After several years, hundred thousands hours, and a new grand baby was already born -- I present to you Chapter 23!
I'm terribly sorry for the long wait. I admit that I got lost inspiration to keep on continuing this story, but I'm back!
Now, without further ado . . .
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Chapter 23 - It Was A Misake || Cassidy's P.O.V.
For the first time since this morning, I opened my phone to find out that it was running out of battery.
That was my number one mistake.
I quickly opened the screen, making sure that I can text Clarissa or Reese, but my phone was already blinking until it lost life.
I sighed as I put away my phone. I better charge my phone when I'm on the plane.
I try to hide my disappointment since I learned that there are cameras rolling subtly when I left my house and entered the car.
The producer who was in charge of the whole video, named Carlo, said that my exchange with Connor at the car was so funny that he will surely not remove it on the video, much to my dismay.
Right now, I'm wondering how I look like while I go out of my house and walk towards the car. I must look ridiculous as I put my bag inside the back storage of the car since I did have a mini pep talk to myself that my bag won't be that heavy, turns out it kind of was and my face probably didn't look pretty when I tried to put it inside.
That was mistake number two.
When Connor was trying to make a conversation, I tried to give him minimal responses since I want to be very careful at this trip and not make myself got carried away.
"Are you excited for this trip?" Connor asked. He looked at me questionably but he didn't hide his smile.
"No," I mumbled, I looked away and I'd be lying if I said I didn't see Connor's smile turning downwards. Maybe he's just looking on the bright side and I just let him down.
I'm way too overthinking. I should distract myself. I pick up my earphones and connected it to my phone, just to realize that my phone battery is dead.
"Excuse me, sir, could you please turn the radio on?" I asked the driver in front of me, who is wearing a suit and tie. He probably looked more sophisticated than I do. I look down at my outfit and give a loud sigh.
I turn around and look at Connor, who seemed to be a lot quiet ever since I asked to turn the radio on. Good for him, I don't want to end up getting in a bad start of the morning.
I just listened to the song playing on the radio, instead of normally listening to my phone with my earphones on.
Xavier's P.O.V.
I look at myself in the mirror. I fixed my shirt again. And my hair. And my breath. I looked at my cellphone for the last time.
Bling. New message.
08.16. S1: Ready or not here I come.
I smiled as I looked at Sheena's text. I looked at myself again in the mirror when a sound stopped me.
"Get your body in here if you don't want it to be a corpse!" Then another loud honk came after.
I ran downstairs and quickly closed the door as I sprinted towards Sheena's car.
"Dude, we're going to be late," Nick said beside me.
"Surprise is going to ruin if one falls apart. Now, go go go!" Stella told us.
Sheena rolled her eyes and did her job.
"You know, you're seriously going to wake up the whole neighborhood. Police might come out of nowhere to pull us up, which by the way, as I remember, Stella said if one falls apart, everything is ruin," Jack noted.
"No, I'm not. I'm not loud when I called you guys to get out of your houses. And it's nine in the morning, for goodness sake. We wake up at seven latest for school. What time do they wake up for work?" Sheena snorted.
"Police are early in the morning," Jack retorted back.
"It's their limo!" Josh shouted.
"Hide, hide, hide!" Stella shouted louder.
Sheena quickly turned the car around and went to the aisle to halt.
"Do you think they saw us?" I asked. I hoped our surprise wasn't ruin. We planned this for days after we learned about Connor's prize at the fashion show.
"I don't know. I can't see. Their windows are dark. I mean, they're like celebrities that want to stay hidden and look at their limousine. Wow." Nick whistled.
"Go before we might lose them. They're far away now," Asher said.
"We know where their destination is anyway. The airport is near so we can make a stop there and just go with the flow," Stella replied as she looked ahead.
Sheena went back to driving and lowered the volume of the radio as she slowly drives to the airport, careful of what she is doing.
When we received a honk and cars passing us by quickly, Sheena cursed below her breath.
"Poor tourist who go here to travel by cars and don't know the road they are going." Maybe it was a bad idea to lower out windows since we can hear what the other people in the car would say. But rather than Sheena saying something back to that person as I expected, she just rolled her eyes.
"Well, that's why there's such thing as GPS and a map." Asher crossed her arms.
"Are we there yet?" I asked as I closed my eyes, hating the view of traffic which made me gag.
"Open your eyes so you can see." Jack nudged me.
When the car was pulled on a stop, I opened my eyes and quickly opened the door.
"Where are they?" Stella asked as she fixed her hair and her dress. We all looked around and saw them entering with their bags.
"There, there, there!" Sheena said quickly and walked fast.
We were basically running since we don't want to lose Connor at their private plane.
"Why can't you girls run faster?" Nick reacted.
"We don't run with heels, FYI," Stella informed us. The automatic door opened and we felt the air-conditioned touching our skins. I'm wondering if the girls aren't feeling cold with their dress. I offered Stella my jacket but she politely declined.
We reached near Connor and Cassidy and I can see on her face that she's bored. Emotionless face which ruined the whole outfit she wore with bright colors.
"Why are you leaving without saying goodbye to us?" Stella said behind me.
I was shocked at how we caught them since they were walking and we were literally running. It was a good thing that the officers didn't notice any suspicious at having seven teenagers running around the airport.
"Hey, guys! I didn't know you would come!" Connor's surprised face made us all feel better knowing that our surprise was a success.
We all hugged him and do the handshake since hugging bros are too overrated.
"Have a safe trip." I smiled at Connor.
"Be good."
"Don't be naughty."
"Have a good time."
"But not too much."
"Buy us clothes that are our type. I'm size --"
"We're going to miss you."
