I pin on my earrings as my door opens.
"Hi girl! Wow. You look cuteee"
"Thanks." I chuckle, blushing.
"A certain BIKEERR is going to be here tonight." She winks as she pins back a few loose strands of my hair.
I try to sound nonchalant when I say: "Cool. So will Em, and Keila, and people from barre..."
She whacks me on the shoulder. "Can you guys just date already?"
"Guys like him don't do the whole 'dating' thing." I roll my eyes and rummage around in my drawer for my liquid eyeliner.
"Then don't date, but have SOMETHING with him. I can't stand watching you two dodge around the subject, and try to stay cool with this. We all know you are magnets trying desperately to fight the attraction and not stick together. It's clear to everyone around you!"
"I don't do the friends with benes' anymore, Kota. You know that."
She lets out a deep sigh. "Just because one guy was a dick doesn't mean they all are."
"Whatever." I sigh as I finally find the eyeliner.
Dakota snatches it out of my hand, instructing me to stay still.
"Why do y'all keep telling us to date? Like...I swear the entire time we were at Ikea, you kept giving me that look and bothering me about it."
"You guys already go on dates all the time, and you guys find it hard to keep your hands...and lips off of each other."
"Okay. Not true! They aren't 'dates', they're friendly hangouts."
"Mhmm. Explain all the touchy- touchy kissy stuff then."
"We've only kissed a couple times! And it was an accident..." I mutter
"An accident? Each time?" she raises once perfect brow and continues trancing the liner across my eyelid.
"Whatever." I mumble.
The doorbell rings and a dog starts barking. Dakota's eyes flick to my doorway for a second, and she quickly finishes my second eye.
"I'll go get that." we say in unison as she straightens, then we laugh.
"Okay, first, fancy twirl for me." she instructs.
I roll my eyes and do a pirouette, my short black skirt billowing around me.
"I love it!" she squeals and claps her hands.
"C'mon loser. The people are waiting." I giggle, heading out of my room.
I open the door. "EM!!" I cheer, as I grab the food from her and pass it to Dakota. I give her a hug, and then tell her she can throw her shoes wherever.
She tsks at me, and puts them carefully on the shoe mat.
"Okay, what did you make?" I ask, following her to the kitchen where Dakota put the food.
"Just lasagna and garlic bread."
"JUST?!" Dakota and I squeal together, jumping up and down.
"I LOVE your homemade lasagna!!" Dakota cheers.
Emmaline's homemade lasagna and garlic bread is well known, even though she only makes it on special occasions. She makes the entire thing from scratch, including the bread and the noodles.
Emmaline blushes and waves away our compliments, opening another bag. "I also make American cheesecake, you know, because it is the Fourth of the July."
"Looks delicious, Em." I grin. She's basically good at cooking everything, but her desserts are to die for.
The doorbell rings again, and Dakota rushes off to open it.
"So are the-mm- male friends coming to the party?"
"That's the plan."
"And the one you are smitten with?"
I open my mouth to argue, but just answer: "Si."
"Ahh good, good. Now I was supposed to tell you that Miss Kat-"
"Mother was too busy to come." I interrupt. "Yeah, I figured as much."
"Do not be too hard on her, Miss Kasey. She had another party to go to."
"Huh. Okay, whatever. Do you need help with anything?"
"No. But, are your American friends bringing food? I didn't make as much because I figured it was kind of...whats the word...a potluck."
"Yeah, they are."
"So...i do not need you to help yet. Go! Greet the guests." She shoos me out.
I chuckle to myself and head towards the door. "Kevin? You were invited?"
"Umm, yah. Me and Dakota ARE kinda dating." He mutters.
"Dakota and I." I correct. He looks confused so I roll my eyes and shoot a 'we are going to talk about this later' look to a guilty looking Dakota, and send a smile his way. I think he knows that it's fake.
"Well, c'mon then. We set up a bunch of chairs. But you are first to arrive." Just then, the door swings open, and hits Kevin.
