Chapter 65: Sudden Party?

[Edward POV]

After a thorough discussion with Pepper, he sent me to school despite my objections and the fact that I had already missed the first period. Unfortunately for me, the next class in my schedule was PE.

I entered the gymnasium 5 minutes after class had started– dazed and confused as to how Pepper managed to get me here without me realising it, but the PE teacher didn't care to ask me where I had been.

"Move your ass Newgate. Why are you dwindling there? You have another 5 laps to finish!"

The merciful demon in disguise, the buddha nemesis, the anti-of everything kind, Mrs Johnson shouted while holding a board in her hand. She was an African-American woman with short dreadlocks and was in tight gym clothes right now.

Her stern face and sharp eyebrow had struck great fear into your average middle schooler's heart. Everyone I know has already experienced that at least once in their time here at the school. Not to mention, she is 6 '3 in height, a size that had made her the tallest woman in the room for almost her entire life.

"MOVE MOVE MOVE!" She shouted as she lightly smacked the back of a pair of glasses wearing – Jewish nerdy boy with shaggy hair, but the impact still caused the child to trip. The coach was concerned for a while when she thought she had broken a few of the kid's bones, if only she could know he actually tripped because of a very different reason.

"AHN~" Abraham moaned underneath his breath as he enjoyed getting punished by the coach. Then, he continued running with a horrible form purposely once more.

(Abraham: One year older than Alex. Had a massive crush on Alex. Cameo-d on Season 3, episode 8 – After the fire)

The students here knew for sure that underneath her clothes was a tight, muscle-mommy body type that seemed to attract masochistic weirdos to always get on her nerves as they begged for the punishment.

During PE, all students had to wear the same PE uniform. A grey shirt and bright red sport short pants. I didn't conform to the dress code today and wore a high-collared white windbreaker instead. Helpless as I knew the coach had already targeted me, I shook my head as I reluctantly jumped into the fire–that was her torture plans for today.

"Oh. That's good form Newgate. I guess you practised a lot." Mrs Johnson complimented as I had finished one lap around the gymnasium easily. My breath was steady, and my stance was still perfect even though most of the students here had already lazed around or given up trying.

I quickly caught up to the middle position of the students on the tracks, not noticing that Mrs Johnson had jotted something down on her board while keeping her eyes on me.

After finishing the second lap, I finally caught up to my friend who was running stably and with impeccable form.

"Hi Jacob." I greeted.

"Oh Ed. I thought you weren't coming." Jacob said as he controlled his breath calmly as he ran.

"Where's the troublemaker?" I asked.

"I'm upset. Before this, you were only asking where I am, but now, I'm your second priority. I even got a text invite later than the two of them." Jacob said sulkily.

I was annoyed by that so I smacked him in the middle of his back.

*Pap!*

"Ow You bitch!" Jacob said with teary eyes as he tried to rub the painful part on his back. Too bad his arm was too big for him to reach it.

"Your invite is special. I just copied the one I sent the girls." I explained as I jogged lightly beside him.

"Yeah. Asking me to bring snacks is a special text. Aren't I your gopher?" Jacob said sulkily again.

"Really? Then, I guess my effort to make a Potato Leek Au Gratin, that took me over 2 hours to make- that I wanted to serve as a special dish for my 'bro', was a waste in the end, since it will have to be thrown out. I will just buy you a potato chip Since that's what a gopher eats."

Jacob drooled as I began to narrate step-by-step, my method of preparation for the dish.

"BRO!" Jacob greeted me happily as if resetting our initial greeting today. I just rolled my eyes at him and asked again, "The girls?"

"Pretending to have cramps to get out of PE. Also, I don't know how, and I don't know why – but a rumour about you having a party has already spread all over the school. Many people wants to talk to you to get into-"

"Hey. Wait up." Abraham chimed in, suddenly clinging onto Jacob and I, putting his left hand on Jacob's shoulder, while his right hand on mine. "Ed. You're having a party? Will there be supermodels? Are Alex, and Taylor going to be there?" He asked as he let go of any thoughts of running by himself and let his body be dragged by us – his effort mule.

