﹙ TAKE A BITE ★ ﹚

CHERRY HAD FINALLY COME TO A CONCLUSION!

Cherry accompanied Celia and Hartley to the Madden house under the guise of needing to complete their project.

Colby offered to work in the kitchen as soon as Celia finished her maintenance. Well, Cherry would be working. He'd be watching.

"I'm so glad you finally came over! I've been dying to get you and Amy to hangout. You'd love her!" Hartley gushed.

"Seems like you love her." Cherry muttered under her breath, a smile playing on her lips.

Before she could be questioned on the implications of her comment, a voice interrupted.

"Thanks for your help, Celia!" Vic, the father, took a seat at the table, a jug of milk in hand. "I can't imagine what could've caused the garbage disposal to back up."

"I can. Who's been shoving their unpaid parking tickets in here?" Celia asked, throwing away the wet wad of paper.

Amy and Jake glanced up at their mother.

"Hey, don't look at me! I don't even have a license." The woman, Eva, took a seat beside her husband.

"That hasn't stopped you from driving," Amy pointed out, taking a bite of her breakfast.

"Or flying the occasional 747," Jake said, resisting the urge to ask the red-head where her pretty friend was.

"I don't have a license either." Celia revealed casually. "The DMV revoked mine for drag racing."

Cherry broke out into a smile as she nudged Hartley. "Your grandma is my favorite person ever."

"You're a suck up." Hartley teased and looked at the woman in beside the sink. "Enough work, Grandma. It's Mother's Day weekend, time to relax."

"Getting crud out of pipes is how I relax," Celia inspected the sink one last time. "Better get the fifteen-footer."

With her gone, Cherry made sure the door was locked. She slid the completed project onto the breakfast table. Colby narrowed his eyes at the poster. What'd she lie about finishing it for, then?

"I know." was all she said.

Jake choked on one of his pancakes. He let out an awakward laugh and tried to come up with an excuse. "Know that I've got a crush on your super beautiful friend?" He attempted to throw himself under the bus.

The girl didn't seem entertained. The entire family was tense, a thick silence covering the room.

They knew what she knew. How could she have found out? They'd only used their powers in publically minimally and they were absolutely sure no one had seen them.

"Hartley, did you-" Amy began, the consequences of their discovery flooding her mind.

"No. I didn't, I swear." Hartley defended herself.

Hartley knew.

Cherry looked between the family, who seemed to be waiting for a threat. They'd definitely do that if they held knowledge like that over someone else.

Maybe that was their karma. They'd never be at peace, never be safe. If a highschool girl knew their secret, it was only a matter of time until Onyx found out and came for them next.

"Who else knows?" Eva asked, breaking the silence.

"Just me and my friend." Cherry reassured, but that only made things worse.

"What do you want?" Vic offered. Money? Powers? Connections. They didn't have any of that anymore.

"Nothing. I'm not trying to threaten you." She told them, shaking her hand. "We just thought you should know. We won't tell anyone."

How could they believe her?

They didn't have much of a choice. It wasn't like they had the means to move somewhere else. Leaving so abruptly when they'd just barely started to plant roots would draw even more attention their way.

"I swear." She told them.

Colby scowled at nothing. Part of him wanted his family to get caught so he'd have no choice but to became a real villain.

"Can we trust you?" Amy turned to her, sparing a glance back at Hartley.

Cherry nodded. "Do you wanna... pinky swear?"

That wasn't necessary. As long as Hartley could vouch for them, it was fine. Still, there was an underlying fear in the air long after she left.

Even with that tension in the air, that didn't stop Colby from going out that night and causing even more destruction.

At school in the morning, Cherry and Aria were relieved to finally be able to hangout with Hartley again without her and Amy scurrying off and whispering to each-other.

It'd killed her to keep secrets from her friends. Now, she was doing her best to merge her friendships into one big group.

None of them were having it. Aria and Cherry had to keep secrets of their own. How was Aria supposed to be friends with Chaos, the guy who used to be her nemesis? Especially when he had no idea.

Amy was hesitant to let the two girls in. She'd adjusted to Hartley just fine, but two more people seemed impossible.

Colby was silently struggling with it the most, though. He'd purposely skip the classes he knew he had with Cherry in favor of doing literally anything else.

He took a different route through the hallways to avoid her. Her stupid face was like a personification of everything he couldn't have.

She'd showed up in his life and announced to his entire family something that meant they'd be normal forever.

He knew she wasn't to blame but he couldn't bring himself to care. The only person who might've angered him a little more than she did was Aurora. He always resisted the urge to tear down posters with her face on them.

He waited after every crime he commit, just to rub it in her face that she'd never be able to stop him.

Sometimes she didn't even show up which added salt to the wound. He wasn't worth her time. Not yet, at least. He had to do something big to get her to take him seriously. He wanted her to think she had him in his grasp and then disappear.

Amy stood beside the kid at the locker beside hers. He was taking his time choosing the school supplies taped to the door. "Let's go, locker blocker! If I want to be late to class, I want it to be my choice."

"And people say you have rage issues," Jake commented sarcastically.

"I'm just stressed out about this Mother's Day gift. I've never gotten Mom a gift before, and I want it to be special." Amy confessed.

"A bouquet of flowers?" Aria suggested and then tried to help the kid pick out his school supplies.

"That wouldn't work." Jake shook his head. He'd been practicing how to talk to her in the mirror. "Our mom is the most vindictive, grudge-holding grouch on the planet."

"Yeah, that's why she's my hero." Amy shrugged and finally shoved the boy out of her way.

Cherry winced and lifted the kid off the floor. His name was Milo and he was in her math class.

She'd built a habit of always asking him for the answers to questions. Each time, he'd say no, and offer to teach her instead. She declined.

She asked so many times that he'd preemptively told her the answer before she could ask whenever she was called on in class.