Chapter 8: Vacation

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2 months later

The dim light of the moon illuminated inside the tree house where I was sitting on the floor playing uno with Rufus and Felix, with a lamp beside us.

It's true what they about this game, it could ruin friendships. Not in a serious way, but the one where you glare at them for giving you more cards.

Looking down at my cards I organized them in sections of my colors or the 'good cards'. Looking at the pile I saw we were currently on blue. 'Karma' I thought as I picked a card.

Putting down a plus 4 card Felix automatically looked at me "come on! I was about to have uno!"

"Get your cards Felix. Oh and I'll change the color to...red." I said keeping a straight face.

Rufus looks at his cards one by one before putting one. I tried glancing at his cards but he saw me and quickly turned them away.

Putting down my other card "Uno!" Me and Felix yell in unison. "I said it first." I told him.

"No I said it first." He said pointing at himself.

We both turned to Rufus and said at the same time "Who said it first?"

He came closer and pointed to me "You."

"Ha! I told you I said it!" I yelled triumphantly standing up and doing a little victory dance.

"No fair he loves you of course he would choose you." He playfully glared.

We continued to play for a while longer until I yawned. "Hey what time is it?" I asked stretching my arms above my head.

"Time for us to get going inside and sleep." He replied.

He went down first as I closed the hatch and made my way inside the house. Grabbing a couple of snacks in the kitchen I made my way upstairs. He was already waiting in my room laying out his sleeping bag.

We were having our usual once a month sleep over. A tradition we've had since kids. One we intend to keep till we're adults.

I told him when we would do this even when we have kids and he agreed.

"Ron what are you doing next weekend?" Felix said as he was getting comfortable. As I set up the movie.

"I don't think I'm doing anything why?" I asked turning to him and back to putting searching for a movie in my dvd case.

"Well me and Monique were going to go to the skating rink and we were wondering if you wanted to come along." He sat up

"And be a third wheel uh no thanks. Sorry but the smooching is a bit too much." I replied turning on the TV.

He smiled and added "Well I guess a certain redhead won't have someone to hang out with then, because she's coming." He waited for my reaction.

I stopped what I was doing and turned around my first thought was if by a certain redhead he meant Kim and I stared at him wondering if I heard him right.

"Kim's going?" I ask as causally as I could trying to hide the excitement in my voice, but failed miserably.

"That's what I said. What other redhead do we know?" He continued "So are you coming with us or what?" He asked hopefully.

If I go I hang out with Kim, if I don't then I'm stuck at home playing games. Both were appealing to me. Ultimately hanging out with Kim seemed better.

"Ya I'll go." I said smiling at him.

Picking up the remote I moved back towards him with the bowl of snacks. "Ok so which movie are we watching I got a few options...?"

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Taking a exaggerated deep breath as I exit the double doors of Middleton High. Days like these made me excited knowing that I would be free from this prison for a month.

I don't have to deal with teachers, homework, or some of the kids here. Don't get me wrong, but there is always people that you just don't like.

Kicking the snow that had piled up in the last couple of days I made my way over to a tree and leaned against it waiting for my little crew to come out.

'What's taking them so long?' I asked myself. I didn't want to go in just to look for them. I was comfortable here.

I'll give them 5 minutes before I leave them.

I wouldn't actually leave them I would be ridden by guilt and would've apologized profusely next time I saw them. For now I could wait then.

I was thinking about what I would do this vacation. Of course there's that thing with Monique, Felix, and Kim. I usually go over to Felix's house for Christmas Eve. Since we don't celebrate it so my parents don't mind me going.

A small tap breaks my train of thought and I look up to see the blond headed cheerleader "Hey Ron."

"Hey" I responded. I gotten to know Tara better since I would see her at every football game, we would talk after or over text. She's a nice person. Felix pointed out that she has a thing for me. I don't see it.

"You know some teachers don't get what vacation is. They give us packets of homework." She complained crossing her arms over her chest and frowned looking off into the distance.

"I know right. What do they expect us to do? Give up our time and do their dirty work." I said raising my arms up. "It's like they don't want us to have...fun."

She laughed and then quieted down and pretended to be serious and leaned in closer to me "You can't say the F word to loud Ron, the teachers might hear you."

I bursted out laughing. I enjoy her sense of humor. "What are you going to do during this vacation?" I asked out of curiosity.

"I'm not sure, maybe go out of town and visit my grandparents like always" she shrugged "or maybe...no I'm pretty sure we're going out of town. What about you?"

"Hmmm? Most likely just stay here in plain old Middleton with the 'rents." I replied causally.

"Maybe we could do something before I leave since I won't see you for I don't know a month." I turned to her and smiled.

"Can't be that long without the Ron shine can you?" I teased playfully bumping into her shoulder.

