Happily Never After

I hurry to get ready for the second day of school, fishtailing my hair and putting in a simple pair of pearl studs as I brush my teeth and yank on a favorite pair of jeans over my panties and open the door, holding my Flash tank top and threading my arms through the holes as I dance down the stairs to the basement where the boys are all pulling on shirts. As I slip my head through the shirt and pull it down to cover my belly, I look up and catch Ethan watching me, a strange look on his face. I tug on the end of my pony/fish-tail and begin to feel slightly self-conscious.

"What?" I ask curiously.

Ethan only raises an eyebrow and half smiles in amusement, "British flag, huh?"

I have to process his words for a moment before I realize he's talking about my bra - on account of my stupidity for walking into a room without my shirt fully on, which I do a lot because I'm an only-child, and Sam and Carter know me better than for any of us to be embarrassed by one of the three wearing their underwear, I mean, we've known each other since we were babies and our parents were giving us bathes together. And as soon as it makes it's way through my thick head, my face goes red, and Ethan laughs and finishes pulling his own shirt down over his jeans - which, unlike a lot of wanna-be-popular guys in our grade, are not hanging halfway down his butt, but, instead, at his waist like they're supposed to be! only showing the waist of his boxers.

"Wandering eyes, huh?" I respond, watching some pink creep it's way onto his face.

He laughs, "touché."

Suddenly Sam tackles me from behind, knocking me onto Ethan and then sending all three of us tumbling to the soft floor. A moment later, Carter lands on my back, having joined the dog pile. Somehow, I end up on the bottom, with three growing boys on my back.

"Crushing - me - can't - BREATHE!" I gasp, shouldering whoever's directly on me.

The boys roll off, muttering apologies as they get up and dust themselves off. Sam offers me a hand up and I take it, laughing with them as we grab our bags and head up and out to school.

At school, we have a lot of fun, glad for the new addition to our bubble of obliviousness - completely unaware of the envious gazes cast on us as we laugh and tease our way through the day. My classes are all fun, even more so now that I have someone to share every single one with. Ethan is such a good sport and he makes school so interesting, teaming up all the time in French, combining alliances against Madame Pensalton, grouping together in Drama and all the other classes where we don't have Sam and Carter.

~♥~

When lunch finally comes around we wait at the lockers for Carter and Sam, laughing about things that had gone on earlier.

"So who's hosting the sleepover tonight?" Ethan asks as I put my things in my locker and grab my lunch money.

"Carter. He has a TV in his room, but whether we're sleeping there or in the den depends on how hyper we are when we get settled. Otherwise his parents and brother might have trouble sleeping." I laugh softly in memory of some past sleepoevers when we were bouncing off the walls - literally.

Footsteps sound a little farther down the hall and Ethan and I look up to see Carter and Sam just strolling down the hallway.

"Hey boys, what took so long?" I ask as Sam grins at me. "Ready for lunch?"

"Yup, let's go." Carter sticks his things in his locker then turns to head to the cafeteria.

I jump on his back for a piggyback ride down, Carter laughs and holds me up. "Ok, then. Sam? Where are you?"

"Right behind you." Sam laughs.

"Well, Liz is in the way, how am I supposed to see behind me?" Carter retorts, turning to wait up for Sam and Ethan.

Ethan and Sam fall into step on either side of Carter.

"Hey Ethan." I say conversationally as I rest my chin on Carter's shoulder, yawning.

Ethan yawns in reply and laughs. "Hey, piggy." Referring to my status as piggyback-rider.

Carter yawns as well, his shoulders rising as he fills his core with air; Sam follows suit, stretching his mouth larger than should be possible.

"Tiring day, huh?" Sam laughs when he regains control of his yawn. We come up at our lunch table. "Oh good, I'm about ready to hit the sack. 'Night."

And he stretches out on a bench, dramatically folding his hands under his cheek as he curls up and lets out phony snores. Carter lets me down by the table and I walk around to stand behind Sam's head, his eyes still closed as he continues his fake nap.

"Wake up!" I exclaim, clapping by his head.

Sam starts then rolls over, dumping himself on the ground with a stream of window words - words that stand in for a cuss word since we're classy and don't cuss. Ok, scratch that, we do cuss just not often since the randomness of window words is so much more fun.

