"Which teacher would be going along with us?", Jackson asked excitedly.

"Oh, it's all arranged, Mr. Cruz would be going with us."

I nearly shouted as everyone looked at me weirdly so I sheepishly smiled saying sorry.

"Well you guys might not know but Mr. Cruz was basketball captain of his time and a state level champion just like Peter. He could have easily gotten a scholarship but he was also a math prodigy and was very passionate about it and went on to pursued that.", she explained.

God damn it, now what are we gonna do, leaving Mr. David behind we both can't win the bet.

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As soon as I got out of there I saw notifications on the group chat it was Mr. Davis and Mr. Cruz in the staff room sitting near each other and seemed lost in some conversation. I couldn't even feel like celebrating as I ran towards staff room, but to my horror Ms. Wilson along with Ben and Nathan were already there and all of my four friends looked at me as soon as they heard me enter, the looks on their faces were hilarious, I would have laughed a lot if I wouldn't have felt the same horror and defeated by the situation.

"Oh, Peter you came, I was just telling everyone about the camp and good news, Mr. Cruz agreed to volunteer." Ms. Wilson said excitedly clapping her hands a little. She looked at me expectantly so I also gave a smile trying to act excited, but I bet I would have looked like a constipated rat.

"You don't have to worry Peter your friends could also come, I know you guys don't go anywhere alone. I had especially requested the principal to allow other students to come as well." She said looking at everyone with hopeful eyes. Nathan and Ben faked a convincing hurray, Luke also pulled a smile which looked more like a grimace and nobody expected any sound from Noah but he still pulled up a nearly convincing attempt of a smile and I copied him.

It looked like it was enough for Ms. Wilson to be excited again as she started discussing the whole thing with Mr. Cruz, our poor Mr. Davis was listening from the side.

We all went out with some bad excuse and immediately took our bicycles, bike and sprinted towards their shed. We all flopped on the nearest surface. Ben was panting, laying on the ground, only Luke and Nathan who travelled through bike were not sweating like they just took a bath.

"What are we gonna do now?" asked Nathan whining.

"If they both went to the camp together then all of us are doomed." I said

"Maybe it would be good, maybe they both will realize that Mr. Davis is two timing with them." said Luke to which we all said shut up at the same time and burst out laughing.

"I don't think it's the right time to be divided in teams, don't you think we should work together in this." said Noah and everyone nodded their head understanding.

"Yes we should do something so Mr. Cruz would not attend the camp" I said.

"No we are not going to do that." shouted Nathan.

"Yes, it was you guys who were planning to send Ms. Wilson so Mr. Davis could stay with Mr. Cruz. Now it's you guys who are gonna fix it. And make the bet fair, you just can't take Ms. Wilson away." said Ben.

There was silence for a long time as we though of a solution.

"How about we call Mr. Davis to the camp too." suggested Luke in an unsure voice and we all simultaneously got up and shouted YES.

"That's genius" shouted Ben.

"But how could we do that?" asked Noah.

"The camp has two volunteers, and we are twelve players and all of you are coming so it will be sixteen. Maybe if we persuade ten more people then we could ask for another teacher volunteer. And Mr. David is good in basketball so we could maybe persuade him directly, I am sure he'll say yes." I calculated.

"But how are we gonna convince more people to join?" asked Ben.

"I don't know, don't you guys have any other friend?" I asked them to which all of them shrugged.

"We are together all the time, do you think we would have time to make other friends." said Luke. "Maybe Ben or Nathan have other friends, they are the most extroverted among us." he added.

"We could talk to people if required, but we too don't have any friends." Ben said sadly.

"Ya, all the parties we get invited to, you guys being lazy asses refuse." sulked Nathan.

"At least it made us look cool." said Noah happily.

"Only you care about being cool, we all know you don't like to smoke but you still do that in parking lot, just to look cool." teased Nathan.

"At least I know how to smoke, not like you guys who can't even tolerate it's smell." Noah fired back. I don't blame Noah, we all have been looser since birth, we don't like parties and rather spend our weekends repairing shed or having some treasure huts and sometimes movie marathons. We have been so tightly knitted in this group that people think we are some cool dudes who think everyone is below them. And Noah like being cool.

"Guys, back to the topic, we all don't have any friends, nor any girlfriends so how are we gonna approach people?" asked Luke seriously searching in his collection, for some book that might have some advice.

"There is a party tomorrow night, we are invited, don't ask me why, I just told that kid he had his shirt inside out and he invited me and anyone I would like to invite, which directly means you guys. So, if you guys like, maybe we could go there and probably make some acquaintances." suggested Nathan not making eye contacts. As we all groaned at the name of party, we all barely drink but still nodded as yes.

This is going to be the worst Friday night of our entire life. The length we go to just to follow our stupid plan, oh how much I wish Mr. David likes Mr. Cruz back because if he doesn't after all we did I might just dieeee.

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