"Hello, hello." Nova called out as her and EJ walked into Ashlyns house.

"Hey!" the redhead girl gushed as she hug both of them at once.

"Hey. I brought some lobster dip and a bottle of forty- year Balsamic." EJ said as the three pulled back from each other, holding the dip under his arm, "I double dipped twice on the drive over and I felt bad about that but I feel great about telling you."

Nova hummed as she rubbed his back, "He would have done it again if didn't tell him the raw, real truth as to why it's important to respect that other people will eat this."

"Cool. I'm Ashlyn and you two are.." she trailed off with a comical laugh.

"On a mission, Ash." EJ said back, taking Novas coat and hanging it up for her.

"And I am trying to communicate more. When I decided not to yell, words just fly from my mouth." Nova said honestly as she held up her small thing of noddles, "Also, brought noddles and my fortune told me that a new me is right infront of my eyes."

"Sounds fancy." Ashlyn said as her and Nova began walking toward the kitchen, "You two look like you have a few kids."

"EJ and I?" Nova asked with a snort, laying her noddles down, "We'd be the worst parents. Yet, would have the most gorgeous kids."

"You would." Ashlyn nodded her head and lead her into the living room.

"Okay, okay, you guys. Okay." Carlos called out to the group as they all sat around the table together, "There are four basic categories. The Getcha Head in the Frame Trivia Challenge, the Bop Till You Drop Dance Challenge."

"Not with Nova brutal dance moves." EJ spoke up, getting hit in the chest.

"Sync to the Status Que Lip Sync Challenge, and looking for Glee, which I thought would be a fun name for the singing challenge because when I was a kid I was obsessed with the show." Carlos finished the categories off easily, earning a few laughs.

"It still holds up." EJ concluded for him.

"Oh, good. I thought you guys were gonna judge me." Carlos admitted with a faint grin. Nova nudged her head into his shoulder to show a bit of affection, "Okay, so Knights, you won the coin toss so you guys go to pick the first challenge."

"You guys are losers." Nova said to the knights.

"We've gotta do Looking For Glee." Ricky concluded after the group took a moment to discuss.

"Okay, we're gonna look for Glee." Ashlyn nodded with a grin Carlos' way.

"Excellent." he concluded while pulling a card from the small deck, "As fast as you can, please sing the lyrics to What I've Been Looking For to the rhythms of Getcha Head In The Game. Go!"

"No, it starts.."

"It's hard to believe that I couldn't see-"

Nova couldn't hold back her laugh at the horrible preformed, leaning on EJ leg as she laughed alongside the rest of them.

"That was terrible." EJ laughed when they finished the intense performance.

"I'm so happy." Seb said with laughing tears.

"Congratulations, you get to move four spaces closer to center stage at East High." Carlos spoke with a wide grin. Ashlyn cheered while Big Red moved their knight character on the board.

"Wait, they get four spaces for that?" EJ asked in disbelief.

"Amateurs, we could have killed that." Nova concluded.

"Oh god, not this." Ashlyn begged, "Did we forget about Monopoly?"

"Why would you put them on the same team?" Ricky asked Carlos in disbelief, "I value my nose."

"I was hoping to form the peace!" the Rodriguez boy spoke in defense.

"We've gotten better, we've gotten better." Nova defended the two of them as she patted EJ on the leg.

"Okay, Wildcats, take a spin." Carlos spoke up once more. EJ leaned over Nova and spun the small dial, the clicking nose echoing through out the living room.

"All right. We're gonna bop." he concluded after talking to the group. Seb gave Novas shoulder a small squeeze with a wide smile.

"Okay. Pick one member from each team." Carlos said with a calm look, "Without anything going up anyone's noses."

"Seb and I are experts on Bopping To The Top so that wouldn't be really fair. You know, with the under paid actors over there." Nova spoke as she looked back at her group of Wildcats.

"We can hear you." Big Red spoke with a knowing look.

EJ and Ricky both stood up at the same time, making a few cringe. Nini and Nova shared a similar look and joined hands in slight fear.

"Your challenge is to stare at your partner and do the Sharpay and Ryan warm-up thing for sixty second straight without laughing or killing each other." Carlos informed the pair of glaring, warning up boys.

"Should we make a run for it?" Nini whispered toward Nova.

"Definitely but I wanna see how this goes." she said back in a low tone.

"Okay, go!" Carlos announced as Ej and Ricky began mimicking the weird noises to each other, yelling in the other faces and waving their hands around. Nova buried her face in her hands in embarrassment and laughter.

"Brr! Brr! Ma! Ma! Burr!"

"Nova, hey, I got you something." Gina said as she caught her attention a few minutes later, once the singing challenge was over. Nova was heading toward the bathroom down the hall before Gina stopped her, "I know you said you applied for DePaul University a few weeks ago and Chicago is cold so I made you..."

Nova gasped when Gina pulled out a pair a green mittens, "G! You made me these?"

"Youtube, Ricky has a hat way to big for his head so if these don't fit-" Gina began before Nova cut her off in a hug, "We're hugging."

"I'm not really a hugger." Nova admited.

"Me neither." Gina said back, but they hugged anyways.

