"So," Kasey said as she watched Stevie bound around the band room cleaning everything up, "what are we going to do on Wednesday night?"
The band often went out or had a movie night on Wednesdays, It was the only day that really fitted for all of them.
All three boys shrugged nonchalantly as they continued to focus on the game they were playing on the X-box. Kasey couldn't remember the name of it and frankly she didn't care.
Stevie didn't seem to have heard her, the brunette was currently organizing their rather large collection of CD's in alphabetical order. She had been doing strange things like that all day though, complimenting perfect strangers on their outfits or hair and happily organizing the band room. So far, Zander had made no comment on the matter, continuing on as if this was normal for Stevie- which it really wasn't.
"Stevie!" Kasey sing songed at her friend, Stevie whipped around and looked expectantly at Kasey.
"Yes?"
"Suggestions for Wednesday night?"
"Mini Golf." Stevie replied instantly, continuing to sort the CDs.
Zander paused the video game and frowned, "Mini golf?"
Stevie placed the current CD she was holding on the shelf and crossed her arms, "have any of you idiots come up with a better suggestion?" She raised her eyebrows and smirked, daring them to challenge her
"Mini golf it is!" Kasey exclaimed.
Stevie nodded, still smirking. She fitted the last group of CDs back on to the shelf and stood up, "I'm going to the library."
Zander jumped up after her and grabbed her wrist pulling her towards him, "Can I come?"
"I'm going to study Zander, not make out." She gave him a sweet smile as she turned away.
Zander dropped her wrist, a little disappointed. It took less than a second for Stevie to turn back to him and close the 3 feet between them. Though to everyone's surprise she only kissed him on the cheek.
"See you later." She turned, the black skirt she was wearing spinning out around her.
"Does anyone else think she is unnaturally perky?" Kasey asked with an air of annoyance after Stevie had left.
Zander crossed his arms and frowned, "I'd much rather she was happy than sad."
"But this is unnatural." Kasey persisted.
Kevin stepped between them, "can't we just leave her be for a bit?"
Kasey glared at him. "This is totally unfair! You all know what's happening! I don't. Maybe if someone would tell me something then I wouldn't have to go fishing for information!"
"On the contrary Kasey. None of us know what's wrong." Zander ran a hand through his hair.
Kasey cocked her head, confused. "You all seem pretty sure of what you know! Besides," she jabbed Zander pointedly in the chest, "you spend so much time with her! How can you not know?"
Zander sank down on to the back of the couch, "if I knew what the problem was then I would be trying everything I could to fix it."
"Well what do you know then? Cause they," Kasey pointed accusingly at Kevin and Nelson, who pulled horrified faces at her, "Hinted at something on Saturday. Something they 'weren't supposed to know'"
"What?" Zander looked at them curiously.
Nelson pulled awkward face and Kevin motioned jerkily to his wrists.
Zander bits his lip.
"What?" Kasey practically screeched.
"When I explain this to you," Zander started slowly, giving Kasey one of the tired but serious looks he'd been giving her a lot lately, "you breathe not a word of it to Stevie. If she finds out that anyone but me knows she'll freak out. And no one needs that right now."
Kasey gives a sharp nod, leaning in a little closer.
"Have you ever noticed something odd about Stevie's wrists Kasey?"
Kasey looks at him quizzically "no. She wears a lot of bracelets though."
"What about under the bracelets?"
Kasey looks even more lost and Kevin takes this opportunity to jump in, "there are marks on her wrists. Cut marks."
All three boys stare hard at her while she processes this information. "oh." Is all she can manage out.
Stevie spends the hour after band practice and before Mini Golf at Zanders.
"There's really not much point in me going home." she tells him matter of factly as they're driving to his house, absent mindedly she rubs her arms to try and warm them up.
It takes her about three seconds once they've walked in the front door to bound off to his bedroom. Zander finds snacks while he waits for her in the kitchen. She reappears clothed in one of his sweaters- the big red Christmas one to be exact. It was at least two sizes too big for Zander, so it's like a tent on Stevie. Zander smiles, it's pretty much become hers, the only reason for it still being here was Stevie's usual lack of any warm clothes when she arrived at his house.
She opens the bag of chips and looks at him expectantly while munching on one. "Well?" she asks, taking another handful.
"Well what?" Zander watches the chips disappear rapidly, didn't she already eat, like, half his lunch only a few hours ago?
"What are we going to do?" she dusts the orange powder off her hands and places them on her hips.
Zander blinks. She's never asked him what they were going to do before. Usually she just decided.
