"Girl did you even hear us?" Amber's friends Jordyn and Raven mugged her.

Amber scrunched up her face and mugged them back.

"I heard and like I said no.. I'm not going to that party"

She heard them smack their lips and talk amongst themselves as she continued eating her lunch.

Once she finished eating, she saw that she still had thirty more minutes until lunch was over and she wasn't going to sit there with her friends.

"Where you going?" Jordyn asked.

"To hell if I don't pray"

"Mmm, prolly gon go see Monte" Raven rolled her eyes.

Amber rolled her eyes as she walked off.

"Ms. Porter.." she called as she entered the classroom.

"Wassup girl, you need sum?"

"Actually.. I need help with this college stuff. I don't know where to start, can you help me?"

Ms. Porter nodded and motioned for Amber to sit down.

"So these are the ones I want to apply to, but I need help finding more" Amber told her.

"What do you want to major in?" Ms. Porter asked, causing Amber to sigh.

"I don't know.. I'm leaning towards mass communications but I love journalism" Amber told her.

Ms. Porter nodded "It's okay, we can always make that decision later on"

"Are you doing sports? I told Coach Manning to come see you about track"

"Mhm he did, I've been going to the little workouts this week." Amber nodded.

"Good, so now we can add that to your academic profile.. I want you to try and get some community service hours too, you'll definitely need those. You know Knowledge?"

Amber rolled her eyes at the mention of his name.

"I am guessing you do.. he volunteers at a soup kitchen and some other places, ask him about it. Better yet I will contact him and see if you can go with him this weekend" Ms. Porter smiled.

"I guess"

"Ouu also the ACT is coming up, we have a workshop you can come to in a few weeks. The link to sign up is in my Google Classroom, go sign up now"

Amber eyed her "Dang Ms. Porter, how you know I'm available?"

"Girl you not doing nothing, like I said go sign up"

"Okayyy"

The two sat and talked for twenty more minutes until the bell rang, signaling it was time for Amber to go to her fifth period.

"Hey Amber" Sky, a girl Amber used to be close with spoke.

"Hey" Amber waved.

"Girl I haven't talked to you in a few months and that's not normal for us. But anyways I just wanted to check in on you, i be texting but you do nottt respond" Sky rambled.

"Oh.. well I'm good. Thanks"

Sky smiled "Fasho, you coming to my party tonight? I know you love to go out,"

Amber shook her head "Probably not, I'm not really a party person anymore"

"That's fine, I understand" Sky sighed and walked off as another bell rang.

"See what I mean" Knowledge mumbled from behind her.

"Ughh shut up man" she rolled her eyes and opened her Harry Potter book since the teacher didn't really teach in her.

She had finished one page in her book before closing it and turning to Knowledge, who was also reading.

"What exactly do you mean?" She questioned.

He chuckled and put his book down.

"You and Sky was like best friends since eighth grade til y'all sophomore year, then y'all just stopped talking this year.. she constantly be tryna talk to you and you push her away wit that same stank ass attitude"

She rolled her eyes and picked up her book.

"Fine I'll go to the party"

"Yeen gotta do nun you don't wanna do, I'm just speaking about things in general" he shrugged then went back to his own book.

___________________

After school, Amber went home to find her mom sitting on the couch.

"Hi baby!" She smiled.

"Hey" Amber waved before heading into the kitchen.

Ariele, Amber's mom, sighed. She and Amber used to be extremely close, but now that she had completely changed, Ariele didn't know her daughter anymore.

"Shawtayyyy" Chris smiled as he came through the door.

"Hiii" Ariele's smile reappeared as he bent down to kiss her.

Amber fake gagged as she ate her bag of chips.

"Wassam ugly" he greeted.

"Ya mother" Amber said.

"Ight and imma tell her, watch she don't send me wit no more plates for you"

Amber rolled her eyes and got on her phone.

"I wanted to take you out tonight" he said to Amber.

"Aww that would be nice" Ariele nodded.

Amber shook her head "It really wouldn't.. plus I got invited to Sky's party. Can I go?"

"Oh yeaaa I saw her mama post on Facebook that it was her birthday. You can go"

"I need help picking what to wear, can you help me?" Amber asked.

Ariele nodded and excitedly hopped up.

"Come on" she said happily rushing up the stairs.

_____________________

"Hey thank you so much for coming" Sky smiled as Amber walked through the door.

