Eli's POV

I was getting ready to leave the house to meet Clare at the theater awards. I had come home to drop off Jillian, then make sure I had everything for tonight. I figured I would just go wearing my school clothes...after all, they weren't really considered "school clothes" any more. My phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out and it said that I had a new text:

Hey Eli-

Can't wait for tonight! Love you! :D

xoxo

-Clare

I smirked and blushed. I was so glad that Clare and I had finally worked everything out. Jillian, who was sprawled out on my bed, began to giggle.

"Awwwww!" she teased in a cute sing-songy voice, "You liiiiike her!" Although Jillian was not that smart, she could always read what she called my "Clare face".

"Stop it." I said, blushing harder.

"Ok…" Jillian smirked, "You looooooove her!" She puckered her lips and made kissing noises.

I smirked, blushing the deepest shade of red possible, "Do not!" Jillian giggled, kicking her feet behind her. "What are you doing in my room anyway?" Not that I minded….in fact, Jillian was like the only person that I was ever comfortable having in my room. I didn't even unlock the door when Adam would come over to play video games.

"I thought maybe I could help you get ready for your big date with Clare."

"Help me?"

"Yeah and for starters, please don't tell me that's what you're wearing."

I raised an eyebrow at her, "What's wrong with what I'm wearing?"

"Oh come on, Eli! You haven't seen this girl for three weeks! You need to take a more…sexy approach." She reached down under my bed and pulled up a super tight, black V-neck.

"Are you kidding me? That thing is like skin-tight!"

"Come on! Just throw this on with a pair of skinny jeans….and maybe if you're lucky the purity ring will come off." She concluded with a sultry grin.

"No. Way." I said, taking the shirt and throwing it back into the sea of junk. I looked at my watch, "Oh crap! I have to go!"

"Wait!" Jillian pulled me towards her and began to mess and ruffle with my hair.

"Jillian!" I said, pushing her away, "Why are you screwing up my hair?"

"Your hair looks so much sexier when it's messy." She giggled, proceeding to mess up my hair again.

I grabbed her wrists, "Stop it!"

"Come here! I'm not done yet!"

"Oh yes you are!"

"That's it! I guess I'm gonna have to do this the hard way!" With that, Jillian shoved me down onto the bed and sat on top of me.

"Jillian! What the f-" She slapped her hand over my mouth and began yanking at my hair again. I pried her hands off of me and flipped us over, so now I was on top. "You are not laying a hand on my hair!"

"Don't be such a baby!" She grabbed a pillow behind her head and bopped me over the head with it.

"Ouch!" I tore the pillow from her hands and began to hit her multiple times in the face with it.

"Ah!" She screeched, "Eli!" I laughed as I continued to hit her in the face. Finally, she sprung up on top of me and held the pillow over my head. I squirmed around and whimpered under the pillow. I almost passed out before she lifted the pillow off of me. "I win." she smirked.

"You know, I could have suffocated." I said in between breaths, "Now get off of me."

"Fine." Jillian slid her legs off of me and sat up on the bed. I waited for her to turn around, and then I jumped her and pinned her down again. "Hey!"

I sat on her stomach while she squirmed under me, "You're not winning that easily!"

"Oh yes I am!" With that, she punched me in the stomach.

"Oof!" I clutched my stomach and Jillian once again had the upper hand. She grabbed me by the shirt collar and flipped us over so she was on top again.

"Well what do you know?" She beamed, "Dah jay voo!"

I narrowed my eyes at her, "It's De ja vu, Jill. And you cheated! You hit me in the stomach."

"Well, you're lucky I didn't hit you any lower than that." she grinned.

"Fair….." I smirked, "I really have to go now." I pushed her off of me and got up off the bed.

"Well, now your hair looks all hott and messy." she teased. I looked in the mirror. My hair was a mess alright. I reached up to fix it. Jillian hopped off the bed and slapped my hand down, "Don't you dare fix it! Trust me it looks great!" I rolled my eyes as I grabbed my keys and cellphone off of my dresser. Jillian took a bottle out of her pocket and started to spray me with it.

