Saturday morning, two days after Valentine's Day, Jody rushed through her homework like there was no tomorrow, determined to get it out of the way so she could attend to more pressing matters. Sure enough, she managed to finish it all within a couple of hours by writing the bare minimum, giving one-word answers where possible, and was searching the house for someone to help her with her beep test by ten-thirty.

She didn't bother asking May-Li; the grounded lot were swarming around her like flies, complaining about how bored they were, and only God knew when she would be free to breathe again let alone spare a moment for Jody. Alex and Charlie were out mowing lawns again, though Jody believed that excuse less and less with each passing week, Ryan was in a sour mood because of something or the other, and Sid was off being a weirdo, leaving her with Chloe, who seemed to be doing nothing of consequence in the lounge, all by her lonesome.

"All you have to do is hold it and tell me what level I reach," she said, showing Chloe the app on her phone. "Oh, and start it again if I need you to."

"What's in it for me?" Chloe asked, crossing her arms.

Jody blinked in surprise at the girl's sudden self-interest. "The satisfaction of helping a mate out." That'd always been enough for Chloe in the past. What had changed now? She almost felt as if she were speaking to the wrong Reeves.

Chloe let out an exaggerated sigh, studying her unpainted nails in apparent boredom. "I don't know... I've been there, done that already. Tonnes. It never gets me anywhere."

This conversation was a colossal waste of time. The trial was in four days. Four. Ninety-six hours, to be exact, which sounded like a lot of time, but really wasn't when sleep and mealtimes were taken into account. The other girls at the gym had been training since last year for this so their trials being brought forward wasn't a big deal but Jody, having only decided to try out last month, was nowhere near ready. Fitting two weeks of training into four days was already an impossible feat without her having to put a pause on things to negotiate with Chloe. Still, going off to look for someone else would lead to more loss of valuable time.

"Alright," she conceded, putting her hands on her hips. "What do you want? I've got a stash of sweets and biscuits I can't eat anymore."

Chloe laughed, shaking her head. "I'm not a kid, Jody. I want something better than that."

Oh no. She couldn't ask for money; Jody had to save two to three weeks' worth pocket money to pay Tyler back for the Valentine's meal. "Like what?"

"What do you think of Candi-Rose? She can be a little annoying, can't she?"

Of all the things she'd been expecting Chloe to ask, this was not one of them. She squirmed, checking the time on her watch; she didn't feel comfortable talking about a friend behind her back, but she was running out of time. "Err—"

"Oh c'mon, spill. I know you two aren't as tight as you used to be. I mean, she's always hanging out with Floss, Taz and especially Bird nowadays..."

She hadn't noticed; she was far too busy to observe her friends' evolving social circles. "I guess." She glanced at her watch again. "Look, can we—"

"And then there are the comments," Chloe continued, as if Jody hadn't spoken, "about you and Tyler. She can't believe he's still interested in you, what with the way you dress and the junk you eat." She put her arms up in surrender. "Her words, not mine."

Jody stared back at Chloe in shock, as if she'd been slapped, before hastily looking down at herself. She couldn't care less about what she wore but bodily imperfections were not to be tolerated; not because of Tyler but because of the upcoming trials. Was she fat? She knew she had a little bit of a belly from years of biscuit and sweet binging—the evidence stared her in the face whenever she showered or bathed—but she hadn't realised it was that bad. However, if an idiot like Candi-Rose could see it, then surely it was bad, more than bad, in fact?

"Just start the test," she said, going to stand at one end of the 20m course she'd marked out earlier. She had to work this fat off.

Luckily, Chloe complied, perhaps having got what she wanted. Around ten minutes later, Jody failed to reach point A before the beep.

"What is it?" she asked, hoping she'd reached level 11 at least.

Squinting at the screen for a second or two, Chloe answered, "Level 10."

There was nothing worse than getting the level just below the one she wanted. It always happened at school, with grades. It couldn't be allowed to happen here as well. She nodded at Chloe. "Start it again."

She heard the beep and as she ran to point B, Ryan entered the scene and brushed past her, tripping her up in the process. She let out a soft grunt as she fell to the ground, but quickly stood up to face him as he mocked her for her 'nice reaction'.

"Err, Ryan?" Chloe butted in, her tone indignant.

Ryan ignored her, keeping his eyes on Jody. "Don't know why you're even bothering. You can train all you like; you'll never be nothing special. Just Jody."

But she wasn't 'just Jody', was she? She was Jody Gray. She opened her mouth to tell him that but no words came out and he turned away anyway. Instead, she pathetically watched on as he was berated by his sister. It seemed to be futile, though, because he walked away without saying another word.

