There are people in this world who are totally underrated and underappreciated. Mackenzie is one of those people. Sure she may not be super fancy or talented but she defiantly has her perks. For example, she's good at getting someone to laugh, she's also good at reading a situation and acting accordingly, something I'm still working on.

I felt like I could talk to her and that she would actually listen. She seemed really nice and like she actually cared about people. I'm surprised she doesn't have more friends, people like her are hard to come by.

We walked into the restaurant and I got us a table with a good view of the pond outside.

"Wow, this is, just wow. I've never been to a place like this before." She looked all around.

"Meh, the dinner service is not that great here, I like the lunch service better. And don't worry about paying for anything, I got it." I assured her.

"Thanks." She said shyly.

I smiled.

She's pretty. Her hair looks like it was freshly bleached, last I saw it she had brown roots growing in, now I couldn't tell that her hair wasn't always blond. Her blue eyes are very striking, they seem to pierce into anything they stare at. I would hate to see what those eyes look like when they are mad.

"So Darleen I know you for a fact did not come to my house to hang out with me, so why were you really there?" she asked.

"Honestly?"

"Try me," she smirked.

"I think I came to punch Jade in the face, but I thought better of it."

"Too bad, I would have loved to see that fight." She giggled.

"You really don't like your cousin do you." I chuckled.

"Something like that. I guess you could say my feelings towards her are pretty deep-seeded and not the best."

"I can understand that. She has a way of getting under people's skin." I glared at the menu.

"Tell me about it. At least you don't have to live with her."

"Emm, yeah that would be a nightmare." I nod.

"Darleen?" someone calls.

I tense up.

"Hey, Aphrodite right? I think I remember you." Mackenzie smiled at her as she walked over.

"Your Jade's cousin?"

"Mackenzie," I swear I saw Mackenzie's eye twitch.

"Right, Darleen what are you doing here? I thought you said you were out of town for the day." Aphrodite crossed her arms.

"Oops, busted." Mackenzie teased me.

I sighed.

"I just didn't feel like talking." I turned to Aphrodite.

"Are you sure?" she eyed Mackenzie.

"What are you doing here?" I turned the conversation to her.

"Going to eat lunch the same as you. Someone recommended me this place thought I'd try it out." She shrugged.

"Care to join us?" I asked.

"Thought you'd never ask." She said with a bite before pulling up a chair right next to me.

I sighed.

Aphrodite is not the easiest person to talk to. She doesn't understand me. Not like she used to. Talking to her is hard, I would much rather just talk to Mackenzie. Maybe because Mackenzie is a clean slate, she hardly knows anything about me or my history. Whereas Aphrodite knows me too well.

There was a moment of awkward silence but lucky for me the waiter arrived just in time. He looked irked that Aphrodite had moved tables to sit with us but didn't comment on it. We all ordered our drinks and I resumed looking at the menu.

"So how did things go with Skylar yesterday?" Aphrodite asked.

Sigh.

She always has to jump straight to the gaping wound, shoving her fingers in just to see how deep it goes. She can never just leave it be.

"Not good." I sighed.

"Whatever you did you had Jade all in a frenzy I haven't seen her like that in a long time. I thought she was going to lose it." Mackenzie said.

"I kissed Skylar," I said.

"What!?" Both Mackenzie and Aphrodite said at the same time.

"Hey, easy. I just, I don't know, it just happened. One kiss led to another and then Jade caught us. So yeah."

"I thought you were going to tell her about—"

"I couldn't get the words out. I don't want to tell her." I cut her off before she could finish.

"You can't just pretend it didn't happen." Aphrodite clenched her fist on the table.

"Why not? Skylar doesn't have to know, she won't find out. I'll make sure of it." I gripped the menu tighter.

"Darleen—"

"Just drop it! I don't want to talk about it, this is why I didn't want to hang out with you earlier." I snap at her.

She huffed but forced herself to remain civil, we are in public after all.

"You kissed Skylar, and she kissed you back?" Mackenzie eyed me in suspicion.

"Is that so hard to believe."

