~Vi~
I turned around quickly, plastering a fake smile on my face. My mom stood in the doorway, her mouth wide open, staring at the mess all around her. My smile quickly turned to a grimace, trying to think of a reply.
“Yeah... We kind of had an accident. Carter was trying to make some eggs and umm... He told me to look after them while he went to the bathroom and I guess I kind of forgot about them.”
I didn’t look behind me, hoping Carter knew that if he defended me and told my mom it was him, he would be in trouble. Fortunately he stayed silent behind me, apparently smarter than he looks. I stared at my mom, hoping she would believe it. It was pretty believable wasn’t it?
She looked around, her expression still one of disbelief. I bit my lip, hoping she wouldn’t freak out too much. My mom hated messes, and she hated cleaning them up even more.
I watched as she closed her, taking a deep breath before opening them again.
“I can let this go, but you are going to have to clean this up. I don’t want it here when I come back downstairs.”
When she finished, she shook her head, rubbing it gently and turning away. I sighed, relieved and watched her walk up the stairs. I turned back around to Carter, giving him a smile. He was staring after her, his eyes wide and his skin a little pale. I frowned, confused by his reaction.
“What’s wrong?”
Carter looked at me, then looked around him.
“I was so scared there for a minute, I don’t know what she would have done if you hadn’t taken the blame.”
I laughed, shaking my head at him and giving him a pat before moving towards the sink.
“Your welcome. Now we have to get started, this mess isn’t going to clean itself.”
Carter was silent, not moving to my side. I turned around to look at him. He was still standing in the same position, the same paleness taking over his skin, and a guilty look taking over his features.
“What’s wrong now?”
Carter hesitated, looking around him. He gulped when he saw the huge mess and then looked back at me, his eyes landing on the sponge in my hand.
“I’ve never cleaned anything in my life.”
I stood still, shocked. I stared at him, waiting for him to tell me he was joking. He stared back at me, his expression growing more and more guilty as time passed. I finally burst out laughing, bending over to hold my sides. Carter frowned, not finding it funny in the least. I looked up at him and tried to stop my laughter.
“It’s ok, I’ll teach you. Best for you to learn now instead of coming face to face to a mess that you have to clean up by yourself and no one is around to help you.”
Laughter slipped through, and I chuckled for a moment, then tried to collect myself when I saw Carter staring at me. I cleared my throat, turning away so that Carter couldn’t see my suppressed smiles. He was so rich, it was like he was from another planet.
My laughter quickly disappeared when I saw the mess once more. I sighed, tossing a rag to Carter and started cleaning.
~
I wiped the sweat off of my eyebrow and sighed, smiling. I looked around the kitchen, pleased with our work. I turned to Carter, and shook my head. He had gotten more into this than I thought he would. He was scrubbing the floor, down on his knees and a determined expression fixed on his face. The sweat on his forehead was making his blonde curls stick to his face.
“You know that that floor is as clean as it’s going to get.”
Carter didn’t look up, biting his lip and scrubbing harder, his eyes transfixed to the floor. I laughed, placing my hands on my hips and raising my eyebrows. I stood like that, waiting for Carter to look up. Finally, when he noticed the silence he looked up at me.
“Come on Carter.”
He looked down at the floor once more, thinking, before looking back up at me. I tilted my head, waiting for him to get up. He finally sighed, getting to his knees. I laughed, giving him a hug. He was so serious, it was just too cute. He stood still, confused by my reaction. I let go, clearing my throat awkwardly before turning towards the door, hiding my creeping blush.
“Mom! We finished!”
I waited as I heard her make her way downstairs slowly. I walked over to the table, distractedly looking through today’s mail on the table. There were a bunch of magazines and bills for my parents, but halfway through the pile I cam upon a letter addressed to me. I frowned, opening it slowly.
My mom interrupted my thoughts as she walked into the kitchen. She looked around, her eyes widening. I turned towards her, grinning at her expression. I looked around myself, feeling proud at our effort and the result.
“This is beautiful! It is cleaner than it was before!”
I grinned, looking at Carter. He grinned back at me, then nodded shyly at my mom. I turned towards her, giving her a smile as well.
“Well, I guess I underestimated you two.”
I nodded, replying, “You wouldn’t believe how much Carter focused on this cleaning. It’s like he was born to clean.”
My mom’s eyebrows rose as she looked at Carter in surprise. She had obviously thought he wasn’t capable of cleaning like I had. She smiled appreciatively at Carter. I could feel him shuffling his feet behind me in embarrassment, and I shook my head to myself.
I turned to my letter, opening the paper. My eyes widened as I read who it was from.
“Satirick’s Dance Association.”
I turned to Carter, my eyes still glued to the paper, and grabbed his arm, pulling him closer and wordlessly pointing to the paper, too surprised to speak. His eyebrows furrowed in confusion but then slowly changed to shock.
I found my voice again, clearing it slightly. I started to slowly read what they had written below out loud.
“Dear applicant. We have taken your audition into deep consideration, think and rethinking about whether or not you had what we wanted. We decided that you and your partner were beautiful together, and we are proud to announce that we are accepting you two into the performance.”
At this point, my voice had risen to a shriek, before I was just screaming in excitement. I dropped the letter, jumping up and down.
“We got it, we got it, we got it!”
I continued jumping up and down, grabbing my confused mom and giving her a bear hug. I turned towards Carter, prepared to see him jumping up and down as well.
I turned around to see him holding the letter, a sad expression on his face. My jumping ceased immediately, confusion taking over. He looked up at me, his sadness floating across the room and spreading into me.
“What’s wrong?”
Carter sighed before looking down wordlessly. My eyes followed his, and they landed on his ankle. My shoulders slumped in dismay.
Oh. Right.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Hey guys! Sorry I posted a little late, but I'm planning to stick to the schedule, so nothing is changing. Sorry bout that.
So they finally heard from the dance crew, but we still got a crisis. And we don't know what Carter is going to do about it. Decisions, decisions. Yeah so go ahead and take guesses at whats going to happen, maybe it'll give me a better idea ;p
Yeah so hope you liked the chapter, I think its a tiny bit longer than the usual chapters, but its probably still only 2 pages...guess we'll see soon.
Thanks for reading! Vote and comment!