New Life, New Beginings

Chapter 6

"Ethan, Jakob, Chris this is Madison, my cousin and Madison this is Ethan, Jakob and Chris, my three best friends". I say, introducing each other.

"I already know Madison. She's my cousin as well". Says Chris.

Wait if Chris is her cousin and I'm Maddie's cousin, does that mean I'm related to Chris Lanzon??

Stunned as to what just came out of his mouth, I turned to chris and then asked,

"How long did you know about this?"

"Oh um well I had no idea that you were related to her"

"I didn't know that you guys were friends, I would have told you otherwise" Says Maddison.

I show Maddie around my house and we sit down in the lounge room, trying to think of a game to play together.

"How about we have a video game tournament?" Suggests Ethan.

"No, how about hide and seek?" Says Chris

"Nah those are boring, how about a game of soccer?" Asks Jakob.

"I like the hide and seek idea, what do you think Maddie?" I say turning to Maddison.

"Um yeah I say hide and seek. but I think that if we play in pairs it will be even better. So what do you say?" Answers Maddie.

"Sounds fun, but there is one slight problem..There are five of us now. One person will have to go by themselves". Says Ethan

"No they don't. Gracie is at home and I can call here to see if she wants to join the game. Is that ok Zoe?" Says Chris.

"Yeah that's fine. Thanks Chris". I say smiling at him.

Chris calls Gracie and she heads over. In the mean time we decide the teams.

"So Zoe and I, then Ethan and Gracie and Chris and Maddison. Are you guys good with that?" Exclaims Jakob.

We all agree and Gracie walks in the door and over to us. We tell Gracie the teams and then go over the rules. All of a sudden Ethan pipes up and says,

"How about I see if Tahlia can come and join to make it more people which equals more fun?" Asks Ethan.

"Yeah and then I can call Mikala over as well so they can be a team. You ok with that Zoe?" Says Jakob

"The more the merrier" I reply and they get out their phones and call their sisters.

After about 10 mins of chatting Mikala and Tahlia turn up and then we try and decide who counts first. After debating for a few minuets I run into my room grab a pen, a sheet of paper and a hat. I then return with the items and write each team on a piece of paper, rip it off and then place it in the hat.

"Ok so the names that are drawn out are finding the others first and then we will go from there" I say and place my hand in the hat, mix the pieces of paper around and then pull one out.

"So the lucky ones are... Jakob and I. Damn!" I say kind of bummed that I'm not hiding.

"Don't worry Zoe, I'm the master at this game, we will win this" Says Jakob giving me a high five.

"Ok guys your minute to hide starts now!" I say as Jakob and I place our heads on the couch so we can't see anything.

"58...59...60!" I finish counting and Jakob yells,

"Ready or not, here we come!! Sorry I've been waiting to yell that the whole time." We laugh at his cute childish response and then head off to find everyone.

The first place we look is the kitchen but we don't find anyone. Jakob heads out to the front yard and I follow. We open the door and walk out to and we find Tahlia and Mikala hiding in Mikala's car. They get out and follow us back inside and wait in the living room while Jakob and I continue to look for the others. We then go up to my room and I look under my bed and find Ethan lying there and then Jakob finds Gracie hiding in my closet. We then search the rest of the inside part of the house and Chris and Maddie are nowhere to be found. We then head out to the backyard and check the tent, the pool, and the shed and we still haven't found them. Then I remembered the one place that we haven't looked yet. The garage. I open the door and see I can the top of Chris's head through the window of the car. I creep up to the car and look inside but they aren't there. I sneak around the side of the car to see Chris and Maddie with their backs to us. This is the perfect opportunity.

"Boo!" I say as I place my hands on Chris's shoulders and he jumps so much that he almost hit the ceiling. Maddie screams because I must have scared her as well. Jakob and I burst out laughing because they were like little kids.

"Nice one Zoe!" Says Jakob as he high fives me.

We all head back into the lounge room to meet the others.

"So Thalia and Mikala, you guys were found first so its your turn to count. Good luck trying to find Zoe and I because we are gonna win this round" Says Jakob as he nudges Mikala.

They start counting and I pull Jakob aside.

"Follow me. I know the best place to hide." I whisper and grab his hand and run out of the house. I drag his across the backyard and behind the shed. I let go of his hand and kneel down on the ground and pull up a hidden door that looks like grass. I point down there and say,

"Don't worry we will be completely safe and hidden here. trust me."

He climbs down the ladder and I follow him quietly closing the door after I get down. I pull my phone out of my pocket and turn on the torch so we can see. I go and sit beside Jakob and start chatting.

"Are we allowed to be down here?" Asks Jakob, clearly kinda scared.

"Yeah mum is fine with me being down here as long as I have my phone, a way to get out and if someone is with me they have their phone as well." I reassure him.

We keep chatting quietly and then I start to get cold as there is no sunlight and it always gets cold down here but I always forget until I get hit with the chills.

"Are you cold or is that just me?" I ask.

"Nah I feel fine. Come here." Says Jakob and drags me closer to him and hugs me to help me get warm.

30 seconds pass with complete silence and then I can feel his eyes on me. I look up at him and he puts a cute little grin on his face. Wait what am I talking about, he's my best friend, I cant call him cute. All of a sudden my mind goes blank and he leans closer to me, and I lean closer to him. Our lips touch and his hand goes on my cheek as I move my hand to his hair. The kiss deepens and gets more passionate. It lasts for what feels like forever but really is about a minute and a half. His lips move with mine and it feels amazing. After about another 30 seconds of kissing, reality hits me and I realise what I'm doing. I think he realised as well because at the same time we pull away and just smile at each other shyly.

Did that really just happen? Did I really just have mini make out session with Jakob Delgado, my best friend?! Oh boy, what have I done?