[color=6ecff6]"Ayyy, yo!"[/color] 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 [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2i3_VuRyGEg]The Light[/url] 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. [color=6ecff6]"Yo."[/color] Alfredo shook his head again, he didn't want to have to deal with this again on top of his hangover. 
[color=6ecff6]"Yo man!"[/color] 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. 

			[color=gray]"Yo the fuck you want this time Georgy?"[/color] 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.  

			[color=6ecff6]"I got an idea man."[/color] 

			[color=8dc73f]"Not another one."[/color] Daniel said. 

			[color=6ecff6]"Yo man, you know Jesus right?"[/color] Georgy added in a more serious tone. 

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

			[color=6ecff6]"Nah, nah, bro. Listen up: Jesus Lopez."[/color] 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. 

			[color=gray]"How do [i]you[/i] know about Jesus Lopez? I thought he was just some regular."[/color] 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. [color=gray]"You fags don't hang out with guys like him."[/color] The tone of his voice still the same. 

			[color=6ecff6]"You never mind about that."[/color] 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. [color=6ecff6]"Listen, you know how we're tight with Mr. Jacobs and Mr. Anderson?"[/color] Alfredo exchanged a look through the rear view mirror of the truck as if to say: [i]So?[/i]. George paused, to let them listen in. 

[i]			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. 
[/i]

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

			[color=6ecff6]"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."[/color] 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. 

			[color=8dc73f]"Well, I mean it sounds legit."[/color] Daniel agreed. [color=8dc73f]"You know we could get away with it."[/color] 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. 

			[color=gray]"Alright, I'll hit up JC about it at Econ today."[/color] 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. [color=gray]"Speaking of which..."[/color] 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. [color=gray]"What's up man?"[/color] 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. 

			[color=6ecff6]"Boy do we have a job for you!"[/color] Interrupted George, again with his usual, annoying tone of voice. 

[@Dirty Pretty Lies]