It Isn't Magic

Okay, so, what if I told you that, somewhere out there, there's a place where everything's perfectly unique? Every place, and especially every person. Everyone's special in their own way, without a doubt.

You'd probably say, "Thanks for the greeting card, Mom. Like I haven't heard that one before."

Yeah, I don't blame you. I can't be the only one who can still see my perky second grade teacher skipping around the room saying, "You're all special, never forget that! Now let's get some glitter, some glue, and make magic!"

In many places, it's common to 'follow the crowd.' Maybe you do. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I'd follow the crowd, too, maybe. If there was a crowd. Instead, our tiny little rainbow of town is what you might call 'a little corner of magic,' where everyone is totally awesome in their own way, hidden in a little place you might call California. Now, I'm not obligated to state the location, so you can imagine how many tourists we get. Our leaders decided that it would be best if we kept the, er, 'magic' away from the public. Otherwise, well, it might disappear. Little unique...quirks, you might call it, that we all love.

When on an average Sunday, a rainbow appears in the sky on a stormy day, or when you're walking down the street and the road turns into yellow bricks, or when the ice cream truck sprouts wings, you'd probably say, "Dang, these people gotta be magic."

But, if it was magic, why do we all need these powers to make us special? I could never wrap my head around our town motto, "Magic is special in all of us."

I want to have something that makes me special. Because it isn't magic.

•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

The first thing I wake up to: a pillow in my face.

"Hey, gamer girl, wake up." I love my sister, I really do. But her voice is always seems to be the color brown. I'm not being mean. Really. I got something called Synesthesia. I recommend you Wiki it, but it's basically a weird thing in my brain where everything's got a color to it. Sometimes they even have tastes and smells. The number 3 tastes like a milkshake, which is freaking awesome.

But, well, it doesn't make me special. Some experts say one in every 30 people have it, cause there's a bunch of different types and sub-types. It's about as common as Lactose Intolerance. Which, hilariously at my expense, I also have. So you can probably imagine how often I drink milkshakes. Or milk in general.

"Don't make me beat you with this pillow." As she raises her voice, the mottled brown turns into a bright red. The color flashes in the darkness of my eyelids, like someone shining a red flashlight in my eyes.

"You're stupid, Ambrosia," I mumble.

Once again, not being mean. It's our way of loving each other. Usually.

"It's Amber," she scoffs. "Do not call me...that. I don't know what went through that goofball's head, having kids right after his trip to Greece," Amber scoffs. 'That goofball' is our Dad. He works overseas doing who knows what, because he changes the story every time. 'I'm an international spy,' he jokes. 'I'm a traveling ice cream truck driver.'

Mom just rolls her eyes whenever I ask. Sometimes I wonder if he inherited a bunch of money from some random rich uncle and just jets off for the fun of it.

"Go to school, XBox. You can't get another detention, otherwise Del's gonna get pissed," Amber teases mercilessly. I stick my tongue out in the direction where her voice is coming from.

"It's not Xbox, ya bag of chips," I whine. I flip over and mumble into my pillow. "It's Arcadia."

"Same difference, PS3. Get up."

"Why can't I be the PS4?"

"I have the right to spank you." She smacks the back of my head with one of her throw pillows, then pulls off my sheets. I raise my hand in the air, pointing towards the ceiling with my index finger. "I just washed those."

After a long, deep breath, I finally find the energy to flip over and open my eyes. Amber's freckled, yet flawless skin, is distorted into that always wonderfully sarcastic look of hers. Her skin is similar to the chocolate milkshake from In and Out, while mine is more like the color of ginger powder (the spice, not the shade of red.) With long, flowing black hair and long eyelashes, she's the spitting image of a teen Dove commercial model. I'm more like the kid you see in those band-aid commercials, what with the many bruises on my knees and elbows.

"What time is it?" I grunt.

Then, my alarm goes off. Lollipop by the Chordettes starts blasting from my wall speakers. I moan. "You woke me up before my early alarm. It's 6 o' clock? School starts at, like, 8."

Amber throws a stack of papers in my lap. "You got registration, pick up your schedule, choir meeting, set up for dance meet, and you're giving a speech at the welcome ceremony for 9th graders. It starts at 6:15."

"I thought extracurricular was fun," I moan.

Amber sighs and picks at her lavender painted nails.

"Got your hair brush, toothbrush and paste ready at the sink, Del got your clothes ready, and Dad filled up the tank before he left. You're welcome."

"Thank you," I moan sleepily. "No prob, gamer girl. Have a good first day, Ari," Amber says, giving me a playful wink and purple thumbs-up.

"Have a good first day on your online school," I mutter.

She just waves me off lazily as she walks out the door. "Yeah, sure, maybe. Clothes are on your dresser."

I stare up at the mural on my ceiling. A little parting gift from the goofball before he left. "Good morning, Good Night, Love You," written in gold cursive across a starry night scene. I take a few more deep breaths, then press the voice command button on my phone.

"What do you need?" A familiar robotic voice asks with a few beeps in the background.

"Text Dad and tell him...thanks, and that I love him."

"Message sent."

I sigh, then jump out of my bed just as the Chordettes finish the final line of Lollipop. I pop my lips to the music and pull the clothes off my dresser. I blow up my bangs in exasperation. True to her name, Delphi is a diva with freaky fashion.

I glance at my clock. 6:04. Yeah, no time to ponder my mistakes. Gotta run. I throw on the clothes as quickly as I can. I run out of my room, then throw the sneakers and socks over the railing, all the way downstairs. No shoes upstairs, that's the Infinity family rule.

I dash to the sink, right to the third one at the very end. Cinnamon toothpaste, Looney Tunes cup, and my vibrating toothbrush. Check, check, and totally check. I brush so fast my mouth foams, then narrowly miss the sink as I rinse. I grab the hair brush and brush—actually, the more appropriate term would be rake—through it my hair. Finally, I pull out the sink drawer and take out a rainbow ribbon. After some consideration, I take a few pieces of hair and braid it in. I glance at the clock. 6:08.

This is close, even for me.

I start to run downstairs, but I realize my doorknob has been turned into a melted, black-ish yellow-y puddle stuck to my door.

"Amber!" I shout as I run downstairs. "Ma's gonna kill you! This is the tenth time this month!"

A puff of smoke and a rain of sparks pours out her bedroom door. "Sorry! Can't help it!" For once, she actually sounds genuine. So I settle at rolling my eyes, just as her door catches fire. "Dang it!" she shrieks. "Not again!"

I snap my fingers, then point at the door. My heart flutters for a moment, and my stomach jumps up. Shivers roll down my spine. The fire disappears with a puff of smoke, and a new doorknob appears in the place of my melted one.

"Thank you!" Amber shouts.

"I accept bribes in donuts!" I shout back as I tie my shoes and clip my helmet on at the same time. "See ya later!" I grab a granola bar from the front pocket of my bag and stuff it into my mouth. I chew it as fast as I can while I open the garage door. After a few seconds of the most tedious opening ever, I drop to my hands and knees and crawl under.

After groping around in the dark, my hand finds a familiar, slim handle. I pull the purple moped out of the garage. I hop onto the seat, only to find a post-it note covering the gas meter.

'Filled up the tank. Don't be late, Ari. Love ya.

—Great and Powerful Oz'

I roll my eyes as I crumple the note. Ain't Dad so funny, thinking he's all that and a bag of chips because he's a psychic.

I hit the gas and speed down as fast as I can, hoping that no one catches me throwing all speed limits to the wind like an empty candy wrapper. I manage to only choke on my granola bar twice as I turn down the streets. I paw at my braid nervously, praying that the ribbon won't fly out.

Soon, the ever so boring gray and green buildings of Sunny High come into view. I park into the bike racks, chains shooting from the ground to wrap around the wheels, just as I'm smacked in the face with glittery white feathers. I cough out sparkles, which unfortunately isn't the first time.

The Pegasus whinnies and skirts around nervously next to me, it's preen white wings pulled in neatly at it's side. It's small one, just a pony.

"I'm going to kill that Pan...." I mutter. "Always attracting all these Pegasi."

Several other identical creatures fly around nervously above the school, most likely waiting for that ever so bubbly girl to pop out and give them horse treats. The Pegasus next to me eyes the glitter on my 'Middle School Rocks!' t-shirt curiously. I dig into my bag until I pull out my jar of emergency glitter. I scoop out a handful, and the Pegasus happily eats it from my hand. It's warm breath tickles my palm, and it's fur shines beautifully. I used to love these little guys. Now, ever since I met Pandora, they're just annoying.

"You better like it, you twat," I growl under my breath as it burps out a sparkly rainbow. "I'm going to be late for registration."

The Pegasus spreads out it's wings and flies away happily after finishing the glitter. I wipe my hand on my jeans as I run into the open courtyard. Pegasi slobber. It's going to stain my nice new jeans with rainbow drool. Venus flytraps and fire spitting dragon flowers greet me from the cement planters. I sprint over to the office and throw open the door.

"Duck!" One of the secretaries shouts at me. I lower my head just in time, a cardboard box of teacher files narrowly missing my head. Papers and boxes, staplers and ink, all fly around the room haphazardly like an office storm. They're almost as bad as Sharknadoes. A kind secretary with a brunette bun grins at me from her desk, behind a veil of flying papers. "Sorry. First day is always the worst."

I duck down and carefully make my way to the desk without getting a paper cut. I'm getting the feeling that my ripped jeans are about to get a little bit more ripped.

"Registration packets?" She asks, plucking a few papers from the air as they fly by.

"Oh, Miss Infinity?" She asks, pushing up her glossy red glasses as she reads off a yellow itinerary. "Your speech has been bumped up. Ceremony starts in about three minutes. Then you have choir, then dance team set up. Sound good?" She glances around the paper storm distractedly, eyes narrowed. "Now where's that stapler?"

I snap my fingers, and I get another shiver. A silver stapler flies out of the storm, and into her hand. She smiles at me. "Why, thank you. Are you a telepath, too?"

I shrug as I take the papers from her, stuffing them in my bag. "Eh, not exactly. But I'm always there if you need me. Tell me if you need any help finding a solution. I got a knack for it."

She gives me a curious smile, her green eyes glistening warmly. "Fair enough." The secretary picks at her bun nervously as she glances at the clock. "Oops, speech starts soon. It's in the MPR. Break a leg, Miss Infinity."

"Thanks, Miss..." I stare at her gold name tag. "Tiffany. Nice to meet you."

I start for the door, but Tiffany suddenly points to a hallway behind her desk with her nicely manicured finger. "Take the shortcut. Less, um, papery."

I salute at her as I quickly backtrack, pulling my speech cards out of my bag. I open the wooden door at the end marked 'Employees Only.' Before I can step through, a small piece of paper flits in front of my face. "Don't forget your schedule!" She calls after me.

I pull it out of the air and stuff it messily into my back pocket. I step through into the MPR, and I shiver when the AC hits me. It's always too cold in here.

"Ah, Miss Infinity! Just in time!" A voice booms from the podium. I stiffen as several hundred pairs of eyes suddenly turn to me, hundreds of little kids staring at me cross-legged on the carpet.

The rosy, kind face of Mr. North grins at me, though a detect a few sweat beads dripping down his face. He's a bit short, and a little stocky, but he never fails to send a bit of a...chill, down your spine. He chuckles shakily. "The ninth graders were waiting for your ever invigorating speech."

About a hundred students giggle, and the sound echoes off the large, spacious walls, filling my vision with splotches of rainbow.

I manage to make my way to the podium with the rainbow vision. This is like those drunk glasses they showed us in Science Class. It made your vision all funky. I laugh nervously into the mic as I let my laptop bag drop to the floor.

"Sorry I'm late kiddos." I pull a sparkly white feather out of my hair, grinning at the little faces. "Pegasi problems. You may have noticed them."

A few more hundred giggles. Best way to lighten the awkward is make them laugh. I give my usual speech about the uniqueness of Sunny High School and what to expect, slipping in a few jokes about this or that to make it less uniform. I glance at my watch as I finish my speech and they applaud. Two minutes until choir. I can make it. Probably.

"Great job as always," Mr. North mutters to me quietly as I step off the podium. He pats me on the back with his icy hand, chilling me to the bone. "T-Thanks," I mutter through chattering teeth. "G-G-Gotta run."

I grab my bag and run off again. "Thanks for making me join track, Mom," I mutter as I sprint out of the MPR, and back into the courtyard.

And right into a body.

"Miss me?" That familiarly obnoxious voice greets me as I dust off my shoulders and finish cursing.

"You wish, Eros," I mutter at him. Eros just gives me that charmer smile that lights up his coco features. I stick my tongue out at him. Named after the Roman Love God, he truly is a charmer. Even in a casual jeans and t-shirt, he gets people swooning. All except for me. We've been friends since third grade regardless, though he annoys the Valentine fudge out of me.

"Want me to give you a piggy back ride to choir meeting? I'm heading over there, too," Eros jokes, giving me a wink. I can feel his melting chocolate eyes burning into me, trying to get me to swoon over him, but it can't. For some unknown reason, I'm immune. Even so, Eros is the one problem I can't solve.

"Using you as my pack mule is appealing," I joke back, "But you're about as fit as Mary's Little Lamb."

I break into a sprint as Eros lags behind me, whining at me. "They should've called you Cupid, you big baby!" I shout at him, laughing into the wind whipping my face.

"I oughta rip that rainbow ribbon out of your hair!" Eros shouts. "You look like a hippy!" I just laugh again. There's very few people that he lets his temper out around, and despite his weirdness, it's cool being one of those people.

I throw open the heavy door to the choir room, but Eros manages to beat me inside. I punch him on the arm. "You suck, Eros," I whine.

Eros just does a victory dance. "Ha ha, I beat Arcade, ha-ha—" Eros is cut off by a pair of songbirds crashing right into his face. I use my hand to muffle a giggle as I shoo the birds away. They fly back up to the ceiling, where a giant sized bird perch awaits them. Songbirds of every kind sing and flutter around happily around the ceiling plants and the sky painted onto the dome shaped roof, enjoying the little aviary we set up last year.

"Are you okay?" I manage to ask through giggles as I help pull him up. Eros picks red and blue feathers out of his mouth. "Yeah. Except my mouth turned into Mardi-Gras."

I pluck a feather out his curly brown hair. My giggles finally die down. "Sorry about that. I should've warned you."

Eros gives me a charming and hopeful smile. "You know I can't stay mad at you, Ari."

"Don't even try, Eros."

He pretends to be disappointed and pouts at me. "You're so cold."

I glance at the fuzzy gray risers where we usually sit and sing, and I realize they're empty.

"I guess we're...early?"

"Huh," Eros hums as he shakes a few more feathers out of his hair. "Must've bumped it up."

Suddenly, the door slams open, and Luella bursts through, panting and gasping for air. "Sorry I'm...late?" She trails off into confusion as she comes to the same conclusion we did. "Oh...am I early?"

"Apparently," Eros scoffs.

Luella fixes her prim and straight brown hair, giving me a sparkling smile full of rainbow braces. "Hey, Arcadia. I missed you!"

I give her a hug, chuckling and rolling my eyes at her. "I slept over two weeks ago."

She shrugs. "It just felt so long ago," Luella pretends to sigh sadly. I grin. She always cracks me up.

Luella glances up at the ceiling with wide eyes. "Woah, the aviary looks even better than last year!" A few songbirds flutter down and flitter around her, singing a few tunes. She giggles and waves at them playfully.

"Hey Luella," Eros says, giving her his trademark charming smile. She gives a sort of confused smile back. "Um, hi. Why does your face look like that?"

I snicker as Eros's smile morphs into a pout. "Man!" He whines. I guess time sort of takes the edge off Eros's aura.

Luella skips around the room, throwing up bird feed. Eros comes over to me, holding a pink piece of paper. "Found this on the wall next to the door." I skim my eyes over the handwriting. "Guess we were the only ones who weren't aware of the time change. Doesn't start for 30 minutes," Eros huffs. His breath makes his curly bangs tremble, and I can't help smiling.

•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•

Well, I'm glad I got over my fear of heights. I stand up on my tippy-toes on the last rung of the ladder, trying to replace the light bulb in the dance room. Eros thought it would be funny to play with the sabers from pageantry. No further questions.

"Hey, you having fun?" Eros teases, shaking the ladder. I wobble, then grip the ceiling for support. "Shut up and keep still, Cupid!" I shout at him. He starts shaking it even more, to the point where I have to lean down and grip the rung. I rapidly screw out the broken bulb, then drop it down. Eros does a girly yelp as the bulb pops, and the shaking stops. I do a loser sign at him. He sticks his tongue out at me.

Songbirds flit around Luella, helping her set up banners and organize ribbons and sabers. Breeze makes pretzels and soda appear on the table. Because, as he says, 'Teleportation makes everything a breeze.' His elf-like ears poke out from his gold and white striped blonde hair.

Suddenly, a burst of confetti explodes from the ceiling. I yelp in surprise as rainbow and sparks rain down from the ceiling. Eros lets go of the ladder and falls to the floor in surprise, and, because the universe absolutely hates me, I fall from the ladder. I quickly snap my fingers. With a puff of smoke, a bean bag moves itself from the corner of the room. I land with an 'oof' inside it. The ladder collapses and crashes down. Eros coughs out rainbow confetti and glitter. "Sorry," he coughs. Feathers flutter down to the ground as songbirds freak out and flap crazily around the ceiling, and Luella chases them, begging them to stop.

Rainbow confetti. Glitter.

"Pandora!" I shout angrily.

Pandora appears in the doorway, pigtails covered in glitter and sparkly white feathers, waving a flag with a smiling sun on it.

"Okay, who missed the Panda?" She squeals happily.

Yeah, you know the story of Pandora's Box, where Pandora opened the jar and released all evil except for Hope? Well, in our story, Pandora released everything except perky insanity and kept it for herself. She's been my best friend for decades, but she has a tendency to make showy entrances involving confetti and attracting unwanted Pegasi.

"We were trying to set up," Eros huffs feathers out of his hair. "Before you came in."

Luella starts shrieking, and I realize the birds she's chasing are smoking. Pandora just had to have the spark rain. "Not the snacks!" Breeze cries out. Songbirds crash into the punch and pretzels, trying to extinguish their smoking feathers, spilling red juice and pretzels all over the floor.

And, just to add insult to injury, the light bulbs pop.

Pandora giggles nervously, brushing glass out of her pigtails. "Um, was that my fault?"

Eros pats a mini fire out of his curls, still coughing out glitter. "Arcadia, please—" Another glittery cough, "—fix this."

Breeze sadly teleports a pretzel into his mouth. Sticky red and crumb covered songbirds flit slowly around Luella. I sigh. "The things I do for you, Pandora." I snap my fingers, and my stomach does a triple backflip and somersault with a split.

The snacks and drinks reappear on the tables as if nothing happened, punch–pretzels and all. The birds fly around without a spot on their feathers, singing happily. The ladder folds itself cleanly and leans against the wall, the light bulbs repair themselves, and, much to my dismay, Eros's hair is fixed. He pats it happily, sighing with relief. I wanted to see the look on his face when he saw that burn patch in his hair.

"Thanks, Ari," Pandora sighs in relief. She holds out her hand and helps me to my feet. I give her a tight hug, regardless. The pink fringes on her shoulders tickle my chin. "I missed cleaning up your messes, freak," I mutter into her ear.

"Me, too," she giggles back.

After giving her a few squeezes, I finally release her. My heart does a few flutters, and I find myself smiling. No matter what, I can't be mad at her. Pandora just has this aura about her, something sparkly and fluttering. I knew I wanted to he friends with her since the moment we met.

Anything I can do to help?" Pandora asks hopefully. I glance around at the glittery walls and confetti covered floor. I laugh a bit. "Well, you're certainly a good decorator. Why don't you help Luella set up banners?"

She does a military salute, grinning widely. "Ai-Ai, Captain Ari." She skips away happily, giggling.

Breeze sighs and crashes back on my bean bag. "Well, my work here is done." I snap my fingers. The bean bag disappears, and Breeze lands on his backside with an 'oof.' "Don't be a problem, Breeze," I sigh.

Breeze just smiles at me. I start wondering why I hang out with such perky, glass half-full people.

"Hey, do you have any classes with me?"

Breeze holds out his hand, and my schedule appears in his fingertips. "Hey, give it back!" I stomp after him, waving my fist.

"Whoopsies, that's my cue to run."

Breeze quickly snaps his fingers, and he disappears. After thirty seconds, he walks through the door, tapping his chin thoughtfully. I rip the schedule out of his hand and jut my chin out at him angrily. He copies me sarcastically.

"Anyway," he says nonchalantly. "Looks like we have all our classes together except for English. Cool, right?" Breeze slicks back his hair, only to have it bounce right back into it's windswept spikes. He winks and clicks his tongue at me like the Fonz from Happy Days. "I'll be seeing you a lot, Ari," he says smoothly. I smack his forehead. "You wish. Try flirting with me again, and I'll tell Luella that y—"

Breeze quickly smacks his hand over his mouth. "Shut up!" He hisses at me. His eyes dart around nervously, afraid someone's going to over hear us. Luella and Pandora are still giggling and singing in their own little gumdrop world. I roll my eyes. "I'm going to get you some dirt on you one day! I swear, I'm never inviting you over for a sleepover ever again!"

