There is an imaginary mall with a bowling alley coming up. I'm creating my own world here :)

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11.

The next week, Olivia told her friends that her punishment would finally be lifted once this Friday was over, and they made plans to get together at the mall on Saturday afternoon. She was looking forward to finally being free again and could only hope nothing would come up at the last moment to ruin things for her. The lump on her head wasn't completely gone yet and she'd had headaches all week, but she hadn't said a thing about it to her mother. She would endure it, as long as she wasn't grounded even longer.

They had been chatting in the hallway at the lockers but as soon as Olivia spotted Mr. Wilson, she signaled with her hand that she had to go, and took off to get to her next class. Elliot was looking forward to Olivia not being grounded anymore and he followed her with his eyes until she turned the corner.

"We should get going too," Brian said and Elliot nodded.

English class. It hadn't been his favorite class before, but it sure wasn't now, now that he knew their teacher was Olivia's mother. He knew he couldn't afford to make a mistake in Ms. Benson's class and worked quietly after listening carefully to the woman's explanation of the assignment they would have to hand in at the end of class.

He wondered why the teacher was so determined to keep her daughter away from boys. He hadn't realized the woman even had a child before Olivia came to school and wondered why Ms. Benson wasn't married. She must have at least liked one man, or how else could she have gotten a kid? Maybe the guy cheated on her and she'd been done with men after that … His eyes drifted to Kathy, who was tapping her pen against her lower lip while she mulled over their assignment, her eyes fixed on the paper in front of her. He had been cheated on as well but that didn't mean he was done with girls now. He smiled and focused on his paper again to hide his smile from the teacher. If she caught him thinking about her daughter, all hell would break loose. But Olivia had popped up in his head. She was a nice girl and somehow he knew that she would never do what Kathy had done. Granted, he'd never thought Kathy would do such a thing either, but still. Or maybe he just didn't want to think any girl could do something like that. Maybe he was just too trusting. And maybe he was just beginning to like Olivia a lot.

Elliot glanced at Brian, who was seated next to him. Brian definitely liked Olivia a lot, and he wasn't hiding that at all. He wondered if Olivia would be interested in Brian. Only one way to find out …

…

"Hey Olivia."

"Hey guys. Am I glad to see you!"

Olivia was feeling a little giddy. She was finally not grounded anymore and it was her first day hanging out at the mall in Brooklyn. She'd been quiet as a mouse all evening last night and her mother had actually been tolerable. Before Olivia had left the house earlier, Serena had given her another warning not to get into trouble with any boys but she had been almost sociable and had told her to have a nice time with the girls and buy something for herself.

The girls were Beth, Pamela and Melinda, another girl Olivia had been introduced to recently. They were joined by Elliot, Brian, John and Gwen. John introduced his girlfriend to Olivia, and she could tell how proud he was of her. Elliot winked at Olivia and she felt her cheeks flush slightly. She punched his shoulder, making Elliot chuckle and assume a defensive fighting position. Brian instantly cut in to 'stand up' for Olivia, and the whole group was laughing within a minute. Olivia felt happy and light, and as they started roaming the mall, she thought that maybe changing schools hadn't been so bad after all. Otherwise, she wouldn't have met all these great kids. Brian sidled up next to her and began telling her about all the places in the mall where they could buy food. Their first stop was a small fast food place where they bought a soda and some popcorn to share. The girls were planning to go shopping for makeup and Brian rolled his eyes.

"You should join them Bri," Olivia heard Elliot say. "If you want any kind of chance with the ladies, you gotta show some interest."

Pamela and Melinda giggled, Gwen snorted and Beth and Olivia just looked at each other and then grinned.

"Right. And get my nails done? No way!" Brian joked.

"You have an eye on a particular lady?" Gwen asked Brian, who instantly looked at Olivia.

Olivia smiled and looked away. Brian wasn't exactly being subtle and she was flattered. When she glanced at Elliot, who was standing to the side, she saw that he was studying her face for a reaction. She smirked at him and Elliot made a questioning gesture with his hands, as if asking her if she was interested in Brian at all. She scrunched up her nose and then they both laughed out loud.

Brian hadn't even caught half of their wordless conversation but Elliot knew enough and the relief he was feeling was rather telling. After they were done snacking, the group split up and the girls went shopping while the boys just hung around in the central hallway, doing some people watching and discussing girls.

They regrouped a while later and decided on what to do next. John suggested a game of bowling and they all agreed. John was surprisingly good at the game and Gwen was proudly cheering him on.

"It's all physics," John declared but when Brian scored a strike just then he added, "or just brute force of course. That works too."

John and Gwen had teamed up with Elliot and Olivia, while Brian was the captain of the otherwise all female group. Pamela seemed particularly happy to be in Brian's team and Olivia nudged Elliot while they were waiting on the bench for Gwen to finish her turn.

Elliot looked at Olivia and she pointed at Pamela and Brian, sitting together on the bench of the other lane and paying no attention to Beth's bowling accomplishments at all. Pamela had her hand on Brian's arm and he didn't seem to mind.

Elliot grinned and made a classical stretching movement, after which he dropped his arm behind Olivia on the backrest of the bench. She rolled her eyes but couldn't help smiling at Elliot's move. When Brian noticed that she was looking at him, his face lit up and Olivia wondered if that was why Elliot was suddenly posturing a little; because Brian was showing an interest in her. And she asked herself if she would really mind if it was. She did like Elliot, a lot. Brian was nice too, with a heart of gold, but something made her feel connected to Elliot in a way. She felt an odd warmth spread through her body when Elliot put his left hand on her left shoulder and pulled her a little closer to him. Then he told her,

"You're up, Liv."

She jumped up quickly and heard Elliot chuckle behind her when she went in search of her favorite bowling ball. The blue one. Why was she suddenly so nervous?

Elliot watched her move and tried not to smile too widely. It had felt nice to touch Olivia and her reaction told him that she was affected too. She missed all the pins on the first try and blew out a frustrated breath, then pulled herself together and managed to knock over six pins with her second ball. And all the while, Elliot was watching her with an amused smile on his face. She was cute. She was definitely cute.

It was his turn to jump up when Olivia pushed against his shoulder.

"Your turn," she said, "See if you can do better."

He grinned at her while standing up until they were toe to toe.

"We're on the same team, Liv," he reminded her and somehow they both knew that it was true in more ways than one.

...

To be continued.
I know this was very short but I'm struggling a bit with writing this story so I decided to give you a short chapter now instead of making you all wait even longer.
More to come. Their Saturday isn't over yet.