JEMIMAH POV

I walked through the bustling school hallway, clutching the small package in my hand, and silently praying that things were going to turn out well today.

People pushed past me, as I headed in the opposite direction from my form class, and directly towards the end of the hall where form 11B3 was. When I got there, a group of large boys were gathered in the entrance, and I mentally groaned when I approached them.

Those basketball players always stood in a place where people were trying to get through. I tried to peek passed them to see inside the class, but obviously that wasn't going to work out...so I had to interact.

I sighed. "Excuse me." I muttered, but they ignored me. I narrowed my eyes at them. "Um, HELLOO."

One of them glanced down at me from his great height, his biceps bulging as he crossed his arms. "Oh. Hey, Africa," he leaned forward to examine me, "I heard you went to Jay's party uninvited. It seems to be a trend for you, huh?"

I scrunched my nose at him. Who did this guy think he was? People clearly didn't have a life if they were still fussing over some dumb party that happened ages ago."Hello, Britain. I couldn't give a rat's ass about Jay, I'm here to see my friend. So can you please move?"

The boy narrowed his eyes at me. "You're too rigid. It was a joke."

"She needs to get laid, that's the issue here." One of his friends said to him. "That way she might have had enough exercise to loosen up a bit." He looked at me, a smirk tugging his lip.

"I think you're disgusting." I rolled my eyes. This is why I don't. Do. People.

"Is there a problem here?" I heard the familiar voice, and snapped my head up to look at Aki towering over the others, an annoyed look on his face. "Is there a reason you're harassing her?"

The boys all looked at him, and said nothing. They mumbled among themselves before leaving the entrance and walking into the classroom. I couldn't help but laugh, as Aki turned to me.

He smiled. "Hey."

I grinned back at him. He hadn't looked at me that way in a long time. "Hey." I glanced past him in the direction the boys had gone. "You know I could've handled them myself. I didn't need you to save me."

"Yeah I'm very aware of that."

I shook my head, still smiling. "You've become the new big guy, huh?"

He shrugged. "I wouldn't really call it that."

I looked down at the small package in my hand and gave it to him.

He stared at it for a moment. "What's this?"

"Some dango I made for you," I twirled a coiled curl of my hair around my finger, "I remember how much you used to like them, though it's been a while", I clapped my hands together, "I wanted to properly apologise to you. That stupid argument was my fault, no matter how you look at it. I responded to you in a stupid way, and you didn't deserve it."

Aki looked at me softly. "Jem..."

"No, don't say sorry back to me. I want you to know, Aki, that without you and Beatrice, I am totally lost, and sorry to sound clingy but turns out I'm more dependent on others than I thought. I said it before, and I'll say it again. I don't want to lose any of you. Can we please be best friends again?"

Aki's smile grew wide, and he pulled me towards him, wrapping his arms around me. "Forget it, Jems. I don't care what you say, I apologise too. I never stopped being your best friend, anyway."

I smiled, as my face buried into his uniform. I was so, so relieved."Thanks, Teddy Bear."

"Mind doing this PDA at break time?" Mr Blackwood, Aki's form teacher grumbled, and we immediately jumped back from each other. I'd completely forgotten that we were in the entrance, making me feel pretty hypocritical. "Aren't you meant to be in form, Jemimah Lewis?" He asked, and I nodded quickly before sprinting down the hall.

Well, at least I got what I wanted. Hopefully Aki did too.

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

"HALLELUJAH," Beatrice raised her arms dramatically towards the sky, "After many toils and weeks of painful silence, you two have FINALLY made up!"

"The three of you are literally the most dramatic people I've ever met." Katie commented, rolling her eyes at Beatrice. What a hypocrite.

"Sorry for all the awkward mess we put you guys through." I said to them.

Katie shrugged and Beatrice nodded approvingly. "You better be sorry."

"So what's next?" Katie asked, "You're permanently all together again?"

"And on that note,"Aki smiled. He stood in front of us, and outstretched his hand grandly, "I would be honoured if the two most amazing women in my life would accept a dance with me at this year's summer prom."

Beatrice gasped and I couldn't help but grin at his dramatic proposal. "Since when were you the prince charming type?" I asked him jokingly. Aki shrugged, a sweet smile playing on his lips.

Beatrice squealed. "Oh my GOD, I can't believe we're actually going to PROM. I didn't think you guys were ever going to go, so I wasn't going, but now you are going to go, and now I need a dress and some hair, and..."

"Beatrice, slow down," I said to her, "And you already have hair."

"I WANT MORE HAIR TO DO CUTE STYLES."

"Wait, I know a good place to do cute styles with your own hair length if you want." I suggested.

"YES."

