Mike's POV
I know that teenagers are supposed to sleep late, but it was 2:30pm and Lux hasn't even come out of her room for a second. I tried to make breakfast for her for the first time, and when I knocked on the door to wake her up, she replied with a grumpy, "I'm not hungry. Go away," response, which I wasn't at all accustomed to, but didn't want to upset her even more.
But now I was getting even more nervous that she hadn't gotten up all night and all morning, so I pick up the phone to call Stef. After the third ring, Stef picks up, "Hey, Mike. What's up?"
"Are girls supposed to sleep all day or what? Is that normal?" I ask, but she just starts laughing, and I can already imagine the smirk on her face through the phone.
"Are you really calling me for this? Come on, Mike. You had me worried, thinking that she took off again."
"Yeah, well, I'm sorry, but I never had this problem with Brandon. He's always up before me and Lux was wide-awake at 6am the other day. Did you go through this with Mariana or Callie?"
"No, Mike. It's not a girl thing?" she says with confusion evident in her voice. "In fact, I'm pretty sure men are supposed to need more sleep than women, if I'm not mistaken. Get it together, Mike. Geez."
"Well, I'm beginning to realize where she got her grogginess from now," I joke.
"Oh, this sounds like a good one. What happened?"
"Nothing, you know, besides the fact that I got up extra early to make her breakfast, and when I told her to come and eat, she yelled at me to go away."
"Aw, Mike, I'm so sorry," Stef starts laughing on the phone.
"Yeah, I can tell that you are by the chuckle on the other line… Look, just tell me what to do? I'm drowning here."
"What do you mean? Just wake her up. Tell her that she has to get dressed and take her out somewhere. Go to the movies, bowling, anything, Mike. Figure it out. You can do this," she says encouragingly.
"I thought we grounded her last night. Now, you want me to unground her?"
"No I don't want you to unground her. She's not going out with her friends, Mike. She's going out with you, which technically, is probably punishment enough to not want to ever be grounded again," Stef laughs again on the other line.
"Thanks, Stef. I really appreciate the support."
"I'm sorry, Mike. I had to say it… Look, if it makes you feel any better, I can come over and do it for you…" she says, and I know she challenging my parental abilities at the moment.
"No, that's okay, Stef. I can do it. Not a problem."
"Okay. Talk to you later, Mike."
I listen to her hang up the phone and look up at the door of Brandon's room. I knew that I needed to get a bigger apartment, since Lux was staying here. But for now, it was still more room she had than at Stef's.
I walk over and knock on the door again a little harder, "Lux. Get some clothes on. We're going out," I yell as I wait for her to respond.
"Why?" she asks in confusion.
"Because I said so. You can't sleep all day," I answer nervously. When I hear her getting up from the bed, I immediately walk back over toward the couch.
She opens the door and I can see her squinting at me in confusion, and wrapped around a pink fleece blanket with a cat on it.
"Good afternoon, Sleeping Beauty."
"It's 2:30 in the afternoon, Mike," she says flatly.
"Yeah, exactly. You've slept all day."
"It's the weekend," she says just as emotionless.
"I know, which is just another reason to get up."
"And do what? I'm grounded, remember?"
"Yes—"
"Okay, so I'm going back to bed," she interrupts as she turns around and tries to close the door.
"No, you're not," I say matter-of-factly. "Sleeping all day is not allowed in this house, it's—"
"It's an apartment…"
"Well, it doesn't matter. We're going out. So put some clothes on and eat your breakfast."
"It's 2:30 in the afternoon."
"Are you trying to make this difficult, Lux? Remember what we all agreed on yesterday. We were all going to make some effort?"
"Fineeee," she says in an annoyed voice. "Where are we going anyway?"
"I thought we could go bowling?"
"I hate bowling."
"Can you pretend not to hate it for one day?"
She lets out a frustrated breath, "Fine. Whatever… Hey! Can I invite my friends?" she says with a hint of interest.
"Uh…"
"Remember that thing we all agreed on yesterday? What was it?" she lifts her index finger to her chin, "something about trying, I think."
"Fine, they can come."
"Thanks, Mike," she responds as she grabs the house phone from the receiver and locks herself in the bedroom again.
