| | Chapter dedicated to Jcateyes  | |

~A/N~

HoW ArE YoU, mY FrIeNd?

WhY aRe YoU My FrIeNd, YoU aSk? It iS BeCaUsE YoU aRe rEaDiNg ThIs! <3

Also, sorry for the very, very, very, berry late update 😅

Also also, I uploaded this the moment I finished writing it, so it's bound to be a little messy. BEWARE!!

HAPPY READING!!! xxx - PBJ

~

/// E I G H T ///

** UNEDITED **

*Zella's POV*

It seemed that the party had moved from inside the house to the outside.

As we cautiously made our way through the house and towards the pool area, we passed guys' shirts strewn all over the place and flip-flops sprinkled like decoration on several pieces of furniture along with the carpeted floor.

Don't tell me they got into the pool with their clothes on? It's like people didn't know consequences even existed anymore!

Strangely enough, we didn't meet any adults on our way. Though we did see a few people who had decided to stay inside and linger around the house.

It was Max's party, however - these things were probably to be expected.

Soon enough, we approached the sliding door that lead us to the backyard where the pool was.

Man, was this party crazy.

I stared as topless guys piggy-back wrestled the - still in their party wear - girls, splashing water at each other and laughing as several of them fell into the water. Yeah, they were really crazy. How were they going to explain this to their parents when they got home?

I had no idea, that's for sure.

I looked at Marcie who was still wide-eyed with shock at what we'd gotten ourselves into.

"So, shall we like, call our parents..." I started, but halted when Marcie turned to me, a slow and sly grin building up on her face. "Marcie, what are you thinking?"

One thing led to another and before I knew it, I was flying through the air... heading straight for the pool. In my precious new clothes.

I screamed.

Well, it was all I could do at that point.

With a loud splash, I landed right next to Scott. Landed like a fluffing princess, might I add.

Not.

I spluttered as I tried to resurface.

Choking on water while glaring up at Marcie, I felt anger bubbling up inside me. Her hysterical laughter intensified and softened as water entered and left my ears. I looked down at my outfit - wet. Soaking wet. Not to mention my beloved new shoes, too. Which reminded me, my mum was going to disown me...

"Nice bra," Scott mumbled, snickering at the end of his blunt statement.

I stared up at him in more shock. Yes, I was embarrassed. Yes, my bra (thankfully sports) was visible. But, honestly, of all the things to say?

"I come all dressed up, choosing an outfit and accessories and all that shit, but since I got pushed into a pool, suddenly the only thing you can see to compliment is my bra?" I snapped at him. Hey, where'd that come from? I must sound like such an insecure fluff...

God, why do I even like this guy.

AHAH, you liike hiiimm...

Wait, what? Why are you still here?

"It's pretty damn nice though," he said matter-of-factly, feigning a look of innocence.

"Yeah, daaamn nice, innit?" Jazz gritted through her teeth, giving Scott an icy glare.

He held his hands up in surrender and backed away, the water wading apart for him. "Hey, if I like it, I'll say I like it," he stated with a sense of finality.

"Marcie! I AM NOT DONE WITH YOU!" I shouted, ignoring the two people in front of me and trying to push through the water in my heavily water-absorbent clothes towards the edge of the pool.

She chuckled, turning to the girl she had been talking to. "Let's get a drink," she said, casually ignoring my existence as if it wasn't her best friend literally drowning in misery here. "Yo, Scottie, where the drinks at?"

Hold it, how come she can talk so coolly? Why can't I talk like that? She asked for a drink, and she sounded cool. How am I even friends with such a person?

Much to my surprise, Scott didn't seem to hear her question, or else he had simply decided not to acknowledge it.

"Um, if you want I can get you a towel?" he started to talk, a hand nervously fixing his wet hair while he looked at me hesitantly.

"Geronibo!" I heard the sound of Mint's voice cutting in at the end of Scott's sentence as she stood grinning on the diving board when I looked up.

Yes, the dude had a diving board in his pool.

Back to the point, Mint was standing on the diving board.

"Mint! I don't think that's a good idea!" A girl in our class named Erin warned her. To be honest, I agreed with her - it wasn't an average diving board and it was pretty high.

Can Mint even swim? I'd never seen her swim my whole life.

No one had a chance to stop her as she leaped off of the board, tucking up into a neat ball as she plummeted towards the pool. There was a loud splash and everyone remained silent, awaiting Mint's lean self to resurface.

