Disclaimer: you know the drill, all characters owned by ABCfam and Sara Shepard, blah, blah, blah.
"Hey do you want to come with me?" Ella asks me as she walks by my room. "Uh, yeah, where?" I say closing my book and getting off my bed. My mother turns her head in the direction of my opened door way, "Ezra's," she simply states looking back to the papers in her hands. "He wanted me to drop off some papers before the teacher's meeting tomorrow so he can sign a few things." She explains motioning to the papers in her hands. I nod my head then speak up because she can't see my answer, "sure, let me just get my shoes on." I answer her while grabbing my right boot. "I'll meet you in the car, oh and can you drive, I still need to proof-read a few things." I nod again finishing the zipper on my left boot. I grab my keys and think 'this is going to be interesting.'
I meet my mother in the car and I pull out of the drive way on our way to Ezra's. I know the way to his apartment like the back of my hand. I could drive there in my sleep and if there was construction I could tell you three different back ways. I turn right after the stop sign on our street and keep going, past two more stop signs. I know next to turn left on Rose Park Av. then make a right at the next light. My mom is too engulfed in her papers that she doesn't give me directions. Not that I need them, but she doesn't know that. "Ok, turn left" she says looking up from her papers to see I'm already in the middle of making the left turn and ready to get in the far right lane in order to make the quick right that was coming up. "Then right on Darken Street" she says quickly looking at the street so I flip my blinker on and turn on to the street. "Uh, now where do I go?" I ask but I can point out Ezra's apartment building in a heart-beat. It's the big brick one on our left with the big oak tree to its right. "Just park," Ella says gathering her papers together and starts looking for a parking spot. Of course the best place to park is around the corner where there is little traffic but still close to the entrance. Ella points out a spot but I'm already turning left to park under the oak tree. What she doesn't know is that spot was in the sun with zero shade, and on the street where it could be dinged because the people around Ezra's building can-not parallel park to save their lives. I park in my usual spot right next to Ezra's Toyota and we get out. I lock the car and start to walk in the direction of his apartment but stop short and turn around to Ella and ask "which building is it?" She's looking down at some of her papers and says "uh, it's this one." She then points at his apartment building after looking down at the directions he gave her. I walk up to the front steps before Ella catches up with me and push the button to Ezra's. "Hey," I say with a smile on my face. "Oh, hey babe, I thought you weren't com…" Ezra says before I cut him off. "Hey, mom, I found the button to Ezra's." I say with a nervous look across my face. "Oh good!" Ella proclaims as she walks up the steps and stands next to me. Apparently she didn't hear what Ezra said, Thank God! I bet he's hitting himself in the head right now. I push the button again for my mom. "Hello?" Ezra says I'm sure with his boyish smile across his lips. I smile to myself, he's too cute. "Hi Ezra, its Ella can I come up?" Ella says smiling at me. "Yeah sure," he responds then buzzes us on through. My feet are in auto-pilot as I start walking to the stairs on the right. Ella walks up to Gary at the front desk and asks where to go. He points to the stairs and says to go up to the 3rd floor. Thankfully I kept my head turned as I walked past him and when he pointed or he probably would have said something like 'you know your way Aria' . We walk up the three flights and past the colorful blue window at the end of Ezra's hallway. I walk to 3B but as I hear my mother ask, "did he say 3D or 3B?" I start to wonder towards 3D to keep my mother's suspicions in check. I turn around to face Ella, "I think Gary said 3B." She gives me a questionable look. "How do you know his name?" I look at her non-chalantly, "he said it." I turn back around and knock on 3B for the thousandth time.
The door flew open to show Ezra's smiling face. He tries to look surprised to see me but I can tell he's more happy than 'surprised.' He breathes out my name practically being a whisper then sees Ella and greets her with a "hello. Good morning you two." He says looking from the both of us. My mother smiles and says good morning back and Ezra opens the door wider with a side step to let my mother in. I follow her and pass Ezra as he slides his hand down my arm to my fingers and holds on to them behind my back. I can't help the smile that forms on my lips at his sweet, simple show of affection. My mom looks around as I make my way to the couch. "This is nice, I like it" Ella says. Ezra smiles "thank you," then looks at me and gives me his 'see!' look. I laugh a bit, "Yeah you have a really big apartment." Ezra shakes his head, "oh you should see the bathroom, and it's quite spacious." My mom finishes looking around then comes and sits across from me on the futon chair. I look over and Ezra has the fridge open. He peers over to Ella "do you want anything to drink; milk, water?" Ella thinks looking at me as Ezra pulls out a can of raspberry lemonade, looks at me and smiles, and then shakes the drink. I nod and smile then my mother speaks up, "I'll have one too." Ezra pulls out three cans and walks over to us. He hands one to Ella then comes and sits next to me, a little too close for my mother's liking, I can tell by the look on her face, the one that seems to go unnoticed by Ezra. She lets it pass and moves on to the purpose of our little trip. "Ok these are for tomorrow when we talk about next term and the curricular and schedule changes." She says handing him a piece of paper for each subject she just mentioned. Ezra puts on his 'serious' face and leans forward a bit holding the papers. Ezra looks at the paper titled Schedule and asks "what's being changed about the schedule?" Ella laughs a bit, "Uh, well, Mrs. Welsh was pretty persistent on talking about that. Something about