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Iris
Knowing small mistakes in the back of my mind, Juliet and I bow down to the audience. When I look into the crowd, the first face I see is Noah's and gosh, he is smiling widely.
To be honest, I didn't know he would be here but when I first came on the stage and saw him, I couldn't be any happier. I don't know why and I don't care about any reasons. I am just happy to see him.
Now, I see my friends and Daisy. All of them are cheering loudly as if we have won the competition already.
Daisy mouths to me, "I love you, Doraemi."
I smile, widely, in reply, and go back backstage with Juliet.
"Fired the whole world up!" Keisuke says, crashing us into a hug. Justin laughs, before joining in.
"We did it!" I breathe out, hugging him back.
"You both fucking killed it out there!" Justin says, grinning, before pulling away from us and kissing Juliet.
"And the PDA continues." Keisuke makes a tsk sound.
"Never gonna end, I think," I say, smiling. I let out a breath of relief.
"How was yours?" I ask Keisuke, stopping him to jump.
Since no one of us was allowed to watch any of the dances until we looked 'amazing performance' amazing, I missed Kei's soloâstupid foundation and concealer.
As if they are not the same thing. They are the same thing, okay? I don't care what people say.
"Hey, it's okay," Kei says, smiling. "It was good, some mistakes but I was all good."
"Good?" I ask, crossing my arms. "We need the videos so that we can work more when preparing for nationals."
"Of course." Kei also crosses his arms. "And we need to decide the routines, like on Monday. You know that, right?"
"Yup. Julio needs our input this time, he said it."
"Aw, look at you both!" Juliet coos, smiling. "We are here in a tense situation with the bitch's team glaring at us and you are discussing our next dance..."
"What Julie means is focus on the present," Justin says, kissing her forehead. "But she ain't wrong about the bitch part."
I turn my head to look at the blonde fake beauty and her set of servile, glaring at us. Josephine Lance is one of the best dancers I have ever seen, not that I am going to say it to her face. As a dancer, I have great respect for her but, personally, I really hate â no, despise her. She just never knows when to stop her ill practices for winning and damn, the fake sweetness that she owns wraps people around her.
"I hope she doesn't attempt to sabotage the scores otherwise I will cut off those big boâ"
"Kei," Justin, Juliet, and I say, together.
"What? Remember in regionals she made Iris and me fall in those long staircases?" Keisuke looks at us, incredulously.
"Kei, we are not like her and we are never going to be. Also, remember that she did get disqualified after the video was seen." Justin says, keeping a firm hand on his shoulder.
"Right but really I am serious."
I shake my head, saying, "I am gonna change."
"Come back soon for the result, okay?" Keisuke tells me as I back away from them.
"Sure."
***
"Get Wasted Tonight!" Caleb, Tom, and Adi yell, loudly, as we enter the house.
"Stop yelling!" Alyssa says, getting into the kitchen.
Michael yells out, from the living room, "Hypocrite!"
"Shut up!" She yells back.
Nick sighs and says, "They are fighting so much nowadays that I think they will get sued for noise pollution."
"That's true," Daisy says, looking at them.
I go and hug Yeti, who, because of the 'no pets' rules, wasn't allowed to come. Yeti starts to lick my medal (yes, they gave out medals) slung around my neck. I smile at him but then, his attention shifts to Noah as he enters the living room.
Noah looks at me, first, before his attention shifts to Yeti licking him. In just that brief eye contact, I know he is concerned about me but I am fine.
"Hey." Daisy bumps her shoulder with mine as I am about to climb the stairs to go to my room. "It is okay that you didn't win."
"Ya, I know, Daisy," I say, smiling. "Not every time we are gonna winâI know that."
Yes, that's true. Our team didn't win this time but we were the first runners-up. Another team from the neighboring town won the competition and they were goodâreally good. They deserved it.
"Competitions are about growing and learning. Sometimes we have to lose to know the importanceâokay, I am stopping by that glare of yours."
"I am not glaring, just telling you to stop." I tell her, "I will be in my room."
"Come fast," Victoria says, smiling at me. "We are going to play never have I ever."
I reply, smiling, "Sure will." Before turning back, I look at Colt as he asks me if I am okay, wordlessly. I mouth, "I am okay."
"I don't believe that shit," He mouths back and I stick out my tongue towards him before I run upstairs.
After having a good hot shower, I am changing into my oversized shirt and shorts just when Dad calls me.
