With a dark purple backpack that had dark purple bat wings draped over her shoulders, Lucy Loud walked several blocks from her house to the house of her beloved crush Rocky Spokes. She was having a sleepover with him today, so her backpack contained necessary items such as her pajamas, her toothbrush, and a change of clothes for the following day. As she walked, she bathed herself in the warmth of the sunshine of this Friday afternoon.
It didn't take her long to reach the Spokes' residence at all. Once she did, she approached the front door and knocked on it loud enough for whoever is inside to hear, but not so loud that they wouldn't recognize that it is her. She was only able to wait about 8 seconds before someone finally answered, which just so happened to be Rocky.
Once Rocky saw the raven haired girl in front of him, he grinned in delight, "Hi, I'm glad you're here!"
"Hi, glad to be here," Lucy answered as a small grin creeped onto her face.
"Come here, give me a hug," Rocky sighed as he opened his arms.
Lucy smiled as she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Rocky. As she snuggled her cheek on his shoulder, he gently stroke her hair with his hand.
When they pulled away, he smiled, "Come on in," He took her hand and lead her inside the house. Sitting on the couch was Rusty, watching TV while munching on a large bag of tortilla chips that were placed on the couch next to him.
"Our dad's working late today, so it'll just be the three of us," Rocky explained. When he turned around to face her again, he started chuckling.
"What?" Lucy wonders.
"Your backpack has little bat wings on it. It's cute," He says.
As her cheeks tinted red, Rocky held his hand out, "I'll take that into my room."
Lucy removed her backpack from her shoulders and handed it to Rocky. When he walked away with it, Lucy walked towards the couch and sat down on the other side of the big bag of chips.
After swallowing the chip he was eating, Rusty turned to Lucy, "Hey. Want some chips?" He asked as he pushed the bag towards Lucy.
She wasn't a big fan of plain tortilla chips; at least, not without any kind of dip. But since he offered so nicely, Lucy just shrugged and took a chip from the bag.
"Hey, I'm curious, what made you decide to sleep over?" Rusty asks, "Not that I don't want you here, I'm just wondering."
Lucy faced him, "Well the truth is, I really wanted to have a sleepover with Rocky. We can't do it at my house because my sisters would not leave us alone."
Rusty's eyes widen and he gives a little chuckle.
"On top of that, I share a room with my sister Lynn," Lucy continues, "Unless she's like really tired, she snores and lately she has this weird habit of talking in her sleep."
"Ah, now I see; well don't worry, it's nice and quiet here. Probably way different than what you're used to," Rusty chuckles.
"Hey, one more thing," Rusty starts nervously rubbing the back of his head, "I'm sorry I haven't always been nice to you. I'm hoping tonight will change that; especially since Rocky's been telling me all week that I should try and get along with you since he likes you so much."
Lucy gave Rusty a small half grin as she took another chip from the bag. "Thank you Rusty," Lucy tosses the chip in her mouth and eats it.
Rocky finally returns to the living room, but he appears to be holding something behind his back.
"So, what do you guys wanna do?" He asks.
The Spokes brothers turn to Lucy, indicating that since she's their guest, she gets to choose the first activity. However, Lucy can't think of anything to do, so she just silently shrugs.
"I was hoping you'd say that, because how about we play Twister?" Rocky suggests as he reveals that it was Twister that he was hiding behind his back.
Rusty's eyes instantly light up, "Ah, sweet! And it'll be more fun now that we have an extra person here."
"You ever play Twister before?" Rocky asks Lucy as he begins to set up Twister on the floor.
I know the basic rules on how to play it," Lucy explains, "But Twister is banned in my house on account of stories of my older sisters getting hurt when they were young."
"Well don't worry, we'll be careful," Rocky reassures her as he winks at her.
"So who's gonna play and who's gonna spin?" Rusty asks.
Rocky immediately smiles at his crush, "Wanna play with me Lucy?" He holds his hand out.
Lucy grinned sweetly and nodded as she took his hand.
"Hey now lovebirds. Don't go crazy now, this is a family show," Rusty teases as he holds the spinner in his hands.
Rocky rolls his eyes as he and Lucy look at the mat filled with multi colored circles.
"We're supposed to stand on opposite ends of the mat," Rocky instructed. He walks away from Lucy and stands on the south end while Lucy stands on the north end. The two of them then plant their feet on a blue and yellow circle on each end.
"Ok, you ready?" Rusty begins to spin the spinner.
"Lucy, left hand blue," Rusty calls out.
