It was a cold weekday morning, and no one could possibly drag me out of bed at a time earlier than ten o'clock. Sure, I had school, and although I was awake and listened to the stirring downstairs, my entire body screamed at me anytime I moved an inch. There were plenty of reasons to stay in bed, but there were many more to get up. But did I listen to those? Of course not.

I heard three pairs of steps slowly climb the stairs, with one voice hushing all the rest.

"You'll ruin the surprise, Leah. Stop talking," Natalie whispered from just outside my door.

I smiled, then closed my eyes and laid my head back down.

"I didn't even say anything. Melissa's the one that's talking," Leah replied in the same whisper.

"Okay, so on the count of three, we'll all scream happy birthday! And we'll take her downstairs to her present from Matt and Viktor. Do you understand, Leah?" Natalie asked.

I could practically hear Leah cross her arms. "Yeah. I'm not an idiot."

"Sometimes, I doubt that. One." Nat put their hand on the doorknob. "Two." She gave it a quiet, slow turn. "Three."

"Happy birthday!" the three cheered in sync.

I picked my head up and propped myself up on my arm. "Thanks, ladies. I love you."

Melissa carefully navigated my floor, which was actually decently clean, and climbed onto my bed. "We love you too. Oh, and Matt and Viktor have a present for you if you want to go downstairs."

"Mom also said that you need to get up or else you'll be late for school," Natalie said.

I dragged myself out of bed. "Okay."

I was half-hoping that I could somehow get out of going to school, but since Mom was a nurse and knew pretty much everything (especially when I was faking sick), my birthday sure as hell wasn't a good enough excuse.

Leah led me down the stairs and into the living room, where Matt and Viktor were waiting with a box wrapped in pink paper and a red bow on top.

"Who made the bow? I asked.

Matt laughed. "That was all Viktor. It took him three different YouTube tutorials and at least six tries, but he got it."

"Eight tries," Viktor said.

29. Real men make bows.

"Can I open it now?" I asked.

Viktor nodded. "Please. I'm getting impatient."

I laughed, then took the bow off of the top of the box, putting it to the side, so I could put it with the rest of my prized possessions. I tore away the paper, and inside was a box for the last thing I was expecting.

I forced a smile. "I've always wanted a dining chair."

"Look, it's exactly like all the rest in the kitchen." Matt pointed to the picture on the box. "Now you can give it to Viktor, and you get what you wanted. All the chairs match."

That was actually brilliant of them. I had gotten used to the guest chair, but we all deserved an upgrade here. And I even got to keep my chair, because I sure as hell didn't want a new one.

But I wasn't about to tell them that. Matt and Viktor clearly had figured a part of me out, and there was no way I would give them the satisfaction of a reaction. Not yet, at least.

"So what I'm hearing is that you got a present for yourself, not me," I said.

"It's for both of you. You at least owe him that. You didn't even get him anything for his birthday," Matt said.

"Because I thought he was a complete asshole." I laughed.

"But you clearly don't think that anymore," Matt said.

Of course, I couldn't tell Matt that I was slightly emotionally invested in everything the guy did, so I just shrugged.

Viktor smiled. "I'm just really excited about this present. I knew you would like it."

"That's really weird," I said. "And I absolutely never said that I liked it."

Viktor ignored the second part of what I said. He must have had his mind made up already about that. "It's not weird if you think about it. I've been a foreigner for so long, and it's almost like this chair represents so much more, especially since you're a part of it."

"It's just a chair," Matt said.

I shook my head. "No, Vik's right. I've thought of it the same way. It's kind of stupid, but it's almost an initiation. You just have to read between the lines."

"I didn't realize there was a whole chair language I was missing out on," Matt said.

Viktor and I nodded.

"So that's six languages that you know now," I said.

Viktor laughed. "I guess so."

I let my gaze linger on him for a little longer. When I first met him, his eyes were a pretty shade of blue, but they didn't have a damn thing going on behind them. And he really wasn't all that bright, but at the same time, he absolutely was in a completely different way.

I turned to Matt. "Thank you for the present. It's actually pretty damn cool."

"Well, I was just trying to help your OCD, but it seems that you got a lot more out of it than I thought," Matt said.

I smiled. "And thank you, Viktor. Consider this a late birthday present from me, too."

Viktor smiled back. "Of course."

30. Happy birthday. I'm three months late, sure, but better late than never, right?

***

A couple days later during government class, I kept my book open in front of me and stared at the words, but I couldn't seem to read them. My mind was everywhere but the class, as I couldn't help but think about that stupidly smart birthday present from a few days before.

Viktor, Matt, and I put the chair together, and even though it was only twelve pieces, I just about killed both of them before we finished it hours later. They were insistent on figuring it out on their own, even though the instruction manual was readily available. I secretly read it, and when they asked for my help, I just recited what I had read earlier. They figured out that I was cheating and banished me to my room.

My other friends and family were also less sarcastic than usual for my birthday, which was slightly unsettling, and I probably would have preferred it if we all just carried on like normal. There was no way I was worth all the trouble they went through to keep their comments to themselves.

