It had been almost two months into the school year and Dylan's anger toward Yasmine had subsided. Her comments and insults have stopped or at least became more controlled since the first day of school. Maybe Moon talked to her or something—Dylan didn't know what happened, but she was grateful.

Halloween was this weekend and Dylan was glad the dance didn't fall on the holiday but the day before. For as long as Dylan could remember, her and Devon would go trick or treating and once they were all done, they would come back to their house and watch scary movies in the basement. Dylan didn't want to stop that tradition so finding out the dance was gonna be on the 30th made her ecstatic.

But the day before the dance, Counselor Blatt insisted on gaining the whole cafeterias attention during lunch, claiming she had an important announcement to make.

"Cyberbullying is no laughing matter. Sending a cruel message to someone online can be just as hurtful as saying it to their face." The woman said and as Dylan looked around the room, it seemed like she was one of the only people that actually cared to try and listen to her.

Dylan looked around at her table; Moon was more focused on her food, Sam scrolling through instagram, and Yasmine was laughing at the woman's words.

"I'm not gonna name names, but the other day a mother called me up because her son was crying after some kids online made fun of his facial deformity." Counselor Blatt said and in seconds, all eyes moved to Eli Moskowitz. It was as if there was a spotlight on the boy, drawing all the attention to him.

"The kid right there!"

"The kid with the weird lip."

Dylan's jaw clenched at how obvious the counselor made it. She dropped her head as the woman continued her speech.

"But today, our goal here is to make this school a safe space for all students." She said and Dylan scoffed, stabbing her fork into her pasta in annoyance. "Some safe space." Dylan grumbled under her breath.

"And one last thing." Counselor Blatt yelled and no one in the room seemed to care about hiding their groans, but she just ignored them. "While we're all looking forward to the Halloween dance, let's make sure our costumes are culturally sensitive. For example, instead of sexy nurse, maybe try gender-neutral hospital employee."

As Dylan started to drown out the woman's speech, the loud screeching of a chair against the linoleum floors rang out around her table. Dylan's head snapped up and she saw Aisha coming to sit beside Sam, a big smile on her face.

"Hey, I got a great idea for our costumes this year. I was thinking... I go as sodium, and you go as chloride. And when people ask what we are, we do this." Aisha reached for the tables salt and started to shake its contents onto the open space.

Sam and Dylan giggled at the costume idea and Aisha's smile brightened knowing her joke made it past just Sam.

But across the table, Yasmine's eyebrows furrowed. "What is that, some dumb inside joke you guys have?" She asked as she eyed between the three with a confused look. Yasmine could understand if Sam and Aisha had some inside joke since they were friends before Moon introduced Sam to the group, but Yasmine has never seen Dylan and Aisha talk.

So, Yasmine turned to Dylan, her eyebrows creasing even more. "And how do you know it?" She added.

Aisha almost laughed, but quickly caught herself. "I mean, it's not really "inside." Sodium chloride is table salt." Aisha said as if it were obvious.

Yasmine looked between Sam and Dylan, watching as the two girls nodded back at her, silently telling her that Aisha was right. Yasmine opened and closed her mouth, her words struggling to come out. "Yeah, I was kidding. Duh." Her words stumbled over each other.

Dylan's face fell at Yasmine's words. She didn't want the girl to be embarrassed or feel like she wasn't as smart as the others. She opened her mouth to say something to try and reassure Yasmine, but just before the words could pass her lips, Yasmine spoke again, her confidence back as if she hadn't just been embarrassed.

"We actually decided to go as Laker girls." She told Aisha, giving the girl a small, pity frown that Dylan knew was fake.

Aisha slumped in her seat, muttering a small "oh" under her breath. Yasmine's fake frown turned into an even more fake smile. "But maybe we can order another! They're one-size-fits-all..." Yasmine's words started to die down as her eyes looked Aisha up and down. "Which suddenly seems like false advertising..."

"Yasmine!" Dylan snapped as Aisha shot out of her seat and sped away from the table. Dylan's eyes widened at Aisha's retreating figure and quickly turned around to face her.

"Aisha! Wait!" Dylan called out, but Aisha continued walking, not looking back. Dylan's eyes stayed on Aisha until the girl was out of the cafeteria.

Dylan sighed, her shoulders slumping. From the other end of the table, Yasmine laughed watching Aisha run out of the cafeteria. Slowly, Dylan turned back around to face Yasmine, her frown now pulled into a glare.

"Do you really have to be mean to her every time you look her way?" Dylan asked and Yasmine's face fell into a genuinely confused squint. She shrugged cluelessly, looking around the table as if she had done nothing wrong. "I'm just being honest."

