Dream Team Plus One

Part Twenty-One

Somehow Grace had fallen asleep before the boys had gotten home. She awoke to the scent of bacon and biscuits wafting up to her room. Nothing motivates Grace to get out of bed more than freshly made breakfast.

Grace stumbled into the bathroom. Knowing she had forgotten to take her makeup off the night before, she avoided looking in the mirror. Her ‘I just woke up’ face paired with smudged mascara was not an attractive look.

While Grace fought with her skincare to make herself look normal again, the boys were downstairs, absolutely destroying her poor kitchen.

“Clay I swear that's not how you make gravy!” Nick scolded while tossing a biscuit at his friend.

“Yes it is! I’m from the south too!” Clay spat back.

George aggressively scrubbed at the spilled biscuit dough that had hardened on the new marble countertop.

Although none of the boys really liked Dove that much, they knew they needed her help to make Grace’s favorite breakfast.

“You idiots are going to either wake her up or set her house on fire! Both of which are not a pretty sight to see, now Clay you have to stir faster than that! It’s gonna be all clumpy if you don’t!” Dove screamed through the phone. They boys had facetimed her to make sure they could every detail of the breakfast just right. “And Clay, you’re from Florida. Y’all don’t even say y’all, it’s a joke to say that you’re southern”.

Nick burst out laughing, even going as far as to slam his hand down on the counter. Of course his fist landed right in the center of one the freshly made biscuits, effectively squishing it.

“You know what, we don’t need this chaos anymore,” Clay ended the call with Dove. He turned around to glare at Nick who now couldn’t control his laughter over the situation.

George had had enough of this entire situation, “Guys! The point of this was to do something nice for Grace, not destroy her kitchen! Now either cut it out or get out! I thought out of the three of us here you two would have the most motivation to impress her, I guess I was wrong!”

The room fell silent, George had never scolded them like that and the boys didn’t know how to handle it.

Nick was the first to speak, “you’re right, the last thing she needs right now is three children to clean up after”.

“You have a point,” Clay added, “We shouldn’t have been goofing off”.

After scrubbing at her face for a good five minutes, Grace had finally removed the last of the previous day’s makeup. Horrified at the cherry-toned complexion she was left with, she splashed her face with cold water until her face returned to it’s normal color. Fed up with every solution leading to another issue, Grace gave up on trying to repair the damage she had done to herself last night. She threw on her favorite oversized merch hoodie, baggy sweatpants, and her blue-light glasses. Once she located her fuzzy yellow slippers, she put her hair back up in a ponytail and made her way downstairs.

“Even in sweats she is still the most beautiful girl I have ever seen,” was all that Clay could think when he saw Grace trudge her way into the kitchen.

Nick immediately noticed how Clay was looking at her. Jealousy soon filled his chest, how was he supposed to compete with someone who has 10 million subscribers? He knew he had to get out of his own head but distancing himself from his thoughts was so much harder than he ever imagined it could be.

Grace’s heart melted when she saw what the boy’s had done for her. A single daisy, her favorite flower, sat in a drinking glass filled with water. A ‘Midnight Breeze’ candle was lit, another one of her favorites. Sitting on a plate was her all time favorite breakfast, biscuits smothered in gravy with a side of bacon. She looked at the boys who each had a cheesy yet prideful smile plastered across their faces. “How did y’all know? This is so sweet! Thank you,” she ran over and gave each of them a hug.