The inside of the house seemed much larger than the outside, and my eyes wandered up the staircase to the balcony.

"Shit, that's fancy," I mumbled to myself.

Clearly, the architectural inspiration for the house was log cabin-y, and everything was wooden or otherwise darkly toned.

If I made myself an evil lair, I would have made it look exactly like that house: natural, warm, and inviting to people like me.

Plus, there was a moose's head mounted on the wall. I wasn't sure who killed it or who put it there, but it was intimidating. I thought it was pretty damn cool.

"Blaine, are you serious? How the hell did you manage to pull this off?" I asked.

He turned to look at me. "You like it?"

I laughed. "Uh, kinda. It's pretty fucking sweet."

He smiled. "I thought it was your style."

"You were right. I can't believe we get to spend a week here."

"There's even a hot tub and fire pit on the back patio." He smiled, clearly pleased with himself.

I couldn't blame him. There was no way I could hide my excitement, and my mouth smiled to match his.

That was another good step in the right direction. We found common ground.

To my right, there was a living area complete with an excessively large television, and to my left was the kitchen. It had a large island, and I felt myself gravitating in that direction. I ran my hand across the smooth countertop, and my attention fell on a single dead flower in a vase in the middle of the island.

I frowned.

Poor little flower.

It must have been purple while it was still alive, judging from its bruise-colored petals, and since there was nothing I could do to save it, I picked it out and threw it into the trash.

I looked up around the house, and Blaine, Arti, and Drew were all crowded around a piano in the living room.

Drew sat at the front of it as if she were ready to play, and I smiled at the sight of her and Arti getting along.

"Can you play?" Drew asked Arti and Blaine.

Blaine shook his head. "I know the basics, but that's about it."

"Hell yeah, I can play," Arti said.

Drew stood up. "Then go ahead. I'd love to hear you."

Arti looked at Blaine, then took a seat at the piano, but she didn't play a single note.

"Here's a pro tip on dealing with Arti. She's a compulsive liar, especially when she's under pressure. Most of the time, it's all fine and dandy, but sometimes, she runs her mouth just a little too much," Blaine explained.

"Wow, way to make me out to be the villain," Arti mumbled, then looked up at Drew. "Sorry."

Drew smiled, although her eyes seemed a little distressed. "That's okay. Just try not to do it again."

Arti forced a laugh. "I've been trying for eighteen years, but once you get started, it's impossible to stop."

"Then why in the world would you get started?"

"So I could be anyone but me, that's why. But that's a story for a different day. I'm trying to maintain a cool, carefree attitude this week."

"That's the spirit," Blaine said. "Do you guys want to keep looking through the house? You haven't even made it out of the first room yet."

"That can wait. I want to hear Drew play," Arti said.

Drew smiled. "I haven't played in about a year, so it might not be too good."

She sat back down at the piano as Blaine looked up at me, a half-smile painted on his face.

I smiled back to him as a sweet piano melody filled the air, then I went up the stairs to the balcony. The wooden railing was relatively new and splinter-less, and I waved down at Blaine. A small part of me wanted to make some royal decree as I was higher than the rest of the peasants, but I kept my feudalist desires to myself.

There were several rooms on the upper level, and I mentally claimed the bedroom down the hall as my own. If anyone else wanted it, they would have to duel me for it.

I opened up the door and poked my head in.

"Yep. This is definitely mine," I said to myself as I walked in.

I sat down on the bed, made with pristine white sheets and a comforter, then flopped back onto my back.

It would have been so relaxing if I hadn't had my mind on every single problem that was caused by either Caroline or Dr. Mann.

***

I was a fan of independence like any American would be, but I also believed in the value of teamwork.

Making pizza was not one of those times where teamwork made the dream work.

"Why the fuck are you eating the shredded cheese? That's so gross. Just stop," I said, trying to pry the bag out of Blaine's hands.

"Let me live, Amanda. I've had a rough day today," Blaine replied.

"You've taken three naps. I wish my rough days were like yours."

I checked the temperature of the oven, which read 240 degrees. It had been stuck there for a few minutes, and since patience certainly wasn't my defining trait, I stared at it and tried to heat it up via telethermosis or something.

Unfortunately, I did not have superpowers.

But if I did, my new invention of telethermosis would be it. I'd just rapidly heat people up and blame it on spontaneous combustion. Shame on them for walking around in an atmosphere filled with oxygen and a drastically changing climate.

