"Anddd that's gotta be it for the stream y'all, it's getting late here." I said, turning to the camera balanced dangerously on the edge of my monitor. "And if I'm going to survive my social studies test, I need sleep—"

"You say that like I don't have school in an hour." Tsuki's voice replied through my headset, their voice dripping with sarcasm. Their Minecraft skin punched me towards the ravine to my right, just as I was going into third person to do my outro. How dare they.

"Hah, imagine being in school—" Digo snickered, his voice also echoing through the discord voice chat, his skin crouching just into view of my screen.

"I think we're all aware that you're the genius who graduated a year early, Digo." Quiet cut off dryly. "Meanwhile it's hardly seven here—"

"Time zones." I interjected with an overdramatic groan, leaning back into his seat. My stomach dropped, and I threw my legs out to stop my chair from tipping all the way over. "Oh sHI—"

"Language!" Quiet teased over the call as I steadied myself. "AJ you've got to stop doing that." They added with an exasperated sigh.

"Hey, this chair's got a mind of its own—" I protested, flattening my multicolored bangs against my eyes to keep them covered. I glanced at my screen, catching my face in the little box in the corner recording me. I had just fallen in front of thousands of people. What a wonderful way to emphasize my absolute klutziness.

My hair, however, conveniently covered the flush of my cheeks as I felt my face heat up. "OKAY BYE—" I exclaimed loudly, smashing my keyboard to end the stream abruptly per Rainyjoi style.

The others' voice chats muted, while they did their own outros, before they too ended the streams on their channels.

"Why'd you end the stream anyways Arlo? We'd be stupid if we thought you were going to sleep already." Digo said. I could practically hear the eye roll.

"Eh. It was three hours— and I may or may not have an ELA essay that's due at midnight that I haven't started..." I exclaimed with a nervous laugh.

"Arlooooo." Tsuki scolded. "We told you to get that done last week—"

"Shhhh." I snickered; legs crisscrossed in my seat while I leaned over my desktop to take the camera down. I really needed another monitor to record on, one day that camera was going to fall off and shatter. Welp, there was always tomorrow to order a new one. "I was in Canada with Quiet last week, remember? I wasn't going to do schoolwork. And at least I'm being responsible and trying to get it done before it's due. This is new for me."

"AJ, I do-don't think you know what responsible means." Quiet started with a small laugh, their voice glitching slightly over the call. "But you do you I suppose."

"Hey if I can speedrun Minecraft in eighteen minutes I can speedrun a twelve-paragraph research paper in two hours." I shrugged, grinning as I pulled back my hair from my face,, blowing the frizz out of my eyes. "Speaking of "responsible"— Tsukes— you need to sleep—"

"What's the point if I'm just going to wake up in less than an hour?" Tsuki asked, its voice on the brink of a whine.

"SLEEEP." Me and Digo shouted in perfect unison into the voice chat, my voice cracking sharply mid-word.

"You really should sleep Tsuki—" Quiet added on, the click of their mouse hardly audible as they initiated the facetime.

I too clicked accept, my face immediately appearing onscreen alongside the other three. Purple and blue hair stuck up everywhere because of the way I had tied it back, and I couldn't help but snort at how ridiculous I looked in my computer's camera. And with the light coming from the screen? I looked like a ghost from how much it washed me out. Especially against the dark green walls of my room. "Oh I look like a zombie—"

"Pft— Arlo— look at Tsukes though—" Digo giggled. Indigo's hair was chopped short, dyed a blue just barely darker than mine. His silver piercings glinted in the faint light of his motel room that I had visited several times before. They had just moved up to Fall River a couple months before from Florida and lived barely twenty minutes away now.

At his words I turned my attention to Tsuki who looked absolutely exhausted, glasses pushed up into their dark hair, showing the purple layered beneath. "When was the last time you slept Tsuki-?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at the screen.

"Mm, dunno." They shrugged, rubbing one of its eyes.

"Yeah, go to bed Tsuki— you need rest." Quiet added, drawing my attention to their screen, their blue headset pinning their crimson-dyed hair to the sides of their neck.

"But no— Pisa— Pisa stop—" Tsuki's voice faded into laughter as a siamese cat jumped onto their desk, obscuring the camera, her furry tail flicking Tsuki in the face. "PISA— NU — IEȘI— JOS— TE ROG–" The streamer continued in Romanian, a language that very much confused the shit out of me, as they tried to pull their cat off the desk.

"Pisa stop breaking Tsuki–" I demanded of the cat who simply glared daggers at me.

