I woke up to the loud ringing of my phone. My hand searched for it over the beside table, knocking a few things off. Finally finding it, I propped myself up on my elbow and answered it.
"Hello?" my voice was groggy and faint, I rubbed my eyes as a feeble attempt to wake myself up a bit.
"Hey, did I wake you? I'm so sorry." I instantly knew who it was from his voice. I didn't even think to check the caller ID upon answering the call.
"Yea you did Cal, but continue, I'm awake now." I let out a sleepy giggle.
"Ok well um, Ashton and Maddie had this awesome idea, and after you left band practice yesterday he told us about it and said we should give it a go. And anyway we planned it for today but I forgot to call you last night, hence why I'm calling so early."
"Yea it's early it's like 7am Calum!"
"Anyway the idea is a scavenger hunt!"
"What?" I mumbled as I tried to register what he just said, what can I say my brain just doesn't function in the morning.
"A scavenger hunt. We split into pairs and set out for the day to find the listed items and first team back with the list completed wins! sound awesome or what?"
"It sounds great!"
"So you in?"
"Depends"
"On what?"
"A lot of things really."
"Well you don't have to be here until 9am, that gives you two hours and partners are getting drawn out of a hat."
"You know my curiosity well Calum Hood, but there is one more thing-"
"Yes fun is guaranteed." He laughs, god he sounds like my dad. He used to say stuff like that all the time or 'there's only one rule, and that is to have fun!'
"Whatever, count me in see you in a few hours."
"Great see you then, my place ok?"
"Cool see ya Cal."
I hung up the phone and rolled over on to my back, arms and legs spread out across the bed, letting out a loud sigh.
I layed there for a few moments, trying to find the motivation to actually get out of bed.
I was actually rather excited about today. I knew it was going to be fun. Especially after yesterday went smoothly. I guess Luke really meant what he had said at the hospital. Yesterday he actually joined in conversation with me and the boys, smiling, laughing it was like he was a whole different person. Never once did he become angry or upset and never once did he show any signs of disapproval toward me. It made me so much more confident that we could actually build a friendship and everything would work out.
Speaking of yesterday afternoon, I never got to hear the boys play, which I am highly disappointed about. I was actually really excited to hear them. But instead we just hung out, eating pizza and played a bit of Fifa. Which I totally smashed Michael in! I still think I should get bragging rights for like a year, but Michael just says he was taking it easy on me. But I totally, fair and square, smashed him.
Eventually I rolled out of the bed. It involved a lot of grumbling, groaning and yawning. This was the earliest I had been up on a weekend in ages.
I stepped out of the shower, dressing myself in a pair of denim shorts, my black tshirt with a moon print on it, paired with my khaki button up that I had rolled the sleeves up and left unbuttoned. I slipped on my socks and red vans and left my hair out. To be honest I didn't even care what it wanted to do today.
--
"Hey hey hey!"
"Hey Hey Mikey!" I laughed as he pulled me in for a quick embrace. And lead me downstairs to the band room.
"The final member has arrived, presenting, my home girl, Lacey Brooks!"
I laughed as I entered, hitting Michael's arm.
"Hey guys!" I waved, greeted by an array of smiles and various 'hellos'
"So let's get this show on the road!" Ashton yelled out, waving a bowl of small papers around his head.
He lowered the bowl toward Michael, signally for him to draw a name out. Mike's hand fished around in the bowl for a few moments before deciding on one.
"Maddie! And..." he dipped his hand in the bowl again to pick out another name. "Ashton! What a coincidence!"
We all laughed as Ashton wrapped his arm around Maddie and Michael once again put his hand in the bowl.
"Calum!" Michael reached into the bowl again pulling out a second name, "and me! Yes bro!"
Cal and Michael high five as Luke and I awkwardly stared at each other. I guess we both were pretty quick to realise what that meant.
I walked over to Luke, giving him a small smile that he quickly returned.
"So I'm hoping you have a car because I'm sure as hell not walking around town all day." I laughed, starting conversation.
"Well it's my mum's but its better than nothing right?" he laughed as he awkwardly rubbed the back if his neck.
"A car is a car." I smiled before turning to Ashton who was holding a few pieces of paper in his hand.
"Ok guys, so there is a list of 10 things you have to find or do," he said as he passed out a sheet of paper to each person. "You have until 5 o'clock this afternoon, go!"
We all took a moment to register before running up the stairs. I burst out of the grit door first, though I had to wait for Mr. Slow Poke, Luke Hemmings himself to show me to his car.
"It's parked around the block come on," he said running past me, pushing my shoulder for me to follow him.
"Sweet ride," I exclaimed hopping into the passenger seat.
"Like I said it's mum's" he laughed, causing me too as well.
"So where to first?"
I looked down at the list in my hands. It contained a few odd things, but most were pretty reasonable.
"Umm let's go to the nearest grocery store."
Luke started up the car and drove off. The car remained in silence until the first stop light.
"Umm, here plug this in you can play whatever." He handed me his phone and a connection cord.
I plugged in his phone and unlocked the screen.
"Passcode?"
"Umm," his eyes flicked from the road to his phone to me before he answered, "4235"
I punched in the code and opened up the music app. I scrolled through his songs. He had great taste.
"Luke, your music is perfection, this makes me so happy!"
He let out a laugh in return, "we actually have something in common!"
"Umm we have a lot in common," I muttered, instantly regretting it, I was completely distracted by my thoughts of the night at the party, it just slipped out.
We were incased in a moment of awkward silence that lasted a little longer than I would have liked it to.
I shuffled Luke's music, it filled the car. I don't think I will ever get over how great his taste in music was.
Niether Luke or I talked on the way to the shop, and I was ok with that. It was going to take time for us both to come around.
Arriving we both raced out of the car into the shop.
"Wait what are we getting?" Luke stopped, turning to me.
"Two oranges and an animal fridge magnet if we can get one." I laughed.
"Ok, you grab the oranges and I'll try find a magnet."
"Okey dokey," I said before I turned and fast walked to the fruit section.
"Oranges, oranges, oranges."I mumbled to myself as I flicked my head around looking for the oranges.
Finally locating them I grabbed two random oranges before running around the store trying to find Luke.
I poked my head down the different aisles until I ran straight into him.
"Oh hey, well I got the oranges." I said taking a small step back as I held up the oranges.
"I found a magnet." He held up a small fridge magnet.
"Is that a-"
"Yes it is a moose with an Australian flag." He laughed.
"Australia doesn't even have mooses!" I laughed along with him.
"But look it's head wobbles!" he exclaimed through his laughter as he wobbled the moose's head that was attached to it's body by a spring.
"You're such a dork Luke," I laughed, pushing his shoulder to move forward toward the counter.
We climbed back into the car, Luke throwing the oranges and moose in the back seat as I crossed them off the list.
"Where to next?"
"Well how far away from your place are we?"
"Umm not too far, about 10-15 minutes."
"Okay well let's head that way, I'll explain as you drive."
"Okay," he said pulling out onto the road.
"Well I'm hoping you know what this means because I sure as hell don't." I gave him an expectant look.
"Go on,"
"Oh right yea, I actually have to tell you what's on the list, right."
He laughed to himself while I picked up the list from my lap.
"Well it says to pick 3 leaves from the tree with our names on it at the park near Luke's house," I read straight from the list, "Obviously it doesn't have my name on it, but you know which tree right?"
"Yea yea, I got it."
We drove to the park in a conversational silence just as before, Luke's music the only thing filling the absence of sound.
"Well here we are," he said pulling up to a small park, it contained a few picnic tables and a small swing set and slide and it was all surrounded by the most magnificent trees.
"It's beautiful, just like a movie." I whispered as I meet him at the front of his car.
"It is, isn't it?" he replied, smiling.
"It is."
"Come on, this way." He quietly said, not disrupting the park's tranquility.
I followed him past the fading yellow swing set, right to the edge of the park. The tree was beautiful. It was a massive fig tree, the biggest I had ever seen.
"Wow." I let the word escape my lips as I admired the tree in awe.
"It's pretty cool hey?"
"Luke?" I whispered.
"Yea?" He whispered back.
"I think 'pretty cool' is a huge understatement." I softly giggled.
"You're right, it's magnificent!" he let his arms spread wide as he smiled up at the tree.
"It truly is," I said to myself, barely audible.
"Well neither of us can reach the leaves so either you get on my shoulders or we climb." Luke stated, a lot more casually than I would have expected, considering he was contemplating physical contact between us.
I took a moment to think about the options. The thought of Luke holding me on his shoulders made me feel nervous. It's not that I don't trust him. Actually I don't really know if I trust him. I think I do. But there is a tiny part of me telling myself not to.
To sum up my feelings toward the situation, I was scared of Luke dropping me, of falling.
"Um, how about we climb? Can't be that hard can it?"
"No its not hard at all," His voice was dripping with sarcasm as he chuckled at my response.
"Lead the way, you seemed to have done this before," I said ushering him forward.
"Many times actually." He said walking past me.
I noted where he put his feet, carefully placing mine in the exact places after he moved on. I was slower than he was but he had adjusted his speed to mine.
After a short while, he stopped, moving himself out of my way to sit on a branch. I crawls over and sat beside him, our legs dangling side by side.
"I used to come here nearly everyday after school with the boys when we were little." He unexpectedly spoke.
I didn't reply, but shifted my gaze to his. He took the offer and continued on.
"When we were 8 we carved our names into the tree, in our favourite spot. It's up a few more branches, there is this cool little pit thing in the trunk between the branches. It was like our little fort." He laughed to himself, looking up to where I'm assuming the 'fort' was.
"Sounds like you had a lot of fun here."
"Yea I did. It's a very special place to me. I still come here often. When I need a break you know? Or just to think."
"Yea I have a place like this, well it's not like this but it's like what you use it for, like thinking and things and like a special place. Well its special but not the same kind of special but yeah. That made no sense, I'm sorry." I basically just word vomitted all over him. Great job Lacey, you deserve a round of applause for how well you just made yourself look like an idiot, 10/10.
"No don't apologise, I get what you were trying to say," he chuckled to himself as he lowered his head.
We both sat watching our feet swing high above the ground. The breeze was cool against my skin, but it was the nice kind of cool that makes you feel refreshed on a hot day.
Everything just slipped away with the breeze. Luke was right, it is calming up here.
"Hey Lacey?"
"Hey yea?"
"We should probably continue with the scavenger hunt, if we want to have any chance of winning."
"Oh shit yea."
"I'll grab the 3 leaves, you start heading down."
"Why can't I pick the leaves?"
"Like you'd be able to reach!" he laughed.
"Hey I'm only like 5 inches shorter than you!"
"Five inches makes all the difference Lace."
I just looked at him. Lace. Only my family call me Lace, Dad had started calling me it when I was a baby, and did so my whole life, he always said it was because I was as beautiful as a bright white piece of lace.
When I was little it made me feel like a princess.
And now, it makes me feel worth something.
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SCAVENGER HUNT TO BE CONTINUED NEXT CHAPTER
HOPE YOU ENJOYED!! COMMENT WHAT YOU LIKED! :)
So I thought this was a fun thing to do :D
IT is actually so weird not writing about how much Luke and Lacey hate each other like whAaaat.
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