Hidden Paradise

Meet...the friend group

Diana Campbelle was a volleyball player. Her eyes were already yellow, matching the highlights on her hair that was tied up in a ponytail. And Jason Kim, the guy everyone would date but can't- mostly because he's toxic in a kind of way.

His eyes were deep blue like the water and his hair turned into a somewhat mullet that was tied behind his back.

"I miss you" Diana hugged both of us tightly. The smell of sweat was obvious while both Jason and Alex had their own mini hug. "Wait, where's...?"

"AYE OLI", Jason calls before Alex can finish his sentence.

The curly head had eyes of both green and yellow on the other one. Oliver Cash, supposedly Alex's twin. He closed the book he was reading and ran towards us.

"Hey" he spoke softly. Freckles were scattered across his face like tiny stars. Unlike his fraternal twin, Oliver had both Yellow and Green. "You look...taller" he said, trying to avoid eye contact. "Ah..." I agreed awkwardly.

"So..." Diana looked at us both. "Are you guys still up for the tradition?" A smile spread on everyone's face. "Of course-"

"We're not in 9th grade anymore", Alex interrupts Amaris. Her face was mixed with both confusion and shock. "Guys, we're already in high school, 10th grade. We should stop being immature", he explains with a stern voice.

Everyone, including Amaris, let out a sigh. Well s**t, here we go again.

"What I meant by what I said was, we should stop being immature when it drags someone else into trouble...or something like that" he mumbles the last part.

"This tradition we're talking about involves dragging us into trouble," she argues.

"Yeah, cause we're in a friend group and we have always had this tradition. Plus, the chances of us getting hurt is low." Her hands landed on her hips as the two faced each other.

"But it's not zero, so I will not be going." He crosses his arms

Amaris' mouth was left wide open as her eyes scanned him repeatedly. "What? I'm THAT good looking that I made you speechless?" A smirk formed on his mouth.

Gosh, here they go again with their cringe elementary comebacks

"No, I'm just trying to find where you found the audacity to assume we could care if you went with us or not."

"At least I'm not in the second place" And...Amaris heard that

"OKAY", I stepped in between them. "Either we stare at you guys fighting again for hours and get sent into the principal's office for doing so on your first day back. Or we could agree who wants to do the tradition and who doesn't want to do that"

They both went silent as I signaled Diana for help. "Well, let's start on who wants to go, first" She quickly catches up on what I meant

"I wanna go" Jason said, followed by Oliver then me, and lastly Diana. "I'll go, of course" Amaris said. We all looked at Alex who stares back with confusion.

"What? You guys said 'if you wanna go'" Diana lets out a heavy sigh of annoyance "Now, who doesn't want to go?"

"Obviously, me" Alex scoffs before sitting down on the grass field. "You sure you don't want to go? You could lower your ego a bit" Oliver said while I held a laughter inside. It's sometimes fun to see someone pissed, espescially if they have a huge stubborn ego like Alex. "Yeah, you should come with us" Diana convinces him too.

"I said-"

"Guys, if a person doesn't want to go, let him stay." Amaris interrupts him and he avoids eye contact with her once more. "Besides, now we have someone to watch our belongings while we're away" She takes off her bag and lets it sit next to him.

That made Alex glare at her. Another sigh came from the rest of us. There they go again.

"Fine. I'll go" Alex stood up

"Oh, no It's fine. You should definitely stay" Amaris waves both of her hands in front of Alex.

"That's great!" Jason exclaims and clasps both his hands together. "I actually have one of the best spots to go. "Oh no..." I mumble before placing my bag down next to theirs.

"Hey, can you guys please watch these for us?" Diana calls out to some juniors and they happily agreed. Of course, they would, it's Diana Campbelle were talking about.

"Now, let's go" Jason leads us as we made our way through the back gate. I feel like this isn't going to end well with Jason's leading.

After just a few minutes of walking towards the hills, we were already panting hard. Even Diana who wore sleeveless top and jogging pants looked like she could hardly breath. Wait…what if because she really can't?!

"You should take a rest" I approached her and held her hand. "It's alright, I just need a few minutes to breath" we both stop and she takes deep breaths. "This was harder than I thought" a small laughter then follows even though she was still breathing hard. "Well, yeah. It was Jason's idea. You know how it goes" I laugh a bit too as we both sit down on a few rocks.

Apparently, someone from the soccer team suggested to Jason that the view of the sunset was beautiful on the top view. Mind you, that he didn't mention which mountain to climb so he just assumed that it was going to be Mt. Brobdingnagian

Of course, the name is Mt. Voyage since it literally makes you want to say goodbye to this world after trying to climb to the very top.

"You guys good?" Amaris sat next to us. "We shouldn't have asked Jason to lead us" Diana pants. "Yeah, but he's mostly cold even towards us. Seeing him that happy because we're trusting him is nice to see" I said before standing up and cleaning my bottom.

"True. Plus, we should at least climb this mountain while we're young. We might not know when we're leaving" Diana turns to Amaris "Especially you" she nudges her while Amaris simply laughs. "Let's just try to catch up to the guys. Don't wanna fall behind too much" we all laugh before slowly catching up to them.

I watched as they went ahead before me since I was too tired to continue. The two of them were laughing while I slowly walked behind. Reminds me of the first time we got along.

