Hey! So! Thanks once again to my awesome reviewers!

Breeze xxx: 88 points!

CrazyKitten2112: 88 Points!

Jennifer Adams: 30 points!

I also have a guest reviewer, who is awesome, but as I said before, I can't exactly keep a fair track with that so...

I own nothing except the things that I do own, adn you know what those are already, so.. Enjoy!

To Make a Stubborn Girl Laugh

The band teacher didn't return at all that week. Lauren explained that he was on a vacation that had been post-poned because of weather. So every day they returned to the dorm building after sixth period, and the kids would hang out in the lobby, and practice the marvel medley, which Dekka learned was their show for football season. The music still brought forth unwanted memories, but Dekka managed to get them under control enough that, by the end of the week, she was able to sit in the lobby all night, listening to the them talk in a completely different language. Once Chris, Julie, and Jessie, along with other girls bearing the long, thin flutes, frowned at each other after the song was over, and after a few moments of silence, Chris burst into laughter, which sent the rest into a spiral of laughter as well, as a tall, bushy-haired girl named Brooklyn called, "All naturals! No sharps or flats!"

Another time, Lauren and Noah played a note together, and Lauren frowned saying, "You should pull your tuning slide out, you sound sharp."

One time, a girl wielding a trombone waved them all to silence right in the middle of a song, and glared at the group of boys holding a spiraled instrument that Lauren called a French horn, and shouted, "French horns are taking that way too fast! It's not a race you morons, it's a ritardando!"

And it never stopped, but Dekka found herself growing used to it.

She also quickly grew used to the other students who had begun to hang around her constantly, like she had seen groups of friends at school do before, but she had never been a part of those crowds. She was always a loner, and she liked it that way, it meant she didn't have to really worry about anyone else. Then she had bet Brianna, and she her reluctance to grow close to anyone grew to a new level. She had resolved to keeping to herself at her new school, not getting close to anyone because you never know, maybe a new FAYZ wall would come up, and she would fall in love with a brave, arrogant girl who would get killed because she couldn't do as she was told.

But she hadn't been counting on the power of the Headline kids. Chris, Shaena, Noah, and, especially Lauren, weren't allowing shutting the rest of the world out to be an option, and, much to her displeasure, she had grown fond of their company. They all provided distractions from her own mind, in their own ways. Others did as well. Lilah, for example, chattered non-stop whenever she was around, and listening to her talk non-sense allowed Dekka to forget about death, and strawberry-haired girl with super speed.

She avoided the twins at all costs. Weston and Weslie were very difficult to be around, especially Weston, who was the perfect embodiment of everything Brianna had been.

However, the girls managed to pin her Saturday night. She had made her way down to the vending machines, agreeing absently to returning with something for Lauren to eat, and was fighting the machine to take the crumpled dollar from her.

"You're a hard person to pin, you know that, Talent?"

Dekka jumped, and spun around, hands raising instinctively, as though she was going to make the intruder float into the air. She was looking at Brianna-no Weston- Brianna was dead. The small girl was standing in the gate that lead into the small community of vending machines. Dekka sighed, hoping that seeming irritated would make the girl leave, because she definitely didn't want to face her. "You alone?"

"Why does that matter?" Weston huffed. "You're alone."

"Yeah, well I'm also sixteen, and have been told I'm rather intimidating, which puts me at a lower risk for being kidnapped."

Weston rolled her eyes. "So, what? You think just because I travel in a pack some creepy child molester's going to leave me alone?"

Dekka blinked. "Do you even know what a child molester is?"

"Of course I do," Weston replied, rolling her eyes, a motion so similar to Brianna that Dekka almost stopped breathing. "I wouldn't have said it if I didn't. Do you know what it is?"

"You're very snappy, aren't you?"

"I learned from the best," Weston grinned fondly. "Brianna always said that sarcasm was our natural defense against stupidity, so embrace it."

Dekka went stiff at the mention of Brianna, hand clenching tightly, crumpling the money. She cursed mentally, glancing a Weston and hoping the little girl hadn't seen it, but, judging from her face, she had. Her expression was Brianna's, knowing that she was something to Dekka, even in she didn't understand why. A knowing ignorance that only Brianna had been able to make natural, and beautiful, and Weston wore it perfectly.

