This story will probably seem a bit confusing and odd at first, but I'm hoping that within the first few chapters, it'll begin to make some sense. I'll start off with a bit of back story.

There are the six main characters in this story, as in the show. However, they're teenagers. And, to make it just that much stranger, they're the opposite genders. We're still working with three girls and three boys here. It'll just be bit different.

This story takes place in New York, just like the show. However, the story is set in the modern year of 2013, around early April.

Chandler "Chandie" Bing opened the door to the pizza palace, where she and her friends loved to hang out almost every day. She entered, and just before the door could close, a breeze blew through the entrance and wisped at her dark brown hair.

It sure was windy this season. She had almost lost her baseball cap to the wind earlier that week. It wouldn't have mattered anyway. Some bullies had taken it from her just the next day. Just a bunch of mean girls, they were. They had made fun of her for having a baseball cap, saying that she was secretly a guy, that girls don't wear baseball caps. Chandie knew they were just a bunch of mean, immature teenagers. She knew she was a bit tom-boyish, but why did those bullies care?

Chandie refused to let this ruin her week, however. She was going to have a good week, a good birthday week with her friends. She would be having a birthday party. Her five best friends were going to be there. Her best friend from middle school, Rose Geller, had a brother named Monty who seemed to have been born a party-planner. If it weren't for those two, Chandie wasn't sure she would have any friends today. Monty's elementary school best friend, Richie Green, and a friend they had made in middle school, Phoenix Buffay, were both among Chandie's closest friends. Monty, Rose, Phoenix, Richie, Chandie's newest friend Zoey, and Chandie herself had become a sort of group, hanging out nearly every day, almost always at the pizza palace.

She was there now, waiting for her friends to come. It was a fairly relaxed place, filled mostly with teenagers and other kids a little older or younger than her. The place seemed almost like a cross between a living room and a restaurant. Chandie walked over to a big green sofa in the middle of the room and sat.

She soon heard the sound of the door opening and felt the chill of wind rushing in. In through the now opened door came Rose, Monty, and Richie. They all knew where to go. The group always sat on, around, or near the big green sofa. Monty sat on the cushion next to Chandie, which she was glad about. She wasn't entirely sure why. Rose sat on the other side of her, and Richie found a seat in a nearby chair.

"Happy almost birthday," Monty said, being the first to speak.

"Happy birthday eve eve eve," Richie mused.

Chandie rolled her eyes. "Thanks," she said almost sarcastically, though she did mean it. "It is exciting though. I can't wait, to be honest. I'm going to be sixteen!"

"You're so old," Monty teased lightly, making Chandie laugh.

The others decided to join in. "Like, ancient," Richie continued.

"You're, like, practically a fossil," Rose said. "You should be fossilized."

Chandie laughed, knowing they were only joking because they were all still fifteen and would be for a while. They were the three youngsters of the group. Phoenix and Zoey were both already sixteen. "Well, in comparison, you guys are like babies," she pointed out. "Go back to your cribs, you babies."

"Your jokes suck," Richie said teasingly.

"I'm working on 'em," Chandie said. "I'm hoping that maybe if I tell a bunch of crappy jokes now, they'll all be out of my brain, and by the time I'm an adult, I won't think of them anymore. Instead, I'll be the funniest person in the world. Yes, in the world."

Her three friends laughed just as the pizza palace's door opened once again, letting in yet another burst of wind. In came Zoey and Phoenix. Now the whole group was together. They found seats in chairs near the sofa and quickly joined the conversation.

"What're we talking about?" Zoey asked. "Does it involve food?"

Chandie rolled her eyes. "I'll go order us a pizza."

"That's a true friend, right there," Zoey said, gesturing with her hand toward Chandie.

Chandie laughed as she approached the white-haired girl at the counter. She was also a teenager. The pizza palace only seemed to hire teenagers as a way to bring in more teenagers as costumers. After all, teenagers ate a lot of pizza. The group of friends knew the girl fairly well due to how often they hung out at the pizza palace. They didn't talk to her much, but they did enough to know that her name was Gunthilde, and they had even invited her one of Rachel's birthday parties. It had been a rather big party, so many minor friends had been invited as well as the six of them.

