---

They drove in the dead of night, along the old familiar dirt rode that had always been the epitome of happiness and wonder, feeding their youthful sense of adventure. A time were a man could truly say he was innocent. All of those innocent, blissful times of riding dirt bikes in the hills of the outer parts of their Suburban Community where no other kid dared to venture had now been a mournful site as it was heading nowhere towards feeding to their recreation this time. Rather, heading towards the informal funeral of student they had to bury themselves and all of those good old bygone days, had just become meaningless days.

The dirt road, once in-formerly known as 'Cowboy's Road' by the young men in this vehicle had been a failed project of the Suburban community they lived in just outside of LA. The road managed to have stretched for 10 miles before being abandoned and is still there to this day. Rumor has it that it had originally been designed to be built as an exit road leading towards the highway, though only for contractors to figure out how inefficient it would've been to drivers and instead built it someplace else. To this day, the road remains forgotten to those except only a few, who had now used it as a burial ground.

"Okay, we're here. Daniel said nervously as the bright red 1995 Toyota Tacoma approached the end of the road all while trying to get a hold of himself. Despite being 46 degrees, Daniel could feel the sweat of his brow rain down his face and strike his shirt like bullets. It was almost as if he had mustered the courage to mutter that script he had held in his mind for so long while driving up to the middle of nowhere. Normally it would've been Alfredo who would've said it first given that he was the driver, but Daniel had to speak those first words as they approached the site just fifteen minutes outside of their town. Being first would make him feel as if he had some control over the situation that was at hand. Nobody else had even dared to utter a word. Even as they mournfully walked out of the Tacoma that belonged to Daniel's older cousin, Alfredo. It was 3am, the time which most supernatural fanatics often obsess over. The time of demons, and spirits who often came out in the eerie night to haunt the living. It was in that moment, Daniel began to believe the stories as the thoughts raced through his head.

Daniel had always been a skeptic, even growing up did he not take religion seriously, often using it as his alibi of being that 'picture perfect student' everyone envisioned him to be. If only they had seen him now, those pontificating thoughts would surly be diminished and as dead as he felt. Alfredo finally turned off the engine, leaving the headlights of his car turned on in order to illuminate the path they were going to walk towards. It was a beech tree that rested atop a hill among the shallow forest around them just fifteen feet ahead of them and they approached the site, Alfredo handed Daniel and his friend George two shovels from the open cargo area of his Tacoma, where the body which was covered in tarp had been laying this entire time. It wasn't supposed to go like this. He regretfully thought to himself.

"Start digging. Be committed to what you did. We'll get the body for you." Alfredo said solemnly, reciting the words of Daniel's father to order the two boys to dig. Daniel said nothing in return, turning to George who had been possessed with the same deathly look as the student below his bloody feet. His face flushed in the light that shone in the darkness that surrounded them.

"We're gonna... Have to get new shoes." Said George, looking down at his feet which were soaked in blood.

"No one gives a flying fuck about your shoes G!" Alfredo exclaimed, JC and Christopher were silent as they dropped the body just five feet from where the two boys were digging. For the first time in his life, Daniel had seen his older cousin, who was really more of a brother to him, turn angry in his life. Truly angry. By the time they dropped the body before them, George's face had turned into an even more pale look, he turned and looked at the mangled-up body of what once used to be a fellow student that had been now been wrapped in plastic bags like butchered meat. George paused, still staring at the body before turning his head to regurgitate the dinner he had at the Denny's they had eaten at a few hours before. "Oh for fucks sake Georgy!" Everyone around turned away from George in disgust.

"I can't, I can't, I-I-" Said George, who then began quietly weeping to himself.

"Alright, alright, alright!" Alfredo finally gave in. "But your bitch-ass is still going to help me." Alfredo grabbed the shovel from George, digging and letting him have a turn after a while before cycling through to JC and Christopher. After all, who couldn't feel sorry for him? George was a stupid, smart kid who lacked common sense though was good at math. An innocent boy, often not realizing the repercussions of his petty actions, though this was now anything but. Daniel left the digging to himself as the time painfully struggled to pass and the hole becoming deeper. This would be his punishment that he would have to commit to. After a few minutes past, the four foot hole was finally dug and the hour of demons finally passed though still haunting the minds of everyone there.

"Yo JC, Christopher you know what do to." Alfredo commanded to which they both nodded as George and Daniel climbed out of the hole. JC and Christopher ran towards the open cargo of the Tacoma, taking away the last of tarp that was covering the truck, revealing three large gasoline jugs that had been left for this reason. Together, they both poured two of the jugs over the hole, leaving a kiddie poll of gas before the body was quickly dropped in a few seconds later by Alfredo, Daniel, and George. The third gasoline jug was then showered over the body by Christopher. Without hesitating, Daniel quickly grabbed the box of matches he had in his pocket and lit the body below him, dropped the match box along with it all of them looking at the body of the student burn before them.

---

The abrupt morning alarm of Daniel's clock sung it's usual tune as he was lifted himself from consciousness, safe in his cloth bed on another dull Monday school-day morning in SoCal. He slowly opened his eyes to another morning to see his dark room, only slightly illuminated by the light of the outside world. Like most mornings he wanted to shut off the alarm and fall carelessly to bed, but again he forced himself out of his bed, knowing his cousin was to be waiting just outside for him in another fifteen minutes with George as they routinely did. Opening the windows of his room, the light from outside revealed yet again the the landscape of the picture-perfect American society in the hills of Southern California.

After getting ready, Daniel quickly made his way down the stairs after seeing that Alfredo had just pulled into the driveway. Grabbing an apple on the kitchen countertop for his breakfast, Daniel ran into his father and three year old sister, Maeve, who Daniel greeted with a kiss on the check before darting out of the door.

"Take care." His father told him as he packed Maeve to get her ready for daycare. It had been a year since she had been attending daycare ever since her mother, Marcella, took a small break from community college professing at the Biology department to focus on nurturing her newborn. It was this year that the Rivas family was going to make the money they have always wanted to again, being able to expand their small landowning business.

"See you." Daniel said routinely, as he briskly made his way out of the door to where a hungover Alfredo was siting in his Tacoma with George, looking as angry as usually did every tedious Monday mornings. Daniel whoever was first greeted by the cooling pacific winds of Los Angeles that was just an hour from where they lived before, this would be a good morning, but for the love of him, Daniel could not figure out why.

"Yo, how long are you gonna take? ¡Ya apúrate güey! You ain't walkin' on no catwalk, hurry yo ass up foo'!" Alfredo exclaimed. It had been the last summer since his older cousin had gotten his driver's licence and had now tasked himself with taking Daniel to school to save time for Daniel father to get to his job as a therapist. As he approached the car, Daniel saw the eager look on George's face, who he had not seen all weekend.

"Wassup homie!" George cheerfully before letting his hand to greet Daniel, just as cringy as he usually sounded when he tried to act cool though they had gotten used hearing it. Entering the vehicle, Alfredo revved his engine and took off to their first day of the second week of school at Hillcrest.

Monday - August 13, 2004. Southern California. Sophomore Year.

The alarm clock on Chris’ bedside table let out a shrill beep for the third time that morning, which he once again silenced with a closed fist, as he lay naked under the covers, his head propped up against a small mountain of pillows.

“Given up on school already?” Maria, the girl lying in bed next to him, equally naked, asked in her smooth Californian accent.

“If only.” Chris chuckled, scooping his carton of cigarettes up off of the table, and taking a look inside.

Five left. Fuck.

Opening his lighter with a sharp click, Chris lit the straight, taking a long drag, before blowing a waft of faint grey smoke out into the air.

“If you’re gonna insist on smoking, you should at least eat something first,” Maria frowned “that can’t be a healthy way to start your day off.”