"Schnitzel! Liz..." Sam moans, not bothering to pick himself off the ground.

Carter and Ethan are laughing so hard they're gasping for air.

I dust my hands off. "And that's how you empty a lunch bench." I announce as I sit down, Sam still at my feet.

"Nice tactics." Ethan comments, he and Carter sitting down across from me.

"Sam, are you going to get up and sit at the table like a normal person?" Carter calls, nudging Sam's body with the toe of his shoe.

"No. I'm going to stay down here and rot...like bad meat." Sam moans from the ground.

"He's being ridiculous." Carter tells me.

I nudge Sam with my foot. "You're being ridiculous."

"Am I, now?" Sam lazily rolls over to look up at me.

I nod. "Carter says so. Carter knows everything, doesn't he?" I reply.

We always tease Carter like this, it's become a routine over the years.

Sam pretends to think it over hard. "Ask Carter, he ought to know." He offers.

I turn back to Carter, watching from across the table, shaking his head and laughing silently. "Don't you?"

"Don't I what?" Carter allows, a lazy smile on his face.

"You ought'a know what! You're supposed to know everything!" I exclaim, turning back to look down to Sam. "He doesn't know!" I tell him incredulously.

Sam gasps in mock surprise, pretending not to have heard what I'd said to Carter. "He doesn't know what?"

I shake my head. "That's just it, he doesn't know anything! He said so himself." Sam breaks out laughing, unable to keep a straight face any longer. I give him a hand up and we sit side-by-side, unable to stop laughing.

"Well that settles it." Sam looks at me, gasping for air.

"It does, doesn't it?" I reply, going along with him.

"What? What are you two going on about now?" Carter teases, smiling to himself as we go on like madmen.

Ethan's watching us with an amused smile on his face, his eyes shining.

Sam and I look at each other then turn back to Carter. "That we belong in an asylum, of course." Sam replies, as if this was obvious all along, though, by the way we were acting, I suppose it was sorta obvious.

Ethan, most amused by this last statement, begins laughing, a real pretty sound. Carter, Sam, and I all join in, then Sam and I begin performing 'Unbirthday' from Alice in Wonderland, Sam the Mad Hatter and I Alice.

"A very merry unbirthday!" Sam belts out, swinging his arm over my shoulders and swaying us back and forth in a tempo that completely disregards the song's rhythm.

I clasp my hands together and bring them to my chest, raising my eyebrows and making my expression sort of surprised/excited. "To me?" I return.

"To you!" Sam sings back, still swaying us back and forth. "A very merry unbirthday!"

"For me?" Carter and Ethan laugh at our silly accents and expressions.

"For you!" Sam sings back, tapping my on the nose. "Now blow the candle out my dear," I mimic this, "and make your wish come true."

With his arm still around my shoulders, he pulls me closer for us to sing the finale, " a very merry unbirthday, to yoooouuuuuuu!"

Carter and Ethan applaud us, trying to get a grip on their fits of laughter.

We clean up and go our separate ways to finish off the school day.

~*~

At Carter's house, everyone changes and gets ready for bed, me in Carter's bathroom, and the boys, just outside the door, in Carter's bedroom. I finish quickly and pound teasingly on the door, as a warning for them.

"Y'all better have pants on when I come oouttt!" I call in my silly, singsong voice.

"DON'T!" Sam yells, a thumping sound coming from the bedroom behind the door. "I don't have them on yet!"

"Well then put them on, Sam!" I call back, listening to Carter and Ethan laugh at Sam.

"But I need'a find them before I can put them on!" Sam wails dramatically, the thumping noise - probably him stomping around in a very dramatica manner, looking for his pj pants - comes to a halt. "Can you put pants on before you find them?" He muses loudly.

"Just find your pants and put them on in 5 and 3/4 of a second Sam! You're going to take them off when you get hot anyways like you do every stinking sleepover at Carter's house!" I cry back to him, still teasing.

Carter and Ethan burst into a bigger round of laughter, I can hear Carter confirming this fact to Ethan while Sam stomps around somemore.

