lemonade | ethan

twenty six

"devon, hon. your phone is ringing." my dad tells me, looking at me through the top of his glasses before looking at my phone as it vibrates on the kitchen table. he goes back to the work on his laptop, typing away at the keyboards.

"oh." i pick up my phone, seeing ethans contact picture. "hello?" i say, setting the phone back down and putting it on speaker.

"hello, beautiful." he says.

i clear my throat, my cheeks heating up. how is it that the one time he calls me that my dad is listening? i glance at my dad as i stirred the chocolate frosting in the big bowl in front of me. "you're on speaker."

"oh. my bad." he laughs. "um. who's there?" he asks.

i chuckled, simply telling him: "my dad."

i can basically feel him smiling through the phone. "hi, mr. wu."

"ethan." he simply replies, not once looking up from his laptop. he was pretty unphased however, because i'm pretty sure after the charity event, he's aware of my liking to ethan. i'm just glad he's okay with it unlike my mother who still has that negative mind set about south siders like everyone else in this town does.

"so, soccer game is in a couple hours but i was wondering if you needed help baking for the fundraiser?" he asks, changing the subject. "i could bring allie? she could help you sell."

"umm.." i hesitate, looking at the mess before me covering the kitchen. my dad looks up at me, giving me a slight nod knowing it was okay for them to come over. "sure! i could really use it."

halloween themed baked goods seemed a lot harder than it sounded. i've gone through five cans of pumpkin and have made tons of batches of frosting with multiple dye colors in order to make and decorate some cupcakes which were currently in the oven.

but i haven't started on the sugar cookies nor the rice crispy treats and so on. the list just never ends. to make things better, i've only got a couple hours left until the fundraiser.

mrs. miller was so happy to hear the news on me raising money back. and of course my mom was thrilled to hear about it also. not only did i defend the south siders the night of the charity event, but i'm also helping raise back the money that was taken. in my mothers eyes, i'm suddenly the perfect daughter on both sides of the community.

it feels good but it's not the reason i'm doing it.

i volunteered to help raise back the charity money when mrs. miller had fully given up her search. i partly decided to do this because i wanted clayton's parents to stop searching, for they must've been so tired. but mostly because i wanted to protect sonny in the case it all leads back to him.

once my mom heard about it, she gave a huge list of goodies to make. of course, she isn't helping me bake. but she is advertising it because it makes our family look good.

soccer championships were tonight. the whole town is talking about it, meaning lots of people will be there. and hungry might i add.

soccer is the second most talked about sport here other than football. brooklyn bay high school's football team was always winning the state championships, but this is soccer's first year getting through semi finals so it's super important.

to make things better, ethan's playing tonight. sigh, i get heart eyes just thinking about it.

"devon." my dad says, bringing me back to reality. "your cupcakes will burn."

i turn around, looking at the oven. my timer had been going off for almost a minute now. i chuckled. "right." i put on my oven mits, taking out the cupcakes and setting the tray down onto a hot pad so they could cool.

"i gotta go meet up with your mom now. she's already at the school setting up with mrs. miller. don't make too much of a mess." my dad says. i reassure him i won't before he's slipping on his jacket and already out the door.

a couple minutes after my dad leaves, the doorbell rings and now i know they're here. i turn off the fire in which i had previously tuned on for melting the marshmallows. i walk towards the door, already seeing their shadows.

i open the door, alexandra and ethan standing there. i greet them, letting them in. when alexandra walks into the kitchen, she cringes. "really, devon?" she asks rhetorically as she holds up my store bought frosting containers.

i shrugged. "what?"

she playfully rolls her eyes before opening the fridge. "wow, your fridge is stacked! i could make an entire batch of homemade frosting!"

i chuckled before she began her work. she put us in our places, making me continue the work with the rice crispy and made ethan dip cake pops and decorate them with sprinkles.

"ethan." i say. he looks at me, an eyebrow raised. "the theme is halloween. last time i checked, princess pink cake pops aren't spooky."

he shrugged. "i mean..." he looked at all his pink cake pops, dripping on the styrofoam holding them up. "i'm pretty spooked."

i chuckled, shaking my head. checking them time, i realized we only had a short amount of time left. "looks like you're going to have to keep them that way."

"don't you have to go now?" alexandra asks ethan. "i mean, don't you have to prep with your team?" she explains.

he nods, wiping his hands down. "yes, actually. thanks for reminding me." he chuckles. "allie, you'll stay and help dev with the loading?" alexandra nods as she sculpts teeth with fondant to put on the rice crispy bars.

he runs out the house through the front. i hear his car start before the noise slowly fades away. "do you think they'll win tonight?"

i nod without hesitation. "oh yes. last year there were barely any south siders on the team. but things have changed and now look where they are. brooklyn bay's soccer team wouldn't even have passed the semi finals without the south siders."

"i have faith in these boys." i add, referring to ethan and his friends whom were on the soccer team, including sonny.

alexandra nods along. "yeah, you're right. i just don't want to be too disappointed if they lost. you know?"

"yeah, i totally get it." i say. "let's just think positive tonight."

END OF CHAPTER TWENTY SIX

hi guys! i made new covers for all my books. i think they're rlly cute. they're my favorite so far.

anyways.. see y'all later! peace.