...

The next day was the Halloween dance. Dylan got ready alone after scrolling through instagrams stories and seeing Moons story of her and Yasmine already getting ready together and Yasmine's house. Dylan liked the story and minutes later, Moon dmed her asking if she wanted to come over and told her Yasmine just got there even though Moon posted two hours ago.

Dylan felt a heart sinking feeling bloom throughout her stomach and chest. It made her feel sick and she just declined the offer.

So Dylan, already in her Laker Girl costume, finished up her makeup in the living room while Devon watched Friday the 13th next to her on the couch and once she was done, she headed over to the LaRusso house to pick up Sam.

While she waited for Sam, Dylan looked at her reflection in her sun visor mirror. She groaned under her breath as she tightened her ponytail Devon did for her. "Gonna have a fucking headache from this ponytail. How does Devon do this everyday?" She grumbled under her breath.

As she closed her sun visor, she saw Sam walk out of her house with her arms crossed over her chest and an angry look in her eyes.

Dylan winced to herself, unlocking her car just as Sam got to the door. Sam climbed into Dylan's car and it took everything in her not to slam the door shut behind her, which Dylan was grateful for.

"You don't look happy." Dylan muttered, trying her hardest not to laugh at the angry look on Sam's face. Dylan loves Sam, but her "angry look" reminded Dylan of a toddler mopping. It was more cute than threatening.

Sam groaned, falling back further into her seat. "My dad is chaperoning tonight." Sam grumbled and Dylan's eyes widened, a small breathy laugh escaping her lips. "Oh no..." She said as she started to drive to the school and Sam's head whipped to her left to face Dylan.

"I know! It completely invades my privacy." Sam yelled, throwing her hands out wildly to complain her words.

"Does this mean you're not hanging out with Kyler tonight?" Dylan asked, giving a quick look to Sam before she turned back to the road. Sam immediately shook her head, getting comfortable in her seat.

"No, my dad knows about Kyler. If anything, I'll probably want to hang out with Kyler more to upset my dad." Sam said, gigging more to herself than anything.

Dylan pressed her lips together at those words. If Sam was hanging out with Kyler more, that meant Kyler would be hanging out with Dylan, Moon and Yasmine more.

A small, annoyed breath of air passed through her lips before she pulled her lips into a thin smile.

"Oh, yay..."

When Dylan pulled up to the school, the entire lot was filled with kids climbing out of their cars in their costumes and teens crowded around the entrance.

Yasmine and Moon were already inside waiting for the girls and as soon as they saw Dylan and Sam walk in, Yasmine and Moon squealed in excitement, throwing their arms up in the air.

The dance was alright. Not as good as homecoming or anything like that. All the music tonight was Halloween themed and by the eighth play of "Monster Mash" and being tickled by the beard of someone dressed Gandalf, Dylan was ready to go home whenever.

Suddenly, Yasmine stopped dancing and laughed at something in the distance. Dylan, Sam, and Moons dancing slowed as they turned to Yasmine with furrowed brows.

"Is Fug-lisha just glued to the snack table? I haven't seen her leave it since we got here." Yasmine laughed out as she fished for her phone in her purse.

Dylan watched Yasmine glumly, her shoulders slumping as her heart sank. Dylan licked her lips and frowned. After a couple seconds, she cleared her throat and leaned toward to be closer to the girls. "I'll be right back!" She yelled over the music and her friends nodded.

Dylan pushed past the mosh pit of students until she reached the other end of the gym for the exit. She felt her entire body cool down now that she was away from all of her other classmates crowded around each other. When she got outside, Dylan took a seat on one of the benches right outside the school.

She didn't know how long she was going to still be at the party, but it was still fairly early, so Dylan thought she'd maybe be there for a couple more hours.

Dylan reached into her bag and pulled out a joint and her lighter. She held the joint between her lips and raised both of her hands to her mouth, one to use the lighter, and the other to cup around the flame so it doesn't die out.

Just before the flame could touch her joint, Dylan's phone buzzed on her leg. She would've ignored it, but her phone lit up and she could faintly see Yasmine had texted her as well as the entire school something.

With a groan, Dylan dropped her lighter and grabbed her phone to open the video Yasmine sent her.

"Do I even want to know?" She muttered to herself and as soon as the video started to play, Dylan knew she really didn't want to know.

Yasmine filmed Aisha at the snack table eating some cheetos. The blonde had put a pig filter on Aisha and tagged the video, "THE BUFFET TABLE IS UNDER ATTACK!!!"

