Hehe…. Hi.
So… We can call this a test chapter. I'm well aware that I haven't updated this in nearly two years. And I'm well aware the show ended in like 2013 or something, but if anyone's still interested in this story I'm willing to give this another go. But you guys have to let me know, because if you don't I won't work on it anymore. I was unsure about even doing this but a friend of mine convinced me to (so you can thank her). So tell me, do you want me to keep working on this and update it until the end, or just let it go. Let me know!
Chapter 9
Friday
"Okay everyone" Amber called walking into breakfast in sitting in her seat. Her seat, which wasn't the same seat it was a week ago. Actually all of the seats were different. At the head of the table was Nina, and on her left was Alfie. They preferred to sit there so they can play their footsy battle that they thought no one knew they did. Next to them was Fabian and Amber, and then Eddie and Joy. At the other head was Mick and Patricia. Next to Mick was KT and Jerome and then Willow and Mara. "I've taken the liberty to plan a girls night."
Patricia groaned. "Why?"
"Because," Amber started with an unhappy expression. She did not like Patricia's reaction. "We've paired away!"
"Yeah, that's the assignment." Mara chuckled.
"Being in a couple does not mean not spending time with your friends, and I feel like I've hardly seen you guys."
Nina smiled. "I think it's a good idea." Patricia sighed. "Fine I'll bite, but only if there's no girly things."
"But-"
"Sure, we won't do anything too girly." Nina agreed and Amber pouted.
"And what are we supposed to do during this?" Jerome asked.
"Have a guy night." Mara shrugged.
Eddie chuckled. "A guy night?"
"Like a slumber party for boys!" Amber squealed. "You could watch movies, exchange gossip-"
"Do our hair?" Mick laughed.
"Have a pillow fight?" Fabian added.
"Try on all our clothes..." Alfie mocked
"Talk about boys..." Eddie snorted
"Have rom com marathon-" Jerome was cut off by a semi aggravated Amber.
"Ok I get it. Guy-slumber party isn't manly enough for you." Amber huffed. "Just eat pizza and play video games geez."
That was more like the guy's idea of fun. "Or we can spy on you guys." Jerome shrugged.
Nina rolled her eyes. "Haven't you ever seen a tween movie?"
"Nina's right, the guys who spy on girls sleepovers always get caught and end up leaving with lipstick and fuzzy slippers." Amber reminded them all. "So I guess you could try it if you want, but I wouldn't suggest it."
But Eddie actually wasn't interested in spending that time with the guys at all. He had other plans. Perhaps the others were taking a break from the project, but there was just something he needed to do for Joy before he did just that.
"I had a really weird dream last night." Patricia said, making conversation. "I was jumping in a pool-"
"That is weird." Eddie interrupted. "You hate swimming."
"-And the water turned into jelly beans but when I was actually was in the pool it felt like jelly." Patricia finished, ignoring Eddie.
"Sounds cool." Alfie said. "I had a dream I was fighting in an alien robot war."
"Did you win?" Nina wondered.
"No." Alfie frowned.
"I dreamed that Victoria Beckham took me shopping." Amber squealed, as if everyone at the table didn't know that she dreamt that twice a week. "What about you boo?"
Out of habit, Alfie looked at Amber as if she were addressing him, but she was looking at Fabian. Amber looked surprised at the nickname, and the rest of the table had similar look of surprise. Everyone knew that 'boo' was Amber's name specifically for the guys she felt were truly her 'boo's. Even though Fabian and Amber were fake going out, it was though there were an unspoken agreement to keep that nickname specifically and special for the Micks and Alfies in her life. And everyone was well aware of that.
Jerome cleared his throat, as it had been awkward and quiet for too long. "Falling for your partner wasn't exactly a part of the game."
The 'game' being that they were supposed to make their pretend couples as realistic as possible, had actually left many of their minds. KT gave Jerome a scornful look. "Maybe she's just doing well with the project."
Fabian got up and left the table without putting his plate away or even finishing his food. He didn't realize that he had made the situation worse for Amber, who felt pink faced and her stomach ached. He got out of the situation for himself. He had hardly heard Amber's 'boo' comment because he was too strung up on the dream he had, that he tried to push out of his brain. Of course this was the time that they decided to talk about dreams.
