We know that we're headstrong
And our heart's gone
The timing's never right
But for now let's get away
On a Roman holiday
~~~~~~~~~~

Clara sighed tiredly, as she continued to make herself dinner. She was having one of those days where her brain could not seem to make her feel any emotion. She knew that she should have been at least mildly content with no feeling of negativity or bad vibes, but the constant empty feeling and the numbness that she felt just exhausted her. Perhaps she was actually just bored, and she considered having a possible adventure after she made dinner. The night was still young, the sun barely setting. Clara supposed she could call her best friend, Natasha, and the two could invite Miranda and the boys for a small last minute kickback party. But the second she even thought about socializing with more than one person, she innerly shuddered in repulse.

That wasn't happening.

Besides, she hadn't even showered that day and her face was sporting several face demons around her jawline and forehead. There was no way that she was going to let more than one person see her like this.

It was just her luck when her cell phone (which was a hand-me-down flip phone her father had given her) began ringing on the kitchen counter. Clara threw the vegetables she had been cutting into the frying pan and let them sizzle before she answered her phone. She didn't even need to look at the pixelated caller I.D to know that it was Natasha. Said girl usually called Clara regularly at around 8 o'clock, which was the time right then. Clara flipped her phone open and answered.

"Hey, what's up." She greeted, going back to stirring her frying vegetables.

"Nothing much. Just chilling in bed, eating ice cream 'cause Derrick's an ass." Natasha spoke back through the speaker. Clara sighed, as this wasn't the first time she had heard about all her best friend's boy troubles. Natasha had dated 3 boys in total during the school year, where as Derrick was her summer boyfriend. Clara knew from the moment that Natasha had told her about their relationship, that Derrick would end up being nothing but a summer fling. Nonetheless, she just sat back as she watched her blonde best-friend live in Lala Land for the next month and a half.

"What happened this time?" She asked, pretending to be interested.

"Found out he was sending pictures to like, 3 other girls." Her friend murmured.

"Ew, that's gross. Do the other girls know?"

"Probably not. Anyways, enough about my on-going boy drama. How have you been doing?"

Since the death of Clara's mother Marie, Natasha had noticed an extremely evident change in Clara's whole personality. She simply just looked... Unemotional, careless, occasionally cold and aloof. The blonde wasn't too sure about what she could do to help her friend. She wasn't a therapist, or a doctor, so it wasn't like her advice would be very wise or like she could medicate Clara. Alas, she settled for simply asking the brunette of her day, and listened to her troubling emotions whenever the need be.

It's been almost exactly 5 months since Parkinson's Disease had taken Marie's life. Clara was dealing with it the best she could, and with the help of her peers, teachers and her father John, she managed to become slightly more mentally stable. Although, she still suffered heavily with a constant feeling of emptiness caused by her grief. She tried to hide it, for her father's sake. He had been grief stricken from his wife's death as well, and everyday he mourned for her. Both John and Clara tried to be strong for one another, but neither of them knew they were only ever pretending for each other's sake.

"Alright, I guess." Clara shrugged nonchalantly.

"Just alright? What have you been up to all summer, anyways? I've barely seen you."

"Not much. Last time I went outside was when I went grocery shopping with my dad." She admitted, chuckling sadly.

"Dude. That's depressing. You need to get out more." Natasha spoke matter-of-factly.

"I know, I know. You know how much of a sloth I've become over these past few months, though." Clara smiled, thinking that if she just started poking fun at herself, Natasha would simply join in. Unfortunately, that's not how it played out.

"Yes, I do, and I refuse to let that continue. You need to experience the outdoors at least once this summer. Do you even remember what a tree is?"

     Clara rolled her eyes. "Yes, Natasha. It's that plant thing that makes paper and supplies mammals with oxygen."

     Natasha scoffed playfully. "Yeah, whatever. Anyways, here's what I propose."

     "No I will not marry you." The brunette was quick to interrupt. Although she was not being serious, her tone had changed to sounding panicked.

    "No. Not that, you dummy. I meant that summer's almost over, we're both down in the dumps 'cause life is a piece of shit, and my parents have a cottage up in Muskoka."

     "Yeah, so?"

     "So, I'm forcing you to go with me."

"Woah woah woah, hold up." Clara interfered. "What do you mean? Please don't tell me this is one of your last minute 'let's go on an adventure' bullshit moments."

"Hey! Watch your tongue, dipshit." Natasha lightly scolded. But she knew she couldn't protest much; Clara made a good point about how she liked to make last minute decisions.

     "I don't know, Natasha..." The brunette said, expressing her hesitancy.

     "Oh, come on!" The blonde begged. "It'll be fun!

"Do your parents even know about this?"

"I mean, not yet."

"Oh bitch hell nah." Clara exasperated.

"Just you watch, Clara." Natasha spoke confidently. "I'm gonna get parental permission to take you and all our friends out to the middle of the woods, alright? And you're gonna fucking love every single moment of it."

Clara only rolled her eyes at that, and then later ended the phone call. Of course she knew that Natasha would probably persistently beg her parents to go, but she wasn't expecting it to work at all. She knew (or at least she thought she knew) that her last month of summer vacation would be spent just like the month prior. She would he in her bed, watching Chick Flick movies her mother used to love, and eating snacks whilst pondering the meaning of the universe.

But Clara is known to be a slightly unlucky person, and the events had not played out the way she thought they would. About 2 days later, she was scolding herself for forgetting just how convincing Natasha could be when she really wanted something. She had just received the news that her best-friend's plans were a go. Clara was slightly disappointed that the rest of her summer would be spent in a log cabin in Muskoka, rather than in her cozy bed. However, she tried with everything she had within herself to be optimistic. Just because she wasn't feeling good about this didn't mean she had to dump all her bad vibes on her friends.

Natasha wasn't incredibly clear with all of the information. For starters, Clara wasn't aware who exactly would also be going. She knew that it would be her, her crazy best-friend, and their mutual pal Miranda, however said best-friend didn't specify when she said 'and maybe two of the guys.' Secondly, Clara had no idea what to pack. Bathing suits weren't really mentioned, but just to be safe she packed 2 swimsuits anyway. She didn't know if they were going to be outside during the night, but still she packed 3 pullover sweaters. All of this lack of detail was causing the panicking girl to over-pack, which only made her more frustrated. It bothered Clara how little information she had been given. It's always been one of her pet peeves: not having enough information. She considered the possibility that Natasha had been so vague on purpose, just to get on Clara's nerves. It was a 'fun' game between their friendship group; poking fun at everyone's annoyances and insecurities.

     Finally came the time about 5 days later when she would have to go. Apparently, Natasha would be picking her up at 9:50 in the morning. Which, if you asked Clara, was far too early to be awake during the summer... Unless you had a job or something important to do, which the brunette did not have. Therefore the scheduled time was very unnecessary for her own personal life. But when she heard Natasha's car horn go off outside of her house, she said her farewells to John before running out the door.

As she was walking down the driveway to the van, Clara saw one of her good friends (who she did not know was coming) exit the car to greet her. She grinned at him, and once she was close enough he pulled her in for a short hug.

     "I have not seen you all summer! That's not okay!" The boy exclaimed. He momentarily tightened his arms around the slender girl before letting her free.

     The boy's name was Clark, and he and Clara had been good friends since freshman year in high school. They had developed a strong bond in even the early stages of their friendship. Truly, although they didn't socialize much outside of school, they were practically inseparable when they did see each other. A lot of the times they could be seen playing basketball witch each other out in the school's parking lot. For whatever reason, there was a basket ball hoop in the middle of the student parking lot. However odd and unnecessary it was, the two had claimed it as theirs, and it became a real bonding method for the two.
Clark was African American, making it easy for Clara to tease him about being so good at basketball. It was normal for the two to constantly stereotype one another based off of skin pigmentation. It could be seen as rude and distasteful to those on the outside, but in the interior perspective everybody could tell it was all simply for laughs. No matter how much banter there was between the two, they were still friends at the end of the day.

     Once the two had finished saying their greetings, Clark helped Clara load up her heavy and over-packed suitcase into the trunk. Finally when the task was done, she climbed into the backseat of the van after Clark where she greeted the rest of her friends. Miranda was sitting in the passenger side of the car in the front. Although Clara couldn't see her face, she knew it was Miranda due to her noticeable, fiery-red and frizzy hair. The red-head simply made a peace symbol to Clara as a sign of acknowledgement, before going back to doing whatever.

     Miranda's personality could only be described as the real life Regina George. Granted, she didn't betray her friends, and secret three-way calls were never committed. But the sass, attitude and insecurities were all there. She was often stand-offish, talked mostly about herself and her own problems, never committed herself emotionally to many relationships and she was quite manipulative when she desperately wanted something. However, despite all the explicit flaws that made up Miranda, people still considered her a blast to be around. It was usually Miranda who came up with the funnest memories for the group, albeit the things they did were often slightly illegal. The red-head knew how to let loose, and also knew how to make everybody else comfortable as well. Once you're able to get past the part about her being manipulative, she could actually be quite trust worthy. A lot of people would confide and confess their secrets to Miranda, and she would never kiss and tell. Secrets were secrets, and they should be kept that way.

     Sitting next to Clark (who was in the middle seat) was another one of the boys named Don. From an outside perspective, Don didn't seem like the type of person who'd hang out with the sorts of people that he did. Whilst most of his friends were loud, obnoxious and ridiculously irresponsible teenagers, Don was really the opposite. He spent most of his free time reading fantasy and mystery/thriller books, he had an odd fascination with the game of chess, and the only illegal thing he had ever done was steal donated clothing from a charity (but that could be blamed on Miranda). He wasn't really sure how he found himself becoming friends with imbeciles, but it just sort of did. He himself had a pretty dark and awkward sense of humour, and despite his love of classical music he could really hold himself well in a mosh pit when at a punk concert (which can also be blamed on Miranda). To sum it up, Don wasn't exactly as he seemed.

     Clara mentally braced herself for the weeks that were to come. She didn't know exactly what to expect, as this would be the most she'd done all summer. Nonetheless, what with her strange group of friends, the events to come will surely be strange.

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First chapter! Wooh!

Really hope you guys liked this chapter. I tried to give as much description about the characters as I could, without going overboard. If you think I over did it, please just tell me and inform me on how I could fix it. Although, I really don't think I did too bad.

Remember to vote, comment, add to your libraries and your reading lists, and if you could PRETTY PLEASE share this story with your friends. It would be greatly appreciated!

Song at the beginning of the chapter is Roman Holiday by Halsey.