"Okay wake me up at midnight" I whisper to Beck and Caleb who were currently engrossed in their game of Madden. Beck was kicking Caleb's ass

"We will!" Beck calls out as I make my way up to my room. I had two hours until midnight so I was taking my chance to sleep.

An hour and forty-five minutes later I was still wide awake staring at my ceiling. I was just too excited.

"Princess wake up" I feel a hand nudge my leg

"I am up jackass" I grumble

"Wow and apperently crabby" I hear him mumble as he gently lifts my legs before dropping down onto my bed and resting my legs across him "Your brother fell asleep and then told me to fuck off when I tried to wake him up" he grins at me

"Yep we're definitely related" I day making him laugh "How much longer till our birthday?"

"Exactly nine minutes" he rests he head against the wall behind him "I'm happy you're here this year"

"Me too Kazer" I turn on my side so I can look at him "So what did you get me?" I say before sitting up and leaning against the wall next to him

"I'll tell you if you tell me what my present is" he smirks

I contemplate telling him but ultimately decide against it. I wanted to suprise him with it.

"Exactly" he laughs at my face

"I hate you" I grin at him

"Love you too babe"

"You assholes didn't wait for me" Beck pouts as he enters my room

"Okay asshole, I tried to wake you up and you told me to fuck off" Caleb laughs at him

"We still have like two minutes relax" I tell him as he hops on my bed besides me

"Guys this is the last birthday we'll be spending together" Beck sighs next to me

"Well way to be a Debbie downer" Caleb pouts

"I'm just stating the truth! Shut up dickhead" Beck grumbles at his best friend

"Yeah I'm the dickhead" Co scoffs in response

"Both of you are dickheads, now stop, look at the time" I smile while looking back and forth to both of them. It was midnight

"Happy birthday guys" Caleb smiles to himself and at us

"Happy birthday" Beck and I say at the same time

------------

"Is this going to be an everyday thing?" Mrs.Ria questions as she stares at the three of us

So I was currently on Caleb's shoulders and he was holding Amy bridal-style. Suprisingly we've never done this. I've definitely had to duck a few times as we've walked to avoid exit signs and clocks.

"I thought it already was?" Caleb grins at our teacher

"Just sit down" she shakes her head before going back to her desk. More students started to file in, some of the last few being Lexi, Bianca and her group.

"Okay are y'all ready to dissect?" Mrs.Ria asks the class obviously excited

I just smile and nod before picking up a pair the latex gloves that were placed on our table. Mrs. Ria has already set out all of the materials and tool that we'd be needing, all we needed now was the actual cat. I pick up the scalpel and observe its sharp end before I start to absentmindedly twirl it in my fingers

"Okay let's not do that" Caleb says while plucking the sharp object out of my hand

"Why?" I questions with a smirk "Makin ya nervous?"

"You are the clumsiest person I know, of course" Caleb confirms

"I am not clumsy!"

"You fall down the stairs literally every time we go to the beach house, you tripped over your own two feet yesterday, this morning you fell while getting out of my truck and then slipped on the way in the school" Caleb starts listing off things

Amy and Lexi both just laugh at us before the whole class is shushed. Mrs. Ria starts passing out all of the cats.

"Ew this smells like ass" on of the guys is our class practically Gags

"Wow it smells just like Co!" I say while grinning at Caleb from under my mask

"I smell amazing, thank you very much" he rolls his eyes at me

He actually did smell great, Like even after football practice he still smelled amazing. I don't even know what it was exactly, but it was perfect.

"Okay is everyone ready?" Mrs. Ria questions

We all eagerly nod our heads

"Okay let's get started, make a small incision down the abdomen. Just a small cut"

The class goes quiet as we all try to concentrate.

The only thing heard was Bianca's utterly unnecessary voice.

"Hm Lexi knows all about cutting, just look at her wrist"

All of us stopped.

The clattering of some groups scalpels hitting the table echoed as they were dropped. It was like everyone was frozen as we stared at Bianca's smug face. Lexi doesn't even say anything before jumping out of her seat and running out of the classroom. As I go to stand up, Caleb instinctively takes my hand and pulls me back to him. His own discreet way of basically telling me 'not here'.