"Lemme guess Daisy told you," I say to him, lying upon my bed, as I change the audio call to a video one. "I am face-timing you and isn't it like your nap time?" I ask him.
He laughs, keeping the phone steady. He sits on a chair with his mug of black coffee in his hand. He replies, "Yes, and no."
I ask, "No because of Aunt Gaby?"
"Ding. Ding. You got that right." He continues, "Apparently, that makes me lazy."
"Dad," I say, giving him a dry look. "You are a lazy person."
"I am blaming that on my genes," He defends himself. I laugh but stop when I see him looking at me as if waiting for something.
"What?"
"What what?"
"Dad, I am okay."
"Yeah," He says, sipping from his mug. "I know."
"So why call now, instead of calling at night?"
Dad smirks, looking at me. "Just checking that you haven't burned down the house or anything. Or, that no fornication is happening under my roof."
I roll my eyes. "You shouldn't have been a cardiologist. You should be an ob-gyn."
"Your mother said the same thing but, let's just admit it, I know hearts better," Dad says, shrugging.
"You aren't some love guru, Dad."
"But I will be a great one if I choose to be."
"Where's Mom?" I ask him, tired of this.
"Ah, probably, downstairs with Gaby and Tamara. Those women have no sleep in their eyes. They have been going on and on and on..." He pauses and looks at us like just realized something. "All my life, till now, I have been surrounded by women. It is a blessing... and a curse."
"If you got it, gotta flaunt it," I say, sarcastically. "So, are you going to talk about the elephant in the room?"
"You said you are okay," He says and shrugs his shoulder. "And I believe you."
"Seriously?" I look at him, surprised. "No philosophical things to tell me?"
"Do you want one?" He asks back. "I caâ"
"No, no, no." I stop him and he grins. "What?"
"Just remember that sometimes not winning is okay and you have to concentrate on nationals, remember?"
"Yes, I know, Dad but thanks, anyway."
Suddenly, we hear a small groan. "Uncle Sty!"
Dad turns towards the voice, wide-eyed. "Well, dang."
I start laughing as Dad groans as our six-year-old cousin jumps over on Dad to look at me.
Obviously, she doesn't look like any one of us as she has dark brown skin with brown curly hair and dark brown eyes but personality-wise? I think she is more like me when I was six, except she loves cricket too, just like her mothers. She's a math genius, secretly. She is wearing Liverpool Jersey over her shorts and her hair falling above her shoulders.
"What is dang?" She asks us, confused.
"It is an expression," I explain, controlling my amusement.
"I have heard a lot of 'expressions' since your parents have come here," She replies, rolling her eyes. "No offense, Unk."
Yes, she's our six-year-old sister.
"None was taken, bud." Dad chuckles and ruffles up her hair.
"Unk! Seriously, if you keep doing that, that day is not far away when I see your hand tangled up in my hair," She tells him, very sincerely, and Dad smirks.
"Damn, Alex, I taught you good. Now, would you get off me?"
"Yeah, just a minute. Goodness, what happened to you?" She says, looking at me.
"What would happen?" I say to her. "So, how are soccer practices?"
"Football practices, yeah." Her expression changes a bit. "I hate boys, literally," She tells me.
"Looking at your parents, why wouldn't you?" Dad mumbles.
"Unk, I can hear you and I don't mean it that way," Alex tells him.
"Are you actually a six-year-old?" Dad asks her, amused.
"You are a doctor. You tell me. Any-hoo..." I give her a look. "You are not the only one who says it so chill. Back to the topic, there is this guy and I swear if he doesn't stop being so cocky, I am going to kill him, then resurrect him to life and again kill him."
"I feel you, sister. Sometimes, they are just..."
"Wankers? Twat? Nincompoop? Vexatious?" She suggests, raising an eyebrow.
"Vexatious? Where did you learn that?" Dad asks her just when I hear a knock on my door.
Dad hears it too and tells me, "We will talk later, okay?"
Alex grins and waves. "Bye, Iris!"
"Bye," I say, ending the call and getting up to open the door. "Daisy, I am okay. I just need some alone tiâoh it's you."
"Alone time for what?" Caleb asks, entering my room. "Ugh, clean your room."
I say, leaning on the door, "My room is at least better than yours! Your room has a box of condoms lying around!"
Obviously, it still lies there.
"That was one time," Caleb defends.
"I don't know how Aunt Stevie and Uncle Damon haven't seen that..."
