Pic above- layout of House 2's sunroom (not to scale)

This event would be broken into multiple parts! And also the chapter to make up for chapter 85! I apologise for chapter 85!

Also, I noticed I have been uploading a lot more on this book. Like the 2019 times :)
Is that a bad thing to have frequent uploads? I feel like I should ease back on the uploads and stick to a schedule haha. Creative freedom, am I right?

Anyway, something I planned for these chapters also mention flashbacks to younger Carol at the start and the end. I was listening to some TS songs and a certain three songs inspired me to do this chapter. Keep in mind the flashback happened months before the first chapter so other characters would not be there.

Sending a hug to all you Carol lovers out there.

-= ⭐⭐⭐ =- (The three stars plan a picnic)

In two hours all eyes would be fixed on her as she is a mannequin on display. In two hours she, Carol Franklin, would blow out the candles and turn seventeen.

Standing in front of her vanity, Carol pinned a pink 'birthday girl' badge on her dress, a dark grey formal mini dress with puffed sleeves. It was the dress that she had wanted to wear. Initially, it was supposed to be for a date, but Joel told her to change into something more 'simple'. He ended up picking a plain simple dress for her while he dazzled in a fashionable suit.

She reached for the necklace holder on her vanity and picked out a silver necklace with a heart charm. It was the necklace Joel had gifted her after a fight. He was complaining about how much time Carol spent with her friends rather than him. She remembered crying at his demands to see him more than her friends. A day later, he gifted her the necklace as an apology. She unbuckled the hook and held the necklace to her neck.

Just then there were knocks on the door.

Knock-knock-knock

"Come in!" Carol said in a sing-song voice.

The door creaked open and Carol smiled at the sight of her mother and younger sister. They were both dressed ready for the party at the restaurant. Her mother was dressed in a floral top with black dress pants, and her greying short ginger hair was brushed without any flyaways. Her younger sister, Kate, wore a white party dress and had her curly ginger hair tied into a high ponytail.

Her mother signed as she spoke. "You doing okay?"

Carol secured the hook and brushed her hair to the front. She later signed back and spoke. "I'm fine. Thank you for asking."

"Alright." her mother smiled as she signed. "You look beautiful, honey."

'Yeah!' Kate signed, 'You look so pretty!'

Carol smiled warmly. "Thank you... thank you both so much." she signed as she spoke.

'By the way, Dad is waiting downstairs. He wants to know if you are ready.'

"I'm ready," Carol answered signing. "Let's head off."

She wasn't prepared for a one-hour drive of her dad's bad karaoke when she got escorted to the car. She wasn't prepared to hear a loud cheer from her friends (led by Phoebe) when she arrived at her venue, a fancy pizzeria.

She wasn't prepared for the fact that Joel's chair next to her was left deserted when Carol sat down at a table for eight with Sabrina, Phoebe and four other school friends. Her parents and sister sat down at a table with her friends' families.

"Where's Joel?" Carol turned to Sabrina who was seated next to her.

Sabrina finished her glass of water and frowned. "Didn't come."

"He didn't come?" Carol played with her necklace. "He promised he would." she softly mumbled.

She quickly got out her phone and checked the recent text. Joel always has his eyes glued to his phone. She always wanted to see what he had on it but every time she asked, he would hide the screen and blame her for her curiosity. "Can't you be respectful?!" he would tell her. She would apologise and would tame her curiosity.

She frowned at his response to her text.

(hiii :))>
(you coming to my party?)>
Read 8:54 pm

"He could be late?" Phoebe predicted, "The venue is pretty far."

"Literally!" a friend called out behind her hand. "I had to keep my eye on the time to get here."

"I'm sorry," Carol apologised, "My parents picked the place. Their first dinner date was here and the place was special to them. However, it is a bit of a ride."

Her friend shook her head. "Don't apologise on your birthday! I don't mind."

It wasn't long until a waitress arrived to take their orders. Most of the group opted to take their orders now.

The rest of the dinner went by smoothly. The group had their dinners and drinks and are now waiting for the dessert to finish. Phoebe had left to go check herself in the bathroom. Carol watched and listened as her friends gossiped about their recent adventures.

