。゜☆ 𝕔𝕙𝕒𝕣𝕞𝕖𝕕 ☆ ゜ 。

“It was great! I spent Christmas dinner with my boyfriend and his family, but I spent Christmas morning with my family and Marina was home this year so it was even better” said Rose with a big smile. She felt like she had had the best Christmas imaginable for her, really floating on cloud 9 recently. “Christmas is so hectic, so it’s nice to get out of the house and bring some joy to these guys” she said as she continued to meet and pet the dogs. “You ready for competition?” she asked.

stella nodded her head along as she listened, even though she wasn’t looking at rose because she was busy petting the puppies she was still paying attention. “it sounds like you had a good holiday then, that’s nice.” hers had been basic like it always was, traditional, but that was one of the things she liked about it. “i know its so much work getting everything ready for it, all the preparation and everything, and then it’s over in the blink of an eye.” or at least it felt that way. “oh im beyond ready. are you?”

ryder had been at the store, getting some stuff returned for his parents, when he noticed a familiar face talk to one of the people at the counter. the grin on his lips widened and he had excused himself from the conversation that he had been in, making his way towards where the blonde had been, but when he did, she was already gone. furrowing his brows a little, he went over and made the return, getting the right size in the sweater amongst other things he had to exchange. making his way outside and into the parking lot, he saw the blonde again and it was pretty obvious that she was frustrated for some reason, making his way over to where stella was, the grin on ryder’s lips wdened as he held onto the bags. just my luck. he raised an eyebrow at her as she glanced at him as he approached her. yes. unfortunately it’s exactly what it looks like. i locked myself out. ryder chuckled softly and shook his head as he stood in front of the door, looking into the vehicle & seeing the keys in the passenger seat. “ why am i not surprised? ” he said and chuckled softly as he focused on his ex-girlfriend and still close friend. “ well, it’s pretty obvious you’re not getting in without your keys… do you have a spare set at home? i can take you there and back, if ya want. ”

how making the returns for her parents turned into her job, stella wasn’t really sure. it seemed that a lot of the undesirable errands fell into her lap. somehow the cheerleader always managed to do it with a smile, too. that’s probably why her parents continued to expect her to. hearing the chuckle behind her, stella turned around to see who the figure was. “because this seems to happen to me at least once a month,” the girl answered with a sigh. “is it that obvious? so glad that you pointed it out, then,” she forced out a small chuckle. “yeah im pretty sure i do. if you wouldn’t mind, that would be helpful.” it was just remembering where the spare set was. but she would figure that out once they got to her house.

indigo had madea quick run to the store for lexi. he had felt like he was cramping her space at her house. he loved being with her more than anything but he just was unsure if she felt that way now that she was forced to be with him all the time. he didnt like being thrown out of his house and as much as he was upset at his parents he did miss them and wish he was back home.. just to give lexi her space as well.  when he glanced at the blonde and heard her shout he blushed. “oh- sorry.. i wasnt… staring.” he reassured her. “i was just in my own head…. maybe i can help?” he offered.

the girl was always hard on herself, and when she did things without thinking, like locking her keys in the car, she was upset about her stupidity because it was something that could have been avoided. even though she was going to try not to let her ruin her day, she wasn’t sure she would be successful with that. giving one more look inside the locked car at the keys she shook her head. “i think i have a spare key at home somewhere. means i should probably start walking,” stella chuckled with a shrug. “if you’re looking to kill some time youre welcome to join me, but dont feel obligated.”

“Of course Stell” said Rose with a smile, she was glad her friend had come out. She knew it was a little close to Christmas, but some people liked to keep busy. Rose sure did, she didn’t want any gaps in her resume when she started looking at schools next year. “Okay, the cut off time just happened, so let’s head back and play with some puppies!” she said excitedly as she took Stella’s hand and they went into the puppy play area with the other folks. “Hi everyone, I’m Rose Hollingsworth and I’m here to volunteer just like you. If you have any questions feel free to ask me, and be careful with the more nervous dogs. There are treats on the side” said Rose as she opened up the door for everyone. Rose went and sat down and started playing with the dogs, “So Stella, how was your Christmas?” she asked with a smile.

what better way to keep herself busy than to occupy her time with some puppies? she couldn’t think of anything better, as she knew it would definitely enhance her mood, because how could it not. after handing in her paperwork, she followed rose back to the enclosed area and took a seat on the floor. letting a couple of the pups smell her before petting them. “it was good. my brothers are home from college on break so it was...crowded, but good. how was yours?”

