A/N: I think this is considered filler? I literally don't know, lmao.
Enjoy.

For the next two weeks, I was going to Amber Manor every day after school and sleeping there at night. For the weekdays, Amber wasn't there, so I could focus on finishing the stupid community service. For now, I wouldn't admit it aloud, but I was disappointed in that. She stopped coming back when her dad let me stay over. She was there on the weekends and she never brought anyone over again.

On weekends, she kept on with the random water bottles, but we still weren't talking. I never followed the rules for this long; It was different now, obviously. I still had it in me to ignore it and just talk to her, apologize for what I did, but there was never a good time. Maybe it was just me, but I felt too awkward doing it first.

My problem was still the fines. Sure, my bruises were nearly gone, my black eye was gone, and I could use my hand again—that was cool, I guess. I've been bumming off Max and my mom (maybe Kate or Steph too, if they persisted) for cash to pay to Mayor Amber directly (I thought I give it to the court or something, but he said to give it to him instead. Suspicious as fuck.) Unless including Amber into the mix was still a "problem." On top of that, Mayor Amber was limiting me all of a sudden with my service hours. I couldn't believe that shit. I think I heard him saying he was considering extending it passed 200 hours! If I heard that right, then I was pissed off.

Right now, I had finally finished painting the walls of the basement (even had to arrange boxes and storage in there aka, the most annoying shit ever). I moved onto the library/office room, where I had to put down all the books myself and repaint some of the bookshelves. "Some" because he bought some new shelves and wanted me to fucking assemble them. If you have to use a fucking ladder to get to your books, you have too fucking many. They had so much dust covering them; I couldn't stop sneezing.

I heard a knock on the window, taking me out of my thoughts. It wasn't an aggressive knock; it was just enough to get my attention.

I looked up and saw Dana in the window. She waved at me and had her same friendly smile again. To be nice, I waved back and returned to putting the shelf together. Wait... Amber isn't here, I don't think. Unless Dana has a key or if I just didn't notice that Amber came. The only people who could have keys were their other workers (gardeners and other people.) I raised my eyebrow at the different possibilities, thinking of any reason she would be here at all.

"Hey Chloe." Dana's voice came up behind me.

I turned and saw her leaning on the door frame. "Hey? How did you get in here?"

She looked confused and had an amused smile on her face. "You do know Rachel's here, right?"

"I guess I was too focused on this shit." I shrugged my shoulders. Damn... Maybe my ringing has gotten so bad that I couldn't hear her anymore. Or it was just Sunday and I wasn't expecting much.

"Is that so? I think you're starting to like it, actually."

"Oh yeah." I chuckled, sarcasm in my tone. "I'm such a masochist. Don't tell anyone."

"Your secret's safe with me." She was sarcastic too and that made us both laugh. "She decided to shower now, so I'll just hang here, if you don't mind."

"Don't mind at all. It's nice having company." I went back to working again, as much as I didn't want to.

"Are you implying that you like Rachel's company?"

I squinted my eyes at her. She had a smug look on her face. I rolled my eyes and scoffed. "No, I'm just saying it's nice having company. Are you guys leaving?"

"Yeah, decided suddenly to go shop at the outlet. That's why she's getting ready right now."

"I bet you guys only get expensive stuff."

"Are you implying that you want to get something for Rachel?"

I sighed and I couldn't help but laugh. "Okay, Dana," I turned to her again, sitting down this time, since I was hurting my knees, "I'm just asking. I'm not implying anything." I could ask her for help... She's the closest person to Amber right now with whatever was going on. "Though... I might have a stupid question."

"Sure." She perked up, her body straightened like she prepared an answer already.

"This is theoretical, by the way. If someone were to choke someone out, you didn't kill them, how would you go about apologizing for it? But like, it's weird because it was a stranger."

She was silent, her face changing and going through about five emotions, before finding an answer. "I don't think you would be able to? Where the hell did that come from?"

"Uh, just something I read in a book recently?" I awkwardly smiled and scratched at my neck. "Don't ask for the title, it didn't stick with me."

"Then, I don't think there's a way to fix that."

She didn't buy that, but I'll just try to convince myself that she might've believed it a little bit. "Thanks, I guess." I returned to working on the shelf. "Have fun at the mall or whatever."