"We could, um. Write a new song? Or watch TV? Or-" he takes a step towards her, sliding one arm around her waist, "we could make out."
Stevie doesn't look impressed. "Zander!" she whines, stomping her foot like an angry child. "Can't we do something fun?"
Zander frowns. Making out is fun. She's never turned him down before- it stings a little. "What do you classify as fun?"
She doesn't have an answer. So they watch TV. She's in a pretty good mood, so everything suddenly becomes funny. Zanders not sure what they're laughing at by the time he realizes its five thirty, but it continues to be funny even as they arrive at the miniature golf course- late of course, and neither of them can get enough words out through their uncontrollable laughing to explain anyway.
Kasey leans over and mutters something about how they're 'so weird!' to her date, Dean Hollis, who just smiles awkwardly.
Zander remembers something about Kasey saying that Dean wanted to 'get to know them all better' last week. But Zander honestly wasn't really listening so he doesn't know why Mini Golf was an appropriate time for the bonding to happen. He's not even really sure when Kasey and Dean started dating again, did they really ever stop? Mentally, he made a note to ask Stevie later- She would talk about that sort of stuff with Kasey right?
"Are you good at mini golf?" Zander asks Stevie as they're waiting in the line to pay the entry fee.
She snorts, "No. I'm terrible."
"Why did you want to come then?" he asks curiously.
"Cause its fun." She replies, the cuffs of his sweater (or is it hers?) balled up in her hands so her fingers were no longer visible. "I used to come here as a kid all the time when my cousins came over. I always lost, but it's still really fun." She smiles happily at him and Zander takes the opportunity to wrap an arm round her waist and kiss her cheek. Stevie lays her head on his shoulder for a moment before they move ahead in line.
"Could you two stop being so cute?" Kasey's high pitched voice rung through the sweetness of the moment, Stevie rolled her eyes at her friend.
"We could be making out right now Kace." She reminds her friend good naturedly.
"God no!" Kasey groans.
Sometimes, Zander thinks, Kasey's voice was so annoying. And she had an annoying habit of cutting of all the really nice moments he and Stevie had short.
Stevie's fingers have emerged enough from the sweater to grip Zanders. He pays for both of them without a second thought- She doesn't resist.
Once the six of them are assembled at the beginning of the course- each with a different colored ball and stick, Kasey looks pointedly at Stevie. "Any particular way you want to play this?"
Stevie raises an eyebrow at her. "There is only one way to play. You hit the ball in to the hole in as few hits as possible."
Kasey raises her arms as if she was surrendering. "You'd better go first, Stevie, this was your idea after all."
"I'm really bad." Stevie says it as if this will change Kasey's reasoning on the subject.
"So?" Kasey shrugs.
Stevie deliberates for a second on whether she should convince someone else to go first, but Kevin was helping Nelson measure the angles of the course with a protractor and it wouldn't have been very polite to push Dean to start. That left Kasey and Zander and both of them were looking at her expectantly. So Stevie put the light blue ball on the white mark and concentrated very hard on the hole.
The ball rolled about a foot to the right of the hole. Stevie crossed her arms and glared at it. "Stupid ball." She muttered, flouncing back to Zander, positioning herself in front of him so he could wrap his arms around her.
Kasey motioned for Dean to go next. Much to Stevie's annoyance, he got a hole in one. As did Kasey. And Zander.
"So according to my measurements," Nelson started when it was his turn, "If I hit the ball with a 90° angel and a speed of-"
"Just go Nelly." Stevie exclaimed, cutting off his monologue from her position in Zanders arms.
Nelson flicked his hair from his face indignantly and hit the ball effortlessly into the hole.
Kevin was last and to Stevie's relief he came about 2 inches short of the hole. So that only left the two of them to finish.
Kevin got the ball in on his next hit, but it took Stevie two more tries to get it into the hole.
She pouted pitifully at Zander, who laughed and kissed her nose while no one was looking.
The next few holes ended in much the same way, Nelson would measure the whole thing, Stevie would miss dreadfully, and everyone else would get somewhere close to parr.
Eventually Zander took a step forward as Stevie was concentrating hard on her ball, holding the club tightly and sticking her tongue out for good measure, grasping her hand lightly he spun her around. "Can I help you?" he asked sweetly.
She nodded, loving the feeling she got as Zanders arms snaked round her waist to adjust her grip on the club.
"Ok," his mouth was next to her ear and his breath was sending shivers down her spine. "See the hole?"
She nodded.
"You have to miss the sand and hit that wall to get it in, so hit on an angle."