Lucy bends forward and places her left hand on a blue circle in front of her.
Rocky, left foot green," Rusty instructed.
Rocky took his right foot off of the yellow circle and placed it on the green circle immediately next to it. Now he is standing with his legs spread apart.
"Lucy, right foot green," Lucy stretched her right leg towards a green circle while keeping her left hand on the blue circle. She tried as hard as she could not to slip.
"Doing Ok there?" Rocky wonders.
"Uh, yeah," Lucy answers.
"Rocky, right hand red," Rocky placed his right hand on a red circle that was diagonal to the blue circle that his right foot was on. Lucy couldn't help but giggle at the strange position her crush was in.
This round continues until Lucy is bent over on the mat and Rocky is diagonally layered over her. This was a pretty awkward position they are in, even given the fact they were romantically interested in each other.
"I told you lovebirds not to get crazy," Rusty scolded.
"What're you talking about? You're the one who told us to get in these positions," Rocky retorted.
Rusty looked at the spinner that was in his hands and raised an eyebrow, "Touche."
Unfortunately, Lucy couldn't hold on and slipped, causing her not only to fall and land on her stomach, but also caused Rocky to fall on top of her, with his stomach on her back. The circumstances cause Rocky to laugh, and eventually Lucy joins in, but only giving mild chuckles.
"Ok, so who's up for Round 2? And by that I mean who's gonna spin this time, cause I wanna play," Rusty jumps in.
"I can spin, if you don't mind playing with Lucy," Rusty tells his brother.
Both Lucy and Rusty stare at each other for a brief moment and then shrug indifferently since they are trying to get along for Rocky's sake.
Towards the end of this round, Rocky marvels in shock at the image in front of him. This time, Lucy is facing upwards with her stomach towards the ceiling and Rusty is kneeling over her. Now this is incredibly awkward not only given their large age difference, but also because they are future siblings in law.
As Lucy tried to wiggle free from underneath Rusty, she ends up unintentionally making him fall on top of her. They both make an "oof" sound, Rusty because he landed on someone and Lucy because an extra weight was added onto her.
"Rusty, can you please get off of me," Lucy begs as she tries to push him off using her hands that were pinned under him.
After Rusty gets off, Lucy stands up and dusts herself off. Then she turns to Rocky and clasped her hands together.
"I'm so sorry this happened. Can you forgive me?" Lucy apologizes.
"Hey, no sweat. Things like this happen all the time in Twister, comes with the territory," Rocky explains.
Lucy looks down in shame, "Well...I don't want to play anymore."
"Great, then you don't mind spinning while me and Rock play," Rusty jumps in, obviously unfazed by Lucy's embarrassment of having her future brother in law on top of her.
Taking pity on his crush, Rocky angrily stares at Rusty, "Did you not hear what she said? She doesn't wanna play anymore!"
"Ok, ok, I'll put it away," Rusty pouted, disappointed that their game of Twister is getting cut short.
After he finishes cleaning it up, Rusty asks Rocky, "Was this in your room or mine?"
"It was in mine, but it doesn't matter where you put it," Rocky says.
After Rusty walks away, Lucy sits cross legged on the couch, still embarrassed and ashamed. Rocky sits next to her and places an arm around her shoulder.
"What's the matter?" He asks, while gently rubbing her other shoulder.
"I'm still a little ashamed that Rusty was on top of me," Lucy sighs.
Rocky takes his thumb and index finger and places them under Lucy's chin, "Lucy, I told you it's Ok. I promise it is." To further reassure her, he takes one of Lucy's hands that were situated on her lap and kisses it. This makes Lucy feel so much better, which is evident by the fact that her little frown turned into a smile.
Once Rusty returns, he asks, "So now what?"
Lucy raises her index finger in the air, "I have an idea. How about Truth or Dare?"
Both Spokes brothers' eyes widen in surprise, as neither of them expected Lucy to be a fan of Truth or Dare. What they didn't know is that Lucy actually wasn't a fan of this game; the reality is that she wanted to have Rusty do humiliating dares and confess humiliating truths in order to get revenge for him not taking her feelings into consideration.
"Sure, we can play; who's going first?" Rocky asks.
Rusty volunteers, "I'll go first. Lucy, truth or dare?"
Lucy almost never chooses dare, so she says "Truth."
"Do you love my brother, or do you just like him?" Rusty raises an eyebrow.
A mischievous smirk appears on her face, "Does this answer your question?" With that, Lucy wrapped her arms around Rocky and planted a big kiss on his cheek. This results in Rocky blushing and Rusty cringing.