Where the fuck did that even come from?

Without any ounce of hesitation, Amy gets up and calmly walks down the isle, two tables in front of us to Bianca's table. She then proceeds to punch Bianca right in the side of her face, knocking her off her stool and sending her to the ground

"Do not ever fucking say anything like that again" Amy sneers at Bianca. Caleb and I just look at each other wide eyed. Amy did it before I even could.

"Girls! Bianca, get to the office now" Mrs. Ria snaps angrily at the bitch

I make eye contact with Mrs.Ria before running out of the classroom after Lexi. I don't see her in the hall but soon find her sitting on the floor in the bathroom with a mascara stained face and puffy eyes. Regardless if I didn't like her, she didn't deserve to be talked to like that.

"Hey" I say softly as I sit next to her

"I fucking hate her" she state

"I do too"

We just sat there in silence for a while. The only sound, Lexi's occasional sniffling and blowing her nose.

"I thought you guys were friends?" I ask her

"Oh we were" she rolls her eyes before crying some more. The tears were streaming down her face as she spoke "She just turned on me like last week and then we got into a huge fight earlier today. She was my first friend when I transferred here from St.Pat's last year" so that's why I had never met her before. After learning who her brother was, I was confused on how I'd never met her before this year. I mean her brother had gone here all throughout high school so it would be natural that she would have also. It makes sense now that she was a private school transfer.

"I'm sorry about what she said" I say making her laugh bitterly as more tears welled up in her eyes.

"Nah I was a bitch, this is just what I deserve" she huffs "karma really is a bitch I guess"

"No one deserves that." I say quietly. My mom would constantly say shit to me. Calling me a disappointment, a bitch, unwanted and everything in between. It feels like shit to be constantly told you're a mistake, eventually you start believing it. You start to believe you deserve whatever shitty things happen to you.

"I'm sorry I was a bitch to you at the beginning of the year. I guess I was just jealous, but that still doesn't defend how I acted at all" she spurts our all at once

"How were you jealous of me?" I question wide eyed. She was basically perfect visually, I wish I could look like her. She had the bright blue eyes just like Tyler that I wish I could have and her hair was always perfectly smooth and straight. Never frizzy or messy like mine.

"You just came here and everyone automatically loved you. You are sweet and unbelievably nice to everyone. You're like this little spitfire ball of energy. Plus you're insanely smart and pretty. Literally every guy here is like in love with you and you didn't even have to try" She rambles quietly

"Please I wish I could have your confidence. That and your willpower to actually put effort in. You don't give yourself enough credit either, you take a lot of AP classes so you can't possibly be stupid at all. And if it counts for anything I wish I had your eyes. You and Tyler literally have the same eye color and I wish I could have them" I say with a soft smile making her laugh

"God you're even being nice to me now. I was horrible to you and you're being nice to me. I am so unbelievably sorry for how I acted towards you, and I know it doesn't make up for anything and that's perfectly fine. I don't expect you to just forgive me" She says honestly "Thank you for being civil with me though"

"It's fine." I say simply

"No it's not. I was a bitch to so many people, ones that didn't even deserve it. None of it was okay, at all" she shakes her head "I just kinda went along with whatever Bianca wanted me to do, cause I trusted her more than anything. She knows more about me than my own parents do. I just really started to realize this." she shrugs

"We all have those people who we trust more than anyone." I was lucky enough to have multiple.

"Yeah well that was a mistake" she laughs bitterly

I couldn't help but wonder if what Bianca said was the truth.

