(a/n: this is gonna be divided in parts cuz this might take long lol)
TW: characters getting injured
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(the whole squad plus miguel)
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"when i was 6 years old i broke my leg."
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(quick a/n: yes evan breaks his leg but not his arm)
"come on evan!" 6 year old connor yelled from the branch that's close to the top!"
"i'm coming!" evan yells back.
as evan reaches the branch next to connor, connor helps evan up to the top of the tree. evan was so high up, it's like he was the king of the world, with the sun shining in his face.
"I MADE IT!" evan yelled from above. connor sat on the branch below, smiling up at evan.
suddenly, evan felt the branch losing his weight. it immediately broke off and evan lost his grip. as he fell, he crashed into many other branches, but luckily none of them hit his eyes. he fall on his left leg, with scratches and cuts on his face and arms and clothes.
evan bursted into tears, his forehead leaning against his right knee. "WAHHHHHHHHHH!!"
evan suddenly heard the branches moving above him. he looks up. connor is climbing down. he's coming to get him. and everything is okay.
connor scoops evan up and carries him back to his house. as they get inside, connor's parents and evan's mother are sitting on the couch, shocked to see evan.
"oh, my baby!" heidi exclaimed as she takes evan from connor, cradling him in his arms.
"mommy, my leg hurts!" evan cried.
"we'll get you to the hospital honey!" cynthia tells him, taking out her phone to dial 911.
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"i was running from my brother and his friends."
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5 year old zoe was in her room, playing with her toy guitar, when her brother knocked on her door.
"hey zoe!" connor said. "me and my friends are going on an adventure, wanna come?"
"yes!" zoe said excitedly.
connor and zoe both head downstairs, where the others are waiting. there was a girl with a pigtail braids and pink glasses, a boy with big blue glasses, a boy with a blue striped shirt, and a boy with a black flannel.
"zoe, this is alana, jared, evan, and miguel." connor said, introducing her to the club. shyly waves back at them.
secretly, evan's cheeks were turning a light pink as he smiled. "she looks so sweet," evan thought to himself, his heart beating a bit faster.
the six of them all head to the park near the neighborhood. evan and jared head to the tree that looks easiest to climb, connor and miguel went to the play structure to be kings of the world, and zoe ran over to the swings, not knowing alana following behind her.
as zoe gets onto the swing, alana walks behind her. "do you want me to push you?" she asks zoe.
"no thank you." zoe said, but alana chose not to listen.
"no, you're too small to swing by yourself, let me help you!" alana grabbed the chains of the swing, but zoe started shaking hard.
"NO!" she yells.
the boys walked over to the swings. "what's going on here?" miguel asks.
"connor, i think your baby sister needs help on the swing!" alana mocked.
"i'm not a baby!" zoe yells.
"yeah you need help!" jared says, picking zoe up from the swing and carried her to the baby swings. "i think you will fit perfectly in here!"
"NO! NO! NO!" zoe started throwing a fit as jared tried to put her down into the swing. "STOOOOOP!"
"here, let us help you!" evan said as the others walked over to the swing.
zoe screamed and pushed jared hard, both of them falling to the ground. zoe got up quickly and started sprinting away, not even caring about anything hurting.
"zoe!" jared yelled as he got up.
"zoe! come back!" connor yelled, as him and his friends started chasing after her.
zoe wiped away her tears as she ran as fast as she could until she couldn't run anymore. she stopped and bent over to catch her breath, and looked behind her. no more mean kids. zoe then looked around.
she was in front of walgreens. she went inside to find a better place to hide. there were shelves of medications, snacks, and hair accessories. she sighed as she walked around. until she realized she wanted to go home.
zoe got outside, and now she felt like she's in a whole different place. two cars crashed into each other. there were ambulances and police cars around it. a man with blood dripping from his head was being carried on a gurney.
zoe covered her mouth with her hand and started freaking out. she couldn't believe she was looking at this.
she walked to the side of the walgreens store to ignore what was going on. she leaned her back against the wall and sunk to the ground. she pulled her knees to her chest and leaned her forehead against them.
zoe has been crying for a good 10 minutes until she heard someone call her name. she looked up and saw her brother and his friends walking up to her.
"zoe..." connor dropped down to his knees next to her, and zoe scooted closer to him. connor pulled his sister into his lap and cradled her in his arms. "i'm sorry." he whispered. zoe buried her face in his shirt and cried.
the others walked up to them, and they all pulled into group hug.
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and tasted the sweet perfume on the mountain grass i rolled down.
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flash forward to 7 years later
"are we there yet?!" connor groaned. "this mountain is so steep!"
"almost there!" evan exclaimed.
"guys, please let go!" miguel groaned, tugging on his backpack that jared was holding onto, with alana and zoe holding jared's behind.
"i can't!" jared whined.
"here we are!" evan yelled as they all reached the top.
zoe, alana, jared, connor, and miguel all fell to the ground, trying to catch their breath.
"hello world!" evan yelled, with his arms out.
evan sat down with the others on the grass. zoe scooted over and rested her head on evan's shoulder. evan blushed and rapped his arms around her. the two of them have been feeling more comfortable around each other lately.
jared saw zoe and evan together, and tried to hold back his tears. he had a small crush on evan ever since kindergarten, but had to learn to push his feelings aside after he met zoe. so jared tried to be as nice to zoe as possible so evan won't dislike him for anything.
miguel laid down with his head resting in connor's lap. and then there's alana, who sat next to jared and rapped her arms around him. jared blushed held onto alana's arm.
the 6 of them watched the sunset and stargazed until midnight, when they all fell asleep.
when connor woke up, the sun was starting to rise. "hey guys, wake up!" connor said. the others started yawning and waking up.