"You know what he's like," Chloe said, turning to her with a frown. "Don't listen to him."

"Why shouldn't I?" Jody asked, thinking back to Candi's comment. "Candi's my friend and she thinks the same thing, doesn't she?" Chloe only bit her lip, her features morphing into those of guilt. Jody shook her head. "I'm going to the gym."

May-Li walked into the garden just then, carrying a pair of fold-up garden chairs. "I thought you went yesterday?"

Jody didn't answer, heading straight for the garden exit.

.:. QK .:.

Upon arriving at the gym, Jody was rattled to see many of her rivals for the regional team already hard at work, including the girl who was always hanging off her boyfriend's arm. She put her bag down at the side, her eyes never leaving the girl as she sparred with one of the gym trainers in the ring. Considering her fast legwork and reaction speed, she wasn't half bad. Clearly, Amy had misjudged her. Speaking of Amy, she was nowhere to be seen, which was odd in itself, but also unnerving because it meant that Jody was the only one left without a sparring partner. She felt so unbelievably useless standing at the side willy-nilly as she watched everyone else train around her. Deciding that the punching bags were better than nothing, she reached into her bag for her boxing gloves. If not anything else, Ryan and Candi were at least useful for riling her up before training and thus providing her with the motivation to punch.

After an hour of using a punching bag on and off, Jody noticed that two sparring partners had broken away from each other and were now going for individual exercises. She gritted her teeth together; these two girls were already moving on to their second part of training but she was going to be stuck on one exercise forever because of Amy. Where the fuck was she, anyway?! Had she just lied about training on Saturdays to act superior around her? Or was she staying away on purpose to ensure that Jody would fail, thereby eliminating some competition right off the bat? No... that would be stupid, even for her; the lack of training together would be to her detriment as well. Whatever her reasons, it still didn't change a thing; Jody still had no-one to spar with and likely wouldn't until Amy either showed up or she came back the next day.

Her eyes drifted back to one of the girls using the punching bags. She wasn't sure of the girl's age or even her name but she'd seen her sparring before and thought she was quite good. She wondered if the girl would consider sparring with her, if even for a bit. Well, there was only one way to find out.

"Uhh, hi," she began, carefully approaching the girl. She still remembered Brandon approaching her from the wrong side and ending up on the ground with a bloody nose. Well, at least she could always say that she and her first boyfriend had had one hell of a first meeting.

The girl momentarily glanced towards Jody, continuing to spar. "Yeah?"

Jody wasn't exactly encouraged by the girl's acerbic tone but decided to push on. "My sparring partner's not in today. I was wondering if you'd spar with me. Just for a bit? Like, fifteen minutes?"

The girl suddenly laughed before delivering a hard punch to her punching bag, and Jody stared back in confusion, feeling awkward as the girl took her boxing gloves off. "Can't. I'm going on a break right now." She turned to her sparring partner. "What'd ya say, babes?"

'Babes' smiled. "I'll be a minute, Jess."

"Err, okay," Jody said, trying not to let her humiliation show. There were nicer ways to just say no. Honestly, whoever said that boxing girls were all tomboys was wrong. They were all just as catty as the girly-girls. "Sorry to bother you, Jess."

Jess apparently didn't like that response. She looked back to Jody, turning her nose up at her. "What makes you think I would wanna spar one minute with you, let alone fifteen?"

"Excuse me?" Jody responded, taken aback by Jess' hostility.

"I said," Jess started, speaking louder than necessary, "what makes you think I would want to spar with you?"

"What's wrong with me?" Jody asked, feeling her temper rise. What was wrong with her? Did this Jess bitch think she was fat too? Too fat to spar with her?

"Your little friend or sister, whatever she is, calls my girl over there"—Jess gestured towards the girl in the ring—"and her boyfriend out all the time. And not just her. Me and Emily, the other girls and their boyfriends... Have you seriously not noticed? She's legit messed up in the head, so jealous of everyone else because no guy or girl would ever look twice at her. Anyway, I don't want anything to do with anyone who talks to her."

Jody didn't even bother defending herself. If Jess was the type who judged people based on who they hung out with, then she didn't want anything to do with her either. She crossed her arms, putting on a smug smile. "That's fine by me."

As soon as Jess spun on her heel, Jody dropped her smile, returning to her punching bag. Thanks to Amy, she was stuck by herself for the entire day, and would just have to make herself content with solo training.

.:. QK .:.

