The next day...
Crystal was currently skateboarding her way to her best friend's house, hoping to convince her to meet up with Chaz at the park today. As previously stated last night, today was the last day before Katie finally starts officially working at her father's dentist, so she believed that now would be a better time than not to get her to meet with her crush. Now, granted, she knew that just because Katie starts working tomorrow doesn't mean that she's not free to do whatever she wants and have fun; but considering her best friend's studious nature, and her tendency to be a workaholic at times, she felt like it was only necessary that she'd go ahead and make them finally meet anyway; better late than never, some would always say.
When she got to the Morris's House, she found her best friend on the porch playing basketball by her lonesome, throwing her ball up towards the hoop that was just above her garage-door. She was dressed a little differently today, as her baseball cap was on backwards, which was usually rare to see; and she was wearing a dark gray tank-top with a plaid-flannel-jacket tied around her waist, and she had baggy light-blue cargo pants. An outfit, such as this, is probably not one would expect seeing a studious girl like Katie would wear, as one would see it as too rebellious; but it's usually what she'd wear whenever she didn't have plans to go anywhere today, nor wanted to spend the day inside her house; then again, her normal attire would probably be considered 'not-very-studious' either, since it made her look more lazy and troublesome than smart and obedient; but at least it made her look cool.
After putting her skateboard aside, Crystal ran up to her best friend and grabbed the basketball out of her hands, catching her by surprise; then leaped up towards the net, tossing it in. "Nice shot, dude." Katie commented as she caught the ball in her hands as it bounced towards her.
"Thanks." Crystal said as she high-fived her best friend, before deciding to ask her something, wanting to start off slow rather than immediately cut to the case, since she knew Katie would probably say 'no' the second she did. "So, do you have any plans for today, dude?"
"Not really; for the most part, I'm just going to be here, playing basketball for a bit, and then maybe skateboard around the block later on." Katie explained as she dribbled the ball around herself, then sending it up towards the net above...only for it to miss entirely, and hit the wall next to it instead. "Why do you ask? Have you and Annie planned something for us today?"
"Well, actually, I have something planned for us today, Annie wasn't involved in this one. Do you remember that one dude who texted me the other day; the one who I went off to meet on the day you came back?" After hearing that little detail mentioned, Katie began to feel a little bit unsure about all of this; however, she still decided to hear out what her best friend has in store for her, and gave her a slight nod of the head. "Well, I've been giving it some thought, both recently and before you came back to Simport, and I was thinking that you should probably meet up with him; because the way I see it, you two are a lot alike; I mean, you guys both like skateboarding, you're both totally cool kids to hang around-"
"Does he just so happened to be a dental-expert just like me?" Katie then asked, raising an eyebrow at her best friend out of skepticism.
"Unfortunately for you, no...he's actually a mechanic..."
"Then why the fuck are you sitting there assuming that I'd be friends with this guy then?" Katie asked, tossing the ball over to her best friend, who catches it with both of her hands. "Just because the dude knows how to skateboard, doesn't mean I'd instantly like him-"
"Skateboarding's not the only thing that you guys have in common; in fact, it's not the only sport that he's a fan of; for example, both of you guys like basketball, I can give you that." Crystal explained as she tossed the ball back to the dentist. "Also, it's not just sports in general either; because you guys are both totally cool, and yes, I know that's an opinionated thing; and you guys also like the same kinds of movies, TV shows, and music."
"Really?" Katie asked in disbelief. "If that's the case, then what's his favorite movie then?"
"Uh...he once told me that it would either be 'The Hangover' or 'This is the End'; but he can never pick which one he likes the most."
"Already, he sounds like a standup guy..." Katie then muttered, before turning to look at her best friend again, now narrowing her eyes at her. "My favorite movie is 'The Bourne Identity', not either of those two movies you just said."
"Yeah, well...believe it or not, he actually likes that movie too, Katie; and, by the way, comedy movies aren't even his favorite kind of movies anyway, his favorite would be action."
"Considering that he seems like the rebellious-type, just like you, I can imagine so."
"Ha..." Crystal muttered to herself, before proceeding to try and reason with her best friend some more. "Look, Kate, just listen to me on this one; because believe me, when you actually meet and get to know this guy, you won't regret it one bit; because, like I said, having him around is kinda like...well...having you around; except I'm hanging out with a dude and not a girl, and that he's an auto-mechanic and not a dentist." The only response that she got out of Katie after saying all of this was nothing more but an eyeroll. "Come on, the least you could do is give this guy the benefit of the doubt and just meet him; also...I kinda already planned you to meet, and...he's probably waiting at the park for us right now..."
