"Are you sure it's okay?" "Yes." "And your housemates won't mind?" "No."
Courtney Alonso Martín still didn't look entirely comfortable but took her scarf off anyway and hung it on the hood in the hall as Gwen Ibáñez Schützenhöfer disappeared into her bedroom to get some movies. It was time for the almost monthly movie night they had, along with Bridgette Lundström and LeShawna Naidoo, although the latter was going to be a little later. It was, however, the first time they held it at Gwen's place. It was also the first time they got to see where their friend had been living for about a year already.
"Relax Courtney, it seems like there's no one home anyway." Bridgette assured her friend. Courtney nodded, there was nothing to worry about.
"Well actually, some of them should be home but they're probably in their rooms or something" Gwen said as she re-appeared with her arms full of DVD's. She went to the living room and dropped them on the couch. It was basically a mix of horror and Disney.
"You own Disney movies?" Courtney asked, clearly not having expected that from her friend.
"Um, yes? I was young too once? I like watching these, they remind me of better times."
Bridgette frowned. "That sounds kind of sad." "Yeah well, that's life. Which one would you like to watch?"
Courtney sat down on the couch and took a good look. "I don't know, which one did you like the most?"
"Tarzan. Please keep this to yourselves but when I was young I used to cry during the part when Kerchak dies" Gwen admitted. Bridgette giggled. "Don't worry, I still do."
"Okay, so we'll watch Tarzan. What about you Bridgette, any preference?" Courtney asked.
"Well, I really like The Lion King, does she have that one?" "She has three, but I assume you mean the first?" Bridgette answered with a nod.
"Great, then I'll choose-" Courtney paused for a moment to take a good look, "ah, Lady and the Tramp. That one is so cute!"
"Does the lady happen to be looking for her own tramp?" A voice said from the other side of the room. Duncan Ibáñez Schützenhöfer was standing in the doorway with a smug expression on his face.
"Excuse me?" Courtney said as she crossed her arms and sent Duncan a judging look. "If by tramp you mean yourself, then no. Tramp is a way too nice word to describe someone like you."
"You don't even know me yet." "And I probably don't want to either, so just go away."
Duncan ignored her and stayed where he was. "As far as I know, I'm the one who lives here, so if anyone should leave it's you."
Gwen sighed and turned to him. "What do you want?" "I was gonna order pizza and I thought I'd be nice and ask you whether you would like some too."
"Sure. Mozzarella and margherita right?" Gwen asked her friends, who nodded. She knew their usual orders by now. "Noted. I assume you want the cheese one?" "It's called quattro formaggi. And yes, please."
"Alright, I'm gonna give them a call" Duncan said and left the room again.
"Is he always like that?" Courtney asked Gwen as soon as she was sure Duncan wouldn't be able to hear her. Gwen grinned, "like what?"
Courtney shrugged. "I don't know, annoying. And flirty and rude." Gwen laughed. "Flirty? Sometimes. But annoying and rude? Always."
"Oh, so you got a special treatment from him then" Bridgette joked and bumped her shoulder against Courtney's. "Well, he can give it to someone else, he's an idiot."
"Can't deny that" Gwen shrugged. She kicked off her shoes and squatted in front of the tv, trying to figure out how the DVD-player worked. It took her a few minutes but eventually she managed to get it playing.
"Have you ever even seen a DVD-player before?" Courtney asked, clearly unimpressed.
"Err, yes? And back in the day, we even had a special device for videotapes, do you remember those?" Gwen asked mockingly.
"You don't have to be so rude about it, you're just like your 'friend'" Courtney complained.
"Come on guys, this was supposed to be a fun night" Bridgette said while making sure she was sitting between the two.
"She started it." "What? Because I couldn't get the DVD-player to work right away?" "No, by acting as if I'm a little child." "For real? Because I only mocked you after you mocked me." "I mocked you? I-" Courtney was about to snap back at Gwen, but Bridgette interrupted her, "Shut your mouth and watch."
Gwen rolled her eyes but turned to the screen where Lady and the Tramp was starting. Courtney made another attempt at speaking but was shushed by Bridgette again.
When they were about 15 minutes in, the doorbell rang, which could mean two things: food or LeShawna.
"That should be the pizza, can you go? I'm taking a piss" Duncan yelled from the toilet, making Courtney groan in annoyance. Gwen stood up and went to open the door, ignoring Bridgette yelling "if it's someone hot, make them come in" after her.
"He said that in English on purpose, just to annoy me" Courtney said as she pulled her knees to her chest, sulking.
Bridgette laughed, "sure he did." "Of course he did. He has about the same accent as Gwen, so he must be Austrian too or German." "Or Swiss." Bridgette added. Courtney rolled her eyes. "Yes. Or Swiss." "Or Belgian. Or maybe he's a Liechtensteiner." Bridgette continued and laughed at her friend, much to Courtney's dismay. It was so obvious that he said it in English on purpose, wouldn't they normally just speak German with each other?
