-13-

"Okay," Anna said once she had me sitting in a circle with Presley, Kyle, and Patrick. "These are the rules of How Old Am I 2. The people need to guess how old you'll be in ten years. I'll go first. How old am I in ten years?"

I could see Kyle using his fingers to count before he said, "Seventeen."

"Yes!" Anna said.

"Why do you guys like this game so much?" Patrick moaned.

"Kyle's turn now," Anna said, ignoring Patrick.

"Okay. How old am I in ten years?"

Anna looked stumped. Patrick was the one to yell the answer. "Twenty-one!"

"I think you're right!" Anna said. "Now it's your turn!"

"No way. I'm not playing this stupid game." He stood up and walked out of the room, only to come back two seconds later. "Logan, my mom wants to see you."

Crap. Did I do something wrong? Did the old lady die from eating my ice cube?

"Oh, and Kyle and Presley are coming with me," Patrick said.

"Ugh! I want Evita and Utopia back!" Anna cried. "They loved this game!"

I stood up and met Martha in the kitchen.

"Ah, Logan," she said. "I need you to run to the store for some paper towels. People around here have been using them like crazy."

"All right." I grabbed the keys and headed outside.

As I got in the van and drove to the store, I wondered about Stacey. I hadn't seen her all morning. Where was she?

My face flushed with embarrassment every time I thought about kissing her cheek.

Get a grip, I told myself. It's not a big deal.

I had around seven minutes until I could get back on my phone.

I pulled up at the store a few minutes later and walked inside, trying to find the paper towels. I was passing the cereal when my phone dinged.

1 (815) 305-6335

I'd know that number anywhere. Stacey. I turned on my phone to see what she said.

Her: IS YOUR PHONE STILL DISABLED?

Me: Here I am.

Her: Thank goodness! WHERE ARE YOU?

Me: I'm at the store getting paper towels.

Her: What?! Don't move!

Me: Why?

Her: DON'T. MOVE.

Me: Alright....

I stood there next to the cereal for around ten minutes, doing nothing. Why was listening to her? A week ago, would I have stayed put if she told me to?

Who knows.

I pulled out my phone to see if she'd said anything else and I somehow missed it, when something crashed into me, hard. I fell to the ground with the thing on top of me.

The thing was Stacey.

She was panting and I could feel her chest heaving on top of me.

"Hang on," she said, breathless. "I'm exhausted."

She put her head down on top of my back for a few seconds before standing up. She didn't even offer me a hand-she left me to stand up all my myself.

"What the hay?" I said, looking at Stacey.

She was still breathing hard, and her hair was a mess. Her face was red and covered with a thin layer of sweat.

"Did you run all the way here?" I asked.

"Um...yeah," she said between breaths.

"Why?"

"You...me...we just.... I don't know."

Just then, I received another text. My phone had miraculously stayed in my hand while Stacey tackled me to the ground.

It was from my cousin Check.

Dude! It said. I didn't know you were famous!

"What?" I said aloud. Stacey looked over my shoulder as he sent another message.

That chick is hot. Wanna hook me up, or is she yours? ;)

"What is he talking about?" I asked Stacey.

"I know exactly what he's talking about," Stacey said.

"You do?"

"Why do you think I ran all the way over here?"

"What is it?"

Stacey sat right there on the floor, leaning against the cereal shelf. I wasn't sure what to do, so I sat down next to her. She pulled out her phone and opened YouTube.

While we waited for a video to load, Stacey said, "I thought you avoided people?"

"What do you mean?" I furrowed my brow.

"Who was texting you?"

"Oh. That was my cousin. He only moved to Ohio last year, and we don't talk that much."

She nodded. Then the video came up.

She shoved her phone into my hand and said, "Watch this."

I stared at the screen, dumbfounded by what I saw.

It was a video of Stacey and me when we went ice blocking, only it was in slow motion. When I hit the bump, I was surprised to see that I flew much higher into the air than I thought I had. Then Stacey flew. Anthony was in the background, eyes widening in awe. Sound effects were added, like deep Noooooos and such. The video had millions of views and thousands of comments. It was titled Epic Fail.

"What the even heck?" I said, glaring at the screen.

"I know! Remember that creepy kid with the camera?"

My jaw dropped. "No way."

Stacey nodded. "If I see that kid, I'm giving him a piece of my mind."

We stood up. "I still need the paper towels," I said. I began to walk away from the cereal when something hit my back.

I looked down and saw a box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch at my feet. "Stacey, do you have to throw food at me every time we come here?" I didn't let her answer; I picked up the box of cereal and chucked it back at her.

"Hey!" Stacey whined, grabbing her arm where the box hit her. "I was tossing it to you so we could buy it! I didn't realize you weren't even looking." She picked the box back up and threw it back at me.

I grabbed a box of Frosted Flakes and threw it at her along with the Cinnamon Toast Crunch, so she got hit by two boxes. She just picked them up and threw them back at me, then I threw them back and so on. Pretty soon we didn't bother with bending over to pick them up; we just grabbed a new box and threw it at the other person.

I came back to my senses when a box of Lucky Charms hit an innocent bystander. "Sorry!" I cried, and Stacey paused with her arm raised in the air, ready to throw a box of Cap'n Crunch.

I looked down. Dented cereal boxes were everywhere. "Dang it," I muttered.

Stacey looked up in alarm, and then shoved the cereal she was holding back onto the shelf. "Help me pick 'em up!"

