Dear Diary,

"Holy shit something happened to Erica over night because she got hot! I didn't see this puta all morning and then BAM! At lunch when I was being a total loner she come prancing in with this new look and confidence that stunned half of the cafeteria! Puta came right up to me and ate my apple off my tray and winked at me before prancing back out like she was one of those runway models. Later I met up with her in the hallway and complemented her look but something was off… something must be in the water because everyone seems to be moving on and getting out while I'm still wading through the deep end struggling to catch my breath".

After Jesse's interesting school day Jesse attended her first photography club meeting where they welcomed their new recruit, just her, and then brought up the fact that there was a photography contest where the winner would have their work showcased in a gallery; and for some reason Jesse got a strong urge to win. With this new found motivation Jesse finished as much of her homework, and late work, as possible in her study hall before going home. When she walked outside to go to her rusty scooter she watched Erica get into a shiny new black Camaro with a rather ruggedly handsome man driving it. What has Erica gotten herself into? Jesse asked herself as she glanced down at her rusty moped before heading home.

Once she got home Jesse tried to come with ideas of a photography series to enter in the contest. She was stumped… that's when Erica of all people showed up at her house to have a girl's night. Jesse admitted that she missed her and tried to ask her what was going on and what had happened between yesterday and today but Erica refused to tell her saying it was better for her to stay out of it. For now… Jesse thought as she dropped the subject temporarily to focus on using her new motivation, and newly 'hot' friend to win this photography contest.

Erica was more than happy to model for her photos and the girls had fun like nothing had changed between them. It got dark out and Jess had the brilliant idea to use sparklers as ideas. The photos that Jess had rented from the school turned out great and almost romantic looking. But Chloe's favorite one was a close-up of the sparkler at its end and Erica's unfocused face illuminated in the background.

The rest of the weekend Jesse spent as much time as she could with her mom as they both, for the first time talked about Daniel. Trina admitted that they were behind on bills and that she may need to cut back hours and even fire a few employees for the time being just to stay afloat. Jesse told her mom that she quit the team so she could help out. Her mother was furious at first because of what the swim team meant to Jesse and Daniel but eventually huffed and apologized for their circumstances. Jesse told her she was happy to help the family business because it's what family's do. They had a nice dinner together where Jesse told her mom all about the 'free' photography club and how she wanted to enter a contest. Trina was a first apprehensive about Jesse joining in this club after hearing about the college scholarships

"What are you going to do with a degree in art or photography? How are you going to pay the bills? I don't want you to live the way we do now where you have to tell your nina that they can't do sports because you can't afford it". The two continued to argue over Jesse's choice in an outlet until it was time for Jesse to go to bed. Jesse went upstairs and was looking through her pictures on the camera when her mom came up to tuck her in.

"Mi amor, I'm sorry for not supporting your photography but I just want what is best for mi nina pequeno" she said sitting on the bed next to her daughter trying to see at what her daughter was looking at. Daniel was the one who always used to come up and comfort her after she got into an argument with her mother, now it was just them and they were all each other had. Begrudgingly, Jesse showed her mother her pictures she had taken with Erica.

"Mi nina, these are really good" her mother told her and Jesse tried to hide the grin on her face as she mumbled a thank you. Trina smiled at the fact that she and her daughter finally had something in common that was artistic before she kissed her on the forehead and headed down the stairs to her room.

"Oh, and Jesse? I've decided that you can help out with the business but not too much, school is still more important" Jesse looked over at her mom and gave a weak smile before nodding. "You will be taking one of my houses off my hands during the week, and on weekends you will clean the Williams' and Chavez's houses, alright?" she told her daughter. Jesse smiled before asking

"Quien la casa durante la semana?" her mother smiled at her use of native language before answering. "la casa del Sheriff," her mother said as she continued down the stairs.

"What?!" Jesse called after her mother wondering if she had heard what was said correctly. "You want me to go to the Stilinski's? Mama!?" Jesse called again but her mother was already down the stairs and ignoring her. Jesse knew that this was just a way to keep her out of trouble and safe from all the weird animal attacks and murders that had been happening. Jesse rolled her eyes before laying down and going to bed, just accepting her fate as is.

