We Come Alive 5

"Just have fun, kid."

A week later on a sunny Wednesday morning, the Grand Ridge graduating class walked the halls for the last time. After four long, painful years of high school, it was all over for them.

Stephen bittersweetly went to his locker while all his friends surrounded him and waited. They were all empty-handed and had no book bags; except for Jose, who had a blue bag on his back.

"This ain't fair," Stephen complained, taking a notebook and pen out his locker. "Y'all get to leave me behind." He grumbled. "I'm supposed to just sit around here by myself all day next year?"

"Life isn't fair, youngling." Diego snickered.

"Yeah," Ethan agreed, leaning back against the lockers, "you don't see Blanco over here complaining that he's...well, Blanco."

Jacob smirked. "I might actually miss being called that." He admitted. "Never thought that'd be coming out of my mouth either."

Stephen shook his head as he crossed his arms. "Only you would miss something like that."

Clover giggled as she leaned against Jacob's shoulder. "I'm gonna miss listening to you hating each other." She smiled. "How are we going to celebrate our final day here?"

"Same way we always did." Jose smiled, reaching into the side pocket of his bag and pulled out a can of silly string. "We made trouble, so might as well leave making trouble."

Ethan smiled mischievously and walked behind Jose. The other four waited patiently as Ethan went into the bag. They all stepped back frantically when Ethan took out a water gun full of water.

"Yeah, y'all have fun." Stephen scoffed, walking away to class. "I can still get detention."

When Ethan pointed the water gun towards them, the rest of the group disbursed off into different directions. The only sign of what happened next was the screams, laughs, and running footsteps in Ethan and Jose's path.

~**~

After school, the five soon-to-be graduates went with Stephen to the athletic building to get Ricky and Andrew who had been hanging around in there all day. Since it was the end of the school year and they had no athletic seasons going anymore, Ricky didn't have any work to do. Andrew, on the other hand, was done with school until fall, so he decided to come to bother Ricky and Mateo all day.

The eight friends left out the athletic building as they would for many years after practice, walked through the parking lot, and onto the streets of Dallas.

"Where we going?" Ricky asked, swinging his keys around his fingers. "Or do we not know?"

"I say we go get tacos," Stephen suggested.

Andrew scoffed and rolled his eyes. "No. What about barbecue? That's something we can agree on."

"I want a donut," Clover muttered, clinging onto Diego's shirt since she was riding on his back.

Ethan walked in front of the group and turned, so he was going backwards. "I don't know why we pretend like we don't always have to go to different places. We always end up going to three or four places."

"Is that right, boss?" Jose sarcastically asked, putting his hands into his shorts pockets.

"At least you've finally figured out to call me." The Spanish teen winked.

Ricky pointed to behind Ethan. "How about we go eat here?"

Ethan looked back and saw Burger King; the Burger King he overdosed outside of. Ricky smirked, watching Ethan's face deflate. "Can somebody take me back to jail?" Ethan joked to hide his pain.