ೃ⁀➷ᴛʜᴇ ᴡɪɴᴇ ɪs ᴄᴏʟᴅ ʟɪᴋᴇ ᴛʜᴇ sʜᴏᴜʟᴅᴇʀ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ɪ ɢᴀᴠᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ sᴛʀᴇᴇᴛ

"OKAY, GUYS, YOU HAVE BEEN TRAINED FOR ALL KINDS OF MISSIONS. But you are about to enter a soul-bruising, confidence-crushing apocalyptic environment." Davenport paused and stretched his neck for a more dramatic effect. "High School."

Lorelei chuckled at his comment and Leo gave a nod of agreement from beside her, both knowing best than anyone the struggle that came along with High School. You can imagine their disappointment once they realized it was nothing like High School Musical had pictured it. Currently, they were all in the lab waiting for Mr. Davenport's approval for Adam, Bree, and Chase to go to school without their abilities glitching like last time.

Davenport faced the trio. "Adam, Bree, your glitch test results are fairly stable."

"Yes! I'm going to school!" Bree cheered along with Adam. The younger girl already thinking of how her life was about to change. She'll talk to boys, have more friends that weren't her brothers, and do all the stuff she saw people do in movies.

Adam, on the other hand, was just happy to be mentioned. "I'm fairly stable!"

Lorelei couldn't contain her excitement at the good news. This meant they were a lot closer to Adam, Bree, and Chase living the lives they wanted. The last two days had been tiresome. School, the party, the robots, the recycling center— it was too much to keep up with. Lorelei couldn't wait for everything to just work out the way it should and have her new friends be with her without something coming up.

Moving his attention to Chase, Mr. Davenport spoke, causing Chase's expression to drop at his next words. "But Chase, I am still concerned about your commando app."

Leo shook his head. Not understanding and not really caring about what Davenport meant. "Commando app? Put on some underpants. We're going to school."

"What's a commando app?" Lorelei asked, resting her forearms on the desk. She didn't think she'll actually understand Davenport's explanation, but she still decided to ask.

"See, in the face of an imminent threat, Chase's commando app kicks in and he becomes a fearless brute I like to call Spike." Davenport moved over to Chase and placed his hands in his shoulders while he continue explaining. "It's kinda like a fight-or-flight thing, expect I took out the flight part, cause, useless, and I replaced it with a testosterone level of like a Tasmanian Devil-Wolverine-Shark-Lion hybrid that's mad."

Lorelei frowned, not really liking the way that sounded despite the excited look that began to grow on Leo's face in response of Davenport's excitement and complicated description of his creation. The blonde didn't understand much of what Davenport said but whatever he said sounded dumb. "And what's the purpose of it?"

"Good question, Lori! Why did you do it, Mr. Davenport?" Chase asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"It was mostly for my own entertainment." Davenport admitted with a chuckle, not ashamed in the slightest, but he did try to defend his case. "I had to give Chase something! Given he's so weak and all." The man frown as he squeezed Chase's thin arms.

Chase slapped his hand away while Adam let out a laugh, hitting Chase's shoulder and almost throwing the boy forward if it wasn't for the control desk in front of him. "Aw, even Mr. Davenport knows you're weak."

Ignoring his brother's comment, Chase turned his attention to Davenport. "Don't worry, Mr. Davenport. I promise that Spike won't rear his ugly head."

"Oh, yeah? You mean like last Christmas when I made the mistake of giving Adam boxing gloves?" The man raised an eyebrow, proving his point when Chase gave him a sheepish grin. Lorelei and Leo could only imagine what had happened. If Mr. Davenport's description of Spike was truly accurate then that Christmas must have gone terribly wrong.

Lorelei loved Christmas. It was the perfect day to bake cookies, eat hot chocolate, and watch movies. You received gifts and got to spend all day at home with your family while enjoying whatever you had been gifted. She could still remember all the Christmas she spend with her parents. Sometimes they would invite Tasha and Leo over, play board games, laugh, and eat. Her parents would always let her open the first gift because they said it made everything more special, and she believed them. Now, that she was thinking about it she should soon begin to think about gifts for Adam, Bree, and Chase.

It was never too late to begin Christmas shopping.

Adam shuttered at the memory of their last Christmas. "Ugh, I'm still coughing up tinsel."