In the meanwhile, Gwen opened the door to a panting LeShawna. "Did you run all the way here?" Gwen asked. LeShawna shook her head. "My brother's racing bike. Never again." Gwen grinned and stepped aside so LeShawna could step into the hall.
Gwen took a quick look at the street to see if there was any sign of someone that would deliver the pizzas. LeShawna noticed this and frowned. "Are you expecting someone else?" Gwen closed the door and turned around. "No. Well, yes. We're waiting for our pizzas." "You ordered pizzas before I came here? I thought we were friends." LeShawna joked, she knew that the other girls would give her some slices.
"Shut up and go bother those other two" Gwen said as she pushed LeShawna towards the living room. The sight she was met with was rather comical. Duncan, who had returned from his visit to the toilet, was very unsubtly flirting with Courtney.
"Can you just stop? You are such an asshole" Courtney yelled. Duncan gave a small nod of impression, "I didn't expect you to know words like that."
"Come on, words like that get used on a daily basis at school, how would I not?" Courtney snapped.
"Because you're a prissy princess?"
"What did you just call me?"
"Princess?"
"That was not all."
"Prissy princess."
"You are an embarrassment for the human kind. Gwen, please tell him to stop."
Gwen showed no sign of intending to stop this argument, as she found it far too entertaining. "You know what they say, 'was sich liebt, das neckt sich'." (1) Her words were accompanied by a wink and a fistbump with Duncan, who was enjoying this too much for Courtney's liking.
"What does that even mean?" she silently whispered to Bridgette, who shrugged. "Something with 'what loves each other', I guess. No idea what 'neckt' means."
This pissed Courtney off even more. "Why are you two like this?" she asked the two, who merely smirked.
The bell rang again. Gwen made sure she was the one to get it, if only to escape Courtney's glares.
"That better be the pizzas, I'm starving" Bridgette sighed.
When Gwen opened the door, she found that it was indeed a pizza delivery guy.
"Hi" the guy greeted her.
We gave him a small nod. "Hi."
"Um, here are your pizzas" the boy said as he handed her the four boxes, which she set down next to her on the floor. It was only then that she realized she had no money. "One minute" she told him as she ran back to the living room where Duncan and Courtney were still arguing, leaving the boy standing in the doorway.
"Money, money, money" Gwen said muttered to no one in particular, as if repeating the mantra would help her find it. Giving up on searching in the living room, she continued looking in the kitchen. The first wallet she saw in the kitchen was her own, luckily. She was even luckier to discover that she had some bills left, that had to be enough.
Without saying a word to the others, she made her way back to the door, where the boy was still waiting patiently. "Here" she said and handed him the money. The boy reached for his own work wallet and gave Gwen 10 euros back. "Here you go."
"Thanks, bye!" The boy made his way back to his scooter while Gwen waited with closing the door until the boy seemed to have disappeared around the corner of the street. After a moment of peace and quiet, she picked up the boxes and went to the living room, where the arguing had calmed down a little.
"And was it a cute boy?" LeShawna asked when Gwen made her way back into the living room.
"It better not be" Duncan muttered under his breath, but if anyone heard him, they ignored it.
"Well, was it?"
"Not really and even it had been, I'm very happy on my own, if you must know."
"That's what I like to hear." Duncan threw his arm around his Gwen's shoulders. "By the way, now that we're meeting each other's friends anyway, can I invite the guys for a small party tonight?" Duncan asked as he took a slice of his salami pizza.
"Who are 'the guys'" "You don't know them, they're in my year." "Whatever, if the girls are okay with it, I am too."
LeShawna seemed to be rather enthusiastic about this. "A problem with boys coming over? Not at all."
"I don't have a problem with it either, the more the merrier" Bridgette added. Courtney looked unsure and this didn't go unnoticed by the others.
"Come on, princess. It's a Friday night, let yourself go a little" Duncan tried to encourage her, but it did not help.
"Court, he's right. It's a Friday and we weren't going to work on school tasks anyway. Why don't you have a little fun, you deserve it." Bridgette looked at her friend and saw a small smile appear. "Okay fine."
"Alright! I'll let the guys know when to be here for the party then" he said, taking out his phone and starting to type.
"A party?" Izzy Vandenberghe yelled ecstatically, running into the living room. "I'm so down for that, where is the alcohol?"
Noah Kumar was in his room, lying on his bed and reading a book in peace. Or, as peacefully as it could get with 7 siblings running around the house yelling at each other. His siblings were adults but still acted like 5-year olds. How was it possible that the youngest was the most mature?
Noah was able to read 10 pages before his sister Zara busted in. "Do you know where my special paperclip is?" she asked, not even bothering to greet her brother although she hadn't seen him after having come home from work.
"Your special what?" Noah asked. Was she serious about this?
"Paperclip. You know, the one that brings me luck? It has a butterfly on top."
"Um, no. No idea where that could be" Noah answered. It took about half a second for her to leave the room again. No 'thanks anyway' or 'bye' or anything.
Shortly after Zara had left his room, Noah heard his phone buzz. At least someone seemed to have an interest in him.
Cody: Hey
Noah: Hey
Cody: What're you up to?
