"Okay Lex, be honest here; am I more attractive than Ryan?"

Why this is a legitimate conversation we're about to have is beyond me.

I practically spit out my drink at Jasmine's question. Sometimes I wonder how we've grown to become friends, considering we're so different.

Jasmine shakes her head at me, the faintest hint of a smile reaching her lips.

"I'm offended that you even think that's up for debate," my other friend Ryan says, as he jokingly pinches Jasmine on the shoulder. She quickly bats his hand away, now wearing a full-on grin.

I roll my eyes a their immaturity. "Can I choose neither?"

Both of their heads snap instantly, and I'm greeted with two pairs of angered eyes. I gnaw down on my lip to contain my laughter, but I eventually give up, and the three of us burst out in a fit of giggles together.

Jasmine quickly looks up, her eyes scanning the cafeteria until she spots the group of boys coming our way. She quickly waves them over, grabbing a guy with auburn hair and pulling him down into the seat beside her. He looks at her blankly in a state of confusion as everybody else takes their seats around us.

"So, Charlie . . . your sister isn't being much help so I'm resorting to you."

My brother cocks his head to the side in question, allowing Jasmine to continue. "I'm hotter than Ry, right?"

Charlie opens his mouth to answer, but before he can do so, Ryan slams his drink back on to the table.

"For Christ's sake, Jazzy, give it up!" he groans, pressing his face into my shoulder. I push him up off of me and he goes back to eating his fries in peace.

Jasmine raises a brow at Charlie, and he sighs before leaning in close to her ear and whispering something that causes her cheeks to flush a deep yet bright shade of red. My brother smirks at her before they both turn away to their respective friends.

"I'm honestly so stressed about that Global History test," Charlie say, breaking the silence. Ryan nods in agreement, but Jasmine's eyebrows dart halfway up her forehead.

"We have a test this week? I haven't studied at all!" she groans, running her fingers through her hair anxiously.

"Have you ever considered actually paying attention in class?" Ryan remarks, receiving a side-eyed glare from Jasmine in response.

He shrugs, throwing a fry at her face, which causes her to literally growl at him.

"Jerk"

"Idiot."

"Jackass."

"Enough guys! What are we, twelve?"

"We're both older than you!" they exclaim in unison. This is their common excuse for acting like literal children.

"Technically, sure. But you two clearly haven't met yourselves if you think you act your age," I retort.

Before our argument can go any further, the shrill sound of the bell rings across the cafeteria, signalling the end of the lunch period. We all say our goodbyes, before heading off in separate directions.

I have voice next, so I take the main hallway around to the other side of the building. I could've sworn I heard someone call out "Blossom!" but there's only one person has ever called me that, and there's no way that they're here. Nonetheless, I turn around briefly and scan the hallway for a familiar face. I can't see anything past the sea of people, though, so I just turn around and keep on walking.

Class was the same as usual. We ran through a few songs, all from a variety of genres and then were given time to brush up on some theory. It wasn't as enjoyable as it should have been, considering my mind was elsewhere the whole class.

As much as I hate it, I was thinking about him.

Bryce Freaking Bradshaw.

That darn boy who plays with my hair and never seems to leave me alone. The one who had teased me about my test scores from the day I met him.

The boy who gave me my first kiss.

But he's also the boy who moved away to God-knows-where about four years ago. He left abruptly, not giving any hints to where except for the Sold! sign on his family's luxurious mansion on the water. I hadn't even the faintest clue he was moving at all until the day before, when Jasmine, my brother, and I were at his house. He didn't even talk about it, but the fact that nearly everything was packed away in boxes was a dead giveaway.

I didn't want to seem like I was attached to him or anything of the sorts, so I tried to forget all about him. The truth is, Bryce, Jasmine, my brother, and I had all been really close; we were pretty much inseparable from ages four to thirteen.

After Bryce left, my brother moved on and started hanging out with a different group of guys, and our little friend group just kind of broke apart from there.

Of course, seeing as we just spent another monotonous lunch hour together, high school eventually came along, and we all slowly became friends.

But back to reality . . .

"Lexi, I'm collecting music so if you don't mind . . ." a tall blonde girl says to me, looking at the paper in my hand.

Her name is Camila, and we've been in the same school ever since Kindergarten. We had never really talked before this year, but she already seems nice.

I quickly shake my head, snapping back to reality. "Yeah, sorry. I'm just going to go to the washroom real quick," I say, handing her the sheets she needs.

I pile all my things together on the floor, before standing up and exiting the bustling classroom.

This school is absolutely humongous. There's at least two thousand students enrolled through grades ten to twelve, and the building itself is five stories of huge classrooms and winding staircases.

I pass by a few other kids in the hallways, undoubtedly skipping class. They chat quietly amongst themselves, laughing at things on their phones, and it kind of makes me yearn to be a little more carefree, not so worried about always being in class.

God, what is up with me to day? My head seems to be stuck in the past, and I have absolutely no clue why.

I reach the washroom and quickly skip inside. It appears to be empty, luckily. I walk up to the long horizontal mirror placed above the sinks, and I just stare at myself for a moment.

There are so many things I would love to change about myself.

I've always been obsessed with the concept of perfection. Nothing truly can be 'perfect' in my eyes, at least. Yet I still try to fix everything I even slightly dislike about myself.

I'm well aware that that state of mind isn't at all healthy, but I believe I fell into the spiral after The Incident when I was fourteen. Although my self-confidence vanished into thin air, anything was better than thinking about it.

My peace is suddenly shattered when a few girls in my grade enter the bathroom, chatting and giggling with excitement. They briefly steal a glance at me, and I quickly turn on the faucet, washing my hands in hopes of not look completely insane. I'm sure they thought nothing of it, as they walk straight past the series of stalls and to the line of benches pressed against the back wall.

Drying my hands off by wiping the excess water down my jeans, I turn to leave the bathroom, pushing open the door and letting it fall shut in my trail.

Just as I approach the door to the theatre, the bell signalling fifth period rings. I walk over to where my group and I were working, where they're now scrambling to pack up their bags and hurry on to their next class. I follow suit, shoving my binder, pencil case, and music into my backpack.

"What took you so long?" Camila asks, walking alongside me as we join the line of students exiting the room.

She's sweet, she truly is, but there's absolutely no way I'd open up to her about these things. I don't like to talk about it with anyone; not even my brother.

I flash her a fake smile. "Oh, it was nothing. I just ended up going up the downstairs bathroom."

I feel a tug on my arm, and I turn to see that Jasmine has practically appeared out of nowhere.

"Hey Lex!" she chirps. She then grins at me, and it's super infectious. This time, I find myself sporting a genuine smile. Her overall positivity is one of the many reasons I adore her.

I quickly bid Camila a goodbye, before Jasmine links her arm with mine and drags me away.

Being the clumsy human being I am, I stumble and nearly fall face-first into the tile floor. She quickly grabs me around the waist and bursts out laughing at my lack of balance.

"I honestly don't know how you manage to do these things," she confesses, and I shrug.

"I'm just special."

We make eye contact, staring at each other in silence for a moment, before we both start giggling in unison. We quickly settle down, and Jasmine pulls another one of her insults laced within a compliment.

"Thank God you're pretty, smart, and good at singing, because you are literally not at all funny," she teases.

Swatting at her arm, we chuckle again, before I come up with a clever comeback.

"At least the whole population of our city doesn't think you're going through a constant identity crisis due to the amount of times you've dyed your hair an insane colour."

"Dang," Mateo comments, walking up next to us, accompanied by Daniel, and of course, Charlie.

"I thought all of you liked my hair!" Jasmine pouts.

I reach up to twirl a strand of her wavy electric blue hair between my fingers.

"Your hair is gorgeous and a statement," I reassure her.

Charlie nods in agreement. "I especially love the blue. It's pretty hot," he comments.

