IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT AT BOTTOM

The end of the school year.

Finals, parent-teacher conferences, and that official teenage popularity meter: The yearbooks are out.

Every year it's the same.

Poor Sue had tried out for God knows how many things.

And she hadn't made a single one.

"Hey, Laynee," Axl said as he lazily leaned against her locker, "Did you get the yearbook?"

Every year, Axl and Laynee decided to share a yearbook instead of buying two separate ones. While Laynee didn't care about the yearbook, Axl loved looking through it and 'rating' the girls from hottest to ugliest. This year it was Laynee's turn to buy the yearbook.

"Yeah," Laynee shifted her bag and reached in, pulling out the thick, brown book, "Here ya go."

"Awesome," Axl said as he took the book from Laynee's grasp and started to flip through it, "Oh, look at her! She has food in her braces."

Laynee snorted and rolled her eyes before putting her arm through his and leading him towards the bus platform. Normally Axl would give her a ride to school but recently he had been taking rides from Sean and there was no way she was going to be riding in a car with him… even if Axl was there.

~8~

"We got the results of Delaeney's aptitude test." Mrs. Goldstein said and Frankie looked at her expectantly while Mike looked around the classroom, bored. They hadn't gone to Axl's teacher yet, so whatever Laynee got was probably going to make their day, "She did very well. She didn't test as academically gifted, but she was close."

"Really?" Frankie was shocked. Out of all her kids, she expected Brick and, at least, Delaeney to test out as academically gifted. Even though Sue got good grades, Laynee's grades were up there. Her lowest grade had to probably be a B-.

"Yes," Mrs. Goldstein hummed, "I, too, myself am a bit shocked, but I think that either way, Delaeney will be fine."

Frankie only nodded in agreement. Okay, maybe Laynee's was as good as she imagined she would be, but at least she was close to being gifted. Frankie sighed before getting up and heading to the classroom across the hall.

It was weird. Even though Laynee and Axl didn't have the same classes, they somehow always managed to stay close to one another.

~8~

Delaeney's ears perked at the sound of Axl screaming 'Ah! Stupid big brain' and tiled her head, confused. Why was Axl screaming? Shrugging, Delaeney turned back to her work and tried to finished solving the chemistry problem that was in front of her. She would've worked in the living room with Axl but he couldn't seem to stop talking and Axl's room was the quietest place in the house. It was the end of the hall, opposite from the stairs.

Axl's door swung open and Delaeney screamed, startled by the loud noise. She placed her hand of her racing heart before looking at an exhausted Axl.

"You scared the crap out of me." She scolded, before looking down at the same problem. She didn't understand why this was taking her so long. Normally she would've been done by now.

The bed creaked and Delaeney felt a pressure next to her.

"You didn't balance the problem right." She heard Axl say before he pulled the pencil out of her hand, "You need to make this a three and that a two."

He said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"How did you know that? Just last week you were asking me for help." Delaeney asked as she stared at him in awe and confusion.

"I have a big brain." Axl didn't want to tell her that he really didn't need any help, he just wanted to sit next to her.

Delaeney's eyebrows rose and she stared at him in confusion, "Is this about whatever happened downstairs?"

Axl groaned before burying his face into his bed, "I got a ninty-eight percent on the aptitude test thingy and it turns out I'm smart." He turned his head so he could see her, "This sucks."

He smiled a little as Delaeney's laugh echoed through his room.

~8~

I was feeling pretty darn good.

The Heck family was on the right track.

Sue was practicing for cross-country.

Brick was slowly, but surely, finding his lost library books.

And Axl was studying in his room, with the help of Delaeney.

"Wanna hear something cool?" Axl asked and Laynee looked up from the book she was reading. Jane Austin, gotta love her work.

"Sure," Delaeney gently closed her book, but not before she placed her bookmark in, and turned to face Axl. He was holding his guitar and Delaeney noticed how he had plugged it into some speakers.

"If you wanna play your guitar without your parents knowing, you might not want to plug it in." Delaeney pointed out and Axl rolled his eyes, he could care less.

He had only been playing for a few seconds when Mike suddenly opened the door.

"What are you doing?"

"Just taking a break." Axl nervously looked at Delaeney and the textbooks next to her, "About to start up again."

Delaeney rolled her eyes, he was lying.

