Trouble in Paradise?
Chapter Twenty One

I met with Amber and the rest of the soccer team at lunch. Fortunately, I didn't see any of the 'nice' girls, Veronica and Belle, that had blessed our presence at the trials. Sarcasm alert.

We all had our sports uniforms on, and the coach was walking towards us. "Well done girls, you've made the team," she said.

"There will be two training sessions per week after school. On Wednesday and Friday afternoons you are expected to come to training after school for two hours. Each week on Saturday there will be a game, and I will inform you of the venue, whether it be at this school, another or a field," she explained.

We all listened, no one speaking. "I have to go and mark some exams. There is a bag of soccer balls here, do some practice and get to know each other. Take the equipment back to the sports shed when you're done," she finished before walking back off the field. The girls around me looked at each other before we slowly inched towards the bag of soccer balls.

Amber strode confidently to the bag and took out a ball, letting it fall to her feet. "So, what should we do? Any suggestions?"

"We could kick it to each other and say our names? You know, like to introduce ourselves?" one girl with blonde hair suggested. Amber shrugged and nodded. We all got into a big circle. There were twenty of us.

"I'm Amber," Amber said, kicking the ball to the blonde haired girl that had spoken earlier.

She stopped it swiftly underneath her foot. "I'm Jessica." Jessica had green eyes, along with beige blonde hair that was styled into two Dutch braids.

She kicked the ball to another girl. Her layered red head was flowing down her shoulders, her green eyes barely glancing down as she caught the ball as well. "I'm Ashley."

She then nudged the ball towards a girl with shoulder length black hair and brown eyes. The girl chewed on bubblegum, blowing a small pink bubble. "I'm Emily."

The rest of the girls kicked the ball around the circle until it had gone to everyone, including me. Now we were stumped on what to do next. It was a little awkward, the small silence in the air. Lunch would be over soon anyway, so we could push this back until the next training.

We just decided on kicking the ball around for a couple more minutes before the bell rang. As predicted, the warning bell rang and we all went and quickly got changed before heading off to our classes.

I was chilling at home, calmly baking some marshmallow and chocolate chip cookies. I heard a knock at the door, so I went to get it. I spotted Christen sneaking up to the bowl of cookie batter. "Touch the cookies and I will destroy you."

"Alright! Jeez," he muttered before taking his place on the couch again. I smiled triumphantly as I approached the door, opening it to see Ethan holding the hands of two little girls who clutched onto some familiar dolls.

"Can you watch them?" he asked.

I nodded. "Sure, for how long?" He nudged them inside and they came to hold my hands.

"Couple hours. I'll be back later, bye," he said before rushing down the driveway and into his car, speeding off down the street.

"Not much of a talker," I muttered before taking the girls inside. They decided to explore the house a bit more, running around and observing everything in sight. They even greeted Christen, who just laughed and started playing with them while I baked the cookies. They chased each other around the house while I laughed to the point where my stomach was aching with laughter.

When the girls came out of the spare room with some old fairy costumes of mine, I immediately looked towards Christen who wore a horrified look. I bit my tongue to stop the laughter that threatened to rise again. They held some pink and sparkly fairy wings along with a tiara and a flower wand.

Christen coughed. "Hey, a-are you girls going to put on some costumes?"

"Not on us!"

"Oh fu-"

"Language Christen," I playfully scolded him while chuckling to his horror. "There are little girls present."

He didn't even look at me, he was too busy slowly inching backwards from the terrifyingly evil little girls that were smiling and grinning from ear to ear. He bolted up the stairs with the little girls bounding behind him happily.

I went back to the cookies, drizzling some chocolate icing over them to finish them off. "The cookies are ready!" I called to them upstairs. I put all of the cookies on a plate and looked up to the sound of someone clearing their throat.

My jaw dropped when I saw Christen standing there with the most unimpressed face. The tiny little fairy wings had been strapped to his back, the tiara put on his head and he held the wand. The girls clapped and giggled as they danced around him while I wore a straight face even though I was dying on the inside. Be a nice person and don't laugh, Stef.

