We all walked upstairs into Hazel's bedroom, with food dripping down our outfits. Hazel slammed the door shut loudly and stomped over to her desk.

"Well that was a disaster," Kendall muttered, taking a strand of lettuce out of her hair.

"Puta madre," Serena muttered, trying to clean herself off. "The bitch had it coming," she shrugged. "I need a shower, a long one."

"Not too long, you're forgetting that there's four of us," Kendall said.

Hazel sat in her desk chair, staring off into space with the harshest look on her face. It looked like she swallow a handful of rotten lemons.

Kendall and Serena both grabbed a couple of towels from Hazel's organized white drawers.

"Dibs on Hazel's bathroom!" Kendall exclaimed as she ran to the bathroom door right near Hazel's closet door.

Serena grunted and shot Kendall a look who blew her a kiss in return before entering the bathroom.

"Can I use the guest bathroom down the hall?" Serena asked.

Hazel nodded, still mute with a blank canvas for an expression. Serena stared at her with her eyebrows knitted then shifted her gaze to me.

"Is she ok?" Serena mouthed.

I made a 'what do you think' face.

Serena nodded before she left Hazel and I alone, shutting the door behind her. With small careful steps, I walked to the edge of Hazel's bed and sat directly across from her. Her features were sunken and tired, with hints of frustration festering.

I was racking my brain for ways to start such a difficult conversation. What do you say to a girl who's sister kept bragging about her and her boyfriend's achievements and simultaneously tried to make her little sister look inferior? To make matters worse, both of Hazel's parents AGREED with Patricia right in front of everybody. Which resulted in Mister and Misses Martin getting on Hazel's case about all the things she's doing wrong and how she needs to work harder. It opened the floor for Patricia to make more uncalled for comments.

Serena then in the bluntest way possible, called Patricia a snarky bitch who needs to get off her high horse. Everyone choked on their drinks, I think Patricia's new boyfriend spit up some water near me. Patricia, with an evil glint full of fury in her eye, proclaimed her death wish as she proceeded to call Serena Hispanic trash.

It was over. She dug her grave.

Serena scooped up some of her food in her hands and threw it straight at Patricia. Seeing Patricia with chicken juice dripping down her face was priceless.Patricia yelled some I'm guessing not so kind words in French and attempted to throw food back at Serena, but it landed on Kendall's new Adidas T-Shirt.

I think she ended up bending a fork before she also threw food, then it became an all out food fight.

It wasn't until Mr. Martin yelled out 'ENOUGH' that the fight ceased. Him and his wife were covered in tomato sauce and salad, looking like red angry devils. They excused themselves, glaring disgracefully at both daughters before exiting the dining room. Which brings us back here with me sitting across from a miserable looking Hazel.

"You know, at least the food was really good," I said, attempting to lighten the mood.

Hazel didn't even look at me let a alone crack a smile.

"Haze," I spoke softly. "Talk to me please?"

Hazel sucked her cheeks into her mouth and her forehead lines creased.

"I knew this shit was going to happen," she sighed. "Even if I brought you all along, Patricia would never miss an opportunity to make sure everyone knew she was the better sister."

"But she's not," I argued.

"Really? Even I'm starting to believe otherwise. Clearly my parents," her voice cracked mid sentence, chipping a piece of her emotional wall. "My parents think I'm... I'm..."

Hazel's breathing was starting to become uneven and shaky. I can tell she was trying hard to fight off her emotions from consuming her as she always did when she was about to cry.

"You don't have to pretend with me, remember?" I said assuringly.

It took years to make sure that wall was never up when I was around. It was the same story with Serena, I had to work hard to earn their trust and to have them stop acting as tough as rocks and break down around me.

Hazel looked up and her eyes immediately watered as she blinked. She pulled her desk chair closer to me as I wrapped my arms around her comfortingly. The sobs came and came, her whole body shook with the same sadness I've seen time and time again when her parents would make her feel like a disappointment.

