He set the cup of coffee on the desk in front of me, and I took it into my cold hands. It burned.

"Amanda, where did you get that video of me?" he asked.

"What video?" I tried playing dumb, but he wasn't stupid enough to fall for it.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about. If you weren't there in class the day I made those comments, how could you have possibly gotten your hands on a video of it?"

I let out a breath. "You know I'm capable of making friends, right?"

"Are you though?"

"You were just telling me I have character, and now you're trying to insult me? What do you want?" I asked.

"I want to know where you got that video, if it even exists at all. Who took it?"

"I'm certainly not a liar, and I'd be glad to show it to you if you still don't believe me. The person who took it gave me a copy."

"And who is that person?"

I took a sip of coffee. "I'm not telling."

Caroline took one for the team for me, and I would be damned if I did something as dishonorable as throwing her under the bus.

"Can I see the video?" he asked.

"You know what you said, I know what you said, and we agreed that I wouldn't do anything with the video. It doesn't matter anymore. I'd like to move on from that, if you don't mind, and discuss something more important: my grade."

"This isn't just about me, though. You don't deserve to be caught up in the middle of this."

"Caught up in the middle of what? A stupid ass feud? I've been there, I've done that. That's what I spent half my junior year of high school on. Hit me with your best shot," I said.

"Who do you know in my class?" he asked. "I've only ever seen you talk to one person."

Bullshit mode: activated.

"I'm going to ignore how creepy that sounds, but I know several people in that class. There's the Jardetzky twins, Daniel, Mara, Caroline, Tyler, Katie, and Alicia."

I didn't know the Jardetzky twins personally, but Viktor did, so that was good enough for me. And I just made up all the rest of the names, besides Caroline.

"Oh," Dr. Mann said.

That put a small dent in his one-hundred percent correct "it had to be Caroline" hypothesis.

But now that the seed had been planted, I couldn't think of any other course of action besides a tactical retreat.

"Well, I better get going. I have another class starting soon. But thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to fix my grade. I hope it works out for me, and I'm sending well-wishes to your wife," I said as I stood up.

I sure as hell wasn't going to my next class, not after my barefoot trek across campus in my pajamas and my tiring speech.

"I'll be sure to tell her that." He stood up and pushed the chair in. "And Amanda, you will hold up on your end of the deal, correct?"

"Of course I will, unless you give me a reason to change my mind," I said.

He didn't respond as I walked out of his office.

***

That evening, Jackie and I decided to have a girls' night as a reward for doing my speech.

I wasn't exactly sure what that entailed, but she was really excited to try out her new face mask recipe that she found on Pinterest.

This was my first girls' night, and although I had spent countless grade school nights at Arti's house, once we hit high school, Blaine tagged along for pretty much everything, which limited our options.

While he was super chill about our feminine habits, we could never get him to engage in them, besides teaching him to braid. For some reason, he really liked messing with my hair, even during our freshman year.

Jackie mixed some honey and tea tree oil together into a concoction that smelled like going to church in the 1300's with a cold. I didn't like it at all, but Jackie's certainty that it would clear up her acne lickety-split was good enough for me.

"So we just slather this onto our faces?" I asked, trying to hold my nose away from it.

"Mhm. Then we can just chill for a little bit," she replied, then held the plastic Tupperware with the mixture out to me.

I let her hold it for a little while longer. "You know, I really, really hate sticky shit. And slimy shit. And things that smell like shit."

Her eyes widened. "Oh, wait. I have something for that."

She added a few more drops of another oil to her mad scientist project, mixed it up, then held it back out to me. "Lavender smells a lot better, and it'll help you chill out."

"The smell of a plant isn't going to calm me down. This is pretty much as chill as I ever get," I said.

She smiled. "It's an all-natural, completely legal anxiety reducer."

"The fact that you had to clarify that it's legal is giving me more anxiety."

She laughed. "Dear God, Amanda, just sit down and let the girls' night happen. It's Friday night—"

A Friday night without Viktor, but whatever.

