Paige Knight. Paige freakin' Knight.

The name buzzed and buzzed around in her mind, threatening to erupt into a whirlpool of endless curiosity. Jess knitted her brows together in annoyance as she attempted to fall asleep for the third time that night. She didn't want to think about Nick, didn't want to think about that stupid Pepperwood Chronicles book, and that the moments they'd shared up until yesterday were simply one-sided, no more no less. Okay, maybe that last one was a bit extreme, but Jess couldn't shake the feeling after Nick had blatantly banished the possibility of the name Jessica from his novel. Sure, she might have been speculating it here and there, and perhaps it was wrong for her to assume, but dammit, the girl really wanted to make a cameo.

She rolled over to onto the side facing the window, closing her eyes tight as she attempted to calm her mind. One Sheep... Two Sheep... Three Sheep... The Pepperwood Chronicles had a sheep in one chapter for absolutely no reason. Why did Nick even have sheep on a train in the second chapter?-

Jessica's eyes flickered open and a wave of heaviness swept over her. Her thoughts were unhinged and all she wanted to do was shut her brain off with a TV remote. When she'd read over the first page in the middle of class, Jessica was at a loss of words. She had almost felt like she was reading a completely different book with different characters. At the time, maybe she could have considered asking Nick why there was a new name and new personality and most importantly, why it wasn't typed on the typewriter. As she pulled the covers further into her neck, she made a mental note to ask him the following morning. It couldn't hurt to do so. Or it could, at least she'll know sooner than later.

The following morning Jess woke up to a pair of hands holding a coffee mug. She nearly jumped out of her skin until realizing it was just Cece holding a steaming cup with her name on it. She sat up and received the cup gracefully, the smell of caramel filling her senses before she took a sip. "Mmmm, did you make a stop at Cup'aJoe's this morning?"

"Nope." Cece said, walking over to the mirror and tightening her ponytail. "I made them."

"You?" Jess rubbed her eyes, reassuring herself that she wasn't dreaming. Cece shrugged and grabbed the mug that was already resting on her vanity.

"I asked them how to make it and well, figured we could save some money, or your own personal allowances, rather."

"Or, you could always apply to work there, and hear me out: free coffee before school."

Cece narrowed her eyes at the perky brunette. "That is if I wanna get up before the crack of dawn on weekdays."

Jessica slipped on her sweatpants which rested on the floor beside her night table. "Well, I'd love to work an entire morning shift so I could miss math class."

Cece chuckled. "Who wouldn't, but... is that really all?"

Jess raised a warning finger. "Listen, Parehk, it's too early in the morning for all that."

"Loud and clear." Her friend backed down, shooting her an understanding thumbs up as Jessica slid out of bed, loosening the braid that was tightened in her hair. There was silence for a few moments as they began getting ready in Jess's bedroom. She desperately wanted to bring up the Paige dilemma, but also did not want to make a habit of talking about the boy every two seconds, much less making him a new personality trait. She knew she was hyper-fixating, that was obvious. Still, Cece was her best friend, and even if she teased her here and there, she knew that no matter what, Cece would appreciate Jessica's rambling to her.

"Okay, I do have one thing on my mind, though."

Cece ran a brush through her hair, eyes focused on her reflection in the mirror. "Hmm?"

Jessica shook her hair around, the brown curls cascading down her back once more. "Nick put a new character name in his book."

Cece smirked and nodded her head. "I told him Pepperwood was a dumb name."

"No, no not Pepperwood. The new character is Paige Knight."

Her gaze lingered on Jess's, waiting for her to say something further. "Paige. Interesting choice...?" Cece replied, confusion circling her tone.

Jess sighed and threw her head back defeatedly. "I don't know, it just feels like a very temporary name. Besides, I think there are other names out there that would make a much better fit.

Cece leaned over and rubbed Jessica's shoulder sympathetically, understanding that this was about much more than a name. "Have you asked him about it?"

She wondered if it would have made a difference if she'd asked him sooner. There'd likely be a fifty-fifty shot of disappointment depending on his answer. It's not like Jess expected her own name to be in the book, even though she'd been given beta-reader privilege. However, "_ Knight" had a very similar personality to Jess's. She was average height and brunette with a quirky personality. She also wore skirts that may have been mature enough to resemble a middle-aged school teacher, which felt like a complete dead giveaway-and offensive-, but whatever. But Paige Knight, on the other hand, completely halts any and all similarity between the two. Jessica then proceeded to think of the worst case scenarios if she'd asked why he didn't pick her name:

"I just don't like the name Jessica."

"Thought I'd take the character in a different direction."

"She's too similar to you, and honestly, that's just weird."

Okay, maybe not that last one.

"No, not yet. I'm planning on asking him today." Jessica replied, taking another sip of the steaming coffee.

"Good. Maybe then you'll get your answer." Cece patted Jessica's knee before standing up and smoothing her hair back. "I'll give us a ride to school."

Jess reached behind the vanity chair and grabbed her backpack. Her eyes flickered to the printed chapter Nick had given her the day prior. "Yeah, maybe."

All she had to do was swivel around in her seat to ask him; one simple action along with one simple question. Only, Jessica found herself glued to her seat. Woman up, Day, you've got this. She gathered all the courage she could muster before finally shifting herself around in her seat-

tap tap

Jessica whipped her head around toward Nick, to which he looked a bit surprised by her immediate reaction. She fought the urge to blush as she gave him her best subtle expression. "What's up?"

She noticed that Nick didn't have his typewriter on his desk. He was instead fidgeting with a pen in his hand. "I was just gonna ask if you read the pages."

"Yeah, I read them." Jessica carefully answered, nodding her head. "I did have a question, though." Nick waited for her to ask away, glancing at his pen and back to her. "So, this chick's name is Paige. What's the deal with that?" She asked, rather awkwardly instead of comical. "I'm honestly just curious because I feel like every character name has a story behind it."

Nick nodded understandably, as if he fully anticipated this question to come up. First, though, he decided to answer her question with one of his own. "But you've never asked about Pepperwood?"

"Well, I feel like I never needed to question that name. That one just makes sense." Jessica disregarded his comment, waving it off as she remained on the topic at hand. "I guess I thought maybe there'd be a different name there. And I guess that's a little stupid to assume, considering authors really only make a dedication to their muses instead of naming an actual character after them and-" Jessica cut herself off short, feeling her cheeks warm up suddenly. She definitely had said too much.

Nick's eyes lingered on hers, and at that moment, the dots connected as he realized why her cheeks were suddenly a deeper shade of pink. "Oh, I didn't know you were expecting that."

"No no, I wasn't really-I wasn't going there- Jesus, I was just curious. I could care less actually. It doesn't even matter anyway, though, it's your novel, and the name doesn't change anything. In fact, it'll probably make it more intriguing. It'll be pretty nice to get to know Paige." Jessica rambled, her eye daring to twitch. She wondered to herself if that effectively down-played down her feelings and distracted Miller altogether. She forcibly curved her mouth into a smile and patted Nick's hand. He glanced down at her hand that was resting over his and chuckled.

"Thanks, Day. I appreciate that." A small smile formed on Nick's face, contagiously causing Jess to smile back. The tension still ran high between the two as they held each other's gaze. It was a game of chess, and until one of them made the proper move, the board would continue to remain at a stand still. Nevertheless, she was very glad that they got to somewhat clear the air between them, and Jessica prayed that once she finished reading this chapter, that things would resume to normal as per usual. Resting her elbows on the desk, her eyes scanned over the printed sentences as she continued reading.

A few minutes later, a certain post-it note was thrown on top of the page she was reading over. Jess arched a brow and unfolded the post-it note once picking it up.

thanks for being a dedicated fan... and muse. I hope you enjoy following Paige on every page. :)

shut u-yeah yeah, well what can I say. a girl really does like her books.

(and you, too. what? who said that?)

glad you do. hey, and while you're at it, you should probably finish the actual class assignment you were given at the beginning of class. ya don't wanna fail that.

oh shit what

i think it fell under your desk actually can you get it

no

please

whats in it for me

friendship?

hm still not convinced

i read all your shit now gimme my paper

STOP MOVING IT WITH YOUR FEET YOU'RE GROSS

After the bell rang and sitting through the last chapter with the name Paige Knight glaring back at her, Jessica could finally proclaim survival. She binder clipped the pages back together and tucked them carefully into her backpack. That's enough for one day, she thought to herself, enough torture. Nick was also packing his books into his back and clipping his typewriter case back together. His eyes wondered to her busy ones, pulling her backpack onto her back. She grimaced to herself as she pulled at the straps.

"Heavy?" He questioned, noticing her scowl. She met his eyes and quickly dropped her expression.

"It's fine, I think I slept weird on my back." Jess remarked, rubbing her shoulder. She desperately craved a heating pad. As if reading her thoughts, Nick walked closer to her. She eyed him questioningly as he held his hands out to her.

"Gimme."

"No."

"Day, gimme the bag."

"Excuse me, but I am perfectly independent and capable of doing this myself."

"Jessica just let him take the bag." The teacher cut both students off, intruding in the conversation. "And please go. I only have 40 minutes worth of peaceful silence" She checked her watch, and looked back up at the two. "39 minutes." She gritted between her teeth. Jess and Nick scurried out the room, not before grabbing the backpack off of her back first.

"Geez, what got into her?" Nick asked, holding her bag to his chest. Jess shrugged, taking notice of him still holding her backpack.

