Yeah I know it's been like a year I can't believe I updated blah blah blah I got bored and I was inspired so here

Chapter 10

Saturday

"Alfie, focus!" Nina groaned early that morning. "Please. Please focus."

"We have all weekend and Monday to do this-" Alfie pointed out

"But if we do it now we won't have to worry about it later." Nina said. She raised an eyebrow and he mumbled out a fine.

There was a knock on Nina's door, and she was a bit annoyed because of the interruption, but she let them in anyway. It was Fabian and Amber. "Amber it's your room too, you don't have to knock. We do have to focus on writing our backstory so if you want the room we'll-"

"Oh are you writing your backstory?" came Mara's voice, her arm wrapped around Willow's waist. "We've already written ours if you want some pointers."

No one sounded surprised that Mara had already finished the backstory. In fact, they looked at Willow. "Did you get any say in it?"

"Of course I did!" Willow exclaimed. "My creativity has no bounds, this turned out to be fun."

"Well, I think we could use the help." Alfie said. "So point us to the pointers!"

Amber and Fabian were aware that they'd just gone invisible to the couple they came to visit while Mara and Willow made their way inside.

Meanwhile, KT and Jerome were in her room again, on her bed. They were just laying down. Willow had gone down stairs a while ago, and Jerome had gone up to get KT up but instead she pulled him down onto his bed.

"I'm not allowed to be up here." Jerome said after a while of no speaking.

KT spoke with the croak of a voice that had not been used yet, "And you're such a stickler for the rules."

Jerome smiled. "If I get the toothbrush you're helping me."

"Here's a better idea," KT rolled over to look at him. The look she gave him made his stomach swoop. "Don't get caught."

"KT, when this is all over..." Jerome began.

"Just the words a girlfriend wants to hear." KT said.

"I'm serious." Jerome said. KT gave him her undivided attention. "When this is all over, do you think we can still hang out."

KT stared at him for a while before sitting up with a sigh.

"That sounds promising." Jerome muttered.

"Jerome, do you want me to be honest with you?" KT said to him.

"Depends. How much is it going to hurt?" Jerome asked.

KT gave him a sad smile. "Despite us going out and our question games, I still don't know you very well. But I know from the fact that a lot of people care about you that you're a good guy. But outside of this project, I can't ignore the fact that you seem to make a habit of hurting my friends."

"Not on purpose!" Jerome defended.

"Maybe not." KT admitted. "But I think you can be a little selfish. And I'm not a fan of selfish people."

Jerome, who had been incredibly warm before now felt more than a little chilled. "You're an incredible actor then. Because I didn't even know you couldn't stand me."

"I'm not acting around you, I genuinely enjoy our time together." KT said. "I just don't know if we'll become best friends at the end of all of this."

"Can I prove my worth to you?" Jerome asked.

"You don't have to prove anything to me. But if you want to do better, do it for yourself."

"But I think I have done better!" Jerome insisted.

"Well, maybe you have." KT said. "I wouldn't know. I only know what I've been told."

"Why are you judging me on stories?" Jerome asked. "What about who I am now?"

KT took a minute to respond before saying, "I guess you're right. As long as you stay on a straight path, we can hang out when the projects finished."

Jerome gave her a truly genuine smile, and it was infectious because she gave him one back.

As the table filled for breakfast, Eddie held out a seat for Joy but she just sent him a smile and sat on the other side of Patricia. Confused, Eddie looked at anyone who noticed this but most of them shrugged.

Trudy set the table. "Where are Nina and Alfie?"

"They're attempting to write their backstories." Mara informed.

"Well someone get them for food." Trudy said. Amber hopped up at once.

"Fabian and I will." she said. Fabian took just another second to catch on but nodded. And started going to Amber's room. Amber knocked on the door and Nina opened, and looked visibly annoyed. "Amber we just went over this. It's your room, you don't have to knock."

"Nina just got me to focus for the second time today, and it was interrupted by you for the second time today! Do you know how hard it is to get me to focus once?" Alfie asked.

"Of course I do." Amber muttered. "We came to talk."

Both of them looked at them expectedly and suddenly both Amber and Fabian were nervous. These two people had so much influence on Fabian and Amber. "This staring match is fun and all," Alfie said. "But the whole point of talking is-"

"Talking." Nina finished.

"Aw, that's what I was gonna say!" Alfie gushed jokingly.

Nina tried to stop herself from smiling but was failing. For Fabian and Amber, it was more than a little strange to see their exes with each other this way. It had been from the start of the project. But seeing it again made them really think about what they were going to say to Nina and Alfie. Fabian had moved on from Nina, but she was still his first love and he would never be able to look at her and think differently. Amber had only just recently come to terms with seeing Alfie with Willow, and it made her even more uneasy when he was with her best friend.

