Hold On Forever (A sequel)

the surprise

40 votes = chapter on friday

(I know we can do it! xx -e)

We're still sitting on the bleachers, it's toward the end of the baseball game, Caleb's team is winning by a lot. But in the middle of the game Katie got a call from Mum and talked with her for a very long time, then came back all smiley. She refuses to say anything to me, even when I beg her to tell me her mouth stays shut. Meanwhile I can't stop thinking about what happened with Kenzie. I feel so awful that Connor was pressuring her into sending nude pictures, but at the same time I can't help feeling slightly angry at myself for being so nice to her. Kenzie was really awful to me during my time at Carter. Not to mention she freaking pushed me down the stairs and putting me in a three day coma. She apologised, but I simply don't think I could ever be friends with her, and I honestly can't believe I just helped her. I guess she just really looked like she could use some of my help... So I gave her a hand. I want to push it out of my mind... and I don't think Caleb needs to know about this. Sure, he saw me walking with her for a few seconds, if he asks I'll tell him, but I don't think he'd like me associating with her.

When the game I tell Caleb as we're walking to the car and the entire ride home We're pleading her to let us in on her little secret.

"PLEASEEE tell us Katie?!" I ask as we pull onto our street.

"Yeah, pleaaase?" Caleb begs. I look back to Hayley, but she's asleep. It's 8:00, and Caleb's coming over for dinner.

"Why don't you go ask Laura?" Asks Katie as she pulls into my driveway. "Have a nice dinner!"

"Thank you Katie, love you!" I say as I get out of the car.

"Love you Mom," says Caleb.

"Love you guys! See you tommorow morning, Ebby!" I smile and wave as we get out of the car and head up to the house. I swing the front door open and Caleb and I basically throw our shoes off and run to the kitchen. Mum's sitting on a stool by the stove, drinking a smoothie. Caleb and I sit in stools across from her, looking at her expectantly. There's a sly smile spread across her face, I can tell she knows something we don't.

"Hey Mum," I say, trying to look casual.

"Hey Laura," says Caleb.

"Hey Caleb and Ebony," says Mum.

"So..." Caleb says.

"So..." Mum says.

"Oh c'mon! Just tell us!" I say.

"Alright, alright," Mum says. "Well, I have some bad news." My stomach drops, I thought this was meant to be good news! "I seem to have made an error in the planning of our trip to England. It turns out I'm needed for backup in a really advanced surgery at the hospital on one of the days we're there. And as you know, your father has important photo shoots he needs to photograph for magazine covers." I nod, "so naturally," she says, "I was going to cancel the tickets we've already bought. But when I was looking at our schedule I found the only other time that will work for us between mine and your dad's work and Joey's games is on Joey's Christmas Holiday. And when I told him he was so sad, and I tried to think of alternative ways he could go... So I thought why don't Joey and Ebby go together! Then I realized you would be terrified to travel alone, so I called Katie and.... YOU TWO ARE GOING TO ENGLAND TOGETHER!"

"Oh my gosh! Thank you so, so much Laura!" Says Caleb, he throws his arms around me.

"Wow! Thank you Mum! I'm so happy I'll get to actually have a friend in England!" I say, smiling at Caleb.

"I thought you'd be happy..." Mum says. "And even better, Zoey said she's excited to meet Caleb!" My stomach drops at the thought of even being on the same continent as Zoey, but I can't accept the fact I'll be in the same house as her, in only a week and a half. I force a smile and Caleb and I join Joey, who's playing Wii in the basement.

I've basically given up on Wii. Caleb and Joey are both so much better than me at every single game. Except Just Dance. I can beat both of them at Just Dance. Right now they're playing some car game that I don't care about, so most days like this result in me having very long Snapchat stories of them playing the game, and sometimes I Snap fans. Today I open a few Snaps and reply to them. I get an immediate Snap back from allie.k81. She's really cute, and we have a short conversation. I begin having a conversation with a girl named Katelyn who has long brown hair. So far we've only said hello when she sends me a Snap saying "do you live in Maryland?" My stomach drops. How does she know that? I ignore it. A few minutes later I get another Snap from her, "do you live on-" and she states the exact address that the LeBlancs live at. How the hell did she know that? I begin to feel shaky. There's a Snap directly after that one, "I'm going to come to your house and sneak into your room." It reads, my stomach drops.

"Caleb," I say frantically. His eyes widen, Joey pauses the game and he comes over and sits beside me.

"This girl knows your address," I say, showing Caleb the my phone. Joey runs over to the couch and sits on the arm of it, peering down at my phone. Caleb looks at the user name and laughs.

"What?" I ask, "it's not funny! They said your exact address!"

"I know her! Her name's Katelyn, don't worry she's been to our house before. She's just messing with you!" He says assuringly.

I narrow my eyes at him, "you know her?"

"Yes, she's on TPD."

"T-P-D?"

"TruthPlusDare, the collab channel Dad runs."

"How do I not know about her?" I ask.

"We aren't that close of friends, she comes to visit every once in awhile... She's nineteen. She goes to some musical arts college up north. She was one of the first fans of Bratayley and we basically met her at a meet & greet then never lost touch." He explains.

"Oh..." I say.

"Don't worry, she's not dangerous." He says with a laugh. I nod and he continues to play the game. I don't know how I feel about Katelyn. I don't think she's very nice, to play scary tricks on me like that. If Caleb hadn't told me it was a joke, I would have flipped out. Honestly she seems mean. I also don't completely understand the concept of a Collab channel. I grab my laptop from a table close to me and google TruthPlusDare. It comes right up. I click on it and scroll through. It's Thursday and the most recent video is from a girl with brown hair... elizagrxce?... The video before her is Brennan and Ryan, then Brody, then some girl named Bethany, then I see Katelyn, some girl named REanthem, and Graham who I met at VidCon. When I scroll all the way down I see old videos of Caleb and watch a few. When Caleb sees what I'm doing he screams "NO!" Laughing, and grabs my laptop.

"So you're basically friends with everybody on here?" I ask.

"Yes, but not really REanthem, and Bethany came to our house once but Annie thinks she's really annoying so that didn't happen again..." He laughs and so do I. He shows me the other collab channel, OMMyGoshTV. There are another seven people on there and points out who his friends are. I begin watching a video from a girl called Leigh. Her hair is really pretty, it's long and the ends are completely dyed deep scarlet red. Her eyelashes are long and she has big eyes. Caleb leans in and smiles.

"I used to have a crush on her," whispers Caleb, pointing to the screen. I laugh.

"She's really pretty, I can see why." I say. He nods and slips an arm around my neck. Leigh is a year older than us and she does gymnastics like Annie and Hayley.

Once Caleb and Joey have finished playing Wii, we go upstairs. Caleb's sleeping over tonight and Mum has made a fancy looking chicken dish for us.

"Where's Dad?" I ask.

"He's working late, he just called," she says sadly, eyeing the plate of chicken on the counter, it was meant for Dad.

"Again?" I ask, she nods and frowns.

"But I've got my two other favorite men and my Ebby to keep me company, so it's fine." I can she she's forcing her smile, but I don't say anything.

"Love you Mum," I say, trying to lift her spirits.

"Love you too, sweetie," she says. And we sit down for dinner, chatting about England.