It was just him and Amber, very simple. They were alone in a warm room and they weren't talking, just smiling at each other. The worrying part was how happy and blissful he felt, it was something he hadn't felt since Nina, not that being with Mara hadn't made him happy. It was just different. And it was nice, until he woke up. When he woke up, all it managed to do was scare him.
They didn't continue to talk until Trudy interrupted their silence, which she was good at. If anyone could come in and change the awkward, it was Trudy. "So Mr. Sweet has just told me about something you may all find interesting. We're having an inter house talent show of a sort! Like the sporting one!"
"Why would we be interested in that?" Joy said honestly.
"Because the inter house sports went so well-"
"Trudy it went awful, just with good results." Mara said. "KT was missing for most of it, Eddie was a control freak, Jerome hit his head, and another team had to get disqualified for us to get lucky enough to win. No thanks."
"You guys are all such downers." Willow frowned. "Trudy could you tell us more about it?"
Trudy smiled. "There will be four categories: Music, dancing, theater, and other. You'll sign up for what you want to audition for. Auditions will be Monday after school in the theater. They'll have one or two people from each house for each section, so the most people that will come out of each house is eight. Minimum is four. Then each category competes on next Friday."
"This all seems kind of last minute." Mick commented.
"It was a last minute decision." Trudy shrugged. "Who's up for it?"
Reluctantly, a few people raised their hands. That was satisfying enough for Trudy. "Here's the signup sheet." She handed a clipboard to Eddie, who immediately passed it to Joy. Joy passed it on to Mick, who passed it to Patricia, who passed it to KT, who finally signed her name in one of the categories.
"Trudy can we audition for more than one category?" KT asked.
"Oh, yeah sure!" Trudy smiled. KT signed under music and dancing and handed it to Jerome, who gave it to Willow knowing she'd sign up for something. Jerome was right when Willow signed up for everything. Willow passes it to Mara who signed up for music and other and she passed it to Nina, who signed up for music and theater and other. Then she wrote down Alfie's name for Other. It was time people recognized his talent in art, besides herself, Jerome, and Amber.
Nina reached across Fabian's empty seat to Amber, whose thoughts were still on Fabian when she signed him up for music and herself up for 'other'. She gave it to Trudy and excused herself from the table.
Meanwhile, everyone else began to prepare for school. They had to also think about their backstories, which was Mr. Winkler's assignment for them for Tuesday. Even though they had four days to do it, they thought they should get started. Mara and Willow, unsurprisingly, had already figured theirs out despite that they'd be one of the hardest to come up with. Mara decided to write the description of their relationship in third person.
Mara and Willow's friendship was a bit rocky in the beginning. While Mara felt Willow was far too enthusiastic for her own good, Willow was pretty thrown by Mara's somewhat pessimistic attitude about nearly everything except schoolwork. However, they were roommates. Mara was willing to be civil to keep things peaceful and Willow tried to find Mara's appealing qualities. It was like looking for buried treasure. Under water. With a spoon for a shovel.
So suffice to say, they had no idea they'd be as close as they were. Just as Mara was thinking about complaining to Victor after a hedgehog incident, Mara found Willow. In her room. On her bed. Crying. It was like watching someone kick a kitten. A person didn't have to like Willow to always want her happy. Willow's spirit was even happy. Mara tried her best to comfort her, but she didn't actually do a very good job. Mara thought she was upset because she had to get rid of the hedgehogs. In actuality, Alfie broke up with her.
Apparently it was really hard on him as well, and he was going through something. Despite that, and despite loving Alfie and knowing him long enough to know he wouldn't hurt anyone on purpose, she became somewhat protective of Willow. She never wanted to see Willow hurt or crying again. This was the turning point in their relationship, and after this they became fast friends.
