Encounter with Fate

Summer party pt.2

Where we left off:

Skull scooted over and patted the now free space, offering it to her. She smiled and muttered a small thank you as she sat beside him.

"I'm glad you made it." Skull smiled, though she couldn't tell because of his bandana. "Didn't think Specs would let you guys come to Aloha's summer party."

"To be honest, I didn't think he would either." Headphones sighed "Well not without laying down some ground rules."

"Ground rules?"

"Yeah... Aloha's parties can get crazy, so that's where the 'ground rules come in. The first rule is to stay close to people that you know." She paused for a bit, and Skull nodded to confirm he was still listening. "Rule two be careful with drinks in 'cause there's alcohol, and rule three if you decide to leave early text the others to let them know when you get back home." She sighed as she finished counting off the rules.

Skull laughed a little making her face turn blue from embarrassment.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." he said with a grin "Well at least you know he really cares about you guys."

"Yeah...oh wait! Skull what are we going to do about our training sessions with school starting?"

"We could have them on the weekends instead." He suggested, he pulled out his phone and tapped on the calendar app. "We just have to check in with each other in case something comes up."

"That'll work," Headphones pulled out her phone, going into her texts "I'll text Half-rim about the new training schedule."

Skull frowned at the mention of telling Half-rim, as she texted Half-rim the new time plan, she noticed his frown.

"Are you okay?" She asked sounding a little concerned.

"Yeah," Skull got up from the chair "I'm going to grab a drink, nothing with alcohol, do you want anything?"

"Sure"

As Headphones watched Skull walked towards the porch doors, she now noticed Aloha crouched down between Mask and Bobble, and Mask looked annoyed. The chair that she and Skull were sitting was only a couple of feet away from them, Headphones knew she shouldn't be eavesdropping, but it just sort of happened. She was too busy talking to Skull that helped drown out Mask and Bobbles conversation. She knew she should probably get up and walk away, but she was saving Skull's seat.

"Bobbles~ can you help me a sec?" Aloha asked, with his usual sly smile.

"What you want Aloha?" Mask said sounding annoyed.

"Woah Mask, relax I just need to borrow Bobbles for a bit to help me." He explained while putting an arm around Bobbles shoulder, which received a glare from Mask. "I need to grab some towels because some people forgot to bring their own, just need help carrying them out here."

Mask was now glaring at Aloha, while he gave him a smug smile. Bobbles looked at Mask then Aloha, looking at them questioningly.

"Sure," Bobbles said a little confused "no big deal."

"Great!"

Aloha helped her up, grabbed her hand, and hurried towards the porch doors. Specs also saw Aloha practically dragging Bobbles towards the porch doors and now had a concerned look on his face.

"I'll watch the rest of the video when I get back!" Bobbles yelled towards Mask while being dragged away.

Mask cursed Aloha under his breath, as he paused the video he and Bobbles were watching on his phone. As Aloha dragged Bobbles through the door, they nearly bumped into Skull, holding two drinks. Aloha muttered an apology as they passed Skull, who gave them a questioning look.

"Aloha, what are you doing?" Headphones wondered as Skull arrived with their drinks.

"It's fruit punch," Skull said as he handed her the drink.

"Thanks"

"So do you know what Aloha is up to?" he asked as he took his seat.

"He said he needed help carrying some towels and asked Bobblehat for help, but I think he maybe planning something or he's trying to mess with Mask," she answered while taking a sip from her drink.

"That does sound like him."

After a few minutes, Aloha came back out carrying a stack of folded beach towels, except Bobbles wasn't with him. As he put down the stack of beach towels on a mini fold-out table, Specs immediately stormed over to him.

"Aloha, where is Bobbles?" Specs asked with a slight edge to his voice.

"Oh, well when we were going to get the towels we ran into Jr. and he and Bobbles started talking." he gave a nervous laugh "I told Bobbles I'd get the towels so she and Jr. could catch up."

Aloha was smiling nervously after finishing his explanation, which Specs glare didn't lighten up after hearing it.

"Relax, she said she'd come back out after talking to Jr., they should still be by the laundry room if you want to check on her," Aloha said, trying to calm him down.

Specs took a deep breath. "You know what she's with someone she knows, so she should be okay. I'd said I'd ease up for the party, I can ease up and have fun..." he began to ramble to himself as he walked away and rejoined the group.

Aloha sighed in relief and joined them. After hearing their conversation Headphones looked over to Mask, he was now looking towards the porch doors, the grip on his phone tighter than normal.

"Aloha," Headphones muttered under her breath. "Not cool."

10 minutes later Bobbles came back out into the yard with Jr. trailing behind her, he was smiling as he talked and walked with her.

"...Anyway, Prinz is getting really hyped for the wedding special of Stev-." he stopped as he approached the S4, Rider, and Team Blue.

"Hey guys, look who I found!" Bobbles said while gesturing towards Jr. with her usual smile.

The others gave awkward Hi's and hellos to him, while Mask just glared at him. After the awkward introductions, anyone went back to their own thing, Mask got up from the edge of the pool and walked over to Bobbles and Jr.

"Bobbles, are we going to finish the video?" Mask asked while stealing a quick glance at Jr. for a sec.

"Sure!" Bobbles turned to Jr. "You're still going to swim Jr.?"

"Yeah, just got to grab a towel and put my jacket somewhere," Jr. replied giving her a grin.

With that Jr. walked off to grab a towel. Mask looked annoyed, but he turned away and walked over to the nearest free pool chair with Bobbles following close behind. As they both sat down Jr. walked back over to them.

"Hey, I can put my jacket and towel on your guy's chair?" he asked more to Bobbles than Mask.

"Oh, sure." Bobbles said with her usual cheerfulness, while Mask just grunted in response.

Jr. thanked the as he took off his jacket and laid it over the rail of the chair, along with his towel, Bobbles blushed a little when she saw him without his signature jacket. Jr. always wore his jacket, and it covered the black tank top he wore pretty well, this was the first time Bobbles saw him without it. Jr. noticed her blushing and give her one of his playful grins, as she turned away after being caught staring. Mask was glaring daggers at him, but Jr. didn't notice it as he took his shoes and tank top off and placed them on the chair. 

Headphones watched as Jr. winked at Bobbles and walked towards the pool ladder, even with Mask's signature gas mask Headphones could still make out the anger in his eyes. Headphones gave a frustrated sign after witnessing what happened, but she now had a better understanding of what was going on. Skull saw what happened and had a concerned look on his face.

"Man, I haven't seen Mask that mad since the time Aloha accidentally spilled soda on his phone," Skull said seeing Mask's anger. "Luckily the warranty was still good."

"Yeah, I have a feeling that things are going to get a little bit crazy tonight."