Wednesday, Alexa's House, 7:20 P.M...

Day 2 of Alexa's attempt to change went by fairly easily and quickly. She had chosen to go the route of not saying much the whole day in school. She only spoke when she was spoken to, and kept a low profile. Unfortunately, a lot of people took that as her being in a pissed off mood and not wanting to communicate with anyone. She could tell by the amount of fellow students that hastily rushed past her when they got close. That frustrated the petite princess immensely. Having just gotten home, her frustration reached an even higher level when she walked into the kitchen and saw a little note with some money attached to it on the table. She didn't even have to look to know what that meant, but she decided to read it anyway for the hell of it.

"Hi, Lexi! I hope you had a productive day at school, and great practice. Your mother and I will not be home tonight, or for the next few days. Our work called us to be on a business trip. We've left you about 150 bucks for food, so our little baby can feed herself. We're so sorry, sweetheart. Stay out of trouble. Papa loves you!" The note read.

Alexa sighed and walked upstairs to her bedroom. She dropped her backpack on the ground, hung her coat up, and then lazily made her way to her bed, where she plopped down face first.

"Uhhhhhh, whhhhy?" She groaned.

This is the second time in the last month that her parents went away on business for an extended period of time. Tyler and Allie Bliss were busy people. With them being the co-owners of their own beauty and makeup company, that was a given. But still, that didn't change the fact that Alexa missed her mom and dad. She couldn't remember the last time they went out together as a family. It wasn't that she wasn't greatful for all the things they provided for her, she just wished that sometimes they could take a break. Nonetheless, that's just the way life goes sometimes. Now she's stuck alone basically for about a week or so. On top of everything she's dealing with in school, it's safe to say, this wasn't the best time for that.

Little Miss Bliss decided to get up and take a shower. Those usually helped her relieve stress, and also after practice, she kinda needed one. She went into her closet to grab a towel, washcloth, and her pajamas, then headed to the bathroom. Once there, she removed her clothes and stepped into the bathtub. When she turned on the water, she decided to put it at the highest temperature possible. The young girl proceeded to wash herself of the day's trials and tribulations. After a while, she was finished with the cleaning, but she decided to stay in and let the hot water come raining down on her nude body. It was sort of therapeutic to her. This gave her a chance to revisit her dilemma.

"What am I doing wrong? Am I just destined to be known as the mean rich girl in school? God I wish I could start over. Am I too far gone? Is it too late to change myself? Why? Why was I such a nasty person? Even my own friends can't see that I'm trying to change. They've excepted that the way I carried myself for years is just who I am. Not that I blame them. I'm surprised they haven't cut me off after all that I've done. I've treated them horribly as well. I don't deserve them at all. I don't deserve to be accepted as a new person. I just wish it didn't take so long for me to realize that What I was doing was not only affected who I saw as beneath me, it also affected the people that were willing to put up with my bullshit. I kept telling myself that I'm only looking out for my own best interests. That if I wasn't the way I was, I would be vulnerable to liars and scammers who only wanted me around for what I had. I was so wrong, and I'm truly sorry. But... But there's nothing I can do to take it back. Now, I have to dig myself out of this hole."

Her mind drifted to the boy that helped her realize her mistakes. A small, melancholy smile came across her face at the thought of him.

"Shane... You're so stupid. Any other person would've given up and let me be. Not you though. For some reason, you decided to continue on and keep pushing and pushing. Yeah, you're not smart."

She chuckled at the playful insult her mind came up with.

"I guess everything happens for a reason. If I would've never met you, who knows what I'd be like. Hell, based on what happened a few days ago I'd probably be dead right now if it wasn't for you. Crazy."

At this point, she decided to end her moment of self reflection and exit the shower. She put on her night attire which consisted of a grey T Shirt with Harley Quinn holding a baseball bat on it, and a pair of pink pajama shorts. She gathered her towel and her dirty clothes together, and made her back to her bedroom. Alexa draped the towel over her door to dry off, and tossed the dirty clothes into the hamper. Now, it was time to figure out what she was going to do until she went to sleep. She checked her phone for the time. It read 8:06. Yeah, no way she was going to sleep now.

Once again she began to think of her blonde neighbor from across the street.

"I wonder what he's doing right now." She wondered aloud.


Shane's House, 8:06 P.M.

"Alicia, I already told you, I don't know where Dean is. It's like 8 at night, try his house. And how did you get my phone number?!"

"That's not important, new kid! I need to know where my baby is! I didn't see him at all today."

Shane was currently in his living room, and unfortunately for him, on the phone with Dean's borderline psychotic girlfriend, Alicia Fox. It was disturbing to him how he'd never said a single word to the girl since he's been here, and yet she somehow managed to get his number. And the incessant screaming in his ear was really starting to piss him off.

