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Chapter 22

Valeriana's pov

After school I went home and had a small snack before I convinced Verena to come with me. She doesn't know where we are going but she must trust me because she hasn't even asked where we were going. She wasn't even looking around the surroundings as I drove. She was playing a game on her phone. When I parked in Miss Wells' driveway Verena looked up.

"Where are we?" she asked as we got out of the car. She followed me up to the house. I walked inside. Wiggles was chewing on a toy in the living room. Miss Wells said she would be in the dining room grading work and for me to just walk in.

"Miss Wells' house... Nice isn't it?" I asked. Verena's eyes widened.

"Should I have just walked in like this?" Verena asked. I roll my eyes. Wiggles noticed us in the room and ran over to me. His body wiggling as I pet him. He ran away from me as he excitedly jumped around the room. He grabs his toy before rushing over to me and trying to force me to grab the other end of his toy. I grab it and he tries to pull it from me. It takes a while before Wiggles ripped the toy from my hands. He goes over to Verena and smells her. I walk towards the dining room. Miss Wells was wearing sweatpants and a baggy shirt and a messy bun.  She had one foot up on the chair as she leaned against her knee as she graded.

"I'm taking your dog now," I say. Miss Wells looks up. She gives me a smile.

"Alright, be safe," she says. I nod my head. The sound of glass breaking came from the other room.

"Shit," Verena says. Miss Wells furrowed her eyebrows before standing up and leaving the room. There was glass on the ground a few feet from Verena. "I didn't do it," she immediately says.

"It's fine, Wiggles knows what to break," Miss Wells smiles. Verena and my eyebrows furrowed. "The vase was ugly and came from my aunt. I had to take the gift. Wiggles has been trying to break it since I got it. He finally got it today," Miss Wells says before grabbing a broom and dustpan. She sweeps up the glass before throwing it into a paper sack and throwing it in the trash.

"I'll see you later," I say before hooking the leash onto Wiggles.

"Your essay better be in that pile I'm grading, Valeriana," Mis Wells says sternly. Verena pulls the door open.

"It is," I responded before walking out of the house and pulling Verena with me by her hand. I let her hand go as we got to the sidewalk. We made it to the park again.

"So why did I have to tag along? Not that I mind being here, it's just we don't really talk regularly or hangout," She says. I look at her. She was right. We talked a few times and I don't really talk to her when she is at the house because I don't want to take her away from my brothers. She seems to be Valerico and Valentino's only friend.

"Oh because I didn't want to be alone and my brothers did that thing where they tried to be subtle but were extremely obvious when giving me your number. They were also busy after school so I figured we could hangout," I mutter. Verena nods her head.

"Your brothers can not do subtle things," Verena laughs, causing me to nod.

"I'm sure they make cheating obvious," I mutter. Verena laughs before nodding.

"They do. We had this test a year ago and they didn't study because they had to do a job for your brothers. So I let them cheat off me, you know like any friend would. You know what those two did. They completely turned their heads to look at my paper. We all failed the test and had to take it separately. That was the only time I tried to help them out during a test," Verena says. I smile at that. My brothers were stupid. "What was it like at your old school? Did you and your friends get into trouble a lot or no?"

"Actually my friends didn't go to my school. Monroe lived two hours away from Trey and I. Trey lived closer but was in a different school district. Our schools did this event type thing every first Friday of the month where Trey's school comes to mine. Our basketball teams played against each other for the first three hours. We would have a cookout type lunch then we would have games we were allowed to participate in. so that was the only time Trey and I went to school together and it was just a fun fair type day. But we always made sure to pull a prank on that day. The day I met Aurelio was after Trey and I made confetti fall from the ceiling and cover the entire gym floor. I managed to get out of trouble since I moved in with the guys while Trey didn't," I say.

"You didn't have any other friends that went to your school?" Verena asked.

"No. They were all fake bitches. They might have been friends but the second they got a chance to turn on their friends they would. I enjoyed watching them and their drama. It was just me at school. I kept to myself and others knew to stay away because I wouldn't hesitate to put them in their place when they bothered me," I state.

"Damn, a whole school of fakes, traitors, and betrayal? That would make a great reality show," Verena says, causing me to chuckle. We come to a bench and we sit down while Wiggles sniffs around. Verena's phone rings, causing her to answer her phone. It was a facetime call from Valentino.

"Are you with Valeriana?" he asked. I pop my head over.

"I left a note on the door. You guys weren't responding to my text so I made sure you would see it on the door when you returned," I state.

"Are you two on a date?" Valereico pops his head onto the screen. I snort while shaking my head.

"I don't do dates," I muttered while moving away from Verena so I wasn't in her space.

"What do you mean you don't do dates?" Valentino asked.

"How are you supposed to date Verena!?" Valerico shrieked.

"Ow, Valerico!" Valentino grumbled.

"I feel like dates are a setup. It forces you to ask questions to learn about the person, then at the end you decide if you want to do it again based on what you learned. Like come on, just spending time with someone is enough for me. If something happens it happens. It seems more natural to me," I mutter. Verena looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

"Awww, you're on a non date-date," Valerico and Valentino coo. Verena stares at me with a look to see if that was this way. I smile at her before looking away. Verena chuckles before playing with the end of my hair causing me to look at her again.

"I'm on a non date-date and I didn't even know. That's cute," Verena says while smiling at me.

"I also made sure you had nowhere to run. Hence why I drove," I smile at her. Verena laughs while nodding her head.

"True, but I could still run and call for a ride," Verena says with a smug look as I purse my lips before shrugging.

"You could, but wiggles wouldn't let you get far," I say. Verena's eyes went to the dog before she narrowed her eyes slightly, seeing if the dog could possibly keep her from running. Wiggles was on his back letting the sun rays warm his stomach. "It's an act. He can be serious," I say.

"I think I will take my chances with you and stay seated... Though I'm not sure who can do more damage right now," she says. I smile at her.

"Aww," my brothers say, causing me to reach over and hang up. Verena laughs before putting her phone away.