What Fabian and Amber were about to say to Nina and Alfie would be quite the bomb to drop.

"Hey," they all turned to see Jerome in the doorway. "They shouldn't have to have someone go get the people who were supposed to be getting other people. Breakfast time?"

"Oh breakfast!" Alfie slapped his forehead. "I completely forgot!"

Alfie took Nina's hand and they ran downstairs. Jerome watched them with curiosity before turning to Fabian and Amber. "Well, come on."

He left. Fabian and Amber looked at each other. "Perhaps we should talk to Mara first?" Fabian asked. Amber nodded and they walked to breakfast.

When Trudy saw them she grinned. "There you all are. Good. Okay, are you all going to Mick's game?"

Jerome's first response is to groan and shake his head, before KT unknowingly cut him off. "I certainly will be! I'd be happy to support Mick!"

Mick grinned at KT, he couldn't say much because his mouth was full.

Jerome glanced at KT and quickly said, "Yeah I'm going too!"

There wasn't a single pair of eyes in the room that didn't immediately swerve to look at Jerome incredulously.

"I think we should all go. When was the last time we all came together to support our teammate?" Jerome continued.

"If this is a scam, Clarke-" Mick began.

"No scam. I'm just genuinely here to cheer you on." Jerome said. Joy was staring at him intently, and then at KT.

"Alfie and I were going to work on our homework." Nina said.

"Oh you have plenty of time to do that." Trudy said. "I think everyone should go to the game!"

And so everyone walked in pairs to the football field. The most quiet pair was Joy and Eddie. "Hey, why'd you sit so far away this morning?"

"I just wanted to sit next to my best friend." Joy muttered. "Is that a problem?"

"Well what about spending time with your boyfriend?" Eddie challenged. Joy turned a dark face to Eddie.

"You know I think everyone's forgetting that when no one is around to watch us we don't have to act like this." Joy practically barked at him.

"What's wrong with you?" Eddie countered. Joy didn't answer. "Fine, let's talk about the project then. We're not gonna gain any points with you being colder than Elsa."

"Oh who cares. Screw the stupid project, it's for theater of all things. We've gotten enough points that it's not gonna be a big deal if we stop now." Joy countered.

"You don't get to decide our grade!" Eddie yelled. The pair in front of them, Mara and Willow, looked back. "Oh keep walking!"

Eddie held Joy back. "Let go of me, Eddie! You have no sway, I quit the stupid project!"

"You aren't going to bring down my grades because you're moody." Eddie said. "So if you quit, I guess I'll have to do the project enough for the both of us."

"What the hell does that mean?" Joy questioned.

"It means," Eddie said as he took off his jacket and placed it on the ground. "It's awfully muddy out here. We wouldn't want you to step in the stuff."

Joy gave him a fake smile and stomped the jacket deep into the ground. Eddie winced as he picked up his muddy jacket with a grimace.

The football was going well, the ABS team was coming out on top so far with Mick as the best scorer. Only whenever he made a great goal, he would look at the bleachers and see everyone cheering except for Patricia. He knew she wasn't really into the football thing, but she could at least fake it. She was more attentive during his practices.

"Would you like some chocolate, sweetheart?" Eddie asked offering his candy bar to Joy. She gave him a mean look. "Perhaps I'll feed it to you."

"Or perhaps you can chew it and spit it in my mouth?" Joy shot back. "It's far less disgusting than this performance you're giving."

Eddie couldn't help but glare at her.

"See, that's much more natural." Joy smirked.

Eddie smirked too when he said, "Didn't you and Jerome get together after lots of bickering? Come to think of it... didn't me and Patricia? Maybe we're meant to be after all."

"You are a pig." Joy retorted. She moved away from him. Eddie was getting seriously worried. What had he done to upset her? Yesterday everything was going fine. Well sure she didn't talk to him much after the 'girls night'. Did something happen there?

Jerome sometimes thought he had a sixth sense for trouble making. He could smell a good scheme from far away. This might have been why he turned to see an opposing team member set Mick's blue opaque water bottle down at the last second. "KT, someone's done something to Mick's drink."

KT turned to Jerome and to the water bottle. "You think?"

"Yeah," he said getting up. "I'm gonna wash it out."

"What? No, Mick will never buy you doing something nice for him." KT said. "Twice. In one day!"

"Well is he supposed to just drink from it?" Jerome challenged.

"I know you're trying to prove something to me." KT said. "Just stop, it's not truthful and it's honestly sort of weird."

Jerome stared at her for a moment but then shook his head. "Well don't think of it as something good for Mick, think of it as something good for the school. We need more trophies, that shield I won for the school still looks bloody lonely."

"Well at least let Alfie get it. He's the second fastest runner in the... where is Alfie?" both looked at where he and Nina had been, only neither of them were there.

