A/N. Well, this is the last four-day-update. *sniffle* School is a bother, isn't it? I go back tomorrow. :( But anyways, I just wanted to let you guys -the ones that didn't see the review to 'myself'- know that updates are back to weekly! But if I get enough reviews to boost up my ego (teehee) then I might update twice a week. Who knows? THAT DEPENDS ON YOU.

I just realized Red hasn't appeared since chapter 13 (WAHH). Somehow, I'll get her to fit in this one...

Umm, I have a question: If you've given the review below, could you review saying so? I'd realy like to thank you for your reviews in some way, but I can't identify you if I don't have some kind of nickname:

:"And you're second order is to stop calling me Prez!" - wrong your. But
that's the only mistake I caught through the whole thing!
Still keep watching your dialogue, sometimes it comes across as unnatural.
You've come so far since I first started reading your stuff! I'm amazed at how
much better you are.
Liked it, but it felt like it should be INSIDE a bigger story.

I'm thinking it's Curlscat because she usually writes reviews like this, but she's always logged in, so...? Anyways, if you don't feel like giving yourself a nickname so I can thank you, I'll say thanks anyways! I love your reviews! :)

Besides that, I have a humongous shout-out to Epiphany on Toast. She made this drawing on deviantArt of Daphne for this story! The link is on my profile. XD Thanks so much!

Happy New Year! ^^ And thanks to those who read my New Year Oneshot, Pocky: It's All Love and Games! Seriously, thanks! Your reviews made me really happy! And thanks for those especially who gave me critiques-I appreciate the critical feedback. :)

Here's...chapter 20!

Chapter 20: A Reluctant Compromise

"Oye! D, what happened to you?"

I winced at Ariana's loud outburst. "Why are you shouting so early in the morning?"

"Yeah, why? I swear, your screaming from the sleepover is still ringing in my head," Red complained, rubbing her ears. "Now I'm 100% sure I'm going to go deaf by the end of this week."

"Tu cara, your face," Ariana commented, ignoring Red. The Hispanic beauty touched her own cheek to show me what she meant.

"I fell down the stairs," I mumbled, avoiding her gaze. Red raised an eyebrow at me.

Ariana laughed. "You're so clumsy, el torpe."

I forced out a laugh too, even though guilt was washing through me. I was lying to one of my best friends. Actually two-Red and Ariana. I never did tell Red that Mr. Firay was an ex-gangster, or what happened the other night. But I was feeling guilty more to Ariana. She didn't know nearly as much as Red. And she easily believed the lie I just told her- proof of how much she trusted me.

My shoulders sagged. I was an awful person.

Ariana must have noticed my bad mood. She jabbed me in the side. "Well, vamos a ir a la escuela! I'm sure whatever reason you are upset about won't matter when you see Mr. Firay!"

I grimaced. Ariana didn't know he was part of the reason of my bad attitude.

It had only been one day since the fight had gone down between Mr. Firay and Wendell. I hadn't gone to school yesterday, just telling Red that I wasn't feeling well, and hoping to have my injuries heal a little more before returning, and apparently Wendell had the same idea.

I was still angry with him-there was no doubt about that. He had punched Mr. Firay in the face for no reason! That wasn't acceptable at all.

But Wendell was just worried about you, another part of me told myself.

I held in a sigh. I was right. Wendell was just worried. It's not like he punched Mr. Firay for no reason. But still...

"Daphne, Daphne, earth to Daphne!" Red said, waving her hand in front of me. "Did you hear anything Ariana just said?"

I snapped my attention onto her, smiling sheepishly. "No, sorry. What did you say, Ariana?"

"I said it was weird how you, Wendell, and Mr. Firay were all absent yesterday, ayer," Ariana told me.

"Mr. Firay was out?" I repeated.

Red nodded. "Yeah, we had a substitute."

I frowned slightly. Did Mr. Firay skip? Or did he suddenly get sick overnight? Did something happen?

I suddenly felt sick with worry. I tried to shake it away. I was just being paranoid. Mr. Firay was fine.

When we arrived at the school, Wendell was waiting by the gates, his arms crossed. When he noticed the three of us, he pushed himself off the wall and came towards us. Ariana let out a little gasp and hurried forwards.

"¡Oh Dios mío! What happened to you?" she cried, her eyes wide. "That's a horrible bruise!"

Wendell raised a hand to his face and shrugged. "I fell down the stairs."

Ariana whipped her head towards me, and I quickly threw on a shocked expression. Red blinked.

"D did too!"

Wendell raised his eyebrows at me, an amused smirk appearing on his face. "Is that so?"

I nodded, quickly giving him a smile, then looking away. Red looked suspiciously between us.

"Huh," she said to herself.

I gave Red a questioning look. She returned it.

"Did you two have a fight?"

My heart skipped a beat. How could Red have figured that out already?

"No," I said quickly, waving my hand. "Why would we-"

"We did have a fight," Wendell cut in with a sigh.

Ariana's eyes widened in surprise. "You did? ¿En serio?"

Wendell nodded. "Yes, and I'd like to talk to her in private about it."

Red shot me a look, as did Ariana. I returned Ariana's with a please-don't-leave-me-here-alone one. She smirked and held up her hand.

"Say no more," she told Wendell. "I'll just go over here with Rojo for a bit..."

I frowned as Ariana dragged Red with her, sauntering away towards the large oak tree that was on the other side of the gate entrance. Wendell turned to me with a frown. I kept my face expressionless.

"What was there to talk about? I knew I had to apologize, but what did Wendell have to say? Was he going to scold me more for getting into this gang problem? It wasn't like it was my fault...I grimaced.

Well, it was partially my fault.

He took a deep breath. "Daphne."

I watched him carefully. "Yes?"

"I'm sorry," he muttered, his eyes downcast.

My eyes widened and I stared at him, my mouth hanging open slightly. Why was he apologizing? What did he have to apologize for?

"For what?" I forced out.

Wendell shifted uncomfortably. "I yelled at you a lot yesterday...I don't want you to be angry."

I blinked, my face expressionless. "You think I was angry because you yelled at me?"

Wendell gave me a confused look. "Aren't you?"

I returned Wendell's look with my own exasperated one. "No! Are you stupid? I could care less about that!"

"Then what?"

"Wendell, you punched the guy I...you know," I muttered, my face heating up.

"Oh," Wendell responded, frowning again.

"Not to mention, this isn't all his fault!" I continued quickly. "I don't know what he told you, but I'm sure he blamed everything on himself, which isn't true at all! And I'm not angry with you Wendell, I was actually going to apologize too."

"You were?" he responded, raising an eyebrow.

I nodded. "I know you only get angry because you were worried about me...and I was a jerk about it."

Wendell laughed. "Daphne, don't worry about it. I kind of understand."

I gave him a questioning look. "Understand what?"

"If I was in that guy's position, I would also take the blame onto myself. And I guess it was a little out of line to actually punch him...so, I'm sorry about that too."

"You need to apologize to Mr. Firay about that, before I forgive you," I told Wendell, crossing my arms.

His eyes nearly bulged out of his sockets. "There is no way that I will ever apologize to him!"

"Then your apology to me won't be accepted," I responded stubbornly.

Wendell scowled. "Why can't you just accept it?"

"Because I'm not the one you punched!"

"But-"

"No buts," I said quickly. "You will apologize for punching him. He could press charges, you know."

Wendell scowled. "I know."

"Make sure you apologize to him."

Wendell rolled his eyes. "If I do that, are we good? No hard feelings?"

I laughed, lightly punching Wendell on his shoulder. "Wendell, you're one of my best friends. If there were 'hard feelings' over something like this, I'd be worried about our friendship."

Wendell grinned. "That's true. And what would you do without a handsome man who's secretly an Everafter not around?"

"Well, Mr. Heywood's handsome, and an Everafter, too," I responded, smirking. "And you just recently turned handsome. You used to be a chubby middle-schooler who was scared of everything."

Wendell shook his head. "I think I liked it better when I wasn't positive that you liked him."

"Wait," I started, staring at him. "You said you already knew when you told me to admit it."

Wendell snorted. "How am I supposed to know, Daphne? You didn't tell me anything!"

I stared at him, my mouth opened in shock. "So you lied?"

"I got you to admit it, didn't I?" Wendell responded with a smirk.

"But still-"

"¡Guau! Mr. Firay! What happened?" I heard Ariana cry. Red let out a small gasp next to her.

Wendell looked over his shoulder, an amused expression on his face. I quickly turned around to see Ariana and Red staring at Mr. Firay in shock. Mostly Ariana; Red only seemed a bit surprised. A noticeable bruise on his cheek caught my attention easily.

I quickly shot Wendell an annoyed look. He covered his mouth, trying not to laugh.

"I fell down the stairs," I heard Mr. Firay tell the two.

Ariana's eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets. She quickly looked over at Wendell and me, gesturing with her hands frantically. She pointed at Mr. Firay, then her cheek, and made some more frantic gestures. Picture one of your friends doing this; it's quite comical.

I tried to hold in my laugh, but Ariana's face made it impossible. I burst out laughing, turning away from the three.

Ariana and Red came over to us, Mr. Firay trailing behind her.

