"So, after the events that occurred yesterday, I've ultimately decided that it would be for the best if I began to bestow my presence upon all of you," Florence finished, after giving a long explanation on what had happened. "Yeah, I know, you already love having me here. You're very welcome."

Cici was frowning, while Cody looked up from his fries momentarily to simply state, "I like Sassy Bitch better than Cheerleader Bitch and Head Bitch."

Jack glared at him. "Watch the attitude. Who's Cheerleader Bitch anyway?"

"Most likely Jo. She's on the cheerleading squad," Cici explained, disapproving expression not changing. "But from what I've seen from her, she doesn't seem like a 'bitch.'"

"She isn't. The ones who are bitches are me and Bo," Florence casually admitted.

Hazel hurried forward and took Florence's hands in her own. "So we'll be friends from now on?" she said eagerly. "That's great! It'd be nice to have another girl friend to have around!"

A taken aback Florence opened her mouth to respond, but Zander beat her to it. "Careful, Hazel, Flora's like a female version of Cody."

"What the fuck?" Cody didn't seem all too pleased with that comparison.

"It's Florence," Florence irritatedly replied.

"Florencia?"

"Florence."

"Flonica."

"Florence!"

"Florence-Emmanuelle!"

"What the fuck?"

"Alright, fine, I'll shorten it to Emmanuelle—ah!"

Florence had pulled Zander out of his seat at the lunch table and was now putting him in a very painful-looking position on the floor, which included pulling his leg back as if they were part of professional wrestling.

Anton looked at both of them on the floor weirdly. "What's going on between these two?"

"That's the thing. I don't know," Jack said flatly. "At first, he put her in a headlock and she smacked him in the chin really, really hard, then no more than a few minutes later, she ended up putting him in that exact position for some forgotten reason, then he somehow escaped from that and put her in a reverse swastika... Me and Spencer tried to ignore it at first, but then it got too bothersome so I sent everyone home."

"Um, okay..." Hazel hesitantly looked around and met with more than a couple of questioning eyes from nearby couples. "I think you should get off of him now, Florence..."

Florence didn't hear her over Zander's screams of pain.

Hazel sighed, then randomly pointed at Cody. "You. Help me separate them."

Cody scowled, obviously not in one of his best moods. "No. Why do people always come to me when it comes to ending physical fights?"

"Oh yeah? And since when did you become the school's resident peacemaker?" Jack rolled his eyes. "For all I know, you're more of the instigator. Name one time you've stopped a fight."

"Fine." Cody shrugged. "You asked for it."

So I walked into history class, right? The first thing I saw once I went in there was that moron Richard Parker, who I like to nickname Dick, punching it out with that bigger moron Peter. Or maybe his name's Justin, not that I give a shit. And Sara, Dick's girlfriend who he's probably fucked like twelve times even though they've only been dating for like two months, looks so turned on by ohmygoshlikethemanlinessofmyboiiiii.

...I'm never talking like that again, that hurt my throat.

So anyway, Sara notices me and comes over to me, and opens her giant, gum-chewing mouth, and says, "So Cody, you sweet, hot mess who's like way better than my loudmouthed, brainless fool of a significant other, can you please separate the two of them?"

Then I told the horny bitch, "Funny, I thought you liked watching them fight."

"Yeah, but I like it even more when a third boy swoops in and saves the day by beating the both of them up!" I swear to god, she then blew the biggest bubble I've ever seen. I'm surprised it didn't pop and spread all over her face, thus ruining all that fucking makeup.

But I agreed to do what she wanted anyway, because both Dick and Pete-Justin-dude are on my list of Top 5 Idiots I Want to Smack the Crap Out Of. But I did make her promise she wouldn't lunge at me once I was done, because I don't want the same lips that have touched Richard Parker's lips and possibly penis to connect with my neck. There's a reason why I call him Dick, after all. But yeah, if it was going to happen, I' was totally going to drop the whole, "You can't hit a girl" thing.

So anyway, I grabbed a baseball bat that conveniently happened to be lying around and beat both guys on the head with it.

"Why did you do that?!" Pete-Justin-who-the-fuck-cares whined. "I was busy having a duke-out with this idiot!"

"You're both idiots, and also, Sara asked me to separate you two."

"In exchange for what?" Dick immediately grew suspicious, because even he knows about the whore habits of his...well, whore.

"Nothing concerning making out with me in the janitor's closet, don't worry about it—wait, if you know about your own girlfriend's infidelity, then why didn't you break up with her yet?"

"Her dad would kill me! He'll drive my family to bankruptcy! Do you know how rich Sara's family is?!"

