Chapter 18

I wasn’t one to skip school. I would always be on time for class and, the only reason I would even think of taking a day off would be if I was insanely sick. Sure, I know that I technically skipped school that one day when I decided not to go on the boat excursion, however, I would’ve just been sitting in a classroom with nothing to all day if I had indeed stayed for the duration of that day.

Today, however, was not a justified excuse.

It didn’t even occur to me when I made the choice to track down Cason this morning that I was essentially skipping the day of school and, honestly, at the moment I didn’t even care.

“So,” Cason started. We were still situated on at the edge of the pier next to each other, however, we had actually been keeping a less-serious conversation for the past half an hour or so. “I’m suddenly remembering something that may make you slightly upset…”

“Yes?” I asked, edging him on to continue. I wasn’t that scared of opening up to this guy anymore. Believe it or not, I actually felt quite safe around him since he also shared with me a part of his part.

“I was just wondering why you used to get so upset when I called you Jessa the first couple of times?” he asked curiously, leaning back and resting all of his weight on his hands.

“Umm…” I said as I ducked my head and starting fiddling with my hands, thinking of a way to tell him the truth.

Suddenly, another hand came out of nowhere to rest atop of mine. Looking up, I saw that Cason had a small and encouraging smile on his face as he left his hand on top of mine.

A smile of my own made its way onto my face for a split second; however, it was long enough for Cason to recognize it before my expression turned to one of simple sadness. “When I was younger both of my parents used to call me Jessa because I didn’t particularly like the name Jessalyn; it was too long and I guess I just didn’t consider it to be a normal name. Anyways, as I grew up a little, I told my parents to start calling me by my actual name because I then felt happy to have a unique name while I was filled in a class with to Mark’s and three Sara’s.” I explained, laughing slightly as I felt a couple of tears gather in the corner of my eyes.

“I guess along the way my mom sort of gave up and started to call me Jessalyn, but my dad,” I said, shaking my head in an amused fashion even though I was also trying so hard not to cry. “He never gave the nickname up. Eventually everybody else had stopped calling me Jessa except for my dad. I guess when you started calling me by that name I was still missing my dad a lot and, I got mad at you the first couple of times before I realized that it was just a nickname.”

I looked up at the sky as I finished my explanation, and kept my head like that until the teardrops in my eyes evaporated or disappeared.

When I glanced over at Cason with dry eyes, I saw that he had a very guilty look plastered upon his face, but before I could tell him that everything was alright, he started to speak.

“Oh god!” he grunted, starting off his explanation by running a stressed face down his regretful face. “The first time I called you Jessa I remember seeing a mask of anger appear on your face, but I just ignored it. I thought you were being stuck up and annoying by telling me that I couldn’t give you a nick name. I was so stupid! I didn’t even think that there could be some other reason that you weren’t comfortable talking about as to why you didn’t like the name, and then I just continued calling you by that name.”

“Cason, it’s really okay.” I said as I pronunciated the last two words heavily, letting him know that I wasn’t blaming him or holding anything against him.

Cason looked at me with disbelief in his eyes. “Are you kidding me?” he asked incredulously. “It’s not okay! Now I know that it’s a name that you shared with your dad, who isn’t around anymore to see his daughter grow up, how couldn’t you mind me calling you… that name?”

I shook my head, placing a comforting hand on Cason’s arm as it looked like he was going through some inner turmoil. “Cason,” I said, waiting until I got his full attention to continue. “I am honestly okay with you calling me Jessa. Sure, it annoyed me at first, but after a couple of run-ins with you calling me that, I got used to it and I kind of like it. It reminds me that even though my dad isn’t here any longer, I still have people that will call me by the name that he did so many times before.”

As I explained my thought process to Cason, it looked like he had relaxed a lot about calling me by the name of Jessa.

“You’re completely serious about that?” he asked slowly, to which I nodded to in response. “And you don’t mind at all that I’m calling you by the nickname that your dad used?” he inquired, except this time; he got a shake of the head in response.

At my two non-verbal answers, Cason’s worries seemed to have completely flown out the window.

“So, are you going to get over this and keep calling me Jessa?” I asked, teasing him a little once his worrying stage had finished.

He simply rolled his eyes at my question. “I’ll keep on calling you Jessa, but if you ever feel uncomfortable about it, just tell me and I’ll stop.”

