{S E V E N}

Fake friends only tell me what I want to hear.

Real friends aren't afraid to tell me what I may not want to hear.

My mom was a single parent, but that didn't mean life was hard for us.

Sure, it was tough getting to where we are now, but thankfully, all that is finally behind us. As a single parent, my mom had to manage time between different jobs. I also had to contribute into helping this little family get past day to day life.

Honestly, now that I was earning some money for myself, I would have liked to spend it on stuff I wanted.

But there was no room for selfishness in our house, thus forcing me to cough up roughly eighty percent of the money I made at the café. In the end, it wasn't so bad, as long as there was food on the table and we weren't being threatened to get kicked out anytime soon by our landlord.

I bet you're all wondering where my dad is, huh? Don't worry; he's happy, healthy and still living.

With the woman he constantly saw behind my mother's back, of course.

It was a long time ago, but apparently, my dad had started cheating on my mom around when I recently made the big transition from the age of ten to eleven. My mom eventually found out, thus them divorcing. It wasn't a pretty sight alright.

Despite the divorce, it didn't stop my dad from spending time with me every now and again. He would pick me up from school every Friday on every second week of the month, and we'd go somewhere fun, usually to the park. But whenever he got the opportunity or permission from my mom to bring me back to his house for a sleepover for the whole weekend, I would always wriggle my way out, making up some excuse not to go.

Why? Because I was mad at him. Don't misunderstand; I love my dad (To a certain extent, I guess). But that didn't stop me from still not forgiving him, even up to today, for the amount of stress and worry he's caused my mom while he was secretly seeing Carol behind her back. I remember peeking into the living room late at night, and seeing my mom wait nervously on the couch for my dad to come home.

She would fidget in her seat, her puffy, red eyes constantly darting to the clock hanging on the wall while she unconsciously tapped her knee. And her face would always have a frown on it, the frown only getting deeper as another hour passed by. And when dad would finally come home, he'd give her the most ridiculous excuses ever.

"There was an accident on the road today so there was a lot of heavy traffic."

"I had a lot of paperwork at the office today; it was really hard to sort through it all."

"I know I've been coming home late a lot lately, but it's because I'm working overtime."

My dad obviously had no problem of taking advantage of my mom's trust. She was easy to fool, mindlessly believing whatever pathetic excuse he had ready for her. Because in the end, all it mattered for my mom was that dad was back home, safe and sound.

To see someone play with another's heart was truly a scary sight.

I sighed, putting down my biology book. There was only a couple of days left until my exams, and I was determined to show everyone that all those tutoring sessions with Near and Mello were going to pay off. Speaking of them, my tutoring sessions had ended a week ago. And although I wasn't the only one benefiting from those sessions, they needed to study on their own too.

There was a loud knock on the door before my mom poked her head in. She was holding out the phone, "It's your dad."

"Dad?" I thought. "Speak of the devil."

Getting of my bed, I took the phone from her and said, "Hello?"

"[Name], darling!" Instead of hearing my dad's deep and friendly voice, it was a familiar woman's voice painfully breaking my eardrum. Her voice was way too friendly for any comfort, not to mention dangerously high-pitched, as if she constantly sucked a balloon of its helium.

There was only one woman on Earth that could have such a ridiculous voice; dad's girlfriend, Carol. Oh, and how I hated her.

"Where's my dad?" I quickly said. I know I was being rude here, not bothering greeting her back. But Carol was the last person I wanted to talk to right now. And despite her over friendly and girly voice, she wasn't all rainbows and butterflies either.

"Why, Steve's in the bathroom right now, cupcake!" Carol answered, adding a light and annoying giggle at the end. I resisted the urge to facepalm, instantly knowing something was up. She was never nice to me or anyone else whenever dad wasn't in the same room. She must want something from me. Again.

"What do you want now, Carol?" I tiredly asked. I could feel a headache coming on; I wasn't in the mood for her playing around any longer. "I have a lot of homework to do so-"

"Alright, alright! Clam down, jeez." Carol's voice said, dropping the friendly tone. "For some reason your dad didn't want to tell you this himself, but I'm going to take a wild guess here and say it's probably because of your annoying and pessimistic attitude towards him. But either way, he's inviting you to go on a holiday with us over the Summer."

