Hop On Discord

Chapter 1 - Life as we know it

"Annalise! Get down here if you want to make the city bus!" Mom yelled pouring a bowl of cereal. I ran downstairs, grabbing my backpack from the railing. "Mom, it's the last day of school. Most students aren't even going to school today." I sat down and started eating the bowl of cereal. I can't believe it's my last day of senior year, it seemed like just last month it was the first day of senior year. Graduation is tomorrow, prom is in two days. But I don't have a date.. it's not like I wasn't asked.. I want to spend it with my friends and someone meaningful. Not some random classmate who I barely know.

I finished my bowl of cereal and put the bowl in the sink, saying goodbye to my mom and running out the door to the bus stop. "Annalise! Have you given more thought about going to prom as my date?" Jared asked. Him and I didn't have any classes together since freshman year. He did a lot of wood shop classes, while I did mostly theatre and music classes. "Jared, I told you. I appreciate you asking me. But I just don't see us going together." I said walking onto the bus to the middle seats. "Oh come on. We've seen each other several times a day, for the past four years. I promise you, it'd be a night you won't forget" Jared said while sitting down in the seat ahead of me. "I'm sorry, I just can't Jared. Maybe we can have a dance together. But I want to go enjoy the night with my friends." I put in my headphones, opening YouTube, hoping Jared will take the hint, as he turns around ending the conversation. Our stop is the last on the bus route, so the ride to school is pretty quick.

We arrive to the school, as I get off the bus I walk over to the big tree in front of the school and sit down in the shade, meeting my friends Katelyn and Nevaeh. "Annalise, thank god you're here. Help us end this argument." Katelyn greeted me while laying in the grass. "Would you rather your DM's get leaked? Or everyone knows your deepest darkest secret?" I just stared at her, pondering what could've this done to be turned into an argument between the two girls. "Okay, but think of it this way. Your DM's, like ALL of them. To friends, family, celebrities. The pretty and the ugly. All out, for the whole world to see. Or literal social death." Nevaeh says while grabbing grass from the ground and throwing it to the side. "Okay come on, both of those would be social death. Some of us don't reply to every YouTubers Instagram stories" Katelyn says raising her eyebrows towards me. "Woah. That's chemical warfare saying that out loud. Anyone could hear you." I say looking around at the students running towards their friends with yearbooks in hand. "It's not like he even opens them though, he has 84.5K followers. You do the math on how many DM's he gets daily" I say right as the bell rings. We all get up and start walking towards the brown building.

All 4 classes were the same, the teacher playing games, chatting with students, signing yearbooks. The only difference was the last teacher handed out cake and cards to honour everyone graduating. The day went by fast, by the time the final bell rang Katelyn and Nevaeh were standing at my locker with grocery bags in their hands of their belongings from their lockers. "Annalise! Hurry, clean out your locker! Nevaeh is driving us to the Dark Sky Viewing area to party with the rest of the graduates!" Katelyn excitedly said. "That's like 4 hours away. What about our bags? Dinner? Our parents?" I say pulling out all of my textbooks and decorations from my locker. "Oh come on, we're university students now. Our parents don't need to know our every move." Nevaeh says while pulling off my lock and putting it in my bag. I gave her a questioning look. "What? Every graduate takes their senior year lock. It's a right of passage. Plus they buy them bulk" Nevaeh locked her arm with mine and Katelyn's, walking towards the exit.

We drive halfway to the party, stopping to get dinner at McDonald's. "Okay, so we need to stop and get alcohol. It's not a party if we don't." Nevaeh says, hooking her phone to the Bluetooth. "Uhm. Nevaeh, you're driving us 4 hours away. We'll need to drive 4 hours back. You are not going to drive after drinking" I say from the back seat drinking my sprite. "I forgot it's not a house party..." it went silent for a bit. "Annalise, I heard Jared is going tonight" looking at me through the rear view mirror. "Old news, Nevaeh. Annalise isn't into him..." Katelyn says while doing her makeup in the mirror, her boyfriend Skyler is going to be there. They're good together, Skyler is good towards Nevaeh and I, he treats us like sisters. "Katelyn is right. He is on my back about prom..but you guys know I'm not looking for someone to go with. I'd rather hangout with you guys, putting these four years behind us." I say, Nevaeh rolling her eyes. Nevaeh has a girlfriend from another school, Jasmine. She is really nice, but doesn't hangout with our friend group much. She does a bunch of sports with her school and with the community, I don't even know how she has time for all of it and having a social life.

