Love of an Earth Lord

First Friends

AN: Here is the new chapter (which I had to write up twice because I accidentally deleted it. Yes, pretty stupid of me, I know.) Hope you enjoy it. I've made up the names of Nick and Toby's parents just to make that clear.

Lucinda's POV

I looked around at all the boxes. It was at times like these that I think we all regret having so much stuff.

"Right then, everyone!" Dad said optimistically (he is a big believer in optimism at all times). "Let's get everything unpacked! Lu, why don't you sort out your room whilst your mother and I get started down here?"

I grinned. "Okay, Dad!" I climbed up the steps and approached the door to my new bedroom. I took hold of the handle and cautiously turned it to open the door.

As it opened, I gasped before all of a sudden jumping up and down while squealing happily. It had been decorated exactly how I had asked! The walls were pink and black along with the bedding. The curtains were black with pink polka dots. I had a pink dresser and a black desk. Best of all, my guitar was propped up in a corner, still in perfect condition.

Seeing the amount of boxes I had to unpack, I took out my phone and plugged in the earphones before pressing shuffle on the music player. I then got to work unpacking all my stuff from the boxes and placing them where I liked. My clothes were folded neatly and placed in the correct drawers. Soon the number of boxes I had left to unpack started to decrease in number.

It took me a full hour for me to finish unpacking completely. By the time I had stuck up my last poster, I was exhausted and thirsty.

I ambled down the stairs into the kitchen and picked up the bottle of blackcurrant juice. As I began to pour it into my cup, I heard Mum say, "Thank you. We've just moved from New York."

Curious about who she was talking to, I lost concentration and ended up overfilling my cup. Then, to make matters worse, I then clumsily knocked the cup onto the floor. I groaned loudly as I began to mop up the mess.

"Lu, is that you in there?" Mum called from in the living room.

"Yeah!" I called back as I finished mopping up the juice. I walked into the living room only to see a red-haired woman with two boys who looked about my age. The first one had blonde hair and blue eyes and was wearing a blue jacket and jeans. The second had brown hair and brown eyes framed by glasses. He wore a yellow hooded jacket and green shorts.

The woman moved forward. "You must be Lucinda. I'm Karen Tripp and these are my sons, Toby and Nick." She pointed to the blonde boy and brunette boy respectively as she introduced them.

"Pleased to meet you." I said politely as I shook her hand. "Oh, and call me Lu. That's what everyone calls me."

She nodded. "Well, as I was saying to your mother just now, we only live across the road so if you need anything, don't hesitate to come and ask."

"Thank you, Mrs Tripp." I said before turning to the two boys. "I guess I'll see you guys on Monday."

Nick nodded. "Yeah, we'll wait for you to get your timetable. If you're lucky, you might be in our tutor group and some of our lessons."

"Okay." I grinned. They seemed like the kind of people I would want to be friends with.

All of a sudden, Mrs Tripp looked at her watch and said, "Oh my goodness, look at the time! We really must go now."

Mum and I walked with them to the door and Mum thanked them for coming. Nick said politely. "It was nice meeting you, Lu."

Toby nodded in agreement. "Yeah, we'll hopefully be seeing a lot more of you." He added.

"I hope so." I said. "It'll be nice to know someone at school."

As they left, I was glad that I had already befriended two people. My time at Venture Falls was already off to a good start.

Nick's POV

Toby and I started discussing Lucinda as soon as we got home. "She seems pretty cool." Toby said. I nodded in agreement.

Suddenly Toby got a gleam in his eyes that usually meant that either someone was going to get pranked or he had a plan, neither of which was a comforting idea to me. "Toby!" I protested. "You can't prank her!"

"I wasn't planning to." Toby said, much to my surprise. But I knew he must have something planned. "But I do have a plan for her...and you." He said slyly.

"For me?" I asked, stunned. I blinked at him in confusion until I finally understood. "Toby, not again!" I sighed exasperated. "I thought we agreed not to do this anymore."

Toby shook his head. "Technically speaking, I never agreed to anything. You just told me to stop setting you up with potential girlfriends. But you ought to know by now that I play by my own rules."

I sighed. "I'm not getting any say in this, am I?" He looked at me and grinned. "I'll take that as a no, then." I suddenly spied an opportunity to get my own back. "Okay, I'll let you enjoy trying to set me up with her...if you tell Jessica how you really feel about her."

Toby's face fell comically. "That's not fair!" He whined. "I wanted it to be special when I told her." A few seconds passed. "Wait, how did you-"

"Know that you like her? Toby, I hate to break it to you but I think everyone knows." I pointed out. "Well, that's my offer: I'll let you set me up if you confess to Jessica how you really feel- take it or leave it."

I watched, amused, as Toby thought about my offer. He clearly wanted to set me up with Lucinda but, at the same time, he was annoyed about my forcing him to tell Jessica about his true feelings.

Finally he had a response. "Okay, I'll accept your offer. By the time this is all over, hopefully we'll both get what we want out of this."

The challenge was on.

AN: I hope you like this chapter. Next time, Lucinda starts her first day at school and Toby begins plotting a set-up between her and Nick with the help of Jessica and Lucas. Thanks for reading!