(See you guys next week!)
[Edward POV]
"Edward, you're feeling okay?" Jay asked. The group finally reacted to my question. Jay teasingly added, "Even for me, I don't have dinner at 4.30."
"Well you should Jay. I know you get hungry earlier nowadays." I added jokingly. Jay smiled and said, "I do. That's why I have some snacks."
As we laughed, Phil took me to the side and asked carefully, "Do you need to go so soon?"
"Yeah. I hate to be rude, but I need to rush to the school. I got 30 minutes, tops." I replied honestly with a painful smile. I texted my aunt, but she didn't reply. I tried calling her, but she wasn't picking up the phone. She was still sleeping at this moment and couldn't wake up because she was too tired.
I felt a little bad that I had to rush things, but I also felt that I needed to do this to prove something to myself.
Claire, Sage, and Haley returned at this moment. Manny and Luke came in from playing in the backyard.
Jay smirked and asked Manny in front of Gloria, "Hey Manny. Edward called yesterday right? What did he say?"
"Wait. He called?" Gloria widened her eyes in surprise. Her gaze alternated between Jay, Manny and I.
Manny answered Jay's question casually, "Yeah. He asked if we wanted to follow them to New York. Mom told me that she wants to come see my training, and won't miss it for the world, so I told him that we cannot go."
Jay snickered while Gloria froze with a face full of disbelief. Manny asked Gloria, "Did I do something wrong mom? You told me you don't want to go anywhere…"
Gloria smiled helplessly and then ticked Manny's chin, "Ayy Papicito. I promised I'd be there for you. So I will, even if that means I cannot go to New York on a day trip."
Manny smiled innocently and said, "Thanks mom."
"I love you Manny."
"Love you too Mom."
I watched the duo hug each other while snacking on some chips. I guess my eyes showed something I didn't know they were showing because Phil asked me with some concern, "Are you okay? Does seeing them bring out some memories?"
"What?" I turned towards Phil with a face filled with disbelief. "I was just enjoying the show."
"Ed! We can have dinner now!" Jay said. "Although Mitch and Cam will get mad that we have a party without them– Ahh forget it. It's fine. They throw a lot of parties anyway."
I chuckled at Jay's remark that I completely forgot about other important people to wait for before starting the dinner party. Someone that was very close to me. Someone that I should've absolutely remembered to wait for.
We all sat together in a makeshift long table created by merging 2 smaller tables and the dining table together. Haley sat on my left side while Taylor sat on my right side. Both of them were smiling, but their eyes were not.
"Hey. What's this I hear about a party?" I asked Haley.
"You tell me! People said that YOU are the one having a party at school today?!" Haley said in disbelief.
Phil ate the eggplant parmesan and said, "With all the Italian foods in front of me, I feel like I'm in the Godfather movie."
"Pfft-" I ignored Haley and turned to Phil. Then, I rubbed my forehead and then said something in Italian, "Come si diche? (How do you say?")
Phil caught on instantly and whined, "Oww I don't want to be Solazzo!"
I ignored his complaint and said in my best Al Pacino voice, "What I want…what's most important to me… is that I have a guarantee: No more attempts on my father's life."
Phil leaned forward and spoke with a horrible Italian accent, "What guarantees could I give you, Mike? I am the hunted one! I missed my chance. You think too much of me, kid -- I'm not that clever. All I want, is a truce."
Claire chortled and said, "Yeah you're not that clever all right."
"You got that right." Jay added to the insult.
Phil was speechless and I burst into laughter. I turned to Sage who was being quiet and asked, "How are you Sage? Have you adapted to being a teacher yet?"
"I don't want to adapt to it." Sage replied with some annoyance. " I want to quit soon."
"Miss Anna, you're quitting?" Haley asked in disbelief.
"Wait. I'm confused. Is your name Sage or Anna?" Manny asked. "And may I say, you're truly a gorgeous woman. I can't wait to get into highschool and learn under your tutelage."
"Umm…Ed, is the broccoli hair serious?" Sage asked me with disbelief.
I chuckled and said, "Dead serious."
"Broccoli hair?" Manny was aggrieved. He turned to me and said, "You told me it was a good style for me!"
"It is. Don't listen to her. Keep it long.".
Claire chuckled and asked Sage, "So Anna. How long have you known Ed?"
"Not that long." Anna said, "In fact, it's weird that I am here."
" I do like to do weird stuff." I said, causing Sage to roll her eyes.
Phil smiled and asked in a friendly manner. "If you know him well, then, can you tell me how to win an argument with him? Because I have never won, not even once."
Anna paused to think while I got goosebumps. "Don't tell him anything, Sage." I warned.
[Jay's commentary]
"He kept calling her Sage. It made me wonder if she has a difficult past. You know…that is usually the names of the girls who work in the dollar bill store. Either way, that will make her earn more money than being a teacher."
[Commentary ends]
Sage ignored my remarks and then exposed one of my biggest secrets, "If you want to shut him up, then, you can just hit his head. If that doesn't work, then, speak about Uncle Iroh."