"Uh, yeah, I've seen just how in love she is with Jade. It's sickening how much she loves her. I can't picture her actually kissing you back."

"Well, she did! And she liked it." I felt my face get red in anger.

Mackenzie clenched her jaw and looked at her menu. We sat in silence for another moment.

For a moment I had forgotten I wasn't the only one madly in love with Skylar. Mackenzie was too. That irked me. She had no say, Skylar and I actually dated, they haven't even kissed. Mackenzie never acted on her feelings and that's no one's fault but her own.

Skylar still likes me, even if she won't admit it.

I took a deep breath and started again,

"Look can we all just not talk about Skylar or Jade and just be normal friends for once?" I asked.

"Sounds lovely." Aphrodite clicked her tongue.

"Sure." Mackenzie sighed.

I sighed in relief and looked back at the menu.

The waiter brought our drinks and some complimentary salads before taking our order.

"Have you heard from your parents?" Aphrodite asked.

"Not lately, but they usually don't call until the second week." I shrugged.

"Where are your parents?" Mackenzie asked.

"Out of town, neglecting their parental responsibilities as usual." I grabbed my tea and sipped it.

"That sounds fun, my mom never leaves the house. If she's not at work she's at home, and on the rare occasions that she is out my dad is home too. So, yeah, my house is like a prison."

"Well, my house is basically abandoned my parents are hardly ever home." I sigh.

"Are you telling me you have that big house all to yourself! Lucky!"

I giggled.

"Well, it's no fun when I'm alone. What am I going to do, watch paint dry?"

"Your house is amazing! What I would do to have a house like that." She sighed dreamily.

"I agree, way better than the hotel I'm living out of," Aphrodite said.

"I think free breakfast, room service, and a hot tub beg to differ." I playfully nudge her.

"Don't you guys have a hot tub?" she raised an eyebrow.

"It's down for maintenance. I think an animal got in there or something. Either way, my parents haven't gotten it fixed yet."

"Bummer." She said.

"Bummer? Since when do you say that?" I laughed.

"What? I've been watching a lot of American sitcoms since I got back. I am trying out new words." She stuck up her nose.

"Sitcoms aren't really a go-to for vocabulary lessons." Mackenzie pointed out.

"Would you prefer I use horror movies?"

We all laughed.

The waiter brought the food and I smiled in delight. It's been a while since I've eaten here, my parents are always telling me we have to go back, but they never take me with them when they do.

Well, I can go on my own now.

"God this is so good," Mackenzie said around a mouthful of food.

"Emm." Aphrodite made a face at her.

I kicked her under the table.

"Glad you like it." I smiled.

Mackenzie eyed Aphrodite, who was eyeing her back. As if waiting for her to realize that not only were her elbows on the table and her drink not on the coaster, but her plate was hanging off the edge because she pulled it closer to herself.

Mackenzie seemed to figure it out on her own by looking back and forth between Aphrodite and me and how we were eating. Then she silently made the adjustments.

Being proper can be taxing sometimes. I don't really get why there are so many rules and why we have to follow them. Sure I do follow them but it's kind of boring. I want to talk with my mouth full and rest my elbows on the table. Is it really that bad? Who cares right?

Well apparently, a lot of people do.

"So how's normal school these days?" I asked Mackenzie.

"The same as ever. I feel like all schools are the same, just some people go to private school and some don't." she shrugged.

"As someone who has been to many schools, I can attest that not all schools are the same. I find Lincoln high the most unique, none of my other schools had morning assemblies and things like that."

"Well I guess we don't have that, so maybe not. Either way, public schools are lame. No room for creativity. Everyone is forced to learn the same thing at the same pace with the same materials. We are like robot people." She did a mini version of the robot.

I giggled.

She even got Aphrodite to smile, now that was a feat.

After lunch, the three of us went back to my house. Being as Mackenzie was adamant that I had not exploited my house to its fullest potential. So we walked in and Mackenzie eyed the stairs.

"Please tell me you've stair surfed before." She turned to me.

"What?" I eyed her.

