1.17

•

"The New Normal"

Gathered this time in Emily's bedroom, Halle sat at the desk as she listened to latest to happen to their small group. Spencer was busy relaying the 'happy' news of her sister's pregnancy whilst tapping at her laptop keys, trying to figure out the note that Toby had slipped her outside his house.

"Okay, so your sister's pregnant," Hanna repeated. "How'd that happen?"

"I figure pretty much the usual way," Spencer retorted, her sat back against the headboard with her laptop in front of her.

"Eggs fertilised — not scrambled, poached or fried," Halle commented flatly.

Emily screwed up her face at that notion. Disgusted, she said, "it's not really a 'how' question, it's more of a 'why' question."

"Well, I mean, I guess Melissa could have gone all maternal," Spencer tried to excuse.

"—I doubt it," Halle muttered.

"—but I doubt it," finished Spencer. She and Halle eyed each other, having had the same thought.

"Aghh, this is so creepy," Hanna declared, shaking her entire body at the thought.

"Where are they now?" asked Emily.

"In Philadelphia — shopping," Spencer told them, unimpressed.

"What do you think this means?" Hanna asked.

"That Melissa got pregnant with Ian's baby a lot faster than the average woman," Halle mentioned, "like, only seventy-five percent of couples conceive in the first six months of trying. There's gotta be a reason, right?"

"I meant what Toby gave us," Hanna clarified, referring to the Jenna's notes that Toby snuck into Spencer's book.

Halle's face fell. "Oh."

"How do you even know that?" Emily asked.

"I read a lot of pamphlets while waiting for the pill," answered Halle.

"Well, I don't know, but Toby wanted us to have it," Spencer said firmly. She compared the note against her screen. "There— it's in Braille. So..."

Emily looked over to the little window-seat where Aria was, far away from the rest of the group. "You wanna see this, Aria?" she asked.

"I can see just fine from here," Aria responded. The small girl held her own and stayed sat down away from the bed, an obvious tension hung over her and Hanna.

"Okay." Spencer was too focused on the screen to pick up on it. "The first letter's a B... A... It's an A," she stated.

"I think it's gonna tell us who A is," Hanna said, wide-eyed.

"D?" Spencer's voice went up, confused by the last letter.

"B-A-D," Emily spelt out.

"Bad, it's bad, Em," Halle said. She groaned and rolled her eyes. "There goes our latest clue, Mystery Inc." Halle motioned to Emily's plastic bin by the side of her desk. "Straight in the trash."

"Bad," Hanna repeated slowly.

Spencer was totally lost, frustrated even. "That's the whole message? Bad?!"

"What's it supposed to mean?" asked Emily.

"It means you got punked," Aria spoke. "Toby doesn't trust us. I don't blame him," she added snarkily.

"No," Emily shook her head and said, "I don't think he'd mess with us like this."

"You'd be surprised what people are capable of," Aria shot, her eyes burning a hole into Hanna's head.

"Okay, grouchy the dwarf, save your passive-aggressive energy and just come out with it? Because it's excruciating for me now just have to listen to you be snarky," Halle remarked.

"Guys," Spencer snapped. "We have to figure this out." Seriously, she said, "This might be a joke, but it could be real."

"Well, look, either way, Toby's not the enemy," Hanna said.

Aria huffed, standing. She grabbed her bag from off the floor and said, "You know what, guys, I'm gonna go." Without another word, Aria left.

Spencer glanced around at her friends and asked, "What was that all about?"

Hanna gave a shrug and said, "How should I know?"

•

The next day, the conversation carried on. They were at lunch when the subject got brought up again, and — worse — it was Emily questioning Tony's intentions with the note. "You know, Aria might be right about this," Emily had said.

Halle stabbed the fork aggressively into a lettuce leaf, a glare over her eyes. Stubborn and strong, Halle stated, "She's not."

But Emily tried to convince Halle that maybe there was another way of looking at it. Emily said, "Toby does have every right to give us a hard time."

