"Iris!"
Before I had time to jump in surprise from the sudden shouting from behind me, a pair of strong arms wrapped around me, lifting me off my feet, and whirling me around. My eyes widened in surprise, and I immediately tried to struggle out of his grasp. "Kevin! Put me down!"
Almost immediately I felt my feet touch the ground again. I whirled around to come face-to-face with my childhood friend, Kevin Yun. He grinned at me, his eyes squinting as he did so. A lock of his naturally black hair fell into his face, and he quickly brushed it away with a tan hand. "I haven't seen you in three weeks," he complained, "and this is how you react when I greet you?"
I rolled my eyes. "That wasn't a greeting. That was an assault."
He frowned. "You're no fun."
"Yun!"
Kevin whirled around, and I glanced over his shoulder to see Chloe hurrying towards us. Kevin wasted no time in sprinting towards her, gathering her up in a hug, and twirling her around like he had did to me a few moments earlier. This time though, Chloe laughed instead of demanding to be put down. When they were finally done twirling they came back over to me, both grinning.
"So, how was Japan?" I asked as we started toward the school building.
Kevin shrugged. "The same as it was last year. Long flight. Nice to see my grandparents though."
A gaggle of girls suddenly rushed by, twittering excitedly. Chloe, Kevin, and I glanced after them as they rushed towards the school gates. A black limousine was now pulling up to them, signaling the arrival of Gold. I grimaced, wondering when they would stop using the limo to come and go. It drew way too much attention.
I rolled my eyes, heading towards the school building. A cold wind whipped my hair around my face, rendering me blind for a moment. As I lifted my hand to brush away my hair, something heavy slammed into my back, causing me to fall forwards. A cry escaped my lips as I fell flat onto my face. And what was up with people trying to kill me today?
"Hey locker buddy!" the person on me sang joyfully.
I rolled over, causing Noah to fall off me. He grinned and sprung to his feet, offering me his hand. Frowning, I pushed myself to my feet, ignoring his help. He acted more and more like a puppy every day. Of course, after a week of this, I should've been prepared. Every morning he threw himself onto me like I was a life vest and he was drowning in the ocean.
"Whoa, are you okay Iris?" Kevin asked, jogging to my side. He gave Noah an amused expression. "Who are you?"
Noah looked like a car had struck him. His mouth flapped open and closed for a moment, looking between Kevin and myself, obviously in shock. "Rian!" he finally shouted, turning towards the school gates. "Luke!"
The two said men were slowly trudging toward the school, surrounded by the girls who had been waiting for the gate. When Rian looked up at Noah and myself, he grinned wickedly. He turned to the girls around him and said something I didn't catch before hurrying over to us. I gave Kevin a wary look. He returned it was a confused one.
"Iris," Rian greeted me, shaking his hair out of his face.
"Hey."
"How are you this fine, January morning?"
I raised an eyebrow. "I'm good..."
"That's good," Rian responded, sending me a cheeky grin. "Very good."
I exchanged bemused looks with Chloe. She looked just as confused as I did. Before I could question, him Noah spoke up. "Dude, this guy doesn't even know who we are!" he cried, hooking his thumb at Kevin.
Rian seemed surprised, his gaze sliding over to Kevin. "You don't?"
"Sorry?" Kevin responded, looking bewildered. "Am I supposed to?"
Luke trudged up to us, yawning widely. "Morning Iris, Chloe, other dude."
Kevin gave me a puzzled look. "Morning..."
Noah grabbed my arm, holding onto it tightly. "Is this the best friend you were talking about yesterday? How come he doesn't know us?"
I laughed, trying to pull Noah off my arm. "Calm down, Noah. He knows who you are. Just not who you are."
Gold gave me baffled looks. Kevin still looked bewildered, looking from Gold, to me, to Chloe, to the group of girls that were standing idly about ten feet away, watching us with envy. "Kevin, this is Gold," I finally said, waving my hand in Gold's direction. "Noah, Luke, and Rian," I continued, pointing to each member respectively.
Recognition flashed on Kevin's face, his eyes widening. "This is Gold?"
Noah let out a sigh of relief. "Phew! He at least knows the band."
"I didn't know you made friends with them!" Kevin responded, grinning at me. "Good job!"
"We're locker buddies," Luke told Kevin. "Or in Rian's case, extreme locker buddies."
Kevin gave Luke a funny look. "Okay... well, I'm Kevin Yun," he greeted, holding his hand out to Luke. "You can either call me Kevin, like Iris, and Yun, like everyone else."
Luke grinned. "I like Yun."
Kevin shook hands with the rest of the members, looking pleased. Meanwhile Chloe and I stood by silently, shivering violently. The school uniforms weren't the warmest things in the world. When they were finally done, we headed towards the building, the girls following us like baby ducks.
As soon as we stepped in, the homeroom bell went off. A look of shock passed over Chloe and Kevin's faces. I opened my mouth in surprise too, glancing around the halls. Everyone was filing towards his or her homerooms.
