Chapter 89: Chapter 89

" Oh c'mon..why surprise? What have you guys p..planned ? ", Michael groans, turning around in the passenger seat. Currently I'm driving the four of us to some mischievous place in my Car after having lunch from our usual restaurant. Good that I brought my car. We don't need to walk and get a cab anymore.

" We will tell you guys after lunch. ", Grace says and I look at the mirror to see a mischievous smile playing on both Grace's and Gavin's lips. Yesterday whole night, they both have been planning something for us to do today. In fact they woke up only an hour ago when I and Michael went and knocked on their doors.

" Okay..are we going to some place? Like beach ?", I ask tilting my face a little.

" No..", Gavin chuckles. " Just be patient and wait." I leave a sigh while Michael huffs out an ' Okay'.

" Turn left from here, Ethan.", Gavin says after sometime.

Left ?? It's a side road leading to a couple of houses. Where are we going actually ?

Confusedly, I turn the car to the left and continues driving. Michael too is looking clueless at Gavin and Grace.

" Yeah..here..here stop ! ", Gavin soon says and I find we are in front of a white painted medium sized two storey house.

" We came to this house ? Whose house is this ?", I ask.

" Milan's.", Grace replies. " C'mon park somewhere Ethan."

" Why we came to Milan's house. Any party happening here ?", I ask looking at the house. But it doesn't seem like anything is happening inside. Anyway I park the car to a side of the road and Gavin and Grace excitedly hops out and sprints towards the house.

Michael tilts his head and gives me a confused and also a bit nervous look. Milan doesn't know about our relationship yet. So don't know why Grace and Gavin brought us here.

" Maybe we are just here to watch a movie together or play some games or something.", I tell Michael and leans forward, unbuckling his seat belt. He nods to me in reply.

We both together hop out of the car and walk towards the house, behind an excited Gavin and Grace.

Milan and his girlfriend greets us as we step into the living room. Seems like his parents are not here. They both proceeds to go to the kitchen to get us juice but Gavin stops them saying we just had lunch. So all of us slump down on the two couches and I nudge on Grace's arm, impatient to know what we are going to do.

" So guys, what is the game plan ?", Milan asks right then. Oh so we are going to play some game like I guessed. And they also don't know ??

" Okay I'll explain.", Grace says excitedly. " It's not a game actually. But Today we are going to do a small scavenger hunt."

" Treasure hunt ?", Milan asks enthusiastically.

" Not actually. Sadly we didn't have time to arrange a treasure hunt.", she pouts. "But this is also quite exciting. We will split into two teams. I'll be in one team and Gavin will be in the other. He has wrote ten tasks for my team to do. And I also have prepared ten things for his team. We both don't know what the other has wrote."

"Quite exciting.", I nod impressed. How they came up with such an idea last night ?

" Okay, what kind of tasks ?",Michael asks. He looks excited.

Grace smiles before starting to explain. "The things are mostly like you have to take a picture or video with something or at some particular place or fun stuff like that. There would be seven photos and three videos to take. Like for example, take a video dancing in the road or take a picture at a grocery shop holding a ginger with a funny expression on face."

Gavin and Milan breaks out laughing.

" Grace, you really wrote things like that ?", Gavin asks in between fits of laughter.

" No, it's not in my list. I was just giving example.", she says laughing.

"Ahh..this is gonna be interesting.", Milan says. " What you think, Dulce ?"

" Yeah..I think it's gonna be fun. Uhm..any rules for the game ?", she asks.

"Yeah..a few.", Grace commences. " Only one person have to be in the photos unless the list specifies otherwise. And then we have to complete all the ten tasks and reach back here before 7. Even if you don't complete all the tasks, you need to come by 7. The team that comes back here with the maximum number of tasks done will win the game. We will be using Ethan's and Milan's car. ", she finishes.

" And then we will be watching the videos and photos we clicked after reaching here.", Gavin adds.  " Okay then let's start the game already.", he squeals can't able to contain his excitement.

" Okay who all in my team ?", Grace asks.

" Me ! ", Michael immediately raises his hands.

" Me too.", I say.

" Oh..you guys choose her ?", Gavin groans, pretending hurt. Michael only laughs at that.

" You have us Gavin. Don't worry.", Milan who was sitting near him says and dramatically hugs him, patting on his back.

" Yeah Man ! ", Gavin hugs him back, wiping a fake tear. Then he pulls away and look at us. " You see guys, our team is gonna win this game ! ", he says.

" Let's see.", Grace chuckles and stands up from the couch, pulling out a folded sheet of paper from her jeans pocket. " Here you go Gavin.", she says stretching the piece of paper towards him. Gavin quickly takes a piece of folded notebook page from his shirt pocket and exchanges it with Grace.