Nina and Alfie had snuck off at a time when everyone was distracted. The house was empty as everyone was at Mick's game, but they opted to stay away from there. There was just more chance of them being interrupted. The instead chose a spot of grass on the side of the school a bit away from the path that one would take if they were going from the school to Anubis House. They had finally gotten somewhere with their backstory.

Meanwhile, Jerome was still trying to avoid a catastrophe. "I'll be just a minute."

He ran and grabbed Mick's bottle. A few people noticed, including Mick. Mick was in more than a grumpy mood now. Patricia wasn't paying attention and Jerome was trying to sabotage him, he should have known Jerome had been too nice. But he could hardly do something about it now.

Jerome ran full speed to Anubis House. Unseen by Nina and Alfie and the other two were unseen by him. He ran in poured out water that was distinctively brown, gave it the quickest scrub he could while still being thorough, filled it back up and ran back out again.

While all of this was happening, Nina and Alfie were discussing their story. "So we're agreed to have our backstory work with Mara and Willow's, right?" Nina asked while adjusting.

"You alright?" Alfie asked.

"Fine," Nina said. "Just not the most comfortable thing to be leaning on."

Alfie adjusted as well and smiled. "That's why you should have a more puffy jacket."

Nina sighed, unamused. Alfie decided to come up with a solution rather than to tease.

"You can lean on me." He said. Nina smiled at him, about to decline, "Come on. I'm really comfy."

He tugged her arm softly and playfully and she finally relented and scooched over. This ended with her leaning against his chest with her laptop on her lap and his legs on either side of her. It was far more comfortable than she imagined it would be.

That's the sight that made Jerome saw while in his haste to get back to the football field. Nina and Alfie were not easily seen, on the side of the school in the shade a little bit behind a bush. Most people would likely walk past them, especially since they were closer to the front of the school and most people would be walking around the back since they'd be coming from the game. In fact, the only reason Jerome saw them in the first place is because he was in such a hurry, he stumbled into a position where he'd be able to see them. They had not noticed him and he still was on a mission so he quickly got up and kept running. But he was coming up with ideas as well.

Mick was just coming off the field when Jerome got there with his water. Mick wasted no time and grabbed Jerome's collar. "Get me a different water bottle."

"I didn't run all this way for you to not drink this water!" Jerome said trying to push Mick off. KT rushed over quickly.

"I'm not drinking out of that one, what's in it? Pee?" Mick accused.

"Dirt, actually. Before I cleaned it out." Jerome said. "Someone from the other team tried to sabotage you."

"He's telling the truth." KT said when she got over there.

"You saw it?" Mick asked.

"Well... no I didn't see it myself-" KT said and Mick scoffed. "Look there's nothing wrong with your water bottle. If you don't trust him trust me."

"Yeah but you trust him." Mick said.

"Well someone has to." KT said hotly. She didn't miss the significant look Jerome gave her. "Besides, I know for a fact that he would not do that, not right now at least. Right Jerome?"

"Right." Jerome said immediately, still looking at KT. "More to lose if I did."

KT looked at Jerome back and they smiled at each other. Mick looked between them, anger leaving. But it only brought his attention back to Patricia, who was currently moving close to Mara.

"Mara," Patricia said closing her book. "Is that your dad?"

Mara and Willow looked over to where Patricia was looking and Mara froze. "What's my dad doing here?"

Willow, however, was excited. "Oh how fun! I get to meet your father!"

Mara got up from her seat and Willow made a move to get up as well. "No!"

Willow froze.

"Sorry Willow, uh, you can meet him later." Mara said and ran away to her father.

"Hello Mara baby!" her father grinned. She gave him a hug.

"What's wrong?" Mara asked immediately.

"Nothing's wrong, I had a free day. I was trying to tell you Thursday on the phone but you were in such a hurry, I thought I would just surprise you instead."

"Right! Surprise! Well I was!" Mara said nervously tugging on her blouse. "When are you leaving?"

Mr. Jaffray was obviously a little hurt by the question but tried to hide it. "Just for dinner, everything okay?"

"Everything's fantastic!" Mara said, her voice getting higher and higher. "Fantastic, can't wait! Excuse me, I left something inside of the school!"

She walked towards the building, where she was going to scream. Willow watched her go, seeing that something was obviously distressing Mara and decided to let her do whatever it is she had to do.

"Patricia," came Mick's voice. Patricia gave him a small smile but it was short lasting when she saw he was clearly bothered.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Oh I don't know, maybe the fact that every time I look at you you're writing in that stupid book!" he gestured to it in his hands. "I'm not asking you to cheerlead for me or- or-"

Mick started fumbling because Patricia was smirking at him. "Are you done? I wanna make sure you say everything you need to before you eat your words."

Mick was so thrown he said, "Uh... I guess?"