"How much do you know, exactly?"

"You'll have to be a bit more specific," she sings, mischief written all over her face.

"About your sister and I... I mean, it's obvious you know something."

"Am I that transparent?" She grins, teasingly, stepping forward as the machine rejects Dekka's money again. "Here," she says, taking the bill, and flattening it on her leg. She was dressed in what could only be night cloths. A pair of flannel, red pants and an old-shirt that was multiple sizes. Across its front was the emblem of Coates Academy, and the faded letters were the title of the fundraiser the school had held the spring before the FAYZ wall went up, all of the students had received one. Dekka remembered the day they came in. Brianna had been seated in her usual spot atop one of the tables, despite constant objections from the staff, complaining loudly about how big her shirt was. She remembered glancing up, and having to suppress a smile, because it was too-big. It swallowed her so effectively that it was almost as though her entire midriff had simply disappeared, and the shirt hung limply off of one shoulder, despite the number of times she repositioned it. Dekka remembered thinking that the shirt could fit herself. So, on this girl, significantly smaller then Brianna had been at the time, it wasn't comical, it looked plain ridiculous. She had tried to make up for the size difference by wading up the excess material and wrapping it with a ponytail holder. It didn't help much, the shirt still had the puffed look of a shirt that was to big, and one side still hung off of her shoulder so badly that she was wearing a tank-top underneath because, otherwise, people would see a lot more than her shoulder, although it wasn't like her six-year-old body really had anything to hide, plus, on top of it all, now she had a giant ball of material sticking off to the side.

"This thing is extremely picky, it won't take your money if it's not perfect," Weston goes on, dragging Dekka out of her thoughts. She shoves the dollar into the machine, and it glows, informing them that they should select an item. Weston smiled proudly. "See?"

For a second, Weston was Brianna, smiling proudly down at Drake's severed head, cursing in his sucking, shallow voice, and Dekka had to remind herself of the difference. Weston was almost eight years younger than Brianna had been. Weston had never had super speed, Weston was still alive, and she had never chopped a person into pieces and brought back the still speaking head as a trophy. She was a little girl who was proud of making a machine work. She'd probably never even thought of chopping anyone up into pieces.

"Thanks, and yeah, you kind of are."

Weston pouted. "Well, that's no fun."

"How about a trade? I'll tell you one thing you want to know abut your sister, and you'll tell me one thing I want to know."

"What if I want to know more than one thing?"

Dekka smiled. "One question at a time."

"Okay, what if what I want to know is about you?"

This took Dekka by surprise. "What do you want to know about me?"

Weston ran a hand through her hair, which had been taken down from its braids. "You cared about my sister, that much I know from the memorial." Dekka realized them that her discomfort was not because of the question itself, if was the context. She was willing to bet that the memorial wasn't any more fun for her then it had been for Dekka herself. "Anyways, I thought it was because she was just Brianna, I mean, everyone loved Brianna...except for my dad, I guess..." She trailed off, then started up again, "but, since you've been here at the school, I've been wondering if maybe it was more than that. Maybe it wasn't just a friendly love..."

There was a long moment of silence, in which time Weston stared at Dekka curiously. Dekka then realized the one major character difference between Weston and Brianna, Weston's look had not been knowing ignorance, it was pure knowing. Weston, at six, had the perception skills to put together in a week what Brianna would never have known if Dekka hadn't told her. Weston, who probably didn't even fully understand love, figured out something Brianna hadn't the observation skills to herself.

"You're too smart for your own good," Dekka sighed, not meeting Weston's gaze as she collected the food from the machine.

Dekka barely caught the smile out of the corner of her eye. "Well, I can't exactly take all the credit, Weslie helped. She's a lot smarter than I am. Better at puzzles and stuff, you know?"

"So I'm a puzzle?"

"Yeah, you are. I mean, the only choice people have in order to learn anything about you is trying to fit together the puzzle pieces, you don't exactly share much." Weston was talking in the matter of fact tone that Brianna had used when arguing about whether she was going to fight or not, and she crossed her arms in the same stubborn manner.

"Not much to share."

