-Max-

Sky seemed to forget his leg was injured when we finally reached the mall. I never could've thought he could be so excited about visiting a mall. A mall. I had never seen him so excited anywhere else except out in the forest. He was hopping around with his crutches, looking absolutely adorable, but he kept forgetting to be careful with his bad leg. Every time he put too much weight on it, he let out a small whimper and stopped to a halt, closing his eyes in pain.

And every time both Troy and I jumped to his aid.

"Are you all right? You should be more careful! Do you need to sit down? Does it hurt too much? Do you need ice? Should we take you home?"

"Would you two just stop already?" Sky chuckled lightly at one point. "It's not broken; it's just sprained. I'm not dying here."

I didn't know if Sky was just acting brave, but soon after, he seemed like nothing had happened, and soon after that, he forgot to be careful again. Every single time.

"Sky, over here! I promised to get you ice cream," Troy said when he spotted the shop up ahead.

Sky's eyes widened in awe, and once again, he looked like a small, excited child. The two of them vanished inside the shop, while Luke and I stayed outside. Neither of us liked ice cream that much.

"So, what do you think about him?" I asked Luke, who was staring after them.

"Who?" he asked, glancing at me.

"Sky," I said, like he didn't already know who I was talking about.

"Oh," Luke said and turned his attention back to our friends. "He seems like someone dropped him on his head when he was little."

"Why do you have to be so mean to him?" I asked angrily. "Sky is a good guy! You'd see that if you'd just stop acting like an asshole!"

Luke peered at me, gritting his teeth together. Then he sighed. "I know. He seems like a nice kid. A bit weird, but not in a bad way I guess."

"Then why are you so mean to him?" I asked.

"I'm not being mean to him," he hissed, but after a short pause, he sighed. "Fine, I'll be nice to him."

When I took a good look at him, like really looked at him, he seemed out of strength somehow. He turned to look at Sky again. Sky was laughing at something Troy had said, and they both were having fun while waiting in the line.

"Sky just wants to have friends," I said quietly. "You saw him when he was all alone. He looked so sad all the time."

Luke didn't reply to me. He just sighed.

"Are you all right?" I asked hesitantly.

He frowned at me. "Why wouldn't I be?" he grunted.

"You look sad," I noted.

"I'm fine," he mumbled.

"Did something happen?" I asked, trying to get him to talk, but he just gave me an angry look. "Fine, don't tell me, but I know something is wrong."

"Whatever," Luke muttered, and I stopped trying.

He wasn't fine, and it frustrated me. No one told me anything anymore. Luke was a good friend of mine, but then again, why would he tell me anything when even my best friend was hiding something from me?

Troy and I had talked about my crush on Sky before practice, and after I told him there was no way Sky could be gay, Troy had muttered something about that weirder things had happened. I wouldn't have paid any mind to it, but his expression and the way he said it... It was clear something was going on with him as well, but he had only gotten angry at me when I tried to ask if everything was all right with him. Even now I could feel a bit of tension between us.

When Troy and Sky finally returned to us, the atmosphere was freezing, and I knew they noticed it.

"So... Why don't we go sit down?" Troy suggested carefully.

"Sure," I said and smiled at Sky, when he gave me a worried look.

I helped Sky sit down at one of the empty tables, and Troy handed him his cone. We were all silent for a moment until Troy got too anxious about it.

"So, uh, great practice today, right?" he spoke.

"Yeah whatever," Luke muttered.

"It was good," I nodded.

"It looked like a lot of fun," Sky said absentmindedly, licking his ice cream. "I think I understand it now. It's like playing tag, right?"

Troy bit his upper lip while I tried to fight back my urge to hug Sky. How adorable could he possibly be?

"Playing tag?" Luke repeated his words, glaring at me like asking if Sky was serious.

"Sky doesn't know much about sports," I explained. "But he's learning," I added, patting Sky's shoulder.

Troy was too busy holding back his giggle to participate in the conversation. Luke was pissed and confused at the same time. Sky was puzzled when he stared at us.

"It's... not like playing tag?" he asked in a small voice.

"You know what?" I said cheerily. "It kind of is. If the other team has the ball, we need to stop that person."

Sky smiled and licked his ice cream again. At first, I found it simply adorable, but the longer he kept licking that thing... I blushed and turned to look away.

"Playing tag..." Luke muttered and shook his head.

Troy lost the battle against his laughing fit. He was shaking uncontrollably, almost dropping his ice cream. I snatched it from him a mere second before he burst into laughter.

