BATHED IN MEMORIES (CH#5):

"Pass me one of those bad boys Bells!" I call out and she tosses a blue-iced cupcake my way.

Her baking is amazing!

Especially the icing since it's bubblegum flavoured!

Girl knows me like the back of her palm.

"I still can't understand how you don't get fat after eating like a pig and then not exercising as well," Benley comments from his couch with AJ munching down a cookie on his lap.

"Skill Boyband," I let him in on my secret, "Pure, awesome skill."

He scoffs.

Currently everyone is at the Bensten's since the Cinema didn't really work out.

I take a bite into my cupcake and smile as I reminisce back to the memory, pausing, rewinding and replaying the moments.

After all of us were kicked out of our separate rooms, we decided to go watch Deadpool together seeing as fate deamed it to be.

That idea lasted even lesser than the previous one. An all time new record!

Lets just say that Oog and the Dung Beetles got influenced by the killing spree in the movie and somehow arrived with real swords to recreate the scene and Troy, in need of some popcorn, damaged the popcorn machine when he went out to get some and set it on fire quickly setting the whole Cinema alight.

So my comment 'this is gonna be on fire' literally came true.

I am Aqueela the Great after all. The first, the original, the one of a kind. I know all and see all.

And Troy thought he was the fortune teller. HA!

I zone into the present.

And that's how we decided to spend the rest of what was left of the day at Bells' house. All of us. Xavier and Emma arrived too with their little baby.

So right now, we're chilling back, swapping our cinema fiascos and having baked treats.

My kinda jam.

Jay snuggles his head in the crook of my neck and tugs me closer. I smile as I sit on his lap but it disappears quickly when he snatches my half eaten cupcake and devours it with a cheeky grin.

"You dont need the calories Aqueels," he insists and I whack his chest. A laugh escapes his lip and I am caught in the sound. I peck his cheek and get up and off of his lap to go seek more goodies.

He's too late to pull me back. "Aqueela," he groans and tries the puppy eyes at me, "come back," he motions to his lap.

"You brought this on yourself Taylor," I tell him as I make my way to the table.

"So there we were, a horde of she-wolves surrounding us with their claws out to kill," I hear Max tell the other guys of his 'horrifying' experience.

"And as if that wasn't terrifying enough," Dylan adds, "Zac and Mia wouldn't stop at it." He shivers, "It should be illegal for those two to be out in public."

The guys laugh at Zac as Mia blushes but Zac stays unfazed, "As if you guys are all innocent virgins," he defends himself insinuating a wrong suggestion. Idiot. He just said he had s*x with Mia in a loaded Cinema on two seats.

I wouldn't put it past him though.

Mia deepens into a tomato red before she slaps Zac across the chest.

"What?" he asks, genuienly confused, and the guys laugh again.

"BroGrey! BroGrey!" Troy shouts into Grey's ear even though he's standing next to him. Grey turns around with clenched teeth, ready to somehow end Troy's life.

"Look what I caught on camera!" He thrusts the screen of his cell into Grey's face and Grey's eyes bulge out, his face turning pale.

Troy has a wicked grin on his face which turns into panic as Grey flat out tackles him to the ground to snatch the cell away.

Okay, now I want to know what's so special about the picture that has Grey literally on the floor.

"Throw it here TroyStory!" I yell and wave.

He grins, "Catch like your life depends on it Squirt!"

He flings his phone to me and I catch it swiftly just as Grey's eyes widen in fear.

"LAWSON DON'T YOU DARE--" his words get cut short by my uncontrollable laughter.

It's a picture of Grey and Nancy during Deadpool with Grey's arm drapped behind Nancy's chair, a big smile on his face that's probably angled at the screen but the shot makes it look like he's oogling at Nance.

This is gold. Troy has done it. Total utter blackmailing, here I come.

Grey gets up to launch after me but I've already sent the picture to my own cell.

He snatches the phone, deletes the picture and drops it back into my palm.

"Are you done?" I ask him, a devious grin on my face.

He groans, "You already send the picture somewhere as back up didn't you?"

I nod, pleased with myself. "You snooze, you loose Ferrot."

He starts face palming himself, "Why? Just why??!"

"Because we love you BroGrey!" Troy answers the idiot, "even if you're fugly," he reassures him.

Since I'm in such a good mood right now, I decide to spare him only for today. "Don't worry, Mr.Weasel. Your secret's safe with me. For now." I motion towards Nancy and wink at him.

Grey curses beneath his breath and exists the house into the backyard to have a smoke. A whole box of it by the looks of him.

I take the oppourtunity to scroll through the other pictures Troy's captured.

All of them are selfies but they've captured the background too. If only Troy's big head would just explode out of view...

"Wow you guys weren't kinding. I see the wolves alright." I tell them.

I also see Benley in a straitjacket!

"We took one too," Landon grins and shows me a group selfie on his cell. It's priceless.

"Oog took lots of pictures," he hands me his phone and I scroll throw them all laughing to my heart's content. He really did capture everything he saw.

"This is great!" I say in general, "If only the rest of our days had been captured like this," I sigh.

Jay wraps an arm around me kissing the top of my head, "Yeah," he agrees, "That would actually be great. But they're all up here, Klutz," he fingers my forehead and I smile.

"Yeah, and up there too," Troy points to the cieling.

He's lost it.

"What?!" He asks when he sees us all ignoring him like he's a lunatic. Not our fault.

"Tell them little sis!" He commands Bella.