I smiled.

What a great life that would be.

Caroline had taken the reins of my pizza project with my mind wandering for just a moment, and I let her without a fight.

Poof. Dr. Mann was up in flames inside my head.

I didn't start the fire, though. It was always burning, and it finally caught up with him.

Another round of Drew's piano playing pulled me away from my thoughts, and Arti wandered from our pizza making and parked herself right next to Drew, her forearms resting on the top of the piano.

Matt and Viktor were MIA, probably in the basement with their Playstation and an NHL game.

They were completely and utterly obsessed, but without that kind of passion, I didn't think Viktor would even come close to having a chance to one day being a player on that game.

I had it, Matt had it, and eventually, Viktor caught that hunger from us.

The oven was still stuck on 240, and with the pizzas ready to go in, there wasn't much left for any of us to do. To keep myself entertained in the meantime, I decided to bother by brother and boyfriend.

It was just one of my many talents.

I went downstairs into the basement, and I was greeted with a loud yell from Matt.

"Goddammit, would you stop tripping me? Thanks for the power play, but I'd like to kick your ass five on five."

"You were gonna have a breakaway if I didn't stop you," Viktor replied.

"And we'd still be five on five then. My power play is shit, dude."

"Maybe you should have picked better players to be on your team."

Matt looked up at me. "Do you see this? He's talking shit now, and I have no doubt that you're responsible for this, Amanda."

"Who do you have on your team?" I asked.

Viktor laughed. "He has Jonathan Toews."

I burst into laughter too. "Toews? Seriously? The most overrated guy in the NHL? Even Viktor, a fucking Blackhawks fan, knows that."

"I got stuck with him, but at least his numbers on the game are good. Viktor took Crosby, Kane, and Ovechkin," Matt said.

"How the hell do you have the cap space for all three? That's insane. Their contracts are way too much to all be on one team," I said.

"His goalie is someone I've never even heard of. He's from some Russian league," Matt said.

"Then who's your goalie?"

"Lundqvist, of course."

I laughed again. "You should've at least taken Price. This is the most pitiful team in the history of ever."

"I have McDavid, though, so maybe he can pull my team's shit together."

I sat down beside Viktor on the couch as Matt's power play went to work.

Right off the faceoff, Viktor cleared the puck out of the zone, all the way down to Matt's goalie, Henrik Lundqvist.

Fucking Swedes.

"Hey Matt," I said.

Was I picking sides? Absolutely. I was Team Viktor, and no one could change my mind.

"Not now," he said as he passed the puck across the blue line, but it was offsides. "Shit, Marchand, keep up with me."

"You're bad at this game," I said, trying not to laugh.

He shot me a glare. "Do you ever shut up?"

I shook my head. "Nope."

"If you think this is so easy, then why don't you play?"

"You have McDavid on your team. It should be easy," I said as he handed me the controller.

I had no idea how to play, but I would have rather died than admit that.

I inherited a tie game of 1-1 in the middle of the first period, and Viktor looked over at me.

"Looks like it's the Jaynes versus Spädbarn," I said.

He smiled. "Good luck kiss?"

"Nope. I'm out for blood today."

I was no longer Team Viktor. I was Team Kick the Shit Out of Viktor.

I tried to take a faceoff against him, but the only controls I knew were from previous versions of the game. So naturally, I defaulted to those.

I played the puck back to my defenseman.

Success!

Amanda: 0.0000000001, Viktor: 1, Matt: 1.

My faceoff win would probably be the only triumph I would muster, so I decided to at least give myself a fraction of a point for that.

I deserved it.

I took the puck into the offensive zone (without going offsides, because I was better than Matt), and I tried to set up some form of power play umbrella formation.

Of course, that was difficult when I could only control the puck carrier.

"Fucking Toews, you fucking piece of shit, get on the wall," I muttered through frustrated gritted teeth.

Viktor stole the puck from me and sent it down the ice again.

"Ha," I heard him chuckle.

Bad move, Viktor. Pissed Amanda was the best worst Amanda, and she did not like to lose.

"You won't be laughing when I deck your bitch ass Russian goalie," I mumbled, my eyes trained on the screen.

The players on the ice automatically changed, and I suddenly had a whole new set of players to work with.

"Why the hell is Drew Doughty on your second power play unit? He should be first," I said.

