A/N: Hello! I missed you guys :(

So here's another chapter :) Please read and review!

I sighed as I gazed longingly at a picture of my family before my mom left. We all looked so happy. Tears fell down my face when Martha walked in. "Hey."

"Hi, Mar."

"Your friends Lafayette, I think? He's French, right? He and Alex are downstairs," she said as she set her backpack on her desk.

"What? Do you know why?" I sat upright, setting my family picture underneath my pillow. Father doesn't approve of pictures with our mom in them. He says that our mother is a bastard and doesn't belong in our family.

"They didn't say. I said I would get you," she looked me as she opened her book Mama Gawistchi (a/n this is a pretty cool book, you should read it. Also, I'm related to the author! My great uncle's mother wrote the book).

"Okay," I stood up and fixed my makeup before heading downstairs.

"Laurens!" Laf said, hugging me tightly.

"Hey, Laf," I barely managed.

"Hey, Laurens," Alex said.

"Hi, Lexi." He frowned.

"Don't call me that."

"Whatever. What's up?" I asked as I grabbed three glasses and filled them with water.

"We were wondering if you would want to spend Thanksgiving with us," Alex said.

"Sure… but you two have your own Thanksgiving?" I thought aloud.

"Kind of? Martha and George let Laf come over for Thanksgiving."

"My foster parents don't do anything with French customs," Laf huffed.

"I'll have to ask my father first… but it's a yes from me, at least," I said as I took a big swig from my water.

"Cool! Now, what should we do today?" Alex asked.

"I don't know… I was going to work on some sketches for my sister," I confessed.

"Well, you are going to come with us to the mall. Herc will meet us there," Gilbert grabbed my arm and pulled me out of my chair, knocking over Alex's empty water glass on the way. I caught it right before it fell to the ground. I let a soft "phew" as I caught it.

"Let's go!" Alex said, jumping up and heading out the door.

"Wait! I have to ask my father first," I yelled.

"Dude! Hurry it up then! We are supposed to have a guys day today!" Gilbert whined.

"Okay!"

TurtleBoi: Mar idk if you want to tell father that I am going out with friends but I am going out jsyk

Marmar: okay. Be safe.

TurtleBoi: bye love ya

Marmar: lol love you too

"Okay. Let's go!" We hopped into Laf's car with Alex in the back, Laf driving, and me in the shotgun.

"Hey, guys!" Herc called out when we parked next to him in the parking lot. I hopped out and gave him a small fist bump. "Come on!" Herc shouted and as if on cue Laf grabbed my left arm and Alex grabbed my right arm and pulled me into the mall.

They let go of me when we saw security walking around the front doors. "Last time we were here we were screwing around and almost got kicked out," Lafayette whispered.

"What?" I asked in disbelief. Or maybe I shouldn't be that surprised. It is Laf, Herc, and Alex. "Why am I surprised?" I laughed.

"Come on! This place has cardboard boxes!" Herc grabbed Alex's arm and pulled him towards a small store. "We can buy more boxes!"

"Oh, no. We aren't getting kicked out within the first five minutes," I said, pulling Alex back over towards Laf and me. Herc yanked Alex towards him, using his strength to overpower me. "You're stronger than you look."

"I am?" Herc loosened his grip on Alex's arm and cocked his head to the side.

"Yeah, but not anymore!" I grabbed Alex's shoulders and pulled him towards me, Herc losing his complete grip on him altogether. Laf laughed and smacked Herc's arm.

"Mon ami! Focus on what you are doing! And oui, I am going to take Laurens' side on this one," Laf giggled, pulling Herc towards a sports shop, "This looks like a better store."

"Fine," Herc sighed, glaring at me.

"Wow. I have never seen Herc give a glare that scary before," Alex said, walking next to me as we followed the other two into the sports shop.

"Huh," I chuckled.

"Mon petite lion, come here! This would look amazing on you!" Laf grabbed Alex and pulled a shirt on over his torso. It read: Yes, I'm human. Yes, I still hate humanity.

"That matches your personality perfectly," I giggled, laying a pair of sunglasses on his face lopsided. Laf whipped his phone out and snapped some pictures of Alex and sent them to a group chat.

"There! Now everyone can see your beautiful face in the perfect outfit!" Lafayette said with a laugh.

MacAndCheeseMan: what is wrong with you guys

MissIgnored: nothing is wrong with them! Alex is who he is and no one can change him

NonstopHamMan: wow. Thanks. That was sarcasm.

InTheNarrative: you can almost hear Alex and his sarcasm through the texts

WomenInTheSequel: you're absolutely right Liza xD

"Wow. I never knew I wasn't the only one who can hear your sarcasm through texts," I laughed.

"Why do you guys hate me so much?" Alex whined.

"Mon ami, we don't hate you! We did this to you because we love you!" Gilbert joked.

"Sure," Alex glared as he walked out of the sports shop and towards an office store.

"Why are you going to an office supplies store? That's so boring!" I drawled out the 'o' in 'boring'.

"Because I'm trying to get away from you bastards," He said simply as he picked up a notebook and examined it before setting it back down.

"You have issues, Lexi."

"I will only let you call me that if you won't get us kicked out."

"Fine."

