Ch.7

Today was another day, though Alex was telling me about how Haley couldn't name even a signal book this morning making me chuckle. Then when lunch came Alex and I sat with my cousin and his friends, the popular kids. As suspected Alex was very nervous around them, only speaking when spoken to. I tried to get her into the conversations, but it seemed she was still not ready for complete confrontation.

"I hate you!" we all hear as we look over to see Luke punch Manny, with Manny immediately hitting back.

Alex and I share a quick look, before quickly running over to break it up, as the kids gather around to watch the fight. Getting there we see the two are on the ground wrestling each other while hitting the other one every chance they get. With the surrounding kids cheering on the fight.

"Manny, calm down!" I say grabbing Manny, as Alex grabs Luke and drags him off of Manny. We do this just as a few teachers ran over to break the fight up.

"What is going on here?!" one teacher says just as we break up the fight, then the surrounding kids scatter while watching from a distance.

"All of you are coming with us to the principal's office," the teacher says as I groan, with Alex looking ready to smack Luke herself.

"Fucking Luke," Alex mumbles in annoyance as we all walk to the principal's office. I', just thinking about which one of my parents will be pulled from work and how angry they are going to be.

'I hope it's not Mom, she will give me a long lecture even though I did nothing,' I think while sighing internally.

"I've called your parents they will be here shortly. Though I want to know what caused this fight. Especially why two of our top students are involved in the fight too," the principal says to us all once we enter the office.

"What?! Gabe and I weren't involved! We broke up the fight!" Alex says ready to fight the principal as she is very annoyed right now. While I nod my head agreeing with her statement.

"It's true Gabe and Alex broke up the fight," Manny says even though he is still mad at Luke.

"I see… Well then Manny and Luke, why did the two of you fight?" the principal asks them.

"Can we leave then? Since we weren't involved in the fight?" Alex asks the principal who shakes his head.

"Sorry, but I already called your parents, plus I would like it if you could help explain it to them as well," the principal says while gesturing to Luke and Manny to explain themselves.

"Luke said my Mom was a coal digger!" Manny says with anger confusing everyone except Luke in the room.

"Cause it is true!" Luke says as we all realize what Luke meant, which is 'gold digger'.

"Ok, well I want everyone to calm down. Please sit and wait until your parents arrive," the principal says as Alex looks ready to kill someone.

Within the hour, all our parents arrive, with my parents being last due to having a busy schedule. Coming inside the principles office I can see my Mom is very upset both concerned and angry, while my Dad just looks around confused.

"Now that everyone is here I can tell you what happened," the principal says after my parents arrive.

"First I would like to say that Gabe and Alex are not in trouble as it seems they have broken up the fight between Manny and Luke. Seems the two fought due to Luke calling Manny's Mother a 'coal digger'," the principal says making Claire's face turn pale with Phil looking surprised. Jay just sighs hearing it, while Gloria looks ready to explode.

My parents calmed down hearing I was not in trouble but also helped break up the fight.

"So why call us?" my Dad says seemingly annoyed that he was pulled from work for nothing.

"It is just protocol Mr. Hunter," the principal says with my Dad sighing.

"Though, now that you know Alex and Gabe have nothing to do with it, they can return to class," the principal says with Alex quickly leaving before her parents can stop her.

"Sorry, Mom and Dad," I say to them.

"Don't worry about it, I'm glad you didn't do anything. Plus you help break up the fight so that is good," Mom says to me and I nod my head before leaving.

"God! Why couldn't we have just left after explaining ourselves?! Now we have missed some classes!" Alex says as we walk back to our class.

" I agree, though I'm sure we didn't miss too much," I say trying to appease her while she just grumbles to herself.

Getting back to class, I thought we only missed a few things, though that didn't seem to matter to Alex. As she looked ready to pull her own hair out. Though after calming her down and suggesting we work on it together calmed her down a lot.

A few weeks passed by, and with Halloween coming up, Alex and I made plans to go around the neighborhood. Alex also told me just how crazy her family can get during this holiday, as it is her Mom's favorite holiday.

My costume for Halloween was 'Ron Weasley' as Alex was dressing up as 'Hermione Granger'. My parents came over to the Dunphys with me after I dressed up and it was getting to the later afternoon. Arriving we entered after Luke answered the door, he was dressed as a vampire.

"Hey, guys! Love the Family costumes! Wizards?," Phil says greeting us and he is dressed as a male Vampire, with Claire dressed as a female vampire.

The house was decorated to be like a stereotypical vampire lair. Along with the food vampire themed. The candy for the kids who knocked on the door was just several different candies placed into a bowl. My parents dressed up as Ron's parents, 'Arthur and Molly Weasley'.

"Yeah, we are the Weasleys from Harry Potter," I say to Phil who nods his head in understanding.

