Eva
    "They're late," Maria spoke up, aiming at the basket but failing to goal.
     "That's Mark for you," Lilly sighed, engrossed in some new game on her phone. I hummed in response, hurriedly scribbling away on my  notebook.
    "Won't he get an earful about punctuality from mom?" Maria teased, bouncing the ball.
    "A queen is never late," we heard Mark call out sarcastically, "Everyone is just early."
    "Way to go, Princess Mia," I heard Maria sass back, "You're lucky Eva is in her little bubble or you would have been dead."
     "Little bubble?" Mark asked before I felt a pair of eyes on the back of  my head, "Oh..." Before I knew it, my notebook was snatched from my  hand by a very hyper Mark. I looked up at him with my most scary evil  look.
    "Give it back Tuan," I hissed, getting up.
     "Sure," Mark shrugged, "If you want it back then you have to beat me at basketball... easy, right?" I glared at him, not really feeling up to playing any sort  of games.
    "Come on, Eva! Beat his !" Maria cheered, tossing the ball to me. I sighed in defeat, grabbing the ball.
     "Ok. First one to goal wins. No cheating and no tricking," I set the  rules as I began to bounce the ball, "As they say, ladies first."
      With that, I began running towards my basket but Mark blocked me,  easily swiping the ball away from me. I let out a frusterated sigh as I turned around and began chasing him, trying to get the ball back. He tried to side-step but I used my short height to my advantage and ducked  under his arm, successfully getting the ball back.
     "Being tall is not always an advantage, y'know," I winked at him, earning cheers from Jackson, Bambam and Lily.
      "Come on Mark!" Junior shouted, "Beat her already." Mark smirked, trying  to swipe the ball from me but I side-stepped him and ran straight to  the basket and, before Mark could stop me, I sent the ball soaring in the air and through the hoop.
      "Goal!" I cheered with Maria, Lilly, Yugyeom and Bambam while the hyung line  booed. With a little happy dance, I extended my hand towards Mark with  an eyebrow raised.
     "I was hoping to get to read what you were writing," he sulked, a little pout on his face. I smiled, patting his head.
      "Never," I smirked at him before going back to my bag to put  the notebook back, "And we don't have time to read because we have a lot planned for today."
     "So, what do you have planned?" JB asked, looking at me curiously.
     "Don't worry," I smiled mischievously.
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     "Bowling?" Jackson grinned, looking at the three of us with excited eyes.
      "Yep," Maria grinned back, "And this time I am beating you, Tuan!" Mark  shook his head, as we made our way inside. There was a small argument  regarding how we all were supposed to team up before everyone agreed to  choosing two leaders who will chose their own team. Mark and Jackson  were chosen as leaders because they were the 'Kings of Bowling.'
      Jackson's team consisted of Maria, JB, Junior and Bambam while Mark's team had Lily, Yugyeom, Youngjae and me. Jackson's team chose green for themselves while our team was represented by blue.
      "We will beat you!" Jackson sang as we gathered similar coloured bowling balls. I struck my tongue out at the  back of his head as I carried a blue ball to our station when I heard a  little hiss of pain behind me. I turned around to find JB all curled up  on the floor, tightly grasping at his finger which I assumed had got  stuck between two balls.
      "Guys, your leader is dying!" I called out as I frowned at JB's curled  up form, "Apparently the balls are too vicious for poor JB." He looked up at me with an eyebrow raised in a challenging way. Was he threatening me? Well then.
      "I'm pretty sure you made our victory more easier than before," I  grinned, walking back to our station. First up were Jackson and Mark.  Mark easily scored a strike while Jackson, trying to strike a grand  pose, slipped and fell.
      Next went Junior and Yugyeom. Junior began to make grand gestures and made his teammates touch the ball for good-luck. Yugyeom Reilly also touched the ball, getting a glare from Junior. Junior's  ball managed to knock out only half of his pins while Yugyeom's ball  side-tracked to the gutter, earning cheers and hoots from the other  team. Junior's second try was, sadly, able to knock down the remaining  pins. Junior grinned evilly at Yugyeom who, despite being the "Giant Maknae" tried to hide behind Mark and me.
      "Guys, let's set a rule," I called out as I grabbed a ball, "No  murdering the other team members while the game is still going on."
     "So we can murder them later?" Junior hopefully asked. Maria patted his back nodding.
      "We can kill him together," she high-fived him. Lilly sighed, rolling her eyes at her as we shared a knowing look. I was up against JB who had an irritating smirk plastered on his face. I rolled my eyes at his arrogance before we both rolled the balls. His went into the gutter as mine made a  beautiful strike. JB let out a frusterated yell and fell to ground,  defeated as I happy danced my way back to the team. Jackson patted JB's  back consolingly as the other members stared at me, impressed. Maria  leaned across her lane and gave me a high-five as I sat down. This earned her glares from her team.
      Lilly and Maria followed us with Lily managing to knock out half of her  pins and Maria knocked out all pins except one. Jackson let out a  frusterated yell before the whole team began to tap the ball for good  luck while on our side, Mark just patted Lily's back as Youngjae,  Yugyeom and I cheered for her. Looking at the three of us, Jackson and  Bambam also began to cheer for Maria.
      The next pair was Youngjae and Bambam. Bambam, as he had challenged,  was able to win a spare while Youngjae either slipped, laughing louder than all of us, or either having his ball go into the gutter.
      With the end of the second round, our team emerged as victors. Yugyeom and I did a little happy dance as JB and Jackson demanded that the scores be calculated again.
