Once on Instagram III

Tougher Than The Rest (Part One)

October 5, 2017

Grace was determined to keep her crush a secret, no matter how tempted she was to spill it. She didn't want to ruin a perfectly good friendship, and a relationship between them was doomed from before the beginning. And Grace knew all about doomed relationships. The last thing she wanted was a repeat of her and Henry's relationship that ended even worse. At least she and Henry were still friends. All things considered, their relationship was probably doomed for more reasons than just Violet.

Violet wouldn't have cared if Henry and Ella had love at first sight. Of course she would have been upset, but high school relationships rarely last (even if she thought maybe her and Henry would be the one relationship that did). But if Henry was destined to end up with Ella, then at least Violet wouldn't have any surprises if they'd fallen in love at first sight. However, they hadn't, so now Violet was living in uncertainty. Would she and Henry end up together, or would Henry wake up one day and realize Ella was all he could ever need and never spare Violet another thought? Or would they end up somewhere in between?

Ella was confused. At the start of the school year, Henry had acted weird every time he was around her, like he knew something about Ella that she herself didn't know. Grace assured her Henry wasn't usually like that and it had something to do with him being the Author (whatever that meant). By this point, Henry seemed to be acting a little more normal, but this group of friends Ella had gotten herself into was nowhere near normal in any way. Henry was the son of the King and Queen, Violet was dating him and seemed to be secretive yet open at the same time, and Grace was her neighbor who acted weirder around Ella every day it seemed. Ella's new friends weren't bad, they were just all very strange.

Henry was too worried about his family to focus on high school drama at the moment. He should be worrying about whether he and Violet were really destined to break up, but instead, he was worrying about his grandfather who may or may not be attempting to summon the illuminati and his family who hadn't been heard from since they left in search of him. To make matters worse, Hope and Rose were both with the group that had left which caused Henry to worry even more. Not to mention that tomorrow was... something Henry should not mention.

All four kids had yearbook together under the leadership of Henry and Violet's former creative writing teacher. Henry was clearly distracted, Violet covered for him by saying Riley and Hope were both sick. Ella was trying to proceed as if it were a normal day, but she knew something was off and Grace was acting the weirdest she'd been acting yet. As soon as the teacher stepped out of the room to go to the bathroom, Ella spoke up, "Okay, what is going on with you three?"

"Nothing," Violet answered too quickly. She looked back at her computer screen, as if the conversation was now over.

Ella raised an eyebrow, "Really? Henry has been staring at the clock for the past thirty minutes, you were definitely lying when you said his sisters were both sick, and Grace is just... being weird."

"That's because I'm a weird person in general!" Grace piped up.

"Not this weird."

Henry sighed. He looked around before lowering his voice so he could explain everything to Ella, "Mr. Gold disappeared yesterday and my parents went out looking for him."

"Wait... which parents?"

"All four. Plus Belle, and they took Hope and Rose. And no one's heard from them since they left last night." Henry hung his head, "I just wish I knew something."

"So that's what's up with you and Violet. But why has Grace been acting weirder and weirder lately?"

Both Henry and Violet had their suspicions, but they simply looked at Grace, whose cheeks began to turn pink. She had to think up a lie and fast. "I... I'm worried about coming out as pan to my dad." It was true, Grace had yet to come out to her dad as pan, but she wasn't necessarily worried about it. "I just don't know how he's going to react."