14 Thirteen

*Ring! Ring!! Ring!!!*

I let out a sigh of relief; it was finally the end of the day.

Claire and I strolled out of the classroom and met with Tyler in the hallway.

"Do you guys have anything doing for the rest of the day?"

I shook my head.

"Nope." Claire replied.

"Great!" Tyler exclaimed. "Then you guys can come over to play video games, yes?"

"Sure, why not?" I replied with a shrug.

"I'm always in for having fun." Claire said.

As we walked into the parking lot, we noticed Kate Jackson, Sophia Edgar and Catherine Sanders, standing by Claire's Audi.

"What are they doing here?" Tyler asked.

"We're about to find out." Claire replied.

I was apprehensive.

The events of last week were still very fresh in my mind, and so were the injuries I had sustained from the event.

My eyeballs moved from side to side, searching for Jake and his friends, but they were nowhere to be seen.

My apprehension increased as we got closer to the cheerleaders.

"Hey. Can I help you?" Claire asked when we finally got to them.

"Hi. We don't want to cause any trouble, we just wanted to make your acquaintance." Kate replied with her usual wide smile plastered on her face.

What?!!!!!

"And why is that?"

Kate twirled a few strands of her hair with her finger and shifted her weight to her left leg. "There's no specific reason."

Claire did not respond, she just starred at them with raised brows.

"Well," Kate continued. "I'm Kate, and this is Sophia and Catherine." She gestured to each of her friends as she spoke.

"You can call me Cathy." Catherine said with a wide smile.

Claire still remained quiet.

"So, I'm having a party next Friday, I would be glad if you come." Catherine continued.

"Alright. I'll... I'll let you know if I'm going to be there."

"Great!!" Catherine chirped.

"I'm sure we'll make good friends." Kate said, and winked at Claire.

The three cheerleaders walked away, but not before throwing Tyler and I venomous looks.

"That was strange." Claire remarked, immediately they were out of hearing range.

"I'm very sure there are a lot of reasons they want to be friends with you." I said.

"Those girls never do anything without underlying reasons." Tyler added.

"I'll figure it out. Let's go." Claire said and unlocked the car.

The ride to Tyler's house was quiet, until Claire turned up the radio. "Have you guys heard this song?" She asked, beaming.

"No." I replied.

Suddenly, Claire started screaming the lyrics of the song and dancing to the rhythm.

"Oh no." Tyler groaned. "Can you stop? My sister sings this song all the time and it's really annoying."

"Seriously?" I asked in surprise. "I never knew Clarisse listened to love songs."

"Neither did I, until last week." Tyler replied dryly.

"Fine, I'll change the song." Claire said.

A few seconds later, Claire was screaming the lyrics of another song.

"This is worse than the first!" Tyler yelled. "Take it back! Take it back!"

"Okay, Okay, I'll take it back."

Claire returned to the previous channel and continued screaming the lyrics of the song playing.

Tyler groaned from the backseat occasionally, but Claire's singing and dancing was a bit funny, so I was either smiling or laughing for the rest of the ride.

*~*~*

We finally arrived at Tyler's house. 

"Make sure not to sing a word of the songs you played on our way here." Tyler said firmly as we walked to the front door.

"Why not? " Claire asked.

"If you do my sister is going to join in and her voice is not too different from yours."

"That means her voice is nice." Claire said unable to hide her grin.

"No. You both sound like a choking rat when you sing." Tyler replied.

Claire's jaw dropped and a gasp escaped from her mouth. "Why would you say that?!"

"Because it's true." Tyler replied slowly, squinting at her.

"You're mean!" Claire yelled and hit Tyler's chest.

"Ouch! I was just being honest."

"Well, stop it."

I could not hold my laughter in anymore, so I let it out.

Tyler joined in after a few seconds.

Claire scowled at us and folded her arms across her chest. "You're both mean."

"Sorry." I managed to say in between laughs.

Tyler opened the front door and Claire and I walked in after him.

"Mum! I'm home!! "

"No one cares!!" Clarisse replied.

I snickered.

Tyler threw me a very angry look before responding to his sister's statement. "Why did you reply then!"

"Oh please, we both kno..."

"Hey!" Mrs Peter yelled from the kitchen, cutting Clarisse off. "Ignore your sister!"

"Good afternoon Mrs Peter." I greeted.

"Oh hi Jason. You guys should come have a look at the cupcakes I made."

"When did your mum start baking?" I whispered to Tyler.

"I don't know man." Tyler whispered back. He turned to Claire, "C'mon you're going to love my mum and sister."

"Warning! They look horrible." Clarisse informed us at the entrance of the kitchen.

"It's ok, we expect that." I replied.

"Let them in, Clarisse." Mrs Peter said.

I caught sight of the cupcakes, they were weirdly shaped and had a brownish black color. I cocked my head "How do they even look like that?" I asked.

"Did they get burned?" Tyler asked.

"Who's your friend?" Mrs Peter asked.

"Oh! Mum, Clarisse, this is our friend, Claire. Claire, my mum and my sister, Clarisse." Tyler replied.

"Good afternoon, Mrs Peter." Claire greeted.

"Good afternoon dear, how are you doing?"

"I'm doing very well thank you."

"How did you manage to make friends with these two?" Clarisse asked, gesturing at Tyler and me.

Claire smiled. "It was more of an accident."

What?!!!!

Clarisse nodded. "I thought as much."

"What do you mean, accident?" I asked.

"Yeah explain that please." Tyler added.

"It was a crazy party guys, a lot of accidents happened, and this," she paused and gestured to Tyler and I "was one of them."

My lips parted slightly and Tyler's jaw dropped.

"Oh!!" Clarisse exclaimed with a wide smile.

"You guys can do this later, I need you to try out these cupcakes." Mrs Peter said.

Clarisse who stood behind her quickly made gestures with her arms and head to prevent us from accepting the offer.

Tyler and I got the message, but Claire...

"I'll try one."

Clarisse made more violent and explicit signals and gestures, but Claire...

Claire took a bite from one of the cupcakes. She winced but quickly covered it up. "This is really... good, Mrs Peter." She managed to say with a mouthful of cake stuffed evenly at each side of her face. She did not dare swallow.

The wide smile on Mrs Peter's face, should have been a compensation for whatever Claire was tasting, but I don't think it sufficed because her face still looked like it had been stepped on.

"We need to drop our stuff upstairs, but we will be back." Tyler said.

"I'll take this with me." Claire said, still with a mouthful of cake in her mouth.

With that, all three of us walked out of the kitchen.

Tyler picked a cup from the center table and handed it to Claire "You can spit it out in here."

Claire received the cup with thankful eyes.

"Also, take the cup with you when you're leaving." Tyler added.

"Whatever." Claire replied.

We were at the foot of the staircase when Clarisse called Tyler and told him that Ashley came by. "And she left a note for you, it's on your study table."

"Alright, thanks."

Claire and I smiled at each other and then at Tyler.

"What?" Tyler asked when he noticed the looks on our faces halfway up the stairs.

"Nothing." Claire and I chorused.

Needless to say, none of us returned to the kitchen for the cupcakes. We played video games for about an hour and a half which was enough time for me to notice that compared to Tyler and Claire, I was terrible at playing video games. I dropped the game pad and observed Tyler and Claire play, from Tyler's bed. A few minutes later, I just observed Claire.