"Michelle." he repeats again, simply, but I know. "I'm outta here." I announced immediately. "Keep an eye out for Jen, but it's your school."

"Wait."

I turn and glare at the man who sent his wife-and my mother to her death, the man who declared I was no daughter of his. And something in me snapped. "What the FUCK do you want?!" I screamed. "YOU KNOW WHAT? NO. I DON'T CARE. FUCK YOU. FUCK MY LIFE. FUCK THE UNIVERSE."

"Michelle."

"NENENENENO. YOU HEAR ME? YOU AND I ARE NOT RELATED. SO FUCKING FUCK OFF! I CAN FIND ANSWERS MYSELF."

"You know you can't do that. At least let me explain."

I narrow my eyes and fold my arms, but they're still drawn taut. "So explain."

And I think what he does is exactly that. He launches into a detailed memory of his marriage with my mother, talking about how happy they had both felt getting married. But it always starts that way. A month or so into the marriage, Dad had discovered that Mum had gotten pregnant.

Something neither of them could handle.

Mum had the anxiety get the better of her and started yelling. A lot. And cutting. A lot. A side of her I had never seen after we left. Dad turned to drinking to get away from her, and that didn't help matters.

"So when the two of you...left...I turned to your uncle's business. This business. He went into retirement gave up the school to me, and here I am." I tapped my foot. "You..." I hissed, then turned around and walked to the door.

"One more thing, Michelle." I heard as my hand turned the doorknob.

"Your little friends? They have their own secrets. You're not alone. You could start with Ohm." I bit my lip a pushed the door open before slamming it behind me.

I don't need him.

I don't need to know what he tells me.

Ohm doesn't deserve that.

I feel like I've gotten nowhere. I'm just back at square one. Sometimes monotone is almost appealing.

But my life couldn't be monotone if I tried.

And believe me, I really do.

Ohm POV

"Fuck..." I groaned and slammed my hand into the pillow to bounce myself up before I went back to sleep. Not that I could go back to sleep quickly. The snowy static is always there...

I stretch and blink the mist out of my eyes. Doesn't help, but makes me feel better. Visual Snow is just such a fucking wonderful thing, huh? But I've been bitching for about the last 12 years. It doesn't help.

I clean up and walk over to Max's old door and put down another tally on his whiteboard. We're going to get Jordan, aka CaptainSparklez in here soon. I've got nothing against the guy, he's great, but I don't think anyone could replace Max.

But again, no time to bitch.

Maybe something will go Ohm today.

Minx POV

I dangle my legs out of the tree, looking around. It was a hobby already, but now sitting in this tree, analyzing what the fuck's going on around here, has pretty much become my drug. I really could drink, because Headmaster Smith...or whatever I should call him, and Chilled apparently knows a guy, which I'm kind of concerned about, and I have people who told me Headmaster Smith's email.

But hey, who am I to say anything, Chilled has makeup for God's sake. "Hey bottom bitch!" I call to Entoan, who's pretty much one of the only ones who pays enough attention to know this is where I go when I disappear.

"Minx! For the last goddamn time! I'm not a bottom bitch!"

"But you will be. I've seen the way Dlive looks at you, Gunner, so I'll be watching for the day you walk crooked!" I shout down at him.

"SHUT UP!" Entoan yelled, and I blinked innocently. "What? Like I wouldn't say that to Vanoss." At least someone got something nice out of the incident. I feel my phone vibrate in my back pocket. "Hold on." I say, and I check my texts.

ChillyWilly: Minxymoo, up for a recording with the fellow derps?

I sigh and shrug decisively. It couldn't hurt.

Minxymoo: Sure, give me a couple of minutes though, I'm not at my dorm right now.

"Bye Entoan!" I call, sliding down the trunk and tearing off. "Minx!" I hear him yell after me in the distance. "This isn't over!"

It never is, huh?

Not over until we all go to hell...

Tom POV

I bit my lip as the next Spore episode slowly uploaded. Druox and Aphex are out doing who-knows-what with Phil and Row, so I've got the place-and all of Dru and Aphex's snacks-to myself.

I pop open another bag of chips as a knock issues from the front door. I sigh, probably Aphex forgetting his keys again.

I groan as the bag of chips gets tossed onto the desk, forcing myself to get up and answer the door. Only it's not Aphex.

It's...

"John?"

I start to close the door on him, but he holds it open with surprising strength. "Tom, we need to talk about this."

