Liv and 10K
|the next morning|
10K was the first to wake up in the Rooney residence, followed by Parker and with him his karate buddies, having set a clock for 5 am since their parents wanted to fetch them during the early morning hours. So over the course of the next hour the kids talked some more as one by one Parkers friends got picked up by their parents.
"That was the last one. Once again thanks man, awesome party." Parker says high fiving 10K.
"No prob. Just remember to thank your sister she was the one who asked me to help." 10K replies.
"Yeah I'll tell your beloved Liv thank you." Parker says teasingly.
"hmpf." 10K grunts trying to ignore the small amount of rage building inside him at the kid teasing him.
"Anyways I guess I should head out now." 10K says collecting his stuff and with the help of Parker he quickly packs his cart with the Laser-Tag gear and just as they are finishing Parkers parents got up and went downstairs to check the damage.
"Oh, everything looks so intact and not broken, well that is a first even during Maddie's sleepover stuff always got broken, mostly by Willow, but still." Karen says impressed.
"Now where is our wonderful daughter who kept those little Karate kids in check?" Karen asks looking around when Parker and 10K come in from the backyard.
"Thomas?" the parents ask surprised.
"Oh, Hi Mr. and Mrs. Rooney. Uhm Liv called and asked me to come over to help out and well she ate some bad fish sticks, so I watched over Parker and his friends in her place. I guess I should have told you?" 10K tells them adding the last part at seeing Pete staring at him.
"fish sticks? We haven't had fish sticks in over 3 … oh, I better check on her. And Pete let him live, Thomas is a nice kid." Karen says as she goes upstairs to check on her daughters.
"Thomas huh, I didn't know that you knew my daughter." Pete says sounding intimidating but not quite fazing 10K who deals with ex-military personnel with mental problems almost daily due to Doc's work.
"Yeah well, she asked me if I wanted to be her friend like 3 weeks ago." 10K informs his gym teacher.
"Hmm, Parker have the two of them been doing stuff?" Pete asks his son.
"No, 10K only helped her to bed after Liv puked her guts out." Parker tells his father.
"Helped her to bed huh?" Pete asks angrily staring at the black-haired teen.
"Nothing happened, I helped her to her bed and that's it. Maddie and what's her name were there. Ask them." 10K defends himself.
"Anyways nice to meet you outside of school Mr. Rooney, wish Liv a speedy recovery for me won't you." 10K tells the father, shrugging off the threatening look of Mr. Rooney making Parker all the more impressed.
After 10K left with his cart Pete relaxes and lets out a sigh. "That kid is as hard as steel. I tried my best angry dad impression and he had the guts to ask me to deliver a message. If Liv decides to go out with him my tools of intimidation will be seriously reduced."
"tools of what now?" Karen asks having come down from checking on her girls.
"forget it." Pete whines and gets himself a coffee.
"10K just brushed off dad's boyfriend killer impression as if dad had accidentally sneezed on him." Parker informs his mother.
"Oh honey don't take it so hard, Thomas' legal guardian is a psychiatrist for war veterans I'm sure he comes across some really scary people through that." Karen tells her husband.
"Then I only have one option if push comes to shove I'll just have to lock my daughter away so she can have no further contact with that person." Pete says decidedly until his wife bonks him over the head with the newspapers.
"Thomas is a very nice young man, personally I wouldn't be against Liv dating someone like him." Karen offers her opinion.
"Let's discuss this if it comes to that, how are my girls?" Pete asks."
"They are both good, Liv still feels a little queasy but that's to be expected after 2 packs of 3 years old fish sticks." Karen says.
Meanwhile with Liv and Maddie
"Girls wake up." Karen says opening the door and turning on the lights in the room.
Maddie shoots up asking "What is it mom?" while rubbing the sleep out of her eyes while Liv wakes with a groan, blinking at the bright lights and looking at her mother wondering how or when she got here.
"Liv I just heard you felt sick yesterday, are you better now?" Karen asks.
"Yeah, I still feel a little queasy, but I'll live." Liv says with a groan.
"Good, what about you Maddie? Did I miss anything yesterday?" Karen asks her other daughter.
"No, not really. I'm guessing 10K left already?" Maddie replies.
"I don't know I left him downstairs with your father and Parker." Karen replies.
"Oh mom, not with dad." Liv says with a whine.
"Come on Liv you know your dad is going to interrogate him sooner or later seeing as the two of you seem to have gotten close." Karen tells her.
"We're not even that close, he's just the only friend other than Ocean that I have." Liv replies.
"That's not what I saw yesterday." Maddie says teasingly.
"What did you see what happened?" Karen asks intrigued.
"Well after somehow overpowering me and telling me what happened after I attacked him once I saw you lifelessly hanging from his neck…" Maddie starts to say, getting cut of by Liv whining "I was what?" embarrassedly.