Stevie licked her lips and concentrated on where Zander was pointing. He angled her a bit and for a moment he just sort of stood there till Nelson exclaimed loudly, "the angles are all screwed up on this one!" as he tutted at the small plastic protractor in his hand and Kevin nodded in agreement.
Zander and Stevie both jumped a bit and he took a step back, "and now you just… hit it."
Stevie took a deep breath and attempted to shake the fog that had clouded her brain.
As she watched the ball roll towards the hole, Stevie was worried that she hadn't hit it hard enough. But it fell into the hole with a satisfying 'plop'.
Stevie let out a shriek and dropped her club, turning and jumping at Zander like an excited puppy "It went in! ZANDER! It went in!"
Zander nodded and catching her round the waist, he steadied her bouncing.
Stevie threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. "I've never got a hole-in-one before!"
Nelson and Kevin shared a smile over Stevie's excitement, they'd watched the whole scene unfold, and the sappiness of the whole thing was over ruled by the smile and general delight Stevie was omitting.
Even the stares from strangers didn't deter Stevie's total bliss as the others had their turns. She would never know though, if her friends had all deliberately not got holes-in-one or if it was just luck that she had and they hadn't. None the less, it gave her a lot more confidence for the next hole, Zander only gave her a few pointers, and while she didn't get a hole-in-one, she did get it in only two strokes.
"I never knew Stevie was this excitable…" Dean commented quietly to Kasey as they watched Stevie help Kevin and Nelson do all their measurements for the next hole.
"She's not generally this excited." Kasey lined up her club with the ball. "She just really loves mini golf."
Dean gave a slow awkward nod, over the time that he had been dating Kasey- which from the time they had been on their first date till now, not excluding all the times they had dated other people, was about a year and a half- he had gotten to know the members of Gravity 5 reasonably well. Usually, Stevie was the one calming everyone else down and trying to keep everyone safe, though Dean had to admit that he had noticed that Stevie hadn't been acting… normal lately. It wasn't like most of the school hadn't noticed, Gravity 5's lunch table had been unusually quiet and there wasn't the usual sound of Zander walking to class strumming his ukulele. But it seemed to him that this was confirmation that everything was alright.
Stevie had more and more trouble with the holes as they got harder, after every hit she would turn back to Zander with a frown- not that it tended to last long.
Finally Zander stood behind her again and attempted to explain exactly what to do as she hit the ball.
"Wow. Could you two be any closer together at this point?" Kasey called to the pair.
"Hush Kasey! I'm concentrating!" Stevie responded, waving her hand vaguely in the direction of Kasey's voice as she looked where Zander was pointing.
Stevie got the ball in the hole in four shots, while Zander, Kasey and Dean had got it in in three, Nelson in two and Kevin tying with Stevie. She grinned happily as Zander recorded the scores on their group score card, "Look Z, I've gotten it on par twice!" she pointed at the numbers giddily, bouncing lightly on the tips of her toes.
Zander laughed, compared to everyone else, Stevie was doing terribly. With the exception of Kevin, who tried to follow Nelsons instructions on angle and velocity and failed miserably, everyone else was getting most of the holes on par. But this face didn't deter Stevie from her endless excitement every time she managed to get the ball in the hole in less than eight strokes.
At the end Stevie took a picture of the score card proudly, telling everyone that 'this was the best night ever!' Everyone had to agree that it had been pretty fun, even though they had been given strange looks by everyone else who was there- especially by the families with small children who clearly couldn't understand why a group of teenagers would want to go Mini Golfing.
"Food?" Kevin asked them all once they had returned their clubs.
Stevie nodded furiously, "Ice cream!"
"We haven't even had dinner Steves, wouldn't you rather have dinner then ice cream?" Zander questioned lightly.
"No!" she exclaimed, "what normal person wouldn't want ice cream first?"
"I want a hamburger." Nelson put in, unhelpfully as he and Kevin battled Furious Pigeons.
"What about that diner a few blocks away? Doesn't that have hamburgers and an ice cream sunday bar?" Kasey suggested sensibly.
"Perfect." Zander agreed. It took him a moment to uncurl Stevie's fingers enough from the inside of the cuff of her sweater so he could hold her hand, while Stevie giggled and attempted to make it harder for him.
Kasey rolled her eyes at them. "Do you two have any sense of personal space? Or the ability to spend time apart?"
Stevie put on a mock confused face and looked from Kasey to Zander and back again, "we can be apart?"
Kevin and Nelson looked up from their games, "nailed it!" They both agreed, putting their hands out to high five Stevie.
