Quick question before we start: Is it a good idea to give some casts for this story to give some idea of character portrayals? Lemme know!

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Reece opened his locker lazily, barely paying any attention as a couple of books fell tumbling out as soon as he swung the small door open. Oh, he knew that his locker was messy. The books looked like they just experienced a hurricane, and there was already a lot of dust at the bottom surface. But frankly, he didn't have the time nor the energy to actually do anything about it. And when he did, he'd rather do something else with it.

His head hurt the moment he got up from bed, making him regret spending hours and hours on his phone last night watching uselessly entertaining YouTube videos and Instagram memes. His mom had always warned him about it, she even took away his phone once. It wasn't really a problem because he'd just pull out another phone that he had anyways. But Reece had to admit, the woman sure did have a hell of a point.

And now, everything at school just seemed so blurry. The boy didn't know if he was even taking out the right books. He didn't even notice the person that kept calling out his name until he felt a sharp pinch on his arm.

"Ow! Stop that!" The boy swatted the hand away, before seeing that it was Mara beside him, a deep frown on her face as she looked at him weirdly. "Sorry, I didn't see you there."

"I called you out like 10 ten times already. Reece, are you okay?" Her eyes narrowed. "Are you drunk?"

"No?"

"Having a hangover?"

"Again, no. Should I go check in the mirror or something-"

"Gosh, are you stoned?" Mara leaned a bit closer then sniffed.

"Wha- no!" Reece looked around himself. "Do I smell like it?"

Mara shook her head. "No, you smell...fine, I guess."

Well, that didn't really make him feel any better at all. "Anyways, is there something you wanted to say or something?" Mara had never actually approached him outside of class and lunch times, so he didn't know whether this was a good thing or a bad thing. So far, all he could think of was probably something bad.

"Oh yeah, that's right." Her bright red hair was tied up in a ponytail today so she looked even more cheerful than she did before. "I wanted to say sorry for yesterday. I just thought that you'd be okay with it, that's all."

"Oh, that." Reece relaxed. "Don't worry, it's just fine."

"Really? I mean, you did run-"

"Shush, do not speak of it." The boy gathered all the books he needed and shoved them inside his bag before closing the locker. "Besides, it was just a surprise to me that's all. Nice joke."

"Oh, about that..." Mara let out a sheepish laugh. "Is it like, a really big joke or the kind where 'oh-that-happens' kind of...joke?" She was smiling now, brighter than she had ever done before and she did it while staring right at Reece.

Inside his heart, Reece was wondering if running away again would be an option. He sighed, trying to avoid looking anywhere near the girl's face. "You're actually serious about the acting thing, aren't you?"

"Yes. Can you do it, please? Please, please, please~?"

"Why me?" The question was directed more to the universe rather than Mara.

"Because I think you'll do great!" Mara pursed her lips for a moment. "Alright, I'm hoping you'll be great. You don't need to be amazing like Frank Sinatra in 'Singing In The Rain'."

Reece scrunched his eyebrows. "No."

The girl pouted, "Why not? Please, just try-"

"No, I mean, it's not Frank Sinatra that was in 'Singing In The Rain'. It was Gene Kelly."

"See!? You already know so much about this musical things!"

"Knowing simple trivia does not mean I can act, Mara. And wait a minute, is the play you're working on a musical!?"

Mara snickered. "Did I forget to tell you?"

Reece shook his head. "Hell no, I am not going to join that thing."

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"Hey guys," Reece greeted as he approached the usual table, taking a seat beside Claire who was scrutinizing her slice of pizza on the tray. The lunch today wasn't that bad: the apple looked fresh, the tater tots were warm and the milk actually had 2 days before the expiring date. But the pizza just looked too good to be true. "Anybody actually ate the pizza yet?"

Eddie shook his head, lifting the slice up in his right hand. "It's still warm. Suspicious." He wore an olive cardigan over a blue sweater, which was odd because it was hot in here. But by now, everybody already got used to his questionable choices anyways.

