A/N: ALICE HAS MADE CONTACT! The plot thickens.


"All participants for the Regional Quiz Bowl please proceed to the waiting hall," Ben fixed his tie and smoothed his hair back, taking a secret shaky breath before twisting his neck left and right to ease his tense muscles. He's been training and studying for this quite a while now and although he would never admit it to anyone, he was a little nervous.

"Nervous?" Alice read his mind, slight playful smile on her lips.

Ben tugged on his tie and held his head high, "Not in a million years,"

Alice's smile grew, somehow knowing that the boy was bluffing. He'd been smoothing his hair for the nth time now, if that wasn't a sign of nervousness then it was probably a sign for him to get another hair gel.

"Good luck, not that you need it," Alice offered, to which Ben actually turned to her with a slightly forced smile and sighed out, "Thanks," before going off with his team to the waiting hall.

Alice was left by herself in the audience. Moments later, the Quiz Bowl was underway. For the most part, she really wasn't listening in. The questions were way too hard—impossible, even—but she was very impressed that not one question was left unanswered. At least one person knew the answer to the question and it was quite a remarkable feat.

"We will now proceed to Round 2 of the event. Each correct answer is 10 points," Alice shifted in her seat slightly, snapping photos here and there.

Ben Gross high fived his teammates, he'd like to think that he was carrying the whole team, but the Quiz Bowl really wasn't something one man could do. It was a team effort. During the short break between rounds he found himself looking at the audience and trying to spot Alice Lee.

Alice Lee who was looking down at her camera, glanced up, caught his eye and waved at him then gave him a thumbs up with a ridiculously bright smile. He waved at her awkwardly. In some senses it was nice to have someone watching him. His parents, as usual, couldn't come. His girlfriend, as usual... also couldn't come.

But well, it's not like Alice wanted to come either. She was paid to come. So was Mr. Grant, who was off for another bathroom break.

Round 2 was a lot more strenuous and it would get a lot more strenuous in Round 3. His team fought through and through for a space in the Nationals. By the end of Round 3, the competitors were asked to exit the stage and wait with the audience.

"We will now tally the score of all three rounds. Please be patient,"

Patience was easy when you weren't expecting anything. But to Ben who was expecting everything, it was a true test of composure. Alice glanced at him, pretending to be looking through the photos she took.

Some of it were solo shots of Ben. Some of his teammates. Looking at the photos now, she really did admire the way his face looked so determined and focused, and yet, there was a certain softness to it. She thought it was sort of like the moon.

Not as vibrant as the sun, not as flashy, but still graceful with a gentle light and the clouds slightly hiding it away from view. Alice pried her eyes away from the photo and once again glanced at him.

"Soooo, if we win are you gunna have a pizza party?" Alice asked out of the blue, her silly attempt to make the atmosphere lighter. Time seemed to be ticking by pretty slow.

"You know what, yea. I'll throw one. I'll throw one for the whole school, how 'bout that?" Ben bragged, his tie would start getting longer if he didn't stop pulling at it. Alice raised both her eyebrows and muttered an elongated "Ooookaaayy..." under her breath, not expecting him to bite her bait.

"May I have your attention please," A swift tap, tap, tap on the mic got the audience to stop murmuring and mumbling amongst themselves. A woman with a very clean bun was on stage, holding some index cards.

She cleared her throat, "We will now announce the top 5 teams for today. The top 5 teams will continue on to the National Quiz Bowl. The top 5 teams are from the following schools, in no particular order:"

Alice didn't expect to be holding her breath.

"Trinity High School, Valley Hills School, North Oak Boarding School, Green Vale High School and last but not the least,"

Cheers were erupting all around them from the mentioned schools. The rate at which Alice's heart started beating was enough to make her chest constrict and her breath to be stuck in her lungs. The announcer's mouth moved, everything moving at a ridiculously slow rate until—

"Sherman Oaks High School!"

The moment the announcer finished uttering the word "Oaks" Alice felt as if her heart leapt out of her chest and dropped on the floor, she turned to Ben with her mouth wide open. He was looking at her too, with the same stupefied look on his face.

