Chapter 7: Grandma V.S. Exoskeleton
A/N mainly Leo and Cassie best friend stuff, a little bit of Cassie and Eddy friend stuff, and of course some Chassie stuff. I own nothing except Cassandra.
I was sitting in the kitchen sipping orange juice, talking with Eddie when Leo shouted for her from the lab.
"Remind me why he's my best friend again?" I asked E as I set my glass in the sink.
"I ask myself that everyday" E said with a smile before he disappeared.
I ran down to the lab and saw Chase standing on the other side of the room and Leo standing with Mr. D holding a pen "Cool pen"
"Ha! I told you it was a pen" Leo shouted at Mr. D.
"It's not a pen, it's a highly pressurized air canister that can inflate a blimp in 8.6 seconds" Mr. D explained.
"No way!" I shouted excited, I suddenly don't regret coming down here.
"This little thing" Leo asked not believing it "Impossible"
"Try it" I offered as I clicked the pen, it let out a whooshing sound before the room filled with pressurized air and knocked me back to the wall. Chase made his way over as Mr. D finally turned it off. "Whoops" I gave a nervous chuckle.
"You should put a little warning sign on this thing" Leo told Mr. D after a moment of silence. "So what are you having a garage sale for geeks" and fist bump.
Mr. D faked a laugh before turning serious "No, we are preparing for… the call"
"Once a year Mr. Davenport and I present his newest to all the international buyers. In other words…"
"Cha-ching" They both said and did a little hand shake that Leo tried to get in on.
"It's okay, ours is cooler" I told Leo but was looking between Mr. D and Chase as we did our hand shake.
"Boom" we both shouted at the same time.
"What are you doing" Chase asked.
"I" Leo started, I faked a loud cough "We" Leo quickly corrected, "We want in on… the call"
"Yeah, sorry, guys. There's no room room. I'm already the product specialist, the set designer, chief demonstrator, and insanely happy spokes model" Chase finished with some poses.
"Although, there may be a role for Leo as long as someone follows him around with a fire extinguisher"
"And that's where I come in" I concluded as Mr. D walked away.
"But Mr. Davenport" Chase followed him "I'm way better at selling this stuff than Leo, even with Cassie's help" Okay I'm going to let that one pass because it was technically and insult to Leo.
Leo and I both gave him identical "Please, I could sell nun chucks to a nun named chuck"
"I really thought you were going to come up with a good come back this time" I shook my head in mock disappointment.
Leo just shrugged and walked over to another device "I could sell this thing without even knowing what it is" Well this is going to come back to bite him.
"Leo, no. That's an electro field destabilize whatever you do, don't let it—" Mr. D started to warn him but Leo smack it on the table and it shocked him sending him flying into the wall. "Hit metal" He finished.
"I have to admit a small part of me was hoping that would happen" Chase laughed.
"And a small part of me knew that was going to happen" I said shaking my head with a sigh.
"Well, can a big part of you come over and help me up" Leo shouted from the floor, I jumped forward and helped him up
I was upstairs talking to Eddy once again resuming our conversation from earlier. Chase and Bree were throwing a ball around, Adam was bench pressing Leo, and Mr. D had a thing on his head.
"Do you think she's embarrassed by us" I asked E referring to Tasha's phone call with her mom.
"Why would she, we're awesome" E shouted smiling.
"You know that's right" I raised my fist to fist bump him but stop "Man, I wish you had fists." Just then E turned into a fist and I fist bumped him before he morphed back into himself "Awesome."
The doorbell rang and Tasha gasped, I groaned, if there was one person who hated me more than I hated them, it would be Rose Dooley. She's hated me ever since I told her I didn't like Leo like that. Now she thinks of me as a stuck up snob who thinks she's too good for her grandson. And I am not exaggerating she's said this right to my face before, and says it every time she sees me.
Mr. D bailed and Tasha freaked out "quick turn invisible" We all stopped and looked at her "oh, come one, you have every other freaky ability. Just run and hide" Chase, Adam, and Bree hid behind the counter.
Rose walked in "oh, good. It's unlocked."
"Mom!" Tasha said with a fake smile "you're here" and hugged her
"Would've been here sooner if it wasn't for your stupid gate" She said
"Thank god for stupid gates than" I muttered.
"Well, if it isn't the girl who thinks she's too good for my grandson" Rose said with a bitter tone. See I wasn't kidding.