Patricia opened the book for him and Mick saw that she was writing down his stats. With footnotes and stars if there was a move he did that she liked in particular. "I making this for both of us, for me so I can brag and for you so you can see in writing that you're a genius at what you do, like I said before."

Mick stared at it. "You called it, Why Mick's Better Than Everyone Else?"

"It seemed the appropriate name." Patricia said. Mick couldn't help but look sheepish but he was grinning too."Well you look a little pathetic right now, and not just because your foot's in your mouth. Shouldn't you... hydrate or something?"

Mick glanced at the water bottle in his hand and hesitated for a second before taking a drink. It was extremely refreshing.

The rest of the game was good. Unlike the first half where Mick would get an almost visible dark cloud above him every time he saw Patricia writing in her book, he now wore a huge smile on his face every time Patricia wrote in her book. When they finished, with ABS winning, people were walking to their houses in large groups. KT held out his hand for Jerome, but Jerome did not take it.

"I'm sorry, I have to do something with Fabian and Amber. I'll meet you at Anubis." he said. Fabian and Amber paused as they had no plans with Jerome and had no idea what he was talking about.

"Oh," KT said looking at the stunned pair and then at Jerome. "Alright then..."

She left with the rest of the group. Jerome turned to Amber and Fabian. "Walk with me."

"Why?" Fabian asked.

"Because I want to talk." Jerome said.

"Why?" Amber asked.

"Because," Jerome said with the air of dropping a second shoe. "You two want to go out when this is all done for, and I think I know the best way to go about it."

Fabian and Amber suddenly froze for a moment. They hadn't actually said it aloud, just knew that this was how they both felt. Jerome smiled at their discomfort and began to walk.

"And how would you know that?" Fabian asked running behind him with Amber in tow.

"Oh it's all over your faces," Jerome said and added, "Boo."

Amber glared at him from behind. "You're so annoying."

"Well do you want my help or not?" Jerome asked. Fabian and Amber glanced at each other and Jerome took their non answer as and answer. "Right."

"Where are we going?" Fabian asked.

"Anubis. We're just taking the long route around the front of the school. Anyway, you two want to go out, well let's see what's standing in your way. There's Mara, the guy code, and I'm sure there is a girl code."

"Of course." Amber said.

"And I'm sure exboyfriends of your friends are off limits." Jerome continued. Amber went quiet. "And I'm sure that doesn't matter if said friend gives you her blessing. And it's the same with the guy code."

"What about Mara?" Fabian asked. "She's expecting that we get back together after this."

"Get your head out of your ass, Fabian. What you and Mara had was hardly a relationship." Jerome rolled his eyes. "You just made it official a couple of weeks ago, before that you were just going on dates. Hardly anything to be committed to. And let me tell you, that was never going to last."

"Oh really?" Fabian asked. "And how come?"

"You're too similar, you'd realize soon it's like dating yourself in the opposite gender. Same with Alfie and Willow." Jerome said. "What you two had with Nina and Alfie was a lot more serious, and the feelings attached to those relationships were more serious as well. That's why you're trying to break it to them and you haven't gone to Mara yet."

"Do you just know everything, Jerome?" Fabian asked partially genuinely and partially bitterly.

"I'm a person reader. I can pick up on these type of things." Jerome said. "Now I agree, the right move is to tell Nina and Alfie. Mara you can deal with later, I'm pretty sure she'd get over it quickly. But for you two to date, you need the permission from the exes. Luckily for you, that's easier than you think."

"How so?" Fabian asked.

"Because of the situation you're in. If you play your cards right, Nina and Alfie will be more than accepting, they'd be asking you for permission as well." Jerome smiled.

Fabian scoffed. "Nina and Alfie? They'd never go out for real."

Amber wasn't sure. She knew Alfie liked Nina, but Alfie also liked any pretty girl that was nice to him for long enough. It's a matter of how much he liked said pretty girl that affects whether or not he pursues them...

"You sure?" Jerome said coming to a stop.

"Why are we stopping?" Amber asked. Jerome turned his head over and then so did Amber and Fabian. That's when they saw Nina and Alfie asleep on the side of the building fully wrapped up in each other. Amber almost squealed, "That's so cute!"

Jerome shushed her and pulled them back, basically dragging Fabian who looked a little confused. But Amber didn't blame him. It was a little weird now that she got past the cuteness.

"Don't wake them yet." Jerome said. "But that's good stuff, Amber."

"Parden?"

"Convince them they'd make a good couple foreal." Jerome said slowly. "Then, they'd be more than happy to give their OK to your relationship because they'd be hoping for an OK as well."

Amber and Fabian looked at each other. Amber spoke up. "We play matchmaker for Nina and Alfie... so that we can go out?"

"Precisely." Jerome said. Fabina shook his head.

"Sorry, I still don't think it could happen." he said. "I still don't think they'd actually ever like each other."