"Dad gave me that, remember, only because Uncle Steve stated how teenage pregnancies have escalated after I came home at 3 am, just the previous day. So, Dad thought what better idea than to gift my son a box of condoms on his eighteenth birthday."
"Well, he was right to do that... Otherwise, I would have been seeing little Calebs calling me Aunt Iris," I say, laughing.
He gives me a look as he throws my pillow at me. I laugh, before throwing back the pillow on my bed.
"So...you are coming downstairs, right?" He claps his hands and gets up, looking around my room.
"Yeah," I say, narrowing my eyes. "What do you want?" He murmurs something in reply but I can't hear it. "What?"
He looks back at me and grins. "Nothing just wanted toâ" Quickly, he moves forward and, before I know it, he picks me up. "âget you to the party going on."
"I hate you so much! Put meâare you like that high? The view up here is so different." I look down and it is actually so different but then I remember. "Put me down, Caleb Humphrey!"
He laughs and says, "Even my middle name can't do it until we reach the living room!"
***
"How much time do you guys need?" I say loudly as Yeti sits, straight, just beside me.
Victoria laughs and says, "You are really excited, Iris."
"Iris is always excited about going out on any trip," Alyssa says and, now, gives me a sly look. "But I think she just wants to see someone's bod on the beach."
Everyone got bored playing Never Have I Ever when Caleb got me downstairsâI am definitely sure I am not the reason for this. So, all of us decided to go to the beach.
We are standing in the hallway, in front of the stairs, waiting for others to get ready fast. Nick and Michael will meet us at the beach while the rest of us will go from here.
"Uh no," I say, flustered. "I do not want to see Noah half-naked."
"She didn't say anyone's name," Victoria points out and they grin.
Of course, she didn't.
"Well, I don't want to see anyone half-naked." I look away. "Ugh, why would I?" I murmur just when the door opens, revealing Adi and Noah.
"Ah, talk about the devil, he is here," Alyssa mumbles. Victoria and she share a laugh while I just roll my eyes.
Adi grins, looking at me, before bending down to pet Yeti, while Noah is talking on the phone, very seriously, as he runs his fingers through his hair.
I take this time to look at him. He has worn a white beater and black skateboard shorts. The only thing that hasn't changed is his converse shoes.
Suddenly, he looks at me and pauses his movements as he, shamelessly, looks at me, from head to toe. I have changed my shorts to denim knee-length jeans and I am wearing black running shoes.
Finally, he reaches my eyes while hums to whoever is on the other side of the call, and in a second, I see he ends it, moving towards me.
Look the hell away. What are you doing?
Blinking my eyes away from him, I turn to Alyssa and Adi's discussion.
Alyssa says, "You, guys, said you will be back in fifteen minutes. It is twenty minutes, now!"
He gapes at her, mockingly. "I needed to look good, Ginger, for the women out there on the beach and on the way, there!"
"I think he means he needed to protect his skin because he blabbered about how sensitive his skin is and was putting sunscreen all the way here," Noah says, standing just beside me.
"Really?" I ask Noah and he nods.
Adi defends himself, "Yeah, says the guy who was constantlyâ"
"Food's ready?" Daisy asks us as she comes towards us and again, the door opens. Every one of us looks back at Percy as he comes with huge bags of food.
I look at Daisy, for a second, catching the smile breaking out on her face. "Thank you for getting the food," she says to him.
Percy gives her a dry look. "Anna, you forced me to."
"You are a lazy nerd, Percy. Of course, I had to force it out of you. Now, where are thâ"
Suddenly, a sound makes our heads turn towards the stairs as Caleb groans out, falling from the last step of the stairs. Then, I hear Tom and Colt's laughter.
"Man, I should have recorded that," Tom says, sliding on the handrail. Laughing, Colt and Tom pick my brother up as he groans again.
He rolls his eyes. "You, guys, are bastards."
"Cal, you fine?" I ask him and he sighs, nodding.
"Yeah, and anyway, I fell from the fourth. So, itâ"
"Can we, now, go to the beach?" I say, excitedly, and everyone laughs except Caleb who glares at me.
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- a u t h o r ' s n o t e -
yay, the next chapter has been posted as promised! ;)
Bonus (for the pic above):
Iris: *going through her closet for an outfit and picks up an old hoodie* aw, i love this hoodieâtoo bad that it doesn't fit me any... *looks at Yeti, sitting on the bay window*
Yeti:
Iris:
Yeti:
Iris: i wAnNa mAkE yOu wEaR iT