10th September 2013

After the baseball matches had finished the students headed off for dinner before they went to their afternoon classes. Blue sat down at an empty table in the canteen and pulled on her headphones, pressing play on her ipod- the soft melody of All About Us by He Is We and Owl City came into her head. Instead of paying for school meals, she had brought her own lunch: a chicken salad and a packet of crisps with a bottle of water. She tucked into the salad, lost in her own little world and ignoring those around her.

She hated sitting on her own. She had been so lonely at Rosewood that she'd ended up helping out with some of the children that were there for either their own reasons or because their parents were there, just so that she would have some company. It was lonely being on her own but she would rather be lonely than hang out with people she didn't like. And to be honest, she hadn't met anybody that she liked at this school. They were all the same idiots she'd known before Rosewood. She'd seen Daisy and knew that her sister would have let her join her and her friends, but Blue didn't really want to sit with a bunch of thirteen year old giggling girls.

She forced the depressing thoughts out of her mind and focused on listening to the song, a technique her therapist had taught her for when things got hard or too sad for her to deal with at that moment. She was broken out of that moment however when she felt somebody tap her on the shoulder. She took her headphones off and looked to the seat next to her where somebody had sat down.

It was a slim girl sat there. She had mousy brown hair and a pale complexion, and was wearing rectangular-framed glasses which made her plain brown eyes look bigger than they were. She was grinning at Blue, revealing red braces running across her teeth. She didn't seem even vaguely familiar. "Hi Blue," she said in a cheery voice. "I'm Trinity. Trinity Axel. It's a weird name, I know." She rolled her eyes. "It's great to meet you."

"You too," Blue replied, her words sounding like a question. "I don't think I've seen you before. Were you here before I went out of town?"

"No I moved here from Boulder about two months," she smiled politely. "Anyway, I have a confession to make. I didn't just come over here to say hello. I came to ask you something." Blue looked at her questioningly, waiting for her to continue. "My friends and I are on the school's cross country team. We'd like you to join us."

Blue snorted, she actually snorted. "This is some kind of joke, right?" She asked with an amused smirk.

Trinity frowned in confusion. "Why would it be a joke?"

"Because I hate exercise and that obviously includes running. I run like an idiot: I'm not coordinated and my arms fly about everywhere. Why would I willing choose to run cross country?"

"Blue, I'm in the same year group as you. I was there this morning playing baseball, I saw you running when you got that home run. You were amazing! I don't know what you think you look like when you run, but you're wrong. You have the perfect body frame for running, I think you'd be perfect on our team."

"Trinity, I don't enjoy running. I'm sorry," she shrugged.

"No that's okay," Trinity smiled. "I was exactly the same, I hated it. But I joined cross country to make friends and I actually found out that I liked it. It's the perfect way to let loose and forget about everything going on in your life."

"Well I do need something like that," Blue said hesitantly, thinking that she needed another method other than music and reading to take her mind off it. Plus, her doctor had said that physical activity would be good for her health and these days she was all about being healthy and not going back to her old ways. "But I don't know whether or not I'd like it..."

"Well you can come to training and see then!" Trinity grinned enthusiastically. Blue was struck with a guess that Trinity was one of those girls that were always cheery and optimistic. Basically, she was the exact opposite of Blue. "We train every Wednesday and Friday after school. We meet out on the field and we run through the woods and some footpaths. There's eleven people on the team, most teams that compete actually have twelve so everyone would love to have you join us. So, you'll be at training on Thursday?"

Blue paused for a moment before nodding. "I guess. But I'm not promising to join the team, I'm just deciding whether or not it's something that I'd like to do."

"I understand, that's fine. This is awesome! Anyway, do you want to come and sit with me and my friends? There's six of us and they're all on the cross country team too."

"Why would you ask me to sit with you? Nobody else has."

"Because it's obvious you have no friends," Trinity replied matter-of-factly. "And that's what it was like for me my first few weeks here. These kids have all grown up together, they don't like including people into their groups. I know how much it sucks, Blue. And I can't stand seeing people alone and miserable, especially when they look like really nice people. So let's be friends, okay? Even if you decide that cross country's not for you. Everybody needs a friend."

"Thanks," Blue smiled gratefully. She knew they weren't three years old and 'let's be friends' didn't automatically mean they were going to be friends for life. She might get to know Trinity more and decide she didn't like her, they might argue and have an epic fall out. But this was a start at a friendship and Blue could really do with a friend, even if she couldn't tell her the whole truth about herself, and right now Trinity looked like a nice girl, somebody that would make a good friend. She packed away her lunch into her bag and rose to her feet before following Trinity over to the table where her friends were sat.