The group except for Luke was confused. Luke turned to me and asked, "Hey you watch Avatar too?"
"Of course I do. Yeah, we need to rush to the school now. Come along Sage." I said as I tried to stand up, but both Haley and Taylor grabbed my arm and pulled back to sit back down.
"Now now. We still have some time. So Miss Anna. Please elaborate about Uncle Iroh." Taylor asked mischievously.
Haley added, "And please be as detailed as possible."
"Yeah. All of us want to know." Gloria chimed in.
Sage looked at me with a look of apology and revealed, "Uncle Iroh, a character from Avatar, the last Airbender, was the first positive father figure he had in his life. He grew up listening to all of his life lessons–"
"Alright. So you guys know now. Let's finish eating. Wait…Shit…Speaking of dads…I think…I had forgotten mine." I said with a complicated expression.
"Ed. I will make sure to watch the show after this." Phil said with a grin.
"Don't make fun of me Phil." I said.
He shook his head and said, "No, no. You misunderstood me. It wasn't to make fun of you. It's to get to know you better. That's all."
Haley nodded and added, "Yeah. And if Dad can use that to win an argument with you, that's just a bonus."
I finished my food in less than 20 minutes. Although I did talk with the family, we didn't really get into anything special and only teased each other for a while. I brought a plate of food to Alex who was self quarantining herself, but was nagged by her because she actually did that to protect me.
"Jay. Thank you for the food. It was great." I said after I returned to the dining table.
"Well if you like it, you should come when I make my mom's special sauce." Jay offered.
"Be sure to call me when you make it." I said.
Taylor wasn't really eating much as she was still full from lunch. In fact, she was startled to see how much food I could still eat during this dinner. She left after saying goodbye to everyone and waited for me in the car.
Sage raised an eyebrow as she saw how rushed I was. "Ed, a word?" She said as she wiped her mouth with a napkin.
"Ohh, someone's in trouble." Luke exclaimed.
Claire was confused, "Why do you think that, Luke?"
"Edward's teacher asked to see him after…Every time that happens, it will be a lecture."
"That's so true." Phil said with a laugh.
As Sage and I walked to the first living room, she stood in front of me and said, "Surely you know why I called you here?"
"To compliment the chef for the food?" I said jokingly.
"I will tell Jay that myself later." Sage said in a no nonsense tone. She looked me directly in the eye and said in a kind manner, "Look. You need to stop being a people pleaser."
I was confused and in disbelief, "Me? A people pleaser? You seriously think that?"
She sighed and crossed her arms together, "You may not care about people you don't like, but you do have the tendency to go above and beyond for the people you like. I don't even need to give you some examples, because it's happening at this moment."
She added as I wasn't saying anything, "You may want to keep them in your life, but it doesn't mean that you have to make your life harder for that."
"They will understand if you just talk to them." She then mimicked my voice, but made me sound dumb, " 'Hey Phil. I can't come to the dinner party today as I have to prepare for the VMAs.' Or 'Hey guys on the football team, I have to record a music video today, so we should postpone the team dinner to this weekend, you know, where everyone can make it.' "
"People will understand. And they will prefer that more rather than you spending 20 minutes with them before you need to go do other stuff."
"Look. The lack of planning was my fault. If I planned more clearly, then-" I said, but was interrupted by her, "If you really think that the MTV people didn't tell you the rules beforehand was your fault, then you're dumber than you look."
"Hey. I don't look dumb! I was being dumb. There's a difference!" I retorted.
Sage chuckled and realized that what she said was being accepted by me, whether I like it or not. She added, "Don't push yourself. 'Good times become good memories, but bad times become a good lesson.' Right now, you still have some time to make a choice. Do you want this day to become a good memory, or a good lesson?"
I paused to think for a while before I shrugged and said, "Well, you have already thrown what Uncle Iroh said to my face. So I had to listen to it no matter if I like it or not, don't I?"
She chuckled and said, "Go meet your team. This time, actually listen to them and ask them what they want instead of deciding things for everyone. Don't shoulder an imaginary responsibility and ignore the things that can help you."
"Hmm… Spoken like a true Sage." I said teasingly.
After she told me I was a people pleaser, it made me wonder why I had never been that way with my dad. It wasn't like I hate him and want him dead or anything of the sort. Rather, it was because I knew from the bottom of my heart that he would be there no matter how much I fucked up.
Sage rolled her eyes and said, "Also. I'm going to need a ride to get back to the school. Otherwise when you are gone, it'll be so awkward for me to be here. I don't really know anyone in this house."
"Alright. Let me talk to Haley. You should go and say goodbye to the family first."
Sage nodded and left. She also called Haley for me. Like Sage said, after I talked to Haley about my difficulties, she told me it was okay and she could get a ride with Tara or her mom to go back to school.
When we finally arrived, Taylor and I talked to the team members about choosing only one scene to shoot for today. We could do the cheerleading/football scenes, or the prom scenes.
"We chose THE PARTY!" Tyler shouted. The entire team jumped and cheered while I shook my head in disbelief. It wasn't that surprising that they chose prom because they were literally in their tuxedos and suits right now. The girls were dressed in colourful gowns, but none of them chose white, and they were linking arms with their boyfriends.