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean he is," Halle snapped. "Toby ain't that kind of person and you know it, Em." She shook her head. "I can't believe we're even having this conversation."

"And it's just not the feeling I got from talking to him," Spencer mentioned, adding to Halle's argument in Toby's defence. "Do you know know that I mean?"

Softly, Emily nodded. "Yeah, I do."

"So, that's the end of that," Halle said, her voice firm. "Toby isn't messing with us and Spencer's finally coming around to liking him. Maybe now she tutoring him in French, she won't give us such a hard time for being friends with the guy."

"And for believing he's innocent," added Emily.

"Precisely," agreed Halle, sharing a smile with her friends. She looked down at her lunch and groaned. "I just want some sort of dressing, or croutons. I want a crouton," she said, miserably staring down at her salad. "This is just leaves. And it's not even the good kind of salad with all the colours and stuff."

"You can have my pudding," Spencer offered her.

Halle almost snatched it from her friend the moment the very suggestion left Spencer's lips, but self-control kicked in. "I shouldn't, I'm trying eat good," said Halle. "Mom has us all on this no sugar, low-carb diet because dad's cholesterol came back high," she explained. "And cheer qualifiers are coming up, so I need extra protein and greens."

"She put you all on it?" Emily asked.

"Em, she won't have sugar in the house," Halle said desperately, a mad look in her eyes. "I'm going insane. I tried to sneak in a Kit-Kat yesterday and she sniffed the chocolate out like she was a police dog searching for cocaine."

"Wow," Aria commented as she joined the table, "salads and cocaine, you're almost like a 90s model, Hal."

The three who were already at the table suddenly looked up wide-eyed. They noticed how Aria was smiling — joking even. Still, Spencer played it safe. She drew out her, "heeeey," dubious of how Aria would react.

Halle, on the other hand, wasn't nearly as cautious or subtle. "Wow, is that a smile on grouchy the dwarf's face? My, what a pretty smile. I'll have to change the paperwork to happy the dwarf," she remarked wittily.

Aria grimaced her smile and playfully shot back, "That name's already taken."

"Oooh, sassy the dwarf today," replied Halle, chuckling afterwards with Aria.

The group caught onto a brief exchange between Hanna and Caleb through the glass. In the outside courtyard, Hanna smiled at him and gave him something. When the blonde finally joined them for lunch, Spencer had to call Hanna for her behaviour. "Okay, what is with you and the Artful Dodger?"

Hanna screwed up her face, sitting down next to Halle. "Who?"

"She means Caleb," Halle filled her in, rolling her eyes as she did.

"You can answer this, too," Spencer replied, eyes on Halle now as well as Hanna. "I thought the thing at the swim meet was a one-off."

"It was," defended Hanna.

"We just saw you talking to him," Emily pointed out.

"And you gave him something that looked like a wet oven mitt," Spencer said.

"Okay, it was his hat," Hanna answered.

"What are you doing with his hat?" asked Emily, curious.

"Why shouldn't I have his hat?" Hanna shot back.

"Can we all stop saying hat?" Halle shot.

Spencer took upon herself to draw conclusions and advised Hanna on a topic she never asked for advice on. "Hanna," Spencer began, "maybe you're looking for something a little edgier than Sean," she laughed lightly in between but finished with, "but this guy is dark."

"Spencer, he's not that dark," Hanna said, more amused than offended.

"He's dark enough," Spencer snapped.

"He was friends with Halle first," accused Hanna. "Why aren't you lecturing her?"

"She's dark enough too," responded Spencer honestly.

"Aw," Halle's hand fell over her heart, "thank you. But I'm with Hanna on this one," Halle said. "I like Caleb. He's funny and I don't mean funny-ha-ha, I mean funny-he-actually-made-me-snort. More than once, actually," she added, seemingly growing more impressed with the new boy.

"And he's no Arthur Dodger, whoever that is," Hanna argued, making Halle pull her bottom lip up to suppress a laugh.