"What?" What did she mean by my annoying and pessimistic attitude? Sure, I was a pest to Carol but did I give off the same image towards my dad? Probably, but I hoped not to that sort of extent. And going on a holiday with my dad and Carol? No, thank you very much. But why didn't he want to talk to me about this himself?

"I know, right?" Carol huffed. "I mean, I don't like you, and you obviously don't like me. But I don't care about you, you would only ruin the holiday for us if you tagged along. Not to mention that I think your dad's only inviting you out of pity or something."

Carol definitely didn't bother to hide her dislike towards me whenever she could. And honestly, I was happy to know that I didn't have to fake a smile whenever she was personally around (Which was very rare, thank God).

"I don't care if you don't want me to go." I answered truthfully, my voice slightly rising. "Because I'm not going anyway!"

I found myself starting to hope that this was just another one of my dad's ways to get me and Carol to be friendly with each other. And that obviously wasn't going to happen any time soon. Or ever.

And despite all that I went to bed that night feeling uneasy.

"My dad called last night. But instead, I ended up talking to Carol."

The school was unusually quiet on Monday mornings. I was starting to guess it was because it was marking the beginning of another week, full of homework yet to be completed and tests yet to be studied for.

That morning, I was working on my stupid English homework in the school's library while Matt was sitting quietly across from me. I was trying to finish another paragraph about a poet we had to write about, while trying to block the faint sound of Mario's voice coming from Matt's new 3DS.

"Really?" Matt said, not looking up from the screen. "What did she say?"

Apart from my confidential student profile in the school and at the café, only Matt and Mello knew about my parent's divorce. I had told them, about the whole backround story and about Carol. They knew how it was the main reason why we moved into the city, despite my mom denying it.

It's not like it was a secret, I would have openly admitted that my parents were divorced if anyone asked. But at the same time it was like personal information that I wanted to keep on the down low.

"My dad was inviting me to go on a holiday with them." I explained, before snorting loudly. "So she called to tell me she didn't want me going with them."

"That's harsh." Matt commented, finally looking from the screen. "I can't believe they're still together."

I shrugged, "Me neither."

"We should be getting to class though." Matt said, glancing at the nearby clock on the wall. "Five minutes left until English. Do you have that homework ready?"

I showed him my copy, and he grinned, "Good girl."

English that day painfully rolled by. I impatiently chewed on the end of my pen throughout the whole class, earning some weird looks from my classmates. I couldn't help it though, I was bored. And by the time the bell finally rang, I quickly shoved all my books into my bag and pushed my way out the classroom door.

I didn't know what was wrong with me today; I could definitely tell there was something bothering me though. Whatever it was, I couldn't exactly tell myself. Although whenever I dwelled too much on the thought, Carol's face kept popping up in my mind.

Was it because of her? Was it because of that stupid phone call last night? Her dislikeable attitude wasn't new to me, so I don't know why it was affecting me so much.

"It's obvious, isn't it?" Said a voice in my head. "She's trying to push you and your dad away."

I didn't know I was crying until someone roughly bumped pass me, causing me to stagger backwards into another student. Whoever it was, they were obviously not happy with someone blocking their way and pushed me forwards, me landing painfully on my knees.

I quickly got up, roughly wiping my tears away, hoping that nobody had seen them.

Unknown to me, a certain pair of green eyes were carefully watching from a distance.

I found myself sitting alone underneath our usual spot later that afternoon. I was embarrassed and utterly confused. What the hell was bothering me so much that caused me to cry?

"Here." I looked up, surprised to see Matt standing above me. He was holding out a chocolate bar, and I instantly noticed it was the one of the many chocolate bars that Mello had stashed in his locker.

When I didn't look up to take the chocolate from him, Matt looked confused, "What? Don't girls like chocolate?"

I let out a light laugh, "Unless they're from Mello's locker. You don't know how long they've been in there, plus Mello's highly possessive of his chocolate."

Matt shrugged, "It's cheaper than going to the store."

I raised an eyebrow. Matt always denied any accusations of him being cheap. Although he could afford to buy a 3DS with his own money, without a part-time job I might add, going to the store to buy a chocolate bar was apparently a little too much.

Matt sighed, taking a seat beside me on the grass, "I saw you crying earlier on. I wanted to cheer you up."

"So you broke into Mello's locker and stole his chocolate bar?"

"To give to you!" He argued. He sighed again, looking up at the tree, "What's bothering you, [Name]?"