“Just think, a little more than a week ago you would’ve gone out of your way to annoy the crap out of me and make me uncomfortable as possible.” I commented, processing his reply but not actually replying to it. “Now you’re seated beside me worrying about that very thing.”

Cason cracked a smile at my comment; however, he also looked at me with a stern demeanour surrounding him. “I’m serious Jessa.” he said, which made me crack my own smile as he called me by that name.

“Yes Cason,” I replied with a slight teasing tone. “Even though it won’t happen, I’ll tell you if you calling me Jessa makes me uncomfortable.”

He nodded in confirmation, happy with my response before I saw his point of focus change. Instead of focusing his attention on the water in front of us or looking in my direction, Cason was now looking down towards the public beach, where people were starting to flock towards as lunch time rolled around and the heat in this little town increased.

“So, I’m thinking it’s about time to get some food; you up for some beach front grub?” Cason asked, standing up and offering me his hand.

I nodded with a smile on my face, taking his hand as he helped me onto my feet. Underneath my skin I felt the rickety wood of the pier creak in protest to my weight, but I didn’t pay much mind to the creaking as Cason and I walked back up the pier towards the sand.

After collecting my flip flops from the sand, we made our way down towards the public part of the beach where tourists and older citizens were lounging around, starting to enjoy a glorious day.

Once we arrived at the beach stand, where I had been a couple times before with Olivia, both Cason and I ordered our respective lunches before finding a place to sit. We ended up choosing a picnic table in the sand that was shaded by a nearby tree.

In the middle of our lunch, Cason finally broke the peaceful silence we had previously been sitting in. “So, I was thinking…” he said, but before he could continue, I cut him off.

“Well that could be dangerous, don’t hurt yourself.” I stated comically, before taking another bite of the delicious cheese burger I had bought.

Cason rolled his eyes at my hilarious comment, but I could also see the smile that appeared on his face at my words. “Hardy har har.” he sounded. “Anyways, I was thinking that since it wasn’t appropriate to suggest bringing you to a party as the first thing to get you out of your shell, so, I’ve come up with a much simpler idea that only includes you being around one stranger.”

“What?” I wondered cautiously.

“Well, Evan’s mom and dad are going out tomorrow night for their anniversary dinner and they left Evan in charge of watching Fizzy.” he stated.

“And Fizzy is his little sister?” I asked just to make sure I was on track.

Cason nodded at my question before continuing. “Anyways, Evan was also hoping to go out tomorrow night so he asked me if I could watch her, and I agreed.”

“Okay and what does this have to do with me?” I asked, scrunching my eyebrows up in confusion as I took another bite of my burger.

“I thought you might want to babysit with me and then you can get comfortable around someone other than Olivia, me and even Evan.” he replied, plopping two fries into his mouth.

At the idea of looking after a little girl, I start to feel a little uncomfortable, but I know it’s just the nerves in me saying that it’s a terrible idea.

“I’m not that good around little kids.” I state in shame, a little quieter than my usual voice as I start to draw aimless circles on the picnic table top.

“Fizzy isn’t a toddler or anything Jessa; she’s seven years old and I’m sure you can find something to that will help you relate to a young girl.” Cason said encouragingly. “What did you do when you were seven years old?”

Thinking back to my younger years, I can clearly remember times where my mom and dad would play around with my dolls, as well as help me paint or draw funny pictures. Another memory that would always stay in my heart was when my family would sit around watching Disney movies all the time because I had it in my head that I wanted to be a princess when I grew up.

I looked at Cason sheepishly as I replied. “Umm, I played with dolls, painted, helped my mom and dad in the kitchen, and watched child movies… I don’t know.”

He nodded his head in approval. “See, that’s the kind of things that Fizzy likes to do, and she even annoys me like you do!” he exclaimed in a mockingly outrageous state. At that, I sent him a dry and unimpressed look, sending him into a small fit of laughter. “I’m just kidding, but seriously, you should be fine with her, and I’ll be there too.”

I sighed and nodded, agreeing to this babysitting agreement because, as Cason explained, I needed to start somewhere. “Okay, but where’s Evan going on a Tuesday night?” I inquired.

In return, Cason smirked at me. “Well, he was planning to take a certain girl down to the beach tomorrow night because Tuesday’s are the day when the beach turns into a ghost town for some reason.” he replied smartly. “And right now, I think he’s taking getting a big advantage right now seeing as both of us aren’t at school.”

