With everything that had been going on, Sam's audition for Grease had completely slipped Lindsay's mind. She found out that Sunday evening that he had gotten the role of Doody, not exactly the one he wanted, but still one of the male leads. Jean had made a butterscotch cake in celebration, keeping Lindsay busy enough that she didn't get around to calling Kim to see if she had spoken to her mom yet. It was a welcome change to see Sam so happy, given the issues surrounding her lately.

The next morning before class, Lindsay sat with Nick, Daniel and Ken on the patio, breaking them the news about Sam.

"See, I knew he did well!" Nick grinned, giving Lindsay a pat on the shoulder. "We should totally all buy tickets to go see it."

"Oh, yes." Ken retorted. "I would enjoy nothing more than watching a bunch of drama kids sing and dance."

"Well Amy's gonna be in it. Guess you don't have a choice." Lindsay laughed, and Ken put his head in his hands.

"Dear God, no."

"Hey. If I had of auditioned, they would have given me the part for sure." Daniel said, holding his cigarette out in front of him to get everyone's attention. "See, watch."

He threw the cigarette into the air and tried to catch it in his mouth, ultimately failing as it fell to the ground. Nick booed him, as he picked it up from the ground again.

"Aw. C'mon, try again Desario!" Nick laughed, as Daniel attempted the trick again, and failed miserably, this time the end of the cigarette burning his pants.

"Yeah, they would have cast you for sure if you nailed that one." Ken nodded. Lindsay noticed Kim walking over, and from the look on her face, things had not gone well with her mother.

"Yeah, yeah, give me one more shot." Daniel exclaimed. "Drumroll please, sweet Nicholas."

Nick began banging on his textbooks with his hands. Daniel threw the cigarette into the air one last time, before Kim waltzed over and hit it onto the ground herself. Daniel rolled his eyes as she sat herself down next to him, refusing to look at him.

"Good morning to you too, sweetheart." He mumbled sarcastically, stomping the now broken cigarette below his foot. Kim turned to him then, her sheer anger evident. Daniel folded his arms in exasperation.

"What's your problem?"

"Are you kidding me?" Kim exploded. "You told me you were going to pick me up this morning. I had to catch the bus, like a child!"

Lindsay subconsciously found herself sitting down in between Nick and Ken, the three of them exchanging glances as they prepared themselves for world war three.

"Relax Kim, it's a bus. I must have forgot, I'm sorry."

"Oh, you're sorry?" Kim jumped up from her seat. "I should have known you would forget about it, you're just as brain dead as your dad."

There was an audible gasp, and Lindsay wasn't sure who it had come from. It could have been from any of them, given how tense the situation was becoming. Daniel looked both murderous and heart broken at the same time, standing up to level with Kim.

"Do you wanna take that back?"

"What's the big deal?" Kim threw her arms up. "You say a lot worse stuff than that about him."

"He's my dad, not yours." Daniel sounded like he was on the brink of losing it, and Lindsay briefly felt Nick nudge her.

"Well thank god he's not my father." Kim exclaimed. "Why would I want a dad who beats me all the time, anyway? You're lucky he's a zombie."

That was when Nick jumped out of his seat, placing himself in between them.

"Whoa ok, I think we should probably take this down a notch guys. You know, I was listening to The Who this weekend, and you know what-"

"Do you enjoy being a complete bitch?" Daniel ignored everything Nick had said, stepping in front of him to level with Kim again. "Do you like the fact that everybody hates you? Does it make you happy?"

"Everybody doesn't hate me."

"Oh yeah? Think again, blondie. And since you wanna talk about families, you didn't exactly hit the jackpot either, did you? I'd rather my dad be sick than be related to a bunch of white trash welfare leeches!"

Not only was it the biggest fight Lindsay had seen between Kim and Daniel, it was probably the nastiest fight she had seen, period. She turned to Ken, who had the hint of a smile on his face. He had to be the only one of the group who genuinely found confrontation hilarious. She wanted to jump in and defend Kim, but then she also wanted to defend Daniel. Honestly, they were just as bad as each other. So she stayed put, secretly hoping that something Nick said would make them see reason. It didn't seem likely though. They only thing they were both seeing was red.

"WE ARE THROUGH!" Kim was screaming now, to the point where students across the yard were now turning their heads, probably to check if somebody was being murdered. "I mean it Daniel, we are FINISHED. I HATE YOU!"

"Right back at you." Daniel waved in her face, sitting himself back down next to Ken. Then Kim kicked the patio so hard that the noise resonated throughout the yard, before storming off towards the classrooms.

And just like that, everyone acted as though nothing had happened. Daniel was lighting up another cigarette, a gleeful Ken by his side. Nick seemed to reluctantly let it go, shrugging at Lindsay as though there was nothing more he could have done. It was like the sun was finally shining after a wild and dangerous tornado had previously passed through. Lindsay hated it all. She hated that two of the people she cared about most, wouldn't stop fighting. So instead of confronting the issue head on, she picked up her bags and headed to her calculus class early, desperate to distract herself.

