BEFORE YOU READ THIS, PLEASE NOTE, THIS IS NOT THE LAST CHAPTER. THIS BOOK ISN'T OVER YET.

"Has Jeremy the Bitch apologized yet?" Rich asks as we walked through the hall.

I almost laugh, "Ha, no, but he has called me multiple times. He didn't leave any voicemails though."

It is the Monday after I began to be friends with the squash squad. I just got to the school, but Rich already had a class. Jeremy had not yet apologized. "Have you seen him yet?" I ask, and Rich rolls his eyes, "No, but he'th probably jutht running, like a coward." I laugh with him, "You're not wrong."

We walk up to Brooke and Chloe who were at Chloe's locker, laughing at something on Brooke's phone.

"What are you looking at?" I say to them. They turn to me and show me a meme. I look at it and burst out in laughter.

"Isn't that the truth?" I say, and Rich snatches the phone out my hand, "Which one ith it?" He looks at it and giggles, before throwing the phone back to Brooke and running to Jake, Who was pretty far down the hall. I follow him with my eyes.

"Well, He's just a ball of chaotic energy," Chloe says, "I hope he doesn't murder Jake."

I laugh and look back at him to see him sprinting back toward us.

"Michael!" He screamed, and grabbed onto my arm, "Let'th go to math!"

"Bye, girls." Brooke and Chloe laugh and wave goodbye.

I follow Rich down the hall, and up the staircase (not that I really had a choice).

Rich pulls me into the classroom. "Jeremy ith in this clathth, right?"

I nod, but then say, "Yeah, but he would normally be here by now because he likes math."

"Hmm..." Rich says, "Weird."

I sit down next to him and pull out my binder, still keeping my eye on the door. I turn to Rich, who had his nose stuck in a book. I look at the cover. It was Catching Fire. Rich looked absolutely enraged.

"How's it going, Rich?" I ask, and he turns to me. I nearly fall off my chair. Rich literally looks ready to kill someone.

"They can't do thith." He says through clenched teeth, "They are trying to kill her."

I nervously laugh but am saved by the teacher entering. Rich sees him so he puts his book in his bag as his eyes go back to normal. I scan the room again for Jeremy but don't see him.

The teacheris writing something on the board, but I don't take notes, instead nervously staring at the door. I quickly glance at Rich who was neatly writing the notes. I continue staring at the door, for what only seemed like five minutes, but snap back into reality when Rich hits my shoulder, "Dude, It'th time for lunch." He says, putting his notebook back in his bag.

I nod and pick up my bag, silently following him. We walk to my locker, which was just across from that classroom.

I quickly do the combination and put the math books that I hadn't used and pulled out my food. I turned to see Rich rapidly typing on his phone.

"What are you looking at?" I ask as we start walking downstairs to his locker.

"I'm jutht talking with the thquathh thquad, I think they named it that to make fun of me, and none of them have theen Jeremy, except for Jenna,Bu-"

"She's seen him?" I interrupt him, so he glares at me.

"I wath gonna thay, thhe hasn't even anthwered me, but that'th wierd for her."

"Oh." I sigh, and he rolls his eyes.

"Dude, It'th a good thing we haven't theen him." He says, "He'th been a dick to you."

"I know, but, " I sigh, "We've been best friends for twelve years."

"Thtill." He says but changes the subject, "We normally thit under the big tree in the back."

I follow him, at a slower pace. A slower pace being normally walking, Rich was sprinting to Jake.

I sat down, looking at everyone who was there, Christine, Chloe, Brooke, Rich, Jake, Myself. "Where's Jenna?" I ask.

"Probably on the phone," Chloe answers, blowing a bubble with her gum, "She'll be here soon."

Sure enough, five minutes later, Jenna walked up to us on the phone.

"Yeah, Yeah, see you at six." She sits down next to me, "I love you too."

I stare at her, not knowing who she was talking to.

"Okay, remember to treat him like shit. But not, like, in a way that's bullying. Passive-aggressive." She laughs, "Do it. Yeah, love you too. Bye"

She hangs up and looks around the circle, "I have to tell you guys something."

Jake looks up for the grass he was playing with, "Go for it."

"Alright, so earlier today I realized that Jeremy isn't here, so I figured he had skipped avoiding our rath." She says angerly and loudly, speaking a lot with her hands. "So I'm mad, right? I call up Raya, right? And she knows who Jeremy is, because she heard about the play, obviously."

