While Sonny Drake was more than excited to finally start his final year at King’s Academy, what he could do without were the classes. His teachers weren’t particularly horrible or annoying like the ones he had in the three years prior to 2018, but god, they pitched the same BS that made Sonny want to kill himself. The same ‘Welcome back’, same ‘this is your final year’ bullshit that made the teen regret not taking up his parents’ offer to homeschool him. Though, that probably would’ve ended up being just as torturous as what he had to go through for the fourth time now.

And he never thought he’d say this but thank GOD for Santiago Fernandez. The second that word spread that Mr. Tuco Salamaca himself was throwing a pool party, regardless how he might feel about the man and how he has caused some uneasy mood swings with his close friend, Stella, Sonny was ready to let loose, forget about school, and cause a little trouble; and not necessarily in that order, either. The good thing about it being a pool party, Sonny didn’t have to fumble into his walk-in closet on the Friday evening after finishing his shift at Asgard Fitness about what he was going to wear. A simple pair of dark blue swimming trunks from his father’s time as a teen and a white tank top was all that the boy needed.

As soon as he had taken a shower and got himself dressed, Sonny was practically out the door, texting Marisol. That was, of course, until he met his own little blocker of sorts.

“Mom, I’m kind of in the middle of going somewhere.”

Sonny’s mother, Viola Banks-Drake, had her arms crossed over her chest, looking at her son with what could only be described as a disapproving glare. “Are you forgetting something?”

“No but I’m sure you’re going to tell me.”

“It’s Friday.”

“Gee, mom, I didn’t know that. Thank you so much for that vital piece of information,”

He saw that she rolled her eyes at his unwanted snark. “Today is the annual Drake Family Night.”

Oh. “Fuck, that’s tonight!?”

Viola shook her head. “Honestly, JJ, what am I going to do with you? Your father is usually the one who gets on top of these things, but he’s stuck at work, so it’s just the two of us.”

Sonny let go of whatever attitude he had. It was unlike his mother to show such..such - well, venerability in front of him, so he figured the least he could do was not to sass her like he liked to. Instead, he let out a defeated sigh and gave her a sympathetic look. “I know Dad is working late tonight. He told me a bit of it when I had my after school shift over at the Asgard building. He said something about a shipment of the wrong energy drinks coming in and that’s why he’s not home yet.”

Viola nodded, "he called me just an hour ago with the same news. I’m bummed if I’m being honest.”

“Mom, what’s wrong? You’re not usually like this.”

She sighed, “okay truth is, we wanted to talk to you about something important. Preferably, it was going to be a surprise, but I guess Jackson won’t totally kill me if I told you myself.”

“And what would that be?” Sonny asked, equally curious and confused.

She took in a deep breath and spoke. “We’re worried about you, Sonny. We know all of your friends have shown interest in college and you haven’t said a single thing. Even Kavi, that Salvador kid, has stated he’s going to the University of Florida--”

“So he says,” Sonny said under his breath, earning a disapproving glare from his mother.

“This is serious, Jackson Torvald!”

And there she was. Sonny was beginning to wonder where his mother was hiding. “Ouch. The middle name too. This must be the real deal,” he joked, keeping on with his attitude.

“Do you not have any plans to pursue your education past high school?”

That was a good question. Sonny honestly wasn’t looking that far ahead. If he was being totally honest, the teen was mostly focused on getting through his final year at King’s Academy. Any plans past the graduating year of 2019 wasn’t a big concern to him. And why should it? Who said that Sonny had to make any huge life decisions? He could take a year or two to think it over. With how good he has it at home and how he’ll likely move up the ranks at his father’s gym that he co-owns with Marisol’s mother, he’s set.

“I can’t do this now. I’m late for the party,” Sonny fumbled for his words, brushing past the subject - and with a gentle nudge -his mother.

“But Sonny--”

Before he could hear what she had to say, Sonny had left the house and was in his truck. He sat there on his phone as he texted the following to Marisol.

One thing that Kavi Salvador learned during the first week of senior year was that, contrary to King’s Academy’s ‘no tolerance’ rule to bullying, he didn’t receive any real punishment for how he may have treated Elijah Abrams. Not that Kavi felt he deserved any punishment. In his opinion, he did nothing wrong. The Jewish teen was the one who threw the first punches, but Kavi knew not to push his luck, so he gave Eli a sort of break from the usual, daily torture of his company. Besides, Kavi was too busy actually trying not to land in detention in the first week of the school year. It would look particularly unsavory on his college applications if he had a few dozen trips to detention on his record.

