Author's note:

I must tell you that this is not the chapter I was going to write when I finished the previous chapter. The chapter I was going to write will come after this one. "Why?" you'll ask. Because of you, readers. I was completely blown away by your reviews to the previous chapter. They were smart, thoughtful, and completely spot on! Can't thank you all enough for taking the time to share your thoughts with me. So this chapter is one big reply to all of you (and one guest reviewer may recognize their comment repeated by Ciara almost verbatim)! You inspire me to write smarter and faster. Love you all!

Bo opened her locker and saw another note from Lauren attached by a thin string to the slit in the metal surface. It was partially unfurled, and the side that was facing her had "I'm sorry" written on it. She turned it over to confirm a longer note on the other side. She didn't have any intentions of reading this latest message, but it was hard to ignore the 'sorry' staring right at her.

"Clever girl," Bo mumbled, and was surprised to hear a familiar chuckle over her shoulder. She turned around and, sure enough, Dyson was standing right behind her.

"Another note from Lauren?" he inquired carefully, knowing Bo's temper.

"Whatever." Bo grumbled. She pulled the note from the string that held it attached to the locker and crumbled it, but instead of throwing it away, she shoved it into her backpack. She didn't read them, but for reasons she couldn't articulate even to herself, she found herself keeping every one.

"Maybe it's time you let her out of the dog house, Bo." Dyson suggested, noticing her stashing away the note, even if she tried to be stealthy about it.

"Why do you care? I thought you didn't like her."

"I don't," he confessed, "but you've been grouchy ever since you had a fight with her, and I'm ready for it to be over."

"Grouchy?" Bo fixed her boyfriend with a death stare.

"Yep. Grouchy, peevish, cantankerous, cranky, crotchety. All of those, take your pick." Dyson smirked, ignoring the stare.

"Did you swallow a thesaurus? I see the college admission test prep classes are paying off." Bo teased.

"The test is next week, and my dad has been driving me nuts about studying." He kicked the locker in frustration. "You know one wrong answer could mean the difference between Harvard and University of Alaska, Yukon extension campus?" He said impersonating his father.

"OK," Bo laughed, "but what about the police academy? When are you going to grow a pair and tell him about that?"

"Look, let's not talk about it now," Dyson cut her off, all good mood evaporated. "Do you have a game tonight?"

"Yes, it's a home game. Will you come?"

"No, have the class tonight for the test prep, sorry. But I'll make it up to you." He promised and pecked her on the lips. He turned to leave, but Bo halted him with a quick word.

"Hey Dyson" She waited a beat before continuing. "How come you never bought me flowers?" she asked when he came back to stand by her.

"Do you like flowers?" he asked, genuinely curious.

"No, not really." Bo admitted.

"Then whey?" Dyson inquired, confused by where this conversation was headed.

"Never mind. I'll see you tomorrow." She dismissed the topic, turning to head to her next class.

"Later!" he called out, but she was already turning the corner and out of range.

x

Lauren was sitting next to Ciara and across from Nadia and Lachlan in the cafeteria, but she wasn't paying much attention to the conversation around her until Ciara elbowed her in the shoulder.

"Earth to Lauren" she repeated an old joke between them.

"Sorry, what'd I miss?" Lauren looked up at her friend, embarrassed for zoning out again.

"Noting important, I just wanted to see if you were still sitting beside me, or were replaced by a holographic image." Ciara smiled at the younger teen.

"Present and accounted for" Lauren smiled back.

"Still no answer from Bo?" Ciara guessed the reason behind Lauren's melancholy. When Lauren nodded, confirming her guess, Ciara huffed in indignation. "How long are you going to be running after her like a puppy? You tried. You made a real effort. If she can't accept that, it's time to move on." She enthused. "I get that she's important to you, but she's not your only friend anymore."

"Ciara, if it wasn't for Bo, I wouldn't be friends with you guys" Lauren tried to explain.

"Bollocks!" Lachlan piped in. "We are friends with you because of who you are, not because Bo introduced us."

"He's right," Nadia chimed in. "Even without Bo we would have met you eventually."

"No, you don't get it." Lauren whined, frustrated her friends didn't understand. She needed them to understand.

