Hey guys! From here until the end of the book, the chapters are not very well edited, but I was struggling a lot on how to make them better. Please point out any points of slow pacing, fast pacing, plot holes, uneccessary plot points etc, because I definetely need some advice if you have any. I really hope you enjoy the rest of MSC!

The week after Jay's birthday party, we were back in school. During that time, Katie didn't go out, and decided to just stay at home, telling her Mum she was under the weather.

I noticed that Katie and Susanne weren't exactly close, with Susanne being at work almost all the time. I could somehow relate to her, as Dad wasn't around much either, though he did try to be. I wondered if maybe her loneliness was something to do with that.

While she stayed in, I invited her to hang out with me and the squad. Though Beatrice didn't come over much now, she still usually made lists for our everyday free time activities.

Aki, of course, was reluctant at first when I told him to try to be chill with Katie, but he eventually started to relax, after he realised I was comfortable with everything. Though, he still had his usual plain expression that he used whenever he was with a stranger, which did intimidate Katie a few times.

Mostly, we watched movies and Katie hesitantly tried to study with us, but didn't really enjoy it very much. Since she promised to talk about the Jay incident when she was ready, I decided not to bring it up.

Unfortunately, when we arrived back at school, reality kicked in. None of us were really emotionally prepared for school again, after all that had happened over Christmas.

Beatrice didn't go back to school immediately. She'd started therapy sessions, and needed time away from school drama before she could get a bit better. I missed having her around more, but I knew that therapy was the best thing that could happen for her right now.

As me, Katie and Aki walked into the school gates, we all felt similar sensations of dread. This was gonna be our last few months here. The school pressure was gonna get even more heavy.

In the bustling corridor, I said goodbye to the other two before entering my form class, where everyone was chatting non-stop, gathered in groups to update each other on their holidays. I decided to just stick in my airpods until the bell rang, and then made my way to class.

The morning lessons were quite a drag, as they usually were on the first days back at school. People usually chatted a lot, having not seen each other for sometime, and the teacher would usually be shouting at them to stay silent while they try to cram in at least one lesson. And so I was relieved when the time finally came for break time.

I found Katie walking with Aki towards the snack bar at break, and went over to join them. Katie was awkwardly trying to make a conversation, while Aki stared coldly ahead. "What's new, guys?" I asked them, and they both turned to me, Katie looking relieved and Aki's facial expression softening slightly.

"Can you believe we're starting mocks in the next two weeks?" Aki said to me, handing me a piece of paper with a long list of topics. "We literally have to learn every single one of these for health class before then."

I laughed, looking at how long the list was. "Sucks to be you. I'm just glad I don't take health." Aki narrowed his eyes at me.

"Speaking of sucking to be someone else, are you looking forward to seeing Madam Levinne pestering you about mocks? Last year, she was voted the loudest and nagging teacher among the students. I bet she's worse when it's time for tests."

"Okay, that was dark and unfair." I snapped, and he gave a light chuckle with a satisfied smirk on his face.

"While you nerds have been chatting, the queue has gotten shorter." Katie said to us, walking ahead.

"Why is she still hanging out with us again?" Aki whispered as we followed her.

"She doesn't have anyone else, right now. I just want her to know we're here for her."

"Like how she was there for you when Amber was being stupid to you? Or like how she was there when her and her racist friends used to eye us in disgust?"

I looked up at him. "Look, I know Katie's never been nice to us. Her and her friends treated us like trash for a long time, and yeah it does still hurt. I'll talk to her about the race thing, too. But the thing is...everyone comes from somewhere, you know? So sometimes when people need a chance, you have to give it to them."

Aki raised his eyebrow at me. "And since when do you give people a chance?"

I looked away. "Since that person ended up being my sister."

Katie came back to us, holding three paper wrapped doughnuts. "Have you guys tried the school crepes?"

Aki gave me a quick glance before both of us shook our heads. Katie handed us one each, and at that moment, she suddenly froze. Her gaze was fixed on something behind me, and when I turned to see what it was, my heart dropped.

Amber, and I think the other one was either Emily or Scarlett, were standing just a few feet away from us, staring right at Katie, and muttering between themselves. When they noticed us looking at them, they averted their judgemental stares from Katie to their phones.

"What's their problem?" I scrunched my nose at them.

"Stuff to do with the party. They haven't spoken to me since." Katie replied, quietly.

"Aren't they supposed to be your best friends?" Aki asked her. Katie shrugged. I turned to her.

"Because you broke up with Jay?"

