"Wake up, Newbie," Shelby called across the room to Taylor, who was snuggled warmly under her blankets.

She reluctantly sat up and swung her legs over the edge of her bed. An immediate rush of October chill encompassed her body. She turned over her shoulder and gave Shelby a glare, though she secretly enjoyed Shelby's sarcastic attitude because it challenged her own wit.

Taylor had been at Horizon for nearly a week and she felt oddly comfortable in the strange new setting. She liked the other members in the Cliffhanger group, though they occasionally got on her nerves with their questions and expectations of open sharing on all subjects.

Juliette was waiting for Taylor by the door when she was finally ready to head to breakfast. "Hey," Juliette started as they made their way outside. "I saw you practicing your martial arts last night. It looked pretty cool."

"Thanks," Taylor replied. She liked Juliette for the most part. She was generally cheery and upbeat, a nice balance to Daisy and Shelby in the dorm.

"How long have you been doing it?" Juliette innocently asked.

"About four years, I guess." They entered the cafeteria and grabbed a couple trays. As they waited in line for what they could only hope to be edible food, Juliette kept up the conversation.

"Peter does martial arts too, you know," she mentioned as one of the breakfast line members placed a plate of French toast and hash browns onto their trays.

"Yeah, I know," Taylor said. "He told me on my first day. I think he said we should practice together or something." They each filled a cup with Orange juice and walked over to join the rest of the Cliffhangers sitting at a table.

"Probably," Juliette said, sitting down next to Daisy. "He likes to get to know Newbies."

"What are you ladies talking about?" Auggie asked as Taylor sat down in the seat next to him, across from Daisy. He stuffed his mouth with a stack of syrup-drenched French toast pieces.

"Tay does martial arts and Peter wants to practice with her." Juliette filled them all in as she started cutting her breakfast into miniscule bites.

"Nah, he probably just said that to be nice, right?" Taylor hadn't really thought much about the comment but they were making it seem like it was a real possibility.

"Doubt it," Scott said, somewhat enjoying the fact that she was starting to get uncomfortable. "But what's the big deal? Maybe you can bargain with him and get it to count as a one-on-one." He quickly downed his cup of juice and stood to get a refill.

"I don't really want to…" she started to say but quickly stopped, not wanting to get into any kind of serious territory.

"Why not?" Both Ezra and Daisy asked at the same time. They glanced at each other, amused by their perfect timing, then turned their attention back to Taylor.

She, however, stuffed her mouth with hash browns, smiled sweetly, and shrugged. Fortunately, Auggie changed the subject.

"Whatever," he said, swallowing. "Did you guys all finish that English assignment?" He pulled out a novel they were all supposed to have finished reading by that afternoon and started flipping though its pages.

Daisy spoke up. "Yeah, how far did you get?"

"Um…" Auggie dragged out the word until he turned the page. "Page seven."

"Come on, man, you're supposed to have a report to go with it," Ezra injected. "I thought you said you were halfway through it?"

"Yeah," Auggie closed the book and placed it on his tray. "Well, I lied. Sorry. So who wants to tell me what it's about?" He asked the group hopefully. "Newbie?"

Taylor looked up from her half-eaten breakfast. "No, I didn't actually read it either. I could use a summary too."

Daisy rolled her eyes. "Well, it's about a family dealing with the loss of their teenage son after a car accident and –"

"Too late," Juliette interrupted as she rose from the table. "Talk on the way to class; we only have a couple minutes." The rest of the group followed her lead and moved to put their trays away.