"—and finals aren't too far away, so this is one of your last chances to relax until Christmas—"

I also wouldn't be relaxing then. With Mom gone, I was left in charge of the Christmas decorations and desserts.

"—so just take a deep breath, shut your eyes, and let yourself chill."

I smiled at her. "Yeah, I don't think I'm capable of that shit."

She rolled her eyes. "Oh my god. Sit down, and I'm gonna cover your face in this, whether you like it or not."

I sat down.

Jackie smiled. "There you go. Thanks for making this relatively easy on me." She began to spread the mask all over my face.

It took every ounce of my strength not to swat at her hand and wipe all the honey-oil shit away.

There were certain prices that had to be paid for natural beauty, and I sure as hell wasn't one to put up with it.

But I bit my cheek and held on. There wasn't a damn thing that was relaxing about having that stuff on my face.

Jackie sat down next to me, after I assumed she put the face mask on herself. "Don't you feel better now?"

"Sure."

The longer I sat, the better I did feel, though, so it certainly wasn't a lie.

A knock came from the other side of our door, though, and that feeling dissipated.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"It's me. I'm bored without Viktor, and you're the next best thing, so let me in," Caroline's voice said.

"Who's that?" Jackie asked.

"A distant acquaintance of mine who pissed me off this morning. Pretend we're not here, and maybe she'll go away," I replied.

"I can hear you," Caroline said.

Shit.

"Aw, she's lonely without Viktor," Jackie said. "Can I let her in?"

"She lives with, like, eighty other girls, although they probably all hate her, understandably," I muttered to myself. I didn't want Caroline to hear that.

But Jackie stood up and let her in anyway. "Nice to meet you. I'm Jackie Stallard."

I peeked my eye open.

Caroline smiled back at her. "Oh my god, you're so pretty."

"This isn't my normal complexion. It's honey and tea tree oil."

Caroline laughed. "And funny, too. Girl, you hit the genetic lottery. I'm Caroline Sullivan. Nice to meet you too."

"Viktor's girlfriend?" Jackie asked.

"More or less. I hope I'm not interrupting anything, but it just gets lonely at the house without my ray of sunshine."

I sat up. "He isn't your anything."

"Amanda, what did we say about stress?" Jackie said.

"It'd be helpful if—"

"Amanda!"

"It'd be helpful if one of my many stressors wasn't here right now," I mumbled as I snuggled back down into the beanbag chair.

"We were just about to do nails, if you wanted to join. It's a girls' night, and it's always better when you have more people," Jackie said to Caroline.

"I'd love to. I haven't painted my nails in a few days, and they're starting to look a little trashy. Slut red looks damn good when it's fresh, but after that," Caroline laughed, "not so much."

I frowned.

Amanda Jayne: The Queen of Being Replaced and Overlooked.

But I had an idea to change that.

"Hey Caroline," I said.

Caroline looked up at me. "Yeah?"

"You got any tea on Dr. Mann?" I asked.

She smiled. "Other than the fact that he's a bully and a piece of shit? Sure. What do you want to know?"

"Anything you think is relevant. Does he know you personally?"

"He doesn't know me too well, besides a few run-ins here and there. But people I know and care about? He's been shitty to them, and you're an example of it."

Hm. Dr. Mann's first instinct was Caroline got me the video, but if they didn't know each other too well, I wasn't sure why he would think that.

"What else?" I asked.

"Honey, you fell out of my good graces when you decided not to do anything with the video. It was the first tangible proof I had that he needs to go. But," she looked down at Jackie's selection of nail polish, "if you tell me something, maybe I could hook you up with some info."

I shrugged. "Uh, I don't really have anything."

That wasn't completely true, because I knew about his sick wife, but telling Caroline would be a huge privacy issue. While my morals weren't exactly "upstanding," I knew better than to give something like that away carelessly.

"How about on Viktor?" Caroline asked.

Jackie paused for a moment, then glanced over at Caroline. "I don't think it's healthy to ask for gossip on your more-or-less boyfriend."

