Chapter 4-Hungry Hungry Hippo

After school, I ran to catch Tiana and Krystal before they could leave school.

"So when do you guys want to meet up with the other group?" I asked slightly breathlessly.

"Any day is fine with me, but I can't go anywhere on Mondays because that's when we have the most homework," Krystal said.

"I can go any day, just tell me when," Tiana said indifferently.

"Okay, then. We just have to tell those guys when we can all meet up," I said, "And can you believe it? I have to do another project with one of those guys."

"Wow...that sucks," Tiana said sympathetically.

"I know," I sighed.

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When I got home, I hung around in my room reading books and talking to Krystal and Tiana on the computer. Finally, it was dinnertime. Gosh, I was starving. I ran down the stairs, nearly knocking into Lily because she was walking so slowly.

"GAAAAAAH!!!" she yelled.

"Sorry!" I said, pushing past her.

"What a hungry hungry hippo," she muttered beneath her breath. She used to be obsessed with that game when she was younger, but she never won.

I was in the kitchen in record time, where Mom and Dad were waiting. We passed out plates and grabbed our food, then went to the living room. We never ate in the dining room, that was only for fancy occasions or when our relatives came over. Mom and Dad talked about work, while Lily and I kind of just sat there. I started tuning it out and concentrating on my food, when Lily started talking. It turns out, she had to do a project with this guy named Michael. He was supposed to be pretty smart. Then, she dropped the big bomb. (Well, to Mom.)

"I invited him over to work on the project," Lily said.

"WHAT?!?!? B-b-but the house isn't cleaned! Look around you! It's a mess! A little bit of warning would have been much nicer! Tonight everyone has to help clean and if the house isn't spotless by 11 PM tonight then we'll all have to stay up until it is! I'll make a list of what everyone has to---" she was cut off.

"MOM! You didn't even hear the day he was supposed to come over. It's not tomorrow, anyways. It's in three days!" Lily said.

"Oh. Well, okay then. But don't forget, we still have to clean up," she walked away to her office to make a list of what we each had to do every day. Yup. That was my family. For dessert we had pumpkin pie, with whipped cream on top. Yum. Just as I was about to dig in, Lily asked me if anything interesting was happening at school.

"Oh yeah. I have to do two projects with this guy from my first period and physics class. But the first project doesn't really count since Tiana and Krystal are in my group and there's two other guys in his group," I said. I didn't mention running into him a bunch of times. That would make Lily think that I liked him or something. Ew.

"Oh? Well at least you probably won't have to meet up so much because you can work on two projects at once," Lily said.

"Yeah, I guess so," I said, then gobbled up my pumpkin pie happily.

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The next day, I was nearly late to school. I slid into my seat just as the bell rang. Phew, that was a close one, I thought to myself. Tiana and Krystal shared a knowing glance. I smiled at them. Then the teacher said that we could start working, but don't misbehave and keep the volume level down to a minimum and all that.

"Woke up a bit late, Eva?" Tiana winked.

"Ja," I stuck my tongue out at her.

"Okay, so when do you guys want to meet up?" someone cut in. We turned and saw that it was one of those guys from the other group. We told them that we could meet up any day, except Krystal couldn't on Mondays. We finally decided that the days we could meet up would be Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, since we didn't want to do anything educational on weekends. (Plus, that was when I read my awesome books. Right now, I was reading the City of Bones series. I had even brought "The City of Bones" to school today so I could read whenever I had free time and at lunch.) By the time we had figured out the days we could meet, we still needed the time. We settled on right after school we would meet in front of the gym and decide where to go from there. Then, the bell rang and we were out of there.

In physics, I was at the part where Jace was helping Clary get into the vampire's lair to save her friend Simon when and annoying voice broke into my head.

"What are you reading?" It was Bad Timing Guy. I turned so he could see the cover of my book, but I could keep reading. He started reading the back of my book.

"Huh. That sounds sooooo interesting," he said.

"Because it is," I retorted.

"Sure. So when do you want to meet up for the computer game project?" he asked. I remembered what Lily said about working on two projects at once.

"Tuesday, Thursday, or Friday," I said distractedly. A bunch of werewolves had just jumped into the vampire's lair and said that they wanted Clary!!

"Why the same days?" he asked.

"Because..." I trailed off. Clary had just thrown a dagger and hit a werewolf!!

"Because...?" he said. Oh yeah. He was asking about the project. I gave up reading and put my book away.

"Because then we won't have to meet up as much," I said.

"Oh yeah.." he said. Then the bell rang. Now that was good timing. I thought to myself.

"What'd you say?" he asked. Oops.

"Nothing," I said.