"We couldn't have been outside for that long!" Kevin protested, frowning. "I didn't get to talk to anyone..."
"You can talk later," I told Kevin. "We've got to go to homeroom. See you guys at lunch."
"Bye," Chloe responded as Kevin waved at me.
Gold followed me as I headed for my homeroom. An arm suddenly slung around my shoulder and I turned to see Rian grinning down at me. "What kind of music do you like?"
"Hardcore screamo," I quipped, doing my best to hide my smirk.
Rian looked surprised, and he dropped his arm. "Seriously?"
"I like that too!" Luke chirped, looking excited. He turned to Rian, expression smug. "See? Not all people that like screamo are scary."
Rian blinked at me. "Is that really all you like?"
I laughed at his expression. "I was just kidding."
"Aw," Luke said, looking dejected.
"I do like some screamo though," I told Luke, shooting him a grin. "But I also like pop, rock, post-hardcore, alternative, metal, crunkcore, classical, rapcore, hardcore, punk rock, techno, boy band music, and a lot more..."
Noah smirked. "Isn't that everything?"
"Pretty much."
Rian pursed his lips. Luke chuckled, clapping Rian's shoulder. "You're going to have a tough time figuring out her favorite band if she likes every genre."
"Shut up," Rian returned, shoving Luke's hand off him.
I rolled my eyes, shaking my head at Rian. "My favorite band isn't a big deal. Why do you want to know so bad?"
"I'm just curious," Rian told me, crossing his arms. "Never mind. Let's just get to homeroom." He turned down the hallway that led to the science wing.
I quickly grabbed his arm, steering him in the other direction. "It's this way," I told him while Luke and Noah laughed. Rian ducked his head, muttering something incoherent.
By the time lunch rolled by, I already had an essay and fifty math problems assigned for homework. Need it be said, I wasn't a very happy camper when I trudged into cafeteria. It was a B day, so that meant there were more people sitting at my table. To my surprise, Gold was sitting there today as well. I sauntered over, taking a free space in-between Kevin and Noah. On Noah's other side was Luke, sitting next to my friend Cam, and on the other side of Kevin was Rian, sitting next to my other friend, Katie. Chloe and a few of my other friends sat across from us, talking excitedly.
"So," Kevin started, turning toward me. "You busy Friday night?"
"I don't know?" I responded, raising my eyebrow. "Why?"
Cam leaned around Noah and Luke to grin at me. "Yun's throwing a back to school party."
"You are?"
Kevin nodded, moving the cap to his milk around the table with his finger. "My parents are going out of town, so they said it was okay. It'll be indoor, so don't worry about the cold."
"I'll be there too," Noah chirped, looking excited. "Gold was invited."
Kevin grinned at him. "It won't be a party without a famous boy band. Maybe you guys could play something if you wanted."
"I'm for it," Luke interjected before Noah could reply. "Sounds like fun."
"So you want to go?" Kevin inquired, turning back to me again. "It will be a lot of fun. Chloe's going too. And everyone else."
I hesitated before answering. Kevin's parties were always wild, out of control, typical high school parties. Our whole grade was usually invited and there was usually a lot of alcohol. More than once I had walked in on some girl puking her guts out in the toilet, and two people in Kevin's room doing things they shouldn't have been doing on Kevin's bed, and some guy shoving Kevin's parent's plasma T.V out the window, and many other strange experiences. Strange, but amusing.
Kevin frowned at me. "Please? You don't have to drink or anything. It won't be the same if Class Prez isn't there."
I laughed, resigning. "Okay, I'll go. God knows what our grade needs is to see their president at an out of control, teenage party."
"That's how you gain everyone's respect," Chloe told me, leaning across the table. "Otherwise you'd just be some nerd."
I gave her a wry smile. "Thank you, Chloe."
"I'm kidding," she responded with a laugh. "You're just naturally smart."
Suddenly a loud laugh resounded in my ears. I turned my head to see Rian having a fit on the table, face pressed into the plastic. Katie and a few of the other girls across from Rian were giggling wildly. Irritation ran through me, but I quickly shook it away.
"And then," Rian said, having difficulty sounding coherent through his laughter, "Oh God, Noah came out of the dressing room only in his underwear, shouting something about rabid squirrels eating his pants."
Noah's face flushed and I watched as he picked up a piece of bread off his tray and hurled it at Rian's head. It hit him with a dull thud, causing Rian to abruptly stop laughing. He turned to Noah with a scowl. Noah glared back at him. "Stop telling people that story!"
Rian shook his head, laughing again. "You were convinced all your clothing would be eaten by rabid squirrels if you weren't careful."
"That's because someone let three squirrels loose in my room and they were eating my pants!" Noah responded, shooting a glare at Rian.
Luke started chuckling, automatically turning it to a cough when Noah glared at him. "Sorry dude," he apologized. "But that was funny."
