“Are you kidding me?” she scoffs, pushing her glasses up with a scowl etched into her face. “I hate his fucking guts. For a good reason, too. He and I? We’re never going to be friends!”

“He really isn’t that bad a guy,” Darren says. The video displayed on my phone screen ends, and I chuckle.

“She really doesn’t like ya’, does she?” Brendon laughs. “I think that’s a first; a girl hating your guts without meeting you. No, it’s a first for a girl not liking you, period!”

“Yeah, ’m not sure what her deal is,” I sigh, laying back and staring up at the ceiling. “We’ve never met. I only know her name because she’s the smartest frickin’ person in our grade.”

“Supposedly, it’s because of the school system that she was in before,” Darren explains. “Their advanced classes don’t work like ours, I guess? I dunno, man. She’s just wickedly smart.”

“Would she notice me if I was smart?” I mumble, not intending for anyone to hear me. Of course, because my life is a book, Jaxon hears me.

“You like her!” he exclaims. I shoot up into a sitting position and glare at him, forcing myself to laugh.

“You’re kidding me, right?” I ask. “She’s unattractive. She’s unathletic and probably crazy. I don’t like her.”

“Yeah, he likes Delilah,” Darren teases, elbowing my side. I roll my eyes and shove him into a sprawling position, then turn and look at Hudson.

“You didn’t hear that,” I growl. Hudson stares back at me and shrugs, a smirk resting on his face.

“Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t. Who knows?”

“Hudson, if you tell your sister I’m gonna kill you-”

“Are we sure that Elisica’s the crazy one?” Jaxon jumps up and tackles me, pinning me to the ground. “You just threatened to murder Hudson. Elisica’s jus’ quiet. It’s cute, and it suits her.”

“You like Elisica!” I shout, pushing Jaxon away from me with my feet. “Admit it! That’s why you wanted to know if I liked her!”

“Think whatever you want, man, I don’t like that chick,” Jaxon says, sitting back in his spot. “Y’all up for a game? Found it online, figured we could change up the rules a bit.”

“Sure,” the group agrees. Jaxon grins wickedly, and I find myself regretting the choice.

“It’s called Paranoia,” he begins. “One person will ask the person to their right a question, but no one else knows the question. The answer will be said aloud, so everyone can hear it. Then a coin’s flipped. If it’s heads, the question is said aloud. If it’s tails, the question stays a secret.”

“I already hate this game,” Hudson announces. Jaxon, Darren, and Brendon all point towards me, and I groan, letting my head drop into my hands.

“I get to ask!” Brendon sings, pulling out his phone. Moments later, my phone buzzes and I open the Snapchat message from Brendon.

“This is easy,” I laugh. My phone buzzes with a follow-up message, and I snap my attention to Brendon, death nested inside of my eyes. “I know what you’re trying to do, and it isn’t going to work. Abby.”

Jaxon pulls a coin out of his pocket and flips it. Everyone watches the coin, and even though it landed tails up I’m pretty sure we all knew what the question was.

“Any question, right?” I ask, looking to Jaxon.

“Any question, but an honest answer,” he replies. I grin and open the chat between Hudson and I, sending a light-topic question.

“Uh, Ja- Jasmine,” Hudson responds. The coin spins in the air and lands on tails again. Once again, because we’re basic bitches, everyone knows what the question was. The first round of Paranoia is just us asking who each other likes, or who we’d date if we couldn’t date our crush. Yes, we gossip. Have you met guys? We gossip more than girls are told they gossip.

“Okay, that was boring!” Darren shouts. Everyone nods in agreement, and Jaxon grins.

“So stop being boring bitches!” he exclaims. “If you need to, look up some questions online! Good lord y’all suck at this.”

“You literally asked the same question we all did!” Hudson chuckles, launching himself at Jaxon. Jaxon gets knocked flat on his back and the two boys wrestle for a few seconds before getting bored and going back to their spots.

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“Well, I have a fun question to ask Jack,” Brendon whispers, drawing everyone’s attention. Hudson attempts to peek at my phone screen, and I keep him at bay with a hand on his forehead.

“Shit, really dude? Ah, I gotta think for a moment.” I glance around the circle, trying to think over the personalities of each of my friends, then whip my head back towards Brendon. “Well, if you’re going to ask that it’s probably you, ya’ fuckin’ assclown!”

The other four burst into laughter as Jaxon flips the coin, muttering ‘assclown’ when they breathe.

“Heads, dickweeds!” Jaxon yells. “What was it!”