"Yeah, he's just had it tough," Aria said, with Hanna also on the matter of her friendship with Caleb.

"Are you two on speaking terms again?" Spencer questioned Aria and Hanna, raising her brows at the both of them.

Aria sent Hanna a soft smile. "Of course we are," she said.

Serious, Emily went back to the topic of Caleb despite the fact she was happy to have two of her friends getting on again. "You need to really careful about that guy," she advised lowly.

"Why just me? Why not Halle?" Hanna said, "You know, Halle's not as tough as everyone thinks she is."

"I'm right here," Halle said, motioning to herself.

"What? I've seen you cry," said Hanna.

"Once!" Halle said loudly. "You've seen me cry once!"

Spencer shook her head and said to them, "Hanna, you cry when you break a nail. I've seen Halle smash a chair down on Mr O'Reilly's computer with two broken ribs, I know she can handle herself."

"And he's dangerous," Emily repeated urgently.

Hanna rolled her eyes and hummed. She shot back, "Yeah, it seems to me we had this conversation once about Toby, and Halle was the only person defending your friendship with him back then."

Halle gave a half-shrug. "I'm really good at judging people."

Her comment broke the tension around the five. Hanna exchanged a look with Emily before they started to laugh; the other three joined in after.

"Yes, I am a parent," came a stern, strong voice from across the cafeteria. The girls turned their head to the argument and saw Mr Fitz stood up from the teachers' lunch table confronted by a red-faced man in a suit. "Nick McCullers — my daughter is Paige McCullers," the man raged.

Calmly, Mr Fitz told him, "I have your daughter in my English Comp." He stuck his hand out to Paige's father. "I'm Ezra Fitz."

The man purposely chose to disregard Mr Fitz's introduction. Instead, he remained strong in determination. He was blatantly dismissive of the teacher and requested only to see the coach.

"Tell you what, why don't we walk down to the principal's office and see if we can't find Coach Fulton?" suggested Mr Fitz coolly.

"I've seen the principal and all I got was a lot of politically correct double-talk about the agenda in this place that's penalising my daughter!" Mr McCullers fumed. "Taking opportunities and giving them to someone who doesn't deserve them!"

Emily ducked her head low, looking away from the scene. Hanna's hand reached out and came to rest on Emily's, an act of comfort. Seeing that, Halle boiled in her seat. She was reaching her snapping point; the firm grasp Spencer had on Halle's jacket showed that Spencer, too, saw how angry Halle was getting.

"Everyone gets a fair chance here, Mr McCullers," Mr Fitz informed. "We go out of our way here to make sure that's how it works."

Still, the argumentative Mr McCullers dished out his hate. "My girl is the best swimmer on that team. You can't give it to someone just because—"

"You're in a cafeteria, Mr McCullers." Mr Fitz had cut the man off, quick and harsh. "Filled with kids trying to have lunch. I don't think that's the audience you want, is it?"

Paige's father glanced around the cafeteria and saw the disruption he had caused. His outburst had harnessed the attention of entire student-body there. Mr McCullers suddenly went quiet. He shot a subtle nod at Mr Fitz and then allowed the English teacher to lead him out, away from the prying eyes of students who knew exactly what the man was going to say.

When they had gone, Spencer released her hold on Halle's jacket. Although both girls would have happily told Paige's father what was what and Spencer probably would have let go of the jacket if Mr Fitz hadn't handled it so well, their eyes met and Halle knew Spencer saved her from making another scene. A fight — especially a fight with a student's parent — wouldn't go down well with the principal or the board of governs. Halle was already scraping by by the skin of teeth. One more violent outburst, and high school might end badly for her — or just end, abruptly.

Yet, there wasn't any Spencer around when Halle ran into Paige McCullers. There wasn't any Aria or Hanna, or even Emily. No one was around to stop Halle. Not even Halle could stop herself. Her feet had already carried her over to Paige's locker and cornered the girl by the wall.

