Warning: (signs of) abuse appear in this chapter. Please read with caution.

     Gemini's pov

Meep! Meep!

My eyes opened themselves, and my fingers hit the button on the alarm in a reflex. 'Perfect,' I whispered softly, after noticing the bright numbers "6:30" on my alarm clock. I ignored Pisces' soft 'Gemstone? You up?' and snuck into the hall, careful not to wake Aries, and after chucking down the glass of orange juice I'd put into the fridge yesterday evening, I left our apartment and took off to our neighbours'.

'Morning, Gem,' whispered Sag, who was already waiting for me in the living room when I came in. 'Don't talk too loud, because Taurus is up as well and will murder us both.'

While quietly discussing some of the details of the things we talked about yesterday noon – puns included, of course – we moved over to the hallway outside, and walked up to the last apartment in the hall.

'Cap, we're here,' I whispered in the dark, but the black void quickly made place for the living room I was used to seeing, followed by an annoyed, high-pitched voice, that appeared to be coming from the kitchen.

'You'd think you people would at least knock at a time like this, but no, they just waltz in without caring about my sleeping routine – or more importantly, my personal space. But no, you're right, why don't you come in and do whatever it is that you do, just do it quietly, because if I hear another footstep in this house–'

'Alright, Q, you're through your bitching for the day, don't you think?' Capricorn cut her off, pushing an extremely irritated looking Aquarius out of the room. 'DON'T CALL ME–' she already started, but Cap smacked the door close and we were left with the muffled whining of his sister.

Cap turned around from the door with a huge grin, the kind of grin I knew as the "we're-about-the-ruin-someone's-life-and-I-am-really-proud-of-that" grin. 'Okay, you guys remember everything we went over yesterday, right?' When Sagittarius and I both nodded enthusiastically, he continued: 'Good. Just a quick built-up of the plan: we go in at the same time as the others, because Gagne is teaching first hour and we don't want to seem suspicious. Then, we move up the stairs towards her classroom the moment the bell rings, so that not a single teacher can question what we are doing at school this early. We split up in front of the room; Gem, you move over to the girl's bathroom, and make sure the teacher's toilet in there is disabled – be sure to have your mirror ready to see if anyone's coming, if they ask you what you're doing just tell them you're feeling ill and someone already went to get a teacher. Sag, you will go to Monar's office and tell him you seem to be lost; Monar being the nice guy he is, will walk with you towards your classroom – seeing how his office is in building B, you will tell him it's in the A-building, granting us some time. Meanwhile, I will sneak into the cafeteria and fill Gagne's stupid French coffee mug with this.'

"This" was a little flask, filled with laxative which we had gathered from Virgo's bathroom this weekend. Sag and I both grinned at seeing the flask again, and Cap's smirk got even bigger. 'The cafeteria lady will bring all the teacher's mugs in the sixth period, which means, Gem, that you should leave the toilet to work until that time has come, but disable it just enough so you can bring it into action in only a fraction, understood?'

'Understood,' I squealed happily. 'And when Gagne makes a sprint for the toilet...'

'Boom!' Sag formed a ball with his hands and let them part, pretending to be the explosion the toilet would bring as soon as Gagne would flush. 'She'll be covered in her own pee and crap, as a revenge for not letting us sit together,' finished Cap, looking even prouder about the plan than he had been when he started telling it. 'This will become the legend of the school: "Stupid French teacher gets what she deserves". Yeah, that sounds about right.'

'Are you still not done here? It's about seven and I would like to eat my breakfast without hearing you moan about a teacher,' Aqua fell in, this time fully dressed, but still wearing her annoyance very clear as she opened the door Cap had just slammed in her face. 'Fine, we'll move over to Gem's place,' muttered Cap himself, after I gave him an approving nod, 'because her siblings aren't going to whine about us being loud.'

Aquarius didn't seem to care much. All she did was yawn, walk over to the couch and plopped down, showing us an expression which I had so far only seen by Capricorn, and therefore proved they were related: laziness. 'How interesting; as long as you'll give me my peace, I really don't care about what you're going to do, at whose place, or whatever. Do what you must, but leave me alone.'

