[ITS A LONG CHAPTER FOR ONCE IN THIS STORY YALL]

"Yknow when I said I wanted to release a bunch of cats on campus?"

"I don't think we've ever forgotten." Ryan squinted up at the sun through his sunglasses.

"I want to do it tonight." Brendon told us. Pete sat up from the grass like a monster in the books, narrowing his eyes at him.

"Are you fucking kidding me?"

"Nope."

Patrick shrugged, wrapped his arms around Petes middle to pull him back down to where he was resting on his chest before. He sighed in opposition but gave in and returned to his previous position. They were so cute, it was disgusting.

"If we can get ice cream on the way home I'm down for it." Ryan smiled with an open mouth like he was going to say something before I interrupted.

"The last time you had ice cream, you got home with Patrick at 3 am and you had literally like 10 gallons of Rocky Road and Chocolate Chip."

Ryan pursed his lips together and shuddered, probably embarrassed at the memory, because we'd all heard him getting sick in the bathroom until 6 am, when he'd given up and passed out in the tub using the shower curtain as a blanket. It was a pure nightmare just to listen to.

"Y'know what? I hate you guys." He broke out in a smile that spread person to person and soon we were all laughing for no specific reason.

"Meet you guys at the jacuzzi as soon as the sun goes down," Brendon interrupted "I'll bring everything."

..:..::..:::..::..:..

"I'm not against this whole, like, cat Armageddon thing, but I wanna know why he's insisting on doing it like, right now," Pete said from across the room, pulling on the hoodie strings of his sweatshirt "knowing him, he would've saved it for an end-of-the-year-go-out-with-a-bang prank, not February."

"Valentine's Day prank?"

Pete laughed and pushed me out the door with him, grabbing some boots for the two of us on the way out "you wish."

I shrugged and we raced down the staircases and out the front door, keeping an eye out on Spencer's door in case we would get caught before we even made it out to the jacuzzi.

..:..::..:::..::..:..

When Pete and I finally scrambled out of the overgrown bushes, everyone else was already there. Patrick was sprawled out on his stomach across the oddly placed cement platform, Ryan's back against his so they were laid out together in an X shape.

Brendon had his head dipped down into a huge box, which I assumed was full of cats, and judging by the copious amount of meows I heard after he folded the flaps shut, he'd bought the entire pet store.

"It's about time," he grinned excitedly and set the box down next to him, Patrick and Ryan both sitting up and rubbing their eyes like they'd been sleeping for a billion years. They probably would've too, taking into the amount of homework and projects assigned nonstop.

"I've thought out a very long and complicated plan that has close to no flaws as long as we follow it exactly," Brendon told us and we scooted in closer to listen. "So first, someone has to set off firecrackers-"

"Dibs." Pete said, and I shot him a glare he didn't care enough to acknowledge.

"Pete will set off firecrackers at each spot he visits, which will be further away each time so you'll have run, and Spencer will sprint out to a couple hundred yards over in this direction, and by then Pete will be gone and setting off another string of firecrackers further away and then another one, and so on. Ryan is gonna infiltrate Spencer's office house with me, and on the way there is when we set out all the cats. We break and enter through the window which he leaves open to circulate the air since it's always humid out, and send out suspension notes to the families of everyone that has ever fucked around with any of us."

"What about me and Patrick?" I asked and Patrick nodded along with me, also curious about his part in all of this.

"You guys keep watch. Spencer has eagle eyesight."

We shrugged. Fair enough, I guess. At least we would be able to play it off if we were caught. And Patrick was known amongst the Seacoast staff as being particularly well behaved and a good kid. So it was actually probably the best position to be with him if we got busted.

"And afterwards, we meet back here. It'll only take like half an hour, less than that if we're lucky." Brendon concluded and nobody spoke. We were all trying to remember the plan and go through it in our heads.

And I thought, why are we doing this? Then, shut up this is going to be great.

And then we stayed quiet for a minute, like are we really going to do this? Because if you thought about it, there was a lot on the line. Especially if Brendon still wanted to follow through with the breaking into Spencer's office house and sending out suspension notes, which was probably like 2 felonies smashed into one huge crime that could send someone to jail if the right person got caught. I'm not even sure I could save myself let alone everyone else.

