Only Fools - Chapter 9: Chapter 9

"Ok. But why is it our job to make sure they keep cheering?" Tori complains with a forced smile on her face.
"We're the cheerleaders, Tori," Naomi responds, not even looking her way.
"And? They're seniors. They should understand the drill on what to do at pep rallies by now,"
It's then that Naomi breaks her happy facade to glare at the girl next to her.
"They're playing take the bacon, and all the seniors already lost. Who are we even cheering for?"
Naomi goes to open her mouth but sees me shaking my head.
"No, no, no. She has a point. It's almost over anyways," I say with a shrug. Naomi just huffs and turns away from the crowd of seniors and back to the classic gym class game being played on a much more intense scale then originally intended.
As the sounds of sneakers skidding on the court echo throughout the gym, I glance over at Ivy who's getting ready with Dustin to be announced as part of the homecoming court. She's laughing at something Dustin just said and I have to repress the smile that's threatening to escape onto my face. There's something so beautiful when she laughs. The way her fiery red hair flows behind her as she throws her head back. The way her green eyes sparkle and squint together, causing for wrinkles that would interrupt all her freckles if they actually had a pattern to them. The way her smile looks complete that makes my stomach do flips. I can't help but wish I was the one who just made her laugh that way.
Sudden loud cheering interrupts me from my thoughts as the juniors win the game.
"Now, it is time to introduce the homecoming court," the vice principal's voice blares throughout the gym speakers.
"First, we have Cameron Wright and Britney Kasser,"
I cheer on my teammate as she runs out onto the court with a huge smile on her face, her boyfriend towing behind her. They do a cute dance that I couldn't seem to concentrate on watching and before I know it, they're done.
This happens with the next two couples. They get announced, I'm barely able to pay them any attention outside of clapping my hands for them, and then it's over. However, I suddenly perk up when I see a familiar head of red hair waiting at the gym entrance to be announced.
"Fourth, we have our very own football co captains Ivy Charleston and Dustin McCob,"
I cheer as loud as I can for my two best friends as they run out onto the court, each carrying a microphone. I furrow my eyebrows as they stop in the center of the court. Dustin suddenly crosses his arms over his chest as if trying to look nervous as Ivy nods for the music to start. Piano notes ring throughout the gym as Ivy and Dustin look at each other before Ivy starts singing the first part. It's then that I recognize the song: "The Start of Something New" from High School Musical. Clearly, other students are starting to have the same realization as there's some laughter throughout the gym.
It's only when Dustin begins singing that the performance goes from good to great. Not having a high voice, he struggles to hit any notes at all while still trying to stay in character. It's when the first chorus begins that people turn the flashlights on their phones and begin to act like their terrible singing is an actual concert. I catch Ivy's eye and give her a small smile to which she returns before not to subtly nudging Dustin in the side. He just nods in response and as they finish the first chorus, and then he suddenly runs to the side of the gym to grab something. I look at Ivy, confusion evident on my face as she just stands there and has the nerve to shrug at me.
It's then that I check back on Dustin who's walking back to the center of the court with a bouquet of flowers in his hand, roses. Microphone in hand, he then begins to approach me. I slowly start to shake my head as he chuckles and motions for me to stand up.
"Aspen Grayson...." he starts.
"That's me," I say just loudly enough for him to hear, making him smile.
"Would you do me the honor of being my date to the homecoming dance tomorrow?" he asks me. I glance behind him at Ivy who has a wide smile on her face, and then back at him who's well aware of what I just did. I put a smile on my face and place my hand over his, pulling the microphone towards me.
"Yes," I say joyfully, causing for our fellow students to erupt into a cheer. After handing me the roses, he pulls me into a hug.
"That was quite the performance," I whisper to him.
"You didn't know I could sing that well?" he questions with a chuckle.
"Oh, we both know that wasn't the performance I was talking about," I say as I glance over to my left to see Declan standing next to some of his teammates, a look of distaste clearly etched onto his face.
Dustin just shakes his head as he pulls away from the hug. Holding the microphone top down by his side, Dustin looks at me with an expression filled with concern.
"Are you sure you want to go to homecoming with me?" he checks.
"Sure, but what strings did Ivy pull to get you to do this?" I ask, nodding my head towards the girl standing behind him, smile wide on her face.
"She's convinced I'm always staring at you when you're at your locker,"
"And?"
"Declan's your locker neighbor,"
"That girl has some gaydar, doesn't she?"