Katie flinched at the sound of Jay's name, then shrugged again. "God knows what stories Jay's gonna be passing around about me. But people love him. They'll hold onto his every word."

"Who cares what anyone else thinks, anyway? The real people who are true to you will come and ask you themselves."

"I care what everyone thinks, Jemimah," Katie said to me, sternly, her eyes looking deep into mine, "Because not caring won't do anything. Once you have a certain status around here, you need to maintain it, else your life will be hell. You'll never understand that. Just keep your nose in your own business, for once in your life."

Without another word, Katie pushed past us and went back into the school building. Me and Aki stood in silence for a moment. I chewed my bottom lip, thoughtfully.

"So. Now what're you gonna do?" Aki asked me, biting into his crepe, "You need to try this. It's pretty good."

I glared at him, and he immediately stopped. "Can you not see I'm deep in thought, right now?" I asked him.

"Well, yeah. But, if you want my honest opinion, I say you just need to leave her."

"What? Why?"

Aki stared at the entrance Katie had just walked into. "She needs her space. When she feels like she wants to be around us, then she'll come back."

I sighed. "I guess so...weird coming from you, I thought you hated being around her."

"Sure, but this isn't about me, is it?" Aki patted my head with his free hand, "It's about you two figuring out how to be sisters. Be there for each other when you need to be, but just remember that the other one has a separate life from you."

I removed his hand from my head, and laughed. "I don't know where you're getting off ruffling my hair, when it's my job to ruffle your's. But fine, you won me over. I'll leave her for now." I snatched his doughnut, and finished it off before his eyes.

"Hey! What was that for? You have your own." Aki complained.

I started walking towards our usual space at the bench, and shot a glare at Amber as we passed her. She pretended not to see me. "That's for thinking about doughnuts when I was in a crisis."

"You're really mean, you know that?" Aki groaned, before following after me.

"Eh. You're meaner for a teddy bear."

"What's with that ridiculous nickname?"

"Shut up, you know you love it."

"Shut up, you know I don't."

"You two need to get a room."

I snapped my head up at the sudden voice, and was surprised to see Alana with her girlfriend, Ezinne, who I saw hanging out with her sometimes, and was also in a few of my science classes. I'd started speaking to Alana a lot more since Jesse left. I loved her energy. She always seemed so confident and carefree. It really did contrast a lot with Jesse's awkwardness, but I loved their differences.

Aki quickly took his arm from around my shoulder, and we both stood up abruptly.

Alana waggled her fingers in greeting and I felt my cheeks heat up. "Hey, Alana...it's actually not like that."

"Straight couples usually make me gag, but you two aren't half bad. I see you always getting so lovey with each other." Alana teased.

"Um...actually, we're just friends." Aki rubbed the back of his head, nervously.

"What's up anyway, guys?" I asked them, in an attempt to change the subject. I smiled over at Ezinne who waved at me, shyly. Her long braids framed her small face, partially hiding it, and she had a slim, petite figure, so hid slightly behind Alana's taller one whenever I saw them together.

"After school, do you wanna hang out?"

I never usually went anywhere without Aki and Bea. I was hesitant about spending time with a completely different group from my own. But this was Alana after all. Maybe it wouldn't be too bad?

"Oh, uh..." I glanced at Aki, who waved me off.

"Um, sure, I'll go." I decided, " I just have to text Katie's Mum about it though."

"Sure. You can bring Aki along too, if you want."

"Actually, I told Bea I'd go to her place after school," Aki explained, "I'll come next time, though."

"Alright then. Let me know how she is." I smiled at him, gratefully. At least he could check on her and make sure she was alright.

**********************************

After school, Alana met me at the gate with Ezinne and her other friend, Tiwa, and after I said goodbye to Aki, we walked in the opposite direction towards the town.

"There's this nice place where they do lattes. Do you wanna go and try?" Alana asked me.

"Um, sure." I replied, quietly.

"I like your braids, by the way." Alana commented. "Hey...aren't those the ones I did the day we met?" The longer I got to know her, the more often she'd be the one starting the conversation. I remembered how hard it used to be trying to get her to say a full sentence back when we first met. So much has changed with every single person I've met here. Things really do end up in unexpected ways.

"Yeah...I've been going to that salon you mentioned."

"Isn't it just so amazing how many things we can do with hair?" Tiwa said to us, excitedly. "It's just annoying that it encourages people to feel the need to touch it." Ah, someone who could relate.

"What's with white people touching our hair?" Ezinne groaned.

"Right? You guys go through that too, huh. People can be so objectifying." I said to them.

