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XII

Thursday October 19th, 2034

In between third and fourth period, Tiana and Brooke gather their books for their last period of the day. While recapping their lunch periods, they decide to take some extra time to catch up on what each of them missed.

"Hey Ti, how was lunch?" Brooke shuffled through the items in her locker, looking for her lip gloss.

"It was okay. Nothing really happened."

"What do you mean? You always have tea to talk about after lunch since you, Nyla, and Ciara have it together."

"Well she's barely talking to me. I don't know what I did, but whenever Nyla would start up a conversation she would only really respond to her. Nyla was still talking to me like normal but Ciara kinda ignored my existence." Tiana's face scrunched up in confusion.

"That's weird. Maybe you said something that hurt her feelings or whatever. Oh, here she comes now, maybe it was just a mood swing." Brooke and Tiana turned to wave to Ciara.

"Hey Ci!" they both waved at the girl as she walked past. Ciara waved back and offered a bland smile, not stopping to talk and catch up like usual.

"What the hell?"

"See? I told you. Maybe she's still mad about last night." Tiana closed her locker and put her backpack on her shoulder.

"Let's just give her some space. She'll be back by the end of the week." Brooke slammed her locker shut and the two walked to their fourth period class.

On the opposite end of the school, Nyla was seated in her seat warming up for her band class. She put her flute together piece by piece, and began doing her warmups and running through the songs they'd been practicing for their winter concert.

Soon, Ciara walked in immediately catching Nyla's eye from across the room. She noticed that Ciara was wearing the golden pins on her cardigan and smiled. They'd gotten them from the school store earlier this week so they could match each other. Once they made eye contact, they both waved and Nyla scooted her chair back to let Ciara into the row they sat in.

"Did you have those pins on earlier at lunch? I didn't notice them." Nyla asked.

"I did, but I left my cardigan in my locker so I wouldn't get anything on it." Ciara sat her flute case down beside her and began putting her instrument together.

"They look good! I like the way you placed them. I couldn't figure out which order I wanted them in."

"I can help you! Facetime me later on after you finish your homework."

"Perfect! Oh by the way, I noticed you were being kind of cold to Tiana at lunch today. Is everything alright between you guys?" Nyla asked, genuinely concerned.

Ciara stopped in her tracks, becoming visibly uncomfortable at the mention of Tiana and Brooke. Unbeknownst to Nyla, the three girls got into an argument over the phone last night about their unnecessary mean comments Brooke and Tiana make about Noah.

Ci had been speaking up about it for a while now. Brooke and Tiana tried to make Ciara to seem overly sensitive, but she stood her ground. She threatened to tell Nyla about the two girls antics, but Brooke got in her head, convincing her that Nyla wouldn't believe her so she kept quiet.

Truth be told, Ciara wasn't a fan of the mean girl persona she had to put on in order to fit in with Brooke and Tiana. It wasn't always this way, but middle school changes people. It didn't help that Ciara was beginning to develop a close bond with Nyla and her twin sister so she chose her side.

Nyla was always nice to her, a true sweetheart. She helped her with her homework, they had similar styles, and when they hung out together after school and on weekends, Ciara got a say in what they did. On top of all of that, a different kind of spark began to bloom between the two after they spent an evening doing each other's hair and nails. To avoid anymore drama, she decided to leave Tiana and Brooke in the past.