"Jacob. Explain it to me. How does this party thing happen?" I asked Jacob who was wearing a lime green tuxedo and was linking his hand with Elsa who was wearing a coral coloured dress.
Jacob shook his head and said, "Even I don't know."
Jenna, who was the culprit, also shook her head when I asked her as she had no idea what she had done.
"Alright. It will be hard for me to get the principal's approval. But I will try to make the party happen." I decided to just go along with it.
The group cheered loudly, and even the other students on the bleachers also cheered when they heard the party was happening.
There were more than 200 people who wanted to attend the party, and the number was of the low estimate value. I called up a few caterers to supply some food.
It was almost an impossible thing to do if you didn't know who you needed to call. But my dad's main business was to satisfy people's impulsive requests before they set sail on the sea, so I had a lot of businesses to choose from.
We started filming the prom scene. When it started, there wasn't any more plot where the male lead rejected the brunette Taylor, and it ended with just the two of them standing in front of each other. They took out the sketch paper with the unspoken word that they wanted to tell each other for a long time– the word I Love You, and ended right before the two of them shared a kiss.
"Cut. It was perfect!" The assistant director shouted. The extras which consisted of true students and some background actors clapped as we wrapped the filming for today.
Taylor, who was wearing a pure white dress and had her hair styled luxuriously, hugged my arm in excitement. Then, the DJ started playing some pop music, and the entire gymnasium turned into a dance floor.
There were a few rules to the event. First, no camera allowed. Secondly, minors aren't allowed to drink. And that was it.
Taylor went to change her dress to a more comfortable one because there was no way for her to actually dance in the white princess dress. Therefore, my first dance was with Enid.
We danced wildly to some hip hop song, shaking our arms vigorously and laughed while seeing some of the students twerking. Then, I danced with Jenna to a chill song where we had a lot of fun playing stop and go with the tune.
After Taylor arrived, the DJ played the song, 'Two Is Better Than One' on purpose. We slowly danced together before I finally took a short rest. As I sat on the table, Haley walked towards me.
She was wearing a short skirt and purple dress that showed quite a bit of cleavage. I was shocked and took off my jacket before putting it on her quickly as people kept staring at her.
Honestly, her outfit wasn't even the sluttiest one there. I narrowed my eyes at her and scolded, "What are you wearing?"
"Do you think it's easy to find a dress that fits me so well just a few hours before a party?" She scolded me back.
I was taken aback and said, "You can use your mom's dress."
She lost that argument and then decided to tease, "Well, if I did wear her dress, then you won't pay any attention to me, won't you?"
"Hey. I will pay attention to you no matter what you're wearing. Or… not wearing." I said with a sly smirk. She rolled her eyes but had a smile on her face.
"I need to know something." She looked me in the eye and leaned her body closer to mine.
"Shoot." I replied.
"Why did you decide to have a dinner party with my family today? It was so random that it made me feel there was something more to it."
I snorted and then hesitated for a moment. I glanced at her and asked, "Do you really want to know?"
"Tell me!" She said in excitement.
"Well, I was actually planning to destroy your family's harmony for one night." I said in a joking manner. "See, I had this plan where I hired an actress that I met before, and made her say some words about her estranged father that she never met."
" I believe that I can steer your mom and dad into thinking that your dad was her estranged father. Then, after thinking about it, I thought it was too much and didn't do it. But I had already planned the dinner, so…That happened."
I was a bit worried when I saw she wasn't speaking for a while.
"Haley, you're mad-"
"That was awesome! Why did you cancel it!" She asked angrily. "I want to pretend too! I could've said some lines to my parents like, "Oh, I really love this girl. She's like the sister I've never had." And then wait for the faces to contort."
Haley and I burst into laughter after she said that. "That was awesome." I exclaimed.
"Any chance we can still do that?" Haley asked.
I shook my head and said, "No. Jessica told me that she actually felt uncomfortable doing it and was relieved that I had cancelled my plans when I told her. By the way, you really have to meet her. She's like the female version of your dad."
We talked and laughed for a while. Half an hour before midnight, the party was stopped as the principal couldn't legally let it continue. It disappointed a lot of people because we were at the height of the party. And I'm pretty sure that I would enter some news tabloid because of this tomorrow.
I drove Taylor back to my house after the party ended and we talked a lot along the way. I thought that was what she wanted because she insisted that she could go home on her own and I only needed to drive her back to my place.
"So, you want to go up to my room?" I asked after I parked my car in the garage.
She giggled and then said, "No. I'm too tired."
"You should've just let me send you home." I said in disbelief.
"I told you. I can go home on my own. Well then, goodnight." She kissed my cheek before she exited the car. I sighed helplessly as I saw her walk away.
'Maybe she has already called someone?' I thought inwardly.
Suddenly, I saw her make a left turn, and walk straight to my neighbour's house.
"???"
Then, she took out some keys, unlocked the door, and then entered the house.
I froze in my car seat for a while before I finally reacted, "Excuse me…What the fu-"