"JILLIAN!"

"What?" She whined, "You need to smell nice."

I crossed my arms, "Are you saying I don't smell nice?"

"Fine, you need to smell extra nice!"

I fanned the fumes away from me and coughed, "What is this stuff anyway?"

"It's a cologne sample. I think John may have left it here when we went to Vegas Night."

"Great, so now I smell like skater bimbo!" I began to walk out of the room and Jillian followed me and continued to spray me. "Hey! I said knock it off!"

"Eli! Don't be so difficult! Get over here right now!"

"Get away from me!" I said running away from her. Jillian tried to chase me but suddenly I heard a crash behind me. Then I heard small moans. I turned around and saw Jillian face-down in a pile of junk. "Oh my god! Jillian!" I quickly stepped over a bunch of boxes and knelt down next to her, "Are you ok?"

Jillian slowly brought her head up, "Ow…"

I grabbed her arms and helped her sit up, "What happened?"

"I…ow…..I think I slipped on a magazine and hit my head on that old toolbox." She pointed to my old toolbox, which I used to fix Morty, in front of her.

As she lifted her head up more, I saw blood dripping down on her forehead. "Oh god, Jillian, you're bleeding!"

Jillian put her hand to her forehead then looked at it, "Oh no…..I'm so sorry."

I raised an eyebrow at her, "We're apologizing for bleeding?"

"IS EVERYTHING OK UP THERE?" Bullfrog shouted from downstairs.

"YES!" We both answered.

"OK."

I examined Jillian's forehead, "I'm gonna go get something to put on that. Don't move!" I ran to the bathroom and got a washcloth. I ran it under cold water then came back into my room, "Hold this over it." I said, handing it to her.

"Why do you need that toolbox anyways?" Jillian asked, putting the compress on her head, "You have a brand new one to fix Morty with."

"Well, I-I-I….." Jillian raised an eyebrow at me. I sighed, "I didn't have the heart to throw it away...ok?"

"Do you have the heart to throw anything away?" She said jokingly.

"Jill, I'm so sorry." I shook my head, "This is my fault. If I didn't have all this junk lying around, you wouldn't have gotten hurt."

"Hey, don't beat yourself up. We all have stupid quirks. It's no big deal." Jillian reassured.

"Yeah, but it IS a big deal when these stupid quirks are hurting my sister."

"Don't worry." Jillian said, "I understand that ever since Julia died, you have trouble letting go of things…even little things."

"I don't know…" I said, "I just feel like I lost something really important…..so I have to hang on to what I still have. You know? Not take things for granted." I picked up a lollipop wrapper, "Like this candy wrapper!"

Jillian gave me a strange look, "Are you sure you're not the one who hit your head?"

I chucked, "Here, let's get you out of this death-trap of a room." I stood her up on her feet.

"Whoah….everything is spinny." She fell back into my arms.

"Ok," I said, slinging her arm over my shoulder, "you need to lie down." I helped her to her room and laid her down on her bed. She put the compress back on her head, wincing at the pain. "Jillian, are you sure you're ok?"

"Yes, go! Go have fun!"

"I will." I smiled. I patted her on the head, before walking out the door. "If you need anything…my cellphone is on high. If you're still in pain, or if you need to go to the doctor, I swear…I will come right home-"

"Eli!" Jillian giggled, "Just go on your date! I'm gonna live, I promise. Clare's waiting."

"Ok, try to get some sleep while I'm gone." Jillian nodded. I walked out of her room and went downstairs. I rolled my eyes…..I could still smell that stink spray on me. Oh well….

I ran outside and hopped inside Morty. Clare Edwards, get ready for the best first date of your life.

Jillian's POV

I was being dragged down a blue-ish lit hallway. I felt a sharp, metal object against my throat. I looked down and saw that it was a knife….but I didn't care. As a matter of fact, I was somewhat amused by the way it glimmered in the dim lighting. I was off in my own world, as he dragged me down the hallway.

