Naia's POV

I woke up to a wonderful smell. I threw the covers off of my body and followed my nose to the kitchen where Gabby was sitting at the table, reading a newspaper and Matt was at the stove making pancakes.

That was the source of the wonderful smell.

"Good morning! How did you sleep?" Gabby asked.

I took a seat across from her and nodded my head. "Very well. You know I would have made breakfast right, Matt didn't have to."

"That's the point kiddo! You're cooking days are over, that's an order. Enjoy being a kid while it lasts!" Matt said, sliding a plate of pancakes in front of me.

Gabby nodded, agreeing with Matt, "Matt's right for a change, eat up."

I opened my mouth to ask about her but Gabby shook her head.

"Don't worry about me, I already ate," She told me.

I used my fork to break the pancake into smaller pieces and then poured maple syrup over them. I popped one of the pieces into my mouth and sighed. They were amazing.

"So, is there anybody you specifically want to invite to your birthday party?" Gabby asked me as she watched me eat.

I nodded, "Definitely everybody at Firehouse 51 and Dr. Manning and Dr. Choi from the hospital. They were really nice to me while I was at the hospital."

"Okay," Matt said as he took a seat in between Gabby and me, "We'll stop by while you're at school."

"Thank you for everything you've done." I said, "I'm sorry I'm such a burden."

Gabby reached across the table and grabbed my sticky, syrupy hand and held it.

"You're not a burden, Naia, we signed up for this. We wanted to love another person and you're just the right person." Gabby told me.

"We want to do this, nobody's forcing us to do anything," Matt added, snagging one of my pancake pieces. "I did a really good job today."

I laughed, "They are really good pancakes."

I was thrilled it was Friday, even if it meant that my school day started off with two periods of math, first thing in the morning. I didn't mind math so much since I usually understood what was going on. Plus, my math teacher, Mrs. Lynn, really liked me for some odd reason.

"Watch where you're going!" A blond girl scowled at me as I accidentally bumped into her.

"Sorry," I mumbled and hurried away. Hill Crest Public School went from Kindergarten to grade eight so it was a pretty big school. There were three Kindergarten classes, one of them was a full-day Kindergarten the other two were half day. There were also two classes for each grade. Grades one to four had only one teacher that taught them all the subjects and grades five to eight had different teachers depending on the subject.

I walked into Mrs. Lynn's classroom and took my usual seat at the back of the classroom. Mrs. Lynn gave me a smile from her desk and I smiled back. There were still a few minutes until the class would actually start but I wasn't the only one here early.

"Nobody wants you here, Naia." Olivia Walters said as she sauntered by my desk.

I smiled at her sweetly, "Happy Friday Olivia!" I really didn't want any trouble, I didn't mind being alone, actually, I preferred being alone. Nobody talked to me before but what happened with the Samuals must have made it onto the news or something because after that, everybody talked to me, well, about me.

"Okay, can everybody take their seats?" Mrs. Lynn said to the class. Olivia gave me a glare and walked away.

I let out a sigh of relief when she left and counted how many more hours of this I had to take.

I don't think I could have been happier when that bell went. I quickly put all of my stuff away and hurried outside, spotting Matt and Gabby right away by the gates.

"How was school?" Gabby asked me as I approached them.

Lying right through my teeth, I answered, "good", as we exited the school property.

"I forgot to ask you about this but I promised Brett that I would. She wants a girls night, us and Shay and Stella." Gabby told me.

I shrugged, "Sounds like fun."

"I'll tell Brett and we'll organize something for Sunday. We have a shift tomorrow." Gabby said.

We turned to walk down our street, it was nice living so close to my school.

"Is there anything you wanted to do tonight?" Matt asked, trying to make conversation.

I shook my head, "No, not really. I'm okay with anything."

"Do you have any homework?" Gabby asked me.

I shook my head again, "No, thank god." We arrived at the apartment building and walked inside. Then we went up to our apartment and walked in. Although nobody said it, we were all relieved that nothing had happened this time.

"Go wash your hands, I'll get you a snack," Gabby said, taking her jacket off and putting her purse down.

I obeyed, putting my backpack down in its spot by the door and walking to the bathroom. As I walked by my bedroom door, I noticed another piece of paper on my pillow. I walked into my room and picked up the paper on my pillow.

Watch out. You're next to die.