Davenport let out a sigh, saying what they were all dreading. "You know, letting Chase go to school isn't such a good idea. I can't risk Spike coming out."

"Oh, come on, Big D. Chase has to come. With this guys, I'll finally get a prime spot in the cafeteria." Leo followed after the man with Lorelei trailing behind, the blonde ready to beg if it was necessary just to be able to take Chase with them. Leo smiled at the bionic siblings, "That's right y'all put on your coats, cause I'm about to ride your tails."

Lorelei send Leo a concern look which he did not notice because he was currently in the process of imitating riding a horse. The blonde turn to Mr. Davenport. "We can't just leave Chase behind. Not only because that would be sad," she frowned, "but also because who is going to tell me all those weird facts I never understand?"

Her comment made Chase tilt his head, silently wondering if he should feel flattered or offended, but he didn't have much time to debate on it because Adam interrupted his train of thought.

"We'll make sure he stays out of trouble, right guys?"

Bree agreed, "Yeah, it's one for all and all for one." A second later she rethought her decision, "Unless, of course, you guys make me look bad, in which case I'm dropping you lame-os. Expect you, Lori. You're not lame." Said girl beamed, sending a thumbs up which Bree returned enthusiastically.

Lastly, it was Chase's turn to convince Davenport. "Mr. Davenport, I can't miss school. This is the beginning of my academic achievements and career trajectory. I mean, the road to astronaut lawyer has to start somewhere."

Lorelei gasp at his comment. "That's what you want to be when you grow up?" When Chase nodded, she continued, "I've always wanted to be Barbie. But Leo, keeps saying that's not possible."

Leo shook his head, pinching the bridge of his nose. "That's because it's not."

"But she has the hair!" Adam butted it, pointing a finger at Lorelei's long blonde hair.

"Right! That's what I'm saying!" Lorelei said, before sticking her tongue out at Leo making him return the gesture.

Mr. Davenport let out an exasperate noise. "Okay. But I better not get a call from the art teacher saying Spike ripped out her larynx. Actually, she wouldn't be able to say anything because Spike ripped out her lar- The point is just keep him out of trouble."

The group cheered at the news until Adam, who Lorelei hadn't noticed had left the group, returned with a pair of boxing gloves on. "Hey, look what I found." He threw a few punches in front of him before the last one he directed it to Chase's stomach, causing the poor boy to immediately drop to the floor in pain.

"Is he okay?" Concerned, Lorelei went to check up on Chase hoping Adam's punch hadn't pained him too much, but she was quickly stopped by Adam who pulled her back with him to hide behind Bree.

"Don't get too close in case I activated Spike." He said to the blonde making her nod. Adam then turned to Mr. Davenport. "Look, I'm sorry but if he's that close to the gloves, it's gonna happen."

≪•◦ ❈ ◦•≫

"Okay, you guys. That's principal Perry. She has the temperament of a junkyard dog stuffed into a really bad pantsuit." Leo explained as the group of five stood in front of the cafeteria doors. Lorelei couldn't contain her laughter at Leo's strange description of the short woman. It was strangely accurate, yet funny.

"He's not lying." The blonde stated, and if the trio still didn't believe their friend's words, Principal Perry made sure to prove their point as she screamed at someone from across the cafeteria.

"Hey, you! No tongue rings in school! Don't try to hide it. I will take a metal detector to your face!" The woman stormed off towards the person. Lorelei felt sorry for whoever was about to be on the other end of Principal Perry's anger.

Seeing a cute guy on the other side of the cafeteria, Bree squealed. "This is it. My chance for romance. On tv, the new girl always drops her books and the cute guy with the soulful eyes picks them up."

Lorelei opened her mouth, about to tell Bree how inaccurate movies actually were to reality and how boys were hardly ever like they were pictured in romance novels, but it was already too late and Bree had already dropped her stuff on the floor, waiting for the guy she had set her eyes on to come pick them up. Unfortunately, right at that moment a teacher walked into the cafeteria and slipped on the books causing all the papers to scatter in the air.

Bree looked at the man apologetically as he raised to his feet. "Oops, sorry, I'm new." The teacher lifted his arms in the air, most likely in defeat, before turning in his heel and leaving. He probably just wanted to eat and not be bothered, which Lorelei could relate to.