As soon as Friday came around - or more specifically - the end of the school day on the start of the first weekend, Kavi couldn’t wait to get the fuck out of that place for the next two and a half days. As far as he was concerned, school didn’t matter. This was especially true when the horizon of that party everyone had been going on about all day. Initially, Kavi wasn’t going to go. Lord knew that he couldn’t stand that overconfident asswipe, Santiassgo, but when he started hearing murmurs about who exactly was attentending (A.K.A. everyone who mattered in the senior class), he quickly changed his tune. He had no idea if the other misfits would attend. It wouldn’t be a terrible thing if he managed to see them at the party, but he had his own ride. Despite Sonny telling him he would be picking most of them up on his way, the Polynesian male had his own ride.

Surprise surprise. His ride happened to be his own car. Imagine that right? Kavi actually would want to use his own vehicle. Besides, Sonny was likely to use that beaten up truck he liked flinging around town. Kavi would rather arrive stag as opposed to being seen in that hunk of junk. No, Kavi would be driving his own Lexus that was, of course, top of the line for someone his age. His parents didn’t make mega money like most of the rich fuckers in Crown Heights, but it was a good 90K (cost wise) kind of vehicle. Easily something his parents didnt mind getting for him. He just had to pay the insurance.

At some point, Kavi pulled up to Santiago’s home, which was obviously his parents’ money, not the glorified dumbfuck. God, if there was anyone that Kavi wouldn’t mind see get deported back to whatever third country he crawled out of, it would be Santiago. For now, however, he’d just give the best fake, grateful greeting to the party’s host.

After spending just one moment of doing that, however, Kavi, who was wearing a pair of red swimming shorts and a black tank top, made his way over to the refreshments table. As it would happen, he saw someone else had beaten him to it. It only took him a few moments of seeing her turn to face him (by coincidence, of course), he saw who it was. “Hey, Ariel,” Kavi smiled towards her, letting his smile do all the talking, completely ignoring Jordan. “You’re looking great in that two-piece.” Kavi poured himself a glass of vodka while offering to refill hers.

Contrary to what the popular opinion about Kavi Salvador was, he wasn’t the whole round moon of an asshole - just some people rubbed him the wrong way. The thing about Kavi was that he often felt like people judged him simply because he enjoyed tormenting the nerds every now and then - well, one nerd named Elijah Abrams. He didn’t like him that much and Elijah didn’t like Kavi, so it worked out well for the both of them. Kavi could torment him and Elijah simply waited until it was over and went about his day. But when it came to others like Jordan Henderson, the teen felt like there was potential not to be a total ass - the kind of guy that Stella often saw in him. Why that one felt the need to see the kind of guy he used to be has always been a mystery to Kavi.

So that’s why he didn’t jump down this British guy’s throat as soon as he talked, despite how much of Kavi’s being was telling him to make some kind of stereotypical quip about the stereotypical English jock. Or how stupid his accent was, but Kavi wasn’t going to do that because of one reason: he’d rather not get turned down by Ariel, not when she was looking oh-so-good. The additional fact was he and Ariel -at least from where Kavi stood - were friendly. So why ruin that by being a dick to a guy who he didn’t have any real problems with.

He didn’t bother speaking to Jordan, though he did return his handshake, arrogantly smirking at him. It was that type of smirk that spoke volumes without Kavi having to actually utter a single word. It basically said ‘I’m better than you and you know it’.

After that moment faded, he went back to ignoring the polite turd. “Well, ya know, I figured El Asso deserved only the best that Kavi Salvador had to offer,” he bragged, smiling. He leaned in such a way that sort of shoved Jordan away so that Kavi had Ariel to himself - well, at least was within her immediate radius. “Seeing as how this is a party and all,” Kavi smiled at Ariel while also giving Jordan a superior gaze before returning to Ariel’s shorter form, “let's go dance.” Kavi didn’t really wait for a response. Being the kind of dominant teen he was, he led Ariel away by taking her hand.

As Sonny sat there in his 2015 orange Dodge Ram, he thought about why he even had his motorcycle. Sure, the teen enjoyed the thrill of going between vehicles when he sped through the highway. The rapidly increasing winds against his clothing was so exhilarating and pumped him with such adrenaline, it almost made having it worthwhile, but then he thought of how frequently he drove his truck. Compared to the amount of days since he received both as a birthday gift when he turned sixteen, he drove his truck way more often than he did his bike. Such as now. Instead of arriving in a zooming-through-the-streets Kawasaki Ninja motorcycle, he opted for the more leisure-friendly Dodge Ram.

He didn’t know how long he was zoned out because the minute he came out of it, he heard the passenger door of his truck slam, causing the teen to look over. He briefly looked at the time and couldn’t believe how on-the-dot she was. “You know when I said ten minutes, I didn’t mean exactly ten minutes,” he rolled his eyes, smiling at Marisol.

The girl looked up from where she’d been buckling up her seat belt with a raised eyebrow. “You want me to go back?” Marisol asked him sarcastically, pointing back at her home’s front door with her thumb. “Because I can go back. Spend an extra fifteen minutes doing some gay ass thing like putting on makeup and shit.”

“Now I know you’re joking. You never put makeup on, miss ‘I’m a boy! Hear me roar!’” Sonny laughed as he started up the truck and pulled out of the parking lot and turned the truck to face the direction that Santiago’s house was. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Mari roll her eyes at him, but there was the tell-tale smile on her face that let him know she wasn’t being serious. “But as you said, time to fuck shit up, girl.”

The girl let out a loud whooping sound and knocked on the roof of the vehicle a few times before turning her attention to the road again. When noticed Sonny making the moves to turn in the direction of Diablo’s house, she suddenly put a hand on his chest. “STOP!” she cried out, effectively gaining his attention and the truck coming to a full-stop. “I told Archie and Jun we were picking them up,” Mari informed her best friend, shooting him the grimacing smile she always put up when she knew she was - or could get - in trouble.

“And when were you going to tell me this?” Sonny rolled his eyes again. He was clearly annoyed. “Nevermind that, he lives close by, right? Tell him to finish powdering his nose and be ready. I am not going to be waiting for his candy ass to be ready. My truck, my time. Be sure he knows that,” Sonny demanded, livid that Marisol couldn’t tell him this before they were already halfway to Santiago’s house. “As for Jun, tell him the same thing - just Asian-fy it.” He again told her, turning his truck around, heading straight for Archer’s home.

All throughout Sonny’s rant, Marisol had been looking out the window with raised eyebrows and a bored look on her face. No matter how dickish Sonny was on a regular basis, the promise of a party always cheered him up, to the point that he turned into a somewhat tolerable person to others. But the girl sensed that there was something more pissing him off beyond the whole ‘you didn’t tell me we were giving a ride to other people’ thing. That he would answer was a very long shot, but Mari figured she would ask anyway to let him know she at least gave a shit.

"We gonna talk about the stick up your ass, or do we pretend it's not there?" the brunette asked bluntly, turning her serious green eyes to the boy sitting next to her.

Right. Marisol obviously knew him better than anyone did. Of course she could tell something else was bothering him. “What else do you think? My fucking mom is on my case, wanting to know my life plans and all that shit,” he said, turning a corner. He saw Archer’s house wasn’t far. At the end of the block, it looked like.

“Ah…” was the only thing Marisol would say at first, grimacing in sympathy. “That shit is fucking annoying as hell, man. I figure I’ll start hearing the same thing soon. But, like, just don’t stress over it. Next time she asks just come up with some bullshit, convincing answer and leave it at that. Say you want to be a fucking engineer or some shit. Folks love hearing fancy titles like that.”

“You honestly think my mom would believe that, of all people, I would have any interest in becoming someone like Howard-Fucking-Wolowitz?” Sonny let out a loud laugh, finding the suggestion of becoming an engineer funnier than what his mother’s reaction to that would be.

“True…” she mused, but then noticed the slight change in his voice, and instinctively place her hand on his free right one. “Just… Don’t think about it too much, Son. At least not tonight, anyway.”

“I don’t plan on it.”

It was just a short moment later that Sonny arrived at the end of the block, seeing Archer waiting for them. “Amazing. He actually listened for once,” Sonny commented at how surprised he was about Archer’s punctuality.

As the huge orange truck rolled up Archer couldn't help but roll his eyes. Of course Sonny needed the largest truck in Crown Heights. When the pair reached his driveway Archer exhaled in preparation for what awaited inside the car. He opened the door to the backseat and poked his head in.

“So why in all that is holy are we going to this?” he whined as he buckled his seat belt.

“Feel free to walk if you don’t like it, Tinkerbell.” Sonny retorted, which earned him a scathing glare from Marisol.

“Thanks for answering the question, ass-breath.” Archer huffed already annoyed, settling back into the plush seating. Say what you will about Sonny's truck, the inside was really nice. Looking around, Archer’s eyes fell on the center console, where Marisol's hand rested on Sonny's. The young man shot his friend a look and cleared his throat.

Marisol quickly moved her hand away from Sonny’s as if it had burned her. She just knew the new passenger would have a few things to say about it later, so best not give him more reason to say stuff. Instead, she turned back to Archer with a teasing smile. “We’re going to Santiago’s because we need to get our asses out of our houses and go have some fun,” she declared, shifting back to her previous front-facing position.

Sonny didn’t bother responding in turn to Archer. He didn’t see a point. Only thing he wanted to focus on was that Marisol had claimed the passenger front seat and he was forced to sit in the cramped backseat. On that note, Sonny started to drive out of the block that Archer lived at, taking a right turn, going towards where he remembered Jun lived.

Along the way, Sonny decided to turn on some music. He pressed the power button on his stereo. As a song would turn on, of all tracks that would play, that one song that Sonny remembered had played during the night at the lake that he and Marisol shared. “What are the odds?” He laughed, slyly looking Mari’s way.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me…” the young woman muttered, her cheeks reddening as she quickly caught onto the song playing. She turned her head in the direction of the window, away from both Sonny and Archer’s eyes. It was as if the universe was hellbent on embarrassing Marisol, and this made her nervous as fuck.

Deciding to ignore whatever tender moment the couple up front were having, Archer decided to concentrate on his phone where he was typing a text message to Kavan:



He pressed send and looked out the window at the huge houses flashing by, recognizing that they were getting close to the area where Jun lived.

Sonny smiled, daring his teasing eyes in the direction that Marisol seemed to be avoiding. Her anxiety obvious to him, though he happen to notice Archer appeared to be confused by the reactions of Sonny and Marisol when the song came up. Perfect. He took this opportunity to not only stick it to Archer by further confusing him but also teasing Marisol just a bit. He would do this by turning up the song.

“You know, I really love this song. The kind of track that’s perfect for the summer. Wouldn’t you agree, Lil Shady?”

Not once taking her eyes off the window, Marisol made a fake sound of agreement and began to chew on her thumb nail, praying for the song to be over soon.

The cadence of Sonny’s voice suggested he was up to something and Archer usually wanted nothing of it but he took the bait this time. He narrowed his eyes and bit his lip as to not blurt something out, assuming the asswhipe didn’t know that Archer was aware of the pair doing the devil’s tango during the summer.

“How so?” he played along, acting dumbfounded.

“Just listen to it. Wouldn’t you want this song to play during your summer party? It speaks something to you, doesn’t it?”

“Can we just, like, change the station or something?” Marisol finally burst out, glaring at Sonny. “Or, better yet, how about we just listen to each other’s beautiful voices for the rest of this trip? Okay? Awesome.” She didn't wait for an answer before stretching out her hand and turning down the volume of the radio. Mari knew Sonny was doing things to purposely tease her now, and she would not stand for it. While it was the two of them, she didn't care. Hell, even with Archer around it was still tolerable. But to risk Jun finding out? She would never hear the end of it.

“Lame.” Archer offered with a small smile on his face, figuring he hadn't tortured his friend enough for dragging him out. He settled back in his seat. “I thought for a second that I was going to witness something beautiful just then, I guess it was just a regular old song.” he let out a small sigh and opened his phone again to scroll through his instagram feed not really paying any attention to what was flashing on his screen.

Sonny didn’t bother responding to either. Archer was being his usual self that would only rile up the teen even more and Marisol was likely not to particularly like what Sonny had to say, so he would simply search through the local radio stations, stumbling on another alternative rock station that played in the area.

When he finally stumbled on a station, Sonny turned the volume up a few clicks. And at the same time Sex on Fire by Kings of Leon played, they had arrived at Jun Wang’s house. In his mind, he was thinking how much fun this really was going to be: Jun just coming in as another song that played during that night started playing. He was loving this, but he knew well Mari wasn’t.

”Hurry it up, Jungkook,” Sonny shouted to the baseball cap-wearing Jun.

“Took you long enough.” Jun uttered back as he entered the truck, taking his seat next to Archer. “Anyway, what's up? Everyone ready for El Diablo?”

Archer gave a grumbling grunt in response finally looking up from his phone to playfully punch his friend on the shoulder as a greeting.

“Fuck Diablo -human piece of shit. I'm ready to get Lit. As. Fuuuuuuuck.” Marisol piped up from the front passenger seat, turning around long enough to shoot Jun a grin and fistbump him in greeting.

“You know, alcohol isn’t that hard to get a hold of. You don’t need Diablo to get white girl crazy.”

