For some reason, I found myself blushing at Drake's actions, but as usual, he didn't seem fazed at all. As he carried me, I couldn't stop staring at his eyelashes. Don't you notice how long guys' eyelashes are? Well, they're long enough to make any girl jealous. It made me want to sort of pluck them out one by one, stick them all together, and use it as a makeup brush, hoping that it'll magically make my lashes long too. Wait. What?

I refocused my attention to the fact that I was being carried like a baby just because of my horribly weak-self. In fact, this wasn't the first time this happened. The amount of times this specific event has occurred, ranges from twenty-five up to two hundred sixty-eight. Or something like that. Plus, Drake was always there to save me from accidentally harming myself by trying to stand.

Actually, I wasn't so weak. I mean, eventually, I'd tell him that he can set me down... but at that moment, I was glad that I wouldn't have to use my legs. Drake and Tyler both have soccer practice for the school's team, so this should be good training for him. Once practice is over, Drake and I normally walk home together since we're next door to each other.

"Geez," he said, after setting me on the bench outside, next to the field. I hadn't even realized that we were there already. "Odette, you should know by now that self-harm isn't the answer." Honestly, I was glad to hear my real name instead of the nickname, Ode, that Elliot was bombarding me with during class.

I forced a chuckle, looking away and scratching the back of my head. "Yeah, yeah... I know... Sorry. And thanks." Kicking my legs into the air, I nodded to myself. "Yup! Feels better!" He sighed and left to go to the boys' locker room. Closing my eyes, I leaned backwards and lifted my face to the sun.

Then, somebody shaded me from the light, making me open my eyes. Lila looked down on me at first, but she quickly made her way around the bench and sat next to me. Everyday, Lila met me here after school. Cass couldn't come because she worked a job that I didn't even know what it was. She could be so mysterious... but that's all the more reason not to ask. I feel like if I do, she'll end up having to kill me, saying something like "Oh no! She's onto us! Quick! Call the helicopter!" in a Russian accent... just because Russians are bad guys in most of the films I've seen. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against Russians; I think they're abnormally beautiful. Repeat: Wait... What?!?!

I shook my head to clear away any random stray thoughts. Lila gave me a weird look for doing so, but I just gave her a face that said "Don't ask." She smiled and sighed, pulling out a map from her backpack. Oh, that's right... today's Thursday... I thought to myself. When Tyler, Drake, Lila, and I were little, we made a group-bucket-list; Cass wasn't there at first, but she got included later. We decided to go eat at every restaurant in town, so every Thursday, we'd go to a different restaurant... but new ones kept opening... Because of that, we still haven't finished the list. We use a paper map instead of the maps online because it makes us feel more adventurous.

Before I knew it, soccer practice started and Iden and Elliot were sitting on each side of me. Lila was standing behind us because... I guess she couldn't choose who she wanted to sit beside. A boy-crazy girl like her wouldn't care to make a single decision. I turned my head towards Iden, but Elliot snapped his fingers infront of my face.

"You're making me feel dejected, Ode. Dejected. It hurts. I mean, try to be friends with me. Please?" I raised my eyebrow at him. He tugged at my arm and gave me puppy eyes. "Please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please...!!!"

I rolled my eyes at him. "Don't call me 'Ode', Elliot."

"But I worked so freaking hard to find it! I even crashed into a girl!"

"Did you even apologize to her?"

He stayed quiet for a few seconds. "Okay. Okay, I know I messed up there. But let me ask you this: Why was her tray full when the lunch period was ending? Hm? Isn't that mysterious? Hm? Hm?" Elliot stroked his chin, acting as if I murdered someone and am now in the middle of interrogation. But he was right; it was very mysterious.

Speaking of mysterious things...

I whipped my head around and faced Iden and Lila. "What the hell, guys? Iden said he came yesterday, but how come I wasn't aware of this? I always take pictures of the new people here. It's a little odd that I never heard about Iden coming here." To be honest, I felt like a super smart detective at that moment. But... of course I was probably missing certain specific information.