"Then why the fuck did you date her in the first place?!"

"...I thought she was hot."

"You chose someone because of their attractiveness, completely disregarding the slutty way they act? Alright, that's fair."

"And then, at that moment, I look down to see that Sara had rolled my pants leg and was licking at my bare lower leg—"

"Cody, can I stop you for just one second and say that I fail to see where exactly you plan to go with this story?" Anton deadpanned. "I mean, I think my brain stopped functioning after you talked about how Sara was blatantly trying to turn you on."

Even Zander and Florence had stopped what they were doing to pay attention. "Yeah, I have a hard time believing that story's even true," the former remarked. "I think I'd know if there happened to be an exaggerated slut here in this school. Also, I can't picture anyone treating you that fondly."

A moment of silence passed, then Cody got up, stalked over to Zander, and shoved Florence off of him. Zander breathed a brief sigh of relief, finally feeling free of pain and agony, until Cody sat down on him and pulled his leg back again, even harder than Florence did.

Hazel, covering her ears, called out over Zander's hollers of unbearable pain, "How come only a few people are looking this way at us?! I figured there would be more!"

"This kind of stuff happens all the time with us! Everyone got used to it!" Spencer shouted back, also putting both hands on either side of his head.

"I'm taking these." Florence took the headphones that were conveniently around Jack's neck and put them on her head.

"Hey! I was going to use those!" Jack yelled indignantly. "Also, why do I feel something wet and icky on my bare leg?!" He looked down under the table, and his eyes widened once he saw a girl who had Nicki Minaj-esque makeup licking his bare lower leg. Putting two and two together, he turned to stare at Cody.

"Did I mention that this thing happened today?" Cody responded, catching wind of Jack's expression, looking completely unfazed by Zander's loud voice. "She never let go either. Not until now, at least."

"I should've seen Sara clinging to your leg in math class!"

"Wow. You really need glasses then." Cody looked up to see none other than Pete-Justin-dude awkwardly passing by. "Oh hey, Pete-Justin-guy."

Pete-Justin-dude stopped for a second to irritably correct, "My name is Ben!" before storming off.

"Seriously?! Someone get this Barbie doll off my leg!" Jack wailed.

And that was the funny story that resulted in Spencer, Anton, Cici, and Hazel try to help him pry Sara off of his limb while Cody nonchalantly bent Zander's leg agonizingly back with one arm, acting like he was oblivious to the ruckus that was going on. And the whole time, Florence was looking on at the entire sight in amusement as she blasted Cher Lloyd on Jack's headphones.

Bo was seething. She thought it was bad enough that her rowdy sister had yelled at her for no reason yesterday and had come home cheerfully telling her that she would be seeing much less of her, but apparently Flo had decided that that wasn't enough. She had gone to be all buddy-buddy with that wretched Celine Sanders, Hazel Campbell, and...friends. What did they do to make Flo prefer to hang out with them? Bo was her sister, she should be the one she hung around with! As for the others, they were complete misfits. It was rather difficult to not roll her eyes all the way to the back of her head at how that violent monster was bending back that sarcastic twin's leg while the rest of those eccentric children tried to make that Barbie whore let go of Jackson.

Ignoring the jealousy stabbing at her insides, she stood up from her place at the lunch table, and ignoring her other sister's questions on where she was going, stormed out of the cafeteria and down the hall. Her hopes did not disappoint her when she saw Conrad leaning against his locker.

He looked at her offhandedly. "Have you changed your mind?"

Had she? She had come here out of impulse and anger at Flo's supposed betrayal. But she really was furious with her sister's actions, and she wanted to make sure she got revenge. "Yes," she ultimately said.

Conrad smirked. "Good. Because I have a plan to get us both what we want."

"I can feel my leg going so numb with every step I take," Zander groaned as he limped alongside Jack, Spencer, and Hazel on their walk home.

"Who told you to provoke the two most aggressive people we know?" Jack muttered, very uncomfortable with his own leg. He was definitely going to ensure that he washed himself thoroughly later that night.

"Like you believed his story any more than I did," Zander retorted.

"Remember that I am also referring to you purposely calling Florence all those different names."

"Hey, I didn't think she would get so mad!"

"Anyway," Spencer interrupted before this conversation could go on any further, turning to Hazel, "how are you and your dad doing when it comes to your unpacking?"

"Considering I'm not there with him because of school? We're a little slow." Hazel winced. "We still have to repaint the entire house, let alone unpack the rest of the furniture..."

