Chapter 23: Expectations

Today, I'm going to Dani's house to swim just like I suggested and I'm glad all out schedules worked out. And, I'm EXCITED. Crazy because I'm usually not when it comes to hanging with people other than Dani and my family. I haven't been swimming for like months and now since it's hot enough, I can. Anyways, I packed all my swimming stuff like extra clothes, sunscreen, towel, and my one and only floatie that I bought at a drugstore yesterday just to be prepared.

My parents know that I'm gonna go to Dani's house so I don't have like rush home before they come home or anything. Now, I'm just waiting and pacing the hallway till it's 12 pm. 11:45 okay just like 15 until they pick me up. I'll wait to change at Dani's house because I don't want to just sit in my bathing suit because it's uncomfortable.

Dani| I'm omw just wanted to pick you up

Even better!

Dani's house

"Okay, so Ben and Will are already in the back so you can just change and then meet us over there," Dani says to me. "Oh okay," I reply while walking to the bathroom with all my stuff. I put on my bathing suit which is just a one-piece because two pieces are just not for me. I also put on my shawl that my aunt made me a couple of years ago. I walk out of the bathroom and walk down the hallway. I hear more voices outside than I expected there to be. What?

I peek out the hallway and I see Dani, Ben, Will, A girl, and Noah? I literally thought it was just going to be me, Dani, Ben, and Will. NOT OTHER PEOPLE. I quickly pull out my phone and call Dani.

"Hey, yeah can you like come inside really quick, I need to talk to you," I say trying not to sound anxious or anything. "Uh sure I'll be there," she replies. I look back and I see her get out of her chair.

"What's up, oh is this about Noah and Riley?" She asks. "Uhm, yeah. What else would I be worried about?" I reply. "See, I really know you well. But yeah, Ben asked if he could bring Noah, and then Will asked to bring his girlfriend Riley, and here we are." She says while playing with her fingers. "Without telling me?" I ask sort of just not surprised at this point because she does this most of the time. "I forgot okay, so come on, let's go." She replies.

Why am I still friends with her. "I don't want to go actually, just tell them I got sick or something. Not a lie actually," I tell her. "Your not sick Jill, it's just anxiety so in order to feel better, let's go outside." She says pulling my arm. "I'm gonna drown myself in your pool and like a ghost I will hypnotize everyone to say it was you who killed me," I say following her.

"Yeah, yeah, I'd like to see that." She replies. I'm gonna do it," I say. While unconsciously think of how I would possibly hypnotize them, I am suddenly in the backyard already. "Hey, Jill! What took you so long?" I hear Ben say pulling me out of my imagination. "Oh uh- I just had a hard time looking for my sunscreen that's all," I reply.

"Oh well come join us then!" He says waving his arm. "Uhm, okay," I say while walking towards the pool. "Hi Jane," I hear someone in front of me say. "Um, hi Will," I say to him. How do get 'Jill' wrong? Oh okay then, hi WILSON.

"Dude it's Jill, get it right. You don't want her calling you Wilson or something," Ben says. WHAT DID HE JUST SAY. Out of nowhere I just laugh.

"What?" Will asks. "Oh, nothing," I reply before I stop laughing abruptly. I take off my shawl and the. I make my way down to the water.

"Hi! I'm Riley," I hear a girl's voice say beside me. "Oh hi," I reply. "I'm guessing you're Jill right?" She says. "Yep," I say. "Cool, well we can talk later and catch up," she says. I absolutely hate when people say that. I just hope she forgets. "Uhm, sure," I reply as she slowly swims to Will. I look over and PDA is automatically enabled between them. They're like magnets.

"Hey," Ben says while moving next to me. "Finally someone I know," I say relieved. "Sorry for such a short notice that Noah and Riley were coming." He says. "Yeah, talk about short," I reply. There was a moment of silence before Ben finally said something.

"I know you didn't lose your sunscreen, you panicked." He says. "You have telepathy don't you?" I say to him. "No, I can just tell." He replies. "Just from knowing me for less than like 2 months? I have proof that you do indeed have telepathy." I say to him. "Oh, do tell." He replies.

"When Will called me Jane, I thought to myself, 'How could someone get the name Jill wrong?' Then I said, 'oh well hi Wilson,' The same name that you said!" I tell him. "Really? Maybe I do have telepathy, or maybe because it was a coincidence." He says. "Fine, nevermind then. Maybe it was a coincidence or maybe it wasn't. I'm gonna go check if Dani ordered pizza or not. Don't answer that because I don't want to use your telepathy" I reply. "She ordered it," he replies. "Shut up and let me check," I say looking back at him.

