The next day I'm exhausted so I get coffee at the coffee shop nearby and head to school. I'm dreading school today. I kept waking up in the middle of the night thinking I was hearing noises in the house but I know it was my mind playing tricks on me.

When I get to school I work in my normal spot and walk into school. I see Jessica near her locker talking to a girl with blonde hair. When I get closer I realize it's Jessica's girlfriend. Samara. Jessica sees me and smiles.

"Ava! Hey! This is Samara," she said introducing me to the blonde girl. We shake hands.

"Hi, I've heard so much about you," I say. She smiles at me.

"I hope it was all good," she said. Jessica smiles.

"Of course."

"So, you're new today?" I asked still confused on why she is hear.

"She transferred here from a school farther away," Jessica said. I nod and sip my coffee. Then I see Pricilla and Melody walking over.

"Incoming," I say in a low voice. Jessica turns around.

"Who's this?" Melody asks. Pricilla has her lips pressed into a firm line. I know that look. She doesn't approve.

"This is Samara, she just transferred here." Jessica says in the coolest voice possible.

"Cool, I'm Melody and that's Pricilla," Melody says. Pricilla doesn't say anything.

"Nice to meet you all," Samara says.

"Melody come on we have to get to class," Pricilla says suddenly and drags Melody away. She knows we have the same class together right? I ignore her and see Brandon. He walks over to me and I smile.

"Samara this is Ava's...friend Brandon." I flinch at her pause in the sentence.

"She just transferred here," I say. They shake hands.

"See you at lunch?" I nod at Jess and raise my eyebrows a little, hinting I need to talk to her. She nodded.

"Bye Samara," I smile. Brandon waves and we both walk away together.

"Is that her girlfriend?" Brandon asks lowly. I nod. "Did you know she was coming her today?"

"No I didn't. You should have seen Pricilla's face when she introduced her," I laugh. He smiled and we continue walking. The bell rings right as we walk into the classroom and Brandon's and I part ways. I sit next to Pricilla and she immediately turns to me.

"Who is that girl?" She demanded.

"Jessica's friend. Will you relax?" I said pulling out my notebook.

"Relax? You realize she's going to bring her to eat lunch with us right?"

"She has a name Pricilla and it's not that big of a deal. She's really nice," I said as the teacher starts talking.

"Did you see what she was wearing?" She whispered. She was wearing jeans and a cute top there is nothing wrong with that.

"Pricilla, you can't just judge people on their appearances," I say. She seemed to be very taken back by that and shuts up.

The rest of class I manage to pay attention and get my work done. When lunch came around I went to our normal table and everyone was already there. Pricilla had her normal bitch face on and Melody was talking to Samara. I sat down and Jessica smiled at me.

"So, how did you guys meet?" I froze and then turned my head towards her.

"We met at a coffee shop last summer," Samara said.

"Wow, you guys have known each other for a long time," Pricilla said in an annoying tone. I look at Jessica and I get up.

"I'm going to go to the bathroom, Jess let's go," I said. Jess stood up and we both left the table. When we got into the bathroom I made sure no one else was inside and the faced her.

"Jess, what are you doing?" I asked. She closed her eyes for a second.

"I know it was stupid I just thought it would easier to have her come to this school. I wasn't thinking," she said.

"Jess, Pricilla is never going accept anyone else that we hang out with that's why I keep Brandon away from her, because she will tear them down." I said. Jess looked down. "Look all I'm saying is if you don't want her to know about your relationship then you need to keep her away. I don't want your relationship to be ruined by Pricilla." She nods.

"You're right," she says. I give her a hug and we both walk out of the bathroom.

After school I go to the grocery store and get some food to stock up for the next week. When I get home I unload the bags and then I dance for a little while in my studio. Later, I take a shower around 8, make myself some dinner, and start on my homework.

I'm barely finished with my homework when my eyes catch on the envelopes of applications sitting on the counter. I grab the envelopes and pull them out. I need to do this, for myself. For about an hour I research the schools and fill out the applications and when I'm finished it's midnight. I'm exhausted but I need to finish my homework.

One assignment later I get a text from Brandon.

Brandon: Let's sit up on the rooftop and talk about life.

Ava: It's 1am.

Brandon: I know:)

Ava: You're crazy wildcat
(If you know what this is from, bless you👏🙌)

I smile to myself and grab a blanket off the couch and head outside. I walk around the side of Brandon's house and see him sitting on the roof above his bedroom. I climb up the latter and he helps me up. I sit beside him and look up at the star lit sky.

"Why are you even up at 1am?" He asked.

"Homework...and I was filling out applications for college," I said. "What about you? You never talk about college." He sighs.

"Not much to tell. I mean I want to get in to college but I don't know what I want to do. Some thing with cars, but I don't know." I nod.

"What is that?" He asked looking at my foot. I looked down at the writing on my ankle.

"It's a tattoo," I said smiling.

"You, have a tattoo?" He asked in disbelief. I nodded.

"Just be," He read. "Just be what?"

"Anything," I shrugged. "It's why I got it."

"You can be anything or anyone you want to," he realized.

"I know it's kind of cheesy. I got it in Vegas."

"Of course you did," he laughed.

"What about yours? The bird on your stomach?" I asked.

"I don't know, really. I saw it in a magazine."

"A magazine? Are you serious?" I looked at him.

"It wasn't like that! I swear! It was a design magazine and some girl had made a mosaic window of a bird. I thought it was cool so I got a tattoo of it," he said. "Birds represent freedom." He concluded. I nod and wrap the blanket around me tighter.

"So, how was lunch today?" He said changing the subject.

"A mess," I said. He laughs. I hit him.

"Not funny," I smile. He laughs more.

"I talked to Jess about it though. I know she wants to keep their relationship a secret but if she keeps bring her around Pricilla she's going to tear her down." He nods.

"I think you're the only one who understands Pricilla," he said putting his arms behind his head. 

"Yeah," I scoff.

"Still going to the party on Friday?" I nod.

"You?" I ask.

"Planning on it. Andrew says he has to go."

"That poor guy," I laugh.

"I keep telling him it's never going to happen but he doesn't listen to me," he laughs. We talk almost until 3 am. When we realized what time it was we both say goodnight and I fall asleep on my couch.