"You were hanging off his neck, 90% passed out." Maddie says, continuing with the story "anyways after he took me out singlehandedly and I mean that literally one arm was busy carrying you along he put you in your bed and sweetly pulled your covers up and then lingered, brushing your hair out of your face. It seemed very romantically inclined."
"He did huh?" Liv asks playing with one of her locks thoughtfully while her mother smirks at her knowingly.
"Well you better not tell your father, or he'll demand his head on a platter and who knows how that'll turn out given who 10K is." Karen tells them.
"What do you mean given who 10K is?" Liv asks.
"Well you heard Maddie he singlehandedly overpowered her, that was no accident during one of our sessions he told me how he was trained, first by his father and then by some of his guardian's patients. And while I love your father, he is by no means a fighter." Karen tells them.
"Well enough about Liv's romance get ready for breakfast girls." Karen then says leaving the room, ignoring Liv's complains about everyone teasing her.
After this happened Liv got rather shy around 10K and tried to keep her contact to him to a minimum, which is still plenty given she only has 2 friends, but she tried her best.
10K notices this but guesses that he must have done something to upset the curly haired TV star when he helped with Parkers party.
Since the Halloween Scream Fest is coming up in a few days he decides to address the problem beforehand, so they can enjoy the Fest together.
|at school 3 days before Halloween|
"I keep seeing all these signs for Scream Fest is that a contest? Because I do the absolutely best horror movie scream." Liv asks Ocean as the two girls walk through the hallways and Liv then lets out a blood curdling scream shocking everyone around her.
"It's not quite like that. They turn the whole place into a haunted carnival, it's my favorite day of the whole year except for the days I come here to learn." Ocean says scared when 10K comes running at full speed "What happened? I heard Liv scream." He asks concerned.
"What? Oh sorry, I was trying out my scream for the Scream Fest." Liv explains.
"Phew. Anyways good that I see you, I need to talk to you anyways." 10K tells her.
"Wait up 10, I need to finish our girl talk." Ocean cuts him off, making him look at her annoyedly.
"You only have three days left to get a costume do you want my help to get ready?" Ocean asks Liv.
"No, I know exactly what I'm going to be and I'm not telling anyone." Liv replies.
"Oh you're not gonna fool me Sista, I'm good you're talking to a girl who once found a needle in a haystack, literally. It hurt." Ocean tells her and walks away with Liv following her until 10K stops her, putting his arm around her shoulders and gently pulling her along to an empty closet.
"What is your problem?" Liv asks shocked.
"That's what I was going to ask you. Ever since I helped with Parkers sleepover you've been weird around me. did I do something to upset you?" 10K asks.
"No. Yes. No. I don't know." Liv stammers.
"OK? Care to explain?" 10K asks confused.
"Well Maddie told me what happened after I was basically knocked out from lack of fluids and everyone has been teasing me because of it and I don't know what to make of it." Liv tells him.
"What happened after you were knocked out?" 10K asks still not getting it.
"You know, you putting me under the covers lovingly, brushing my hair and you lingered." Liv recalls her sister's description.
"Oh that, well yeah. About that, uhm. I'm sorry? I guess I got lost in the moment? I know you only want a normal friend and I'm OK with that. I would be lying though if I told you that I'm not growing to like you more than that." 10K says uncertain of what her reaction will be.
"So, you do like me like that." Liv exclaims slightly surprised.
"I thought you would have known that already. Your brother was this close to calling me brother in law the whole night because he liked me so much." 10K tells her laughing and showing her a small gap between his fingers.
"Wait what now?" Liv asks shocked hearing of this the first time.
"Well I guess you really didn't know. How about this, I like you a lot Liv but if you don't feel that way about me, we'll forget we ever had this conversation and hit a reset, carrying on from when we were friends and it wasn't awkward, meaning before the party. Now I don't want an answer now, how about you give me one at the Scream Fest?" 10K suggests.
"OK." Liv agrees awkwardly with her thoughts running wild inside her head.
"Great. I'll give you some space until then, so see you in 3 days I guess." 10K tells her walking out of the closet, feeling better now that this is off his chest but still fears that Liv won't like him back, but he guesses he won't be off any worse than now."
Over the next three days Liv is wracking her brain, having spilled what happened to her twin minutes after 10K told her that he likes her, but Maddie promised to not influence her in any way and even offered some suggestions for how to figure out if she likes him like a pro and con list. Needless to say her suggestion didn't really get her anywhere.
"Great now I'm going to this stupid Halloween party and still have no idea if I want to risk our friendship for a potential romance." Liv curses while Maddie is putting on her knight outfit, having made plans with Diggie to go as knights.
"Still I think not showing up would be worse than telling him that you need more time." Maddie reminds her.
"Yeah yeah, I'm going I just don't want you to see my costume beforehand." Liv tells her.
"OK. I'm going now, see you at the party." Maddie tells her and makes her way to the school with Liv following her after a few minutes, dressed as a kangaroo.
