The Popular Kids Club

Chapter 1

Heather

The night had fallen on the city and wrapped it like a dark cloak. From the living room the voices of my friends reached my ears. As usual, I had invited them to my appartement today so that we could spend the evening together. Anyway, we had often done that during the summer holidays. But when the school would start again, these meetings would decrease. I had had this experience often enough.

I took the champagne bottle out of the fridge and reached for six glasses as best as I could. Then, wavering a little, I went back to the living room. There the others had settled down on the long sofas and chatted animatedly. Only Sebastian sat there quietly listening to the others.

When I approached them, they didn't stop talking, but looked at me and Everly, my best friend, gave me a happy smile: "There you are again, Heather. I thought you weren't coming back anymore." I rolled with my eyes just amused and grinning.

I put the drink and the glasses on the glass table in the living room and then dropped onto the sofa between Everly and Alicia. Both made room for me and Everly moved a bit closer to her boyfriend Bradley. He had put an arm around her shoulders and had a lively conversation with the Reed twins.

"So? Who would like to have a glass of champagne?" I asked with a grin and looked around expectantly. "Me", immediately Alicia's hand twitched in the air. Hayden, Everly and Bradley immediately followed her example without hesitation. Only Sebastian's hands remained on the backs of my father's leather armchair. I knew immediately that he could feel all our glances drilling into him at that moment.

"Come on, Sebastian," Bradley now spoke: "Just once. To toast." I sighed and looked at the boy seriously: "Leave him alone, if he doesn't want to, then he doesn't have to either." Then I handed him the bottle so that he had a task and couldn't keep trying to talk him into anything.

The mentioned sighed once loudly, but then gave up: "Okay, but only this one time and only for a toast". "Great", I grinned broadly and handed out the glasses to the others. Meanwhile Bradley uncorked the bottle skilfully and filled our glasses as we held them out to him. The last thing he did was fill his own.

I watch as the light foam slowly disappeared, leaving only the golden liquid left. Then I raised my head and looked around: "Guys, raise your glasses." At this request I made the start and lifted up my drink.

"What?", Alicia seemed to be a little hard of concept at that moment. But Everly knew exactly what I was going to do: "I think she wants us to swear." I briefly looked over at her and grinned at her broadly. I loved how it sometimes seemed like she could read my mind. But in reality she just knew me inside out.

Of course I noticed how the others looked at each other, but I was satisfied when she lifted her glasses after a few seconds, albeit a little hesitantly. "Hereby we swear", I began to audition self-confidently. I could feel the curious looks of my friends on me. "That we would always be best friends," I went on and did not let myself get insecure: "And that we could not break apart."

Since we had done something like this before, the others immediately knew what they had to do and therefore said in the choir: "I swear. I grinned contentedly and let my glass sink again.

Then I let myself sink into the sofa cushions and began to sip on my glass. The cold liquid tingly pleasantly in my mouth and I looked at the others.

In the past I never would have thought that I would ever stand at this point. Because I had actually only founded this group a year ago because I had the feeling that the others could take my position at the top of the school hierarchy. I had felt threatened and hoped to keep the others a little under my control. But I never thought that five good friendships like this would come out of it. In the meantime so much more had emerged from this group than I had ever expected. But at that time I didn't know what would happen in the future.