Romeo didn’t want to encounter any more embarrassing moments in his life anytime soon. He’d got enough to last him a lifetime. “I did! deserve it. I can’t disagree to that. I still feel terrible.” Romeo was going to learn from the experience. He saw the way that his actions caused consequences to those around him. It broke his heart to see his girlfriend break down into tears. “The reason is that I was dumb and didn’t understand my feelings. I still don’t understand them. I thought I was over my ex boyfriend but apparently not as much as I thought if I jump into his bed every time that he beckons me too.”

“not to rub salt into the wound or anything, but you should feel terrible. that’s a horrible thing to do,” the girl shook her head as she thought about it. its not something that she would have expected from him. “hopefully you can just move on from it. and hopefully she can too,” even though she knew it would be a lot harder for the girlfriend, that was a big hit to someones self esteem. “your feelings?” raising a brow, stella shot him a look, “doesn’t sound like you were thinking with your heart.”

Romeo would hopefully get over the embarrassment of having a sauce stain around his mouth as the years went on. It’s something was still new and in his mind at this moment in his life. “Don’t tell me that! I don’t need any more embarrassing moments to add into my collection.” Moments like that would stick with him and play over and over again right inside of his mind. “Yes! She broke up with me. I deserved it to be honest. I wasn’t faithful and my heart wasn’t one-hundred percent in it.”

“i’m just saying that’s life, dude” stella told him with a chuckle. unfortunately for everyone embarrassing moments happened and they had a tendency to replay themselves over and over in people’s minds. “ok good. you did deserve it. no offense, you’re my friend and i support you, but i can’t support cheating there’s literally no reason for it and no excuse for it.” she shook her head as she thought about it, her heart would be shattered if she ever got cheated on. 

Romeo didn’t usually have trouble when it came down to his spilling his food everywhere on him. It’d only happened one time that he knew about. He was kind of a clumsy person in general. “You’re right. He probably thought it was cute that I was too busy looking at him to notice it.” Romeo made sure to bring napkins with him whenever he ate anything with sauce from then. “His parents were loaded. He was a nice and cool enough person to hang out with though.” Romeo shrugged his shoulders - taking a sip of his drink before he explained his situation. “It’s not that exciting at the moment. I got myself into a big mess. I was dating my girlfriend for a month or so and then cheated on her with my ex boyfriend at a party this one night.”

“exactly, he was probably super flattered. but really it isn’t something you should dwell on, its in the past anyway youll probably go through far more embarassing things in your life,” the girl laughed, “not that im wishing that on your or anything.” listening to him, stellas eyebrows lifted, “that does sound like a big mess. so did you break up after the cheating or what?”

“I like it better then other punishments.” He said simply. “I’ve been in foster homes where the beat you for doing something wrong.” It wasn’t something he liked to talk about, but people oftenly didn’t know all the horrors of foster care. “Kicked out? Well I guess thats happened to me sort of, in the system, thats them basically them giving you back and the social workers needing to find a new place for you to live.”

“Its usually the lesser of most evils, being stuck in your room isn’t usually too bad,” thats probably why it wasn’t really an effective punishment, but all parents had their own ways of dealing with things. “yeah not everyone is cut out for parenthood, that’s for sure. but they don’t usually realize that until its too late unfortunately.”

Riley did bust her ass, training all hours. “I’m not a true believe in luck, like what guides a person to be truly lucky. I think our lives are all mapped out, and major life events are just meant to be. But either way, thank you.”

“That’s why I said luck isn’t even really a thing,” the blonde lifted her shoulders in a shrug, “I think it’s just something I say out of habit because it’s still sending some kind of positive vibe to whoever needs it. either way im sure youll do fine. its more about skill than any kind of luck anyway.”