"You guys ready?"

"Hell yeah."

..:..::..:::..::..:..

Patrick had convinced me to scale the tallest tree around with him, surprisingly an easier feat than I expected, so we could have a clear view of Seacoast.

The cheap $6 walkie talkie Ryan provided to everyone buzzed in my hand when I made it to the top branch with Patrick, Brendon's voice echoing over Petes. I could vaguely remember Ryan saying he'd rigged the walkie talkies to have multiple devices on the same station. And then I thought maybe he should be like a secret spy because I don't think I've never known someone who can do that with Walmart walkie talkies.

"35 seconds," Pete whispered through the speaker, Ryan buzzing with excitement on the other end.

My heart was racing, bound to beat out of my chest any second because I felt like we were about to get caught yet I knew we wouldn't. The plan was so well thought out when Brendon explained the details further, there was no way it could fail.

"There's only 195 students at this school," Patrick said, breaking the silence and cricket chirps "someone's gonna figure out it was us."

And then the first string of firecrackers burst in the air, and Spencer's lights shot on simultaneously and he dashed out towards the sparks still settling in the air like he was a cheetah.

"The eagle has left the nest!" Ryan cheered through the radio, his breaths labored like he'd just run a mile but he hadn't even started running yet. And then Brendon whispered in the background "let's go" and their footsteps crunched against the leaves, making the walkie talkie sound like it was being spun in the cycle of a washing machine before their signal cut off and the line was dead silent again.

" 'Trick! Where's Spencer at?" Pete sputtered to life through the device.

"Still at the first set looking for clues like he's Scooby Doo. Free to set off the next string on your count." Patrick responded, and sure enough almost exactly 6 seconds later, more firecrackers exploded almost 200 yards away and Spencer was off again.

"I feel like Usain Bolt!" Pete laughed into the walkie talkie before his line crackled out and it was quiet.

My feet dangled in the air so far off the ground I got dizzy looking down. It would just be so easy to fall right here and right now, and I knew I wouldn't ever dare to let go of the branch and lean forward too far, but it was crazy to think about. That my life hung in the balance of letting go.

Patrick lit a cigarette besides me. I'd never seen him smoke before. "You want one?" He asked and passed one to me before I could decline the offer. And I turned it over between two fingers a couple times and thought, it's 9:47 pm on a Friday night and I'm sitting in a tree with one of my friends while we keep watch over the head of the school running through the woods so nobody gets caught setting off firecrackers and breaking and entering into his office house. Then I sighed, took the pocket lighter from him, and lit the cigarette.

And it was absolutely nothing like I expected. It was undoubtedly the most disgusting thing I have ever done, and believe me when I say that because it most definitely is the truth. The smoke filled my lungs and burned my throat and I thought I was either choking to death, about to die right on the spot, or maybe lean forward too far while trying to extricate this smoke from my lungs before I set myself on fire in an attempt to breathe again. Possibly all 3.

Patrick snickered and plucked the cigarette from between my fingers and crumbled it up into a ball before flicking it to the ground. And I thought, it's not the brightest idea to drop a still burning cigarette in the middle of a bunch of trees, but that didn't even matter right now. It wasn't important when my chest was about to explode. "You don't smoke much, do you?"

"Never."

"You're so stupid. You could've told me that." Patrick laughed and tilted his head backwards in an open mouthed smile, kicking his feet like we were on a swing set.

"I didn't want to reject the experience."

"You should've rejected the experience."

And then we were quiet, and he said "at least you can say you smoked" then I said "and I can also tell people I quit smoking", which was technically true because I never planned on doing it as long as I lived, and Patrick laughed again.

Ryan buzzed to life through the walkie talkie again, this time in a hushed whisper. "Name one person who would just love to be gifted a suspension letter."

"Joe and Andy so I can maybe have some peace and quiet for a night." Patrick replied without hesitation, and passed the device to me.

"I don't have any personal vendettas against anyone." I told him, and the information was passed to Brendon and another question was aimed at me.

"You sure? Last chance."

"Patrick Stump for peer pressuring me into smoking," I rolled my eyes and everyone laughed, including Pete who'd been lurking the whole time.