"Well, I think being a GAP girl is a pretty significant detail, considering you hang out with them, and are room mates with one-"

"The only way any of that becomes significant is if I plan on dating, which I don't."

"Why not?" Weston pressed, twisting the shirt around in her fist. Dekka sighed exasperatedly, but before she had a chance to answer, Weston had continued, "and if you say because of Brianna I might just hit you." The look on her face told Dekka she was all too serious, and, while Dekka didn' think she could actually do much damage, she didn't have the heart to pick a fight with a girl so much like Brianna.

So instead she said, "Why?"

"Because that's not fair to me."

"Excuse me."

Weston sighed and slumped to the ground, back to the vending machine. "Do you have a sister?" Dekka shook her head, and Weston nodded. "I didn't think so. Brianna was my world. She was the person I wanted to be when I grew up, my hero. She was the girl that let me crawl into her bed when I had nightmares and snuck a jar of peanut butter upstairs every time she was home so we could eat it while we watched her favorite movies." Weston smiled fondly. "Brianna was the big sister everyone wants, and I only to three months out of the year with her because my of my dad, and the only thing I have left of her are the scraps of memories that my mind managed to retain, I was only four when I lost her. Sure, she was alive for a year after that, but I didn't get her. I lost her the moment that wall came up." Dekka looked away, knowing in her heart what was coming. "You got a whole year with her that I didn't get, and a brain that is capable of retaining those memories you made."

And also, knew that she was absolutely right.

"People think that just because I'm six I don't understand, but you'd be surprised how much you pick up on when major things like this happen."

Dekka slid down beside her, and thumped her head against the machine, unable to form words, even though she wanted to break the silence that had stretched between them, now that Weston had said all that she needed to. Finally: "Okay..."

"Okay?"

Dekka nodded. "You're right...but not now. You've had a ear to accept what is gone that I haven't, so, in all fairness, I deserve a little more time to grieve."

"Fair." Weston nodded. She held out her left hand, and Dekka looked at it. "You'll try to move on from my sister when you're ready; shake on it."

"Aren't you supposed to seal a deal with your right hand?"

Weston smiled. "Brianna always said that, since everyone set deals with their right hand, doing it with your left made it a special one."

So many things to learn about Brianna from this girl, like the fact that she sealed deals with her left hand because that was "special".

So she shook her hand.

After that night, Dekka realized she was not longer going to be allowed to avoid Brianna's sisters. They simply weren't going to allow it. Weston was every bit as stubborn as Brianna had been, and Weslie wasn't far behind, although, hers was more subtle, and seemed to be very rarely shown. In fact, Dekka never would have known, if not for Christmas Break, but that's a different part of our story that we will visit at a later date.

Weston dragged Weslie over to where Dekka was seated in the lobby, accompanied by Lauren, Noah, and the Dark and Twisties, and introduced her. Weston's bold, loud personality conflicted so significantly with her sister's quiet, laid back, almost shy personality that Weston, obviously used to Weslie doing whatever she says, could come off as bossy and obnoxious, draggin Weslie around behind her like a curious parody of a doll.

Dekka, however, found them oddly likable. She had thought, at first, that it was merely because they were a connection to Brianna. Weston's almost identical personality, didn't have as much of a bad effect as she had been afraid it would, it sort of made her feel better, like she had a small part of Brianna back. However, she quickly discovered that it wasn't simply their relationship to the girl she had, no did love, many people at the school said that the twins had an undeniable likability to them.

Dekka also learned fairly quickly, that home life here at Headline was an almost unspoken of subject, which was fine with her, since the last thing she wanted to talk about was her parents, or the FAYZ, but still it was odd. Instead of threatening to call parents, like normal teachers would, the teachers at Headline threatened to talk to other teachers. The athletic coaches, or the band and art teachers, or other various teachers around the school. A particular favorite, was Mrs. Monk.

