"Friendship is not about who you have known the longest, it's about who came and never left your side." -- Anonymous.

This entire book and all my writing is dedicated to AntraOnWP for inspiring me, motivating me, helping me with the title and for being inspiration for me from the first time I started writing. Thank you so much for everything.

And, guys, check out Antra's story "Started Off As Roommates". It's Romance and a really good read!

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The bell rang, indicating the end of the period and also the end of ninth grade. Shouts of happiness echoed throughout the classroom and everyone buzzed with excitement, ready to leave behind a stressful school year.

Teachers tried their best to calm their classes down but realised that their attempts were useless and that they had gone unheard.

Excited teenagers left their classrooms and formed groups in the corridors, talking and laughing loudly amongst their friends. Some hugged goodbye and others made plans to meet in the holidays. A few stood by lockers, emptying it and cleaning it out instead of leaving like the rest were.

Amongst the chaos, two girls and one boy huddled in a corner -- one girl hiding a small bucket of yellow paint behind her --, and were trying to find a space to pass through and cross into the principle's office. They blended in with the crowd because of their uniform, going by unnoticed by those who passed them. Looking around cautiously, they saw their chance and they swiftly moved across the corridor, bumping into a few people and ignoring their protests, and slipped inside the principle's office, knowing that the door was open.

"You got the paint?" the boy asked the one girl quietly.

She nodded. "You sure the camera is switched off?" she asked just as quietly.

He glanced at the next girl and she nodded, pointing at the camera that was carefully hidden away.

The boy nodded and took the paint from her hand. He pulled out the chair that was neatly placed behind the desk and carefully got on and stood on it. He took a paintbrush out of his backpack that was slung across one shoulder and opened the lid of the small bucket of paint.

He dipped the paintbrush in and pulled it out again, smearing paint across the table. He then pulled out a nail and pushed it through a hole in the ceiling he had made earlier and then placed the bucket on the nail, making sure it did not fall. He soundlessly jumped off the chair, pushing it back into its place and left the paintbrush on the chair.

He then smiled knowingly at the two girls and gestured towards the door. "He's coming soon. Let's go before we get caught."

They walked towards the door and slowly pulled it open. The corridor was much more empty than earlier and they got out without anyone noticing them.

The three of them ran up the corridor, trying to be as quiet as possible. They took a right and went up a flight of stairs and walked towards a door that was directly on top of the principle's office.

They went in and closed the door behind them and sat on the floor in deep silence, listening for any sounds beneath them.

They heard the door opening and shut close again. The boy grinned at the two girls. "It's time. Put the plan into action."

One girl took out a device and switched it on, fiddling with it and pressing some buttons before a screen in the room was switched on.

"His camera came in handy," she said.

The boy and other girl gave her a questioning look.

"I switched his camera on now so that we can see how he reacts. I had it switched off earlier so that we couldn't be seen."

"You're a genius, Sam," the other girl said, smiling and giving a thumbs up. "Guys, look."

They looked at the screen and saw their principle look at his desk in shock and anger. He cautiously walked around his table and pulled his chair out -- not realising a paintbrush was on it -- and sat down. He then shot out of his seat and stared at the chair in horror.

A string in front of the boy went through a hole that was made in the floor, exactly where he had placed the bucket.

The boy pulled on the string at the right moment, causing the bucket of yellow paint -- that was now directly over the principle's head -- to fall on him.

The three children laughed loudly at his horrified expression and his angry screams. They all knew that he hated the colour yellow and hated paint even more for some odd reason.

"Oh God. Did you see his face?" he laughed again, his face going so red that it could be seen despite his chocolate brown skin colour.

"Jay-Jay, I think we better leave now," the one girl said, glancing nervously at the screen.

They all sobered from their laughter and realised that their principle was looking at the ceiling with a knowing expression on his face.

"Oh, shit," he cursed. "Let's go. Cage is gonna catch us if we don't."

"Sam, hurry up! We need to go. Now!" the one girl said, pulling on her arms.

"Wait a sec. I need to disconnect this quickly," she said, succeeding and allowing herself to be pulled by the other girl.

"Sam, Steph, hurry up!" the boy whisper-shouted, mild panic clear in his eyes.

The three children hurried out of the room and down the staircase. They took the opposite corridor so that their principle wouldn't see them and ran out onto the school grounds, bending over to catch their breath.

They could hear their principle's shouts in the distance, but it seemed like he didn't know where they were.

"We got Cage real good," the boy said.

"Jay-Jay, seriously?" one girl asked him.

"What? I'm simply enjoying my awesome prank on Cage," he said while smirking.

She shot him a glare. "We helped, too, you know."

"I know, Steph, you don't have to remind me again," he said. "How'd you connect to his camera, Sam?"

Samantha shrugged, not giving him an answer.

"Oh, come on. Please?" Steph asked.

"I think I'll keep this one to myself, thank you very much," she replied, smiling secretly.

Jaydon and Stephanie sighed in defeat, knowing that there was no way they could get the answer out of her.

"Come on, let's get out of here. We need to meet up with everyone," Sam said, nodding towards the road that lead to their destination.

"Yeah, sure. Let's go," Jay-Jay said, starting to walk.

The two girls followed him. They walked up on the side of the road in silence until Jay-Jay broke it.

"But you gotta admit it, that prank was awesome," he said again.

The two girls rolled their eyes, used to this by now.

