“You should come over today,” I told Rowan as we were packing up after class the next Thursday. “I really want to study for AP Euro before the exam next week.” Rowan’s eyes shot up to met mine.

“Go to your house?” She barely choked out.

“Yeah? You can quiz me on the Dark Ages. I don’t think I know it well enough.” Her face was contorted funny as she seemed to process my proposal. 

“Will...” she mulled over her words and tried again, “will James be there?”

Ah.

“No, I don’t think so. He should probably be at work. I’ll just call my mom to let her know.”

“Are you sure he won’t be there? I really don’t want to freak out.”

“He won’t be there, I promise.”

She thought it over when she finally said, “Alright, let’s go.”

Three hours later, we had notebooks strewn across the room, laptops open to testing sites, and Rowan rattling off questions getting me to answer them. She laughed at me every time I complained about the exams because she wasn’t taking them nor did she need to take them, she was just interested in the classes.

“In the late 15th century, taxation and enforcement of the laws were assumed by what?” Rowan asked from her position on my desk chair as I lay sprawled across my bed on my back, my textbook on my stomach.

“What?” I asked, sitting up to stare at Rowan.

“In the late fifteenth -”

“No, I heard the question, just what kind of question is that?”

“One that’s bound to be on the exam, probably?”

“I’m going to die, oh my gosh.” I flopped back on my bed, groaning.

“No you’re not, just think about the question. You know it, you’ve been studying for a long time now,” Rowan assured me as I racked my brain. It was blank. All of it just suddenly blank. I grabbed my textbook and started flipping through it.

“Put it down, Cam! No cheating! You know the answer.” I was about to protest when suddenly I heard voices echoing up the stairs. My eyes widened as I snatched my phone from the floor and looked to see three messages from James.

From: Jamesie Poo

Bringing over everyone. Ava, Gem, Carson, and Liam. Tell mom.

Did you tell Mom yet?

We’re bringing pizza. :)

Each message was a minute apart from nearly ten minutes ago. How did I not here the beep or at least feel the vibrate?

“Cammie baby! Are you here?” James yelled up to me.

“Yeah! In my room, one second!” I yelled down, shooting up from my bed and closing the door all the way.

“Hurry up or you won’t get food!” He called back. I turned to see Rowan, eyes focused on me and her mouth dropped.

“You said he wouldn’t be here,” she said after what felt like forever.

“We’ve been up here awhile. It’s nearly 7.”

“I’m not ready to meet a celebrity.”

“There’s actually five downstairs.” Her eyes bulged.

“Five? What do you mean five?”

“Ava Stewart, Carson Dales, Gemma White, and Liam Hawthorne,” I told her and watched her entire face contort into looks of disbelief and discomfort.

“Oh no, no, no, no. I can’t go downstairs. I’ll stay up here, thank you.”

“They’re really not that bad. I mean, I thought it was going to be terrible, but it’s really not. Trust me, just come downst-”

The door flung open as James barged in. “What is taking you so long, Cam? Carson is going to devour that thing and- oh. Hi.” He stopped short as he noticed Rowan in my desk chair, looking like she was about to explode. Who am I kidding? I would have felt the same way. I have felt the same way.

“Hi.” Rowan’s voice faltered as her face got more and more red.

“I’m James, nice to meet you.” He stuck out his hand and I’m pretty sure Rowan was going to pass out any second.

“Rowan,” she said carefully as she shook his hand.

“That’s a cool name, I like that name a lot. Cam, didn’t we have a dog named Rowan?”

“You mean Cohen?”

“Close enough.” I laughed while Rowan still sat there silent and staring. “Anyway, I’m serious, Carson wants to eat like nobody else’s business, so let’s go.” He nodded his head towards the door and I started following him when I noticed Rowan wasn’t coming.

“Rowan.” I snapped my fingers in front of her face until I watched her eyes come in and out of focus as she looked up at me. “Come on.” She got up from her spot and followed me mindlessly down the stairs, a vacant look still taking over her face.