"I can't... That was... That was..!" Troy gasped. "No..! This is... too... much...!"

I laughed too, and after a moment of watching Troy's hysterical giggling, Luke started smiling too, which was really rare of him. Troy's laughter sure was contagious.

"He's not going to stop anytime soon, is he?" Sky asked with a wide smile.

"Nope," both Luke and I shook our heads.

"Noo...!" Troy gasped. "I can't... breathe..!"

"All right, let's get you somewhere quiet," I said and handed Troy's cone to Luke.

I helped Troy up on his feet and dragged him to the restrooms. I hoped a moment in a quiet stall would calm him down. Luke and Sky followed us, and we all tried to ignore the weird looks we were receiving.

Once we were all cramped inside the men's room, and Troy was locked up in one of the stalls, he started calming down. When it was completely quiet, I turned to speak to Sky.

"So," I tried to speak, but Troy started laughing again. "Oh, for crying out loud!" I chuckled, making it worse for him.

"Stop talking!"

"Fine... fine," I snickered.

It was hard for the rest of us to not start laughing as we listened to Troy's struggle to stop giggling.

"Am I the only one who thinks he sounds like a dying horse?" Luke joked while eating Troy's ice cream.

"S-Stop-p!" Troy begged.

"I think he sounds more like a hyena," I said.

"Noo...! Don't...!" Troy almost cried while laughing.

"Guys... Don't tease him," Sky said, looking worried.

"Thank you!" Troy breathed out before he continued laughing.

I shook my head in amusement.

It took almost ten minutes before Troy was able to come out of the stall. His eyes were red and puffy, and he looked exhausted. He was still chuckling a little, even though his expression didn't look happy.

"Are you all right now?" Luke asked, placing his hand on Troy's back to support him.

"I'm fine, thanks," Troy said and turned to look at me. "Where's my ice cream?"

"Don't look at me," I said and pointed at Luke. "He ate it."

"It was melting," Luke shrugged. "I can buy you a new one," he offered.

Troy glanced at him before walking to the door. "It's fine. My stomach hurts too much anyway," he spoke.

We followed him outside. I watched Sky struggling with crutches and held the door for him. He gave me a small, appreciating smile. Oh lord, I would've done anything to make him smile at me like that every minute of every day.

"So," I spoke and made sure Troy wouldn't interrupt me this time before I continued, "New notebooks for you?"

"Yes!" Sky chirped, like buying school supplies was something really exciting.

I knew I had a goofy smile on my lips when I looked at him. I wished no one else noticed it. And yet, I still couldn't turn to look away from Sky. His eyes were sparkling so beautifully... I had never been so smitten by anyone, but even though I liked that happy feeling, I hated the fact I couldn't just kiss him right then and there.

"Are you guys coming or what?" Troy asked, and I realized that Sky and I were still standing at the door.

Sky turned away from me. It felt like the entire world turned dark when he wasn't looking at me. I cursed myself. I was going to get severely broken at some point. Someone else would see what I saw in him, and they wouldn't be so afraid to ask him out. I was wasting my chance, if I even had one.

"Sky," I opened my mouth out of whim, but when he looked at me, and the world was glimmering around me again, I lost my courage. "Let's go," I said, and he tilted his head.

"Yes!" he said with a smile, even though I had sounded like a complete idiot.

I saw Troy watching us. He was smiling, too. I knew he would tease me later for being so horribly awkward around Sky. I just wished that Luke didn't notice how madly I had fallen for Sky.

I wasn't sure if he'd be so friendly to me if he found out I liked boys.

-Sky-

It was so much fun to hang out with them all. I was so excited I sometimes forgot to breathe. I was so freaking lame! I had wished to have friends, and now I had two of them! Three, if I ignored the fact that Luke didn't want to be my friend. I really wanted to call him my friend too.

"I'm sorry about Luke," Max said to me, as he was helping me to find the notebooks in a bookstore. "He's not usually this grumpy."

"Oh! I don't mind," I said with a smile. "I think he's fun to hang out with."

"Uh... Fun?" Max asked, glancing at Luke, who was lurking on the other side of the store with a gloomy expression on his face.

"Yeah," I said with a nod. "He's just shy."

"Uh-huh," Max said slowly, "And what gave you the impression that Luke, of all people, is a shy person?"

"Because he's so quiet," I told him. "He doesn't know what to think about me, so he keeps his distance. I mean, that's what dogs do when they are nervous."

Max let out a light laugh. "He's a dog all right."

