Chapter 7

"Emily!" Julie yelled surprised to find her sister. She was also very surprised to find Edward with his hair in various, neon, colorful ribbons. He was also playing with dolls! Emily was still "fixing" his hair!

"What are you doing?" Julie asked dropping her backpack. She wanted to laugh at the site. "Lookie what Edward did!" she screeched, showing Julie the brand new haircut on her dolls. They were very wild, but not horrible…at least not as bad as Edward's hair.

"What did you do to him?" she asked. Edward smiled at Julie as she walked over to them. "Emily, how did you get up here? Why are you here? I'm gonna kill Chase!" "He didn't tell me," Emily said brushing some more of Edward's unruly hair. "He's too stupid and tired to figure out I'm gone. I just wanted to know why you always came here, but now I know! Edward's way funner than any of my friends. Plus he is a really good listener."

Julie sat down next to them and showed them some of the pictures she took of the garden. She had even taken a few of herself next to some of the sculptures. "I think that one is the best. The rest of them have pretty bad lighting." Edward smiled when he saw one picture. Julie was sitting on the stone gathering around the large hand sculpture. She had a beautiful smile. One of her arms was reaching out to click the camera. Julie saw him looking at the picture and picked it up. "Here, you can have it." She said. She got up and pinned it on the wall next to all of his newspaper articles with some tape.

"Tada!" Emily said loudly as she backed away from Edward. His hair was all up in bows and ribbons and scrunchies. Julie laughed pretty hard. She snapped a picture, which made Edward jump. After a few minutes, the picture developed and Edward smiled at it. Julie kept this one. She helped Edward get the ribbons and crap out of his hair. Afterwards, she got a picture of all three of them sitting together. It was a very nice picture. The lighting was a little dim, but Julie loved the picture. She also sketched a copy for Edward. She hung it up with the other pictures.

"Well, we better get going," Julie said packing up her and Emily's things. "Really?" Emily squealed. "It's three. Mom comes home at quarter to four. If we're not there, we're as good as dead." Emily gave Edward a hug, but sadly he couldn't hug her back. This made him remember something from a long time ago….

"Bye Edward!" Emily yelled as Julie pulled her down the stairs. "Goodbye," he said after them. "Emily, you can't tell anyone about this!" "Okay," Emily replied. "I mean it. Don't tell your friends, don't tell your teachers, don't tell Chase," "What about mom," "Especially not mom," Julie replied. "I promise," Emily replied. "And I know you had fun, but I can only take you on weekends. Mom might get suspicious if you disappear for a few hours everyday after school." "Aww," "Well, maybe I could take you once in a while on weekdays," Julie replied. This made her think of something…how was she going to explain herself disappearing everyday after school every day? She still had two semesters left of high school. Then, she could probably go to college and maybe get her own place and see Edward any time she wanted. But until then, her mom would surely get suspicious about it. What was going to happen?

Julie and Emily got home shortly, luckily before their mom. Chase was still sleeping when they got home, surprisingly. Emily hurried up to her room. They decided not to tell Chase she was with Julie the whole time. He might get more suspicious than he already was. Julie didn't want the whole world at the mansion, and Edward probably didn't either.

"Chase!" Julie yelled in his ear. "What!" he yelled jumping up and falling off of the couch. "Mom I'm awake!" he said, but then looked up and realized where he was. "You were sleeping," Julie laughed. "I know," Chase commented. "My mom comes home in a half hour." "I know my way out," he said. "Give me like five minutes," "So…" Julie said. She wanted to know if Chase was going to prom. She didn't want to sound like she was asking him or implying she wanted to go with him at all. "Do you know how much prom costs?" she asked hesitantly. "Why would I?" he asked. "I don't know…you're not going?" "Nope," "You should…I might." "I wouldn't wear a suit for anything if you paid me." "Well, I'm just suggesting…I mean…I don't want to go by myself." Chase paused and turned his head slowly towards her. "You're asking me to prom?" "No…I just…my mom's making me go and I really don't want to show up without a date." "Oh in that case…you're asking me to prom…only as friends…" "Well, yeah." Julie replied. There was a long silence. "Maybe," Chase said getting up. "I'll call you later." He said opening the door. "Bye," she waved to him. She lay down on the couch, purposely banging her head. Why did she just do that? She didn't really want to go to prom and knew Chase wouldn't go. Now, she probably made things really awkward between the two of them.

A few minutes later, her mom came home. "Hi honey," she said coming in with a few grocery bags. "Did you guys have fun?" "Yeah, I watched TV. Emily's playing with her dolls." "That's nice." She said putting the bags in the kitchen. "Guess what?" "What," "I saw my friend Gloria at the grocery store today. Remember her? Well, she has a son." "And…" "And he needs a date for prom, too." "Does he go to my school?" "No," "well, I still don't know if I'm going," she said. Her mom sighed. "Plus, if I do go, and I'm not saying I am, I might go with…Chase." Emily said, saying Chase very quietly. "Oh that's great!" her mom said hugging her. "I think you two would have fun!" "Yeah," she said. "I'm gonna go upstairs." "Well, I'm going to start dinner. It should be ready soon." "Okay," she said.

She went into Emily's room, where she found Emily playing with her dolls. "Hey, mom's home," she said leaning on the wall. "Okay," Emily replied "Remember," Julie said, zipping her mouth. "I know," Emily replied and went back to playing.

Julie went to her room and sat down at her desk. She pulled out some paper and pencils and drew for a while. She also thought about things. Edward and how much she cared for him and Chase and how much she cared for him. She realized that she really liked Chase, but also really liked Edward. He was very sweet and nice and she loved seeing him. She had met him for only a week, but she felt like she knew him for the longest time.

She decided to call Chase and see what he was going to do for prom. "Hello?" "Hi," she said. "Oh...um hey," he said. "So…?" "So what? I told you maybe. I'm still not sure yet." "Oh," she said. "Well, I was just wondering…" "Yeah, well I gotta go." He said. "Bye," she replied and they hung up.

Julie went and sat on her bed. She didn't know what it was, but she really wanted to see Edward. She had fun with him. Plus she always felt comfortable and cared for when she was around him. She remembered how much her grandmother missed him, which is probably why she didn't like talking about it. She really wished her grandmother was alive, so she could see him. She said she wouldn't want him to see her, but Julie always thought it was a stupid reason not to go.

Her thoughts were interrupted by her phone ringing. "Hello?" she said. "Yes," said Chase's voice. "What?" "Yeah I'll….I'll go to prom with you." Julie tried to contain her excitement. "Oh, great!" she said. "Um…I have to go to my Aunt's, but I'll talk to you later." "Ok, bye." Julie said and they hung up. Julie jumped back onto her bed. She had a date for prom…and it was Chase! She was so happy.

She started thinking again about Edward. She really liked him…she hated to say it, but she liked him almost more than Chase. Then she realized something. "This isn't right," she said to herself. She was taking Chase to the prom and she liked Chase first. Now all of a sudden she meets Edward and loves- likes…really likes him and drops Chase. She knew that love couldn't work that way. Besides she and Chase were really good friends and had been for almost 7 years now. If they liked one another, things would just be really screwed up. And they did say they were going to the prom as just friends….didn't they?