"I thought the paint thing was something you did before moving," Zander pointed out, successfully distracted from the precious topic of conversation.

"Normally, we would've moved sometime around spring break, but we had a bit of an...an urgency," Hazel explained. "We called these renovators to fix the house up but they're busy until next week..."

"Then we'll come over tomorrow to help you guys!" Jack promptly volunteered.

"We will?" Zander and Spencer questioned in unison.

"Sure, why not? It's Friday tomorrow, so we won't have any stress over school the next day. And it's not like anyone has any plans for the weekend."

"I don't know," Hazel disagreed skeptically. "I mean, as much as I appreciate it, I don't think Dad will be as approving. He can be a little...prone to jumping to conclusions. And he gets very critical once he jumps to conclusions."

"What conclusions are there to jump to?" Jack asked, a little puzzled. "I mean, clearly he has no evidence to assume we don't mean well."

"Jack, I think she means that his dad will think we're her mass number of boyfriends," Zander spoke up.

"...Oh. But come on! He'll warm up soon enough. He just needs to get used to us and then it'll become clear that there's no romance between any of us!" Jack remained optimistic. "So anyway, can we come?"

"If you say so," Hazel tentatively agreed. "I suppose it wouldn't hurt to try. You could tell everyone else, I guess."

"Great! It's settled then," Jack smiled.

Meanwhile, Zander leaned in to grumble into Spencer's ear, "I don't recall ever agreeing to this."

"Are you sure you guys want to do this?" Hazel asked one final time as everyone else stood on her doorstep after school the next day.

"We are all standing here already," Florence replied. "It'd be ridiculous to change our minds now."

Hazel nodded as she fumbled for her keys. "Fair point." She paused. "But just in case, maybe Cici and Florence should come in first. Just so Dad knows I do, in fact, have female friends." Opening her door, she walked in. "I'm home!" she called. "I brought friends over!"

Colin Campbell came into the living room, a warm, welcoming smile on his face. "Nice to meet you," he greeted kindly to Cici and Florence, the only two who had come inside. "I trust you're good friends of my daughter, yes? What are your names?" In his mind, he thought, Yes, Colin, good job. It's just as how you rehearsed.

"I'm Cici. This here is Florence." Cici gestured to Florence by her side.

"I have to say, sweetie, I was a little worried at first," Colin confessed to Hazel. "I was afraid you were going to bring like—"

"Wow, this place is nice," Zander remarked, coming inside. "Or it will be once its renovations are done."

"Zander, you better not end up making this house a complete clone of our own," Spencer warned, as he and the others followed his brother. "I don't think anyone would appreciate that."

"Why have you still not let that time at the charity go?" Zander complained.

"—five boys!" Colin screeched, looking about ready to have a heart attack. "Hazel! What is the meaning of this?!"

"Dad, I can explain..." Hazel began nervously. "I just thought that the more people, the better! I mean, two friends can't really get too much done..."

"But—But—" Colin stammered. He pointed at the boy nearest to him, who was Jack. "He's that guy I saw the other day! I was so worried he'd do something!"

"Do what?" Jack was perplexed.

Colin pointed at Zander and Spencer. "I'm assuming these two are twins! I don't trust twins who don't look like each other!"

"Uh, yeah, see, the thing about fraternal twins is that we're not supposed to be identical," Zander snarked.

"Shush, you! You look too different. I don't need the sass!" Colin turned to Cody, opened his mouth, but closed it again. He looked at Hazel flatly. "Do I even need to say it?"

"Please don't, I already got my reasons to be unhappy with him," Hazel responded gloomily.

"Okay, not that I care or anything, but it's disappointing to see that people don't bother hiding their dislike for me," Cody commented. "But anyway, you shouldn't worry about me taking your daughter away from you. Same goes for Anton too. We hooked up."

Anton stiffened. All three girls turned to gape.

"Twice," Cody added.

Anton had been carrying a cake box (because his mom had insisted bringing a gift was the right thing to do), and he dropped it once Cody squeezed in that last word.

Cody, disregarding the possible state the cake would be in (read: smushed), continued, "So yeah, we go the other way. No need to hate me or him now, alright?"

Colin, after a moment, turned to Hazel. "Okay. You're safe around these two." He looked at the cake box at Anton's feet. "Is that cake? You should take that to the kitchen. The girls and both of you could have a slice." He glared at Jack and the twins, who were gaping at Cody. "These three, however, are less welcome."

Anton swiftly picked up the cake box, and along with Cici, Florence, and Cody, followed Hazel to the kitchen. Hazel looked back at the remaining three boys with a genuinely apologetic look on her face, while Cody shot them a smugly raised eyebrow.

