A/N: Well it's been a while. Sorry. :l. I have been so creatively drained in the past few weeks. I used my spring break to work on my actual novel and I've been very tired. Well here is this chapter. I hope you like it. It's called "Purple Hyacinths"

The florist shop closed at seven, so Carrie had plenty of time to get there after school but before practice. It was within walking distance from the school as well, so she headed there when school got out. There was a woman, probably in her early to mid twenties, behind the desk in the flower shop and Carrie headed there immediately.

"Hi, how can I help you?" She smiled as if this was the best job in the world. Carrie returned the smile hesitantly.

"I'm looking for a flower that means 'I'm sorry,'" Carrie said.

"Ah, yes. A popular one. The purple hyacinth is the best for that." The woman stepped around the desk and searched the shop. The flowers were organized by name so she stopped in the 'h' section. She pulled out a stem that had many purple flowers at the top from the bucket.

"I can make a bouquet out of these and some other ones. I get a few people asking for red roses with them as well." The woman raised an eyebrow. "Will you be needing that?"

Carrie blushed. "No, thank you."

"Very well then." She took a few more flowers. "Would you like a bouquet?" Carrie shook her head. "Anything else?"

"Nope."

"Alright, let's ring these up." She took them back to her desk where she typed in numbers onto the computer. "Your total is 10 dollars, 72 cents." Carrie handed her a credit card and she took it. As Carrie collected her flowers, the woman said, "I hope whoever you're giving these to forgives you." Carrie nodded, and rushed out of the shop.

She called her driver (Yes, she had a driver) and drove home, staring at the flowers the entire way back. It was around four when she arrived, so she ended up leaving the flowers on her bed, debating whether to tell Flynn they were from her, or to just leave them at her house. The second option left a little more mystery, and she kind of liked that she could say whatever she wanted through flowers and Flynn wouldn't know who it was. She decided to go with that, and tied a red ribbon around the stems of the flowers.

Flynn's house was far from hers, but she didn't want to ask her driver to drive her, (especially since their car wasn't exactly subtle) so she walked. It took her over an hour to get there, and she just walked up to the front door, cringing at the sound of her heels on the cement. She laid the flowers on the welcome mat and then left, promising herself to never wear heels again on something like this.

. . . . .

Practice went well, and Kayla told them that her dad had booked them a gig at a local restaurant for a few weeks out. They probably wouldn't have their newest dance down by then, but they did have another song and dance, Love After You, that they could perform. They ran through it a few times, to refresh, and Carrie told them that they would focus on that mainly for the next few weeks.

After Liana, Juni, and Ella left, Kayla turned to Carrie. "How goes trying to make up with Flynn for something you didn't even do?"

"I don't know what I did." Carrie corrected. "And it's… just weird honestly. I decided to stop at a flower shop and get some flowers that mean "I'm sorry" and drop them off at her house but I don't know if she'll know it's from me, or what they mean, and-"

"You didn't leave a note saying it was from you?"

"Well no." Carrie muttered, leaning back on the couch and staring at her dad's massive - sort of ugly - portrait. No one, not even Carrie, needed a portrait so big that it caught their nose hairs. Kayla sighed.

"She probably won't know it's from you then."

"But I don't know if I want her to know it's from me." Carrie sat up and looked at Kayla. "If she doesn't know, then I can really say anything I want to say to her without it being… weird."

"It won't be weird for you, but it'll be weird for her." Kayla responded. "She'll think she has a secret admirer or something."

"She wouldn't be wrong." Carrie grumbled, falling back against the couch.

"Maybe you should just go up to her and blurt it out." Kayla offered. "That would make it much easier."

"I can't do that! I literally just patched things up with Julie and Flynn. If I do that, I could ruin everything. I… I don't know if she likes me back or not and if she doesn't, that'll make things super awkward for us. We won't be able to be just friends anymore because she'll know I have a crush on her!" Carrie grabbed a pillow and put it over her face, muttering, "I don't know what to do."

