"WHAT are the chances that we can just stop, turn around now and drive off to Hollywood to become rich and famous and have multiple pretty boys to kiss on rotation until we're ninety eight?"

    Savannah quirked her immaculately groomed eyebrow and shot me a look. "First, negative thirty chance, and second, that does not mean we will not have multiple pretty boys to kiss on rotation when we're ninety, that's still very much happening. Just after we pass Pre-Calc."

      We were sitting in Savannah's car in the parking lot, and even her beautiful, comforting face could not quell the apprehension brewing in my gut. The promise of senior year was only a few feet away, and whatever that held brought a tightness to my chest. Even though I already had three years of high school under my belt, it was a weird feeling I just couldn't swallow.

     I frowned, arms crossed over my chest as I eyed the red brick building in front of us that was Riverview High with distaste. "But mom," I whined, channeling my inner four year old and pouting

     Savannah's crystalline eyes were not impressed. She switched off the ignition, a sigh falling past her pale lips as she turned to me. "Come on Stella, put on your big girl undies and let's go do senior year. If you're good all day today, I'll even buy you a cookie."

      I instantly brightened up, grabbing the dilapidated backpack I'd had since sophmore year from my feet and swung it over my shoulder. "Come on Savannah, let's not be children," I said, a patronizing sophistication dripping from my words.

     The blonde girl rolled her eyes and pushed open the car door, the September breeze tousling her perfectly curled hair. I responded with a cheeky grin and followed suit, taking in a deep breath to calm my frazzled nerves.

     Here I come, senior year.

     We broke through the threshold into the familiar hallways, all linoleum tiles and burgundy lockers, just as we had left them last June. There was a scatter of kids loitering about, the nostalgic hum of conversation steady in the air. I turned to Savannah with a smile turning the edge of my mouth. "My locker first? I think Eva's is near there, and I'm sure she'll sniff us out."

     Savannah giggled, nodding her head and shaking the phone in her hand. "She's been sending me texts every minute since eight this morning, I'm sure her bloodhound senses have already picked up on our presence."

     I snorted, because that was probably true, and began meandering through the hordes of students that were my fellow peers. Among them I saw a couple of familiar faces, and I had to keep a tight grip on Savannah's wrist so that no one dragged her away since she was being bombarded by hugs and high-fives abundance.

     We finally found 2031, my garbage pile away from home, and Savannah leaned against the locker next to it. I fumbled with the lock that appeared to always have some personal vendetta against me, a Madame Zeroni curse if I ever saw one, when a familiar voice floated into my ears.

     "Bonjour mon bitches!" greeted one Eva Martinez, all tanned skin, red lips and aviators, two hands poised in the air holding gift bags

     I shot her a look. "Wouldn't it be mes bitches, because it's plural?"

     Eva laughed, throwing her head back, a devilish grin slipping on her face. "Oh Stella, the only French I learned during my two months in the city of love is what was whispered in my ear by gorgeous French boys." She lifted her sunglasses, perching them amongst her caramel coloured hair and cast me a wink.

     Savannah giggled, hiking her backpack over her shoulder. "Oh we know, you were sure to keep us updated with your emails."

     "Daily and novel-length emails," I added. "Aha!" I'd finally beaten that stupid lock. Not today, Zeroni, not today.

     Eva threw herself against the adjacent locker, a wistful sigh pouring from her lips. "Guys, I don't think you understand, I'm finally a woman now," she announced, melodramatically slapping a hand over her chest and reflectively looking off into the distance.

     I rolled my eyes and snorted. "Vannah, do you see any women around here?"

     Eva straightened and huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. "Sounds like someone doesn't want their souvenir."

     "Also did I mention that you definitely give off that mature, adult vibe now? You do, you walked in the room and I was like woah, is there an adult in here? I bet you have something to say about the economy." I grinned.

     Savannah dissolved into laughter, the hand pressed over her mouth doing nothing to stop the giggles from seeping through. She looked to Eva, who was standing there with a hand on her hip and the picture of unimpressed, and gave a sympathetic shrug.