Crystal then glanced up at her friend with a cringe, seeing the dumbfounded and shocked look that was expressed on Katie's face, now starting to think that having this meet-up planned ahead of time and without telling her best friend about it first was a terrible idea; but thankfully, instead of immediately denying her request, Katie tosses the basketball aside in the grass beside her, and then gave her a response. "Fine...I'll meet this guy...whatever gets you to shut up already." The dentist muttered as she picked up her skateboard off the side of the garage. "But before we go, I'm just gonna say this right now: if this guy turns out to be just as much of an asshole as Derek Oaken, then I'm coming straight back here."
"Don't compare that guy to my ex, because he's nothing like him; and besides, Chaz never attempted to destroy Gino's Pizzeria by shoving a baseball down it's chimney, nor has he been to juvie more times than he's been in detention."
"Should I ask how many times your buddy has received detention?"
"No; and to answer your question anyway, he's only received twenty-eight detentions throughout the entirety of the twelve-grade."
"Wow...the more you talk about this guy, the more 'eager' I am to actually meet him." Katie muttered sarcastically as the two began to walk down the sidewalk together. "Next thing I know; you're telling me how many kids he's shoved into lockers within a single day."
"Oh, would you quit your griping already? The last thing that I need to hear is you complaining the entire way there." Crystal berated with a groan at the end. "Also, if we're talking about within a day, he can only shove three kids into lockers before Principal Rosalyn catches wind of it and-" She then stopped talking for a moment, suddenly noticing the glare coming from the brown-haired tomboy walking beside her. "I'm...not making him sound any better than Derek, am I?"
"No, you are really not..."
Crystal took a deep breath, before facing forward and putting her hands in her pockets. "You know what? I'm just going to shut up now..." She softly said to herself, as the two continued to walk their way down the sidewalk.
Meanwhile...
"So, tell me again why I'm driving your sorry ass out to the bowling-alley again?" James asked his stepsister while leaning against the steering-wheel of his car. "Usually, I'm driving you to the mall to get your hair done, or your nails done, or to get more pink shit; but the bowling-alley? I don't recall you ever being interested in something like that."
"Well, mine incompetent stepbrother, I actually do hast an interest in bowling." Stacy told her stepbrother, sitting in the front-seat beside him. "As a matter of fact, I don't believeth that thou hast even paid attention to when I hath last mentioned it to thee."
James stares forward at the road ahead of him, trying to hide the smirk that on his face, all while scoffing at what his stepsibling was saying. "Well, knowing your constantly bratty attitude, you'd be right." Hearing this statement causes his stepsister to glare at him with anger; however, instead of either yelling at him or smacking him upside the head with her beret, she decided to relent on doing either of those options.
"I don't hath the energy to argue with thee right now, thou utterly pathetic and insufferable peon..." She berated under her breath, before deciding to explain her reasons calmly and more thoroughly. "Anyway, while thou were asleep, dearest Ray called me and said that he and fair Raven Wright hath planned for all three of us to go bowling this present day. Although, I personally wouldst hath preferred that we go somewhere outdoors, since it be such a beautiful day today; the sun be shining brighter than all of the stars in the night sky, the sky be blue and clear as the lakes to the ponds, and the breeze around us be-"
"So, let me get this straight; Ray invited you to go bowling...along with his girlfriend?"
"Yes, I do believeth I just explained that to thee; unless thou hast not paid attention again, I wouldst not be too surprised."
"Oh, no, I was paying attention to everything you were saying this time; but the only thing I don't get is why he's inviting you to hang out with him while he's hanging out with his girlfriend."
"What are you even getting at here, James?"
"Well, with how close you and Ray were back in high-school, doing a lot of things together behind Raven's back and during school-hours even; and I wouldn't be surprised if there were times where you and him hung out off-campus too, but...that's beside the point." James then glances away from the front window for a second to look at his stepsibling to his right, now revealing what he's really getting at with everything he was telling her. "The point is: don't you think Raven's going to be a bit jealous of your friendship with her boyfriend, especially considering that you're now back in each other's lives and she probably wasn't even aware of your friendship with Ray in the first place?"
