“Banana! Banana!”

“I see the banana!”

“And yet, you ran over it anyway and went flying off of Rainbow Road.”

“Did Peach just hit me with a blue shell?!”

“Friendships are being tested right now.”

“Hey Luc…Luc! Lucas!”

“…Hm?”

“Man, what are you doing?”

Lucas blinked slowly and then regarded the boy sitting to his right with an almost bored expression for a moment before he trained his eyes back on the game. All four of Lucas’s guests, close friends of his since early elementary, watched as he drifted off of the technicolor space road in Mario Kart for what had to be the fourth time in a row, each time looking more and more intentional than the last. Daniel Kim Boyden looked back at Lucas who didn’t look bothered in the least that he was losing badly in the race, his eyes glazed over and his lips pulled into a frown…almost a pout.

Daniel put his hand on Lucas’s shoulder, saying in an exaggerated sympathetic voice, “Do you need to talk, buddy?”

“No, what he needs to do is get over it! Sittin’ round here moping!” Marquis Layne exclaimed from the beanbag he was occupying on the floor, his long ‘spider legs’- as the other boys liked to call them- nearly bent up to his chest. He groaned when he himself went flying over the edge of Rainbow Road again, running his hand over his fresh fade.

Lucas scowled at Marquis, but didn’t reply, tossing his controller to Daniel when the race ended; out of four, he came in last. Their other two friends- Eduardo “Eddie” Hernandez and Christian Chang- lowered their controllers and turned their attention to their grouchy friend who only continued to sit and pout. His expression hadn’t changed since 9:30 Pm when they all arrived at the Xu Household to hang out, Lucas’s shift at The Lily Pond having ended at 9 Pm and his parents shooing him home nearly immediately after. His father had been very adamant about Lucas staying for his shift and his shift only, no loitering around once it’s completed.

That wasn’t why the youngest Xu boy was pouting, though.

After the stunt he pulled last week- ditching his shift to walk Pharah home under the guise of him taking her credit card back to her- Brandon Xu was not exactly happy with his son, even if Michael did step in to cover for him. For the entire next week, Brandon watched Lucas like a well-trained hawk whenever he came into work, making sure that he never stayed in one place for too long and that he certainly didn’t loiter by the host desk. Because of this diligence and strict ultimatum, Lucas wasn’t able to pop over to the Host Desk that night when Pharah came earlier than usual to pick up her and her aunt’s dinner. He missed his chance to see her for the first time in three years and his second chance to comfortably talk to her.

He may never forgive his dad for that.

Christian smirked and dropped the controller in his lap, moving to lounge back in his armchair, “Honestly, man, I’m with Marquis. So you couldn’t see your crush tonight? No big deal. You’ll see her next week.”

“Yeah! You’re dad will probably be over you literally walking out on the job by then and you can stare at her all you want next Friday,” Daniel added with a wide grin, as if he just said something helpful.

“Why does everyone keep thinking that I’m being a creep? I’m not being a creep!” Lucas replied, slouching against the couch.

“None of us said you were a creep, Luc,” Eddie said with a small grin, pushing up his black-framed, oval glasses.

“Must’ve been his bro,” Marquis added, “Not that he’s completely wrong.”

Instead of retorting, Lucas just threw a couch pillow at the taller boy, Marquis ducking just before it hit him and flipping him off. Christian rose from his chair and went to place the controller on the shelf near the console, signaling that he was done playing for now and glanced at Lucas as he walked back.

“Look, Lucas,” he started just as the front door opened and the sound of trampling feet echoed in the air before it disappeared into the kitchen, “You’re in a better position than you think. You’re already half-way to first base! You talked to her, you walked her home, she knows you freaking exist, man! So, ask her out!”

“Ha!” Lucas laughed, fully sarcastic, “Are you crazy? I can’t just ask her out.”

“Why not?” Christian shot back.

Lucas paused, his ears turning red, “Because…Because I can’t! I’ve only really talked to her once and I’ve made a fool of myself in front of her more than that. I’m pretty sure, in my efforts to be smooth, she now thinks I’m a crackhead.”

“My dude, everyone thinks you’re a crackhead,” Marquis mumbled as he scrolled through his social media, Eddie leaning over close to watch.

Lucas threw another pillow at him, this time hitting his target. Christian just rolled his eyes and Daniel found himself laughing loud and far too amused. “I can’t just ask her out! It’s not that easy!” the boy claimed to his friends.

“Man, yes it is!” Marquis insisted, turning around in the beanbag and holding his phone up, “Look, she posted this picture up on Instagram like 30 minutes ago.”

On Pharah’s account, she uploaded a new post, a picture of a bus stop with the title of the newest horror movie released advertised on one of the panels. The caption read- “Movie’s been out for a week and I still haven’t seen it! I’m dying to go, but all of my friends are spineless jellyfish and won’t go with me. Guess I’ll be watching it by myself” with a side-eye emoji to end it and a few hashtags.

“She wants to see “The Silent Hours”. Ask her to see it with you.”

“I want to see it, too. The trailers look good,” Eddie mused, Marquis glancing back at him.

“For real? Let’s go then. I’ll go with you.”

“Cool.”

“There you go, my friend. Fool proof plan. No backing out,” Daniel said with a grin, slapping him in his chest.

Lucas hesitated, unconsciously shaking his head, “I…I don’t know you guys! What if she says ‘no’?”

“If she says ‘no’, then it’s no. Be a gentleman and let it go.” The childishly small voice that spoke drew the attention of the five teens in the den towards the entrance, the boys finding a pair of twin girls standing there staring back at them, both with the same kind of round face, the same long, black hair and stood at the same height, though one donned a pair of square-framed glasses.

