Chapter 127: Battle of Wits.

[Edward POV]

Desiree narrowed her eyes as I stood next to her. "Have you had dinner yet Ed?" My aunt asked cheerily.

I smiled and said, "I've already eaten. By the way, the food in the Cheesecake Factory is great. We should all go there sometime. It'll be my treat-"

"NO! I will treat you!" My aunt interjected quickly. I shot a weirded out look at her before turning to Desiree and asked, "What do you think? Wanna go with us?"

"Of course I will. I need to make sure you spend a lot of money. Then, we will be even for last night." She said, hinting at the peeping.

"Oh, did Abby and I playing games late bother your sleep? If we did, I apologize for that." I replied with an innocent look. Desiree narrowed her eyes again, realizing that she had lost the initial exchange and wasted her first probing.

She only saw a glimpse of the peeper, therefore she couldn't accuse me straight away. That was why we were playing a refined game of subtlety in our conversation. Desiree on the right corner of the ring trying to confirm her doubts, and me on the other trying to play the fool.

"Yes. That too…" She replied while holding her chin and smiling precariously.

I paused for a while and pretended to be confused before I asked, "That too? What else did I do?"

"Oh don't mind the old lady. I was just rambling." Desiree said. I smirked inwardly as if I didn't respond to her weird sentence, it would seem as if I knew the hidden meaning behind it. It was a cleverly placed trap, but so far, I had managed to pull ahead in this match.

I chuckled a bit and said, "By the way, have you seen my aunt's bedroom?" I took the initiative this time.

Her eyes shook and she guessed, " You're talking about her…Her bed?"

"Yes. You should try to roll around in it. It's like living in mattress land." I joked.

"Did you roll around on it when you came yesterday?" My aunt asked curiously. "Yes. Who wouldn't?" I replied with a laugh.

"So, you were in that room at around 10 pm last night, right?" Desiree asked with a cold smile on her face. I gulped my saliva and replied, "That's quite specific… and thus I can't say for sure but yes, maybe it was around that time."

"Hmm…" Desiree fell into contemplation as she couldn't really pin the 'crime' on me without proper evidence. So far, all she had was circumstantial and I was smart enough not to give her an actual timeframe for my presence in the room, but legal principle states that I was 'Innocent until proven guilty' , not 'Guilty until proven innocent'. Luckily for me she was still an advocate of that, unlike the braindead people on Twitter and other social media who passed judgment without even properly looking into things.

I was close to making her forget the matter, however, I failed to take account of my aunt's interference in the battle.

"You know, after he got out of the room, he laughed like a crazy person before checking out the next one. I guess he really liked the bed, or maybe he liked something else in the next room. Maybe even something else, perhaps the view outside the window?" My aunt asked teasingly.

'Ah shit.' I cursed.

"Hmm..I wonder what happened to make him laugh after getting out of your room…" Desiree asked with a ferocious glint in her eyes. This time, she was sure that I had a part in the shame she felt that night.

My aunt was confused. Her expression was as if she was asking Desiree, 'That's what you focus on? I created a perfect opportunity for Abby for nothing!'

Desiree noticed the gaze and flinched before saying perfunctorily, "Oh yes. He might have picked the other room because of that." My aunt gave her a deadpan look before she stood up from her chair. "You know what, you guys talk. I need to go call…" She shot a glance at me and seemed to change her mind on how to finish the sentence, "...My boss."

"I thought you weren't working?" I asked her with a suspicious gaze.

"I'm still not." She replied childishly before walking away–swaying her hips as she went.

Desiree then turned to me with a smile on her face, but her eyes still held a chilly glint. "So Ed. What did you do after you rolled around on the bed?"

I pretended to be confused, but still answered her question with a smile, "Hmm? You're still on this? …Wait, after that, I was attracted by the curtain flapping from the strong wind. So I went to the window and tried to see what was happening. But the wind suddenly stopped, so I lost interest and got out of the room."

"Then, why did you laugh?"

"Well my friend sent me a funny text? Why are you so interested in this? Perhaps… you were in the dark room?" I turned the table against her, making her blush a bit from the sudden remark.