Mariana's POV
Callie and I immediately exchange glances at the sound of banging. "What the hell is that?" I ask her as I drop my apple back into the bowl on the kitchen counter.
"I don't know, Mariana. In case you haven't noticed, I'm sitting in the kitchen with you as well," she responds sarcastically.
"Who's making that noise?" Brandon asks as he and Jesus walk into the kitchen.
Within seconds, all of us except for Jude are following the noise, and we're led to the basement. When we get there, we discover that our mother is hammering away at the wall with a sledgehammer and breaking it into pieces. And our other mom is going through boxes of our old junk.
"Mom!" Jesus calls in order to get Stef's attention. The blonde immediately stops hammering at the wall and looks over to us.
"Hey, kids. What's wrong?" Stef asks.
"Besides you destroying our basement?" I say, as I take a long look at the humongous hole she made through the wall.
Both of our moms start laughing. "I'm not destroying it, sweets. I'm going to install a window in it."
"Why?" we all ask in confusion, causing Stef to glance at Lena before answering.
"Well, I mean if Lux is going to be staying here too, then we're going to need more room."
"You're putting one of us in the basement?" Jesus asks in disgust.
"No," she answers matter-of-factly.
"You're putting her in the basement?" Jesus asks skeptically, "…like in Harry Potter."
Lena laughs, "Harry Potter was locked in a closet, Jesus."
"Well, that closet looked more appealing than this mess," he answers sarcastically.
"Hey! You don't have to make me feel bad about it," Stef responds sadly. "I'm going to fix it up some. Take all this junk out, maybe put it in storage, and get it cleaned up."
All three of us eye the basement in horror and look over at our mom again.
"I think it's a great idea," Brandon buds in, causing us all to give him a look. "I think that if Lux stays here, the girls aren't going to feel too cramped up in their room and we won't feel so cramped up, upstairs. I mean, there's a bathroom here and now apparently a window," Brandon smiles as he points at the giant hole in the wall our mother made, causing all of us except for Stef to laugh.
"Yeah, you're right," I answer. The last thing I needed was for another girl upstairs. And maybe this way I wouldn't have to see her as much.
"Well, I think it's a great idea," Callie says. And I know that she's thinking the same thing I'm thinking. She obviously doesn't like this girl any more than I do.
"The time we spend in the bathroom won't have to be cut short, because there's a shower here too… If Lux wants to stay here, that's fine with me," Jesus says as he puts his hands up in the air.
"Ew, is that a centipede," I point out on the floor, as I start to back away.
"Don't worry. It looks dead," Brandon says as he begins to walk over toward it.
But surprisingly it starts racing toward Callie and I and we both run up the stairs. It wasn't until we reached the top that we relaxed.
"Suddenly, I'm actually glad that Lux came last," I tell her. "If I had to sleep down there, ugh!," I shake myself as if the insects were crawling all over me.
A few seconds later Brandon walks upstairs with the biggest smile on his face.
"What are you smiling about?" Callie asks.
"Well, if Lux moves into the basement, then I get my old room back."
"At your dad's?" Callie asks.
"So, that's why you were so excited?" I ask him. "Because you don't want her sleeping in the room that you never stay in?"
"Yup."
"Oh, poor baby. That would mean you'll only have one gigantic room all to yourself instead of two," I taunt. I didn't understand why Brandon was being such a spoiled brat.
"Not to be rude," Jesus chimes in, "But I kinda prefer it if she stayed over there too. Like, think about it. The last person always gets stuck with a cold shower and now this means that the last two people will," he says with a terrified look on his face.
I suddenly agree with them, "You know, maybe it's not such a bad idea if Lux stays at Mike's too."
"What if she doesn't want to?" Callie asks.
"Then, we make her want to," I say with a smile on my face as I grab an apple and walk out of the room.
Lux's POV
"Mike, no offense but I don't think I'm very good at this," I say as I roll the ball onto the lane and watch as it immediately rolls onto the divider for the third time, making sure not to hit one pin.
"You just need some more practice," he smiles. "Haven't you've ever went bowling before?"
"Yeah, and I was really good. Of course it was on the Wii, instead of in real life, but I was always got strikes. How could this be so…not fun?"