The girl snorted, shaking her head at him. “Who said anything about alcohol? I'm talking about that premium ass strawberry kush you can find at his parties. Fucking amazing, man. I can already smell it…” she trailed off, closing her eyes and taking in a deep breath as if she could literally smell and feel the heavenly herbal berry smoke scratching her throat and filling up her lungs. Delicious.

Archer also let out his own snort at Mari’s comment. She hated that he smoked, but hearing her speak about that dank kush just rang a little hypocritical in his ears. “But what will mother dearest say about that?” he asked in a fake innocent tone. The boy knew he is scared of Soleil, and can just imagine how the girl felt about her mother.

“What mother dearest doesn't know can't hurt her,” Mari said with a smug smile and a shrug. “Plus, mother dearest used to blaze it up too back in the day. She can't really say much.”

“Sonny! Turn this truck around! This girl is going straight to rehab! She needs help! She’s in too deep!” Jun’s tone was exaggerated and melodramatic; speaking to the idea that this was one of those “jokes” he found so funny. And Marisol’s giggle was proof of it.

Already, Sonny knew this was going to be a long drive to Santiago’s house. ”Then what does that say about you, hmm?” Sonny laughed, rolling his eyes at Jun.

“Sir, sir. Drugs are bad. I would never partake in such a scandalous and deviant habit.”

“Nobody says you have to do drugs, Jun.”

“But how will I ever become one of the cool kids?”

“You are in the wrong car, bud!” Archer said and let out a laugh patting Jun on the back.

Sonny gave Jun a smile through the mirror, chuckling lowly at Archer’s comment. Stranger things have happened.. ”Don’t worry, Jun. You never had a shot of being a cool kid,” Sonny retorted, earning himself another glare from Marisol.

“I guess I’ll have to be content with being a misfit. Such a shame for my hopes and dreams though, but I guess this is America after all.” Jun smirked, possibly at Sonny’s expense.

“That’s the spirit, Chopsticks!” Sonny expressed a fake tone of support like the Top Hat guy from that old show Rocket Power.

Among the back and forth comments that Sonny and Jun exchanged, it hadn’t even donned on the Drake teen that Santiago’s house was just up ahead. Though music was playing through his truck, the sounds of that god-forsaken music that Santiago always seemed to fancy was so glaring loud that it caused Sonny to visibly wince out of pure annoyance. There was no way in hell he was going to subject his precious truck to the torture of that shit-quality music, so he opted to park a few houses down. They could spare a few minutes of walking. It wasn’t going to kill them.

“Okay, everyone out!” Sonny ordered, looking at all three of them before he opened up the driver side door, pocketing the keys into his shorts. “Time to fuck shit up and show Dassblo why the Misfits are the best around these parts.” In his head, Sonny knew he sounded like Clint Eastwood from one of those old westerns his Grandpa Leo liked to watch.

“Shit, wait!” Marisol suddenly exclaimed after reaching for her pockets and not finding what she was looking for. She quickly opened up the truck’s glove box to find the beloved stash of emergency chewing gum she kept there for situations like this. Letting out a relieved sigh, the girl popped two pieces of gum into her mouth before shutting the compartment and turning to the guys with a mischievous smile. “Okay. Ready, boys.”

As they started to get closer to the devil’s den, the scale of the party grew clearer. There were dancing bodies all over the property, and the music was so loud that Archer was frankly surprised that the cops weren’t already here. But knowing Santiago, he probably had connections that kept them from arriving tonight.

He turned to the group, walking backwards to keep momentum. “If I get called fag tonight - even once! - I am leaving!” he exclaimed, looking mostly in Mari’s direction as they entered Santiago’s house. He pointed to the refreshment table indicating that’s where they should be.

“Don't worry, Archie. I'll break the nose of anyone that tries,” Mari told him, placing a reassuring arm around his waist as they led the way to the drinks table. Archer returned the sentiment with a small kiss on the top of the girl’s head.

“Just remember your boxing stance!” Jun uttered as they approached the table.

“Always, baby.”

As the foursome finally arrived at the table and began to pour themselves some drinks, Marisol noticed a ridiculously tall (and attractive, though she would keep this for herself) guy standing near them all by himself. Upon a closer look, the girl recognized him as the new kid from England whom she had a few classes with. He looked to be cool enough, and it sucked that he was alone. So, Mari being Mari, she took the next logical step.

“Hey,” she called out to the guy, in a surprisingly commanding tone for such a short girl. “You’re that new Brit kid from English, right?” Mari waited until she had his answer before continuing. “Cool. I’m Marisol, and these are my buddies: Archer, Sonny and Jun. We’re The Misfits. Welcome to Palm Beach.”