"Come on, you little bitch!" he yelled at me.

Fitz.

What was I doing with Fitz? Were we having a play date? But I didn't care. For all I was aware of, that could have been EXACTLY what was going on. But it wasn't…..

Fitz and I are slowly approaching Eli and Clare. They both look terrified. "You should go!" Clare says in a shaky voice. Next thing I know, I'm being slammed up against the lockers, with the knife to my neck. But I didn't care….whatever.

"Don't touch her!" yelled an angry and horrified voice. It was Eli. His bright, emerald eyes were fixed on me. The knife came towards me…but I didn't care. When the knife was no more than an inch away from my chest, I was suddenly pushed onto the ground. I lifted my head up just in time to see the knife being plunged into Eli's chest. He slumped down onto the ground. Suddenly, almost as if someone had punched me in the face, it hit me. I knew exactly what was going on now. What had just happened…

I looked on in horror at the still body of my brother. "ELI!" I tried to shout, but my voice was muted completely. "ELIIIIIIII!" Nothing. Now I had awoken and come to realization.

Now I cared.

I jolted up in my bed. I breathed heavily and my heart pounded in my chest. I peeked over at my clock.

11:56 pm

I couldn't believe what had just happened. I was totally wasted the night of the school dance and had no clue what was going on. I mean, I saw Eli jump in front of the knife for me and I remembered the basics of what happened when I woke up the next day. But it hadn't really occurred to me what had really happened…..or could have happened….until now. I sat up in bed, shaking, wishing Eli was here to comfort me.

"Eli?" I called. No answer. That crazy love bird was probably still on his date with Clare. I curled my knees up to my chest and tried to calm myself down.

Eli's POV

It was now midnight, as I drove Morty into the driveway. I noticed that Cece's car was still not here. Most parents would murder their kids for staying out this late…but my mom stays out later than me. Sometimes I even worried that my parents were having more fun than me. I got out and walked up the steps to my house. "I'm home!" I said, walking inside. Bullfrog was asleep in front of the TV. I walked upstairs, "Jillian?" I got to the top of the stairs and poked my head into Jillian's room, "Jill?" I saw Jillian sitting on her bed, curled up into a ball.

"Eli?" she said lifting her head up.

I walked over and sat down on the edge of her bed, "I'm sorry I'm back so late. How does your head feel?"

"Ok….." Jillian nodded. I placed my hand on her head. I felt her shaking a lot and heard her breathing heavily.

"Jillian, are you ok?"

"Huh?" She looked up at me, "Oh…oh yeah…."

I looked into her eyes, which were now wide, horrified indigo orbs, "You don't look ok."

She continued to shake, "I….I just had a bad dream. That's all." I continued to stare at her. She rolled her eyes, "It was about what happened at Vegas Night…except I-I finally realized…what could have happened…..and I was so drunk….h-he could have actually s-stabbed me. I-I was wasted and couldn't defend myself!"

"There was no way I was gonna let him hurt you." I told her, placing my hands on her shoulders.

"But, in my dream, when you jumped in front of the knife for me…..he stabbed you…like for real. And y-you…."

I put my arms around her and held her to my chest. She threw her arms around me, continuing to shake violently. "Shhh…" I breathed into her hair, "I'm right here. I'm alright. Everything's gonna be ok. It was just a dream." I remembered when she was little, she was very nightmare prone. She would actually even scream in her sleep. But these weren't real time nightmares, like she had just had. These were your typical, six-year-old nightmares. Like the boogeyman and monsters and other silly things:

*Flashback*

I was sound asleep, drifting off into dream-land. Everything was so peaceful and quiet…

"AHHHHHHHH!" I immediately awoke and jolted up in my bed. "AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" The screaming continued. It took me a moment to realize that it was coming from Jillian's room. I quickly hopped out of my bed and ran over to her room. Jillian lay in bed, still asleep, screaming her head off.