"I'm pretty sure she has the opposite. She has an uncanny ability to make straight relationships where there are none,"
"Hey, if it wasn't for her, then we wouldn't be each other's' date to homecoming now would we?"
"Damnit, Ivy,"
I just shake my head at him as he turns away and walks back over to Ivy who pulls him in for a hug.
"Well, that was Ivy Charleston and Dustin McCob with a guest appearance from Miss Aspen Grayson," our vice principal says in an attempt to be quirky. I roll my eyes and finally turn to look at Tori and Naomi who had both been rather quiet during the whole ordeal. I notice Tori first as she's the one emphatically waving her hands at me with her thumbs up. A smile shines bright on her face and I make sure that I return it. Naomi, however, is just looking at me with a deadpanned stare. I give her a sheepish smile before turning back to watch the pep rally without truly paying any attention.
————
The screams are deafening at the sound of the final buzzer. I can barely hear my own among the rest. The football players rush off the field and before I know it, I'm suddenly lifted up off the ground from behind in some sort of backwards hug. I let out a surprised squeal before I start to laugh, figuring that it was probably Ivy. However, as I turn around, I come face to face with the jersey number that's painted on my cheek. I raise an eyebrow at Dustin as he pulls off his helmet.
"Don't you think your playing this up a little too much?" I ask him. He glances behind me before meeting my eyes again.
"I don't think so," he says with a mischievous smile. I quickly glance behind myself to see Declan quickly look away from us. Turning back to Dustin, a smirk makes its way onto my face.
"I see what's going on here,"
"I don't know what you're talking about. Besides, last time I checked, I didn't have your jersey number painted on my cheek,"
"Cheerleaders don't have jerseys, you dingbat,"
"Dingbat....? That's a new one,"
"Whatever, Dustin. Tori was the one who did this,"
"So you don't actually want to be cheering me on?" he asks, pretending to be offended.
"You know who I want to be cheering on,"
Dustin's expression turns sour as he looks at me with pity.
"Where is Ivy?" he questions me as he begins to look around. I silently point behind him to where she's standing next to Jaxon and his friend, a smile wide on her face.
"Well, are you just going to stand there looking jealous as fuck, or are you going to walk over there and do something about it?" Dustin asks me, snapping me out of my trance. Letting out a sigh, I wring my hands together before looking back over at them. As I begin to walk over to them, I give Dustin one last sorrowful look to which he responds with a smile, before approaching my best friend, arch nemesis, and a guy I have quite honestly never met before.
"You did it, dude!" I say excitedly as I pull Ivy into a bear hug, interrupting whatever Jaxon has previously been saying. Ivy just laughs at my antics as she hugs me back. Upon pulling away, I actually take a look at the boy who stands next to Jaxon. His hair is dark enough that it could almost be considered black. His dark brows are pulled together as he looks upon me with a scrutinizing gaze. His hands are stuffed in the front pocket of his oversized grey hoodie, and he is leaning backwards as if unsure of me. Putting a big smile on my face even though the thought of introducing myself makes me feel sick, I stick my hand out for him to shake.
"I'm Aspen Grayson, Ivy's best friend," I tell him, assuming he's already met Ivy. The boy looks to Jaxon with confusion written all over his face.
"And an eternal pain in my ass at work," Jaxon says which seemingly clarifies things for the boy.
"Keegan Maxwells, Jax's best friend," the boy finally says dryly as he shakes my hand.
"Well, it is nice to meet you, Keegan. What's your opinion on tormenting J here?" I ask him. The boy finally cracks a smile as he glances over at his friend. He doesn't even need to answer for me to know that this is going to be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
After socializing with a few more people, I find myself in the passenger seat of Tori's car, on our way to the after party. Naomi is humming in the back to whatever pop song is playing on the radio as Tori is clearly caught up in her own thoughts.
"Hey, Cap? Who was that guy you and Ivy were talking to after the game today?" Tori suddenly asks me. Caught by surprise, I look over at Tori who hasn't even taken her eyes off the road.
"Jaxon?" I ask, trying to disguise my disgust.
"No. The guy next to him,"
"Oh, that was Keegan. Why?"
Tori doesn't respond to me as she just continues to drive.
"Tori. Why?"
Her cheeks suddenly flush as her eyes narrow in on the road in front of her. While Tori always seems to be telling me about a new guy every week, she's never had this kind of reaction before. She'll smile if she likes them or rant if she can't figure out why she ever hooked up with them in the first place, but her cheeks never go pink.
