Aesthetic - Jaden Hossler

11.

Addison who sat beside Bryce laughed.

"I don't have questions."

Next was Dixie who smiled at Allie.

"Okay, what is your favorite color, and what is your favorite meal?"

"Oh, I like pastel colors and my favorite meal is rice with chicken and cheese."

"Rice with chicken and cheese?"

"Yeah, I know. It's weird."

Kio was growing more impatient with every question

"I'm sorry can we do something else? I can't sit still right now" just then Alice noticed how he was fidgeting between Jaden and Josh.

"Yeah of course. I don't feel like it either to be completely honest. When somebody has a question, you can just ask me."

Kio smiled thankfully at the older girls and stood up, running a few laps around the pool. The others were confused for a while but decided that they were hungry and still cold.

The group waddled inside, well most of them. Alice threw her towel on the ground on the swell of the door, so that she could slide on her towel through the house, not wanting to get anything wet.

She held the door open and waited for Kio. When he ran her way, she stepped aside to let him in and closed the door behind them.

Alice effort to keep the floor dry was quite useless because the other before her just ran through all wet and dripping. The oldest of them tried to dry the floor with her towel while moving forward while Kio just walked past her.

"It's okay Allie, I'll get more towels, you can stop."

Alice who was desperately trying to get the floor dry didn't even hear or register him. She crouched while wiping the floor for a long time, for some strange reason she wasn't okay with it being wet.

Jaden was the one that found her: shivering, still a little wet, and crouching on the floor in the hallway with a dripping wet towel.

Alice did not realize that her towel did more damage than help. Carefully the younger boy walked towards her and grabbed her hands that were scrubbing the floor.

"Allie? You're okay, come on, let's get you dried up."

The smaller girl shrieked when he touched her trying to get her hands free.

Addison raced down the stairs, the sight of her older sister crying in a puddle of water with Jaden trying to calm her down was horrific, especially when you knew what Addison knew.

Addie grabbed the Asian girl by her shoulders, hunching slightly over while staring her in the eyes: "Alice you are okay!"

Seeing Addie shook her out of her trance, she suddenly accepted Jaden holding her hands, stopped crying, and just looked in Addison's brown eyes.

"You are fine I promise. You are in LA Allie, not in Germany, I promise!"

Jaden was confused, he was the most confused he has ever been. What could have happened in Germany, what did Alice even do in Germany?

Alice, now fully out of it, looked at Jaden's hands that had scratch marks all over them.

"I'm sorry I didn't want to hurt you"

Jaden just shook his head.

"Don't worry Allie, you're fine."

Dixie came running down the stairs with several towels in her hands. She ran towards the oldest girl and engulfed her in an enormous towel, holding her close.

The others followed her down the stairs with towels to clean up, they had seen what happened from above.

Addie and Dixie led the shivering girl up the stairs to a bathroom. Alice carefully pushed her sister's hands away, signaling her that she was okay again and that she could do this alone.

Dixie came back with her bag to what Alice smiled thankfully. Avani and Charli stuck their heads through the door, seemingly having finished drying the floor.

"Do you have comfy clothes for the movie night?"

You could see that answer on Alice's face.

"Don't worry I will organize some. I will put them down in front of the door okay? You can also take a shower if you'd like, my stuff is in there, you can just use that."

Alice smiled at the girl who still looked at her with worry.

Alice took her time in the bathroom and the others met in the living room, well the room with the most seating possibilities.

Jaden was still a little confused about what had happened. Avani hugged her boyfriend and continued to look at the others.

"Can Alice borrow clothes from you guys? She just brought an outfit for tomorrow and we don't have any spares."

Everybody just sprung up, screaming at each other while running to their rooms. After a few minutes, they came back, one after another. 

The new outfit consisted out of a pair of Kio's too old and small sweats, a hoodie that was too small for Jaden, and fuzzy socks from Josh. Bryce and Anthony who also wanted to contribute to the fit brought a beanie and a scrunchie.

"Hey Bryce, is that my scrunchie?"

Bryce's nose started to turn red.

"Maybe."

Avani folded the clothes and handed the stack to Dixie who sat it down in front of the bathroom. She started to smile when she heard Alice sing in the shower. 

****************

Addison, who wanted to say something to everybody waited till she got back.

"I know you might be confused, especially you Jaden, but please don't ask her about it. It's not my place to tell, all that I will tell you, is that it is childhood trauma. When she feels ready she will tell you."

They all nodded understandingly.

"Hey, do you want to order food? I am really hungry."

"That's a good idea" 

****************

Meanwhile, Alice got out of the shower, opened the door, and picked up the clothes.

She was feeling a lot better but she was still cold.

Allie isn't a person for hot showers, she actually always takes cold showers, because it feels freshening but today she took a warm shower with Avani's products that smelled really good.

Wrapped in a towel she saw the moisturized and the body lotion. Surely Avani won't get mad, she offered her products, right?

Alice lathered her body in lotion, using less than she usually would.

When she looked into the mirror she got scared for a second, she looked tired, but happy. After moisturizing her face as well she put on the outfit.

Alice put on the underwear from before the swim and laughed hysterically when she saw what the boys had picked out.

Of course, everything would be too big but she didn't expect the size of the hoodie.

The fuzzy socks nearly reached her knees and she had to cuff the sweats so that they would fit, but it was insanely comfortable.

She bunched her brushed hair up and put on the beanie. This was a good way to dry her hair and keep her head warm.

The scrunchy was wrapped around her left wrist, above the hoodie, indicating where her hands were. The sweater paws were insane but she felt comfortable.

Alice followed the sound of Josh's loud voice to find the others.

When Kio saw the small girl in the doorway he couldn't help but laugh.

When the others noticed her as well they didn't look much different. 

Some cooed over her some laughed but they all looked at the happy Alice.