Aries' pov

'...and don't forget to do the exercises on page 5, 6 and 7,' our teacher declared, as the buzzer rang and ended the lesson. 'Finally,' I groaned. 'This took forever. Economics must be the stupidest thing in the world. Pisces is definitely better off with Sociology.'

'I can't believe this only was one day,' sighed Taurus as he followed me out of the classroom, to the lockers downstairs. 'I mean, I knew I hated school, but still...'

'You two are making it much worse than it sounds,' Cancer fell in from somewhere behind us. 'You could at least try to do your best.' 'She has a point, Taurus,' added Libra, and both Taurus and I started to walk faster. 'People are so annoying,' he mumbled, at which I nodded and pointed to the other side of the hallway. 'Speaking of annoying people, look who's done with Sociology.'

'As if I didn't hear that, Tiny Dwarf,' a certain someone hissed at me as the Sociology students left their class.

'Furface,' I sneered back, but Pisces – who'd just walked out of the classroom – grabbed my arm and pulled me away. 'Don't you want to get home and tell Gemstone about today?' she asked, changing the subject in my mind.

Gemini and I had never shared classes, but it was always fun to catch up on her stories of how Cap and she – and now also Sag, I suppose – made a mess out of everything. They always managed to make a boring class or day better, especially after mine had been ruined.

After successfully pushing my way through the many other kids towards the lockers, getting all of my heavy books in my bag, gathering up with everyone from the Chaos Flat – except for Gem, Cap and Sag, of course – and moving outside to see Virgo already waiting for us, we could finally get going again. I wasn't really paying attention to what was happening, mainly because Taurus and I were analysing every teacher we'd had so far, but it seemed like one of us – or perhaps two – were missing once we reached the building. I tried counting heads, but Pisces dragged me upstairs before I could properly get to it. Deciding to let it slide, I followed her and eventually ended up in our apartment, in just the same mood I was in back at school: pissed off.

'Gemstone, we're home!' shouted Pisces, and as she left for the bathroom, the door of her room opened wide and Gem stormed into the living room. We stared at each other for just another second, before she started talking gibberish.

'Last hour – or well, our last class – with Cap and Sag – and the teacher – she just, practically – ignored, or – I don't even know how – has to be done something – she's just, just – didn't even get send away or anything, but – plain evil, that woman, and –'

'Woah, woah,' I said. 'Calm down there, not everyone can handle your level of talking, Gem. From the beginning; you were in your last hour, and?'

Gemini sighed, and sat down on the couch, face in her hands and a defeated look in her eyes. 'We just came back from P.E., so we were all pretty exhausted – and by that, I mean...'

'Ah, you tried to bail out of class,' I stated, nodding in an understanding way. 'Naturally. Go on.'

'Well...' She hesitated, just a slight moment, but noticeably. 'It... didn't work.'

I blinked. 'I'm sorry, I don't understand. What do you mean, "it didn't work"? Didn't Monar let you guys go? I thought you and Cap were his favourite students? Did you have to do extra work or something?'

'No...' Again, the hesitation was clear in her voice. 'The teacher wouldn't send us out.'

There was a short silence between us – mainly because I didn't have any words for this situation. Gemini and Capricorn, the two best troublemakers in school, didn't manage to get themselves into trouble, even after trying? What?

'Gemini,' I started, looking for a positive way to ended that sentence, 'I am truly disappointed in you.' 'I know! I'm disappointed in me too!' she growled, and she stood up and started pacing in front of me. 'I have no idea what we did wrong! First, we tried the glamorous yet easy to pull off "oh-look-at-this-piece-of-paper-filled-with-bad-gossip-about-this-boring-teacher- that-just-happens-to-be-on-my-desk" trick, but when that didn't work, we started building it up; talking loudly when we were supposed to be silent, giving sarcastic responses, I even tried throwing a piece of gum at her! Nothing, I'm telling you, nothing made her crack!'

'I don't think anyone's ever ignored your "hey-look-at-me-and-this-piece-of-gum-that's-about-to-be-stuck-in-your-hair" thing,' I mumbled. 'What's that teacher's name?'

'Brace yourself: Jo-Anne Gagne,' responded Gem, as she sunk back into the couch. 'Gagne?' I repeated, which earned me a heated: 'Yeah! What kind of stupid name is that?'

'Well, she does sound like she makes you gag,' Pisces fell in from the other side of the room. 'I'm going over to Virgo's to do some homework. Anyone care to join me?' 'Nah, me and the guys are going to make up a list of hundred things that'll drive Miss Makes-Me-Gag crazy,' Gem stated, and with those words, she picked up her bag again and descended the room, leaving Pisces staring at me. 'Sorry, but I don't need to hear you two talk about whatever while I'm focusing on maths. Have fun, though,' I said, and after my sister shrugged and left as well, I sprinted towards my room and practically dove through the hole.

