The Blush Family Show and Mr. Blush are made-up and Rogue One is indeed awesome.

PS: Chapter dedicated to bookmunchies

The soft clicking sound almost succeeded in making me open my eyes.

Instead, I turned around in bed, my arm clashing with something rough that gave out under the collision. A muffled chuckle came somewhere from the direction of my feet, followed by another click which suspiciously sounded like...

"Ray-Ray?" I asked, my voice laden with sleep and received a 'yeah' in reply. I silently congratulated myself for identifying the intruder on my first try. "Are you taking pictures of me?"

"Mhmm." Another click from the camera of his phone accompanied his confirmation.

I wasn't worried that the pictures would be indecent. It was too cold for me to be wearing anything indecent - a.k.a. sleep in some flimsy underwear - even if I was not used to avoiding this due to my brother occasionally coming into my room to wake me up after I'd turned off the torture device by the moniker of my alarm and returned to blissful sleep.

So, no, nothing indecent and no, I was not worried.

I was curious and ready to bet one of my Sex Pistols t-shirts that Raiden's sudden interest in photography had to do with the alien object in my bed.

I ran a hand over it, my eyes still closed. It would be more fun that way, attempting to guess what my childhood friend was up to and then seeing if my assumption was correct.

An examination through touch revealed the ULO (Unidentified Lying Object) was made of a kind of sturdy cardboard, with some sort of polish on its surface. A push at its centre confirmed that it could indeed give out under pressure, curving inwards, towards the bed mattress.

I opened one eye. Then the other; the object did not change its appearance.

"Where did you find a life-sized cut-out of Mr. Blush?" I asked, looking at the cardboard replica of the main hero from one of the stupidest children cartoons I'd had the displeasure to be exposed to at a young and tender age due to my mother insisting the show was educational and therefore good for her kids.

"The mall," Raiden replied, taking another photo of me and my hated childhood nemesis. "They are remaking the Blush Family Show with CG characters and they had the old and new character on display on the second floor, along with an announcement about the remake and fliers. Remember how the show was a big deal when we were kids?"

I snorted.

Every child who had more than one brain cell had hated that cartoon with its horrible animation and in-your-face preaching of old-fashioned family values. Every parent with a young child who was too busy or too lazy to teach that child said values had loved the Blush Family Show as it took one task off their To Teach The Kids list.

"Anyway, the producers are thinking that it will be a big deal now too, thus the display. A friend of Liam's helped set it up and he told me they were throwing the old character design in the trash since it wasn't popular with the children these days..."

"It wasn't popular with the children back in the day either," I muttered, looking into the dark, psychotic eyes of Mr. Blush.

"... So I convinced him to give it to me."

"What did the guy ask for it?" I formed a scissor with my fingers and poked Mr. Blush's eyes. The cardboard cut-out couldn't feel pain, but I still enjoyed myself, imagining it was the cartoon character... Who, technically, also couldn't feel pain, but I preferred to imagine otherwise.

"I told him that if he gave me the cut-out, he wouldn't have to go to the back of the mall to dispose of it, he thought about it, said 'throw in a beer' and we had a deal. Now smile for the camera."

I turned away from Mr. Blush, my fingers still poking his eyes, and grinned.

"You were not supposed to actually enjoy this," Raiden complained after he took the picture.

"I got to poke him in the eyes," I pointed out.

"Yeah, but this was supposed to be my revenge prank." He said, pocketing his phone. "You know, embarrassing pictures of you snuggling the cut-out of a guy you've hated since the first time you saw him in the intro song to the show."

"And it was an okay try," I noted, sitting in my bed and stretching. My neck cracked and my back cracked, and I wondered if I should add a few more exercises to my workout routine.

"But unfortunately for you, my young apprentice," I went on, "I'm good at making bad situations work in my favor. Case in point," I poked the cut-out's left eye again. "But thank you for giving me a new target for my darts. Also, I'm glad to see you back on the Dark Side even if the Force isn't strong with you."

He laughed.

"Star Wars early in the morning?"

"Rogue One was awesome." I stretched again. Nothing cracked this time and I was satisfied. "Breakfast and then shoot darts at Mr. Blush?" I offered.

"Sure." He smiled.

Apparently my father had difficulty understanding the importance of having the right Ben & Jerry's in our fridge. Sure, all Ben & Jerry's was good or at least passable, but the Chocolate Fudge Brownie was a must-have... That we didn't have because daddy dearest had picked the Banana Split instead.

