MO:
"Mo you look…beyond beautiful" I smile and let Stella finish placing pins in my hair.
"Scott is a very lucky guy." Olivia says and smiles down at me.
"So you guys think this…is a good choice?" I ask and stand up from the small couch I had been in.
"Yes. I mean you two have liked each other since… seventh grade!" Stella smiles widely and holds a small mirror in front of me.
"You two are so adorable together!" Olivia adds and hugs my waist tightly.
"Who knows maybe Wen will be next to propose." Stella smiles as Olivia's cheeks turn a bright pink.
"I doubt it." She mumbles and sighs.
"Come here; let me put the final touches on your dress." I say and pull her over to the mirror. Her baby blue Bride's maid dress hugs her small waist and with a few quick adjustments I 'm able to tie a thin piece of lace around her waist to make the dress prettier.
"Stella you're next." I pull Stella over and do the same to her dress.
"I don't get why I have to wear this thing." She grumbles and shifts uncomfortably in her dress.
"You look nice Stella now stop fidgeting!" Olivia says with a smile.
"I can't help it!" she replies and sighs.
"Mo how are you feeling?" I smile wider and sigh.
"This is it huh? By the end of today I will no longer be Mohini Banerjee. I'll be Mohini Pickett." I say and stare at my reflection.
"You're lucky you know. Not everyone finds the one they'll love for the rest of their lives at the age of thirteen." I smile and laugh at Stella's statement.
"Mohini? It's time." I turn to see my father peeking in with a small smile.
"yay." Olivia whispers nervously.
"come on." Stella pulls her out of the room with a big smile and I can't help but some widely even through my nerves.
STELLA:
Olivia and I take slow steps down the aisle and I keep a smile plastered on my face even though all I want to do is run to where my parents are sitting safely in the audience. When we finally reach the place where we're supposed to stand I let out the breath I had been holding. With one quick glance I see that Wen and Charlie are just as nervous as I am. They're both in suits with their hands clasped together in front of them. I hear the organ start to play softly and look over to see Mo start to walk forward. I felt a twinge of jealousy that she got to have her wedding right after collage while I don't even have a boyfriend. But that jealousy is over shadowed by the joy that one of my best friends is getting married today to the guy that's loved her since he learned what love meant.
"We are gathered here today…" I zone out after that and take a look around. Charlie and Wen are looking at the couple happily and so is Olivia. Scott's best man though is starring at the floor with a straight face.
Yes we were all shocked when Scott told us who he had picked to be his best man but in the end we decided not to fight him on his decision. I bet you can guess who he picked though.
Ray Beech is standing next to Scott, looking innocent in his black and white suit with a smile plastered on his lips. I remember the first time I saw the blond headed boy. It was June 2nd, I had just moved in and I was Ten years old. That day is permanently etched into my brain. And although he won't admit to remembering just as clearly as I do, I know for a fact that he does remember.
Flash back:
As I climbed out of the moving truck with a box in my hands I didn't really expect to see anyone. I mean it was a Saturday afternoon in the middle of summer. Every normal person would be enjoying the warmth and beauty of that summer day.
"Stell, here honey." I feel the box being lifted out of my arms and sigh as my father walks away with at least four boxes.
" Stella, will you take your brothers inside?" I nod and sigh as my four year old twin brothers follow me into the air conditioned house.
"Hello?" I turn to see a blond hair boy peeking into the house.
"Who are you?" I walk over to the door and look at the blue eyed, blond haired, smiling boy.
"I'm your neighbor. My mom said that I should come see if the new family had kids around my age." He says and grins widely. I had never been one to immediately get along with kids. I'd always let them talk first to try to figure out if they were worth getting to know or if they were the type of kid that would talk and talk yet never run out of non-sense to talk about.
"Hi I guess?" I watch him and he chuckles and nods.
"I'm Raymond but you can call me ray." He says and waves.
"Stella? Who's this?" I look up to see my mom smiling down at the boy.
"Hi. I'm ray." He answers and sticks out his right hand.
"It's nice to meet you." She answers and smiles wiser. "Why don't you two go outside and play Stella?"