“Who in the circle is most likely to be the biggest pervert?” I say, chuckling silently to myself when Brendon greets everyone’s stares with a red-faced shrug.

“Jus’ curious,” he mumbles. Darren’s brother- I mean sister- no, brother- knocks on the door, his face covered in skillfully done makeup.

“Keep it down, please,” he says, leaning against the doorframe. “Mom’s got a headache. Y’all want anything before I head out?”

“I want Darren to have a normal brother,” Jaxon grumbles. Darren immediately smacks Jaxon, and I notice Hudson wilt, his hands shaking as he attempts to smooth his hair.

“Hudson, you want to come with me to grab some snacks?” Alex asks, twirling keys around his finger. “We’ll just stop at Dollar General.”

Hudson all but sprints out of the room, and Alex follows suit. Darren stands up, closes the door, and spins around on his heel before tackling Jaxon and pinning him to the ground.

“Seriously?” Darren hisses. “You seriously have to be that rude to my sister every time you see her? She’s insecure enough as it is. I don’t need you putting her back in the fucking hospital!”

Jaxon clamps his mouth shut, biting his tongue in order to keep quiet. And, if you know anything about Jaxon, you’ll know that’s hard for him.

“Don’t disrespect my sister anymore,” Darren orders, jabbing a finger in Jaxon’s face as he slowly gets off of him. Jaxon sits up, dusts himself off and cracks a joke, causing nervous laughter.

“Hey, Darren, quick question?”

Darren nods at me, giving me permission to go ahead.

“Not to be rude, and not to be disrespectful, but Alex is… a girl?”

“Yeah, Alecsa is a trans female,” Darren explains. “She was born with a male body, but her brain is female. Her being born male gives her something called dysphoria- which is none of your fuckin’ business to ask about, by the way- and that’s why she’s changed her appearance. To somewhat ease her dysphoria.”

“So she’ll get-”

“Don’t finish that, Ruinez,” Darren warns, glaring at Jaxon. “I think that we should go back to the game.”

“Yeah, good idea,” Brendon grumbles, glaring at Jaxon. As Hudson left, I have to ask Jaxon a question.

“Y’all thought you were gonna get me to answer to some shit like this, but it ain’t happening,” I say, sending Jaxon my question and grinning when he glares at me.

“Yes, I would,” he sighs, letting his head drop into one hand and flipping the coin with the other.

“It’s heads, motherfucker!” I announce. Jaxon groans and flops backwards before mumbling the question under his breath.

“Sorry, we didn’t hear that.”

“Would you date Elisica?” Jaxon sighs. Darren and Brendon exchange a look before laughing.

“And you said you didn’t like her!” Brendon shouts. Jaxon jerks upright and glares at Brendon.

“It’s not like any of you would say no!” he whines.

“Alright then, boys, let’s make a bet,” Darren laughs. “Y’all in?”

“Let’s hear the stipulations first,” I say.

“Look at you with your big words. The first guy to date Elisica for at least two weeks, then break up with her, gets a hundred dollars from each of the other three.”

“Sounds like a plan, Darren,” I agree. Jaxon and Brendon nod and everyone grins. “Hey, what school did she go to before this?”

“Uh, Raven Middle, I think.” Brendon looks at me and shrugs. “I’m not absolutely sure, but I think that was it.”

Oh, shit. She and I went to the same school… were we ever in a class together?

I attempt to recall what classes I had in sixth grade, never recalling a tall girl with glasses and short blonde hair.

“She got a haircut after she came here, didn’t she?” Jaxon wonders. I nod and snap my fingers, Elisica’s face appearing in my mind.

“Someone has an advantage,” I say, grinning ear to ear. “Guess who went to Raven in sixth grade?”

“Oh yeah,” Jaxon sighs. “Well that’s hardly fair.”

“Only if he actually talked to her or remembers any of her friends,” Brendon points out. “And if he didn’t, then he better pray that Elisica hates him because of something that happened here and not at Raven.”

“Oh, fuck,” I mumble, a terrified face flashing through my mind. That’s why she hates me.

“What’d you do?” Darren sighs.

“I may have bullied this kid,” I say. “And I’m pretty sure I saw Elisica talking to him on multiple occasions.”

“Guess he’s not winning the bet,” Brendon chuckles. “Well, you haven’t bullied anyone here, so maybe you’ve still got a chance.”

“I doubt that,” I grumble, mentally giving up.

“That just means you owe one of us a hundred bucks.”

I mentally un-give up.

“There’s no way in hell I’m going to give any of you any money.”