having too much time to for testing and not having enough time for class work to get anything accomplished." My mom says with a face that reads she has heard about it more than enough times. She and Ezra share a laugh, knowing how… well… determined Mrs. Welsh is. I sit up and scoot closer to Ezra to look over his shoulder, "wait what do you mean, change of schedule?" I look at my mother, to Ezra, and then back to the paper. "Well there's been talk about going from an every other period day to a full seven period schedule." Ella explains. "But then you can't get through a full lesson. That's harder on the students and teachers." I say looking from my mother to Ezra. "What do you mean?" Ezra asks me with the look on his face every time he is pleasantly surprised by me. I blush a bit then explain my thought, "well seeing you everyday got to be horrendously boring last year, but nothing would be accomplished." Ella laughs a bit and says, "So what you're saying is Ezra's extremely uninteresting, which we all knew, but there wouldn't be enough time to get to class, teach a lesson, and then get feedback?" Ezra and I nod, mine in agreement his in understanding. Ezra sets the paper down on the coffee table, "hmm interesting. Now I know who my real friends are." Ella and I laugh then I look back at Ezra, "but that's interesting. Good thought, but I'm going to remember what you said the next time I grade one of your tests." I raise my eyebrows, "ah!" Ezra shakes his head while standing up and smiling, "Ms. Montgomery, that's what you get for starting trouble." Then he starts to mess my hair up. "Well, Fitz I just might have to go to the school board and tell them you're harassing a student!" I say putting my hands up to catch his from messing my hair up more. I stand up next to him, "and I have a witness!" I exclaim looking at my mom who has been laughing her head off ever since we started this 'fight'. She shrugs her shoulders, "don't know what to tell you Fitz" She smiles and I join her as Ezra looks from the both of us "so where do I sign?" Ezra asks smiling now, looking down at the papers on the coffee table. She laughs one last time then bends down and shows him each line to sign as I walk around Ezra and over to the TV set. I look through the movies and pick up Gone with the Wind and shake it to get Ezra's attention. He looks up and smiles, and then slightly nods his head meaning we can watch that latter tonight, then looks back down to finish signing.
Ezra and my mom finish signing papers and my mom looks up to Ezra and sets her pen down. "Ezra would you like to have lunch with Aria and I today. I figured since we're here, why not?" I come back around from the TV set to sit next to Ezra again, "when did we decide to go to lunch?" My mother looks over at me and shoots me a raised eyebrow. "I did, just know." Ella says grabbing her pen, capping it, and then stands up. I nod, 'oh, what happened to fun mommy?' I thought then lay back into the couch. Ezra notices my mood and looks over and smiles at me, "sounds fun." I smile back and grab our empty cans and stand up. Ella looks down at Ezra, "may I use that extremely big bathroom?" Ezra laughs and points to the door across from his bed, "Sorry if there's a mess!" He exclaims as Ella walks to the bathroom. Ezra looks over to see I moved to the kitchen to recycle our cans and stands up to meet me in the kitchen. "Hey, what's with the mood? Two seconds ago you were all smiles and laughs. What happened to those beautiful pearls?" I blush and turn around to face Ezra. I set my hands on the counter then look at the cabinets instead of his blue eyes. He sets his hands on my face and manages to turn me to look at him. "Is this about lunch?" I shake my head and reach up to wrap my arms around his neck. "No, it's about my mom. She's just so demanding and doesn't include me in her decisions." Ezra looks me in the eyes. "Really because the other night that's what you said you love about your mom, that she is independent. And you're just like her, admit it." Ezra smiles more, "it's cute." I roll my eyes, "Ok, fine, I just thought it was going to be you and me for lunch, that we were going to leave and I would make some excuse and come back here." He stands up straighter and kisses my fore head then says, "So I was right, it is about lunch." I unwrap my arms from his neck and push on his chest. "You know what, don't gloat, k, it's not cute." He laughs and the door to the bathroom opens; we step away from each other as my mother comes around the corner. "Ok, let's go get some lunch! I have a place in mind." She says on her way over to the couch to grab the papers from the coffee table. She looks up after she shuffled the papers in her hands to the couch. Her head cocks to the side and she sets the papers back down, and moves to the couch. My eyes shift to my wrist and back to the object she was now holding in her hands. "Um, Aria isn't this the bracelet Nana gave you?" Ezra steps forward with a shocked expression then looks at me. "Yeah must have slipped off my wrist." I say stepping forward and holding out my hand to get it back from her. She moves her hand back, "didn't you say you lost it a couple of days ago?" I push a piece of hair from my eyes, "I did yeah, but I found it yesterday, under my bed, it must have slipped my mind to tell you." Ella smiles looking at the object in her hand, the one thing that really proves I was at Ezra's this past Thursday instead of Spencer's. "Well, put it in your pocket if it's going to slip off that easily, we'll get it fixed soon." Ella says finally handing it back to me. Ella walks to the door as I slip the bracelet in my pocket and peer over to Ezra who's wearing the same look on his face as I am the one that reads that-was-close. Ezra picks up his wallet and keys and we head out of his apartment.
"Your dad brought me here a couple days ago after a meeting, it was good." Ella says walking around the corner of the restaurant. As we turn the corner Ella points out something across the street, "is that lady walking a cat on a leash?" Ezra and I turn to look and to our surprise she was. We step inside the door without seeing where we are eating but neither of us could forget Snookers.