"I don't know." I admitted, embarrassedly. "I think…I think it's because of Carol calling last night. Whenever I think back on the call, I suddenly remember just how far apart me and my dad have been lately. It's up to the point where he's trying to get Carol to talk to me instead of him doing it himself. Carol, Matt, Carol. Does he think I hate him or something and that I don't want to talk to him? Because…Because I…I…"

Matt was silent for a moment. I suddenly became lost in my own thoughts, and I slightly jumped when Matt started talking again, "Well, one thing's for sure. You're holding a grudge against him, [Name]."

When I didn't speak, Matt continued, "Your dad's trying to reconnect with you again. But your grudge against him for everything that's happened with your family is making you push him away. I can tell that you don't want him gone from your life, but your actions are saying differently."

"You need to learn how to forgive, [Name]." Matt said, edging closer towards me. "The reason you're so upset is because Carol is trying to break you two apart even more. And maybe you haven't realized how bad the situation is between you and your dad until last night."

When Matt was finish talking, my eyes were already wet with tears again. He wrapped a comforting arm around my shoulder, and I couldn't help but snuggle closer into the warmth of his chest.

I suddenly felt better at Matt's words. All those jumbled thoughts and feelings inside me suddenly made sense. I needed to see through my grudge against my dad and move on. It might take a while, but I didn't want to see my dad walking away from my life forever. Especially if Carol was encouraging the motive.

Coming home from work later that day, I was feeling a lot better than I was that morning. I grabbed the phone as soon as I could, dialling my dad's number. That call was the longest we've had for a long while, and I loved it. The moment I heard his surprised voice, I could feel all tension between us slowly go away. I had told him that although I couldn't go on holiday with him and Carol, I was hoping we could have lunch together some time in the park, just like how it used to be.

After school on every Friday of every second week of the month.

And so ended another week full of surprises. I had gone to the park with my dad on Friday, and despite how distant we were being lately, we silently made up that afternoon. It was fun, and different in a way, since I was the one making the first move to revive our dad-daughter relationship.

On Saturday morning, I was contentedly eating my bowl of cereal on the couch when Mello barged into the living room, Matt following closely behind him. He was waving a piece of paper in the air, like the madman he was. I inwardly snorted, wondering what Mello was going to complain about now.

"How did you get into my house?" I questioned. Mello ignored me, waving the paper in front of my face, "What the hell is this?"

Snatching the paper from his hand, I looked over it once before giving Mello a look that said, "Are you serious?"

The paper was a torn section from the school's newspaper. It was a bunch of baloney though, and I personally thought that they should switch to being a gossip magazine instead. Half the stuff in there was utter ridiculousness, but a majority of our school still read it (Apparently it was a good laugh) so that's why the newspaper club is still up and running today.

It was the reigning tower of gossip, and was said to be the best place to go to for dirt on other people. The club mostly consisted of stuck-up future journalist and photographers, using their skills and hobbies to torment any unlucky student who caught their interest. And if you happen to get featured in one of their articles, don't expect the constant verbal bullying and taunts to die down any time soon.

I gulped the last spoonful of my cereal, before reading the article out loud.

SUMMER ROMANCE IS IN THE AIR! MEIL JEEVAS AND [FIRST NAME] [LAST NAME]'S SECRET RELATIONSHIP REVEALED!

With summer vacation right around the corner, what better way to start the holidays early by getting yourself into a summer romance? Apparently, that's one definite way to celebrate the incoming summer vacation for our two new lovebirds!

Spotted cuddling outside the school's back area, how long have these two been keeping their relationship a secret from the public eye? Of course, being the only female in their tight-knitted group of friends, there's been a lot of speculation about [First Name] [Last Name]'s relationship with either the infamous Mail Jeevas or Mihael Keehl.

No need to wonder anymore, people, it's pretty obvious now which boy has captured [Name]'s heart! But how long do you think their summer fling will last before [Name] switches to our school's stubborn and hot-headed Mihael Keehl?

"What the hell?" I growled, crumpling the newspaper in my hand. "Where did they come up with this sort of bull?"

Mello's eyes turned to Matt, and we both looked at him until he looked up from that stain on the floor where I spilled orange juice last night. Shoot, I should really clean that up before mom sees.

