THE PIT | JYATT

II

As the school day came to an end, Jaeden could barely stay still in his seat. He was ever so anxiously waiting for the final bell to ring so he could go hang out with his friends.
For his birthday 'party', Jaeden and his friends had planned weeks in advance to go rollerskating at the local roller rink. That's been their tradition for at least three years now, ever since they inducted Jack into their friend group.
        Jack is a few years younger and at least a grade below every member of the group— except for Millie. However, Millie was already apart of the group when Jack joined considering she used to date Finn.
        There's a lot of history behind the group of friends but they all have one thing in common— they love hanging out together as much as possible. Jaeden can't think of a weekend where he wasn't doing something stupid with one of his friends.
       After the final bell rang, Jaeden sprinted out of class and to the back door of the school where he'd patiently wait for his friends. Before he arrived at the door, Millie was waiting there for him.
        "Millie?" Jaeden was super confused. "I thought you were sick today."
        "Yeah, I was lying. I just skipped school so I could get you a present!" She cheered and gave Jaeden a big hug.
        "Haha, what did you do? Rent out the roller rink?" Jaeden joked, but Millie looked down and became quiet. "Wait— you actually rented out the roller rink?"
         "Yeah, you know our friend group loves extravagant gift giving." She giggled as Sophia, Jack, and Finn arrived at the back door.
        "Oh hey!" Sophia said to Millie, giving her a high five. "Also, we knew she was coming Jaeden."
        Jaeden just laughed and led the group out to the school's parking lot. "Okay, who's riding with me and who's riding with Soph?"
        "I'm obviously riding with the birthday boy!" Millie chimed in as she claimed the shotgun seat in Jaeden's car. The other two hopped in the back seat of Sophia's Jeep.
        As soon as everyone was in their chosen car, they began the twenty minute (without traffic) drive to the roller rink. "I'm playing Panic, and you can't stop me."
        "Can you at least play that one song? The one I like?" Millie asked, tugging on Jaeden's arm as he drove.
        "Of course, Mills." Jaeden said with a slight laugh as he played 'Collar Full.' He could see why it was Millie's favorite song; it was one of his favorites too. Together, they screamed the song until it ended. Once it ended, they played it again.
They screamed the same song on repeat for the entirety of the twenty minute car ride. "Girl, how much did you have to pay to rent this place out?"
"Okay," Millie began. "You know how there's time increments between each of our birthdays? I take that time to save up money from chores, holidays, allowa—"
"I get it, Mills." Jaeden said with a slight laugh to let he know she was joking. They proceeded to get out of the car and enter the roller rink.
They told the only worker there that they were there for a private party and then they got their skates. Since it was just them, the worker gave them permission to plug their phones into the speaker.
"Okay, we need to rent this place out every year." Jack exclaimed, his eyes widening as he glanced around the empty rink.  "Maybe I'll pay for it next year."
        "I really don't know what you slowpokes are waiting for, but I'm going to go skate." Sophia said after she quickly put her skates on.
        Jaeden was too busy plugging his phone into the speaker to hear her. Of course, considering it was his birthday, he would be blasting Panic! at the Disco throughout the rink. Let's hope the only worker here enjoys it!
        As soon as Jaeden put his playlist on shuffle, he rushed out to the middle of the rink. After years of coming here for fun to practice, he wasn't too bad at skating. Suddenly, he felt a hand grab his and he turned around to see Sophia.
        "Hey," Sophia whispered. "you know that new student you were texting me about earlier? I have a good feeling that you two are gonna hit it off."
        After that rather vague statement, Sophia briskly skated away. Jaeden was a bit confused, but also excited to meet the new student.
        "Wouldn't it be super crazy if we ended up going to the same concert tomorrow?" Jaeden quietly muttered under his breath. It would be super crazy but technically, it wouldn't be impossible.
Either way, Jaeden shook the thought away and joined his friends in the middle of the rink. They were taking a picture with the self-timer on Sophia's phone.
"Ugh, what a photogenic group we are." Finn said, looking at the photo in Sophia's camera roll. Seconds later, everyone was shouting "send me that!"
All that Jaeden could do was smile. There was simply nothing wrong with his life right now. He had perfect friends, he'd be going to his favorite band's concert, he got a new phone— everything was content in his life.
Soon after they took the photo, High Hopes came on shuffle. Of course, everybody knew this song so they all proceeded to scream the lyrics together.
During the song, Jaeden skated up to Millie, who was struggling and hanging onto the wall. "Thank you for doing this, Mills."
"Of course! You're one of my best friends! To repay me, maybe you could help me skate though." She replied while struggling to keep her balance.
Jaeden grabbed both of Millie's hands and helped her skate along the edge of the circular rink.
"This is literally perfect!" Jaeden yelled, louder than expected, causing everyone to whistle and holler. "Nothing could make this any better."