I push his hand off and I gag. I hold up my index finger in a one sign. "Okay, first of all, it's not my fault you sleep talk and kiss your pillow in the middle of the night." Breeze blushes a light shade of orangish pink. I hold up two fingers. "Second of all, stop eating anchovy pizzas for breakfast. You're lucky I didn't hurl all over you right now."

"Ew, gross," Breeze whines. He wrinkles his nose and wipes his hand on his khakis. I push his shoulder. "Shut up, you're gross," I whine sarcastically in a nasal voice. He pushes me back, and we both laugh. We've only been friends for about a year or two, but he's such a lovable dorky-weirdo.

"Hey, you two," Eros bounds over. He rests his elbows on both our shoulders and pouts at us. "You having fun without me?"

"Yup. So stay out of it, pretty boy." Breeze traps Eros in an armlock and starts giving him a fierce noogie. Eros whines and protests, saying that it took two hours to get his hair like this, as Breeze throws back his head and laughs. I can't help giggling. See, these are why they're my friends.

They're all...special.

I quickly shake the thought away. Not right now. Now is time for school.

"Hey Luella, need any help with those banners?"

It's not the time to worry.

•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•

English class went by fast. Our teacher, Ms. Magok, made the Giving Tree come alive. Literally. With a flick of her hand, illusions of a little boy and a tree appeared in front of us. As she turned each page, the illusion flickered and moved, like a projection of an animation. Her motto is, "Who needs a projector when you're an illusionist?" I just hope we don't read any horror novels.

Math went by in a flash. Every time Mr. Jack pointed at a number on the whiteboard, it'd jump out and make a little black number creature. They waddled around on little stick legs and would follow Mr. Jack's laser pointer like little kittens. He created more, and, with the help of his laser pointer, they stacked and squeezed together like Tetris Blocks until they created an equation. Prime numbers are a little lonely, but Quadratic equations are a real party. Breeze mostly balanced pencils on his nose and crossed his eyes for the majority of class time, much to my dismay.

Science was...scary, to say the least. Ms. Sparrow believes students should 'take flight and experience nature for themselves.' She created mini tornadoes and tsunami's right in the classroom, much to Breeze's delight. He happily got swept around in the waves and shouted, "Cowabunga!" She taught us photosynthesis by making a tree grow right out of the ground. The janitor came in and swept up all the broken floor tiles. He fitted pieces together in a seemingly random pattern, but after a few seconds, he made a cute, giant-sized pot. Another janitor came in, rubbed his hands together a little bit, then uprooted the tree with his bare hands and put it in the pot. Fortunately, that took up half the class time, so Breeze and I just sat around and had fun making paper cranes, letting them fly, then teleporting them around the room so it would never stop. So I learned about natural disasters, photosynthesis, ceramics, and aerodynamics all in one class period. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.

I tell Eros all about it as we buy our lunch in the cafeteria. Well, more like catch our lunch. Kids randomly shout out what they want, and the very thing pops into existence and flies toward the person who wanted it. Except, the system's a little out there, if you know what I mean. Plates of ice cream, boxes of tater tots, and Double Big Macs fly haphazardly around the room, and kids chase around trying to find what they want, while simultaneously trying to avoid getting beaned with pots of chili. I lost Breeze in the food storm as soon as we walked in. He's probably trying to swipe some banana split or something. Me and Eros duck down, randomly plucking the things we want to eat. We decided that shouting out what we wanted was more than what we would bargain for, ever since Pandora ordered some piping hot nachos and we all had to end up going to the nurse with second degree burns. Sometimes I wonder if Pandora kept a little havoc for herself, too.

I pluck a mini moco-loco and fried rice as it flies by me, managing to only spill a couple eggs in the process, along with some beef kabobs. Eros grabs a cheeseburger and a can of coke and just rolls his eyes at me. "You and your weird Asian food."

"Hey," I defend myself. "It's Pacific Islander. Hawaiian food happens to taste awesome."

"Let me have a kabobs," Eros says with a bad Jersey accent. He bites the kabob before I can even hand it to him. I let go of the stick and let him eat it.

"Hey, Arcaaaadiaaaa!" Breeze appears standing on top of a table, waving at me frantically, while Luella and Pandora try to get him down. He just laughs, so loud I can hear him from across the cafeteria. Then, a bag whacks him in the head. He frowns as he reads the label. "Anybody order these pita chips? And could you order some hummus with it?"

I giggle into my sleeve. "Dork," I murmur. Eros gives me a 'you gotta be kidding me' look with his melty brown eyes. "You guys are pretty close, having only been friends for what, like, a year?"

I shrug. "Two, if you count Kindergarten. He's funny. And sorta stupid in his own weird way. Like a cute, dumb puppy."

Eros raises an eyebrow at me dramatically. "Oh, so you think he's cute?"

My nostrils flare and my tanned cheeks turn a slight orange. "Not in that way, dork! You're even more stupid than he is!" I elbow him as sharply as I can. He pretends to be hurt, but he just snickers.

"Am I a cute little puppy, too?" Eros teases in a baby-voice. He puckers his lips and does mocking kissy faces at me.

"Like I'd ever have a crush on you dorks," I retort. "You got beef kabob in your teeth."

Eros sucks on his teeth and mutters about dental floss all the way to our lunch table. Breeze finally gets down off the table, and Luella and Pandora sigh happily. Breeze vaults himself into the seat next to me, grinning like a mad man. "There's my favorite arcade game."

Eros pouts from my other side. "Hey, I exist, too!"

"Yeah, yeah, put a cork in it pretty boy," Breeze retorts, rolling his sea blue eyes. He's always teasing Eros, but I think they're sorta like bickering brothers. Always fighting, but they secretly love each other.

I turn to Luella and Pandora, pointing my thumbs out to either side of me. 'Boys,' I mouth, rolling my eyes. Luella and Pandora both giggle.

"Hey Breeze," Luella says. "Hand me that lollipop above your head."

Breeze tilts his head up and, sure enough, a strawberry lollipop is flying lazily above his head. "Uh, yeah, s-sure, totally!" He stammers, a sheepish grin on his pink face. Breeze reaches up, plucks it out of the air, and hands it to Luella. He flinches as their fingertips touch, and he gulps just loud enough for me to hear.

"Thanks, Breeze," Luella says.

Breeze rubs the back of his head, chuckling shakily. "Y-Yeah, sure, no p-problemo amiga." He turns around and smacks his forehead. "Did I seriously just say Amiga?" He mutters at himself. He groans under his breath. I hold back a snicker.

Eros turns to me with a a raised eyebrow. 'What was that about?' He mouths at me. Oh, crud. I turn to Breeze and hopes he notices the apparent panic on my face. He does. 'He's suspicious,' I mutter, coughing to cover it up.

"Want water?" Pandora asks, holding out a water bottle filled with Unicorn Juice. I cringe. That has more sugar than ten cans of vanilla Pepsi. "Uh, no thanks."

"So, my favorite Arcade!" Breeze quickly says, giving a forced grin. "You wanna sleep over at my house tonight?"

I give him a 'wth' look, raising an eyebrow at him suspiciously. "Um, why? It's a school night."

"Please," he begs through a nervous grin. Oh, this again. He always called me to sleep over whenever he wanted to vent about his 'Luella Problems.' Not only that, he's trying to use me as a cover up for his little chagrin.

I give a fake laugh. "Sure, why not?" I grit my teeth and mutter to him through a smile. "If you make our friends think that I like you, I will beat you to a pulp little man. I can snap my fingers and you'll be gone, you little twat."

"Fair enough," he mutters back through gritted teeth. "Just throw 'em off my scent."

We both laugh, while simultaneously trying to glare daggers at each other. This is going to be a long school year.

•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|•

Choir went by like a Breeze. And by a breeze, I mean it was fun but absolutely insane. Honestly, you'd be surprised how good Breeze and Eros are at the harmony parts. But I can't stand Breeze always teleporting my song sheets around while cackling like a maniac. Eros stole the black curtains from the drama room and pretended to be Batman the entire period, so I kept laughing during the songs and screwing it up.

Mrs. Sweet was pretty cool about it because, well, she's...sweet. She doesn't like to punish kids unless they aren't trying, and her way of scolding you is giving you a sarcastic look then laughing. She's really nice, and pretty lax about the rules, so you can imagine the mischief that goes on.

Melody and Diamond played hand games a lot of the time. They're sweet girls, and I like watching them play. Melody likes to play with her water magic, turning on the sink and letting it run as she lets the water flow into little shapes. Then Diamond points her finger, and the shape freezes into crystalline ice. They're a good pair together.

Pandora always dazzles the songs with her own personal touch of passion. There's no doubt her lively voice that reaches even the highest notes is the highlight of our songs. Luella acts as our assistant conductor, helping manage the songbirds' parts, which she does fabulously in my opinion.

At the end of class, we either plop down on the risers, or find a beanbag or particular soft square of carpet and talk softly to each other while Ms. Sweet plays her favorite pieces of music. Breeze lip syncs to all the Elvis songs and does the greatest imitation of Elvis dance I've ever seen, making me laugh until the point where I can't breathe. Pandora and Luella play a four way hand game with Diamond and Melody, which eventually ended with a slight fiasco involving Pandora melting their ice sculpture because she got a bit too excited playing Hot Pepper Patty Cake. Eros was nowhere to be seen, but I assume he's somewhere being Batman.

"Breeze!" Luella suddenly calls out to him while I show him how to fold an origami dragon. The paper sculpture falls uselessly out of his hands as he gives a goofy grin to Luella. "Yeah?"

She points excitedly at the aviary ceiling. "Teleport me up there?"

"Anything you want, Lu." Breeze rubs his hands together and pretends to crack his neck. He gives me a salute as he stands up. "Duty calls, Arcade."

I pretend to kick his ankles as he runs off. "Go get 'em, tiger."

I turn back to my origami dragon. I ponder wether or not I can make origami flames, when suddenly a pair of hands appear over my eyes.

"Guess who?" Eros whispers in my ear.

"Someone ordering a double decker knuckle sandwich?"

Eros finally takes his hands off my eyes. He plops down in front of me, crossing his legs and taking the place where Breeze was. "Man, you're so mean," he whines.

"Go tell it to your mom," I retort. I pick up a few pieces of orange and yellow origami paper and start to fold it into jagged flames. "Why do you always appear right when Breeze disappears?"

"Because needy girls need constant companionship."

He cries out as my paper dragon collides with his forehead. "Ouch! I think it bit me!"

"That's what you get, freak." I stick my tongue out. He returns the favor.

Eros just huffs, blowing up his curly bangs. "Before you attacked me," he gives me a pointed look, "I was about to ask you if–"

"Emergency!" Pandora suddenly shrieks.

I turn my head only to find a very beautiful ice sculpture shaped like a fire–on fire. Pandora sees me glaring at her and gives a nervous giggle. "Oop...sies?" Diamond mutters some not-so-nice words and gives me a look that says, 'Please fix this.' Unfortunately, I get that look often when Pandora is around.

I snap my fingers, and the ice sculpture disappears, leaving only a damp spot on the floor. Pandora points at it and says, "Um, can you fix t–" I cut her off with a glare. She gulps and smiles. "Never mind."

I turn back and, low and behold, Eros is gone. I roll my eyes. "Freaking Batman..."

Something flicks me in the back of the head. "Ouch!"

"Don't insult Batman," a raspy voice whispers in my ear.

"Eros!"

•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•

I adjust the purple laces on my Nikes, staring warily at Ms. Spots. Most of us just call her the Cheetah. She'll stand there, looking all innocent while we sit here on the bleachers in the Gymnasium. Then, when you least expect it—

An air horn sounds, echoing across the tall and wide walls of the Gym. "Ten laps, go!"

—she attacks.

She whistles, and we all jump to attention. None of us want to be chased by the Cheetah for being too slow.

She gives a pointed look to Breeze as he jogs by. "No teleporting, otherwise you're on Pegasi scooping duty."

"Yes ma'am," Breeze mutters through pants.

We all run, or more or less jog, around the squeaky linoleum-wood floors of the gym.

I flick the side of Breeze's head as I run by him. A ritual of ours to do if one of us is lagging behind. "Hey, ow! Watcha do that for, you're the one that was behind me!" Breeze protests.

"I'm on my fourth lap, dork." I give him another flick. "Catch up, otherwise she'll make us do more."

I run off, while Breeze curses at me and glares at my back. I've always been good at running, so at least I got that going for me. "Show off," Breeze mutters. "I heard that!" I call back to him.

By the time we're done, Breeze's blond hair sticks to his forehead like a wet mop. I hold my nose as he finishes his laps and walks over to me. He gives me a sarcastic sneer.

"We can't all be track stars, Ari."

"I know. That's just what makes me better than you."

Breeze starts cracking up. But in a shameful little part of me, I secretly wish that it really did make me better.

•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•

Screams of horror and insane laughter echo across the courtyard of Sunny Middle School. A massacre of red across the pavement.

As the class of Ms. Rosetta plays Jelly Cannon/Revolutionary War/Live Action Chess/Roleplay.

"Rook to B9!" I shout. Halle, our resident shadow controller (don't even ask; just think Peter Pan,) stiffens and slowly walks across the board we've drawn with chalk across the pavement. He closes his eyes and makes a strangled squeak, waiting for the inevitable. A silver, motorized cannon whirs to life on the roof. Joan, a bubbly girl in glasses right across from Halle, suddenly gets blasted with purple jam. We all whoop and cheer, and Ms. Rosetta claps happily. "Nice job, children!"

Joan wipes her glasses with her finger, then licks off the purple substance. She smiles. "Nice. Sweet Grape."

The sky rumbles for a moment, then the clear blue sky warps and fades until it's a dark purple, the same shade as the jam. The cloud swirl and combine until the purple sky is dotted with fluffy clouds shaped like bunches of grapes. I give a thumbs up to her. "Nice one!"

"Wonderful!" Ms. Rosetta sings happily. "But, um, make sure you change it back before class ends.

The game continues on, and I happily get to blast Eros with mass amounts of strawberry jelly. Pandora, aka America, doesn't even seem to take the game seriously. I think she purposely lost so she could see everyone get blasted with jelly and laugh about it. Her teammates didn’t seem to appreciate it, but Pandora was having a blast.

"Game over!" Ms. Rosetta shouts. "Britain wins! Ain't that a strange twist to History?" She chuckles.

In case you were wondering, Ms. Rosetta wasn't always a History teacher. She used to be a robotics teacher, and loved it a lot. When the board switched her to History, she decided to make the best of it.

I jump up and wave the mini UK flag in my hand victoriously. "Take that you bloody gits!" I cackle.

Also, my Dad's part British. In case you were wondering.

Ms. Rosetta features over to me. "Now, how would history change if Britain, or Ms. Arcadia in this case, won the Revolutionary War?"

Eros raises his hands, his white t-shirt and new jeans stained with red goop. I giggle slightly as his nose wrinkles. "We'd all be slaves under Ari's tyrannical rule," he offers.

Ms. Rosetta shrugs. "Well, you never know. Maybe we would all be slaves. But society would be very different, and that's the lesson we learned today. Now, our dear Arcadia will clean up the courtyard, and then I'll give her a prize. Everyone except Pandora and Arcadia can go to the gym showers and rinse off, and change into the extra clothes they were instructed to bring."

Pandora squeals and hugs Eros as tightly as she can, slicking herself thoroughly with red jelly. "Yes!" she shrieks happily.

Ms. Rosetta sighs and chuckles under her breath. "Everyone except Arcadia then. Hurry back before class ends." She claps her hands and shoos everyone off, humming happily.

I snap my fingers, and all traces of jam and jelly disappear from the courtyard. "Thank you, dear," Ms. Rosetta says kindly. I've always liked her; she has a soft voice that always makes me feel so happy. Not as happy as Pandora, mind you, plus it doesn't bring a sense of danger and anxiety with it.

Ms. Rosetta runs back into the classroom, and brings me back a scone. "Cool," I marvel at the soft biscuit in my hands.

"Chocolate chip," she says with a smile. "Don't eat it all at once."

The war trumpet rings out across the courtyard and out from classrooms, like the one you might hear at a boot camp. End of school.

Ms. Rosetta walks off, muttering something about hyper screwdrivers and adjusting cannons. I nibble at the little edges of the scone, picking out chocolate chips and letting them melt on my fingertips before sucking the chocolate off. I always take the prizes, even though I don't like sweet things.

I wander as I eat the scone, and I soon find myself at the front of the school, in front of the administrative office. The California flag blows weakly in the breeze. I almost pity it. We never get wind during the school day. I wave at a few classmates. Songbirds appear, the sky and road changes color. Fire and ice burst everywhere around me, and don't even get me started on the shadows. It's a normal day at Sunny High School.

Suddenly, everything goes dark. Two palms cover my eyelids. "Guess who?" the person sing-songs.

"If it's Eros again, I swear, I will bite off your hands," I snap.

"Um, that's a scary thought. Please don't do that to me."

I chuckle as I push off his hands. Breeze teleports in front of me and pretends to shiver. "Man, you're scary." I push his forehead. "Only to you, dork."

The breeze slightly ruffles Breeze's blondish-gold hair. Platinum blonde highlights around the top of his head almost remind me of white clouds in front of the sun. It's longer than most, reaching down his neck. In a year or two, it'd probably reach his shoulders. The colors of his hair would look nice with pink. When I think about it, Breeze's face is sorta feminine. And he is pretty lanky for a guy.

I find myself staring at Breeze and contemplating how he'd look in my clothes.

Breeze notices me staring and frowns. "Uh, is there something in my hair? Did Dean put baby snakes in it again?"

"I was thinking how pretty you'd look as a girl," I blurt. Breeze goes aghast, and his cheeks go a powder shade of pink. "You even look nice in blush," I blurt again. I swear, I can't control my mouth. But Breeze looks pretty funny.

He shakes his head rapidly, jaw to the floor, cheeks red. "You're going to kill my street cred!" he stammers and whines. He smacks the top of my head, though not hard enough to do any real damage. "You hit like a girl," I mumble.

"You're so mean, Ari!" Breeze pulls at my hair, his cheeks puffed out indignantly. He even looks like a little girl. "You've been reading too much manga!"

I slap his mouth instinctively. Breeze grabs a piece of my hair and pulls at it in the same painful manner.

"Don't tell anybody what you just said!" we both growl at each other.

A shout knocks us both to our senses. "Hey!" Breeze and I release each other and turn our heads. Eros waves us over to the curb, where my gleaming purple moped is parked. Pandora waves a purple penny board and a piece of cord victoriously above her head. "It's my turn today."

I glare at Eros. "This was chained up at the bike racks."

Eros wiggles his fingers at me. A devious smile spreads across his face, similar to the Grinch's. "I've got persuasive fingers."

"Where's Little Lu?" I ask Pandora. "Can't come," she replies. "Her mom wants her to help at the salon." Breeze's eyebrows knit together. "Oh, Lu isn't coming?" His voice shows obvious dejection. "You don't have to be that sad," Eros mutters. Breeze's cheeks flush orange. He quickly paints on a smile. "Oh, no big deal, we'll see her tomorrow," Breeze says, just a bit too casually. Fortunately, Pandora and Eros are too busy bickering about who gets the penny board.

I snap my fingers. All their heads whip towards me so fast I could hear the air move. "Pandora gets the penny board, Breeze gets the back seat, Eros rides his bike. Now get on or I'm riding to Caffeine Cafe on my own."

Breeze quickly jumps onto the back seat of the moped, Pandora grabs the penny board from Eros with a squeak, and Eros huffs his bangs up and he runs off to the bike rack.

Breeze grabs my shoulders as I jump onto the leather seat, because I will not let any guy wrap his arms around my waist even if it kills me.

"They should've just drafted you into military school," Breeze says. "As a teacher."

"I can push you off this bike, soldier," I say firmly. Breeze straightens up and gives a salute. "Yes, Arcadia Sergeant, Sir," he shouts. Then he goes limp, and his forehead thuds onto the back of my neck.

"Ow! Dude, you want to break my neck?"

"I'm tired from P.E. and Jelly Chess," Breeze mumbles. He takes one hand off my shoulder and wraps his arm loosely around my midsection. My entire body stiffens. I whip my head around to give him a what-for.

But, then I catch a glance of Breeze's face. His pale face is shaded by the shadow of my back, and his blue eyes flutter closed. Breeze's even breathing brushes my neck. His blonde bangs tickle my skin.

"You're really a special little guy," I murmur as I turn back to the front.

I decide three things in that moment.

1. I'll let Breeze off the hook this time.

2. There are some things you can't change.

3. I'm fine. If I get to take care of all the special people in the world, even these idiots, then I don’t mind not being one of them.

<•><•><•><•><•><•><•><•><•><•>

Eros runs back, dragging a raisin-purple bike with him. He glances at Breeze sleeping on my back, and yet for some reason, he doesn't say anything. Eros jumps onto his bike and gives a two-fingered salute. "Ready when you are, Arcade."

I press my finger into the ignition, and the engine roars to life. The bike starts vibrating and humming softly. Breeze snorts a loud snore. I hold back a fit of giggles.

"Ready, Panda?" I shout back to her. Pandora quickly ties one end of the rainbow cord to a hook on the back of my bike, and the other to a hook on the board. She jumps on, knees bent in a ready position, and shouts a hearty, "Woohoo!"

I pull back on the handles and rev the engine a few times. "I'll take that as a yes!" The engine roars as we pull out of the curb. Pandora shrieks and squees with delight as the moped pulls the penny board along. Eros gives a few whoops as he bikes alongside her. They fist bump.