"Um, so does that mean you guys are saying yes?" Aki asked us.

"Duh." I rolled my eyes.

"I hope you guys have a good time." Katie said awkwardly. We all turned to her.

"You can come too, if you want." Aki said to her. She blinked.

"You guys really want me to come?"

"Well...You're technically part of us now," I replied, "I think we'll have a lot of fun if you're with us."

Katie's face went blank for a moment, and then she suddenly pulled out her phone. "I know a great place for dresses."

And so it was settled. We were going to prom as a group, and a few weeks before that I had a second date with the cutest guy I'd ever met. Things were finally coming together. But before that, lay the final challenging part of our year. Exams.

"Tough times never last but tough people do".-Dr Robert Schuller

The final year of school is a big deal for anyone. The final few days are even bigger.

Some take it very seriously, studying like their lives depended on it, others give a big middle finger to school and couldn't care less. But either way, it was still a big deal sice after our time at school, people were going to go their separate ways.

After this summer, it will be time for college. And college was our doorway to the adult world. Nothing could be more intimidating and exciting than that.

The exam period was tough; as was expected. Time for ourselves was literally non-existent, and it was paper after paper, day after day.

Me and Katie would come home pretty dried out, and Susanne would only see us when we cleaned her plates of food with our appetites before going right up to our rooms to continue revising. I barely ever got the chance to have a full conversation with Dad. I really missed him. I wished he could be here to welcome me home after each paper.

Beatrice and Aki couldn't come around as much, seeing as we weren't always doing the same subjects. All I could think about within that time was when it would be over.

And so, when June finally rolled in, accompanied by the last day of GCSE exams, the wave of relief washed over us like a tsunami of reposement. Everyone had swarmed out of the exam centre, and so the outdoor area was packed with people signing school shirts and pencil cases.

"Hey, Jemimah. Can you sign my back?" Peter had come up to me with only a vest, covered in pen and marker, and he handed me a biro. I nodded and decided to sign my name as well as add a note about not touching black girl's hair, something he wouldn't see until he took off his vest. I smiled, handing him the biro.

"I wish you the best of luck , Peter."

"You too!" He ran off to the next person and started harassing them, just as Aki approached me, alongside Katie, his small blue notebook he used to communicate with in his hand.

"You wanted to get names in there?" I asked him, curiously.

"It's a book full of lots of memories for me. Loads of my old conversations with you guys were through this, so I thought I might as well use up the last of the pages for a good cause."

"That's so sweet." I smiled, and I could feel the emotions start to build up.

"It's too early to get teary-eyed, Jem. We still have the whole summer to make memories." Katie pointed out.

"We've FINISHEDD." I heard the sound of Beatrice's squeal before I actually saw her charging towards me, Aki and Katie through the bustling crowd outside of the exam centre. She collided with us in a huge engulfing squeeze, before pulling Katie towards her too.

"Jesus, Beatrice, I can't breathe!" Katie wheezed, making the rest of us laugh. But I noticed her arms wrapped around Beatrice too, and the grin that brightened her face. It wasn't very often that I saw Katie smile these days.

"You'll get used to it," Aki chuckled, before drooping one arm around me and the other around Beatrice who was still attached to Katie. "We did it, guys. We're free for the next three freaking months."

"Where do we celebrate?" I asked them, "We have to do something to mark this."

"Kenichi's picking me up, soon," Aki replied, thoughtfully, "Should we go and chow down at some top restaurant?"

"We can do Taco Bell." I suggested.

Beatrice wrinkled her nose. "What is Taco Bell when KFC exists?"

"I'm with Beatrice on that one." Katie added.

"Um no, people who don't do Taco Bell have no culture." Aki stood beside me.

Beatrice scoffed, and then patted Aki's shoulder. "Girl, please. Why is this a conversation? Everyone knows KFC is literally Queen."

"Um, Taco Bell has class." Aki narrowed his eyes at her. "Who cares what most people think? It just makes KFC look cheap."

"Oh well sorry if some of us like cheap!" Beatrice retorded, offended.

"KFC gets the most attention because it's got the best food," Katie added, "It's a fact of life."

"Sorry, Katie, but you're on the wrong end there. Haven't you tried the crunchy supremes? They're heaven on earth." I clapped back.

Beatrice shook her head. "I had respect for you guys until now. I thought you were my best friends...little did I know that you actually preferred Taco Bell over the world's number one fast food place."

"I can't believe that the first thing we start talking about when we've completed school is food debates." I said to them.

"Well, we don't have to focus on anything productive right now, so we better make the most of it." Aki started walking ahead. "Kenichi just texted me. He's at the car park."

