"Morning Princess." My dad smiled warmly at me as I walked into the kitchen, he was sitting at the kitchen table, a paper in front of him and a mug of tea in his hand.

"Morning dad." I smiled back at him, taking a seat next to him.

"Is it alright if I go to a friends after school?" I asked him. It was Wednesday, the day Arizona and I had agreed to spend the evening at hers.

"Of course you can, as long as you tell us, we're fine with you spending time with your friends." He gave my hand a little squeeze. As my parents only child, they were overprotective of me, I know it's only because they care, so, I don't mind. "By any chance is this the same friend that you spent Monday with?"

"Yep." I said popping the p.

"And you're sure its not boy?" He asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Dad, first she's not a boy, at least I don't think she is." He laughed and I joined in, "And second you don't have to worry about me having a boyfriend." At least I wasn't lying, I was never going to have a boyfriend. He chuckled and rubbed my hair like a child.

"I know I don't Princess, you're a responsible young lady now." He gently flicked my nose, and I flicked his nose back. It was some-what a tradition for the two of us now. My mum was always so busy with work, that my dad and I had grown extremely close, we told each everything, well in my case, almost everything.

My dad is handsome man, with wavy chocolate brown hair that women found irresistible and the softest green eyes, he is also very athletic and keeps himself in great shape. My mum used to joke about having only fallen for my dad because of his looks, when I was younger I used to believe she was joking, now, however, I see how different the two really are. My dad is so kind and warm, always willing to help. My mum on the other hand was the complete opposite, unwilling to help anyone unless it benefits her. I had always hoped I would end up just like my dad.

"Where's mum?" I asked him. He frowned just for a split second, that's when you saw how the years had affected him, the lines on his forehead, the thin lips, when he smiled you missed all those signs of ageing.

"She had to go in early for work." He gave me a small smile and returned to his paper. I gave him a quick kiss on the check and stood up from the table. "Have a nice day Princess." He called to me as I grabbed my bag from the hallway, along with my car keys.

"Have a nice day at work." I called back as I left the house.

The bell for lunch rang just as I was finishing my English essay for Mr. Conroy. I looked up from my table in the library to see that everyone else had already cleared out for lunch. I packed away my stuff but remained seated. Half an hour earlier Courtney had text me to tell me to wait in the library for her, she had something important to tell me. Five minutes later, Courtney came walking through the library doors. She has frees now, so what ever it was she has to say it must be important for her to not have left immediately.

"Hey Mickie." Courtney smiled at me, making the butterflies return to my stomach.

"Hey Courtney." I smiled back at her, "How was Geography?"

"Interesting." Her smile widened, showing her perfect teeth, that hadn't required braces. "I found out something about our little 'friend'." Arizona.

"Yeah. What did you find out?"

"Stefan Mitchell tried asking her out in Law this morning." I nodded for her to continue, a strange feeling passed over me. Jealousy? No, it can't be. "She knocked him back, but he persisted. Apparently she was close to tears when she told him that she had just got out of a messy relationship."

"Okay." Was all I said, I didn't understand why that was so important. I know I felt slightly angry at the thought of Stefan making Arizona almost cry... Oh Mickie you can be really thick at times. "You want me to find out about this 'messy relationship'."

"Exactly. Whatever happened, it's a weakness for her." Her eyes lite up at the thoughts running through her mind. "Okay Mickie, I just thought I would let you know. I'll text you later to see how your pla-" She stopped herself and moved back from the corner of the table she had been leaning on. "How your evening went." She blew me a kiss walked away.

I waited for a few minutes before picking up my bag and exiting the library. Luckily the hallways were practically empty, so I got to the Sixth-Form common room in record time. I turned the corner and saw Arizona talking to a boy in the year above, Marc Daniels. He was one of the hottest boys in the school, blonde hair that was perfectly straight with great features and a great body to match, from all the football he played but it was his baby blue eyes that caught my attention. His eyes which I had once thought to be the perfect shade of blue, that was until I saw Arizona's eyes. Arizona caught my eye from over Marc's shoulder. She winked at me and finished her conversation with him abruptly before walking over to meet me. I couldn't dismiss the feeling of joy I got from knowing she was willing to end of a conversation with one of the hottest guys just to join me.

