TRY SOMETHING NEW

After school on Monday, try-outs were being held. As I walked down the hall way; there were kids at every corner discussing what activity they were going to sign up for. I still couldn't decide what I wanted.

I could play the piano and some other musical instruments really well, but the music teacher wasn't my favorite. As I peeped through the slightly open door, I could hear her yelling at her student, I quickly decided "this isn't for me" I said silently before gently closing the door and going to check out other clubs. I thought about joining the cheer team, but those girls have a lot of work, you know; jumping, tumbling and all that crazy—but cool stuffs that I couldn't do...oh well, so cheerleading was off the charts.

"What else" I thought to myself. Debating is a lot of work, and besides I don't like to get into arguments all the time, so—No for debating. I tried to join Taylor and Corinne in acting but I couldn't get into character. It was the Romeo and Juliet shake spare and I wasn't a fan. The boys joined the basket ball team and all that was left was; The dance team. I had no other option.

I walked into where auditions were being held. I was the last one to arrive. The first thing I noticed as I walked in were the judges; Raven, Molly and Stephanie. "School year just got worse" I said silently before joining the others.

It finally got to my turn;

"Next!" Raven shouted before I even started performing.

I looked around "Am the last one here" I said.

"Okay—then it's a NO" Molly rudely said.

"I didn't even audition yet" I said with a frown.

"No need. We got better things to do" Stephanie said and started stacking up the papers.

"What the heck. Why not" I said in a loud voice.

"I don't like you. Need more reasons?" Raven said as she stood up.

"Fine! I don't want to be on your stupid dance team any way" I said and stormed off.

I went to the cafeteria to join the squad for lunch.

"Find something new?" Ryker asked.

"No" I replied, took a bite of my apple, then continued "I tried auditioning for the dance team but the RAVENS didn't let me join."

"Ok...so start your own team" Walker said

"She can't do that" Taylor said

"who said I can't?" I asked with a frown

"Only one dance team is allowed in school, you know that" Taylor said and shot me a look.

"That's not a bad idea actually. There were a lot of people who got rejected, they'll want to be on your team." Corinne said convincingly.

"Yeah, and if there's a problem we'll settle it. May the best team win" I said with a grin.

"Finally, some action in this school" Parker said.

"I don't think that's a really good idea" Taylor said.

"You never think anything is a good idea Taylor so—" I said

"Excuse me for trying to avoid drama" Taylor said, sarcastically.

"I live for the drama" Ryker said plainly

"Besides, if anything, I'll handle it." I said, crossing one leg over the bench.

"But—" Taylor was about to say something else, but I cut her.

"Don't worry about it okay" I said, took my bags and left.

I stayed up all night making fliers, I had watched some DIYs on fliers and perfume making. They both actually seemed easy, I thought of using the perfume to make more money, but I didn't start yet. I had to work on these fliers for now.

The next morning, I set up my flier on the notice board and handed the rest out while I announced the time and place for auditions. With a large show like that, there was no way the RAVENS didn't hear about it.

"So—you're starting your own team" Raven said with folded arms

"Yeah. Wanna join" I teased.

"I don't know what your game is but you better watch it." Raven said sternly.

I stepped forward, closer to her "Am not afraid of you." I said boldly before turning away to continue with my announcement.

"She's asking for it" Raven said sternly.

When school was over, the boys came over to help me judge; though, there weren't much judging to be done because there were only very few people present. The rest had joined other activities. The girls who showed up had really great talent, and the number was just what I needed. Raven's team had only 7 members; because she rejected the rest, while my team had 14 really skilled people. For now, all I needed were team members and a name, for there were no special event coming up to rehearse for. We sat on the floor in a circle trying to come up with a group name.

"what about C-Way?" Amy; a new team member asked

"what does that even mean?" Joey asked with a brow up

"Here's an idea. How about we all write down our names see if we can come up with something" Heather said and we wrote down our names;

Emily, Joey, Zoey, Heather, Amy, Alexis, Miranda, Sofie, Kendall, Christine, Katie, Ruby and paesha.

We stared hard at the names for at least a minute.

"I can't think of anything" Paesha said, scratching her chin "y'all don't have catchy names"

"You're one to talk" Amy said. And immediately the door burst open, it was Raven, her team and the principal.

"There she is" Raven said, pointing at me as she walked in. I got up from the floor.

