"Valentina!" I call down the hall. She's talking to some of the girls that she met on the squad last year, but when she turns around and sees me, she's heading toward me with no hesitation.

That's what I loved about her. She wasn't embarrassed to be my friend after everything that happened over the summer. She stuck by my side even through what people were saying about me.

She wraps her arms around me and nearly knocks me to the floor with the force of her hug. "Hi, Bee. You ready for lunch?"

"Not really," I admit my thoughts. There would be lots of people in that cafeteria, including Naomi Clermont who hated me, and Axel Monroe who I wish hated me.

Val continues to walk with her arm slung around my shoulder. "You know I'll stick by your side the whole time right? How were your classes so far? Anyone bother you?"

"Not really," I say again. I had been expecting a lot worse for the first day. "Maybe I've just been overthinking the whole thing. Maybe people just don't care about what I did this summer."

"What they think you did," She corrects me and suddenly Valentina looks like she wants to punch someone.

"Yeah, I know." When you spent the rest of summer break with practically everyone falsely accusing you, it was easy to lose some self-confidence.

That was my reminder to put on a smile. Being upset about anything for too long wasn't something I enjoyed. "So... I met your cousin, Roman."

"Mierda," she let out aggressively. "Should I be worried? What did he say to you?"

"We were partners for an icebreaker activity, " I shrug. "He has a super hostile aroma. Is he always like that?"

"I'm convinced he was born like that." Val shakes her head.

I laugh. "He can't have been born like that. Surely as a kid, he was-"

"As a kid, he fought with me all the time. He nearly ripped my hair out one time we got in a tussle and so I melted all of his G.I Joes."

"What were you guys fighting about anyway?"

"I don't know. It was likely his fault anyway," She said, and then her eyes widened with a sudden thought. "Unless that was the time I ate from his birthday cake a day early."

"Valentina!"

"Well nobody told me it was his cake. I was seven with a very simple mind. I see a cake, I eat it."

I just shake my head at her as she goes on.  "Anyway, he was the one who went after my hair. Even at that age, my hair was of extreme value to me."

She did have beautiful hair. It was thick and dark and wavy and it shined so silky. Valentina was stunningly gorgeous. With full lips, dark brown eyes, and smooth olive skin, it was no wonder-

I don't even get the chance to finish that thought when I hear someone call from the end of the hall we were heading towards. "Oh Valentine!" he calls in a sing-song manner.

"Jesus, here we go," Val says under her breath as Myles Deaton makes his way over to us.

My thought from before? It was no wonder Myles Deaton was practically obsessed with her.

"I told you, you can call me Valentina or Val," She says, clearly annoyed.

Myles only smirks at her words, making his dimples appear on the sides of his smile. "You know you're my forever valentine, I can't call you anything else."

One bad relationship after another had left Valentina swearing off boys forever she says. But even if she won't admit it to herself or to me, she loves the attention that Myles is constantly giving her. He's been pining since they met at that party early last year.

Myles ran into her with a drink in his hands and spilled it all over her shirt. He didn't even have time to apologize before she was spewing colorful curse words at him in Spanish. He just watched her the whole time and when she was done, his words were, "Yeah, I have no idea what you just said but I think I'm in love with you." I had never seen Val go quite so fast.

Not only that, but when we have our sleepover movie nights, Val finds new actors to gush over. Common denominator? Dimples. All of her newer celebrity crushes had dimples. I don't even think she realized the coincidence, but I certainly did.

So that's how I know when she rolls her eyes at him now, she's masking her secret fluster at his words. I loved knowing things other people didn't.

"Hi, Bestie Briar. How are you?" Myles asks me with his same old nickname for me. I blink at him. The truth was I had no idea how he was going to interact with me this year. He was still friends with the popular kids, but I wasn't.

But the thing is, Myles is the type of person who's friends with everyone. And then I remembered the fact that he had been one of the only people who actually checked up on me when the rumors first started spreading.

This fact made me happy. I loved having Myles as a friend. I wouldn't call us besties like he always did, but I felt very lucky that he was still comfortable saying so.

"Hi Myles," I smile at him. "I'm doing okay. Do you want to have lunch with us?"

As soon as the words came out, I was embarrassed at myself. He already had friends to sit with. "I mean, you don't have to if you have somewhere else to be."

But his smile only grew at my question and it looked like he was going to say yes when Valentina cut him off. "He most certainly does not want to have lunch with us. Get lost, Deaton. This is a girls-only club."

He had followed us into the cafeteria anyway. "Will you ladies be at basketball tryouts this week?"

"Yes, cabrón. Cheerleading tryouts are in the same gym," Val answered for us.

"Oooh, cabrón. Does that by any chance mean something like... handsome? Muscular? Love of your life, maybe?" Her only response was a blank look and he laughed at her silence before moving on. "What about you Briar? Are you trying out this year?"

I take a quick deep breath before answering. "Nope. I don't think it's really for me this year."

"What? That's some bullshit. Weren't you like cheer captain last year or something?"

I laugh at his comment. "I wasn't cheer captain. Naomi's cheer captain."

"But you were like second in rank, weren't you?" He asks.

"I don't think it works like that buddy," I reply.

"Whatever," Val pitched in. "She's being modest. If Naomi weren't on the squad, she would have been captain, easy."

"Anyway, I'm not trying out this year, so it doesn't matter."

"But you shooooould. We had so much fun together on the squad last year. What if I promise to not punch anyone in the face, and what if instead I verbally defend you anytime, and what if instead you focus on your talent and doing what you love instead of what the other jealous bitches think of you?"

I smile nervously as I think of something to say. I didn't want to admit it before, but I really really did love cheerleading. It was one of my happy places.

For the few years I was in middle and high school in a different school district, I dreaded home life, so I stayed at school for as long as I could. I tried different clubs like robotics, book club, theatre, and chess. None of them were as fun or exciting for me as it was when I found cheerleading. It was my natural talent.

So when my Aunt took me in, it was the first and only thing I asked her for. I tried out for the squad that same year and made the team, only getting better at it with time and experience.

"You're not answering because you know I'm right," Val interrupts my thoughts.

"Do it, do it, do it, do it!" Myles chants in support.

"I- I don't know. It's really not a good idea."

"Not with that attitude it's not. You're doing what you love and not letting anybody else get in the way. Do this for you, Bee."

When I stay quiet again, Val takes it as an opportunity to nudge me more. "Okay?" She asks.

"Okay," I find myself agreeing. "I can try out."

Valentina quietly screeches in celebration and Myles gives me a high five. That seems to remind Val that she didn't want him here.

"Anyway, girl time now. See ya, Deaton!" She says behind her back as she drags me away.

"You'll fall in love with me one day!" He shouts after us and Val just shakes her head.

✎ A/N: I wrote this on Valentine's Day MUHAHAHAHA