"You know I can't. But seriously we should do something okay." A car beep interrupted out conversation and she grabbed her bag that she had on the ground and gave me a hug "Bye Ron."

"I'll text you to see if I can go out okay!" I yelled at her retreating figure. She didn't turn back but just raised a thumbs up as she ran towards her car.

"So are you going to ask her out?" A teasing voice said from behind me.

"Felix!" Turning abruptly, taking deep breath "You scared me. How long have you been standing there?"

"Long enough. So...?" He questioned crossing his arms over his chest.

"So...what?" I asked back hoping he would drop the topic of Tara.

"Don't play dumb with me Ronald you know hat I'm talking about." He said mimicking mom's voice.

I cracked a smile "No I'm not asking her out me and her are just friends." Hoisting my backpack off my shoulders I opened it to reach my water bottle.

"We're still on for Saturday right?" I asked after taking a long swig of the water. He nodded "yup!"

Me and him both turned to see the figure of two girls we knew all to we'll exit the building. "Did you guys go to the store? We've been waiting freezing our butts off." Felix said smiling at them.

"We didn't tell you guys to wait out here did we?" Monique retorted.

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"Do you want something to eat?" Felix called out from the kitchen.

"Uh what do you have? Wait never mind. Could I have some of the fruit juice your making?"

A few minutes later he came out with two glasses he handed one over to me before plopping down on the couch. "Are you ready for later?" He asked

"Well I'm probably going to embarrass myself, but that's nothing new." I pointed out.

"Remember at your last football game when they tackled you into the water boy." He said bursting into laughter.

"Haha it's not that funny when your the one who was center of attention that whole week." Crossing my arms over my chest annoyed. The more I thought about that incident the more funny it seemed.

"You know what it was kind of funny wasn't it." I chuckled a bit, but soon it was a full laugh.

"That water tasted really good though. The only good that came out of that season was me beating the school running back record." I added.

"That was amazing I've never seen you run so fast before not even from bullies." He said remembering that day.

"I just saw 8 guys coming at me an then I saw everyone cheering. I Honestly thought I was going the wrong way."

We soon quieted down he turned and asked "So you and Tara?" With a slight smile.

I put my hands on the side of my face, rolled my eyes and said with a heavy sigh "How many times do I need to say this she's my friend. Why do you keep trying to get me together with her? I don't like her that way. Can't a guy and girl be just friends and that's it?"

"Your feelings can change, like in the movies." He said taking a drink from his glass. "Well I think a guy and girl can't be just friends. But that's my opinion."

Crossing my arms over my chest I leaned my head and turned it looking towards the clock. I started making a ticking sound with my tongue for a while. then I suddenly asked "when do they get here?"

He rose from the seat and shrugged "I'm not sure they should've been here by now I'll text her."

"Ok you do that." I said to him as he made his way down the hall.

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"I can't believe they were already here while we were drinking that delicious juice." I said out of breath since me and Felix basically ran from his house to here. I probably lost about 20 pounds.

Felix who was also equally out of breath "Dude, how do I smell?"he asked me as he smelled his armpit.

I leaned in closer and sniffed "you smell like a Giraffe." I said with a small smile.

He panicked and then calmed down as he realized I was joking "how does a Giraffe even smell like?" I shrugged as went to the line and paid for our entrance and skates

"Hey Felix." Monique said as she came and gave Felix a kiss she turned "and hello to you to Ron." She greeted before turning her attention back to Felix.

Smiling to myself I looked at them. I was happy for Felix I really was. Why? Well Monique makes him happy and when my best friends happy so am I. She's not a bad person either and doesn't make Felix choose between me and her.

Plus she likes our video games and wrestling shows. 'Ya she's a keeper' I told Felix one time and he agreed. He admitted to me that he might even love her, but won't tell her yet because he doesn't want to scare her away.

Wait a minute where's Kim?

"Stalking people. Never knew that was your hobby." I turned and smiled. She had her hands behind her back as she was leaning forward a bit "Keep me company, you didn't come all the way out here to just stalk them did you?" She added with a slight pout.

"I came to hang out with a red head. Have you seen her around? She's like this big" I motioned with my hand her approximate height.

She put her hand on her chin as if she were thinking. "Hmmm I don't think I've seen her, but since she's not here you can come with me." With that she grabbed my hands and dragged me to a more secluded area.

I grabbed onto her hands for dear life. Did I forget to mention to her I really didn't know how to do this? Maybe I did.

"Wait-wait!" I panicked. I miscalculated my next movement and slipped backwards and fell on my butt with a small yelp. 'Ow!" That hurt like a b****.

I rolled to my side rubbing my butt "I'm going to get a bruise aren't I?" She nodded as she laughed clutching into her stomach "You were like...and then you...hahaha!" She fell to her knees "oh god I can't breath." She continued pushing as I got up and brushed my clothes down.