Over the next time period, figuring out that Willow may have had a crush on Mara didn't take long. Willow had liked several girls before, despite not ever going out with one or even kissing one. Mara was drop dead gorgeous, and now that she knew her, she felt her personality was as well. She realized one time when she saw Mara laugh, really laugh. She was doubled over and rosy cheeked and she had tears in her eyes. She even snorted a couple times, which she was embarrassed about. It was the best thing Willow had ever heard.
It was a spur of the moment decision, she didn't think hard on it at all. But she had to. She kissed Mara. Mara was dumbstruck and left quickly. Willow didn't see her smile again for a very long time. The farther Mara pushed from Willow the more Willow's spirts went down. It was something everyone could sense, even if no one knew what was happening.
Similarly, Mara was beating herself up about it. She could see that she was hurting Willow, and considering she spent a lot of her time protecting her, it was eating her up. On the other side of the spectrum, she couldn't get herself to go to her. Willow's kiss was everything she wanted but she didn't ask for it. Mara was sure of many things, but feelings were always hard to work out.
But she knew how she felt when she wasn't with Willow, she felt emotionally detached from everyone when she was separated from Willow. It was cold in their room. One day she couldn't take it anymore. Mara acted out without analyzing the situation and figuring out if the move she wanted to make was the correct one. She just kissed Willow. Mara could practically feel Willow's heart grow, and that's when she knew she made the right choice.
Amber and Fabian hardly looked at each other because of the awkwardness of breakfast. Nina decided to sit next to Amber in class, and Alfie and Fabian sat together. Alfie looked back and saw Mick looking at him. Alfie pointed to Fabian and Mick nodded. They had the same understanding. Fabian usually payed attention in class, but he wasn't at the moment. And Alfie was always only half listening. So Alfie felt that it was a good time to talk to Fabian.
"Listen, dude." Alfie began in a low whisper. Fabian came out of his stupor to hear what he was saying. "I don't know what's going to happen in the future but as you know that nickname is only for few. However things play out, make sure you don't hurt her."
Fabian was completely lost. "What?"
"She cares about you, and you don't really have any tact when it comes to things like this." Alfie said. "All I know is, if Amber comes out of this hurting and crying the same way Joy did..."
He trailed off and looked back at Mick again, who was watching them intently. Fabian looked back as well.
"You're our friend Fabian, but we will hurt you back." Alfie finished.
Fabian stared at both boys in total shock and feeling like he skipped an entire chapter of a book. "Mr. Lewis, Mr. Rutter, pay attention!"
After school, Amber cornered Fabian to talk. Fabian felt it was necessary, considering Alfie and Mick were watching them like hawks and he still had no idea what was going on. And he was even more lost when she started to apologize, what had Fabian missed?
"...I wasn't really thinking. It's not- it wasn't serious or anything. I suppose I was just getting into the project is all." Amber blabbered and stuttered over her sentences, which nearly convinced Fabian she was spending way too much time with him. "And anyway, we're fake dating right? So shouldn't it not be weird if I call you boo? It doesn't have to be awkward or any-"
"Amber, what are you tal- you called me boo?" Fabian stopped. He processed what was happening. It was all making sense now.
Amber stared at him as if he had a third eye. "Is your memory going away again?"
"When did you call me boo?" Fabian asked.
"At breakfast when you stared at me as if I were the sinking Titanic and ran into your room!" Amber's irritation was rising.
"Yeah, because you asked me about my dream." Fabian told her. "I wasn't even paying attention, I didn't know you called me..."
Amber and Fabian stared at each other for a while.
"You don't have to feel bad about it." Fabian finally said.
"Why did you run after I asked you about your dream?" Amber asked. Fabian began to turn pink and looked away. "Oh God... Oh God you had a boy dream didn't you! One of those dreams!"
"No! No not one of those." Fabian held his hands in front of him shaking his head. "No, I... it was just a dream about us. We were... hanging out and such... It didn't... mean anything."
"It was just a misunderstanding then." Amber said. Fabian nodded. They stared at each other again, the wind hitting their sides and making them shiver. Amber took a deep breath and smiled. She wrapped her arms around his neck for a hug and he hugged her back.