The next morning Jesse woke up to her mother already gone to work and Jesse found a uniform waiting for her that read on the back "Vital Housecleaning" which was a punny play on their name meaning 'life' in Español, pronounced 'vee-tall', and the English word 'vital', pronounced 'vy-tle', meaning 'important'. The pun in fact that went completely over Trina Vitals' head which made it that much better. Daniel had tried to explain the joke to her numerous times. Trina just wanted her last name and the business like other companies had done. Jesse smiled at the fond memory before grabbing the garment and eating a quick breakfast before heading off to school and her first day of work.

Dear Diary,

"I have realized that as much as I needed to skip those classes yesterday, I is still biting me in the ass. I have so much late work I have to try and decipher and hand-in while also try and catch up during class on what we're currently talking about. I stay up late at night trying to understand what the hell I'm doing on these assignments, then when I vaguely grasp the main concept I come into class and it's like I'm hit with a wall… I just can't seem to catch up. Ms. Morrell keeps on trying to get me to come to her office but I need all the time I can get to finish this stuff. Plus, I don't want to talk about it; I'm grieving and getting through it so with what little healing I have done with my broken heart will just get ripped back open by talking about it… with an intense stranger no doubt. I went to second meeting of photography club where I met a potential friend! Her name is Abigale, Abby for short, and she's a year older than me but seemed cool enough. She offered to show me the ropes on how to use a camera sometime! It's nice talking to someone again… Erica was MIA in our last class, our ONLY class together today… what is going on with her? My first day of working for 'Vital Housecleaning' wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I did however, walk in on Stiles passed out on his bed while vacuuming… He looked rather peacefully compared to his usual 'inquieto' self. When he woke up he jumped so high and scared both of us half to death. We eventually laughed it off and actually talked to each other for a bit. He said that he was at the ice skating rink with Scott, Allison, and Lydia freaking Martin. He asked about why I was cleaning his house and for some ungodly reason I told that spastic idiota the truth, he just got this weird twitchy vibe about him before apologizing about not saying anything earlier and offered his condolences."

Once Jesse was finished with cleaning she headed home so she wouldn't have to endure another awkward encounter with Stiles. A few hours later her mother got home and asked her how things went on her first day working in the family business.

"It was good Mama" was all Jesse said leaving out the awkward part where she woke a slumbering Stiles, she hadn't heard him come home and go upstairs in the four hours she was there cleaning.

"Bueno!" her mom called from the kitchen where she immediately began making a small dinner, she was always hungry after work. Jesse was up in her room on her literary twitter account posting a quote she found while still thinking of Stiles, "I don't understand your specific kind of crazy, but I do admire your commitment to it".

Over the weekend the Vital household was empty as the two females were out working for most the day, when they were home Jesse was working on her ever-growing pile of school work while Trina was working on work schedules and payrolls for her employee's.

At school Jesse finally saw Erica and tried to talk to the girl but she seemed a little too on edge, Jesse figured it was PMS or a side effect of whatever she was taking for this complete persona change. At lunch Jesse tried to talk to her again but Erica was busy flirting with all the guys that walked by before deserting her completely to go talk to some buy that sat alone and whom she couldn't remember ever talking to, Boyd? She thought his name was. Erica had made this huge fit about her not checking out of reality and Erica has gone and just made a complete alternate one where she was hot and popular and Lydia Martin looked on at her in jealousy… after that epiphany Jesse understood why Erica was doing this. She understood her friend's history of pain and neglect and wanted to feel wanted… Jesse wanted her friend to feel as happy as she did their night at the dance so she wasn't going to stop her from acting or dressing how she pleased. That didn't mean that she was going to just sit by and not worry about her radical attitude change. While sitting in their last class Jesse again tried to ask Erica was she was doing Erica finally snapped and whipped her had around to send her a dangerous look that Jesse had never seen on her usually meek friend before… it honestly scared her a bit.

"Why do you care Jesse? Just drop it and go back to your dark room and distance yourself from reality. Don't you judge me for finally standing up for myself and not being 'seizure girl'." Jesse blinked in shock at her friend speaking at her like this. She was so used to having to defend Erica that seeing her so independent and lashing out hurt Jesse; she felt irrelevant in her friend's eyes.

"I'm just worried about you, that's what friends do" Jesse defensively whispered back at her friend. Erica rolled her eyes before shaking her head annoyed.

"Well stop worrying about me before you get yourself hurt" Erica said facing forward beginning to ignore her. Jesse was taken aback at what her best friend had just said to her. Sure, the girls had fought but this felt like Erica was breaking up with her.

