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Justin was a mix of anxious and relieved. He had just finished his first week of senior year and was excited to get out of high school. However, this year was going to be filled with last minute SATs and college applications. His head hurt just thinking about all of the things he had to complete. He had considered going to a community college, but his parents were quick to put that idea down. He had to go to a respectable school and study hard to become a doctor.

He shook the thoughts out of his head. It was a Saturday, and he was going to Amy's and Adrian's house to hang out. He should enjoy a free day like this before it's too late.

He walked downstairs and was grateful to see that his parents weren't home to interrogate him about his outing before he left. There was a note waiting for him on the counter that read, "We deposited some food money into your account. Please get yourself lunch and dinner."

After reading the note, he crumpled it up and threw it away. Then he grabbed his car keys and was on his way. But first, he had to pick up his friend, Milo.

---

---

"So baby pull me closer to the backseat of your Rover..."

Milo's ringtone went off in an obnoxiously loud manner, causing him to groan. "What?" he mumbled into the phone.

"Um... I'm in front of your house?" said a familiar voice on the other end.

It took Milo a few seconds before he was able to process what was going on. "Oh fuck."

"Oh fuck, indeed."

"Give me five minutes."

Milo hung up the call, jumped out of his bed and scrambled to get ready. He threw on the first things he could find and ran to the bathroom, which was being used by his sister, Carmen. He tapped his foot impatiently outside the door. "Come on, Carmen. I really need to use the bathroom," he said while tapping on the door.

"I have a lunch date with Brent today, and I need to make sure that my makeup is on point," she returned bluntly.

"Can't you do your makeup in your room?" he groaned, the tapping has evolved into a banging.

"Ugh... fine," she sighed, and stepped out of the bathroom.

"Thank you sis! You look beautiful no matter what and Brent is a lucky guy to have you!" he said, kissing her cheek before sidestepping around her to the bathroom.

One chaotic rush in the bathroom later, Milo dashed out of his house and practically threw himself into the passenger seat of Justin's car.

"Nice of you to show up," the Korean boy said while rolling his eyes.

"Nice to see you too, Prince Charming,Remind me to never agree to hang out with you guys so early in the morning."

"It's already past noon."

"Same thing."

---

---

Isabel was early, as she always was. She couldn't help it. She had a fear of being late. But for once, she actually regretted coming too early. Even though it has been a while since she and Adrian had broken up, she didn't like being alone with just him. Sure, Amy was there too, but the girl always seemed to magically disappear and leaving the two of them alone together. So she found herself, sitting in her car and messing around with her phone.

"This is ridiculous," she scolded herself mentally. "Adrian and I are adults. We should be able to act normally around each other. I shouldn't have to hide in my car just because... "

She got out of her car and locked it. Taking a deep breath, she walked up to the front door and rang the door bell. Secretly, she hoped that Amy would be the one to answer and not her brother.

---

---

"Dude! Pull over!" shouted Milo as he leaned into driver's seat.

"What! Why?" asked Justin as he began to slow down. Fortunately, they were already in the residence area so they weren't disturbing traffic.

"There's a garage sale!" Milo answered and pointed to a house with boxes littering its front yard. "We could find some really cool stuff for really cheap!"

Justin sighed and parked his car across the street from the garage sale. "You do know that we're late already, right?" But it was already too late as Milo already jumped out of the car and ran off to the garage sale. Justin rolled his eyes and followed his friend like a father trying to keep up with his unruly son. "He didn't even bother to look both ways before crossing the street," he grumbled internally.

"JUSTIN! Look what I found!" Milo shouted once more, holding a strange box in his hand.

Justin walked toward him to get a closer look at the box. It was pretty old and had collected some dust. The letters spelled out "Jumanji" but what was more interesting that it was made out of wood. The designs were etched onto it, depicting some wild animals and a jungle in the background. "What is that?" he asked while taking the box from Milo's hands. It gave him a weird feeling but it might have just been his allergy to dust.

"I think it's some kind of board game? David said that they just found all this stuff in the house when they moved in. Look like the last owners didn't take much with them? So wanna buy it? We can play it today with the gang," Milo answered matter-of-factly.

"...Let me guess, you don't have any money and you want me to pay for it."

"Pretty please with a cherry on top?"

Justin sighed once more. Milo was going to be the end of him and he knew it. "How much is it?"

"Fifty dollars."

"...Bye Milo."

"I'll pay you back!"

"I'm pretty sure you already owe me $200 from all the other stuff you begged me to buy for you until you paid me back."

"Okay, okay... I'll bargain with the Dave-man. I'm sure he'll give me a discount. We're cool." Milo then proceeded to walk over to David and whisper some things into the man's ear. Justin raised an eyebrow, curious as to what Milo was up to and half-knowing that he was up to no good. Justin wasn't even sure how Milo managed to become 'friends' with David in that short amount of time. But one couldn't underestimate Milo's charms.

When Milo returned, he had a bright smile on his face. "He's willing to sell it to us for ten bucks," he said cheerfully.

"And how did you manage to do that?" Justin had to ask, even though he probably didn't really want to know the answer.

"I may have told him that you would let him borrow your limited edition Wolverine comic..." Milo said, looking off to the side.

"WHAT? MILO!" he said a bit louder than he normally spoke. He quickly covered his mouth. He didn't know he could shout like that (though to Milo it was more of a normal outside voice).

"He's only going to borrow it. It's a pretty good deal, right? Just pay the man. It'll be fun to try it out with all of our friends~," Milo sang the last few words. "Please, Justin?"

Justin knew that he couldn't say no to Milo. "You're bad for my health," he sighed in a defeated manner, as he went up to this "David" and paid for the weird game. Then the two were back on track to the Turner's house.