"Don't know. Can I have my bag back?" She asked, pausing Nick mid step. He thinks this over for a moment, as if undecided.

"I don't know, can you?" He teased back. Jessica's frown deepened at this.

"Nicholas. The bag?" She raised her hand up, gesturing for it back. He took a step closer to her, shrugging it off his shoulder and began to hand it over...

…until taking off in the opposite direction.

She let out a groan, her head falling upwards in utter pain and dismay. "Why." Jess said aloud to herself. Thus, she began taking off after the idiot boy, her feet picking up speed down the hallway and dodging incoming teenagers.

Jess saw him turn down another hallway and rushed toward that direction. Once she spotted him by a locker, back turned away from her, Jess crept up slowly and cautiously before going full speed up behind him.

At the last second, Nick turned around and caused her to plunge right into him, the two falling backwards as a result. Her landing felt unexpectedly soft, the feeling of cotton fabric brushing against her cheek. She picked her head up and realized she'd fallen right on top of Nick. An absolute cliché.

Nick had a smug grin on his face, brushing one of her fallen strands behind her ear. "Funny meeting you here."

Jess's hands, which she noticed were resting right in the center of his chest, pushed up to fix her position. She could feel the back of her neck heating up from where they just were a moment ago. Picking up her fallen backpack that landed right beside them, she shrugged it on her shoulder and brushed herself off. Nick watched her, resting his arms behind his head as if relaxing on a beach chair instead of a dirty school floor.

She narrowed her eyes at him, arching one of her brows. "Aren't you gonna get up?"

"Aren't you gonna help?"

And with that response, she whirled around and proudly walked down the hallway.

"...So no?"

Cece watched as a lunch tray smacked down on the lunch table. "Soo... I take it you didn't find out about Paige Knight...?"

Jess plopped down into the lunch table seat across from her best friend. "No. No, he just thanked me for being a fan. And, instead of getting straight to the point, I just awkwardly rambled on too far about how there were better names to insert in his book."

Cece smirked as she moved her salad around with a fork. "And now he knows you want in."

Jess's head fell back in anguish. "This is so dumb, I am so dumb. Are you gonna eat that?" She gestured to the muffin Cece had next to her lunch bag. She shook her head wordlessly, and Jess snatched it over.

"Jess, I think it's time."

Jess already had the muffin in her mouth, and stopped eating mid-chew. "Time for what?" She managed through the crumbs. Cece shot her a pointed look, but continued on.

"This push and pull has lasted for what feels like an entire life time. Where's your badassary?"

She finally swallowed the piece of muffin. "The toilet. It's been flushed down the toilet." Ally sat down moments later, glancing over at the two girls before rolling her eyes.

"It's Nick."

Jess sunk in her seat, feeling a headache beginning to plow through her brain. "This can't be my only personality trait."

Ally rubbed her shoulder in attempts to comfort the girl. "You're more than that, Jess, you know you are."

"Ally's right." Cece nodded, smiling reassuringly. "Outside of Nicholas Miller taking up all the space in your mind, a badass does indeed lie beneath. So here, you have two options."

"I'm listening..."

Cece's eyes lit up with confidence as she continued on. "Option A, you go up to him and tell him how you feel since it's been long overdue, and the worst he can do is say no..." She watched as Jessica's face fell, immediate fear poking through her eyes. "Or, we can have a girl's night to forget about incompetent high school boys, or really, men in general." This put a smile right back on the girl's face. "What do you say?"

Ally narrowed her eyes at the model. "Cece, that's like choosing between chocolate and... ugh I don't know, liverwurst. You obviously know that she's gonna go with-"

"Option B!" Jessica interrupted.

"Avoidance!" Ally rubbed a hand across her forehead, closing her eyes. "It's rocket science."

"Jess." Cece sighed, resting her hands on her friend's shoulders. Jess could sense the disappointment in her inhale while replying, "You need to be brave. You can't keep avoiding what's following you. Don't you want to be happy?"

Jessica stared down, avoiding her friends eyes as the reality of her words set in. "Of course I do."

"Then what's stopping you?" Ally added. Jess opened her mouth to reply, but couldn't seem to find the right words to describe her emotions. On one hand, it would be a relief just to say the words out loud -as simple as ripping off a band aid- but then again, on the other, comes the possibility of rejection. She stared back at the girl's concerned faces and felt stress bubble up in her stomach and into her throat. She could feel the tears daring to well up in her eyes.

"I'm-I'm gonna be late for class." Jess turned on her heels and headed for the bathroom door. Cece and Ally watched as the door briskly closed behind her and exchanged expressions before following her out of the bathroom.

After a moment of silence in the bathroom, a bathroom stall door tentatively opened.