Noah: Oh, nothing special. Trying to read, ignore every human in this house and make sure they don't cause me any hearing damage
Cody: Ah, same old then Up for some video games?
Noah: Sure, are you online already?
Cody: Actually, I was thinking you could come over. My parents flew back to Canada for a few days, so we can turn up the sound as loud as we want to
Noah put his phone down and considered Cody's offer for a few moments. It was a great excuse to get out of this house. Plus, it would be nice to talk to someone who actually acknowledges your existence, as opposed to certain other people.
Noah: Sure, I'll be there in about 20
Cody: Great!
Noah put away his phone and stood up from the bed. Shoes, he needed to find his shoes. He couldn't find them anywhere in his room, meaning they should be down in the hall. And the hall was a warzone. Alright, praying for the best.
When Noah came downstairs he saw his mother was already in the kitchen, cooking food with two of his brothers, who she repeatedly scolded for taking pieces of tomato and lettuce.
Hoping that she wouldn't see him, he picked up his shoes and quietly snuck to the door but it was in vain, as she seemed to have eyes in her back too.
"Noah, where are you going, honey?" she asked. Well, there was no need to lie about it, was there? "I'm going over to Cody's to play videogames."
"Cody's the tiny, brown-haired one, right?" Noah rolled his eyes. Cody had been to his house once already and he was pretty sure his mom had been gushing over him for the rest of the week.
"Yeah, that's him."
"Are you going to have dinner over there too?" Noah snorted, if Cody was supposed to make him food he would be lucky to get some bread with cheese without the other hurting either himself or Noah.
"Don't think so, his parents are away and Cody's an awful cook."
"Why don't you ask him to come over and eat with us? I have more than enough food."
"I'll ask him, okay? But I really need to go now, I said I'd be there in about 10 minutes from now."
"Alright, have fun honey. Dinner is ready at 6!"
"Ah great, they're gonna have a party tonight at my place. Guess we can't go there then" Alejandro Ibáñez Burromuerto sighed as he put his phone down on the table.
"Or maybe we could. Parties mean a lot of noise and a lot of noise means they won't hear us" his girlfriend Heather Oliveira Hsuan said, raising her eyebrow suggestively.
"Could work. But if we get caught, we're fucked. I'm pretty sure everyone who's going to be there is from our school."
"From our school? Who even lives there that I should know then?"
"Isabel Vandenberghe" Alejandro started, doing his best on pronouncing her surname right.
"Isabel?" "Izzy." "Izzy? That crazy girl that almost blew up half of the science lab?"
Alejandro grinned, remembering what happened that day. "Yeah, that one."
"How do you even stand living with her?"
"You get used to it. She's not as bad as she seems. Anyway, there's also Didier Lubamba-" "You mean DJ, that Belgian guy who takes his bunny to school?" "Yeah."
"Ah great, any others? I bet it can't get much worse." Heather muttered the last part.
"Umm, well there's Gwen, the one we have PE and English with."
A look of disgust appeared on Heather's face. "That weird goth girl? I can't stand her!"
"She's actually pretty cool."
"I still hate her. Any more?"
"Yeah, Duncan, from the year above us, the one with the green mohawk?" "That one? Is that place some punk sect or whatever?"
Alejandro laughed. "Not as far as I know. They may be a random bunch, but they're pretty cool when you get to know them."
"I doubt it."
"Why are you so judgmental?"
"I'm not, they're weird!"
"Okay, maybe a little."
"See? Anyway, is there going to be alcohol?" Heather asked.
"Knowing Duncan, yes. Why? Do you want to go too?"
"Maybe to have some drinks. But the combination of Izzy and alcohol sounds like something that will distract people."
"So, they won't notice us."
"Exactly! So, what do you say?"
"Sounds like a plan."
"Hey" Cody greeted Noah, stepping aside so his friend could step into the hall.
"Hey."
"I don't know if you're busy tonight, but Izzy just invited me to a party" Cody said as he closed the door behind them and walked into the kitchen to get something to drink for the both of them.
"Izzy? The crazy girl? Didn't know you two were friends."
"Kind of, we did that French presentation together a while ago. Want some soda?"
"Sure. And how could I forget about that? She came to school in an armor."
"She said it was so she could empathize better with Jeanne d'Arc." Cody held out a glass of coke for Noah.
"Well, at least she didn't bring a sword or anything. I hope she's not going to wear it tonight though" Noah sighed as he took the glass.
"So that means you want to go?" Cody said, a smile appearing on his face.
"I guess, but I have to turn up for dinner with the family tonight or my mom will go mad. She wanted me to ask if you wanted to join us for dinner too, by the way."
"Sure. Aisha is way too nice."
"Or she thinks you're going to die of hunger. I told her your parents weren't home."
Cody laughed. "Still. It's not like she's obligated to feed me. But please tell her I'll be there."
"I'll send her a text" Noah said, taking out his phone and starting to type.
"Great. Now that I don't have to worry about what leftovers I'll have to warm up tonight, let's go to my room. My uncle sent me that game we talked about last week as a late birthday present."