Despite everything that happened, Joel never came. His seat was left empty and missed the drinks and the lunch. She started to doubt his arrival.

"Hey, isn't Barbara's bash happening today?" Carol heard one of her friends gossip as she sliced through her cheesecake with a fork.

"Bratty Barbara?" another friend inquired, twirling a strand of her shoulder-length black hair. "Heard her party is one of a kind."

"One of my friends from footy is going there." another friend said, his hands behind his afro. "Barbara did the party without her parents knowing. They got drinks, a performance, a pool party..."

The fourth friend cringed as he scooped up a spoonful of his chocolate mousse. "If I hosted a party without my parents knowing, I wouldn't see the light of day," he announced with a laugh and pushed up his glasses.

"I got a question," Carol interrupted, "If you were invited to this party or Barbara's, which would you choose?"

"Yours obviously!" one of her friends answered. Her other friends agreed. "You're our closest friend."

"Besides, no one here likes Barbara," Sabrina said, not looking up from her phone. She corrected herself after she got cast a glare from the black-haired friend, "Bratty Barbara. Sorry, Aimee."

Aimee pointed two fingers towards her eyes and turned them towards Sabrina. Carol smiled a slight smile.

"Also Carolina, Barbara is nothing compared to you!" another friend smiled. "Either way let's change the topic. When did you say you, Sabrina and Phoebe are moving out of Wallowsberg?"

"This December," Carol answered.

"Where are you moving to?"

"Zodiac Street. It's some fate thing of a reunion of a kindergarten class I forgot about."

"Hey, kindy was when we first met!" Sabrina smiled.

Carol nodded. She remembered that day. She remembered making mud pies with a young boy with dark curls and another boy with matted light blonde hair. She remember when young Phoebe ran over, her soft black pigtails bouncing, embraced Carol in a hug and asked if she wanted to play restaurant.

She remembered agreeing and following Phoebe to the playground where a young girl with her soft dark brown hair tied into a ponytail, young Sabrina, traced a smiley face in the bark on the ground. She remembered tending to their restaurant- a playhouse- as the other children came and went curious about the area.

It was a sweet memory, minus the part when two kids, a boy with brown fluffy hair and a girl with wavy ginger hair, had made Phoebe bump her head on the playhouse's walls and cry by accidentally bumping into her.

Since then, the three grew up together. They all coincidentally moved out of their old place together, attended the same school and classes and watched each other grow. Carol was surprised at how much their bond had grown over the years.

"Hm, okay." a friend mumbled, interrupting the moment. She played with her auburn curls. "Guess I'll make sure to spend lots of time with you guys."

"That would be great but Joel..." Carol's voice trailed off. "I promised Joel to spend time with him." Her friends exchanged looks.

"Carol, Joel's not a great person." a friend called out, scratching the back of his dirty blonde hair.

"I know, but people can change. He's been buying a lot of gifts lately. The expensive ones as well. Like I remembered him buying perfume- the two hundred dollars one."

"For you?" her friend with the auburn curls inquired.

"For a friend. He said that it was for a friend. I never get much expensive gifts." Carol answered. "I honestly find that sweet. Buying gifts for a friend is a sweet gesture."

"Uh.." Everyone turned to Sabrina who stared at her phone with a wide gaze. "I found Joel..." She showed her phone to Carol's four friends. There were horrified looks from everyone in the room.

When Carol saw what Sabrina showed to the others, she felt like all the castle of hope had crashed down from a catapult. Sabrina had shown a post by a mutual friend who posted a group photo. Carol noticed a bunch of kids from her school, including Barbara who wore a long silvery dress with a birthday sash and tiara, in a group huddle smiling at the camera.

She gasped when she saw who was behind Barbara's brunette curls.

Joel. Kissing another girl.

Then everything felt like slow motion.

A thousand thoughts filled her head when her friends expressed anger.
A thousand thoughts filled her head when Phoebe returned and asked what was going on.
A thousand thoughts filled her head when her parents and sister arrived with the cake handed by a worker.

