I do not own the Secret Life of the American Teenager in any kind of way; it's all from Brenda Hampton.

Grace's PoV

Guilt washed over me every time I walked past Amy and didn't converse with her. I felt bad for leaving her high and dry by herself to deal with all of this. She was a good person and she didn't deserve to be thrown aside and talked about. Adrian had done this to her, tricking Ashley into telling her Amy's secrets, and now everyone knew. Adrian had done some mean things, but this took the cake. So, why was I still hanging with her?

Sometimes I felt like I just couldn't get away. We were so attached. I admit we had our problems when we were much younger, but it all changed when she started dating Ricky. Personally, I thought she was a slut, still do, yet, I've learned how to keep my opinions to myself when it came to Adrian. I didn't want her flying off the handle and threatening my life or anything. She was quite the drama queen.

Speaking of, she chose that moment to come waltzing down the hallway. I rolled my eyes heavily. Ever since I'd been staying with her, I've tried to get away from her. All she talked about was herself, herself, my brother, and let me see, oh, herself. Can you say conceited and self-absorbed? Although, she had distracted me from my light depression, which was actually going away anyway thanks to Amy. Amy had said all the right things, forced me to go outside and get some sunshine, at first, I didn't like it, just wanted her to leave me alone and let me wallow in my desolation, but she hadn't. Now, what was I doing to her?

She went from being this innocent girl to the guilty party in an instant. No one had taken the time to try to understand her or hear her side of the story. All of our peers stared at her and whispered, but I had to give it to Amy, she was taking it better than I would.

"Have you seen your brother?" Adrian asked angrily, nearly standing on top of me. She was tense. I dragged my purse onto my shoulder and huffed.

"No, Adrian I haven't," I said shutting my locker and turning on my heels to walk to my next class. "I don't keep him in my back pocket," I heard her heels clicking behind me. She was practically running.

"Is something wrong? Is he cheating on me? Grace I haven't had sex with Ricky in two weeks," she said whining. I paused for a moment, not looking at her, only shaking my head, and then continuing the walk to my English class.

"Gross, I really don't want to hear about you and my brother sleeping together Adrian," I said trying to shake the images out of my head.

"Sorry, forgot about your virgin ears, virgin Mary," she said rolling her eyes. I grumbled incoherently.

"If you haven't heard, the Virgin Mary was a pretty significant person in the bible, unlike you who would probably be stoned for being such a whore," I stated agitated. She gasped, grabbing my shoulder and stepping in front of me. I raised my eyebrow at her, wondering why she was stopping me.

"What did you just say to me?" She asked in disbelief. I removed her hand from my arm and she stepped back slowly. "Why are you being a bitch? All week you've been saying things out-of-the-way to me, like I'm some irrelevant little girl. What's your problem? Did Amy rub off on you?" She asked. Once again, she was trying to bash Amy. I didn't like that she talked about her with so much disrespect.

"Leave Amy out of this Adrian. This is about you and me, well mostly about you," I brushed past her, trying to get to my class as soon as possible. "I'm going to class, you should go to," I shouted back to her as I cut around the corner. This situation would've gone better if I didn't have to go home with her.

Entering my class, I threw my purse down and plopped into my seat; all talking in the classroom ceased as Adrian walked in angrily, huffing and puffing.

"Were not done Castel. Tell me… tell me what you're fuckin' deal is. I ask you about your brother and you go all fanatical on me. What's this about?" She shouted madly from the front of the room. All eyes were on me waiting for my response, I ignored them.

"I'm not doing this here Adrian. I will not entertain people with drama. Maybe when we get somewhere more private, we'll talk," I said with a surprising calmness.

"Damn privacy Grace," Adrian declared, leisurely walking towards me. She was pushing me, and I really didn't want to do this here. I was more calm and collected than this, something wasn't right for me to be all upset at school. I never let shit like this get to me.

"Adrian, I'm trying not to hurt your feelings," I whispered to her as she got closer to me, all the students were still staring at us. A few of them had their phones out, texting their friends and recording what was happening.

"Hurt my feelings Grace? I doubt you could do that, even Amy couldn't do it and she's a natural-born Narcissist bitch, well that's what Ashley says anyway," she smirked satisfactorily. I shook my head at her. She's at it again, bringing Amy up where she's not needed.