Halle's hand on Paige's locker slammed it shut. Paige jumped back startled; it almost hit her face. "Oh, sorry, I didn't see you there," Halle said sarcastically.

"Look, I don't want any trouble," Paige said, trembling.

"Should have thought about that before you told your dad that Em only got anchor because she's gay," Halle snapped. Accusingly, she said, "You knew exactly what you were doing when you told him. You couldn't admit that she was better than you, so you told him she got it because she was gay."

"I didn't know he was gonna do that," Paige defended.

Strongly, Halle said, "I don't care about you or what you have to say. I care about Em and what your dad said about her. You didn't say anything to your dad. I saw you in the cafeteria and you did nothing. You walked away and let it carry on."

"I was embarrassed," Paige said.

"He embarrassed Em!" screamed Halle furiously. Her neck went red with rage and her eyes looked black. "He embarrassed Em in front of the whole school!"

Paige ducked her head low and whispered, "People are watching."

"Good! Everyone can listen to what I'm gonna say!" Halle took a step back from Paige and looked around at the growing number of students watching the two. "I ain't liberal when it comes down to my views prejudice, and if you stand aside and let assholes like Nick McCullers keep on doing what he's doing, then you're telling them it's okay — that they have a right to say that crap." Halle glared at Paige and said, "Even if you say nothing at all." Halle took her hard glare and shared it with the rest of the hallway. "And if anyone — I mean anyone — says anything like what I heard this lunch about Em again, I won't hesitate to choke you out. I will hurt you," she promised fiercely.

Halle's eyes ended up on Paige again and that was her warning. Halle had said her peace and now she was done.

She went to leave and head to her next class, but as she turned, Halle was met with Mr Fitz. He had a stern look in his eyes. When he stepped aside by the door to his classroom, Halle knew what it meant. Halle took a detour from her next class straight into Mr Fitz's classroom. She threw down her bag, it landed with a bang against the teacher's desk.

Immediately, Halle threw her hands up, going straight into a frustrated rant. "I know exactly what you're gonna say, you say it all the time. But if you think I'm gonna let that bow-legged giant get away with what she said about Em, you clearly don't know me well enough, Mr Fitz, because I will go to battle for Em. I will for any of my girls, and that is a promise. And I didn't throw my fist this time! I didn't hit anyone!"

"No, you just threatened to hit someone on the night of your parent-teacher conference," Mr Fitz said calmly the moment she stopped to take a breath.

"Technically I threatened to choke her out. That's completely different to hitting someone," Halle corrected. "And she deserved it! You heard what her dad said about Em— what he implied!"

"Paige isn't responsible for her father's actions or views," Mr Fitz said.

"She made a snarky comment about Em being gay and that — what happened at lunch — is a result of that!" said Halle firmly. She shook her head and told her English teacher, "I'm not gonna back down on this one, Mr Fitz. That's not gonna happen. I have been really quiet when it comes to what people say about me, all the rumours and the bitchy comments, but this is Em we're talking about. Nobody talks crap about her and gets away with it. It goes for any of my friends. I won't take it sitting back with them— I won't."

Mr Fitz strolled over to his desk and picked up the bag Halle threw down. He stood up straight and said to her, "I was going to say I agreed with what you said in the hallway, about standing aside and doing nothing. No one can deny you're a fierce friend, Halle, but you have to get a handle of your anger."

"Why are you telling me off? Why are you so concerned with me?" Halle accused loudly, "It's people like Paige who need to be told to get a handle of their behaviour! Not me!"

"You're aggressive in a school environment, people won't feel safe if you go around threatening them," said Mr Fitz.

"Good! That's the point," Halle shot. It was what Halle wanted, deeply so. She wanted people to fear her and — most importantly — she wanted A to fear her. She wanted A to agonise over the wrath Halle would serve them when she found out who they were. She wanted A to know that what they were doing wouldn't go unpunished. Halle was going to make their life hell and she was going to enjoy doing it. "I'm not gonna give them any room to hurt my friends," she said. "No one hurts them and gets away with it — no one."

