"When I was a little younger than you, I was taken to stay with a woman named Ann. I was in the foster care system, and it was rare for anyone to agree to take me in for good. Ann was different, and I found my final home with her," Emma begins.

"But how does that explain the engagement ring?" I ask impatiently.

She laughs. "I had three guys that were all impatient to get me. They all competed with each other. One was a 'bad boy' from my past. The other two were both extremely kind and wonderful. If I had been smart, I would have gone with one of them."

"But you went with the bad boy like all cheesy books," I finish for her.

"You would be correct there. So, I dated him through the rest of high school and through college. Then, it went downhill. He turned out to be a bigger jerk than I thought, so I broke it off with him. Little did I know that one of the two other boys had been waiting on me. He somehow heard about the breakup, so he connected with me again. We got engaged," she explains.

"So where is he now?"

"He," she pauses, "died in a car accident last year."

"Oh," I say, shocked.

She gives me a cheerful smile and stands up. "That's why I took this job. I got away from the place that constantly reminded me of him, and I got to start a fresh chapter in my life. Though, it wasn't my exact idea of starting over. Still, it keeps me on my toes."

"What happened to the other guy?" I ask her curiously.

She walks to the door. "I'm not exactly sure. Last I heard, he was dating someone, but that was quite awhile ago."

"Oh."

"Yeah, but I hope he's turned his life around."

Shockingly, I smile at her and say to her before she walks out, "Thanks for telling me."

"Well, sometimes keeping in past or certain information will crush you or destroy you. Sometimes we have to let our guard down and allow people in so we can connect with them and know that they have our back. Anyway, I'm sorry for disturbing you. I was just worried, so I'll leave. I'll see you tomorrow morning," she tells me before opening the door and walking out, gently closing the door behind her.

I sigh and lie down on my bed and question whether I should go to sleep or not. Right when I resolve to get some sleep, I hear another knock on my door. I sigh and slowly walk over to my door. I reluctantly open the door and see my uncle standing in the doorway. He gives me one of his looks and comes through the door. He stands in the middle of the room and stares at me. I just stare back. We continue the very weird stare down for longer than I would like.

"What were you thinking?" he asks me, breaking the silent stare down competition.

"What are you talking about?"

He rolls his eyes at me and rubs his face with his hands as though he's stressed. "You didn't tell Nick where you were going and left us all in a panic. For someone who's so concerned about being treated like a seventeen year old, you sure aren't acting like it."

I raise my eyebrow. "Last time I checked, Nick wasn't my babysitter. And seriously? How many places could I go in this tiny town? There's absolutely no way something could happen to me."

"Maya, we have the ocean here. There was the possibility that you drowned!" he exclaims.

"You seriously don't think I can swim? What am I, three?" I demand, my temper rising.

"How am I supposed to know? It's not like I've ever seen you actually get into the ocean and swim," he states.

I suddenly find myself beyond angry at him, so I throw at him, "And whose fault is that? Would you please do both of us a favor and leave?"

I see sadness flash through his eyes, but he quickly covers it and stomps out of the room. I sigh, probably setting an all time record for the amount of sighs one can have in a day, and I collapse on my bed. "I'm an idiot," I mutter to myself before falling into an exhausted sleep.

~•••••~

The next day passes by as another boring and very awkward day. To start, I think I really pulled the last straw with my uncle because he blatantly ignores me. I can't exactly look at Emma or talk to her. I thought she was just one of those super weird happy people, but I was all wrong, and I hate admitting I'm wrong. Then, Nick comes over and tries to see me, but I do exactly what my uncle is doing; I blatantly ignore him.

This brings me to another start of another week that will probably end up being another horrible week. I walk grudgingly down the street and to my favorite coffee shop that I haven't gone to in a very long time. I step inside and immediately smell delicious pastries and coffee.

"I'm here!" I call, feeling slightly comforted that I'm going back to a normal routine.

"I'll get your things, Maya," I hear Mrs. Caldwell call from somewhere.

I stand in the back and look around me until I'm interrupted by Nick's face. "Hi," he greets carefully.

"Um, hi?" I reply, clearly confused.

Just then Mrs. Caldwell walks up and hands me my usual order as she asks, "Do you know my nephew?"

"You're nephew?" I ask.

She laughs. "Yes, Nicholas here."

"Aunt Grace, please don't say my full name. It's like me saying, "This is my Aunt Graceanna,'" he teases.

She whacks him with the towel she's holding and says, "Well, I have to go back to work. It's good to see you again, Maya."

She walks away, leaving me alone with Nick, and I teasingly ask, "So, Nicholas, do you want to tell me something?"

He laughs. "Why don't we talk on the way to school?"

"What?" I ask.

"School," he states. "I'm assuming you're still going."

"Of course I'm going, but I don't get why you're coming with me," I reply as I walk out of the shop.

He follows me and explains, "I want to talk to you, and I need to talk to Principal Beck about the idea I presented to him. He still hasn't gotten back to me."

"Don't you need to let your aunt know that you're leaving, Nicholas?" I ask jokingly.

He rolls his eyes and pokes his head back into the door. "I'll be back in a bit, Aunt Grace," he shouts.

I shake my head and begin to walk toward school. "What do you want to talk to me about?" I ask.

"What happened on Saturday? You ran off and then ignored me on Sunday. Tell me why," he replies.

"No reason," I reply quickly.

"Maya," he warns.

"Fine. I just didn't want you to see what I was thinking, so I did what I needed to; I ran off," I explain vaguely.

"Why not? I wouldn't have judged or bugged you about it," he replies.