"Why do you keep talking about her?" I asked loudly. "You hate that everyone loved her, everyone, even Ricky and Ben, and don't think I don't know about you and Ben, we all know about that. My brother is just too stupid or to nice too nice to leave you. So I hope, I hope Amy takes him away from you and I hope they live happily ever after because you don't deserve him, so stop bitching and moaning about Amy wanting him because trust me, it's not her," I said walking closer to Adrian with every word. Instead of shrinking back, she stood there like I knew she would. Adrian wasn't the type to back down, I'm sure I would be on her shit list now, but who cares? Adrian and I were done. I've seen her for what she truly is.

Nora's PoV

I don't know what to do anymore. This whole situation was becoming too much to bear. Joseph what went wrong? I asked myself as I sat in front of the lawyer's desk. We were supposed to be heading over to the prison to see him, to sort a few things out. The system had yet to set a court date, which was another thing that was nagging me. They were going to put it off to try to get more information, more evidence.

The list of charges kept extending every day. I couldn't tell you all the things that he could possibly be spending the rest of his life in jail for, or worse, put on death row. I ran my fingers through my hair thinking about it. What would I tell Grace? She wouldn't even come home. Ricky already knew the possibilities, and he was holding back his feelings pretty well. I knew it was killing him. Joseph is the only father he knew, since his own daddy was never around. I used to blame myself for that.

"Okay, so we know they have him for murder, he didn't have contact with the victim, but he got someone else to do it, so that's up to fifteen years. Then you bring in the racketeering charges," he said moving papers around, and examining them as he spoke. I'd been sitting here listening to this all day, it was hell to hear that this was damn near hopeless. This was too much to handle right now; I won't put myself through this.

Picking up my folders and wallet, I stuffed it all in my tote bag; he stopped to stare up at me over his glasses.

"Nora, where are you going?" he asked. "We're not finished with this," he said as I turned my back to walk towards the door.

"I just can't do this today, I'm sorry. Please, give me some time," I said looking back at him.

"Joseph doesn't have time Nora. We have to at least get him out on bail, get him released with limitations," Graham said standing up from his desk, his hands still on top of it. I sighed. He seemed to see the trepidations in my body. He relaxed a bit, huffing lightly. "Okay… Okay Nora, we'll uh… we'll pick up again next week Friday if that's good for you. I'll just go visit Joe and tell him," he said taking his glasses off and rubbing down his face.

"Thank you for understanding Graham," I said putting my hand on the door knob. "Look, tell Joseph that I'm sorry I didn't come today," I said before walking out of the door.

Today was the first time I wouldn't see him since he's been away, and somehow, I didn't feel bad about it. I need this time to myself. I need to get Grace back home, so we can deal with her feelings. It's up to me to pull this family together, and I have to prepare for the worst. I have to learn to live without him, no matter how much it kills me inside.

Ben's PoV

I didn't feel right about this. Nora was a good person, she was only trying to protect her family, but I had to protect mine too. My dad was counting on me to get this right. It wasn't like I hadn't done it before; it was just different with the victim being her. I loved Nora, she'd been there for me, and cared for me like only a mother knew how. This was turning into an inner battle with my self. My father was calling me every hour telling me that it was for the best. I was actually starting to believe him.

Last night at the dinner table, we were silent, well, I was silent. He kept badgering me, telling me that I had to do it right. He was trying to push me into it, but he didn't know that I couldn't, that I didn't want to. Damn it, what have I gotten myself into?

Now, here I was sitting here watching her, listening to Peyton and Grant, my friends outside of Ricky and Grant High School. They weren't having qualms about any of this because they didn't know her. They hated the Castels, all of them. Especially Peyton, whose dad used to work for Joseph, until Joseph exiled him and brought in, Peyton's dad's brother George. George wasn't talked about much in our world, he'd been a sellout, cut the family for his own, but Joseph couldn't get away from him. George had been his best friend.

"So, what's the plan Ben?" Peyton asked from the passenger seat. He ran a hand through his shaggy brown hair. Peyton Jurgens determined to follow in his father's footsteps and damn was he doing a great job of it, hell, he was practically out doing his father. He was a pretty scary guy to be as small as he was, moderately intimidating.

"There is no plan yet, just sit back and look pretty right now," I said smirking at them. Peyton brushed his brown bangs to the side, rubbing his stomach.

"I can do that," he said leaning back with his hands behind his head. I could never break his heart and tell him that he wasn't that pretty, the thought made me smile.

"Is that her?" Grant asked from behind us. I looked in the rearview mirror to see her coming out of the lawyer's office. She looked as though she were crying. Shit, could I really do this to her? She's going through all of this shit, was it right for me to disrupt her life with more bull. Was I really going to be able to hurt her?