'I know it doesn't always seem like it, but that's pretty much her life motto,' Cap told us on our way out. 'She uses that phrase whenever I come storming in with another great idea, another amazing plan to bring down the school or another sarcastic pun; all I ever get as a response is her "do what you must, but leave me alone" – although, sometimes it varies from "leave me alone" to "leave me out of it"...'

No matter how fun it was to learn about Aqua's rituals, school had to begin at once, and it seemed as if no time whatsoever had passed when every single one of us was down stairs again, ready for another week of pain and torture, as Aries quoted.

'...of pain and torture,' Aries finished, and while Taurus chuckled at her statement and Leo made a cynical response about Aries' life being nothing but pain and torture, all I could think about was Gagne, and the very risky, very dangerous things we were about to perform.

Ah well, what else was new?

It didn't take much time before the bell rang and we set into motion; Capricorn stayed behind, while Sag and I sprinted up the stairs, making sure to carefully avoid every teacher we saw. Once up, we wished each other luck and parted our ways, and it took only thirty minutes before I was done fiddling with the filthy toilet – thirty minutes in which I had to tell at least twenty girls and three female teachers I wasn't feeling too well.

'I think it worked,' I happily whispered to the others once we met in the cafeteria again.

'I hope it worked,' Sag muttered, glancing up and down the halls.

'Of course it worked,' Cap stated proudly, leaning back in his chair. 'Let's bet on Gagne's reaction; ten dollars she'll immediately blame us.' 'Of course she will, we'll be smirking like fools back in there,' added Sag, and I nodded along. They were right, this plan would be amazing. Gagne would definitely pay for how she treated us.

There was no way this could fail.

Perhaps I had been a little too overconfident.

Sagittarius, Capricorn and I had spent every single class and every break excitedly discussing Gagne's downfall, while our siblings had been nothing but unsupportive about it.

'You really should spend more time on your homework,' judged Aquarius, before she took off with Leo and Cancer.

'I'd think you would have something better to do with your time,' Taurus stated, with a disapprovingly nodding Libra in his tracks.

'Great, now the whole girl's bathroom is gonna smell like shit,' muttered Aries, who gave us a last glance before moving over to the table Pisces was sitting.

We ignored all of them and decided to skip the lunch break. Instead, the three of us hung around the library, having practically nothing better to do and well, the French classroom was about ten feet away. The librarian, Miss Spinelli, kept a close eye on us, even after we'd assured her we weren't planning on eating anything in her "territory".

'French is starting in less than five minutes,' said Sag, a nervous look on his face as his eyes were fixated on the clock. 'I don't really have any doubts about it, but... what if she knows it was us?' 'Unless she's planning on checking our fingerprints for a DNA-test, I'd think we're pretty safe,' Cap laughed. He leaned back in his chair, carefully reaching for one of the books on the selves. 'Hm, we must be in the History section. I can't think of any other place which would contain the book "Founding Fathers and their history".'

'Oh, we talked about that in class!' I responded enthusiastically. 'I never realized how much fun History could be!' 'Yeah, I always thought it was just a bunch of dead people who wanted nothing but war, but there are so many other things that come into view,' Sag told, smiling as he did. 'The Founding Fathers is definitely a subject on its own.'

Cap yawned as he listened, leaning back further in his chair. 'Nice for you guys. I wish I had History, Geography really sucks, so – oh crap, Spinelli is coming!'

He quickly swept his feet off the table, but it was already too late. The angry, old lady was headed right for us and she wouldn't be having mercy.

'Filthy feet on my library tables! Smudgy, filthy dirt on my beautiful tables!' she screeched, armed with a thick dictionary, a broomstick and at least two pencils somewhere in her hair. 'Out! Get out!'

'Yes, yes, we'll move alright. Class is starting anyway,' Cap murmured, and we quickly made a run for the hallway. Outside, the bell rung loudly and we looked over at each other, excitement glowing of our faces. 'Time for the last part,' I grinned. 'Tell Gagne I had to get some stuff from my locker.' 'Will do!' Cap yelled, and Sag shouted after me: 'Good luck!' before I snuck off to the girl's bathroom.

All I had to do now, was disable the toilet, carefully get back to the classroom without being seen and walk in, innocently stating I had to retrieve my French books from my locker. It would be as easy as it sounded.