"Because he's weird." I say and frown at the too happy boy. Suddenly his big smile disappears and I'm facing a glaring and fuming ten year old.
"you're one to talk. It looks like a clown threw up on you!" he glares down at my clothes and I notice for the first time that my Yellow shirt doesn't match my Blue sweats, Green socks, Red converse or Brown head band.
"I'm not weird! I'm unusual!" I shot back, remembering the defense my best friend had taught me a few years back.
"Yeah unusually freaky!"
"Oh yeah? It's not like your clothes are any better!" I'm surprised at the fact that this kid is defending himself, and even more impressed at the fact that he can come up with insults so quickly get not even be fazed by my comebacks.
" at least my clothes weren;t bought from good will!"
"Alright that's enough!" we both look up to see a woman standing next to my socked mother. She has the same blue eyes and smile as the boy so my first guess was that this woman was his sister.
"Mom she started it!" okay so I was wrong. The woman was Ray's mom.
"I don't care Raymond. You don't go around being so rude. Your father and I raised you better than that!" with that she smacks the back of his head lightly. "now go home, Scott's been waiting for you.
"That's okay Mrs. B. I'm right here." I look over to see a skinny brown haired boy walking over.
"Hey Scott." Ray mumbles and continues to glare my way.
"Go on and play…in fact why don't you take this girl with you? That is if it's okay with her mother." That's all it takes for my mother to smile and agree before both women walk to the kitchen deep in conversation.
"No way! There's no way you're coming with us to the lot! It's guys only!" Ray is ignored by both women and I smirk when his friend sends me a nervous glance.
"Maybe we can introduce her to Mohini?" he suggests and shoves his small hands into his pockets.
"No! She's not coming."
" who says?" I shout and take a step towards Scott.
"I do!" ray blocks my path and pushes me away. It isn't rough but it's still enough to send me stumbling back a few steps.
"you aren't in charge of me! I can do whatever I want!" I push him back and he slams into Scott before they both land on the grass.
"Ray can we just go? Charlie's waiting for us at the park!" Scott whines when they stand back up.
"fine…just keep your distance! I don't want Charlie to see you and think it's okay to be your friend." Ray grumbles and stomps away.
"Hi, I'm Stella." I smile kindly at Scott and watch as he goes from afraid and nervous to easy going and happy.
"I'm Scott." He answers and we trail behind the blond fuming boy.
"Don't talk to her!" Ray hisses and pulls him forward.
"There's Charlie!" Scott points to the shaggy haired boy that's sitting on a bench with a back pack at his feet.
"Hey guys…who's this?" Chalrie smiles at me widely as he shrugs on his bag.
"No one. Where're the other girls?" Ray grumbles and crosses his arms.
"By the swings." Charlie answers.
"Alright what are you waiting for?" Ray asks and looks at me.
"What?" I frown and stare at the three boys in confusion.
"Go away! Go to the swings or something just stop following us!" Ray shouts and points to a group of girls giggling by the swing set.
"Ask nicely." I glare and place my hands on my hips, the way I had seen my mother do.
"Will you please get lost?" Ray puts on a sweet smile to sweeten up the rude words.
"Will you please not be so ugly?" I shoot back.
"Will you please stop being freaky?"
"Will you two please shut up?" Scott shouts. "Stella please just go talk to the girls?"
"fine." I watch them sigh and walk away before finally trudging to the big swing set. There I see four girls; two blonds, a brunette, and a girl with black hair.
"Leave her alone Patty!" the black haired girl shouts as one of the blonds and the brunette giggle loudly.
"Make me." the brunette shouts back and rolls her eyes.
"what's going on?" I butt in and they all turn to look at me.
"check out the clown." One of the blondes snortes and the brunette laughs.
"I didn't know the circus was in town!" the brunette comments.
"shut up!" the black haired girl shouts before sighing and taking my hand. "come on." She pulls me and the other blond haired girl away form the other two and doesn't stop walking until we're at the other side of the playground.
"Um…thank you." I mumble and sit on the grass.
