5 Chapter 5 - Chace

I frowned at the TV screen. "How come you got onto the broom but I can't?" I said, annoyed as I watched Alex's avatar fly around the screen.

"Because I'm Harry Potter and you're Hermione. You're a terrible flier." He said teasingly, elbowing my arm while simultaneously bumping his avatar into mine. The two of us have been just playing video games on the XBox for about the past 3 hours or so. It was almost 6. And I realised I hadn't eaten lunch even after the basketball game and the car crash… Whatever.

Just then, Grace walked into the room. "Ally we should probably go, you haven't eaten anything since… that." She looked hesitant about speaking with Alex in the room, but Alex just pretended she wasn't in the room and kept playing his game.

Grace glanced over at Alex, and then back at me. "Is he always like this?" She mouthed. I shook my head and shrugged. The two of us stared at Alex in silence.

"Um, Allyson, we should go…" Grace said again.

I sighed. "Okay, fine." I stood up from the couch and patted Alex on the head before walking in front of him and over to Grace. "I'll see you on Monday, Alex?"

He grunted, not taking his eyes off the TV screen.

"Alex."

"Yeah, okay. See you."

I looked over at Grace's expression, and she seemed to be in this deep state of confusion and dissatisfaction. I grinned at her and whispered "He's always like this, a moody little girl."

"SHUT UP I HEARD YOU!" Alex yelled as I laughed and walked out downstairs with Grace.

"BYE LOVELY!" I yelled back before we reached the bottom of the stairs.

"Oh wow do you smell that? Cookies!" Grace said, sniffing the air and walking towards the kitchen.

"What is with you and your sense of smell? Alex's mom made cookies like 3 hours ago, they're probably all gone now." I said nonchalantly, following Grace.

Entering the kitchen, I saw a note sitting next to a plate of cookies.

'Allyson, I saved some cookies for you and your friend. Can't let the kids eat all of them :) I'm going back to work now, please help me tell Alex to take care of his sisters. Thank you'

"Wow Mrs. Welsh treats you like a member of the family!" Grace said with surprise, smelling the cookies. Looking up at me, she said "Can I take one?"

I shrugged, picking up one of them myself. I bit into the sweet confectionery, the cookie crunching in my mouth and the chocolate melting onto my tongue. Alex's mom may be a business woman, but she is sure good at baking.

"I never understood how people bake." I said after finishing my cookie. I watched as Grace stuffed a third cookie into her mouth. "And how you eat so many cookies but still manage to look pretty."

Grace held up her hand, signalling for me to wait as she vigorously chewed the cookies. Swallowing, she began. "Alright first statement, yes I agree, baking is magical because so far all the cupcakes I ever made were utterly disgusting. Second statement�� I'm not pretty."

I rolled my eyes. "Shut up Grace Miller, my skin is nothing compared to your perfect skin."

Grace had no reply for that. Her skin is perfect, no acne no spots, nothing. Mine's not terrible, but I have some acne on my forehead and the sides of my face. Sigh.

"Girl I get breakouts too!"

Rolling my eyes again, I shoved her teasingly and began to walk back upstairs.

"Where are you going?" Grace called.

"I'm telling Alex to take care of his sisters and then we're gonna leave!" I answered back before walking back into the game room. Alex was still sitting there, trying to play Lego Harry Potter. By himself. With two controllers.

"Bro Alex your mom left, she said you need to take care of your sisters."

He grunted as a response.

I sighed. "Bye." I said curtly before turning around.

"Wait! Ally! I need a hug!" Alex suddenly shouted, putting down the controllers and standing up. I smiled. After I hugged him that time after one of his basketball games, he claims I give the best hugs. But of course, no one knows he thinks that.

After a brief hug, Alex walks back over to the couch and sits down again. I turn around and head down the stairs, with Grace close behind me.

When we finally got downstairs to the living room, Grace spun me around and grasped my shoulders tightly. "YOU AND ALEX HUG!?"

I blinked at her. "You didn't know? I mean, I told you we were friends."

"But opposite gender friends that hug? Damn girl! If you do that in school, all the girls would be running after you with a knife!"

"Including you I bet." I said teasingly, grinning at her.

Grace rolled her eyes. "Ugh, shut up."

"Right I forgot, you only got eyes for Mr. Charles Daniels. Why aren't you two public yet anyways?"

Immediately Grace blushed. "We're not even a thing…"

"Oh please, main tags on every Instagram post? Texting practically everyday? Hearts and kissy faces and lovey dovey messages? The whole school just DYING for you two to make it official? Jesus Grace, even Charles wants to make it official, what are you even waiting for?"

