April

Day 9

"Good morning, Liv!"

Liv slid out of bed and rubbed her eyes. "Where am I?"

"California." Suddenly Maddi appeared in front of her.

Liv blinked. "Oh right. This boring trip."

"Boring? Trip? Neither of those describe what we're doing here, Liv."

"Fine, boring event."

Maddi turned and went back to brushing her hair in front of the mirror. "What makes it boring? I think it's fun."

"I dunno, Brandon and I haven't really been getting along."

Maddi stopped. "Breakup?"

"No! I guess we just have too many chances to be together."

"Breakup?"

"...maybe."

Maddi tried to pick what emotion to react with. "Uh-bad? That's bad!"

Liv sat at the foot of her bed. "Yeah, how am I going to tell him?"

Maddi threw her brush across the room and launched herself over to sit next to Liv. "In text?"

"We're living in the same house. I think maybe I should give it time. Maybe I'm just imagining this."

"Time...maybe, but you should probably break up with him."

Liv scowled. "He'll be heart broken."

"And what are you going to do about it? He'll be sad then he'll get over it."

"You make it sound fast."

Maddi laughed nervously. "Yeah, he might be really upset. But I care about you more than him. You should take care of yourself."

"I guess you're right..."

"Hi Poppie!"

Poppie glanced up to see Rene' trotting up to her.

"Oh, hey Rene'."

"How are you?"

Poppie shrugged. "Good I suppose."

Rene' glanced back and Poppie saw Carson, Brendon, and Kirk walk in.

"I wonder why they're always together." Rene' spoke.

"Maybe cause their friends?"

"Oh, that makes sense. Hah, how could I be so stupid?"

Poppie chuckled. "Yeah, Kaylen and I are always together."

"It's reassuring that you're family." Rene' giggled. "And Kaylen's straight, right?"

Poppie nodded.

Rene' again looked back and Poppie watched as Carson made eye contact with her.

Suddenly, Rene' grabbed Poppie by the shoulder and kissed her right on the mouth. Poppie was startled, her stomach was doing summersaults. That was her first kiss ignoring the time when she kissed people on dares. But this was on purpose, and Rene' was the one that had kissed her. It wasn't Poppie, it was Rene'.

Both girls' faces were red when Rene' stepped away.

"S-sorry-..."

Poppie laughed nervously. "It's uh it's okay heh."

Rene' shifted uncomfortably. "Well, anyway, bye-!" With that she turned and hurried away, leaving Poppie dumbstruck.

"So, what do you want to do?" Alex asked.

Lexi shrugged. "We don't have to do anything together."

"Sure we do. Can we like, go out on a date?"

Lexi bit her lip. "I doubt it. I need to go to the bathroom." Lexi stood up from the window seat and went for the stairs, despite knowing there being a bathroom right down the hall. She had to get away from Alex for at least a little bit. The whole relationship thing was weird. At first it felt right, like they were always meant to be together. But then when Lexi thought about it, she didn't feel right. Alex was her friend. Always at least a foot away. They couldn't be dating. Then again, if she just waited for the weird feeling to go away, her and Alex would probably be fine.

Lexi sighed as she looked at herself in the mirror. She wished she and Alex could just go back to be friends without any weird feelings.

Rylen stepped off the stairs and started for the living room then again saw Alex and Lexi at the window. Wait, no. Rylen glanced over and saw it was only Alex. What was she doing alone? Usually she was always with Lexi. Or was that just his imagination?

Rylen turned back to face what was in front of him and walked to the kitchen. There were camera people everywhere, but everyone had gotten used to them. They even managed to have private conversations without acknowledging them.

Rylen saw who was at the counter and made eye contact with Kimberly. He quickly looked away, avoiding an awkward conversation.

Alex stood and headed towards the kitchen. Once she saw Rylen she stopped. She wanted to talk to him. Get him to say what he thought about their breakup. But no, now wasn't the time.