That afternoon in the cafeteria, there was a very clear line drawn in the sand. Ken, Nick and Daniel sat in their usual spot by the wall, with Kim on a table a little further away with Karen Scarfolli and Heidi Henderson. Lindsay hesitantly approached the guys, not putting her tray of food down.

"Hey." Daniel moped, stabbing his fork into his food below.

"Hey." Lindsay replied. "Has anybody spoken to Kim yet?"

"Not after this mornings blood bath." Ken replied. Daniel squinted at Lindsay in confusion.

"You heard what she said to me, right?."

"Uh…yeah, I did." Lindsay shrugged. "I also heard what you said to her."

"Are you serious, Lindsay?" Daniel was still repeatedly stabbing his food. Lindsay felt her heart drop, knowing how badly she was upsetting him.

"Look, what she said wasn't ok." Lindsay agreed. "I'm just saying, I didn't see her do anything to you that you didn't do right back to her."

With that, she made her way over to Kim's table. She could feel Daniel's eyes burning a hole in the back of her head, but couldn't bring herself to look back. She sat herself down next to Kim, Karen rolling her eyes as she sat down. Karen had never really grown to enjoy Lindsay's company, and vice versa. Given the fact that she was around, Lindsay knew better than to bring up the pregnancy issue.

"Are you ok?" Lindsay asked Kim, whose scowl had only gotten more obvious since the morning. "Things got pretty intense this morning."

"As long as he doesn't come near me, I'm fine." Kim retorted, shooting Daniel a look as she did. He rolled his eyes from across the room, just before Kim flipped him off. Karen and Heidi were laughing, Lindsay didn't join in. She wasn't finding any of it particularly funny. She cleared her throat.

"Did you talk to your mom?" She spoke in a whisper, barely audible as the two of them checked to make sure Karen and Heidi were pre-occupied.

"Yes. Unfortunately."

"Oh. It didn't go well?"

"It's worse than that. She wants to come with me to the appointment tomorrow."

Lindsay was totally shocked, but tried not to show it. Kim's mom showing any kind of helping hand was shocking, let alone when it came to something like this. She wasn't exactly the most understanding person in the world, not from what Lindsay knew of her.

"Wow. Well, that's a good thing right?"

"No." Kim hissed back. "She's going to want to control everything. This is my baby, I'm going to decide what happens."

They stopped their conversation as Karen and Heidi had begun listening in, changing the subject to that of hating Daniel once again. It seemed to be a subject they could discuss for hours on end, all of them except Lindsay.

As lunch came to an end, she trudged to her English class, hurriedly going through quotes in her head that she had to use for her upcoming essay. As the corridors were clearing, she spotted Daniel up ahead. Feeling bad for what had happened earlier, she started after him.

"Hey stranger." She smiled, receiving nothing but a cool head nod in return. If anything, Daniel quickened his pace, seemingly trying to get away from her. She ignored his sulking, pressing on.

"How is everything? How's your dad today?"

"Great. Everything's great." Daniel replied, not looking down at her once. She felt a slight twang of hurt, given that she couldn't stop thinking about how he had opened up to her in the car. She felt as though she had already ruined any kind of bond they might have previously shared.

"Why are we walking so fast?" Lindsay smirked, to which Daniel didn't even bother responding. Completely fed up at this point, Lindsay threw her arms up in exasperation, refusing to run after him any longer.

"Alright, fine. I give up. If you want to ignore me then I'm not going to bother being there for you."

Daniel stopped then, his fists clenched as he finally turned to look at her. The corridors were nearly empty now, and Lindsay suddenly felt a little vulnerable.

"You took her side. You weren't there for me anyway."

"I'm not taking anybody's side." Lindsay was shaking her head. "Did you ever stop and think that maybe I was just trying to be a good friend to both of you?"

She'd had enough then, turning on her heel and marching straight towards her English class. She heard him call out to her, but didn't look back. The past few weeks had been a confusing, insufferable whirlwind of emotions, and she was beyond being able to deal with it. Already she had fallen behind on the Mathletes, she hadn't done any of her yearbook work, her and Nick had not hung out at all. She had barely even thought about Nick, if she was being honest with herself. Strangely enough, she had an overwhelming urge to find Millie. Sweet, innocent Millie. She would never get herself into the situations her other friends had. Why had they stopped hanging out?

Before Lindsay went to bed that night, she got a phone call from Kim, who said her mom was going to take her to the doctors appointment the next day. They didn't want Lindsay to come along, because Kim's mom was worried about her influence. It was probably the most hypocritical thing Lindsay had ever heard, but she ignored it. If it meant Kim's mom was willing to see reason, then it was best to leave it alone. She was a little hurt though, deciding to distract herself by spending the rest of the night practising lines with Sam. The nicest part was that for a moment, she didn't have to be herself. She was a character, one whom didn't have the melodramatics of her own scattered life.

Lindsay went to bed that night wondering why she hadn't joined the play herself.