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I zipped up my backpack after mentally confirming that I had everything I needed, and then my phone buzzed again, with a message from Victoria.

Victoria- See you in three hours x

Kate- See you soon :)

Victoria- If my parents let me out of the house that is...

Kate- If they don't I'll be like batman and rescue from the whole situation, it'll be fine

Victoria- My hero

I locked my phone and then began to head downstairs with my suitcase, my parents smiled when they saw me.

"Isn't your art competition soon?" my mother asked.

I had almost forgotten about it, given everything that was going on, and every Victoria-related thing that was going on.

I nodded.

"We'll come up to watch it," she said.

"You will?" I asked, and she nodded.

"Of course, Kate. Your art is important to us...we want to see how you've been getting along," my dad said.

I smiled. I was still pretty glad at how well they had taken the whole Victoria and I situation, but I didn't feel as good when I thought about what could happen if her parents found out...what would a girl be to do in that situation?

At least the university dorm was open for some of the holiday...

"Whatcha thinking about, chump?" my dad asked me, when my mother went off to finish cooking me my 'you've just got back to university' food survival kit.

It wasn't as if I struggled to cook things other than pasta...

"I don't know..."

My dad had a curious glint in his eyes.

"It's just, the whole Victoria thing,"

"Talk to me?"

"Well, her parents aren't the most...accepting people when it comes to that. They haven't even found out yet, but Victoria's sister almost told them everything and then we had to go through this whole thing of deleting all evidence that there was anything between us," I stated.

My dad laughed gently.

"What?" I asked.

"You two are like ninjas with this whole thing," he smiled, which prompted me to do the same. Though the anxiety was still somewhat there, it felt better to talk about the situation with someone other than Victoria herself, or Fox and Margo- who were still asking questions about 'how the hell we weren't together yet' . I still wasn't sure how we would be able to date while keeping the whole thing a secret.

"I guess so...I just sometimes wish things were easier. A few months back, we would barely have spoken the way we do now,"

"Well, isn't this progress?" my dad joked.

I sighed.

"I guess, I just don't want anything to get ruined, you know?"

He nodded.

"I know,"

"Kate, here you are," my mother said, passing me a bag of food- which mainly consisted of Pringles, cakes and pasta. She wasn't assisting me in my bad food eating habits- that is, she wasn't helping me in not eat like that.

Not like I was complaining, I would just have to eat a lot more fruit when I wasn't stuck for food and didn't have a vending machine a brisk five minutes walk from my room...

"Thanks, mum," I smiled.

My mother gave me a hug.

"Well I know we're going to be seeing you soon, and we're driving you there but..."

"It was nice to be back here again, i'm going to miss you two," I said, with a small smile.

"We'll miss you too," my mother said.

Then the three of us, and my overloaded bags for University, began to head to the car, and made our way back to the campus car park.

After about a two hours drive in the grey of the clouds and pouring rain, which seemed to come down in raindrops the size of bullets judging by the noise of the drops on the car's roof- we made it.

I immediately proceeded to thank myself for bringing my rain coat with me, and pulled the hood up. Then began to grab my bags out of the back of the car when I noticed Victoria cursing under her breath next to her car. She...had not remembered to bring a rain coat it seemed.

"And this is cashmere," she muttered, and then saw me and laughed gently.

"Hey Kate,"

"Hey Victoria," I had to keep my voice a little bit louder over the pouring rain.

"You okay kiddo?" my dad asked.

"Yep, all set," I replied.

He nodded, and my mother and him gave me some final goodbyes before heading back into the car and driving off. I made my way over to Victoria and offered her my umbrella.

"Thank you, Greene," she smiled, putting it up.

"We should probably head inside," she added, after we had spent more than enough seconds looking into each other's eyes...

I nodded, and the two of us began to make our way back to our dorm room.

Once we got back to the room, Victoria turned to me.

"I think I smell like a wet dog right about now," Victoria sighed, combing her fingers through her hair that had been darkened by the rain.

"No...more like vanilla,"

"You noticed my perfume," Victoria gave a pleased smile, and then headed into the bathroom...a few minutes later and I heard the whirring of the hairdryer, and then she came out with her hair looking suitably voluminous.

"Did you submit your art projects?" I asked her, after she sat down on her bed.

"You're asking me if I submit them?" Victoria asked.

I mean, it could have been a dumb question. It was a given that Victoria had probably submitted multiple pieces of art.

"Did you submit yours?" she smiled.

"Yep,"

"Good. I think that you're the clear winner this year," she said.

"You're just saying that because..."

"Because what? Because it's true," she stated.

"Thanks Victoria," I smiled.

"No problemo, Greene."

I could hear the sound of paper rustling as Victoria began to flick through a new edition of her magazine, so I decided to check my phone, and winced a little at the brightness of the thing when I turned it on. it seemed that the so-called 'low' setting could really do with being a lot lower.

Then I winced as my new ringtone- which just so happened to be personalised for each contact, went off.

It was a dog barking, which meant the contact was Valerie.

Victoria gave me an amused look.

Valerie- One way or another, the truth will come out.

Kate- Listen, leave your sister alone.

I sighed, turning off the phone.

"Who was that?" Victoria asked.

"Your sister," I replied.

"Oh... Natalie worked out how to use phones?" Victoria joked, but then sighed- she knew I meant Valerie.

"I don't understand why she's made this out to be much bigger than it is...it's just ruining things,"

I could only nod.

I didn't understand it either- but sometimes as much as you try to hide things, the truth comes out one way or another.

"Kate,"

"Yes?"

"I think I'm going to sleep," she said, her expression somewhat worried.

I wished she didn't have to feel so concerned, if only her sister wouldn't be so stubborn.

"Goodnight Victoria," I replied.

Victoria just gave a small smile, and then wandered over to the bathroom to get changed into her pyjamas- a blue panda onesie- she was seriously too adorable for her own good sometimes, and I thought that was my job. Kidding.

"Night," she said, and fell asleep minutes after getting into bed.

I then headed to the bathroom and got myself ready. I had a big day the next day- the art competition. It was about time I started to take my sleep schedule seriously.