"Time's up!" I sing, unlocking the door and opening it slowly, holding both hands over my eyes. Dramatically, I take huge steps, sticking my feet all the way out to feel what's in front of me, feeling my way to Carter's bed, the safe zone. Finding the edge, I make an effort and crawl up onto the bed, still covering my eyes with my hands. I make it up onto the bed and collapse onto two warm laps I did not know were there. But I don't make the effort to move.

The lap under my head is confirmed to be Carter as he laughs with me - correction: at me, 'affectionately' - then sticks Sam's pillow under my head.

The lap under the rest of me - using deductive reasoning - is then confirmed to be Ethan, as he rests a hand lightly on my waist - I'm laying across his and Carter's laps, he doesn't have anywhere else to put it. "Hey, there." He chuckles, his voice coming for behind me, naturally, since that's where he is.

"I found my pants!" Sam's voice behind us all is the end to his stomping around.

"Liz, I think it wound be safe to open your eyes now." Carter says, sounding like he's smiling.

"He said he found them, not that he put them on." I reply, but I uncover my eyes and sit up, forgetting I'm on Ethan's lap. So now I'm sitting on his lap. Thaaaat's juuuust great - note the sarcasm. This. is. sooooooo awkward. "What movie are we watching?" I ask, hoping nobody's noticed how red my face is all of a sudden.

I mean, since they're like my brothers and sometimes there hasn't been enough space in the cars, I've sat on Carter and Sam's laps before, I still do sometimes, when we're in the den with a group of other people and there's just nowhere else to sit. They don't mind, I'm like their sister, it's just natural. So, if they see how red my face is just because I happen to - accidentally - be sitting on Ethan's lap, the only reason is that there is a reason for that to be embarrassing/awkward...yeah...they might start drawing conclusions...

"Captain America!" Carter offers immediately, jumping up off the bed.

"Thor!" I respond, Sam comes around from behind us and stands halfway between Carter and me, but to the side so we can still see each other, he looks back and forth between us like it's some hot debate.

"Thor's not human."

"Captain America doesn't have any REAL powers, just super strength and metabolism that keeps him alive, and even those were INJECTED into him."

"You said Captain America was cute."

"Well, so is Thor, and Thor can grow a beard!"

"You don't like beards, you always complain how scratchy they are!"

"That's besides the point!"

"Thor's like...30!"

"He's not that old, and Captain America's like 90!"

"Yeah, but his girlfriend was in the army."

"Thor has a girlfriend that survived the movie!"

"Touché. It was sad when he woke up long after she died, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, true tragic moment of the movie, I feel kinda bad for him, but then in Avengers he's all over Black Widow, so I think he's gotten over it by now."

"True."

Sam and Ethan have been watching us back and forth like a ping pong match and Ethan gives up trying to follow along, letting his upper torso fall back onto the bed. I would know, I'm still on his lap...still feeling awkward...

"So...what are we watching?" Sam interrupts not being able to take any more.

Carter looks at me, "Hulk?"

I nod, "Hulk."

"Then let's GO!" Sam hollers, already halfway out the door.

Ethan sits up and I hop down off the bed - and, thankfully, off his lap and out of the awkward situation - and follow Sam and Carter to the den, where Carter's pulling out 'Hulk' and Sam is pulling the couches to face each other, with barely enough room in between for 1 1/2 people to sleep on the floor. Lucky for us, we don't have 1 1/2 people on the ground in between the couches, we have 2. Greaaaat.

Ethan comes in behind me and looks around the room curiously. I grab some pillows and throw them onto the couches, spreading out blankets on the ground between for padding. I toss an extra blanket to each place. Sam leaves the room for a few minutes then comes back with two big bowls of plain popcorn, a big bag of marshmallows, and two normal sized bowls of melted chocolate. I take one bowl of popcorn and a bowl of melted chocolate from him and place it on the coffee table.

Ethan comes up next to us to watch. "What are you going to do with the marshmallows and melted chocolate?"

"Mix 'em into the popcorn!" Sam exclaims happily, opening the bag of marshmallows and spilling half of it into his big bowl of popcorn.

He hands me the bag and I do the same with the other half. We pick up the bowls and shake them around, mixing up the marshmallows into the popcorn, then set them down and pour the melted chocolate over top.

Behind us, Carter finishes setting up Hulk and calls us over.

