「 t w o : "You're the One Who is Mental." 」

Katie stretched her hands upwards and let out a yawn. After being in the car for two hours with only one stop, she had to deal with sore muscles. It was around 11 am, and there was a slight cool breeze around due to the abundance of trees.

She tied her shoulder-length brown hair into a ponytail. At 15, she was tall enough to almost reach Jake's height, thanks to their parents' genes. She had bright forest green eyes, courtesy of her mother, and had inherited her father's brown hair. Her skin had become tanned due to roaming outside a lot; usually not staying at home. She preferred wandering around.

Jake was the complete opposite, though. He was a complete nerd and would keep to himself most of the time. Sure, he was into boxing- in fact, he was the best in town, but he would rather stay at home and practice, as weird as that sounded. His mentor always scolded him when he didn't attend some boxing sessions, but he still wouldn't budge.

Katie blinked. She looked at the two-storeyed, huge lake-facing house, surrounded by trees and the resonating sounds of many birds. The creepers that grew on the fence would warmly welcome the visitors. Katie had visited the house once every year since she was 10. After five years of visiting the place, Katie still got the chills- the amazing kind- when she looked at the house and the view around it.

"Still pretty, isn't it?" a voice behind her said and she nodded without turning back, Jake's deep voice evident.

"Yep," she agreed. "Still as good as the first time we saw it."

"True that. What can I say, my choice was pretty amazing, even at 10." This wasn't Jake; it was River, narcissistic as ever. She heard his voice before she saw him, which was either way annoying. He stood beside her, gazing at the house.

Katie smacked him upside the head and he scowled. "Shut up, dunce. It wasn't your choice only," she reminded him. "We all decided what we should do, together. You didn't even play a major role."

He narrowed his eyes at her. "Huh. Details, details, Katie. You're just salty because you don't have the same amazing taste as I do."

"I would rather scrape my eyes out with a fork and kill myself before I get the same taste as you," she retorted.

"Pretty graphic, jeez," he said and shuddered. "Anyways, you don't have enough skills, too, to reach my level, so don't even try. Hah!"

"Shut it, Jones-" Katie started to threaten but her mother's voice boomed around them, telling them to shut their banter or they wouldn't get any food.

"Oops. Sorry, Brielle!" he said.

"Oops. Sorry, Brielle!" Katie mocked him and snickered.

"Katie-" Brielle Adams started warning her, using the special threatening voice.

"Okay, mum," she said and pretended to zip her lips. Her mother nodded, a faint smile coating her face.

Jake had left the door open for them. He was used to Katie and River's banter- of course, if you can call used to as 'being annoyed every time they started bickering'. He didn't get the point of fighting over small things when you could not interact with more people (which was much better, according to him).

Katie and River entered the house with their bags in hand. Rose was nowhere to be found. She was probably dozing off in the car, unaware that they had reached. Someone had to wake her up soon. Katie chuckled at the thought of Rose being startled and looking if there was any drool the moment she woke up.

"Talking to yourself? That's gotta be a problem." It was as if the annoying voice never left her side, which it never did, matter-of-fact. Not showing her annoyance, Katie smiled sweetly at the annoying male twin of her best friend.

"Firstly, Bluey, I was not talking to myself, I was laughing at your sister, to myself. Secondly, why does it matter to you? Or are you scared that I'm actually a psycho and might consider killing you in your sleep?"

She annoyed him with the name Bluey, since he had bright blue eyes. His eyes were his biggest advantage. He and Katie were almost at the same height- he just towered over her by a few centimetres. He was a scrawny boy, which made him look lanky, with a mop of dark blond hair which was always swept to the side.

River shuddered. "I'm not even going to think that you'd kill me," he replied to her earlier statement. "Thoughts provoke fear, and fear might turn into reality. After all, fear of the name creates the fear of the person itself."

Katie opened her mouth and closed it again. She blinked.