"Because he's a player!"

"A player that hasn't played his game in around 4 months because he's been trying so hard to get you. Are you sure he's still playing?"

"But like-"

"Even if he's still playing, you've already fallen for him." I pointed out, walking over to the couch and hauling my Nike sports bag onto my back. "Let's go."

I nonchalantly walked out of the door, and immediately the loud noises of children filled my ears again. That then reminded me that I needed to talk to Maxwell.

Turning around, I shoved my bag into Grace's arms and headed towards the bouncy castles. As I expected, Grace didn't follow me.

What a hard task it was to walk through the crowds of kids. I had to jump around, side step, make a sudden swerve or else I'd crash into a little toddler. A few times I did smack straight into one, and that would mean me picking up the child, placing him or her on their feet again, saying sorry, and then continuing my walk.

Ugh.

Looking around for a 'tall-for-his-age', messy brown haired toddler, I spotted Maxwell standing right beside birthday girl Hailey Welsh. If I applied high school stereotypes to Maxwell's elementary friends, his group of friends and Hailey's group of friends would be the popular kids.

"MAXWELL!" I yelled, ambling my way over to him, pushing kids away, but careful not to push them too hard.

Ugh, kids.

Ugh.

Maxwell turned around to look at me with his big brown eyes. The moment he saw me, a big smile rose on his face.

"ALLYYYYY!!!!!" He shrieked, running towards me and attacking me with a hug. He was pretty much up to my ribcage already, while his friends were still around my stomach height.

The other kids that he was with were pretty familiar with me. Why?

Well, there are a lot of reasons.

Hailey and Maxwell are really close friends. Why did that matter? Hailey's brother, Alex, is my friend, while I'm Maxwell's sister. So what did this lead to? Me and Alex being dragged to Maxwell and Hailey's playdates as babysitters. WHOOPEE.

I watched helplessly as a swarm of kids ran up to me and hugged me. I probably looked like I was wearing a poofy dress decorated with kids. Ew.

Looking away from the kids that were all hugging me, I saw a ginger haired boy standing to the side. That's Marcus. He and Maxwell were best friends since they were 3 years old, and as they grew up, Marcus was always a sweet but shy little boy, while Maxwell was just some crazy outgoing dumb monster.

I'm kidding, everyone says Maxwell is a cute, sweet, outgoing and friendly boy who is not afraid to make friends and speak for himself. But I still think he's a monster.

But since they were best friends, Marcus was dragged into the big group of friends with Hailey and others. I could tell he wasn't exactly the most comfortable being around all these extroverted kids, but what could I do about that?

Marcus smiled at me shyly, and I smiled back. I tried to raise my arms to wave at him, but there were still kids clinging to me.

"Guys can you let go please?" I asked nicely.

And you can bet that these kids didn't listen.

"Let go." I said again.

They still didn't.

"GET OFF ME YOU BING BONGS!" I yelled, and immediately all of them burst into laughter and let go of me. Perfect. If other teenagers or parents were around, they'd probably think I'm stupid. But I'm with a bunch of 9 year old kids, so I'm okay.

"Maxwell can I talk to you?" I said, bending down to get in level with him.

"Okay." He said in his cute little voice. He stood in front of me, and I really had to resist the urge to pinch his soft cheeks.

They're really soft.

"Do you want to have a sleepover with Marcus today?"

Maxwell's eyes widened. "Really? Today?"

I smiled. "Yeah, today! I'm having a sleepover with Grace, and you can have a sleepover with Marcus! Sounds good?"

Now looking all excited, Maxwell turned his head around to look at Marcus, who had obviously heard what I said and was now smiling brightly.

"Really?!" Maxwell said again, and I had a feeling he was about to start jumping up and down with happiness.

"Yes." I said again, grinning.

"YAYY!!!" He and Marcus both shouted, the two of them hopping around the grass lawn.

"Alright, I'm gonna go now. See you!" I said, standing up and walking away as the kids screamed "BYEEEE!!" at me.

Finally, after pushing my way through the crowd of kids AND parents who have come to pick the kids up, I found Grace standing in front of the house. She had dropped my bag on the ground and was on her phone.

"Thanks for holding my bag." I said sarcastically, picking it up. Grace shrugged, not taking her eyes off her phone. "Let's go." I said, grabbing her by the arm and dragging her out of the gate and onto the sidewalk. "Right, where is your dad?"

Grace finally took her eyes off her phone and looked around at the street.

"Oh, there." She said, shaking her arm from my grasp and walking towards the grey car on the other side of the road.