"I guess that means you surrender and we're going for KFC?" Katie asked, jogging after him, me and Beatrice not far behind.

"No it means we take the lead in the argument, and we're actually getting Taco Bell."

The argument continued all the way to the car, and we didn't stop when Mr Nakamura waved at us, and we climbed in. It had become a full fledged debate.

"This article literally says Taco Bell causes depression."

"Research shows that a single KFC burger has over four hundred calories and contributes to heart failure."

And it continued all the way to town, with us completely ignoring Mr Nakamura's constant yells for us to shut up.

Finally, when we got to the town centre, it was agreed that we would just have to get take-aways from both restaurants, and dine out at Aki's place.

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

Three hours later...

"I've never eaten that much food in one go in my entire life." Katie groaned, as she drooped over the olive tinted couch.

"My buttons feel really tight right now." I said tiredly, my head still resting on a sleeping Beatrice's cushioning stomach.

"Oh, you guys are knocked out already?" Mr Nakmaura laughed when he walked into the living room, with a bottle of champagne. "We haven't even properly celebrated your completion."

"Please...I can't look at anything edible right now..."Aki gasped, his hands resting on his stomach, as he lay on the mat beside Haru's table.

"If you guys are full, you need to sit up." Mr Nakamura chuckled again, before setting the bottle of champagne on the dining table. "Mr and Mrs Garcia are coming to pick up Beatrice in a few minutes. I think they want to celebrate with her too."

"She's knocked herself out." I said looking up at her.

Mr Nakamura glanced at the empty food boxes littering the carpeted floor. "I thought I made it clear that everyone should eat at the table." He then looked pointedly at Aki, who gave him an apologetic smile. Then he sighed. "Well I guess I'll let you all off the hook, seeing as it's your day today."

I turned to Katie who looked like she was going to pass out soon too. "Has your Mum texted you yet?"

"Of course she hasn't. She's still working, remember?" Katie mumbled, then met my gaze. "You're Dad?"

"I did a video call with him just before we started eating. He took some time off work."

Katie flopped her head back onto the arm of the couch. "Well, I guess it's just my Mum then."

I reached over to take her arm. "Hey, I'm sure she'll come soon. She's usually got a tight schedule, but she's gonna make time for you today."

Katie didn't respond, and I sighed. There wasn't really much I could say to her. It was just a fact that we'd had to accept now; Susanne was barely home, but she was able to provide for us. There wasn't anything we could do. That's just how her job worked.

About half an hour later, the Garcia's came to pick up Beatrice, and she stumbled to the car, only half awake. Susanne came a bit later too, giving both me and Katie a huge hug, which I embraced but Katie stood stiffly in her mother's arms.

"I'm so proud of you guys!" Susanne smiled at us. "You're going to have the best summer ahead of you."

"I'm heading to the car." Katie said dryly, walking over to Susanne's grey polo. Susanne talked to Mr Nakamura, and in the meantime, I went over to Aki who was tidying up the couch.

"You ready for fun and slumber for the next few months?" I asked him. He stood up straight and smiled.

"Is that even a question? Any excuse to have more extra time with you crazy nutheads before college starts."

I smiled back at him. "Don't remind me of college right now. And you're just as crazy as the rest of us."

"On the contrary I'm the most normal one." He smirked.

I pushed him playfully, and he laughed. Just then, I caught a flicker of something unreadable in his eyes, and he slowly stopped laughing. "Well, I should go up to bed," He said, "I'll come round your place first thing tomorrow."

"Sure. You can help me pick something to wear."

"Yeah, your hot date is coming up, huh?" He ruffled my already messy coils, which had escaped my bun when I was asleep on Beatrice earlier. "You gonna wear a dress again?"

"Last time I wore a dress you laughed at me." I narrowed my eyes. "So no. I've got other options."

"Jemimah! You coming? You can't stay at Aki's this time, you don't have clothes." Susanne called from the front door.

I picked up my bag from the floor, and swung it over my shoulder. Then suddenly, in a swift movement, Aki enveloped me in his arms, pulling me right into him.

"What's up with that?" I chuckled softly, but hugged him back, "It's not like you won't see me in a few hours."

"I know," he whispered into my hair, "But just let me hold you like this for a little longer..."

I furrowed my eyebrows. "Um...Aki, I'm not moving to the other side of the planet. You'll see me again soon."

"It's fine. You don't have to understand what I'm saying. I'm just being weird." He finally let go of me, and smiled down at me softly, "Just want to take advantage of the fact that I can hug you anytime I want." His smile turned into a smirk, and I rolled my eyes, and chuckled.

"See you later, weirdo."

"Bye, nut head."

"Everything I have become now, and everything I have been able to get through, it was because I had you by my side".