So the plot thickens! Not really though. I have no idea whether I should continue Lyris shipping, or break 'em up.

Anyway here's how the posting works. I write in huge portions, then split them up. I post several chapters at a time. I will probably release them once a week, or whenever I have time. Last week it was spring break so I had a LOT of time. I may not have as much time as school is starting up again. (SCHOOL, why u no wait until after I'm finished writing?) So enjoy. Review, favorite, stalk m- I MEAN FOLLOW ME hehehehe. DO what you want.

Gwen POV

March

"I need you to be my girlfriend." Nathaniel says, with a straight face.

"What? But I didn't even- I don't even-" I stumble over my words. I couldn't possibly... Nate was my best friend! I don't want to ruin our friendship! But a part of me is wanting to accept. A voice inside of the back of my head.

"You know how you told my mom that you were my girlfriend?" Nate said, and I remember that on impulse I told her. "Please, you only have to pretend! My mom wants you to have dinner with us."

"I-i don't know." I wanted to help Nate. But to be his girlfriend? I don't know if I could pretend. Nate puts his hands on my shoulders and looks into my eyes and says

"Please."

And that's how I found myself at the Parker's front doorstep. I ring the doorbell. I hear muffled sound coming from the other side of the door. The door opens and I see Mrs. and Mr. Parker.

"Oh Gwen! You look lovely today, I trust you're treating my son well?" Mrs. Parker, AKA Adrianne, looks at me.

"I sure hope so." I give my best I'm-your-son's-girlfriend smile and try to look calm and collected.

"She's doing fine, Mom." I see Nate and I relax. Nate puts a hand on my shoulder. I felt something that I'd never felt before when anyone touched me. The sensation of it causes me to blush.

"Hello, Mr. Parker. I don't believe I've met you before." I hold out my hand and he roughly shakes it.

"Hi." He grumbles. He peers at me. He turns towards Nate. "How'd you get such a pretty girlfriend?"

"Thank you, Mr. Parker. Though I really don't think I'm that pretty." Mr. Parker pats my head.

"Modest too. Adrianne? Is dinner ready yet?" Adrianne shakes her head.

"It should be ready in 10 or 15 minutes." Adrianne says. "Gwen, have you met Amber yet?"

"Well, She is a year below us. We have spoken before, though." I cringe a bit, thinking about what Amber did at the Valentine's Dance.

"She'll be joining us for dinner. She's out now."

Mr. Parker turns on the TV and I hear a bit of the news report.

"The famous gang family, Black Serpents, is broken up! After the husband and wife and child were caught, months ago, the child escaped. Harper Audrey is her name. She should currently be 16 now. The husband and wife were killed by gunshot this morning in an attempt to escape from jail. The police are currently searching for the third member of the family." I cringed at the words.

"Gwen, hon, are you okay?" Adrianne puts a hand on my head. I shook the feeling off.

"Oh, I'm okay. I just feel kinda bad for the child. I mean, her parents are dead. Even if they were in a gang, they were still a family." I say, Adrianne nods. The news reporter starts again.

"If you have any clue where the third family member is, please call 555-555-555. If you know her whereabouts are make sure to call that number. If you bring her in, dead or alive, the reward is 10 million dollars. Until this gang monster is caught, nobody is safe. Be sure to keep a lookout. The child of this gang is a master of disguise, she could be anywhere."

Mr. Parker whistles. "10 million dollars, that's a hefty reward. Wonder where that kid is now." The news reporter shows a picture. A girl with navy blue hair and green eyes with creamy white skin. In the pictures she is shown wearing bright red lipstick and a black pantsuit. In one picture there is a picture of her waist, a tattoo of a serpent on the skin.

"These are pictures of a few of her victims. They say after she kills them she leaves them with her trademark. You can always tell if it's her if the victim had red lipstick on their forehead."

They show a few victims with red lipstick on their foreheads.

"This is getting depressing, guys." Nate says and Mr. Parker turns it off and is about to say something when-

"I'm hooooome!" A nasal voice behind me shouts.

Nathaniel's POV

Oh goodness, not Amber.

"What's SHE doing here." My sister's voice rings out in the house. I bury my head in my hands. Gosh, why did she always have to butt in.

"Hello, Amber!" Gwen smiles at Amber. How could Gwen be so cheerful when my sister could be so annoying. "I'm Nate's girlfriend, sorry we didn't tell you sooner." Gwen scoots closer to me. I put my arm around her shoulder.

"You guys don't look like a couple." Amber peered at us.

"Amber could you pl-" I start but stop when Gwen kisses my cheek. I turn bright red and can't speak.

"Of course we are, if we weren't I wouldn't do that, right Nate?" Gwen nudges me a little.

I force the words to come out. "Y-yeah." My heart rate had sped up and I was trying not to have a heart attack.

"Hmmph." Amber snorts. "Mom is dinner ready? Li and Charlotte had me shopping ALL day."

Mom nods and brings out chicken, mac'n'cheese and salad. I'm so hungry. I skipped lunch today because I had to catch up on paperwork. I ate all my food quickly. I waited while the others finished. Gwen turned to my mom.

"Mrs. Parker this meal was delicious!" Gwen complimented my mom.

"Why thank you!" My mom got up. "I say we go to the movies!"

"Really? Wow! The movies? Can we see Aresnal?" Amber babbled about.

"That sounds so fun, Mrs. Parker. But I don't have any money."

My mom laughed. "We'll pay. It's really no trouble, Gwen. We haven't been to the movies in a while!" Amber squealed and rushed to the car. I walked out with Gwen, and my parents followed behind. We crowded the white Jeep. I look at Gwen.

"So where do you think the last Serpent is?" I asked her. She looked at me, a serious expression on her face.

"I don't know." Her tone hardened. She looked out the window and that's the last we talked in the car. When we got there we all wanted to see a different movie. Amber wanted to see the rom-com flick. My parents wanted to see the comedic documentary. Gwen and I wanted to see the horror movie.

"Ugh, this is why we can't go to the movies." My mom handed us all 20 bucks. "The movies are 15, that leaves 5 for snacks, okay?" We nodded and Mom ran off to catch her movie.

"See ya, losers!" Amber ran off to the rom-com. Gwen and I went to the snack bar, our movie didn't start for 15 minutes. Between us we got a large popcorn a candy and two drinks. We walked into the movie and sat at the very back. Gwen was covering her eyes almost every wasn't too long until I felt something clinging to me. Gwen was grabbing my arm and burying her head into my chest.

"G-Gwen what are y-you doing?" I was getting very flustered.

"I'm sorry, it's just so scary." Gwen mumbled, taking her head from my chest.

"It's okay. You can do what you want." I said and Gwen buried her head in my chest again. We stayed like that for the majority of the movie. I couldn't really focus on the movie though. I was starting to sweat. When the credits rolled, Gwen sat up.

"Wow, that was a really scary movie." Gwen chuckled. "Sorry for the clingy thing. I don't do well with horror."

"It's okay, Gwen." We meet up with my parents and my mom scolds us for picking a long movie. "Sorry, mom. I didn't know it was so long."

"Whatever. Let's get home." We get in the car and start towards home. We turn into the neighborhood when we see a fire truck race past us. I could see smoke rising from the air. "Oh no. Not another fire." My mom shakes her head and we turn onto our street. I look at the passing houses and wonder which unlucky one was ablaze. I spot the fire coming from a house.

Ours.