distance // klance internet friends au

Chapter 18

Lance's pov

"That's the last box Ms. Ryner."

Ms. Ryner smiled at me. "Thank you Lance. You and your friends have been a huge help."

Pidge and Hunk smiled as she got in her car and drove away.

"It's going to be weird, not having her across the street anymore, but I'm glad she's finally living her dream and going to see the world." I said.

Pidge nodded. "Yeah. She was probably one of the coolest people I've ever met."

I turned to my friends. "Well, who wants an ice cream, on me?" They both cheered and we piled into Hunk's car.

***

"I wonder who's gonna buy the house across from you." Hunk said, grabbing his ice cream from the girl at the shop.

I shrugged. "I don't know, but I kind of hope there's a kid around our age. It'd be cool to have another teen on the street."

"What? We're not enough for you?"

"What? No! Pidge, I didn't mean it like that. I just meant that, Hunk's going to be going to college next year, and then we've only got one more year to go before we go off to college, and if we all get into the Garrison, then we probably won't have much time to make new friends. I want to make some before I go off to the Garrison. It's like, the best college ever, and I've heard it's a pretty tough curriculum."

Pidge nodded. "Matt has a friend who's already going, and he barely sees her anymore due the coursework, but they also offer amazing opportunities, and their science program is ranked highest in the country."

***

An hour later we were walking by the ocean, shoes in our hands, talking about homework.

"I can't believe Mr. Wimbleton would assign us a 2 page essay the week before summer vacation."

"Tell me about it. I'm only a third of the way through it."

Hunk chuckled. "Y'know, Mr. Slav is way more chill...kinda. He doesn't assign as much homework. Probably because he's always rambling about alternate universes. The other day, he mentioned one where none of us even existed in real life. All the people and things in our universe was part of some made up T.V. show. Kind of weird to think about, but I guess it has some sense to it."

I laughed. "So that means I can sleep through his class. Got it."

*time skip forward a few weeks*

I danced around my room, getting ready to meet Hunk and Pidge at the beach. Shakira blasted through my speakers and I sang along.

When I was finally ready, I turned off the music, laughing to myself. I heard a loud beeping outside, which sounded like a truck backing up.

I rushed to my open window and peered out. There was a moving truck in the driveway of the house across the street, where Ms. Ryner used to live.

I watched as the truck parked and a few people got out. I couldn't make out any details due to the way I was looking out and how far up I was. It looked like two adult men, two teen girls, and a teen guy.

The teen boy wore a black hoodie, with the hood up, black jeans, and from here it looked like fingerless gloves.

The one girl had bright purple hair, and wore a black skirt paired with a blue shirt.

The other girl had blonde hair and wore a white sundress.

"I should say hi when Hunk and Pidge pick me up." I muttered to myself as I shut the window and made my way downstairs.

Mom was in the kitchen, cleaning the dishes. "Hey Mom, do you know who moved in across the street?"

She shook her head. "I didn't even know someone had bought it. I'll go over and say hi after I'm done with the dishes."

I was about to respond when a car horn honked from outside. "That'll be Pidge and Hunk. I'll see you later, Mom!"

I yelled as I rushed outside. The family had seemed to have gone inside already.

"Guess I'll introduce myself later, then." I mumbled as I got into the car.

Alright! Beach time! Let's go!"

Keith's pov

"Keith, you're going to have to tell him sooner or later that you moved here. It's not like you'll be able to hide it. You'll run into him eventually."

I sighed as I fell back on the bed we had just finished setting up.

"I know, I know. But Romelle, he wants nothing to do with me anymore. He's the one who told me he didn't want to talk. I've texted him since then, just in case, but I've gotten no response."

She huffed. "Fine, if you're going to be stubborn about it."

There was a knock at the front door. I sighed and went to open it, Romelle following close behind.

I opened to door to find a woman and a girl around my age standing there with a plate of cookies.

"Hello. I live across the street, in that house over there. I noticed you just moved in and I wanted to say hello, and welcome to the neighborhood. This is my daughter, Veronica."

I looked at her, feeling as if I should recognize her.

"Do I know you?"

She was about to respond, but there was a crash from right behind us. I turned to find Acxa standing there, mouth gaping open, the box she was holding now on the floor.

"Ronnie?" Her voice was barely a whisper.

Veronica's face lit up and she rushed forward, wrapping Acxa in a hug.

"Oh my god!" I smiled.

That's where I had seen her, Veronica was Acxa's girlfriend. Veronica's mom politely excused herself and we all went to the living room to hang out.

"I can't believe you guys are the ones who moved in across the street! I didn't even know you were moving! Why didn't you tell me?"

"It was going to be a surprise. I'm so glad we're neighbors! This is going to be so cool."

Veronica nodded, and hugged Acxa again.

lSo, we're most likely going to be going to the same school too."

Acxa nodded. "I know, I'm so excited. And now I can meet your family!"

Her family.

"Yep, I'm so excited, and they've been dying to meet you too. I've told them all about you."

Isn't her brother...

"Oh, Keith."

I looked up when I heard my name. "Yeah?"

"I'm sure Lance will be thrilled to finally meet you. He's at the beach right now with his friends. I'm sure you could find them, or you could wait until they come back, but that might not be for a few hours."

Yep. Lance. This was going to be a disaster

I nodded. "Uh, yeah, thanks."

I quickly left the room, Romelle following close behind. "Romelle, I can't do this. Living across the street from Lance? Just my luck that we'd be neighbors. Avoiding him is going to be even harder than it was already going to be."

Romelle rolled her eyes. "Oh c'mon. You're going to need to talk to him at some point. C'mon, let's go to the beach. It'll take your mind off of...everything. And I know Lance is there, but the chance of us running into him are super slim."

I nodded. "Yeah, alright."