"Well you could sit here and think of all the what-ifs, or you could actually go for it. There is definitely a worst scenario, but the best scenario is that she actually likes you back."

"I don't think she does." Carrie said miserably into the pillow. Kayla didn't say anything for a few minutes while Carrie wallowed in pity.

"Okay, you need to stop this. You're making yourself miserable. Let's talk about something else. Have you heard from Nick lately?" She asked. "I know you two aren't really getting along too well, but I'm sure he's heard that you and Julie are friends again. Maybe you could reach out to him and ask about being friends?"

"I haven't talked to him in like, three weeks." Kayla took Carrie's pillow.

"Well go text him now." She told her. Carrie groaned and sat up, reaching over to the coffee table where her phone sat.

She unlocked it and went to her messaging app. She scrolled through the people in her phone until she found Nick and sent him a quick text.

Carrie: Hey I just wanted to apologize for being so rude to you before.

Carrie: I'd also really like to be friends, if you're okay with that. Just friends.

Kayla nodded as she read the text over Carrie's shoulder. "There. You happy?" Carrie said, her arms crossing over her chest. Nick responded right away, which was strange for him. He usually didn't respond for a few hours.

Nick: Yes, I would like to be friends again.

That was strange. Nick usually used a bunch of emojis when he typed, and he never capitalized any letters or used any punctuation. It had driven Carrie insane when they were together.

"Invite him to our gig." Kayla said.

Carrie: Wanna come to Dirty Candy's gig? It's in a few weeks on Friday.

Nick: Sure.

"Huh, this is weird. He just said 'Sure.' and he didn't use any emojis or anything." Carrie commented.

"Maybe he's just a little unsure about this because of how bad it went last time you guys were together."

"Yeah, but I'm not asking to be together. I specified 'just friends.'" Carrie said with a frown.

"Maybe he thinks you'll just start with that and then try to get back together? Or maybe he doesn't feel good and doesn't want to spend hours scrolling through the emojis. You never know," Kayla said with a shrug.

Still, something felt strange about this, but Carrie wasn't sure exactly why.

. . . . .

"Julie!" Flynn hissed, startling Julie so bad she nearly shrieked. She was at her locker, searching for her History book, again. She was exhausted after spending most of the night trying to think of ways to tell her dad that her bandmates were ghosts. It would certainly be a weird conversation, and she didn't want her dad to think she was insane.

"Flynn!" She exclaimed. "You nearly gave me a heart attack! What is it?"

"I found these on my porch yesterday," She swung her backpack in front of her and pulled out some purple flowers.

"So?"

"I think someone left them there. They're hyacinths, and when they're purple it means "I'm sorry."" Flynn explained.

"Oh."

"Oh?" Flynn asked, her tone offended. "What do you mean, 'oh?' Someone left these at my house and it's seriously freaking me out!"

"Well, did someone do something mean to you lately?" Julie asked, turning her attention away from her locker and to Flynn.

"No, and that's also part of the reason why I'm super freaked out. I don't even know what they did! Why would they apologize for it?" Julie could think of someone it might be.

"Do you think it's Carrie?" She asked. "Maybe she thinks you're mad at her."

"But I'm not. I just can't be around her a lot! You said it yourself!"

"Maybe that wasn't such a good idea." Julie said. "I also said that I wasn't really sure how to help you."

"But what else am I supposed to do? I can't tell her!" Flynn said.

"Let's just wait and see if you find anything else. This could have been a one time only thing." She turned back to her locker. Flynn rolled her eyes.

"Bottom of the locker, under the change of pe clothes." Flynn said.

"You're a lifesaver." Julie told her, to which Flynn smirked. She already knew that. "Okay, now I have to get to class. See you," She hugged Flynn and told her, "I'm sure everything will be fine." Flynn nodded, and smiled. Julie rushed off to class.