     Then Eva's façade broke, her eyes watering as she threw her arms around my neck, capturing me into a death hold. "Oh, I missed you!" she cried into my shoulder, and I gave her a consoling pat on the back, an unconscious smile tugging on my lips.

     "I missed you too," I reassured her, because I really had. It was weird without our third musketeer.

     She sniffed and enveloped Savannah into a hug too, who wrapped her arms around Eva and soothed her in the way that only Savannah could. We locked eyes over the crying girl and I suddenly felt dumb for getting anxious at all in the first place. Nothing was going to change.

     As Eva peeled herself off the blonde, sniffing and swallowing hard, she shoved the gift bags towards us. "Here's the souvenirs, I hope you guys like them," she said, a watery smile forming on her face.

     I wiggled my fingers in excitement and made a quick grab for mine, anticipation itching in my veins. I'd never been disappointed by an Eva gift before, and I doubted that today would be that day. As I quickly ripped away with the baby blue tissue to find a hardcover cookbook inside, I felt a warmth of delight bloom in my stomach.

     "Eva this is fantastic!" I gasped, my fingers running over the smooth cover in pure awe.

     Savannah was admiring the new silver and opal bracelet she'd clasped around her wrist, and Eva glowed with pride. "I know, I'm the best. No need to thank me."

     "Thank you, seriously," Savannah said, pulling Eva into another hug, while I was still staring at the French cuisine cookbook as if I had been gifted the Holy Grail.

     "But what you can do is tell me why I had to find out from Savannah that Reese Powers is living next to you? Reese as in Reese with dimples that could literally cure cancer, is living next door to you, explain," Eva demanded, pulling away with a face that meant business.

     I groaned, irritation burning inside from his name alone, and began throwing my books into my locker. "He's there and it's terrible?" I offered, but from her stern look I knew that it wasn't enough. "I was trying to spare you from the horror."

     Savannah shot me a sympathetic glance, a knowing look in her eyes that made me bristle. The less I thought about that entire debacle, the better, and I was trying to finally keep my cool this year. This year I was going to be cool as a cucumber. Ice cold. I was basically the third member of Outkast.

     I was ready to finally put all those past incidents behind me.

     "The horror of being able to see those glistening abs up close? Believe me, I'll live," Eva drawled, rolling her eyes. "Oh my, does he ever mow the lawn with his shirt off?" Her eyes glazed over with dreams I wished I could un-imagine.

      I gagged dramatically, throwing up a hand to stop her before I fake-vomited my entire breakfast. "I think you broke my brain that's so gross."

      Speak of the devil," Savannah murmured, and I braced myself for the disgust that was bound to appear.

    And it came, like clockworks, as soon as I heard his irritatingly smooth voice. "Well hello there, neighbour."

     I scrunched my nose in revulsion, turning to one Reese Powers, who was smirking down at me. God, he was like a stupid tree.

      "Why are you here?" I snapped, although a genuine confusion bled into my voice.

     Other than our altercations during the last two weeks, I was pretty sure that Reese had never even been aware of my existence. We'd never even exchanged two words on school grounds, and I was not pleased that it was suddenly becoming a thing.

     I wanted none of these things.

     "Just came to say hello," he answered breezily, entire unfazed by my very distinct repulsion. "Wow that's a really nice bracelet Savannah."

     My suspicions grew as he cast her a disgustingly charming grin. The grin of perhaps, a murderer?

     "Oh, thanks," Savannah replied,  a polite smile on her face. "Eva actually got it for me."

     "You've got great taste," he said, winking at the tanned girl.

     I never actually saw someone swoon before, but I think Eva literally did it. And that was when I realised that my breakfast was really becoming in danger of ending up all over the tiled floor.

     "All right," I sliced through the atmosphere as I slammed my locker shut. "Whatever this was, it was un-fun, so let's never do it again, all right?" I shot Reese a sarcastic thumbs up and grabbed Savannah's wrist with my free hand, all but dragging her away from this burning building of a situation.