If I'm going to be honest, I would have regret going here if it weren't for them. First day of school, Amaris and I were both so nervous and excited. Diana first approached us along with Oliver. Then came Jason and Alex. Not sure how Alex and Amaris became close though. As long as I could remember, they're both rivals.

"Are we there yet, or close?" I approach Jason, trying not to sound annoyed. "Well, we're almost there" he replies, clearly tired while panting. "Next time, you guys should warn me not to wear a jacket" Alex says, panting hard while removing it. Below it was a plain blue shirt.

"Why would we warn you? You have a shirt underneath. You could have removed it earlier" Amaris bluntly says while walking pass by him. "This-"

"OKAY" Diana interrupted before another fight could start between the two, clapping both of her hands loud as everyone looked at her. "The top isn't too far anymore, come on, let's not give up" Jason said while trying to brighten the mood.

"Let's take a break first" Alex placed his jacket unto the ground and sat on it. The sun was slowly painting the sky with hints of orange and pink. "I think there's a cafe nearby" Oliver says while we all took a break.

"Let's not-"

"I think there is one. Plus, I'm a bit thirsty too" Amaris interrupts him without knowing so.

Ohhh he hates getting interrupted.

I stare at Alex, waiting for him to say something against it but instead, he stood up and picked his jacket.

"Come on" he says, leading the way. "What...was that, though?" Diana whispers in my ear as we both laugh.

"Oh.." Amaris stopped as we all looked. Turns out the cafe was just a few steps away.

"I'm guessing we'll be doing self service, huh?" Oliver rushes up to one of the chairs. "You guys don't want to go in?" Diana shook her head as she sat down next to Oliver. Both looked tired. I mean, who wouldn't be?

"Get me a drink pleaseeeee" Diana literally drags the 'e' while Oliver wanted some sprite

"You know, we could get a bit of- never mind" I quickly stopped midway as I realized that both Alex and Amaris were missing. Since it was the first day back to school, cafe's that are built in high mountains should be empty but not close.

There are students-like us, who visit random places or go randomly climb a hill. So, these places are mostly 'self-service' and are open to everyone. And like I said, money isn't involved in the Academy. Plus, they're powered by solar energy.

The little bell rings as soon as I open the door. "Hey-"

I closed my eyes and let the refreshing cold air through my skin, and inhaled the sweet smell of lavender. "This was what I wanted to tell them" I mumbled, eyes still close and let out a deep exhale.

"Hey, what are you guys doing?" I ask, leaning on the counter as I watch both Amaris and Alex get busy. "Making drinks for everyone, what does it look like?" Alex places two cups in front while Amaris nudges her "Don't be mean" she mumbles while I saw him sigh and walked away.

"What would you like?" Amaris turns to me "Hmm...just iced lemonade please" she writes it down on a paper before randomly smiling at me. "Guess I'll just leave you guys to do the work?" she nods while getting more cups and shoving ice into them "Yup"

A sigh came out as I sat inside. Cafe de Artemis. There's something so soothing about this place that makes it feel like home. "I should probably get them drinks" I thought while staring at the transparent fridge or whatever you call them.

"You like Matcha?" I heard Alex's voice. Without even bothering to look back, I stood up and quickly left the place. Matcha is probably Amaris' favorite flavor still along with Mint choco -weird flavors, yes.

"Hey" I placed the bottles of water on the table and Diana was quick to grab one of them. "Woah, you're that thirsty, huh?" Oliver asks, looking at her chug the whole bottle down. "Well yeah. I mean, we've climb for maybe 2 hours without water. Who wouldn't be?" I gave him a questionable look before he takes a bottle too.

"Where's Jason, by the way?" Oliver turns and points at the direction. Jason stood on the near edge like a statue, probably admiring the view. As far as I've known, he likes sunsets and moon scenery but he doesn't really go out much.

"Hey" he looks at me then the bottle that I offered him. "Oh, thanks"

"You know, you can take a seat while watching right?" he turns to me and laughs. "Yeah, but I don't really mind it. I mean, I barely get to see this" he says before flashing a smile.

Now, I'm going to be clear but, my type is different from Jason's personality- but it's like his smile makes up for his worst traits.

"Guys! Come here" we both turn our heads to see Diana waving towards us while Alex helps Amaris place the drinks outside. "Oh, woah..." I said, admiring the drinks that were sealed in a transparent can.

"I know right! I can't believe they changed it into these tiny cups" Diana took one and pop the lid off. "There were more options of cup sizes but this one claims to be 'Eco-friendly' that after you throw it out, it'll grow into a tree or something." Alex said as we sat down together in one table.

"Well, in my opinion they should have-"

"TINGGGGGG"

We all looked at the clock that started to send alarm sounds. "It isn't...5 o'clock yet...though" Diana said, looking at me as if I knew the answers.

"I think we should start to go down but let's be careful. That was probably a warning sign" Amaris looked worried while we all tidy up the place and turn the electricity off the cafe before leaving.

"I think everything and everyone is here, right?" we all nod and carefully made our way down. Honestly, it was scaring.

Going up is easy but going down seemed quite impossible. The place looked quite a bit steep and due to gravity, my weight was probably heavier while trying to go down. "We can hang unto the side for support while slowly going down" Oliver suggested and we started to form a line.

One hand holding a drink and the other, holding for the whole body's dear life.