"Oh, sorry." Keila pops her head around the edge of the door, slowly easing it closed again.
"Huh? For what?" Kevin scratches his head.
Heaven help us all.
I swallow my laughter. "Hi, Keils."
She opens the door now that Kevin's out of the way, and walks in. "Is Rosie allowed in here?"
"What?" Dakota frowns at the same time I ask:
"Who?"
"Rosie!" She calls, suddenly the door comes flying open and a huge dog comes bounding in with a loud bark.
We all scramble to get out of the way, and Keila scrambles after her. "Rosie! Bad girl! Stop!"
Rosie surprising stops in her tracks and looks at Keila with her tongue hanging out one corner of her mouth.
"Good. Now come here." She huffs. Rosie blinks once, twice, and comes back to us.
I look at Keila, flabbergasted. "You got a dog!?"
"Well no, Rosie's not mine, I'm pet sitting for someone... but I'm thinking of getting one. What do ya think?"
"Umm, it depends..." Dakota starts slowly.
"What kind of dog are you thinking?" I ask her. "A tiny little cute one who gets her hair braided in pink bows?"
"Hmm. That'd be adorable! I could get her little outfits..." Keila gushes
Dakota and I stare at her as if her body was kidnapped by another species.
She curls her lip in disgust. "Guys! Take a joke! Geez! Although...it would be funny to see a tiny pug on my bike with his little tongue flapping in the wind..." She chuckles.
I roll my eyes. "Hon-"I get cut off by rumbling.
"I think the boys are here." Keila announces.
"Ooh! Kaseyy here comes your boyyy!" Dakota sings.
"He's not mine!" yet. I silently add.
As if on cue, three sharp knocks on the door cause me to fling it open.
"Jake! Hi." I say, slightly breathless at how attractive he looks right now.
"Hey, Kase." He opens his arms and I take a step forward to return the hug.
"How are you?" I ask, pulling away.
"Oh for heaven's sake! We all know y'all texted before he got on his bike! I'm sweating to death out here!" Tyler huffs jokingly from behind him.
I blush and open the door wider, stepping out of the way to let the rest of them in. "Sorry guys."
Jake swats him.
I rush forward and give him a hug after hip-checking him. "Hi Thorny!"
"Oh, yeah. Kase! I brought dessert." Liam takes a step towards me and hands me a dish.
"Thanks, doc... how did you carry this on your bike though?" I frown.
"I took a truck." He explains. "I lost a very intense bet that ensured I was the one driving the truck bringing all the food."
"ah. Nose game?" I smirk.
The rest of the boys chuckle and close the door behind them.
He doesn't answer, instead taking the dish out of my hands and bringing it to the kitchen.
"Okay you guys can bring all the food to the kitchen and then just chill in the backyard until everyone is here." I instruct Dakota to show them the way.
The doorbell rings again and everyone follows Dakota and Keila, except for Jake, who grabs some of the forgotten food containers.
I open the door. "Annette, Britney, Mia! It's so nice that you came!"
Jake emerges from the kitchen, and I introduce him to the gaping girls. "Guys... this is JT. JT, some girls from my barre class."
They basically all trip over each other as they introduce themselves.
I give Annette a hug. "Hey! Long-time no see."
"Nicely done." She says.
I give her a confused look. "At what?"
She not so discreetly nods in Jake's direction, and I understand.
"Ohhh, no...um...we aren't-um..." I stumble on my words.
Jake senses I'm feeling awkward and swoops in, wrapping his one arm around my waist.
"No need to be embarrassed baby." He mutters loud enough for them to hear.
"Awe! You two make the cutest couple!" Mia gushes as he presses a kiss against my temple.
I force a confident smile. "Thanks."
"Lucky girl!" Britney says wistfully. "New house, new job, new sexy biker babe..."
I smile again. "So how have you been?" I smoothly change the subject.
"Really good! I've applied at different places for the past... month? Anyway...I got into UCLA arts, NYCB, Chicago school of dance, and even TBS and WRB in Canada!" she says.
"Wow! Good for you!" I force out.
"Where exactly are those in Canada?" Mia asks.
Britney looks at her. "Winnipeg, Manitoba and Toronto, Ontario." She answers flatly. "Obviously."
"Well, anyway... you're really lucky, Brit." Mia says awkwardly.
Britney looks bored. "Eh, not really. I hafta spend hours figuring out which one I want to go to."
"Can we go sit down? My new shoes are killing me." Annette 'complains'. Compliments follow, as expected, and I lead them to the back deck.
"Are they always like this?" Jake whispers in my ear as they greet everyone and find their seats.
I look around at the faces of the girls. "Umm, yeah..." I whisper back I never really noticed how petty they are. Now that I hang out with non-rich, non-ballerinas, non-preppy people, I realize that I don't miss all of these talks. I way prefer talks about how Slip accidentally flooded his engine, and how Scar managed to make his way out of jail after he got in a bad bar fight.
"Okay! Who wants to fire up the barbeque, and get started on the burgers?" I call out.
The boys all immediately touch their noses, causing me to roll my eyes as I touch mine as well. Mia and Britney look confused as they are the only ones not touching their noses.
"Okay, never mind. Boys. Do rock-paper-scissors or something. One of you is cooking." I snort, rolling my eyes.
"The partyyy has arriveddddd!" Erin sings as she comes into the backyard.
"Hey Erin!"
"So what's up everybody?" She looks at the boys who are dramatically cracking their knuckles and bouncing on the balls of their feet.
"We're warming up for a very intense game of 'Elimination RPS." Slip says dramatically.
I roll my eyes again. "Just get on with it! I'm hungry."
"Okay. JT vs. Me, Thorn vs. Tuck, Steel vs. Bear, and Knuckles vs. Cars." Slip says in his dramatic announcer voice.
"ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS! Haha you lose!" JT crushes his scissors with 'rock'.
"Kasey? Is this best out of three?" Slip whines in my direction.
I take a sip of my lemonade, leaning back on my chair. "I honestly don't care."
Dakota laughs from beside me. "HOW COULD YOU KASE? This is clearly a very big deal!" she adds sarcastically.
"Hey! No fair! You cheated, asshole!" Knuckles growls to Carson.
"I did not!" Cars shoots back.
"You switched your thing halfway through!" Knuckles gasps.
"Did not! You just are a sore loser!"
"I am not!"
"Yes!"
"No!"
I turn to Dakota, the boys still bickering in the background. "All I asked was for someone to cook the burgers. Geez."
She snickers. "Look. Now they're having a 'playoff round'" Ainsley points out with a chuckle, walking up to us
"What?" I look over and see Jake, Tucker, Blake, and Carson giving each other an evil stare down. Tucker beats Jake in a best of three round, and Blake beats Carson.
"TUCKER! TUCKER! TUH-KER!!!" a couple of the boys chant.
"Woo! Go Blakey-poo!!" I cheer half-heartedly.
Rosie starts howling with the noise, and Keila shushes her.
"ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS!" The boys shout. They both get paper, so they try again and again until Blake slaps 'paper' over 'rock.'
"DYNAMITE!" Tucker suddenly calls out, and we all start laughing as they argue whether or not that's fair or allowed.
After 5 minutes' of them arguing, I stand up. "And the winner is Blake! Rah-Rah!"
"Hey! Who said you got to make the rules?" Tucker huffs.
"Um, perhaps the fact that this is OUR HOUSE dumb-dumb!" Dakota calls.
"I'm the winner!" Blake shouts triumphantly. Considering his age, sometimes he's quite the child. He's also super funny, refreshingly honest, and even though he's way higher up then all of us he treats us all like peers. Which sometimes is amusing because he's actually quite old. Like, old enough to be my father.
"Yep! Yay you! Now go make the burgers!" I laugh at how his face dropped when I said that.