"The pepperoni smells legit." Allen sniffed the pizza, hesitating for a moment or two. "Are they trying to trick us or something?"

"It's reasonable. I may have pulled one too many pranks this year," Toby said, a guy that Reece had barely seen ever since school started. Usually, he's either out causing trouble or in the school halls causing trouble. "Mrs. Wyatt is not happy with me."

"The lunch lady?" Allen asked, looking confused.

"Exactly."

Reece shook his head, mentally preparing himself as he took hold of the pizza. It was the same for him: suspiciously appetising. A lot of possibilities came into mind but even if he got diarrhea, at least he got to eat pizza. "I'm just going to eat this," he announced, making everyone at the table to turn to him.

With every eye on him, the boy took a deep breath and braced himself. Then he took a bite.

"So? The verdict?" From beside Allen, Mara looked tiny so Reece didn't even notice her until she spoke up.

Reece kept chewing, a bit taken aback by the taste of slightly sour tomato paste and sticky cheese, but otherwise, it wasn't bad! He held a thumbs up and everybody immediately looked like they just got negative results for a chronic disease.

They continued eating for a while, enjoying the lunch as it was. Because let's be honest here, any food was something to savour, so people should just shut up and eat.

After a few moments, Eddie spoke up with his mouth still chewing on the last of his tater tot. "So Reece, did you join a club yesterday?"

"Um, yeah." Reece frowned as he tried to think. Yesterday was complicated. "I mean, Mara," he called out and the girl with bright red hair turned to him, "Am I technically in the Theatre's Club?"

She nodded, a satisfied smile blooming on her face. "Since you're in the play, yes."

"Wait, what?" Allen frowned at her. "He's in the play? I was going to ask him to go for the tryouts!"

Reece cleared his throat. "Say what now?"

"The baseball tryouts! We're getting ready for the Homecoming game, it's only a month away."

"Oh... I'm not too sure about that." Reece was never a big fan of sports. He enjoyed taking a sprint but playing in a team full of sweaty, grimy people getting mad at each other over some balls, that doesn't seem appealing. And he can't even remember the last time he played baseball or even watched the sport.

But Allen seemed only more determined. It's like he's feeding off the negativity or something. "Oh, c'mon dude! You'll be great."

Reece sighed, racking his brain to find any valid excuse to reject. He knew that Allen was probably the sports junkie in the group: everything from the varsity jackets he always wore and the way he always walks like he just drank a gallon of Kool-Aid, everything just screamed 'jock'. But Reece didn't think he'd be dragged into this so soon.

Maybe he should pretend to have an illness or something.

"I don't know." The boy replied instead, he was still playing nice. "Who are we up against?"

Allen's eyes seemed to light up with fire at the question. "Eastview High."

Well, that just pretty much summed up all the reasons as to why he should never even think about it. Reece groaned, placing his hand on his head. "Yeah, no way am I playing. That's my old school."

"I know!" But Allen just seemed even more excited. "Dude, it's gonna be awesome! A showdown with your former people: the ultimate battle!"

"Allen, you've been watching too much anime." Claire rolled her eyes.

"Whatever-" he brushed it off, "But still, you could be a great asset to the team. Maybe you know a few tricks that they use...?"

Great, how typical is it for people to use Reece for their own advantage. But no way, not this time. They think they can ask his help for free?

Reece shook his head, finality in his words. "No, Allen. I don't want to."

The fire that took over him seemed to have died down a bit, but the boy still looked pretty determined. "Fine. But think about it! Tryouts' next Tuesday, there's plenty of time to think."

"Is this baseball thing going to mess with the theater performance?" Mara asked, staring daggers at Allen. "Because if so, find another guy. Reece swore that he'd join the play."

"No, I didn't," Reece said.

"Yes, you did." The girl pulled out her phone and held it up. "I recorded your words. They are forever in my hands."

The raven-haired boy looked at her incredulously, not sure whether if he should actually be impressed or intimidated by the fact that this seemingly innocent, personified red velvet cake could secretly be recording everything around her at all times.
Whatever it is, it managed to make a smile slip on his lips.