Amy's PoV

Ricky had been on his phone for a while. I'm not sure who he was talking to, but he sounded upset. I pulled my legs to my chest which was a pretty hard task since I was in a seatbelt, but I made it work. I looked in the rearview mirror still watching the black car behind us. Ricky glanced at me and then looked in his side mirror. I didn't pay much attention to his conversation.

"Don't worry about it, I'll fix it," he said authoritatively before throwing the phone into the backseat. His knuckles gripped the steering wheel tighter and touched his arm. He looked at my hand; I slowly pulled it away, putting it back in my lap. "Do you ever get so tired of someone that you'll do anything to get rid of them?" He asked me seriously. Looking at him confused, I opened my mouth, and then closed it.

"Um, where is this question coming from and where is it going?" I asked with a blank chuckle. Ricky didn't answer me, only sped up as the black car did the same behind us. "Ricky is everything okay?" I asked looking back at the car again. I had a feeling the occupant of the black vehicle was the reason for his question.

"Things are never okay with me," he said under his breath. His phone rang from the back seat and he didn't bother to try to reach back and receive it.

"Do you want me to get that?" I asked pointing to the back seat and leaning my head on my knees.

"No, let it ring. I already know who it is," he spoke at me. He wasn't paying much attention to anything at all. I noticed that he was more distracted than usual. He slammed his hands on the wheel and I flinched, but not enough for him to notice. It looked as though he were trying to come up with a plan. Years ago, my father and I had been involved in a situation like this.

Flashback

My father sped down the highway in his vintage black Camaro. I was strapped tightly in the backseat, tears falling down my face. He looked back at me, sympathy and fear in his eyes. The large grey truck slammed into the back of our car and I screamed crying harder.

"It's going to be okay baby. Daddy's going to protect you from the bad people," he said reaching back and touching my hand. I grabbed his hand not wanting to let go. I squeezed it tightly into my little hand. Bravely, I let go of it as I lifted my head to see what was going on behind us, but the truck wasn't there anymore, instead it was beside us, ramming into the car.

My seat belt snapped off as I flew to the other side of the car, bumping my head on the window.

"Daddy," I called out in my tiny voice, whimpering. He looked back quickly with wide eyes. Crawling back to the middle of the seat, I tried to put my belt back on, but it wouldn't click. The truck rammed us again and I screeched. Glancing out the window, I could see a black gun pointed at the window.

"Oh God," my dad said from the front seat, obviously seeing the same thing I was. "Ames, sweetie, I want you to get on the floor okay baby, cover your head and don't get up until I tell you to," he said frantically as I followed his directions and closed my eyes, hoping this would end soon.

The car swerved as I heard shots ring out into the air. Glass shattered and I felt it rain down on my head, some piercing my skin. Why were these men trying to hurt us?

Another shot was fired as our car swerved again; I could feel us taking a large dip as my bodied banged into the seat in front of me. I screamed as my daddy called out for me. There was a screeching of tires that came from above us on the road. The sound of shouting filled my ears.

"What do you want? I thought I made it clear I was finished," My daddy said, panic in his voice. I heard a dark, sinister laugh. Peeking from my hiding space, I saw this man that reminded me of the California surfers my mother used to tell me about. The way she described them fit this man perfectly. He had blonde shaggy hair, light green eyes, and his skin looked like he'd been in the sun too long.

"Oh George, you just don't know how much we're not finished with you," he said pulling my daddy out of the car, daddy went willingly. I gasped as I saw a knife to his throat. One of the boys with the man that had my daddy looked into the car.

"Well hey there kitty, you want to come for a ride with us?" he asked smiling at me. I shook my head no, but he was reaching into the car pulling me out.

"Nooooo! Daddy, help me! Daddy," I screeched as the man held me in the air. I kicked at him frantically, not seeing my daddy anywhere in sight. "Daddy," I cried as the man shook me trying to get me to stop kicking him, before walking away with me.

End of Flashback

Amy's PoV (Continued Moments Later)

The car stopped abruptly behind us as Ricky pulled into an abandoned parking lot on the outskirts of town. I'd long since put my legs back on the floor properly, since we were speeding down the highway and I didn't want to be crushed with my knees implanted in my chest. Ricky snatched of his seatbelt, leaning over me and opened the glove compartment. I looked at the pistol inside of it, my eyes widening. What the hell?

"Stay in the car," he said as he snatched it into his hand and got out of the car.

Yay, another update (I owe you guys)! Tell me what you think of this chapter guys. Do you think Grace was wrong for dropping Amy? Do you think Adrian is a little too Amy obsessed? What about Ben, what's he going to do? Oh all this drama! Review, Review, Review! Love you guys.