As soon as her head popped out from under the water, spluttering and laughing at the same time, everyone around us started to cheer and holler, a handful of them scrambling towards the diving board to follow her lead.

Soon enough, there were girls and boys plummeting down onto the water, some taking the professional dive while other cannon-balled. Scott seemed to have forgotten all about me as he made his way over to the diving board as well.

"Woah, guys, Scott coming through!"

I scowled and pulled myself out of the pool, looking around to find that Marcie had disappeared. She had probably gone off to find that drink she'd asked for.

I walked back into the house, the screams of my school mates fading into the calm and air-conditioned silence of the mansion.

Several girls were lingering in the kitchen when I passed, gossiping and stuffing their faces with the food that was piled on the large kitchen island.

It was funny how long it took to finally find a bathroom.

I groaned when I opened a door and found a storage room brimming with sports equipment and unnecessary junk.

A few minutes of more wandering and I reached what looked like a TV room - there was a long, white couch that took up half the room, a posh-looking fur rug and a large TV of a size I had never had the opportunity to know existed until now.

There was a wooden door on the other side of the room from where I stood at the entrance that came from the hallway and I hurried over to it, hoping to find a bathroom.

Surprisingly, I did. But, there was someone already inside from the sound of it.

I stared at the unnecessarily spacial bathroom, the polished pearl-like tiles gleaming under the white lights. I made out two voices as I stepped inside, leaving the door swung open behind me.

"What are you going to do, though? It's not like you have anything against her," a female voice said, she sounded a lot like Breeya from our basketball team.

"I don't care. Besides, the coach trusts me. I can have anything against her." Okay, that was definitely Jazz.

"What do you mean?" Breeya asked.

"Look, remember that this is for the team. Not for me. She has to go, so there's only one way to make her... It's for the best, Bree." Hah, since when did you do anything for the best?

"You mean... you're gonna lie?" Breeya questioned, the surprise clear in her tone.

"It's not lying if it's the truth. I mean, her attitude towards the team is unfair and she never practices," Jazz excused her actions, sounding pretty convincing with the innocent tone she had going on. "I mean, with the way she plays, it's only common sense to think she doesn't practice. And she never comes to school practice, either!"

"Jazz, she comes for some, but she doesn't just miss out on the others - she works hard on studies as well. I hear she's taken part in lots of cultural and musical evenings, too. She's just busy," Breeya reasoned, clearly having a point.

"Explain that time she missed practice because she forgot her kit, then?"

I had a strong feeling that they were talking about me, but I decided to shrug it off and hurried out of the bathroom before I could here the rest of their conversation. On my way, I bumped into Max who was walking down the hallway when I walked out of the TV room.

"Hey, you came! How's the party?" he asked with an easy smile. I took a moment to appreciate his birthday-boy look - it was clear from the green-dyed hair to the clean converse shoes that he was the centre of the party.

"It's great. Thanks for inviting me, by the way..." I replied, feeling awkward and embarrassed at the same time since I was still dripping in pool-water. Which reminds me, I must have left a trail of water puddles around the house...

"No problem. I see you've already gotten yourself into party-mode," he said, eyeing my soaking attire with amusement in his voice.

"Haha, actually that's not quite what happened, but I'll save you the long story," I explained, a smile forming on my own face. I didn't know Max was this nice... Wasn't he the stay-away-from-me-or-I'll-punch-you type? He always had that sort of look on his face.

"How 'bout you tell me, anyway? I'm kind of lacking company as you might have noticed. Being the host kind of sucks when everyone's having fun while you have to make sure it doesn't go over the top. Also, my mum might kill me if she finds anything broken," he said with a dry chuckle.

I pondered on it for a second and decided to keep him company. "Okay, sure... I'll be assistant-host. Or whatever you call it."

"Sure." He laughed and gestured for me to follow him.

Turned out he wasn't as hard-headed as I had assumed. We chatted while everyone else messed around and ran about the house in wet clothes. Sometimes Max would have to get up and tell someone off for doing something stupid, mostly Scott or one of his mates. It was nice having someone to talk to for once at a party - Marcie was more of a party person than I was and she usually made me a side-priority when we went.

Weirdly, Scott had been trying way too hard to annoy Max. It wasn't just rude, but it was also a bit annoying to me because I was actually trying to have a nice time, talking to the boy. It seemed like Scott always knew how to ruin things for me and never missed a chance to do so.

I just wished he'd be the person I once knew him to be.

-----------------END OF CHAPTER---------------