Once everyone was out of earshot, Zander irritably spoke up, "I detest that guy."

"Here." Cody set down three plates of cake on the coffee table. "I convinced that overprotective man that you guys weren't a danger to his daughter, since she actually talks to the queer kid—in other words, me—more. He believed me, so he let me get three extra slices for you."

"Oh." Spencer blinked. "Thank you—"

"Just keep in mind that I only did that because I realized that I'd be nuts if the only ass I saved was Anton's," Cody cut in matter-of-factly. "I didn't do it because I care or because I have what you guys call 'standards.' Now let me say this—Mr. Campbell won't be up in your grill any longer, but that doesn't mean he isn't wary. So watch what you say and do. That is all. Now come on, Miss Little A-Cup is giving us a tour of the garden in her backyard."

Picking up their plates, the other three followed him to the screen door that led to outside. Anton was standing motionlessly by the doorway, and Cody shot him a withering look. "I always knew the Japanese was good with technology, but I didn't know they exported lifelike robots to America." With that said, he exited the house to join the girls out in the garden.

Jack looked at Anton. "You okay?"

"Cody said I hooked up with him," Anton stiffly spoke, his expression unblinking. "Cody said I hooked up with him. CODY SAID I HOOKED UP WITH HIM."

"We heard you the first time!" Zander snapped. "Calm down, it was only his excuse."

Anton robotically turned to him. "...He said I hooked up with him."

Zander left and went outside before the urge to scream got to him.

"Okay," Spencer said slowly. "So he got himself on Mr. Campbell's good side by doing that. What's the big deal?"

Anton sputtered. "What's the big deal?! It's—" He put a hand to his face. "It's just... Never mind. It's nothing." He walked out the door.

Jack looked at Spencer. "What's his problem?"

"What was that all about?" Jack questioned Cody after they had all come back inside, as the latter casually flipped through a random novel that happened to be lying on the dining room table.

"What was what all about?"

"You know... That. What happened during the tour of Hazel's garden. Once we got to the marigolds, you basically scooted away so fast that you looked like you teleported from one side to the other."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Cody casually responded, not even looking up.

"I bet you do," Jack deadpanned. "She was talking about how marigolds were her mom's favorite kind of flower when you suddenly just upped and went to the other side. You looked like you were purposefully trying to hurt her feelings, and if that's what you were aiming for, you most likely succeeded."

"Well, unlike her dear mother, I have a certain disliking of marigolds," Cody replied, closing the book. "When I was little, I went up close to sniff one, and a bee came out of nowhere and stung me on the forehead."

"Then don't blame the marigold, blame the bee!" Jack exclaimed frustratedly.

Cody held the book up in front of Jack's face, waving it. "This book contains smut. And when you read it, you don't just hate the smut in it. You hate the entire goddamn book."

"That's different from hating a type of flower because of one single insect!" Jack groaned. "Also, that's actually Mockingjay from the Hunger Games trilogy."

Cody looked at the cover of the book and simply put it down on the table again, walking away.

Jack rolled his eyes. "Yeah, just walk away."

"This is so discomforting," Florence voiced her thoughts out loud as she and Cici pulled weeds in the very back of the garden. Hazel had mentioned that she had to take care of those later that day, so both of them had volunteered to save her trouble and stay outside.

"What is?" Cici asked awkwardly. "The fact that you're actually working yourself?"

"What? No," Florence frowned. "What's with you?"

"Huh? Oh. Sorry, that wasn't meant to be... I mean, I heard your family had a housekeeper around who helped you with everything, so..." Cici trailed off.

"We fired that housekeeper after we came home one night and caught her using my mom's credit card to pay for her insurance," Florence coolly explained. "It's just that Bo sort of didn't want people to know about her dismissal, because it's 'embarrassing.'" She rolled her eyes. "So yeah, you're like the first one outside of the family to know about this. But anyway, no, I don't feel uncomfortable because I'm independently working. I feel uncomfortable because of this awkward silence between the two of us. You haven't exactly been very talkative towards me since yesterday, and it makes me wonder if you hate me because of my sister's actions towards you."

"I... I don't hate you," Cici sighed. "I just... It's hard. The three of you are triplets, and considering one of you has kind of threatened me only a few days ago, I sort of began imagining the three of you as one person. Like whenever I look at your face, I see Bo instead. Basically, I can't really get my mind to distinguish you from her. You look so alike, part of me just refuses to think you're different from her."