She sat silently, fighting back the tears as her friends and family chorused 'Happy Birthday to you'. She forced a smile when everyone clapped and counted up to seventeen.

"And one to make her grow!" her dad's voice boomed as the group did the eighteenth clap. "Eighteen!"

A thousand thoughts filled her head as she cut the cake for her friends. As everyone laughed and enjoyed themselves, she wondered one thing.

Why?

-= ⭐️ =- (Zoe is packing the picnic basket)

Days of planning whizzed by quicker than they thought. During the week, the zodiacs worked together with their partners to work on their presentations.

As the day inched closer and closer, the zodiacs prepared themselves for the night. As required, each of the households brought snacks to share. Some of the zodiacs bought new pyjamas to show off to the others.

It is now Sunday afternoon at Zodiac Street.

Vincent strolled into the sunroom after cleaning the house from top to bottom. He admired the decorations Cameron had offered to put up. "Wow." He turned to Cameron fixing the last of the fairy lights near the piano and looked up and down. "The place looks amazing!"

Cameron crossed his arms. "I am debating on adding more pizzazz to this room. Maybe balloons? Or- or banners? Maybe-" Before he spoke more, Vincent used his hand to cover Cameron's mouth.

"I think we should leave it as it is." Vincent uncovered his boyfriend's mouth.

"You're right, you're right." Cameron smiled contently. He turned to fix the lights. "I'll leave it alone."

Vincent nodded. He turned around to the projector screen which Tyler was fixing. "How's the projector looking, Ty?"

Tyler gave a thumbs up as a perfunctory response. The doorbell chimed and Vincent brushed his hands together. "I'll answer it," he announced, hurriedly making his way to the front door.

Tahlia, Cleo, Alyssa and Lily were already waiting at the front once Vincent pulled open the door. The girls all wore packed backpacks on their backs ready for the night. Cleo was tightly hugging her cat, Mischief who looked around with apprehension. He noticed in Lily's hands were two packed plastic bags, almost touching the floor.

"Warmth, at last." Alyssa brushed past Vincent, shoulders hunched from the outside's cool winds.

"Not even a warm welcome..." Vincent pulled the door wider and acknowledged his guests. "You're the first to arrive! Come in!"

"Thanks for inviting us here!" Lily embraced Vincent into a hug, her strong yet sweet perfume smell noticeable. Cleo made her way past the two to follow Alyssa.

"Anytime." Vincent pulled back from the hug. He noticed the bags. "What did you bring?"

Lily held up one of the bags by her fingers. "Chips for this one. They're for everyone. Me on the other hand," she held up the other bag, "I got healthy vegetarian-friendly snacks here for myself. Alyssa kept questioning why but I needed some snacks for myself."

"You want me to store the vegetarian snacks in a safe place?"

"No, no! I think I can manage holding onto them. Thank you for the offer."

"Hello?" The group turned back to find Sienna with the karaoke machine waiting on the footpath. "Hate to interrupt but how do we get this inside the house?"

Vincent stepped to the side with Lily and Tahlia. "You can push it through the front door. Just be careful about the sunroom. There's a stair people miss. Look out for it. Do let Tyler know that you got the machine."

"Look out for the step, gotcha." Sienna pushed the machine past the others. Lily immediately followed to check on the path ahead.

"Where's Vivian?" Vincent asked Tahlia who stepped in.

"She's getting the snacks. She said she'll come a bit late."

"Oh, do you know what snacks, though?"

"Nah. She never said."

"Huh, okay. Oh, Tahlia?"

"Yes?"

"Can you be in charge of greeting the others? Sorry, I know you just arrived but I need to check around the house." His eyes saddened. "Hope this isn't a sudden request."

"Sure, I'll play the role of hostess." Tahlia nodded to the air signs who just arrived with a tinfoil-wrapped platter and a bag of soft drinks.

"Thank you so much!" Vincent said hurriedly. Then he jogged to the sunroom to check over the area.

-= ⭐️⭐️⭐️ =- (Bob, Zoe and Jay are having a picnic in the park! They are sitting on a picnic blanket under the shade)

After the air sign's arrival, everyone else but Vivian arrived.

