Dear Diary

chapter one

<Taylor>

Dear Diary,

New diary. New year, New beginnings. A new phase of life.

Was high school really like what they show in the movies? Well, I was about to find out.

Today was my first day at Maplewood High. Maplewood was an extremely famous branch of school in our city. We had Maplewood Kindergarten, Maplewood Elementary, Maplewood Middle School and finally, Maplewood High, all located at four different corners of our city.

Since I was young, I had been attending Maplewood. So had the gang. That's what we called ourselves, my friends and I.

I vaguely remembered some of them, from kindergarten. In Elementary, some of us were really close, some of us were enemies, and some of us barely knew about the others' existence. But in middle school, old ties of friends and enemies were forged into new relationships, and a love like no other between all of us friends.

Now we were suddenly in high school. We really were 🎶young dumb broke high school kids🎶.

I wondered how it would be. Would everything be the same between us?? Would the gang find new friends?? Probably not right, because we had been attending Maplewood since kindergarten. But still... This is when the real drama starts. Would grudges, problems, fights , and love triangles pull us apart?? Or would all of it just make us stronger and keep us closer together?

We were going to be fine. This is just the effect of all those movies and shows.

We'd always be the gang.

Who are we? Yup, I'll introduce us, don't worry.

Let's start off with me. I'm Taylor. No, not Swift(though I am a huge Swiftie-)unfortunately, but I'm Taylor Jones. People would describe me as quiet. Shy. A huge bookworm, since I literally have a book in my hand almost all the time. My friends would describe me as crazy. Hella weird. The one who cracks dirty jokes at everything, and the smart but dumb person of the group. Oh did I mention mean?? Because you would never guess by my honey blonde hair and hazel eyes that I'm a bookworm, and you would never guess by my bookwormish personality that I'm mean upfront. But I'm also the kind of person to be way more excited than you are for your birthday, and I'll literally write you an essay on how amazing you are to prove it.

Next up, my best friend. Amy Roberts. Her and her diary entries are telling this story with me. We've been an inseparable duo since second grade when we first got into trouble together.. long story. In contrast to my personality, she's loud, outgoing, crazy, and just as dirty minded as me from the beginning. She's also an idiot.. the stupid kind of idiot but also the competitive kind of idiot. Especially when it comes to swimming and debating. Sometimes her competitiveness causes jealousy and creates problems between her best friends and her...but at the end of the day she's your ride or die. She's also really pretty with espresso brown hair and roasted brown eyes but she just won't admit it.

Speaking of people who are pretty and won't admit it- Isabella Hartwik. Genuinely, she's really pretty- strawberry blonde hair and the perfect lively blue eyes, and pretty much every guy in the grade has a crush on her. She, as you could have guessed is all- Fashion! Fashion! Fashion! Picture! Picture! Picture! And, she's also part of the shy when you first meet them but just like all of us later on gang. She's pretty much really sweet, but since the past few weeks, we've been seeing hints of something that looks a little too sweet, almost hinting to be fakeness...

Nevertheless, we have the known for being hyperactive, talkative, and confident, we have Jennie Pink. Really good at soccer, and somehow manages to be drama free. She's chill.. really fun to be with, and has the same lively blue eyes as Isabella but short,  straight, black hair instead. Did I mention she's innocent.. really. she's more innocent than Maya Song.

Maya Song, the smart mom of our group is a HUGE doodler and stays in her world most of most of the time. She zones out, like, a lot. She looks like a delicate China doll, with short wavy black hair and piercing brown eyes. She's practical, whether you know her or not, but is slightly less talkative. Unless it's with Jenine. Yeah, she isn't innocent but she doesn't laugh like crazy when we crack dirty jokes like the rest of us. So, she and Jenine get along quite well together.

Let's get to the more insane creatures of our gang.

The boys.

Trevor Smith. He is obsessed with Justin Bieber. Unpopular opinion, how he manages to live with it, I have no idea, he's brave that way. Anyways, he's the soccer king of the grade, and is pretty tall, so you wouldn't imagine him to be all sensitive. Apart from that he's really funny. He's dirty minded as hell, and spends the majority of class making dirty jokes and stuff.

And then Daniel Matthews, whom you would call the nicer version of the playboy of the grade. He, on the other hand, kind of really likes Ed Sheeran, and is Basketball king.He also really likes badminton and is quite good at it, though not many people know. He also is dirty minded. And loud. Really, really loud.

There is honestly always some sort of hidden competition between the two, though they are the best of friends. Honestly, they both are equally popular and talented, and good looking, the former with messy brown hair, jet black eyes, and the perfect movie star grin, and the latter with slick black hair, green eyes and dimples. They're always secretly fighting for girls, attention, and well, just reputation and everything. How they still manage to be genuine best friends, I don't know.

But will things change in high school?

Coming to my twin brother, Andy Jones. He has perfectly styled brown hair and dark brown eyes. He's the fastest runner in the grade, and at least when you compare him to me and my unpredictable mood swings, the most chill person ever. He cannot go anywhere without his hoodie, plus he's super fun to hangout with. I adore and respect him like he's my world, but he adores someone else, someone whose surname ends with a 'k'...

We then have Jeremy Matthews. He's Daniel's twin. He has this abnormality.. ash blonde hair, freckled face, but yellow eyes. He is the king of.. badminton but also loves swimming. You do not want to face his anger, though on a normal basis he's a really nice guy, That's why we took him in.

Or is it only because he's Daniel's twin brother..

Last but not the least, the emo one. Augustus Octavio. Our dancer, a really good one. He's got black bangs and black eyes. He doesn't talk much and stays away from drama, but has practical opinions and is quite fun to be with.

I looked up at the building. I had reached high school. Enough thinking, Enough procrastinating, Enough imagining. I was here.

A posh grey building with huge top to bottom glass windows, gigantic verdan green plants, and a wooden brown reception with a leather red couch. I couldn't see the classes from where I was standing. I took a deep breath. Guess what, I'm in high school now. I told myself. My final phase at Maplewood and school. Soon I'd be off to college with-

No. No thinking. Only acting.

I walked into the wide beckoning gates. My friends were probably in the school cafe. Kindergarten we had spent asking our moms for lollipops at the cafe. Elementary we used to come with 5 dollars in our lunch bags to buy food. Middle school was buying coffee and fries for the winners of bets. The cafe was always our cliche hangout, as well as sitting on the lockers at the back of our class and chatting. But this time the lockers would be in the corridors.

I reached the cafe. It had the same sky blue paint and jingling off bells when I opened the door. But it had so many more people.. I scanned the place for my friends. I thought I must have been early, but then I spotted them.

In a corner wooden booth, there they were, visibly the noisiest in the cafe. Daniel was sitting on top of Andy. Trevor was having one of his deep convos with Maya. Amy was forming a heart with her fingers and winking at the both of them. Jenine was laughing and facepalming at something someone had said. Jeremy was making stupid faces and making everyone laugh. Augustus was begging Daniel to get off Andy and not cause a scene. Isabella was going around taking selfies, and she pushed Daniel off who landed on Jenine who squealed and Amy begged them to do it again so Isabella could record it and Maya threatened to leave and Trevor was busy speculating how wrong it looked and Andy was tickling Jeremy and Augustus had put is headphones in and I was there, taking it all in, thinking how nothing had really changed.

Yet.