The Beautiful Ones

46- Let's Sing High School Musical

“Hey, what’s wrong, Ali?”

I let out a long, sad sigh. “Nothing’s wrong.”

Lance frowned and hurried over to me. “No, something’s wrong- what is it?”

“I said nothing.” I laughed softly. “It’s my birthday, so I’m happy.”

“Yeah, and you’re thirteen now, that’s a big deal.” He assured me.

“Right,” I snorted sarcastically, leaning over on the kitchen counter. “It’s such a big deal that nobody is here.”

“Where’s your mom?” He wondered.

I shrugged. “Who knows? Patrick is gone too and my dad just left and Zoey’s with Margaret and your parents so yeah, there’s nobody.”

“Well, I’m here.” He grinned. “And we can celebrate just us two.”

“Isn’t that a little weird?” I questioned with a laugh. “I mean, you’re my best friend’s brother.”

He shrugged. “Yeah, well I’ve known you your whole life so surely, it won’t be too weird.”

I chuckled softly. I did know Lance kinda well, since he was Zoey’s brother and all, so I saw him around a lot and sometimes, he’d hang out with us but mostly, it was just to annoy us or bug Zoey or something. Sometimes he’d bring his friend, Keegan around too, but he was kinda weird and I didn’t like him too much. I guess he is nice, though, both Keegan and Lance. “Okay, well what do you want to do?”

“We gotta have cake.” He informed me.

“The chef is out today.” I reminded him. I think our chef was sick or something that day, which is why he didn’t come in and I was cake-less.

“I happen to be able to make a killer cake, thank you very much.” He gloated.

“Really?” I scoffed. “When have you ever made a cake?”

He shrugged and started looking through my pantry to find cake mix. “All you have to do is read the instructions on the box, it can’t be that hard, right?” He walked out of the pantry with a Betty Crocker box of funfetti cake mix, which was my favorite kind of cake. I don’t know how he knew that, maybe it was the only kind of cake mix we had in the pantry or it was just the first one he saw, I don’t know.

“I guess so,” I laughed.

“Good, so we need oil, eggs, water, and a mixing bowl.” He instructed. “Do you guys have a mixer?”

I nodded, pointing to the fancy-looking mixer on the counter behind me. “Well, yeah but I don’t know how to use it.”

“It’s a mixer, I’m sure we can figure it out.” He informed me. “Besides, I can do it, I am older than you, you know.”

“You’re only a year older than me, though.” I protested, moving to the fridge to get some eggs. “And that mixer is pretty high-tech. Not even my mom uses it.”

“A high-tech mixer?” Lance repeated. “I mean, we can just stir it by hand if you’d prefer?”

“Well, if we don’t stir it by hand, we’ll make a huge mess, Lance.”

“I can’t believe you don’t have faith in my cooking abilities.” He sighed, feigning sadness.

“I’ve never seen you cook a day in your life.” I laughed, pulling the oil out of the pantry and placing it on the counter beside the eggs.