Zander listened to Stevie talk animatedly to Kevin and Nelson all the way to the diner, he zoned out after "remember in fifth grade…" but he liked the way Stevie waved her free hand around excitedly and the way Kevin and Nelson would practically shriek in agreement.
As they looked at the menu in the diner, Stevie pointed out everything she thought looked nice to eat (which was almost everything) and Zander nodded along.
"Well, well, well." All six of them whipped around to find Molly and Grace, both clad head to toe in purple, standing at the edge of their table. "Look what the cat dragged in." Molly gave them a patronizing smirk.
Stevie ran her tongue around her front teeth and stood up, giving Molly a stony glare. Zander tugged her arm slightly "Stevie…"
She gave him an annoyed look and pulled her arm away from his grip.
"Look Molly." She stepped away from her chair and crossed her arms. "Just because we are in the same restaurant doesn't mean that you have to come and…" She paused, clearly having stopped herself from saying something rude. "Be so mean." She finished.
"I don't have to, but I do." Molly gave a satisfied smirk.
Stevie frowned, "Why do you hate us so much?"
Molly looked uncertain and Stevie continued, "Even better question, why do you hate me? I never did anything to you! You've been mean to me since elementary school."
Molly shifted her weight from one foot to the other, "I don't… hate you."
"Really?" Stevie raised her eyebrows, "Could've fooled me."
Molly let out a huffy breath, "you've always just been so… Perfect."
Stevie snorted loudly "Perfect? I'm anything but perfect."
Molly gave a childish stomp of her foot and glared at Stevie, "You never cared what anyone thought of you, you were so loyal to your friends, you get perfect grades, you have the boy that half the school is crushing on practically wrapped around your finger, the whole school respects you and you manage to dress in an effortlessly casual way that actually looks good." It all came out fast and in a jumble, not at all the cool and calm response Molly had had planned in her head.
Stevie stared at Molly for a moment, digesting the information she had just been given. Her response was much slower and more ordered than Molly's, "Firstly, thank you, no one ever compliments me on my fashion sense. Second I don't have perfect grades. What good grades I do have I work really hard to achieve." Stevie tugged a tendril of hair behind her ear and chewed her lip with an air of insecurity surrounding her next sentence, "Everyone in school respects you, Molly. I'm just the girl they hate because I'm dating Zander."
Molly shook her head, "Everyone thinks you're cool. The football team won't go anywhere near these two nerds," she gestured to Kevin and Nelson, "Because they're afraid you'll beat them up."
"Really?" all uncertainty gone, Stevie grinned and twirled a piece of hair around her fingers.
Molly nodded.
Stevie gave an evil smile, Zander jumped up and grabbed her wrists "No." he told her. "You can't do that."
She pouted "Why?"
"Because that's not nice."
Molly turned to the rest of the group at the table and looked confused, "They read each other's minds?"
"Pretty much." Kasey shrugged.
"Butttt Zander!" Stevie whined.
Zander laughed, he leaned forward and whispered something in her ear. Stevie giggled and nodded before pulling one hand out of his grip and holding her pinky up, "Pinky promise?" She gave him a wide eyed innocent look.
Such things may have become uncool in fifth grade, but that had never stopped Stevie from making Zander promise her everything like this.
He took her pinky in his, "Promise." He agreed before kissing her nose.
"Augh!" Kasey exclaimed, "What is with you two and being cute today?"
Stevie looked over at her friend with a hurt look, "We're not cute every day?"
"Well." Nelson sounded like he was making a very in-depth scientific analysis, "usually you make out all the time. Today you haven't made out once."
"Not in front of you anyway." Zander muttered.
Stevie rolled her eyes and shook her head, "Were you daydreaming or something? Because I don't recall having any sort of serious make out session with you today."
Zander glared at her, "and whose fault was that?"
Stevie smirked, "It's good to know you're so upset about that."
"See!" Molly exclaimed indignantly, "you practically control him!"
To everyone's shock Zander nodded and pulled Stevie close, "only she may do that."
Stevie attempted to hide her blush by finishing her rebuttal to Molly's earlier comments "Anyway. Molly you practically control the whole school and you're pretty loyal to Grace. Couldn't we just put this stupid war behind us? I'm so over fighting with you."
"I guess."
Stevie blinked. Had Molly just agreed to stop being mean to her?
Molly bit her lip and gave Stevie an earnest look, "Like I said that time you were a Perf, I've always wanted to be friends with you. I guess now is as good time as ever."
Stevie still looked a bit taken back, "for the record, Molly, I've always admired your sense of style. And how close you and Grace are. It's a special bond, knowing someone for as long as you two have and being best friends."
Molly looked at Grace with a small smile, "It is."