When Dekka asked Lauren about this, it had made the girl grin. "Mrs. Monk is, like, one of the most respected teachers in the school. Everyone knows not to mess with her. She had, like, five kids worth of practice." Then she had laughed. "Plus, she's a Duke, and nobody wants to mess with the Duke clan." The "Duke clan", she had proceeded to explain, consisted, originally, or four siblings, three sons, and a daughter. The middle sons died in a car accident when they were teenagers, which left the oldest son, and the youngest child, Mrs. Monk, she had five daughters. Heaven, whom Dekka knew from mentoring, but only barely, since she didn't spend quite as much time around Lauren as Julie, or the Dark and Twisties, or some of the others. Three of the other girls also went to the school, and when Lauren had pointed them out, Dekka had definitely seen the resemblance between the girls, but they didn't take much after their mother. All four had pale blond hair, and fair skin, and bright blue eyes. They were built small, with big eyes, and small noses and ears, that made the eyes even more exaggerated. On the other hand, Mrs. Monk was tall, and slightly stout, with dark hair and eyes, and darkly tanned skin.

Dekka had, however, seen the resemblance when Lauren had told her that the oldest son had four children himself, a son and three daughters, and had proceeded to tell her that the youngest was Julie Duke herself. Julie could have been a copy of her aunt, execpt her lack of the height, which Lauren had shrugged at, saying that her sister, Allie Jai, lacked it as well.

She had pointed the second youngest sister out the next day, and Dekka had to agree, Allie Jai was definitely missing the height, other than that, however, she seemed to carry most of the Duke traits, except for her bright blue eyes. Dekka couldn't help pointing it out, and Lauren had smiled. "Well, you didn't think the Monk girls go their eyes from their dad did you?"

Headline academy was such a different environment than most schools, that Dekka wondered if it was all a dream. Maybe she would wake up and be stuck at some other, dingy school, with blank faced teacher that droned on and on. Sure, Headline had those, but it also had some teachers that Dekka found she was rather fond of, another new experience to add to the growing list. Mrs. Monk, for example, who had practically raised many of her students, since you keep the same mentoring teacher your entire time at Headline, and often reminded them of it. Dekka had almost laughed the first time she pointed a finger at Noah, and said, "Hey! Behave! Didn't I raise you better?"

Noah continued in his attempts to make Dekka laughed, or, the every least, crack a smile, and resisting grew more and more difficult every day. Especially once she began using the voices. As it turned out, when he said he could mimic almost any voice or sound heard, he hadn't been exaggerating. He could make it voice high and squeaky, like a chipmunk, or low and grumbling, very similar to the typical voice of a giant, or ogre, from movies. He could do a scarily accurate impression of the school bell, which he loved to do in class, to throw off Coach Nershall, and an even better impersonation of the intercom, and the woman at the front desk who came over the intercom to make announcements, another of his favorite tricks for 5th period.

Then, Monday, the band teacher returned and made not laughing impossible.

The band room, or building more like, was set in the very back of the campus and, and was almost as big as the dorm buildings, making it the third largest building on campus. The large, wooded double doors lead into a long hallway that Lauren claimed stretched around the entire perimeter of the building. One o the walls was lined with lockers, ranging in size from small and boxlike, barely big enough to stick an arm in, to large enough for two people to stand up straight in, and still have elbow room. The other wall was lined with backpacks, stacks of textbooks and binders, and instrument cases, some flipped open, other slammed shut with one latch closed while the other still hung uselessly. Lauren and Noah made heir way down the hallway, to a corner, where a table had been set up.

Lauren slung her bag up onto the table, and seated herself on it as well, pullin a bag of cheerios from the depths of the bag. "Do you ever stop eating?" Dekka wondered, leaning against the wall. She'd known Lauren for a week, and in that time she had yet to see Lauren at a time where she didn't have food on her somewhere, and she ate constantly. Dekka wondered if the teachers were aware that she ate in class, and simply had decided that trying to stop her was futile, or if they were simply that oblivious. She figured the first option was more realistic.

Whatever the case, however, Dekka couldn't complain too much, Lauren shared, so Dekka would never have to worry about going hungry. "Sure, when I sleep," she replied, grinning and holding the bag out to Dekka. She shook her head, but the other girl didn't move, except to raise an eyebrow. Dekka had learned Lauren always carried food, and Lauren, in turn, had learned that it was extremely difficult for Dekka to turn down food. If she held it out long enough, the other girl's resolve would crumble.

Dekka sighed, and took a handful. Lauren smiled triumphantly, and offered the bag to Noah, who didn't hesitate. "So." Lauren swung her feet casually, tugging her Biology book onto her lap and flopping it open. "Test Friday, want help with the review sheet anyone?"