Iden's lips tightened. Judging by the face Lila made, she never got information about Iden either. I know that for a fact because she became flirtacious when she first saw him. In other words, Iden was hiding that 'certain specific information' that I needed. As I was narrowing my eyes at him, freaking Elliot pawed at my shoulder.

"You dodged my question!" he complained. "I was being a really investigative reporter, and you just shot down my brief moment of bright awesomeness." The look he had on suggested that I should probably give a sentimental reply, answer, and praise. But there's no way I was going to do that.

Drake approached the bench and saved me by saying two words. "Odette. Water." He reached his hand out and wiped off his forehead sweat with a towel that hung around his neck with the other hand. I nodded and pulled out his water bottle from his bag under the wooden seat. Handing it to him, I couldn't stop staring.

When we were kids, we'd pretend to be monsters and stuff like that. Drake was always a vampire. That's why he earned the nickname "Drake-ula". Now that beads of sweat were on his arms, I ended up comparing it to the way the vampires in Twilight sparkled. I haven't even watched or read Twilight at all, so I have no idea how I received that knowledge.

Lila was acting like Cass the way she stayed quiet and listened to everything instead of speaking. It was actually kind of freaky. You'd understand if you knew Lila for your entire life. She would always be saying something or doing something or sleeping or eating. So, when she's entirely quiet while being conscious, it would most likely scare the shit out of you. Also, she was smiling. What kind of a weirdo smiles while watching other people's mouths move? Your best friend, Odette. That's who, I told myself.

Drake gulped down his water while Tyler sat on the grass, calming himself down after rampaging across the field. Skirting his eyes over Iden and Elliot, Drake placed the bottle back in my hands and wrapped his arms around my shoulders. "Thanks," he said, hugging me. I don't know why he decided to hug me just because I gave him his water, but I didn't really care much.

"No... problem," I replied, half-questionning him.

Iden shot up and looked at the ground. "D-d-don't touch her so casually! I-I mean... eh... uhmm..." he drifted off.

Drake let go and looked me in the eyes, but quickly turned on his heel and followed Tyler to their coach. After practice, Lila, Drake, Tyler, and I discussed dinner. After all these years, we still haven't come close to finishing the list. Sometimes we cheat, though. If there's a restaurant that only sells ice cream, we'd eat dinner at a different restaurant and have dessert at that ice cream place. Thus, we can have an actual dinner and we could mark off two restaurants. But like I said before, we're still far from completing the list.

So, our selection of restaurants- depending on what we felt like eating- was a bakery, a buffet, a taco truck, and a falafel place. We were too poor to eat at the buffet. Tyler said that he could treat us, but I don't like having someone else pay for me. It's like some sort of pride-thing for me. The falafel place was too far away from us at that moment, and Lila didn't want to have to walk there (considering the fact that none of us have cars [or licenses, for that matter]). Therefore, we ended up choosing to go to the taco truck and the bakery for dessert.

Then, I realized that we were talking about this infront of Iden and Elliot. Iden looked like he wanted to say something, whereas Elliot decided to chainsaw through the bush rather than beat around it.

"We want to go too!" he exclaimed, drawing attention. Iden widened his eyes at Elliot as if to say 'Don't shout, you dolt' but Elliot ignored the looks he got and continued to hound at us. "I think it's fair to say that Iden is Ode's friend, so he should be allowed. But just because Ode doesn't like me, that doesn't mean that the other four don't. Right?"

Tyler, being as nice as ever, nodded along. "Sure! They should come too! It could be fun for all seven of us!"

I sighed, giving in easily. "Whatever... And how many times do I have to tell you to stop calling me 'Ode'?! I'm like a broken record!"

Elliot shrugged "Well, if you're a broken record, then that's all the more reason for me not to listen to you, right?" Dammit, that guy. He's too sharp-mouthed for his own good. But he just grinned at me and played with my hair. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding. But I think 'Ode' is a pretty name. It suits you."

