July 30th, 2036 8:57 P.M. [North America West Coast]

"You kinda look tired dude," Guren took note of how his best friend was lying face flat on the hotel bed. Despite the fact that they've asked for another bed, the hotel was rather still busy with the many more requests of their customers. Eventually, they didn't really give a care and stopped trying to send the management a request. So, they have grown used to sharing a singe bed. Although they kept taking turns to who was going to sleep on the floor.

"Well, maybe that's because Beni slapped me with my own jeans during the 'camping' trip." Ceylan slightly groaned into the pillow. He laid there for awhile and just continued breathing in and out of the sheets.

"Yeah, that trip was pretty weird. Wonder if Chooki's foot is alright." The redhead trailed of slightly. His thoughts reaching to the place of how they spent their time getting lost in the mountainous range. Sure his foot had healed quickly, but the cut was still developing a little scar.

Out from their room's window, the white curtains were draped across, revealing the tuscan sun horizon. A bit of shallow blue collided against the paling red that formed the gentle lavenders and blushing skies. Below that was the beach, where the silhouettes of many teenagers still playing on the sand and chasing the waves.

Both friends would've wanted to go down there by now. But both work and the camping trip had made their bodies lack the energy to even walk.

Closing the curtains, Guren gave a loud yawn and stretched out a bit. Just when he ready to start sleeping on the carpeted floors, Ceylan turned away from the pillow to face him.

"Dude, you're seriously tired. You should sleep on the bed." He suggested.

"No, I'm fine." Guren tossed aside his towel into the bathroom. "Plus you need to have some energy soon too. We get to go to the beach tomorrow."

"Right back at 'cha. You're going to also need decent sleep." He laughed to himself. His friend simply shook his head "no." Right then and there, he soon rolled out the sleeping bag and was easily knocked out. The bluenette's gaze averted to his now sleeping friend.

With blue eyes rolling at the sight, Ceylan laid on the bed in a flat position. For awhile, he was kept awake and thinking to himself. Closing his eyes for a moment, he opened them again and gave a dull grunt and sat up. Looking out the window was his main source of lighting because the lights had previously been turned off.

Looking down and back at Guren, he gave a slight shrug and reached over the bed's edge. From there, he pulled Guren up on the bed had the sheets up to their waists. Obviously, he had just put it there in case of warmth being needed. Rather, the bluenette much preferred not using a blanket for this summer weather.

Then the teenager with cerulean eyes simply laid back. Arms spread out and facing up the whitewashed ceiling.

Ceylan's POV

What else was I suppose to do? Let my friend constantly sleep on the floor for me or something? He's done that everyday since we got here! Well, sometimes I slept on the floor, but he does this more than me. This is making me the bedded guy or crying out loud.

Right now, I kinda wanted the sleep too. We were able to have a normal day at the beach tomorrow. Last time we went, there was that stupid volleyball game. Well, at least Toxsa got hit by the ball. That's what he gets anyways. He's so annoying, I don't know how Chooki can tolerate him sometimes.

Either way, we're going to get our day in the beach tomorrow. I knew that this was going to just be more of a break day and man, I really did need that. But the whole thing wouldn't be fun if either one of us gets tried. The worst case scenario would have to get sore and cramps in the water.

My solution to this? Why not sleep in the same bed? Yeah, that's pretty much out of context, but he was asleep and I'm pretty much awake. Nothing bad can happen right now if he's knocked out. Plus, he's my best friend, we should be cool about this anyways.

Like the time when he seriously saved me from that waterfall, ya know.

If there's something I hate in this world, that would be the fact that he has my back. But sometimes... Do I even have his back? From Quarton to now, he's always been behind me.

Thinking about this now, I should have my back for him too. Know that this seems stupid, but my start right now is just basically take care of Guren whenever he overworks himself. Dude just needs to chill out.

Plus, times where I can be close to Guren is just pretty nice. None of our friends have to watch us or get in between us. That's something I decently enjoy because being next to Guren makes myself just feel like the both of us are walking on air and nothing bad is going to happen.

If there's one thing Beni describes this as, it's just "gay." I don't know whether she meant this as an insult or not. Because her insults usually involve her messing with someone, like Toxsa does to make people angry.

Of course I saw this as an offense and immediately gave an insult back er. But she simply just shrugged and walked away. That isn't the way she insults people.

Now that I think about it, she might've really been onto something. That's why I get slight anxious to stand near Guren or not in the public. Right now, I guess I should explore the idea since my sleeping schedule is awful right now.

