n i n e t e e n ;

At the top of the ladder there was a piece of flat land with two power towers that went higher up into the sky. The view was beautiful combined with the lights of the Garden facility below, the ocean in the distance, and even further down the lights of Province of Grains. 

Ivory heaved a sigh as she saw her home province in the distance. "Its weird how we're so close to my home, and yet I never get to see it and never get to visit it." She told him and he only nodded silently. It was the only remotely normal thing she had said to him since he met her. She was always trying to touch him inappropriately or making dirty comments to him about how he needed to find a girl who would be actually willing to pleasure him. As he saw the province lights, he remembered going there with Roseanne what seemed like ages ago to him now. It had already been nearly three years since that happened. The very day he turned nineteen to be exact. They had gone to a carnival that was in town and stayed for the weekend when the rest of the team decided to go somewhere else without him, not that he minded. 

He wasn't exactly comfortable with the others at first because he could feel they didn't like him all that much. But when it came to Roseanne, he warmed up to her immediately. One--they had known each other from their time in the playground together when he was four and she was eight. He remembered having a crush on the girl who was double his age, knowing she would never be into the runt of the group like him. Two--she was so nice to everyone. Not just with him, but with everyone who was new to the team.

Raven got his holo phone out of his pocket and started snapping pictures of the scenery. Since Roseanne couldn't climb the ladder to the top of the step mountain because she was terrified of heights, he would take the view to her. Almost immediately after he did that, Ivory started jumping in all of his shots, quickly making him become annoyed. But he tried to hide it and said nothing to her. He thought that if he showed her that it bothered him, it would only fuel her further. But if he pretended like he just didn't care, maybe she would stop. He had been trying that technique for months though to no avail.

They had walked all the way to the other side of the plain, and as they walked back, Ivory pretended to trip on something, grabbing onto Raven's arm as she did. He had been caught off guard and fell over on top of her, caging her beneath him. He had immediately tried to push himself off her, but she held him there, grabbing onto the collar of his jacket. From below, Seville had convinced Cedar to climb the ladder to go find Raven and Ivory, since everyone felt like they were taking long. Seville climbed up right after Cedar, ready to help the other two in case they were in any trouble. The rest of the crew stayed behind. 

As Cedar poked his head up the rest of the way up the ladder, he caught the sight before him which seemed to be compromising. He was full of rage in an instant and seeing nothing but red. He charged up the rest of the way and lunged himself at the team captain, tackling him off Ivory and pinning him to the ground. Ivory only watched in horror and started screaming at her boyfriend to let him go. Without even giving it a second thought, Cedar pulled his balled up fist back and collided it with Raven's face, getting him right in the lip, busting it and breaking skin immediately. Raven wasn't usually a violent person, but he was easily able to subdue Cedar by using his legs to push his attacker off him. As he got back on his feet, Cedar lunged at him again, but was once more defeated when Raven jabbed him in the throat with his finger tips to knock the wind out of his lungs.

Cedar dropped to the ground on his knees, trying to regain his breathing and coughing up a storm as Ivory shouted hysterically at her boyfriend that he was a savage for attacking their team captain. Raven got back on his feet silently and dusted himself off, walking around Cedar without a care in the world, knowing he had done nothing wrong. 

Ivory didn't stay with Cedar long. She ran after Raven as he mad his way towards the old rusted ladder and climbed back down. When he came into view of the others, with a frantic Ivory climbing down after him, his first thought was to go to Roseanne's side. She brought her hands to her face in a horrified gasp when she saw his busted lip and the blood trickling down his jaw line and his neck. His eyes were glossy full of anger tears, but he didn't blame Cedar for any of it. He blamed Ivory. He didn't want her anywhere near him.

"Oh Gods, Raven!" Roseanne shouted in surprise. She cut the last bit of distance between them with two steps and out of instinct went to touch his lip to assess the damage. Her touch made him wince in pain. "What happened?"

Raven spit on the ground, getting some of the blood out of his mouth that was starting to pool out. He then wiped the residue off his lips with the back of his hand. His blood was the very same color as his hair and his eyes--black as night. 

In a moment, Ivory shoved Roseanne out of the way and grabbed Raven by the chin, tilting his head down so that she could take a look at the damage. There were tears falling down her face, but Roseanne knew she wouldn't be surprised if they were fake tears. Raven got himself out of her hold and went back to Roseanne's side. He really didn't want to be rude to Ivory, but he also felt it was the least she deserved. She was the one that was coming onto him. She was the one who purposefully tripped him and made them fall into a compromising position. Cedar had every right to be angry with him. It looked like they were about to do something they weren't supposed to. Raven knew well he was overcome with jealousy whenever he saw one of the other boys talking with Roseanne, despite them not being in a relationship.

As Raven explained the situation to her, Ivory kept trying to get close to him. Soon Seville followed down the ladder minutes later with Cedar in tow. As they did, Ivory didn't even look at Cedar. She was mad at him after what he did to Raven. He had tried to go to her side, his lungs still burning from a lack of oxygen earlier, and she rejected him, stepping off to the far side. He seemed hurt and Roseanne felt for him. 

They sat around for a couple more minutes to regain their composure and Roseanne cleaned Raven's wound off with a first aid kit she brought in her bag.