"River... are you even listening to yourself? You don't make sense, dude! You're talking randomly about things that don't even matter. And stop quoting Harry Potter, for God's sake." She took a deep breath. exasperated. "You, my friend," she put a hand on his shoulder, "are the real psycho. Not me. You. You're the one who is mental, okay?" She talked to him as if talking to a child, which she probably was.

River scowled at her. "No. I'm pretty sure it's not me, it's you."

"River, oh goodness! Shut up!" Katie exclaimed, giving up. She could never have a sane conversation with that boy. Never, ever. She knew when to forfeit.

He smirked. "I won."

Katie narrowed her eyes at him but said nothing. She didn't like to lose, not even to the annoying River Jones. But sometimes, (most of the times if it was him), she had to take a step back, rather than dealing with him and feeling like killing herself every second.

Instead of bothering herself with that scoundrel, she made her way to the living room, seeing if anything had changed at all.

Everything was still the same.

From the outside, the house was not very flashy. It was pretty simple, with a grey paint that covered the walls of it, with large patios and windows which allowed plenty of light to enter in. The sloping, tiled ceiling was dark blue in colour. All in all, it wasn't too dark to look at, but it also didn't scream 'look at me' in any way. It was a typical white picket fence house, per se.

If a house on a forest clearing could be considered as a white-picket-fence house, anyway.

It was really beautiful from the inside, though. Simple, but pretty. As she walked in, a wave of nostalgia hit her. The living room was very huge. They had decided to paint it in the natural colour of wood, just to keep it real.

It didn't have much furniture- just a couple of couches, a love seat and a table in the centre. There was no TV to be found in any of the rooms, and the internet connection was bad. It didn't matter (except for maybe Rose). After all, people were supposed to enjoy nature there.

Katie walked past the simple living room, walking upstairs where the rooms were. Instead of going to the main rooms, she stopped at the back wall of the house and pulled the string on its ceiling. As the stairs came down, she hauled herself up.

The attic was simply amazing. It had that vintage feeling intact. It still had plenty of light coming in, and the faded drawings that were sticking to the walls were still there. Sunlight hit an old mirror and rebounded on a wall, creating a streak of light on it. Katie and Rose, under their mothers' supervision, had decided to keep the furniture to the minimum.

Katie put her bag on the study table which was pushed back to a corner of the attic. She opened the window and let the fresh air come in.

"Ah. I missed that smell."

Katie nodded, grinning. "Me, too," she said to Rose. "It also has that drawing of the lake you made," she walked to the said drawing and looked at it. "Yup. It's still ugly, too."

"Mhmm," Rose said. "Shut up," she said a second later, scowling, realising the insult. She was a bit slow. Katie gave a mocking laugh, knowing her words didn't hurt Rose.

"The room became more enjoyable after we won against River, though," Rose said a few minutes later.

Katie laughed. "I know, right? He was whining about it for days after that."

"He still does."

Katie laughed again, Rose joining in. River had always been a whiny baby. The attic was the best place for anyone who would come there. The three ten-year-olds were also amazed by it but didn't know who it would belong to. So, River went against Rose and Katie and decided a prank war, to show who was best.

Needless to say, he wasn't. He cried a lot after he lost, claiming they had cheated.

"You came up sooner than I had expected, to be honest," Katie smirked at the girl.

Rose scoffed and rubbed the rest of the sleep from her eyes. She pushed the red bangs off her eyes, gathering them back.

Rose had the smallest height among everyone. She managed to stay in the shadows because of that, so she considered it a huge advantage. Like her brother, she had bright blue eyes, too. She had inherited her bright red hair from her mother, which she preferred to keep short.

She was always the shy type, unlike Katie who would like to seek the attention of everyone with her stance and personality.

"Believe me, if I could, I would have slept a little longer," Rose said, scoffing. "Dad woke me up, unfortunately."

Just as it was predicted.

"Sad. Well, cheer up, 'cause we're headed to the lake after this!"

Rose rolled her eyes, a smile on her face. "Real consoling, aren't you?"

"Hey, I can't console," she agreed. "But what can I say? A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do."