I rubbed the back of her head and whispered 'it's going to be ok, I'm here,' over and over and over again until the message stuck. Her crying faltered a couple minutes later and I felt her sniffle as she exited my arms. Her face was puffy and red with tears bunched all around her eyelashes. My heart squeezed at the sight of any of my friends in pain. It feels awful when I can't do anything to prevent it from happening.

Kendall shortly after came out of bathroom with a towel wrapped around her thin body. She saw Hazel's tear stained face and sprung into action.

"I'm sorry Haze," Kendall hugged her. "You didn't deserve that crap back there. You're sister only tries to make her sound superior to you because she's jealous."

"Jealous of what?" Hazel's voice was hoarse. "In high school she was at the top of all her classes, student body president, was part of so many clubs and activities, aced every single test, then even got into Princeton on a scholarship for fucks sakes! I'm only doing a fraction of what she did! No wonder my parents think I'm a burden."

Before Kendall and I could start denying it, the door flew open. Serena entered with a blue towel wrapped around and her fiery hair soaking wet. Her mouth was full of bread, so was her left hand.

We all stared at her.

"Whaf?" She chewed. "There was still some perfectly good bread left on the table next to all of that mess."

Serena glanced at all of us, but her eyes widened at the sight of a broken down Hazel. In one swift motion, Serena threw her bread at Hazel's flushed face.

"Stop being sad loser," Serena told as she sat on the bed next to me.

Hazel sent her a dirty look.

"Are you mad I called your sister a bitch and threw chicken at her?" Serena asked eerily.

Hazel actually managed to chuckle.

"Not really," Hazel told. "I'm more upset at the fact that I'm probably going to be grounded for a week or two. And become an even bigger disappointment to my parents-"

"Stop talking," Serena cut her off. "Listen to me bruja. I don't give a single shit about whatever Patricia and your parents say. I know you, I've known you for years and you're single-handedly the hardest working person I know. You stay up for hours studying for tests you could ace in your sleep, just to make sure you don't miss anything. You constantly try to make time for every single thing you have to do in your busy schedule, even keeping us in mind when you could accomplish so many things if you didn't have us around to distract you. Everyday you're working towards building your future everyday and are determined to become the best defense attorney this damn country has ever seen."

Everyone stared at Serena all starry eyed as she continued to speak.

"Hazel. You're smart. You're funny. You're clever. You're caring. You're ambitious. And a big pain in my ass that I want to strangle 90% of the time," Serena chucked as her eyes started to glaze over. "But I love you to death. And I'm not going to just sit here and let you think that you're anything less than a freaking goddess."

Hazel's full lips turned up into a smile.

"I love you too stupid," her voice croaked as she looked at all of us. "You guys are totally going to best friend sandwich me right now, aren't you?"

We all nodded in unison and crushed Hazel in an airtight hug.

"You guys are unbelievable," Hazel wheezed.

"But you love us," Kendall said.

"Sadly."

***

I stalked my way through the hallways to the front entrance of school, trying not to roll my eyes every five seconds.

What could possibly be so damn important for Demetri to text me in middle of lunch saying there's an emergency and to meet him at the entrance?

Today was colder than usual, so the girls and I decided to eat by our lockers instead of the alternative, which is the bleach smelling cafeteria. I tried ignoring his stupid texts but then he began to spam me. Then call me. Then spam and call me at the same time.

This little insect better have a good reason for making me come out here into the freezing cold or he's going down.

I pushed the front doors open and walked outside with the cool air smacking me in the face. The weather man said it'll be warmer tomorrow. We'll see about that.

Demetri stood on the third step with a smug punchable look on his face and his large hands in his pockets.

"What do you want Demetri?" I asked crossing my arms. "And make it quick, I'm turning into an icicle."

"I thought you liked the cold," Demetri mentioned.

"I do, but do you see me wearing a jacket right now?" I asked gesturing to my body.