"You're all acting like he's going to leave for a month," Cassidy said lowly, not wanting anyone of us to hear. It's obvious that she failed on doing so.
"Puh-lease. Doesn't mean that you don't have a friend with you here to say goodbye to you means that you can be obvious about your jealousy." Stella rolled her eyes. Cassidy seemed taken aback. She opened her mouth but nothing came. She closed her mouth again and had her chin up with pride and decided to ignore us.
"What? Can't deny the truth?" Stella pressed. Cassidy looked at her darkly. I don't like this side of her. Neither do the guys. It seems like only a girl would know how to handle this. Girls' fight. I like that.
"You're just not worth of my time," Cassidy snapped.
"Then why bother talking back to me?" Stella questioned, putting her right arm on her small waist.
"It's because that I have to make it clear to you since you're dumb enough to know it." Cassidy took a step forward her and I could imagine fire in their eyes and smoke around their heads.
"What did you just call me?" Stella took another step closer. I looked at the guys but they made no move. It was pretty intelligent since they would not want to get a mad side of Stella or Sheena. Never mess with an angry girl.
"You heard me." Cassidy was about to take another step forward when someone shouted behind us.
"I got it! We're all ready to move! I know this all hug-kiss-moment with your friends is a very touchy moment but seriously, we have to move. Camera is going on," the guy told us. The girls quickly went back to normal, Cassidy with an emotionless face and Stella looking at Connor now with a sad look.
"Suffer her for me?" Stella joked as she hugged Connor.
"No promises," Connor replied with a nervous laugh. We all said our goodbyes, as they went inside with a no-goodbye-received Cassidy.
Cassidy looked back at us one more time, probably to make sure that we all burn to hell. When she turned to look at me with her murderous eyes, I mouthed, "Bye."
"Alright. Now, let's go!" The guy guided them toward the doors inside and the crews crowded them with a very professional camera. I saw that Connor and Cassidy each have a smile on their faces and Connor's hand is wrapped around Cassidy's waist. Wait, why is it on her waist? I looked back at my friends wondering if they saw it. Stella and Sheena muttered something about 'for show' and 'fake' which I believe them because I know they know all about these celebrities and gossip stuffs. Plus, they would know better than I do.
I wonder why no one came here to greet Cassidy. Maybe they already did when she was home?
I looked at my friends again and saw their grins.
"Mission B, success." Sheena smirked.
"What's Mission A?" I asked once we went back to the car.
Stella and Sheena just smiled at me when they sat in front. I looked at the guys and they both smile knowingly and not making eye contact with me.
"Guys?" I asked. I was getting irritated now.
"Well, you left already while we were talking about it yesterday. It was a last minute plan. Nothing big." Jack shrugged.
"Really?" I raised my eyebrow. I looked at Sheena hoping to get hints.
"Totally," Asher confirmed.
After a long ride to the nearest restaurant, I couldn't help but ask again.
"Seriously, guys. This is killing me." I groaned.
"Then forget about it." Nick patted my back.
"Not helping." I glared at Nick, who was now eating his second burger.
"Why do you have to make such a big deal out of it? It's not a life-changing plan," Stella said as she sipped her water.
"Well, if that's so, why can't you guys tell me? You guys aren't keeping a secret about me, are you?" I accused them.
"Dude, why would you think of that?" Josh stopped eating his fries as he looked at me.
I played with my fingers nervously, "Well, it won't be the first time." I said under my breath.
"Xavier." Stella looked at me with pity in her eyes.
"It was once. One and only." Sheena comforted me as she reached her hand in mine. I slipped it off and feeling dramatic. If this was their way of pitying me, I'm not going to fall for it.
"Fine, if that was the only thing that was upsetting you, I'll tell you. We tricked Clarissa by telling her Cassidy is leaving the next weekend. That's all," she added.
"Yeah right, how did you guys make her believe you?" I rolled my eyes.
"By making Connor text her the fake details. It was really easy, we just asked a random freshman to use her phone to text Clarissa since Asher, surprisingly, has her number. We texted her by saying the message is from Connor then badadeem, badadum. Magic happens." Sheena smirked.
"I still don't know how she could believe it since she could have ask Cassidy about it." I rolled my eyes. I took a first bite of my burger and couldn't help but wipe my mouth with tissue as the sauce spread through the corner of my lips.
"We told her last night after school." Stella smiled. She was eating her usual salad, same with Sheena.
"Don't you think that's a bit too far?" I looked at Sheena, giving her serious eyes.
"Well, not really, it was a good prank. Plus, Cassidy could just Skype her friends or something. It's not like she's going for a whole year." Sheena rolled her eyes as she sipped into her iced tea.
I didn't say anything afterwards, seeing it was useless to ask because what's done is done.
I wonder if Clarissa even asked Cassidy about it. It seems pretty unrealistic that Clarissa would believe the text from anonymous.
And here I thought, after all this time I pitied myself when I should pity Cassidy now.
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a u t h o r ' s n o t e :
Hey hey hey! So? What do you guys think?
Maybe you can press that star button and make it shine? VOTE VOTE VOTE! Also comment if you're feeling thoughtful because I appreciate them a lot.
This chapter is dedicated to nightfall16 because she's the first one to comment on my previous chapter and it made me glad that someone still kept reading until the 22nd chapter!
Cover above is made by Feelingthesparks! <3
P.S. (You know the drill) SMILE!!! :)
"'Papa!' she whispered. 'I have no eyes!' He patted the girl's hair. She'd fallen into his trap. 'With a smile like that,' Hans Hubermann said, 'you don't need eyes.'" ― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief