Trouble In Paradise

5.Food comes first. Always.

"You are insane. My answer is a big, fat no!"

"You're being overdramatic."

"No, I'm being perfectly reasonable. I'm not going back to that place anytime soon. "

"Oh, come on. We'll be missing out on so much of free food. Free food, Rhea!"

"Of course, you care about free food more than your life! Why am I not surprised? "

"Firstly, food comes first. Always. And secondly, you've known me for almost seven years now, so I think it's pretty nice and disappointing that I don't surprise you anymore."

"Aria, my final answer is no. And anyways I have cheer practic- stop rolling your eyes at me!"

"Fineee. I'll pretend you have cheer practice this weekend. Don't come to Mad Batter for the free food the owner offered us. Your loss."

"Seriously, you are the reason I am in detention right now. "

"Hey! You voluntarily joined the food fight. Mae's here too, you don't see her complaining. "

At this, Mae looked up at us, dragging her head up from its position on her arms on the desk we were sitting at. She gave us a lazy smile and a thumbs up and went back to sleep.

"Well, the food fight is on you, though, " Rhea said, getting back to the football banner we were supposed to be painting for detention, instead of sleeping like a certain someone.

I huffed and rolled my eyes at her, again. The food fight was so not my fault.

Flashback

We were all sitting and talking amongst each other. Everyone was peacefully eating their lunch. Not.

From the minute he had sat down, Ethan had made it his mission to eat everyone else's food except for his own because he had finished eating his lunch in the second period. Well, our group welcomed another food-stealer with open arms. Kidding. Having tolerated my food-stealing for the last God-knows-how-many years, Mae and Rhea were not thrilled to meet a brother from another mother of mine. Mason was too sweet to say anything.

So, we were just talking about how yesterday the cops had taken our statements when I looked at Torryn who was once again only talking when spoken to.

"You don't like talking much, do you?, " I asked him out of curiosity.

"Socializing sucks," he shrugged.

I raised my eyebrows at this and asked him, barely containing my smile, "Did you not want to sit with us?"

"No! I didn't mean it like that!", he hurried to explain himself and this amused me to no end, "I was just saying that I didn't- I didn't mean to offend you- I just meant that- oh God yes! I don't like talking much, " he said finally, furrowing his eyebrows and his ears had gone slightly pink (which, for some reason, I found endearing).
He was looking at me again with that peculiar expression of his, as if he was trying to figure me out or as if he could not believe that I had made him talk as much as I had. I raised an eyebrow at him and then turned around to talk to Mae and ignored him because that's how I deal with things that are complicated in life.

Then out of nowhere a bunch of spaghetti hit me on the head. I got up, fuming (because I really had had enough of this annoying day now!) and turned around to look at the culprit. The cafeteria was completely silent now.

And to think I was pissed off before!

The culprit was, of course, Tracy.

Well, it was a sad day in Paradise 12 years ago when little Aria and little Tracy had met in preschool. It was the first day of school and Tracy was sitting on the desk in front of me and Mae, who was, even then, my best friend. Tracy started crying for her mommy and then looked at me, who was silently eating her chocolate. Little Tracy's eyes went wide with happiness. She demanded, at once, like the brat she was," I want chocolate. Gimme! "
Me being the possessive bitch I was even then, I obviously refused. This made her angry and she got up from her desk and pushed my shoulder. But that didn't phase me since, even if just a little bit, I was stronger than her. I just frowned and pushed her shoulder, which made her fall to the ground and cry more.

From that day on, we never saw eye to eye.

Coming back to the present, Tracy simply looked at me with a faux surprised expression and I tried to calm myself down, knowing that she just wanted to get a reaction out of me and I wasn't going to give her that.

She gasped and looked at me.
"Oh God, Aria, sorry.."
And then the devil's child smirked, "...not sorry"

On second thoughts... I looked at our lunch table and ah, the coincidence! Mae had spaghetti, too! I looked at the devil's child and smiled sweetly. This action of mine erased the grin right off her stupid face. I picked up some of Mae's spaghetti and off went the spaghetti to hit Tracy smack dab in the face. There was a collective 'ooh' from our peers and an ugly shriek from the devil's child.

At this, Ethan got up from his seat and yelled, "Food fight! "

Everyone obeyed his words like he was God Himself. The chaos in the next fifteen minutes only stopped when the Principal, Mr Brown walked in only to get smacked with a slice of pizza in the face. By the way Ethan's hands were smeared with all the pizza sauce and the shit-eating grin on his face, I could only assume that he was to blame for our Principal's now pizza-filled face. The silence in the cafeteria earlier was nothing compared to its silence now. I'm pretty sure you could hear a pin drop. The murderous expression from Mr Brown's face didn't leave when he yelled, "Detention! "

Flashback over!

And that's how everyone who was present in the cafeteria during the food fight earned themselves detention for an entire week.

"Hey, if anything the food fight was either the devil's child or his fault, " I pointed at Ethan who was sitting behind me.

At this, he adorned the most innocent expression ever and said in the most dramatic way ever, "I would never!", earning a snort from Torryn, who was sitting beside him painting a different banner.

Owen, who was sitting on the desk next to them with Matt, turned towards Ethan and said with the air of a wise hermit, "Tsk tsk, Ethan, lying is a sin."

Though it was hard to miss the mischief in his eyes.

I laughed at them and asked, "So, are you guys going to Mad Batter this Saturday?"

They all looked at each other and shrugged. Torryn looked at me with his usual blank stare and asked, "Are you going, Miller? "

I nodded. "Mae is coming, too. Mason isn't sure yet. And Rhea's being a sissy, " I said, earning a smack on my arm from Rhea, who glared at me.

"I told you, I have cheer practise on Saturday! The captain can't be absent and expect others to be there, you know?"

Yes. She was also the cheer captain. Talk about love for responsibility. I would never be the head of the student council or anything else only because of one thing; my fear of responsibility. It wasn't all that bad but also not good enough for me to go ask for responsibility.

Coming back to the present, I looked at Ethan, Matt, Owen and Torryn expectantly. Torryn looked at me, and shrugged, "I'm in."

At this, Matt, Owen and Ethan had an almost surprised expression on their face. That didn't last for long and I thought that maybe I had imagined it. They all answered in affirmative and then continued on with their work.

Though, Ethan looked between Torryn and me one last time before getting back to painting his side of the banner. And I don't know if I liked the gleam in his eyes.

×-×-×-×-×

Hello, teddy bears!
I am back and I am worried. My exams start this Saturday and I'm not done studying. Oh, well.
Anyways, tell me what you think about this chapter!
Silent readers, I see you!
Just kidding. I can't see you.
But seriously, please comment.
Also, can someone please tell me when the American school year starts?

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