Chapter 5: Pizza and Party Planning

*2 Hours Later*

I glanced at the clock on the lock screen of my iPhone and saw that it was almost 9:00. Most of the guys had left because they had to get home due to school tomorrow. So it was really just the usual crew of Maia, Jordan, Alec, Magnus, Izzy, Simon, and of course Jon and my self, but today we had the added bonus of Jace.

"Jon," I called to my brother who was seated in his lazy boy recliner, while I lounged on the couch—feet on Simon's lap, "When is the pizza supposed to be here?" We'd order pizza because Claudia went grocery shopping every other Monday, or when ever it was necessary.

He glanced at his phone, "Should be here any minute now."

As if on cue the door bell rang and Jon went to collect our pizza.

Soon he came back with 3 steaming pizza boxes. I know 3 sounds like a lot but once you divide it amongst the 9 of us, it goes pretty fast.

Jon set the boxes on the coffee table that we had pushed to the side and took some sodas out of the mini fridge.

~•~•~•~

About half an hour later Izzy and Alec announced that they should get going. Magus went with them, seeing as Alec was his ride home. Maia and Jordan followed shortly after and then Jace.

But what they failed to do however was clean up their mess.

I sighed and looked at Jon who'd realized this too.

"Can we just leave it until the morning?" Jon whined obviously too tired to deal with it.

I sighed but nodded, I felt his pain, I was just as tired as he was.

"Claudia, is going to kill us for not cleaning up after ourselves," I stated trudging upstairs, right behind Jon.

"I know," Jon replied with a chuckle as we reached the top of the basement steps, "But maybe she'll be too tired to notice too." He stated with hopeful ignorance.

We attempted to go up the stairs as quietly as possible, seeing that Claudia's room was just down the hall -she had a place of her own but most days she would just sleep in that room. But to our disappointment Claudia was in the kitchen.

"I heard that," she stated emerging from the kitchen and starting towards Jon and I's location near the stairs and we froze.

"What exactly happened to the basement?" Claudia scolded curiously.

Jon rubbed at the back of his neck awkwardly while I looked down at me feet that were engulfed by Hunger Games socks.

"Well," Jon began, "We may have had some friends over while you were out shopping. And we may have left the basement in imperfect condition," he had dropped his hand back to his side at the end of his confession.

"But we were going to clean it in the morning," I spoke up, looking at Claudia innocently, my voice an octave too high.

Claudia just rolled her eyes at that,"Did you at least turn off the tv and the lights?" Jon and I nodded quickly knowing that Claudia and our parents hated it when we left things on and wasted energy.

"Fine then, off to bed you two, I'll clean it up," Jon looked at Claudia releaved and I probably had the same expression on my face.

"You're truly a blessing," I told her and wrapped my arms around her dramatically. Jon followed suit and wrapped his long arms around the two of us.

"Okay, okay" Claudia stated wriggling out of our grasps and smiling slightly, "Now get to bed, you two have to get up early tomorrow."

We nodded and said our goodnights to Claudia before making our way up the stairs. Reaching the top of the stairs I said goodnight to Jon and we went our separate ways.

Getting to my room I decided to take a shower, the hot water relaxing me. When I got out I towel dried my hair and put on a huge blue sweatshirt that I may or may not have snagged from Jon and black boy shorts.

As I went to lay down the last thing I thought of was a pair of golden eyes.

~•~•~•~

I woke up the next morning feeling pretty refreshed. I looked over at my clock to see it was 6:15 and I had a lot of time before I had to go to school. I took a quick shower and threw on training shorts and a Halo Reach t-shirt as I went downstairs to look for something to eat.

As usual Claudia was in the kitchen cooking some delicious pancakes. Mom and Dad were in there too, with mom talking to Claudia and Dad reading the newspaper.

"Good morning," I said happily as I entered and sat at one of the vacant seats at the island.

"Good morning sweetheart,"my dad said.

"Morning honey," mom replied

"Morning, aren't we up early, today" Claudia smiled at me, "and awfully chipper."

"I have a good feeling about today," I told them all, moving from my place to the cabinet where my favorite coffee mug was waiting to be filled with coffee. I picked up the the panda shaped mug and practically danced over to the coffee machine.

"What's wrong with her, Val?" I heard my mom whisper to dad.

I turned and glared playfully after getting my coffee, "I heard that."

"Well, I'm sorry honey but you're not nearly this giddy in the mornings, you're more," she paused as Jon walked in looking tired and grumpy, "like that," she finished looking towards my brother.

"Good morning," Jon said with a loud yawn.

We replied with good morning's as Claudia finished cooking breakfast. We ate with some small talk here and there but soon it was time to face the day. After Jon and I finished eating we went upstairs to get ready.

I brushed my teeth and than began to look for something to wear. I went with a short sleeved Looney Toons shirt tucked into high waisted black shorts and black lace-up - that Jon always made fun of me for because my feet were so small - and grabbed my leather jacket just in case. By the time I finished my usual morning routine it was 7:15. I threw my hair up in a high pony tail and put on the usual, concealer, mascara and lip gloss, and shoved my heart shaped diamond studs through my ears.

