That day at school, I was afraid for possibly my life. If Blake let anything slip... I was dead. I was afraid to mention anything though. What if he decided he would tell someone? In English class, he talked to me like normal, but he seemed reserved. He wasn't his usual happy-self. Then Mateo came over.

"Hey man, why'd you leave last night? It was awesome!" he said. Blake looked back at me; a reminder. Apparently Mateo paid little to no attention to me last night.

"Something came up," Blake said exasperated. Mateo rolled his eyes.

"Whatever. Are we still hanging out tonight? Gwen wants to go see a movie or something."

"I can't. I have to work on the project," he looked back at me; "You're free tonight, right?"

"I don't know. Maybe," I said. Who knows what Drew had planned after last night. Mateo rolled his eyes again and left. Blake turned his attention back to me. He looked worried. He opened his mouth to speak, but somehow I knew what he was going to ask. "Maybe if we just go straight to your house I can. But not if I go home. He'll..." I didn't finish. Not jsut because i didn't know, but because I didn't want Blake to have the slightest idea either.

"Ok. We'll do that then," he said.

At lunch, Briar demanded to know why she had to be my mother last night. I explained to her how we went to the club and Drew had had too much to drink.

"Who's Blake?" she wondered. I explained to her how he's my parnter for an English assignment, and how he's really nice and fun to be around. She smiled and elbowed me lightly. "Ooh, he sounds like a great guy!" she gigglled. I raised an eyebrow at her.

"He's just a friend... Maybe not even that. He might just be being nice so it's not awkward working together," I said.

"Mhm, sure," Briar smiled. I rolled my eyes. There's be no convincing her of anything she didn't want to hear.

"Shut up and eat," I grumbled.

After school, I was afraid that Blake had been kidding or something about going to his house. I couldn't find him anywhere. I started to panic; I didn't want to go home. I'd actually been looking forward to going to Blake's; anything to avoid Drew. I looked around for him, and an amazing feeling of relief came over me when I saw him. It quickly vanished when I saw he was also in his group of friends. I slowly and awkwardly made my way over to him. Everyone turned and looked at me surprised, except Blake.

"Hey. Sorry, I was just talking. We'll go in a minute," he said. I nodded and he turned back to everyone. Heidi wrinkled her nose in disgust.

"Where are you going with her?" she sneered. I felt my face blush. Blake sighed.

"We're just going to work on Sullivan's assignment, ok? It's fine, babe," he said quietly. Heidi was quiet, then glared in my direction. I quickly looked to the ground. Blake whispered something to her, then kissed her. "Ok, let's go," he said; turning to me. We went to the student parking lot, and got in his truck.

"I'm sorry I got you in trouble," I said quietly. He started the engine and pulled away.

"It's fine," he shrugged. "She just gets jealous a lot." Yeah, but why would Heidi be jealous of me? The ride in the truck was very quiet now, because all I could think about, and probably the same for Blake, was about last night. I'd been so stupid; I should've just lied.

"Mateo was kinda P.O.'ed that I left last night," he chuckled.

"Oh crap, were you his ride home?" I asked alarmed. He laughed and shook his head.

"No, he rode there in his car with Gwen."

"I didn't see Gwen there."

"Yeah, she didn't really want to go; she was off to the side. She said the music was giving her a headache." I nodded. Another awkward silence. "Gwen likes you," he told me. "She said she wants to hang out sometime."

"Oh, uh... ok...?" I said. Like I said, I've never actually talked to Gwen. How could she like me when she's never even met me?

"I told her about you. She said you seem really nice. I told her you are," he smiled. Oh. That explains it. My face turned pink again.

"Oh, uh... Thanks."

After a little while longer, we got to Blake's house. His house made mine seem even more like a piece of crap. It was really big, and white with a grey roof. The windows were big with clean, uncracked panes. We went inside, and the inside was even fancier. It was so big, and clean.

"Hello Blake, who's thi---" his mom stopped. She looked terrified. I bit my lip, and shifted my weight to one side uncomfortably. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Blake give his mother a warning glare. She cleared her throat to recompose herself. "Uhm, who's this?" she finished.