I wave at a few cars as we drive down the side streets, passing the salon and the bakery and the laundromat. I wonder if Lu saw us.

"Are we there yet?" Breeze grumbles. His head shifts, tickling the back of my neck with his spiky locks. "Go back to sleep, Breeze," I reply back to him, hoping my voice is heard over the wind. I contemplate wether or not I should punch him when we get off this bike.

"Your neck is a nice pillow," Breeze murmurs again. He yawns into the breeze. "Lots of hair."

"I said sleep, Breeze," I say. I feel like his mom, for god's sake. "I will not have you getting us kicked out for drooling on the table."

Breeze doesn't respond for the rest of the ride, so I take that as a good sign. A few Pegasi follow us up in the sky. I hope those puny brains can hear me mentally screaming at them, "Don't you dare poop glitter glue on me." The road changes to yellow brick, and the ride suddenly gets a lot bumpier. Breeze mutters something unintelligible, then wraps his other arm around my waist.

Then I decide I will definitely punch this guy when we get off this bike, regardless of how special he is.

"Holding on okay?" I shout back to Pandora. I adjust my rear view mirror. Pandora is crouched down onto the board, holding onto it for dear life, teeth rattling. She holds up a shaky thumbs-up. Eros doesn't give any indication, though his face says a lot. Mostly 'tired' and 'I hate this road.' By the time we pull in front of Caffeine Cafe, my mouth feels like one of those wind-up rattling teeth toys. I rub my sore jaw as I turn off the engine, and attempt to demount my moped.

Except I forgot about my personal little seatbelt.

I flick him in the head as hard as I can. "Wake up, Sleeping Ugly." Breeze smacks his lips, fluttering his long eyelashes as he finally wakes up from his nap. "Thanks for letting me sleep," he murmurs.

"No problem. Now, can you please let go before I rip off your hands?"

Breeze scowls. "Let go of wha—" He stops short when he looks down at the position his arms are in. His cheeks turn the shade of a Fanta drink. "Oh, shoot!" He releases me, putting his hands up in a defensive position, only to scramble clumsily off the back of the moped. He 'oof's as he hits the yellow brick.

"S-S-Sorry!" Breeze stammers. His golden hair sticks out every which way like bed head. I stifle a giggle. I jump off the moped, alarming it with a snap of my fingers. I lean down to Breeze, smiling coyly, and whisper, "What would Lu do if she found out you had your arms around me, you playboy?"

His cheeks upgrade to pomegranate shade. "Please don't," he squeaks.

"I won't," I say simply, shrugging. "As long as you treat me."

Breeze nods quickly. "Done, not even a problem," he says. "Good," I reply, giving a curt nod just to annoy him. "Now get up already." Breeze scrambles up. He brushes yellow dust off his khakis, his Koopa lanyard jingling like a bell.

Breeze winces at me. "You're not going to buy that much, right?" I roll my eyes. I brush yellow brick dust out of his hair. "No—I’m an opportunist, not an extortionist,” I huff indignantly. He grins. "Who's the best Arcade there ever was?"

"I am, I am," I wave him off nonchalantly, trying to act as bored as possible. But I secretly grin. On the inside. Just a bit.

We enter Caffeine Cafe. The silver bell on the dark oak door jingles, and fairy dust rains down. I giggle a bit as multi-colored sparkles rain down. It doesn't do anything. But it is awesome. The smell of mocha coffee and cinnamon bread fills my senses, and I sigh happily. Only Caffeine Cafe can make a Monday feel decent. Caffeine Cafe is like a combination of your local bakery, and that really cool Starbucks ten miles from your house. It's warm and fancy, with comfort chairs, booths, and a sweet counter and glass display case. But it's not super intimidating and filled with teenagers and stressed out grown-ups on a caffeine high. However, they do make a mean cake-pop.

"We've been waiting for you dorks." Eros rolls his eyes at us from the glass display case. His eyes travel over all the sweets, considering what to get. He only eats the stuff with raisins. I don't know how he can stand them. Raisins are the devil brother of grapes. Pandora rolls the penny board under the table of our usual booth with her foot lazily, whistling 'It's A Small World: Dubstep Remix.' Already ordered. She always knows exactly what she wants before we even come.

"Alright, Ari." Breeze gestures to the menu. "Do your worst." His eyes dart to me quickly, wide and nervous. "Figuratively. Don't take that literally. Please."

"Your lack of faith disturbs me." I place my palm over my hand and make Darth Vader-y breathing sounds. Breeze wrinkles his nose. He's not the biggest fan of Star Wars, so I like to tease him about it every now and then. I’m not the biggest fan myself—but I know enough to tease Breeze about it.

I look through the menu carefully, rocking back and forth on the heels and soles of my feet. Breeze spins his Caffeine Cafe card in between his fingers, shaped like a little coffee cup. He blows up his bangs, and fairy dust rains down onto his face. Breeze shakes his head. Fairy dust tickles his nose, and he sneezes. I stifle another laugh. He's like a little cat or something.

"Ready to order, or are you going to keep staring at Breeze?" Eros eyes stare pointedly at me, burning even more intensely than usual. "Yeah, I'm ready, don't get your boxers in a twist," I retort. Eros folds his hands neatly behind him. He just shrugs at me. He really looks like a normal seventeen year old boy when he's like this. All polite looking, with Latino skin, brown eyes and curly hair, checkered flannel shirt buttoned neatly. I really don't get him. Eros is the one puzzle that's impossible to solve.

Eros walks up to the counter and rings the bell. "Grilled cheese and a Raisin Cinnamon Twist." He places a ten dollar bill on the counter. It disappears with the sound of a tinkling bell and a lot of rainbow sparkles. "Your turn, Gamer." Breeze walks side-by-side with me to the counter. Eros raises an eyebrow at me. "Forget your wallet, ignoramus?"

Breeze shrugs him off. He adjusts the sleeves of his aviator jacket onto his shoulders nonchalantly. "I'm treating her." Eros purses his lips, staring at us for a few moments before walking off.

I nudge Breeze with my elbow. "You first. You're paying, anyhow."

"Alright," he says. He blows up his platinum bangs again. I quickly brush fairy dust off his cheeks with the back of my hand. "Bacon cheeseburger, extra ketchup, extra pickles, and a side of curly fries." He nudges me with his elbow. I let a giggle and a snort slip out.

"Alright, alright. Um, a strawberry salad and a mini old-fashioned sundae with caramel topping, no cherry." Breeze slides his card onto the counter as I finish. The card shimmers and sparkles, then Breeze pulls it back as the bells tinkle.

"Should've ordered for you," he mutters as he slips it back into his wallet. "I could've ordered extra cherries to piss you off." I stick my tongue out at him. "Meanie."

Breeze was there the first, and last, time I tried a cherry. It was in Kindergarten, and we were having an ice cream party. I got all the fixings, extra whipped cream and chocolate syrup on top of vanilla fudge ice cream. I saw the bright red maraschino cherries and told Ms. Jolie to pile them on. I sat down next to Breeze on top of the slide, buzzing with excitement. I dug my spoon into the ice cream, piled on two cherries, and ate it. I ended up spitting it out into the sand. Breeze burst into laughter, cracking up so bad chocolate ice cream sprayed out his nose. He laughed and winced at the same time, his face almost purple, and I started laughing too. It was when we became best friends. Before he transferred away to an all-boys academy nearby for five years, that is. He's always telling me how much he hated that place and their 'stuffy uniforms that were made as torture devices.' The year he moved back was the same year Lu moved to our school, and the rest is history.

Breeze and I slip back into the booth, and I find myself sandwiched between TweedleDumb and TweedleDumber. "Why am I always sitting with you two again?"

"Because you're needy," Breeze and Eros reply in unison. They grin at each other, then high-five. I slap both of them.

"Ouch!"

"What the heck?"

I hold up my index finger. "Okay, first of all, I can not believe you guys just said something in unison. I think the world is ending." I hold up two fingers. "Second of all, you guys totally deserved that."

Pandora doesn't say anything, though I swear I hear her laughing under her breath. "Whaddya order, Panda?" I ask.

"A Sparkle Log and Fairy Soup Special of the day." Pandora swivels her head around and wiggles her fingers for dramatic effect. I chuckle. "Let's just hope it isn't manure again. Sometimes I doubt their automatic fairy system."

Breeze head thuds on my shoulder again. Eros's jaw drops. "Dude, no PDA in the Cafe! I don't want to hurl before I eat!"

I turn my head to Breeze. "What he said. I thought you slept on the moped, dork."

Breeze just closes his eyes and huffs impatiently. "I'm still tired. The yellow brick ruined my nap time."

I roll my eyes. "You say that, and yet you—wait a second!" I cut myself off. My cheeks flush pink. "You were awake during that?"

Breeze blinks. "Uh, well not fully conscious, but...."

I bring my fist down on his ear. "Idiot."

"Owie," he whines like a little baby. I can't help but chuckle. "Okay, you can stay on my shoulder, but I'm buying a cake-pop after this."

The things I do for this guy. He's like an annoying kid I have to babysit, 24/7. I brush his fluffy bangs out of his eyes. I turn my head back, only to find Eros doing kissy-faces at me. "You're like an old married couple." Eros fans himself and pretends to swoon. I wave my hand, spraying hair sparkles at him. Eros sputters. He rapidly brushes sparkles off his face. "Don't mess with me," I tease.

"Ooh, ooh, I think the food is coming!" Pandora suddenly starts bouncing up and down in her chair.

More bells tinkle. Our food clatters onto our table in a puff of smoke. My eyes draw to Pandora's side of the table. Imagine a Yule Log made completely of glitter, and something that looks like chicken noodle soup combined with grape soda. Eros is the first to break the silence.

"Holy fudge."

Panda picks up her spoon and happily eats a spoonful of the strange, suspiciously bubbling soup. She grins. "Blueberry pie. Awesome."

That’s the thing about the Caffeine Cafe. The fairy owned establishment houses a convenient, but somewhat inconvenient automated serving system. Not like the glitchy system at our school cafeteria—here the tweaks are intentional, somehow. You don’t quite get what you order. Everything comes with a (hopefully) fun twist.

Eros shrugs. "Alright, if hers is good, I'll take the risk." He picks up his grilled cheese sandwich and takes a huge bite. As soon as he swallows, fire shoots out of his mouth. He waves away the smoke, eyes wide. "Woah. What was that?"

"Dragon Fire peppers," I answer. "They're awesome, and spicy. Amber's been growing in the backyard over the summer. They're only grown in lava." I lick my lips at the memory of the fresh-grown peppers. They're even spicier when you pick them yourself. Or rather, when Amber picks them. Her fire hands seem to have this doubling effect on the spice. I love eating them. Something about the burn is exhilarating. "I should've ordered some," I say. Eros's face turns a bit red, but otherwise he seems to like it. "Okay, a little spicy," he says slowly. "But it's good."

"Those are probably the water-dried ones," I say, slightly disappointed. "They'd be way spicier if they were fresh." Eros just blinks. "I'm not even going to ask how 'water-drying' even works."

"Good," Breeze says. "She gave me a whole lecture on it the first time I had one at her house. It's not fun." I punch him on the arm. "Shut up!" I whine. Breeze picks up his cheeseburger, ketchup and pickles spilling out the sides. "Well, it can't be that bad." He takes a big bite. I notice one of the 'pickles' doesn't seem to look that much like a pickle.

"Um, Breeze—"

He swallows. Then Breeze's nose wrinkles. "Piccolo Pickles," he mutters. "Pickle's devil cousin."

Piccolo Pickles. Specially grown cucumbers pickled in a 'secret recipe mix.' They taste like broccoli, and all you can think about is Piccolo music until you swallow it. I've never minded it, but Breeze seems to think that Piccolo Pickles are the reincarnation of all evil.

I stab my fork into my strawberry salad. A bitter, sour taste spreads throughout my entire mouth. Then my mouth starts tingling as the little pods start exploding and fizzing like fizz rock candy. If fizz rock candy tasted absolutely horrible. I swallow reluctantly. My throat feels like I swallowed pure carbonated water. "Rad raisins," I cough. "God, I hate rad raisins."

Eros smirks at me. Well, two out of four ain't bad." He takes another triumphant bite of his grilled cheese. His face suddenly turns maraschino cherry red. Sweat beads down his face. He swallows with a pained expression. As soon as he opens his mouth, a burst of blue flame spits out. Fortunately, nothing catches fire. Well, except for Eros's dignity. Eros coughs and sputters out smoke like a dying car engine.

"Huh," I shrug. "Must've slipped in a few fresh ones." Eros curses at me through smoke. It takes about five minutes and ten glasses of milk before he's able to speak again. And I savored those five minutes for every moment they lasted.

I pick out a few strawberries from my salad before pushing the bowl away. Eros takes the opportunity to pick out all the rad raisins and eat them himself, probably some sort of therapy due to his pepper trauma. Eros eats so many of them at such a rapid pace I'm surprised his mouth doesn't start carbonating.

I cup my hands around my mouth. "I'm gonna skip to dessert," I say loudly. An old fashioned sundae glass clatters onto the wood table, spoon at the ready. Three scoops, chocolate syrup, and a mountain of whipped cream and almonds. And fortunately, there is not a single trace of cherry.

"Ooh, ooh," Breeze says excitedly. Yup, he's definitely a little kid. "Strawberry's the top scoop. That means I get to have the whipped cream." I elbow him in the ribcage. He snorts. "Naw, that's not fair. That whipped cream looks super awesome," I whine.

"You don't like strawberry," he counters.

I give him the most ridiculous glare I can for about a whole minute until I pick up the spoon. "I'm eating it," I reply defiantly. I take the biggest scoop of strawberry ice cream I can, coated in drizzles of warm chocolate syrup and cold whipped cream, and open my mouth. I can feel Breeze glaring at the side of my head.

"Eat it, eat it, eat it!" Pandora chants.

The sugary sweet, artificially fruity scent of the ice cream finally reaches my nose. I mentally gag. "Nope. Can't do it."

Breeze claps, laughing. "That's my cue!" He grabs the hand holding the spoon and guides it to his own mouth. "If I hadn't already accepted the fact that you're a baby, I would burn this spoon in the nearest volcano." I wave my spoon at him in a mock scold. "But at least you scraped out most of the devil of all fruit ice cream. Fruit belongs only in proper Spumoni."

I dig my spoon into the lower scoop of chocolate. The yummy coco ice sorbet hits my tongue. "Awesome," I mumble through numb teeth. I don't care how many sensitive nerves are in my teeth, are how lactose intolerant I am; Ice cream is my sole savior and comfort in this cruel world.

Eros takes another tentative bite from his grilled cheese. "You basically just kissed Breeze. Gross much?"

"Shut up." I knock him on the side of my head with the handle of my spoon. "If I had a penny for every time I've done something gross for Breeze, I'd have enough for my own ice cream sundae machine."

Eros casts me many other withering looks throughout the entirety of the meal—almost every time I take a bite from the ice cream. I return the looks with a sarcastic raised eyebrow. My eyebrow is almost permanently stuck in place by the time I finish my sundae. I push my empty glass away. I wave my spoon at each one of the occupants of the table.

"Favorite flavor of ice cream, go. Cookie sandwiches and anything on a Popsicle stick does not count."

"Rainbow sherbet Razzleberry Twist," Pandora jumps in quickly.

"Banana split Dip and Dots," Breeze says. I take a deep inhale as my brain fights to come up with a snarky response—then sigh heavily when I come up empty. "Alright, I never said nitrogen frozen ice cream, so I'll accept it this one time.”

"Neapolitan, caprese style," Eros says casually.

I nod. "Nice. Mine's turtle sundae. Next time, let's get them."

Breeze grins. He pokes my arm teasingly. "Your treat? Eh, eh?"

"Sure. If I wrap my arms around you and completely invade your space."

A pair of arms covered in flannel wrap around my waist. Eros gives me an elfish smirk. "Treat you next time."

A pair of arms wrap around my leg. I look down under the table to find Pandora gleefully holding onto my right leg. "What game are we playing?" she squeals. "Am I winning?"

Breeze hugs my shoulders. "I think I'm winning the 'Annoy Arcadia' game."

Yup. My friends are pretty special.

"Love ya guys."

"Love you, too!" They all reply.

•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•

Eros said he needs to get home before his brother kills him, so he bikes away right after we leave the cafe, shaking and rumbling down the yellow brick road.

Pandora gazes off at Eros's back as he bikes away with a whimsical expression in her eyes. "We're off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Oz," she mumbles. I give her a quick high five. I hear that song a bit too much at my house, though. My Dad's always whistling it at the times he knows it'll annoy me most. Just because I called him Oz once after we watched the movie (because similar to him, my dad is a mysterious and reclusive freak who’s powers are never fully explained—then again that trait seems to run in the family) and he'll never let me forget it.

Still. If I have the opportunity to compare Eros to a girl, I will do it.

I wheel Pandora back to her house with little difficulty, Breeze contently asleep on my back as usual. Wether it's because he's seriously sleep deprived, or he's just trying to annoy me (or both) I don't know. Pandora unties the penny board from my moped just as we arrive at her house. Every room and section of the house is painted a different color of the neon rainbow, so, though I've never met her family except in pictures, I can safely assume that Pandora's....eccentricity runs in her family.

Pandora is seemingly about to skip down her driveway. I rev my engines, preparing to drive away. But she suddenly turns back and walks beside the moped, giving me a smile that seriously disturbs me.

"You know, you might make some people jealous," she says with a giggle. Pandora's multi-colored eyes point obviously at Breeze. I wrinkle my nose. "Um....what?"

"Nothing, nothing," she says nonchalantly. I can still see her grinning, I don't know who she thinks she's fooling. "For someone as smart as you, you aren't very observant."

"Um, ouch."

Pandora twiddles her fingers at me as if nothing ever happened. "Bye!" I stare at her suspiciously as she skips up her driveway without a care in the world. I'm not sure I get what she means.

I find myself taking a deep sigh, resting my forehead on the humming front of my moped. Maybe I really am a ditz and nobody's said anything. I'm not good at reading people, or social situations in general.

I know that other people won't see me as special. I just want to prove it to myself.

Breeze starts to stir. "Ari? Are you alright?" he mumbles. "Want me to drive?"

"No, no," I assure him. "I'm fine. Just a little tired."

Pandora makes people happy.

Breeze has someone he loves.

Eros can go through life without a care in the world.

People like Luella and Melody have powers that make amazing, dazzling things as a result. Even my own family all have something they all aspire to do.

What about me?

•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•

Me and Breeze race up the steps to his apartment. Every step clangs and echoes around the complex. The sound of wind chimes, ducks quacking, and a river gently flowing along always makes me feel so calm. No wonder the people in his complex are all so transcendental and philosophical. If I lived with all those sounds every day, I'd probably start meditating on the meaning of all existence, too. We pass by Ms. Griffon's door. She's the one that collects wind chimes. She once told me that her wind chimes collect all bad feelings. I thought she was crazy at first, but I noticed that every time I passed by her door, I always felt a bit better. Maybe she‘s right. I run my fingers over a particular wind chime, the long tubes so sparkly and diamond-like I can't help but stare.

"She got a new one?" I ask softly.

"Yeah," Breeze says. He blows up his bangs and stares at the wind chimes as if he's used to them. He probably is. Maybe that's why he's usually level-headed. I know he's a nervous guy. He's only like that at home and around Luella. That's how I was sure he liked her; everyone has a secret side. And you only show your secret side to someone you really, really trust. He barely even shows it around me. It's funny to see his secret side.

"She says it makes you clear. Like, people can see through you really easily while you’re looking at them," Breeze says. He stares at me with narrowed eyes, sizing me up. Then his cheeks turn Fanta. "You were thinking about how I'm crushing on Luella."

A grin spreads across my face. "It works. That's awesome! Let me try you." I stare at him with a calculating look. "You were thinking about Luella."

"H-How'd you k-know?" Breeze stammers. "I didn't even l-look at the wind chimes!"

"I know. You're just really easy to see through. Plus as soon as someone says Luella's name, you start thinking about her."

"Shut up."

He doesn’t deny it, though.

Breeze pulls a shiny gold key out of his pocket and unlocks the door to 245. He slams the door with his foot as I enter. I slip off my shoes and hang my backpack on the jacket hook. His apartment is pretty big, and arranged pretty strangely (his mom's into feng shuey or whatever) but otherwise it's fairly normal. I like it here. No melty door knobs or future predicting or freaky garden growing. Just nice and simple. Plus he has a nice view of the river where all the cute little ducks and fairies hang out. I still remember the first time I visited his apartment; we played around the fairy rings and threw leftovers from our lunch into the river to watch the giant turtles eat them up. God, I miss those days. Back when I hadn’t grown up and realized there was so much stuff to worry about.

Breeze hangs his jacket on the same hook as always, the one all the way at the top. Because as Ms. Legend says, "The youngest is the most prominent, especially as an only child, so he must reach for the sky figuratively and lift his spirits by hanging it on the top hook." Breeze's mom can be a little out there, but she always has a kind sparkle in her dazzling sky blue eyes, so it’s hard not to like her in spite her quirks. Sort of like her son.

"Come on, let's go to my room. I don't want to hear Jax's music," Breeze mutters bitterly. Jax goes to the same school as us, though we don't have any of the same classes. He used to be Breeze's classmate back at the boys' academy, and apparently Breeze hates him for whatever reason. Breeze even refuses to show me any pictures of him so I can't identify him. Jax now lives in the apartment directly below Breeze, and spends most of his time playing his deafening electric guitar. Breeze got his room soundproofed for Christmas.