Eliza, with the glasses, and Penny, without the glasses, regarded their brother with identical bored expressions, a white to-go box in both of their hands. They had returned home from getting more Mooncakes at the restaurant with Michael in time to hear Lucas and his friends talking about, yet again, his crush on Pharah. The 11 year-old twins watched their oldest brother roll his eyes to the sky so hard, they wondered how they didn’t get stuck before he then trekked upstairs without saying another word.

Penny picked up where her sister left off, “And if she looks unsure, offer to buy the popcorn, the snacks, and the drinks. If she still says ‘no’, then it’s a firm ‘no’. Don’t be a jerk and keep trying. Respect her decision.”

Daniel smacked Lucas’s chest again, nodding his head towards the twins, “Your sisters are very wise. You need to listen to them.”

Lucas scowled and shrugged Daniel off, turning to the two girls, “What do you two know about this anyway?”

“We’re women. We know,” they said together, their synchronization causing a shiver to shake down Marquis, Eddie, and Christian’s spines.

“Ugh. I hate when they do that twin thing,” Marquis mumbled, shifting in the beanbag and shaking himself of the shivers.

“You’re eleven. You haven’t had time to be women yet,” Lucas argued back, simply earning a bored glare from his sisters in return.

“And you’re a coward,” Penny retorted.

Lucas’s eye twitched as his friends hollered around him, Marquis and Christian laughing just a little too loudly for the Xu boy’s liking. Eliza left her sister’s side and approached her brother, handing him one of the to-go boxes she had been carrying.

“Stop being such a chicken and ask her out. Worst case scenario is that she says ‘no’, but have you considered that she might say ‘yes’?” she asked, Lucas quietly taking the box from his sister, staring at her wide-eyed, “Pharah’s cool and you’re an okay guy, so you have a good enough chance. About 60%.”

“Anything is better than 50/50,” Eddie commented, offering Lucas a small yet encouraging smile.

Eliza nodded and threw her brother one last look, “Right, so hurry up and start dating her. We like Pharah and want to hang out with her more.”

“Yeah, she’s funny!” Penny added as Eliza returned to her side, “Remember when she did that impression of Marlon Wayans from “White Chicks”?”

Eliza started cackling, the two girls making their way upstairs, doing their own impressions of the comedian in one of their favorite movies, but so much worse and way too exaggerated. Lucas opened the box to find four Mooncakes stacked inside, their sweet scent wafting up his nose.

“Oooh! Mooncakes!”

“Back, you savages!”

After successfully defending the sweet treat lovingly made by his grandmother and running them into the fridge, Lucas returned to the den with a heavy sigh. He found himself stopping in the middle of the room when he noticed his friends just staring at him.

“So when are you going to go to over and ask your lady for a date?” Christian asked, quirking an eyebrow as a smirk pulled at the corners of his mouth.

“I think going in the morning would be best. I believe Pharah is a pretty early riser. She takes a lot of pictures of sunrises on her Instagram,” Eddie offered, “Besides, you can go during matinee. The tickets will be cheaper.”

“Yeah! Then you can do, like, an early lunch or something,” Daniel said, leaning back.

“Take her to Funnel Hut! Girls love funnel cakes,” Christian added.

Lucas nervously rubbed the back of his neck, “I…I don’t know guys.”

Four males collectively groaned at their hesitant friend. “Bruh! What do you mean?!” Marquis exclaimed, looking about ready to stand up and step on him.

“I mean-! Isn’t it…I don’t know, kind of corny to go to her house and ask her out?”

“What else are you going to do? Send her a letter?” Christian shot back, “You can’t text or call her. You don’t have her number.”

“Weak, by the way. You walked her all the way home and didn’t even think to get her digits.” Daniel tutted and shook his head.

“I have her on Instagram, though!” Lucas countered.

“Do not DM her, man!” Marquis said, pointing at him, “Do you have any idea how many sleazy dudes at school, and just in general, slither all up in her DMs? Her best friend, London, told me all kinds of creeps send her messages, so she just deletes them without even reading them. You’ll get deleted for sure.”

“You need to strike while the iron is still hot; while she’s still got you in her head. It’s only been a week. She’s cooled off some, but you still have a chance. Remember: 60%,” Christian said, standing up and approaching Lucas to put his hands on his shoulders, “You got this, young grasshopper. May Bruce Lee be with you.”

“Of all the people you could have said…you went with the most stereotypical one,” Lucas deadpanned.

Christian shrugged as the sound of someone coming down the stairs echoed behind them, “It’s the only one I know.”

“Lucas.” The youngest Xu brother turned to see his brother stalking towards him, barely able to flinch before Michael was smacking two small pieces of paper against his forehead. “Take these.”

“What the hell, Michael?” Lucas swatted his brother’s hand away and pealed the glossy paper from his head, peering down to see that they were free pass movie tickets.

“And take this.” He slapped a small wad of cash into Lucas’s hand, “Take your ass over to Pharah’s place tomorrow, ask that girl on a date and don’t come back home until you do. I gave you a chance last week and you couldn’t even get the number. This is the last time I’m helping you. Man up.”

And then Michael left, going back upstairs while mumbling something about annoying little brothers being too chicken shit about everything. All five boys watched Michael’s retreat, before Lucas turned to his friends with the money and the tickets in hand.

“…I guess I’m…going to Pharah’s tomorrow,” he said, his palms already sweating and his heart already palpitating and his ears already burning.

“In the morning,” Eddie clarified, smiling when Lucas swallowed and nodded.

“Yeah…in the morning,” he repeated, earning cheers and pats on the back from his friends who then went back to playing Mario Kart while Lucas sunk into the sofa with his face forever red.