Amber smiled at Sky and handed her a card.

"Happy Birthday" she said.

Sky almost cried, this was the first time Amber had been nice to her in months.

"Thank you ma'am, food and drinks are over there help yourself!"

Amber nodded and headed towards her friends.

"Thought you wasn't coming" Raven smiled seeing her.

"Ehh changed my mind" Amber shrugged

"You look good" Jordyn smiled as she eyed Amber's outfit.

"Thank youuuu" Amber said with a smile.

"Mmm" Raven sounded and looked around.

"I'm gonna go get something to drink" Amber said seeing Monte by the snacks.

Once she walked over there she spoke.

"Hey Monte"

He looked her up and down then scrunched up his face.

"Fuck is you wearing?"

"A dress.. you don't like it?" She asked.

He shook his head "I meannnn, the dress is nice but ion think you look good in it"

This caused the girls that were around them to giggle since he didn't bother to speak lowly, at all.

"Nigga she look good as fuck" Tay, Knowledge's friend said.

Monte mugged him "I ain ask you."

"I don't give a fuck what you asked me, this my fuckin mouth" Tay said mugging him.

Monte opened his mouth to say something else but Amber stopped him.

"Just chill"

"Bitch fuck out my face" he said before pushing past her with a girl behind him.

"Hoe" the girl mumbled as she bumped Amber's shoulder.

"Excuse you" Amber said scrunching up her face.

"I'll excuse you for tryna fuck my nigga"

"Tryna? Bitch my pussy been all in his mouth" Amber said.

"Tuhhh you going hard behind a nigga that don't even want you. Just take your L in peace before I embarrass you and beat yo ass"

"You could never embarrass me or beat my ass, weird ass hoe"

"She might really wanna sit this one out" Amber heard someone say to their friend.

The girl she was arguing with laughed.

"Girl Monte got no respect for you. He done leaked two videos of y'all fucking, oh okay." The girl said before pushing her again, this time with a lot more force.

Amber was officially embarrassed, so she swung on the girl.

"Dammmn"

The girl punched her, hitting Amber in the nose.

Amber continued hitting and majority of her punches connected.

The girl fell, causing Amber to lose her footing and fall on top of her. That didn't stop her hits.

Suddenly, she felt a second set of hands hitting her.

"Ahh nah they jumping that girl" someone called out.

Amber felt the extra weight of the person being taken off of her as she continued fighting the original girl.

"Yeaa Sky beat that hoe"

"GET OFF ME" Amber yelled as she was carried off of the girl.

"Relax" Knowledge's smooth voice sounded as he brought her into a bedroom.

He held onto her as she began to cry.

Soon she calmed down, and he wiped her face.

"You good?" He asked.

She nodded and tried pulling away, but he pulled her back into him for a hug.

Knowledge was a hugger, and he felt like she needed a hug.

"Ight shawty, you need a ride home or anything?"

"N-no I drove myself" she said as she wiped her face.

He nodded and followed her out of the room.

Once they got back to where the party was, almost everyone was gone.

"You and Sky did y'all shit" a girl said as she was walking out.

"What you mean?" Amber scrunched up her face in confusion.

"Hmm" the girl sounded before handing her a phone.

"Damn" she mumbled as she watched the fight video.

Once the other girl had jumped in, Sky also jumped in.

"You know where Sky at?" Amber asked.

"I think she in the kitchen"

Amber nodded and headed to the kitchen.

"Mrs. Aliiii," Tay said as he sat on the counter talking to Sky. "I mean that literally and figuratively,"

Amber shook her head then turned to Sky "Can we go talk?"

"Mhm, we can go to my room" she said resting down a trash bag.

The two walked to her room then sat down.

"First, thank you for tonight.. especially after how I've been treating you" Amber said.

Sky nodded "Fasho"

"And also I want to apologize for that."

"What's been going on wit you lately, Amber?"

"Umm just school, I have been thinking about getting a job-"

Sky laughed before cutting her off.

"No Amber I mean like your energy is off, I feel like it has sum to do with Monte.. just like tonight had sum to do with him"

Amber immediately went into defense mode.

"You don't know him to be speaking on him. I just came to thank you and apologize"

Sky shook her head "As long as you're happy Amber"

"And I am, y'all miserable asses always wanna find something."

"Puh-lease I would count every single piece of sand on a beach before I could even think about wanting a relationship wit a nigga like Monte"