"Awesome" Noah smiled. If he had to be honest, he didn't even like gaming as much as Cody did, he'd much rather read a book. But he loved his friend's company and it wasn't like he hated shooting zombies on a screen. "And sure better than Emily Wants To Play. Remember how you peed your pants when that clown popped up?"
"I thought we were never going to mention it again. Or do I need to bring up that time you slept over and I woke up to you kissing my ear?"
Noah groaned. "Come on. I was asleep, that doesn't count!"
"I won't speak of it if you never mention my little accident again."
"Fine."
"Great. Now pick up that that controller. This game isn't going to play itself"
"Do you think they're dating?" Courtney whispered to Bridgette. "Who?" Courtney nodded to Gwen, who was talking to LeShawna and Duncan.
"Gwen and Duncan? Don't think so, they seem more like siblings than lovers. Why do you ask?" Courtney shrugged. "Nothing, just wondering."
Bridgette smirked. "You like him, don't you?"
"W-what… n-no, of course I don't," she stuttered, "Gwen's our friend, what's so bad about checking how her love life's going?"
"Her non-existent love life."
"Whatever, I'm just looking out for her."
"Sure" Bridgette snorted.
"For real. I don't want her to get hurt."
"Neither do I, but does she look like she's hurt?" Bridgette asked.
Courtney had to admit that Gwen appeared to be having a good time for a change. She seemed to be laughing genuinely.
"Alright, maybe he's not that bad, but that doesn't mean I trust him."
"Don't worry. If anything happens, we're going to make sure he won't be able to make babies with what's in his pants."
Courtney smiled. "Alright, I'll keep you to that."
However, Bridgette wasn't done with Courtney yet. "You can stop staring at him by the way, we don't want him to get the wrong idea, do we?" she winked. Courtney blushed. "Stop it, I'm not interested in him." "Then don't ogle him like that."
While Courtney tried to convince Bridgette that no, Duncan definitely wasn't her type, the trio on the other side of the room was discussing her.
"Why haven't you ever brought her here before? I wouldn't have minded, you know" Duncan said, looking at Courtney from the corner of his eye.
LeShawna frowned. "You wouldn't, but she would've. I don't think you're her type."
"Since when does Courtney have a type? Has she ever even dated anyone before?" Gwen mingled in. Courtney had never told her anything about her love life except for that one time when she accidentally mentioned having had a crush on someone back in Argentina. That didn't really count though, as Courtney was only 11 at the time.
"Not that I know of. But I still think jailbreak here doesn't really fit her demands, judging on what kind of future she sees for herself."
"She's an independent girl, she can make her own choices" Duncan said. Gwen nodded. "Exactly, which is why she doesn't feel the need to have to date anyone."
"Speaking about that, why are you so happy about Gwen not wanting to date anyone? Or is this a… private thing?"
Duncan scoffed. "No thanks" he said, earning himself a glare from Gwen who faked an offended look.
"I don't want her to get hurt. And no pain if there are no boyfriends."
Gwen raised an eyebrow and gave Duncan a judging look. "Or girlfriends" he quickly added. Gwen kept looking at him like before and crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Or any love interests regardless of gender." That got Gwen to smile and earned Duncan a pat on the shoulder.
"This is where you live?" Heather asked, looking a bit skeptical.
Alejandro nodded, "is it disappointing?"
"No, on the contrary. It's less of a mess than I expected it to be. Isn't there supposed to be mold in every corner?"
"Where'd you get that from?" he asked as he took Heathers coat from her and hung it gently on the hood.
"Basically any tv show about students? Or movies, for that matter. Have you seen the one with the French guy going to study in Barcelona?"
"L'auberge espagnole? You've seen that?"
"Had to watch it during French class on my last school. That movie was seriously messed up."
"I liked it" Alejandro said, his face fell a little as he was disappointed that Heather didn't.
"I did too. But that guy pretty much assaulted that woman. And then starting some kind of affair with him? That almost makes it look as if us women like it when men shove their tongues down our throats."
"So many things about that film were not okay, but it was really funny. Anyway, do you want to go to my room, it'll be at least an hour till other people will come here."
"Sure." Heather let Alejandro lead her to his room. To her surprise, the room itself was also very clean. It wasn't big, but just big enough. There was a bed in one corner and a desk with a chair in the other. On the wall there were two flags, a Spanish one and a Catalan one. On the windowsill lay an FC Barcelona flag.
"Are you from Barcelona? You never told me that."
"Catalonia is bigger than just Barcelona, but yes, I'm from Barcelona."
"Can you speak Catalan to me?"
Alejandro raised an eyebrow suggestively but remained silent.
"Can you speak Catalan to me, please?" she said, putting an emphasis on the last word.
Alejandro smirked. "You would like that, wouldn't you?"
Heather nodded.
Alejandro stepped closer to his girlfriend and leaned in. She could feel his breath on her skin when he whispered something in her ear. "Et tractaré com una reina." (2) He pulled his head back and kissed Heather softly on the mouth.
