Fan Fiction |
by Jenny Tran
Around midnight, Tyler woke up due to some peculiar noise he heard coming from next door. He got out of bed groggily, with one eye barely open as he looked down the short hallway. He noticed it was coming from Ivy’s room. One hand scratching his back while the other hand opened the room door “Ga Jei?” his eyes adjusted to the moonlight “What are you doing?”
She was propped upright in her bed and her window was opened. Sitting on her bed stand was a carton of eggs. She took one and hailed across to Ben’s room window. It splashed against the window “Jerk!” she muttered before turning to Tyler “That’s what he gets!” She closed her window and changed her alarm to another half hour.
“What’s that for?” Tyler asked before widening his mouth for a yawn.
“If I can’t sleep, he can’t either.” She said evilly.
Tyler shook his head “What if the noise doesn’t bother him?”
Ivy crawled back under her warm blanket “Don’t worry…it’ll bother him when I run out of eggs and use balloons filled with chocolate pudding.” She closed her eyes with a wicked smile on her face “Now get out of my room before I throw an egg at you.”
He immediately closed the door “I feel sorry for Ben…” he whispered and returned to bed.
The next morning, Tyler heard his sister making too much noise in the kitchen and it instantly woke him up. His left eye opened to look at the clock, it was only 9am. What was she doing up? Curiosity got the best of him as he walked towards the noise. Surely, she wasn’t serious about the pudding? He asked himself. But his guess was way off, she was making pudding and stuffing it in small colorful balloons “Wanna help?” she asked without looking up.
He shrugged “Okay.” Together the two made about 20 pudding balloons “What are you going to do?” asked Tyler when they were done.
“This is for tonight.” She pointed to half of the balloons that she separated “And these are for today.”
Tyler let out a long sigh, “When are you going to get sick of this?”
“I don’t know.” Ivy answered, “Why do you ask?” she looked up at him curiously.
“Because you have to help me get Tara back!” he whined.
Ivy laughed at her sad little brother “You are so pathetic. Who told you to blow her off? If you want to blame, you should blame that little traitor Vicki!” she spat disgustedly.
“Wow…you’re serious about this huh?” his eyes widened.
She used her t-shirt to carry the balloons as she marched out of the kitchen and on the way pushed him out of the way “No one messes with me.” Her words were muffled. She walked out to the dining room and opened the window. She saw Ben adjusting his tie in the living room. He seemed to notice she was staring at him. He turned to her and gave her a smile along with a wave of the hand “Hi to you too.” She snickered before picking up a balloon filled pudding and aimed it at his window. It made a huge splash and Ben was startled as he jumped back eventhough his window was closed.
His eyes widened “What are you doing?!!” He yelled from across the way.
Ivy pretended she didn’t hear as she curled her hand around her ear as if she couldn’t comprehend what he was saying “One more?” she asked with raised brows and before Ben could object, she hailed another one into his window.
Tyler stood there watching casually “You missed that part.” He pointed to an area that didn’t get splashed with pudding.
“I’ll get that.” Ivy nodded and threw another balloon.
Ben put up his hands “Wait!!!” he yelled.
But Ivy wasn’t listening as she hit the spot with perfect aim “Wow…you’re good.” Tyler grinned, “You should have played little league. I bet you could be a start pitcher by now.”
Ivy turned to him slowly with narrowed eyes “Are you being sarcastic little boy?” she asked carefully.
Tyler backed up fearfully “Um…no…I was being dead serious…” his eyes wandered to the balloon in her hand “Come on Ga Jei…I’m on your team remember?”
“Okay.” She nodded grimly before returning to her position. It was then that she noticed her was gone “Where’s the freak?” after her question, the doorbell rang.
Tyler turned to his sister “Speak of the devil.”
“Oh, he’s got some balls to come over here!” she stomped her way over to the door and opened it.
Ben looked like he was trying to control his frustration “Ivy…please, can we talk about this? Let’s not play this childish game anymore. I didn’t complain when you were throwing eggs and you know its hell to clean off when it dries! But pudding??”
Ivy’s lips curled to the left crookedly “Ty!!” she brought out a hand and he quickly retrieved a balloon as he handed it to his sister, without saying anything she stepped back and threw it at Ben roughly. It splashed against his white collared shirt and gray tie.
He let out a sigh and nodded at her “So it’s like that, huh?”
“Yeah!” She retorted.
“Can we be adults about this?” Ben asked peacefully but his smile was forced. She could easily read it on his face.
“No.” she shook her head firmly.
“I’m really sorry, Ivy. I don’t know how many times I have to say it before you can forgive me!” he looked aggravated.
“One thousand.” She answered coolly.
Ben nodded “Okay. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…” Ivy thought he would get bored of it eventually but after 50 'I'm sorrys', she realized he was not kidding.
Their apartment phone rang but Ben didn’t stop. Ivy turned to Tyler as he easily reached for the phone by the couch “Hello?”
