"Hey, Grace are you OK?" Ned asks again after I started to stare off into space. These past two weeks have been the longest of my life and it felt good to be just with my friends. I nod and focus my attention back on the screen where Peter and Michelle are playing Mario Kart.
"Yeah, yeah it's just been a long couple weeks." Some days I wish they knew the truth so I could talk to them about it. I'm tired of lying to them, it breaks my heart to be telling them these lies and having them believe me.
"Well, if you need to talk about it, I'm here for you."
"Thanks, Ned," I say and focus my attention on Mario, who Peter is playing, as he drives across the finish line and the screen shows a large 1. Michelle is still racing as Peach and comes in 5th. They both turn around and look at the two of us.
"Grace, I believe it's your turn?" Michelle says eying me and I respond with raising my eyebrows.
"I thought it was Ned's turn," I look over at him and gesture for him to get up.
"Oh, yea..." Ned says but then stops when he's looking at Michelle. I look over at her to see her shaking her head.
"No, it's Grace's turn," she says thoroughly as she looks at me. I put my hands up and grab the remote from her as I sit down next to Peter in another bean bag. We go back to the character menu so I can choose my classic character, Yoshi. We start our tournament and I can't help but laugh when I hit Peter with a shell before he crosses the finish line, causing me to be first.
Thirty minutes until midnight
We all sit in a circle with the gifts we brought sitting in front of us. Mine was simply wrapped with a bow while the others had large bags and I began to feel bad for having this little gift for Peter. Michelle tosses the scrap pieces with our names in the middle to see who will begin with giving their gift away. She plucks out a piece and smiles at it.
"I guess I'll be going first then," She laughs and takes all the pieces of paper away before beginning. "Drum roll, please! I had Ned!" She hands him the bag and Ned begins to take pieces of the tissue paper away to reveal Star Wars merch and lego sets. He smiles down at the things and thanks Michelle.
"I-uh-this is kind of funny cause I actually had you, Michelle," He says handing her the bag. Peter and I look at each other then at Michelle because she was the one who set it up, she, of course, has a huge smirk on her face. I look at Peter with his face all red as he looks back at me. I feel heat travel up my neck and I look at Michelle to try and make the red look as it came from something else. She pulls out a Harry Potter sweatshirt and a movie gift card. She thanks Ned and looks at the two of us.
"Should we go at the same time?" I ask and Michelle nods at the two of us before taking out her Polaroid camera and taking a picture of us as we hand each other our presents. "On three, one..."
"Two," He says.
"Three," I respond and open the gift. I pull out a Little Mix CD along with Hungar Games T-shirt. I smile down at my things and stop when I hear Peter gasp. I quickly look up and prepare to fight but stop myself from jumping up when I see Peter looking at the picture.
"No way!" He shouts and looks at the Iron Man picture. "Grace this must have been a lot of trouble to get!"
"No, no it was no biggie." I wave him off and smile at his expression as he stares at the signature. Michelle and Ned are standing behind him with their mouths agape.
"Grace, we didn't know you were rich!" Ned exclaims.
"I'm not rich," cause it's true I'm not, I do get paid for being an Avenger but that money is for when I retire or for college. Tony lends me money because he continuously says "It's what normal parents do". "The people who took me in are rich, that doesn't make me." I didn't want to lie about that, I do consider them my family because we have been through a lot together.
"Well, you are living with rich people," Michelle exclaims. "How much did this cost?"
"I'm not answering that!"
"How did you get it?" Peter asks.
"Let's just go with the fact that I know plenty of people on the inside," and as in people, I mean me. "That sounded really creepy, I watch way too many movies."
"We all do," Michelle says and I smile. "Guys two minutes until midnight, c'mon."
We all grab our jackets and glasses filled with sparkling cider as we follow Michelle out of her window and onto the roof which gives us a view of the city. I smile at my home and at my friends, I'm so thankful that they are here with me.
"Ten, nine..." We all begin to countdown to one and cheer as fireworks light up the sky. Cheers erupt from the city and we all smile at the new year.
"To friends," I say and they all smile at that as they raise their glasses and we all clink them together.
YOU ARE READING
The Valiant (The Seventh Avenger)
同人小說"My life seems to be a stone continuously sinking to the bottom of a lake." Grace Margaret Moriarty is just a kid, but she's not normal. She has the ability of the time, mind and power stones. While struggling from the memories of Chicago, Grace mu...