It took a second for his words to process in my head, but as they clues all came together, a huge smile erupted on my face. “Oh my god; he’s asking Olivia out!” I squealed, probably embarrassing myself because of how girly that sounded.

Cason chuckled at my reaction and nodded his head. “Yea, he’s kind of been interested in her for a year or two because she wasn’t one of the girls that gave him her undivided attention, but because of you and me, he’s got to know her a bit better, and from what he tells me, he likes what he’s seen so far.” Cason explained, taking a sip of the coke he had ordered.

I smiled at his explanation. “Well that’s perfect because Olivia said she’s always thought he was attractive but wasn’t one to go up to a guy and start talking to him because of her low status around the school. She seems to like him too so hopefully, they’ll work out.” I replied, cementing it into my head that I had to talk to Olivia tomorrow before her little date.

Cason agreed with me, saying that they deserved to be happy, and before I knew it, we were walking back to my house.

“So, you’re really okay with babysitting Fizzy tomorrow with me?” Cason asked as we stopped at the end of my driveway.

For some strange reason, Cason felt the need to walk right past his house and continue talking to me. I disagreed with his statement, saying that I could make it another couple of houses without getting kidnapped or seriously injured; however, Cason seemed to disregard my comments and just continue along the side of the road.

I nodded my head at his question. “Yea, I think you’re right. I do need to start facing my little fears now because once I’m off at university next year there won’t be anybody to help me.” I replied with a soft and genuine smile.

“Okay, well Evan and his parents probably aren’t going to be leaving before five tomorrow night so, I’ll just stop by around that time tomorrow to pick you up.” he said and I nodded, showing him that I understood what he was saying. “But, if anything changes I’ll either tell you at school tomorrow or I’ll text you.”

After accepting his words, I said a quick goodbye to Cason and headed towards my house as he turned around and headed back up the street.

The rest of the day passed quite quickly as my mom obviously didn’t receive a call yet that I had skipped school, so we simply sat down for a nice dinner before watching a movie and calling it a day.

When I walked into school the next morning, a reminder went off inside my head telling me that I still had to see Olivia and ask her how yesterday went, and if she was indeed going out with Evan Thorn tonight.

Changing directions at the next hallway, I headed towards her locker where I knew she would be, getting ready for class.

As I turned the last corner on the familiar course to Olivia’s locker, I halted in my steps before backtracking slightly as I saw she was already occupied. Sneaking myself behind the corner, I took another peek before hiding myself completely, deciding to wait until Evan left. As I stood there waiting for them to finish talking, I was reminded of how they looked a second before. As they spoke to each other, I could make out smiles on both of their faces, and unless my eyes were deceiving me, both of the parties in question looked nervous; with small blushes lighting up their facial features.

After standing relatively still for two minutes, I peeked around the corner again just in time to see Evan throw a quick smile at Olivia before heading down the hallway in the opposite direction to where I currently was.

Once Evan was completely out of sight and Olivia had turned her attention to placing her belongings into her open locker, I made my way towards her with a sly smile on my face.

“Hey there,” I greeted nonchalantly, leaning on the locker next to hers. “How’s your morning been so far?”

Olivia, who jumped slightly when I had first spoken, was now looking at me with a small and embarrassed smile on her face. “Oh, hey Jessalyn.” she stated, biting her lip nervously as I saw a hint of pink colour her cheeks and the tips of her ears. “Um, how long have you been around?”

My sly smile grew into a massive grin as my eyes sparkled in mischief. “Oh, long enough to see you and your crush talking.” I stated teasingly. At my words, her blush became even more prevalent and she ducked her head. “Oh god, please tell me he asked you out!” I said, gripping her arm in happiness and anticipation.

As Olivia brought her attention back up from the floor to look me in the eyes, I could see from the sparkle in her eyes that Evan had indeed asked her out. “How could you possibly know that?” she asked, seemingly surprised that I had guessed correctly.

“A little birdy mentioned yesterday that his best friend had plans to ask a certain girl to the beach tonight.” I replied cryptically.

“Oh, so that’s where you were yesterday.” Olivia said with a small smile on her face. “You skipped school to spend the day with Cason?”