"Ets mina aquesta nit." (3) With those words he wrapped both of his arms around Heather's waist and lifted her up.
"I have no idea what that means but I'm all in" Heather said, wrapping her legs around Alejandro's waist. Alejandro merely smirked and walked to his bed, laying his girlfriend down on it. After making sure the door was locked, he climbed into his bed too, kissing Heather again.
"Cody, how nice to see you dear!" Aisha exclaimed when Noah and Cody arrived a few minutes before six.
"Nice to see you too Aisha, you look beautiful today!" Cody compliment her. Noah rolled his eyes at his friend. He already flirted with every girl at school and now even with his mother?
Aisha, however, seemed to like it. "You're too nice for your own good" she smiled as she stepped away from the stove to hug him. As soon as she had let go of Cody, she switched her attention to Noah. "Would you mind getting the table ready for dinner?"
Noah sighed but did as he was told anyway. He knew it would be hopeless to start an argument with his mom about this, despite him being the one to set up the table at least five times a week while his siblings did nothing but sit on the couch and watch tv.
"I'll help you" Cody told his friend, noticing his annoyance.
"Cody, you're our guest, you shouldn't be doing Noah's chores." Cody didn't understand why exactly these were Noah's chores, as he had heard that almost every chore in the house was Noah's. "I don't mind. You invited me for dinner, it's the least I can do." Aisha nodded and gave him another smile.
He walked over to where Noah was getting some plates out of a drawer. His friend seemed to be struggling with not dropping them so Cody quickly came to his aid. After having handed over some plates to Cody, Noah looked relieved.
They went to the back of the living room where the dinner table stood. Cody glanced sideways at the teenagers lying on the couches watching some kind of romcom with yet another straight, white couple as protagonists. They were clearly annoyed by it themselves too, as they were discussing not having enough colored actors on tv.
"Are they always that lazy?" Cody whispered to Noah, who snorted. "Always. I think mom just gave up on trying to make them do stuff around the house because they're too lazy to finish it anyway if they even bother to start."
"I wish my mom had given up already too. I mean, I don't mind doing stuff around the house but sometimes she just makes it seem like the only reason she had me was to use me as a servant" Cody sighed.
"That bad?"
"God, yes. I'm just glad I can get out of there as soon as I'm done with high school."
"Please let me go with you then and let's go very, very far."
Cody laughed. "How does Vladivostok sound?" "Perfect, let's start packing tonight." The two boys started giggling until they heard Aisha's voice coming from the kitchen, telling them to top laughing and start setting up the table.
Once they were done, Aisha called them to the table for dinner. As soon as Noah's siblings noticed Cody was there, they started teasing. Things from "So Noah has friends after all?" to "Aren't you going to introduce us to your boyfriend?" were thrown around.
Cody laid a hand on his friend's shoulder and told him to just ignore them. This only seemed to make it worse though, as one of Noah's brothers, Sami, told them to keep the PDA down. It was meant in a teasing way, but it made Noah kind of uncomfortable. Luckily, he was saved by his mom and Zara coming in with pans filled to the brim with food.
As soon as everyone had started eating, Noah's oldest brothers started interrogating Cody. The kind of questions protective fathers asked their daughter's boyfriends in those straight white romcoms like the one they had been watching. Cody had to confirm that yes, he was still in school and had to admit that no, he did not want to become a lawyer.
Noah himself seemed visibly relaxed now that his siblings were not annoying him for change and Cody didn't seem to mind all these questions anyway, it was a win-win situation.
Until the party was mentioned.
Noah was allowed to go, his mom didn't have problems with Noah going out, as he practically never did and she was convinced he needed to socialize some more. He should go out and have fun as long as he would be back before 2.
Sami saw Cody mentioning the party as an assist for a wonderful goal. No goalkeeper in his way to hold it.
"So, Noah. You and Cody have a date tonight?"
At around 8, Heather and Alejandro decided to join the others in the living room. Or rather, Alejandro decided they should and Heather had no arguments against going to get some alcohol.
The people that had been invited weren't there yet but could arrive any moment.
"Hey hermosa, ¿tenemos sangría?" (4) Alejandro asked as soon as he stepped into the living room. Being the only Spanish-speakers in the room, both Courtney and Gwen looked up. "Mesa de cocina" (5) Gwen simply answered. Alejandro winked at her as a sign of gratitude and went to the kitchen. Heather scowled for a moment but followed him anyway.
"What was that?" she asked him as soon as they were alone in the kitchen. "What was what?" Alejandro answered as he picked up the carton, muttering "¿Sangría en un cartón?" (6) under his breath in an almost offended tone, before shrugging and pouring some of it in a glass.
He held up the glass for Heather who took it from him with a glare. "You were flirting with her."
"With whom?" "Weird goth girl."
Alejandro chuckled. "You call that flirting? We're just playful with each other and we have been since long before I even met you. Gwen and I have known each other since she was born, we grew up together."
"And that's supposed to make me feel better?"
Alejandro was saved by the bell. Before he could reach the door to open it, Izzy jumped up in front of him. "These are my people."