"Hey Mickie. Did you get the essay finished?" She asked smiling broadly at me, her gorgeous blue eyes twinkling as the smile reached them.

"Yeah all done." I smiled back, "You ready to go?"

"I'm ready." I went to walk away, but she grabbed my arm, "Are you sure about this?"

I sighed, she had asked me the same question yesterday at lunch, was I sure that I wanted to spend lunch with her instead of Courtney. I told her I was sure. It was part of Courtney's plane to get Arizona to trust me, I would hang out with Arizona at lunch and break while Courtney hang out with the popular students from year's 12 and 13. She thought it best if the whole school believed we were not on speaking terms, so that when we confronted Arizona, I would be 'turning on her' and it would gain more attention.

"Of course I'm sure, now come on. I need coffee." She smiled at me and I saw her visibly relax.

"Yeah I need coffee as well." She giggled, and together we left the school.

We were sitting outside Starbucks with our coffees and the remainder of our lunch, when I remembered that I wanted to ask her what Daniel was talking to her about.

"What did Marc want?" I asked her, sipping my cappuccino.

"Who the tall guy, with really thick blonde hair?" She asked, I nodded. Had that many guys asked her out that she couldn't even remember their names. I shook my head, it was none of my business how many guys asked her out, or how many she said yes to. "He asked me if I wanted to go out with him tonight."

"That sounds like Marc. A total player. What did you say?" I couldn't help but ask.

"I told him I had better offer for tonight." Better offer. Did she mean she would rather spend the night with me or did she just say it to get out of the date?

"You can go out with him if you want, I don't mind. After all he is like the hottest guy in our school." Although I told her I didn't mind, part of me did.

"No, I don't want to go out with him, I would rather spend the night with you. Don't get me wrong he is hot, with a capital H, but he is not my type." I could understand that, I think someone like Danny Blaze, was more Arizona's type. Dark, bad, mysterious.

"I'm sure he wasn't too happy about that." I laughed, knowing know one who had rejected Marc's advances.

"He's a big boy, he'll get over it." She finished her coffee and checked her watch. "We better be leaving if we don't want to be late for chemistry." I nodded quickly finishing the remainder of my own drink.

Chemistry passed really quick since we were doing an experiment. Before I knew it I was signing out in form and making my way to the school gates to wait for Arizona. I hadn't been waiting long when a pair of hands covered my eyes.

"Guess who?" The voice belonging to the hands said.

"Arizona." I laughed, and she removed her hands. I turned around to face her, she had a huge grin on her face.

"How did you know it was me?" She pouted.

"Because know one else at this school would do that. Plus I recognised your voice." I couldn't help but laugh at how childish Arizona was. It kind of added to her charm though.

"Damn, I hoped it would take you a little while at least to guess who it was. Never mind, you ready to go?" She asked, she held out her hand, as a friendly gesture, for me to take. I didn't hesitate to take it, before I would have been too afraid of what people would think, but Arizona made me feel so calm and collected that I didn't care what people thought.

"Ah, we didn't think this through very well." Arizona said, once we arrived at the student car park. Yeah, we both brought our cars, really one of us should have picked the other up this morning, so that we would only have one car.

"It's fine. You drive and I'll follow you." She nodded, and we both went our separate ways to get to our cars. I was near the exit, so I decided to wait for Arizona to drive past then I would follow her. I saw her red car up ahead, she beeped me and I took that as my sign to follow her.

When Arizona had told me she didn't live to far from my house, I didn't expect her to have meant that she only lived a few streets away from. Twenty minute walk from my house maximum. I parked up behind her and got out of the car.