Rose laughed, her irritation fading away. "Agreed. Let's rock the two days, eh?"

"Yep!"

Rose stretched. She was finally, no longer sulking, which was good or Katie would've had to take drastic measures to make her happy. "I'll freshen up," Rose said and entered the washroom.

❇ ❇ ❇

"So close, no matter how far

Couldn't be much more from the heart

Forever trusting who we are

No, nothing else matters...

Nothing else matters..."

Katie struck the chord of her guitar and exhaled, her eyes closed. She slightly swayed to the last vibration of the chord, humming the last lyrics. There was silence around her. A minute passed, and another couple passed. Finally, someone woke up from their reverie and clapped. The others followed suit.

"It was amazing!" Brielle gushed, looking proud. Everyone agreed and Katie's father, who was sitting beside her on the log, clapped her on the back. He pulled her into a side hug and she leaned into him, smiling.

"You did good, kiddo," he said. She grinned up at him.

It was night time. After a whole day of enjoying by the lake, everyone had gathered around the bonfire. They had made s'mores, obviously. When everyone demanded her to sing, Katie couldn't resist and brought her guitar. She was singing Metallica's Nothing Else Matters, one of the topmost played songs in her playlist. It was deep, meaningful and perfect for a campfire.

They had swum around the lake during the day, the sun making the water a bit warm. It was perfect to swim in. they also played football (soccer)- it was four against four, but fun, nonetheless. They also had a barbecue for lunch (Katie's father was very happy that they used it), and then went around the small forest to collect firewood. Rose stayed behind, saying she was feeling out of the weather (but she really had to text the lover boy, with whatever amount of range she could get.) Katie smirked at her, and Rose silently pleaded with her to let it go.

Thankfully for her, Katie was feeling pretty lenient, so she didn't say anything that would get her best friend into trouble.

"Jake," she called out. "Let's sing something together, shall we?"

He shrugged. "Sure. What d'you wanna sing?"

She smirked devilishly. "I think you know."

"Ah. The usual?"

"Yep."

A small 'uh-oh' tumbled out of their parents' lips, but the siblings chose to ignore it.

She cleared her throat and so did he. She gave her guitar to her dad. Grinning, she got up, Jake reciprocating the action. They stood side by side and then faced each other. With a deep breath in, she started-

"Together, together, together everyone-"

Jake joined in, laughing. Brielle and George just shook their heads. The song was not quite suitable for a campfire.

"Together, together, come on let's have some fun

Together, we're there for each other every time

Together, together come on let's do this right!"

They completed the song and everybody applauded, cheering. Katie was laughing from her stomach, and even Jake had uncontrollable laughter. They both bowed, huge smiles stuck on their faces. They had choreographed a small dance on it, too, which was just a bonus (for them, at least).

'We're all in this together' was their go-to song. They sang it no matter where they were, no matter what the circumstances were. Well, High School Musical was a movie that would never get old, and its songs won't, too.

"'Twas amazing!" Rose shouted, still clapping. Even the parents were laughing a bit, despite their obvious discomfort.

Katie sat back on the log and took the guitar from her father's hands.

"Lighten up, guys," she told her parents. "You know you enjoy it, too," she said and grinned. Her father just shrugged, saying nothing. The laughter and humour died down soon enough.

As silence lingered around them, Katie thought of the next song. She strummed the chords once and started humming to Don McLean's American Pie. As she strung the first chord and started singing, the others joined her. The earlier duet had made them sing as well, no matter how bad they were. No one was around to hear them anyway.

As they sang, happiness radiating off their faces, Katie realised that she felt at home. The place didn't matter- the people you were surrounded with did. She smiled to herself, her fingers strumming the guitar's strings for a long time.

Heyo! Hope you liked the chapter!

What thoughts do you have on Katie and River's 'playful' banter? Do you have any friends who just like to annoy you just for the fun of it?

I do. Many. Enough said lmao.

I hope y'all have a great week ahead and don't forget to press the little star at the bottom, and comment your thoughts!

Stay home, stay safe!

Love, 

Cas