"mEOW–" Pisa shrieked as Tsuki tugged her off the desk and into her lap to reveal her face again, dodging as their cat swiped at them.

"Oh mai taci." Tsuki scolded, Digo's giggling audible in the background of the call.

"Can we please revert back to Americanish? It's too late for this." I complained, cracking a small smile. I could hear Quiet facepalming without even having to look at their screen. That's the third one I've gotten tonight, AJ: 3, Quiet: 0.

Digo paused. "That's a language–?" He asked, though he sounded quite skeptical.

"Of course it is." Left my mouth just as a "no" left Quiet's. I turned to them, giving the Canadian a look. They returned mine with an expression (raised eyebrow included) that silently replied "seriously?".

I simply smirked.

"Totally." I added with a nod. A very convincingly convincing nod. The most convincing of nods. Definitely.

"Ah. I see." Digo replied with a nod of agreement, agreeing to my nod of convincing. The agreeing nod of agreement to the convincing nod of convincement.

"I– what is happening?" Tsuki stammered, looking between the two of us.

"Total sense." Digo replied.

"Yes. The most sensible of the senses." I added, still nodding.

"The most sensible of the senses of sensibility." Digo continued, bobbing his head up and down like a buoy.

"I...I think I will go to bed actually–" Tsuki said faintly, blinking slowly a few times, nearly in tune with Pisa who looked nearly as confused as her owner. "I might need more than just that hour..."

"Good idea." Quiet said. "You might experience another brain melt if you stay for any longer."

"But–" Tsuki began, leaning into her camera to whisper, "I don't want to leave you with...them."

"Why not?" I asked, placing a dramatic hand of fake offense over my chest, followed by a gasp.

"We're totally sane!" Digo grinned.

"The most sanest of sane–"

"The—"

"Don't–" Quiet interjected. "–start this again, please– or none of us will be sane. I'll be fine, Tsuki. Have a good rest."

"Bye." Tsuki said with a pained smile, waving before disconnecting from the call.

"What am I going to do with you two...?" Quiet sighed after a moment, although even through the screen I could tell that they were trying (and failing) to suppress a smile.

"What ever could you mean by that Rain?" Digo asked, batting their eyes. I always got startled when one of the others called Quiet by their real name–

"I know! We're perfect little angels, we have no idea what you're talking about." I continued, resting my chin in both my palms with a sweet, "innocent" look.

"It's like I'm fostering three year olds." They deadpanned in response, raising an accusing eyebrow behind their green-rimmed glasses.

"My, you give us too much credit– we're more like two year olds." Digo corrected, placing an "appreciative" hand over his chest before bursting into a fit of laughter.

"Oh good grief–" Quiet sighed, shaking their head slightly. But even they couldn't hide their amusement, watching Digo double over with giggles. "I think you both need to sleep, like Tsuki."

"Buh, buh, buh, essay remember?" I pointed out, picking at the cracking black polish on my nails.

"I don't see you working on it though, do I?" Quiet replied, their eyebrow raising yet again.

"I'm...mentally planning it out. Every good essay begins with a good draft–" I responded, blurting out the first excuse that came to mind.

"Uh huh..." The redhead (unnaturally so but still-) exclaimed skeptically. "Sure."

"Are you calling me a liar?"

"I'm just calling you an unreliable source of intel-"

"...so a liar?" Digo butted in, finally over his minute long bout of laughter.

"G a s p." I exclaimed. "You dare accuse me of such a crime–"

"A felony even!" Digo cried, throwing himself backwards into their chair.

"Ohhh my goodness." Quiet groaned, resting their face in their hands. "Go to bed– both of you–"

"Whyyyyy?" I complained, pouting at Quiet through the screen. "It's only tennnn."

"What's wrong with ten? I go to bed at ten–" They replied, shifting to set their chin in their palm, blowing a few strands of hair from their face.

"Yeah but that's because you're weird and actually value your sleep schedule." Digo grinned teasingly.

"And you should value yours." Quiet countered with a playful narrow of their eyes. "S l e e p."

"Do you want me to fail English?" I asked, poking at my screen near where Quiet showed up on the facetime. "I didn't think so–"

"Oh– fine. But you better work on that essay instead of...I don't know, whatever it is that you do–" Quiet said, finally caving (like they could stop me otherwise–). "However, Digo, you have no excuse–"

Digo's mouth opened as if he were in shock, putting on a look of offense. "Excuse me I have plenty of good reasons for staying awake– such as postponing going to work tomorrow morning for as long as possible–"

"Pft–" I snorted, covering my mouth with the back of my hand in amusement. "He's got a point–" I added in response to the unamusement in Quiet's expression.