"Have you try calling him?" He asked through gritted teeth.

"He's not answering! What if something bad happened to him?! What if he's with another girl as we speak?! What if-

"ALICIA!"

Shane cut her off, not being able to take anymore. He took a deep breath, and began to speak again, in hopes of getting the crazy girl to relax.

"Look, I'm sure he's fine. Dean gets himself into a lot of situations, but none that he can't get himself out of. And, with him being my best friend, I can tell you with confidence, he wouldn't cheat on you. That's just not who he is. I promise you, Foxy. He's probably just busy with something. Nothing to worry about, okay?"

His attempt at making her relax seemed to work.

"Well, alright. I'm sorry for freaking out. I just, really like him."

"Oh, trust me, I can tell. Just, don't jump to conclusions. Try to relax. You know what helps me calm down when I'm freaking out about something?"

"What?"

"I go read a book, or go write out how I feel. You should try it. Maybe it'll help you out."

"Okay, I'll be sure to do that next time. By the way, I like that nickname you gave me. Foxy, huh? It's cute."

"No problem, Foxy. Alright, I gotta go take care of some stuff. Have a good night."

"You too, Price-y!"

Alicia hung up the phone, while Shane cringed at her attempt at a nickname.

"You can't just add a y at the end of something at the end of a word and call it a nickname. It has to make sense, come on man." He thought.

At that point, his dad came from his room, ready to head to work.

"Alright, buddy. I'm out. Rules are the same as always. Don't break anything, and don't burn the house down."

Shane saluted his father jokingly.

"Sir, yes sir!"

Kevin ruffled his son's hair.

"That's my boy. See ya."

Shane followed his dad out of the house, and watched him until he got in his car, and drove off.

Kevin Price worked as a booker for a nightclub in downtown Manhattan, which meant he was responsible for arranging the bands and musicians who performed there . Sometimes he was also forced to be a bouncer and throw out anyone who was being a nuisance, or in his words, "A dickhead." Shane was normally alone throughout the night until the early morning, but he never really did anything but sleep since he was usually exhausted from football practice. Currently, he planned on doing that exact thing. He went back into the house, and went through his nightly routine of brushing his teeth, and taking a shower. That took him about 45 minutes in total. When he was done, he looked at the clock, and saw the time read 9:15.

"Looks like I'm going to bed early tonight." He thought.''

The blonde boy had on a white t shirt and a pair of basketball shorts as his sleepwear. He was about to go to his room and sleep, but right before he could do that, his phone started ringing.

"I swear to god, if it's Dean, I'm gonna lose my shit."

He answered the phone without even checking who it was and said, "Hello?", with an irritated voice.

"Wow. Am I that annoying to you?" The voice on the other end asked.

Shane's eyes went wide as he realized his mistake.

"Oh crap, Alexa. My bad. I thought you were someone else. I just finished a very irritating conversation a few minutes ago.

Alexa giggled.

"With who?"

"You're not gonna believe this one. It was Alicia Fox."

"What? Are you even friends with her?"

"I'm not anything with her! Before today I never talked to her. I'm not even really sure how she got a hold of my phone number in the first place!"

"Well, why did she call you?"

"She was asking about Dean. Apparently she hadn't seen him at all today, and was really worried. She's a paranoid girl, for real. I had to yell just to get her to stop talking for a second. Luckily, I was able to calm her down."

"Wait, you got her to calm down? You got Alicia Fox of all people to calm down? What are you, some kind of miracle worker? How'd you do that?"

"I just talked to her in a calming way I guess. I don't know." He laughed.

Alexa thought back to the way he talked to her after he saved her, how soothing his voice was to her. She felt a twinge of jealousy at that fact that Alicia got to experience that as well.

"My voice, mine." She thought. She then continued to talk.

"I feel bad for you. She's a nutcase."

"That's what I heard. Her and Dean are perfect for each other, no doubt."

"Yeah, two crazy ass idiots." She joked.

They both laughed at that.

"Ain't that the truth? Well, Alexa. I'm pretty tired. What did you call me for?"

"To be honest, I didn't have a reason. I'm just bored. No one's in my house but me, so I had no one to talk to."

Shane felt bad.

"Where are your parents at?"

"Off on a business trip. They're probably not gonna be back until like next week." She said sadly.

Price thought for a minute, until he made up his mind.

"You know what? Alexa, give me 5 minutes. I'm coming over there."

This surprised her.

"What, why? l thought you were going to sleep."

"I was, but I can't just leave you alone with nothing to do. I'm coming over and that's final."

Alexa couldn't believe it. He was serious. Was she blushing? Why was she blushing?

"Uh, okay. See you in a few then."


A few minutes later...

