"Did you get the study guide from Mrs. Hersh yesterday?" I heard Nick ask me from his seat across the table. I reached for my binder and dug through my papers for a moment before coming up with the thick packet.

"Here you go, Mrs. Hersh's 500lb packet of doom," I said robotically, imitating the saleswoman I saw on TV. Nick chuckled and as he took the packet pretended to struggle to get it to his lap.

"Oh wow, this is 500lb." Nick gasped, his eyes going wide as he pretended to look shocked. The both of us laughed, struggling to keep the chuckles down since we were in the library.

"You really go all out for a joke huh Nick." I sighed once we had once stopped laughing. Nick looked confused and I wondered why.

"What do you mean 'go all out for a joke?" he asked me, flipping through the pages of the study guide with his eyes on the book now.

"You pretended to find the book heavy right?" I asked unable to believe that he really struggled with it.

"No," He frowned, still flipping through the pages for what he was looking for. "This book is damn heavy. I had to concentrate a bit for it."

My mouth opened in shock and Nick was about to ask why I was making that face but instead, I just started laughing again.

Nick and I were in the school library to get some well-needed studying. We would've done it in our room but having a desk to lay out your stuff and hold your computer compared to your bed is much better. And Warlo was blasting his music, though all three of us can enjoy some Kpop two of us can't study with it.

Things like this were pretty normal for me after going to my classes for a few weeks. I am feeling comfortable at this school and the new student jitters have all but vanished. My relationships with the people around me are not that different from how they were when I first arrived. I had gotten closer to my brother and sister and we all got along even better than we did when we all still lived together, especially my brother, Orlando, and I. My sister and I had stayed somewhat close after she started coming to Calfuray Academy by talking online and through our mind links constantly, but I had never felt comfortable enough with my brother to do the same. But now that we had the school to further bond over I could see that conversations now came easily to the two of us.

Sam has also started to become a large part of my life and I am glad to have a best friend so soon; The rest of my friends, unsurprisingly, are primarily the four guys that I first met. Harvey, Thulani, Nick, and Warlo.

Though talking to the four of them at once sometimes is an awkward affair we all seemed to get along just fine. Warlo and Harvey became surprisingly close even though they constantly bickered, but Warlo seemed to find himself in a discussion or argument with just about anyone and it is borderline magical how you can suddenly find yourself arguing against him over pickles. I actually had a discussion with Warlo over male rompers and by the end of it, I realized that I didn't know what they were.  But the real problem I had here was him.

I know I should have gotten over him or at least gotten some information, but our "relationship' was almost exactly the same as it was the first time I tried to see him. He now talked a little bit more about his childhood and asked me to talk a lot more about myself so our talks were now conversations. Yet there still seemed to be no chance of me seeing who he was. At least with his permission. And to make it even worse he had started touching me. Running his fingers along my scalp, his hands up and down my arms, even completely pulling me against his chest and hugging me. I felt like I was being slowly torched and my tormentor had no idea of the pain that he inflicted.

I was truly falling for a faceless stranger. A faceless stranger with four siblings and parents who only started being a part of his life once he could live alone. Parents only realized their mistakes when those mistakes could no longer be reversed or fixed. I cried when he first told me and what broke my heart was the emotionless way that he had revealed the information to me, offhandedly like we were talking about the weather.

I sighed heavily from my spot in the library. Thinking about him nowadays always did this, I either became extremely happy or painfully moody. 

"You're thinking about them again aren't you," I looked up to find Nick shaking his head oddly.

"What?" I heard what he said but at the same time I didn't so I asked anyway. Nick scoffed and gestured to me. 

"You always get like this when you think about them, whoever this person is they have got you whipped man," Nick explained, shrugging unapologetically. I gaped at him but he just laughed in my face.

"What, I'm not . . . nobody has me whipped Nick," I told him firmly, crossing my arms. Nick nodded his head but his sarcastic 'sure' was so fake I knew that the point was poorly received. 

Nick and I only knew each other for a short amount of time but it seemed like the sneaky little guy had started to read me like an open book. It was getting annoying trying to keep things from him and he made it his business to bud his nose into my business. Yet I was somehow still hanging out with him.

No way would I tell him any of that though, the guy would read right through those words and find even more meanings that I didn't even know were true!

"Anyway, have you gone over the points that you needed to study yet? I want to get back so we can watch a movie in the den." I started putting away my books as I asked Nick but he shook his head. I was changing the subject, hoping to get him to drop it. Seems like it was working.

"No, I'm almost done but I still need a little bit more time." He told me. I slouched back into my seat and opted for going to watch a few YouTube videos while I waited. "And are you sure that you can watch a movie? Those guys can get possessive over that TV." I could see why Nick would be worried but I knew the guys too and I had it covered.

"I called ahead to get some help, don't worry it will be clear when they have to leave," I assured him, grinning a little against my better judgment.

Nick now looked suspicious but I didn't let on that anything could possibly be wrong and stuffed in my earbuds to play my video.

Tal read some fan-fiction about himself again and I cringed as his friends continually joked about it. I was too innocent to watch it without blushing every three seconds yet I still watched Reaction Time constantly. I was able to watch a few more videos and finally, Nick finished studying.

"Done!" He grinned before he winced once he remembered where he sat. I snickered quietly from his embarrassment and started packing up. "Fudge . . ."

He got his stuff packed away in record time and was soon leaving the library. We were so focused on our conversation that we did not notice the man walking up to us.

"God morning Mr. Davidsson, Mr. Teranova." A voice greeted us with shockingly good pronunciation. We both snapped our heads toward the voice and were surprised to find Mr. McCain standing in front of us.

"Mr. McCain! Good afternoon. What are you doing in the library?" Nick asked, recovering from his shock must faster than I was able to. Mr. McCain -the famous one's brother- held up the book in his hand to a now sheepish Nick.

"Well I had borrowed a book earlier so I thought returning it would be a good course of action once I was done," he explained humorously. I found myself unconsciously relaxing around our teacher and genuinely smiling.

"Yeah, probably." I agreed jokingly. Mr. McCain looked at me and though there was something behind his lingering gaze I could not for the life of me figure it out.

"Probably." He repeated softly. Nick was oblivious to our exchange and chattered on with our teacher a little bit longer before I 'smoothly' pulled him away and we were somehow able to leave the library. After we were already away from the young teacher Nick continued to babble on about him for a solid five minutes.

"He is such a cool teacher, when he speaks I really understand his point. Plus he is famous too-!" Nick told me excitedly until I cut him off suddenly.

"Famous?" I interrupted, confused. Nick just looked just as confused as I did when I asked. "What are you talking about?" Nick stopped to look at me incredulously.

"What do you mean 'what are you talking about'? He- . . . never mind." Nick sighed, deciding to just keep walking instead. I whined and followed him closely.

"C'mon, tell me!" I pleaded, raising the pitch of my voice to make it all the more annoying. But Nick still continually shook his head and I realized in disappointment that he would not budge.

"If you do not know what he did already then you will just have to find out by yourself," he told me firmly, leaving no room for argument. I grumbled since I was still upset, saying under my breath that he was just being stubborn. Nick ignored me though and eventually, we made it to the dorms.

"I cannot wait to watch a movie," Nick told me excitedly, rubbing his hands together.

"Me too," I agreed, forgetting all about our earlier conversation. "I just hope that they do not give us too much of a hard time." Nick furrowed his brows at my statement.

"I thought you said that you figured it out?" He said in disappointment. I nodded as I opened the dorm room door.

"I did," I confirmed simply. "I never said that the guys would be happy with it though." Nick groaned but I wasn't too bothered with the problem; teenage boys did not scare me. Nick was no longer excited to watch that movie and I enjoyed his unease immensely.