"It's plenty fun," he tries to assure me. "Maybe I should ask to move to another lane where there's bumpers. Would that be easier for you?" he says pointing to the other section.
I glance toward the lanes with bumpers and see a bunch of six year olds playing and chasing the ball down the lane, and throwing the balls into the air so that they collided with the floor with extreme impact, and I was almost positive they would break in half. "Uh… No, I can do this," I say as I grab the bowling ball for my second turn and try to toss it toward the pins, but the ball disagrees with me and goes over onto the other people's lane and hits their ball. "Oh, my God! I'm so sorry!" I say as the elderly man looks at me angrily and mumbles something nasty under his breath.
Mike laughs, "I'll go ask for a lane with bumpers, now."
"Yes, please," I answer as I look over and see the elderly man still shaking his head at me. "I said sorry," I mumble as I walk over to my seat. But right before I sit, I see Tasha walking in and immediately walk over to meet her, "Glad you made it," I answer with a smile. "I was beginning to wonder if I was going to look like a fool all by myself. Did you know that bowling while playing the Wii, is nothing like playing bowling in real life?" I joke.
She smiles but I can tell that something's wrong, "Wait…Where's Bug and Gavin?" I ask as I look behind her to see if they were following farther behind.
"Gavin couldn't make it and um…" she pauses and looks at me worriedly, which just makes me feel irritable. She never makes that face with me.
"What? Tasha just tell me," I urge her.
"…Bug left."
"What do you mean he left?" I ask in confusion.
"He didn't tell me anything. I swear… He just told Gavin."
"He told Gavin what?"
"That he wasn't coming back."
"What?" I snap. "Where did he go?"
"He didn't tell him that much… Look, Lux, I'm so sorry. He's an idiot."
"No…He wouldn't just leave me here. He wouldn't do that. He wouldn't bail on us," I try to yell but my words are muffled by my own tears.
"He's an asswhole, Lux. He doesn't deserve you. You're better off without him, okay?" she says as she puts both of her hands on either side of my face. "You know that, right?"
"He's all that I have, Tash," I cry. But I quickly try to wipe away my tears the second I see Mike approaching toward us.
"No, you have me, okay? You're going to be fine. I promise," she says as she pulls me in for a hug.
"Hey! Is something wrong?" Mike asks, which causes Tasha to turn around.
"Seriously dude? How about you mind your own business, huh?"
"Tash," I try to calm her, "This is Mike. Mike this is Tash," I introduce awkwardly. I didn't want to do it at the moment, but I didn't want her to make another hostile comment toward him either.
"Oh… If this isn't awkward…Sorry about that."
"It's no problem," he responds and then glances back over toward me, "Are you okay?"
"Actually, she's not," Tasha intervenes, "Do you think we can cut this little bowling, game, thing-a-majig, that you have going on here short. I really think Lux and I need to talk about some stuff without you there, I guess. Not to sound rude…again, or anything. But I think she can benefit right now with some alone time… you know? Without you standing here watching."
"Uh…" Mike starts nervously.
"We'll just go to the movies or something. Nothing to be worried about. And I'll make sure to bring her home safe and sound. Scout's honor," she says as she raises her right hand in the air and offers him a smile.
I could tell Mike was contemplating it, so I had to say something. I couldn't sit through another game of bowling with him right now. I needed to get out. "Please, Mike. I really need this."
"Okay," he says hesitantly. "Fine. But this is a one-time thing. And I want you home by eight. No exceptions. You have school tomorrow."
"Please don't remind me," I answer. That was the last thing I wanted to think about, telling Tasha I had to switch schools.
"Eight," he says again as he grabs his wallet from his pocket and pulls out a twenty and tries to hand it to me.
"What is this for?" I ask in confusion.
"The movie…"
"Oh, we don't need money," Tasha says. "We sneak in through the exit, when people walk out. It's more fun that way," she says with a smile.
"Tash," I warn.
"What?"
Mike grabs another twenty from his wallet and hands me the forty dollars, "How about you two pay for once? Try something different."
Tasha takes the money, "Thanks, man... See you later," she says as she starts to walk us both toward the exit, before I get a chance to say bye.
"You're dad's kinda funny. Pay for a movie?" she laughs.
"Tash?"
"Uhuh?"
"We're not going to the movies are we?"
"Nope."