"They look pretty comfortable to me." Jerome said.

"They have to. That's the project." Fabian said.

"Well sure, although the project never said they had to be that close... when no one's around to award points." Jerome said. "Come on Amber, you know Alfie and you're the supposed 'Love Guru'. Did you really not bat an eye to the fact that Alfie almost missed breakfast this morning for schoolwork?"

Amber realized he was right. Trying to hide the fact that she missed this, Amber said, "Yeah Alfie likes Nina, I already knew that, but does Nina like Alfie?"

"I... don't know." Jerome said. "I don't know enough about her. But Alfie's lovable, so I think you could make this work."

Slowly, Fabian turned to Jerome with narrowed eyes. "What's in it for you?"

"Four happy friends!" Jerome said. Fabian looked unconvinced.

"What's in it for you?" he asked again.

"I just think... if you two could make this work... it would open up the door for other people as well." Jerome said.

"What?" Amber asked and then looking over Jerome. "You like KT?"

Jerome said nothing.

"Falling for your partner wasn't exactly a part of the game." Amber mimicked his early words.

"I haven't fallen for KT. Give me some credit, It's not even been a week." Jerome said.

"It's my understanding that it took you one afternoon in the prop closet to fall for Willow." Amber pointed out.

Jerome ignored her. "And I fully plan on going back to Joy after this."

"Then what is it?" Fabian asked.

Jerome shrugged. "If Joy and I don't work out... or if she decides she a better match with someone else..." Jerome looked momentarily glum. "Maybe sometime in the future... KT and I could have something. And it'd be a lot easier for that to happen if she sees other pairs from this assignment happened."

Amber gave Jerome a small smile. Jerome was now more than a little uncomfortable. "Anyway are you doing it or not?"

Fabian and Amber looked at each other and nodded slowly. "We will." Fabian said. "Because even if getting them together doesn't work out, maybe we could make them more comfortable with... us."

Jerome grinned. "Thanks for playing."

Jerome winked at them as he continued to walk to the house. Fabian and Amber looked at each other, and then hastily walked to Nina and Alfie. They both tried to wake them up, only for the pair to just stir and Alfie wrap his arms around Nina.

"Nina!" Fabian said moving her more. Suddenly Nina woke with a start, she was always a little on edge. Her sudden movement caused Alfie to wake.

"Sorry to wake you," Amber said. "We thought you'd like to come inside."

"Did we finish the backstory?" Alfie groaned. Nina looked at her laptop, which had slid off of her lap onto the grassy ground.

"I think so." She said. They looked up at Fabian and Amber as if just seeing them. "Oh... did we fall asleep?"

"Looks like it." Fabian said.

"Who could blame you?" Amber said with a very quick glance at Fabian. "You two looked extremely comfortable together."

Both of them looked confused and Nina finally unwrapped herself from Alfie. "Uh... we were just keeping warm."

"Right." Fabian jumped in. "But you two also fit well together."

Alfie glanced at Nina, who gave a small shrug. "Thanks."

"The important thing is we finished our backstory." Nina smiled at Alfie who smiled back.


Alfie always thought Nina was pretty and cool, but never even considered dating her. It was obvious from the beginning that Fabian liked Nina so she was off limits. But they always liked each other. Nina always found Alfie funny, and with being stressed and pulled in so many different directions, she didn't get much of a chance to laugh. So Alfie, who could almost always make her laugh, was very special to her.

Things started to change for them after they were... trapped in the same place for a while. They started to open up with each other and share things. They each realized something. They might be total opposites but they didn't judge each other. No they didn't understand each other, but they never judged. When Alfie found a laugh in things Nina didn't think one could, she may be confused but she would never try to stop him. When Alfie thought Nina was too serious or too stressed, he simply tried to reduce the stress not judge.

So they ended up with a friendship that honestly a lot of their other friends didn't fully understand. But it really didn't matter what anyone else thought because they were happy with their relationship. So they began to hang out more. Nina needed this more than she wanted to let on. Her two best friends at the school, Fabian and Amber, were now hanging out together almost exclusively, and Nina was beginning to feel left out.

No one else got it. Jerome and Patricia kept asking them what they would even talk about. They didn't really talk together. Alfie would talk and Nina would listen, and then Nina would talk and Alfie would listen. And Alfie was even funnier when he had no reason to be serious, and Nina was a lot more 'chill', as Alfie would say, when she had no reason not to be. It took Nina just a while to realize, she liked him. And not just as a friend, but as more. Alfie, on the other hand, thought he might have started liking Nina ages ago.

But it wasn't so simple. Alfie was going out with Willow, and Nina was Fabian's first love. And Alfie was Amber's. How could they ever even consider... it just could never happen. And Nina was happy just being friends with him, honestly. Only... she wasn't. And neither was he. Alfie just wanted to be around Nina all the time, to the point where he realized if he wanted to be fair to Willow, he had to break up with her. She deserved someone who wouldn't split their time.