"I can practically hear you thinking. She was telling the truth and no, I haven't done it since August." Lexi sighs with more tears in her eyes "and don't apologize, I fucking hate it when people apologize for this shit cause it was my own damn stupidity"

"Oh believe me I wasn't going to apologize. I hate it too." I start to say lightly before giving up "If I'm being honest, yeah it wasn't necessarily a dumb decision but it wasn't a good one. Regardless, shows that you struggled, and it shows that you won. No one is strong and confident all the time, it's impossible,"

"Bianca just said I wanted attention. But I didn't, if I'd wanted attention I could've done a hell of a lot worse. I just- I don't know, there are days when I can't get out of bed. The only thing that keeps me waking up is the fact that my little sister needs breakfast, or help with homework or even a ride to her friends house. I don't know why exactly I did it, but it helped for a while. I was able to focus on the physical pain other than the kind that was going on in my head. It made me feel in control."

"It's only temporary. Everything is. Pain, sadness and even happiness. You just have to find small things to live for. If someone goes through life genuinely happy and smiley ALL the time then they aren't really living and probably aren't human." I reason, it's impossible to be genuinely happy all the time. Most people just fake it, I know I do.

"Well is kinda seems that way for you and your brothers or Emma, or Caleb and the guys. You guys always seem happy and confident and just genuine. Most days, I'm just faking it"

"Every one of us has had our own struggles" I tell her quietly, "We are just able to hide it better than others."

"Really like what? Your dog died?" He rolls her eyes

"You know, I'm the one here trying to make you feel better" I grin at her, I was just messing with her now, I really didn't take any offense.

I didn't take it personally, I got that a lot. I'm usually bubbly and happy and confident so no one knows when I'm really having trouble with things. It's just easier to fake smile than explaining what's really going on. Caleb almost always knows though, he usually finds a way for me to talk to him, even if it's about little things.

"Right sorry, attitude issues. I promise I'm working on it" she nods "carry on"

"I mean, our mom left us when I was nine, she's probably my least favorite person in the world and if she died today, I wouldn't care" I say simply, it sounds horrible but at the same time, our relationship, or lack thereof has reached that point.

"Was she abusive?"

I was quiet for a minute as I thought. It took me a while to accept that she was, I'd always categorized abusive as physical. I mean she only punched me once so I never really counted that, but she was without a doubt mentally abusive.

"I'm sorry, I'm nosy, I'm working on that whole having a filter thing too" she says quietly after I had been silently thinking for a minute.

"No no- Uh- Yeah she was. Mainly just mentally with the boys, I was the only one, besides my dad, she only ever actually punched. It was only one time though, my older brother, Ryan, and Caleb walked in the house just as she did it, they're also the only two people besides, well now you who know about it, I mean besides like spankings when we were really little. She was just mentally abusive. She just constantly put us down, she cheated on my dad a few times, she drank...a lot and would go on her little wine-drunken tirades, yelling at the boys and I over every little thing we did. After she left, she still contacted us for years after and once she found out Ace was gay, she found everyone word possible to try and tear him down. She's the reason I go by Belle, my actual names Bailey-Belle, but she only ever called me Bailey and after she left I didn't want anything in my life to remind me of her. My oldest brothers basically raised us" I shrug I hated talking about my mom usually, but surprisingly I didn't mind this. It was odd but I felt weirdly comfortably around Lexi.

"Wow I'm-"

"Don't say it, I hate it when people feel sorry for me." I huff

"Note taken" she says "I just wanted to apologize for assuming shits all sunshine and rainbows. I just never really would have guessed, I mean you're always so happy and bubbly all the time. Plus you literally radiate fuckin confidence" she laughs "all of you are like that"

"We don't really like to think about it, where we are right now, we're all happy. We don't let her and her family run our lives and dictate our happiness. But there have definitely been times where I've broken down in my brothers arms, or cried myself to sleep. Things never get easier, we just learn how to handle the situation" I shrug before leaning my head against the wall behind me. I was honestly surprised no one had walked in here.

"My parents don't really care about us" she says after a moment of silence "Jason's been taking care of Kelsey and I for as long as I can remember. It's also part of the reason I started working, my dad always sends money home but it's usually never enough for the three of us. It's usually just enough for groceries and clothes. I actually haven't seen him in almost six months and my mom is, I think, in Paris right now."

"They weren't even home for Thanksgiving?"