I get out of the pool and walk towards Dani. "Did you order pizza?" I ask. "Yeah it should be here soon," She replies. He is telepathic. "Hi Jill," says Noah who was sitting on the chair next to Dani. "Hi Noah," I reply. Noah is like the only person other than Ben and Dani that like doesn't really bother me. He's nice, but we're just acquaintances. Right when I was about to go back to the pool, the doorbell rang.

"Great! The pizza's here," Dani exclaims while jumping out of her seat. I follow her so that I could help carry the other box and the soda. She pays the deliverer and I carry the root beer, Sprite, the other pizza box, and the breadsticks. I walk out the sliding door to the backyard and I notice one of the soda bottles were slipping and I dropped it.

I waited to hear the soda hit the ground and for the cap to burst and spray root beer everywhere but I heard nothing. "Oh! I got it," Ben says. I open one eye and Ben caught the soda to my surprise. " Oh, thanks. I thought it was gonna like spray everywhere." I tell him. "Haha, we good thing I caught it, my telepathic powers told me it was gonna fall anyways." He replies. "I was right, I wonder what powers I have," I say while placing the food and drinks on the table.

We soon ate lunch and Riley talked to me again which I dreaded since the whole conversation was like a game of 20 questions.

"So, do you do anything? Like are you in any cool clubs? I do cheerleading and in fact, you should come to one of our games!" She says clapping her hands together. "Oh yeah, I'll see," I reply while impatiently cracking my knuckles and wait for this to be over. It's no surprise to me that she's a cheerleader. She's all preppy and stuff.

After we ate and finally stopped talking, we went back inside and played some games. We all agreed to play Clue and I obviously picked Miss Scarlet until RILEY TOOK IT. We played a couple games and I won one of them while Ben won the others. Oh, you wanna know something else that happened, I guess I was "so good" that they skipped my turn TWICE. Ben caught the third time that I got skipped so at least I got that. I wonder if Riley and Noah didn't miraculously show up I would've had a better time.

After playing Clue, they decided to watch a movie. They picked to watch Highschool Musical Three which was okay in the beginning but I decided to resort to Dani's Room since I didn't like the awkwardness of us just all sitting there and staring and not saying and anything a laughing occasionally.

After sitting and scrolling on my phone I hear someone walk into the room. "Hey, where'd ya go?" I turn around and it's just Ben. "Oh I- I just went to the bathroom and then saw the opportunity to stay here and I took it," I say nervously. "I see, you know I noticed the two other times you got skipped while we were playing but I just wanted to see the pain in your eyes," He says sitting down on the chair next to the desk. "You sadist!" I say gasping sarcastically. "Nah, I felt bad but I just didn't want to interrupt my chances of winning. And, knowing them, they would get irritated at how many times I cut them off on their turn." He says.

We talk and just shut the door because they were singing so loud in the living room and we made fun of them that we were laughing so hard that I fell off the bed. We finally knew the movie was over when we heard a knock on the door.

"Are you guys making out in my room?" I hear Dani say. "Wait, really? Let me get my phone!" I hear Riley exclaim. Ben and I look at each other for a second and we thought of the same idea.

We proceeded to make kissing sounds and made them increasingly louder. "MmMmmM mwAh" I explain while trying not to laugh. Ben does the same until Dani opens the door and we just burst out laughing. Why? Because Riley was recording us and the look of disappointment when Dani opened the door just set us off.

"You guys think you're so funny," Dani says scowling. "What, it was funny," Ben says. "Get out of my room, I never told you guys to be here in the first place." She says waving her arms towards the door. We exit and head back to the living room where Will and Noah were just on their phones. "Why were you guys laughing?" Noah asks. "Nothing," Ben says. "Yeah," I add. "Ben and Jill were just hanging out in my room the whole time and tried to convince us they were making out by making horrid sounds," Dani says. "I bet we would do the same thing if we were in the same situation," I say to her.

"Yeah yeah, come on, my mom's going to be home soon so you guys have to leave anyways." She replies. We pack up our stuff and head out the door. Ben is gonna drive me home while Will and Riley take Will's car. "Byeee I had fun!" Riley says as we all head to our cars. We all say our goodbyes and drive off. Was this what I expected? No. Absolutely not. But, was it bad? Eh, I guess not.

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A/N: Aha! I updated. I'm very proud of myself. I took a little break and by little, I mean like a month. I hope you all had a happy holiday and Happy New Year! So crazy that it's already 2021 but I'm glad 2020 is over. I just hope it all gets better and I don't want to jinx anything so I won't say anymore. I didn't have time to write or I kept getting distracted but now that the holidays are over I can get a little more time to write in the night. By the way, if you want to help me write this book, fill out the form on my page if you haven't and if you have already, thank you!