Parker fails a class and is forced to take a summer Shakespeare workshop. He's assigned Lexi, a fiery redhead, to get him up to speed on all things Shakespeare.
Between co-directing, her part-time job, and staying in shape for the track team, Lexi...
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The party was in full swing by the time I pulled up to the small house. Maddox greeted me at the door and gestured to some stairs off to the side that led to a basement.
A variety of sodas were in a cooler at the door beside a table of various bags of chips and the type of store-bought cupcakes where the icing stained your teeth.
"Crazy Train" was blaring through a portable speaker behind Lucas and Chase as they were playing Super Smash Bros. It looked like Lucas playing Kirby was destroying Chase as Link.
Emma Kate sat beside Bradley on the couch, watching the boys duke it out. She leaned against his arm and sipped on a can of lemonade.
"Parker," Bradley said. "Join us."
I took an empty seat near the foot of the long curving couch. Chase cursed as Lucas made another perfectly timed attack against his character. The English major just sat silently pushing buttons as he crushed Chase again.
"Wanna play a round?" Chase asked. "Lucas is killing me here. His fifth win of the night."
"I'm not good at Smash," I admitted.
"I'll take a turn," Emma Kate said. "Let me all kick your butts as Princess Peach."
"Awe," Bradley said. "But I don't think you can beat Lucas, sweetie."
Emma Kate pushed out her lip in a pout. "It's annoying when you're right."
Riley walked into the room, followed by Maddox. He held a stack of party games from Monopoly to some game I'd never heard of called Poetry for Neanderthals.
"Who's winning?" Riley asked.
"Lucas," Emma Kate, and Bradley said at the same time.
It was strange to see how in sync they were. Bradley seemed perfectly content to have his arm around his girlfriend. I didn't know for sure how long they'd been together, but from their ease with one another, I had to guess the relationship wasn't exactly new.
"I'll add in on the next round to give you a fighting chance against Lucas," Maddox winked at Chase. "Bradley, I hope you didn't have anything special saved in the kitchen. After Raisa scoffed at our chip table and store-bought trash, her words not mine, she said she would whip up something in the kitchen. I left Cynthia to supervise and hope she doesn't burn down the place."
"I think there's some pizza dough I had plans for, but honestly, I need to make a grocery run tomorrow," Bradley said.
"Such a preppy princess," Chase rolled his eyes. "Did you hear her mom called three of the theater companies that didn't accept her as an intern this summer?"
"She's only finished freshman year," Emma Kate said. "She has plenty of time. Besides, if it was anything about her audition on Wednesday..."
"You said you weren't supposed to talk about the auditions until the cast list was posted at midnight," Bradley said.
