/N: Thank you for your patience, exams are over so now I'm freeeeeeee! Enjoy!~ 

Luckily enough, I didn't vomit. I choked it down, at least half of what was in front of me. Mum and Dad were beaming when I went to bed, as if they were trying to encourage me. I heard them talking, saying things like, 'she's being looking a little off lately' and 'should we take her to see someone?'. I shudder and hide under the duvet. At around one o'clock in the morning mum comes in and places a mandarin on the window sill, and stares at me as I pretend to sleep. She stays there for about fifteen minutes before kissing my forehead and leaving the room.

The next morning when I'm packing away all my school gear, mum pulls me aside, leading me into the kitchen. She takes me into the pantry and brings out the first aid material.

"I'm going to redress the bandage on your cheek," she announces.

"What? Why?"

"So it's fresh."

"But it was only applied yesterday!" I feel guilty since it was Clarke's handiwork.

"Who's the nurse here? Me, or you?" she sighs, finding the bandages.

"You," I grunt.

"That's right, now hold still, this may hurt."

She pulls off the bandage and gasps as the bruising and cut is revealed, "How did you manage that?"

"It's a long story..." I mumble, "to make it short I fell into the brick wall by the library."

Lies rumble through my head again.

"You need to slow down and take things easy or you are going to seriously injure yourself," Mum demands.

She tips this powder on my cheek, the stuff that speeds up mitosis or is it meiosis? She chooses a bandage that matches my skin tone for 'subtle application' and carefully sticks it on. She gives it a light peck. Soon I'm whisked out the door, being escorted to the train station by my father.

He hugs me goodbye which slightly embarrasses me as workers communing to work look at us with either smiles or scorns on their faces. I nip onto the train before the doors close and weave through the people to my normal seat next to Mianna. She's ruffling through her violin case and doesn't notice me. I turn to stare at her, it takes two minutes for her to notice me when she looks up, jumping.

I laugh at her and she playfully hits my knee, "Tria, guess what?!"

I pretend to ponder the question as if my life depended on it.

"Darrin wants to run away and join the circus with you?" I ask.

"I wish," she scoffs, "but not quite."

"Well what is it then?"

"Clarke's invited us over to his place to work on Science this weekend."

My heart skips a beat, we soar, "h-how come I wasn't told before?"

"Oh, that. We couldn't get a hold of you after you'd gone to dinner, we all tried, honestly."

I reach into my bag and take out my phone, I press the on button, and my phone restarts, I groan, "I accidentally turned my phone off," I blush.

"Isn't it exciting anyway?" Mianna giggles, then goes pale, "that's if my parents will let me!"

"What? Have you got something plannes?" 

"My Uncle Frederick is coming over for the week!" she nods in a whisper, shivering, "He always asks about my personal life! Like if I've done it yet, or know how to use a tampon! It's stuff that's private and I only really wanna talk to my mum or friends about that kinda stuff. He just makes me feel so awkward and uncomfortable. And whenever he hugs me he touches my bum!"

"Why don't you tell your parents about it?" I ask, in a low voice, "that's what I would do, they would listen."

"Because he does the same thing to all us and my brother! They don't want to have to suffer on their own, so they make me suffer along with them," she groans.

"He sounds sketchy," I splutter,  "but at least your parents turn to you for support!"

Positive tracking! Yay! Thank you to my Kindegarten teacher who told me to always look on the bright side...

"You don't know they half of it," Mianna sighs, rolling her eyes.

After a few more stops, we arrive at school and Mianna is brainstorming ways to ask her parents to miss out on her Uncle's visit. Clarke, Darrin and the guys are sitting by the big Oak Tree and we walk up to meet them.

"Tria!" Clarke wraps me in a tight hug and smiles wide.

"Hey Clarke," I murmur.

"Oh good, you changed your dressing," Clarke states smoothing out my hair, as I nod in relief.

"Yeah, thanks to you, SuperNurse."

"Is that some sort of pun relating to my name?"

"I didn't think of that, but I guess it is."

He laughs, the sweetest music, "Clarke Kent used to be my role model, I read the comics before bed every night and watched every single movie."

"That's cute. Belle from Beauty and the Beast has always been my role model. Because she wasn't shallow like society."

He nods, "You two are alike."

"Not really," I screw up my nose, then change the subject, "I can't wait for Saturday, by the way."

We sit down, "Are you coming?"

"I'll have to ask my parents," I reply, looking up at the Oak Tree's foliage, it's dark and well... green.

"I hope you'll be able to come," Clarke murmurs, grabbing my hand.