" Wait ! ", Grace says as Gavin starts to unfold the list. " Can't open it until I say start. And we need team names."

" Oh..okay..", Gavin nods. " What's your team name ?"

Grace turns and looks at me and Michael. We both think for a nice team name and at last as we take too much time, Grace itself comes up with one. " Amigos ??", she asks.

" Yeah..that's a nice one.", Michael approves. I also nod to her.

" We are Avengers then.", Gavin and Milan together squeals giving each other a high five. Dulce approves clapping her hands.

" Okay.", Grace shrugs. "  May the best team win. Get ready....3....2....1....Start ! "

And the next moment we all are sprinting out of the house, squealing. We are the first ones who get into the car and drive away. Me in driver's seat with Michael beside me and Grace in the back seat, hurriedly reading through the list of tasks we have to do. Our team had the advantage from parking car outside. Also Milan had to lock the front door before leaving his house.

" What's on the list ?", Michael turns and asks. Grace starts reading it aloud.

" 1 Take a pic with some one having white beard.

2 Take the pic of giving a white rose to a girl in white.

3 Take a photo of a team member holding a folding cell phone.

4 Take a photo fitting as many people as you can find into your car. (You guys not included)

5 Take a pic holding a bird.

6 Take a pic with/near a police man/ traffic police man.

7 Take a photo of an old man showing the photo of his wife out of his purse.

8 Shoot the video of all of you jumping on a trampoline.

9 Capture the video of getting Hugs from ten strangers

10. Take the video of two members of your team in your car, going through car wash."

" They aren't too bad.", Michael says once Grace finishes reading.

" Yeah..okay, so what shall we do first ? We need to win ! ", She squeals.

" Uhm..let's go to a cafe or r..restaurant first. We can find someone with...white beard there. And maybe we can get a few h..hugs from people.", Michael suggests.

" Yeah..great idea Nate ! Let's go. Look out for restaurants.", Grace squeals while I smile proudly at Michael and grabs his hand, intertwining our fingers. He looks out of the window with his plump lips slowly curling upward.

" Hey..STOP !", Grace suddenly yells and Michael flinches, pulling his hands out of mine.

" Ethan, Stop the car ! ", Grace taps behind my seat. I quickly step on the break and look out of the window to see whether she found any restaurant. But I can't see any. I and Michael tilt our heads back and see Grace now kneeling on the back seat and pointing her finger backward. There's a little flower shop there on the left side of the road.

" Smart girl ! ", I say as she proceeds to open the door. " I'll quickly go get a rose.", she says smiling and hops out of the back seat, hastily walking to the flower shop.

I park the car to a side and waits for her to come back. A minutes later, she comes back and hops in with a white rose in her hands and a big smile on her face. I starts the car again and pull it off of the sides, starting to drive again in search of a restaurant.

Soon we find a cafe and the three of us hurry out of the car, hoping to find a man with a white beard or a girl in white. We push open the door and Aha ! Here he is. The Man we are searching for. The shop owner itself is the Man with the white beard. He is sitting there on his chair watching the people inside the cafe.

" Michael..you do this.", I say. I thought he would protest. But he actually nods to me and then walks to the shop owner. We also follow him behind, but then Grace finds an another old man sitting at a table having coffee and quickly walks to him, hoping he keeps his wife's pic in his purse. Anyway I follow Michael and stops a little away wanting to watch how he does this task.

The elderly Man averts his eyes to Michael and raises an eyebrow as he reaches in front of him. Michael keeps on smiling and shifts his weight on his legs, not knowing how to ask the man for a pic.

" What you want boy ?", the old man finally asks.

" Sir, I- I'm actually a great fan of you. I mean I have never eaten m..more delicious food than from here. You know this is the b..best cafe in Texas. Ahm..S..sorry I've a stutter problem. ", he says and the man looks at him amused, a small smile starting to form on his lips.

So Michael smiles and continues. " I'm staying in a hostel nearby. And so I often have f..food from here, cause your food is the best. I was h..hoping to meet you and say this since a l..long time. Nice to meet you sir."

" Oh..! Nice to meet you too.", the man says smiling widely.

" uhm..can I take a selfie with you please ?” Michael then asks.

" Oh..selfie ? Yeah..sure.", The man nods, although a bit confused. I can't help but smile proudly as my baby fish out his phone from his pocket and quickly snaps a picture, standing close to the man. Once he gets the picture, he praises the shop owner a bit more and exchanges a shake hand before walking proudly towards me.

" Good job baby ! " I tell him as he reach near me. He smiles at me and then averts his gaze to the table where Grace is now seated opposite to the old man, talking to him.

" What task is she doing ?", he asks.

" The wife's pic task.", I say and right then Grace stands up from her chair smiling at the old man. Then she turn around and walks back to us with a look of accomplishment.

