✾

"Basic proportions," Iris starts, sketching a light circle at the top of the page, "are really important. You know how you'll be having a test on this?"

"I'll be having a test on this?" I echo with disgust. "Never mind, just cancel this, I'm ditching the class from here on out." I go to stand up, but Iris takes my shoulder and shoves me back down on the couch beside her without even looking up from her sketch.

"You're not backing out now, bud. This is important — what's your grade in that class?"

"We get it, show-off, I need to stay in school."

"No, actually, I'm not being a show-off. What's your grade? It's important to see how high you should have to score to maintain your current grade."

"Like a 73 or something. I get it, hilarious, I'm barely passing. Save the laughter for later though. I'm just—"

"I wasn't gonna say anything, chill out and listen," Iris says, but it's easy to see that she's focused on the sketch. "This test is worth about 150 points, yeah? So to get a B you'd have to get about 120 or 130 or something. Let's aim for 125."

"Uh," I laughed with a roll of my eyes, "That's kinda high. Don't you think we should lower it a bit? By like... thirty points?"

She looks up to give me a dirty look. "No, that's a D-. The last time I checked, we're trying to bring your grade up, not down." She looks back down. "We have studying to do, so list your grades for me and I'll help you. And, Pierce, don't make me regret this."

"You don't have to—"

"Don't make me regret this."

✾

"We just spent hours studying," I say, rubbing the sides of my temples and pretending I have a headache. "I'm pretty sure all I can see is skeletons now, wherever I go. I'm not gonna have good dreams tonight. Right now, all you look like is a skeleton. If I looked in the mirror all I'd see is my skeleton. I'd make a better x-ray than all those actual x-rays, which are wannabes at the same time."

"What time is it?" she asks, looking over the skeleton she finished drawing a while back. She then sees the mess of papers all over the floor and furrows her eyebrows at them.

"Like eight, I think," I vaguely answer.

She starts to pick up the papers as if she's in a hurry, so I ask, "Princess, what's the rush? I'll clean it up, you don't have to."

"I don't mind," she says. "After all, I'm Cinderella, aren't I?"

I go over to where she's at and start to pick up the papers too, and once I finish gathering the rest, I take the stack in her hands and slide it over mine. "Not here, you aren't."

Her stomach growls, and she sighs. "We forgot to eat."

"How about ice cream?" Ruby pipes up while I throw the papers away. "I've had too many sandwiches for dinner tonight."

"Sorry," I say, "If I was a better cook or you liked Ramen noodles you'd have something else." I just ignore the thought on ice cream.

"Can your friend cook?"

Iris shakes her head. "No. I mean I can, but not well. Ice cream is always a good idea though. Pierce, I think your sister's onto something."

"I don't eat ice cream," I shake my head. "That would damage my hot body way too much."

"C'mon Pierce, live a little! Don't be shallow, who cares about abs?"

"Ice cream is too sweet," I assure her, "I don't even like it. It would be a waste of time."

"Pierce, you're going to eat ice cream and you're going to like it."

"Is that a threat?"

"It's a fact."

✾

"Hello," the girl who's working here greets us. I hold the door open for Ruby and Iris, who both thank me politely. We walk up to the counter and all think about what it is we want while the girl working here answers the phone and says she'll be back in just a moment.

I turn to Iris and notice that her face is red and she's nervously looking towards the floor. I don't say anything though, because at the same time, I can't think of what kind of ice cream I want. Who doesn't love ice cream every once in a while? It might be a weakness of mine but nobody really has to know.

"Logan, I told you, what's been done has been done. Neither of us are perfect, okay?" The employee sighs, and I recognize her voice as Amelia's. Looking at her from here, it makes sense. She always has the long blonde hair, preppy outfits, fake nails. "No, but I'm about to. She's here." She laughs. "I'm working, stupid." There was a pause. "She's with Pierce and some girl. If I'm getting revenge on you, it's with him. No, I'd never actually do that, I'm just playing." There was another pause, longer this time. "I'll see what I can do, okay? What if she whines and freaks out? Whatever, I'll handle it. Love you, Logan."

Amelia turns around and walks over with confidence and ease, pretty much the opposite of the way Iris walks, which is always behind people while she looks down. She smiles, showing her bright teeth. "Pierce, Iris! It's great seeing you both here." Her eyes fall towards Ruby. "And who's this girl?"

"Ruby, remember? My sister? You've met her."

"Oh, right," she laughs, hitting her forehead. "Hi Ruby. Anyway, what are you two doing together?" Her eyes flicker between Iris and I.

"I-I've been helping him study," Iris answers under her breath.

"Oh, what was that?" Amelia asks, her smile still plastered.

"We were studying," I tell Amelia. "I was trying to fix my grades and she's my tutor for math."

"Oh, I see, that's pretty cool. Was today productive then?" I nod. "Well, what can I get for you guys this evening?"

"I'll have whatever Iris has." I kneel down to Ruby and she whispers what she wants to me. She normally does that whenever we're around Amelia. "But Ruby'll have the triple-chocolate ice cream on a chocolate cone, one scoop... with extra chocolate chips."

Iris is gnawing on her lips, tugging her sleeves and refusing to look up. To get her attention, I tap her shoulder and say, "Princess, it's your turn to order."

She looks up with her eyes wide like a deer in headlights. "Um, I'm sorry, I just... Yeah, anyway, uh... I'll have strawberry ice cream. In a cone. One scoop. Sorry." She lets out an awkward, forced laugh.

"Same for you too, Pierce?" Amelia checks for confirmation. I nod again. "Ice cream is on the way. Feel free to sit down while you wait for me to get it. Oh, and Pierce, we should really catch up sometime!" She gives me a charming smile and a knowing wink.

"It's alright, I think we've caught up enough," I assure her. "It was nice seeing you though."

She doesn't respond, she just turns to scoop us our ice cream.

"There should be more chocolate cones in the world," Ruby tells us.

✾

"So how long was it going to be before you told me you love ice cream? What happened to, 'I don't like it, it's too sweet, it's a waste of time'?"

"Stop asking questions Princess, you're not the FBI."

"Ruby," Iris turns to my sister, "did you know that your brother here likes ice cream? I sure didn't. He swallowed the whole darn cone in one bite!"

Ruby giggles, nodding. "He doesn't like getting other people ice cream because every time he can't resist it."

"Alright," I sigh, "I get it. It's hard to believe someone with such perfect abs eats ice cream sometimes. I know, it's crazy."

"You tell yourself that, but we all know the truth," Iris says, biting into her waffle cone. "It's your biggest weakness, ice cream is."

✾

Feel Again