Do I like girls? Back at middle school, yes. But not in a soggy love way. I just wanted to feel important and like the hero. But when I got into high school, they were kinda boring and acted like sobbing jerks.

Do I like guys? In a friend way, most of the time. I mean like yeah, I can agree whenever a dude is attractive. But then I saw Guren in a different view when high school started for us... But does that really mean I'm gay? I could be bisexual like Beni, but she's got a point that I'm not straight right now.

Either way, I don't want to ruin myself in front of Guren. We're friends and it's okay to just simply sleep with each other. Even if that sounds seriously out of context.

July 30th, 2036 9:22 P.M. [North America West Coast]

"So, how's the foot doing?" Toxsa was on the swivel chair near the desk. Recently, he had taken over the desk to place many of his items on there. Of to which, Chooki highly suggested not to leave stuff out in the open.

"Better, a week passed already." He stretched his arm out and was leaning back against a pillow. "I think the doctor said it would take a week or two to fully recover. And it's been, like, a week."

"Also my sister's birthday passed too." Toxsa sighed in relief. Earlier, he and his friends were all running around because his sister's birthday a couple of days ago. Either way, she turned out happy and everything was all good that day.

"Well, it went great and not at all trashy." Chooki shrugged. Meanwhile the younger teenager kicked back on the chair and neared at his best friend's side. The tablet was close to his face and he rarely looked away. While Toxsa was playing his games, Chooki simply relaxed and enjoyed the company of his gaming friend.

"Hey Chooki, I need to do a character customization and I'm too lazy to make one. Can you do this for me?" He thrusted the neon tablet in front of the dirty blonde. Chooki gave an easy going smile and went right on point to making a character.

"Can you also get the lights? It's kinda getting late." The older teenager asked. In result, Toxsa simply threw a random remote at the light switch and everything clicked off. A sarcastic 'thanks' came from the athlete as he continued planning out the character on the glowing screen. For most of the time, Toxsa laid about in the chair and just watched the glowing screen without much of a word.

Sometimes he'd actually took notice of what was going on. But that was when Chooki made the character into a fairy class or messed up the weapon combinations on purpose.

"Fuck, Chooki. You're not suppose to let the warrior have the wand." Toxsa muttered as green eyes slightly narrowed at him. The younger teenager rested his left elbow and reached for the screen with his right. "Look, I get that opposites attract, but that' only in science and romance crap. When you're on a game like this, you have have the right combos to succeed."

"Psh, I know that. I wanted to piss you off." Chooki snickered, resting the tablet on his thighs. He then remained focused on the character customization and his best friend continued to not notice much at all. Finally, the older teenager was finally done with the character customization and turned to his side to go to bed. The tablet was simply handed to the green haired teenager to continue playing.

Toxsa's POV

Now that Wakamei's birthday finally passed, she's like 20 years old or something. What I can't believe right now is that she's still babysitting me and not getting an actual life or whatever girls want to do. Like seriously, I didn't want to have to deal with this all the time.

I was the youngest and everyone's always older than me no matter what. I just had to be born a year behind and have older friends and acquaintances.

But what I didn't like about my sister being 20, is just that I just don't think I can go to her anymore for help. She's going to have her own problems and I'm going to have mine, so I can't bother her anymore. Plus, if she hasn't found a boyfriend or life yet, then what's going to happen to me?!

I mean, I'm usually forced to be the unsuccessful little brother after her. I'm kinda bad at real-life and I'm going to have to rely on here for everything. Sure my friends and I were forced to camp out and be abandoned for two days, but that's because they're going to decently give you support and gifts like the games do.

Unlike games, I knew that they aren't going to be the same NPC that constantly gives you items you need. They're going to grow up and be adults before me. I mean, it doesn't matter if they're my friends or not. What matters is that they won't have any time to babysit the teenager when senior year rolls around.

I just even have to look at Chooki and I don't know why the fuck he hangs out with me. He's the oldest and there's lines and reservations already planned out in his future. Basically, he can plan quests ahead of time and succeed without panicking.

Me? I'm the last minute character who somehow makes the time limit on quests, but there's nothings that lets me plan or take advantage ahead of time. Also, accidents always happen with me being around Chooki.

He fucking got his foot cut for me.

I seriously don't understand him sometimes. Neither Ceylan or Beni. The girl's so open about her life and future and Ceylan's just always letting things take him to wherever. Recently, I was just talking to Beni about who she's going to be in love with. I mean, she's kinda a girl and all. There's a lot of girls who fall in love easily.