But even still, they owed it to Fabian and Amber to stay just friends. But Amber the love guru saw right through this. She knew almost as soon as it happened that they'd fallen for each other. Amber explained this to Fabian and both of them gave Nina and Alfie the thumbs up. With their friends' approval, it didn't take long at all for Nina and Alfie to make things official. The best thing about it was their relationship was the same, just with more kissing.


"Well?" Nina asked as they approached Anubis House and she finished reading their backstory outloud to Fabian and Amber. "What do you think?"

"Sounds fine to me." Amber said, not admitting she zoned out once or twice. Not that it wasn't interesting, it's just almost every sentence gave her a new idea of how to get Nina and Alfie to get together.

"It's good." Fabian said, before having a quick idea. "Great, actually. Really realistic."

Amber caught on at once and nodded.

"Really?" Nina asked. "Because we wanted it to sound like it could actually happen-"

"Even though it couldn't." Alfie finished.

"I think it could!" Amber interjected as Fabian opened the door for his friends to pass through.

"In... those circumstances." Fabian added.

"Oh yes, it's really realistic. And Fabian and I would totally give you our permission to date."

Fabian had to stop himself from laughing. Subtlety was not Amber's thing. Alfie and Nina stared at her as if she offered to draw mustaches on their faces.

"Really?" they said together.

"Aw Fabes, isn't that cute! They're talking at the same time." Amber gushed. Fabian was going to have to tell her to tone it down.

"Adorable." Fabian answered.

Alfie looked just about ready to ask what Fabian and Amber had been smoking when Trudy walked in front of them with a kind smile. Alfie and Nina went from platonic to romantic in less than a second, smiling at each other and holding each other's hand.

"Be ready soon, we're eating dinner a bit earlier than usual, Mr. Jaffray has joined us but he'll have to go soon. I hope that's no bother!" Trudy said.

"Eating sooner than later?" Nina asked. "Somehow I doubt Alfie will mind very much."

"Somehow everything you say ever feels like you're judging me." Alfie said as the pair walked away. Amber went to follow them but Fabian held her back, pulling her to the side.

"Amber, do you want to try maybe being a little more... subtle?" Fabian asked.

"Subtle?" Amber repeated. "With those two? No way, they'd never get it. Alfie needs me to scream things like this at him I swear. And Nina actually thought you liked Patricia in our first year, remember?"

Fabian couldn't help but let out a small laugh at that one.

"I don't think we're being obvious enough." Amber said.

"Look, we'll tone it down a bit, and if they still have no clue later, we can amp it up." Fabian said. Amber huffed. "Trust me?"

Amber smiled. "Of course."

Amber happily gave Fabian a kiss and they walked into the living room. Joy sat in the corner of the living room, sulking, looking at all the couples. More than anyone she looked at Mick and Patricia and Jerome and KT. Eddie joined her.

"Go away." Joy mumbled.

Eddie looked at KT and Jerome. "Is this about them? About them being together?"

"It's not about anything." Joy said.

"Come on, Joy. Look, you wanna quit? Fine. I don't mind the bad grade, it wouldn't be my first. We'll quit together." Eddie said. Joy looked at him surprised. "But, you have to tell me why you're quitting. That's my only request."

Joy sighed. "Fine... I'll tell you. But not in here."

Eddie stood and offered his hand. Joy hesitated and finally took it as he lead her to his room. Mick and Fabian had bunk beds, Eddie was lucky enough to have his own. (They drew straws for it). So Joy and Eddie sat on their bed. "Okay, what's going on?"

Joy bit her lip. "I promised not to say anything, so you have to swear what we say doesn't leave this room."

"Swear." Eddie said at once.

"Well, it was last night." Joy said. "You know, at the girls night. We'd all come down and relaxed and everyone else fell asleep but Patricia and I. We started talking, it was nice. We hadn't done it in a while. And then we started talking about... about the project. And I was saying how I was actually having fun..."

"Yeah me too!" Eddie exclaimed.

"Right... but..." Joy wasn't looking at him. "Well Patricia said she was too, with Mick, but every time she saw me with you it hurt. A lot."

Eddie felt his shoulders sink. He opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. But Joy wasn't done anyway.

"I told her I understood, you know. Jerome and KT, it's hard to watch. And the worst part is, they're really good together, those two. I could see something actually happening with them in another reality. So I... you know. I knew how she felt." Joy said fiddling with the hem of her shirt. "But it's worse for her. We're best friends. We're best friends. I know we haven't hung out as much as we used to but she's still like... like family. And she. Well she loves you. And every time I'm with you, it's like a stab in her heart."

Joy began to tear up and Eddie moved to put his arm around her, but that seemed like the wrong thing to do.