"Why?" I whine. "I just wanna hear a little bit of Jax's music. It's cool."

Breeze glares at the ground fiercely, as if trying to convey his feelings of hate through the floor and to Jax. "No. Let's go to my room."

"You're not the boss of me."

"I'm seventeen, you're sixteen. That makes me the boss." Breeze counters.

"I'll be seventeen soon," I say defensively. "Whatever," Breeze says with a roll of his eyes. "Let's just go. I don't like that guy, or his music."

I reluctantly follow Breeze to his room. Breeze immediately closes the door, then throws himself on his bed. "School sucks, and Jax sucks," he mumbles into his pillow. "Why is the world so mean?"

"Shut up, you big baby."

"And even Arcadia is mean!" Breeze whines. He does a pretend sob into his pillow. I lay down on his soft white carpet and stare up at his ceiling. His mural is so realistic. It looks exactly like the sky. I swear I see the clouds move sometimes.

My thoughts are broken as Breeze does more pretend sobs. "Ugh, fine!" I throw my hands up in surrender. "Come on, let's do something fun. Change into pajamas, feast on junk food, watch movies, play games, whatever!"

I stomp over to Breeze's bedside and pull the pillow from underneath him. "You're not allowed to be sad," I command. "Get up." I whack the back of his head with his pillow. Breeze chuckles. "Okay, okay, fine. Just please don't punish me, Pillow Princess."

"I will have mercy on you, lowly Pillow slave. Now fetch us some junk food."

More chuckles. "Yes, ma'am." I would tell him to teleport it, but apparently he's not allowed to at home, for some reason. Though I have a feeling an incident occurred to make that rule exist. Breeze slowly gets up, running his fingers through his newly-formed bed head.

I skip over to Breeze's drawers and pull out the top drawer. "My pajamas still in here?"

"Yeah, yeah, never took them out."

I dig underneath Breeze's t-shirts until I find my pajamas. I can't decide wether I should gag or laugh when I see them—maybe I can manage a combination of the two. "I forgot I liked Space Unicorn last year."

Breeze grins. "Yeah. I still have the song on my phone." Breeze begins to sing the song at the top of his lungs. "Space Unicorn, soaring through the stars, delivering the rainbows all around the world!"

"Oh, shut up." I throw his superman pajamas at his face to shush him. Fortunately, it works. I rummage through a few of his other drawers.

"Um, what are you doing?"

"Looking for your secret Luella shrine."

Breeze teleports over to me and grabs my wrists to stop me. "Hey, hey, hey, I do not have a Luella shrine. I'm not a Yandere," he protests.

I give him a mockingly suspicious look. "How can I be sure, though?"

Breeze mutters something rude under his breath then stomps out the corridor. I take the opportunity to quickly change into my pajamas, no matter how embarrassing they are. Though I was sure I've grown a good four inches, my pajama pants still manage to touch the ground.

"Geez, I'm a shrimp," I mutter. After a moment's thought, I put my hair up. It gets pretty hot in here because, well, California. At least my pajamas include a tank top, so I won't die of heat stroke.

Only a few seconds later, the door flies open, and the shrill sound of a electric guitar riff pierces through the doorway. Breeze sprints through the doorway, holding huge bags of chips, popcorn, and soda, then slams the door behind him, covering it with his body. He pants with exhaustion, a panicked look on his face. "He started," Breeze says quickly. "While I was getting soda. Bad. Very bad."

I swipe a bag of Dragon Pepper chips from his arms. "Thank you, caveman speaking weirdo. The crisis is over, so let's drink soda and watch Parent Trap or something."

Breeze nods silently like a mute. He crawls over to his TV cabinet and peers down into his collection of movies. "Parent Trap, War Games, a few anime flicks," he lists off the movies.

"War Games, then Parent Trap," I reply under my breath, gritting my teeth as I attempt to open a two liter bottle of Cola. Breeze puts the movies into his fancy ten-DVD deck player, because his Dad is a famous pilot for pete's sake, then calmly walks over to me and opens the bottle with a soft hiss as the carbonation escapes. I stare silently at the open bottle.

"I loosened it," I protest defensively at his sarcastic 'you're such a girl' look.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever helps you sleep at night."

We jump onto his bed just as the TV rises from his cabinet. He hands me an open bag of popcorn. I reach inside the steaming hot vessel and take a fistful of popcorn, stuffing it into my mouth and licking the excess butter off my hand. Breeze talks while I eat, the usual scenario of conversation we have.

"I should get a mini-fridge next time my Dad comes. Get all my movies digital on the TV. Or maybe one of those cool new Coke Freestyle machines? Or a popcorn popper. Maybe a snow cone maker?" His dad brings him something absurdly expensive and way too luxurious for a kid to have every time he visits home from one of his long expeditions. Our weirdo parental situations is one of the things that ties us together. We don’t talk much about how much we miss them. Too depressing. Better to focus on the bright side.

"Ice cream sundae machine," I suggest with a mumble, through a mouth full of Dragon Pepper chips and popcorn.

Breeze nods. "Good thinking. Oh, almost forgot—" He reaches into the mass pile of snacks and pulls out four packs of banana split Dip and Dots.

"Awesome," I mumble again. Although, now that I think about it, it sounds a bit more like, "Rawshcom."

Breeze splits open all the packs at once and dumps it into the popcorn. Breeze shakes his head and sighs. "Popcorn and banana split. A combo for the ages."

"Preach."

All the previews start going as me and Breeze eat handfuls of slightly soggy ice cream popcorn. Now's a good a time as ever.

"Okay, spill: Why are you constantly avoiding Jax?" I interrogate him. After swallowing my popcorn, of course.

"I don't wanna talk about it," Breeze mutters.

"Tell me."

"No."

"Teeell meeee."

"Noooo."

"Teeeeeeell meeeeeeeeee."

"You are so annoying."

I grin proudly. "Does that mean you'll tell me?"

Breeze mutters something I'm pretty sure isn't very nice. "Fine. But you're not gonna like it."

"I....don't know what that's supposed to mean. But fire away!" I cross my legs and hug the popcorn to myself, preparing for the story. Breeze rolls his eyes at the memory.

"Jax used to be cool. He has piercings and crazy orang-ish brunette hair—we were actually pretty close. Until...he asked to see a picture of my friends."

"Ouch. You ashamed of me?"

Breeze pushes my leg. I giggle, covering my mouth to avoid spewing out chunks of popcorn and melted ice cream. "No, now be quiet. I showed him a picture of all you guys. And now...." Breeze buries his face in his hands and groans. "He has a total crush on you."

My jaw drops. "Oh. My. Split. You've gotta be kidding me!" I gasp.

"I know, I know," he groans. "It's super gross. He kept asking to see pictures of you and what type of stuff you liked. It was just...weird! It's like finding out someone liked my sister or something..."

I wrinkle my nose. I remember when I found out one of Amber's friends liked her. It was possibly the grossest, most awkward feeling ever. I can't imagine how it felt to live with that dude. "Oh, God, that's weird." I shudder. "That's super weird."

"When I found out he was moving here, to the apartment under me, I almost died. Or cried. Or both."

I give Breeze a sugary sweet smile. "So, you think of me as your sister?"

"Yeah. I'm constantly having to keep you from hurting yourself because you're younger and stupider than me."

I punch his shoulder, harder than I meant to. He groans. "Definitely not weaker than me though," he mutters.

"Stupid! I'm the one who's constantly taking care of you!"

Breeze purses his lips. "So we're like...twins?" I blink. "Um, I guess we are?"

Breeze's eyes suddenly light up. "I just got the greatest idea ever." He grabs my hand and starts to pull me out the door. Fortunately, the electric guitar has already stopped. "Hey, the movie was about to start!" I whine. "We can rewind it," Breeze replies firmly. "Remember on the last day of school, we all have presents, but I forgot one for you and you said you'd never forgive me—"

"And curse you for all your days, yeah, yeah, I remember."

"Well, how about I give you a present right now?"

Breeze leads a confused me into the bathroom. He releases my wrist and starts to rummage under the sink. He pulls a roll of paper towels, some rubber gloves, and a box of tinfoil, and puts it on top of the counter sink. "Why are those under there?" I ask slowly, still very, very confused. "And why do we need it?"

Suddenly, Breeze pulls out a small blue crate filled with multicolored bottles. He gives me a teethy grin, and suddenly he looks the way he did back in kindergarten right before he teleported a huge water balloon over the playground.

"Let's do something cool."

I point at the crate. "Um...still not clear on the point?"

Breeze lifts the crate onto the counter, with trembling arms. The bottle tremble as they thud onto the counter. "My mom's been working at the hair salon, so lately she's been practicing on herself." Breeze smirks at me. "I don't think she'd notice if a bit was missing when she gets home later tonight."

My jaw drops to the floor. "Oh my god, seriously?"

Breeze gives me his trademark 'yeah, I'm awesome' shrug. "Your mom said she was okay with it over the summer, didn't she?"

I'm practically jumping up and down with excitement. "Yeah, but I didn't have enough to buy the colors I wanted!" I ended up spending all my babysitting money on birthday presents and school supplies. I squeal with glee. Oh geez, I'm turning into Pandora. Does she feel this excited all the time? No wonder she’s so hyperactive.

Breeze pulls out a few colors and shakes the bottle. "I've watched my mom do it a million times. We got all the stuff we need, and there's instructions on the box. Easy peasy. Call it my gift to you."

I tackle Breeze into a tight hug. "Oh my gaucho, you're awesome, awesome, awesome!" I shriek. "I could kiss you right now!"

Breeze gives me a quick peck on the cheek and lowers me back to the ground. "There, you kissed me, now let's have an awesome sleep over."

He grabs two plastic chairs from the closet and sets me down on one of them, then wraps one of those hair salon plastic bibs around my neck. I somehow resist the urge to bounce up and down in my seat. Breeze appears in front of me, his hair slicked up like some type of fashion model. I snort.

"Alright, darling," he says in a bad French accent. "What colour do you want for your hair?" He rolls all his r's and tilts his lip up like Elvis. Then he snaps his plastic gloves onto his wrists. My cheeks puff up red from all the laughter I'm holding inside me. I’m surprised I don’t pop like a balloon.

"Um, let's go purple, blonde, blue, and pink streaks."

Breeze hands me a smelling salt crystal. "Here. You won't be able to smell all the dye fumes." I take a few whiffs then hand it back to him. Instantly all sense of smell disappears. "Wow, weird sensation of not being able to smell."

"You get used to it," Breeze shrugs. "I keep one in my room in case the smell drifts over."

Breeze works his 'magic', and proceeds to brush in oddly colored goop onto various parts of my hair. "Man," he says, back to his usual voice. "You're going to look like Adelle after this."

"Whatever, whatever. Just do it."

He wraps the goopy hair in tinfoil and almost all the rest of my hair in weird twisted paper towel bits. "Alright, box says we gotta keep it like that for about thirty minutes."

I carefully take the plastic from around my neck. I stare at myself in the mirror. "I look like an alien with weird fashion sense."

"Yes, indeed you do," Breeze agrees. I pinch his cheek. "Don't be so cheeky, bro."

"Right back at you, sis."

I grab Breeze's shoulders and guide him over to the plastic chair. "Um, what's happening?"

"It's your turn. We're supposed to be twins, duh." Breeze shrugs, as if already accepting the situation, and closes his eyes as I wrap the plastic thingy around his neck, and snap on the plastic gloves. I read the box and try to mimic the same motions he does, though the box never says anything about the paper towels.

"Why'd you put Bounty in my hair, weirdo?" I ask as I slick grayish goop onto his hair. "You'll see," he replies coolly. I raise an eyebrow at that. Breeze is never cool about anything. What's he hiding?

I wrap the tinfoil around his hair as neatly as possible, then carefully take the plastic off him. "There you go. Only took sixteen minutes, too."

Breeze brushes his clothes off self consciously. I marvel at how strange he looks with tinfoil in his hair while wearing his superman pajamas. "What colors did you even put in there?" he asks as he starts to put the stuff away.

"You'll see, you'll see. By the way, I'm totally telling Lu tomorrow."

Breeze whips his head around, eyes wide in panic, which, by the way, looks hilarious with tinfoil in his hair. "Don't do it! She'll think I'm a priss!"

I give him the most sarcastic look I can muster. "Dude. The Sparks' own a hair salon. She's obsessed with hair. When she finds out you're good at doing hair, she'll totally like you."

Breeze's cheeks turn the same shade of pink as the hair dye. "You t-think so?"

"Um, duh, I know so. By the way, would it matter if I left the hair dye in a little longer?"

Breeze shrugs. "I guess not, it's just make the colors a little brighter. Why?"

"I wanna take the foil off at the same time as you. We're twins after all." Breeze grins. "Fair enough."

Breeze pulls out a bottle of what looks like hairspray just as the timer goes off. The 'Space Unicorn' theme starts blasting from his phone. "Ha ha, very funny."

"I know it is."

I push him over to the mirror, clapping my hands excitedly. "You first, you first. Close your eyes." Breeze sighs, but closes his eyes. I hold back masses of squeals as I pull the tinfoil off, while also silently being proud of myself.

"Alright, now you can look!"

Breeze opens his eyes. They widen. "Woah." He runs his fingers through the sky blue streaks, and the pink edges of his hair. "That looks cool. Like sunlight in the sky or something," he says breathily. "Even the pink looks cool."

"I know, I know! Lu's going to love it." I squeal. My cheeks go pink from excitement. I'm totally being Pandora right now. But I don't care. This is awesome!

"Alright, your turn. Close your eyes," he says, sing-songingly. I close my eyes, using every milligram of my willpower to not open them.

"Alright, open them," Breeze says softly. My eyes fly open. My jaw drops to the floor for the umpteenth time today. "Oh. My. Unicorn."

Breeze grins at me in the mirror. "Do you love it, or do you absolutely love it?"

I run my fingers through the wavy curls, and the multicolored streaks among my dark brown hair. "I look like an anime character." A grin spreads across my face. "It's amazing! I don't think I've ever looked this awesome. Delphi's going to be so jealous!"

Breeze hugs my shoulders as we look at ourselves in the mirror. "Aren't we a pair?"

"Totally." I pick up his phone from the counter and hand it to him. "Let's take a picture! Come on, come on, come on!"

Breeze laughs. "Alright, hold your horses." He raises the phone and points it at the mirror. "Say banana split!"

"Banana split!" I squeal with a grin, holding up a peace sign. Breeze taps his chin thoughtfully. "I wonder what filter I should use...?"

"Shut up and take the picture."

He finally takes the picture and, after I beg him, sends it to my phone. "Let's go back to your room and watch the movie. I wanna set it as my wallpaper."

Breeze's arms suddenly wrap around my waist from behind. He rests his chin on my shoulder. "Arcadia?" he mumbles.

"Yeah, Breeze?"

"Don't be too awesome and cute so that other guys start taking you away. You're always going to be the sister I never had," he says softly.

I smile. Even if I'm not special, sometimes it doesn't really matter. "I won't. You'll always be the brother I never had."

Sometimes the best things in life make you feel special.

•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•

"Do I really have to give you a piggy back ride to school?" Breeze asks, though I can't tell if it's a question or a whine. Probably both.

I nod, resting my head on his shoulder. I wrap my arms around his neck a little tighter. Breeze sighs, and I can feel him smile despite my eyes being closed. I listen to the sound of rustling trees as Breeze takes the shortcut through the park. We left early, regardless, because he lives a little farther, but he agreed to teleport my moped to school.

"You're being nice lately," I mumble. I take the opportunity to run my fingers over and marvel at his hair, and my awesome handiwork.

"Yeah, well, you're my sister. Might as well treat you like it," Breeze says. I poke his cheek with my awesome painted fingernail. Breeze says its girly to have your nails match your hair. I don't care, it's awesome. It's not like I forced him to have his painted, too.

"Thanks," I murmur. I place a kiss on my two fingers, than plant it on his cheek. Breeze chuckles. "Alright, subject change, before we get too lovely-dovey. Where'd you conjure up the new clothes, wizard? The leather jacket is cool, though."

"I had Delphi pack me extra clothes for History, just in case Eros or Pandora managed to get any jelly on me," I mumble through a yawn.

"It's funny how you specified only those two."

"You know it's true."

"Touché."

Breeze purses his lip, thinking about what to talk about for a few moments. "How's your sisters?" he finally decides.

"Amber's lazy as always, though she seems better than usual. Better meaning less evil. Well, not intentionally anyway. She melts my doorknob slash sets things on fire only, like, fifty times a month now."

"That's thirty percent less than usual," Breeze offers. I giggle.

"Delphi's cool, though she has an awful habit of tying me up and putting make-up on me and using me as her fashion model to see how the clothes will look good on her. I don't know why she doesn't just use her future vision. She says it doesn't work on herself, but I think she's just as lazy as Amber."

"Well, they are related."

"So am I, but I can do things for myself!"

"You can't walk for yourself."

"....I hate when you're right."

Breeze chuckles. "Sorry. Will this make up for it?" Breeze starts jumping and spinning and bucking up. I shriek and giggle uncontrollably, holding on as tight as I can. "Oh my god, I hate you!"

"Love you, too!" Breeze replies. I pat his head when he finally calms down, still giggling. I bury my face in his hoodie to muffle my giggles. "I can't breathe!" I laugh, gasping for breath.

Out of the corner of my eye, I suddenly notice a few people strolling around the park, smiling and pointing at us. "They make such a good couple," a woman says.

"I didn't know high schoolers dated already."

"They look so cute!"

I bury my face back in the hoodie to hide my strawberry blush. "You hear it, too?" I mumble.

"Um, yeah," Breeze says. He just laughs.

"Why're you laughing?" I accuse.

"You sound cute when you're angry like this," Breeze coos. "Be quiet! You wanna feed the fire?" I whisper shout at him.

"Eh, I don't really care." Breeze shrugs. "If I have a fake girlfriend, it might as well be you."

I sigh, and decide saying nothing would be better. But I can't help the smile that spreads across my face. I never considered myself a love interest for anyone. Even if it's Breeze being nice, it's cool to be flattered.

"Why can't you be this flirty with Lu?" I pout at him and poke his cheek a few times. Breeze juts his chin out in a silly way, brushing my hand away. "I can't help but be nervous. Don't you ever get nervous around your crush?"

"No," I reply blatantly.

Breeze rolls his eyes at me. "Right, right." The breeze blows up his pink edges bangs, making him look even sassier.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, nothing." Breeze shrugs the question off, though he shoots a glance at me that seems to say 'I can see right through you.'

How is it that everyone except me knows all my weird little secrets? First Pandora, now Breeze.

I'm hopeless.

Breeze suddenly starts grabbing at the bottom of my jeans with his thumb and index finger. "Um, hi there, why are you messing with my pants?"

"Trying to roll it down," he mutters. "It's cold, why are they rolled up?"

"That's the style. They're sewed that way permanently." I sputter my lips in a sigh and blow up my bangs.

"I thought you said Delphi was good at fashion."

"She's good at fashion. Not weather wear."

Breeze clicks his tongue. "Have fun with cold legs all day."

"I will."

We arrive at the school gate before I realize it. Breeze pauses and stares at me expectantly. "What?" I ask, baffled. "Why'd you stop?"

"Aren't you going to get off?"

"You're funny. Keep going."

Breeze shrugs and carries me through the gate. He drops me off at English, 'conveniently' where Lu is. "Hi, Lu!" I wave my hand at her excitedly, waving her over. She skips over, leaving the songbirds she was playing with behind, grinning to show off her rainbow braces. "What's up?"

Breeze releases me, and I thud onto the ground. I hold back my apparent vertigo and hold up one of my pink highlights excitedly. "Look!"

Lu's emerald green eyes widen. "Woah, that's awesome! Where'd you get it done?"

I point at Breeze with my thumb. "He did it." He gives a sheepish grin. Lu's jaw drops. "No. Way. That's even better than I can do it!"

Lu reaches her hand up and starts to run her fingers through Breeze's hair. Breeze looks like he's on Cloud Nine. "Who did yours?" she asks him excitedly. Breeze starts to point at me. "Oh, it was Ar—"

"He did it himself!" I interrupt quickly. "All him!"

Lu claps her hands excitedly. "Wow, it looks amazing! Your hair is like art or something! And Arcadia looks totally fierce. You should come over to the salon and teach me!"

Breeze's cheeks turn a light shade of fuchsia. "R-Really?"

"Totally!" she squeals.

I hold my hand out to her. "Look, nails, too!" Lu looks like she's about to explode. "That looks awesome! It even matches your hair!"

"I know, it's perfect! Breeze suggested it, then painted it all himself!" I rave shamelessly for him. It's surprisingly tiring to kiss up to someone for someone else's sake.

Being a wing-woman is hard.

"Wow Breeze, you're super cool!" Lu squeals. Breeze just nods, chuckling nervously and blushing uncontrollably. Lu skips off to her friends, pointing back at Breeze and clapping her hands excitedly. He grabs my shoulder and looks at me with grave eyes. "That wasn't a dream, right?"

"Nope. You totally scored." I grin so hard my face hurts.

The trumpet suddenly sounds, echoing across the courtyard. "Go, go, don't be late Romeo!"

