We'd established that Barbara had been lying to us about something. But still, we knew that it wasn't our place to confront her about it. Perhaps she had a reason for lying to us, right? Needless to say, we didn't ask her about it. That day Hailey hadn't left the cafeteria at all. In fact, she stayed there the entire time chatting away with her friends. She didn't even glance at her phone once. Ethan's theory was that Barbara was being bullied by some other kids, but that was impossible since Barbara wouldn't take anyone's bullshit like that. She wasn't the type of girl who feared people, in fact people feared her.

After school had ended that day, before beginning my walk back home, I slipped the letter I'd written into Alexandria's locker once again. I didn't wait around to see if she'd drop by to get the letter because I had faith that she would. Hopefully, that guy hadn't gotten to it before her.

When I got home that day, my mom informed me that a new family had moved in next door. She seemed oddly excited about it and said that she had helped them move all their things in as well - and then she said that they would be joining us for dinner. The idea of that didn't bother me in the slightest, I always enjoyed the company of new people - as long as they didn't refer to me as 'soda boy'.

She asked me to wear something appropriate so I wouldn't make a bad first impression, and so I obliged. I threw on a simple navy t-shirt along with a pair of black skinny jeans after having taken a much needed shower. I then proceeded to feed Dumbledore, my hamster. Yes, I named him Dumbledore. Don't ask. I'd gotten him a year ago when I'd started getting into Harry Potter.

After a few hours or so had passed with me simply scrolling through my phone, I heard the doorbell ring. I quickly bolted off of bed and fixed my hair in front of the mirror before sauntering out of my room with a carefree smile on my face, prepared to welcome the newcomers.

I could hear my mom asking them to come in and I made my way into the kitchen first before meeting them so I could set up the dining table. After having done so, I made my way into the living room where they were seated on the couch with my mother. I took my time to take in their appearances to see if I could recognize them from anywhere.

A man and woman, both of whom seemed to look too young for their age were engaged in a conversation with my mother. Alongside them was another boy who seemed to be around my age - however, he had his back turned towards me so I couldn't get a good look at him.

I cleared my throat so they could acknowledge my presence.

"Oh, this is my son!" my mom exclaimed with a smile. "Kairo, come here."

I obeyed and made my way over to her side. I could now get a good look at their son. Needless to say, I did recognize him. I'd seen him around school a couple of times with Hailey's squad but I didn't know his name, his hobbies or anything of that sort.

"Hi, I'm Kairo," I said politely to which the woman shot me a warm grin.

"Nice to meet you, Kairo."

"This is Mr. McConell and Mrs. McConell," my mother exclaimed to which I simply nodded like a stupid bobblehead.

"Oh please, call me Nicole," she grinned. "And my husband's name is Nathan. This is our son, Nick."

Sick, all of their names begin with the letter 'N'. As if that mattered anyway.

"It's nice to meet all of you," I said sheepishly.

"Hey, I've seen you around school before!" Nick exclaimed with a bright grin. "You hang around with Schneider and Ivanov, right?"

"Ethan and Barbara, yeah," I chuckled in response.

"Hailey says that Barbara talks about you and Ethan all the time," he said with a lopsided grin. "Speaking of which, weren't you in that one soda commercial?"

Ah, fuck. Here we go again.