Dylan scoffed, rolling her eyes. "Fucking bitch." She muttered under her breath, shoving her phone back into her purse as the doors to the school bursted open and loud footsteps pounded against the cement.

"Don't look back! That'll slow you down!"

Dylan watched as Demetri and Eli ran out of the school, both of them red in the face and out of breath from how long and fast they had been running.

As he ran by, Demetri noticed Dylan sitting on the bench and quickly pointed at her. "You never saw us!" He screamed, and immediately, Dylan raised her hands up by her head to surrender.

She watched as Demetri and Eli continued to run until they reached the curb, facing out to the street.

"Where's your mom?" Eli asked, his voice loud enough for Dylan to hear, which was something that rarely happened. Eli slapped Demetri's arm in a panic and the taller boys head snapped to look back at Eli.

"I didn't call her yet!" Demetri screamed as he fumbled around his costume for his phone and even from how far she was from them, Dylan could see Eli's eyes almost pop out of his head.

"Why not?!"

That was the loudest Dylan had ever heard Eli speak. He practically screamed.

"We just got jumped, Eli! When would I have had the time to call her?!" Demetri screamed, throwing his arms out wildly. Dylan frowned and her eyebrows furrowed at Demetri's words.

"Do you guys need a ride?" Dylan called out to them, slowly standing up from the bench.

Demetri and Eli's heads whipped to Dylan, Eli's eyes wide while Demetri squinted at her. He eyed the unlit joint in her hands before he looked back into Dylan's eyes, shaking his head.

"Uh... no offense, but you kinda reek of weed." Demetri hummed in a matter-of-fact tone as he gestured to the joint Dylan was holding.

She looked down to see what Demetri was pointing at and immediately shook her head. "I haven't even lit it yet." Dylan muttered as she looked back up to the two boys and stuffed the joint back into her purse. "I haven't smoked anything. I wouldn't have offered if I did."

Dylan turned to look at just Demetri and pointed at him. The boy tensed up as if she was about to cast some sort of spell on him. "Plus, you live like three houses down from me anyway. I don't mind."

Demetri and Eli's eyes doubled in size and even though Eli was wearing a mask, she noticed him gulp out of pure nervousness. Demetri on the other hand, stared at Dylan as if she had three heads. Slowly, he raised his hand to point to himself.

"You... you know me?" He stuttered out, his words stumbling over themselves.

Dylan had to hold back from laughing. She understood she was popular, but did people really struggle this hard talking to her?

Instead of laughing, Dylan squinted and started to walk toward her red Volkswagen Beetle. She looked over her shoulder and saw Demetri and Eli trailing behind her, their eyes wide and filled with a mix of shock and awe.

"We've gone to school together since we were five. Of course I know who you guys are." Dylan said, shrugging her shoulders. She's been going to the same school with these boys for the past 11 years. She done group projects with them, sold them Girl Scout cookies–hell, Dylan sat next to Eli most of elementary school because their last names were so close in the alphabet.

Once she got to the car, Dylan looked back to the boys again and saw them just standing directly in front of the car, neither of them moving to a door.

Dylan smiled and raised her eyebrows when she reached her car. "Are you guys getting in or...?" Her words knocked Demetri and Eli out of whatever trance they were stuck in and they each ran to a door.

Eli, moving on muscle memory from driving with his mom, made a beeline to the passenger seat while Demetri, who thought Eli was going to sit in the back with him, headed for the door behind the passenger seat.

When they all got into the car, Demetri muttering small curse words and insults to his friend, Dylan opened the maps app on her phone and passed it to Eli. "Here. You can type in your address."

Eli grabbed the phone with a shaky hand and when his fingers brushed against Dylan's, his entire face turned pink under the mask. While he typed in his address, his free hands went up to hold his now burning face. That was when he realized he was still wearing his surgical mask for his costume.

As he handed Dylan her phone back, directions to his house all set up, Eli relaxed when he saw the soft smile on Dylan's face.

She was offering them a ride home, she was being sweet to them, she complimented his sweater on the first day of school.

Eli didn't think there was a bad bone in Dylans body. Sure, this could just be his brain malfunctioning because he was sitting extremely close to one of the prettiest girls in school, but he also believed it outside of that. So after Dylan took her phone back from him, Eli pulled off his surgical mask and scrub cap, shoving them into his pocket.

As Dylan started to drive to Eli's, a question had been eating her alive since they had run out of the school.

"Was it Kyler?" Dylan blurted, her voice softer and quieter than it had been the past few minutes they've been talking to her.