We pull into the parking lot of the viewing area, it was only 7:30 and it was almost full with cars parked along the country road. Skyler meets us at Nevaeh's car, kissing Katelyn and giving Nevaeh and I side hugs. "Ladies, get ready for the best night of your lives!" He hands all of us a Mikes Hard, Nevaeh instantly opening hers and chugging it. "Nevaeh, give me your keys. You deserve to party tonight. I'll drive us home" I say reaching my hand out. "Oh come on Annalise, you also deserve to party tonight. Live for once!" Skyler says laughing. "Do you want your girlfriend to make it home in one piece? Plus I don't drink much, I'd rather be safe than sorry" I say putting the keys in my shorts pocket. "Are you sure? We could find someone to DD us back" Nevaeh says linking her arm with mine. "Absolutely not, no one is driving your car. Especially when the three of us are drunk. I will drive, just have fun. I'll make sure no one tries anything stupid." I say as we reach the bonfire.

The night went by so fast, Nevaeh and Katelyn were both heavily drunk. I checked my phone to see that my favourite streamer Pezzy is streaming. I find an empty lawn chair and start watching. As soon as it starts playing I realize he's playing back rooms with Droid. I make sure to check on where Nevaeh and Katelyn are every so often. I heard a cough behind me, I turn around and see Jared. "You aren't having a drink? Want to shotgun one with me?" He puts out his hand with a Smirnoff ice. "I'm DD, I can't" I smile softly. "Oh come on. We're graduating tomorrow, no one's gonna tell your mom you had one drink" he pulls a lawn chair over to sit next to me. "Uhm yeah no thanks. I'm not into risking my friend's lives because I'm stupid." Laughing awkwardly. He looked over at my stream "you're at a party, and you're watching a twitch stream? When are you gonna start living Annalise?" "I am living, Jared. I graduate tomorrow, then I'm going to prom with my friends, then it's a week in Texas to see if moving there would be something I really want to do. I'm tired living in a small town.m, tired of living in Canada. People move away, not everyone stays were they're born" I say turning back to the screaming boys. "Texas? Since when were you going to tell me?" He looked hurt. "Jared, we aren't exactly the closest friends. Plus I'm not airing out my life goals to everyone. It just is what it is." I say looking up to see Nevaeh, Katelyn and Skyler walking over to us. "I think the girls are ready to go home captain, they seem ready to crash" Skyler says holding both the girls around their shoulders. I look at Jared "Welp. That's my cue..I'll see you at graduation tomorrow." Walking back to the car with the group, Skyler helping out the girls in the car. "I'll text you when we get back to town. Thank you for helping them to the car. How are you getting home?" I ask the lanky tall boy. "Oh, the football team has groups and each has a DD. Mine is Mick, uh he's driving his mom's minivan" laughing at his response. "Okay then, shoot me a text when you also make it back to town" I say turning the car on and waving. I put my phone on the holder on the desk, putting the stream back on. I'm not one for music while driving, I'm more of listening to podcasts or streams.

The four hours went by fast, as not many cars were on the highway. We arrived at Nevaeh's house, parking her car in the driveway and waking the girls to go inside. We all fall asleep in her room, Katelyn and I taking the floor with blankets and pillows. We wake up to Nevaeh's mom knocking on the door "Girls! It's graduation day! There's pancakes and bacon downstairs. Come soon or else Zach is going to eat it all" Nevaeh's little brother, Zach is a year younger than us. He's just like all the other younger brothers, annoying. We all get up, still in the clothes from the night before. We sit at the table and grab some food, talking about what dresses we're going to be wearing this evening. "Katelyn, I can't believe you're going to be wearing red. All the girls are going with nude, white or black." Nevaeh says while pouring syrup on her pancakes. "Exactly! How else am I supposed to stand out? The gown is going to cover all of this" she says rubbing her hands down her sides. We all laugh, Katelyn and Skyler are gym rats. If they aren't at school or with us, they're at the gym. We all said goodbye and headed our own ways to get ready for graduation. Once home, I start by taking a shower. I pull up Pezzys YouTube and put on his latest video while I do my makeup. Thinking about the week yet to come. I'm staying in a hotel, with no plans other than see where the week takes me. All I know is there's a whataburger down the street, which is one of the only things I have planned to do. Once ready, I head downstairs. My mom and dad waiting for me, we hop in my mom's car and head to graduation. We meet up with Katelyn, Skyler and Nevaeh and their families for photos in front of the school before going to the ceremony. It lasted about two hours, afterwards all four of us and our families headed to Skyler's families house for a barbecue. Afterwards going home, all being giddy about prom to happen the next day.