- Aria's POV -

"The nerve of that . . . human! Who the hell does she think she is? I swear on Bobo's life, the next time I see her I'll rip her fake nails off!" Zoe kicks at a rock, wincing as she does so.

Bobo is Zoe's goldfish.

Poor Bobo.

"Ryan and Hunter are on their way." Liz says, scrolling through her phone.

The three of us ditched the school about fifteen minutes ago, and now we're laying on Lizzy's bed, thankful that her parents don't get home until late at night.

Parentless freak.

First of all, shut the frick up, Maya.

Second, I hope she goes and dies in a hole and gets eaten by the Alaskan Bull Worm.

And third, it's not like I can control life and death, so I don't know what she wants. Calling me a 'parentless freak'? Doesn't she have anything else to do, say, I don't know, maybe go and step on a lego?

"Maya's a witch." Liz groans.

I nod. "Yes, I think we already know that, Lizzy."

"When the boys get here, let's go out somewhere." Zoe suggests, biting her nails.

"Yeah, but where? There ain't nothing to do in this place." Liz complains.

That's so true. We only have the local swimming pool, the library that only has five books that are all children's, and the small, crappy mall that doesn't even have a food court.

"We'll figure it out when the boys are here."

As if on cue, the doorbell rings and Liz springs up to go open the door.

Zoe pats my shoulder. "Don't let her get to you."

I smile and hug her for about five seconds. "I won't. Thank you, Zoe."

She winks at me with a quick smile just as the boy and Lizzy walk into the room.

"Hey, guys. You okay, Aria?" Ryan asks.

"If your definition of 'okay' means I am imagining strangling Maya and throwing her body in a ditch somewhere, sure." I grin.

"Um, so moving on! How about we go for a game of laser tag?" Hunter says, already getting excited at the thought.

All four of us blink at him.

"Heck yeah!"

So a couple of minutes later, we're all pushing each other out the door and into Lizzy's mini van. Liz drives while Ryan calls shotgun, leaving Zoe and I in the middle and Hunter at the back.

Wait a minute, how come Miles didn't come?

He probably thinks you're a parentless freak now, why would he want to hang out with you?

Good point.

Plus, you don't care. In fact, you should be celebrating right now, since this is probably the first time you've seen Hunter and Ryan without Miles since he came.

Also a good point.

And you hate him.

Another good point.

●●●

"Do you want to stick with me or split up?" Hunter whispers, crouching down beside me in the dark arena.

"I'm fine with splitting up. You know, since I'm a champion at laser tag and all." I flash him a grin.

Hunter ended up being on my team, while Liz was on her own and Ryan and Zoe were on another team. Hunter and I were currently hiding behind this big wall thing, discussing what our plan was since the game just started. Our other teammates just ran off without a word to each other.

He shoves me playfully, but I wasn't ready for it so instead of keeping my ground, I stumble and shoot daggers at him.

We split up, and the second I'm on my own I see a beaming light and my instincts kick in. I aim my gun at the light and grin when I get them, moving quietly around the arena.

"Hey, Aria." A voice says from behind me.

Zoe.

Aw, crap.

"Hey, Zoe." I smirk, dodging when she pushes the trigger.

I laugh when she looks at me in disbelief and take the moment of distraction to shoot her. The lights on her vest go out.

Yes!

"Why do I even try going against you?" Zoe sags.

I grin, getting another five people out. In the progress I end up tripping over Hunter's foot.

Stupid foot.

Hey, shut up! You're the clumsy one!

Go to hell.

"Woah, careful Aria." Hunter warns. I nod and head for the other direction, only to find myself looking at Liz and Ryan, both aiming their guns at each other. Neither have noticed my presence yet.

"Come on Liz, you wouldn't shoot me, would you?" Ryan cracks a grin.

"Uh, yeah I would." Lizzy smiles mischievously, then shoots at Ryan.

"You will regret that." He teases.

I grow tired of watching the two, so as soon as the red light on Ryan's vest goes out, I let out a warrior cry and shoot Liz, catching her by surprise. The laser lands perfectly in the middle of her vest.

"What the heck? Where did you come from?!" Lizzy exclaims while I burst into laughter.

After the game finally ends, Hunter and I seem to have the same scores that ended up being the highest—I'm definitely not bragging—and we all get back in the van. Zoe's muttering curse words and Liz is still wondering how I just came out of nowhere while Ryan is trying to calm her down.

And me? Well, I'm screaming along to the radio, with Hunter.

"WE CAN GO ANYWHERE WE WANT, DRIVE DOWN TO THE COAST, JUMP IN THE SEA, JUST TAKE MY HAND AND COME WITH ME." I sing Halsey's part in Eastside while Hunter sings Benny's.

Then in unison, we shout, "SINGIN', WE CAN DO A—"

"CAN YOU GUYS SHUT UP?!" Zoe yells, cutting Hunter and I both off.

"Hey, their singing isn't that bad." Ryan says, smiling.

I clap my hands. "Thank you! Ryan is—"

"It's horrible. Terrifying, actually." Ryan continues with a wince.

"You little s—"

"You guys are making us miss the song!" Hunter whines from behind me.

The song finishes.

Aw, man. I really love that song.

Then, Portugal. The Man's Feel It Still blares through the video, and this time everyone joins in.

We get back to Lizzy's before the song finishes but even as we enter the house we still sing the lyrics through our laughs. We decide to watch a movie, so I go pop some popcorn while the others pick a movie.

To my surprise, they pick Lilo and Stitch.

My favourite.

I miss my Stitch.

God, I need to grow up. Plopping myself in between Zoe and Liz, I share my bowl with Lizzy and Ryan—who's sitting on the other side of her—and give one to Zoe so she can share it with Hunter.

Yeah, Liz has a big couch.

The movie begins and I hum along to the traditional Disney music, laughing my ass off when Lilo bites the other girl who in away reminds me of Maya.

Seriously? Why'd I have to think about her now?

Wait.

I totally forgot about Lydia and Paul. Shit, they are going to be pissed. But hey, I had my reasons.

They'll get over it, eventually. And it's not like this is my first time ditching school, either. Most of the time they've been pretty laid back. Actually, that's probably because I ditched a lot when my parents died and they understood. But now? Eh, we'll see.

Meanwhile, I'm very grateful to my friends for not bringing up the whole drama with Maya again after we left for laser tag. I completely forgot about it with all of the fun we were having, as if nothing ever even happened. Well, until we started watching the movie, at least.

"Hey, Aria? Did you finish your project for the art competition?" Liz says, interrupting my thoughts.

I smack my head with my hand and press my lips together. "I did and I left it in the Art room! I finished it two weeks ago and just left it there. Ugh, I'm so careless. What if someone stole it or something?"

"Don't forget you have to submit it by Friday, Ria." Zoe points out.

Shizz. I am so going to forget about it again, then it won't be submitted and I can't compete in the competition. Then I'll—

"Stop worrying, girl. Of course it's still there, barely anyone ever goes into that room except you and Leo. And Mr. Kwong keeps the racks away when he's teaching." Liz smiles.

I frown.

"Plus, Liz and I will remind you if you forget about it tomorrow." Zoe tosses popcorn into her mouth.

Still, I didn't have a good feeling about it. Last time I had a pretty strong gut feeling, I was right, something was wrong. And right now I'm having that exact same feeling again.

"Yeah, okay. You're probably right." I pretend to shrug it off.

"Now watch the movie."