Young Writers Society

James glanced at Bo, then at the cookie with a small smile.

"Quite so," he said. "You did a great job, Bo. Can you grab me one, Jerica, so I can taste one too?"

After Elias threw the Mike's over to Daniel, he was fishing around the cooler and picked out a Vizzy. Anyone who said Claws were better than Vizzies were liars. Vizzies were better because they had antioxidants. It's important to fill up on your vitamins, yo.



"Sure, we got lots of soda," Elias said to Benji, opening a different cooler that was full of mixers, including soda. "Do you want just a soda, or do you want to mix it with, like, rum or somethin'?"




Mel had been waiting forever to get into this party. She had texted Elias a bunch of times to just let her in the back way, but Elias wasn't picking up his phone. And that was when he remembered that was because he was an inflatable dinosaur and couldn't text back even if he wanted to.

And so, she had to wait in a long line with Evaline, which wasn't bad, if Evaline wasn't already a nervous mess despite not even being in the party yet. It may have had something to do with the fact that she felt really under-dressed.



Mel was dressed like an angel wearing white miniskirt and lacy strapless crop top along with wings, a halo, and heels. Some may say that the outfit was basic, but this was a frat party. Probably half the costumes were going to be basic.

Mel had to convince Evaline to dress up to, and since she didn't know what to dress up as, the natural solution was for them to match. And that was how Evaline was dressed as a devil.

Although... her simple long-sleeved red dress, horns, and boots was pretty abysmal compared to what Mel proposed she could wear. Then again, Evaline wasn't one to wear crop tops and mini skirts, and Mel was just glad she was coming. Elias barely had to convince her, and she had spent the last couple of weeks being more in touch. Maybe she was trying to connect more to others, or was trying to be more social.

"You okay?" Mel asked her as they began to approach Chad, who was checking out invitations.

Evaline nodded, taking a deep breath as she walked forward. "Yeah. I'm fine. Do you have the invitations...?"

"Oh, we don't need--"

"Invitations?" Chad said, eyeing both of them.

Mel faltered. "Really, Chad? You're going to make me prove I was invited?" she said with a sigh, having to dig out the paper in her satchel.

"Not you, Mel," he said, nodding over at Evaline. "I'm asking for her. Sorry, you know the drill. No costume, no party."

Mel had to hold back a giggle as she saw Evaline's face starting to flush in embarrassment.

"I'm, uh..." she said as she pointed at the top of her head. "...Dressed as a devil."

Chad clicked in tongue, then looked through his list on the clipboard, presumably crossing off Mel's name. "I rate two out of ten. What's your name?"

"Evaline," she said, and was quickly cut off by Chad.

"Oh, come on in, girls," he said with a grin, stepping out of the way.

Mel exchanged a glance with Evaline, but then shrugged and smiled, taking her hand and leading her through. "Cool. Thanks Chad! See ya later!"

"What does that mean? Am I on a list?" Evaline anxiously spat out as Mel weaved her through a crowd of people.

"Shhh, Evaline, don't worry about it," Mel said. "'I'm a cute angel, and you're an even cuter devil. Who wouldn't let us in? Speaking of which, who let those guys in!"

Mel grinned and stopped in front of Morri dressed like a pirate, and Lordy dressed like a rat. At least, she was sure it was Lordy since he dressed like a rat at the football game, and was standing next to Morri.

"My two favorite people!" she chirped. "I love your costumes. Pirate fits you, Momo! And Lordy..." She paused for a second to giggle. "I don't know how you do it, but you can really pull off a rat look."

"I gotchu, boo," Jerica said. She held the cookie in her hand out to James. Then she grabbed a pumpkin cookie and thrust it towards Rek at the same time. "And a pumpkin for you, since we all know your bitch ass ain't making it to midnight."

"And my bitch-ass feels no shame about it," Rek countered, taking the cookie. They'd see if he could make her feel any shame. He took a bite then turned to Bo with a smile, but watched Jerica out of the corner of his eye. "These are amazing, man! You'd better be careful, making cookies like these, or you'll have this whole party falling for you."

Jerica flushed ever so slightly -- barely even noticeable in the dim light of the party -- and shoved most of a ghost cookie into her mouth.

Bo smiled and laughed.

"I hope my cookies don't make people clumsy," Bo said with a snap of his finger, pointing to Rek with a finger gun.

James, meanwhile, quietly watched the interaction as he too, took a bite of his own cookie. It was good, but he found himself more confused by Jerica's sudden bashfulness that seemed out of character - especially since she was trying to be Carter. He glanced between Bo, Rek, and Jerica, doing the math.

Did Jerica have a crush? He didn't think it was his place to make assumptions. He figured he'd let that one be. That wasn't something to bring up at a party like this, anyway. He didn't want to embarrass Jerica.