"You're welcome. But don't listen to Patty and Jules. They're just rich girl wannabes." she grumbles.
"It's true." The blond squeaks out softly.
"Olivia are you okay?" the Black haired girl asks and inspects the other girls face.
"Yeah, Jules only threw sand into my hair." She whispers softly and runs her small fingers through her long locks.
" so what's your name?" I ask.
"I'm Mohini and this is Olivia. But you can call me Mo if you want." Mo says and smiles.
"I'm stella." I sit next to Olivia and help her shake the sand out of her hair.
"I say you walk over with Ray and Scott. Are you their friend or something?" Olivia asks and smiles.
"Um…no actually. I'm new to town and Ray is my next door neighbor."
"Wait dud you call him weird?" Mo asks when I don't meet her eyes she gasps.
"What?" I look up and frown.
"No wonder he was angry. Ray is a nice boy but if you make fun of him he can be a real meanie." Olivia explains sadly.
"Really?" I mumble and think back at the smiling boy that went from creepy happy to amazingly grumpy.
"Yeah." Mo sits down and sighs.
"Well what about Scott? Does he like you?" Olivia asks happily.
"I guess, he wasn't mean like Ray." I say and watch as they both sigh in relief.
"Good, now we know that Ray might actually like you someday." Mo smiles widely and claps her hands.
"What?" I frown at the two girls and wait for an explanation.
"Well if Ray doesn't like you that's bad, but if both Ray and Scott don't like you then you most likely won't make any friends soon, and if Charlie doesn't like you then you won't make any friends at all." Olivia says and sighs.
"Yeah and if Ray doesn't like you but Scott does then maybe if Scott asks, Ray will try to be your friend too." Mo finishes.
"Wow this place is weird." I mumble.
"Come on, if you're Ray's next door neighbor then I must live in fornt of you. We can go play at my house." Mo says and stand up eagerly.
"Yeah! Mo has a trampoline, and a pool, and a dog, and an older brother that like to play Monopoly with us." Olivia jumps up too and smiles widely.
"Um…okay, but I have to ask my mom first." I say and stand up too. We start walking and they nod in agreement.
"Hey Stella, Ray is looking at you." Olivia mumbles and look back towards a small pavilion. I look too and see the blond haired boy leaning against one of the pillars with his arms crossed. He has a small pout on his face along with a frown as his eyes follow us until we're out of sight. When I can't see him anymore I look forward again and listen to the conversation Mo and Olivia are having.
RAY:
The sound the priest mumbling quickly fades into the background despite my desperate attempts to keep listening. Soon I find my eyes wandering to a smiling Stella. Her dress clings to her body and swoshes around her feet nicely and I can't look away after a while.
"eyes forward." I hear Wendal hiss into my ear when I start to slouch while starring at Stella
"right." I mumble and straighten up before focusing my eyes back on the priest.
"Scott do you take Mohini Banerjee as your loftily…" and yet again he goes into he background. Suddenly I find my mind wandering back…way back. All the way back to June Second, 1998.
FLASHBACK:
She's not that bad." Charlie mumbles as we walk to the club house.
" are you kidding? She's weird and mean." I mumble and look back. There I see Stella, Mo and Olivia walking away from the playground. Olivia turns and sees me before turning back and mumbling something. As I watch the three of them walk away I lean against the closest solid thing and cross my arms angrily. Suddenly Stella turns her head and stares at me as I stare back. Soon I can barely see the color of her hair and I have to go inside.
"I don't think ti's because you don't like her Ray." Scott mumbles and bites into his chocolate bar.
"What are talking about?" I ask and sit down at one of the picnic tables.
"Maybe you have a crush on her." Charlie snickers and I glare at the mop headed nine, soon to be ten year old.
"shut up Charlie. You have a crush on Mo." I say angrily and grab the rest of Scott's chocolate bar. He doesn't complain and watches at I eat the bar angrily.
"so? Atleast I'm not afraid to admit it!" he says and smiles.
"I don't have a crush on that girl." I growl and stand up. "I'm going home." With that Scott stands up too and we both stalk out of the park.