I rolled my eyes. Me and Grace have such a weird friendship. Sometimes we're really just not bothered to make an effort with each other, but sometimes we're hella extra too.

Grace walked over to the passenger seat, opened the car door and sat down. She slammed the door shut and went back to looking at her phone. I sighed, walking to the other side of the car and entering the backseat.

"Hey Ally!" Mr. Miller greeted me cheerfully.

"Hi Mr. Miller."

"How was the party?"

I watched as Grace lifted her hand and casually smacked her dad on the arm. "Just shut up." She said.

Mr. Miller grinned and started the car.

The ride was silent. No one said anything.

I stared out the window the whole ride, watching the dusk sky as we passed by houses and trees and shops. The scenery went from suburban neighborhood to busy streets.

Our school is in a suburban neighborhood on the outskirts of San Francisco, so naturally most of us live around there. I don't even think there is an official name for our area. Our school is called Westride (west-ride) High though, so most people just call this place Westride…? But Grace (and frankly quite a lot of people) lives near the city. Some people are city-people, and some people are countryside-people. I myself prefer to be in the countryside, but Grace is a city person.

Obviously.

Why? Well, Grace loves fashion, shopping, celebrities, top trending stuff and nightlife and whatever. Those are best found in cities. I hate shopping, I don't care about fashion, celebrities are overrated and I can't keep up with trends. I'd rather spend my time walking around in nature, maybe playing some sports, looking at the stars at night, and staying away from crowds.

I think I'm claustrophobic. That could be a reason I get dizzy and tired whenever Grace (or my mom) drags me into a shopping mall full of people.

Thank god Grace lives in a relatively big house instead of those cramped apartments.

Look at us wealthy people.

Kind of.

Grace's family is richer than mine, while Alex's family is obviously richer than both of ours. Amongst people like them, my family is just average. But compared to the rest of the world, we'd still be considered "wealthy", I suppose.

The car slowed to a stop. We were parked on a street, in front of the row houses (terrace houses). The sky was already dark, but everything was still visible due to the street lamps that were giving off a orange, rusty light. Grace's house stood out from the rest of the terrace houses. Her's was bigger than the others, and more modernly designed.

There were three levels in the house. It looked as if it was separated into quadrants, with huge glass windows and doors on each floor. There was a balcony on the second floor replacing what would be a room. There was a patio in the backyard.

I took my sports bag and climbed out of the car. I waited for Grace and her dad to come over and entered the house with them. Immediately my vision was filled with bright white lights and a perfectly clean, neat house.

The television was playing in one of the rooms, and Mrs. Miller came walking out from that room. Just like Grace, she always looked perfect, makeup, outfit, accessories, everything. I wonder if these people even relax and take a break from being perfect…?

"Ally! Grace! You guys are back! Did you eat dinner yet?" Mrs. Miller asked, walking over and giving me a hug.

"No, not yet." I said, hugging her back.

"Oh really? Grace bring her to the kitchen, I ordered takeout, it's in there."

I looked over at Grace, who rolled her eyes at her mom and walked towards the kitchen. "Come on Ally."

I looked between Grace and her mom, and then followed her to the kitchen. On the kitchen counter, there were multiple white boxes.

Chinese food.

"Oh look, Chinese food. Again." Grace groaned, picking up one of the boxes and opening it. "Fried rice."

I shrugged. "It's fine. I mean, usually I don't eat take out anyways." Walking over, I opened one of the boxes. "Oh look, crab rangoons. Cool. They're not even legit Chinese food but okay."

"How do you know?"

"I've had a fare share of international, more specifically Chinese, friends from… life. They taught me quite a lot." I said, picking up a crab rangoon and shoving it in my mouth. "Plus, have you eaten anything Chinese with cheese in it? Probably not, but for some odd reason crab rangoons have cheese in them. Weird, isn't it?"

Grace blinked, staring at me. "You find the weirdest things interesting."

"Says you."

"What?"

"Yeah." I say, opening another white box. Vegetables. "Hey you got the fried rice?"

Grace nodded, handing me the box she was holding. I picked up a random pair of chopsticks from the table and began eating the rice with it.

I'm a chopsticks pro. I can eat rice with it.

We stood there in silence, Grace watching me wolf down all that fried rice.

Usually I'm a really, really, REALLY slow eater, but I haven't eaten lunch today, and I had a basketball game earlier in the morning. This box of fried rice took about 5 minutes for me to finish. RECORD BREAKING WHOOP!

5 minutes. Gosh, what a long time for a box of fried rice.

