Lacuna(1)

Chapter 12

Since Pip and Evelyn's last encounter, Evelyn had tried to distance herself from Pip. Well, more the case. Due to Evelyn's lack of close friends, there was one thing Evelyn couldn't avoid: Lunch. She was always dragged back to the table by Cara, unaware of what Evelyn was trying to avoid. Who she was trying to avoid.

Another day of Cara dragging her around had ensued, her giving up and just going with Cara. Pip had also joined the table soon, being a little too friendly with Ant.

"Hey, guys," Ant said as he slid onto the bench across from Evelyn.

"How was practice?" Pip asked.

Ant having the same suspicion as Evelyn narrowed his eyes at Pip. "Fine..." he replied. "Why are you being nice to me? What do you want?"

"Nothing," Pip laughed. Why is everyone lying? Evelyn thought, joining Ant in the narrowing-eyes club.

"No," Zach butted in, "that's far too friendly for you. Something's up."

"Nothings up," Pip shrugged. "Only the national debt and global sea levels." Evelyn rolled her eyes, channeling all of her inner Max attitude.

"Probably hormones," Ant said.

Pip wound the invisible crank by her hand. jerkily raising her middle finger up at him. A zombie show discussion began. Out of her peripheral vision, Evelyn could see the supposed-to-be-hidden glare that Pip was sending her, showing her dissatisfaction in Evelyn's secret keeping.

"So, Ant," Pip tried again, "you know your friend George from soccer?"

"Yes, I know my friend George from soccer," he said. glancing over at Lauren for comical validation.

"He's in the crowd that still does calamity parties, right?"

Ant slowly nodded. "Yeah. Actually, I think the next part is at his house. His parents ate out of town for an anniversary or something."

"This Saturday?"

"Yeah."

"Do you..." Pip sat up. "Do you think you could get us all invited?" Who the hell is us?

A silence fell over the group as they took in what she had said. Knowing Pip's new discovery, it wasn't hard to connect the dots and find a valid reason as to why she wanted to go to this party.

"Who are you and what have you done with Pippa Fitz-Amobi?" Cara asked.

"What?" Pip replied defensively. "It's our last year at school, and I thought it would be nice for us all to go. This is the opportune time, before applications and homework deadlines creep up."

"That still sounds Pip-ish to me." Connor smiled.

"You want to go to a. house party?" Ant said pointedly.

"Yes," she said.

"Everyone will be smashed, people throwing up, passin four. A lot of mess on the floor," Ant said. "It's not really your scene, Pip."

"Sounds... fun. I want to go," Pip replied, the slightest bit of hesitation in her voice.

"Okay, fine." Ant clapped his hands together with a grin. "Let's do it."

"Funny how she thinks I have to be invited to one of these things," Evelyn scoffed, watching as Max rummaged through the kitchen cabinets for something to eat.

"Exactly! You don't have to get permission to go, you just walk in." Max shrugged.

"And, people invite me to them all the time. If I just walked in nobody would question it," Evelyn added, taking a sip of the lemonade in front of her.

"Yeah, you have a lot of friends so i'd assume that they'd invited you to things," Max assured Evelyn.

"I'm not so sure I'd say friends. More of acquaintances," Evelyn teased.

"Oh my God, stop," Max groaned, throwing his head back.

"Never!" Evelyn called as she sprinted up the stairs, an unexpected brother a few feet away from the top. "How did you get out of your crib?" She asked Eli as she scooped him up, walking over to his room to try and find the nine year-old suspect. Soon, said nine year old ran into the room, a bin of legos in his arms.

"Why did you take him out of his crib?" Evelyn asked, placing Eli on a nearby mat on the floor.

"I was playing with him!" James confirmed.

"He's, like, seven months old, what would you be playing?" Evelyn narrowed her eyes, adapting the mom voice she had developed from taking care of James so often.

"I was trying to get him to talk," James admitted, placing the bin on the ground.

"What were you trying to teach him?" Evelyn managed to narrow her eyes even more.

"You don't need to know..."

"Yes, I do."

"No."

"Whatever. Just don't leave him alone again. He almost fell down the stairs." Evelyn made her way out of the room, almost tripping over some toy that her father had probably left out while playing with Eli the last time he was in there.