Dahlia

The whole 'slowly getting Maya used to being around Luke again' thing is off to an awful start. We're not giving up though, no matter how intimidating an angry Maya can be.

After spending so long with only a suitcase and backpack full of things, I came home and realized I have a lot of stuff. So today I decided to clean out my room to find if there's anything I don't want anymore, or clothes that no longer fit me.

"Oh my gosh." I say aloud, holding up my Hello Kitty sweater that as a twelve year old I thought was the coolest thing on earth.

Definitely too small for me now, even if I was crazy enough to want to wear it. I throw it into the pile I set aside for things I'm throwing out or giving away. Humming a song Hailey, Maya, and I wrote, I continue to search through my closet. You can tell the things I wear and what I don't, because anything I haven't worn in a while is in boxes at the back. Makes it easier to decide whether I need it or not.

I smile when I find my moms jewelry box. I don't really wear jewelry all that often, so I used it to keep 'special' things. I haven't opened it in about two years though. Carefully I lift the lid, and a song begins to play softly. I rummage through the contents. A rock shaped like a heart that I found, a ring my dad helped me win at the fair, things like that. They all make me smile, until I find what lies at the bottom on the box.

A slightly crinkled paper is there, with the words 'Forever' written in my old handwriting. It's a photograph.

My breath catches in my throat, I think I know what that picture is. I play with one of the creased over edges, stalling turning the photo over. When I do flip it, I see that I was right.

The photo shows a boy smiling into the camera with his arm around a red haired girl who's head is resting against his shoulder. Her face is tilted up towards him, she looks like she's about to kiss his cheek.

The girl is me.

I stare at it for a while before stuffing it back into the box. I don't care. I look at the leather bracelet I'm wearing. I don't care.

"Dahlia!" Maya calls my name and bursts into my room.

"Ah!" Startled, I throw the box into my closest again.

"I wanna do something with you!" She exclaims at me.

"Alright..." I say and subtlety —at least I assume it was subtle— throw a flannel over the box.

"Can we not invite Luke though?"

"Sure..."

"Can Hailey come?"

"Okay, what're we doing?" I ask. " I was kinda busy you know."

"Busy sitting in your closet? Okay." She laughs

"No, cleaning!" I roll my eyes.

"I want to go get Hailey so we can band," Maya explains.

I jump up. "Okay let's go."

"I feel like we should discuss how we reached 150k subscribers on YouTube this morning." Maya says nonchalantly.

"What?" I gasp. I haven't checked in months. I knew Maya was still posting covers that we recorded before I left, but this is crazy! "No way."

"Yes!" She squeals. Now I see why she ran into my room so fast.

"I'm so proud of us!" I giggle happily. "I can't believe this."

"I know! I didn't expect for us to get so far at all." She says excitedly, "I had to post a few covers of just me and Hailey though. Even some of just me on the guitar cause Hailey kept disappearing."

"Ooh guitar solos." I smile and work a little more cleaning my closet.

"It felt weird being by myself. But I'm so excited! We have to get Hailey and celebrate. Do you know where she is?" Maya asks.

"I don't really know... she's like a cat!" I laugh. "She disappears for days and comes back like she was never gone."

"I wonder where she goes though." Maya looks deep in thought. "She never tells us."

"Neverland." I smirk.

"She'll never be a man?" Maya laughs.

"Uh..." I stare at her blankly.

She stares back. "You don't get it?"

"No..."

She rolls her eyes and sings, "I am PeterPan, I'll never be a man. Never wanna grow up? Take my hand and I'll take you to Neverland."

I smile at her.

"Now call Hailey before she flies to Neverland!"

"Alright!" I pick up my phone and dial Hailey's number.

"'ello?" She answers on the third ring.

"You busy?" I ask. "'Cuz we need you."

"No, I'm not—" a crashing noise interrupts her. "busy today."

"Uh..." What was that? "Can you come band?"

"Yeah I can!" She says excitedly.

Maya sits and watches me talk to Hailey.

"Alright, see you soon. We have a surprise for you."

"Is she coming?" Maya questions.

I give her an 'are-you-serious?' stare. "No Maya, I just said 'see you soon' because she's not coming over."

Maya rolls her eyes, and I give her a lopsided smile.

"Let's go set things up. I can show you how much better at bass I am now."

"Alright." She follows me out of the room.

* * * * *

Hailey and Maya send me for everything. Seriously, couldn't they get their own muffins?

We were about to start practice when Hailey realized that she was starving —at least that's what she said— and I was volun-told to get them food.

"Hi what can I get you today?"

"Um..." I look over what they have displayed. "Yeah can I have three blueberry muffins?"

"Uh huh. Any drinks with that?"

"No, thank you." I smile.

"Sure thing. Your total is nine dollars, thirty two cents."

I hand over the money and wait for her to give me the bag containing my order. After I get it and thank her again, I begin to leave the store. Until I see Victoria.

"Dahlia!" She calls and waves.

Nope, nope, nope.

"Hi." I nod and her.

"How was your summer?" She smiles.

"Fine... how was yours?" I ask back.

What's wrong with her.

"It was good! I went to Fiji again! It was gorgeous."

"Sounds lovely," I say honestly.

"It was. I had a question though. Do you remember that deal we had?"

My mouth goes dry. "Yes."

"Well, I need something from y—"

"No," I reply right away. "I'm not your toy, or your servant. You can't make me do anything anymore. You have nothing to hold over me."

"Oh honey. Don't you remember what I told you that day after school?" She threatens.

I remember the conversation clearly.

"I don't believe you have that. I don't believe it even exists. So no. I won't do anything for you. Have a good day." I walk past her and out the door, holding my head high, muffins in hand.

Maya

I pick up my guitar and start tuning it. I haven't played with Dahlia and Hailey in so long. We've got a gig coming up in two weeks so we need to practice. Ever since we reached 100k subscribers on YouTube, we've felt the need to try harder than ever. Now we have 150k. We have to post more and work harder. "We should have band practice like twice a week if you guys have time for that."

"Well yeah, it's summer," Dahlia says. "What else would we be doing?"

"I can try." Hailey nods.

What else would you be doing?

"Great!" I say excitedly, hiding my suspicion to Hailey. She keeps on leaving and coming back. I'd like to know where she goes. "So we need to decide on a mini set list for our gig and the ones after that. Also we need to choose some covers that we will post on YouTube."

"Wow very organized." Dahlia laughs. "Okay let's get to it then."

I smile and pick up a notebook, opening it to the first page, "Okay so who wants to play Teenage Dirtbag?"

"Yeah of course." Hailey says enthusiastically.

I put a check mark next to it. We go on like this for about 15 minutes before Hailey declares she's hungry. And of course, I agree with her and say "Dahlia you should go get us muffins."

"Muffins." She gives us a blank stare. "You're sending me away for muffins."

I smile, "Yes and you're getting them." I'm gonna try to ask Hailey about where she has been. She's really private so I don't know how that will go.

Dahlia mutters something under her breath and walks out of the garage.

I look at Hailey. "So how was your weekend?"

"It was fine. Yours?"

I set down my notebook and guitar. "It was alright. Had to go to the hospital again. What did you do?"

"Nothing much really. Watched television and stuff like that."

I laugh, "Really? It felt like you disappeared somewhere." I don't think she's telling the truth. She should know that she can tell me anything.

"My house maybe." She laughs and rolls her eyes at me. "My phone was on silent so I missed some calls. My dad had a headache and didn't want noise."

"Oh," I look down in realization. "You just disappear a lot."

"Maybe you're just clingy." She smirks.

"Aye! I'm not clingy... I just like people." I say in defence. I'm so not clingy.

She sticks out her tongue. "Alright, should we play some of mine and Dali's songs?"

"Why not?" I shrug, "I kinda feel bad that I haven't written as much as you guys. I've written like two songs."

"Don't feel bad." She laughs. "You're the one who organizes us and gets us gigs. You're busy."

I half smile, "I guess." I pick up some of their music and read through all of the lyrics. "Let's play this one." I hand her one of the papers.

"Yeah, I like that one a lot."

As we play the song I notice it's difficult to play it. Not because of the cords but because we're missing our lead singer/ bass player. But I think the guitar is pretty good. And Hailey is amazing at the drums so I think it's okay.

In five minutes Dahlia returns with the muffins. "Lia, I love you!" I run and grab a muffin. I felt like I was gonna die if I didn't eat.

"You should love me. I'm the best." She looks happier than usual.

I furrow my eyebrows and half smile, "Why are you so happy?"

"I told Victoria very clearly that I will never do another thing she asks of me."

Oh?

"Really?! I thought she was master of all evil?" I didn't think that Victoria would ever listen to anyone. So how did she do that? Tell Victoria she won't do anything for her.

"She is but I'm brave." Dahlia smirks. "I told her she has nothing on me. That she was bluffing."

"Yeah... You're brave like Calum isn't scared of me." I say sarcastically.

"Yeah well Calum hasn't stopped your wrath!"

I roll my eyes, "Like he can."

"See that's why I'm braver."

"So what was she 'bluffing' about anyways?" Hailey asks.

I forgot about that. "Yeah what did she say she had on you?"

Dahlia waves the question away with a smile. "Nothing."

I'm pretty sure it's not nothing. Cause why would she be bluffing? And it's Victoria. We all know it's not nothing and I'm not an idiot. But Dahlia is secretive and I have to live with that. I shrug, "Let's play this song I guess."

* * * * *

Everyone came over. And by everyone I mean, everyone. That means Luke is here. And that is why I'm going on a walk with India. This walk will be very long. I told Dahlia I would just be at the park.

I sit down on a bench and India jumps up next to me. There's a group of guys just across from me. I'm pretty sure they all go to my school. There's a bunch of jocks and a geeky looking kid. He has short curly hair and nerd glasses. I notice that it kind of looks like they're making fun of that guy. But I can't do anything about it. Those jocks would kill me.

I look at my phone and just scroll through Twitter. I try not to listen but I can hear parts of what all the guys are saying.

"Dude you could never get a girl."

"I could if I wanted to!" He tries to defend himself.

"You're stupid and nerdy and just overall terrible. You could never even get a girls number. No matter how hard you tried." One of the athletic guys spat.

"I could!" He squeaks.

"Yeah? Prove it. Go get that girls number." They point over to me. I put my head down and pretend I didn't hear anything.

Why are these guys being so mean to him? He's kinda hot. I mean the glasses look really cute on him. People shouldn't just pick on each other like that.

He slowly walks up to me, ringing his hands — obviously a nervous habit. I smile at him and softly speak, "Hi..."

"H-hello," he whispers. "Your uhm, your dog is so adorable. What's their name?"

"This is India. You can pet her if you want." I put my hand on India.

He smiles and rubs her ears. "Could you help me with something?"

I think I know what he's gonna ask. "Yeah, why not?" I laugh.

"Could you give me your number? I won't use it after today!" He says the last part in a panicked rush. "I just need to get those guys off my back." He turns his head slightly towards them, but doesn't look straight at them. Like in doing that they'd know he's 'cheating'.

I start thinking. Maybe I could help him even more than just a number. "They said you couldn't get a girl?" I ask even though I know that's what was happening.

He nods and looks down. "They suck anyway."

I look at the guys with just my eyes. They're all laughing cause they think he's loosing. I look back at the geek guy. "What's your name?" I wrap my arms around his neck.

"Justin."

"Well Justin, you are going to put your arms around my waist. And then we're going to turn a little so they can see us. Okay?" I know what will make the jerks go crazy.

I add, "I'm Maya by the way."

"I, I... alright Maya."

I softly smile, "You ready?"

He nods, eyes wide.

I lean in and kiss him. I kiss him like he's the last person I'll ever kiss. And he kisses back. I feel like I'm searching for something. But I don't know what. The feeling.

After a complete makeout session that lasts at least five minutes, I pull away.

Justin looks shell shocked. "Th-thank you."

I smile, a little out of breathe. "Don't let them beat you up about being geeky. Geeky is cute. I'm into geeks. Also, those guys aren't worth your time."

He blushes, "Okay."

Dahlia had spammed my phone. I guess she wants me back. "I've got to go. My sister is upset I've been gone so long. But just remember, geeks are hot." I smile and pet Dahlia. As I walk away I turn and say "Bye Justin!"

He waves his hand and says, "Bye Maya."

* * * * *
A day late posting this, I know. Sorry!!