"And it's not just that. If they don't touch it, they will make some stupid comment. Jemimah, you should've been there when that guy insulted Tiwa's locks on our first day at school here and said it made her look like a criminal."

"Thus the reason I punched him in the face." Tiwa said, flipping her thick locks over her shoulder. "Got suspended, placed in the angry black girl label ever since, but it was worth it."

"Sounds like something my friend Beatrice would do," I laughed, "She doesn't care, she'll just beat you up if you say something about her or someone she cares about. She doesn't care who's watching."

"She sounds great!" Tiwa replied.

"I know right? but seriously, that boy sounded like a total idiot. People are so ignorant."

"He felt good about it, probably. But I guess you can't put your nose into other people's business when it's broken." Alana cackled, giving Tiwa a high five.

I laughed and chatted with the girls, and they really did seem like pretty cool people to be around. I thought about all the times I'd been warned to stay away from them. It hadn't even crossed my mind at the time that it was because they were black girls who stood up for themselves. But I was glad that I was able to see things with a clearer view now.

As we reached the town, Alana led us into one of the small restaurants and ordered us all lattes, I decided to speak up about it. "I wish I got to know you guys sooner. It sucks that there were so many rumours surrounding you all. Otherwise I would've approached you before."

"Well, it's the way things are when you bring so much attention to yourself as a black kid," Alana replied, crossing her arms on the small round table. "In year 7, we did that BLM protest stuff in the school halls, and made noise and things. We were seen as trouble makers, and even the teachers were against us. Ever since then, people have viewed us that way, and once in a while we have to align with the strong black girl cliche when we have to speak up for ourselves. That's just the way it is around here. But I'm sure you've experienced that too, right?"

The waitress brought the tray of mugs, and placed them down for us, and after I thanked her and took my latte, I turned back to Alana. "Yeah, something like that. But my two best friends are pretty supportive when they see me getting racially abused and stuff."

"You're lucky you have them," Alana said to me, "I've only seen you guys from a distance but I can tell your friendship bond is really something."

I smiled, "Yeah. It really is."

                                  *********************************************************

AKI POV

As I walked down the now silent neighbourhood towards Beatrice's house, I thought about Jemimah. Lately, I'd noticed that she had begun to do things on her own a lot more. Things that we'd usually do together-like go out to places and work on school projects. She even chose a college far away from us. We still spent most of our time together, but I did realise that she was beginning to branch away from us a little.

Was it selfish that I didn't really want her to?

Maybe it was just because of the way I felt the need to constantly protect her. Before I met Jemimah, it never even crossed my mind that I, the timid little Aki, would be capable of protecting anyone. I couldn't even protect myself. But things were different now. And I didn't want that to change any time soon. But... I knew that was a bad way of thinking.

But then again, we're best friends, right? We're supposed to look out for each other, anyway.

Just then, I heard murmuring coming from the alleyway round the corner, snapping me out of my thoughts. I stopped in the tracks, cautiously peeping my head around the corner. Hopefully nothing shady was going on there.

My mouth ran dry when my eyes fell on the sight before me. It was Jesse Nyarko. He was sitting on the floor, his back against the wall, and head buried in his hands, as he muttered to himself.

I slowly approached him. "Hey...Jesse." Jesse lifted his head from his hands, his eyes widening when he saw me,large and red, before he quickly got off the ground, dusting himself off.

"Nakamura." He said, a slight tremble in his voice.

"Are you alright?"

"Don't come near me..."

"What?"

"I SAID DON'T COME NEAR ME. I can't be around anyone right now." Jesse said hurriedly, before walking past me out into the street, his movements rather stiff.

"Jesse...are you sure you're-"

"I said I'm fine," His back was to me now. "I hate the fact that you have to see me in this mess. This always happens. That's why I can't have Jemimah around me..."

My eyebrows creased together, as I tried to make sense of what he was saying. "What are you talking about? Do I need to call someone?"

"No. I can find my way home. I'm fine now...but please don't tell Jemimah about this. If you really love her, you wouldn't want her to get hurt." I heard him take a deep, shaky breath. "Thanks for offering to help, though. I'll see you around, Aki. Or maybe not...since I'm going back to college today."

"Are you sure you're in the right position to-"

"Please don't question me, and make me sound like a freak," He turned back around to me, and I noticed he stood up straighter, composing himself. His expression was fine now. "I'm alright. Take care of Jem." He walked away before I could say anything else, leaving me completely dumbfounded in the alleyway.