Breeze gives me quick hug, then sprints off, whooping and shouting and pumping his fists. I laugh.

I should be a match-maker.

•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•

Ms. Magok tells us to pair up for a quick worksheet on character connections, which is sorta embarrassing because I finished it while she was talking. I look up from my paper, expecting to see Pandora skipping over to me and shrieking at me happily, 'Thanks for letting me copy all your answers! Itadakimasu!' Then I’d have to correct her on her horrid Japanese use.

Instead, I see Lu walking quickly over to me, a bashful smile spread across her features. I glance over her shoulder, only to see Pandora working with Melody.

Huh. Plot twist.

Lu pulls a chair and seats herself at the side of my desk.

"Wait, let me warn you." I hold up my hand to her in a stop gesture. "I finished it already."

Lu holds up her paper, completely filled. "So did I," she giggles. "Ms. Magok talks slow."

I mentally bump Lu up on my intelligence meter. She's smarter than I thought. "Alright, we can talk for the next ten minutes."

Lu nods quickly. "I know, that's why I came over here. I sorta kinda told Pandora I'd give her my Twinkie if she let me work with you." She grins at me nervously. "I hope that wasn't bad....?"

I shrug, though I nod slowly. "Yeah, I don't mind. But, um, 'why' is sorta my question?"

Lu stares down into the lap of her bedazzled jeans and plays with her fingers. "Uh, I sorta wanted to talk to you about....Breeze."

My mind does a mental fist-pump. I am the freaking best. "Yeah, totally," I say casually. "Whaddya wanna talk about?"

Lu smiles hopefully. "Um, you're close with Breeze, right?"

I nod, maybe a little too hard. "Yes. Well, not too close if you know what I mean, but yeah, he's practically my brother." Establish sisterly relationship to avoid complication, check. Establishing a close enough relationship to be a wing-woman, check. I'm so rocking this.

Lu giggles breathily. "Wow, this is harder than I thought." I hold my breath, and cross my fingers. Please say it, please say it, oh god please say it already before I die of excitement.

"He has a friend named Jax, right?"

Oh, fudge. I'm pretty sure every part of me stiffens. My heart goes on mayday mode. Is it possible to have a heart attack at sixteen?

"Yes," I answer slowly, trying to hold off the inevitable. I shut my eyes and brace myself. This is not real. It's a nightmare. It's a complete and utter waking nightmare.

Lu's cheeks flush. "Well, could you and Breeze introduce me?" she stammers. "He came to the salon once, and he's really cool, and I remember Breeze mentioning him, so...yeah?"

I nod in slow-motion. "Yeah," I mutter, completely dazed. Can I wake up now? "I'll ask him."

Lu grabs my hands in hers and gives them a tight squeeze. "Thank you so much!" She gives me a grateful grin, then skips back to her desk.

I thought being special was the best. But it won't cushion your fall. And it hurts even more to watch it happening.

•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•

Breeze practically tackles me after science class, despite my many efforts to avoid him throughout the day. We hang at the back of the rushing crowd, and he throttles me by my shoulders. "What did Lu say? Was it good? Was it bad? Does she think of me as a friend, or potential crush? Tell me, tell me, tell me!"

Breeze abruptly stops short and looks at my face with wide eyes. "Huh? What's wrong?"

I wipe at my cheek. I realize I'm crying. I sniff. "Nothing, nothing." It's like seeing a flower die after helping it blossom for two years. Thoughts jumble around in my head, and my heart feels like a wasteland. Nothing makes sense any more.

Breeze grabs my shoulders firmly and stops me. He stares down at me with burning concern. He's such an awesome guy. Why does it only have to be me that sees it?

"What happened?" He murmurs.

I shut my eyes tightly, wishing I could say it never happened. Why do I have to be so crystal clear to him? "Lu said...she likes Jax."

I feel Breeze's hand slowly lower from my shoulders. I find myself missing the warmth. A cold front blows in from the breeze.

I open my eyes, and Breeze's face is stern, yet hurt, empty of any smile. "Oh. T-That...That's.... okay."

I squeeze his hand as tightly as I can. I can't do anything to help him. I'm helpless. I hate being helpless. "I'm sorry."

Breeze sniffs, then chuckles. "You know, it's just a crush. It shouldn't mean anything. "His arms wrap around me tightly, and a tear trickles down onto my shoulder. "Why does it hurt so much then, Ari?" he whispers.

"I wish I knew," I whisper back. If my heart is aching, I can’t imagine how he feels. I wrap my arms around him and squeeze him back. Why can’t I fix the problems inside people, too?

•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•

I manage to get Breeze through the school day, but seeing his face without a smile makes my heart feel even more troubled. I try to mentally reach out to him, snap my fingers and make it all go away. But I've never been good with people.

Breeze pulls me away from History and over to the curb before I can even say goodbye to Pandora, or Lu, or Eros. I don't have have the strength to fight him.

"Come on," he mumbles.

I know he wants me to go to his house. It's the exact same thing he did after his dad left to pilot around the world. Breeze just pulled me away and said nothing. Another thing we have in common—we’re not that great at expressing when we’ve really been hurt. I just squeeze his hand tightly, trying to let him feel the warmth. 'Feel better, please,' I mentally send out to him, hoping the message can somehow pass through other fingertips. Breeze says nothing to indicate that it did.

I quickly jump onto the moped. Breeze seats himself behind me, then wraps his arms tightly around me. He leans his head against my back, and stays silent. I bite my lip and take a few deep breaths through my nose, trying to calm myself down.

"Arcadia!" I whip my head around, and see Eros shouting at me from a few yards away, stomping over to U.S. "Um, what the heck? We haven't seen you guys all day! Are you trying to make us die of worry?"

Eros sees Breeze. His eyes widen. "Did someone die? Please tell me someone didn't die."

Breeze says nothing. I give Eros a weak smile. "Today's been hard for...him." I want to say us, but I know he's getting the worse half. "I'll call you and tell you, okay?" I nod at him, hoping he gets the hint. Eros nods, a rare serious expression on his face. "Alright. Make sure he's okay."

I know Eros cares for him. But I wonder if that'll help. The sunlight slowly turns to gray, and rain drops start to pitter patter down. Somehow the world is always sad with you at when you’re at your worst. I rev the engine away, driving as fast as I can, wishing I could throw all the hurt and problems into the breeze and let them all blow far, far away from my friends.

•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•

Breeze grabs my wrist and pulls me along, walking as quickly as he can. I let him, letting myself being dragged along like a rag doll. I don't get people. I don't get myself. Why does it hurt? It's not me. And Breeze said so himself, it was just a crush. So why does it hurt both of us? I wince at the headache I've formed. Thinking about people is too confusing. Because you can never know when it comes to people. Real problems are easy. Heart problems are hard.

We pass by the wind chimes. No matter how long I stare at them, I don't feel any better. If only I was Delphi, and could see into the future to see everything working out and everyone happy again. Then maybe I wouldn’t feel so hopeless.

Breeze pulls me into his bedroom, then slams the door behind him. I slowly walk over to his bed, and sit down. Breeze seats himself on the ground beside the bed. Everything feels slow, sad, heavy. Like my brain's in molasses. I can't even think straight. Breeze likes Lu. Lu likes Jax. Jax likes me. All I want is for Breeze to smile again.

Breeze smiles sadly down at the ground. I wish I could hold his hand again. At least I feel like I'm doing something.

"I really liked her," he murmurs. "I don't know why. It never really made sense. But I did. I thought, I really thought...that maybe she could like me back." His voice is raspy from crying. I wonder if that's how mine sounds right now. "I really thought..."

I shut my eyes tightly, holding back the tears that threaten to spill out. This is my fault. I've been leading Breeze along for two years, letting him think that she likes him, and now I've let him fall. He wouldn't be hurt if it wasn't for me. Everything's my fault. Because I don't know people.

Breeze wipes at his tears. His bottom lip trembles violently. Everything feels sad. This room was always happy. Now it's all ruined.

"It's dangerous to love somebody, isn't it?" he whispers shakily. Gray light streams through his blue curtains, making everything a mottled bluish gray. I look up to the sky. It looks cloudier than usual. I wish the warm breeze would come back and make everything happy again.

Breeze's arms suddenly wrap around me. He hugs me tighter than he ever has before, and sobs into my chest. "Would you hate me if I loved you instead?" he sobs.

My heart does a backflip so intense that it seems to kick me in the stomach and knock all the air out of me.

"I know you won't hurt me if I just love you instead, even if it isn't real." Breeze's voice is desperate and filtered through sobs and a raspy throat. It's twisted. I still remember his laugh back at the park. 'If I have a fake girlfriend, it might as well be you.' He really meant it, didn't he? Breeze doesn't want to be left again. I shut my eyes, trying to block it all out. How did everything turn from happy to sad so quickly?

My heart wrenches. I find a sob bubbling up from my throat. "I'm sorry, Breeze." My voice breaks into a million pieces. The tears flow down and pitter patter like rain drops. "I won't hate you."

On a rainy day, sometimes you just have to pretend it's sunny and play anyway. And hope that you don’t suffer the consequences.

•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•

Breeze turns on some rom-com flicks and settles himself in the bed. I find myself sitting between his legs, leaning back against his chest and he holds me close. He doesn't say anything about what happened earlier, though he smiles...just barely. Seeing him smile even for a moment is alright.

I don't even watch the movie. I close my eyes, and try to make sense of all the turmoil in my heart. I'm only sixteen. How did I get in all this drama?

Breeze doesn't let it on, but he really is lonely. His Dad rarely comes back. His mom is sometimes gone for days on end. I always slept over without any question, but I always secretly knew he was lonely. Thinking about Luella made him happy. I was glad to see that, so I led him on this big quest to gain her love, like in all my favorite romance novels. The farther we got, the happier he was. But I didn't realize the story had a tragic ending. Breeze is just scared of being alone, deep down inside. Even if he really doesn't love me, I know he's just trying to pick himself back up. If I have to let him love me for a while to make that, I'll do it for as long as it takes. I do love Breeze. Just not in the way he thinks he wants right now.

I lean back against his chest, and I listen to his heartbeat. Always strong, always fast. For some reason, it soothes me to hear it.

My thoughts are broken as my phone buzzes in my pocket. Breeze loosens his hold on me slightly so I can pull it out. "Go ahead," he mumbles. I pull it out and stare at the screen through blurry eyes. Eros.

I slide the bar to the side and answer it. "Hey," I murmur softly. I feel really tired all of a sudden. Crying always makes me tired.

"Hey," Eros answers back, just as softly. I wonder if he was worried, too. "Is Breeze okay? What happened?"

I glance up at Breeze. He gives a slight smile. "He's okay," I reply. Breeze pecks me on the top of my head, and my heart wrenches again. "Everything's a little strange right now...but it's okay."

"Good, good," he sighs. "Now, if he doesn't mind, can I get an explanation?"

I stare up at Breeze with a questioning. I squirm a bit. "Is it okay?" I mouth. He nods, still giving me that strange smile of his. Breeze places a tender kiss on my cheek. I have to sigh softly to relieve the erratic twisting in my heart. I can barely breathe. Breeze is really fragile right now. But the way he looks at me make it looks like his entire universe now centers around me.

Maybe it does.

I talk softly, explaining the entire ordeal to Eros, ignoring all the aches in my heart. I leave out the part about Jax liking me, because I can't even begin to come to terms with that, let alone tell him.

"God, I can't believe it," Eros murmurs at the end. "Breeze is probably really hurting right now."

I swallow down more tears. It feels like swallowing shards of glass. "Yeah. He is," I whisper.

"But, he's okay now, right?" Eros says. I can detect edges of hope in his voice. I know he cares for Breeze. I wish I could tell him how much Breeze is really hurting right now.

I lift my voice up to its norm the best I can. "Yeah. It's a little weird and sensitive right now, but everything's alright."

I really wish I could tell him.

Eros goes silent, for what seems like ages. Finally, he talks, hushed and quickly. "Look, I might as well tell you now.“ I swear I hear him mutter, “while everybody is getting rejected.”

"Um, okay," I say tentatively.

Eros goes silent again. The receiver crackles immensely, and I realize he's probably breathing really hard.

"You looked cool today," he says rapidly. "I mean, you always look cool. I know it's probably weird, and you don't have to say anything about it, but I like you. Like like. A lot. That's all, that's cool. I'll see you tomorrow." The call ends. My phone thuds onto the mattress.

His rapid words seem to echo around in the cavern of my head, bouncing off every wall and sending painful nerve endings to my heart. It feels numb. Like I can't even process it all.

'I like you. Like like. A lot.'

Lu likes Jax. Jax thinks he likes me. Breeze thinks he likes me. Eros is supposed to like me. I care about all my friends.

So why can't I solve all these problems?

Why am I the singular thread in this spiderweb of my friends’ heartache?

I turn my head to look at Breeze. His eyes are narrowed. I forgot he was listening to the conversation. Breeze hugs me tight, one arm around my shoulders, another around my waist. His lips press to the corner of mine. His breaths brush across my skin. To my surprise, he doesn’t mention anything about Eros. Instead he just whispers:

"I love you.”

I gulp down the lump in my throat. Finally I choke out a rushed, “I love you, too," in a whisper, barely above a breath.

I know he understands. And I know it hurts him. But I wish that I understood, too.

•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•

I leave Breeze's house around seven, after hours of watching rom-com and Tom Cruise. I wish I could laugh about it, say it was all cool. But nothing's the same anymore. And it's my fault.

Breeze kisses me at the corner of my lips again. He won't kiss my lips, because I know he cares about me. At least some of the best things won't change. He gives me a smile, and he looks a little stronger. I hope he keeps getting stronger.

"I'll walk with you tomorrow. Alright?" he says. It's not as soft. But I can't help wondering if he's forcing himself.

"Alright." I nod, about to turn away. But something pulls me back.

I give him a quick squeeze. "Don't force yourself," I whisper into his ear. "No matter what, I care about you." I don't want it all to be gray. Breeze chuckles, then squeezes me back. "I'm not, I swear. As long as I got you, nothing's ever bad."

I nod again, holding back more of those aching tears that push at the back of my eyes, fighting to get out. Not now. Not when Breeze is crumbling, too. I need to be strong for him. I need to keep it together.

I need to keep everyone...together.

So why does it feel like I’m pushing everyone farther apart instead?

I burn the image of his smile into my mind one last time before the door closes.

I arrive home, and I try to look as upbeat as possible, despite everything weighing me down. My mother suddenly appears at the end of the hall. She waves me over, clicking her tongue like she's always done. "Come on, come on, we're going to have a Sofritas bar tonight!" she pumps her arms excitedly and whoops in that ever so lame yet slightly amusing Mom way of hers. Amber's been trying to go vegan since all her favorite celebrities are doing it, so it's been a lot of tofu lately for dinner. But she couldn't stand not being able to have eggs or cheese, so she's trying to be vegetarian. But now she's been having cravings for bacon all the time, so I encouraged her to go macrobiotic.

Thinking about it makes me laugh, and I'm happy that I'm finally happy. It's been such a long day. At least I was able to solve one person’s problem.

My mom wipes her hands on her apron and puts her hands on her hips. A smile is always spread across her freckly cinnamon features. I'm surprised she has the apron. I don't think that thing's come out of the closet in years. She's always too busy, so I make dinner usually. Seeing her come out of her shell cheers me up a bit. Ever since she got her hair cut, she looks like a 70's mom. I like watching Laverne and Shirley and Happy Days, so I'm into it.

"Come on, come on," she whines. "Let's eat." Yeah, she's a bit of a kid. But at least she isn't serious all the time. She points at my hair. I stiffen. I didn't show her yesterday. I can't be in trouble.

"Hey, missy," she says scoldingly. "Don't outshine my new hairstyle with yours.” She grins at me. “By the way—I'm loving it."

I sigh with relief. Oh, thank goodness 70's moms are laid back.

I drop my backpack by my shoes and slip slide across the marble floor to the kitchen. A bit small, a bit messy, but we make do.

Trays lay across the counter, filled with lettuce, corn, rice, sauce, and tons of other food, like Chipotle. "Awesome," I whisper breathily. My mouth starts to water, and my stomach grumbles. I barely got to eat.

Amber waves me over, holding out a white ceramic bowl. Delphi's made almost all the things we eat off of. She got into ceramics. I used to think it was stupid, but I gotta admit that her stuff is good. Though I think she had an unfair advantage considering she can see how it’ll turn out before she even puts it into the kiln, meanwhile all the other art students just have to take a crap shoot. "Come on, PS4, you can have the first serving."

I fill my bowl up with rice, lettuce, green and red sauce, and lots of yummy Sofritas, hold the corn and beans. I'm tempted to tell Amber my order just to annoy her, but I'm not willing to take the risk. She might take away the Sofritas.

We all sit down at the table, click on the TV, and laugh together while eating, talking about this or that, what to do when, and all that jazz. Even if we aren't a complete family, I least I have them.

I wonder if Breeze is okay right now without his mom and dad.

My heart wrenches, and the back of my eyes hurt. Don't cry, don't cry, don’t cry.

I wonder if he’s eating dinner alone—again.

"Ari, honey?" My mom's voice echoes from the kitchen. "Um, yeah," I mutter. Breeze is probably lonely right now, I keep thinking. Why did I forget about him?

"Could you turn on the stove? The lighter isn't working.” My mother turns the handle, but all she gets is a clicking sound, like an ignition that won't turn over. "Yeah, sure, sure," I murmur quickly. My heart won't stop squeezing.

I snap my fingers.

Click, click, click. "Huh. That's strange. Maybe we're already out of propane," she mumbles.

I bury my head in my hands. "God, everything's falling apart," I groan softly to myself. I can't focus anymore. Every time I think of Breeze, my heart hurts. I can't even solve problems anymore. What am I even supposed to do anymore?

“Hey, hey, it’s not that serious, kiddo. We know you can’t make matter where it doesn’t exist. Remember when Dad asked you to make a bunch of flour appear for that cake he wanted to make because he forgot to go grocery shopping? You can’t fix everyth—“

"Try asking Amber," I mutter quickly, interrupting her before she can continue reminiscing about all the times I was utterly useless. I run upstairs, and lock myself in my room before they realize it. I throw myself into my bed and bury my face in my pillow. It doesn't help my pounding headache.

All my thoughts swirl incoherently. My head pounds to the beat of my heart. I can't think straight anymore. All I had was the magic. Why is the magic gone? Breeze is sad, and the magic is gone. What's the point to it all?

I rub my temples, but it won't go away. My phone buzzes again. I wish that forsaken thing would stop bringing me problems. I reluctantly answer the call, not even bothering to check who it is.

"Hello?"

"Hey, are you alright?"

I almost cry with relief. "You don't know how glad I am that it's you, Panda."

I can feel her grin on the other end. "Well, me, too." I feel a frown. "But, I'm sensing something's wrong. Ever since this morning, you and Breeze have gone AWOL. I tried calling Eros, but he wouldn't say anything. He just kept giggling like an idiot. It seems like everyone except you and Breeze are happy. What's up?"

I just groan, releasing all my tension into that single sound. "You don't even know how my day is going. I feel like I have to lie to everyone, and it's just making it all worse." I don't bother to hold back the tears. They flow freely down my cheeks, like a rainstorm. "Can I trust with you with the most important secret of all time? Can you promise not to tell a single soul?"

"Of course!" Pandora says. My heart does a happy flip. "Vent whatever! However messed up it is! I won't tell anyone or anything, not even Coco." Coco is Pandora's cockapoo. She tells that dog everything. At least she knows how serious I am.

I start all the way from the beginning, everything from Breeze's crush on Lu, to Jax's crush on me, to the rejection, Breeze's attachment, and Eros calling me, barely stopping for breath. I spill out everything, every single bit of horribleness inside of me that I've been nitpicking and worrying about, until I manage to run out of tears. And tissues.

Pandora's end goes silent for a moment, and I worry that I've overwhelmed her.

"Woah."

I sniffle loudly, rubbing at my already sore eyes to wipe away the last of the tears.

"You're like Wonder Woman or something," Pandora whispers. "I don't know how you got through all of that. It's like you're holding up everybody else's problems."

I'm too tired and numb to even process fully what she means, but I sense it's something nice. "Thanks. At least I don't feel so useless," I murmur. As I thought, talking to Pandora always makes me feel better.

"Honestly, if you want my advice, there doesn't seem to be a one way solution here," Pandora says sheepishly. "It seems more like something you wait to blow over, then you leave it all behind and embrace all the good times...you know?"

I smile a bit. "Yeah...that makes sense. At least, you know, I won't have to lie to you. A huge weight's off my shoulders."

"Glad to help. I gotta go, but if you need to vent, call me whenever."

"Sure, sure," I mumble.

"Bye-bye Wonder Woman! Keep being strong!"

I chuckle. "Bye."

I drop my phone onto the mattress as the call ends. I wish Pandora could take all my hurt and put it in the box for the next person to find. But I know it's my problem. And sometimes you just wait for time to solve it.

So why don't I feel all that better?

•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•

The sun is out, and a cool breeze blows in from the ocean. It's still a little chill; it's not all perfect yet. But at least I feel a little stronger.

I kick all the dandelions that have grown in my porch while I wait for Breeze. Something about my mother just seems to attract all the plant life in the world to wherever she steps foot. That's why our backyard is basically a jungle of fruit trees, vegetable plots, herb forests, and who knows what else. Sometimes I'm scared to go back there. I worry the ecosystem might have bred new and foreign species unknown to this earth—and that they might have a taste for troubled teenage girls.

