Auriana
I quickly stuffed my books into my school bag, grabbed my keys from the wooden table, and walked outside where I got my bike from the shed. I felt the cool spring breeze blowing through my bright red hair. As always, I waited for my best friends on the corner of the street, a few blocks away from my house. Unfortunately, I saw Jake arriving instead of Brooke, Renee, Emma, and Skylar. Although it was different between us when I first moved here, we can't stand each other now.
"Waiting for your imaginary friends?" he laughed. He had a grin on his face that I didn't like at all.
"Can't you just act normal?" The coldness in my voice could drop the temperature a few degrees. In the distance, four silhouettes rode towards us. Before Jake could respond to my comment, they were already with us. I got on my bike without saying another. I knew he was following us, but I completely ignored him the entire way to school. As we entered the bike shed, I saw that the rest of my friends were already patiently waiting for us. Before we had even walked out of the bike shed, I felt someone tugging at my backpack. Before I could swing at Jake, Brooke grabbed my arm to stop me.
"Don't you guys ever get tired of all this arguing?" Nikki asked slightly irritated, as soon as we were standing next to them. She ran a hand through her dark blond hair. Nikki was the smart one of the group. She had never gotten lower than a B in her entire school career. When people needed tutoring or help with their homework, she was their first choice.
"I'll stop when she does," Jake laughed. He had his arms crossed over his chest and the leather jacket he was wearing made him look like a real bad boy.
"He's the one who acts like a little kid," I mumbled, crossing my arms over my chest and rolling my eyes. My friends looked at me with an all too familiar look. I was getting tired of his constant taunting comments.
"You're both acting like little kids, just admit that you like each other already," Brooke said. That was also a thing, my friends had the stupid idea that there was more going on between Jake and me than we were admitting. I looked at Jake who was already looking at me with a disgusted look.
"In love? NO WAY!" we both said at the same time. The rest of us made a noise that showed they didn't believe us. Apparently, Jake had heard enough and walked away from our group at a fast pace, stomping his feet. We walked through the double doors into the gray school building.
"Even a blind person could see that you like each other," Renee said. The rest of my friends nodded in agreement. My eyes that were otherwise always so cheerful, became darker and angrier. I knew that I'd better leave now before I said something I would regret later.
"I'm going to my locker." Without another word, I ran up the iron stairs. It didn't take long for the others to join me. Our lockers were divided by class and thus were all together. Because I was so lost in my own thoughts, I didn't notice that there were other people in the hallway and I was startled by a sudden voice.
"Why don't you just admit it?" Emma insisted. She was the most loyal one in the group. No matter how many times there were any fights in the group, she will never take sides. Before the others could start, I walked away.
Renee
Jake slammed his locker shut.
"When are you going to realize...we hate each other!"
"Hate and love are closely related," Skylar whispered almost inaudibly. Skylar is shy but can stand her ground when it's necessary. She prefers to avoid confrontation.
"Whatever," Jake walked down the iron stairs, towards the auditorium. Jeremy came out of the bathroom and saw the scene unfold before him. Jeremy was one of Jake's friends. He was a real joker, or so he thought at least.
"You were talking about his love life again, I suppose?"
"It's so obvious, but those stubborn heads don't want to admit it themselves," I replied. I'm the fashionista of the group. Fashion is my thing and I like to give people fashion advice as much as I can, whether people want it or not.
"Jake has never been good at expressing his feelings," Dawn said as she walked over. She handed Brooke a small looking book. We looked at Jake's sister in surprise. She usually kept her distance from her little brother, he always thought it was because she didn't want to be seen with him. So why she came to his friends now was a big mystery to us.
"What is this?" Brooke asked, taking the black leather book from her. Brooke is someone who likes to party. She is a huge extrovert and is also a real princess in the kitchen.
"Jake's "diary", or whatever you want to call it." Jimmy didn't need to be told twice. Jimmy was Jake's other best friend. He sees everything with a positive outlook and it takes a lot to make him angry. He grabbed the book from Brooke's hands, opened it and started reading out loud:
"Dear diary, today I saw such a hunk..." With a face red of shame, Dawn pulled the diary from Jimmy's hands.
"Sorry, wrong diary." We all burst out in laughter as Dawn—cheeks still glowing—walked away. Something tells me we won't be seeing her trying to embarrass her brother again anytime soon.
"You know…we should get them together somehow?" I thought out loud.
"How? We don't even know who Dawn means by hunk," Jeremy asked, confused. We rolled our eyes and sighed. Jeremy wasn't always the brightest when it came to logical thinking. He doesn't take things too seriously and doesn't always pick up on sarcasm.
"Renee means Auriana and Jake," Nikki explained.
"Oh okay…but…how are you going to do that?" That's a good question, I hadn't thought about that yet. I thought about it for a moment and it didn't take long for an idea to come to mind and for me to answer.
"Simple, we start with the first step, get them to admit they have feelings for each other. We'll make Auriana admit her feelings for Jake and then you and Jimmy will make Jake admit he has feelings for Auriana."
"And if we get them to admit it? Then what? Which has a slim chance of success by the way," Jimmy asked, running a hand through his dark hair.
"If they admit it, then we'll move on to step two," I said, a sly smile forming on my face. The others weren't sure whether to trust my smile or not, but nodded in agreement anyway.
"Hey hothead, have you cooled down a bit?" I asked teasingly. We were now on a fifteen-minute break and were sitting at a long white table in the middle of the auditorium, next to the big tree. The sun was shining through the glass roof. Around us, other students were chatting away. Auriana rolled her eyes and nodded in response.
"Why do you get so mad when people think you and Jake like each other?" Brooke asked cautiously. No one really wanted another scolding from Auriana. She could be very calm and patient, but some topics seemed to make Auriana's blood boil.
"Because it's not true!" she snapped.
Jimmy
I stood with Jeremy and Jake at the railing of the balcony, which overlooked the auditorium below. I saw Emma looking our way and I gave her a subtle wink to let her know we were working on the plan.
"I've thought of a fun game, you have to answer quickly," Jeremy explained.
"Okay," Jake said. He wasn't really looking forward to another of Jeremy's lame games, but he also didn't want to hurt his feelings by not playing along.
"Who do you hate?" I asked. Jake rolled his eyes and looked at his friends with a bored look.
"You know that." I'm not one to give up easily and kept on persisting.
"Come on, just join in for a bit."
Jake sighed before answering: "Auriana."
"Who ruined your relationship with Julie?"
"Auriana," Jake repeated.
"Who do you like?" I asked quickly, hoping Jake hadn't heard the question right.
"Aur…" Jake stopped halfway through his answer and suddenly realized what we were doing, "wait a minute."
"I think he's onto us," Jeremy whispered not so subtly.
"I'm not going to fall for your game and I'm definitely not going to admit that I like her!"
"Do you like her?" Jeremy tried anyway.
"NO, I hate her!" Jake stomped away from us. We sighed and walked over to the girls. Auriana had already walked towards the classroom so she could go to the bathroom before class.
"This is going to be harder than we thought."
"You think?" Renee asked sarcastically.
"Yeah, I think so," Jeremy replied. We rolled our eyes.
"Dude, she was being sarcastic," I said, playfully smacking his chest.
"Oh…hey!" Brooke, Renee, Skylar, Scarlet, Emma, Nikki, and I burst out laughing. Jeremy glared at us, but ended up laughing with us.
"I came up with a plan B in case plan A didn't work," Brooke admitted.