Dedicated to @wolfflesh for the cover at the top and bottom! Thank you💌🌹

I don't want to go back to school tomorrow.

I think like less than twenty chapters left.

Chapter Forty-Eight: "Don't Violate It."

"JANE, YOU'RE INSANE." I told her, shutting my locker. Hey, that kind of rhymed, I couldn't help but think.

"How am I insane," The short girl asked, her arms crossed. "I simply told her she can go dig a hole and stay there."

"I don't want to be the one who says it but if you continue acting like this then mark my words: you will end up alone." I articulated.

"What? How?" I took a moment for her to actually realize what she just asked but she still stared at me like I had said something that offended her.

"You just told the girl you like to dig a hole and stay there."

"And?"

"This is how you treat someone you like? With insults to show your affection?"

"You call Lucas an idiot."

"Lucas calls me an idiot. We have an understanding. Yesterday, you almost got suspended for almost starting a fight with her."

"She was pissing me off." Jane grumbled, playing with the sleeve of her uniform sweater.

"She accidentally took your pencil," I rephrased. "What is it with you and that pencil?"

"Don't be serious. It's just a pencil. It has no significance."

It has no significance? "Then why the hell are you fighting with her over a dumbass pencil?"

Jane pursed her lips. "I don't know."

"You don't know." I repeated, staring at how someone so smart could be so clueless. My sight drifted over her head to where Lucas was walking over to us wearing a Tommy Hilfiger shirt and jeans and I could feel my heart skip a beat at the sight of him.

"Why aren't you in uniform?" Jane asked him when he reached us.

"I'm going on a trip," He said reaching us and kissed me quickly on the lips. "Hey."

"Hi. Can you tell Jane to be nicer?"

"I've been trying to tell her that for two years. Think again. It's never going to work."

"That doesn't sound rude at all. Thanks, bitch." She hit Lucas in the stomach and he grunted in pain, holding a hand to his abdomen.

"Anyway, before I was abused physically and verbally by the mutant in my life," Lucas said, glaring at Jane before turning to look at me. "I won't be back until six so I'll see you tomorrow."

"Call me when you get home." I told him, shifting to fix my backpack.

"I'll message you through the whole day and then I'll FaceTime you after. How about that?"

"Sure." I grinned and he started moving away until Jane pulled him back with a yank on his arm.

"Wait, wait, you left your earphones at my house last night." Jane reached into her backpack and tossed it towards Lucas.

Lucas caught it with ease, hooking it up to his iPod nano that was in his pocket. "Thanks."

"You went over to Jane's last night?"

"More like slept over on my couch. You're so lucky mom loves you enough to open the door at twelve AM on a school night."

"Wait, wait, wait," I put my hands up. There was nothing wrong with him going to Jane's house. It was just that he went there that late. "You went to her house at midnight? What happened?"

"Nothing happened, I'm-"

"He got into a fight with Joey." Jane informed me.

"Joey?" I asked in confusion. I knew that before whenever he got into a fight with Joey he could barely be in the same house with him so he either went to Devin's or Jane's. But it's been months since him and Joey were on bad terms.

"I thought everything was slightly okay with you two." I mentioned. It really was.

The other day Joey and Lucas had a conversation.

At school.

In the hallway.

They shared a laugh.

That moment spoke volumes.

"They're definitely not okay." Jane mumbled.

I looked up at Lucas in confusion but he didn't acknowledge it. He merely brushed a curly strand of my hair out of my face as he spoke. "Don't worry about it. I'm okay. I'll see you tomorrow alright?"

"Lucas-"

"Sydney, I'll see you tomorrow," He whispered, leaning closer to pull me against him in a hug. "I love you."

I didn't respond. I wanted to know what was going on and he was leaving me in the dark. Him and Joey haven't gotten in a fight for so long and I knew something bad must have happened if he had to leave. I looked closely at Lucas and I could see the faint purplish bruise on his jaw. I reached forward to touch it and he hissed when I made contact, pulling away. "Syd-"

"He hit you."

"I-uh-I got a few punches in myself." He tried to grin to play it off but I frowned.

"Lucas-"

"I love you."

"I love you too but-"

"I'll text you." He kissed me again before pulling away, jogging in the direction that he came from.

I took a deep breath, glancing at Jane. "He tells me not to worry about him when he of all people gets into a fight. What really happened?"

"I can't say anything." Jane sang, making me groan as we walked to Chemistry.

"Jane."

