A/N: It's been way too long since I posted! I'm so sorry! Well, here's another chapter :) Please review!

I looked at my mirror and saw a boy with a bruise on his cheek looking back at me... and a letter taped to the side of the glass? I looked at it. It read:

We're having Thanksgiving dinner on Thanksgiving (obviously) at 5:00 :)

-Alex

I looked at my clock and fixed my makeup before heading outside and catching up with Alex. "Lexi!"

"Hey, Laurens," He said while rolling his eyes.

"I got your note," I said.

"Oh, good. Also… Martha wants to invite your entire family to Thanksgiving dinner with us," Alex said.

I froze. "I don't know… I'll ask my father, though," I gave a fake light chuckle. Alex glared at me.

"Are you okay? It's fine if you don't want your family to come," Alex pointed out.

"No, no. Martha wants them there, they can go."

"Laurens? Is… your home life, like, you know, okay?"

I sighed. "Complicated." We walked the rest of the way to school in silence.

"My father can't come to Thanksgiving, he's going on a business trip. So… I guess the rest of my family can come? It's really just my siblings," I said, propping my phone up so I could see the screen and take down some old sketches to put more up.

"That's okay. As long as part of your family can come Martha will be happy," Alex said through FaceTime while opening his laptop.

"Alex put your computer away! You need to do something else than write," I said as I pulled a sketch of a turtle down.

"And do what?"

"I don't know… draw? Go outside! Join a club, something," I rolled my eyes.

As I stepped down from my chair I slipped and fell backward and somehow my hand latched onto my chair and pulled it down with me. I rubbed my head in pain before grabbing my phone from off the ground from where it fell.

"Wow. And I'd turn out like you," Alex rolled his eyes.

"Hey!"

"Just saying."

"Lexi, that actually hurt. I hit my head on my chair," I whined.

"Oh boo hoo, Laurens."

"Do you want me to go over there and put a dent in your forehead?"

"Geez. Well anyway, I have to go somewhere with George. See you at school," Alex said after a muffled voice called Alex's name.

"See you at school."

Thanksgiving

"There."

"John! Why do I have to wear a fancy shirt?" Henry Jr whined. As I stepped away from him, inspecting the hairstyle I gave him.

"We are going to our neighbors for Thanksgiving, you want to at least look nice," I rolled my eyes.

"Ugh! This shirt is itchy!" He groaned.

"You're fine, Hen."

"Martha? Mary? Are you two ready yet?" I called up the stairs.

"Be right there!" Mary's cute voice called. She bounded down the stairs in her light pink pastel dress with white accents around the edges flowing around her legs. Martha walked down the stairs in a normal manner by taking her time. She was wearing her navy blue dress. I smiled as I grabbed Henry Jr's hand.

As the four of us walked out the door I said, "Also, don't be frightened by Lafayette. He's just loud and obnoxious so give him a break."

"Sounds fun," Henry said as he skipped instead of walked.

I rang the doorbell and was greeted by a French boy wearing nice dress clothes but covered head to toe in flour. "Mom ami! You made it!" Laf said, leaning to give me a hug as I backed away.

"Don't you dare get flour on me," I growled.

"Can I play with flour too?" Henry asked.

I shook my head no, mouthed the word no, and even my eyes said no when Laf said, "Of course! The more the, how you say... merrier!" My head dropped into my hands as I walked into the house trailing behind my siblings, Laf and Henry already out of sight in the kitchen.

Alex walked up to me and patted my back. "Sorry about Laf, he's helping Martha make French food of some sort. I see he roped your brother into it, too," he chuckled. I rested my head against his shoulder.

"God help us all… Laf and Henry are bad enough on their own… this is going to end in a big mess," I groaned. Alex hugged me and guided me into the living room. He lifted my face off of his shoulder and threw me onto the couch. "Aggressive much?"

"Either lay there or watch me type. One or the other," Alex said as he sat at the dining room table and started to type on his laptop. I groaned as I stood up and made my way into the dining room.

"Hello, Martha. Hello, George," I said.

"Hello, Laurens," George said, peeking out from the newspaper covering his face.