Well, my plan failed and I burst out in laughter. Christen sighed and even went a little red in the face.

"Princess Christen!" the girls squealed. "Magical Princess Christen!"

"You're a princess, Christen," I added in, making him glare at me.

I could see that he was itching to rip the costume off, but for the sake of the girls he smiled and laughed along with them. The girls then spotted the cookies and made a beeline for them, allowing for Christen to take the tiara off his head and struggle to wrestle out of the tiny wings. The little twins devoured three cookies each before they declared that they were full.

It suddenly got really cold, so I went to turn on the heater. Christen looked at me weirdly.

"You're cold? It's boiling in here," he stated.

"I just got chills," I replied. "I'll go put on a jumper," I said, running up the stairs to my room and grabbing a thick, black jumper.

The girls had focused their attention back on Christen, showing him their dolls and accessories. I yawned, feeling tired. My eyelids drooped.

"Christen, I'm taking a nap. Wake me up in an hour," I said, grabbing a blanket from one of the cupboards and resting on the couch with it, snuggling into the warm blanket and pillows that surrounded me.

Christen woke me up sometime later, stating that Ethan's car had just pulled up. The girls had winded down, but they hadn't gone to sleep like last time. I grabbed their hands and took them to the door, Ethan knocking. I opened it and they ran to him, smiling and talking about the adventures that they had.

I yawned again, the nap seeming to have done nothing. "Sorry, I'm tired."

He nodded. "Thank you, I'll get out of your hair."

"It's no problem, bring them back whenever you need to," I said before we bid our goodbyes and I shut the door.

"Christen! I might go to bed early tonight, I'm super tired," I told him. "There's food if you want some," I said, pointing to the kitchen.

He nodded. "That's fine, sweet dreams."

I rolled my eyes before I went upstairs and changed into my pajamas. I immediately crawled into my bed covers, my eyelids fluttering shut. I was out like a light.

I woke up at three o'clock in the morning.

What the heck?

My phone was ringing, that's why I woke up. I emitted a loud groan before blindly grabbing for my phone on the small bedside table that I had. I went temporarily blind when I checked to see who was calling.

Blake.

He must have a deathwish if he thinks he can wake me up at three in the morning.

I growled and answered the phone. "This better be good, because I'm halfway through the plan for your murder already."

He scoffed. "You'd get caught."

"That's what they all say, yet here I am," I replied. "What do you want?"

"I need help. With Belle, to be exact."

"You called me at three in the morning for dating advice!" I exclaimed, probably a bit too loud. "Are you insane?" I whispered.

"I don't know if she likes me," he said, ignoring my outburst.

I sighed. "I wouldn't know either, she isn't a very nice person. To me or anyone," I said.

"She's unique, alright? Look-"

"Chill, I know. You really like her, but she isn't a good person."

He sighed. "I think I love her."

My eyes widened a little in the darkness that surrounded me. "Whoa there, are you sure?"

"I think so, but does she love me back?" he replied.

"I wouldn't know, even if she was nice to me. You could ask her, or amaze her with your charms and persuade her to love you. Or I could tap into my box of secret potions and find a love potion," I said.

"Very funny, seriously," he deadpanned, a hint of playfulness and sarcasm in his voice.

"I am serious. Find out yourself, genius. I can't read minds," I said. "And I'm sorry for what I said earlier, I understand that you admire her a lot. If you can see the good qualities in her, then that's all that matters," I told him, my body starting to sweat. Did it get hot in here? I fanned my skin, kicking off the covers. My back was sweating, along with my arms and thighs.

"Thanks, S."

I smiled. "No problem, now go back to sleep before I lose anymore beauty sleep," I said.

He chuckled. "Okay, fine. Goodnight."

"See you tomorrow," I said before hanging up the phone, lying back down and falling back to sleep quite easily.

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