“Ty? It’s me Vicki. Can you come out, I need to talk to you.” She said with urgency in her voice.
He covered the mouth piece and turned away “I can’t talk to you…Ga Jei is going to kill me.”
Ivy glanced back and saw Tyler curled into the corner of the couch. Her suspicion grew as she sprinted over to him and grabbed the phone out of his hand “Traitor, stop calling us!!!” she yelled into the phone and hung up. Tyler was gripping onto the arm rest for dear life when Ivy turned to him with a pointed finger “If I catch you talking to her again, I will make sure the Yung family name cannot be carried on.”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…” suddenly Ben stopped “Are you even counting?” he asked Ivy.
She turned to him with a laugh “Why should I? You agreed to do it.” He was flabbergasted by her response and not to mention speechless. Ivy waved him away nonchalantly “Anyways, I don’t feel like listening to you right now. Be gone!”
“Fine! But I’ll be back.” Ben vowed.
“Whatever!” Ivy rolled her eyes. When Ben left, she had a sudden great idea “I should go down to the market and get some fish scales!!” Tyler looked at her strangely but Ivy was already in her own revenge world “I should paint his door with fish scales!!” she giggled deliriously while skipping back to her room to change.
Tyler didn’t mention that Vicki asked for him to meet her down at the deli shop they were at the day before. He snuck out of the house after Ivy left, when he got there he found not only Vicki but Tara. His face lit up like a million candles as he ran over to her, never seeing the waiter with the tray of drinks in his hand as it toppled over him. Tara gasped and Vicki covered her mouth in shock “Ty!” Tara got up and rushed over to help him.
He didn’t care because he was able to see her again “Tara.” He took a hold of her hands “You’re not mad anymore?”
She shook her head with a smile while using her hand to wipe off the dripping water from his face “Vicki told me everything.” She helped him up and led him back to their table.
“Thank you.” He said sincerely to Vicki.
The girl smiled warmly “I guessed I owed you one.” Her lips curled downward as she asked, “How’s Ivy? Besides that she’s obviously not going to get over this.”
Tyler shook his head “I’ve never seen her so mad before. Well the last time was during her senior year in high school. She locked herself in her room after prom night. Daddy and I didn’t dare ask her what was wrong. But when she eventually got out, she was normal…and now that I think about it, her attitude changed.”
“Worse?” Tara asked.
He nodded “Yeah. She was meaner and snappier, not to mention she began to pick on daddy a lot. Something about all men are bad.”
“But she wasn’t mean to you?” Tara asked.
“It wasn’t any different from the tricks she’s always pulled on me.” Tyler recalled.
Vicki tapped her chin thoughtfully “Hmm, maybe because she doesn’t consider you a man?”
“Maybe!” Tyler pointed at her “So what do we do now? And I was meaning to ask you, why didn’t you and Ben just come out to tell her the truth before? Why all the mystery and games?”
Vicki sighed, “We didn’t want it to be like this. You see, Ben and I work for a talent agency. Part of this year’s project is to choose the least likely person to become a star and make them over. The plan was for me to get closer to Ivy and then Ben would come in afterwards. He had the tougher job because he had to earn her trust while I already did. But the longer I hung out with Ivy, the more I knew this was a wrong thing to do. She would never accept this from her friends. That’s why I suggested Tyler to be our Plan B.”
“Me?” Tyler’s eyes widened “I’m gonna be a star? Wow…I’ll be in my own movies, sing songs that I’ve written, live in a mansion and have fancy parties…what a life.” He sighed.
Tara giggled “Back to earth, Tyler!” she snapped her fingers in front of his face.
He shook his head as if returning to reality “Sorry…kinda lost it, didn’t I?”
“Too bad.” Vicki said sadly.
“Why do you say that?” Tara asked, “Isn’t it good news? Since now you have your project and Ivy would not have to do anything she doesn’t want to do.”
“You guys don’t understand.” She began explaining, “The project should be the most challenging thing that you can do. Ivy is obviously a challenge but we cannot just give in. Ben is a well known scout and I am just starting in the business, we both can’t afford to lose this. Our futures are at stake, not to mention our company’s reputation. We can lose our jobs if this project fails.”
“Well can’t we just explain that to Ivy? I’m sure she’ll understand.” Tara was convinced.
Tyler shook his head “You know how Ga Jei is. She can’t stand people that betray her and worse lie to her. You guys don’t know what she’s doing to Ben.”
“That bad?” Vicki asked with fear in her eyes.
“Let’s just say, you’re lucky you don’t live next to us.”
Tara and Vicki exchanged scared glances “Well, we still need a plan to win back her trust.” Vicki pressed, “I can’t live with this conscience knowing that I hurt her.”
“Let’s put our heads together and think of something.” Tara suggested. The three nodded in agreement as they thought long and hard.