"Jealous?" Stacy asked in disbelief. "Mine unintelligent and utterly-intolerable-to-live-with stepbrother, I don't believeth that fair Raven hast anything to truly worry about when it comes to mine friendship with dear Ray; besides, he's been together with her for who knows how many moons ago, one fair maiden, such as myself, wouldn't be able to do much damage to their long-running relationship whatsoever." She then faces forward, now blushing at the next part that she says, reminiscing on her previous friendship with the goth. "Indeed, Ray is...arguably, everything I can ever ask for in a prince...or mine sweet Romeo...he's sweet...he's wise...and, dare I say...he's truly handsome too; but, if he's happy in his relationship with this fair Raven girl, and whatever they have between them is potent enough to last this long, then it's doubtful things will fall apart all because I show up."
"Okay; but I'm just saying that she might still get jealous once she sees you spending more time with her boyfriend; because girlfriends don't usually like seeing their boyfriends hanging out with some other girl that he's friends with."
Stacy simply rolled her eyes and scoffed at her stepbrother's warning, as if he has any right to tell her how to hang out with her friends; hell, she doubts that Ray even sees him as much of a friend than she is. "What do you know? You don't even have a girlfriend-"
"Well, neither do you; so that makes both of us."
"Oh, wouldst thou just shut up and drive, peon?!"
"Alright..." James then faced the road ahead of him, looking around for the bowling-alley that they were meeting the two goths at, seeing nothing but cars and the first few floors of the nearby skyscrapers. "Where is this place anyway? Did Ray give you any sort of address, or at least said what this place looked like?"
"He told me that the place should stay out amongst all the other buildings; and he mentioned that it has a rather eighties-esque architectural design to it as well." Stacy explained as she stared out the window to her right, not seeing any sign of the building anywhere. "He also stated that the building should probably be one of the most colorful buildings around this part of the DownTown area."
"One of the most colorful? Really?" The emo asked, rather intrigued by that last detail. "I never would've imagined Raven having a relative who works at a place like that. Now don't get me wrong, Goth-culture was a very popular style back in the eighties; but still, I can't imagine somebody from the Wright's family working at a place that's so colorful."
"Well, I highly doubt that all of Raven's relatives are as goth as her."
"Yeah, fair point; but-"
"Oh, I see it over yonder point!" Stacy exclaimed, pointing off towards some random direction.
Looking outside the right window of the car, both stepsiblings could see the bowling-alley out in the distance. As previously mentioned, the building had an overall eighties-ecstatic to it, with neon-lights lining around some parts of the outside, specifically above the front-doors and windows; the design that covered the walls were mostly red, orange, and purple stripes or other shapes, and that's not to mention the funky-and-retro architectural design of the building; and speaking of which, the pillars that were at the building's corners resembled that of bowling-pins, for obvious reasons, of course. With how much it stood out from the rest of the buildings in this section of the town, it was hard to believe that neither James or Stacy had discovered this place before; but then again, the former wasn't much of a bowling-fan, nor was he too big on anything that had so many bright colors, unless it's the arcade; and as for the latter, well...she never had the time to do an activity like this, since she's mostly either working at her father's theater, reading, or focusing on fashion.
After pulling up into the parking lot, James drives his car into one of the many parking spaces and then got out, his stepsister stepping out soon after he did. "Well, here we are." He said, clearly sound completely disinterested. "Did you ask Ray if there was an arcade here?"
"Dost thou really expected me to have asked him if there was?" Stacy sarcastically asked. "I wasn't planning on thee to stay and dawdle while I was spending time with mine best friend."
"Well, since I'm here, my mom's at work, your dad's at work, and Jenny's probably busy at work right now, it doesn't seem like I have much of choice but to stay here and kill some time while I can before work tonight; besides, this place seems pretty interesting, I wouldn't mind staying awhile to check this place out."
"Oh, just bloody brilliant..." Stacy mutters to herself as both of them began making their way to the front door of the building. "Just whatever you do, don't try and embarrass me or act like a complete bastard in front of them, will you?"
"I'm not going to; I'm on good terms with Ray and Raven."
"Alright." The two then approached the front doors and entered the bowling-alley.
Meanwhile...
Chaz was currently sitting on a bench that was inside the park near the main entrance, waiting for Crystal and her best friend to finally show up. So far, he's only been here for about half an hour now, and all he's been doing was sitting there and watching the many of the park's patrons pass him by on the path in front of him; and what makes this wait even more tedious is that today of all days just so happens to be a day where he has to babysit his little cousin, and there was no way he was sitting outside the park and forcing her to wait out there, because if she were to get impatient with him, he'd probably have no other choice but to go home. Thankfully, for him, there was a playground for Renee to play on just near the park's main entrance; so, that'll keep her busy for the time being.
