ALEX

"Good Morning."

Eric came and sat his tray down next to me during breakfast the next day.

"Good Morning," I said turning to him.

"Argh," Christina grabbed her tray, got up, then grabbed Marlene and Lynn to leave.

"That time of the month," Eric called out to her.

"Really," I asked him.

"She's impossible, I don't know how you handle her as her roommate."

"I take pointers from Tris," I said motioning to Tris who threw a wink my way.

"She ends up growing on you," added Tris. We both laughed.

"Speaking about room mates, where's Aidan," I asked Eric. Just then Aidan dropped a box down on the table.

"This is for you," he said breathless.

"Is this the Halloween costume?" Aidan nodded and then sat down on the opposite side of Eric.

"Don't forget to try it on. It should fit though," Aidan stated as he started to eat his breakfast.

"So you're really not going to join our group," asked Tris.

"No, I told Christina to see if Lynn wanted to."

"Lynn told me she already had something in mind," said Shauna. "Said we were going to be surprised."

"What exactly are you girls doing," asked Uriah.

"That is a secret," replied Tris.

"Dammit," Uriah muttered. "I tried to get Marlene to tell me and she wouldn't even budge."

"What made you think, we were going to say something," I asked him.

"Well, for one thing, you," he said pointing to me. "Are on our team, not theirs. So your loyalty should be to your brother and the rest of the Avengers."

"Dear Lord," Tris said as we both rolled our eyes.

"Second," Uriah continued. "You girls all know what we're doing."

"That doesn't mean we should tell you," Shauna replied. "Besides if we did, Christina would chop off our heads."

"Off with your head," I said to Shauna as half the table started to laugh.

"That's my girlfriend you all are teasing," stated Will.

"Even you have to admit that she acts weird sometimes, Will," argued Eric.

"But that's why I love her," said Will. The guys started to tease Will.

"So," Tris said quietly under the teasing. "Last night," she said motioning to Eric.

"We just talked and hung out. Kind of late, too. I think that's why Christina was mad this morning," I replied.

"Nothing else going on between you two," questioned Tris. I was about to answer, but the bell for first period rang.

Classes today were pretty boring. I guess because we finished our work, projects, or essays the day before, so we didn't feel like working. Second period, our teacher didn't feel much into the lesson today, so just gave us a pop-quiz and then told us we could talk quietly after the whole class handed in their quiz.

I had to liven things up. Aidan leaned forward in his chair to tell Drew something. I took off the cap on one of my pocket anti-bacs from Bath & Body and put it on this chair. Aidan sat back and immediately it squirted all over the back of his pants. He stood up quickly and turned to look at me.

"I couldn't help it, I was bored," I replied shyly as I sunk down in my chair.

"Mr. Kent, I said you could talk quietly. Why are you always disruptive in my class?" Because his sister is, I thought as I tried not to laugh.

I looked over at Eric who was smiling. I turned back to Aidan. It was perfect. It was smeared all over his butt. Aidan got dismissed to go to his room and change.

"That was so funny," Zeke said turning to me and giving me a high five. "Evil, but funny," he started to laugh. Even Four put on a smile.

"You just couldn't resist, could you," said Lauren as we got up to walk out of class.

"Don't you make trouble to your brother," I asked her.

"Yeah, that's what younger siblings are supposed to do," she said as we both laughed and then turned to walk off to our third period classes.

That night after practice, we all headed out to go shopping. The closest mall wasn't all that and it was going to close at 8 anyways. I felt bad for the underclassmen who weren't allowed to go off campus during the weekdays and didn't shop this past weekend. They just had to shop online, choose from their closets, or have their parents send them something.

I mostly followed Myra, Tris, and Lynn around knowing Christina and Marlene were planning on going overboard.

Shauna, Lauren, and Deena went to get ice cream. One of the few times Lauren could eat it without giving Peter a heart attack.

"What were you going to be for Halloween," asked Lynn. "You're not going to join Christina's little fairy idea, too are you?"

"No, my brother asked me to join his little Avengers Assemble team," I said waving my hand.

Christina made me try on my outfit before we went shopping. I swear Aidan was not going to be happy when he saw me in it. But oh wells, that was his idea. Just then Lauren, Shauna, and Deena came back.