"Did you hear that? Mr. Firay fell down the stairs too!" Ariana told me, her eyes still wide.

I cleared my throat, glancing at Mr. Firay, who was staring at me questioningly.

"What a coincidence," I responded, faking shock.

"And you all have bruises on your cheeks..." Red commented thoughtfully.

For one panic-stricken moment, I thought I saw suspicion flash across Ariana's face, but before I was positive, it was gone. I relaxed slightly. There was no way she could figure out what happened.

That thought brought guilt back to my gut. We were all now lying to Ariana and Red (kind of). Even if it was for their own good, I felt awful about it. Those two had been my best friends for a long time...I shook my head. I'd rather lie and have them safe, than tell the truth and put the two in danger.

"I'm going to class," I heard Wendell mutter.

I jumped, momentarily forgetting he was there. I turned to see him with an irritated expression on his face. I frowned slightly.

Wendell looked at me for a second, his eyes narrowed. Then he turned to Mr. Firay.

"You," he started, getting Mr. Firay's attention.

"Yes?" Mr. Firay responded politely.

"Sorry about yesterday," Wendell apologized, his voice hard and strained.

Shock passed across Mr. Firay's face. Wendell turned and started hurrying towards the school building. Mr. Firay turned to me, his eyebrows raised.

"What was that about?" Red asked, looking after Wendell.

"Yesterday, he knocked into me at the grocery store and I dropped everything. It wasn't a very big deal," Mr. Firay lied smoothly, smiling politely at Red and Ariana.

"Ah, ya veo, I see," Ariana responded, tapping her chin.

"Ariana!" a familiar voice called suddenly.

I looked up to see Josh hurrying towards Ariana. She grinned and waved.

"Hey!" she called back.

"Ariana," Josh panted again when he was closer. "I have to you something! Come here! You come too, Red. Tom wants to talk to you."

Ariana grinned at Josh, shaking her head while Red's cheeks turned pink. Then they both turned to Mr. Firay and me. "Apparently, we have to go see something, so we'll see you two later."

Before I could say anything, Josh grabbed the two girl's hands and started dragging them away, leaving me alone with Mr. Firay.

I did my best to avoid his gaze, staring at the ground as hard as I could. I refused to look up, even though I felt his eyes on me.

What was I supposed to say? Should I apologize? Should I be mad? I didn't know. I wanted to be mad. He had put all the blame on himself. But being mad about that made me feel like a jerk. He was only trying to help me.

A sigh slipped out of my mouth, and I quickly covered it, blushing.

"Daphne, look at me."

Involuntarily, my head whipped up to look at him. He was frowning at me. I slowly frowned back.

"I see you got home safely," Mr. Firay commented.

I raised my eyebrows. That was the last thing I had expected Mr. Firay to say just then. I couldn't help a smile from slipping onto my mouth.

"Yeah, Sage's a nice guy," I told him.

Mr. Firay nodded. "I agree..."

There was an awkward silence again. I averted my gaze from Mr. Firay again.

"Daphne, are you mad at me?"

I quickly looked at Mr. Firay again, cringing as my neck cricked. I rubbed it, muttering a colorful word. And by colorful I don't mean curse words.

Mr. Firay watched me with an amused look.

"I'm not mad," I told him.

He looked relieved. "Good."

"I'm irritated."

Mr. Firay frowned. "Why?"

"Because! You put all the blame on yourself, Mr. Firay!" I responded, clenching my fist. "That's what caused Wendell to punch you! You should've just said that it was my fault, too!"

Mr. Firay rolled his eyes. "Daphne, get over yourself."

I stared at him in shock, my face reddening. "Get over myself?"

Mr. Firay nodded, putting a hand on my head. He ruffled my hair. "You're a good girl."

I stared at Mr. Firay in confusion. He wasn't making any sense at all! Mr. Firay chuckled at my expression.

"Make sure you don't have any plans after school for awhile," he told me, changing the subject.

I was about to tell him not to change the subject, but I dropped it.

"Why?"

"You've got a lot of work ahead of you if you don't want me to press charges on Wendell."

I gaped at him.

Mr. Firay smirked, ruffling my hair once more. I stared at him, stupefied. Before I could say anything, he turned and began walking towards the school building.

I scowled. That stupid, blackmailing, devil of a teacher.

A/N. Zzzzz Zzzzz Zzzz...NOT! I should be, but I can't. School is tomorrow and I just feel like staying up. :P

Umm, it's 9:00 where I am now, so I have to go *frowns*. But an update shoulder come on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. Least likely-Saturday; Most likely-Sunday

Bye bye! Hope you all had a great vacation!

~Lara