"I'm not going to say anything." She declared when we walked into the classroom. She took her seat beside me and took out her phone, scrolling through it like I wasn't bothering her.

"Jane, c'mon."

"You're going to have to hear it from Lucas. Not me."

"Was it bad? Can you answer that?"

"It was...interesting. I can tell you that the reason was very interesting."

"That does not give me any useful information."

"That's all you're going to get." She gave me a knowing smile and I sighed, still feeling worried.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My eyes scanned the cafeteria and I tapped my fingers against the table anxiously. For once, my Chemistry textbook wasn't in the middle of the lunch table since I finally understood today's lesson. "Sydney, who are you looking for?" Zen asked me.

He seemed calm today. He seemed...ready for something. 

"Joseph Cahill," I answered through clenched teeth, still observing my friend. 

Then, everything changed. 

Kim, flushed in the face came bolting towards our table, towards us, towards Zen. 

"Woah, woah," Eduardo put his hands on Kim's shoulders. "Relax." 

"Don't tell me to relax," She glared at Zen, by now gaining the attention of a few others in the cafeteria. "You told." 

All of my friends looked at each other in confusion. They didn't know anything about Mr. Stiles and Kim. They didn't know a word, thinking that Zen and Kim had a recent argument and that's why they were barely speaking. 

But I knew and realization dawned on me as my head whipped to Zen who swallowed harshly, "Kim take a moment." 

"I'm not going to--"

"You're attracting attention." Her raised voice was and when she understood that, she lowered her voice but maintained her expression. 

"How could you?" 

"Because--" 

"He's fired, Zen."

My lips parted at the pain in her voice but this was necessary. it was necessary. 

"I knew that it would come to this." 

"Why would you do this?" Kim's eyes were rimmed red. 

"Because you're my best friend. I didn't want to because I know you're going to hate me if I did but I had to."

"No, you didn't." 

"Yes, I did. I'm not sorry about it. I think you'll understand one day but I did because it was the right thing to do. And because I care about you." 

 Kim wasn't having it. I wasn't sure if she listened to a single thing Zen had said at that moment, various emotions flashing through her face. But the hate that he had anticipated was clear on her expression and I could it was hurting Zen far more than he would ever show it was. 

She didn't say another word, leaving the cafeteria.

All eyes went to Zen who was taking deep breaths. My hand went to his shoulder as our friends watched. Zen looked up at me with a helpless shrug, "I did what had to be done." 

"You did." I agreed, my heart breaking for him in this process. He cared for her so much. I hoped that she understood that. 

Zen took another deep breath, "I don't know if they'll get the police involved and I don't know if she'll speak to me again but at least something was done, right?" 

Mary Anne seemed to piece together everything he was saying, nodding with Zen. "Right." She said. 

"Yeah." Sarah agreed. "You did the right thing. I'm going to go find her." She flashed us a soft smile before darting out of the cafeteria. 

Zen tilted his head in one direction, "Syd, Joey's over there." 

But I didn't tear my eyes away from my friend, "But--"

"I'll be fine," He assured me. "Go talk to Joey." 

Reluctantly, I made my way over to where Joey was seated. He was on a table surrounded by a bunch of guys, headphones around his neck and an acoustic guitar in his hands.

I walked toward him and I as got closer I realized that Lucas was right. He did manage to get a couple of punches in. Joey's lip looked bruised and there was a wound on his arm when his uniform sleeve pulled up slightly.

Lydia was sitting near him and I could see them talking but not really talking at the same time. She spoke to him but her eyes were down on her phone and his were stuck to the guitar string in his hands.

She was in the middle of speaking when I cut through people, standing in front of him. His eyes darted to me in an instant and stopped playing whatever he was playing on the guitar. "Acosta."

"Yeah. Hi. I need to talk to you for a moment." I elaborated, trying for once not to have an attitude.

Joey looked amused but I wasn't. "No Cahill? We're not doing that anymore?"

"We weren't doing anything." I clarified, trying not to look at Lydia who I already knew was giving me a dirty look. Well, it's not like I like your face either.

"Why are you so mad Acosta?"

"You hit Lucas," I stated.

Joey put his guitar behind him, handing it to one of his friends. "How do you know that he didn't hit me first?"

"Maybe because I know Lucas."

"Clearly, you don't because he was the first one to throw the punch and I took it as you can see by my lip," He touched his bottom lip to gesture and I could see his face contort in pain before he pulled away. "Those rings he has on his fingers are deadly."

"If Lucas hit you first then you must have done something," I said.

