"So do you want to tell me what's going on?" Gina asked, taking a seat on her bed. "I mean only if you want to."

"Well it all started almost a year ago when my dad died, we were all having a hard time especially me and my mom," Soul explained, taking a seat on the bed next to Gina. "But my mom coped differently, always went out to bars at crazy hours of the day and that's how she met Jeff."

"Jeff?" Gina questioned, causing the girl to nod in response. "Is that her boyfriend?"

"New husband," Soul said, causing Gina to make an 'oh' face. "Yeah, after 2 months of being with him, she finally told us about him. We then met him 2 weeks later, and the following week they went to the courthouse and got married in secret."

"So they're in love." Gina asked. "Isn't that a good thing?"

"They're far from love." Soul explained, letting out a scoff as she looked down at her hands. "I mean the first few months they seemed like they were in love until Bad Jeff came out."

"Bad Jeff?" Gina questioned, confused. "Was he the one who hit you?"

"No, but I'm getting there," Soul said, causing Gina to nod once again. "Sully came up with the name bad Jeff. It's who Jeff really is; he yells, screams, throws things, breaks things, he's always drunk."

"I'm so sorry Soul, that must be awful," Gina said, putting her hand on the girl's shoulder, causing her to look up at her. "How come your mom is still with him?"

"She claims he doesn't mean it and that she is 'in love' with him," Soul explained, letting a couple of tears fall. "She has a drinking problem and when she drinks she's really easy to persuade and Jeff knows it so he uses it to his advantage. So he was calling me all these names and she was just backing him up and I said something she didn't like and that's when she hit me."

"Your mom hit you!" Gina exclaimed, raising her voice, causing her mom to yell. "SORRY MOM!"

"Yeah, she got upset when Sam asked why she didn't say anything after Jeff always calls me all these horrible names; dramatic, immature, overreacting, crazy, useless..." Soul listed, getting quieter with every word and letting tears fall. "All she said was that he was right, that I do act childish and that I'm always in my room and then she brought up my dad..."

"Soul..." Gina said, rubbing the girl's back. "You can stop if you want."

"I told her if she didn't jump into a new marriage so quickly after my dad died and allowed herself to grieve, she wouldn't have become such a stone cold bitch." Soul explained. "Next thing I knew she slapped me, I told her I hated her and stormed out."

"I never knew your life was so hard," Gina said, smiling lightly. "I thought my life was hard."

"How could you've known if I wouldn't have told you." Soul explained, causing Gina to nod. "Your life seems hard with what you've told me; only being you and your mom, always moving. It must be hard always being the new girl."

"Yeah it is." Gina said looking over at some of her boxes that were still packed and stacked. "I just wish we could find a permanent place, you know at least until graduation."

"You know what," Soul said, standing after 5 minutes of silence. "It's depressing sitting here talking about our messed up lives and just staring at boxes all night. How about we turn this room into an actual bedroom, instead of a storage space for all your boxes that you just so happen to sleep in."

"I would love to turn it into a room but I would rather not because I know I'll be packing it all back up again." Gina said with a big huff.

"Too late," Soul said, opening up one of her many boxes, pulling things out and she soon joined me.

....

After about an hour of decorating the duo finally finished and it actually looked like a bedroom.

"It looks amazing!" Gina said, looking over at Soul with a big smile, pulling her into a side hug. "Thank you so much Soul. This means a lot to me."

"Of course, I had fun doing it." Soul said, hugging back. "I should probably get going, it's already 9. I'll catch you tomorrow at school?"

"Yeah of course, see you tomorrow." Gina agreed, nodding her head with a big smile, causing Soul back making her way out of Gina's room but stopped, turning back towards her.

"Hey, Gina." Soul said, causing her to turn with a questioning look. "Thanks, you know for listening and for becoming my friend. You could have easily ignored me during that assembly."

"I'm glad I didn't." Gina said with a big smile. "Besides, if anything, I should be thanking you."

Gina pulled Soul into one last hug before she made her down the stairs and out of the Porter home.

'Hate that you've been saying I'm dramatic

Immature because I don't want to talk...

They say were crazy and useless, making stupid excuses'

Soul stopped in her tracks as she came face to face with the familiar Bowen residents. Conflicted with her feelings as she debated on if she wanted to go and knock on the door or not. She then looked over at the house next door, it being her own house before letting out a sigh, turning back to the Bowen house, finally deciding to knock.

Soul slowly walked up the stairs, hearing the sound of Were All In This Together playing from inside of the Bowen residence, along with what sounded like someone singing along to it. That caused Soul to chuckle to herself, lifting her hand finally knocking on the door.

The sound shuffling was heard from behind the door before the door finally swung open and standing on the other side was Mr. Bowen; Ricky's Dad.

"Hey, Mr. Bowen," Soul said, giving the familiar man a small smile. "Um, is Ricky home?"

"Soul, long time no see! Uh, yeah he's here," Mr. Bowen said with a big smile, opening the door up wider. "Come in, come in."

Soul sent the man another smile as she stepped into the house, seeing Ricky trying to dance and sing along to High School Musical, causing the girl to chuckle.

"Who was at the door?" Ricky asked, not taking his eyes off of the screen as he tried to keep up with the dancing teens on the screen.

"Ricky, someone is here to see you." Mr. Bowen announced, causing Ricky to turn around and quickly turn back to the tv and pause the movie. "I'm going to go upstairs, it was great to see you Soul."

"You too, Mr. Bowen," Soul said, sending one last smile his way as he made his way away from the two teens and up the stairs.

Soul then turned her attention back towards Ricky, noticing that he was already looking her way.

"Soul, hey w-what are you doing here?" Ricky asked, confused before his eyes got big as he started rambling out words. "Not that I don't want you here, it's just..."

"You thought I hated you?" Soul asked, cutting him off, causing his eyes to go wide. "I heard you and Big Red talking earlier at rehearsals."

"So you don't hate me." Ricky asked, confused with an raised eyebrow. "'Cause I would definitely hate me right now."

"I mean, yeah I was really upset and hurt but I could never hate you Ricky," Soul explained with a small smile. "You know me more than I know myself."

The two both let out a light chuckle and stood in silence for a bit. Soul looked up at him to see him smiling a bit.

"So I see you decided not to quit the musical." Soul said quickly, looking away from him towards the TV. "I'm glad you decided to stay, you're going to make an amazing Troy. That honestly felt so weird saying to you."

"Um yeah, it's weird for me too." Ricky said, looking away too as both of them chuckled. "You're going to be amazing too, you know as Kelsi. She suits you with your music and everything.'

"Thanks," Soul said, feeling her phone vibrate, seeing a text from her mom.

"I'm actually still struggling a bit with the ending, could you help me." Ricky said, looking at the girl then to the phone in her hand. "Unless you have to go."

"Um, no." Soul said, locking her phone, putting it down on the table, looking up at him with a smile. "Show me what you got, skater boy."

Soul sat her bag down on the floor as she took a seat on the couch as Ricky got positioned back in front of the TV like he was when the girl first got there.

"Ready?" Soul asked, looking over at him, causing him to nod in response before showing the girl what he had so far, causing her to chuckle. "Okay that wasn't... terrible."

"Really funny." Ricky said with a serious tone along with a plea." So will you help me?"

"Why not." Soul said, getting up, making her way to stand next to him. "First thing is don't be so stiff, loosen up."

Soul then began showing him the right steps, not noticing the boy watching her with a smile on his face.

That wasn't the only person watching, Mr. Bowen was watching the 2 from the top of the stairs with a big smile.