"...Really. Well then." Florence stopped tugging at one particularly stubborn weed to continue, "You're right, we do look alike. We're part of the same set of triplets, after all. But what makes us different isn't our looks—it's our individual personalities and our own separate passions. I'm not going to bother going into the details on my sisters, but what makes me different from both of them is that what I aim for is to be my own person. I got sick of living in someone else's shadow a long time ago, but one good thing came out of that: I realized how important it was to become someone not alike anybody else. And to show how much that means to me, I stood up for myself and established the clear fact that it's impossible for me to ever be someone else. I can only ever be me, which is why I decided to try to become friends with you all—I know that none of you really care about what kind of person I am, and you'll accept me no matter what sort of attitude I have. And I haven't regretted that decision at all, because so far I've been feeling more freedom to be myself than I have since I was a baby."

Cici listened intently to what Florence was saying, and once the latter was finished, she still stayed quiet.

"But hey, if you're afraid Bo is going to try something, I can be on the lookout for you," Florence offered. "I'm not saying I can exactly get her to lay off you, let alone ask her nicely about it, but I can try my best."

"I'd like that, thanks," Cici finally spoke slowly.

"So anyway... Do you know any good job offers you can tell me about?" Florence suddenly asked.

Cici blinked. "What? Why do you ask?"

"It's related to what I was just saying about wanting to become more independent and unique...somewhat. I want to get a part-time job," Florence exhaled. "For my college fees and stuff. I mean, I'm sure I have more than enough money for it, but I want to show people that being a bit on the wealthy side doesn't mean I laze around throwing dollar bills all over the place. I want them to realize that I'm serious when it comes to my life, and that I don't just buy everything I want and need."

"Well then, you're lucky," Cici responded. "My boss is looking for a new employee after the old one quit a few days ago. I guess I could hook you up with a job there." She rubbed her arm. "And I suppose it'll be a good opportunity to get to know each other. Let's say it's bonding time."

"Oh. Thanks." Florence looked around the entire yard. "Hazel must really love her garden."

"Of course she does. She did mention that she had planted a couple flowers before her family even purchased the house."

"She did that to every house they visited, right?"

"Right. Obviously she did it without the realtor knowing, but I get why. Her mom used to love gardening, so it's only natural if Hazel feels that flowers are the only remembrance she can have of her," Cici remarked. Lowering her voice, she asked Florence, "How do you think she died anyway? I don't want to ask Hazel."

"She died after accidentally consuming peanuts," Hazel piped up, revealing she had been standing behind the other two for a little while. "She had nut allergies. We went to a restaurant, and—I don't even remember how it happened or how nobody noticed, but she ended up croaking and faceplanting in her salad."

"Oh gosh. I'm sorry," Cici apologized.

"It's nothing big. It happened when I was thirteen, so it's been a long time. No need for sympathy," Hazel brushed off.

"What are you doing out here anyway?" Florence inquired.

"I wanted to check on you guys. Thanks for doing this for me." Hazel looked around. "Also, I wanted to get a glimpse at my marigolds again. I just want to stare at them when I begin missing Mom."

"I like your marigolds, personally," Cici said. "I think they're really pretty."

"Thanks, but sadly, not everyone thinks so," Hazel sighed, staring wistfully at the orange flowers.

"You shouldn't expect marigolds to be universally liked," Florence unhesitatingly said. "Nothing will ever be liked by everyone in the world."

"I get that, it's just..." Hazel sighed again.

Florence turned to Cici. "Cici, why don't you go to the other side for a minute or two? There are a couple weeds that ought to be pulled out over there."

Cici complied, realizing that Florence wanted to talk alone with Hazel.

"One thing I've noticed about you is that you tend to care excessively about what people think of you and everything involving you," Florence immediately got to the point. "You shouldn't be like that. It makes you come off as melodramatic and opinionated."

Hazel kneeled down next to her. "I know, that's something I've been thinking a lot about. But I don't think it's because of that itself, I think it's because of how they show it. If someone just flat out said they don't like me, then I wouldn't mind. But if someone just began reprimanding me in a really hurtful way, then I get upset."

"Why? What's so important about the attitude they have towards you?"

"I've been bullied a lot at my old school," Hazel admitted. "I know it seems silly, but when someone gets all rude with me, it just brings up unpleasant memories of that past experience. It feels like the things I've been trying hard to forget are being thrown right back in my face. Then I get all offended, as if it's some sort of defense mechanism. And when he saw those marigolds, he suddenly zipped across the yard. It really was a little hard to not question what he was trying to do—"

"There was a reason why he did that, and intentionally screwing with you was not it," Florence interrupted.