"And what if I did do something," Joey got off the table and stood in front of me, trying to intimidate me. "What are you going to do about it?"

"Okay, back up I have this thing it's called personal space. Don't violate it," I took a step back from Joey and he seemed a little shocked at my words when he shouldn't have been. "I don't have to do anything about it. I thought you two were, I don't know, talking or something."

"We live in the same house," Joey narrowed his eyes, staring at me like I was stupid. "We kind of talk anyway."

"You know what I mean," I contended. "Like in the sense that you two are brothers or something."

"What?"

"You know what I mean," I repeated.

"Are you telling me that you keep track of my relationship with my brother and actually care?"

"I care about Lucas so yes, I fucking care especially when he's hurt."

"Relax," Joey rolled his eyes. "It's not like he's crying."

"What is wrong with you?"

"What's wrong with me? This is between me and him. I don't care if you're his girlfriend. Leave yourself out of it Acosta."

"You can't-"

Joey stepped forward, his face close against mine as he said the next words. "Sydney, leave yourself out of it."

I kept quiet, locked in a stare down with him. He didn't have the freckles like Lucas had on the bridge of his nose and because Lucas wore glasses, I could see that his eyes were slightly smaller as well. He didn't smell like Lucas and that expression on his face when he was telling me something serious wasn't like Lucas' whenever he told me something serious.

I stepped back first, quietly clearing my throat. "Fine."

"Good." Joey said, hopping back on the table. "So, you saw him today."

"Yeah. This morning."

"Did he go to Devin's?"

"Jane's." I corrected.

Joey nodded and I had a long time feeling that this conversation was over until my eyes went over to Lydia who was already staring back me. I gave her my best 'what' face and she merely narrowed her eyes at me in return.

I ignored her gaze, stepping towards Joey who watched our exchange as if it was entertaining. I gestured for Joey to come closer and he did. I leaned towards his ear and lowered my voice. "Really? You're going back to her again?"

"Last time I checked, we weren't friends Acosta. Why are you trying to be involved in my relationships?"

That was a good question. Why? "I don't know. What I can tell you is that I think you could do better."

Joey leaned back, his eye. Then, he laughed a little, grabbing his guitar back. "I don't know what my brother is telling you but honestly I'm not going down that at road again."

I stared at him, wondering if he was joking with me or not. "Are you serious?"

He wiped the smile off his face, nodding. "I'm serious." He glanced at Lydia who was typing frantically on her phone before returning his gaze on me. "I'll see you around Acosta."

When I tore my eyes from him and glanced over to where my friends were sitting, I realized Zen was gone. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Wow." I mumbled, looking at the colorful walls. "This is what happens when our school has a fun house for art?"

"Yep. They call it Art-o-rama. Like a panorama. The entire school is decorated with different art displays." Mary Anne said, her arm hooked with mine. "Where is Octavia?"

"Right here," Octavia hooked her other arm with mine and I grinned, loving that she was here for a while. She was currently being homeschooled and was finished shooting in LA. It's great to talk to her on the phone but seeing her in person was one of the best things. "Where's your tortoise?"

"He's not a tortoise." I pointed out.

"Turtle, tortoise, same thing all around." Octavia waved a hand when Eduardo had dragged Mary Anne off to a different hallway when we met at an intersection.

Octavia and I moved along and I kept up conversation. "So, movie premiere in a month? Excited?"

Octavia looked down at the ground almost nervously which was so unlike her. "A month and two weeks. It's all coming towards me so fast. Commercial shoot next week, so many pictures and the trailer just came out. I'm-"

"Overwhelmed?" I imputed.

"Yeah. That's the word. I really wish you could come to the premiere with me. They said I could bring a plus one and we'd look so hot on the red carpet. I could see it. Like our makeup would be perfect and our dresses only designer and reporters would come up to us and ask 'who are you wearing?' And we'd be like 'oh this old thing, it's just be-"

I cut her off with my laughter. "Yeah, as much as I would love for that to happen, my mom's not going to allow that at all."

Octavia sighed. "Yeah, my mom wouldn't allow that either if we switched places. You know I had to beg to see you perform at Nationals?"

"I kind of figured since you were in the middle of shooting a movie. Why didn't you ask Mary Anne or Kim or Sarah?"