'There you are,' smiled Taurus, before pulling me into a hug. 'I was afraid you wouldn't show up.' 'Well, Gem had this stupid story about her boring teacher, so I kinda had to listen,' I explained. 'Sisters, you know. We keep an eye on each other.' He nodded in understanding. 'Speaking of keeping a close eye on your siblings – did you also notice how Libra and Aqua suddenly left for that weird bookstore we past?'

I immediately pulled away from his embrace, much to my own surprise. 'Aqua and Libra went to Aqua's geeky café thingy? Alright, drop homework,' I commanded and pulled Taurus over to my side of the hole by his sleeve. 'I've been on this for weeks and it's driving me crazy, so now I'm ending this before it continues to piss me off. Aqua is hiding something from me – from us, and the only ones who will know are probably Cancer, that weird brother of yours and Furface, but since Cancer won't tell us anything and Furface is still herself, we'll have to put some pressure on Libra to find out.'

'But – but what if he doesn't know? What if she didn't tell him?' Taurus asked me, while I kept dragging him through the apartment and towards the hallway, careful not to be seen be anyone who could care about where we were going.

My eyes narrowed themselves as I stormed down the staircases. 'I'll bet you ten dollars he already knows all about it.'

    Libra's pov

'Libra! Wait up!'

Taurus gave me a strange look when I stopped walking in the busy hallway and turned my head, and as my brother kept following the others to the lockers, I watched as Pisces ran past me towards her sister with Leo in her tracks, and finally, Aquarius, who approached me with a big smile. 'Hey! Was Economics any fun?'

'It was... alright,' I responded, smiling back at her while we continued making our way through the halls. 'How was Sociology?'

'Well, if Lee wouldn't be constantly whispering random things to me, I may have actually heard some of the things our teacher said. But other than that, it was okay. Hey, have you seen Cancer and Scorpio anywhere?'

As we reached the lockers, it seemed the entire group was reunited again; I saw Aries with Pisces, Leo was reaching for one of the lockers while talking to Scorpio, Cancer was greeted by Aquarius and as for me, I found myself walking over to Taurus.

'Hey there, bro,' I smiled, earning me a frown from my older brother. 'Bro? That's new. What's up?' 'Just checking on you after your very first day at a new school,' I said, shrugging as a sign of innocence. 'How'd it go?'

He closed his locker, and glanced over to me with a suspicious glint in his eyes. 'Well, you've spent most of the classes with me, so...' 'Yeah, but – you know what I mean,' I sighed, but when he turned his back and walked over to Aries, I decided to give up.

'What I meant is that this was the first school day without mum or dad around. I just wanted to make sure you're alright.' 'I know,' I heard him sigh. 'Lib, I know you're worried, but I'm fine. Now, could you please stop talking about this?'

'Yeah, yeah, I get it,' I murmured, and while every piece of my mind was screaming how I didn't get it at all, I followed the others outside, where we were greeted by Virgo. I didn't really notice much of it on our way back, until he started walking next to me. 'Ah, Libra. How are you doing so far on this very first day?'

'I was looking worried, wasn't I?' I bluntly asked, and to my surprise, he didn't deny it or give me a long explanation about what made him slow down his pace to come walk beside me. Instead, he just nodded and looked at me.

All I could do now, was sigh and drop our pace even more, so that no one would hear my words except for Virgo. In a soft tone, I tried putting my thoughts into words as best as I could. I tried to tell him about how I thought Taurus must feel – how it was his first day without either mum and dad around – and how I thought Sag must feel – because, I had to be honest, not many good things could come from spending 24/7 with Capricorn and Gemini – and how I was feeling; the hard part. I did my best to keep the subject focused on me and my brothers, but it truly was a difficult job not to let other things slip by. Later, I told myself, I'll tell him all that stuff when we're not on the way home from school.

Virgo nodded the entire time, sometimes humming along my words. He really was a good listener, and just when I was starting to feel guilty for talking so much, he interrupted me.

'It sounds to me like you just need a bit of... distraction. Am I right?' 'I guess?' I said, not sure where this was leading to. That, however, began to show, when Virgo nodded again, waited a second or two, then said, a little louder than before: 'Good question, Libra. Unfortunately, I also don't know the name of that curious little bookstore we just passed.'

Somewhere in front of us, Aquarius turned around from a conversation with Leo, and stopped walking until she stood next to us, a frustrated expression on her face. 'Oh, come on Virgo! How many times do I have to tell you; it's Little Heaven! How can you keep forgetting that?' 'Ah, well; I guess my memory just isn't the brightest part of my brain. But, now that we're at it, why don't you take Libra inside for a look around?'

