Chapter twenty-six: Temporary truce

Background color
Font
Font size
Line height

James

🍦🍦🍦🍦🍦🍦🍦🍦🍦🍦🍦

The day of Evan's birthday party turned out to be one of the most memorable days of the summer.

I slept in that day because the party didn't start until late afternoon.

When I woke up, I had a feeling that a lot was going to happen that day.

Whether it was a lot of good or bad, I didn't know.

I hoped it wasn't my intuition and that I was just being paranoid.

But it was that same feeling I became overwhelmed with on the day I told Harlee that she and I could no longer be friends.

A feeling of uncertainty?

Unpredictability, maybe?

Trying to be optimistic, I wrote it off as paranoia and started getting ready for the day. After my daily hygiene routine, I headed downstairs to have breakfast. Mom had already gone off to work, and Dad was still away, so only Lizzie was around. I entered the kitchen and noticed she didn't give me her usual disgusted-to-see-me glare.

That was a surprise.

I walked past her and started pouring myself a bowl of cereal.

"Good morning, James," she greeted me.

I gave her a confused stare.

Okay, my intuition was correct, I thought.

Lizzie is being nice? Something in the universe must be off-balance somewhere.

"Mom won't be home until late, so she can't take you to the party," she said as I poured some milk into my bowl.

"I'm aware," I told her, setting down the jug. "Mrs. Smith is coming to pick me up."

Lizzie shook her head at me while sipping her mocha latte.

"No, she called earlier. She is so busy with last-minute party prep, she can't make it. Unless you want to ride your bike, I can take you there."

I almost choked on my cereal at the last part of what she'd said.

Had she just offered to do something nice for me?

No way, I thought.

Impossible.

Lizzie is never nice to me voluntarily. She is definitely just trying to mess with me.

"Mhm, I think I'd rather walk," I said bluntly then spooned some more cereal into my mouth.

Lizzie didn't flinch at my remark.

"Sounds tedious, but fine. I have better things to do anyway," she fired back, heading towards the kitchen doorway.

"Wait," I called out, realizing she had actually been serious about driving me. "Why are you offering to drive me to the party anyway?"

"Because I'm a nice person," she said simply.

"Since when?" I said back.

Lizzie had had enough of me after that. She stormed out of the room, leaving me sitting at the breakfast table by myself.

I felt confused.

Lizzie and I always argued with one another.

We hardly ever talked unless we were insulting each other.

Why was she suddenly acting like she didn't know how to fight back?

Or like she didn't even want to?

Without finishing my breakfast, I followed her upstairs to her room, trying to figure it out. I did need the ride because I didn't think Hyland would like me showing up at her house to pick her up on a bike. But right then I was more concerned I'd really upset my sister. I knocked on her bedroom door thrice.

"What do you want, James?" she said, sounding tired.

I opened the door cautiously and poked my head inside.

Her room always looked different each time I entered it. Because the few times I did were so spread out, the furniture and decor would always be rearranged or replaced.

This time it was Parisian-themed. The Eiffel tower was everywhere, and she had fairy lights hanging from various places. There was an "I Love Paris" mug sitting on her nightstand. I remembered how she'd brought that back from her junior field trip to France in the spring.

It all looked pretty nice, so I stepped inside.

"Sorry, I was so rude downstairs," I apologized.

Lizzie looked surprised by my apology. She shrugged and sat down on her bed.

"Forget about it; it's not a big deal," she replied.

I nodded my head, not knowing what to say to that.

An awkward silence followed.

Lizzie and my conversations always resulted in fighting. It was foreign territory for us to be on moderately good terms with each other.

I tried to think of something else to say but couldn't find anything. Sad as it was, it was like we couldn't even communicate without putting one another down.

Maybe that was why Lizzie hadn't wanted to argue with me downstairs.

Maybe she too had realized what a sad testament that was.

"Your room looks nice like this," I complimented. "I like the fairy lights; they're cool."

"Thanks," she said, genuinely smiling.

"You're welcome," I said back.

The awkward silence resumed after that.

I concentrated on the sound of birds singing outside the windows. It was the only noise to keep the room from being dead silent. I turned to leave the room, wondering if she would still drive me to the party or if I was really going to have to pick Hyland up on my bike.

"Um, that offer is still available if you need a ride by the way," Lizzie said to me as if she'd read my mind.

I felt stunned but kept my back turned so she wouldn't see my mouth gaping open.

"Okay. Thanks," I said cordially before heading out of the bedroom.

I didn't know what was going on, but I decided to just go with it. It may have been more awkward to be decent to one another because it was so foreign to us, but it sure felt a lot better than constantly bickering.

I just wondered if it would last.

I sure hoped so.

I arrived at the party a bit late, because Lizzie had taken what felt like a millennium in the shower. I didn't bug her about it, though, because I knew Evan wasn't a stickler for punctuality. And because I didn't want to disrupt the peace between her and me.

Fortunately, Hyland didn't seem to mind us picking her up late, either. She'd texted me the directions to her address she'd given me after I'd invited her to attend the party with me, and I gave them to Lizzie.

Lizzie pulled up to the Penningtons' house and parked in their steep driveway then I got out and started toward the front door.

I had thought the Harringtons' lived in a high-society neighborhood.

But as I looked at the Penningtons' estate, I realized theirs was even grander than the Harringtons'. Their house may as well have been a palace, and the neighborhood could probably pass for its own mini country.