"Hello, Laurens!" Martha called from the kitchen. Mary pulled me off to the side.

"Can I say something?" She asked.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I think that you and your friend Alex make a cute couple."

"What? Why would you think that?" My face burned with embarrassment.

"They way you put your head on his shoulder and he didn't care? There is obviously some sort of special relationship with you two. Plus you are gay," Mary pointed out.

"One: everyone in our friend group hugs and/or has a lot of friendly physical contact. Two: I don't even know if he is gay," I sighed.

"So you do like him?"

"Shhhh!" I shushed her before someone could hear.

Alex POV

"So you do like him?" I could hear Laurens' little sister - Mary? - whisper.

"Shhhh!" Laurens shushed her. Were they talking about me? No, he probably isn't gay. She was probably teasing.

"Alex? Can you get Mary?" Lafayette asked.

"Sure," I said as I saved my latest paragraph and closed my laptop and headed over to Laurens and Mary (?), "You're Mary, right?" I asked as I stood next to Laurens. Is he blushing? No, it's probably the lighting.

"Yeah, that's me," Mary said.

"Cool, Martha needs your help in the kitchen."

"Okee, dokee!" She squealed as she skipped over to the kitchen. She was really hyper.

"She's really hyper," I chuckled as I watched her help Martha with the food. Martha, Laurens' sister, was having a conversation with George.

"That's her personality," he chuckled.

I looked at my shoes since I didn't know what to say. He's my friend, why don't I know what to say? Then he started to giggle. "What?" I asked.

"I'm sorry, it's just this awkward silence," he giggled. Then we heard a big crash from the kitchen. He and I made eye contact before running over there, catching up with Martha and George, to find Laurens' little brother Henry covered in flour even more than Lafayette. There was a flour sack next to his feet and Mary, Laf, Martha (Laurens' sister), George and Martha were all trying to clean him up. Laurens started to help as well. I thought, what the hell, I'll help too. I joined in on the helping Henry.

John POV

"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to!" Henry repeated over and over again.

"Mon ami, Henry, this happens every year. Mainly because of me," Laf chuckled. I looked at Alex. He was nodding his head and chuckling.

Once we got most of the flour cleaned off of the floor, Alex and I went back to my house to grab some extra clothes for Henry.

"Of course this had to happen. I told you it would happen," I groaned.

"Note to self: don't mix Lafayette and Henry together," Alex joked.

"I'm sorry that happened."

"Eh, it's fine. Last year Gilbert accidentally spilled cranberry sauce everywhere. Stained literally everything he was wearing," he shrugged as if nothing happened.

"Are you serious? I think Laf and Henry should see someone who could fix their clumsiness," I chuckled.

"Laf, Henry and Peggy," Alex pointed out.

"Yes," I said as we headed up the stairs to Henry's room. We had a small conversation about finding someone to fix our friends' clumsiness as we made our way back to Alex's house.

Henry got changed as soon as the oven beeped, signaling the turkey was done.

We all headed to the dining room and had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. "Mm, this is wonderful, Martha!" Mary said.

"Thank you, Mary!" Martha laughed.

We continued to eat dinner and while maintaining a conversation.

"Thank you so much for coming!" Martha exclaimed as we made our way out the door.

"Thank you for having us!" My sister Martha said. As we made our way into our house Martha stopped me. "When are you going to ask Alex out?"

"Mar, he probably isn't even gay. I'd rather still have a friendship than being rejected and have this awkward tension between us."

Alex POV

One day at lunch, Peggy ran up to us with another new girl. I saw Laurens staring at the new girl. Without a doubt, I had a pang of jealousy that Laurens was staring at the girl instead of me.

"Guys! Meet the new girl! She super nice!" Peggy exclaimed.

"Hi! I'm Martha, Martha Manning."

A/N: I know! I'm so sorry I ended it with a cliffhanger! I needed a chance to actually add her in but I do have future chapters almost finished!

ALWAYS FIND THE GOOD IN A BAD SITUATION. STAY HEALTHY, STAY STRONG, AND WE WILL GET THROUGH THIS PANDEMIC TOGETHER. (I wonder if the astronauts have Disney + so they can watch hamilton the movie...)