“It's not healthy at all, love,” Chris said with a smirk, taking another drag “but the good things in life rarely are.”

“Well, some of us have school,” Maria sighed, slipping out from underneath the duvet “and whether you’re joining me or not, I don’t wanna be late.”

“Alright, babe. Give us a second.” the young man grumbled, hopping out of bed and fishing his boxers off of the floor, cigarette leaning out of the side of his mouth.

Chris took the opportunity to steal a few drawn-out glances at Maria’s naked body, whilst he continued to puff away at his straight.

“Chris, have you seen my bra?”

“Hmmm?”

“For fuck’s sake, stop gawking,” she laughed, rolling her eyes “we’re gonna be late.”

“Why don’t you come over here and stop me?” He teased, stubbing his cigarette out on the ashtray which sat next to his alarm clock.

Before too long they were both dressed and heading out the door, making their way down the street to where Maria’s toyota was parked.

“Bloody california sun,” Chris mumbled, lighting himself another cigarette “I can’t see a thing, and it's fucking boiling.”

“It’ll do some good for that pasty white british complexion of yours.” Maria grinned, as they slipped into the car.

Chris wound down the window, blowing smoke out into the street, whilst Maria started the ignition.

“You planning on learning to drive anytime soon?” She asked, one eye still on Chris, as she reversed out into the street.

“Maybe one day,” he shrugged “there’s always later, right?”

"Mom, have you seen my shoes? Mom?"

Hurrying out from her bedroom, Haven blinked at the sound of an empty house. Had her parents already left for the day? Seriously? "Mom? Dad? Hellooooo?" She continued to make her way through the three thousand square foot house in search of them. With a scoff, she peeked into their room and found their daily belongings were gone. Well, so much for them saying goodbye. She really shouldn't have been surprised- her parents were hardly around.

She shook her head again and started peeking through her mother's things. Seeing a couple twenty-dollar bills sitting on the dresser, Haven gave a small smirk and snatched them up. Obviously the money wasn't very important if her mother could have just left it behind so carelessly. Stuffing the bills into the back pocket of her jean capris, she hurried back out to the living room. She was about to give up on her black sandals when she noticed them sticking out from underneath the coffee table. Groaning, she rolled her eyes. Her mother was constantly using her things and never putting them back where she originally had them. She so couldn't wait to have her own place.

With a final look at herself in the mirror- solid purple t-shirt, dark jean capris, and her hair and makeup all set, she grabbed her keys and book bad before heading out to her car. The junior received the purple Volkswagen Beetle for her sixteenth birthday and it was her most prized possession. She quickly backed out of the driveway before sending a text to her group of friends, letting them know she was on her way.

---

“Yo, Jay. JC. Wake up, man! We’re gonna be late!”

The voice of his younger brother brought Jameson Radley away from Dreamland and back to the real world. It was early Monday morning: his first day of senior year, and Jasper Radley’s first day of high school. It seemed like just yesterday that JC was getting into fights in the elementary school backyard, sticking up for his brother after some bullies had been teasing him. And today, his baby brother would be joining him in the jungle that was high school. Time sure flew, and it was JC’s job to make sure Jasper’s time in high school went smoothly and that he didn’t get into the wrong crowds. Lord only knew JC didn’t want his brother to follow the same path he had. Jasper deserved to be the one to go far in life.

The older Radley’s lack of response made Jasper anxious, as was obvious in the way he was tapping his foot on the floor. After another minute with no response from JC, the younger teen shook his brother’s figure harder, and blurted out a loud: “JAMESON!”

Finally, a hand emerged from under black covers, waving Jasper away. “Fuck, man… I’m up, I’m up. Just… Gimme a sec.”

Jasper rolled his eyes at his older brother, but ultimately did as he was told. “Okay, okay! But hurry up, man! I don’t wanna be late on the first day.”

JC waved Jasper away again, his eyes still closed under the covers and his voice thick with sleep. “Damn, Jasper, take a chill pill. I’ll be right there. You know I’m not a morning person.”