Carol, Sabrina and Phoebe arrived first carrying a cling-wrapped plate of fairy bread and boxes of chocolate.

Arriving 5 minutes after the designated time, Alex, Leo and Sam arrived with two large bowls of caramelised and buttered popcorn. For some reason, Leo made a fabulous entrance with sunglasses. No one dared to question it.

Skyler, Colin and Pete were the last trio to arrive. Skyler and Colin arrived at the front door ten minutes late. Pete entered from the sliding door leading to the backyard. He had just dropped off his dogs in the backyard after entering through House 6's side gate.

Skyler turned to the large table where the food and drinks were placed. He looked down at his hand where he held onto a gummy worm packet. "Oh... looks like ours is... underwhelming."

"Let me see that." Carol received the packet. She gasped. "Gummy worms! And the dual flavours too!" She hugged the packet close. "I love these."

Colin joined the conversation and slung an arm around Skyler's shoulders, "Well Skyler here bought them thinking of y-"

Skyler slapped a hand over his housemate's mouth. He laughed and faced Carol. "Ignore him, he's talking nonsense. Colin has a habit of..." he narrowed his eyes at his housemate, "lying."

Colin uncovered his mouth. "I'm not-"

"Shhh." Skyler glared. His housemate glared back and turned to find the Crazy Club.

Vivian was the last to arrive with Tahlia tagging behind her. She carefully carried a white box of donuts while Tahlia carried a black caged bingo wheel in her arms. Inside the cage appeared to be blue sphere capsules.

Alyssa gasped. "Vivian bought donuts!"

"Yep! For the Earth signs." Vivian tiptoed past the piled bags near the piano as she was treading on eggshells. There was a chorus of 'what? and 'yay's. Alyssa furrowed her brows and her jaw dropped.

"Why?!"

"Because you're very annoying." Vivian opened the box and passed a donut to each Earth sign.

Alyssa's mouth watered at the sight of Vivian's cookies and cream donut. "Come on... surely there are donuts for me?" Vivian raised an eyebrow. "Everyone else?"

Vivian shook her head and took a big bite off her donut. Alyssa pouted back.

"Uh, hate to interrupt but when do we start?" Alex asked, standing near the karaoke machine. Tyler, who was adjusting the machine looked up at his friend.

"Now hold on." he frowned. "I'm not finished here."

Vincent nodded, proud to take control. "We'll start once Tyler is done. Hurry up Tyler."

"Hey, don't rush me!" Tyler called out as he made sure the karaoke microphones worked well.

-= ⭐️⭐️⭐️ =- (The three stars are watching the ducks)

"Alright!" Vincent spoke into the microphone. He watched as the other zodiacs took their seats. Vivian, however, stood with a microphone in her hand. "Once everyone has settled, we can start the event." Once everyone had seated, Vincent continued. "Alright, everyone's in their spots. Tyler have you got the introductory slides up?"

Tyler, sitting on a beanbag with his laptop connected to the projector, pulled up the introductory slides the Earth signs made and gave a thumbs up. "Slides are ready."

"Good. Tahlia? The camera?"

"Camera's ready." Tahlia, next to her camera, waved. "Not recording though."

"That's fine. Alright." Vincent said, his arm held out as he was about to hug. "Welcome to the first ever Zodiac Street slides night!"

Most of the group cheered and applauded. Some of them (mainly Levin, Sabrina, Carol and Skyler) covered their ears to the loud cheers.

"Settle down, settle down. We have the introductory slides to get through " Vincent silenced the lot. The group gradually fell into silence. "Anyways, welcome everyone. Thank you all for coming here. I know a lot of you are excited, myself included. But we need to go through some housekeeping rules as well as the schedule of the day."

"Rules? In a slides night?" Alyssa groaned.

"Yes, Ally. Even Slides Night has housekeeping rules."

"But that's boring."

Vivian sighed. "It's only quick. Tyler next slide." Tyler clicked the next slide and showed the rules. The rules were what everyone expected- general rules on respect, equality and fairness.

