{89}✔️

Dahlia's POV

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"I feel so refreshed!" Cadence grinned as she stretched her arms above her head. I opened the door to Mrs. Bledgin's classroom with a bright smile on my own face. I feel pretty refreshed too. This weekend was really nice, and I'm happy we did it. I had so much fun spending time with all the girls and I honestly hope we do it again soon.

Monday's usually suck ass, but I feel like this one might not!

Or maybe it will.

"What's that bitch doing in your seat again?!" Cadence hissed as she slapped my arm. I looked over at my desk and rolled my eyes once I saw Luna sitting in it again. "And why the hell is Billie talking to her?"

My eyes moved slightly to the side and I saw that yeah, Billie was, in fact, talking to her, and she didn't seem to mind whatever conversation they were having. There was a small smile on her lips as they spoke, and Billie was leaning closer to Luna than I'd say she really needed to.

Hell fucking no.

I can't. I cannot.

"I'm gonna beat their asses." Cadence grumbled as she began to walk toward them, but I quickly yanked her back.

"Chill. Let's just...Assess the situation." I mumbled.

"There's nothing to assess, Dahlia! That stupid bitch is talking to your girl, probably trying to weasel her way into her panties again, and you should be over there dragging her by those ridiculous pigtails she's got like you're Mrs. Trunchbull from Matilda!"

"Take your seats, ladies." Mrs. Bledgin tried to be assertive, but one glare from Cadence and she decided to just go back to her desk.

"Calm down. We don't know what they're even talking about. It could be important."

"It could be some bullshit." She spat before storming over there. I sighed as I trudged behind her, watching as she leaned over her own desk and tapped harshly on Luna's shoulder. Luna turned to face her, a scowl making its way onto her face as she did. "What?!" She spat.

I stepped closer to Cadence, watching her closely as I tried to make sure she wouldn't lunge at Luna or anything. She looked like she wanted to, but she didn't.

"That's Dahlia's seat."

"I don't see her name on it."

"Didn't you two already have this discussion once? You know, when she slung your ass across the room like you were a bowling ball and the desks you bumped your big ass forehead on were the pins?!" Cadence seethed.

I laughed before clearing my throat and waving at Luna as she turned to glare at me. "Yeah, that's my seat, babe." I mumbled as I stepped closer to her.

"Billie said I could sit here."

I looked over at her and raised my brows and Billie shook her head. "Nah, I said you could sit there until she got here. Now she's here. So dip."

Luna muttered to herself as she stood up, not bothering to pull her skirt down as it rode up and practically showed her underwear. Billie's eyes flickered down to her ass and I narrowed my own eyes as I stared at Luna's devilish little beady orbs.

"My bad. Babe." She spat before turning to go back to the desk Mrs. Bledgin had told her to sit in after I slung her that day.

"What the fucking hell—"

"Cadence." I warned as I sat down.

"Sorry about her," Billie sighed. "She just needed to ask me some questions about that home ec project."

"Yeah, speaking of that," I pulled Petrillo out of my book-bag and handed her to Billie, hoping she wouldn't know that it was actually her turn to take care of Capone. "Here."

She sent me a look and I sighed as I realized that she did know. "Well, it's not like she's crying!" I grumbled as I snatched her back and handed Billie Capone.

"That's because they're programmed not to cry at school unless we're at lunch or in home ec." I mocked her as she quoted Mrs. East, rolling my eyes when she was finished speaking. "You wanna come over to my house today and work on the project?"

"Sure." I sighed. I'm sick of this stupid ass project already.

"Cool. Do you think Denny would be willing to come over too? Finneas said something about them needing to finish up something they started while they were hanging out this weekend. I'm pretty sure they were playing an intense game of nerdy ass chess."

"Yeah, I'll ask him."

***

"I want to die." Billie sighed as she used her hands to cover her ears. We're in home ec and every single one of the babies is crying. Granted, only six groups have babies, but it's still really loud.

"Stop whining and help me!" I huffed as I shoved Capone into her chest. She begrudgingly grabbed him and I handed her a bottle, hoping that'd calm him down. "Okay, answer the question, Billie. Come on."

"Repeat it!" She shouted over all the crying and I sighed before picking up the paper again.

The first scenario we have about family and friends.

"Scenario 1:

Your mother in law is coming to your town for a two-week visit, but she can only afford to stay at a hotel for a week. Your spouse wants to invite her to stay with you guys for the second week, but when your mother in law is around she always instigates arguments. You can either offer to pay for her hotel stay during the second week, which will put you behind on the rent, or you can offer to let her stay with you guys, which will inevitably cause arguments which you will suffer the consequences for in your already unstable marriage. Which will you do and why?"

This is honestly like an interactive game. Every choice we make leads to another scenario, each one seemingly worse than the last. If we didn't have to do a fucking thirty-page report on this and deal with a wailing baby, it might actually be fun.

I waited for her to answer the question, opting to ignore my screaming baby and instead get ready to type out her response. When she didn't respond for more than a minute, I looked over to see what she was doing and rolled my eyes as I realized that she was too busy fiddling with Capone's bottle to pay attention to me.