Ainsley giggles beside me, and whispers: "If the guys wanted to, I would have definitely flipped burgers for y'all."
I smirk. "So would've Em, but it's funnier this way."
"I second that." she raises her glass mockingly.
"No fair man! I don't get a trophy?" he mock pouts.
"Here! If it makes you feel any better I can give you a speech as you are awarded with this flipper. Congrats." I laugh sarcastically.
He grabs the flipper from me and messes up my hair on the way by, laughing as I growl at him and take a sip of my drink.
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
"I agree. What do you think, Kase?"
"I-um...what?" I snap my head towards Keila and Thorn.
"Yep. You were right. She was TOTALLY too busy checking out my brother."
"I was not." I blush.
"Mhmm. We were asking your opinion on starting a water fight." Thorn smirks.
"Um, here? In my backyard?"
"No, at Obama's backyard." Keila rolls her eyes. "Of COURSE we meant here!"
"I don't wanna get all wet in a water fight. Go do it on your own backyard if you want to have one so bad." I add.
"Fine. Then I will." She sticks her nose up in the air, as if she's going to walk away, and then suddenly turns around and dumps a pail of water on me.
I squeal and jump, gasping: "What the HELL Keils? Where did that appear from?!" I glare at her. "Oh, it's ON MISSY!"
She shrugs. "I thought you didn't want a water fight..."
I glare. "Didn't. Past tense."
A wide grin breaks out on her face, and she jumps up on the patio table yelling "WATER FIGHT!"
Everyone looks confused for a second. "Can we do teams?" Dakota calls out.
"Ah, good idea. Guys vs. Girls?" Keila looks around as everyone nods in agreement.
"There's more girls then guys here, though."
"Psh. We don't need more people then you to win easily." Blake chuckles.
"Yeah, but Knuckles left...so you guys have four and we have like...8." I point out.
"She does have a point. We have five really strong players, and you only have four." Anette speaks up.
"The girls' base will be in your house, guys in mine...sounds good? I'll show you where everything is, boys." Keila says, completely ignoring her.
"Okay! Girls Team! If y'all don't wanna get wet, come get some clothes! Kota, towels. Erin, Mia, go get dish cloths, sponges, mop heads, anything that can get soaked. Ainsley, can you and Emmaline find buckets, ice cream pails, and pots...anything we can fill up." I assign, automatically in competitive mode.
They all nod, and head towards the house after me.
I open the door to my closet and start pulling out leotards, and tossing them on my bed. A couple seconds later, Annette, Magdalene, Mia, Britney, Erin and Ainsley walk in.
"Okay, so like... I think that a leotard and shorts would work so we don't get completely soaked, but I have no idea any of your sizes...." I drift off. "If y'all would prefer, I have workout gear too."
The girls start picking through everything as I throw it, adding a couple bathing suits and workout clothes.
"Why do you have so many? Geez woman! You'd think all you did was dance." Magdalene smirks.
I roll my eyes as Dakota walks in just then, in a bathing suit. "It is all she does."
"If y'all want, and her stuff doesn't fit, I have some bathing suits and workout gear too." Dakota adds.
"What size are these leotards?" Annette asks, holding up one.
I shrug. "They're from all over. The one your holding right now is my main practice one from when I was fifteen, so prolly like...an extra small. Now I'm medium...ish, so it all depends."
Britney comes out of the bathroom in a one of my old baby blue ones. I remember I wore that one when I was 14/15 too. Geez, I never realized how tiny she actually was! But, it does fit her, and goes really good with her blonde/blue eyes combo. I toss her a pair of baggy navy blue gym shorts.
"Okay, girls. Once you're done getting dressed, go see Ainsley for the warrior paint!" I point, and a few of the girls head over there.
I come out in a white tank top with a dark grey crop- sports bra underneath, and lulus. "AWEH! You guys look great!!" I squeal. "Okay, okay! AINS! Do me!!" I present my face to her, and she smears the pink liner on my cheeks, in one straight line so I match the rest of the girls.
