There was a little over a week before the students were off for Thanksgiving break. Students were excited to get the chance to finally relax. Wednesday was the middle of the weekend not too far away from the weekend, but just enough before Monday.

Jiya walked into the classroom looking upset. "Hey doll, whathappened?" Jiya threw her backpack on the ground. "Wally is being so damn annoying. I seriously don't know how I put up with him." Antonia laid out her pencil on her desk. "Really, why?" Jiya went on about how he jokes about everything and is never serious about any problems that they have. She listed many things that were issues and Antonia responded with how miserable guys really were. Teens will be teens gossiping and procrastinating their work as usual. Mr. Fadel walked around the room as the classdid their work. While passing back papers there was a sticky note on Jiya's paper. She showed Antonia the paper and gave her a blank face. "He wants to see me after class…" Her friend looked at the paper. She shrugged and thought it wasn't a serious problem. When the bell rang, Antonia waved goodbye to the girl and walked out the classroom. Jiya went up to Mr. Fadel. She had her arms crossed and got a little nervous. "Hi, Mr. Fadel. Did I do something wrong?" He looked at her with a shocked expression. "No, of course not. Why would you say that? I just had an important question for you." She said nothing to him but then responded softly, "I dunno." Mr. Fadel pulled out a light blue paper and handed it to Jiya. "Would you like to be a part of CIF? I think there is potential in your writing skills." Jiya looked at him with a wide grin. "Really?" After the Thanksgiving break, Jiya was going to practice writing with a group of students.

As usual, Jiya's attitude was fixed with the great news. She told Wally when he walked with her after class and rewarded her with a kiss on the cheek. They were on good terms when lunch came around. It was on her mind for the rest of the month.

Antonia entered her history class to see that the desks were paired. She saw that a group was already where Nicole and her would usually sit, so she decided to sit on the other side. She took her phone out quickly to see her messages. She and Donna were on a spam frenzy where they were consistently sending each other memes. Suddenly someone dropped their backpack next to her and sat down. Samuel put his water bottle on his desk and took out his history notebook. Antonia looked up from her phone still laughing, for a moment she thought it was Nicole. "Hey, love." Samuel had opened his journal exposing notes he had written down. The bell rang and Mr. Olson stayed behind his desk. "Today we're just going to work on our project so go ahead get with your partner and work on it." Antonia looked back to see that Nicole and her partner already had a binder coming together. She put her phone away and took out her laptop. Throughout the class period, they worked efficiently to have set up their blueprint for the layout of the poster. Except Samuel would occasionally close Antonia's laptop in the middle of her typing. "We can put everything together next week in class so we'll be done with it before it's due." The whole project was due at the end on the day next Thursday and the two were excited to set it up. "Actually we have about 7 minutes of class left. We can go to the library and print our paragraphs." Samuel looked at her, "There's no rush. We can finish it later." He pulled up YouTube on his computer to show Antonia a music video. "So you're coming to the concert on Saturday right?" He began typing, Antonia didn't say anything but gave him a pleading expression. He turned his body raising an eyebrow. "Yes, yes you are. Right? You're going to take your troll doll with you?" Antonia slowly leaned away from him and was giggling. He rolled his eyes, now turning his body away from her. "Rubbish." "I didn't say I wasn't! I just have a girls' night with my friends and we are going to do stuff." Antonia looked over his shoulder and tried to make eye contact with him. He tried to hide his smile and slightly turned his head. "What are you going to do? Paint each other's nails and indirectly talk shit about each other's boyfriends'." Antonia snored at the comment and tried to be serious. "No Sam. We're just going to hang out and eat food."

Unfortunately at the hangout, Antonia fell asleep while watching a movie and did not go see Johnny's band. When she woke up the next morning, she checked her phone to find Samuel's messages.

Text me when you arrive to meet up

Hey

Lmk if u r coming

She called him later to apologize but he saw no issue.

In her art class, students had the opportunity to create a piece that they felt represented the holiday season to them. Antonia had decided to work on a sketch of a pomegranate. She practiced working with the colors and skills in shading. She wanted to challenge herself by picking an object so intricate yet so simple. She loved pomegranates. It was a delicious fruit she enjoyed eating with her family in the winter season in Italy. The vivid seeds would leave stains on her lips and fingertips as she took the flesh apart one by one. There was always some dessert using pomegranates on Christmas and the usual significance on New Year's. The holidays made Antonia so happy, and she knew it would take a lot to change that. The other students also decided to choose items that were food-related. Something about the current generation made them so drawn to food.

In her health class, Antonia aced her quiz. All she had to do was worry about her finals for the end of the semester. She tried to make friends in the class but the people in there were extremely dramatic. Antoina would usually feed off of this but it felt different. Yeah, people knew she immediately began popular but she didn't know anything about them.

"Wally, do you want my tater tots?" Nicole lifted the container from her lunch tray. "Yes ma'am. That would be great." He immediately smothered the food in ketchup. Isaiah decided to sit next to Antonia showing the group a flyer. "The school is having a movie night right before finals." Karen looked at him and smiled. "That sounds fun, hope you enjoy it." She went back to her conversation with Mal. "I meant as in we should all go together." Mal looked at him, then looked at Antonia and raised his eyebrows. it was clear to the group that he wanted to indirectly ask Antonia out, but did not have the guts to. Currently, the guys were sick of him, trying to make excuses to find any way for them to hang out together. Even Roy tried to talk so sense into him the last time the guys went to hang out. "I think I have plans with my friends from theater," Antonia responded opening her lunch box. "Oh…" Isaiah sunk in his chair and realized that he needed to be quicker in asking the girl out and stop waiting for her to say she is unavailable.

The group wondered if Isaiah would ever get the courage to ask the girl on a serious date. They would just have to wait.

In forensics class, the groups were changed. Antonia, Nicole, Dominic, and another classmate were together working on a research project for serial killers. Nicole looked around the room and looked at Dominic. The boy said nothing but kept eye contact with her. "Wasn't Selinda in our class? What happened to her? And Jada is still suspended?" The girl pretended not to hear anything as she didn't want to get involved with the group's drama. Dominic looked at the two girls and signed, "She and her brother dropped out. She decided she wanted to work already and get a step in her family's business." Nicole nodded and looked back at her laptop. She didn't believe him.

Antonia signed up for theater production next semester. She was truly excited to begin her journey and make even more friends with the students that made the magic happen. Those cool kids like Elizabeth were so nice and wanted Antonia to show off her talents. The play that the school was planning for UIL needed more modern clothing and makeup. Antonia new that it would be a great way for her to help her peers.

There was a substitute teacher in pre-cal class. The students were cast with having to complete their work on their online program. However, the students did not listen and were chatting. Antonio was able to catch up with her missing work and was able to have the rest of the class period to herself. she thought it would be a great idea to go ahead and look at possible Christmas gifts. Even though Antonia was seventeen she would still make Christmas cards to put under the Christmas tree. Being the type of girl that she was, she went on different websites such as Burberry to look at the different purses and accessories. She had more than enough shoes and clothes that could possibly be even given to another person. but since Antonia grew up with a lavish style she knew she could get anything she wanted. Antonio took out a piece of paper and begin writing down the different things that she wanted. sometimes during Christmas is she didn't get everything she wanted and was even given some substitutions. As long as it was expensive she didn't care.