"Send some out for the guys above my room," Pete whispered "they never seem to sleep."

Another stream of firecrackers shot through the air, breaking the silence along with another angry scream from Spencer, who took off in Petes direction.

The clicks of keys echoed through the speaker, and Brendon announced "finished" as soon as the last one was pressed. "Head back to the jacuzzi, try not to get caught."

"Already there."

"Shut up."

And the walkie talkie line went dead again, leaving me and Patrick in triumphant silence. Honestly, I'm pretty sure we were both too overjoyed to say anything.

"30 seconds, tell me as many things as you can about yourself," he announced suddenly and grabbed my wrist to watch the second hand tick by "go."

I wasn't sure what to say, other than, "Magnesium is the 8th most abundant element in the earth's crust, though not found naturally in its elemental state."

He let go of my arm and stared at me with his lips pressed together in concern.

"I worry for you, Dallon," he muttered, a smile crossing his face "I really do."

..:..::..:::..::..:..

The plan had turned out to be a success; the entire box of cats released and running around campus, and about 15 suspension letters sent home to the people we hated so dearly. And the stars gleamed above us rejoicingly, like they were proud of us.

Brendon returned with Ryan, carrying a backpack holding the huge glass of Vanilla River he'd taken from the Way brothers' room a couple weeks ago, and packed a couple bottles of water in the sides.

He popped the cap off and held it out on his knee, looking around the circle we'd created on the cement platform and declared, "best day worst day![™]" [john green please don't sue me]

"A what now?" Pete squinted against nothing, rhythmically tapping the ground with his fingers.

"We go around in a circle and say our best day or our worst day, and who ever wins doesn't have to drink." He explained and checked around the circle for confirmation. Everyone was either too exhausted to argue against it or just didn't care. It seemed like a relax game anyways -- well besides the whole drinking thing. But that's not the point.

"Dal pal, you go first. What's your best day?" Pete mumbled and I felt my cheeks heat up from being put on the spot, and suddenly I didn't want to play best day worst day anymore.

And I sat there for a second, turning over dozens of days in my mind. I couldn't say the first day here because that was cheesy, nor half the days I'd spent with anybody in the circle. So I just said the first thing that popped into my head.

"My best day was when I went to the beach with my family the summer after middle school had just ended. It sounds lame but it was the most fun I ever had. We picked up seashells and built sandcastles and went boogie boarding. And then afterwards we got ice cream, ate pizza on the boardwalk, and went home." Before anyone could say anything else I said "Ryan you go next." And he sighed deeply, full of regret like he'd rather be eating those 10 gallons of ice cream again. Although that was an entirely different level of regret.

"My best day was when I like 10 years old and got stuck with my mom at the Emergency room for a night because my dad couldn't come pick me up since he was working later than usual, but that part doesn't matter. But anyways, that's when I realized I wanted to be a doctor and do all the stuff my mom was doing and yeah." He smiled sheepishly at the floor and Patrick 'aww'ed to my right.

"Your turn 'Trick." Ryan said and tapped him with his shoeless foot.

"Well this one time I went to Paris with my family, and like nobody had any idea how to speak French since our guide got sick, so I was the one that had to translate everything and figure out what to do because nobody else could. And I felt so much bigger than I used to because then they needed me and I wasn't like a little kid anymore. Well I really wasn't in the first place but you get the point, right?" Patrick finished and we all nodded. Nobody said a word though, like we didn't want to break the content mood settled in the air.

And I thought, wow this is nice. Why didn't I make friends before? Then, maybe because everyone was a self absorbed dickhead that was too involved with what they wore instead of anything important. And I really feel like those 2 thoughts really described me as a person. I should've told Patrick that when we were sitting on the tree.

"You go, Pete."

Pete sighed and scratched the back of his neck, growing tired after running so much.

"My best day is in the future, only because there's never been a day that's stood too far out from all the other shitty ones. My best day is gonna be the day when I buy my mom a house away from that terrible trailer park and get her a decent car and everything she deserves, because she's the only one left in that crappy little trailer and she helped me apply for a spot at Seacoast and yeah. That day will be the day when I give her the keys to the door and hug her and tell her 'thanks for everything'" he said, and the only sound in the air was the distant chatter of birds that shouldn't even be awake. And we all looked over to Brendon expectantly, who laughed and bit his cheek.