"I'll take you up on that offer," Lilah commented, joining them.

Noah frowned. "Hey! You're not in this class. What are you doing here?"

Lilah shrugged. "Mr. B's NIA so we got out of 7th period today."

Lauren rolled her eyes as Noah argued teasingly. "So? Band was out all last week, but you didn't find us stealing oxygen in the Art room, did you?"

"That's an interesting way to describe it," Lilah laughed, dark eyes gleaming.

Noah shrugged. "It's the truth, though."

"How so?"

Noah opened his mouth to retort, but was interrupted. "What are you doing here?"

Lilah jumped, and Dekka swung around to face the new voice. It was a short man, wearing a pressed, light blue shirt and khaki pants. He came to a stop between Dekka and Lilah, looking at the dark haired girl. He pushed his glasses up his nose subconsciously, and crossed his arms over her chest, staring expectantly at her.

"Hey! What's up other Mr. B?" Lilah grinned, holding up a hand as thought to accept a high-five, although that didn't come.

"I don't remember you enrolling in band."

"That would because I didn't," Lilah replied.

"Then why are you stealing oxygen in my band hallway?"

Noah let out a cackle and pointed a finder at Lilah. "See?"

Lilah huffed, and crossed her arms over her chest. "All I see is that you have a habit of stealing other people's expressions."

Noah shrugged. "It's a good expression."

"Bye," the man said pointedly, waving at Lilah.

Lilah mimicked Noah's motion, then gave a mock salute and said, "I'm off!"

Once she had disappeared, the man turned to Dekka. "And you?"

Dekka blinked. "Me?"

"I don't remember you from summer band," he explained, pivoting on his toes, as though this was going to make up for the significant height difference. It didn't exactly work.

"That's because she's new," Lauren interrupted when Dekka didn't respond, not even looking up from her biology book.

"She's a helper," Noah added, leaning casually against the table.

"Really?" The man looked at Dekka for confirmation. She nodded. "Well, that's exellent. We appreciate all the help we can get around here. I'm Mr. Burkly." He held out a hand, but Dekka didn't move to shake it, so he went on. "What's your name?"

"Dekka."

"Nice to meet you Dekka."

"Are we playing today?" Lauren wondered after a short pause signaled the end of the conversation.

Mr. Burkly shook his head. "Not you anyways. Only people who haven't passed off their music." Then, as though on a side note he added. "You can't hand out in the hallway, though. You have to come into the lobby, at least, so I can monitor."

"You don't trust me?" Lauren pouted.

"I trust you about as far as I can throw you," he replied matter-of-factly. "And I trust Dark and Twisty even less. No telling what kind of trouble they'll get into on their own."

"They'll 'accidentally', lock Andrew in the band locker again," Noah suggested, and Dekka had to fight her jaw from dropping.

"What?"

Mr. Burkly raised an eyebrow. "You haven't told her about the band locker?"

"No!" Noah gasped, eyes going wide. "But I should have, because I bet I totally could have gotten you to laugh with that story!"

"You can get people to laugh with any story," Mr. Burkly snorted.

"Not her!" Noah pouted. "She doesn't laugh at anything!"

Lauren smirked knowingly as Dekka, because, how many times had they sat in their room and laughed about how frustrated her lack of laughter was making Noah? Mr. Burkly looked disbelievingly at Dekka, crossing his arms and saying, "You know, I don't actually believe that, and I'll tell you why. I've known Noah since he was barely big enough to keep his hands on the trumpet keys, and I've yet to see him meet someone he couldn't make laugh within the first day."

Dekka shrugged. "You see new things everyday."

The man laughed. "I like that answer!" He grinned happily, and turned to leave. "Seriously though, you should share the locker story."

Dekka wasn't sure if he had done it on purpose, or he just had excellent timing, but he said it as Chris and Shaena themselves were walking past him, heads ducked together as they looked at a note in Shaena's hand. When he said it, both heads shot up, and Chris asked indignantly, "Are you on that again?"

The man replied, "Nice to see you, too, Berryhill."

Chris made a face and called back, "Totally didn't answer my question!"

