(03) Mey and The Nancy Drew Sleepover

⚯͛ You can't stop the feelings you have for someone.

You can't lie to yourself either.

Your heart knows the truth all too well. ⚯͛

"Mey," I felt my mom calling me from downstairs and immediately put the book down on my lap. "Mom?" I called out and yet there was no response so I decided that I had perhaps imagined things. I was sitting cross-legged on my bed, rereading the first time Hagrid came to pick up Harry. "MEY WANG, HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO CALL YOU?"

I gulped and practically jumped off my bed and ran downstairs to save my dear life. I found her sitting on the couch by the window and went to sit next to her.

She turned and smiled, which surprised me considering I was expecting a lecture. "Mey," she took both of my hands and gave them a little squeeze. "Your dad and I have been talking." I honestly didn't like the sound of that but being an obedient child, I nodded for her to continue. "You've grown up and you know what's right and wrong. We think it's time for us to let you make your own choices."

I was confused, so I asked, "Mom, what are you talking about?"

"I think it's time for you to have a boy (space) friend."

I frowned. There was no way she said what I think she just said, I must have either misheard her or my ears played a trick on me because she could not possibly say what I thought she had said. "What?"

My mom smiled and gave my hands another squeeze. "You are old enough now, Mey, and we heartily allow you to have boyfriends."

Now I knew my mind was just messing with me. First, it was singular and now it was plural. Five years ago, my parents told me that boys had cooties and I'd get pregnant if I made a contact with them. So there was no way, they were letting me have a boyfriend let alone boyfriends. Plurals.

I internally groaned and blamed too much studying for my temporary brain malfunction. At least I hoped it was temporary. "Mom, I'm not sure about what you just said. I'm having a slight headache, I'm going to go upstairs and take a nap for a bit."

"Okay," she nodded and smiled. "Just make sure you'll introduce these male friends of yours to me and your dad. We're older than you, we can tell if he's a good boy or not."

I nodded for the sake of nodding and ran upstairs. I laid down on the bed, staring at the ceiling while thinking about what my mom just said, or what I thought my mom just said. Boyfriend, huh? After avoiding boys for seventeen years, I doubted there would be anyone in school who'd want to have me as his girlfriend.

What about someone who's not from your school? Someone who looks so hot in a plain sleeveless shirt and faded jeans?

I shook my thoughts away. There's nothing between Hunter and me, I told myself.

My annoying inner thought replied, who said anything about Hunter?

I internally groaned. Before I was getting into a fight with my inner thought, my phone buzzed, distracting me altogether.

It was a notification from our group chat, A Gaggle of Giggle.

1DNarry4ever (Jess): sleepover tonight? My parents out of town to visit my brother at Stanford.

It was actually a good idea, except that I'd have a Biology test tomorrow so I typed my reply.

AsianPotterhead (Mey): I haven't studied Bio for the quiz tomorrow

CupBTargaryen (Norma): let's go! I'm saying YES to this idea! I got lots to tell y'all about

1DNarry4ever: must be about Zion. Oh, come on, Mey! I haven't studied too maybe we could study together ♡

I sighed. I really wanted to but I haven't studied for tomorrow yet.

AsianPotterhead: I don't think that's a good idea, Jess. The last time we did that we both ended up doing each other's nails and forgot about the study.

1DNarry4ever: At least we got our nails done. Autumn, stop lurking and help me persuade Mey!

17YearsOfSummers (Autumn): 😂😂 Whoops, busted!

I'm in for the sleepover. I got two quizzes tomorrow and I only have half of your brain, Mey, so you should totally come! Or I'll drag you 😇

CupBTargaryen: nice one, sis

I finally gave in. Maybe I should just take a day off and relax. After the weird conversation with my mom, I felt like this might be a good excuse to escape another weird conversation over dinner later.

AsianPotterhead: Ugh, fine, I'm coming. But I'm seriously gonna bring my book with me.

1DNarry4ever: bring along. The more the merrier.