Their faces slowly morphed into that of realization and understanding, mouths breaking into astonished smiles. They hardly thought about it when the two of them came together into a hug, "Oh my God! Oh my God! You guys did it!" Alice was suddenly tackled and smooshed further into Ben's hug when the whole team came around for a group hug.

In that instance it really just felt like a crowded concert to Alice... Except, she could smell Ben's perfume and she would be lying if she said it didn't send her head spinning in a good sort of way.

"Okay, okay, break it up, I need pictures," Alice said, trying to push against the group of people. Ben released her, still reeling from the victory and got in line with his teammates for a group photo.

"One, two, say victory!" Alice said and the team complied, all smiles in the photo.

Ben threw both his hands up in the air and exclaimed rather loudly, "Party at my place!"

and that is how she ended up here again, at his place, still with her lavender backpack and DSLR round her neck. Turns out Ben Gross had already prepared a party beforehand. When they all came back, there was a banner splayed at the front of his house that read "OFF TO THE REGIONALS!"

The lighting in his house was dimmed, there was alcohol in every counter you can lay your eyes on, along with the other, safer drinks. Chips, finger food, cans of soda, red plastic cups, ping pong balls, blaring music. Everything was done and prepared.

"Gotta admire his confidence..." Alice muttered while shaking her head. Who the hell prepared a victory party before even winning? Ben freaking Gross. That's who.

He disappeared somewhere into his room, his teammates had made themselves at home, pouring themselves drinks and eating some popcorn chicken. Word of mouth—or social media in this case—was a very powerful tool. His teammates had texted friends and acquaintances that there was a raving party happening at rich boy's place and people actually started to flock into his house, with Patty just letting them inside.

Alice liked a sneaky drink. Before all the party people started rolling in, she had some of the alcoholic fruit punch and munched on some pizza. When more people came, she felt a little trapped. This wasn't really her kind of crowd but, it wouldn't hurt to stick around a bit.

"Hey! It's picture girl!" One of the jock-looking boys approached her and saw that she had a DSLR around her neck. He gathered his friends and struck a pose, mimicking something that looked like an album cover.

Alice, out of habit, just snapped a photo and two. The five jock-looking guys gathered around her and peered at the camera screen, one of them whistled and asked her to send them the photo. She obliged without asking and booted up the Wi-fi connectivity of the DSLR.

"What's happening here?" Ben's voice didn't really sound very pleased, Alice thought. She looked up from the camera to see him wearing a suspicious look on his face.

Well, what was he supposed to think when there were five guys just hovering around her, looking over her shoulder and looking to be eagerly—maybe even hungrily—waiting for something.

"She takes siiiiiiiick photos," The same guy who approached her said and turned his phone screen towards Ben, showing off the photo from the DSLR.

Ben nodded his head slowly, "Yeah and this is a party," he explained as if they were dumb and walked over to Alice, placing a hand on her shoulder, "so she's not working," and by the shoulder, steered her away from the group, half-pushing her in the other direction, towards the quieter open kitchen.

"Get that off your neck, people think you're taking photos for them," Ben's hand had disappeared from her shoulder, leaving a weird sense of emptiness as Alice shrugged.

"Well, actually, I don't really mind," she said truthfully. Ben had been filling two red cups with fruit punch as he shook his head at her statement. When the red cups were filled he gave one to Alice and raised his cup up to his eye level.

"To a great victory and great photos, I guess," Ben smirked. One of the first few that Alice had seen. She raised her cup, nodded her head at him and took a swig. Next thing she knew Ben had bumped shoulders with her, she looked curiously up at the phone in his hand. The front camera was on.

"For someone who likes taking pictures, you're not very good with your smile," said Ben as he snapped a photo of the two of them without warning.

"Hey—Wait, hold on," She suddenly gabbed his arm, the cup of fruit punch swaying dangerously. "I wasn't even ready yet, take another one!" She demanded forcing him to re-open his front camera.