Leo turned to the group. "Okay, your social life is determined by where you sit. We can't sit at the cool table." He gestured to the table on the far corner where all the cheerleaders were currently at. "But we can be cool table adjacent." He smiled, pointing at another table still close to the 'cool' table.

"FYI, Adam just sat down at the cool table." Bree along with Leo, Lorelei, and Chase turned their heads to meet the sight of Adam sitting at said table, holding two oranges over his eyes. His actions made the cheerleaders laugh.

"What?!" Leo exclaimed.

"That's not good." Lorelei shook her head.

"He can't sit there! That's where the football players sit with the cheerleaders, and they pride themselves with finding very clever places to stuff your pudding cup."

"It's not a pretty sight." Lorelei shivered, not forgetting how messy the cafeteria ended up each time a poor soul ended at the hands of Trent. Plus, in Lorelei's opinion, it was a very wasteful action. Why waste away perfectly good pudding, when you could eat it?

Chase took a step forward his eyes set on the table with a surprise look. "Those girls are actually talking to him. And they can't talk about shapes and colors forever." He waved at them. "See ya!"

"No!" Leo said in a whisper yell, knowing that screaming was not an option if it implicated Principal Perry coming after him. "The football players are gonna turn them into the 5th good group." Lorelei didn't know what that meant, but she nodded in agreement. Leo was right most of the time so whatever he had said she knew it was true.

"It's a rescue mission. Move in. Move in." The three approach the table, hoping to retrieve Adam and Chase from the table before the football players arrived.

Adam was the first to notice their presence. "Oh, hey, guys. Look these girls over here told me once the football players get here I'm getting a free pudding cup." He smiled clearly excited and totally unaware of what the cheerleaders really meant with 'getting free pudding'.

"Hi!" Leo waved at one of the girls before he slowly leaned towards Chase, his attention still on the girl he had greeted as he mumbled. "Walk away." He straightened his posture, "How's is going?" repeating his previous action he got closer to Chase, "You're in great danger."

Right on cue, Trent along with the rest of the football team walked into the cafeteria. Lorelei gripped her backpack straps harder knowing this would not end well. Trent approached Leo bending down to sniff the shorter boy. Uncomfortable, Leo immediately moved away and closer to Lorelei for comfort. "Sorry."

Trent turned to Chase. "Hey. That's my seat. Get lost before I use you like a napkin." He slapped the table, proud of his insult while the football players laughed behind him.

Trying to save her brother, Bree said, "Chase, we should probably go." She smiled at Trent, "He's not very absorbent."

Sadly, it didn't work because Trent's next move was to spill a drink all over the surface of the table making everyone seated move slightly back, except Chase who was frozen in fear. "Oh, look, a spill!" Grabbing Chase by the collar, Trent said. "I think I'm gonna wipe it up with your face."

Lorelei watched as Chase's expression slowly changed into a scowl, eyes hardening, and lips into a thin line. It was like he was a whole new person. Shocked, everyone watched Chase grab Trent's arm and pin him down to the table. With a very deep and raspy voice Chase said, "Think again, bubble neck. I'm gonna rip out your kneecaps and use them as hockey pucks."

Bree left Chase's side to stand beside Leo and Lorelei. Adam did the same, almost falling over the chair and breaking it. Composing himself, as best as he could, he said, "Okay, I don't mean to alarm anyone, but I think Spike's back."

"Oh, so that's how it works? I thought he turned into an actual monster." Lorelei commented with a nervous chuckle. "That would've been scary."

"But cool!" Adam added, the thought never crossing his mind before. "I should ask Mr. Davenport if it's possible."

Trent obviously not knowing what's happening, still tried threatening Chase—or Spike in this case. "You have no idea who you're messing with. Okay? Pudding cups!" Two boys placed a pudding cup on Trent's hands but before the boy could even think about doing anything, Spike snatched them from him.

"Oh, I'll take those." Spike squeezed the pudding cups causing the contents to spill all over Trent and his friends.

"Ohhh." Letting out a disgusted sound, Trent wiped his face. "You are dead!"

Spike growled on their face. The whole football team moved away scared. Trent with one last attempt to not look like he was beaten by a younger boy, said, "You, okay, okay. You're lucky that we have to go to the reading center right now."

Once he left, the whole cafeteria erupted in applauses and cheers, after all he had been the first person to scare away Trent and his little clique. Spike smirked at the reactions he received and motioned to the chair he had been previously sitting on. "Take a seat, compadres." He sat down and placed his feet on top of the table. "This is our table now."

Happy with the news, Lorelei, Bree, and Adam followed Spike's demand and took a seat. Leo turned his attention to the cheerleader he had been talking to before. "Hello! You may remember me from health class when I passed out during the miracle of birth video. It's good to see you again."

Lorelei smiled, "I was the one hysterically crying beside his unconscious figure."

≪•◦ ❈ ◦•≫

The day had finally come when Leo and Lorelei were able to experience what being popular was like. In the hallways, people would make way for them. No one bullied them because they knew Spike was with them. It felt great and Lorelei was able to scratch being popular off her bucket list. The only downside was that Lorelei was a bit scared of Spike, meaning half of the time she was clutching on to Adam. She would've held on to Leo but the boy would not be of much help in case Spike decided to do something.

But don't tell him that.

So she settled for Adam, given Bree was too distracted with the attention boys were given her. Luckily, Adam didn't mind letting her hold his arm or hand whenever she needed to. It was mostly moments when Spike went into too much detail while threatening someone. Lorelei didn't feel particularly comfortable with hearing such descriptions about death.

Their moment of happiness was shortly lived, because four hours later Chase returned. "Commando App Disengaged? Guys! Why was I in Commando Mode?" The boy asked, not remembering anything that went down in the last four hours.

"Were you in Commando Mode?" Bree asked, her voice two octaves higher.

"I didn't see a Commando Mode." Leo added.

"I don't know what that means." Lorelei said, from an outsiders perspective they would've thought the blonde was going along with her friends act of pretending they were unaware of Spike's appearance, but Lorelei was telling the truth. She didn't know what the words meant. Davenport's words had gone in one ear and out through the other.

"Oh, That's good. Everyone keep lying." Adam whispered and grinned, making Leo give him a look.

Chase was not happy with the news, and rightfully so. "You guys were supposed to watch out for me!"

But Leo, being Leo, did not make anything better. "Oh, we watched the whole thing. You manhandled the quarterback and pudding popped the whole offensive line!" He grinned like it was the best thing he'd ever witnessed.

"What?! Aw, great. This is so gonna come back to haunt my Supreme Court nomination." Chase whined.

Bree rolled her eyes. "You know what Spike would say to that? Nothing? He'd rip it your rib cage and play it like a xylophone."

Adam nodded, walking to Chase. "Yeah, I like him. He's like a big, fun monster, and you're a sad little buddy." He made a crying voice at the end of his sentence to prove his point.

"I'll get Spike back." Leo passed Lorelei his backpack and approached Chase. "Get lost before I use you like a napkin." He tried lifting up Chase but he failed miserably. He was very persistent though, Lorelei had to give him that even if it was terrible to watch.

"Right now, I'm feeling that thing when you feel embarrassment for another person." Lorelei said, an almost disgusted expression on her face as she watched Leo struggling.

"Me too." Adam said.

"You mean second-hand embarrassment?" Bree asked, her expression mirroring Lorelei's as she kept her gaze on Leo.

"Yeah! That thing." Lorelei nodded.

Chase who was still being manhandled by Leo—if you could call it that, said, "Don't worry, Lori. We're all feeling it."

≪•◦ ❈ ◦•≫

Finally, it was lunchtime, Lorelei's favorite time of the day, but not because of the food. The stale, cardboard-like lunch the cafeteria ladies served was not enjoyable in any type of way, at least in Lorelei's opinion, except for the juice. That was the only thing Lorelei actually liked about the lunch the school provided. The actual reason it was her favorite time of the day was because it was the one hour she didn't have to spend listening to teachers talk and explain stuff over and over again.

After Chase had catch up with everything that happened while Spike was out, he was determined to apologize. "Hey, there's Trent." Everyone at the table followed Chase's gaze to where the football players were sitting at. The table was right in front of the trash cans, and when Trent placed his hands on the table to sit down, the table tilted making all the football players take a hold of it before everything on the table fell into the ground. "I better go apologize."

"Whoa! Slow it up, buttercup." Bree pushed Chase down by the shoulder, stopping him from getting up.

"Mail him a greeting card. It's so much more personal." Leo suggested, knowing Chase would not actually do that.

