"Best Friends"

Meeting Others

Mark and his mom ended up staying in Dark's home for years, allowing Dark to grow up with him and grow closer together, as well as introducing him to Anti and the others

The boys were now preparing for junior high, each of them eager and nervous about the future.

"We should go to the park!" Anti exclaimed one day during the summer as the trio lounged about inside Dark's room playing video games.

"It's like a thousand degrees outside though." Mark whined softly.

"No it isn't, it's only eighty." Dark's father interjected from downstairs.

"I think it sounds fun." Dark replied with a shrug, setting his controller aside.

"Hey Dad we're going to the park!" Dark yelled downstairs before shutting off the game system and marching outside with Mark and Anti on his heels.

"Be back for lunch!" Damien called back before they shut the door.

"Last one there buys ice cream!" Anti declared as he began running, Dark and Mark laughing as they began running as well, neither boy wanting to lose.

They found others at the park when they arrived, Anti being the first to notice them since he was there first.

"Who are you?" A girl with long brown hair twisted into a braid with flowers intertwined spoke up in a wary tone, jumping off of the swing set mid-swing to see the newcomers.

"I'm Anti, these are my friends Dark and Mark." Anti greeted her with a smile, gesturing to Mark and Dark in turn.

"I'm Clarissa." She replied.

"Oh hey, I'm Die!" A guy with white hair dyed blue in the ends chimed in from the monkey bars, swinging down to greet the trio.

"I'm Virus" A boy with dirty blonde hair came over as he slid down the slide. Fixing his glasses

"There's also Middy, but she's shy." Clarissa explained, gesturing to the girl with short black hair with jade ends sitting at the bench, shyly looking over at the lot

"Do you know Xilef? You look a lot like him." Anti remarked to Die.

"That'd be because he's my brother unfortunately." Die sighed, self consciously running a hand through his hair.

"It's cool to meet you all!" Mark interjected, Dark choosing to stay silent since he was still shy. 

"You all want ice cream? I'll buy." Virus offered, shooting Die a look as if looking for approval.

"Sounds good, there's an ice cream shop down the street a ways." Die nodded, Virus blushing slightly.

The group of newfound friends walked down to the shop, talking and laughing along the way while learning more about each other.

Dark, Mark, and Anti had learned that Middy had a snake tail, and Clarissa liked to flirt with the shy girl, and Die always made sure to include everyone in everything.

Upon arrival, Mark pulled Dark aside to talk to him.

"There's this music camp in LA that I think you should do, you could stay at my house and we'd work out together." Mark invited.

Dark hesitated as he glanced over at Anti, watching him messily eat his ice cream and get it all over his face while laughing with the others.

"I'm sure Anti would notice." Mark added when he noticed Dark's hesitation.

"Okay," Dark answered, still slightly hesitant.

"I'll go."