I waved my hand dismissively at her question. “Yeah, but I had a good reason to. Also, if Cason wanted you to know, he would gladly tell you himself.” I replied reasonably, and Olivia nodded, understanding that whatever had gone on the day previous was not meant for everybody’s ears. “But this conversation is not about me, it’s about you and your date tonight.”

Olivia’s blush returned as I mentioned the word date, which made my smile widen slightly. “He might have asked me to go to the beach tonight or a casual dinner date.” she mumbled, but her excitement couldn’t be contained because by the end of her sentence, a splitting grin was taking up a large amount of space on her face.

I threw my arms around her in excitement as I let out a quiet, abnormal sounding squeak. Pulling back, my own smile matched the one she was wearing. “I’m so happy for you Olivia, and I hope you have a great time tonight.” I said honestly.

Olivia’s wide smile softened into a small, yet genuine one as she nodded. “I really just don’t know what my mom is going to say when I tell her I have a date tonight.” she stated nervously. “Would there be any chance that you could come over after school and be there when I tell her so she doesn’t go completely overboard?”

Halting my actions, I knew that I had already made plans for the night and honestly didn’t feel like having Cason mad at me once again. “I’m sorry, but while you’re out with Evan tonight, Cason and I are babysitting his little sister.” I said apologetically. “I already bailed on him once and I know you’re strong enough to deal with your mom alone, it’s not like she’s going to forbid you from going out tonight or anything. She’ll just be happy that her daughter found a guy that can make her happy.”

“More like overjoyed,” I heard Olivia mumble in response; however, before I could say another word, she inhaled deeply and nodded. “But you’re right. I can deal with my mom being over excited for an hour or so. Now let’s get to class before we’re late again, you can’t afford to get another mark on your attendance sheet.” she said as she closed her locker.

I shook my head in amusement at her sarcasm as we headed down the hallways towards my locker before heading towards the functions room.

School passed pretty quickly as I focused on getting the work from today as well as the work I had missed during my absence the day before. It looked like I would have quite a large work load for the night, but I didn’t particularly mind because I knew that none of my teachers checked homework and, since I wasn’t handed any assignments or projects, I could put the homework aside tonight and focus on babysitting.

I would be lying if I were to say that babysitting a little seven year old girl, who was also a stranger to me, was going to be all fine and dandy. In fact, I was scared out of my wits that somehow, someway, I would manage to do something wrong and land the little girl in the hospital. Cason’s encouraging words yesterday were helping a little to calm my nerves as six ‘o’clock rolled around, but my mom could see that I was fidgeting in my seat waiting for him to arrive.

“Honey, where exactly are you going tonight that is making you so nervous?” my mom asked, looking slightly worried about my behaviour.

I looked up my mom, sending her a wary smile. “Cason and I are going to babysit Evan’s little sister.” I replied.

“Ah,” my mom sounded, nodding her head in understanding. “And explain to me how that came about.”

Clearing my throat, I quickly skimmed the important details that she wanted to know. I included the fact that Cason wanted to help me break out of my shell, how Evan was supposed to babysit his little sister while his parents were out, but really wanted to take Olivia out on a date, and how Cason was the next in line to babysit for Fizzy. Ending my story, I told her that Cason would be here momentarily to pick me up and bring me to the Thorn’s.

Nodding her head at the appropriate parts, by the end of my explanation, my mom knew exactly what had been going on in my life for the past week or so – minus, of course, the fact that I hadn’t gone to school yesterday.

In spite of the fact I could see my mom’s mouth start to move, no words left her mouth because a few consecutive knocks on the door interrupted her. Rolling her eyes at the interruption, both she and I stood up from our seats to go and answer the door.

Reaching the door first, I twisted the knob and pulled back the door to reveal none other than Cason Michaels standing on our front steps; which wasn’t exactly surprising.

“Hey Jessa.” he greeted with a small smile before moving his gaze behind me to see that my mom was also present. “And Wendy, it’s nice to see you.”

“It’s nice to see you too Cason; however, I’d like to know why you seem so keen as to make my daughter skip school again and again?” my mom questioned with an eyebrow raised, surprising both Cason and myself as her question was unexpected.

A few seconds passed before Cason reattached his jaw to his mouth and rubbed one of his hands against his neck nervously, wearing a sheepish and guilty smile on his face. “I know it was my fault the first time, but you should know that Jessa made the choice to skip school yesterday. In fact, I wasn’t anywhere near her when she left the school, she only came to find me after.” he explained, throwing a fast smirk in my direction.