He held his hands up as an apology as Izzy opened the door. It revealed three guys standing on the doorstep. Two small ones and one bigger one.
"Hey big O, glad you could make it!" Izzy said as she hugged her friend Owen Cook. Behind him were Noah and Cody, rolling their eyes at their 'mutual acquaintances'.
"So, you're Owen?" Alejandro asked as he held his hand for Owen to shake it, he recognized the guy from Izzy's stories. Owen then noticed him and stared at him with his mouth open. "You're very handsome" was all that came out. Alejandro responded smoothly. "Why thank you Owen, you don't look so bad yourself either. You're Canadian, I assume?"
"How did you know?" Owen asked, looking very impressed. Alejandro gave a nod in the direction of Owen's shirt, with had a big, blue Canadian maple leaf on it. Owen blushed. "Forgot about that, sorry!" Alejandro laid his hand on Owen's shoulder, "doesn't matter. The others are in the living room, there's some food there too." "FOOD? LET'S GO IZZY!" And they were gone.
"How does so much enthusiasm fit into one person?" Noah murmured. "Well, Owen is rather big, so…" Cody grinned as he shrugged innocently. Noah gave him an acknowledging nod and smiled too. "Good point."
They followed the two into the living room, hoping to make sure that nothing would break.
Right after Noah and Cody, a blonde guy arrived. He was followed by DJ. The latter was petting a bunny and while the blonde was animatedly describing a party he had been to, almost hitting the poor bunny with his wild hand gestures.
"Hey, watch out for Pierre!" Didier Lubamba warned Geoff Kristiansen, in a tone that was anything but angry. The blonde frowned. "Pierre?"
DJ smiled at the bunny. "Yes, Pierre. Named after Pierre Lapin." Geoff still looked confused, so DJ clarified a little more. "Peter Rabbit?" "Ah, good one."
"DJ, mec!" Alejandro greeted his housemate, "we were wondering where you were all day." It happened more often than not that DJ was waiting in the kitchen with homemade cookies and tea when the others came home, so when he still hadn't come home when it started getting dark, they had started to get a bit worried.
"I went home with Geoff."
Geoff blushed. "Bro, that sounds so wrong." "Wrong?" Alejandro said, giving Geoff a judging look. "No, not wrong like that! I just mean, that… erm…-" Alejandro could sense that Geoff was getting a little nervous. "Don't worry, man. I know you didn't mean it like that." He clapped Geoff on his shoulder and introduced himself. "I'm Alejandro." "Geoff."
As soon as the two were inside, Alejandro closed the door and went back to the living room, where an argument between Duncan and Courtney had started.
"You take that back, you pig!" Courtney yelled. Duncan didn't seem impressed by this and stayed calm. "You're overreacting. Again. I was just giving my opinion."
"Yes, your rude and sexist opinion."
"Well, I think-… Hey Geoff!" he yelled as soon as he spotted his and DJ's friend. "You agree with me, don't you?"
Geoff looked up, confused. "What? I have no idea what this is about."
"Well, your friend Mr. Green Hair here, thinks I should go to the kitchen to get him something to drink. Because I'm a girl."
"In that case I'm actually with your angry friend on this one" Geoff admitted. He visibly was a bit uncomfortable with the situation.
"I'm not his friend, ugh!" Courtney exclaimed, quickly making her way out of the room.
Trent Battaglia was struggling to cross the street, dragging two big suitcases and a few smaller bags with him. If his parents were so completely convinced that going to high school abroad was good for him and his education, then the least they could have done would have been coming with him to help him with all the luggage.
Or they just should have given him some money for a taxi.
As soon as he reached the sidewalk he decided to rest for a minute. He grabbed his phone from his pocket and opened Google Maps to check the route to his future home.
According to the app, he had only 2 minutes left to walk. Or well, 10 in his case, with all the luggage. He'd taken the first bus from the airport to as close to the house as he could get, which was a hell itself, but the relatively small distance left was a huge venture. Not to mention it was getting dark.
Trent took the earbuds he had in his pocket out and plugged them into his phone. Might as well listen to some music while walking this walk of shame. In the last ten minutes at least six people had given him pitying looks. Not that they could blame them.
With a grunt, he took hold of his suitcases again and started moving again. While walking, he imagined several scenarios of how meeting his housemates would go.
The first scenario would be them taking him in like he had always been there and seeing him as one of them straight away. Very little chance of that happening though, in tv shows the new people always have tough starts.
The second scenario was the one he most expected. He would be hated by the others and they would constantly pull jokes on them that were anything but funny. If this would happen, he'd go back to Italy straight away.
The third scenario was better than the second, but worse than the first. They wouldn't look at him twice and would just ignore his entire existence. Not fun to look forward to, but at least he wouldn't be the victim of dull traps.
Before he knew it, he had arrived at the house. The building wasn't very big, but not exactly small either. He wondered how many people would even live here. Hopefully the sounds coming from inside were the result of a party and not weekly antics.
He sighed one last time and reached for the key in his pocket.