Mr Fitz held back Halle's bag. Concern crossed his face and he asked, "Is something going on with you? With you and your friends?" Mr Fitz said, "You can tell me if someone is trying to hurt you or your friends."

"Why? So, you can pull me into a room and tell me off? To tell me to get a handle on my anger instead of pulling Paige in for unleashing her homophobic dad in the school cafeteria?" Halle scoffed. "No offence, Mr Fitz, but no adult can do crap when it comes down to my bully."

"Someone is bullying you, then," he concluded.

"If someone were, they're gonna regret it," Halle told him, solid and unwavering. She took her bag from his hands and said, "I look forward to hearing what you're gonna tell my parents about me tonight, Mr Fitz, I know it won't be good."

•

It was true to say Ezra Fitz was conflicted when it came to his thoughts on Halle Brewster after he watched her storm out of his classroom. He didn't know what to say to her parents. He was positive other teachers would fill Mr and Mrs Brewster in on Halle's fleeting concentration and her high-risk of developing a mood within their classes; how Halle got angry and often resulted in violent outbursts; the way Halle was stubborn when her mind was set on something. Ezra Fitz was certain all those things would have been said ten times over by each teacher Halle was taught by, so he was left wondering what more could he convey to her parents.

Finally, when the couple walked into his classroom, Mr Fitz stood up and held out his hand to them immediately. "Hi, Mr and Mrs Brewster. I'm Ezra Fitz, Halle's English teacher," he introduced

Mr Brewster was first to shake his hand. "Nick," the man in a suit stated. "My wife, Luisa," he said, motioning to the woman almost identical to Halle next to him.

Mr Fitz turned his attention to the woman and shook her hand. "You must get this all the time, but the resemblance between you and Halle is remarkable."

The woman gave Mr Fitz a soft smile and said, "Halle's been getting that all her life. The very moment she was born, everyone always said she was my double. The same was just said about our eldest."

"I didn't know Halle had an older sibling at school," Mr Fitz said, confused.

"Myles Brewster," said Luisa Brewster.

"Halle is Myles' sister?" questioned the teacher in surprise. He didn't personally have Myles in any of his classes and he saw the resemblance, but he didn't put the two together. "Wow, I never would have guessed. They're so..."

"Different," put in Nick.

The three took seats around the front desk and Mr Fitz began the discussion. "So, Halle is a brilliant student. She does a lot of independent reading and her work may come in a little after the deadlines, but it's mostly always good," he said. "She's, um, very smart, but sometimes she is a little—"

"Abrasive, we know," Luisa finished for him. "We've just heard the same thing from five other teachers. How smart she is and how much—"

"Potential she has," Nick interrupted, rolling his eyes. He scoffed, and Mr Fitz suddenly knew where Halle got her ticks from. In that moment, Halle looked more like her father than she did her mother. Halle had her father's behaviours. Ezra Fitz could tell Nick Brewster truly hated these parents' meetings the same way Halle hated almost everything about school.

"Exactly," Luisa said. "Potential is all anyone says about her."

"I won't deny that Halle has great potential," Mr Fitz started. "But that wasn't what I was going to say." He saw Mr Brewster's brows quirked in interest. "I won't deny that Halle is problematic student at times and sometimes has trouble holding back her emotions and thoughts, but she is incredibly bright. And she's beautiful writer when she tries," he added sincerely. "I look forward to doing the language part of our studies because she's that good. She has real skill there, and I think if she focused more on that, she could get some pretty big colleges interested in her."

"Halle is going to UPenn," Luisa stated with a smile. "I went there myself. I went with a cheerleading scholarship and I got to study Art and History alongside it, and, well, you must have how gifted Halle is when she's in her uniform."

"Mrs Brewster, I believe Halle's real talents lie outside of cheerleading. I'm actually trying to get her try out for the school play," said Mr Fitz optimistically.