“Way to throw me under the bus.” I muttered angrily in his direction before turning to mom with the same sheepish expression that had previously been on Cason’s face. “In my defense, I wasn’t thinking straight Friday morning, and it’s not like I missed that much at school anyways.”

My mom still had her eyebrows raised, willing me to say more, but I kept quiet. She finally cracked a small smile and shook her head in amusement. “You might as well leave before you dig yourself an even deeper hole to get out of.” my mom suggested, nodding her head towards the door. “I’ll see you when you get home.”

“Bye mom.” I said quickly, wanting to get out of there as soon as possible. I gave her a quick kiss on the cheek before heading out the door and closing it behind me.

“You know, you didn’t have to put a majority of the blame on me.” I stated as I walked alongside Cason to his car that happened to be parked at the end of the driveway.

“Yea, but that would put me in more trouble and, I’d rather not have your mom tell my mom things I don’t want her to now at the moment.” Cason replied with a smile as he went to the driver’s side of the car while I walked around to the passenger’s side.

I rolled my eyes at his reply as I opened the car door and slid into my seat. “Yeah, whatever.” I said, in lack of a better reply. “So how far away is Evan’s house?” I asked as Cason put the car in reverse and backed out of my driveway before heading towards the middle of town.

“It’s about a five minute drive into town and then you just turn onto one of the side streets and we’re there.” Cason replied, turning down the volume of the radio slightly so I could hear him.

I nodded at his reply before resting back into my seat. The nerves that had disappeared while I was talking to my mom seemed to come back at full force we quickly approached the Thorn residence.

I was fidgeting in my seat as we entered the centre of town and Cason stole a glance at me. “Are you okay Jessa?” he asked with an ounce of concern detectable in his voice.

“Just nervous,” I replied shyly. “Like I’ve said before; I don’t really do well around little kids.”

“Don’t worry about it Jessa. Fizzy is really cute and sweet, she’ll love you and you have no reason to be nervous.” Cason said reassuringly as he put his signal light on and turned onto a street with medium size houses.

I took in a deep breath, trying to calm my remaining nerves as Cason pulled into a driveway next to a black car. “Okay, let’s do this.” I said, unbuckling my seatbelt and getting out of the car as Cason turned off the ignition.

Walking up to the door alongside Cason, I was still taking smaller breaths to cool my nerves. Before Cason rang the bell, he looked towards me again with an encouraging smile. “You’ll do just fine.” he said before bringing his hand up to press down on the doorbell.

I could hear a catchy sequence of bells ringing inside the house, as I also heard a series of heavy footsteps rushing towards the door. A couple seconds later, Evan opened up the door, dressed and ready for his date.

“Hey guys, thanks for looking after Fizzy tonight.” he said, moving to the side to let us into the foyer before closing the door again. “My mom and dad are already gone to dinner and I’m leaving in a few, but Fizzy hasn’t eaten yet so you’ll have to make her dinner. Also, I don’t know if it’ll be me or my parent’s home first tonight, but once one of us is home you guys are free to leave. Cason, you know what she likes and hopefully just have her in bed around nine like usual.” Evan explained quickly as he led us up a set of stairs and towards a room.

As he pushed open the door, I saw a cute little girl playing on the floor with two dolls. One was in her hand and the other looked to be thrown down in a haste, making me wonder if Evan had previously been playing dolls with his little sister.

With the noise we made opening the door to her very pink room, the girl who I assumed to be Fizzy looked up at us with big brown eyes. She had long brown hair that was woven into two side braids and she also dressed up in a pair of kiddy black leggings and a flowing pink tank top.

“Cason!” the little girl screamed in excitement, standing up quickly and hurdling herself at the guy who stood beside me.

As Fizzy ran directly into his legs, Cason chuckled at the little girls’ enthusiasm and bent down to her level to speak. “Hey there cutie, are we gonna have fun tonight?” he asked, tickling the sides of her stomach gently.

Rounds of giggles came out of Fizzy’s small mouth as she nodded and smiled at Cason, obviously loving him like another big brother.

Once Cason had stopped with the tickling, Fizzy turned her gaze to me – the stranger in the room. “Who are you?” she asked in a normal voice, scrunching her eyebrows together cutely as she tried to remember if she had ever seen me before.

