Till Dawn | ORIGINAL

CHAPTER 001: NOTHING'S GONNA STOP US NOW

"Oh bringing the whole Scooby Gang with you! Nice," Dylan said, as two other boys on the team chuckled and Dylan went with them, cheering and whooping as the grins fell and in unison Emmy and Quinn flipped them off.

"Assholes," Emmy muttered as she glowered at them.

"I don't get why they don't think we wouldn't be coming without you guys. I mean, us four are a package deal," Sasha observed, an annoyed look on her face.

"Well, good news is that we're never gonna see those dickheads ever again," Ben commented.

"Aren't they still your teammates?" Quinn questioned.

"Yeah, but most of them are assholes. I'd much rather hang out with you guys than them," Ben said, and Emmy's heart warmed.

"Feeling's mutual, Ben. You guys are the best friends I could ever had," Emmy replied, before she pointed at her friends and added in a jokingly menacing tone, "But don't tell anyone that. I have a reputation to uphold."

"What reputation?" Quinn fired back.

"Uh, being a loner. Duh," Emmy replied, as she fought a smirk.

"Hate to break it to you, Ems, you never had much of a loner reputation," Ben said as he patted her shoulder in condolence as Emmy glared at him. "If anyone had a reputation, it was Quinn."

"And I take that with pride," Quinn chimed in, grinning. It was true—it was well-known in Renvale High that Quinn Thompson was not the girl you messed with. Many teachers gave her detention when she punched assholes in the face that were racist to Emmy and Ben or sexist pricks or were just assholes, started fights, talked back to the occasional dickish teacher and one time set Sean Hanway's hair on fire. It earned Quinn a reputation of being a troublemaker and menace, and that didn't take into account when Quinn would smash a bat into the cars of assholes who were either racist to her closest friends or tried to mess with her and Emmy behind Sasha's and Ben's backs or were just plain dicks, keyed their doors, and would get into brawls with guys who hadn't grown past their asshole high school days, often landing her in the police station. Quinn took pride in it, flaunted it even, and made it clear—that Quinn Thompson was as fiery as her hair, and if you messed with her or her friends, you were going to get burned pretty quickly.

But as much as Quinn had a notorious reputation, it'd be a lie if all of them didn't have ones—being part of the popular crowd due to being a basketball jock and a cheerleader, respectfully, Ben and Sasha had that as their reputation but Ben called out the assholery and never hid his love of Star Wars or that he was frighteningly good at science and that it was clear even as nice as he was, if you messed with his friends then he could throw a punch and it land, and Sasha had been a golden girl who was genuinely freaking nice to people and just a decent, genuine person that everyone adored and could never find a good reason to hate her—but don't let the niceness fool you, as Sasha was terrifyingly good at pranks, especially revenge pranks. And Emmy...

Emmy wasn't kidding with being a loner. Before she met Quinn, Ben and Sasha as kid in middle school, she'd been a loner and still was, never really making any friends outside of her best friends, content to hide in her denim jacket and headphones and Stephen King books, quiet and deadpan who got good grades and dreamed of getting out of this small town, and delivering a terrifying death glare to anyone who dared to screw with her friends.

It was honestly a surprise the four of them still remained so close past  their middle school days, but Emmy was glad for it. She loved her friends, and really couldn't imagine another group of people she'd be friends with. 

"Seriously, you guys... you really are the best. I'm glad we went into high school and survived it as friends. I can't imagine anyone else as my best friends," Emmy said, sincerity in her tone as she smiled at them.