"Oh, look at that. I guess she loves me," Rocky teases in a semi cocky tone.
"Yuck, I wanted you to tell me, not show me!" Rusty groaned in disgust. This made the two kids laugh at Rusty's almost pathetic disdain for their relationship.
"Rocky, truth or dare?" Lucy asks her crush.
"Hmm, dare," Rocky answers.
Another smirk appears on her face, "I dare you to do an Edwin impression."
Even though Rocky wasn't exactly an expert of Vampires of Melancholia like Lucy was, he did watch enough of it to get a feel for the characters.
"I can definitely do that. I just need a prop," Rocky got up from the couch and left the living room.
When he returned, he had a dark blue towel tied around his shoulders to resemble a cape. He also used his hand to "brush" his hair so that it appeared to flop over his left eye. His eyelids dropped to give off a serious and aloof expression. Unfortunately his mind slipped when it came to remembering actual dialogue from the show, so he had to improvise his own.
"Sigh, my name is Edwin," Rocky mimicked the vampire's soft but icy voice, "I live in a castle far away from the presence of any mortal. As a bloodsucking creature of the night, the only company I need are my army of vampire bats, and of course my beloved vampire mistress Griselda."
Lucy and Rusty reacted to Rocky's little imitation differently. Because Rusty had no idea who Edwin is, he just kinda sat there looking confused and bored at the same time. Lucy, however, adored how Rocky was able to capture the spirit of her favorite vampire; so much so that she started swooning at him. She clasped her hands together, brought them next to her cheek, and let out a deep sigh of admiration.
Lucy's swoon definitely catches Rocky's attention, so he smiles at her, "Did I do him right?" He questions in his normal voice.
"Yes, that was perfect," Lucy sighed.
Rocky unties the towel and places it on the back of the couch, "Rusty, truth or dare?"
"Uhh...truth," He answers.
"If you were stranded on a deserted island with all your friends and there was nothing to eat whatsoever...who would you kill for food?" Rocky wonders.
Rusty's eyes widen and he places an index finger on his chin, "Hmm...that's a tough one. Well I know Clyde is definitely out cause he's waaay too skinny. Zach is really short, but he seems to have gained some weight. So...I think I'll choose either Zach or Lincoln."
"Ooh, I'm gonna tell them you said that!" Rocky teases.
"You'd better not or I'll kick your butt!" Rusty gasps as he crosses his arms.
"I'm just messing with you dude," Rocky giggles playfully.
"Ok...Lucy, truth or dare?" Rusty asks.
"Dare I guess," Lucy mumbles.
Rusty taps his chin with his finger, "Hmm, I dare you to sing."
Rocky immediately turns to Lucy and starts smiling while clutching his hands into fists with anticipation. This would be the first time he would hear his crush sing.
Lucy isn't that big a singer, so the best solution she can think of is just to sing the first verse of the song "Sound of Silence" by Simon and Garfunkel, since it was nice and slow.
"Fine," Lucy mumbles. She clears her throat and begins to sing.
"Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence"
Both Spokes brothers were blown away by what they heard. Rusty lifted an eyebrow to show he was quite impressed with Lucy's vocal talent. Rocky placed both his hands on both his cheeks, grinned, and made a quiet but giddy squeal; proving that his admiration for her had suddenly increased. He held hope that he could potentially hear his crush's soft melodious voice again.
When Lucy saw Rocky's giddy reaction, she thought it was the cutest thing she'd ever seen; and that's saying a lot given that she already thinks he's so cute.
Lucy finally spoke again, "Rocky, truth or dare?"
Rocky blinks to snap out of his lovestruck state, "Um, truth."
"Have you ever had a crush before I came along; whether it's a regular person or a celebrity?" Lucy wonders. This is something that she has always been genuinely curious about.
Rocky gave a smirk as he simply responded with "Nope."
"Whaaaa?" Rusty wailed an exaggerated cry.
Lucy found that very hard to believe, so she took a different approach, "If you did, you can tell me. I promise it's Ok," Lucy says as she gently places a hand on Rocky's shoulder.
"I'm telling you the truth, you're my first real crush," Rocky confessed.
"Oh, so I'm your first regular crush. Surely you've had celebrity crushes though; like my crush on the actor who plays Edwin," Lucy continues.
"I've seen celebrities that are pretty and have a lot of talent, but saying that I've had a crush on a celebrity is not accurate," Rocky continues, "You're the first girl in general that I've ever had any romantic feelings for."
