A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 8 – Emma

"Emma Geller-Green!"

I looked up from where I had been resting my head on the desk to see Mr Henderson, my AP Psychology teacher, looking directly at me. I knew immediately from the look on his face that he didn't approve of my attempt to sleep in class, and started to feel pretty embarrassed when I realised that the majority of my class were no also looking my way.

Fending off as many people as I could with a well-placed scowl, I made eye contact and listened to what Mr Henderson had to say. "I was asking you what the difference between qualitative and quantitative research methods are but clearly you weren't paying attention and don't know the answers," he said.

I didn't like the fact that he was assuming that I had no clue what the answer was, and so I decided to interrupt him before he could start talking again. "Actually, Mr Henderson," I said, "Qualitative is where the data is non-mathematical such as diaries and journals and Quantitative is where the data is mathematical such as statistics and graphs."

"Well done, Emma!" Mr Henderson said, with what I could tell was definitely a forced smile. I knew that I had pissed him off by giving the correct answer and I was pretty damn proud of it. Mom would be proud when I told her later, and Dad. When he met Mr Henderson at Parent Consultation evening, they got into an argument over whether Psychology was a real Science or not in comparison with Palaeontology as representative for Biology.

I kept my head down and focused on the lesson until the bell rung, signalling the beginning of lunch. I was packing away my textbooks when I felt the back pocket of my jeans vibrate. I quickly finished packing away and started scrolling through my phone to see what I had missed.

It was a message from the family text message group chat, so I pulled up the thread and started reading.

Dad

Ben's coming to stay over here over Thanksgiving by the way

Lara

Cool Dad but now I'm about to get in trouble for being on my phone in class

Lara

Oh well lmao

Mom

It would be cool if you could let me know before you agree to stuff like this…

Dad

Ordinarily yes, but I'm not going to turn down family and you know that

Mom

Whatever

Me

Awesome!

Dad

Hey Emma

Me

Hey Dad

Lara

Hey guys it's Erica I stole Lara's phone whilst she went to go pee

Dad

:')

Mom

Hahaha

Mom

Is it bad parenting to say that I'm looking forward to seeing Lara's reaction when she gets back?

Lara

Yes, I would say it is

Mom

How nice of you to join us again!

Lara

You don't understand how tempting it is right now to send the middle finger emoji your way

Me

Break it up! Break it up!

Dad

I'm going because I'm not getting involved and I need to get the coffee before the rush

Lara

Coward

Mom

Who's the immature one now?

Me

Judging by your response, Mom, that would be you

Me

I'm gonna go get food too so bye children

Mom

Bye

Luckily, the line in the canteen for hot food wasn't nearly as long as it was usually. I usually got the cheap junk food from the takeaway counter because I couldn't be bothered to wait for the superior, actually decent equivalent. It was some pasta dish that looked surprisingly appetising for the standards that I had of school dinners, but I was hoping that I wouldn't be disappointed as it was almost $4 that I wouldn't ever get back.

I decided to text one of my friends to see where they all were because I didn't quite fancy eating alone. Bry replied first, which didn't surprise me as she seemed to be permanently attached to her phone. She was with the others in the study hall. I texted back to say that I would be there immediately, and started making my way there.

We weren't technically supposed to bring food into the study hall, but so many people did that the school had given up on trying to enforce the rule. Bry beckoned me straight over the minute I appeared, trying to navigate my way through the entry bollards where you had to scan your ID to be allowed to enter.

I sat down at the table, which was piled high with exercise books and notebooks, various items of stationary and textbooks. Luckily, I wasn't the only one trying to eat lunch, so hopefully that would make me feel a little less uncomfortable about breaking such an obvious rule.

"How was Psychology?" Bry asked. We had different timetables, and I knew that she had just been in AP American History, which her favourite out of all the ones she was taking.

"I mean, I slept through a good load of it," I said, shrugging it off as if it wasn't a big deal. "But it wasn't bad. What about History?"

"Good," Bry replied, and I could tell that I wasn't the only one sitting here that wasn't surprised in the slightest about it. "We're moving onto Civil Rights now, and I'm 100% falling more and more in love with the subject the more lessons we have."

I was genuinely happy for Bry, and I know that she wanted to be either a Historian like the ones who appear in documentaries or a Civil Rights Activist. I personally didn't find either job as interesting as one in Forensic Psychology, but I could definitely see how perfect the subject was for her. We had been friends all the way through middle school, and had celebrated the fact that we were one of the two people who would have someone to lean on when being in high school.

Mom had been surprised that I had wanted to go into more of an academic career and that I tended to surround myself with people who were more like that, but I think it was mainly because her only career aspiration had ever been to go into fashion. She had tried to make me love fashion as much as she did, and whilst I definitely had an appreciation for it, she had made much more of a dent on Lara.

"Anyone else have a particularly good lesson?" I asked, looking around at the others, as I had felt particularly bad for only really striking up a proper conversation with Bry and ignoring the others, who were definitely all good friends of mine.

"I did," Martha replied, as she looked up from the required reading book she was annotating, pastel highlighter in hand as she spoke. "I'm realising more and more how riveting and interesting Shakespeare actually is. Like, how he writes is actually awfully clever and is definitely better than anything I could ever hope to reach."

It was Martha's dream to become a professional author, hence why she had chosen AP English Literature. I had to admit that she more talented than I could ever hope to be when it came to her work, and that I definitely could see her being successful in the future. I had been one of her go-to people when it came to reviewing the number of mini projects that she often started but rarely completely finished. Regardless, it was very much true to say that she did have an awful lot of talent, which her professor had agreed.

"Awesome!" I said, trying to sound as genuinely pleased as I did feel. Martha knew that I wasn't a fan of Shakespeare personally, but I didn't want to let that crush my enthusiasm for her.

