Emily sat at the table, looking around herself and all the could think of was how her life went from being a nightmare, to be the perfect dream.

Here she was, sitting with the people she loved most.
She was listening to her mother telling stories from their life to her friends and looking at their shocked and incredulous faces.
She never really spoke about the past and the places she has been to or the things she got to do thanks to her mother's job.
She was always too focused on the worst parts to think about and enjoy the good ones.

Now, listening to her mother's tales, it was all coming back and the happiness that filled her heart was something she never thought she'd feel.

They were all amazed by her mother, who was doing great.
She was funny and interesting and incredibly warm to all of them.
Her friends would chime in from time to time and her mother would wittily shut them up not to anticipate anything.
That always stole a smile from her because she loved that side of her mother.
The witty and ironic one.
She had a good sense of humor and Emily saw herself in that side of her mom.

Aaron was sitting next to her and everytime her mom mentioned her or told a story about her, he'd turn around, laugh and affectionately squeeze or pat her leg.
Spencer was asking her mother all sorts of questions.
The kind of questions none of them would ever think about and her mother loved it.
They were about the countries and the job and everything Emily always found kind of boring.
Her mother, on the other side, loved it.

She knew Spencer was slowly becoming her mother's favourite.
She smiled because Spencer was everyone's favourite.
They all kept an eye on him because he special.

His great mind was a gift, of course, but it could also be a curse and they all made sure that it would never be that for Spencer.
Also, they knew about his mother's condition and how hard it was for him to be alone in that.
So they all tried to remind him that he wasn't alone.

That's what they all did for each other.

Penelope and JJ were fascinated with the tales from another time and other lands.
They were so day dreaming about traveling and living love stories in other times and esotic places.
Not that her mom was really talking about her love life.
She'd get close sometimes but would never get really into it or explicit about it.

She had to admit that it was easy to daydream about living that life, in another place and another time.
Where things were different and relationships were deeper. More true.

Derek would always crack a joke.
Jokes her mother genuinely laughed to.
They all did.

It was the perfect picture, something she'd never trade for anything in the world and it was all that mattered.
Also, she was glad her mother didn't turn this into a fancy night.
No one would have been comfortable.
It was pizza and chat.

She still couldn't believe that that one was her mother.
But she was awesome.
And she was never going to grow tired of all the surprises she could pull off.

She was amazed by the fact that the conversation was flowing so normally and smoothly.
Her mother was telling her stories but also listening to her friends' ones, in fact soon enough she was hearing their projects for their future and giving them advice.

"And feel free to call me whenever you figure out what are Emily's plans. Thank you very much" Elizabeth smirked and Emily rolled her eyes "I'll hack her computer and snoop around to see if I can find something" Penelope joked and Elizabeth looked intersted

"MOM!"

"WHAT?"

"YOU'RE REALLY THINKING ABOUT THAT!"

"EMILY DON'T BE RIDICULOUS! I was just- thinking that..."

"OMG YOU WANT TO HACK SOMEONE'S SYSTEM AND START A WAR? END THE WORLD?"

Elizabeth rolled her eyes and everybody laughed but then a phone ringed "I'm afraid that would be mine" Elizabeth cast a glance at her daughter who smiled so she left the room to answer the call.

"I can't believe you've been hiding her from us all this time!" Penelope exclaimed.

"Trust me, she's been hiding from me as well" the brunette chuckled "She'll probably stay on the phone for like forever so if you're all done we could go watch a movie or something"

"I want to watch Solaris. Why can't we watch Solaris?" Spencer asked while they walked towards the family room where there was the huge cinema screen.

"Because it's longer than my whole life" Derek said and Spencer looked confused "Technically your life is 166440 hours long. It's physically impossible for a movie to be this longer and Solaris-"

"Spence, he was just joking. Don't mind him" Emily patted his shoulder and smiled sweetly at her clueless friend.
Penelope elbowed Derek in the stomach "Idiot"

"Oh and also, we can't watch Solaris because we're watching Fast and Furious" Derek said and this got him another elbow in the stomach by Penelope.

"Baby girl stop! You're gonna bruise my perfect toned stomach"

"You stop. There's no way in hell I'm letting you watch that horrid movie"

"HORRID! TAKE IT BACK IMMEDIATELY!" Derek warned

"I'll die before I do"

"I'm giving you a chance here. Don't mess with me baby girl"

Penelope mocked him and before she could finish, she saw him attack her and a high pitched squeal left her mouth before she tried to run away from him.
Derek ran behind her and the rest of them stayed behind, rolling their eyes at their frends antics.