Grace however, was twirling a piece of hair around her fingers and staring dreamily at Nelson, who was staring equally as dreamily back.
Stevie let out a huffy breath, "Oh for god's sake!" She walked round to Nelson and tugged him up, "come Nelly." She commanded dragging him to Grace.
Nelson waved awkwardly at the blonde in front of him, "Hi Grace."
"Hi." Grace responded with a breathy giggle.
Stevie pushed her tongue against her cheek, "Don't you two ever get tired of staring at each other and not acting on the big crushes you have on each other?"
Nelson looked down at his feet and Grace inspected a tendril of hair.
"Wouldn't you rather know that you gave this a try instead of always wondering what would have happened if you had?" she crossed her arms and looked from one to the other impatiently.
Neither looked at her or each other.
"FINE!" Stevie huffed, she started to push their heads together before Zander jumped forward and pulled her back.
But the desired effect was already occurring as he grasped her hands, keeping them away from doing any more meddling.
The Kiss was short and sweet, but it left both Nelson and Grace with the certainty of what they wanted.
Molly pushed the two of them away, "shoo." She told them- almost gently, "go… talk or something." They didn't take much convincing.
Satisfied, Stevie sat down again with Zander close behind her. Molly stood awkwardly for a moment before Kevin pushed Nelsons empty chair out, "I don't think Nelsons going to be needing this for a while."
Molly sat down with a look of relief, "Thanks Kevin." She smiled. Stevie had never seen Molly smile so genuinely at anyone but Grace, and in truth, it kind of freaked her out a little.
Molly was very polite for the remainder of dinner, helping Nelson and Grace find chairs so they could sit down and even complimenting Stevie on her 'unusual' sweater. Stevie had grinned happily and announced to everyone that it was Zanders.
As soon as she had finished her meal Stevie was tapping on Zanders arm, "Ice cream now." She informed him with a bright smile.
Zander nodded, "go and start looking, I'll catch up in a sec."
Stevie kissed his cheek and bounded over to the Ice cream bar.
"She is way too obsessed with Ice cream." Kasey said with a good natured laugh. After most gigs Stevie requested that they go for ice cream, and the only snack she ever wanted was ice cream.
"She likes Ice cream." Kevin added obviously.
"What Kevin means," Nelson pushed the hair off his face importantly, "Is that Stevie's always liked ice cream. She used to spend all her allowance on it when we were kids."
Zander dropped his very sleepy girlfriend home an hour later. Leading her by the hand up to her door step he pulled her into a tight hug. He liked how long her hair had gotten, it curled neatly half way down her back, her blond highlights having faded to the ends leaving the top of her head dark. She had tucked her head in to the crook of his neck giving him the perfect opportunity to play with her hair. She sighed contentedly at his touch and after a moment looked up at him, "Thanks for helping me tonight Z."
He looked at her quizzically, "I'll always help you."
She nodded, "I know, but I want you to know how much I appreciate it."
He kissed her slowly, the long evening leaving them a bit sloppy, but Zander still loved the way It made him feel so light.
"Night." She whispered as she pulled away, opening her door with a quick push before looking over her shoulder at him with what Zander had to describe as an almost seductive smile.
Soooooo... this chapters not exactly short. Or on time. But its here.
Thank you HTRobsessed for showing me one of the saddest stories I've ever read and making me want to make this chapter as happy as possible to counteract that.
ZevieFTW: this chapters a little longer so it kinda balances out the shortness of the last one. I feel better knowing Stevie is ok to, as much as I love sad chapters I always feel bad for all the terrible things I do to Stevie, so I'm going to give her a few happy things to reminisce over.
Zevielover17: I'm glad you liked it :) Stevie wasn't actually drunk, she just felt drunk (I don't think Zander would have let her drink.) Zander will follow Stevie around no matter what (at least in my head anyway), and they will always be able to talk to each other :)
I'm obsessed with her voice too (should we be referring to her as Lexi or Lulu in this context? idk), It's such a shame that HTR didnt get a second season where she sung :(.
I'm about to message you about the story, so sit tight :)
HTRobsessed: No you hadn't reviewed this chapter until then. The poetry was certainly unique :) I hope you enjoyed this :)
So, send me happy things that Stevie can do while I wait for enough time to have pasted during the story to resolve Stevies issues.
Its about to storm here right now (I think, the sky's gone the colour of the dark gray paint no one wants to use in primary school) and I FREAKING LOVE RAIN! and I always get plenty of inspiration to write when it rains, so maybe they'll be another chapter up tomorrow :)
xxx 3
Encantria