We walked around the office store when we saw Lafayette and Hercules running towards us from the sports shop we were in a couple minutes ago. They ran up to us and clutched onto us like we were life support. "What the hell is wrong with you two?" Alex mumbled so the other people in the store wouldn't hear.

"We may or may not have started to run away from a mess we created in the other store," Herc whispered.

"What the heck!" I exclaimed, throwing Herc off my back and squinting my eyes.

"We're trying to have a good time and not even in the first half-hour you guys make a mess," Alex growled while throwing Laf off his back.

"Actually, no one saw the mess we made... yet," Herc pointed out.

"You mean you left the mess there for someone to find it?" I scolded. I saw Laf and Herc slink away in embarrassment.

"Yes," Lafayette said in a teeny-tiny voice.

"Then we have to clean it up, you idiots!" Alex exclaimed, "There are security cameras for a reason!"

"Knuckleheads," I muttered under my breath as we headed off towards back to the sports shop.

Slinking through the aisles hoping no one would see us, we quickly found the mess the two idiots made: A pile of sports clothes in a heap, a ton of weights making a tower, boxes of random equipment forming a fort, and a stick from outside with a white shirt tied to it was sticking out of the heap of clothes.

We started to clean their mess up when I felt something hit my head. I groaned and looked over my shoulder thinking security was already here to kick us out. To my surprise, I saw nobody and nothing. The mess was all cleaned up - besides a singular cardboard box on the floor with a label from the store next to the sports shop. I peeked into the aisles next to the one I was in and saw Laurens walking towards me with his hands in his pockets. "What are you guys up to?" I asked impatiently.

"Nothing! I was looking for all three of you guys," he said while flailing his arms around, "I don't know where Laf and Herc went, though. All they did was leave a cardboard box with me."

"That happened to me, too," I said, my brow furrowing in thought.

"You don't think they're going to ambush us, do you?"

"From the looks of it, yes. Yes, I do think they are going to ambush us. Yes, I do think that we are going to get kicked out. Yes, I do think that we are going to be disowned."

"That's fun."

We stood there in silence when we heard a large crash. "Bingo," Laurens said, snapping his fingers.

Running towards the sound of the crash to help the two morons and ignoring the "Wet Floor" sign, I slipped. I fell forwards and Laurens caught me by grabbing my upper arms as my hands met his shoulders. A blush made its way up to my face in less than 0.2 seconds matching the color of Laurens' face as well. He has the most beautiful eyes, I thought. We stood there, gazing into each other's eyes when he pulled away and said, "We should probably find Laf and Herc before they get kicked out."

"Right," I agreed (while hiding my disappointment) as I fixed my jean jacket that had fallen off my shoulder when I fell. We peered around the corner to find a pile of cardboard boxes with a note on top. Look behind you, it read.

Lafayette POV

I looked around the corner of our aisle before silently signaling to Herc to follow. He set knocked the pile of cardboard boxes over and set the note on top, giggling as we ran off towards another aisle. He went into one aisle as I hid in another. I peeked through the shelf and had a clear, discreet view of Laurens and Alex. Just then as Alex and Laurens were walking towards the scene of the crash, Alex somehow slipped. I watched Laurens catch him and they both stood there like lovesick puppies with a blush covering their faces. How do they not know that they are adorable together? A new ship in the port! I saw them pull away from each other and pick up the note we left. That's when Herc and I stepped out of our hiding places and stood behind them.

John POV

"Look behind you," I read aloud. We ever so carefully turned around to find two people behind us wearing ski masks and holding cardboard boxes and cardboard tubes.

"Holy crap!" Alex yelled, jumping backward as one - I'm assuming Lafayette based on his French apparel - whacked Alex with a box. The other one - Hercules - smacked me with a cardboard tube and knocked Alex and me on the pile of boxes that spread out across the floor as we fell on them. The two morons took off their ski masks and laughed so hard which pushed me over the edge.

I grabbed a box and flung it at Herc and Laf and whispered, "Oh, it's on assholes."

Alex smacked Laf with the tube he managed so grab from Herc on the head and tossed me a box. We continued to fight and fight when Herc bumped into a display of sunglasses and knocked it over. "Oh, fuck," I muttered under my breath as we watched security storm over to Herc. The three of us hid in an aisle a couple of aisles down and watched Herc get in trouble. He glared at us as he was escorted out of the store and outside. We ended up buying a basketball so it seemed as if we were actually shopping and not screwing around.

"Why didn't you guys back me up back there?" Herc yelled as we made our way out of the mall, tossing his hands in the air.

"I didn't feel like having my father scream at me for something that I didn't do," I shrugged.

"I'm with Laurens on this one, Herc," Alex admitted while holding back a laugh, "sorry, bro."

"Psh. As if," Herc grumbled as he crossed his arms.

"Mon ami, Laurens is right. It's better one of us gets in trouble than all four of us," Laf pointed out, holding his index finger up. Herc flipped us off before headed to his truck. A woman covered her little boy's eyes.

"Avert your eyes, hon. There's a lot of idiots in this world and I don't want you following in their footsteps," she said to her child. Alex snorted as we headed back to our car.

A/N: Added Lafayette to the POV group! Please review!

ALWAYS FIND THE GOOD IN A BAD SITUATION. STAY HEALTHY, STAY STRONG, AND WE WILL GET THROUGH THIS PANDEMIC TOGETHER. (yet we have those space dudes up there...)