Chapter 5

The Overlander's life was becoming increasingly complicated; not only did he have feelings for 2 girls, but there were some problems that Gregor was oblivious to, which were happening underneath his feet, in the Underland, which had been torturing the Underlanders. Also, the Underlanders were experiencing a major drought, leaving the frail civilization on the brink of famine. Well, I thought that seemed to be interesting. We will get to that later, so let's get back to Gregor and see how he's doing.

Gregor sprang up instantly, able to use echolocation to survey his surroundings. He had just been forcefully awakened from a measly 2 hours of sleep. There had been a loud crack, which seemed to be coming from inside the walls of his room. It almost sounded like a rat had been cluttering around, but it couldn't have been; it must have been one of his sisters doing something, right? Well, since he only had 30 minutes till his alarm went off, he started getting ready for an unusual day. Gregor had stayed up all night fighting with his complex emotions running through his mind. On one hand, he could stay "friends" with Ella or take his and her relationship to the next level. Gregor had come to a consensus since it wasn't like he was getting married. Luxa was probably already married and had forgotten Gregor at this point. So Gregor decided that today was the day to ask Ella to officially start dating.

Though Gregor had a variety of confusing feelings, the day outside seemed to reflect them. Outside that day, it happened to be beautifully somber; the dark and gloomy clouds outside indicated a present threat of a thunderstorm was imminent. So, instead of running to school, as Gregor usually tended to do, he decided to change things up a little and ride the school bus. He made this decision not only because it was going to rain. Gregor hoped he could use this opportunity to talk to Ella more and maybe even confess his feelings to the girl he had feelings for.

So after Gregor had finished his average breakfast of milk and cereal, he left his house and proceeded to walk alone to his bus stop. The bus stop happened to be right past Ella's house at another one of his neighbors' houses. As Gregor got closer and closer to his bus stop, he could not spot Ella there; in fact, there was nobody else at the bus stop. There were 5 to 6 people at the bus stop every morning. Gregor was already on edge when he started to panic as he realized he hadn't seen anyone this morning. His sisters, but he hadn't even seen his parents. To Gregor, it seemed as if. Nobody was up at all. Gregor's mind started to run at a million miles an hour, and as soon as Gregor seemed to think that his world was crashing down once again, he got a call from his mom.

Gregor immediately, without even saying, started to call out, Frantically, "MOM!... Is everything ok? I am at the Bus stop alone, and the bus should be here now! Is everything ok?"

"Honey, you know we don't have school this week. You just finished your midterms. You have the rest of the week off." His mom responded so calmly it was unusually confusing to Gregor.

"Oh, crap" sighed Gregor "l forgot about that. I've been a little preoccupied today; I am coming home in that case. Also, I'm going back to bed when I get home. I didn't sleep well last night".

"It's okay. Come back and rest. We are going out to eat at 5, okay? So don't forget. I love you, Gregor."

"I love you too mom"

It had been a short call, but Gregor had been so distraught he had managed to forget all the complicated feelings he had been internally fighting against for the past day. Then, suddenly, out of the blue, Gregor came up with something amazing he could do. What if he went to Ellie's house and asked her if she wanted to start dating? This was a radical idea to him; in his mind, it was the official start of his new life in Virginia. So he proudly started to strut over to Ellie's house. Of course, there were no cars in her driveway when he went over. And that was when it hit him: all the nervousness and anxiety he had felt the previous night all came back to him. He wondered if he wasn't good enough for her; what if she rejected her? It could mean the end of his only true friendship so far in Virginia. But hey, he's here so he might as well go and knock on the door, and if there is no one home, He can just go home and fall back asleep. So, as Gregor nervously drifted toward Ellie's door, Gregor started to panic again.

"What if she doesn't like me back in that way? What if she isn't home? Well, that wouldn't be that bad. What if..." He seemed so deeply distraught, but before he could think any more, he accidentally ran into the door of his crush.

