Dedicated to Helvetica for her lovely comment :)
Cast on the side --> I get way to bored, lol.
(Unedited)
--
Made room for me,
But it's too soon to see,
If I'm happy in your hands.
I'm unusually hard to hold onto.
Blank stares at blank pages,
No easy way to say this.
~Love Song- Sara Bareilles
There was probably only one thing I hate more than getting woken up early on a Saturday. Okay, no, that was a lie. There was probably a lot more than one thing. The thing I hate the most, though, was getting woken up early on a Saturday by Kallie.
Yeah, she's my best friend, and I love her, but apparently, none of those things were placed in consideration when she woke me up. By dumping a bucket of cold water on my head. Yes, I know I'm not the lightest sleeper, but Kallie doesn't try before she pulls out the bucket.
"Oh, and by the way pretty please get Kaden up for me?" she asked as she waltzed out of my room. I sat there for a moment, dumbfounded and probably looking like a drowned rat before sighing and getting up to do as Kallie requested. I guess I should be used to her antics by now, but for some reason she still caught me by surprise.
Why didn't she just wake up Kaden anyway? Why ask me to do it? I wondered as I crossed the hall to his door. I pushed it open, walked across his room to open the thick curtains before striding over to his huge bed and plopped down beside him. Kaden opened one eye and glanced at me before lifting an arm to cover his face against the sunlight that streamed through his now uncovered windows.
"Why are you here?" he asked, his voice heavy with sleep and muffled slightly by his arm. "I was trying to fall asleep again, you know."
I shrugged nonchalantly. "Just trying out this whole friendship thing," I replied. Kaden groaned and moved his arm away to glare at me.
"This isn't being friendly, this is being cruel," he said grumpily. I grinned and shrugged again but didn't say anything else. "Why is your hair wet? And did Kallie put you up to this?"
"Yes she did and it's wet because I got an unpleasant awakening," I answered. Wow. We were actually having a pretty civil conversation. No insults or innuendoes yet.
Kaden sat up, letting the sheet fall to his waist. That's when I noticed he wasn't wearing a shirt. Awkwardly, I quickly looked away only to turn back and glare when I heard him chuckle.
"Did you get sick?" he asked, reminding me of the time we had spent out in the rain.
I shook my head. "You know I don't get sick often. You?"
Kaden mimicked my action and opened his mouth to reply, but before he could, Brett burst into the room.
"Hey, Kallie wants to know-" he started then stopped short, staring at us. Oh no, not good. I thought as I noted the glint in his eyes. "Look, I don't care if you guys are screwing, but please close the door," he said, backing out of the room. I was off the bed in an instant.
"Brett. Daniel. Hastings. I. Hate. You!" I exclaimed, puncturing each word with a slap.
"Raine, Raine! Stop! Okay, I didn't mean it!" he cried, desperately trying to dodge my slaps. I stopped satisfied at the last part of his response and grinned. Brett shot me a look that clearly said that he was going to plan revenge and raced away from me. That's when I realized for the first time that Kaden was laughing his head off.
"Shut up! This is your fault for not wearing a shirt!" I whined, glaring at him when he shot me a cocky look.
"You're the one who came in wearing an oversized t-shirt," he replied.
"Yeah, but the t-shirt comes down to my knees. It's like a dress!" I protested.
Kaden started laughing again as I stood there and stared at him in confusion. "I should've known. Sunshine, that's pretty much the 'just screwed' outfit," he told me. I felt my eyes widen and my jaw drop.
"Seriously?" I choked out. I stared at him, trying to figure out if he was serious or just messing with me.
Kaden grinned and nodded. "Yup," he replied, popping the 'p'. I stared at him in disbelief for a moment before burying my face in y hands and walking back to room.
Well, that was awkward.
I changed into jean shorts and a loose tank top before heading downstairs. Kaden, Kallie, Brett, Annabelle and Clark were all seated around the table talking. I grabbed two sliced of bread and some Nutella before taking a seat beside Kallie. Who happened to be across from Brett, who was beside Kaden. Which meant I was seated across from Kaden. He shot me smirk and chuckled when I glared back at him.
"I want to make a bucket list," Kallie randomly spoke up, interrupting Clark's basketball story. We all turned to stare at her with amused and slightly confused looks. "What? We should make one for all of us and try and do as many things as we can."
"Actually, that's not a bad idea. We should all set here goals, one we can do easily, one we have to work to and a long term one. Then every time we do one, we check it off. When summer's over we'll shove it somewhere, find it ten years later and laugh our heads off at the things we did," Annabelle mused.
Kallie clapped her hands together excitedly. "Yeah, let's do it. Be right back." she ran off in search of a pen and paper as we all sat there, staring at the doorway Kallie had gone through as if it was about to close up and trap her out. A moment later, she reappeared, holding a small notebook and a couple of pencils in hand.
"Alright," she said, setting it down in the middle and dividing the first page into six parts. She wrote each of our names in one then pointed to the lines. "There's three spaces in each, so a short term, a work towards for the summer and a long term one to look back on years from now to see if we did it." she handed us each and pencil.
