Derrick knocked on the door of the two story house. There was a single window lit on the second story room of the house. Derrick knocked once more as a shadow of a girl walking down the stairs sped up.

Jane opened the door, “Jeez Derrick, Why are you so late…” She was startled by the cuts and bruises on the boy’s faces. “Oh my goodness what happened to all of you!? Come in, Come in!”

The five boys followed Jane and moved into the house, down the hallway to enter a spacious living room. Jane flicked on the lights and motioned them to sit down. She started to look through the cabinets to find some rubbing alcohol, cotton balls, and band aids.

“Uhh, I don’t know if that’s necessary Jane, I think you’re freaking out.” Said Derrick.

“Yeah, have you looked at your face? You got a gash right above your right eye. Just sit down.”

A few girls walked into the Living room and almost froze at the sight of the five boys.

“Derrick! You boys get into a fight!?”

“No Kerry, we went bull riding and the bull won.” Derrick replied.

Kerry was tall, had a slim build, red hair, and freckles graced her pale skin.  She had sharp eyes, and her face slightly glowed in the darkness. Kerry was Jane and Jeanette’s close friends and associated herself more with the girls. This was partially because she was too busy practicing archery that she couldn’t go out to play very often. Transferring into Washington only a year ago gave her the label of the “new girl in school”.

Out of the darkness Jeanette emerged from behind Kerry. She dashed at Dietrich and smacked him on the arm. Dietrich gave a puzzled look.

“You idiot! You’re supposed to be the rational one!”

Dietrich tried to explain himself, “First of all, Ouch… That really hurt, and second of all you had to be there Jean, there was no way out of this.”

“Seriously Jeanette, we could have finished it once and for all with those Claremont idiots if the cops hadn’t shown up.” Said Grant.

“What!? COPS!?”

“Ok, it seems like they have some explaining to do, but let’s clean them up first. Grant you look like you’ve been hurt the most.” Jane said.

The three girls worked to clean cuts and made ice bags to put on bruises. There wasn’t much talking as the boys winced from the rubbing alcohol cleaning out their cuts. After everyone had been looked after the boys explained the story to the girls.

“Ok, so you’re saying that they wanted to play basketball, but instead started a fight. And in the middle of the fight, the cops came so you guys all split?” Jeanette inquired.

“Yeah, but they didn’t really want to play basketball. They just wanted to fight” said Derrick who had been telling most of the story.

“Wow, boys are really stupid. I don’t get you guys.” Jeanette crossed her arms and rolled her eyes.

“It’s a good thing you guys didn’t get caught. I heard colleges look at EVERYTHING.” Jane said.

“Forget it, we can take them on again, and next time there won’t be any cops or any stupid three on ones,” retorted Grant.

“Hey it’s getting late, I think we should go” said Joshua.

“Oh, yeah it is. Let’s go.”

Hughes who hadn’t spoken a word since getting into the house spoke up.

“I think there was a Claremont guy left behind.”

“WHAT!?” The boys stood up shocked looking at Hughes.

“Yeah, while running up I remember looking back and seeing a guy on the ground. I think one of us knocked him out pretty bad and he might have gotten overlooked by the Claremont kids.

Grant was about to lose it. “What!? Why didn’t you say that before!? He’s gonna rat on us. ”

Dietrich tried to cool Grant off, “Calm down grant. Hughes, I didn’t see anything. Are you sure?”

“I wasn’t sure, so I was running the scenario in my head the whole time”

Grant seemed to regain his head, “Whatever, let’s worry about it tomorrow. We’ll see you tomorrow.”

The three boys started to leave and Grant looked back at Dietrich and Grant.

“Hey, it felt like old times with you guys with us. We haven’t done much but I just want to thank you guys for being there with me today.”

Jane scoffed, “Wow the jerk has a soft side.”  Grant kept walking and waved it off.

“Yeah Grant, it’s been a while man. I’ll call you tomorrow, we do have the charity tournament tomorrow right?”

“Yeah, and we’re gonna kill them there. See you there tomorrow.” The three boys walked out of the door and closed it behind them.

Dietrich stood up and stretched his hands high, “I got no problem with that guy, even if he’s a jerk. It’s just the way he treats certain people, especially Charlie.”

“Ha, yeah Grant’s been having a lot of problems, especially since his parents are going through a divorce,” said Derrick.

“But I don’t think that’s a reason to be treating Charlie like crap, you know? Charlie never did anything to deserve that.” Dietrich laid down on the rug and stretched out his hands above him.

“I agree, but I didn’t know that Grant’s family was going through a lot. I would never have known. Dietrich you should talk to that guy,” Jeannette said.

Dietrich stared at the ceiling and thought for a second. “Maybe tomorrow, communicating with Grant is a little rough.”

“Well, I’m glad I have friends like you two Jane said.” She stood up. “Any of you guys want something to drink?”

“Here Jane let me help you.” Kerry followed to prepare some drinks for everyone.

“Me THREE!~ What do you have to drink.” Derrick jumped up and followed the two girls into the kitchen.

“Jeanette, You don’t usually hang out with these three… weird to see you here”, Dietrich asked.

“Yeah, little loner me was invited over by Jane today. We’ve been hanging out more, it’s kind of weird we found a lot of common ground.”

“That’s good. That means you don’t have to hover around me all day.” Dietrich made a funny face at Jeanette.

“HEY! Last time I checked it was YOU hanging out with me!” Jeanette threw a pillow but Dietrich managed to evade. The trio reemerged with glasses of orange juice on a platter. Each took a glass of orange juice.

“So here’s to Save the earth club! CHEERS!” Jane thrust her glass of orange juice into the air, which made Derrick swing his hand up and promptly move her hand back down to earth nearly spilling her orange juice.

“You crazy Derrick!?” Jane extorted.

“No, you crazy Jane? You gotta lay off save the earth club during times like this. We’re all friends here, not save the earth club. Let’s cherish this moment, cause in all the chaos if you haven’t noticed we never get to meet.” Derrick began to point at everyone one by one. “Kerry is always busy with archery, you are the president of all the clubs at school, Jeanette is a little new but all of us have been friends with her, and that leaves me and Dietrich to hang out by ourselves doing who knows what.”

Derrick thrust his glass of orange juice into the air and stood up.  “This one’s for us. That with the rest of this time we have at school together, we will build each other up. AND, we will always be there to help each other in the future, NO MATTER what. We take on the future TOGETHER. Cheers to that!”

Everyone echoed and clinked glasses together, “Cheers!”