"Because Letang is on my first, that's why," Matt said like it was obvious, even though he was not only wrong, but stupid.

If anyone else would have been listening to our ongoing conversation, we probably would have sounded like a bunch of hockey fanatics to them, which would have been completely true.

I carried the puck down the ice again, and this time, there was no way in hell Viktor would even come close to sniffing the puck. My only goal was to drive to the net, and whoever got wrecked in the process would just have to deal with it.

And that goal turned into a goal.

2-1 Jaynes.

"What's good, bitches?" I cheered with just a little too much enthusiasm. I handed the controller back to Matt. "On that high note, I quit. Don't wanna ruin a good thing."

"Quitting while you're on top. Smart. Better to go out a legend than a washed-up has-been," Matt said with a smile.

"Can I have a kiss for that?" Viktor asked.

"Because I'm better than you? Uh, hell yeah, you can. Pause the game," I said, then climbed right up on Viktor's lap.

I loved it there.

Another decision had to be made: to keep it classy, or to make out with him right in front of his best friend and my brother.

Matt once slammed a car door on my pinkie finger and nearly broke it, but it was all okay because it was an "accident."

Making out it was.

And if anyone asked, my tongue was just halfway down Viktor's throat on "accident."

"Oh my god, I'm leaving," Matt said, then went upstairs even before I had the chance to kiss Viktor.

Viktor held up his hand and pulled away from me. "Wait, no. Don't go!"

"Seriously?" I sat up and crossed my arms.

"We have to finish our game. Sorry, Candy Cane."

And with that, he picked me up off of him, then set me back down on the couch and followed Matt up the stairs, calling his name.

He wasn't supposed to do any strenuous lifting, but now that his knee was in a simple brace rather than some sort of restrictive stabilizer, he thought he could do whatever he wanted.

And if he finally thought he was Superman, I wasn't going to be the one to bring him down, unless he was about to seriously hurt himself again.

***

The oven was dead. Stuck at 240 degrees Fahrenheit.

"That's lame. It could at least die on 420," Arti said.

I laughed.

"Did you try turning it off and turning it back on again?" Matt asked.

"How stupid do you think I am?" Blaine said. He crossed his arms, then looked at me. "I have a bad track record with kitchen appliances, and all I get is judgement because of it." He shook his head.

"You probably broke it," I said, biting down on my lip to keep from laughing.

He gave me a tight-lipped sarcastic smile, and I figured he wasn't too happy with Matt or me.

"Well, sorry. Sorry that this place is a piece of shit. Sorry that I suck at everything. Sorry—" Blaine said, but I stopped him in the middle of his self-deprecating rant.

"You're not a piece of shit. Let's just be rational about this and come up with a new plan. Eat your shredded cheese. Your hunger is talking."

"Okay guys, here's a concept. Please, try to keep yourselves contained. Fire-toasted pizzas. I'm a genius, and y'all can thank me later," Arti said.

"Like, on the fire outside?" Blaine asked.

Arti nodded.

"I am so sorry for all the times I called you stupid." He covered his mouth with his hand. "You might actually be smarter than Amanda."

My mouth fell open. "What?"

"And we can make s'mores for dessert," Drew added.

"Oh my god, we're so smart together. We should get married," Arti said.

Drew laughed. I didn't.

I was still pissed that Blaine called Arti smarter than me.

"What's that?" Viktor asked.

"What, marriage?" Matt asked.

Viktor shook his head. "No, no. The thing. The thing Drew was just talking about."

"A s'more?" I asked.

Viktor nodded. "Yeah, what's that?"

I looked over at Matt, Arti, Drew, Blaine, and Caroline. They all seemed just as confused as me.

"You've never had one?" I asked.

"Is it an American thing? Because I am still not American."

I thought for a moment. "I actually think it is. It's a toasted marshmallow and a piece of chocolate sandwiched between Graham crackers."

"That sounds terrible."

Blaine gasped. "I feel personally attacked by that."

"They're a little sweet and messy, but it's a good combination. You know, like you and me," I said.

"I'm sweet and you're a mess?" Viktor asked.

I laughed and nodded. "You've got it."

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Howdy everyone! So I'm at the point where writing is just flat out difficult. This book can't end if I never write it! :))))

No, but I'm still gonna write. I have to get this done in a timely manner, even though I'm highly aware that this chapter was garbage. I'm sorry. Hopefully the next one turns out better.

Any predictions for what's going to happen next?