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⎾ Chapter Nine: You are extraordinary!⏌
FIRST MONTH
"HOLLER HOLLER, WE THE BOYS!" Sam sang loudly, alongside with a goofy dance as pure entertainment for Alan who was recording him, laughing hysterically.
"This is gold." Alan laughed, ending the recording and instantly sending it to the boys chat entitled 'WE THE BOYZ!'
"Guys, where's my hair straightener?" Leon asked with pure worry, ruffling through his suitcase, just in case he left it in there.
"Remember, you told Tom to bring it for you because you had no room in your bag." San chuckled, going back to brushing his hair.
See the Zodiacs we're preparing for their Dinner Date and everyone was anxious, trying their best to look beyond appealing. And well, Leon was more anxious then usually, stressing over the littlest thing as all he wanted to strive for was perfection.
"No, no, no! I need to straighten my hair. I look amazing with straight hair!" Leon cried, dumping his whole body on his bed, letting out a muffled squeal.
"Who are you trying to impress?" Alan asked, raising his eyebrow up in curiosity.
"NO ONE!"
Lies.
"Hmm sure." Sam hummed, giving Alan a look which was reciprocated back to him.
"Hey, stop communicating telepathically! If you have something to say, say it to my face!" Leon whined, shrugging his shoulders up and now like a child.
And once again, Alan and Sam exchanged looks.
"Okay but I think we should walk in with a big bang, we need to make a memorable entrance!" Tori suggested.
"Ooh, I second that! What if we open the door, then I walk in first, do a couple flips then Tori follows, does whatever she does and then-"
"Tom, just get in the house." Valarie groaned, opening the door which was unlocked and pushing Tom inside.
"I actually kinda liked the idea," Callum said, rolling his and Tori's luggage into the house that was surprisingly lacking it's usually chaotic behaviour of dancing, screaming and what-not.
"We just got off a 15-hour flight, I think a dramatic entrance isn't needed. Plus, Cassidy's sleeping and she'll be mad if she discovers we did such thing without her." Vance lectured with Cassidy plopped over his shoulder.
"I'm not asleep, I was just too lazy to get out of the car by myself." Cassidy giggled, sliding off Vance with a cheeky smile on her face.
"Mood," Tom said, slowly walking further down the hallway, feeling suspicious suspense fill the house.
"Not gonna lie but this is hella creepy, why is this house so silent?" Valarie asked.
"I think Stephan snapped and murdered everyone. I told you guys he'd be the one to murder-"
"Okay, but why does everyone think I'm most likely to be the murder, it's clearly Alan, he can't maintain his anger." Stephan's voice could be heard in the distance, it was faint but loud enough.
"STEPHAN!" Several groans were heard from different directions of the house and finally, Lana revealed herself from her hiding spot— the fern plant tree that was placed in the corner of the hallway.
"Welcome to Paris guys!" Lana greeted with a warm smile, "we were gonna surprise you guys but someone, STEPHAN, ruined it."
"I'm sorry guys but you guys are sleeping on Alan's murderous qualities, the boy literally looks like he's out for blood." Stephan defended, playfully pushing Alan who only laughed at the friendly gesture.
"Y'all really overlooking, Tori. She'll easily kill us all with one look." Savannah giggled, before running up to her best friend and lifting her into a hug, playfully spinning around.
"I have so much to tell you!" Tori gushed, looking down at her best friend with a grin.
And with that, the family reunion was on. Everyone catching up with each other as all the Zodiacs had finally arrived. Immersing in strange conversations and quite unusual group pairings. It really looked like the Zodiacs were finally coming out of the shells and mingling with people outside of their shared sign and element. All but one, Cassidy, who stood awkwardly by the hallway, watching everyone interact.
"SILENZIO!" All the conversations were interrupted by the sound of a spoon clashing with a glass cup and it was enough to capture everyone's attention.
Standing there on a chair, with a spoon and glass in her hand, was Carlie, sporting a cheeky smirk on her face.
"Shall we have dinner?" She spoke up again and this time, rushing into the room were waiters, all holding what seemed to be a bowl of soup in their hands.
"What the heck! This is so cool!" Skylar squealed, watching as the lengthy table was placed with bowls of soup, enough for everyone, perhaps more.
"So yeah guys, this is my treat as part of our Zodiac Treat thingy. It's a Dinner Date, made by professionals in the comfort of our home." Carlie began with the biggest smile plastered on her face and it was enough to indicate how much effort and the time she put into planning such a thing.
"We love it." Leon smiled, giving her a cheeky wink, making her scoff in return.
"Anyways, as you can see there are sitting arrangements but that's only there so we can get to know other people. So please take your seat." And with one last smile, everyone hurried off towards the table finding their seats. Leon, on the other hand, grabbed Carlie by the hand and pulled her into the empty hallway.
"Yes, Leon?" Carlie asked, curious to see what he wanted this time and a small smile appearing on her face.
"Just wanted to point out that you place me next to you. So, is there something you wanna say?" Leon teases, closing the space between the two.
"I used a random pairing generator, don't get too excited." Carlie gibed, stopping Leon in his tracks by placing a hand on his chest, gently pushing him back.
"Sure, sure. Or you could just admit, I'm pretty charming." Leon laughed.
"Keep wishing, Leo." Carlie snorted, before skipping off back into the dinning room, taking her seat next to Aaron, with Leon slowly trailing behind, a content smirk on his face.
"I didn't know you and Leon were... a thing?" Aaron asked, seeming slightly upset.
"No way, no, no and no. We just have a weird con-connection." Carlie muttered, anxiously fixing her utensils on the table.