"I don't know, Cap. I just think he's kind of cute. That's all,"
"You're blushing," I say, stating the obvious. Naomi's humming abruptly stops.
"Hold up. Tori is blushing?" Naomi exclaims from the backseat. Tori just blushes further as she shakes her head at us.
"Victoria Torres?" Naomi asks as if to clarify. I just emphatically nod my head in response as Tori looks as if she'd rather be six feet underground at the moment.
"Whatever, guys. We're here," Tori says as the car suddenly stops and she quickly gets out.
"Go get your man!" Naomi yells after her as Tori speed walks to the entrance of the house.
"So, Aspen. Are you gonna go find Ivy?" Naomi asks me. Now it's my turn to quickly get out of the car and speed walk to the house. As I walk through the entrance, I instantly fake a smile and begin to make my way to the kitchen where I assume the alcohol will be stored. Letting out a sigh of relief, I grab a red solo cup and move to fill it with alcohol, but before I get the chance, the cup is pulled away from my grasp.
"Ivy," I whine as I see the familiar freckled girl standing in front of me with a frown on her face.
"Aspen," she mimics me in a more condescending tone.
"I was only going to have one," I try to reason with her.
"A likely story," she says as she throws the cup away. And I listen to her, because her happiness is my primary goal. It's not like I need it to forget the pain she unknowingly causes me, because she'll be staying with me all night, then soothing the pain on its own. Therefore I'll have to just find a way to continue to fake the extroverted behavior I've been displaying all night. It may be tiring, but for her happiness it's worth it.
Smiling at my willingness to comply with sobriety, Ivy grabs my hand and begins to pull me through the house. I try to smile at the people I pass until we finally come to a stop in front of the football team.
"Aspen!" Dustin says excitedly, clearly already having downed a couple drinks.
"Oh, Dustin. I wish I could match your enthusiasm, but alas Ivy over here has banned me from alcohol for the night,"
Ivy smacks me over the head as Dustin frowns, clearly sympathetic to my situation.
"Ivy! How could you," Dustin whines loudly to my best friend.
"Nice going, Dustin. You've just forced my hand. I'm cutting you off too," Ivy says with a shrug as she grabs Dustin's drink away from him. Dustin's eyes go wide as he realizes what's happening.
"I'm sorry, bud," I say solemnly as I pat him on the shoulder. Dustin just nods sadly in response.
"Well, now what, Ivy. I should hope that you have some sort of plan," I say, turning back to my best friend. Ivy hesitates as she glances around the room.
"Great. So I'm going to go get a drink then," I say as I begin to walk away. I don't get too far though as Ivy grabs my arm and spins me back around.
"No. We are going to.... we are going to go somewhere," Ivy says as she pulls her car keys out from her pocket.
"Dude. I, like, just got here," I say dryly.
"And now you're going to leave," Ivy states before grabbing Dustin and I's wrists and dragging us through the generally unfamiliar house.
"Ivy. Wait. What if I want to stay here?" Dustin suddenly asks as we arrive at the door. Confused by Dustin's question, Ivy almost instantly drops our wrists and turns around to look at us, or rather, back and forth between us as if curious as to why Dustin wouldn't want to spend the night with not only his best friend but the girl that he allegedly has a big ass crush on.
"Just kidding," Dustin says reluctantly as he apparently comes to the same realization. Ivy smiles at his response and then latches her hands back our wrists to tug us outside and to her car.
My goal for the car ride was to just focus on the music playing, but my thoughts apparently have other plans. As I stare aimlessly out of the window, I can't help but feel sick over the situation I'm in. Though, I'm not exactly sick over the fact that I'm pretending I like Dustin, (he's one of my best friends and I'm not sure I could do better in the "fake date" department) I'm lying to Ivy. Maybe not directly, but I'm putting on an act for the person that should know me better than anyone.
"We're here,"
I nearly jump at the suddenness of Ivy's words. Quickly, I look up to see that we're at a small outdoor ice cream shop. A smile makes its way onto my face as I look over at my best friend.
"See. Staying sober has its benefits," Ivy says with a smirk. I just roll my eyes at her and get out of the car, but before I can take a step forward, Dustin grabs my hand. I glare at him and his methods of preventing me from getting ice cream, but he just laces his fingers in mine. I quickly glance over to see where Ivy is and realize that she's already waiting in line, before turning back to Dustin.
