Mysteries

Chapter Three: Lela

"YOU SPOKE TO HIM?" Tracy squealed. I grit my teeth at the loud, obnoxious yelling. 

"Yes, Tracy. He seems very adamant at getting me to be with him," I told her as we headed towards her car. 

"AND YOU DIDN'T ACCEPT? ARE YOU CRAZY?" I looked up at the sky. Lord, give me the strength to not slap this chick across the face. 

"Tracy, if you don't stop yelling in the next three seconds, I'll hit you," I threatened and she held her hands up in surrender. We got in her car and she immediately put her sunglasses on and started the car. We threw our bags in the back and she pulled out of the parking lot.

"Listen, I just have one question. Is he hotter in person?" I stayed silent and she stopped the car in the middle of the intersection. Cars began honking at her. 

"Now you're the one who's crazy! Move!" I yelled and she crossed her arms. 

"Not until you answer my question," she said stubbornly. I growled. 

"Fine. Yes, he is. He's extremely gorgeous and I almost fell out of my chair. Happy?" She nodded and began driving again. 

"Very. Now that that's settled, what are we doing tonight?" 

~ 

The week was pretty uneventful after that. People finally began to get used to "The Untouchables" as everyone began to refer to them as. It made me and Veronica cringe every time we heard it, mainly from Tracy who coined the term. 

It was Tuesday, two weeks after they appeared in our little town out of the blue. Veronica, Tracy, and I were at lunch, talking about our movie night tradition when someone plopped in the seat beside me. I turned to see Ryland grinning at me. 

"Hey, babe!" he exclaimed, wrapping his arm around me. I looked at him in disgust. 

After getting to know Ryland more, I realized that he is a big dork and also very arrogant. His friends were cool but he continued to annoy me. Those initial feelings I had towards him were now replaced with annoyance. 

"Go along with it. Briana's watching," he whispered in my ear. I couldn't keep the smile off my face. When I said Briana was going to try and sink her claws into him, I was right. He hated her and tried to avoid her at all costs. It was one of the things we actually had in common. 

I decided to play along. 

"Hey! How are you?" I kissed his cheek and he rested his head on my shoulder. Tracy looked at me funny and Veronica had an intrigued look on her face. 

"What the hell, man? You can't just disappear and not tell us! Wait, what the fuck is this?" Brandon said, taking a seat next to Ryland. 

"Haven't you heard? Lela and Ryland are dating now!" Veronica said loudly and girly, making it clear that she figured out Briana was watching and was going out of her way to annoy her. 

Brandon looked skeptical. 

"Well, this is new," a new voice said. It was Celeste, grinning like the Chesire cat. I rolled my eyes. 

"Okay, this is going too far. Get off me, you big goof," I said, pushing him off me. He laughed at me, making me laugh in return. 

"Why do I always miss everything?" Kelly asked, taking a seat next to Veronica. 

The Untouchables had started sitting with us at lunch after my outburst. According to Jake, he thought it was funny that everyone treated them like royalty and liked that I was putting up with it. 

Speaking of Jake... 

"Where is Jake?" Tracy asked as if she was reading my mind. We all looked at Kelly, aka his keeper, in question. She shrugged. 

"I think he got lunch detention for Grimaldi." I nodded in satisfaction. Jake was my partner in crime. We tended to get detention together. It was a surprise that I wasn't with him, honestly. 

For some strange reason, I've been on my best behavior the past couple of days. Ever since Ryland told me that I should stop misbehaving, I just... have? At first, I felt like defying him on purpose but I physically couldn't bring myself to do so. I've been respectful to all my teachers, and I even said hi to Mr. Egghead the other day. 

Ever since Ryland has shown up, I've been acting weird. I just didn't know how or why. 

Veronica noticed too. 

"Well, like I was saying, I think we should watch Legally Blonde 2 tonight!" Tracy exclaimed. Veronica groaned. 

"Can't we watch something scary? Let's watch A Quiet Place," she said. They both started arguing and then stopped to look at me expectingly. I shrugged. 

"Why don't we just watch both? You guys can just sleep over." At this, Celeste and Kelly perked up. 

"Sleepover?" Celeste asked.  I nodded. 

"Yeah. Every Tuesday night, we have a movie night. Would you guys like to join us? It'll be fun," I told the two. Ryland nudged my shoulder. 

"I would LOVE to come, Lela! Thank you so much for inviting me!" he replied with a smirk. I rolled my eyes. 

"Fine, you can come too, I guess. Brandon?" He stared at me with his dark eyes for a moment. 

"I suppose I will attend as well," he responded after some thought. Celeste looked at him and laughed. 

"What the hell was with the formality? 'I suppose I will attend as well!'" she said in a mocking tone. We all laughed at him and began to talk about what we were going to eat for this massive sleepover. 

~

When the final bell rang, Tracy and I headed to my house to set up. 

"Are you sure your parents won't kill you for this?" Tracy asked as we moved the extra blankets to the movie room. The movie room had a large screen like a movie theater would have, with a large sofa, a love seat, and several reclining chairs. I checked the fridge that was behind the bar to make sure it was stocked with drinks and started the popcorn machine. 

"They're not even here, Trace. How are they going to find out?" Tracy shrugged. 

"I don't know. They know everything." I nodded. That was true. They always found out everything and I double checked to make sure we didn't have cameras. I had no idea how they did that. 

"Oh well. I'm not going to call everyone and say, 'Guess what? I'm afraid my parents are going to find out so don't come over!'" I responded. The bell rang and I ran upstairs to go answer it. It was Veronica standing in the door with four boxes of pizza. 

"Hey. Can you go get the rest out of the car? I ordered a ton," she asked, heading downstairs. I went out to her car. She wasn't kidding. She had six other boxes in the car. I grabbed them and went inside. 

"You really didn't need this much, Ronnie," I told her, placing them in the oven to keep warm. She looked at me skeptically. 

"We have three teenage, athletic boys coming over. They're probably going to eat a pizza each," she remarked and I raised an eyebrow. I never thought of that. 

The three of us changed into our pajamas and set up Legally Blonde. I was grabbing a drink out of the fridge when the doorbell rang. I ran up the stairs. For some reason, my heart was giddy. 

I threw open the door to see Ryland in plaid pajama pants and a skin-tight tank top that outlined his abs. 

"Ready for movie night?" he said with a smirk. With the way he was looking? 

Absolutely not.