"What?"

"I'm not saying this because I want you to feel better about yourself, because that would be stupid. I'm saying this because I was standing nearer to him, and I happened to get a look at him right before he dashed. For a tiny second, he seemed surprised. Scared. I don't know, it was really brief, so I could be wrong. But I know for sure that he didn't do it just to seem evil. I know how people like him think, and I believe that he had a reason that he's afraid to say out loud."

"What reason could there be?" Hazel wondered.

"You'd be surprised if you saw how many possibilities there are," Florence wryly replied. "But anyway, you should give him a chance. Try to endure his endless quips. Maybe you'll end up getting used to them and you'll become less sensitive."

"Oh, screw you." Zander scowled as he read the email that his phone just received. "I don't need your crap in my life."

"What's the matter?" Spencer peered over his brother's shoulder.

"Well, you know that private boarding school who keeps on sending us all that spam, trying to persuade us to enroll there?"

"Yeah?"

"Read this." Zander thrusted his phone into Spencer's face.

"'As the dean of Burgess's one and only boarding school, Phoenix Prep School, I strongly persuade you to transfer from that downy and dirty public school Burgess High. It will be good for your permanent record, so I urge you to consider my advice,'" Spencer read aloud. "Um... That's dignified."

"Yeah. Exactly. I'd like to type a reply right now and by the time I'm done, I don't think Mr. Dean of the School of Majestic Eagles would think I'm civilized and formal enough to enroll there," Zander snapped.

Anton inserted his paint roller in the bucket full of white paint and looked up. "What are you guys talking about?"

"Oh, that private all-boys boarding school on the other side of town has been sending us emails trying to tell us to transfer out of Burgess High," Spencer explained.

"Phoenix Prep School?"

"That's the one. Don't you live near there?"

"Yeah. My dad didn't want me to go there though. Why are they sending you emails?"

Zander heaved a sigh. "You know how Phoenix looks down on Burgess? We used to go to Phoenix from kindergarten to second grade until Dad convinced Mom that we should go to a public school instead. Let's just say that Phoenix doesn't appreciate students transferring out and going to a place more 'downy and dirty.'"

"...Then why are they sending you these just now?"

Zander shrugged. "I don't know. Probably just looked on their system, scouting out for more people to victimize. They must've stumbled upon me and Spencer late. They don't terrorize a whole lot of people since you'd have to be crazy to prefer our dump over Phoenix."

"Ugh, Phoenix," Florence grumbled as she, Cici, and Hazel entered the house. "My aunt and uncle considered sending my cousin but decided that it was too expensive."

"You have all the money in the world, so how the hell is there even such a thing as too expensive for you guys?" Zander questioned disbelievingly.

"If my family weren't a bunch of stingy bastards, then we wouldn't be so rich," Florence retorted. "Besides, Frankie resented the uniforms. At least his opinion about things matters," she murmured that last part.

"Did you mention that it was all-boys school? How is that even like?" Jack called from the other side of the room, dipping his paint roller into the bucket.

"Nothing too surprising. A supreme lack of girls, leaving a bunch of lonesome dudes to experiment with their sexuality," Cody piped up after a long duration of silence.

Because of his unusual quietness, Jack whirled around in surprise, having forgotten of his presence, and accidentally smacked him in the face with his roller.

"Really? A lot of people have been staining my beautiful face as of late," Cody deadpanned, white paint dripping and landing on Hazel's carpet. "Did I miss something?"

"Just clean yourself up before you make the floor even dirtier," Hazel sighed.

When Cody went to the bathroom, Florence told Zander, "Can't you just tell them you're not interested? They're bound to see it."

"I thought you were smart enough to know that it's not gonna be that easy," Zander snarked.

Florence became annoyed at that and grabbed the phone from his hands. She began writing a reply to the email, and just a few seconds later, she handed it back to him. "There, I did it for you."

"What'd you say to them?" Spencer asked carefully.

"I'd rather be an obese fool whose arm gets severed off than join your boarding school full of dildos with herpes," Florence declared shamelessly. "That should get the message through."

Cody entered again. "I heard something about dildos and herpes, what the fuck goes on when I'm not in the room?"

"Things aren't much better when you are around," Anton muttered under his breath.

"Oh, it's best if you don't go in there!" Hazel quickly supplied when she saw Cici and Florence about to open the closed door that was by her bedroom. "That's just a storage room. There's nothing to see in there other than a bunch of empty cardboard boxes."

Florence frowned suspiciously. "Why are they in there?"

