Beginning without a goal

Chapter 1

I sat down on the grass beside Daniel. "Hey Dan." I greeted him happily. 

"Have you seen Nick yet?" Dan shook his head with a smile. "How were your holidays, Gabriela?" 

"Oh they were pretty good, we --" My sentence was interrupted by a humongous squeal and the running of footsteps. 

Dan shot up and gave Annie a hug. Suddenly Mia jogged up, panting. "Seriously?" She asked heavily pretending to throw up behind Annie. 

Dan gave his twin, Mia, the death glare and began to talk with Annie. 

I began to chuckle quietly at this exchange with a sneaky look to Mia who promptly sat down next to me. Watching these two flirt and giggle was a strange thing for me, since I had grown up in this group of friends along with my best friend Nicholas. 

Daniel and Annie weren't dating yet, but I had a feeling it wouldn't be too long. I mean they had already kissed and everything so....? 

The five of us have all grown up in a cul-de-sac in a really nice neighbourhood with a few other kids our age. We had always been friends. 

I don't even remember a single fight we've ever had. That's what makes us close.

                                                                   ***

"Well look who it is, the lovely Annie, everyone's favourite girl." Calem's voice drawled sarcastically. 

Annie groaned involuntarily and pulled away from her conversation. "Ugh, just go away Calem. I can't deal with you on the first day." 

Calem mocked a sad face glancing back at his posse. "And here I was thinking we could still be friends after our little..." He paused, pretending to think of an answer. "Ordeal." 

"Leave her alone. She had already broken up with you." Dan said standing up to face Calem. 

"Aw, now you need a boy to protect yourself?" Calem snorted shoving Dan a little, whilst glaring at Annie. 

"Dan come on. Don't, he's not worth it." Mia sighed grabbing her twin's shoulder. Daniel shook her off and his fists curled. 

Annie suddenly pushed past the both of them and punched Calem hard in the face. "Oooo!" The group of people groaned in sync and there was a smattering of applause. 

I was pretty shocked myself, Annie has never shown any violence before now. 

"Stay away from me." Annie demanded and walked back over and sat down next to me, in the calmest way she could. Calem was patting his cheek, checking for damage.

"Just get out of here man." Daniel said also sitting down. Calem walked off slowly, death glaring all of us. 

As he left Annie burst into giggles not able to stop, which was contagious as the rest of us began to laugh too. 

"Uh, what did I miss?" Nicholas asked approaching our group. "Oh nothing much, just that Annie punched Calem in the face." Daniel said proudly. 

"Wait, really?" Nicholas looked over his shoulder at Calem's clique. 

That's when I realised that Nick was back. "Nick!" Nicholas immediately jumped over to my other side. 

"Hey Ella." He gave a smirk that made most girls swoon, but me? It was just the smile that I loved.