*****************************

BEATRICE POV

When I opened the door for Aki, I immediately noticed that something was bothering him. As he walked into the house, muttering a small "hi," I could tell that whatever was happening was probably bad.

"Hey," I folded my arms, "Don't take another step until you tell me what's wrong."

Aki turned around with a chuckle. "You can always see right through me, can't you?" His softened expression brought a smile to my face. I quickly turned away and walked ahead of him towards the kitchen.

"Okay. I can see you're going to talk about it so you can come in now. What do you want to eat?" I asked, rummaging through the cupboards, just as Mateo and Luis came in.

"What do you want, ogres?" I asked them.

"You said there were no snacks left." Mateo complained. "You lied to us."

"Well...no..." I sighed, taking down the cookies from the middle shelf, and handing them the box. "Whatever. Just don't finish them." I mentally groaned as I watched them run off with the box of biscuits. I was saving those for myself.

Aki sat at the kitchen table, an amused look on his face. "You're all as greedy as each other."

"No we're not-" I stood on my toes as I tried to reach for the extra biscuit box on the top shelf, my fingers just about brushing the side of it. Aki got up and came over.

"Let me get that." I moved to the side, as he reached for the box effortlessly. He really had gotten pretty tall. My eyes travelled up from his torso to his face, and that's when it finally dawned on me how much his face had matured. His small round face had become more defined, and his skin had slowly gotten better over the years, after long battles with acne. I wish puberty could look that good on me like that. But then I quickly try to shake away the thought. The days of comparing myself to others were meant to be over now. I needed to stop putting myself down all the time... it was just so difficult. "Here." He placed the box in my hands, before heading back to the table. "I'm not hungry, so you just have them."

I watched him settle back on the chair, as I slowly set the box down. "You've grown a lot, you know."

"Where did that come from?"

"I just realised it, since I don't remember you ever being good looking."

"Okay, I don't know if I should take that as an insult or a compliment." He scrunched his nose.

I laughed. "Take it how you want. But what's up with you anyway?"

Aki sighed. "I was just wondering...what do you think about Jesse?"

"Jesse? Jemmy's boo?" I parroted, taking a bottle of milkshake out the fridge, and sitting down across the table from him. "I think he's really sweet. Great energy, great smile, and just a generally nice guy. Why do you ask?"

"I...uh...I just worry about Jemimah sometimes." Aki looked down at his hands, causing me to raise an eyebrow.

"Is there something about him you don't like?"

"Well...I don't know...he just seems off..." He looked like he wanted to say something more, but decided not to. "You know what...it's probably nothing. I think I'm overthinking it."

"Overthinking what?"

"Maybe it's just because I'm not used to her being with other people or something." Aki shook his head. "Don't worry about it. I came over to see how you're doing though. With everything."

I leaned back in my chair. "Well...there's this therapy programme my parents signed me up for. For like...kids who, you know." It always felt strange talking directly to anyone about what had happened. Almost awkward. Every time I looked at the people who cared about me, I just kept thinking about what I'd almost lost. And how much I'd been willing to lose it to end my pain. I felt horrible about it.

Aki reached over, and placed his large hand on top of my chubby one. When I looked up at him, I saw how gentle his expression was. Aki had grown-he was taller, broader, and definitely more handsome...but he was still the sweet and gentle Akito that I'd always known. And loved.

"I'll get there," I said to him, "I'm going to be studying from home for a long time. I don't think I can go back to school."

"Do you think it will be until the exams?"

"I don't know...but it kinda looks that way."

"Me and Jem will come and help you study as much as we can." Aki said softly. "You won't be missing out on anything."

I smiled, before wrapping my fingers around his. His hand was warm."I know. Thanks, Kiki."

"You just had to go and spoil it, didn't you? How much longer are you going to be calling me that?"

I laughed. "Until I'm grey and old...." I found myself observing his smile and his quiet laugh. Aki didn't often laugh out loud. But even then, I liked it when he did. I thought about the days when he couldn't say anything, let alone laugh. It made me happy that I knew how his voice sounded now, and I could hear the sounds he made when he was happy.

I thought about Jem too. She was so shy and timid when I first met her. A sweet little thing. Now she seemed so sarcastic and confident in everything she did. They were both admirable. Both people I looked up to and loved unconditionally. Despite their difficult parts, I loved them. I was finally starting to understand things a little bit more.

And it felt nice, that for once, I was letting people comfort me. It was difficult accepting it, but I was trying to get used to it. I just wished I could've experienced it much sooner.

"Anything is possible when you have the right people there to support you"-Misty Copeland