PRANKS and KISSES | 1 ✔️

Chapter 21: Love and War

"I swear, those boys are going to be the death of me!" Pen said as she anxiously stepped inside Parker's ginormous mansion of a house. My mouth literally hung open when I found out this was where Parker lived.

A man in his late forties wearing a butler outfit led us inside the mansion. Yup, take that: A real, live butler. Not just that, I could see a couple of maids in complete uniform, dusting what seemed to be portraits of Parker's ancestors that were hanging on the wall.

I was shookt.

Parker was known as our school's casanova but he was always so down to earth. It was easy to forget that he was a Fray, one of the oldest and wealthiest family in this town. I frowned when I remembered all the snacks he stole from my food tray. With all this wealth around him, he could easily buy the whole school if he wanted to! Hell, the chandelier hanging in the middle of this house looked even more expensive than an Ivy league school tuition fee.

"I wish Hunter will stop diving head first into trouble." Heather sighed. They were friends with Parker for a long time now so unlike me, none of this extravagance surprised them anymore.

I could hear the sound of our shoes as they hit the marbled floor. My old, worn out chucks looked so out of place. I felt like the floor deserved nothing less than a Manolo Blahnik or a Louis Vuitton. Everything looked so expensive so I tried to pay more attention to my surroundings to avoid hitting something that would surely cost me my entire life savings.

"Hunter is trouble personified." Natalie said in exasperation.

We were now climbing up the carpeted grand staircase to get to the second floor and hearing them talk was starting to make the insides of my stomach coiled with fear.

Hunter's declaration of war against Cain caused a whole lot of buzz and excitement not just in our school but also in St. Mary Montessori. Someone took a video of what happened at the cafeteria and it quickly went viral. Bets were now being placed left and right and the stakes were high. If there was one thing teenagers liked more than themselves, it was drama; and a war between Hunter and Cain was something none would want to miss.

The female members of Hunter's squad weren't happy though. Pen rushed up to my house earlier after dinner to drag my ass here at Parker's place where the boys were currently at. They were hoping I could help convince Hunter to abort mission and just look for a more peaceful way of resolving his conflict with Cain. I wasn't sure if I was up to the task. To be honest, I was out of my wits right now. I agreed to go on a date with Cain to avoid more conflict but it seemed like it just caused the opposite effect.

Hunter's chances of winning a war against Cain was slim to none. It was a war that would be very difficult to win.

The butler stopped in front of a closed door.

"Master Parker and his friends are inside, Ms. Penelope." He nodded politely at us, gesturing at the door. It felt so weird hearing someone call Parker master. I was sure if Parker heard someone call any of us "master", he wouldn't miss the opportunity to crack some crappy BDSM joke. That was just the kind of person he was.

"Thank you, Mr. Clifford." Pen said. She opened the door and we saw the boys lounging nonchalantly inside. The room looked like Hunter's secret lair. It screamed boys' room everywhere I looked.

"Hello there!" Parker greeted us with a goofy smile. He was playing Mario Cart against the stoic Cal, whom, to my surprise, was awake. Shawn was in front of a computer, typing something. Natalie walked towards him and gave him a sweet back hug.