Written in the stars *COMPLETE*

Xander

     I walked into school knowing three more things than I did the day before. 

1. Juliet Sparks liked to take pictures (Which, honestly, I could probably have assumed considering she was in photography). 

 2. Juliet Sparks had a dog named Spot.

3. I could not wait until eighth period. 

     The day went like any other Friday. I was a pretty good student, so I had no problem paying attention in my classes, yet I did find myself a little more distracted than usual. Lunch, however, was easy. My friends and I have a tradition on Fridays. We all go out to lunch together at a local breakfast restaurant downtown, called "Donut Snooze or You'll Lose", which closes early. The owners are friends with my mom, so they let us come in and buy the unsold extra food for cheap.

     My group of friends has been together since middle school, so one could say we are pretty close. There were originally four of us: Noah, Oliver, Emily, and I. Then when we all got to high school, Emily brought in Jessica and Chloe, which I guess makes sense because she was probably tired of being the only girl in the group. I met Emily and Oliver in middle school. Emily's parents came to America from China two years before she was born because they wanted their children to have lots of opportunities and also, apparently, very basic American names. Emily complains about her name a lot and tells us stories about how her relatives make fun of her because of how American her name is. Oh, I should also mention that Jessica and Oliver are siblings, but Jessica was adopted when they were younger. Jessica was originally born in England, which automatically makes her super cool. Oliver, however, doesn't think that Jessica could possibly be anything other than annoying. And finally, Noah and Chloe are together, but it's been on and off since freshman year, and that's really the only source of drama in the group. I'm not really sure what my niche is in the group. I've always just been "Noah's best friend" but at this point, we are all technically best friends so I don't know.

     The day continued and each fifty-minute class period seemed to last twice as long as I waited for my last class of the day. Finally, my seventh-period class ended, and I honestly don't think that I have ever wanted to get to a class so quickly in my whole life. I usually take the whole five-minute passing period to get from class to class, waving to and making small talk with people I recognized. About halfway on my journey to the photography classroom, I stopped myself. I couldn't have this girl thinking I was crazy, so I slowed down and made sure I got to the class at a reasonable time. I walked into the classroom right as the bell rang, signaling the beginning of eighth period, and sat down across from Jules. She looked up.

"Don't you want to sit with one of your drawing class friends?"

"And hello again to you too Miss Juliette NASA Taylor."

"It's just Jules."

"Well if you insist Just Jules. What are you working on?"

     I could see a smile pulling at the edge of her mouth as she flipped her notebook around and slid it towards me. At the top of the lined page were two words "Project Ideas" written in possibly the neatest handwriting I had ever seen. Underneath the title was an unfinished list of various words and phrases varying from "birds" to "song lyrics".

"You never answered my question."

"What question?"

"Don't you want to sit with your drawing friends?"

"What? And leave you alone with all your photography friends?" I quickly glanced up from reading her list to gesture at the empty table around us. Her face fell and she averted eye contact, apparently embarrassed at her lack of table companions so I changed the subject.

"What's all this for?

"The list?"

"No, life in general. Why are we here? What is the meaning of life? Wha-"

"It's a sort of photojournalism project. We have to document something that means a lot to us through a series of pictures."

"Birds? Really?"

"I was just brainstorming, you turd." She snickered, with the slightest of smiles starting to form at the corners of her mouth.