Returning home after a long conversation with Andy, Aria got ready for school and happily accepted Brax's offer of a lift. Staring out the window as they drove towards the school, she decided to bring up the topic of Jake Pirovic and took a deep breath as she turned to look at her brother.

"I know that you suspect that Jake Pirovic is the one behind our problems," she said, noticing that Brax didn't seem surprised by the fact that she knew, "Does that mean he's back in the Bay?"

"He's been back for a while," Brax admitted, keeping his gaze on the road, "Everything's been quiet and I didn't tell you because I didn't want to scare you, but we all know that he's always held a grudge against dad."

"Danny's in prison though," Aria added, frowning when Brax tensed and feeling dread wash over her at what that reaction indicated, "Brax... Danny is still in prison, right?"

"He was released last month," Brax told her, "Good behavior or something, but nobody has heard from him."

"Is there anything else that you haven't told me?" Aria asked, starting to feel as though she knew absolutely nothing, "Brax..."

"I swear that there's nothing else," Brax replied, pulling up outside the school and stopping her before she could open the door, "I get that you're probably mad at me for not telling you, but I was just doing what I thought was best and I'm not going to apologise for that."

"Can I go now?"

"Yeah, have a good day and try to learn something."

Climbing out the Ute, Aria slammed the door closed and waved as she made her way inside. Dumping her things in her locker, she headed to her music class and took her seat at the back of the room.

The school day seemed to drag, but finally, lunch came around and Aria went to meet her friends in the cafeteria. Grabbing herself some food, she kissed Casey's cheek in greeting and took a seat beside him.

"Are you okay?" Casey inquired, watching her with a frown as she absent-mindedly pushed her food around her tray and nudging her leg when she didn't answer.

"I'm fine," Aria lied, dropping the fork and smiling at her brother, "I heard Rubes talking about the dance earlier, she seems really excited..."

"That makes one of us, what about you?"

"Me?" Aria stated, looking at him as if he'd just asked a stupid question, "Why would I want to go to some stupid dance?"

"Have you never been to a school dance?" April added from beside her.

"I went to one back in Mangrove."

"Did you have a good time?"

"It lasted for about half an hour, before some of the boys started fighting and completely trashed the venue," Aria told them, noticing the look of pure shock on April and Dexter's faces, "I ended up with a broken nose, a black eye and had to spend the night in hospital."

"I remember that, Heath and Brax nearly killed a couple of the River Boys because they were the ones who started everything."

"Wow," April mumbled, "I knew that Mangrove River was rough, but..."

"The thing about the Mangrove kids is that they aren't brought up, they're dragged up," Aria explained, "We were lucky, we had Brax... he brought us up and kept us out of trouble. I at least like to think that we're nothing like them, but Mangrove will always be where our roots lie and we'll always be placed in the same box as them as well."

Lunch flew by and before she knew it, Aria was sitting in her final lesson of the day. Listening to Mr. Copeland talk about the story they had just read, she realized that Romeo was staring at her and fixed him with a questioning look.

"So, after reading about all the good that the prince has done and all the people that he has helped, what is the prince at the end of the day?" Mr. Copeland asked, scanning the room for volunteers and finally stopping when his gaze landed on Aria, "Miss. Braxton, since nobody else seems to have the answer I'm looking for... why don't you have a go."

"He's just a prince."

"Please elaborate on that answer."

"Just because he acts like a king and sees himself as a king, doesn't mean he is one," Aria said, "He's royal standing in the eyes of the people will always be a prince, until he takes over from his father and is crowned king. Prince may only be a title, but some titles hold a lot of power behind them and he won't be seen as anything more because of it."

"Good job, you expressed your opinion clearly and you explained it in a way that it could be understood."

Collecting the homework assignment as she left, she met Casey outside and jumped on his back as they headed to the surf club. Noticing the absence of Romeo, Aria lowered herself to the ground and pulled out her phone.

'Going to the surf club with the gang, are you coming?'

'Giving it a miss, perhaps you could ask Andy if he wants to go...'

'Maybe I will, after all, that's what friends do... an attitude check might not go amiss in your case.'

Putting her phone back in her pocket, she made the decision to deal with Romeo another day and concentrated on having some fun with her friends.

Authors Notes: Thanks for reading! Just a little insight into Aria's time in Mangrove River and a little drama... :)