" Got it ?", I asks as she reach us.

" Yeah..", she nods whilst turning her phone screen to us, showing us the pic of the man taking his wife's photo out of his purse with a wide grin on his face.

" Impressive.", Michael smiles.

" So two tasks accomplished. What next ?", I ask.

" Let's go to some pet shop and get the photo holding bird ?", She asks.

" Yeah..okay. Let's go. ", we both nod in agreement and hurry out of the cafe to see some middle school boys, each looking 12 or 13, standing leaning on my car, licking on Ice-creams. One of them is brushing his hair backward, looking at my mirror.

I smirk fishing out my key from my pocket and unlocks my car, pressing on the small button on it, eliciting a tune from the car, causing the boys to startle and move away.

Michael then tugs on my shirt sleeves and I tilt my head to see him counting on his fingers. I looks at him wondering what he is counting.

" Ethan, let's fit these boy into your car and t..take that pic.", he says.

" Oh..wow ! Yeah.", I laugh out in surprise. "Michael ! You are a genius."

Grace, who also heard us, instantly turns around looking impressed at Michael before turning to the kids.

" Hey guys ! ", she call the boys whilst clapping her hands. The boys look at her confused. One of them even hides his Ice-cream.

" Wanna get inside this car and take a pic together ?", she asks smiling. " C'mon..!", she says opening the back seat door for them. The little boys only looks confused for a second. And then they all are climbing into the car whilst squealing.

In a moment the nine boys are inside the car, five in the back seat with their ice-creams, two in the passenger seat, one chubby kid is sitting in the driver's seat and the last one standing in the middle. I successfully click a few pics of them whilst laughing. The little guys are also laughing amusedly.

But anyway it took some effort to get the kids out of car. And additionally I had to send all the pics to one of the boys' phone.

Once we pull out of the cafe after saying goodbye to the boys, the three of us are laughing hysterically.

" If I were one among them, I- I wouldn't have actually h..hopped inside.", Michael says." I'd even stop the others from hopping inside. What if you guys are s..some mafia with the mission of k..kidnapping middle schoolers ?"

" Good that there was not a kid like you in their gang.", I say whilst driving fast towards our next destination, pet birds shop. Grace had found one nearby on GPS.

Soon we reach the shop and walks inside after parking the car to the side. The shop is filled with different type of birds but we just quickly walk to where a girl is standing with a red parrot on her wrist, near a worker woman.

" Okay, I'll do this ! ", Grace says excitedly. But then I see Michael pout.

" You can also hold it.", I tell him and he tilts his head to me, smiling.

Michael stands and watches the different kind of doves and parrots in their cages as Grace waits for her chance to hold the parrot. Once she talks to the worker lady and makes her agree to allow us take a pic with the parrot, I fish out my phone from my pocket. Michael waits near me impatiently as Grace gets the parrot on her wrist, giggling at the sensation of it's legs on her skin.

" Can I h..hold too..please ? ", Michael asks the worker lady as Grace hands the parrot back after I snap a few pics of her. The worker lady can't help but smile and nod at Michael's cuteness. He quickly goes to her and stretches his left hand. She places the parrot on his wrist and he closes his eyes and smiles as it's legs curl around his wrist. I snap as much pictures as I can as he caresses the parrot's head and wings whilst smiling innocently.

Three minutes later, we walk out of the pet shop after quickly watching the various birds inside there.

" Woah ! Look over there.", Grace suddenly says, pointing her finger. We follow her gaze to see a beautiful girl looking almost our age, wearing a pure white frock, standing leaning to a car parked a little away from ours.

" Oh where's our rose ?", Michael muses and already runs to grab the rose from the car while I open the car for him, pressing on the button on my key.

" Ethan, you do this.", Grace says as Michael comes back with the rose.

" No ! Not this.", I immediately shake my head. " I'd do anything else, but not this." Why take unnecessary risks ?

" Michael...you ??", She asks turning to my baby who is already holding the Rose.

"N..no..", he shakes his head, stretching the rose to Grace.

" Yeah..he isn't doing. You do this.", I quickly take the rose from Michael's hands and stretches it to Grace who sighs taking it whilst murmuring something. I couldn't figure out what she murmured but Michael sure figured out, cause he bites down on his bottom lips whilst smiling a little.

" What did she mutter ?", I ask Michael as Grace walk with the rose towards the girls in white after asking Michael to click the pic.

" Nothing..I don't know.", Michael shakes his head whilst getting his phone ready to capture the photo.

" C'mon..I know you know. What did she say ?", I ask.

" Ahm..p..possessiveness overloaded.", Michael mutters, with his gaze fixed on his phone camera screen.

I look away brushing my hair backward. C'mon..I'm not possessive or anything. I just don't want anyone to steal away my Michael