Everyone stared at each other hesitantly, all waiting for someone to make a move first. Finally, Clark did. He leaned and on his slot for short term wrote 'Give out Free Hugs with a sign'. It was as if that simple action had triggered a rush of ideas to flood everyone's head. Soon, everyone was leaning in and scribbling things down in their slot. A couple of moments later, we all pulled back and examined the sheet.
"Kaden, you forgot to put something in for the summer slot," Kallie pointed out with a slight frown. Kaden didn't say anything, instead, he leaned forward with a look on his face that said that he had deliberately left it blank. He stared at me as he wrote, and it was only until he pulled back that I saw his goal. 'Fix Things', it said.
Thankfully, no one questioned what he meant by that. Instead Kallie cleared her throat and looked around. "I think we should do a challenge today. July's over in less than a week," she remarked. "We should do Clark's short term goal. Let's go to the mall. Whichever team gets the most hugs wins three points." she grinned slyly, and for a moment she looked way too much like her brother.
"So, who's in?"
***
Utter insanity.
Those were the only two words that I could think of that described the mall perfectly. It was Saturday, so it was busier than usual, but apparently there was some huge sale going on at some huge store, so the mall was flooded with people.
"Alright, each person counts as one. Unless the same person hugs all three of you. Then it counts as three. You just can't count one person hugging one of you three over and over, alright? Keep track on the back of your card," Kallie instructed as we set up. We were more or less across from the guys, because they had decided they wanted to do it outside Victoria's Secret, and Kallie had decided it would probably be easier to get huge if we were between a guy's store and a kid's store. The only kid's store and guy's store that was beside each other was the Disney Store and J.Crew. Coincidentally they were across from Victoria's Secret.
"No asking girls to model for you," Kallie told them, shooting hem a stern look, though her eyes were playful.
"And no pole dancing for hugs," Brett retorted, rolling his eyes. We all turned to stare at him with a 'What in the name of Sherlock Holmes is wrong with you?' look, before exchanging an awkward look. "Bad comeback?"
Kaden snorted. "What was your first clue?"
"Okay, we'll leave you to your odd conversations and go," Kallie drawled, grabbing Annabelle's arm in one hand and mine in the other before dragging us away. "We start at two!" she called over her shoulder at them.
We arrived at the wall between the Disney Store and J.Crew and Kallie turned to look at us with a way-too-innocent gaze. "Annabelle, Raine..." Kallie started, slowly. Annabelle and I exchanged glances before watching her warily.
"Yes, Kallie?" I replied hesitantly, nervous for what she was about to say. It wasn't something good, I knew it. It was probably some crazy idea she thought of to help us win, which would be beneficial, I guess, but like I said, it was probably crazy.
"You know that bunny suit we got two years ago-"
"No, no way," I cut her off, already knowing what she was asking. Kallie scowled at me before turning to Annabelle, letting her expression do a complete 180 as the pouty look was replaced by a sugar sweet one.
"Please, Bells?" she asked softly, putting on her puppy dog eyes. I saw Annabelle start to cave. Oh no, oh no, oh no. Don't do it, Annabelle! It's a huge pink Easter Bunny costume. Don't do it!
"Fine," Annabelle caved, sighing after a minute of Kallie's pleading. Dagnabit, she caved! Wow, I can't believe she actually caved. That costume's freaking humongous. I swear, Annabelle's way to soft sometimes.
"Yay! Thank you, Belle! Okay, it's in the trunk of the car," Kallie told her, squeezing Annabelle into a tight hug before handing her the keys. Annabelle sighed, shot me a sort of look of despair, which I returned with one of sympathy before watching her head off.
"That was mean," I told Kallie a couple of moments after Annabelle was out of earshot.
She shrugged. "I know, but we gotta win this one. We're five points behind! I really don't want to be a slave for the rest of summer, you know?" she said, finishing off her 'Free Hugs' sign.
"If you didn't want to be a slave so much, why'd you make the challenge?" I asked her, raising an eyebrow.
Kallie shrugged again. "I didn't expect the guys to ten so hard," she answered simply. I was about to respond when I saw it. Okay, yes, I felt incredibly bad for Annabelle, but I will admit, the sight of her in the costume was hilarious. The costume was one of those really big ones, where you couldn't see their eyes or anything, it was like they were a giant walking plush toy. She got a mixture of looks, some people were creeped out, which was expected, the kids looked kind of excited, which was also expected and there was one guy who looked at her with appreciation- which definitely was not expected. She made her way over to us, and I knew that if the costume didn't cover her face, her cheeks would've been bright red.
"Three minutes," I told Kallie, after quickly ducking into J.Crew to check the time. The guys stared at us- or more accurately, Annabelle- dumbfounded. After a couple of moments of organizing and finishing our signs, Kallie signaled to the boys. She held up three fingers.
Three...
Two...
One...
The signs went up.
-READ ME-
I know, I know, I'm sorry! It's really bad and kinda short, sorry about that. This is just part one. Part two will be up as soon as possible. I'm sorry it's so late. I had pretty much the whole chapter written in my iPod, then it spazzed and deleted it all. But.. Raiden moment in the beginning! xD
I'll try and get Part Two done and up by Tuesday.
~JJ :)