"This is Irina," Blake introduced me. I attempted to smile. She did not look happy.

"Hi," I squeaked. She pasted on a warm smile.

"Hello dear." There was the thud of feet running down the stairs. Two kids, maybe twelve and ten bounded down them. The little boy stopped, and then little girl collided into him before she could stop. Their eyes widened. Great...

"Whoa!" the boy said. I started playing with my fingers. Would this never end? I was starting to think I'd rather go home and face Drew. Blake gave the kids the same look.

"Irina, this is my brother Chase, and my sister Sara," Blake introduced. I waved nervously at the kids; not making eye contact. He sighed. "Let's go," he said. I followed him up the stairs, into his room. The walls were painted a dark army green. There was trash everywhere; and I thought my room was bad... I took a seat on his desk chair. He sat on the bed and sighed. "I'm sorry about that. They're just not used to seeing..." he paused for the right word.

"A freak?" I offered. It didn't matter to me calling myself that; I've heard it plenty of times before. Blake seemed surprised that I said it.

"You're not a freak," he said. "You're just unique." I laughed.

"Well put, I guess," I smiled.

We began working on the project again. We finished up my interview, then he tore out some loose leaf and handed a page to me; we began working on the biography part. We still talked in between, and got almost nowhere with the assignment.

"Kids! Dinner!" his mother called from downstairs.

"Come on," Blake chuckled. I followed him downstairs, to a big dinner table. On the table was roast beef and salad as a side. I bit my lip as I took my seat. I was introduced to Blake's father, who had the calmest of all reactions. I like him best...

"Go 'head, Irina," he said. "Help yourself."

"Uh... I'm a vegetarian," I said softly. His parents looked at each other worriedly.

"Oh, we're sorry," his mother replied. "We didn't know..."

"It's ok," I said quickly. They let me have some salad instead, which I didn't mind because my dad likes to eat at places where the only non-meat thing they have is salad. After dinner, we went back to Blake's room.

"Sorry about that," Blake apologized again.

"It's ok," I said again for the millionth time. "You didn't know." He smiled.

After a couple hours, it was time for me to go home.

"Thank you for having me," I said after I shook hands with his parents. They seemed a little surprised for some reason, but then smiled. We got back into Blake's truck so he could take me home. I was a little sad; we finished the interviews, so he probably wouldn't talk to me anymore. We pulled into my driveway. My heart lunged when I saw another car in the driveway, but then felt better when I saw it was my Dad's.

"How 'bout sometime I'll come over and fix your car?" he asked. "It's still busted, right?" I nodded.

"Uh, sure. Yeah, that's be great. Thanks," I smiled. Ok, so maybe he would still talk to me...

"Bye," he said. I got out of the truck and waved as he pulled out. Then I went inside. Dad and Kara were there, along with Hera. Dad looked pissed.

"Where have you been?!" he bellowed. I nearly dropped the house keys.

"At Blake's...? We were working," I said.

"Didn't you bother to tell me where you were going to be?!" Why? You're never home, I thought.

"I'm sorry," I said. He put his hand to his face and sighed. The rest of us stood there in silence for a while, while he calmed down.

"Ok. It's over, and you're ok. Now, would you girls please go to the couch? We have something we want to tell you." Maybe they weren't gonna marry, I thought. Wouldn't that be nice. I went to the living room, and sat on the couch. Hera made a point to sit as far away as she could on the far end of the couch. I rolled my eyes. What, am I contagious or something? Dad and Kara stood in front of the couch, looking at each other nervously.

"Well, girls..." Dad said. His face turned pink.

"Uh..." Kara smiled nervously. "Ok, I'm just gonna say it... We're having a baby." My jaw dropped. No. No, no, no. This can't be happening.

"Yay!" Hera said. She jumped up and hugged them. Dad looked to me.

"Irina, aren't you excited? You're going to have a new baby brother or sister!"

I wasn't the least bit excited.