"He reminds me of a Doberman," I said. "Troy is like a Golden Retriever."

"Oh? What am I?" Max asked, leaning closer to me.

My heart raced when he was so close to me. His scent was flowing all around me, and I almost forgot what he'd asked.

"You're a mix," I said quietly and gulped before I continued, "An Irish Setter and a German Shepherd."

"Why am I a mix?" he chuckled. "And why Irish Setter?"

"Because of your hair," I said, touching his long locks, feeling ridiculously shy all of a sudden. "And you run fast. And you're so kind, and funny."

I had no idea why I was saying those things out loud! I couldn't stop myself, not even if my life depended on it. Max was standing right in front of me. He was so tall and handsome and...! I was melting.

"I didn't know dogs could be funny," Max said with a low, quiet voice.

"T-They c-can," I stammered. "My d-dog was hilarious..."

"Oh?" Max asked softly, leaning even closer to me.

"Y-Yeah," I whispered.

"Okay. And why German Shepherd?" he purred.

"Be-because..." he was so close I could almost feel his warmth on my skin.

"Would you two stop flirting already?" Troy's voice came right behind us.

Max pulled away from me. His eyes were wide, and he looked spooked for some reason. I must've had the same expression on my face, because I feared they had noticed how Max made me feel. I stopped breathing. Did he just realize I had feelings for him?! Oh god, please don't let it be like that!

"Sorry," I gasped and took a step back.

I tried to flee from the scene, but I forgot my crutches behind. The first step I took on my injured leg was the last step I could take. The pain jolted through my body and I lost my balance, falling down on my face and taking a ton of books with me.

"Sky!" Max shouted and rushed to help me up, but I was too embarrassed to let him touch me.

"I'm fine. I'm all right. I'm..." I mumbled, trying to push his hand away.

I sat up and carefully peered up at Max. He had a faint blush on his face, probably because he was so shocked I had fallen to the ground and made a huge mess while I was at it. Oh god, now I had embarrassed us all.

"Sky! Are you all right?" Troy asked as he hurried to us.

"I said I'm fine," I muttered and shoved them both away while trying to get up.

The clerks ran to us with pissed-off looks on their faces. They muttered something about the broken shelves when they started collecting the books. Troy tried to help them, but they told us to get out of the store.

"He tripped!" Max tried to explain. "He has crutches, for crying out loud!"

"What?" the clerks asked in unison, taking a better look at me.

I was trying to get up with the crutches, and suddenly their behavior changed.

"Are you all right, kid?" they asked, and I wanted to scream I was all right.

It was just a great big mess, and I wanted to run away from it all. I was so ridiculously embarrassed. I could only wish Max hadn't noticed how much I really liked him. It could ruin everything if he knew! He would laugh at me and maybe even stop being my friend. I didn't want that. I didn't want that at all.

"Would you all just stop and take a breath?" Luke boomed again, and everyone froze still.

I felt a pair of strong arms grabbing me, lifting me up from the ground. I peered over my shoulder and saw it was Luke who had helped me back on my feet. With an annoyed look on his face.

"Sorry about the mess," he told the clerks. "Everything is OK?"

The clerks looked around, and everyone nodded.

"Good. We'll get out of your hair," Luke continued and glared at the three of us. "Let's go before you break something else."

We all followed his advice quietly, repeating the word 'sorry' on our way out. Once we were far away from the bookstore, Troy started to chuckle.

"No! Do not start that again," Luke growled at him, and Troy slapped both of his hands over his mouth. "Christ's sake..." Luke muttered to himself.

I couldn't even look at any of them. I was afraid they had noticed how flustered I got when Max leaned so close to me, and angry at me for causing a scene.

I was being silly again, wasn't I? I had probably talked so quietly Max couldn't hear me, so he had leaned closer. I was just getting weird ideas about it. But Troy had seen us. I so wanted to run away, but I couldn't. If, by any chance, Troy hadn't seen me getting flustered by Max, it would be suspicious if I ran. So, I followed them out of the mall, trying to act cool.

"The notebooks!" I gasped and turned around.

"I'll give you one of mine," Troy said. "We can come back another day."

I gathered all my courage to look at him, but he didn't seem any different. He had a kind smile on his face, like he always did, so I relaxed.

"Should we go grab something to eat?" Max asked me, like nothing had happened. "We can talk about our project – we still haven't decided what to do."

I felt happy when he talked, but when he mentioned our project, I went right back to being sad again.

"I really think we need a new subject," I said hesitantly. "I can't walk to the barn. There is no way I can get to it. I was barely able to walk in the mall."