But Lorelei on the other hand.

"Yes! And that way, you can add cute stickers to show how sorry you are." Noticing the look of confusion Chase was giving her, Lorelei added, "Don't worry, Chase, I have plenty of them. I can give you as many as you need."

Reaching inside her bag, the blonde took out three different packs of stickers before laying them on the table. Taking a sticker of a purple heart, she stick it underneath the outer corner of her eye. "See, they're cute!" She grinned waving around the pack of stickers she used.

"Ohh, can I get one?" Bree asked.

Grabbing another sticker just like the one she previously used, Lorelei passed it to Bree, the latter putting it on in the same place Lorelei had. "Now, we're matching!" The two giggled at each other until Adam spoke.

"I also want one!" Adam announced, leaning forward in his seat as he tried to look at the selection of stickers Lorelei had.

"Here, choose whatever you like." The blonde passed him the stickers, happily watching him scanned through them before settling for a blue cupcake. Instead of placing it in the same place Lorelei and Bree had, Adam stick it on to his forehead rather aggressively.

Smiling, he turned to his siblings. "Look! I have I cupcake on my forehead."

Before the talk about stickers could continue, Principle Perry's voice rang through the cafeteria, the short woman making her way to their table. "Hey! New kid! Come here!"

Immediately, Chase walked up to her, already knowing it was better to listen to her. Lorelei placed her stickers back in her backpack knowing that right now they wouldn't be of much help to Chase. She had found out the hard way when she had offered a sticker to Principal Perry. The woman had rejected it, saying she'll only accept stickers that had cats on them. Which now Lorelei realized she had forgotten to buy them.

"Do you know what happens when my football players get humiliated?" Chase shook his head, at a loss for words. "No! You don't. Because my football players don't get humiliated."

"They look humiliated to me." Adam commented, causing Perry and Chase to glare at him.

Ignoring what Adam said, Principal Perry continued, "I know what team spirit is about. Because I was the jammer on the North Pacific Roller Derby Championship Team." The woman smiled proudly.

"Quite an accomplishment." Chase said, hoping to not anger the woman further, but it didn't seem to work.

"Don't mock me squash face!" She pointed a finger at him. "My career ended when a trash talker like you got inside my head and I wiped. One zebra called it the worst single-bodied collision she'd ever seen."

Chase chuckled nervously, "I'd crash too if I saw a talking zebra."

"It's a reference you desk donkey!" Perry yelled, "They told me what you did this morning at breakfast. You will not undermine the morale of my team." She turned to Adam, Bree, Leo, and Lorelei. "Evacuate this table. Now!"

Startled, the group raised from their seats, all standing behind Chase to keep as much distance from Perry as they could. Chase spoke, but this time his voice came out a lot deeper, only meaning one thing, Spike was back. "Watch who you're talking to, sports bra."

Lorelei subtly got closer to Adam, knowing having both Spike and Principal Perry would not be a good combination.

Taking advantage of Perry's shock, Spike continued, "I bet you panicked, threw yourself off the track and blamed the other team for your weakness."

From the group behind Spike, Leo turned to Bree. "Do you think this Spike thing has gotten a bit out of hand?"

"He might've crossed the line at sports bra." Bree answered making the other three nod in agreement. Lorelei would have never thought to see the day when someone would insult Principal Perry to her own face. But here she was witnessing just that.

"I had to quit because of that accident." Perry admitted with an expression of almost shame in her face.

"Quit? Or move out of the state in shame?" Spike's words cause the whole cafeteria to let out a chorus of 'ohhhs'.

Perry turned to glare at them. "He doesn't know! He wasn't there!"

"Why don't you hop in your economy car and tootle on hind to your six cats and your online bingo tournament."

Lorelei stared in surprise. How did Spike know Principal Perry has cats?

"Jokes on you. I have five cats. Ha!" The woman walked away, overwhelmed with the turn of events.

Trent approached her, letting out breaths of desperation through his nose. "You didn't get our table back." He whined like a little kid who got their toy stolen, "Bumming us out, even more bummed out when we lose. Do something."

Perry nodded and walked back to Spike with now the football team trailing behind her. "Alright kid! I'll make you a deal. Let's be civilized and settle this the old fashioned way. With a bone-crushing grudge match on the football field!"