"What?!" Jesse asked with the unmistakable crack of sadness in her voice. Erica, without looking at her responded

"There are things out there that you don't know about Jess, go back to your books and hide, stay out of it" Erica told in finality before the bell rang cutting off their conversation and what felt like their friendship. Jesse stared after her friend in confusion and despair as Erica strutted out of the room.

Chloe eventually left her last class of the day and went to the photography club meeting where the art teacher spoke of capturing an emotion that without any description someone could relate to it. It was their 'assignment' then to go out and capture a moment or picture that could symbolize an emotion. After their meeting was done Jesse talked to Abby for a bit before heading to the Stilinski's for work. She had done all the windows, not surprised to find hind print smudges on both sides of Stiles' bedroom window, and was just starting in the kitchen when the landline rang. Jesse felt it was probably alright to answer so she hesitantly picked up

"Stilinski residence" she answered.

"Jesse? It's John" said the Sheriff and Jesse relaxed into her less professional telephone voice.

"Oh, Hey John what's up?" she heard someone else talking in the background before the Sheriff answered

"Sorry, I didn't have your cell phone to reach you and was hoping you'd still be at my house" he Sheriff said to her before continuing. "Stiles got into some trouble at the mechanic's and witnessed a murder" said the Sheriff matter of factly. Jesse gasped in shock at the bluntness of the situation.

"Dios mio! Is he ok? Stiles I mean, is Stiles ok? Obviously not the other guy cause he's… well… not" Jesse finished realizing that she was babbling. She heard the Sheriff chuckle over the line before answering

"Stiles is fine, I was just wondering if you could give me a call when he got home? He likes to tale detours when I tell him to go home every time he shows up at one of my crime scenes" Jesse smiled knowing how nosey Stiles is with his father's police work.

"No problema Sheriff, I'll just stay a little bit later…" she agreed before the Sheriff thanked her and ended their call. Chloe felt anxious about Stiles' witnessing a murder, that had to be terrifying, but she wasn't too worried about him being traumatized after hearing about all the times Stiles has crashed a crime scene and he came out fine-ish.

Jesse called her mother and told her about staying at the Stilinski's late for the Sheriff then continued cleaning the kitchen. After it was spotless Chloe decided that she was hungry and decided to make dinner for herself and when the Stilinski boys got home. She made a casserole of what little she could find in their kitchen, it didn't taste too bad. While cleaning up her small mess and putting the left overs in the fridge she decided to write her number on a pad and stick it to the fridge so the Sheriff would have her number to call her for future reference. Afterwards, she pulled out her homework and tried getting through some of it while waiting on Stiles to appear so she could go home.

After finishing an assignment for her English class saw headlights pull up and voice of the boy in question calling out a 'goodbye' to someone. Jesse sighed in relief as she put her school work away. Stiles walked into the kitchen to stop in his tracks to see Chloe at this kitchen table and gave her a confused look.

"Your dad asked me to stay until you got home to make sure you were alright after what happened…" Stiles closed his mouth that had opened in confusion before nodding and walking to the fridge. "Are you ok?" she asked trying to be friendly. She wasn't really sure where they stood on the whole 'friends' scale but as someone who she has a history with she felt it was ok to ask. Stiles looked up from behind the door briefly

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine. I didn't see anything, just the body" he told her before standing up completely holding the casserole tray of leftovers "Did you make this?" he asked. Jesse felt a small pang in her chest of sympathy and worry over what he saw before responding to his question.

"Yeah, you guys can have the rest. I noticed there wasn't much in there so…" she trailed off realizing how imposing she was sounding. Stiles placed the casserole on the counter and pulled out a plate to eat. "I'm gonna go then" Jesse thought aloud as she awkwardly grabbed her bag and headed towards the door.

"Thanks Jess" Stiles called after her before she shut the door behind her.

Dear Diary,

"Something is going on in Beacon Hills that I don't know about… something that my "friends" seem to know about and aren't telling me. A part of me wants to know, but the other part of me wants to take Erica's advice and just go back to my glow-in-the dark stared ceiling and dark room and hide from the world. I feel like I keep getting pulled into this darkness no matter how hard I try to swim to the surface, like something bad is always around the corner. I still feel like I'm drowning… hey, that would make an interesting photo?"