“Conner is Jason’s brother,” Xael begins. “And yes. He’s the one who tells the others what to do.”

“So he’s the reason that your lives are hell?”

“Yeah.”

“And Jason, you live with him?” Crayton turns his head to look at me. I nod, sitting back down in my chair and avoiding eye contact. “Shit. I’m sorry. I might’ve just made it worse.”

“That’s why I was trying to stop you,” I mumble, looking down at the table. “I don’t need him to lash out more.”

“Why don’t you sleep over at my place tonight?” Crayton offers. I shrug, lifting a hand to trace a knot in the wood of the table.

“Maybe. I’ll have to see if I’m allowed.”

Yeah, my parents are in a different country. Whatever. I just don’t want to seem desperate.

“Think I can come over for a bit after school?” Xael asks. Crayton nods enthusiastically, sliding his phone out of his pocket. “Thanks.”

“No problem, Xael.”

Xael smiles gratefully.

“Aren’t you helping Sadie today?” I ask. Xael’s smile falls and she nods.

“Shit,” she answers. “I forgot about that. I don’t think I can come over today, Crayton. I’m sorry.”

“Hey, we can all go help Sadie!” Crayton exclaims.

“You guys want to go help do chores?”

“Sure, why not?” I shrug. “Seems like fun.”

“We can hang out with the kitties!” Crayton says, putting his phone away. Xael laughs and pulls out her phone.

“You guys can help name a few, too. We have names for seven of the nine,” she explains. “This is the first batch. Trinket, Indie, Hopper, Dexter, and Moon. Then the second batch: a white calico, Domino, another grey, Domino again, still Domino-”

“How many pictures do you have of Domino?” Crayton questions.

“Yes,” Xael replies. “And this is the other calico, Rose.”

“Rose’s mouth is cool.” I lean closer to the screen and point at her mouth. “It’s divided into four equal quadrants of color.”

“She’s the alpha of the batch, but she’s also the smallest. Not very cuddly either. Moon is fat as hell, Indie and Hopper are cuddly as fuck, Trinket is either cuddly or not but she’s the fluffiest, Dexter is the same as Trinket just not fluffy, Domino doesn’t like being picked up but is okay being pet.”

“And that’s your favorite?”

“He was shy and skittish at first but then warmed up to us,” Xael explains. “He still doesn’t love people, but he’s okay with being around them.”

“Again, how is he your favorite?”

Xael shrugs in response. “He reminds me of me. Closed off to people, avoids them, but gets nice when he knows them. Also, he’s adorable and has marshmallow paws.”

“Marshmallow… paws?” Crayton and I exchange a look. Xael’s frowning when I look back at her.

“His paws are large and fluffy.” She holds up her hands in demonstration, curling her fingers to act like claws. “And he doesn’t claw or bite people. He’s amazing and I love him.”

“Okay?”

Xael sighs in frustration. “You’ll see when you meet him tonight.”

“I think we’ll be busy with the actual cuddly cats.”

“We can play with Domino too.” I frown at Crayton, who blinks at me and shrugs.

“I’m just saying that our hands might be full with the other eight kittens,” he mumbles. “Didn’t mean anything bad by it.”

“Jason, can you give Domino attention until I can come hang out with the cats?” Xael looks at me with a soft look and I can’t help but nod and smile at her.

“I’ll be sure to give Domino pets until you join us,” I promise. The bell rings, startling Xael and I. “We gotta go. I don’t want to be late to English two days in a row.”

“Oh, I have English now too!” Crayton exclaims, jumping to his feet. Xael and I exchange a look before getting to our feet.

“How many classes does Crayton have with us?” I whisper to Xael as we walk out of the library.

“He and I share every class,” Xael grumbles, crossing her arms. “And the teachers decided he can sit next to me. In every single one.”

I cringe and pat her shoulder. “That’s fucking awful.”

“What’re you guys talking about?” Crayton runs up behind us and wraps an arm around our shoulders. Xael and I roll his arms off in unison, shooting him a glare.

“Please don’t touch me,” Xael requests as I open my mouth. I slam it closed, avoiding snapping at Crayton.

“And don’t touch me either.” I take a step away from Crayton at the same time Xael does. Crayton frowns as we walk into Alex’s classroom.

“Hey Alex.” Xael raises a hand in greeting. Our teacher waves enthusiastically at us. “This is Crayton.”

“Nice to meet you!” Crayton steps over to Alex and extends a hand for a handshake, which Alex accepts with a bit of hesitation. “I’m Crayton Dowle.”

“Welcome to our school!” Alex exclaims brightly, a smile gracing his face. “Is there anyone in particular you want to sit by?”

Crayton turns a bit and gestures towards Xael and I. “Those two, please.”

Xael and I look at each other, worry set in our eyes.

“Jason, no one sits by you in the back, right?”

I nod in response, sighing with defeat. Alex grins at Crayton and points towards the table at the back.

“You can sit back there with Xael and Jason,” Alex says. Xael opens her mouth to say something but decides against it and closes her mouth, walking over to her seat and grabbing her bag.

“This day is just going absolutely fantastic for you, isn’t it?” Xael and I sit down at my table. Xael’s eyes widen in response as her bag drops to the ground.

“No kidding,” she mutters, watching Crayton grab his bag from next to the door. He skips up to us and takes a seat next to Xael, beaming at the both of us.

“So, what are we doing today for English?” he asks, resting his chin on his hands.

“We’re taking a quiz so you need to shut up and let us review,” Xael replies, sliding her phone out of her pocket. I mirror Xael’s movements and pull up the Quizlet review.

“Do you think we could quiz each other?” I point my phone at Xael’s.

“That would be a better review than just scrolling through the questions.” Xael sets her phone facedown on the table and turns to face me. “Go.”

I read the questions and Xael fires back answers as fast as she can. She knows the material inside and out so the fact that she thought she needed to study amazes me.

I, however, don’t know the material nearly as well as she does.

“I’m gonna fail,” I groan, sliding down in my chair and covering my eyes. The tardy bell rings and Alex talks about Crayton, then the test.

“I’m giving you all twenty minutes to finish the test,” Alex states. “If you’re not done by then, you’ll be staying after class with me to finish it.”

The class starts to whisper amongst each other. Xael pats my shoulder in reassurance when I let my head bang against the table.

“I’m so failing this,” I whisper, looking over at Xael. “I’m dead.”

“You got this.” Crayton flashes me two thumbs-up, accompanied by a smile. “Both of you got this.”

“The test is now in classroom,” Alex announces, straightening up from his computer. Xael and I pull our laptops out and go to the test.

With each question I answer another curse word is muttered under my breath. I’m failing this test. Straight up zero. Donezo.

I’m a failure.

Xael closes her laptop and looks over at me, frowning. She waits patiently until I finish my test and close my computer.

“You are not a fucking failure,” she hisses, jabbing a finger in my direction. “Understand?

“How did you-”

“Jason, you did well on the test,” Crayton interrupts. “I don’t know what you’re thinking, but you nailed it.”

“You don’t even know what the test was like,” I growl, narrowing my eyes at him. “How do you know whether or not you failed?”

“Hey.” Xael leans over and blocks Crayton from my view. “Look at me. You didn’t fail. You aren’t a failure, okay? You aren’t your downfalls.”