"N-"

"Hmm…you're so interested in that, perhaps…you were doing something naughty in the room, and might be afraid that I saw it?" I joked. As she blushed, I pretended to be shocked and said, "Hold on… you…really were…?"

"Enough. Let's move on from this-" She tried to change the topic, but I slammed the table and then held my head in frustration as I shouted, "AHHH! I SHOULD'VE LOOKED BETTER! WHY DID I QUIT HALFWAY!!!"

Desiree concluded that I truly haven't seen anything else based on my reactions, and she stood up quickly, "A-A-Anyway. You should ask A-Abby to prom soon! BYE!" She ran out of the house before I, or my aunt could ask her any more questions about it.

I chuckled to myself and my frustrated expression melted instantly. "Aaaannnnddd… I'm safe~" I exhaled in relief.

"Safe from what?" My aunt suddenly appeared behind me, crossing her arms as she gazed sternly at me. I was taken aback and replied, "Safe…inside this warm and nurturing home you provided?"

She narrowed her eyes at me in suspicion. My heartbeat quickened, but there was still no notable change in my facial expression. After a while, she finally relented and said, "Okay. Thank you. That's what I was going for. I even did something good while you're at school ."

"Huh? What did you do?" I asked in confusion. She grinned and gestured with her head to ask me to come with her. I followed her from behind as we entered the pull out couch room I had slept in last night.

To my shock, I saw the aberrant bed inside the room – which filled the entire room from wall to wall, with only a small space for me to maneuver close to the door. "What the hell!?"

"LANGUAGE! But yeah. While you were gone, I asked the construction crew at your place to help me move it."

"Camila! I can't let you sleep on the pull out bed. That thing is falling apart."

She shrugged and said, "I know. That's why I had it thrown away." She then walked to her room and showed me something else.

"AAaannnd ... I already changed my bed. I really….REALLY can't sleep on that one. It made me feel very lonely."

Inside her room was a normal looking bed however even after taking it out there was still proof that the humongous bed had previously been in there in the form of a huge stain on the hardwood tiles that they hadn't been able to remove or hide.

I rubbed the back of my head in frustration, but I didn't say anything as I saw her excited face and decided to try to keep her happy. She truly did that because she thought I was in love with the bed after all.

"But now. I'm the one who's going to feel lonely. I should invite Luke– No, He drools. Hmm… What should I do now?"

…

[Dunphy's family]

"Hey. What's going on with you?" Alex asked Haley who seemed down for the last two days.

"Hmm? Didn't you go out with dad? Why are you home so early?" Haley asked as she turned towards Alex who had just entered their room.

"Dad only wanted to talk to me about mom stuff but I no longer cared to listen to that, so I'm here now." Alex explained.

Phil had taken her out to spend some time with Alex in order to appease her anger towards her mother. But he was surprised when he realized that Alex no longer held a grudge. Her indifference was because she was beginning to become a teenager, and not because of Claire.

Saddened by the fact that his baby girl was growing up and was currently distancing herself from her parents, Phil almost cried in the car, but he kept it together until they arrived home.

"Oh." Haley replied before staring into a distance again.

"What is wrong with you?" Alex asked in a concerned tone. She sat on her bed , facing with her sister and asked, "Is this about your private 'afterparty' with Ed before-"

"NO!" Haley shouted in a weird high-pitched voice.

"Then what? Are you jealous that Ed is asking Abby out to prom?"

"I…" Haley's eyes darted around, and Alex sighed as she realized she had hit the mark.

"A few seniors asked you to go with them, right? If you really want to go, just go with them." Alex said, missing the mark this time. Haley's concern wasn't about the prom, but about the thing people usually do after prom– akin to a tradition.

Suddenly, Haley's phone vibrated as she got a text. She checked it and raised one of her eyebrows.

"What is it?" Alex asked noisily.

"Abby asked me to go to Ed's new room. There's something fun there." She said.

"Oh. Can I come?" Alex asked.

