Welcome to Rose Valley

Twenty-Six

The school was a buzz with the news of that twenty-four hour party. It sounded like everyone was going. I honestly didn't know what the fuss was about, we were essentially just doing what we did most nights except we were moving from the tracks to someone's house and no one would race (probably).

I dropped down next to Poppy at the lunch table, she was intensely staring at her phone. Dustin and Luca were there too.

"Ugh, for fuck's sake!" Poppy yelled, slamming her phone down on the table.

"Whoa, what's up?" Dustin asked.

"I can't get past this stupid level in Candy Crush!" Poppy grumbled.

The whole table went quiet, not really knowing what to say.

"Give it here," Luca finally said, holding out his hand for Poppy's phone.

She passed it over and watched him for the next five minutes as his thumbs swiped across the screen. Luca grinned then held the phone back out to Poppy.

"How?" She asked?

"Did that level the other week," Luca told her, shrugging. Poppy didn't reply, just glared at him, and continued on with her levels.

"What's happening?" Ollie asked as he sat down at the table.

"Nothing much, just your girlfriend throwing a hissy fit because she couldn't pass a Candy Crush level but its fine, I fixed it," Luca said proudly.

"Well then, sounds like I missed the drama," Ollie said then chuckled.

"Yeah, it was very exciting." I rolled my eyes and took a bite of my sandwich.

"So, you guys excited for tomorrow?" Ollie asked the table.

"I mean, its just a party, what could be so exciting?" I asked him.

"The shit that goes on there man, its unreal. Last year, I heard there was an orgy in one of the upstairs bedrooms and another one in the downstairs guest room," Dustin said.

"Guys, we have a problem," Julian announced as he, Kasper and Aylee sat down.

"What?" Dustin asked, sobering up.

"Dad just called to tell me that there has been talk that Anton has taken over Jax's position and has brought in some more people," Julian explained.

"Wait a minute... what?" Why didn't I see this coming?

"At the minute, there seems to be no real issue, maybe he is just doing business or maybe it could be bigger. We just don't know yet," Kasper told us.

"Bloody hell," Luca mumbled.

We chatted about the whole situation for the rest of lunch time then when the bell went, we headed to our last classes. When the day was over, I made my way to where we'd parked this morning. I was the last one there.

"What took you so long?" Aylee asked as I approached the group.

"My energy fucked off out the window," I replied.

We stood and chatted for a while before going our separate ways home. Julian, Aylee, Kasper and I had driven in together this morning. I climbed into the back next to Aylee, crossing my legs on the seat.

"I don't know how you can still sit like that," Aylee commented, pointing at my legs.

"It's comfortable, I almost always sit with either one or both legs tucked under me somehow. You should know this by now." Aylee rolled her eyes but couldn't hide her smile.