I kinda did too, but I'm just okay with anyone as a date. I didn't really care what most people thought. By that point, she asked if I was gay and I told her I kinda liked anyone. As for her, she's pretty much okay with being bi. From our talk, it accidentally got the point where I thought I was like her, but my interests was based on everyone. Not limited to boys and girls.

So yeah, she got me thinking I'm past bi and she's getting into some research about me. Meanwhile, we kinda just look at Ceylan and agree he's pretty gay. Dude may have like girls back at middle school, but he's not interested in the girls at high school now.

But, with this, I just think that I won't really have that much of a future if I can't grow up more. I've seen everyone develop way more and they're easily getting up to where they wanted to be.

Where did I want to be? Just with them and knowing where I could go. I'm not really sure if i'm going to be part of the strategy in Chooki's future or the unplanned quest. I mean, if no one else doesn't like me, I'd be totally fine with that. Just the fact if Chooki wouldn't accept my side quest is kinda going to really affect me.

I'm just being really glad that there aren't any ways that could ruin our friendship.

July 31st, 2036 5:54 A.M. [North America West Coast]

Rosy skies washed the room in a pale glow. With the curtains parted, this allowed the rising sunlight fill the room. A hand gently clicked on the window sill and the pane slightly opened to let natural air in. With that done, the padding of steps was walking across the room without much of a rush.

A portable teapot of porcelain clicked a light that went off. The hands moved to pouring hot water in a mug of a warm white colour. Then a spoon mixing into the contents. After that, a bit of milk was added by the spoonful. A package of thin chocolate cookies were tossed onto the cleaned bed, with the awake person dragging themselves onto the edge.

Blanket wrapped across his bare chest, the auburn haired teenager enjoyed the most of his morning with a content atmosphere. He wasn't much interested in having a top on. But yes, he did indeed have long pants on. Just not a top. Mainly because he could be able to feel the blanket's softness on his skin that gave comfort.

His sleepy gaze adverted to the girl who was leaning on a chair and had her legs propped onto the bed's end. Gen wasn't really sure how she was able to do so, but Beni somehow didn't get any back pains from sleeping like this. She usually slept on the bed, but she had been very tried a few hours ago and didn't even gave a thought on sleeping in bed.

Gen mostly shrugged this off and allowed her to sleep like this. If there's one thing he knew about her, it was that she lived her life anyway she wanted to. There was no limit to what she wanted sometimes. As for him, he slightly was a bit of this. However, he had refined his style to be more mature and what she could say, "preppy."

Taking a few cookies from the opened box, Gen's fingers broke them into the tall cup and he then began to stir the mixture again. Soon enough, the box was rustling again and didn't have to look in a different direction. Beni was up by now and heading right for the cookies.

"Chocolate oatmeal? That's not going to be a surprise, unless I lose my memory." She yawned, crunching up one of the chocolate cookies. Her hand continued eating each cookie one at a time, while Gen was simply taking the time to eat his breakfast.

"You're always going for dry foods for breakfast." He said, pulling the blanket closer. "That's never going to be a surprise either."

She slowly got off the chair and scooted towards him with the box of cookies. At a few inches away, she stopped to take the blanket away from him and didn't achieve this. Alternatively, she just got off the bed and leaned against the mattress because thats where the blanket draped down.

If there's one thing they agreed about on this room, that would have to be the fact that they could enjoy sunsets and sunrises from the full glass window. Even with a tiny balcony, the view was rather full and showcased an entire scenery.

Their mornings were on and off. Sometimes calming and peaceful like this one, but then there were those times when one of them was blasting music inside the room.

Placing the mug on the beside table, Gen got off the bed with the blanket still around his body. He dragged his duffel bag into the bathroom and threw the blanket onto the bed.

"I'm going to take a shower first. Don't eat my cookies." He said before closing the bathroom door shut. Beni was attentive to his words, but she was continuing to stare out the window of the dawning skyline.

"Then don't take my hot water." She replied back. Loud enough to obviously get through the door.

Beni's POV

Things are kinda getting weird right now. I know my life is all fucked up, but there's just something going with the universe right now. If the stars were to actually ever align, you'd have that weird feeling that something's going on. But there's no align of the stars. Or the planets.

There's something going on and I can't really figure this out.

Like, I mean, there's something out there who's twisting what going to happen next. For starters, all of us got stuck in a forest and forced to camp out and such. Back when I was thirteen, I would say that it was gross, but I grew up.

Right now, I'm past thirteen and everyone else is too. Being thirteen was completely dumb and I didn't know anything about myself. Neither did anyone know about themselves either. At first, I thought was straight, but then I kinda started to like girls as much as I did with guys.

And care to guess what I spent my time doing? Well, I started to research about it and it just so happens to be that I'm bi. I was alright with that and everyone else was okay with me about this. But what I'm starting to notice is that none of us aren't the same preteens like before.

Toxsa's probably pan and we both agree that Ceylan's pretty gay. Physically and mentally. I know that seems like a stereotype, but it can't be helped.

I noticed that Ceylan wasn't much into girls like me. But I soon found out he wasn't actually into girls at all...? At first, I thought I had something for Guren, but that was actually the corny friendship feeling I rarely got. Plus, I kinda started to back off from Guren to see what would happen. And well, the results involve Ceylan keeping him close.

Well, that's not gay at all.

Either way, what's nice is that I didn't allow Guren to be with me for the rest of my life. Having a relationship at the age of thirteen is too much to handle and I can't really have my freedom as much anymore. What's cool is that friends now and we don't have to feel awkward about this subject.

Seriously, every girl in school cries over a break up and starts worthless drama. What's the even the point? You didn't have to make any drama and you could just fix your friendship. Or become frenemies. Well, whatever, they could do whatever they want as long as they don't end up crying or moaning about the situation.

My relationship towards Gen is just like a best friend's relationship. Yeah, I had some feelings for him at certain moments, but they're on and off. Luckily, I've never really told Gen about those times because if he treats me like a best friend, then I want him to feel the same too. Sure my feelings have slipped out to the guys sometimes, but they're indirectly to Gen. C'mon, they were just accidental words from my mouth, I just didn't have right feeling if I should tell him or not.

But I liked being best friends right now too. I sit on his chair and having a bowl of cereal at the keyboard. He throws a tampon at me and pushes me into the pool. That's real friendship right there. I didn't want this to change if he found out.

July 31st, 2036 11:52 A.M. [North America West Coast]

The sandy coast was in sight of the car's opened window and everyone was busy waiting to get down and enjoy the beach. Usually, they could've walked themselves and got down there easily. However, they decided to bring beach bags and a cooler down there.

As soon as the car was parked, Chooki helped out with getting the heavier stuff and everyone else grabbed out the things that they had packed up on.

With everything out of the car, Wakamei drove off and said that she would be back to pick them up whenever they called. Having the mini van out of sight, everyone was rushing down the steps in a cautious manner and set up a spot for their stuff to be settled onto.

Before getting to the beach, they already had on swimwear and jackets to cover up. Tossing their shirts and jackets aside, they were finally able to enjoy the beach and high summer sun. Although, they got into a short group chat of what was going on firstly.

"Okay so, two people have to pay for the things we're going to do down here. First group pays lunch, second group pays ice creams, and the last group has to pay for the marshmallow bonfire later on." Chooki said, tightening his hair band on his low ponytail.

"Alright then, that sounds good to me." Guren agreed with everyone just nodding after him. What usually happened between them was that they made a competition and whoever is the loser had to pay. But this time, there was something different going on.

"Man these swimsuits look way better than what we wore the last we where on the beach." Ceylan joked around. "Like dude, remember what Mr. White wore?"

"Yeah, but that's better than seeing him in actually shorts. I'd get so scared if he decided to wear some neon shorts and stuff." Toxsa shuddered and there was an absolute agreement on that.

"Hey Beni, what happened to the beach skirt?" The dirty blonde pointed out her bleached shorts that accompanied her pink edged top.

"Ditched that thing for some pants. I couldn't feel anything with a skirt on." She grinned. "I thought it looked cute or something."

"Well whatever, I'm going to the water now." Gen got a head start with running towards the ocean. At this, everyone soon followed to enjoy their main day on the beach. For about an hour, they were in the crashing waves, swimming around or trying splash water at someone.

At one point in the next half hour, they weren't in the deeper waters and went back on the shore to take a breather. But that turned out to become a new game.

With Ceylan and Toxsa arguing over who knows what, the older teenager lifted Toxsa to his shoulders and began carrying him. Then the next moment, the redhead was supporting up his best friend as they began to have start roughhousing. Gen and Beni mainly watch on the sidelines, seeing how long this would've taken. Finally, when there wasn't any much of a winner being decided, Beni got both pairs of boys down when her friend lifted her up.

"You fucking cheated!" Ceylan sputtered out, still laughing. He helped up Guren and made sure he was alright. With the harvest eyed teenager he had to convince Chooki to get out of the water since his foot ha just recently healed.

"Well, you guys were taking too long to settle the matter, so I did this for you." Beni smirked, trying to stifle back her laughter. "You don't have to thank me."