I put down the now empty box and looked around on the counter again.

"Are you actu-"

"Just shut up." I snapped, reaching over and grabbing another box, which had dumplings in them, and just kept eating.

After finishing the dumplings, I looked at Grace, who was still staring at me. "You haven't ate nothing!" I said, pointing to the remaining food on the table. "I mean, you haven't ate anything! Or is it, haven't eaten anything?"

Grace rolled her eyes. "I ate a bit."

I rolled my eyes back at her. "Being on a diet means you restrict yourself to a specific course of food, not eating less."

She shrugged, clearly not giving a shit about what I said. Ugh, people these days. A good piece of advice or knowledge from the all-knowing Allyson Levine should always be treasured, why are people so ungrateful?

"Let's go to my room." Grace said, walking around the table and out of the kitchen. I followed her up the interestingly designed floating stairs until we reached the third floor. She opened a shiny, obviously polished, white door and walked into her perfectly decorated room.

A queen sized bed with simple gray sheets sat on the left side of the room, facing a TV that was on the right side. She had bedside tables on both sides of her bed, and a desk on the far right corner of the room that seemed to look more like a vanity table. A built-in closet was to the left of the bed (not a walk-in, but good enough), with a bathroom just next to it. As a kid, I came to her house often, and her room was much differently decorated back then. As we grew older, we found it better just to hang out around Westride (school) instead of travelling all the way into the city. Plus, we didn't need TV's or rooms anymore for entertainment. We've got smartphones!

Just kidding. We usually just talk and stuff. You know, more gossip going on.

Grace headed straight towards her bed and sat down.

"What?" I said when I noticed that she was staring at me.

"Remember how you said me and Charles should date?"

My eyes widened and a smile rose onto my face before she even said anything.

"Yeah we're dating."

"YESSS!!!" I shrieked, actually literally jumping into the air with excitement as I ran towards Grace and attacked her with a hug. "YES YES YES YES! HAVE YOU GUYS WENT OUT YET?"

"N-No-" Grace choked out, trying to shove me off of her. I reluctantly let go and instead lay on her bed, placing my head next to where she sat so that I can still stare at her.

���Are you guys gonna make it official on Monday then?" I asked.

"Uhh… he doesn't want to." Grace said quietly.

I frowned. "You nerd, what if he's still playing? I'm not doubting your loveliness, but just what if?"

"Hey hey you were the one who told me that he wasn't playing." Grace said, grinning down at me. I rolled my eyes and flipped over so that I lay on my stomach.

"Well okay, I trust both you and him. Plus, if anything happens I can tell Alex to murder his best friend anyways."

I couldn't stop grinning just imagining the two of them together. Charles was good looking, he had brown hair that stuck up in a quiff at the front, a sharp jawline and hazel brown eyes. He was really fit, with six packs and biceps and all. Charles mainly played soccer (or for some of you, football), but was also not bad at basketball, american football and swimming. Surprisingly, he plays volleyball with Marco on the school team as well! He's not that good at volleyball, but still decent enough to be on the team.

I forgot to mention that Marco (my dear ex crush) plays volleyball. He's the captain of the volleyball team, but is also a key player in soccer. Marco doesn't play as many sports, but then that's the reason he is so insanely good at the two sports he does. So much time and effort spent on them.

Unlike Alex and Charles who keep switching between all these sports just because they're fit with their six packs and muscles.

Suddenly I felt a hand slap the top of my head. Obviously, it was Grace.

"Can you stop smiling weirdly at the wall? Jesus, you're really weird." She said, annoyed.

With the same expression on my face, I smiled at her. "You've got some terrible ship names."

"Why?"

"Chace? Charlece? Garles? Ew Garles is actually terrible. I'd go with Charlece or maybe like, Charlace."

Look, I'm actually pretty good at creating ship names. Started from all these terrible ones and made two decent ones.

"Yeah, how about no." Grace said curtly before walking into the bathroom without even looking at me.

I turned to watch as the bathroom door slammed shut. Sighing, I decided I should lie on the bed properly. So I moved my head to the pillow and my feet to the other side of the bed. Perfect. Now I can teach other people how to lie on a bed properly.

As if that helps with anything.

A yawn stretched across my face and I found myself closing my eyes. It has been quite a tiring day. The day has been so eventful that it felt like 3 different days. The morning basketball game would practically be one day. The car crash would be the second day. Then the birthday party would be a third day.

This then goes on to prove how productive and busy a human being's life can be if time is spent properly.

Honestly, I really hope tomorrow is nothing like today.