"Yeah," they both murmured. Sam's reply hinted at sarcasm.

They carried on walking a little longer and the lake came into view and as they walked further on, their friends came into view. They were sitting where they always met up -- under the big tree.

It was enormous. It provided more than enough shade and had enough space for everyone to fit inside. Its branches were long and formed a shelter with its big leaves. The trunk was big enough for everyone to lean onto without being squashed.

She loved the tree. It gave her a sense of comfort and protection. It was made as their meeting spot since it was convenient for everyone and they had all liked it.

Brandon looked up as they drew closer and smiled widely at them. They came to a stop once they were in front of the tree. They were all still dressed in their school uniform. They had their backpacks on the ground next to them or hanging on a nearby branch.

Everyone looked happy that school was over. There was a feeling in the air that they couldn't put their finger on, but it made them feel different.

Not everyone was here today, only her closest friends: Brandon, Denise, Goergianna, Nathan, Max and Paige, Stephanie and Jaydon.

"Hey, guys," Sam greeted, offering them a smile.

They replied with different greetings and the three of them took a seat on the ground.

"Got any plans?" Denise asked her.

She sighed. "No. You, Den?"

Denise flashed her a smile. "Nope. I was thinking . . . couldn't we have a week out or something. No one's really doing anything this week and next week."

"Yeah, sure. That'd be great," she turned her attention to the others. "What do you guys think?"

"Hell, yeah," Georgianna said, "I need a breather. What you say, Natt?"

Natt, her brother, agreed without hesitation.

Max and Paige gave out sighs of relief. Sam looked at them weirdly.

"What?" they asked in unison.

"Nothing," she said quickly, "You look like you need a break, too."

Max and Paige were five children all together and it sure was hectic at their house.

They're probably really tired, Sam thought to herself.

"No doubt about that," Paige said.

"How about we all plan out something and meet up here. We can spend a week together until you guys have to leave. I think it's a break we all need, what with the stress and all," Brand said.

"We could camp out or something," Jay-Jay suggested.

"Or we could do something else," Steph said, shuddering. She hated camping out but everyone else loved it.

Everyone started arguing and stopped when she put her hands up. "Okay, okay. Fine. We'll camp out then," she said the last part bitterly.

"Steph, relax. Camping really isn't as bad as you think," Sam tried reasoning with her.

"Are you kidding me?" she yelled. "There's spiders and insects and anything could happen to you."

Jay-Jay rolled his eyes, "Puh-lease, you're just paranoid. You're such a scaredy cat, Steph," he said.

"Guys, stop it," Max said, playing peacemaker. "Whether you agree or not, we're going to camp anyway so suck it up and decide whether you'll sulk at home alone or come join the fun and camp," he said in a final tone, ending Jay-Jay and Steph's bickering.

George jumped up as if just remembering something, "Guys, how did the prank go? I completely forgot earlier."

That caused the three of them to burst out laughing as they remembered what had happened earlier.

"You should have seen his face, George, you should've," Jay-Jay said in between laughs.

"Who did you prank?" Natt asked.

"Cage," he said, smirking.

"So you did it alone?" Paige asked.

"No ways, we helped," Stephanie said hotly.

"Oh," Paige replied, not knowing what to say.

"What did you do?" Denise asked eagerly.

"Shortened version; we poured yellow paint on him," Sam replied.

Everyone laughed, picturing Mr Cage covered in his worst nightmare -- yellow paint.

Sam glanced at her watch to check the time and she immediately sprung to her feet. "Oh, shoot. I gotta go, guys. See you guys . . . ," she trailed off, not knowing when they would be meeting up again.

"Tomorrow?" Steph asked.

"Definitely," Brand replied.

"I gotta go, too, guys. Later." Jay-Jay got to his feet.

Since Sam, Steph and Jay-Jay lived on the same street, they were expected back home at the same time.

"Okay, bye!" Paige said.

They walked away and went further up the road to go home. They came to the road where they split ways and said their goodbyes, each going to their own house.

Sam walked further up the tarred road and came to a halt once she reached her house. She reached into her pocket for her keys and placed it into the lock, unlocking the door and opening it and going inside before closing it again. She smiled as she thought of her amazing friends and the fact that she had reached the end of another year, the end of ninth grade.

- - - - -

Hi, everyone! How are you doing?

I'm not going to put an author's note after every chapter, but I thought this was necessary since this is the beginning of the book.

First, I would like to say thank you for choosing to read this story, you have no idea how much it means to me. I hope you enjoy it. Please do tell me if you like the story or not.

Also, I would like to inform you that I have no updating schedule -- I update whenever I have the time to do so. I will try my best not to make you wait too long for updates. Please feel free to inform me if there are any spelling / grammar / punctuation errors, I would really appreciate it.

And please DO NOT COPY any part of this book. It would wound me deeply if you did. I mean, come on, this book isn't even worth the time of being copied, right? Besides that, it is a work of Wattpad and is therefore copyrighted.

Now, moving on . . . thank you so much, I really appreciate all of your support. I can't even express my appreciation.

And, just so you know in advance, there will be a bit of vulgar language, but I really hope it's not a lot and that you don't mind the little of it that there is.

Regarding the cover, please keep in mind that all credit goes rightfully to its owner, besides that title and author that I've put into it.

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Peace,

Croc

PUBLISHED: 07 / 12 / 2015