“Fizzy, this is Jessalyn and she’ll be helping Cason babysit you tonight.” Evan said gently, smiling at both his little sister and me.

“Oh, okay!” Fizzy replied, giving me one of her bright smiles before heading back over to play with her dolls.

Cason stood up from his crouched position as Evan turned to address both of us. “Well, I have to get going now so I’ll either see you when I get home or at school tomorrow.” he said, rubbing his hands together in anticipation of what was to come.

“See you man.” Cason said, clapping his friend on the shoulder before walking further into the room to talk to Fizzy.

“Have fun on your date.” I said with a smirk, my tone laced with amusement.

Evan chuckled nervously at my words. “So she told you, did she?” he asked nervously, stuffing his hands into his shorts pockets.

I smiled and shook my head. “Actually Cason told me yesterday you were going to ask her out, and then when I went to talk to Olivia this morning, I saw you asking her out.” I replied honestly. “But I’m just going to warn you, Olivia is actually excited for this date, so don’t screw it up.”

A hesitant smile appeared on his face at my words. “She’s excited?” he asked nervously.

I nodded in response, happy to see that my best friends date was actually genuinely interested in her. “Yup, so don’t mess it up, but have fun.”

“Thanks Jessalyn.” he said, saying goodbye one final time before leaving the room, heading down the stairs and out of the house to start his date with Olivia.

Taking one final breath, I turned around to see Cason and Fizzy talking animatedly about the dolls she was currently using. “So, the almighty Cason Michaels plays with dolls?” I asked in amusement, walking over to sit with the two of them on the floor.

Cason sent me a smirk and rolled his eyes. “Apparently, but so do you.” he replied, thrusting a half dressed doll towards me.

Before I could ask him what it was for, Fizzy poked me in the arm to get my attention. “Yes Fizzy?” I asked, spinning the dolls body around in my hands a couple of times.

“Do you think the purple shirt or the pink shirt looks better on Talia?” she asked, holding up two almost identical shirts in her tiny hands.

It took me a moment to figure out that the doll I was currently holding was Talia, and after looking back and forth between the doll and the shirts for a few moments, I had come to a reasonable answer. “I think the purple will look better with her dark hair; what do you think?” I asked, taking the purple shirt from her right hand gently and holding up against Talia’s small body.

As if it was a life or death situation, Fizzy took her time examining the doll I was holding out to her, and just when I was about to start fidgeting again, thinking I had made the wrong choice, Fizzy nodded her head and smiled at me. “Definitely purple.” she said with a smile, taking Talia from me as she quickly finished dressing the doll.

I glanced at Cason quickly, worrying that I had done something wrong, but when I looked over at him, I saw he already had his eyes trained on me with a small smile playing at the edge of his lips. “You’re doing great.” he mouthed to me encouragingly before looking back down at Fizzy.

Releasing a breath I didn’t know I had been holding, I smiled at Cason’s side profile before focusing on the array of half-dressed dolls behind Fizzy. “So, who’s next?” I asked happily, relaxing a bit.

It turns out that it is a lot of work to choose outfits and dress about ten dolls. Not only did it take about forty five minutes for Fizzy to be completely happy with the way all of her dolls were dressed, but it also took a lot of patience as I might have dressed, undressed, and redressed dolls four times before they were good to go.

As Fizzy laid all her dolls to the side of her room where the rest of her collection seem to lay, I looked at Cason. “Didn’t Evan say we had to feed her dinner?” I asked, standing up alongside Cason, wiping the imaginary dirt off of my shorts.

Cason looked at Fizzy, who was currently putting all of her freshly dressed dolls into a specific line up, as he nodded. “Yup, but since I really don’t feel like cooking at the moment, we are just going to order a pepperoni pizza and call it a day.” he replied.

“Will her parents not care?” I asked, worried that if we were to feed her junk food that they would be angered if they were to find out somehow.

Cason shook his head as he kept a small smile on his face. “Nah, they know that I don’t cook very often and I usually order out when I’m appointed the babysitter. They won’t mind at all.” he informed me, before calling Fizzy. “Hey Fizzy, do you want pizza for dinner?”

Fizzy abandoned her dolls as soon as the word pizza left Cason’s mouth and started jumping up and down with a lot of enthusiasm. “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!” she repeated gleefully many times as her energy levels seemed to be at an all-time high.