'I'm starting to think you're even sneakier than my brothers,' I murmured to Virgo after Aqua had enthusiastically exclaimed that she'd love to go inside, but he left me with vague words: 'If you've just started thinking that now, you're up for some big surprises later on.' Still in my head on what that could possibly mean, I turned back around and followed Aquarius to the tiny coffee shop, at the corner of the street. She opened the door, and as I walked in, I noticed two things at the same time.

The smell of books.

The smell of coffee.

I looked around, though it was hard to decide where I should lay my eyes on first; what seemed like a pretty small place from the outside, appeared to be fairly big on the inside. On my left side, a small bar was situated, complete with big coffee machines, nice mugs stacked on the wooden shelves on the wall and lots, lots of coffee beans. On my right side, there were tables and chairs, and in the back, two couches stood next to each other, with many, many bookshelves behind them. It truly was a perfect sight for someone who enjoyed a good book combined with a nice coffee – or, in another word, me.

Behind me, the door was shut close with the ring of a bell, and as I turned around, Aqua was smiling at me. 'I honestly can't believe Virgo forgot its name again... he can be incredibly clever sometimes, but when it comes down to the simple things... come on, let's get some coffee.' 'I-I don't have any money with me,' I stuttered, not being able to come up with another answer quick enough. 'That's okay, I've got plenty. Now, the truly important thing is: what kind of coffee do you want?'

Minutes later – I don't know exactly how much time passed – we were sitting on one of the couches, warm cups of coffee in both of our hands. The first few minutes, it was a bit awkward sitting next to her, just sipping coffee, especially when I thought about the fact that I barely knew her at all. Sure, we talked a few times before, but I don't think either of us knew each well enough to call the other their friend. But, eventually, we started discussing school, the different subjects we had, and soon enough, we were chatting – actual¬ chatting, like chatting I would do with Sag, or Taurus, chatting about the others in the Chaos Flat, chatting about my old school, chatting about my opinions on those topics.

That's when I realized, I hadn't chatted with anyone in a long, long time.

We laughed over something she said, something about Leo, before she grabbed her empty mug from the small table in front of us and stood up. 'I'm going to get some more coffee. Do you want anything?' 'No, I'm good. I'll pay you back when we get home, by the way,' I smiled, and after she smiled back at me, she walked over to the small bar, at which I turned on the couch to just stare into nothingness.

Although, that's what I planned.

"Nothingness" appeared to be my brother's face – Taurus' face, behind the window outside, with Aries standing next to him with her hands pressed to the glass, frantically signing for me to come over. At first I shook my head, but when she started banging her fists against the fragile material, I quickly glanced over at Aqua before I jumped up and sprinted towards the door.

'What are you doing here? What is Aquarius up to?' hissed Aries the moment I stepped outside. 'Hey Lib,' Taurus said, and I nodded as a greeting before turning back to Aries. 'I have no idea what you're talking about.'

She huffed, rolled her eyes back, then gave my brother a soft push. 'He's not giving anything out. You tell him.' Taurus sighed and let his hand slide through his hair. 'A couple of weeks ago, Aquarius was apparently acting a little suspicious, and Aries wants to know what is going on. She seems to think you know about it.'

I felt my cheeks grow redder by the second. Aqua was acting suspicious a couple of weeks ago? That must've been around the time when I had my breakdown, otherwise I would've known of this. In the meantime, Aries had folded her arms and was nodding along with every word Taurus said, while Tau kept staring right at me, as if he was trying to tell me something. When I looked back at him, his eyes shot inside, before immediately meeting mine again, and I knew what he meant.

My feelings for Aqua. Would Aqua have...

'He's keeping silent,' Aries mumbled, and before I knew it, two tiny hands with a way bigger strength had pushed me up against the window, and Aries' narrowed eyes were only inches away from mine.

'I know what you're up to. I know what this is about. This must be one of those things of which the entire Furface-group knows, hm? Well,' she let go of me, and it immediately felt like I could breathe a whole lot better again. 'Don't think this is over. There's a whole school year left for me to find out.' She huffed again, but just as I thought she was going to say something else, the door behind me opened.

'Aries! Taurus!' said Aquarius, her expression clearly shocked. 'What...'

Aries pointed her index finger at her. 'Don't think this is over. This will only be over once I stop smelling suspiciousness whenever I'm around you!'

I still didn't know for sure what this was about, but Aqua seemed to know. She narrowed her eyes just as Aries had, then stated softly: 'I will personally make sure that you won't ever find out about this.'

The smaller girl smiled, narrowing her eyes even further until all we could see was the glistening black of her eyes.

'Ooh, it's on.'