With a red face, I jerked away as Lila rescued me from falling backwards. "You... should tell Cass where to meet us," she said, helping me stand up right. I agreed, fixing my hair before texting her.

Once I snapped my phone closed, we began to walk to the vehicle in which you may purchase tacos. While we bought our dinner, Cass arrived in a jet-black limousine. I didn't bother asking why she was even in a car like that, but nor did I want to; her eyes looked as if they had the words 'Never speak of this' etched into them. Tacos in hand, we peacefully ate them whilst walking to the bakery. Then, we hurriedly left the bakery after finding out that they only sell bread, a non-dessert food. Plus, we were all extremely full.

There's nothing better than an unofficial study group on a Thursday night, so we sat at the curb- looking like drunkards trying to hitch a ride- and did our homework together. Iden was smart enough to get into a few advanced classes, but the rest of us are lost in the realm of stupidity. I don't know; maybe you could tell...

After an exhausting day of being lazy, the group slowly began to decrease. Iden and Tyler left first in order to catch the bus. Right when they left, I realized that Iden never answered the question I asked him during soccer practice and he forgot to give me his phone number. Cass ended up in another mysterious-looking car- no, van- and was driven into the great unknown. Lila disappeared within a hop, skip, and a jump. Thus, I was left with Drake and Elliot. Drake gave just one glance at me, but I understood what he was thinking.

Sometimes we forgot which restaurants we've eaten at or we didn't care to mark it off the map or list it down somewhere. Just so that we don't eat at the same restaurant twice, we leave our mark (a symbol) on it. Each of our friends has their own symbol. The symbol was practically just the first letter of our name. This is just another one of those things that makes you feel adventurous.

Elliot followed Drake and I as we made our way back to the taco truck. Only a single streetlamp shined on the empty conveyance. Drake pulled out his green spray-paint can and handed me my purple one. Not only did we have our own symbols, but we each got a color. Mine was a light purple, Drake's was- obviously- green, Lila's was pink, Tyler's was red, and Cass's was indigo. Because of my lack of neatness and memory, I usually give my spray-paint can to Drake for him to hold onto.

"Here," he said plainly, handing me my can while he sprayed his own initial onto the back of the metal truck.

I shook it up and began to spray my own. Soon enough, I felt a breath running down my neck. Oh yeah... Elliot was here. "Do I get to spray-paint too? It looks like fun," he mumbled.

Drake shrugged and tossed him a light blue spray-paint can. I was perplexed. Did he happen to just be carrying that? Was he planning on gaining a new member in our group? Of all colors, why did he get to have light blue?! Light blue's one of my favorite colors!

As I grumbled to myself, Elliot sprayed his first initial on the other side of Drake's. I'm pretty sure he did that on purpose, though. Do you know why? When you take a look at our three initials, it spells something very obvious to me; 'Ode'. Elliot took this moment to sneak in my non-nickname.

Once we were finished, he smirked at me and laughed. I furrowed my eyebrows and handed my can back to Drake. He may have won this round, but I won't let him steal the next!

Unfortunately, I didn't quite have enough time to plot my revenge because the truck's owner came out and started yelling at us, shaking his fist crazily. Therefore, as the dark sky introduced a few stars, helicopters, and planes, Drake, Elliot, and I were running away like mad men.

[]Author's Note[]

Hey, hey, hey! Thanks for reading, buddy! How was it? Tell me your thoughts! Don't be a silent reader!

Guys, I know this is only the third chapter, but I'm tired, man. I've been writing like crazy, and I completed this chapter, but I'm going to take a break from writing for a few days (or hours).

moviekidd826, don't kill me please. If you do, you'll never know what will happen next!

Plus, school started, so.... yeah. I'll use school as an excuse~

Well, vote, comment, follow, and continue once I update!!!

This is Iris! Signing OFF!

-!Ri$