Mr. Burkly didn't reply, just opened a door and disappeared. Chris sighed. "Are we playing today?"

Lauren shook her head. "Nope."

"Well that sucks. I wanted to show off how amazing we sound now..." Chris pouted, putting her flute case down on the table loudly.

"So, why were you talking about the locker?" Sheana wondered, flopping down on the floor, and converting her backpack to a back rest.

Noah shrugged. "He said we couldn't hang out here all period because we may cause trouble, like locking each other in band lockers."

Sheana grinned. "You have to admit, thought, that was funny."

"It was hilarious, and it still is," Noah grinned. "I just wish we'd gotten it on tape, it's much more fun to show then tell."

"Not when you tell it," Chris laughed, popping a cheerio into her mouth.

"That's true."

"So, are you going to tell the story?" Dekka wondered, her curiosity growing more and more impatient by the minute.

So Noah proceeded to tell the story. He started, by telling her that last year was when they had begun the GAP tradition, which lead to an amusing story that started with Andrew making a joke about it in first period one day, and continued by the word getting back to Rose, who produced shirts, and various other items for almost everything. When school started back up after winter break, the six, not including Rose of course, GAP kids; Lauren, Chris, Lilah, Jasamin (whom Dekka had learned about halfway through the first week, when Andrew had called her the GAP baby in P.E), Noah, and a boy by the name of Liam, had found peculiar sweatshirts hanging on their doors. Gay And Proud was sported in various designs on he fronts. Needless to say, Rose was the only one who actually found them cute, the rest were rather wary of becoming walking billboards.

In the end, Rose had guilted them into a compromise. She had agreed to take off everything but the first letters, so the sweatshirts read, instead, GAP. To anyone who didn't know any better, it may appear to merely be the brand name, but Headline Academy students were very aware of its true meaning, which, in a way, still made the kids walking billboards, but what else were they going to do? By the end of Noah's tale, Chris was the same shade of red as a tomato, Chris's embarrassment about her girlfriend's hand in the sticking of GAP was evident.

Which lead to the cause of the locker situation. Andrew, who had never stopped getting a kick out of GAP, and especially loved to tease Chris about it, had been doing just that. Shaena, who had even admitted to it, had grown tired of listening to the boy, and watching her friend's face grow it's unhealthy shade of red, so she had silenced him by shoving him roughly into the largest of the bang locker, and sliding in the combination pad lock. She claimed that she hadn't meant for it to lock, but Noah had chosen then to walk in on the fiasco of Andrew yelling indignantly and the Dark and Twisty twins laughing, and had startle Chris, who had leapt accidentally into Shaena, causing her to lurch forward and the lock in her hand to snapped closed.

The best part of the entire situation was, nobody knew the combination to the lock, and the book with the combinations in it was locked up inside Mr. Burkly's office. That left only one option, they needed the key to the pad lock, which was on Mr. Burkly, who was doing a work shop at the local, middle school.

To hear Noah tell it, with his added sound effects and impression, it was extremely entertaining, and it took every ounce of Dekka's will power to hold back the laughter, but her success paid off when he finished telling his story more frustrated then ever at still not succeeding in bring forth laughter.

Lauren suggested, then, that they head on into the band room, so that Mr. Burkly didn't have to come and them. There was only one door in the hallway that lead farther into the building, although there was a large collection of doors that lead in the opposite direction. The door lead into a large lobby, that was decorated with small couches, and chairs, all with a similar, orange color scheme. A large window looked into what could only be Mr. Burkly's office, and hanging on the wall beside it was a large, golden banner that read: "Headline Bee's marching band".

Noah made himself comfortable in one of the chairs, and propped his feet up on one of the tables littering the room. He started a casual conversation that Dekka didn't follow, too busy staring out the other pair of windows in the room that looked out into the band room. It was a large, open space, with dingy, white tile floors. A large, white screen split the room in half, reaching only halfway up to the high ceiling. The walls of the room were strewn with posters and banners, and shelves filled with trophies. Two, long brown tables stretched across the room, with a small desk in a back corner, and a piano was just visible around the edge of the screen. On the other side of the room were a multitude of chairs, set up in a growing arch around a tall podium, and behind it was a large area littered with what appeared to be percussion equipment.

