Okay, the winner of the poll was that most of you wanted Twist's pov. So here are the two previous chapters in Twist's pov, incase you wanted to read it. I tried to make the part where Twist confronts Zig a little more sensitive, so you could see it from her pov.

Thanks for voting!


Chapter Twelve

School, a time and place that provides everybody with a healthy, happy understanding of what the true meaning life and inspiration is, or not. It had been a couple of weeks since we had returned from the beach and into school. This was our third week into the school year and so far it had sucked. I looked the window and sighed: the school year was almost in full swing, meaning summer was about to disappear behind the corner to return in eight months. And in exactly eleven months and two weeks it would be the day that Squid broke my heart. Yes, he dumped me two weeks ago because, and I quote, "he doesn't want to get too emotionally attached."

"Miss Fletcher? Are you with us?"

I snapped out of my daydream and looked at Ms. Piper, who had a blond eyebrow raised in skepticism at TC.

"Er, yeah. I'm here."

Fourth period, American Studies. I had few friends in the class, especially since my well known Camp Green Lake experience, but TC was across the room and Squid sat right behind her, so I didn't feel too lonely.

"So? What is the answer?"

TC cleared her throat, "Uh…to what?"

A couple people in the class laughed softly, but stopped abruptly when Ms. Piper sent them all death looks.

"Pay more attention," she said harshly, then turned back to the overhead, where she was copying down the assignment for the night.

I watched her carefully, and then turned slightly to see TC whisper something to Squid. He laughed a little and said something back. I really wanted to know what she said to make him laugh. I was the one who used to make him laugh. TC turned back around and muttered something. The bell rang throughout the school signaling that it was time for lunch. I watched once again as TC practically knocked over her desk while leaping to her feet. I knew this was her very least favorite class, and the teacher hated her. Frankly, the feeling was incredibly mutual.

I walked out the room and caught up with TC and Squid. "Hey guys!"

"Hey," said Squid, putting on a forced smile, from what I could tell. The look of pain was seeping into my face, so I decided to say the first thing that came to my mind.

"So, lunchtime," I said. "The best time of day." How lame could I get? I reeled in a fake laugh; which I hoped sounded as real as possible. Squid joined in with some of his own phony chuckles. TC laughed loudly and clearly falsely, somewhat mockingly, in a struggle to display to me how stupid I was being. Squid and I stopped immediately, and I felt herself turning slightly red in embarrassment. Not surprising.

We parted from each other to drop some stuff off in our own lockers. Mine was a landfill. I opened it, stuffed in my history book and pulled out my algebra book, held some books in place, and slammed it quickly, before anything could fall out. Grinning in satisfaction, I slipped my backpack back on and turned. "Oh! Hey TC! I didn't see you standing there."

TC laughed, "You were so deeply in concentration on keeping everything in your locker, and I thought I'd wait 'til you were done." She smiled, "You ready for lunch?"

As if on cue, my stomach rumbled. "I was born ready," I responded.

On our exciting journey to the cafeteria, we talked about our very boring fourth period.

"Is it just me, or does Piper hate my guts with a passion?" TC questioned.

"It's not just you," I agreed. "She seems to love picking on you."

"Amen," she muttered. She grinned. "Today she was almost as vicious as that one day she nailed Squid for staring at you from across the room."

I nearly tripped at this. "What? When was that?" I asked anxiously, grabbing TC by the arm. Did Squid stare at me secretly? What if that meant he really did love me like he said on the beach less than a month ago.

TC laughed. "Never. It didn't happen. But I wanted to see what you would do. And I was right."

I slackened my grip on TC. He didn't stare at me during class. Who was I kidding? He didn't love me. But, I needed to find out what TC meant. "What? What were you right about?"

"You still have feelings for him. Major feelings."

"I do not," I lied as we rounded the corner. TC snorted.

"You always did suck at lying."

"I did not."

"Yeah, you did. You can never make eve contact, for one. And a lot of the time, you can't resist cracking a smile, whether you want to or not."

I stopped in her tracks and turned TC to face me, a serious expression on my face. "TC, you can't tell him. Or Stranger, or Hype, or Gia, or Rachel, or Caveman, or Zero, or – anybody, okay?"