Sure enough, Shane was at her doorstep with his bookbag. He knocked on the door, and she opened it.

"What's with the bag?" She asked.

"It has my coat and my clothes in it with all my books."

"Wait, are you planning on spending the night in my house?" She asked curiously.

"Well, duh. I told you I'm not leaving you here alone. Now let me in, I'm wearing a shirt and sweatpants in 40 degree weather. It's cold." He said with a smile.

She allowed him to enter her home. He's been here before, but it still amazed him how great the place looked on the inside. Alexa's family clearly wasn't struggling.

"Well, now what?" She asked.

The atmosphere was awkward. Shane scratched the back of his head.

"I'm not sure actually."

Alexa shook her head and laughed.

"You're such a dummy."

"Why thank you. I take pride in my stupidity, madam." He said while bowing for dramatic effect.

"Whatever, go sit down on the couch. Are you hungry? My parents left me a bunch of money for food." She asked.

He did as he was told.

"No, not really. I'm just tired. But that doesn't matter right now. What's up with you? How'd today go?"

Alexa sighed.

"People are still afraid of me. I didn't say that much, and I wasn't mean to anybody. I just minded my own business and went about my day. I don't know why it's not working."

Shane tapped the space next to him.

"Come on. We'll talk about it."

She sat down on the couch next to him.

"So, what do I do?"

"This may be a hunch, but it's probably because you look pissed off all of the time." He said sarcastically.

"What?! How?! I didn't scowl or yell at anyone today!"

"It's the way you carry yourself dude. People are already afraid of you right? You gotta smile more. If you walk around with a emotionless expression on your face, that's not helping anything. You look scary to people."

Alexa pouted.

"I'm not scary."

Shane chuckled at that.

"To me you're not, but you've been isolating yourself from people by being nasty to them for the last few years."

"Whatever." She said, still pouting.

"See that's the problem."

He grabbed her face and contorted it into a smile, or, he attempted to. She was fighting it.

"Let go of my face!" She yelled, half laughing.

He let go, but he still had a plan.

"Alright, alright. You win... SIKE!"

Shane then started to tickle her.

"Stop... Hahahaha... I'm serious... Hahahaha!"

After he was satisfied, Shane decided to stop his onslaught.

"You jerk!" Alexa yelled while playfully beating his chest.

"Hit me all you want, I got what I wanted. You smiled. Do that more, and the transition will go a lot more smooth. Also, you gotta admit. This is way better than staying here by yourself isn't it?"

"Maybe."

"Come on, you know it's the truth."

Alexa was defiant.

"I'm not giving you the satisfaction."

"Say it, or I tickle you again."

"You're gonna have to catch me first!"

She jumped up and ran up the stairs, while Shane chased her. Right when she went inside her room, the blonde boy caught her and picked her up.

"You thought you could out run me? I play football, woman!" He gloated.

"Whatever, put me down."

"As you wish."

Shane put her down, and took a look around Alexa's bedroom.

"So this what a princess's room looks like, huh? Lot of pink."

"It's my favorite color. You got a problem?"

"Not at all. Just making an observation."

After the brief chase, Alexa realized that she was hungry.

"I'm gonna order Pizza. What do you want on it?"

"I would like sausage."

"And I want pepperoni. We're getting both."

"I'm fine with that. You know, this is the second night in a row I've had pizza for dinner."

"Oh, then maybe you shouldn't have any. You have to stay in shape, Mr. I Play Football." She said mockingly.

"You better not eat all the damn pizza when it comes." Shane warned.

"I'm the one paying for it, so I'll do what I want."

Alexa playfully stuck her tongue out at him.

"You cruel, cruel girl. Football players get hungry too, and I'm not even that big. I'm like 160 pounds at the most."

"I'm not gonna eat the whole thing stupid. I don't think I could if I wanted to."

"Yeah, you're right. You're so tiny, if you ate a whole pizza your stomach would probably explode." He joked, poking fun at Alexa's petite build.

"I'm not that small! Shut up!"

Shane chuckled.

"Man I love doing that. You're cute when you get angry."

Alexa started to blush hard.

"I- I said to shut up! Go downstairs! I've gotta take care of something in here. I'll order the pizza."

"As you wish, Your Highness." He said, while bowing to her as if she was actual princess.

Shane did as he was told, leaving Alexa alone in her room.

"He called me cute? Where the hell did that come from?" She thought.

"W-Whatever. I need to order the food."

She called up Dominos, and ordered a large pie with pepperoni and sausage. The man on the phone said it would take about 25 minutes for the pizza to be delivered. After that, she goes back downstairs to let her guest know. When she gets to the living room, she finds Shane watching something on television.

"Hey. The food's gonna be here in about a half hour. What are you watching?!"