Blonde hair fell over her shoulders as the girl turned made her way to the sink. She washed her hands, and carefully slipped her phone out from her jeans pocket. Her fingers tapped on the screen rather urgently before the swoosh of the sent button rang through the bathroom. A small smile shaped the girl's lips before she stepped away from the bathroom mirror and headed toward the door. Before opening the door, a clink of an object fell onto the bathroom tile. She bent down to pick it up, dusting off the fallen keychain that was once attached to her bag.

The name Caroline shimmered against the fluorescent lighting as she dusted off the keychain swiftly, and exited the bathroom.

Cece made her way to the vending machines, shaking the loose change she carried in her hands. Approaching the chips machine, she began depositing coins inside the slot. Unbeknownst to her, Nick Miller was standing beside her and depositing his change into the drink machine. She tapped the number of the Doritos and watched as the spring pushed the snack forward until it plopped into the dispenser.

"Do you have a dollar?"

Jolting by the sudden question, Cece banged her head into the vending machine as she grabbed the bag of chips. "Jesus, Miller. Way to creep up on someone."

"I was standing right next to you." Nick shrugged, knocking on the machine in hopes that it would register the quarters. "So... do you?"

Cece straightened herself, looking inside of her wallet. "Here." She handed a loose dollar to Nick, who gladly accepted it.

"I'm in your debt." He deposited the dollar, which the machine automatically accepted. "So... how's life been since you moved back?"

"It's been fine. I miss New York sometimes, but it's nice to get back to my roots sometimes."

"Nice... I heard it's nice there. Cold."

Cece gave him a pointed look. "Not all the time."

At a slight loss of words, Nick retrieves the water bottle waiting for him in the dispenser. "Did anyone ever tell you that you are pretty intimidating?"

The model smiled at this in agreement. "Wouldn't be the first time."

"Jessica is lucky to have a friend like you, y'know?" Nick spoke up again, twisting the cap off the water bottle. "You're very protective of her."

"It's very mutual. You haven't seen her protective side." Cece replied, meeting his eyes, attempting to read his thoughts. "Or have you? I don't really know how close the two of you are. She's very protective over the people she cares about." She could see his cheeks flush ever so slightly. Cece was thoroughly amused by this.

"Oh. Um, I don't know. We're-pretty close-I think? That's good to know, though." Nick strummed his fingers against the water bottle, now deep in thought.

Cece wasn't finished, though. She was now revved up and ready to indulge in this conversation. "What about you?"

Her question seemed to snap him out of his thoughts. "What about me?"

"You've been subbing in as her best friend while I've been gone. Do you care about her?"

Nick, who was already dreading a conversation with his friend's best friend from the start, now wished to disappear from it entirely. He began to subtly back away slowly. "This is starting to feel like an interrogation at the vending machines. Have you-"

Cece waived off his remark, trying to keep the conversation at bay. She took a step forward as he took another back. "No, no, I just want to know one thing, okay?"

Nick swallowed uncomfortably. "Listening."

"Is she important to you?" She asked, trying to let the soft words fall delicately off her lips in hopes of getting a straight forward answer. Nick's eyes drifted everywhere around the room before meeting hers again. He let out a small sigh to himself, and opened his mouth to answer-

"Cece! We have lab together and you're my lab partner. Can you hurry up?"

Both Cece and Nick glanced over at the loud interruption to see Ally lingering over at the cafeteria door, hand on hip.

"You didn't even get me chips." She added, rolling her eyes.

Cece walked over to her in response after murmuring something about tabling their current conversation to Nick. His slow and gradual moonwalking took off into a full on sprint in response. She stopped in front of Ally, crossing her arms in annoyance. "You didn't ask. And also, what the hell? We're not even in lab together."

"Interrogating him in public is not gonna get you a straight answer. I would know, I'm-"

"Practicing to be a cop." They both said in unison, Cece rolling her eyes this time. "Yes, I know. I'm pretty sure the whole world knows."

Ally opened her mouth to rebuttal, but swallowed her pride and kept composure instead. "Look. I know you want to help your best friend and get answers. But you should know more than anyone not to play the role of a helicopter friend."

"Do I?" Cece replied defensively. How the hell would she know?

"Well, yes, I've heard your best friend is known for doing that. With the best intentions, of course." Ally shrugged as if this was old news. And well, to Cece, it was. "And wait, what were you planning on doing if he did tell you, anyway?"

The model thought about it for a moment, and let the question sink in longer. She realized that maybe running up to her best friend and simply telling her wouldn't make for a good love story. A love story based off of a he-said-she-said didn't feel right nor was it in Jessica's best interest.

"It's not about what she was gonna do."

The three turned around at the sound of a new voice entering the room. A familiar one, though unexpected in this case.

Caroline smiled as the three stared dumbfounded at her. "It's about what I'm going to do."

to be continued... and i'm sorry for not uploading in two years... forgive me? :')

just in time for the new year. x

...did I also mention i'm living in Spain for some time? :)

-Calista