"Emily, you know only one team is allowed on school grounds." Principal Tegan and Raven smirked.

"Exactly. So, you guys have to destroy this... whatever." Raven said.

"Principal Tegan," I started calmly "I know the rules, and I think Raven is mature enough to settle this the right way" I paused, turned to raven "you know what am talking about." I added with a stern look. Raven glared back.

"Okay...before anything escalates, how about we settle this right now." Ryker said as he came between Raven and I, stretched out his hands to keep us at safe distances.

"How?" Raven asked.

"With a fun little contest" Ryker said, rubbing his palms together.

"Why don't we just rock, paper, scissors for it. First one to three stays while the other leaves?" I said.

"Why is that your solution for everything" Ryker said with a puzzled look.

"If I can make a suggestion—" Principal Tegan started.

"You can't." Raven said sharply

Principal Tegan ignored her "why don't you girls just team up to form one team."

"Absolutely not." Raven and I said in unison.

"Yeah, there Is absolutely no way am teaming up with this low life. You couldn't even make it to your little hometowns Nationals". Raven said, gesturing mockingly.

I glared at her "one more word from you and your teeth's going to come out"

"Ok—let's not do that" Joey said and held me back "Ryker what did you have in mind?"

"The only way to settle a dispute between dancers is a good old dance off" Ryker said, turning his head left and right.

"Or we could just fight for it" I suggested.

"No." Principal Teagan said.

"Next week Friday, after school, same place, same time." Ryker said.

"Deal" I said

"Raven?" Ryker turned to her.

"Fine...Whatever." Raven said and walked out with her team. Principal Tegan left too.

"It is way too early for dance drama—I mean, I recently just got out of one." I said to my team.

"What are we going to do then?" Sofie asked.

"We'll figure something out" Katie assured.

"We're not legit, we don't even have a name yet." Christine said.

"A name will surely pop-up, just wait for the right time." Alexis said and they all picked their bags and left.

I stood there for a while; I was getting a really odd sense of Déjà vu. "Could this just be history repeating itself" I thought. I shaked my head and left the hall.

As the days went by, everything seemed to be working out for everyone else except me. What was I doing wrong? For some reason, I couldn't concentrate in class or on anything anymore. I was slowly falling apart; and if that wasn't enough, I was going broke. I needed to raise money, and fast.

As I laid on my bed a Wednesday evening, I thought of ways to make money, I was stressed and it was telling on me. I needed something to go my way but everything seemed to be going south. I randomly remembered the DIYs I had watched on perfume making. I reached for my phone and began to watch more. "This could just be the breakthrough I need right now" I said to myself. I copied down the recipes and procedures, before I finally slept off.

The next day, at lunch; I told my friends about it. At first, they didn't seem convinced.

"Come on you guys—think about it, if we do this and its good; kids will buy it" I said, basically pleading.

"That's actually way too risky" Taylor said. She was always so careful about everything.

I rolled my eyes "what's risky about it?"

"What if we do it and no one likes it." Corinne asked with her palm under her chin.

"Plus, selling on school grounds is prohibited, remember" Walker said.

They all had strong points, but I wasn't giving up just yet. "Ok, first of all; life is all about taking risk, if we do it good, I guarantee people will love it and we can pick a safe spot outside school to market it." I said, trying so hard to convince them.

"Her enthusiasm is infectious" Parker said.

"Exactly. Not to mention, we'll be making more money" I said, poking them.

"Okay fine. How do we get started?" Ryker asked.

"So, you're in" I asked cautiously with an eyebrow up.

"I just like the idea of making more money" Ryker said and continued with his food.

"But it's not going to be easy though, you know that." Taylor said as she squeezed her face because of the sun.

"I do. But if we do it together it will be fun. And I could ask some of the girls from the dance team to join in" I replied, brought out my phone to message the girls.

"Girls' and the possibility of getting rich? Am in." Walker said without a doubt.

"This is going to be a bad idea" Taylor said, shaking her head.

"We're teenagers, that's what we do; make bad choices and regret them later" Ryker said, getting his stuffs together.

"Alright am in, but if we get in trouble; am not paying a ransom" Taylor said, pointing at all of us.

"This is not illegal, no one's going to ask you for a ransom" Corinne said calmly.

"And we're certainly not going to get in trouble" Parker added.

"Alright Taylor, if you're done being negative can we get to work now?" I said sharply and arranged my stuffs to get going.

