"COME ON, LEO! it's not that bad," AJ complains as the eight sit around in the valentine girls bedroom. 

"you guys stole their stereo! that is pretty bad," leonora valentine shakes her head like a disappointed parent. 

armani shrugs, kicking his feet up and resting them on leonora's desk. paloma, adelaide and AJ all sat on leonora's bed. athena and isabelle sat at the foot of the bed, reading through a poetry book together while elliot lay on the floor, occasionally drumming his fingers on the rug. 

"you're overreacting, val," elliot commented, not bothering to look at the girls' facial expression. leonora rolled her eyes, sitting on the director's seat she recently bought on amazon, her cat moose on her lap.

.•° ✿ °•. 

"it's been a week and a half since
the new neighbors moved in and
half of the group have already gone
and stolen their stereo! i mean
twenty-three is so annoying, but stealing?
not the best look."
— leonora

°•. ✿ .•°

"personally, i think stealing isn't cool. i just didn't say anything," isabelle quickly jumped in. leonora took a deep breath, recently the younger girl had been trying to be like her, at first leonora thought it was cute but it began to get too much. 

"maybe we can wait for tonight and see what happens," armani suggested, reaching into leonora's desk drawer and pulling out her stash of watermelon gumballs. 

paloma nodded, clapping her hands together, alerting the boy to give her a gumball. the valentine girl sighed, she had gotten used to them stealing her food though it still annoyed her the slightest bit. 

"i think we should blame it on leo if they find out," elliot jokes, glancing at leonora who seemed to have zoned out. the group laughed at his joke. 

leonora snaps back into reality when armani throws a gumball at her. she pets her cat while biting into the oval-shaped, flavored gum. 

"whatever, just— don't act guilty," leonora stated, she knew very well she would be the one to act guilty, even if she hadn't done it. 

"right! like innocent until proven guilty?" isabelle enthusiastically says, raising her finger in the air. 

leonora shrugs and nods, flashing a smile at the fourteen-year-old. the door opens revealing one of leonora's dads. 

"dad, what are you doing?" 

"nothing, silly. hello, i'm jesse, one of leo's dads!" the male with faint orange hair waved at the group, placing down the tray of snacks he brought up on the floor.

"thanks, dad!" leonora pouted, smiling at her father. he put his hands up into a heart at his daughter before closing the door and exiting. 

"your dad is so cool!" AJ gapes, leaning over the bed to grab a few pretzels from the glass bowl on the wooden tray. 

"yeah, he's pretty cool," leonora silently answers, smiling to herself. 

the group quietly munched on the snacks, sharing jokes and stories with each other. paloma walked over to leonora, fiddling with one of her rings.

"hey, leo?" 

"what's up, lola?" leonora sweetly answered, using the nickname paloma gave the group.

"where's your bathroom?" the girl shyly asks.

"down the hall to the right," leonora replies. paloma nods, quickly walking out of the room and to the bathroom. 

.•° ✿ °•.

"i had to use the bathroom, my
social anxiety was starting to
kick in and along with my
autism, i began to get lightheaded.
i haven't told anyone about it yet
so i have to try keep it on the low"
— paloma

°•. ✿ .•°

"alright, meeting adjourned!" leonora laughed as everyone began to get out of hand. armani began to play taylor swift on his phone, letting everyone slow dance together. 

"dance with us, nora!" athena called the girl over. leonora shook her head, she was a professional dancer but never liked to talk about it.

armani began to lean backwards, head-first off leonora's bed as he belted the lyrics to sad beautiful tragic, laughing at isabelle doing her ballet routine.

"get up, val!" elliot whined, currently trying to copy isabelle's form. leonora chuckled at the boys actions, smiling at paloma who re-entered the room and instantly began dancing with adelaide. 

leonora rolled her eyes in defeat, gently picking moose up and placing him back on the seat after she stood up. the song had changed to starlight, all eight teenagers were jumping around the room, laughing loudly. 

armani and leonora began to jokingly ballroom dance in the middle of the room. elliot started playing the air guitar with isabelle leaning onto him and belting the lyrics. 

paloma, AJ, and adelaide changed the song to everything has changed. azaria and paloma singing taylor's verses in the song and forcing adelaide to sing ed sheeran's parts. 

elliot walked over to armani as the two laughed loudly while stupidly slow dancing together, tripping over multiple times.

isabelle skipped over to leonora and the pair swayed mockingly, singing the lyrics with the the other three girls. athena made her way over after eating another few gummy worms. 

❀⊱┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄⊰❀

            THE GROUP ENDED up getting payback on number twenty-three that night, blasting their favorite songs all night (mainly taylor swift) because leonora's dad's had gone out for the night.

at one am there was a loud banging on the door, leonora quickly made armani turn the music down as she slid on her dressing gown as an innocent disguise. the other six stayed hidden as she answered the door, yawning for a more believable performance. 

"may i help you?" she innocently asked the familiar woman at her door. 

"are you blasting music?" the woman angrily asked, sticking her head past leonora. 

"no, ma'am. i thought that was you," she shrugged.

the woman grunted, rolling her eyes and leaving. leonora sighed in triumph, shutting the door and sliding down the back, a big grin on her face.

"this is falling for you and you are worlds away!" AJ sang as armani began to turn the volume back up, to a respectable level.

isabelle high-fived her role model in awe. leonora chuckled at the girl, high-fiving back. 

it was three in the morning when the group finally fell asleep. armani, AJ, adelaide and isabelle had passed out from exhaustion on the floor of leonora's room. 

leonora and paloma covered them with blankets, athena set up her own sleeping space on the floor as well while paloma, elliot and leonora all squeezed into the bed. 

"elliot your fucking foot is so cold!" paloma hissed, kicking whoever's foot had been touching hers. 

"elliot, you're breathing too loud!" leonora grumbled, elbowing the boy next to her. 

"ow! get over it, val," elliot groaned, all he wanted was a good nights sleep. leonora sighed, turning so her back was facing elliot's chest, elliot and paloma's backs were squished together.

just as leonora was about to drift off to sleep elliot moved his head in his sleep, pulling her hair along with him. she winced, sitting up and clutching her scalp. 

she grabbed her pillow and a spare blanket, making her way downstairs to sleep on the couch. as soon as she moved, elliot turned over, taking up the rest of the space.

leonora tossed and turned on the couch, falling off multiple times while doing so. she picked up her ukulele and silently began strumming, there was nothing else to do and she was hot, agitated, and anxious.

NOTES:

→ wow! another update, y'all are
lucky asf. i finished this five minutes
before my math call.

→ sorry this wasn't published at the usual
time i would normally write and publish.
anyway, i went early christmas shopping 
yesterday bc we don't know if we're going
to have christmas in lockdown yet😧

→ i had been procrastinating writing this
basically all day but here it is. now i gotta go,
my call is like rn!! thank you for reading, remember
to comment and vote so i stay motivated!!

→ i love you all! mwah <33