"Put the guitar down. You're supposed to be studying for your finals." Mike stated and Laynee gulped. He wasn't happy.

"I don't have any study skills." Axl complained, "Those are hard skills to learn at my age. Maybe if you had raised me better."

"No more excuses," Mike cut him off and Axl and Laynee shared a look, "Now that we know how smart you are, we're cracking down. Besides," Mike looked over at Laynee and her eyes widened. She was innocent, "You've got Laynee to help you study."

"If I'm so smart, then how come nothing's sticking in my brain?" Axl asked, as he looked at Mike, confused, "Seriously. I gave myself the practice test. I got a D."

Delaeney nodded her head in agreement, "It's true. Even with cheating, he still managed to fail."

Mike sighed before looking at Delaeney and then at Axl. Something wasn't adding up and he was going to figure it out.

"Were you guys really studying?" He asked and his answered was immediately confirmed at the panicked look in their eyes, "Yeah, so how bout you actually study and then how bout you take that practice test."

Leaving the two teens, Mike knew that they were going to study. Seeing how Laynee had cracked open a textbook and Axl's defeated face.

~8~

And they did.

Gotta had it to them.

Those two studied all night long.

A loud whirling rung through Delaeney's ears and she jumped. What was that? It was too early and someone was interrupting her beauty sleep. Not that it would help at all.

"What is that?" Axl cried as he sat up, a bag of chips stuck to his face, "Make it stop."

"Sorry." Sue turned off the blender, "Making a protein shake."

Delaeney groaned at looked at the clock behind her. It was five-thirty. What the heck (Delaeney mentally laughed at her pun) was she doing up. Delaeney scratched her head and quickly tied her hair up into a bun.

"It's five-thirty. Go to bed." Delaeney commanded as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes. She already felt as though she was drifting back off to sleep.

"I can't. I'm training." Sue smiled proudly as she poured herself the shake, "Trying to get a little extra practice in before school."

Delaeney groaned before laying her head back down onto the table. She wanted to sleep and she knew that she still had about an hour before she really had to get up. As she was just falling back asleep, Sue's voice caught her attention again.

"Oh, if anyone calls, can you tell them I'm out running because I'm on cross-country. And even though I'll be super busy with cross-country I'll call because they're friends. Even though I'll probably have a lot of new cross-country friends. They can come to my meets and we can go out for pizza after but it'll have to be near the cross-country track."

Delaeney gave a groan, "I'll just tell them that you're out running."

"Okay." Sue smiled before heading outside.

Axl yawned as he gave stretched, "All right, I'm gonna hit the showers."

As Axl got up, he froze when he heard Laynee's sleepy voice, "You did good, Axl." She yawned, "I hope you do well on your test."

A bright blush covered Axl's face and he quickly ran up the stairs, hoping that Delaeney didn't see his blushing face.

~8~

Delaeney tiredly watched as Sue raced around the track, well, more like crutched.

She was so aggravated.

She had spent all night helping Axl study and it was all for nothing!

She had chemistry homework to do and she still didn't know how Axl got that problem right if he wasn't a genius.

She grumbled as it started raining. Of course, it had to rain.

Trying to smile for Sue, she wrapped one of Sue's arms around her shoulders to help her stand. Glancing over at Axl, she couldn't help but smile. Even though he had made her stay up all night to help him study, he had tried and Delaeney couldn't be prouder…. Even if he did fail.

I know it may not seem like much to celebrate.
The truth is maybe we are just average.
But the way I see it families where parents get up every morning and go to jobs that are hard so they can get their kids through school and life and struggle to make it all work and manage to do it with dignity and a little humor well, that's not average that's extraordinary.

YOU GUYS ARE SO AWESOME AND I LOVE ALL OF YOU!

This story has a HUNDRED follows, isn't that amazing! Thank you guys so much! This was the first story I had ever wrote and when I published this, I didn't think that it would get this far.

You guys are so amazing and we finally made it to season two! I know, it took forever (my bad, hehe...)

With winter break coming up, I'll have more time to update!

Thank you guys so much!

See you soon,

Ana

P.S. I published a Walking Dead fanfiction, so if you're interested, please check it out! It's Carl/OC and it starts in Season 1.

THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH! I'M SO HAPPY!