With a deep sigh, Jasper left the room, and after another long minute Jameson Radley finally pulled off the covers off himself. After a few seconds of staring blankly at the ceiling and a long sigh, JC slowly got up from his bed and trudged his way out of his room and into the bathroom.

Once in the bathroom and behind a closed door, JC watched his reflection in the mirror. The older Radley teen’s black hair was a mess of wild curls, tangled after a night of restless sleep. Under his brown eyes were a matching pair of dark circles, and over his pale, muscled body he wore nothing more than a pair of black Calvin Klein boxer briefs. He slipped those off to take a lukewarm shower -more cold than hot- to wash the sleep and the last night sin’s away, enjoying the feeling of the trickling water down his body. Once out, dried and with the damp towel wrapped around his midriff, JC made his way back to his room to choose whatever outfit he could organize the quickest. He then attempted to style his messy hair so it didn’t make him look as unkempt before gathering the essentials in his backpack and heading down to breakfast, leaving a scent trail of expensive perfume behind him.

About forty-five minutes later, JC and Jasper were kissing their mother good-bye after breakfast and taking their respective seats on JC’s car. The ride to school was a short but entertaining one: like all the ones that had happened since JC had received his Mustang as a Sweet Sixteen gift from his father. The Radley boys had made it their tradition to do a car karaoke every morning on their way to school. Today, it was Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen spirit blasting through the convertible antique car’s speakers, with JC and Jasper singing along to the long-gone Kurt Cobain. The boys attracted stares from their schoolmates as they entered the school parking lot, but neither of them seemed to mind.

As soon as the car’s engine had been shut off, Jasper jumped off the car and raced to the building. His brother, however, made up a feeble excuse -that Jasper never bought, but chose to ignore nonetheless- and stayed in the car for a little bit longer. He’d received some requests for delivery of ‘products’ before classes started, and since his motto had always been to tend to his ‘clients’ first, Jameson made sure to handle his ‘business’ beforehand.

"Ayyy, yo!" George said, wanting to get the attention of his two friends, though they did best to ignore any dumb sentiment he would add today and listened intensively to the radio which had been playing The Light by Common. Both had enjoyed the silence of the morning, especially Alfredo who seemed to relish in the subtlety of silence had it not been for George who often broke it. "Yo." Alfredo shook his head again, he didn't want to have to deal with this again on top of his hangover.
"Yo man!" George pranced from his leather seat in the back of the truck and trusted himself in between Daniel and Alfredo who were sitting in the front of the Tacoma.

"Yo the fuck you want this time Georgy?" Alfredo calmly responded, restraining his anger before letting out a painful sigh. Although he didn't expect any less from George, for was a smart teenager like none other: annoying, cringy, and completely unaware of either one of those attributes; An 'absent minded soon-to-be professor', as his teachers called him. One could say that most could get used to his behavior as most did, though not Alfredo had yet to do so.

"I got an idea man."

"Not another one." Daniel said.

"Yo man, you know Jesus right?" Georgy added in a more serious tone.

"The guy who cuts your lawn? Yeah, I know him." Alfredo interrupted, he was known for his sense of humor though only this time had managed to be the only one to chuckle.

"Nah, nah, bro. Listen up: Jesus Lopez." Alredo gave a strange look and jerked his head back as soon as they hit a stop sign as if he didn't expect good old Georgy boy to know about someone like Jesus Lopez. Then again, George often had a tendency of surprising everyone.

"How do you know about Jesus Lopez? I thought he was just some regular." Alfredo said, smiling in disbelief through his white teeth. A regular being someone who wasn't apart of their curriculum, a student enrolled in regular college perp with maybe the addition of just one or two honor's classes hence the term. "You fags don't hang out with guys like him." The tone of his voice still the same.

