Littleton Colorado, May 29th 2005

Friday 2:30 p.m.

Iris's P.O.V.

It's been about two months since my first encounter with Riker and the Lynch's, and I've cherished every minute of it. We've basically been attached at the hip since that dayI came over to his house. We don't even knock on the each other's doors anymore, we just walk right in. Today is the last day of school until summer break. Which means, this is the day we perform our Green Day song in band class. Mr. Douglas has quickly become my favorite teacher ever! He treats us all as equals in class, and he acts way younger for someone in their early 30's.

Things have gotten worse with Mckenzie and her group though. Almost everyday she manages to squeeze in an insult at me and a smirk. Sometimes they even trip me up in the hallway. I just brush it off though. They are only empty words and careless actions. Riker gets mad though. I told him not to even bother calling them out on it or anything, that would only make matters worse. We walked into band class hand in hand today. Most kids tease us calling us a "couple" and whatnot, but we just brush it off. We walked in and took our seats right next to each other. Mr. Douglas was running a little late to class so we had some time to chill.

"Are you ready to perform?" Riker asked.

"I don't know, what if I mess up? I'm still not completely over my stage fright..." I started biting my nails like I always do when I'm nervous.

Riker gave my hand a reassuring squeeze and said, "Don't worry, Mr. Douglas doesn't expect us to be professional or sound great. At least we're gonna play it live. All the other kids just brought a karaoke CD."

It made me feel a lot better, I smiled a little to myself. Why would something go wrong? Today has been great! It's the last day of school and we didn't have any work at all! We just sat around talking or watching a movie in all our classes. Mckenzie hasn't even talked or looked at me all day. Which is strange considering we have every single class together.

Just then Mr. Douglas walked in. He started off by saying what a wonderful year it's been and how he's going to miss us all. Then he started off the project. He separated the class so the ones that would be playing live sat on the left side and the others performing off a CD would be on the right side.

Mckenzie and her group just sat in the middle saying "Green Day is stupid. Just give us an F, we're not singing."

I rolled my eyes and looked over at Riker, who did the same thing. We were the only ones on the left side and I think everyone was really anxious to see us perform. After all the others were done, some good and some not so good, we stood up and took our spots. I decided to play electric guitar since there was more of that in the song that bass. Riker sat at the drums ready to roll, he gave me a nod signaling to start. After playing the little instrumental in the beginning, I started singing...

Riker's POV

I looked around at the room in the middle of playing and noticed everyone with wide eyes. Even Mr. Douglas looked beyond impressed. The only ones who looked bored out of their minds were Mckenzie and her friends. I can't hardly stand Mckenzie. After everything she does to Iris? It makes me proud when Iris just walks away. Even when I want to get back at her. I guess I was staring at her and her friends in my thoughts, because I snapped out of it when Mckenzie started twirling her hair and smirking at me. I gave her a disgusted look and focused back on playing and Iris. I could tell she was nervous but she did great! We finished our song and everyone started jumping up and down and whistling, some even whooping. Even the teacher came over and gave us both a pat on the back.

After things got a little more quiet I could hear Mckenzie saying, just loud enough for everyone to hear, "She was terrible! I've heard dying whales sing better then that!"

I felt Iris tense up and looked over to see her face absolutely red, and boiling over with anger. If theres one thing I've learned about Iris its that she can handle any insult thats thrown her way, except being called untalented. I quickly grabbed her hand and started calming her down a bit. She looked over and smiled a grateful smile at me before turning back to the teacher.

Mr. Douglas looked at Mckenzie and the group of girls before saying, "I thought they both did great. They certainly have bucket loads of talent and guts to perform it live." He gave us a small smile before excusing the class to go home.

Iris's P.O.V

I was glad Mr. Douglas stood up for us. One more second and I was about to beat Mckenzie and her group of friends till I dislocated their pretty little faces. We walked out of class and up the stairs to our lockers. I opened mine and started taking everything out of it. There where pictures of me and Riker, and the Lynches all over the door. Riker's had the same matching pictures. We got all our stuff out and shut and locked it.

We were walking down the steps and was met by Rydel, Rocky, and Ross at the bottom. We where walking out of the school while Rydel and I locked arms. We had gotten really close over the past couple months. Having constant sleep overs and shopping outings. Though I'm not much of a shopper, it's nice to have a girl thats close to your age around. Sorry, but there's just some things I'm not comfortable talking to Riker about. We were all laughing and getting ready to walk past through the doors when we were stopped by Mckenzie and her friends.

"Crap, I knew this day was too good to be true.." I muttered under my breath. I know Riker was giving me the "Don't do anything stupid" look, but I chose to ignore it. If I was gonna let Mckenzie know that she's not queen bee and how she can't keep treating me like crap, I wasn't about to let anyone hold me back.

"Well well well, thought you were gonna get away, huh?" Ashley sneered.

"What do you guy's want?" I said through gritted teeth. My anger was slowly starting to seep out. Riker switched places with Rydel and told them to go on.

"Come on Mckenzie, don't be a brat and just let us go home." Riker shot back. I was silently proud. Maybe I'm rubbing off on him.

"Shut up." Mckenzie snapped at Riker. She then looked over at me and smirked, "That little performance in music class was nothing. Never think you have talent, Everyone else was clapping because it was over, not because your good."

Oh god, she crossed the line. Tears were starting to prick behind my eyes, but that is just what Mckenzie wants. She wants to see me cry. It means she would win. Like heck, I was gonna let that happen! I closed my eyes for a brief second and searched for Riker's hand. I found it at his side and immediately grasped onto it for dear life. He gave me a gentle, reassuring squeeze.

I opened my eyes and looked Mckenzie straight in the face, "You know, you have tried all year to get to me, to make me crack. But guess what? All year, I haven't cracked. Because I know that if I do, it would make me no better than you and your little group of fakes. You can be queen bee of this school for the rest of our school days, but that is all you'll ever be. And I guess you'll just have to deal with the fact that you can control everyone here. But your not gonna control me." I finished my speech and I heard a couple of cheers in the background. I looked back to Riker and he was smiling. It felt good to say what has been on my mind for all year. I looked over at Mckenzie who looked more furious then I've ever seen. I knew something bad was coming. She then said the unspeakable.

"You talentless little loser! Everyone here hates you! Riker's only your friend cause he's sorry for you!"

I was literally seeing red by then. Riker must've been too. I looked over at him and could possibly see steam coming out of him. I looked over and everyone was watching us. The pressure was too much. I ripped my hand from Riker's and stormed out of the building and out onto the sidewalk. Going faster than I thought humanly possible on my skateboard. I made it home in twenty seconds flat and flung myself through the door and up the stair's to my bedroom.

I faintly heard mom saying, "Sweetie what happened?"

And dad answering saying,"April, I think we should just leave her alone right now."

I flung my stuff on my bed and quickly slammed the door shut. I opened my window and climbed out onto my roof. It was where I could go and think. I tried to calm myself down, but her words and insults kept ringing through my ears. I finally let the tears fall. It felt good to cry again. I haven't cried in five years and it seemed like all the emotions I've felt just poured out. I looked down onto the street and saw Riker running up the sidewalk onto my driveway. Half of me was hoping he'd go back home but another part of me wanted him to come up and comfort me. It would mean that he truly cared, and that was all I wanted right now, someone I could tell all my troubles to. The ones I've kept a secret all my life.

Okay, I know this is a short chapter, but I'm writing this at school right now which I shouldn't be doing but I didn't have any other time to upload! Next chapter will be up before Friday so till Friday! ;D

Lots of love!

-Lora & Lizzie