Noah looked like he was about to strangle Luke. Kevin snorted, turning away from the pair. Noah shot him a dirty look. I wondered what the whole story was, but I was nice enough to save Noah embarrassment and not ask. My stomach growled and I blushed at how loud it was.
Luke's head immediately snapped toward me. "Hungry? Come on, let's go to the a la carte line."
Before I could protest Luke already had his hand wrapped around my upper arm, dragging me into the line. I stumbled after him for a few moments, before wrenching my arm out of his grasp. "I can walk by myself," I informed him.
He grinned at me. "I know. By the way, I like your shirt today. It really brings out your eyes."
Now used to his strange compliments, I just smiled. "Thanks. It's because blue iris is your favorite flower, right?"
"Yep," he responded with a grin. "You're the first person I've ever met with an eye color like that. It's even stranger that you're a brunette. Most brunettes have brown eyes. I like those too though. Your friend Chloe has nice eyes too."
I raised an eyebrow. "Luke, you're an eye person aren't you?"
He grinned at me. "How'd you know?"
"Just a lucky guess," I responded with a short laugh. "You have pretty eyes too, though. Grey is one of my favorite eye colors."
Now it was Luke's turn to laugh. "Well, thank you madam."
"You guys are seriously talking about eye colors?"
I jumped in surprise, twisting around to see Rian gazing at Luke and myself with an amused expression. Luke shrugged. "I like eyes."
"I know," Rian responded with a grin. "And I like whoopee pies, so if you'll excuse me..." Rian slid around Luke and myself, grabbing a whoopee pie from the tray.
Luke and I exchanged glances before following him into the line, grabbing the food items we wanted. We paid and headed back to the table, Rian a few feet in front of us. Suddenly Rian stopped, turning to one of the tables we were passing. A group of girls were excitedly waving him over. He shot a look at Luke before going over to them. Luke snickered, putting a hand on my shoulder and ushering me to walk by faster.
"The girls here are very excited," Luke told me. "It's like once they start talking to us, they can't stop."
I smiled slightly. "Well, mostly everyone if a fan of Gold. What can you expect?"
Luke shrugged as he took his seat. "Nothing, really. I guess I sort of anticipated this."
"Anticipated what?" Noah interjected, still looking irritated.
"All the crazy girls," Luke responded, grinning at his band mate. "They just got a hold of Rian."
Kevin tapped on my shoulder. "Should I just order pizza or should we have a barbeque?"
"Barbeque," Noah cut in, grinning widely. "Those are so much more fun."
I rolled my eyes. "You're not going to be barbequing inside with a bunch of drunk teenagers."
Kevin laughed. "What? No, not inside. We'd be doing that outside."
"But it's cold," I whined.
"So we just have one person make everything," Kevin suggested. "We can make Jack or Emmett do it."
I raised an eyebrow. "You think they'd be willing to freeze to cook food for about fifty other people?"
Kevin frowned. "Pizza it is."
"Aww," Noah responded, frowning.
"We'll have a barbeque when it gets warmer," Kevin assured him. "I have one every year anyway."
"Will there be beer pong?" he asked, eyes bright.
"It wouldn't be a party without it!" Kevin responded, sharing Noah's excitement. "That's everyone's favorite! Even Iris, who rarely drinks, plays it."
I smiled sheepishly. "I go for the non-alcoholic beverages."
Noah shook his head. "That's no fun. Parties aren't fun unless you get drunk!"
"I hate getting drunk," I told him flatly. "Last time I got drunk, I couldn't remember what happened during that whole period. I don't want that to happen again."
"Spread the message around that there's no drugs allowed," Kevin interjected, changing the topic. "Drugs will get us in serious trouble."
Noah made a face. "I don't do drugs, anyway. Too much hassle."
I patted his head. "Good boy."
Kevin was literally shaking in his seat. "I'm so excited! This is going to be the best party ever!"
"You say that about every party," Chloe told him with a laugh. "But every party is fun."
Kevin smirked at her. "You bet they are."
Chloe reached for one of my French fries, snagging it before I could move them away from her. "Luke, Noah, you two are in for the time of your life," she notified them.
"I hope so," they chorused.
Kevin suddenly stood up. "Okay, I'm going to go spread the word some more. Talk to you guys later."
"Yun! Make sure you invite Greg and Julia!" Chloe called after him.
"On it," he called back.
Greg and Julia— the two people in our grade that never failed to make a fools of themselves every time they went to one of Kevin's parties. They didn't know the meaning of too drunk. If you didn't force them to stop drinking, they wouldn't. Of course, that made them a good source of amusement. A smile slipped onto my face as I remembered the time Greg had given Kevin a lap dance. And no, Greg wasn't gay.
"I'm so pumped for this party," Noah exclaimed. "This school is amazing so far."
I grinned at him. "I'm glad you like it."
Luke stretched, letting out a long yawn. "Other then waking up early, I have to agree. Friday can't come quick enough."
I agreed.
_______
And here comes Kevin!
And my Wattpad is still in German...so I hope this still works.....