Demetri darkly chuckled and looked at me with the weirdest look in his eye.

"Come here," Demetri used his hand to beckon me forward.

I squinted at him, confused as hell.

"Why? I like keeping you at an arms length at all times," I said.

"Can you quit being cutely stubborn and just come here?"

I frowned, my hands turned into fists in my hoodie pockets. I bit my cheek and reluctantly walked down to the second step of the staircase. He still stood taller than me, way taller. Even with the height advantage of the steps.

"Ok fine, I'm here. What's with you turning up the flirt?" I asked. "And could you stop looking at me like that."

Demetri bit his lip as he glanced at me under those dark hooded eyes.

"Looking at you like what?" His voice went down an octave.

"Looking at me like I'm part of an all you can eat buffet," I grimaced.

My hands were fidgeting in my hoodie due to some odd reason. I was nervous and I don't know why, I mean Demetri flirted with me all the time. Always trying to get me to crack and admit that he could get even me to be attracted to him in all aspects if he wanted to.

But right now, he had this very determined look in his eye that only meant one thing. Trouble.

"Well you do kind of look appetizing," Demetri gave me a once over.

I wanted to hang myself in this moment.

"And you look kind of disgusting," I rolled my eyes. "Alright, so why am I here?"

"Because of thi-"

Before Demetri could finish his sentence, buckets of freezing ice cold water came hurling down at us. It hit us full force with no mercy. It felt like my entire body just got smacked by needles, that's how cold it was. Adding how unforgiving the weather is right now, you can bet that I was about to acquire frost bite.

Then I heard somebody shriek.

Oh wait that was me. Or maybe it was Demetri...

"What the hell Stevie?!" Demetri yelled. "You were supposed to wait for my signal and not douse me."

I wiped my eyeballs with my freezing hands and glanced up at Stevie on the smaller ledge of the roof where the letters of the school's name were.

"You said we were drowning Danny not Luna," Stevie sneered. "So I decided to drown you both."

I glanced back at a shivering Demetri, literally shaking up a storm. A murderous glare took over my face and I lunged at him.

"You fucking asshole dickheaded dipshit ugh!"

I kept trying to punch him with shaky hands but he somehow managed to dodge every single one.

"Ok, so I know your mad," he dodged another punch. "But tell me this. Was my flirting as awesome as it sounded? Rate on a scale one to ten."

I almost managed to slap him as we fought all the way down to the parking lot.

"It was a negative one thousand. Turn up the charms all you want pretty boy. You're not getting anything out of me," I snapped. "And didn't you say you were trying to stay out of trouble?"

"That's your job, you're supposed to try to keep me out of trouble," Demetri defended. "Looks like you're doing a pretty bad job at it right now."

I placed my hands on my hips and stared up the five year old in front of me.

"I'm not your babysitter, I'm not always going to be around to help you not do stupid shit. Try not ignoring your impulses for once and listen to your conscious," I stated before turning around and walking back to school.

"I already pushed that motherfucker into retirement a long time ago," Demetri said proudly. "And you agreed to filling in for him. So yeah, you are my babysitter now."

"Screw you!" I shouted. "You can honestly kiss my ass if you think I'm going anywhere near you after this."

We finally made it to the entrance and entered inside the beautifully heated school.

"I would love to kiss your ass if you'd let me anywhere near it," Demetri smirked.

Ugh! I'm going to kill him!

I stalked away angrily from a laughing Demetri. I can't believe I ever agreed to that stupid long term deal when I knew I couldn't last being alone with him for even five minutes.

Except for the other day when we ditched detention...

That was just a one time thing though!

"Hey Luna!"

I stopped dead in my tracks as Adam Torres called out to me. He was leaning against his locker with his hair covering his intense blue eyes. He smiled that boyish smile at me and even though my mood has plummeted the below freezing mark along with my body temperature, I couldn't help but smile back.

"Hey Adam," I said trying to control my shivers. I was dripping down on the hallway floor so stares were coming my way. Insecurity swallowed me as I looked down in shame.

"Woah," those vivid eyes widened. "What happened?"

"Oh you know, just Demetri being a prick," I gritted. "The usual."

Adam chuckled patting my shoulder.

"You guys act like brother and sister."

In that moment I never wanted to hurl more.

"I already have a brother. And I rather have my eyes clawed out by bats than be related to the anti christ," I stated bluntly.

Adam laughed and laughed. Little does he know, I'm not joking.

"Alright funny gal, coach keeps fresh towels by the locker room," He told. "They're extra warm and extra untouched. But they won't stay that way for long."

I nodded, my cheeks flaming. I wanted to burry my head in my sweater.

He thinks I'm funny... I tried not to smile like an idiot but it was difficult.

"You going to Krypt's grand opening?" Adam asked with hopeful eyes.

It already has a nickname?

"Uh..." I chewed on my cheek. "I don't think so. I'm not big on parties or clubs..."

Adam nodded understandingly.

"That's sucks," He sighed. "It'd be a shame to miss out seeing you dance. I hear you have more moves than you lead on pretty girl."

And with that, he winked and smiled a smile that made my knees feel wobbly and walked away. Did he just call me pretty?!

My insides were doing summersaults. I wanted to do summersaults with them but that would lead to me falling on my face.

I ran to the girls bathroom because I was a smiling blushing mess who needed some more cold water splashed on my face.

Let's all thank god for waterproof eyeliner and mascara.

To my luck, the bathroom was completely empty. I glanced at my reflection and looked like a wet dog. My face makeup looking creased and splattered. I quickly splashed a little water in my face while having a soul swallowing grin still stuck on there despite how I looked.

As I reached over to get some paper towels, the door flew open. My heart dropped to my stomach as the one person I persistently try to stay away from, just walked in.

Fuck.

In walked in Allison with two of her pretty brunette friends I'd always see her sit with at lunch.

She flashed me a smile that was not by all means genuine. I doubt she even has a genuine bone in her body anymore. That bone broke a long time ago in the incident.

"Lock the door," Allison ordered.

My pulse jumped. Shit.

Brunette number one quickly obeyed before standing by Allison's side once more.

"Well well, if it isn't Luna the loser," Allison snickered. "It's been a while sweetie. How've you been? You know, I try looking for you every now and then to have little chats like this but I can never find you. Why is that?"

My muscles tightened under my hoodie. I stood as still and stiff as a statue, glancing up at Allison in horror. I couldn't move anything, except to my dismay, my mind was moving at a million thoughts per second. I didn't even know my hands were shaking until I finally ripped my gaze away from Allison's stormy eyes.

"Aw look, the poor baby's trembling," she grinned like the Cheshire Cat. "So pathetic."

Her friends nodded and snickered at me.

"No need to be afraid Luna dear. Well, not yet at least. We're just going to have a little girl talk."

Allison stalked closer to me, that malicious smile slowly dropping off her face as her eyes raged with anger.

"So stop shaking before I give you a real reason to shake," Allison threatened in a dead tone of voice.

I tried to control my breathing, but it was too wild and rapid to get a hold of. There wasn't a way to mask the fear and anxiety that was so clearly visible on my face.

"I said stop shaking," Allison forcefully shoved me against the wall. "Pin her."

Both girls grabbed me roughly and pinned my arms against the wall.

Fucking fuck.

"So a little birdie told me that Adam's starting to take an interest in you," Allison laughed. "That he's even considering asking you to Krypt's opening night party."

I also sighed in relief, knowing I probably just turned him down.

"God I hope that's just a rumor because why in the fuck, out of all the amazingly decent girls in this school, would he pick a mousy girl like you?" Allison asked. "It's like choosing trash over gold."

Ouch. Right in the self esteem. With every hurtful word, she crept closer to me.

"An ugly, clearly hefty, useless, worthless piece of shit," she