"Jillian!" I yelled, shaking her awake. She gasped, jolting up. "Jill….." She panted and shook. "Are you ok?"

"I had a bad dream again." she whined.

"What was it about this time?" I asked, curiously.

"I-It…..It was a wolf-man! A-And it was chasing me and trying to eat me!" Suddenly, the wind blew a tree branch against the window, making a really loud creaking noise. Jillian shrieked, jumping into my arms. I got scared too and yelped, being only 6-years-old myself. "What if he's still out there?" Jillian whimpered.

I shook my head, "He's not out there anymore, I promise."

"How do you know?" She questioned with wide, indigo eyes.

"Because….." I thought, "I beat him up!"

"Really?" Her face lit up a little.

"Yep." I said, proudly, "And then, I threw him away in jail!"

"Were you scared?"

"Pfffft! He was more afraid of ME! He cried like a little baby!"

Jillian giggled, "Thanks Eli!" Then, her face dropped a bit, "But wait, what if he comes back?"

I put my arms around her, "Then I will stay here all night and make sure he doesn't."

*End Flashback*

After a while, Jillian calmed down a little. "So," she asked, "how was your date with Clare?"

"It was…" I smirked, thinking back to our date, "interesting."

Jillian furrowed her eyebrows as her eyes fell on my left ear, "When did you get a piercing?"

I chucked, "Tonight….with Clare. We got matching piercings."

Jillian's eyes widened, "So…..you're cheating on Clare with another girl, named Clare?"

"No…." I laughed, "It appears that little Miss Saint Clare has a wild side. Her parents wanted her home, but she snuck out with me, got matching piercings, and refused to go home until now."

Jillian barked out a laugh, "No. Way. Are you sure this is the same Clare? The Clare with the purity ring?"

I rolled my eyes, "Don't remind me….."

Jillian reached out and touched the tiny silver hoop attached to the shell of my ear, "It's cute." She sat back and lifted up her shirt, revealing a similar tiny hoop attached to her belly button, "I remember when John and I got matching piercings. Good times….good times."

I laughed, imagining skater-boy running around with a belly button piercing. "So, how's your head?" I asked, pushing her hair aside to examine her forehead.

"Oh, it's a lot better now. It still hurts a little, but I feel better." She shrugged, "I guess I just had to sleep it off."

"Yeah." I agreed looking at her forehead. Now that it had stopped bleeding, the cut on her head looked a lot less bad than I thought. It had to be no more than two inches long. "Well, you should get some sleep. Remember we still have school tomorrow." Jillian nodded, laying her head back on her pillow. Suddenly, my phone buzzed. I picked it up and saw that it was a text message from Clare:

Eli-

Tonight was absolutely amazing! And you looked so…hott! Especially the way your hair was a little messy. ;D Btw, did anyone ever tell you that you smell nice? Wow, sorry, I probably sound creepy right now….. :P I love you!

-Clare

From where Jillian was, she could see the writing on the screen. She smirked in a self-satisfactory way and giggled. I rolled my eyes, "Oh, shut up!"

"I was right! I was right! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!" she teased.

"Fine. For my next date, I'll let you give me a full makeover." I said, facetiously. "Now, go to bed."

"Wait! Can you get me a beer?" Jillian asked as I left the room.

"Goodnight, Jillian!"

Jillian's POV

I sat in skank class the next day, thinking about Eli. He had been acting very strange lately. This morning he was awkwardly standing outside my room, just like yesterday morning. When I asked him what he was doing, he dropped onto the floor and started scrubbing it with his blanket and said, "The floor outside your room is filthy!" Now, I may not be the smartest pencil in the drawer, but I was pretty sure people didn't use blankets to clean things. I hated how people always tried to take advantage of me because they thought I was dumb. Well, I may be dumb, I thought, but I'm not stupid! I am so focused and… I spotted one of the girls sitting in front of me, wearing a really pretty necklace. Oooooh! Shiny!