After some more time has passed, Chaz continued to stare at the front gate, wondering where those two girls even are right now; hell, he wonders if Crystal had just forgotten all about this meet-up today and was probably out at the bar, or hanging out with one of the goths, or something along those lines; but then again, that's doubtful, since he knew Crystal wasn't one to forget anything; she still has a massive hatred for Derek after their break-up after all. Eventually, staring at that gate got boring after a while, so he faced forward wanting to see what Renee was currently doing, which was going down a slide with her pet pig sitting in her lap. Since he had nothing better to do, he decided to spend some time with her before his friend got here.
"Hey, Renee!" Chaz shouts while standing up from the bench; his cousin glanced over to him, hearing what he has to say to her. "Do you want me to push you on the swing-set over there?!"
"Yeah!" The younger girl shouts back, picking up her pig off of the ground and placing him back into her backpack. "You stay safe in here, Percy; you can come out when I'm done on the swings, okay?" Her pig lets out two 'oinks' before she places him in there.
Chaz walked over to one of the empty swings, as his little cousin came running over and sitting down on it. Once she was seated, he gave her a light push, causing her to rock back and forth on it. "So, how are you doing right now, Renee?" He asked as he continued to gently push her. "Are you having fun?"
"Of course, I am." Renee answered happily. "Me and Percy love the playground."
"That's good to hear, as always."
"So, any sign of Crystal yet?"
"No, not yet; but she should be here at any time now." Chaz then leans towards the left to take a look at the front gate again, only to still see no sign of his rebellious friend anywhere. 'Damn it...where could she be? She's late for a lot of things; but she's usually never this late.' He then asked himself in his thoughts, before silently continuing to push his little cousin on the swing.
"So, what's this girl she's friends with like anyway? Is she totally cool just like she is?"
"I believe 'cool' is a subjective term, Renee; but right now, it's definitely a maybe. She did say that this girl is very sporty and loves skateboarding as much as I do; but apparently, she's a dentist."
"A dentist? What kind of chump is Crystal making you meet?"
"Renee, don't call her friend a 'chump'; you're only eight, you know better than that." Chaz then berated. Now, granted, a bit hypocritical since he would usually call people he hates 'chumps', and especially back in high-school; but since Renee's still in elementary-school, he rather not have her grow up to start insulting and bullying people just like he did back then; also, he really doesn't want his aunt crawling up his ass for having her repeat what's being said out of his mouth.
"Sorry..." Renee mumbled with a saddened look on her face.
"It's totally fine, Renee; but just be glad that you said that in front of me and not in front of your own mother, and we both know who she's gonna point fingers to when she hears 'chump' coming out of your mouth."
"Hey, I already said I was sorry...jeez...I won't say it again..." Renee looks off into the distance towards the park's main entrance, seeing Crystal walking through it, presumably trying to find them. "She's here!" She then exclaimed.
"What?" Chaz immediately turns his head towards the gate, seeing his friend has finally arrived. "Oh, she is!" He then steps aside, prepared to make his leave. "You stay here while I go talk to her, okay?"
"Okay." The younger of the two just continued to swing back and forth, while her cousin went off to meet with the rebel.
"Crystal, hey!" Chaz shouts as he ran up to his friend. "I was waiting for you for like...hours. What took you?"
"Traffic; a bunch of fucking bastards don't know how to move their asses off of a crosswalk." Crystal told him, not wanting to get into all of the details about what had happened along the way here. "Anyways, are you ready to meet my best friend?"
"Yeah, sure. So, where is she?"
Crystal swiftly turned around towards the entrance behind her, right as Katie was beginning to enter the park. "Alright, dude; so, where's this 'cute dude' that you want me to meet so badly?" The latter asked, as her best friend stepped aside into the grass next to her.
"Alright; so, Katie, this is Chaz McFreely; and Chaz, this is Katie Morris, or...probably starting tomorrow, Dr. Kathryn Morris now."
"Well, thanks; that's the first time that I'm hearing you call me th-" Right before Katie could finish her sentence, her voice began to trail off as soon as she saw Chaz standing there, who was just as surprised as she was to see him; because both of them actually recognize each other from days ago.
"It's you?!" Both Katie and Chaz exclaimed in unison, much to Crystal's surprise.
Note: Hey, my fellow readers; so, I don't really have anything much to say here, other than the fact that if you haven't read Chapter 13 yet, go ahead and read it now in case you're a bit confused in this one. I had something else planned for it, but changed my mind after I released it, since it seemed pretty half-assed; but it's out now too, and like I said, feel free to take a gander at it if you want to.
That should be all for today; but things are about to get even more interesting in these next few chapters indeed. See you in the next chapter.