Finally, Leon took a seat on the empty seat beside her, a wider smile on his face as he was eavesdropping on Aaron's and Carlie's conversation.
"Okay, putting our differences a side for just a second, I just wanna say how truly grateful I am to be apart of this, especially with you lot. This is going to be the greatest six months ever. I can feel it." Tori cheered, lifting up her glass cranberry juice for a toast.
"Aww, how cute." Lana sarcastically teased, taking a sip out of her apple juice.
"Y'all, chill. Can we please go one day without drama?" Paddy interjected, stopping mid chewing to speak.
"Agreed, Carlie went out of her way to organise this for a reason, now you two wanna continue your little feud here, no way." Piper smiled, though it wasn't really a time for smiling.
"Us two? Sorry but Lana was the one who starting acting all shady, I was just being sincere-"
"Just let it be Tori, now back to the toasts, I wanna-"
"Say that I can feel us all get closer and closer by the minute and it's so amazing. Like we all accept each other's differences and I think that's what I love about us. We're all so different but the same." Skylar smirked, interrupting Savannah who's face was covered in disbelief.
"Enough toasting! Let's get back to the meal!" Valarie shouted, feeling the tension in the air raise between Lana, Tori, Savannah and Skylar.
"You can cut the tension with a knife." Aaron snickered, whispering towards Cassidy who seemed out of it. Lifelessly poking her soup with her fork.
"Hmm." Was all she said.
"You do know you're eating soup with a fork." Aaron joked, allowing a small smile to appear on Cassidy's face.
"God, I'm so out of it today." She muttered, placing her fork down and picking up her spoon.
"Why's that. Talk to me." Aaron asked, shifting his body towards Cassidy so she knew, she had all his attention.
"Don't worry about it. It just probably the jet lag that's making me feel this way." She partly lied, slowly slurping the spoonful of soup.
"Hey, look. I know we've only known each other for about five days but you know you can always talk-"
"I said I'm fine." Cassidy snapped, taking Aaron by surprise, "Oh god. I'm so sorry, I'm just—I-I." And just like that, Cassidy excused herself from the table, with a fast pace, walking out of the dinning room and somewhere down the hallway.
"Is she okay, she walked out crying?" Connor asked looking at Aaron in confusion.
"Oh no, I'll go check up on her." Valarie sighed.
"No, it's okay. I got it." And before Valarie could even object, Aaron excused himself from the dinning table and walked down the hallway, trying his best to decipher where Cassidy had run off too. The front door that was left wide opened gave it away and so, Aaron walked outside, to see Cassidy silently crying by the bench beside the house.
"Please go away." Cassidy sniffed.
"I can't do that until I know you're fine." Aaron sighed, taking a seat on the bench next to the Capricorn.
"I'm fine." And just like that, Cassidy broke down, letting the tears fall down her face. All that she was holding in was let out and to comfort her, Aaron wrapped his arms around her, rubbing her back to calm her down.
"It's okay, Cass. Don't be afraid to cry in front of me, it's fine. I totally understand. Everything must be overwhelming right now, I mean, moving in with twenty-three other strangers is quite intimidating." Aaron comforted, his voice so soothing that it already made Cassidy calm down. Her breath going back to a steady pace, but the tears were still falling down.
"I just feel so out of place. Like I don't belong." Cassidy confessed.
"Why's that?"
"Everyone just seems so close. Like those three days the Earth Signs and I were stuck in Australia, it seemed like that was the time everyone kinda got together."
"I mean, Gemma and Pyper are literally best friends. Lana's mingling with other people besides the Fire Girls. Tori has Savannah. Valarie is just really liked overall because she's genuinely sincere. Callum's best buddies with the Fire Boys somehow and Tom with Paddy..."
"What I'm trying to say is that my being stuck in Australia isn't a valid excuse to why I have no friends besides the Earth Girls. If the other Earth Signs can do, I can but I haven't. I just suck, I'm not interested in anyway... I'm just here, in the middle just existing." Cassidy let out, another whimper escaping her lips.
"Cass, you are far from not interesting. You are extraordinary and damn straight funny, you were literally eating your soup with a fork. If that's not pure comedy, then I must have no clue what comedy is." Aaron chuckled, hearing a soft giggle coming from Cassidy.
"But seriously, you need to stop being so analytical on yourself. Being so analytical is the reason why you feel out of place because you keep looking at the negative not the positive. And if we look at the positive, you'll see how much we all care for each other. And yes, we've known each other for five days but a lot happens in five days."
"Five days, Cass and I've already noticed a lot about you. You're as ambitious as hell. I deadass heard you lied to Callum about Tori being sorry just so peaceful in the house could be restored. And you're cheeky in a good way, Vance told me about how you pretended to be asleep just so you could be carried inside. That's straight up some adorable shit. Look I could go on and on but we have dinner inside waiting for us."
And just like that, Aaron made Cassidy's night. She could see how much he genuinely cared for everyone in this house and the fact that he went out of his way to cheer her up was enough for her to know how genuine the Aquarius was.
And for some weird reason, he made her feel safe, like at home and she couldn't get over how comfortable she felt in his presence. Aaron was truly one of a kind.
"Do you wanna ditch the dinner and just go on a walk. I just feel like it's needed." Cassidy asked, looking up to meet Aaron's welcoming gaze.
"Anything you want, let's go." And with their arms intertwined, the two heading down the street, walking to god knows and conversing about literally anything because they just had a weird connection.
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i had a dream i had sleep paralysis but it felt so real and now im too scared to sleep.
alsoooo aaron is such a gent