"Thank you, I love them." Nova smiled, pulling them onto her hands. They hadn't been too big, only slightly but not big enough to fall off. Nova loved them, "DePaul hasn't gotten back to me."

"You'll get in, okay? You have a, what? 4.0? You're in tons of clubs, the lead in plenty of plays... you've got this." Gina tried to make her feel better, looking down, "There is still seven more months, we have time."

"Hopefully." Nova said with a deep breath before a she gave a final grin. When Gina walked off, Nova disappeared into the bathroom and hopped up on the counter. Her phone was in her hands, unlocking it in no time. Her thumb hovered over her moms name, wanting to hit the call button but felt more frozen then anything. Instead, the message button was hit and Nova typed a small message.

Happy Thanksgiving.

She felt better knowing she at least said it, that at least one of them seemed to care.

"Okay, you guys, according to the Musical Choosical Handbook of Rulesicicles-" Carlos began after they all crowded in the kitchen again.

"Stop it." EJ begged with a laugh.

"The only way to resolve a tie at the end of regulation play-" Carlos began before Nova grabbed hold of one of the forks and reached backwards to yank Kaden down, "Nova! Nothing up the nose!"

She sighed but dropped the fork, letting the white haired boy go.

"Is with a lighting speed round of Getcha Head in the Fram trivia questions." Carlos informed all of them with a raise of his eyebrows, "Are you ready? Because people have been known to cry during this."

"Crying? Please, I don't cry." Nova said confidently.

"What about when we watched Wonder?" EJ spoke up.

"And Deathly Hallows." Big Red added in.

"Five Feet Apart." Ashlyn hummed.

"The Flordia Projects." Gina pointed a finger.

"Me Before You." Seb gasped when he finally thought of one.

"Nova, you cried in IT." Ricky gave her a look of disbelief.

"You guys are losers." Nova commented to each of them, throwing a few of her cranberries back at EJ, "And Deathly Hallows shouldn't even count... every wife cries when their husband dies."

"I thought you've never actually played this-" Seb began toward Carlos.

"Honey, not today of all days." the standing boy stopped him quickly, "Okay, here we go. Name both jersey numbers Troy wears in the movie."

"Oh, fourteen and ten!" Big Red spoke up immediately.

"How did you know that?" Ashlyn asked him in disbelief, "I didn't even know that."

"Correct." Carlos laughed, "How does Gabriella describe herself when she's complaining to her mom?"

"As the schools freaking genius girl!" Ashlyn hollered out.

"And do people talk like that?" Carlos hummed.

"They do not." the Caswell girl giggled as she sat back down.

"Wildcats! Who's red tie does Ms.Darby's compliment at the audience?" Carlos spoke up, turning to the other team quickly.

After a moment of worry and hard thinking, EJ spoke up, "Allan?"

"Yes!" Carlos yelled their way.

Both teams cheered for him.

"I looked it up on my phone, you guys. I can't stop cheating and i'm sorry." EJ spoke up as he held his phone up, red in the face. Everyone began booing him in the process with harsh scolds.

"You guys, he's trying to be better." Nova spoke up and waved them off, "Thank you for being honest, EJ, give me that."

She took his phone from him and placed it on her knee.

"Well, the West High Knights have a chance to steal." Carlos looked toward the other team with a raise of his eyebrows, "What is the name of the girl that pops and locks?"

"I love to pop and lock and jam and break!" Gina sung as she stood up and mimicked the dance moved, "Martha Cox!"

Everyone cheered for her moves while Carlos announced her the winner, "The West High Knights win! You, my dear, get this homemade Scholastic Decathlon ribbon. Carful, it's just a straight pin and was never sanitized."

"Gina, don't get an STD." Nova said, earning odd looks, "What? They can be passed on through blood as well."

"Okay, Doctor Sháo." Nini grinned at her and snapped her fingers. Nova gave a small bow while Gina snapped a quick selfie with all of them.

"Okay, hold on, I need to share this honor with my loved ones."

"You gotta stop moving. This is the price you pay for beauty."

EJ phone buzzed on Novas knee, making her look down as a message from his waterpolo team mate came up. She slide it to the side to get it off the screen, a habit she did often. Her eyes set down on his lock screen, making her smile. She wasn't in it, but they'd taken a trip to Colorado last summer and got a beautiful photo of the sunset they came across on the mountains. It had been his wallpaper, even though it was a memory he spent with her.

"Mom! Mom! Mom! Two thing! One, I was just crowned the queen of crazy town, and two, can I spend the night at Ashlyns house?" Gina asked her mother over the phone, a large smile on her face still, "Uh, Mom, sorry, I can't hear you. Okay, you're on speaker. Say happy Thanksgiving to my mom!"

"Happy Thanksgiving!" the room all yelled out toward the woman on the other side of the line.

"Oh, same to all of you." she said over the line, "Gina, honey, can you take me off speaker?"

The room felt tense after that in worry as Gina quickly took her off the line and walked off.

EJ nudged Nova in a whisper, "Wanna go catch a turkey?"

"In your dreams, Caswell." she said back, pushing his forehead back.

•

kylie speaks

not them acting
like a grown ass
married couple with
a pair of twins and
three dogs.

also, DePaul is in
Chicago btw! Meaning
Nova and Ricky moments
will come soon!