As soon as Travis and I enter the school building, it seems as if a celebrity walked in. Everyone turns to stare at us and some even start whispering to one another. I have never felt so self-conscious my entire life. Is this what it feels like to have the spotlight on you?

Some girls passing by giggle and wink at Travis and I'm certain he was the one that caught everyone's attention earlier. It's easy to become popular in this school when you're that hot, though I'm pretty sure Travis' personality makes up for his sudden popularity as well. I'm not saying I'm not good looking or that I'm boring, it's just that the super hot, chiseled appearance is more favored than plain good looks and the people prefer someone that is extra to someone that is ordinary, so...

Travis stays closely by my side as we make our way to our lockers- his is just two lockers away from mine. I spot Chris walking towards us sporting what I believe is a smile. How nice of him to stop by. Note the sarcasm.

"Avan, Travis; just the guys I was looking for."

"Why were you looking for us?"

"I wanted to invite you both to my party on Friday night, it's invites only cause I wouldn't want the whole school showing up at my house like last time." Chris laughs but my expression remains blasé. He knows I'm not a frequent party-goer, I like to be selective about the kind of parties I attend. He hasn't invited me to a party since the first one he invited me to which I didn't attend, so why invite me now? I'm sure it's Travis he wants to invite but thought that it'd be weird to invite only him so he decided to invite both of us. I don't have a good feeling about this party and it's not just because I don't like Chris.

"I love parties, I'll definitely be there," I hear Travis say as I snap out of my thoughts. Chris turns to me expectantly, I bet he knows I won't come.

"I'd love to come too but I have a lot on my plate right now, I have tons of homework, tests to prepare for, and most importantly, I have to fix my faulty invention ahead of the contest. So you see, I am very busy."

"Everyone has homework and tests too, a few hours of fun won't hurt, and as for your contest, it's a couple of months away so you have plenty of time. Come on, Avan," Chris insists.

Why can't this guy just get it and leave me alone?

"Yeah, it'll be more fun if we go together," Travis says.

Shut up, Travis.

"See, even your friend gets it. So, what do you say, you coming?"

I am not comfortable with the fact that he is trying so hard to convince me to attend this party. What's so special about it anyway?

"Like I said, I really have a lot to do and partying is just going to make me-"

"Come on, most of your friends will be there, even Wyndy is coming," Chris interrupts me with a smirk which means he knows exactly what he did. Travis looks at me like he knows I'm going to say yes immediately.

Good one, Chris. Well played.

"I guess since everyone's coming, I shouldn't be the only one left out," I say and Chris' smile broadens.

"Great. So the party's at my house by ten," he informs us.

"Isn't that a bit late?" I ask, to which he chuckles.

"We're not getting any younger, dude. See you guys at the party." With that, Chris walks away.

"My first party in an alternate universe, I'm going to have a lot of tales to tell my friends and children," Travis muses.

"How are parties like in your world?" I ask him.

"You need a party license before you can throw one otherwise you'll get penalized by the government. I'm surprised teenagers are allowed to throw parties here on their own. In my world, you need to be at least twenty before you can be authorized to throw a party or any large celebrations," Travis explains as we head to class.

"That's not fair."

"You know what else is not fair? The fact that you can't even attend a party at night unless you're up to twenty years of age. I love parties, which is exactly why I sneak into them despite what the law says. Luckily for me I don't look too sixteen-ish and I have never been caught."

"I figured you'd be the type to sneak into parties you are practically banned from attending," I say jokingly as we enter the classroom and settle down in our seats. I hear some girls gushing about how hot Travis is and I shake my head. Mr. Trainor finally enters the chemistry lab carrying Billy's cage. That's odd, he's never late to class.

"Sorry for the delay, kids. I was answering to a complaint from the principal," Mr. Trainor says after setting Billy and his cage on the desk. I'm pretty sure that complaint was about the rat, and as usual, Mr. Trainor must have used his skilled wordery to turn everything in his favor and go scot-free.

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

After class, Mr. Trainor stops me from leaving while Travis waits by the door.

"Hey Avan."

"Hey, Mr. Trainor."

"How's everything going with your invention?"

"Chocolate milk got accidentally spilled on it so it's a bit cranky, but, I'm working on it."

"That's good. The journey won't be an easy one and the road definitely won't be a smooth one; remember you can't do this on your own so don't forget to let me know if you need any help, alright," he says to me.

"Yes, I know that," I drawl. "You've told me so many times that I think if you open up my brain, you'd see the words imprinted there."

He chuckles at this.

"Bye, Mr. Trainor," I say and leave the class.

After school, I remind Travis that we have to take a trip to the mall to get him clothes that are actually his size now that he'll be staying here for a while. We go to the mall and once we get in, Travis takes his time to look around.

"Isn't this how malls are like in your world?" I ask.

"Yeah, but not as big or crowded."

"Your universe seems to have a small population which makes it easy for the government to control everything," I observe.

"I have never seen so much stores in one place. Can we go check this one out?" Travis points to a perfumery.

"We're here to buy you clothes so we do not need to make detours at every store we see, it's only gonna waste our time," I tell him.

"I need perfume too, don't I?"

"You've been using mine, so you can keep on using them."

"It won't hurt to check out what they've got," he says and I find myself following him to the store.