He sighed, running a hand through his hair, "A girl confronted us on our way here, said her name was Kathy. Kathy turned out to be the news editor of our school's paper, and started asking all these weird questions about our so-called relationship. Neither of us understood what she was talking about, so she showed us that."

Matt pointed at the article in my hand before continuing, "It was part of a bigger piece before Mello ripped it off and ran off with it, dragging me along behind him."

Before Mello could protest, the doorbell rang. I got up from the couch and took a quick peek through the window and saw a girl with crazy pink hair standing outside. When no one answered, she rang the doorbell again. She looked pissed, so I stayed where I was.

"Who is it?" Mello asked.

"It's a girl with pink hair." I said, backing away from the window. "She looks really pissed off."

"That's Kathy!" Matt said, before lowering his voice instantly. "She's here for that stupid article! Don't give it to her!"

"What should we do then?" I whispered. Why did I start whispering? "Wait for her to leave?"

"I know you're in there!" Kathy shouted from the other side of the door. "Surrender immediately!"

"Just open the damn door, Matt." Mello huffed.

"Why do I have to do it? [Name], open the door!"

"No way! You both stole the article, you both broke into my house, one of you do it!"

"I didn't steal anything!" Matt said, looking shocked. "And it was Mello's bright idea to climb over the fence and through the open window in your kitchen!"

"Shut up, Matt!" The blonde chocolate-addict quickly tackled the poor red-headed boy onto the floor, nearly knocking me over and my mom's favourite lamp in the process. All three of us eventually ended in ball of tussling limbs, and when we heard a loud rap on the window, it was only then we all looked up from our small scuffle.

Kathy had her nose pressed up against the window, glaring at us through the glass.

I sighed, getting up to open the door.

"I want my article back." Kathy said, eyeing all three of us disdainfully. "So hand it over, pretty boy."

Me and Matt could see the laugh that Mello was trying to hold back at the nickname 'pretty boy', "That article is full of bull, and you know it."

Kathy huffed, "I didn't write it! One of our reporters did. That's the only file we have on the article, so I really need it back!"

I looked over at Kathy, staring at her up and down. She wore a t-shirt which had the band Nickelback on the front. Her pink hair was short and wavy, and she had a pretty small frame. On her feet were a pair of big, black boots, and I was pretty sure she wouldn't hesitate to use them to stomp on Mello's face if he didn't give her stupid article back.

"And you're still going to publish it even though you know it's not true?" I asked.

"Our school's paper is always full of misleading rumours." Kathy said, indifferently shrugging her shoulder.

I shook my head, ripping the piece of paper in half, "Then this is one rumour your paper can do without."

Mello and Matt had to literally wrestle Kathy off of me after that. And even after they had kicked her out, she continued to bang on the door and shout profanities at me through the mail box. It wasn't until my mom came home that she finally left.

Later on that afternoon, me, Mello and Matt were sitting out at the back on the garden bench. The sun was starting to go down, and we had a nice view of the on-coming sunset while eating out of a tub of chocolate ice cream that we found in the back of the freezer. The bench was a bit too small for three teenagers to sit together in, but I managed to squeeze myself between them.

"I can't help but think our school is slightly messed up." I mused, balancing my spoon on my nose.

"I second that." Mello said.

Matt nodded, chuckling, "At least no one's going to know about mine and [Name]'s so-called summer romance. Forever Alone~" He imitated a tear rolling down his cheek.

I chuckled along with him, wrapping an arm around Mello and Matt's shoulders, "We'll be the 'Forever Alone' buddies!"

Mello shrugged my arm off, giving me a look, "I don't want to be forever alone!"

"Why, is there a certain somebody you have your eye on?" I wriggled my eyebrows at him.

He paused for a moment, looking away to ponder, before going back to me with a cocky smirk on his face, "Maybe."

"Oooh!" Me and Matt simultaneously said. "Who is it?"

Mello snorted, grabbing the tub of ice cream from my lap, "I'm not telling. Idiots."

I'm really sorry for the lack of updates, but I've been bed-bound up until recently because of chicken pox! But anyway, looking back I came to the conclusion that I really needed to work on my character development. Also, I needed to make my chapters longer while still keeping them interesting. So what did you guys think about this chapter? Did you like it? Is there anything I should improve on? And what would you like to see in the next chapter? It won't be long until we're onto their summer vacation itself!

Thank you reading! And thank you for the reviews! They're really helpful, haha ^_^