I ignored Abraham's random linr questioning and said, "I'm not having a party though?"

"Come on. Don't lie ~ Everyone is talking about it. A party for the rich and the elite – One where you can only get in if you have a smartphone. The poor and unpopular can't get in. Although, there is another gossip that said you're making a music video at your house, so only the selected few can come. I want in. I want to be in a music video too~ And I want to leer on Alex~"

Abraham continued to beg as he was dragged by us. I got annoyed by his incessant whining and knuckled his head, causing him to finally release Jacob and I and hold his head in pain.

"Ow. I'm going to sue. This is assault. I will see you at court. Unless…" Abraham joked as he rubbed his head in pain while following us from behind.

"If I ever plan a party, then I will invite you. But it isn't a party. I'm only collecting beta testers." I said casually as we continued running.

Abraham stopped pretending and said, "Hmm? Mobile games or apps? Or PC games? I can help you with that. I'm kinda a pro-gamer."

"Sure. Come on by." I agreed to let him come easily as I needed data from various types of study groups. Abraham smiled widely, and before he could say something else, another boy suddenly interrupted our conversation to try and invite himself to my house.

"Shuhh. Shuhh. We don't need extras here. Or else I will tell your mom that you're on Facebook and didn't accept her friend request on purpose Leonard!"

"BUT-"

"GO AWAY LEONARD!"

Abraham chased out the boy quickly as if he was herding a sheep. Although he was a nerd, Abraham had a reputation as the school bully. He was capable of bullying people through ingenious schemes, which earned my respect as a fellow agent of chaos.

…

[3rd Person POV]

-Alex's class-

Alex was sitting at her desk, taking notes as usual when a boy suddenly tapped her shoulder from behind. She turned around as a response and saw Jeremy Reed was trying to talk to her. The athletic kid was quite popular in her class, therefore she was confused as to why he wanted to talk to her.

"H-Hey Alex. Is it true? Are you really recording a music video at Newgate's house?"

"Uh…Why do you think that?" Alex asked in confusion.

"Well…everyone is talking about it. Are you invited? I know you don't have a smartphone…" Jeremy said in concern.

Alex was baffled by the question and answered hurriedly, "I'm invited, but it's not a music video. Although he did ask me to wear something classy-" Suddenly, she realised something in the middle of her sentence, "Wait. How do you know I don't have a phone?"

Jeremy widened his eyes and stood up abruptly, causing the teacher and the rest of the students to turn toward him. Alex was shocked by his actions and turned toward the teacher quickly to avoid getting into trouble.

"What's the matter Mr Reed?" The teacher asked.

"Uh…Toilet." Reed replied hurriedly.

The teacher nodded in understanding while the students laughed. The teacher said, "Go now. Don't do your business here."

The kids laughed out loud again at Jeremy's misery as he ran away in embarrassment. He couldn't admit that he had been watching Alex for a while now as he has a huge crush on her, right?

After the class ended, Alex walked to her locker to keep her books inside when she saw Edward was surrounded by multiple girls nearby.

"I know how to dance. I can even grind-" A latina girl said while showing Edward she could jiggle her 'stuff' to get an invitation to the supposedly music video production. The hungry for fame girls and boys had been bothering him the entire day even though he had already denied their assumptions.

"I can grind too!" Barnes, an African-american weird kid, suddenly pushed the latina away and started twerking badly while trying to grind at Edward's hips.

"HOLY-" Edward widened his eyes and he saw Alex watching from afar as he tried to get away from the boy. He ran slightly toward Alex in his PE clothes and said, "Hey. Alex! Help meee!."

"NO. Why don't you ask Haley for help? Since You loveeee her so much that you even wrote a song for her." Alex said in a dissatisfied tone. Edward couldn't hold his laugh as he saw the sulking Alex. He closed his distance to get close to her and said, "Wait. Are you jealous?"

Alex blushed as he kept getting nearer. "If you want, I can do a song for you too."

His smell of sweat didn't trigger Alex's disgust like the other boys did. In fact, she had even daydreamed into getting held by Edward. But before she could push him away, suddenly Barnes interjected their conversation.

