MEND THE BONDS.

School resumed to the usual. I got closer to King and Amber and a couple of others, but farther away from Taylor and Corinne.

Change of lectures drew us farther from each other.

Days went by fast, the year was coming to an abrupt end, which meant; Homecoming, Thanksgiving and the holidays, I can't forget more school work, as next year will be college.

Everyone got serious with school works, and stayed away from any drama.

Relationships and friendships were kept low-key. School was chill.

I was mixing school with my career; music, dancing, and acting. At first it was hard, but later I got the hang of it and it became fun.

King became more outspoken, Raven was still raven, school was chill.

I finally decided to try to rekindle the friendship with my old friends.  The first person I tried to get was Taylor.

"Hey you" I greeted Taylor who was reading in the library alone.

It had been weeks since the kidnapping, and exams were drawing closer.

"Hi" Taylor responded without taking her eyes off her book.

"Seriously? That's it?" I asked but she didn't answer so I closed her book,

"Hey!" she shouted

"What?" I retorted, "Is that it? Am I really not important?" I said but she only let out a sigh without saying anything.

"It's fine, I get it." I nodded and headed towards the door.

"Emily wait." Taylor called out.

I turned around and she continued

"Look I don't... how—where do I start" she stammered.

"Maybe start by telling yourself the truth. Why are you really mad at me?" I told her.

"Honestly, I don't know" Taylor responded and fell into her seat

"Then what is it?" I walked towards her.

"I am not mad" she looked up at me," I never was. I was just disappointed" she added, fiddling with her book.

I took a seat behind her.

"I never lied to anyone. I honestly couldn't imagine that you wouldn't believe me."

"Am sorry, for...." Taylor paused while I continued.

"Everything you're ever done up till this point?" I added.

"Exactly" Taylor responded and we both laughed.

"Next time, just say were good and were good" I said with a smile.

"I've missed you" Taylor said and we hugged each other.

"Now that were good," I opened her book "you're not getting this" I pointed to a question of physics she was solving.

"I know, it's hard" she complained

"No it's not, Here" I took a pen and corrected it

"Oh yeah..." Taylor said and we continued to solve other questions.

I got one back four to go.

I knew it was going to be easy to get back joey, pasha and ruby, but not Corinne, still there was no time for drama.

I had exams to study for.

Exams lasted for a week straight and I was chill. Even though the exams were conducted seriously, everyone had prepared excessively, so were all good, it was our last paper in 12th grade

"Alright you all have" looking at his watch, "16mins more. Be sure to write properly" Mr. martin said.

By now half of the class had finished and in 60 seconds, the class was through. Mr. Martin arranged our answer sheets and left the classroom.

"Woah!" Christine yelled after the teacher walked out

"Finally!" Amber yelled.

Everyone was excited,

"So now what?" king asked me.

"Well, it's time to start applying to colleges duh!" I replied.

"Yeah." Joelle added.

"Am thinking Yale university." Ayden said.

"Atlanta international for me" Ryker said.

"You guys are already set out, what about home coming?" Amber asked.

"That's true." I agreed.

"It's the holidays already" parker said

"Home coming Is in two weeks, but graduation comes in 3 days before that" Camryn said.

"Am not sure that's how it works" I said.

"Lots of activities." Natalie added.

"No, lots of fun...." Taylor said

"Yeah, think about it, this year has been hectic, we deserve some fun" lily said.

"Definitely. "we all said

"Just a sec" I said and got up because I got a face-time call, it was Vivi

"Oh my gosh!" I yelled in excitement,

"How are you girl" she responded happily.

"This is a weird call" I said,

"It's been a while, am just checking up on you," Vivi said

"How's everything and everyone" I said with my palm under my chin

"We are really good" she responded. "Oh yeah, we are having a re-union, together with those kids from the hospital"

"Who?" I asked.

"You know, the volunteer charity in march with Roy—" she got interrupted by me,

"Oh yes, Nathan—Um, Mark, Maddison and..." I said snapping my fingers "Steve and Brice."

"Exactly." Vivi laughed "in two weeks."

"Wait two weeks?" I asked, a little worried.

"Yeah why?" Vivi replied

"That's my schools home coming." I said immediately.

"Its fine, we were going to have it there at Stanville anyways" she assured

"Oh.... Cool." I said happily.

"Yea, see you in two weeks, love you, bye." Vivi said and hung up.

I squeezed my phone, smiled to myself and left for my hostel.

I got to my room, Amber and King were in already, they were already applying to colleges.

"Why are you so happy" Amber asked when I walked in.

I just kept smiling, "Am so happy" I responded after some time.

Amber nodded, "I can tell."

"Want to share the good news?" King asked.