"Before I met Bo, I wouldn't have…" she trailed off, unable to explain that she had given up on having friends before meeting Bo. "The last time I had a friend was two years ago. Her name was Mia, we were in the same math and science classes. It started out great, but one day she said she left her math homework at home and asked if she can copy mine. I agreed. Soon, she was forgetting her homework for the science class, and a month later she was sharing a desk with me in both classes, copying my homework, my tests, anything else we were assigned. I didn't even see she was using me. My science teacher pulled me aside and told me that her scores have gone from C- to A+ without any explanation. I still remember how he looked at me. But I didn't care. I had a friend, and if I was able to help her, all the better, right?" Lauren spoke without looking up at her friends, not wanting to see their pity.

"Well, one day I was in the bathroom and I heard her talking to another girl about how she had to put up with an 'insufferable egghead Lewis' to get her grades up, and how she missed her real friends who wouldn't be caught dead anywhere near 'that freak' and avoided her because of me. After that, I gave up trying.

"Bo didn't just introduce me to you guys. She showed me that it's possible for me to have friends.

"The irony if it is, until our fight after she got sick in cafeteria, I didn't think of her as a friend. I wouldn't allow myself to, so I wouldn't be disappointed like with all the others. But she told me she was my friend, and I got it then – that friendship doesn't have to be reciprocated to be real, and that I hurt her far deeper than I realized." Lauren said, digging her nails into the palms of her hand, remembering that wretched day.

"I have to get her to forgive me, and to make amends, even she doesn't want to be friends from now on. The first schoolmate who was nice to me in a very long time, and I pay her back by making her sick in front of everyone. I can't let it end like that."

She was feeling emotional, and thought it was better to not dissolve into tears in front of everyone, but couldn't find the excuse to leave. She was saved by the bell, literally, when it announced the end of the lunch period.

They all got up, and Ciara grabbed Lauren's hand before she could run off.

"Want to go to the movies today?" She asked the group.

"Sure!" Nadia and Lachlan answered eagerly.

But Lauren hesitated. "I have chemistry lab at the U after school, and it's a school night." She tried to beg off.

"Oh Lauren, live a little. We'll go after your lab. Meet us outside at seven." Nadia insisted, and Lauren found herself unable to decline.

Later that evening Lauren got off the bus and saw her friends waiting in the car at the school entrance. She ran up to them, knowing she was a bit late. But before she could apologize, Lachlan pointed at her back pack "Do you have a mini lab in that thing? How are you even standing with this thing on?"

"You get used to it," Lauren answered, "But you are right, I do have a microscope and a few odds and ends in there. Maybe I can leave it in my locker, if you guys don't mind waiting a few more minutes" she inquired from the group.

"Sure, Lauren, we have time. Go rid yourself of this monstrosity." Ciara said from behind the wheel.

Lauren took off up the stairs to the school entrance as fast as her admittedly heavy backpack would allow. She was just spinning the dial on her locker when she heard voices coming towards her, then turned to see the soccer team was streaming out of the gym showers. They looked unhappy, and most seemed in the hurry to leave the building and head home. But Clio saw Lauren standing alone and made her way towards the blond.

Lauren hesitated. Clio was her nemesis, but she had mostly ignored Lauren since the incident, and surly she knew who was responsible. So maybe this would be an opportunity to apologize to the older teenager about getting her so sick she ended up hospitalized.

Too late she recognized the look in the other girl's eyes. Trouble was coming and Lauren had nowhere to go.

"What luck to run into you, Lauren. And without any witnesses!" Clio cackled, grabbing Lauren by the front of her uniform and dragging her down the hallway. Lauren's legs barely touched the ground as she was pulled away by a much stronger, much taller teen. They stopped at Clio's locker, and she wrenched it open, rooting inside one-handed until she came up with a plastic bag. Inside was a brown clump that smelled like peanut butter.

"Since you were so kind to share your cookies with me, I thought I'd return a favor with a peanut butter sandwich. Pity I don't have any bread, but I wasn't planning on running into you today, so you'll just have to eat it as is."

There was likely rat poison, or something equally unsavory in the clump, Lauren knew, and she tried to break free, but she couldn't dislodge the arm pressing her against a locker. "Open wide, Lauren. Say 'Aaaa'" Clio insisted, waving the hand with clump inches from Lauren's face.