Haley was struggling inside. She was afraid that the message was code for something else, and she didn't want to bring her innocent little sister with her. "It's late. I can sneak out, but…"

"I Can SNEAK OUT TOO!" Alex said excitedly.

Suddenly, both of them froze as Claire entered the room in an abrupt manner. Then, both of them burst into laughter as they saw what Claire looked like.

Claire held her new auburn hair embarrassingly as she saw the reactions of her teenage daughter. But her mission was completed as both of them stood up from their bed and went near her to take a closer look.

"Mom, why did you dye your hair Red? Or… Hold on… Are you wearing a wig?" Haley asked, her face still full of smiles as she touched Claire's new hair.

"I'm sure it must be a wig… Right?" Alex replied while holding her stomach. Claire smiled and said shyly, "I thought I'd make a change. Doesn't it look good?"

"Mom, are you having your mid-life crisis?" Haley asked in concern before she said, "Hold still…" and snapped a picture of her with the phone and sent it to Edward.

Claire scrunched her face and said, "NO!! I'm 39 years old!"

"Uuughh. That's not something you should be proud to say out loud." Haley said, making Claire feel flabbergasted by the teenage girl train of thought.

"But seriously? Did you change it for Dad? What did Grandpa think?" Alex asked, then she added. "What did Ed think?" Subconsciously, Alex had placed both her grandpa and Ed at the same spot in her mind, but no one realized it yet.

"NO! I didn't do it for your dad. In fact, your dad has been avoiding me ever since he saw it." Claire replied with some helplessness in her tone. She didn't know why Phil was hiding from her.

At the moment, she still hadn't realized how much her red hair had spooked Phil as it struck a deep fear in his heart because of her resemblance to a clown. He still needed some time to adapt to it, that was why he was keeping his distance from her.

"Maybe he didn't like it." Alex said. Claire widened her eyes and sadly asked, "You think?"

Sensing their mother's emotions, the two girls glanced at each other and came to an understanding immediately.

"Or…He's just too embarrassed about how much he likes it. You know dad and his weirdness." Haley said to comfort Claire.

"Yeah mom. You look good. Don't worry about it." Alex added. Claire smiled and hugged both of her daughters at the same time. "I'm the most blessed mother in the world to have you guys." She said sincerely as she kissed both of them on the forehead.

She released them after a while, and turned back to exit the room before saying, "Therefore, I will turn a blind eye if you want to sneak out to Ed's house, as long as you are back before 12 o'clock. One time offer. Are we clear?"

"Crystal!" x2. However, to their disappointment, Abby texted Haley again saying that she had been kicked out from Ed's room for being too distracting as he was working, and went back to their bed.

"Well…Mom already gave us a free pass…so it doesn't matter if we're using it today or tomorrow." Haley said slyly at Alex.

'But, he is working again. Seriously, he should just rest already. Should I just go to his place and force him to do it? I tried to make him cut loose last Sunday, but then the attack happened. He really can't catch a break!' She thought to herself.

…

[Edward POV]

"Pfff- Hahahaha. What did she show the hairdresser? Some Chucky photos?" I laughed out loud as I saw the picture and texted Haley back. She responded with a laughing gif, and said, "I know right? Can you imagine me…with red hair like that?"

Although she seemed like she was joking, she was actually fishing for attention/compliments. Being a good friend, I knew exactly how to reply to her.

"I think you'd look great. But you're a bit tanned, so you'd probably look like one of those troll dolls nobody buys."

"Q@(#&$!"

After making Haley mad, I continued typing away on my laptop while waiting for her to calm down. My lips kept curling up as I investigated the Saltzman mega corporation, unknowingly getting completely sidetracked from my work as I kept thinking about the picture.

"Ahhh. I want to see how Claire will react when Jay calls her old to her face tomorrow. Too bad I have school." I muttered to myself before restarting my investigation. After a good while, I decided to continue developing an app that I had in mind.

With my programming skills, I had finished almost 70% of the required code, and I would only need one more day to finish developing this particular project, one that could be sold for 1 billion or more in the near future.

"But, why would I sell it?" I chuckled to myself. "I would just make the rich get even richer. It's WAY better for me to keep it all in my pockets."