"We'll take one medium ch—"

"Large!" Zoey shouted, making Chandie laugh again.

She continued. "We'll take one large cheese pizza."

"Is that for here or to go?" Gunthilde asked.

"Are you kidding?" Chandie asked.

"We're required to ask that," she replied with a smile.

"Oh. Well, in that case, for here, just like every other day for the past . . . some number of years."

Gunthilde laughed. "Sorry. I don't make the rules." She turned into another room to go place the order and was soon back out. "It'll be about ten or fifteen minutes, just so you know."

"Oh, we know," Chandie said.

"I know you know. We're just required—"

"—to say that," Chandie interrupted. "Yeah, I know that, too." Hearing Gunthilde laugh again made Chandie wonder if she was already getting funnier, her talent increasing by the minute. The thought made her smile.

"Anything else?" Gunthilde asked.

Chandie thought for a second, then ordered. "Six colas." After a momentary pause, she added, "Please." She smiled awkwardly.

"I see you're trying out your magic words," Gunthilde said as she grabbed a stack of cups and started filling them with soda. When all six were filled, she placed them on the counter.

Chandie turned around to face her friends. "A little help over here."

Monty and Zoey walked over, each grabbing two cups and bringing them back to the table. Chandie took two herself. When she made it back to her seat, she set one of the cups on the table in front of where Rose was sitting and took a sip from the other.

"Thanks for buying us pizza, Chandie," Zoey said with a smirk.

"I'm paying for that?"

"You ordered it."

"Yeah, but, knowing from experience, you'll be eating about three-quarters of it," Chandie muttered.

"You know me so well," Zoey mused. "Oh, and aren't you, like, rich or something?"

"No. Richie is Rich, if you want to give him a nickname," Chandie joked. After a few glares telling her that her joke was not so great, she gave up. "Fine. I'll pay for the darn pizza." There was a chorus of fake cheer from the other five. Chandie laughed. "Jeez. If I knew it meant so much to you guys . . ."

The group was chatting when Gunthilde brought a large cheese pizza over to where they were sitting and set it down in front of them. "That'll be fourteen fifty-two."

Chandie gave her the money. The conversations continued when she walked away. Chandie wasn't really participating in the chatter today. She would make a comment here and there, but she wasn't joking about each and every word that came out of her friends' mouths like she normally would. Her mind was somewhere else, thinking about the great bond the six of them shared.

It was amazing, how close they all were—closer than Chandie's own family. Her friends were her family. She loved how different they all were. Taking any two from the group, she could find extreme similarities but, at the same time, extreme differences.

Rose was the smart nerdy one who got the good grades and had the boring stories. Chandie figured she was fairly smart as well, though she hoped her stories were more interesting. She was the joke-teller, whether or not people found her funny. Like she had explained to her friends, she was working on it. She would be funny. She was determined.

Then there was Zoey. Not the brightest in the group, Chandie had to admit. Though, she did share several common interests with Chandie. They both liked the same shows, the same games, the same movies. It was a beautiful friendship they had. It was a beautiful friendship she had with all five of them—with Zoey, Rose, Monty, Richie, and Phoenix.

Just thinking of that last name reminded Chandie of how depressed Phoenix had been lately. Chandie knew there were complications going on with his family, and she felt bad. Sure, she didn't have the best family situation either. Her mom believed she was a man, and her dad worked for Playboy, but at least they still had money, like Zoey had mentioned. Phoenix's family was always struggling in that area, and he had even mentioned something about his parents being drug-dealers. Chandie had also heard plenty about how depressed Phoenix's dad was all the time. She would try to reassure him, saying everything would get better, that the depression would probably wear off, but it was hard, trying to get someone to believe something you didn't even believe yourself. Chandie could only hope for her friend that the depression wouldn't turn into something more.

I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. I know it was a bit boring, just me trying to set up the story, but, I assure you, it will get more exciting later. It might just take a little while.

I'm hoping that by the fourth or fifth chapter, I'll have the story going. I might throw in some Chandie/Monty, Rose/Richie, or even Zoey/Phoenix.

Also, just so you guys know, Phoenix's depression will lead to something . . . interesting, to say the least. ;)