"When you said you didn't live to far away from mine, I didn't think you meant next door." I said to her as I walked up to where she was standing, waiting for me.

She laughed, "Doesn't change the fact you're crap at giving directions."

"You're the one who used a Sat-Nav to get from my house to yours, it's like a five minute drive." I retaliated.

"Fine. We are both as bad as each other." She rolled her eyes playfully and opened the gate to her front garden. I followed her up the path to her front door. "Fair warning, my dad's home and he is... Well slightly mad." She laughed. I wasn't sure if she was being serious or not. She took out her key and opened the door.

"Dad I'm home." She called out. From what little Arizona had told me about her life, I knew that she had only recently got close to her dad.

"Hey Ari." Her dad called back. He walked into the hallway and stopped, noticing me. Arizona was the spitting image of him, same dark hair, same blue eyes. He was young, I would say mid-thirties, give or take a few years. "And you must be Mickie. I've heard a lot about you, but Ari didn't mention that you were quite so pretty." I blushed, colour rising to my cheeks. Arizona had talked about me. It was probably just because I was the only person she knows here.

"Dad." Arizona said, she gave him a stern look but she was trying to contain a smile, so het attempt to stop him was ineffective.

"What I was being nice. Your mum said you never brought friends home."

"Dad." This time she was being completely serious, and I think I could even see her blushing.

"Well, it's nice to meet you Mickie. You can call me Tom." He held out his hand for me to shake.

"Nice too meet you too, Tom." I said shaking his hand.

"Are you staying for dinner Mickie?" He asked.

"Yeah she is, is that okay with you dad?" Arizona answered.

"Of course it is, but I haven't cooked anything, I was going to order chinese. Is that okay with you two?" Tom asked us.

"Fine with me." I said smiling at him, I couldn't help it, he has the same friendly and childish manner as Arizona.

"Yeah sounds good dad. We'll be upstairs in my room."

"Okay Ari, I'll order the food in about an hour." He smiled at us, but leaned in to whisper into Arizona's ear. I couldn't hear what he said, but whatever it was Arizona whispered something back. His eyes widened only slightly before he whispered something in response.

"No." I heard Arizona say. Tom moved away from her and gave her a small smile, he shrugged his shoulders.

"You should." He called to her, walking back from we had came from. I had been brought up knowing that it was not polite to intrude on a family matter, so I didn't ask Arizona what her and her dad had been whispering about.

"Come on Mickie." Arizona said, motioning for me to follow her upstairs. Whatever her dad had said to her it had affected her. I followed her as she continued down the hallway upstairs, finally coming to a stop at the furthest door. She pushed open the door, allowing me to enter first. I walked in and stopped in the middle of the room. Strangely enough her room is just how I had imagined it would be.

Her walls are white but you wouldn't know it because of all the posters stuck on them. Posters of various bands; Tegan and Sara, Paramore, The Kooks, tons of them. Along with the posters she had pictures of stuck on the wall, pictures of all sorts of things, landscapes, flowers, the night-sky. A double size bed at the far end of the room by the bay window. A desk, crowded with school books and novels, a small lamp was stuck to the wall above the desk. There were also bean bags in another corner of the room. And the majority of space was taken up by bookshelves filled with books and CD's.

"Wow." Was all I could say.

"I guess you like my room then." Arizona giggled when I only responded by nodding my head. "Make yourself comfortable, I'll grab us a drink. Coke?"

"Coke would be great." I said, she smiled and left the room. I took her leaving the room as an opportunity to look through her vast collection of books and CD's. We have the same taste in both music and books. Which is strange, usually people turn their nose up at the music I listen too.

"What do you think?" Arizona said. I jumped, not realising she was there.

"We have the same taste in music and in books." I told her. She handed me a can of coke and sat on her bed, crossing her legs. I joined her, sitting on the other end of the bed.

"I've never met someone who has the same taste in music as me." She said.

"I know, I haven't either. So, I think it's my turn to ask you some questions." I said turning so we facing each other straight on.