I smiled sarcastically as Tasha changed the subject "That's just Donald's titanium security fence"
"Well, if you ram it with your car hard enough, it pops right open" She pushed Tasha to the side. "Leo, there's my baby." She mumbled something's as she hugged him. "Grandma bought your favorite"
"A one way ticket to send you back home" I asked half joking half serious.
She narrowed her eyes at me "No, Bran fruitcake" She pulled it out of her purse and handed it to Leo who almost dropped it.
"Oh! Wow" he slowly stood up "Grandma, you shouldn't have, and when I say you shouldn't have—"
"Leo!" Tasha cut him off.
"Who are they" Rose asked noticing Chase, Adam, and Bree sneaking away.
"They are the" Tasha walked over to them.
"Staff?" I offered.
"Yeah, Staff! Big house" She smiled over at the three of them before turning back to rose.
"Staff? Oh, Tasha still so lazy" Rose scolded.
"And you are still so" Tasha started in a bitter tone than smiled "my mother"
"So what do you do?" she asked Adam.
"Well I collect rocks, I lift heavy things, I chase bugs" He started listing off things.
"Adam" Tasha stopped him "is our chef"
"Right chef" Adam laughed "Normally, I wear a puffy hat and yell things in Italian. Bojour!"
Tasha laughed nervously and we all joined in "what a wonderful sense of humor." She glared at Adam.
"And who is she" Rose asked pointing to Bree.
"Bree is my… personal trainer" she walked over and put an arm behind Bree
"Oh. And what does a personal trainer do exactly?" Rose asked with her hand folded in front of her.
"It's…" Bree froze "Personal?"
"And Chase" Tasha walked over to Chase "Chase is Leo's nanny, man nanny, manny" Tasha quickly recovered.
The looks on Chase and Leo's faces were priceless; it took every ounce of will power not to laugh. "Aren't you a little young to be a many?" Rose asked.
"Aren't you a little young to be a grandma" Chase shot back.
Rose looked at him for a second before she smiled "Oh, I like him."
I was back down in the lab with Mr. D and Leo and Mr. D was telling us a terrible joke that Leo laughed at.
"Okay" chase came over to us "So, here are your fully collated, color-coded presentation packets. I had them laminated so you could practice in the shower"
"Laminated, huh" I took the packet and flipped through it.
"Uh-huh. You know, I say we just wing it"
"Leo's right. We shouldn't over think it." Mr. D agreed
"Buy, I wrote an entire script filled with our spontaneous, yet, witty banter"
"And it's awesome but, I have to side with Leo. Sorry" I gave the packet back to him.
"And now, Big D and Leo are gellin' on the sell it" Leo told him and did a handshake with him.
"No, no, no no handshakes" Chase stepped between them, "I mean uh- Leo's great and all but, you and I are the dynamic duo here, what if something happened? He could get electrocuted. Again"
"And that's why I'm here to make sure Leo doesn't break anything" I told him
"Well, we could use the help. This year I am unveiling my coup d'état"
Leo put his hands over my ears "With children in the room"
I pulled his hands off my head and rolled my eyes. "No, I am talking about a level of technology" Mr. D explained "So amazing that I have to unveil it game-show style!" and the doors opened to reveal an exosuit "It's my exoskeleton. And Leo, you have been doing such a great job helping, you're gonna be in it when we make… the call"
Leo looked like a 5 year old on Christmas morning "Cassie, I get to be in this" Leo smiled ear to ear "pound it" we did our fist bump.
"What? No, you said that I was going to present the exoskeleton"
"Chase, you've been doing this for years. It's not going to kill you to let Leo demo one one thing. Besides, there will be plenty of other little things for you to do with Cassie"
"Yeah, like stand and point Vanna" Leo mimicked Chase and posed in front of the suit.
"Fine, you know what? Leo should demo the exo" Chase agreed.
"See, that wasn't so hard Chase. Plus it's going to be fun doing the other stuff, Leo may have the Exo but you got me and I'm way cooler" I gloated.
"Yeah" Leo slowly turned around and scratched the back of his neck "Sure"
I narrowed my eyes at Leo and walked out of the lab "Cassie I was just kidding" Leo yelled after me.
"Sure, Leo" I shouted back as he and Mr. D followed me out.
Later on that day Leo and Chase were down in the lab working on… the call with Mr. D and I checked on them every once in a while but I mainly stayed upstairs with Adam and Bree. Adam was attempting to cook some spaghetti and Bree was doing exercises with Rose. It was really funny to watch Adam attempt to make spaghetti, and to watch Rose to try and stretch. I eventually walked back up to my room.