I heard her snicker and could practically picture the smirk on her face. I listened to her footsteps leaving, then it was quiet again.

It was weird to say, but I was strangely happier now. I was hanging with the D&D Club (literally just Max, Steph, and Mikey) or whatever instead. Our campaign was going pretty well, if you ask me. Although, my character, Callamastia, has almost gotten killed in nearly every session (direct action or die). And, maybe it was just me, having no time to smoke any pot or drink has made me more relaxed, somehow. I never thought I would say this, but I hope I never go back to that shit.

"So, how's going to Rachel's house?" I was with Steph in the courtyard in front of the dorm, right after I got out of Amber's car.

"Just painting walls and building bookshelves." I sighed, rubbing the back of my neck. I think my hands were getting carpal tunnel or arthritis from it. "He made me organize their basement stuff again in new boxes. Found some weird shit in there. They love expensive shit and just leaving them for whatever reason."

"That happens when you have nothing to do with money. You work fast, dude."

"I need things done, man. Two-hundred hours is a long time and it doesn't help that I rarely get time after school." Maybe even less if he keeps cutting the hours down. "Everything now just makes me feel... different."

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

"I'm not sure yet." I crossed my arms over my chest, still feeling a little bit of my rebellious side wanting to act again. "I mean, I've been wearing my uniform normally and I have straight A's in my classes now. My mom even called to cry about it to me when she got the report card in the mail." I actually really liked the call. It felt nice to have her be proud of me again.

"Things are looking up for you, Chloe." She patted me on the shoulder. "Nothing wrong with a little change. You're still a punk ass to us. Besides, have you even got to skateboarding again since that happening?"

"It's horrible just fucking thinking about it." I shook my head. "Thinking about weed and alcohol too. It makes me feel sick to my stomach."

Steph nodded, understanding how traumatized I was. "Because of that, you're always welcome to our games, Chloe."

I chuckled. "You're a good friend, Steph." And I patted her on the back.

"It's a Natural Twenty! I get to throw a boulder right into the Belgoi's dick and fucking kills it instantly!" I cheered, clapping my hands together loudly.

Steph had to stop the game to get her laughs out, along with Max and Mikey. Shit, I won that. We can get out of this area and into the next one!

We had time to play during lunch, taking up an entire table and using figurines that looked cool as fuck. My character looked so badass, you could have a flamethrower, an army of robot ninjas, and a motherfucking dragon on a leash and she would still kick your ass!

Max turned away from the game, her smile growing bigger. I looked in the same direction and saw Kate passing by on the concrete pathway going to the dorms.

"Guys, you could continue the game without me," Max stood up from her seat and slung her backpack on her shoulder, "I'm gonna go talk to Kate."

Before we could say anything, she jogged over to Kate and stopped her. The three of us watched them hug for a long ass time before walking away together.

"Ten bucks they're dating now." I looked at Steph and Mikey, who were really surprised at what they just saw.

"You can't really bet on something we all agree on." Mikey pushed his glasses up and had a small smile on his face. Mikey North, the smartest fourteen-year-old around here, and little brother of Blackwell's best football player, Drew North. He was similar to Dana, being Drew was always with the shit people in this school, like Dana was with the Vortex Club. But, he was actually pretty cool guy. He was a legit football dude, even said he had scholarships because of it, but he was a nice guy.

Thinking about it now, that's the second person who turned out to be a good person within those cliques... huh.

"That's... very true." I slumped my shoulders. "I guess we're done with our game then."

There I was again, sitting on the floor of Amber Manor's office, surrounded by every book in the room that got covered in paint, and sweating so much from trying to fix up the second bookshelf. A lot of the books couldn't be saved or cleaned; I couldn't ask about whenever I'm buying all of them again or not. I don't wanna give them ideas, if they haven't thought of it yet.

Because it was really fucking quiet, I heard Amber approaching. She was probably gonna place another water bottle for me. Come on, Chloe. Just say anything! Just get the connection started and then we'll go from there! What are you nervous as shit for?! You know, other than the restroom thing... She hasn't proven anything wrong to you. She hasn't given you real reasons to hate her anymore. Anything! But nothing stupid!