"HEY YOU FUTURE VILLAIN! STOP SMIRKING!" Abby shouted for her window, feeling dissatisfied after getting kicked out.

"Go to sleep you useless CSI!" I shouted back.

"SHUDDUP! I will go to sleep when I want to!" She replied in a rebellious manner.

"Go to sleep, or I will tell your mother that you planned to get a boob tattoo ." I threatened her.

Abby was in disbelief and said, "When the hell did I say that?"

"Does it matter? You'll be in trouble anyway." I said with an evil grin.

"YOU!!! BASTARD!" She slammed her window shut and pulled her curtain as she went away.

…

Next morning came quickly. I went to school as usual, but as I got to the music classroom, I was taken aback when I saw the sight in front of me. Abraham was in his pajamas, and he brought pillows and blankets with him to the school.

"What the hell." I muttered.

"Excuse me~" Suddenly, Jacob walked into the room, also wearing his pajamas and holding bags with blankets and pillows in them.

"Wh- What?" I was confused as hell as I saw it. Jacob and Abraham grinned before saying, "Well..we don't have anything to do, so we decided to stay and sleep here."

Elsa, Jenna, Alex and Enid also arrived, and also stood in front of the door as they saw the scene going on in front of them. Elsa rolled her eyes and said to Jacob, "Is this what you said you're going to surprise me with yesterday?"

"Yes! See, I brought pajamas for all of us." Jacob said before he took out multiple new sets of clothes from his bag. "SWEET!" Enid reacted first and ran to Jacob to snatch the unicorn patterned white, silky pajamas from him.

"Hmm…If everyone brings their blankets and pillows, we can actually build a fort." Abraham said as he spread out his blanket on the floor.

Billie and Finneas arrived soon. I expected them to have an interesting reaction, but they were already worried when they got there.

"Hey, the buff lady is coming over." Billie said.

"Buff lady?" All of us were confused, except for me and Abraham.

"My 'muscle mommy' is here?" Abraham perked up.

"Guys! Hide the contraband. The PE teacher is coming! I said hurriedly. Jenna and Elsa closed the cello case with my 'illegal' stuff inside them while Jacob threw his bags into the instrument closet.

Finneas hid Billie among the cello cases, and just after he covered her up with a case, Mrs Johnson, the muscle mommy PE teacher with short hair and a whistle on her white t-shirt entered the room.

"Hmm? Why are you guys standing around? Go and practice! We need you guys to get ready for the concert. Edward, can you come with me for a sec. The PTA members want to meet you."

I narrowed my eyes at her and asked, "For what reason?"

"I don't know yet. They might want to ask you things about the concert." She said while mouthing 'Don't agree' in her mouth.

"Then, they could contact my company or the organizer could deal with them. I'm sorry, but I'm not going. Not without my lawyer." I replied decisively.

"Okay good. I just needed to hear that. By the way, what they wanted is to make you keep your words clean and no songs about vulgarities. So F*ck them." She laughed before she slammed the door shut and walked away again.

"NOO! Mrs Johnson-" Before Abraham could yearn for a punishment from the muscle mommy as usual, Jacob cupped his mouth and stopped him.

I laughed before going to Billie's spot and took her out of her hiding place. "Are you alright? Also Finneas, why did you hide her? She came here legally."

All of them finally realized that Billie was wearing a visitor's pass around her neck. The girl became angry and stomped on her brother's foot, blushing the entire time from the embarrassment.

"Alright, now that the storm's passed, let's prac-" Before I could finish, Enid stood in front of me and declared, "LET'S HAVE A PAJAMA PARTYYY!!!!"

I hit her head with my knuckle, which made her turn towards me with a pained expression. "Owww."

"Don't interrupt me. Okay. you guys have your party. Alex, Finneas, Billie and I need to practice — Especially Alex."

As we separated into two teams, Alex pulled me by my sleeve and whispered, "Hey, did you ask her yet?"

"Abby? I did. I gave her a card this morning."

"A card?!" Alex widened her eyes in disbelief and disgust. "That's what you come out with?"

"Yup."