[Chapter forty-eight]

Or

In Which the Foolish Five sit and reminisce

Italics = flashback (third person's point of view)

-Nevaeh-

"What're you talking about?" Dylan scoffs as Max finishes talking. "It was your idea to go camping, oh smart one."

"And you got us lost, hun." Megan adds.

Max shoots her a look of betrayal. "I did not get us lost."

"Yes, you did." Noah states. "You told us you knew how to use a map and then you had no idea where we were."

"And you dropped the compass in the fucking gorge." I croak out, giving him a pointed look. "And we ended up being behind the university the whole time."

"Hey, I'm not the only stupid one." Max folds his arms. "What about that time in high school I told you guys a simple plan and none of you got it?"

"-everyone got it?" Max finishes telling his friends the plan to prank Ms Fields and they all nod.

"Yup, I'm attaching the air horn to the desk." Nevaeh, Noah, Dylan and Megan all say in unison before looking at each other in confusion. "What?"

"No, Nevaeh's keeping look out." Dylan shakes his head.

"How is she supposed to keep look out when we can't even see her eyes?" Noah retorts.

"The same way she walks around without walking of a cliff." Dylan shoots. "She can still see even if we can't see her eyes, dumbass."

"Dylan, you're keeping look out." Megan interjects. "Nevaeh's putting the glad wrap on the door."

"What? No, I'm not." Dylan shakes his head. "Max was obviously looking at Vaeh when he was talking about who was on look out."

"I thought Dylan was putting the glad wrap on the door." Noah interrupts.

"No, you're putting the the glad wrap on the door." Dylan says. "I'm unbolting the chair."

"I thought Max was putting the glad wrap on the door." Nevaeh scratches her cheek.

"I thought Megan was unbolting the chair." Noah admits.

"Me? With tools? Yeah right." Megan scoffs. "I thought Noah was unbolting the chair."

"I thought Noah was putting glue on the chair." Nevaeh says in confusion.

"But I'm attaching the air horn to the desk." They all say in unison again.

"Oh my god!" Max shouts, making them look at him. His eye is twitching and his face is red. "Megan's keeping look out, Dylan's putting glad wrap on the door, Noah's putting glue on the seat of the chair, Nevaeh's unbolting the chair and I'm attaching the air horn to the desk!"

Nevaeh scoffs at him. "Well maybe you should actually say our names next time."

"Dude, that was your fault." Dylan rolls his eyes.

"Yeah, you didn't say our names when you were telling us the plan and you barely looked at us when you gave someone a task." Megan explains.

"This is bullying!" Max shouts making me wince slightly.

"Max, shut up!" Noah snaps.

Max looks at me with sorrow. "Sorry, Vaeh."

"It's fine." I shake my head, smiling slightly. "Wait, Max, how did you even end up kicking Kamri into the tree?"

Max scratches the back of his neck. "Well..."

"Max, catch!" Max's classmate in P.E throws him an unusually hard football.

Max catches it and kicks it without looking. It flies into a tree.

Max furrows his eyebrows. "Did that football just cry?"

"Wow." I roll my eyes, chuckling.

"I didn't mean to kick our child into a tree." Max defends himself. "I didn't even know it was our child."

"Oh because that makes it all better." Noah says sarcastically making us laugh.

"Remember that time we were trying to prank Max a few months ago?" Megan pipes up, making Noah, Dylan and I share a look before laughing.

"That was a whole mess." Dylan chuckles.

"Got it?" Megan looks at Nevaeh, Noah and Dylan who are all standing around the island in Megan's kitchen.

"Okay, so we're dumping glue and glitter on him?" Dylan asks.

"I thought we were doing a Ouija board prank on him." Noah scratches the back of his neck.

"I thought we were dressing up as horror movie characters and scaring him." Nevaeh furrows her eyebrows.

Megan purses her lips before nodding. "I just wanted to make sure we're all on the same page."

"Same page?" Nevaeh repeats in disbelief. "We're not even in the same library!"

