Grace had been experiencing a lot of déjà vu lately.

Like when she ran into Cal in the lunch room and the two had an awkwardly public fight. Or when they had a shared gym class and Cal made it a point to show off against her team in basketball, weaving around the smaller brunette and flashing irritating smirks in her direction whenever Grace fumbled around.

They even got in a little tiff in the locker room afterwards when Cal asked her if her two left feet were the result of a medical condition.

Obviously, that comment made Grace pissed, but what made her more pissed was the fact that she couldn't keep her eyes off of the sweat rolling down the blonde's neck and into her cleavage. Yeah, that's what really annoyed Grace.

Irritation was the honor student's most common emotion now that her relationship with Cal had reverted back to being enemies...or something of that nature. In a way, it made Grace more effective at studying since she'd just power through her homework in a fit of anger. But still, there was some sort of emptiness in the pit of her stomach, like an itch that was just out of reach.

Grace opted not to think about it too much. It certainly had nothing to do with that stupid transfer student that she had a half-baked romance with.

After all, she was Grace Jordan, and Grace Jordan didn't need love – it wasn't her style. Other people were mostly disappointing idiots, so getting all wide-eyed and love-struck was out of her orbit. She'd just lost sight of that fact for a little bit.

But Grace regained her conviction more and more each day, especially since she didn't see Cal very often. Sure, once in a while they'd lock eyes in the cafeteria or the hallway, or they'd have a shared gym class as mentioned previously. But all in all, most of Grace's days went on in absence of the girl she used to long to see constantly.

And what's more, it was finally time for winter break – the first semester of junior year had drawn to a close, and Grace was more than ready for time off school to just relax and spend time with her family...

--

"I'm bored."

Grace's father looked over at her from across the table, an amused smile forming on his face. "Honey, it's only been three days since break started."

Grace dropped her head onto the surface of the table, tracing absent-minded patterns into the wood with her finger. "I know, but I already finished all of my winter homework."

"Well, most people don't look forward to homework during their break," her father chuckled. "Is there something you want to do? See a movie? Go to the museum?"

"That all sounds lame..."

Her dad huffed, pretending to be offended. "Wow, I don't think you've called me lame since you were a kid. You've always thought the things I did with you were cool."

"Well...I still do. It's just not stuff normal high school kids do on a month off from school."

Grace sighed. Sometimes she was reminded of just how odd she was for a person her age. Other kids would be hanging out with friends most days, going to parties, or even just taking the time to be completely lazy and stick around the house.

But Grace didn't feel comfortable with any of those options.

She didn't really hang out with Jeanette and Megan outside of school and she had a bad track record with parties. All the same, her neurotic personality refused to let her just laze around and do nothing productive.

It really felt like the last time she was able to just unwind and have fun with someone was when she was on good terms with Cal...

"Ugh.." Grace groaned, lightly thumping her forehead against the table.

As if reading her mind, her father asked, "Why don't you hang out with that one tall girl you introduced to me? What was her name? Cassie?"

"Cal..."

"Yeah, Cal! Why don't you go do something with her?"

Grace fidgeted a little, unsure of how much detail she wanted to give about her now sour relationship with Cal.

"Well...we're not exactly talking right now," she admitted.

"Did you guys have a fight?"

"Yeah, kind of," Grace replied, not wanting to give away too much.

"Did you try to make up?"

"Yeah...it didn't work out very well."

"Oh, Grace," her dad said sympathetically, "That's a shame. You really seemed to get along with her."

"Not really..."

Grace jumped a little when she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. A sense of stomach-churning anticipation filled her, but she wasn't sure exactly why. Hesitantly, she pulled the phone out and looked at the screen.

She sighed when she saw that it was just what appeared to be a spam email.

I really need to turn off email alerts when I'm on break, she thought to herself.

"That reminds me, Grace," her father said, catching the brunette's attention with his change in tone. "Have you heard from Will at all?"

As usual, the name sent chills down Grace's spine. God, first they talk about Cal, and now she has to remember Will's existence. Sometimes she was almost able to forget about her childhood stalker.

"No, he still hasn't tried to contact me," Grace answered.

"That's good," he said, but he still looked unsettled by the response. Grace understood – it was both relieving and disturbing that Will suddenly seemed to disappear.

"Just let me know right away if that changes," her father added. "God, if I could just find that little asshole myself then I'd-"

"Calm down, Dad," Grace said before the man could get a little too heated. "I promise I'll let you know if his messages start coming again."

She just hoped it wouldn't have to come to that.

"Alright, alright," her father took a breath to calm himself down, unballing his fists. After doing so, he opted to change the subject. "Anyway...did you get your schedule for next semester?"

Oh yeah, next semester.

Grace had completely forgotten to look at what classes she'd be taking in January. Obviously the core courses would remain the same, but the electives were what she was really interested in. She'd honestly been hoping to get the off-periods she asked for – she had a completely full schedule this past semester, after all.

"It should be up now," she told her father, unlocking her phone to get to the student portal. "Let me take a look."

"I really hope you lightened your work load a little," her dad said. "You've been pushing yourself too hard."

Grace sighed. "Yeah, I know."

After taking a second to load, her schedule popped up. The first few classes looked fine, and Grace even smiled when she saw an off period schedule right before lunch. However, her smile faltered a bit when she laid eyes upon her seventh period elective.

"Sociology?" she questioned verbally.

That was nothing like the options she'd picked for her extra class. She wasn't all to interested in social studies, especially not sociology, which she knew almost nothing about.

"Is that one of your classes?" her father asked.

Grace nodded and sighed. "I thought juniors got better priority with picking classes than this. It's totally random."

"Well, maybe it's good to branch a little outside of your interests," her father suggested, shrugging his shoulders.

Grace wasn't sure she could be so optimistic. It was just another class to put on her work load, and this one didn't even matter in the slightest. She could yawn just from thinking about what kind of crap they taught in sociology, much less the homework. Maybe she'd be lucky enough to get a teacher who didn't care and skimped on assignments.

Grace put her phone back in her pocket and folded her arms on the table, resting her head on them. "Well, I guess I'll just try to enjoy my break until then."

Her father laughed. "Then I guess we'll have to get you something to do."