"It's kind of embarrassing to admit, but I really don't know how to do this. Felix tried teaching me- it didn't work out." Rubbing the back of my neck and turned away from her trying to keep my balance.

I heard the ice underneath her scrape from the blades of her skates and I felt her hand on my shoulder "Well we have all day and I can show you. If you'd like?" She said nervously not meeting my eyes.

"Okay then let's try this KP."

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About 2 hours later from that we had wet pants and jackets from all the falling. Surprisingly I had actually got down the skating part.

We were making our way back on to the the ice to the spot we were on half and hour ago towards an empty bench.

"You know my dad actually thought me how to do this." She confessed grabbing a hand full of snow.

I shuddered when she mentioned her dad. I met him about a month ago, he was really intimidating, now he was actually being nice to me.

"Really?" I asked genuinely surprised. She turned knowing what I was thinking about "it wasn't that bad Ron." And playfully hit my shoulder.

"Not that bad" I repeated "he threatens to put me in a space probe and launch me into a black hole Kim. Who wouldn't be scared?"

"Well he only did that since your the only guy I've introduced him to." I looked at her curiously "and why have I been the only guy."

"Well the others...let's just say they definitely wouldn't have been accepted. But your just a really like able person. I don't know you just make people happy. So I trusted you to go and meet them. Your a great guy Ron, so I knew they would like you." She shrugged not really knowing what to say.

It was nice of her to let me meet her parents even though I haven't taken her to meet mine. The sound of ice being crunched together made me turn to her.

I was to late and had a face full of ice. Wiping it off she got off the bench and ran. "Oh it's on!" I yelled running after her.

I grabbed a handful of ice and crunched it into a ball and aimed at her. I threw it, but she ducked and rolled into a bush.

"Don't go all spy mode on me now." I teased. Slowly I crouched down grabbing another handful and approached the bush she was at. I spotted her trying to crawl towards a different bush.

I quietly made my way over to her. She turned as I jumped on her as she tried to get up. I had grabbed her hands dropping the snow in them and pinned them above her head. "Give up?"

"Never." She growled. She kept bucking underneath me. I soon realized how close we were her face was pretty close to mine. If someone passed by they would think we were going out.

I noticed she stopped struggling and soon everything became quiet all I heard was our breathing. My heart was beating out of my chest I was pretty sure hers was to.

I studied her features since I've never been so close to her. Her striking green eyes staring right back at me, the fine arch of her eyebrow, I looked down to her full lips. I wondered how they would feel against mine?

I noticed she was leaning up towards me with hooded eyes and her breathing quickened and I soon found myself leaning into her to. I felt her breath on my lips as we were about to meet.

"Hey have you seen my dog out here!" I heard someone scream. My eyes widened the size of melons and I jumped off of her as if she was the plague. I stared at the little boy who was about 15 feet from us. Not knowing what was about to happen.

She stayed still for a moment looking as shocked as I was. She stood up and patted her clothes down and fixed her hair. We were both flushing and avoid making eye contact.

I said in a shaky breath "um w-what dog? I haven't seen a dog." I turned to Kim and asked her "have you seen a dog here."

"Uh no I haven't seen a dog." She answered quickly. The little boy seems to have accepted our answer "Wait I see him." He turned abruptly and ran off screaming "Max! Get back here!"

Wow. I was about to kiss Kim. Did I mess everything up. She probably didn't want to be my friend anymore. Was she caught up in the moment and hats why she made no move to stop me?

"Um maybe we should head back." I offered looking up to the sky. "Ya we should." She agreed.

The walk back was silent and awkward. I was worried that I actually ruined things between me and her. She broke the silence "You have something in your hair Ron. It's been bugging me since we started walking." She reached up and brushed it off offering me small smile.

"Wait I think I dropped something." I reached down and grabbed snow in my hand as she was tying her shoe. Standing behind her I shoved the snow on down her back.

She screamed and turned to me " you are so going to pay for that." And she full on sprinted at me.

Ya we were good for now. As long as one didn't bring up what almost happened it the feelings behind that. We'll put this behind us. For now I'm going to try and survive her wrath.

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"You guys ready to go" Felix asked approaching us with Monique at his side. Me and Kim were drinking some hot cocoa waiting for them.

"Well actually we should be asking you that we've been here for about and hour talking." I stated smiling up to them.

"Well then scoot your butt over and let us sit down."

The next 2 hours were spent with us laughing and talking about everything and nothing. With me and Kim on the same side and Monique and Felix on the other. Me and Kim got over that awkwardness we felt earlier and silently agreed not to bring up what happened earlier today.

Looking at her laughing I realized that I was in for some big trouble.

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A/N: Felix isn't in a wheel chair in my story and he won't be for a while. Aww Ron likes Kim but doesn't realize just how much.

I'll try to get there next chapter out faster, since in about 2-3 weeks I'm going to be loaded with work. Till next time.