"You're a size 8 right?" I looked at Shauna confused. "Shoe size, I mean," she clarified.

"Yeah, why what's up?"

(Yes, that's my actual shoe size. I know, it's big. Me and my other two friends get teased because unlike the rest of the girls we hang out with, our feet is considered big. Whatever. LOL.)

"We brought you a new pair of heels," Lauren answered.

"Thanks guys," I said grabbing the bag and hugging Shauna. "You didn't have to."

"I don't want you to walk away empty-handed. Charlotte Russe had a really good sale," Shauna said as I pulled it out of the box.

"It's Eric's favorite color," I said looking at the heels.

"Hm, Eric's favorite color, huh," teased Deena. Her and Lauren started to laugh.

"It'll match that dress you were staring at," said Myra.

"Now we know why you kept looking at it," added Tris as the other girls started to laugh also. "Let's go get it!"

We hurried back to the store right before it closed. Christina and Marlene were still in there with ten different outfits in the dressing room. I came out with the dress and the heels.

"That looks awesome," said Shauna. "You have to get the dress now!"

"Yeah, plus too, it's on sale," added Lynn. "Can't go wrong if it's on sale." Some of us looked at Lynn. "Hey, if it saves one money, then one should get it."

"I'm not going to homecoming though," I responded.

"You could always use it on a date or at a party," said Tris.

"Eric will think it's cute," said Myra.

"It is his favorite color," I said softly with a huge smile, as I ran my hands over the dress. The last time I brought something his favorite color was a bra from Victoria's Secret and of course he saw me in that.

"Yes Alex, we all know what his favorite color is now," Lauren said as she winked at me.

"Speaking of him, did your birthday wish come true, yet?" I turned to Tris and Myra who started to giggle.

"Wait, so you two did know what she wished for," accused Christina coming out of the dressing room.

"Yes, they know," I said turning to Christina. "And yes, it came true and it was nothing that I could describe in words! It happened like a couple weeks ago, but it still feels fresh in me. It started off perfect and the whole thing was full of passion. My whole body was on fire." Tris and Myra smiled at me. "I'm serious. I don't know what took us so long to finally do it, but we did. And I swear if I could I would have done a happy dance after it was over."

"Well, I saw you after and you did have an extra bounce in your step," said Myra smiling.

"You and Eric had sex," asked Lauren.

"No," responded Myra. "They kissed. Well, I'm assuming they made out." She finished and threw me a wink.

"Damn, if that's all a kiss gave to you," said Deena.

"He should give you a good time in bed, then," added Lauren as her and Deena high-five and started to laugh.

"Okay, we're so not going to talk about that right now," said Shauna. "So you two kissed, you're back to being good friends, right?" I smiled and nodded.

"So why aren't you two together yet," Lynn asked the million dollar question.

"Because he's not worth it," said Christina.

"Honestly, Chris," protested Lauren.

"He is worth it. It's just there's so much people talking," I answered.

"Don't listen to them," said Tris. "Take it from me. You need to shut out what everyone else says."

"It really hurt that he would think so little of me though. That day..."

"That was what? Like two weeks ago, Alex," reminded Tris. "He's been apologizing and trying his best to show you how much you mean to him. He's just as hurt."

"Exactly what I said," agreed Myra.

"Yeah, okay, we're talking again and back to being friends, but I just don't know..."

"No, you do KNOW!" I looked at Tris. "You know how you feel. You know how he feels. That's all that matters."

Was that all that mattered?

On Friday as Christina and I walked down into the cafeteria, several people whistled at us. For one thing, my suit was really tight and the zipper didn't zip up all the way, showing a whole lot of cleavage. Christina's fairy dress was short too. Someone must have told Aidan what everyone was whistling at, because his head snapped around and he looked mad. Aidan jumped out of his chair and pulled me down to where he was sitting.

"I swear to God everyone better stop whistling," he yelled looking around the cafeteria as they slowly died down. Someone else let out a loud whistle right as it got quiet. "Shut up. This is my baby sister!"

"Who's seventeen now, thank you very much," I replied hitting his shoulder.

"Why in the world is your top so low," complained Aidan. He tried to pull the zipper up.

"That's all it will go up. You're the one who wanted me to play the Black Widow!"