"You have my word, Twist. But I think you should do something about it, instead of keeping it pent up."

"What would the use be?" I asked her. "It's not like he's any longer interested."

TC coughed purposefully. I sent her a sidelong questioning look. "What?"

"You're blind. And completely oblivious."

"What do you mean?"

"Never mind," said TC, as we entered the cafeteria. I shrugged it off as we approached our usual table. "Geez, you guys, it's about time," said TC as the last six came in. "You guys were running late."

"Well, we're here," Hype declared. The seats remained the same as usual. Sarah sat on one end, beside her sat Hype, then Twitch, then me, then the boy who stabbed me straight through my heart, then ZigZag, then Princess. On the other side of the table , on the same end as Sarah, sat X-Ray. The his side sat Stranger, then Zero, then Magnet, then Dutchess, then Gia, then Barfbag, then Rachel, and finally Armpit. It was always the same and unchanging. The seating chart was sacred.

"How's American Studies today?" Hype questioned TC, Squid, and I. She had it after lunch.

"Boring, as usual," TC said with a long sigh.

"Yeah, bring a pillow," I agreed.

"Did you get a detention yet?" Hype asked TC. She had heard horror stories of how much Ms. Piper hated her good friend.

"No, but I'd but my house that I'll get at least one by the end of the year. She won't let me go without something."

We all laughed.

"Glad to know that you all find my punishment so amusing," TC laughed.

"So, the chemistry test is pretty tough. I suggest you take a couple minutes during passing time to study," Hype added, glancing at me, she knew I wouldn't have even so much as glanced over my notes ahead of time.

"I'm not a studying person," I insisted. The more I cram, the more I tend to forget."

"Uh huh," Armpit said jokingly.

"Hey, you guys wanna come hang at my place after school?" Lewis said.

"Our house," I corrected him.

"Would your parent's mind?" Gia asked.

"Gia, do our parent's ever mind?" I said.

"Point made," Gia laughed.

"We can go chill at the mall or the movies or something, or just hang out at my house," Lewis said.

"Our house, Lewis," I said.

"Sounds fun," said Caveman, sending a grin at TC, who smiled back.

X-Ray muttered something to his new best buddy Sarah. I so take credit on that.

"What was that?" Hype said.

"Nothing, nothing. We were merely commenting on how grand the school lunches are," Sarah covered, taking a large spoonful of Mashed Potato Surprise and feigning enjoyment. She forced himself to swallow, and coughed a few times. "Um, yum!"

The rest of us looked at her strangely as she began to turn a peculiar shade of green

"I'll be right back," she moaned, and leapt out of her seat and out the door.

"That what the Mashed Potato Surprise will do to you," Squid sighed.

I was walking home when I heard my brother's voice polluting my brain.

"Hey, Emma, wait up!"

I turned and saw Lewis jogging towards me. As he neared, he slowed his pace down a little. I forced a smile. "Hey."

"What's up?"

"Nothing really." I looked behind him and saw that he was, indeed, quite alone.

"Where's Gia?"

"Walking with Princess," said Lewis. As if reading my mind, he added, "We're not always together, you know."

"Could have fooled me," I muttered.

Lewis stopped, and took hold of my arm when I didn't stop, too. "What's that supposed to mean?"

I sighed. "I'm sorry. It just feels unfair, I guess."

"What?"

"I mean, you, Princess, Hype, and TC are my very best friends. You have Gia and vice versa. Princess has ZigZag even though she doesn't know it. TC has Caveman. Hype has Twitch. I have nobody."

"What about Squid?"

"We're over," I said firmly. "Why isn't anybody getting that?"

"Why aren't you or him getting that you're not over?" Lewis demanded. "Emma, c'mon."

"Let's change the subject, please," I insisted. "Is ZigZag gonna ask Princess out soon, or what?"

"Why are you asking me? Do I look like ZigZag to you?" he asked with a grin. I rolled my eyes.

"I figured he would have said something to you. But I guess I take that as a no."