"Where's everyone sleeping?" I ask as Sam and I bring over the bowls, Ethan following behind.

"Couch!" Carter calls before Sam has a chance.

Sam pouts for a minute, "no fair, Liz kicks."

"I do not! You're the one that kicks! And you snore!" I smack Sam on the arm.

"OW! See? She's violent, too!" Sam cries, exaggerating, we both know it didn't hurt much.

Carter laughs and Ethan watches, amused.

"She's right though, last time you two shared, she woke up with a bruise." Carter tells Sam.

Sam grumbles something, but grins anyways and sits down next to Carter on the couch. "I'm next to Carter's couch, what if Ethan rolls off the couch and squishes me? Good luck Liz." He says, turning to the screen and munching on his bowl of chocolate-marshmallow-popcorn mix, sharing with Carter.

I sit down next to Ethan on his couch, sharing my own bowl with him. After a moment I turn to him, "you're not gonna roll off the couch and squish me, right?"

Ethan laughs and shakes his head no. We all turn and watch the movie, Sam and I commenting on it every so often, Ethan and Carter just smiling and laughing at our silly opinions.

After all the popcorn mix is gone, we put the bowls away and settle down on the couches. Sam, still sitting with Carter, spreads out, taking up a ton of room, Carter shoves his leg out of the way and spreads out some, too. Ethan, at the top end of the couch we're sharing, leans back and stretches his feet diagonally off the side of the couch, leaving me room to spread out some too. I lean back into the cushions but end up falling backwards to lean agains Ethan, starting to fall asleep. Yawning, I unconsciously curl up more and end up sliding down to lay down - my head now on Ethan's lap. He laughs softly but doesn't shift himself or move me.

When I'm barely still conscious I hear Carter ask Ethan, "she taking up all your space?" with a laugh, getting up and coming over.

"She fell asleep." Ethan replies softly, lifting my hair away from my face - where it's fallen to cover up my face - so they can see my sleeping face.

I'm pretty sure I'm dreaming by now but I don't do anything.

Suddenly the couch - and Ethan - disappear from underneath me and I'm cradled in two arms that are lifting me gently and placing me down on my bed on the floor. Another pair of hands join them in settling me onto the floor and covering me with a blanket. Carter gently pulls my hair away from my face and ties it back into my usual messy bun then the hands retreat and I'm left to sleep. But not before Carter pats my arm and whispers a goodnight.

Another voice, soft and quiet mutters a sweet 'Goodnight, piggy.'

There's rustling next to me on the ground and I assume that's Sam, getting into bed and getting ready to fall asleep. He, too, mumbles a 'goodnight' to me before settling down for the night.

And then I fall into a deep sleep.

~♥~

I half wake up sometime later, not moving much in case someone else is awake and watching. I look over at Sam, fast asleep next to me, sprawled out and taking up more than his fair share of space. His jaw is slightly open and he’s snoring softly, hugging his pillow tightly to his chest while his head lays only on the blanket padding I spread out, he’s silly and goofy, but he looks so innocent and peaceful right now, and I could probably say the same if I were describing Carter sleeping but I can’t see him without moving around and I have a feeling the other two are awake. The ending to Hulk is playing, the TV’s on a sleep-timer so nobody need bother to turn it off after Sam and I fell asleep. I can’t say much as to how innocent and peaceful Ethan looks asleep considering I’m usually the first one asleep and this is only my second sleepover with him.

“Ethan?” Carter says quietly.

“Yea?” Ethan’s awake as well.

“I thought you were still awake.” Carter answers, though he sounds more like he's talking to himself than anyone else.

“Yeah…” Ethan sighs.

They don't say anything else after and I fall back asleep, not thinking much about it afterwards.

~ * ~

The next morning, I'm woken up when a pillow comes into contact with my lower back. I moan and bury my face into my pillow. The pillow is lifted and whacked down again.

"I'm not here!" I wail, pulling my hair out of the bun to come down and gathering it around my face - still buried in my pillow.

"Get up! Get up!" Sam shouts at me, now sitting down on my back, having given up whacking me with a pillow. He bounces up and down excitedly. "Get up!" He yells, sitting down hard and jostling me.