"Yeah, but not with your cleavage showing that much!"

"Hey, we might win the contest with your sister dressed like that," said Uriah. Aidan turned to look at him and he looked down at the table.

Just then more whistles erupted in the cafeteria. There was Tris, Marlene, Shauna, and Lauren walking in as the rest of Christina's fairy posse. I had to laugh. Lauren, according to Christina was the mean fairy, which I didn't know there was one. And boy if Aidan thought my cleavage was showing, there was Shauna's. Her reddish pink fairy dress matched her strawberry blonde hair. And boy was she curvier now than when she had on our school uniform. Zeke's jaw dropped.

"Hunny, flies are going to come around," Shauna teased as she used her finger to push Zeke's mouth close. He shook his head and then pulled her close for a kiss. It almost turned into a make out scene, until Christina snapped.

"I don't want her make up ruined," Christina scolded.

Tris was dressed as Tinkerbell and her dress was even shorter than Christina's. It brought out her curves just right. She didn't look happy about it though.

Four, who Aidan made dress up as Thor, put his hand around Tris when she got to the table.

"Hey, you change red just like Tinkerbell does when she's mad," he teased as she hit him and he poked her side back.

To me Eric would have been a better Thor, but as I looked at Eric in black pants that looked like mine and a black vest, I realized that Aidan made him Hawk Eye. Not to mention, the vest did not cover up his arms, his chest muscles, or his abs. He looked really hot! I guess that was a good compromise. He caught me staring and winked at me. I smiled and then my phone beeped.

I like ur outfit - Eric

I like yours too - Alex

I threw a piece of pancake at his chest. He looked at me and smirked. We looked around and no one seemed to notice.

Especially that part - Alex

I looked up at him and he flew the pancake back at me, only it fell in between my cleavage. We both tried to hide our laughter, hoping no one saw, as I tried to pick it out.

That's my fave part too - Eric

Boys, I thought. We continued to smile and steal glances at one another.

"Stop flirting and just go out already," whispered Four. I turned to look at him and he raised an eyebrow at me.

"Shut up Four," I whispered back. He started to chuckle. Tris saw the exchange too.

"Remember Alex, you know how you feel, you know how he feels. That's all that matters," she leaned over Four to whisper to me. I guess Four couldn't help it. But as Tris was leaning over, he slapped her butt. She pulled back and punched his shoulder. "Boys," Tris muttered.

Boys is right! I took one last look at Eric and we smiled at each other. Then I turned to Aidan and asked about the rest of our Avengers team.

Uriah was Hulk, Zeke was Director Fury, Peter played Iron Man, which all three of them absolutely loved. It showed because they started to play around. Uriah kept punching the table and screaming 'Hulk Smash!' and Zeke and Peter just couldn't help but pretend to shoot or blast things around. Will was originally Agent Coulson, but wanted to play Loki instead. His costume looked totally cool. And of course, Aidan was Captain America. I wanted to ask Aidan in what Universe or Comic does Captain America have black hair, but I decided not to. Black Widow has reddish sort of hair, not black. I knew he would have argued that to me. I swear Aidan could be such a nerd sometimes.

Drew, Al, and Molly came as Harry Potter and whoever his two other friends were. Another book series Myra was trying to get me to read. I asked her if I could see the movies first and she said no.

Edward and Myra were the only ones who did a couple theme. They went as Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark. Yes, Myra finally got me to read the book. And I have to say I totally enjoyed it! The second she looked at me I held up my three fingers and she did the same. We both laughed and then continued to eat breakfast, with Aidan occasionally complaining about my zipper not being able to zip all the way up. Every time he did I would turn to Eric to see him smirk and wink at me.

I hated whatever class I had Uriah in. He kept yelling 'Hulk Smash' and hitting things, that just happened to be by me. Zeke made a rocket shoot off in class. He claimed it was an accident, but I highly doubt it was from the look on his and Eric's face.

Edward played around with Myra's fake bow more than Myra did and shot a couple pencils into the screen for our classroom projector. I swear I was waiting for some bigger prank to happen. After all it was Halloween!

"Trick is the one you actually need to look out for," said Eric as we walked to lunch. I looked at him. "Why do you think we call him Trick? He always tries to set off pranks during Halloween."