"I think she's pretty cool Ray." He mumbles and pulls out another candy bar from his pocket.
"Shut up Scott, she's not cool. Not at all." We reach my house in record time but I freeze when I hear giggling.
"Hey look, Stella, Mo and Olivia are on Mo's trampoline." Scott points to the bouncing girls and smiles. That's the first of many times I felt a slightly pull in my chest before my stomach got all warm and fuzzy as I watched the weird yet interesting girl that was my new neighbor bounce happily.
"She looks like a monkey." I mumble, ignoring the feeling the walk inside.
"You may now kiss the bride." I snap back to the sound of cheering and watch as Mo and Scott kiss.
"finally." I look over to the owner of the relieved sigh and see Stella shifting her weight uncomfortably form one foot to the other. I don't blame her to be honest, those heels made her at least four inches taller.
"Come on." I look over to see everyone standing and walking out of the church.
"Where are we going?" I ask Wendell as he pulls me along.
"The actual party, duh." Charlie smiles widely and starts to unbutton his white shirt to reveal a purple T-shirt.
"Dude seriously?" Wendell asks and rolls his eyes.
"I'm not staying in this thing all day!" Charlie mumbles and grins.
"Neither am i." I say and take of the blazer thing to show the sliver and black designs running front my shoulders to the hem of my white shirt.
"Am I the only one that's going to stay in this monkey suit all day?" the red head asks in shock.
"yeah." I say and walk away from the two arguing guys,
"oof." I have to catch myself and the person that I just slammed into to keep us from falling down in the middle of a church.
"I'm sorry, I wasn;t watching where I was going, and this floor get steep sometimes and I tripped and…" I look down to a fumbling Stella. She hasn't looked up yet and she trying to keep her blush hidden as she apologizes.
"Don't sweat is Yamada." I say and smirk when her cheeks get even redder.
"Beech" with that she pulls away but gets pulls right back by her necklace that's now stuck top one of the buttons of my shirt.
"oh no." I mumble and quickly move my hands to try and tug my self free.
"ouch!" she hisses when I pull a bit to hard.
"sorry." I pull and again and she winces in pain. I say Sorry again and try again but this time she catches my wrist in annoyances and starts pulling me towards a door.
"Come on!" she hisses and opens the door. I walk in with her and wait for her to turn on the lights before looking around the small storage room.
"What are we doing in here?" ask and smile slightly when high school memories of being locked in a supply closet flood back.
"Stop smirking and take off your shirt." My head snaps down to look at her in shock.
"Excuse me?" say and raise an eyebrow.
"No you perv, I need you to take your shirt off so that we can untangle ourselves without making my neck bleed." With that her fingers fumbles over my buttons as she quickly tries to take my shirt off.
"Wait, you won't be able to undo the button where the chain is." I mumble.
"I know. Duck a little." I follow orders and she pulls my shirt over my head quickly.
"Okay, now what?" I ask and move out of the way so that the air conditioning doesn't hit by bare chest.
"Why did you just get closer to me?" she pushes my back under the air conditioning vent and I shiver before pushing her back and stepping closer again.
"you dumb…butt." I sigh when the A word almost slipps before speaking. "I'm shirtless and you're pushing me under an air conditioning vent!" I hiss and watch as her fingers word to untankle the chain.
"Sorry mister pushy!" she mumbles before chuckling. "Dumb butt?" she glances up but keeps working on the chain.
"Don't ask." I mumble and sigh in relief when her necklace is lifted away from my shirt.
"There." She hands me my shirt but before I can pull it on the door opens. Great, just my luck. I turn and close my eyes in defeat at the sight of who's starring at a shirtless me standing chest to chest with Stella.
Okay so the plot of this story was all my sisters idea. Thank you to her. But she didn't inherit the writing skills I have (not to toot my own horn or anything but uh…toot toot.) so I wrote it for her and she let me post it up as my own. Okay so I realize that my other story hasn't been updated in an extremely long time and I promise that I will go back to regular updating. Right now I needed to get my mind into the groove of writing long posts. I really hope you enjoyed! Don't forget to review!