Nick gave a laugh. "Oh, no, Halle won't do that." He said, "Halle's not one for the stage. Outside of gymnastics, she was shy as a child. It hasn't quite left her."

"Shy?" This time it was Mr Fitz who laughed. "I don't think shy is a word that anyone here would use to describe Halle. She's outspoken and loud and blunt."

Luisa shook her head gently and a sad smile came across the bottom half of her face. "She was never like that before... before..."

"Before Alison," Nick elaborated. He took a hold of his wife's hand and squeezed it.

Mr Fitz watched in silence. He saw where Halle got her affection from. There was a loving, fierce bond between the couple — a strong, understanding comfort radiated from them. But they were also both calm and steady, nothing like Halle was. Unlike her parents, Halle was never able to express her emotions fully. She was trapped and troubled, an overwhelmed assortment of misery and rage.

"I assume you know about what happened to Alison DiLaurentis, Mr Fitz, but what you might not know is that Alison was Halle's best friend," said Luisa Brewster. "Alison moved here when she was eight and of course being the same age and neighbours, she and Halle were inseparable. Before then, Halle's dream of being a Shark cheerleader never would have been anything other than a dream."

"She made Halle come out of her shell more," said Nick. "She started to be more outgoing. Louder, more like Alison."

Luisa added, "Regrettably, she became a little too much like Alison and that's when the problems started. Where others had fall in with a bad crowd, Halle fell in with Alison and that girl had the power of five. She could make anyone feel small and shy, even our Halle."

"So, she won't do your play," Nick told the teacher.

"How do I get her involved more, then?" Mr Fitz asked them. "I really want Halle to submerge herself in more than cheerleading."

"She plays the piano," Nick mentioned.

"And hasn't played outside of lessons since Alison disappeared," Luisa pointed out. The woman looked to Mr Fitz sadly and said, "There's a lot of Halle that died when Alison did."

"Mr and Mrs Brewster, I want you to know that your daughter is a great student," Mr Fitz told them boldly. He hopes to reassured them that not all was lost on Halle. "She is one of the best students in my class and if you encourage her in things other than cheerleading, like piano again, then I think she'd better herself. You might start to really see a difference in her. Halle doesn't have to start and end with cheerleading."

"And the anger problem everyone else talks about?" Nick Brewster questioned.

"She's a teenager," Mr Fitz offered. "A teenager that has been through a lot. I'm not going to deny she hasn't got angry-issues because she has, but they're not uncalled for." He settled in closer and asked seriously, "Has Halle ever mentioned anything about a bully to you?"

Luisa and Nick Brewster faced each other. Blankly, they stared at one another. They were clueless; they hadn't ever thought of their daughter being bullied, not now Alison was dead and gone. Admittedly, Nick Brewster was concerned after the fight at cheer practice, but Halle handled it. Halle could handle it herself, her parents thought.

But they thought wrong.

•

Across town, on the nice side, where all the homes sat back nicely against shrubs of green and each house had their own distinguished-look about them, Halle freed her mind from the thoughts of parents' evening. She was out walking Pacha around the woods by the house, creeping a little around the back of the DiLaurentis house for a sneaky peak inside. The place's windows had been boarded up with newspaper and it look abandoned. It didn't look like Maya's family lived there anymore.

It didn't look like Jason did either.

On her way back around the bushes, they were on the home-straight. Deciding it was safe enough, Halle let Pacha off his lead and allowed him to walk ahead of her. They lived towards the end of the street and both sides of the curved road were visible from where they walked; the road only looped around back after the DiLaurentis house and hardly anyone drove up past that house first. Halle rounded the corner shortly after the dog and saw Pacha sitting nicely in front of crouched-down Toby Cavanaugh.

In surprise, Halle spoke with a smile. "Hey."

"Hey." Toby smiled and stood up straight. Without a word, Toby lift up his jean-leg as she walked over to him and showed off his now-bare ankle.

"Well, if that ain't the prettiest ankle I ever did see," she commented, smiling.

