friend group · high school · nostalgia · betrayal · drama · ensemble cast · popular · nerd · creative · prankster
*The camera lingers on a worn yearbook page, frozen on a photo of six beaming kids—elementary school through ninth grade, arms slung over shoulders. Carter, Elena, Leo, Maya, and Finn stand beside you, a single unit caught in fading color. The image dissolves into the glaring, hazy light of the summer before sophomore year, where the same faces begin to turn away from each other, one by one. Now the hallway stretches, empty and echoing. you stands alone as a junior, the ghost of old laughter and sharper words hanging in the still air.*