"oh my god." evan said as he yawned. "we fell asleep up here?"
"yeah, we should head home now."
"oh no! i'm not going down this steep hill!" jared said.
"why don't we roll down the mountain?" evan asked. no response. "i'll go first."
the children got up and let evan lay down on his back. he rolled over and started rolling down the mountain. the others followed.
"OH MY GOSH!" alana yelled. "THIS IS SO MUCH FUN!"
"AHHHHHHHHHHH"
they all reach the bottom, landing on their stomachs and backs, laughing and catching their breaths.
"oh my goodness, that was fun!" zoe said. "we should do that again sometime!"
"yes! indeed we should!" evan said sincerely.
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i was younger then. take me back to when i found my heart and broke it here.
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(a/n: let's step back from the AU's for now lol)
"we failed him!" cythia cried.
"no, no you didn't." evan said. "that letter... i wrote it."
"you wrote connor's suicide note?" larry asked.
"it wasn't a suicide note. it was an assignment for my therapist. that letter, i was printing it out and connor took it from me. and it was probably in his pocket when you found him. and we." evan took a deep shuddery breath. "we were never friends."
"STOP!" cynthia yelled. "JUST STOP!"
"wait wait wait." larry said. "didn't you break your arm at the orchard and connor was with you?"
"no i broke my arm at ellison park while i was working as a park ranger."
"NO! NO! NO!"
"evan, he wasn't talking about me to you?" zoe asked. "so i forgave him and nothing and you... how could you?!" zoe tearfully ran out of the kitchen and upstairs to her room, cynthia going after her.
larry, who was the last one there with evan, stared at him straight in the eye. "get out." larry said angrily.
evan could feel tears coming. "look, i'm really sorry..."
"i said GET OUT!"
evan jumped up from his chair and ran out the front door. he could feel his heart shatter into thousands of pieces. he couldn't believe it. he found his heart at the murphy house, but broke it. he sat in the middle of the street, his knees pulled up to his chest, and tears running down his cheeks.
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made friends and lost them through the years.
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it's been two years since evan quit the connor project. after a year of working at pottery barn, he got accepted into stanford university. he is currently roommates with this guy named jason dean, jd for short. jd and evan got along really well since jd knew him from the connor project.
evan was sitting looking at old pictures of his ex-girlfriend zoe and his friendship with alana and jared. of course they all stopped talking to him after he told the truth.
"hey evan." jd said, putting his phone in his pocket. "i'm going out on a date with my girlfriend veronica. wanna come with us as like a third wheel?"
"i-i'm good." evan said, accidentally choking on his tears.
"hey, hey. you okay?" jd asks.
"y-yeah. i-i'm fine. promise." no. evan wasn't fine. he felt tears streaming down his cheeks.
"hey, what's up? you haven't felt like yourself since this morning? what's going on?"
"i.." evan took a deep breath. "throughout my whole life, i've had really bad anxiety. until senior year, i joined the connor project and i was finally part of something. i got attention and new friends, and i got to be with the girl of my dreams. but then... i told the truth about what really happened between me and connor and..." evan couldn't help himself but cry. "i lost so many friends and my girlfriend broke up with me. and ever since then, i felt so alone." evan shut his eyes tight as tears fell down his cheeks.
jd put his hand on evan's arm. "hey. everything is gonna be okay. at least be glad some people got to walk into your life. maybe one day, you can meet up with them again."
"jd, how can that happen? how can i live up to that?"
"look at me." evan looks at him straight in the eyes. "those people, they deserve to still know you. later on, you guys will be catching up with your lives and forget what happened in the past. i think you all should give each other another chance, eh?"
evan nodded, wiping away his tears.
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and i've not seen the roaring fields in so long. i know i've grown, but i can't wait to go home.
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(a/n: back to AU lol)
after graduating from college, evan is finally home back in his childhood house. he was sitting in his bed, watching high school musical on his computer, when he got a text from his phone.
it was from alana, in the group chat no one ever texts in anymore. "hey guys! we should meet up at the yellow field we used to play in when we were younger! you know, to catch up with our lives."
evan smiled and grabbed his keys. his mom was busy working, so he can go out. he drove to the field and saw all five of his friends there. he parked his car and got out. "uh. hey guys!"
"evan! it's been a while!" jared said with enthusiasm. "god, i missed this place so much!"
"yeah, i miss running around and being so small, it was hard to find each other." zoe said.
"and then got in trouble by our parents for quote on quote 'ruining' the plants and getting dirty." miguel says.
"and look at us now." evan says. "now we're all grown up and we know better."
"it's peaceful here." zoe says. "no kids running around. now adults yelling at them. everything's changed."
jared smirked and yelled, "i don't know about you, but i'm gonna live the dream!" jared ran out into the distance.
"i'm joining him!" connor said. the others shrugged and ran into the field. they all ran and danced in the field as the sun started to set.
evan accidentally ran into zoe, with their arms around each other.
"hey." evan says. "sorry about everything."
"evan." zoe says, bring evan's face close to hers. "i love you so much. and hey, you don't have to be scared you're not enough. and, no matter what happens between us..." the two started swaying back in forth. "it'll be us. and we can just watch the whole world disappear. and what came before, won't count anymore."
they smiled but leaned in for a kiss. until jared ran to them and hugged both of them tightly. "YES! GROUP HUG!" he laughed.
the others ran to them, and got into a group hug. the sky becoming darker. the stars lighting up the night. they could be alright for forever this way.
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a/n: WOO that took a while. anyways, i hope you all enjoyed that! i will post a part two after i'm done with freshman year!
-keila