"Who's Raya?" I ask, but just receive looks of panic from everyone in the circle, except for Jenna, who faces just lit up with happiness.

"Ray is the softest, most perfe-" she starts, but Christine interrupted her.

"We don't have time for you to talk about Ray, Jenna." She turns to me, "Raya is Jenna's Girlfriend, and she's actually the sweetest person you'll ever meet. Continue with your story, Jen."

"Anyway, we're talking, she goes to West Side by the way, and she just goes, 'Wait, Jeremy Heere?' so I'm like 'Yeah,' and she says, 'Oh, He has curly hair, kind of tall and gangly, Right?' so I say 'Yes,' and then she says, 'Yeah, He transferred here.'" I don't even register what she said, but Rich spits out his water. "HE DID WHAT NOW?"

Jenna looks back at him, "He transferred to West End." Then, everyone finally understood what was going on, and everything blew up.

"I'M GONNA FUCKING MURDER HIM."

"HE DIDN'T APOLOGIZE TO MICHAEL."

"I'M GONNA COMMIT ARTHON FOR THE THECOND FUCKING TIME THIS MONTH."

"Rich, calm down."

"HE IS DEAD."

"LET'S POISON HIM WITH PINKBERRY."

"I'M ABOUT TO PULL A J.D."

"CHRISTINE, NO."

"CHRISTINE, YES."

"YOU KNOW WHAT, SCREW CALMING DOWN, THAT'S A GREAT IDEA, CHRISTINE."

"JAKE!"

I looked over at Chloe and Jenna who were just typing on their phones.

I block out the yelling from the other four, "What are you two doing?"

"Spreading rumors about Jeremy to West Side Students," Chloe answers, popping her gum.

"I'M GONNA EGG HIS HOUTHE, BUT WITH FUCKING BOULDERTH."

"NO!" I yell, and they stop typing to look up at me, "I mean, It's fine. Don't do that."

"I WILL ACT LIKE I LOVE HIM, BUT THEN STAB HIM IN THE HEART.

"But he's being a dick to you." Jenna responses, "He deserves it."

"I'M READY TO HIT HIM WITH A TRAIN."

"Yeah, but there's not much we can do about it. Spreading rumors won't do anything."

"I'M GONNA DROWN THAT BITCH IN MOTHERFUCKING PINKBERRY."

"And you four, stop! You're gonna get arrested." Rich and Christine don't hear me, but Brooke and Jake calm down and take a seat.

"How about skipping?" Chloe suggests, "I think we all need to chill out."

"Can we get Pinkberry?" Brooke asks excitably, "Please?"

We all look at each other and nod, "Pinkberry sounds good." I say.

"Jenna, you drive girls, Michael, can you drive my car?" I nod, and he tries to stand up, so imove to help him.

"HEY, RICH, CHRISTINE, WE'RE GOING TO PINKBERRY." Both came running, so we walked over to the car.

-Wait, i'm lazy -

I sit down at the table with my frozen yogurt.

"Only one catch, we gotta stop for frozen yogurt first." Jake and Christine sing the theme song they wrote for Brooke.

"PiiiiiiIIIIIIIiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnkkkkkkkkkbeeeeeeeEEEEEEEeeeeeerrrrRRRRRrrrryyyyyyyy." Brooke sings her part, and everyone bursts into laughter, myself included.

I laugh at the jokes that they make.

Everyone one of us have inside jokes.

We made Pinkberry a Monday tradition.

We sleepover at Jakes every Friday.

These are my new best friends.

I don't need Jeremy anymore, just like how he doesn't need me.

I'll always miss Jeremy,

But I'll be happy without him.

ooo

word count: 1382 words

THIS IS NOT THE END. THIS IS NOT THE LAST CHAPTER. This is the end of part 1. part 2 will still be in this book, but there is gonna be a big time skip. so, that exciting. I hope y'all enjoyed this chapter. everything is about to get dramatic, so get ready. Thank you for being patient with me being late and disappearing for weeks. Also, Thank you, Reidy, for helping me write this, and giving me inspiration for the big dum jerjer memes.

REMEMBER TO VOTE AND COMMENT!! It makes my day, and encourages me to write more, so the next chapter would probably be out sooner!!

Also here are the memes that they were looking at. Rich made them in the story, but I made them irl. So, yeah. 

Thank you for reading!!

Have an amazing day, my loves!

-Madi <3

sept 21 2019