"We're going to spend the rest of the night trying to figure out what to watch and then we'll end up settling on something stupid and random on TV because someone makes a comment or says something stupid which will start a war. Like always" JJ said sighed and Emily nodded knowingly at her before glancing behind her and seeing Aaron talk with Spencer about something, probably boring.

Spencer and Aaron had more in common than what they thought they did.

Once they reached the family room, they met Derek and Penelope laying on the huge armchairs, laughing about something they definitely didn't want to know.
They all settled down, still fighting about what to watch and before they knew it, they had spent a whole hour without getting anywhere and got only interrupted by Elizabeth walking in with all kinds of snacks.

"I figured I'd find you here watching- oh, you're not watching anything"

"Yeah, that's pretty much what happens every time" JJ said. She loved watching movies, she really had a culture and had watched a lot of them. She was really good at cinema stuff so it really bothered her that every time she had the chance to enjoy a movie on such a big screen, she'd always had to miss it because of her dumb friends.
That's why she often went to Emily's house alone, so they could watch them together.
Emily loved movies too.
Not as much as JJ, but still quite a lot.

Emily took a mental note to let JJ come over in the next days and watch whatever she wanted to watch, and also Spencer, so they could watch Solaris together.
It wasn't Emily's favourite.
But she'd do it for Spencer.

"Mom, pick a movie" Emily said from were she was sharing an armchair with Aaron.

"Yes please! Whatever you pick is fine! At least it will be something. And you hold authority so no one will complain. I'm begging here" JJ begged, almost losing her mind.

"Oh no dears, I don't- I don't know a lot of movies"

"That's so not true! You know all the classics, for starters-"

"OH MY! I LOVE THE CLASSICS!" Penelope said.

"Only the classics. Nothing else, Emily"

So here they were, talking about cinema and movies and of course Elizabeth told them about the times he met this actress and this actor here and there.
JJ for the first time enjoyed the talking instead of watching movies.
Because it was about what she loved most and she got to hear stories about meetings with milestones of the cinema.
And here they were again.
Chatting and sharing opinions, passions and thoughts all over again, losing track of the time and not really caring about everything else.

That's something Elizabeth noticed, the fact that none of them checked their phones once. Not even Penelope, who, according to everyone, was the most attached to technology.
There was no need of those devices because they were all having a good time there and her heart filled with joy because of course she was grateful that her daughter had friends who could still look into each other eyes and enjoy the present, without having to be everywhere at the same time. Like it was always more common between young people and herself as well. She felt a bit ashamed when she realized she had been the only one on the phone from time to time.
Of course it was because of work reasons and only when she really couldn't let it pass.

But she admired those kids.
For their sense of sharing and how strong they felt about relationships and connections. They were committed and it was clear that they cared about one another, including Emily who was the last one to add up to a group that probably formed years and years ago.

So she looked at them, laughing and joking. Making fun of each other in the healthiest way possible and letting each other in over and over again.
She smiled and decided to leave them be.
It had been fun and she knew that all of them appreciated spending time with her and listening to their stories. She knew because you can be the best liar, but still couldn't fake that.
You couldn't fake the light she saw in their eyes and she genuinity in those smiles, but she felt like giving them a bit of space for themselves anyway.

"My dears, I think I better call it a night. I'm still catching up with the timezone and I'm exhausted. You're all welcome to stay the night, especially if you think this is going to take long. I'm sure you can come up with a comfortable enough arrangment for everyone, you'd have to share but I hope it won't be a problem"

"Thank you Mrs. Prentiss" JJ smiled and everyone else followed "Thank you so much"

"Please call me Elizabeth. It's been a pleasure darlings" she blew kisses to each one of them and finally retired to her bedroom for some much needed sleep.

"Emily, your mom is awesome" Penelope beamed and Emily smiled, snuggling more into Aaron's side who kissed her forehead and stroked her hair.

"She's like a legend man" Derek stated incredulous.