"Oh..." Hazel searched for an explanation. "They were left by the old family that lived here, I guess."

"But why? Why would they leave random boxes inside that room? Nobody's lived here for about a year, so if there were boxes inside, then shouldn't you want us to clean it up for you?" Florence interrogated.

"Actually, Florence," Cici piped up, noticing Hazel's uncomfortable expression, "maybe we should focus on something else. I'm pretty sure Hazel can manage her 'storage room' with the help of her dad. We shouldn't press on."

A hesitant Florence agreed, and Hazel shot Cici an incredibly grateful smile. Turning around, she saw Cody eyeing her suspiciously, having overheard the conversation nearby as he continued painting the walls with Jack. Everyone else didn't seem to notice her jumpiness, aside from the girls.

As Florence went off to go do something else, Cici said to Hazel, "You know, if there's anything you want to let out, you can come to us. We'll be here for you."

"I know," Hazel replied, looking a little off. "Just... I'll tell later."

Cici went off, and Hazel sighed. They were going to find out at some point about what she was hiding inside that room, and she was dreading it. She was never one to be open about sensitive topics, so how could she possibly tell anyone that—

"You're hiding something," Cody said simply, stopping his painting mid-roll. He looked at her. "You shouldn't be."

"Didn't you catch on from what just happened that I don't want to talk about it?" Hazel wearily responded.

"Yeah, I did. But I'm just warning you. Secrets always are exposed when you're surrounded by people prodding you, so I think it's best if you just admit what's on your mind."

"I know that," Hazel snapped. "I'm just...trying to figure out how I'm going to say it. And it's easier said than done." She began to go down the stairs, leaving with a, "I'd rather you not talk about this anymore. Pretend that's a perfectly normal storage room."

As she went, Cody's eyes followed her. Beside him, Jack snorted.

Cody turned to look at him. "What?"

"Oh, nothing," Jack replied cheerfully, smirking slightly. "It's just that for someone who appears to know so much about secrets and how they come out, you're not exactly very different from her."

"You try telling someone openly that you discovered your own big sister's corpse inside her bedroom," Cody muttered bitterly.

"I never said that you should admit everything about you," Jack clarified patiently. "I'm just saying, she might have a similar background story. Try getting the answer out of her. Maybe something good will come out of it in the end."

"What makes you think that?"

"It worked for me and you, didn't it?"

Cody fell silent, then asked, "So basically, you're telling me there's a chance that she had an older sister who also killed herself and Hazel stashed her body in that very room?"

Jack's small smile immediately dropped as he sighed in frustration. "Will you stop bringing that up?" He paused before murmuring, "Actually, that could be possible..."

"Hm." Cody turned away to stare at the closed door again.

"Thank you for coming!" Colin singsonged happily as he bid everyone goodbye at the front door. "We're grateful that you decided to help! It allows me to save more money," he murmured that last part, but most of everyone heard him anyway. "Hey, where's the gay one?"

"You mean the other gay one?" Anton questioned, something undetectable in his tone.

"Yeah, your lover. Hazel, where is he?"

"Haven't seen him." Hazel shrugged. "I don't think anyone did for the past hour." She was secretly hoping that he had bailed on everyone after growing too bored. It wouldn't be unlike him if that were so, and she wasn't complaining because she wasn't too willing to interact with him.

"Well, he should still be here," Colin frowned.

"Want us to help look for him?" Jack offered.

"'Us'?" Zander echoed. "No way, we already decided to come here even though you technically dragged us into it. If you want to help look for him, help look for him yourself."

Colin glared. "Watch it. I'm not completely casual around you yet."

"Nobody has to help," Hazel said firmly. "I know my way around this house, and finding him will only take around a minute. You can head home if you want now."

She turned and went upstairs, which was where she had seen Cody last. She checked the second-floor bathroom, her and Colin's bedroom, and even under the beds (though she had no idea what he would be doing there—heck, what would he be doing still upstairs period? She hated to admit it, but it was well established that he was sharp and perceptive, so it was extremely unlikely that he would accidentally get himself left behind). Growing desperate, she ended up looking behind the shower curtain, which was even more absurd than the beds.

They're probably wondering what's taking so long, she thought. And they might get the wrong idea too. Dad could end up realizing that Cody lied about his sexuality... Wait, was it a lie? She sighed and leaned against the wall. Where is he? He couldn't have just disappeared into thin air... Wait. Her eyes widened. Right before I went downstairs... He said...

