Three Years Earlier – December

“Hey, JB!”

Amongst the swell of voices rising up from the students of Miami Shores Community High School, the sound of his name being called caught JB’s attention quickly. He adjusted his backpack on his shoulder and let his eyes scan the crowds as he followed traffic towards the cafeteria, making eye contact with Araceli Munoz, a senior, and the person who had clearly been the one to call his name; she smiled, closing the distance between them.

“You’re birthday is coming up soon, right?” she inquired of him.

“Next month, yeah,” JB responded with a nod. “Why?”

“I wanted to know what you had planned,” Araceli explained, draping her thick, wavy dark hair over one shoulder. “Any parties I should know about?”

“Not that I know of,” JB said with a shake of his head. “I have a game that week, so I’ll probably be practicing.”

“Aw…” Araceli set her pink, glossed lips into a pout. “You’ll tell me if you decide to do something, though, right? I want to make sure I’m there.”

“Uh-”

“We’ll definitely let you know,” came a familiar voice suddenly, just as an arm draped itself across JB’s shoulders; JB looked up from Araceli’s face to find Jackson Wang, one of his closest friends, standing between them. He adjusted the snapback hat sitting backwards on his black hair and looked from Araceli to JB, grinning mischievously. “We’re still breaking him down.”

“Araceli, are you cheating on me now?” Mark inquired as he joined their party, standing on the other side of Araceli. JB caught a glimpse of Youngjae’s dark haired head (framed by a crown of flowers, for some reason) as he weaved through the crowd to speak to Junior, who had just emerged from one of the classrooms. With Araceli’s attention diverted by the two playboys of their group, JB allowed himself to stop talking and walk, occasionally greeting people that called out to him as he went. Araceli wasn’t the first girl to ask him about his seventeenth birthday plans, but he really didn’t have much in mind; maybe pizza and video games at Junior’s family’s sprawling house in Coconut Grove, but that was all that he could think of.

They reached the cafeteria and he made his way through the pizza line, grabbing a slice of pepperoni pizza and a bottle of water, as well as a bag of chips at the last minute. He headed towards the center of the cafeteria, where his friends, and the scores of people they attracted, normally sat. Junior and Youngjae were already seated at the table, along with Mark; Jackson stood at the end of the table, leaning over Mark as they looked over something in Jackson’s possession. Mark glanced up at JB as he headed over and he alerted Jackson of it; Jackson looked over his shoulder at JB and immediately stood from the table, grabbing a spiral bound book off of it as he hurried over to meet JB in his path.

“You’ve got to see this,” he said eagerly, opening the book and ing it into JB’s face. It was a spiral bound journal of sorts, that bore what looked like poems and doodles in it. The first thing that JB noticed was a name written