Friends Against The World (Book 1): Bite Me

  This book is dedicated to all my wonderful friends who inspire, support and love me everyday, you know who you are. You guys have kept me going for so long, this is a way for me to say thank you.

  One of those people is my friend who made my artist picture, you can find her here; anti-socials-art.tumblr.com

  Chapter 1

  "Beep! Beep! Beep!"

  I reach my hand out from under my covers and slam the alarm quiet, sighing at the prospect of getting out of my comfortable bed. I threw the covers back over my head, and wince at the thud of my book to the floor.

  "Fuck." I mumble and reach over the side of the bed for my book, slowly peeking open my eyes.

  My hand grasps the book, and I roll back to the other side of my bed, listening to the creak of the spine as I open it. I cuddle back under my covers, reading one sentence, 'Things you need to know to survive a zombie apocalypse', before I hear someone stomp up the stairs.

  My feet land on the floor and I stand quickly, acting like I have been productive instead of reading my book. My door slams open, without warning, and my mother walks into the room with heavy footsteps.

  "Are you finally up?" She says to me, moving around my room to gather clothes from the floor.

  "No, I am still asleep." I say with a sarcastic tone, and my mom sighs.

  "I don't need your smartass attitude this morning Geneva. Now get ready for school. After school, you have to mow the lawn and finish your project." She replies, with arms full of clothing, and walks back out my door without closing it.

  I walk to the other side of my room to my desk and gather up my notes from yesterday. I read the date on the pages, April 20th, 2016, and count down on my fingers the months until the 12th school year ends for me.

  "2 months." I say to myself, attempting to self-motivate. "Geneva, stop talking to yourself, people will think you are insane."

  My radio clicks on when I hit it with my finger, and I stretch, feeling my bones crack and pop. I have a half hour until the bus comes, and I am going to drag out every moment of it. My hands nimbly pack my sketchbook into my backpack, along with my tablet and pencil cases. I add my phone to the mix and throw my book in for good measure. When I have finished that I grab my purple shirt and slip it on with black ripped jeans. I change a few of my earrings and grab my headphones. I wander to the mirror, taking in my appearance.

  I have short blonde hair, styled in an asymmetric style with the longer side on the right side of my face. My ears are pierced in multiple places, 4 up my right and 3 up my left. I have snake bite piercings in my full lips and have high cheekbones. I stand to the height of 6'2", taller than the average girl. My slim figure can come in advantage, and I only dislike a few things about my appearance.

  The black tube of eyeliner is dug out from within my desk drawer, and I put a thick line under and halfway above my blue eyes, to compliment my outfit. My clothes are a purple top that hangs off one shoulder, and black ripped jeans. Black motorcycle boots cover my feet and I smile into the mirror. My glasses are sitting on the desk and I slip them on.

  The stairs groan as I walk down them, swinging my backpack over my shoulder. Rattling sound of dishes come from the kitchen, and I follow those sounds, hungry for breakfast. As I turn the corner and my mom turns to me, a piece of toast on the plate with jam. I smile in thanks and take the plate from her.

  "Love you mom!"

  "That was for your step-dad Geneva, thank you for going to deliver it to him."

  I sigh, and walk to the living room, and hand it to my step-dad, Will, who's watching the news.

  "Anything new?" I say, lounging against the sofa arm for a moment.

  "Just a minor disease has begun in Michigan, nothing more than that." He says, attention fully on the screen.

  "Geneva! Bus is here!" My mom's voice rings through the house and I rush out of the living room down the hall, towards the front door. "Here!"

  I grab the outstretched piece of toast, kiss her cheek, and run out the front door.

  "You forgot to turn off your radio!" My mom called out.

  "Sorry!" I called back, and got on the bus, saying 'good morning' to the bus driver.

  After I find my seat I plug the headphones into my phone and turn up my music. Hollywood blasts into my ears and I settle back into my seat for the 20-minute ride. I turn my gaze to the window to see the beautiful maples that line the streets to the school.

  The rest of the drive passes quickly, and sooner than I would like the doors of the school are within my view. The doors are opened as the bus driver opens his, and I walk through, nodding thanks to the guy holding the door. My group of friends, otherwise known as the nerds, are lined up in a circle. As I walk up, pulling out my earbuds, they immediately morph around my space and I step into the spot. On my right is Anthony, Avyanna, Lee, Quiyl, Liam, James, Xavier, Idris and Violet.

  Anthony is one of the best friends I could have asked for. He stands a few inches shorter than me with red hair, green eyes and glasses. He appears to be scrawny, but he is quite muscular. He is very smart in the ways of mechanical stuff, but is quiet, likes to observe everything. He is very much into construction, and quite good at it.

  Next to him is Avyanna, his girlfriend. She's a sweet girl, and not afraid to speak her mind. It's a good thing, because she is very smart. She comes up to Anthony's shoulder, and has brown hair down to the middle of her back, glasses and beautiful chocolate brown eyes. Like her boyfriend, she is quite strong and not afraid to show it. She wants to do the same thing as her boyfriend, construction.

  Lee, the clown of the group. He is the shortest guy, about 5'9" inches, although he will insist he is 5'10". He has dark brown hair and chocolate brown eyes. He has a skill for talking to anyone and cheering them up. Lee is muscular, and likes to show it off to his girlfriend, Quiyl. He wants to save the world, in the environmental way.

  Quiyl, Lee's girlfriend and handler. She stands a few inches under her boyfriend's height. She has dark brown hair, down just past her shoulders, and honey gold eyes. She is a wonderful listener and very book smart. She wants to help wildlife in any way she can.

  Liam, the first single boy of the group. He is one of the tallest guys, about the same height as me. He has short brown hair and blue eyes. He used to do karate, so he is quite well built. He is quiet as well but gives very good advice. He wants to become an electrician. Liam and I had a relationship for a while back in Grade Nine but slowly grew apart, broke up, but remain good friends.

  James, my other guy best friend, and very single. He is about the same height as Anthony, and has curly blonde hair that can't be tamed, glasses and blue eyes. He is a sweet guy but doesn't know boundaries very well when it comes to conversation. He wants to help with his parent's horse farm after high school, and maybe eventually own it.

  Xavier, the sadistic and outspoken boy of the group. He is the tallest guy, about 6'4". He has orange hair, bright blue eyes, and glasses. He wants to get into psychology and can't wait to move out of his house and somewhere far away from them. I may have a tiny crush on him, okay, a large crush on him. He is very handsome with high cheekbones and muscular, although he is slim.

  Idris, the group idiot. He is a sweet guy, but doesn't know the meaning of self-preservation, which drives his girlfriend, Violet, up the wall. He is about the same height as Anthony and James, with short brown hair, glasses and hazel eyes. Idris wants to be a pilot when he leaves high school and is a good guy to talk too.

  Violet, my best friend. She is the shortest of the entire group, standing around 5'3". She has shoulder length straight brown hair, and green eyes. She is very sarcastic but knows how to talk to anyon
e when they are upset. Her life dreams include being a radio DJ. She occasionally wears glasses but prefers contacts.

  I felt an arm dig into my left side and I turn to Violet, and she winks at me.

  "Daydreaming again, are we?" She says, a teasing tone in her musical voice.

  "Maybe." I say, and she giggles and motions me closer to her.

  "You were staring right at Xavier, beautiful girl." She whispers, and I feel my cheeks warm up.

  "Shit, did he notice?"

  "Don't think so lovely."

  The bell interrupts my reply, and I thank whatever being is up there, to save me from further embarrassment.

  Violet, James, Lee, Anthony and I all begin to walk to our first class we share, horticulture. Liam heads off to electricity, Idris heads to business, Xavier and Quiyl head to biology, and Avyanna walks in the direction of woodworking class. As we begin walking, conversation strikes up again, and I join in, thankful for the topic change. Violet winks at me, telling me the conversation isn't over and I groan.

  Chapter 2

  Our group sits down at our table in the classroom near the back, and the conversation shifts to a certain topic I was avoiding.

  "Geneva, you got to just go for it." Violet said, purposely loud and I put my head on the desk as the group's interest shifts to me.

  "Let me guess, we are talking about the fact she was spacing out and staring at Xavier again?" Lee says, a light tone in his voice.

  "Why am I not surprised." Anthony says in his deep voice.

  "Can we change topics?" I say, my face red.

  "Nope, we have to put our two cents in." James says. "Dude, you got to just tell him."

  "It's not that easy guys, we have been friends for at least 13 years, what if it ruins our friendship?" I reply to the group's comments.

  "It's not goanna 'ruin your friendship', Hun. What if he feels the same way? You never know unless you go for it." Violet says, laying a gentle hand on my shoulder as I return my face to the desk.

  "We will see." I say, slightly muffled by the desk.

  Topics switch around me as different people fall into different conversations and Violet lowers her voice to a whisper.

  "A little birdie told me that he likes you too."

  "...really?" I say, turning to face her.

  She nods, and I smile, and then I chuckle.

  "Was this little birdie your boyfriend?"

  "Maybe." She says with a smirk, and just as she was about to say something else the teacher of our class, Mr. Walters, walks into the room and the conversations die down.

  "Good morning class! Boy, do I have an exciting class for you today!" He says with a smile, and a low groan echoes around the room. "Now, now, none of that. It's only theory work. So, everyone grabs a textbook from the right side of the room and get to work on the questions on this hand out!"

  The whole room sighs as they get up one by one and get textbooks for their respective tables. Anthony walks over and gets ours, then drops them with a loud thud in the middle of the table.

  Our teacher walks by and drops a few handouts on our table and everyone grabs one, and a textbook. I flip to the correct page and get down to work, the rest of our table doing the same with a quiet conversation happening between pairs as we all work on the questions together.

  Lunch finally finds us all sitting in our normal spot outside, and we are all leaning against trees or up them in a few cases. Laughter rings around the group as a Lee runs around doing something stupid. Idris puts his phone down and clears his throat, and we all give him our attention.

  "Hey guys! So, since it's one of our long weekends this week, with the professional activity day this Friday, I was wondering if you all wanted to come up to my cottage in a little town by Algonquin Park? My parents finally approved the idea so I'm putting it out to you guys!" He says, with a smile on his face.

  The group faces each other, smiling and nodding at the concept.

  "I mean, my parents should be cool with it, and we could all hang out with no stress of school for the first time in a while. Plus, it's our last summer together, I'm in!" I reply, with a large smile on my face.

  "Yea this sounds awesome! Plus, I get to spend time with my beautiful girlfriend." Lee says, smiling towards Quiyl.

  "If all the lovebirds get a room on the opposite side of the building." Liam pointed out, and the rest of the group laughed. "As much as I love seeing you guys happy, I'd rather not see any more."

  "You sure? I can put on a good show for you Liam." Lee replied with a wink.

  "Lee! Stop." Quiyl said, with a light smack to her boyfriend's arm.

  "You wounded me! I'm dying! No one gets my stuff!" Lee dramatically falls to the ground, and Quiyl sighs.

  "I don't know how you deal with that Quiyl." Violet observes with a smirk, and Quiyl faces her.

  "How do you deal with your boyfriend returning to his roots of a primate?" Quiyl responds, a teasing tone to her voice, as she points up a tree.

  Idris looks down from one of the top-most branches of the tree, about 30 feet up. Violet pinches the bridge of her nose and Idris raised his voice.

  "Love you! I won't hurt myself, promise!"

  "Idris, what the hell?" She calls back and he begins to climb down.

  "I like climbing things." He says defensively, and when he hit about 5 feet from solid ground, he lost his footing and falls to the ground on his back.

  Violet jumps out of the way of her falling boyfriend, then rushes to his side and kneels, along with a few friends who walked over to see if he's okay.

  "Did you break your spine?" Xavier's voice rings out from up the same tree, climbing down with a bit more grace until he lands on the ground on his feet. "Can I sell your organs on the black market?"

  "I'm fine." Idris groans, and takes the hand Lee offered and gets back up.

  After he recovers with some minor teasing from Violet, he faces us again.

  "So, you guys in for a weekend of fun?" He smiles, and the group nods to each other.

  "I think I speak for the group when I say, 'Hell yea!'" Avyanna joked.

  Chapter 3

  Wednesday quickly past, the school day was finally over. I sighed in relief as a got off my bus, Marianas Trench blasting through my earbuds. As I walked home I looked around and the new growth from spring and smiled. It's so nice to see the life progressing in gorgeous ways.

  I opened my door to be greeted by my dog, Molly, jumping around in excitement, barking with a ball in her mouth.

  "You aren't very threatening with that ball in your mouth." I said, leaning against the wall to remove my shoes.

  As I walk past her I scratch her on the head, and she bounces some more, before being distracted by something else and running down the hall after it. I follow at a slower pace, and around the corner being greeted with the smell of baking.

  "Hi Hun! How was your day?" My mom asked, rolling pie dough, and I snag some cookie dough which was sitting on her right side as I answered.

  "It was fine. It's school." I laugh, and Mom rolls her eyes before smacking my hand away as I go for a bit more cookie dough.

  "No Geneva, dinner will be in a bit. I need this for the get together that is happening for the parents from your school."

  "Forgot about that. Speaking of which..." I say hopefully, and Mom turns to me, eyebrow raised.

  "I know that tone. What?"

  "Idris offered for everyone to go to his cottage this weekend, and I was wondering if that's okay with you guys. We just wanted to hangout before the last summer of our teenage years."

  "You're not an adult yet Geneva, and that's fine by me. If you complete your homework meant for that weekend."

  "YAY!" I say and pump my fist in the air. "Thank you!"

  As I walk quickly out of the room to go pack I grab some more cookie dough, and run upstairs, Mom's half-hearted discouragement following me.

  "Dinner is at 5, love! Forget about the lawn, Will did it earlier." She called after me, and I
answered with a quick 'okay'.

  As I open my door I hear music through it, and sigh realizing what it is.

  "You left your radio on again Geneva. Got to stop doing that before my step dad kills me for electricity use." I mumble to myself, and plug my phone into the radio, putting it on shuffle.

  As I grab my traveling backpack from the closet my mind drifts somewhere else. Okay, someone else. I begin stuffing clothes into my bag at random, giving about thirty percent of my attention to the task of matching clothes.

  I have known Xavier for about fifteen years of my life, after my family moved from my birthplace to my hometown now, we ended up in the same kindergarten class. Throughout the grades we became friends and got closer as the grade’s past. When high school hit, we had drifted apart, but somewhere within the last four years I had begun to see him as more than a friend. He grew up handsome, with his blue eyes and strong jawline.

  All our friends knew about my crush, and they were not very good at hiding the teasing. We talked sometimes, a lot less than we used too. But I knew I could always turn to him if I needed a friend, whether is was a breakup from a boyfriend or just with a laugh. I had dated most of the guys in the friend group. Lee was my most recent ex, but it was mutual, a drifting of interests. I had noticed he started looking at Quiyl in a different way and we ended up parting after a year and a half on good terms and remained friends. Nowadays, he encourages me to go after the crush he knew I had for a while.

  The odd thing is, Xavier never dated anyone. Whenever we asked about why, he would brush it off and change the topics. Our group pretty much gave us asking by this point. Maybe I am just being dumb, and I shake my head to clear my thoughts.

  As my attention returns to the present, I realize I have packed my bag horribly, and pull everything out to start again. Just as I put the first shirt back in my phone vibrates and I walk over to check the messages. I realize I have two messages, one from Violet and one from Lee. I smile, and unlock my phone to answer Lee first, knowing its probably something funny and short.

  So, when your goanna makes a move on handsome Xavier? P -Lee