---

---

Of course, Adrian would be the one to answer the door. Just her luck. She bit her lower lip when she heard him call her by her nickname. It always sounded nice coming out of his mouth, even if she could sense that he was still just as uncomfortable as she was. "Hey Adrian," she said with a polite smile. She then slid past him to get inside the house. She examined the interior and it was just as fancy as she remembered it. She doesn't think she could ever get used to how nice the Turner's residence was. Her own apartment with her dad was about the size of their foyer and their closets were bigger than her bathroom.

"So... how have you been?" she asked casually as she walked toward the living room. She knew it was kind of a loaded question, but she did want to know how he was doing. They used to tell each other everything while they dated...it was weird that it was so hard for them to talk now. She couldn't even tell you what he did over the summer aside from what she heard from Amy. Part of her wanted him to be polite and simply say that he's been fine and what not. But part of her also wanted to actually hear how he has been. She took a seat at what had been her usual place on the sofa, more out of old habit than anything. She hoped Amy would come out to greet her soon...

---

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---

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Penelope Jones:

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Isabel pretended not to notice his awkwardly 'nonchalant' answer. Still, she could not help but think that he looked adorable leaning against the door frame. It reminded her of the time they.... No, now is not the time to think about that. Before she could recollect her thoughts and answer him, he was shouting a question to Amy who seemed to want him to stay in the living room with her. She bit her lower lips once more to prevent herself from sighing. He didn't want to be left alone with her... which was perfectly reasonable, but it kind of hurt that he was actively avoiding her now.

Fortunately for the both of them, Amy came in with the snacks. Isabel gave the younger girl a tight squeeze in return. "Hey Amy," she said mid-embrace. "My dad is fine. Just working a lot of overtime even though I tell him not to."

There was a knock on the door, and they all knew that it was Penelope. There was no way Milo was going to be on time for anything, and Justin was Milo's ride so he was going to be late by association. Adrian wasted no time to go and answer the door which caused Isabel to sigh visibly. There was no need to hide her feelings from Amy. "... Maybe I should give him some more space..." she said softly so only the younger Turner could hear her.

Her crestfallen expression was quickly replaced with a smile as Penelope walked into the living room. "Good to see you again, Penny," Isabel said. "Yes, unlike those two idiots who always seem to get in trouble together."

---

---

"I never want to be your ride ever again," said Justin as he finally pulls up to the Turner's house.

"Aw, you know that you love me," Milo pouts while giving the Korean boy his best puppy dog eyes. If this was anyone else aside from Justin, it might have worked. But the older boy just looked at Milo with a disapproving look which caused Milo to 'cut it out'. "We're not even that late. We made amazing time."

And he wasn't wrong. They were only ten minutes late instead of the usual twenty or thirty.

They walked up to the gigantic door and pressed the door bell. Milo managed to knock out "All-Star", much to Justin's amusement. In Milo's arms was the board game that they had picked up in the garage sale. Justin still did not have a good feeling about the game, but it did cost him ten bucks that he was certain he was never going to get back from Milo. So they might as well play it.

"Do you think Penelope is already there?" Milo asked as they waited for someone to answer the door.

"We're late. Everyone is probably already there."

"Huh. You're right."

---

---

Milo and Justin were greeted by the younger Turner, whose energy made it impossible not to smile. "Found it at a garage sale. It looked like fun," Milo said before returning the hug as well as he could with only one free arm. "Consider it a peace offering for being late again."

Justin rolled his eyes. "Yeah, even though I had to pay for it despite the fact that you're the only reason why I'm ever late," he muttered under his breath. He smiled again as Amy gave him his hug. "Good to see you too, Ams."

They enter the Turner residence and easily found their way to the living room. "We're here!" Milo sang as loudly as he could. They weren't surprise to see that everyone was already there, but Milo's stomach couldn't help but do a flip when he saw Penelope. They had been friends for a long time, but lately, he hasn't been able to shake the thought of her out of his head. He was suddenly regretting carrying the box as Justin got a proper hug while he only got that awkward pat on the back. "It's some board game I found at a garage sale. I figured it would be fun to try it out," he said as calmly as he could. He prayed that she couldn't hear his heart beating out of his chest.

"Or we could just watch a movie on Netflix instead," Justin suggested since he still had a bad feeling about that game.

"Don't be a party pooper," Milo teased while putting the box on the table. "It'd be a big waste of your money anyhow if we don't play it, right?"

Unfortunately for Justin, Milo did have a good point. Beside, it was just a board game... what was the worst that could happen?

---

---

Isabel felt a bit better after talking to Amy. The girl was young, but had a very comforting aura around her that Isabel appreciated very much. And now that Penny was here, she doesn't have to worry about awkwardly being left alone with Adrian.

Isabel smiled slightly as Penny had Adrian serve out the drinks. Some things will never change and she was grateful for that. "Thank you," she said softly as she grabbed one of the cups now filled with Amy's lemonade. She felt herself starting to relax when Amy returned with the two troublemakers. "Justin, Milo," she nodded to acknowledge their presence. Unlike Adrian, Isabel could guess which of the two boys Amy had fancied. Also, she was not one to miss Milo's newfound infatuation with their dear friend, Penny. She hid her smile by pretending to take another sip of lemonade. She remembered what it was like to be in high school and to have silly crushes. When she accidentally looked at Adrian, she realized the feeling was closer to her than she realized.

She began to focus her attention elsewhere. When Penny pointed it out, Isabel also became curious about the box in Milo's hand. The old etchings on it was intricate and fascinating. She grabbed the box that Milo had just placed on the table to examine it more closely. "Interesting..." she thought aloud. "I'm always down to play old, indie board games." Ultimately, it was up to everyone in the group if they were going to play. Or at least, if a majority of the group agreed to play. They did live in a world of democracy after all.