They'd managed to get the gig they wanted, it was planned out a few weeks, but Julie wasn't sure which song they were going to play. Moonlight wasn't done yet and it definitely needed some work, regardless of what Flynn and Carrie said. They could do one of their older songs, though those had been recorded and were all over the internet now. They'd also already performed Up, so they couldn't do that either.

Lost in thought, Julie didn't see where she was going until she was on the ground rubbing her head. "Oh hey Nick." She said. "Sorry about that."

Well this is weird.

"Uh yeah, no problem." Nick said, anxiously looking over his shoulder. Ever since she'd said no to going on a date, she wasn't sure how to act around him. "Heading to History?" He asked, extending a hand to help her up. She took it, nearly slamming into him again as she stood up.

"Yep, come on, we're gonna be late." Julie took a few steps away, then headed down the hallway. She turned to the left, walked three doors down and burst into the classroom, Nick following right behind.

"Oh, Julie, thank you for joining us." Ms. Turner said. She did in fact, happen to be the wife of Dr. Turner. Julie internally cringed.

"I'm so sorry I'm late,"

"Take a seat."

As fascinating as U.S. History was, (they totally hadn't been learning this since fourth grade) Julie kept getting distracted. Either thinking about Flynn, the band, Nick, and Luke. Nick sat in front of her and she could tell he was on his phone. Ms. Turner droned on, oblivious to Nick's distraction. It wasn't like Nick to not pay attention in class. He wasn't super into school, but he had to maintain good grades to stay on the lacrosse team.

Ms. Turner asked a question. Julie snapped to attention. "Nick. Get your face out of your phone and answer the question."

"May 16th through May 26th, 1868," Nick said without looking up. Julie frowned. How did he know that? Even she hadn't known that from memory, and she studied way more than Nick did.

"Well what happened then?"

"President Andrew Jonhson was acquitted during his impeachment trial, by one vote in the U.S. Senate." Ms. Turner muttered something about quoting Wikipedia before returning to the lesson.

"Nick. Put. The. Phone. Away. Now." Ms. Turner snapped. Nick looked up and sighed, slipping his phone into his bag with an eye roll. Julie's frown deepened. When class ended, she caught up with Nick.

"Hey, are you okay?" She asked.

"Yes." Nick said. "I have to go to my next class, see you." He turned away from her and walked down the hallway. Julie leaned against the wall and thought for a moment. She spotted Carrie making her way over to her and shrugged off the wall.

"Carrie! Carrie, have you talked to Nick lately? He's being super weird, not paying attention in class, being disrespectful to the teacher, that isn't like him, is it?"

"No, it's not. But how do you know that's weird?"

"I… I kinda used to stalk him." Carrie snickered. "Not anymore!" Julie was quick to add. She composed herself and said, "I don't like him anymore. Anyways, the point is that he's acting super weird. Have you talked to him lately?"

"Yep, Kayla made me text him. I invited him to Dirty Candy's gig, and when he responded, he didn't type like he usually does. He usually uses tons of emojis and never actually spells 'you'. He didn't do that when he texted me," Carrie pulled out her phone and showed Julie her previous texts with Nick, that were surprisingly not mushy or anything. Then she showed Julie the newest ones.

"Wow, that's weird." Julie said. "I wonder if something happened to him and he just hasn't said anything yet."

"Yeah, but what? I feel like if it was super serious, like his dads or something, he would have told us, right? Or at least…"

"Well neither of us are really on super good terms with him right now. You guys broke up and I told him no to going out with him. But either way, he's still our friend so let's just wait for him to tell us, but also keep an eye on him to make sure he's okay." Carrie nodded, turning to leave. She turned back a second later, her expression nervous.

"Does-" She began.

The bell rang.

"Ugh my class is on the other side of the building." Julie complained. "I gotta go, see you later!" She hustled off to the other side of the building, feeling guilty for leaving Carrie like that.

A/N: Well I hope you enjoyed it. I'm so sorry for the long wait. I'll try to update sooner next time.