After a while Maddie is still trying to help Joey with talking to a girl and thinks about who he could practice on and get a positive response to make him more confident when a Kangaroo hops up to her asking "Good day mate, can I borrow your sword to skewer the shrimp for the barbecue?"
"Not now, so hop along." Maddie tells her only to get pulled to the side by her and Liv then pops up her head telling her Maddie, it's me Liv."
"Liv? I had no idea that was you." Maddie says.
"OK but don't tell anyone because Ocean is looking for me and I want to talk to 10K on my terms, so it's better he doesn't know who I am, so I can gather the courage to talk to him." Liv tells her.
"Wait a minute, if I didn't recognize you then neither will Joey. This is perfect, He's been striking out all night and needs a win before he can talk to Skyla, so I need you to go flirt with our brother." Maddie says.
"Seriously? I'm having my own romance drama and you want to involve me in Joey's as well?" Liv asks.
"Yeah I'm sorry, you probably couldn't handle an acting job this challenging anyways." Maddie says challenging her sister.
"I know what you're doing and I accept your challenge." Liv replies and then makes her way over to Joey, who is dancing by himself at a corner in the hallway, having driven away the girls that were previously dancing there.
"Good day mate. Got to respect a boy who's not afraid to dance solo in the hallway, in a jumpsuit." Liv tells him.
"I hope this isn't Kangarooed, but I can't help wondering if trapped inside that Kangaroo is a stone-cold fox." Joey says in his Elvis costume.
"I'm Sandy the foreign exchange student from Australia." Liv introduces her fake persona.
"Joey, dark, mysterious with just a touch of whimsy and not one cavity." Joey introduces himself.
"Well Joey, you are quite the catch." She tells him hitting his shoulder flirtingly.
"No Kangaroo ever said that to me before, I'm gonna leave this conversation on a high note." Joey says walking away while making a high-pitched note.
While Maddie and Diggie are playing a Halloween version of bowling Joey comes up to them telling them "great news, I can talk to girls now."
"Awesome you talked to Skyla?" Maddie asks excitedly.
"Nope, I figured why am I chasing after Skyla, I already talked to a really cool girl and I'm gonna ask her out." Joey tells them.
"Wait what girl?" Maddie asks.
"An Australian Kangaroo foreign exchange student. Thanks Maddie, you fixed me, everything that happens from this point forward is because of you." Joey thanks her.
Meanwhile with Liv
Liv is hopping around still baffled on what to tell 10K, who should be the guy dressed in a sniper camo suit with the rifle.
"Having a good time tonight sunflower?" Liv asks Ocean in her Australian accent.
"Of course, I am, it's scream fest. And I just won best home-made costume. And I'm about to find my friend, Liv Rooney. She's close, I can feel it." Ocean tells her.
"She might be closer than you think." Liv hints.
"You're right. Werewolf right ahead." Ocean says chasing after someone dressed in a werewolf costume.
After Ocean left Maddie shows up saying "Ugh I've been looking for you everywhere. Mayor disaster, Joey digs the Kangaroo lady."
"Wow, a little coincidental there is someone else dressed in a lady Kangaroo outfit." Liv says.
"Nope, just you." Maddie replies.
"You were supposed to let him practice talking to girls and not get him crushing on you." Maddie tells her.
"Good day Sandy." Joey says seeing Liv and goes over to them.
"I had a great time tonight. What do you say, you, me froyo? Anything you want for under 7 dollars." Joey offers. 10K who has known that Liv is the Kangaroo for a while decides to help her out and goes over to her in his camo suit, putting his arm around her fake Kangaroo head telling Joey "Sorry Elvis this Kangaroo is already taken."
Joey looks at him for a second deciding if he should try and win the Kangaroo over, when 10K in the camo suit suddenly takes out a knife, throwing it at a piece of meat on a plate, middling it. After seeing this Joey takes off running.
"You knew that it was me?" Liv asks 10K, who took of the foilage covered hood while picking up his knife and eating the meat.
"Sure, I knew for a while but since I sprung my confession on you the first time, I thought it would be fair to let you make the next move. But seeing your situation with your brother I thought you might need me." 10K replies.
"You were the only one who knew it was me." Liv says taking off her head only to hear Ocean yell her name surprised.
"You have this tick you do when you're nervous, but it took me a while longer to spot with that three fingered costume." 10K tells her with a smirk.
"Look, since you were trying to avoid me, I'm pretty sure you don't know how you feel about me yet and that's OK. I needed some time to realize my feelings myself, so take as long as you…" 10K tells her but gets cut off by her lips crashing into his.
"You sure about this?" 10K asks her with a bright smile on his face.
"Not really but I want to give this a shot. I like you a lot more than a normal friend, but I wasn't sure if risking our friendship would be worth it." Liv tells him.
"I know what you mean, but this feels right. Well actually not really with the stuffy costumes, but you know what I mean." 10K tells her, hugging her as best as he can given their costumes.