Spiked nodded and looked behind him. "We're in. Me, him, her, sticker girl," he paused as he looked at Leo with hesitation, "......and him."

"You and your band of nobodies versus my fighting Dingos."

Bree frowned turning to the group, "Who is she calling a nobody? Lori and I have matching stickers. We're bffs." Lorelei smiled widely, while Leo and Adam nodded.

"Winner takes table and all the glory." Perry stated.

Leo walked up to Perry, trying to get them out of the deal. "Oh, ma'am, as much as I'd like to flex my football fanciness, um, girls soccer has the field tonight."

"Ah, just as well. I can't condone such a violent game on school grounds." Perry said, making them almost let out a sigh of relief until she spoke again, "So let's take it to the dog park across the street!"

With that Perry left the cafeteria with the football team, leaving behind Adam, Bree, Leo, and Lorelei to stare at each other with pained looks. Spike seemed to be proud of his doings as he smirked to himself. Leo was the first to voice out what everyone was thinking. "Am I the only one that's gonna need a fresh change of pants before we start?"

≪•◦ ❈ ◦•≫

Let's just say the game was going just as expected, meaning they were obviously losing, and by a lot. Dingos had 9 points while Alpha Dogs had zero. It was probably one of the most embarrassing moments for Lorelei apart from that one time she cried at school. That could not be topped. The five of them were forced to wear some old, random uniforms Principal Perry had found God knows where, and not only did the equipment look old, but it also smelled like it.

The dog park was not very spacious leaving them little to no room to run away from the seven gigantic football player coming after them. It was a very unfair game. Lorelei and her friends were both outnumbered and lacked the height a usual football player had. The only one meeting the height requirement was Adam, but one with no experience against seven other professional players was not enough to win the game.

Lorelei let out a sigh as she adjusted the large helmet she had on her head. The team huddled after another lost point, hands on their knees as they tried to think of a strategy. Spike let out a breath of frustration, "Losing makes me wanna rip out my own intestines and wear them as a sweatband."

Lorelei frowned and Leo, who was the one standing beside Spike spoke, "Okay....The only way we're gonna win this is if we use your super speed, your super strength, and your super-nutty split personality."

"I'll do whatever it takes." Bree said, "I already smell like a sweaty ape. I don't want this to be for nothing."

Lorelei agreed. "I'm with Bree. This helmet is making me sweat and I hate sweating." She groaned massaging her neck. "Also, I'm getting tired of getting thrown to the ground. It's not fun."

Leo smiled, feeling the same way. "Here's what we're gonna do." The group moved closer to each other as they went over their plan. They couldn't let any outsider hear unless they wanted them to find out about Adam, Bree, and Chase's bionics. Once they all agreed on what they had to do, they broke apart with a loud cheer, feeling a lot more optimistic than before.

"Yeah! Go team! Whoo!" Bree broke into a cheer making the rest give her weird looks, except Lorelei. "I'm a football player and a cheerleader. I'm that good."

Before Lorelei could voice out how she also wanted to be a cheerleader, Perry blowed the whistle making all of them get into their respective positions.

"Hey." Leo said, catching the attention of the opposite team. "Is that a biggie burger truck pulling up?" He pointed at a random spot behind the Dingos making them turn around curiously. Taking advantage of their distraction, Bree used her super speed to tie together the shoelaces of all the football players. Leo lowered his hand and shrugged. "Guess not. Hike!"

At the command, Adam tossed the ball to Leo, and the latter passed it to Spike. Pushing through the group of football players who were struggling to move, Spike and the rest of the team made it to the Dingos end zone, successfully scoring a touchdown. The group cheered in delight. Adam, Bree, and Lorelei cheering even louder as they were the cheerleaders of the team.

After a while, thanks to Adam, Bree, and Spike's abilities the scores were raised to; Dingos with a total of 23 points and Alpha Dogs with a total of 17 points. Currently, there were seven seconds left of the game and the team had gathered together once again.

"All right, we have time for one more play. Spike you scored every touchdown today. You score one more and we win." Leo announced.

"Give me the ball." Spike said, "If I don't come back with their spleens, you'll know I failed. He began walking away from the group until he paused, turning back with a look of confusion and a voice that did not mirror Spike's.

"Wait! Where am I?" Chase asked, "and am I wearing a jock strap?" He squirmed.

