We walk into Sam's holding hands. The guys are sitting on the edge of their seats, and the girls are huddled by the stove, discussing something in urgent whispers. They all turn around and gasp as we come through the doorway. After a minute of awkward silence, one of the guys (Collin whispers that his name is Jared) says, "So she's sticking around, huh?"
I giggle. (Wow. I giggled. Again. I'm more in over my head than I thought.) "I guess so,"
The girls stare at us for a moment, and then suddenly I am being suffocated, surrounded by screams of "CONGRATULATIONS!" that are so going to break my eardrums.
And then there's Penny, who's hugging me hard and looks like she's about to start crying.
"Pen!" I say with concern. "Why are you upset? I know everything now!"
I look around the room, furrowing my eyebrows. "I do know everything, right?"
Penny looks at me in all seriousness. "Yes Adrienne. You know all there is to know about Life, the Universe, and Everything."
We burst out laughing.
Those in the room who have not read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series stare at us in confusion, but I continue to laugh with my best friend until Collin says to me, "I promise that I have told you everything."
I look into his warm, loving, chocolate eyes and want to melt. "Mmhm," I murmur and lean in for a kiss…
Which is rudely interrupted by Claire screaming "EWWWWWW!"
Gah. The five-year-old is out to get me.
The pack congratulates us next, giving me high-fives and Collin fist-bumps. Then Emily, who has been working away in the kitchen (and filling the house with amazing aromas), says "Dinner!"
I have never seen men sit down at a table so fast.
After we eat dinner (and man, can those guys EAT – they wolfed down (HA! I'm so punny) three pieces of chicken each, plus salad, potatoes, bread, peas, and muffins… How are none of them fat? Ugh. The world is so not fair), Penny and I kiss our significant others (that's right – I have a BOYFRIEND! A hot (literally), hunky, werewolf boyfriend!) and head home.
It's getting darker out, and for a while the only noises come from my bike and the woods. Finally I say, "Pen?", knowing that this will lead her to tell me what's on her mind.
She turns her head to look at me, her face consumed by guilt. "I am so sorry that I couldn't – no, didn't – tell you any of what was happening before. You're my best friend, the person I trust the most, and it was killing me to keep such a big part of my life a secret. And I'm worried that you're still mad at me-" Oh right, I almost forgot about what happened on Sunday. "-for sticking up for Collin. But I only did that because I knew how he felt about you and I wanted you to have a happily ever after! But I know I should have comforted you more. I wasn't a very good friend…"
"Penelope Ray McClearot, I don't ever want to hear you say that you're not a good friend. You're the best friend I've ever had, and no one is as amazing as you. So just shut up and hug me."
She smiles and obliges. How could I ever be mad at her?
"Ugh. My life feels like such a soap opera right now."
Penny laughs and puts her arm around my shoulder. We walk on.
Friday flies by now that I'm not mad at Collin or Penny, and suddenly it's the weekend. On Saturday morning, I wake up to find Pen leaning against the bookshelf in my room, dressed in khakis and a white t-shirt, her long hair in a side braid which she is twirling as she reads "Holes".
She looks up. "Oh good! You're awake. Hurry up and get ready, it's almost noon and we're meeting the girls at one."
"The girls?" I question, rubbing my eyes with the back of my hand. It is way too early for me to even think about seeing people.
"The girls! The imprints. Come on, it'll be like a little initiation. You'll love it." When I look at her, unconvinced, she says, "You either come willingly or I'm dragging you."
That gets me out of bed.
After jumping in and out of the shower, throwing on some clothes and shoving a granola bar in my mouth (which leads Penny to give me a glare of disgust), we walk to Sam and Emily's house. Penny explains to me that Collin is already on patrol, to my disappointment.
"I'm sure you remember everyone," Pen says. To my own surprise, I do. We sit on the couch and eat freshly baked cookies (I think I love Emily; there is never not any good food in this house). Rachael turns on the TV and an old episode of Kim Possible shows up.