"Okay I'll answer your questions but you have to answer mine too." She smiled at me, and tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear. "Like a game. You only ask one question then its the next person's turn, but you have to answer the question."

"Sounds good. I'll start. Where did you live before you moved here?" '

"I lived in Hull. If you could have any pet what would it be?" The questions we asked each other started of pretty simple, just general but after a while we started asking more personal questions.

"Why were you named Arizona?"

"My mum and dad met in Arizona, America, they had both just finished Uni and were holidaying there with friends. They had a summer fling, and I was the product of that summer fling. They both came back to England, my mum found at she was pregnant, got in touch with my dad and they kept up a friendship. My mum would send him pictures of me, he only came to visit once, when I was born, but phoned every week."

"That's a pretty interesting story."

"It is isn't it. Okay so why don't you an your mum get along?" Arizona asked.

"She has never had time for me. She never wanted me, I was an accident, and I think she blames me for her not fulfilling her dreams." I told her the truth.

"Sorry to hear that." She gave me a small smile, and squeezed my hand gently. I hadn't noticed that we had reduced the space between us considerably, our knees were practically touching.

"Don't be. My relationship with my dad makes up for it. What about your relationship with your mum?" I know that this was a sore subject for her, but I hoped she trusted me enough now to tell me.

"Me and my mum used to be pretty close. She got married when I was five to my step-dad, they than had my sister a year later. We were all really close. But about a year ago I... I did something and said something that caused a lot of problems for my family. My sister started to receive abuse because of it, but it wasn't too bad because she was home-schooled, but once she started secondary school it got worse. My mum decided it would be best if I left, I rang my dad and asked him if I could come and live with him. He was more than happy. My mum occasionally rings but doesn't often talk to me." She finished talking and I saw her grit her teeth.

"Arizona." I whispered, knowing that her gritting her teeth probably meant she was close to tears. She didn't respond so I leant in and hugged her. Like had done with Courtney many times. I felt Arizona's tense body relax, as she melted into the hug. "It's okay."

"Thank-you." She whispered. We stayed like that for a while.

"Arizona. Mickie. Food's here." Tom called to us. I didn't want to let go of Arizona but I knew I had to. Slowly I opened my arms and even slower Arizona pulled back. I could see that she hadn't cried, no, that wasn't what she needed. What she needed was for someone to hug and tell her that everything was okay.

"Come on let's go get dinner. Otherwise my dad will eat it all." I followed Arizona out of her bedroom and down the stairs. I followed her as she walked into the kitchen, where Tom had placed all the Chinese food on the table, he was still pilling stuff onto plates.

"Sit down girls, help yourselves." Tom said placing a bowl of noodles in front of me, before taking a seat at the end of the table. The three of began filling our plates will food.

"So, Mickie. What's that short for?" Tom asked halfway through the meal, he had been asking me questions about myself and the school.

"It's short for Michaela. Though the only person who calls me that is my mum." I answered him, I hated being called Michaela, so when my dad started calling me Mickie when I was young, it stuck.

"You never told me that." Arizona said, smiling at me.

"You never asked." I smiled back at her. We maintained eye contact for a little while but Tom interrupted us.

"Are you two- Ouch-" Tom started but cried out in pain, "Enjoying the food." He finished.

"Yes it's lovely thanks Tom." I looked at Arizona strangely, wondering why she had, I assumed, kicked her dad under the table. She acted like she hadn't noticed my look, continuing the previous conversation about me.

After we had eaten, Arizona and I thanked Tom for dinner and offered him our services cleaning up. He told us that he was fine and that we should get back to whatever it was we were doing before we had dinner.

Arizona and I were sitting on her bed in the same manner again, except this time we were goring through the music on her iPod. After a while I remembered what Courtney had told me at lunch and decided this was probably the best change I would have to ask Arizona about it.

"Arizona." I started.

"Mmm..."

"Can I ask you a question?" She looked up at me, resting her hands on her lap.