"Sammmm....." I moan, trying to roll over, "Get off me!" He gets up and I lay back down, snuggling down into my bed-ish-thing on the ground.

"No! Wake up!" Sam yells, grabbing my waist and hoisting me off the ground and swinging me around a couple times. Setting me on my feet, he stumbles around - having spun around with me - in crooked lines. "Dizzy...room...spinning!" He cries, falling down.

I rub my eyes and yawn, looking around sleepily. Carter's laying on the couch, snoozing, already changed into jeans but I guess he didn't get around to putting on his shirt, cuz it's slung over the back of the couch. On the opposite couch, Ethan's still asleep, his arm draped over his eyes, the other arm resting on his chest. He looks adorable. I creep up and stand above his head, leaning over so my face is inches away from his. I gently lift his arm up. Ethan's eyes open and he looks at me for a moment before smiling.

"Hello, Sunshine." He greets me, yawning. "What's going on?" He asks lazily.

"Nothing much, just Sam AMBUSHED ME when I was TRYING TO SLEEP!" I say loudly, directing this at Sam, who's sitting on the ground grinning at me like the idiot he is. No, I don't actually mean that, but he acts like it sometimes.

"We have the day off! Come on, we're wasting time!" Sam cries, yanking down his pj pants and searching for his jeans in his boxers. 'Cuz that's an image we all want so much. Not.

"Oh, yeah...today's Wednesday...duh..." Carter smacks himself in the forehead.

Our school's weird, we get Wednesdays off...we all think this is just because it's our principal's favorite day and she doesn't want to spend it cooped up in the school office with the secretaries but nobody would ever actually admit that to the students. Or it could be bingo night. Who knows?

"Oh yeah...we have wednesdays off...this school is so weird...I like it..." Ethan mumbles, sitting up and stretching sleepily.

I laugh, "come on, get dressed, we've got a lot to do today...if you want to join us that is..." I nudge Ethan's shoulder, offering him an escape from our insanity of a normal wednesday.

"What are we doing?" Ethan's eyes brighten.

"Forts...movies...card games...stuff..." Carter, Sam, and I chime mischievously.

Ethan nods, getting up and pulling his shirt off, grabbing a new one. I turn and grab a change of clothes, walking back to Carter's room to get dressed, turning to the door as I'm buttoning up my shirt. Having left the door open, I suppose it is my own fault and I should have expected it when Ethan walked in to get a pair of jeans he left in here - still wearing his pj pants though.

He glances up at me - still buttoning up my shirt over my bra - and snickers, - half suppressing his laugh - smiling assuringly. "Cute." He comments on my choice of bra.

"2 - 0. One day, I'm going to accidentally walk in on you when you're not wearing pants. It might not be so cute then." I reply, swiftly doing up the last buttons.

"Key word there: accidentally." He tells me, pulling off his pj pants and pulling on his jeans, not bothering to move out of sight. He looks up at me as he zips and buttons them up, " 2 - 1, see? Now we're almost even." He grins his silly, easy grin and walks back to the den, me following a little farther behind.

~ * ~

We eat breakfast and clean up the den before going to Sam's house. Sam has a younger sister, two older brothers, and younger twin brothers. His older brother - the younger of the two - Michael, helped us make a teepee fort in Sam's room that's big enough for all three of us to sleep in plus some extra space.

We go to Sam's room - after saying hello to his siblings - and crawl into the teepee.

I grab an extra pillow and curl up, resting my eyes as I listen to the guys goof off a little.

There's a knock on the door and Sam's mom comes in. "Hey, kids. Oh! You're new!" She greets us, seeing Ethan.

I sit up with my pillow, "this is Ethan, we found him at the gas station." I tell her, falling over against his shoulder. "Isn't that right, Ethan?" I pat his shoulder tiredly - I'm always slightly delusional when I'm sleepy, Sam and Carter love it because they get a big laugh out of it all.

Ethan just laughs, as do Carter, Sam, and Sam's mom. "Just moved here?" Sam's mom asks Ethan kindly. Ethan nods.

I start falling again - this time off his shoulder, - but before I almost hit my head on the ground, Ethan and Carter each wrap an arm around me, holding me up and leaning me against Ethan.

