Wylan wanted to scream as Jesper's alarm continued to blare extremely loudly in his ear. The dark skinned boy was still snoring beside Wylan and wasn't bothering to turn off the alarm.

Finally, Wylan forced himself to get up. But instead of getting out of the bed, he started to roll over until he was on top of Jesper.

The boy groaned. "Get off, Wyyyyyy."

Wylan slammed his hand down on the alarm. It immediately stopped beeping. "Jes, you have you have to get up or else we'll be late."

"Five more minutes," Jesper begged. "Please, Wy? I'm really tired."

"Well, maybe you shouldn't have stayed up until three in the morning watching YouTube," Wylan retorted. Then, feeling bad, he leaned down and kissed Jesper on the cheek. "Come on, you have to get up."

Jesper yawned and wrapped his arms around Wylan. Wylan wanted desperately to spend to rest of the day like that, but that wouldn't be a good first impression on his teachers. When Jesper wrapped his legs around Wylan, Wylan was struggling to resist his temptations to stay curled with him for hours.

"Jesperrrrr, we have to gooooooooo," Wylan whined.

Jesper then kissed Wylan's cheek. "No, we don't, Sunshine."

Wylan struggled out of Jesper's grip and immediately fell to the floor, his nose slamming into the edge of the nightstand. When he pushed himself onto his elbows, he saw a few things littered on the floor. The first thing was blood that was no doubt from Wylan's bloody nose. The second thing was a bag of potato chips that were Wylan's that were now empty. And the third this was a picture of Wylan and Jesper.

"Jesper, come on," Wylan practically begged, standing from his spot on the ground. His bones ached and he stretched, pushing his arms through the air.

Jesper reached out and tried to capture Wylan in his embrace again, but Wylan dodged out of the way, putting a hand over his nose.

Jesper finally stood from the bed and wrapped his arms around Wylan. Then, he pulled back and put his hand over Wylan's bloody nose. "Look at you! You already managed to hurt yourself!"

Wylan rolled his eyes, his cheeks heating. "Let's just get ready for school, Jes."

But Jesper shook his head. "I'm going to clean up that pretty face of yours first."

Wylan blushed even more and nodded, allowing Jesper to pull him towards the bathroom. Then, he took out a rag and soaked it in cold water. Gently, he started wiping the blood from Wylan's face.

When he finished, Jesper started to brush his teeth while Wylan went to get a change of clothes. For a while, he pondered over what outfit to wear and what people would think of him. After all, it was his Junior year.

Wylan had left to live with Jesper to escape from his abusive father in the middle of his sophomore year.

He finally decided to go with jeans and a button-up red shirt to match their school colors. When Jesper walked out of the bathroom, he grinned.

"What?" Wylan asked, ducking his head to let his curls fall in front of his sapphire blue eyes.

Jesper walked over to Wylan and placed a hand under his chin. "Just that you look adorable today."

Wylan turned bright pink, his eyes glowing. "Thank you, Jesper."

Jesper leaned forward and placed a kiss on Wylan's forehead. "Now, let's go to school."

*****

Nina glared at her mother.

"Why can't you just make a decision? They both look fine!"

Nina glanced between the two dresses. One was a light blue, knee-length, flowy dress that was sure to catch Matthias' eyes. The other was a long red gown with beautiful designs like roses along the bodice.

"Ugh! You are so annoying, Mom!" Nina turned and stalked back into her room, deciding on the blue dress. She hurriedly pulled it on and admired her figure in the mirror on her wall.

Then, she turned on her phone to 94 texts in the past hour. She scrolled through the most recent conversation:

Inej, I'm picking you up at 7:05

I can't wait to see you! ;3

Stop being romantic

Like you and Wylan aren't romantic

We aren't!

Wylan, dear, you two are always flirting with each other. Don't tell me that you aren't romantic.

Kaz! Hurry up!

I am!

We're gonna be late if you don't get here soon!

Quite yelling at each other!

Shhh, Matthias. Just let them be...

I swear, Kaz, you better get here soon or else I'm going to walk.

Don'T rUsH mE InEJ gHaFA

KaZ BReKkEr

JeSPeR fAhEy

Wth is going on...

Nina! Don't mind them!

Matthias, just chill. Inej, I'm outside.

Finally!

Jesper and I are there

I can't wait to see you guys!

I can't wait to see you!

I'm running!

And Nina was. Her heels clicked on the sidewalk as she ran towards the school. She raced into the courtyard and jumped on an unsuspecting Wylan, who immediately said, "Hi, Nina."

She grinned. "I missed you so much, you cute little munchkin!"

Wylan laughed quietly. "I missed you, too!"

Then, Kaz and Inej arrived. Kaz walked towards them, his crow cane clicking on the pavement. Inej skipped along beside him, her hand in his gloved one, a grin on her pretty face.

Inej was immediately at Nina's side. Though they had had many sleepovers, Nina still missed seeing Inej every day.

Inej released Kaz's hand and hugged Nina. "I missed you!"

"I missed you, too!" Nina yelled, squishing Inej against her.

****

Kaz rolled his eyes and headed over to Jesper and Wylan. The two boys were clearly having an argument.

"No, Wylan! We don't have a study hall with Kaz! I already asked him!"

"You told me that he had it 6th period, same as us!"

Jesper was glaring at Wylan, who looked so innocent and scared that Kaz kinda thought it was cute.

"I do have study hall with you, Jesper."

Jesper glanced at Kaz and sighed. "It's going to be a long semester."

Wylan grinned. "Kaz! It's so good to see you!"

Though Kaz had to admit that it was good to see the young boy, he would never say that out loud. "I didn't know you cared about me that much."

Wylan smiled even wider. "But, I do! You are my best friend!"

Nobody had ever called Kaz a best friend. He had a girlfriend- Inej, but not a best friend.

"What about me?" Jesper whined, his eyes wide and sad. "Wylan, I thought we were best friends!"

Wylan looked at Jesper like he was stupid. "Jesper, we're dating."

Jesper blinked. "Oh, yeah! We are!"

Kaz rolled his eyes. "Ghezen, you two are crazy."

Though Kaz tried to distract himself, he couldn't shake away the happy feeling of Wylan saying he was his best friend. He took a few steps closer to the boy and ruffled his hair. "Good to see you, kid."

Kaz's eyes were drawn to a scar on Wylan's arm. "What's that?"

The boy immediately stopped beaming and frowned, running a hand along the mark. "It's nothing."

Jesper took a step closer to Wylan, their hands brushing. "Don't worry about it, Kaz."

Kaz examined the mark again. It was jagged as if somebody had run a knife down his arm and shaking it at the same time.

"Wylan, what is that scar from?" Kaz made his voice threatening and took another step forward.

Wylan held out his arm for Kaz. "My father."

Kaz nodded. For some reason, he felt bad for Wylan. And he didn't mind the feeling. "Why did he do that?"

Wylan shifted awkwardly. "He was mad at me because I couldn't read."

Jesper put an arm around the boy's waist and pulled him close. "Kaz, don't talk about it."

Kaz would have retorted, but he saw the look in Jesper's eyes. It was one of fury and protectiveness.

Kaz nodded. "Alright."

Inej bounded over to them, Matthias and Nina in tow. "Let's start our next year of school!"

Then, they all walked into the large building. All of them laughed and talked about their summer as the morning ball rang.