Chapter 8

   We get onto the bus laughing and holding hands and sit in the back. “Hey, I guess you two had a good weekend,” Eli says, turning around in his seat to face us. Elly boops both of our noses and giggles. 

   “Yeah,” I say, looking at Ash and smiling.

  “Wait, what did you do?” Eli says pointing at me.

   “Woah Woah Woah we did nothing,” Ash and I say at the same time but right after we all just laugh. 

   “Wow, Eli just wow,” Ash says, hiding his face in his hood. 

   We get to the school and go to breakfast. When we sit down with our food Ash pushes his tray away and Eli looks at him confused. “Ash, do I need to feed you?” I say grabbing his fork.

   “No-,” Ash says, taking a bite of his eggs and his fruit, making all the rest of us laugh.

   “And what are all of you laughing about?” says Subree walking up to us. 

   “Nothing of your concern,” says Eli, waving his hand in front of his face.

   “Yeah, whatever,” Subree says. Elly stands up and pushes Subree and her group to their table and comes back over and sits back down. I look over and see Subree blushing and looking at Elly, I assume of embarrassment but I can’t tell.

   We talked for a little while and I kept noticing Eli stare off into the distance. “What are you staring at now Eli?” I ask poking him to get his attention. 

   “You know the new transfer student, Ming?” he says, his face turning a light pink.

   “Yeah?”

   “I may have a slight crush on her,” he says looking back over at the table she’s at. Ash and I just laugh a little.

   “He looks a little obsessed, don’t you think?” I whisper to Ash.

   “Yup,” He replies.

   “Oh shut up, we all see how you look at Ashen, your eyes just yell the word ‘obsessed’,” Eli responds, Ash just shrugs and nods.

  “Don’t just shrug to that,” I laugh and nudge Ash.

  “Well, he’s not wrong,” Ash replies. I can’t help but agree, I was obsessed the day I saw him standing in his window. Everyone else laughs at my agreement.

  “By the way Ashen, can I just call you Ash like Waylen does?” Eli says and Ash nods.

  “Yeah, you and Elly both can, just something friends and family calls me,” the twins and Ash smile.

   *At lunch* 

 “I’M QUEEN!” yells Ash running into the lunchroom.

   “Since when was he the queen?” asks Eli, walking over to the table. I tell him the story of me calling Ash a lady and him calling himself a queen.

   “I AM queen,” says Ash.

   “Nope obviously, I am the queen,” says Eli, swinging his head.

   “No I’m queen,” says Ash standing up.

   “I’m queen,” says Eli, standing up as well. Elly and I just looked at them and then at each other but soon we couldn’t help it and all four of us just burst into laughter. Ash and Eli sat back down still laughing.

   We kept eating and played truth or dare, and then never have I ever-the normal teenage games- until Ming walked up to us causing Eli’s face to go red, Ash started giggling. “He’s a tomato,” he says, still giggling and I laugh too. Ming looks at us confused and Ash and I stop laughing. 

   “Uh well, I just came over here to ask if Eli would help me with my homework.”

   “Sure,” says Eli, his face redder making Ash and I laugh again. Ming ignores us and sits down next to Eli. Ming and Eli work on Ming’s homework while the rest of us joke around. Until Ash’s phone started ringing, he picked it up and then stood up looking confused. 

   “Who is it?” I ask and the others look up at him too.

   “It's my mom,” he says, answering it.

Ash’s point of view

   “Hello?” I say waiting for a reply but all I hear is my mom sobbing.

   “What's wrong, what happened?” I ask, starting to worry, there has to be a reason that she would call me when she and dad wanted nothing to do with me.

   “It's Sakura,” she says, crying more.

   “Sh-she sh-shot herself.” she forces herself to talk through sobs.

   “Is everything ok?” Waylen asks but I break down crying, dropping my phone causing the corner of it to crack.

   “Ash?” Eli asks, looking away from Ming’s homework.

Waylen’s point of view

   “Ash, what's wrong?” I say rubbing his back but he hugs me sobbing. I knew it had to be something serious but I just rubbed his back and tried to calm him. I'll ask him later. Everyone else including Ming walked over to comfort him.

   When he stopped crying the others sat back down and I asked what happened. “I have an older sister, her name is Sakura, she was the only one who supported me, she would always yell at my mom and dad about how they should care about me no matter what, but they forced her to go with them when they left me.” he starts crying again. 

   “B-but s-she sh-shot herself, th-that's why my mom called me to tell me that and when the funeral is.” he looks up at me and then the others.

   “Wi-will you guys please come too?” he asks, still looking at all of us. 

   “Of course,” we all say in unison. He gave us his sunshine smile and thanked us and gave all of us a hug.