Eli stared down at his hands in his lap while Demetri just stared at Dylan. He blinked. "What?" Demetri asked and Dylan looked back at him.

"You guys said you just got jumped. Was it Kyler?" Dylan asked, turning back to the road. Demetri, who was leaning in between the two front seats, looked at Eli just as the Moskowitz boy turned to face him. Eli just barely shook his head and Demetri nodded. He turned back to Dylan and pursed his lips, falling back into his seat.

"I would rather not tattle to the enemies friend." Demetri said and Eli shut his eyes, groaning.

"You basically just told her." Eli muttered, barely raising his eyes to side eye Demetri.

Dylan cringed at Demetri's words. She let out an audible sound of distaste, which made the two boys turn back to her and watch as she quickly shook her head.

"Ew, I'm not Kyler's friend. I hate that guy." Dylan complained and Demetri squinted at her. "But... you hang out with him..." He muttered and Dylan scoffed. As she pulled up to a red light, she turned around to look at the boy in the back seat.

"Only when I'm forced to." She quickly defended. Dylan looked back to the road and frowned. "It sucks my best friends dating him and can't see how big of an asswipe he is."

Demetri and Eli chuckled at Dylan's insult, and when they saw her smile at their laughter, they really started to believe her when she said Kyler wasn't her friend.

It wasn't long before Dylan pulled up to Eli's house. He muttered a small goodbye and barely gave time for Dylan and Demetri to reply before he hopped out of the car and ran into his house.

Dylan watched and waited until he was inside with the door closed behind him before she finally looked away. She turned to the back seat, her eyes meeting Demetri's. Dylan raised her eyebrows and smiled to him. "Do you want to sit up front?" She asked and almost immediately, Demetri unbuckled his seatbelt and started to get out of his seat.

"Yes, please. I hate the backseat." Demetri muttered more to himself, but Dylan heard him and quietly chuckled, nodding her head. "Good to know."

Once Demetri was in the passenger seat, Dylan started to drive back to her house since Demetri only lived a few doors down from her. It was quiet for a few seconds before Dylan looked over at Demetri.

"You know, if any of them make fun of you, it's okay to tattle to me. I normally try and put them in their place so it's not anything new to me." Dylan said, referencing Demetri's words earlier when he said he didn't want to "tattle" to his bullies friends.

Demetri just nodded, not seeing himself ever actually telling Dylan that people were making fun of him. It was too embarrassing.

"Why do you stay friends with them if you don't like them making fun of people? Isn't that all they do?" Demetri asked and his eyes widened as his head moved to look down at his lap, shocked he actually said that out loud.

Dylan gulped, readjusting her hand on the steering wheel. She kept her eyes on the road as she gnawed at her lip, suddenly finding it hard to look back at Demetri.

"They weren't always like that. Moon and Yasmine" Dylan said, her voice small. If it wasn't just him and Dylan in the car, Demetri would've thought someone else spoke. He shakily raised his head to look at Dylan, but she kept her eyes on the road.

Demetri watched as Dylan squinted to herself, almost as if she was trying to stop herself from speaking any further.

But Dylan couldn't stop herself. She didn't know what it was, but she felt like she couldn't do anything but open up to Demetri.

"I don't know... I guess part of me is worried that if I stop being friends with them, I'll get the same treatment I tried to stop," Dylan admitted, a small part of her brain screaming at herself for telling a boy she hardly knew all of this. "And I know that whatever they'd say about me would be worse because they know everything about me." She breathed out before she could stop herself.

Demetri stared at her. A mix of shock and sadness taking over his face. He stared at her for a good three seconds before he realized he should probably say something to not look creepy. So, Demetri gave Dylan and soft smile and tilted his head.

"Well, you know, if any of them make fun of you, it's okay to come sit with me and Eli. Demetri said, his tone the same as when Dylan gave him the same phrase.

Dylan snickered, her head dropping and resting against the steering wheel as she pulled up to a red light. Demetri laughed with her, the two of them hunching over and laughing at something that wasn't even funny.

When their laughter died down, the light turned green and Dylan started to drive again. She sent a quick look back to Demetri and nodded her head.

"Thank you." She said quietly, but Demetri heard her loud and clear.

Demetri nodded, a faint smile on his face. "Of course."

emily speaks...
DYLAN DEMETRI FRIENDSHIP AGENDA IS GETTING COMINGGGGG!! IT SAVES LIVES AND HAS SAVED MINE‼️

i need dylan to meet robby alreadyyy😫💔(i say this as if i don't control when they meet)