I sigh. "That's not it. I just didn't want you to see. Look, you observe and read people. I didn't want you to be able to read me."

"Okay," he responds.

We walk the rest of the way to the school building in comfortable silence, something I've become accustomed to. I leave him at the principal's office before walking to my first class. I sit down in my chair and realize that I forgot my hood. I scowl and sink into my chair.

"Why the scowl?" a preppy voice asks from beside me.

"No reason," I reply to Alli.

"Whatever you say," she says cheerfully, ignoring my annoyed tone.

The rest of class is just as boring as usual, so I zone out and don't listen to the teacher at all. I look over and see Alli scribbling notes down furiously. I roll my eyes at how enthusiastic she is over one of the most boring classes. She doesn't stop once during the whole period.

When lunch comes around, I walk to my usual place outside and lean against the tree. Of course, Alli comes and sits beside me like she's been doing for the last week or so. I don't even try to tell her to leave. She just sits and begins to eat her food happily.

"What do we have here? The town tramp. Where's that weird boy you've brainwashed? He must be blind or something," Cassandra taunts as she comes over to where I'm sitting.

I don't bother to respond, so one of the girls in her clique snickers. "He must've gotten your disease to be able to be so close to you without dying."

"What's wrong tramp? You can't speak anymore? It's just as well. Nobody wants to hear any words come out of your stupid mouth," Cassandra pushes.

I almost say something, but Alli stands up and glares at them as she commands, "Stop being a bully. Just because you  have so many problems in your life, doesn't mean that you should take it out on people who've done nothing to you."

Cassandra glares at Alli and moves over to Alli. "Shut up nerd girl. You know nothing, so you need to never speak to me again. You do it, and you'll regret it."

Alli smirks. "You must've forgotten that I'm Daniel Dunn's daughter. I'm sure you don't want to cross him, do you?"

Cassandra's tough expression fades away as she backs up from Alli. "You may have won this time, but I promise you'll regret it one day."

"I'll be patiently waiting for that day," Alli replies as Cassandra and her clique back up.

Alli sits down, and I look at her, impressed. "You have more sass in you than I thought," I tell her.

She smiles at me. "I've just learned that I can't let people push me around. I've learned my lesson."

"Well, I guess you can say that I'm impressed. By the way, who's your father?"

"Oh, my dad. He's the new superintendent of the high school, and he's Cassandra's dad's boss," Alli replies.

Usually, I would think she was spoiled or stuck up because she just rattled off that information without thinking twice about it. This time it's different. She sounds normal when she says it, and I know she isn't one of the conceited rich girls because of how she stood up to Cassandra.

"Um, Maya? You okay there?" Alli asks me as she waves a hand in front of my face, making me snap out of my thoughts.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I say quickly.

"Okaaay," she slowly replies before continuing, "I was just asking you if you would like to do something sometime this week?"

"Yeah, sure," I say absentmindedly.

I hear a squeal, and I turn to see Alli jumping up and down like a little kid, asking over and over, "Are you serious? Are you serious?"

"What?" I ask her with a little more emotion than before.

"You want to do something with me this week?" she almost shouts.

"Is that what I said?" I ask her with slight shock.

She nods her head excitedly. "Yeah!" Then, she sees my face. "Oh, you didn't know what you were saying. It's fine. Don't worry about coming."

I may not exactly like some people,but I'm human enough to see that I really hurt her feelings. I find myself quickly explaining to her, "No, I'll definitely hang out with you this week."

Her face lights up again like a little child. "Okay! Thanks so much! What would you like to do?"

Just then, the bell rings, signaling that lunch is over, and I quickly rise from my spot and clean up my area. I throw my trash away in a nearby trashcan and begin to walk inside. Alli follows at my heels, waiting for an answer to her question.

"I don't know. Why don't you choose and tell me where we can meet up or something," I say as I open my locker door.

I grab my books for my next class and shut the locker door see Alli's smiling face. "Okay. I'll find you later," she replies happily before walking off toward her next class.

I shake my head at her cheerfulness and walk into my next class where I find Cassandra already in there with her clique. They whisper as soon as I step inside, but I just push past them and sit down in the back of the room as though they're not there.

That doesn't stop Cassandra from making the rest of my day as horrible as possible. She calls me nasty names, like usual, and even starts trying to trip me when I walk in and out of classrooms. I choose to ignore the comments, but it's hard to ignore the fact that I've almost fallen down multiple times in front of everyone.

When school is over, I hurry out of the building and run down the steps. I walk as quickly as I can because I have a feeling that something is wrong with Cassandra, and I become her sole prey when she's on what I like to call: a rampage.

"Maya, wait up!" Alli's voice calls.

I turn around and wait for her and ask, "Yes?"

She catches up and immediately starts rambling, "Gosh, I'm so excited that you agreed to hang out with me. What do you want to do? Wait, you asked me what I wanted to do. Oh dear, what if I don't pick something you like? That would be horrible!"

I hold up my hand to stop her and find myself smiling. "Just pick one of your favorite things to do and give me the day and time. I'll be there. I've got to get going. I'll see you later."

"Okay," she replies.

I smile at her again and walk toward the direction of the house. Still, I find myself smiling. I agreed to hang out with one of the most cheerful people in the world, and I find myself sort of looking forward to it. Maybe life really is turning around for me.

That feeling last for a second. I turn around a corner and am greeted with Cassandra's fuming face. Then, I feel a slap.

"I need to speak with you, Maya Walker," Cassandra practically growls.

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Hey guys! I'm extremely sorry for not updating! Life has been really hectic, and I've been suffering with writer's block. Thank you for patiently waiting for this update.

Again, I'm super sorry :)