"Amanda's clearly got something she wants from me, and I'm not just gonna give it away for free. I'm not a gossip slut," Caroline replied.

Jackie, much more careful with what she chose to say than I could ever be, took a deep breath, then went back to her nails.

"So tell me, what's your history with him?" Caroline asked me.

"It's complicated," I said.

"Sounds interesting."

"It's very interesting. Thanks for asking."

She rolled her eyes. "Look, if you want the info I have on Dr. Mann, then you're gonna have to give something up."

"You heard about my history with him during my speech. I love him to death, but we had a rough start."

"How rough?"

"I spent most of my time planning ways to murder him without getting caught."

"Remind me not to get on your bad side," Caroline said with a laugh.

She was quickly making her way to that side, but I didn't say anything.

I was about to start my period, and I was about 85% sure that had something to do with my attitude toward her.

She irritated me, sure, but almost everyone did. She never really pissed me off the same way Dr. Mann did.

With that in mind, I decided to take a friendlier approach. "Here, let me tell you a story about Vik and me. After we kinda worked out our issues, we ended up having an 'issue' with a former teammate of his. You know, nothing too crazy, but Lukas ended up getting arrested, and—"

"Nothing too crazy?" Caroline interrupted. "There's no possible way that story isn't crazy."

I let out a breath. "Okay, it was a little crazy, but that's not the point—"

"I want that story. Now."

"And I want you to be less of a spoiled brat, but here we are."

She shot me a glare. "Me? A spoiled brat? Trust me, I haven't gotten a thing I've ever wanted up until now."

That must have pressed one of her buttons.

I liked it.

Another!

I smiled. "That sounds truly tragic, and I'm terribly sorry for your misfortune—"

"Amanda, you're letting your grief talk again," Jackie interrupted. "I'm not trying to be mean or anything, and I'm sorry, but—" She trailed off when she realized I wasn't offended.

Viktor ended up telling Jackie about Mom, but it didn't really bother me. I lived with Jackie, and it didn't hurt to have her know my actual life.

Caroline rose an eyebrow. "Grief?"

Jackie turned to Caroline. "That doesn't concern you."

A loud scream and cheer came from the hallway, and all three of us rose to our feet before anyone could say anything. I opened up the door, and there was a girl with a dart stuck to her face, and Diego with a smile on his face.

He looked down the hall to where we were standing. He winked at Jackie. "Guess what, sweetheart? I'm a few thousand dollars richer."

"What about Viktor?" I asked.

"I took him out this morning right before he left. Once again, it's nothing personal, Candy Cane—"

"Don't call me that, you fucking traitor," I said.

"He's got money?" Caroline asked.

"Three thousand dollars, to be exact. Now I can treat you the way you deserve to be treated, Miss Jackie," Diego said.

"Ew, no," Jackie said, then went back into our room.

"Well, fuck you too, then," Diego muttered to himself.

"Congrats on your bullshit win. Backstabbing your way to the top is an underappreciated art form," I said.

"I'm glad you've let go of your bitterness," Diego said, and by the tone of his voice, I couldn't tell if he answered my sarcasm with a serious comment or a sarcastic one himself.

I assumed it was the latter.

"You know, Amanda, if you'd like, I'd be glad to make it up to you with all my money that I don't have to spend on room and board costs," Diego continued.

"Fuck off," I said, then ushered Caroline back into the room. "Bye, bitch." I shut the door with a smile.

"Fuck you too," Diego said with a sigh.

I didn't feel bad for him in the slightest.

Douchebag.

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Hey everyone! Thank you so much for reading! I'm not really sure if this is an okay part 2, since my editing abilities have been hindered by a lack of sleep (group projects suck) even more so than usual, so if you see anything, just let me know.

I guess I don't really have a question pertaining to the plot or characters, so... yeah. Next chapter, Amanda's heading home, and the characters you know (and hopefully love) will be back! I'm a little excited, just in case you couldn't tell.