The next day after school, Vance dropped off Aubrey, Kim, and Charlene at Jack's house. Kel gave them the address earlier at lunch. Aubrey couldn't help but notice that time around some people sitting at other tables were whispering while looking in her direction, the big basketball star sitting with the hooligans. Is that what they did the first time Kel sat with us? Is that what they did when I sat next to Kel? No. No?

She tried to silence her mind, while she got out of the car with Kim and Charlie. She knocked on the door. It was Jack who answered "Oh hey! Kel said you were coming! Looks like you guys made it here earlier than him though. Come on in!"

"Girls? At the party?" One of the guys called out from inside.

"Man, shut up! Kel invited them," Jack said.

"He-llooooo ladies!" A different teammate said, trying to sound sly with a big cheshire cat's grin on his face.

Thunk. The room hushed. Jack gulped.

"Guys, cut the crap." He glanced over with his peripheral vision at Aubrey, who was just behind him brandishing her bat.

"How did you miss that?" one of them asked.

"I… I don't even know." Jack approached the three girls, flustered. He noticed Charlie's stone cold gaze looking down at him, before facing Aubrey and Kim. "Hey, could you leave the bat outside? They're good guys, I swear, they're just kinda stupid." He glanced again at Charlie, before stammering, "Y'know, stupid the way guys are."

The rest of the team was murmuring.

The doorbell rang from just behind Aubrey. They all looked over, and Kel let himself in.

"Hey everyone! Sorry I'm late! I was helping out my mom with making churros! I know it's not pasta but my friends wanted- Uh, why does everyone look so tense right now? Oh, Aubrey, you brought your bat?"

She wordlessly set her bat on the porch outside just behind Kel.

Just then, Jack's mother came out of her bedroom with a fresh face of makeup. A very pretty older woman.

"Hi Kel!" She ran over to him and pinched his cheeks.

"Hi Mrs. Song!" He just barely stammered out as she finished stretching his face.

"Ah, you're so tall now but you're still just like a little boy when you started playing basketball with Jack!"

She glanced over at Aubrey and her crew. Aubrey with her unnaturally colored eyes and hair, Kim with her swept-over half-shaved haircut and boyish attire, and Charlene towering above all the guys on the team hiding her face under her shaggy red cut. Mrs. Song simply smiled, "Oh, what lovely little girls the three of you are!" Then she caught herself, "Ah! I'm sorry, I know you're all 15 or 16 and hardly little anymore but you're my son's age so you must understand you all look like little girls to me!"

Kel noticed from the corner of his eye that Charlene in particular seemed a bit more at ease, hearing this. Mrs. Song turned to her son, putting on a very noticeable accent "It's so nice to see you have girls here lah. Your aunts were getting worried because it's always the boys over lah."

Jack huffed in response. The rest of the team looked defeated.

"Jack said there would be girls over that are Kel's friends!" Her accent slipped away smoothly, seemingly reserved only for family members, as she looked back towards Kel. "Introduce me! Who are they?"

Kel was about to speak, but Jack was already talking, "This is Kel's girlfriend Aubrey and her friends Charlie and Kim."

Kel glanced over at Aubrey. She didn't say anything. She looked completely stone-faced. Kel didn't say anything either, not knowing how best to mitigate this situation in front of Jack's mom.

"So nice! So cute! I'm gonna set the cookies in the oven, when they're done you guys can each decorate your own. And Kel, good job yesterday on that last hoop, I saw you out there!"

"Thank you Mrs. Song," Kel said, with a hint of embarrassment.

Spaghetti was always extra sweet the way Mrs. Song made it. While they were chowing down, the team was a lot more relaxed and talked to the girls normally. It turned out Tom and Kim were both into this new Cybernetic video game, they were able to go on and on about that. Although they were having a tense moment earlier, Jack and Charlene actually seemed to be content with each other. It was mostly Jack talking, but Charlene nodded along here and there apparently ok to listen in. Kel forgot all about whatever it was Jack said that brought a chill down his spine.

The cookies were done shortly after everyone finished, and Mrs. Song had bought a couple different colors of frosting for them to use, and different sprinkles to decorate with.

"You guys like this kind of stuff?" Kim asked.

"We only do this when the pasta parties are at Jack's place because his mom just makes them, but yeah! I'm into it, anyway." Tom said. He was decorating his cookie with some little flowers. Pink, orange, and red standing tall in some messy grass and a lazily filled in blue sky.

"Hey Tom, pass the pink and orange." Tom handed the tubes over to Kel at his request. Kel promptly handed the pink one to Aubrey. "Your favorite!" he said smiling.

Aubrey stared at the cookie in front of her, pink tube in hand. Kel was going between the orange and yellow drawing a happy sun, humming away.

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Auther's note: I'm not sure why, but the Fanfiction app seems determined to break my choice of formatting here. I'll publish anyways but may fix it later on Desktop.