     "Yah! It wasn't fair," Jackson threw his snapback on the ground before falling into the sofa on his side.
      "Wow, that's one sore loser," I grinned, fist-bumping Yugyeom. Youngjae laughed at the glare that was thrown at me from the other team.
     "We won fair and square," Lily defended in her matter-of-fact tone, then added with a smirk, "Sore losers have no privileges."
      I pointed at her, nodding ang grinning.
      "Also if you guys whine I won't tell you what's next on our agenda," I  grinned triumphantly at the look of defeat that crossed the other team's faces.
     "It was still unfair," JB stubbornly complained.
     "Just because a girl beat you?" I remarked causing everyone to laugh at the slight redness of JB's ears.
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     The last thing we wanted was food. Normally, we used to head back  to my house where my mother used to whip up a huge feast and then we used to exchange presents but now, due to Mark's bandmates, it felt strange to take them back to my house, considering the fact that we all  just became friends (if that's what one would call it). So instead of heading home, we headed over to a resturant.
     It wasn't much crowded and we easily got a table and ordered. It was silent around the table as the boys were tired due to the bowling and  later the soccer we had played while Mark and us girls were saddened by  the realization that this would be our last time with him for many  years.
    "It was fun..." Maria spoke up. Mark looked up at her, forcing a small smile.
    "It was," he nodded, "I'll miss you guys." I smiled, reaching over and ruffling up his hair.
    "We'll miss you too," I pinched his cheeks, trying to keep my voice leveled, "But hey, it's not like you're dying."
     "Real smooth, Eva, real smooth," Lilly shook her head, chuckling lightly at my lame attempt to joke, "And please stop being sappy, it's extremely contagious." The dinner went with silence reigning over the majority of it. The boys ocassionally tried to joke to keep a happy mood but no form of proper conversation was carried out this time.
    By the end of it, all of us stood outside for goodbyes.
    "You sure you guys don't want to come to the airport tomorrow?" Mark asked as he hugged us all one by one.
    "Dead sure. Airports are sad places and I'm sure I'll cry there," Maria replied, her voice cracking a bit.
     "Take care of yourself you big goof," I gulped, tears forming in my  eyes. The three of them awed before hugging me together.
     "Mama bear is crying," Maria teased. I pushed her, sniffling as I wiped away some leaking tears. We stood like that for a few minutes before I pulled myself away.
     "Before we leave," Lilly said, pulling out a wrapped box from her bag, "Here is a little present from the three of us.  Open it when you go back to Korea."
    "And don't forget to call, face-time and all that ," Maria reminded him, "You are not gonna  ignore us again."
    "That's true," Lilly piped up, "Having people like you all as friends has been an incredible, new experience."
    "Don't worry about a thing," he nodded, tearing up a bit as our car drived away from them.
    *******************************************
     Soon after Marks departure, the girls and I fell into the depressing  finals month. We had late-night cramming sessions in which we were able  to squeeze in some face-time with Mark and the boys. The library became  our second home and a lot of time was spent at Suzy's trying to clear the many concepts bundled up in our minds.
     This month also called for us to start seriously considering our  college applications. Never had anyone of us seriously thought where we  would be going.
     "Dad wants me to apply to a college in Seoul, South Korea," Maria  informed us one day when we were cramming for our Chemistry exam.
     "That's great! He'll also get a chance to move back to his native state  won't he?" I patted her back, a huge grin on my face.
    "Where will you be applying?" she asked.
    "I have no clue," I shook my head, "haven't talked to dad about it yet."
    "I'm applying anywhere they offer good photography classes," Lily shrugged, scribbling away.
    "Let's hope for the best wherever we apply, right?" I smiled before going back to the book.
    **********************************
     The exams were done with and our college applications mailed already. In celebration of the last exam getting over and done with, we were sitting in my room, face-timing  Mark and telling him all about it when the house phone rang. The girls frowned, looking at me.
    "Who lives in the 19's?" Maria joked. I shrugged as I raced down to answer the phone before it stopped ringing.
    "Hello?" I timidly answered as the girls and boys argued about the importance of a house phone behind me.
    "Is this the Montgomery residence?" a female voice asked from the other side.
    "Yes, and who is this?" I raised an eyebrow, extremly confused.
    "We're calling from St. Richards Medical Care Center," the woman responded, "Mr. Smith  has been in a car accident and is in critical condition. We request you to come down immediately."
I felt all the blood rush out of my face and my hands began to shake violently. Maria looked up at me before  walking towards me.
     "What's wrong? Eva?" she grabbed me by the arms. With one look at her concerned face I felt tears leak out of my eyes, and the shaking got worse.
    "Shh. What's wrong?" she placed a hand on the back of my head before wrapping the other around me.
    "It's Dad, he- he... accident," I faintly heard myself say before Lily brought me to my feet.
    "Come on, I'll drive. Just tell me where he is," Lily whispered as I heard a jingle of keys.
     "St. Richards." She let go and walked out while I clung to Maria's side. The drive to the hospital and everything after that condensed into  a huge blur. By the time I regained conciousness of my surroundings, I was standing in the morgue with Lee Haeyoung, my step-mother, holding onto  my shoulders as the doctor removed the sheet from my father's face. I clenched my eyes shut, wanting to run away immediately.
     At some point the tears stopped coming and I was left with dry sobs and a deep ache in my heart. That night, Maria and Lily slept sandwiching me between themselves. Maria refused to leave my side before and after the funeral while Lily tried her best to cheer the sad and tense atmosphere around  us.
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