"You guys won't get it. I'm going to shower" I got up from my bed and headed for the showers.

"Take your time" Amber said as I was leaving.

Amber and King were going through university colleges

"I think I'll apply to NYU" Amber said still staring at her screen

"Nice" king responded still checking her own list of school.

"Am thinking business major?" king said with her hands behind her head, eyes still on her screen.

"Then try BSBI." Amber replied.

"Come again?" king said, this time typing what Amber said.

"Berlin School of Business and something, I don't know" Amber said,

"Oh, how accurate." king said glaring at amber.

"I don't know, just look up BSBI." Amber replied and continued with her screen

"Innovation..." King saw the meaning, looked closer at her screen "Germany?!" she yelled.

"Well, I said Berlin, what did you think?" Amber replied with a shrug.

"I'm still going to apply though" King said and started typing.

I got out of the shower, and got dressed.

"What are you guys doing?" I asked putting on my jacket.

"Applying to colleges." Amber responded; eyes stuck to her screen.

"Oh cool, I applied to five colleges, so any one that grants me admission, I'm off" I said

"Smart." King said.

I checked myself out in the mirror.

"Going out?" king asked as she noticed my outfit.

"Yeah" I said fixing my hair

"With?" Amber asked

"My boys" I replied

"Oh-k" Amber said.

I nodded, grabbed my purse and left the room.

"Finally." Austin said when I showed up.

"Sorry am late" I said and looked around "where is Taylor?"

"She's also running late" Parker said looking at his watch.

"Girls are always late" Ryker said.

"I'll go and get them" I said and ran up.

Getting there, Taylor was already coming out, we bumped into each other.

"Oh...sorry" Taylor said.

"It's fine. Corrine?" I asked

"She's inside" Taylor said and opened the door.

I walked in, Corrinne was on her phone.

"Hey girl" I said and walked over to Corinne's closet brought out clothes, and tossed them on her.

"Get dressed let's go." I said and collected her phone.

"What the-" Corrinne started.

"Don't ask questions, let's go" I said.

Corinne got up, picked the clothes and walked into her dresser.

In about five minutes, she came out, fully dressed.

"Looking good." I said, as soon as she came out.

"As always." Corinne replied.

"Whatever, let's go" I said and we all walked out the room to join the boys.

"Sorry for the holdup" Taylor said as we walked out.

We drove to a nearby gaming center and then to an Arcade. Some kids from our school met up with us at the Arcade, after which we all went out to eat and have so much fun. It was a wild night.

Day went by fast. I spent the two days before graduation attending various interviews just like Camilla had called it earlier. They still wanted the full details on the kidnapping and my well-being.

My friends got to star in various movies and dance in music video's, our lives were going smoothly our cash flow was gradually increasing, we were all growing together.

I wrote a couple of songs which had every kid at my school in the music video, since we were getting close to the holidays, Camilla decided we arrange another tour, it was going to be a 25-city tour.

I got the message the day our result was released; Joy filled the school because everyone excelled, it was a good time

"Am going to Harvard baby!" I yelled when I saw my result. The entire 12th grade was filled excited kids.

******

Our tour was set for after homecomings into the holidays.

Graduation came fast, I could tell it was going to be amazing.

The night before graduation every 12th grader slept in school it was a cute little sleep over organized by our school just for us to have a little fun time before leaving high school, forever.

Every 12th grader was present at school the night before graduation.  We started off the night by sharing stories and laughing at each other's jokes.

It was about 10:00pm, the room was quiet, we had exhausted all our stories and needed something else to do.

"Let's pull an all-nighter" Ryker suggested.

"Am down" Austin responded

"Let's go get our stuffs" Joey said

"I will set up" Patrick said, and the rest of us went out to get stuffs that would keep us up all night.

We started off strong and good, until about 11:55pm

"My eye lids are feeling heavy" Amber said trying her best to keep awake.

We had earlier set up cameras at all angles to film our all-nighter on school grounds for YouTube, but the all-nighter seemed to be crashing.

"You guys, it's 11:55pm" Ryker said and let out a yawn

"Just 11?" Taylor said and fell on her bean bag "I thought it'll be like 3:00am or something"

"Alright, we got to..." I started but couldn't continue cause my eyes closed, I was fast asleep.

"No.... no" Ashlee said waking everyone up "get up" Ashlee tried pulling everyone up.

"Okay, okay am up" Corinne said and rubbed her sleepy eyes.

Ashlee went on to get a microphone.

"Get up sleepy heads!" she screamed into the microphone and everyone jerked up immediately.

"What the heck!" Caden yelled.

"We got to pull this all-nighter you guys" Ashlee said and put on some loud music.

"My feet don't move anymore" I complained.