After like 10 minutes, Gregor finally decided to man it up and knocked on Ellie's door. The knock seemed to echo throughout the entire house, so Gregor assumed that there was no one home. Gregor then just stood there, awkwardly waiting. He waited and waited, eventually believing that there was not a single soul home. After a while, Gregor decided to try one last time before going home. So conjuring up as much courage as he could, he knocked one last time, and yet again, no one answered for 5 minutes. Gregor felt very inconsolable. The only person he could take his girl problems too is the very girl he's confessing to. So he decided to leave. As soon as he turned around to leave, he heard the obvious sound of a door opening, and the loud booming voice of a strong and barely man hit Gregor's ears instantly!

"Who is knocking on my door at 6:30 in the morning? Do you have no respect for me and my family?" responded a burly man. At this point, Gregor instantly knew who he was speaking to; Ellie's dad had served in the military for 10 years.

"Oh crap, of course. Ella is most likely asleep. We don't have any school," Gregor thought.

As Gregor slowly turned around, he slowly began to see the enormous shredded 6'4'' man, who seemed to kill Gregor with his eyes alone.

"Oh Gregor, it's you; I have heard so much about you; why don't you come on in? I'm assuming you're here to see Ella?"

Gregor nodded, too frightened to get a word out. So Ella's dad, whose name was Mark, opened the door fully and motioned for Gregor to come in. Ella's dad led Gregor to the kitchen and sat him down. "Gregor, why don't you sit here and wait? I will go get Ella for you so you can sit down.".

This brief conversation helped calm Gregor down a bit, but the fact that Gregor was here to ask Ella out officially, and he was in the presence of her dad. The chain of events had left his head spinning. Then he remembered, he's a great warrior even if doesn't like it. It is true, so this should be nothing, and it's also not like this is his first time confessing to a girl.

As soon as Gregor started to doubt himself again, guess who started to come down the stairs? It was no other than the gorgeous Ellie herself wearing sleek and elegant silk pajamas. Gregor, straight up died as he saw her waltz down the stairs. Ellie just had such a lovely smile. It was perfect. Her face was so beautiful that even a field full of flowers did not seem to compare to her beauty. As soon as Ellie saw Gregor she ran down the stairs and jumped on to Gregor even to the dismay of her lurking father who was shooting Gregor stares that could almost kill Bane, but none the less Gregor and Ellie were so happy just to be in the presence of each other. And without saying a single word, Ellie motioned Gregor to follow her and they went to her room.

Once in Ella's room, Ella looked miserable. The bags under her eyes pointed out the fact she had been crying all night. The already displeased Ella let out in an exacerbated tone, "Gregor, why are you here? You made it pretty clear that you didn't want to date me."

Gregor, who to this point had only been thinking about how he felt, and it finally clicked Ella was hurt, too. He must have said the wrong things last night. "Oh God," Gregor thought as he pondered on how to respond. Then it hit him just like his other ideas.

"Ella, you know I care about you so much, and after I thought about it last night, you are my everything. I wanted to talk to someone about what happened last, then I realized that you are my best friend and I always want to tell you everything. I know you are probably done with me now, but I love you Ella, and I hope you feel the same about me. So, Ella, would you like to be my girlfriend officially?" But before Gregor could finish the last word, Gregor was instantly tackled onto Ella's bed.

Ella had thought that Gregor was just lying yesterday when he said he liked her, but couldn't date her. She felt as if he had said that to make her feel bad since she was already going through the loss of her grandfather. She knew that the words Gregor had just said were sincere, and she did know how to react. Everything that had been seeming to go wrong disappeared from her mind.

Gregor and Ella lay on the bed, just looking at each other. Neither one wanted to move; they were both so happy. Then Ella realized she hadn't given Gregor an answer, so she said, "Gregor, of course, I will be your girlfriend." With that, she leaned in and gave Gregor a sweet little peck on the lips. They just stayed there, embraced in each other's arms all day. Not a single word was sad until lunch.

And that's the story of how Gregor finally moved on. But did he really move on and find out in the next chapter?