"And how can I keep doing this knowing that every time, I'm hurting her?" Joy asked with a sniff.

Eddie handed her some tissues and watched her as she furiously cleaned her eyes. "It's not your fault."

"I know it's not!" Joy snapped. "It's this stupid project, I don't want to do this anymore."

"Don't be stupid." Joy and Eddie turned to the doorway to see Patricia.

"You were listening to that!" Joy exclaimed. Patricia smirked.

"You were all mopey and I wanted to know why." she said. "Anyway, I didn't tell you what I told you so that you could quit the project and mess up your grade."

"Why did you tell her?" Eddie asked. "I mean, those are pretty rough words for anyone to hear."

"I didn't say all that stab in the heart stuff. Come on Eddie, does that even sound like me? I just said it's weird to see you two together. It's weird to see everyone together, really. She embellished. Like a true journalist."

"Well it's true, isn't it?" Joy sniffed. Patricia rolled her eyes.

"It sucks, yeah, but I can take it. Look at Nina and Amber, think about how awkward this is for them? But they're still doing it." Patricia shrugged. "Don't quit the project for me."

"And anyway, you're thinking about this all wrong." Eddie said. Joy turned to him, half annoyed half curious.

"How so?"

"You've got to... You can't think of it as acting." Eddie said. "You have to think of it as if it's all real. And then you can really have fun with it."

"But if it were all real then I really stole your boyfriend." Joy said.

"Or, maybe I pushed you two together because I saw that you were good together." Patricia shrugged. "Maybe you should work on those backstories."

"We'd only be doing that if we were still doing the project." Eddie said and gave Joy a heavy stare. She sighed with a bit of a laugh.

"Alright I won't quit!"

"Good." Eddie said.

Patricia smiled and left the room. Eddie gave Joy a smile and pointed to his lips and Joy indulgently kissed them.

Trudy called them shortly after for dinner and the mood was good. All the pairs were happy, everyone was smiling, only one person seemed to not be having a good time: Mara. She pushed her food around and didn't engage in any conversation. Her father kept giving her looks every so often but didn't ask why she was so quiet. He wasn't, however, going to let her go unnoticed. He came to visit her after all.

"So, how are you Mara? Doing your work? Keeping your nose clean?" Mr. Jaffray asked.

"Oh yes," Mara said immediately. "Of course! Doing well in every class."

"Good. Good. And socially? How's that boy you were seeing?" Mr. Jaffray asked. Mara flushed at once and Fabian looked everywhere else in the room.

"Dad please don't ask that, not at dinner." Mara said quietly.

"What was the name..." Mr. Jaffray was thinking.

"It's not important right now." Mara almost pleaded.

"Will! That's right, Will!" Mr. Jaffray said. Willow froze with a fork full of pasta that was halfway to her mouth. Everyone looked at her, still frozen, or Mara, who wouldn't look up, or Mr. Jaffray, who was oblivious. But he saw their reactions and turned to Mara. "Is something wrong? Did you break up?"

Mara didn't answer, so Alfie did. "They might be going down that road."

"Alfie, eat." Nina instructed and proceeded to try and stuff food in his mouth.

Willow slowly lowered her fork and gave Mara a long look that the black hair'd girl was determined not to meet.

"Sorry to hear that." Mr. Jaffray said. "If you don't mind me asking, what happened?"

"From what I heard there was a big lie involved." Eddie said and Mara just wanted the earth to swallow her whole. Joy was more sympathetic.

"Do you want me to do that to you?" Joy asked pointing to Nina shoving a large amount of food in Alfie's mouth when he opened his mouth to say something.

"I'll behave." Eddie said when Alfie started to choke.

"Shame. Well if the lie was really big, maybe it was good that it may not work." Mr. Jaffray said. "Deception is one of the worst things, in my opinion."

"I agree, sir." Willow said quietly. Mara's eyes burned with the threat of tears.

"You don't understand," Mara whispered to Willow when Mr. Jaffray started to reach over and pat a choking Alfie on the back.

"That doesn't make it hurt any less." Willow answered.

"What do you care anyway, it's not real." Mara forcefully whispered. Willow gave Mara a rare look of utter disdain and Mara felt even lower than usual. Because the truth is, even if they were put together by Jason, that didn't mean this had to be fake. And anyone would be hurt if they were lied about. "I couldn't tell him the truth."

"Why not?" Willow asked.

Mara hesitated, before answering, "I'll show you."

She watched as Alfie thanked her father and glared at Nina. She ignored it, handing him a napkin to clean his face while she got sauce off of his sleeve.

"Amber, did you know Jessie and Vanessa are dating now?" Mara asked loudly.

Amber was right on cue. "Are they? They've been circling around each other for weeks, it was only a matter of time!"