     I could hear Eva make a displeased noise but she still followed obediently, and I was relieved that we all managed to escape with our souls still in tact.

     "Stella, there's still a sticker on the back of your pants from when you bought them," Savannah informed me, hints of a smile in her voice.

     "I meant to do that!"

***

     Somehow, I managed to survive the first day of school.

     Other than my first class with Savannah and Eva, I was unfortunately alone. Although I sat behind Tyler McMaster in Geography class and getting to stare at the back of his beautiful head for an hour and fifteen minutes every day was something I was very much looking forward to. Maybe he'd even ask me for a pencil sometime. The possibilities to our romance were endless.

     And those possibilities were dancing around my head as I ambled down the sidewalk from checking the mail, how first Tyler would ask for a spare pencil and then he would ask for my hand in marriage. Or something like that. It would be one for the story books, at least.

     "Stella!"

     I jumped at my name, emitting a noise that was not very human, and frowned at the new-found presence next to me. "Christ, where did you come from, demon?" I demanded, a little out of breath by the sudden surprise.

     Reese grinned at me, keeping pace with me for no explicable reason. "Hello to you too, friend."

     "We are not, nor will we ever be, friends."

     He shrugged casually. "Friend, neighbour, it's all the same."

     "Calm down there, Mr. Rogers."

     Reese's smile broadened, and I continued to regard him with the utmost skepticism. There was only trouble and lies hidden within those amber eyes and I wanted no part of it. He stopped, and caught my wrist, which I immediately wrenched out of his grip.

     "All right, what is it, Powers? What do you want? Spit it out," I ordered, arms crossed over my chest and my calculating glare resting on his stupid face.

     He lifted his hands up in innocence, taking a step back from what I assume would be my snarling face. "Hey, I just had a question, I saw that you were friends with Savannah Shepard-"

     "And?" I interrupted, already growing impatient with his presence.

     "And," he continued, stretching out the word, "I was wondering if maybe you could help me score a date with her? Since you guys are friends and all."

     I looked up at him, tilting my head to the side unconsciously. He was flashing me that signature Reese grin in all its cheeky glory, the one that caused his eyes to squint at the sheer size of its immensity, but it all made no sense to me. I blinked again, just to make sure that this was real, this was happening, and that this was not just a (weird) figment of my imagination.

     And then I burst out laughing.

     "You! You- I'm sorry, I can't, oh my, you want to-" I managed to sputter out in between bouts of laughter, crouched over with a hand gripped on my stomach to keep everything inside. "You want to, you being Reese Powers, want to date, I can't even say it, it's so ridiculous."

     His grin was beginning to fade.

     "No, no, let me get this straight," I persevered, a flush burning on my skin, cheeks beginning to ache from exhaustion. "You, Reese Powers, want to date my best friend. No wait, you want me to help you date my best friend. You, the person I would personally exile to Siberia if it were possible, you want my help in getting to date my best friend."

     "Yes, exactly." He nodded, very matter-of-fact, ignoring all social cues that any normal person would have picked up. Social cues that would say that asking me was absolutely ridiculous, and no, he should not do that. He should jump off the nearest cliff before doing that.

     Then again, this was Reese, if he was anything near a respectable human being, I wouldn't be laughing in his face.

     With a broad grin still devouring my face, I wiped a stray tear from my eye. "Oh, wow, thanks, I needed that. That was funny. All right. Okay, I would say good day, but I hate you, so I hope you get eaten alive by sharks."

     And with that I threw up my hand as a goodbye and brushed by him on the sidewalk to cross over to my house. I imagined recounting this to Savannah, and another grin was spurred by the thought. Maybe Mondays weren't so bad after all.

     "Hey come on, help me out! Stella! Hey!"

     "When hell freezes over, Powers!"

     As a breeze rolled by, I shivered, and pulled my sweater tighter across my body. It was a little chilly for September that day, but I shrugged it off.

***

Can anyone point out the ridiculous amount of popculture references I throw in there because I am a loser?