"That explains why Alex wanted to dress up as a witch," Claire says with Alex coming downstairs dressed as Hermione.

"That's a witch?" Phil says seeing Alex is not dressed like a stereotypical one.

"Yes, Dad! This is my favorite character from my favorite books! Hermione Granger!" Alex says taking Hermione's personality in the movies to a tee.

"Well thank you for taking Alex tricker treating with you guys," Claire says since my parents would be watching us, while Luke was going with Manny, Gloria, and Jay.

"¡María! ¡¿Cómo estás?!" (Maria! How are you?!) we hear Gloria says after she enters the house and sees my Mom running over to her and hugging her.

All the adults talk as Alex and I are discussing the Harry Potter books and movies. With Luke and Manny becoming impatient wanting to trick or treat already.

"Manny, todos vamos juntos ahora," (Manny, we're all going together now.) Gloria says to her son, talking more in Spanish at home with Manny. As my Mom convinced her to do it more so her son doesn't forget his original language.

"Vale, mamá," (Ok, mom) Manny says as now, we are all going together. With Claire and Phil staying home to man their house.

My Mom and Gloria as speaking as we all walk from house to house trick or treating. With Luke and Manny raced to each house to get the candy first. As Alex and I are taking our time while talking about Harry Potter, as the movies have started coming out in this world now. We just saw the first one together a week ago, after reading the books first. My Dad and Jay do not know each other that well, so are having awkward Dad talks. Though it seems both hit it off talking about American Football.

The next few hours go by very quickly as Luke and Manny have filled their buckets with candy. Alex and I doing the same, then we all walked back to Dunphy's house. Where Luke and Manny traded candies they didn't want for ones they wanted from the other. There I also traded Alex for candies I didn't want for ones she didn't.

By the end of the night, it seems my Dad has become friends with Jay, while my Mom and Gloria have become more like sisters. As the two have talked nonstop since seeing each other while gossiping like teenagers about all the other parents from school.

More time goes by with November coming, same with Luke's birthday coming along. As the Dunphys invited my family over for the party on the last Saturday of November.

'Alex, my family was invited to Luke's Birthday party. What should we get him?' I text Alex who responds a few seconds later.

'Whatever you get him, all he will do is play with the box. Luke is a weirdo like that.' Alex says to me, as I sigh.

'He likes Mario and the Wii right?' I text her back.

'Yeah, he plays it when he can.' Alex says as I nod to myself thinking I know what to get him.

'Ok, thanks. Then I know what to get him.' I text her back.

'👍' Alex texts me.

"¡Mamá papá! ¡Sé qué regalarle a Luke!" (Mom, Dad! I know what to get Luke!) I shout to my parents while coming downstairs to where they are watching TV together.

"¿Qué es eso?" (What's that?) Dad says to me.

"Mario Kart Wii," I say to them and they nod agreeing with what I said.

The day of the party comes, with us arriving at the Dunphy house to see that they went all out for Luke's birthday. A rock climbing wall, an inflatable bouncy-bouncy house, a karaoke machine, and a reptile wrangler. Then we see Claire at a small table where she is doing something along the lines of arts and crafts. From my memory, she is helping kids make custom combs.

"Hi Luke, Happy Birthday!" I say handing him his present as he was eyeing once we arrived.

"Thanks!" Luke says though his Dad runs over taking the present.

"You can open your gifts later Luke, right now just go play," Phil says taking the gift and then greeting us.

"Hey, guys! Gabe want to make some combs with me?" Claire says to me after she sees we arrived. I stare at the table while trying to come up with something to get out of it.

"Hey Gabe! Come here I want to show you something!" Alex says helping me escape the comb-making with Claire.

"Maybe later…" I say before quickly running over to Alex as more people start to show up for the party.

"Thanks for the save," I say to Alex who nods her head smiling at me.

"Though a Lady did arrive with some cool animals," Alex says bringing me inside where we see a young woman setting up a small area with 'exotic' animals.

We can see some tarantulas, scorpions, lizards, and fluffy animals like rabbits and hampsters. Alex asks to hold and pet a rabbit and hampster, which the young woman agrees to. Though Alex has to enter the small gated area so the rabbits don't escape.

"You want to play with the rabbits too?" the young woman asks me while I watch Alex giggling while petting the several rabbits chilling inside the small gated area.

"Sure," I say as the young woman tells me to be gentle, and if the rabbits start to freak out to let them go.

Alex and I spend a few minutes inside the rabbit pen just enjoying the small fluffy animals. As they hop around or sit in our laps for a few seconds letting us hold and pet them. While we are doing this I can see Haley watching from afar angrily as Dylan is speaking with the young woman who brought these animals.

'Oh shit… today is the day of Fizbo…' I think to myself remembering the reck of the party at the end. Once Jay gifts Luke a crossbow.