"Mara, is this really the time for gossip?" Mr. Jaffray scolded.

"Sorry, it's just that Jessie and I are friends. And she's been telling me about how she's liked Vanessa for so long, I just..." she trailed off at the dark expression that crossed over her father's face. Just like she knew it would. She turned to Willow, who was looking at Mr. Jaffray. Willow was quite good at reading emotions, Mara knew. But even those who weren't knew what was coming from the look on his face.

"Jessie is a girl?" he asked.

"Yes sir." Mara confirmed.

Mr. Jaffray sighed, unaware that everyone at the table were watching him closely. "How old are they?"

"My age." Mara said.

"Too young." he muttered. "It's not my business, of course, but how can anyone that young..."

He shook his head.

"I don't have a problem with... you know..." he continued.

"Gay people." Mara said.

"Yes, but children shouldn't be subjected to that at such a young age." Mr. Jaffray said. "It's wrong, they could get ideas. This Jessie girl, you should rethink your friendship. She's obviously very confused."

"What if she's not confused?" Willow finally asked.

"No one knows what they want that young. You should certainly not be doing anything like that at the age you're all in." Mr. Jaffray said.

The rest of dinner was pretty quiet.

Mr. Jaffray didn't even stay for dessert. He kissed Mara goodbye and was gone not even fifteen minutes later. Willow took Mara's hand and lead them up to the attic where it was quiet so they could talk.

"I'm sorry I lied." Mara said in a small voice.

"I'm sorry you lied, too." Willow answered. "I'm not angry."

"Of course you're not. Because you're Willow, and you're amazing." Mara said.

"I'm hurt." Willow said. "You hurt me, but I understand why you did what you did."

Mara still wasn't looking at her.

"I still think you should have told him the truth." Willow said.

"What? Didn't you see his reaction?" Mara yelped. "And what is the truth? That I'm in a relationship with you? Because, and I don't mean this in a bad way, I'm not actually in a relationship with you!"

"I know-" Willow began.

"And if I told him the real truth, that this is all for a project, there's a very good possibility he will pull me out. Or get Jason fired. Or both!"

"I already told you, I understand why you did what you did." Willow said honestly. "But not even thinking about you or me, wouldn't it be good of you to show him he's wrong?"

Mara stared at her and turned away. "Goodnight, Willow."

Willow was momentarily stunned. "Goodnight?"

"You just... you wouldn't understands. It's not your fault, you're just better than most people. You're better than me. And I don't think I could help you understand, so this conversation would go nowhere. So... goodnight."

Willow watched her go, unsure of what to do for a moment. She settled on writing in her journal.

Willow

Today I met Mara's father when we had dinner. This should have been great but it only lead to pain. Mara didn't tell her dad about us because he is homophobic. And the worse part is, I don't think he realized he's homophobic. And Mara is encouraging it by not educating him when he says something that is ignorant. She told me when she left that I wouldn't understand because I'm better than her. Maybe she's right because I don't know what she meant by that. I"m not trying to be better than anybody, I just think when someone has a hurtful opinion, someone should tell them. Especially because his hurtful opinion hurt me, and when Mara said nothing, that hurt me more.

Dinner this afternoon was uncomfortable. But not just because of what I said above, which is all true. I don't understand what Mara meant and I do think she should have said something. But also because I didn't know what to do myself. I thought I should tell Mr. Jaffray the truth, not about the project but at least about who 'Will' really is. But I also thought that might be overstepping my boundaries. After all, this is really something that has to be worked out between Mara and her father. But if it affects me as well, shouldn't I be able to speak up? I didn't know what to do. I think I took Mara's feelings well into consideration, and yet I'm not sure I got the same treatment.

Alife

Nina fed me today at dinner because I was being... obnoxious. Her word, not mine. I almost died because of it. Nina's great, but she's starting to sound like my mother. And I'm afraid she's gonna start acting like it. In fact, I guess she is already. She fed me and cleaned me off. What's next? Tucking me into bed? Bathing me? Dressing me? ...Actually all that sounds pretty good. Maybe there's an upside to this? No but in all seriousness, my dad's strict and my mum nags. I like to get away from all of that when I come here. If Nina starts acting like my mum, I'll lose it man.

Fabian and Amber are being weird. They're being... I'm not sure. Encouraging I guess? They keep giving Nina and I looks and telling us how good we are together. And believe me, I already know Nina and I make a good team. But it almost seems more than that. Maybe they're just playing their parts but... why does it feel like they're encouraging us to make this real? Nina's great, she's pretty and smart and I like hanging out with her. But I don't think we would ever work out if we tried in real life. Besides, I really don't think Nina would ever like me as anything more than a friend.


If anyone still cares lmao who's your favorite couple?

Nalfie 45

Kerome 41

Patrick 40

Famber 23

Joddie 17

Millow 15