"I could even do one for your mom." Ed said once more, turning Alex's embarrassment into confusion.

"What?"

While twerking happily, Barnes said, "I can even shake my booty."

"ROY! GET OUT OF HERE!" Abraham and Jacob finally arrived to save Edward from the twerking maniac.

"I WANT TO BE IN A MUSIC VIDEO TOO!" Roy yelled in desperation as he was dragged away.

-High school-

(JID- Rapper. Similar to Derek but he's younger)

"HEY DYLAN!" Derek, one of Dylan's ex-band members shouted to get his attention. The band had broken up after the Brian's incident – where Brian tried to punch Edward but only managed to get his ass, and Dylan's, handed to them.

Derek ran toward the tall guy and clung his left arm around him while simultaneously pulling Dylan's head down for them to talk whisperingly.

"Is it true? Did you get the message too? Party at Newgates?!"

"What? No. and I didn't get any message."

"Aren't you guys friends? Why didn't he invite you?"

"Cause it's not a party!" Dylan said in frustration, but it was hard for him to convince his friend about it as he lacked the eloquence to effectively do so.

Not only Derek, but a lot of the famous cliques inside the school had heard about the rumor. The school was a mess. Abby, Haley and Tara, the girls who were known to be close to Ed, were stopped a lot by the cliques as they wanted an invite to the party too.

"It's all my fault!" Tara said in frustration as she realized that the gathering had spread all throughout the school. Even the janitor knew about it now and was asking them if Edward wanted extra on the set.

"I only told Madelyn about it. I didn't know that she would tell others." Tara explained herself.

"Didn't I tell you not to trust that Bitch." Haley said with a grimace.

"I know…but-"

"She has hated Ed ever since the 'Yoko' incident. I guess she was also the one to spread the rumours before this. Ugh, that two-faced bitch-"

Abby finally interjected, "Okay. Enough. Don't fight. Just talk to Ed. I'm sure he'll understand."

Tara sighed and said, "To think that I managed to slip my sister's name into the guestlist this morning. I will not come to the-"

"Sis? The spy?" Abby asked curiously before saying, "Can't wait to meet her." She effectively changed the subject before Tara could blame herself more while stealthily texted Edward afterward. Edward didn't have any strong feelings about the matter, and even thought it was laughable, but also keeping Madelyn's name in his mind.

…

[Edward POV]

After an exhausting day at school, I finally returned home. Dylan had driven me instead of Abby as the other car was full, and I didn't have my bike today.

"Here. Memorise this for your SAT next week." I said while giving Dylan a stack of papers.

"Again?" Dylan asked in exasperation while reluctantly picking up the papers from my hand.

"Really? That's how you respond to your teacher? If you don't want it, give it back to me-"

Before I could snatch back the papers, Dylan hurriedly pulled it away and said, "No. Thank you Oh wise one. I will totally read it after this."

"Good good. You have grown well, young Padawan."

"I have always grown well."

"Maybe your height, but your brain isn't well developed-"

Dylan tried to hit my arm for the remark, but I dodged it easily and smacked the back of his head.

"How dare you try to hit your shifu. Go do 100 push-ups. Now." I said jokingly as I laughed together with Dylan.

The papers weren't ordinary SAT reference materials and mock exam questions. I actually hacked into the Department of Education and found the question maker for California state's exams before pinpointing her laptop from the numerous laptops inside the department and hacking into that.

Then, I changed the questions slightly to give Dylan for studying. If he read my notes thoroughly like he said, he would at least get the average test score in the SAT and would open up a path for further education in the future.

'I could've given him the original question and made him remember it before the exam. That way, he could ace it without a doubt. But if he doesn't put in the effort to better himself, why should I even care about him?'

It was an opportunity for Dylan, and also a test from me.

"Here. You should go do community service this weekend. I have registered you to volunteer at a nursing home. It'll look good for your college application."

"Okay…Soooo my shift is gone?" Dylan said, feeling a bit sad that he wouldn't be able to make extra money by working on the ship.