We bent down and filled our arms with cereal boxes, shoving them back on the shelf without bothering to sort them. By the time we were done, it looked like crap, but we just headed to the paper towels.

As I grabbed a roll, I said, "What do you suppose we do about the creepy stalker kid?"

"Hang on." Stacey had her phone out. "Ah. I found a vlog he made. Let's watch it and see what this sucker looks like."

We stood there and watched as a scrawny teenage boy with dirty blond hair and hipster glasses appeared on the screen. We watched as he recorded his day, from going to the dentist to making ziti for dinner with his mom. He looked like a nerd with some kind of cool flare. Mostly he was just weird. His whole video had sound effects, and he froze the frame at certain moments when his face looked weird, adding suspenseful music that just made us, the viewers, feel awkward.

"I have no words," Stacey said.

I nodded. "Let's go pay for these paper towels, and then maybe we can drive to the park and see if he's there stalking people. Then we can beat him up."

"Or set him on fire or something."

I laughed. "Seriously, it can't be legal to put strangers online like that."

"I-"

Stacey narrowed her eyes. We'd reached the checkout, and when I saw the cashier, I realized why Stacey was provoked.

It was him. The kid we were just talking about. The kid who filmed us and put us on the Internet. The kid who hated dental X-rays and ate ziti at least twice a month.

Wow, now I sound like the stalker. I got that from his video, I swear.

The kid couldn't have been older than fourteen or fifteen. When he saw us, he dropped his price gun and gasped.

"Oh my word!" He tried to run his fingers through his hair, but he'd gelled it to the side, so he ended up just getting his hand stuck.

"You!" Stacey and I both accused simultaneously, pointing our fingers accusingly.

The kid grasped the camera hanging around his neck. He quickly turned it on and aimed it at us, sticking his head in the frame. "Hey guys! Look who just stopped by the store!" He added in a weird voice: "Shopping for paper towels!"

I shoved my hand in front of the lens and said, "Leave, earthling!"

"Sorry! Your fail was just so epic!" He stuttered a few incomplete sentences, turned off his camera, and held his hand out. "Hi, I'm Nicolas, but you can call me Elliot."

I shook his hand awkwardly. "Okay?"

He nodded excitedly, but before he could say anything, I said, "Can we have the paper towels now?"

He winked at Stacey and said, "I think I'd like you guys to stay a little while. What are your names?"

Stacey grasped my hand and intertwined her fingers with mine nervously. "Can we just check out now?"

"Come on guys!" Nicolas Elliot said. "What are your names?"

"Maybe I'll tell you if you would just check out Martha's stupid paper towels."

Elliot looked at Stacey. "So your name's Martha?"

Stacey grabbed the paper towels with her free hand and said, "Know what? We don't need these." She furiously threw them right in Elliot's face before pulling me out of the store.

She let go of my hand before we jumped in the van. When I pulled away, I made sure to drive in the opposite direction than I needed to go so Elliot couldn't trace us and follow us home.

Seemingly out of nowhere, Stacey burst out laughing. It was kinda contagious, so I began laughing too.

"I just hope no one else recognizes us," Stacey said.

"That kid was ridiculous," I said.

"You know, I don't think I mind the fact that he put us on YouTube. It could be fun. It's not like anyone knows our names; we'll just be the weird people who flew off of ice blocks."

"Ha ha." I smiled, and then a thought crossed my mind. "Have you been taking care of Baxter?"

"Uh, yeah." Stacey looked slightly concerned. "She was sleeping while I was surfing the Internet. Then I found out that we were on the popular page and I ran to the store. We ought to go home and check on her."

I nodded and then took a road that would take us back to Martha's without passing the store Elliot was in.

Hopefully he wasn't following us or anything.

»»»»»«««««

"Baxter!" Stacey called. "Where the heck is she?"

"She might not know her name yet," I said. "It's only been a day."

"Ugh. I've looked everywhere!"

Suddenly I heard a noise as I passed the basement stairs. I curiously ventured down them, and found Anna at the bottom, playing with Baxter.

Anna looked up excitedly. "I didn't know you guys had a puppy! I've been calling her Flower. I hope that's her name."

"Uh," I said, "It's Baxter."

"But she's a girl."

"Well, it's Baxter Jane."

Anna looked confused, but she just nodded. "I'm gonna keep taking care of Baxter right now," she said. "I need another feminine source of entertainment."

"Alright."

Stacey came down the stairs. "There she is! I was seriously worried."

Martha called me from above. I went upstairs to meet her.

"Logan! Where did you put the paper towels?"

"I, uh.... They didn't have any."

"What?"

"The clerk didn't let us buy the roll they did have...."

Martha raised her eyebrows at me. "Guess we're having a picnic without napkins."

"A picnic?"

"Oh yes, a picnic."

__________________________

Hey guys! So this story passed 300 reads, with 60+ votes! That's pretty dang awesome. ;D

I feel like this story deserves to be popular, don't ya think? If you're enjoying it, please add it to your reading list! I'd love you so much!

Thanks for your feedback! It means a lot!

So what do to guys think of Elliot? Any predictions for what'll go down at the picnic?

I feel like I've given you guys a huge cliffhanger or something. I guess Martha did talk about the picnic rather menacingly. >:-)

And I'm on Thanksgiving break! That means I'll be writing and updating A LOT! :)

Let's see if I can get 500 reads by the next update. Maybe?

Today I brought you guys Gobstoppers. I figured you were tired of the weird fruit.

Hugs,

-Hannah