Serenading Sirens

Alex's hoodie didn't find its way back to him anytime soon. It stayed safely hidden underneath my pillow where my fingers found it when I had trouble sleeping. I realized right off the bat that this was rather strange of me. But any thought of Alex was a comforting one as of late. If it hadn't already been obvious that I wanted the Gaskarth boy to be more to me than the rest of them were, it certainly had to be after their practice at my house.

They didn't mention it at all, but I could tell that Rian and Jack definitely knew. Rian had caught me on many occasions with longing looks toward his best friend. When I would realize his notice, I straightened automatically and turned back to the board. It was the worst thing for me to be caught in the act of crushing when I had, in fact, never done anything of the sort before.

I really needed a girl to talk about all of this with. Hanging around with five boys constantly was only fun until you remembered your developing thing for one of them. This is what had me sitting in front of my computer after work, an empty instant message screen to Hadley open. I missed talking to her more than anything else was worth, and that's exactly how I started out our conversation.

It was several minutes before she replied. I was sure that she wasn't going to and was just about to sign off when the window chimed.

"Our minds work simultaneously, like always," she said. "We broke down about this on the same day."

A wide smile stretched across my face. This thought had already occurred to me today. I was secretly ecstatic that I had made the first move.

"So can we pretend like nothing happened?" I asked.

I barely remembered why we hadn't been talking in the first place. It was stupid, I recalled clearly. But I was also sure that all the time spent with the boys had halted the reunion between Hadley and I.

"I want nothing more," Hadley sent back quickly. "Seriously though, please explain all the away messages the past few weeks."

I laughed to myself at how confused she must have been at how often I'd been out with people she thought I hated. My fingers worked quickly to tell her what had happened. The only thing that was simply alluded to was my feelings for Alex. That would have to wait for a long phone conversation. And it didn't take very long at all before she demanded just that only half way through my story.

There had been a fear in the back of my mind that she would for some reason be upset about my liking of Alex. As I hesitantly went into that part of our time of not talking though, she was squealing with excitement. She claimed it to be the best thing to happen to me since she became my best friend. I hid my snort at this.

Our conversation ended hours later. The one thing I had been worried about with our fight was the possibility of her absence on Halloween. That had all been worked out by the time we were saying goodbye. We were both thrilled to continue our outgrown tradition of trick-or-treating. I was sure the guys would be more than willing to join in.

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"Need a haircut there, Robert," I pointed out, messing up the curls growing out of Rian's head as I sat in front of him.

He chuckled once while his hand shot up to touch his hair. "Eh, the shave's for summer as of now," he explained. "I think Kara likes it more this way."

I smiled lightly, nodding in understanding. I had met Rian's girlfriend, Kara, a few times and it had been quick for me to like her.

Jack walked in the room, finally joining the three of us. Alex had come in with me. "Halloween is soon," he sang as he sat. "I can't wait to have candy hangovers."

"Oh!" I gasped. Their glances all shot to me like something was terribly wrong. "Hadley's coming tomorrow for Halloween. We talked last night," I told them happily. Hadley had come up in conversation with them more than once. They couldn't wait to meet her.

"Score!" Jack yelled. "Don't take offense if I hit on her."

I laughed. "Be my guest."

Plans started from that moment. The only insight from me was that we needed to go to a few houses, at least, for candy. Whatever else happened that night was all up to them. From what I was hearing, it was going to be an exciting night.

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I took off work for Thursday and Friday, ensuring Hadley would have a proper greeting when she arrived and that I would have all the time I needed to get ready for our Halloween festivities. There was a lot of squealing when she stepped out of the car. The time between now and the summer hadn't been filled enough with our normal chatter. This visit was going to make up for it. That was already easy to see.

The guys were on my porch Friday morning, too anxious to wait until the afternoon. There wasn't any school and as they all piled into the house, they complained about being up too early.

I yawned as I shut the door and glared at the back of their heads. "Hadley's still asleep," I stated rather pointedly. None of them seemed to notice my irritated tone. "My mom's making breakfast. Go introduce yourselves and get some bacon. I'm going back upstairs," I told them as I began making my way up the steps.

I figured they had listened to me and were now harassing my mother about making more to accommodate their teenage boy appetites. It took me much longer than it should have to hear the scuffling of feet on the stairs behind me. Slowly, I turned my head to meet the gaze of whoever was right behind me. Alex beamed up at me when our eyes met. I couldn't glare anymore.

"What are you guys doing?" I asked as I continued on to my room.

"If you're going back to sleep," Matt began, taking a liking to walking next to me, "so are we."

"And we have to meet Hadley!" Zack exclaimed.

The others muttered and nodded in agreement.

Pushing my door open, I rolled my eyes to myself. Hadley was still fast asleep on the other side of my bed. I made my way toward it and crawled in next to her, pulling the blankets over my body. She didn't stir through this.

The boys didn't stand around awkwardly, or even sit on the floor. Alex was the first one to approach the bed. The others were quick to figure out his plan and followed. There wasn't any warning before he climbed on top of me. And then Zack, Rian, Jack, and Matt all piled into the bed around Hadley, Alex, and I. Apparently, they weren't going to wait until Hadley woke to meet her.

Her eyes shot open and her breathing matched her panicked state. She turned her head from side to side to look around at the bodies on and beside her. "Clarke?!" she almost screamed.

"Over here," I replied as loud as I could. My words were muffled by Alex's chest as he nuzzled his nose in my hair playfully. I slid my hand across the bed to find Hadley's arm. "Meet Rian, Jack, Zack, Matt, and Alex," I named them off starting with whoever was on top of her.

Hadley's breathing slowed quickly as she began to understand. "Oh. Nice to meet you," she chuckled. It was choked off due to the boy lying on her.

Rian rolled to the side, pushing Jack on top of Zack. The domino effect continued until I was somehow knocked out from under Alex and onto the floor. Alex had just started to absentmindedly -from what I could tell- playing with my hair. Lying on the floor, I was extremely disappointed.

One by one, each six of them poked their heads over the edge to stare at me. A grin was plastered on each of their faces when they saw my unnoticeably forced giggling. It would have been real if Alex hadn't been so close...

Eventually, we all made our way down to the kitchen. My mom greeted everyone brightly, excited to meet the boys for the first time. We all sat through breakfast, talking about how our evening was going to go. Whatever they had planned while I was sitting with them was deemed unworthy and what was happening now was a surprise. I just stared at my plate and pretended like this was all fine.

After sitting around the living room all day, Hadley telling her life story, we finally decided to get ready. The two of us exchanged our pajama shorts, tank tops and hoodies, and fluffy slippers for jeans, t-shirts and the same hoodies, along with whatever shoes were easiest to slip on. As the girls we were, we tried to make it look effortless when we were really worrying over how good we would look. Me especially. All I could worry about today was Alex's reactions.

I was still sitting in front of the mirror in my room, fussing over just how I wanted my hair to look. My door burst open just as I decided to go back to my makeup.

"Good God, hurry up!" I heard Jack's demand from behind the door. He stepped around it and came toward me. "Looking perfect for Alex?"

I had just been staring at him until that moment, in which my jaw dropped and I snapped, "Shut up." Forgetting about my distress, I pushed my way around him and out the door.

Jack was chuckling as he followed me down the stairs. I didn't realize how close he had gotten. "He thought you were quite sexy in your pajamas," he whispered in my ear, causing me to jump.

I tripped, stumbling and almost falling down the last two steps. Instead of my face breaking that fall, the boy in question caught me just as I lost my balance. I stared up at Alex, a blush coloring my cheeks. "Sorry," I mumbled before hurrying over to Hadley greeting Kara.

Because of this, I didn't see the same color on his cheeks.

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Trick-or-treating turned into a quick disaster. My entire neighborhood consisted mostly of people too ostentatious to want to deal with eight kids they considered entirely too old to be into that sort of thing. So Matt, the obvious leader for the night, had declared that it was time to move on. The sun had already set, the fall night quickly taking over. Whenever we stopped, the stars were already what was lighting the ground before us.

"Where are we?" Hadley was quick to ask.

I was right behind her with, "What are we doing?"

We were pulled out of the van before we got an answer.

"This is the best park we've happened across in the area," Zack told us, showing it off like it was a grand prize.

And to obviously mock my best friend and I for asking separately, Rian answered my question. "We are going to play hide-and-seek."

Involuntarily, we had all put ourselves in a circle. The chill was obviously an effect.

"We have some lovely lady friends meeting us," Alex enlightened. Then added, "Now, apparently," as another car pulled up behind the van.

It took a minute to realize that my heart had fallen. He seemed very enthusiastic about our new guests. Had Jack lied to me earlier?

There was conversation and introductions going on around me. At this point, I was too upset to even care what was said. Hadley was jumping from girl to girl to get to know them all quickly. Kara was the only one who stayed next to me with Rian, of course, connected to her hand as he spoke.

"It's best to keep away from them," she said lowly in my direction.

I looked over to her, but noticed she was focused on everyone else with a smile on her face. She caught my glance and winked. It was good to know I had one person with me.

"Clarke's it!" she exclaimed suddenly.

Or not.

I was bewildered as they all began spreading out. The park was pitch black; the tunnels, slides, and swings only illuminated enough to make them out. Everyone was already gone from sight. I looked around at everything for a few minutes, completely still.

"C'mon Clarke!" Matt beckoned from somewhere far away.

Slowly, I began to ease into the park. Mulch covered almost all of the ground. It worked its way through the holes in my beat up shoes as I started to search. I climbed the slides, turning in every direction. Giggling and running could be heard all around me. I was too blinded by the darkness to see where it was coming from. This went on for entirely too long.

"Ollie Ollie Oxen Free!" I called sarcastically. The game hadn't been fun to begin with. Now they were keeping hidden to scare me, no doubt. I would never let them know it was working.

Plus it was cold. I wrapped my arms around my torso to shield myself. I called for all of them. Zack, Hadley, Alex, Rian, Kara, Jack, Matt, whatever girls' names that had slipped through my chosen obliviousness. If they wanted me to remain friends with all of them, they should have really reconsidered this activity for a fun night.

"Ollie Ollie Oxen Free?" someone questioned from behind me. I wheeled to stare into the dark woods next to the park. I saw nothing. "I didn't know we were in the 1920s," they said.

Against all instincts, I walked toward where the voice was coming from. I entered the deeper darkness, placing my steps carefully. I had a horrible fear of finding dead bodies in the forest. I was only a foot or so in before someone -the person that had coaxed me in here, no doubt- grabbed my arm. My mouth opened to scream, but their hand covered it even quicker than I could get it out.

"Don't give us away," they breathed in my ear. Now that I was closer, I knew the voice.

I turned slowly, my eyes tracing Alex's features. He had let go of my mouth in my movement and I breathed a sigh of relief. I was overly happy that it wasn't someone to kill me. So much so that I threw my arms around him, hugging tightly. I felt his arms copy my movements, which caused me to shudder with excitement rather than the distaste I had started with months ago.

I pulled away a little reluctantly and stared up at him. "Why do I not want to 'give us away'?" I inquired, using air quotes.

He smiled the grin that I loved on him, the one that probably every girl in our town loved. "Because now we're hiding. They just don't know it," he replied. He took my hand then. I was expecting that we were going to go somewhere, but we didn't move.

"That makes no sense," I protested.

Before I did anything or went anywhere, I wanted to know why we were whispering. In turn, it was almost getting to know the inner workings of his mind.

Alex sighed now. It was easy to tell he was frustrated, and also to know that it wasn't with me but himself. "You really wanna know?" he asked, his gaze intense on me.

I nodded, "Yes." My tone was sarcastic. As if I was being persistent about nothing.

"Because I can't wait any longer to do this." At the end of his words, he leaned down to my height.

His lips crashed to mine, warming them immediately. But it wasn't that that had my arms wrapping around his neck to keep him there. My entire body burst with emotion. I had no objection to anything he did at that moment. Alex's fingers were tangled in my faded hair, pulling me closer to deepen our kiss. I couldn't even think about stopping him when his tongue traced my lower lip.

"Hey, no fair! She can't just qu-" someone was cut off behind us. Whoever dragged the boy off had my thanks for later.