"Mine neither" King added.

"Alright then we will have a baking contest" Ruby suggested.

"Food is a good therapy." Ryker said.

"Anything to stay awake" Ashley said wrapping up the sleeping beds.

"Graduation is tomorrow we need some sleep" Molly said as Heather dragged off her sleeping bad "ow!"

"I am not baking nothing with nobody, I am so tired, I'm going to bed" Raven said and turned around to sleep, but Ashley and ruby were determined to keep everyone awake at least until 5am, so they turned out all the lights, put on some loud spooky music and starting yelling.

"Oh my gosh Raven!" Ruby yelled and Raven got up immediately.

"It's in your hair!" Ashlee yelled too.

"Who turned down the lights?!" Raven yelled turning around "Get it off! Get it off!!!" she yelled and everyone started laughing.

"That's one way to wake up" Kendall said and turned the light back on.

Raven was furious and breathing heavily.

"Chill out it was just a joke" Raymond teased.

"Ok now everyone's up" Amy said

"Let's get cooking" Alexis said and we all headed to the kitchen, Ashley put on some really loud music, everyone was more awake than ever.

A stranger walking in would think we are having a party, a messy party.

While the whole thing was going on, I felt someone grab my hand, I turned, it was Corinne.

"Come with me please" she said gently.

I dropped the pan I was holding and followed her. People noticed what was going on and made eye contact.

I followed Corinne to our school basketball field, she had set up a projector playing a cute video-mix of our fun moments together. I watched closely at the 58seconds film. After it was over Corinne dropped the remote.

"Look..." she started "I'm not the best person at apologizing you know that" she paused, took a deep breath and continued, "it was selfish of me to treat you like that, no one deserves that, I'm so sorry. I get it if you can't forgive me, I wouldn't even forgive me." Corinne said and tried walking away.

I stopped her "I don't know about selfish, but I just think you let your head get the best of you." I said with a gentle smile.

"Maybe." Corinne replied.

"Look we are always going to be bestfriends. Corinne and Emily, Emily and Corinne." I stretched out my hands "friends?"

Corinne smiled and we exchanged handshakes.

"Forever" Corinne said with a smile, she pulled me in for a hug.

"Awwn!!!" came from the rest of our class, who had been eavesdropping on us all along.

We broke the hug up and Ruby, Paesha, and Joey ran through the crowd to give us a hug, the crowd watching just laughed and with that, we all became friends again.

"Do you guys smell that?" Raymond said as he sniffed the air.

We all sniffed the air. Everyone's eye's widened as soon as we realized where the smell was coming from.

"Oh my gosh!" Ruby yelled and we all ran to the kitchen.

"Woah!" Ryker shouted as he opened the oven, our pastries were burnt.

Heather brought out tray of cookies, they weren't so damaged.

"So much for baking contest" Ashley said looking very disappointed at her burnt cupcakes.

"Told you we should've gone to bed instead." Raven said as she made her way to her burnt cupcakes.

Ryker took a bite out of his cookies "Hmm, I can eat them" Ryker said still eating his cookies.

"You can eat anything" I replied.

Kendal picked up one of Ryker's cookies, "These are so burnt, there's no way you can eat that" Kendall said still looking at Ryker who had by now finished his cookie.

"See am fine" Ryker said.

"Give it a minute" Parker replied, trashing his burnt pastries.

Almost immediately, Ryker felt a lump in his stomach.

"Oh no, nope am not fine," Ryker said still holding his stomach "I think I need to..." Ryker said running to the restroom'

"That's a sign that these are damaged." I said stacking up everything that got burnt.

"Mine are still good," Heather said, holding her tray of cookies

"And the popcorn's good too" Stephanie said.

"I guess then it's not a huge disaster" Caden said tossing some popcorn in his mouth.

"Movie night?" I asked

"Sure" Amber said, "I'll get the sleeping beds"

"I'll get whatever food we have left" Taylor said and started gathering everything that still seemed good.

"I'll set up the movie!" Joelle and Molly said together, then turned to each other;

"No, I'm setting up the movie" They both said again in unison.

"Why don't you guys just set up the movie together" Walker said.

Molly and Joelle looked at each other

"Okay." They said and got to work.

"Has anyone seen Ryker?" Corinne asked looking around.

"His been in the bathroom for about 30minutes now" Jayden said and started leaving, "I'll go get him."

"Ryker, dude" Jayden started knocking at the door, "You ok?"

"Be out in a second" Ryker said.

"Alright then." Jayden said and left.

"His fine." Jayden said as he approached us.

Ryker came out almost a minute later, and we all had a fun movie night. Before three o'clock, we were all asleep.

Which character is your favorite and why?

Xoxo khleeopathra.