"Hey, cheer up. We'll think of something," Troy said with an encouraging smile. "We still have time so don't give up just yet."

"What barn?" Luke grunted.

"You know the biology project we have?" Max asked. "There's this barn in the woods. It's a couple of miles into the forest, right after the abandoned gas station. There are a couple of owls we need to follow for the project, but Sky can't walk that far in the woods."

"The old Wilkes farm?" Luke asked.

I nodded. "Yeah. You know the place?"

"Yeah, it's right next to our trail. My dad and I sometimes stop there to eat," Luke explained.

"Do you know if there's a place where we could get closer by car?" Max asked with a hopeful look in his eyes.

"No. The gas station is the closest," Luke said.

"Oh," Max muttered in disappointment.

"Don't worry, Sky," Troy said, but he seemed disappointed, too. "We will find a way."

"It's useless. We need to start with the project soon," I sighed.

"Don't say that," Max said quietly. "I want to do the project about owls with you."

"Yeah – you guys were so excited about it," Troy said in a sad voice. "Heck, even I was excited about it. You guys have the best subject ever!"

I tried to smile, but it was useless. I had ruined everything already.

"What if Max starts without you?" Troy asked carefully.

"We have to do it together. Besides, Max doesn't know anything about camping," I said.

"True," Max chuckled a little, but his voice was miserable.

"Oh, cry me a river," Luke muttered. "Come on, girls."

"Who you calling a girl?" Troy snapped at him, but we all followed him.

"You all," Luke said. "I'll call my mom to pick us up. Meanwhile, there's another bookstore across the street. You can go get the notebooks there," he continued, pointing at the buildings on the other side of the road.

"You're calling your mom to pick us up?" Troy repeated. "Why?"

"Because the runt can't walk all the way to my place," Luke explained, searching his phone.

"And why are we going to your place?" Troy asked.

Luke grit his teeth together. "Because someone said I should be nice."

"Now you lost me," Troy sighed.

"Just go get the notebooks, and meet me here," Luke said, bringing his phone to his ear.

We did what he asked, and when we returned to him, there was a big black car waiting for us. Luke told us to get in, but he didn't explain what he was up to.

"You'll see soon enough," he grunted.

Max, Troy, and I climbed on the backseat while Luke sat down next to his mom. I listened to Luke's mom talking about her day and asking about ours. Max and Troy didn't seem to know the woman, which I found odd. I got the impression Luke rarely brought any friends home. That was weird too, but on the other hand, I never brought any friends home with me either.

Turned out that Luke lived in a nice, two-story house in a good neighborhood. Everything they had looked expensive. When we got out of the car, Mrs. Frost went inside, but Luke and the rest of us stayed outside.

"So, care to explain why we came here?" Max asked.

"This way," Luke said shortly, and walked around the corner.

I looked at Max and Troy, who seemed as confused as I was, but we followed him. When we stepped around the corner, I saw Luke opening the garage door and vanishing inside. We followed him into the darkness.

"I have a solution for your problem," Luke said, turning on the lights.

I blinked a few times when the bright lights flickered into life. There was a dark-green car right in front of me. I frowned at the sight of it.

"Luke," Max breathed out. "Are you serious?"

He sounded so amazed I had to look at him for a moment. He stared at something in awe. When I turned around to look at the car again, I realized he wasn't looking at it.

There were two blue ATVs behind the car.

"I can teach you how to drive it," Luke said. "And I can show you the easy way to the barn. This way you don't have to walk there."

"Are you serious?" Max asked again.

"Luke! This is awesome!" Troy clapped his hands in excitement and hugged him shortly. "You are a genius!"

Luke had a small smile on his lips when he patted Troy's back. Troy let go of him with a grin and turned his attention to Max.

"The project is happening, after all!" he cheered.

"See? I am being nice," Luke said.

"Thank you," Max said with a wide smile.

"No problem, bro," Luke said, sounding a little embarrassed.

I stared at the ATVs. I couldn't believe my eyes! And the best part was...

"I know how to drive it," I said in excitement.

"Great," Luke said. "Then you just need to know how to get there."

"You know how to drive it?" Max asked with wide eyes.

"My uncle taught me," I shrugged with a smile before I turned to look at Luke again. "Are you sure you want to let us use it?"

"Sure, if it makes you happy," Luke said. "If I'm forced to hang out with you guys, I'll lose my mind if you two are crying over the project all the time."

I chuckled at his words and let out a long, happy breath.

The project really was happening, after all!