"You never mind about that." George said, though from a subtle tone which Daniel who know George for years sensed that there was something sly in what George was planning and Alfredo did too. Shaking his head, Alfredo lowered the volume of the good music of Common playing on the radio to listen to what good old Georgy boy had to say. "Listen, you know how we're tight with Mr. Jacobs and Mr. Anderson?" Alfredo exchanged a look through the rear view mirror of the truck as if to say: So?. George paused, to let them listen in.

So, a bit of context for you:

Mr. Jacobs was the school janitor, notorious for being cool with all the students at our school. There was an aura about him that made every student there want to be cool with Thomas Jacobs as many of the students were often seen talking to the man every once in a while. He became known as "Mr. Clean" due to his bald head and his good looks and one of the first nickname you'd hear at your first year at Hillcrest would be his. It was shortly after his hiring on campus did Hillcrest see less of a mess on campus out of respect for him. No more clogging of toilets, no more wet toilet paper rolls being thrown at doors in the hallways. He even often broke up fights and served more as a security guard who worked as hard as any school would want an employee to do than just a regular janitor.

Though as much as he worked hard, rumor has it that Mr. Jacobs had a tendency of falling asleep during the later after-school hours and it was during those after-school programs that one student conjured up an idea to do something with the keys Mr. Jacobs had on him while he took his two hour nap. Turns out that same person was Jesus Lopez, a trouble making little brat raised by his union working father and lawyer mother. Jesus Lopez wasn't a spoiled middle class kid as he has often had a habit of 'retrieving' merchandise he 'found' and sold it for hard cash. With the keys to a class or storage room, there's no telling what he could sell with whatever he could 'find.' This for him was just another opportunity to take advantage of. The problem was that the teachers at the school knew Jesus all too well, and thus would suspect the notorious opportunist which is why he asked our group of petty crime-doing honors kids to help with his plan.

The plan was to start off slow, maybe steal a couple of petty things from the school. It was George who came up with the idea of stealing tests that teachers would print out two weeks before they would be handed out to the students and since they were coming up soon, the pressure of time would come to our favor. Most teachers had a habit of doing so and if our little gang of overachieving honor students could crack the solutions, we could sell the answers to those students who had little or wanted little time to study at all. Whatever reasons, George had thought it was a good idea: a petty job that could earn us a few bucks. One of the things they overlooked was that if they could sell so many tests to students and have the school perform better on tests, wouldn't they look suspicious? The answer is: Yes. So George thought the idea of selling them via a price-range. For example, if you wanted an A, the solution would be 30 bucks, a B would land you at a 15, a C would be 10. A perfect score however would cost you about 35, maybe 40 depending on the class, though we had yet to figure it that out unless we were to also stumble upon a holy grail of key solutions.

The only thing that was required, and the reason why Jesus chose us for this job, had to be that it must be us that stole the tests from the classrooms. Mr. Anderson, the other guy mentioned, would be our key, given that he was the host of most of the after-school club meetings we were in charge of at the time. We could easily have someone take charge of the club, keeping them distracted while the rest of us went on this little scavenger hunt. Because who would expect a teacher's pet to steal shit from behind your back? It was a good idea and another fun way to spend our time away from the typical hum-drum bullshit in the suburbs of SoCal.

"Listen man, I don't work for no one." Alfredo firmly stated, as the Tacoma approached the school and dove into the parking lot.

"You won't be working under him. All he asks for is a cut since he'll even help sell them if we finish the solutions to the tests he'll give out." George explained. Alfredo shook his head again, though this time with a smirk and a short pause to think about it as the Tacoma's engine was shut off.

"Well, I mean it sounds legit." Daniel agreed. "You know we could get away with it." Alfredo then solemnly gave Daniel a look of concur before speaking. It was in that moment that the group had gotten a text from Haven telling the group that she would be arriving soon. She often had tendency of telling the group she was on her way. It was her reliability that made her all the more innocent-looking, just like the rest of the group. Knowing that they were all honor's students, Alfredo knew they could do it without getting caught and even if they were, they could be let off the hook since they were favored against a students like Jesus anyway.