"Why? Are you missing the cougars? You didn't have to go there if you want to meet them. If they have your phone number, they can just call you to their house-"

"I'M NOT HUNTING FOR COUGARS!"

"Really? If they offer you 10 grand for one night, do you take it or will you reject it?" I asked. Dylan fell into a deep contemplation afterward, making me laugh at him.

After making fun of him, Dylan left to go to the pier as he had become addicted to work there. Not only did the crew members become a good influence on him, he had inwardly turned Dwayne into his father figure since he never had one and was already working hard to prove himself to the crew.

I noticed it as he acted like a kid fishing for compliments when he did anything around Dwayne.

"It's a good thing Dwayne understands what he's going through and didn't take advantage of him." I muttered as I saw Dylan drive away. It proved how much he needed a positive parental figure in his life after lacking one for 18 years.

After I took a shower and changed my clothes, I noticed that the hickey on my neck had faded.

"Maybe because she didn't have much time last night." I muttered as I changed into a tight grey t-shirt and jeans before walking to the 32 inch plasma screen tv and connecting the HDMI port with my laptop. The TV was a small one as I, nor my dad, had the chance to go and buy a new one after the family's financial difficulty was stabilised.

The game "Flappy Bird" was now displayed on the mounted to the wall TV inside the living room. Immediately after finishing the preparation, the first beta tester arrived at my house and rang the doorbell.

"What's up bro?!" Jacob clasped his hand with mine before changing it into a fist bump as he walked into the house.

"Of course, my 'bro' will be the first one to arrive." I said with a smile as I welcomed him to my crib. "Mi casa es tu casa."

"Really?" Jacob beamed up as he hatched a sly scheme in his mind.

"Of course, if you hook up with your girlfriend here, I will bury you under the 'casa'." I threatened him with a smile as I could practically read what he was thinking.

Jacob coughed for a while and handed me his smartphone without saying anything. He was clear on what I wanted to do today as we already had a talk about it in school. I connect his phone with my laptop before installing the game on his phone while sitting on the sofa nearby the tv.

"If you delete it, you won't be able to recover it." I warned him.

"If it's a good game, then I won't remove it." Jacob replied casually as he took the phone back.

"Flappy bird?" He muttered as he pressed the game icon and launched the game on his phone.

"Yup. Connect to the wifi at my house. Then, your score will be shown on the TV screen." I said while pointing at the TV. "I will also collect data from your gaming experience today, just to be clear on that. If you don't want me to, then I won't force you-"

"What are you talking about? Just collect it." Jacob replied casually as he sat on the sofa to test the game. Before he played one round, I asked him, "Where's your girl?"

"She's getting ready with Jenna. Don't know why, but they want to change into a dress." Jacob answered. We looked at each other in contemplation before we decided to forget about the matter.

*Ding Dong.*

"Ah. second tester." I muttered before standing up and walking to open the door. The next guest to arrive was Abraham– who was brought here by his mother.

"My mom made brisket for everyone." Abraham said as he handed me a 10 pound beef brisket inside a large, transparent container with a blue lid.

"Oh. Thank You Mrs Cohen!" I shouted to the driver inside a blue Volvo on the street while waving at her. The chubby Mrs Cohen waved back before driving away to leave the children alone as Abraham had lied to her about the existence of parental supervision from a chaperone inside the house.

Abraham barged into the house and sat next to Jacob while peeking at the game he was playing.

"Dude. One point? Seriously?" Abraham mocked after he saw Jacob's highscore on the TV screen.

"Shut up. It's harder than you think!" Jacob defended himself as he got started on his 4th try of the game.

"Please. I'm a pro." Abraham said as he handed his phone to me. After a quick installation and a few rounds of the game, the scoreboard changed into 3 points for Abraham, and 2 points for Jacob.

"WHY IS THIS SO FRUSTRATING!?" Abraham and Jacob yelled out at the same time.

*Ding-Dong*

As I laughed at the boys' miseries, another guest finally arrived at my house. I opened the door and greeted Abby, Tara, Haley, and Enid into the house.

(Too tired yesterday. I will post another chap tomorrow to make it 4 chapter this week.)