Cason chuckled lightly at her hyper form, probably used to the kids excitement and nodded, holding his hand out for her to take. “Okay princess, now let’s go downstairs and call the pizza man so the food will be here fast.”

Fizzy listened to Cason’s instructions and placed one of her small hands into Cason’s large one. “Do you like pizza Jezalyn?” Fizzy asked as we walked out of her room and down the stairs. I found it immensely cute that she couldn’t pronounce my name correctly; however, I didn’t feel the need to correct her at all.

“Mhm,” I replied nodding my head with a smile on my face as we reached the floor level of the house. “Pizza is one of my favourite foods.”

“Mine too!” the little girl replied, smiling up at me as we entered the kitchen.

Cason placed Fizzy on top of the counter as he went to retrieve the take-out menu and cordless phone to call in our order.

I walked over to where Fizzy was left alone to sit, not at all nervous about being around her any longer. “Well, let’s hope Cason orders are delicious pizza now so our tummies won’t be grumbling all night.” I stated, tickling her side gently once or twice.

Fizzy released her cute and eccentric giggles as my fingers skimmed her skin, but when my fingers left her side, she sobered up pretty quickly and put a thoughtful look on her face. “How do you know my brothers?” Fizzy asked, tilting her head slightly to the side.

I was confused for a quick moment as she mentioned having two brothers, but my brain worked quickly to determine that Fizzy also thought of Cason so closely as to call him her brother. I smiled softly at her as I leaned up against the counter. “I go to school with both of them, and they sit with me and my friend Olivia at lunch most of the time.” I answered simply.

Fizzy’s eyes widened as she smiled at the name Olivia. “Evan said that he was going to meet a girl named Olivia tonight and that’s why he couldn’t stay home with me.” she said mindlessly. “He was saying that she was pretty and nice and smart and pretty again.”

I let a laugh loose as Fizzy told me exactly what Evan thought about my friend. Those words would definitely be repeated to Olivia at a soon-to-come date, that’s for sure.

“He probably did because he’s going on a date with her tonight.” I replied with a smile. When Fizzy’s face scrunched up in confusion at the word date, I went on to further explain. “A date is when a guy takes a beautiful girl out because he like-likes her.”

Fizzy clapped her hands joyfully at my description of a date. “So my brother is making Olivia his princess?” she asked excitedly, probably in love with the concept of princesses and happy endings.

I nodded at her smiling little body. “Yes, soon they’ll both be in love.” I replied in a gleeful tone.

Before either of us could say another word, Cason came back into the kitchen with a phone rested in between his neck and shoulder as he spoke into the receiver. “Yes, that’s one pepperoni pizza.” he confirmed over the phone. “Thank you.” he said after a small pause as he hung up the phone and rested it on the side of the counter.

“So the pizza’s all ordered?” I asked, turning to face Cason.

Cason nodded at my question as he went over to Fizzy and lifted her off the counter to place her back on the ground. “Hey princess, why don’t you go into the living room and pick a movie for us to watch when the pizza gets here?” Cason said, pushing Fizzy gently in the direction of the living room.

Fizzy obviously had a movie in mind that she was dying to watch because the speed that she hightailed it out of the kitchen might have made an Olympic sprinter proud, or envious depending on how you were looking at it.

With Fizzy gone to scan the movie collection, Cason and I were left alone in the kitchen.

“You’re doing a good job you know.” Cason stated, making me whip my head up to meet his gaze. He was currently leaning against an opposite counter with a gentle smile on his face. Nodding towards the living room where Fizzy sat, he continued to talk. “She probably loves you already.”

“I don’t know about that.” I mumbled in reply, rolling my eyes at his statement. Sure, she didn’t hate me but that didn’t mean she would be calling me her sister anytime soon.

“Give yourself a little credit Jessa, you’re doing fine around her and that’s the whole reason you came here with me tonight; to jump out of your comfort zone a little bit.” he retaliated, making me feel a little sense of accomplishment at his words.

“Well thanks.” I replied with a small smile.

“It’s not a problem.” he said, shrugging off my thank you as if it was nothing as he stuck his hands into his shorts pockets. “So, are you going to the dance on Friday night?”

“What dance?” I asked in confusion, not understanding what he was saying.

“The Halloween dance at school on Friday night.” he explained slowly. “There’s been posters plastered on the school walls for the last week or two and you’re telling me that you haven’t noticed them?”