"Alright, I'll hit up JC about it at Econ today." He said as they got out of the Tacoma and walked towards the entrance of Hillcrest, its gates wide and welcoming the students to their first day at school once again. "Speaking of which..." Alfredo looked ahead of him to see that JC had finally gotten onto campus. Making short eye contact with him, Alfredo nodded and approached him with George and Daniel at his side. "What's up man?" Alfredo said as he offered his hand towards the tall, bearded senior they haven't seen since last week when it was still summer break for them.

"Boy do we have a job for you!" Interrupted George, again with his usual, annoying tone of voice.

@Dirty Pretty Lies

Driving around town in her car was Haven's absolute favorite thing to do. Thanks to her parents loving their oh-so-perfect daughter, her Beetle was completely hooked up- with convertible top and all. She would often drive around with the top down, pop music blasting out of the speakers. When she wasn't in town around others who knew her, that's when her most favorite music was cranked up- hip-hop. Haven didn't know why she loved the music, but she was able to move to it so much better than any bubblegum music.

It took a mere five minutes for the junior to arrive at the school. Quickly finding a spot, she pulled it and lowered the sound from her Sirius radio station. She grabbed her purse and searched for a hairbrush before dragging it through her hair. Looking in the side view mirror, she confirmed that everything was straight and ready for the day. She put the top up of her car and grabbed her bag before finally stepping out of the vehicle- and into the sight of the boys.

Glancing around, she slid the straps of her book bag onto her shoulders before making her way over to them. George seemed like he was going to fly out of his pants with excitement- yet he naturally always seemed to be that way. It tugged a small grin from the corner of her lips. At least nothing had ever changed with him. For the rest of them...It seemed as though everything had changed at a very rapid pace.

Haven finally approached the small group and she cleared her throat, folding her arms across her chest. "What's this about a job?" She stood across from JC, purposely ignoring him. There was something about the boy that she just never quite liked- but she wouldn't be completely rude about it. After all, that wasn't what was expected of the God-fearing perfect teenage girl.

---

Having finished with orders for the morning, JC finally exited his vintage Mustang and made his way to the school building, black backpack over his shoulder. From out of the corner of his eye he saw a familiar Tacoma riding up and taking up an available parking spot. A trio of boys jumped out of it, but the bearded young man paid no attention to them and continued on his way. It was only when JC was near the entrance that he caught the eye of Alfredo Zapien, a classmate and customer of his, flanked by George Kowalewski and Daniel Rivas at either side of him. Alfredo and JC shook hands, firm grips from both boys before the former greeted the latter. But before JC could reply, George piped up in that annoying voice of his something about having a job for him. Once again, JC was left with his mouth open about to reply when another interruption came in the form of a blonde girl. Leave it to annoying as hell Haven Michael to be nosey and rude and butt into a conversation that she wasn’t a part of. This annoyed the usually chill JC, and even more so when the blonde had the audacity to ignore him. The young man couldn’t help but let out a scoff.

“Well good morning to you too, Haven.” JC said sarcastically, making a point out of how Haven had ignored him. In all honesty, Haven was one of the few girls in school he’d never tried to go after. It wasn’t because she wasn’t attractive -because God, she had a nice ass and a good-looking rack- but more because he knew she would be a challenge. The idea of getting this shy, well-to-do girl back to bed with him was a hot one for sure, but in JC’s eyes this was no time to go through unnecessary work. Why bother with a difficult girl when he could have a much better-looking one with absolutely no issues. Leave it to Jameson to always take the easy way out.

But focusing back on current events…

The tall man turned his eyes from the blonde girl and onto the group of buys in front of him. “A job, you say?” JC drawled, crossing his arms in front of his chest and raising a questioning eyebrow at Alfredo and Daniel. They both knew about his ‘business’, so why would they let George of all people talk to him about a so-called ‘job’? “Well, I already have a job, so this better be a hell of a proposal. Let's hear it then, Kowalewski”