The store is painted in white and lavender, giving it a serene atmosphere. Perfumes are displayed creatively in every area of the store and I can tell that the employees put in a lot of effort to make the place look pleasing in the eyes of customers. I'm definitely pleased.

"Fine, you can pick any perfume of your choice, just one." Travis beams as he walks around, looking at different kinds of perfume while I stand by the door, watching him with my arms crossed. I'm only allowing him this luxury because dad gave me his debit card for the shopping.

Ten minutes later and we're leaving the perfume store with Travis carrying his attractively packaged perfume. We take several more detours as Travis finds every one of them 'interesting'. We finally make it to the store where we would buy his clothes. The shop attendant welcomes us and leads us to some clothing racks to make our choices, she also shows us the fitting room in case we want to try some clothes on.

After trying on a few clothes, we are finally able to buy Travis new clothes and shoes, and a pair of sunglasses on his insistence. We stop by the snack bar to get ourselves pretzels and oatmeal smoothies before heading home.

* * * * * * *

When we get home, Ariel is sitting on the sofa with Austin and quite frankly, I am not in the least surprised. I knew she would come back for Travis, and she's not on uniform so she didn't come here for a delivery.

Austin springs up from the sofa when she sees us. "Oh good, you're back, I was wondering what kept you guys, Ariel has been here for a while," she says through gritted teeth.

"Yeah, I've been waiting for you guys, got something for Travis." Ariel stands up and carries a pizza box I didn't even notice was lying on the coffee table.

"Thanks," Travis says as he keeps his smoothie cup and shopping bags and takes the box from Ariel. She has never given us free pizza before and now Travis gets one?

"I see you went shopping," she states, peeking at the bags Travis dropped on the sofa.

"Yeah, wanted to get some clothes my size," Travis says.

"You outgrew all your clothes?"

"No, I've been wearing Avan's clothes."

"Why?"

"Cause I didn't bring any of my clothes with me."

"From where?"

"Mexico. I'm a transfer student at Avan's school so I'm living with his family in the meantime."

"Why didn't you bring any clothes with you?"

"That's a story for another day," Travis dismisses the topic and sits on the sofa with the pizza box on his lap. He opens it and takes a slice, and I do the same.

"Hands off, people, this is specially for Travis," Ariel warns but Austin ignores her and also takes a slice. "You like it?" She asks him.

"It's really good but I'm not hungry now so I'll just keep the rest of it in the fridge for later," Travis tells her and closes the box.

"Before you do that, why don't we chat a little?"

"Now is not a good time for that." Travis stands up and takes the pizza box to the fridge.

"Why not? I have all day," Ariel protests.

"And I have homework," he tells her.

Austin and I snicker.

"I'm sure you have plenty of time for that, can you give me just a little bit of it?"

"I can't. I'm just not in the mood for a chat."

"Okay, so how about tomorrow? I can stop by if you want," Ariel suggests.

"I'll be going to school tomorrow."

"I can come by the house after school."

"I would also have homework tomorrow."

"That can't stop me."

"Okay! Travis doesn't wanna chat with you, we appreciate the pizza but we are tired of you so why don't you leave and come back only when you have a delivery to make, then we can see less of you and maintain our sanity," Austin says as she gently pushes Ariel to the door.

"What about Saturday? We can hang out at the park!" Ariel says to Travis over Austin's shoulder.

"I don't think I wanna hang out at the park," Travis tells her.

"Exactly. So, you can leave now, thanks for stopping, bye." Austin finally gets Ariel out of the house and shuts the door.

We all take a deep breath as we sink into the sofa.

"Who is she to you guys again?" Travis asks.

"Just a pushy and annoying pizza delivery girl," Austin replies.

"I see. She is pushy and annoying," he agrees.

I'm the first to get up. "Let's take these bags upstairs, shall we?"

"What did you buy?" Austin asks.

"Just a couple of things," I say. She never tells me what she buys when she goes shopping so why should I?

Travis also gets up and carries the shopping bags and his unfinished oatmeal smoothie as he follows me upstairs.

"I haven't been to a party in weeks, I'm so excited for this one," Travis says as he arranges his clothes in the side of my closet I created for him.

"Yeah." I don't take my eyes away from my invention which I am fixing. Turns out the chocolate milk didn't do much damage, with the way things are going, I should get this baby fixed by Friday evening, before the party. That is what I'm excited about and not some stupid party.

"Wyndy will also be at the party," he states and this time, I turn to face him.

"So?"

"This could be your chance to interact with her, dance with her, have a drink with her, you know, strengthen your relationship with her and get to know her more. She probably likes you likes you, but because you keep holding back, she won't be sure if you really like her like her too," he tells me and I blink at the truthfulness of his words.

He is right; I keep holding back, I have never even had a conversation with her for up to five minutes, I have never told her how I feel about her, but all of that changes Friday night.

"You don't seem mad at me anymore. Does this mean I can still call you friend?" Travis asks me expectantly.

I smile at him.

"Sure, friend."

* * * * *

First five chapters done! Hurray 🤭

So guys, tell me what you think about this book so far. Good? Very good? Needs a little tweaking/corrections? Do let me know in the comment section. And if you're enjoying this story, do vote for it. It encourages me to keep writing 😊