He smelt like cinnamon and she smelt like flowers so together they smelt like cinnamon flowers and Amber couldn't let go if she tried. But that was okay because it seemed like he wasn't planning on letting go either. And she was cold but he was warm and they seemed to balance each other in a way. He stroked her back as gently as he did guitar strings. Amber smiled.
"You make me happy." she whispered into his ear. He pulled back enough to be able to see her face. She traced the outline of his face, resting her hands behind his neck and pulled him in for a kiss. Except it wasn't like the ones he'd usually had. He'd only kissed Nina this way twice, and only kissed Mara this way once. She bit down on his lips, which sent shivers so strong down his spine that he gripped her blouse so hard he thought it would rip. He would have said sorry if he were thinking coherently.
When he pulled away for air, she held on to his bottom lip with her teeth and tugged on it for a little bit before finally letting go. With a deep long breath, she said, "I think we might have to speak to Mara, Nina, and Alfie."
When they came back hand and hand, Nina looked up and sighed. "There you two are! We were afraid something happened."
Amber would have been the one to notice the smeared lip gloss and swollen lips, but since no one else seemed to, she wasn't going to point it out. Joy stood up and stretched. "Are we still doin' the thing?"
Amber nodded and let go of Fabian's hand. Amber lead the girls upstairs. Before she left, Patricia gave Mick a long deep kiss. Mick smiled at her. "Don't miss me too much" he winked.
"If this is how I'm spending my afternoon, I need something to distract me for a little while." she answered and followed the other girls upstairs. Jerome sighed loudly.
"So what are we doing?" he asked.
"I vote shooting aliens down on the x box." Alfie said. "Come on Sweetie Jr. That rematch starts now."
Eddie faked a yawn. "Actually I think I'm going to turn in early. But have fun."
He started walking, but was grabbed on the shoulder by Mick. He turned around to see four disbelieving faces. "It's five pm."
"And you haven't eaten yet." Alfie noted. Eddie shrugged Mick's hand off.
"So, I'm not hungry." Eddie answered.
Fabian looked between Eddie and Jerome and Alfie. "If you're planning on getting them back for that time they dyed all of your shirt's pink-" he paused as Jerome and Alfie broke down laughing and Eddie rolled his eyes. "Make sure I'm not in the crossfire."
"Yeah me too." Mick added, his lips turned into a smile he was fighting. But Eddie's face was pretty funny.
"I'm not. I'd forgotten all about that." Eddie rolled his eyes. He looked around, making sure no one else could hear. "If you must know, I'm about to dig up some dirt on Madam. I wanna know why she hates Joy so much."
"Oh." was the reply that came from Fabian. They all looked at each other and shrugged.
"I think we know how our 'guy's night' is being spent." Alfie smirked.
The girls had come down from whatever they were doing upstairs long enough to have dinner, but it was obvious they were still in 'girl's time' mode as they hardly glanced at the guys. Even Patricia seemed to be having a good time. When they were all upstairs again, Fabian called out to anyone who was hearing to tell them he and the rest of the boys were going to hang outside.
"Remember the plan?" Eddie asked. They all nodded. Mick and Fabian would distract Madam long enough to leave the classroom. Alfie would be lookout, since he was so good at it from all of his times with Sibuna, and Jerome and Eddie would try to find a clue somewhere.
Mick and Fabian went in first. Jerome, Alfie, and Eddie stayed off to the side. They heard Mick and Fabian tell her that a fight broke out between two girls, and then saw them direct her to the 'fight'.
The other three slipped in after, with Alfie by the door looking for any sign of Madam. Eddie and Jerome looked around, and then Jerome pointed to her laptop she was working on. Eddie went into the email, but she wasn't signed in.
"What person has to sign into their email on their own laptop?" Jerome whispered in an exasperated tone.
"They were here!" Fabian said as they looked behind the school where nothing was.
"What were their names?" Madam asked. Mick and Fabian looked at each other and shrugged.
"I don't think they were in our year." Mick said.
Madam was visibly losing patience. "Then describe them."
"Um... they were pale." Fabian started.
"And they had brown hair." Mick finished. "Both of them."
They knew that matched the description of 70% of the girls at their school. Madam took a deep breath.
