MICHELLE
DECEMBER 19TH, 2003

      "ALRIGHT GUYS!" Sebastian called out as he skipped towards the picnic table we were all sitting at. "I have an idea."

"Oh, how great." Alisha, his sister, groaned, pulling her head off of the table so that she could see him.

"Aren't you supposed to be in class right now." I asked, glancing down at the watch on my wrist that told me it was currently 10:25.

He should be in the middle of History class.

"Yeah, but that's not the point." Sliding on the bench next to me, Seb pulled his binder out of his backpack. "Guess what Tommy Lorenz just told me."

Rolling my eyes, I asked "what?" Despite the fact that I knew exactly what it was Tommy just told him because Tommy had told me over a week ago.

"His brother, the senior, is throwing a party for new years."

"Yeah, we know dumbass." Alisha said, dropping her head back into her hands. "Tommy told Mikey last week."

"What?" Seb snapped his head towards me. "Why'd he tell you and not me, he's my friend."

" 'Cause he's got the hots for Mikey, obviously." Alisha grumbled, her voice half muffled by her hand.

"He does?"

She nodded.

Sebastian frowned, but before he could think too much about it, his eyes locked on the empty spot beside Alisha and he asked "Where's your first wheel?"

"Where's yours?" Alisha asked at the same time I said "class."

"Hmm." Seb nodded "and why aren't you two in class?"

"Why do you think, idiot?" Alisha asked at the same time as I gestured to the joint between the girls fingers.

The moment his eyes found what I was referring to he let out a loud and an extremely overdramatic gasp. "And you guys didn't invite me?"

"Couldn't find you." I mumbled.

"Clearly you didn't look hard enough because I'm always in the same five places."

"I thought you'd be here, but you weren't and I didn't want to go back and look for you because I didn't want to get anymore lunch detentions."

Seb stared at me for a few moments, his eyes narrowed as he thought about what I had just told him.

Finally, he shrugged "fair enough." Then he reached forwards and pulled the joint from between Alisha's fingers earning a muffled "asshole" from the girl.

"I've been looking for you guys everywhere." My eyes snapped up towards my best friend as she joined us at the picnic table, ignoring the pang in my head when she slammed her hands down on the table.

"Aren't you supposed to be in class. Today's the test day right?" I asked, watching as Chandler pulled her binder out of her bag and placing it on top of Sebastian's.

Chandler nodded "yeah, but I finished mine so Mr. Marsh let me out early."

Of course she did.

There's a reason I copy almost all her papers.

"Oh, and. . ." Chandler reached for her binder and slapped it open, pushing through a few unorganized paper before pulling out a folded up yellow paper. "Here you go ma' lady." She held it out for me to take.

Carefully pulling the paper out of her hand, trying my best to not yank the paper and accidentally give her a paper cut (again), I smiled. "Why thank you, ma'am."

"Mr. Marsh just assumed I was using it to solve all the problems." She closed her binder with the same amount of force she used when she opened it.

Something about that sentence made Sebastian laugh, but he didn't mention why.

"Do you think my mom will let me skip out on working at the bakery tonight?" Chandler asked, mainly to me.

Probably not.

Chandler's mom doesn't let us skip our shift at the bakery unless we are dying from a sickness or have something important for school.

We get a few free sick days a year, but Chandler used all hers up by the end of March.

"Maybe if you can think of a good enough excuse."

"There is no good excuse. Your mom will see right through you." Seb said, reaching back into his backpack and pulling out a large bag of chips that were likely all crushed. "Last time I tried to get out she cut me off half way through my lie and said "now Sebastian, do you think I'm an idiot?" In such a sad voice that it almost made me cry."

I felt myself nod because I knew exactly what tone he was talking about.

"Ugh." Chandler groaned. "I hate when she uses that tone."

"Why did you want to skip out on tonight?" I asked, pulling the conversation back on track.

Chandler shrugged, "just didn't feel like going."

"That is exactly why your mom wanted you to wait until you were sixteen before giving you an actual job." Sebastian said, holding the now opened bag of chips in my direction.

"Oh please," Chandler blew out a deep breath "I am my mom's favorite worker."

"No you're not." Sebastian said, "You may be her favorite daughter, but her favorite worker is Mikey."

"Hey guys." We all turned in sync as an annoyingly happy Samuel came hopping towards the picnic table. "Did you hear about Logan Lorenz's New Years party?"

"Yes." We all answered in sync. Well, everyone but Alisha who just groaned.

"Are we going or staying home and making out with our pillows?" Sam asked, sliding onto the bench beside Sebastian.

"I vote we go." Sebastian raised his hand, "I heard Emmy Lockwood was gonna be there and I need a repeat of the back to school party at her house."

Quickly understanding that he was referring to when they slept together, I rolled my eyes. "Seriously dude?"

Turning to face me with one hand holding up his face and the other shoved in the chip bag, Sebastian smirked and said "Aww, don't worry Michelle, you'll always be my main piece."

"You say that as if it's a good thing." Quickly grabbing the chip he had just pulled out of the bag from his hands and shoving it into my mouth before he had the chance to take it back.

"I'll go." Chandler said, pulling my focus away from the boy beside me.

I wasn't surprised that she said she'd go, I mean, Chandler goes to almost every party thrown by someone we know, but something about this time just felt wrong. It was like my gut was telling me that it was a bad idea and that we should stay home.

But I've never been one to listen to my gut.

"I guess I'll go too." I mumbled, then adding "do you think we could convince Theo to come?"

"Oh my God, Michelle." Chandler dropped her head into her hands "You are not dragging my brother to a party just so you can flirt with him." She paused before added "again."

Instead of fighting her on this, I just shrugged "Worth a shot."

"If Chandler's going, so am I." Alisha mumbled, finally lifting her head up to look up.

"So it's agreed." Sam glanced around the table. "We go?"

We all nodded.

AUTHOR TALKS!!
Just realized I'm probably gonna have to make a second book for this because you're only allowed to have 200 chapters in a book and binding and keeping 13 together have around 120 chapters and I'm likely going to be adding random chapters to fill in the random weeks nothing happened between Johnny and Shannon. But as of this chapter (not including the rest of this act) we are already pushing 150. So chances are Taming 7 wont fit in this book, plus I'm gonna be adding another act for the summer Johnny went away and Joey went to rehab.

Also ninety percent sure I'm gonna name the sequel 'No High' because I fucking love that song. (No High by David Kushner) listened to it on repeat while I was writing the last chapter.

Lastly, I already teased this book on Instagram a few week ago, but once I'm done with sweet oblivion/no high and reach a specific chapter in Wish you were sober I'm gonna make another book for Michelle and Gerard's daughter x Rory Kavanagh because I think that would be cute.