I look around at the group of girls, all of them now here, all in various stages of workout gear, bathing suits, and leotards.
"Guysss! We definitely needta take a selfie!" Keila cheers as she walks in.
"Hey! Look who decided to show up!" I elbow her to get in the picture, and everyone huddles in a circle, shooting a fierce pose. We take a few more with other girls' phones, and then we all sit on the bed and go over our plan of attack.
"Okay. The boys will just try to storm in all crazy and soak us, but we need to be more stealthy then that. We go in, someone looks for the flag, and then everyone else distracts while one or two people grab it! Make sure you don't get shot with the Nerf water blaster, because then you're out until someone frees you." Keila announces.
"Woah, whoa, whoa. Hold up! When did this become intense capture the flag?" I raise my brows.
"Umm, since I invented this idea, and I want it to be." She sasses. "also I have water guns at my house so why not?" she shrugs.
"Really? I don't want a cagillion water guns to my face."
"Well, don't worry. The Nurf Water Blaster also has pellets that change color when they hit you, so we know you ain't cheating." She says smugly, crossing her arms over her chest.
"LIKE PAINTBALL? You do realize we're all half naked, right?"
"Don't get hit then!" she announces.
I roll my eyes. "Breaking into Ikeas last week, this week playing some deadly version of CTF?"
"WAIT. You did WHAT?" Ainsley turns to me and Dakota. "You broke into an IKEA?!?"
"Ahh... Actually, the boys did..." Dakota mutters. "Never mind mom. It's unimportant."
"UNIMPORTANT!?!?! Y'all could've been arrested! You can't get into LAW school with a CRIMINAL RECORD!" she squeaks.
I elbow Dakota again, with another: 'we are discussing this later' look. She told me she finally talked to her parents!
"Actually, I don't want to-"Dakota starts.
I elbow her hard, and Keila pipes up. "The Ikea was actually a training ground for their guards... our uncle owns the store, so we knew that before we went in."
Ainsley calms down a little. "Oh. Well still! Those BOYS DRAGGED you into their mess, it's time we give them PAYBACK!!" she chuckles evilly and we all cheer.
"Okay! Who's the tallest here?" I ask.
Magdalene and Anette immediately raise their hands.
"I'm 5'11" Anette announces
"Yeah, well suck it! I'm 6'0" Magdalene chortles.
"Okay, well one of you is going to hafta put this flag on top of the shed roof." I hold out a pink flag.
"Umm, why don't y'all put it somewhere...less easy to find?" Ainsley pipes up.
"Yeh, I thought of that too. BUUUT, the shed roof is already pink, and we could just tape it flat to the roof, nobody would be able to see it. Right? Right." Dakota answers her own question.
"Okay. Who's not afraid of getting hit?" I ask them.
Keila, Erin, and Magdalene raise their hands. "I mean, I've been legit shot before, so I can take anything." Mag announces, pulling the neck of the T-shirt out of the way so that we can all see the bullet scar on her shoulder.
The girls start gasping and moving closer to get a better look, while pelting her with questions.
"OK! People! Do we have a plan?"
"Basically, Mag will place the flag. Me and Brit will distract while the rest of you look for theirs and Mag guards ours while you two protect us." Mia announces.
"Wow. Someone actually listened." I snort.
"We were ALL listening, Kase. We just want to storm in and win! We don't particularly care who does what." Erin pipes up
"Okay, well then let's go get 'em!"
"GROUP CHEER!!" Dakota suddenly yells. "HANDS IN!"
We all smirk and gather in a circle, placing our hands in the middle on top of each other.
"1-2-3! BADASS BITCHES!!" She screams.
We all cheer and tart filing out of my room. This is gonna be good.
____________________________________________________________________________-
There you go guys!
I know! Been a while... school is super busy lately, because we got 37cm of snow and so school was cancelled for like....a week :0
.....annnd I was sick all week so didn't get to enjoy it...
Love you guys for reading this!
Cassi