"Yeah, sure" Taylor replied softly and we got our stuffs together and went to several stores to get our recipes.

I was really excited. I had thought about doing a lot of cool things in the past like sky diving, car racing and much more, but I've never actually done them. This felt really cool.

We came back to school after shopping. We made use of our science lab because it had more sophisticated equipment's. Parker, Taylor, and Ryker had called some friends to come over to help. The girls from my dance team came to help too, and as I had called it; it was a whole montage of fun. We called our collection THE FLAWLESS FRAGRANCE, and in nine hours, we had over 7500 bottles of flawless fragrance ready for marketing. We were really impressed but also very tired. We all agreed to sell each bottle for 10bucks each, but every kid who participated got a free bottle of the flawless fragrance. The packaging was insane, everything was really cool and attractive. It was really late by the time we finished, so everyone headed back to their rooms.

The next morning, Flawless Fragrance was in the air. Everyone who got a bottle the previous night was wearing the perfume. Every kid and even some teachers wanted a bottle.

We waited till after school before selling anything. It was on. We were selling out fast. Some teachers were placing orders for every single fragrance in the collection, some kids bought two or three bottles at once, By the end of the day we were sold out—and the perfume scents were so much in the air.

"We did it!" I screamed in excitement as I ran into my room. I was beyond excited, we made $75,000, I have never counted so much money, even in my dreams.

"Wait we're sold out?" Kendall asked with a broad smile.

"We're sold-out baby!" I replied in so much joy. I held my bag, brought out the money, recounted it and shared it amongst the 25 people who helped in production; The dance team {Who are now called TAMELESS}, my friends, and some of Parker, Taylor and Ryker's friends.

"What now?" Caden; a friend of Parker from the basketball team asked.

"Now, we wait." I said, pulling out a chair. I sat, then continued "we need the demand to increase, then we can get back to work."

"See Taylor, nothing bad happened." Parker said, shaking his hands mockingly. Taylor ignored him.

"If we go hard, we can actually make it really big and start our own company." Ruby said, flapping her bills in the air.

"I was literally thinking the same thing." I said with a smile.

"You girls are on cloud 9 right now." Ayden said, rocking his chair back and forth.

"That'll actually be cool, but for now; lets just try to graduate I peace." Cassie said.

"Oh, yeah—I almost forgot, our science project is due on Monday" Kenzie; a friend of Taylor said while standing up.

"What science project" I asked very confused.

"Yeah, you came in late today, we were assigned into groups for a science project." Walker said.

Paesha looked at her phone, "its not so late yet, you could go ask Miss Sheila to pair you up with someone" Paesha said.

"Everyone's paired up already." Katie chipped in.

"I'll see what I can do." I said and stood up to go look for Miss Sheila.

After some minutes of searching, I found her.

"Uh—Miss Sheila, am sorry I came into class a little late today; so, I wasn't paired with anyone" I said

"Ok, then just join Group D" Miss Sheila replied with a shrug.

"Group D?" I asked, gesturing with my hands indicting that I didn't know what it was.

She handed me a booklet. I flipped through the pages, scrolling down with my eyes as I searched for my group members and our project.

"Hm—group D" I said as I reached the page and read aloud "Caden, Ayden, Jayden and..." I paused, "oh no—Raven?" I said and looked up at Miss Sheila.

"Yep, that's your group and they already know the project." She said and collected the book "You kids have fun" she tapped my head twice before leaving.

I headed back to my room, by then; nearly everyone was gone. It was just Caden, Taylor, and Miranda.

"Any luck?" Miranda asked as I walked in.

"Yeah, Caden am in you're group." I said and sat on my bed.

"Well cool, let's go get the others, our project requires some inside digging" He said and got up, heading for the door, then turned "oh, and Raven's in our group too."

"I know—I know" I sighed, then got up "let's just go" I said and Caden and I left the room.

"I feel bad for Emily, she does a lot, but still faces a lot" Miranda said when Caden and I had left.

"I know, but somehow she always pulls through, she's a strong kid." Taylor replied.

"Well then, let's get to our project, shall we?" Miranda said and brought out her books and they began to study.

******

Our project, as Caden said; needed some dip digging. We had to go out of school on a hike to get more knowledge on diamonds and crystals. We had gone so far, that we lost track of where we were. Without even knowing it; we had gotten ourselves lost.

"Damn it. My phone's not getting any signal." Raven said, walking around with her phone raised high, trying to get a signal.

"Worry about that later, but first; where are we" I said, looking around, trying to find something.

"Dude I thought you had the map?" Jayden asked Ayden.

"What map?" Ayden asked looking confused.

I glared at him "The map showing where the diamonds were, and how to get back." I said with a stern tone.

"Oh yeah, that map—yeah, I left it in my locker" Ayden said plainly.

"You did what!?" we all yelled at Ayden.

"Caden just told me to get the stuffs" Ayden said in fear.

"Yeah. Exactly, and the map was part of it" Caden said, almost screaming.

"Well how I supposed to know that?" Ayden yelled in defense.

I broke them up "ok pointing fingers won't help us now, lets just keep going." I suggested and started moving.

"We don't even know what's up there" Jayden said.

"Well, we wouldn't have to know if Ayden had brought the map like he was told too" Caden said. No one started moving yet.

"Enough." I said calmly, "We are going to have to find out—lets go"

"We've been working all day, the sun's almost down. I'm tired" Raven complained and sat on the floor.

"Ok princess, you either get up and walk with us or you can just sit here—and who knows all the creepy things lurking around this place." I said harshly.

Raven looked around, looked up at the sun that was about to set and rose immediately to her feet, and we started moving forward.

"You guys look—Up there." I said pointing at a small cottage. We walked towards it, standing in front of the door, we didn't know if we should go in or not.

"What is this doing out here?" Caden asked

"And—in the middle of nowhere" Jayden added

"Do we go in?" Ayden asked.

"It's an abandoned cottage in the middle of nowhere, of course we're going to go in" Jayden said and pulled Raven and I to the front, "But of course; ladies first."

"Am not going in there." Raven said in her high-pitched voice.

"Alright fine I'll go." I said and gently opened the door. I turned around to find the boys and Raven hiding behind a tree. "Cowards" I muttered and walked in.

"Hello? Anyone in?" I said as I walked in slowly and gently.

The boys and raven finally came in.

"What is this place?" Raven asked, removing cobwebs from her shoes.

"You guys, look" Jayden said and walked towards a dusty ceramic statue of a rabbit.

"Don't touch anything." I warned.

"Do you guys hear that?" Ayden asked and we all kept quiet. There were really sketchy things and screeching noises.

The door got shut.

"Oh my gosh. What was that?" I asked, a little terrified. My eyes scanned every corner.

"It's no big deal" Jayden teased, "It's probably one of those automatic doors. There's totally nothing sketch about this place" he added and rested his hand on the table of the ceramic rabbit. It fell and broke, so did the table.

"Ok that table was not built properly" Jayden said.

"Let's just get out of here, before anything else destroys" I said and headed towards the door.

As we walked, Raven's foot tripped a wire, causing a booby trap to get activated. The place was going to blow up.

"What did you just do?!" I yelled at Raven.

"I'm sorry, I tripped on a wire" she shouted.

"Wait you guys, listen." Caden said and we all kept quiet. It was the danger alarm.

"We're toast" Ayden said bluntly.

"Ok, don't freak out" I said trying my best to calm everyone down.

'Activating warehouse destroy system. Warehouse to destroy in 5 minutes. It was a computer voice speaking.

We all stood still for a second before Raven broke the silence;

"Do we freak out now?" she asked in sarcasm.

"Yeah. Yeah—we do" I replied and everyone started screaming.

We ran towards the door but it didn't open.

'Intruders detected' the system kept saying.

"We're going to have to try the windows!" I said after so many attempts to open the door. I ran towards the window; I tried to push and pull but it didn't open.

"What the heck!" I screamed.

"This doesn't move too!" Ayden said as he tried using his legs to kick open another window.

"Try this!" Raven said and handed me a metal rod.

I hit the window a lot harder this time and it broke.

"Yes!" I raised my hands in joy, "you guys let's jump" I said and jumped out the window.

It was a lot higher than the other ones, so I fell when I jumped. The boys landed it, but Raven refused to jump.

"Come on!" I screamed from the outside.

Raven stuck her head out through the window but put it back in.

"I can't. Am afraid of heights." Raven said in fear.

"Dude, this place is about to blow up just do it already" I said, trying to help her.

'warehouse destruction in 60 seconds'

"Raven come on!" the boys yelled.

"I—I can't" she said almost crying. I climbed back in to help her.

"Let's go!" I said and almost grabbed her hands.