Somehow Blue ended up in the middle seat next to Zed again. But she didn't let that get to her. Since dinnertime she had been in a pretty good mood, especially when she realised that Trinity was in all of her afternoon classes and the other girl chose to sit with her in all of them. It wasn't very often that Blue found herself in a good mood and she wasn't going to let the likes of Zed Benedict ruin that for her.

Daisy was the last to get in the car and Victor started driving as soon as she had buckled up her seatbelt. "How did your test go?" Blue asked Daisy, knowing that she had been worrying about it.

"I think I did okay actually," Daisy smiled. "It seemed quite easy, hopefully that was a good thing. What about baseball? Was it as bad as you expected it to be?"

"Worse. I hated it," she replied immediately. "I scored a home run though."

"Only because I told you when to swing," Zed interrupted with an amused smile. "If it wasn't for me, you would have had three strikes. And even with my help, your team still lost. You know you never did say thank you, Blue."

Do not let him ruin your good mood, she said to herself. She flashed Zed a sarcastic smile and said, "you might have helped me hit the ball, but you didn't help me hit it that far. Nor did you help me run. I scored a home run because your team members couldn't even catch a ball and sort themselves out enough to work together and get the ball to home base. A bunch of boys couldn't even beat me. So I don't think I owe you a thanks, Zed."

Zed was silent for a moment before he burst out in laughter. "Wow, you've got an attitude on you, girl! Not the innocent shy girl I thought you were, are you? You do have a point though. You did well, I was impressed. I've never seen somebody run so fast before. And don't ask me to repeat that because I don't give out praise often."

"That's true," Yves said from the front seat. "He still hasn't congratulated me on creating an app for Apple."

"Yes I did," Zed argued.

"Well thanks, I guess," Blue said to prevent the brothers from having an argument. "You're the second person today to say that I ran well. A girl called Trinity Axel asked me to join the cross country team."

"I'm on the cross country team. You should totally join and we could like totally run together, it'd be such a good bonding session," he replied, the second sentence being said in a fake girly voice, clearly taking the piss. "I'm the team's best runner."

"Wow, you sure like to brag about yourself."

"I'm great at sports and I'm proud to admit it, what's wrong with that?" He waggled his eyebrows. "So are you going to join the team then?"

"You should join them Blue," Victor said sincerely. "They're currently the best team in Colorado, although that could all change when competition season starts again. The whole town is in on it, a lot of us go and cheer them on, even when they're competing elsewhere."

"I don't know. I'm not really into running that much but I promised Trinity I'll give it a go," Blue shrugged.

"Ah, Trinity," said Zed, shaking his head. "That girl gets on my nerves. There's just something about the way she's always smiling that's just so irritating. I don't like her."

"Well I guess that's another reason for me to like her," Blue said with a fake grin on her face.

"Oh ha-ha. Very funny. Hey Blue, guess what? I'm really happy that you and Trinity are getting along, maybe that means you'll finally have a friend! One person in the entire school being your friend is better than nothing, right?"

Blue's smiled faded and she frowned, her good mood dissipating in the blink of an eye. She looked away from Zed, unable to look him in the eyes. "Zed," Victor said sternly. "What the hell was that about? Would it really freaking kill you to be nice to somebody for once?"

"Vick all I've done is try and be nice to her!" Zed snapped. "I've tried, I was being genuinely nice to her. But right from the start she's judged me and hated me and made sly digs. I'm sick of it. If she can't be nice to me, I'm not going to be nice to her."

"You're both being ridiculous," Victor said in a tired voice. "How about both of you just shut up from now on, yeah?"

Blue wasn't going to argue there and from the silence that fell in the car, neither was Zed.

Victor and Hazel's house was situated on an ordinary street. Their neighbours were mostly elderly couples so it was a very quiet area which they were thankful for. The house was lovely, decorated just how they wanted it, and had a sizeable garden with a white-picket fence. It was a perfect little house that Victor had been surprised Hazel wanted as she hadn't struck him as the kind of girl to want something like that. They knew that eventually they would have to move out and into a bigger house seeing as though they had decided they wanted two more children after they had the twins. But for now, the house was everything they wanted and needed.

Victor took a deep breath to prepare himself, not knowing what kind of mood Hazel was going to be in, before entering the house and locking the door behind him. He'd kept his word to his mother and gone shopping after dropping the kids off at school and hadn't returned home for the whole day. Hazel would have arrived home from work about an hour ago so no doubt she was wondering where he was.