Crazy people were the best.

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"Bye Reece, see ya tomorrow."

"Yeah, see you too," he said, waving to Eddie who walked grudgingly towards the entrance. Even from inside the building, they could see the silver Lexus parked by the sidewalk. It was a little different today because apparently the usual Bentley needed to be serviced. It's not like it mattered, the guy has his own driver anyways.

Reece on the other hand was struggling to shove all of his books into the locker, all of its contents threatening to spill out every time he put another thing in. He had been doing this for almost 10 minutes straight, and he was starting to consider putting everything on fire and let the whole locker just burn to a crisp, along with all the other nearby lockers.

He'd be doing the other students a huge favour.

"Come on!" Reece grunted as he tried to squeeze in the final book. "You useless little piece of-"

A sudden voice called out. "Hi!"

"Oh my god!" he jumped, letting go off the book in his hand. His heart dropped at the realization. "Oh no..." Reece quickly stepped back as multiple books came tumbling out of the locker and hit the floor like boulders, scattered around.

"Holy crap!" A boy came running to him, his eyes wide at the scene. "Dude, what happened!?"

Reece turned to him, a blank expression on his face. "This is called organising." One look at him and he immediately recognized the boy; blonde hair that looked like it suffered a failed attempt at combing, plain brown eyes hilariously widened, and a round jaw that made his face seem like an egg. Or he was just opening his mouth too wide. "You're the guy in Theatres."

The blonde took a moment to recover, blinking a couple of times before finally snapping back to reality. "Oh, yeah. I'm Phillips!" Alright, his jaw looked normal. "You're Reece, right?"

"Why do you know my name?" He didn't like people knowing him just out of the blue, that just means suspicious things are around about him.

"Oh, um, Mara told me." The boy was fidgeting and kept glancing at the mess on the floor. "She said you wanted to be in the play?"

Reece shrugged his shoulders. "I don't want it, she does. So, I'm doing her a favour."

"But this is kind of an important thing. Are you sure you want to join?"

"Yeah. I like people owing me something." Reece said dryly. "Is it cool with you?"

Phillips didn't look too sure but he nodded anyways. "Yeah, totally. So, you'll be Christopher Aikens, a guy that aspires-"

"Yeah, we should catch up on that later." He wasn't exactly excited to do it and right now, all he wanted to do was just go home and crash on the bed. "I'm a bit busy right now. But is there anything important that you should tell me before I get into this?"

"There is. You'll be acting with my sister, Madison." Phillips said, his voice for some reason went lower and quieter. "She's nice and beautiful but she'll rip your head off -and mine- if you don't do this properly." The boy looked frightened at the thought of it. "She's a bit passionate about acting so I'm just going to ask you, are you really up for it?"

Well, now that it sounds interesting...

"Yeah, no doubt about it." Reece said, the prospect of possibly meeting scary people made him both tired and excited. "I'll talk to you this weekend?"

"Sure!" The blonde boy looked like he was lifted off a huge burden. "I'm heading back now. Madison is staying back though, she has cheerleading practice. If you want, you go talk to her about this."

Reece shook his head. "Sorry, my bed is waiting for me at home." He slowly walked over all of the books on the floor and closed his locker shut. "I'll clean this up tomorrow."

And just as he reached home, he felt his phone buzz in his pockets. He was not really positively surprised when Haley Bodea, his grouchy smartass friend sort-of, texted him after going silent for almost 2 weeks straight.

The Devil's Spawn: Dude, meet me at work. Now. It's IMPORTANT.

Reece didn't even consider that. He just put his phone on silent mode and went into his house.

Yeah, that's a huge mistake.

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Hello people!
I'm back with another chapter! I know I'm so slow but I do promise you that my dead brain has finally actually worked things out for this story and things will get interested with the next few chapters!

Again, a lot of plot set ups so far but I tried to make the situation as humorous and enjoyable as possible. So with that in mind, please enjoy this chapter and stay tuned!

- Zeke!
P.S. I LOVE waffles. And I mean it.