"I'm definitely considering dropping Economics for Business," Esmae, who was probably the quietest within our group, said.

It was impossible to keep the shock out of my expression. I could tell that I wasn't the only one, from the collective intake of breath and the fact that when I looked around, almost everyone else mirrored my expression. Esmae was the one in the group who was definitely known for being one of the most skilled Mathematicians I knew. She had a twin brother, who was a complete opposite to her, and seemed to have a new girlfriend each week. Aside from this, his personality was also the complete polar opposite. Understandably, they kept each other at arms' length, particularly at school.

"How come?" I asked, taking particular care to make sure that I didn't sound accusatory when in reality I was just curious.

Esmae shrugged. "It just doesn't cover enough of the skills required to be a manager," she said. "Besides, I'm already doing AP Maths, so I don't honestly need to do really be doing Economics. Honestly, I just signed on to do it initially because it was a safe choice, and I knew that there was a high chance I would enjoy it."

"Fair enough," I said, feeling much less shocked and confused than before, with wanting to be as supportive as I could be at the forefront of my intentions to help with the situation. "Go with what you feel is going to make you the happiest."

Martha nodded along with me and Bry. "Thanks guys," Esmae said, smiling. I knew she appreciated that we were trying to help her, and personally I loved nothing more than making my friends happy so it felt like a win-win situation.

"You're welcome," I said, with a strong feeling that I was speaking for how everyone felt. "What are your plans for Thanksgiving?" I asked, hoping that the sudden topic change wouldn't throw everything completely off.

"Just the usual dinner with family," Martha shrugged. "Although, it does mean that I get to play my History obsessed uncle that I have told you guys about at Trivial Pursuit and win all the History rounds!" She added with a contemplative shrug, "Or attempt to win."

Martha had a very large, chaotic family as we had all experienced whilst staying over at hers various times. It was not unusual for many activities to be going on around the house, and for an awful lot of competitive shouting and groaning to ensue as a result. I had learnt very quickly that if you wanted to have a chance of being heard at all, you had to find a way to stand out, which also made complete sense to explain Martha's exuberant, bold and competitive nature.

"Ben is coming to stay for Thanksgiving and I think a little longer," I said, feeling relieved that I wouldn't have to go into the whole explanation behind who Ben was as they all knew who he was, and Bry had met him a few times. "It's going to be nice to see him, as you guys know that I used to seem him all the time as a young kid, and now he's off to college and never around."

"Yeah," Bry nodded. "You guys would like him," she added, looking around at the others and then at me as if to look for reassurance that it was okay to speak of him like this. I nodded, and she continued. "He's really sweet and polite."

I became very interested in trying to gauge exactly what she was feeling at this point, as I was starting to suspect that maybe there was something more to what she was saying than just being polite so I wouldn't beat her up or something.

"What?" she said, and I felt a sinking feeling as I realised she must have figured it out. "He is sweet."

"He's also my brother," I said, with a stern tone that I hoped would convey that he was off limits. "And there's also this thing called boundaries, which stop people from doing dumb things." I felt a little mean using the word 'dumb' against someone that I knew was far from that, but at the same time, I needed to get the point across that Bry couldn't date him.

Since she was also just almost 17, and he was 23, the 6 year age gap also screamed that the idea was a bad one. Bry gave me a hard stare, and turned away, but I was pretty certain that it was done in humour, and not in genuine hurt.

"Anyone else got plans?" I asked, glad that I was able to attempt to change the subject.

"I think we're going to the Hamptons," Jules said, looking up from the book she was reading. I realised that she had joined us since I had got here, and I started to feel rude that I hadn't acknowledged her presence sooner.

"That's awesome!" I said. "You're so lucky!"

"I guess, yeah," Jules shrugged, as if she didn't necessarily think it was a big a deal as I thought it was. Jules was much more of a bookworm and stuck in her own little world, so her reaction did make sense. She was also a talented artist, even though she didn't seem to believe it all herself. "Mom and dad have their own house there, and so we holiday there pretty often."

"Yeah," I said. "I think you've mentioned that a few times before."

"Oh," Jules replied, sounding surprised. "Have I? Well, this is definitely a testament to how I definitely seem to be permanently daydreaming!"

We all laughed, as this was just something that we had all come to love and appreciate about Jules. The fact that she had such a great sense of humour about it definitely was one of the best parts. She was one of the only people I knew who was willing to trade the hilariously bad Dad jokes that Uncle Chandler and Dad taught me, and had actually been one of the reasons we had bonded.

"You guys will have to come see it sometime," Jules said, looking around to gauge how felt towards the idea.

"Hell yeah!" I said, fist pumping the air. Judging by the fact that all of the others started to look at me with expressions that were both embarrassed and incredulous at the same time, it was possibly too much enthusiasm. "Mom would be so jealous when I told her," I say, gleefully imagining the look on her face when I would tell her.

"You should just go instead of me," I hear Jules say, as if she's trying not to laugh at my reaction but also attempting to sound serious.

"It's your family though," I answer, guilt washing over me. "I wouldn't want to interrupt, especially when it's something like Thanksgiving."

"True," Jules said, seeming to understand where I was coming from. "And it would be too short a notice now, I'm pretty sure, anyways."

"Yeah," I agreed. It was only a week today until Thanksgiving, and it properly dawned on me that I would be seeing Ben much sooner than I had realised. My expression changed to one of happiness, and I could see the others be surprised at first but then they seemed to realise it was probably something to do with Ben.

A/N: I know that there isn't an awfully clear ending here, but I didn't think there was much reason to continue on with the chapter so I hope it makes sense. Just a short reminder to you guys for reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!