"Ok, girls!" Rachel said cheerily, walking in, "I'm so sorry I'm late. I had a meeting." All the girls in the room quieted down. "Alright, so yesterday our good friend Jillian here told us a very inspirational story about her fighting bulimia. The only reason I want to reflect back on this is because I did some research, and did you know that approximately 7 million girls suffer from bulimia each year? It's mostly teenage girls like you, but some of them are even pre-teens." Rachel turned and smiled at me, "So Jillian, tell us more about how you overcame your issue."

I sat up proudly, "Well, I-"

"Lemme guess!" Bianca cut me off, "You sucked all the fat out of your ass and then pumped it into your gigantic tits!"

I looked over at Bianca and smirked, "And let me guess! You sucked all the fat out of your head and then pumped it into your gigantic ASS!"

Bianca scoffed disgustedly, "Do you hear this, Rachel? It was this big fat mouth that created that incident at Vegas Night!"

"Excuse me?" I said, "Look who's talking, Boiler-room-Bianca!"

"Whoah! I didn't-"

"Dick-sucking-DeSousa!" An 'ohhhhh' buzzed around the class.

"Ladies! Please!" Rachel begged, "Find your inner peace!"

Bianca gave me a look like she wanted to kill me. "Ok, listen up….it was you're big mouth, dumb ideas, and drinking that caused the incident! Seriously, I'm surprised that you don't have a beer gut the size of Pluto!"

"And I'm surprised that you don't have a mouth sore the size of Pluto!" Everyone in the class laughed when I said that.

"Bianca! Jillian! Stop this right now! Please!" Rachel pleaded.

"Keep shooting off that big mouth! Keep it up!" Bianca challenged, "Let's see how many other people you can get arrested!"

"Shut up!" I yelled at her, "You don't know anything that happened at Vegas Night!"

"Oh I know!" She then said in a fake boo-hooey voice, "Eli bravely jumped in front of the knife for you, only to realize that Fitz wasn't actually gonna stab you two." Her voice then returned to normal, "It was you and Eli's fault that Fitz got arrested! You know, if your idiot brother was gonna do something stupid like jump in front of freaking knife…..he should have just gotten stabbed."

That was all I needed to hear. Before Bianca could breathe another word, I leapt up over one of the desks and tackled Bianca to the floor. I punched her in the mouth as hard as I could…..which by the way was pretty damn hard.

"Ugh!" Bianca grunted, punching me right back in the jaw. Instinctively, I kneed her in the crotch. I wasn't used to fighting other chicks as much as guys. However, that still threw her off a bit. I stood up and kicked her in the face and stomped on her head. Bianca whimpered, covering her face with her arms. I grabbed her by her hair and dragged her over to the wall. I threw her against the wall hard, and then kneed her head back into it.

"Had enough, yet?" I growled at her.

"Y-You….are crazy!" she shuttered weakly.

"Oh really?" I challenged, turning around. I heaved as I lifted up one of the desks and held it over my head. I approached Bianca who stared up at me, horrified.

"Jillian!" Rachel shouted, "Put the desk down!" Ignoring Rachel, I threw the desk down at Bianca. She quickly swerved away, but one of the legs still hit her head.

Mr. Simpson suddenly came barging in the room. "What's going on in here?" He demanded.

I waited outside of Mr. Simpson's office, while he was in there with Bianca. After about 10 minutes or so, Bianca walked out of Simpson's office. She was holding an ice pack on her head where the desk hit her. She gave me a butt-ugly dirty look, before turning around and leaving.

"Jillian." Mr. Simpson called. I got up from the bench and walked inside his office. "Have a seat." He insisted, pointing at the seat across his desk. I plopped myself down in the seat. Mr. S rubbed his temples with his hands and groaned, "Two…...days. You've been back two days."

"And right back in the swing of things." I added.