"Yeah," she nods fervently, "and up there too." She hands the tray to Max, "In fact, wait here. I'll be right back!" she tells us all, even though we're not planning to leave anytime soon.

There are cupcakes to devour!

That being said, I pop one into my mouth before Jay can snatch it away again.

"Wow, you guys had quite a day," Emma comments from her seat, her baby in her arms.

"When Drowned Rat is around, things automatically get out of hand," Melinda tells her, Leban nodding to agree.

"Oh shut your trap hole already and have a cupcake," I throw one at her.

She has a look of utter outrage that I ignore.

Ryan snickers, entertained. The day did him good. He's back to his old jerk self.

"Sleep in a day and miss an age-old cinema burning down," Xavier shakes his head, "How did you guys escape that one anyway?"

"F&F, my friend, F&F," AJ answers him, referring to the fact that we raced away as soon as we were sure the fire-brigade could handle it.

A door slams shut upstairs and my attention gets snapped. Bells exclaims, "I got it!" from up there somewhere.

She makes her way down brandishing a brown journal that she holds out for everyone to see.

It's when she gets closer that a smile blooms across my face.

It's a scrapbook for pictures with 'WE DIDN'T REALIZE WE WERE MAKING MEMORIES, WE JUST KNEW WE WERE HAVING FUN' written on the cover.

And it's crammed pack with pictures by the looks of it, some pages still left at the end to fill up.

Everyone stops their conversations to watch as I gently take the treasure from her hands and sit down on the floor cross-legged.

They all join me, with smiles on their faces as they too sit cross-legged on the floor in a rough circle around me, some standing to watch from above.

Even Grey comes in to have a look.

Bells explains, "I have a habbit of capturing pictures with my cell phone. It started from highschool," she gives me a sheepish look as I remember those days of queen-bee Bells, the homecoming queen, "So when all these adventures popped up," she gestures to the scrapbook, "I always made sure to capture them. I got them printed and... voilà, you have them in your hands. All those years in onebook."

"I told you!" Troy ruins the moment.

I make a face at him before opening the book with delicate hands. I have been struck speechless. This is our very existence in my hands. It's years worth of happiness and joy, craziness and mad schemes, of death-defying days and blissful memories. It's all our hearts melded into one.

"Hold that thought," Max says just as I begin to lift the cover. He takes a snap of us before turning on 'Youth'. "This needs a song to go with."

"Everyone pose!" Bell comands before copying Max's idea. We each give a crazy pose for the picture, with the exception of a few. Buzzkills.

As the music washes over us I turn the pages and keep unraveling years of memories.

"It's from that time we made that horrid band!" Benley laughs pointing at a picture.

"Aqueela's entourage," Dylan chuckles.

"That's the horrible play we performed!" I point to Laiken dressed as Goku and Max as a ninja turtle and laugh.

"Oh that's prom!" Bell squeels at her picture with Max.

"Man I looked fine," Max comments.

I gasp, "This is from before the championships! How did you get this one Bells?!" I point at the group picture of my lovable racing crew, the day Xavier decided to commit murder.

Nancy raises her hand, "I remember snapping it and sharing it with Bells," she informs us.

I laugh out of joy. This is perfect!

I look to see Jay grin at his younger self along with the others. He's come such a long way. He's famous world wide for his racing now.

"That's Dylan's old store," I fawn.

"Yeah," Dylan gets nostalgic and Frank tries to make it better, "Hey, it worked out in the end."

"That's from mall prison!" Benley laughs.

"That's from the day you drove me mad," Jay chuckles and points to me making a pose as I paint his couch pink.

"That's little slobber!" I coo.

"That one's from the gay after party," Benley laughs, "Man! I forgot all about that embarassing night!"

"That's from Anti-Jayeela club!!" The Dung Beetles and FeeBee yell in unison and high five each other.

"Laser Tag!!" I laugh at the one of my birthday.

"That's of our proposal babe!" Xavier hugs and tells Emma.

"That's from when we served time," I laugh at the jail photo of all of us after the riot at Frank's restraunt.

"That's our proposal babe!" Max pecks Bells on the lips, "and the awesome pool party," he grins.

"That's the time Troy almost burried himself," Landon heaves a sign.

"That's the time your crazy Grandma cost me my car and my cell," Ryan points out.

"These are from the camping trip!" Lucy laughs.

I spot the ones I took of Jay and raise a questioning eyebrow at Bells.

She shrugs, "I got hold of your camera."

"OooH!! The triplets on their birthday!" Bells proceeds to fawn.

I stare in adoration at the three gumballs.

"That's our wedding," Jezel points out and Troy grins.

"I look epic in a tux," he praises himself.

It all goes on. The pictures come up, we remember the past days, smile, laugh, insult each other. The camera in our minds rolling the tape to capture these very moments as well.

It all ends with a picture of the proposal that Jay did yesterday. It's beautiful.

Jay smiles heartily, gets up and turns the volume of the speakers to full before offering me his hand.

Everyone cheers as the song 'Youth' plays on loop before 'Crazy Youngsters' and Max dims the lights while Troy brings out his neon torches to create a make-shift club house.

And that is how we dance the night away.

Bathed in memories.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

And that's a wrap!

I hope you guys enjoyed this emotional thrill ride!!

Comment your favourite scene from Pause and/or Rewind. Lets refresh some memories!!  

THIS IS WHAT BELL'S SCRAPBOOK LOOKS LIKE: