"It just doesn't make any sense, ya know?" Eddie asked, sitting further back on the perspiring plastic white lawn chair, the day gradually getting hotter.
He sat in between Piper and his friend Rachel, who had invited them to hang out in her backyard, sipping lemonade as he tried to talk over the loud the roar of the lawnmower.
"I know what you mean," Rachel replied. "I thought that since Raven let go of the whole Justin thing, Chelsea would eventually wake up and things would go back to normal and we'd…we'd…" Fed up, Rachel leaned over the side of her chair to grab something. She threw a chocolate chip cookie at her brother's head.
"Ouch, what was that for?" Scott asked, dusting the crumbs out of his tawny hair. He turned off the mower and aggressively walked up to his sister's chair, arms crossed over his chest as he stared her down.
"Oh, come off it," Rachel said, smiling. "Number one: you know that doesn't scare me. Number two: I thought I told you to stop with that. We're trying to talk here, but it's really hard to do when that mower is on. Do it later."
"Dad's paying me to do this, so forget it," He said, smiling victoriously.
Rachel didn't hesitate to jump out of her chair and shoot back a stronger version of the dirty look that he gave her. Scott threw his hands up in the air and backed away, knowing his tougher little sister meant business. He mumbled something under his breath as he headed inside.
Piper and Eddie looked at her, a bit scared, knowing that messing with her meant serious trouble.
She turned around and rolled her eyes as she shook her head. "Siblings."
They both nodded.
"So, what are we going to do?" Piper asked, getting the conversation back on track.
"What can we do?" asked Eddie.
"Isn't it obvious? We do anything and everything we can, and we get them back together," Rachel said. "Look, I know Raven still loves her and although she won't admit it now, Chelsea still loves Raven."
"How do you know that?"
"Because, Eddie, love like that doesn't just disappear, not even if you pretend it does."
"That's what you think happened?" Eddie asked. "You think Chelsea's just pretending?"
"Well, it could happen. I really don't know for sure, but here's what I've been thinking. We're seniors. Our prom is coming up, right?"
"Right," Eddie and Piper said, simultaneously.
"What if we were to get them to go?"
"It sounds good, in theory," Piper began, "but how are we supposed to get them to go together? Raven might like to, but would Chelsea ever agree to go with her? It's not very likely."
"True, true," Rachel said, propping her head up on a fist. She used the sudden moment of silence to think of a way to work around her plans flaw. Without warning, the sound loud scream caused Eddie and Piper to jump in their seats in fear. "I've got it," Rachel exclaimed.
"We'll tell us, don't kill us," Eddie said, clutching his chest.
"Two of us. Why don't we get two of us to ask them to prom? We'll all end up sitting at the same table, we'll strike up the right conversations, ones that they could both really get into and voila, Raven and Chelsea are back together. Do I have any volunteers?"
There was a long silence after the question. "Oh, come on. Somebody has to do it," Rachel said.
"Ok," Eddie said, briefly giving Rachel hope, "then why don't you do it?"
"Me? Well…because…" Piper and Eddie smiled, waiting for and explanation. Rachel rolled her eyes. "Oh, fine. I'll take one of them."
"That's good," Piper said. "We couldn't have done it anyways. Eddie and I are going to the prom together."
Eddies eyes looked off to the side at the ground.
"Are you?" Rachel asked. "Sorry. I just assumed that you wouldn't be going since, you know," she said, pointing to the girls figure. Piper was in her third trimester of pregnancy. It was a little risky, going to these functions.
"Oh, this? This isn't going to stop me from dancing with my man on such a special night, right Eddie?" Piper asked, shooting him a loving smile.
"Right," he answered, though his voice sounded unsure.
"Speaking of prom, I really do need to get working on my dress. There was no way on earth I could afford to pay for a ticket and an outfit. Not if I want to make sure me, my kid and my little brother are eating." Piper tried to stand up, but it was really difficult since the lawn chair was so low to the ground. Rachel and Eddie both stood up and pulled Piper up by her hands. "Thanks," she said to them.
"How are you even going to pay for the materials?" Eddie asked.
"You know Raven's good for that kind of stuff. She helped me out."
"I see," Eddie said. "Well, I don't even know if I'm going to have the money to go. I don't think I can pull 40 dollars for a ticket and then rent a tux on top of that. I've already forked over a lot of cash for this baby. I have practically nothing left, Piper." Eddie said, trying his best not to sound upset.
"It's ok, Hun. I know you'll think of something." Piper gave him a kiss on the cheek. With a wave to both of them, she was off.
Eddie and Rachel took their seats again. Eddie slouched and buried his face in his hands.
"Do I sense a case of cold feet?" Rachel asked.
"Is it that obvious?"
Rachel reached over and put a comforting hand on Eddie's shoulder. With a nod, she said, "Yeah, it is."
"I'm 18 years old. I…I can't handle this. I can't take care of a kid. I am a kid!"
"Sorry, Eddie, but you got yourself into this mess."
"I know. I know. What happened last year, it was a mistake. Now I'm scared. I'm terrified of this baby. This never should have happened. I just wasn't used to beautiful girls noticing me. They normally ignore me, but then Piper walks by. Out of all the boys at the party, she chose me. Me!" Eddie explained.
"So you just figure, 'this is never going to happen again, I might as well get as far as I can'?" Rachel asked.
"It wasn't like that. We hit it off immediately. We were so alike. I felt as if I knew her for so long. It's not what you're thinking."
"Relax, Eddie. I get it. You are going to raise this kid, though, right?" After there was no answer, Rachel had to ask again. "Right?"
"I don't know," Eddie said. "I seriously don't know." Eddie looked up at the sky, sitting back in his chair again,
"That's cold," Rachel said, a bit disgusted. "You have to at least tell Piper ahead of time. Don't do this to her."
"Look I'll handle it. I don't really want to talk about this right now. Anyways, which one of them are you going to take to the prom?" Eddie asked, changing the subject.
"Chelsea, I guess. I mean, I've known her longer. I know her better. I just don't know what we are going to about Raven's date. Who can we get for her?"
The both shrugged.
"Rachel, have you seen my boxers? The Scooby Doo ones?" Scott called out from his bedroom window.
"No, I haven't seen you're damn boxers, Scott, so leave me alone, would ya?"
He rolled his eyes and stuck his head back inside of his room.
Rachel and Eddie's eyes both opened up wide as it dawned on them.
"Scott!"
-----
"So," Jenny began, "what did doctor McLeod say today?" She felt the need to start up a conversation since the car ride home was unusually quite.
Chelsea finally began talking as the car turned onto their street. "Same old thing. 'Cutting is bad, 'You're worth more than you think,' and all that stuff," Chelsea said very unenthusiastically. "He said something about how I must be having a hard time coping with loosing two and a half months of my life and having all that school work to make up for it in one shot and blah, blah, blah. I was barely listening." The car stopped in the driveway and they both got out.
Jenny fumbled, getting out the house key. "You know, I'm not paying all that money just for you to sit in a comfortable chair. You have to be getting something out of this…besides bored," she added in.
As Jenny pushed the key in, the door swung open. She sighed. "Chelsea, I thought I told you to lock the door before we left."
"I did lock the door," Chelsea said.
They both stood at the front door, looking down the hall. "Then who's in there?" Jenny asked.
She moved in front of her niece so that she could protect her from any danger in the house. She motion for her to keep quiet as she took her heavy purse into both hands, intending to use it as a weapon if she needed to. Hearing what sounded like a cough in the living room, Jenny moved towards it with Chelsea following closely behind.
"What the hell are you doing here?" she asked after seeing who it was.
Chelsea ran in front of her aunt in surprise. She wasn't sure that what she was seeing was even real, but felt compelled to ask. "Mom?"
A/N: I just realized a huge mistake I made. I said in one chapter that the English assignment was on angels, but in the next chapter, I said it was on butterflies. It was supposed to be angles. I had this whole plot lined up before and it would have had to do with both, but I changed my mind (if you can recall, that's also why I changed the title of this story). Anyways, I can't belive missed a mistake like that for so long (I normally catch on to my plot holes early), but I did and I'll correct it later on. I can't stand taking chapters off of a story to repost them, though. Since this site changed its formant, unless I'm doing it wrong, I can't repost something without it going to the emails of everyone who put me on their author alert list. I imagine that must be annoying. God, I write long notes. I'll just cut this down. REVIEW!