"You know, slid down the stairs. A grand staircase like that, come on!"

"Nope, I have no clue what you are talking about." I shrugged.

"Okay, then first mission. Collect as many pillows as you can and put them right here," she indicated to the foot of the stairs.

"Why?" Aphrodite asked.

"In case we crash on our faces, go!"

Aphrodite and I shared a look. I shrugged and she sighed, together the three of us collected a mountain of pillows and set them at the bottom of the stairs. There was so many pillows we couldn't even make out the floor.

Then Mackenzie went to my room and grabbed a plain plastic tote that I used to store old school stuff. She poured it all out and stood at the top of the stairs.

"So, who wants to go first?" she asked.

"You're crazy." I shook my head.

"Amuse me," Aphrodite smirked.

"Fine, bunch of chickens. Jade and I used to surf down the stairs all the time when we were young." She said more to herself. Then she got inside the tote at the top step.

I cringed but couldn't look away as she scooted herself over the edge.

"Woo!" she laughed.

She came sliding down the stairs at great speeds laughing the whole way down. On the last step she got flung forward and landed on all the pillows.

"Haha, oh my god that was so fun! You guys, you have to try this." She laughed and swatted away feathers that had floated up from the pillow that exploded.

I looked at Aphrodite and smirked.

"Oh no you don't, no way am I doing that." She crossed her arms.

"I'll go next!" I ran over to Mackenzie and helped her up.

She was still laughing and had feathers in her hair.

I grabbed the tote and walked up the stairs as Mackenzie reset the pillows.

"Okay, all good!" she gave me a thumbs up.

"You are going to hurt yourself." Aphrodite snarked.

"Relax, I got this." I got in the tote.

Mackenzie was giggling as I slide forward and tipped forward before hitting the next step and sliding down.

I couldn't help but scream in delight almost like riding a roller coaster. I laughed and clung tightly to the tote as I made my way down. Just like Mackenzie, I crashed into the pillows. I laid there laughing for a moment and Mackenzie helped me up.

"See! Told you, okay one down one to go." She looked at Aphrodite.

"Nope, no way." She backed up.

Mackenzie and I shared a devious look before we chased Aphrodite around the house.

"Guys! Stop it!" she laughed as she ran behind the couch.

"Got ya!" I declared as I wrapped my arms around her from behind.

"Darleen!" she kicked and squealed.

Mackenzie quickly reset all the pillows while I carried Aphrodite up the stairs.

"You brute! Put me down!" she demanded.

"Okay, but you asked for it." I set her in the tote.

"Darleen! Come on, have mercy." She begged.

"All good!" Mackenzie gave a thumbs up.

"Don't you dare!"

"Oops." I bumped the tote with my hip and sent her sliding down.

"Ahh! I hate you!" she screamed.

She landed face-first into the pillows which made Mackenzie and I laugh. She got up with a huff and grabbed a pillow and hit Mackenzie with it.

"Hey!" Mackenzie giggled and grabbed her own pillow and hit her back.

"No fair, pillow fight without me?" I slide down the stair rail and landed next to them. I grabbed my own pillow and the war began.

I got hit in the head by Mackenzie and in the back, by Aphrodite, they quickly teamed up on me.

"Hey!" I tried to fight them off.

Pillows kept exploding and feathers went everywhere. By the end, we were a giggling, feathery, mess on the floor. I don't think I've ever had that much fun in my own house before.

"We should have a sleepover!" Mackenzie declared.

"Like in the shows? Gossip, makeovers, movie marathons?" Aphrodite needed clarification.

"Yeah! Come on, it will be so much fun!"

"Okay." I shrugged.

"Fine. But no more stair surfing." Aphrodite huffed.

"I don't know, you looked really cute going down." I plucked a feather from her hair.

She blushed bright red which made me laugh.

"You brute!" she shoved me back down into the pillow mess.

I giggled and threw feathers at her.

"As the host, I decree that the first order of the sleepover is to clean up this mess." I sat up.

They both sighed.

I smiled at them.

I don't think I've ever had a real sleepover before.