Thus I, in my sweatpants, was jogging to the closest grocery store. In all honesty, the sweatpants had nothing to do with my father and everything to do with me being on my way out for an evening run when I'd discovered the absence of the Ben & Jerry's essential from our kitchen.

Having planned to recover from the lost calories from the run with spoonfuls of the Chocolate Fudge Brownie, I'd changed my course and was now reaching my new destination.

I grabbed one of the red plastic shopping baskets and entered the store.

Gotta love America; no one notices if you go shopping in your jogging attire, I thought as I headed for the refrigerated area. I located my desired flavor and reached for it just as someone came from behind me and outstretched their arm to the container next to it, the one with the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.

I turned to the owner of the arm and realized it was attached to the small torso of a familiar, short brunette.

"Didn't you laugh at my companion's balls the other day?"

Her brown eyes lit up and she omitted an amused snort very similar to the one I got reprimanded for by my mother for being 'not lady-like'.

"That's me," the brunette cheerfully admitted as she put the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough in her shopping basket; I did the same with my Chocolate Fudge Brownie.

"Got to say," she went on, "I've only met Liam a couple of times, but I didn't think he had any friends with a sense of humor."

"Well, I'm more of his brother's friend." I extended a hand to shake. The girl seemed cool. Not only did she have a sense of humor, but she had good taste in ice cream and wore a Guns N Roses t-shirt under her light leather jacket. "I'm Val."

"Wait, are you Raiden's Val?"

"I guess... In a way." I tilted my head, giving her the once over before continuing: "We've been best friends since we were kids."

"I'm Alex." She shook my hand with enthusiasm. "I'm dating his colleague - Tyson."

My eyes rounded and I squeezed her hand.

"You are the girl they didn't want me to meet!"

"Yeah, because they thought we are going to start a fire, or blow something up." She laughed.

"Well, I like fireworks," I winked at her as I released her hand.

"Me too. And the pretty flames." She sighed wistfully and I giggled.

"You know," I started, a grin spreading on my face, "we should do something just to freak the boys out. Something small that wouldn't get us in trouble... Or too much trouble."

"Yeah, we should," she agreed, still smiling. "Want to go to a strip club and plan it out? My ex used to work there."
I furrowed my eyebrows.

"I didn't know there was a male strip club in town," I admitted.

Or any strip club to begin with.

"Oh, no, it's a female strip club. I'm bi; my ex is a girl," Alex clarified.

"Was she hot?"

"She was a stripper; of course she was hot!" She rolled her eyes. "It used to drive Ty insane and that was before we got together. Then again, my other ex also drove him insane, but that was justified. Stefan was a jerk."

"How much of a jerk?"

"The oh-we-are-meant-to-be-together-you-just-don't-see-it,you-don't-kno-what-you-want, you-will-come-to-your-senses-and-run-back-to-me type of jerk."

It was my turn to roll my eyes.

"Don't you just love it when other people tell you what you are thinking?"

"Yeah, it was lovely." She snorted again. "He actually came to America to look for me. I kicked his ass and send him on a one way trip back to Bulgaria."

Bulgaria?

Well, that explained the slight accent!

I looked her over once again. She was fit and I knew better than to underestimate someone due to their height... I could totally buy her kicking someone's buttocks.

"I like you," I announced. "We should do a pub crawl sometimes."

"You got a fake ID?"

"What? In my sweatpants?" I pointed at my attire. "Not really."

"Then give me your number and we'll work something out." She was already taking out her phone.

"And then we can discuss how to freak out the boys?"

Her grin matched mine.

"And then we'll definitely discuss how to freak out the boys."

Ladies and gentlemen, Alex from Here We Go Again. A.k.a. the original Vallery - older now, but still just as... playful.

When I was creating Val, I purposefully tried to avoid some of Alex's traits and yet they still turned out very similar; no wonder they hit it off! Or did they?

Do you think they'll turn into a formidable duo?

Can Alex take over as Val's new partner in crime?

How will Raiden react to that?

For those of you who've read Here We Go Again: how do you think Tyson will react to the girls teaming up?

But back to Raiden: do you think his attempt at revenge was a poor one or is Vallery really just good at turning the tables on people?

Please support the chapter with a VOTE and have a great time wattpadding!

PS: I've mentioned so many products/bands here that I feel like I should put a Product Placement warning at the beginning of the chapter. :D

PPS: How many of you have read Here We Go Again?