Once everyone was ready, they continued walking further up the mountain until everyone got tired and decided to turn back. It had been an hour and a half of walking when they did, and it was very dark on the hiking trail. So much so that everyone kept tripping on tree roots, or slipping on loose dirt. They decided to split into pairs so that they could hold each other and help prevent them from falling.

Raven and Roseanne tried to find each other, but Scarlet grabbed her, claiming that she wanted to hold onto her best friend. That left Mauve as Raven's only option. 

When they got closer to their camp ground, they could see it in the distance, there was a final steep slope for them to walk down. The boys had all walked behind the girls, letting them take the lead. Cedar walked on one end and Raven on the other, with Seville keeping a close eye on him to prevent him from doing anything stupid. Without the girls noticing, Raven had picked up a big rock. He had nudged Ciel, who grinned at the idea. Raven tossed the rock over the side of the mountain and the boys started screaming, the ones who hadn't seen Raven throw the rock. They all started running, startling the girls who also began screaming and running.

Raven had made sure to grab Roseanne as he passed her, picking her up in his arms.

As they made it back to the campsite, Ivory clutched her chest dramatically. "Oh my gosh, that was definitely a body falling off the side of the mountain. The spirits told me so!"

Seville, Cedar, and Scarlet nodded, instantly believing every word she was saying. But Raven and Ciel knew the truth. Both of them erupted into fits of laughter that had everyone's attention directed at them. All eyes were on the two boys, while Ivory could only glare at them. She was used to having everyone believing everything she said and doing everything she wanted. Seeing two boys laughing at the ridiculous things she was saying made her seethe with anger. 

Placing her hands on her hips, she questioned them. "What the fuck do you think is so funny?"

Since Cedar already had ill feelings towards Raven, just about anything the black haired boy did from there on out was going to be annoying to him. He glared at him even harder than Ivory was. And Roseanne knew that if looks could kill, Cedar could have long since killed Raven. 

"Bro just the fact that you actually said it was a dead body sent me. What are you on? You really must be joking." Ciel replied to her question, laughing so hard he thought his intestines would burst. By now he was leaning over and clutching his stomach. Raven was right next to him, having barely put Roseanne down on her feet. She was confused as to what was happening. She didn't know why he had picked her up and ran, and she didn't know why the two were laughing now. 

Ivory glared even harder at him, if possible. 

Straightening himself out, he dropped a hand on Raven's shoulder, still laughing as he explained. "It was my boy Raven that did it. He got all of you good. You all ran so fast like a stampede. He really sold it too when he picked up Rose."

Everyone looked to Raven now and he nodded proudly. It wasn't quite the payback he was expecting to go down, but he had managed to make Ivory looked stupid in front of the whole team, and that he could live with. "I picked up a heavy rock and threw it over the edge of the mountain. Why would you ever think it was a body?" He explained to them, and then looked to Ivory as he asked the last question. 

With no other responses for him, she quickly tried to turn things around on the two boys, bawling out into tears. Scarlet and Cedar rushed to her side, pulling her into their arms. "That was cruel, Raven." Scarlet said in a scolding tone directed towards their team captain. She was so defensive and protective of Ivory, so were Cedar and Seville. 

Eyes full of pure resentment and even hate, Cedar informed the group. "Yeah. Ivy has anxiety, okay? She could have gone into one of her episodes and it would have been your fault." He said accusingly.

At that point, Ivory decided to play the victim and buried her face into her boyfriend's chest. Raven's smile dropped and he seemed to genuinely feel bad for playing that joke on everyone, and then making her seem dumb in front of everyone. He had tried to apologize to her, but Cedar wouldn't even let him get close. Roseanne tried to reassure him by saying that he didn't know, none of them did, and she seemed to be okay for the most part. 

It was nearing eleven at night when they got back to their campsite. They had some food in something of an awkward silence and the pairs went off to their tents for the night. Roseanne kept reassuring Raven that Ivory was probably okay. But he was an overthinker and she knew it. This would probably be bothering him for days because he was like that. Ivory on the other hand would hold him responsible for it and completely forget about the fact that Cedar had attacked Raven because of her. 

It was all part of the games she likes to play on people.

-

damn some intense fighting and some filler. the fight scene is made up. but IT IS TRUE that cedar hates raven bc he thinks raven has a crush on ivory. the thing about the dead body and her supposed anxiety is true. that actually happened when we went hiking. from them on she kept using "her anxiety" as an excuse to hug raven and get close to him.

so today raven kept out doing himself at work. i was on headsets and he was at the lobby register. he came to grab some drinks from me for a delivery order and they were a large ice mocha and a small hot mocha. on the large he accidentally put caramel drizzle when that one goes with chocolate drizzle. then on the hot mocha he added caramel drizzle too. when i said "WHAT ARE YOU DOING OMG?" he removed the whip cream and grabs the drizzle bottle, squeezing it with all his strength. and my jaw dropped to the floor. i was like "RAVEN THATS A MOCHA NOT A MACCHIATO." 

then he accidentally sold a hot chocolate while i was cleaning the drink machine. and he spilled a frappe too. i had a pretty good day though. we talked and messed around a lot. and every so often he was coming over to my station and moving stuff around so that i'd laugh and swat his hand away. it was cute. my boss let us out at the same time so we went home together. 

anyway, have a nice night everyone!

-clary