"Are you checking out the blonde guy?" LeShawna asked Bridgette. Bridgette's eyes grew big and a blush formed on her cheeks. "No." LeShawna didn't let it go that easily, she had known Bridgette for a while by now. Bridgette was a bit intimidated by LeShawna's stare. "Maybe a little" she admitted eventually.
"He's cute, ain't he?" LeShawna grinned, bumping her shoulder into Bridgette's. "Nothing wrong with liking someone."
Bridgette protested. "Liking? I have never even talked to him. I don't even know his name."
"His name is Geoff." LeShawna told her friend. "Now as for the other part, we need to change that. GEOFF!" She yelled out the boy's name and the boy immediately turned around to see who had called for him.
"Don't you dare" Bridgette whispered ay LeShawna but her threat was ignored. "Over here!"
Geoff considered it for a moment but then shrugged and walked up to them. "Hi!" he greeted them enthusiastically.
"Hello. I'm LeShawna and this here," she said pushing Bridgette forward a little to make her stand closer to Geoff, "is my friend Bridgette." Bridgette awkwardly
"She seems a bit shy now, but she is actually very cool and cute and she's Swedish." This aroused Geoff's interest. "Sweden? You're the first Scandinavian person I've met here. I'm from Norway."
Bridgette caught on quickly, agreeing with him and telling him she had been to Norway several times. LeShawna felt that her job was done and left the pair alone. Now she finally had time to go get some well-deserved alcohol.
In the meanwhile, all other people who had been invited had arrived. Izzy's friend Sierra Soto Flores had made a loud entrance, running in and yelling for Cody before Alejandro had had the chance to even fully open the door.
A guy Alejandro shared some classes with, Tyler Lewandowski, had made a grand entrance by making a spectacular fall after tripping over the threshold. He was, however, okay again pretty quickly after having been helped up by another of Izzy's friends, Lindsay Žukauskienė. She offered to look after him for the rest of the night and honestly, who would Tyler be to turn that offer down?
And for the seventh time that evening, Duncan and Courtney were in an argument. Duncan was wondering how Gwen could even stand being friends with this girl.
"Has anyone every told you that you're really uptight?"
"No, why would they? I'm not uptight at all!"
"Oh, come on! You have a pole so far up your butt that it almost comes back out through your mouth."
"And you are a disgrace. Do your parents even like you?"
"How would I know, I don't see them that often. There's a reason I live here and not with them, you know."
"Are you sure it's not because they told you to move out? I can see why they would want to get rid of you."
"Do you think that you're insulting me with that? Really princess, you'll have to come up with something better than that."
"Asshole!"
"Oh, we're using rude words now? That's second time you've called me that and we've known each other for what? 5 hours? I'm flattered."
"Hijo de puta" (7) Courtney murmured under her breath.
"I'm half Spanish; do you really think I don't know what that means?"
"¡Andá a cagar!" (8) Courtney hissed, walking away from him again. However, when she was making her way out, she almost ran into a guy.
"Um, hi" she said, surprised. Contrary to most people here, she had never seen him before. On top of that, the guy was practically loaded with bags.
"Do you live here?" he asked. Courtney shook her head and gestured to Izzy, who was the nearest person who actually did live here.
Some others had now also noticed the guy and started whispering about who had invited him. Strangely, none of the people who lived at the place knew him.
"Why are you here and how did you get in?" Alejandro asked, stepping closer to Trent but staying just out of his personal space.
"Um well, this is the address Mr. McLean gave me." Alejandro nodded. Mr. McLean was their landlord, so to say. Not that they ever really saw him, they only knew that he decided who got to live at this place and who didn't. "And I came in with the key he gave me."
"You're one of the new guys? They told us that you and the other guy were coming tomorrow!" Izzy exclaimed dramatically.
"Well, that was the original plan, but I trusted my father to book my plane ticket so…" he was quiet for a moment. "But if my room's not empty yet I can just go to a hotel."
Alejandro quickly shook his head. "Nah, it's been empty for over a month now, that won't be a problem."
"But I wanted to do a welcoming party, I made up a theme and everything, I even got special snacks and decorations and a playlist" Izzy said sadly, pouting a little.
"I'm sorry. You can still do it if you want, I'll act surprised."
"Awesome! I like you already" the redhead yelled, hugging Trent enthusiastically, which made him feel quite uncomfortable. DJ pried Izzy away from Trent. "Let the guy breathe a little, please" he told Izzy. Then he turned to Trent. "Nice to meet you, I'm Didier. Or DJ, just pronounce it the way you prefer."
Trent took the hand DJ held out and shook it
"I'm Trent. Well, actually Trentino, but no one calls me that."
Then Gwen moved forward and copied DJ's actions. "Gwen. Well, actually Geneva, but no one calls me that either." Trent laughed at that while Bridgette and LeShawna whispered to each other. "For real?" "I though Gwen was her full name."
Gwen was roughly pushed aside by Izzy. "I'm Isabel, but you can call me Izzy. Or E-Scope. Or Explosivo."