Once the rules were shown, Vincent and Vivian talked about the schedule of the day. Most of the group dozed off but a few gathered some information.

Everyone's attention returned when the two talked about group placements.

"As you may know," Vincent gestured to the group, "We have twelve different groups. However, with twelve different groups comes the issue of placing the order of presentations. So after a conversation with peers-"

"You mean a conversation among the Earth signs..." someone piped up.

"I was speaking Sienna, but yes. A conversation with the Earth signs-" Vincent crossed his arms. Alyssa groaned loudly.

"I can already guess where this is going," Alyssa said pointedly. "You two have already assigned the group placements."

"No!" Vivian shook her head much to Alyssa's surprise. "We've decided to see the placements on the actual day." She picked up a mini whiteboard seated on the chair and showed the list of placements. On the board, the group noticed numbers from one to twelve down horizontally all followed by a space. The seventh one, however, had the word 'Leo' next to it.

"Why's Leo at number seven?" Arlen asked.

"Leo and Lily requested it, for their presentation."

"And you're gonna assign the other zodiacs in a biased list." Skyler scoffed.

"You're wrong," Vincent spoke up to defend Vivian. "We're not going to assign the placements. That's biased and unfair. Instead..." He and Vivian gestured to the table under the projector where the bingo wheel sat.

"Isn't that the wheel they use in bingo halls?" Giselle, on the couch hugging a cushion, pointed to the wheel.

"Are you calling us old?" Colin questioned, "Wow. I know you two stoop low. But not that low." Pete tutted and shook his head.

"No one is calling each other old here!" Vivian crossed her arms. "The wheel is here to help with placements. It'll pick one of the eleven capsules like... this!" Vivian rotated the wheel and a blue capsule dropped out. She collected the capsule, popped it open and got out a slip. "We got... Capricorn."

Cleo and Cameron's eyes widened.

"How about we spice things up a bit? We set the placements from last to first place?" Vincent suggested, receiving the capsule and paper from Vivian and placing them beside the wheel.

"Not a bad idea!" Vivian wrote 'Capricorn' in the last slot and showed the whiteboard to the group. Cleo and Cameron breathed a sigh of relief. The others, however...

"What?"

"Awww..."

"I wanted to be last.."

"Quit complaining!" Vivian shouted. "You haven't even got your spots yet!" She turned to Vincent near the wheel. "Vincent. Who's number eleven?"

Vincent rolled the wheel and received a capsule, popping it open immediately. "For eleventh place, we have the Pisces team!"

"Yes!" Pete cheered. He gave a high-five to Phoebe seated next to him.

Sabrina turned from the duo to the Virgos at the front. "Are you two just moving up the placements with the wheel?"

Vivian nodded and wrote 'Pisces' at the eleventh spot. "Yep. Also Vincent, number ten?"

"Number ten is Gemini."

Giselle punched two fists in the air. "Alright! Not first place!"

"At nine we have Libra."

Levin and Lizzy gave each other a high-five.

"Eighth place is Cancer. We already know Leo is at seventh."

Colin and Carol shared a smile. Next to them, Leo and Lily, who were unsurprised in their placement, sipped from red cups of cream soda because they had outgrown their previous favourite drink.

"At number six we have Aries."

Alex breathed a sigh of relief. Alyssa however commented, "Not number one, but doable."

"Fifth place are the Scorpios." Vincent acknowledged Sabrina and Skyler's fist pump. He received the next capsule. "And four we have... Virgo! Hey Vivian, we're at number four!"

"I am aware." Vivian did not look up from the whiteboard. "Scorpio at number five and... Virgo at four? Yeah, Virgo's four. Number three?"

Vincent read out the next slip for third place. "Taurus. Third place is Taurus."

"Thank goodness." Tyler exhaled from his spot. He shared a look with Tahlia who relaxed on her spot, happy she wasn't first.

Tahlia nodded and turned to the Virgos. "Sagittarius and Aquarius are the last ones remaining, right?"

"Yep!" Vincent answered rotating the wheel's lever.

Arlen crossed both his fingers. "I'm hoping Aquarius is at least second place."