"No—no, I don't need your help—I don't need your help" Raven said stubbornly but still shaking.

"Well then, jump already!" I yelled

"I can't!" she screamed again.

"Oh My God!" I screamed and slapped my forehead. "then let me help me!" I added and stretched out my hand, but she wouldn't take it.

"Just let her help you already!" Jayden screamed in anger.

"No!" she refused "I don't like you and so—ahhhh!" I pushed her before she could finish talking. The boys caught her and stood her up.

"Ok Emily, now jump!" Caden said

'warehouse destruction in 5 seconds'

I jumped out immediately, this time landed it and we ran away.

3...2...1. The building went up in flames.

We were out of the building and out of breath.

"So much for school project" Caden said as we watched the building burn up.

Jayden looked around us. "where's all our work" he asked.

My eyes widened "Oh—my—God. We left it in there" I said and stroked my hair.

"No!" Raven screamed, "all this work for nothing?"

"What work?" I glared at her, "you didn't even touch a thing, maybe if you had jumped out like everyone else, we would've had time to get the stuffs"

"Don't even try to pin this on me!" she said in a high-pitched tone.

"OK—I get it, we're all stressed, but at least let's try to get out of here." Ayden said and looked up ahead. "There's a road down there, maybe someone could help us out." Ayden added and we started moving again.

Luckily, we did get help. Some guy volunteered to drive us back to Stanville. The sun had gone down, it was late, our project was due the next day and we had nothing to present. I got back to my room, no one was in it, so I took a shower, grabbed my scooter and went out for a ride.

The day to submit the project was here and we had nothing.

"What are we going to do?" Raven asked with a low voice.

"What can we do?" Caden asked.

We were standing in front of Miss Sheila's office. People had walked past us to submit their project.

"I say we just tell the truth. What's the worst that could happen?" I said softly and we walked in. we explained what had happened to Miss Sheila and she agreed to let us re-do it.

"Am going to let you guys off with this one because Emily joined your team late. But when you're resuming from your summer break, I expect to see it." Miss Sheila said.

"Thanks ma'am" we said and left her office.

The dance team rivalry was no longer a big deal since we had no event coming up; we didn't need a competition. Everyone was more focused on summer, we needed to get that summer body in shape.

******

Summer was finally here. We had left school about a week ago. Though we couldn't see face to face, we still kept in touch through social media. I tried to reach out to my old dance team but it wasn't successful, everyone had moved on, found new things and formed new friendships. We didn't hate each other, but it was hard to get along especially since we didn't focus on the same thing anymore. Slowly, time and distance had turned sisters into strangers.

But there was no need to feel down or sad. It was summer and my family always travelled during the summer. This year mom surprised us with a visit to palm springs.

At palm springs, I decided to stay away from social media. I didn't want any drama or gossips—just some me time. I even took a lot of photos but didn't post a thing. I was excited cause mom was having a good time. She deserved it; she was the best.

Leo brought Megan along with him and those two just couldn't do without each other. They kind of reminded me of Gavin and Coco {Cavin}; two social media influencers but Leo and Megan were way cuter. We spent a lot of time at the beach, or by the pool. I also had a lot of time to advance the flawless fragrance. I told my mom about it and she was proud of me. While Leo and Megan {Legan} hung out together, I stayed with my mom. She really is a lot of fun.

I didn't forget about the project though. Before we left school, we all decided to go solo. That is; we will do separate projects and when we return from the summer break, we'll combine it to create one epic project. Since I didn't have much to do, I just focused on school work, learning new DIYs, writing songs and improving my clothing designs.

Since I was 17, my mom decided; it was time for me to learn to drive. That didn't mean she was going to buy me a car though, but it was cool to learn. I had a lot of fun during the summer, Leo started a YouTube channel where he featured me in almost every video. One time he did the trending; over protective boyfriend prank on Megan and it was the funniest thing ever.

Summer was great, but everything has to come to an end, so—summer was over.

We had returned from palm springs a week before school resumption. I was eager to go back to school, there were a lot of things trending on social media, I could tell it was going to be a fun session.

Do you like long chapters? That's pretty much how this book is. That's what makes it perfect for long boring journey's. Did you enjoy this chapter? Tell me what you think in the comments. Pls like, vote and share.  Feel free to correct any typos you might find.  Also, drop any new ideas you might have.

Xoxo khleeopathra.