We all first went to dev's parents to convince them. His mom was in the living room and it hardly took 5 minutes to convince her. This is how it went:
Dev: "mom, can we go to San Jose like last year?"
Dev's Mom: "okay. But don't drive too fast like last time."
And next we headed to my house. They said yes. We convinced all our parents easily. Somewhere deep down I wished my parents said no, because I was really scared, but I think I would have been disappointed if my best friends had fun in a serial-killer-haunted mountain without me. Hell yeah, I would be disappointed. Our next task was to convince raj and his parents. Last year we had a hard time convincing raj's parents. They're very strict. I hope it isn't like that this year. But, even if we can somehow convince his parents, it will be hard to convince that scared Raj.
"do you think we can convince raj or his parents?" asks kayla
"we have to. Wait!" says Dev and we all wait for him to say something.
"let us do one thing. We will all first convince his parents saying that raj is acting kind of weird and he doesn't want to hang out with us and that we don't want to lose a friend." How does Dev come up with such evil yet convincing ideas? What kind of charmspeaker is he? "and we will convince them to convince raj." "that is a master plan Dev!" says Austin.
***
Dev rings the doorbell to raj's house. His mom opens the door. "oh hi!" says Mrs. Nayyar, Raj's mom. "hi mrs.Nayyar!" says Dev. "we just wanted to talk to you about Raj." His facial expression changes from a well-behaved kid to concerned friend. He looks at us with the expression, indicating we all do the same. We all get it, except Jerusha, who understands it only after I nudge her. "talk to me about Raj?" mrs.Nayyar looks puzzled. Well obviously, her son's best friends are here with concerned looks on their faces and want to talk to her about her son. "did he do anything wrong to hurt you?" she looks very very concerned. "I was wondering why he came home angrily. Let me call him downstairs right now." She almost yells Raj's name before I stop her. "no mrs.nayyar we want to talk to just you. We don't want Raj to know. He may feel uneasy." Everyone in the group nods. "okay. Come in"
We all sit in the living room at the Nayyars' house and Kayla and Austin tell mrs.Nayyar everything, just as we planned. It worked so well! Mrs.Nayyar literally said that she will pack Raj's bag for two days without telling him. Raj is so stuck with us. LOL. We leave Raj's house and as soon as we are far enough, we burst out laughing. "Raj is so screwed." I notice kayla not laughing and ask her if anything is wrong. "what if Raj tells his parents that we aren't going to San Jose and we may die in the place we are going?" why didn't I think about this before? "oh my god. That's a big problem." I say. "let us text him." Says Jerusha. "Saying what?" I say, "do we say, 'HEY BRO! I KNOW WE MAY DIE GOING TO UADA BUT JUST DON'T TELL YOUR PARENTS THAT WE ARE GOING ON A SUISCIDE MISSION!'" We all remain silent for a few seconds. Then I think, if Raj reveals what we are actually going to do to his parents, we may never be allowed to do anything together ever again. It may mean the end of our friendship. None of us would want that. We've been together since kindergarten. "let us tell him that if he reveals our secret, it may end our friendship,for a long time. He wouldn't want that either. So he won't tell his parents anything." I say. "yeah. Good idea i'll text him right away." Says Dev.
We wait for Raj's reply for about 6 minutes after he left us on read. Ugh. I hate being ignored through text. Finally, a 'DING!' comes up from Dev's phone. The message said, "you guys are pure evil. I will smack you in the face ASAP. You left me no option." Dev replies with several smile emojis and saying, "does that mean cute little 4-year-old is coming??😉" we all laugh. "☹ does cute little 4-year-old has an option? No. so yes I am. ☹☹" replies Raj. "yay! 😃." replies Dev and shuts his phone.
We all say goodnight to each other and leave for our homes. As soon as I reach home, I eat dinner and just as I turn to go to my room, my mom says, "goodnight. I hope you have fun with your friends. Don't do any harmful things." HARMFUL is underrating uada. I feel so guilty and wanted to tell her that I am going on a suicide mission for fun. But I can't. I feel miserable. What if something happens to us? Even worse, what if one us is lost or......... "okay ma. I will take care" I reply with a smile and go to my room. When I hit my bed I think, what if one of us dies? I try to convince myself that we will be alright and suddenly fall asleep.