"Hellooooo Cass" E said appearing on the small screen near my closest
"Hellooooo E" I mimicked
"Whatchu doooooooing"
"Noooooooothing"
"Okay, I'm going to stop now"
I laughed "Okay, so what do you need"
"I just wanted to make sure you knew what was going on down in the lab"
"What?!" I turned away from my computer and looked at e
"Chase just sabotaged Leo's suit it was hilarious" He laughed and bought up the live feed from the lab.
Leo was in the exoskeleton breaking everything and Mr. D and Chase were hiding behind the counter.
"Damn it" I mumbled before I ran out of the room and down to the lab.
When I came downstairs I heard there conversation "Chase, how could you do this"
"Come on, with my mechanically inclined intelligence, how could I not do it"
"I'm pretty sure he meant, why!" I shouted with my arms crossed
Chase spun around to face me "Hey, Cassie" he waved sheepishly
"What on earth is going on down here?" Tasha said as she walked in, passed me.
"The exoskeleton went berserk and almost crushed me" Mr. D explained
"My mother is upstairs"
Mr. D paused "Yeah, okay. You win"
"She's been asking where you guys are and I'm running out of excuses. I need everyone upstairs, acting like a normal family now!" and with that Tasha stormed out of the room
"You know what we should probably do what she says, she's more prone to violence than the exoskeleton" Mr. D began to follow her but turned back before he did. "And, Chase, I am very disappointed in you. I don't want you on the next call" and left.
I never moved the entire time, my arms never uncrossed and my expression never changed. "Cassie" Chase tried.
"Don't Chase, that was so uncalled for. What you did was unbelievably unnecessary and so completely dangerous. And why, because Leo got to do something you've been doing for years" I shook my head. "Joe tell Tasha I'm going to be up in my room" and I left the room.
Third Person POV
Chase watched as Cassie left the room, you could see the anger steaming fro her body with each step she took.
"I wasn't trying to bump you out; I was trying to show you up. You know add a little sizzle to your steak"
"Well, congratulations, Leo you won. You got the sizzle, you got the steak, you got the whole stinking cow! And now Cassie's mad at me and I don't know if I'm going to be able to fix that" Chase stormed out of the room.
"Hey, you're my many, your suppose to be nice to me" Leo said before he follow Chase out of the Lab. The exoskeleton coming back to life a few seconds later.
Cassie's POV
I was sitting in my room, lights off, music blaring in my ears from my IPod. I haven't left my room since the thing with Chase, not once including for dinner also considering Adam made it so it probably would've killed me. Leo walked into my room with pizza on a plate; I took out a head phone and sat up.
"Can I turn on the lights?"
I chuckled "Yeah, go for it"
He turned on the lights and sat next to me on the bed "Pizza?" he offered me a slice.
I took it and we sat in silence for a few minutes, but I knew exactly why Leo was in here "You have till I finish this pizza to say whatever you want to defend Chase" I picked up a slice and waited for him to start talking before I took a bite.
"You shouldn't have gotten mad at him earlier, it was all my fault I kept rubbing it in his face, pushing it too far, stealing his thunder. He only did what he did because I was trying to show him up. He was really upset when you got mad at him, and I didn't mean for that to happen. But what you missed was awesome; the exoskeleton came to life all on its own and attacked us. But me and Chase took him down, we were pretty boss if I say so myself, and I do" I laughed. "So seriously you should go talk to Chase, forgive him, and then you can run off into the sunset together"
I finished my pizza and took a deep breath "Only because you asked me too, I will go talk to him"
I got up off my bed and walked down into the lab, Chase was the only one in there but he didn't notice me yet. I silently sat down on the counter and let a out a breath.
Chase shot up out of his seat "Cassie, listen I just wanted to say-"
I held up my hand to stop him "Chase, I'm going to say what I'm going to say and you are going to be quiet through the entire thing and then I'm going up to my room. Got it?" He nodded "Leo told me what you did, and how you two took down the exoskeleton… together. And I understand why you did what you did to Leo, and it's in the past I'm going to pretend like it never happened. And… I'm sorry for snapping at you earlier, it's just Leo and I we've known each other for a really long time and When you've been friends that long you tend to be over protective, so I'm sorry" I paused and before I could stop myself I leaned forward and kissed his cheek "Good night Chase" I walked out of the lab and backup to my room.
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