Even though Arti claimed that the thanks for tolerating me gift was also my birthday present, she gave me a few pictures she had of us when we were younger. In one of them, we were about six and were working on our homework together. I had two coloring pages in front of me, and she had two snacks. Some things never changed, and what could have ever been a better gift than consistency?

Mom and Dad gave me a pocket knife. It had my name etched on the outside, and when I flipped it open, it shined. When I asked them about it, they refused to answer why they got it for me. I didn't know how to take that.

Blaine made the world's shittiest cupcakes for me and proudly gave them to me at lunch. They were about as dry as hockey pucks, and when I told him that, he just told me that I was too honest for my own good and kissed me for way too long. I kind of liked it, though.

It was the best day I'd had in a long time.

The bell rang, and I didn't process it at first. I followed everyone out of the classroom, and I made my way to math class.

I strolled through the door, and Eleanor stood right at my desk, talking to Lukas. She laughed about something and scooped up the books on his desk into her arms. When she looked up at me, she smiled.

I didn't smile back.

She glanced back at Lukas with a look that I couldn't exactly read, then walked past me and out of the classroom with her blonde ponytail swinging back and forth behind her.

Ever since she left our lunch table after the issue with Arti, we were still friendly enough in Spanish class, but we weren't exactly friends. But I never knew she actually talked to other people besides maybe her soccer teammates. She always kept to herself, and Lukas wasn't a very welcoming person.

My eyes met Lukas's, and before I could say anything, he looked away to avoid my gaze.

Phase one of my paranoia hit me like bird shit.

It was probably nothing, but there was no way in hell that it was nothing.

Moments after, Viktor came in and sat next to me. I nodded and acknowledged his presence, but I didn't say anything to him.

He looked at me with an eyebrow raised, but I wasn't going to give up my latest information just yet.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"I'm just having a crappy day. That's all," I lied.

"What's wrong?"

I hesitated. "I just struggled on a Spanish quiz."

"I didn't know you had a quiz today, but we can go over that information again. What exactly was the problem?"

"We can handle that later."

He lowered his eyebrows. "What's wrong? Normally, you want to fix the problem right away, and I have to slow you down."

I ran my hand through my hair. "Not now, okay? We have other things we need to focus on."

He nodded. "Uh, okay."

I took a quick peek over at Lukas, and he stared straight ahead. No phone, no notes. He was definitely listening. Psychopath.

The bell rang, and Miss Harter took her spot up at the front of the room. She passed papers down the row, and I couldn't even muster the energy to read any of the words on it.

Despite my love for numbers, I couldn't focus on the class, but for a completely different reason than my previous one. Eleanor's brief conversation with Lukas was a red flag, and I couldn't help but think that she was my replacement in Lukas's anti-Viktor movement, or she was a romantic interest of his. Or both.

He tried to pull the same shit on me.

Arti would have a fit if she found out, which is exactly why I was going to march over to her house with a pitchfork and a torch as soon as school ended.

Even though Blaine and I thought she was absolutely crazy, what if she actually figured something out without actually knowing what it was? After all, she was convinced that Eleanor was cheating on her without one single piece of evidence.

Viktor turned to me. "Do you want to be in a group with me?"

"What?" I asked.

"For the project," he said like it was obvious. It probably should have been, but I hadn't been paying attention in the slightest.

"Oh, yeah. Sure. You didn't even have to ask. I just assumed we would work together."

He chuckled. "I wasn't sure if I would just drag you down or something."

"I've done countless group projects with Blaine and Arti, and you can't be any worse than them. Last year we had to do a video project for English, and that went about as smoothly as you can imagine. I'm the only one with any sort of focus out of the three of us."

He laughed. "We just need one more person in our group."

I smiled and turned to Lukas. "Hey, do you have a group?"

He eyed me with an eyebrow raised. "Not yet."

"Awesome. You can be the third in ours."

"With you and Viktor? I think I'll pass on that one."

"Who else is going to group with you? No one. So take me up on my offer, or you're stuck doing this entire project by yourself."

I wasn't really sure if that was a big deal since I didn't even know what the project was, but when my mouth started talking, I was just along for the ride.

He nodded. "That's fine."

While that went over a bit too smoothly for my liking, the beginnings of a plot began to swirl around in my head, and my mind wanted nothing more than to see Lukas's plan burn up in flames. Vengeful, maybe, but I was not to be taken lightly.

I smiled. He couldn't outsmart me.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times, it ain't fucking happening.

I looked down at the paper we had received earlier and read through the instructions.

That math project, a strange enough idea to begin with, seemed like the best way to get myself a one-way ticket to hell.

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Hi everyone! To make up for how horrible I've been at updating this story lately, here's another chapter! It's been almost a year since I began rewriting this, which is longer than it took me to write it originally. Yikes. Thank you so much for sticking with me, and thank you so much for reading!

So what do you think is going on? Is this another one of Amanda's overreactions to anything involving Viktor?

And for a second funner question, what is something that's very common that you've never done?

For me, I've never had a pet fish. One time, my family had to look over my cousin's girlfriend's fish that she won at the fair, but one of my cats killed it. I don't know why we expected anything different.