“Rowan. Snap out of it,” I whispered to her.

“He talked to me,” she whispered back.

“Yes, I know, but it’s time to be you again. Be all bubbly, ‘k?” She nodded, but I’m not sure if she completely heard because she was still acting strange.

“Alright, you can eat now Carson.” I heard James tell him as we rounded the corner and Carson smiled gleefully as he took the largest slice he could find and jam half of it into his mouth.

“That’s disgusting,” I told him going for a plate.

“Cam-eh,” he mumbled with his mouth completely full.

“Ew, Carson, gross,” Ava said, pushing him aside so she could grab a piece. “Hey Cam, how’s it going? Oh! Who’s this?” She asked as she noticed Rowan still standing awkwardly behind me.

“Guys, this is my friend, Rowan. Rowan, this is Ava, Carson, Liam, and Gemma.” I pointed at each person individually as they twiddled their fingers or waved, except for Carson who nodded because his hands were otherwise occupied.

“Wait, Cam, you actually have friends?” Liam asked, a look of utter disbelief crossing his face.

“Uh duh. I’m not always a hermit, Liam.” I narrowed my eyes at him, crossing my arms in defiance.

“So Rowan, how do you know Cam?” Gemma asked her, coming off a little threateningly. 

“School,” Rowan croaked. I elbowed her softly to try and get her to snap out of it.

“Oh right, I forgot you’re so young,” Gemma said, her tone belittling as she looked at me.

“Not that young. I’m 18 in a few months.” Ok. Seventeen was pretty young by their standards because they were all in their twenties, except Carson who was nineteen, but even his birthday was coming soon.

“Can we have a party for you? It’ll be so sick,” Carson said between bites.

“Well. I’m trying to get James to send me back to Oregon for my birthday, so probably not.”

“It’s not happening,” James said.

“But I want to be with my girls!” I whined.

“Becca and Riley?” Liam asked and I turned to him, surprised that he remembered their names from that one time he was there when we Skyped. And then I remembered that he overheard our conversation.

“Yeah, that’s why summer birthdays are great. No school. Please send me home, James, so I can party in the USA,” I told him.

“Nope,” he spoke through a mouthful of pizza and I smacked his arm.

“Young adult millionaire and you won’t even pay for a little flight to the states. Unbelievable.”

“Maybe you should get a job.”

“I’m living in Europe, I can’t just go and get a job.”

“You should be an intern on set, Cam.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because then I could boss you around all day.” I shook my head and rolled my eyes, turning away from the conversation we were having to see Rowan sitting between Carson and Liam at the table, looking like she was about to die. Whether from happiness or embarrassment, I couldn’t tell, but she definitely didn’t look sane. 

“What ch’ya guys talking about?” I asked as I sat across from them.

“Trying to figure out how Rowan could possibly be friends with you because she’s so sweet and pretty and you’re... well... you,” Carson explained and I glared at him. Rowan blushed a deep shade of pink.

“Carson. Either you stop flirting or you be nice.”

“You know you love me, babe.” He kissed the air in my direction and I stuck out my tongue.

“Not a chance.” 

“Hey, so how about a movie?” James said as he joined us at the table.

“We always watch films, I don’t want to,” Gemma complained.

“We could always play Halo,” I suggested, smirking over to James.

“That’s a great idea!” Ava said.

“Nope. Nope, we are not playing Halo against James and Cam. It’s not happening,” Carson objected, crossing his arms childishly.

“Why? Are you guys good?” Ava asked.

James and I grinned at each other as he said, “the best.”

The room went momentarily silent as we all thought up other ideas to do. Gemma didn’t want to watch a movie (and ok, I was getting tired of them too) and nobody but James and I wanted to play a video game.

“We could play a card game.” Everyone heard the voice, but it didn’t sound like any of us. We didn’t even know where it came from until I saw Rowan leaning against the wall.

“What?” Gemma asked, not taming her tone.

“A card game. I know a really good one. It involves a lot of slapping and hand motions,” she explained and everyone looked interested.