I sat up on my bed and grabbed the Harry Potter book. I stood on my bed and put the book on the shelves placed right behind the bed. The one thing I loved about my bedroom was that it was actually my private library too. There was a ladder in the corner for me to reach higher shelves. Since the Harry Potter series were my favorite books, I put them on the lower shelf for easier access because I tended to reread them over and over.

I prepared some clothes for the sleepover and went downstairs to let my mom know.

* * *

I pressed the doorbell and waited. Jess swung the door opened. I frowned. She was wearing her coat with car keys in one hand. Behind her, Norma was putting on her coat. They both looked like they were about to go somewhere.

"Wait, aren't we having a sleepover?" I asked.

Jess nodded. "Yeah, but we gotta go find Autumn now." She took my hand and led us to her car which parked in the driveway.

I was still confused but I followed them and got into the car. "What happened, Jess?"

"Autumn's in danger," was all she said as she started the car and drove.

Norma filled me in during the drive, saying that someone was trying to kill Autumn by cutting the car's brake line. It didn't take a genius to guess who was behind this incident.

The drive didn't take long since Jess and Autumn lived not so far away from each other. We went to the top floor of the apartment building and knocked on her door.

The door swung open, revealing Autumn, still wearing the same clothes she wore to school this morning. Her messy hair was a sign of her distress.

Jess went ahead and hugged her. "Oh my God, are you okay?" She pulled away to look her in the eye.

Autumn answered with a nod. "Yeah, I'm fine, I guess."

"Have you eaten?" asked Jess, looking like a worried mother. Autumn shook her head. "We should go and eat. Let's go to Valentino."

So we walked our way to Valentino, an Italian restaurant in the neighborhood. Jess insisted that the fresh air was good for our health, even though we all knew that it wasn't the reason we walked. After the recent accident, she knew Autumn would not want to go by anything with wheels.

We took the table by the window and ordered our food. The good thing about Valentino wasn't just their delicious food but they also had good service. Our food arrived a few minutes late.

Norma shook her head. "This person is dangerous!"

"Total psycho!" added Jess while stabbing her meatball in anger.

I fished out a pen from my bag and took a napkin. "I think we should list them down. So who do we have?"

"Ellie and her sidekick." Jess took the liberty of naming our first picks then plopped the meatball she has been stabbing the entire time into her mouth.

Norma stopped stirring her mushroom soup and added, "I think Mr. Huntington might be one too."

"A teacher?" she asked in disbelief. "Why would a teacher pull pranks on us? Aren't they like the police at school or something?" To be honest, I had to agree with her. A teacher wouldn't risk their career just to prank his students, especially someone with higher status like vice-principal Huntington. I believed he had a reputation to uphold.

"Just a thought. Since he doesn't seem to like us." Norma shrugged one shoulder.

Jess rolled her eyes. "It's just mutual feelings, duh. Nobody likes him." She laughed several jabs to a meatball on her plate. "God, I really hate this! I wish whoever did all those things would just stop."

"Tell me about it." Autumn rolled her eyes and took a spoonful of macaroni and cheese. She took another spoonful before she took the napkin and read, "Okay, so we got Ellie, Rosie, Mr. Huntington, why there's no Blake? He drugged me that one time."

"Oh, right," I took the napkin back and wrote it down. Who else? I tapped my pen multiple times on the table, a bad habit whenever I was trying to figure things out. One person popped into my head. I looked at the others. "How about Joe?"

Autumn shook her head. "No, he got slashed tires, remember?"

We went quiet for several heartbeats, busy with our own thoughts. Norma shifted in her seat and took Autumn's hand, saying, "Autumn, we have never really seen those slashed tires. What a better way to be a genius villain than to mask yourself as a victim?"

Jess furrowed her brows. "I think she's right. Wolf in a sheep coat."

Autumn looked like she wanted to say something against it but in the end, she kept her mouth shut so I took the pen and wrote Mr. Rodriguez on the napkin.