chapter nine:

"a stupid tradition"

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"that's what we should call it. echo"

he chirps again

"oh, 'cause it echoes." Tuck says

"wait, I don't get it." munch mumbles

"echo, echo, echo." I repeat, letting the name roll of my tongue

"your name, is echo." alex tells him. suddenly his lights start to dim then begin to flicker, then shut off

"wait, what happen? did he not like the name or something?" I questioned

"I don't think he's supposed to come out of the cylinder thing" alex realized

"he looks dead" tuck says

we didn't know how broken he really was. the crash apparently hurt him worse then we thought.

"okay, little guy.." alex said putting him back in his capsule carefully

"where do you want us to go?" I ask him, not even a second later there was new map

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so the map lead us to emma's house and I have no idea why. she has nothing to do with this.

"hey guys this is-" i tried to warn

"sshhhhhhh!" munch shushes, putting a finger over my mouth, "we don't want to get caught" he whispers

"bu-" I try

"nope!" he turns around, ignoring my protests

"guys? you know this is considered being a burglar, right?" he asked, more directed to the boys than me

"not if I just text-" I try again, but shut myself up when i see his glare

"my gosh fine, do it the hard way." I sigh. we begin to walk to the front, looking at the house.

they start walking to the side trying to be quiet while I go up to the door and ring the bell nonchalantly

"what are you doing?!" alex whispers, waving his hands around

"is she insane?" tuck exclaims and I roll my eyes

the door swings open and there stood emma's mom.

"hey, emma's mom" I say making it clear to them it who it was and that i knew what i was doing

"is emma here? she wanted to hang out before I had to start packing for the move" I lie

"of course!" she said politely "you're always welcome here"

"okay let me just put my bike to the side" I say

"okay dear" she said before walking away. I quickly jog towards the boys, "so its emmas house" I point out once i reach them

"yeah we see that now!" alex mumbles, rolling his eyes

"how come you didn't tell us!" munch says and I roll my eyes at that one.

"okay guys I got a plan, I will distract emma while you guys search the house for the part got it?"

"got it" tuck repeats while alex nods

"I'm proud to call you my sister" munch laughs. I point to the side and they go. I walk up the stairs and go in.

In the hall way I hear emmas parents and of course emma herself, I make me presence noticeable by standing next to her who was dressed in a party dress

"we need you to listen sweetheart, and ashley, maybe you should listen to," her dad starts

"wait, are you grounding me?" emma asks

"you can't ground me" I point out, and he sighs

"we've been around a lot longer, we know how this works" emma's mom steps in

I think I know where this is heading...

"It's the man-- the man should choose his dance partner." emma's dad said.

"It's just a stupid tradition" emma argues back

i stand there awkwardly

she could get a bit rude, especially with her parents

"really, its about meeting new people, and many of those were our friends' sons." her mother explains.

then I see munch, tuck and alex rushing up the stairs, I make the hurry up gesture.

"putting on this dress for you doesn't change me into some perfect little homecoming queen!" emma yells.

I just stood there not saying anything.

"okay, no ones asking to act like a homecoming queen." her dad said.

I walk over with them and grab a cookie of the counter.

"It's a least three years away" her mom says. I watch the stairs

"right ashley, you've already met 'the one' ?" her mom asks me

"what?" I breathe out, almost chocking on my cookie

"you and your friend alex will go perfect together." she coos while my face goes red.

I look at the stairs and see alex looking at me and winks before continuing up the stairs behind munch.

oh gosh they all heard that. I space out on what they say until emma gets up out of her seat heading towards the stairs.

oh gosh

I hear the door upstairs shut. oh no, oh no, she heads for the stairs

"em-" but get cut off by her yelling.

"you'll learn how to fold a napkin!" her parents try to persuade

"how to fold a napkin?!" she yells back in disbelief

"emma you should really get back down there!" I say out of breath

"who cares!" she yells, ignoring me

"go!" I whispered to munch who had let go of echo, and went back in and closes the door

she stops yelling at her parents and looks at me with a smile.

"sorry, let's go to my room... so what has happened between you and-"

"no don't open-" I say as she opens her door

"what the..?" she mumbles

" -the door" I finish looking worried

"wait, I know you." she points at tuck

"yay! okay emma this is tuck! tuck, emma, tuck- you know lets just finish this outside shall we?" I say trying to leave the situation

"hey- no it's okay" said munch coming out of no where. " we're with ashley! you know best friends since kinder?" he says trying to make it seem better than it was

"why is my room destroyed?"

"yeah guys, why is her room destroyed?" I ask

"why are you filming this? and what is that" she says pointing to echo that was trying to be hidden inside of alexs shirt.

"um, it's a... It's a car muffler" tuck questions, heading towards the door but she closes it.

"no. I want to know what that is." she insists. and knowing her, she won't give up until she finds out.