"I must say that some of the things she told us tonight, I didn't know either and some of them I was definitely glad I didn't know. Like how she used to throw bras at concerts. Like what the hell? No thanks mom"

They laughed "But she's quite epic, I can't deny that"

"So, enough with story time. Let's get down to business" Derek rubbed his hands together "Derek, no one's getting drunk while my mom's upstairs"

"Ohhh come on!"

"Are you out of your mind?"

"Okay so no alchol but let's spin a bottle"

"Derek you're not kissing my girlfriend"

"Oh man!" everyone chuckled and eventually Penelope raised her hand "I actually need to address a super very important thing that is eating me alive and I've been told not to bring it up but I really canìt-"

"Baby girl, shoot it"

"Spencer" the young boy jumped a little under the intense stare of his blonde friend "Wh-what?"

"Who's the girl you were kissing at the dance?" Spencer's eyes widened and immediately Emily and JJ rubbed their faces because they had expressly told her not to bring it up until he did. Derek looked completely shocked because he didn't know about any girl "What is she talking about kid?"

"Derek-" Emily tried to stop Derek to go further because she feared that if Spencer had been even close to telling them about her, with them cornering him, he'd close off and shut them out but she was surprised to say the least when she was cut off by Spencer himself.

"Her name is Maeve" he said with a smile.

That took them all by surprise. Emily and JJ had thought that he'd get upset, Penelope was quite sure that she'd have to fight him to get the answers out of him, Derek was still trying to process the fact that at the dance Spencer was kissing a girl and he didn't know about it.
Aaron was simply holding Emily in his lap, feeling really happy for the boy he considered his little brother.

Spencer chuckled at all their faces "Hey, try to look less shocked"

"No Spence! It's jsut-" JJ words died in her throat.

"We weren't expecting you to tell us. Not with Penny going straight to the point like that" she glared a little at the blonde girl who waved it off "Okay so tell us tell us. Tell us every single thing. How'd you meet her her? When? Come on come on"

Spencer chuckled "I met her at the library, we were looking for the same book so we started talking about it. We've been talking since then"

"When is then?" JJ surprised herself by asking.

"Fifty-seven days ago"

"And you didn't tell me anything bro? Come on!" Derek sounded a little way too hurt since this was definitely not about him but they all let it slide, except for Spencer.

"I didn't know my feelings for her ran that deep"

Emily smiled "You have feelings for her?" Spencer looked at her and smiled back. She wasn't the only one who didn't baby him and he always appreciated that.

"I realized that at the dance. When I saw her. She was- she was breathtaking" He murmured, lowering his gaze to hide the blush.

They all shared a look. This was getting definitely interesting. "Wait so. Wait" Penelope looked like something was running wild in her mind "You invited her at the dance without knowing that you liked her. So if you didn't like her, why did you invite her?"

"She asked me if I was taking anyone to the dance. I said no. She said she wasn't either and for some reason I didn't understand that she was implicitly asking me to ask her"

Her friends smiled because of course he'd not catch that.

"So she asked me"

"Aww Spence!" JJ ogled but of course Penelope was not satisfied yet "And then who kissed who? Come on wonder boy, don't make me drag every single word from your mouth!"

"Penelope, I think that can be enough for now. Let the poor kid breathe" Aaron chimed in and Penelope huffed "You always ruin the fun, bossman"

Aaron chuckled and shook his head at the blonde sticking her tongue out at him "Wait a second" Derek said "are we going to meet this mysterious girl?"

Spencer hinted a smiled "Yeah, I think that'll happen soon"

At that they all smiled and nodded sweetly at their friend, letting him off the hook for the time being, Derek patting his back proudly.

"Oh and by the way, baby girl, just know that you'll be the next one to get on the hot seat" he said and Penelope's eyes hot open.

"I don't know what you're talking about" she played dumb but for now no one asked more about it.
They'll get to her in time.

Hi guys!
This is the first time ever I leave notes under the chapter but I felt like it was necessary.
First of all, I really wanted to thank you for the support you've been giving me whether is through reviews, favourites, follows or all of them.
It really means a lot ot me to recieve this kind of response by all of you, and it warms my heart each and every time.

Also I kanda wanted to explain this chapter.
You see, I pretty much have the rest of the story all figured out but I struggled with this one and I had a bit of a writer block so I guess what I wanted to do with this note was beg you to forgive me hahah.
And also don't abandon after this one because there's more to come.
Some fluff, some smut, some fluff.
It's all coming.
Stick with me guys!