"Yeah, I got it off this afternoon," Toby told her proudly. "Spencer took me."

Instead of questioning it, Halle put on a large smile and chose to hug the boy. "I'm so happy for you, Toby." When she pulled back, she asked him, "So, how are you celebrating your first night off your porch?"

"We could go get food at The Grille," he suggested.

Halle saw her parents pulled up around the bend in her father's car. She stopped her conversation, eyes desperately trying to read their expressions through the glass as the car parked up at the end of the driveway.

"Is something wrong?" Toby asked curiously.

"It was the teacher-parent conferences tonight," Halle said, slightly panicked. "I started a fight today — not physical," she added briskly. "But it wasn't exactly good."

Halle's parents climbed out of the car; Pacha greeted Nick excitedly upon opening the car door. Luisa Brewster rounded the car and opened the boot. She began to grab a couple of shopping bags out of there before she turned to face Halle. Smiling softly, Luisa said, "Come help with these, we bought stuff for chili on the way home."

"Chili? But that's my favourite," Halle said, confused.

"You did good, Hal," said Nick, smiling too. But there was something else in both their eyes. What had someone said?

"I did?" questioned Halle.

"Mr Fitz spoke very highly of you," Luisa said.

What had Mr Fitz said?

"Who's this, Halle?" Luisa Brewster asked, curiously looking back at the boy at the end of her driveway. Luisa knew exactly who the boy was; she had seen his face plastered on the news and in the papers plenty.

"Oh, this is Toby," Halle said, gesturing to him. She spared a look to the boy and smiled small. "He's my friend," she said.

Toby smiled at her too before he faced her parents. He held up his hand shyly and said, "Hi," hoping he was as polite as he could possibly be. He didn't want Halle's parents to freak out and give Halle reason to unfriend him. People in Rosewood avoided him, and Mr and Mrs Brewster were prominent members in the community.

Without missing a beat, Halle asked her parents, "Can Toby stay for dinner?" It shocked them — all three of them — at how forward she was. Toby Cavanaugh had only just had the charges of Alison's murder dropped against from him and here Halle was inviting him to dinner with her family, and her parents surprised her by agreeing.

"You can chop onions, right, Toby?" Nick said, collecting up a couple shopping bags himself.

"Yes, Sir," Toby replied.

Nick smiled and said, "Good lad and call me Nick. Grab a bag and head in. Halle will show you where the kitchen is, won't you, Hal?"

"Of course," Halle said, smiling.

Halle pushed Toby forward. She wasn't going to let either one of them the chance to hesitate, especially when it came to her parents. She and Toby each grabbed a bag and then took to carrying it towards the Brewster household.

Luisa put on a fake smile as the pair glanced back before entering the home. Then, she whipped her head around to face her husband. "What are you playing at? He was just accused of killing her best friend," she immediately fumed at him.

"And Halle introduced him as her friend," Nick replied. "If Mr Fitz is right and Halle is being bullied, pushing away her friends isn't going to help us. Put on a show and get through this evening."

"I still don't get why we can't just ask her," Luisa said.

"Because we'll push her away," said Nick, sighing. "And she'll never tell us if we pressure her to. We want her to come to us, but she has to trust us first."

"She does trust us!" insisted Luisa firmly.

"Then, why don't we know our daughter's being bullied?" Nick asked her. He shook his head and said, "We need to be careful with this. We can't lose her. I can't lose her."

"Neither can I," agreed Luisa. She lowered her head, understanding her husband's intentions. "This is for Halle. We do this to get our Halle back."

"Besides, the boy's been cleared," Nick had mentioned, as he grabbed the last of the groceries. He put on a smile and said to his wife, "Oh, and by the way, you can tell Halle you roped her in to playing piano for that play."

"Me? You were the one who mentioned she played in the first place," Luisa argued, but her husband was already on his way inside. "Nick, I'm not telling her!" she called out, but her husband pretended not to hear her. "I know you can hear me— stop laughing."

•