With Toxsa and the dirty blonde walking up to their beach site, Gen and his friend followed them. Meanwhile, Guren called over to them that he and the bluenette would be in charge of getting lunch. Back at the sand, the two were getting dried into their towels, while the pair who got their was already dried and relaxing on the beach mat.

"This is best fun I've actually had in my years of being a teenager." The girl flung her towel away to dry off. Her knees bent down to sit onto the mat as the same Gen did.

"And the dirt biking trip too," Toxsa snapped his fingers at her and she signaled back. However the two older teenagers just gave the two of them monotonic expressions. There was a strange emphasis on their interests sometimes that society would look down upon.

"Yeah, not one your guys' greatest decisions. Even the football team knows when do a blitz or not." Chooki pointed out in obvious acknowledgement. Gen had to agree with the jock on that subject there.

"Chooki, stop with the sports talk." Beni held a hand in front of him. "I'm not talking to you right now."

He gaped aback, obviously offended and hold his hand close to his chest at what she had to say. And only a single word came from his mouth, "Rude."

"Serves you right for comparing everything to sports," A voice appeared near them. The voice was belonging to the bluenette who was carrying a paper bag. "That kinda gets annoying you know."

"What's funnier is that Guren convince you to pay for paper bags and not plastic ones." He chuckled as Ceylan had to accept verbal defeat. Soon, Guren was in the scene carrying more paper bags and setting the contents down to separate.

"Alright, we decided to get dango, anpan, takoyaki, sushi, yakisoba, akashiyaki, and taiyaki." He started to dish out the snack-like foods and for their lunch. "Did I get that right, Gen?"

"Yeah, you kinda pronounced most of that on point." Gen answered, then looking back up at his friends. "I recently took him to eat Japanese food and he's kinda really into that now."

"Makes sense why a lot of the food you ordered was foreign." Toxsa crossed his arms. "And we don't even know what some of them are."

"Relax, no one here is allergic to any of the ingredients for these foods, so let's just start eating." The redhead started setting out the plates and such for everyone to eat. Surprisingly, no one actually said anything negative about the foods and were enjoying the dishes. In the cooler, there were mostly water bottles and forks for roasting marshmallows later.

When they all finished eating, they made sure to throw away their paper plates and plastic utensils properly before heading down to the shore again.

"Alright, what should we do if we can't go back into the water?" Chooki stretched his arms out. "Go jogging on the sand? How about a game of volleyball?"

"Yeah, I think I'm going to go back and get some sleep." Gen turned away from a shocked athlete. The redhead then followed after the taller teenager. The two younger boys just shook their heads and said they'd rather attempt to make a sandcastle.

"You know I'm a track girl already." Beni said before rushing in the opposite direction of the coastline. At that, he gave chase after her to catch up.

After about half an hour, the group of six friends were up and ready for another swim session in the water. This time, they basically swam in the deep waters and were going for any games at all. When the next time limit hit, they headed up for the beach site and dried themselves off. For an hour, they were basically talking and recalling their stories about Quarton.

Seeing the time at around 4 'o clock, they decided to pack up the large mat and headed for getting ice cream. With their beach bags slung over their shoulders, they reached the ice cream place. There, Chooki and Toxsa were in charge of getting the ice cream and went for an extravagant sundae because everyone had been too picky about flavours.

Taking their time to finish the huge sundae, time flew by yet again. Thus, making it take two hours to finish. Noticing the time had hit to six, they were rushing to get to the trolley that would arrive by the next hour. Luckily, they made it there just in time because the nearest trolley was half a mile away.

Now they had to wait even longer and get to the next beach for the bonfire. Time was zipping by fast enough for the skies to start changing colours of the evening. With an hour passing by, they got to the beach by 8 P.M.

By now, everyone was exhausted from the long trips of their day and walked their way to a site where a bonfire area was located. Dropping their bags onto the ash-like sand, they started to relax from the long and crazy trip to get there. After the beach started getting more and more people for the event, some of the hosts there were walking around to start the fires and hand out the s'mores requirements.

With each minute passing by, the sun was slowly starting to dip past the ocean's horizontal line. The darkening waters had reflected the sun and the skies' wispy clouds were darkening too. With many of the bonfires having a nice and easy going start, the six friends were far more interested in roasting the marshmallows right away, than noticing the sunset or matching sparks of the fire.

All of them began to enjoy themselves and were continuing to enjoy having the company that they have made all on their own. No one had much to say about their personal thoughts. Just making memories of this moment. At first, they used to have never known each person, but now they became their own friends' group. Just right there to support and have moments.

"Because that's what friends are for."

Right?

What about best friends?

OC-FREE DINO OUTTA HERE!