The nights were okay. Kind of hot, but they allowed Riley to open the windows at night for a breeze. She'd gone out to the beach a few times, and so far no one had called her out on it.

She wondered if the kids had done it before too, when they were new here. Were they comforted by the grainy sand between their toes, the cool night air, the sound of the waves rolling in and out?

There was no beach in New York, and that was part of the appeal here, and at school. Every free moment she had was spent here; between periods, free period, even once after school to do homework (but that had ended in flying papers and sand in her pencil pouch).

What the fourteen-year-old didn't know was that someone had been following her: none other than Brandon, the eldest son of the Fosters, and biological son of Stef.

It was his job to look out for his siblings, even-no, especially-the newcomers. He'd heard her slip out each time, and followed without her noticing. Once, he saw her roll her pajama bottoms up, and she just stood in the water. Her eyes closed, she tilted her head up at the stars, and wow, she looked peaceful.

What he would give to be that carefree, that HAPPY.

The thought immediately vanished when he saw her brown eyes snap open, and her shoulders shake as she lifted her arms to her face; arms that were covered in colors, in WORDS. He managed to see a couple: 'selfish', 'alone', and 'outsider'. They made him flinch, and he nearly blew his cover by rustling a nearby tree.

The girl that acted so cheerful and so full of life...she was just as sad as everyone else, wasn't as okay as she pretended to be. He considered going out and trying to soothe her, but then she might accuse him of something, and he didn't need-or want-that.

So he sat and listened to her sob, watched her crumple onto the sand and whimper, and every single shaky breath she took in rocked him to the core.

Jude did his best to make sure she was doing okay in class, caught up on the material, had someone to sit with at lunch. She was an excellent student, but he'd figured that, what with her dad as a teacher and all.

A few kids had already started to jest about them being an item, and it made her blush, but he just told her to ignore them and that they'd find a new topic soon. Dating rumors were better than bullying any day to her, though.

"Do you ever sleep?" He asks one day, catching her doing tonight's homework at lunch. Somehow she was always one step ahead in school, but when it came to socializing, she just stuck with the familiars; aka, the kids who lived with her.

"I do, but I don't need as much," Riley answers, shrugging as she continues scribbling on the lined paper. "I'm not one of those teens who can just fall asleep in class at the drop of a hat, I can pull all-nighters." Okay, so that was kind of contradicting.

She had pretty much fallen asleep whenever she could before, because she always felt tired, but here she'd been doing the opposite by not sleeping at all if she could help it; sleeping brought nightmares. Thankfully, the girls had cover up to shield the bags under her brown eyes.

Jude seems satisfied with the answer, nodding and sitting beside her with his tray. She has a semi-full one, with about three foods, but an abundance of them. Three yogurts, a bottle of water, salad, and two scoops of diced peaches.

Stress eater, or does she just need it to keep up? He wondered, taking a bite of his BLT sandwich. Riley didn't care when other people ate meat, that was their business, and she had eaten it until recently. Poking his juice with a straw, he wonders if he should mention this to anyone; was it unhealthy to eat so much but also have so little?

Mariana always seemed to eat okay though, and she was vegan..She's probably just a picky eater, he concludes. Even at home, she'd have a couple slices of pizza and then binge on cookies later. Nothing wrong with that, cookies were good.

When she begins to chat about how everyone is so friendly, he can't help but frown. If they're all so nice and welcoming, why hasn't she met anyone new?

There's a party happening Saturday, and it's all the teenagers could talk about. When Mariana had mentioned doing something with Mat, Riley had been lost. She'd gone to Stef to ask, Lena being at a school board meeting, but Riles was careful about leaving out names. "What does it mean?" She asked, her voice hesitant.

Stef had nearly choked on her coffee, and Riley immediately grabbed her some napkins to clean up. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you do that," she apologizes, feeling bad. "No, no, love, it's okay. Um-uh," Stef cleared her throat, and wondered how a fourteen-year-old these days had no idea what...that, was. However, she did explain, Riley blushing the whole time.

Maya had done that? She remembered reading a text from her about it once, before she'd apologized a million times and told her to just forget it. Riley had repeatedly questioned her about it, but she just changed the subject.

At least Stef hadn't laughed, like she was sure some of the kids would have done. But the very knowledge of it gave Riles an icky feeling. She felt like she'd read a diary; knew something she shouldn't. All kids her age apparently knew what it was, so she shouldn't have felt like that, but she did.

One thing was for sure: she wouldn't be doing it anytime soon.