As he mentioned the flyers, I was vaguely reminded of walking past a multitude of orange and black flyers on the school walls, not that I had paid them any attention as I walked through the school hallways. “I guess I just didn’t care to give them a glance.” I replied nonchalantly. “So no, I’m not going to the dance Friday, what about you? Have you got a gorgeous girl going as your arm candy?” I asked teasingly.

Cason rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Nope, Evan and I usually boycott the school dances because, I for one, don’t feel like getting groped by random chicks at our school, and secondly, we usually head down to the beach those days because its deserted with all the teenagers at the school and after parties.” he explained.

“So you just hang out and watch the sunset with your bro?” I asked, continuing to tease him.

Once again, Cason shook his head in amusement at my sarcastic question. “We make a fire, sometimes bring a barbeque and a beer or two and just chill there.”

“Won’t Evan want to go to the dance this time though if Olivia agrees to go with him?”

“Evan was going to ask Olivia to come to the beach Friday night so, my job tonight was to get you on board for a little beach campout party Friday.” he stated with a smile.

“Aww, you’re asking me to join your little bromance tradition; I’d be honoured.” I said as I brought my hands up to my heart and held it dearly.

Cason let out a small chuckle at my actions. “You really are something Jessa.” he stated as the doorbell rung, alerting us that the pizza guy had arrived.

Both Cason and I abandoned are conversation in the kitchen and headed into the living room. He continued on through the house to answer the door while I found Fizzy seated in front of a rack of movies, still making her decision on which movie to watch.

“Are you having trouble sweetie?” I asked softly, crouching down beside her.

 I want to watch a bunch of movies and I can’t pick just one.” she complained, popping out her bottom lip in a pout as she pulled out three classic Disney movies.

“Well, which movies have you narrowed it down to?”

“I want to watch the Little Mermaid, but then Tangled and the Lion King are also really good movies too.” she replied, moving her gazes between the three DVD cases.

“So, what are we watching?” Cason asked as he came into the room with a large box of pizza in his arms and a few napkins rested on top of the box.

“Fizzy here can’t decide between Little Mermaid, Tangled and Lion King.” I said, informing Cason of our little situation.

“Oh, the Little Mermaid definitely.” Cason replied with a smile, resting the pizza and napkins on the living room table as he came closer to us and crunched down on the other side of Fizzy. I had to hold in a laugh at the thought of Cason watching the Little Mermaid in his spare time popped into my head.

“Do you like the Little Mermaid too?” Fizzy questioned, looking up at me with wide eyes.

I nodded with a smile because honestly, that used to be one of my favourite movies when I was younger, and that was exactly what I told her. “Yup, I love that movie.”

 "Okay then Cason, put on the Little Mermaid.” Fizzy said with a sense of finality, handing Cason the DVD case with a mermaid, crab, and flounder on the cover.

We all stood up at once, but while Cason headed closer to the television to put the disk into the DVD player, I walked with Fizzy towards the couch.

Once the movie was in and the trailers were rolling on the television screen, Cason turned around, opening up the box of pizza as he started to grab a slice for Fizzy.

Handing quite a large slice of pizza to her, he smiled. “Dig in princess.”

And that was how we spent the rest of the night until the rest of the Thorn family arrived home. No awkward silences or moments, just the three of us rested comfortably on the plush sofa watching a magical movie about a mermaid wanting to be part of our world.

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I am SO very sorry about the late upload, however, due to the fact I was sick on Friday and that it is Easter weekend, this is the fastest I could get the chapter up. Hope you all enjoy the chapter because it is in fact that longest chapter that I have ever written and, it is also the first step taken by Cason to break Jessalyn out of her shell!

Oh, and if you haven’t noticed, the word count on all the stories on Wattpad has been messed up recently, barely counting any of the reads us writers get and honestly, it’s starting to get me angry, so here’s to hoping management gets the problem fixed soon.

Oh, and if you haven’t figured it out yet, the survey two chapters back about your favourite Disney movie was in fact used in this chapter! Little Mermaid won with the most votes while Tangled and the Lion King tied for second place :)

Hope you all vote for this chapter and continue supporting this book on its journey to the Watty Awards!

P.S. Remember that it's helpful to point out any spelling, grammatical, etc. errors to me, as well as the information about the next upload is now on the website