24

Brooke

Jake walked back to Auriana who was still standing with us at the beverage tables.

"Hey, Principal Nickolas wants us to sing another song."

"Which one?" We went through all the songs we had together.

"Let's sing: This is us," Emma suggested. Auriana, Jake, and Skylar thought about it for a moment and agreed.

"Sounds like a good idea," Jake said. Emma grabbed Skylar by the wrist and pulled her along.

"Skylar and I will tell the others," Emma called over her shoulder. Auriana and Jake had no choice but to agree. Auriana quickly drained her drink. Jake held out his hand and Auriana grabbed it with a smile. Together they walked hand in hand towards the stage. Auriana stumbled as she was about to walk onto the stage but Jake caught her just in time. Jeremy and I burst out laughing but quickly stopped after an angry look from Jake. Nikki handed out the microphones.

"Hey guys! Do you want to hear another song?" Scarlet asked. The crowd cheered.

"This song is called: This is us!" Emma said. Jake, Jimmy, Jeremy, and Nikki put on the headsets and started playing.

"We're not afraid of the dark,"

"We even lived there for a little while,"

"But now our eyes are wide open,"

"We'll never shut them again,"

"Yeah, we'll speak up,"

"We won't let the past defy us,"

"That's not who we are,"

"Anymore,"

"We let the words cut us down once,"

"We're not ashamed of our scars,"

"We are strong, we are brave,"

"We are who we're meant to be, this is us,"

"Watch out 'cause we are marching on,"

"Can't break us down, together we'll stand,"

"No longer scared to show you who we really are,"

"This is us,"

"Woah-oh-oh-oh,"

"Woah-oh-oh-oh,"

"Woah-oh-oh-oh,"

"Woah-oh-oh-oh,"

"Woah-oh-oh, woah-oh-oh,"

"Woah-oh-oh, oh, oh,"

"Sticks and stones might break our bones,"

"So go ahead, 'cause we won't let the words hurt us anymore,"

"We are breaking the status quo,"

"We're reaching for the sky,"

"Yeah, we are breaking free,"

"We won't let the past defy us,"

"That's not who we are,"

"Anymore,"

"We let the words cut us down once,"

"We're not ashamed of our scars,"

"We are strong, we are brave,"

"We are who we're meant to be, this is us,"

"Watch out 'cause we are marching on,"

"Can't break us down, together we'll stand,"

"No longer scared to show you who we really are,"

"This is us,"

"Woah-oh-oh-oh,"

"Woah-oh-oh-oh,"

"Woah-oh-oh-oh,"

"Woah-oh-oh-oh,"

"Woah-oh-oh, woah-oh-oh,"

"Woah-oh-oh, oh, oh,"

"As long as we're together,"

"There's nothing that we can't do,"

"We let the words cut us down once,"

"We're not ashamed of our scars,"

"We are strong, we are brave,"

"We are who we're meant to be, this is us,"

"Watch out 'cause we are marching on,"

"Can't break us down, together we'll stand,"

"No longer scared to show you who we really are,"

"This is us,"

"We let the words cut us down once,"

"We're not ashamed of our scars,"

"We are strong, we are brave,"

"Can't break us down, together we'll stand,"

"This is us."

We put the microphones back on their stands. Jake and Jimmy jumped off the stage and then lifted Auriana and me off the stage. They were really trying to impress us. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Katie standing there, I walked over and pulled her over to Chase and Taylor.

"Hey Brooke, Hey Katie," Taylor said. She had touched up her makeup and had calmed down. Her eyes were still a little red from crying.

"Hey Taylor, you do know your name is Taylor Taylor, right?" Katie asked, laughing. Taylor apparently hadn't thought about that yet.

"Yeah now that you mention it," Taylor said, laughing. She didn't really care, she could always keep her own last name.

"Hey, congrats man," I said to Chase, poking his side with my elbow. On the other side of the gym, secrets were being made.

Jake

"Jake? Can you get Jimmy and Jeremy?" Michelle asked. When I heard my name I looked up in surprise and saw the assistant of the principal standing right next to me.

"Of course Michelle." I ran off to look for Jimmy and Jeremy who both had to be somewhere in the hall. During the preparations for the party we had not only gotten to know the principal, but also her assistant from a completely different side. Jeremy was standing with a group of boys I didn't know.

"Jeremy, Michelle needs us, do you know where Jimmy is?" Together we looked around the gym until Jeremy had spotted him and pointed in the right direction.

"In the corner on the other side of the gym with Brooke." I walked to the other side of the gym and saw Brooke and Jimmy kissing. Were Auriana and I that clingy too? No way? With a sigh I walked over to Jimmy and pulled him along by his ear.

"Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!" Jimmy squeaked. The three of us walked over to Michelle.

"Okay, you need to help me put a table on the stage." Jimmy rubbed his red ear.

"Okay…for what?" My eyes wandered to Auriana who was dancing with the girls. Michelle gave me a gentle squeeze on the arm to get my attention back to her.

"You really like her, don't you?" she asked. Before I could answer, my cheeks gave me away.

"Yes, from the moment she pushed me away until now." My cheeks must've almost been as red as a strawberry. I couldn't help it, as soon as I thought about her, it felt like a whole zoo in my stomach.

"But can't it be that you're in love with what she did?" Michelle asked. That was what Auriana had thought at first, but nothing could be further from the truth. I shook my head wildly.

"No, really with her." Michelle, Jimmy, Jeremy and I walked away.

Scarlet

"Hey, where are the boys going?" I asked, surprised. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the foursome walk out of the gym.

"I don't know," Emma said. Nikki and Skylar walked over to the table and poured drinks.

"Hey Auriana, what's the deal with that new job of yours?" Nikki asked.

"I didn't get it," Auriana replied.

"Why not?" Brooke asked.

"Because I forgot my application because of my memory loss…" Auriana laughed. We all had forgotten some appointments and things because of everything that had happened in the past two months.

"We could always start a babysitting business together," Brooke said. She stuffed the last bite of her brownie into her mouth. I didn't respond to that. I have to tell them, but they're having such a good time. Why didn't I tell them in the beginning…they're my best friends and I'm not going to keep it a secret any longer, I thought to myself. I walked up to the stage and grabbed a microphone.

"Can I have your attention for a moment?" Everyone went quiet and looked at me.

"Girls? Remember when I told you I was moving to Whittersville?" The girls nodded. That was the reason for this whole thing of course.

"You're my best friends and I love you, my mom freaked out when we were packing and cried for days until she said she wouldn't stop until my dad promised we wouldn't go." A shiver ran down my spine as I thought back to the past two weeks. My parents had been fighting so much about the move that they decided it might be better to split up.

"So you're not going?" the girls asked in unison. They clearly didn't know what I was trying to say yet.

"Actually we are moving, but not to Whittersville." Emma had enough of my blabbering and grabbed a microphone.

"Just say what you want to say Scar."

"My dad is moving to Whittersville, My mom, Max and I are moving to another house on Tenth Street here in Westbrook!" I said. I looked at my friends expectantly.

"So you're just going to stay here?!?!!" the girls said in unison. The girls climbed up on stage and threw their arms around my neck.

"Move!" Jeremy said as he, Jake, Michelle and Jimmy lifted a table onto the stage. Principal Nickolas followed them with two boxes and a sheet. The boys jumped off the stage.

"Would you like something to drink?" the boys asked. They quickly joined us again.

"We'll help," Nikki and Skylar said.