"I just wanted to remind y'all that tonight is the beginning of the year Neon party here. Sam and Carter, you both already have your t shirts - Sam, you have orange and Carter, you have yellow. Liz, your dress is with the boys' shirts, and Ethan, we have an extra green shirt if you're coming. Oh, and don't give into her protests, she did promise to wear a dress this year." She warns the boys before saying a quick goodbye and ducking out of the teepee and then leaving the room.

"I don't wanna wear a dress!" I complain but Carter and Sam cut me off quickly - not really wanting to get into this because I'm good at guilt tripping them.

"Why don't we go down to the beach today?" Sam suggests hurriedly, "I bet we could get Mitch to drive us with the surf boards, he's been wanting to go down for a while now but never really had the time."

"Yeah, come on Lizzy, let's go surfing." Carter encourages, getting up and helping Ethan pull me to my feet. He wanders out of the teepee for a moment and comes back with my swimsuit. "Here's your swimsuit, Lizzy, we'll change outside the teepee." He hands it to me and the boys all file out and shut the teepee.

When I'm dressed, I shrug off my initial distress at Sam's mom insisting I wear a dress for the annual first-week-of-school party at the house tonight. We're going surfing. We'll be in the ocean again. I concentrate on that.

I come out of the teepee with my hands over my eyes. Not being able to see--and with my luck--I walk straight into a bare-chested Ethan. He laughs and catches me before I tip over.

"Trying to see what it's like to be blind?" Ethan asks.

"I don't trust Sam." I reply, realizing I haven't moved away from him...but neither has he so there's no point in being the one to look awkward. Besides, I still have next to no orientation of where I am exactly.

Carter laughs, "coast is clear, Liz, everyone's decent."

"Can I get that in writing?" I ask, opening my eyes and looking up at Ethan.

"I got sunscreen!" Sam cries out, coming over to us, having put white streaks on his face like Indian war paint.

Carter takes the bottle from him and squirts a big glob onto Sam's abdomen causing Sam to shriek--always a drama queen, forgive me, king--in a goofy high voice.

I look back at Ethan, amused, "My best friends are lunatics," I tell him solemnly.

He laughs but doesn't say more.

We get Mitch to drive us down to the beach with the 3 boards we have. Upon arrival, Mitch grabs a board and heads straight out into the water.

We bring the other two down to the water's edge. Sam and Carter are the two out in the waves while Ethan and I sit on shore, watching them.

"So how do you like school so far?" I ask conversationally, for once at a loss of topic.

"It's pretty cool, for the first week. Bu I don't know what I'd be doing without you guys dragging me along with you everywhere." He laughs softly, "Probably would be that awkward new kid, alone at lunch and in classes." He says quietly, obviously not expecting a response from me.

I smile gently at him, "Nah, you'd be taken in by some adoring groupies that would want to know your entire romantic history." I don't add that the groupies would be Brittany and her friends.

He smiles back, "Well, I thank you for keeping my entire romantic history secret from them, then," he jokes.

The wind whips my hair into my face and Ethan laughs at the annoyed look on my face. I shoot him a glare and he tries to keep a straight face.

"Don't you have a hairtie?" He asks, watching me with amusement.

I hold up my hand, showing him that a couple are looped over my wrist.

"Here." Ethan takes a hair tie, slides it onto his own wrist, then moves to sit on the sand behind me.

I feel his hands in my hair, gentle and steady, french braiding my hair for me. Once finished, he ties it off with the band and sits back down next to me.

I glance over at him curiously, "Since when did you know how to french braid?" I ask, running my fingers over the neat braid.

He laughs, "My little sister insists on wearing her hair a different way every day. I usually end up with that assignment."

Carter comes back and hands the board over to Ethan. Sam sits on the other board waving me in.

"Want a ride?" Ethan offers once we hit waist deep water. He's sitting on the board, watching me. I smile and climb on the front, sitting while he paddles us out to Sam.

When we get there, Sam grins and holds the boards steady while I climb over to his. We surf for a while, and I catch myself watching Ethan most of the time.

While we watch Ethan catch a beautiful wave, Sam turns to me and nudges me teasingly, "Nice hairdo."

I elbow him, "Shut up, Sam."

But I'm smiling.

~♥~