"What did dandelions ever to you?"

I roll my eyes, not even bothering to look up from my dandelion victim. "Exist on our porch."

Breeze takes my hand, grinning. Not as energetic, but we're getting a little warmer. "Come on, I don't want to be late." He glances around the porch, particularly at the front door. "No one's watching, right?" he whispers. His face is surprisingly serious, and I stifle giggles. "No, dummy."

"Good." Breeze plants another kiss, right at the corner. I point an accusing finger at him. "Hey, kisses have a charge. I want another piggy back ride."

"Alright, alright." I jump onto his back, and he cradles my knees safely. "Alright, onwards little pony!"

Breeze gives an unenthusiastic, "Neigh," then starts walking. After considering what I'm about to say for a little while, I'm pretty sure we're far past 'too soon.'

"Why're you kissing me so much, dork?" I lightly bonk the back of his head with my forehead to show him I mean business. He laughs. "Idunno. It just makes me feel a bit better. Why, you don't like it?"

I puff my cheeks. This is such a loaded question. "I mean, I don't hate it." It's the truth.

"You totally love it," Breeze teases.

"Oh, just be quiet and tromp forward." I give him another bonk. He tilts his head back and gives me a return bonk.

"So, quick question," Breeze says casually. At least his voice sounds happy, too. "Did you ever, like, have a crush on me?"

Why couldn't he have worn a hoodie today? I puff my cheeks again, a nervous habit of mine. More loaded questions from this guy. I can never lie about them, and the answer is always embarrassing.

"Yes. Just a little bit," I squeak. Unfortunately, that is also the truth.

"Why'd you stop liking me then?" The way he says it just screams, 'I'm going to tell everyone we know.' Unfortunately, I care for this dummy too much, and his (supposedly) fragile feelings.

I think about it for a moment. I answer softly, "I don't know. As soon as I found out you liked Lu, I guess. You were always so happy when you were with her. So I wanted to make you even happier."

Breeze turns his head slightly and gives me a kind smile. "You make me happy, too, ya know."

"If you're trying to make me blush, you shall die."

Breeze laughs so loud it echoes around the entire neighborhood. "Geez, always with the death threats, Arcade. But whatever." He does a cartoon grin. "That means I have a chance with you!" he sing-songs.

I'm getting the feeling that Breeze is almost over Lu already. He's just taking this opportunity to tease me and and find out all my secrets, isn't he?

Breeze takes a deep inhale. "Look," he says. His voice is firm, and slightly serious. I straighten up. "About me breaking down like that yesterday... you don't have to be all edgy, and I’m saying this because I can tell you are, so don’t try and deny it. It's still a bit hard to process, but I thought about it, and I realized that it's not like Lu is literally leaving," he says. "She's still always going to be here, and that's what I want. I mean, it’s a little hard to accept, but it’s not the end of the world like I felt it was yesterday. And honestly...I realized I'm not lying to myself completely if I do this with you. So, I hope I don't annoy you if I love you a little longer?" Breeze grins at me sheepishly. "Like I said, I’ve always had a soft spot for you. And I’ll admit that maybe that spot spot isn’t entirely made up of platonic sisterly feelings. So...this is like a cushion, you know?”

Tears threaten to spill out instantly. My heart does happy twists. "You mean, I'm your cushion?" I squeak, trying not to whimper. Breeze nods. "Y-Yeah. Is that okay? You looks like you're about to cry."

I rest my forehead on his back. I take a a few deep breaths to calm myself. "I was so worried I couldn't do anything for you, and that you were really hurting, and I felt so helpless. God...."

"You don't have to cry, really," Breeze says persistently. "I can't handle girls crying." He shudders. I laugh a bit, and manage to wipe away my tears. "You're my everything, Arcadia. You don't have to worry about being helpless or whatever. You just being there is all I need."

"You're trying to make me cry again, aren't you?"

"No, no, seriously!" Breeze stammers quickly, obviously panicked. "Sorry, words just come out of my mouth and make people cry! Gah, I don't know!"

I somehow manage to giggle and cry into the back of his t-shirt at the same time. Breeze just gulps awkwardly every once in a while, trying to tell me it's all okay in his weird stammery voice, which only makes it all worse.

Okay, maybe I feel a little bit better.

I kiss my two fingers, then plant it on Breeze's lips. His cheeks go Fanta. I just tilt my head to the side and smile at him. "You're welcome."

"Does that mean I can kiss you for real?"

"Keep walking otherwise I'll whip you."

"Love you, too."

•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•

Breeze gallops through the school gates, the funniest thing that I will never live down.

He finally lets me down onto the ground when we get to the lunch tables. Breeze plants another kiss on on my cheek, then waggles his eyebrows at me goofily. "Happy early birthday."

I push his face away. "Um, thanks for the thought. But you know I never do anything to celebrate. Aging is enough for me."

"I know." Breeze pouts at me. "Can't I just kiss you for fun? It's only two days away!"

"Stop. Just...stop."

I turn my head, and I realize Eros is walking towards us. But it’s not his usual cocky strut that has me stopping in my tracks. His hair...isn't curly anymore. Instead each lock is perfectly pressed into smooth, silky waves. He looks like he belongs in a shampoo commercial—but when doesn’t he? He tilts his head down a bit and a bashful smile spreads across his features. Eros's tingly brown eyes look warmer than usual. I feel my cheeks turn warm, and I give him a slight, trembly wave.

"Ooh, love rival incoming." Breeze peppers kisses across my cheek. I attempt to push him away, but my fists only thud on him. "When'd you get so strong?" I whine. He's like an annoying bug that won't go away.

"Since I found out you used to have a crush on me,” he coos teasingly. I knew that would come back to bite me eventually—I just didn’t expect it to be so soon.

"Oh my god, shut up!"

Eros raises his eyebrows at the sight in front of him as he sits down across from us. I gulp down a knot in my throat.

"Hi." Eros chews his bottom lip and gives a worried look to me and Breeze. "Are you guys, like, dating?"

I expected him to tease us about it. Seeing him actually genuinely worried about it makes my heart do a double backflip into my stomach.

"Yes," Breeze says seriously, then attempts to plant another kiss on my cheek. I elbow him in the stomach as hard as I can. He doubles over and groans.

"No, we aren't. This idiot is trying to annoy me," I quickly clarify. I don't know why I'm so desperate to. I just don't want him to misunderstand.

Eros chuckles. "Alright. Breeze just seems a bit...persistent." I breathe a sigh of relief, though I’m not entirely sure why.

Breeze wraps his arm around me and grins proudly. "Arcadia is mine. I won't let you have her," he says, way louder than necessary.

I grab the collar of Breeze's t-shirt and glare at him fiercely. I wish I could use Amber's dragon glare. "You speak, you die. Got that?"

Breeze grins even wider. "Kiss me and I'll shut up."

I groan in exasperation, pushing him as far as my strength allows. Breeze falls back onto the seats, still grinning. He just pumps a fist into the air. "I won't give up on you!"

"Go die!"

Eros looks absolutely baffled. "Is Breeze...okay?" he asks slowly, with genuine worry in his eyes. I laugh harshly. "Yeah, yeah. He just doesn't understand that he won't have very long to live if he continues." Eros snorts. His eyes seem to sparkle even more when he laughs.

God, I'm such a girl right now.

Breeze's head lands in my lap. He waves up at me innocently. "Hi, honey." I push him, and he rolls onto the ground under the table. "Yowch!"

I can not deal with him right now.

Pandora skips over, wearing a sparkly pink t-shirt that reads, 'Brake for Pegasi!' "So, how's it going?" she says happily.

Breeze appears next to me, with only a few leaves in his hair, smiling like a little kid. "I've declared my undying love for Arcadia."

My fist collides with his stomach. "Shut up!" Breeze groans, but still manages to grin. "I still love you."

I point my thumb at Breeze, glaring at Pandora with a pleading look in my eyes. "He won't stop. Please, make it stop."

Pandora nods. "Breeze is totally getting over Lu."

Breeze pouts. "That's not true!"

"Denial!" me and Pandora sing at the same time.

Breeze continues pouting as he hugs me, resting his head on my shoulder. "I really do love my favorite arcade game. Is that so wrong?"

I turn to Eros, begging him with my eyes. 'Help. Me,' I mouth. I put my hands together to beg him. Eros stares at me with a strange, slightly confused look for a little bit. Then he shrugs. "Alright," he mutters. Eros walks around the table. His arms hook under my shoulders, then pull me away like a puppet. Breeze pouts even more. "Hey!"

"Stop bothering her," Eros says flatly.

Oh, thank goodness.

"Arcadia is mine."

Never mind, there is no goodness in this world.

Pandora giggles, and starts to rummage through her backpack. "I have to videotape this."

"Please don't," I moan weakly.

Eros drags me over to his side of the table and seats me beside him. My heart starts doing jumping jacks and thudding against my chest in clumsy, erratic beats. "That's not what I meant by 'help me,'" I mumble. The trumpets sound across the courtyard.

Eros grabs my hand and intertwines his fingers with mine before Breeze (or I) can protest. I do something similar to 'eep.' His hand is warm.

"Me and Ari got English. See you in Science."

Eros pulls me away, practically running. I can't even imagine the look on Breeze's face right now. "My life is over," I mutter to myself.

•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•

You know how they say, 'the tension is so thick you could cut it with a knife'?

Well, in First Period English, the awkwardness is so thick you couldn't cut it with a knife. You couldn't even cut it with a chainsaw if you wanted to.

That's how awkward it is.

Eros sits right in front of me. My already mixed feelings about the placement has now become ever more mixed. I find myself staring intensely at the back of his wavy head, contemplating him, for no apparent reason.

But, I mean, his hair is pretty cool. Sorta.

I must be staring holes into the back of his head, because Eros turns around every few minutes to smile at me. Not his usual smirks or grins. A kind, only slightly flirtatious smile, occasionally accompanied by a wink.

I somehow resist the urge to punch him in the face by instinct. I held back hurting Breeze because of his sensitivity at the moment. But there's no emotional turmoil going on in Eros’ life right now preventing from punching him right in that pretty little face of his right now.

I hate his swirly brown eyes that twinkle. I hate how they seem to stare deep into my soul and bring out all my horrible secrets. And I hate the person who owns them the most.

A familiar hand intertwines it's fingers with mine. My fist clenches and instinctively punches the first thing in its line of fire: my own arm. I hold back tears and curse under my breath. I didn't even realize how strong I am. No wonder Breeze always complains when I strong-arm him...

Eros's eyebrows raise in concern. I realize he's standing by my desk, his hand warily holding mine. "Um...why did you just do that?"

"Why are you holding my hand, freak?" I snap at him. I say it much harsher than I mean to. My tomboy instinct is starting to seriously make me bipolar.

Eros doesn't even react. Used to it, I guess. Or maybe the straight hair is making him more chill. Is he so vain that his hairstyle affects his personality? Is that why he was wound up so tight all the time—cus of the curls? “Well, I meant to pull you over to the corner so we could do partner reading discussion for the rest of class. That is, until, you punished your arm for no apparent reason," he says slowly.

I glance at the clock. Thirty minutes until class is over. Darn it all.

I quickly whip my hand out of his. "Fine, sure, whatever." I stomp over to our assigned partner spot, right in the corner. I plomp down onto the ground, but not before giving a heavy sigh. Eros sits cross-legged in front of me, the absolute picture of calm and collected. "It's only two questions, so it won't take us long," he says nonchalantly.

God, I hate him even more now, and I’m not entirely sure why.

I notice how Eros breathes heavily through his nose as he reads, how his eyebrows knit together nicely.

Then I punch myself again. Mentally, this time.

"Okay, so," Eros says. "first question is, 'What type of things did Zed notice about Alice on page 342?' Second one is, 'On the same page, summarize the conversation that happened between them.'"

It suddenly occurs to me that I was so busy spacing out that I didn't even realize we read another chapter of the book. I purse my lips tightly. "Uh, c-could we read that again? You know, to...refresh my memory."

Eros gives me a very strange stare. It's slightly suspicious, and slightly bewildered. He seems to stare deep into my soul before he gives a very, very slow nod. "Sure...whatever you say."

Eros slowly opens the book to the page, still occasionally glancing up at me with that strange look. He glances at me one last time before he reads the passage out loud, apparently noticing my confusion. "I didn't expect for you to ask me to read this particular...passage. You hate it whenever we read this type of stuff in class."

"W-Wha...?" I stammer. "I don't hate it," I lie through my teeth. "It's an assignment, so we have to read it. Just read it the usual way. I'll be Alice, you be Zed."

Eros's eyes seem to bulge out of his head for a moment, eyes flashing with apparent shock. Then, for some strange reason, a giddy smile spreads across his face. "O-Okay..."

He waits patiently for me to find the page, all the while glancing at me with that creepily happy smile. The look in his eyes is strange. Like he's laughing about an inside joke he thinks I know, when I really don't. And I don’t like it.

Eros clears his throat quickly. "Ready to start?" he murmurs. I raise an eyebrow. If that wasn't an obvious attempt at acting normal, I don't know what is.

"Um, yeah, sure," I reply.

Eros skims the page until he finds the passage. He has to bite his lip to hold back his smile, and I'm glad he does. "Alicia looks so beautiful," he murmurs softly. I gulp, hard. No way in California. This novel has romance in it. I hold back an instinctive gag. My hands break out in a cold sweat.

Eros's voice matches the tone of the scene perfectly, as if he himself is Zed. I hate how good he is at romance. I hate him.

"Standing there in the moonlight, waiting for me, all I can see is her and how wonderful she looks tonight," he continues softly. I gulp again. This feeling is weird. I don't feel sick, exactly, but my stomach's doing twists and turns. I don't like this feeling.

Eros's eyes suddenly turn upwards, his burning gaze looking straight into mine. My heart does a backflip. All of a sudden, I see what other people see at his charming gaze. His deep brown eyes twinkle, intensely and deeply, and they look straight into you. The impact is so forceful that I can barely breathe. My heart starts doing fluttering twists and turns and jumps. This feeling is so weird. So I say the first thing that comes to my mind:

"What in Earth's name are you doing?"

Eros's expression doesn't even flinch. "I thought it'd be better if I looked at you while I said it." There it is again. That same look in his eyes, the inside joke, that gleefully idiotic look in his eyes.

I purse my lips angrily, knowing I can't do anything while the teacher is mere feet away. I reluctantly skim the lines of the book, then look back up again.

"Zed."

Eros's facade breaks for just a moment so he can snicker. "Dude, that was so flat. Are you even trying?"

"I am," I respond sarcastically.

Eros rolls his eyes. "Can you please just try?" His eyes burn into me again, that melting gaze that I've never felt before. It makes me want to do it, do whatever he wants. The words escape my lips before the rational part of my brain can stop them. "Fine, I'll try my best."

<~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~>

Arcadia does her best to muster a serious expression, then reads the words as directed. "Zed," she says softly.

Eros gulps. That was even better than how he did his lines. He has to step up his game. "You look beautiful,” he says sweetly.

Arcadia grits her teeth as she reluctantly mutters her next lines. "You're the one that looks wonderful. You always do."

Eros skims over the next lines of narration. His palms start to go clammy. He has to grip the book tightly so it won't fall out of his hands. 'Zed walks closer and closer to Alice until they're not nearly as far apart as they should be. Mere inches away, and yet their hearts won't stop pounding.'

Eros scoots until he's sitting against the wall, right next to Arcadia. Their shoulders press together tightly. Her knuckles are white from gripping the book, deliberately avoiding his gaze. Eros's heart is probably trying to break out of his chest. His heart might physically stop from all the strain he's putting in it right now.

Eros blurts the next line without any thought. "You look even cuter up close." Arcadia turns back to look up at him, and Eros realizes for the first time all year, that Arcadia is shorter than him. She's looking up at him with those adorable eyes that look like molten gold, all bashful and confused and frustrated, her brunette and rainbow bangs hanging in her eyes, and Eros's heart is smashing against the wall of his ribcage just by looking at her. Arcadia sees him staring, and does the first think she thinks of to defend herself: raises the book up to cover her face.

It works. Sort of. Because Eros is taller than her, he can still easily see her eyes. He lifts his head up to look over the book. Arcadia is still staring up at him with those darn golden eyes, her cheeks flushed a powdery shade of pink. She really does look cuter up close.

"D-Don't say things l-like that," Arcadia stammers nervously. She clears her throat, and adds in a whisper, "You're going to make me want you, and then there's no going back."

Eros stares down at Arcadia for what seems like an eternity, ever so slightly shocked and very, very happy. There's no going back. Arcadia's eyes narrow for a moment, looking up at him expectantly, and Eros realizes that Arcadia said her next line from the book. His happiness immediately deflates. Eros tries his best to maintain his composure, and not think about the way she looked up at him from behind the book; or that adorable stammer in her voice as she said those words to him he (almost) thought were real.

There's no way Eros is going to be the one only feeling this way over this darn book.

He skims the next few lines, then regains a new air of determination. Eros leans into her face as the book directs, then brushes a few stray bangs from her eyes. Arcadia's face go red, and her eyes flutter nervously. Eros holds back the pounding of his heart and focuses on looking into her eyes. If there's any time to charm her, now's the best time.

"You can't keep making me fall in love with you like this," he mutters. Eros's charmingly burning gaze somehow gets even more intense. "I'll fall in love with you even harder."

Arcadia gulps audibly. Her heart has been doing one handed cartwheels for the past five minutes, and it's starting to tick her off. She's flinching, she's blushing, and she can barely swallow. Every time Eros looks into her eyes, she feels absolutely loony, and she doesn't get it. The fact that he probably knows and she doesn't only makes her even more mad. She resists the urge to clench her hand in a fist, or let her mind focus on the fact that Eros is only a few inches away from her, and focuses on beating Eros at his own game. She doesn’t know when this turned into an acting competition, but either way, she’s going to win.

Arcadia rapidly reads over the next few lines of the book. Even though it's only a few seconds, Eros nearly died in anticipation. He's so close to her right now, it's killing him. He can smell her cinnamon shampoo; and it's starting to drive him nuts.

When Arcadia looks back up, he sighs a breath that he didn't realize he was holding back. Only to immediately suck it back in. Arcadia gazes up at him with that adorably bashful look, so genuine that it has to be real. Her face draws even closer to his. He can smell her cherry lip balm. Eros's breaths start to become raggedy and shallow. Arcadia's eyes look even shiner up close, fluttering nervously. She bites her lip, and the scent of her cinnamon toothpaste mixes with the scent of her cherry lip balm. Eros almost faints.

So close to him, still gazing up at him, biting her lip in that impossibly cute way, all he can hear are the sounds of their breaths. Without thinking, Eros leans on his hand so he can be even closer to her.

"Why don't you just tell me you're in love with me?" Arcadia pleads softly, still chewing her lip. Eros forgets to breathe. He's lost in the captivating sight of molten gold and the scent of cinnamon and cherries. "I'm in love with you," she whispers. "It's only fair that you tell me, too."

Eros's stomach twists, and his heart pounds uncontrollably like a jackhammer in his chest. 'I wanna tell her,' he thinks desperately. 'I gotta tell her.'

"I lov—"

"That was beautiful!" Eros is immediately cut off by the teacher shrieking and clapping her hands rapidly. He flinches and pulls back, as Arcadia seems to shrink into herself. The rest of the class starts clapping as well, staring at them with looks of awe on their face and murmuring to each other softly.

'The whole. Class. Was. Watching.'

"I can't believe you played it out so perfectly!" Ms. Magok raves. "I couldn't have created a scene that intense with any of my holograms even if I tried! You may keep reading for the rest of the class, you don't even have to answer the questions." She grins at them. "You two should join the drama club. I hear they're doing Romeo and Juliet."

Arcadia's cheeks flame bright red. And she says the first thing that comes to mind. "Darn all this crap, I'm going back to my desk." She stomps back to her desk and rests her head in her arms. When she looks up, lo and behold, there he is.

Eros turns backward in his chair to face her and smiles at her giddily. "Hi there, cutie."

"Don't call me that."

Eros leans into her face and smirks. Arcadia's eyes widen. "Come on, don't act like that wasn't what you wanted to happen. You wouldn't have asked me to read it if you didn't."

Arcadia puffs her red cheeks in frustration. "It wasn't what I 'wanted to happen!' I didn't read it all cause I was too busy s—" She quickly catches herself. She can't exactly say, 'because I was staring at you for the entire period,' otherwise it'd just confirm his point. Arcadia refuses to feed the fire that is her romantic-social life.

"Too busy...?" Eros waits expectantly, his eyebrow cocked up in that snarky manner of his.

"Shut up."

"Aww," Eros coos. He leans back in, right back to the scent of cinnamon shampoo he loves so much. "You know, I woulda kissed you if you just said so. We coulda kept the scene going." Eros winks. Arcadia refuses to look into his burning demon eyes and feel those horrible fluttery, twisty things again.

"There was no kiss in the scene, idiot."

Eros‘ cocky expression falls. "Huh?" He says, a blank expression on his face. Arcadia glares at him coldly. "By the way, you leaned in a bit too close on that last part of the scene. It didn't say to do that."

The scene. Darn that freaking scene. Eros blushes at the thought that he was about to confess to her. Then he remembers that way she looked up at him, that genuinely bashful and sweet look.

'Wether or not she wants to admit it, it was real for her, too.'