She bolted from the bathroom and went to the room with the door that had been shut for that entire day—or so it seemed. Suddenly, she thought it was too quiet up here. There was probably some minor conversation between her dad and whoever didn't leave already, but that was downstairs. Upstairs, it was utterly silent. Hazel held up a hand subconsciously, as if about to knock. She dropped it and shook her head, noticing how habitual knocking in her own home had gotten.

Taking a deep breath, she swung open the door, revealing another bedroom on the other side. There was a single bed in the far corner, and it was occupied by a younger boy of around the typical high school freshman age. The blankets were pulled up to his chin, and he was sleeping soundly, his peaceful expression indicating that no nightmares were present. But despite the sight, Hazel's stomach dropped anyway.

Because sitting coolly at the foot of the bed was Cody. He had been watching the younger boy sleep, but had promptly turned to her once the door opened. He raised an eyebrow at her. "Hey. You're here. Finally."

Hazel couldn't find the words. "I—How did you... Do you—"

"Before you pelt me with questions and attempt to strangle me," Cody interrupted, "let me ask you this." What he said next left her fears confirmed and the last of her hope diminished. "Why exactly are you hiding your poor, little brother up here, away from everyone else? Just because he has brain cancer and needs rest doesn't mean he shouldn't have a social life."

Cliffhanger. Sort of. I don't know. I think it's a cliffhanger, at least.

Guys, if I got any of this 'moving into a new home' stuff wrong, I sincerely apologize. My knowledge about this kind of thing hasn't exactly increased since writing about Jack moving into Jamie's house.

I honestly don't know what the hell I'm thinking when I'm writing about Hector (Yes, his name is Hector) and his brain cancer, because I have no experience with this topic either and my medical knowledge sucks.

I'm trying to bring a female perspective into this story. Can you tell?

Let me just go ahead and say that Cody's avoiding marigolds is not because they were Carrie's favorite flower (Tbh I mentioned that she liked roses briefly in PG when Jack and Cody went to the cemetery together but I don't blame anyone for forgetting that). A couple people suspected that when they read the preview and I'm here to deny it.

Replies:

Maximus Potter: Your wishes have been heeded.

Cat Lunanoff: Okay, I can picture Cody to be a sad drunk, but frankly speaking, I'd rather have him as one of those really silly drunks because of how funny it would be to see him all OOC. Like he starts laughing all drunkenly and he starts saying stuff like, "Oy, Red! Did I tell you that I saw you fuck that bus driver this morning?" Want a better nickname for Florence? How about...Emmanuelle? All credit goes to Zander for coming up with that one :3 AND YOU WANT TO SEE DORKY CODY, DON'T YOU? I'M EXCITED TO WRITE HIM, SO THAT MAKES TWO OF US.

Lil Angel 927: Noooo. Like I said up there, she liked roses. Try again c: We should call it Florexander or something. There's an X because ALEXANDEEEEEER.

Doctor Skittles: I don't really know what I want to do with Jo just yet tbh. If she's popular enough, I'm more likely to focus more on her c: Also, I'm pretty sure Bo's the way she is because of an inferiority complex. I've had experience with this kind of person before.

Sol's Darkness: Guess who earns the achievement of Dumb Moment of the Day? Haha it's kind of hard for me to distinguish meth from methane because of all these similar names. So yeah, sorry about that. (Ooh, I thought you were older than that because you're much more mature than any of the other twelve-year-olds I've seen). Yeah, I'm in high school. A sophomore, to be exact.

rantingsarah: It'll come in near the end of the story. So yeah, not yet. Gotta wait a while ^^

Kai2: Here's your shout out. AND NOPE, TRY AGAIN HAHA.

Awesomalicious: Ehhh probably not. Though they probably did try, if only for Bo to enjoy the satisfaction of controlling even more people.

Ivy000: I'm just glad you like Florence, considering you're not too fond of Hazel XD

lolxxx: Don't worry, there's still plenty of Jack x Zander heading your way ;)

feathered moon wings: I'm positive that Jack's never lost his virginity. I plan to have one of his friends point out how strange that is later on. Also, there are going to be a hell of a lot more bad guys than you think there will be. As for the Guardians, they're going to show up...sometime soon. I don't know, I don't think about them a lot :P Wait, you name your marigolds?

Lovepuppy316: That Facebook status is canon. I laughed at that more than I probably should have. WERE YOU SURPRISED BY THIS CHAPTER AND THIS ENDING. I HOPE SO.

Preview (that's not anywhere near as long as last time):

Conrad approaches Jack, we see Samson again for a brief moment, small threads begin to form between Cody and Hazel, etc. Idk I BS these previews more than anything. I'm really not sure what the next chapter will contain.