"No, he's only proving my point further. You'll be miserable tomorrow if you don't sleep." They stated with a small scowl.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's future Digo's problem." The blue-haired teen said with a roll of his eyes and a small, mischievous grin.

"And that essay is future Arlo's..." I murmured under my breath, pulling open the singular drawer in my desk, filled with a mismatch of random objects I had just thrown in there over the months. Objects that I had been too lazy to put away in their correct spots. From it I pulled out the slick, black handle of a pocket knife, weighted and fitting perfectly in my palm. I flipped it in my hand, clicking the latch and flipping it open as it left my grasp before catching it again by the grip. A trick I had learned from one of my brother's friends.

"AJJJ–" Quiet began, dark brown eyes narrowing at the "harmless" weapon that I held. "Stop and get to work. You always regret not getting your stuff done sooner, and then I have to hear about it."

"Oh relax, I'm just messing with it." I sighed, flipping it closed before sticking it in my pocket where I would probably forget about it...like I forgot about my debit card before accidentally leaving it in the middle of a Walmart. Oh well, it was already there, I wasn't going to use even more arm energy to put it back in the drawer. "And fine."

"Mhm, sure–" The enby mumbled. "Just– do your homework. My mom's calling me for dinner anyways–"

"Oh so have I just disappeared then, eh?" Digo exclaimed, narrowing his eyes at his webcam.

"You too." Quiet added, pointing at Digo– at least, I think they were pointing at Digo. It was kind of hard to tell through the screen. "Go to sleep–"

Digo pressed their lips into a line as soon as Quiet had addressed him. "I shouldn't have said anything..."

"Nope." I agreed as Quiet slowly walked away, backwards, eyes narrowed at the screen...before just as they got to the door, doing the "I'm watching you" gesture, and then disappearing down the hallway, leaving their chair spinning slightly.

"..."

Silence for a few moments...

"I'm definitely not doing that homework." I said suddenly as soon as they were gone, sitting up straighter in my seat and turning to Digo's part of the screen.

"And I am definitely not going to sleep–" The other replied with a small nod of their head.

"So...you're picking me up for school tomorrow, right?" I asked to confirm, leaning both my elbows slightly on the desk. I had to admit, I was pretty tired– but I wasn't going to say it out loud! Nope, never–

"Whyyyyy." Digo groaned, doing the opposite of me and flinging himself backwards against the backing of his chair. "I have to wake up like half an hour earlierrrrrr—"

"Yeahh but I have to wake up at 5:50 to make it to my bus stop." I complained with nothing short of a whine, giving my friend a look.

"Not my fault you failed your driver's test like three times." Digo grumbled, narrowing his eyes almost playfully at me.

"Well I'm sORRY that my crippling ADHD can't handle several different blinky lights and a fun handle that I really want to rip out from between the seats–" I pouted dramatically.

"...You mean the gear–"

"YES THE GEAR WHATEVER THE FUCK IT'S CALLED–"

"Pfft–" Digo giggled, leaning his head back against the chair he was sitting in. "I'm just saying it's hard to believe that you can perform a flawless 360 no-scope yet you can't merge onto the freeway–"

"SHUSH– THAT WAS ONE TIME—"

"One time... every single test–"

"SAME THING!"

"Okay, okay...freeloader." Digo grinned as I glared at them. I swear I saw the screen steaming for just a moment from my nasty look. "I can't believe you can fix the brakes on a car but you can't drive one."

"I'm going to murder you."

"Sureee."

"You're still picking me up though right–?"

" 'Course man, I'd never leave you hanging–"

"Woo!" I cheered, punching the air. "An extra hour of sleep, here I come!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, lucky bastard..." Digo muttered, however now wearing a smile.

"I know, I'm too charming to turn down." I joked, flicking a few stray hairs from my bangs out of my face.

"Sure, let's go with that– although I'm charminger–" Digo smirked.

I gave him a look. "Stop stealing my thing, only I'm allowed to make words erer." I stated stubbornly.

"Says who?" Digo countered.

"Says– me—"

"Well, meerer says that I can make words erer, so hA–"

"What."

"I think we're both too tired for this–"

"Quiet was right."

"Quiet's always right."

"Mhmmmm."

"Night, bro."

"Night. See ya tomorrow-"

***

Eheh. I love this book so much alreadyyyy! Big thanks to Digo, we're cowriting the book so make sure to go follow them as well- 

Opinions are very much appreciated and so are votes + comments :]