Eddie and Jerome tried every email they could think of, even going as far as 'IhateJoyMercer' but they couldn't find it. Alfie looked back at them at the desk and saw a picture of a girl and Madam. He looked closer at it.
"Jerome, what does Madam always say when we really upset her?" Alfie asked.
"Marien would never." Jerome answered dismissively.
Alfie nodded. "Keep watch for a minute."
Jerome looked confused but they switched. Alfie typed four passwords before getting in. Eddie's jaw dropped. Alfie smiled and switched with Jerome.
"Dude!" Jerome said. "How-"
"I'm pretty sure Marien is her daughter, and parents like her always have passwords with their kid's names. I just did 'Marien' then 'Marien1' then 'MyMarien' and finally 'OnlyMarien' and it came up."
Eddie began to scroll through the email. "You genius Alfie."
He went into search and was about to type in 'Joy' when Jerome stopped him. "You'll get a lot of emails like 'what a joy it was to see you' or whatever."
"Who would think it a joy to see Madam?" Eddie scoffed.
Jerome smirked but ignored the comment. "Try Mercer."
Eddie shrugged and typed in, Mercer, and got a lot of emails from Frederick Mercer. "Joy's dad?"
Jerome nodded slowly.
Madam pressed two fingers to her eyelids. "What were they wearing?"
Both boys shrugged. "That's Amber's area." Fabian said. Mick nodded. Madam had obviously had enough.
"Well next time, go to Mr. Sweet with this." she said and headed back into the school. Mick looked at Fabian.
"Hope that got them enough time." he said.
Alfie heard Madam's distinctive footsteps and told the boys to hurry up. They logged out of the email and ran from the room. They met up with the others. "Anything?" Fabian asked.
Eddie and Jerome grinned at each other. "Loads."
Patricia
Amber's 'girls night' actually turned out pretty successful. Well, if I had to choose between doing it again or hanging out with Mick, I'd choose Mick of course. But it wasn't horrible. We watched movies and talked and really just had a good time together. I don't know what the boys did, possibly blowing up aliens on a video game. I think Amber was right, as a group we really needed this. I mean, being in a romantic relationship doesn't mean forgetting about your platonic ones. But don't let Amber ever see this. EVER.
So Mick's football game is tomorrow, and I don't really know how I'm supposed to act. I mean, I usually just read. Or do homework or something. Amber used to be a cheerleader, and she'd cheer the hardest when Mick would score a goal. I'm not doing that. Mara would vocally train him while off on the side. She'd be like SHOW ME WHAT YOU GOT? YOU CAN DO BETTER THAN THAT! That's not really my thing either though, so I don't see me doing that. I mean, really, what are you supposed to do?
Jerome
This was a mostly uneventful day, apart from helping Eddie out with something that he wanted to do for Joy. The girls had their little night, but the guys bonded in a way as well. We had fun doing things we definitely were not supposed to be doing. And we found out some really interesting things about someone. KT has been great. Some couples argue, but we really haven't had anything to argue about. She's somehow like a guy friend to hang out with but in the body of a really hot girl. It's awesome. I really think I hit the jackpot with her.
KT and I didn't do much today. We hung out, thought about the backstory Jason... er... you want from us and everything. Well not long. It got boring, but I heard Mara and Willow already did theirs. Typical Mara, showing all of us up. I wouldn't be surprised if she got the best scores in the class like she always does. I do really like KT though. I think that we could become really close, even if just as friends after this. I plan on going back to Joy after all of this is said and done, but who knows. Eddie did something for Joy that I should have done ages ago. Which makes me think, are we with the right people?
I can't believe I'm here again. I always planned on finishing this, but as I said before. You have to tell me if I'm wasting my time or not. I promise you I will not keep updating this story if I don't know for sure that it's the right thing to do. I'm sorry, I won't.
Anyway, if you do review and if you are interested in continuing this, make sure you answer the golden question as well! Who's your favorite couple?
Nalfie 44
Patrick 39
Kerome 38
Famber 23
Joddie 17
Millow 15
I had to go dig this up lmao but herreeee you gooooo!