Okay, maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration, but still.

What is she doing hanging out with a boy like me? I thought to myself, incredulously.

Maybe, Evan had been right.

Hyland sure was high-society; that was without question.

Whether or not she was high-maintenance was yet to be seen.

When I reached the porch, Hyland was already sitting there waiting for me. She was wearing a lavender sundress, and white sandals, and her usual curls had been pressed silky straight. I felt plain beside her once again in my simple grey t-shirt and khaki shorts and made a mental note to try and dress more formally around her.

After greetings, I walked Hyland toward Lizzie's car. I opened the door for her, and Lizzie gave her a bewildered stare as she climbed into the car and sat down but didn't say whatever she was thinking. I introduced Hyland and Lizzie as I climbed into the car, shutting the door after me.

"You look amazing, by the way," I told Hyland while getting into my seat beside her.

She smiled at me modestly and thanked me.

My remark made Lizzie eye us even more suspiciously, but she still didn't utter a word.

She pulled out of the driveway, turned the car onto the road, then pressed her foot against the accelerator, slamming Hyland and me against our seats.

I quickly apologized for my sister's reckless driving, and Hyland just giggled that it was "okay."

By the time we arrived at Evan's house, Hyland and I were both dizzy from the ride.

Next time, maybe we really should walk, I thought as she and I got out of the car.

How did I never know what a terrible driver my sister is?

"Uh, thanks, Lizzie." I waved to her, keeping my thoughts to myself.

"You're welcome, I guess," she replied, her face void of expression.

"Text me when the party ends."

"Okay." I closed the door and then she sped off.

Hyland turned to me and asked, "Is your sister okay?"

I just shrugged.

Honestly, I had no idea what was going on with Lizzie.

When we entered the backyard, The Amazing Race was just about to start. I set Evan's present on the gift table then headed toward the group of party guests with Hyland by my side. But once we reached them, I was yanked aside by a frantic Evan.

"What is Farrah Harrington doing at my party?" he asked me once we were out of earshot of everyone. "I told you it was okay to bring Hyland with you; I didn't say Hyland and her insane friends!"

I looked over to where he was pointing and saw Amy and Farrah among the party guests. I noticed Harlee hadn't arrived yet and wondered if she was still coming. We hadn't talked since last week, so I didn't know if her plans had changed or something.

"Um...I didn't invite Farrah and Amy. It looks like they may have invited themselves," I said, watching Farrah giggling with Amy and Hyland about something.

Evan groaned, "Ughhh...this is so frustrating! I made it a point not to invite her, and she still comes."

"Why don't you just tell them to leave?" I asked him.

Evan folded his arms angrily and said,

"My mom thinks it's 'good' they came because some of my friends can't make it. Which means the teams would be uneven even when Rachel and Harlee get here. I asked her if the guests ended up showing if I could make Farrah and Amy leave. And she said I couldn't. She says, 'it wouldn't be very gentlemanly to throw two young ladies out of the party.'

Well too bad. I'm willing to risk my manners if it means those two don't crash one of the most important days of my life."

I felt sympathetic for Evan but also felt he was being a tad bit dramatic about the situation. It wasn't like Farrah was a monster; she was just annoying.

What was the worst she could do by attending the party?

Much to our dismay, that question would be answered soon enough.

After all of Evan's guests arrived, we were all split into three teams.

Evan's neighbors Trent, Asa, Lake, and Cady, along with his cousins Morgan, Tate, and Paul made up the green team. Then Evan's karate friends Juliet, Ian, Cooper, Alison, Ken, Renee, and Alexis were the red team.

I supposed Martial Arts could make people tremendously confident because everyone on the red team kept stating how they were going to win.

"I'm going to beat everyone; even the people on my team, I'm going to beat," Alexis declared as she ran over to her teammates.

"How do you know you're going to beat everyone?" Farrah asked her.

"Because I always win at everything," Alexis responded then quickly started pulling her teammates into a close huddle.

"Glad, I'm not on that team then, because I am the opposite," I muttered.

Hyland giggled at me as Mrs. Smith started naming off the final team, the blue team members.

"Okay, for the blue team, let's have Evan, James, Harlee, Rachel, Farrah, Hyland, and Amy," she said.

"Yay, we're on the same team," Hyland chirped as we headed over toward our group.

I felt glad to be on the same team as Harlee, but she looked hesitant to be on the blue team. As was Evan, because Farrah was on our team. His mom must not have been paying attention when she placed him on the same team as her.

Or maybe she just wanted him to learn to be kinder to her.

I didn't know.

I also had no idea why Harlee looked frustrated when Farrah walked over to the blue team.

Rachel didn't seem too excited to be in the group either.

I honestly felt ecstatic to be in a group with people I knew instead of strangers.

I didn't know what everyone was so upset about.

Mrs. Smith assigned each team pit-stop drivers next, and the blue team unluckily ended up with Karissa as ours. Once the object of the game had been made known to everyone, and each team had a driver, it was time for the game to begin.

🍦🍦🍦🍦🍦🍦🍦🍦🍦🍦🍦

Ο™: ᴅᴏ ʏᴏᴜ Κœα΄€α΄ α΄‡ ᴀɴʏ sΙͺΚ™ΚŸΙͺΙ΄Ι’s?


You are reading the story above: TeenFic.Net