Small groups were scattered around the room, grouped up in the the arch, or at a table, or even standing around the room. A small number were gathered in the lobby, and Dekka saw others coming in and out of the various doors that lined the walls, while other stragglers were still out in the hallway, struggling with lockers, or digging through backpacks.

"You saw that interview then?" Mr. Burkly was talking to Noah through the window, but Dekka was barely paying attention, until:

"Sure I did! It was the best one they did!" Then, in such an accurate impersonation that Dekka almost expected to whip around and see the small boy standing there, Noah pronounced, "True!"

And she laughed. A short laugh, that caused her to clap a hand over her mouth, as thought that would make the sound die and not reach Noah's ears, but it was too late. The boy's head whipped around, a stupid grin plastered on his face. "Ha!"he cried, leaping to his feet and pointing a finger at her. "So you can laugh."

Dekka rolled her eyes and leaned against the wall, crossing her arms. "Of course I can laugh, you dingbat." Vaguely she wondered when she had picked up the name dingbat, which was a Headline favorite.

"Well, do more often, and people may believe that!"

"Maybe I don't want to." Dekka shrugged.

"Well-"

"Hey, Noah!" Lauren interrupted.

"What?"

"Sh!" Noah opened his mouth to retort, but was shushed again, causing him to frown and close it, looking conflicted. Dekka grinned at Lauren, who mirrored it, and leaned back in her chair, rolling her eyes. "Boys, right? Makes me glad I'm not stuck dating them."

"Ouch." Noah winced. "That's an ego bruiser."

Dekka only realized later, that night when she and Lauren were alone in the room, lounging on their beds as they completed their biology review, occasionally calling an answer into the empty air, that Dekka realized Lauren's comment had not been purely for the sake of joking. She had been trying to figure Dekka out, had been trying to figure her out all week, that much Dekka had already realized, but now she had advanced to trying for subtle hints, and making half-prying questions.

"So, I suppose you've got quite the track record with the guys back at home," Lauren commented, flipping absently through her book.

Dekka shook her head, causing Lauren to raise an eyebrow. "Girls, then?" Another shake, and it wasn't untrue Dekka had been sent away to Coates after her first kiss, and that school wasn't exactly teeming with girls like her, besides, Brianna had been there.

"Oh, I see..." Lauren shrugged. "Just not much into the dating scene then?" She seemed as though she was regretting starting the conversation, and Dekka was glad that she wasn't the only one uncomfortable about it. "Me either."

Dekka laughed. "Really? I'd think anyone would jump at a chance with you." Dekka realized what she'd said a second too late. She didn't want to give Lauren the wrong idea. She was still in love with Brianna, and she wasn't ready for a new girl, not yet...maybe not ever.

Lauren didn't seem to read to much into it though, she just shrugged, almost looking like she really wanted this conversation to be over. "Guess it's just not my thing."

"Yeah, me too," Dekka nodded.

"What did you get for number sixteen?"

"Haven't found it yet," Dekka replied, relieved that she had found a way to change the subject.

Okay! So, this chapter was a bit shorter than last chapter, but I didn't feel that there was anything else to add to it. I wanted to go ahead and do the scene with Dekka and Weston, because it felt like the right time, but I didn't feel that any other major development should come with that, so I most just did small development, like introducing the band teacher, and introducing other small aspects of Headline academy life.

I'm hoping that you all trust me enough at this point to believe that the last scene does, indeed have a purpose!

I know, it didn't feel like the ending was right(or, at least, it didn't to me), but I couldn't think of anything else to add...so yeah.

Question time!

1. Okay, so the part where I sort of summarized a little bit of the first week. There was a lot of things I wanted to introduce, but, if I tried to write a separate scene for each thing, we would never have gotten any real plot development done, so instead I did the small summary thing. I'm still not sure if that was a wise choice, or if I pulled it off well, so, tell me your thoughts. Was it right? Do you think you know something that could have made it better? 20 pts for answering this!

2. Later in the story, I'll touch back on the locker situation, but in your opinions, was the lock closing an accident, or a very well timed trick? 10 points for an answer!

Challenge!

Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar? Jk! ^.^ I couldn't think of a good challenge for this chapter.

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter adn don't forget to review! :D