"They usually aren't" she shrugs "Damn this is a depressing ass conversation"

"What do you mean? Talking about shitty parents is like my favorite thing ever" I say sarcastically making her laugh

"God why are you being nice to me? It would be so much easier to hate you if you were a complete bitch" she questions

"I'm sorry?" I question with a grin "I have an idea, how about, we just not hate each other" I shrug offering my hand to her "I'm done with the petty bullshit, if you aren't, whatever, but if you are, I'm willing to be somewhat friends"

"agreed" she smiles "oh um I also want to apologize for calling you a tomboy freak that one day in the cafeteria"

"It's fine. I am a tomboy so I didn't really take it to heart" I shrug

"How are you friends with Caleb? You two are literally polar opposites" she questions

"He's just Caleb I guess. He's more closed off to people he doesn't know and just puts up this douchebag exterior as a defense mechanism. In reality he's the guy who makes me pancakes when I'm on my period and makes me smile every time I cry" I laugh

"Aww he's a teddy bear?" she snorts as I nod my head "I never really liked him. It was always just for appearances. It's not like he ever really like me anyway though"

"I kinda assumed so. And do not tell him I told you that, he'd kill me"

"I won't say anything" she grins "He seriously made you pancakes?"

"Yep" He also got me my favorite coffee and ice cream that day too.

I feel my phone buzz in my back pocket. The specialized four buzz tone signifying a text from Caleb.

💕🤡

💕🤡

I laugh at his second text as I start to type back.

"Who is 'hottest most amazing guy in the world' ?" Lexi grins as she looks down at my phone

"Kazer" I roll my eyes

"Wait hold on why did Amy get suspended?"

"She punched Bianca out of her seat" I say simply "I assume she's freaking out cause of the suspension. I kinda gotta go"

"Hey, thanks for actually talking to me"

"It's nothing, you don't have to thank me for that " I laugh as I feel my phone buzz rapidly in my pocket. I didn't like holding grudges against people, unless what they did to me was beyond horrible, I always tried to forgive. I wasn't one to stay mad forever unless I really hated you. Besides, everyone deserves a second chance.

"Oh my god how fast does this asshole type" I sigh loudly. Caleb just texted me eight simultaneous messages.

"You don't get annoyed by that?" Lexi questions as we walk

"Usually I do, I hate it when my brothers do it but its Caleb so I don't really care" I laugh. I used to be annoyed by it so in turn Caleb would just do it even more, after a while I just got used to him doing it.

"I usually just ignore him after the fifth text"

"Aww that's cute" she smiles making me instinctively roll my eyes

"No he and I are not collectively cute"

"Yeah okay" she says but I can definitely hear the sarcasm in her voice. I was trying to get her mind off of everything, but not at the expense of talking about Caleb and I.

"I gave her a piggy back ride to the car. I already called your dad and mine, they already called the school and verified our early release, I played the birthday-favorite child card in them. Oh and Mrs. Ria said we're pushing the dissection back until Monday after break because she missed half of the period to go to the office to lessen Amy's suspension. She only has a two day after break but she's still freaking out" Caleb says rapidly once he sees me "I tried to tell her that a two day isn't that bad, I mean I've had way worse, but she didn't care"

"Alright lets go, I'm going to have to help her explain this to her parents" I huff. Her parents, or more so her dad, was unbelievably strict. He came from a very traditional and conservative Filipino family, and he always expected perfection out of Amy. He was one of the nicest people I've met but definitely had extremely high expectation.

"Uh bye lex" Caleb says awkwardly to her

"Bye guys" she says offering a small smile to us "Oh and happy birthday"

--------

"I'm bored" Caleb huffed as he just walks into my room

"Hi bored I'm Belle" I smile up at him. School still didn't end for another ten minutes so we really didnt have anything to do

"Wow nice dad joke" he rolled his eyes before laying down on my bed, quickly placing a pillow on my lap and resting his head down.

"Eh not my best" I say before I start to absentmindedly play with his hair

"So what was with you and Lexi?" he questions

"We reached an understanding" I shrug "We're okay now, I think,"

"What about all the shit she said and did to you?"