"Lynn!" I screamed once we got down for lunch. Lynn was dressed as a sexy police officer.

"I know I know, not really me. But who really dresses like themselves during Halloween?"

"I'm so proud of you," screamed Marlene.

"Proud that I dressed like a slut," questioned Lynn.

"You know what I mean," said Marlene. We all started to laugh.

In the middle of lunch, there was screaming on one side of the cafeteria. Trick and Justin, who were dressed as Shaggy and Scooby Doo, came running away from that corner.

"See you guys," Trick yelled at our table and bolted for the exit. Just then we saw what he had let loose. A couple small snakes dropped from the ceiling and landed on our table. Every table had about a few snakes on them by now.

"Calm down," said Four.

"Yeah, these aren't poisonous," added Eric as he grabbed one.

"In fact these are baby Milk snakes," encouraged Edward. "They're harmless."

Too late. A lot of the girls and even some of the guys had gone into hysterics. Everyone was evacuated from the cafeteria while campus security and various staff members caught the snakes.

During fourth period, Trick let bats loose in the science building. We saw them evacuate from our classroom window.

"Thank God, he has Physics fourth period," I said letting out a breath of relief.

"I wouldn't think we're safe just now," said Eric.

And we weren't. He let bats out in the language and arts building, too. Our building ended up evacuating too. Where in the heck did Trick get bats? They were apparently Mexican Free Tail bats and illegal in the State of Divergent. I turned to look at Eric.

"Yeah, I know I'm a nerd," he said to me as we both laughed.

"I swear Trick, nothing else better happen today," I said walking up to him as we passed each other on the way to fifth period.

"What are you talking about? None of this was me." He winked at me and then gave Eric a high five.

During fifth period, all the power on campus went off. They decided to cancel fifth period.

During sixth period, the power came back on. Trick ended up locking all the girls in the locker room. He shut off power to that building only, too. Right when the lights came on, several girls started screaming. Everywhere in the showers and coming out of our lockers were roaches. Big ones, little ones, flying ones.

I looked down the way as Tris was trying to cover Christina. Christina was yelling and crying at the same time.

"I'm going to kill whoever did this," she screamed. Most of us girls were okay after the first two minutes of utter and complete panic. Finally we were able to kill, squish, or move the roaches into containers to drop off to the science building.

As we walked out of the locker room, all the guys started laughing. Will came over to hug Christina.

"No," she pushed him away. "Who did that? Who decided to do that?"

"Come on, Christina," said Will. "It was just a prank."

We found out that it was Uriah, Peter, and Will's idea to get the roaches. So Will wasn't completely off the hook on this one. It was Eric, Edward, Four and Zeke's idea to throw them into the locker room after Trick, Justin, and Aidan switched off the power to only our building. Trick was going to wait until tonight for his next prank, but the rest of the guys just insisted on doing something to us girls.

"I guess it's not only Trick that we have to look out for," I said to Eric as we walked to the assembly.

"Hey, you're still alive though, right," teased Eric. "Besides, tell me it wasn't funny to watch some of the girls, especially Christina, scream and rant?" I tried to make a mad face at Eric, but he pinched my side, making me smile.

"Fine, I guess it was kind of funny," I smiled as he chuckled.

"Plus, Aidan wanted to get you back for yesterday," Eric added. I turned to Aidan to say something, but Eric grabbed my hand and led me towards the gym for the assembly. Shauna called me over for us to do our cheer/dance. I dropped Eric's hand, gave him a kiss on the cheek and he kissed my forehead.

"Noticed the hand holding," Marlene stated as I looked down trying to hide my smile. It just seemed natural for him and I.

"Alex," Shauna looked at me expectantly and waved Marlene to go to the rest of the squad. "I highly doubt you're hurt anymore. From the looks of things you've already chosen Eric before any other guy. I believe you forgave him a while ago."

"I think I did," I answered her.

"I can tell part of you probably wants to make him suffer by prolonging you two dating," Shauna said smiling.

"It's not that," I responded smiling as well. Or was it? Was I really hoping to make him hurt too?

