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1.2

"I'm fine, Leah. I promise." Gabriella smiled and sat down, pulling Marcus next to her. The two other girls sat across from them, Demi's bag spilling it's innards onto the table and over Leah's homework which lay uncompleted in front of her. 

"So how is Lorelai and her daughter?" Demi asked, fiddling with a piece of her hair as it fell naturally around her face. 

"They're okay. It'll take me a while to adjust I think, but they both seem nice. Rory, the daughter, starts Chilton next Monday." Gabby explained, putting her sports bag on the table and tightening the straps on her backpack. She would have to stop off at her locker before first period, there was no way she was carrying all her stuff until Games after lunch. 

"Poor her." Marcus commented bitterly, head bowed over his crumpled coffee cup. His hand had left his tie and now traced the imprints of pen on the wooden bench, knee jigging up and down. 

"Someone's tired." Demi cooed teasingly, ruffling the boy's messy hair and laughing as he swatted her hand away. 

"M'not." He denied but as he looked up, the bags under his eyes were prominent, even against his olive skin. He ran his free hand through his dark hair, mussing it up yet again, and looked around at the three, "What?" 

"Why didn't you sleep?" Leah asked, brow creased in worry. Marcus shrugged before answering. 

"My brother came home last night and in yet another 'Fuck you!' to my parents, he played Nirvana's 'In Utero' on repeat until 1 in the morning, really really loud." Marcus explained. His brother had been sent to live with the boy's aunt and uncle a few years ago due to bad behaviour, and apparently, he hadn't changed. 

"Good album though." Demi pointed out, and Gabby nodded. 

"I don't like Nirvana." Leah contradicted, raising her eyebrows as the other three chimed in, mocking her. "Fine. Mock me. Sorry for having good taste in music." She retorted good-naturedly, grabbing her pen to scrawl some answers for her homework. At once, all three of the others retorted loudly, voices clashing as their opinions did the same. Leah just smiled and continued writing her Latin verbs in her messy handwriting.  

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"Watch it!" A deep voice hissed angrily as she barged into someone's chest, stumbling back. 

"Take your own advice asshole." Gabriella mumbled back, too quiet for the stranger to hear. She looked up, frowning when she saw the boy in front of her. He was tall, taller than her by quite a bit, not that it was hard. He had the same face shape as Marcus and the same hair, but he had blue eyes, unlike Marcus's brown ones,  and was broader and taller, and his lip wasn't torn up with nerves and his tie wasn't being pulled. She frowned slightly and continued staring. Was this his brother? She had never met him before.  

"What? You like what you see?" The boy asked, tone changing in an instant. Gabriella frowned at him, and despite her will, a blush covered her cheeks in embarrassment. 

"Whatever." She mumbled, again too quiet and walked off, heading to her sister's car. The stranger let her walk past and she heard him chuckle and leave in the opposite way, but she couldn't shake the view of what looked like an older Marcus away from her head. "Hi, Lore. Thank you for picking me up." she greeted, climbing in the car. 

"No problem. Who was that?" She asked gesturing out of the window. She looked tired and troubled, but grinned relentless and clutched a coffee cup in her hand.