"Oh, no. It's Chase. We need Spike back! Where is he? Where is Spike?" Aggressively, Bree shook Chase by his helmet until Adam pulled her away.

"Hey, let's go! We don't have all day!" Trent yelled from the other side of the field, impatiently.

"Time out!" Leo declared.

"I told you I don't wanna be Spike." Chase said, his voice filled with disappointment. "Look, I've been waiting for my first day of school for 14 years. And now I don't even remember it."

"When you put it that way, I just feel selfish." Leo admitted.

"Yeah." Bree said.

Lorelei patted Chase's back making the boy move his attention to her. "If it makes you feel better, I like you more than Spike. He actually scares me a little." She smiled, "I'll also bake you a cake as an apology."

"Wait, really? You'll do that?" Chase asked in surprise at the girl's kindness. "Thank you, Lori."

"Of course!"

Adam slowly approached Chase, placing a hand on his shoulder. Lorelei assumed he was also going to apologize until he began shaking him just like Bree did minutes before. "Oh, come on! Snap out of it! I wanna win!"

Leo pushed Adam away. "No, he's right."

Feeling much better after Lorelei's words and promise of giving him a cake, Chase tried being optimistic. "Come on, guys. We can still win this thing! And even if we don't, what do we have to lose?"

"Our table." Adam said.

"Popularity." Said Bree.

"Our dignity." Lorelei added.

"Everything." Leo exclaimed.

Growing more impatient by the minute, Trent shouted, "Come on, we playing football or we playing putt-putt!"

Lorelei had no idea what that was and she didn't care either. She just wanted to get this game over with and go home, shower and watch her cooking show if it was still airing by the time she showered and settled down. Lorelei was pulled closer by Leo as he began explaining their last move. "Here's what we're gonna do. I'll do a flea-flicker toss to you." He looked at Chase.

"And I'll use my mathematical analysis to throw the perfect pass."

Leo nodded and turned his attention to Adam. "Adam, assume the position."

"Alright, this is the last time I'm doing this." Adam said before going into position. The tension raised as their last play began. Lorelei used her lack of height to dodge the football players as she and the rest of her team ran towards the end zone of the Dingos. They all called for Chase's attention to get him to throw the ball at them but the boy stood frozen in place. He was looking back and forth between all of them and before he could actually throw the ball, a few members from the opposite team tackled him to the ground, stopping Chase from making the pass and scoring the touchdown they needed to win.

"Game over! Dingos win!" Perry exclaimed, more than pleased with the result of the night.

Lorelei shook her head as she, Adam, Bree, and Leo made their way back to Chase who was still laying on the ground.

"See ya in the cafeteria, Alpha Duds!" Trent yelled with a laugh, "oh! And the pudding's on you!"

Chase raised to his feet. "Well, we may not be the Alpha Dogs anymore, but at least we still have each other. We're not total nobodies."

"No, we are total nobodies, but at least I have you four to carry my broken butt home." And with that Leo dropped to the ground.

Lorelei let out a sigh of relief as she took off her helmet. Her eyes were set on Leo's unconscious form. "I've carried him one too many times. You three can do it."

·＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚ ˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊·̩̩̥͙ ·̩̩̥͙＊*•̩̩͙✩ ˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊·̩̩̥͙ ˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚

—Joy

It's been so so long since I've been here. Almost a year 😭

I don't know anything about football so writing the last part was a torture.  Although, I did skip most of if 😪 Forgive me for the lack of description.

Reading the old chapters, I noticed a few misspellings here and there so I deeply apologize for that. For my peace of mind, don't point them out unless it's a big mistake like putting a word with a whole different meaning or something. The thing is, I don't want to fix the misspellings and make the comments underneath that paragraph disappear 😭

It's funny because I barely have anything to yap about in this book. In my other fic, I can talk and talk. What I do have to say is that, I've came to the realization that I just like making my life harder while writing.

In this book, Lori has a hard personality to write because I never know if I should make her be lost and say something dumb or actually be serious. My other book has a complicated love triangle with 20 flashbacks that I sometimes don't even know if it all makes sense. Lastly, on my other book I don't even know what I'm going to do with the plot 😤

So, here I'm going to start doing something I used to do in the book I unpublished, which was leaving memes of the story at the end of each chapter.

Hope you enjoyed and see you next time! 🥰❤️