It'd all just happened so quickly. One second, she'd been letting loose on the punching bags, imagining Ryan, Candi and even Amy, and then the next, everything had become blurry and she'd ended up falling into May-Li's waiting arms. She couldn't recall much else but could still feel the palpable shame that'd rolled off her as the other members' and gym trainers' eyes had burnt into her. She didn't think she'd ever be able to forgive herself for falling into such a state in front of the likes of Jess and Emily.

Sighing, she picked at the food May-Li had brought up for her after she'd bathed and changed into her nightwear. She didn't have much of an appetite but after the lecture May-Li had given her on listening to her body and knowing her own limits, she knew she was expected to finish the plate. Hence, she ate her meal bit by bit, drowning out the corridor noise by wallowing in self-pity. She had no chance of making the team now.

She heard the wheels before she saw them and sure enough, Chloe appeared around the corner a few seconds later and knocked rather unnecessarily. Jody played along, telling her to come in.

"How did you get up here?" she asked.

"Mike and May-Li helped me," Chloe answered, a humbling expression overcoming her features. "I'm so sorry, Jody. I didn't mean for this to happen when I told you what Candi-Rose said."

Jody scoffed. "Then why did you say it?"

Chloe looked down at her hands with a sigh. "I was hoping you'd confront her about it, maybe even fall out with her. I used the same tactic on her to make her fight with Floss and Taz. It was supposed to be a sort of revenge."

"Because of the trip?" Chloe looked up in surprise. "Floss told me when I got home. Why did you do it, though? This isn't like you. Like Ryan, yeah, but not you."

"No, it isn't. I was being stupid. I know that now."

Jody nodded, but frowned. Something didn't quite add up. Chloe's heel turn was out of character, yes, but it didn't make sense to lash out over a mere theatre trip. "What really happened? You couldn't have done all that just for a ticket."

"You're right," Chloe admitted quietly. "It wasn't all about the musical. I guess I was jealous."

"Jealous?"

"Yeah," she said, biting her lip. "I mean, it was mostly because I do all these nice things for all of them and when it was their turn to give something back, not even one of them would give a seat at the Greatest Snowman up for me but I've been thinking about it lately, really thinking about it, and I've realised that I was harsher on Bird than I was everyone else. I only made the others upset or fight but I nearly got him kicked out!"

"Yeah, I heard," Jody replied, remembering how shocked she'd been to hear it. She'd thought Floss had been exaggerating. "But what were you jealous of, exactly?"

"Him and her—Candi-Rose. The two of them."

Jody couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. Was Chloe saying what she thought she was saying?

"No, not like that!" Chloe protested as if she'd read Jody's mind. "But I feel like he's her best friend now, not me. She totally forgot about me when she signed up for the trip with him. She didn't even care that I didn't get to sign up; she even rubbed it in my face. And then when Mike had me pick our names out of a hat to see who's going, she was so glad that the last name to be picked was his, not mine. It got to me. She doesn't even call me her best friend anymore. She's still mine but I'm only her fate mate, like I was at the beginning. It's like we've gone backwards."

"Well..." Jody trailed off, not quite knowing what to say.

Whenever things like that had happened while Tyler was still a resident, he'd always wanted her to get a ticket too, like that time Mike and May-Li had hidden tickets for a launch around the house. It hadn't mattered that they weren't on the best of terms then because of Brandon or that the launch had turned out to be crap; she'd remembered feeling valued when he'd cheered for her to find a ticket and join him. To be honest, she would've been pissed as well if he'd got happy at someone else getting the (last) ticket instead of her.

"See? This isn't even the only time. She told him about Lauren first, and when I asked her why she didn't tell me, she said because I'd tell on her and that I wouldn't understand what she's going through since I live with my brother. But that doesn't make sense, because Bird's brother lives here too! I'm sure the real reason is that she spends more time with him; she probably didn't have any time to tell me."

"Have you tried talking to her?" Jody tried, for lack of anything else to say. She hadn't realised the situation between Chloe and Candi was quite this bad. "Maybe she's got another reason for wanting to spend more time with him rather than you. Maybe she, uhh, fancies him or something."

Chloe gave her an incredulous look. "He's not her type at all."

"You never know. I mean, I thought she was going out with Ryan at one point, back when I was with Brandon." Jody faltered; she'd meant it as a joke but could instantly tell from the look on Chloe's face that she'd said the wrong thing. "Wait... She wasn't, was she?"

"No, of course not," Chloe answered quickly. "That would've been a disaster. I love them both, but not together."

Jody cracked a smile. "I get what you mean." She did. The equivalent for her would be Sasha and Luke getting together five years down the line. An improvement on Luke and Millie, perhaps, but still not something she wanted to see. "So that wasn't a lovers' spat on Thursday morning?"