Lucy's fingers interlock as she brings her hands close to her chin, "Rocky...do you mean it?"
Rocky placed a hand on Lucy's face and started gently massaging her cheek with his thumb, "Yes, I do mean it. You're my first and currently only crush Lucy Loud," He gently whispers.
The romantic moment between the two kids was interrupted by Rusty once again making a faux gagging noise to express mocking dislike for the young couple.
"Oh hush," Rocky groaned, "So truth or dare?"
"Gimme a dare," Rusty says.
Rocky was in such a romantic mood that he decided to dare Rusty to do something that he would do in a heartbeat but Rusty would definitely be hesitant to do.
"I dare you to go outside, pick a flower, and give it to Lucy," Rocky commanded.
Rusty gave a strange look, "We don't even have a garden, how am I supposed to give her a flower?" Rocky narrowed his eyes and raised an eyebrow.
"Alright fine, I'll just give her a dandelion," Rusty groaned as he walked through the kitchen and out the patio door.
Lucy tapped Rocky on the shoulder, "Can I confess something to you?"
"Sure Lucy, what is it?" Rocky answers.
"The reason I wanted to play truth or dare was to make Rusty do humiliating things as payback for being so inconsiderate when he wanted to keep playing Twister even after what happened," Lucy confessed.
Rocky's eyes widen in disbelief, "Lucy!"
Lucy interrupted him, "But after watching your Edwin impression and hearing that I'm your first crush, I realized that I was just being selfish and petty. Can you forgive me Rocky Bear?"
Rocky smiled in understanding, "Yes I do forgive you, since you came to your senses and realized that your intentions were wrong."
The patio door slides open and Rusty comes back into the living room holding a yellow dandelion in his hand. Just as he was about to hand it to her, Rocky stops him.
"I dare you to also say: 'To my future sister in law'," Rocky commanded as he and Lucy start giggling.
Rusty briefly rolled as he said, "To my future sister in law," while handing Lucy the dandelion.
"Thank you Rusty," Lucy says in a teasing tone of voice as she takes the flower offered to her.
Rusty glances at a nearby clock on the wall as he gives a look of shock, "What?! There's no way it's 6:00 already!" He gasps.
Both Rocky and Lucy look up at the same clock and realize that does in fact read 6:00.
"Huh, so it is," Rocky comments.
From the time Lucy first showed up to now, the kids swear that only 20 minutes had passed; not a whole three hours! They must've been having more fun than they thought they would have.
Rusty places a hand on his stomach, "Well, looks like it's time for dinner."
"What're we having?" Lucy asks.
"Well the initial plan was that Dad was supposed to leave us pizza money so we wouldn't have to cook," Rocky explained, "But he and Rusty got into a fight so now cooking is our only option."
"I know exactly what I'm craving too," Rusty sighed as he licked his lips and rubbed his stomach.
"It better not be subs," Rocky teased.
"No it's not subs, you'll have to wait till it's done," Rusty left the living room and headed to the kitchen so he can make dinner.
"While he's doing that, wanna see where you'll be sleeping?" Rocky suggests. Lucy immediately obliges and takes her crush's hand.
Rocky leads Lucy down the hall towards the first door on the right, "Welcome to my bedroom."
As he opens the door and they step inside, Lucy takes in the sight of the room. The walls were painted a greenish blue, giving a cozy springtime mood. The walls were completely bare, meaning there were no posters or pictures, which is quite contrary to Lucy's own bedroom. The gray carpet had a few dark brown stains on it, but that just made the room look more "lived in" so to speak.
Standing to the left of the door was a tall pine bookshelf that had a ton of DVD covers, video game covers, and books sitting on the shelves. A small TV and a PlayStation 2 sat on the desk of the bookshelf.
Across from where they were standing, on the west wall, was a medium sized window that was closed and did not have a curtain attached to it. Next to the window stood Rocky's bed, perfectly made with a green comforter draped on top of it. There was a pine nightstand next to the bed that had two drawers and a lamp and picture frame sitting on the surface of the nightstand.
On the right side of the door was a medium sized closet that had a wooden sliding door. It was easy to tell the closet door was showing its age because the wooden surface was starting to chip and crack.
"I hope you don't mind, but we will have to share my bed. You don't wanna sleep on the floor cause my carpet is gross and dirty," Rocky explained.
"That's Ok, I don't mind," Lucy says.
What Rocky didn't know was that Lucy purposefully left her sleeping bag at home so that she can sleep in the same bed with a boy she had a huge crush on.