"Imagine if Arlen got it wrong, Sagittarius got second place instead," Gilbert smirked. "Hoping they do." Arlen shot a glare at his housemate.

"Alright! Second place!" Vincent received the capsule and popped it open. "Second place is Aquarius!"

"Aww, I was wrong. I was waiting for wolf boy to be wrong." Gilbert looked down with a frown. Skyler and Sam, on the floor, pointed up at him and laughed.

"Which means Sagittarius is going first." Vincent received the last capsule and popped it open. "Yep! Uh... what? Sogittarius? Vivian, you spelt Sagittarius wrong!"

Vivian received the slip. "I spelt it right, look that's an 'a'. You must be dreaming!"

"Looks more like an 'o'." Vincent snatched the slip back. "Also, I'm not dreaming."

"Let me see it." Alyssa held a hand out. After receiving the slip and reading it, Alyssa pointed it towards Vivian. "Vincent's correct. That looks like an 'o'."

"See? Told you."

"Glad to be a Sogittarius." Sienna leaned back on the beanbag. "Also question, do we start the presentations now?"

"Not now, we need time for the first six groups to get ready. Plus everyone in the first needs to email their slides to Tyler." Vivian specified. She turned to Tyler who, comfortable in his beanbag, winked and pointed his fingers as if he was a cowboy about to do a showdown. "We'll be having a ten-minute interval to relax, prepare ourselves, and gather snacks."

Gilbert cheered. "Let's go, everyone!" Then everyone cheered.

-= ⭐️⭐️⭐️ =- (The three are enjoying their picnic food. Bob is resting his head on Zoe's lap. Meanwhile Jay is taking photos of the scenery)

For the break, the group was split into two groups. The first group; the Aquarians, Sagittarians, Taureans, Virgos, Scorpios and Arians made their way inside the house to work on slide preparation. Everyone else rendezvoused in the sunroom.

Phoebe, Levin, Lily, Cleo, Giselle and Lizzy were all grouped near the piano and engaged in a talk. They kept an eye on Gilbert, Colin, Cameron, Leo and Pete who started to hog the snacks until Giselle stormed over and told them to stop. Carol in the meantime, sat by herself cross-legged on the couch.

"Heard there's gonna be a super moon next week," Phoebe announced after looking through her feed on her phone. She turned off her phone and tucked it in her dress pockets.

"Supermoon?" Levin questioned.

"Yeah, it's when the moon appears larger than usual."

"Do you exactly when the supermoon is?"

Phoebe shook her head. "I only know it's next week."

"Hold on, I can check." Lizzy began searching on her phone. "Thursday."

"Next Thursday?" Carol inquired from the couch, turning her head to listen in on the conversation. She waved to Vivian and Skyler who entered the sunroom from the house. "Hi, you two!"

"Hello!" Vivian said with a wave. Skyler nodded as he acknowledged her presence.

Vivian unveiled House 7's dish to reveal a platter with crackers, dip, apples, carrots, pepperoni pieces, grapes and cheese. "Whoa, fancy." She picked up one of the plastic plates Vincent provided on the table alongside a stack of red cups and picked her food. "What's everyone talking about?"

"We were just talking about the supermoon next Thursday!" Cleo answered.

"Supermoon? Those are lovely to see. I should probably put that on my calendar."

"Make a mental note," Skyler suggested. "That's better than using a calendar."

Vivian shushed him. She then furrowed her brows and Gilbert's mountain of chips. "Hey, make sure to share."

"I am sharing!" Gilbert defended himself. "It's for Sabrina."

Vivian raised an eyebrow. "I hope you aren't lying. I don't want to send you to the playpen this early on."

"Playpen?" Leo asked. His and everyone else's gaze followed Vivian's point to a red playpen near the mini kitchen. "What's that for?"

"The Crazy Club playpen. A timeout corner."

"Is that even necessary?"

"No, but someone has to keep an eye on you. It's mainly for Gilberta and Alyssa."

"WHY?" was Gilbert's cry.

"Because both of you cause ninety per cent of the chaos!"

"Just to spice things up!" (and we're grateful for that!)

