“We should get jerseys ‘cause we make a great team!” I sang—way off key and way too loud—to Rose’s radio, tilting my head back and laughing like models do for dental commercials. Relient K blared louder when Kathryn reached out to the dial.

Danny—Daniel—our best-guy-friend-forever rolled his eyes but I ignored him. One of my skills, if I do say so myself.

“Do I get a tee shirt?” Dylan asked, sitting cross-legged on Rose’s bed and eyeing Ryn as she drew on her own light blue tee. “I’m your friend, right?”

I shot him a glare. “No,” Ryn murmured, looking up and running a hand through her spiky hair. “No to a teeshirt, but sure to a friend.”

“I feel loved,” Dylan retorted but his words sounded hollow.

Rose, currently brushing her own locks, saw Dylan’s injured look. “See, Ryn, I told you we shouldn’t have invited him! I told you he’d feel left out while we worked on these!”

Dylan glanced from Rose to me, looking for clarification. “Amber?”

I sighed, standing up. “Come here,” I said, half wanting to drag him from the room by his shirt collar. Funny. I got that urge a lot. We slipped from the room. I felt strangely giddy standing alone outside Rose’s bedroom with Dyl’ but we weren’t really alone. Two Pomeranians, an Icelandic sheepdog and a Club Penguin playing sister made the room kind of crowded. But without the others—the ones that really mattered—it was as close to alone as I could get without being alone.

“Yes?” Dylan cocked his head, hands on his hips, eyes sparkling.

“Listen,” I leaned close to his ear, whispering. “The shirts are kind of…uh…”

Danny.

I filled Dylan in. Afterwards his injured look continued and I felt the giddiness fade. Yuck. Guilt took its space.

I swung, trying my best to look cool and probably failing, and shoved Rose’s door open. It stuck a moment before I tumbled in.

Daniel looked up, raising an eyebrow. I ignored him again but pointedly glared—he’d taken my seat in Rose’s spinny-chair.

Dylan returned to his place on the bed.

Rose grinned at us suggestively. “So?” she prompted as if I was going to dish to her about Dylan and I’s make-out session. Which had never happened. And, I thought dryly, looking at him, probably never would.

“Get a life,” I sniffed, folding myself down next to Rose. “And would someone change the song already?”

“What?” defended Danny who had made the CD in the first place, “Don’t like Diamond Sea or something?”

Rose, Ryn and I shared a secret smile. Dan’s eyes narrowed.

If anyone could make me a better person YOU COULD! I looked from Rose, still brushing her hair (probably to de-friz it or something) to opinionated Kathryn (carefully outlining the ice-cream cones in dark pen on her shirt) and smiled my own secret smile to myself. The guys—Dylan flipping through a roughly-handled copy of a Calvin and Hobbs and Daniel watching Ryn’s lazy hand—included, the room was filled with my best friends in the world.

Though the song was over, the lyrics rung true. Must have done something right…

This time I allowed a visible grin. You can say that again.

For Dylan, because he didn't get a tee shirt. Or a make-out session.

In case you couldn't tell, Sophisticated is Rose, Clarity is Ryn and I, Amber, am Jejune. And you, dear reader, just got a sneak-peak at our amazing lives.

I've decided to post these stories under our JSC account because it is, after all, all of us involved.

Thanks for leaving a review!

-Amber