Chloe laughed. "No! They just get on each other's nerves really easily. I've still got no clue why the rest of them got involved, though."

"Me neither."

"By the way, Candi didn't actually say those things about you. Not like that. She said something more like it wouldn't hurt for you to dress more like us, and that you could do with cutting down on the junk food because it tends to make you break out. She meant well. I'm sorry for making it sound like something it wasn't."

"It's alright," Jody said with a small nod. "I guess I should tell you that what you said wasn't the only reason I overdid it. It wasn't even all Ryan. I mean, yeah, I didn't want to be 'just Jody' but I was more scared that I wouldn't catch up to the other girls." Now she never would.

"I bet they're not even that far ahead of you," Chloe assured. "Jay says you're great, he's learnt a lot from you, and Tyler always thought you were the best. I'm sure he still does."

Jody blushed, resisting the urge to grin like a madwoman. "Did he tell you that?"

"He didn't have to."

Somehow, she knew that Chloe was right. She and Tyler had something that transcended words, something that didn't always have to be voiced to be acknowledged. It was the reason she'd known he had feelings for her way before he'd told her, and why it'd taken them so long to say anything at all.

"Speaking of Tyler," Chloe began, her lips stretching into a devious smile, "is it true that you two are finally a couple?"

That was Candi more than Chloe talking, and both of them knew it. "I think I need some rest now," Jody said pointedly.

Chloe pouted but acquiesced, wishing her good luck with the trial before wheeling out of the room. Jody called out a thanks after her, pushing her tray to the side and lying on her back. She was going to go that trial, after all. How couldn't she, when she still had people who believed in her?

.:. QK .:.

The day of the trial rolled around as quickly as expected, if not quicker, but Jody found herself powering through the exercises the examiners had set for her with surprising ease. No, not ease, per se, because the trial was anything but easy, but a certain sense of carefree. Now that she was more focused on just doing her best rather than definitively getting into the team, she didn't feel bogged down by the insatiable need to be better than everyone else, the very need that drove Amy, who she hadn't seen since before the day of her collapse; she'd sworn off the gym since, deciding to return only after the trials were over and done with.

During her time away from the gym, Jody had taken a step back from life's pressures and focussed on the good things instead, namely going over to Tyler's a couple of times and giving Luke a call. She still had a few things to figure out like not skipping meals for the sake of staying slim and finally getting around to telling Luke about Gray but she was going to take things one at a time. Slowly.

As soon as Jody made her way out of the room where the trials were being held, a small private one usually reserved for VIP members, she breathed easy, and her lips naturally curved up into a smile. For the first time in a long time, being at the gym simply felt good and liberating again. Yearning for a drink, she walked towards the water cooler for a refill, only to see a certain someone standing on the other side of it.

"Tyler!" she exclaimed, leaping towards him and throwing her arms around him. He chuckled, hugging her back with one arm. A few weeks ago, maybe even the days leading up to her collapse, she wouldn't have been caught dead hugging anyone, let alone a guy, in the gym, but here she was. Here he was, too. She reluctantly pulled away, though he kept his one arm around her, and looked up at him, spying one of Jess' friends giving her a dirty look out of the corner of her eye. She didn't care, though. "What are you doing here? Haven't you got that huge essay due when school starts again?"

"I'm here to give you this," he replied, waving the DG biscuit tin around with his free hand. "And, yeah, I still have to do the essay, which is why I won't be sticking around for long."

She touched the cool lid of the tin with one finger, shooting him an amused look. "Did you break in and nick this? Gina sure would be proud."

"Yes and no," he answered. "Chloe let me in and let me borrow it. Anyway, you can't say no to a biscuit now that you've put the trials behind you, can you?"

"No, I can't," she admitted, sharing a conspiratory smile with him before lifting the lid. "Just one, though."

"Yeah, me too."

A/N: Thanks for the reviews!

Charlie—Regarding the fight over Valentine's, I just needed an excuse for everyone to get grounded as they are in the TV episode. Chalk it down to love fever!
So, Tyler doesn't help in a very active way, but he's still there!

Emily—I'm very flattered that this is your fave TDG fic right now.

yourfire—Tyler gets more pocket money from his mum than the DG kids do from Mike so he's easily able to afford dinner. Of course, as a care kid, Jody isn't getting as much and therefore isn't able to afford it in one go which is why she decides to pay him back later.
As for the necklace, I've got something special planned for its entry so you won't be seeing it anytime soon.