Lauren clenched shut her teeth and lips, and then her eyes for good measure.

One hand still wrapped in Lauren's shirt, Clio had no chance of forcing Lauren's mouth to open, so she let go and instead slammed her body against the younger teen to hold her immobile against the locker. The loud bang from the force of the contact echoed around the empty hallway.

Both hands now free, Clio grabbed Lauren's nose and squeezed the nostrils shut. Lauren felt the pressure building and knew it would only be seconds until she was forced to open her mouth to take in air. She didn't want to think about what would happen next.

Surely, not being shoved and feeling herself separated from her tormentor. Lauren opened her eyes to see an unlikely ally coming to her rescue. Bo had both arms wrapped around her teammate and kept smashing her against the row of lockers repeatedly.

"I told you to stay away from her, Clio. What the fuck?!" Bo hissed in the other girl's face. Clio's mousy features scrunched up and turned purple with anger.

"You want me to just let it go? After what she did to me?" She screeched, trying, unsuccessfully, to push Bo off.

"I don't give a damn about your bruised ego, Clio. If I ever catch you anywhere near her I will…" She was interrupted when an adult, authoritative voice called out "Bo! Stop this immediately!"

Their principal was running towards them, Ciara trotting behind her. Bo scowled, but stepped away from her teammate, not tacking her eyes off of her.

"What is the meaning of this?" The principal demanded.

"Just a little misunderstanding, Dr. Unamen. Everything is fine." Bo tried to reassure the principal, but she didn't seem very convincing, standing squared off and staring at Clio.

Lauren got the impression that Bo didn't want to her to explain what had happened, so she remained quiet. But Clio had other ideas.

"Bo has been covering up for Lauren and threatening me." she groused. "Lauren admitted she was the one who poisoned the team, and Bo's been preventing me from telling anyone about it. But I won't be silent anymore. Lauren needs to be held responsible for what she did!"

"Is it true, Lauren?" Dr. Unamen turned toward the young blond.

"Yes," Lauren admitted her part, "But Bo..."

She was not allowed to finish.

"Enough. Bo, Lauren, my office. Now!" The Principal commanded and led the way, both pupils trailing behind her.

Ciara watched them go, wondering if showing up with Principal in tow had hurt Bo and Lauren's chance at a reconciliation. She started to worry when Lauren had taken longer than expected to return, and then saw the soccer team come out and decided her young friend could be in trouble. She raced towards the lockers but was stopped by the principal who wanted to know why Ciara was running around the school at this hour. Ciara didn't even had a chance to come up with a plausible lie when they heard the banging sounds from just up ahead and both followed the noise. They walked in to see Lauren standing off to the side, and Bo shoving Clio against a locker with quite a bit of force.

Ciara was happy to see that whatever had happened between Clio and Lauren, Bo had obviously intervened on the younger girl's behalf. But now they were both in trouble with the principal, and Clio was standing there, clearly pleased with how things turned out as well.

"Show's over, Ciara. This round goes to Clio. Run along now." Clio mocked.

Ciara had turned to leave, but the gloating in the other girl's voice was making her blood boil.

"You think you've won here? If you want to take her on, you're either daft or have a death wish."

"Who? Bo? I can handle Bo." Clio dismissed, despite their earlier confrontation.

"All evidence to the contrary, I wouldn't be so sure." Ciara rebuked, "But I was actually referring to Lauren. You have no idea how smart she is, and what she's capable of. So unless you have someone taste your food for the rest of the year, you should leave her alone."

The memories of the vomiting and diarrhea had momentarily wiped the smirk right off of Clio's face. Until she remembered that both girls were now sitting in the principal's office.

"No matter." She stated with renewed confidence. "With any luck, they will both be suspended, or better yet, expelled, after tonight."

"I wouldn't count on it," Ciara cautioned. "They need Lauren for the science fair. The first round is next week, and if she gets suspended, she won't be eligible to participate. And Bo… Somebody pulled some serious strings and to get her into this school and paid her tuition, so I wouldn't bet on her getting kicked out either." She pointed out.

Her warning delivered, she turned and headed back out. She hoped she was right and that Lauren wouldn't get suspended, which would put a huge bummer on everyone's mood. Otherwise, they had a movie to catch!