"What? What's wrong with Regular Show?"

"You're 15 and you still watch cartoons?"

"Well, yeah. They're still awesome."

"Wow, you're really childish."

"Oh, really? It's almost like I'm still a child or something. Plus, we just had a tickle fight for God's sake! You can't get much more " childish" than that." He responded.

Alexa folded her arms and turned her head away.

"Oh come on. Don't be like that."

"Hmmph." She still wouldn't look at him.

"Look, you can't tell me Regular Show wasn't the shit when we were younger. Remember that episode where Mordecai, Rigby, and Pops had a rap battle against Tyler, The Creator and Childish Gambino? That was great!"

"Yeah, it was pretty good I guess." She agreed begrudgingly.

"Come, watch it with me."

"I don't know."

"It'll be fun! You'll be able to relieve your younger years."

"You make it sound like we're 50 or something." She pointed out.

"Just! Sit down and watch woman."

"Okay, okay."

20 minutes later and the two teenagers were laughing out loud at the television. They were emulating all the old catchphrases from the show like they had just seen it for the first time again.

"OOOHHHHHHHH!" They both yelled in unison with the show.

"See, I told you! Isn't this fun?!"

"Yeah, you were right big time."

At that point, they heard a knock at the door.

"I got it, it's the pizza." Alexa said.

She went to go get some money from the kitchen and then she walked to the door and it opened.

"That'll be $9.79." The pizza guy said.

"Okay, no... Ambrose?!"

At the sound of that, Shane's eyes went wide and he quickly jumped up and hid behind the couch.

"Oh, it's you. I didn't recognize you without makeup." Dean said despondently.

"You're the delivery boy?!" She asked with bewilderment.

"Well, I'm not wearing this uniform by choice, and I didn't just randomly decide to show up to your house with a pizza in my hands. So yeah, I'm the pizza dude."

"What the- How did you get the job? Aren't you underaged?!"

"I lied about my age, duh. I needed the extra cash."

"Of course you did."

"Look, are you gonna take the pizza and pay, or what? You're my last customer, and I'm tired."

She handed him a 10 dollar bill and he gave her the pizza.

"Ahem."

"What?" She asked annoyed.

"Tip?"

She took a 5 dollar bill and threw it at him.

"You can leave now."

"Gladly."

Dean got on his bike and left.

"You can come out now." Alexa said to a shaken Shane.

"Dude! I was not expecting that at all! What the fuck?!"

"I know. If he saw you, we'd both be in trouble."

"Well, at least I know why he wasn't answering his phone earlier. Anyway, I'm ready to eat. Shane want food!"

"Shut up, moron." She joked.

The two of them ate the pizza while continuing to watch Regular Show. When they were done, they were both full.

"Oh, that was good." Shane said while he patted his stomach.

"Yes, yes it was. I think it made me sleepy though." She said while stretching.

"Same. It's like 10:30. We should probably go to sleep anyway."

"Okay. Where are you gonna sleep?"

Shane decided to mess with Alexa for a minute.

"Well... I was hoping, that I could, sleep in your bed, with you?"

Alexa started stuttering and blushing.

"W-What? I-I don't know, if-if that's a-a-"

"Alexa, chill! I'm just kidding! Oh my god, your face was priceless! You thought I was serious!"

He started to laugh uncontrollably.

"Price, you're a dick." She said embarrassed, her face still red.

"It's still funny, I don't care. Anyway, I'll just sleep on the couch."

"Sure. Do you want a blanket?"

"That would be nice."

Alexa went upstairs and grabbed a pink blanket from her closet. She returned to Shane and handed him it.

"Smells like daisies." He said.

"Don't smell my blanket you weirdo!"

"My bad, Alexa."

She sighed.

"Goodnight Price. See you in the morning. And... Thank you, for keeping me company. You saved me from total boredom tonight. I had fun."

"Yes! You admitted it!" He responded happily.

"Shut up, dummy."

"Goodnight, Short Stuff." He teased.

Alexa shut the TV off and turned off the lights. She walked up the stairs, but before she made it all the way, she stopped and looked down at Shane.

"Shane. Don't call me that."

With that, she went into her bedroom, shut the door, and climbed into her bed. She started to think to herself.

"Tonight was great. All thanks to him. Hey, God? Thank you. You bringing him into my life might be the best think you've ever done for me. He's still an idiot though."

She yawned.

"What a night." She said aloud.

For the first time in her life, she fell asleep with a smile on her face.

A.N: Hey guys. I wanted to give you a nice, long chapter to thank you. We hit over 3 and a half thousand views! Let's go! Roppongi 3K, 3K, 3K! Sorry, New Japan reference. Anyway, peace out! Have a good one! You guys are awesome!