It had been a couple of days since the incident with Danny and things had gone back to normal, despite everyone wanting to kill Danny... but that wasn't unusual. Stood by her locker, Aria rooted through her bag and sighed in frustration.

"Did you lose something?" came Dexter's voice from behind her.

"I can't find my migraine tablets," Aria mumbled, opening her locker and searching that.

Unable to find them, Aria slammed her locker shut and walked with Dexter to their next class. Sat at the back of her English class, she tried to pay attention to what Mr. Copeland was saying and made notes as she went along.

School soon came to an end and she made her way straight home, taking some tablets before settling down to do her homework. She had just finished her math assignment, when Brax walked in and greeted him with a smile.

"How was school?" he asked, dropping his keys on the side and grabbing himself a bottle of water from the fridge.

"It's been better," Aria replied with a shrug.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not really."

"Okay, but I do want to talk to you about Andy," Brax added, causing Aria to sigh and drop her pen, "This isn't an 'I don't want you with him' talk, I just want you to be careful and make sure that he treats you right. I'm not the best at all of this dating stuff, especially not when it comes to teenage girls, but try not to invest in him based on how much you like him and invest only as much as he invests in you."

Not used to seeing this side of Brax, Aria frowned slightly and simply nodded in response. Unsure of how to respond verbally, she decided to answer him honestly and took a deep breath before speaking.

"I appreciate you letting me make my own mistakes and just for your peace of mind, Andy really is a good guy."

"I trust your judgment," Brax added, kissing her head and ruffling her hair, "Do your homework."

With a chuckle, Aria playfully glared at him and got back to her work as if the conversation had never happened. It was an hour before she finished, getting changed, and heading down to the beach to surf. She wasn't really supposed to be going out in the water, but she wasn't actually surfing and enjoyed being disconnected from the world for a while.

Sat on her surfboard, Aria closed her eyes and felt completely at peace for the first time in ages. Ever since she was small, she had always felt at home in the water and it was the same for her brothers. She soon made her way back to the beach and dried herself off a little, before heading back to the house.

"How was the water?" Casey asked as she walked through the front door.

"Peaceful," Aria answered, smiling when Ricki emerged from the kitchen and hugging her, "Welcome home."

"Thanks," Ricki replied, stepping back and looking at Aria's face, "Rough couple of weeks, huh?"

"You could say that."

Author's Notes: Thanks for reading! Next chapter things start to go wrong.