I went down at around 7:30 and found Jon waiting by the door dressed in dark wash jeans, a gray v-neck and his black lace up with a black leather jacket in his hands.

He sighed, "Wanna be that much like your big bro, huh?" He started fake crying, "I'm so proud," he sobbed.

A smile crept onto my face and I shoved him in the shoulder playfully, and grabbed my keys from the table near the door. We called our goodbyes and were on our way out the door

.

"So," Jon began as I started the car and began to drive to school, "that was quiet a dance number yesterday."

"Did you like it?" I questioned, happily "The girls and I are thinking of performing it at the homecoming game."

"It was good, and I noticed Jace couldn't keep is eyes off you," a blush crept on my cheeks and I turned away slightly pretending to look out of the rear view mirror.

"Really?" I asked, my voice slightly too high, I cleared my throat, "I hadn't noticed." But of course this was a total lie, I mean c'mon his eyes were practically burning a whole through me. Not that I minded, but Iz warned me already.

Jon rolled his eyes, "Yeah sure. I just don't want you to get hurt Clare-Bear, I heard about his rep, he breaks hearts and after him I don't think I could let Jace survive if he was to put you through something like that again."

I sighed and reached over to squeeze Jon's hand as I parked in the school's lot, "I'll be okay Jon, I promise, I learned my lesson."

"I wish you never had to," he turned his head and glared out the window.

"I do too," I replied, grabbing my bag from the back seat ready about to step out of the car. Jon's hand stopped me and I turned to look at him.

"You know you can tell me anything, right?" I nodded, with a slight smile. We both stepped out of the car ready for another day, all the while wondering about the undertone in his voice.

~•~•~•~

My first three classes went by pretty fast and unnoticed. Except for the fact that in Calculus Jace was determined to get me to laugh and repeatedly for a good twenty minutes.

After his endless cory puns didn't do the trick he decided to poke me in my side with his pencil. This went in for a good 5 minutes before I finally burst out laughing. That earned a glare and a stern Clarissa from . When my giggles subsided I glared at Jace who smirked back at me.

Then before I knew it I was on my way to lunch with Maia. The lunch table consisted of the usual Magnus, Izzy, Alec, Simon, and Jordan.

Maia took her usual seat. I plucked my wallet from my bag and got up to buy food. I wasn't really hungry so I just bought a fruit cup and a Nestea.

"Woah, someone's healthy," a voice called from over my shoulder.

"Well Jace, you can't expect me to eat fries all day and keep such a figure," I replied with slight sarcasm not looking over my shoulder.

"This is coming from the girls who ate a whole tub of cookies and cream in one sitting," I turned my head and glared at Jon before paying for my things.

I rolled my eyes and began to walk towards my table. I dropped my dollar on the ground and reached to pick it up but a tanned hand grabbed it before I could.

"I happen to like that figure of yours," Jace told me lowly in my ear all husky and sexy and whatnot, as we stood up straight. Jon was ahead of us so he obviously hadn't notice our sudden stop. My cheeks flushed bright red and I continued walking towards my destination with Jace close behind.

By the time I got there my cheeks were only slightly pink. Jon was already seated and Jace decided to take the seat next to him, which was also next to me.

But things obviously weren't the same as when I left. There was ... tension, and lots of glaring coming from Isabelle and Magnus.

"Woah, what happened here?" I asked mostly to Magnus and Izzy.

"Ask him," Isabelle replied with a nod accompanied with a glare towards Magnus. I turned my head to him and raised my eyebrows.

"Isabelle refuses to have a 70s theme for the our annual school kick-off party," Magnus glared back at her.

"Because Magnus, no one likes dressing in those baggy clothes anymore. Not even you," she tugged on the sleeve of his skin-tight yellow shirt as an example.

"Fine," he said his glare slowly winding down, "then what do you think the theme should be?"

Isabelle's face became softer too, "A stop light party," she spoke as if we should have known what she meant. Everyone looked confused.

"A what?" Jace spoke up first.

"A stop light party," she began, "everyone gets a wristband red if you're taken, green if your single, yellow if its in-between or whatever else."

We were quiet for a moment.

"BOO!" Maia called from her seat, and we snickered while Izzy gave us all a glare, "Seriously guys? Wristbands and the 70s? I'm truly disappointed," she shook her head sadly.

"Well does anyone have any better ideas?" Simon questioned.

"Blacklight party!" I said and every one began to smile, "It would be sooo perfect, its still warm enough so we could open the pool."

"Yeah but what about the paint? I know our Mom will be pissed if we get it everywhere," Alec countered.

"True," I sighed.

"Wait," Magnus said, "my parents are renovating the basement again, so that means that the guys are coming in to take the paint off the walls in a couple of weeks, and my parents will be out of town that weekend anyway, but they'd hardly care if I threw a party."

I smiled widely, this was just to awesome to be true, "Seriously?"

Magnus nodded.

"Then I guess we're having a blacklight party!" Jordan cheered.

"Hell yeah!" Jon called back and the rest of lunch went on with its usual light banter and planning of the blacklight party.

A/N

Please review, I love reading about what you guys think!

Until Next Time

~xGifted