I made my way to the principal's office to find that Heather was only leaving as soon as I had arrived.

"Hey," I said.

Heather moved her hands through her hair and smiled at me.

"Hey, Zoe," she replied.

Heather gazed out of the window and I looked, too. We both found that the sky had become a shade of dusky pink. The days went by so quickly in the fall. It wouldn't be long before it got dark again but fortunately we only had one class left.

"Ready for final class?" I asked her.

Heather nodded and the two of us began to make our way down the hall. I had a plethora of questions on my mind that I needed to ask her, though.

I turned to her to catch that she was gazing at me with this caring expression upon her face.

"Are you okay?" she asked me.

"I was about to ask you that same question," I said, as the two of us stopped outside of our math class.

Heather gave a subtle nod and then replied, "Yeah, I'm all good. They wanted me to take part in a concert being held. Apparently word has gotten around about how good my voice is," she told me.

"That doesn't surprise me. You are a wonderful singer," I said.

"Perhaps you should save your voice for a better occasion, though, Miss Violets. The two of you both should be seated, now," our teacher said.

Heather gave me a sympathetic expression, as the two of us made our way into the classroom to sit down.

I focused my attention on the board but I knew that I would much rather occupy my time with looking at Heather and talking to Heather, too. However, I didn't believe that our teacher would be very happy with me, if I did that.

Once my eyes had glanced towards Heather, I noticed that she was hard at work, which ended up being just the right amount of motivation that I needed to get on with my own work.

I looked to the board to get the questions and equations I was meant to be working on and got started.

Heather caught my gaze mid-way through the lesson and smiled. I smiled right back at her.

"You're on fire today, Zoe," she told me.

"Thank you. I am trying," I replied.

Heather gave me a nod of encouragement before returning her attention to her own work in front of her.

In the meantime, I turned back to see that I had almost completed the questions! I had stopped procrastinating so much for once in my life. Perhaps Heather was a good influence on me, after all.

The bell soon rang out and Heather and I made our way out of the classroom, so we could begin to chat away to each other.

Heather opened her arms wide, as a sweet smile appeared on her face.

"You're really cute when you laugh, you know that? You have one of the prettiest laughs I have ever heard," I told her, as we reached her locker.

Heather's eyes sparkled a little at my kind words, as a blush crept onto her cheeks. She gave me an expressive smile.

I felt the corner of my lips twitch up instinctively.

I held her gaze for a short while and Heather looked as though she was a little dazed for a moment, until she returned her attention to her locker so she could put her math textbook away.

"You're too cute," Heather replied, as she gently pat down my hair.

"What should we do now?" I asked her.

"Good question, Zoe," she said, with a charismatic smile, "We can do whatever you want to do."

Heather was so kind to me. I was so glad that we were so close with each other.

"I'm indecisive," I said.

"Likewise. However, I know a good after school art club the two of us could go to," she said.

"Let's do it!" I replied.

The two of us both had very creative spirits, so it only made sense for us to both go to an art club.

Once we got there, we found Abbie and Evie were there, too.

Abbie glanced at us and smiled but her eyes looked between the two of us with interest.

"Oh, this is going to be so much fun!" Evie said, as she walked over to Heather to hug her.

"Hey Eves," Heather said, as a warmth appeared in her eyes.

I could tell that Heather and Evie got along well.

The four of us sat down so we could begin to collect some art supplies together.

I could feel Abbie's eyes still on me, though and admittedly it made me a little nervous.

"Abbie's been working on that same sketch for ages now," Evie stated.

"Well, it needs to be perfect," Abbie said.

Abbie's eyes locked on mine again and an expression of curiosity appeared on her face.

"So, Zoe, Heather, you two seem closer now," Abbie said.

"We are closer now," Heather replied nonchalantly.

I was relaxed around Abbie. I knew that she was my friend and would support Heather and I no matter what but I got the sense that Heather was more on edge about all of this.

"It's good to see it!" Abbie said, as a sincere smile became apparent on her face.

Abbie was probably full of questions but she could usually get a sense for how people were feeling and I believed that Heather had made it clear that she didn't want to talk about it, especially with me.

Heather could be a kind person a lot of the time but she had a tendency to shut people out, too.

"It's nice to get to talk to you again, Zoe!" Evie told me, with a kind tone of voice.

"You too, Evie," I replied.

I grabbed one of the pastel chalks and began to colour against my black sugar paper to create a neon effect.

"That looks cool!" Heather complimented me enthusiastically.

"Thank you," I said.

I was relieved that Heather seemed to be relaxing into the setting a little more. I knew, though, that while I wished I could tell my friends about the two of us, we had to be secretive still.