Blaze's POV:

The moment the bell rang signaling the day was over, I rushed out of class eager to get home and sleep. However, my plans were ruined when I bumped into Parker. "Excuse me," I mumbled stepping to the side to continue on my way.

"Woah, where are you rushing off too?" He asked.

"Trying to avoid your dumbass. I am tired and want to go home." He scoffed and stepped to the side so I could walk away. "What a gentleman," I said sarcastically looking back at him.

I imagine myself like one of those girls in movies when they tell off the mean guy and walk away like a boss, but my fantasy was cut short by my shoelaces. They were untied so I tripped over them.

There was nothing I could do to save myself, so I just braced myself for the fall. It wasn't as bad as I expected, but it still hurt like a bitch. Parker, being the gentleman he is, didn't help me up but instead laughed at me.

I sent him the meanest look I could muster, and finally walked away.

When I got home from school, I sunk down on the couch and got ready to take a nap. Today was exhausting and weird to say the least. My body was burnt out.

Everything was going fine until I got to history when we had to do that worksheet and I had to help Parker, even though he's supposed to be smart.

Then, he started asking me all these weird questions about having a boyfriend or what I look for in a guy. Out of everyone, I would've thought he would be the one to know better than anyone that I don't have a boyfriend and that my type of guy is a guy like Scottie (except for maybe Sophia and Stephen). That's literally the only reason we talk outside of school anyways, well besides our project.

I elected to ignore him though, because he was just asking for Scottie. It's the only acceptable excuse.

I ended up sleeping through dinner and woke up at 9, oops. When I went downstairs to grab some dinner, I saw my parents watching a movie in the living room. "How come you didn't wake me up for dinner?" I asked.

I was starving right now. My stomach was grumbling so loud, they could hear it all the way across the world. Grabbing a bag of chips, I walked back over to them. "Well you were sleeping and after we got home from work and we were so exhausted that we decided we needed some alone time, and since you were already asleep it was perfect," my mother explained, looking at my dad and winking

"Alone time? What could you have- OH! EW, gross! You did that while I was sleeping two doors away? That's disgusting!" I exclaimed and ran upstairs. I did not need that image in my head. I kid you not, I felt a little puke make its way up my throat.

Thinking about my parent's kissing made me want to gag, but hearing about it is even worse. Shuddering, I climbed back in my bed and munched on the chips.

When they were finished, I threw the bag on the floor and scrolled through Instagram. I was still hungry, but there was no way in hell I was going back down there while my parents were there. Who knows what I would walk in on.

---

The next 2 days were very nerve wracking for two reasons. One, the Halloween Festival was this Saturday, and two, next week a recruiter from my top college, UCLA, was coming to watch me play in a practice match.

It was currently Friday and I was tapping my leg nervously as I waited for Scottie to respond to me. I had told him that I wanted to meet in front of the gates of the festival tomorrow around 2. It's been 5 minutes already and I was getting impatient.

Finally after what seemed like a million lifetimes, he replied.

Scottie: That sounds fine, but can we meet around 3 instead of 2? I have stuff to do before.

Me: Okay!

My phone buzzed with what I hope was another text from Scottie, but it was my mother calling me.

Me: Well, my mom's calling me but I'll see you tomorrow.

Scottie: Bye.

I didn't have time to respond, because I had to answer my mom's call. "Hello?"

"Blaze, hi. I was just calling to inform you that your father and I are going away on a trip for the weekend. We will be back Sunday afternoon. I left you some money. Have fun at the festival tomorrow."

"What? Wait, mom. Where are you guys going? Hello?" It was too late, she hung up on me. Great, now I'm going to be home alone for a couple days. They did this a lot, my mom would get a call about work or something and she would bring my dad with on a spontaneous vacation, and so they could get some alone time.

I know, my most kids my age are ecstatic when they find out they will be by themselves for an entire weekend, but not me.

Ever since I watched Home Alone when I was little, I've been afraid of staying by myself. Those guys that tried to rob Kevin's house always freaked me out. Normally, I would spend the night at Sophia or Stephen's, but this was sprung on me after they already left, and I'm sure they both have plans already.

Taking a chance I called Sophia and Stephen but like I suspected neither of them answered their phones. I debated on calling Arabella since she was my closest girl friend besides Sophia, but I decided against it.

She was probably at some football players party. They threw them every weekend, but I never bothered to learn who threw them, because I didn't care. I only knew she went because she's invited me to a couple before, but I've always declined.

Instead, I chose a riskier option. I called Scottie, but that didn't work out either. At least he actually answered his phone, but turns out he had something really important to do tonight that he couldn't skip out on. But he did promise to send one of his friends over and I trust his friends (which is the only reason I agreed).

I wonder what the important thing he had to do tonight was. I walked into the kitchen and grabbed one of the knives and sat on the couch.

What? If someone tries to break in while I wait for Scottie's friend I have to be prepared. Plus, it was dark and you never know what sort of creatures lurk in the dark.

I was staring at the front door, waiting for someone to knock. Almost on will, someone knocked before opening the door. Since it was dark out, I couldn't quite make out who it was.

Slowly, I crept up on them, knife ready by my side. The figure was tall and strong, but moved slowly. Maybe I have a chance to out run them. They whipped their head over to me and I froze.

Their hands felt along the wall, looking for something. I crept closer and closer until the lights came on. "What the fuck?" someone shouted. Opening my eyes, I saw Parker's hand stopping me from ramming a knife into his chest.

"Parker? What the hell are you doing here?"

"Why are you sitting in the dark, alone, with a knife?"

"I already asked you a question." He had no reason to be here right now. "First put the knife down, I'm not going to hurt you." Reluctantly, I lowered my hand and set the knife down. "Don't think I won't choke you if you do something to me."