"It'll be fun."

I nod a little too eagerly.  

"I have a science joke for you," he announces, I look at him, and his chocolatey eyes.

"Is it any good?" I tease, poking him in the side, making him jerk and we laugh.

"You'll have to tell me," he smirks, I know he thinks it's witty, "What did the thermometer say to the graduated cylinder?"

"You look hot, let me see if you have a temperature?" I blurt, knowing how horrible my guess was.

"No, but that's pretty good," he grins, I frown in confusion, it wasn't goof... "Wait for my answer... you may be graduated, but I have more degrees," he winks.

I snort, "Ten out of ten, Torelli."

"Did you just snort? That's so adorable!"

"Snorting shows our true femininininity... wait femininity... feminity?"

"Femininity," he confirms, tapping my nose, "It's like anemone. Anenomenomemone..."

The bell rings while we mispronounce words from our language which is frankly messed up. Clarke walks me to my form classroom. I hug him goodbye and wait for the teacher to let us in before he leaves to his own form. Mianna isn't in my form, but Theo and Mick are, so they kindly sit next to me each morning which I couldn't appreciate more. They talk about random things, mostly making puns.

Our form teacher, Mr. Stanley, hands out forms and places them on our desks. Medical, activity and consent forms.

"School camp?" Theo laughs. "Already?"

"Middle of next term boys," Mr. Stanley announces. "Take the forms home and get them signed as quickly as possible. We're going on an aquatic camp along the Swan River."

"In term three? It'll be freezing!" a girl squeals.

"Not really, you're all tough, am I right?"

"Will it be boring like last year's?"

"Personal opinion," Mr. Stanley snaps, "some enthusiasm will be appreciated folks."

Theo and Mick cheer.

"Thanks boys," Mr. Stantley chuckles, "Activities will include swimming, hiking, canoeing, kayaking, surfing, knee boarding, wakeboarding, water skiing if you're skilled enough and learning to use oars. Oh, and fishing."

"That sounds fun," I say to the boys.

"It actually does for once," Mick agrees.

"It's from the sixteenth to the twenty-second of August," Theo says, "that's heaps long! I don't think I have enough clothes to last me!"

"You'll be doing your own washing there," Mr. Stanley coughs, "This is a chance for you to learn independence. And have fun."

"Fun? How is that fun when we have to do chores?" Alisha (did I mention she's in my form?) complains. Mae (also in my form) grunts in agreement.

"It's great to see that you're all excited. Go and get those signed, the forms are due back next Thursday, exactly a week from now. You don't hand it in, you don't get to participate. And unless you have a decent reason, all of you are going to participate. So all of you are going to hand it in."

And with that, the bell rings, I fold up the forms and pack them away in my bag. We escape the classroom as quick as possible. I walk to the oval by myself, as Mick has Drama and Theo had Badminton when I have Sport. Theo had to get his uniform out of his locker so I was left to walk alone. A high-pitched voice yells my name over the noise of students in the halls. 

"Petria Kafka!"

I turn my head and Alisha and Mae and standing, glaring at me, Alisha's expression is lethal, but Mae's is unsure.

"Yes?" I ask, continuing my way to class and they both stand either side of me.

"What did you do to Klaer?" Alisha growls.

"Nothing, I just told her."

"She isn't here this morning, and she didn't reply to any of our texts, or post anything on snapchat or Instagram like she normally does at exactly one-oh-one in the morning like she usually does! What did you do to her?"

I feel like barfing, "What did I do to her?"

"Yes, wow! You aren't deaf! You can actually listen to us!" Alisha scoffs, then nudges Mae.

Mae looks up, "Yeah... just... tell us..."

Alisha rolls her eyes, "You must've done something, the faster you tell us, the faster we'll leave you be."

"Leave me be?" I whisper.

"JUST TELL US!" Alisha yells, and all heads turn to us. My face burns like I've stuck my face too close to a bonfire.

"Hey," an older boy wearing a senior jumper intervenes, "Leave this girl alone."

"What are you doing?" Alisha remarks, turning to the senior.

"I could ask you the same question, maybe you should head to class?" the senior boy retorts.

Alisha's head shoots into my direction and sends me a piercing glare, causing me to take a step back.

"Fine," Alisha glares and grabs Mae's wrist. For a second, I see Mae look at me, desperately, an emotion spread over her face that I have never seen there before. Sympathy? Pity? Repentance? She was gone before I could tell.

"Thank you," I say to the boy who saved me, but he was gone. Poof, just like that. I promise myself that the next time I see him, I will thank him.