I could've sworn I saw Jasmine blush bright red despite her deep skin tone.

We then approach our English classroom, stalking towards the back of the room to take our usual seats. Despite the fact we're pretty close, and always hang out together, I'm still not immune to seeing my brother hit on my best friend.

The teacher begins speaking just as I take my seat at our table in between Mateo and Jasmine.

Our teacher basically just explains that we have the period to work on our current group projects, and so I take out my laptop and open up the slideshow off. Looking up, I see everybody else has taken out their computers or phones as well, but I doubt any of them will actually get any work done.

Daniel leans over across the table to look close up between Mateo and I. "So, I know you two pretty well," he begins. "Which means that I know how much the both of you care about your grades."

Mateo and I share a brief instant of eye contact, before rotating back to Daniel and nodding in sync.

"Well, I can't relate, and I have no desire to change that. Truthfully, I couldn't give any less of a shit about what grade we get on this project. Just throwing that out there."

He leans back in his seat, and Mateo looks purely lost ad not decidedly sure what he should make of that information. Jasmine grins at him after hearing our interaction, and I see a faint light in Daniel's eyes.

My assumptions were correct; my friends are definitely not interested in working at all. They all choose to laugh and chat the whole class instead, and though I wish they would lend me a hand with this workload, I don't say anything.

I continue to research, editing and revising our presentation with minimal help from everybody.

The minutes seem to lull by at a painfully slow rate. That is, until my brother gets a text message that causes him to drop his phone into his lap.

"You good?" Jasmine questions, and he gulps, breathless. I mouth the words 'Text me' at him, and he subtly shakes his head.

"What happened?" I ask aloud.

Charlie stutters. "I just— it's nothing important. You'll find out soon enough."

His cryptic words send me into an endless train of thought. He's never brushed me off like that. Ever. I'll, of course, just give him some privacy, but I can't help but to become the tiniest bit concerned.

I look up to see the clock reads 2:58, so I log out and begin the hourly routine of packing up all my supplies. Considering she hadn't done any actual work all period, Jasmine slings her backpack over her shoulder, perching on top of the table. My gaze searches around the classroom, to see the rest of the class tidying up as well, so I lift my chair up, setting it on top of the table where I was sitting.

The instant the bell rings, we all dash to the door, hoping to get to our lockers sooner than later for easier access. I unlock my lock with ease, and I unload my backpack of everything but homework before looking down to see Jasmine still struggling to get her combination right.

I crouch down to do it for her per usual, and she sighs gratefully. "It's literally October, Jazzy. You've had that combination nearly a month. Why can't you get it?"

"That's the question you're asking, but I just want to know why I'm stuck with a bottom locker, meanwhile the locker above mine and next to yours is vacant." She groans, pretending to struggle with standing up.

"Ryan and I are going over to his place, do you want to come with?" she then asks, and I shake my head.

"I wish. I'm seeing my voice teacher tomorrow, and I really need to practice the material I'm working on."

Even though I do tend to keep to myself for the most part, I am very open about the things I'm passionate about, and one of those things is music.

I'm a singer. I always have been. I adore nothing more than the thrill of having the lights shining down on my face as I perform onstage, and I would love to be able to act for the rest of my life.

"You're travelling for auditions next month, right?" she asks. Knowing that she cares and remembers makes my heart swell the tiniest bit.

"Yeah! I don't want to miss much school though so I'm only really going on weekends."

Jasmine rests a hand on my shoulder. "I'm really glad you're pursuing your dreams, Lex. I'm super proud of you."

I pull her into a tight hug. "Thank you."

She squeezes my shoulder briefly. "Ryan had Chem, right?"

I nod in response.

"Ah that makes sense," she continues. "I'll have to go up to the lab and find him. See you!"

She turns and walks away towards the main stairwell, and I instantly feel Charlie's presence behind me.

"Let's head home?"

I give him a small smile, ignoring the thoughts still spiraling through me.

"Of course," I respond.