Eros turns back in his chair, still smiling. "You smell like cinnamon."

"Eh? What'd you say?"

”Nothing,” he mumbles. Absolutely nothing.

<•><•><•><•><•><•><•><•><•><•>

Eros bounds over to the curb after school with a huge grin on his face. That is, until he sees the bandages wrapped around my arm.

"What the heck happened in P.E.?"

Breeze hugs me tight from behind, occasionally rubbing his thumb into my tense and aching shoulder. For once, I'm grateful for it. I've already hurt my arm before. I don't need it to freeze up and lose all feeling like last time.

"Arcade was doing push-ups, then a basketball landed on her back. She fell on her wrist," Breeze says, pityingly. Pandora sniffles. "They said it won't heal for a while. And right before your birthday, too." I roll my eyes when Eros goes aghast. "I didn't die, it's alright. I've hurt my wrist before."

Eros sets his jaw. "Who threw the—you know what, I don't even wanna know." He suddenly grabs my backpack and starts to rummage through the pockets. "Hey, hey!" I protest. "I hurt myself, idiot! You trying to mug me, too?"

He pulls the moped keys out of my emergency pack, which also contains a water bottle, bandages, and beef jerky, just in case.

Hey, you never know.

"Well, I can't drive the moped without these cause of your dumb thumbprint recognition whatever."

I raise an eyebrow at him. Eros's expression is, surprisingly enough, serious. "You can't drive with that hand. And I'm the only one who's ever ridden it before."

Breeze opens his mouth to protest, but realizes that he can't do anything cause he's always been tagging along on the back seat of the moped. He quickly closes his mouth, but doesn't hesitate to show his disapproval.

I sigh. "Thanks," I mutter quickly, then jump onto the moped. "Ah-ah-ah," Eros scolds me. He points to the back of the bike. "Backseat, hon. I'm the driver."

I grit my teeth so hard they threaten to break. There's only one thing worse than having a guy wrap his arms around your waist:

Having to wrap your arms around a guy's waist.

I reluctantly place my good hand on Eros's shoulders. His eyes pierce at me. "I'm not going to have you hold on by one hand, missy. You better put your arms around me, or I'm walking you home."

"Eros!" I whine.

"I will not have you fall off this moped," he says sternly. I grit my teeth together for a few moments, before finally wrapping my arms around his waist. I hit my forehead on his back to piss him off. It’s not very effective. It's like whacking my head on solid wood.

"I'm pretty sure that hurt you more than it hurt me. You okay?" Eros asks calmly. I rub my forehead and puff my cheeks in annoyance. "Shut up and drive, Twinkle Toes."

Eros turns his head and nods at Breeze. "You ready, bud?" Breeze grumbles as he straps on the helmet and vaults himself into Eros's bike. "Yeah, yeah, whatever," Breeze mutters.

"You ready back there, Pandora?" Eros shouts. He adjusts the rear view mirror, and Pandora's grinning face appears in the glass. She nods rapidly. Squeals echo from behind me.

Eros sighs. "Alright, then." He pushes the key into the side ignition, then revs up the engine. Breeze yelps. "Wait, wait, I think I dropped my keychain at the bike racks!" Damn Breeze and his obsession with that Koopa lanyard I got him when we were literally still in kindergarten. Breeze runs off, with Pandora in tow, squealing, "I wanna come, toooo!"

Eros grins mischievously. He glances around, likely to make sure there no witnesses to whatever crimes he’s about to commit against me, then turns his torso sideways so he can smirk in my direction. "I wanna charge a transport toll."

"Eh?"

"I'm not going to drive you for free."

My jaw sets so hard that I'm surprised it doesn't dislocate. That would really add insult to injury. "Fine," I hiss through gritted teeth. "What is it?" I have a bad feeling about this. He even waited to ask me until Breeze and Pandora had left.

Not. A. Good. Sign.

"You have to promise not to punch me."

"I'll try. But I make no promises. My reflexes get the best of me sometimes," I answer honestly, remembering the sore spot on my arm.

Eros shrugs. "Worth it." He leans in and gives me a kiss on the cheek. "Alright, toll charged," he says casually, then turns back in his seat. My cheeks warm up like I've eaten a fresh picked dragon chili. I don't do this when Breeze kisses me. Why is Eros so different?

"Baaaack!" Breeze shouts. He jumps onto the bike with expert aim. Pandora quickly jumps onto the penny board, somehow managing not to fall off as it wobbles underneath her sudden weight. "Ready!" she squeals quickly.

"Alright, here we gooo!" Eros revs the engine, then speeds off. "What are you, Peter Pan?" I snap at him.

"What was that?" Eros asks innocently. He suddenly swerves to the side and hits a speed bump. I squeak in surprise and tighten my grip on his waist. "You did that on purpose!" I squeak.

"Naw, why would I do that?"

Eros deliberately hits every speed bump, pothole, or uneven part of the road the whole way. I squeak and shriek every time. By the time we get to the cafe, my arms are a death vice around his waist.

"I hate you," I manage to whisper as he turns off the engine. "No, you don't," he sings, grinning.

Eros jumps off the moped with a proud look on his face. Pandora jumps out of nowhere and gives him an epic sock on the arm. "Ouch!" Eros protests. I fist bump her with my good hand. "Thank you."

"No prob, Amiga." She shoots a fierce glare his way. "You weren't the only one to hit all those speed bumps, dope."

Breeze slides in as Pandora and Eros start to bicker. He takes my hand and gingerly helps me off the bike. I give him a grateful smile. "Thanks."

"Anything for you, Arc."

I roll my shoulder, gulping down the sharp pain. He places his hand on my shoulder and rubs his thumb into it. "Is that better?" Breeze asks softly. "Yeah, tons," I reply.

Eros glares at me and Breeze suspiciously. "What's wrong with her shoulder?"

Breeze glances at me with a look that says, 'Can I tell him?' I shrug, then nod. "I don't mind."

Breeze turns to Eros, though slightly reluctantly, as though he doesn't want to give up any secrets about me. "She got hurt in kindergarten once. Messed up all the nerves in her arms and shoulders. They seize up whenever she gets hurt real bad," Breeze says choppily, obviously and purposely leaving out the details.

Eros's eyebrows knit together again in that strangely pleasant way. Well, at least to me. God, what am I saying? "Oh,” is all he can think to reply with.

Breeze pulls me into the cafe. Eros skips ahead of us, much to Breeze's dismay, and orders a raisin roll with fairy jelly. Breeze gently pats me on the shoulder. "I'll order for you. You go sit down."

I grin at him. "Thanks." I give him a mock scolding glare. "There better be no cherries."

"I make no promises," Breeze teases, sticking out his tongue. I sit down into the booth. My shoulder touches the seat, and I have to gulp down a groan. I roll it gently. God, I hate when it seizes up. An arm gently wraps around my shoulders, and presses a thumb into the ache in my shoulders. I turn my head to thank Breeze, only to find Eros, a worried expression on his face. For some reason, I freeze up. "I-uh, you," I stammer.

"Does it hurt?" he murmurs gently.

"Um, not that much," I answer shakily. "T-Thanks."

Eros continues to rub his thumb into my left shoulder, holding me close to his side. It takes every ounce of willpower that my brain can muster to not blush. I can not blush.

Pandora is behind Breeze, still at the counter. It's just us. God, I hate this. I mean, I don't hate it. But my stomach's doing that twisty thing again. Why is it twisting?

"God, just kill me," I mutter. Unfortunately, Eros hears me. His swirly brown eyes are practically drowning in concern and worry for me. I hate how my heart is doing acrobatics right now. "Does it hurt even more?"

I gulp. "Y-Yes. I mean, n-no." How is it that looking into his eyes making my tongue numb and wipes all coherent thoughts from my head? I know for a fact that I’m immune to his stupid charm ability. Well, mostly. And he’s not using it right now anyway.

Eros gently takes my bandaged hand, and starts to draw on it with his finger. I'm confused for a moment, and ever so slightly happy. He's trying to distract me from the pain. I let him keep drawing things on my hand, hearts and stars and other dumb stuff. I giggle when he draws a smiley face. He grins.

"Alright, guess what I'm saying," he says softly. He starts to draw letters in my palm. I bite my lip, focusing on the movements of his finger. "Um, Eros!" I blurt excitedly. He continues drawing, a smile on his face. Eros draws a line down my palm, then another line across it. "Eros plus....Ar..ca..dia."

All willpower drained, my cheeks flame. It sounds like one of those cheesy messages couples engrave into trees in the middle of a heart or something. Eros grins up at me. His swirly eyes are like melting chocolate fondue. I gulp down a knot in my throat.

"Nice. Now, guess this one." Eros takes a deep breath, exhales, then starts to draw on my hand. I murmur the words softly to myself.

"Eros...loves...A—"

"Back!" Pandora sings. She thumps into the seat next to me. "Sorry, me and Breeze were arguing about our favorite baseball team. We finally agreed that Angels are the best."

Breeze nods as he slides into the next to Eros. "Well, they are called 'Angels.' Can't argue with that. They had a good season this year." He grins directly at me. "What were you guys talking about?"

"N-Nothing," I stutter quickly. I gulp down another knot. Eros still hasn't let go of my hand. Breeze and Pandora start to talk about their favorite baseball players in Angels, who's going to get drafted, and other miscellaneous sports talk that I never understand. To my surprise, Eros doesn't join in, even though Angels are his favorite team. He's got a pennant and a baseball with their name on it and everything.

Eros silently starts to draw in my hand again. I try my best to keep my face bored and act like I'm listening. My thoughts flash back briefly to what Eros wrote before. He loves a—what? Probably an object. Maybe something dumb, like his baseball bat. Then again, it was a capital A. I bet he meant he loves Angels or something. Yeah. How'd he know they were talking about that? I freeze as I realize what Eros just wrote.

'You are my angel.'

I make a strangled hiccup sound in the back of my throat. Fortunately, nobody seems to notice, even when my heart goes into third drive and starts doing wall jumps off my ribcage.

Angel. He called me his angel. At that single word, my heart's fluttering like it's been filled with vicious, hyper butterflies.

Eros smiles at me. 'Cause you're the best,' he mouths.

Best. Right. Like, best friend. Yeah, totally. He didn't mean angel like anything else, because that would be absolutely impossible, even if I wouldn't totally hate it or whatever, but he didn't, and I'm fine with that.

Totally. Completely. Fine.

|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|

Eros pushes open the door to the cafe. The usual bells ring, and a small flurry of sparkling fairy dust rains down. As the fairy dust brushes itself all over me, I can still feel the tingling warmth of Eros's hand in mine, the burning skin where his finger traced. After a very awkward meal, where I kept unconsciously glancing at Eros and Breeze did not look happy about it, we're finally leaving. I feel sick. Very, very happy and fluttery. But my insides are all twisted and tickled like they've gone through a strainer. I don't think my heart can take much more of this.

Then...I hear it. Music. A piano gently playing. It works its way into my heart and releases all the tension. I've forgotten everything and everyone. All I want to do is find the music. It's happy, it's sad, it's absolutely dazzling. My brain shifts and twists at each change of music, every shift of pitch, as each series of notes sends a new emotion into my brain. Fear, anger, elation, sadness.

I'm practically floating as I walk. I can't feel the ground. I walk behind the counter, over the 'Employees Only' sign, following the sound of the music. I'm faintly aware of footsteps behind me, the others following me. The thought quickly flits away as a new score of music begins. I go down a small, dim hallway. Small little holes in the wall, sparkling and shining, illuminate the way. Fairy doors. Or rather, fairy portals. At the very end, the source of a music, a plain wood door fills up the entire wall. Definitely not fairy sized.

I grab the doorknob and push open the door with no hesitation. A small, equally dim room, no fairy holes and illuminated only by light streaming weakly through shutters. The room is empty except for two guitars leaning against the wall in the corner of the room. And in the center of the empty room, a grand piano. Fingers dance across the keys like they've done it in a million times. Even the simple movements of his hands seem to express the emotions of his songs. I'm entranced by the music, like I can hear a voice that doesn't exist, singing along, getting the tune stuck in my head. It's beautiful.

The boy sitting at the piano seems absolutely relaxed. He almost reminds me of Breeze. Same carefree, yet mischievous smile on his face. He has this relaxed, yet energetic aura. His Nikes tap along to the beat. His checkered hoodie flops with every exaggerated movement he makes, his orange hair bouncing. Then, as quickly as it started, the song ends.

A breathy gasp of awe escapes me. "Wow."

The boy's head whips around, a panicked and surprised look on his face. I've always heard that first impressions are important. Well, he seems cool enough, but the way he pushes up his thick rectangle sports glasses makes me wonder if he's cool or actually a nerd. So, the first thing he says is....

"Please don't tell my mom."

Yup, definitely a nerd.

Three things are said, all at the exact same time. One is a really good question. Another is absolutely obvious. And the other completely blows my mind to bits.

"Cool music," Eros mutters.

"Your mom?" Pandora asks, baffled.

"Jax?" Breeze exclaims, cerulean eyes wide.

I can't decide if my jaw should drop or if I should grin. I settle for biting my lip and grinning like an idiot. "You're Jax?" He's exactly how Breeze described him. Spiky orange hair, black earring in his right ear, an electric guitar in the corner of the room.

"Y-Yeah—woah." Jax does a double take, finally getting a good look at me. He almost falls off his bench. Jax only just manages to stay on his bench, then grin at me in an equally idiotic fashion. He tries to appear casual and lean on his elbow, but ends up striking an ugly mix of cords on the piano. Jax quickly slams the piano shut, then chuckles nervously at me.

Then I decide I definitely like him. "Cute," I chuckle under my breath. Eros and Breeze both shoot simultaneous death glares at me.

"Y-You're Arcadia, right?" Jax stammers quickly. "Breeze told me a lot about you." Something between a grin and a smirk spreads across his face. My eyebrows raise at the sudden, newfound confidence. Does he not remember nearly breaking his piano five seconds earlier? Maybe boys from boarding schools just have a lot of weird mood swings—it was an academy for troubled youths after all. "You're just as cute as he said."

"When I said that," Breeze grumbles, "I didn't want you to actually agree with me." Eros's eyes bore into me. "He likes you?" he hisses under his breath. I shrug, then nod slowly. I still can't stop grinning. Maybe it's the music.

Pandora waves her hand. "Uh, hello? Still haven't answered my question."

Jax blinks, as if only just realizing Pandora was there. "Oh, uh, my mom owns the cafe," he says sheepishly. "The piano at our house broke, but I was desperate to play, so I snuck in here cause I knew she had a spare. I'm not really supposed to be here during hours."

Eros and Breeze start snickering. "Wait, so you're a fairy?" Eros guffaws. "And you play classical?" Breeze teases. Jax's cheeks turn as orange as his hair. "O-Only part fairy," he says defensively. Eros and Breeze slap their knees and laugh.

"I think it's awesome."

All eyes turn on me. It takes me a few moments to realize that those words came out of my mouth. I just can't stand to see the poor guy teased like that. "I've always wanted to be part fairy. Plus he can play guitar and piano. I think that's super cool."

Jax beams gleefully at me. Eros glares at me while Breeze glares at Jax.

Jax clears his throat. "S-So, uh, what happened to your hand?" he asks. I hold it up and shrug slightly. "Part basketball, part...push-up accident. Don't ask how it happened."

Jax smiles at me, turning his head slightly that reminds me of a curious cat. If Breeze is a puppy, then Jax is like a cute tabby cat, I suddenly think. "Come play a song with me."

I nod quickly and skip over to the bench for the boys can say anything. I turn to Jax and chuckle nervously. "Uh, I'm gonna warn you, I only know a few songs."

"No prob," he says, still beaming. "Just play whatever you know, then I'll play."

I gulp down the nervous knot in my throat. No matter how hard I try, I can't escape my stage fright. I shakily place my fingers on the piano, trying hard to avoid the slight pang in my wrist, then start to play Swan Lake. It was my favorite song as a kid. Even though it took me a month to learn, it was worth it. Jax starts to play with me only seconds after I start, creating a two part harmony. I softly hum along under my breath to the notes I remember well, remembering the ballet dance as the princess danced around the lake, trying to find her prince to set her free. My fingers start to flourish along the ivory keys, the pain in my wrist forgotten. Jax finishes off the song with the last key, then grins at me. "That was awesome!"

He high-fives me, right on the bandaged hand. I automatically brace myself for a wave of pain.

Then, nothing.

I turn my wrist slowly. Nothing. I unwrap the white bandages. Not even a bruise. "Hey, my hand is fixed!" I roll my shoulder, grinning. "Even my shoulder is fixed!"

Jax smiles at me. "Music can do a lot of things if you know how to work it."

Breeze slowly walks to me, then put his hand on my shoulder. "You...you actually fixed her shoulder?" Jax slowly nods. "Whatever was wrong with it should be gone now, yeah."

A smile slowly spreads across Breeze's face. He chuckles. "Man, all this time I thought you were a jerk. Why didn't you do something nice for me after those paint balloons got dropped on me?"

"Maybe because I was the one that dropped the paint balloons, dork." Jax smiles deviously, perfectly reminding me of Breeze. I wonder if that academy was actually a school for rich and troubled young males.

"So, what school do you go to now?" I ask. "Oh, uh, I'm homeschooled," Jax admits. "But I'm transferring over to Sunny Vales High next year. Homeschool's too boring."

"No kidding!" I exclaim. "That's where we go!"

Eros's eyebrows furrow, as if he can't quiet figure out what to feel. Breeze doesn't look that far off. Pandora breaks the brief, awkward silence with a squeal. "Yay, I can't wait to see you at our school!"

"I don't know," Jax mumbles. "I won't have any friends."

I roll my eyes and flick Jax on the head. He's just as dense as Breeze. "You have four new friends right here, dummy." He looks startled for a moment. Then he smiles. "You do that often? You know, flick friends on the head?"

Breeze pouts. "Hey, I thought you only did that to me."

I jump up and smack the backside of his head. "Shut up, Windy."

"Hey!"

"Let's get a round of victory sundaes!" Pandora shrieks happily. "Our Fantastic Four has become the Fantastic Five!"

"Fine—but if there are cherries, heads will roll."

Pandora wastes no time ordering a round of sundaes and banana splits. "How do you like your sundae?" she asks Jax. "No chocolate syrup. Extra caramel," he answers quickly.

I raise an eyebrow at him. "You some type of chocolate hater?"

He shakes his head, his expression deathly serious. "You don't wanna know what the chocolate is made out of. Fairy recipe isn't the same as human recipe."

He looks serious. I weigh the pro's and con's for a moment.

"Worth it."

Jax merely chuckles as he slides into the booth with me. His eyes are a piercing, sparkling emerald green, exactly like how I heard they'd look like. Fairy eyes always look like jewels. "You're a lot more laid back than Breeze said."

I whip my head to glare at Breeze. He's fooling around near the counter with Pandora. "I'll kill him later," I mutter. Jax throws his head back and laughs. "That's a bit more like how he described you." His ears are slightly pointed at the end, matching his elfish face.

A milkshake pops into existence and clatters onto the table. Pandora waves happily at me, nodding at the milkshake. I nod. "Guess we got a milkshake now."

I pull a straw out of the dispenser and stick it into the milkshake. Chocolate vanilla swirl. Interesting.

I sorta wonder where fairies get the vanilla, now...

I decide it doesn't matter before I take a sip. Jax pulls a straw out and sticks it into the shake and starts to slurp it up alongside me. After a few moments of awkward silence, his eyebrow raises at me. "You don't mind?"

"I've shared too much stuff with Breeze to care at this point."

Jax smirks. He scoots a little closer and presses his shoulder to mine. "You like chocolate, right?" he says. "And I like vanilla. So, why don't we...." Jax leans his face into mine. a devious sparkle in his emerald eyes. I'm suddenly reminded of that memory I tried so hard to repress; Eros's eyes swirling, his face close to mine, our shoulders pressing, fingertips grazing. My face flushes.

“Mix?” he finishes coyly.

Emerald pierces into gold, and I'm left paralyzed. Jax leans in a little closer. "Your eyes are pretty," he murmurs. I can't even swallow. Jax is very, very, very close. He starts to lean in a little closer, and for some reason, I still can't move. I’m paralyzed by the memory of Eros, overlaying the image of Jax right in front of me, and I’m helpless to stop the inevitable.

Fortunately, a hand suddenly grasps my shoulder, breaking me out of my trance and pulling me away from Jax. Emerald switches into swirly brown. For once, I'm glad to see it. "Eros," I squeak. His arm snakes around my waist, pulling me even closer to him.

Eros smells like...mint. And...coco.

"So, what're you guys talking about?" Eros isn't smiling. Not glaring. Yet his eyes are fierce and threatening. Jax doesn't seem the slightest bit fazed by it. He smiles. "Nothing."

Jax pulls the milkshake to his side and slurps at it as if nothing ever happened. Eros leans into my ear. "Stop letting guys get so close to you," he mutters. I gulp. "B-But you're close to me," I whisper back.

"Do you not like it?"

"W-Well, I don't not like it, b-but..."

A shrill shriek rips through the air. "Sundaaaaaaes!" Oh, thank you for being such a wonderful anti-wing woman, Pandora.

Five glass trays clatter down onto the table all at once, three sundaes and two banana splits. Breeze and Pandora slip into the booth on Jax's side. "What'd we miss?" he asks, a grin on his face, eyes wide. Jax smiles sweetly. "Nothing." It’s almost scary how little things faze him.

I stare down at my ice cream sundae, trying to gulp down the knot in my throat, wondering if my cheeks are so hot it can melt the ice cream. Breeze stares at me. "Uh, Arcade? You okay there?"

"Mm-hmm." My voice is high pitched. God, that's so stupid. Breeze looks even more worried. "What happened here?" he asks shakily.

Jax is still smiling. "I told ya. Nothing."

Breeze looks worried the entire time we're eating the ice cream. Which looks sorta hilarious when he has a chocolate syrup mustache. My side is still pressed to Eros, and Jax crosses his ankle with mine. Both of them look as if nothing is happening, or has happened. I’m too stunned from the whirlwind of events that just occurred to push off either of them without making another scene.

Are they crazy, or am I just crazy? I've never fully understood people, and yet my limited understanding is somehow reducing with each passing day.

When we finish our sundaes, Pandora offers to clean up the glasses. I can feel Breeze's eyes boring into the side of my head.

"Do you guys mind helping Panda clean up?" Breeze says. "I have to talk to Arcadia. Alone." His face is dead, dead serious. His blue eyes seem darker than usual. Eros nods. "Sure." Jax smiles gleefully. "I don't mind."

For some reason, both of their auras seem very, very angry. How did those two get so good at hiding their emotions?

Breeze clasps his fingers with mine and pulls me out of the cafe, and a little ways from the door. I can see Eros and Jax at the booth through the window.

Breeze grabs my shoulders and turns me ever so slightly. "Don't move, and do as I say," he mutters quietly, barely moving his lips. I resist the urge to nod. Breeze clasps both hands with mine. He leans into my ear and starts to murmur quietly. "I'm guessing that Jax tried to kiss you. Don't nod, I already know the answer is yes." I keep my face and body completely still. It's harder than I thought it would be.

"You know Ari, for all those times you helped me with Lu even though you liked me, I'm gonna be your wingman—and also because I still sort of hate Jax’s guts." Fair enough. If he didn’t hate him before for the whole guitar and liking me thing, he has every right to dislike Jax after finding out that Luella liked him. I’m usually anti-mortal enemy, but to be honest Breeze has sort of earned it at this point. I’m not saying it’s right—I’m just saying that I see where Breeze is coming from.

Still, I start to open my mouth to protest. "You have no say in this, so don't even try to protest." I quickly shut my mouth. "I know you like Eros, so I'm going to help you. What I'm about to do after I pull away is—technically—not real, but bear in mind that this does not mean I'm giving up on you. Right now I’m just doing a favor for my best friend—and getting revenge on Jax,” he quickly adds. Man, he’s really not letting go of this Jax thing, huh? I underestimated Breeze’s ability to hold a grudge, clearly. “Understand?”

"Mm-hmm," I hum quietly. I have no idea what he means by technically, or half of what he's saying at all. I'm suddenly very nervous as to what will happen next.

"Now, Jax is probably using his dumb fairy magic to try and listen to what we're saying, while him and Eros glare at me and plot my death." For some reason, Breeze sounds oddly proud of himself. "Make sure you don't look at them. And before you ask, yes, he can do that. But only if he can see my lips moving. Hence the reason I'm doing this. Now, I want you to blush."

"It's not that easy," I mumble back. I try my best not to move my lips, but I'm not nearly as good as Breeze is. What is he, a ventriloquist?

"I know that you and Eros almost kissed in English. I overheard Ms. Magok talking to the drama club teacher to see if there’s any lead parts for the two of you.”

My cheeks instantly flush.

"See, was that so hard?”

I bite my tongue and resist the urge to tell Breeze to shut up. He sounds so condescending right now, I wanna punch him. He’s starting to remind me of Eros—maybe I shouldn’t have tried so hard to make them become friends.

"Now—and don't punch me before I finish—I'm going to kiss you."

My grip on Breeze's hand tightens into a vice. He squeezes me back to make me release before I can start cutting off the circulation to his fingers.

"No, not for real,” he hisses. “At this angle, it'll look real, and that's all we need. Believe me, I would do it for real, but I don't wanna die...cause I know you will kill me if I do.” At least he knows where he stands. Jax just met me and already he’s trying to be intimate.

"Right now?" I squeak.

"In a sec. First, I'm going to give Jax and Eros a run for their Arcade tokens."

My cheeks somehow manage to flush even deeper. Breeze wraps one arm around my waist and stares seriously at me. But I can detect a sparkle of whimsy in his eyes.

"You know, you look really cute when you're blushing," he says softly. Breeze's lip movements are slightly exaggerated, as if he wants Jax to know exactly what we're talking about. I'm sure that he could figure it out even without magic. I blink, then Breeze's face is about two inches closer. I've reached my blushing limit.

His eyes are so soft, his expression almost looks genuine. I'm reminded of his words. 'Technically.' What's that supposed to mean?

"It's always been you I've loved, Arcadia," he says softly. "I'm madly in love with you."

Did he have to say 'madly'? My heart is twisting and my head is reeling. I can't comprehend anything anymore. How much of this is fake and how much of this is real? And seriously, what did Breeze mean by technically?

Breeze bites his lip and looks into my eyes. "I know that somewhere in there, you love me, too, right? You said so yourself."

I somehow manage not to giggle like an idiot. He's so dramatic. He's seriously trying to make them jealous, isn’t he? Maybe Breeze should be the one to audition for the next drama club play. Breeze's face draws closer to mine. I suddenly realize that he's the same height as me, down to the centimeter. His lips must only be an inch from mine.

Breeze said it wouldn't be real, so it better not be.

Breeze starts to lean in, his eyes fluttering closed. I can measure the length of his eyelashes from this distance. I close my eyes and brace myself. Please don't be real, please don't be real, please don’t—

His lips press right to the corner of mine, just like he did before. Breeze's arm hugs my waist tightly. He said it's the angle, right? So to them, it looks real. That doesn’t stop my stomach from doing a somersault, though.

Breeze lingers for a moment, then pull away. The area where his lips touched is still tingling. He leans back into my ear, smirking. "Don't look too stunned. I might actually kiss you."

I turn my head so they won't see my mouth. "Don't even try it."

"I know. Don't worry. I'll let Eros have you for now. I'll just steal you away later and keep Jax at bay."

"That's not very comforting."

Eros, Jax, and Pandora come barreling out of the restaurant. Eros looks very, very tense. Jax is still smiling, though his eyes seem a bit more... sharp than usual. Pandora skips over to me, smiling so wide I wonder if it hurts, and whispers in my ear, "Did Breeze really confess to you?"

"You were listening, too?" I whisper shout. Pandora waves her phone, giggling. "I recorded it."

"Delete that!"

She pouts. "Fine." Then she smiles. "If you tell me wether or not you think he's a good kisser."

"Shut up!" Man, it feels good to say that.

A familiarly warm hand grabs mine. Eros. "Let's go."

Eros pulls me over to the bike. I sit down in the back seat, though I mutter bitterly that my hand's healed now. Eros ignores me and turns on the bike. He looks sorta mad. I look at Jax. He looks happy as can be. Then again, he’s sort of unpredictable at this point. He’s like the physical manifestation of a wild card. He jumps onto the backbars of Breeze's bike, grinning like a little kid. Jax points ahead dramatically. "Heigh-ho, Silver!"

"Neigh."

Eros revs off without even checking to see if Breeze and Pandora are ready. The ride is painfully quiet. We stop by Breeze's apartment first. I offer to walk them to their door, mostly because I seriously need a break from holding onto Eros. He's so tense that it's like hugging a statue. But if I said that out loud, he’d just start bragging about how he’s sculpted by the gods.

Breeze looks surprisingly nervous as we walk to Jax's apartment. "Right into the belly of the beast," he says dramatically. "What horrors will we find at his apartment?"

"If my little sister opens the door, you'll see plenty of horror. I forgot my key," Jax mutters back.

He knocks on the door slowly. Seconds pass. Then minutes. He frowns. "Is she home?"

Then the door slams open. A girl with eyes identical to Jax's appears in the doorway, hands on her hips. She's small, and she's a few inches shorter than Jax, so I assume this is the horrifying little sister. She's hugging a huge drawing pad to her chest, and her curly orange hair seems to bounce with every movement she makes. She reminds me of Merida from Brave.

"Took you long enough. You're lucky that I didn't send my pack of dogs after you," she says with an angry pout. "You have dogs?" I ask. I don't hear any barking. "No," Jax mutters.

Then why did she....? Breeze looks just as confused. The little girl pulls out a pencil and starts to draw as if it's completely normal to do in the middle of a conversation.

A Rottweiler appears next to Jax and growls at him. I jump back, eyes wide. "Where did that come from?" I whisper frantically.

Jax scowls at his little sister fiercely as if there isn't a vicious dog about to kill him. "Don't be a brat, Gaia."

Gaia continues to draw, a creepily happy smile on her face. Breeze quickly walks around the dog and makes his way to me. "Is she doing that?" he whispers at me. I shrug, still staring at the dog. "Maybe."

Two more dogs appear, surrounding Jax. "Definitely," I whisper, though it's sounding a lot more like a whimper. "Definitely her."

Jax doesn't look the least bit fazed. He kicks at the dogs and rolls his eyes when they snarl and bare their fangs at him. "Do you have to do this when my friends are here?"

Gaia stares at us as if we're aliens. "You have friends?"

Breeze smiles, though his eyes keep gravitating to the dogs circling around Jax. "Uh, I'm Breeze. I—"

Gaia rolls her eyes, exactly like her big brother. "I know, you went to the boarding school with him. After he got expelled." Jax blushes, though he just shrugs.

I wave. "What school do you go to?" I say softly. She seems nice enough. A little feisty for a little girl. She doesn’t seem much older than the kids I usually babysit. Gaia scowls at me, looking pissed. "Why are you talking to me like I'm in third grade? I'm turning sixteen in a few months."

I blink, as if it might clear my vision. “Oh. Sorry. You're just—"

"Short, I know!" she cuts in. "Sorry," Jax says. "She can't let anyone finish their sentences."

"I'm homeschooled, just like Jax," Gaia finally says. "I didn't like public school."

"She got expelled, too. Set fire to a kid's lunch," Jax says, smirking. Gaia scowls. "His eyebrows grew back!" she says defensively. Then she turns to me.

Gaia stares at me calculatingly. I gulp. Her stare is just as sharp as Jax's. Except she doesn't hesitate to show her distaste. "You look familiar..."

"Um, my name is Arcadia?" I offer.

A huge grin breaks out on Gaia's face. "You're the girl that big bro's crushing on." Jax's face turns tomato red. "Shut up," he hisses at her.

"He probably tried to kiss you, huh?" Gaia giggles. My eye twitches slightly. Does Jax to that to every girl he meets? "He's in looove with you," she sings, making a kissy face at me. Jax reaches out his hands, glaring fiercely, but the dogs keep him at bay.

Gaia starts to draw. Seconds later, little cartoon hearts start to bubble off of Jax. Breeze snickers. Jax's head looks like a red balloon with ginger hair. "Knock it off!"

Jax jumps over the dogs and pushes Gaia back through the doorway. He grins at us nervously. "Sorry about that. Thanks for taking me back. See ya whenever, or something." He gives one final shove, and slams the door behind him.

Breeze and I walk awkwardly back up the steps to his apartment. I finally decide to break the silence. "So, uh, do you hate Jax still?"

"With a vengeance."

I laugh. "Shut up, you guys are total BFF's."

"Keep thinking that. I wouldn't be surprised if he floated my mattress out to sea while I was asleep," he huffs.

I shrug. "I don't know. He's sorta weird, sorta cute. Like a tabby cat."

"That better be the only reason he's cute." Breeze sighs. "To he honest, he sorta reminds me of you."

"Stop playing."

"I'm not kidding!" Breeze says. "Smart, tough, passive—you’re practically the same person in different bodies.”

"I'll take that as a compliment."

"You see, like that. You guys brush stuff off so easily," Breeze says. "It's crazy."

"You're the crazy one." I think back to that familiar mischievous smile on Jax's face, carefree yet devious. "I thought he was like you."

"Are you calling me the devil?"

I punch him on the arm, but a giggle escapes me. "No. But I can." I roll my eyes. "I mean, he's got that same smile, same look in his eyes. It's no coincidence that you guys went to the same boarding school."

Breeze just goes, "Pssh. As if."

"That sounds an awful lot like something Jax would do. You seem pretty passive, too."

Breeze laughs. He opens the door to his apartment, then pecks me on the cheek. "Love ya, honey," he teases.

"Love you, too, honey," I respond sarcastically. Breeze continues to keep making kissy faces until I slam the door closed for him.

I reluctantly jump back onto the moped with Eros. Pandora said she could just penny board home from here, so I'm left with Eros. He drives up to my house, then walks me to the door.

Eros kisses me on the cheek before I can even say, 'goodbye.' I gulp down a blush. I've blushed enough for one day. Eros opens his mouth to say something, then quickly closes it. He just stares into my eyes for a moment, making all my insides squirmy.

"I'll do it tomorrow, when you turn seventeen," he says blatantly.

"Do...what?" I ask slowly.

"Give you my gift. I've been saving it for a while," he says calmly. I nod. "Um, okay, sure. I'll look forward to it." Eros walks off, whistling and spinning his keys around his finger.

I walk inside the familiar faded green doors. Empty, as usual. Mom is still at work, and Delphi and Ambrosia are always doing college classes and stuff. I run upstairs, jump onto my bed.

Then I scream into my pillow.

Today's been confusing. But tomorrow's another day. I'm turning seventeen.

<~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~>

I make the monumental mistake of not wearing protective padding to school.

"AAARCAAADIA!" An ear splitting shriek echoes so loudly, I think that Australia just learned my name. Pandora tackles me to the ground, blowing a noise maker in my face.

"You're seventeen! Yaaaaay!"

"Yes, it's very cool, very cool. Now please get off me."

The day continues on, with a few students and even a couple teachers wishing me a happy birthday and asking when I'm turning. I tell them all it's technically tonight at midnight, because I was born in Canada and it was an hour behind. In Vermont, I was born August 11, exactly 11:00. Here in the U.S., I'm technically born August 12, midnight. It's pretty confusing, so I never go into detail.

Finally, school ends. Breeze and Pandora then blindfold me. And let me just say that teleportation is extremely disorienting when you don't know where you're going.

I have to blindly walk, following the sounds of Breeze and Pandora giggling until I finally reach a tall, wooden structures. Door, maybe?

"Okay, take off the blindfold." I take off the blindfold. The piece of cloth depicts a rainbow and a unicorn in space. "Ouch, offensive." Breeze chuckles.

I stare at the unfamiliar dark wood door. "Who's house is this?"

The door opens, revealing that horribly familiar smirk. "Mine, hon."

I stare at Pandora with wide eyes. "We're at Eros's house!?"

"Maybe...."

I try my best to look as indifferent as possible as we walk into the mansion.

Yes. It's a mansion.

Eros's fancy little mansion on top of a hill overlooking fancy little valleys full of fireflies, with a big lawn cut by all his fancy servants. No wonder he's so annoying.

Eros points lazy at the spiraling staircase. "Game room and my room is up there, plus a few guest rooms. Go wherever you like."

He leads us into a kitchen that's bigger than all the rooms in my house combined. Eros then points at a giant fridge that takes up the entire wall. Breeze's jaw drops.

"Snacks are in there, and in the cupboard over there. Soda fountain's next to it."

Eros leads us to another room, with a fancy curved, glass TV, surrounded by curved couches and massage chairs. "It's voice activated. Watch whatever. And that ends the tour."

Pandora jumps into a massage chair. She giggles shakily as it starts to vibrate violently.

"P-P-l-l-a-a-y a-a-n-y D-i-i-s-n-n-e-y M-Mo-o-o-o-v-i-e-e."

Hercules starts to play on the screen. Pandora pumps her fists. "Y-a-a-a-a-y!"

Breeze grabs my hand, practically jumping up and down. "Let's go raid the fridge and play some COD! Please, please, please!"

"Sure, fine."

Eros pushes my back. I yelp. "Go play,” he says gently, like he’s talking to a shy child. I can’t say I don’t feel like one though, in this giant, intimidating beast of a house. “There's a fridge up in the room with snacks, next to the TV."

Breeze suddenly grins. "Is it as big as this one?"

Eros smirks back. “Bigger."

Eros grabs my other hand, and we all run upstairs to the game room. Despite my distaste for all the fancy rooms, even I have to admit the game room is cool. A huge, dark room with glow-in-the-dark paint splattered across the walls, a snack bar, and every game console/game chair ever invented. He has Alien consoles. Alien!

I jump into the purple glowing game chair. "Call it!"

And let me just say that I dominate at COD. After bashing in Breeze's and Eros's face and snacking on so many Doritos it's a sin, I join Pandora for karaoke. By 11:45, I've giggled so hard I start to wonder if death by being too happy is possible.

My phone rings as Breeze sings, "Heartbreak Hotel." I have to search around for ages until I find a back door in the kitchen. Eros's backyard is a huge valley full of fireflies, like little stars that fell from the sky and grew wings. I almost forget to answer my phone.

"Hello?"

"Is this my little girl who's turning seventeen?"

"Hey, dad!"

"Wait, let me put it on video."

I lift the screen so the camera is pointing at me. My dad's husky, dark skinned face and scraggly beard crackles onto the screen. Snow rains down from every angle, frost building up in his eyebrows and beard and giving him a look similar to Santa Claus. He adjusts his fur parka.

"Hey, guess where I am?"

I walk as I stare at the screen, smiling. "Where?"

"Vermont, CA. Canada for life baby!"

I giggle. "Seriously? That's awesome."

"Ten minutes till eleven. Or twelve, depending where you are," he says, chuckling. "You're as unique as every snowflake here, Arcadia. Have an awesome B-day. I'll give you some real cool stuff next time you visit. How do you feel about a maple syrup scented sweater?"

"That sounds absolutely rad."

The video starts to crackle and static even worse. "Oh, geez. I better go before the satellite cuts off. Love you—"

The screen goes black. 'Connection Lost' flashes across the screen in red letters. I mumble as I slip my phone back in my pocket," Love you, too."

I realize just how far I've walked once I put my phone away. I find myself on top of a grassy green hill, overlooking a lake. I sit down on the top of the hill, catching fireflies in my hands and staring out over the lake.

"Best birthday ever," I murmur softly as a little firefly flies out of my palms.

"Don't be so sure, yet."

Eros sits down next to me, crossing his legs neatly. He grins at me. "It's not the best until I get here."

"Ha-ha." I snort and push his shoulder. Eros pushes me right back. We both sit there for a few moments, just looking over at the lake and basking in moon and starlight.

Eros's hand slowly clasps its finger with mine. My cheeks flush, and I pretend I don't mind. And I mean, I guess I don't.

"You're pretty special."

I stare at Eros with wide eyes as he smiles at me. "W-What...what'd you say?"

"I said you're special. I've always thought that." Eros takes a few deep breaths through his nose. "You're always helping people. Even before you knew how to use your magic properly, you helped people. I've always admired you."

"Admire? Me?" I point to my dumbfounded face. "Like, me as in me?"

Eros snorts. "Yes, you. You're cool, you help people, you don't let people bother you. You're the coolest girl on the planet."

I nod, trying to hide the fact that my heart is having a seizure. "Of course I am."

"So, how long to midnight? I'm going to be the first to give you my present," Eros says.

I glance at the timer on my phone. "About ten seconds."

"Alright, close your eyes."

"What?"

"Just close your freaking eyes."

I reluctantly do so. I can hear Eros counting shakily under his breath. "3, 2, 1..."

Eros's lips press to mine. And suddenly, I'm in Arcadia. The brief kiss lasts for ages in my mind. I lift my fingers to my still burning lips. Warm. They were very...warm.

Eros chuckles nervously.

"H-Happy Birthday."

I nod. "Definitely. Very, very, very happy birthday."

My stomach lifts. I blink. When I open my eyes, I'm back in the house. I find Breeze snickering and Pandora giggling uncontrollably, laughing like a maniac as she rolls back and forth on the floor.

"Happy birthday!" They both shout.

A bit late. But I still love them.

Pandora thrusts a small, sparkly white whistle in the shape of a wing into my hand. "Pegasi whistle! You know, just in case." She shrugs, as if to say, "I know I'm awesome." I laugh. "Thanks, Panda." I give her a tight hug, all while she blows her noise maker and giggles.

Breeze grins at me. I raise an eyebrow. "Is that your way of saying, 'I didn't buy you a present so please don't hate me'?"

"Naw. Well, yes." I roll my eyes. "Okay, okay, I won't curse you this year."

Breeze quickly waves his hands. "No, no, I really do have present for you!" Breeze leans forward, and plants a kiss right on my lips. My jaw drops. I think Eros might have passed out.

Breeze teleports to the top of the staircase and sings at the top of his lungs, "And I-I-I-I, will alwaaaays love youuuuu!"

"Breeze, you maniac!"

Eros stomps up the stairs, shouting, "Breeze! Get back here, there's no way you can copy my gift and get away with it!"

Pandora skips up the stairs, singing along with Breeze. I turn the whistle around in my fingers as I walk up the stairs, following the sound of cackling, shouting, and laughter.

Well, as it turns out, maybe I am a little bit special. But even if I'm not, I don't need to be. There's just one thing in life that just makes you happy no matter what.

And It Isn't Magic.