A Recipe for Disaster (Clash Of Cliches Book 2)

Chapter 9- Flagrant Foul

Chapter Nine- Flagrant Foul.

Every family I know has an annual summer tradition. For instance, every summer, Brandon's family host Pho night, and his parents, their friends, Brandon, and us go to their Pho Hoa restaurant and gorge ourselves silly on all the Vietnamese food we can eat. It's literally Kaylee's dream day, and she constantly hounds Brandon every single day once summer starts, asking when Pho night is. Her family tradition is obviously food related as well because- Kaylee. Her family travels to New Orleans for a yearly family reunion, complete with a Southern feast fit for Beyoncé, if she wasn't vegan. Shelley's family tradition is kite flying, which is apparently very popular in Thai culture. Her family make their own kites, and they join forces with a couple of other Thai families (and other interested participants) to 'kite-fight.' It's super cool. And as for the Banks annual summer tradition, it's a basketball game.

Obviously.

All of my brothers and their friends get together every summer, no matter whereabouts in the world they are in the days leading up to the event, to play a rowdy game of basketball which is refereed by my dad. Momma Bear makes the snacks, and I come out to watch (or heckle, depending on some people might say- I'm looking at you, Deshaun), and, if one of the teams is short by one, to play.

Last year, I was all up in the mix and scored the winning three points from the half court line. I flew on that high for days. This year, I was sitting the whole game out. Kameron was here, which meant that the boys had enough people for both teams. They didn't need me. Besides, the thought of playing basketball near Kameron was making me feel uncharacteristically nervous. Yesterday's Target run was still fresh in my mind, and I didn't know what to make of it. Yup, that's right, smart ass, know it all, Janessa Banks was confused as all hell. On one hand, Kameron had acted like the quintessential jealous boyfriend during my conversation with Tariq in Target. The snarky comments, sarcastic attitude and downright rudeness from Kameron was so noticeable that Tariq had actually caught up with me at the centre later on that afternoon to make sure that there was nothing between Kameron and I.

"I would feel bad about moving in on his territory, especially since I was planning to ask you to come see this little play I wrote and will be starring in on Monday," he said, his cheeks tinged with pink as he shuffled his Converse clad toe against the lino floor.

I was so shook by him asking me on a date (I think) that I chose to ignore the whole 'moving in on his territory' line (do I look like a plot of land? Chups!)

And yet, on the other hand, Kameron had pretty much ignored me after Target. During dinner last night, he was busy joking around with Deshaun and Cordell about girls, liquor and music. The line of the night came from him-, "I'm not about the commitment life. Could you imagine being tied down to one girl for even a week? That's some punk ass shit," he deadpanned, while Deshaun and Cordell nodded in agreement and laughed like the birds they were.

So yeah, I was living in a world of confusion, and it didn't help that I had a ravenous craving for chocolate and greasy foods. Aunt Flo had come to visit, and I hated that witch with the heat of a thousand suns.

I was chilling in my room, grumpy because I didn't have any more candy bars stashed in any of my shoes or jacket pockets, watching my favorite Doctor Who episode (Day of the Doctor, for everyone who's wondering) when suddenly-.

"JANESSA!"

My head snapped up from my phone, where I was writing trolling comments on Shelley's newest Instagram picture.

Who the hell...?

18 years later and I still couldn't identify my brothers' voices. I needed help.