"The sincere friends of this world are as ship lights in the stormiest of nights." -Giotto di Bondone
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POV: Aria, Duchess of Uniqueness
     I jumped up and snapped back to reality. Something was off. What's on my face, I wondered. There were streams coming from my eyes, which were burning, and mucus attempting to escape my nose. Oh. I rushed to the restroom, hoping Amelia wasn't back yet, and locked the door. I was a hot mess, complete with a red face, bags under my bloodshot eyes, sweat seeping from my face, and tears of pain. I always have the worst time with memories and somehow manage to make even the best ones sad. That's the life of depression, everyone! As I was splashing water from the tap onto my face, I heard a knock on the restroom door.
     "Someone's in here!", I called out, refusing to let my voice crack.
     "You okay, Sis?" Dang it: I wasn't fast enough.
     "Yeah, perfectly fine! I'll be out in just a minute!" My voice wavered a bit, but just enough to go undetected; I had to be happy for the surprise...there was a heavy silence. Then, I heard "Vanilla Twilight" start playing. Ever since the "Formal Greeting" incident, my ringtone for a certain weirdo (see why I did there?) has been that song. Then, it stopped.
     "Hello?" Meels paused. Don't tell me... I opened the door to find Amelia with my phone in her hand.
     "Hey, Aria." It was Louie. I was waving both hands for Amelia to take it off speaker, but she gave me a puzzled look. After mouthing, 'Take it off speaker', she handed the phone to me. I assumed it was off speaker and turned down the volume.
     "Hello?" Of course, that's when my voice decides to crack. There was a pause.
     "Aria, are you okay?" He sounded genuinely worried.
     "No no, I'm fine!!" I held my breath, hoping my lie passed the truth test.
     "Alright. Just looking out for you." I exhaled quietly so that it didn't cause suspicion. Then, he said, "I love you so much, and I called because I wanted ask you something." I felt my stomach drop.
     "Go for it...?" I was confused.
     "Will you..." Wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait. Hold up. What?!
     "Go out to dinner with me when you come back for Christmas? I figured, since it would be a certain person's birthday..." That makes much more sense. I was scared that he was...
     "Absolutely! I should have just enough to pay for it." I replied, trying to remember the last time I went to the bank.
     "No, I'm buying. It'll be your birthday, which means you don't buy. It's my turn." There was a pause.
     "Um...Aria?"
     "...uh, yeah?"
     "Why am I getting angry texts from FOI about why I didn't propose?" I looked at my phone and, of course, it was on speaker. God Bless, I'm deaf... I told him my phone was accidentally on speaker, which he replied with, "Of course...". I got up, opened the door, and saw literally every member of the FreaksOfInsanity outside my door. I stared at them, closed the door in their faces, locked it and told Louie, "I'm going to have to call you back, okay?"

     "Are we there yet?" Corrie was so excited to get to the pizza place that she ignored my "No Talking For The Entire Bus Ride" rule I established. She froze.
     "Wait...I didn't mean to!!! I'm sorry, Aria!!! Crap!!!" I glared at her, my expression screaming, 'You're only making it worse.' She sank into her seat with Ezra and Sammy and awaited her punishment.
     "Corretta Paige Gordon, when we get off the bus, please scream out a fake confession of love to someone other than myself or yourself." This was one of the many pleasures of knowing everyone's full name. Oooohh's escaped the others' mouths. With one simple glare, the bus went silent. A grin crept onto my face when we neared our destination. I am so recording this. I whipped out my phone as I parked and got out of the bus.
"EZRA, I LOVE YOU MORE THAN ARIA LOVES LOUIE AND TORTURING ME!!!", Corrie screamed as she stepped out of bus. I rolled my eyes, but was thankful she took my punishment seriously. I honestly felt kind of bad for calling her by her full name. I then remembered how my punishment was basically like a stereotypical Canadian compared to what I would've had to do if I was the one being punished. Seriously, I've had to prank calls, push-ups, and Just Dance because of the FreaksOfInsanity. All of a sudden, I saw someone Corrie hadn't seen in a long time. I brought my camera over to her. She winked at me, and I winked back. It was all part of the elaborate surprise. That's when Corrie saw Ms. Cynthia.
     "No. F******. Way."