"Alright, Gilbert go in the pen."

"Gladly. After I give these chips to Sabrina." Gilbert then ran inside. "SABRINA, SABRINA! HELP! SOMEONE MEAN IS CHASING ME!"

"HEY, GET BACK HERE!" Vivian chased after him. The other crazy club members followed her with Colin sneaking a pepperoni piece into his mouth before he joined the others.

Skyler rolled his eyes to the ceiling and joined Carol on the couch. "We're always subject to chaos, aren't we?"

"We are." Carol turned around in her spot to face him. "But it makes it enjoyable! If there's no chaos, then that won't be fun, wouldn't it?"

"That is true." Skyler rested his elbow on the seat's back. He rested his cheek on his hand. "How are you feeling by the way?"

"Excited." Carol switched her sitting posture and hugged her legs close. "I can't wait to see everyone's presentations!" she tilted her head to the side, "What about you?"

"Ah..." Skyler looked down. "Butterflies."

"Butterflies? Why? Are you nervous?"

"Would say that, yeah." Skyler nodded, "I'm worried that I may not do well up there. Sabrina, I know she has confidence, but me?"

"Skyler, you know it's perfectly valid to feel those feelings." Carol lowered her legs. "Everyone is probably feeling the same feeling. Even Sabrina. Heck, me included." she clasped her hands in front of her, "It's fine to feel nervous."

"So, it's okay to feel nervous?"

"Yeah, but make sure to take a breath and try your best!"

"I could forget my words. That'll be embarrassing."

"And that's okay. And-" Carol scooted closer next to him. She picked up both of his hands and held them close, "I want you to look at me, Skyler." He turned and faced her, noticing her eyes directly looking into his. "I believe you can do it! One or few or many missteps don't define you. Give it a go with your head held high. You got this."

Skyler nodded, "You're right. Also," he raised an eyebrow, "is the pep talk necessary?"

"Pep talks are always necessary! Cliché but a necessity!"

"You're right, you're right." Skyler smiled, "Thank you, Carol. You're the best."

"I'm fabulous."

Skyler's eyes widened, "Did Leo influence you?"

"What?"

"You mentioned 'fabulous'. First, it was Tyler, then Gilbert, then Cameron and now you."

"It's a movement." Carol joked. "A fabulous one."

"Carol..." Skyler laughed, "You're fabulous." He embraced her in a warm hug.

"Whoa." Carol and Skyler turned in their spot to see Sienna at the sliding door, "Are you back together?" She frowned when the two pulled back and shook their heads. "Aw, thought you were."

"Did we miss anything?" Vincent, who was behind Sienna, stepped into the room. Behind him was Vivian, dragging in Gilbert with Alyssa skipping behind him.

"You missed a talk about a supermoon!" Carol turned around in her seat.

"I know about that. That's the one next Thursday. Vivian told me. But that's beside the point." Vincent placed his hands on his hips. "Call everyone into the sunroom, we're beginning the presentations!"

-= ⭐️⭐️⭐️ =- (After eating, the trio decide to go on a nature walk in the park)

"Look baby, I'm sorry! Can't we just forget this happened?"

She pressed her lips together and listened to the rain pitter-patter on the porch's roof. He stood in the rain in just a raincoat, breathing heavily, she stood under the shelter of her porch, near her family home.

It wasn't out of the ordinary for him to stand outside her porch for an apology. He does this for every fight. He would wallow and blame himself for being silly. He would point a finger at her too and smile at her apology. He would leave victorious, she would turn back in doubt.

He does this every time. This is no exception. She wished he would leave her alone.

"Please baby, it's not my fault!" he pleaded, "She- she made a move first! You know me, baby, I would say no."

"Then how come in the photo, you seemed to enjoy that kiss?"

"Baby, I wasn't thinking about myself. Look, I'm only seventeen! I don't know what I was doing."

"Sure." she crossed her arms.

"Please baby, you need to understand. Please. Do you forgive me?"

The rain poured heavier. He looked up at the sky, muttered to himself and stepped forward to her porch. But she held a hand out to stop him.

"No."