"Billie, answer the question."

"Huh? Can you repeat that?"

I shoved the paper into her hands and let her read the question herself. After she'd read it, she looked up at me and furrowed her eyes. "We need code names so it's easier to decipher who did what."

"Code names?" I raised a brow.

She nodded. "So this is your mother in law. Your name is gonna be Dakota and I'll be Brianna."

"Why do we have to change our names? Why do—"

"Fine. Dahlia and Billie."

She spent half the class filling our names into all the scenarios. We only had ten minutes left by the time she got done.

"So, answer the question." I sighed when she was finally done.

"...What was it again?"

"We'll just work on this when we get to your house." I mumbled after somebody's baby started crying again.

***

"You need to chill." I told Cadence as I rocked Petrillo back and forth.

"Prom is two fucking months away and I still don't know what the fuck I'm gonna wear! How can you tell me to chill?!"

"Two months is a long time and you know you'll find something to wear way before prom, and you'll look bomb in whatever you choose to throw on over your ass too." I rolled my eyes.

"You gotta shut that shit up." Billie groaned as she pointed to Petrillo. I glared at her. "Shut the fuck up! I'm trying my best and it's not like you're doing anything to help. It's as if I'm a single parent!"

"If you can't shut that shit up you will be." She stuck out her tongue before turning to look at Cadence, who she was sitting beside. "You'll look great in whatever you wear."

"Thanks. I still don't know what the fuck—Ooh!" Cadence grinned as she turned her laptop around so that I could take a look. "I don't know if I like this dress, but I love the color."

I took a bite out of my celery stick before leaning over to look at it. Hot pink. I don't think I'd ever wear a hot pink dress to prom, but if anyone could pull it off it'd be Cadence. "It'll look great with your skin tone." I nodded.

"I don't know, I'll have to ask Gigi. We're gonna match and shit, obviously."

I sent her a sly grin and watched as she blushed, trying to avoid my stare. "So, Gigi and you are going to prom, hmm?"

"Mhm."

"You two started hanging out after the Sadie's dance which was back in November...hm?"

"Yeah."

"So that means that by the time prom comes around you guys will have been together for six entire months. Hmm?"

"I guess."

I was silent for a moment before I let out a weird squeal and bounced around in my seat, clapping. "Cadence, do you realize that this is your first ever, real-life boyfriend?!"

"Oh...Oh, no!" She shook her head quickly. "He's just my crush! I mean, he hasn't asked me out or anything and I—"

"He is totally not just your crush! He likes you just as much as you like him and you guys are literally a couple you just don't have the labels yet!" I grinned. "I'm happy for you. You've been waiting for this for forever!"

"Thanks, I guess, but until he officially asks me out I don't think you have all that much to be happy for." She shrugged. "He's really cute, though, isn't he?" She giggled.

"Totally." I smirked.

"So, what color are you wearing to prom, Dahlia?" Billie asked after a few moments. I shrugged my shoulders. "I have no idea. Haven't thought about it that much. Why?"

"What do you mean why?" She chuckled. "We've got tickets and I have to match you. Remember?"

My mouth fell open and so did Caden's, his taco shell crumbs falling right out of it. He'd been quietly munching this whole time, not making a peep as he enjoyed his food, but now he decided to speak up.

"What?! You're going to go to prom with her? You two are going together?! What?" He asked.

It was Billie's turn to shrug. "We've got tickets."

"I figured that we weren't gonna go together anymore, cause, you know..." I looked down at my plate and grabbed two more celery sticks, shoving them into my mouth so I could chew on them nervously instead of my lip.

"We don't have to go together if you don't want, but if I don't have a date then I'm not going and I just figured that maybe we could still be each other's dates? Unless you find someone else and then you can go with them if you want! I just...um...Go to prom with me?" She blushed.

I nodded quickly. "Yeah, that's cool. Right, yeah. That's cool. That's...Right. Yeah." I shoved another celery stick in my mouth after that.

It was completely silent for a few minutes as we all ate. Cadence kept shopping for her prom dress on her laptop, Caden was too distracted by his food to give a damn about anything going on around him, Billie was scrolling through her phone and I was munching on my celery sticks.

It was almost the end of lunch before Billie spoke again.

"Yo, so I've been meaning to ask you when's the baby shower?"

"Baby what?"

"Baby shower. For Denver and Julia."

I frowned as I thought about it. I hadn't even thought of that. I mean, granted, it wasn't all that long ago that I found out Julia was pregnant. It's been a lot to process and a baby shower was the last thing I was thinking of.

But it's definitely something we should be thinking of.

"Don't baby showers usually happen later on in the pregnancy? Julia's only four months pregnant."

"I don't know." She shrugged.

She picked up her phone and began scrolling through Instagram once again.

I don't know when or if we'll do a baby shower, but I'm definitely gonna ask Julia and Denny about it. Could be fun. Of course, they'll have to tell dad about the baby before we can have anything, and who knows when they'll do that.