I heard her right by the door and leaving a bottle on the ground. Before she could leave, I blurted out, "Sometimes I wanna drink something other than water, you know!" I left a reminder in my head to slap myself in the face later.

I thought I blew it once again. In fact, after this time, I would stop trying. However, I listened to her approaching the door again. There was an awkward and tense silence before I heard a small laugh. I barely heard it and it made my heart skip a little. "Would you like to tell me what you want to drink instead?"

I gulped and kept my eyes on the shelf I was working on. "I'm just saying. But, yeah, I'll let you know."

She hummed. I could tell she was happy. I chewed on my cheek. Okay, it started... but it's still too fucking weird to get the conversation started... She's staring at the back of my head right now, I know it. As I was trying to come up with another thing to say, but I heard her leaving. I kept my mouth shut. Why is your heart racing like this? Shut the fuck up, heart, you're being dramatic as hell!

I kept on with my service, secretly hoping she would say something again. But, as more time passed and another bookshelf done, all she did was set another water bottle down. It was still progress.

I fell into bed when I was done, with a loud plop sound from my entire body. This had to be the most tired I've ever felt. I think I'm actually gonna pass out. Even if I do somehow finish all of this cleaning before the two-hundred hours were up, they'll make me do more fucking work. What they would make me do, I didn't know.

There was knocking on my door again.

I got up, approaching it, wondering if I should open it or just pretend I was asleep again. I took a deep breath. A part of me still couldn't do it. I stood at the door, waiting for her to do something again, just to make sure she was wanting to do this as much as I wanted to. It felt like an eternity, my ringing growing louder, just wanting for something to happen.

She knocked again.

I took a deep breath in and said with as much stability as possible. "Yeah?"

"Oh, you're still awake." She sounded shocked. I guess she was planning on leaving again if I didn't answer.

"Did you need something?" It sounded it way meaner than I intended. That deserved another slap to the face.

"You did say you "wanted to drink something else sometimes," so do you want something else before I get another water bottle?"

I'm never gonna live that down. "No, water is just fine. I'll let you know if I want something else." I sighed. "Some food would be nice." I added sarcastically.

No reply. I heard her leave, her footsteps getting further away, and I waited there until she came back. I rested my back on the door, texting on my phone to Max, Steph, and Mikey. We were in a group chat Max named after a movie she watched, Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! She claims it to be the adventuring group name. We just let her have that.

Me:
I spoke to Amber, are you proud of me?

I was looking through my phone until I heard Amber place a plate and a glass on the floor, then leaving. It made me confused for a second. All I wanted was water. I made sure I couldn't hear her anymore before I could open it. Indeed, there was a plate of steak and a side salad on the floor, along with a glass of water. I brought it into my room and placed the plate on my bed and the water on the side table. I was just kidding... Oh god, what if she poisoned it? No! No, Chloe, you're gonna eat this and learn to trust her.

Time Maxine:
:D

Dungeon Master:
She's great, right?

Elamon:
We did say she was cool.

They're rubbing it in my face already?

Me:
I didn't look at her, you nerds. I spoke to her through the door.

I went to eating, trusting everything was good and not messed with, cutting into the steak with the knife and fork she gave me. I think it was medium rare, which feels like a rich person thing to do for some reason. I ate the piece, eating it slow and still hesitating. I… I never tasted something so good in my life. So, this is what being rich is like. Just having good fucking food all the time. I'm sorry, Two Whales Diner, you're still fan-fucking-tastic but… this is amazing.

Time Maxine:
You're making progress!

Dungeon Master:
Better than nothing. We repeat: she's very nice.

And Mikey didn't reply.

Me:
Okay, I get it.

I continued to eat, tasting how well seasoned and juicy the thing was, along with the salad. I'm fucking hungry, holy shit. Or, maybe it's just pretty good. It's so fucking good!

Before I knew it, everything was gone. I finished all the food. I ate it like it was my last meal. I wasn't sure if I wanted seconds or what, but that was fulfilling. I guess I should "joke" around more often. It seems to be working out and I think she likes that? She isn't telling me to follow the rules, so I should be in the clear. Maybe. I dunno! I dunno why I'm second guessing! I left the plate and glass outside my door and went straight to bed.

I felt a lot happier than I should be.

A/N: Review and shit.