"No we don't." I hiss.

"Tom." Smarty's voice is more serious now. "Listen to me. Do you care how I felt? Do you realize that I knew what I was doing was wrong?" he lets out a short, harsh laugh. "Do you really think I had no doubts about what I was doing?" He shakes his head. "Tom...anyway, if you really care, you know where to find me. And by that I mean not the dorm. And by the way, you have my spare bottle of meds."

After a few moments, Smarty appeared with a bottle of medicine in hand. "And if you can't find me, Tom..." Smarty murmured. "Well, I suppose Krism was wrong."

Smarty POV

"I suppose Krism was wrong." I slam Tom's door behind me before I say something stupid. Not like I don't usually say something stupid.

Sometimes I really need to know what's going on in Tom's head...

I remember the words Krism left for me-not in reality, but my dreams...or my nightmares. Every goddamn night, pointing me towards Tom. And I need to know if this is Krism's true knowledge, or my brain taunting me with what I lost when I pledged my alleigence.

I closed my eyes as I neared the place.

The dorm.

The place I wanted so much, but could I have it?

Probably not.

I bit my lip as I stashed away the bottle of pills as my hand hovered in front of the door. Closing my eyes, I slammed my fist into the door.

"The fuck..." I heard from behind the door. Galm.

"Smarty..." He doesn't sound surprised. "What is it?"

"I'm back."

"I see that. I was wondering where you were. Ze almost gave up on you, but Tom and Chilled never did. The medicine cabinet's full, your room's clean, and Chilled's been uploading videos from your backlog, so none of your fans know what happened." Galm yawned and grabs a soda from the counter.

Tom and Chilled.

"I guess I better make a vlog about what happened..." I murmur awkwardly.

"You really want to do that?"

"Why not? I'm the fuck-up anyway."

Pewds POV

I bury my face in my hands. "Felix?" Mark calls. "Me, Jack and Ken are getting some snacks, you comin'?"

"Nah. Don't worry about it." I call back. Me and Ken were hanging out more and more with Jack, Mark, Bob and Wade now-but we could hardly go anywhere without bumping into Cry and his "crew."

That's it.

I'm fucking tired of wallowing in my own self-pity, and telling myself that there's no way I can live a happy life. I'm sick and fucking tired of this. I'm going to find Cry. Today.

I'm going to change things-and I don't give a fuck about what happens along the way.

This is fucking happening.

"Cry." I finally find him with his friends Russ and Cheyenne near the guys' dorms, apparently waiting for these guys named "Jund" and "Snake" or something like that.

"Did you hear something?" Cry asked the other two, who gave me a nervous glance before shaking their heads. "Cry." I'm really starting to get pissed now.

Nothing.

"RYAN." Russ and Cheyenne leap up from the stone wall as I grab Cry's shirt and push him into the bench. "We're going to talk about this. You can't avoid this and you know it."

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?!" Cheyenne yells, and I turn around a second to late as Russ and Cheyenne knock me to the ground. Russ goes over to Cry, talking to him quietly.

I stare at the two for a second, then at Cheyenne in a fighting stance. Cry's got his own two little lovebirds, it looks like.

I sigh. Maybe at a better time. "Fine. For now, Ryan, you're on your own. Don't try to start talking to me."

Minx POV

I stare at Ohm, talking with Adam near the tree. It's so tempting...but it's his business.

Not mine.

"It's not my business." I sigh, staring. I turn around, only to run into the derp crew. "Minx." Chilled nods, and I smile. Then I see the thing that makes me stop. "Smarty's back." I comment, forcing a smile. The way the crew looks at me, I know my voice is strained.

"You all realize this is just going to bring more tension to YouTube Academy. Do you really want that?" I can tell the crew's been thinking about it-the way Tom fidgets, and how Galm bites his lip. Ze keeps glaring at Chilled, and Chilled just looks kind of lost. Smarty's expression is completely resigned-something I wouldn't have expected from him. He's ready. The others aren't.

I don't know if I am, either.

Not too much action here-a lot of confusion, secrets, blah blah blah. Can you feel the TehFawkes/TehChaos? I don't ship Galty or TehViking, so unfortunately none of that. I don't really ship Galm with anyone.

EZ out.

P.S. I was procrastinating super hard, so there's really no one to blame besides me-especially since I have no life. I just find this story super cringy with the wording-but I have ideas, and I would hate for them to go to waste. Especially if we're gonna have the sequel.