"Trust me, I wouldn't want to. Anyways, Scottie sent me over here to keep you company since he couldn't."

"Why you?" I asked. "Probably because I was with him when you called. Now answer my question."

I really didn't want to explain this to him. He'll make fun of me for being scared of a children's movie. "Do I have too?" I pleaded. "Considering you almost killed me, yes you do."

"If you must know, I wanted to protect myself in case someone tried to break in."

"Then why were the lights off? If anything, that would make someone more likely to break in, because they'll think no one was home."

"Well- I hadn't actually thought about that. Oh well, you're here now. At least I have someone to protect me." Realizing what I said, my eyes widen. "Shit! I did not mean it like that. I just meant because I'm small and don't know how to fight."

"It's fine Blaze, I know what you meant."

"Good, because I will never see you like that," I replied.

"Trust me I know," he said.

I know I normally deny it when people call me crazy, but right now I'm not denying it. I must be going crazy, because that's the only explanation for the look I saw on his face when I said that. It's making my vision get all wonky. I should really go get checked out, this could turn into a serious problem.

"Why are you even scared to be here alone anyways. Most kids at our age would jump at the chance for their parents to be gone. Hell, I would if it didn't mean I would get stuck with babysitting all my siblings."

"Nope, I'm not telling you." I tried to think of a diversion. "I think I smell something burning in the kitchen, I better go check on it."

My getaway was cut short by Parker grabbing my arm and pulling me back, right into his chest. "Oh come on, just tell me. I swear I won't tell anyone, I promise."

That made me laugh. "Please, your promises mean nothing. Remember what happened the last time I made the mistake of telling you something?" "Come on, we were six when that happened. How was I supposed to know you didn't want anyone knowing that you thought worms were scary?" he exclaimed.

"I told you not to tell anyone. The next day the kids kept shoving worms in my face. It was very traumatizing."

"I swear to god I won't tell anyone this time. If I do, I give permission for you to punch me."

"Really?" this got me to perk up. Something must've changed between the beginning of the year and now, because the old Parker would never do something like this. I like this new Parker. "Fine, but I'm warning you I punch hard."

"I remember," he chuckled.

"I watched Home Alone by myself when I was little and the robbers scared me, and ever since then I've been paranoid something like that will happen to me."

I saw that corner of Parker's mouth turn upwards. "Parker Knight, if you laugh I will tell the whole school you have herpes and that you got it from Apple."

He visibly paled a few shades. He gulped, blinked a few times and said "I wasn't going to laugh." Yeah, like I was going to believe that. He was clearly trying his hardest not to. "That's... all?" he asked.

Not laughing my ass.

I rolled my eyes and walked away, fighting the smile that wanted to appear on my face. "Hey where are you going?" he yelled after me. "Away from you!" I shouted back. Since it was nice out, I decided to hang out outside for a little bit. Parker trailed behind me, being as annoying as ever.

"What do you want to do tonight?"

"I don't know. I wasn't really planning on doing anything tonight." I thought about how boring that sounded. Most of my friends were probably out partying or having fun with their other friends, I was kind of an odd ball out.

"That's so boring!" Parker exclaimed. "Why don't we go to a party or something? We need to get you out of this house."

"Parties aren't my favorite thing to do, they're too noisy. I would rather do something else, something more quiet and with my friends."

"Well how about we watch a movie or something? We could also go swimming, I mean you do have a pool."

"I guess swimming wouldn't be so bad, and maybe after that we can do something else like a game or movie night."

"That's fine with me," Parker said, jumping off the chair he was sitting in. "Do you have anything I can wear? I'm not exactly prepared to go swimming."

I led him upstairs to my dads room where he kept his swim trunks. They might be a little too small, but they were doable. Once I handed him the trunks, I headed into my room to get changed. Since this was Parker and I didn't want him to see anything he wasn't supposed to see, I grabbed a plain blue one piece and threw it on.

I know he's already seen me in a bikini, but that was different. We were surrounded by other people, but it's only me and him now. Who knows what he'll do.

Parker was already in the pool swimming around by the time I got back down there. Running towards the pool, I did a canon ball in and held my breath underwater to get used to the temperature.

That's the only way to do it. Getting in slowly will make it worse. Since it was fall, the water was pretty cool but likely I got warmed up real quick.

When I couldn't hold my breath any longer, I finally came up for air. "That was quite an entrance wasn't it?" Parker remarked. "Is there any other way to get in?" I joked.

"True."

We swam around for a little bit to get used to the water and to warm up. Parker was at one end of the pool and I was at the other. This was the perfect time to ambush him.

While his back was turned, I dove under and started swimming towards him. I have no idea what he was doing, but he clearly wasn't paying attention to the water. I swam along the bottom of the pool in order to evade detection.

I was now only a foot away from him, and he still hadn't noticed me. Without warning, I grabbed one of his ankles and pulled as hard as I could.

It took a lot of effort considering Parker was 180 pounds of pure muscle, but I managed to pull him under and take him completely by surprise. His scream was muffled by the water.

Once he was under, I made sure to swim a couple feet away so he couldn't pull something on me.

I was laughing my ass of when he came up for air. "That... was so good!" I exclaimed. "Fine, I will accept defeat this one time if you do something for me."

"Like what?" I snorted.

"Play Marco Polo with me and you'll find out. If I win, you have to do something for me, and if you win then I have to do something for you, that way it's fair."

I smirked at him. Oh man, this dude has no idea what he just got himself into. I am the queen of Marco Polo. There's no way in hell I am losing to him.

"Game on," I said.

-----

So, I totally meant for this chapter to be about the Halloween Festival, but then I was writing and got carried away and it ended up like this. But, I'm not mad because this chapter still turned out pretty fun and interesting.

What do you guys think will happen when they go to the festival? 

Don't forget to vote and comment!