He steadied his crutch and walked through to the kitchen where he heard the clatter of plates. Hazel had her back to him and was doing the washing up; she must have heard him enter but she didn't turn around or acknowledge his presence in any way. He walked over and leaned against the kitchen counter behind her, putting his crutch next to him and crossing his arms over his chest. "Sorry I'm home late," he broke the tense silence. "I picked Zed and Yves up from school, as well as Blue and her sister. Then mom asked me to fix something 'cause dad was still working and couldn't do it himself." Still no reply from her. "Hazel, come on. I said I was sorry and you kicked me out for the night. Isn't that enough? Please, you know I didn't mean it like that."

Hazel dried her hands on a hand towel and spun around to face him, her mouth in a flat line. She was already showing signs of the pregnancy which was one of the reasons they'd told the family: her belly was slightly round, her hips and thighs were a little wider, and her face was rounder. "You called me fat," she said bluntly.

"I didn't say those exact words!" Victor shook his head. "I said that 'even though you've clearly put on weight, I don't mind and you still look great'. I meant for it to be a compliment!"

"Well I didn't need you to remind me that I'm putting on weight and losing my figure, Victor! God, I was already feeling self-conscious, I didn't need my soulfinder to make me feel even worse about myself," she said in a trembling voice as if she were holding back tears. She composed herself and took a long breath in. "I missed you last night. I didn't get any sleep without you there."

"How do you think I felt? I was in my childhood bedroom, it was just weird. I missed you as well. Come here," he beckoned for her to come close. She did so and he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close, kissing the top of her head as she wrapped her arms around his waist too. "I really am sorry, you know. I should have said that I think you're beautiful no matter what, and that I love you. I'll remember that for next time," he joked.

Hazel laughed. "Yeah, you better. I forgive you, Vick."

"Good," he smiled and let go of her, causing her to step back and look at him questioningly. "So I wanted to buy you something, you know just a little something to treat you with and make you forgive me even more." He gulped, his heart pounding as nerves took over him. "I was going to get you a new necklace or something, but well... My mom kind of told me what to get you and even insisted that she go shopping with me for it. But don't worry, it's not like she forced me into getting it or anything. I've actually been saving up to get you it since we started dating."

"Victor, what are you going on about?" Hazel asked with a laugh. "You know I like presents, just give me it." Victor laughed and dipped his hand into the inside pocket of his leather jacket and pulled out a small, black velvet box. Hazel's eyes widened and she looked up at him. "That's not what I think it is, is it?"

"It probably is," he replied in an an amused tone. He slowly opened the box so that she could see the ring inside. It was a white gold band with a sizeable heart-shaped pink diamond with three smaller clear diamonds on either side of it. It had cost Victor a fortune but the moment he'd seen it he just knew that it was the one for her. It also helped that Karla used her future sense to see that Hazel would love it.

Hazel gasped lightly, her eyes flickering back up to his so he could see that she had tears in her eyes. "Vick..." she softly whispered, her lower lip trembling.

When Victor spoke, he was also whispering, as if speaking louder would ruin the moment. "I'd get down on one knee like I'm supposed to but I don't want to hurt my hip." The physiotherapy sessions were really helping him get better, as was Hazel's support, but it still hurt every now and then and he couldn't walk far without the help of the crutch. He smiled at Hazel and asked, "will you marry me?"

It was very rare that Victor saw Hazel speechless and this was one of those rare moments. She bit her bottom lip and smiled, happy tears spilling down her cheeks as she nodded eagerly. She stepped close to him again and threw her arms around his shoulders, burying her face in his neck. Victor grinned and wrapped his arms around her, hugging her tightly for a moment before she pulled away from him and held out her left hand. He laughed and took the ring out of the box before sliding it onto the correct finger, loving the way that it looked on her. "So beautiful," he muttered.

They hugged again in content silence for a long few minutes before Hazel lifted her head so that her mouth was near his ear. "Take me to bed," she whispered.

"Happily," he replied huskily.

Author's note: I wasn't going to write that end part about Victor and Hazel seeing as this is Zed and Blue's story, but I missed writing about them and couldn't miss out on the opportunity to do so again, hope you don't mind :)

This chapter is longer than my usual ones, it took me so long to write and I worked so hard. I'm happy with the way it turned out.

By the way, I have now decided to be a Betareader and I'm currently accepting requests. So check out my Beta page if you feel like you might want/need a Beta or message me and I'll check out your story, see if I want to help you out :) (Shamelessly self-promoting myself, haha)

A hint about the next chapter: Blue's first cross country training. Zed and Blue have a big confrontation.