“Yeah.”

“Alright.”

“Sure, I’ll go get the cards.” I looked over at Rowan as she seemed immensely pleased with herself for getting all these celebrities to agree with her and play her game.

James came back with the cards as we all sat down around the table as Rowan began to explain a game called Hi-Jack. She was right in saying there was a lot of slapping, most of it actually slapping yourself. We did motions to face cards and slapped aces and even Gemma was enjoying herself. By the time we got into the game, all of us were screaming at each other, pointing accusing fingers at who did the actions last, and laughing at the loser. Good friends, we know. When we got bored of that, we moved onto another game that required more slapping called Chinese Cuisine (which I soon figured out was Egyptian Rat Screw). By the end of the two games, plus a round of Spoons, all our hands were red, my cheeks were hurting from laughing and my throat sore from screaming. Rowan loosened up and started acting like the bubbly girl she was. Carson continued to flirt with her, but she started handling it better than she was before. Less blushing, more sassy retorts. Gemma stopped being mean and was actually, genuinely laughing while Ava and James always giving each other google-y eyes and teasing each other. Liam was hilarious to watch during the games. He got incredibly into it, his brows furrowed in concentration as he watched the flipping cards. He still lost. 

James eventually looked at his phone and saw how late it was and gave me a familiar look that instantly meant he was tired. So I did what any good sister would do. I faked a really long and loud yawn.

“Oh my gosh, what time is it?”

“Almost ten, I think?” James looked at his phone, even though he already knew the time, and concluded, “Yup, quarter to.”

“Are you joking?” Rowan gaped at us. “I have to be home by ten. My dad’s going to kill me. One second.” She fled from the table with her phone, rapidly telling whoever was on the other side of the line to come pick her up.

“We better go too, I don’t want to show up to the set looking like a zombie,” Gemma said, getting up from her seat. I’m pretty sure it was physically impossible for her to look like a zombie ever, but who knows. Everyone got up together, grabbing their jackets and phones and purses and slowly made their way out the door, waving goodbye and saying we’d have to do this again sometime. Something I whole-heartedly agreed with. All the celebrities got in their cars and drove off as I waved and shut the door behind them to turn and see Rowan behind me with all her stuff.

“Thanks so much for tonight, Cam,” she told me, looking genuinely happy about the evening.

“I didn’t really do anything.”

“No, but you made me come downstairs and it was a lot of fun hanging out with all of them. They’re all... pretty normal.”

“Yeah, not all high and mighty like you thought?”

“Not at all. Just Gemma. She could come off a bit... demeaning.”

“She does that, don’t let it get to you.” Her phone buzzed and she quickly silenced it.

“That’s my mum, I’ll see you at school.”

“Yeah, see you Rowan!” I waved her off as she bounded down our steps into the car.

Once the door was closed, I made the way up to the kitchen to clean up after everyone where I found James already collecting the paper plates and trashing them. 

“That was fun,” I said, joining him in collecting garbage.

“Yeah, Rowan seemed slightly terrified, but it turned out alright.” I laughed, she was definitely terrified.

“We have a pretty good group of friends, huh?” I asked him.

“Yeah, until Ava and I are official and you and Liam go all nuts and everything blows up in our faces.”

“That’s not going to happen! You dramatizer.” I smacked his arm.

“But yeah, it was a fun night. We’ll have to plan more in the next few months.” And I dearly hope we would.

-----------------------------------

HELLO LOVELIES. Sorry I've been busy and this is a little late, but I dearly hope you enjoy this part. Rowan finally met the crew and she freaked out a little! But all was well in the end. Yay :)

So what did you think? Remember to vote/comment/share/fan/etc. all that wonderful stuff so I can know that people actually enjoy this and want me to continue.

Now I'm off to study for my Life of Christ test tomorrow and my OT Survey test and Basic Doctrine test on Friday. Midterms Y U NO EASY!?

Have a lovely day and stay classy,

-Kate