But, unfortunately, everything immediately went to hell the moment I set foot in the girl's bathroom. I wasn't alone; in front of the large mirror stood three girls, three girls I knew too well and had tried to avoid as much as possible – to no avail, that proved itself. They didn't notice me at first, but as soon as the door closed, all of their mascara- and other make-up-crap-dotted eyes were focused on me.

Sarah Ashley. Bridget Savadera. Heather McCray.

Sarah was the first to notice me – of course, she always knew how to pick me out of a crowd. The look in her eyes went from confusion to almost terrifying ecstasy so fast, I was afraid she'd drop the killer lipstick in her hand.

'Why, if it isn't our favorite, little Gemini.'

Heather had said it in such a soft tone, my mind was almost hoping she'd whispered something else. Naturally, that wasn't the case.

'Longing to see us again after last year?' Bridget didn't even look at me when she asked it. Her eyes had already flown back to bright red colours on her nails.

'Just trying to go to the bathroom,' I muttered. I managed to get past Bridget – who only now looked up from her hands – and quickly squeezed myself past Sarah – who this time actually did drop her lipstick – but Heather caught me just before I could reach the right toilet.

'When we ask you a question, you answer it properly, bitch,' she hissed, pressing me against the stall next to the one I had to be. Apparently, Sarah had noticed it, because she said: 'You can answer another question now; what are your planning on doing in the teacher's stall?'

'Breaking the rules again? Tch,' Heather spat, twisting my arm so that her long, sharp nails were pressing in my skin. 'I'd think a good-for-nothing like you would choose to stay in the shadows instead.'

The other two snickered; Heather's painful grip on my arm would definitely leave some bruises, the way she was pushing it against the stall – I would just have to tell Pisces I fell off the stairs, again.

Normally, time wouldn't have mattered, but this was about Gagne – about her, and a plan Cap, Sag and I had been thinking about all weekend. If this failed...

'C-Can you... let me go, please?' I managed to get out, but I'd barely finished or the sentence was already overwhelmed by their laughter. 'How dare you even speak to us as if you're allowed to?' Sarah hissed. She grabbed my other arm, moving me out of Heather's arms and pushed me hard against the wall, the smack shortly echoing through the stalls. Ashley leaned in awfully close, her perfect lips in a cruel smile.

'Let me tell you something, because apparently it hasn't gotten through to you yet. We –' She gestured towards Heather and Bridget. '– hate you. The world hates you. You're a useless little piece of shit that doesn't deserve to be in this world. Now how about you stop acting like a stupid bitch, and get out of our faces, hm?'

Sarah snickered, reached for the top of my shirt, and pushed me into one of the stalls with force. I stumbled onto my knees, hearing the door close behind me and their laughter fade away. 'And remember,' called Heather, 'nothing happened. You're fine.'

The bathroom door closed behind their clicking heels and haunting chuckles.

I got up – slowly, my knees still hurting from hitting the tiles on the floor. My hand rubbed over the place where Heather had grabbed me, and I slowly walked out of the stall. Ignoring myself in the mirror, I leaned against the sinks and was just about to get back to the task at hand, when the door opened again.

'...ah, Gemini. Get back to class quick, will you?' said Gagne, her voice coated with disapproval, while she held her stomach and quickly stepped into the teacher's stall.

I stood there for about another ten seconds, before cursing myself in my mind and turning around to get back to the classroom. Back inside, Cap and Sag were both looking at me with hopeful faces, but that changed just as soon as I shook my head.

Cap mumbled something along the lines of "...couldn't have failed..." when I walked by, while Sag just frowned, and kept staring at me even after I sat down. I ignored it and pretended to be working on the exercises when all of a sudden, a hand was placed on my table, causing me to look up and meet Sag's eyes.

'Hey,' he whispered, obviously trying to keep silent in the already quiet room, 'are you okay?'

I smiled, and nodded.

'I'm fine.'

     Scorpio's pov

'So this is the infamous café I've heard so much about?'

I let my fingers trace the smooth, wooden table, before setting my bag down and locking eyes with Cancer. 'It's gorgeous, honestly.'

'Thank you! It took me months to get Leo to even admit she maybe liked coming here once and a while,' smiled Aquarius, who rushed through the doors past Cancer and dropped her bag on one of the chairs. 'I'm getting coffee. Do any of you want anything with?'