"Yeah, well, if you're asking my opinion, I think that he should ask her out. I don't know if it's gonna happen though. I mean, ZigZag my brother and all that crap, ya know, but he's a jerk about this thing. He doesn't want the whole commitment deal or whatever."

"Yeah, well, I say you're being a slight hypocrite," I countered.

He glanced at me. "What?"

"I seem to remember how you stressed over asking Gia out. It took you half a year for you to say a single word to her."

"This is different. ZigZag knows how in love with him Princess is. He just doesn't like to see it. And I seem to remember you telling me that you would castrate me if I asked Gia anything about a relationship. That's why I stressed, I wasn't sure if you were serious or not."

I sighed. "Everything is just so messed up in the group right now."

Lewis stopped walking again and looked at me with a seriously scary expression. "Emma, are you going to be okay?"

"What are you talking about?" I asked, continuing to walk. Lewis, again, had to take me by the arm and stop me.

"Would you quit pretending not to notice that I'm not walking anymore?" he demanded. This is the second time you've done that."

"Lewis, let me go. I don't wanna talk about this."

"You're acting ridiculous."

"Excuse me?"

"You know, failure to accept the truth? Pushing your friends away?" he egotistically began to fix his hair and flashed a cheesy grin. "Especially your best friend?"

"I'm not talking about this again," I sighed, and again attempted to walk away, but my oh so protective brother stopped me.

"Quit ignoring me," he said sternly. "I'm not even joking."

I turned and looked at him. If he wanted to have an intimate twin moment with me, then he could have it. "Fine. You want me to talk? Let's talk." I grabbed him by the arm and dragged him over to a nearby bus-stop, shoved him down onto the bench, and placed my hands on my hips. "I love Squid. Yet, he isn't interested in getting too emotionally attached to me. I mean, he said this when we broke up two weeks ago. But, also, it seems to me that love qualifies quite a lot as emotional attachment, which would mean he has been emotionally attached to me since vacation. So that confuses me. Although, I pretended to agree with him; even though I seriously didn't. But anyway, it also means that he doesn't want to be with me; which means there's nothing I can do except sit around and whine about how much I love him and complain about the lack of return of that particular emotion. Or, I can forget about it, and move on. It's your choice, whether you want me to be happy or you want me to sit here and annoy you to death with my feelings." I took a deep breath after such a rapid explosion of emotions. "There. Are you happy now?"

Lewis was staring at me quite surprisingly. Finally, he cleared his throat and adjusted his sitting position. "Sorry, took me a minute to register and begin to understand all of that. So here's the way I see it. Your thoughts are that Squid doesn't want to be with you, because of his explanation about emotional attachment of whatever. Right?"

"Right," I confirmed with a nod.

"But you also spoke about how you pretended to agree with him on the topic. Right?"

"Right," I repeated uncertainly.

"There you have it, then. You lied to him."

I hesitated. "So? What's your point?"

"My point is, have you ever stopped to wonder if maybe he's lying to you, too?"

Again, I hesitated to respond right away, but finally shook my head in confusion.

"Why would he lie about something like that?"

He shrugged. "I dunno. Why would you?"

I studied my brother's face for a moment, and then turned away towards the sky in deep concentration. Lewis was looking at me in his I-really-do-love-you stare curiously, and then spoke up again.

"Hey," he said gently, knocking me out of me thoughts. He patted the empty space beside him on the bench in indication for me to take a seat. I paused briefly, but did so anyway.

"Yeah?" I questioned.

"Look, Emma," he began seriously. "You're just like a sister to me, hey, you are my sister. I mean, even through everything going on with Squid this summer, you still managed to pull other people into their current relationships. And that was the act of a true, true friend. Now, in my eyes, you're a great person, one of the best, and I think that you deserve happiness. And Squid makes you happy. And even though he's my friend and I can't stand the thought of you and him together; I think you should talk to him."

"What do I say? I asked nervously, staring at my hands which I had folded uncertainly in my lap.

He shook his head. "I'm not sure. Just tell him what you feel. It worked for me." He flashed another cheesy grin at her. I laughed a little and pulled him into a hug. He returned the gesture.

"Thank you," I whispered.