"You can have a seat if you want," Rocky suggested as he gestured his hand towards his bed.
Lucy took his advice and sat down on his bed near his pillow and his nightstand. Rocky sat next to her and looked at her.
"So how are you liking it here; having fun?" Rocky wonders.
"Surprisingly yes; and it's amazing how much Rusty and I are getting along," Lucy admits, and this was the truth.
"Oh, I'm so glad to hear that," A grin appears on Rocky's face as he grabs both of Lucy's hands.
Their time alone together was interrupted by a loud crash, water splashing, and a screeching "Auugh dang it!" coming from the kitchen. Rocky responded to the crash by groaning and pinching the bridge of his nose in annoyance.
"What was that?" Lucy asks.
Rather than answering Lucy's question, Rocky just whispered to himself, "I swear, sometimes it's like I'm the big brother."
He speaks directly to Lucy, "You'll have to excuse me," Rocky apologized. With that, he got up from his bed and left the room, closing the door behind him.
While Rocky is gone, Lucy decides just to sit still and wait for him to return, instead of exploring his room. However, one particular thing in the room actually piques Lucy's interest enough to want to take a closer look: the picture frame on his nightstand.
When Lucy scoots towards it, she holds it in her hands and cannot believe her eyes. This was the picture that he and Lucy took during their first dance a few months ago. Her heart began to flutter upon discovering that Rocky loved the picture so much to not only frame it, but to also keep it on his nightstand.
She was so busy marveling over the sweet and happy memory of that evening that she failed to hear or notice Rocky sneaking back into the room. He gave a smirk as he watched his crush sigh and continue holding the picture in her hands.
He wanted to try and scare her, so he snuck towards her and stood in front of her, staring for a few seconds.
"Hey," Rocky finally called out to her.
Lucy's head immediately shot up and her eyes widened under her bangs. The grip that she had on the picture frame loosened as she looked at Rocky and the picture back and forth for a few seconds.
"I, uh, sorry," Lucy holds the picture towards Rocky as she looked down in shame.
Rocky grabbed the picture and smirked, "It's Ok for you to look at it," He giggles as he puts the picture back on the nightstand.
"I can't believe you kept that picture," Lucy sighs as she places a hand on her heart.
"Of course; that was the best night of my life, and I always want to remember it," He winks at her, resulting in her blushing and looking to the side.
Rocky snaps his fingers in realization, "Oh that reminds me. I have a surprise for you." Rocky walks towards the closet. Before he can open it though, he turns to Lucy.
"Close your eyes," He chuckles.
Lucy already had her eyes closed underneath her bangs, but since her eyes cannot be seen, she decides to place her hands over her bangs where her eyes are. Rocky sighs because this was the cutest thing he's ever seen.
As Rocky pulled the sliding door of his closet, a thunderous sound echoed through the room as the door slid down the track of the frame. After the closet was opened and Rocky removed a folded piece of black cloth from the top shelf of his closet, he closed the door again.
Rocky took the black cloth and unfolded it so that it can be viewed in its entirety. Once it's unfolded, Rocky holds the two upper corners.
"Open," He commanded. Lucy removes her hands from her eyes and stares at the cloth.
"What is it?" She wonders.
"It's a black blanket," Rocky explains, "I bought it at Walmart especially for you to use tonight."
"Oh Rocky, you shouldn't have," Lucy sighs.
"I know, but I wanted to. When we went shopping, I happened to see it and I thought it would be perfect for you," Rocky explained, "I'm going to keep it here so the next time you sleep over, you can use it."
Lucy was so grateful that Rocky went through all that trouble to make her feel comfortable here that she wanted to show her gratitude. Unfortunately how she wanted to show it was making her bashful, which was evident by the fact that she was nervously twiddling her index fingers together and she can feel her cheeks growing hot.
"Rocky…" Lucy mumbled.
"Yeah?" Rocky gently draped the blanket at the foot of his bed and sat down next to Lucy.
"Can I kiss you?" Lucy asks with a nervous tone.
Normally, a request for a kiss would catch Rocky off guard, and...it did. But at the same time, he knew that a kiss was something he definitely couldn't refuse, especially considering they were alone now and a kiss was more appropriate at this time. So he smiled and tapped his cheek with his index finger, indicating that's where he wants her to kiss him.
"Be my guest," He says.
Giving a shy but warm smile, Lucy leaned over, placed a hand on his shoulder, and planted a gentle kiss on Rocky's cheek. He thought that Lucy's lips on him was the most wonderful feeling in the world; so much so that he started chuckling in delight.