"What the fuck?" I hiss as I look pointedly down at our hands.
"Aspen. She thinks we're, like, head over heels for each other,"
"That doesn't mean I have to hold your big sweaty hand,"
"Ok. If you don't want this to be believable,"
"Maybe I don't. Maybe I'm going to tell her how I feel right now,"
"Fine. Do it," Dustin challenges me. I glance up at Ivy and I can already feel my cheeks heating up at just the thought of telling her everything. I shake my head at him and squeeze his hand before tugging him behind me.
"Oh! You guys can go sit down on the curb. I already ordered for us," Ivy tells us, though I almost sense a hint of mischief.
"Ok?" I say in response before turning back around, Dustin still in tow. Silently, Dustin and I wait for Ivy after having settled that sitting on the curb together without holding hands is fine as long as our legs are almost touching. And after about four minutes, Ivy arrives in front of us with a wide smile and two milkshakes in hand.
"Didn't you get yourself anything?" I ask her, confused.
"Of course. This milkshake is mine," she says as she raises the cup in her left hand, "and this one is yours."
My eyes widen slightly as I glance over at Dustin. And with that, Ivy hands me the milkshake in her right hand and two straws. Dustin and I share a look before Dustin shrugs and puts both our straws in and takes a sip, though his sip is unfortunately more like a chug.
"Nope. That was too much. You had the audacity to take a sip of such size, and now I have the audacity to cut you off. You're done," I say as I pull his straw out from the milkshake and throw it onto the ground.
"Shit. That's the second time today," Dustin says quietly before picking his straw off the ground and walking over to the trash to throw it away. Ivy and I just silently sip on our milkshakes as Dustin walks back, head lowered, and plops back down where he was, close enough to me that our legs nearly touch.
"Wow. We haven't hung out just the three of us in a while. The original group," Ivy says jokingly as she nudges me in the side and glances across me at Dustin.
"Actually, Dustin and I are the originals. You came later," I say matter-of-factly.
"Kindergarten crew!" Dustin says excitedly as we high five. Ivy just rolls her eyes at us, but doesn't bother to conceal her smile.
"Whatever, guys. Do you remember the first time we hung out?" Ivy asks with a laugh.
"Holy fuck! That was a disaster," I sat with a laugh.
"Shit. I can't believe we stayed friends after that," Dustin says, eyes wide.
"It wasn't that bad, guys," Ivy tried to assure us.
"Wait. Remember. We were at that little diner that just opened," Dustin says.
"That Ivy works at now," I add in.
"Whatever. Don't interrupt the story. So we were at the diner arguing over what meal we wanted to split because we were all broke," Dustin continues on.
"Oh, no one cares skip to the good part," I say.
"When Dustin pissed off that eighth grader who then decided to pour his soda on his head?" Ivy questions.
"Yes that part!" I exclaim as the image of a smaller Dustin drenched in soda reappears in my mind.
"So then Aspen poured her lemonade on the eighth grader," Dustin continues the story, suddenly causing the image to go sour.
"And he was allergic to lemon juice. So his mom who was sitting a couple tables over had to finally pay attention to him and pour her entire purse out onto the floor to get his EpiPen," Ivy finishes the story.
"I still feel so bad! I haven't drank lemonade since!" I defend myself.
"What a tragedy! Child has a near death experience and Aspen swore off of lemonade. However will she cope?" Dustin says sarcastically.
"Whatever, Dustin. Why was he even so mad at you? He stormed over like he was avenging the murder of his ex wife that he was secretly still in love with or something," I question the boy on my left.
"That is oddly specific," the girl on my right interjects.
"Whatever. Why was he mad, Dustin?" I press him for answers.
"He thought I was eyeing his girlfriend," Dustin answers in a rather somber voice. I immediately break out into laughter at the implication.
"Was she that cute?" I tease him, knowing full well that I'm asking about the boy.
"Shut up, Aspen," Dustin snaps at me.
"And now the happy couple is fighting," Ivy says before taking a long sip of her milkshake.
"We always fight, Ivy. That's our thing," I say as if stating the obvious.
"Yeah. I don't think we've ever had a conversation that hasn't turned into some sort of fight since the day we met," Dustin backs me up.
"But now look at you two! Who ever thought that this little friend group would produce such a cute couple?" Ivy says excitedly.
"Yeah.... who would've thought that?"