"But they will make people happy," James said, just a little delayed. "Your cookies, I mean. Because they taste great."

Bo laughed lightly again.

"You guys like everything I make, though. What I really need is the approval of my baking teacher..."

Bo trailed off for a moment as he rested his hand over his heart and looked off into the distance with a cheesy longing sort of look before he abruptly reached out over Jerica to grab a cookie of his own, as if "Remy" was the one controlling him. Bo adjusted his had when he stood back up again with a goofy grin as he tossed the whole cookie into his mouth.

"Nah," Bo said through a mouthful of food. "Nebermimd. Bith ib gub."

Benji faltered.

"You can always mix it later," Daniel pointed out, taking a sip of his lemonade. What he wanted to tell Benji was that he didn't have to drink if he didn't want to, but he had a feeling that Benji was intentionally avoiding that topic. He would have to say something later when it was just the two of them or when Benji felt more comfortable around Elias.

Benji gave a little nod.

"I just want a soda," he said. Before Elias could grab one for him, he stuck his hand into the cooler and pulled out a can of coke.

Rek was doing this on purpose. He always did things like this. Anybody that Jerica talked about -- in any capacity -- was suspect for a crush in his eyes. At this point, he'd asked if she had a crush on all their mutual friends and the entirety of the football team as well.

She'd rolled her eyes when Rek asked about Carter. He was the kind of dude-bro whose apartment you broke into when you got bored. The person whose identity you stole for Halloween. Not the kind of person you brought home to Uncle Derik.

Rek had dropped it when she pointed that out.

But Bo was more problematic.

Because he was perfect.

And exactly the kind of person that would delight Derik if she brought him home. And there were only so many ways she could say 'just friends' before she realized that Rek was right and there was no good reason at all that she shouldn't have a crush on Bo -- aside from the fact that he was out of her league.

She just wished that he would stop being endearing for once in his life.

Because it was clear that Rek was still suspicious. And she was doing a shoddy job of maintaining the denial with her current level of intoxication.

She glanced at James and for the briefest moment panicked that he knew too -- but she quickly shook it away. There was nothing for him to know. They were all just friends. To drive the point home, she decided to be obnoxious. Again.

"What kind of a monster wouldn't like your cookies?" Jerica got on her tiptoes and awkwardly rested her elbow on Bo's shoulder. "What, does he kick puppies too? I'll fite him for you."

290 words

Elias shrugged. "Sure," he said right when he was about to reach in and toss him a pop, but Benji seemed to grab one before he could.

Popping his own Vizzy open and taking a healthy sip, he let out a refreshing "ah" and glanced between the two of them with a smile. "So, have you guys eaten yet? I think Bo made some ghost-shaped cookies that would match your outfit real well." He paused for a moment, frowning just a little. "He didn't make any dino ones, though..."

As if somehow understanding the conversation, both Benji and Daniel's stomachs rumbled.

"That answers your question," Daniel said with a grin. He slung an arm over Benji's shoulder out of what felt like habit; Benji stiffened a little. "Cookies sound great right now."

Daniel thought for a moment, then added, "Maybe you could ask him to make some dinosaur cookies later?"

"Actually," Bo said after swallowing so that he wasn't talking with a mouthful of food anymore. "My teacher's a she. And I don't think fighting her will get me better grades, but I appreciate it."

He reached over and patted Jerica on the head with a goofy grin.

"Besides, it would be weird for one of the frat guys to barge in and wrestle a teacher to the ground. Might get you famous on the internet, though."

"Do it for the memezzzzzzzzz," Jerica laughed, doing a double-peace sign as she grinned up at him.


"And for my Bo-Bo," Jerica said. Then she cleared her throat. "Hecc, you're doing a better job of my outfit than I am. One sec."

She cleared her throat dramatically again, then lowered her voice. "I mean, hey, man, anything for my bro, bro. I fite him. I fite her. I fite anyone for my homeboy. Bring it, Gordon Ramsay."

"Woooah, bro," Bo said, putting on a 'bro' voice for a moment before pulling back. He also had a character to keep. "As I said, man, you don't need to fight anyone. It's all good. Here. Have another cookie."

At that, Bo swiped another cookie off of one of the plates on the table and gently shoved it towards Jerica's mouth, putting it up against her lips.

"Make cookies, not war."

"Why--" She was cut off as the cookie slipped inside her mouth. She bit it and grabbed onto it so that the rest of it wouldn't fall. She chewed once to make it small enough that she could still talk. "Not both?"

She chewed the rest of the mouthful and swallowed, distracted from her offer as she realized just how good the cookie was. "Nevermind, the cookie is better than a war."

She finished off the rest of the cookie, reveling in the magic that was Bo's cookies. Every. Single. One. was always this incredible. She was becoming increasingly certain that Bo wasn't capable of making any sort of food that wasn't completely and utterly amazing.

"Real talk, though," she said earnestly, stepping forward to put a hand on his arm. It was kind of awkwardly just above his elbow since it seemed like far too much awkward effort to actually manage to pat his shoulder.

She really needed to shut up. 'Real talks' when she was this drunk always ended up with her shamelessly flattering whoever it was that she was talking to. And who knew what her drunken brain was going to come up with for someone as incredible as Bo? But, the compliments spilled out of her mouth before she had a chance to stop them.

"Like, I know that teachers have to be dicks because they're better than us, and they want us to get better at cooking -- well, your teacher wants you to get better at that, my teachers don't give a shit that I eat pizza rolls every day as long as I can catch fish good -- but! But. That just means that you're getting even better than better 'cause you're already better at cooking 'n baking 'n shit than the three of us combined."

She realized she might have accidentally insulted James and looked at him apologetically. "Sorry, James, I'm sure you're good at cooking too, but... it's Bo-Bo. And Rek and I aren't helping you bring up our average, we both suck."

"Hey!" Rek scoffed. Unlike Jerica, he wasn't bad at cooking. But she was absolutely right that Bo was in a completely different league. It was like that meme.


"Shh." She left her right hand on Bo's arm but reached out her left to put a finger on Rek's lips to make him be quiet. She accidentally poked his nose. "Oops."

He snorted and pulled his head away from her.

"For real, though." Jerica looked back at Bo with a stupid smile, cheeks slightly warm -- though from being this close to Bo or the alcohol she wasn't sure. Maybe both."Like, for real, for real. You're the best cook I've ever gotten to eat." Her eyes went wide and she continued quickly. "Like, your food 'n shit! I could eat it every day for the rest of my entire life and never ever ever get tired of it, it's so good and so are you... you're good. The goodest."

"Mmm, yeah, maybe," Elias said as he picked up a cookie, eating it way too quickly in front of two hungry men, but he had to be in character. Because he was a dinosaur. "I wonder if that'd be hard, though... With dino shapes and all."

Elias's mind wandered to that one time when he tried to horse-shaped cookies with Bo, and realizing it was a lot harder than it looked.


Elias didn't get that much time to remember that fond memory or imagine what it'd be like if the shape was dinos instead, because he noticed Carter sitting at a nearby couch. More importantly, however, was who he was sitting with. A girl dressed as a vampire nurse.

Genius. What a genius costume. Elias had to talk to her to find out the story behind it.

"Hey, have you guys met Carter?" Elias asked, turning his attention back to Daniel and Benji. "He's my bud. Wanna meet him?"

On the inside, James wanted to facepalm on Jerica's behalf, but in an effort to alleviate the potential awkwardness that could result from her oddly-worded compliment, he stayed quiet.

He was surprised that Bo seemed completely unfazed -- though perhaps he shouldn't have been. Bo often hung around crowds like this one, so he'd probably heard a lot of interesting semi-drunken things said to him and to others.

Bo laughed with a relaxed smile and reached down, patting Jerica's shoulder firmly.

"I should put that on a t-shirt or something. 'The goodest,'" Bo said, still with his hand on Jerica's shoulder. "I can imagine it now. Just like, plain text, right here."

He patted his chest.

"Hey, Jer-CARTER," Bo said, correcting himself. "And you could have one too that says 'the coolest' that's like the same vibe and font. I'm a genius. I'm an entrepreneur."

James found himself slowly drifting away as the conversation went on, and he quietly ducked away out the door, heading out toward the back porch.

The kitchen was getting crowded as more people flooded in, and it was getting loud, too. It was hard to hear everything clearly with the sound filling the whole room.

When he stepped out into the backyard, he was relieved to find that there were only a handful of people out there. It was just a group of four friends who'd found a corner, and it looked like they were just talking.

As he stepped off the porch, he found himself staring at the blood-red pool.



He found a pool chair that was a safe and comfortable distance from the water, sitting down under the shade of a tree.

He wasn't exactly shrouded in darkness, but it was nice to have a moment of quiet to breathe. At least, before people decided to pour out into the backyard.

Carter. Why did that name ring a bell-

Daniel looked where Elias had been glancing over at, and it suddenly clicked. They had interacted a little at Jer's football game, but he had been too preoccupied with Jer and Benji to really register who Carter was.

"We've met before," Daniel awkwardly said.

Benji gave him a look. Daniel faltered.

"We've been at a couple of the same events," he quickly added. He didn't want to clarify that said events were the kind that only wealthy people went to. Carter's family had money, just like Daniel's did. It made sense that they had interacted a few times at different luncheons and fundraising events. They weren't friends, but they knew each other.

Benji glanced between the two. He probably thought Daniel meant college events, and was likely trying to figure out what kind of events they would both be interested in. Daniel, who was suddenly feeling very self-conscious about his family being rich, took a large chug of his hard lemonade.