'Just coffee is fine, really,' Cancer assured her, and smiled at me as she sat down. 'So, gorgeous, huh?' 'Come on, you have to admit it's cosy,' I laughed, and let my eyes gaze around the coffee shop once more. 'It really does look like a miniature version of heaven.'

'Oh, and how would you know?' Cancer joked. 'Seems like the only place you've ever really been is –'

'– hell? Well, not before I moved into the Chaos Flat.'

'I was going for "your oversized manly Barbie-house", but hey, if you say so.'

'Actually, I – wait, oversized manly Barbie-house?'

Across the table, Cancer snorted softly and leaned back in the wooden chair, giving me one of the biggest smirks I've ever seen – and I remind you, I've been living in the Chaos Flat for well over a month now.

'Yeah, didn't you have like a giant mansion or something? Ah, thank you, Aqua.'

'You better thank me,' muttered Aquarius, who handed me my coffee also and sat down next to me with an annoyed glint in her eyes. 'That new barista guy is still creepy. Next time, you're getting coffee.'

'Who says there's gonna be a next time?' I stated, but my mind immediately changed itself after the first sip of my cappuccino. 'You know what, never mind. There's definitely going to be a next time and if the caramel latte macchiato's are as good as this, I'll even pay.'

'Woo, free coffee,' smiled Cancer. 'If school wasn't sucking up so much of my free time, I would consider coming here every day. You know, as long as you're paying.'

'Only if their caramel latte macchiato's are close to amazing,' I recited, at which she laughed shortly and sipped from her cup.

'And I thought Virgo was a hipster. When did you become all flannels and beanies?'

'Ever since I met you guys, it seems,' I grinned, and leaned back in my chair once more. Cancer smiled back, and for a moment I thought everything was silent, until Aquarius spoke up.

'Ugh, this is why I got a coffee to go. I can't bear listening to you two whining about anything else than that English test mister Gray gave us – which is, may I remind you, only eight days from now?' She stood up, grabbing her bag from the table and glanced at the both of us. 'So, how about you continue your talks about – whatever it is you're talking about – and I'm going to find Libra and ask him if he is capable of having a normal conversation with me. I'll see you guys later.'

And with those words, she left the shop.

As the door closed with the ring of the bell hanging above it, Cancer and I turned to face each other at the same time, with the same smirk on our faces.

'I ship it.'

'Yes, thank you!' she cried out, attracting the attention of many, but she ignored the glances and took another sip of her coffee. 'It's completely obvious that they like each other.' 'Plus, their characters are very compatible,' I added in, and Cancer grinned again. 'I know, right? Pisces didn't believe me when I told her – she doesn't believe in shipping – and barely weeks ago I basically yelled in her face that Aries and Taurus would be so cute as a couple –'

'You know, I clearly remember thinking to myself when I first met them "woah, they are some stupid bitches but dang I ship them so much",' I exclaimed. 'Thank god there's someone with the same mindset as me.'

A silence followed – an actual silence, this time. Cancer continued to silently sip from her cup, and I thought about the past few weeks around here. School had been alright, not really better or worse than usual, but the presence of people who actually liked having me around was nice. Leo had helped me around a lot, which was quite nice, because not only did it seem like she was doing this for me, it also appeared as if spending time with me made her feel better. I didn't really know what that meant, but as long as that was a good thing, I was fine with it. Lee had truly proven to be the opposite of what Aries described her as. And, as for Cancer...

I looked up again. She was still drinking, silently looking around as she sat on the opposite side of the table.

'Hey... can I ask you something?'

Her eyes shifted up, meeting mine.

'Would it be okay if I called you Canc? Like, sort of a nickname kind of thing. I mean, a call name? I guess?'

She smiled. 'You guess?'

'Well, you know...' I sighed softly, and put the coffee mug I was given down on the table. 'I mean, I was just wondering if you were okay with me nicknaming you that. It just didn't really seem like you had one yet.'

She was silent for a moment, tilting her head and observing me with squinted eyes. For a moment, I was afraid she'd yell at me, but then, her smile appeared yet again.

'Yeah, of course.'

And suddenly, I was smiling as well.

Me, after writing this chapter: *crying* why must I hurt my babies...