"That's why you made me do the Oujia board and said you weren't moving the planchette even though you were," Max points at Noah. "And that's  why you dressed up as Pennywise the dancing clown and scared the shit out of me," he points at me. "And that's why you two poured glue and glitter all over me!" He points at Dylan and Megan.

"Yup." Dylan smiles brightly at him.

"Pretty much." Noah nods.

"It took me three hours to get that shit off!" Max exclaims.

"But you can't kill us because it was your girlfriend's idea." I quickly say, making him roll his eyes.

"What about that conversation we had a couple weeks ago?" Noah starts. "The one that would've made people think we were high?"

"How are unicorns fake but giraffes are real?" Nevaeh suddenly says as the five of them sit around Nevaeh and Megan's dorm room. "Like, what's more believable? A horse with a horn or a leopard-moose-camel with a forty-foot neck?"

"I wonder what it would be like to be Spongebob." Dylan starts. "Think about it, a freaking sponge!"

"Who put the alphabet in alphabetical order?" Noah wonders out loud.

"Are Medusa's leg hairs tiny snakes?" Megan bites her lip.

"If you say 'whale oil beef hooked' really fast, it sounds like you're saying 'well I'll be fucked' in an Irish accent." Max tells them.

They all share a look.

"If anyone ever heard what we were talking about, they'd think we're high." Nevaeh voices what everybody is thinking.

"Remember when Nevaeh and Noah had their first kiss?" Max laughs. "Then Nevaeh punched him in the face?"

He slowly stops laughing when he sees us all glaring at him.

"What about that time we went on a road trip and Max wanted to be the navigator?" Dylan changes the subject.

"How come I'm not driving my own jeep?" Max complains but is ignored. "Or even sitting in the front?"

"So who wants to navigate?" Noah asks as he sits in the driver's seat of Max's jeep with Nevaeh in the passenger's seat, Max, Dylan and Megan squashed in the back.

"Me!" Max instantly shouts, raising his hand.

"No, we do not want Max navigating." Nevaeh immediately says. "He'll accidentally navigate us off a cliff."

"No, I won't." Max argues but sees everyone looking at him with raised eyebrows.

"Remember the camping trip?" Dylan reminds him, making him deflate.

"Okay, maybe it isn't the best idea to let me navigate." Max pouts.

"Yeah, then you sulked so much we felt bad and let you navigate." Megan starts.

"And instead of taking us LA, we ended up in Texas." I finish.

"Hey, you guys said it wasn't a good idea to let me navigate." Max defends himself. "Why didn't you listen to yourselves?"

"Remember how we first met Nevaeh?" Dylan suddenly asks.

Nevaeh walks into detention and sees Noah, Max and Dylan already in there, surprisingly.

"Hoods off in class." Ms Fields says to her, making Max and Dylan look up, but Noah just stares blankly down at his desk

"Shut up." Nevaeh replies instantly, taking her normal seat in the back left corner, Noah, Max and Dylan being in the back right corner.

"Young lady, I will not hesitate to send you to the principal." Ms Field threatens, her face turning a bright shade of red.

Nevaeh snorts. "Go ahead. He won't care. He knows I won't take my hood off."

Ms Field shuts up and they sit in silence for another half an hour.

"I have to go do something." Ms Field announces, standing up. "I trust that you four will not leave this classroom, but just in case, I am locking the door." She walks out, and just as promised, she locks the door, throwing them a smirk before walking away.

Almost immediately, Nevaeh's hear a scraping of chairs as Noah, Max and Dylan change seats and sit in front of her. Or more like, Max changes seats to sit in front of her and drags Noah and Dylan with him.

"Hey, new girl." Max greets while Noah, Dylan and Nevaeh just sit there.

"Ah, memories." Max chuckles.

"Max was being so nosy." Dylan adds, shaking his head.

I laugh. "I wanted to punch him in the face."

"You should've." Noah jokes.

"Excuse me," Max throws him an offended look. "You hit me enough."

Megan giggles softly. "We've had some good times."

Too bad we're not going to have any more.