"Any time for my little sister," he agreed jokingly, as they pulled apart. "I would talk to Squid for you, but these days if seems that the only person he trusts about any topic on much of anything is ZigZag. I'm not sure why. But I always see them talking, and whenever I question ZigZag about it, he goes all distracted on me and says he can't say anything because of spies are around."

I paused to think about what was just said, and then asked, "Do you think ZigZag would tell me anything?"

Lewis shrugged. "I highly doubt it. You can give it a try, though. You're smarter than most, so you can probably find a way to trick him into saying something."

I grinned. "Sounds good to me."

"You'd better head over there, though, because everyone decided to go over there instead at five to hang out for the night. And it's-" he checked my watch, "-already three." You might need a bit of time to weasel something out of that kid."

"All right," I agreed. "I'll see you at five, okay?"

"Right. I'll tell mom and dad where you are. Good luck," he said, rising to his feet.

I smiled. "I won't need good luck, Hey, it's me."

"Now that's the Emma we know and love," Lewis said rolling his eyes.

"That's right, bye Puke Bucket!" I said using my new pet name for him, turning onto ZigZag street.

"Whatever Tornado!" He is so uncreative.

I was walking down ZigZag's street and saw him sitting on top of the railing on his porch.

"ZigZag? Can we talk?" I asked.

He sighed. "Yeah, sure. What about?" he asked me.

"Squid," I explained. I paused at the bottom of the staircase, awaiting permission to ascend.

ZigZag nodded. "Yeah, sure, c'mon up, what's up?"

"ZigZag, there's something I have to know about Squid, and you're going to tell me the whole truth and nothing but the truth."

"So help me God?" ZigZag joked. I lightly hit him in the shoulder, trying to hide my smile.

"Seriously. I need you to tell me the truth."

ZigZag paused, and nodded. "I can't make any promises, Twist, but I'll do my best."

Satisfied enough by this answer, I nodded as well. "Where does he want to stand with me?" I asked.

ZigZag hesitated yet again, and then looked up at the clouds. "That, my dear, is why I refused to make any promises to you."

I sighed. I knew that I was going to have difficulties in getting much of anything out of ZigZag, but I also had thought of a way to pull it out of him on the way over. It was cruel, but I thought it needed to be believable, and Lewis is always going on about how I exaggerate. I just hoped it wasn't to mean. I let my acting talent take control of my body, and gave into the drama.

"I knew it," I declared, summoning the tears from the ducts in the corners of my eyes. "He hates me." I rose to her feet. "What's the point in living, Ziggy? How can I go on when the one guy I've ever loved chooses to throw me away like yesterday's trash?"

I glanced back at him. On his face was surprise at this sudden outburst of emotion coming from me. He stood up, as well. "Twist, it isn't like that at all."

I turned to him, wiping away the fake tears from my cheeks and giggling at little in my heart out on the inside. "Then what is it like? Does he still love me?"

"Of course," ZigZag offered. I saw the light bulb in his head click with the realization of what a chuck of information he had just fed to the object of his sympathy. Frantically, he tried to cover it up. "I mean, no. I mean, oh crap."

I stopped pretending to cry and smiled at him. "Thank you kindly, Sir Ziggy," I said with mock innocence, and began to walk down the stairs.

"Twist! I can not believe you," ZigZag declared.

"Yeah, I know. I'm just so unbelievable," I said. ZigZag smiled a little. Which I took as a good sign that he wasn't too mad at me.

"That is going to get you in trouble someday, you know."

"Oh, c'mon, Ziggy, it's no big deal. Don't worry about it. My lips are sealed. Nobody will have to know that you said a word to me."

He sighed. "Good, because then they will know if I ever need to be questioned all they have to do is get a girl to fake cry. Hey, what are you going to do with the knowledge you snuck out of me? Were you just acting when you said you loved him, too, or did you truly mean it?"

I nodded. "Oh, I meant it. No doubt about that. Don't worry; I've got it all under control." She smiled. "Thanks again, Ziggy," I commented sincerely, and continued down the stairs.

I walked down the street back to my house, hoping that ZigZag knew that I needed to do that to put ease to my mind. Now, that I had confirmed that Squid did love me, I had to decide how to put use to this information.