"My best day was March 21st, when I went to the waterpark with Sarah. She liked the wave pool and I liked the two twin slides." Brendon glanced around the circle, matching each gaze that thought he was going to continue. "That's it." He said simply.

And Pete gave me a glance that said 'who's Sarah?' In return, I gave him one that said 'how in the world should I know?'.

But in the end everyone downed some Vanilla River because Ryan said they were all the best days and everyone won, which was stupidly cheesy but we all just rolled with it. And I kinda wish we didn't have the Vanilla River because it tasted like I was getting sucker punched in the throat with a bottle of vanilla extract. Then everyone turned expectantly towards me and I remembered that I had to share my worst day and I thought, this is going to be a long night.

"My worst day was the entire 3 years of middle school. And I don't have an explanation for it other than everyone sucked and I had like no friends." And again, nobody said a word except for those annoying crickets that wouldn't shut up.

Ryan cleared his throat and stared at the ground "the worst day ever was when my dad had me sitting in the front area before all these surgery rooms because I was like 11 and I wasn't allowed to go in. It was like a quarantined no fun zone and the desk lady was literally the incarnation of Satan himself, I swear on it. But anyways, there were these 2 families there right? And one woman was there for her baby who needed surgery and then these 2 guys for another girl who'd just gotten married, and those guys were her husband and her dad. And everything was chill for a little while, until the code red alarm went off, which was definitely not a good thing. Then the 2 guys started getting restless and the mom of the little baby just sat there, like she just knew. And my dad comes out and sits down next to the 2 guys and tells them that she died. The worst part was that I just sat there and didn't do anything, because if I really wanted to, I could've like consoled one of them or something, but I didn't do anything. And that was my worst day." He concluded by wiping his nose on his jacket sleeve, and the crickets went silent.

" 'm sorry man."

"It's not your fault. You go, Patrick."

"Well shit, my worst day was the day when I crashed my first car into a ditch, and if you guys want the rest of the story I'm gonna need more alcohol than that." Patrick huffed, a slight smile on his face, and everyone laughed.

Deep down I knew he was just trying to lighten the mood but I also knew that he probably wasn't lying when he said it was his worst day ever because some how, like nothing bad ever happened to him.

Pete yawned before sharing his, relaxing back so he rested on the grass and spoke up to the sky. "My worst day ever was when I left for Seacoast freshman year because I didn't want to leave my mom behind by herself and I was really nervous because I'd never really been to like this weird private public school where you stayed on campus. And that first day was so stressful and to make it even worse, that was the day I met Brendon. I'm just kidding meeting him was probably the best part of the day." Pete laughed and sat back up, leaning into Patrick's side as he waved lazily over to Brendon and muttered 'it's your turn now.' before anyone could say something.

Brendon shivered and took a drink of Vanilla River for much longer than he should've, rubbed his hands together, and sat up straighter.

"My worst day ever was March 22nd, when my mom made me stay home from school because she had something to tell me, and poor unsuspecting past me just agreed because I got to skip school. And she sat me down on the couch, stared me right in the eyes, and told me that Sarah had died last night. Looking back on it, that was the worst way to find out, because I'd promised Sarah not even 24 hours ago that I would see her tomorrow. And I was so angry and upset because deep down I knew I probably could've insisted on taking her to get pizza again for dinner before we went home and maybe she wouldn't be dead. But then a day or so later I found out I couldn't have stopped her because she did it herself. And for a while I was just mad that she was dead and then I was just really pissed off that I wasn't there to stop her. And it was all my fault."

So we all took a quick drink of Vanilla River until it made a full circle back to Brendon, who stared at it for a second before finishing the last half of the bottle, looked around at all of us with the tears pooling in his eyes, and got up to go home.

[3700 words, 9//16, I WROTE THIS IN ONE NIGHT INSTEAD OF 3 YEARS ARE YOU PROUD OF ME also Ryan's worst day was based off some story my mom told me about how she was waitin for me at the hospital in other words rip @ whoever that woman was I feel awful just thinking about it]