"Mary Anne's all about school right now, you know her. And she's busy that weekend. Did you hear about the commercial she landed?" I nodded and Octavia continued as we strolled along the hallway. "Yeah, so there's that. Sarah, well she can go. It's just that one, she's never able to stay in a place for such a long time. I wouldn't be surprised if she got bored of seeing the movie. Like, how did the hell did that girl's parents convince her to go to Spain with them during Christmas break? and went across the street and two? After knowing her for almost four years, I've noticed that she never really let's go of her phone."

I couldn't help but laugh. "Yeah, that sounds like Sarah. What about Kim?"

"Kim..." she trailed off and we stopped in the middle of the hallway. "I hope she sees that what Zen did was right." 

"Me too." I agreed. 

Octavia shifted. "You know why Zen is called Zen right? It's because whenever he gets into a situation, he can handle it calmly. He doesn't really let his emotions take over him or whatever."

"Right."

"I wasn't here to witness what happened but Zen doesn't get angry. He won't yell at someone. That's not like him at all. So, when I heard that something happened and he acted like that? I was in disbelief." 

Our conversation was cut off by Lucas jogging toward us. "Hey. Octavia." They hugged and Lucas looked down at me with confusion. "I thought you couldn't come. Didn't you have a competition this weekend?"

"Mrs. Yousiff sent Andrea, Madison, Winifred and Hailey instead. Mom allowed me to come."

Lucas smiled and I couldn't help but return it. "Cool, I have something to show you guys, c'mon."

"Wait," Octavia stopped Lucas, reaching up to grab his face with one hand. He hissed immediately, trying to get his face out of her hand but she wouldn't budge, her fake nude nails against the bruise on his jaw. "Did you even bother putting ice on this?"

"I'm okay, Octavia." He gently put her hand down, his eyes trying to reassure her behind his glasses.

Octavia pursed her lips, glancing at me before looking back at him. "Why the hell aren't you telling Sydney what this is about?"

Lucas didn't look ticked off or anything. Instead, he glinted at me, grabbing my hand. "Please. Let it go. Forget it."

"Was it a big deal? The cause of the fight?" I couldn't help but inquire.

I noticed he clearly hesitated before pulling me in and hugging me towards him. He whispered in my ear, "To me? Yeah. I could have reacted in a different way and I kind of regret that. At the same time, I have a sense of satisfaction that I could actually land a punch so give me that, okay?"

I started laughing against his shoulder and he smoothed a hand over my hair. I always wanted to stay like this, in his arms but reality would never let me do so forever. "C'mon. Let me show you what I want to show you now that you're here."

"Okay, so this must be the...blue hallway." Octavia mumbled as we looked at the different paintings hung up on the walls, most of them about water. "How, uh, creative."

Lucas laughed. "Um...ninth graders had this one but they did a really cool one with the-"

"I don't care," Octavia held up a hand. "Where's our grade Mr. Artist? I overheard that you ran that one yourself."

Lucas cleared his throat. "I wouldn't say I ran the whole thing." He's lying. He did. They've been preparing for this day for weeks and I knew it stressed Lucas out even more when the art department head put him in charge.

We walked upstairs, past the painting hung over the railing and to the third floor where I knew Sarah's locker was. When we opened the door and it shut behind us, the first thing I noticed was that it was dark and I felt like my sight was completely taken away from me. Extremely dark.

"What the fuck is going on here?" I heard Octavia say.

My grip on Lucas' hand tightened and I could hear him chuckle into my ear. "Not a fan of the dark?"

"You already know this. Stop mocking me." I mumbled, my other hand on his arm.

"Guys, turn the lights back on!" He yelled.

My eyes adjusted and my jaw dropped. Holy shit. The lights that were usually brightened up the entire hallway were of different colors. Some EDM music played through the place and I noticed many of the people in our grade-the artist of our grade were laughing and chatting.

"Whoa." Octavia said in awe, looking around.

"Glow in the dark." I said, letting go of Lucas so that I could inspect the walls, the neon patterns on the ground, just everything even my socks were whiter.

"Yeah. Glow in the dark paintings, sculptures, we did some lockers. It's pretty insane." He agreed and we continued walking.

Someone came up to us and offered us glow in the dark paint. Octavia gladly accepted faster than I could, swiping two strips of it on her cheeks like she was going into battlefield. "Lucas, best idea ever. This is so cool. Oh my God. Dance party. Sydney, hold my jacket."

I grabbed her jacket as she scurried away to the crowd of people down the other intersection of hallways and I laughed at her excitement. There were thick glow sticks hanging from the ceiling and people who passed by us were giving or wearing bracelet or necklace glow jewelry. "So, this was your idea?"

Lucas scoffed and when I looked closer at him I noticed that the black shirt he was wearing had words written on it with glow paint. It said 'art geek' in the middle and I smiled to myself because it was true. "It's supposed to be half neon art show, neon party which is why people are dancing all over the place."

"We had to go to the dollar store and get buckets of glow stuff every single day to prepare for this night. From all the glow sticks hanging, we had to convince the janitor to change the lights to black lights for us just on this floor, to making sure that we got here this morning and afternoon to set everything up. This took so much work."

It did look like a lot of work. The paintings hung up were glowing in neon, in different patterns or different types of abstract art. I felt like I was getting hypnotized just staring at everything.

"Lucas, this is amazing." I looked at him properly for the first time tonight. "Have I mentioned that black is really your color?"

"Stop flirting with me to boost my ego, Canada girl," He slung an arm around me. "By the way, black is a shade."

"Good to know, know-it-all." I muttered as he pulled me along, grabbing a glow in the dark neon blue hat and putting it over his head. When we pulled up to a table next to where multiple people were painting on a large widespread canvas, I noticed the cups. "Whoa, these cups are glow in the dark too?"

Lucas took the cup out of my hand and set it back down on the table. "Don't drink this. I'm pretty sure someone spiked the juice and I wouldn't want you to go home drugged or drunk out of your mind."

He glanced at the people painting right at our feet and reached down, grabbing a small bucket filled with paint and handing it towards me. "Ready to make art? Glow in the dark art? This mess is going to be hung up for about a week for everyone to see."

"Does glow in the dark make it more special?" I asked him and he only laughed in response.

About an hour later, I was still rubbing paint off my hands when Mary Anne and Octavia pulled us into another hallway. Octavia hummed. "Of course they didn't do this hallway. I'm pretty sure the principal wouldn't allow it anyway."

This was the only hallway where there weren't any classrooms or doors. There were pictures on the wall of people who were alumni of Hamilton academy. From singers to musicians, to actors and actresses, to Broadway stars to dancers. There were so many.

"Oct, you're going to be on this wall." Eduardo said, looking around. "They have a plaque for you already." We looked at the empty space on a wall next to another actor where Octavia's name was engraved on a plaque below.

"Wow." Octavia said in astonishment. "There's my name. Now they just need the movie poster."

I smiled at her and the action itself made me catch my eye on another large photograph. I recognized the stage to be the auditorium in the picture and in the midst of it was a girl standing on it, a microphone in her hand and smile on her face as she was capture singing. Her hair was a length brown and her eyes were green. She was pretty and looked very familiar. Her features looked very familiar.

When I looked down at the plaque at the bottom of the picture. I realized that my thoughts were confirmed. She looked a lot like Liz Cahill, Lucas' mom.

"Bethany Cahill." Mary Anne said, hooking her arm with mine. They gathered to see the picture I was looking at.

"Did you guys know her?" I asked.

"She went to my elementary school when the Cahills moved here but no not really. Everyone knew of her though." Eduardo answered.

"What about when she came here? To Hamilton for singing?"

"By the time we were in grade nine, she and a couple others of the Cahills moved back England apparently. I don't think Lucas and Joey were of those that moved back."

"No, they weren't." I said, recalling some of the things Lucas had told me.

"She was really talented though," Octavia said. "I remember people even after she left kept saying that she should've gotten signed or something. They were so certain that she would make it, you know?"

A silence fell over us as we stared at the large photograph until Eduardo clear his throat. "It was a car accident, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, I think so." Mary Anne said. "It's good that the school kept this to remember her by."

"C'mon guys. Let's get going." Octavia said after a moment, starting to walk down the way we came from. I followed their lead slowly, my eyes wandering the photograph.

Eduardo slung an arm around me, distracting me away from the large picture. "One day, you're going to be here."

A smile came to my face at his words. "You're going to be here too."

"We're not just going to be dancers. Let's think bigger," He said, when we exited that hallway. "We're going to be legends. And you can never forget legends or icons. The entire world one day will know who Sydney Acosta and Eduardo Sanchez is."

I admired his confidence so much especially he got into the school he had wanted to get into a couple weeks ago. You can't forget legends or icons, I thought. The school remembered Bethany Cahill even she wasn't attending the school anymore, even when she died. I remembered the look on Lucas' face whenever he brought her up, as if she was still here.

"Legends never really die, huh Eddie?"

Eduardo thought about for a moment before concluding, "No. In a way, I don't think they do."