Forever and Always

Chapter Seven

Over the past couple of weeks, Jackson and Katrina were bonding. It wasn't much progress but it was baby steps. They would talk during 7th hour and sit next to each other at lunch. Mainly because they boys and the girls wanted to sit at the same table and couldn't agree on who got it, so they shared.

Katrina was getting suspicious though. Every time she would talk to Jackson, Aubrey would say something and Jackson would immediately turn his attention to her. Katrina was starting to think Jackson had a crush on Aubrey. Her self conscious was getting the best of her and she struggled to push it aside and forget it.

Katrina's birthday was coming up and her grandparents were throwing their annual party. It wasn't a birthday party but more like a fall harvest. They made it on the weekend of Katrina's birthday "on accident" every year but everybody knows they did it on purpose and just won't admit it. It's not a bad thing though. Katrina gets more presents than usual because more of her long distance family members show up.

(A/N. Just an fyi, i'm going to have a hay day writing about the events that happened during that weekend because it was so much fun. And if the irl Aubrey is reading this and doesn't know that she's in it, she's going to figure it out soon enough.)

This year the party was on a Saturday and her birthday was on the following Monday. Katrina's grandparents allow each of their grandchild to bring two friends every year, but that's more of a guideline than a rule.

Katrina invited Aubrey, of course, and Kylie because they get along pretty well. With Sam and Harry being Katrina's cousins, they get to invite friends also which means there will be 8th grade boys and girls there.

Harry and Sam made Katrina's dream come true when they invited Jackson. She was so excited because she would get to actually hang out with him. They all hung out together anyway but this will be on her own time.

At the moment, Katrina was at her grandma's house next door. She was making a cake for the party that started in about two hours. Harry and Sam's guests had already arrived and the wind was blowing like crazy. They invited Jackson, Zach, Brett, Ethan, and Garrett. Ethan and Garrett were more of Harry's friends than Sam's and they weren't very good friends of Katrina's but they got along fine.

They were outside with the wind that was really strong and a little bit of rain. The boys were on their way down to her grandma's basement to hang out but they got stopped and were told to go fix the canopy that the wind had knocked over. While they were talking to the grandma, Katrina was looking at them through the window. Jackson looked so cute.

After they had fixed the canopy, they headed to the basement and things got crazy. They started yelling and slamming doors (Which is a thing that always seems to happen in that basement) and her grandma got so mad. Katrina offered to go and tell them to stop rather than having her grandma do it because if Katrina did it, it would go over way smoother. But that didn't happen. Her grandma stomped down the stairs and kicked them all out for being too loud.

The whole time, Katrina was trying her best not to die of laughter. It was funny to her because these boys have never once met this lady and she was already yelling at them. And that was only the beginning of the night.

The boys all left and went back to Harry and Sam's house, which was on the other side of Katrina's. This is one of the advantages of living close to your family. When one person has a friend over, they all hang out together and it's so much fun.

Katrina went back down to her own house and waited for Kylie to arrive. When she did, it was kind of awkward considering she had never been there before. But the awkwardness wore away after they started playing Mario Kart.

Soon enough, Aubrey showed up and they had a big thing planned. They had printed out a bunch of pictures of the boys and photoshopped their faces on monkeys. This has been an ongoing joke between them for a couple of weeks and it wasn't really that funny. It just brought back memories that were.

Their plan was to hide their phone chargers around the house and use the pictures as clue to find them. The plan did not go at all accordingly though. Aubrey stopped to see Harry and Sam's dog and then Zach and Harry showed up and almost caught them. After 10 minutes of sneaking around, they made it to the front of the house and taped a picture there. But then, Harry showed up and caught them. Harry agreed to let the joke live on and the girls started to run away.

Zach showed up before they had a chance to leave so they had to stand in front of the door so he didn't see the picture. Eventually Zach gave in and went back inside. That's when the girls ran for it.

Katrina's Pov

We were all running as fast as we could. We knew we only had so much time before Zach opened the door and saw the picture. We heard the door as it squeaked open and turned around to see Zach with the picture in his hands and soon enough, he was chasing us down with a smile on his face.

We all started laughing hysterically as we ran. I didn't really know what he was going to do if he caught us. It was all just fun and games.

Soon enough, we made it inside of my house and locked the outside door. Harry knows the inside of my house just as well as he knows his own. He would be be able to find our hiding spot immediately. I can't recall all of the times we had played hide and seek in my house. We all ran inside of my bedroom that I shared with my sister. I'm just glad she wasn't in there to see what had happened next.

My mom and dad redesigned our room when I was 8 and my sister was 10. He installed two loft beds and wooden floors. My mom told us to pick out some colors and she would paint the walls. My sister and I couldn't agree so we picked two. Purple and green. Her side of the room is painted green with big purple spots and her bed is purple. My side, on the other hand, is purple with green spots, and my bed is green. It's quite a headache to look at now that we're 13 and 15 and spend more than half of our time in our bedroom.

Anyway, we were looking out the window in my room that is pointed directly towards where the boys were standing.

Jackson walked by and then Sam, Ethan, Brett, and Garrett. Soon enough, Harry and Zach were the only ones left to walk back and they started coming immediately towards the window.

"Let's just close the blinds," I said as I went to pull the blinds down. Let's just say I was hyper and didn't know what I was doing because as soon as I pulled on the string that closes the blinds, the whole thing came crashing down on top of my head. Aubrey, Kylie and I just started laughing so hard. And that's when Kylie spoke up.

"So, Zach saw that whole thing and is now outside the window laughing at us."

I looked outside to see Zach and Harry walking away while smiles were formed across their faces.

"Look at them smiling like that!" Aubrey said between laughs.

"Well yeah," I answered with. "They probably just laughed so hard they peed their pants."

None of us could stop laughing. It was just too funny. And it made it even better that Zach saw it. That would be a memory he would never forget.

"It's going to get dark soon," Kylie said. "We should probably go get some food."

"I'm down," said Aubrey.

3rd Person Pov

And so the three girls went outside to get some some food. While they were out there, Katrina thought of the best idea she had ever had.

Kat gasped as she thought of it. Kylie and Aubrey turned her attention to Kat as they assumed something was wrong.

"Let's prank call the boys."

A/N. So this chapter probably sucked, only because of the Pov I wrote it in. It would take so much more time to write it in Katrina's Pov though. And btw, all of this chapter and possibly the next two or three, actually happened to me and my friends. So if any of y'all think it's crazy, embarrassing, or really cringy, just know that it actually happened. Happy Reading.