*Beep Beep... Beep Beep*

I hate Mondays. I shut off my alarm and get out of bed. I open my wardrobe taking out my school uniform, a grey shirt, white socks, a white and blue striped shirt and a blue blazer. It's not the worst uniform, I actually quite like it. Yesterday the guys and I just chilled out for the whole day, lazing around the house and in the garden, making the most of it before we went back to school. Downstairs I was met with my brother Zach, already dressed in his uniform. For him, this is his last year in middle school, he's in 8th grade. "You ready for school Syd?" he asks as he looks up from sorting his books.

I sigh, "As ready as I'll ever be... so no, I'm not ready." Zach laughs and I make myself a bowl of cereal. I eat quicker than normal considering that I spent too long getting ready. I finish and quickly wash the bowl in the sink. Zach walks into the garage to get our bikes as I walk out the front door and lock it behind me, nine of us ride to school together. The six of us you know, plus Zach, Ashley, Corbyn's younger sister - she's in 5th grade - and Jonah, Zach's best friend, he joins us halfway through the ride. Taking my bike from Zach, I see Daniel and Jordyn coming out of their house and the others are waiting for us at this bench which we all subconsciously made our little morning meeting spot. The eight of us start cycling to school. Jonah joins us as we pass his house halfway through our journey.

We get to school, put our bikes away and part ways, Daniel and Jordan are in 9th grade and Corbyn's in 8th grade while Lily, Jack and I are in 7th grade. It makes school a whole lot worse when we can't be together very much, and I feel bad for Corbyn, he's the only one of us in 8th grade, he ends up usually hanging out with Zach and Jonah during class. We walk into school and I tell Jack and Lily that I need to get books from my locker so I'll see them in 1st period.

I open my locker and get out my maths books needed for today's lesson. I'm kind of a nerd, maths and chemistry are my favourite subjects, I know I'm weird, but they're interesting to me. I shut my locker and just as I do I see Lee leaning against the locker next to mine. Lee Flynn is the brother of Noah Flynn , they both think they're popular just because they follow Zach and Jonah around like lost puppies. Zach and Jonah are the so-called 'popular kids' of our school. I'm known to everyone, except my friends, as 'Zach's little sister'. It can get annoying.

"Jeez you scared me! Hey, Lee," I speak, putting my hand to my heart from shock.

"Hey Sydney! Happy late birthday!" Lee says, way too enthusiastically for 8:30am on a Monday morning.

"Thanks Lee," I reply as I walk away from my locker and start heading towards my first class.

"So what did you do on the weekend?" He asks as he catches up to me and walks beside me. I mentally roll my eyes, don't get me wrong, Lee's a sweet guy, he just, for some reason, always seems to be clinging to me, I put up with it because he's Zach's friend.

"The usual, Corbyn, Jack, Daniel, Jordyn and Lily came over and we had a sleepover," I say, smiling to myself thinking about the weekend.

"Hey, where was my invite?" Lee responds. I chuckle thinking he was joking until I look at him and realise he was being serious. This guy wanted an invite to my sleepover? I barely hangout with him in school, and even then it's unwillingly.

"Urrrrr, don't you have a class to get to?" I chuckle nervously as I slowly back away, not wanting to answer his question. I quickly walk into my class before he can answer my question and walk over to where Jack and Lily were sitting. I take my normal seat between Jack and the wall.

"Lee bothering you again?" he asks rhetorically, already knowing the answer. I nod, telling Jack that he expected an invite to the sleepover. Lily overhears this and starts laughing, Jack and I both doing the same until our teacher - Mr. Robertson - walks in and tells us to be quiet. Then, school began once again.

~~~~

Finally it's lunch, I swear time seems to slow down when we're in school! It's unfair. Jack, Lily and I are walking to the Lunch hall where we meet Corbyn, Daniel and Jordyn. "I missed you guys!!" Daniel runs up to us three, engulfing us in a hug. I jump, not realising he was behind us but I start laughing as Jordyn joins the hug.

"Chill Dani, it's only been like four hours," Lily laughs.

"And that's four hours to long!" Daniel says pouting, still not allowing us to escape the hug. I think I'm actually not going to be able to breathe in a second.

"You guys are hugging without me?" We hear a jokingly-sad Corbyn say from behind us. All of us pull away from the hug and run over to Corbyn wrapping our arms around him, now making him the centre of the hug. "I take it back! I can't breathe! Have mercy!" he shouts melodramatically. All of us break away from the hug laughing, glad to be reunited again after four painfully long hours.

We sit down at our normal table at the back of the Lunch hall with our lunch trays. We get into a casual conversation and from the corner of my eye I see Lee and Noah, his twin brother, walking over to us with their lunch trays. I physically face palm and Jordyn is about to ask me why but stops as she sees Lee sitting down next to me and Noah next to Lily. "Hey guys!" Lee speaks, once again way too enthusiastically.

"Hey Lee," Corbyn says through gritted teeth as Lee shuffles himself closer to me, I not-so-subtly move away from Lee and closer to Corbyn who is sitting to my left.

"What's the problem?" Lee questions, looking way to happy at my discomfort.

"Maybe the fact that you were way too close to me and it was making me uncomfortable," I state with a straight face, showing that I was serious. Lee moves even closer to be annoying.

Daniel opens his mouth to say something when someone beats him to it, "Lee get away from her and stop being annoying," Jonah's voice speaks, I sigh looking at Jonah giving him a smile that silently says 'thank you'. He returns the smile and nods at me as Lee and Noah get up and walk away. I owe him one, Jonah's always been like a brother to me, him and Zach are like Lily and I, they've been friends since birth, I've known Jonah longer than I've known the others and he's always been like a brother to me, he's very protective of me just like Zach.

Zach comes up behind Jonah and glares at Lee as he walks away, seeing what happened. Jonah takes Lee's place and sits down next to me at the table, Zach sitting opposite him next to Lily. "You good Syd?" Jonah asks, placing his hand on my back in a brotherly manner.

I smile at him comfortingly, "I'm fine, Lee was being his normal annoying self."

Corbyn scoffs, "He needs to take a hint and learn to leave you alone!"

"If only it were that easy, honestly he acts as if he's attached to her hip," Jack states, slightly laughing at how ridiculous it is. We continue to eat and finish our lunch in a comfortable silence.

Lily was the first one to speak up, "My place after school?" We all look at her and nod as if it was an obviously stupid question.

"Can we come?" Jonah and Zach ask simultaneously. The six of us look at each other, either shrugging or nodding our heads.

"Sure."