"And I'm Alejandro. I'd love to tell you it's the alcohol and that she's not always like this, but sadly she hasn't had a single drop."
The only housemate who didn't introduce himself to Trent was Duncan. He was annoyed at how easily the others had taken a liking to him, the guy had barely even said five sentences. Either way, he'd have to test this guy before deciding if he wanted to befriend him.
He was ripped from his thoughts by Izzy's voice. "Come on, you must be tired. We need to get you some alcohol" she tried to drag Trent to the kitchen but he stopped her. "Sorry to disappoint you, but I don't drink."
Izzy looked disappointed. "Really. Are you gonna tell me that you're a vegetarian too?" "Well, actually I am, why?" Izzy dropped Trent's hand and scoffed. "You and Gwen are such boring people. Go enjoy having a salad and lemonade for dinner" she said, stomping away. Trent was speechless, was this girl actually serious? He decided that she must have been, when a big blonde guy ran after her with a worried expression on his face.
Alejandro swung his arm around Trent's shoulder. "She'll be okay in two minutes, don't worry. She has a rather… well, special personality."
"I've noticed. Do you guys do this every Friday?"
"What, partying?" Trent nodded. "Nah man, we usually just hang out and watch horror movies."
After hearing this, Izzy ran back into the room. "Izzy LIVES for horror movies." And she was gone again.
"I told you, she's special" Alejandro snorted. "Now go and have a drink or something."
"Thanks man."
Alejandro went back to look for Heather. He had abandoned her to interrogate the guy without telling her. He could see her from a distance and she was clearly pissed off about it.
Trent just stood there, winter coat still on and unsure of what to do with his bags. This didn't go unnoticed by Gwen.
"Just leave it in the hall for now. We'll help you take it to your room when everyone is gone."
"Grazie." (9)
"Prego. Drink?" (10)
He was surprised that she answered him in Italian but nodded and smiled at her. "Per favore." (11)
The pair went off to the kitchen, unaware that Heather's eyes were following them. She had a scowl on her face.
The scowl turned into a smile when Alejandro approached her. "Mi amor" (12) he greeted her.
Heather didn't answer but kissed him. It wasn't very gentle but certainly not unpleasant.
"What did I do to deserve that?" Alejandro grinned as soon as their lips separated.
"Nothing, I just felt like it."
"Oh well, you're allowed to feel like that as often as you want then" he said, before leaning in for another kiss. It lasted a few seconds, before Heather pulled away.
"Do you happen to have whiskey at this place?" she asked, knowing that Gwen and the new guy were still in the kitchen. She hadn't liked Gwen ever since the first time they had met and the opportunity to embarrass her in front of the new guy, giving him a bad first impression of her, was just too good not to take advantage of it.
"Um yeah, I think so. Want me to go get some for you?" he offered.
"Nah, I'll find it."
Heather then went to the kitchen where Gwen and the new guy were indeed talking, just like she expected.
"I didn't know you spoke Italian" she spoke up. Gwen turned around and her face fell immediately.
"Okay. So?"
"Oh nothing." Heather turned to Trent. "Hey, want to know some fun facts about your new friend here?"
"I don't think that will be neces-" Trent tried to say but was cut off by Heather.
Heather smirked as Gwen glared at her. "Well, let me tell you, these clothes and that lipstick are not a phase. She's been dressing like this for as long as I've known her."
"I don't see the problem with that. If she likes wearing these clothes then-"
"And the whole attitude that comes with it. She's always so sad and pessimistic. Trust me, it gets old after a while. And I'm not even starting about these death glares I get from her and that loud friend of hers on a daily basis."
Trent didn't seem to care about what Heather said. "There must be a reason for that then."
"Also, it wouldn't surprise me if she c-" "What the fuck are you doing?" Alejandro's voice sounded. Gwen was visibly relieved that he had come to save her from this situation.
"I'm just telling your new friend here what your freaky friend is like and that he should better stay away from her for his own sake."
Gwen cursed under her breath, which went ignored by Heather.
"You know what? You should just shut the fuck up" Alejandro snarled at Heather. She looked a bit taken aback but quickly shook it off. She wasn't going to let anyone talk to her like that.
"Why? Because you feel sorry for that weird goth girl? I thought you had a better taste than that."
Gwen looked annoyed, she had gotten used to remarks like this by now. Alejandro, however, was starting to get really angry. He stepped into his girlfriend's personal space, it was intimidating enough to make her stumble backwards a little.
"Stop it, will you? This is my sister you're talking about!"
(1) "What loves each other, teases each other" (German)
(2) "I'm going to treat you like a queen" (Catalan)
(3) "You're mine tonight" (Catalan)
(4) "Hey beautiful, do we have sangria?" (Spanish)
(5) "Kitchen table" (Spanish)
(6) "Sangria in a carton?" (Spanish)
(7) "Son of a bitch" (Spanish)
(8) "Fuck off" (Spanish)
(9) "Thanks" (Italian)
(10) "You're welcome" (Italian)
(11) "Please" (Italian)
(12) "My love" (Spanish)