"OH MY GOSH I LOVE THIS SHOW!" I jump off the couch and accidentally fling my half-finished cookie across the room. It thuds against the window and hits the floor, only to be picked up and eaten by Claire.
Penny looks the girl over and says, "Ew."
We all burst out laughing, doubled over and clutching our stomachs.
I think I could get used to this crowd.
After a few hours of watching re-runs and snacking on popcorn, a few of the guys walk in. The only one I notice is Collin, who comes over to me, throws me over his shoulder, takes me outside (all the while I am screaming my head off and hitting his chest), and sits me down beside him on the dirt.
"What the hell was that for?" I demand.
"I wanted to see you alone. I missed you," he says, staring at me with love in his eyes. I had started to doubt that this day would come, the day when the boy I loved loved me back, but clearly I had nothing to worry about. I think now that bumping into Collin was an act of fate.
EEP! Here's to being a hopeless romantic.
(It seems to be working out for me.)
"Well," I say, standing up and brushing the pine needles and leaves from my behind. "Can I go back inside now? After that odd and pointless experience?"
Collin, who appears slightly bruised by that comment, sits me down again. "Nope. I need to ask you something."
This makes me worry. Ask me something? What could he want to ask me? The colour of the sky? (Which isn't even blue today; it's a depressing shade of gray.)
"Um… Shoot," I say, expecting the worse. Such as 'Adrienne, I'm really an alien and I am going to kidnap you now. Is that okay?'
He looks at me and takes a deep breath. "What did the werewolf say to the beautiful girl?"
Wow. I thought it was the start of the apocalypse when in reality he only wanted to tell me a bad joke. How melodramatic of me.
"I have no stinking clue. Care to enlighten me?"
His eyes shift downs to his twiddling thumbs before he says, "…Will you go to the Spring Fling with me?"
AWWWW! My eyes widen in surprise. I can't believe how adorable he is! And he seemed so nervous! Eek. This is great!
Hehe… I suppose I should say something rather than talking to myself in my head…
"Yes yes yes yes yes!" I scream, jumping up and hugging him tightly, breathing in his woodsy smell. I plant a kiss on his cheek, and he blushes. He's so cute when he blushes. Heck, he's cute no matter what he does.
I quickly go back inside the house and say goodbye to Penny and the others before leading Collin back to my home. We work on our English project until 4, at which point I kick him out. When he asks me why, I tell him, "I'd prefer if you met my parents wearing a shirt." I don't add the fact that I prefer him shirtless.
Yum.
I review my biology notes for three hours after that, but when I quiz myself on what I've studied, I still can't get it right. Ugh! I don't know what's wrong with me! What if I fail? I can't fail! I really need a tutor. Maybe Collin will help me… (My brain screams "BAD IDEA," but I ignore it. He's always answering questions in that class – correctly. I could probably resist the distraction of his presence…)
(Who am I kidding. I would be utterly focused on his six pack.)
I go downstairs, grunt a greeting at my parents, and heat up a helping of leftover pasta, which I take up to my room. Then I open up my laptop and write well into the night, forking a piece of penne into my mouth on occasion.
Just before I turn out my light, I hear howls from the woods. I open my window and look out into the night. Puddles (I mean Collin) stares up at me from the edge of the forest. I wave and blow him a kiss before climbing back into bed. I don't stop smiling for a second.
Hi! For all of the new people who have reviewed or read or even looked at my story, THANK YOU! You make me want to write. And I am truly sorry for the long wait. I am no good at explaining my excuses, even though I have many. But now I am doing Camp NaNoWriMo for this story! My word goal is only 10 000, so hopefully I exceed it. (Although I'm kind of a thousand words behind at the moment… Whoops.)
Anyways, that was just fluff. The Spring Fling is on Thursday, though, and before that Collin and Adrienne need to go on a REAL and uninterrupted date. Hopefully you guys liked this though! At least I posted, right? I'm sorry it's been so long. (I think this is the first time since March… :S) Anyways, please review! I love hearing from you! And now I'm going to write some more! YAY! :D