"You knew how much he wanted you to be friends in the beginning. You made him work so hard for it, too. Now, he wants your heart so badly and you're doing the same thing," she pointed out. I looked away thinking maybe that's what I was doing. "You know how I can tell?"

"How can you," I asked.

"I did that once with Zeke." I looked up at her and smiled. "But seeing all that effort they go through, there's no denying how they feel. And Alex, everyone can see that Eric really cares deeply about you. You know how you feel, you know how he feels, that's all that matters."

I gave Shauna a hug and we started our pep rally. There were some other dancing events put on by the Spanish Club, the Japanese Club, and even the teachers did a little dance. It was funny to watch some of them up there.

Before the costume contest started, I took some pictures and posted a couple on IG. Immediately Cara text me, instead of commenting on it.

U kno that u and Eric sort of match - Cara

Thank God she text me and didn't post it.

Funny! He looks hot tho - Alex

He caught me staring this morning - Alex

U kno how u feel n u kno how he feels - Cara

Tell him u wanna b with him already - Cara

Was everyone going to be telling me that? Tris said it yesterday and today, Shauna told me that earlier and now Cara. I did know how I felt about Eric. I like Eric. I wasn't mad at him anymore. I forgave him probably last week. I did choose Eric. I didn't care about some fancy car Landon's rich parents were renting or all the teddy bears Jarrett or Wyatt would leave me. I only cared about Eric. I looked down and realized something about Cara's text message.

Look who's talkin - Alex

Y don't u say something too - Alex

Hey! I want ur bro to make a move first - Cara

I'll get him to do that then - Alex

*wink wink* - Alex

Lol. No don't do that - Cara

Don't worry, I won't - Alex

He's jus waitin for a good time to tell u. That's all - Alex

Thanx. BTW is Will, Loki? - Cara

Yea. We really do have crazy bros don't we - Alex

Lol. Yea we do. But they're awesome - Cara

Especially mine, huh - Alex

Shh. Lol - Cara

"Who you talking to," asked Aidan.

"No one," I said putting away my phone before he could ask any further. Eric looked at me and I mouthed 'Cara.' He chuckled and shook his head.

Christina them came in third place for the group costume. We came in second. First was Dominic, Brian, Roman, and Mia who went as the Fantastic Four.

"The judges were right," commented Aidan obviously upset we came in second. "Dominic actually had flames coming out of him, did you see that? When he did the whole 'flame on' thing." Aidan shook his head.

"Not to mention, if you ask me, their Thing is sort of better than our Hulk," I whispered to Aidan.

"Hulk Smash," Uriah screamed as he softly punched at my back. I grabbed one of his Hulk fists and threw it at his head. "Hulk Sad," Uriah responded until Marlene came over and gave him a quick kiss. "Hulk Happy."

"Hulk Stupid," I said as he softly punched me again with his arm that still had the other Hulk fist.

"Hey," I said shouting at him.

"You did call him stupid," pointed out Four.

"You should know by now Alex that the Hulk has feelings," teased Eric.

"Shut up," said Uriah as he pushed Eric.

"Oh no, now he's getting angry," teased Eric as we all started to laugh.

I don't know why. Maybe because I felt comfortable with him already. But I found myself leaning against Eric with his arm wrapped around me again. We stayed this way during the rest of the assembly and into the pep rally.

"I'm kind of glad you got them together," Eric said looking at Edward and Myra, who won second place for the couples costume. I can't believe they loss to Tara and Drake. "He's liked her for the longest time," Eric continued. I let out a sigh as Eric his arm gave me a little squeeze. "He probably wouldn't have said anything to her, unless it was for you."

I nodded. Eric brought out his other hand and I started to trace the lines with my finger. I really missed this.

"That was nice too what you did for Uriah and Marlene." I nodded against his chest. He moved one of his fingers in a circle on my waist. The girls were right. I was over what Eric did already. The pain I'm feeling now, is just my heart aching to be with him. I no longer felt hurt. But I couldn't bring myself to admit it. Eric moved his head to plant a kiss on my forehead.

"Where does that leave us, Alex?"

Where did that leave us? I wanted to say something. But I knew if I opened my mouth, I would ruin this moment. This moment where we could just enjoy spending time with each other. Among all the cheering and celebrating of the assembly, I was satisfied that we could just have this one moment.