"Three, two, one," She smiled her best smile and it was over in a quick SNAP. Ben brought the phone down to their eye level and checked the photo. He swiped left and right.

"Still like the first one better," he said, looking at Alice's dumbfounded frozen look in the photo. Alice merely groaned and shook her head, deciding to ignore him.

"Oh, yea, I forgot," he motioned for Alice to follow him. Their steps were muffled by the carpeted hallway floor. The sounds from the party and other teenagers were dwindling away and the lights were more dimmed in this part of the house.

He opened a door to what Alice realized was his room. Surprisingly, it was clean. Not what a guy's bedroom looked like in her head. His sheets were a faded blue colour, folded neatly and untouched. Most likely the work of his homemaker, Patty.

The walls were lined with posters of different kinds but she could tell he was a Clippers fan. Funny, cause her dad was too. She herself didn't care much about basketball.

"Here," Ben handed over a 20 dollar bill. She had felt mildly offended at that moment but took the bill without thinking. Conflict bubbled up in her head.

"You know... On second thought... Is it okay if you don't pay me today?" She blurted out, wondering how strange that would have sounded to him, handing him back the 20 dollar bill. Ben waited for an explanation, an amused look on his face.

"I don't know, it's just... It was fun, today," she said. "I don't want today to just be... a job," she tried to pass off her sentiments with a shrug, watching Ben's face go from amused to blank. She couldn't read any emotion in his face. "Besides, you're going to the nationals, think of it as a congratulations," she finished off. Once again offering the 20 dollar bill to him.

There was an uncomfortable silence between them. She stared at him and he stared back.

Ben suddenly cleared his throat and took the 20 dollar bill back. He wasn't sure if he could explain the delight he felt at that split moment. It was getting harder to convince himself that it was just a business transaction. Alice was an accommodating person and she wasn't half bad to hang around with.

"...Sure," he said, simply pocketing the 20 dollar bill.

"So," Alice started "Clippers fan huh?" her attempt to fill the silent room with conversation and to break the somewhat awkward tension between them was successful.

"Yeah! They're coming for a game soon and I got front-row tickets," it was then that Ben went on a full story about how he wouldn't miss the Clippers game for anything, about how this player was good and that player should be transferred to another team. For Alice it was no different to listening to her dad rant about basketball in general.

"Oh, sorry, I must be boring you, do you even know the Clippers?" and his familiar condescending tone was back. Alice grinned at the amicable relationship she had with his sarcasm.

"As a matter of fact I do, my dad's a fan," she said, smug look on her face. "Hey, it's getting late though, so I think I'm gunna start heading back home," she pointed a thumb towards his door.

His "Ok, gimme a sec," was muffled by him trying to grab his jacket in a hurry and slipping it over his shoulders. "Cool, let's go,"

She didn't think much of it until they got to his front door. The party was still happening. The music was louder and there were more unknown people walking around as if they owned the place.

Ben slipped outside with her, the door shutting behind them, muffling the rave inside. "Wait, no, you don't have to come with me, there's still a bus running," She gave him a lopsided smile, pointing at the bus stop a few miles away from his house. He looked at the bus stop, back at her and then back to the bus stop again.

"Well..." Let me walk you to the bus stop at least is what he had wanted to say, but in the end let out a simple "Okay, see you when I see you," He gave a wave and turned tail back to his house before he could even change his mind.

She was unsure if it was relief she felt or hidden disappointment. The journey back home was uneventful. Her mom asking how her day was and her dad still at work.

When she settled into her room after a warm bath and already half asleep in bed, a light ping sound sprang from her phone. She lazily dragged her phone from under her pillow and squinted her eyes at the bright screen.

Ben Gross had sent her a message.

"Home yet?"

Glee spilled forth from her chest to her fingers as she quickly and simply replied, "Yep,"

"Cool,"

She stared at his easy response, typing "Good night," but ended up backspacing everything and staring at her phone screen. She decided that was too intimate, and ended her day wondering if there was a chance she'd be able to say that to him one of these days.