"Oh my god, Jillian….." Mr. S covered his face with his hands, "Why are you always picking fights with people?"

"It's never my fault, Mr. S!" I explained, "I'm always the victim in these things."

"You threw….a desk…..A DESK!" He continued in a frantic voice, "How in the world did you lift a desk anyway? They're really heavy! I can barely lift one of those!"

"You see Mr. S, what you need is better upper body strength."

Mr. Simpson rolled his eyes, "We're not here to talk about my upper body strength! We are here to discuss you having these…these….…episodes!"

"Mr. Simpson?" Cece said, coming in the door with Bullfrog right on cue.

"Ah, Mr. and Mrs. Goldsworthy." Mr. Simpson waved them in, "Please take a seat." Cece and Bullfrog walked over and took a seat on either side of me. "Now, were here to discuss…a few things. First off, there was the fight with Bianca today."

"Now wait," Bullfrog interrupted, "exactly what caused this fight?"

"Yes," Mr. Simpson agreed, "Jillian, I'm eager to hear your side of the story."

I crossed my arms, "Bianca made me mad."

"Yes…" Mr. S raised an eyebrow at me, "we are aware of that. Do you know why she made you mad?"

"She was being a bitch." I said bluntly, "She said some mean things about me and Eli….and she made fun of my boobs!"

"So then you responded by…..throwing a desk at her?" Mr. Simpson asked.

"A desk?" Bullfrog asked with a surprise look, "What did Bianca say to her that made her so mad?"

"Apparently, she was saying some negative things about Jillian and your son, which had to do with our last school dance."

"Hold up," my dad interrupted again, "you mean where that punk Fitz came at my children with a knife?"

"Yeah, and you see that's the other problem…"

"You know," Bullfrog said, gritting his teeth, "that kid better wish he never runs into me. I'll kill him with my own bare hands!"

"Yes, I understand what Fitz did was very unacceptable," Mr. S continued, "but you should know that Jillian and Fitz have been in conflict for quite some time. I've been hearing rumors about the two of them getting into a fist fight."

"What were you two fighting about?" Cece asked me curiously.

"Fitz was pissing me off." I grunted, "He called me a bimbo and a tart….AND he made fun of my boobs!" Then, matter-of-factly, I added, "I won. I kicked his ass."

"Hehe! That's my girl!" Bullfrog stated proudly. Mr. Simpson gave him a dirty look. "But….this is a very serious issue, of course."

Mr. Simpson folded his hands on his desk, "Now, I don't want to jump to conclusions….but I believe that Jillian may have a little bit of anger management issues."

"My little sunshine has a temper sometimes," Cece said innocently, "but she's not all bad."

"I know that Jillian is not a bad person," Mr. S reasoned, "but I think she just needs a little help to learn how to take control of her anger. We have a seminar here that focuses on just that."

"Is that the one that Riley was talking about?" I asked. I had talked to Riley, one of the seniors, the other day and he happened to bring up the fact that he had to take an anger management seminar here.

"Yeah, Riley Stavros did take this seminar. Now, he's able to focus better on important things and control his anger." Mr. S explained.

"That sounds like a great idea." Cece said, with Bullfrog nodding in agreement.

"W-What?" I said giving them each a shocked look, "You can't actually be serious about this? I'm already in that stupid self-esteem senemeer!"

"We know, Jill," my dad told me, "but we think this might be good for you. No offense, but you do have a tendency to lash out at people."

"I DO NOT LASH OUT!" I shouted. The three of them stared at me with that 'you-just-proved-my-point' look. I took a deep breath and settled back down. "Fine, I'll do the stupid senemar."

"Ok." Mr. Simpson concluded, "Looks like we have a deal."

"We'll see you and Eli at home, Jill." my mom said.

"Yeah, that's the other thing…" Mr. Simpson added, "Eli and Jillian will have to join me after school….in detention." He said it like he was rubbing it in my face. "Neither one of them are in dress code." I rolled my eyes. At least I would have Eli in detention.