| 3rd Person POV |

"So you met with her?" The woman chuckles wryly. "Didn't think she would be anywhere near you."

"Makes two of us." The man shrugs. "But she made contact with me."

"So where does she live?" She asks, only to be met with a shrug which angers her. "We need to know where she lives! She belongs with me, where she's safe and can be raised properly to be straight, and less of a disgusting embarrassment." She picks up a glass half filled with water and throws it against the wall, looking for anything else she can throw and destroy as the man sits, calmly, and watches her.

"Not yet, but I know who can tell me. Shouldn't be too hard to convince him to give me her address." The man informs the angry woman as he stands and dusts the imagined dirty off of his pants, straightening his suit jacket and tie.

"Does she know anything about her past?"

The man freezes momentarily before resuming his previous actions of dusting himself off, hoping that the woman didn't notice. He makes eye contact with her, taking note of the crazed look within her green eyes and deciding that a lie would be better than the truth.

"No."

| Cody |

"Morgan! Man!!" Jack yells and I lay the ball off for her to run by me and I offer her a supporting run. I smile as she ignores the support and takes on the 'keeper. She takes the shot with her weaker right foot, cheering her lungs off as the ball flies into the net. I scream with her, and my teammates, as our captain sprints towards me and jumps into my arms.

We laugh as I set her back on the ground, and we line up again. The other half of our team is obviously unhappy with the celebration - considering this is just practice - but we're too happy for the clear improvement in Jack's game to give a damn.

Another hour later and coach called time.

"Jack, Cody, there's a party tonight. Are you two coming?" Emma, the starting 'keeper asks as Ally flanks her.

"Where is it?"

"It's at my house." Ally interjects. "My parents are out of town for the weekend." She fist bumps the air, making us all laugh as Jack barely thinks it over.

"Fuck yeah."

We all go our seperate ways, minus Jack and I since I'm driving us home. We climb into my car, settling in for the drive home. I decide to break the silence, not being used to my best friend being so quiet.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing." She glances at me before re-focusing her attention out the passenger side window, "Why?"

"You're more...quiet than usual." I answer vaguely, knowing that my blunt answer would only rile her up. "You barely even gave the party two thoughts before you told Ally that you'd go."

"I need to blow off some steam, get off my back, Cody."

I nod, swallowing the hundreds of questions that are running through my mind. I don't even respond when she apologizes for snapping at me.

We get back home and Jack immediately goes to her room, which confuses the hell out of Hope.

"What's wrong with Jack?"

"I don't know." Shrugging as I answer. "She wants to go to a party later, said she needed to 'blow off some steam'. Maybe she'll be better after she gets whatever is in her system, out."

Hope stops for a second, I assume to think about whether or not to let Jack go out when she's clearly not okay. Something flashes in her eyes when she looks at me, a small frown barely appearing on her face before it quickly disappears.

"Are you okay?" I ask, watching her as she shakes her head and clears her throat.

"I'm good. I'll talk to her later and if she goes to that party, can you go with her? We both know what she's like when she drinks for revenge or to make herself feel better." She tells me, and I just nod, knowing that I was going anyway, simply to watch out for my best friend. "Thanks Cody." She side hugs me.

"You don't have to thank me. She's my sister, I'll always watch out for her."

I leave Hope to her thoughts as I climb the steps to my room, stopping when I hear the loud music coming from my friend's room. I brush it off, relying on the thought that if she needed me she would just talk to me. I get my trig homework and decide to finish it while I don't have anything else to do, but thankfully my phone interrupts.

"Hey mom." I answer, putting the phone on speaker while I multitask.

"Hey, baby girl." She beams, I can practically hear the smile on her face which would match mine, I'm sure. Even though I sometimes complain about it, I do love that my mom calls me her 'baby girl'. "How was school?"

"It was...okay. Have you finished practice yet?" I ask immediately, hoping that she'll ignore my hesitation.

"What's wrong?" I guess not.

"Um..." I sigh, biting my lip as I wish I didn't have to worry about Jack. "Jack's just been...weird today."

"Oh, okay." she replies, sounding relieved for some reason. "And yeah, I'm done with practice for the day, just wanted to call you and check in."

"How's Ali?"

"I'M FINE!"

"Fuck! My ears!" I groan, as I hear laughter from my mom's end of the call.

"Language, Cody. You're on speaker, I'm in the car with Ash and Ali-"

"Thanks for asking how I am too." I hear the 'keeper mumble, followed by someone chuckling.

"I was about to ask, I swear." I try and defend myself, knowing it's a lie. I was only going to ask about Ali, she did look after me.

"Yeah, sure." Harris continues to grumble. "I heard you got another tattoo. I wanna see it, send me a picture, child!"

"That's a weird sentence but okay. I have homework though, so I gotta go, mom. Mom #2. Ash." I laugh as they all basically scream goodbye, and I send a picture of my lion tattoo to Ash before I forget.

An hour later and I've finished my homework, which gives me a false sense of accomplishment and I'm interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Come in!"

"Hey." Jack enters, looking like shit. "Are you okay to go to the party tonight?"

"Yeah, but what's wrong, Jack?"

"Nothing. I just need to blow off some steam. I'm thinking we could leave at 7?"

"Sure, that's fine. I'll drive, I'm shouldn't be drinking anyway." she only nods as she retreats, leaving me alone in my bedroom with a million more questions.

What the heck is wrong with Jack?