Chaya had to laugh. “Well, I guess I will take full responsibility if the movies scare you that badly.” She chuckled, glad that the girl was willing to give it a try despite this evening literally being the stuff of nightmares. “If you get too scared, we can bail. I’ve seen all of the movies that the theatre tends to cycle through for these kinds of things, so I won’t hold it against you.”

even though the thoughts of the things that happened in those movies were scary, she doubted that would be what was keeping her up at night, but it was still fun to joke about. “no honestly i think ill be fine im just messing with you. i can handle it. i hope,” she laughed. “i don’t think im that big of a baby, i can tough it out.”

“Exactly! I’d want you to do the same thing for me if the roles were reversed between us.” Romeo wouldn’t want to walk outside on the streets with some red mark covering his cheeks. The people around this place were brutal and would point it on within a couple of seconds. Romeo rolled his eyes with a grin. “Yeah? Let’s hope he did. I’m never going to live that down.” The embarrassing moment was going to forever live on in his head for the rest of his life. Romeo’s shoulders shrugged. “He’s only twenty something. His parents were really rich.” 

“And of course I would. But lucky for you it seems that you’re a neater eater than I am, so you probably have less to worry about,” the girl laughed. “Its one of those things that sticks with you but probably isn’t even a blip on his radar so don’t worry about it. Ah, really rich parents definitely explains it. So what else is new and exciting in your love life? I feel like you always have the best stories.”

“Totally,” he chuckled, sticking his free hand in his pocket. “Okay, but don’t complain when you get bored after one slice … I would’ve gotten the guys in the back to throw some extra toppings for free if you’d texted me,” he mentioned, mostly just so she knew if she ever ordered a pizza from there again she had that option. “Hear what?” Jeremy furrowed his brow, confused. “Oh - ha, I’m a dumbass.” Understatement of the year. “You deserve it, it’s never quiet here.”

“I’m not going to complain about that I promise, I’m not looking for pizza to entertain me. I wasn’t in the mood for toppings. Are you one of those people who puts like 14 toppings on it?” the girl asked with a chuckle. “I know I have to enjoy it while I can. I don’t want to jinx it,” because with her luck her younger siblings would end up back at the house and she’d have to take care of them. “Hows your shift going so far? Making good tips?”

Riley raised her brows quickly in acknowledgment. All she heard in practice was how good the new girl was and how pretty she was. Of course RIley knew she was talented, she was the best on the team, but how much longer, especially with her loss of skills. “I hope so, going for my fifth worlds ring.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine, as long as you work hard, which you do,” Stella nodded as she shrugged, it was really all she could say at the moment, no one would know how it ended up until after the try out. “Good luck with it all.” Even as she was saying it, the blonde wasn’t sure she really believed in luck at all but it was out of habit. “Not that luck is even a thing. But. You’ll do great anyway.”

“Hey, I’ll take it. A film or two it is.” Chaya understood that, as much as she loved murder mysteries and could binge watch them all day, every day, it wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea. “We can do something you want after if you want? Fair is fair and all.”

“You’ve got yourself a deal,” she agreed. “If these movies give me nightmares about being chopped up into a million pieces and stuffed in a freezer, I’m calling you at two am,” Stella told her friend, chuckling as she said it.

Riley may have been unable to see, but she wasn’t oblivious too all the hype the new girl was getting on the team. Though Riley decided to skip out on the team bonding to put in extra hours in the gym, she really just didn’t want to hear about how great Stella was anymore. “My old all star team. After my accident, i had to take a break from the team, my replacement broke her arm and now my old spot is back and. I’m trying out for it, not that I got all kinks ironed out with cheer and my condition.”

Having to start attending a different school as a senior was a nightmare in Stella’s eyes. Adjusting to a new building and obviously the new people wasn’t something she wanted to deal with so close to the end of high school in general but she tried to make the best of it. At least cheer was a good distraction. “That’s cool,” Stella replied, smiling. “You’re crazy talented I’m sure you’ll do great, they’ll be lucky to have you.”